Long week and weekend!

Firestorm 2007 - all I can say is INCREDIBLE! Wow, the fires were amazing, the devastation is horrific and after it is all over, we are all breathing a little easier now. Easier because the air quality is so much better and easier because it didn't reach our tiny little town. It knocked on the door to San Clemente, we just told it to go away and never come back! The Camp Pendleton fires were about 4-6 miles from our house. Too close for comfort.

The kids are back in school and life has returned to normal, whatever that is?? Since the school district and all sporting activities were cancelled since last Tuesday, we enjoyed a rather relaxin weekend. I spent all day Saturday making Hannah's Halloween costume. She is going to be the most beautiful and stunning mermaid ever! She wanted to be a blue mermaid and the fabric she helped to pick out it the most beautiful ocean blue you can imagine. I'll post pictures very soon. Christian is going to be the T-Rex or the Alligator, depends on the costume he chooses. Both are former costumes that I made for Xander when he was younger. So we'll see how the wind blows and what he decides to be.

Sunday, I had a photo shoot at the beach that was a lot of fun. I was able to get a few great shots so I hope the clients are happy. I am starting to get busy but it's the first job I have ever had where it truly doesn't feel like "work", it's a lot of fun!

Here are a few pictures I got: (posting probs, will get them here soon)

Bad air quality = no school

The school district has officially shut down all schools within our district. The air quality is horrible and NO one and I mean no one should be outside for any reason. I'll try to send more pictures tomorrow!

K&B

I think I can, I think I can!

Not even the sun can make it through the smoke.

Here is our sunrise view this morning. What you see off over the mountain (a northeast view - towards the Santiago fire) is the sunrise trying to get through all the smoke cloud cover compliments of the Camp Pendleton fires. These fires popped up yesterday (I posted pictures below yesterday) and it has really grown, shutting down any evac route to San Diego. The only way for us to go if we had to, is north.... Thank goodness one of the fires in Pendleton is 100% fully contained and the other one is about 20% contained (I think). This fire is only about 3-4 miled from us via road travel to give you perspective on how close we are located to it!

The Santiago Canyon Modjesko Canyon fire is about 12-15 miles the way the crow flies from us.

Here is the sunrise pic from our master bedroom window. All the gray above the light is actually smoke cover - the light is where the smoke cover ends and you can see that somewhere above all the darkness that there really is a sun shining down from the heavens. The light you see is about 2 miles away to the northeast of us:

It is very hard to breathe here today. The smell is part campfire, part burning trash, and very much smokey. The view from what is normally a VERY clean area of the country, we don't get much smog or bad air quality on the coast, is hazy and the skies are almost chocolate milk in color, especially out over the ocean. It is really bizarre looking. It is also hot, we are having record temps here, the Santa Ana winds are dying down but we still have moderate winds nonetheless and everything is covered in ash and dirt. There is ash falling all around us and the kids are forced to remain indoors throughout their school day. You hear people on the news saying that it looks like a war zone, they are right, regarless of whether you are in an area that has burned or outside it.

I see that the Governor is going to El Toro High School today to meet with the displaced residents. It is sad to think that just this past weekend - 3 days ago, Fri-Sun, that Xander spent the entire weekend in their pool playing in a water polo tournament (which they won - they beat the home hosting team, SET, yeah!!). And in just one day, things turned on a dime and now it is evacuation central.

We have several fire fighter friends on the front lines or in support roles helping the cities with their everyday emergencies that are still happening as well. Please say a prayer for them all. We feel very fortunate because even with our small inconveniences, if this is the worst that happens to us, we should all be thankful. Please pray for those that are faced with rebuilding their lives, they need all the help they can get!

Our smoke filled view...

I don't have a lot of time to update but we promise to later this week about all the events over the last 2 weeks. Until then, here are some pictures of what we have been forced to deal with and what our outside views look like!

All the photos below are in the master bathroom. I know that sometimes I get behind on my cleaning however this was just the icing on the cake! This is what happens when you don't have A/C, it's hot outside and the Santa Ana winds are blowing ash, soot, dirt, silt and everything else into your open windows at night. You get to wake up and find EVERYTHING in your home looking like the counters and tub. Now, look around you in your own home and imagine how long it would take to vacuum and then deep clean all that surrounds you. Let's put it this way, we are still not done!

