Bubber Gup

Everyone send out healing thoughts of love to our gentle giant, Stormy. The poor guy seems to be pretty sick and needs our support real bad. We are hoping good ol' Dr. Robinson can squeeze him in tomorrow morning, we are going to sort of insist. So, come on Mr. Stormy, you're a big puppy with a big heart and we just love you to pieces.







WE LOVE YOU, GUPPER!!

HAPPY HEATHER DAY, WORLD!!

Our Beautiful, Sweet, Generous, Compassionate, Thrilling, Adventurous, Hilarious, Festive, Cheerful HEATHER IS 33 YEARS OLD!!!!

I dont know about you guys, but I have a wonderful feeling about this year for Heather Elaine Beatty Spring. With so many beautiful things she puts out into the universe, how could there not be a million whimsical and wonderful things in store for her?

Heather, how lucky we all are to have you. What incredible memories we all have with you, and what EXCITEMENT is in store for the future! Here she is, everyone, Miss Heather Beatty.

Bright and cheery, and a priceless help, Here she is helping us paint our sunflower kitchen.


A wonderful Aunty, she is always up for some play...


And some love..


And some flying...


You couldnt ask for a better travel companion! Whether it be a quick and crowded spur-of-the-moment jaunt to San Francisco...


Or a journey into another time


Or down a tearful memory lane (or to a local bar, for that matter...)


Or clear across the country for a presidential event


She is CRAZY


Dorky




A one of a kind Lover


And sister






And Daughter




And Friend


Heather, words could never express how much light and warmth you bring into our lives every single day. You are a unique soul that blesses us endlessly, and I feel like we were all supposed to know you, in some cosmic way. How else could we be so lucky?

waiting

for someone to write a blog. just push play, and wait.
maybe i should be writing a b-l-o-g

My New Blog

Check it out. I'll probably be writing on this one a lot.

http://welllookwhocanread.blogspot.com

Just copy and paste - I can't find any easier way of making a link on here.. crap

on a softer note

To supplement, here are some particularly charming photographs.



As they said it, "this is clearly a win-win situation"


Elderly Smokey the Bear


If Joey and Phil had an offspring


and so Mary had a son in God's image


Whatcha hanging onto Grandpa?


Dad enjoyed this one


Jena Malone and Jack Black at Homecoming, 1993


Wareheim would be proud


Nature always gets me excited


The winner - "A very special Easter"

A story about Nothing

I've been bad. In fact, we all have been baad. Nobody other than the lovely Heather has posted anything on this blog for quite a while. It's turning barren, like an old McDonald's that's going out of business.
Well let me liven up this restaurant with a little bit of business, shall I?

Life has been almost Regular for about a month now. Almost. I see that outside the bad wiring of my own daily misroutines, most people are living pretty happily. Fairly Regularly.

End of the Summer, ie. the end of Regularity.

