The Lord Told Noah.....

....there's going to be a floody, floody! Our house today......

View of the street:

This is what I wanted to body flume, don't worry the lightening stopped me.

Claire's slide underwater.Maybe this will kill the monkey grass.....nah, that would be too hopeful.

The "creek" (really just pasture run-off) that is now a River.

Large part of Katie's yard underwater (it was worse, this was after the water went down a little).

The waterfall down my yard into the new river. Hard to see since the trees from last year's tornado are still down.

Kinda hard to see but the water is up to the top of the "ravine" part of the creek. ~10ft. Notice debris from last year's tornado. Just what we need, more to clean up.

Big Saturday

Saturday was a big day around here. We started off the day by attending a Surprise Birthday Breakfast for Aunt Cathi's 30th Bday. Who plans a surprise party at 9:30 in the morning? Apparently Uncle Russ does! But it worked, he got Aunt Cathi pretty good! Welcome to the 30's Aunt Cathi!!

On a side note about Bdays, Claire is really into them right now. She loves to practice the song for whoever the next upcoming Bday is (and she can tell you that Baby Tyler is next, then Daddy, then her. Oh my!) and is really upset when adults don't put candles on their cake (I've tried explaining the Fire Marshall but she doesn't want to understand). =)

After the party, we walked up the street to the East Cobber Parade and Festival. Claire loved the parade...people throwing candy from cars while you could stand in the middle of Johnson Ferry Rd was a pretty neat concept. The rest of the day Claire kept checking to see if we still had her candy. She was very afraid I'd leave it behind (guess she knows me too well!!). I didn't but since she got so much and I rarely let her eat any, I think it will last til Halloween when it will start all over again! Ugh! But I digress, after the parade we walked to the festival where Claire chose to use her 10 tix on the petting zoo, some inflatable slides, a bounce house and an inflatable obstacle course (her fave). She also got her face painted before we left (that was the sole purpose for going, the other stuff was just extra according to her). Here are the pics of the design she chose:

After we got home from the parade is when the REALLY exciting thing happened. For those that follow me on FB, you've already heard the exciting news but here's the whole story. So Claire was having trouble going down for a nap, Jeremy went up to give her a "talking to" when absolute meltdown happened. She kept insisting that she had a poopy diaper but J checked and she was clean. Finally as she was just crying her eyes out over the unexplained poopy diaper, J got an epiphany! He asked her if she needed to go sit on the potty to poop and she said, "YES!". That was a FIRST! So he took her to her potty and like magic, she pooped!!! She was so proud of herself and we were over the moon. We had taken a major regression turn on the whole potty training thing b/c of the move to SF. We'd had to completely back off and never even mention the potty. But thanks to starting school and watching classmates use the potty she has regained her interest. Thank you Jesus!! She knows she's in charge of when she's ready to move to underpants so we aren't quite there yet, but hopefully soon. Here she is in her proudest moment:

Singing

So Claire is a MAJOR singer these days. She sings all day long, everywhere we go and if she doesn't know a song that applies, she'll make one up. It's pretty crazy. She's also into Nursery Rhymes. She absorbs them like a sponge. That's pretty much how she's learning everything these days. The other day in the car she was asking me about the days of the week (she wanted to understand when Daddy would be home -Friday, that was Wednesday). I started trying to come up with a little something about each day so she could relate to them, like "Sunday is the Lord's day, so we go to church and you see Ya-ya and Pops (her teachers)". But before I could go anywhere with the idea, she stopped me and said, "Do you have a song for this?". Oh My!!!

Below is a little video i was able to sneak while we were driving in the car on the way to dinner with Nona and Bopi. It's her SINGING the nursery rhyme Hey Diddle Diddle. Like I said, loves to sing, loves nursery rhymes, why not put them together. I had to sneak it since she often stops when she sees the camera, so hence I don't have the beginning. Enjoy!

Oh boy!

So I admit to occasionally saying really mindless things when Claire is pushing buttons and I'm not really in discipline mode, Mother Of the Year material I'm sure. So today it happened, I caught myself saying, "Claire, Do you need a spanking?". But I had to suppress a smile when the response I got back was "Not ye-ht!". LOL!

