Shoes, Glorious Shoes!

Ever since Erin has had friends come over to play (I truly detest the term "playdate!"), I've for some reason really enjoyed looking at their little shoes lined up together. (OK, so these days, the shoes aren't that little, but I digress...) I can't even begin to explain why. They usually just look so, well, happy, especially at the beginning of the school year when they're clean and new! I wish they could tell stories about all the fun things they've done with their owners... the playtime, school time, girl drama, all of it. Today, Erin had two friends come home with her after school, and when I saw their shoes all lined up on the stairs, I just had to capture them. If only these shoes could talk!

A New Beginning, and New Chuckles

TGIF! When we came downstairs, we were greeted with a stunning sunrise through the tree tops. I love mornings like this, when it's just cloudy enough to make the sunrise interesting. (Or, heck! When there is a sunrise, instead of being socked in by fog.) Anyway, I ran to get my camera, jumped outside, and snapped away trying to catch it's beauty.

After my early morning shutter-bugging, I started dealing with our normal morning breakfast routine, and Jim made his morning oatmeal. I've mentioned this in other posts as well, but our pets get to share in the oatmeal leftovers each morning. Molly gets to lick out the bowl, and Mia gets to enjoy the spoon. This has caused Mia to become quite the begging kitty (she's worse than the dog!), and she'll sit quietly by the table, hoping to get a piece of something yummy. Breakfast remains her favorite meal of the day though, and she puts on quite a show for us while she licks that little spoon clean!

And So It Begins...

Day Two of school means that the year has officially begun, and the first homework starts coming home. Like most kids, Erin's not too fond of it, but I have to give her credit - she's gotten much better in the past year about doing it and getting it over with. Today, for example, she had to write a 5-paragraph essay about one of her favorite memories from the summer, and she attacked it like nobody's business. When she was finished, she proudly stood up by the table and read it to me, even making sure to make eye contact with her audience while she read. I have to admit, I was quite proud of what she'd written, as well as her dedication in getting it done. I can only hope that the rest of the year's assignments go this smoothly.

Leaving a Legacy (con't)

Back in June, I posted about the project that Erin's school did in allowing students to create tiles to be affixed to the walls of the school. Erin was very excited to be there during the year that they did it, and couldn't wait to see the new tiles up on the wall. Yesterday was the big PTA event at school (the day the kids found out who their teachers would be), and we thrilled to see that the new tiles had been put up! It took us a while, but we found Erin's tile, right in the middle of the group. It's great to know that it will be there long after she's moved on to her next schools (which will be next year! Yikes!).

Today, though, was even more exciting... The first day of school! For Erin, this is a big year. She's in fifth grade, so it's her last year in elementary school. Oddly enough, we woke up this morning to, of all things, rain. I couldn't believe it. That's so completely out of character for this time of year here! But it didn't stop Erin from putting on her new clothes (and she even got to wear her new school sweatshirt that we weren't expecting to break out until much later), and we walked to school with umbrellas. My grandmother used to say that rain on a big event was good luck. I'll stick to that thinking, because I think this is going to be a GREAT year!!!

Beach Erosion

For much of the summer, Erin and I have gone down to Salt Creek Beach on Tuesdays and Fridays to meet our friends and have some fun. Today marked what will most likely be our last regular visit of the summer, as next week we'll be away and the week after that, school starts. So we packed up the car this morning and headed down. The first thing we noticed, as we went up over the hill right near our house, was that the ocean area was shrouded in fog. Bummer. But who cares? Even an overcast day at the beach is better than a day at home. When we got there, we schlepped down to the beach (it's a long, downhill walk), to find that the beach was, well, small. It's usually a good distance between the water and the sitting areas (even in high tide), but today, that wasn't the case. The high surf that we've been experiencing this week has definitely taken its toll on the beaches. There was a short beach to sit on, and then a 3-4 foot drop (literally!) down to where the water was. And seeing as it was high tide, we had a few times when the waves splashed against that wall o' sand and up and over it. Interesting... It was odd to look down the beach and see that wall stretch as far as the eye could see. This picture isn't the greatest, but you can definitely get the idea.

Of course, the girls certainly didn't mind the inconvenience of having to climb up a cliff face to get back to their towels. They spent much of the time building "steps" in it to make it easier, and doing other things that we couldn't quite see from our perch up above. But in this pic, you can see how much lower they were down there than we were up top! They were STANDING UP! Yikes!

Call to Order

Looking around, it's obvious that the new school year is almost upon us. There are back-to-school sales going on everywhere, and kids are starting to get that moping look they get when they know the fun and games is about to end. Another way to tell is that the PTA organizations start gearing up for the new year as well. Today was the first PTA executive board meeting of the new year at Erin's school. Our new (and awesome!) president pounded the gavel to officially get the year underway, and many of the committee chairs had a chance to give their updates or (like me, for the yearbook) get things approved. It was great to get together with this wonderful group of parents and hear some of the exciting things that that are planned for this year at the school!

Bubble Power

I've been a long-time wearer (and lover) of contact lenses, going back to when I was in high school. I much prefer wearing them to my glasses, especially when it's really sunny out and I need sunglasses. For the last few months, I've been having a problem with my left eye, so I've been wearing my glasses more and more, but with our vacation fast approaching (5 days!), I wanted to make sure I'm able to comfortably wear my beloved contacts. Yesterday, I called my optometrist's office and asked what they recommend these days for cleaning soft lenses, seeing as I've done the same thing for as long as I can remember. The assistant told me that they recommend something called Clear Care, and told me to come by and get a box. As soon as I saw it, it brought back memories of Aosept, which I'd used for years. Well, I read the instructions (including some pretty bold and red warnings about not getting the solution in your eyes before it's had time to neutralize - point taken!), and gave it a whirl last night. WOW! This morning, it was like the lenses were brand new. I successfully and comfortably wore them all day, taking them out just now to take a picture of them bubbling away in their case. Clear Care, where have you been all my life?