oliver's grandmas go to a political rally!

Dear Oliver,

Here are your grandmas' fighting for truth and right at a political rally in California for Prop. 8. This proposition is the most finacially funded proposition in U.S. history!!! Go Mormons!

corsage

I made Chelsea

s dress and it turnd out so cute on her. We had to add some fabric to make it modest on top though. She loved it!

Chelsea& Garrett homecomming 10/08

Here is the very beautiful, very glamorous Chelsea Kelley!
Garret picked her up and took her to Mayor's Park (the new park next to the church), where they had a picnic dinner with 4 other couples.

Okay, this is really scary. Above, left, is a spider web. See it if you look carefully. Two weeks ago I was watching T.V. and suddenly my eye went to this dark spot and sure enough, ( I know, I couldn't believe it!!!), a BLACK WIDOW SPIDER was there in the family room. Dad said he would take care of it. This morning, I was moving a picture in that spot and there he was again right out in open sight! So I got my camera and put it into the dark box he ran into and took this picture on the right. That black spot is the BLACK WIDOW!!! We promise to clean and spray the entire house before anyone comes for Christmas. Very disturbing. Mom

moms quilt in leah's guest room

Here is the quilt mom made leah. It looks great in her guest room. Steve and Leah took me out to lunch!

Leah's shower

Leah's quilts and her shower. Lots of fun and a great show of kindness.

Dear Family -- As long promised, we started sitework on the Gould lot about 3 weeks ago, and just starting pouring the first retaining wall (along the driveway) leading to the hammerhead. We will initially finish the driveway and hammerhead so we have a good flat area to park, bring deliveries and haul dirt from. Going across the ravine we are building what looks like the Great Wall of China -- it will be about 20 feet tall, although the bottom 5 feet will be buried. I'm finding that thanks to California's seismic code, retaining walls are a little like ice bergs -- they're bigger below ground than above ground -- huge footings and an unbelievable amount of steel (overkill). Anyway, I thought you would enjoy seeing these photos. We will probably be grading and building site walls through the end of November and hopefully pouring foundations and starting the houses by the time you are here for Christmas. In some respects, the site work will be almost more interesting than constructing the homes, in terms of looking at some interesting changes.

One of the reasons the retaining wall is so big is that the Sycamore trees were misplaced on the grading plan -- actually ended up being 28 feet farther uphill than they were supposed to be, so we had to shift the position of the wall and work around the trees. In the end run, it may actually work out better because the trees are now much more prominent than before (you actually swing around them when coming into the drive).

One interesting thing, when grading we hit the source of the spring, and even though its the dryest time of the year -- we have a pretty good water source -- it's running about a gallon per minute. I am going to build a sump basin to catch the spring and site run-off and we'll pump it up the hill into a holding tank that we'll put about 40 feet above the house -- I suspect we'll be able to use the natural spring to water the entire yard rather than using city water -- probably save us $150 per month. I'll be having it tested to see if it is drinkable or fit to put into the pool. Talk about being self-sufficient. -- Dad.

"THE BRIDGE TO NOWHERE!"

Hey Family - Let me tell you about my adventure last Saturday. I decided to hike up to the "Bridge to Nowhere," which turned out to be quite the hike. Up at the end of San Gabriel Canyon through the canyon narrows -- it is a fairly challenging hike which is 13 miles round trip. I joined a couple of college kids going up (thankfully, they were better prepared than I was). It took us about 5 hours to reach the bridge (after taking a couple of wrong turns!) and about 3-1/2 hours to hike back. Even though it is only 6-1/2 miles up there, there is a lot of up and down, climbing over boulders and fording the stream a half dozen times, so the going can be a little slow. The bridge is absolutely gorgeous -- built in 1936, it cross the deepest part of the gorge. Built by the WPA during the Great Depression, the highway leading to the bridge washed away in a big flood before they could complete the tunnel from the bridge to Angeles Crest Highway -- so they abandoned the bridge and never dug the tunnel -- it just ends in the side of the mountain. Anyway, here are a couple of photos.

Chelsea's 18th B-Day

I made this sign and brought Chelsea this balloon and flowers as well as a tuna subway sandwich at school for her b-day. We went to Star Cafe for her b-day dinner.

baby boy Bonner's room

Here is the front and back of a pillow I made for leah's chair in the baby's room. I had scraps and it came together so fast and easy. I'm getting so excited for another grandchild!!!
The "C" of the ABC blocks is already at Leahs house.