September has arrived...

Sooooo, September has started and it’s turned out to be just as busy as August was and we are only in the second week of the month!

We ended our summer with Chandler’s birthday; we have a teenager in the house again… just prescribe the Valium now. No seriously, it’s only 13. Just think, by the time he has grown out of the teenage thing, Cambrie will be in full swing. Now, had I planned things better, I wouldn’t have a 6 yr gap between these two and twelve consectutive teenage years!!!

School and sports are back in full swing, yeah! Now if only CUSD would get their act together with their budget and reinstate the bus transportation so I am not running amuck between both schools twice a day. To say that CUSD has not been known for their best judgment as of late is an understatement…

Between the kids schools and sports, business dealings, various doctor and therapy appts and assisting Margo, I am exhausted! Physically and mentally exhausted (and short tempered, and cranky, and irritable, and, well, you get the picture). It’s amazing at how the time flies during the day and next thing you know its over and you are starting all over again. If I could find and release the Genie from the bottle, I would wish for more time in the day and energy to accompany it! I look at Rick, who is just as busy and tired as I am, and wonder how he has always made it look so effortless?!?!?!

On a fun note, I was able to see most of my Lyle relatives this past week at my Aunt Patty's surprise birthday party. I had a great time visiting and catching up with everyone as I don't get to see them that often. I don't have many pictures, but I am posting a few with a couple of my cousins and aunts/uncles. If anyone is looking for a great party location, look into the Temecula Wineries, very yummy wines !!

That’s it for now; otherwise I could go on and on like I typically do… Take care everyone!

Our 2nd grader

Happy 13th Birthday Chandler!!
1st day of 2nd grade
1st day of 8th grade
California Lyle Cousins at Nana & Papa's pool
Sunshine after she was shaved (she didn't talk to me for a couple days afterwards)

Me with my cousins Angie, Kelly & Aaron, and my Aunt Patty

Kelly, Angie, Uncle Herb & Me

Me and my Cousin Aaron
this is a very rare picture of either one of us and it didn't even cost us money... (a Lyle family joke

Beach Day
Daddy and Cambrie
Buried at Doheny

A busy month of August...

Chan & Max
Cam, Chan & Max
Chan shooting hoops at Knott's
Le Boo

August has been a busy month for us.

My knee surgery supposedly went well, though you wouldn’t know it by the amount of pain that I’ve experienced! I had part of my meniscus disc removed in my right knee to remove the torn cartilage and prevent my knee from future “Lock-ups”. Seriously, I had no idea that it would be this painful or debilitating!! A big THANK YOU goes out to my friend Angela for the loan of her ice blanket machine, it was a Godsend and helped immensely!! My stitches are out and I will have three ugly scars, kind of like “X” marks the spot for each, all around my knee cap, my doc was definitely not concerned with the aesthetics of the female psyche! Vitamin E oil is definitely in my future!

Margo FINALLY, as she puts it, had her hip replacement surgery. I wish I could say “Whoo hoo”, but the results are not what we hoped for. It has been a LONG road getting here with the entire doctor and testing appts schedule, and unfortunately the work is just beginning for us here. She is struggling with the healing process and physical therapy and is currently at a nursing facility to assist her with her recovery.

Hospital stays and illnesses seemed to be a theme this month with the family; My Grammie has also been very sick with the “Super Bug” and has been hospitalized and quarantined since my Moms birthday (the 8th). My Dad hasn’t been doing all that well either with a similar virus. My poor Mom has probably run herself ragged with taking care of both of them, though she never complains, she’s exhausted. So needless to say, it’s been stressful around here as I haven’t been able to help out.

With everything going on, we are going to postpone Chan’s big 13 celebration this month, maybe tackle it in the middle of September when life is calmer. Poor guy, he’s been bored this summer, which got away from me, and now he has to take the back seat to our boo-boos. The two of us did venture out to Knott’s Berry Farm last week and had a great time together; he fell in love with the Silver Bullet, riding it 7 times!!

