Friday, October 26, 2007

My 100th post

I dedicate my 100th post to my mother.

When I was little Tori and I called her "mama"...for a while it was "mommy". I'm not sure how old we were when we started to refer to her as "mother" but we were pretty young when it started. When Andrew was a baby he started calling her "mother"...we had to remind him that she was "Nana" to him. People look at us funny when they hear us call her "mother", it sounds so formal...but I couldn't imagine calling her anything else.

She has taken very good care of me since the day I was born. Somehow I think it was probably easier back then because I couldn't think for myself. Once I started "thinking" for myself things got a lot harder.

She used these hands to lift me up out of my crib, to comb my hair in to the shape of a palm tree, to cook me dinner, and to give me a bath every single night of my childhood. In the early 90's when I was diagnosed with cancer she did the same things for me. Fortunately I didn't have enough hair for her to comb in to the shape of a palm tree. In this picture she is using these hands to fish money out of her wallet so she can buy me dinner.

This is the look that I got when I told her that I hadn't cleaned my room, when I disagreed with something she said, when I told her that I hadn't gotten that noise on my car checked out, when I walked down Pacific Coast Highway after dark, (when I was 47 years old!). I also got this look when I said, "Hey..I'm going to take a bus trip across the country all by myself!", or when I said, "I have a great idea! I'm going to move in with a man who is 18 years older than me, who is the mortal enemy of my father, and play house!"


This is the look that says, "We are SUAVE groupies!! Aye carumba!" (We have matching hair do's!)

My mom has worn many hats in her life. She's been a daughter, a little sister,a baton twirler, a wife, a grieving young mother, a mother of twins, a maid, a taxi driver, a seamstress, a cook, a gardener, a relentless cheerleader, a dog trainer, boo boo monitor, a Mc Donalds employee, a traffic clerk, a customer service rep, an aunt, a friend, a band booster president, a Kingsmen bingo worker, a shopper, a care giver, a cat rescuer, a grandma...but I think I like this hat the best:


How many "Nana's" know what a "myspace" pose is? This one does:


I do what I can to make her happy but it's not easy. She doesn't like anyone to spend money on her so you kind of have to sneak it in on her. It took 66 years but she finally sat still long enough to wear a Hilton robe:


My mom has been one of the few constants in my life. She has done whatever it takes to provide for me and my sister. It is because of her that Christmases in the Wyatt house are gift giving orgies for the kids. It is because of her that I like to go places and do things. My dad always said, "If the wheels are rolling then Nancy's in the car!" It is because of her that I learned to revere my grandparents. It is because of her that I have the self esteem to do things like this:



And that's all I've got to say about that. (or else I will start to cry.)

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The world is his club house....

This picture didn't turn out as well as I had hoped but I decided to share it with you anyway. This is what my sister referred to as "a 15 pound cat in a 5 pound box".

He was sleeping when I first discovered him and his head was hanging over the side of the box. I thought I could take a picture and not disturb him because he wouldn't hear me....but the flash woke him up and he lifted his head up. My new modem came in this box so that should give you some idea of how small the box actually is.

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Wednesday, October 24, 2007

Random pictures of randomness and a conversation with Dave

In the last couple of years I have gotten in to the habit of always carrying my camera with me. It used to be convenient because I carried a purse the size of a small suit case and my camera was about the size of my hand. However..I upgraded earlier this year and now I carry a smaller purse, (in case you missed the birthday post..I have a beautiful "Coach" bag that I will probably carry for the next 40 years.), and I got a better camera, which is quite a bit bigger than the one I had previously. So where as before I could easily whip my camera out of my purse and quietly take pictures...now I usually have to pull my rather cumbersome key chain, wallet and brush out of my purse in order to get to my camera. Sometimes the Kodak moment passes before I can get my camera turned on and focused and I have learned that when my nieces and nephews do something cute they hate to be asked to do it again so Momo can get a picture.

Today's pictures have no connection...they are just random shots of things that I have found interesting.

