A Whole New World

formal dress for Friday Mass

I think a whole new world best describes the feeling of school this year.  It feels like our life has really changed.  As it always is, change is a little hard and tiring but refreshing too.  Here are a few new experiences we've had the last week and a half.

* inivitations to two birthday parties

* drove and helped with one (the 6 hour one - ahhhh)

* joined two new sports

* homework w/ tears at 10:00 pm 

* sat with first grade at Mass and realized my daughter is a giant in comparison

* Helped girls with homework in Extension Care (for the a/c) while waiting for Jae's soccer practice and realized I will never volunteer to work in that zoo if it's the last job on Earth.

* sometimes running a red light is necessary to get the girls to school on time

* Have to sell 42 bars of chocolate for soccer - anyone craving some crappy chocolate?

* They have great meetings at this school!  Attended two so far where they fed us complete delicious dinners w/ amazing homemade baked goods for dessert.

* the Cafeteria lady is a Rock Star (lunches are so good.  She serves homemade muffins in the morning and will feed your child lunch if they forget theirs, has a vegetarian and allergen free menu too!  Can we attend another meeting?)

* witnessed beautiful reverence for Jesus during Friday Mass

Many more but I can't think any further.  The great thing is the girls are doing very well.  Kaye's evaluation testing went well and she was moved up to algebra with 7th and 8th graders.  I asked Cee's teacher how she was doing and she told me she was one of her top students and participates a lot in class.  I tell you this, well for one, you know - to brag and two because as a homeschool parent you worry so much that they need to stay on grade level that it can drive you a little nuts.  I was relieved to hear that I hadn't "dumbed them up."  Jae hasn't had too much work yet.  She has impressed us with her adaptibility.  She joined soccer which was a very proud moment for her.  She has wanted to play for years.

So there you go....I feel like I caught up a little and now can post the daily stuff.  Life has changed but we feel it is in the right direction.  Here's to a great 3 day weekend!

Big, Big Birthday

Happy 6th Birthday to our big, big, beach loving Nephew!

Born at 10 lbs. he was bound to grow up as strong as the red Power Ranger.  He is one smart cookie!  Everytime we see a beach our girls like to sing the song they created just for him.  He didn't like the sand the first time.  His Mom wrote a little post about him here.  Happy Birthday to one special little boy!

8-20-08, A Big Day!

Happy belated birthday to these two, Papa and Cee - 9 and 80!

Here they were nine years ago!

We had a busy morning on the 20th waking Cee up for her bday breakfast in bed and then preparing for the girl's first day of school.  

After the first day of school was complete we traveled to Papa's to share a big birthday treat!  

August 2oth - a big day!

Farewell Summer You Were Good to Us!

Here are a few pictures from our last Summer trip:

A Big Surprise

After we arrived at our destination and set up the trailer we walked into town to have some chowder.  We arrived back at camp to a big surprise.  Around the corner behind the trees was Rod's sister and family.  They asked their children where they wanted to go on their vacation (Sea World being one of the choices) and they chose to be with their cousins and grandparents (I guess it's okay that their uncle and aunt are here too).  

We were all surprised (except Grandma who kept it a secret), to see them travel from down South.  We had a lot of fun yesterday afternoon with the kids playing, adults talking and a classic bbq and campfire.  




We're so happy we didn't cave to the pressure of packing Wednesday afternoon.  We were very close to canceling this vacation.  If we had we would missed out on a lot of fun.  A good lesson in perseverance :)

They'll Never Know They're Homeschoolers

Long couple of days.  The girls had to get their reading assignments done.  In 2 1/2 weeks Kaye and Cee had to read two books, write book reports and Cee had to make puppets for each book.  Kaye was tested today at school.  I had to laugh when I saw the girls trying to figure out the drinking fountain, bent over looking for the lever.  I thought "oh dear look at the poor homeschoolers having trouble with the water fountain."  I took a picture with my phone so I'll post another time.

