June Gloom

I have never been a person who really likes summer. I like to work, as a kid I liked being in school, I know, I'm a dork, but I'm a smart dork ;-) Anyway, I am so excited because I am enjoying summer. Maybe it's because the sun doesn't come out until after 11 most days and the high is about 79. This morning during my walk I couldn't help but notice the intense colors of the flowers. One of the things about they gray is that it makes color really pop. Wow, if that isn't a metaphor for my life! It is so true. Chloe is now doing things that only in my wildest dreams can I imagine Claire doing, and it is great! That was so hard to get out, deep breath. I am not sure what it is but I am really reveling in the greatness that is Chloe this week. She is so cute, so vibrant and absolutely amazing. I have found myself standing back and just enjoying as she gets her jacket and her purse and heads to the door when it is time to go get Claire from school. I do think that part of why I have been able to enjoy her is because Claire has let up a bit. Last week was long and painful, it just was. No school is no fun for our family. Now that Claire is in summer school her laughs are full, her smile is bright and my load seems a little lighter. So with the balance of shorter work days for Claire we are able to squeeze in a little more fun and still be rested enough to have it, it is great! I should say, it is great on the days that it works. Today was one of them and I am hoping that tomorrow is too.

And We're Back!

Wow! We've been to Arizona and back in the last week and it is so good to be HOME! Many would consider Arizona to be home as we both lived there for the majority of our lives, but no. This trip made it ever so clear that we are where we belong for now. It was a pretty uneventful trip. We didn't go to any hospitals which was a very welcome change. Jared did throw Claire's lunch in the trash can, before feeding it to her, then had the pleasure of retrieving it so she didn't starve. We managed to see some friends and family and squeezed in some fun here and there. One of the absolutely most wonderful things was my parents dog Maggie. Let me be honest, I don't like dogs, I am not a dog person, never have been. We own two cats, because I don't like dogs. Enter Maggie, of all the well behaved dogs that are out there that might change my mind, she isn't on the list. Maggie is more of a grand-dog. My brother rescued her from a bad situation and then was working to much to keep her, so my parents got her still as a puppy. Technically she has been to school and my mom is working on discipline , in a you can do mostly whatever you want sort of a way. So we get there and what does the dog do, jump and lick and jump and lick. Here is the kicker, Claire loved it! Not only did Claire love Maggie, Maggie brought things out of Claire. Her hands were so quiet, her smile so wide, her spirit so calm. The first dinner I am pretty sure that Maggie managed to lick Claire's face after almost every bite that we fed her. Claire was in charge of taking her for walks while we were there and she loved it. We also took two trips to the dog park where Claire practiced walking and petting the dogs all at once. It was amazing at how regulated she was, which is really hard to do while out of town. As much as I love to say how I am not a dog person, Claire has changed my mind. Funny how she tends to change my mind on a lot of different things that I thought I knew about, but that is a whole new post. The drive home went much better than the drive there. I think that it helped that we didn't let a sippy cup get stuck behind Chloe's back like we did on the way there. I think that the hardest part of the trip was that we didn't get to leave Rett Syndrome at home. Vacations just aren't as fun when you have to bring all your baggage with you. Don't get me wrong, I love Claire exactly how she is. At home we have lots of systems in place to make her life as easy as possible. Take all that away and all the sudden you start to realize how hard it all is. So I guess we will just be stuck on the Monterrey Bay for a while, which doesn't seem all that bad at all!

Food Rant!

