Christmas pictures

The girls have new Christmas dresses and we took them to get pictures made. It's really hard to see how grown up Sarah is looking, but she's still just 10 and very much a kid!

Robotics is keeping us busy!

James and I have taken on coaching 2 FLL Robotics teams. Sarah is on one of them. None of the kids have prior experience, and neither do we, but we've learned a lot! We didn't do great at our first tournament, but we didn't place dead last, so that's good, right? Here's some pictures of the kids at the competition table and one of the end result of a full day of competition!

Agent RoboLeopards at the competition table

Flaming RoboLeopards at the competition table

Fall school pictures of the girls

Sarah age 10, 5th grade

Julia Age 4, pre-K

I haven't blogged in over 3 months! Yikes!

I guess I'm spending too much time on Facebook. I am officially a bad blogger. In my defense, I have been busy with the girls getting back to school, coaching the 4th and 5th grade robotics teams and our church choir practice sessions going back into full swing! And oh yeah, trying to get to the gym 4-5 times a week to take body sculpt or Turbokick classes. It takes a lot out of a person!

I'll try to be a better blogger in the future, but I'll leave you with a few photos until then! :)

Sarah's first day of 5th grade

Julia on her first day of pre-k. She will not sit still!

Once in a rare while, the camera catches me...

Bad Blogger!

I know, it's been a while. We've been in Texas for three weeks. We've had fun seeing family and friends, and yes I've taken loads of pictures. I will have to post them later as I've been having some technical difficulties. I am definitely ready to get back home to my own bed. I will miss everyone, but there's no place like home!

In a world with lots of bad news...

We always gripe about the bad things, or share the bad news, but we often forget to share the good things and news. So, today, in a time when I'm hearing of people getting divorced, or dying, or having cancer, or suffering from depression, I'd love to share some good things going on.

First, I just celebrated the 13th anniversary of my marriage to my husband James. There were times when I thought we wouldn't make it, and we still have a long way to go, but we made it this far. That's a great thing!

Second, an old high school classmate was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in May, and last week went to have part of his kidney removed. During the operation, they discovered the tumor was gone, completely. This is definitely great news, and makes me feel honored to be involved in a modern day miracle. All those prayers had a hand in this, most certainly!

Third, my brother and law got married last week on 6-20. We were unable to attend, but were there in spirit. We're told he seems happier than he's ever been, and that is always good to hear.

Fourth, in a time when the economy is poor and employers are laying off, my husband still has a job. They have had multiple layoffs over the past couple of years, but he remains employed. We are quite fortunate.

Finally, another blessing is that we all get to leave for Texas on Saturday to spend 3 weeks with family and friends. You never know when it will be the last time you see someone, so we have to make the most of our annual visits to Texas. I have memories of the last time I saw my grandmother, a month before she passed away. It was such an awful feeling, walking away and knowing that I would never see her again, because she was terminally ill. So, I make this trip armed with my camera, and have purchased a new one for my husband so that he might record his memories as well. We will enjoy our visit and make the most of it.

Thanks for reading this, if you took the time. I always hesitate to share good news because I don't want to brag, but someone pointed out today that it is good to share the good stuff, because we already hear way too much of the bad.

What I've been involved in lately...

On top of my normal activities, plus lots of time at the gym, painting Sarah's room, and keeping 2 kids on summer vacation occupied, I've been participating a bit more in our local government. Back in April, we were notified that the principal of my daughters' school would be "reassigned" as a teacher for the next school year. I was pretty upset about this and didn't know what I could do about it. Some of the other parents advised me that on May 21st, parents would be demonstrating prior to the school board meeting, as well as speaking at the meeting. I thought maybe I would like to participate. On that morning, I found out that on the afternoon of May 20th, the principal had been called into the district office, told she was being placed on administrative leave, and locked out of her office, unable to get any of her personal belongings. Were our children in such a danger that she couldn't complete the remaining 3 weeks of the school year? Probably not. If she had done something illegal, we would have known about it as it would have been well-publicized. No, the district was hoping that they could silence the parents who were questioning their decision.

