The Protest

I couldn't simply let the Glorious G500 quietly disappear from my life. It was too great of a thing to shrug my shoulders at and just move on. You have to stand up for the things you love right?  And this G500 couldn't speak for itself, but since I drove it all summer we had a bond, and I knew what it wanted. It wanted to stay in our family. 

So what did I do? I made some signs and decided to protest.

 Then I got in the car and locked the doors- it was what I think protest people call a "sit in".

 And the protest began...the signs were from the G500's heart.

  I've never been part of a protest before, so I wasn't quite sure how these things work. Pretty sure there can be chanting so I just chanted: Wasn't I enough? Wasn't I enough?

 

I started to feel desperate, realizing my voice was going unheard. So I took it up a notch, literally.

I thought of all the happiness this car brought to those inside and out. I knew there wasn't another car in America as amazing as this, and I knew i'd never own a car as sweet as this the rest of my life.
And so I got serious. 

 I resorted to one of my 'please don't make me faces' but it wasn't convincing enough. 

 At the end of the night, exhausted from my efforts, I walked away from this protest peacefully.
I came to grips with the fact that I had already kept the Glorious G500 as long as I could. The best remedy to my loss? I told myself  I'll be able to drive it again in Heaven and/or on the New Earth (it really was that good so I know i'll see it again). 

I handed the keys over respectfully, realizing I was able to say goodbye to the G500 and say hello to some dollar bills.

 A memory involving me and some money popped into my head... 

That night, I slept with a smile on my face. 

The 2011 Cuckoo Christmas Miracle

Stephanie and Mark Niemuth hosted the 2011 Cameron Family Christmas at their house in Spring Hill, TN. 

It was a Christmas we were all very excited for, and I'm titling it the Cuckoo Christmas. 

I wanted to get Stephanie and Mark something special that they could have as a decoration out each Christmas and remember this first family Christmas that we were all together since all 3 sisters and husbands had been married.

I thought about our childhoods, and we spent most all our Christmas in the Colorado Rockies and often took a skiing trip where we excitedly anticipated the day we would rent our Skis at a rental shop that looked like a Swiss Chalet. Somehow this led me to a Cuckoo Clock...like a Swiss Chalet?!? Yes! Then I recalled we had a cuckoo clock when we lived in Indiana that I personally loved running and watching the bird pop out and cuckoo. But when we moved I think it broke and Mom never hung it back up. 

So I went on the hunt for a Cuckoo Clock, with about 2 weeks before Christmas Day. Stephanie and Mark would never expect a Cuckoo Clock, and I would get a real nice one, and each Christmas Mark and Stephanie could deck their hall with this memorable Cuckoo Clock that brought together all our Holiday memories!! 

Now I found out a lot about these clocks, first thing I found out was new wooden one was a bit out of my price range... like $2,000! After more research, I knew what I wanted: a Swiss Chalet with a cuckoo bird, and dancers.  It just seemed perfect for Stephanie and Mark. 

But seriously, it was just very difficult to find! I knew I would have to buy a used vintage clock to keep the price down so I began my search on craigslist in San Diego, LA, Palm Springs, Phoenix, Nashville, and lastly Minneapolis. Time was ticking and each clock post I responded to replied that they sold their clock the day before! WHAT!?! I NEED that CLOCK!! So I started getting desperate and I became obsessed with this hunt for the Cuckoo Clock. So obsessed, that Eric tried to carefully talk me out of this idea. He said it was too tough to pull off with this little time. But it was the PERFECT gift, and I wanted it too much to give up. I even began sharing my need of this Christmas Miracle at work. I was asking patients at my Physical Therapy Clinic if they had a clock, or knew someone who did who would sell me their clock. My boss Winston even said, "Michelle I think this Cuckoo Clock is driving you Cuckoo!" Others said "You are getting your sister a cuckoo clock? Does she want one?" "Is it a white elephant or gag gift?" "Those things are annoying and expensive." "I had one but threw it out, nobody likes those anymore." Ohhh people, you don't understand, this gift is the BEST gift in of all time and Cuckoo Clock are IN-STYLE - check out the modern one from Crate&Barrel - yeah- I know Steph and Mark with realize they should have been asking for one alllll along when they open it! 

Well I finally found one!!!  I narrowed my demographic of people and places where I could find the most used Cuckoo Clocks in USA and I had a connection....Minneapolis. Why?? Majority of Cuckoo Clocks are made in Germany or nearby countries, most people who have these either brought them from their motherlands or received them as gifts and they are now family heirlooms being passes down. And I just happened to marry a MN Viking of German decent. So I found the jackpot in Minneapolis! Home of the German, Norwegien, and Scandinavian people. 

