fromscatteredtribe's Xanga

Saturday, April 19, 2008

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 00:36:28 GMT

11 April 2008
Grandma Karen marries Chris

the flowers were super fun for Jen and I to choose since our weddings were so many years ago. They were simple but bright and fun. Only two attendants stood up with our mom. Her friend Tracy and Chris's friend Jerry. Jen's daughter KK was the flower girl and our fourth son Asher was the ringbearer. The theme was a western one and the party was in Jen's big backyard which she recently landscaped with a breathtaking pool. There were just under 30 folks there to celebrate (most flew in from chicago) and it was a lovely afternoon ceremony in front of a gorgeous neighborhood fountain.

Matt and I left the next day for the company paid reward trip to Kona, Hawaii where we stayed at a Fairmont Hotel on the Ocean and ate yummy food and shared cocktails with friends who were at last year's Miami South Beach company trip and with whom Matt often speaks but rarely see in person since we all live in different states. We had a nice long tour of the island and amazing nights of Hula entertainment and lots of relaxing breezy fun. We otherwise had a slow agenda and just enjoyed time together while the kids stayed with grandma and our dear friend CC. We were voluntarily bumped for a 800 dollar Hawaiin airline credit so the last photo with a red boa and athletic wear and puffy eyes has no other excuse...lol... thanks for looking!

before departure, sleepy though we were:

we were on a very very big plane!

landing in honolulu

and on a much smaller plane landing in Kona:

The Kona Airport is all outdoors and while waiting for luggage this is the pretty view we had:

Someone had used the white lava rocks the way many folks in Hawai'i do to write a message to someone...this time it was a message to matt's company with their corporate logo on our bus route to the hotel

Our hotel, the Fairmont Orchid was breathtaking.... open air through the lobbies and the lounges and with amazing waterfalls and koi ponds and oceanfront places to relax. there were also sea turtles (Honu) basking in the sun and our receptions were mostly outdoors in the breeze. Our simple but nice hotel room had a private balcony with an ocean view too :)

our balcony

some views of the hotel grounds

On our bus tour of the HUMONGOUS Big Island we saw the smoking volcano (ready to erupt any day) and a really cool cave-like lava tube...we also visited a macadamia candy factory (where we sampled and did not take photos) and an orchid factory where we took photos of a one-of-a-kind 20k orchid (ugly one too...lol). we were shocked to learn on the tour from our native driver that most people ont he Big Island travel 3-4 hrs EACH WAY to work EACH DAY!! eek. there is a huge contrast between the worker homes and the million dollar mainlander touristy condos.

when we returned from the long tour we had a simple dinner on the beach at sunset and took some more silly self portraits:

the last night's reception included leather clad electric violin players and lots of lava flow cocktails. we only took a few photos of matt's coworkers and a couple from shanghai who were really nice to talk to. It was late evening so none of the pics are GREAT.

The 20 hours we spent at the airports and on planes was an interesting experience. we met a lot of really fun and really crabby folks and we were at once really fun and really crabby. None of the older folks would talk to us while I wore the red feather boa so I eventually put it away. Can you tell we were exhausted?

Monday, March 24, 2008

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 04:53:22 GMT

A fun Easter celebration
with our new small church
and with friends at a small easter dinner
thanks to those who shared it with us
(and the locksmith who got us back in our car and
therefore made it all possible)

And a recent bbq at our friend's house:

Friday, January 11, 2008

Fri, 11 Jan 2008 01:02:58 GMT

Our fun day at the zoo with friends:

Friday, December 28, 2007

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:34:18 GMT

Our Christmas with Friends and Family
Christmas morning is slow and calm in our house. We don't exchange gifts with each other but celebrate in a different way altogether. But our favorite parts of the holidays are the time with friends and family. Christmas Eve tradition is our church service (our last year before we branch off to new church) and then zoolights with jen, mark, and kk (and this year our friends Doris and Hannalee and Sean). Christmas Day was at Jen and MArk and KK's new house which was a beautiful place to celebrate :)

Friday, December 28, 2007

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 15:32:29 GMT

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 23:50:45 GMT

CHARITY AUCTIONS to benefit the Ogbuji family, our dear friends, Friday 7 Dec 2007 until Tuesday 10 Dec 2007 at
www.hyenacart.com/something
100% of all funds collected will be given to the family and items are being donated by many WAHM artisans.
thanks for your generosity!! for information on donating please email me at:
mattandtiffanynixon@gmail.com

thanks

IN LOVING MEMORY of Imose Ikpia, Chika Ogbuji,and Anyachiemeka Chibuzo Anastar Ogbuji victims of a tragic housefire and children of our dear friend Roschelle Ogbuji.