After some more digging, I found out that a few of the teachers had complained to the Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction because there was some sort of conflict, that they didn't feel they could work under our principal. Now, I have worked extensively with her during her 4 years at our school with 2 years on the School Site Council and another year on the Parent Teacher Council, and was just shocked that anyone could feel this way. I realize that our principal was demanding, of herself, of her faculty and staff, and of the students. There are some awesome faculty and staff members (some who did take issue with our principal, some who did not) and some great students and parents as well. We are so lucky to have a school that is often like an extension of family. My beef isn't so much with how most of the teachers perform, but how some of them did not follow proper procedure in trying to resolve the situation, like speaking with the principal, or going to their union representative and so on and so forth, but going straight to the District Office. My beef is with the District Office for not asking that these teachers to do what they were supposed to do in order to resolve conflicts. My beef is with the school board for allowing this to happen. In the corporate world, you can't just get your boss fired because you don't get along with him or her. You learn to work with the situation, or you transfer to another department, or you find a new job, or you go to HR to try to resolve the situation, but you straight to the top to try to get your boss fired.

We are trying to teach our children how to resolve conflicts peacefully, yet in their own school, a situation was dealt with in a vindictive and inappropriate way. These kids had their beloved principal removed from their school, many of them crying when they found out. I know as far as Sarah goes, it ruined her day when she found out HER principal would not be back, and she would not award her as top reader of her class at the reading celebration. How is abruptly removing a principal (who is no danger to our kids) a peaceful resolution to a conflict? It is absolutely not. I aim to teach my children to be fair, considerate, and to learn how to resolve conflicts peacefully...not to handle things with violence (and there was no violence in this situation) and not to handle things in a petty and immature way.

So, for the first time in my life, I'm REALLY getting involved. I am demonstrating peacefully outside school board meetings. I am participating in an effort to recall our entire school board. Although I was extremely nervous, I spoke in front of the school board, district officials, parents and teachers from our school, as well as any people who happened to be watching the meeting on the local access channel. I was not sure I could do it, but I did. Below are you tube videos of our speeches that we made before the PVSD school board. Enjoy!

Speaker 1
Speaker 2
Speaker 3 (me)
Speaker 4
Speaker 5
Speaker 6

Grammy Pat and Grandpa Bob go to Disneyland

Unfortunately, they kept away from the camera, especially that Grammy Pat. She was busy taking pictures of EVERYTHING. The one picture I have with her in it, she's about to take a picture. But this is how things go. Here's a pic of the girls each with one of the grandparents, and then the girls with Mickey. This is the first time I've ever gotten a picture of Sarah with Mickey. She is terrified of those characters (not princesses) so she's usually shying away from them. We had a great time and wore Grammy Pat and Grandpa Bob out!

Pictures from spring break

Over spring break, we went to Sea World and to Disney Land. I'm being really lazy and not captioning any of the pictures, but thought I'd share some pictures from the fun that we had. The highlight of the trip for Sarah was getting to be asked to participate in the Shamu show! It was just pure luck, with us being at the right place/right time, and her being the right age group. I was surprised that she participated because she is so very shy and anxious about things like that. We are definitely proud of her for participating!

Please pray for Kayleigh

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy with many projects at home, most of them involving painting or other home improvement items, as well as spring break vacation, extra choir practices for Easter, and the usual housework. I will have to post an update soon, but the main reason I am posting is to ask for prayers for Kayleigh. She was born last June, 3 months early, and has never left the hospital. After a recent surgery, something went wrong and after several EEGs, her brain activity is flat, although she is breathing some on her own. She is not expected to live much longer. Her parents are hoping to take her home to pass on, but she's got feeding issues that must be figured out first. Please pray that she doesn't suffer, and that her parents get their wishes. You can read about her at http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/

It's a small world after all!

Last week, the girls and I made a trip to Disneyland on a day off from school. The last time we visited, Small World was closed for renovations, but this time it was open and nicely refurbished, right down to the boats!


I know the song is kind of cheesy, but you can see something neat and new every time you go on the ride, and this time was no exception. New characters had been added, old ones refurbished. It was all shiny and new looking! New additions would be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, Nemo and Dory, Ariel, Woody, Jessie and Bulls Eye.


Of course, some of the old favorites still make an appearance as well:


It was nice to see our "old friend" up and running again!

Julia starts school!

