It was a Happy Columbus Day!

We had such a happy Columbus Day!

Nathan ended up having the day OFF of work and so... we had a WHOLE list of activities planned. And I mean a WHOLE list. Our list had lots of house projects (including cleaning the carpets) and family projects (sorting through the girls' closets to yank the summer clothes) as well as outside of the home projects (shopping for winter clothes for the girls!) and our favorite type of activity: the FUN one! Every year we go to a pumpkin patch. This year was a fun pumpkin patch outing as the girls were able to ride a carousel and a train and go through two different corn mazes! Yahoo! And then, of course, as tradition has it the girls get one small pumpkin each and Mommy & Daddy get to share a pumpkin - it's the sacred pumpkin that will be the starter for all the pies and muffins Mommy will begin making this season. (not sure why I started writing in third person...)

Surprisingly we accomplished almost everything on our Columbus Day list (the carpets must wait for another week). Not sure when I'll get started on the pumpkin pies, but the change in weather has got me in the mood for some baking! I made some delicious granola with raisins and cherries and apricots today. (thank you Sisi!) I feel like baking bread or cookies or... pies very soon!

Enjoy these Mitchell family pics from our Columbus Day! (pumpkin pie photos will show up soon!)

What's Jail Mateja?

Today Mateja educated Ari on what happens to someone when they break the law.

Mateja to Ari: When people don't obey the law, the get put in jail. You don't want to go to jail do you?

Ari: No, Mateja...

Mateja: OK. Then you need to put your seat belt on because that is disobeying the law.

Ari: What's jail, Mateja?

Mateja: Jail is a stinky place. And the pillows are hard like rocks. And they give you blankets that are hard like rocks too. You don't EVER want to go to jail.

Me: Have you ever been to a jail?

Mateja: No and I don't ever want to go.

Me: How do you know they are stinky if you have never been to one before?

Mateja: I don't know. I just know they are.

Rich Perspective

Nathan and I talk somewhat frequently about the move we made earlier this year from our spacious four bedroom house to this tiny apartment in Santa Clara. There were several reasons why we chose to move here. Sometimes we remember our former "glory" in that big house and miss those days of space and "luxury" in San Jose. We know we made the right decision. We know we are in a temporary place. We know that eventually we will live in that big, beautiful home God has for us, somewhere and it will be BLISS! And while we know we made the correct/right decision in moving here, sometimes it feels like we fell backwards off of a cliff and have little to show for all the work we've put into our life... Recently Mateja sat on the couch of our downsized, tiny apartment living room and said, "I'm so glad we're rich!"


There's some perspective for you.

Summer Times

June has come and gone. July too, here and gone! And now August is well beyond half over... we've been busy little lovers over here. Most people we know have been in that same summer craze. Here is an update on the beginning of our wonderful summer:
I took the girls up to my Dad's the last week of May. The girls met Dad's new puppy: Sonny. Arielle was absolutely filthy the entire week. She and the dog bonded in a special way. Dad was working on the property that week so he was around most of the time here and there and the girls and I were able to enjoy him from a bit of a distance. Mateja took every opportunity she could to hop on the ATV with him. The girls were up and down the mountain with Papa. I was able to spend hours upon hours in the garden. We took the girls to the river and just simply enjoyed our time in the mountains. It was glorious.

After that week of peace and quiet we headed back to the Bay. Ended up getting here on June 1st - the date of Nathan and my sixth anniversary. We made a date for that following Saturday at a fabulous Greek restaurant nearby: Dio Deka. It took us back to our honeymoon in Greece (albeit quite a bit fancier than any fare we consumed while on the Greek Isles). Incredible food, ambiance, service. Check it out if you're in or around the South Bay.

Friends & family members graduated in June (including Mateja from pre-school! ha ha ha!), meetings, meetings and more meetings, the girls started their first-ever set of swimming lessons, we helped some friends move, my grandmother was moved from her home into a care-givers home, I took a whole day and drove out to visit her.

Father's Day came and with it a batch of famous Mitchell Pancakes specially whipped up by the girls just for their daddy. Mateja's pre-K "graduation" (complete with cap and gown! ha ha!!), lunch with a friend I hadn't seen in 8 years, my grade school/high-school reunion, as well as a road trip that Nathan took with the girls to So. Cal for a weekend to visit family were all packed into the month of June.

