Forecast: Hot, Humid,Torrential Rain & tons of fun!

This blog was started 3/24 and am finishing today 9/20/09....



"Tonight's the night we're gonna make it happen.... I'm so excited and I just can't hide it, And I know I know I know I know I know I want you, We shouldn't even think about tomorrow, Sweet memories will last for long long time, We'll have a good time, Baby, don't you worry.....~ by this time most of you probably have realized where these words are from-yes, they are the lyrics from-I'm so excited...by Pointer Sisters. Everytime I hear this song I am taken back to the time I watched them in concert in the grounds of the Capitol -Washington D.C on Fourth of July,2001.



What a night that was-cold, wet and full of excitement & tons of fun! Talk about toughing it out-D.C in Summer-hot & humid and then suddenly the torrential rains. It rained so hard that not even the umbrella's were of any use-yet we still had them up...funny! My daughters' hair were pasted to the head and even they didn't care that it was cold rain--not very cold like California rain but cold nonetheless. Anyhow, this was the end of our vacation-the whole 7 days we had been in D.C it had barely rained and of all days it had to rain the 4th of July when the fireworks were supposed to go off. Well,let me go back from day 1 and take you all on a tour of D.C, the Capitol of our nation and the surrounding areas.



Day 1-The D.C area itself-restaurants, shops, museums, parks and coffe shops-we walked and walked and walked. We had parked our car at the hotel because finding parking in D.C is not easy. Good thing we had packed our walking shoes. We bought maps and simply walked and stopped when we needed to drink something or just rest. From the Smithsonian to the White House, to the Union Station and on to the museums. Sometimes we got on the buses/shuttles (we had bought whole day passes) to drop us off a street and we didn't care where we were as long as we were within the D.C area.


Day 2-We decided to go into the Smithsonian Museum-wow! what history-I'm a fanatic of historical stuff so I was practically drooling! The Hope Diamond, Aircrafts- Air & Space museum, Native American artifacts-The American History, Natural History with Dinosaurs, Minerals,Darwin's Legacy, and all those neat stuff...next the Art Museums--fascinating art-modern & ancient.


Day 3- We did some more Art Museums and the Union Train Station-with the Union Plaza-oh yeah! Shopping!! The best part-I don't know how many shops had been there then but there were plenty enough for us. The girls had just begun to shop at a "upper" level store-but other stores were still OK. LOL .We walked around, ate lunch at a park-at the "Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife" had been on then-and then walked back to the hotel--a 1.3 miles (one way)-coming back my daughters did complain of being tired but not cranky so my husband & I were both glad.


Day 4 -The National Archives-amazing collection! From music, science , books, to letter written by the past presidents. That was fun for all of us. That evening we had gone out to eat (previously we would eat in the hotel restaurant). There was this nice Indian restaurant a few blocks away from our hotel so we decided to walk there-by the 4th day my husband & I had begun to miss the "masala"-spicy food. :-D We had an execellent experience.


Day 5-We took the tour bus to the Arlington area,Lincoln Memorial,Jefferson Memorial, Washington Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Korean Wall & to the Capitol and that was a whole day affair too. We must have stood in line for over an hour before we could enter the Capitol-fascinating place! The Monument Tours were great also. All kinds of artwork & history over there also-well this was the place where historic events took place.


Day 6-We drove this time to Mount Vernon-George Washinton's Estate & Garden-gorgeous place! It was an amazing place with the Potomac River down below and the home & the beautiful gardens and walkways with flowers everywhere! We spent the half the day at Mt. Vernon and then drove through Baltimore, MD to Gettysburg Battlefield. What beautiful countryside it was. If you can imagine-green fields and pasture with white fences and red barns. Only thing that Ididn't like was that the freeway/highway signs weren't as great as California-you don't know how good you have it until you don't.



