One Man...One Shovel

Believe it or not, but Tom has started a major home improvement project in our backyard. I honestly thought I would never see it happen, but something ignited a fire in Tom and I have a feeling this one will be the last for a least a while. Our backyard was an empty dirt pile and desperately needing some love and attention. We have decided that we are going to put in a brick/paver patio and Tom has been doing all the work on his own. It is still an ongoing project but will hopefully be done next month. I will be sure and post finished pictures when it is done.

Just to explain the project a little more, Tom had to remove a great deal of dirt from our backyard one wheel barrel at a time and the replace it with gravel that is then tamped down. The gravel in itself has been exciting. It is not every day you get 13 tons of gravel delivered to your house and you can believe Andrew was up and ready to watch. The slogan that has evolved from all this and repeated by Tom and Andrew daily is, "A man needs his gravel."

Here is a picture of the gravel being delivered.

And here is Tom hard at work.

How Mom's Feed Babies

Andrew has a book called, "Ripley's Believe it or Not." You have all seen books like this full of strange and weird things that have happened. Andrew and I were looking at a picture of a doe that was nursing from a dog. Apparently the doe was found alone without it's mother. The doe was taken to a dog lover and immediately bonded with the man's dog and began nursing from the dog. Andrew didn't quite get the significance of this and I began explaining that this is how I would feed our baby. Andrew's response was classic Andrew. He replied, "you mean your going to leave the baby and give it to a dog?"

What more can I say?

Happy Father's Day Tom!

Not only am I lucky enough to have a great dad, I am also lucky enough to marry a great dad. I got to see his dad skills in action before marrying Tom, but I didn't expect them to continually get better with the years. Our kids consider him the favorite, and I can understand why. He is my favorite too.

I asked Kira and Andrew to tell me what they loved the most about their dad and this is what they said:

1- He is funny.
2- He takes us to the driving range.
3- He loves to spend time with us.
4- He rides bikes with us.
5- He takes us hiking.
6- He is nice.
7- He writes funny songs and sings them.
8- He plays the guitar and piano.
9- He plays with us.
10- He helps us with everything.
11- He gives us hugs.

Keep up the good work Tom. What you are doing is working. We love you.
Happy Father's Day!

Jade, Kira and Andrew

Happy Father's Day Dad!

I am one of those people lucky enough to find myself in a family with a dad that is truly one of the greatest. My dad is the type of dad, that not only played the role of father, but also good friend. You would regularly find my dad in the backyard sleeping in a tent with his kids, or find him swimming in the pool with us. He made us work hard, don't get me wrong. Often he was pulling us out of bed at the crack of dawn to do yard work or service for someone else, but always made sure we played just as hard.

My favorite memories will always be our backpacking trips that my dad made sure we went on. The picture above is from a trip my brother Jared, me and my dad (on the far right) took to the top of Mt. Whitney almost 10 years ago. We are in a hot spring we found about the 3rd night and we were lucky we didn't walk away with some infection. It was filthy, but was sure needed.

Dad your the best, and I will always be grateful the Lord sent me to your house.
I love you,
Jade

School is Officially Out

Today was the annual end of the year picnic at the park, and the kids are officially done for the summer. Kira just finished 5th grade and Andrew finished 1st. I just can't believe they are growing up so fast. I am afraid to blink or I might miss something. Tom took the kids to the picnic today and they had a great time. The best part.... soaking the principal. I have to give it to Mr. Lorenzen, he lets the kids do this every year. The picture below shows the attack and the principal is in the yellow shirt.

Pacifica Has it's Own Language... Who Knew?

Yesterday the kids came home from school to tell us they saw a play that the 7th graders put together. From what we could tell it was a satire of a Shakespearean play. Andrew was quick to point out that they used "Pacifica language from 5,000 years ago." It appears he meant to say the English language, but to him we must speak something different here in Pacifica.

Needless to say, Tom and I had quite a giggle about this over dinner. We love Andrew and what comes out of his mouth.

Sutter's Fort

One of the great things about Kira and Andrew's school is the amazing field trips they get to participate in. Some of you know that Tom and I have to do 140 hours a year with the kids school. I usually do my hours in the class and as Secretary of the PTO, so Tom is usually the go to guy for the multi-day field trips, and he does a good job. This year, Kira's class went to Sutter's Fort in Sacramento for an overnight trip. Sutter's Fort was the first non-Native American community in the California Central Valley. The compound was started in 1839 and the fort is still there today and is now a state protected park. The kids in the class, and the parents all took on characters for the trip. Kira was Elizabeth Wimmer, a women who discovered how to determine if gold was real or fool's gold, with the use of lye soap.

Here is a picture of Kira in her costume.


Tom's character, Kaleb Greenwood, was a fur trapper. Tom and another parent led workshops for the kids about the in's and out's of fur trapping. Tom seemed to really embrace the character, and loved teaching the kids about how to trap beavers. It seems his days working on the farm and slaughtering animals has now been put to good use. Don't expect him to quit his day job, fur trapping does not pay much, but I was beginning to think for a moment he might.



Below is a picture of Kira and her classmates taking a wagon ride to the fort.


This picture is the morning of the second day. Tom's face is classic. You think he is tired?