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Here it is. My blank piece of paper. ahhh

Today it rained really hard. A good old-fashioned thunderstorm. I was out in it, going to the grocery store, at the school.

I just walked in. Oh my. I wish you could all smell what I am smelling right now. I had to write about it before I forget. All of our sliding doors and windows are open, because it is so nice to hear the birds and feel the air through the house. Well, I haven't smelled this smell before, because this really is the first few days of rain since we've moved here. My house smells like I am in a pine forrest. Pine. Fresh pine trees saturated with rain. So potent! Knock you off of your feet potent. If Yankee Candle could bottle this up, it would have to have a name like "Pine Trees after Thunderstorm in Brett and Erin's Yard." It would sell like wild. I know it. Only it wouldn't be the same, because you'd actually have to light a hot candle to smell it and it wouldn't be cool and floating through the windows. And the name probably wouldn't fit on the packaging, so a marketing team might have to brainstorm until they come up with a name like, um, maybe PINE. It wouldn't sell as well, but what can they do?

ANYWAY-- I can hear lots of birds (I guess they are liking this rain too) and I need to pause while I go outside and push Kate in the swing in the middle of all of these freshly rained on pine trees.

*swing *swing *swing*swing*

I am back. There were so many crows above us making so much noise, that Kate now thinks birds say caw caw instead of tweet tweet. Great. This might seriously mess her up. I've been working so hard on the tweet tweet thing.

I am not going to write about some tough adjustment stuff this weekend. I do feel that writing about good and bad is all right and keeping it real, but this time I just want to focus on the positive. Rain is positive. Conference was a huge positive. Conference is good because a-it involves blankets. I really like blankets. b-it involves cooking and eating. I got a new cookbook that I am excited about and I made the peach french toast bake, which was great. c-it teaches me so much to keep me thinking and striving to do better. I needed it this time! My favorite talk was Eyring's on how I need to TRUST the Lord and what he's doing here in my family. Trust Him Erin! That was good to hear.

The only part that was not good to hear was the talk where someone said something about the early pioneers wanting to push on to the promised wealth and mild climate of California after arriving in Utah only to be told by Brigham Young that, "No! This is the place! This is where your kids will flourish, your families will be happy, yada yada yada." That was pretty funny. You had to have been here.

By Sunday, and after a long walk in Pasadena, we set some goals and made some plans. Some involved travel (yipee), some involved new bikes (sweet), and some involved more planned teen play nights at the Blake House.

Today the plumbers are here. Yeah! They did verify that I have a "leak somewhere under the ground somewhere" but that the bigger problem is that under my house, in the 2 ft. crawl space, they found all of the sewage pipes rotting and pooling liquid. That then explains the septic smell I keep smelling on the one side of the house. I thought I was crazy. No, turns out the entire piping under whole house needs to be replaced or big health hazard. So focusing on the positive, I don't have to pay for it! That's good.

What else? Oh Disneyland! Syd and I now have a year pass. It was great to be there with Kelly and Zach. My beautiful Sister Kelly

and her lovely daughter Emmy

They helped tremendously. The weather was great, the lines were nil, and I enjoyed it. Seeing Kate on the Jungle Cruise and in the Tiki Room was pretty priceless as was seeing Syd's face after conquering California Screaming for the first time. The best part of my day was tumbling upon these guys!

They were good. I could write a whole other post about Disneyland musicians. These men were surely in their 40s, 50s. How much do they get paid? Is their job an "I can't believe I've ended up here, in a pirate suit.." or "How lucky am I to be working at Disneyland!" ?? Is it a side job, a full time job? Are they living the dream or depressed out of their minds? So many questions. Regardless, I really could have followed them around for a while.

It's a small world turned really weird after the music shorted out and went silent and the boats stopped moving, but the characters kept twisting and turning. Staring at this..

with no noise is a little Twilight Zonish. Zach said, "This is the perfect setup for a horror movie." I agreed. We wondered if poison gas would suddenly start seeping in through the speakers, or the earth would start trembling as a huge earthquake ripped through Disneyland. The possibilities were endless about what could happen while stuck in a tunnel with creepy moving robotic dolls with NO MUSIC. It turned funny. Simon thought so..

We definitely thought so...

And so did these hyenas...

Shoooot. Good times.

The workers kept telling us not to panic and that we must stay in the boat during the 20-minute technical difficulties (aka terrorist attack). Zach finally found the ride's theme song on his iphone which everyone in the boat enjoyed and he thought was pretty clever.

Verdict: Disneyland was a Go. I will go back in 3 weeks with my Sister Misty, because it's my duty when experimenting with stuff to go twice and compare my experiences. :) Kate's not so sure..

Plus, you just can't beat this guy's 3-second ride. Magical I say.