Blythe, CA

Blondie boys.... A day after we'd arrived here in Hidden Beaches (just outside of Blythe, CA on the Colorado River), a lovely young couple crossed our paths. They're full-timing with their 10-year-old son and we were lucky enough to spend some time with this sweet family.
Geno even cooked us some soul-satisfying Italian grub...Amy pitched in, too...apple pie for dessert. Didn't I tell ya we were lucky??? Thanks again for the delicious dinner and thought-provoking conversation! :)
just hangin' out......in our new backyard (for the week)
We've got quite the neighbor, here, too! This young lady is nesting in a tree right beside the bus. She just sits there and stares at us like this all day. Ok. We do plenty of staring at her, so it's a mutual thing. Daddy owl comes in for nightly visits...I hear him hooting outside right now. Ruka (our cat) was out the other day, and a little too close for Papa Owl's comfort, so he swooped down at her. She hasn't been quite so excited to dash out the door, like she usually does. I guess between him and the pack of coyotes we hear from across the river, she's decided inside is a decent place to spend her time.
On the dock at sunset

Late February

The campground at South Carlsbad State Beach overlooked the ocean; so we had to climb down those really looooooooooong stairs to get to the actual beach. It worked quite nicely, really; by the time you'd climbed those many stairs most of the sand had fallen off...y'know, outside, where it belongs, instead of in our bed!
Steve and friends worked on this doozy. It's a sand-replica of their skoolie...complete with solar panels on top, see?
This photo (of Eddie, Steve, peeking Caleb, John and Saylor) was taken at Oceanside Harbor--notice the harbor in the background. We'd heard about this parking lot that was on the beach and allowed overnight parking. (which is oh-so-rare for Southern California) For $15 a night, we thought we'd check it out. Well, it turns out, they have the pay structure set so that you pay $5 to be there for the day (days end at 8, with a grace period til 10), and then $10 to be there for the night--which, here at OH, gets you from 10:00pm to 4:00am. But, they were kind enough to offer a grace period until 8:00am. If you leave by 8:00 am, that's all you pay. If you're like us, and not even awake quite yet, you better get your butt over there and pay an additional $5; so it really came out to be $20 a night. To park in a parking lot. No hook-ups. I can handle those. It's the crazy parking lot patrol that quickly turned our little pow-wow into suck-city. We couldn't have any.thing. outside of our designated 'parking space'. And the spaces were very, very narrow. We were scolded when we had a few chairs sitting between a couple of the rigs so we could chat. No ticket, luckily. One of our traveling companions wasn't so lucky and ended up with a $200 ticket for drinking a beer in the parking lot. We probably won't spend any more time at this particular place. Luckily, we've found so many other wonderful places to be! :)
Our little round-up for the night at Oceanside Harbor. Though the parking-lot-crazies tried to rain on our parade, we did enjoy the big playground structure that sat directly in front of all our rigs, and then beyond that, the grand pacific. The harbor seals put on quite a show, complete with nearly round the clock concerts. Noisy little critters! The kids found over 50 whole (as in unbroken) sand dollars on the beach here, as well, so they were psyched. They also found a couple live crabs and a starfish. So, it wasn't *all* bad! There's a blessing to be found in every situation.

South Carlsbad State Beach

John and little ones, enjoying the surf...
A rare photo, indeed! Thanks, Kara! ;)
Dumpin' the poo...at least the view is nice!
Barber John! :) And my sweet friend, Winston. Where's *my* red head?

...making music with friends...

These shots are from a couple weeks ago, taken right after we left the rally in Newport Dunes. I'm playing a bit of catch up. Such is life when the fun never stops...tiring, but wouldn't trade it! I'll get some more posts up and hopefully get us caught up to where we actually are right now. (colorado river) And I really need to do our taxes somewhere in there, too. whew.

We update our status on Facebook quite often, so if ya'll wanna be our friend, look for me!

... re-appearing...