In California (from my experience) the signs gave ample time to make an exit if you were paying attention of course but in Maryland & Virginia it was so different. Gettysburg was an adventure in itself-we drove around slowly enjoying the green hillsides and gorgeous views of farms and of course the battlefields where the civil war had been fought. We stopped in the town to eat lunch, walked around to buy some souveniors but didn't linger much because the forecast had been of torrential rain. So, off we went back to D.C enjoying the drive back-we had gone around in a circle to come back to the hotel. Sorry readers-no ghost stories! Maybe if we had spent the night at Gettysburg? Oh well...maybe next time! We did pass Hagerstown, the outlet mall with over 100 brand-name stores. Funny how the girls noticed the sign to Hagerstown. :-D

We were beat that day! Got some fast food that day-were too tired to sit in the restaurant.Ate in our bedroom and went to bed--well my husband & I did-the girls were still excited about that day's sightseeing.


Day 7-Fourth of July! The other 6 days the weather hadn't been bad-it had rained in the night after being a little humid in the evening but this morning we work up sweating. Oh no and today was the 4th of July Parade. The concierge had informed us to leave early to get a nice spot to sit or stand so that we could watch the parade close up. So, away we went-must have waited over an hour on Constitution Ave before the first marching band showed up-the parade was great-we would have enjoyed it much more if it wasn't for the humidity that day- it was a long parade -60 units we had been informed and it was HOT! There must have been over 30 marching bands plus the very creative floats. After a quick lunch we walked back and took a nap that afternoon before we went to the Capitol to watch the concert and the fireworks.


It had been raining on & off after the parade (thank goodness) so we bought a couple of umbrellas and took the local bus to the Capitol-we had to walk a few blocks because the roads had been blocked for the crowd. And what a crowd--the West Lawn was covered with tents & people. It was exciting! The National Symphony Orchestra performed and Tchaikovsky's '1812 Overture' was played accompanied by spectucular fireworks over the Washington Monument. The M.C was Barry Bostwick and the performers were Luther Vandross, The Irish Tenors & The Pointer Sisters -this was a 20th annual Capitol 4th on the West Lawn of the Nation's Capitol. Half way through the concert, it began to pour and we were soaked to the bone. And yet we sat there with strangers maybe not so-after clapping & screaming with them for 90 minutes and not caring a bit that we perhaps looked like wet chicken( but not so smelly) :-D.


We tried to use the umbrella's to avoid the rain but even the umbrella's gave in and pretty soon rain began to dribble onto us by coming through. My daughter's were still smiling when we got up to go--should we even put on our shoes? They were muddy & wet! We must have ran all the way to where the baracades were and hailed a taxi cab back to the hotel and finished watching the fireworks from there without any obstruction of the view of the Washington Monument-Amazing Fireworks! The cab driver didn't care that we were wet & muddy and we were very appreciative of that. What an adventure! What better place to celebrate the Independence Day of our nation but in the Capitol itself?

We took warm showers again and began packing for our trip back home. Our flight was to leave around 12:00 noon the next day from Baltimore and we were supposed to leave the hotel at 10:00 a.m. We set the alarm and crashed into our beds until the alarm woke us up in the morning-into the showers we jumped and down we went to get our final breakfast at the hotel restaurant. We waved goodbye to Washington D.C-our Nation's Capitol sadly but yet giddy with excitement with all the wonderful memories to take back home to California-to remember for the rest of our lives! Will I do it again? Absolutely-I/we still had so much to see-this time around we'll take our rain gears! :-D

Spring, Savings and A Learning Experience!

Today I thought I'd change to some fun savings stuff my family & I did...what was memorable about this experience? Well it was more of a learning experience....

Spring is here!

