Noble Canyon

The Big Dawgs - as Coined by Tira

Boutique Baby

A sparkly little gift for a lucky little niece for Christmas. I purchased it from buybumblebeads on etsy and couldn't be more pleased with the outstanding craftsmanship and excellent customer service - thanks Jess! Not only does she make custom bracelets in any size for children, but be sure to check out her proud mama bracelets and her spirit bracelets as well! Is it bad that I want to keep this one for myself? No, I suppose the bad part is that it almost fits!

Desert Season

This is what we were doing before our vacation was so rudely interrupted by howling winds and ferocious wildfires!

Please don't mind Steph's shaky camera job. This was the morning we left because the winds were too bad to have any kind of fun in the dunes. In fact it hadn't been fun all night long because the winds were so bad and I do feel sorry for every husband/boyfriend/male in the camp who had to answer the question at 2:00 in the morning from every wife/girlfriend/female in the camp, "Are we going to tip over?" I only chose to ask the question one time and got the "reassuring" answer, "NO! You should be more worried about the sandblast job the truck paint is receiving right now." I chose not to ask again or pursue any types of questions such as, "Are you sure?"

Word from the grapevine is, Don got asked twice by his wife and then promptly received a phone call from Steph who was sleeping in the Excursion outside. Lucky Don. Not once, not twice, but three times. Such a patient man!

If you look closely at the video, you can see that we are not too far from our camp site and every camper and motorhome is high profile, so perhaps you can understand our fear!

Creature Comforts

Some of you have asked how I was doing while Sean was out fighting the fires. Let me recount for you...
I arrived at a family member's house a little before midnight the night the fires started, to find 4 cousins and one uncle sound asleep and an aunt that greeted me at the door with open arms. Now, mind you, this house is not far from Ramona and I had seen this same neighborhood get evacuated during the last fire. So with my adrenaline pumping from a quick drive from Arizona to S.D. (at a pace that a cop might frown upon had there been any cops with attention toward anything other than the fires) and nothing to do but worry which made for an interesting night! I watched tv, (flipping from channel to channel) texted friends (admitting that I was safe but still nervous) listened to the radio (in case all the channels on tv could possibly be missing something that I might need to know about!) and laid on the couch. Somewhere about 3:00 in the morning I had to calm my nerves and changed the channel to some strange tv show about bears in the wild. I ended up falling asleep with "one eye open" (to keep an eye on the large hill just outside the back door that seemed just right for a fire to sweep down it) and one ear still listening to the radio and awoke about an hour later to hear a man on the radio with the same name as my husband's. He sounded panicked and frantic and stated his location was near our house and my heart was racing. He said he just barely got out of his house (heart racing faster than ever before now!) ...with his children. I instantly had to stop myself, because we do not have children and I know without a shadow of a doubt that Sean would not panic in such a situation and neither should I at that moment in time. I honestly am not sure if it was a dream/nightmare and my mind was playing tricks on me, or if there really was a man named Sean on the radio, but I knew that I had to control my mind so I would not freak out! It was hard to find things to distract my mind from the fires that night, but one thing I have learned is that it is nice to have some of your own creature comforts with you when in an emergency. And so came the purchase of this adorable bag by babyduckies pictured below. Everything about it says comfort to me. The adorable outer fabric and its coordinating inner fabric are just perfect. They would look adorable all sewn up into a quilt and so now I feel as though I have a little quilt with me. It now holds some essentials - a toothbrush, toothpaste, deoderant and my own soap- and will stay in my truck because this isn't the first emergency we've been caught up in and it probably won't be the last.

Junior Firefighters

Hmmm...which firefighter is being more productive?

Aqua Sparkles

A huge, "thank you," to riyzedesignz for including my vintage aqua melmac bowls in her "Aqua Sparkles" treasury which is currently (as of 8:30 Tuesday night) featured on the front page of etsy!
**Update - the bowls are sold**

Back in the Saddle, Again

Pictured above is the back side (or is it the front side?...) of our favorite trail. We intended to ride this trail yesterday to see how bad the damage is, but it will have to wait for another day. Also on the list of currently unrideable trails is Lake Hodges. The fire ripped down through this canyon following the water and winding its way close to the ocean. So, we made do with a trail that was dubbed, "not exactly perfect" and included, among other things, crawling under the freeway and riding through a nursery, down a fire road and past a dead coyote. It actually turned out to be a great ride! What you can't see from the picture below are the 25 other people that were with us on the ride. But rest assured, I could always find my husband in the pack up ahead with his lime green jersey and red shorts!