We're still here, just had one of the most fun, crazy weekends running wild with other FOTR'ers (FamiliesOnTheRoad). If I were to try to include every detail, I could write a small book. The short of it goes something like this. Imagine 14 families (71 people total, 38 of these people are children) descending upon a southern california resort. There's a swimming pool, a beach, kayaks, nightly singing around the bonfire, drum circles, strumming guitars, loads of laughter, peaceful people, shiny children, glow sticks, pot lucks, and impromptu communal eating...

I really could go on, but what I'll remember most about this weekend is the *extraordinary* people that gathered here, more ~forever friends~... The children were interesting, funny, kind, compassionate. The teens inspire me to love me just the way I am (ya, there was a rockin' cool group of teens, here, TOO! I'm telling you, we had it *all*!)

It was our first FOTR rally, and we'll surely be seeking out others along the way. We're pulling out of Newport Dunes today, but continuing our own little rally of sorts, as we're traveling with a couple others families for the next couple weeks. Our tentative plan is to head to Oceanside Harbour today (cheap boondocking on beach), then on to Slab City, and then jog up to Joshua Tree. Promises to be a gooooood time! :)

I have lots of pictures from the weekend, they're just not on the lap top yet. I'll get some up the next time I can pull myself away from the fun long enough to do so.

Hope you're enjoying your life, wherever you may be...

Our Girl & Good-bye Southern California

Yes, she's definitely a GIRL!!! I've gotta have some other Goddess energy around here! My mom took this really cool picture of the bus on Monday morning with the moon on it's way out. I love this picture, mostly because I know who took it! Thanks, mama!
We'll be leaving this special, peaceful place this weekend, heading up to Sacramento. I have so enjoyed my time here in this campground. We had *the* spot! So private and spacious and all to our very own. The campground is about 100 acres (I finally asked), and the whole time we've been here, it's been nearly deserted. We have loved our late night walks, our pecan harvesting, our lizard hunting, our sprinkler running and other many wonderful times we've had here. I will surely miss it, we all will. That's the thing about being somewhere for any length of time, you start to make connections, and plant yourself, whether you mean to or not. We now have connections with lots of great people from this area, and some very deep connections with new forever friends. We are counting down the days, only 1 more full day to spend here and then we're off. I've been avoiding that reality. It sort of feels like leaving home all over again. However, I am and will always be grateful for the time we spent here, for the connections made and the memories etched forever in my heart.

Swimming with the Whales

John's head is on the left, and you can plainly see what's just in front of him! We are extremely grateful to the gifts given to us that day by those generous whale souls!

Fun Sunday Pictures

Grandma and the Big Boys
Me and my three

Whale parts, as seen from shore!
Whale spray!

Way Cool Whale Watching!

Sunday was a big, full, fun and exciting day. We woke early to head to Long Beach for a whale watching tour (thanks again Mom and Curt!) We were on a nice big boat, so no icky sickies for any of us! whew! We were out for about 2 1/2 hours and just ready to head back to the dock, resigned to the fact that we weren't to see any whales. We saw lots of dolphins, some very close, and a couple of sea lions though, that was cool! We were all happy with that.....when, suddenly! Ahoy! A whale had been spotted. The captain cranked the boat back to the right and followed the whale's 'footprint' to see if she would resurface again. After a few long minutes, we did see just the tip of her back surface, and then her big tale come up as she descended again. It was so beautiful! We were all thankful to see it! The day before our tour, a whale was spotted and breeched (jumped out of the water, landing on its side) 22 times in a row. That would have been amazing to witness, but we were grateful for just the tale!