I begin writing with such mixed emotions. It may seem silly to you, but I am very passionate about food. It gave me such joy today when I went to get my CSA stuff and I saw that I was getting a watermelon. A real watermelon, not one that is perfectly round, but one with flavor and character. After picking up my fruit, veggies, eggs and goat milk from the porch of a home a few blocks away, I stopped by Safeway to get some tortilla chips for Jared to enjoy the salsa that I made a few weeks back. Wow, what a different emotion that experience was. I almost felt violated. All of the rows of packaged food, stacked to the ceiling, yelling at me with their loud marketing. I am still in my 20's, it isn't like it has been that long since I have been in a market, but this was horrible. The package sizes and low quality ingredients just blow my mind. There was an open refrigerated case with single serving beverages as well as bottles of wine. I was not really surprised that the case didn't contain any decent wine but I was taken back by the other beverages. Who needs to drink 24ounces of Frappacino, nobody, ever! The soda was sold in 1 liter bottles, what happened to a 12 ounce can? Then there was the check out. I was aghast at the magazines degrading various famous people for whatever they are doing in their lives mixed with the convience foods put forth by the Hershey company. I almost ran out of the store crying. The poor people that go there regularly. Such a good reminder of how important it is to "Vote With Your Fork". It might sound crazy that we eat mostly beef and veggies, but we are blessed with those resources close to us, so that is what we eat. I know that I am not perfect. I have a bad habit of occasionally enjoying Panda Express (which I normally regret) or when trapped in the car with two sleeping girls going to a drive-thru for some french fries. I guess the part that makes me so sad is that so many people just don't realize what they are doing and the options that they really do have. Those that think that they are doing the world a favor by purchasing really small individually wrapped organic snacks are missing it. Eat an apple or a carrot! It is tragic to me that our nation is so missing the big picture on our food system. On the bright side, there is movement, momentum is stirring for a sustainable food system. I belong to a preservationist society. I am able to get tomatoes and cucumbers among other things in quantity almost directly from local farms. When their fields are brimming with food faster than they can get it all sold at market, an email goes out and I can put my order in for a Friday afternoon pick up. There are few things I would rather do than spend a Saturday at home with the girls, in and out of the kitchen and wind up with shelf full of salsa for the winter or strawberry jam. Actually, there is one other thing I would rather do, go to a festival celebrating food and it's place in culture. If you are in the Oakland area at the end of Aug. you might want to check out Eat Real, we hope to go, girls and weather permitting. So that is my rant, I feel better now, time to go make some fruit spread with all my fresh berries.

Not going far

In case you are wondering why it was so long between posts, I was off traveling. Last weekend Chloe and I took a quick trip to Arizona. I was there barely 24 hours before I had a fever of 102.2 I spent the next 24 hours trying to break the fever so that I could get on the plane. I flew home with the help of lots of over the counter drugs and a sturdy set of hands to catch us on the ground. Jared has done such an amazing job of taking care of the girls at night so I can try to rest and heal. I got strep throat and a nasty cold, so it has been several days of getting better. Today I am feeling better so we journeyed down to the cliffs for our Sat. morning get coffee and watch surfers routine. I sat on a bench feeding Chloe a bottle while Jared and Claire went and practiced standing in the sand. I got to thinking how much better I like not feeling sick. It also occurred to me that we live in a really amazing spot. So it has been decided that I am not traveling anywhere by plane for a while, thanks to my Crones and the awesome immune suppressing drugs I take for it, I just can't handle it. So I invite you all to come and visit us, we have lots of fun stuff in the area and the girls are a pretty good time.

A busy weekend

We had yet another rewarding and exhausting weekend. Saturday we headed up to Oakland for the natural history study. It was fun to see the doctors again and it was nice that they did not bring up any new concerns. We saw many families that we had met before and also made a few new friends. One of Claire's friends is Roxie, in the picture she is wearing the green outfit, and we have been able to see her twice in a month, very exciting. The picture was taken at a golf fundraiser while we were in Arizona, I couldn't get all of the girls in the picture because of the cactus, but I got almost everybody. After a long day in Oakland we came home and rested and got to go to church on Sunday. We have missed our friends and getting to go to the gatherings and worship and learn. It felt so good to be back, three weeks is too long to be away. Now it is Monday and we have what feels like a million things to do. First I have to feed Claire as she is just waking up and the therapist is due here in 5 minutes. Looks like it should be another adventurous week. I know that I haven't been updating here very often, after we get done with the transition into Claire being three, I hope to get back here more often.

It's good to be home

We have made the journey home and it is good to be back. This was our first time driving from AZ to home as a family so we thought that we would take the scenic route. Claire absolutely loved being back by the ocean, she was all smiles. We thought that we did a good job of throwing her around and wearing her out before the last 100 miles of our drive and that she would be out for the last leg. No, she was so excited to be home that she sat and giggled and smiled at the trees the whole way home. I don't know what it is about the trees, but they make her so happy.

During our little pit stop we thought it would be a good idea to stretch a little. Claire was more in the mindset of doing a full yoga routine. We had so much fun, it is so amazing to us to see her continue to come into her own as the period of her life known as the "rapid destructive phase" fades further into the distance. I know that I shouldn't be surprised that she is so amazing, she was fearfully made my God to be exactly what she is, but for some reason I am still in awe. As we drove the the wine country of Paso Robles she would look out her window and take it all in and I wish so badly that I could know all of the things that she is wondering about the world that she lives in. We did talk about the obvious things like why do the vineyards sparkle and what sound does the cow make. She loves to laugh at her parents as we try our best to make good animal sounds for her. Speaking of cows, here is a picture that I took as we got a little closer to home. I love cows so much, I hope that some day we can live on a farm and be closer to some, especially a farm like this one.