A New Do

Yesterday Taylor and I were looking at a scrapbook and she was reminded of her shorter haircut from a year ago. She decided she wanted chin-length hair again and I didn't trust myself to do it. So today we walked down the street to get a haircut. I told the woman to cut it just below the chin. I wonder if she spoke English. What we got was a much shorter do but fortunately Taylor didn't seem to mind, in fact, she seems very happy with it.

The Bed

Back in July or August, my dad said he'd build us a bed patterned after the one he built for himself and my mom. It's a great design with storage underneath and in the headboard. The bed is mostly done now and it was a lot of work! I helped my dad for three straight days on this project. I mostly held boards, handed tools, double checked his calculations and deciphered his vague directions like, "Hand me that." Mom worked just as hard by watching the kids, doing dishes, cooking, mending my clothes, and taking Taylor to preschool. My parents came down here for a vacation of sorts and now I think being home will feel like a vacation (except that my mom is subbing Friday and all next week--sorry Mom). Thanks for all the hard work. We love the bed.



The bed is a bit high but we wanted to make room for Peter's guitars.
We ran out of time and didn't make the headboard but Dad will make that later and bring it down on their next visit. That's the plan anyway.

Not So Green

We cut down one of our three Camellia trees last weekend. The plan is to plant a white nectarine in its place. I told Peter I didn't have a good feeling about it; there's just something wrong about cutting down a healthy tree right? Well, the tree got back at us. It was growing on top of an old rusty water pipe which we of course broke at three in the afternoon. Fortunately a guy from our ward was able to come help us fix the problem. He and Peter were out "playing" in the mud in the dark but by the girl's bedtime the pipe was cut and capped.

Going Green

I've often fantasized about riding my bike to the grocery store with kids in tow and I finally did it today. First we went to the park and on the way home we stopped by Safeway to do a little shopping. I had to lock my bike and stroller to a table in front of the store since they didn't have any other place for bikes. Pulling the kids and groceries (including two gallons of milk) wasn't that difficult except for getting going again after stopping at the red lights. I'm sure I supplied some comic relief to the onlookers in their cars.

Signs of Spring

We had an unusual week of frosty mornings a few weeks ago and now it's in the 70s every day. It feels like spring. The flowers think so too.

Peter's Projects

We had such a beautiful weekend and spent a lot of time outside. We let the chickens out one at a time to roam the yard. They're getting more and more friendly--although this one seems rather uncomfortable in my hands.

We got a Teak Patio furniture set off of Craigslist a few weeks ago and have cleaned it and oiled it so it looks like new--Peter did most of the work. The middle leaf folds in so it won't always be this big.

Peter got some scion wood from our local nursery and has tried his hand at grafting; we'll be interested to see if any of his grafts take.

A Cold Day at the Zoo

We went to the Oakland Zoo today with our friends Lisa and Mia. We thought the fog would clear up and that it would be sunny like yesterday but it was cloudy and cold. That didn't slow down the kids. They had a great time even though their little hands were freezing.