After the tour and a quick stop at Trader Joe's for a few things, including hummus and tortillas, which I am now addicted to, we headed to the beach to get our toes in the sand and surf. We'd been there just a short time, long enough to get everyone's shoes off and pants rolled up when I looked out a bit, probably 200 feet offshore or so, and noticed something bobbing up and down in the water. I pointed it out and asked John what it was and we all realized then we were looking at a mama and baby WHALE!!! We watched it for probably half an hour, just rolling around, seeing fins and backs and bellies and noses and blow spouts of water. A few people approached us, concerned that they were stuck there. They weren't moving out of that space at all, so we thought it might be possible? Long story short, John and 3 or 4 other guys walked out towards them. At one point John was probably 20-30 feet from them and only chest deep in the ocean. They stuck around for a while but then suddenly were gone. It was absolutely incredible and I was giddy watching them. (the boys watched them for a couple minutes, and then took off running some more! but every time a part of them came out of the water, my mom and I just squealed with delight!)

We all returned home to the bus pink cheeked and gleaming after such a fun day of cruising on a boat, seeing astonishing sea life, checking out the great homes around Long Beach (while listening to some authentic Long Beach music) and sharing in good conversation and laughter. It was a good, good day.

And my day just kept getting better! Sue offered me a massage so I dropped everyone off and hit the road to Temecula for a lovely massage at the hands of an even lovelier friend! (thank you again, Sue!) I returned home to an aromatic dinner (prepared by my mama-god love her!). Like I told her, it was a perfect end to a perfect day! Life is so dang Good!

My Sweet Mama

Grandma spent a week here with us in our happy hippy bus! We all fared great, even finding a place for her suitcase that was convenient and out of the way. We all had a great time while she was here, the boys especially enjoyed lots of cuddle time and playing with her. There are many things I thought about writing, always in the moment they were happening, but it's never easy to find the space to get to the laptop and put thoughts into words. So, I'll do my best to offer a bit of a re-cap of her week here with us.

We took a couple walks in the dark, under a beautiful full moon and starry sky. (Although this is usually lost on the boys who are happy running around like crazy people, even in the dark! But I always love to look up, when I'm not busy saying 'watch out for Sage'!) We spent some time digging in the old wood pile here looking for lizards. We saw many, but were only able to catch one, and GRANDMA was the one to catch it! :) She's so cool! We brought it home and it lived with us for a couple of days, then decided to make its way out of the lego box and back to the wild.

We had a full moon drum circle on Saturday night, inviting Sue, Steve and kids over. We ate, the kids ran (surprise, surprise!) we sat and chatted around the inviting fire, admired the full moon over the lake and did some drumming. The kids joined in off and on, but it was mostly the big people that were into it. It's always magical, how random rhythms created by many different people can create such beautiful noise. I love it, anyway!

We did a short hike the day before Grandma left. Our intention was to hike to the water fall, but we only made it as far as the first water crossing that was abundant with tadpoles and frogs. We'd brought our nets, and the boys were happy hanging there and exploring for hopping, squiggling things. The drive to Tenaja Falls was pretty. It's always great to see some wild places, especially around California where it seems to be swarming with people. Glad to see those places still exist. We played 20 questions on the drive back in from the hike, and did a lot of laughing together. We stopped at Sue and Steve's so mom could check out their pad and the nifty creek in their backyard, then headed back to the bus.

Grandma sprung for a couple movies, so we got the boys all set up with Open Season in a cozy little tent under the kitchen bar and we watched Babel, snuggled side by side on the fold out bed, dipping into the big popcorn bowl, and munching on chocolate covered almonds and cranberries that she'd picked up at Trader Joe's. Oh, YUM!!! As the movie was beginning, I was sensing the sadness from my mom that she'd be leaving the next day, just as she put her arm around me a gave me a kiss and a hug. I tried to remain cheerful, saying we didn't have to be sad when we said goodbye. And then I said "I can't blame you, though, who *would* want to leave this **partay** (giggle, giggle)!" That made her smile.
(as you may have noticed, John was missing from the above scene, he was in bed as he started the day shift when my mom arrived and has been working very long days since)

Of course, there were lots of other memories made while my mom was here, if only I could transmit them as they happen directly from my mind in to blogger. ...sigh... I guess they don't have any thought reading technology yet.

A Really Full, Fun Day!

