Christmas 2009

It was so nice being able to celebrate Christmas with family, especially spending time with this little guy, Harrison, my only human cousin.

Christmas Eve, Harrison opened our Christmas gift to him, a miniature basketball goal.

I think that it was a big hit!

Christmas Day, we went to Aunt Allison's and Uncle Mark's to see Harrison open his gifts from Santa Claus.

It was so much fun seeing the excitement in Harrison's eyes.

He loved being the center of attention and we all enjoyed watching him.

I definitely watched him closely because he loved running up to me to pet me (and not so gently might I add). I spent most of the time running from him, being on high alert whenever he was around.

I also met Milo, my new canine uncle, for the first time.

He, too, liked to play with me. But, he, unlike Harrison, took naps.

I got lots of nice Christmas gifts, particularly clothes. This sweater was from Axle and Dash's Mom, Linnaea. Thank you!

I also received some snow shoes, which I did not care for that much. Rather than walking in them, I decided that it would be easier to just lie down. Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

I guess you are wondering why I received all of these winter clothes and accessories for Christmas. Well, Mom, Dad and I will be temporarily moving to Pennsylvania as Dad is training for a new job.

Heading Home - Day 4

Before driving to Little Rock, Arkansas, Mom and Dad visited the Oklahoma City National Memorial in Oklahoma. It is the largest memorial of its kind in the United States and honors the victims, survivors and rescuers affected by the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19. 1995. Although it was a sad place to visit, this memorial was also uplifting and inspiring. The memorial portrays how people came together during this unforeseen crisis, helping others in their time of need.

Pictured above is what is left of the exterior wall of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building due to the extensive damage caused by the bombing.

A chain link fence was placed by the bombing to protect the site from damage and visitors from injury. This fence stood for more than four years and became famous itself, with visitors leaving stuffed animals, poems, keychains, and other items there as tributes. Visitors still leave small items along and in the fence.

On a corner adjacent to the memorial is a sculpture of Jesus weeping erected by a church that once stood at this site prior to the bombing. It is based upon John 11:35, "Jesus wept." over his friend's Lazarus death. St. Joseph's Catholic Church, one of the first brick and mortar churches in the city, was almost completely destroyed by the blast.

Also pictured above is one of the two Gates of Time. The bombing occurred at 9:02 am. Time stamps - 9:01 representing the last moments of peace and 9:03 representing the first moments of recovery - are inscribed on the interior of the monument, facing each other and the Reflecting Pool. The outside of each gate bears this inscription: We come here to remember Those who were killed, those who survived and those changed forever. May all who leave here know the impact of violence. May this memorial offer comfort, strength, peace, hope and serenity.

Here is the Reflecting Pool, a thin layer of water flowing over polished black granite. Visitors who see their reflection in this pool are seeing "a face of a person changed by domestic terrorism."

Here's the Field of Empty Chairs, where there are 168 hand-crafted chairs made of glass and bronze. Each chair represents one of the 168 people who lost their lives in the tragedy, symbolizing their empty chair at their families dinner tables.

19 smaller chairs represent the children who were killed in the bombing.

After recalling the tragedy of the bombing that took place in Oklahoma City in 1995, Mom and Dad needed a little pick me up and lunch before getting back on the road again. So, they went to Toby Keith's I Love this Bar and Grill restaurant. They had a good lunch in this fun atmosphere and then drove to Little Rock, Arkansas.

Tomorrow we plan to be home by late afternoon. I am so glad that we are able to be home for the holidays!

Heading Home - Day 3

Today we drove from Albuquerque, New Mexico to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Nothing exciting happening - just a very long car ride. We are all tired and ready for bed.
Good night! Sleep tight!

Heading Home - Day 2

Today was a fun-filled day with lots of sightseeing. We all needed a day to somewhat relax and enjoy nature after being cooped up in the car all day yesterday.

Traveling down Interstate 40, we stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park, consisting of 90,000 acres of huge trees that have turned into stone and multi-colored Badlands.

The dinosaurs walked among these trees as they stood above them millions of years ago.
During that time, these trees grew in rain forests as much as 100 miles away and floated down to this area during flash floods via streams that suddenly formed during the heavy rainfall. The logs were covered with volcanic ash and other heavy sediments, sealing the trees from the atmosphere so rapidly that they did not have a chance to decay. Over time, these huge logs turned into stones! As passed time, erosion occurred and the petrified woods were revealed.

Here's Mom and Dad beside this giant fallen trees out in this desert land.

Pictured below is an up close look at a tree that turned into stone. Each piece of the petrified wood was unique because of its various colors.

Mom kept getting out of the car to walk on the trials but Dad was ready to get further down the road, trying not to get off schedule.

More photo opps!

You can tell I am not amused with the Petrified National Forest. If you have seen one dead tree, you have seen them all. And, the desert is not much to look at either - its just barren.

A portion of the historic Route 66 runs through this national park.

Some one's car broke down (years ago) and Dad tried to help them out to no avail.

Then came my favorite part - the Painted Desert!

The pink hues were beautiful against the blue sky (but then again, anything is pretty after looking at the desert for two days straight).

We spent the night in Albuquerque New Mexico, resting up to face another long day on the road.

Heading Home - Day 1

After Mom and Dad loaded up the cars with all of our belongings, I found myself here in my "apartment". We spent Friday night in Bakersfield, CA, trying to get a head start on our long journey across country. Mom wants to be home for Christmas.

Saturday, we drove and then drove and then drove some more across the Mojave Desert.

BORING! There is nothing in the desert and I do mean nothing.

Then we entered Arizona

(This is the only state sign Mom captured on camera, which is sad considering we went through a grand total of 9 states!)

