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