Sunsets

Since the seasons have shifted a month or so around here, in the middle of September we are now getting our summer thunder storms and awesome sunsets.  Here are few from last nigh and the night before.  The first photo was a crazy peach color and everything around us was peach as well.  It was so pretty!   It's still about 85-90 degrees.

Not so big snow storm

Well we didn't get the snow they said we would.  8" turned into about 1".

Today is a good day!

Loving today!  I had an awesome mentoring session this morning online to better establish my editing workflow (after getting to sleep for an extra hour!). Mike took the kids grocery shopping, alone, so I could edit my little tush off.  We are having homemade pizza for lunch, homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner, making fresh pesto for the kiddo's and warming up by the woodstove!

It's the second rainy storm of the season but this one brought snow to the Sierra's (about 6000 in elevation) so to me that's the sign that fall is finally here and winter is on the way!

More Fall Sunsets

I can't get enough of these sunrises and sunsets durning the storms!  This is the sunset this evening.  Just amazing.  Photo taken with my fish eye.

HOT

It is hot here!  It's almost October and it was 108 today.  Holy cow!!!!  Thankfully there was a breeze the past few days which has helped to cut the heat a bit.  The one bummer part about the heat is that the AC at my work broke a few weeks back.  My boss was hoping to get away with not having to buy a new one until next year and boy did this week catch us all off guard.  We had to close last night for evening apts because it would have been way too hot for the animals!

Another slightly annoying thing is that my pay pal account was compromised and some a**hole is NY purchased something from Walmart.  Luckily I have an awesome credit card company (Nordstrom) and Paypal is very on top of these things.  The person has to be pretty into paypal because he 1, figured out my password, and 2, created a unique transaction ID number so I can not dispute it!  Hence I have been on hold FOREVER wait.  What a pain in the butt.

What's with this weather?

So here we are, memorial day weekend. It's the weekend that kicks off the start of summer. Camping, hanging out at the river, playing outside all day long, BBQ's and of course late, warm summer nights. But I just don't see that happening anytime soon. It's still raining. It's cold. We have a fire going in the wood stove. It's snowing over the pass and the HWY has been closed down multiple times this week due to snow, car accidents and over turned big rigs. I have been saying for a while now that I think our season are slowly changing. Winter and Spring seem to last until June and fall (beautiful days and crisp nights) last until December. Before we know it Summer will be in December and June, July and August will be our snowy months.

Cole told me he wanted to be a little doggie and go outside. I told him it was too cold and that when it was cold little doggie slept by the fire.

What the?

Two days ago we were doing this -

and this -

Pretty much enjoying the amazing spring weather, spending every minute we could outside.

And then today this -

I have never seen so much hail in my life. I was driving home from work and I made a last minute decision to skip the mailbox (which would have had me exit one exit before ours) and that was the worst decision I could have made. At Clipper Gap there was so sign of what was about to come. I noticed on the west bound side a ton of traffic, all whom had what appeared to be snow on their windshields. I though to myself that maybe the freeway had been closed and this was the traffic once they reopend. Less than a minute later, I was cruising along in the fast lane at about 65 when all of a sudden I feel my SUV start to slide. I pressed the brakes slowly so I wouldn't spin and flip the car. I had hit about 1 1/2 - 2 inches of hail. It covered the freeway completely. I made my way into the slow lane and waited until I could make it to the exit. It took about 15 minutes for all the vehicles in the slow lane to exit. The big rigs were taking up space and going very slow. Luckily we can bypass them on the exit once you get to the open part. As I made it across the overpass I snapped a shot of the freeway (above photo).

I stupidly stopped at the bottom of the hill to take this photos and got stuck and had to go into 4WD to get up the hill.

Cole however was thrilled with the newest weather change and wanted to stay outside and play. I was told that this hail storm lasted 20 minutes. That is totally insane. I had been at work so I missed the actual down pour and thunder storm. :-( But the aftermath of shredded plants and decapitated tulips reminded me all to well of the storm a year ago in May that was totally insane. I thought for sure our windows were going to be blowing in by the hail that time.

Siena begged the res of the afternoon for me to get her hail to eat. She would wait at the slider door with a tupperware and say "anh anh" until I got her some.

Yay! More snow!

Once again we were lucky enough to wake up to snow. Not much but still, it's snow and it's great!

I love how when it snows it's like everything froze along with it in the exact position it was in. I see things so differently when it has snowed. This time around I wanted to document all the little toys that got caught in the snow storm.

This tractor picture is by far one of my favorite snow pictures so far this year. Last snow storm I got his tricycle which I also love.

You can tell we just got a dusting but it is still so much fun. Especially for Cole. He loves waking up and seeing snow. He said to be this morning "Mommy, there is BIG snow outside my house"

Our poor meyer lemon and kumquat trees. They need some extra love.
I just can't resist sending in pictures to the local tv station. Good Day Sacramento is by far the best news/ morning show ever. Plus they rock the free advertising too. :-)