Also today, Claire decided she was going to read Tarzan a book. She ran upstairs to get one and then came back down to my room and climbed up on the bed where Tarzan was. Of course, Tarzan jumped up and ran away which hurt Claire's feelings, but I still thought it was sweet that she wanted to read to him. Hopefully she'll be that generous of heart if she gets a sibling someday.

Claire's 1st Day of Preschool

Claire's 1st day of preschool was a big success. She had a blast it appears. She was a little concerned when we didn't get out of the car w/ her at carpool drop-off but her teacher, Miss Becky, assured us she had a great day. When we picked her up she was all smiles and the first thing out of her mouth once she got in the car was "Preschool is FUN!!". Once we pulled over out of the carpool line to buckle her up we shot a quick video of her thoughts on the day. We need to explain what "art" is as she did do an art project but didn't know that's what it was called. Enjoy the slideshow and video:

Claire's 1st Day of Gymnastics

Last Friday was Claire's first day of gymnastics. She loved it! She's got great upper body strength that usually astounds most people, so as we assumed....she was a natural. I just hope it's something she always enjoys and uses it for exercise. But if she asks us to mortgage the house and send her to Houston to Bela Karolyi's some day....I won't be too shocked. (Afterall, that IS where Mommy learned her back-handspring!)

Here are a few pics.....

Claire's Open House

We just got back from Claire's preschool Open House. She loved it all...the toys, the class, the teachers, the playground. We think she's ready for the real thing on Tues.

Practicing with the church bag since the school bag isn't ready yet.

Let's GO!

Heading in with Daddy!

Checking out some toys.

This is where we color.

Cow Appreciation Night

A few weeks ago was CFA Cow Appreciation Day. We had just gotten back from CA but since we missed CFA so much, we had to participate. We all dressed up and went with Uncle Russ, Aunt Cathi and Baby Tyler. It was a blast!! (Oh, the deal is, if you dress like a cow, you get a free meal.)

Wordless Wednesday

Claire got her first tat at CFA family night last night. (CFA = Chick-fil-A) Here she is showing it off. She was proud.

Today we built a play fort castle style. Then Claire put on her princess headband and we had a tea party (party tea according to Princess Claire though).

(Peep hole to see who's coming up the stairs)

Claire Wants to See UP (the movie)

She's just not very suddle about how she tells us these things........

Grandparents Visit Take 1 - Bopi and Nona

So we got visitors about a month ago. My (Kara) parents came out to visit as soon as Mom got out of school. We had a great time visiting. We took at trip to Lake Tahoe as soon as they got here. We drove up to the North end of the lake to see Squaw Valley where the Winter Olympics were held. After lunch we drove down the road beside the lake stopping several times to take pics of the magnificent views and to stretch our legs. We spent the night in South Lake Tahoe at a Marriott Vacation property that we got for a steal b/c it was still considered the low season. Sun AM we got up and planned to go up the gondola to the top of the mts but as it was the low season (but AFTER Memorial Day, go figure) , it was closed. So Mom and I shopped and Daddy, Bopi and Clairebeth played golf, miniature golf that is. It was Claire's first time and she had been dying to try since we'd seen the course outside our hotel window the night before.

After that we drove to Coloma to meet up with some really old friends, The Wiericks. The Wiericks were our next door neighbors when we lived in Rogers, Ark. (That was 4-10yrs old for me.) The Wiericks' 2 daughters, Jenny & Susan, were the exact same age as Russ and me growing up. We did everything together. Russ and Susan even had combined B-day parties a lot since they were only 5 days apart in age. There isn't a lot of my childhood that doesn't revolve around a memory with one of the Wierick bunch. Over the years we'd lost contact with them as we moved and moved and moved and inevitably lives change. Well through the glory of technology, we were all reconnected on Facebook just before M&D came out here. Through a strange coincidence, Ron and Julie live out here now too (and also temporarily). So it was too good of an opportunity to pass up and we decided to drop in on them for the day. We had a blast!!! I, as an adult, learned a lot more about my childhood and about my parents...you know those things that go over your head as a kid b/c you are so naive. Well we laughed and talked and laughed some more. We just couldn't seem to make it end. Eventually when Claire passed out cold at the dinner table (luckily before there was a plate of food in front of her), we managed to wrap it up after we ate. I think we got back to the city that night about 1am. LOL! What a day!

