McComb Family

Yesterday morning we get in the car to head to school and my car stinks! I tell the kids, "My gosh, it smells like an animal died in here. You guys need to clean your rotten lunches out of my car when we get home." Off to school we go with our noses hanging out the windows. Same thing on the way home, but now it's about 30 degrees hotter, so we've added gagging into the mix. We get home and Briana finds her orange juice from a while ago under the seat which is no longer orange, but green, from the mold growing on it. She gets rid of it and off we go to soccer practice.

When practice is over, we head to the car and open the trunk to toss their gear inside and get hit with this wave of stench that about knocked me over. I find the culprit of the smell in my car -- not rotten orange juice, but the decomposing carcass of a headless rattlesnake with a bulging belly of just-eaten mouse(?) that Briana had brought home from Grandy's the day before. Now what do I do?? The thought of just tossing it out in the parking lot crossed my mind, but then I thought leaving a dead rattlesnake at a school probably isn't the greatest idea especially when it's the school I work at. Plus, all the witnesses!! OMG -- what do I do?!?

So, once again, I drove home with eau de rattlesnake permeating my car. God help the poor garbage man who picks up the trash can I tossed that decaying mass of flesh into.

That's my little nature girl for you. And the next time she wants to bring something home to show Dad the answer will be -- NO!!! Absolutely, unequivocally no!!!

Posted in: on Thursday, August 28, 2008 at at 8:47 PM 2 comments  

Saturday my Uncle Jer and cousin Mary were at a reunion in Nevada City, so they came by that evening to spend the night. My parents invited themselves over, and pretty soon we were having a full-blown birthday BBQ. Not sure how it happened, but here they all are!!
Adam ordered the cake (via by mom), and it was dee-lish (chocolate on chocolate with chocolate -- how can you go wrong!?). Not only was it yummy but cute too!

He was insistent on being the candle lighter. What you can't see are the candles pushed all the way to the bottom of the cake (see pic below). I guess you can get a little more frosting on them that way when you pull the candles out to lick!! It was a very nice birthday party, and the next day (on my actual birthday) I hung out in my parents' pool all day. That wasn't exactly the plan.....but Mary left her cell phone here (figured that out when an unfamiliar ring went off) and we delivered it up to her at my parents' house. Of course, once we were there we had to stay for the swimming (and goodies from the cabana!!). Today I came across Mike's wallet in my chair (Mike is Mary's boyfriend). They're a match made in heaven!

Posted in: on Monday, August 25, 2008 at at 5:32 PM 2 comments  

Soccer season is underway. They've had two weeks of practice now, and have their first game in two weeks. They will miss it because we'll be at Stacie's wedding, but there will be plenty of others. This is the first time I haven't been the "team mom" so I'm not quite sure what to do with myself. I actually get to just sit on the sidelines and be a fan!! What a novel concept!! Bret is now helping coach Adam's team, so they're both having a lot of fun with that. Here are a couple of pictures from practice.

And here are a few from Picture Day yesterday.

Soccer with an attitude.

Mr. Cooperative.

Posted in: on Sunday, August 24, 2008 at at 10:50 AM 1 comments  

Hold off on calling in the missing person's report, he finally showed up and is no longer missing in action. Turns out he really was at the other house working, but rode over with a friend and left his cell phone at home (or somewhere -- I sure didn't hear it ringing when we were calling him!). Anyway, he got the water working so we were able to take showers and brush our teeth this morning!!! I know my students appreciated that!! : )

Posted in: on Friday, August 22, 2008 at at 4:38 PM 0 comments  

We arrived home tonight a little after 6:00 and were ready for dinner! I went to wash my hands only to discover we have no water!!!! I send Briana out to find Bret as his car and the truck are in the driveway, but NO BRET!! Hmmm.....maybe he went to softball practice, But the quad and motorcycle are still here too. I can guarantee he didn't walk somewhere, so where does that leave us?? No answer on his cell either, and I've been trying since before 4:00.

So, apparently my husband has disappeared off the face of the planet. Hopefully he'll find his way home soon. In the meantime, I'm sitting here having to drink a margarita since we have no water.