This first picture is one I've seen taken from several locations. California is on fire. The mountains (Arrowhead and Big Bear) are burning, inland of the ocean is burning, (Santa Ana, Tustin and Ladera Ranch), and ocean front property is burning, (Malibu). This picture was taken on Monday morning, October 22 at about 7:00 in the morning at the intersection of Pacific Coast Highway and Brookhurst in the city of Huntington Beach. To the right of this picture is the ocean. Even though the Santa Ana winds are blowing like crazy this icky brown cloud just hung there like it was stuck on something. Even the inside of my house smells like a forest fire. There is soot on everything. My kitchen and bathroom sinks have enough soot on them that you can write in it and I've cleaned it off daily since these fires started. My car looks like it has been driven through the war torn middle east. All of this mess and I am no where near any of the fires. I can't begin to imagine what an awful mess it is for the people who are actually in the fire areas. Tonight..say a prayer for them.


On to a happier subject...My nephew, Andrew, belongs to a men's baseball team. He had a game last weekend and their biggest fan came to cheer them on; meet "Crash":


I simply love this smile! This boy is about 60 pounds of slobbering love. He is fairly certain that he is a lap dog and kept trying to sit in his master's lap. His master was a very small young lady and if Crash would have succeeded in getting on her lap I'm sure he would have crushed her.


He's a lucky dog! He's got his very own team jersey.

And now on to something not so cute. My mom and I went to the movies this weekend and saw "Rendition". I didn't care for the movie at all but it was probably because I was in a bad mood due to these idiots:


These two adults were seated in the very middle of the theater, in the best seats in the house, and this women had her feet and legs draped all over the seats in front of her. How totally rude is that?? What a weenie!

Speaking of weenies...would you hire this man to take care of your irrigation needs?

Wouldn't you think that this man or his truck artist would have used spell check before he painted key words on to a some what permanent advertisement? I had to follow this guy in bumper to bumper traffic for about 20 miles on the freeway. If I had a sharpie in my purse I would have jumped out of my car and changed that erroneous "a" to an "i".

And lastly...it wouldn't be official unless there was a picture of Lorenzo, uh..Dave.



When I found him hiding in my laundry pile this is what he told me:

Me: "Lorenzo, why are you hiding in my laundry?"

Him: " 'Lorenzo?' That's a really stupid name. I've told you before that my name is Dave. Dave Navarro of 'Alice in Chains' fame. How many times are we going to have to go through this?"

Me: " 'Lorenzo' is NOT a stupid name, you were named after my beloved grandfather, but whatever, DAVE, why are you hiding in my laundry?"

Him: "I'm texting my bff Rose."

Me: "You don't have a bff Rose and better yet...you don't have a cell phone that can be used for texting purposes."

Him: "nothatyouknow."

Me: "Whatever, dude, get out of the laundry."

Him: "I can't. I'm uh, I'm actually hiding from Papa Rotzi."

Me: "Papa Rotzi"?

Him: "Yes...he is every where and we celebrities do not like him."

Me: "Uh, Smart Guy, have you ever seen this wicked "Papa Rotzi"?"

Him: "No, but you can never be too safe."

Me: "Are you maybe referring to "paparazzi"?"

Him: "That's what I said. PAPA ROTZI."

Me: "Do you even know what that word means?"

Him: (giving me the stink eye...) "Well of course I do... don't be ridicules. whatdoesitmean? "




Me: " 'Paparazzi' is an Italian word that means photographer or people who take your picture."

Him: "Oh, well that is very different. OUTTA of my way!"

Him: "I'm ready for my close up...."

Me: (rolling eyes...) "Go wash your face, DAVE."

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Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Happy Birthday, Jakey!

A word from the author:

I have been working on this post for almost a week. For some reason Blogger has taken on a life of it's own and will not use the spacing I want. I have worked on it and saved it and corrected it dozens of times and this is the final result. I'm sorry the spacing is so awful but I couldn't make it look any nicer. (stupid Blogger.)


