Happy Birthday to my Boys!

December brings Richard and Joshua's birthday. Richard's birthday ended up being nothing special (funny how that happens as you get older) but we did go to Disneyland for a couple hours. Richard and Nathan went on three or four rides while Josh and I waited in line for "It's a Small World" for half an hour and then got stuck on the ride for another half hour. I guess I'm glad it was me and not Richard. He then spent his Disney gift card on buying the boys bubble guns and candy and me a charm braclet. What a nice guy.

Josh had a prolonged birthday this year because of our trip. We ended up being on the trip when his birthday came arround so both his pre-school and church primary class celebrated early. At church, his class gave him a little party. His teacher took some pictures but I'll have to remeber to have her e-mail them to me.

They also celebrated his birthday at preschool where he got this nifty crown. He ended up wearing it most of the day, in one way or the other.

The Saturday before he went on our trip, Joshua opened his presents...

and enjoyed his cake. He actually pulled a "1st birthday" and put his hand in the small cake but I didn't bother getting a picture or eating it.

Richard's mom and step-dad came with us on the trip and Grandma decided that he should have a cake on his birthday. That's what grandmas are for though, right?

This time he chose cheesecake. Yuum.

All in all he had a good birthday.

The Big One-Oh

This time of year always has a lot for us to do because we have Thanksgiving, our anniversary, two birthdays, and Christmas all in about one month. This year, Richard and I had our tenth wedding anniversary and it happened to land on Thanksgiving itself. I don't remember if anyone wished us "happy anniversary" besides ourselves (I think my mom did) but that was OK because we really hadn't planned on doing much to celebrate. We had a whole bunch of family in town and things to do. Also we were kinda of counting the trip we just came back from (I'll blog later about it) as part of our celebration. We did get each other cards (which we bought the night before while doing some last minute Thanksgiving shopping at Ralph's) and Richard bought me a sewing machine carrying case from Joanne's black Friday sale the next day. We also plan to get a new mattress soon. 10 years is a good long mattress life right?
Here are some family photos that we took that weekend.

Holiday Rush

So much to do. SO much we have done. I'll bring it all to you, before the month is through.
I will be blogging a lot in the next few days just to show you what we've been up to. But for right now, here is a pictorial reminder to enjoy your holidays.



And we did actually finish decorating the gingerbread house before we starting eating it.

Sh, sh, snake

We have a rather large ball python that we inherited from a family in our ward (congregation). Randy and Richard were cleaning out his tank today (yeah) and I had the task of watching the snake. The poor think was rather cold and I told Nathan and Joshua this. They decided that Sal (the snake) needed a blanket so they grabbed a bunch of tissues and covered him up. Josh then wanted to make him a bed so he pulled out the piano bench and laid three tissues down on it. I then put Sal on top and Nathan and Josh covered him with more tissues. Josh wanted to add a pillow but I convinced him that Sal didn't need one. Since Sal was all tucked in, he needed a lullaby. "Hickory Dickory Dock" was first followed by "Ba, Ba Black Sheep," both favorites of Josh's. Nathan decided that the song needed a re-write and started singing "Sh, sh, sh snake. Have you any skin?" I love my kids.

Here is a picture of Nathan and Sal when Nathan was about a year old.

