Parting Gifts from Nana

Words cannot express what I felt when I came home to find my boys frolicking in the yard in these little numbers. It's sun consciousness taken to a whole new level. Of course the boys LOVE them, live in them. Look out Redding, the Osbornes are ready for a pool party!

Best Night Ever

My sister Vicki and I headed out to Ikea last night to help outfit my new home to be in Redding. It was four hours of shopping madness. I don't make house purchases, especially big ones, easily, and Vicki patiently helped me deliberate each item.

Final decisions were made and we found ourselves rounding it all up in the self-help wherehouse. With thirteen minutes till closing we discovered my dining room table was discontinued. Panic! Vicki took me in hand and directed me to make a run for the display floor table I saw upstairs while she maneuvered our two bulky carts of items stacked willy nilly to the checkout counter herself. I was racing against the clock. With eyes burning, pulse racing, and a sweat breaking I quickly outwitted the labyrinth that IKEA is to find my table upstairs. They sent my table down to the "As-Is" section and said I could meet it and claim it there even though the store was closing. I almost cried. I raced back downstairs, intercepted my table at "As-Is" and I got her for $200 less than the original price! I almost cried again. I felt like I had just won the amazing race, my sister and I were high fiving, congratulating ourselves on our quick thinking and resourcefulness, it was a beautiful moment. This table is solid, heavy oak, and will stand the test of time and my children which is all a girl can really ask for. Vicki, truest of sisters, made it a reality. Love you!

My current reality

This is what I'm doing every day, and when I'm not doing it, I'm thinking about how I HAVE to do it, and SHOULD be doing it. I am completely overwhelmed, I have lots of thoughts, emotions, and reflections about this HUGE change in our lives, but they're in a big jumble in my head that I can't form into coherent sentences. All I do know is I got two weeks to pack up our lives, say goodbye to my family and friends, and this community that embraced us so freely and openly. I'm SO excited for what God has for us in Redding, but it's a mess to let go of all that He had for us here!
We're gonna go play in the creek.

What I've been reading

I LOVED this book. I thought it was fascinating how this 49 year old woman chronicled her journey from coloring her hair every three weeks to maintain her brunette roots to eventually going all gray. It was interesting, very funny, and reflective of the values are society puts on youth. One of the first things Trav osbserved up here in Santa Cruz is that there is a lot of women with gray hair and long gray hair at that! You just don't see a lot of gray in women in Southern Cal, everyone is eternally youthful and good looking.
I'm definitely not judging whether women color their gray or not. I'm 35 and have grayed quite dramatically this last year, and I totally color and highlight my hair to blend it in. But I always hoped that somewhere in my 40's, perhaps late 40's, I would gracefully start to go gray and embrace it, not fight it. I don't think I could manage maintaining my roots every three weeks anyway. Who knows what I'll do when I get there, but I totally dig that this woman went for it and learned a lot about herself and was empowered along the way.

What we've been doing this summer

A highlight for us was my sister Sara and her fiance Christian flying in from Sweden for a few weeks to visit and plan their wedding. There was a flurry of cake tastings, dress fittings, decor meetings, caterers to check out, and a SHOWER of advice on Sara and Christian on how to do everything which they handled very well:). It was great to have them home, we love them both so much. We got to do the boardwalk together one night which sealed Christian's "coolness" factor with the kids. I remember watching Payton and Jonah with Sara and Christian on the "Riptide" ride or "twilt a whirl" which spins them around on individual tracks as they go in a big circle. Watching their faces light up and seeing them laugh together as they were spinning cracked me up, and I caught myself laughing out loud standing there by myself which is always weird. It's bittersweet for me to see them, sweet b/c it's great fun to be together, but a bit sad b/c it's always for just a short time.

I love this picture of my dad and LT. The evolution of my sister's nickname given by dad started with "Little Sara" which became "Little Sari" (with a long a sound) then "Little Tari" which then resulted in "LT". Nicknames are HUGE with me, I give everyone a nickname, I can't help myself, Paytie pop, Juju bee, dabey doobey, zekey baby, travee, I can't help myself.

Lots of trips to the library. It has been great fun to share in my love of reading with the kids. Payton, as you know, is totally hooked.

Planted seeds. This has been a very exciting process for the kids in watching them grow. Payton will go outside and scream like something terrible just happened, but really she's just thrilled her plants grew taller. We planted zinnias and marigolds and now the kids are consumed with arguing over who's plants are the tallest so far. Everything is a contest!