I remember my last day of rafting, not so long ago. It was about a month ago when River Runners hired me for one more weekend before the business shut down for the colder months. At the time, I was buzzing with love and regularity (not the pooping kind either). I had a job and people that needed my services. I had blossoming friendships amongst many, and potential exciting propositions for the future. Truly, I felt a stable Regularness and it was grand.
After that final weekend, though, I could sense it. There was something approaching, loooming; like the Nothing from Neverending Story trailing along in a tidal sweep, vacuuming up regularity. I've met this demon before, I know of it. But in that last weekend of the river, it hadn't reached me yet, hadn't caught up. But I could sense that it was coming like a change in the winds, these dark clouds creeping over the distant sunny hills. I knew it was coming, the Nothing. I knew it!
So I got in my car and took off. I zipped down to Santa Cruz to see Candice, then to Los Angeles in a frenzy, looking for Regularity in any shape size or form. I befriended Dan Beckner and rode my bike, I applied for jobs and looked at homes..but the irregular Nothing crept closer by the day. I drove to the top of Mount Baldy and echoed cries of desperate freedom to the high ranges that wrap around the Los Angeles valleys. I worked long hours for a television studio, making as many connections as possible amongst people in a quickening search for Regularity. I booked a Disney gig. I found a potential home. I went giddily to a pumpkin patch with my lovely girlfriend..and the Irregular Nothing began to recede. I could see that all my fighting, all my effort was having effect on the impending darkness. The clouds were pulling back, the sun was still shining and my running rampart was working! So I kept at it. I almost solidified decisions, about a house and a job, I almost felt good about my Kia being reliable, I almost moved...
Then Dan had money troubles and the clouds saw it. Then my Check Engine light came on, and the clouds crookedly smiled. Then I had nowhere to sleep at night, and the clouds began to move again. I saw them, moving, and said, "No, no! Not this time" and hopped into my Check Enginey Kia to head North, back to Santa Cruz to find Regular again. But the clouds followed in hot pursuit. And as I arrived, so did the irregular Nothing. So that when I reached out the following morning to start my car...
"Reeenenenenenenenennnn... Reeeenenneneenenenenen....."
the sound of my car not starting. Turning over, no spark.
"I can FIGHT you, irregularity!" I bellowed. Running to the nearest Kragen, I ordered a new set of spark plug wires. Take that!! Candice and I made a feast and drank wine, and the next morning with the sun shining I fixed the Check Enginey Kia, installing the fresh wires. Got in the car. Turned the key..
"Whoosh!" It starts right up!
"HA!!"
And so with a bit of uncertainty, I dash away again. Away towards a hopeful Regular life. And the clowds followed.

It was night. I was cruising at an almost Regular speed, towards my almost Regular home in Placerville when the clowds finally overcame me.
"POP!!!!! chugchugchugchugchugchugchug" goes the car. Finally. I knew it. I'd been here before, and I'd been waiting for this moment. The clouds swept up and smothered me. But I'm stronger now, and I can do this. Grabbing my headlamp, I pop the hood with tools in hand and on the side of a lit-up freeway in the cold Fall nighttime, I reached into the engine to fix the spark plug. Only this time, there was no fix. The engine was doomed. It took me a few tries to realize that the spark plug was not going to fit back into the hole, nor was the car going to be drivable for the rest of the night. A little bit defeated, I knew what i had to do. Turning off my headlamp, stepping back into the car, I breathed a long sigh of Nothing air and called my Dad.
"Sure, I can pick you up. Just leave your car at the Chevron"
And so I did. In the same, limpey fashion that I know so well, I managed to chug my car to the nearest Chevron sans one cylinder firing. The noise was overwhelming.
And the feeling?
Strangely, Regular. For once, I felt like my luck had ran out and I was back in the Nothing...which has become a Regular entity. Maybe the Nothing is Regularity for me. Maybe the Murphy's Law-induced lack of insecurity (ie. "Nothing gold can stay so do what you love") is my normal.
But you know what? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of not knowing what I'm going to do next and waiting it out. I'm tired of the puzzle and the struggle of it all, "just getting to class is half the battle," so to speak. I have too much good energy to waste it all on the chase away from Irregular Nothing.

When I look around, I see people that are blessed with opportunity. It looks them in the face and they take it. They don't search for it desperately on foot or in car. It just sits there, waiting for them to say Yes. I see kids who's parents give them automobiles. I see graduates who are offered internships and jobs. I hear stories of successful businesses. I watched as my friends happily go from day to day knowing exactly what they are doing and relaxing in the peace of mind. And then I look in the mirror and see a young man who has to manufacture every single opportunity that he gets, from scratch. I see a person who is chased by a lack of stability, no matter where he goes. I see a guilt-ridden citizen who has no offers, little help and a completely destructive history of luck. I don't know what I see, except for a young man who fights the Nothing every single day.
I keep saying, "You wait. I will have a good job, and work for a good company, and feel educated and drive a dependable car and finally have peace and happiness filling my heart. I'll pay off all my debt, and then yours too. It's all right there... I just need one thing first: the tool that will eliminate the Nothing that stands in my way. How can I destroy this monster once and for all. I know I can. If I can imagine it, then it must be possible."

