Cooked Angels

I felt evil as I put clay angels the school kids made into the kiln to
fire!

I shouldn't have let Connie drive my new car

Liz painting

Liz isn't done yet, but here's her start. She really got into it. I
can't wait to see where she goes with it

Oil painting

I decided I would force the issue of starting up my oil painting
again. It's been so many years. I have ignored the artistic part of my
character. Creative people have to give themselves an outlet for thair
art if they are to be happy. So, I started today and showed Liz how to
oil paint as well. I usually do landscapes. This tim I just painted
from my head, thinking of nebulas and storms. Liz said it looks like a
satellite photo of a huricane and I suppose it does!

Connie with Zack and Liz

The Beautiful California Coast

Home Sweet Home

Finally home. Our whole family and Mom spent a week with my sister
Robin in Watsonville, CA. We relaxed a lot and mostly just stayed home
and did family stuff. Sister Mary gave us this awesome Cribbage board
she made from stone. I'll post a photo of it later.

Yesterday Connie and I took our kids to Carmel and went on the 17 Mile
Drive. It was a gorgeous day as you can see in the photo.

It's always good to get home, though. Connie and were both very
fortunate to get to see our sisters Carol, Cathy and Robin this last
month. We are blessed.

Christmas cookies

Connie had Elizabeth & nephew Tyler making cookies after the pumpkin
pie.

Since We Aren't Moving...

Since we gave up on moving we have begun to work on our house. The first step was to enlarge the concrete areas of our back yard. Since we have a pool the surrounding vegetation made little sense. Therefore, we pulled it all out and today we had the concrete laid. It looks great, though it cost a lot. The next step will be to put in a huge storage shed so we can empty the garage and build me an office.

A Spiritual Giant

We have high hopes for Elizabeth. She is excited about attending Biola
when she graduates. This is a favorite mural of mine on one of their
buildings

My mom the pirate

Mom had cataract surgery on Monday. She is doing great.

Sack is Home!

He's home!

Zack came in late last night. Liz made him a pancake breakfast then
off we went. We've got a ton of things to do this weekend with him for
fun and to get him ready for school.

Waiting for big brother

A Big Night

The whole family is pretty excited. Tonight we are picking up Zachary
from the airport. He has finished bootcamp and will now be home from
the Army Reserves. He gets to now finish high school,12 grade, and
then go on to college I hope. He got quite a bit from the army for
college.

We should be moving very soon. Everything is pretty much wrapped up
and we are really looking forward to our new home. Once we get settled
in well start inviting church, friends and family over to see it. Glad
Zack will be here for the move. He seems to be glad about that too. I
can only imagine he came back with lots more muscles. LOL.

I'll post a photo of him in uniform as soon as I can scan one. He'll
be in his dress uniform on Sunday morning. Well be off and about with
him this weekend, so we may be hard to get a hold of for a bit but I'm
sure you understand.

The Circus Comes to Town

Our new house was tented for termites this week. All houses in La Mirada have termites. It's a given and everyone has to have their house treated for them when they sell their house. But this is a very good sign. Tenting your house is about the last thing one does before moving.

We are having our house tented this coming week as well. So, I'm pretty excited to be moving along at this pace, finally. I'm hoping and praying we can be moved by Labor Day weekend. It will be close, but I start my Adult School job that week and I really want everything finished before I have to go back to work. Well, we'll see, I guess. Moving in will require the obvious labor etc., but we are also going to put in new carpeting upstairs in the master bedroom. It's a huge room but it has blue shag carpeting. Yuck. I remember when I liked that stuff, though, so I should behave myself. So, our plans are to put in new carpeting, do some painting, not sure how much, and some tile in the bathroom.





My nephew is a designer, so he's helping us with colors etc. We went Sunday to pick out carpeting and paint. He's going for a Tuscan look upstairs and if we like it enough, we may go for it throughout the house. We'll have to see. I like the earth colors and I think the house lends itself towards that look on the inside. The outside of the house has to be lightened up a lot. The dark green trim is too overbearing. If we replace the garage doors with generic white garage doors, it will really make the house look more modern. They still have the old wooden, spring type doors. When we take the big tree out front out, you'll actually be able to see the house! It really hides everything right now.

New pool

Well, the pool in our new house has been totally rebuilt. I was hoping
they would do a bit more to the deck, but they just fixed the edges
which were very bad. Eventually, I hope to resurface the decline and
surround it with a fence.

GOD AND SOLZHENITSYN

The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. Corrupt are they, and have done abominable iniquity: there is none that doeth good. (Psalm 53:1)

When Alexander Solzhenitsyn died last weekend, I was reminded how this brilliant man of letters explained so simply and accurately how it was that 60 million perished following the Bolshevik revolution in his country.

"I could not put it more accurately than to repeat: 'Men have forgotten God' - that's why all this happened."

He continued: "All attempts to find a way out of the plight of today's world are fruitless unless we redirect our consciousness, in repentance, to the Creator of all: Without this, no exit will be illumined, and we shall seek it in vain."

These words are etched indelibly on my heart and soul.

Filling the pool

It's pretty hot today and Elizabeth was tired of of so I told her to
ahead and go in even though we are filling it back up. Just got done
washing it down yesterday.

Moving Day is Coming

Well, things are looking up. Our sellers are planning to move out on the 15th of this month. Faster than I expected, but very good for me because I need to move before school starts. Got so much to do now. Got to find a mover for one. I'll be so glad once we are finally moved. Mary has worked very hard on this for us. She's been great. Let me know if you ever need a good realtor in the So. Cal area.