Whew, still catching our breath here after a long day that began with me having to raise sleeping children out of bed (but they wanted me to!) We went on a field trip to an organic farm that's structured as a CSA (consumer supported agriculture). By supporting a CSA, you make a commitment to the farmer by signing up for a weekly 'basket' of fruits and veggies, whatever is being harvested at the time.

Farmer Donna did an outstanding job showing us around her most gorgeous Morning Song Farm.
The kids were able to gather macadamia nuts, throw them into a big nut cracking machine, then sort them from the shells and bad nuts. Oh, yes, and they got to eat a bunch too! One of their main crops is macadamia's. They crack them on Sundays and ship them out on Mondays. Ya don't get much fresher, organic, raw macadamias than *that*! They were so good, and really the only way to improve them would have been to cover them, of course, with some nice dark organic chocolate!

She had the kids plant some high quality heirloom seeds, the only kind Farmer Donna uses, in some little starter trays. Saylor and Stone both planted Black Beauty Eggplant. Thinking of how these seeds began, with my boys pressing them into the soil, and knowing they will end up on someones plate someday, was really something cool to envision. I wonder who will eat "their" eggplant? Then, we all made the trek down a steep, windy road where the children mulched a large heirloom potato patch. (is that what they're called? a farmer i'm not...though, this would be so much fun to do, i'd just have a whole lot to learn!) We picked kumquats, my favorite! right off the tree, saw avocados and lots of other exotic fruits that I've never heard of but would love to try. We were all able to meet her exotic chickens and llama's and hear so much great information on what it takes to operate a farm and why she chooses to do things the way she does. It was truly very inspirational and such a beautiful, peaceful place. I'm thankful I was able to see this 'side' of California. Perfectly breathtaking...

After the 2 hour field trip, we met Sue & Steve at the park, had a fast food picnic and watched the kids play for another couple of hours. And then, as if we hadn't already played our little hearts out, we went to their house for a while and enjoyed the late afternoon sun and played a few rounds of a card game, which I'm not forgetting the name of...something like Spite & Malice. (i think?) Whenever we go there, Stone just disappears with Harry and they play and play and play. We never see them, they're just off doing their thing together and playing so great. I'm happy for Stone to have this, because it's generally always been Saylor who's had the 'buddy', and Stone gets to tag along as best as he can. Now it seems the tables have turned a bit, as Maddy isn't always quite as eager to play with Saylor as Saylor is to play with her. But, there's something to be learned from this experience, so it's all good!

Now, I've got lavender in the diffuser and a sleeping babe at my side. What a way to wrap up a glorious day!

What's Happening

It was an extremely windy day here today, so we stayed inside for most of it. The boys did venture out a couple times, but with the wind, it was really quite chilly. We watched Talladega Nights last night, and for tonight we have Little Miss Sunshine. I've seen it, but no one else has. It's such a great movie.

My brother and his gal are coming tomorrow from Irvine to spend the day. Hoping the weather is cooperative enough for a hike in the mountains. And speaking of visits from family members, my Mom is going to fly out here to see us the end of February. She's missing the boys so much. It'll be great fun to have her here for a week. The boys are happy she's coming. And, no definite plans yet, but my Dad made the mention of coming out while we're here, too. Looking forward to it all!

There's another bus conversion parked here. He's a welder, she hangs out, no kids. They want to sell their conversion. I saw the inside of it today. It's decent, but would need some re-doing. It's not quite set up for a family to live in. It works for 2, but missing some elements like a stove and a shower. She came over for a cup of coffee and is kind of this quirky, funny type of person. We're chatting about something, then, in the middle of the conversation, she says "I think you're really nice". She's 25 and has an innocent naivety about her. But I also get the feeling she's had a hard go of it. Certain our paths have crossed for a reason...