Speaking of birthdays, August is always a big month for us! Also celebrating birthdays are my Dad and Mom, Shell, Jeff, and Chandler for the immediate family. We also have two aunts, an uncle, two grandparents (who have passed), a niece, two cousins and a partridge in a pear tree…

On an exciting note, a big CONGRATS out to our Tony for passing his brokers exam!! I don’t have the link for his new business, but will post it when I do, as I’m sure he could use new clientele.

As for working, Rick is buried at work with his office growth and is working hard to move his office ranking up even further. In the last 9 months since he transferred and took on managing this office, they have moved up from #59 to #6 in the state rankings!! So whoo hoo to him as well!! No wonder he is always so tired. On the same work note, I have re-energized and I’m back to my mobile notary business. My good friend Heather is working on my new website and such for me, if you need a graphics designer, she is awesome!

I have not forgotten about our beautiful Le Boo! Cam has kept busy with going to the Y socializing with her friends and weekly field trips. Soccer just started Friday with her first practice and she was excited to find that one of her closest girlfriends is on her team, which is amazing as they are the only two from her school on the team. What are the odds!

I guess that’s it for now, I’ll stop back in with more photos when I have a chance.

Take care,Stef

Yosemite trip July '08

Top of Glacier Point before our hike!

Well I survived a week in the wild, most days it was thoroughly enjoyable, then there was the hike down Glacier Point; now that was 5 miles of HELL. But we'll get to that in a moment.

We stayed in the Housekeeping Camp, which are concrete and canvas tents with electricity, beds and the only fire pits allowed in the park, so it was pretty cool. We were able to meet all of our needs for the trip, Chan got the illusion of a tent and roasting smores and I got the ability to maintain cleanliness with concrete floors and not have to sleep on an air mattress, AND use my hair dryer!! Now you know, I still had major issues with public toilets and showers, but they were clean, though let me tell you how good it felt to get home and be able to lean on the shower wall, no actually be able to touch the shower wall or toilet seat and know that I was not going to contact tomaine poisoning or worse!!

We kept ourselves busy with physical activities (lets all say yeah together) and the constant need to clean up your campsite before you even walked away to pee, seriously. The rangers were all over you if you even left your food locker open while you walked back to get the rest of the items to store and you were only 3 feet away!! We spent more time cleaning up camp and storing food and such then you could believe, but I'm glad that we did. A couple of tents down the campers did not lock their food locker and the bears helped themselves one morning to all their offerings. What a mess, not too mention a hefty fine!

We took a 4-mile bike ride the 2nd day there, it was a lot of fun, though a lot of work for Rick with Cami attached to his bike with the new tandem bike that we bought for her. On day three we floated 3-miles down river via river rafting, it was fun, but again a lot of work for Rick and I. Chan tried to paddle, but he's not quite there with the technique yet (it's taken Rick and I almost two decades to be in sync and an unforgettable, comical kayak trip in Alaska one year to be able to paddle effectively, do I ever wish that we had that one on tape!!). Day five, well, let me put it in Cami's terms... " I'm never, ever, ever, never going to hike on that mountain again!!". When Rick mentioned hiking, I assumed he meant down in the meadows, then when he said Glacier Point, well, why wouldn't I assume that there would be a nice easy trail path, not 5miles of switch-backs from hell. If I realized, I would have packed my hiking boots, not my little 'ole Keds tennies. The path was so slippery at times that it was all you could do to keep from falling, which I did several times. Unfortunately the hike was murder on my knee and it took us twice as long as it normally would have, had I not had to hobble with a bum knee. Again, never, ever, ever, never again!! Or at least until my knee heals and I have the proper shoes, then again, never works.

The rest of our time/days were spent with the kids playing in the river, sightseeing, cleaning up camp (we are extremely clean campers, I'm a better housekeeper camping then at home), and some relaxing. We did celebrate our anniversary last week so we had dinner at the Awahnee hotel one night, which was a nice evening out (the duck was incredible, the prime rib unbelievable). We did see several deer, a couple of bears, though I never had a camera with me for them, and of course the dozens of squirrels that lived in our campsite and walked across our feet and table to see what we were eating.

