Confessions of a Generation X Mom

Refrigerator, Gallbladder Surgery and Lent

2010-02-27T16:51:00.000-08:00

Last week, our refrigerator started making the loudest noise. The repairmen said the compressor was failing and the cost to replace it would be about the same as a new refrigerator, so we are going to get a new one. Unfortunately, the one we wanted (a Whirlpool Gold side-by side) was unavailable right away, so we are still waiting. It was scheduled to be delivered this weekend, HOWEVER....

James had to be taken to the ER the other day and was in great pain. Turns out he had gallstones and an extremely inflamed gallbladder. They discovered this Thursday but were unable to remove it until Friday am. He is recovering nicely, but still in the hospital. We hope for him to get out by lunch tomorrow. He's eating solid foods and walking around and has no pain with painkillers. He's also on IV antibiotics, which is why they want him to stay another day.

Now, on to Lent. I decided that I would attend daily mass for my Lenten offering. There are services at my parish at 6:30 am and at 5:15 pm. I am opting for the earlier one to ensure that I am able to attend. I get home right after the girls are getting up. I did miss Friday because James wasn't here, but will get back to it on Monday morning. The sun is rising while I am at Mass, and it's nice looking through the stained glass windows at the sun rising. The services are short and simple, but I feel as if I am getting more out of them that way. When the priests or deacons are taking less time on a homily, they certainly work on packing it with meaning.

The other day, the gospel reading (Mt 6:7-15) discussed the Lord's Prayer. Deacon George spoke about the difficulty in translating the line "Give us this day our Daily Bread." It was translated based on context clues. About 100 years ago, a market list for a housewife was found in the ancient Greek. The translation for one of the items was "enough bread for the day" and the Greek words were the same as those in the ancient scripts with the Lord's Prayer in them. So, what we are asking God for is to give us enough. Not extra, just enough. Here we all are, trying to get EXTRA, when there are people out there who don't have enough. It really makes a person think....

Ash Wednesday

2010-02-17T14:54:00.000-08:00

And today begins the Lenten Season. Pray. Fast. Share.

This year, rather than giving up something for Lent, I'm trying something different. I plan to attend daily Mass. And most likely, the early service. So I guess I AM giving up something...time...and sleep. I started out today with the Ash Wednesday services at 8:30 am. But hereafter, it will likely be at 6:30 am. There is a 5:15 pm service, but that won't always work for me. As you can see, I was quite covered with the ashes this year. I think there is something in the ashes that I am allergic to, as well. So, maybe I'll end up with a cross-shaped rash on my forehead?

I will try to update on my daily Mass attendance and Lenten reflections this year.

What are YOU doing for Lent?

Christmas pictures

2009-11-20T20:54:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-20T20:48:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-20T20:46:00.000-08:00

Sarah age 10, 5th grade

Julia Age 4, pre-K

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

2009-09-19T12:49:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-07-19T06:07:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-23T00:09:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-06-19T10:12:00.001-07:00

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

2009-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-05-03T10:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-04-25T22:29:00.001-07:00

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!

2009-03-22T21:15:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-18T12:11:00.000-07:00

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

2009-02-25T23:40:00.000-08:00

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....

2009-02-24T14:54:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-02-12T08:16:00.000-08:00

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

2009-02-04T22:48:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-31T13:35:00.001-08:00

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...

2009-01-26T14:31:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-24T13:12:00.000-08:00

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...

2009-01-24T13:11:00.001-08:00

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!

2009-01-24T08:50:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-01-23T15:51:00.000-08:00

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!

Sarah to be honored!

2009-01-22T16:01:00.000-08:00

Sarah got selected as Leopard of the Month for her class at school. On January 30th, she will be presented her award certificate at the assembly in front of the school. I will make sure and post pictures! It's funny, she never received this award at all until 2nd grade, but now she's received it each year since. She's a good kid, so it did surprise me when she didn't receive it at least in 1st grade. I think with the old principal, sometimes your kid only got the award if you asked for it, which is kind of ridiculous. By the time she went through 3/4 of a year in 2nd grade, I was wondering if it wasn't true, about having to ASK for it. I almost commented on it to the teacher and the principal. With all the glowing notes home, good grades, etc, she should have received the award at least one in 3 years, right? Well, apparently patience worked, because she has gotten the award once each year since.

