But it is home

I often wonder what I am doing living in the Silicon Valley. I am not a suburban city girl at heart. I like space and nature, being able to walk and ride places without endangering ourselves in traffic. I want a yard, a big one with lots of space for a garden and a swing set and chickens and a basketball hoop, not 8000 sq ft that I keep trying to pack full with all these things. And I can't pay the going market rate for that yard here.

There is so much going on ...all the time. It is truly full of opportunity for careers and activities. But it can make one weary. Maybe that is what I am feeling right now. Weariness from all the holiday obligations that are in full swing.

Also, when there are so many opportunities, I kind of feel like I need to take advantage of them or we'll miss out. (Ora, is this what you were hinting at when we had a conversation on differences in pace?)

I shouldn't complain I know and so I will stop and now be thankful for all the great things about my home, my friends, my spot on the globe. I can drive 15 mins up the hill and arrive at beautiful Christmas tree farms. I can drive 15 mins into town and play and shop until I am broke. Here are some pics of us doing just that over the past three weekends...

Lauren's 9th Bday party...10 girls, Powells Sweet Shop to sugar them up and then off to the movies. A Christmas Carol is something else to be weary about - yikes, should have read more reviews. (can't see to upload these pic:(

Christmas Tree Farm




Town Parade - we're a scoutin' family these days...yes, that is a uniform on me too.

Buy the darker sofa

NOT Me Monday...
Some of you may remember when I polled you as to whether I should buy a dark chocolate color sectional or medium brown one when I recently had the pleasure of replacing my awesome dark navy one that served us so well for 11 years. All said go with chocolate - I have a 2 year old after all. So I, of course, went with medium brown. Not out of defiance, I had good reason, my house is South facing, it does not get much sunshine inside and I am a person that needs light to maintain happiness so the medium brown made sense at that time.

Well, this certainly did NOT happen to my medium brown sofa, which was a tad bit closer to beige than I expected for my cleanliness abilities especially after coming off a dark navy that withstood every stain assault.

Above mentioned 2 year old did NOT take a green marker and run it across EACH AND EVERY of the 5 seat cushions! And I did not yell at the top of my lungs "NOOOOO...BAD!" because that was all that I could sputter in the same loud harsh tone Cruz gets. Nope, nobody who spent years at an attachment, positive parenting, co-op nursery school would do such a thing during this teachable moment. My 8 year old, whom is super sensitive to any emotional environment, did not take off upstairs in certain tachycardia and anxiety. Nope, that did not happen this Monday in this house.

But if it did, by chance, happen it is good to know that microsuede does live up to all its claims of washability.

whats going on...

We've made class party snacks...




and we carved jack-o-lanterns...




Prepared their own Halloween dinners (or at least suggested the meal)...




Trick or treated...




Fell in love again.

Happy Birthday pup

Yep, the exciting posts continue to roll as we celebrated Cruz's first birthday. Lauren made a dog cake (recipe available upon request:) Dog owners out there, please tell me that it gets easier now? No more getting up at night to let him out, no more accidents, will start walking calmly on the leash at our side, right?

He is a great dog, Shelby our cat even thinks so, and we are glad he is a part of our family. Happy Birthday!

I added some pictures of Cruz at a lure coursing event. Danish Farmdogs are supposedly instinctively good little event dogs for flyball and luring and Cruz didn't let us down. On his first try he did fairly well following the lure, though the kids had their worries that he'd head for the hills vs follow the lure so they ran the 1/4 mile loop after him!

Jason

My bordering on unhealthy crush on Jason Mraz wasn't made any better by Bushwalla taking my camera on stage to get close up pictures for us. How do we get so lucky? I don't know. Maybe I was in the zone. More likely it was my cute 8 year old just being herself as we loitered in the exit foyer. Whichever it was, it was special and the real reason is because these guys are magical. Thanks Billy, you have a few more fans!

Unfortunately, Lauren now thinks that the MC will always be so gracious.

You may have noticed my photo quality getting worse the past month and yes, this is ultimate validation that my camera needed to be replaced long ago...these would have been so good on a decent camera!

Autumn and weddings

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We went to Tahoe this weekend to attend our friends' beautiful mountain wedding with hopes of taking in some fall foliage, but instead got to see the first snowfall! Grandma came along.

Those beautiful people are MY maid of honor, best man, and of course, my one and only, but I share...and that was 11 years ago. How do some people just continue to get better and better looking?

Blog for a Cure

Follow the link above for bloggy ways to fundraise for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society...and win prizes:)

And if you are local:
LLS Light the Night Walk is Oct 17 in San Mateo and Oct 24th in Downtown San Jose, Green Arena Park. Come take an evening walk in the park with glowy balloons and support LLS.
http://www.lightthenight.org/