Fire Photos

Here are a couple photos from the fire. These first two were at the intersection of San Marcos Blvd. and Rancho Santa Fe Dr. looking Southwest. This was Monday morning, 10/22 about 9:45am as I was driving home from an appt w/a client in San Marcos. This was the moment I realized that the fire was huge, was moving fast and was moving toward us!!! I was literally driving under that "line" in the sky w/blue to the right of me and black/grey to the left of me. But by the time I got home, it was all black/grey and very little blue visible. And that is the color the sky remained for the next several days.

This next photo was taken by a colleague who lives in Orange County. This is from his home looking across Mission Viejo lake in Irvine. Amazing photo! Says it all.

There were a couple evenings that I was coming home, driving west and the sun was like an enormous orange/fuscia glowing fireball in the sky - I had wished more than once I had my camera with me, but didn't. But here are some add'l photos online I found that showed this image and many others, if interested: http://www.flickr.com/groups/sandiegofire/pool/

It is now just sort of a typical coastal haze out there, but we did actually get some rain last night - those big fat drops that slowly, randomly drop from the sky when the humidity is high and the air just can't hold it in anymore. It was welcomed and helped tremendously to continue the containment efforts w/all fires over 50% contained and more than half of all fires in SoCal are 100%contained - yay! Now, if we can just keep it that way!

Fire Update 2

Hi all,

Ok, got lots of emails/calls saying, thanks for the update, but what's going on NOW Kim???... Well, we are totally in the clear out here on the coast as of Wed morning or so. The winds shifted eastward again, so not so good for our east counties. But also the weather has changed and we have a higher humidity and lighter winds so the firefighters are gaining control on what is still burning. We are starting to get the actual damage numbers and it is high. There will be a lot of rebuilding and recovery still to come in the months and likely years ahead.

But all we know are safe and no homes lost thank God.

That is the quickie update for now. MOre soon!

San Diego Firestorm Update

Wow - well, as you are aware SoCal is burning up! It has been a crazy couple of days! Here is a quick update for those of you who have been trying to call/stay in touch.

The "Witch" fire, which started way out east from us in Ramona/Escondido area is now about 7 miles away in the Rancho Santa Fe area (which backs up to Olivenhein/Encinitas where we live) and the Fallbrook/Rice fire is a good way northeast of us, probably a good 15-20 miles. The Harris Fire is in the very south of SD county, a good 25 miles from us.

We think we are in a pretty safe spot as we are just 4 blocks from the ocean. But you would not believe it by looking at the air/sky here dark grey/brown and tons of ash everywhere. It smells like one big bonfire, just terrible! - we packed up all the photos, jewelry, etc and have our bag of clothes ready just in case, as our area was put on "voluntary evacuation" yesterday evening.

We have several friends & family who have had to evacuate their homes - Gary's family are all safe, they had to evacuate for some time yesterday, but are all back in their homes today. My brother Johnny is safe w/friends in San Marcos (the 15 freeway to get to my parents is completely shut down, but Temecula/Murrieta area is clear right now) Tim & kids & Liz are all at Jen/Steve's. Nadia & her family have evacuated their homes to safe ground. As has Kos & his family. Rachael packed up her things, and her dog & cat yesteday morning and left Escondido just before it really got burning. Mary & Devyn are in OH visiting family thankfully, but we are not sure about what's going on with Jeff and their home in Ramona. There are many others in Escondido/Poway areas that I have not heard from (KimV, JenH, Keely, &many others) and the Chula Vista area (Gina/Maurine) that I am certain have evacuated their homes and I pray that all we have not heard from are safe! (add comment to let us know you are ok!)

There is not a hotel room available anywhere up to Long Beach! And I heard the grocery shelves were emptied yesterday as people grabbed for rations! We don't know anyone who has lost a home in SD, but we know two people who lost homes in the fire up north in Lake Arrowhead. Thankfully, there has been only 1 death and a few injuries, so it seems people are more prepared than the Cedar fire 4 years ago and being proactive to get out before the fire comes too close.

