Happy Halloween!

This is my girls' "little brother, Eric".

I don't know why my eldest started calling him that many years ago.

In 1996, we lived in Tennessee, and I saw this deocration on someone's porch on Halloween. At first glance I totally thought it was a real little kid. Upon closer inspection, I realized it was just a decoration.

I researched how to make this and the next year when we were back in California, my hubby and I put our heads together and made this decoration for Halloween. It is always my favorite one. And periodically, through the years, the girls "pose" with their little brother "Eric" on Halloween. He never gets to go outside though until the night of Halloween, as he is too precious to leave just outside all the time.

Here he is through the years with my girls:

In 1998:

In 2001:
In 2003:
And in 2005:

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!!!!

The Women Before Me

As the fires are now not a threat or even close to where we are, I have been slowly putting things back in their place. One of the things I put back in the safe was this necklace: Here is a closeup of the cameo:
This is the only picture of I have of my great-great-great grandmother, Anna:

She came over from Switzerland with her husband Caspar in the early to mid 1800's. That is about the only information I have of her. I know that she and Caspar had their children here in America, and that this picture was probably taken here in America. I don't know if she was the original owner of the necklace or not, but I do know that my great-great grandma Lydia had it, as you can see she is wearing it in this picture:

This picture was probably taken circa 1900 or so. I do know it was passed on to her daughter, Lillian, however she was not the "eldest" daughter, so I don't know why it was given to her (not that being the eldest daughter automatically means you get it or anything like that, at least not back then, I'm just curious as to why she possessed it).

Here is my great-grandmother, Lillian:





This picture was probably taken circa 1920. I know I have a picture of her somewhere where she is wearing the necklace as well. My Grandma Lillian died far too early in her life. Throughout many years the family thought that she had died some mysterious "woman" disease. It wasn't until a family reunion in 2000 where we found out that she had died from an abortion gone wrong. This was in 1934. And it was in South Dakota, which makes me even more upset about South Dakota trying to pass a law against abortion. I have no idea why she had an abortion back then, but I can only guess that maybe it was because it was during the Depression era, and possibly they barely had enough food for her, her husband, and 3 children. Maybe it was a medical reason why she had to have one. We'll never know. I do know that the necklace was passed down to my grandma, who was the eldest daughter:



My grandma never had a picture taken of her with the necklace. I do remember getting to look at it now and then when I would visit her. My grandma didn't have the easiest life either. She was 12 when her mom died and her and her sister had to go live with an aunt and uncle (because back then it wasn't proper for a father to raise girls by himself) and thus she was separated from her brother and her father. She got to see them during the summers however. Then her aunt and uncle were in the military and were being stationed in Puerto Rico and another aunt, Aunt Edie, thought it was far too improper to have children being raised in Puerto Rico, so she took over care of my grandma and my aunt. While I'm sure Aunt Edie loved them, she was much more strict on my grandma and my grandma ended up eloping with my grandpa John when she was 19 because she knew Aunt Edie would have forbidden the marriage. After my grandma passed away in 1993, the ownership of the necklace went to my mom, the eldest daughter:

This picture was taken during the mid 1960's. My mother also never had a picture taken with her wearing the necklace. When my mom passed away in 2004, the necklace then came into my possession, the eldest daughter.

I knew far, far in advance that the necklace would one day be mine. My mom always told me that. Even though my mom's death was sudden, she did state her intentions with certain family items, and the cameo necklace was one of them.

So now it is in my possession, stored securly in the safe. My great aunt Joan (my grandma's sister) told me that I should wear black when wearing the necklace, it highlights the necklace more. So one day soon, I will take a picture with me wearing the necklace.

And one day I would like to take it to get it appraised to see if they can even determine where the necklace had originated from, when it was possibly made. The value of the necklace is priceless to me.

Firestorm 2007

Here we go again.

This is a repeat of the Cedar Fire we had in 2003. It's worse in some situations, but better in others.

The fires are MUCH MUCH bigger than the Cedar Fire, however people are getting SO much better advanced warning this time. People are being told to evacuate hours ahead of time this time.

