Movies...by Kade

So, one of Kade's favorite things to do is make his own movies. Here are two he made with the camera a few nights ago.


Kade's alien from Beachbum on Vimeo.


Kade's alien part 2 from Beachbum on Vimeo.

It has happened...again!!

So here is the great toothless boy!

Knitting fun

Ok, so I knitted this.



Then I did this.



Which, in turn, became this.


Which soon shall be this again...



Oh the joys of not working with a pattern!

Giving Thanks

I am thankful for you...and all that I get to know. For the opportunity to experience the full beauty of life and all it brings.

Inquiry

Kade: So which is softer : sand or snow?
Me: I'm not sure. What do you think?
Kade: Sand. I wonder if I can still make a snowball? Remember when Benjamin and I made that huge snowball and we put it in the cooler to try and save it?

One has to wonder what is on Kade's mind! :)

Maybe we will actually get to go up to the snow this year...I can't wait!

Kid phrase of the week

A boy without rear fire power is like a car without horse power.
- Kade, Sunday 11/23/08.

More notes on the Klamath

First, though, I've given a glimpse of my bro, but now I get to enjoy him privately...

It was interesting. Last night Jeff hands me the National Geographic and says I'd enjoy the last article in it. So, I take it over to my spot and sit, flip through the pages, and get to this : Reuniting a River. It's interesting to see others *do* share my passion for this subject matter. In the article it includes Crater Lake, Copco and more. There are some fabulous pictures...the like National Geographic is famous for...that bring me to the area like nothing else. Go check it out and see what you think. Maybe a new passion will be created for you in that rushing cold water.

*******added after the original was posted********

If you want to see where we, the Sheldens...my family, landed in Norther California, see this map here. Our first 'home' in the area was on the banks of Copco Lake. My folks took jobs in a one room schoolhouse that serves this community. You can read a tad of the history of Bogus Elementary School here. For those curious, my brother and I were part of the school before they moved up the hill to the new school. I graduated with 2 others... A blast from the past!

Passions through others' eyes

How I get passionate about so many things. Then I see/hear/feel the passion others have about things I have yet to experience and feel blessed all over again. What a fascinating full world we live in. I am intrigued, compelled, and awed at the same time.

In this light, I'm going to share, again, my family. I so wish to have been able to spend as much 'in person' time as I have wanted with my Brother and his family. However, distance has always seemed to be a factor in that. I take in all the words I get and think of them so often it's almost as *if* we are together in person. I love them so much.

Bill writes:

"One more! It's tiring, I know, but I have to share this!



This is Wendy, Alaina, Tori and I on the dock at Ocho Rios, Jamaica. We traveled the Caribbean in this ship, the 978 foot long Enchantment of the Seas. I can spend hours telling you about the ship. But for now I'll just say there is absolutely nothing in the world like being far out at sea on a really big ship like this. We've seen dolphins, sailed through channels in a barrier reef (that was SCARY- a huge ship surrounded by coral in crystal clear water!).



The second picture is Tori on the deck, as we sail hundreds of miles from the nearest land. The water in the Caribbean is thousands of feet deep, yet completely clear- we could see the shafts of sunlight extending down until they just faded out- the longest sun shafts I've ever seen.



The third picture is us in front of the Enchantment at Key West, our first stop on the cruise.

BTW, Jamaica is an extremely beautiful island, and we want to go back. It's also a very scary place to drive- very narrow roads, driving on the left, little or no traffic rules (honk your horn and go!). Lush green forested mountains, coral reefs, waterfalls, and the most colorful people anywhere. Even though the people are poor compared to us, they seem very happy. There is music everywhere, and people sing and dance all the time. We could learn from them!

To say I could live the rest of my days in complete happiness on the Enchantment of the Seas would be completely accurate- I love my ship, and the places she goes!

Hope you like it!

Bill"

So...here I would like to share one more set of pictures with you. I think they should be collectively called "where intrigue meets the ocean" simply because they are reflective of a few of the passions this family has.

Love you Sheldens!




Bill writes:
"One more. These are zoanthid colonial anemones. Like corals they contain symbiotic algae (mostly in their digestive track, believe it or not). So the colors you see are pigments in the animals, not the algae. Like most of the other things in my tank, I have not fed these guys- they get most of their nutrition from the by-products of photosynthesis (sugars), and absorbing nutrients from the water.

And it gets weirder: the algae are actually photosynthetic dynoflagalettes. The kids may have fun looking that up! The are incredibly minute- millions and millions of them live in tiny coral animals the size of a pin head. They are ingested by the anemones and corals. Sunlight is intense enough to penetrate the bodies of the animals and allow photosynthesis of the algae. Incredible!"



Bill: "Hey there! I have been sending you picturs of small things. Here a couple of REALLY big things. REALLY BIG! Look at the size of the people compared...

