"Quake with 5.6 preliminary magnitude hits Northern California"

Have no fear we have survived! I made it through my first earthquake alive and well. It was the largest earthquake in the area since the big quake of 1989! I was at school for the Fall Town Hall meeting which proved to be an "earthshaking experience" for all in attendance. It was the "little rumble" I had been waiting for. Nothing was damaged, but it did put quite a pause in our meeting. Jeremy was at home doing dishes and he kept doing them through the shaking of the earthquake. Both of us failed to put into practice any of the lessons we have been taught about what to do in an earthquake, until the shaking was over. I ran out of the auditorium (following the lead of other teachers) and Jeremy went into the doorway to our bedroom after the shaking ended. Maybe next time we will do a better job of remembering what we've been taught :). We are very thankful that everything is as it should be. More from us soon!

Caleb and the Dark Side

Traveling the rails with Daggett and Bartlebee's Circus, Caleb Pascal has begun to find his place among the other members of the circus. But as The Battle of Trickum County, by Kersten Hamilton, opens, we discover that things aren't going to be easy for Caleb, or for the circus that he has just recently become so much a part of.

Hamilton does an excellent job continuing the story from the first two books of the Caleb Pascal and the Peculiar People series while taking the material up a notch to pull us even deeper into the lives of Caleb and his friends (as well as his enemies). As with the first two books, we have incredibly quirky characters and solid lessons about Faith and Grace based on Scripture; however, in The Battle of Trickum County Hamilton takes a risk by delving into darker subject matter more directly than she has in the previous two books. Masterfully, she approaches, and tackles, the issue of spiritual warfare in a way that doesn't shy away from the deep darkness of the topic, that doesn't gloss over the uncomfortable nature of the topic and that is appropriate for the pre-teen audiences the book is written for.

In The Battle of Trickum County we find a mature story for readers of (almost) all ages. I very highly recommend the Caleb Pascal and the Peculiar People series by Kersten Hamilton!
Check it out!

ok it's time to break out the kitchen aid mixer!

here are some pictures for our good friends in ohio captain buckeye and pally! i used the mixer for the first time last week to make banana bread and apple cake. it makes baking even more fun. ps thanks so much captain buckeye and pally-we love it!!!

preparing to bake (ps here's a picture of half of our kitchen)

getting all the ingredients in there-did this recipe call for bananas?

loving the hum of the mixer (all i have to do is just sit back and relax)

apple hill...a giant sized robinettes!

well, let me tell you-when i thought i was going to be missing robinettes apple orchard, i was wrong! i have been taken to a place with a whole street full of apple orchards and wineries. we went to apple hill in placerville, ca-full of great orchards like high hill and great wineries like boeger. here are some great pictures from our trip two weekends ago.

teacher retreat in sonoma, ca

i'm sorry these pictures are a little delayed, but i thought i would post them anyways. two weeks ago our staff went on a retreat to the westerbeek ranch and conference center in sonoma, california. it was a beautiful place where we were able to grow closer together, eat wonderful food, rest, talk, and grow closer to God. i just thought i would show you a few pictures of our trip there...i'm sorry i didn't take any pictures there :)

pictures 1 and 2: the golden gate bridge-a beautiful stopping point
picture 3: liz, amy, megan
picture 4: liz and kiel

A mystery and a tie-in

Written by a man who doesn't exist, loosely connected to 42 some-odd castaways on an island noone can find, Bad Twin is a novel saturated in mystery, both in plot and in popular TV show connections. In case you don't know, which you probably don't, Bad Twin, written by a Gary Troup (whose name is an anagram of purgatory, a theme which runs throughout the novel), is a tie-in to the hit TV drama LOST. Not particularly the greatest literature, nor does the novel reveal any substantive secrets or answer any burning questions about the LOST universe.
In the end, it's an interesting story, and if you like reading, and don't mind swearing or excessive sensuality, and you're BIG into LOST, then you may want to check it out if only for the novelty of it, otherwise, there are many, many other books by other fake authors that you may want to check out instead.

Fire Safety Month

hello all!
it has been some time since i last posted but i am back and ready to post about a very exciting topic i've been teaching about. october is fire safety month and this past weekend we had an up close and personal experience with fire. have no fear we didn't cause any fires! when we were at jeremy's dad's apartment all of a sudden the fire alarm goes off. i switched into teacher mode and looked for my class list and the nearest exit...just kidding! we headed outside confused as we didn't know if there was a fire or it was just a false alarm. much to our surprise we found a u-haul on fire! it was a crazy sight. in the craziness of the moment i didn't take my camera out with me and therefore was not able to document this saturday night adventure. as a public safety announcement i would like to inform you that you need to call 911 from a land line for quicker response time from the fire department-i learned this in teacher training and it came in very handy this past weekend.

The Season of Fall

I would have to say that Fall is one of my favorite seasons.
The changing of the colors.
The cool crispness in the air.
The new television episodes and shows.

Let's start with last year's favorite new show - Heroes.

Two episodes in and they're off to a GREAT start!
I really appreciate that they didn't just pick-up the show from immediately after the events of the season finale.
The writers have done an excellent job showing the ways the consequences of the finale have impacted the characters.
They have also done a great job in not giving us all the information creating a desire to watch next week for more answers.

All in all, Heroes looks to be getting better and moving forward, rather than simply maintaining the success the show had last season.

Now, let me tell you about the new show that I like the most.
Allow me to preface this by saying that I haven't really watched any other new shows this season, but this one showed promise, so I watched it, and I love it!

The show is Pushing Daisies.

I absolutely LOVE this show and I am very excited to see where it goes.
In a media that is saturated with dark and brooding shows like CSI, and Heroes and LOST (all shows which I love, by the way) it is refreshing to see a bright and quirky drama that seems to be full of hope.

I'm very interested to see how the premise (the main character, Ned, has the ability to bring people back to life with his touch) will work out over the course of a season.
There is an incredible amount of potential for a show like this, and I think it could be the caliber of dramady that television is missing.

the final push

Alright, here we go. The last of the pictures from our trip out West.


This is the Best Western we stayed at in Nebraska.
I'm pretty sure that this little town is one of the seven circles of hell.


Check out the size of the frog!!
They were ALL over the place.
And while I was taking the picture of the Hotel, I nearly had my legs eaten off by mosquitoes!


Here's a Sinclair dinosaur, for those who know what that is.


This picture speaks for itself.


As does this one.


This was where we stayed in Utah.
This was pretty much the ONLY thing in the entire little collection of houses one might call a town.
There wasn't even a McDONALD'S or a STARBUCKS!!!!


A hatch somewhere in Utah near the Great Salt Lake.


Self-explanatory.


Nevada.
Miles and miles of Nevada.


Welcome to CA...watch for the bumps.


and finally...
"This job is ridiculous"

And we made it!
and now we can get into current stuff.
stay tuned!