A Christmas Story

Tonight started the 24 hours of A Christmas Story on TBS, and I decided it was time to introduce Sarah to the movie. Yep, she loved it! You'll shoot your eye out, kid!

What is that in the distance?

One of the few advantages (other than the weather) of living in Southern California, is that we are treated to breathtaking views from time to time. Last week there was a winter storm and here is the result:




Yes, there is snow on top of the mountains. These pictures were taking in Thousand Oaks on the Amgen campus, atop one of the taller buildings, 5 stories including basement. I only wish my camera had more zoom, and that the day had been more clear...

Parade of Lights

Thanks to a coworker of James', we were able to attend the Ventura Harbor Parade of Lights 2008 from a prime spot on a catamaran-- the boats were all going practically right in front of us. We had a great view, lots of fun, and even fireworks at the end! The girls were hesitant to climb aboard at first (as in CRYING about going on, both of them!) but by the end of the evening, were climbing on and off with ease. Julia required a little more help, being not yet 4 and not tall enough to get on and off solo with her little legs. The pictures didn't come out quite as well as I'd have liked, but I'll share a couple.

Picture Tag!

Instructions:

1) Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer
2) Select the 4th picture in the folder
3) Explain the picture
4) Tag 4 people to do the same NO CHEATING! (cropping, editing, etc!)

So, consider this your tagging. And here's mine:




This was taken this past summer at a local city pool/aquatic center. Sarah is at the top of the slide in orange. I have no clue who the other kid is.

Christmas Cards

I'm still waiting on my shipment of Christmas Cards to send them out. I'm not being a slacker, really! I probably ought to get a new ink cartridge too. I never address the envelopes by hand because my penmanship is horrible. I rely on help from Canon and MS Word to help me with my "calligraphy" each year. I'm sure the post office appreciates it!

Rain? Really?

Sometime around 10 pm PST last night, the rain started coming down on Ventura County, and for the most part hasn't stopped yet. I'm sure all the natives are freaking out about now. I mean, really, RAIN? That would be like a blizzard in Texas! These people really do not know how to handle rain when driving. The freeways slow down to 2 mph, or something like that. The number of accidents more than doubles. Of course, in their defense, it rains so seldom that all the junk that accumulates on the freeways makes for a nice slick surface when the rain starts coming down.

I'm staying home and baking today. No need to get out in the wet stuff any more often than I have to!

It doesn't really snow in Ventura County...

But the girls DID get to play in snow today! In spite of temperatures in the 70s (though kind of cold over the snow that was blown in) the girls had a ball. Every year, James' company has a big party for the families with kids and it's big fun. They used to do it off site, but then started doing it on campus. They have a Santa and Mrs. Clause, food (though it gets worse every year), crafts for the kids to do as well as cookie decorating. There are lots of cute little scenes set around and people take pictures in front of them. Of course, the girls didn't always cooperate with Mom's camera, but I did try my best! That's the great thing about digital cameras. I took 128 pictures, and most weren't all that great, but some were fantastic. I reserved those for Christmas cards, but am sharing some others in this post. :) Please notice all the green grass, green trees and of course people wearing shorts! 70s during the day, 40s at night!

Sure, I'm still alive...

Sorry that I've not updated in a while. Nothing super exciting has happened. Although, the other day I was talking to my mom and she was telling of HER adventures. Every weekday morning, my mom and dad go walking with their walking buddies at around 5 am. Apparently my dad is more of a wanderer than a straight line kind of person. In his wanderings, he somehow managed to trip my mom, who may or may not have broken her left wrist. Fun stuff, I tell ya! Oh, did I mention that she's left handed? She did go get x-rays that day, but they were inconclusive (must be because it was done at a walk-in clinic) but they gave her a split to wear.

