How quickly summer days have come and gone. Well, actually in Redding it is more like summer days have come and are still coming. All I can really remember is trying not to breath in the smoke from the fires surrounding our quaint little town. Or wondering why Costco had to repave the whole parking lot in the hottest month of the year and watch as cars left turn marks and they drove off before their kirkland super premium vanilla ice cream melted. No doubt it was a classic Redding summer. But there were good things that came from this summer too. Like going to my little brothers swim meets, taking the baby to his first swimming lessons, working a few shifts at the MAC counter and being able to hang out with the girls, going to the lake with Daniel and having lots of bbq's with friends. Yes it has been a great summer indeed. 

Daniel's work schedule is much more consistent these days as well which is a huge relief. Baby Daniel is crawling like a champ and is ready to walk just as soon as his legs figure it out! I am branching out and starting to freelance on my own as a makeup artist and with the help of our friends, The Rostens, I am beginning to work on my makeup repertoire/portfolio. 

All in all, we are one happy family and we look forward to the next season and what it brings!

-mg

Finally sailed...

And I am hooked. Some of you know, and some of you may have heard from Michelle about my obsession with sailing. I don't remember when it started exactly, all I know is that it is always there.

I am a waterdog. Some of my fondest memories are all involving water, and of course some of my scariest memories also involve water. No matter the memory, scary or fond, they all have great stories to go along. Yesterday was no exception.

When Michelle and moved to the Bay Area for my job, I got all excited when I realized there was a sailing school about ten minutes from our apartment. I figured I would save my pennies and attend all the classes I could before the end of our "tour" in the Bay. But money has a way of slipping through my fingers rather quickly and soon we were planning to move back to Redding. So I turned my eyes towards smaller, lake-type, sailing vessels. Once again driving Michelle mad with my plans for yet another hobby. Sorry babe.

One day while I was working with one of my supervisors, he mentioned how he would rather be out on his boat on such a hot day. The mention of a boat immediately peaked my attention and I asked him what type of boat he had. "An older 34' sail boat". I explained my obsession of sailing to him and he shocked me again with the news that he was an instructor for a sailing school in Berkely for a long time. I offered my manual labor services and expressed my willingness to scrub the deck, scrape barnacles, and retrieve anchors released to the dirty depths of the bay... ok, maybe not the last one.

We made arrangements and I finally got to go for a sail on an honest to goodness sailboat. It was great. We motored out of the marina and onto the bay south of the San Mateo bridge. As we cruised along the windspeed starting picking up and soon we were in full on 30 knot winds. Sitting along the windward side, staring straight down into the water, I asked how fast of winds the races were usually held in. "15-20 knots" my supervisor replied, "actually right now we are sailing when most people won't, the small-craft advisory is at 25 knots". He glanced back over his shoulder with a border line maniacal grin as another five gallons of seawater sprayed over us. It was great.

I'm hooked, I want to sail more. I don't need a boat yet, but I would like to go get all my certificates so I can charter boats. I sense good adventures ahead!

- dg

Thinking.

Howdy internet world. Michelle told me she posted a new blog and it reminded me that we had one. Then I had to ask what the web address was, yeah, it's that bad!

I have been spending a lot of my time sitting at various Starbucks around the penninsula, watching people and waiting for work to come around again. So maybe with this spare time I can post a few more blogs. Reading would be fun too. Who knows, hopefully I can be slightly productive and increase my knowledge in a subject or practice my literacy.

Having this much time to yourself can be scary. There are all kinds of decisions you are forced to make. For example, what do you want to do? It does make you exercise your brain a lot more. More time to think, less time to be distracted by 30 second commercials and distracting video games. Although the distractions are nice every now and then. In my line of work, I make decisions all day long, so a little time with no thinking at all is a nice break. But then the brain synapses start working again and I begin thinking. So back to thinking...


-dg

Happy to just be...

Hi Friends! Just wanted to show you some of the pictures from our wonderful shoot by Heather Armstrong here in Redding this past month. It's so great to have pictures of all of us together... as a family. Usually I'm the one behind the camera! Heather was just amazing! Seriously. You'll have to check out her website to see the rest of her work. HeatherArmstrongPhotography.com 

I'm still waiting to hear back from the M.A.C. counter to see if they need any extra coverage. If they do, I'm their "go to" girl and will be happy to help out! I should find out more next month. For now, I'm perfectly happy sitting down friends and them letting me practice on their faces! If you are interested let me know. The more the better!

Daniel is doing great. He still commutes and we still miss him like heck when he's gone!! He is always wonderful with the baby. There is never a time when he's not willing to help out so I can get a little break when he's here! 

Alright, well I hope you are all well. Daniel and I will be celebrating our 4 year wedding anniversary very soon and we're planning on seeing the 4th of July fireworks in San Francisco this year! Should be fun. All for now.

-mg