Living with Nathan and Joshua

Joshua's 6th Birthday

2011-12-19T14:12:00.000-08:00

It's amazing what happens in just a few years. We go from this...

... to this.

Josh celebrated his 6th birthday this last weekend.

He got some toys and other presents.

He also ate pizza, played a lot of video games, and just spent time with the family.

I felt bad later though because he wanted to invite some of his cousins over to party and I didn't realise it until later at night. We'll try to arrange that for sometime during winter break.

I also didn't get my usual picture of the cake, but here it is the morning after.

I was rather proud as it was completely homemade (no box cake mix). It was even pretty good and didn't last the weekend. I'll blame the boys for that one.

Halloween and other things

2011-12-19T13:53:00.000-08:00

I'm at the beginning of my winter break, the boys have one more week until theirs starts and the baby is napping. Let's see if I can catch up a little on everything that's been happening.

First, because it's what I titled the post, Halloween!

I thought that I got better pictures of the boys' costumes but I can't find them. This year Richard was in charge and decided to take them to our local thrift and dollar stores to create something (other than just buying it straight out). Nathan was a pirate and Josh a Musketeer (you have to picture Josh with a hat, sword, cape, and mask. He actually looked more like Zoro but he didn't know who that was). They were even more helpful with their pumpkins this year and both cleaned them out almost all by themselves. (I had a pumpkin for Rosie but ran out of time and didn't carve it. I ended up saving it and used it to make a pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving)

This little girl is becoming a little handful. She crawls and cruises around the house and likes to get into everything. She is also developing a taste for cat food. Good source of protein, right?

It's hard to tell from this photo but the boys were pushing Rosie around in this toy and having a great time until she tried to stand up and fell out. I am glad that both Nathan and Joshua love being older brothers to their baby sister. They love her so much and she just adores them. We have a lot of fun around the house when they are all playing together.

And here is the classic baby eating spagetti picture. Hope it puts a smile on your face. It always works for me.

Pet Birds

2011-07-29T20:42:00.000-07:00

We were working in the back yard during the summer when I was looking at the play house and trying to decide what work need to be done to keep it from falling apart. I saw some trash up in the eaves and was thinking about having one of the boys go up and grab it down when I saw something. Can you see it?

How about now?

We got a mama bird and her three eggs in our playhouse. The boys thought it was fantastic until I forbade them from climbing up there to get a closer look. They understood when I explained that I was just trying to protect the eggs as the mother might get nervous if we get too close. Also I got some good pictures with the telephoto.

We were pretty sure that this was the father as he was always hanging around near by.

A week or two later we had three baby birds up there and then a month later they were gone. The boys would go out every once in a while and check on them and then give us a report. They were nice to have around and I hope that they come back again. Although I need to work on the playhouse before they do, or we will never get it fixed up.

Smile!

2011-07-29T15:51:00.001-07:00

Nathan's Baptism

2011-07-29T15:45:00.001-07:00

At the begining of July, we had the pleasure of seeing Nathan being baptized.

Richard performed the baptism. Our stake is now asking that we have our children baptized in groups so three other children were baptized at the same time as Nathan, one who is a good friend of Nathan's from the ward. Because it was a stake baptism, we didn't need to do much for the program, although we were able to have Grandma Loveridge give the talk on the Holy Ghost. After everyone got dressed in dry clothing, Richard did the confirmation with Grandpa Loveridge and Uncle Jon assisting (I'm trying to remember if anyone else was in the circle, anyone out there remember?).

After the meeting was over, we headed over to Jessica and Jon's for a family lunch of spagetti and meatballs. It was great to have so many family members come to Nathan's baptism and we had a wonderful day. Richard and I are so proud of Nathan and the young man that he is growing into.

Nathan's 8th Birthday

2011-07-29T15:02:00.000-07:00

Nathan's birthday was almost two months ago now. I had been waiting to post after his baptism and party but it is taking me forever to organise his party so I'll just post what we have now. In some paradoxical way it will probably be easier to plan a party when I do.

His birthday fell on a Sunday this year so we quickly had a breakfast of pancakes (his favorite) and opened his presents before church.

I don't usually buy the other kids something on someone else's birthday, but we made an exception this time. They had a two-for-one sale of DS games at the store so we got two copies of the Star Wars Lego game, hoping that they will have fun playing each other on their DSs

Nathan had wanted a red birthday cake but I got tired of adding food coloring. He didn't like how pink it turned out so he added a little more color by dropping more food coloring on top. I think that it turned out pretty cool.

In one day...

2011-07-29T14:54:00.001-07:00

...my five year old (baby) boy did this...

...and this...

...for the first time. It was a big day for him. He's not a baby any more.

Rosie's Photo Shoot

2011-06-15T22:44:00.000-07:00

I have a wonderful friend, Cielo Roth, who is turning her passion for children's photography into her full time profession. She was so nice to meet up with me, Josh and Rose at the park for a play date and photo session (her older daughter Molly is one of Josh's best friends). I got the CD of the photos in the mail today and here are some of my favorites.

Pretty good, huh? Oh, who am I kidding, they're fantastic. Now I just need to pick out the ones I'm going to get printed up.

Love Bugs

2011-05-16T21:05:00.000-07:00

Easter 2011

2011-05-16T20:22:00.001-07:00

I know that these are a couple weeks late, but finally there is no one clamoring for the computer. No teenage boys, no little boys, no husband. And I really don't feel like grading.

Joshua's class had a field trip at the park the Friday before Easter, and as it was also Good Friday, they were running low on parents to help out. I hadn't planned on going on that field trip but I was glad that I did.

Here is Josh with Gavin, a Loveridge cousin, and his friend Ethan, scooting around on one of their favorite riding toys.

This is one of Josh's teachers getting her baby fix by holding Rose for a bit. She said that she had had a dream that she was pregnant and so she wanted to take care of the urges before anything happened.

Rose being spoiled.

Josh, Gavin, and good friend Dayne with other classmates on the merry-go-round. They got that thing going FAST.

Gavin waiting for the egg hunt.

Josh trying to hold on to all of his eggs.

We had a great time.

On Easter Sunday, the kids enjoyed their baskets...

hunted eggs

and counted their spoils.

Roselyn at six weeks, in a dress I wore when I was a baby, on the blanket her cousin Jillian made her. By the way, this baby is really the sweetest baby. She has a very mild temper and hardly cries. I'm being very spoiled and I'm more than a little sad that she will probably be my last. I'm trying to enjoy her as much as possible, but she seems to be growing just too fast. At her 1 month check up she was 12 lbs 2 ounces and 22 inches long (3 lbs and 1 inch more than when she was born).

Sleeping Beauty

2011-04-18T18:12:00.000-07:00

Roselyn Victoria, March 12, 2011

2011-03-15T19:20:00.000-07:00

One of these things is not like the others...

2011-03-10T16:25:00.000-08:00

We were buying jeans for the little boys when Josh decided that he wanted to make new friends. I love how it almost looks like he belongs, just not as plastic.

Austin's Baptism

2011-02-10T18:35:00.000-08:00

We had another nephew, Austin, come to live with us in the beginning of this year (I know, we just keep collecting them). Austin is one of Richard's brother Rodney's kids. Austin was living with his mom and sister in the Sacramento area when he and his mom decided that he needed a change in scenery. He has visited us several times before (during Christmas and summer vacations) so they asked us if he could come again.
We've been having a good time having him around, especially Randy. Austin and Randy are the same age and the same year in school and, luckily, they get along very well. They are sharing a bedroom and seem to be having a great time doing it. We weren't able to get Austin into the same high school that Randy goes to, but he seems to be enjoying our local high school well enough.
One of the nicest things that has happened since Austin came to live with us is that he decided that he wanted to be baptised. He had come to church with us the other times he had visited, but never seemed very interested in church before. Well, I guess Randy is a good missionary because when Austin was asking about church and showed some interest, Randy got him in touch with our ward missionaries. They were able to go through the lessons fast enough that he was ready to be baptized when Austin's mom and sister came to visit a few weeks later.

Here is Austin in the big day with Randy (who did the baptising. I can't believe that he is old enough for it but he has been a priest for months now) and Austin's missionaries, Elder Smith (who, bye the way, is the grandson of the Gillilands) and Elder

A picture of us with Austin's sister, mother, Richard's mother and Richard's step father.

After the baptism, both boys were able to relax.

A lovely trio of young women from our ward did a lovely musical number.

Richard's sister, Tifarrah, was able to make the last part of the baptism, with Isabel.

Random picture of Richard and his mom.

And here is Nathan, ready to go home.

Spaghetti in the Sink

2011-01-21T20:30:00.000-08:00

I was standing at my kitchen sink thinking about my ancestors. About how they ate bread with bugs in it and meat so rancid that it had to be heavily spiced to be edible. (The middle ages weren't a real shinning moment in our culinary past.) So I'm thinking about all the crap people eat, and I'm asking myself, would it really be that bad if I fished the spaghetti that I was draining but accidentally dropped, out of the sink? The sink wasn't clean, but what would really happen if I still served it? Oh well.
P.S. After leaving the grocery store about 15 minutes later, I saw two teenage boys pushing a couple of carts of groceries out of the parking lot and into the adjoining neighborhood. I wondered what was the story there and if the store would get their carts back.

Catch-Up

2011-01-20T18:54:00.000-08:00

I know, it's been way too long. And the funny thing is, when getting ready to write this, I noticed that there were three posts that I started to write and completely forgot about before finishing and posting them. Let hope that this one makes it out of the planning stage.

So, what have we been up to? Randy tried out a new hair do for Halloween. He really liked it and I didn't mind. Unfortunately his school has a dress code policy that doesn't allow stuff like that so he had to dye it back the next day. Richard and the bishop were happy

We really enjoyed Halloween.

Really enjoyed it.

Did some fun projects at school.

Nathan tried soccer for the first (and maybe last time).