Me? Well, the kids have been driving me crazy. They are so mean to each other, so now I am figuring that the consequences for being mean have got to be big. For example, every December, my husband's employer has a big party for the kids of employees, complete with catering, a Santa, crafts, snacks, fun and games AND snow trucked in (to Southern California no less) to one of the grassy areas on the main campus. The kids love this and look forward to it all year. Julia is still too young to remember it well, but Sarah certainly does. Earlier, she got mad at me for asking her to read some chapters in her Faith Formation (aka CCD) book so we can do the work together when she is done. She told me she didn't want to, so I told her that I would be happy to stay home with her tomorrow and Dad and Julia could go to the party. This made her angry, so she goes up to her room in a huff. Julia is in her room, so she pinches her and tells her in a mean tone to get out. Of course, I had to again remind her of the party. The kid has one more chance and if she blows it, she's not going. She is aware of the consequences and although I hope she gets to go, in a way I hope she doesn't so that she can learn the hard way that we are really serious about her needing an attitude adjustment...

Happy Black Friday?

No, I don't really waste my time shopping. It's not like the deals were all that good anyway, and I didn't need any off brand lcd tvs when I have perfectly good (albeit not LCD) tvs at my house. And no, they aren't even 50" or bigger screens. I think I'm the last person in CA who doesn't have a big screen tv, but I'm ok with that. I'm totally fine with the only debt being the mortgage, and trust me, out here that's plenty!

We had a nice Thanksgiving. I slept till 8, which is late for me, and the others were awakened at 8:30. I had to get them up to shower/bathe because we were going to Thanksgiving Mass. It wasn't until 10, but I had to leave earlier and get there at 9:15 at the latest. That meant James had to get Julia ready and make sure Sarah got ready. I did start Julia's bath and wash her hair and set out her clothes. I told Sarah what to wear, too, because she doesn't always dress appropriately for the weather, occasion, or match her colors in a way that I think is proper. (I'm only slightly picky) So, they made it on time and James actually did pretty well with both girls on his own. I noticed the girls were gone from the pews at one point, and I assumed Julia needed the restroom, which I assumed correctly. This usually has bad results, but apparently she did fine and actually used the restroom and washed her hands with little fuss. Our singing was great during the Mass and we managed not to slaughter the songs in Vietnamese and Spanish. It was a trilingual Mass. A great way to start off Thanksgiving, though!

My Thanksgiving gift to myself this year was not to cook, so we went out to eat, then came home for a bit until we were ready to go to the movies. They are always open on Thanksgiving and Christmas (crazy!) and we went to see Bolt. It's a disney movie with Pixar like animation, but it wasn't Pixar. John Travolta was the voice of Bolt the Dog and Mylie Cyrus (aka Hannah Montana) was the voice of Bolt's "person." It was pretty cute. Julia is asking to see it again today. Apparently they are also showing it in 3d and Sarah wanted to see that one. James wears glasses and says 3d glasses stink when you have to wear glasses. We didn't think Julia would keep them on either. Everyone knows 3d movies stink without the glasses.

I ended up the day watching the Aggies get a butt whooping by the longhorns. I knew it was going to happen, but did it have to be so bad? And it sounds like Texas isn't even going to get an opportunity to play for a national championship, which really stinks. But hey, after getting beat by Tech, maybe they shouldn't get that opportunity, eh?

Thanksgiving for the first Jewish President- a joke

A little humor to carry you on to Thanksgiving...

The first Jewish President of the United States calls his mother in Queens and
invites her to come down for Thanksgiving. She says, "I'd like to, but it's so much trouble. I mean, I have to get a cab to the airport and I hate waiting on Queens Blvd..."

He replies, "Mom! I'm the President! You won't need a cab. I'll send a
limousine for you!"

His mother replies, "I know, but then I'll have to get my ticket at the airport and try to get a seat on the plane, and I hate to sit in the middle... it's just too much trouble."

He replies, "Mom! I'm the President of the United States! I'll send Air Force One for you - it's my private jet!"

