10 Things I Learned on our Family Trip to California

We bravely ventured out on our first big time family adventure this year. My parents took us on lots of family trips to see America when I was growing up, and I plan to do the same for my kids now that they are finally old enough.

We decided to go to California to see the big trees I've been telling the kids about for so long.

Due to Jason's business, we only had 5 days to cram in as much as we could and 2 of those days were travel days. We were so excited and then right before we left I got really nervous, suddenly doubting whether we would ever survive to make it back home. After a VERY rocky start at the airport, I am happy to say we did survive and had a great time!

Here was our plan: Day 1-San Francisco, Day 2- Yosemite National Park, Day 3- Kings Canyon/Sequoia National Park, Day 4- LA/Hollywood.

Here are 10 things we learned on our trip:

1. People in California and a hillbilly cannot communicate without a translator. As we were all sitting in the airport after our flight was cancelled having a pity party, Jason called the rental car company to reschedule our car. They asked him to spell his name, in his usual accent he said "H" - "I" but as he says it it sounds more like "ahhh". The lady on the phone said "R?". He said no "ahhh". R? no "ahhh" R? He looks desperately at me for help. I said "say EYE" pointing to my eye. He said "ahh?" She said R? No "I-YA" I said, trying the phonics approach. "ahh?" Then I gave up on that and said tell her Igloo! she said "R?" Finally he said "ice!" and she got it. We were all rolling on the floor by that point.


2. No matter how many times you tell your southern raised son that there is no sweet tea in California, when the wait staff asks for drinks, he will say "Sweet Tea". Then have your credibility as a parent destroyed completely when you go to a national BBQ chain in Fresno, where they actually have sweet tea. Oh and while we're talking southern, don't order biscuits in a restaurant in a National park in California, yikes.


3. Parking. Resist the urge to grab the first parking space you see when you get close to where you need to be. This will result in LOTS and LOTS of walking, of which 6 & 7 & 35 year olds are not fond of. Go to the place you need to be and then work your way out to find parking. We made this mistake twice and paid for it. As soon as we saw the first star on the walk of fame, we parked. Little did we know that the walk of fame is very, very long and we were at the very end of it. We ended up aborting our mission to make it to see John Wayne's star.


4. No matter how cool the historic hotels or cabins are that you find to stay, the Fairfield Inn with the pool will be the kid's favorite place to stay.


5. When using pay showers in a National Park, take more coins than needed for 1 shower in case the power goes out and your shower turns off and does not come back on.


6. A hike to a waterfall or giant tree in a National Park does not count if the path is paved. There has to be rocks and fallen trees for it to count as an official hike for 6&7 year olds. Heavy breathing and panting on hikes is due to the altitude and NOT because mommy is out of shape.


7. Bribery is a miracle cure for whining kids and will add a couple miles to your hikes.


8. Picky eaters will not eat their favorite food unless it looks EXACTLY like it does at home. 95% of all menus are reduced to one suitable kid item: chicken tenders. It is very difficult to eat healthy on the road. Actual fruit and vegetables are scarcer than hen's teeth, even in California!


9. A GPS has no idea what to do on a winding road down a mountain or in the middle of LA for that matter. I still hear "Recalculating!" and "Lost Satellite reception!" in my sleep. A GPS should be used as a back up for an already planned route. In no way should a GPS be the sole source of guidance, they cannot be trusted and will lead you astray. Resist the urge to yell at the person inside your GPS and/or throw it out the window. If the Exit sign says Airport, take it, regardless of what the GPS says! Use your common sense people!


10. Take your family on a vacation to see America, it is definitely worth it and is great family experience that you just can't have at home.

2010 End of Year Teacher Gifts

The end of the year snuck up on me this year, but I managed to put together 4 teacher gifts at the last minute. Like literally, the night before. I went with a strawberry/lime pink/green theme.

First I made strawberry and lime solid sugar scrub cubes.

Next I made some pink and green stamped goat's milk soap. I am just learning how to make stamped soap and this was my first attempt at using 3 colors. It was touch and go and I really didn't think it would turn out, but it they actually didn't look too bad!

And then I had already made some strawberry jelly, but had to raid my May hole in the wall, but that's ok since it's June and it's overdue for a change.

Finally I just had to put it all together...

The kids had great teachers and TA's this year, I hope they enjoy these and have a good summer!

Redneck Chic -Extreme Porch Makeover

Over the winter our porch got a little, how should I say this, redneck chic. It was out of control to the point I couldn't even look at it. The dogs and kids had completely claimed it as their own. It was beyond time to do something about it.

So we completely cleared everything off.
We gave away or sold the all the furniture on Craigslist.

I found some awesome metal chairs on Craigslist that rock (literally). When we got there to get the chairs, the lady mentioned that they had a matching glider. I fainted. I've wanted a glider for so long, and to find one that matched these chairs, I was giddy with excitement! Of course we had to run to a cash machine, but I wasn't leaving without that glider!

These are the springs that make the chairs bounce. I found another 1950-1960's style glider on Craigslist too that needs to be restored. Jason says it needs to be sandblasted so who knows when it will be ready for the porch.