Before School- Outside the classroom

I had plans of enrolling Julia in the pre-kindergarten program at Sarah's school for the next school year. There are a lot of preschools around town, but this was the ONLY chance we would ever have to have both girls at the same school. Next year, when Julia is in pre-k, Sarah will be in 5th grade. Besides that, the teacher has a California teaching credential and can teach other elementary grades, something not always common in other preschools. The teachers may have completed a 2 year program to become a childcare worker/teacher, but it's not often they are this qualified. I also know the teacher after all these years of volunteering at the school, and would prefer her to anyone else. So, I decided to enroll Julia for the fall semester. When I get there, I run into the principal, who suggests that since she's already 4 and just misses the cutoff for starting kinder next year by a month, that I should go ahead and start her now and then of course do pre-k again next year, because there was an opening! Julia has been begging to go to school with Sarah for some time now, and I wasn't about to turn that opporunity down!

So, last Thursday, we woke Julia up and got her dressed for her first day of school. She was pretty excited and had a pretty good first day, especially for having started after all the kids are already into the routine and way ahead of her. She doesn't like circle time, but otherwise seems to be adapting well. She goes 5 days a week for 3 hours. The best part? I get peace and quiet. I get to take a shower in an empty house. I get to sort through things in her room and get rid of them without her ever knowing. And we are BOTH a lot happier!

After school- on the walk home

Kindle....the sequel

Today a special box came for me from http://www.amazon.com/. I assumed it was a book of some sort that James had ordered for Christmas or my birthday, but instead, it was the surprise of my life. In t was a brand new Kindle 2.0 wireless e-book reader. It was not something I would have expected in my wildest fantasies. And I knew that this had been in the works for a while (apparently more than 2 months) because the Kindle is so popular that they are always on backorder. James actually ordered it before they had announced the Kindle 2.0, but later received notification that the newer version would be shipped. I was and still am floored. I would have never bought on for myself, because I think that is an awful lot of money to spend. In fact, I was hoping that after the Kindle 2.0 was released that perhaps I could get a good deal on someone's used Kindle 1.0.

The Kindle is going to open up a whole new world for me. I absolutely love to read, and now I can have hundreds or thousands of books saved on one little book-sized electronic device. AND I can download each book in a minute or less, and wireless downloads at that! I've discovered a number of sites with free books in the Kindle format, plus I can transfer word documents or .pdf files to my kindle as well. I may try to see if I can store and view sheet music in .pdf format as well. I realize that the music will be smaller than I wish, but to be able to have all my music available at a moment's notice without having to carry around my expandable file full of sheet music would be a dream come true!

I'm sure I will review the Kindle more in the future, but I did have to share my current musings while I am still so excited about my new toy...

Down for the count....

For the past 1+ week, I have been sick with some respiratory bug. Until Sunday, I had a fever most every day, and stuffy nose, cough and just felt like dirt. Last Friday, I had gone to the doctor because after 5 days of a fever, James insisted I go. So, I went, and he gave me antibiotics (though I really think this was viral) and he gave me a wonderful cough syrup that helped me sleep. I only take it at night, though, because sleeping all day wouldn't be good. Now I'm mostly better, which means I have to take care of all the things that either didn't get done while I was in bed, or that should have been taken care of and weren't. Fun stuff!

People are ruining our world!

Julia inspired today's post. A couple of weeks ago, we were walking back from the park and she noticed a lot of litter and other things along the way. She was getting very upset. She has watched the movie Wall-e and trash is a big deal on it, so she's starting to become aware that it's not good to just throw things on the ground. I only wish her big sister Sarah were as aware! She throws trash on the floor at our home- disgusting!




One of the litter items seen on our trip to the park.


Yep, a cigarette butt. Julia almost picked that one up. NASTY!


Just another piece of litter that is ruining our world!

I like purple

Those who know me, know that my favorite color is purple. I think this happened sometime around when Julia was a baby. I was pretty disgusted that most baby girl clothing was pink. Well, then they started coming out with some more cool stuff, in lavender and purple, so I started buying that up. I really didn't like pink much at all, although I did and still do like pink a heck of a lot better than orange or yellow. So, when Julia develops her first favorite color, it was orange. Now what is it? Pink. Yep, she likes to pick the colors I don't have an affinity for. Sarah, though, she's my buddy. Her absolute favorite color is blue. After that, she probably would pick sky blue or purple. Her least favorite color is absolutely, positively, without a doubt, pink. If you wish to annoy her, just buy her something in that color. She hates princesses, too, now. Oh, and for the record, James has a favorite color, sort of, BLACK. He said he wished that during school, he'd been able to respond more smartly to the teachers who complained that black wasn't really a color, but really, black absorbs all the colors so it is a representation of all colors, therefor he likes all the colors of the rainbow. But don't tell him I said so, because he likes black, that's his story and he's sticking to it.