If you can imagine it, then it must be possible. That might be it.
Am I alone?

stupid photos

Hey guys, sorry.

It's late, Darin's at work (graveyard) I'm bored (just kidding, I'm never bored PER SE as bored is a bad word, i'm just seeking senseless entertainment), this blog never gets any attention, and i love looking through old photos.

That gives me ample opportunity and reason to embark upon a search for our most ridiculous family/friend photos, and so I go.

Thus, LO and BEHOLD, a little project i like to call STUPIDPHOTOS.COM.

Take your time with each one.

Linger Longer, as pops would say.

Gaze and behold the endless possibilities of stupidity in the photographed world.

The genius is in the details.

Take the time to truly get to know these pictures, these fascinating PEOPLE and their antics.

It's worth it, I promise.

sometimes these pictures were just an all around STUPID IDEA like these next two featured:
and sometimes you just don't know what's going on and the picture just generally makes you feel...stupid.

now, sometimes they are just stupidly CUTE:

and sometimes they are half cute/half stupid:

and....(drum roll please) I NOW LEAVE YOU WITH THE TOP THREE STUPIDEST PHOTOS EVER TAKEN: (for your viewing pleasure)

okay, wait, fourth...cause i just found the CLINCHER!

It's Your Big Day Mattie!

Well, October tenth, a most important day is rolling around again...and I've been thinking about Matt in light of his big day tomorrow.

I mean BIG DAY...it's an important one this year.

Let's not deny it or beat around the bush....

HAPPY 30th BIRTHDAY!!

So, here's my happiest and lovingest wishes to the best young dad we all know and love, good at everything he does...

good SCHOLAR:
wonderful BROTHER:

and who could ask for a better brother-in-law??

intrepid EXPLORER:great DANCER:
TRIP PLANNER extraordinaire:good balancer of adventure/home life:

SUCH a good husband!and incredible FATHER:
a little bit daredevil:

and charmingly goofy:and super hottie:

computer whiz (while also being dad of course):

experimental vegetarian chef!

stylish:
brilliant:and simply a kind, wise, wonderful, loveable human being!

This list could go on and on. We all know and love this dude who can and DOES do anything he sets his mind to. How lucky we are to have you in our family Mattie and I wish I could have hours and hours of conversation with you everyday because it is a true joy of my life!

I love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I hope that some crazy adventures happen for this one...30 years is a big fun deal and every year's just gonna keep getting better.

Fails

Just watch these:











Smelcome.




"This hurts"

Teenage mutant ninja turtles

My blog, Here I am all moved in and watching General Conference in my cozy new home. I'm afraid to say how much I love my new residence, for fear that I will encounter something that changes my mind (like say finding mice and black widows everywhere-actually haven't seen a one of either so far and I know exactly what to do if I did). All kidding aside, even though it was a real chore moving, I was graced with help from everywhere. First, a donation from Stan and his mom that I had truly been over-worrying about desperately needing; a pickup to use for moving stuff into the storage I that I had available to me at the new place and to aid in the move, including trips to the dump. Stan showed up about 3 days previous to the move with an older Ford pickup truck that I didn’t even know his mom had. Something had prompted him to volunteer it to help with the move (prayer, yep). I was lucky enough to have the help of Joey for most all the heavy work of my moving day and Adrienne, Heather and Art for that same day and for the following day of cleaning. The girls worked so hard and the inside of the old house looked sparkling because of it. That day in addition to doing some of the cleaning Art and I moved refrigerators around in the new residence. We also moved the balance of my small stuff into Highway 49 res(oh while I'm thinking of it my landline phone# is 530-621-3748 for the time being-Adie and Art's previous number-and my address is 2240 Highway 49, Placerville, Ca. 95667) Same cel and email obviously.
Now I'm here with lots of boxes to unpack gradually--as you know the hard part of that is looking for individual things packed up somewhere--It's been 2 days and I finely found the salt and pepper. I feel very fortunate for all the blessings that have come my way during this time. Things have literally fallen into place. I see a kind of new life here. Who knows what that future holds. I have some ideas. Anyway I attached this video of the fam urging Joey in his younger years to sing the Teenage mutant ninja turtles jingle—what do you think of that look on his face introducing the video.
Just want to say that I am convinced that as we do the right thing in life, as we work at improving ourselves and give to others unselfishly, we are blessed way beyond our expectations. That’s my testimony, as we say in the Church, and it is absolutely true!
I love you all

