September 11 - We Will Never Forget

I just wanted to share the most fabulous pictures my mother took on September 11, 2004. These were taken in Vacaville at an event held in memory of that dreadful day. The top pic should be on the cover of a magazine. When I first saw it, I got chills all over. The red head is my daughter, and the other two cuties are my neice and nephew.

Fabulous DressGreen Products!

I have a particular need when it comes to skin care, especially for my face. Being a borosilicate glass artist, I expose my skin to a harsh environment that contains carbon monoxide and all kinds of other toxic fumes produced by the combustion gasses, the metals and elements inside the glass used to create the color and harmful rays that come from the intense light produced by the flame. I have already noticed wrinkles forming in a few areas on my face as well and I want to stop those dead in their tracks! I am an avid Etsy shopper, and started to really hunt down a good product to use on my face when I come in from a Lampworking session. I discovered DressGreen's shop and have been so pleased with my purchases!

I saw the variety of facial serums available and didn't know which to choose. Each of them had an in depth explanation about the particular ingredients and how they benefited the skin. I contacted Lauren and presented my situation to her. I had a response within a few hours and she knew her stuff! She suggested I use the "Renewing Facial Serum - Carrot Seed and Lavender" because it has red rasberry seed in it which contains UV properties and carrot seed which is known to help revitalize maturing skin as well as being an excellent moisturizer with several other redeaming qualities.

I love it. As soon as I come in from the torch, I wash my face and apply this serum. It feels fabulous, and I feel like it helps me minimize the damage. I also bought some handmade bath soap bars from her and they were fantastic. The bars were hard and had a rich lather. This one was my favorite. It is cucumber and guava with apricot kernel and shea butter. The scent was fresh and it lasted a long time. I have since gone back and tried a few more soaps and love them all. I bought the rosemary peppermint shampoo bar and my husband has taken that over :) It is time to order some more. Thank you Lauren for making these skin loving products!

Not Going Through the Motions

As I get a little older, the little things touch me deeper. Nice gestures mean more, the cute things my kids do bring a big smile, I feel tingles when a song I am listening to touches me, and small things that remind me of special people in my life that I have lost bring tears to my eyes in an instant.

My oldest is 11 and she is now a big middle schooler. She sings like an angel and joined the choir this year. It is four weeks into our school year and they had their first recital last night at our Barnes & Noble book store. There was about 80 kids and about the same number adults crammed into the back of the store. I got my friend to watch the toddlers so I didn't have to wrestle with them while trying to watch the choir. My husband Steve was trying to fight traffic to get their on time. I brought the camcorder and texted him with my exact location in the crowd, which fortunately was the side Adrienne was on, and got the camera ready. I was trying to let Steve know it was okay if he didn't make it because I was video taping it. He said "I will be there. I am not going to miss it!" 30 seconds before they started singing I see him wiggling through the crowd headed my way. I was so happy he made it. He whistled his distict way, Adrienne looked up and smiled, then they started singing.

They sounded beautiful. I held the video camera above the crowd and taped, zoomed in on Adrienne. I didn't bring my still camera or I would post a picture. Steve and I traded off because our arms kept tiring. The woman in front of us had her cell phone flipped open, allowing the person on the other end to hear the singing. I had to fight the tears pretty hard when I saw that. I don't know why it made me that emotional, but it must have been a daddy who was still at work, or couldn't quite make it through the traffic we are cursed with out here in the East Bay.

They sang 15 songs. It was so full of energy and harmonious. Amazing for 4 weeks of school! The teacher looked like he was conducting an orchestra and sang along with the kids. He was so much fun to watch. These music programs are all in danger at our schools... what a loss it would be for the kids to not have an outlet like this. It was a great 15 minutes and then back to our regularly scheduled life that I am so grateful for.

My husband drives a lot for work and is constantly struggling with traffic. He called this morning and said he was experiencing really heavy traffic and assumed there must be an accident ahead, we talked for a few and then hung up. He called about 1/2 hour later to say he had just seen a deceased woman as the result of the traffic accident. She was covered with a blanket, but her arm was not and he saw she was wearing several pieces of jewelry. It was 7:22 a.m. and surely she was on her way to work, like she probably did every other morning at that time.

Right after this I go to see why my sweet little old neighbor's dog was barking so much. He is a widow and has lived alone in the house he shared with his wife for a few years. I look out the window and see a fire truck and ambulance parked out front. About 10 minutes later, out he comes on a stretcher. I don't know what happened, but fortunately another family member had already arrived.

So, I feel especially emotional today, with the primary feeling being gratitude. I am grateful for my health and my family and respectful of how delicate life is. I am humbled by my neighbor, and know that how my life is now will change greatly over the years. Have a great day, and I am off to put capes on my toddllers and play superheroes for a while!

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Discovery Kingdom

My toddlers and I went with my mom, her friend and her daughter to Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, CA on Friday. It was sooo much fun. I am always a little nervous when I venture out with the two little ones because a meltdown is always lurking around the corner and I hate to be far from home when it happens!