These pictures are views towards Camp Pendleton, just a couple miles south of us. The smoke clouds you see here are from the Las Pulgas and Basilone Road outbreaks. Fallbrook is about 20 miles south of Las Pulgas which seems like a lot except for the fact that Camp Pendleton is all dry grass with little trees or anything to stop the fire if it truly decided to more north. Thank goodness we seem to be in a pocket of protection, everything seems to be just north of us and just south of us - very little blue skies and horrible air quality but safe just the same.

This was taken in our neighborhood on a walking trail.

This view is looking out over the ocean that you can usually see under normal conditions. This is the haze we are seeing towards the south side.

The picture is at the cross section of my street below is looking due West (I live 2 doors down from here). From this vantage point on a clear day we can see Catalina Island with no problems. Here you can see that the sun is shining however very much obscured from view from the smoke clouds. Now also remember that this view is overlooking the ocean and the fires are directly north and directly south of us.

The view here is just turned in the opposite direction from the previous view. You are now looking at the moon and this view is due East. Again these are smoke clouds from the Pendleton and Fallbrook fires. I thought these clouds actually looked like flames themselves. I was leaving my neighborhood to take one of the boys in Xander's band home and had to turn around and come back for this photo. I could resist such a cool looking sky!

I know you can't tell it in the pictures above you would think we lived on a dirt road. Remember the picture of my bathtub? Multiply that about 100 fold and that's what our homes, streets and cars look like. Add water, instant mud!

XOXOXO
K&B

Forest fires, Santa Ana winds and lots of dirt!

I was going to update about our week and weekend today however in light of the fires, I just wanted to let everyone know we are okay! Bob and I will update about the SoCal fires later today!

XOXOXO
K & B

It's up and running!

Well, I am pleased to announce that my website is officially up and running. I still have some tweaking to do and I have lots of pictures to add to new galleries however, I am excited that it's UP!!!

http://www.ahcphotography.com/

I owe a huge "thank you" to those friends and family members that encouraged me to stop "giving" my pictures away and to start doing something with them. It is because of you that I have a new business and I am eternally grateful. My hobby has always been a passion and I love what I do. So, THANK YOU!

For those of you across the miles, I can create Custom Art Creations for you as well, just email me what you want and hi-res jpegs and I can have your orders shipped back to you in about 10 business days. These make phenomenal gifts for the holidays!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my handsome hubby!

Happy Birthday to my best friend in the entire world, my darling husband Bob! he is 42 years young today and still just as handsome and darling as the day I met him. He has a busy day with meetings from 7:30am-7pm. So, we will celebrate later this week, probably the same day we celebrate our anniversary, on Friday.

So, be sure to send him an email wishing him a great day! bob.grove@jameshardie.com

Costa Rica Update...

Well, we finally transferred our daily journal while in Costa Rica from our laptop to the external hardrive. Sometime tomorrow tonight, we will post all the updates from our trip. You will have to go back in the archives to view the updates as they will be dated with August dates and it is now October. So tommorow night or Wednesday morning you can go in and read all about our trip!

I STILL KNOW WHO SHE IS:

Being the forever optimist and passionate romantic that I am, I thought this was really good and worth sharing.

I STILL KNOW WHO SHE IS:
It was a busy morning, about 8:30, when an elderly gentleman in his 80s arrived to have stitches removed from his thumb. He said he was in a hurry as he had an appointment at 9:00.

I took his vital signs and had him take a seat, knowing it would be over an hour before someone would to able to see him. I saw him looking at his watch and decided, since I was not busy with another patient, I would evaluate his wound.

On exam, it was well healed, so I talked to one of the doctors and got the needed supplies to remove his sutures and redress his wound. While taking care of his wound, I asked him if he had another doctor's appointment this morning, as he was in such a hurry.

The gentleman told me no, that he needed to go to the nursing home to eat breakfast with his wife. I inquired as to her health. He told me that she had been there for a while as she is a victim of Alzheimer's disease.

As we talked, I asked if she would be upset if he was a bit late. He replied that she no longer knew who he was, that she had not recognized him in five years now. I was surprised and asked him, "And you still go every morning, even though she doesn't know who you are?"

He smiled as he patted my hand and said, "She doesn't know me, but I still know who she is."