But the trip didn't end there. We took a day to rest but then headed out the next day to ride the cable cars and eat some Kara's Cupcakes at Ghirardelli Square. Claire got to ring the bell on the cable car which made all the adults on board very jealous! Later that night we got to meet Cousin David for the 1st time and eat dinner with him at an Italian restaurant in North Beach. That was a fun meal b/c David new the owner so we got special treatment. It was fun listening to David and the owner chatter back in forth in Italian. The food was delicious but still not quite as good as Cousin Tiziana and Cousin Susanna's food back in Italy.

The next day Bopi had to leave so we took a girls' trip (b/c Jeremy was working). We drove up CA Hwy 1 to Fort Bragg. CA 1 is a very beautiful road, but a very crazy road to drive!! It hugs the shoreline for most of the way and I do mean hugs, there's not a shoulder on either side. So on one side you have a 75 ft drop to the ocean rocks below and the other side is a wall. And to top it off, the road is VERY curvy and steep. So you do switchbacks over and over and over. The distance isn't very far, but b/c of the speed you have to drive, it takes a long time. It's a good thing we weren't in a hurry! We just enjoyed the scenery and stopped different places to take pics or climb a lighthouse (which Claire climbed up all by herself and got a pin to prove it) or to dodge cows....yes, dodge cows! As if the road itself isn't scary enough, cows just roam free up there so you often have to dodge some cows crossing the road. We drove up, spent the night and then drove back. Quite beautiful.

Nona's last day here, I got the day off and had some down time. Jeremy and Claire took Nona to see Muir Woods. Muir Woods is one of the last unlogged groves of Redwoods and it's just outside the city of SF. It's a very beautiful walk and they all had a good time with Claire walking about half of it herself before needing to be "pack packed" (that's backpacked for those of you who don't speak Clairese).

But all too soon it came to an end and we had to take Nona back to the airport. We really miss Nona and Bopi but here are some pics from our time together.

Claire Reading

This is a long video but thought I'd post it anyway for the grandparents. This is probably Claire's favorite book, The ABC Book by Dr. Seuss. She's read is so many times that she almost has it memorized (Mommy and Daddy too). Anyways, here you go:


It appears that the video is too big of a file.....I'll look into other options and try again. Stay tuned.

NEWS FLASH: Kara and Claire are moving back to GA on July 8th!

Yup, we are coming home early! Jeremy will stay on a little longer to finish the project but as they grow nearer to "Go Live" the more hours J is needing to work. Not to mention that he's going to be working a lot over the weekends. And if it slips any (Say a prayer that doesn't happen please!), it just adds more work. So since we realized that we pretty much wouldn't get to see Daddy much if we stayed or went, we have decided to go home early. Claire is pretty excited. The night after my last post, she added to the drama of "I need grandparents" with a demand of "I need friends and grandparents". She had just gotten out of her bath (a time when Daddy often cuddles her as a "baby burrito") and she had demanded, "I need my Daddy". When I explained that Daddy was out running and wasn't there, that's when she let out with the "I need friends! I need friends and grandparents" little drama. She's such a drama queen!! But she _is_ missing everyone back home so she was very excited yesterday when we made this decision and let her know she would be going home to GA soon to be with her friends and grandparents.

Absence

Sorry we have been absent lately. We've been entertaining grandparents for the past 3 weeks. They decided to come one right after the other. Claire was so excited as we did the count down until Nona and Bopi came. When we dropped Bopi off at the airport the day he left, all the way to the grocery store Claire would say to Nona, "Nona, I neeeeeeeed my Bopi!". We knew we were doomed after that little drama routine. Sure enough, 4 days later when we dropped Nona off, "Where's Nona? I need my Nona? I need Nona to sit right here! (pointing to the seat Nona had been sitting in all week next to her)". The only consoling her that day was the promise that Grandmother and Grandfather were arriving in 2 days. So today was the dreaded day when we had to take the last of the grandparents back to the airport. I wasn't sure what to expect, but knew there would be some drama. Here's the conversation that ensued after pulling away from the curb.....

