The things for which I'm thankful

There are many things in life I am thankful for, but here's my top 25 coming off of Thanksgiving weekend, in somewhat random, stream-of-conscious order.

1. My fabulous, loving and perfect-for-me husband, whose health seems to be much better this year than last.

2. My wonderfully bright, adorable, yet irritating children. As one of my best friends put it, there's just enough "squish" to balance the cuteness.

3. My far-off family who never seem to find time to visit me in California. You know who you are, and I'm not going to stop bugging you. No, I'm not thankful they don't visit me. I just like to bug them about it whenever I get a chance.

4. My far-off relatives who do come to visit me. You know who you are, too, and I miss you all terribly.

5. My friends, whom I've covered in previous posts. Without them life would be a little less colorful, a little more boring and a lot more depressing. You are my lifeblood!

6. The fact that I've gotten to spend an entire year at home with my kids.

7. Hugs.

8. The beauty I can find in my own backyard, the flowers, the beach, the palm trees, the weather here.

9. My home. My fortress of solitude, my own little island of sanity (most days at least).

10. Books.

11. Strawberries.

12. Chocolate.

13. All those people who have made me who I am by being a part of my life. Some are still here, some are not. My Mom, My grandmother, my great-grandmother and my grandfather are just a few that are no longer with me physically, but their mark is on my life and heart forever.

14. Afternoons at the park with the boys.

15. Days at the beach.

16. My son's wonderful charter school and its sense of community.

17. Facebook.

18. Las Vegas

19. Sy-fy (even though I don't like the change in logo)

20. Wilson Creek Almond Champagne

21. My husband's pumpkin pie and Toll House cookies

22. Video Games

23. Backyard parties

24. Halloween

25. Christmas

My baby turned 4

I can't believe Morgan turned 4 yesterday. He's growing up so fast and insists that I don't call him baby. What he doesn't know won't hurt him. He will always be my baby. For that matter, so will 7-year-old Gabriel.

When it comes to birthdays, I usually pull out all the stops for the kids. I've been a little lax with Morgan, though, since he isn't in preschool, doesn't really know that many kids and his birthday is so close to Thanksgiving that it actually falls on the date once in awhile. So, for the past three years, it's been quiet celebrations at the house with a few family friends (usually adults), a homemade cake and a small fanfare.

Well, this year the growing young man insisted we throw him a party. A Shark party, no less. In my doting wisdom and thinking a shark party should be easy to find decorations and favors for, I agreed.

Boy was I a fool! For a town on the beach, there really isn't much out there for sharks. I guess a few years ago when "Shark Tale" came out there was stuff, but now that MY kid wants a shark party, there's nothing.

Morgan and I looked everywhere, we went to all the party stores in Ventura, Oxnard and Camarillo, we spent a day at Ventura Harbor Village and looked at the shops there. We went to the taco place near the hat shop and actually ate shark and chips. He thought this was pretty cool, and we both enjoyed the amazing pictures of Great White Sharks on the walls.

Finally, we went to Sea Things on Santa Clara in Ventura and found a few items for guests' gift bags.

We couldn't find invitations, so I ended up making them. We settled for plain, blue plates. I found two shark posters at Party Pleasers in Camarillo and put one of those on the hot tub and one on the garage wall above the food table. I made use of some drift wood from the beach and raided my bathroom for shells to use as table decorations. That would have to do.

There are no shark Jolly Jumpers, either. We settled for one with palm trees.

The cake was the big problem. Morgan wanted a shark cake. They don't make shark cakes, either. So, I was going to have to make that, too. After fretting for a month about how to make it and looking online at what others had done , I still had no idea how I was going to make a cake picturing a side view of the entire length of a shark because, of course, that's what my baby wanted.

The problem was that by the time I cut the shape of the shark out, there wasn't much cake left to serve the party guests.

Lucky for me, Mr. Morgan changed his mind and wanted to do a shark head with an open mouth full of teeth, like the original "Jaws" poster - now we're talking doable.

So, at 8 p.m. the night before the party, I started on the cake. Procrastination is my middle name, but somehow I always meet my deadline. Eric, of course, was laughing at me and taking pictures as I worked on the cake.

Putting the cake together wasn't so much the problem as frosting it without getting the colors mixed. I would have used a decorator and those funky little star pattern dots, except for the fact that I loathe them. They take forever and I'm not a very patient person.

