Click...

Tonight on the ABC show 20/20 our friend Bill Tancer was interviewed by Elizabeth Vargas! He has written a book called Click which is about how the internet is used in our lives! He looked and sounded as though he has been on national television all of his life! We were very impressed and proud! I recorded the program if you missed it and would like to see it!!! We have known Bill and his wife Lori for probably 15 years! They are an amazing couple and we have always enjoyed the time spent with them! Bill is going to be interviewed on Good Morning America on Tuesday morning!!! We look forward to reading the book and hope it becomes a best seller!!!
(Okay, Kim that is another famous person I know!!! I actually have had dinner with him in his home too!!! Ha, Ha!!!)
Anyway...Great Job Bill!!! Have a great time in New York!!!

Hot Winds, Fire and just a bunch of rambling!!!

The last few days have been very busy! I am trying to get ready to have company at my house and this always puts me into a cleaning frenzy! If I could be more diligent about the dust and clutter I wouldn't have to be this way and I always think "Now I will be able to keep up on this stuff" and I just don't! I guess it really isn't a huge priority to me to have the immaculate house!
This week I have gone through drawers, cupboards and shelves and thrown or given away a bunch of stuff! I probably could do this every day for a month and go back and do it again the next month and still have way too much junk! I bought new filters for my vacuum when I realized that it really didn't seem to make much a difference when I pushed the beast around! I would love to buy one of those Dysons that don't need bags or filters!!! Maybe someday! The hot winds have made me very edgy today. Fire has always freaked me out! Yesterday we had a fire on West Anderson Drive that burned about 200 acres(thankfully no structures) and there were a couple of fires in the Redding area, one in Millville, two in the Shingletown area. Today, we had a house burn in Churn Creek Bottom which caused evacutations of many people, damage to another home and a couple of outbuilding destroyed. The weather man predicts that this hot blast of wind will end tomorrow (Redding was 109 degrees today with wind gusts of 41 mph) and that we will be cooling off by Sunday. This is probably the first time in my life that I am actually praying for a good rain storm (without lightning) . We really need the water and the relief from the drought conditions. I noticed on the past weekend that so many oak trees are brown and losing their leaves. I hope they are not all dying and are just dry and going into autumn mode early...
Our Firefighters are doing an awesome job to keep life and property safe.
I am looking forward to seeing many of my favorite people on Saturday...our 3rd of July celebration on August 30th!!! For those of you who are too far away to be able to come, I will miss you. Maybe I will be able to get some great fireworks pics to share with you!!!

Tuesday!

Wow! Today was the first day of a new season of life! Collin and I had all morning together before we had to go and pick up Drew! Why is this a new season? Well, last school year Collin was just a tiny baby and didn't know the difference when him and I were alone! Now he is more of a toddler and he knows that it is just the 2 of us and he wants attention!!! I remember when it was the first day of just Drew and I and boy was it different!!! Molly andLydia had spent almost the whole summer with me and when school started it was a lot different because Drew didn't have any other kids to play with!!! I treasure this time with each kid! Collin is such a sweet boy and he played with Daisy and Dot the cat (she loves the attention he gives her...Daisy not so much!) He spent time putting coins into a piggybank, drank a bottle, tried to take a nap, went up and down the porch steps and played with all of the toys we have in a tub for him! He loves to get the hair rollers out from under our bathroom sink and carry them around! He has learned how to get on and off the little wood bike and ring the bell but not move it around too much yet!

We went and picked up Drew at 11:30 and saw the fire in Redding beginning...luckily on the opposite side of the freeway from Melissa & Mike's house...When we got home I fixed lunch while Drew did her homework! She did it very nicely and I am so proud of her! I hope she keeps up the excitment !!! When it was time for lunch, we had Dino Chicken nuggets (my oven decided to not work again, bummer) that I had to cook in the microwave and Collin decided he wanted to eat with Drew. It was so cute. He got on one of the little chairs so I decided to see if it would work and he just sat there and ate all of the chicken I gave him, drank his milk from a sippy cut like a big boy and was soooo happy!!! He is growing up too fast. They all are :-(

Anyway, we went and picked up Riley after school and went to their house so that they could get ready for soccer practice...and it was so wonderful to hear Riley say that she had an Awesome Teacher!!! She is enjoying school so far and yes I know it is only the 2nd day but it is a great start to the year!!! She had already done her homework so she asked to watch a movie and I could say yes!!! It was a great afternoon!!!

Tanners party pics!

