Woo hoo! I got a new bed! Well, I got a new frame. We bought our "old" bed a few years ago; before we bought this house. And that furniture has never really fit in our current bedroom. I love my house, but our bedroom is small. So, for almost two years, we have been talking about downsizing our bedroom furniture. I love my mattress set, and it's supposed to last another 8 years or so. So, we only bought a bed frame. Bye bye sleigh bed...hello platform bed. (I should have taken a picture of the old bed frame...)

Nate loves to help build things.

Hold on; I got this figured out.
My pretty new bed!

A well deserved rest.

Now, I need the night stands. I wasn't sure there would be room to put them beside the bed. I couldn't put both of the old ones and the bed along the same wall. But, I think these will fit. Woo hoo! I am so excited to have a pretty room and be able to walk around my bed.

The funny thing about this is that our mattresses set is think and pillow top. I thought this frame would be lower that the other one. But it's actually higher. The bed skirt does not reach the floor. Also the top of the bed is only a couple of inches below my waist. I am going to have to literally climb into bed at night, lol.

One last summer fling! Brian and the kids started school last week, but my school starts tomorrow, so it's still summer vacation for me. We made it a weekend at Pismo Beach. I'm going to have to make these photos a screen saver, or tape them to my notebooks, to get me through the next nine months!

Nate playing chicken with the waves.

Jacob enjoying the cool water.
Mom and Jacob, wave jumping.

My little beach bum!

Jacob showing Dad how to jump waves.

Jacob: Nate, what are you digging, a cave?

Nate: No, I'm digging a hole!

The tide came up and filled up Nate's hole. He was splashing the water out, but the tide was gaining. Then my little engineer decided to make a river to allow the water to flow away from his hole.

Then we did a little bit of letter boxing. We forgot to take our letterboxing kits with us, so we had to improvise. Being a teacher's car, we found a stamp pad in it, lol. So we left a finger print caterpillar, and our letterboxing info.

This box was called "Three Leaves." Can anyone identify this three leaved plant that want abundant in the area? Aimee?

The thing I love about letterboxing is finding place that you might otherwise not know exist. This park was one of those gems. We did not find the box, probably due to construction in the area it should have been. But, the views were worth the stroll.

There was a plaque in the park that said to close your eyes and view the scenery through the eyes of a child. Well, we didn't have to close our eyes, we had Nate. Who kept pointing out dragonflies and lizards.

And other creepy crawly things.

It was a great weekend. Very refreshing. Now, I'm ready to tackle grad school!

We have two new additions to this zoo we call a family. Jacob has been studying goldfish in his class this week. The teacher provided each child a fish to observe in the classroom. They researched them; wrote about them; drew pictures about them. Then yesterday, came the note asking parental permission to bring home the fish. WHAT!? Of course, Jacob loves his little silvery goldfish, that he named Angel. Did you know that goldfish don't turn gold until about six months old? Now, how am I supposed to say no?

Instead, a trip to Walmart for a small aquarium and fish food.

Then, Jacob decides that Angel needs more rocks and some decorations for the little aquarium.

Grandma and I went back to Walmart for the requested items. Grandma decided that Angel needed a friend too. I chose one of the feeder fish. One out of a tank of about one hundred. I don't think anyone ever buys ONE feeder fish. The sales lady looked at my like I was crazy.

This is not a great picture; but it's not easy taking pictures of fish. Angel is on the left. Hannah is on the right. Hannah is white, with a heart shaped orange spot on "her" head. "She" is so cute.

The kids (and Brian) went back to school today. Woo hoo. It seems everyone had a good day. Here are the required first day of school photos.

Jacob and Nate show what grade they are in this year.

My baby is in 1st grade. Sniff, sniff.

Shawn ran out of finger for his 11th grade year.
The boys having breakfast at school.

Nate's new teacher, Mrs. M.

Nate's class. There are a few familiar faces in the crowd.

Jacob and Mrs. W.

He is at a new school and will be making new friends.

Joshua wanted to meet Brandi after school.

Everyone is represented.

Overall, good day. I even got to do a little shopping for myself. I needed new school clothes, lol. I got a couple of outfits for my internship. The reason I need new clothes is another post...

Tomorrow, Tomorrow, I love you tomorrow....You're only a day away...

Guess what tomorrow is? Tomorrow is the day the kids go back to school. It would be safe to say that I'm happy that it is finally here. It has been a great summer. It's been the first summer in several that we were all home together (except Joshua, who was taking summer classes, over achiever!). Summer messes with my routine, as well as the kids. It will be nice to have a routine in our lives again.