Discovery Kingdom is a theme park that started out as Marine World, then Six Flags and now it is DK. I love it because it has all the rides for adults and kids, plus it has several animal shows and attractions scheduled throughout the day. We went to the Sea Lion show which had a pirate theme, a dolphin show that was beautiful and a Tiger show that we didn't make it through, but was great while it lasted. Here are some pics from the day. Lily loved, loved, loved the characters in costume. There were about 20 of them walking around all day and every time we saw one she had to go visit. People were trying to take pictures of their kids hugging these characters and Lily would run in and try to get a hug too. They had a great water feature in the center of a huge kid play area. We brought the suits with us, found a corner and did a quick change. After the water everyone was pretty tired. Stevie entertained us with some of his dinosaur break dance moves and then Lily fell asleep. The forecast said it was going to be 77 degrees which sounded almost cold to me, but it had to have been over 90. I got burned and it was hot but we had a great time. Thanks mom!

I Got Beat Up

Oh boy did I get beat up this morning. Ugh. I am sooo tired.

I go to this fabulous 2 year old fitness gym near my house. I am not in bad shape, but I am not in great shape either. I don't do well working out at my house because of my two toddlers. As soon as I get on the treadmill, they are trying to climb on as well. I can entice them will everything loved by a toddler to stay in the other room, but it doesn't work. Not gummy bears. Not Caillou. Nothing.

I also recorded several hours of exercise routines from the FitTv channel but they climb on the step and they turn off the TV.

So, the gym it is. The great part is they have a Kid's Club. 2 hours at a time they watch all the kids. There's plenty of cool stuff in there to keep them happy, and I can go back in the afternoon again if I want to work out again.

Right off the bat I got talked into having a personal trainer. I don't like to think of myself as someone who is talked in to things easy, but it happens. Especially if I want what they are selling, then I just need to hear the right thing.

I love my trainer. Some of the others look intimidating. Big, bulging muscles and military haircuts. No thanks. I also didn't wan't an overly attractive man watching me struggle and sweat while I worked out. I got a slightly nerdy, medium sized trainer who knows his stuff. (I hope he never sees this).

We have been working out for 3 months now and I have had positive results. Definitely toned up and my recovery time is much quicker. BUT the pain for the couple of days following a workout is BAD. Last week every step hurt and the week before I struggled to pick up my kids. But the pain I am going to feel tomorrow will pale in comparison. I am already sore. THAT is a bad sign.

I told him I was at a plateau. He said we would work through it, right now. Deep lunges while holding 10lb kettle balls... squat jumps onto a step with 5 risers... pilates pushups (these are no joke)... single leg presses with 50lbs and wayyyy too many reps... pull ups and leg lifts while 2 feet off the ground... and the list goes on. The punishment lasted an hour. The sweat was dripping in my eyes. My shirt and hair were soaked. Then, he told me to go do the stairclimber for 20 min. I did 5 and I started to get a low blood sugar attack. You know the feeling when all of the sudden you are starving and trembling? Thank goodness I had a banana in my locker! I got the kids, came home and collapsed.

I don't think I will be having any tasty food today, just to get the most out of it.

NOT What You Want to Find In the Washer

A diaper. yes. A DIAPER.

I sorted the clothes... I swear I did. And, how did a diaper get in the laundry room???

I have an upside down house. It is very cool, but I have found several undesirables that I never would have thought of until I lived here. My kitchen, living room and master are upstairs, and three bedrooms, a bathroom and a large laundry room are downstairs. It was so unique and exciting to me when we first saw it.

Well, my little Lily who is now 20 months old loves to throw things from the upstairs to the downstairs. There is a banister above the lover half of the stairs, so when she throws things over they land pretty close to the hallway below. Well, I also throw dirty laundry over the stairs when I am going down to wash clothes. Or, I throw them over and yell to my 11 year old, Adrienne, to take them to the laundry room.

Lately, Lily has been trying to snatch diapers after changing and throw them down. I usually catch it, but I guess I didn't this time. FORTUNATELY it was a #1 diaper, if it was a used diaper at all. All of the unused diapers are in a cupboard, but I wouldn't put it past her to gain acees to it. #2 diapers are immediately taken to the outside garbage can, but #1 go to an inside diaper can. I guess I dropped the ball. Ugh.

Lily the culprit

So... I opened the washer to switch the clothes to the dryer and immediately am taken back by the buildup inside the door (front loader). These mushy, puffy bead like clumps are everywhere. And wouldn't you know that I threw some of my husband's Harley Davidson shirts in that load. Dark clothes with bits of fuzzy white material all over them will make you feel sick.

I took everything out, used several baby wipes to clean all the nooks and crannies of washer and restarted the load. This time I put it on heavy soil with an extra rinse. I will keep my fingers crosssed :).

Happy Sunday!

Good morning! I have noticed with self employment there are no real days off. Tasks for home and work all seem to melt together and it is a concerted effort all day to make time for the business needs. Unfortunately I am not one of those that was born with a sharp attention span or a fabulous sense of organization, so often that is what I am putting the most effort in to. I have become quite a fan of coffee and absolutely love it, but am realizing it probably doesn't help my focus, just my motivation. I think it would be pretty entertaining to watch a video of my movements throughout the day. I think I will start researching natural remedies for adult ADD :) . Yesterday I promised some pictures of my new beads... what do you think?