Surprise! We're going to Disneyland!



Well, I must say Connie and my family did a pretty good job of keeping our trip to Disneyland a secret. The only one who had a clue was Catherine, who had gotten a little bit from Omi by mistake! But we told them to dress comfy because we were going on a hike, and we weren't lying! We walked for almost 15 hours! Whew!
The day worked out magically (pun TOTALLY intended)! We were waiting to be signed in by Carl and my friend Dave and he ended up running a little late. Well, while we were waiting, Carl ran into another old friend who offered to sign in 3 more!!! WOW! What an awesome start to our day! Connie didn't have to pay for any tickets and we only had to use 2 of our passes!
It was very very crowded, so we did not even attempt the Finding Nemo ride. Connie's kids have never been to Disneyland and we really wanted to have them see the classic stuff before the "not worth it long line" rides.
We saw Star Tours, Space Mountain, Buzz Lightyear Blasters, Pirates, Splash Mountain, Haunted Mansion, Jungle Cruise, Indiana Jones, Peter Pan, and many others. We also went to California Adventure and saw Soarin over California and Mike and Sulley to the Rescue, and many more there too. Catherine, Mikael, Carl and I all went on Hollywood Tower of Terror and Catherine and Mikael were duly terrified! I think that was Carl's favorite part of the day! You all know how he is... loves to see that sort of thing! Mikael said he would never go on that again, and Catherine said maybe the next time she is here, but not any time soon.
They couldn't really decide on the favorite rides. But I think Catherine and Mikael are pretty sure they enjoyed Splash Mountain the most. Aaron, not so much. Connie just had to buy one of the photos at Splash Mountain because Aarons face is just classic! She will be showing everyone I am sure! It was soooo funny! I would have to say he liked a Bug's Land a lot and some of the other kid rides too. We all had fun on Grizzly rapids, yours truly getting absolutely soaking wet! My pants were still wet when we got home at 11: something! I am really proud of the 3 younger kids for doing so well. They were sooooo tired at the end of a very very long day! But they didn't complain and they did a fantastic job walking all day!
Connie and the kids left this morning at 8:30am for there next destination! Safe Driving Connie!

Connie and Kids Visit

Well, this is the first day of Connie and kids visit. They arrived around 3:30 on Sunday, so we had some play and relax time. Then today we took them to the beach, or as Mikael said, " to the Pacific Ocean!" We arrived around 10am and it was overcast but nice. We had practically the whole place to ourselves at first (this being Huntington Beach), after a while the clouds burned off and it was lovely. The kids all had a fabulous time! All 5 of them! The adults had a nice time too!

We certainly picked the right spot and the right day to go. Tomorrow will be a at home day and maybe Brea mall day. Connie and I are going to take some time and have pedicures too!

Then on Wednesday we are all going to .... -oops, can't say yet, it's a surprise!

More later!

7-7-07 Big Deal

I don't understand the whole "let's get married on the luckiest day ever!" deal. Marriage is a commitment, yes, hard work, yes, totally fulfilling with the right person, yes. Will getting married on a lucky day help? I doubt it.
If that is what couples are hoping for, I am assuming a lot of these "lucky" marriages will end in divorce.
Of course that is just my 2 cents.
To offer the other side, I guess for some getting married on a supposed "lucky" day will at least help them think that their marriage is lucky therefore they may work a little harder to maintain the luckiness by actually trying to stay together!
Who knows, we shall see if there is a major divorce trend in the next 6 months to 2 years....hehe.

Cleaning House is NOT Fun (but it sure looks nice when your done!)