Of course back to school means. Shopping: New shoes, socks underwear, jeans, backpacks, pencils, crayons, notebooks, binders. You know the drill. Fortunately, we got most of that out of the way in the last week or so.

So, what was left for the day before school? A few things, including Sunday's normal stuff, like grocery shopping and laundry.

Honestly, not sure how it is that I had this much dirty laundry!

Nate's clothes, bagged in outfits that he can choose from.
Lunches made and apples for the teachers. Cuz, I'm the cool Mom.

And a little something for myself! I am starting school too.

Nothing exciting...

We spent the day yesterday in Yosemite. It's easy to forget, sometime, how lucky we are to have such a beautiful place in our own backyard. People come from all over the world to visit Yosemite. Brian and I were married in Yosemite. Guests at our wedding included two bus loads of tourists from Japan. We have a photo of the whole group, with us, in our wedding album.

Yesterday, we up for Sarah and Anthony's wedding. After the reception, we went to the Mariposa Grove of Big Trees. While we were walking through the parking lot, I noticed a few license plates from different states and wondered how many states were represented in the park that day. Then, I thought 'that would make a great blog post.' So, I grabbed my camera and start taking pictures of license plates from different states.

These were in only two small parking lots, the Mariposa Grove lot and the Wawona General Store parking lot (each about 30-40 cars). Some states were represented more than once, but I only took one picture. Please leave a comment if your state is represented and let me know if you've ever been to Yosemite.

This one was behind a bike rack, kind of hard to get.

I only saw one of these. They were a long way from home.

I actually saw two of these. I wonder if they were together.
There were two of these too. I think they were together.

There were quite a few from Oregon. It's not to far to drive.

Illinois. Jacob would be searching the park for Hannah.

Only one Bama

Now that's a LONG drive! I hope it wasn't to hot for them.

There were a few Texas plates...can't blame them for leaving.

Two, at least from Minnesota. Going to visit there someday.

Quite a few from Arizona, maybe cooler here?

Pennsylvania? Wow!

A few from Colorado. Maybe, there aren't enough mountains there.

A lot from Washington, why? It's beautiful, but so is WA.

Two of these too.

A lot, from Nevada too. It's a nice weekend trip for them.

New York. New York!

I CANNOT COOK! That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. Just ask my family. I am not a good cook. I do not like to cook (except maybe for the holidays). I do however, like to bake. I like the way it makes the house smell. I like the warmth of baked goods. It lifts the spirit.

But, I live in Fresno, and in the summer the closest I come to baking is walking to my car. Well, for some unknown reason (I'm not complaining) we got a major break in the heat yesterday. Seriously, it was 112 degrees a couple of weeks ago and yesterday is was only 82! I decided to do some baking.

For dinner: I mixed 1.5 pound (equivalent) of Mexican seasoned tofu crumble, 16oz. frozen mixed vegetables (I took out the green beans, because I wanted the smaller veggie pieces), and a couple handfuls of shredded cheese. I put it in a 9x13 baking pan and topped it with Marie Calendar's cornbread mix. Baked 35 minutes at 375.
Yummy! And healthy, vegetarian even (don't tell my kids). Doesn't it look pretty? The kids really liked it. I'm going to put this on my regular menu list for fall/winter, when it's cool enough to bake.

Last week someone brought bags of peaches in to work. I took a bag home and thought 'what am I going to do with all these peaches?' I went to the store and got the ingredients to make a peach cobbler. When I got home, I found that my peaches were all squishy and icky! It was probably just as well since it was still over 100 degrees. It would not have been the best idea to turn on the oven.

Yesterday, that wonderful co-worker brought more peaches; big beautiful peaches. And, it was the perfect day for baking!

My great-grandmother made the best peach cobbler ever. I remember always finding it interesting that the batter was on the bottom and the peaches on top when she put it in the oven; but it always came out with a golden crust and the peaches inside. I have not made a peach cobbler in many years. (probably, because it's too hot to bake when peaches are in season)

YUMMY! Hot peach cobbler. My house smelled so good last night. And it was awesome. I forgot how good peach cobbler is. This is comfort food!

And really, it's all about presentation.

So, this prompted Jacob to say, "Mom, you can to cook." I replied, "No honey, I can bake." That's my story; and I'm sticking to it!