Frogs, Frogs, and More Frogs!!

As we walked closer to our motel room door with its' overhead light, we could see what had been moving in the dark. It wasn't just a thing. It was many "things" ... many, many, many things. I felt like I had just walked out into one of the Moses' plagues in Egypt. There were frogs everywhere ... hopping up and down the sidewalks, in the grass, and in the parking lot. The kids were ecstatic. "We need a bucket, we need a bucket", were the simultaneous cries. Fortunately we could not find a bucket or anything else that could hold a frog, but promised the kids we would see what we could find in the morning. By morning, most of the frogs were gone, but enough remained that we were able to capture a few for the girls to "observe". We were soon to find out that frogs would play a big part in our children's lives.

Our first concern after arriving in Novato was finding a place to live. After searching a few days were able to find a house which we could purchase without a down payment using our G.I. bill ... a benefit program that was available to veterans of the Korean War. The house was in a quiet little isolated subdivision containing only a few streets entry to which was by way of only one of the streets. The best part of this choice was that the grade school was right at the entrance to the area ... a short and safe walking distance from our home. The house was an Eichler designed building, recognizable by its large ceiling to floor windows. These windows comprised two walls of our living room. The kitchen was small but had a DISHWASHER, my first ever dishwasher. I really didn't care that there wasn't much cupboard space because it had a DISHWASHER! There was a small dining area off the kitchen, and there were three bedrooms and two bathrooms (another first). The best part was that there was a bathroom right off what would be the girl's room which had a door that lead to the back yard where the girls would spend a lot of time. The back yard had been divided into several planter boxes with rock pathways between them. One of these boxes we turned into a sandbox. In the corner of a the yard was a rock "wall" which I think at one time must have been a small fountain and water fall. A sliding glass door between the dining area and the living room lead to the side yard where there was a nice patio and grass area. On the other side of the house was the sidewalk

that led to the front door, and a small slope covered with ice plant. All you could see from the street was the garage because the rest of the house was secluded behind fences on both sides of the garage.

This was the first home that we had lived in that was OURS. And, my first thought was to decorate it the way I wanted. The house came with white drapes that covered those two windowed walls of the living room. We had bought our piece of new furniture in Klamath Falls which was a white Naugahyde (imitation leather) couch. With all that white, I knew I needed some color. All the floors throughout the house were asbestos tile, pretty common back then. There were no carpets. The first thing we purchased was beautiful bluish green tweed, wall to wall carpet for the living room. Then I purchased blue and green pillows for the couch. My creativity then kicked in and I decided to make planters to go on to of the bookcases that were built half way up the wall on both sides of the white brick fireplace. The fireplace and the bookcases comprised the whole far end wall of the room. Dad built the metal planters and I covered them with blue, green and white Mosaic tile. When filled with silk greenery, they really added to the beauty of the room. My next purchase was a large gold sunburst clock which I hung over the fireplace. I just loved the way it all turned out. I felt that this house was now really my "home".