Briones Goal Update

Even though I have been behind on my blogging, I still have been keeping up with finishing all the trails in Briones Regional Park. Suzy and I have walked 3 separate hikes since my last trail update, Kim and Freddy, her American Bulldog, joined us on our last venture. From my estimation of the map, 2/3 of the trials have been completed.

Part of the enjoyment of the hikes is to see how the scenery and landscape changes with each passing month and season. The first hikes were in late fall, the weather was turning cooler, the hills and trees were going into dormant state, then we hiked in the cold and fog, to bright and vibrant hillsides in the early spring (early spring here is late winter in anywhere but California), to a few months later- California's golden hills, to our last hike, dry, dusty and hot.

Each hike has brought some new sighting of wildlife and changes in the oak trees.

Another thing that has increased is the amount of mileage hiked on each hike. The hikes started out smaller and now are getting progressively longer (just a head's up Suzy, the next few I have planned are in the 6-8 mile range).

The three above pictures were taken on 3/7/10 on a 4.7 mile hike. I love this picture right above. On an earlier post, I have this same tree and fence post in the fog. This day the sky was mostly clear and you could see Mt. Diablo in the background from the top of our hike.

The below three photos were taken on 5/30/10. More critters. I think this fat lizard just ate it's breakfast, he was just sunning and taking in a little Vitamin D. The snake was seriously in the middle of the trail and I almost stepped right on him. I think I let out a little yelp. My curiosity won the best of me and I had to poke him with a stick. Somehow he had just died recently, don't know how but he was soft and not moving. When we got back to the trail head there was a sign telling the difference between a rattle snake and another snake (I think it was a whippet snake). The snake we encountered did not have a diamond shaped head so it was not a rattle snake.

The hills were turning golden or as my sister says, "brown". She and I have had the debate of the color of the hills in California for some time now. I insist since California is called Golden State(that comes from the color of the hills) that even though the hills are brown, they are golden. This hike started on the Bear Creek Trail Head, a side we had not hiked before and was about 3.71 miles (2nd shortest hike)

The last hike we did was 7/7/10 and I did not have my camera. Not sure what I was thinking because I have been taking pictures each time out. I think the reason was because we did this hike as part of the normal morning walking routine. Thankfully, almost each week day morning a group of ladies from church have been getting up and walking 4.5-6.5 miles each time. A month into my summer vacation and we have already put in some serious miles, getting close to 80-100 miles if I was to count them up.

Thankfully, the weather was cooler and there was some fog off on the coast, which traveled up to the hill tops we climbed. The first 30-45 minutes was pretty much all up hill and my heart was jumping out of my heart. We ascended about 1000' getting close to the highest peak which we climbed on another previous hike. Of the 5 trial heads, the Gloria Terrace is by far the steepest uphill at the beginning and the steepest downhill at the end. I actually prefer the steep uphill to the steep downhill. My knees and feet take a beating on the steep downhill. There was a little extra unplanned chunk of trail that we also did so that we would not have to come back to it later to finish the goal. When all was said and we got back to the car, we hiked about 7.25 miles. The hills were really dry now and the wooded areas on the west side of the hills were lush and green.

Maybe we'll get another hike in this week, if not this week, maybe next week. The adventure and hiking goal continues. Thank you Suzanne for the challenge, thank God for His beautiful creation to be able to explore.

Back to the Blogging World

Thank you for hanging in there with me, I hope I have not lost some of you. The desire is back to spend some time blogging. I have posts lined up in my brain and I will try to do some "ketchup" and squeeze them out as time allows.


There have been birthday celebrations, mini trips, preserving, changes in seasons, pounds lost, miles walked, books of the Bible read and so much more. My little sister has been urging me to get out a post and I thank her for her encouragement and motivation. So, here is just a "briefing" of some of the highlights that I have time for this morning (Jen, Joe and the kids are in town for Thanksgiving and almost every daylight moment is spent with them).




A few weekends ago we celebrated Trinity's 4th birthday. She is growing up so fast. She is such a beautiful little girl. In the below picture we are waiting for Trin's friends to show up at Pump it Up.

Trinity is learning how to ride a bicycle with training wheels!

Trinity fondly calls Joey "brother". Brother is taking a ride on his scooter, with assistance.

Back in mid-October we celebrated Grandma's 95 birthday. This is our 4th annual birthday celebration up in Apple Hill. Grandma is still doing wonderful and defying age.


At the place I like to buy apples and pears, there were all of these old box labels that I thought were cool.

I'm learning how to take pictures and interesting shots.

This cart could barely contain all the goods that I purchased. Along with good eats for the next month, I canned 28 quarts of apple sauce. YUMMY!

The Low Down and a Few Pics

A glimpse into what has been going on in my world over the last several weeks, in no particular order, rhythm or reason.

• The is a deep feeling down in my gut that the Giants will not make the playoffs, or if they do the Dodgers will be hard to overcome. At least it's a winning season.


