I'm thankful

Here are Alden and Jackson's top things they are grateful for...

From Jackson...
1. Shelter
2. Food
3. Family
4. Toys
5. Trees
6. School
7. clothes
8. animals
9. ancestors
10.Army


From Alden...
1. Mom
2. Dad
3. Jackson
4. food
5. a home
6. jobs
7. hobby stores
8. rockets
9. cars
10.plans
11. Army
12. Air Force
13. Marines
14. and Nerf Guns

Happy Thanksgiving!

Death Valley

Here's one of the programs I am raising money for... Dr. Ida Bowers is an amazing professor at CSU Stanislaus. She just retired actually. Hope you enjoy it.

Life After Death Valley from young mr. arvizu on Vimeo.

Thanks!

Just want to thank my family members and friends and several community members of Raymond for helping us clean up our house and get it ready for the new tenants. John went back there for almost two weeks and received lots of help from Patrick, my Mom, Charlie, Amy, Troy & Tracy, Brian, The Higleys, my Dad, Tammy and Josh.

To all of you who lent us tools, vehicles, fed John good food and drink, donated your time and advice (yes, there are ways to get bunny urine off concrete), scrubbed, painted, washed and made trips to good will and the dump, rescued abandonded animals----thank you!!!

It's so nice to be part of a community (even though we don't live there now) where people pull together to help you out and support you. Thank you everyone!!! We feel so blessed to have family and friends like you.

xoxoxox

Surround Yourself with Positive People

At my 20th High School Class Reunion, I enjoyed reconnecting with many of my classmates. We talked about old times and caught up on what our lives are like today. One of the people I enjoyed chatting with, was Rich Mcgarvey and his wife. In high school, I sat next to Rich in Mr. Strout's literature class. Rich is the reason I passed the unit on the Tale of Two Cities. Didn't read one word of it.

These days Rich is a prison guard. I figure he hears a lot of sad stories at work. I also figure that these stories, heard over and over again, could make a person lose a little faith in mankind. I also figure that one of the reasons I have such a positive outlook in life, is because of the work I do... Constantly I hear hopeful, heartwarming stories about the people who beat the odds, who make it in life, stories about people who grow up to give back to the communities that they tried so desperately to escape.

After talking with Rich, I decided to post a hopeful story on my blog once a month or so, and share them with him and others. If nothing else, I hope these stories offer a little balance to the bad news all of us hear so often.

Here's the first story...http://www.break.com/index/autisticbball.html
Please help me find these stories by sharing links.
Enjoy.

My Little Boy is Not So Little

Alden is in Maine right now. He went back with Mom, four days ago. It's soo weird to see his pictures on facebook, knowing that they were not taken with me. He looks so old to me!

He's having a BLAST thanks to his Mamie and Aunty. So far, there has been skateboarding and scootering at the skate park, swimming in the ocean, Harry Potter movie, playing with friends at Walter's house, laying bricks with Grampy, rides in the 'campervertable' and who knows what else!

Jackson and I are going on Wed. Can't wait!

New Logo

Check out our new logo. It was designed by Susanne Staude of Modesto. We love it.

The boys came with me to the concept meeting with Susanne. Alden brought his Patriots frog that sings "Hey Sonic its your birthday, we're going to party like it's your birthday..." to show her the colors we wanted. Jackson demonstrated the brand tone through interpretive dance (to the singing Patriots frog of course) in Susanne's studio. Despite, or because of, the Nichols boys' antics our creative process got off to a good start.

John is currently bidding one of his first solar jobs. It's a 40x40 pergola, over a pool, with solar panels on top. We're using some solar consultants and an engineering firm to help. We're learning a lot through this bidding process. I'll post pictures when its finished -- should the customer want to go for it.

Moms Rule

Sometimes, just sometimes, my boys think I'm a rock star. We were on Turlock Lake, tooling around on the boat. We had just left a small island, where the boys counted 46 Canada Geese eggs and saw a couple of goslings. In the small rock cliffs of the island, the boys found a small cave, about six feet off the ground, and about two feet across by two feet deep. Inside were five barn owls. As we walked up to them, and stood maybe five feet away, most of them slept, but one or two stared back at us and lowered their heads and then moved them side to side. They were beautiful. The afternoon sun was orange, it was about 100 degrees, and the lake water was a cool relief.

I decided to give water skiing a try. I haven't skied for probably 10 years. I was a little nervous and hoped I was strong enough to get up out of the water. It took me a couple of tries, but I got up. John had told me that we would do a loop around a small island and then come back to the spot where we started. After I got my bearings, and finally looked up, I realized just how far of a loop it was. I decided I couldn't give up, even though my arms and leg muscles were already starting to burn.

Then I looked in the boat and saw both Alden and Jackson cheering and screaming,with huge smiles on their faces. When I adjusted my bathing suit, and held the rope just with one hand, they went crazy. They were almost jumping up and down in the boat. I smiled at them and waved. They were trying to talk to me, but of course I couldn't hear them. But I will always remember how impressed they looked. If they weren't in the boat, I probably would have quit.

John said that he looked back at me and my knees were knocking together and my posture was almost bent over, but I too had a huge smile on my face. When I finally stopped and the boys came around to pick me up, they we so excited and told me that I rocked, and that I was really good.

That day was good for my ego and for my heart...

Mastering the Toast

Hi all.
I've joined Toast Masters, an international club that helps people have more confidence about speaking in public and running meetings. I'm happy to report that I won the "Tall Tales" speech competition. This tall tale was inspired by Jackson and Alden and their disgust with my bad habit of not turning off the water when I brushed my teeth. After I blogged about it, some of you sent a note saying that their story had reminded you to either shut off the water when you brushed, or of yourself when you were a kid and were encouraging your parents to 'do the right' thing. Anyhoo. That experience grew into this tall tale. Thanks for the muse.
xoxo Shannon

Ode to John

Hats off to my husband. A man who can rebuild the engine of my car. (Right now he's replacing the head gasket on my BMW. Hopefully, the head itself isn't cracked.) And, a man who watches Mama Mia with me (the version that includes song lyrics at the bottom of the screen.)

What a man!