All the tiredness and sore legs aside, it was a great trip (but my next trip come October will be all about pampering and no work) and we were sorry to have to leave so soon. Next year (Jiminy Christmas, did I just say next year??) we will plan on an extra 3-4 days up there as we just did not have enough time this year. Hopefully we can get our families to join us and make a group event out of it. For now, we are home, unpacked and starting to rest. Fortunately we left just before the recent fires got out of hand.

I hope that you enjoy the photos.
Stef

All packed up and heading into the tunnel to leave the valley

At the top of the trail

This is the actual trail that we hiked down.It was narrow and slippery, the width was probably only 18 inches, and the rocks on the left of the trail, well, they are the start of a long fall down the side of a mountain!!!

Rick and I starting the trail
Rick and the kids leading the way (I ALWAYS trailed behind)
One of the beautiful falls
Cami and her new tandem bike



Enjoying the COLD river
Chan realizing just how cold it was
One of the deer just lying around the valley
Rick and Stef "resting" during our rafting trip
Down river from the raft



Night on the "town"
The outside of our tent
NOTE: these dirty drawers were not ours!! they were hanging all week from a neighboring camper and I couldn't resist the shot.
Rick, Chan and Cam
Rick, Chan and Cam

Fourth of July

It's a bird, it's a plane, no, it's Super-Chan

Mr and Misses Trouble

Chan & Rick (and Maggie)
Cami
Cami


Stef
Stef & Max


Jack-knived Chan
Cam & Chan
Cam & Chan

Well the 4th of July has come and gone yet again like a blink in the night. My Parents, Grammie, and Sister Shell and her family all were here to celebrate with us. The afternoon was pretty much spent in the pool or lazing around the house, it was a very low-key day, my favorite kind! The Laguna Niguel firework show is shot up off the lake, which is right at the end of our street, which is might convenient for us lazy folks who don't want to travel anywhere (i.e., me) on a holiday anylonger. But talk about a bust this year!! A few minutes into the display and there was a hillside fire and the fireworks ceased, several neighbors called into the city and were told that the show was over, so in came the chairs and blankies, and we were off to do the dishes. An hour later the show finale started back up, no warning, just boom! It's a good thing that we only had to walk outside to enjoy the show and not travel anywhere, nor pay for the inconvenience factor!

Not much else is happening around here, or atleast worth mentioning. Cambrie is in summer school and at the YMCA for the summer camp programs, keeping her active and fine-tuning her math and reading skills, getting her ready for 2nd grade in the Fall. Chan has been my lazy boy the past couple of weeks, though he is currently at my parents (with a quick layover at Shell's house) for a few days. Margo is getting ready for the first of her surgeries, right hip replacement, and has suffered through more pokes and prodding by the doctors than she planned on, but has received the green light for her medical clearance!

We are heading up to Yosemite for a week of camping (let's all say yeah together, since you all know how much I love dirty feet and public showers/toilets). Did I also mention that we would be there for our wedding anniversary...?? Nice planning on Ricks part, wouldn't you say? No worries, he will be making it up to me, BIG TIME, the weekend when we get home. As a concession to me (and my high-maintenance issues as he puts it), we will be staying in the House Keeping Camp which offers electricity (now this is a big whoo hoo, I can blow dry my hair!!), but still requires outdoor cooking and firepits. Needless to say, the kids are looking forward to it, so off I will go and be a good sport about it.

We haven't seen much of the guys lately. Brian and Rick have dinner a couple of times a month when they can fit it into to their schedules and Tony has been extremely busy with a recent move and studying for his brokers exam, but has a birthday this week so we are planning on seeing him soon. I wish I had better or recent pictures of them to post. I'll have to work on that this month.

As for Rick and I, well, he's busy as ever at work, with projects here at home and trying to fit in rounds of golf or atleast hitting a few buckets of balls everyweek. As for me, I'm keeping busy with the kids, Margo's appts, the house, etc. Being graceful as ever, I did manage to miss a few steps on the stairs last month and tear the tendons in my knee, which is one slow and painful healing process!

I'll post again with new photos as I take them. Stay safe and enjoy your summer.

Stef

Tony's Surf Trip

Tony recently returned from a surf trip with a group of friends from Samoa. The guys were fortunate to have along a professional photographer that captured some great shots of Tony.