Big Red

At long last we decided to cut our one big red pepper from the plant! It was a momentous occasion! It was the first pepper I'd ever grown and the first one I've ever SEEN grown!

It was a wonderful deep red and tasted just okay.

As soon as we cut it off, the plant started growing more than ever before. Flowers started showing up and now there are several tiny peppers showing their bottoms. :) Hmm, I wonder if they will all grow large and red or if we'll just end up with lots of baby peppers.....just wait....I'll let you know The REST Of The Story as soon as it happens! :)

Sly Park Adventures!

Last weekend we got to go camping for the SECOND time in one year!!! That's a first for us! AND we were so excited to get to go WITH some friends- the Searles. We've gotten to know them through our church and they are quickly becoming great friends.

Here's our campsite (i don't know why this is blue and underlined). The campground is less than an hour from Folsom and well known around this area. It was the craziest set-up I've ever seen in a campground. Each site was crammed right up next to the ones around it. We were pretty much camping with the two sites next to us. It actually didn't end up bothering as like we thought it would.

This is Gabe- husband and dad! He and Matt enjoy playing around on guitar and have lead worship together at church.
And this is Jaime. God has definitely directed our paths together as we were both in need of a good friend. We enjoy getting together to just talk about life every few weeks.

And here's the kids!!! Can you tell that they are full of fun!

They are helping to get the corn ready to cook in the fire!

This is London. I think he's in 2nd grade this year. It was especially fun to watch him discover all kinds of new things on his first ever camping trip! Playing with sticks in the fire was the most exciting....and of course giant s'mores!
This is Adalaide (spelling is off I'm sure), or Addie, who is just as adventurous as her brothers! She's in kindergarten this year and is very social and full of love.
Porter is the youngest and quite the spitfire! We really enjoyed getting to know and spend time with the whole family! Lots of fun and far more entertaining than when we camp alone! :)The first day I was REALLY grumpy since the weather went from being 104 degrees on Wednesday to about 68 on Saturday! BLA!!! As you most likely know, I get pretty miserable when I'm cold, so I spent lots of time by the fire, took a nap in warm blankets or tried to be a bit active...skipping rocks is always fun! Again, this was a first for London and he LOVED it!
Gabe found some wood on a trail and Matt enjoyed chopping it up to use for the fire! The group and their finds!

And I fully enjoyed the results with Addie!

Gabe brought along some harmonicas and Porter joined in with his dad!

They were all quite entertaining!

We all went on a hike before they had to leave on Sunday!

One last pose for the road...all with their "staffs"!

Matt and I had the afternoon left, so drove around the lake to check out the other campgrounds. Here's a view from the end of the lake.
Havin' some fun campfire time doing some Mad Libs! The campground was pretty eerie since it was almost totally empty Sunday night. Hmm, not sure we like that feeling, especially in bear country.
I was SO glad that we had one more day, since camping just doesn't feel complete without sun and swimming! We spent the afternoon on the beach with just the sun, water, a bit of wind, and the ducks!!!
and MORE ducks! They weren't shy at all. Here's mama with her teenage ducklings!

And some good time to worship and get our perspective on track.

Even though the sun and heat was absent for the most part, we're glad we went and are thankful for a break from normal life. We hope that next time we'll get to go with some family!!:)

Camping at Ice House

A few weeks ago we finally got to go camping!!! Matt was amazing and found a place called Ice House Reservoir about an hour away toward Tahoe. We didn't have a reservation so Matt and his dad went up Thursday night and claimed one of the last spots available!

They had some good dad/son time. Matt figured out how to use some camera settings to take pictures at night. :)

We like this one. It's the edge of the fire pit glowing with hot embers, and the swirling color is the end of a burning stick that he's moving around.

Chuck went home Friday and Matt came and picked me up after work.

The next day we found this perfect spot by the water!!!

Here it is again from a different view. You can kind of see me behind the tree that's behind the stump. Matt's taking the picture from a rock that quickly became our jumping rock!

Oh yes!!! The joy of a rock and water!!! I love this picture!!!

More fun but I'm not quite as interesting as Matt! :) We think this one looks like I'm doing a WWF move or something! :)

A view of our campsite and Matt keeping the fire alive. We were at the very edge of the campground...available to any bear that felt like joining our company. Actually, some said that bears had been visiting at night while we were there. Our last night we stopped cold a few times from noises in the woods. Hmm, I think I'll stick to the middle of the campgrounds from now on here in bear infested California.