Sarah, the proud Leopard of the Month!

Sarah received her Leopard of the Month award yesterday at the end of month assemblies at her school. I did take video of her receiving the award, but will have to post that on a different day. She was the ONLY kid who dressed up for the ceremony, which surprised me. I guess kids just don't do that any more...

I get hungry just reading the recipes...

I have a few sites I read on a regular basis. I've found a couple of new ones lately, and thought I might like to share. The first one is Pioneer Woman Confessions. She's super funny and it's just enjoying to read. But it doesn't stop there. She has other blogs. The Cooking blog is why I chose the subject I did. Oh man. She must use a nice camera. I can almost taste the food she's blogging about. It's not fair. I mean, I'm trying to lose weight here, and she is not showing any low fat/weight loss friendly recipes. If you go to her site, you can see her other blogs, home schooling, photography and garden as tabs at the top. I suppose I could link them, but I'm getting lazy. Oh, and she's been nominated for numerous Bloggie awards. So if you like her, go vote for her.

But there's a problem. See, there's this other site I like, Cake Wrecks, and she's competing against Cake Wrecks in the best writing in a blog category. Oh, decisions, decisions. I suppose I could vote for Pioneer Woman on all categories, except that one. Because each day, I get much joy out of reading Cake Wrecks. I laugh hard at all the awful cakes that people have the nerve to create. The author calls them Cake Wreckorators. I love it. Really, I do. I wonder what she would think about some of mine?


This one wasn't so great, but at least it tasted good.

Or this one:


Yeah, kind of scary. And let's not talk about the black icing. Eww.



Ok, So Thomas wasn't TOO bad, and this time I figured out that I could use chocolate icing and dye it black without having to use as much dye, so it tasted much better than white dyed black.



The above cake was the cake I made on my last class of the first course of cake decorating I took. To this day, I still cannot make a good rose. And it's not as if I didn't practice. But I did try.



I kind of like this one-- from the last class of my second course. Still can't make a decent rose, though. My other flowers turned out pretty decent, though.



I was pretty proud of Tigger, though. I wish I could say I freehanded him, but I'm not that good. I did use a pattern that I created using a coloring book page. I thought it turned out pretty good, though! Throughout the years, I've made lots more cakes, some better, some worse, but I guess it's the enjoyment that I get out of it that keeps me doing it. I'd love to take the courses again, though, to get better at certain techniques, and um, maybe figure out how to do that elusive Rose. I can dream, can't I?

I'm on a roll...

Just a short note to let everyone know that the past couple of days, I've been a posting fool, so make sure and scroll down and read the other posts. I think that not including this post, there are 4 more. Hope everyone enjoys!

25 Random Things About Me...

Here's how it works:

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you. If you are reading this, then consider yourself tagged!


1. I was born in Victoria, Texas at Citizen's Hospital.

2. Most people know I have an older brother named David., but few know that I had a younger brother who died shortly after his birth when I was 14 months old. His name was Joseph Steven. That would have been my name had I been a boy.

3. I went to Catholic school from 4th-12th grade, but public school from K-3rd.

4. I was in the same 3rd grade class as my husband, but didn't see him again until I was 24.

5. I have lived in Victoria, TX, College Station, TX, Huntsville, TX, Houston, TX, Rosenberg, TX, Bloomington IL on a part-time basis, Thousand Oaks, CA and now Camarillo, CA.

6. I love to sing. I'm not exactly great at it, but good enough. I have a good ear for what is right and what is wrong, and I can read music. I was in the choir in high school for 3 years, in the church choir for 5 years in HS and College and last year joined the "Adult Choir" at my current church. It brings great joy into my life.

7. I love to read. I prefer fiction. My non-fiction reading would be mostly online. I am addicted to learning about new things and reading other people's blogs.

8. I know a lot about a wide variety of things. I always used to envy people who do one or two things exceptionally well, but then decided I should not limit myself. Maybe I should have majored in Liberal Arts in college. I am proud to have such a wide variety of knowledge, though.

9. I'm pretty good with technology. I have built a computer, installed windows, and even done things on Unix machines. I have also at times needed to correct settings on a cisco router or a firewall. This comes from being married to a high tech guy who has little time to fix the equipment at home.