Yay! Love the sun & the flowers but the allergies..?? Oh well....can't have everything. I've just finished hanging out clothes on the clothes line in my backyard. There's a gently breeze blowing and the temperature must be about 76 degrees. Awesome! Just my kind of weather. :-D Yes, I've been using the clothes line since the weather has gotten better and definately have been saving some bucks by not using the dryer-well just for 5-10 mins per load. What I do is let the clothes air dry until slightly damp or sometimes they are even dry all the way -next I pop them in the dryer for about 5 mins or so to finish drying and softens the wrinkles out which makes the clothes soft, using the liquid fabric softner to make the jeans and the towels less stiff. I couldn't imagine not using the softner because towels can get pretty rough if not dried in the dryer. Ouch! So, yes last month I saved $43 off my last gas bill -& this month I know I'll be saving even more because now I have my family doing the same with their laundry. I know winter months might not work as well but I can always use the garage for hanging out the laundry until the moisture evaporates I guess. Hey,we're just trying to save some bucks here...Cash is King right now! :-) To make things a litte bit more exciting..I went out and bought some colorful clothes pins to use to give even more color to the backyard. Hey,might as well have some fun while saving money right? I like colorful things so just had to do this. :-D

This whole savings plan began because of the downturn in our economy of course-have been reading on how to save and not waste anything--got us going. My family got together to see how we could save or make money. Other than doing some online stuff and looking for part time jobs we came up with; cutting back on electricity & gas bill, getting rid of some of the T.V channels, cancelling the water delivery, planting our own garden, garage sale, air/sun drying clothes, changing our hair stylists to more reasonable ones with monthly specials etc. etc. We're even cutting out coupons--So, the clothes drying is working out great with the weather turning nicer now (we're in Northern California BTW) and this is the best time to do garage sales.

For the garage sale-we didn't advertise at all...just put out ugly yellow with our home address and arrows pointing our way. Lo & behold--traffic! :-D My family & I have done 2 garage sales in a month and would you believe it we made $710? We sold older exercise machines, T.V sets that had been sitting around collecting dust, we gave up one T.V-who needs more than 2 T.V's anyway--well we don't even need the 2nd one but who knows as soon as we sell one the other might go out...he he...security. There were pots & pans, dishes, clocks, table cloths,a old collection of vases and some other stuff I had bought for the house but never put up. I wonder how many other people have boxes and bags of stuff hiding under their beds or in the back of their closets? Most of the things weren't even old looking-some of the clothes had never been worn by my daughters (still had tags) and I had some shoes that were still in the boxes-I had simply forgotten about them and they had been pushed in the back of the closet. Wow! it was like a treasure hunt.."Mom, look what I found! Board games and books we hadn't looked at for over 5 years. I felt so bad that we had wasted so much money buying these things and never or barely used them. After the garage sale I made out a check and mailed it to the cancer society which made me feel a little better but I know all of us, in my family learned a valuable lesson-not to waste anything. If we don't need to buy then don't buy-there will be sales, there will be trends but we are going to be more sensible with shopping now. Trendy or not,if those clothes don't look good don't buy them-just don't! We had fun talking to the people who stopped by-some were even out of town-as far as from 50 miles away-they had been driving past and saw our signs and followed them--aha! those ugly yellow signs sure worked.

We had lots of fun and got rid of a lot of stuff and then donated some money also-of course the money was split like we had learned at the Peak Potentials Training...55% to NECESSITIES, 10% to EDUCATION, 10% to FFA(Financial Freedom Account), 10% to LTS(Long Term Savings), 10% to Play Jar (oh yes!) and 5% to the GIVE jar(went to the cancer society). A lesson well learnt by us all-to save & not waste. Hey the Prosperity Jars really help-amazing how you get used to these and then life becomes so easy! Write to me if you need help with the prosperity jars..I believe all children ought to learn how to use these so that in economies like we're having now,wouldn't be so hard to live in. Until next time-clean the clutter, make some extra money, save and make each experience a fun, loving and learning time! I also had a sense of accomplishment as a parent-there will be tough times in our childrens lives some time or the other and they need to learn that we need to adapt to changes and make the most of those tough time...they will carry this on in their better days also I'm sure...Remember that....
Real Wealth starts in your mind and ends in your pocket! http://www.secretsofthemillionairemind.com/a/?wid=528088. Here's some thoughtful & inspirational thoughts/ideas sent to me by one of my good friends. I thought I'd share...& the book to read is "The Millionaire Next Door" by Thomas J. Stanly & William D Danko. You'd be surprised at what you learn.