Well, I did it, I am done cleaning my house for my sister Connie and family. I am not a big house cleaner normally so it takes a lot to get my house really tidy and nice looking. But as you can see, at least the office looks relatively tidy. The rest of the house is still on it's way to being tidy. It is clean at least. I am really going to try to keep it tidy. Our Excursion is a different story, some of my school things ended up in the back of the Excursion so other than the 8 available seats there is no room for anything else. So when we go to the beach we will have to take stuff out to put beach stuff in! Sigh....life with no storage! Carl is actually helping out by cleaning the bathtub, my least favorite job. He will most likely also tidy up the backyard and maybe put some stuff in the attic. I am pooped, so I am pretty much done except for the fluff stuff, like clearing some things off the table and putting new towels in the bathroom. Because Connie hasn't been here for 10 years (wow) and the kids have never been here, I guess I just feel like it should look really nice for the first see. I know their house was imaculate when we came last! I bet it stays better than mine that is for sure!

Ok, I am pretty proud of the job I did so I had to include the dining room and the family room too. : )

Las Vegas Trip '07

Well, we went on our yearly trip to Vegas again, and it was fun as usual. We did some things a little differently time.


So, if you can tell by the photos, I got to take a photo with Captain Jack Sparrow and Will Turner. I am telling you, they were very nice and did not mind at all standing very still for the photos! Carl took a photo with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, of course he had to go back in time to get that one, and to the moon at that! Wow, some feat huh?

Sorry about how the photos are arranged, I am still working to correct this weird placement of photos, if anyone has any ideas please let me know, it is driving me batty! Anyway, the photos of course are of Carl and I in various areas of Vegas including dinner and a couple of us at Madame Trussaeau's Wax Museum. Let me tell you, standing up close and personal to these figures is totally creepy, especially the ones that looked 100% like the real deal. Some weren't as good as others but the ones that were the best were standing in the middle of the room, you almost said "excuse me" to them as you passed! Weird, but interesting.

Then of course there is the Vegas sign, just so you know where we were. The restaurant pictured is Blackstone's Steakhouse, very yummy, we had Filet Mignon, and some side dishes and appetizers. We also had yummy desserts too, Creme Brulee for me and ice cream for Carl.

We stayed at the Monte Carlo, which we will probably not stay at again, very noisy plumbing and the pipes knocked all night! Very loudly too! We like the Luxor better. I would really like to stay at the Bellagio or the Venetian, but they are way out of our price range! Maybe Mandalay Bay next time? Hmmmmm.... we shall see.

Knott's Berry Farm-Was it Worth it?

Well, the kids have been asking about Knott's Berry Farm for a while and since we nixed the plan to go to Legoland this summer, we decided (since we had coupons) that we would go to Knott's. Our first disappointment was seeing tons of school buses and we found out that a bunch of elementary schools come at this time of year, weird, but anyway...

We did find out that the park was open til 8pm and that the schools usually leave between 3-4pm, ok, better. Then the killer....the Log Ride was down for refurbishing!!! Huge disappointment for the kids, that is their favorite ride! The dumb thing is they won't be open til the END of summer! What kind of thinking is that? Then we decided to do some other things and that was ok. The Birdcage theatre is no longer open and some of the other little rides around the park (other than in Camp Snoopy) no longer exist. We were trying to decide what to do next and we did watch a cornball performance in the Calico saloon that was cute. We then wanted to grab an early lunch at The Grill restaurant that was supposed to open at 11am. Well, we got there at 11:15 and the doors were still locked, we asked around and no one knew anything. Those we asked were of the younger generation and didn't really even try to answer our questions. We then watched the blacksmiths for a moment and they took time out to call and inquire as to what was going on. Apparently someone decided to just not show for work today and so they were scrambling to get people in there to open. There were two older gentlemen that found all this out, and we were very thankful that they were there to help us! We found the same thing throughout the park, the young people ranged from merely disinterested to outright rude! We were pretty surprised. We don't expect much, granted, but this was ridiculous! The nicest and most helpful were the blacksmiths and our waitress in the restaurant once it opened. They were all over 40!

When you pay good money to visit an amusement park you would think you would get your money's worth! Your child should never say, "I'm not having that much fun." (which Kaleigh said at the beginning because everything we tried to do wasn't working! We did get back some of the fun by going to Camp Snoopy and going on a lot of rides there, and they did really enjoy the Ghost Town and talking to the "Horse Thief" in jail. (that is a whole other story)

All in all it was a fun day, the kids don't notice the things we older ones do and for that I am thankful.