To which she replies, "Oh, well, but then when we land, I'll have to carry my luggage through the airport and try to get a cab... it's really too much trouble."

He replies, "Mom!! I'm the President! I'll send a helicopter for you! You won't have to lift a finger."

She answers, "Yes, that's nice... but, you know, I still need a hotel room, and the rooms are so expensive and I really don't like the rooms..."

Exasperated, he answers, "Mom! I'm the President! You'll stay at the White House!"

She responds, "Well...all right...I guess I'll come."

The next day, she's on the phone with her friend Betty. "Hello, Sylvia...so what's new?"

Sylvia: "I'm visiting my son for Thanksgiving!"
Betty: "The doctor?"
Sylvia: "No ... the other one."

What an incredible view!

Today the church choir I belong to was asked to perform for a Change of Command at one of the nearby Naval Bases. One of our members was the commander, and now she's heading East to Annapolis. We had to take a bus ride up one of the mountains where the Naval Satellite Operations Center was (20 minute ride up a winding road) and although it was hot, the view was incredible. I could see both the ocean and the city of Camarillo from my perch....




Tonight we went to Family Night at the only Chick Fil A in the county, which isn't too far from our home. They had a balloon artist there, and kids eat free! Julia was playing around with her creation and it was creating lots of lovely static with her hair...

The "Good" Napkins

Someone sent this to me in an e-mail, so I thought instead of a normal blog post, I'd share a joke instead.

My mother taught me to read when I was four years old (her first mistake). One day I was in the bathroom and noticed one of the cabinet doors was ajar. I read the box in the cabinet. I then asked my mother why she was keeping 'napkins' in the bathroom. Didn't they belong in the kitchen? Not wanting to burden me with unnecessary facts, she told me that those were for 'special occasions' (her second mistake).

Now fast forward a few months.... It's Thanksgiving Day, and my folks are leaving to pick up my uncle and his wife for dinner. Mom had assignments for all of us while they were gone. Mine was to set the table. When they returned, my uncle came in first and immediately burst into laughter. Next came his wife who gasped, then began giggling. Next came my father, who roared with laughter. Then came Mom, who almost died of embarrassment when she saw each place setting on the table with a 'special occasion' Kotex napkin at each plate, with the fork carefully arranged on top. I had even tucked the little tail in so they didn't hang off the edge!! My mother asked me why I used these and, of course, my response sent the other adults into further fits of laughter. 'But, Mom, you said they were for special occasions!!!'

Pass this on to your girlfriends who need a good laugh or anyone who has a daughter! Life is too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly, and forgive quickly.... and for heaven's sake, use the good napkins whenever you can!

The fish is alive!

I didn't have to make a rush trip to Petco (see earlier post from today) because Swimmy was alive. This is Julia's first very own fish, so it's important to her. It's a Betta. It lives in a little bitty plastic container that has a Dora the Explorer figurine in it-- she found it at the pet store and wouldn't let go of it. Hopefully Swimmy does better than James' Cichlids. Those guys are mean! One of them killed a plecostomous. I was ready to flush them both after that! I'm not sure which one is the murderer...

Sick kids are FUN!

Last night Julia had a stomach bug. At the age of almost 4, she can actually get to the toilet but will still miss some. Or she'll throw up in her sleep, even more fun. Needless to say, I am exhausted today. And she is full of energy tonight. She was laying around most of the day and feverish, but not getting sick any more. I would have killed for a nice nap, but Julia didn't take one and neither did I. Early bed for everyone!

I need to go check on her new fish (Swimmy) because I may need to make a quick trip to Petco to buy a replacement. Sarah thinks Swimmy is dead. Oops. Maybe it was because someone (not me) dropped him down the disposal and took a few minutes getting him out? Probably....poor fish.

How long does it take to get a 9 year old to clean her room?