• School has been in session for 4 weeks now. First progress report grades are due on Tuesday. Time is flying on by but it is a long stretch now until my next day off, Veteran's Day. I think I have another good crop of students this year. My worries are not so much my students but all of the students who have 6th period PE. Between the 5 teachers in my department there are 250 students. Of these students, about 50% of them are "disciplinary repeat offenders". Daily I need to take time to pause and pray to my heavenly Father for His grace and wisdom to deal with these students and that I would always respond in a way that gives glory to God. Last week my school was put in lock down for an hour and half due to a shooting at the high school.



• End of August always means peach picking at Carol's family peach farm/ranch. Last week, I finished eating the last peach. For the first time I canned fresh peaches, using both the raw and hot processing method. Thank you Carol for always inviting us to go peach picking and to hang out with your family.
  
  
• Dawn and I took a little drive up the Silverado Trail from Napa to Calistoga. Just a drive to do something different for just a short amount of time.



• On the counter top cooling is sitting my very first attempt at making a cheese cake for a co-workers birthday tomorrow. Cheese cake is not a dessert I would choose to eat with all the yummy choices out there but I will enjoy trying what I created. The whole cheese cake was made in the Cuisinart that Suzy gave me. Thanks Suzy, I already love that you are now part of my kitchen. Speaking of Suzy, she had a group of people over last night for one of the most delicious (yum!) home made Julia Childs meals. Everything was so incredibly delicious. Great meal Suzy and absolutely wonderful fellowship!



• Since Memorial Day weekend I have been on a challenge to myself to get into better shape and to lose some weight. I praise the Lord that He has allowed some success and I feel so much better. There still is a long ways to go but with faithfulness on my part and encouragement from my family and friends, I will obtain my goal. The biggest part of my goal once I met my goal is to stay there and not go back to where I have been. Please contact me if you would like to know how I have made some of these changes and seen success.



• My dad and I went golfing over the Labor Day weekend and I managed to drive the golf ball well, stay out of the pond and out of the sand traps. My middle game and putting still needs some refining.



• At some point in the near future I would like to learn how to can tomatoes (including tomato sauce, BBQ sauce and whole tomatoes) and grape jelly or jam. Trin Trin has been asking me for sometime if I make grape jelly and I always have to tell her that I do not know how. The grapes are starting to come in at the farmer's market.



• With no air conditioning in my house I am starting to prepare myself for the big heat wave that is projected to come across the land this next week. I think for at least the next 6 days, triple digits is expected. The fog can return anytime soon for my liking.



• My faithful God is always good to me, always full of tender care and mercy.

Who is More Ready?

The end of the school year is quickly approaching and summer vacation will soon be here. As my teaching years (15 now) pass on by, my longing for summer vacation grows stronger with each passing year. This has been a good year for me, I have had a good group of students and not many "problems". Despite the lack of a stressful year, the itching to be "out of there" is huge. Not sure if that's because the end of the year is extremely busy and mind consuming or if I am just tired and need a good break. So, I have been thinking, who is more ready for a summer vacation? The students who check out sometime after spring break and state testing or teachers who attempt to keep the checked out still checked in?

People often ask me, "how many days left?" Honestly, I don't count the days left. That is scary for me because I know of all the things that need to get done before that last day. I know it is less than 3 weeks and closer to 2 weeks.

Anyways, now you know the reason for lack of posts recently. YEAH HEY, for summer vacation.

It's Been Awhile

Hi, sorry that I have been away for some time. I wish I had a really good excuse like I have been on a month long trip to some remote island in the South Pacific or that I was on a helicopter snow skiing trip. But no real reason, just busy I guess. If you still are around, thanks for your patience. It's funny, my brain has thoughts of potential blog posts all the time but to actually sit down and do them is a different story. Hopefully, I will get back into the swing of things.

Speaking of swing of things, baseball catchers and pitchers reported yesterday to Spring Training. Go Giants. Look at next post on the Giants Fan Fest last weekend.

It's Been a Busy Month

Hello everyone! It's your missing in action blogging friend Shelly. Would like to say I can't believe that it has exactly been a month since I last posted but it feels like it has been at least that and more.
Here is a brief re-cap of the last month.

First, I finished up with my week at VBS healthy and feeling much better. The week was wonderful. What freedom to share the gospel to needing little hearts. At work I can not share the gospel freely with my students. My highlight of the week was the closing program. All the kids were singing the praise songs so loud and from their little hearts. That is one of the best sounds in the world, a child singing praises (now my prayer is that God would save them). The church was packed with the kids and their families, over 60% that were from the community and not from the church. There were 15 kids from a homeless women and children ministry that my church supports. It was good to have them all at VBS.

Let's see the rest of the time has gone by so quickly. Here are some of the things in no specific order. I am back at work now, a week now actually. Before I went back to work Dawn and I took a trip to San Diego (sorry Keli J. and Jen A.- it was a very busy and packed 4 days. I need to get down there and see both of you when I have time to visit. Love you both). There will be a post later about my trip. It was a wonderful time. Before that I finally was able to start on my front yard project with the help of a landscaper. Can't wait to show you the pictures. I had 2 visits from separate past college friends. There will be a post on this too. Very sweet time of fellowship and catching up. I have been to 3 Giants games since I last posted and my boys finally started to win the game I attend. What else, oh there is more but just a brief catch up of what has been going on in my life.

I will catch up more after this long 3 day weekend. Happy Labor Day to all of you.