One of our favorite things is going to the Port and watching the ships come and go. This one, the Mariner of the Seas, is 1020 feet long, 16 decks tall (about 200 feet above the water line), and weighs a whopping 190,000 gross tons!"



I can feel the excitement in his words...and that enhances my life! I want to see and hear more and experience the wonder. Thanks, Bro, for being you and for letting us share a touch of your life!

more pictures!

Bill just sent us more pictures...so get ready!

I have to have a few moments first, though, so you'll have to wait.

Mind reader

So, what does a mind reader look like to you? Well, to Kade, this is what a mind reader looks like:


Check it out : he has his eyes closed! Too cool.



He came out of the bathroom with this. He painted it on all by himself. Here is a close-up of his face.




The mind reader always has a serious face. This is really what he said! I asked why and he said it was a serious talent.
















The detail on the fingers is quite amazing. He has markings on his finger nails, too.



















By the end of the day, he had bands around his biceps in blue and a matching ring around his torso. He looked incredibly cool.

For those wondering how to get this stuff off - the easiest way (although Kade finds it quite stinky) is olive oil. Plus it leaves you incredibly soft and snuggable...an added bonus!

next hat...next colors

Here is a picture of the next hat I am going to help create...







I say help, for these colors are going to be knitted together in a similar design. This one will go to someone for Christmas!

pretty!

Here is the finished project! It looks so cool on...kinda like the one Tim Booth wore on the night we saw him in concert. Only this one has some color.

Bill's coral

My brother, Bill, is a cool dude. One of his passions is aquatic life. Right now he has coral growing in his tanks at home. A few days ago he sent these pictures so we could see them up close! So very, very cool. Makes me want to have a few tanks myself!


Bill wrote to us, "This is a purple branching coral. I've had it for a couple of weeks. When I bought it the polyps were all dark brown. This was because of the light level at the aquarium store. Under moderate light these corals turn brown because of the algae living inside them (symbiosis). The algae are brown, and they proliferate inside the corals under lower light intensities. But my aquarium has a higher light intensity than the fish store, and the polyps are slowly turning purple. You can see the polyps pretty well, even though they are really small. Eventually they may all be purple."



Bill's words : "Try these on for size, too. One shows a bunch of pink and red feather duster worms spreading their tentacles out to catch food (and breathe). The feather dusters just appeared on the rocks about two weeks after I bought them, and I've done nothing for them- they just grow and eat whatever comes their way (there are lots and lots of tiny critters- copepods and stuff in the tank which have also grown there naturally.) See if you can find the featherdusters! The other shows an emerald crab picking algae off the rocks around some mushroom anemones."



Thanks, Bro! Keep them coming...we truly enjoy these. I have just added a coral tank to my wish list for Santa!

Picasa2

Is a great program from which to send pictures to people. What I didn't realize is that it doesn't actually store the pictures. So...I have deleted all of the past pictures...which disappoints me to no end. Another learning experience!

We got this in the mail today!!!

What a great feeling to be remembered by our good friends as they were there having a blast and enjoying themselves tremendously! Great for the kids to have that mail they so love to receive, too! Made it more special for Kai that one of his best friends wrote to him.

Thanks Violet and Olivia!

More pictures from the fridge

More pictures from the fridge. from Beachbum on Vimeo.

I found these night before last while Kade was enjoying opening boxes that were taped shut. Hope you enjoy!

Kade's requests

Kade is usually the one who wants the most action in his play at this stage of our lives. Today he came up to me and asked for 10 pieces of paper. I ask if we can use 5 and then cut those in half. "Sure!" So on the half pieces of paper he writes big numbers, one on each page. The next dialog goes like this:

KADE: Ok. Are you ready to play?
ME: What's the game?
KADE: It's a number hiding game.
ME: What are we supposed to do?
KADE: One of us hides these numbers around the house. The other one has to go find them.
ME: Who hides them first?
KADE: Me, of course.
ME: Go hide them!

We played this game for about 2 hours!!! The hiding places started out as really open and not hidden at all. As we played, though, the hiding places got more challenging to find. We had to make a new rule that said the pages had to have at least part of them visible. It was a blast.

After the game, I sat and knitted for a touch. Kade came over and asked if we could make another video of his newest Lego mini cons. So...here it is!


Mini con, Lego style from Beachbum on Vimeo.

On to this.

Well, the yarn has been calling me!

This will be a cool hat for Kate. :)

These are done!

I have had the chance to do those last few stitches...and here is the end result. They will be on their way to NM!

More words!

Part of the fun of these words is we ask the kids what words they wish us to write on the cardboard. We did a knight theme on these, but they started drifting further from the knight theme as time has gone by. Our next bet will be to write words on the blank sides to create even more of a selection to put together. This is like the magnetic words they make for the fridge, except the kids can manipulate them easier!



