Chasing Bluebirds

Springtime

We took a trip to Utah over spring break, I hope to have a full post on that trip with lots of photos. One of my favorites was this one:

we were beat but happy, can you tell? Utah is just so gorgeous and the springtime is a great time to visit because it's not too hot. I did one quickie painting and really enjoyed all the orange and blue combos with sky and rock. It is also the end of our camp fire year, end of the school year with lots of camp fire events going on:
not just cleaning up the wetlands, we are PLANTING now!!

my favorite wetlands event yet. we also had the camp fire grand council fire event that celebrates all the kids who make their "wo he lo" the highest honor in camp fire. 11 this year! wow!

Spring camp out was a hit too, this is a time for families to camp out together at camp shiwaka... not just with their group and leader



i'm pretty nuts for instagram these days!
an art installation at the wetlands
and i started doing cross fit, ouch but so much fun! i am really enjoying the new friends i have made and how much better i feel. more to come on our utah trip! happy springtime everyone!

Camp Fire leader 101 (x 2)

So when i started this blog, my plan was to document my experience being a camp fire leader (did you know that?) well my first year had some regular posts on all the mishaps and adventures i had trying to figure out what the heck i was doing. Can you beleive it's been 7 years now? AND i have TWO groups? The interesting thing is that i not only have two groups, am the LEADER of TWO groups, i actually run about every single second of said groups. The few leaders i know who have tackled having two groups aren't crazy enough to actually run them both without some serious help OR to be the co-leader of one while leading the other. i think it makes a big difference and why my journey has had more ups and downs than most.

so what have i learned? so much, so much. for one, i could probably be the ceo or big time manager of a corporation now. here is my list:  i know that you never ever ever say what you really really are thinking most of the time. i know that people will say they are coming, text you they are on their way and never show up. i know that some events with 30 people invited will have 2 attend and some have 45 (??) plan for either, that i have learned. i learned to spend as many hours as it takes in the summer at my leisure to plan the entire coming year AND actually write in every event on the calendar and just go with it no matter what. i learned that canceling a meeting makes some people grumpy and some people happy. i know now that in this economy, people aren't buying candy like they used to and not to take it personally. i learned that my passion to overcome whatever competition and downright hostility the girl scouts feel toward camp fire has burned out and i cannot build that bridge (at least for now). i learned to use every resource possible during a crazy out of control meeting (parents, older siblings, whoever) to try and bring it back together. kindergarten kids can only sit still and be quiet for a minute at a time and never the same minute as the kid sitting next to them. i know now that paint + kids = a horrendous mess that will find you picking paint out of your nails and hair for a week. i learned that a church who wants to do something for the community can up and dump you one week before your meetings start up again (after 6 uneventful years) because they dont have space for your 11 or so kids but will let the boy scouts continue to meet there with their 100+ kids. i have learned that when the leader of the group's child has a birthday party and she doesn't invite all of the camp fire kids (even if the plan is to keep it small, cheap, simple) and you post a photo on facebook of said party, that the kid or kids who weren't invited will most likely quit over the hurt feelings. there are going to be some parents who 1) say i favor my kid at meetings calling on them more than others 2) tell me i am too hard on my own kid 3) roll their eyes during meetings and i have to figure out what the heck i did/said to offend them 4) tell me i am the most amazing leader BUT they aren't continuing in the group 5) will tell me that camp fire isn't cool enough for their kid 6) will dump me AND my kid for not being cool enough in their attempt to climb the social ladder at school 7) will sincerely become my closest friends and stick with me for years and years through thick and thin 8) will spend miserable nights camping on the hard ground in the drizzle, dust and bugs to give their kids a unique outdoor experience here in the city 9) will bring me coffee at the crack of dawn after the countless camp outs we do each year 10) will bring bushels of ice, bags and bags of food and anything else i request during day camp. i am sure this list could go on and on... i think that's it for now. wo he lo!!

Italy

I know I wrote about our italy trip last summer but not sure if I truly laid out the things I learned about traveling to Rome with kids. I still think London, Paris, Rome are amazing places to take kids (Venice too, by the way) because there is so much to do and easy to get around. While researching for our trip I stumbled onto many wonderful blogs and one of them seemed to have tips that interested me more than otheres. I recently offered to share some of my Rome tips and was taken up on my offer. I didnt realize it would be posted word for word, but I think it came out pretty good!! Here is the link.

Ahhhhhh to be back in Rome! 

back to work

I am back to work, feeling the stress of a busy schedule again, ugh! we are finally getting our living room painted, it's more like a major restoration project and costing a small fortune. i am super excited and enjoy the progress. it is a bit of a mess though, kicking my OCD into top gear. since i had to work this weekend the kids went to the desert with their dad and cousins, here's a few shots sent to me: 

looks like everyone is having a great time! i have never been with them, working weekends is such a drag but i am sure i will get a chance someday. here's a photo of our living room in progress:
i love my house, really love it but it has a lot of quirks and nothing is a simple fix. the doors need to be replaced but the door guy says they weren't made correctly in the first place, the dimensions are off that hold the glass. so dilemma, do them right or keep with the design of the entire house? of course we need to to keep them the same but it's hard to tell a professional who knows what he is doing that. in other news:
i took a painting workshop and jumped right in, very fun and very inspiring. i found a local artist (who is also a yoga instructor, good move!) and she very kindly helped me get back in the groove. i am now back and ready to go! i splurged on some new paints from here and dug out all my old supplies. i had been wanting a new plein air easel/setup and splurged on that as well. everything is working as planned and i am so glad i spent a little more. i have had two cheapo plein air easels in the past that were wobbly and fell apart after a few years. at $100 each, really not so cheap when you add it up. i am hoping to get out to the wetlands asap and start on some of the paintings i have dreamed about for years now.