10. I only got to know 3 of my grandparents. My paternal grandmother passed away 2 weeks before my parents were married and almost 3 years before I was born.

11. I wish I had more time to devote to volunteer work.

12. I used to hate text messaging. I hated receiving the messages and sending them. Then I got the LG env2. Now I don't hate it so much but am not addicted to it.

13. I love to take pictures but wish I either was better at it or had a better camera. I love to take candid shots. I really despise those canned/posed pictures that people force you to take all the time. "Okay, everyone, get on the couch/in front of the fireplace/outside on the lawn and we'll pose for a group picture!" So, instead, I snap a lot of pictures, hoping to get a few really good ones.

14. The first thing in my mouth each morning is usually a Diet whatever was cheapest at the store, typically coke or pepsi, always flavored either cherry or lime or vanilla. Sometimes it's a Diet Dr. Pepper.

15. My mom thought I was going to be a boy when she was pregnant with me, so she didn't pick out any girl names. She tells me that she figured since she already had a boy, she didn't think she'd have a girl. She had 2 sisters. I guess she figured that's how it worked.

16. My parents and brother are all left-handed. I'm right-handed, although I can do things with either hand, but I have more strength in the right. I think that somehow I was switched/encouraged to use the right hand by someone.

17. My favorite color is purple. At one time it was green, another it was pink, royal blue, red, and so on and so forth. I think purple has been it for about 4 years.

18. I love chocolate, especially dark chocolate. Who could ask for anything more?

19. I have a confession to make. I have at least 25 Jimmy Buffett cds. I especially love to listen to his music when the weather is bad. I don't know if I have a favorite song of his, but

20. According to my kids, I am the meanest mother in the world, but for some reason they still love me and miss me when I'm gone!

21. I love rain and storms.

22. I used to decorate cakes for fun. I've made all sorts, and even made a tiered cake once. I don't think that I'd make big money off of it, but they were nice enough.

23. I can sew. I've made clothes that turned out pretty cute. I like sewing for kids, but not so much adults, because their clothes are smaller and take less time and fabric.

24. I would be totally lost without my computer. It's my newspaper, my mailbox, my phone book, my address book, my photo album, my telephone...you get the picture.

25. I really look up to my parents and hope to be like them when I grow up.

New digs!

Well, I finally got around to learning how to customize my blog into something that is more my style. I did acquire the background and information as to how to put it in at The Cutest Blog on the Block, but the rest I pretty much did on my own. The header or banner or whatever you call it, I did use the background I got from Cutest Blog but modified it to create a banner using Paint Shop Pro. I also used the same software to create my signature. I'm having a lot of fun doing this, and don't be surprised to see more changes in the future!

The promised San Diego Zoo Post, at last!

I think that this post is going to be slim on post and heavy on pictures! We enjoyed visiting the SD Zoo, as usual, but I did not get a lot of pictures. I'll have to dig up some from previous trips another day. Above would be the 2 legged juvenile creatures of the Whiteley family. the cooperated for longer than 2 seconds to take that photograph!

Here's the view from the cable car ride. Or at least the view of another cable car!


Julia had fun in the petting zoo. She latched on to one of the goats and called it Gretchen and kept chasing after it. I think he/she got tired of it and went to the "rest" area of the petting zoo.


Everyone loves a good porcupine!


Oh, the life of a polar bear in a zoo, so well fed, it doesn't even need to hunt!


There's the 2 legged critters again, posing for another picture. :)



This is one of my 2 favorite exhibits in the zoo, the Panda exhibit. You have to keep quiet to visit the pandas and there is almost always a line. This was Bai Yun, I believe, and she's had a number of cubs while at the zoo. We got to see 2 others (which is a lot, usually you see just one or two) but they were laying down, so I won't bore you with their pictures.


Had to toss in a primate picture...


Here is the other of my favorite two exhibits in the zoo, the humingbird aviary! Some of the birds are bigger than expected, and yes, they do actually stop once in a while, so it's quite easy to get a picture.



Well, that's it from this trip to San Diego! I did want to share that the plant collection at the zoo is worth a lot more than the animal collection. It is indeed incredible. I think due to being tired, and having some battery issues, I didn't get as many pictures as I normally would have. Shortly after this trip, I became the proud owner of some new attachments, including a telephoto lens for my camera. That would have been nice on the trip.

If you haven't read the previous post about Sarah getting chosen as Leopard of the Month, please read. She's super proud!