Saying goodbye to a member of our family...

On June 14 , 2010 we said goodbye to our dear friend and loving companion, our oak tree. Now this might seem like an overly sentimental and sappy post but one has to understand that our oak tree was the reason for buying our house. It was so beautiful and majestic. It provided wonderful shade as it towered over our home and added much privacy to our lot. We loved sitting out in the front yard under our tree on a hot summer day watching the kids play. I also loved the view it provided out the front window, no neighbors, no street, just my tree.
Two years ago I noticed one of the major limbs had died, then last year another limb never came back in the spring. I called the arborist and tree conservationists that we have always used to take care of our tree to come inspect it and cut the limbs down. After their initial inspection, the arborist found some disease in the roots but was hopeful we could cure it. For further direction they sent out the head conservationist from the company followed by a master arborist from UC Davis who ultimately broke the news to us that our tree was dying. It had a major root disease, one of the worst cases he had seen. He said with the roots rotting away it could stand another 15 years or it could fall tomorrow, there was no way to know for sure. We decided it was not worth the risk to our family if the tree were to fall with us out there so we decided it was time to say goodbye.
With just a few days before we had to say goodbye, I sat outside one beautiful morning, under my tree, and cried as I wondered how I was going to say goodbye and it came to me...lets make lemonade out of these lemons; lets build a tree house on top of the trunk! I called Brian and to my surprise, he thought it was a great idea.
Brian took the day off to oversee the tree removal and we sat outside all day with Ty and watch our beautiful tree come down. My dear friend Gail came by several times to check on me and told me not to be sad, that our tree was over a hundred years old, it lived a long life and died having been truly cherished.

The Before Pictures:

Our driveway

The view from the end of the driveway

Street view

The Removal:

Thank goodness they cut down trees better than they spell!

Way up in the tree

Ty observing the destruction

The mess only half way through

Mom and Ty

The After Pictures:

HELLO...there's a house there, who knew?

Street view

Our driveway now

Settling in...

My goal is to blog the rest of 2010 before it ends. I'm estimating about 12 posts so settle in, there's going to be a lot to read!

Ty's intense admiration of all things Oz...

Thanksgiving 2010...the coldest on record!

Oh my, was it cold up at my grandparents this year! We had a WONDERFUL, relaxing time up at my grandparents again this year. I was worried that Ty wouldn't sleep well because he won't use a blanket and it was FREEZING, but he did great both at night and during his naps. My Grandpa had crushed his heel a few months prior (not building our tree house thankfully) so I thought I he would need some extra help this year but nooo, he wouldn't let us do a thing and he was exhausted by the end.

We had 29 people this year, 6 up from last year. My niece and nephew Kelsey and Zach were able to come which was wonderful and we didn't think Krystal was going to make it because she was completely snowed in at her house in Camino, California but things turned around the night before and she made it after all. 

Kelsey, Zach and Krystal

Ty had so much fun playing with Adam and Christopher; last year he was too little to play with playmates. Brooke contracted a fabulous case of poison oak, but other than that, the older kids had a great time too.

Ty and Christopher

Brian and I, once again, braved black friday to score some killer deals for Christmas. We usually drive down to Auburn but this year we decided to drive to Marysville and Yuba City...MISTAKE. We left at 3:30am and I couldn't believe the amount of people at that Walmart...holy cow! We did have to wait in line for our main purchase but only for a half an hour and then we ditched that place as fast as we could. We then drove over to Yuba City and hit the mall and a few other stores, had a delicious Starbucks and arrived back by about 9am.

Just back from Black Friday and this is what I find!

Coming home was fun because I decided to decorate for Christmas the Saturday before we left so I could come home to a nice cozy, festive house; it was perfect! Our poor cat Salem had a run-in with a couple raccoons while we were gone so he was happy to see us and warm up inside the house and eat. The dang coons got in the garage and ate all of his food, bathed in his water bowl and found his food bin, opened that, and ate all that food too! That night, as Brian was leaving to go on a late night errand (Wendy's :), he hears an animal growling at him in our front yard so he comes back inside, goes out again and it's still growling. He gets a flashlight and sure enough...DANG COONS! They wanted in our garage for more food. I'm sure they have been stalking us all week! Phew...lots of typing but lots of excitement. Now onto Christmas...