The winds have died down considerably today so we are hoping the firefighters will be able to start gaining some control over the course of today.
Here is the local news website that is keeping good coverage of the fires locally and maps:
http://www.cbs8.com/

Will let you know if we end up having to evacuate! But for now we are just holed up airtight in the house with our bags ready watching the news!

She is now a PRINCESS!

Ok, yesterday Kelly for the first time showed me that she actually gave a darn about what she wears. This is a big change! She never really cared what I put her in... oh, sure after I would dress her and be saying, "oh, you look soooooo cute and sooo pretty in your new outfit!" she would (with some coaxing from mommy) go look herself over in the mirror and smile and be quite smitten with the image she would see. But she had not really made the connection between what she thinks looks cute and picking out her own clothes or shoes..... Until today!

A couple days ago, I had bought two costumes from a lady off of Craig's list. One very cute LadyBug costume and a Princess costume (complete w/wand!). I was thinking that this may be the last year that I get to pick what she is going to be for Halloween - a Lady Bug! I figured the princess one would get mileage for a while beyond Hallowen (once she actually started to get into "dress up", which I had noticed she had not yet!).

Well, I had taken out the LadyBug costume a couple times and excitedly said, "look sweetie, this is your LadyBug costume for Halloween!!!! Isn't it Cuuuuuttttee???". To which I rec'd a deadpan, I-don't-know-what-your-so-excited-about look back. However, when I pulled out the princess costume today, her eyes got as big as saucers and she squealed and ran over to me say "mommy, put oooonnn!" "mommy, put ooooonnnn"!!!! Naturally, I put it on her! And for the next hour she ran around the house, so excited she was almost hyperventilating! Gary & I were in awe as we watched our newly sprouted little "princess". She went from playing "baby" with Katie & Andrew last night:

.....to being a grown up little princess today.... literally!

Later today when we went to the park, she insisted on wearing her pretty patent leather pink dress shoes (with her black stretch pants and orange play shirt.) I guess this is just the beginning of my having to mention to whoever is looking sideways at her crazy outfits, "she dressed herself today"!!! That's my big girl!

Picture Day

Well, it was picture day at Kelly's daycare this past Wednesday. I was really excited about this as I have not been able to get a good "posed" 2-year old picture of her (see blog entry "say Cheeeesee, Pleeeese!). I went thru 3 outfits and finally found the perfect one that fit and looked adorable. Here she is all dressed and ready to head out to school.

Weeeeelll, on the way from the front door to the car, she took off, as she often does, and I had my hands full and couldn't catch her in time before she fell flat out and tore thru her pretty pink tights and skinned both knees. I thought about trying to snap that photo, but it just wasn't happening - I had to get to work and it was all I could do to get her to calm down, stop crying and get her to school. I thought about taking her inside and putting on a new outfit, but I just was done. So, we arrived to school with her pretty pink dress and crocheted sweater, hair in a bow, pretty pink shoes and tights with holes in the knees, and I told them, do the best you can!!! They told me that the pictures were wonderful....I get them in a couple weeks and will of course show you the final product! (they did get one with the ripped/dirty knees showing!

Sibling Fun

Many nights Kelly's bath time ends up being the exact same time as when dinner is ready! I usually get her bathed and dressed for bed and end up eating a few minutes after everyone else. Tonight I was hungry! So I leave James in charge of watching Kelly for 10 minutes while she is in her bath so I can chow down a few bites. I came back in to this.

I guess it does not matter how many years are between siblings to be able to play tricks on each other and have a little fun!

Baby You Can Drive My Car

Kelly has discovered that it is much more fun sitting in the DRIVER's seat of the car (vs. strapped safely into her carseat in the back seat). One day she just climbed in and started "driving", well that is, mimicking what we do when me & Gary drive I think. She looks like a real natural and was even making the "rhummm, rhummm, ehhhrrrr" sounds as she gripped and turned the steering wheel. She had me & Gary right down to flipping thru the radio stations! But don't worry, I'm not going to pull a Britney! I've got a good 13 years yet to worry about her getting behind the wheel and on the road for real (or maybe 11 years if she is like her mom and sneaks her parents car out in the middle of the night!). I'm already sweatin' just thinkin'about it.