Last Saturday my favorite little boy in the whole wide world, my nephew Jake, turned 4. We have been telling him for months that he would get to go to Disneyland for his birthday so imagine our disappointment when we woke up Saturday morning and discovered that it was raining. We hoped that the rain would burn off and we would have a lovely day. At the very least we figured that there wouldn't be many people there when the weather was so precarious.

Paul didn't want to go to Disneyland because this was the day that his "Best Buddies" program was having their event where they match up the handicapped students with their mentor/buddies. Paul's buddy, Kenny, wasn't going to be at the event so there was really no reason for Paul to go. Paul adores Kenny and couldn't stand the idea of not getting to see him. Tori had to really convince Paul that a day at Disneyland would be much more fun than eating $30.00 rubber chicken at the Cask & Cleaver. He remained unconvinced.

There were already approximately 8 billion people at Disneyland when we got there and it was still very blustery and misty. Fortunately it didn't take long for the rain to burn off and we were able to have a fabulous day. (I'm happy that the rain went away for all of the obvious reasons but I am especially happy that it wasn't raining when we left the park because just after we pulled in to the parking structure one of my windshield wipers flew off of my car leaving a bare metal bar to scrape across my windshield.)

Our day at Disneyland was extra special because we had family guest stars, cousin Matthew and cousin Katie and big brother Andrew. ( Andrew's childhood nick name is Boo Boo. When Jake was learning how to talk the best he could say was "Doo Doo"!)

Jake wore his Buzz Lightyear costume and Matthew wore his Woody costume and they looked as cute as buttons. Matthew was a good sport about this because he had a really bad cold and he doesn't like wearing costumes.



Right after we got there the kids got to participate in the Pumpkin Parade
I don't know why they look so dour...they really were having fun!

This is Hannah saying "OOOOOH" real scary like.

Jake, Bek and Paul marched around in the Pumpkin Parade. I think this would be Jake's first parade so it was good that Bek jumped in to guide him. I was very delighted to see Paul participate. He is usually shy in situations like this so to see him having fun by putting himself in the spot light was wonderful. (For those who don't read this blog regularly and don't know the facts, Paul is 21 years old and was diagnosed as such when he was 6 years old: "mild mental retardation with autistic tendencies and extreme ADHD." So, he's allowed to march in Pumpkin Parades.) When the parade was over Paul said, "Ok, let's go home. Take me to my "Best Buddies" party."

The very first ride we went on was the Matterhorn. I LOVE the Matterhorn! How we convinced Tori to go on it is beyond me. She is not a roller coaster fan at all, but here is proof that she actually rode on it:
She took this picture by holding the camera up, backward, over her head and hoped for the best. I think it looks like she planed and set up the shot. Anyone who's been to Disneyland knows that they don't hold the ride up so you can set up a nice picture. Paul wouldn't go on this ride with us so when we were finished with the ride and got our group back together Paul said, "Ok, let's go home."










We went to an autumn themed area where the kids got to meet Jesse & Woody from "Toy Story". My photos of the meeting between our Woody and their Woody didn't turn out very well. When ever a Disney character is out and about for picture taking purposes there is always a mob scene and more often than not even though you and your children have waited patiently in line for their turn some errant child will inevitably just horn in on your picture time and attach their self to the characters leg. Usually the parents of the errant child think that their child is much cuter and completely more important than your child and they wouldn't dream of telling their deary darling to get out of the picture and wait their turn. And it is because of such rudeness that there are no pictures of Woody.

Since this area was all dressed up for the holidays we took the opportunity to take some family pictures.

Big Brother and Little Brother


Hannah



ALL OF THE PENDELL GRANDCHILDREN PLUS ONE GREAT GRANDSON

Here are my two favorite photos of the day...
The Lamoofus brothers in their matching hats. The one up top is Jethro and down below is Buzz Bodine.



Here is where we reach the grievous personal injury portion of the day. After having gone on a couple of rip snorting roller coasters one would think that I was all warmed up and ready to tackle the merry-go-round, however...I chose to jump on a gorgeous caballo blanco, (that's "white horse" for all of you gringos), and when I flung my leg up over my trusty steed I could feel the searing pain of my unprepared muscles burning from the base of my spine all the way down to my toes. When the ride was over I gingerly got off of my one man equine crippling system and was very happy to see that I could still walk.

