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I suppose you can all debate which comes first, the trampoline or the redneck.

The same weekend Cindy took Abigail and Sam to Disney on Ice, and I got some alone time with John. We went out for burgers. I don't think John has ever had a hamburger before this, but when I asked if he wanted a hamburger for dinner, he gave me a big, adamant, "uh huh." The waitress handed him his burger, then handed me mine and before she was done, John was digging in. I asked him if he wanted me to break it into bites and he didn't want me to. So he chowed on the full-sized burger (and we're not talking Happy Meal size). The waitress and I got a good chuckle out of him eating this giant burger.





The parting shot is Mount Diablo at sunset as seen from our patio.

]]> Posted by Matt http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100217-204051 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Thu, 18 Feb 2010 04:40:51 GMT http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100216-201707

The fence in question

So Matt brought me all the tools I would supposedly need and he drove off to work, laughing all the way I am sure. See, I thought I could do this. I mean how hard is it to remove a fence? Not so sure anyone else thought I could do it...

I went out about 9:30 am with the kids and attempted to deconstruct while they played in the sandbox and on the trampoline. Matt told me all I would have to do is remove all the screws, roll up the chain link, and pull out all the poles. Oh, and there were a few boards screwed into the chain link that I needed to remove as well. Sounds easy! Once again, and as always, I was mistaken. (I seem to see a pattern forming here!)

So fast forward to 10:30am. I had unscrewed a majority of the screws and was well on my way when a pesky bee decided to play with Abigail. He chased her and terrified her and that was the end of that. My work had ended for the morning. We went inside and cursed the bees. Here is a picture of my progress...


My progress up until our "bee incident"

Right before lunchtime I got another chance to work on it. I found that unscrewing the boards from the fence wasn't going to be as easy as I thought. I guess when something was built 6-8 years ago and sits out in the wind and rain, things happen. Things like, I couldn't find the end of the screw to unscrew it to save my life...very frustrating....I ended up using my amazing muscles to just pull the boards apart eventually. (this was after I attempted to use Matt's hacksaw. Let's just say, we are not friends.)

Ok-lunchtime, hang with kids, John down for a nap. I convince Abigail to change clothes because surely the bee thought she was a flower in the pink pants she was wearing. She is willing to give the outdoors another chance. I continue on the fence...

Okay, I get the chain link off the fence with the help of, what Matt calls, a "wire snipper". Well, I am here to tell you I didn't "snip" anything, I CUT some major wire with it. chain link that was welded (ok, that probably isn't the right word) into the concrete. Oh, did I mention that we didn't know that some of the poles were put in concrete. The weeds were keeping that secret...I got the poles off, at least the ones that weren't placed in concrete. I am good, but I am not THAT good unless I am given a jackhammer. Matt seemed to forget the jackhammer when he drove away this morning. and all I had left was deconstructing the doghouse. I was in the final stretch, I was stoked. I had overcome some major hurdles that I won't mention in getting this stupid fence down and I was on the final final leg. And what happens, my beloved cordless drill dies. And I wasn't about to get out a manual (gasp!) screwdriver and remove the screws that way. So I picked up the doghouse and carried it over to my "after" pile 1/2 way intact. And I was DONE!!!!

Here are a few pictures of my "after fence"


view 1


view 2


This is my after material pile...pretty cool eh? I took ALL that stuff down!


My helpers today.

Oh, and I failed to mention that I pulled all the poles out of the ground by my own strength. Two were a little more difficult. This is why:


they were buried in concrete under the ground. Do I rule or what???

I was talking to Matt at dinner after completing this project. Needless to say I was rather proud of myself. I realized, I love to demolish. I am NOT a detail oriented person so this project was right up my alley. It didn't matter what the finished product looked like. That is why I married Matt, he is my detail oriented MAN! Oh, and I also realized that this project to me is what redoing an armoire is to my friend Darcy, or what organizing finances is to my friend Gina, or what encouraging people is to my friend Ashley. I was MADE to deconstruct stuff. What does that say about me???

Oh, and if you have hung in here this long, here is my REALLY GROSS SPIDER PICTURE. Matt found it in the hallway tonight...GROSS!!!!!!


Seriously, I have seen animals smaller than this spider.]]> Posted by Cindy http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100216-201707 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Wed, 17 Feb 2010 04:17:07 GMT http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100212-140414
Once we got to the end of road, I was astonished to find that Rancho Murietta was still several miles away. So we turned the other way towards Sutter Creek and Jackson. Surely there was a grocery store there, right??? First we passed through drytown, no grocery store. Then Amador City, no grocery store. Then Sutter Creek, no grocery store. BUT, we did come across Sutter Creek Mine. Oh man, I love a good mine tour. We HAD to stop.

Turns out the mine tour is only for those who can fit into an adult sized hardhat. John has a big head, but not that big. So, sadly, we couldn't take the tour. I was quietly relieved as I wasn't sure how I would manage with three little kids 100 feet under the earth. But we did get to explore around the mine area.


John drilling for gold


Abigail drilling for gold


Sam drilling for gold


John about to go down in the mine shaft...ok, not really!