Tax dollars at work

Last night the dogs were going crazy barking at something in the back yard. Richard and Randy went outside to investigate and they found a stranded possum. The boys tried to scare the thing away but we unable to do anything. The dogs eventually calmed down and we all went to bed. This morning brought a surprise; a dead one on the backyard lawn. One of the dogs must have eventually caught the possum as it was lying dead, wet and slightly bloody right outside our bedroom window. By the way, our windows are pretty good at blocking out sound apparently. Either that or possums don't make much noise when they die. Richard had already left for work and while I'm sure that I could have taken care of it, I didn't really want to. I figured that if I really had to, I could just keep the boys out of the backyard today until Richard got home. Then I thought about it. We have Animal Control in our area and one of their jobs might be to pick up dead animals from your backyard. I figured it was worth a call. A quick Internet search for the number and I was calling SEAACA (Southeast Area Animal Control Authority). After a little explanation and laugh with the operator (I said "dead possum" at the same time someone put a box on her desk and I think her brain mixed the two momentarily. She wasn't too excited about a dead possum on her desk until her brain straightened out the two signals) she took my information and said she would send someone right over. I was getting prepared to wait at home for the morning when about 10 minutes after the call, an animal control officer showed up at the front door. I put the dogs in the garage, the officer put his gloves on, took care of the possum and was gone with-in five minutes. It's a good day for me!

Now We're Recycling!

There are several reasons that my husband thinks that I'm crazy. One of them is that for a while now I would save the recyclables from our household and then take them down to my sister's house about once a week. Although we only live a few miles away, we are in different cities. Her city has a recycling service while mine doesn't. Until now.

A few months ago, we saw a notice in the city newsletter about how the city would be starting a recycling program. And at the end of last month, we received our new recycling bin and that was when the fun started.

I have really loved having recycling. I don't have to haul it down to my sister's house (which I did try to match up with times I was going down there anyway), didn't have to find somewhere to store it until I could haul it, and I didn't have to feel guilty when my husband got tired of it and threw it away in our regular trash.

Now if you are wondering why I am so crazy, just watch "WALL-E" or reread the beginning of Genesis. Both of those sum up my reasons.

Halloween 2009

So here is a quick run down on all of the Halloween fun that we had in October this year. First we got the decorations out. Here is Joshua's favorite, Frankie. Last year he was scared of him. This year Frankie was his best friend.

In the middle of the month, we tried out the Disney Trick or Treat Night. It happens throughout the month of October over in Disney's California Adventor. The park is closed to everyone except special ticket holders. Candy is handed out all over the park along with special areas for dancing, taking pictures with Disney characters, and games. And almost everyone dresses up. EVERYONE. I felt out of place because I didn't dress up.

Nathan decided that night to dress up as a solider, even though he had a different costume. Josh was Luke Skywalker(Star Wars: A New Hope) but it's hard to tell because I wouldn't let him bring his light saber.

At the beginning of the week we started working in the pumpkins. The kids helped dig out the pumpkins and chose the designs. I did the rest.

Here is the finished product. Nathan chose the cat and Josh's is Diego.

On Halloween, we had our church Halloween party in the afternoon. Here is Randy in his costume, a teenage vampire a la Vladimir Todd.

Here our Luke Skywalker with a Leah that he met at the party.

And Nathan, in his costume that we spent too much money on, found another Snake Eyes in one of the older boys from the ward.

We had an early dinner, games, a spook alley, and trunk-o-treat. One of the games was a donut eating contest.

Nathan decided to help out Joshua a little.

Later that night I took the kids Trick-or-Treating around our neighborhood. We went around our block with our next door neighbors and then one more by ourselves. We ended the night tired and with too much sugar but we sure had fun.

Funny Things

Josh's favorite song right now is "Yellow Submarine" by The Beatles. I think that it started with the new "Rock Band: The Beatles edition" video game and now he loves to listen to it when ever he can. He has even had me sing it to him for his night time lullaby (I didn't do a very good job, I couldn't remeber all of the words). The other funny thing with Josh is actually a little gross. In our lovely little house we only have one bathroom and little boys have a hard time remebering to go to the bathroom sooner than they absolutly have to. There has been more than a few times when I have been rushing to get off the toilet because I have a little boy jumping up and down, needing to use the bathroom. Well, Josh now has the habit of just coming in and, if some one else is using the toilet, pulling down his pants and peeing in the tub. He is tall enough that he can do it with out spilling, and since it's just pee, I'm all for it. It is kind of funny though.
Nathan has started school and seems to be doing well. His teacher seems a little kooky but she is very enthusiastic and left handed. Nathan is left handed and for some reason it just makes me feel good that his teacher is too. He recently said that he wants to be a rock star. I think that he has a lovely voice so I think that would be a great thing. He has a great imagination (don't they all at this age) and doesn't like being bossed around by anyone younger than 20. This is usually only a problem with Randy (our 15 year old nephew who is living with us now)but it does sometimes cause a problem at Jessica's house.