We acquired a gas grill, I started grilling for the first time ever and then - the topper for June - my younger brother turned 30 (I didn't get to celebrate with him, but it impacted me big time!)

and then we jumped into July and drove to Meadow Vista to visit my only living Grandfather and my Grandmother (his wife) who is my girls' Noni (she's Italian & wants to be called Noni by the Great-Grand kids). That was a great trip. I'll have to post photos and details of that some time soon (we learned on that trip that Arielle is allergic to cats! Yet another thing she shares with her Dad).

Whew!

the People of California

We were driving in the car up to San Francisco. Nathan had some work to do in the city so we girls decided to tag along. The girls requested their favorite CD, one of Michael Jackson's, of course and Nathan asked me to read him a newspaper article.

Ari suddenly said: "I pray for the people of California."

(I'm not sure I've ever heard her say the word "California" before, it was fabulous.)

That sortta caught our attention. So we too prayed for the people of California! We bless you Californians!!! Prosper & be in good health. Make wise decisions and live life to the fullest! Do it!!!

Player vs. Rock Star

We three girls were in the checkout line at Target. Ari had been wailing/screaming/throwing-a-fit... you know, doing that thing that makes everyone else in the store say, "somebody needs to shut that kid up." OK. Maybe everyone else in the store doesn't say that, but... YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!!! And although I do hate to admit it, I was a bit stressed. Mateja was lingering at the magazine racks. I was ready to get out of there. So once I paid for everything and shoved it into my cart I jammed for the automatic doors and hollered behind me, "Mateja, let's go!"
I was already around the corner before I looked back to see if she was following me out the door. She was. And in her hands were stacks of different magazines. They all had Michael Jackson on the cover. "Mateja!" (that was stressed-out-Mommy) "Mom, I want to read all of these." "Babe, I am not buying those." "Mom, these are all about Michael Jackson. And I want to read them! He's the best! Anyway, you don't have to buy these. We can take them." "No, Tej. You have to buy them. This isn't the library. It's... just go put them back, please! And LET'S GO." Reluctantly she returned all of the magazines to their racks. I was able to decompress in the meantime. She returned talking about how awesome Michael Jackson is and how much she loves him. I couldn't remove the smirk from my face. It was just too funny.

I pressed about MJ. "Sooo, why did you want those magazines?" "Mom he is the BEST man in the whole world!" "What?!?" I laughed. "Well, what about your Dad?!?" "Well, Mom. I mean that Michael Jackson is the best rock star in the whole world. Daddy is the best Dad and he is the best player too." "Who is the best?" "Daddy is the best Daddy and player." "He's a player?" "Yeah!" "What do you mean, player?" "You know, he is the best player at tickling and playing games and chasing me and Ari. But Michael Jackson is the best rock star ever!"

There's a good chance she'll change her mind. Ya think?

Ari speaks Mandarin with Auntie

MONDAY:

My sister, the girls’ Auntie, currently lives in China. Before she moved to China for work, she lived with us for nine months so she & the girls were pretty close. Because of the wonders of modern technology, we all still get to “see” each other & chat via Skype. This morning we girls spent some time talking with Auntie before she went to bed. It was pretty late her time. She has been working on her Chinese (Mandarin) quite a bit lately and decided to go through a little lesson with the girls by having them repeat some of the words and phrases. I will TRY to duplicate them here, but I neither speak nor write the native languages spoken in China. So forgive me if I’m a bit off, but here goes:

Auntie: “OK Ari. Repeat after me. I’m going to say something and then you say the same thing. OK?”
Ari: “OK Auntie.”
Auntie: “OK. Here we go. ‘zai jian’ now you say, ‘zai jian’”
Ari: “sigh jee”
Auntie: “Good job. Now say: ‘shui, shui’”
Ari: “shoosh”
Auntie: “Good. ‘wo ai nee’”
Ari: “orwannee”
Auntie: That’s “I love you” in Chinese.
Ari: “I love you in Chinese.”
Auntie: (burst out laughing)

Awe. Love making Auntie laugh.