Apparently it takes 2 days of battling it out, including sitting on said child's bed and griping at her whenever she started playing around again. 2 DAYS! She was grounded to her room for that long, and it was like pulling teeth to get her to do what needed done. If she had done what she was asked to do right from the start, it never would have happened! You know, it's not so hard to put folded clean laundry into a drawer instead of throwing it on the floor in the closet. It's not so difficult to pick up trash off of the floor and put it in the wastebasket. It's not so difficult to throw dirty clothes into a laundry hamper instead of 4 feet away on the floor! Next time I'll remember to take before pictures. This was really bad, right down to emptying an electric pencil sharpener onto a pile of clean clothes. And yes, I did make her wash all those clothes herself!

I sense that in the future, the battles will just get worse...

Nothing much going on

Well, it's been a rather boring week, not much going on at all. Sarah is still going to the after school science club 3 days a week. She claims she doesn't like it, but sometimes she's very excited about the projects they do in there. I just want to make sure she has every advantage when it comes to math and science because she's a girl!

Julia is still being her usual rambunctious self. She has become addicted to one of Sarah's old favorite movies: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarrons which is a pretty cute cartoon. I don't mind her wanting to watch it repeatedly while playing because it has a great soundtrack by Bryan Addams and Hans Zimmer. I was just noticing that Matt Damon is the main voice in the movie, it's more like a narrative with little dialogue. Mostly she just likes to have the noise/music going on while she's playing with her toys. She's really into prtending and dramatic play. She has imaginary friends, including the extremely naughty "Invisible Julia" but when she says it, it sounds more like "Visible Julia" but I know what she means.

I did get a surprise last night. My dad sent an itinerary for a trip out here. He and my mom coming out right after my birthday and will be here for Julia's birthday. They have never been with her on a birthday, so this will be a great treat. As luck would have it, my church choir will also be singing at one of the masses that weekend. We usually sing the 2nd Saturday and 4th Sunday. The next couple of months are going to be busy. For Thanksgiving there is a multilingual service and we will be singing in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Latin. We also have the Holiday Choir Concert and then will sing at *groans* Midnight Mass Christmas Eve/Day. I'm never up that late. Also, next week we are singing out at one of the Naval Bases for a Change of Command. One of our members commands the base and is being transferred to the Academy in Anapolis, and has asked that we sing there. She's the person that harassed me into joining the choir, so I figure I'd better show my gratitude by showing up at her special day!

It must be that time of the year...

Sarah finally brought home her school pictures today. I thought they came out pretty nice. They finally got rid of LifeTouch as their vendor and are now using a local photographer and I am much happier with the results. We first started using them as part of a fundraiser last spring and will be doing it again this coming spring. The kids get to to traditional portraits in the fall, and then the spring portraits are a fundraiser and are "personality" portraits. I'll have to dig those up and put one up later. Sarah was holding one of her American Girl dolls in the spring portraits.



I would have loved to have posted the class group picture, however, I think that some parents might not like that, so I'm not going to do it! I wanted to add that the texture looks funny, but I did scan this image from the original, and it's a matte, not glossy picture.

Fellow Widows of Warcraft....

I just got an e-mail from my husband. This next week, the new expansion for World of Warcraft is coming out, so we'll be losing our significant others for even greater amounts of time to the most wicked and evil game of all times. Anyway, he somehow found out that Dell now has a WoW edition laptop. As if those addicts needed something else to take even MORE time away from their friends and family. I think I'll have to schedule time through Outlook if I want him to spend time with the kids or me. Or maybe I'll just start playing the game so I can chat him up on there, maybe then he'd pay attention to us when he's playing the game?

Make sure and scroll down to read the next post on Madagascar 2. I got industrious and drafted TWO posts today. :)

I wanna move it move it!