Claire: I need Grandfather and Grandmother
Me: Sorry Claire but they have to get on an airplane and go home
Claire: Like Nona and Bopi?
Me: Yes, like Nona and Bopi. They had to go back to Georgia to keep Nona and Bopi company.
Claire: I wanna go back to Georgia
Me: Yes, Mommy does too and we get to go in a month or so.
Claire: I need something.
Me: What do you need?
Claire: I need grandparents!

How do you argue with wisdom like that?!?

The Rest of Memorial Day Weekend

So after all the running around on Friday and a cold front coming in over night, I wasn't feeling so good again on Saturday (I have an ongoing cold/flu thing that won't go away, just subsides and then relapses every couple of days). So we just decided to stay in and rest and work on cleaning up the apt before company next week. Sunday after church, I ran some errands and had some Mommy freetime while Jeremy and Claire decided to dye Easter Eggs. Yes, I know this is Memorial Day but we never got around to dying eggs at Easter and Claire has been begging to do it ever since. So dye eggs they did.

On Monday we decided to take Jeremy to the Zoo. We are members there since it's fairly easy activity to do with Claire and she loves it But Jeremy hadn't been before. On the way there, we got to see the crazy people out protesting in front of the Giants game....they were protesting the name of their opponent....The Atlanta Braves!!! LOL!! And I have to say, didn't that whole little spat get settled years ago?!?! Well here in SF, there's always something to protest. So in that vein, we did a little Myers family protest on Mon when we went to the Zoo. Memorial Day and our troops weren't being acknowledged at all out here so we all decided to wear our American Flag shirts as a protest to all the crazy Libs out here. A few people noticed.

Here's some pics....Enjoy!

Memorial Day Weekend Day 1

So since we are missing the great Heritage Farms Memorial Day Extravaganza this weekend, we decided to become tourists in our new town this weekend. Today we walked to Fisherman's Wharf and then rode a Cable Car home.

We started the day at Pier 39 by eating breakfast at a Crepe Restaurant. For those of you that followed along back in our UK days, you may remember that there was an Open Air Market on the town square outside our flat every Sat. One of the stands was a Pancake Stand. Really it serves crepes, but that was the closest thing to American pancakes we ever found in the UK (one of those lost in translation things). So every Sat AM, we'd have a treat and go get a savory crepe with ham and cheese and a sweet crepe with chocolate and whipped cream and split them. Add in some yummy coffee from the coffee shop on the other side of the square and it was HEAVEN. It's a real treat that we've missed ever since getting back to the states. So today, we got to do it again and Claire got to join in since she's got teeth now. LOL! Of course since it's not right outside our apt and it's a LOT more expensive, we won't be doing it every Sat again, but it was a nice treat to start our holiday weekend. (Oh and we earned it by walking there - 2 miles, total distance for our whole day was 3.5 miles.)

After breakfast we walked the rest of the pier, did the carousal, watched the Sea Lions before walking down to the Hyde Street Pier. There we looked at all the historic ships, let Claire play with some ropes and watched some INSANE people swimming in the bay. Look at how we were dressed....it was COLD today and the water is even worse. OMG!!!

After that we walked over to the cable car terminus and took the Powell-Hyde Cable Car back to Market Street and then rode the street car (Muni) home. That was our first cable car experience and a lot of fun. We'd do it more often except for the price and the normal lines (today we didn't have one thankfully).

On a side note, Claire loves all forms of public transportation especially the trolleys that go up and down Market Street and the Embarcadero. As a cheap form of entertainment, I took Claire for a ride on the trolley yesterday. For a $1.50, she got to ride all the way up and down Market St and scream out the window til her heart was content and Mommy got to sit and enjoy the ride. It wore her out and she took a nap w/o argument! I need trolleys back in ATL!!