The boys are watching the Princess Bride right now. Saylor spent a good part of the morning out surviving the wild of the campground. He had his 'spears' all loaded up in a camp chair bag, slung across his back. He was out finding pecans and eating them, y'know, surviving in the wild on what you can find. We've been watching Man vs. Wild every night before we go to bed and learning so much. Like what plant to use to poison little fish so they float to the top, and that you can eat them because the root is only toxic to fish, not humans.

Saylor is very much into guns, knives, whips, spears...things like that. His birthday is coming up and all he wants is a machete and a flint and Guitar Hero. My guy... I'm so in love!

Knottsberry Farm

We went to Knottsberry farm on Wednesday. It was good. It was fine. It was fun. BUT, the next time we go to something like that, all of our children will be old enough to feed themselves, toilet themselves and walk themselves!

The boys enjoyed themselves, but there were so many rules and restrictions we had to place on them, for their safety, that I just kept thinking how they have just as much fun roaming around on the beach, where it's wide open, safe and free! (Free in more ways than one!)

We did enjoy the day. Even Stone got to ride some of the smaller rides, after being disappointed over and over that he was too short for most of them; even the big raft ride thing. Darn. There's no WAY we're doing Disneyland, so there! I said it. For all of you out there who think "well, you're in California, you HAVE to go to Disneyland"...let me tell you "no, we don't." ;) We will go, however, when our boys have reached the above mentioned criteria! When we can all ride the big fun rides together and laugh our heads off; instead of trying to shuffle this kid here, and this kid there and all of us wasting a lot of time just shuffling kids instead of hauling a** to the next exciting ride!

Saylor and I did make the decision to ride a roller coaster while we were there. Ready for a funny story! The Ghost Rider looked to be the least intimidating from the ground. No upside down, Saylor wasn't ready for that. So, we thought, hey, we could probably handle it. In we go, the very last car. Up, up, up we chug, chug, chugged. Saylor's already starting to make some nervous groaning noises, I poke myself in the left eyeball and knock my contact out. Quickly, I unclench Saylor's fingers from my right hand so I can re-insert said contact, which is now fuzzy and painful. Back goes my right arm around Saylor's head and back go his hands squeezing my hand with all his might. We haven't made it to the top yet. Ok, then doooooooooooooown, scary, fast, feels like you've been thrown off of a cliff down, like you might actually fly right out of the car down, thinking "oh my god, i think we're in here wrong" ... Down. Now Saylor is making some very primal terrified screams of horror. His eyes are shut tight, I want mine to be, but I'm trying to be brave for him. The plunging seemed to never end. It was scary. Can you tell?

Saylor held it together so well, though. He wasn't freaking out by the time the car came to a stop, he was shaken, but not freaking anymore. I piggybacked him all the way back down the stairs, figuring his legs were probably feeling worse than mine, weak and wobbly. We survived. We did it. The next time I do it, I'll be centered between 2 of my strapping young teen-age boys. Of course, after the ride, we keep bumping into all kinds of people saying "oh my gosh, that Ghost Rider ride is awful, it's so scary, don't ride it" Yep. Didn't hear a thing about it *before* we rode the thing. We've learned to ask first next time!

We got home and had a good laugh about it all. Recreating the scene and replaying the events, complete with my best imitation of his primal screaming grunts. The re-creation of it was WAAAY more fun than the actual ride. ;)

I'm still sore today (2 days later). My left shoulder/neck muscle, the same arm that I was using to hang on, since Saylor had my other one. Man, I must have had a death grip on that thing. It's funny now and I told him that'll be something we'll be laughing about when we're both old and gray!

California Happenings

We're enjoying our time with John during his vacation. It's been so great having him home *all the time*. We're diggin' it! :)
So, we usually get up, have some coffee and hot chocolate, go outside and soak up some warm morning sun. The boys play, mom and dad tidy up the bus, and before you know it, it's 1:00 in the afternoon. The days fly by.

We went on a great hike today and we took some great pictures, but now can't seem to upload any to Blogger. I'm working on that one. Stay tuned... (I was able to upload them all to our flikr account, if ya wanna check them out!)

