Week in Review

A few weeks ago, Violet's shelf fell off the wall with a big crash. Since then, she and Stace have been working on creating a new shelf, designed by Vi. 

It is now complete, and came out beautifully. 
 

Violet wanted to make sides, to discourage the cats from jumping onto the shelf. She also designed the shape to go with her art plan. One side featured a sunrise, the other showed nighttime, created with an etching tool my mom gave the girls for Christmas.

Violet also got the sewing machine back out, and added lace to these jeans. 

I introduced the cats to Cat TV - it's been a hit. 

(Basically, just put that into your YouTube search, and you'll find lots of options for videos of mice and birds to entertain your cats!)

Evie had to be in the bag! When I posted this photo in a tortie cat group on Facebook, I got over 330 reactions. 

Later, she decided she liked the box better.

This week, I spent time several days helping Christina try to clean the floors of her charity's resource center, after a bit of flooding damaged them. 

I also met up with my other Christina friend for coffee on Saturday morning, and went out with Heather and Maggie on Friday night. It's always nice catching up with friends you haven't seen in months. 

On Saturday, after Cora went to work, Stace, Vi and I went to the annual Art Classic competition, to view the artwork.

Later, Stace and I went to the Catholic church carnival in Newhall, and then to a theatre show.

On Sunday, we went out to visit JT and Jim. Stace helped Jim with a fence project, while Violet, Callie, JT and I had a great day out. We started with a garden center, and then went up Mount Baldy, in the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. 

Violet loves the mountains, and loved being among the big trees near the river. We went into the historic Mt. Baldy Lodge for lunch. Later, we walked around cute downtown Claremont, and Violet bought a corduroy coat and I got tennis shoes at a used clothing store.

We picked up In-n-Out for the guys, and later made our way home. We stopped on the way at a classic diner that features pot pies, recommended by Stace's coworker who lives in the area. We bought these four cold, ready-to-bake pies for the next night's dinner. Yum!

Frightful Beginnings

 It's been a big week for Cora! Fright Fest opened on Friday, and she had two trainings that went very late, on Monday and Wednesday nights. Her work nights will go until 2 a.m. pretty often. Also, the college play she's in started rehearsals on Saturday morning, so she had to go on very short rest after Friday's late night.

She spent the beginning of the week creating 3D-printed items for her Fright Fest character, a siren in the Devil's Triangle area. She made this mandible and painted it, and will hang it from a net she'll tie around her waist, along with other trinkets like shells and pearls.

Oh, and she also MADE the net! She looked up a video on how to knot twine into a net, and went to work. My girls are both so creative, crafty, artistic... it's astonishing.

On Wednesday night, Stace and I got to go to the training, which was a dress rehearsal for the scare actors and maze workers, and an Employee Night. This meant all employees could go, and bring one guest. Though my mom and Cora were both working, they put in my name and Stacey's name, as their one guest they were inviting.

My mom has been moved to a new scare zone, and it wasn't open Wednesday, so no photos with her yet.

It was great seeing her and meeting some of her new coworkers. She speaks very well of them all and is happy to be in this scare zone with them.

Because it was an Employee Night and dress rehearsal, Stace and I were able to go in all the mazes. That was fun, and a first for us - during normal Fright Fest, you have to pay extra to go in the mazes, and there are long lines, so we never have taken part.

Meanwhile, Violet and I went to the archery range on Monday night with Stace, and got frozen yogurt. Her schoolwork kept her very busy this week - she had a couple of writing assignments that were time-consuming. 

On Friday afternoon, she got her hair cut - not the best photo to show it off here though. Oh well. 

We watched Rango that night with Stace, and over the weekend watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, in honor of Robert Redford's passing. Vi has more of an interest in cowboy films and art, because she's been playing Red Dead Redemption 2, a western-themed video game.

On Sunday evening, Stace, Violet and I went to Colleen and Rigo's house. Our friends Christina and Eric were there, too.

I brought a keto-friendly broccoli salad, since our friends aim for that type of diet. But I totally overestimated the amount of broccoli we'd need. Ha! Four cups of chopped florets sounded like a lot but I definitely didn't need as much as I bought. No matter, it keeps in the fridge and we'll eventually eat it up. 

Week In Review

On Monday evening, we went to the archery range at dusk, and Violet did the walking course, where you shoot at animal targets placed up in the nearby hill. 

Since we were in Saugus, we stopped by my parents' house to meet Maverick, their new golden retriever!