Enjoy the pics from our day.....

News Flash: SF Has Heat Wave

Yes, last weekend it actual hit the 80's here in town. B/c of SF's location, the city rarely gets over 70 degees. So we've been cold ever since we moved here. Well last weekend there was a freak heat wave and boy was it nice!! Here's some pics:

Claire busted out a sundress for church. Yes, this is the same one from last summer, Miss Teeny Weenie can still wear it! And Nona, she remembered who bought it for her last summer w/o us telling her.....wow!

We grilled out and ate on our back porch for the first time.

And of course, hit the pool!! Our pools are heated, but due to the wind, we don't usually get in them...we stick to the "hop" tubs (hot tub for those that don't speak Claire-ise).

Diva Girl

So You Think You Can Dance?

Claire's imitation of the show last night....

Myers Take On The Mouse - Day 5

I'll get the Day 5 commentary up later, enjoy the pics for now...

Myers Take On The Mouse - Day 4 (Mother's Day)

Well I'm finally feeling up to posting a bit more. Whatever I brought home with me from vacation has had me knocked out pretty bad but I think I'm finally recovering. So on to my Day 4 commentary....

Since it was Mother's Day and we were all pretty wiped, we decided to take the day pretty easy. We had breakfast, weent back to the room and played on the computer for a bit, then everyone took a morning nap. After that, we finally took Claire to the pool for as long as she wanted as promised. I stayed in the shade and took pics since I had the sunburn going on. After a while I went and prepared lunch and we ate by the pool. For some reason, this was a big deal for Claire. She'd been asking to do it for several days and she was estatic when she found out she was finally going to get to do it. Small things, I guess. After lunch, I went shopping at a Disney outlet I found out about from www.mousesavers.com while Claire and Jeremy kept swimming.

After that we all got cleaned up and headed in to the park for the evening parade. We got the same seats again but this time, Claire stayed awake!! She really enjoyed the parade once she figured out that parades are not fireworks. She really got freaked out by the fireworks a couple of night before and somehow thought that parades were the same thing. After the parade, we headed back over to DCA to ride Soarin' Over California (tidbit of trivia: this is the only ride so far that has been imported to WDW from CA, usually it's the other way around).

After that we headed through Downtown Disney to the Disneyland Hotel to eat at Steakhouse 55. It was a really fancy shmancy place but we all know Mommy LOVES steak so that's what she got for Mother's Day dinner. Next door was the more informal character dining establishment of Goofy's Kitchen, so while Mommy was enjoying her wine and French Onion soup, Daddy and Claire snuck over there to get the picture with Pluto (Plu-dog for those that know Claire-ism). Claire did really well during dinner especially since our reservations were for 8:10pm and we weren't seating until about 8:15 or so. She was very big into prissy around. Always wanted her napkin in her lap and wanted to know if she was doing everything "like a big girl". Claire also surprised us by ordering salmon off of the kids menu, despite M&D both trying to convince her not to and she loved it and devoured most of it!!! Go figure!!

After dinner we walked back over to Downtown Disney and caught the Monorail into the park (DL). Claire had been begging to ride that "train" and we hadn't gotten a chance yet. Not long after getting into the park though, she fell asleep in the stroller so we took the opportunity with her out and the lines short to finally ride the Matterhorn. That was the last big ride we hadn't gotten to ride and it was a big deal to me that we ride it before going home. 1) The Matterhorn is exclusive to DL, none of the other parks have it. 2) When I went to Disney (WDW) for the first time as a kid, on the way home we all did they "What was your fave ride?" thing. Mine was Space Mtn, Dad's was Thunder Mtn and I remember my mom telling us that her fave was still the Matterhorn in DL. I guess ever since then, I wanted to get to DL so I could ride the Matterhorn!! Well Mom, I have to agree, it was pretty cool!!! Space Mtn is better at DL than WDW too so it was a tough call....I think I'll say they are tied.

Happy Mother's Day to my Mommy, my wonderful MIL, and all you other wonderful Mothers out there!!