I had to hold back tears as he left, I had goose bumps on my arm and thought, "That is the kind of love I want in my life."

True love is neither physical nor romantic. True love is an acceptance of all that is, has been, will be, and will not be.

Peace is seeing a sunset and knowing who to thank. The happiest people don't necessarily have the best of everything; they just make the best of everything they have.

Life isn't about how to survive the storm but how to dance in the rain.

It's been a few days

Where did the weekend go? I sit here on Sunday morning in my jammies needing do to do so many things. Xander has FOUR water polo games today split between 2 location, UofC Irvine and CDM (Corona Del Mar) starting at 7:15 this morning. Bob thankfully took him to his first game and we will all join him for the remaining three. I'll post pictures if I get any good ones!

Hannah had a soccer game yesterday that Bob took her to. I had a photo shoot down in San Marcos and couldn't be in 2 places at once however Bob said that the team really just "wasn't in to it today", what do you expect from a gaggle of 5 year olds, LOL! He took pictures for me with the "old fashioned camera" as our kids call it, you know, the one that requires film? I thought that was quite funny. Cameras are not something we have a shortage of in our house both film and digital, we are all budding photogs. We just gave Xander one of our Canon film cameras so that he can work on his PTA Reflections project and because he really also wants to learn how to be a good photographer. He certainly has the eye for detail to do it!

I woke up at 4am on Friday morning, drove up to Long Beach with a friend to attend the Womanaire Extraordinaire two day Conference for women business builders. It was so much fun. Truthfully, I was dreading going because I really didn't feel like I was ready for something like that in my own biz, however what I discovered and learned was amazing and awesome and it was exactly what I needed for my business right now. I have a very clear and level head and will be working on so many things over the next 6-7 months, branding, marketing, a better website, financial infrastructure and so on and so forth! This is something I have wanted to do for years and years and to finally take the plunge (upon the insistence of many, many friends) it is liberating. It is a conference I am already looking forward to attending next year. http://www.womanaire.net/

Hannah and Christian are clamoring for food, so I need to run, get them fed, bathed and on the road. Bob and I will catch with all of you again later after polo games and football games --- GO PANTHERS!

XOXOXO

What? No lovin' from our friends and family?

Hey everyone out there in blogger land, we love you, we love keeping up with you and we would love some of the same!!!! If you like what you read (or even if you don't) you can click on the comments button below the post and drop us a line to respond to what we wrote or to just say hi and tell us that you love us and that you were here.

We see the views going up every day but we don't know who is sending us love by checking in on us....

XOXOXO,
Bob & Kim

Underage Thinking ...

NOTE: this was video taped with a small canon camera and we didn't realize that the movie mode has to be shot horizontally not vertically and there is no way to rotate the image, so basically just listen instead of trying to watch, unless of course, you don't mind having a sore neck afterwards!

Here is Noah and Xander praticing for the first time together in their newly formed garage band (since they practice in our garage), Underaged Thinking. They are playing Blitz Krieg Bop by the Ramones!

Not bad for an 11 and 12 year old with only a guitar and drums!

I'll get some more footage of Xander playing other stuff and post it for you soon!

A new baby, 3rd world country style....

Here is the story of our friends in Costa Rica, Storm and Amy, and the birth of their 3rd (and final) baby as told by Storm:

Everything here is great. Mom is fine. Baby is fine. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN WOULD YOU PLEASE . . . . MAKE SOME NOISE . . . FOR VON GABRIEL GARVEY ZBEL! (Cue theme from The Muppet Show) WoohooooooRaaahahhahahahahahahahahahahaaaaawwwaawwoooooo!
Baby Von was born at 1:00 PM Costa Rican time. or 3 PM EST. He weighs 8 pounds and 2 ounces and is 22 inches long. Amy had been staying near the hospital in Escazu ince September 20th hoping that Baby Von would come out Au Natural. It wasn't so as he was still simmering in his momma's easy bake oven. So, after meeting with her doctor this past Friday they decided that today it would be go time via caesarian section. So they gave Amy a shot of tequila, a stick to bite on, got out their rusty scalpels and dirty rags and hacked away until they dug out a baby. Immediately after, in order to illicit a cry, they cracked him on the ass with a bullwhip, gave him a shot of tequila, and then wrapped him in a genuine flour tortilla diaper.