As a side note, I think that it was a good experience for him and he had a fantastic coach, but he seems to feel like it just isn't for him. That was basically the same reaction that he had with the t-ball that he tried this past summer so I don't feel too bad. He is excited to try out archery this summer though.

We had Thanksgiving (sorry, no picture) and Christmas (sorry for the weird expression Tessie, but you still look beautiful).

Celebrated Joshua's birthday a little late,

and baby number 3's a little early.

Oh, and she is my excuse for being lazy about posting lately. Not that it has been a hard pregnancy, I'm just tired. I think that I will go to bed now. Good night.

Chopsticks

2010-10-11T21:50:00.000-07:00

A little random but I felt like telling someone. I think that I have finally mastered chopsticks, the eating utensil, not the piano song. I told Richard but he wasn't very impressed. And considering he has been using chopsticks longer than he has lived in the U.S., I guess I can understand. We ate Asian food twice this weekend and I completed both meals with out resorting to forks once. The first meal was Chinese food with the in-laws and I realized soon into the meal that the sticks felt "right." That had only happened once before and I lost the feeling soon after I realized that I had it. The second meal was even more impressive to me because it was Vietnamese soup and the noodles were very slippery at first. But I got the hang of it and enjoyed the soup very much. I know, a little silly but it feels nice to know that I can walk into an Asian restaurant and say no thanks to the fork and spoon that they only break out for the children and the white folks.
I just realized that we have been having a lot of Asian food lately. Two weekends ago we ate Japanese food with the in-laws too. Does that mean that we are going to have Thai this weekend? Yum!

Rigoberto Ruelas

2010-09-26T22:00:00.000-07:00

I usually avoid depressing posts and have never posted a news story, as I recall, but this one is different. I have never met Rigoberto Ruelas or even heard of him before today, but his story intersects mine in three ways that will have me contemplating life for a few days. First, he was a teacher working for the same district that I do. Not that interesting because it is a very large district but I might not have heard of his death if he worked somewhere else. Second, the school that he worked at was in the same area as the school I worked at for the last 3+ years. Third, he lived in the area that I work now.
The second and third points are really what are causing me to obsess about this news story; I'm sure that LAUSD teachers die often enough that it really isn't that news worthy. The fact that it was an apparent suicide and that the suicide may have been caused by an unsatisfactory rating by the LA Times recently do make it news worthy, although I'm not really thinking too much about that. What I am thinking about are the students.
The elementary school that he taught at is very close to the high school that I taught at. He was there for many years so it is very likely that some of the students that I taught had him as a teacher. The community that I teach in now is a stable and predominately Hispanic community. The news stories seem to indicate that he not only lived there but had family there. He was very likely raised there and knew and was known to many families. I will not be surprised if I go to work tomorrow and find that several of my students have some connection to him and his family. I might even be teaching a younger cousin or niece or nephew.
I would have felt some sympathy for him and his family any way, but now I am wondering how many people that I know and love (or learning to love) will be hurt and personally saddened by the news of his passing.

Who's your daddy?

2010-08-19T21:32:00.000-07:00

Today Joshua announced that he has a different father than Nathan. After reassuring him that they both had the same father, he then insisted no and that his father's name is Joshua. Added to that, apparently I'm not his mother either. His real mother is some woman named Elizabeth. When I asked him who I was then, he said that I was the babysitter. I then asked him when his real parents were going to come pick him up because the babysitter was done.

Richard's Father's Day Present

2010-06-27T21:49:00.001-07:00

In the week before Father's Day, our camera died. Actually, it could probably be fixed, but last time a tried to get a camera fixed, they wanted to have me take it back to where I bought it and it was still rather expensive to fix. We couldn't remember where we had bought our most recent casualty, and considering the expected expense, it was actually probably better to just buy a new one. Unfortunately, Richard had wanted something else for Father's Day. Fortunately, Richard didn't mind too much about getting a camera instead (and I hadn't bought the other gift yet either).
It's not the DSLR that we had wanted for our next camera, but I think that it turned out to be better. The best thing about this camera is that it has a 26X optical zoom, which turns out to be much better for the types of pictures that we like to take. I'm pretty sure that all of these pictures were taken from at least 20 feet away. Some of them were more like 50 or 60 feet away.

Here is one of Josh jumping in the water.

A close-up of my baby.

An action shot of Ryan doing a cannonball off of the high dive. It hurt a little bit. I guess he didn't know about heights and water.

Randy taking a break from his work out.

Nathan's action shot off of the regular diving board.

I'm having way to much fun with Richard's present.

A boy, a pool, and a bribe

2010-06-26T22:03:00.001-07:00

One of the things that I really wanted to do for the boys this summer was swimming lessons. I figured it would be a good way to get the older boys improving their strokes, the younger boys to be more comfortable in the pool, and all of the boys tired.
Josh, even though he is comfortable taking a dip in Aunt Jessica's pool, was very nervous about swim lessons. I was trying to be very hands off during lessons (from my own experience in teaching swimming and teaching in general, it just seems to work better when the parents aren't involved) but the first two lessons consisted of a lot of screaming and crying with very little actual swimming.
When it was getting time for the third lesson, and the crying and demanding were already starting, I decided that I needed to change tactics. I promised to stay closer (15 feet away and still on the pool deck as opposed to 50 yards away in the viewing stands with the other parents) and a bribe. I generally try to avoid bribes, those are Daddy's domain, but I figured that it could work this time.
"If you go to all of your swim lessons and don't cry and listen to your teachers I'll buy you a toy."
"A big toy?"
"Um, how about a Sponge Bob toy?"
"A Sponge Bob walkie walkie?"
"Um, sure!"
So this time he joined his class at the side of the pool with just a little verbal encouragement,

where he quickly asked to ride on his teacher's back, clinging on like a little monkey.

When he got to the wall, he was looking a little nervous, so mom gave him a big thumbs up and took a picture, which if you have children you will know, will cause the smile response. The smile response being the involuntary action children will produce when they see a camera pointed at them, wither or not they actually are happy.

Latter, after more praise from teachers and mom, we try out the swim noodle,

finally ending on the kick-board.

Mission accomplished! An entire thirty minutes of swim class with out any crying, screaming, wailing, running away, or any other reaction to make me regret the $45 dollars I spent on swim lessons.

Now all I have to do is find a Sponge Bob walkie-talkie. I sure hope that someone makes one or I'll have to resort to a generic set with added Sponge Bob stickers.

Nathan's Birthday

2010-06-13T21:44:00.000-07:00

Nathan had his birthday a week ago and because he wanted an expensive present from his parents, we told him that we went going to do a friend party. I did still want to celebrate his birthday some how, so we had family dinner and decided to do it at the park.

I did the cake. The character is Kick Buttouski, a newish DisneyXD show.

We had most all of the family at one time or the other. Here are the lovely aunties.

And our adorable Colin. Look how big that kid is getting!

We had games of the active sort...

... and the more cerebral.

And of course cake.

We had a great time and were so glad that our family was willing to come celebrate with us.

Happy birthday Nathan! It's been amazing watching you grow.

Joshua's Last Day of Rainbow School

2010-06-13T21:32:00.000-07:00

Josh has been going to a lovely neighborhood preschool for the past two years and Thursday was his last day. His Aunt Staci has been one of his teachers for both years and his cousin Gavin a fellow student this past year.

Ms. Tami is the amazing woman who runs it all and I'm a little sad to not be seeing her on a regular basis any more.

Now this little lady is, I guess, his first girlfriend. I mean, what else do you call your classmate who likes to give you kisses? Anyway, she is a sweet little thing and they really have a good time playing together. He has been proudly telling people that he has her phone number and has been bugging me to call her to set up a play date.

Beach Weather

2010-05-22T09:51:00.000-07:00

Richard's nephew Austin and Austin's mom and sister are visiting us for a few days. They traveled down to San Diego to say goodbye to a relative who is shipping out stopped by our house on the way back home. Yesterday I took them around town a little bit and we stopped at the beach. The beach at Long Beach is not very exciting, but yesterday ended up being a much prettier day than was forecasted.

We were just going to put our feet in the water. Some of us got a little wetter than intended.

We had a good time and Alyssa, Austin's sister, got a good dose of the beach.

While Joshua got a good dose of the beach in another way.

Motherhood is a thankless job

2010-05-02T19:22:00.000-07:00

I try, like I'm sure most of us do, to make meals that taste good and are good for you. I have a recipe for Beef and Broccoli that I really like. I've made it before and got a lukewarm reception from the boys while Richard and I really liked it. I had some leftover beef from earlier in the week and some frozen broccoli. It is a quick recipe so I figured that it would be good for tonight. Well, Josh wouldn't even touch it and Nathan and Randy just had the minimum. I can't figure it out; if I had served it in a Styrofoam container with little packets of soy sauce, they would have eaten it up. I know what I'm eating for lunch for the next week.

P.S. I know that it was kind of a boring post but I wanted to try making links and needed something to link to. Check out the recipe though; I never would have thought to use tomato soup in beef and broccoli but it really does taste good.

Rock-a-Bye Babies

2010-04-30T16:55:00.000-07:00

My boys decided to have a tree house without the house. They weren't aloud to really fall asleep.

Irony

2010-04-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

So my beautiful, growing-up-too-fast, first born baby boy came home with an award the other day. An award for good citizenship for the months of January, February, and March. He was congratulated by the principal and got a certificate and a doughnut breakfast at school. And his father and I would have been so stink'n proud of him except that that exact same day he was sent to the school councilor because he had gotten into a fight. I mean, what kid gets an award for awesome good behavior and then picks a fight with his classmate on the same day? Oh that's right, a Lucindo.
He was OK with seeing the councilor (a little too OK for my "my children will not end up in jail if I have anything to say about it" side of me) and he was even supportive of his punishment of no T.V. and an early bed time. I was starting to wonder if I needed to tack on some additional penalty just to get a little remorse out of the kid. But then he was tucked into bed an hour earlier than normal, and Josh was enjoying some alone time with me, when Nathan started to realise that maybe everything wasn't OK. He kept coming out of his room for some reason or another and I kept sending him back. Even after Joshua was in bed and asleep, Nathan was still awake and restless. He was very somber and I asked him if he would like to sleep with Josh. Nathan nodded, said a quiet yes, snuggled up next to his brother, and then he slept.
Keeping our fingers crossed for the next time.