Maybe someday I will be better at adding pics to the posts but until then here are more pics from Saturday!

pictures from saturday's fun!

The pic of Drew has a story! She forgot her soccer shorts and didnt realize until they were already at the soccer park...luckily Drews game wasnt first!!!

Riley played very well and Collin didn't want to wear his hat so he got sunblock in his hair and it looked crazy!

Fun Daze of Summer!

Today was a fun family day! We did the soccer stuff this morning and then went home and had a nap before going to Tanners Birthday Party at the Aquatic Center in Redding!!! The Girls did a great job playing their soccer games and both seem to really have advanced in their skills and even their enjoyment of the game! It is fun to watch those young ones out their playing the game! Collin tried several times to join Drews game and he was sad that his escape efforts were thwarted every time he tried! He did his best to not wear his hat and be in the full sun as much as possible! We took him and misted him several times during Riley's game which was the first one of the day and seem to be the hottest even though it was only 10am! the artificial turf makes it much hotter and reflects instead of absorbs the heat! Who thought this was a good idea inRedding? The place even smells like hot rubber when you are in the parking lot! Drew's games are still on real grass so that was nicer for all of us and Bob had set up a canapy for some shade! Thanks Bob!
Tanners party was fun for all and seemed not too stressful for Nini! I am so glad we went! Les hada great time with Collin in the little pool and Riley and Drew were just everywhere!!! It was nice for the parents not to have to stress about everyones whereabouts the whole time! I will post pics tomorrow cause tonight I am just too tired! I am sure that Meli and Nini will have photos on their blogs about the day too!
Well off to bed! Looking forward to a fun and not so normal Sunday!!! We are taking the day off!

Rowan's phone call!

Friday evening I was trying to finish getting a few things done and the phone rang...it was quiet at first and looking at the caller id I knew it was Jen's phone and began to think that I had been called by accident...then I heard a little sound and realized that it was Rowan!!! She didn't say anything that I could understand to begin with and I could hear Jen in the background telling her to talk to me. Then she started to whisper and I had to say I couldn't understand her and to speak louder...she said...my Mommy has a baby in her tummy!!!
So, we are expecting our 7th grandchild sometime in April!!! Rowan is excited, Lydia isn't and I have heard that Molly cried...she will be 15 when she gets another sibling and I am sure she isn't looking forward to it. Another annoying little person in the house...We hope she won't have to share her room or her birthdate (April 28th) but I know she is and will still be a fabulous big sister no matter what happens!!! So 2009 will have something great to look forward to!!!

Wow, Friday already...it seems like life is just zooming by and there is no slowing it down! I look at my calendar and I am just amazed that it is August 22nd. I was hooking my phone up to google calendar so that I can use it as my calendar instead of a paper one and when I was looking back and gathering birthday dates I realized how much has happened this year and how it all seems like it was just yesterday for most of it!!! I am amazed that both Jen and Mel have lived in their new homes for about 5 months already...seems like not that long ago I helped both of them move! I can hardly believe that summer is basically over, Collin is already one year old, &we had the adventure of a lifetime on our trip to Europe!!! I can hardly imagine that the next few months will be as eventful as the previous months but I know for sure that they will! Life is never boring in the Baugh house! Maybe boring is slower...what do you think?

Grandma's Art Class!!!

Melissa says I am borrowing trouble, but I have been thinking about what I will do with myself when Collin goes to school and I have no more babies to take care of....basically when I have empty nest syndrome again!!! Riley told me yesterday that she thinks I should have an Art School/Day Care cause I do both of those things great!!! That was very sweet of her and I will keep this in mind!!! What brought this to her mind was that I decided I wanted to do somemore mosaics and thought it would be fun to try it with Riley and Drew!!! I kinda forgot that i would also be dealing with a one year old little boy at the same time!!! I bought all of the stuff I would need after work on Monday and was all ready to get started on Tuesday morning!!!

We went out to the front side yard so that I wouldn't have to worry about Collin playing with Scruffy poop and got set up!!! The girls loved breaking the dishes and didn't want to stop doing it when I thought we had enough! Collin wanted to play with the hammer too but we had to restrict his fun! The part of gluing the broken dishes on the clay pots went very well. We had to wait until today to do the final grouting...This was a more difficult step and I helped a bit more so that all of the cracks could get filled in with grout. The gooeyness was fun for awhile but then Drew got a bit tired of having it on her hands!!! I helped both girls finish their pots but the design was all of their own!!! Final step was the buffing of all of the dish pieces and marbles to make them cleaner and both girls did a bunch of this! We had a great time making our beautiful pots and I am sure we will have to do more of this type of project! It was really fun!

more pics!