lots of walking around the park lately and happy my youngest is joining me now
i think that fitting into her older sisters running shoes might have something to do with it. :)

time warp

having a few more days off, i was ablet to FINALLY go through my iphotos and fix many of the goof ups that happened when i tried to put all of my photos from my old comuter onto the new. for some reason i had random duplicates all over the place, probably 1/3 of my storage taken up by this goof. i still haven't finished, but i have put a dent into it. along the way i came across lots of fun photos so i thought i'd do a little time warp for 2013:

photos of the mountains and our catalina trip from several years ago (that was a pet cemetery we stumbled on during a hike)...plus one of maggie as a puppy. healing up and getting ready to get back to it!

Slip/Fall

So i had a slip and fall accident this week in the shower (!!!) and rapped my head on our glass shower door (not recommended) thank goodness i didnt break it, but i came away with a nasty cut over my eye. At first i thought that was it, but by morning i had two black eyes and a goose egg over my nose. Unbelieveable! Very humbling to say the least and very very embarrassing. Sure people fall all the time but i have never injured my face like this before, never, even as a kid! I have instantly become house arrested as every day my bruises go from pink to purple to greenish and yellow and quite shocking i must say. The kids are nice and make their funny comments to make me feel better. Being housebound has had its ups and downs. For the first two days i was in too much pain to really do a whole lot, but by day 3 i was cleaning the house like a freak and trying to get through a zillion "to do" lists. Today is day 4 and i have cabin fever like crazy. I am supposed to be back at work in 2 days but i am so freaking scared these bruises will remain. I am not a vain person but to be honest i don't want anything to draw attention to myself. I prefer to just muddle through my work and get back to what i want to do each day. 

before my accident, i had spent some time walking with the girls out in the on and off rain to sell candy and stumbled onto some fun landscape ideas

I have only recently become a fan of this type of native gardening. I still have a love for the "tropical" look so i am trying to see if i can mix a little
I took a walk around our local park yesterday, for the first time really getting out of the house. Felt so good! Our weather has been amazing. I say it over and over again, California is best in the winter. Cool nights, warm days... just perfect!

mish mash

i am still struggling to get decent interesting posts up regularly here... i find i take the coolest photos on my phone and then i post the most god awful crappy ones here on the blog. here goes with a few favorites from a recent phone download...

lots of cloud photos to inspire me to get back to painting


new car love
kitty love
milestones
embracing tweendom
miss maggie
getting the backyard in shape for some major plant redo and finding a way to paint again in my own personal outside studio
black bamboo... best choice ever
fathers and daughters... love! gotta get to school, working on our garden club...it's coming along s l o w l y... cheers!

whirlwind new year

For the first time in a long time, i didnt take on extra work over the holidays and just hung out and took it slow...
spent time up at the cabin, didn't spend every minute trying to clean up and fix this or that, just hung out
gazing at snowflakes
watching the snow fall and pondering this past year. 2012 was a year i carefully created and with intent to accomplish many personal goals. it was important financially (no more child support and a refinanced house) so we weren't struggling to make ends meet the way the past few years have been. i took some risks to put the italy trip together and it came off without a hitch, truly a trip of a lifetime on so many levels. i worked less and checked more things off the "to do" list. i made it to the gym more regularly and could feel the benefit of regular exercise for the first time in many years (still have a long way to go on that but it's a start). i cut back on all my volunteering and put more energy into my family. i finally took the plunge and bought a new car, something a little reckless that has energized me in ways i haven't felt in years. i studied and passed the first of a two part test i need to be credentialed in a new specialty for my career. something i had put off since i was pregnant with emily, 13 years ago! i find myself thinking about how every morning my mom would ask me as a kid, "what's on your agenda today? what are your plans? what are you looking forward to?" and i remember no matter what i had going on, i would think about the one or two good things i had to look forward to. something fun was on the horizon even if there was school or work or whatever too, there was a tv show i had waited all week for or dinner at my grandparents or a letter coming in the mail from a friend or a new book to read. i have always been a hard worker but my secret is to have a focus, something amazing to distract me while i muscle through the hard stuff. so for 2013? well, we'll just have to see!

xmas 2012

we had a little family dinner for lizzie a couple nights ago and found the "elf yourself" app fun as well as the guitar hero game

Looking forward to a movie and maybe a nap before dinner... back to work tomorrow but will FINALLY have a weekend completely off so we can head up to the cabin for New Years. This has been such an awesome year, so many good things to be thankful for, really the best ever. Hoping to keep this going for 2013! Planning a Florida/Disneyworld trip and maybe take another mom and me adventure (Scotland!!) I was surprised by many Padre Pio gifts from chris, having been introduced while driving through Italy. I do wish I hadn't done any research on him though, as the mystery was better than the reality but that's what I get for being curious all the time. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!!

happy birthday lizzie!!

someone turned 9 today!!