Sarah also often gets the top reader award at the monthly assemblies. That's kind of a hard one to get, if you log your reading honestly, which I expect of Sarah. It's always a pleasant surprise when she does get the award, because so many kids record pages that they have not read. She got that award at the last assembly, and I'm always most proud of that one, because I know that she honestly logs the exact number of pages read. I can't exactly tell you which parent she gets her fondness for reading from, but I think I would be her biggest influence because she sees me reading more often. In any case, both of her parents were big readers as kids, so take your pick!

San Diego Wild Animal Park

2009-01-13T20:35:00.000-08:00

On December 30th and January 2nd, we spent some time at the San Diego Zoo's Wild Animal park just outside of Escondido. We saw these pretty blue birds on our way to the safari ride. Not sure what they are, but they sure are pretty!

I believe these were some type of deer. It was really quite amazing to watch these guys running around!

This was a white Rhino, either southern or northern. Whatever the case, the other type of white rhino was also at the park, but it was one of eight left in the world. The Wild Animal Park had two of them.

This was a young giraffe, not at its full height yet. They are born pretty tall to start with, otherwise they cannot feed properly. You have probably seen how tall an adult giraffe is, so in order to reach its mom's milk, the giraffe has to be born fairly tall!

They had a good number of ostrich around. I always find it amusing to watch them. They are just such BIG birds. I don't quite understand how they get around!

The next picture isn't very clear, but I just wanted to share it to demonstrate that most of the animal in this area live as in nature, not in separate areas. The one exception was the zebras. They were aggressive and pretty mean to the other creatures, so they got put in their own little area. In case you can't tell, this is a giraffe and a couple of rhinos.

I had never seen a California Condor up close. They are not very pretty, but still great to look at! It was tricky getting a good and in focus shot with a point and shoot camera, but I finally got one. It wanted to focus on the fencing around the bird.

Hanging around the condors was this beauty of a ram. They had lots of rocks for them to climb around on. I bet they were quite happy!

They had a petting area. The Zoo had goats and the Wild Animal Park had Kraal. They seem kind of deer-like.

I will post about the Zoo itself on another day. I have more blog-worthy photos from the zoo. I think my favorite part of the Wild Animal Park was seeing all the rhinos. You don't often get to see them!

Happy Birthday to my Big Baby Girl!

2009-01-11T22:57:00.001-08:00

Julia turned 4 today. It seems like she was just born yesterday. Now instead of a helpless newborn, she's a big girl of 4 that can do many things by herself. My parents came to visit for the weekend and she was so excited. She really latched on to Grandpa Bob. I am convinced it's because they both are big hand-holders. In any case, she has found the way to his heart. Yesterday, we all took the girls to the American Girl Place to the cafe there for tea time. The girls could take a doll and they even had little clip on chairs for the dolls to sit at the table with us. They provided tiny cups and saucers as well. I'm ashamed to say that my camera got left behind, but we did take lots of pictures with my mom's camera. I forgot to copy them off of her memory before she left, so I'll have to see if she can put them on a cd for me and mail it.

Today, on her actual birthday, we took her for donuts for breakfast, chuck e cheese for lunch (where we ran into her former daycare provider and family), and then Daddy picked the girls up happy meals for dinner. Her favorite gifts included a new princess bike, play doh and sidewalk chalk, as well as Bitty Baby Twins, one was a blond girl and the other a brunette girl. I think she said that one of them was named Garby and the other Bitty. That will be subject to change, of course.

There's something that's just so BIG about turning 4, because they really get it, and they've been looking forward to that birthday for so long. 3, they get excited, but 4, they've obsessed about and planned for for MONTHS! We'll have another big birthday this year. Sarah hits the double digits in May...

P.S. I know I've promised a blog entry on the San Diego Zoo and the Wild Animal Park, and I haven't forgotten. I've just been super busy. I know it'll be graphic intensive, so I'm dragging my feet...

Sea World on New Year's Eve and New Year's Day

2009-01-06T10:57:00.000-08:00

Last week we went to San Diego to have some fun with the family. I'll break this up into two posts, this first being on Sea World and then the second will be on The San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.

Wednesday morning we got up and got showered/dressed and ready for a day of fun. We went down to the hotel restaurant for their buffet before going to Sea World, then grabbed our backpacks, jackets, the kids and loaded up into the car to go to Sea World. It was 8 miles from our hotel, but we found it easily courtesy of Verizon Navigator (tm). Our wait to get into the parking lot was a bit longer than it should have been. We noticed that our line was going slower than ALL the other lines. I think we got the "slow" employee. We finally got parked and went to handle our tickets. James had purchased them online so we just had to go to the computerized kiosk and scan our printout and we were ready to go. First we went to see the Arctic Encounter which was pretty neat. We saw some arctic birds, polar bears (unfortunately I didn't get very clear pictures of the polar bears) and the beautiful Beluga whales.

