Daylight photos of the totaled truck

Wednesday morning, the tow truck came to take Rodney's tuck to the salvage yard for the adjuster to evaluate. We'll find out next week how much ou "settlement" will be.

Everybody's fine ...

Rodney was driving home from getting a haircut with the boys and rear-ended a lady, who then rear ended another man at a stop light. The air bags deployed and blew dust everywhere. Rodney's forearms and bruised and "burned" by the air bags and he's generally stiff and sore. Will was quite freaked out by the air bags deploying because he could not breathe with all of the dust they expelled when they deployed. He was pretty shaken and tearful. Xan just took it all in stride. Rodney called me at home and I ran over to the scene. Both boys were sitting nicely on the sidewalk. My mom came, and took the boys to her house for supper and a few games of Wii. I took over the project management and called the insurance company, It sounds like the truck will be considered totalled, which could be rough on us, since we owe more than it is worth. But, Rodney needs reliable transportation, so he is already on the Internet, looking at sensible, gas-friendly sedans. The truck is currently in our driveway, awaiting another tow to the salvage yard where the adjust can take a look at it. We'll keep you posted as to the next chapter in this saga ...

Jessica's Christmas list

I have not had much time to think, but here are a few items:

iTunes gift card
"Real Women Scrap" book
Any CD from comediennes Kathleen Madigan and Chonda Pierce
gift certificates to Marriott hotels
American Airline gift cert
scrapbook.com gift cert
Costco gift cert
"Big Love" (HBO TV show) Seasons 1 and 2 boxed sets
"Runaway Bride" soundtrack (mine got scratched)
thermometer for outside my kitchen window
cookie sheets
a biogrpahy of Katharine Hepburn, and/or her autobiography

Xan's Christmas list

Since Xan can;t really say what he wants as far as long-term desires go (he wants candy, spoons and sippy cups when he sees them, but as far as what he wants tomorrow ... who knows!), we will have to go on observations and Will's Lilly's Kids catalog recommendations.

What Xan likes playing with:

His push car from Wal-mart. Ke likes storing things in the seat compartment, especially.
Balls
Containers
Kitchen sets
Things you can stack
His Duplo Legos
Hot Wheel cars
Anything in Will's room he knows he cannot have, especially markers and Crayons

Will recommends:
Bath toys
Animal farm set
Plush counting bee hive

Xan might also like:
TV
DVD/VCR player (we have plenty of movies left over from Will.)

Xan wears size 24 months, but is too tall and skinny for any brand other than Children's Place. He wears size 7 shoes.

Will's Christmas list

I had Will go through a Lilly's Kids catalog and circle the things he wanted. I will be mailing the catalog to Aunt Vic, since she was the first to ask for a Christmas list, just so she, and everyone she shares it with, can get an idea of what Will likes. These are all things he circled:

Dinosaurs
Pirates
Kitchen/food stuff
Shark stuff
Medieval knights
Bath toys of all kinds
Songebob hop ball
aircraft carrier and planes
pottery wheel
rocket bubble gum machine
personal vending machine
fire engine/police car bed tent

but NOT the "inside story of you" see-thru man that shows you human organs ... that was the only thing he "x"ed out - too ugly, he said. I guess this one won't be a doctor!

Movies:
Transformers
Ratatouille
Flushed Away
Surfs Up
Shrek the Third

As for clothes, he wears size 6/7 clothes and size 13/1 shoes.

Rodney's Christmas list

Since we have already gotten requests from family, I will post each of our gift lists here on the blog and add stuff as we think of it ... please pass our blog addy on to anyone who may care. Thanks!

Rodney's lists (as written out by him):

Movies:
Sahara
Vision Quest
We Are Marshall

CDs:
New one from Big & Rich
New one from Montgomery Gentry

Clothes:
white socks
gift certificate to Wal-mart for underwear
White undershirts (wife beaters and tagless T's)
Size 13D black/brown Justin Ropers
New boots western/regular (Tony Lama)
Running Shoes

Other:
Poker Chips from Target
iPod
Autozone gift card
LaserJet black pens
Home Depot gift card
Baseball game for Playstation 2
$ for 24-hour Fitness membership
Ironman watch with a good wrist band
Punching bag and stand
good/decent speaker wire

Movie of boys at play

Here is a 2-minute clip of what typically happens each evening in our house ... (Don't expect a lot of these videos - they take forever to upload!)

Marine Corps Ball

Rodney and I went to the annual Marine Corps Birthday Ball in San Diego Friday night. Since I was driving, Roidney was able to drink all the beverages other purchased for him ... which led to his nap on the car ride home.