Summer Plans

2010-03-30T14:48:00.000-07:00

Just got the news confirmed that we (teachers of LAUSD) are getting 5 furlough days and it was decided early enough that I'll actually be affected by it. I work on the schedule that finishes the school year first so it was debatable, when they were debating, if anything would be agreed upon in time for me and the teachers with me to actually be able to be furloughed while we are still working. We still have to vote on it, but it is very likely to pass; it's better than a 12% pay cut. So, I'll be starting my summer a week earlier, with a little less money, and I need to cut a week of instructional time out of the rest of the year. Since we just finished the state standards tests, I don't think anyone is going to care what I cut, but I'm still keeping the pig dissections.
In other summer related news, Richard bought a ticket last night for one of our nephews (Ryan) to come visit us for the summer. He only bought the ticket coming out and not the return one. I asked if this was because Ryan's mom wasn't sure how long she would be able to stand being apart from him. Richard replied that it was because Ryan's mom wasn't sure how long we would be able to stand being with him.

Is it the end of March already?

2010-03-25T08:34:00.000-07:00

Hi there. I was fiddling with my background for the blog, and I saw that a stranger had read the blog and left a comment. It wasn't about the background, but I felt bad for not having fixed my first fiddling attempt when strangers are reading my blog. Not that I don't care about my friends and family but I figure that they will forgive me easier. I finally got the columns right and the color is better than before. But then I noticed that it has been over a month since I last posted. I guess that I will try to rectify that today.
Quick update.
A few months ago, during tithing settlement, Richard was telling the bishop that he would like to be released from his calling. Bishop replied with a "just hold on a bit longer." About a month or so later they reorganized Elders Quorum presidency and when they asked him to sign-up again and he said yes. He couldn't explain why, I guess he felt that he should give it another try.
His tennis coach has been out sick for a while so Richard hasn't had his regular class. Instead, he has been playing Wednesday nights with his friend, Rodney, and sometimes Randy and Rodney's daughter. Last night, it was just Richard, Rodney and Randy so they played two on one (Australian? style). Richard beat Rodney and Randy. Good night.
Randy is working hard at being a teenager. We still have "disagreements" over homework and chores but really he is doing a good job. He was really sick for about half the week last week and is having to work harder to catch up. Until he brings his grades up, he isn't allowed to go to the early seminary class or use the computer for fun. Yes, he wants to go to the early class (5am) but don't think he's really into seminary. He has a friend in that class; she turns 16 next year.
Nathan is having fun in school. His original teacher had to go on medical leave a couple months into the school year. The long term sub, Ms. G, has been really great; I think that I like her better than his original teacher. He has been doing pretty well in all his subjects although he has had a little trouble with reading. Richard has talked with Ms. G about it and he and Nathan have been working on it most nights. Nathan is writing a lot more and has even started making "to do" lists. It's very cute to see what he writes and how he writes it. You can tell that he is sounding out the words, the spelling it atrocious, but it's still understandable. At least to his mom.
Joshua is fearless. My sister-in-law Staci, who is also one of Joshua's teachers, took him on a play date to a nearby park where there is an awesome climbing rock. It is taller than me, wider than my arm span, and has hand and foot holds carved into it. Staci was worried about how he would do with climbing it; he's a good sized four year old but still only four years old. She said that he couldn't get up that thing fast enough and never wanted her help at all. I took him and Nathan there a few days later and was amazed at how well they both could climb it. They even started jumping off the top and were hauling up buckets-full of sand to make sand castles on top. I even climbed up it at the end, to clean off the sand, and was impressed by the height.
In contrast, he says that he wants to be a baby again, still begs to have me lay down in his bed at night, and usually ends up coming into our bed in the middle of the night anyway. By the way, after 10 years of marriage, we finally bought a new bed. It's king sized. Two large adults, a six year old, a four year old, and a queen sized bed just wasn't working. We really don't have room for such a big bed, but I LOVE being able to stretch out so completely. My toes can't even reach the bottom even if I point them.
And me. Teaching has been better this year. I think that it is a combination of this being my third year and having only one class to prepare for. I actually feel like I could keep teaching and not regret it. OK, that sounds a little more pessimistic than it really should. Let me temper that statement with the fact that I love my students and always have. Now I'm just able to enjoy them more. On the flip side, I don't expect to be teaching at the same school next year. For various reasons, we are a low performing school, politics, etc., the powers in the district have decided to reconstitute the school. This means that as of July 1, everyone who worked at the school the day before (except the principal) will no longer work there. We can reapply for our jobs, and they say that they want they want us all to, but I'm not so sure. Isn't the whole point of reconstitution to get rid of the "ineffective and incompetent" and because the entire staff (except the principal) is being affected I feel like they are telling us that we are all crap and I don't really want to work in a place where that is my view of the administration's opinion of me. It also just feels that it might be time to move on. I have been released from the school but not fired so I still have a job next school year. I'm hoping to get a school closer to home. Other than that, the field is wide open. I've been working the last 3+ years at a low performing, low income, inner-city high school with high immigrant population. What more can they throw at me? Middle school? I've been thinking about trying out middle school anyway. As long as I have a shorter commute, any where I go can't be any worse than my current school next year.

Saturday Tennis Lessons

2010-02-20T13:22:00.000-08:00

Richard's favorite sport is tennis. He loves to play it, to watch it, and hopes that some day his children will enjoy it also. All of the boys like to go and play around with a racket and ball and we try to get out and play when ever we can.

Nathan would probably be decent for his age but he gets too frustrated and upset so he gives up. We are working on that.

Josh does well but is still too young to be really interested. This day he just wanted to play ballboy.
I didn't get a picture of Randy but he does pretty well. He has expressed interest in joining the school tennis team next year so I think he and Richard will keep working on it.

When the little boys get bored, we go over and play in a nearby park.

It was a lovely day and we had a very nice time together.

Good Bye Disneyland

2010-02-20T13:19:00.000-08:00

We have had year passes to Disneyland on and off for a while now and this past week our latest passes expired. The day before they did though, was a day off for me and the kids so we decided to go to Disneyland one last time. I was expecting to have a good time just relaxing and riding some of our favorite rides. It turned out to be one of our stranger visit to Disneyland.

Now I know that my boys are really too old to be using strollers and that they are both old enough to walk but we still brought our stroller to make things easier and faster. We started out our visit playing around Disney's California Adventure. After going by a few areas, we parked our stroller in front of the Monsters Inc. ride and went in. Richard didn't have the day off but was joining us at the park after work. He called while we were in line and I told him where we were. He started over to meet us and asked were the stroller was. I told him and the boys and I rode the ride.

We got off the ride and I looked around for Richard and the stroller. Neither were in sight. We wait around for a little while and Richard comes walking up to us, without the stroller. Where's the stroller? He hadn't been able to find it and it's not were I parked it with all of the other strollers on the side. We look around for a while but still can't find it. We ask a couple of Disney cast members (employees) and they let us know that we can make a report and ask if we would like to do so. We say sure.

After being passed from the Monsters Inc. ride greeters to a Mumpets 3D greeter to a park mini-security person we meet John, from a little town in Scotland, lives just a few miles from us in Lakewood, really nice guy and official park security. He escorts us quickly to the lost and found, helps us make an official report, and then takes us over to the stroller rental where we pick up a couple of complementary Disney strollers to use while we finish our night.
Quick side note, we have used the Disney rental strollers before but I had forgotten how much I loved them. They are the best. We looked up once how much the regular sell-to-the-public ones cost. Super expensive.
We spent the rest of the night going between the two parks, trying to get all of our favorite rides in. I didn't get my bowl of clam chowder (it was too cold to eat outside) but we did get Josh his custom-made light saber that we were supposed to get him for his birthday.

John tried to be positive for us and let us know that sometimes people take other people's strollers but then just use them for the night and leave them in the park. The park employees eventually find them, bring them to lost and found and everything works out. He said he had even know of a case were a stroller was taken with a camera, wallet, and souvenirs and the whole thing showed up later, with everything still there. It didn't work out that way for us. Almost a week later and nothing. We didn't lose much, just our old sit-n-stand that we got when Josh was born. It was four years old and well used. The only thing in it was my sweatshirt. But it was my Minnie Mouse sweatshirt that I had bought for myself my last birthday. And we hope to have another baby some day and wanted to keep the stroller in case we do. Ugh. A bad way to say good bye to Disneyland until the next time we want to spend a bunch of money on passes.
You want to know the kicker? After our last ride, the rockets in Tomorrowland, we went to get our complementary strollers and head out when we discovered that someone had swiped one of them. Nathan walked out of the park.

Nathan's New Smile

2010-02-13T08:44:00.001-08:00

Poor Nathan has been having some dozy dentist appointments lately. Last November/ December when we had our regular checkups, the dentist discovered three cavities. We had them take care of them and I was really proud of well he did with his first cavities.
Fast forward a couple months and Nathan is still complaining about his teeth. Richard takes a look in his mouth and sees what looks like an abscess. Richard found a new dentist and I took Nathan by for a check up. Apparently, two of the fillings fell out and one of the cavities started growing again. Nathan had a huge infection, which, even after a week of antibiotics, was still going strong when they pulled it out last week. After pulling the tooth, the area drained out and the infection was basically taken care of then. It was NOT fun for Nathan and I ended up buying him a new video game to make up for it.
Yesterday's appointment was better but Nathan was still understandably nervous. The took care of another cavity, sealed his molars, took a mold for the spacer he will need for the missing tooth, and pulled his two front teeth which were being stubborn on coming out. He did a really good job and Francisco (the amazingly wonderful hygienist in the office) made sure he got plenty of stickers.
So here is Nathan's new smile. Glad he can smile about it all.