We headed out over to the Pirates of the Caribbean because the kids wanted to share a turkey leg for an afternoon snack. As we were standing in line I took the opportunity to tell everyone in our group that I was still suffering from hearing loss and ear pain from my stunt of standing too close to the speakers at the Todd Rundgren concert so if they said something to me and it appeared that I was ignoring them...it was more that I couldn't hear them and they needed to speak louder or get closer to me when they addressed me. A couple of minutes later Paul snuck up behind me and put his face right next to my ear and screamed, "BOO!" Grievous personal injury part 2. I stood there with my eyeballs spinning around in circles and yelled at Paul..."PAUL!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT??" It took a couple of minutes for me to regain my senses and we all kind of giggled about Paul's amazing sense of timing and irony. Just as I was starting to feel really bad about yelling at him he snuck up behind me again and said, "BOO!" I have to admit that this 2nd attack was much milder than the first attack but it still hurt. I can only imagine that he did it again on a much quieter basis because he was still hoping to get the "AHH...you scared me!!!", reaction that he didn't get the first time. Instead I yelled at him again and this time it made him cry. Now I felt like a total weenie. (A deaf weenie, but a weenie, nonetheless.) I tried to talk to Paul and was going to explain why it really wasn't a good idea to shout in any one's ears, but all Paul could tell me was, "It wasn't my fault, Auntie." I told him, "yeah, buddy, it really kind of was your fault...you were the one that did the yelling...", but these words fell upon autistic ears. I told him that it was ok and that I forgave him and then we were able to resume our family fun day in the land of Mickey. Of course now Paul really wanted to go to his "Best Buddies" party.

We wandered around the park and the two little ones fell asleep. As we approached Fantasy Land, eagle eye Katie spotted the Buzz Lightyear character. Jake was sound asleep. We rousted him from his stroller and put the rest of his costume on him. "Wake up, Jakey, don't you want to see Buzz Lightyear?" Poor Jakey could hardly hold his head up or focus his eyes and we were stuffing his limbs in to costume parts. By the time we got him up to Buzz...Buzz was walking away with many children in his wake. Apparently they are on a tight schedule and when it is time to move they move. They don't care that you just snatched your child from his nap in order to see Buzz. They have places to go. Period. The End. The Disney employee who was escorting Buzz told us that Buzz would be back out in about 45 minutes and if we were still there she'd make sure that we got to take pictures with Buzz.

Since we were right next to one of the less expensive eating establishments we decided to sit down and eat an early dinner. I had one slice of cheese pizza, a side salad, a diet coke and a banana and it cost me just under $20.00. How crazy is that? We all sat down to eat and as usual Paul immediately had to go to the bathroom. We were sitting close enough to the restroom that he was allowed to go by himself. Imagine his delight and our surprise when Paul came back to the table with his "Best Buddy", Kenny. Paul was so excited it was as though God had brought Kenny to Disneyland just as a special treat for Paul. (I have no idea how many thousands of people were at Disneyland but what are the odds of running into someone you know at a place that big?) Kenny looked kind of sheepish and we couldn't decide if it was because we had "caught" him doing something fun when he should have been at the "Best Buddies" banquet or if he was afraid that we were going to pawn Paul off on him and his girlfriend for the rest of the day. We let Kenny off the hook and let him and his girlfriend eat in peace. Or as much peace as one can have when Paul finds at least 3 excuses to go over to Kenny's table and talk to him.

After the amazing Kenny sighting we went back outside and the Buzz Lightyear character was out again. This time we held our ground and our Little Buzz got to meet Big Buzz and tell him, "To INFIBITY and beyond...!"













I am so thankful that Jake was awake for this meeting. It went much better than the previous attempt.

Since we were in fantasy land we got to ride on Space Mountain, (which ROCKS!), and then we got to shoot some aliens.
I was so happy to see Bek and Andrew with guns in their hands and not shooting each other or hitting each other with them.

