Can you change a tire?

Last Sunday was the first time that Mr. Heike, the kids, and I took a trip together in the Big Blue Van! While I was wondering how we would fare in our little sardine van, my worries were forced away by thoughts of spending all of Sunday by the ocean without having to take the long drive home. We were camping for one night, and hitting the Monterey Bay Aquarium for a home school day on Monday.

We rode down south through the beautiful California countryside, thriving farms and glimpses of the ocean. I could SMELL the ocean, we were only about 15 minutes away, when the van started going "bump, bump, bump". Eww. We pulled over, checked the tires to see if we had a flat, and drove on.

Bump, bump, bump.

Just as we weedle around the tight curves on the 2 lane Highway 17....

BANG!!!

Mr. Heike wrangles the Big Blue Van to the side of the road, which isn't really a side, but at least we not standing on the dividing strip. We frantically look for our warning lights, while the first car almost rams into us. Seems our back tire blew....
and it seems we stopped right behind a curve, where you are SUPPOSED to be going 30mph, but hell, who gives a rats ass about that?

So I pull the kids out and make them sit in someone's front yard, while head up the road a bit to wave down (slow down) cars...I hate for Mr. Heike to get crushed beneath the Big Blue Van as he is struggling to get the tire off. That would put a damper on our ocean stay.

These cool kids riding home from a concert pull up in front of us and help Mr. Heike out. The 2 girls come to talk to me and keep me company while I cheerlead and try to keep racers from smacking into our van. They finally get the spare on, we give them some home-made pumpkin cookies, and we are back on the road!

Now we can't figure out how to turn off the warning lights ;)..

We make it to the campsite at Sunset State Beach, and it is marvelous. Except our spare is flat.

So Mr. Heike gets a phone book, and decides to make his way to a tire store. Unfortunately, he only gets about 8 miles before the spare blows.

There while, the kids and I are sitting on the beach with sporadic phone reception.

And it is pretty darn chilly. Thankfully, I grabbed us all a sweater and some food before Mr. Heike left. Did I mention it was chilly?

To make a long story short, we had to scrimp someone else's bonfire to keep from freezing our butts off, and Mr. Heike did not make it back until 3 hours later, in the dark. He had a nightmare with the stupid AAA tow truck driver (as we needed a place to sleep and no one with tires was open after 5 on Sunday, they towed the van to the campsite) who got LOST :(...

Thank the goddess I had beer in the van!!!

:)

We made a huge fire and ate hot dogs with marshmellows, and beer. Once we were warm and fed, all was well and showed Mr. Heike pictures of the beach that he did not get to enjoy with us.

If you want to enjoy them, go to
http://www.flickr.com/photos/goddessinthegroove/sets/72157608529660009/

Guess where I was this weekend?

Simple

The past few days have brought on many thoughts of "simplicity".

How much do we need to survive? A friend of mine was recently strongly impacted when Hurrican Gustav flopped a tree into her house. After several weeks of "no electricity", she is now trying repair her house. Needless to say, even though no person was hurt, this left both financial and emotional scars. I did not know about this until a few days ago, and it made me think.

How can it be that in our country it takes so long to respond in disasters?

Another friends' response hit home. She is a "survivalist", and made me think about what would happen if a disaster struck where I am. I am totally unprepared, barely know where a flashlight is.

So we have a lot of "stuff", but do we have what we need to survive if everything is cut off? We could probably live a week on food in the house, but don't have water stocked (eww!!). Lots of organic dog food :)...

I am not ready to run off to a survival camp yet, but I am rethinking our emergency plan. It is against my nature to be that organized, but having water, some cans, and at least candles and flashlights in a handy place is recommended.

Do you have yours?

It's good to be tall, or small....

This is my son with Richmond, a friend of Mr. Heike who works at the mall. Guess what sport he used to play? :)

See the slightly shorter man in uniform to the left? That is Mr. Heike, just for a little perspective :).

Almost wordless Wednesday......

SOMEBODY thinks I am a good girl...

...and sent me a present :).