The schools are closed all week long, as well as the courts and some businesses.

So far, where we are, we are okay. We have not been asked to evacuate. We have two evacuation centers within a mile or two of us, so that's a good thing. As long as those two evacuation centers stay open, I'm okay.

We do have our stuff packed and ready to go though, should we get a call. And honestly, I don't have as much stuff packed as I would really like to. Like say, our whole house. THE most important things to me besides my family and my animals are photographs and home movies. Those can never be replaced either. I have inherited a ton of heritage photos, and while I probably could get some copies from my great aunt, there are a lot that cannot be replaced. And heritage jewelry as well.

So I'm ready, should we need to evacuate. Hubby keeps telling me that we won't evacuate, and he's probably right. We probably won't. But you can never tell what the winds will do and should they decide to pick up and send the fire our way, I want to be able to get out with my girls, animals and pictures.

There are SOOOOOOOOOO many people who have been evacuated due to this fire, over 500,000 people! And I'm hoping that most of them will be able to return to their homes.

The air, where we are is not as bad as it was during the Cedar Fire, but it's still smoky. I don't think there is a clear bit of air at all in this county.

It's so awful and so incredibly scary.

My anxiety levels are so high at times, especially when I hear of an area that is within 5-10 miles of us being evacuated. I worry that it's getting closer to us. I try not to leave the house too often, in case we do get a reverse 911 call. If I do have to leave, I make sure a friend of mine who lives close by is at home that way we can call each other to let the other one know, should it occur.

But so far so good.

It would be nice if God could bring some rain to douse these fires. The winds have died down though, so that's something.

So many people are going to need so much because of these fires. My daughter has already put a jar together to start a fund for the people who will be in need from these fires.

So everybody please pray for everyone here and pray that the firefighters can stay safe and get a hold on these fires and get it under control as soon as possible.

The Curse Of The Monkey Bars

Every day after school, my youngest always asks to go play on the playground for a little bit. Mind you she gets to do it during recess and lunch recess every day, but I guess she just can't get enough.

So today she asks (after a long talk last night about listening to Mommy and not crying when she doesn't get her way, considering she had a fit when I told her yesterday she couldn't) to go and I say yes. Well, not more than 2 or 3 minutes later, she comes back to me saying she doesn't want to go because she has blisters on her hands.

From the monkey bars.

Yes. The Curse.

I think every little girl gets those blisters from being on the monkey bars when they are little. All their little friends are playing on the monkey bars and so they want to as well, and want to get all the way across.

So we had to come home and bandage up her hands. Because really, those regular bandaids just don't stick well at all on the palm of your hands. At least little ones hands. So I got out the gauze bandages and used that white first-aid tape and taped it to her hands. It made her feel better. And this girl is the QUEEN of bandaids too. I really should buy some stock in it, I buy enough of them!

And then I remembered that my oldest got blisters on the monkey bars too when she was this age. Except hers were much bigger. Blech!

Part of the reason I probably remembered this was because earlier in the day, my friend, Stacie was asking me a question about pregnancy and I honestly couldn't remember so I had to go back into the journal I kept when I was pregnant with my oldest. It's a good thing I did write all of this stuff down, because as they get older, my recollection of these things gets very hazy. I wrote everything down with my eldest.

I just wish I had time to do it when I was pregnant with my youngest. I did write some stuff down though.

{{{{{{{{{{{HUGS}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Hugs are the best.

Even cyber-hugs rock.

I've always been a "hugger".

I love to hug, and I love to be hugged.

Having my hubby home to hug me every day, there's just nothing like it.

Not even the hugs I get from my girls.

The hugs I get from my girls are wonderful, don't get me wrong, but the hugs I get from hubby make me feel safe and secure and loved.

The hugs I get from my girls definitely make me feel loved.

And hugs from friends?

They rock too.

The hugs from friends are the ones that you know care and are right there for you too.

Hugs from hubby still rock though.

Have I mentioned how happy I am to have him home?