Posted in: on Thursday, August 21, 2008 at at 7:49 PM 2 comments  

Briana and I made it through our first day of school today!!! Yea!! (Yea that we made it through, not that it was the first day!!) I was there until almost 8:00 last night and only left because I needed to get Brie to bed. It was a long day. Needless to say, I was beat by the end of the day today. It was actually Adam's second day of school though, because he went yesterday while Brie stayed with Alexxa. Here they are in their "first" day of school outfits.

I hope everyone enjoyed the posts during the summer, but I'm just putting a disclaimer out there now that they will be slowing down now that I'm back at school. I don't have near the time to play around on the computer anymore. *sob* Plus, I've now started a blog for my class, so I'm doing double duty. I'm trying to keep it short and sweet, but things always take longer than you want and/or expect. If anyone is interested in checking it out, go for it (I'm not promising much though!!).

BTW, I ended up with a kindergarten/1st grade split. Things kept changing up until the last minute, but what's new?!

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 at at 5:21 PM 2 comments  

Adam and his 5 year old "girlfriend" staged a wedding the other day to marry each other. The next day (they move fast) they had a baby(doll) to take care of, and then proceeded to barricade themselves in Adam's room with EVERYTHING he has in his room. His shelves were cleared, toybox empty, bed stripped!! It was impossible to even push the door open.

So, I'm wondering.....is this normal behavior or should I be worried?

Posted in: on Monday, August 18, 2008 at at 8:55 PM 3 comments  

The people have spoken and chosen outfit #1 for the first day of school for Briana. Thanks for your participation (and I think she's secretly quite pleased!!). Now she has a new accessory to go with her outfit........a toothless grin. Yep -- that's #6!!!

Posted in: on Monday, August 11, 2008 at at 8:42 PM 0 comments  

The whole summer has gone by, and have we taken the boat out yet - NO!! It has sat for 4 years because Adam was just a baby and they didn't make life vests small enough for him, and then we've been building (and by we I mean Bret!). This is our first summer with "nothing" to do and it has flown by without one trip to the lake.

In the meantime, Folsom has basically shut down with only one ramp still open (not the one by us!) and a 5MPH speed limit on the whole lake. Oh yeah, that sounds like fun!!

So Bret finally decided he wanted to take the boat out and even invited people to come with us, but unfortunately he likes to wait until the last minute to get things done. Thus the reason he started replacing the brakes at 9:00 the morning we were supposed to head out. In true McComb fashion, one problem ended up leading to another problem. He finally got the brakes done to realize the tire was flat. Then the air compressor wouldn't start to fill it up. Finally got it filled and then it had a second hole!! We ended up having to put the spare tire on and were finally ready to hook up the trailer. We thought we were on our way, and then Bret realized the boat's steering was locked up. Not real fun to back out from the ramp only to be able to go straight back up it!!!

Long story even longer, we finally got on the road about 11:30 and were on the water about an hour later. It turned out to be a great day after a not-so-great start.

Here's Bret getting ready to wakeboard. We all got a couple of good runs in which was fun!

Briana thought she wanted to try wakeboarding as well, so here I am getting her set up and teaching her what to do. This is as far as she got! It was a little harder than she thought it would be.

Finally, here is tubing. The kids started off on the raft and Bret kinda submerged them, so they wanted an adult with them. Here's me and Brie. Tubing is definitely NOT my idea of a fun time, but the kids enjoyed it. Brie calls it the belly bouncer!

Good times!!!

Posted in: on at at 10:43 AM 2 comments  

Unfortunately Briana looks slightly like me after a bee sting. This was before she swelled up even more and looked like someone had popped her in the eye.

And here's daddy and son.

Posted in: on Saturday, August 09, 2008 at at 6:53 PM 2 comments  

I got home last night (late, of course, after softball) and had a message saying I will be teaching 1st grade!!! Woohoo!!!!!!

Posted in: on at at 8:47 AM 2 comments  

I'm sure everyone knows what a nightmare last year was for me. I started off teaching 4th, 5th, and 6th grade science and they threw in 7th and 8th grade computers for good measure. Was out almost a month for my treatment, came back for one week and started a kindergarten/1st grade class. Had them for about 6 weeks and became a 1st/2nd grade class. Yes, the only grade I did not teach was 3rd!!! Talk about a nightmare.

Come the end of the year, I'm told I will be teaching 6th grade next year (as in next week now!) but was told to hold off and not pack up my room yet because things may change. Hormonal tween sixth graders would not be my first choice, but hey, it's a job.

