Package from England!!

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(Ian is in the 1st 2 photos and Ronan is in the bottom 2 photos)

Thanks Nana and James for the package..I think Christmas came early for the boys! :-)

It couldn't have come at a perfect time because the boys were getting cranky and needed a distraction and this did the trick. The boys loved all the gifts (animal masks, shark card game, glow in the dark lizards, books on tape, agate, book on rocks and minerals, alligators). Matthew will love the sweeties and we'll be sure to give the gift to Scott. I can't wait for Matthew to show us the card game that he used to play as a child. The boys just loved the masks!!!

We went to Jump n' Jamin this morning and it was so great. The boys finally got to run around and release a lot of their pent up energy since the fires. I was able to talk to some friends and the boys played for a few hours; it was so nice!
I was so excited...the boys ate a really great raw salad tonight. I cut up all different kinds of veggies (jicama, beets, cucumbers, red bell pepper, spinach, zucchini, and carrots) and put them in bowls and then put out bowls of raisins, sunflower seeds and pine nuts. I also made a dressing/dip with raw tahini, juice of 1 lemon, 1 clove garlic, little bit of agave and water. The boys loved it and had so much fun with the veggies (I made the beets and zucchini into noodles using the spiral machine). I was so happy they enjoyed their dinner and it was all so good for them. Go RAW!!!

I am so thankful for my family, my health, getting out today so the kids could run around, receiving the package from Nana and James, boys eating mostly raw today and Matthew coming home a little bit early so he could put the kids to bed.

Love,

Shelly

We're back!! (Bathrooms and Fires)

(Above picture is courtesty of the LA Times and is a picture of the Santiago Fire near homes in Portolla Hills - just a few miles from our house).

Wow!!! What an incredible stressful 5 weeks!! It took 4 weeks to finish our bathrooms and then we spent the weekend trying to organize and clean the house and garage and then Sunday night the fires started all around California. We were driving home from having dinner at Au Lac (an awesome raw vegan/vegetarian restaurant) and we saw the fire on the hillside right by Irvine. We immediately called Emily because she lives right there and left a message for her. She called us back a few minutes later and she could see the fire from her patio. For a whole week we've had the kids indoors due to the poor air quality. The air was so bad this week - lots of ash was falling down and it was so hard to breathe. Yesterday it was drizzling and little bit cold but today it was hot again and the air smelled this morning. I'm hoping this break in the winds and hot weather gave the firefighters a chance to finally get a hold on this fire.

Here's a map of the fire near our house: http://www.ocfa.org/pages/ocfa.asp?filename=canyonfiremap.asp

This is the most recent information as of Sunday night, Fire officials expect to fully contain the Santiago fire by Friday, authorities reported today.
"The blaze is now 65 percent contained, far better than previous days. Still, flames so far have burned 28,012 acres -- the size of about two Manhattans.
The blaze remained a threat to about 200 homes deep into Silverado Canyon. So far, the blaze has destroyed 15 homes and injured six firefighters, Orange County Fire Authority reported today."

My parents called on Monday morning letting us know about the fire near them. They had to evacuate my grandparents because the fire was so close to their house. They returned to their house a few days later and found that their grove (I don't know how many acres) were all burned, their plants around their pool was all burned, all of the chemicals and equipment for the pool was burnt and the tree right by their house was half way burnt. They later found out that a neighbor had stayed behind and fought the fire and saved their house (thank goodness!!).

They are back in their house and are safe from the fires.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msa=0&msid=114250687465160386813.00043d08ac31fe3357571

This has just been so insane and unbelievable. I'm so thankful we were not in imminent danger and yes we are going crazy staying inside every day, but we are all safe and healthy. (I have the air conditioner running and the air purifier). I truly hope they can put out all of the fires in California this week and hope everyone who has been evacuated can go back to their homes very soon. I will miss the beautiful forest and hope it can regrow and rebuild quickly and I hope all of the animals can find new homes. I want to give a very special shout-out to Shalimar's husband who is a firefighter and has been working so hard this past week. I can't even imagine how stressful it is to have a husband that is a firefighter and caring for 2 small children during this time. If you are reading this Shalimar, please give Brian a big hug and kiss for all of us!!! And if you need anything, anything, please call me!! :)

While we were gone during the construction, we stayed with my parents in Escondido (went to the Wild Animal Park a few times - thanks Mom for the yearly passes!! and played with the family), went camping at O'Neil Regional Park (I think it wasn't damaged from the fire) with 8 other families (about 16 kids were there) and we all had an awesome time, and stayed at a house in Laguna Beach (it was OK) and then went back to my parents house. We were able to spend one night at our house (with one working toilet and no bath or shower) and then we went to Sedona for the Raw Spirit Festival. We just loved Sedona and want to go back for a week long vacation. We went on 2 hikes and the kids did great. The Festival was awesome and the food was incredible. There was a children's area that had a big teepee and had all kids of kids' activities. I was able to listen to some great talks, see some parts of raw films and bought a lot of raw goodies, hemp clothes and actually won a DVD (http://www.rawfor30days.com/).

I felt like there was so much going on that I didn't get to do everything I wanted to do. Certain talks conflicted with each other (like I wanted to listen to David Wolfe and Matt Monarch but they were speaking at the same time). Or I wanted to go to more of the food demos but they conflicted with the talks or with the meal times. Also the food line was super long and people were waiting over an hour just to get their food. Luckily since we had the kids, we were able to eat first, but I really felt bad for everyone else. We had rooms at the Radisson which is where they held the festival and the rooms were great - very comfortable beds and nice pool/spa. I would love to go next year and see if they do anything differently.

So, here are before and after pictures of our master bathroom (We still need to put up a shelf or cupboard above the toilet and hang a picture above the towel rack).

OLD MASTERBATH

NEW MASTERBATH

OLD HALLWAY BATH

NEW HALLWAY BATH

I am so thankful for getting the bathrooms finally finished (except for a few minor cosmetic things), being safe and not living too close to the fires, my awesome family, my health, raw foods, and the wonderful firefighters working their butt off to fight these fires and save homes. Please keep them in your thoughts and prayers!!!

Love, Shelly