For A Sensational Spring Cleaning .....

Experience Life. Sign up for a community walk or fun run and lift your spirits; picnic at your favorite park or lake and take in the beauty of your surroundings; or enjoy laughing and playing games online games at Pogo.com. Research tells us the feelings we get from experiencing life make us happier and help us find joy.
See Hope. Pick a color, any color and paint just one wall in your apartment or room to create energy, passion and joy. Try purple for spirit and hope, or yellow for happiness. For a quick splash of life, buy new hand towels for every bath in your home. Behavioral science shows color positively affects our blood pressure, stress, and energy level.
Smell Well. Find healing in your favorite aromatherapy soap, lotion, or room freshener. Lavender, chamomile and vanilla help you relax, peppermint and orange provide mental clarity. Jasmine lifts your mood to instill a sense of optimism.
Feel Happy. Keep a shawl, in your favorite color, in a drawer nearby and occasionally wrap yourself in it – try 3 times a day. Like a self imposed hug, you’ll feel healed and settled or the renewed energy of self love. You may even experience the physical and emotional well-being of a simple hug, including reduced stress and increased happiness.
Taste Tea Health. Start drinking. Good and good for you, the healing properties of black, green and ginger tea increase mental alertness while lowering blood pressure, preventing cancer and osteoporosis, reducing risk for stroke, and promoting a healthy heart and body.
Hear Soul. Download your favorite tunes to your iPod and find five minutes in the morning and in the afternoon to listen, dance, or sing to de-stress. Listening to your favorite music releases the calming chemical serotonin into your body. Singing releases physical tension, oxygenates the blood, and liberates suppressed emotions. Whether you listen, sing or move to music, you’ll benefit from its healing qualities.

If you need a clothesline go to--http://www.clotheslineshop.com/--or visit your local hardware store...Did you know...1. clotheslines can save you money?2. electric dryers use 5 - 10 percent of residential energy?3. clothes and sheets smell better when hung outside?4. solar dryers save energy, thus preventing pollution?5. fabrics last longer when air dried?6. spending a few minutes out in the sun is good for your skin?

Oh,and regarding the PLAY JAR money we are saving for...I didn't tell you yet..with the PLAY Jar money we're going to go to the Gold Country--Columbia/Jamestown CA - to search for GOLD...will write about that in my future blogs...I'm sure we'll have lots of fun! Till then keep smiling and enjoy Spring! Make some changes and remember Trouble does not last forever...this too shall pass...(on our economy). Take good care!

Steering My Boat In The Rain

The faintest waft is sometimes enough to induce feelings of hunger or anticipation, or to transport you back through time and space to a long-forgotten moment in your childhood. It can overwhelm you in an instant or simply tease you, creeping into your consciousness slowly and evaporating almost the moment it is detected. ~Stephen Lacey, Scent in Your Garden, 1991

What a wonderful way Lacey has put it. Isn't it true for all of us? The smell of something that takes us to that moment in time. Likewise,I have a special memory from my childhood that's triggered by smell and my what a great memorable experience that was. Who would have thought that after all these years it keeps creeping back to entice me, to make me smile and makes me feel like I am there back in the past! The smell of the first rain would always trigger that moment back about 40 years ago, when my silblings, cousins & I would play in the warm rain,jumping ,shrieking and laughing. I don't even know why we even had umbrellas because most of the time our heads weren't even covered-we'll be twirling them around & around, and of course making sure that we got wet-yes, thoroughly wet! Drinking the rainwater by opening our mouths and looking upwards - as it fell from the sky. Draindrops hitting our upturned faces and then making the way into our mouths. The first rain had that smell mixed with soil and of green grass and of course that smell stayed with me for the rest of my life. I remember that we'd hop from one puddle to another and always chose to be on the green grass where the water ran clear.