Pinewood Derby - part 2

2010-01-31T17:16:00.001-08:00

So, I'm checking my e-mail this afternoon and there is a message from Nathan's den leader saying that we should check out some photos of yesterday's derby on our local paper's web site. Or, he said, we could check out today's paper. We get the paper but I hadn't actually looked at anything today except the comics. So I grab the first section and start looking through it. And on page 2, this...

I know that you really can't see anything, but Josh is the kid in the red shirt, just right of the middle. He was watching his car race in the sibling race.

And Nathan's car is in the second row here, about ~~three~~ five in. I know, impossible to see, but still kind of cool.
If you want to see a better version of this picture or some of the other pictures the photographer took yesterday, try this link
or check out the Long Beach Press-Telegram's website and look for the Cub Scout Pack 206 Pinewood Derby photo album. There is even a couple of photos of Richard, Nathan, and me in there.

Update: I now have bigger versions of the derby pictures and I have made the link so that it will work. I don't know if it will bring you to the pictures still but you can try.

Pinewood Derby 2010

2010-01-30T16:11:00.001-08:00

Nathan started cubscouts this school year with a local cub scout pack. Becuase he is in 1st grade he is a tiger scout and today was their yearly pinewood derby.

His pack is old and well established (been around for about 50 or 60 years or so) and we have really enjoyed it so far. They had a race for siblings so we were able to include Joshua too.

It took place at a local park, centered around one of the large pavillions. The families brought chairs, blankets, and a few tents which where gathered arround. There were three stations for checking in: picture, pitstop for servicing cars, and final inspection.

And then of course the track.

Here are the competitors

and the siblings.

Nathan and his den with their game faces.

Here is the Nathan Lucindo Fan Club.

Nathan watching his first race.

Here is his car after one of the heats.

Josh watching the races...

And his car after a heat.

One of the nicest things was that Joshua hung out with another little brother and they just had a ball chasing each other arround the park. They went on a walk with Trey's grandma, built a teepee, and just had a great time being independent while playing out in the psuedo wild.

Nathan won three of his four races and placed 25th over all (out of 80 something boys). He was the third fastest Tiger scout and was really excited to win this ribbon. All in all, a good day.

After the storm

2010-01-23T13:21:00.001-08:00

Our part of California recently had more rain this week than we are used to seeing most of the year. It's been very nice mostly but we did have a casualty, one of our backyard trees. It never had a really good set of roots and all of the water in the ground made it more than unable to stand up. Instead of trying to save it, we decided to just cut it up and let it dry out for firewood.

Between Richard and Randy and a little help from Nathan, Joshua and me, we had it cleared out in no time. We have a dozen or so logs and a pile of kindling that will be all dried out and ready to use by summer

After cleaning up and getting dressed again, Josh curled up to watch "Mr. Rogers." I guess he was a little worn out.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-01T13:41:00.001-08:00

Eventually I will post about our vacation. I will probably never post about Christmas, mainly because I never took any pictures. I know, I'm a horrible mother.
But here are some quick photos of us enjoying a beautiful Southern California New Year's Day.
Nathan playing with the contents of one of his New Year's crackers.

Joshua and Richard playing.

Nathan taking a quick flight.

Josh hanging around.

We hope that you all had a safe and fun New Year's Eve. We fell asleep watching WALL-E.
Hope you have fun this coming year.

Happy Birthday to my Boys!

2009-12-22T09:01:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-21T19:23:00.000-08:00

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

2009-12-21T10:51:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-21T19:28:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-18T11:05:00.000-08:00

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!

2009-11-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-01T18:32:00.001-08:00

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

2009-09-15T13:40:00.000-07:00

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?

2009-09-02T07:31:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-08-14T19:19:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-07-30T11:17:00.001-07:00

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

2009-07-22T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-10T17:50:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-06-08T10:26:00.000-07:00

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.

Happy Birthday Jessica!

2009-06-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

A few months ago my sister was commenting on how she wanted to go to Disneyland without her children (they were fighting or driving her crazy in some other way at the time). I have a pass and Disney is doing a promotion right now where you can get in free on your birthday so I said that I would take her. My lovely sister in law Staci took care of Nathan and Joshua while Richard was at work and Jessica left her kids with Jon and we ran away to Disneyland.

Here we are for lunch at the Blue Bayou, Disneyland's best restaurant (excluding the ultra exclusive Club 33 which I'm still trying to find a connection on how to get in). Jessica had the Monte Cristo and I had the beef short ribs. Both were good, especially the the beef. We decided that the Monte Cristo was like a ham sandwich doughnut.

The rest of the time we just walked around riding what ever ride looked good and enjoying how many people wished Jessica a happy birthday. We rode all of the major rides except Splash Mountain (it was too cool and rainy) and no baby rides. Well, unless you count Buzz Light Year, but I don't.

We had a really good time. Jessica said that it was the most self indulgent birthday that she had ever had. I think that she deserved it.

Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

2009-05-31T20:39:00.000-07:00

We went to a niece's baptism today and it was a very lovely experience. My sister and sister-in-law both did excellent jobs with the talks, the music was great, and it was just a very nice service. But I have to say that my favorite part was when we were singing primary songs while Sage and her grandfather were getting changed out of their wet clothes, my mom (who was chorister) was taking song requests and someone asked for "Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam." There was a quick debate on whether we should include the jumping up and down on "sunbeam" a la primary singing time. It was decided, much to all of the young children's delight, that we would include jumping. The really great part was seeing the Bishop and 1st councilor, who were both sitting up front and are rather tall, jumping up and down with the song. That made me smile really big.

Nathan Rides a Bike

2009-05-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

Another one for the "Nathan is growing up list", he can now ride a two wheeler. He also basically taught himself to do it unless some aunt or uncle was helping him behind our backs.

The first video is of Nathan practicing in the backyard. Unfortunalty the space is a little small for him to really get going.

The second is when we walked over to the local school and just let them ride in the open space. He does much better when we doesn't need to worry about running into things. Next on the agenda is to find the bicyle pump so that we can pump up the tires and make it easier for him to ride.

Field Trip to the Japanese Gardens at CSULB

2009-05-07T18:19:00.000-07:00

Nathan's Kindergarten class had a field trip to a lovely Japanese garden at the local University. It is so local that the kids walked there. It was a long walk but they did walk the whole way. Well, except for Nathan. Josh and I came along and I brought the stroller for Joshua, but of course Nathan rode in it almost as much. Here we are almost mid way to the garden. On the left is the dance complex for the university. It has rather avant gard architecture but it is better now that the paint job has faded. When it was first completed it was rather garish but maybe I don't have good enough taste. You will see it used from time to time as an other world setting on a Power Ranger episode. Seriously.

Here we are with the kids mobbing the docent at the beginning of the tour.

And here is a photo opportunity on the pseudo half moon bridge. It isn't a real half moon bridge (a full half circle aka a higher arch) because of safety and insurance reasons.

The tea house. The kids like the explanation about the door being so small as to prevent a fully armoured samurai from entering it.

Josh observing the fish and probably wanting to join them in the water.

And here is a group picture. This was a silly one that was taken after the "real" one. Nathan's expression is the same in both so I figured that most people would find this one more interesting.

Home Project

2009-05-04T20:32:00.001-07:00

Isn't it nice when you can identify a good home improvement project, have most of the needed materials already, and be able to complete it fairly quickly. I've needed a good space to hang my broom, mop, dustpan, etc., since we moved the reptiles into the laundry room and told Richard that I was looking at the space next to where the old built in ironing board was. He suggested removing the cabinet and filling in the hole so that there would be a nice big space to hang things.
Here is the view of the cabinet out and framing in.

Here is the space after the drywall and mud and taping.

And here is the finished product. I was glad to be able to find the paint stored in the garage and that we didn't make too many holes hanging the hooks. And it is soooo nice to have someplace to hang all my stuff now.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-04-28T22:11:00.001-07:00

I'm late getting this up but I figured since I took the pictures I should post them. I still went to work but it was at the end of the semester and after finals so there wasn't much to do. I ended up chaperoning a field trip to USC for a bunch of our 9th graders. It was a little long to be on the campus (8:30 to 3:00) but the kids had a good time and were on pretty good behavior. I did have to remind a couple kids that we weren't at our school so they had to get up and throw their trash in an actual trash can. The coolest part of the day for me was sneaking into a the back of a sound editing class. They were having a guest speaker that day on the concerns associated with mixing music and sound effects. I was getting into it but the students with me got bored so we snuck out early.
After work I rushed to pick up the boys and we met Richard over at Disneyland to take advantage of their birthday deal. We have passes so instead of getting free admittance, I got the gift card to buy some souvenirs. I bought the boys some pins and a sweatshirt for me.
Here are the boys waiting for the parade. I made them watch it (we usually avoid them) and they enjoyed it despite all of their earlier complaints.

Latter we went by Toon Town where Nathan showed off his muscles.

And Josh channeled his inner fireman.

Here we are ready to go home. The park closed earlier than we are used to but the boys were tag teaming bad moods so we were ready to go.

New Smile

2009-04-18T21:48:00.001-07:00

I don't know if you can see it very well in this picture but Nathan has lost his first tooth. It started with having dinner at McDonald's last week. He and Josh were playing on the play structure when Nathan was trying to pull Joshua up the slide by grabbing onto Josh's shirt with his teeth. It didn't pull his tooth out right then but it did make it definitely loose. He spent the next couple days wiggling it and showing it off to anyone that we met. Finally at Jessica's on Monday the tooth fell out. We actually left it at Jessica's but the Tooth Fairy visited anyway. One down, many more to come.