It was 4 days before Christmas, I had my mother-in-law, Marie assist as my little elf from the North which totally saved this Cuckoo Christmas!! She went and bought this Cuckoo Clock and Express Mailed it to Stephanies house. Arrival date was set for Christmas EVE!!! Sure enough it showed up that morning. I heard the doorbell, shrieked with joy and I looked out the window and saw the mail lady. I ran to the door and ran to her. I took the clock and thanked her and thanked her and told her Merry Christmas probably 5 times! 

Oh I was so nervous, I kept telling Stephanie I was getting her the best present ever! I told her how excited I was to give her and Mark their gift and that I might cry, or jump up and down when she opens it! 

I wrapped it like this: DO NOT TOUCH. LEGENDARY.

 I told her to stand back, and not get too close, I don't want her spoiling it or disturbing it. I made everyone promise not to touch it, especially after Mark thought it was funny to hit the box and yell. So I placed it under the sofa table, and randomly that night I would ask if everyone could be quiet so I could put my ear close to it and "check on it". hahaha Stephanie was like "You are freaking me out! is something alive in there?! Michelle it can't breathe!" I laughed and just kept telling her it was going to be sooo legendary! 

Finally Christmas came, and it was the last gift to be opened. I had everyone stand around the kitchen table and watch Mark and Stephanie open it. Oh it was wonderful, just like a Christmas Miracle! They both loved it! Mark even loved it! He was so careful with it and worked hard with Josh and Eric to hang the weights just right so it would work. 

 So here is it, Swiss Chalet, Cuckoo Bird at top, dancers, and this even came with a wood chopping man by a saw mill! It is all original and painted delicately. Its a German work of art for an Art teacher who married a German and it ties both our past memories and future memories together!

They loved it! 

And they loved it so much they said they were going to keep it up all year long! Not just at Christmas!

 So that is the Story of the Cuckoo Christmas Miracle! Again special thanks to Marie my little Northern Elf! And I shared the story with everyone at my work when I got back and they all loved it! It was a very special Christmas, and I'll share the rest of the details in my next post! 

Deck the Halls with Cuckoo Clocks!! FahLalalalalalalala!

 Merry Christmas Niemuths!

Stranger at the Beach

Short Story:
I simply went to the beach on my Friday off to get my tan on, and catch up on my Bible Study reading. I put my towel near two Moms chairs so I wasn't all alone. Minding my own business, suddenly I see feet, I look up and its this guy in a visor.
He asks me if i knew what time it was to see if he needed to go home and feed his dog. My iPhone was on my towel next to me, so I gave him the time and then look back down at my book... feet still there. Ugggh! He starts making small talk, and I give him small answers.
This goes on for awhile, until he finally spits his intention out... it was so nice talking with me, and asked if i thought we should exchange numbers and meet up for Happy Hour that evening?
To which I replied, "I don't think that's a great idea since I'm married." Then I saw the embarrassment and shock on his face. "What?! Are you serious? You look wayyy to young to be married!"
I laughed and said, "Yeah, well I am."
And I was thinking the joke's on you buddy, so you can stop laughing and leave me alone now.Finally he apologized and wished me a good day, and left. And as he left I took his picture! So here he is!

I wish I had replied, "That's funny, because I was thinking you look wayyy to old to ask me out!" I mean really this guy could clearly have been my dad. I looked over to the Moms and they were there watching this whole ordeal, they smiled at me and I shrugged my shoulders and rolled my eyes, and then us ladies all had a little laugh.

So there it is, just another ridiculous story to add to my "Michelle Moments" folder.

It took me back to a memory of a funny story in High School that my friends still like to joke about. While getting a drink at the Community College Workout Center mid-track practice, from the corner of my eye I felt someone starring at me. I stopped getting a drink to look up and there he was, leaning against the wall by the drinking fountain when he creepily said, "My aren't you a beautiful girl, what is your name?"  Frozen by fear that I might be abducted or something, I simply replied: "My Mom told me not to talk to Strangers." then turned and walked/ran away. Hahaha no matter how old we are, I think its a great line!   All those childhood lessons on stranger danger went flashing through my head! 

Deep Sea Fishing

We took advantage of going Deep Sea Fishing in the Off-Season to see how we liked it. We were both a little nervous of what a 5 hour deep sea fishing trip might do to us in the middle of December - freeze us, make us sick, bore us to death... 