Our first Pool Day!

Ok, so it isn't a real pool, just a largish kiddie pool, but it is enough to cool our family down, plus a neighborhood kid too! Today was the day Dad decided to put it up (mainly because the kids kept begging him to do it!) and now they are having a good ol time cooling off. Hmmm, something to do later for me! The house stays pretty cool until about 3pm, then the heat from outside comes inside and within an hour when the sun is actually starting to go down and the outside is actually cooler than the inside! That is of course when all the windows that can open get opened. Our house was painted very cheaply by the previous owner and all the windows were painted shut. Carl actually managed to put screens on some and get them open, but there are still quite a few that don't. Maybe a summer project? Anyway, the pool is a nice way to just cool off. Swimming doesn't exactly work, however.

Cole's Graduation from Kindergarten!

Well, my last one is out of the early education system! Cole graduated from Kindergarten this morning and it made me think, he will be graduating from High School in the year 2019! That is what you see on the T-shirt, "Class of 2019" Kaleigh's is 2017, which is neat because her oldest cousin graduated this year 2007! He did great at the ceremony and his Grandma came too! I was able to go to the ceremony and spend a little time in his class before I had to go back to my class! Cole's teacher gave him his final report card and it was all good! I am so proud of him and I know that his Omi and Opa and all his Aunts, Uncles and Cousins are proud of him too! Look out next year, First Grader comin' through! Good Luck my Shnookle-bookel!

Last Day, Hooray!

Well, today was my last day teaching for this year! The kids could definitely tell something was different! They all were a little out of control...but not really, not in my class! We did have fun dressing up in Hawaiian clothes and having a Luau with the other classes. I took one nice photo of all the kids and then told them I wanted a goofy one, and gee...well surprise surprise, they didn't disappoint! So here is the last day of school, with all my little friends and their goofy faces! Happy Summer!

May 31, 1964

Of course this is not a newborn photo, I don't have any of those (third child and all) but this is within my first year... so....aren't I a cutie?

I have no trouble stating how old I am, but you can do the math! My birthdate is obviously up at the top of this page.

Birthdays are odd things...some people despise them, some like them, some ignore them. I am of the second group of people. I love my birthday and I am happy to celebrate and have others celebrate with me! Today my friend took me out to a nice lunch, just the two of us and if I am not mistaken she enjoyed my birthday as much as I did! The food was excellent and we both had good stories to tell. What a nice time! For those that choose to ignore birthdays...well...poo poo on you! I will celebrate my birthday with a youthful exuberance, and it will keep me feeling younger than my chronological age! I certainly don't feel 43! Oops! I guess I let the cat out of the bag!

Not all of us are Sporty!

If you take a closer look at these photos, you will see the, "eek, ugh, oops" look that a lot of kids, mainly girls, have on their faces when they play ball. She even likes this game! Her friends like her to play and she is not too bad. She doesn't like hockey, or many team sports, kind of like her mom. I encourage her but I don't force the issue. Cole is really anti sports but he is only in Kindergarten and hasn't been made to play any team sports. Kaleigh really hated PE at first, of course when she first started in first grade, they played around 2pm at the hottest time of the day! She complained everyday that she had PE. That was 3 days out of the week!

Now she plays a little earlier and sometimes she likes it and sometimes she don't! But at least there is no more complaining, unless of course she forgets her water bottle. Sigh....

Memory Books are a big hit!

Here is a small sample of the memory books that I made. The front cover has the poem on it, the September page is their first "Me" drawing and the other "Me" drawing is in May. You can really see how this little girl has grown! The page with the cross was their project for Easter. It is colored glue and they drizzle it on and then fold the paper to make the design. Each of my 10 kids got one of these. A two page spread for each month they were in school. A lot of work, but really worth it!

Open House in My Class!