My brothers and I would make paper boats to float in the little "rivers" formed and would put flowers or sticks in them and follow them for a long long time to see how far our boats would go before capsizing. :-D I didn't mention we would be barefeet-yes, that was the best part-the feeling of the green wet grass and the warm rain, water swirling around our barefeet -after a while our feet would turn pink & wrinkley because of so much moisture. Only the clap of thunder and flashes of lightening would send us running for cover-otherwise we'd play till it got dark or until the rain stopped. Once the rain stopped it wasn't much fun except for our floating boats because it would get cold. Shivering and sniffling wasn't much fun then.

Mom would always have tea ready for us after our adventures of guiding and trying to keep our boats steady & afloat for a long time. Sometimes she'll have eggplant or other vegetable fritters..mmmmm. My mouth is watering just thining about it. :-D Hey,that was hard work-trying to steer our paper boats -not an easy feat I tell you...of course paper and water didn't work very well together for long-our boats would be so wet that the sides would stick together with our colorful "passengers" squeezed in between. So, yes the tea would a welcoming diversion and it's soothing smell and taste would prepare us for another rainy day or even a sunny day, when we would go looking for oranges, lemons and guavas in the nearby hills. We'd eat those fruits without washing them and have the juices running all over-Sticky fingers & faces but nobody cared. Oh those days were so carefree and unspoiled-those memories will stay with me forever.And now, when I'm all grown up,on rainy days, I would want to go out to jump & hop in the rain,but alas the rain would be so very cold. I still take walks in the rain but this time my head would be covered and I'd be bundled up so that when I come back home I'd be still dry-only this time I'd prepare the tea myself and share with my family-no paper boats to float but yes I do steer the boat of my life as skillfully as possible and lock away the memories worth remembering- until the earthy smell of the rain or the splatter of those rain drops fall on the green grass and I go back- to my warm rain, hot cups of tea, vegetable fritters and paper boats-yet another awesome memorable experience. Now, I share these memories with my children-used to bake cookies & play games with them when they were younger. Here's what I do now when I miss someone or feel a little low-I think of something that I've enjoyed doing and had fun with it before-write it out or even draw a picture of that event if I don't have a photo-get transported back to those moments-I always feel awesome after that! It's worth trying isn't it? :-D

How to build a paper boat :

Fold a piece of paper in half, from top to bottom.

Fold the right corner into the middle of the paper.

Fold the left corner into the middle of the paper.

Fold the bottom of the paper up against both sides.

Insert thumbs into bottom to make a square.

Fold the bottom corners over each other thus creating a triangle.

Insert thumbs into bottom to make a square.

Hold the paper with flaps down.

Fold the corners to the top point.

Pull the middle out to form a square.

Two triangles are at the top.

Pull them apart to create your paper boat.

Wallah! You have a paper boat of your own to play in the rain or you don't wait for a rainy day-use your pool or a bucket--you get my gist I think-use colorful paper or color the white paper with crayons-make it fun with your children or borrow someone elses :-D Go ahead have a blast! I know you want to.

“We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” ~George Bernard Shaw

There's this child within you who wants to come out & play~so play & allow yourself to feel great too! Till next time when I share some more of my memorable experiences--I've been thinking of changing the name of my blog--any ideas? Thanks for visiting and let that child within you come out and play today! :-D

