Excuse me but I have a wedding to attend...

Cross your fingers that I will be able to catch a glimpse of the royal wedding even though I will be competing with 700 million people. If I don't that's OK because I get to laugh for the next 10 days with my Dad and sisters!!!

I am grateful that I get to visit this brilliant country again.

Hundres of Small Vacations

I have always depended on my date nights. My honey and I have gone out on Saturdays without fail our entire marriage. When the kids were all little I was not enthusiastic about finding a babysitter and leaving the kids. It sounded like a big, fat pain but my Tom was dead serious. In fact he insisted and every week I would reluctantly leave the children. Once we were out we had an absolute blast but every week I continued to dread the process. Oh my good heavens how things have changed. Maybe in due part it is because I have had a built in babysitter for 5 years. But whatever the reason I hold onto my Saturday nights like a drowning person holds onto their life preserver. When 6 o'clock comes I am doing a little jig. I kiss those adorable children on the head, grab my honey's hand and skeedaddle out the door...woohoo. Let the vacation begin!

That's right... vacation. I am not sure how it started but suddenly we were calling Saturdays vacations.

I mean what is a vacation anyway? Isn't is just a get away from the realities of life? Who says you have to travel far away to have a vacation or that it has to be a certain amount of time? So every Saturday we go on a vacation. Now to make it feel like a trip you have to do things and go places that you wouldn't do on any given day. We explore new restaurants and neighborhoods in Berkley, (now I am tellin' ya that is a serious trip in every sense of the word) Oakland and lately it has been all about San Francisco.

We have spent the last several vacations exploring every neighborhood in that fabulous city. We have loved driving and walking around Hayes Valley, the Presidio, the Mission, Lower Pacific Heights, and Lafayette park. We love wandering down the boardwalk by the bay in the Marina or meandering around markets in Noe Valley. There is always some wonderful spot to explore and it is actually difficult to end up in the same place twice. I think in this life or the next me and my honey are just going to have to move to that marvelous city. There is just too many great places to visit and we absolutely adore our city by the bay.

But the point is no matter what craziness has happened during the week, every Saturday my honey and I look forward to another dream vacation. As for me, that is all I really need.

Now last Saturday we went on a much needed trip and it actually lasted all day-- thanks to our dear Julie. She took the kiddos and we were like school kids running around that place. Here are some pictures that highlight the adventures.

Thank you Julie!!


Now sometimes my kiddos need a tiny vacation too. This was my honey's idea and it was a serious hit with the littles. We told them it was time to go to bed and when they came into the kitchen this adorable little scene awaited them. So instead of hitting the sack they had juicy strawberries and mango sorbet for a little evening picnic. How's that for fun? :)

Tom packed the sorbet in plastic eggs making them into little ice cream cones. They squealed with pure delight when they opened them.

I am beyond grateful for my traveling companion for he makes even the most ordinary of days a vacation.

A fireplace redo

I did not like my all brick fireplace since the moment we moved in. All brick no mantel. There was no way I was going without a mantel. Where do you put darling things and of course there is the Christmas stockings to think about. I gave it a very small band aid by buying the walnut chunky mantel which I love, love from a great house in the Oakland hills. But I still was not sure what I wanted to do with all the brick. Lots of things crossed my mind like river rock or carmel rock but I couldn't decide so I just sat on it for six years. :) In the end I thought the cutest and easiest thing was to just cover up the majority of the brick. I wanted it to be fresh and light and not a big dark hole in the room.
A quick and easy fix right?

Well sort of but only because halfway through the project my honey said, "We should have done sconces." Do not ever say the word "sconces" and "should of" in the same sentence. Now I couldn't shake it and there just had to be sconces. I love sconces!! My honey agreed and now the "quick and easy" took a serious turn for the worst and it turned into a top ten hideous project.

But in the end I think it turned out great and looks 1000% better.before but we already took the mantel off

during...

done

I am linking up to My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia

I am grateful that my fireplace is done and it turned out pretty darn cute.

More than just a game

I think my boys at this point have tried many sports and they have yet to find one that they don't like. In saying that however we found a sport that Benjamin L.O.V.E.S. I mean best day ever, run out the door, jumping for joy, a little kick in his step just because it is practice day kind of love. The sports name is rugby and I am telling you this game must be a total blast.

This is super important information and I consider it to be an answer to prayers. For my Benjamin was sad. His best friend in the whole wide world moved. Benjamin had been glued at the hip with Jared since the first grade. The cutest of friends that you ever did see. One with his white blond hair and fair skin and the other with his dark brown hair and olive skin but always together.

