Home Again~

It was such a lovely trip visiting my folks this past weekend. I felt pampered as we did the things I enjoy most. It was a long drive, feeling a little free and a little weird with out my family, but I made it to my folks house and we went out for Sushi. I loved the quiet, that was the most noticable difference being away from my sweet little ones. I relaxed some and had a wonderful early Thanksgiving with my parents, sister, and nephew. We had our nails done and went to the hair beauty supply store too. Its great to have girl time with my mom and sister. It was a beautiful weekend in LA. It has sprinkled a little so you could see all around.:) I love it when the smog is gone and you can see the beauty of the palm trees and rolling hills. I was pleasantly surprised by the flood of good memories while I rode a round the streets where I grew up!

We love to go to the jacuzzi at my parents house and watched a movie nightly, It was nice to watch things I enjoyed like Pride and Prejudice and Twilight: Eclipse. I had to get ready for the new movie coming out this Thursday.:)

I flew home on Southwest. It was a full flight, but I loved seeing the changing sunset out the window and drinking my ginger ale like I used to when I flew a lot. No one strip searched me which I was happy for and all my things made it there safely. It was a successful trip! My battery is recharged and Brian says he can't wait to go to work to rest today.:) Of course he is joking since his work is not restful. He is the best husband ever for watching the kiddos all weekend on his own, I love him!

Roller Coaster Ride

Roller Coaster Ride. That's how I would consider the last few days. One fantastic good thing seemed to be paired with some upset, mess, or disappointment. I had the choice to be positive and hopeful. Spencer's school and bus are having a hard time dealing with him again. I mean a really hard time!

At home we do the best we can trying to make sure he has stability, a voice, all his needs met, and medication that can help him be the most successful. Lack of structure, reaction over his behaviors cause an uprising in my Sweet Spence. Yes, he cannot communicate with words effectively, but he wants and needs to be heard. At home we use thought bubbles, narrating what he would say by looking at his non verbal body language. He smiles and giggles and nods his head as if to say"Yes!, That is what I meant!" It can be a spiritual experience trying to be one with him enough to sense his wants and needs. It also takes quite a bit of spiritual, emotional, and physical strength to deal with his aggressive bouts towards myself, his siblings, and others. What can I do other than say sorry to them and help Spencer to find other outlets, to find his voice, to train him to cope and cooperate positively.

I am still on a mission to capture my life positively. I got a new camera! A Nikon digital SLR with a couple lenses. I love trying it out. I also have the opportunity to go on a road trip to Southern California today. It will be great to see family, relax, and take a lot of pictures! Bri and I went on our date night last night. I was feeling like Italian food so we went to IL Forno Classico. The bread is baked with herbs, so yummy! The balsamic vinaigrette and oil dip has a hint of artichoke in it. That paired with the artichoke spinach ravioli in lemon creme sauce made for quite the comfort food. Now, today I get to leave my worries behind and hit the road in a 2010 Prius and focus on well.. anything I want.:) Its going to be great.. I'll take this ride over any other even with its downs and ups

Finding Brown

I love the warmth of the colors of fall, even when its growing cooler outside. Brown is a nice color too, a color I wear and enjoy around me. Amber is my favorite stone, and I've painted my house in some shade a brown throughout. I love Celia's and Emmy's brown haircolor and all my kiddos have brown eyes. Brown can be beautiful! I think I own at least five pairs of brown shoes... Brown wasn't hard for me to find for this photo challenge, I'm sure because its a color I love.:) In the second of these photos you can see the shape of a star and an iceskater. Can you see it?

Arranging Flowers

I had a great time at our Relief Society Meeting last night. We talked of being thankful and then we were allowed materials to make our own table center piece. We were taught a few tricks by two florists then were sent to make our decoration happen! I love the chance to create and be among other women. I will keep it for years and love all what it represents about changing seasons, being thankful, and blooming in creativity.