We spent the night in Flagstaff AZ which was covered with snow. How ironic spending most of the day in the desert and then facing snow at nightfall.

We have to get a good night's rest because we face a busy day tomorrow.

Good night!

Packing Up and Moving Out

Well, with Dad graduating, our time in California has come to an end, which is bittersweet. Mom is excited to be able to come home to Alabama for the holidays but is sad to leave Lodi, CA. It is always difficult to say goodbye to friends, co-workers and classmates.

We have enjoyed living in the small town of Lodi for the past 6 months. (Although, I will not miss the fog, which is becoming more and more prevalent as the winter progresses.) Mom and Dad will miss eating at a few of the local restaurants downtown, such as a great little Italian restaurant called Pietro's and a local brewery that serves fantastic hamburgers, Lodi Beer Company. I will also miss going to the farmer's market with Linnaea, Axle and Dash. Lodi is just a unique town surrounded by wineries and vineyards in the valley of California.

Mom will also miss her current job, in particularly her co-workers and patients. She will not miss her hour commute but she will miss seeing the sunrise during her drive to work. Watching the sun come up in the morning just helps put everything in perspective and realize just how small you are in this big world. California has HUGE skies, particularly in the valley where the land is nothing but flat.

On Mom's last day, her co-workers gave her a nice pot luck luncheon as a farewell.

I think that they were actually a little sad to see Mom go and I believe the feeling was mutual. Mom sure did enjoy working here at this well run, large nursing home with a great rehab staff. Although Mom was always busy with lots to do at work, everyone had fun working together with the patients and their best interests in mind.

Graduation Day!

Today is a very special day. Dad graduated from Wyotech, an automotive tech school that he has been attending for the past 9 months. The 1st 6 months of his training focused on automotive technology and the last 3 addressed light duty diesel. Dad has enjoyed his experience, learned a lot about cars and diesel trucks, and meet some new friends.

Here's Dad and two of his classmates, Miguel from Sacramento and Tyson from Arkansas.

Here's Dad with two of his light duty diesel instructors.

Dad not only received his diploma but also an award for being the most outstanding student runner up in the automotive department of Wyotech. Mom and Dad enjoyed the graduation ceremony where about 100 students participated.

San Jose CA

While Dad went to school on yet another Saturday, Mom and Linnaea decided to go to San Jose for the day last weekend.

First, they went to Santana Row, a popular outside mall, to do a little Christmas window shopping. The area was decked out for the holiday season. The mixture of palm trees and Christmas trees makes me smile because they just sort of look funny together.

For lunch, they ate at Roux Louisiana Kitchen. Mom and Linnaea thoroughly enjoyed their seafood gumbo and po'boys.

Next on the list was to see the Winchester Mystery House. Mom has been wanting to visit this unusual home after hearing about it from a co-worker.

This unique mansion includes many outstanding elements of Victorian architecture and fine craftsmanship along with some bizarre features such as a staircase leading straight to the ceiling and doors opening onto blank walls. One door opens outward to an eight foot drop off!

Construction on this home began in 1884 and continued nonstop 24 hours a day for 38 years until Mrs. Sarah Winchester died in 1922 at the age of 82. This continual building and remodeling created a 160 room structure with 6 kitchens, 13 bathrooms, 40 stairways, 47 fireplaces and 10,000 windows, costing a grand total of 5.5 million dollars!

I asked Mom two questions.

Why did Mrs. Winchester build such a ridiculously large home?

After the death of her baby daughter and her husband dying from tuberculosis, Mrs. Winchester believed that continuous building would appease the evil spirits and help her attain eternal life.

How could she afford it?

When her husband, the son of the Winchester Rifle manufacturer, passed away, she inherited 20 million dollars cash immediately plus she earned an additional thousand dollars a day for the rest of her life.

However, all of this money could not buy her common sense. There are lots of beautiful stained glass windows throughout the house, several purchased from Tiffany's of New York. The most expensive of these windows was placed on the North side of the home, never receiving direct sunlight. And, during her building frenzy, Mrs. Winchester had a new portion of the home built in front of this window, blocking all sunlight.

Also, all of this money could not buy her friends. These $3,000 European front doors did not welcomed ANY guests into her home. Theodore Roosevelt knew Mr. Winchester and came to visit Mrs. Winchester unexpectedly. When one of her workers asked him to use the servant's entrance, not recognizing him, the President was so offended that he decided not to visit her at all.

Could you imagine having this huge home with no one to enjoy it with? Mrs. Winchester's niece lived with her and her servants and workers were around - but still.

What a lonely life that must have been!

Last but not least, Mom and Linnaea went to the Rosicrucian Egyptian Museum and Planetarium. This museum houses the largest collection of Egyptian artifacts on exhibit in the western North America

Here they learned about how Egyptians were one of the first civilization to develop ways of writing. Initially, they inscribed certain characters on soft clay tablets or bricks and baked them in order to document religious writings, receipts or medical texts.

Then, they came up with a way to make paper.

Next, Egyptians developed these "stamps" used as an official signature to prove that documents were genuine. Rolling this cylinder with your family seal across a piece of paper would be the same as signing it. This was often used as a way to mark one's property or placed on jars or containers to guard against theft or tampering.

Egyptians, like Mrs. Sarah Winchester, spent a lot of time and energy focusing on their afterlife and warding off evil spirits while trying to please gods and goddesses.

Upper class women often had gazelles as pets and hand fed them. Their family members would place the beloved animal in these women's tombs to keep them company during their afterlife.

The jackal god, pictured below, was also placed in some Egyptians tomb for protection and to ensure successful passage to the afterlife.

I think that this god resembles a sight hound! What do you think?

All of Mom and Dad's adventures sure have taught me a lot of things while we have been out in California. Maybe I can get a job as being a tour guide!