You know, it is sad. It seems that no one who loves me dearly thinks that I STILL LOVE SURPRISES! Except my wonderful offspring, of course, they conjour some fabulous surprises for mama.

Other than that, my life is lacking in the surprise GIFT department (I am all filled up with other surprises, thank you.)

So you can imagine how thrilled I was when I received a package from a brand new "sister" today, just for me. And it is not even my birthday. And it is HANDMADE SOCKS!! She could not have possibly known how much I love handmade socks, we just met online a few months ago. I have a pair that is 22 years old.



Here they are, modeled by Heike Jr. it is like Cinderella, they fit on my feet PERFECTLY! :). Today it got super windy, and it is finally supposed to get cooler. I think it is so I can strut my new socks...

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!

PutzMusik

My mom and I have a code for music that makes us MOVE. So this is what we put on LOUD when we have to do domestic chores :). We call it PutzMusik.

So now visualize me, with a bandana around my head, sweeping and singing into my "broomphone".



Unfortunately, I could not embed the real video, you HAVE TO SEE IT....awesome! But have no fear, you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KE2orthS3TQ

I don't know how I missed this fabulous woman until now?? I saw her on the Late Show, and thought "Who is Barbie??". Let me tell you, when she opened her mouth and started belting out her "Mercy" I was hooked. My neighbors are surely happy I found her too; now I sing lead, and my clean up crew backs me up.

Now grab your mic and go clean something!

If you stay real quiet, you can hear the Spirits whisper....

There are a few places on this earth where you will be "healed" just by breathing in the beauty of it. During my recent little sabbatical, I snatched my kids, the Luxury Van, and we joined a few friends for a few days of camping at Indian Grinding Rock State Park.

As we drove up to the entrance of the camp ground, a deer was sitting off to the side, watching us. He was cool and collected, and did not seem to care about us at all. The kids were hooked, and could not wait to jump out of the van and explore. I was instantly relaxed by the calm aura of this place....

My kids and their friends had a blast, and were exploring from early in the morning till late at night. A few of my friends joined us for the day who I have not seen for a while and missed :). We went on hikes, and just sat around to eat smores and drink wine around the fire.

I went and hugged the beautiful, 600 year old Mother Tree. Call me crazy, but this tree spoke to me, I could feel the strength through the bark. I sat down on her roots, leaned against her strong trunk, prayed that I would not get bitten in the ass by a snake, and just took in the energy she gave me. This place is magic. It is still used for many Native Indian ceremonies, and you can feel the spirits. There is also sad history, as the Indians were driven out by the gold seekers....but it seems that the spirits there have forgiven, or they knew that I needed to be there for strength.

Here are some pictures to share. I have many more of the children running wild across the meadow, making bows and arrows, exploring the woods alone in little packs (with their walkies strapped to their butts :)..), running in and out of the reconstructed Indian Village....but we must respect that not everyone wants their kids plastered on my blog :).

So, enjoy.


(pic on top of page: View from my van, where I sit with the door open, in my jammies, with my coffee, and breathe..)

Wolf Pup Pack :)
My Mother Tree in the morning...all by myself!!! :)
Indian Grinding Rocks...makes you appreciate modern flour. This is where the women sat to grind, sing, and talk.
Entrance to park
We were swarmed by yellow jackets. Kimberly to the rescue with her home-made bee traps!!
The luxury suite :).

I am BAAAAAACK...and have a WINNER!!

Juuuuuuhhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuu!!!

As you may recall (if not, just read the last post), I checked myself in for a week. That was about 2 weeks ago, and now I am BACK!! I will share more later this week, I had some pretty fabulous experiences while being recluse :).

Today, it is all about the WINNER of "Goddess in the Groove ~ Musings From the Goddess Within"!

Congratulations to belletamaam, who I am emailing right now!

If you are curious, you can check out a few sample pages of my book on Google.

This makes a great gift for any special woman in your life, and if purchase a copy together with a Goddess Pendant, I will give you a discount :). Because every woman needs her Goddess....

If you did not win today, don't be sad. You can purchase a copy, or look forward to All Hallow's Eve, at which time I will draw a new winner.

Much love,
Heike