I wish I knew how to find the words to express my sorrow.

Their family has consistently been a loving and caring force in our lives and the children will always be in our hearts and we will miss them greatly!

in addition to the above auctions, if anyone wanted to give anonymously, I found this address in one of the news stories.

Linus Ogbuji is the girls' grandfather.

Those wishing to help the Ogbuji family can do so by contributing to: Ogbuji Family Fund, c/o Dr Linus Ogbuji, 2737 Green Road, Shaker Heights OH 44122

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 19:12:30 GMT

Wow! it has been a long time since an update from our family and I have spent way too little time being able to keep up with blogs of online friends, but I want to post some new pics too!!

Ephraim turned 5 last month. He had a pumpkin cake and a little celebration including trans-fat free locally grown potato fries and hormone free ice cream early in the day with his aunt jen and cousin KK and then cake with just us and his visiting grandparents.

We are still homeschooling (some days more than others but the kids are always learning and changing so fast. Aidan is still not as enthusiastic about reading as we would sometimes like but when we find the right motivation he reads with lightning speed and lots of humor and puns!

does sneaky flower picking count as science glass?

how about the state fair?

I have still been making wool foods like mad. Here are some of my recent faves!

Here are pics from each of the kids soccer teams (Aidan's team I coach so I have taken more photos of the other kids who have totally made me smile this season -- they are wearing the white uniforms).

Aidan decided that the blue hair and then the floppy hair were no longer his style of the moment and asked for a flat top.

We had a fun weekend with our niece KK while her parents had a hollywood vacation and got to see Ben Harper play in LA. Here are some fun shots from the trip we took to the zoo!

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Our 14 day National Park Tour

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 18:01:54 GMT

Day One: Saturday 4 August 2007
Williams, Arizona

So maybe staying out late at the theater for the grand opening of "The Bourne Ultimatum" was not the best use of packing time. We ended up awake until 4am getting ready. We are only an hour or so into the trip and we realize we have left several important things behind. Somehow we know we will adapt though. I am excited and nervous about the minimal plans. Two weeks is a long time with relatively primitive accommodations (although I would not yet know how primitive).
We really wanted to see the south rim of the Grand Canyon this first day but the storms were really intense. That night we learned a lot about mistakes staking a tent in inclement weather. The water came in the top and poured under in pools as the thunder and lightning gave us quite a scare. Our sturdy tent and lots of body heat made it all ok.
This was the day we discovered how sharp Asher's eyesight is as he spotted a horny toad lizard in the national forest bordering our campground.

Day Two: Sunday 5 August 2007
North Rim Campground
Grand Canyon National Park
Arizona

Our marvel at the beautiful grounds was totally topped by the canyon view just a few steps away in the backyard. Shady pines and a great firepit and a downed-tree-bridge made up for the long walk to the restrooms and the lack of soap and showers.

Day Three: Monday 6 August 2007
North Rim Campground
Grand Canyon National Park
Arizona

Today we take what turns out to be a pretty tough hike along the rim of the canyon. We stop a couple dozen yards short of the farthest point as it seems really silly and unsafe since we already have a great view.

my favorite photo of Aidan Aquinas journaling/drawing the canyon:

Day Four: Tuesday 7 August 2007
North Rim Campground
Grand Canyon National Park
Arizona

We are now settled in: dirty but really wishing we could stay here longer. Our adventure must continue though and we are so thankful for great weather and a lot of fun!