the birthday of the queen bee

so friday, as we all know, was the big 58 birthday of our own dear marmy-pants. a very special day on the earth, honoring one so lovely and energetic and finedandy. anyway, here's the haps:

we supped at mel's (feasted, really) and then presented momma. with her presents. darin and i gave her a guitar and she is going to be a folk singer princess once again like days of yore! doesn't she look great with it?!happy to be with a fellow musician:then reconnoitered later at powells for karaoke night! momma wowed the crowd. no one could believe she was any older than 40 and beleaguered her with compliments. (poor thing)

now her singing just didn't live up. she couldn't hang with the performance side of karaoke! can you believe it? first she forced mikie to sing this song with her:

"islands in a stream"

and then she refused to sing! he had to take over, making up his own melody since he doesn't really know the song (and doing a damn fine job i might add) and then mom got some back-up:luckily the crowd was forgiving and mom decided she's more of an "audience" gal.

and that she does very well!

happy mama and daughter:

and here is one more photo that i just think is hilarious:

Happy Birthday Mamma Mia!!!

Money, money, money.. Am I hungry?!

Aw... the wait. Who will be the lucky soul to walk by these two. They will be forced to pay for...

Edamame, a piece of cereal (one oatmeal square to be exact), blue wiggly spider, shell, shell and more shell.

Made them take a break to swim. As soon as we got home they went right back to work.

They don't EVER tire of the waiting game. In fact if no is coming they go knock on doors and yell at cars driving by.

This is what oey does. This is what he does after every swim.

Heather. You have brought soooo much joy into our home. Jarom was able to get Torin and Colin to come over by showing them his new candy machine. Plus he wants to be extra good so he can go to the dollar store to put candy in it. Every Friday is show and tell- Bet you know what he brought that first Friday. He is one cool dude. So again Heather- Thank you!!

fall-cleaning

I love the beattyblog. I miss it when I don't post anything here. So....here's my excuse to post something today.

Yesterday to celebrate the first day of fall darin and i spent basically all day CLEANING OUT THE GARAGE.

there is family stuff in there to beat the band. large plastic bins upon more large plastic bins full of all kinds of sweet surprises. for example, i found joey's baby book and looked through it. there was a letter that mom wrote to him when he was five and a half months old. she told about how scared she and dad were when he had to have hernia surgery as a newborn and how he was the light of all our lives and how he would be a grown man sooner than anyone could imagine. and here it is, that time has come. strange to think.

there's a lot of fun stuff in there too. anyone need sporting equipment? halloween costumes? we got 'em....
but really, folks. let's have a big garage sale. darin and i now have a neat and LARGE pile of give-away stuff. if you have anything to get rid of now is the time. i'm hoping to have a massive sale in mid-october. let's simplify our lives!

Our House Atop A Tree

Where do I begin...It's been a long and filthy road to the completion of our little love nest at 442 A Main Street, Placerville. But, lord oh lord, has it been worth it.

When we first heard that there may be a one and a half bedroom apartment available above Sierra Rizing Bakery downtown, our stomachs were alive with butterflies! We called Gloria Smith (the almost 87-year-old land lady, who informed us it was ours if we wanted it, no deposit, no lease, just $450 per month).Giddy with excitement, we ran down to main street and unlocked the dark red door with the adorable mail slot. As we climbed the steps, a foul (to put it lightly) odor filled our nostrils and we were hesitant to even set foot in the front door atop the stairs. But, we continued up anyways. Past the cracked walls in the hallway, we came upon a front door with two shattered window panes and a living room (I would prefer to call it an "un-living room") with what used to be white carpets (I think...?!). There were black spray paint stains, concentrated dark colored smudges, and trash EVERYWHERE. Crumpled paper, an old couch, trash bags full of rotting food, a leaking refrigerator with spoiled mayonnaise and half and half, stuff carved into the walls, empty jars labeled "Medicinal Cannabis", YOU NAME IT. Well, see for yourself (mind you, it is unfortunate that the pictures are unable to capture the rank smell)...