Lucky for us our boat didn't lie - it was "Reel Fun"

We left out of the Dana Point Harbor and it was a nice and calm sunny day.

 We went with Joe and Nate&Jess (pictured below) and we all caught lots of fish and took some home.

See the guy in boots? Well he worked on our boat and his job was to take away your pole if you made excited noises wgen you had a fish -- so we adapted and learned to fish by being very quiet and secretive! 

We drove to the black sea bass "spot" and were told to drop our lines to catch some big ones! I got very excited and dropped my live squid down right by the front of the boat. Eric was next to me fishing, and we instantly were both getting a lot of action. Then, I got a huge bite - more like a swallow- and was pulled to the rail of the boat. Quietly (because I wanted to catch my own fish) I whispered to Eric "I have a big one!". He quietly responds, "Ok Reel it in." 

I am pulled further out over the boat, and this thing was sooo heavy! I whispered, "Eric take the pole its too strong". He quietly cheers me on, "Michelle you can do it, just reel!" I get a little louder - because I am about to have my fishing pole yanked right over the boat, "No Eric TAKE the Pole, I can't do it!" "Chelle you can and I want you to get your fish." No more quiet, "ERIC!!!! PLEASE!" Then SNAP, my line breaks. Ahhh, I was so disappointed. I knew it was a really strong fish - it almost pulled me over the boat, but Eric didn't believe me. 

Two minutes later Eric gets a huge bite and is pulled to the edge of the rail too! He an announces not so quietly, "Whoa, I got a real big one!" Then the boy in boots comes running - he tells Eric to run up and down the side of the boat. They thought the way this fish was fighting it was a halibut but after about 5 mins Eric and this boy get the fish up to the surface and its a 50lb black sea bass! HUGE! We couldn't keep it or bring it up on the boat because they are protected. But here are some guys that kept their 45lb black sea bass, just so you can get an idea.If we could have brought it on the boat I am sure this is exactly what Eric and I would have looked like. And the arm of the non pictured person would have been the boy in boots.Funny huh. 

Eric now understood why I wanted him to take my pole and why I was almost pulled over the boat. 

After Eric's big 50 pound catch he caught a cute little Rock Fish.

And I caught this little Sargo.

The seagulls and pelicans followed our boat around and spent the day begging like dogs. They liked when we caught little fish - and were quite impressive at dive-bombing anything we had to throw back. 

Eric was getting ready to clean the Sargo's. 

  While I played with them...

 

 Nice big fish. If we caught a fish that was smaller than 10 inches we had to throw it back.

Check out the spikey fins. Ouch! Eric cooked them and they tasted delicious! 

Rolling in the Doe

This is about to get very serious people. I am about to share a childhood dream I've kept deep inside my heart. I'm going to be truly honest and I might be very embarrassed after this goes public, but I feel it is time to share the day I kind of, sort of, for at least a few moments, felt a dream of mine had come true....

First, allow me break the ice with a few hints: 

Now that you have seen the pictures from my childhood which helped evoke this dream of mine I think you are ready for the pictures of the day (for a brief moment) my dream came true:

Oh yeah, rolling in all $100 bills was a rush. I felt like I won the dream lottery!

More than pleased, I shared my experience with two of my closest confidants - and they too said it was a feeling they would like to experience. So they gave this dream a try:

Ridiculous? 

Well you'll never know how happy something Ridiculous can make you until you try.

My Carlsbad Pets

I am a pet person. Ever since I was little I've looked for a pet. I learned soon enough that Caitlin was a lost hope. So, I got a Chinese Fighting Fish named Blue Eyes. When Blue Eyes died, I tried "adopting" my neighborhood dogs that were great at escaping from their yard, but when my Dad came home he always opened the gate and released the dogs from our yard. Then I asked my mom what birds ate. She said worms and bird seeds. She wouldn't let me buy bird seeds at the store, so I got pretty good at digging up worms. To my dismay, I never found a robin that would eat a squirming worm from my hand. Luckily, a few weeks later at school we made bird feeders: toilet paper rolls smeared in peanut butter then rolled in bird seed. This time, I set a trap for the robins - I placed my bird feeder on the ground under a box held up by a stick which had a string tied around it. I waited very patiently... I never had a pet bird. We eventually got a family dog, and have consistently had one since then. Now I'm married and am currently pet-less.

But you are about to see, things with me don't change much.... Say hello to my Carlsbad Pets.

Diesel, the baby bunny I thought I could tame. This little bunny lived under our new deck. He would sunbathe in this same spot every morning and afternoon.