Easter 2009

2009-04-18T21:45:00.001-07:00

It is a week late but still topical, especially because I still haven't put away the Easter decorations. We started the celebrations a week early with a Easter egg hunt in the front yard. We did it early because Richard's sister's daughter was in town for her spring break yet wouldn't be around on Easter. Tifarrah, R.J., and Katelyn came over in the afternoon. Richard and I had hidden the Easter eggs earlier. R.J. decided that he was too old to look for eggs and stayed inside with Richard to play computer games. Katelyn I think felt too old also but she was very helpful in assisting Joshua look for his eggs.

Nathan and Joshua looking for eggs. Nathan had put a bunch of colored gel in his hair so that is why it looks a little weird.

Katelyn helping Josh.

During the next week we colored a bunch of eggs. Nathan was very careful with the eggs and kept bossing Joshua about the best way to do it. We need to work on that.

Joshua working very hard.

And here are the annual Easter baskets from Grandma Tessie. We usually don't get them much for Easter because Grandma does such a great job. We had a lovely Easter and hope that you all did too.

This year's garden

2009-03-21T17:03:00.000-07:00

Inspired by my sister's and sister-in-law's progress, I decided that we should get our garden in soon. So far we have four different types of tomato plants (including a "Mr. Stripey" heirloom tomato) an acorn squash and an eggplant. I still need to set up the drip system (the secret to my actually being able to keep the plants alive) and I may still add a little more.

And Mom, if you ever wondered what happened to your little orange tree, here it is. It's been thriving.

My Little Ninjas

2009-03-21T17:02:00.000-07:00

I host/advise the Anime Club at school. As a thank you for letting the students use my classroom two to three times a week, the president of the club got some Naruto (a manga and anime series) headbands for the boys. They enjoyed them.

Valentine's Day

2009-03-21T17:01:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to show off Richard's Valentines gift to me this year. The bear was neither here nor there; it was just a generic stuffed animal that the florist included for an extra five or ten dollars. The cool thing was the fruit arrangement. We had seen these advertised before and they looked kind of cool. Richard asked me if I would like to have one and said why not. I don't know how much he paid for it but it was really good. All of the fruit was delicious especially the chocolate covered strawberries. I'm a little particular to floral arrangements but this was a nice change.

Snow sledding, the expensive way

2009-03-21T16:57:00.000-07:00

I am very over due with some posts that I had wanted to write. Normally I would just forget about them, but there were some pictures that I wanted to share too. So the next few posts will have happened a while ago, but I want to share them anyway. Some weekend in January (I think) we decided to take the boys sledding. This first photo is of Richard and Nathan coming down the hill. This is the first time that I have ever paid to go sledding and as a busy someone from sunny southern California, I think that is was just about worth it. We went to Big Bear, to the same place that we had gone back in September. There is an old ski resort that had been turned into a family fun center type place. During winter they have the old bunny slope covered with snow (man-made if there hasn't been enough natural) and something called a magic carpet, which is basically an outdoor moving sidewalk, that brings you up to the top of the hill. They provide the tubes to ride on and of course there are bathrooms and a snack area near by. It definitely wasn't the ward snow parties that I had growing up and I missed not coming with a big group, but it was easy and we all had a great time.
By the way, it was $25 per person, but both Nathan and Joshua were young enough that they were free with Richard and I paying.

Joshua walking around in the snow.

One of the runs. Look at all of those cars. And this is only a small part of the parking lot.

The E-ticket run.

All of us tired but happy.

Pink in my new color

2009-03-17T22:08:00.000-07:00

So, if anyone is wondering, I got my pink slip. So I'm fired, but probably not really, because LAUSD needs science teachers too bad to actually get rid of me. There is still the chance that someone from district would push me out (because they need to go back to a classroom and have more seniority than I do) but I doubt that because, while I love my kids and like the school, we are still considered the bottom of the barrel here at Fremont. The LA times may call this area historic, but it is still historic South Central LA.

Signs of a slow economy

2009-03-09T22:21:00.000-07:00

Now you all have probably seen the commercials for Disneyland where they will let you in free on your birthday (good ploy because who goes by themselves and then also buys nothing?), but did you know that you can also pay monthly installments for a Disney pass? We decided to get Disney passes again this year (we have had them before although not for this last year). When we were talking to the lovely ticket lady, she helpfully pointed out that Disney now sells the passes on an installment plan. You just pay the price of a full ticket your first time and then they will automatically bill your credit card every month for 1/12th of what ever is left. They don't charge interest (although I didn't do the math so I'm taking their word for it) but it is definitely better than putting it all on your credit card at once. I thought it was very clever if them.
A second sign of the recession, girl scout cookies. I just bought a bunch (eight boxes, I support our school librarian's granddaughter) and although I don't think the price has gone up from last year, I am sure that there are less cookies in the thin mints. The stack of cookies in that sleeve used to be at least two inches longer. They are still yummy.

What I did today.

2009-03-03T19:42:00.000-08:00

1. Woke up early (unintentionally)
2. Kept Nathan and Joshua from killing each other (getting harder and harder each day)
3. Made green eggs and ham for dinner, per request from Nathan (I think because they celebrated National Day of Reading and Dr. Seuss's' birthday yesterday at school)
4. Got completely up to date on my grading (and grades aren't even due)
The last one was really the reason I'm posting. I don't think that I have ever been up to date with out having a deadline pushing me. It's a nice feeling but also very strange.

Earache and country music

2009-02-25T19:01:00.000-08:00

No, the ear ache and the country music aren't related, at least not really. I like country music, but lets start with the first thing, the earache. I don't remember Nathan ever having a bad earache although it is a common childhood malady. And I don't think that Josh had ever had one either, until last night. He woke up in the early morning, asking us to take his ear off. I guess that was how he thought that he could get rid of the pain. His ear still hurts and he has a little bit of a fever. I'm trying to decide if I need to stay home with him tomorrow.
The country music refers to Nathan. He likes to listen to music while doing his homework and today he picked country. I guess that I am raising another country fan. Sorry Richard.

Climbing Kitty

2009-02-20T23:52:00.000-08:00

Nathan's cat, Max, likes to sleep with him at night. Not that unusual except that Nathan sleeps on the top bunk. I've been trying to figure out how the cat gets up there. Nathan always tells me that Max climbs up but I couldn't see how. Tonight I did. Max starts out by getting onto the lower bed and comes at the bunk bed ladder from behind. He jumps up to the highest rung that doesn't interfere with the top bunk. He then turns around while balancing carefully. Next he stretches up and claws up onto the mattress. It's that simple and I'm amazed at how easily he does it.

Christmas 2008

2009-02-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

I am ridiculously late with getting our Christmas pictures up on the blog. Of course I'm even later getting our Christmas cards out. I think that they won't get out until next year. Here is a quick selection. First is my mother in law with four of her grandsons on Christmas Eve.

And here is Nathan and Joshua in their Santa present. We decided to do one big one that they would share. It was supposed to be cheaper but I don't think that it was. Although Nathan's face when he first saw it was priceless.

Joshua opening up a present from Nathan.

Nathan playing with some old and new gifts.

And the boys trying out their Santa gift at the local school yard. They had a great time even though Josh almost ran down a neighbor kid trying out his new bike.

Happy Birthday Joshua or in other words...where did my baby go?!

2008-12-17T08:40:00.001-08:00

My brother-in-law, Jon, recently sent me this blast from the past.

This is Joshua at about 6 or 7 months playing out in my sisters backyard. And here he is on his birthday. My baby is growing up.

I have been playing up Josh turning 3 for almost a year now. Mainly because I made the mistake last year of telling him that he could keep his bottle until his next birthday. Yes, we let our son have a bottle until he was three years old. I was mainly okay with this becuase we let Nathan keep his till after Josh was born, so to about the same age, and it was really great for relaxing him at night so bed times were super easy. Jessica put her foot down a while ago so Joshua had been going without a bottle easily over there. Richard tried a few times before his birthday, but usually just when he was frustrated with Josh about something, so as soon as Richard felt better, he let Josh have the bottle back. But I had been playing up Josh's birthday for months, always including that "when you turn three, you will be a big boy and you won't have a bottle anymore."

Well, he turned three, the bottles went into the recycling, he is a big boy and he doesn't use a bottle any more. He did ask a couple of times for his bottle but I think it was just to check if I was serious. I do feel a litlle bad because he loved his bottle so much and he looked cute drinking from it. I would guess though that he wouldn't appreciate it if he was still using it in middle school.

My baby is growing up.

Happy Birthday Richard!

2008-12-10T22:59:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was Richard's 36th birthday and I think that he had a pretty good day. He didn't get much in the way of presents but that was because he bought his present a few weeks ago: a motorcycle and driving lessons. And if your worried about it, he also bought himself a helmet, riding jacket, boots, and gloves. It's all good stuff; the helmet covers the entire head, not just the top. Richard's tennis instructor gave him some pre-riding lessons lessons and they included some cautionary tales that included an examination of one of his helmets that he (the tennis instructor) was wearing during a minor crash. Actually, I don't mind that he wants to ride a motorcycle. It's something that he has wanted to do since as long as I can remember. But now he has a healthy view of his own mortality (birthdays after 35 do that to you) and I think that he looks at how the boys view his riding habits so it all helps keep him honest. I'll get a picture of it all one of these days.
The rest of his birthday celebration included cards from me and the boys, a few small presents and while Tifarrah (Richard's sister) watched the kids, we had dinner at Richard's favorite restaurant and did a little shopping. We ended it with birthday cake back at the house, shared with Tifarrah, R.J. and Cris (Tifarrah's boyfriend).
A word about the cake. I didn't have time to make it and didn't get over to Goldilocks's (Filipino bakery and restaurant) so we just stopped at the local grocery store. I was trying to get Joshua to pick out the cake but he kept focusing on the Dora the Explorer cupcakes. Luckily, Nathan picked out a nice strawberry shortcake cake. Yummy!

