Behold Travis's New Obsession

Yes.

Kurt Goble is my son's newest obsession.

Not the man himself, but rather what to get him for his birthday. (Which is in August by the way, in case you didn't know.)

Every time he sees a commercial for a Barbie or Bratz product he comes shouting to me exclaiming that he wants to get Kurt one of those for his birthday. This pattern has been going on for the last 24 hours.

Perhaps this is retribution for all of the princess birthday cards Kurt's given my boys over the years?

Hmmm...I wonder.

--Laurel

Where We've Been...

Nope..contrary to reports the Baker family hasn't dropped off the face of the earth--it just seems like it! To date this is what we've been up to:

--Getting old...so old that now we use a pill box to keep track of all our supplements. Yikes!

--Playing hookey from work and watching baseball on a Sunday morning.

--Watching a rocket launch from Vanderburg while standing on the bridge at Bolsa Chica...hoping the serial killers weren't out yet (after all, it was only 7:30 at night).

--Clearing out the wildlands in our back patio.

--Going to the pumpkin patch for the 3rd time.

--Work, work and more work.

--Enjoying the fact that Austin got to work in the JV/Varsity Bullpen as a Freshman. :)

--Learning that our daughter is tenacious and will stand up for herself as needed. Very cool!

--Hearing that Billy's sister had finally received her referral for the adoption of a 21 month old boy from Ethiopia.

--Last but not least, the most time consuming of them all...keeping up with Travis.

It's not an awesome blog post full of great theories and thoughts about life, but merely and update. Enjoy it for what it is!

Laurel

Slacker

Hello...My name is Laurel and I'm a blog slacker.

I apologize.

I will post something absolutely enthralling and utterly world changing--

Just not today.

Until then!

--Laurel

Reminiscing...

I miss Fall in Oregon!

Things I miss:

-The crunch of the grass under your feet as you walk to school after the first frost.
-Beautiful fall leaves and the smokey smell of them being burnt. (A country thing.)
-Football games where you were actually cold enough to bundle up for them. Cold enough that you could watch the frozen spider webs float eerily like ghosts over the field.
-Apple orchards and fresh cider.
-The anticipation of the coming winter...staring out my window every night at the streetlight willing my eyes to see the first flakes of snow.
-Occasionally trick-or-treating in that said snow. Or at least traipsing about town collecting candy with 2 layers of clothes underneath your costume to keep warm.
-The smell of freshly baked cookies. (It's way too hot to bake right now.)
-Ditto for the warm comforting soups and fresh bread.
-Using the wood stove for the first time of the season.

Yeah. I know I sound like I'm whining. I do love living here down in Socal by the beach. It has it's marvelous blessings...but every Fall I find myself pining for the change that the season brings. Trees are supposed to change colors and the weather is supposed to become brist. Oak Glen can substitute once in a while, as well as trips to Big Bear...but they're not the same.

So for those of you who still live there...enjoy a day for me!

--Laurel