Before we went hiking, we stopped at Nature Health, a little healthfood store I found here just yesterday. I'm stoked, though, because she has a produce 'co-op' that you pay $5/month and get organic produce at her cost! I picked up a huge head of broccoli, 4 avocados, 2 mangos, 2 fat tomatoes, a big bag of celery and some cilantro for $9. Nice! What's nicer, is that she let me take all that food home, even without paying for it! She rings the produce up separately so she doesn't have to pay the 30% tax on it, as she's making no profit. No tax is charged to me, either. I was out of check blanks, and she said just bring one by! Wow! So, that's why we stopped there today before our hike, so I could pay up.

Then, John was craving some of his favorite mexican tacos, so we stopped at this little taco stand right by the park and he loaded up with tacos and a torta. Ohhhh, soooooo good! The boys played and munched and climbed trees, then we were on our way (finally!) to the mountains.
We ran into a ranger who gave us some maps/handouts with some great hiking trails. We'll be checking many of them out while we're here. It's only a 15 minute drive to the mountain; which is visible from our campground. In the dark, you can see the cars crawling and curling up and down the winding road. Very cool.

So, it's taken me a month to find my groove. That's ok. I'm missing home less and less, and enjoying where we are *now* more and more. It's all a journey.

We listened to Amy Steinberg's song many times today. The boys love it and kept asking to hear it again and again. Can do! I love it, too! It's amazingly beautiful and tender and powerful all at the same time.

I am exactly where I need to be,
I need to be exactly where I am,
I am a blessing manifest.

You must listen to it!

www.myspace.com/amysteinberg

Our Lovely New Landing Spot

(this entry and the entry below were written Friday, Dec. 15)

We are now about 10 miles south of where we were before, right on Lake Elsinore. The town itself is about 35k people, and has any shopping we’ll be needing, including an RV shop. We’re at Lake Elsinore City Campground. It’s huge and has trees of many varieties, including several pines, so it feels familiar. There are very few people staying here right now, so it’s incredibly quiet and peaceful. The camp hosts are SOOOO nice, they’re from Greeley, CO and are workampers who travel around and work/camp in exchange for reduced camping fees and pay. There aren’t any ‘amenities’ like a laundry room, but there are 2 laundry mats just across the street. Still no wifi, but my withdrawals are lessening.

We inquired this morning about monthly rates, and they are typically $380/month for 2 people, and an additional $100 per person/per month. Eeek! Even kids! Well, they were sweet enough to just go the $380, plus $50/month for Max, so this is where we’ll be for the long run. Sure beats the $730 we were paying over ‘there’ to be treated like garbage.

Everyone is happier. There is much space to explore and no more feelings of being under a microscope. Our door opens to a beautiful lake view, and a huge yard. We’re the last site on this strip, so we won’t be having anybody on our door side at all. We listen to the sweet sounds of chirping birds all day, and the occasional boat roar by. It’s wonderful and I finally feel at ease.

(oh, and I can get wi-fi if I come to the edge of the campground, so I'll be writing for the blog, then cutting and pasting when I can get online)

Mean People Suck

After my last posting, on a day that started out quite well, I returned home to the bus and the campground and our grumpy neighbor who barks at her son all day and everything went south from there. Apparently, she’d had it with Stone and was outside with her son, P, saying, “Stay away from that boy” Now, staying away from “that boy: would have been much easier if our homes didn’t FACE each other. Our doors opened in towards each other, so we were, in essence, sharing a yard. Not good. Not good because we have toys outside, and they aren’t allowed to have any outside. Not good because they want to play with us and our fun stuff, and she wigs out if they cross the non-existent border dividing our space from theirs. Not good because P is dying to play with ANYONE and so does anything he can to get that attention; mostly from Stone. Stone was handing it well, I would step in when I saw his temper beginning to flare. Well, I guess I wasn’t there to step in once. According to her, Stone said some inappropriate things (I have to say he does speak from his emotion, whatever that happens to be at the moment) and she was afraid things might escalate and someone might get hurt. So, it was icky and tense and just all around bad. She didn’t want to tell me what happened, just being very snippy and loaded with attitude. It broke my heart that someone could have such contempt for my child. And that’s what it was, it was written all over her. I don’t know why I let this whole situation bother me so much, especially from someone who so sorely lacks anything resembling gentle parenting or even any compassion at all towards her children. (Although, the little girl gets much more positive attention than P and an occasional kiss/hug. Never saw anything positive directed towards P, not even a smile)