I'd say he resembles Xavier when he was a baby more than Aidan. He's a cutey as far as babies go. Let's face it, when babies are just born they don't really look like much. The flower needs time to grow. The seed has just sprouted and it needs some sunshine! So, mom went to the recovery room for about two hours and I went with Von and chilled out in a rocker for a while. He's very calm, not much crying so far and all around a pleasant guy. We then went back to our room where his brothers were eager to hold him.

Early in the evening I took the boys back to the bed and breakfast that we're staying at with their Geema. On the way I picked up two bottles of Jim Beam, a six pack of Imperial, a bottle of champagne and a hard cola. True purchase there. Everything was for me except the whiskey I picked up for our bar. So, I drank two beers, the hard cola and threw the bubbly in the freezer to bring with me back to the hospital. I'm back at the hospital and I forgot the damn champagne. I will stay here tonight with my lovely baby producing wife and my new son, Von. We are happy, safe, healthy and have all that we need so don't worry about sending anything unless you come across a fresh pack of tortillas.

Thank you God and goodnight,

Storm, Amy, Xavier, Aidan and now . . . Von

Food, Friends and Fun!

This weekend was busy (as always) however, it was really relaxing and nice to be able to visit with friends. We live on a great street and have the most awesome neighbors however since school started back almost 4 weeks ago, we haven't had time to do more than roll our car windows down and say hello in passing.

Friday night started out with our friends Debbie, Joe and their kids coming down for tortilla soup to warm us up after a chilly, drizzly afternoon. It was a great evening being able to catch up with them and share a few laughs. Joe is our other VW bus/bug enthusiast in the 'hood so he and Bob really spent their time talking about their respective toys...

Saturday day was spent at Hannah's soccer game and Xander's polo practice. Hannah did a great job running the entire length of the field, dribbling the ball and pounding it into the goal, looking like a young Mia Hamm.....the only problem, it was the wrong goal.....lololol! It was beautiful, a great run. We were very proud of her even though she scored for the opposing team!! Here are some pics!!

The victory walk after her team scored their first goal!

Xander got a call from a drummer boy about auditioning for his band that he is forming so Noah came over around 2pm to show us his stuff! He is 11 and lives in a close neighboring town. They knew a few of the same songs and really played together fairly well. They both decided at the end that they are the first formal people in this band and they are going to really get on the horn to get a bass player and singer. So far they are working on perfecting a few Green Day songs, Ruby So Ho, Crazy Train by Ozzie, Nirvana and some blues riff that they just jammed on. I was very proud of both of them. So, Xander has officially formed a band and will be practicing at our house every Tuesday from 4-6. Thank goodness all the kids in our 'hood play instruments and the parents are laid back!!!

Noah, the new drummer!

Katin (Tawni's son) is a phenomenal kid, he plays guitar and drums. He was the only incoming Freshman selected to the marching band drum line. A great accompliment. His guitar playing and musical ability are world class, this kid will be well known some day! And to top it all off, he is super nice, well behaved and comes from a great family.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y Night (a little Bay City Rollers flashback for you, did I just date myself??) was fun, we threw a Chardonnay, garlic, rosemary Tri-Tip on the BBQ and our wonderful neighbors brought over the mashed potatoes, salad, veggies and appetizers. After lots of bottles of wine, food and conversation, we all felt like we were caught up and in the loop in each others worlds! It was really nice to see everyone, Maureen and girls came over, the Kjell's were here, Tawni made an appearance and the Martinez family rounded out the soiree. Missing were the Lepley's, the other Garrett family and the Nix's who all had prior commitments, darn those commitments.

Sunday was a busy day having to get up and get Xander to water polo by 8:30 for a series of 3 games. He is still sitting the bench most games due to his Achilles tendon injury (I am going to take him back for a re-evaluation this week) and is only playing in the "big" games where they need him most. After polo everyone came home, went down for naps and the Bob and slipped out for the usual Sunday afternoon errand running with trips to the usual, Costco, etc. After we came home, we headed down to the Nix's house (Joe and Debbie) for a delicious meal of homemade enchiladas, steak fajitas, salad, beans and more. I felt like Thanksgiving when it was over, why oh why didn't I wear those expandable pants???