 He got quite comfortable with Eric and I watching him and talking to him. The story behind Diesel is this: I asked Eric what he might want to name our first child. He said Diesel - I said Sorry we already know a Diesel. He said What? Who? Then I told him our baby bunny's name is Diesel. 

 

 We got grass (you can see where Diesel liked to hang out - he killed the grass!) and I fed  him daily. I thought this would make him stay - but after we went to MN for a trip and were gone for 4 days, Diesel must have decided to become more independent as he grew up. He only came a few times after that and then he disappeared. I guess he has a family of his own now.  

Next was Colt, the baby bird I taught to fly.
 Yes, this was the second name Eric chose for our first child. Too bad I named this baby bird Colt.

I heard him chirping loudly by the house. After almost giving him a heart attack (while trying to gently catch him) I finally caught him and was able to inspect him. He had no broken legs or toes, and his head and neck were fine.  I concluded he must not be strong enough to fly yet -in his attempts to run from me he would hop and fly for a few seconds but never take off. I left him alone to rest and recover under the safety of our recycle basket (which he could get out of if he wanted to). I went inside to finish cleaning the house and the next time I went to check on him- Colt was gone!

Now our most recent pets are Leslie and Lester. These are the young possums that raid out berry tree around 10 or 11 at night. Eric has learned not to tell me a name he would suggest for our future children so he named them Leslie and Lester.
Leslie is a lot more sneaky than Lester. Lester makes all the noise snorting around eating berries on the ground while Leslie quietly eats them in the tree. 

 

See the two sets of glowing eyes (Leslie in the tree, Lester on the ground).

 

 Lester let me open the front door and get real close to take his picture - he was too busy stuffing his mouth with berries to care about me. 

  While Leslie was trying to be invisible by not moving at all when I got close to her. 

I realize Leslie and Lester aren't very reliable pets but right now they are all I've got!

Good-Morning Electric Man!

When we 1st moved in to our Carlsbad beach house it was to our surprise that the electricity had been turned off by the previous renter. Makes sense I guess, but had we known we would have made proper arrangements so we wouldn't have to wait take two to three days for them to come to our house.

Eric was excited by the idea- CAMPING!! While I was a bit more realistic (if you will) - no electricity, no computers, no tv, no lights, no fridge, no outlets to charge our phones....!!! It was fun for the first two days: we went to the movies, we went out to eat, and we 'had' to go to Starbucks frequently to use their outlets to charge our phones, and also so we could work from our computers and not get fired.

We barbarically made it through the weekend. Tuesday finally came and the electric man was supposed to come in the morning between 8am and 12am to turn on our electricity. Monday, I had neglected to as my dad would say "juice up" my phone at Starbucks and went to bed that night relying on the alarm from my phone. Too bad it died in the night (I obviously couldn't plug in a real alarm clock) (Eric charged his at his office on Monday and left for work at 6:00am).

I am not a morning person to begin with, and furthermore we had had a whirlwind of a trip since... the Thursday before we packed all our things and caravaned our trailers across to California arriving Friday night to my sister's in La Habra, CA so that Saturday morning I would be able to go to my cousin's baby shower in San Juan with my mother sister and auntie. Then at the crack of Sunday we drive down to Carlsbad and move in where we found there was no power and so we "camp" for almost two days and now I have no alarm to wake me up at 7:45am. Can't you see how I slept in a deep sleep like a little baby in my crib?

I am awakened in the guest room (because we hadn't gotten our new bed yet) by a noise I don't recognize.  I slowly open my eyes and am very confused of where I am so I look outside. Its a bright, sunny morning in California and then I find a man in an orange vest and hardhat waving at me while saying "Good-morning!!" with the biggest smile on his face. He is literally right outside the window. I was freaked out for about 5 seconds trying to translate if I was about to be attacked and where I was and if this was real so I went into freeze mode because if I don't see him he cant see me...!

Then I remembered OH MY GOSH its the Electric Man!! I jumped out of bed, yelled, "HOLD ON DON'T LEAVE", ran down the hallway threw pants and a sweatshirt on just as I opened the front door and he was standing there with his tool box and I had never seen such a happy guy.

He thought it was hilarious! He could not stop laughing and said his day was going to be great. I embarrassingly laughed and apologized. I asked what time it was he said 8:00am. I showed him to the backyard - we got the power on and he jollily left within 15 minutes.

Pretty embarrassing moment. I charged my phone and then called to tell Eric the whole story.