Memories

2008-12-07T23:36:00.000-08:00

I love what kids remember. Last week when we were up in Sacramento visiting my parents for Thanksgiving, we took a trip over to San Francisco to check out a museum at Golden Gate park. While walking around the park outside the museum, we came across several pieces of statuary and one made an impression on Nathan. Tonight while I was putting him into bed he said "Remember that man we saw that was naked? He had a sword and we saw his penis. " At this point he pauses and giggles. "At least he had a cape."
You're right kid. At least he had a cape.

Beautiful vs. Cute

2008-11-06T08:09:00.000-08:00

Yesterday Nathan got his school pictures back and I was very excited to see them. I guess I was feeling a little sentimental because when I saw them the first thing that came out of my mouth was "Oh, Baby, you're so beautiful!" To which Nathan replied "Not beautiful. Cute."

364 days till Halloween

2008-11-06T07:58:00.000-08:00

The morning after Halloween, while I was doing some cleaning, Joshua pushed the stroller over to me. It was out because we had used it the night before when we went Trick-or-Treating. After getting the stroller in place, Josh picked up his Trick-or-Treat bag, climbed into the stroller, and said "let's go!" I had a hard time explaining to him that Halloween is only one night a year.

Welcome Max and Diego

2008-11-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

About three weeks ago, we had some new additions to our family. I was at singing practice while Richard and the boys were out buying supplies for our pets. Some how they ended up at the animal shelter and a little while latter we ended up with two kittens. It was a good lesson in delayed gratification for my boys as they had to wait a couple of days for the cats to be "fixed" before we took them home. Here is Joshua and Nathan looking down the hallway for the vet tech bringing the cats to us.
And here are the boys holding the cats. They were so excited to bring home their new pets.

And here are our new babies, Max and Diego. And yes, we can't tell them apart with out their collars. They are 11 week old brothers and we felt that a pair of brothers would be good for our two boys. I am trying to teach the boys proper kitten etiquette, but at least the cats will still play with the boys.

Happy Halloween!

2008-10-31T22:43:00.000-07:00

I hope that you all had a good Halloween. We definitely did.
We began with a magic show at the local library. It started out kind of small, but by the end it was packed. The magician was really good with kids, in making everything really silly and with keeping them all under control. He had several of the children come up and help with the different tricks and Nathan got to be one of them. Here he and another little girl are tying up the magician. After the show, the library provided drinks, cookies, and little goodie bags.

After the library we ran home and got costumes on to go to our wards Halloween party. It was a more subdued affair than I have seen before, maybe because it was competing with the "big night" itself, but it was still well attended, well executed, and well enjoyed. After the party we still had a little time before I felt like it was too late to Trick-or-Treat so I took the boys out for a quick stroll around the neighborhood while Richard stayed home to man the door. We were only out for about a half an hour but were still able to get quite a bit of candy. Apparently it had been a slow night and many of the houses gave us large handfuls of candy just to get rid of it. Of course, now we have a whole lot of candy.
If you couldn't tell, Joshua dressed as Woody from Toy Story and Nathan was Wolverine of X-Men.

We did the pumpkins yesterday and Nathan helped out quite a bit this year. He cut most of the hole in the top, scooped some of the insides out, and drew his own design on the pumpkin. Maybe next year I will let him carve more but we will see. I did just about all of the work on Joshua's although he did tell me what he wanted as a design. Nathan's is on the left and is a walrus. Joshua's is of Elmo and I am rather proud of how it turned out if I say so myself.`

Tooth Fairy Visit

2008-10-17T22:56:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite memories from my childhood is of when I had lost one of my teeth on the same day as my older sister's birthday slumber party. I was probably about 6 so she was some where around 11 years old. Now, I some how got to be part of the party (don't ask me how, I'm sure that most pre-teens wouldn't want their little sisters at their birthday party but I was very grateful) and we had all set up our sleeping bags out side in the playhouse that used to be in the backyard. We were having fun talking and playing around when I decided to check to make sure that my tooth was still under my pillow when I found that the Tooth Fairy had some how already visited. I was so astounded because I was already becoming jaded and had suspected that my mom was really the Tooth Fairy. But my mom hadn't been outside with us and as far as I could remember, no one had been around my pillow. It was proof to me that the Tooth Fairy really existed! Looking back, I realise that Mom must have recruited someone in the party (was it you, Jessica?) to play Tooth Fairy and I just hadn't noticed when the switch was made.
I bring this up because Jessica's daughter, Jillian, is spending the night with us tonight so that she and Nathan could have a sleep over. Jill has been losing teeth right and left and she happened to loose one tonight (I kind of think that she and Nathan must have done something to help it along). So now it is my turn to play Tooth Fairy and I hope Jill is just as excited as I was.

The best laid plans...

2008-10-03T23:06:00.000-07:00

So, my sister's in-laws are having an anniversary party this weekend and my brother-in-law of course wanted to be there for it. The only problem was that they wanted to leave today so that they would have plenty of time and the trip wouldn't be too tiring. The hitch was my kids and who was going to watch them when Jessica and family left? Jessica told me about this last week and we discussed options. We worked something out, and then Jon worked something out, messages got crossed and Jon ended up in the doghouse for a little while. It all got sorted out and everything was set for today. Then of course, life happened.
Josh came to our bed early this morning, having been woken up by throwing up. I was hoping that it was going to be a one time thing and that life would go on normally. It didn't. Josh was sick again. And again. And again. I stopped counting when I got up to ten. So I called in sick to work, cancelled the babysitter, and kept a bowl handy for Josh to puke in. He got pretty good at it.
I thought that it ended up being a wonderful example of Murphy's Law. There had been so much work that went into making sure that we had a babysitter for today and it ended up that we didn't need one anyway.
Josh was fine by this afternoon and I'm sure that it was all due to my wonderful friend, Rebecca, who brought us Sprite and soda crackers since we didn't have any of either in the house. Thank you again Rebecca.

I think that I have an target painted on me.

2008-09-14T22:00:00.000-07:00

Yeah, my weekend started out with a bang, or maybe I should say a crunch. I was driving to pick up the boys from my sister's house and had just exited the freeway. I stopped at the end of the off-ramp and started inching forward to merge with traffic. The guy behind me had stopped and saw that I was trying to merge. Well, I decided that I didn't want to merge, but the other guy didn't notice that and kept going. Here was the result. Because he had started from a full stop, he wasn't going very fast and the damage was less than it could have been. The car is drivable but the trunk is fairly useless. The other driver has insurance and now we are just waiting for them to contact us so we can get the process going. That's the real bummer about getting into an accident on a Friday at 4:30 p.m., everyone is gone for the weekend.

Big Bear Weekend

2008-09-03T21:23:00.000-07:00

I hear that in some parts of the country, people actually do labor on Labor Day weekend. Putting up storm windows, storing patio furniture, stuff like that. I would have been fine doing something like that but Richard, who usually has to work on Saturdays, had the entire weekend off so he planned an out of town trip to celebrate the end of summer and the starting of school. He did the internet research and rented us a small house in Big Bear for the holiday weekend, I planned and bought food for us to take (to try to avoid buying groceries there or eating out, both of which we did anyway), and we took off Saturday afternoon for a lovely weekend. Richard still worked for a few hours on Saturday so that he could catch up on a few things and be less stressed over the weekend. And I finished off a homework assignment and e-mailed it to my teacher so that I could be less stressed as well. We were in Big Bear by four and at the house by five (the rental office had written down the wrong house number so it took some detective work to find it). We cooked dinner, the boys went swimming in the jacuzzi (or kajuzzie as Nathan says it) and then did a little exploring before bedtime.

The rest of the weekend was much the same. Relxing, eating, swimming and what ever activity we could find to do that seemed special to Big Bear.

We went sliding at Alpine Slides,

we stopped by the visitor center,

we took a ride on the Miss Liberty

and we tried out a jet ski. All in all, a very good weekend and I think that we might be hooked. We will definetly go back again.

I hate freeways

2008-08-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

I'm avoiding doing my homework right now. I'm also avoiding parental duties. Richard has a tennis class every Wednesday night so I am in charge of the bedtime routine. Instead of rounding up the kids into the bathroom, I'm ignoring...I mean I'm letting them watch "Over the Hedge" in my bedroom right now. I wish that I could just throw then into bed with out a bath but Richard would give me a look like I'm the worst parent in the world. Never mind that he will buy them any thing that they want. Sorry, I'll stop complaining now.

I did have a somewhat exciting weekend, although not how I would have liked. See the following pictures.

Yes, that is a pipe sticking out of my bumper. A four foot long, three inch diameter, metal pipe; the kind that they use in portable scafolding. I was driving to a friend's house to spend a couple hours with him and his family enjoying their pool. His son and Nathan are the same age and we are trying to get them to be friends. About two miles from their house, a semi truck runs over this pipe in the middle of the freeway and it gets sent spinning towards us. I swerve to avoid it but don't get out of the way entirely. At least I was able to take it off the freeway with me so no one else got hit. When the AAA guy came to help me fix my tire (which I somehow busted during this whole experience), he and his trainee just stared at the pipe rather dumfounded. AAA guy did help me put it into perspective when he said that we were really lucky. He then changed our tire much more quickly and safely than I could have (we were still on the shoulder of the freeway), took the pipe out, and sent us on our way (I'm really glad that I have AAA, never mind that Richard works there). There seems to be minimal damage to the car. The bumber is being replaced and the body was dented a little but the repair shop will just pound it back out. In a week and a $500 deductible latter, everything will be back to normal. Otherwise we are all just fine. Joshua, who was asleep at the time of the accident, didn't even wake up. When he did wake up, he and Nathan thought it was a great adventure. They were a little disapointed that it was a van that came out to change our tire and not a big tow truck. We then went on to our friends' house and had a good time swimming and eating lunch.