Always remember the fifth of November

Emmy and I had an enjoyable morning looking through old scrapbook and remembering celebrations of birthdays past. Emmy is going to have a party with her friends later and Bri is outta town on business so the kids and I decided to celebrate together.

We went to the discovery park by the Sacramento river. It was beautiful out there. We had a picnic breakfast from McDonald's and wandered around. It was nice we seemed to have the park to ourselves other that an American Indian group chanting in full costume preparing for some performance of some kind. I love the happy sounds of live music happening spontaneously, it is one of my favorite things. Joseph wanted to leave right after we ate, but it was so lovely outside we let him sulk a little bit.

We then went to Old Sacramento to the sock shop and the candy store. Emmy opened up a guitar music book and has been enjoying learning how to play her favorite yellowcard songs on her guitar this afternoon. We had pizza that we added pepperoni to, and Joseph made Emmy a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting. Emmy went and spent the day with Rah Rah yesterday after school she came home with krispy kreme doughnut hats and we used them as our party hats.:) Spence was acting like a teen and throwing us his funny expressions.~Happy 15th Birthday to my wonderfully fabulous daughter Emelie.~

Edit Me Challenge

Okay, I am having way too much fun editing so I thought I'd try this editing challenge for fun. This beautiful pic was provided by Branson, one of the hostesses, who is judging the edit challenge. We are encouraged to make it our own style through editing. I used color fade vertical and adjusted the mid tones, shadows, and highlights. I did also fiddle with the saturation and did sharpen it. I wanted to give the feeling of blending the old with the new, the turning of hearts from the present to the wonderful past. It is fun to try something new, here it goes.:)

New Outfits~

Spencer Doodle had a fun day on Tuesday. He received his costume in the mail, yes I know a day late, Spencer was fine wearing his many favorite Halloween shirts on the day. He is Indiana Jones. The whip was his favorite. He liked to crack it on the ground.

He played with tutors after school, then we went to Kmart for a school clothes shopping spree! Spencer was chosen to receive complimentary clothing voucher by a wonderful lady, Jackie Wygal, who is part of the Assistance League. We saw her there and were able to thank her again. Spencer got a beautiful Navy thermal button henley hoodie, a red and blue plaid over sized jacket like shirt and beautiful church clothes. It felt like Christmas early and it was a privilege to participate in such a great charitable program.

Purple Paradise

I feel like we are blessed to have a home we love, in a garden of Eden. There is beauty all around when there's love at home, and lots of purple surroundings too.:) Purple is my most favorite color. All of these pictures except the sunset were in my yard.

I had a wonderful time searching out purple shades of fall for this photo challenge. Celia was a great help. She always is, Celia loves to clean, create, and give affection. She will make a lovely woman and mother someday. Nature, my family, & my faith in Christ bring me great happiness.:)

Festivities 2011

We really enjoyed the Halloween festivities this week. We carved our pumpkins. Joseph seemed to think it was like whittling he'd go over and over the cut out holes. He definitely wanted to carve more. Emmy didn't quite believe me about the bunny on the Trix box being a good pattern for her pumpkin. Turns out she was right. It was designed for a more medium size pumpkin so Emmy came up with her own design which turned out great!

We scooped the seeds and baked them with salt. Emmy loved them. Her and I ate and ate them, and then she ate some more and brought some in her school lunch the next day. We had Emmy's ortho appointment so we went with the tutors to get that done. Celia trick or treated at the reception desks and read books with Allie. Spencer read books too in a corner with Jono. Spencer did fair, he liked to holler a little, but we made it through and had a fun time dressing up for that.

Later we met up with the neighbor kids and trick or treated. We came home and visited with Rah Rah. I enjoyed dressing up I did two costume this year and went to 3 different activities, 4 if you include trick or treating. Emmy wore her costume 5 times I think and really enjoyed the celebrating. Next up, Emmy's Fifteenth Birthday celebrations.~