Always talking, joking, goofing off and laughing...but always together. I don't think a day went by without Jared in it and then he was gone. My thirteen year old boy was left feeling sad and alone. I would kiss him good night and big elephant sized tears would be running down his sweet cheeks. How is a mama supposed to help with that kind of hurt? One night as I tucked him in it came to me.

A sport of course...but what? He was done with baseball and la cross didn't start for a few months. I needed a sport and I needed it to right then. Then my prayers were answered. I called up a friend whose son played rugby. She informed me that the parent meeting was that very night. Benjamin was too sad to even want to play a sport. But like every parent has to do I threatened and made him. All he had to do was try one practice...that's it. I was so sure that my sport loving boy would love rugby too. I mean why not? I had seen clips of men huddled in a circle beating the tar out of each other trying to get a ball with no pads and no helmets. This sport is just what the doctor ordered. So kicking and screaming I dragged that incredibly angry boy out the door and well the rest is history.

Not only did he love rugby but he thinks it is the best, greatest and funnest sport ever. My happy boy was back and that makes me well.....happy.



Now I realize that my Ben does not look happy in these next few pictures. Don't be fooled. He had his last tournament yesterday and they played their guts out all day. They made it to the championship game and lost by 1 point. It is just not appropriate to smile after such a loss but I assure you he still had a little spring in his step.

I don't know if it is appropriate to say on a blog but after all it is just an online journal right? I am grateful for a loving heavenly father who loves his children so much that he helped with my little boys aching heart. It was through a sport but that is just what he needed to make his world ok again.

I am also so grateful for friends. Friends come into our lives and fill up a hole we didn't even know we had. They listen and make us laugh and in the end we are better people because of them. Thank you Millers we love and miss you!

Spring Fever

It's spring fever. That is what the name of it is. And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so! ~Mark Twain

My heart is aching for the true warmth of a spring day. The kind of day that I would find myself in the backyard, sitting on a chair with my legs stretched forward, and my eyes would be closed with my face raised to the sun. The warmth would be perfect because I would never have to shift my body from the suns burning rays. I would stay sitting there for far too long. But I wouldn't care. I would just relax, with that feeling of total peace, as I listened to the happy kiddos playing close by. Eventually a cloud would come or the light would begin to fade or a child would be hungry and my trance would be broken. But inside I would still feel the warmth and it would calm my restless soul. Doesn't that sound just perfect? Oh I really do have a serious case of spring fever...is it almost here?

My yard does remind
me that the calendar says its spring...I just can't feel it. I can't feel the delicate warmth that this season inevitably brings.

This tree is in my front yard and it is so beautiful that there are not words in the dictionary to describe it. I even looked. The word pulchritudinous means beautiful but I can't say it so it doesn't count. I gasp when I pull up to my house and when I am in my kitchen I stare at it. I decided that it needed to be wherever I was. It is in vases all over my house. I put a huge vase in my bedroom so I go to sleep looking at it. Big vases are in my kitchen and family room. I remind myself a little of Meg Ryan in "You've got Mail," because I hold my vase and walk from room to room like she does with her daisies. I just can't help it ...for if the sun won't come out and calm my soul then these blossoms certainly will.

I took all these pictures today to try and capture the beauty. A camera will never tell the whole story but these bits and pieces are more than enough.

Oh happy day to capture this stunning little bee tending to his work on my spanish lavender.

You can see why I gasp when I pull up to this. I mean seriously look at that tree!

Samples of my vases..oh I hope they last I have my fingers crossed.

I am beyond grateful for this beautiful world.

Vintage Chandelier

Look at this adorable chandelier. It was not always so cute but I have unfortunately misplaced the before picture. It was two toned pale yellow and bronze. I have wanted to do something with it for sometime but did not know what. So my honey took over and painted it and I love it. He used a gold leaf paint and hand painted the little accents. The rest he spray painted and antiqued. It does look very vintage. The only thing that I have been debating is does it need crystals? The other question is see the sconces in the back ground? Do we need to do the same with those? Can't decide. Please let me know what you think.

A while back I was at pottery barn and they had displayed huge arrangements of flowers on their tables. I loved the idea of bringing the outdoors in. So last night my honey and I stayed up past our bedtime and did just that. We brought in flowers, pots and accessories. We brought in a table we weren't using and set it up in the dining room. It probably won't stay there permanently but for now it is stunning. It really does bring a feeling of being outside.

I am linking up to My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia for Tuesday's Treasures.

I am grateful that spring is inside my house and is finally making its way on the outside.