He's super sweet - classic golden. He'll be 5 years old soon, so he's about Summer's age. They're getting used to each other, and she is much happier now, having another dog friend.

 

On Tuesday afternoon, Cora drove (I rode shotgun, and helped with directions) to L.A. to film a little advertisement for a weighted stuffed animal designed to help with anxiety. She's a professional commercial actor! She did great driving, too, through the traffic on the way home.

Also this week, I drove out to spend Friday with JT at her house, and we walked to lunch and shopping.
We didn't get any photos. But I do have a photo of Winston playing with the cat toy she gave us, one her cat wasn't interested in.

 That evening, Stace and I watched a murder mystery play in Old Newhall.

On Saturday evening, we celebrated my Mom's birthday with an escape room - we escaped! - and dinner at BJ's.

For some reason we asked Violet to take a few photos, instead of my Dad. Dad, you're back in charge next time!

On Sunday, Stace and I went to a British classic car show at the Gene Autry museum in L.A. A couple of Stacey's coworkers were there and had invited him. 

This MGB seems to be the original color of Stace's model.

Stace was excited to see this Ford Escort Cosworth, a very fast Ford from the 90s. Not sold in the US, this car was one of the most stolen cars of the decade in Britain.

Stacey's coworker friend Brian was there with his dad and the MG TC that they restored and hot rodded by putting in a V8 engine. Their car won a show award.

Anniversary Beach Trip

 Sunday was our 22nd anniversary, and we "celebrated" with a beach trip with Colleen, Rigo and their kids. We'd realized we hadn't had a true beach day this summer, and the weather was going to be perfect, and we had a free day.

So, after church and a trip to Havana Savannah for anniversary coffee, we got ready for a beach adventure.

Thankfully, our dear friends happened to be free as well, as Liana and Violet spent nearly the entire afternoon bodyboarding. We went to Rincon, Violet's favorite beach.

Colleen and I took a very long walk.

Cora had a Fright Fest orientation to attend, so she wasn't able to come with us. She found out she'll be a SIREN in an area in the front of the park known as Devil's Triangle, with pirates.

After the sunset, we had dinner together at In-n-Out. 

A nice anniversary steak dinner will have to wait until Stace's mouth heals anyway. He's in the middle of the root canal process.

Tidbits

On Friday, I went over to the girls' elementary school, where they were celebrating the school's 50th birthday.

In the multipurpose room, yearbooks, photos and other memorabilia from over the decades was on display. People were invited to sign this big poster.
 

I caught up with my friend Rose, and we saw Mrs. Vasquez, Cora's 1st grade teacher!

On Saturday, I watched Ellie for a few hours, and she brought her new doll, The Bride of Frankenstein. She saw the doll at the store and just liked her; she hadn't seen her on TV.

When we went to the park, she asked me to buckle her up, too. I love this age!

Ellie had a lot of fun at the remodeled Valencia Glen Park, and I enjoyed having a reason to check it out, too. My kids would have loved this! We spent many hours here when they were in preschool.

Labor and Art

 Over Labor Day weekend, Stace did a lot of laboring! He worked on my car (brake booster) and Mel and Nick's car (air conditioner), and also went into the factory on Saturday morning. 

He made the interesting decision to use his bed pillow, with its ivory organic cotton pillowcase, as a cushion while balancing on my car engine bay. It had oil spots all over, along with engine grime. I wasn't thrilled. Thankfully, OxyClean did the trick.

Violet and I also worked Saturday, helping Melanie with a big wedding at a beachside resort. My car was out of commission for long drives and Cora had the Vibe, since she was housesitting for my parents AND had an audition in L.A. to go to. So, we actually transported flowers in the TT. Pretty funny.

The Terranea resort is beautiful, and we enjoyed being there, and watching the sun dip into the ocean.

On Sunday, Nick and Ellie came over with their car; we had fun in the pool and got Vincenzo's pizza besides the car repair work. 

Cora came back from Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner with us, and then took Violet back with her for the night.

They returned Monday afternoon for lunch, since our HOA was hosting the annual barbecue. 

Later on Monday, Cora returned to Grandma and Grandpa's, and we went to Quigley for a sunset walk. We saw four deer!

Violet continues creating henna art - she's had a lovely nature scene with deer on her upper arm, as well.

She gave Cora some art...

...and drew this on herself. Check out her pretty (fake) nails, too!

Violet made this.

She bought this butterfly ring; looks nice with her nails.