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Hugs to you all!!!!}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}

Nice.

This evening my youngest was taking a shower. She saw the bottle of conditioner that comes with the hair dye kits in the shower.

"Mommy, is that your bottle for dying your hair?"

Me: "Yes, dear, but don't touch that, okay?"

"Oh, I won't Mommy, I don't dye my hair. When I get old like you I will dye my hair and then I will need to use it"

Homecoming

Hubby is home!

We are all very happy that he's back home with us.

And his homecoming was, as always, wonderful.

The girls and I got to the Navy base at around 7:30 a.m. and found a parking spot. We took the shuttle to the pier where his ship was going to be pulling in, where we met up with his parents, who were also there to see him come home.

So many people were there to see their loved ones come home, after being gone for six long months. Many had signs welcoming them back. The military had MANY booths there for the families and friends to visit, get a drink, buy t-shirts, and make signs to welcome them back.

My girls wanted to make signs to welcome back Daddy. The eldest made her sign, and I helped the youngest with her sign. All I had to do with her sign though, was to tell her how things were spelled. She knew exactly what she wanted to put on there and she just needed to know how to spell "Welcome Home". She already knew how to spell Daddy.

At around 9:30, we saw the top of the ship's mast moving behind the other ship that was already docked at the pier. The crowd was cheering immensely! At last, he was coming home.

Hubby and I had already decided via e-mail that he would call me on my cell phone as soon as he was able to when the ship was pulling into port. I checked my cell phone to see the time and I saw that I had a message from him. He must have called while the crowd was cheering and I didn't hear it. He said that they were pulling alongside the other ship and were coming around the corner.

Then we saw the bow of the ship, and all the sailors lined up around the top of the ship. If you have never seen that, it is an amazing sight. It makes you so proud to be an American and so proud that you have a loved one on that ship and they are coming home to you. Once I saw that sight, I had a flood of emotions overcome me. So proud, so happy and so relieved that he was home again.

He was on that ship. He was coming home to me and his daughters.

The ship slowly pulled forward and lined up parallel to the pier. Then the tugboats slowly pushed the ship toward the pier (it's such a large ship, it's not like they can just parallel park, you know).

It is such a wonderful experience to be there, seeing your loved one come home, but it does definitely take a while. Once the ship is docked, then they have to put the ramps and stairs up to the ship so they can depart the ship. From the time they pulled in, to the time they got off the boat, it's easily a 1/2 hour or longer.

When they lowered the bays, hubby called me and I told him where I was on the pier. He told me where he was on the ship. We were able to see each other and wave madly to each other.

The first ones that get to get off the ship are the new daddies. The ones whose wives' had babies while they were out to sea. We have been very lucky in which hubby has been able to be home for both of his daughter's births.

The next ones off are the officers and senior enlisted. Then the junior sailors. I have been on both ends of that spectrum. On our first deployment apart, he was one of the junior sailors so it definitely took a while for him to get off. Now he's a senior enlisted sailor so he gets to get off sooner.

Hubby called me to tell me he was about 5 minutes away from getting off the ship. Then when he was off the ship, he called again so we were on the lookout for him throughout the crowd.

I spotted him and I told my girls that I saw him and pointed to where he was walking towards us. The eldest saw him and took off for him and the youngest followed.

They found their daddy and they hugged each other so tight. This was the eldest's fourth time being away from Daddy, but really the 2nd time she remembers it. As for the youngest, this was her 2nd time, but she was just a baby the first time. She went running up to Daddy too and they hugged each other too.

I sat back and watched happily, tears in my eyes. My girls had their Daddy back. My mother-in-law stood behind me and put her arms around my shoulders and we watched together. She said, "You need to go up there too", but I declined. This was their moment with their daddy and they needed to have that time for their special reunion. I could wait a few seconds longer.

Then they walked over to where we were and hubby and I hugged and kissed each other (not too passionate though, the in-laws were watching.....) and hugged and kissed and held hands.

I just love the youngest's expression in this picture. :)

I have my hubby home again.