Summertime, and the living is easy

2008-08-16T11:53:00.000-07:00

Do you think that Josh has a future as a Jazz musician? Probably not, but you never know. By the way, did you know that my kids are growing up? I didn't, it surprised the heck out of me. They both seem entirely too tall. Nathan will be starting kindergarten in about two weeks. And Josh seems to be entirely potty trained. Jessica, Richard and I have been working on it for the past year and a half (mostly Jessica, thank you again for that sis) but it still feels like it was all too easy and happened very quickly. Nathan is even showing signs that he may be reading soon. All of it is great, but a little scary too.
On another topic, today I made one of my favorite childhood dinners for dinner tonight (corned beef casserole and cabbage for those that wanted to know). When I finished putting the cubed cheese on top I looked at it and realised what a 50's dinner it was. Half of the ingredients are canned, including the meat, and to quote celebrity chef, Gorden Ramsey, it "looked like a pile of s***t." But it sure was yummy.

Random Cuteness

2008-08-05T22:11:00.000-07:00

This is a little bit of a misnomer because although this post will be random, cuteness is subjective. I was talking with a co-woker who is on maternity leave right now and she was saying how she can totally understand all of us nuts, uh, parents, who just can't get enough of their kids and want everyone else to know. Also, not all of the stuff that that my kids have been up to lately is all that cute.
For starters, Nathan is getting to be quite a helper. Of course, at five years old he is still not always a help. On Saturday I was needing to catch up on the sleep that I had missed all week. Joshua was down for a nap and I had set Nathan up with a movie. I locked the front door and laid down in the living room so that if Nathan tried to go out the front or if something else happened, I'd be able to wake up. I was doozing when I noticed that Nathan hadn't settled down. He kept walking through the living room to the kitchen and rumaging arround there for something. It's not unusual for the boys to grab a utensil out of the drawer to play with and all of the dangerous stuff it out of the way so I wasn't worried enough to fully wake up. A little while later he goes back to the kitchen and comes back with a large stack of napkins. At this point I'm worrying a little, I mean why should he need napkins in my bedroom, but I just tell myself that it's just some paper and I didn't see him bring any food in there. A little while later he comes back through muttering about how much cleaning there is to do in the house. Silly me I just stayed on the couch. I actually did fall asleep after that until he decided that he wanted to hang our U.S. flag out side and opened up the front door to do so (see, my plan worked). I watched Nathan hang the flag and then realised that I had been laying down too long. If nothing else I needed to wake up Josh so that he wouldn't sleep to long. First thing that I noticed when getting up was that the floor was wet. Not to big of a deal with our wood floors, but definetly unusual. I then start walking back to my bedroom when I notice that there is baby powder on the floor, a lot of baby powder. To make this long story shorter, Nathan had spread about half a large bottle of baby powder all over the master bedroom and had then tried to clean it up with baby wipes, wet napkins, and a duster that he grabbed from the back closet. I appreciated the effort, but it just about took all the energy that I had got from my nap right out of me. I called Richard up a let him know that we were having dinner at a local fast food resurant becuase there was no way that I would be able to make dinner, clean up the mess, and keep the children alive long enough for him to get home from work. Only two of the three would be possible. Also, I figured that the kids needed to get out of the house and expend some energy on the play-place at Carl's Jr.
Joshua is getting more and more talkative. I still only understand about half of what he says but he it getting better at expressing himself and we are getting better at understanding him. He, like most children, has some words and phrases all his own. For example, when he wants to watch the "Alvin and the Chipmunks" video he asks to watch "chicka-bow-wow." This is refering to a line in the movie when Alvin says "bow-chicka-wow-wow" when meeting a cute girl. In fact it is one of Joshua's favorite lines to say whenever. Proabaly because Richard and I get such a kick out of it. It reminds me of when Richard taught our nephew Tim the words to "Brick House."

Getting into the swing of things

2008-07-13T22:05:00.000-07:00

I have been back at school for about a week and a half now and I'm starting to feel like I know what I'm doing. I've been teaching for 1 1/2 years now. I started mid year with my first group of students. They had had a series of substitutes for the first semester and then they had me; I tried my best to not let them know that I had no idea what I was doing. I guess that I am still technically a 2nd year teacher but becuase I am now on my third set of students, I feel like I'm starting my third year. It is actually kind of dishartening becuase I am still looked at as being a very new teacher (which I know that I still am) but I have also seen many teachers come and go so I also feel a little bit like I have some longevity.
My new batch of students seem like a very good group. It they stay like this through the rest of the semester I will need to send a note to the middle school teachers letting them know how good of a job they are doing. I also have quite a few former students this year and it is awfully fun. A few are repeating Biology because they failed the first (or second) time. But there are a few that I had for Biology two years ago and are now in my Marine Biology class. It is a lot of fun to see all of these students again and even a bit of an ego booster that they are willing to take another one of my classes.
I even had on of my seniors tell me that she has decided to go to college to become a doctor, a brain surgen probably, all because of disecting a fetal pig in my class. She was particullay talented at taking the brain out.

The End is Coming...

2008-06-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

...of my vacation that is. School starts back up again next week and I'm starting to get back into teaching mode. It's always weird to start the school year again because for me that happens near the beginning of summer. It's even weirder this time because I attended graduation ceremonies for some of my former students yesterday. They officially ended their high school careers yesterday, while next Tuesday I'll be getting a whole new batch starting their time in high school.
Here are a quick bunch of unscientific statistics (because I didn't take notes yesterday during the ceremonies) for you about Fremont High in south LA. We have about 5,000 students in four grades spread over three tracks (we are a year around school). Entering Freshmen class is usually something a little over one thousand strong. We had a little over 400 students graduate last night. The rest of the students are either progressing normally, or they are "pluses," as in "he is a nine plus" instead of being a 10th grader. Not a technical term really, but when you have enough kids failing too many classes to progress normally, you tend to make up terms to describe it quickly. So doing rough percentages, less than 50% of the students that enter our high school graduate. On the encouraging side, more than 75% of those graduates are planning on attending and have been accepted into a college or university. And of these students, they received an impressive amount of scholarships, grants and awards. I think that the principal said that the total was something like $300,000. I don't know what is typical, but I was impressed. Of course that only works out to be $1,000 per student but since I got diddly squat, I think that they did well.

Our Weekend with Austin

2008-06-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

It is a lot of fun to meet a new friend. It's even funner to meet a new family member and become friends. About a few months ago, we got a phone call from Richard's older brother's ex-wife. She was pregnant when they split up but we didn't know much more than that. The baby is now a 14 year old teenager named Austin. He, his mother Tracy, and his younger sister Alyssa came to visit us this weekend where we got to help celebrate his birthday with him and he got to get to know his father's family. We had a nice, lazy day at the beach on Saturday, we celebrated his birthday on Sunday, and we had several nice meals with various groupings of the family. All designed to give us good "get-to-know-each-other-time." Austin and Randy got along great and have continued to communicate over the internet. All together it was a very good visit.

Happy 5th Birthday Nathan!

2008-06-05T22:46:00.000-07:00

My baby is getting so big. Nathan had a pretty good birthday I think. It started on the actual day by being woken up before daddy left to go to work so that we could open presents together. We did leave Joshua asleep so that there wouldn't be any fighting over presents. And yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper.

A little more than a week later we had his birthday party. He had been asking for a party where he could invite friends over since last year. We invited friends from school, church, and all the family over. We played with stickers, jumped on a bounce house,

hit a pinata (my niece Jillian broke it), and enjoyed cake and ice cream. It was a lot of work, but mostly because Richard and I finished off a few outstanding back yard projects in the weeks before the party. Nathan was very happy with it all. He thought that it was a great day and had a wonderful time throughout the entire party. He was even a fairly good host, for a 5 year old.

The funniest thing about all of it is that two weeks after the party, the rental company hasn't picked up the bounce house and we still have it in the back yard.

San Diego pictures

2008-06-03T07:42:00.001-07:00

I finally published the entry on our San Diego trip. If you want to see the pictures, please scroll down past the "Goodbye to Mr. Gan" entry.

Good Bye to Preschool

2008-06-03T07:09:00.000-07:00

Nathan's preschool had their end of the year party yesterday. Actually I should say their end of the year party for part of the class. The preschool is actually sponsered by the school district (not common) and is on the campus of a local elementary school. It is mainly for high functioning autistic kids, but they have a handful of typical kids to act as peer models. Nathan was one of the peer models and it his role (along with the other typical kids) to just be themselves and socialize with everyone in the class. It was very interesting, especially since half of the time I didn't know which kids were autistic and which were typical. I definetly want to have Joshua be in the same class, especially if Ms. Lara is still there; she was great. I also hope that Nathan has learned a little about accepting people who are different from him. I didn't tell him in the begining that there was anything different about any of the other kids in his class; I didn't want to prejudice him or get him confused. But it has come up a little bit in these last few months when he has asked why so and so doesn't talk very much, and other questions along the same line. I know that Nathan likes all his classmates and that he doesn't really see anything wrong with them. One of his favorite classmates is a little boy who is not as high functioning as some of the others. Nathan will usually say goodbye specifically to him and give him a hug. Tama usually just makes a noise and pushes Nathan away, but Nathan doesn't seem to mind.

Yesterday was a good bye party for the peer models and it was at a place called "Pump it Up," a small ware house type space with four inflatable party jumpers and other structures. It included a large slide, an obstacle course, and a multi use jumper along with a regular jumper. It was a lot of fun and we were all tired afterward. The party ended with pizza and other goodies. Just what a buch of 4 and 5 year olds love.

Goodbye to Mr. Gan

2008-05-16T22:52:00.001-07:00

I have really enjoyed the preschool that Nathan goes to and I think that the teachers are wonderful. There are four regular teachers with Ms. Laura being his main teacher and Ms. Heather, Mr. Michael, and Mr. Gan are the other teachers. Today the class went to the park as a fieldtrip/ goodbye party for Mr. Gan who is moving on to bigger and better things. The day included a water baloon fight, flying kites, and playing on the playground. Everyone had a great time and we were all very hot and tired afterward.

