Welcome, Rain

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

It rained today in California and the sound and sight was beautiful. I even loved the blustery wind blowing all the leaves off the beautiful trees.

Charlie was so excited to see the grass covered in colorful leaves and asked me to save them so he and his friend could play with them and rake them up. We have always played with the leaves and I love that he’s still excited to play outside.

On my way home from work, I saw the rainbow that you can hardly see in this picture and it made me smile. There’s something magical about rainbows shining in the gray sky.

These were some of my simple joys today. What made you pause and notice today?

nAMaste

7Apr2015

Clouds

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

Chase died 6 months ago today and I remember the foggy day and paying attention to the clouds.

Today I couldn’t stop watching the clouds again and their beauty. It rained off and on today and was windy and the cloud formations were stunning.

I even saw a rainbow.

I think the rainbow offers light and hope and peace.

I wish for peace for my cousin and our family and for you.

Love and light.

nAMaste BeLoveRs

8Feb2015

My Rainy Day Sunshine

Posted in Uncategorized by adrianahartley

It’s been raining here in California and we are so thankful. It poured all day and made us want to stay indoors and enjoy the sounds of the pitter patter on the sky lights. We need rain and I hope it continues falling all week.

We finally went outside around 2pm to watch Charlie’s basketball game. As we walked up to the gym, we saw this beautiful rainbow. I love rainbows and think they’re so magical. You have to be present to “win.”

After the game, we decided to have a coffee date. But lately we’ve been really into drinking bubble teas. If you want to know more about what these are, check them out on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea We can’t get enough of the tapioca pearls and love trying new flavors. We keep visiting the various tea shops around Silicon Valley, trying to find our favorite mix.

Today Juliana tried a peach tea. Jeff tried a green milk tea and I was in LOVe loVe with my genmai brown rice tea with extra tapioca pearls. The boys chose to go next door for a McFlurry and everyone was happy.

Because of the rain and because of my back pain, we are slowing down and I have to say I am loving the change. Would love for the pinched nerve to disappear, but hanging out together with my family and doing less is actually a beautiful thing.

Love this life. Love the rain. And love my little Miss Sunshine.

Hope you had a good weekend and that you’re rested and ready to move forward into next week.

28Sep2012

Day 65: A message from Juliana

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Finally!! It’s my turn to write, the suspense has been killing me! But anyway, it’s finally Friday. On Friday’s we have a late start day that starts at 9:20 instead of 8:30 so I get to sleep in a litte bit. I mean seriously doesn’t this school know that you need your beauty sleep?:) At school, I really like my teachers, some of the best I have experienced in my entire student career! I have adapted to this school just as much as my previous school and have made many friends. I made it onto the travel volleyball team and so far have gone to The Hague and also have done an overnighter with a host family in Bonn, Germany. We have many other games coming up in Belgium and Luxembourg to name two. So volleyball has been really fun. I am also involved in the school with student council which is a lot more responsibility than being a normal student. I was elected homeroom representative and meetings are every Monday for the rest of the year. You have to plan the middle school assemblies, after school activities, events, dances, represent your homeroom and also have to be extremely involved in the school. I do enjoy being a leader in school.The weather has been getting colder, darker, and rainier each day so there’s been lots of rainbows and double rainbows!

Amsterdam Park after the rain with a rainbow. We got soaked!!

I am taking Dutch and Mandarin as my languages and currently one of my favorite classes is Dutch. I would love to be able to have conversations and become nearly fluent in Dutch by the time we make our way back to California. We have been to London, Belgium, Germany, and all over Holland, we have trips planned for Italy and hopefully France and Israel! I think it was yesterday that our car arrived and our house is feeling homie so with that, we are settling in fairly quickly and nicely. I would love to hear from you all! Miss you all and the Warm California Sun!

Yours from Amsterdam!

Juliana

25Sep2012

Day 62: A Message from Christian

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Hello, this is Christian

I wanted to tell everybody about how my experience has gone here. It has been 2 months today, and we have all our stuff, school and soon, our car! School has been the big thing for me. One month so far into it I am doing great. The school teaches you how to think deeply into everything, even PE. Homework is so much cooler and easier because all the home work is due either 2 days after it is given or one week later. My schedule is different than a California schedule. In California, you have the same classes each day, but here you have five classes on a block schedule each day and then you switch and have five different classes the next day and then it rotates again. I take 2 electives: painting, design technology (not architectural) and 2 languages: Mandarin and Dutch. I am training for the basketball team with my friends. Speaking of friends, I have 7 new, great friends who are basically like an extra large package who consist of 5 Dutch boys, one French and one British. The Dutch friends have taught me some Dutch, and the French and British buds teach me great soccer. Today I shared a little bit of American culture, an American football!! My friends, Luca, Matt, Max, Xander, Henk, Wybe and I all played but eventually the other team made up of 3 inexperienced Dutch kids beat my team, 14 to 7. They were all happy and wanted to play again. I am probably most happy here now because I have friends, family, and a place where I belong. I love this country, the people places and how easy it is to travel around. 1 thing I do dislike is the rain, but overall I’m good. Hope whoever is reading from Sunnyvale, or from my family will comment, or subscribe to this blog and keep in touch!

Best wishes, Christian