I don't like Charlottes!

Now I'm not a major fan of bugs. Some are intriguing and I will gladly look at them behind a pane of glass in a science museum or fair but having them up close and personal is just disgusting. So imagine my disgust when I came out of my house this morning to find half of my yard completely covered in spider webs! I'm not even exaggerating...over half of the yard was covered in webs all over the grass and since we're having such heavy fog, there was enough moisture caught in each web that you could see all of them! It was so nasty. Ali was with me and we took some pictures with her camera but I'm not sure if they turned out.

I went about the rest of my day disturbed about the webs but decided to just run the sprinklers (I haven't turned them on since the fires...it's been wet enough that it didn't need it) to get rid of the webs. So I went outside tonight after it was dark and moved the fake rock covering the sprinkler controls and was horrified to find a black widow! I've seen them in my yard a few times (David even pulled one off MY BACK this summer when we were working on the yard relandscaping!) but it's just nasty to know that they're out there. David has suggested getting the house sprayed for spiders since I keep finding them in the house (mostly Daddy Longleg spiders and those don't scare me--just annoying to be killing things all the time) but now I'm determined to call tomorrow and schedule a spraying. I will freak out if I find a black widow in my house! Yucky!! Now every little piece of hair touching my face or neck has me twitching and freaking a little. I hate Charlottes!!!

Sore!

Productivity = Soreness! I guess all that climbing into the attic and putting up Christmas stuff caught up to me and today my arms are killing me! It probably doesn't help that my adorable nephew weighs 20 pounds either (but he's totally worth it). I guess this is yet just another reminder that I need to be hitting the gym and working out. They say that working out stuff is actually good for you, ya know?

Productivity!

Today I have been so productive! I woke up at 7:30 and hit the shower. I got dressed and Tyler came over for some Aunt Jenny babysitting while Michelle was shopping for Christmas gifts. Tyler and hung out this morning and ran some errands (buying shampoo & conditioner, trip to Starbucks--Tyler loves Starbucks, took a walk, filling a perscription, and a visit to Katie's house) before coming home to eat lunch and take a nap (just for Tyler...I had work to do).

While Tyler was sleeping, I put up my Christmas tree and got all the lights working. I used to be strongly opposed to fake Christmas trees since I grew up with real trees but I love having a tree all month long and I avoid the falling needles and having to water it...and they make candles with the Christmas tree scent so I'm set. So my tree is up and all decorated and I put up our Maine Christmas village (Lighthouse, Lobster Shack, Fishing Rental hut, etc.) for Papa.

Michelle came and picked Tyler so then I vacuumed, dusted, cleaned out my freezer (did you know frozen food can go bad? Yeah, they put expiration dates on it and apparently food from 2007 isn't good anymore--gross, I know), did some laundry, and it's only 3:30 pm! Yeah, it's definitely been a productive day but I have to say that the side effect of it is that I'm absolutely starving! Off to go make some popcorn and drink Diet Coke.

Pictures from my High School

The school marquee and mascot close to the flames:

Fire comes up the drive way of the school:

Thankfully no buildings or classrooms were lost. Thank you to all of the firefighters who helped protect our school!

The Diva

Now I'm not one to brag but I have to say that I have the cutest neice ever. She just had her school picture taken and she made my sister, KB, straighten her wavy hair so she would be "beautiful." (I think she spent a little too much time with Aunt Ali this summer!) So anyways, here's her school picture:

I talked to her on the phone yesterday and made a point to tell her how beautiful she looked and her response was, "I know." Gotta love the confidence of little girls! ;) But seriously, isn't she adorable??

Fires

To be honest, it's not that suprising to me that California is having such horrible fires right now. We haven't had much rain at all this year (including last winter) and the dry conditions were met with Santa Ana (aka HOT) winds this weekend. I never trust weather people because they only seem to report the weather accurately on the 10 pm news (when they're discussing what the weather was like that day) but when they say the words "fire danger" they are actually right!

Sadly, California is just being ravaged by fires from Santa Barbara County, LA County, and down to Orange County. So many people have lost their homes or are currently evacuated because of the threat to their homes. I watched the fire reports all day yesterday and was sad to see the fire burning at my high school. Since my high school is surrounded by hills and brush the surrounding hills caught fire. Thankfully, the firefighters were able to protect the structure of the school but some storage units in the parking lot burned. School is closed tomorrow because of the mess left by the fires. However, not all were so lucky. The continuation school located just down the hill from my high school actually lost some buildings to the fire and those students will have to be relocated. A couple who attends my church lost their home in Anaheim Hills and others from my church were evacuated.

Thankfully there haven't been many fatalities as a result of the fire and my heart goes out to those people who are working so hard to fight the fire, those who have lost their homes or are evacuated, and those who are running evacuation efforts. Let's pray for them all!

Glen Ivy

For my dear friend Katie's birthday, we decided to take her to Glen Ivy hot springs for a girls day. I'd never been and was really excited to go. Our girls only entourage consisted of me, my sister Ali, Katie the B-Day girl, Laura, and Aubrey. Aubrey and Katie were the only ones who had been there before but I think we were all equally excited.

We started off the day by visiting the locker rooms and putting our stuff away. The lockers are like the ones at skate places or amusement parks with the little orange keys but the awesome thing about this place is you don't have to pay for them...they're free! Now that's class my friends! ;) So we change into swimsuits and then go to the mud pool to smear orange mud all over our arms and legs, let it dry and wash it off. I can't remember what it's supposed to do officially but it did make our skin smoother. When we were standing around smearing the mud there were two older women there (65+) and one of them looked at the other and said, "Clara, you are really white but this girl (looking at Katie) might give you a run for your money." LOL we all laughed

We pretty much spent the days going from different pools and spas to the next. They have freshwater pools and spas as well as salt water and even a sulfa spa. The sulfa is supposed to pull out toxins or something like that and Ali and I tried but just found the stink of rotten eggs not worth it.

At the end of the day, Ali and I went down in the Grotto (underground) where we were painted with a green moisturizer and spent 15 minutes in a warm cave rubbing it in. Then you go into a shower room and wash it all off. Then you towel dry and then go into a sitting room where you drink tea or water and eat apples. The whole thing was designed to look like caves so that was cool.

It really was a wonderful day but my only regret was going into a steam sauna. I love steam saunas but I tend to get sick after being in them (I guess too much moisture for my lungs) and the next day I came down with a cold. So now I'm battling my sinuses, asthma and a really sore throat. But hey, at least I'm relaxed! :)