Ok, so this is my way of processing it all. I’m not trying to spread ill will toward her or her family, I just have to try make it fit into my world. I’m grateful for the support and wise mothers/children we are surrounded by normally. We *help* each other out, mom to mom, mom to kid, kid to kid…we’re there for each other. Not there waiting and watching to pounce on someone for doing something ’wrong’. I had a small clue something like this would happen after our first day of being there. She had her husband come talk to John because she saw Stone push P. Oh. Gee, maybe you should have just gone over and gently asked Stone not to push. Nah, just be a tattle tell, and better yet, don’t have the balls to come tell us yourself, just send your husband.

All right. All done with that little story. I should be grateful for the events that unfolded that day, because they spurred us on to find somewhere else to go. This all happened on Wednesday, and we were pulling out of the Dirt Hole from Hell on Thursday morning! The campground and many of the people working there were full of negative energy. They looked at you like you were speaking Greek when you went in to simply check on your mail. We pulled through the gates and felt immediate freedom and so much relief! So, thank you icky neighbor. You done us a favor!

And, thank you Rebecca, for being there when I needed a gentle heart and spirit true! I love you!!!

Curse the lack of Wifi access :(

We've been unplugged from the rest of the world lately. And I'm going through withdrawals. Seems the wifi we were getting was from someone parked near us in the park, and they pulled out last weekend, now we're without it. Thanks to that anonymous giver of your unsecured system, though! Maybe someone else will come soon? For now, I have to drive over to a coffee shop and sip a drink while I surf around and do other computer/internet related stuff.

This last weekend, we went to the ocean both days. On Saturday we went to Doheny State Beach. The boys caught tons of little crabs, found a football, played catch and tag with John on the beach. On Sunday, we went to San Clemente. My favorite spot so far. Beautiful beach, not a lot of people, huge waves because of the weather. We sat up against these gigantic rocks that protected us from the wind, so all we had was the warm sun on our faces and the sound and smell of the ocean right in front of us. We brought a bunch of food, and hung out and ate and played for a couple hours. And an added bonus was that the boys got to watch the Metrolink and the Amtrak come barreling down the track right by us a few times. It runs right along the coast there. We're planning on riding the train while we're here.

We've been searching for a different campground. Not having much luck. We did find "Ortega Oaks". It's above Lake Elsinore and it's the campground that used to have a petting zoo. But, the woman who used to run it realized her dream of moving to Arizona and living off the grid, so no animals there to pet anymore. The people at Ortega were very nice, but they don't have any openings right now. And, the drive to get there is 12 miles past lake elsinore, up a very big mountain. So, John would add 30 minutes each way to his drive every day. We would end up saving about $115 on camping, but John's time, and his time with us, is valuable too.

We found a very quaint little campground on the lake right there in Lake Elsinore, as well. It's called "The Outhouse". The woman who runs it is kind and she has a little boy a bit younger than Stone. BUT... they don't have any openings right now. They're working on evicting some people, though, so we left our information with her so she can call us when something opens up. We'd end up saving about $350 a month there!! Woo hoo! They have full hook ups and a laundry room, no wifi. But, we can access the lake from there, and the boys can go fishing any ol' time they want! It's also right across the street from the library, and just a short bike ride to Albertson's, so the location would be handy. The drive would be only 10 miles further than John drives right now, all on the freeway.