Lesser of two evils?

Last night we (Richard, Nathan, Joshua, and I) went grocery shopping at Sams Club. Like we usually do, we stopped at the food court there to eat pizza, hotdogs, and soda for dinner. I was getting the food and Richard was keeping an eye on the table and the kids. Josh is very independent these days and insisted on getting his own drink. Richard saw that he was heading for the lemmonaide so he let him. By the time that I got there though, Josh proudly told me that he had filled his cup with the tea. I checked it and it was filled with iced tea. He always tries to get the sweet fruit flavored tea ( I think because of the picture of the strawberry on the label) but I am usually able to talk him out of it. This time I had to take the cup and pour the whole thing out while saying loudly for the benifit of anyone who cared "No baby, you can't drink tea. It's not good for you." I then tried to steer him towards the orange soda or the root beer. But what did he pick? The cherry coke (I think that he has a thing for the fruit). I gave in because I was tired and felt like it would be a long night anyway. And really, since Daddy and Mama occasionaly imbibe the "hard" stuff, I couldn't really say no to it for him. I do wonder if cherry coke is really all that much better than sugared iced tea though.

But it was soooo cute!

Yes, I know my children are spoiled but at least my latest purchase was a good deal. Last weekend, one of our neighbors across the street was having a garage sale. I just glanced at it while passing and I noticed a castle. Interesting. After running my errand I decided to investigate. It was a Little Tikes play castle and it looked to be in pretty good condition. It was faded and the hinge for the door was cracked but otherwise complete. I went back home for the boys so I could get their opinion. They loved it at once and kept trying to climb on it even though it wasn't fully assembled. They wanted forty dollars for it. I went home and scrounged up thirty dollars. The grandpa who was selling it quickly accepted the thirty and then helped us carry it back home. We had to buy some screws for it but I looked it up online and new they are selling for $250 plus shipping. I think that we got a good deal.

The boys want to sleep out in it. I'm not quite sure how that is going to work.

Happy Birthday Randy!

We've been having Richard's older sister's son living with us for just over a month now. His 15th birthday is this Saturday but Richard and Tessie will be out of town starting Friday so we decided to celebrate early. He choose California Pizza Kitchen to celebrate with many of the family and one of his best friends all gathered to wish him well.

Here we have Tifarrah, Josh and Tessie. Josh decided that he didn't like listening to Tifarrah and Tessie speak Tagalog so he started to cover his ears when ever they did.

Randy and his best friend Chris.

R.J. and Tifarrah. R.J. is now living with his father and Tifarrah is with us until she moves up north to go to school and be closer to her daughter Katelynn.

And of course, my boys. I love them no matter what they are doing.