Mom and Ty

Adam in his coon skin hat

Oh how they grow...

Pumpkin Patch 2009

Pumpkin Patch 2010

Halloween 2010

This Halloween was fabulous! The weather was absolutely beautiful; I had a 3/4 length light weight sweater on and it felt wonderful. The kids costumes came together really well; everything, with the exception of Morgan's $8 clearance skirt that I couldn't resist, came out of our dress up buckets or pulled somehow from stuff we already had. They were very clever and inventive and I couldn't be more proud of their creativity.

Ty was completely freaked out by Troy in his costume but other than that, he totally caught on this year and had a great time trick or treating! He knew to hold his candy bag out and wore his costume the entire night and loved it. He can now say "CANDY!" The pumpkins turned out really cute and everyone enjoyed carving their own including Ty a.k.a "mom". It was too cute to see Ty concentrating so hard on "carving" his pumpkin, paying very close attention to detail.

There are so many things I love about this time of year.  I love going to the pumpkin patch every year with my family and pulling out the first of the seasons decorations. I love the weather change, the first rain of the season, burning my pumpkin scented candles and the smell of burning jack o lanterns on Halloween night. Well, it's been fun but...so long ghouls and goblins...hello Santa Claus!

Paying close attention to detail!

The cutest puppy ever!

Guitar playin' Raggedy Ann

Super Nerd!

Major Flirt!

 LA Ink Rocker

Striking a pose!

His back side was really cute too!

SUGAR COMA!!!

SFBI

On September 24th I completed a week long course at the San Francisco Baking Institute. It was a great experience and I really learned a lot. It was a grueling week in the sense that I was on my feet for 9 hours a day for 5 days and the commute to SF sucked. The instructor was fabulous but hardcore. She was very ambitious with our time and in the end we completed 10 cakes, 4 buttercreams, 5 cream bases, 1 syrup and marzipan while still fitting in lecture and demo. We were all complaining of exhaustion by the end. I learned some great cake "science" and can adamantly say I will never "measure" again!

After a long 10 hour day (our last day)

Interestingly, most of the students were working professionals from all over the United States with two students attending from different parts of Canada. In the beginning it was a little disconcerting because the instructor gave us a tour of the kitchen and then put us straight to work spitting out all sorts of french culinary terminology that I had never heard before. I caught on rather quickly and the rest of the week went extremely smooth, in fact, amazingly smooth! I felt very confident in my abilities, surprising myself at times, and never once felt inferior to the professionals there. I was very pleased with all of my final products. We learned all sorts of crazy cakes with very interesting histories like a genoise, dacquoise, biscuit viennois and le fraisier, just to name a few.

Mmmm...golden chiffon with a butter lemon curd, raspberries and pastry cream

I am proud to say that I can now keep up with all of the professional kitchen jargon (almost always in french). The hardest adjustment coming home was cooking in my home kitchen again after using a commercial kitchen all week...that sucks! I had the time of my life and definitely feel that this is what I am suppose to be doing. I am also so thankful to my husband who took a few days off, and my sweet friends who helped me with Ty all week; it's so great to have a group of people who love and support you.

My favorite...Chocolate Hazelnut Dacquoise with a Praline Buttercream

The ovens

The kitchen

They say...

...kids grow up so fast these days:

Starts the day with a shave...

Followed by some housework...

More cleaning...

Then some yard work...

Ends the day with some web surfin'...

Nursery!

Once again, I am really behind on my posts; life has been so busy. I could be on the computer for hours trying to catch up on all the happenings in the Addington household or, I could journal our most recent experiences with some occasional "flashbacks" in hopes of eventually getting caught up. So here's the latest:

Ty started nursery! It was a great day; Ty's first day in nursery was on his actual 18 month birthday, so cool. It was also the first rainy day of the season, also very cool! We went to church, took Ty to nursery for the first time, came home and started our first fire of the season and vegged on the couch watching movies until it was time to go to our friends, the Hornfischer's, for a birthday dinner. We ate delicious food and cupcakes (of course), and had great conversation. Good, good day!

On Arrival

He had escaped...

...and wanted back in.

Checkin' things out.

Thank you Bro. Olsen!

Snacks at last!