With the help of his big brother Jake took a little flight around Fantasy
Land....



Apparently space flight is very serious business...

We ended our day at Disneyland in New Orleans Square. I must have taken 40 shots at this sight and this was as good as it got:
Uh, Jakey...look over HERE!



Apparently it's easier for the little ones to listen to a kind stranger who offered to snap our picture.

Bek and Andrew


Bek and cousin Emmy.


Thus ends our trip to Disneyland. I would love to say that we all went home and got to sleep for a week, but I would be telling a lie. Jakey's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese was the very next day. I'll write about that next time.

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Thursday, October 11, 2007

Free Paint



Free Paint!

This lovely home was in the city of Los Angeles somewhere out by the 5 freeway. I took my life in my hands taking a picture of it but I will do anything for my reader.

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Tuesday, October 09, 2007

She picked ME! She picked ME!

Kristy from "She Just Walks Around With It" at: http://shewalks.blogspot.com/
tagged me to do the "8 Random Things" meme. Since "She Just Walks" was the very first blog I ever read I feel as though I've been touched by a celebrity. She and I have a few things in common such as being divorced, she knits - I crochet, we both have cats and we like to make people laugh. If you do nothing else today you must go to her site and read her entries. Read her archives...she is very funny. (I've stolen the phrase "breezy elegance" from her..)

When she tagged me she mentioned that Blogger apparently hates me. The reason for this is the fact that I simply am not able to post a comment on her blog. I've tried so many times to leave a comment and when it didn't work I thought that I had just skipped a step or input some info incorrectly but no matter what I do it will not work. So instead of leaving comments I email her directly. I am happy to say that she is always so kind as to reply to my emails. You rock Kristy! Thanks for making me feel special.

So, first things first. I was told that I had to post this before I started my list:

We have to post these rules before we give you the facts.

Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.

At the end of your blog post, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

So now, ladies and gentlemen...8 Random Things About Me:

1. I once got to pet a giraffe. I was at the Los Angeles zoo and they had the giraffes in a temporary pen and apparently it was not made for giraffes because there was one big ol' guy standing in the corner of the enclosure, in the moat. The enclosure was below floor level and the giraffes head just cleared the top of the enclosure. No one else seemed to notice that there was a giraffes head sticking up but I saw it immediately and I slowly walked over to it. He was trying to lick up a piece of trash. I knew he shouldn't be eating trash so I moved it out of his reach and then reached over and petted him. He felt just like a horse, short hair, soft, warm. He licked my arm with his looooong tongue and then I feared that any lotion I might have had on my skin would make him sick so I decided to leave him alone.

2. I have music from "The Animaniacs" cartoon characters on my iPod and if I'm by myself when I'm listening to it I sing along just as I would if I were listening to Jackson Browne.

3. My twin sister and I have had the same 4 front teeth capped and are missing the same first molar on the top.

4. My favorite pie is Key Lime. 99% of the time when I go to Marie Callendars and order it...they don't have any.

5. When I was in little kid I was playing in my back yard when all of a sudden with no warning a swarm of plain clothes policemen came jumping over our chain length fence carrying high powered rifles. My sister and I ran in to the house and tried to convince our parents that there were men with guns in our back yard. It turned out that they were closing in on someone who was visiting our neighbor who had just robbed a liquor store.

6. I want to start my own wedding photography business with my sister.

7. I have a new Krazor phone. It's red. I hate everything about it and should probably return it but I know I won't.

8. When I'm at home and I go in to the bathroom and shut the door I truly look forward to the puppet show of cat paws that usually follows. Now that I have 3 cats there are usually at least 3 paws and a tail waving under the door.

Now here's the really hard part. I don't have any personal friends who write a blog, (except for my niece Hannah at "Hazel Peepers"), and I'm very hesitant to tag 8 bloggers that I don't really know....so I will put out some tags and hope that none of my fellow bloggers will hold it against me. As a matter of fact if any of the people I tagged are ever in the greater Huntington Beach area...please contact me and we'll go out for a glass of insanely expensive Merlot. Except for Hannah. She can have Dr. Pepper!

