Whew!

A marathon day of preparing for a garage sale! I've been in desperate need of thinning my children's clothing, so when my aunt called saying she was planning a garage sale (this weekend is the city-wides in Menahga) and did I want to put anything in it, I jumped at the chance.

Except that was on Thursday last week. I left Friday, came back Monday, attempted to recuperate and find my house Tuesday and worked a 12 hour Wednesday. So, that left today. Thankfully, the kids cooperated very well, and much got accomplished. Now, lets just hope for another couple beautiful days and a successful sale!

Being as I've really got other things I should be doing, here's just one more photo from the trip: San Francisco from Twin Peaks (evidently the high point of the city) at night. This is probably the one and only period of clearness...you can see the Golden Gate Bridge in the upper middle here.

San Francisco

Early Friday morning saw Katrina and I on our way. First with a drive to the airport, than the flight out, after a 20 minute fog delay. Evidently, after a beautiful week, the fog, rain and cool weather arrived in San Francisco with us. It stuck like glue throughout the weekend.

The weekend was a wonderful mix of seeing the sights (with lots of walking!), visiting, and eating. and eating.

Here are some of the fun colored, beautiful houses that cover the city.

We began, after checking in at our adorable inn, with crepes (delicious!) and some wandering of the Hayes Valley neighborhood shops. We were set to meet Erin-Andy's girlfriend-for supper, and they had decided to take us to *ack!* sushi! This lead us to the Japantown area. While wandering there I found Dr. Seuss in Japanese! After the sushi, we grabbed some dessert, then were off to bed.

Me, Andy, Erin and Katrina at a point overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge.

Saturday we spent the morning in a few more shops, met a friend of Andy's for lunch, then headed to the ocean.

Ocean Beach: Katrina, Andy and I. We were only asked about 5 or 6 times by completely random people if we were siblings...

A crab shell

Next: The Muir Woods. Absolutely spectacular redwood forest.
We were told the drive there is also beautiful...the fog kept us from enjoying it.

Andy, in awe of the magnificence.

I've never before seen the point of umbrella stands. Here in MN, when it rains, an umbrella only keeps your top half from getting wet, so why bother keeping them by the front door? But, I've discovered that there truly are places that require one to own an umbrella. One of our first stops when we arrived was to purchase umbrellas for Katrina and I. San Fran gets many-day-long, spitting, misting rain. For that type an umbrella works wonderfully, allowing you to enjoy the outdoors in spite of it. Even the shops and have stands for your umbrellas right inside the door.

A BIG tree.

After the beautiful, but damp Muir Woods, we stopped in Sausalito for seafood. This time they fed us *ack again!* oysters! (Yum, they're much better than sushi.) I also had the most delicious clam chowder ever. Warmed me to the bone!


Consider this the first installment.
I've got a little work to do on a few photos, most of them so far are straight off of camera.

Back to MN

Supper's cookin', the kids are playing, and I'm navigating through a crazybusy weekend/day without coffee (out of filters...aahg.) fog. Due to almost 2 hours of flight delays we didn't make it home until after 1...and of course it took a while to wind down to sleep.

We had a wonderful time, despite the rain/coolness/windy/fog that covered the bay area throughout our stay.

Pictures will hopefully come tomorrow while I'm at work. Today I'm attempting to find the house that I know is around here somewhere... (do husbands ever clean while a wife is away??...)

The Cackleberry Factory begins

Once upon a time, so the story goes, Eric's cousin hated eggs. No way could his mom get him to eat eggs.

But boy were those cackleberries Uncle Larry made good.

So, it took a few years.
But we finally started our own cackleberry factory.
They're great fun; the kids love to sit and watch, as well as hold them. Oliver even set up a chair that first day and put in a few good hours.

In spite of the fact that they are always under a heat lamp, I found out that chicks still know night from day. They were sound asleep when I left bright and early for work yesterday morning. Look at them huddled in together in the corners, cute! However, throughout the day they're never completely quiet. That's one strong circadian rhythm!

***

Tomorrow at this time I'll be enjoying sunny (I hope!!) San Francisco!

Reasons I'm ready for May

• First of all, my trip to San Francisco to visit my eldest brother, Andy from the 1-4, sans kids!
  
• Spring will (hopefully) be here for good. (It was snowing on my way to work today...)
• Garden planting:)
• Our new (as of Friday) chicks will be growing, and getting closer to eating some of the wood tics I found the other day.
  
• The Wedding!
• And most of all, I might get my husband back. He has been in charge of taking care of the 'old' store since they (the local grocer he works for) moved into their new location. It's been a project. He's had no days off for the last two and a half weeks, and put in 76 or so hours in the last seven days. Lets just say, I want him back!!! (and so do the kids.) Thankfully, they have to be out of the old by the 30th.
• Bring on May.
  

For the enjoyment of others:

I'm currently playing the ignoring game. Cuz my morning has been like this: Poopy.

Oliver woke up "I poopded in my unners"
Minutes after breakfast: "Mooom, I'm dooone!" But not done on the potty. He didn't make it there.
Then in the tub "Mooom, somebody poopded!" (this time it was E.)
Did I mention the cat happened to pick a poopy spot to stick her foot somewhere along here too? And that my washer's been on the fritz since Thursday?

(finally back a few hours later...)
So I spent those few minutes playing the ignoring game.

Thankfully, my father in law was able to come fix the washer. We found a few left over pull-ups and are putting them to use. We've been a few hours without an accident.

Now, if only the three year old would stop acting like a three year old. (read: dragging his sister across the floor one minute and the cat around by it's head the next.)

Maybe it's just to make me good and ready to go on my trip. Yup, it must be.

Did I mention?

That Katrina and I are going to San Fransisco next Friday through Monday???

I just got emailed the ticket conformation!

Whoohoo!

*Thanks to a very generous brother whom we're going to visit!*