The cracks all along the hallway




Now this is a sight! Rotting bags of trash in the sad little clawfoot bathtub


The molding, disgusting sink


Perhaps the most disgusting, although it's hard to say...the back porch. How nice it was to find out we have a placerville rooftop to ourselves AS OUR BACK PORCH, and then how horrible to see this!




And just when we thought there couldnt be any more CRAP around, we found this cubby above the stairway..filled to the BRIIMMM.



Every square inch was covered in a filthy energy that was hard to stand. And I told Joey I didnt think I could do it, because doing work on the place meant spending money on the place, and a LOOTTT of work meant a LOOOTTT of money. So, joey decided to call our land lady. She decided she would pay for new floors, new paint, dump runs, and anything else we could possibly need to make the place liveable and make it our own! So, who could refuse.

Our first trip was to The Paint Spot, where I put almost $500 on her account. And so, the painting began.

The first coat, primer on the random and dirty blue wall.


Overwhelmed by the work ahead..


Just crap in the living room


The bedroom going from blue/white/gray to beautiful brown (Evan was our HELPER the WHOLE time!)



<>

The living room, Periwinkle as can be! :)



My beautiful Spanish Blue front door, in progress



More living room work!



...and play



Then Heather joined us and helped paint the kitchen Sunflower Yellow (as the other projects were still underway)



okay, now, get ready, some serious results are just ahead.

Living room coming along..


Bedroom coming along (WITH CARPET PULLED UP, Thanks to Stanny)



Our other SAVIOR pops.



The New Mexican Pueblo of a kitchen coming together!!







And then it happened...the best day of my life.
THE HARDWOOD FLOORING GUYS CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


So, we took a trip to Home Depot to get a refrigerator, a new toilet seat, new light fixtures, a new showerhead, screening materials for the windows (since many were torn or just plain missing), more painting tape/brushes, a door knob, cleaning supplies, glass to fix window panes, etc etc etc etc....$900 dollars later, we were SET!

Then came the bathroom

(first I painted it bright orange, then re-painted it ha!)

So, once the painting was done, we were ready to move a few things in and celebrate a bit.

My brother and Evan enjoying our 2nd hand sleeper sofa


Joey dancing his pants off


Rounding up stuff at Heather and Darins


Joey getting started on his Music room (the work never ended)


Boxes and Boxes moved into our new house, waiting to be unpacked to become part of the nest.


Now, even though it was grueling and filthy (cant stress the FILTH FACTOR enough), and even though I had to spend 3 hours in the emergency room to get stitches on my thumb..








...it has been MORE THAN worth it!



And here's why..


Before- Kitchen view through living room, into bedroom



After:



Kitchen Window before:



After:


Living Room before:



Living Room after:



Bedroom before:



After:


Joey's music room before:

(yes, thats a hole in the house, semi-boarded up)..

After:


Bathroom before:


After:




Our kittens before:


Our kittens now:


So thats it. Maybe the longest blog ever made. Of course there is much more to see, now that we are completely moved in and living happily across from Placerville Hardware, but we have no plans to leave anytime soon, so come check it out. We are so happy and at peace and, being the ones that worked so dang hard up here, we adore every speck of space and detail surrounding us. Cant wait to have you all over for some Office, some red wine, and some LOVE.

breakfast with a spoon/fork

I got my camera back today and I was testing it to be sure it still shoots great pictures and it seems just fine. In the process, I watched some of the Glacier pictures and also ran into a real cute video of Oey eating (shoveling in) his breakfast at the camping table I think on the last day we were at East Glacier. Such a cute video so here it is.