All of these bloggers are very funny and brighten my day every time they post. I can't stress enough how much I want all of my readers, uh, reader, to check out these blogs,(And when you do check them out..leave a comment and tell them that TamiW sent you. That's right, no space between the I and the W.) I tried SOOO hard to post links but it wouldn't work....I'm beginning to re-think my illusion of mad computer blogging skills...)

1. Staci from "Very Pink" www.verypink.com

2. Margaret Sally from "Just Me" http://margaretsally.blogspot.com

3. Mindy Sterba from "Mama Drama" http://blogs.chron.com/mamadrama

4. Emily from "Not That You Asked" http://captainhambone.typepad.com

5. Y from "Joy Unexpected" www.joyunexpected.com

6. Hannah from "Hazel Peepers" http://hannahshazelpeepers.blogspot.com

7. Neil from "Citizen of the Month" www.citizenofthemonth.com

8. Sher from "Wiping the Crazy Off My Face"
http://ocd-chick.blogspot.com

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Sunday, October 07, 2007

It's amazing what a little bit of cropping can do...

 
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Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Mi familia, the arborists.

Last Saturday my sister's family and I joined the "Tree People" (http://www.treepeople.org/")in Los Angeles for a tree planting extravaganza. We got up at the crack of dawn and headed out for down town Los Angeles. The kids have driven through LA before but they've never really been IN Los Angeles so we took this opportunity to show them some of the down town Los Angeles flavor.


I have no idea what this store was selling but Jake guessed that they had a lot of pirates as customers.






We were lucky enough to drive through the "Locals Only" art section of town:






Even though we got there 30 minutes late we were the first volunteers to arrive. We had to wait almost an hour before they got down to business and Jake was tired of sitting in his stroller 2 seconds after we got there so I took him for a walk. We investigated the old building across the street from where we were going to plant the trees. It used to be a muffin factory and was being turned in to a million dollar per loft apartment building. I have no idea who in the world would pay 1 million dollars to live in a neighborhood(http://www.1855industrialstreet.com/) with the aforementioned art work adorning the walls. Additionally during our walk Jake and I encountered at least 4 places on the sidewalk that reeked of human urine. Jake asked me about the smell and I didn't want to tell him that some people pee on the sidewalk lest he get any ideas about alternate urinating options.

After our walk around the block as we headed back toward the home base Jake spotted little Jake size shovels. "I WANT A SHOVEL!" I had no idea if those were actually kid size shovels or if they were considered spades for adult use only. I didn't want to get his hopes up so I tried to steer him away from the bucket of little shovels. We walked up to Tori and he said, "I WANT A SHOVEL!" Tori didn't know what he was talking about so she told him that she didn't think he'd get to have a shovel because they were too big. "NO! I WANT A JAKEY SIZE SHOVEL!", he told her. And with that he insisted on taking her over to show her the little shovels. I'm sure the angels sang when Tori told Jake that if he was a good boy maybe they'd let him use the little shovel.

They announced that it was time to start the tree planting lesson. "Lesson"? Dig hole, insert tree, fill remaining hole with dirt, add water and you're finished, no? No. There are 17 separate steps to the proper planting of a tree. So we attended the "Tree Planting For Dummies" seminar and then we were good to go. We were divided in to groups according to the color on our name tags. Most of our team was made up of representatives from CBS. I think Tori and I were the oldest people on our team, (that seems to be happening more and more these days...)

First things first. GET THIS MAN HIS OWN SHOVEL!!!



The first (real) step in planting a tree is digging the hole. Most of the hole digging was done by the big guys but Team Pendell jumped in and brandished a shovel full of dirt or two.