Beach days each week to watch Trav play volleyball. My kids have never been tanner, I'm still white of course. I wish I had more pictures of Trav with his shirt off for you all.

What's summer in Santa Cruz without the boardwalk? It's exhausting, loud, crazy, tons of people, and the kids can't get enough! I bought myself an annual pass along with them, and I think I've been on two rides b/c my main job is just too watch them on THEIR rides. So glad I spent the $70 on myself.

Berry picking with my dear friend Lynn and her daughter Emory at Gizdich Ranch. Lynn has been a co-laborer with me in our SoulFood Bible study at church and a gift. So many good chats, cries, chasing after our kids, watching Davey and Emory play/argue:), lots of good times!

We did swim lessons at Mt. Hermon. This is Jonah with his buddy Quinn. Jonah swore off swim lessons right up until the march to the pool the first day, and then as soon as we got there and it was time, he jumped right in without complaint. Times like these are always a little dicey, you never know which way he's gonna go. He had a blast and doggy paddles even better than I do now.

This is Payton, traumatized by another attempt off the diving board. She didn't jump off once during her three week swim class but as soon as it was done she conquered it and now that's all she wants to do. We all celebrated.

Davey "swims" by throwing himself face down into the water and floating on top of it waving his arms and legs around wildly, but not really going anywhere. The first time I saw him do it I thought he was drowning it looks so crazy, but he's quite proud of his skill and keeps insisting he's ready for the diving board and slide which are in the deep end. He gets so upset when we tell him he's not ready yelling, "But I DO know how to swim!"

Lots of good memories, now we gotta start preparing for school days. Yay for schedules again!

Corner of the Market

I just borrowed Trav's Mach 3 razor without permission upon realizing I had forgotten my own razor. He had already left for some meetings today, and I am a dark brunette girl that was planning on wearing a skirt today in the Redding heat. My fellow brunettes can attest that black leg stubble and skirts just don't mix!

Anyhoo! I was desperate, I took action, which required Trav's razor. I haven't had such a smooth shave in years!! Why don't they make women's razors in a similar fashion? It's amazing the technology! It's literally made my day.

Ladies' Roadtrip

My sister and I blew off our lives for a few days and headed to Calistoga for a little R&R. It was pretty close to perfect! Calistoga is at the northern end of Napa Valley and the drive up HWY 29 was beautiful. It's this way cute little town that's completely walkable, so we parked our car and didn't get back in until it was time to go home. Awesome! We read, ate good food, read, had great conversation, stayed in a European style hotel (shared bathrooms) above a pub and brewery, walked a lot, found a great park with big shade trees and soft grass for MORE reading, and we even indulged in a little mudbathing which Calistoga is famous for. We found this great spa that dates back to the 50's I believe and had this funky retro feel.

Has anyone sat in a mudbath? In a word, it's "interesting". We were so excited to try it out, but I have to say, the minute my first leg was "sucked" in up to my calf, I panicked and had to talk myself down to continue climbing into the tub. I felt claustrophobic, stressed, but I didn't want to appear the ninny to my cool sister, so I kept it all to myself. It's completely weird to be suspended in a tub of heavy mud that smells like manure (or fertilizer to be more polite). The attendants promised "ten minutes" and then they'd come back to get us. I think it was more like 45, or ok maybe 20, but it was way too long. I was sweating profusely and I kept thinking "how awkward would it be if I just leaped out of this tub right now?" I made it through however, drank lots of water, felt detoxified and ready for a good nap. At the end of it all Vicki admitted her reaction pretty much mirrored mine and we probably won't be dipping into the mud any time soon, or really, ever again. But we LOVED the mineral baths and all of the lounging. There should really be more time for lounging in our dailiness.
I love my sister, I've loved living in the same town together this last year, meeting for coffee, at the park with the kiddos, movie nights, but mostly all of the good conversation. She's one of the most diverse, thoughtful, and genuine people I know. I'm challenged by who she is and the questions she poses. I'm better for knowing her. It was a gift to have her all to myself for a few days.
I returned last night and stepped back into the whirlwind of our current reality. Another road trip is on the horizon for Monday. We shall return to Redding for our third trip there this year, something keeps drawing us back... But I have to say, whirlwind aside, I'm so excited to take another gander at Alyssa's big belly before Moses comes! It's always fun to find an excuse to go to Redding, God is SO good.