Along about midnight, the red velvet cake (think shark blood) was done an frosted along with a whole bunch of cupcakes that I'm hoping the family will clean up before I eat too many.

However, this was a toothless shark and I wasn't sure what to do about the teeth. Those other shark cake makers used fondant, marshmallows, gum, vanilla Tootsie Rolls, nuts and candy apple candy corn. None of these things, save for the marshmallows, gum and nuts were readily available. I wanted to stay clear of nuts since I wasn't sure if any of our guests were allergic. Gum and marshmallows just didn't seem right.

So, a few hours before the party, I ran down to World Market to see what I could find. I found star-shaped Peeps that I thought I could cut the tips off, I found chocolate-coated almonds (at least the nuts were covered), Lindt white chocolate bars and a couple other things I decided wouldn't work. So, $14 in candy later, I'm back at the house trying to figure this out.

The star points on the Peeps were too wide, I was still having issues with the almonds, so I tried the white chocolate bars. I was worried they wouldn't cut properly, but it worked perfect, and we had a shark with a mouth full of teeth.

And, thanks to our friends the Snyders, I had a wine stopper in the shape of a swimmer that I was able to stick in the mouth so it looked like the shark ate someone. OK, perhaps not politically correct for a 4-year-old, but I've always said my family was a little twisted.

Oh, and Eric talked me out of writing Bite Me on the cake board. So instead, I made sure Morgan was wearing the shirt that said "Bite Me" with the picture of shark's teeth on it. It made me feel a little better.

The lessons I've learned: Don't commit on birthdays until I've checked out the party goods situation. I'm getting more confident at cake decorating with each birthday. Four-year-olds don't care if the decorations are perfect. They just want to have fun, candy, friends and presents until they're so pooped out that they fall asleep on the floor playing with their new toys.

October magically disappears

Way back in September, I wrote about my Grandmother's birthday, some disappointing events in my life and how I drew encouragement from my family. Since then, My grandmother has died, I made a trip back to Kansas and helped produce a Halloween haunted house as a fundraiser for my son's school. Somewhere amid all of that October disappeared.

Traditionally, October is a difficult time of year, my parents' anniversary is Oct. 4, my mother died on Oct. 6 and her birthday was Oct. 17, so that makes for a melancholy month. But me and my family revel in Halloween. We used to throw a huge Halloween party for all of our friends, but with circumstances being what they are this year, we had to let that tradition go.

I thought it was going to be a quiet, fun Halloween spent at my friend Linda's place. It was on a Saturday this year, so we had been talking about spending the entire day together, culminating with taking the kids trick-or-treating as we had the last few years.

We were mistaken.

The PTSO at my son's school had this idea come up about throwing a haunted house fundraiser for the school. We hashed it around a bit and were on the verge of canceling it when an unbelievable opportunity manifested itself. I won't go into the gory details, but before I knew it Linda, me and our new-found friend Cathy Derley were all coordinating this event that grew monstrous before our eyes.

It was exhausting, frustrating, rewarding, thrilling, fun and exciting all at the same time. It did, however, overshadow that nice, quiet little Halloween Saturday we had planned. It also consumed the entire month, and was the biggest bash I have ever had a part in throwing.

Somewhere in the middle of the planning for this event, my grandmother, who had turned 100 at the end of August, died. Her burial ceremony was set for Oct. 16, the day before my mother's birthday. This added another layer of sadness to the month.

While the circumstances for the trip back to Kansas were grim, and the trip itself was a quick one, it was nice to be back in the shelter of my family, if only for a few days. Being with them lends me a strength and ability to appreciated the life I've had and the people I've shared it with.

The busyness of the haunted house was therapy for me, as well. It helped me let go of the sadness and melancholy that usually consume the month of October. It gave me a sense of accomplishment and a chance to work on and complete a big project. It's also given me a bit of an emotional boost and lots and lots of memories and new friends.

The job hunt is ongoing, although jobs to apply for are few and far between. I still haven't given up, though and am looking almost every day for new opportunities. Nov. 6 was the anniversary of the layoff announcement. It's hard to believe it's been a year.

In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Morgan's 4th birthday. He wants a shark birthday party. I never thought finding invitations and party supplies for a shark birthday would be so difficult, but apparently it is. So, it's off to a new challenge, creating invitations and figuring out how to make a shark birthday cake.

It's back to one step at a time and making my own happiness.