A couple of weeks ago I get a call saying my old science position has come open....would I prefer that to 6th grade. Heck yeah!! Something I've taught before -- that would be a novel concept. But again with the disclaimer to wait a bit longer to move back over because things may still change.

Finally, today I get a call that they are going to add another primary class. Do I want to teach a 1st/2nd grade class again. You bet!! However one of the other teachers might want the 1/2 which would leave me with a straight 1st -- even better!!

So after months of not knowing what I would be doing this year......I will be teaching 1st grade (and maybe 2nd)! Now I better get started planning my year out!! : )

Posted in: on Friday, August 08, 2008 at at 3:56 PM 1 comments  

I've been thinking for quite some time that I need to post how to publish a comment since some people seem a little confused about it and I often feel like I'm having a schizophrenic conversation with myself. Are there people out there reading this stuff, and if so, who are they? I was going to tell you that you just need to click on the # comment link at the bottom of the post, type your message, log in or do in anonymously, I've even taken off word verification (you're welcome A.A. =]), et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

But, this was all before I posted Briana and her outfits. Now there are a double-digit number of comments, so I get it that you know how to comment. I see how things are!!

Posted in: on at at 10:33 AM 1 comments  

Posted in: on Tuesday, August 05, 2008 at at 9:13 AM 0 comments  

Outfit 1

or Outfit 2?

Posted in: on Monday, August 04, 2008 at at 7:58 AM 10 comments  

As I was leaving school one day, a man on a bike asked me if I knew which trail behind the school led to Cool. I had to tell him I had no idea as I've never actually hiked on any of those trails before. He says to me, "You mean to tell me I just drove up from the Bay Area to ride my bike in your backyard and you've never been on these trails?" Uh, yeah, that's exactly what I'm telling you! And the first time I ever walked around the historic Gold Rush town of Coloma was when I taught 3rd grade and had to go there on a field trip. The moral of the story is......people drive from all over to visit these exciting and interesting places yet we often overlook what is right down the street.

I have been wanting for years to walk over No Hands Bridge, but have I ever done it.....NO! I have pictures of it hanging on my wall, a historical book sitting on my coffee table, and day in and day out I drive by it without ever stopping. So, this summer I made a plan with a friend of mine to walk across the bridge. We even set up times to do it, but then things came up. It was too smoky, too hot, too whatever. Finally, we were set to go today, and guess what......things came up. I was determined though and was not going to reschedule -- TODAY WAS THE DAY!! So the kids and I headed down the canyon to the trail enterance by ourselves. While we were on this enlightening journey of ours I figured we better stop by those other places that have always peaked my interest, just not enough to actually stop the car.

First thing when we get on 49 there is a sign that looks like this:

I've always wondered what it's about, because it's not quite to the Bayley House which is a local landmark but closer to our small, sometimes-manned fire house. Hmmmm....turns out we had the first Grange Hall in California. I didn't even know what a Grange Hall was exactly, so I had to look it up. Turns out it's "a fraternal organization for American farmers that encouraged farm families to band together for their common economic and political good." One of the things they tried to do was get rid of railroad monopolies which is ironic since Mr. Bayley was counting on the railroad coming through Pilot Hill and making him rich. Anyway, what is left of the Bayley House has been falling apart and one wall collapsed several years ago. Money has been raised to fix it up and eventually make it into a museum/gift shop but that is still a ways off. Here is the repaired wall and what it used to look like.

Finally, we were off to the river.

This is Briana on the bridge with the north fork of the American River behind her. I wanted Adam to be in the picture with her, but he was freaked out about going over by the edge. It's amazing how high you are when you're actually on top of the bridge. That little barrier certainly isn't going to stop you from falling over!! What's even more amazing is that the bridge has been completely submerged under water - wow!!

We hiked for a bit and then ended up down at the river. The kids promptly took their shoes off and plunged their toes in the cool water. Even though my car said it was 88 degrees, it sure felt a lot hotter. Adam tried to get me to carry him, because his legs were "so totally sore" but that wasn't going to happen.

Finally, here is a picture of all three bridges -- No Hands Bridge, the 49 crossing, and Foresthill Bridge. Pretty cool.

So, what do you know about your neck of the woods??

Posted in: on Friday, August 01, 2008 at at 1:19 PM 2 comments