Today we took the girls to see Madagascar 2. Julia has been looking forward to this for some time, ever since we saw previews at another movie over the summer. Of course, Nick has been showing commercials for it. She calls it the "I wanna move it move it movie." So, this morning we packed up the kids and headed over to the nearest theatre. They had 2 screens showing this movie and we made sure to go to the one that was all digital, of course. It was a really cute movie. If you haven't seen the first one, the voices for the primary characters are David Schwimmer, Jada Pinkett Smith, Ben Stiller and Chris Rock. The late Bernie Mac was one of the voices, I think it was the dad. Unfortunately, Alec Baldwin was a voice too. I'm not a big Baldwin fan, especially since he and his brothers promised to move to Canada if GWB was elected president. As you are well aware, they are all still here. My personal favorite was the character Moto Moto by will.i.am. He played a Hippo all hot for Gloria the Hippy (Jada) and he was just a riot. You can see a trailer and some other things at the Madagascar 2 site . The site is graphics intensive and has music too. Your kids will love it though!

I voted...

Yep, I did it. I walked to my polling place (a school 1/2 mile from my home) gave them my ID, signed on the dotted line and was given my ballot. In our county, we get paper ballots and we draw a line between two lines. It seems kind of primitive, considering they were just starting electronic voting in Texas when we moved away. 5 years later, Ventura County, CA still has paper ballots. I had a little helper, too. She kept walking over to the "polling officials" and talking to them. They gave her a sticker. After we left, I asked her if she voted and she said, "yes, I did!" Then I asked who she voted for. She said, "I voted for a snack and a sticker!" I guess when you are three years old, those are good things to vote for. Julia did not repeat the same answers when asked again about voting, but here is some video of her in all her cuteness:

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

While I was voting, one of the 3rd grade classes did a quick (and quiet) walk through. 20 3rd graders were a lot less distracting than one 3.5 year old girl. But hey, she's cute and she's my kid!

Tricks, no treats :(

Bad luck was really with me on November 1st. I was coming back home from my weight watchers meeting (.8 lbs lost, big whoop) and came to the intersection to my neighborhood. There isn't a protected left hand turn. It is common for the first person in line to pull a bit into the intersection and then turn when traffic clears or when the light turns yellow/red. I was first in line. The light turned yellow and the cars on the other side stopped, so I started my turn. A lady going the other way(who had previously stopped) gunned it and hit me. Air bags deployed, the horn went off. My asthma got triggered from the darned air bag "powder." I think it's really anthrax in there. Oh the burn! Also, my right foot/ankle started to hurt. It's more than 2 days later and the foot is still hurt and swollen. I got airbag burns and a cut on my left hand/wrist. That still hurts too. I'm not walking much and definitely not driving.

Now, to add to the list of tricks, they totaled out the truck. I really didn't want anything and definitely not a car payment. I guess I should look forward to driving a car with better gas mileage? And I should be grateful that I wasn't hurt.

I'm sorry that there are no pictures, but my camera was in the candy bag from the night before, and I didn't think my camera on my phone could do it justice. I have to go back and get a couple of things out of it so maybe I'll take pictures then.

Treats, no tricks!

Sarah (9 years) is Mitchie from Camp Rock and Julia (3.5 years) is a Kitty.



Well, we had a great Halloween. Between Trunk or Treat at the church and going around to our neighbors, the girls really raked in the candy. We had a lot of trouble with Julia trying to walk in every house. Towards the end, she ended up going home with Daddy while Sarah and I went to a few more houses. By the time we got home, she was bathed and asleep in bed. The picture shows the combined amounts of candy for both girls on Halloween and at the Trunk or Treat earlier in the week at the church.





Right before going out to beg candy from the neighbors, I did quickly carve a pumpkin. It's nothing fantastic, but it's all freehand. It was a HUGE pumpkin. We went to a REAL pumpkin patch, where they actually grow the pumpkins. I think for the big ole heavy thing we got, we paid like 10 or 12 bucks, which is a steal for the size of pumpkin we got.




In reference to the title, I'll add a separate post for the tricks, no treats.

Do people not care about their kids' safety?