Day Five: Wednesday 8 August 2007
near Bryce Canyon National Park
Utah

The drive through Utah's rocky caverns is gorgeous. We love that our trip calls for very little night driving. The Utah KOA is really nice and friendly and it has showers and laundry facilities which are a HUGE bonus for us right now. Our site is nestled in the foothills of these little mountains: like a mini quarry for the kids.

Day Six: Thursday 9 August 2007
Bryce Canyon National Park
Utah

This national park is honestly as impressive to me as the Grand Canyon. We took this totally amazing 3 mile hike intended for those wanting a more strenuous hike than we might have normally planned but the views in and above the canyon were breathtaking.

After the national park tour we took a short shuttle ride and then looked for a grocery store to buy a couple items. We finally found a little store near the Grand-Staircase Escalante National Monument. The entire grocery store was about the size of our house and this was the entrance:

Day Seven: Friday 10 August 2007
Bryce Canyon National Park
Utah

Our last full day in Utah we take a later hike in order to come back to camp in time to see the amazing meteor shower. Our campsite (and the national park here) is one of the few places on earth where one can see our own galaxy in the many many stars. We can also see the planet Venus, and because it is a new moon, the meteor shower is an almost historical one. The "falling stars" were really fun to watch with the kids.

Day Eight: Saturday 11 August 2007
Zion National Park
Utah

This day would prove to be our most challenging. We had no concrete plans and were feeling tired and ready to go somewhere cooler. We found a scorpion under the tent when we were packing up. My first wild one I had seen in five years of living in the desert.

Zion National Park was really beautiful. We saw it mostly from the car and the shuttle though since we were all a bit tired.

After Zion we looked at the atlas and thought about the whole week we still had ahead of us and decided that the kids should see the sequoias and that we might as well see Yosemite too. So we started a long drive across Nevada only to face no vacancy at every campground and hotel within 50 miles of Yosemite. Finally we found what was essentially a last resort stop and homeless community and paid 25 bucks to pitch our tent at 1am and four hours later we were headed back to Yosemite National Park hoping the campgrounds there might have vacancy in the later am hours.

Day Nine: Sunday 12 August 2007
Porcupine Rock Campground
Yosemite National Park
California

The MASSIVEness of this national park is astounding. It takes 1-2 hours to get into the heart of the park and 20 minutes between hiking trails and visitor centers and campgrounds. We were so thankful that one of the cool upper area campgrounds had a vacancy for us. It had no showers and pit toilets and NO RUNNING water of any kind. We had to boil creek water to wash dishes.....lol. It was an amazing place though. Firewood was everywhere and the sites were nicely sized. We had to store all food and bath items in a bear locker which should have been a clue to future adventures.

That night was absolutely FREEZING: the polar opposite of Utah. Asher and Ephraim would only sleep if being BREATHED on the WHOLE night. Everyone was restless but after rethinking our sleeping layout in the tent this was the last really uncomfortable night in the cold. Our kids have spent all or most of their lives in Phoenix and the cold was like they had never felt.
We have met some really incredible people from all over the country and the world so far. The astronomy professor who shared the news of the upcoming meteor shower, the older couple at bryce canyon hiking tougher trails than we were, the biker friends who lent and borrowed some items with us (we had no hatchet and we needed to chop some logs), the irish woman traveling with her siblings and looking for her prince charming on the road. The father and daughter looking for an adventure in their own state. The family from New Jersey whose son had been injured by a squirrel.

Their stories of travel were lots of fun for us and the kids!

Day Ten: Monday 13 August 2007
Yosemite National Park
California

Tonight was the exciting encounter with a black bear (he greeted me outside the potty a few steps from our tent) and I obediently shooed him away. He was persistent though and came into our site a few times that night. Hearing international calls of "go away bear" and hooting was how we fell asleep that night!

Day Eleven: Tuesday 14 August 2007
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
California

Leaving Yosemite Park took almost 2 hours-- just the literally driving from one end to the other without stopping. I cannot get over how HUGE that park is.