Once again, Matt keeping me smiling and entertained while taking the tent down. He's getting the air out of the tent while folding it up...in case you were wondering. :)

We really had a great time together. It was perfect weather, even at night, and surprisingly not too crowded. We basically just relaxed....matt drew and read, I soaked in the fabulous sun, we both swam, roasted our first GIANT marshmallows, did a few Mad-Libs, worshiped, ate, slept, soaked up some campfire smoke, and all the great things that come with camping!

Fritz & Fun...and not so fun

This last Wednesday we headed to San Francisco for our date night....which included getting to see Fritz, a great friend from our church in Portland. He is a professional photographer and has recently put together a series of images that tell the stories of many people who have faced or are still dealing with eating disorders. His work is being displayed at a gallery in SF where we joined him for the opening night!

Of course we couldn't pass up the old photo booth! It was so good to re-connect...but just wish Shannon, his wife, could have been there too! Next time! We love you guys!

We next explored somewhere new to us...Ghiradelli Square! Since it was late, it was quite peaceful to wander around without people everywhere. I really enjoyed the piano music in the background...perhaps Jim Brickman!

...and then the ice cream shop....which WAS full of people!

Matt waiting....

YUM!!!

...but difficult once again to pass up so many amazing chocolate options! The subject came up again as we ate...does it really matter that we don't choose chocolate? Should we even be buying ANYTHING at ALL from this company since they are SELLING chocolate? I've personally started to give in and just eat the chocolate that is offered to me at various times...cuz it's SOOooo good...and i WANT it....and it's easier to convince myself that my dollar and choices don't really matter...or that what I've heard really isn't true. As we passed by the piles of shiny bags of chocolate on our way out, I realized that I want to remember again why I've turned down chocolate for the last couple of years...and renew my decisions....so here i am...

Q: So what IS the chocolate issue? Why ARE we passing up most chocolate these days?

A: For us, the issue with chocolate (as well as rice, coffee, tea, bananas, etc.), is that we cannot ignore the reality of where it came from and HOW it came to us. Just because we WANT it or THINK we NEED it are NOT good reasons. That's just American thinking. The truth: Eighty-some percent of the world's chocolate (cocoa beans to be exact) come from the west coast of Africa, with about 43% coming specifically from Cote d'Ivoire. Why is this bad? Because the primary way in which the cocoa bean is harvested in these places is by child slave labor. CHILD SLAVE LABOR. If you don't believe it just do a web search for "chocolate and child slave labor" and see the facts.

No, I don't think that we will change the world by not eating and buying chocolate here and there. But I DO know that I am finished with pretending in order to protect my own pleasures. I am going to face the reality that most, if not all of the chocolate offered to me has been made possible by the work of young children...who most likely were sold by or taken from their families, who probably work around 12 hours a day in unsafe conditions, who have had their chance for education stolen from them, etc. I can't enjoy it. I don't think that I SHOULD. I don't WANT to.

So where does that leave me? Every time I turn chocolate down, I can let it be a reminder to talk to God about it...to ask Him to care for the kids...to end this mess. I can find out what WILL help to stop this madness. I can get the word out. I can buy ethically sourced chocolate ("Fair Trade" stamped- Dagoba, Theo, Green & Blacks, etc). I'm not going to pretend that it isn't real just so I can enjoy what I think I must have. If I eat the chocolate, I AM taking part. I'm not pretending anymore.

So what about stores that sell things sourced from sweat shops- Walmart, Khols, etc? What about "made in China" on almost everything we buy (they persecute and torture Christians)? If I follow this thinking through, will there be ANY store left that I can shop at? Will there be ANY foods left that I can eat? Will we go broke because the ethical things cost more?

Well, these are things that I'm researching, praying about, etc. I think, though, that I can no longer turn away from these things just because facing them will most likely cause me many inconveniences. If Jesus thought this way, would I even have a Savior? I'm not sure....

what do you think?

Pepper Progression

i was walking toward home the other day and saw that my pepper plant looked EXTRA dark green...and as i got closer i realized that not only were the leaves darker but the PEPPER was CHANGING COLOR!!!! FINALLY!!! so here you have some picture progression!

It looks like a HEART!!!

It has a bit further to go but i'm enjoying the process. I don't even know if I'll end up eating it since who knows if it has issues with taste or some weird virus because of my lack of understanding of taking care of plants. I don't really like the taste of my tomatoes...hmm, someday a real garden!

Lesson learned: if a pepper is green for MONTHS,

don't assume it isn't really a RED pepper! WAIT!!! :)