Well, Open House in my classroom was a big success! All the parents came and eight of the kids came. The twins dad came but mom and the boys were in Santa Monica and on a Friday night the traffic would be horrible! So dad came and talked to me a bit and we ended up talking about the boys and their speech problems so that was helpful that I didn't have to bring it up on my own. The parent loved the memory books and they all expressed their gratitude at all the work I did putting them together. They really didn't have much of a clue about what happens since most of the parents are new coming into the school. Next year they will understand more about what goes on. But I think all of them really enjoyed looking at everything and letting their kids pull them around. I was going to put out snacks, cookies or something, but my lead teacher, Patti told me it makes them stay longer, and since I wanted to leave on time so I could see Kaleigh and Cole's classes, I didn't. As it was, I didn't get to leave until 7:00pm when my time was up at 6:45. Luckily Carl and the kids came by and as I am introducing them, Cole says, "when are you going to leave to see my class?" So there you go, they got the hint! It was a lot of fun and Kaleigh even had some art displayed for their Meet the Masters Program, where the kids all learn about famous artists and they do a project that imitates the artists style. Kaleigh was the only one with two peices up! Rembrandt and a french lady I don't recognize. So all in all we had a good time and we got to see everything we wanted to see!

Kaleigh recites "The Milkmaid" from Beka reading series at local Speechmeet.

Here she is, our little speech giver! Kaleigh participated in a school speech meet. Everyone in the elementary grades were required to memorize a Bible verse, Fable or Poem. Kaleigh chose a fable, "The Milkmaid". She practiced for her class and she was chosen to move on to the next level. They had about 5 kids in the class that were chosen and then the 3 best were selected to go to Costa Mesa at the ACSI Speech Meet held at Mariner's Christian School. The judges had standards that needed to be met to receive certain levels of accomplishment, blue ribbon - superior, red ribbon - excellent, other ribbons for good and honorable mention. As you can see, Kaleigh got an "Excellent" ribbon! She did really well, but repeated the first line twice because she thought she forgot a part. She also was nervous and swayed a little and looked at the ceiling. All of which reduces your score. But we are very very proud that she did it! Congratulations Kaleigh and great job!

Kaleigh and Felix

So Kaleigh's school does this fun thing. They give each child a little rabbit (seen in photo). Then they tell the kids a story about Felix, in which he travels all over the country and out of the country too! Well, each child then takes Felix home and can send him to different places asking for postcards from those places. Well, the other option (because some kids get attached to Felix) is to hold onto Felix and just ask friends and relatives to write a postcard to the school (as Felix) telling where he is at that time. It is really fun for Kaleigh to get postcards in class. So far she has only gotten one, from Seattle. Felix is actually in Oregon right now and will actually travel to Colorado. That is as far as we are sending Felix, because we don't want him to get lost. So if you know anyone who lives in another state or country that would be willing to send a postcard from Felix, feel free, the more postcards the better! Since Kaleigh's grandma is going to Utah with her hubby for a golfing trip she is sending one from there. Carl will be going to Minnesota on business and will send one from there. We are hoping to get a postcard sent from Germany, but are not holding our breath! So that is the story of Felix and Kaleigh and we hope Felix has fun at all the different places. Oh by the way, Tina and Diana will be making Felix an honorary GC even tho he's a boy! Don't tell him that the vest is for girls normally!

Swim Lessons for two!

Well, we finally got on the ball and the kids are in swim lessons. This is the SWIM FAST swim school in Fullerton at the Janet Evans pool. The teachers are great and the kids are doing really well. We started in mid-March and Kaleigh started in Level 2, Cole in beginner. So far Cole is still struggling a bit, he doesn't like to get his face in the water much and he certainly doesn't like going under water! The closest is what you see in the first photo. Kaleigh on the other hand just received her level 4 ribbon! She is moving up quickly and reminds me a lot of a certain girl that swam like a fish! Our family grew up with a pool in the backyard so it is very weird for me to have kids that don't really swim. Kaleigh is actually moving along and will be able to swim on her own by June. That is the end of the session but we will continue until they are totally comfortable swimming over and under the water. That way we don't have to worry if they go to a swim party or something.

