Trunk or Treat 2014!

The crazy month of October continues with Trunk or Treat, which was tonight!

This year's trunk:


Me, Health Professional


Dr. Derek


We were prepared for anything; fortunately, all of the trunk-or-treaters we screened were perfectly healthy. They just needed more candy from the bucket!


Where are our kids?? They didn't wear their costumes and ran around the campus all evening. We barely saw them... so no pics of them this time!

Fall Festival 2014!

We all had a great time at Fall Festival on Saturday, October 18th. Here's a recap!

The 'rents performed twice - at 10:00 AM and 2:00 PM.






For a full report with pics and video, visit The 'rents Band Blog!

The Costume Contest was at high noon. Here's Maren, as Food Network chef/personality Guy Fieri!






They always give a boy and girl award for each class. The judges thought Maren was a boy, so she got the boy award! Here she is with girl winner Micaela, as Charlie Chaplin!


This year, Deacon was a stick of dynamite. He and Derek worked hard to build this huge costume, which featured a retracting fuse and puff of smoke (engineered using compressed air, a straw, and baby powder)!




Here's a short video of the kids and costumes!


Next on the schedule was the Crusader Band, who performed American Salute Medley, Rock Around the Clock, and Polka.


Deacon and Eddie on percussion...


Maren on trombone!






Deacon played his drum kit on Rock Around the Clock and Polka.


Here's a video of all three songs!


The Basket Raffle is always a popular event...


This year, Deacon's 7th grade class basket theme was MINECRAFT! It was a popular basket!!


Derek takes a break from guitar playing and last-second costume building. I believe this is a tri-tip sandwich with jalapenos.


It was great to have Grammie with us for the day... here she is with Deacon for a celebratory dinner at Outback, Saturday evening!


So Fall Festival 2014 is in the books. Next up: Trunk or Treat this Friday! October is moving along! :)

Loma Prieta Earthquake: 25 years ago TODAY!

I can't BELIEVE it has been 25 years since this happened!!

One thing hasn't changed: the Giants are in the World Series! Here's a quick video of the big moment on national TV:



A still from my video: the view from my window, the sun setting over the ocean on October 17th, right after the quake.


Here's my edited video:

Throwback Thursday - Costume Craziness: R2-D2 & C-3PO!

I've been posting these on Thursdays on Twitter & Instagram, so here's one for the AFB.

Deacon and Maren in 2006. DISCLAIMER: the C-3PO costume was not homemade!

Donny & Marie!

Just a quick update as I realized I hadn't yet blogged our GROOVY 20th Anniversary trip to Las Vegas to see DONNY & MARIE!


I never missed their TV show way back when...


The whole trip was great, starting with fine dining at Arby's in Hesperia, CA on September 26th. From the Instagram files:




Were sad to leave Arby's for Vegas, but the hotel didn't disappoint.


September 27th... we couldn't take pics of the show itself, but here we are with an advertisement for the fabulous DONNY & MARIE!


I was so inspired... was ready to don a wig and sing Paper Roses!


All kidding aside, the show was so much fun - genuinely witty, a FABULOUS backup band, and of course Donny & Marie themselves are amazing, versatile singers and entertainers. WOW. We sat pretty close to the stage, and -what a show!


The next day, we headed back to Burbank via I-15. Stopped for lunch in Baker, CA - the Gateway to Death Valley, home of the World's Tallest Thermometer!


I think I blogged about this briefly on one of our summer vacation posts - here. It was 115 degrees that day!

The World's Tallest Thermometer has a fascinating history, and we got to hear it firsthand from the daughter of the man who built it: Willis Herron! Sadly, he passed away in 2007. But his whole family repaired the thermometer and maintains it today. Here we are with his daughter LaRae Harguess and a picture of her parents.


It was re-activated on July 10, 2014 - the 101st anniversary of the hottest day ever recorded on Earth - 134 degrees in Death Valley, CA! We drove by it on July 13th, not knowing it had just been re-opened.

A postcard from the awesome Temp 134 gift shop:


This is a MUST-SEE when you're on the road to Las Vegas. We got some great souvenirs and met some really nice people! A great way to end a fabulous trip.

The Right Fit!

So some of you know we've been waiting many months to buy a car - specifically, a yellow 2015 Honda Fit. We've been working with an auto-buying service called Autoland, through our credit union, and the yellow Fits have been trickling into the US very slowly... but last week, a yellow Fit showed up in southern CA, and Aaron snagged it for us. It arrived yesterday at Derek's office!

Derek and I with THE FIT!


Here we are with Aaron, the Autoland consultant/car finding guru!


...and with Saul, our loan officer!! Such a nice guy, he makes you want to go get a loan, for anything.


Of course, we couldn't celebrate the new car without acknowledging the faithful, reliable service of the car it's replacing, the 1998 Honda Accord, previously owned by Derek's parents.


Kids in the Accord, 2008.


We sold the Accord at CarMax, where it got HIT IN ITS PARKING SPACE right after they did the appraisal. Fortunately, the nice people at CarMax honored their appraisal despite the damage. Crazy!!

We're thankful for our newest Honda, and are looking forward to putting tons of miles on it!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!!

Orville Vanderlip is 105 years young today!



We couldn't find a "Happy 105th Birthday" card, so we sent him cards in denominations; Happy 60th, Happy 21st, Happy 16th, and Happy 8th.

Those add up to 105. Hope you have a great day, Grandpa! We love you!!

RIP Moonlight

Our last and beloved fishy, Moonlight, passed away last night.

200? - 2014

He was a social fish who had a long life. We will miss him!

Happy 50th Anniversary Bonnie & Darryl!!

Sorry to be so late with this, but we wish Bonnie and Darryl, AKA Grammie and Gramps, a VERY happy 50th wedding anniversary on September 5th!

We were fortunate to go up to spend the day with them on Friday and Saturday, the 5th and 6th of September.

We also called in Molly, currently going to college not too far away, to take some backyard pics! More will be coming, but here's a preview of the photo shoot!


It was a GREAT, great day. Here's a bad cell phone pic of us at dinner (Cattlemens):


...and a slightly better cell pic of the happy couple enjoying their gift from Cattlemens for 50 years of marriage: special hats and a hot fudge sundae!


Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad. We love you very much.

20 Years ago Today

We got married!



It was a day of tonal extremes: from gorgeous choral music with my cousin Shelly's God-given soprano voice soaring above, to unadulterated geekery in the use of the "Throne Room Processional" (from Star Wars, though by design, nobody really knew that) on organ for my entrance, and reception decor featuring film reels and cardboard standees of Star Wars characters, it was a day that celebrated God's perfect and wacky union of Derek and me. All our love to everyone who helped make it so special, and so much fun.

A 7-minute low-res video:

Glassybaby Interview with Trina!

My dear, incredibly charitable friend Trina was recently interviewed by the Glassybaby company for their new "Glassroots Story Page" - in fact, she is their first subject!

Their cover page introducing Trina can be found here: Glassroots Tour Page


Here's Trina's interview.

And here's a link to Trina's blog post, which documents the "making of" the interview!

Thanks for all you do, Trina!