Must-have hats

We headed to the mall Thursday night to find some lomg, but skinny, pants for Xan, who is too tall for 18 month clothes, but too thin for most 24-month clothes. The Children's Place was the last straw and came through with some affordable clothes, but Xan refused to leave Children's Place until he could wear this hat on his head ... permanently. He looked so cute, we figured Will would look just as cute in one, so we bought him one to match. At least their ears will be warm this winter!

Attack of the Grandpa Monster!

Xan was a bit freaked out by Grandpa Mark, who thought it would be funny to greet him Halloween evening with a monster mask. Apparently, this monster had a thing for Hawaiian shirts. Xan shrieked and ran to his Grandma Nancy and would not let go.

Spidey and the Bee

Will and Xan had a great time trick-or-treating this year. We trick-or-treated around Grandma Nancy and Grandpa Mark's neighborhood with Brandon. Will hooked up with neighborhood friend Christian and they tore ahead of the slower parents. Xan liked going up to the doors, selecting candy to put in his bag and meeting everyone's dogs. Well, he did until he saw too many scray masks on fellow trick-or-treaters. He then had to be carried up to every door. Both boys made out like bandits with candy. I sure the dentist will be pleased!

The Devil's first Halloween

Nephew Brandon was dressed up in the devil costume my Mom made for my first Halloween 30 years ago. He looked quite cute, but I think his parents had more fun Trick or Treating than he did ... at least that was the case when it came to the candy he got! Plus, I finally got the link to Brandon's personal blog: www.brandonhankasal.blogspot.com. Or, click the link under my list of web sites!

A brotherly moment ...

... in Dad's chair. A brief pause from fighting over who can put their arms where and who gets the bigger half of the seat.

Early Halloween Gifts

Cards from The Grandmas and Grandpas arrived (with $5 for each boy!) as well as a gift box from Aunt Vicky and Uncle Earl. The box was full of candy, plus there was a foamy animal pad of paper for each, too! Will picked out the Hippo for himself, which left the dog for Xan. But Xan did not seem to mind the lack of choices because he quickly found the candy and helped himself!

Brandon at 4 1/2 months

He likes sitting up and playing with the light-up piano toy at Grandma Nancy's house. Tomorrow he will celebrate his first Halloween!

Scrapbook Expo ... Rodney-style

Three times each year this is an Scrapbook Expo in SoCal: Orange County in February, San Diego in the summer and Ontario on October. Ontario was this last weekend and I took Rodney with me one of the days. Kits2Remember has applied to be a vendor at the six California Expos in 2008, so I figured if we were going to do these shows, Rodney should see what one of them is like.

He wasn't tortured too badly, really. We took a beginner/intermediate scrapbook class, the "Wild & Crazy" layout class by SEI and he kept up quite well. The only "manly" mistake he made was trying to use his pocket knife to cut out a part of his layout. I was quick to get a picture before I handed him an Xacto knife.

The ladies coddled him all day and gushed over how nice he was to go to an Expo. In his own words, "The ladies spoiled me." I guess there are worse things than being gushed over. :)

Good news on the K2R front: Two booth had our acrylic for sale and it did gangbusters. I even had to bring more back for one of the booths on the show's last day!

Fires all around us ...

It seems as though all of SoCal is on fire, but, fortunately, it hasn't reached too close to us. Yes, the Santiago/Modjeska fire has been only a couple of miles away from our house, as the crow flies, but we have a lot of neighborhoods between us and the fire line. The smoke is horrible and school has been cancelled for tomorrow.

The photo here was taken by my brother, Joe, when he and I went diving to go find the fire Sunday evening, The Santiago fire started about 15 minutes after I drove past where it started, on the 241 toll road. I hadn't seen any smoke when I drove past, so when we saw the black smoke from my parent's house, I knew it was a fresh fire. I had no idea that it would last four days ... and counting. It is now 50 percent contained. I drove on the toll road today and it was just to amazing to see the burnt trees, brush and cacti. Some pockets were still smoldering.

Camp Pendleton was also on fire, and, unfortunately, Rodney was assigned duty today. So he has spent the day fielding phone calls since the there is near the flightline and threatening a number of homes. The I-5 was even closed last night, but was open by the time Rodney dive to work aound 7 a.m.

Laughing Baby Boy

My nephew Brandon is now four months old and quite a happy kid ... as long as he is held and entertained! (Don't forget to note in theis photo how Cousin Xan is pilfering the pacifier ...)

I finally made it to one of Will's soccer games!

Since I am woking on weekends a lot now, I have managed to miss every one of Will's soccer games so far. I've been to practices, but it is just not the same. So, as promised, here are some of the photos I took of him this past weekend.

What I want on my "farm"

Rodney has said that we are going to move to Illinois and have some property there, once he retires from the Marines. Fine by me ... I love open space and animals. Here are three animal I plan to have on Ol' McGuthrie's farm: A herd of miniature horses, a few miniature cows and alpacas. Some boxer dogs, llamas and pygmy goats would be fun, too.