So, they are on the way and doing great! I am hoping by the end of summer I will have two fish swimming around in the pool!

Omi and Opa will be so proud!

So, keep them in your thoughts! And "keep on swimming, just keep swimmin' just keep swimmin'" ~Dory

ZOOOOOMMMM! Cole Turns 6!

Well, we have had a busy busy week! Sunday kicked off Cole's birthday celebrations! The family came over and we did lunch, cake (made by Grandma Annette of course!) and ice cream, and presents, naturally. Cole had a blast and we even had a couple of extra family members there! Carl's cousin Brad and his wife and two sons were in town so they came too! We had fun and Cole loved his "Cars" cake. Grandma got the race track fine and did the rest of the stuff except for the grandstand. I did that. If you look closely you can see the blobs of color have the look of a bunch of cars watching the race. I did this the day of, mind you, so the details are not that precise. Anyway, Cole really liked it and he got a few new "Cars" too. He got a lot of hotwheels stuff, some Rescue Heroes, a rocket launcher, some puzzles, AirBuddies the movie, a "Cars" skateboard with protective gear, and a whole lot of other stuff. It was a good day.

I Got New Glasses!

So take a good look and tell me what you think. I just got my new glasses and I really like them! But we can take a poll and get everyones opinion.

Just don't say anything mean, ok?

From Oak Glen to Brea

So while I was at Oak Glen I painted a birdfeeder and a birdhouse and some river stones. It was a lot of fun and I came up with my own design, which if you look closely at the second photo, you will see what looks like a pocket with a bandana sticking out of it. That is my Denim birdfeeder. I painted it a nice blue and then made pockets on either side to look like jeans. I enjoyed making it and the birds really like visiting it, as you can see! My birdfeeder tower is a little rickety to say the least, but I had to put it on something! No trees! So now we can look out the window and watch the birds eating. The minute we go outside the birds fly away. I was able to get this bird while I was in the back of the excursion, I cracked the back door open and very very slowly brought the camera out and got my shot! Enjoy!

Easter Sunday!

Well, Easter is always a hit at Grandma's house!

With 258 eggs hidden, everyone got plenty! Especially our two who were the ones most excited about looking for the eggs. The older cousins were limited to hard to find eggs and Will, who is only 2 1/2 found some eggs and then found the sandbox. So all in all Cole found 73 eggs and Kaleigh found 66. She was leaving the easiest eggs for Will to find so she would have had more had she picked up all she saw. They found plenty and enjoyed themselves. We had a nice lunch and then a nice selection of desserts afterwards. This always ends up being an all day affair and the kids really enjoy playing with their cousins! We moms and dads had a nice time too, good food, good company and best of all, no cooking to be done by anyone! Grandma Annette does make baked beans but those don't require a lot of time. So chicken, rolls, carrot sticks, deviled eggs, and so on. Really nice. I hope that everyone had as nice a time as we had!

Oak Glen...The Tradition Continues

Well as far as I know, we have been going to Oak Glen before Easter for around 7 or 8 years now, other than the year I was pregnant with Cole. It was a little too close to the due date for us to go.

But every year is wonderful and the kids now enjoy it even more because they have a little more freedom to do what they want. We don't have to go with them as much. We are all one group at the Oak Glen Christian confrence center. We all know each other and the people who work there too.

Since I still cannot figure out how to lay out my photos, you will have to look at them all bunched at the top, I guess! The flowers are all over the area and are beautiful purple and they cover a lot of the ground. The family shot is in the cabin and is also part of our tradition. We always, at least always try, to get a family shot in our cabin. Then the last is a squirrel that I caught getting a drink in the fountain in front of the cafeteria.

We do really enjoy our time at Oak Glen, it is really a time to reflect and enjoy ourselves as a family. Then of course we come home and go to Grandma's house the next day for Easter! No muss no fuss! She makes something simple and we all go over and have a ball. We are usually a little more tired than normal, but we can catch up since this next week is our Easter vacation! Yahoo!