Into the Woods and On The Way To Klamath Falls

Mt. Shasta,CA

http://www.shastalake.com/

Maybe it was only I who felt sad leaving Newport Beach-?? We were going to take Interstate 5 to stay a night in Klamath Falls and then Medford. The quickest way to Klamath Falls from Newport Beach was to take Hwy 20 to I-5S. We followed the Corvallis Newport Hwy (20) & then the Corvallis Lebanon Hwy (34)...The drive was scenic and we went through the "woods" as my girls said. There were miles and miles of forest and then we'll come upon a house or a "lonely" auto shop/wreckyard suddenly- driving & driving,until gradually we would come upon a small settlement. We went through cities like Toledo, Corvallis & Philomath...(saw signs of Oregon State University) slow drive because of road constructions but the scenery was great...Oregon is green! Stopped at few places, ate and stretched and off we went on our way to connect to I-5. It was like coming home when we began to see signs of Interstate 5. :-D A very familiar sign for us because we're from Nor Cal. The drive to Klamath Falls seemed took ever so loooong or so it seemed like...welll Newport Beach was approx. 6 hrs from city of Klamath Falls. We had decided not to cut across from Eugene but from Ashland since the Freeway would be quicker but even then with all those truckers and other traffic-we couldn't wait to get there. Good thing our resort (WorldMark By Wyndham)-named "Running Y", was before city of Klamath Falls. The scenery was great and even better when we began to see lakes after lakes. These lakes were big and clear. The best sight was when we came downhill and came upon cows grazing in the pastures. Green pastures, cows grazing, clear blue lakes and yes road constructions here too! It seemed like the whole state of Oregon was fixing roads at that time so that's why there was so much delay in traffic. I almost wanted to say "are we there yet?" :-D Well we finally reached our vacation rentals just as dusk was falling and didn't get to see much of the area but caught some nice views of the setting sun over the mountains & lakes. Amazing! If you can imagine a lake with no ripples at all (well from where I was standing)-still and the sun is setting throwing it's last rays on the water. I love to watch sunsets so we decided not to go into town which was 12 miles away. We ate dinner at the Golf Link restaurant(forgot the name) at Running Y-great food but a little bit expensive with just a few selections. But the view definately made up for it...Fabulous! Gorgeous! Awesome with the "greens" on one side and the lake on the other-my camera didn't do much justice to the scenery. Sometimes I would be so lost in admiring the views that I would forget to take pics. too. :-D Some, very ice looking homes all over too! This was a great place to just sit back and relax or for golfers, I guess would be to golf their heart out. :-D This golf link didn't seem to be too busy. http://runningy.com/. Saw several families come in for dinner,excited children talking about their "catch of the day". I could only imagine the fishing around here with so many lakes & rivers. Next morning we went for a tour of Klamath Falls city...had brunch there and strolled around the town...the city was spread all over.http://www.travelklamath.com/. The only attraction we saw there, was the Crater Lake (8th wonder of the world). One attraction to see, would be the Lava Beds National Monument, where one could go into the lava tubes (450 lava tube caves in all) and many other activities like horseback riding, the scenic byway drive around the lake, see the largest collection of American Rock Art at Petroglyph Point, Beautiful Ranches, Historic place where wagon wheels were built and repaired and an abundance of wildlife. Also, saw on our brochure, that Klamath Falls and the surrounding areas were a birdwatching paradise because of the water and the migration of variety of birds. Well this is another place we need to go back to..one day wasn't enough. This had been only a "test" trip this far in ...neither my family nor I like this kind of setting but do need to learn how to golf since most of our vacation resorts are in or near a golf course. Well after our short stay in Klamath Falls we made our way back to Ashland to stay the night. We had made reservations to see "The Taming of the Shrew" at the Ashland Oregon Festival- Shakesperean Outdoor Theatre. Had a great time there watching "The Taming of The Shrew"--hillarious! This was our last night on vacation but what a way to end it. If you're going that way do go & see one of the plays...Ashland itself is "magical" in the night. http://www.orshakes.org/- and that was the end of our beautiful and memorable vacation. We left next morning and were back home with wonderful memories to keep with us forever! On our way back )via I-5) we stopped at Lake Shasta, took some great pics of Mount Shasta and knew that this was one of those trips that will be talked about for a long long time! Hey I'm still doing that- :-D Met a lot of nice people...In fact we met a couple from San Francisco who had flown there just to watch "The ....Shrew"--I wouldn't mind doing this kind of spur of the moment thing..we were lucky that we had great weather then...that helps a lot with vacations... Next time we go back...we're flying into Medford airport and taking a rental car to Klamath Falls or Newport Beach or even further up 101 North-Just have to go back!