Last weekend Kelly & I took a little "road trip" out to visit our friends Mary & Jeff and their daughter, Devyn, who will be 3 in November. They live in Ramona, which is a good 45 minute drive from Encinitas and is the "high country desert" of San Diego - feels like I'm out in the country when I'm there, but it is a really nice getaway. We went to the Ramona Harvest Festival which was like a mini traveling fair, complete with about 6 "rides", craft booths, face painting, a pumpkin patch, food, a beer garden w/live music, all complete with hay on the ground!Probably what the Del Mar Fair (uh, oh yeah, the San Diego Fair!) was about 30+ years ago - QUAINT and affordable! The girls had a blast on the Jumpy-jump, the "flying bee" ride, and the giant super slide. I had volunteered to take them both up and was actually a bit scared myself once I got to the top (it was a couple stories or more high!), but I couldn't hold either of them back as they slid right down without a second thought - Fearless! We had a great time and look forward to our next visit!

Smile and say CHEEESE!!! (PlEEEEASE!!!)

Kelly is 2 years and almost 4 months. I am sure that what I am about to lament about is talked about extensively as warning in many "how to tame your toddler" books, which I have not been reading at all since I have gone back to work (who has TIME to read!!!).... so I had a photo shoot scheduled today to try to get her 2-year picture. Yes, I know! 4 months late, but whatever! This photography company is the one that I contracted with whilst in the hospital, just a day or so after giving birth - oh yeah, they know what they are doing when they send their sales force into your room, two days post-partum. Either way they know they have you! You could be filled with so much love & emotion over your sweet little angel miracle that you just brought into the world that you'd sign anything that would share their beautiful little smiles with the rest of the world... or you are sobbing so hard with baby blues that you sign a 2 year contract to take pictures as a way to make up for feeling like such a horrible mother two days into the deal! Its a great gig, and yes, I took the bait. (I was both of those depending on which day you got me!) Anyway, I had one more "free" sitting left on my deal, and they come out to the house (which sounds way more convenient than it actually is once they start re-arranging all your furniture to set up their portable photo studio!). After 1 hour of sweet-talking, googly-gooing, shaking all of her favorite toys, books, dolls etc in front of her, bribing her...etc. We got exactly zero shots of her actually looking at the camera at the time he shot it!

Well, I should have known that even a professional would not be able to do this as I have been attempting to get my own photos of my little darling looking at the camera and smiling now for about 4 or 5 months, with no luck. Literally all the pictures I have of her these last several months are of some poopy-ass-mom-what they hell are you doing-look, a crying fit, stuffing food in her mouth, the blurry in-motion shot, the sleeping angel shot, or the back of her head.

I guess I had some luck at Jen & Steve's last night. We invaded their house for an afternoon/turned evening playdate. (thank you Steve for giving me & Jen a break and including Kelly in your nightly afterwork ritual of kid-bathing!) I managed to get a couple really cute ones, but of course, they are all the bathtub naked shots which are

probably not the most appropriate for posting on a public blog... but here is a fairly innocent one of her & Andrew (not showing any parts...)

and another one I got Katie, Ander and her looking at the camera but not smiling.

And here is another of her looking at the camera with a mouth full of delicious chicken fingers. Finally, the 3 of them all jammied up watching videos, with Kelly's tongue sticking out!

Ah well, once in a while, I actually get to see her smiling right at me, even but for one lost (non-photographed) moment in time, in person. I do cherish those moments right then and in my mind, if not on the blog. I will keep trying to teach her to pose sweetly for the camera so I can start getting the 2 1/2 year-old "CHEEEEESE" smiles next!