The kids had fun exploring around. As we were about to leave, a tour was just coming up from the mine. Sam was fascinated by the car that carries the patrons down to the mine shaft opening. So after everyone unloaded, we went and took a look. As we were oohhing and aaahhing about the "mine car" a wonderfully nice woman named Chris came and asked if we would like a little ride down the road to look into the opening of the shaft. Umm...YES! So we loaded up and off we went. The kids loved riding and seeing the opening. Chris was so nice and talked and explained everything to the kids. She explained that mining was in her family blood and she had been working at this mine for over 12 years. Her son and daughter both work at the mine as well. Heck, they even have a "hobby mine" on their property. I asked if she had ever heard of "Big Al's Mine". (This is the mine that was supposedly on our property many, many years ago.) She hadn't heard, but her face lit up when I explained why I was asking. She was a true miner!!!


This is a stock picture of Chris from the website. She is driving the "mine car" that she took us for a ride in.

The kids loved it here and we will definitely have to go back and take the tour when I can find a sitter for John. We even qualify for the "local resident" discount...woohoo, a perk of living in the country!!

So...by this time it was almost 12:15pm. And my kids were STARVING. McDonalds are scarce in Amador County Wine Country so I drove around trying to find a restaurant that wouldn't cringe when 3 little kids and their mommy walked in. Sutter Creek was out, Amador City was out. As I was panicking and thinking we were going to have to drive home and not eat until 1pm, we drove through Drytown and came across this tiny (and I mean tiny!) cafe called The Old Well Restaurant. In we walked. It had 6 tables and a counter. Of course, we had to sit at the counter. It was one of those places where everybody knows your name...(and their always glad you came...hahaha). Literally, there was a salty old waitress named Loretta and the cook David. While we were there Leroy came in and had his usual, a french dip sandwich with as much gristle as they could come up with, a woman named Mary who had a tuna melt but decided against her usual which is a side of potato salad with it. It was just one of those places. We were the youngest ones in there by 60 years. But Loretta was so sweet to the kids and they each got a cookie that was literally as big as John's head for desert. And they were only 50 cents each!!! It was a gem to find!


Old Well Cafe-Fine Food? Does grilled cheese qualify???

By now, it was almost 1:30 and I was racing home to get John down for a nap before he passed out. Well, to my suprise, as we turn onto the street that crosses ours and THIS is what I saw:


A cow

You may ask, "what's the big deal about this picture?" The big deal is that the cow is OUTSIDE the gate, yes I said OUTSIDE. I couldn't get a good picture but at one point he (or she, I guess) was about 10 feet away from my car. I didn't stick around as this cow didn't seem to happy to be outside the gate. And finally home....what a fun impromptu adventure!

Oh, and I never did make it to the grocery store. So Matt, we will not be having any salad with our dinner tonight!!!]]> Posted by Cindy http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100212-140414 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:04:14 GMT http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100207-205228
Frog in our room when we woke up


Sacramento downtown


The view south(ish)


Another view south(ish)


The view north(ish), including the coolest fence I have ever seen.


Another view north(ish)


Some unidentified mountains or bluffs to the north. I'm really wondering if this may be Mount Shasta. Take a look at the Wikipedia pictures for your self and see what you think.


The view southeast


Another view southeast


Rancho Seco


A hawk hunting


Lots of my wonderful family. Cindy wasn't nearby for the photo and Sam would not be photographed.

The Sunset





Mount Diablo is center-left





Things I didn't get a picture of
- A stream-fed pool of water 3 by 3 by 2 feet deep that we call our pond
- A mysterious perfectly straight L-shaped line of rocks about a quarter of a mile long on our property. Looks like a field-stone fence or wall that was not completed.
- A rabbit trail (which we followed)
- A lot of still-to-be-unpacked boxes
- A toilet clogged by one of our movers (gross)
- We get an extra PBS channel here over the air, and it gets Thomas and Friends
- My beautiful wife making this into a home



]]> Posted by Matt http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100207-205228 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Mon, 08 Feb 2010 04:52:28 GMT http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100128-223903


If I was 4 for 4, then why does this picture only have 3 mice in it? The fourth little mouse was Sam. Cindy was at the house today with the kids and Sam managed to grab and spring a trap on his thumb. This lead to 15 minutes of crying, followed by 45 minutes of brooding silence, and favoring the thumb. We really thought it was broken and had an appointment with the doctor scheduled for the same day. Then suddenly he declared it was all better and resumed normal activities, including playing with his Leapster and practicing head-stands. Poor guy! I think it must have heard pretty bad and startled the heck out of him, and it just took a while to recover. In the end there wasn't even a bruise, and I don't know if the trap really closed on him or just grazed him.

I should also mention that for the last 3 nights the owls have been extremely active at the house. The most active was 3 nights ago when 2 owls were hooting and screeching frantically at one another for hours while I worked. Perhaps it was a mating ritual. They definitely seemed to be communicating for some reason. I was able to see both of them flying at one point, and later I got an awesome view of one who was perched on the edge of the roof and illuminated by the yard lights and we had a little staring contest before he/she flew away. This owl was about 15 inches tall while perched. A friend of Cindy's who lives about 30 miles away had the same experience with noisy owls on the same night, so it must be that time of year. I have heard the owls both nights since, but not so noisy.]]> Posted by Matt http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100128-223903 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Fri, 29 Jan 2010 06:39:03 GMT http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100124-215337

The coat closet.


Master bedroom and the new floor and new door.


Another view of the new floor in the master bedroom.


The only floor in the house that remains undone is this stair case in the master bedroom. I'll get that this weekend. Baseboards will hopefully go in this week.

]]> Posted by Matt http://mattandcindy.com/index.php?entry=entry100124-215337 Matt and Cindy Cleveland Mon, 25 Jan 2010 05:53:37 GMT