Kai was interested in the stack of words. He went through them and came up with this:

"If green knights slurp brave lizards in a cave, a princess can not fry and eat toes, unless they are very dark dragon boogers with brown old soup of pink worms and tomatoes.

Kade came back with the leftover words and left this:

"Crunchy farting horses can sometimes always eat stinky bald knights and should never sleep. Everyday big slugs ride stinky poopie diapers unless they are purple.

Numbers

Ok, so I figured out I have knitted 3,030 stitches so far today. I may even end up knitting more if I can't get this foot to cooperate tonight. I only have 1,380 left to go on this sock!

For those of you not familiar with my quirkiness, see this post. and read #1.

Lazy afternoon

Here is a taste of what a miserable life we lead here! This sunset was incredible. It was neat to finish off our weekend with this special time together.

Other things that filled our weekend : library to get books on the human body and books to read for fun, sentence creating (see the previous post), Mancala tournaments, the game of Life, Guitar Hero playing on the wii, lego building, Kai won his new Pokemon Ranger game (the one he picked up on Tuesday), and I knitted my little heart out. There were other things too, but I have forgotten them.


Sunday beach time 16Nov08 from Beachbum on Vimeo.

The word...as of Kade

For those who wonder why we keep a stack of cardboard with words on each one...well, this is why. For some reason, our kids find it is quite amusing to bring them out every once in a while and arrange them in strange ways. Check out Kade's combo. By the way, this is a great way to see them read!

This one has no music...so hope you are enjoying the music from the past and present on the side bar.


The word. from Beachbum on Vimeo.

It has happened!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Kade's long awaited moment...

"Again, with the food", you say?

Well, yes.

Here are the nori rolls Kai helped me put together. We grew the sprouts (alfalfa and radish(for spice)) just for this. Add some rice, avocado, celery (we were out of cucumber. It is Friday after all...the end of our food week), and carrot. Wrap that in a nori roll and you get this:

Dams to be coming down...

At least the steps have been taken to start the process. You can read more about it HERE and HERE.

Here is a site where you can learn more, too. American Rivers: Thriving by Nature. This site has great pictures.

This has been a topic of much debate over the last 30 years...and there are good points on both sides. However, my leaning is with nature. We have taken for granted how mother earth cleanses herself and renews herself. We have taken our quest for control - a natural modern human response - and tested it in all aspects of our world. Now it is time we matured as a species and listened to the whispers that are humming when we are still long enough to listen.

May this issue be resolved in the quickest, most healthy way possible.

I will miss the terrain I remember exploring when I was a child. Yet...yet I truly look forward to exploring the way the terrain was naturally intended to be...in all it's awesomeness.

Snickerdoodles - the Sabo way

Well, the kids love these...and it's pretty clear why. The Sabo twist is to use 1/2 a cup of almond meal instead of white flour and then half wheat and half white for the rest.


Then, instead of rolling them in sugar before cooking, sprinkle a touch of powdered sugar on while they are still hot coming out of the oven. Yum.

Ode to the tooth...

...the tooth about to come out! Here are quite possibly the last of the 2 front teeth pictures we will be able to enjoy for a while!!!



He is quite excited about loosing these two. He even went so far as pulling the crooked one practically all the way out.


He practiced spitting water out of the gap last night! Oh, to be young again...




Ok, this is obviously not a tooth...but a very cute ear :). I am a mama and love all their little parts!




the "vampire" pose.

The Flying Ship

I am constantly amazed at the creations Kade comes up with while playing with legos. He asked, this time, if we could make a movie of his creation. So here it is.

As an aside, I am so glad we did. Kade ended up taking this ship to the park and proceeded to take it apart and then went and played for awhile. When he came back, he had forgotten how he had it together...which he was totally frustrated by. When we got home, I was able to pull these pictures up and surprise him with his remade ship...he was ecstatic!

Enjoy...


The Flying Ship from Beachbum on Vimeo.

Fridge pictures

Well, like most families, we have lots of pictures we treasure. They used to live on the fridge, when we lived in Mt. Juliet, TN. However, I packed them up when we were getting the house ready to sell. I just now found them again and scanned them in to make this cool slide show. Now, I could put them back on the fridge...but I'm pretty happy with a slightly decluttered fridge. I say slightly, because it has Kai and Kade's artwork on it now (a few Star Wars drawings, fractile designs with the beautiful chimes from Mama Marianne, Diego and Francisco). Mainly, though, I wanted a way to remember and experience our 'over the rainbow' through the years...


Fridge Pictures from Beachbum on Vimeo.

21 years ago...

...I met this woman. And what a gift she is.

I have grown so much since we met. She has been here for me. She has always been a safe person to talk to. She has given me nudges to be more, care more, love more, respect more. I have learned to see the earth as an integral part of my healthy being; I listen to her sounds and appreciate her music.