We stock up on a few items in Fresno and we head to the next park. The trees we start to see when we get close to Sequoia-KingsCanyon are pretty gigantic. We realize there are plenty of campsites available but that showers are only until 4pm and we have less than an hour to get established and FINALLY clean. Running water in the campground was a must too. We find a really great place only maybe 1/3mile round trip to the toilets and with LOTS of space and few folks around. The firewood is everywhere too and since we have been cooking all our meals on the fire we are really thankful.
We get clean and then start loading everything into the bear lockers hoping that this site has less feisty bears than Yosemite did. We scour for mountain lions hoping not to see any since they are more aggressive than the bears too. (we don't). Isaiah spots some mule deer right away: so cute!!

Day Twelve: Wednesday 15 August 2007
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
California

Yum! The Fire-Roasted Potatoes and Campfire Coffee with milk (finally thanks to heading through fresno yesterday) make the morning. We then head to the giant forest for a few miles of hiking and a free shuttle to the museum.
On the way back to camp we brake for a darting baby bear in the road!!

Day Thirteen: Thursday 16 August 2007
Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks
California

Today was the slow and lazy day. We had an all day campfire and read a lot of Lord of the Rings together and spent time journaling. We each had a local favorite: a San Francisco ice cream sandwich. We prepacked the car and took another sponge bath.

Day Fourteen: Friday 17 August 2007
Comfort Inn
Los Angeles, California

We went dirty and smelly into a Denny's for breakfast food not cooked over a fire and about 10 cups of coffee (since our fire coffee took about an hour to get a cup) and we headed toward home. Car troubles (apparently just a battery and a bunch of scammy answers from a pep boys shop) left us overnight in a hotel in LA with our car towed to a local dealership to be fixed in the morning.
Sleeping on a mattress instead of sleeping bags on the ground was luxurious though and we all took one or more showers. I got to see a new episode of Monk for the first time in weeks and asher got to see several episodes of Go Diego Go.
On the way home the next day we found a skecher's outlet with a sale and our children all have shoes that fit and we are safely (on day fifteen- now sixteen home and safe)

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Wed, 20 Jun 2007 15:03:55 GMT

I am not sure what the inspiration was, but suddenly I am feeling there are so many things I can do to make less of an impact on the environment. It seems funny because with 9.5 years of cloth diapering and using cloth mamapads and a couple years of bartering and trading for WAHM goods whenever possible, and homeschooling and homebirthing and many years without a car and eight years (what seems like AGES ago) without a television, we really are among the crunchiest folks we know.

I just felt myself slipping into this zone though where the goal was make enough money that things would be easy and comfortable, but deep down I don't really believe that is my calling. Maybe it is the fact that while I LOVE LOVE LOVE being close to my sister Jen and her family and I really like not having to wear coats or shoes much of the year, I am not living my DREAM.

I started thinking maybe we should move off the grid.... get a few chickens and a mini cow and a couple goats and start gardening and making cheese and live in a tent for all I care, kwim? but we still have a lot of debt and living where Sleepwalker can work a normal corporate 6-figure income is really ideal. we have to get our finances in order and hiding in the country would only work short term....lol

SOOO, we are now researching urban homesteading (both the squatting -- through legal means and financed rennovation-- and the more general use of the word to imply a low impact, environmentally conscious, self-sustaining, minimal consumerism lifestyle)

I was super impressed with the brown dress lady who wore one outfit for an entire year. and the couple who bought NOTHING unnecessary for 12 months. I also really loved taking public transit and walking and that really is not possible here.

so what now?

here are the tiny steps we are taking here in the suburbs.
1. clothesline (we are inspired by those who have cut HUNDREDS from their electric bills per month and we do a LOT of laundry)
2. researching kitchen gardening (simple herbs and lettuces would be GREAT, but i am a TERRIBLE plant lover so i need HELP)
3. decluttering (about 100 pounds or so of clutter so far this week...out the door...woo hoo)
4. a modified no spending (we are still buying food, coffee, toilet paper, and dh can buy haircuts.... we are just going to try not to buy a pair of socks or a shirt we don't need for as long as we can..... we need to do this anyway for our budget). Sadly, I think that other than a planned social occasion it means no caramel machiattos I don't make here...sigh

any other ideas?

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

Wed, 09 May 2007 22:27:55 GMT

It is getting hot in Arizona,
but a day at the splash park
makes the weather worth it!