Update

I should be grading papers right now but tomorrow is Back to School Night so I'll be at work late. Also, they have this weird thing were the day after BtSN is a minimum day so the kids get to leave early but the teachers aren't allowed to. The students leaving early is supposed to make up for the teachers staying an extra 4 hours (technically I don't have to be here between 3:10-4:45 but I'm not going to drive home, stay for five minutes and then drive back) but I'm not sure how. I am looking forward to some fresh tacos tomorrow I just need to scrounge up some extra cash.
By the way, if you hadn't figured out yet, I'm back to work. I have been back to work for about three weeks now and I guess I can say that I am getting the hang of this teaching thing. My classroom management is getting better; I yell at them more productively now or something. I have even had fun handing out a few detentions (you would have fun at it too if it was to some punk kid giving you attitude and not doing their work). And my favorite line right now is "I'm not your friend, I'm your teacher!" Tough love baby, tough love. Actually I will put up with a lot if they will actually do their work and some of my students get that. It's just those that equate being relaxed with not doing their work that gets to me. So I am trying to be less relaxed this year.
I was blog surfing and came across a blog of a recent first year teacher. She had just finished her school year and was excited to be picked up for another year. She was bemoaning the fact that she didn't have a sink in her room. I was a little confused because all I could tell that she taught was English (she had been blogging about finding new books for her Freshman English classes next year). In case anyone didn't know, I have been teaching biology for two and a half years without a sink. I read a little farther and saw that she also taught art so I guess I can give her that one, teaching art without a sink would kind of suck. I just avoid as many wet labs as possible to get around not having a sink.
The worst part about not having a sink is that they have been telling us that we would be getting sinks since before I started working here and there has been no progress. At yesterday's department meeting, our chair mentioned how we had a projected completion date of July 26, 2009 (and this is the fourth projected completion date, probably three years after the first one) and while the people who need them supposedly have keys and permission and the work order and who knows what else) nothing has been done. I don't think that I'm getting my sink next Monday. The new rock patio around the fountain in our quad looks nice. I wonder how long ago they put the work order in for that?

Nathan's Kindergarten Graduation

I wasn't sure if Nathan was going to have a Kindergarten graduation or not just because I hadn't heard about it until the very end of the year. Personally I think that they are kind of silly, but after actually having a child graduate from Kindergarten, I think that they can be kind of great. Here is our boy waiting in line. I thought that it was interesting that while many of the girls were in very fancy dresses, Nathan was the only boy in his class with a tie.





Still waiting in line but now not quite so well behaved.




Josh sitting on Daddy's shoulders, trying to get a better view.

Fishy lips!!!!

One of the songs that the Kindergarten classes had been working on for a while. I love how Nathan is doing the movements but still not really paying attention. I guess he is not a performer.

Nathan with Mr. Vogel, the principal. He posed with every single student which was nice but took awhile. Although when I saw a little of the 8th grade graduation latter, it seemed as if he was saying something personal about each of the graduates. Impressive.

No, they aren't moving their tassels from one side to the other. It's just a bunch of kids bored and playing with the handiest thing available. I do love how so many of them are playing with their tassel. I think that I count about six.

And one final picture of Nathan with his teacher Ms. Ruth Marooka. She was a great teacher and was very patient and wonderful to Nathan. He really loved her and will miss her.

Happy 6th Birthday Nathan!

For Nathan's birthday this year, we decided to skip the friend party but we still did a lot of partying. It started on Friday, his birthday, when I brought cupcakes to share with his class.

Everyone enjoying their sugar rush.

Nathan, his teacher,Ms. Marooka, and one of his best school friends, Jacob.

We then headed over to Disneyland to celebrate there.

Playing on the old firetruck at Disneyland fire station.

Enjoying a birthday treat after dinner.

Waiting for the train (look at how tired they are).

The next day we went to Legoland. It was our first time and we went quite sure what to expect. We had a really good time although next time we will do a few things differently.

We dug for "dinosaur bones" in a sand pit.

Got road rage in a giant Lego car.
As a side note, Nathan is now being more creative with his poses. With this photo he was looking more down which was more realistic for what he was pretending but made for a horrible photo. I just think that it's funny that he doesn't want to simply smile for photos and is using "motivation."

Playing in the pirate water area. We were not prepared for this but it was the last thing we did before the park closed so the boys were only wet and cold for a little while. Luckily we did have more clothes in the car.

Battling Darth Vadar (while trying not to shiver too much).

We finished up our crazy weekend with family dinner at our house where we had most of the cousins and aunts and uncles over to help celebrate. It was a lot of fun but we were all glad for it to end also.