What? The Year is almost over?

Well, boy howdy, the year has really flown by! It is only about 2 months and some change before summer! The kids in my class sure have grown! They have learned a lot and have matured a bit too. They will hopefully take something special away from this year! I know I will. This being my first class and all, I decided to make a memory book for myself! I am not sure if I will make one for every class, but definitely for this year. I have learned a lot from these guys too! This was partly a really gentle class and partly a challenging class. I don't care for the challenging parts especially when it includes non-english speaking students! It makes it very difficult to give out simple directions. But mostly it was a pretty breezy class! The kids that were a little more "active", responded well to boundries and it never got out of hand. So, all in all it was an interesting yet enjoyable year. Good with the bad, bad with the good, everything balanced itself out. So here is to my first class of students. I wish them well next year in the 4 year old class!

2 day 3's? 2 day 4's ....or maybe even 5 day 4's?

Ok so we are getting down to the nitty gritty. The end of the school year is approaching, rather rapidly if I do say so myself. This begins the new school year planning sessions. Who is leaving, who is taking on other jobs, where will I be next year? Well, as it stands right now, I am still teaching 2 day 3 yr olds. Now next year they are offering 2 day 4 yr olds, which I would like to teach. So that is where I may be next year. There is also a few positions open that one of my co workers is going to go for, which would leave a 5 day 4 yr old position open. Now my dilemma is this... I enjoy only working 2 days a week, I love it in fact, however, our house is not going to get added to any time soon, since my meager pay is trounced upon by the tuition cost. I do receive a 20 % discount at this time, but my pay doesn't bring us to even by any means. Now if I work 5 days a week, then that would bring me up to a 50% discount. That is quite a difference. Including my pay, we would actually make a little money. To be squirreled away for...what else? Our add on! Or a new car, who knows. So what to do what to do....So as my sister did, give me your votes. Do I keep my sanity and work only 2 days or do I go for it (this is my eventual goal) anyway and get the bigger pay and discount? Both kidlets will be in til 3 and I would mostly work only til 12:30 or 1:00 everyday. So I would definitely have some time to myself, though not as much as I had hoped.
So, give me your input dear friends....

The Report Went Well!
Kaleigh did her report last Wednesday and was great! She did have it memorized but chose to bring her paper up and read part of it....twice unfortunately. But she was a bit nervous and she definitely did better than most of her classmates who all stood there with the paper in front of their faces! She was sitting as you see in the photo and she did pretend to sew while she was talking. She did a good job at emphasizing key points too. Like the fact that she was the eighth child out of 17! Whew! Also the fact that a meeting with George Washington where he asked her to "sew something VERY important, so important it made me famous!" She made it sound very important! Of course the last part (which I wrote) helped her classmates guess who she was supposed to be, but they all knew anyway because the librarian's aid told Kaleigh to remember to bring in her "Betsy Ross book" to renew it. So everyone heard who she was doing!
Smart move lady! Anyway, she is glad that it is done, but still likes the costume a lot so we will hold on to parts of it for a while. The next speech project is school - wide and the students need to memorize either a Bible verse, a poem, or a fable. Kaleigh chose a fable. The boy and the nuts. Interesting....

Did She or Didn't She?

On March 7, 2007, Kaleigh will be doing an oral book report on...Well I am guessing you can guess by looking at the photo. If not, shame on you! She is going to talk about herself as this person and her classmates will need to guess who she is portraying. She is so cute in her outfit, don't you think? Now I know there is a lot of talk about how she didn't actually help design or even sew the first flag, but since the history books still say it is her, that is who she is going to do her report on. She was happy to have Grandma sew her a hat and a shawl, and Mom got a great deal on a dress from Goodwill. Ebay was helpful in that I was able to get the flag, with the 13 stars on it! Grandma even supplied some red, white and blue threads, a large needle (better for the kids to see at a distance) and a thimble! Kaleigh is very excited about her report and we hope that everyone appreciates all the time and effort she put into it! We are working on memorizing most of her speech.

I will let you know how it goes!