The last picture is of Josh and the water fountain at the playground. I haven't seen a fountain placed so low to the ground before and I can only imagine that it is for the dogs that may come to the park, but it was perfect for my little boy.

San Diego Trip

2008-05-15T21:19:00.001-07:00

For Richard's vacation time this year, we decided that we wanted to spend some time at home working on projects around the house, and then spend a few day in San Diego.

Sorry, I started this post ages ago and just haven't been able to finish it and now I'm feeling that I will just bore everyone describing the trip. So here are the pictures, we had a great time. We should have done one more day in between Sea world and the Animal Park but kept it as a rest day and not visited any parks. We went to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and San Diego Wild Animal Park and by the end of it, the kids were animaled out.

Mother's Day

2008-05-14T23:41:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to say a quick note about Mother's Day before it got too far past. I actually felt like I had several Mother's Days last week. On Monday night, Richard took the boys out to buy me some mother's day presents. Apparently they did a lot of walking and Richard didn't take the stroller so he ended up carrying the boys at the end. They were successful though, and the boys could hardly wait to show me what they had bought and Richard and I couldn't talk them out of it. After I had admired the gifts, Nathan pulled out the wrapping paper and he and Josh wrapped them. One was done in red Christmas paper and the other in silver and gold striped tissue paper.

On Friday, Nathan's preschool class had a Mother's Day Tea which was very lovely. Nathan's teacher, Miss Laura had prepared a lovely spread of sandwiches, fruit, salad, and desserts. Most was pre-bought (I'm so glad because she does so much already) but the students did help make the sandwiches by spreading on the filling and cutting the sandwiches into shapes with cookie cutters.

On the actual day, I got some lovely hand made items from each boy, a card from each of my guys, and a new gadget from Richard; I got a satellite radio. I was really surprised about the radio as I didn't think that there were any more gadgets left to buy, but it has been a lot of fun to have. The family favorite at this point is the children's music station. I get a kick out of how the kids will hear the beginning of a song and they will shout out excitedly what song or show or movie or character it is. And today Nathan impressed me when he heard a song sung by Kermit the Frog and insisted that it was Ernie (they are both voiced by Frank Oz). I decided not to try and explain.

Kindergarten preparations

2008-05-07T23:46:00.000-07:00

Poor Nathan got stuck more times today than a pincushion. He is starting kindergarten next year and today he had the infamous kindergarten check-up. He was a little nervous going in and that surprised me because he usually doesn't have a problem with the doctor. About half-way through the appointment he mentioned getting a flu shot a few months ago (that kid is getting a good memory). Now I knew why he was worried. I hadn't mentioned shots to him at all but he has finally gotten the connection between the doctor's office and those nasty little shots. I felt really bad when at the end of the appointment the doctor left and Nathan felt all relaxed and happy. You see, our doctor doesn't give the shots, his nurse does, after the appointment is all over. So here is Nathan, thinking that he is free and clear while I know that he is about to get the worst set of shots that he is ever going to get. I'm still trying to decide if I should have warned him a little or if that just would have made it worse. In the end he got a TB test, blood drawn, and three shots. The nurse worked quick and Nathan cried hard and loud. At the end I wasn't sure who I felt worse for, him or her. It was her second set of kindergarten shots for the day and she seemed to honestly feel bad for having to do it.

Our weekend

2008-05-04T18:54:00.000-07:00

Since I have been off track, Nathan and Joshua have been at home with me instead of with my sister who takes care of them when I'm working. One of the really nice things about Jessica taking care of my kids is that Nathan is really good friends with my niece, Jillian. They have such a good time that even though I have only been home with the boys for a days, Nathan was going through Jillian withdrawals. So we arranged to have Jillian spend a night this weekend. They had a really good time making messes and playing games.
The pictures of the garage are an example of some of their "artwork" that they had fun doing. They stayed up way too late and work up much to early, but they had a great time. We will have to do it again soon.

The next pictures aren't old even though Nathan is dyeing eggs. I had bought an egg dyeing kit before Easter but we never had the time to use it. On Sunday when the rest of the family was in various stages of napping, Nathan was rummaging through cupboards looking for something to eat/do/play with and he found the egg dyes. I couldn't come up with a really good reason not to use it and it would keep him happy for a good half hour. He had a great time and took tons of pictures of the eggs afterwards. I like it when the kids have fun doing these types of things. I tried to get Nathan excited about helping me make my birthday cake with me but he was only interested in eating it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-05-03T22:20:00.000-07:00

I know that it's a few days late but I just wanted to comment on my birthday quickly. The actual day was rather uneventful as I still had work in the morning and class at night. I was able to come home for a few hours in between, but I spent them doing homework. My present from Richard and the boys was a new clothes hamper. It actually arrived a few days after my birthday, but I had a good time putting it together and the boys had a good time helping me. The wicker was the old hamper that I got as a Christmas present about six years ago. I wanted the new one because the wicker was getting beat up and it just seemed like it would be nice to get something nicer looking. It does throw my schedule of laundry doing off though as the bins in the new hamper are smaller. I could let the dirty clothes get to a certain level in the old hamper before having to do laundry. Now I'll have to see how much I can stuff in the new hamper before doing a load.

Off track

2008-05-02T11:42:00.000-07:00

There are some really nice things about being a teacher; the most obvious being that for me, I get two months off every four months (I'm in a year around school). I'm just starting my next break and I have all sorts of plans of what I want to get done this time but I already feel like I'm behind. It's like I spend four months just trying to keep the house off of the EPA's most wanted list and then spend the next two months trying to catch up. I spent the first two days off getting the kitchen and living room into something reasonable and as of today, the laundry is at least mostly done. Richard came home a couple days ago and asked who was coming over because why else would we clean the house?

The picture is actually from a week or two ago when in an "End of the School Year" fit I felt like cooking a chocolate souffle. It turned out fairly well although it might have been a little undercooked; I'm not sure as I've never had a souffle before.

Do you know us now?

2008-04-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite things to do with blogs is to check out the different links that are there and explore other blogs. I always like to see if I know someone along the line and I know that the blogosphere isn't small, it is fun when you do find connections out there.

I have also been reading blogs of people that I don't know at all, but they have been more special interest blogs. The latest was done for the cousin of an old mission companion of mine who was in a skateboarding accident. The blog was set up so that the family could get information out to everyone about their son's medical condition . After reading their blog I felt like I knew this family and wish that I could have gone to the funeral to show my support.

So, does any one out there feel like they know us better after reading this blog? I wouldn't blame you if you said no because I definitely haven't updated as much as I would have liked, but I intend to keep at it. If for nothing else so that I can show off pictures of my kids. By the way, this is Josh playing with our snake Salazar. He loves the snake and likes to watch it eat mice.

Easter 2008

2008-03-28T21:51:00.000-07:00

Here are our Easter pictures for this year. I'm sorry that you can't see the boys' outfits better as they were really cute, but Nathan and Joshua seemed determined to hide themselves.
The next is, of course, the opening of the Easter baskets. The baskets and the outfits were from Grandma Tessie (Richard's mom) and were greatly appreciated as I probably wouldn't have gotten them much of anything. Also it gives Tessie and excuse to do two of her favorite things; go shopping and spoil her grandchildren. By the way, can anyone think of anything to do with plastic Easter eggs. We have so many and I hate just throwing them away. I don't suppose that they are recyclable?
The last picture is of Nathan using one of the toys from the baskets. He (or Joshie, I don't remember which) got a Thomas the Tank Engine bath set that came with foamy soap and a pretend shaver. Both boys are having a great time with it. Don't you think that Nathan has a nice technique?

Inches turn into milestones

2008-03-18T21:45:00.000-07:00

I am always thrilled when I see all the little ways in which my boys are growing up. Today Nathan was watching Richard get ready for work when he decided that he wanted to wear a tie like daddy. Richard tried to talk him out of it but soon relented. Nathan ended up wearing that tie all day and even had it on when he fell asleep for his nap.

For Joshua the moment came when he asked for more food and it came out as a complete sentence, "I want rice." He has been doing this for a while but I still get a kick out of it because I don't always understand what he is saying. For example his "I want rice" actually sounded like "I wa wy" but I knew what he was saying.

Another Nathan story, I was correcting some student work tonight when Nathan came up to ask me what I was doing. I explained and he then decided that he wanted to my students' new teacher. He is going to teach them how to twirl a hula-hoop on their arms just like his teacher, Mr. Gan, taught him. It is fun to see Nathan wanting to emulate his parents so much.

Three years and two and a half months

2008-03-02T19:28:00.000-08:00

Tifarrah and R.J. moved out this weekend. It was all very sudden and a little weird and Richard, the boys and I are all still a little depressed, hurt, and confused. But it should be a good move for them. Tifarrah found them a furnished room in the home of an older Filipino lady who lives near by. Tifarrah hopes to keep most everything the same in regards to school and church. It is really strange not to see their stuff here though. R.J. had been living with us for over three years now. Nathan and Joshua have been missing him but they have also been really cute about it. Nathan now wants to have the chore of feeding the dogs and Joshua helped set the table for lunch; both used to be R.J.'s jobs.
I hope that they enjoy their new home and that it all turns out well for them.

Lemon Haircut

2008-02-27T22:03:00.000-08:00

I decided to make tuna loaf for dinner tonight and went outside to get a lemon when I noticed for the tenth time that our lemon tree could really use a trim. Well the weather was beautiful and Joshua wanted to be outside anyway so I got the pruning shears out and started at it. I think that I am starting to get the hang of it because I can see how the decisions that I made the last time I trimmed have turned out almost how I wanted to and how the whole tree is taking a shape that I like. Maybe someday I'll be as good as Jessica and my dad. Here is a picture of the tree after; I guess that I should have done a before picture but you can just look at the ground to see how much I took off. I wanted to do more but figured that I should stop if I wanted the tree to survive.