I met Thamar in vocal jazz. I loved singing with her and hearing her voice. I loved the excitement and energy she brought to the music and group. Other things we did: we went on a rescue run to save some poodles, we went to Pollard Flat to watch people come out of the bathroom in shock and/or laughing at the fact there was a mannequin in there. She shared her home when I needed it. She trusted me with her 'kids' (dogs and cats) while she was away. We have shared so much life, I can't even write it all here! What I value, besides her authenticity, is that we can talk every 6 months or year and feel like we just spoke yesterday. We share a connection. Our lives were meant to intertwine. I thank her, so much, for being a part of my life.

I miss walking with her and talking with people. I being shy of 5'. She being over 6'. It has always been comical watching the bobbing heads of those we talked with! Did we have fun with that?!? Well, maybe!

Happy Birthday, Thamar!




Thamar lives close to Mt. Shasta. I wanted to share with you some of the beauty found in Thamar's back yard...

What does this all mean?

Well, it means that I have been crushed! First by Kade at Jenga, then again by Kade at hockey. Kai came down to watch the game and then proceeded to beat me 10 to 9! We do have fun around here.

Celebration of the covered left foot!

Here are a few of the socks I have made with love for this left foot of mine. I love the differences in patterns, textures and yarns. All were made from this basic toe up sock pattern by Wendy. Hope you enjoy!

PS: Make sure you listen to the lyrics in this song!


Socks from Beachbum on Vimeo.

Care to join me?

Here is some fresh almond milk...



It looks delicious with the froth on top.



Made into this yummy banana, cranberry, strawberry, chocolate, almond milk smoothie. I've put one cup in the freezer...it's waiting for you.

Obstacles along this journey.

This post is about me. So, if you are looking for news on the boys, or some light-hearted conversation, this post is one you should skip.

I am going to write my thoughts down in hopes that I can then let go and allow positive change to happen.

I have been pain free since January 18, 2008. Until this past month. It started gradually. I did a lot of sand running (pushing Kade 'underdog' on the swing) and my foot started to complain that evening. I thought it was just because I haven't done that type of physical activity in years. But, alas, no. The week that followed was on and off discomfort. This past week, my foot has been "vibrating" or buzzing continuously to varying degrees. I have noticed the cold much faster. When I do get chilly feet, it takes longer for my left foot to warm up. Now, I'm not in constant pain so far - which is good. But what I do feel has set my emotions going.

At first, it was just shock. Shock that after all this time, I am starting to go backwards. Shock that even though I put the foot in the cold stream this spring, in the ocean itself, in the pool water all summer long...shock that my brain is still going haywire.

After shock comes anger and depression. Anger that my body is rejecting normalcy. Anger that it affects my mood. Anger that it affects what I can do. Anger that it affects how I interact with my family. Depression tries to make itself at home...and it's a battle to see the world with fresh eyes. Eyes of love and trust in the universe.

I know that bodies change as they get older. I know that just as I can not expect to have the body I had before children, I can not expect to have the body I had before RSD. I can see my children and be perfectly happy with my postpartum body. I can see the graffiti they have decorated me with...their personal tattoos they have left me. I can see that and celebrate it. I am a mother of two beautiful children. How, now, can I see my post RSD body as beautiful and the way it's supposed to be? I must find the way to make that happen. I will find peace here in me...in this body I have been given.

My anger is also fed by the thought that I had been eating so well, taking good care of my body. So, as my sick logic goes, why work so hard at eating well and taking good care of my body if it doesn't make any difference. Now I know in my head that this reasoning is flawed. I know that eating well does make a difference. I know that taking care of my body makes a difference, too. However, emotions are not known to be logical.

I am also angry to have to admit that I am not all the way healed. This is tough for me. I have spent so many hours in these last few years seeing myself as whole and healed. So much time spent. So many dreams visualized. I had so much time living that reality - 10 long months. 10. That's 3 times as long as the last time I was pain and sensation free. 3 times. I should be happy that it is getting longer in between. I should see this cup as half full, not half empty.

Coming down from a high is never easy.

I need to feel these emotions and let them go.

Now I'm just trying to manage a fall that is not too severe. I want my smile to be immediate and without hesitation. I want to celebrate what I wear - whether or not my feet are free and naked. I want to laugh and play with my children. I want to bask in the warmth that comes from the love Jeff and I share.

I shall revisit the wisdom of Byron Katie.

I will start giving myself a break from all this worry and emotional turmoil.
I will start treating my body better.
I will start eating things that I know are healing.
I will see myself whole...and exactly where I need to be.

Tis the season...

in Kade's mind, at least. I love these window markers, they are the greatest ever! Now Kade has something going on in his mind (and therefore in his action) all the time. Can you guess what he's thinking about here?