Living in a Smoke Screen

The Station Fire burning in Angeles National Forest has really intrigued me... probably because smoke continues to pour over the mountain ranges that are just south of palmdale. Nathan doesn't remember ever having smoke fill the Antelope Valley like this. On Saturday, the glow of everything was orange... due to smoke and the sun blazing through the orange smoke. I had seen the sun like this 2 years ago when Santa Clarita seemed to be surrouned by fire. Last night, we actually saw the red/orange glow in the smoke from the fires. This was crazy because the fire was only as far north as Acton, but we could see it. The latest information on this is that the fire essentially doubled in size overnight going from about 45,000 acres to 90,000 and most recently topping off at nearly 106,000 acres. Nathan and I heard on the radio tonight on the way to church that it has gone as far east as Little Rock, which is just south and east of Palmdale. We are not in danger, but this fire is endangering so many people. I saw an update on this fire on Lisa's blog, where she also said that authorities have said that estimated full containment will not be achieved until September 15th. This is mind-boggling to me! She also had this timelapse video on her blog. What is going on with the smoke is so similar to what is going on here. But it was very interesting. Take a look...

Washington and a Wedding

Now since I had your attention with my last post, this post is for those of you who don't check facebook, mom :) We just returned from our summer vacation this past week. It was so great to get away for a little while and have fun and relax. It is just nice sometimes to take a break from the normal routine of life. Our ultimate destination was Washington for the wedding of Matthew Forbes and Stacey Cherry. We took our time getting up there visiting family and friends on the way. We left Monday to start our driving adventure,spent Thursday night in Seattle taking in all the sights, and Friday/Saturday were filled with wedding festivities. We met up with a few friends from Master's who were also headed to the wedding and had fun hanging out. It was a great time. Here are some pictures from our last vacation alone; and our last vacation with nothing but gas and food stops :)

A little vinegar anyone?

I thought I'd try to capture your attention with this post, and since last time I posted something in the same category I got a big response, I thought I would try again :) Yes, along came a spider that sat down beside her. Well, it didn't really sit down beside me, but here's the story. I was working in our church reception office yesterday when I saw this strange very large spider/bug looking thing. I calmly exited the room and waited for a few of the office staff to finish their conversation. Then I calmly said "so do any of you like spiders?" to which the office manager, Jo, replied "I'll kill it!" I showed them where it was and she said "Oh, that's a vinegaroon." I had heard of these spiders, but fortunately had yet to see one. Unfortunately, I had my first sighting. :( These spiders are like a cross betweena spider and a scorpion (because just plain ol' spiders aren't bad enough, they need to be crossed with another terrifying creature). From what I understand, though I don't know how accurate this is, if you are bit by one of these spiders, everything you eat for a period of days tastes like vinegar. This just seems all around horrible to me. Well, to ease your curiosity, here is the picture of what they look like. This wasn't the actual one I saw, just a picture I found on google. Enjoy???