Next we took the sides off of the box and loosened the dirt around the roots, Hannah was a pro at this as they had asked her to help during the demonstration earlier. Then we placed plastic barriers between the roots and the direction of the street. This way the tree roots will not grow out toward the street and cause the street to buckle. The following step is one I never really gave much thought. We had to install the wooden stakes and then tie the young tree to the stake so that it wouldn't break in case it bent too far in the wind. They make a contraption exclusively for pounding tree stakes in to the ground. This thing weighs over 30 pounds and fits over the top of the stake. You have to lift if up and then slam it down over the top of the stake..driving the stake in to the ground. All I know is that I couldn't even lift this thing up and I'm certain that if there was a gun pointed to my head urging me to lift it up over my head...the gun wouldn't have made any difference because with my upper body strength, (read: NONE WHAT SO EVER), this very heavy tool would have landed right on top of my head resulting in much bleeding and loss of IQ points. Here is a picture of our very own Mr. Muscles, otherwise known as Paul Pendell. He has a lot of upper body strength for someone who's idea of exercise is reaching up to what ever high spot he put the remote control when he was hiding it from Jake.

















After the hole was the correct depth and the dirt was stomped down the big guys in our crew got the tree in to the hole. Tori got to do the honors of clipping the metal band that goes around the box that the tree was in.


We had to take many steps to make certain that the tree was planted at the exact depth recommended by the tree people. We had to put some of the dirt back in the hole and after we did that the dirt had to be stomped down. We told all of the little ones to climb down in to the hole and start jumping. At first they all looked at us like we were nuts. When they realized we were serious they went nutty coo coo! There is not a doubt in my mind that the dirt holding our tree was stomped down to perfection.



We put more dirt in the hole and then stomped it down again and then we had to add fungus. Yes. Fungus. Each tree got 3 little bags of fungus that had to be added to the soil. They explained the purpose of the fungus but at the mention of the word "fungus" I quit listening.

While we were working on these tree planting steps the weather had gone from cold and gloomy to really warm and sunny. Tori was working very hard so being the kind hearted sister that I am...I was quite worried about her getting over heated... so I tapped in to my inner ninja and cooled her right down.

Lest anyone think that I acted alone in this coup...there was someone on the grassy knoll. (I told Hannah to take her mom's camera and say that she wanted to take a picture of me and her mom and then count "1..2..3..", and on 3 I was going to pour the water on her mom's head. She thought it was a wonderful idea and jumped right in there as a perfect accomplice. Thank you, Ninja Little Butt!*) (*that's what I used to call her when she was a toddler and she thought it was funny.*) (*she's going to kill me for this.)
I hesitate to admit that this plan backfired on me. I was too wrapped up in my own cleverness that I failed to notice that Tori had her own bottle of water in her hand and before I knew it she got me back.


Oh ha ha...hee hee. Such fun we were having. We were soaked to the skin and had water dripping out of our hair. This was a good idea for less than 2 minutes because that's about how long it took for the sun to take sanctuary behind a black cloud. (Notice the difference in the color of the sky in the pictures taken before and after the dousing.) Before I knew it I was freezing to the point of shivering. Just when I was reflecting upon my obvious stupidity the sun came back out and we were too hot all over again.

There was still work to do on our tree so most of us grabbed a shovel and pitched in.


















Some of us didn't...



After the tree is planted and everything is cleaned up the "Tree People" insist that a tree naming ceremony take place. Through out the planting of our tree we all discussed a name for our tree. Paul was rather insistent that we name the tree "Chuck" however the rest of us decided that since our team was from CBS we wanted to give our tree a name that reflected that relationship. I found it to be odd that with 15 adults who all work for or have close ties to CBS the only name we (I) could come up with was "Horatio Caine" and I can't stand that buffoon. (David Caruso's character on CSI...a show that I don't even watch.) Thankfully Tori came up with "Survivor". Paul tried to get us to compromise and combine the name and make it "Survivor Chuck", but he was out voted. Once the name was chosen we all had to hold hands, (how much fun can a germ-phobe have? Fungus and holding hands with a sweaty stranger!), and form a circle and then recite, "People need trees and trees need people. WELCOME "SURVIVOR"!!"
(Rounds of "Kumbayah"..optional.)

This post is quite long enough and I'm surprised that you are still reading at this point. BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE....

Kidding. I'll make a new post so you can give your eyes a rest for the day.

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