I found some pillows at a thrift store to add some color.

And I found this at a thrift store too. I thought it went well with the furniture.

Then we added our ferns, which I hopefully will be able to keep alive until the fall thanks to the automatic watering system my dad installed a few years ago. Last year I decided to buy hanging petunias for some color. Even with the watering system I think they lasted only a month or 2. Ferns are much easier and hardier.

The landscaping left much to be desired as well.

I'll cover that in my next post.

May Hole in the Wall

I thought I should post pics of my May hole in the wall before the month is completely over. I haven't had too much time to blog this month since it's strawberry season and I've already had numerous "Jam" sessions. I made strawberry jelly, strawberry jalapeno jelly (yum!), strawberry lime jelly and strawberry lime jam.

Which brings me to my hole in the wall theme for May: Strawberries!

Several members of my family and I hit the thrift stores looking for anything strawberry related. It was harder than I thought it would be to find strawberry items, but we managed to find a few. My mom had a few things I borrowed and I filled the rest of the space up with strawberry jam and jelly.

I got this coffee mug for my mom when I took a behind the scenes tour of Wimbledon. Did you know that Strawberries and Cream is the traditional food to eat during Wimbledon?

I got these dessert cups at a thrift store and filled them with red and green marbles. They are up high so only the colors show through. We also added some walnuts painted red.

June hole in the wall coming soon!

Ghetto Chickens

It's official. We have ghetto chickens. We build them the Taj Mahal of chicken houses which you can read about here and and they prefer to slum it. The kids thought the chickens would like an old tire in their pen, little did we know they'd go and move into it. All 8 almost full grown chickens pile into the tire every night. I'm not sure how they even fit in there, the tire is not very big. I finally got some shots of the process tonight.

7 chickens in a tire, and the little one said move over, move over.

So they all moved over, one jumped in and one jumped out...

7 chickens in a tire, and the little one said move over, move over.

So they all moved over and one jumped in....

8 chickens in a tire and the red one said, move over, move over.

So on and so forth. I think you get the idea.

Believe it or not there are 8 chickens in there! They snuggle down completely in the tire and you wouldn't even know they were in there, until one, I guess the designated lookout, pops his head up.

Jason says if they don't use the chicken house when they start laying eggs they are going to be in BIG TROUBLE.

Crazy ghetto chickens!

Chick Check

I thought it was about time for a Chick Check. Our Silkie chicks are growing up and have real feathers, where has the time gone. We have 5 chicks left. Two have gone to a new home. We think but are not sure that we have 3 roosters and 2 hens. We were planning to keep only the hens, but out of 7 we only got 2 hens. Lucky us!

They are not quite sure they know all they need to know about the crazy 2 leggers that keep looking at them.

Any quick moves, they huddle up.

Then they climb all over each other....

... and make a Silkie Pyramid.

Hole in the Wall

We used to love to watch the show "Hole in the Wall" where a moving wall with various shaped holes in it would move toward contestants who would contort their bodies into the same shape to avoid being knocked by the wall into a pool. Is that show still on? If not, what a shame, another brainless show bites the dust.

Luckily, we have our own hole in the wall in our house above the fireplace.


These are popular in newer homes and I believe they were designed for TVs but our TV would never fit up there and it just makes my neck hurt thinking about having to look up at the TV. Even if the TV did fit up there, I never could figure out how to hook up a DVD player and satellite receiver without cords running everywhere? I assume there is a way, it's just beyond my very limited electronics knowledge.

So over the years it's turned into a collection of misfit items with no clear inspiration. We have plans to fill in the hole to make a stone fireplace (someday) so lately it's been really neglected and has turned into this mess.

The vases of flowers were for a something else completely but somehow ended up here. My parents brought the geodes rock for JW to see and ended up here. There are 3 really good portraits of the kids that can't be seen, various birthday cards from months ago, school artwork, a 75% dead cactus, JW's Cubscout stuff that now that I've moved it elsewhere we will never find it, so on a so forth...

So this weekend I got inspired to do something, well, inspirational with this hole in the wall. I thought it would be fun to create seasonal or monthly themes with this space. I figured since it is spring and the azaleas are in full bloom, I would do a garden/azalea theme.

So I headed out to town to visit some local thrift stores.


These are 2 of my favorites and right here in our hometown. Our town doesn't have much, but it is not lacking in thrift stores. They are full of interesting things and it is fun to look through it all, especially with a theme in mind.

Here is what I came up with. It was harder than I thought it would be to figure out where everything should go.

I got the watering cans, the chair and the yellow flowers/vine at the thrift stores, the hat at the dollar store. Most everything was in the $2-3 range, so the overall cost of this was minimal.

I filled in the gaps with pretty quilted canning jelly jars filled with real azalea flowers. I got these jars a few years back. When I use them for canning, if I ever give them away, they always go with a sterner than normal warning to bring them back when empty.

I found this little bench at a thrift store too.
I like how the little doll makes the bench look huge. That was Casey's idea.

It was so much fun doing this, I may reconsider my plans for the new fireplace. I'm already thinking about what to do for my next theme.