One of the "rules" about kids coming to school is that they can come in car (with parents driving of course), on bike if they are 3rd grade and above and on foot, but not skates, skateboards or scooters. Not only do I see kids coming solo on the disallowed modes of transportation, but with parents. I'll see a parent walking with their kid, pulling a wagon or pushing a stroller and their older kid is on a scooter or skates. To add to this, the parents are not chewing their kids out when the cross streets without stopping or even looking to see if cars are coming. Then there are parents who let their young kids, like first graders, walk or ride bikes to school solo. Do these parents just not care? I am pretty sure one of Sarah's classmates has been a latch key kid since 1st grade. His older sister who rides with him is just one grade above! I really do not think that elementary school kids are ready to go home to an empty house, but especially not until around 4th or 5th grade.

In other news, not related to school, they are almost finished painting our condo building. Monday all day, they were pressure washing the roof and sides of the building, and Tuesday and yesterday was painting and doing the trim. They still have the garages to do. The really funny thing is that we're getting a new door next week or the week after next. We are responsible for the door, so the HOA is unaware of this. I told the painters, but they're still going to paint our door. I'm just glad we didn't have the new door yet, because if they had painted over the new one, it would void the warranty. Ours will have a factory paint job on it and it will probably last longer than the stuff they are painting the other doors with.

Back to School Night

Tonight was "Back to School Night" at Sarah's school. I think most "normal" states would refer to this as an open house. There IS something called Open House at the end of the school year where the whole family is welcome and the students' best works are on display. Back to School Night is a parents only event, though some parents ignore that request and bring their kids. This year they even had the yard duty supervisors present so the kids could come and play on the playground while the parents went into the classroom, but some parents STILL brought their kids into the classrooms. I left my kids home with my husband, as I do every year.

Over the weekend, big changes came about at the school. There were too many first, third, fourth and fifth grade students for the number of teachers based on class limits. I'm not sure of the limits for 4th and 5th, but the lower grades max out at 20 students. The usual solution is to have a combination class. They ended up hiring a new teacher and she took on a 4th/5th combo class, which meant kids had to be moved and lots of parents were NOT happy. Sarah is in the 4th grade this year and was not moved. I am grateful for this, because she had been in a combo class last year and I feel that it was "someone else's turn," if that makes sense. The thing is, they try to get the kids who are not behavior problems and generally work well on their own. Sarah definitely fits into this category. A teacher could not "do" a combo class with a lot of behavior problems going on. The problem with the other group of kids that needed combo classes is that they were first and third graders, and you don't really mix up kids unless they are one grade level apart, NOT two grade levels. So, they created a 1st/2nd combo class and a 2nd/3rd combo class to fix the situation with the 1st and 3rd grades. Lots of kids and parents were upset, but in the end, it all worked out. I was talking to a 5th grade student who got put in the combo class with the new teacher, and she seems to think that the new teacher is pretty nice. The problem is that she wasn't present at back to school night-- maybe she had a prior engagement. I'm sure the parents were hoping to meet this new teacher, and weren't too thrilled when it did not happen.

I can see that this will be an interesting year....

First Blog!

This is my first post to this blog. I'm kind of starting it as a place to vent about the frustrations of being a parent of a kid in elementary school in California. There is not much funding for education here, therefore, the schools just aren't that great as compared to other states. I have a daughter in the 4th grade and she's been at the same school since kindergarten. Her name is Sarah. I also have another non-school aged child named Julia and she is 3.5 years old. I guess my biggest problem is that there is such a lack of funds that we have to have all these fundraisers. The only reason our school even has a PE teacher (part time teacher, one PE class per grade per week) is because of all these fundraisers. There are no art or music classes at all.



This is really sad, considering that California schools used to set the trends for schools in other states. Now the schools in this state consistently rank 45th (or higher) in the nation. It is a goal of mine to be out of this state prior to my oldest started 6th grade in 2 years, and at that time, my youngest will be kindergarten aged.