Molly and I took a class on Duck Tape Art! We learned how to make duck tape rose pens! Lydia built the house that is in the picture by copying one that was sitting next to it! Great job!

5 busy days!

We had a great time at the Home School Conference! It was as much as an adventure as expected! Thursday we left the house at about noon and drove to Sacramento. It was an uneventful trip and we arrived about 2:30! Jen's house smelled great when we got there cause she had baked some bread!!! I wanted to eat it right then but it was for the next day...bummer! We ate dinner and then went to the Ramada for the Conference's Ice Cream Social. It turned out to be the modern type where you stand in line and pick what kind of Ice cream bar you wanted for 2.50 per person!!! It was ok and we had an interesting special guest to come and entertain...and I use the word entertain loosely!!! It was a Capt. Jack Sparrow look-a-like who jumped out of a coffin and then said a few insulting words to the crowd and then he strutted around with a girl and got his pic taken with some people...he scared the little kids and bored the adults...he really wasn't very entertaining and I hope they didn't have to pay him very much!!! The next morning we started out doing a mosaic class and we broke plates with hammers! It was fun and our mosaics turned out great! We did many activities over the 3 days, finger painting, improv theater classes, fun math classes, orgami, and we swam 3 times in 2 days! We saw naked children, Screaming children, Happy children, Great teenagers and not so great ones too!!! The talent show was ok but the talent was limited! There were adults that had a fabulous time and ones that had their own agenda's (and tried to inflict them on everyone else) some of the adults are very involved in their kids educations and there are those who just pretend to be involved ( this is called unschool or unparenting). I had a great time with my family and also getting to know the other homeschool families! I look forward to going again next year! I feel that I learned some new and fun things too!!! I also really enjoy people watching!!!

Well I am off to Sacramento for about 4 days to attend the Home School Conference! I don't really know what to expect, except to have fun with the family!!! We are planning on doing classes like self defense and finger painting, I thought we should do the Ukulele class and then have a family band...they also have belly dancing so Molly could have been our dancer...but I was the only one who thought this way...they can be no fun sometimes! It will be an adventure that is for sure and I should have quite a bit to write about when I get home!!!

Fun Pictures!

For some reason the pictures didn't make it to the last blog!!! But, anyway here are just a few of the day!!!

A very fun day!

We had alot of fun today going swimming. We went at about noon and only stayed for a couple of hours but, it was enough time! It was such a hot day (108 was the official) that even a couple hours in the sun was very draining! Afterward, we went to Melissa's house and prepared for our Christmas Card Photo Session!!! Collin fell asleep in the car on the way home from swimming and I worried that he wouldn't be a happy boy but he fooled us and did a great job!!!
Melissa did a great job both taking pics at the pool and for our photo session! It was so smooth that I was amazed!!! I can't wait till you can see the pictures at Christmas!!!

Jen and Dave brought the girls to stay with us for a few days. They spent the night before having to go home. We went to my parent's house and picked veggies from their garden...Dave was very excited to take so much home and Jen is going to be doing some cooking with all of the veggies!
My Grandkids are so much fun! They enjoy playing together and it just makes me happy to have them all together!

Molly is 14 and Riley is 9 and they have fun just sitting around together. They are too old to dress up like princesses even though they still are princesses! This picture of Rowan (2) was taken tonight after she had spent a fun day at Aunt Melissa's house!

Collin is playing outside in the playhouse! He was having a fun time in there! Rowan was riding Drew's tricycle. Riley and Molly love to take goofy faced pictures! We don't have any firm plans for the visit but maybe swimming and we are going to try to take our Christmas Card picture!!! I know it seems a bit early for this but it isn't an easy thing to do with 6 kids and 2 adults and a dog!!! We are hoping for smiley pictures and not crying pictures!!! What are the odds it will work out?

3 days to report!