Next, we had some time to kill before an arranged encounter, so we went to see the Penguin exhibit. Lots of different varieties of penguins, including breeds that lived in cold and warm weather. I think penguins are great fun! Cold loving penguins:

Here are some of the warm weather loving penguins:

After that, it was time for the girls and I to do a dolphin encounter. In retrospect, we should have just left Julia with James because she was scared, but James had signed up for this online so I had little choice but to take her. We got to learn more about dolphins, instructed them to do tricks, as well as touching them and feeding them dead fish. They also like to eat ice.

I'm pretty sure that by this time, it was time for lunch, and then the dolphin show. This one is always a pretty good one. We made sure not to sit in the splash zone, because you have a 99% chance of getting soaking wet!

Above is Dolly, the highest jumping Dolphin at Sea World-San Diego!

I believe after this we went back to the hotel to rest for the night shows, then went back to see the sea lions and Shamu shows- both holiday specials. It was difficult to get good pictures at these night shows, but I have one of the sea lions, one of the Shamu show and another of Shamu splashing. :)

The next day we had a scheduled breakfast with Shamu. We got there a little early and spent some time at the viewing area watching a couple of the killer whales swimming around. They are so beautiful to watch! Then we got to have breakfast with Shamu with a small private showing and some of the tricks that don't get you soaked. Although Dolphins are big showoffs, these whales like to show off too, and they do have minds of their own. They don't always do what their trainers instruct them to do! This is about as close as you can get to the killer whales because they don't do encounters with them like they do some of the other critters.

After that, we went to see the sea lions "regular" show, let the girls get their faces painted and saw the Shamu "regular" show, prior to leaving and heading over to the San Diego Zoo. I will leave the post about the zoo and wild animal park for another day, because this one has worn me out! Hope the few readers I have enjoy the pictures!

Still alive--- what a week!

2009-01-03T08:19:00.000-08:00

Sorry that I've been lax in updating lately. It's been busy! Since Tuesday, we've been out of town. We decided to go to San Diego to the zoo, wild animal park and Sea World. The plan was to go back home Friday after we finished up at the wild animal park right outside of Escondido (north of San Diego). James asked me to drive, and we were on the highway at a stop light. I was taking a sip of diet coke and BAM!!!! Got rear-ended. For those of you that know, back in October I was involved in a car accident and our truck was totaled. We've had the car about a month, and now it's rear-ended. At first look, it just appeared that the bumper was scratched up, cracked in a spot, and dented in another, and that was it. BUT, when I tried to pull away, it was obvious something else wrong. The rear bumper on the passenger side was where it was hit, and they also got the exhaust/muffler, and it was rubbing against the tire. We were able to get it away from the tire, but decided to go check in to a motel overnight and get it looked at to make sure it was safe to go home. So, right now I'm waiting for James to come back from whatever repair shop he's gone to. I feel kind of bad for the Lexus that hit us. The front bumper is messed up, the grill, the radiator, the hood, probably part of the front quarter panel and the air bags deployed. I figure hers will be totaled. For us, a new bumper, new muffler and they might find something else wrong with it. Oh, Julia's 2 month old car seat will have to be replaced. I told her I'd order her one with some pink on it. LOL The only comfort is in knowing that it is definitely not my fault! BTW, it took over half an hour for anyone to come to the accident site, and then it was a single CHP officer.

So, enough on the accident. When we get back home, I'll work on a nice post about our trip, complete with some pictures!

A Christmas Story

2008-12-24T21:57:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-12-15T19:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-15T11:50:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-12-15T11:32:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-12-06T19:28:00.001-08:00

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...

2008-12-05T16:45:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-11-28T17:59:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-25T12:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-21T20:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-11-19T12:38:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-18T21:19:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-18T19:00:00.000-08:00

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?

2008-11-17T11:53:00.001-08:00

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

2008-11-14T19:46:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-10T16:23:00.000-08:00

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....

2008-11-08T13:42:00.001-08:00

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!

2008-11-08T13:25:00.000-08:00

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...

2008-11-04T12:44:00.001-08:00

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 :(

2008-11-03T17:09:00.000-08:00

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!

2008-11-03T16:53:00.001-08:00

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?

2008-09-11T14:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-09-09T19:36:00.000-07:00

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!

2008-09-08T19:33:00.000-07:00

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.