Another Year Older...

This is definitely the birthday week in our family. Yesterday Alexis, my sister married to Nathan, turned 29! We chatted on the phone and she said that Nathan had gotten her favorite cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory and a 4-hour massage/facial/mani-pedi at a dayspa in Chandler. Nice! Chelsea and I will be heading out to AZ tomorrow to join all of the sobrinhos for Halloweed, which should be a lot more fun than hanging out here with no kids and the last remnants of smoke and ash in the air (which, by the way, have me totally coughing these last few days). Anyway, Happy Birthday Alexis!

Doggie Birthday

Yay! Emma turned 13 today. I can still remember the Christmas morning we got her when she had so much fun playing in all the presents. Seriously the best present ever. Now her face is pretty much all white and she spends most of her time sleeping, like the photo above. Here's to my sweet (and crazy) dog!

Nathan Turns 30!

Yesterday was Nathan's birthday and I forgot to post (although we did leave an amazingly musical rendition of Happy Birthday on his answering machine if I do say so myself). I can't believe it was the big 3-0. Thanks for being such a great brother-in-law, wife to my sister, and dad to my adorable niece and nephew Nathan (as well as bringing that ever-creative engineer perspective to our family). I hope you had a great day and I know that Alexis has an amazing birthday surprise planned for you next weekend.

Utah Happens

Wow, I definitely wish I knew about this site while I was in Utah. For my friends still living in Utah, I would definitely check out http://yourheartout.com/ . It has amazing events, stores, restaurants, etc. about Utah (mainly in the SLC area). You can thank me for discovering this source later. Miss you all...

Manhole Madness

Imagine spotting one of these little babies in the street on your next jaunt through the neighborhood:

Aren't they amazing? Who knew manhole covers could be so entertaining? The possibilities seem endless...

{via Spray Glue}

Skirt-opia

Wow. Wow. Wow. I don't know if you have heard about this website, but it is amazing. The Skirt Spot is just that - a spot to buy skirts. There are SO many cute skirts that I had a hard time only choosing a few to spotlight. Here are my picks (the cute orange one just screams "Sarah" to me):






{via Design Mom}

Update

The current stats for the Santiago Fire (I realized that ours really doesn't get any national coverage and I wanted to post an update for any interested):

Acres Burned: Almost 25,000 and still going strong

Containment: 30% (it has been this since Monday, except for this morning when we were up to 50%, which unfortunately didn't last).

Structures Burned: 8 residences damaged and 14 destroyed; 12 outbuildings damaged and 8 destroyed.

Immediate threat to 2,000 structures.

Reward: The reward for information leading to an arrest of the arsonist is now up to $250,000

My impressions: I am looking forward to a day in the not-so-distant future with no more red sunrises, smoke and ash in the air, homes threatened and destroyed, and waiting tensely for the latest update.

btw: Our friends' house is fine so far, but they are still under mandatory evacuation even though they have decided to go back anyway.

Photos

I just wanted to post some of my favorite amateur photos of the fires (most of them are Santiago). Things are still really tense with our fire, so I find it cathartic to post these. And no, just because Malibu is fine doesn't mean the other fires in Southern California are under control (don't get me started on the inordinate amount of coverage for the Malibu fire when it is one of the smallest and least destructive fires in the area...it makes me tense). Anyway, here are some photos:

These last two are my favorite. The first was a really low point for us when the firefighters got stuck and had to deploy their shelters as a last resort. Luckily, they were okay (just minor burns). Soon after that, though, they had to completely pull out of Modjeska Canyon and let those homes burn as the conditions were too dangerous. We lost 14 homes that day.




On a happy note, life goes on in Southern California for many people, and we will always find a way to get in a little surfing.

Fire Update

Well, it's 2:30am, and I'm sitting in my room trying to get more current fire information. I was asleep until a little while ago when we heard from some family friends that they were heading to our house after evacuating their house near Portola Hills. The fire is so unpredictable and resources are stretched so thin...not to mention the horrible smoke and ash in the air. We watched the news all day. Luckily we haven't lost any houses, but it was pretty close up in Foothill Ranch (part of Lake Forest about 2 miles away from here). They are using the high school as an emergency evacuation center (weird - I'm glad I'm not still a student there!). Here are some of the pictures from yesterday (Monday) and earlier this evening:

Oh, just in case you are trying to follow any of our coverage, our fire is being called the Santiago Fire.

Naughty Monkey

At church yesterday, Chelsea and I noticed a girl wearing these shoes, but in brown. We both really liked them, so I tried to find them on the internet. I was only able to find them in gold and silver, which I don't like quite as much. I then checked out the Naughty Monkey shoe line and found some cool but pretty crazy shoes. Here is one pair that I really like:



Here are a couple of the "crazy" ones:

When I saw this shoe line, I totally thought of Erin and how I could totally picture her wearing some of their more colorful heels. Here's to you Erin!

C'mon Baby Light My Fire

Wow. If you haven't heard, Southern California is on fire. Literally. We were all aware of the fires in Malibu and San Diego area, but it definitely got worse. Yesterday evening my parents called from a walk and said that they could see flames from the end of our street. Chelsea and I walked down, and you could actually see flames beneath the orange glow lighting up the sky. It was a while before it was on the news, but it is now being called the Santiago Canyon fire. We found out it was about 5 miles away. Here are updates if you want to see for yourself.

The main problem is that we are currently having our Santa Ana winds, which are incredibly strong (hurricane-force gusts), dry and hot. Not only that, but we had an incredibly dry summer. Last night there were 12 different fires in Southern California, and 7 counties are in a state of emergency. Luckily, although it got very close in Irvine, ours has not burned any homes yet. Tons of people are evacuated, and ours has burned over 8,800 acres. I learned this morning on the news that the Santiago Canyon fire was started by arson in 3 places - what sick person...? At one point last night, they were reporting that all of the fires were 0% controlled because the winds were so strong and erratic. Luckily, they are starting to get some control this morning, but not much. Please keep Southern California in your prayers!

Hello?

Is anybody paying attention to what is happening/happened in Pakistan? I really hope so. I'm not sure if we can be friends if you aren't aware.

Presenting...

So, after a long afternoon (into evening) that was supposed to only involve some test-drives, my parents ended up buying a 2007 Nissan Murano as my mom's new car. I have to admit, it's pretty stinkin' nice inside. I wonder, though, about those people who go through the car-buying process every couple of years. Who has all of that time to spend at the dealership in that laborious car-buying process? Anyway, this does look nice in the driveway even though I now have to park on the street.

Ilee Letterpress Calendar

I really REALLY want this calendar for my birthday, Christmas, whatever. People have been blogging about it, and it has been selling out like crazy. As of now, there are about 70 left, so I'm hoping someone gets it for me soon...(hint hint).

The Addams M&M's?

I think this Addams Family M&M's commercial is hilarious, and totally funky. When checking out the M&M's website, I found this really cool program where you can create your own M&M, accessories and all. After spending WAY too much time on the site, mine ended up looking like a cross-dressing diva. Oh well. She still was pretty amazing. Create your own M&M's character here.