I've been missing my friends immensely lately. Even shed a few tears yesterday. John asked me what I wanted to do yesterday, and what I really wanted to do was go to a movie with Pam. I know I need to connect with some people here, especially the unschoolers at Long Beach. I will. It doesn't help that my major means of staying connected with people has been lost. Although, I could get used to this sitting in a coffee shop by myself listening to groovy music and checking my e-mail thing!

It's my mom's birthday today, and she's going to lunch with my sister. I'd love to be going with them. She (my mom) sent off a package to us today with some pepper sticks and other snacks the boys love and her funky sparkly little tree for us to put in the bus. The boys and I are starting to talk about what we might like to bake for Christmas goodies. It just feels so completely odd to celebrate Christmas when it's 75 degrees out and the palm trees are swaying in the breeze. Weird. I'm sure the tree will help, and the cd Amy's sending, and the baking.

I'll only be checking e-mail and blogging once or twice a week for now. Try not to miss me too much! :)

New Friends

Saylor and Stone have made a new friend here. Well, they met him right away, it's just taken me this long to write about him. Anyway, D and his family are staying here for a few weeks while their new house is being finished. D says it's HUGE and is so excited about all the cool stuff they bought to go in it, like a pool table and a popcorn machine, and air hockey and...

Evidently, D's dad works for Blizzard Entertainment. Means nothing to me, honestly, but he went on to say that he helps people play War Craft...HUH? You mean World of War Craft? The only reason I even know what that *is* is because Hayden's a player and a fan. So, Hayden, we met one of the kids of the *top guys* there! I guess, by D's explanation, he's 3 away from owning the whole company. Cool!

He is such a nice little boy, and his mom is super sweet, too. She was telling me that they'd like to move. She's lived in CA her whole life and just doesn't "fit in". They have 4 children and people are always asking her why they had so many, are they Mormon? Funny! She's very kind and gentle with her kids and down to earth. I needed to meet someone like that here!

Today, my 3 and D all went swimming. (I was there, too, but water's too cold for me and Sage) Both boys are really enjoying him and they all get along together really nicely. They go outside in the morning, and I can't get them to come back in until it's nearing dark. They even request their lunch to be brought to the picnic table by the playground. Lucky ducks!

A Great Sunny Day

We had a lovely day. John squeezed in only a few hours of sleep, but was in good spirits and was up and about hanging out with us. We love that! We even spent a little time at the pool. I was a wimp, only got in about to my knees, but John (mr. I Can't Stand Cold Water) was a trooper and jumped right in. It was good to feel hot!

Yesterday (Thursday) we went into Corona and stopped at a local Mexican grocery store. They have the most beautiful produce, and inexpensive, too. They also serve the authentic tacos that John loves, so we grabbed a few of those and shared them.

We made a couple other stops, looking for tires for Saylor's bike and a new rim for Stone's...mission accomplished. Ms. Mama also made her very first ever trip to Trader Joe's. Fun! I even got to go in all by myself because Sage had fallen asleep, so I got to browse some and pick up some delicious goods for all of us. Saylor's been craving sushi (ok, so has his mum!) so I grabbed some veggie rolls. He and I polished those off as soon as we got back to the bus. We did share 1 with John, though. Can't wait to go back! It's 11 miles from where we are, doesn't seem like much, but by golly, it is quite the drive out here.

We also stopped at the library in town and I grabbed a book out of their little Book Shop there, for $1, hardcover! It's called "The Catastrophist". Set in the Belgian Congo in 1959; all about Patrice Lamumba and his rivals and the main character trying to survive it all. Looking forward to starting that. It's been a long time since I've read something other than non-fiction. I love a good book.

The Secret keeps creeping into my life...it's everywhere. Yet another sign that I must watch this DVD as soon as possible. Ellen had it on her show today (Degeneres, that is). I never watch her show, and was flipping through the channels as I nursed Sage back to sleep and I saw the info bar at the bottom of the screen. So glad I caught that. Good thoughts, positive thoughts, uplifting thoughts, abundant thoughts...it's all within me...what a gift.



Peace.