Halloween - The Golden Family's Favorite Holiday!!

Flag Salute

Violet led the flag salute for her school this morning. It took every ounce of my maturity to not sabotage the pledge as I have *such* strong feelings re: separation of church and state. My husband convinced me this wasn't the proper forum to take up my issues. :) Violet did a great job!

Fire Moon

The color of the moon during the fires.

Lucky 7

We celebrated our seventh wedding anniversary at Inn of the Seventh Ray. I really recommend it. Menu items are listed in order of "esoteric vibration." My only beef was that there is no chocolate on the menu!!! Now *that* is crazy.

Dominics Visit

The Dominics arrived from Portland amidst the crazy Santa Ana winds. We set the kids to work immediately, collecting palm fronds that had blown all over our yard from our cranky neighbor's unkempt trees.

Good times! :)

Family Photo

Family photos aren't easy to come by! Here are a couple of attempts...

Taste of Encino

Grandma & Grandpa took H & V to the Taste of Encino Street Fair.

New Bike

Violet got a new bike today and finally has taken to riding!

Dress Up

I'm so lucky to have a big sister who likes to dress me up!

a good grasp

Here's the big boy. He's just learning to grasp toys (or hair, or whatever...)

So tired!

Going back to work has had its ups and downs. Luckily it's part-time.
Nothing like the cumulative effect of 3+ months sleep deprivation to turn one into a bit of a lunatic. It alternately takes the form of: crying, an inability to string thoughts together (as if this doesn't make me paranoid given my possible genetic inheritance), general crankiness (i know logically that i love my wonderful husband, so why is it that i am snarling at him every 5 minutes?), falling asleep in odd places (under violet's bed - ok, so it is several feet off the ground but still...*in* violet's bed ("yes, honey, mommy's watching you do those puzzles at 5:30 in the morning")), falling asleep mid-conversation, inability to fall asleep at prescribed times due to exhaustion/irrational anxiety (frustrating!), and general giddiness (although this sometimes manifests at laughing loudly at *really* dumb tv shows, but i can tolerate it if it's a giggle fit at 3 a.m.). sigh.