It isn't always easy to know what to write about is it? I dislike the idea of being boring!
Monday, I worked at M. It didn't start out very well cause I set the alarm off...how embarrassing! I had had a rough night and I just wasn't feeling 100%. It would have been a day I could have been happy just laying in bed! Anyway, I got a case of merchandise entered and priced and a bunch of stuff that Aleah had gotten done put out on the floor so I didn't feel like I was a total bum!!! Kim's friend Denise and her mom came in so that was nice to see them again!
After I closed the store I ran to the bank and made a deposit that I had been holding on to and went to the ATT store and got my voice mail programed into my new phone (they forgot to do that when Les picked it up) Then I met Les at his office and we went out to Texas Springs Rd to his Dancing with the stars cast party! It was at a very nice home out there and we had a good time visiting with many of the dancers and the partners! Les got a bottle of wine with a picture of him and his partner doing the waltz...a very elegant photo! Also they handed out the dvd of the whole program! We will have to watch it soon. Les is anxious to see himself but nervous too!
Tuesday was such a nice day! We took a walk around the block and I know that doesn't seem like much but Riley and Drew and Collin felt like it was a very long walk!!! Drew wanted to stop half way and get a drink at Dr Kerri's office, Riley wanted to stop at TJs (not open yet!) and Collin had never walked that far before!!! Daisy was the one who was most enthusiastic about the walk!! Collin actually walked about 1/4th of the way which is great for a first walk!!!
Today, we sat in the front yard and the kids enjoyed being out and playing! Collin did really well going up and down the front steps but he doesnt understand the part about falling off the edge of the porch and we had some close calls! We sat on the swing and he really enjoyed swinging!
Gymnastics today was good timing cause the girls needed to do something NOT together for awhile and they couldn't fight with each other in different classes!!! Collin learned how to put money into the piggy bank yesterday and today he didn't want to ever stop so I had to hide the pig from him!!! Such a problem huh?

August 3rd - What is in a date?

August 3rd has always been a monumental day in my family. I am sure many families have the same situation as we do...Today would have been my Grandad's 107th birthday if he were still alive, it is my brother Tim's 49th birthday and it is also Tim's Grandson's birthday (I am not exactly sure how old he is...maybe 4?) When Grandad was alive we would all get together for his birthday and celebrate, I have pictures of his 94th Birthday party, August 3rd, 1993...Tim was here for a family visit and there were alot of people at the party. We looked like we had a good time! This was Grandad's last birthday, he passed away January 31st, 1994. My Grandfather had a great and long life. He was a very brilliant and kind man. He had outlived 2 wives that he had loved and had cared for very well. My Dad died when I was 12 and he stepped in and helped my Mom with repairs around our house. (I especially remember him repairing the bathroom floor) I only remember him raising his voice once to us as kids and we deserved it! When I tell people who knew him that he was my Grandfather I only hear great things about him...what a legacy he left us! I have a swing that he built for my Gramma Jessie in my backyard. He built it from car parts and 2 bed frames. It was built to last forever and it will!!! I feel very fortunate that my family decided I should have it after Grandad died...I have great memories from my childhood because of my Grandparents!
My Brother Tim lives in the Rochester, New York area and I haven't seen him since I took him and his family to the Reno Airport in 1993... this makes me sad because so much has happened in the last 15 years. I would like to introduce him to my Grandchildren...I would like to meet his Grandson! It is so hard to believe that that many years have passed since that birthday party.
I wonder if we would have done or said things differently if we would have known that it was the last time we were going to be together...Just tells you how much we need to treasure those special date and times we spend together as a family.......

So much to say...where to start???

Today was a very good day! First of all the air was fairly clean today, that is a real blessing! Then I was able to spend some "Me Time" at the beauty parlour getting my hair done! I always enjoy that! I ran across a great sale at Mervyns this morning (75% 0ff) and got a few new things that will fit me better! When I got home there was a package for me in the mail from Matt's sweet girlfriend, Janet. It held a very nice and uplifting note, a great picture of Matt and Janet on the boat, a cute little note pad and 2 very fun bead bracelets and 2 pairs of matching earrings that she had made! I was so thrilled!!! How often do you get a present when it isn't your birthday or a holiday or anything!!! Thank you again Janet!!!
Then, Les and I went to Pisano Days at the Anderson River Park with Les and Kim Faires, we ate spagetti there and then went to the movies at Prime 11. We saw the movie Swing Vote with Kevin Costner. It is a must see movie. Two Thumbs Up!!! It was a movie I wasn't sure if I would enjoy and am so glad we got to see it!!! It is always a good time with the Faires'! Thanks for spending the evening with us!
Now I want to tell you about a friend of ours who has written a book and is going to be interviewed on Good Morning America and 20/20!!! His name is Bill Tancer and his book is about how people use the internet. He will be on 20/20 (interviewed by Elizabeth Vargas) on August 29th andGMA on September 2nd!! We are so excited for him and can't wait to read the book! Way to Go Bill!!!
Well, enough for now...I will save some stuff for tomorrow!!!