Meanwhile this afternoon and evening we have been packing for our trip to the Coast.  I tell you if we didn't have other people relying on us we would have canceled.  ...and these reservations had to be made 6 months in advance so we couldn't just reschedule.  Just the thought of the book reports, testing, hair appointments today, preparing for Cee's birthday, packing for Coast trip, back on Sunday for school bbq and swim party, and starting school on Wednesday (after 4 yrs. of homeschooling) with Cee's and my Dad's birthdays that same day, makes me feel queasy.   This too will pass and I know eventually some type of routine will save us.  And I know we'll have fun at the Coast celebrating our last Summer hoorah.  Right now I'm just going to celebrate that 95% of the packing and loading is done.   

Danielle is having a one day sale to celebrate her 1st anniversary designing blogs.  Almost 1/2 off the original price!  I love seeing what she has created next.  One of the amazing things about working with her is that you feel you have her undivided attention.  That's amazing because she is in demand and rolls out many new designs a week.  

The best thing is that she can really get to the heart of what you want.  She will add her professional opinion when necessary but doesn't push it.  Several times I ended up going back to what she originally suggested and now love my new look.  Did I mention she was patient?

Head on over to take advantage of this great 1 day anniversary special with an amazing designer!

Productive Weekend

It was a very productive weekend.  We have come out of it with less junk so that alone feels good. 

We went from this:

to this!

I love having our car in the garage.  This Central CA heat turns your car into an oven if it's left out in the open.  Getting into the car without your back hitting a scorching seat is something small to be thankful for.  

This is my latest page from my 'remembering Elizabeth' album.  This was completed last week.  The story gets sad after this point so I don't think it will be very bright next time, not looking forward to those pages.

Last night we tried Lisa's bbq pizza.   I have been drooling over this for over a week.  Lisa and family came to get their stuff Saturday so we were able to visit and find out how easy they were on the bbq.  We decided to give it a try last night.  Mmmmm, oh so good.  I put proscuitto on mine and loved it.  We used a store bought pizza dough so it was super fast and easy.  Cee could hardly contain herself getting to roll out the dough.  The way she was displaying her excitement made me think this is truly something she loves.  Here's a couple of pieces with our usual pizza toppings (not as perfect as Lisa's, but still delicious).  

Have a lot of loose ends to tie up over the next few days before I start to pack for our end of the Summer camping trip which is later this week.  Oh yeah over the weekend we also organized the pantry, cleaned the fridge, made a week long list of dinners, and went grocery shopping.  Nice not to worry about what's for (or where's) dinner tonight.  Mostly though it feels refreshing not having any storage or junk in the garage.  whew.

When You Know You Have A Planner

Tonight before going to bed, Kaye asked me if we could sit down tomorrow and go over each day on the calendar and tell her what is happening this month.  Yep, I think she is type A.

Sweet Cee has a long list of prayers for little babies.  We have noticed that she quietly keeps praying after we're done.  When I asked her about it she said she was praying for Elizabeth, that God would give us another baby, and about 5 other babies/children/expecting Moms that have recently been born, have a health concern or are expecting.  If someone asks her to pray, she will remember and do it.  

Jae comes up with some turned about ways of saying common phrases.  One of the little girls in her class last year was named Paris and she would give her little gifts of bracelets or hair clips in the morning.  Jae told me after school, "I think Paris knows what pretty is!"  The other day she asked me if I thought she was a "good smarter?"  I think she meant if I thought she was smart.  I don't know but that's probably the worst way of asking that question.  :)

Preparation

We've been doing a lot of preparation for school this week.  We have officially registered for school.  It's a bit shocking going from the relatively low cost (except for books and enrollment) of homeschooling to the cost of tuition, supplies, and uniforms for three in parochial school.  Ouch.  We're trying to remove the fluff from our life which is not good for us anyway.  Last weekend we cleaned out our storage, categorized everything, sent out emails with pictures to people we thought may want furniture items, have people picking things up today and we have a cleansing garage sale on Saturday.  Everything that doesn't sell goes to charity that day.

It is the first time in our married life that we have all of our junk under one roof.  We finally have everything removed from our parent's homes.  (Glad my Dad isn't on the internet to read this or he may disagree with me).  It's a good tired we feel or maybe it's more accurate to say a good, tired, broke feeling.  I think it's the right decision.  Whatever doubts remain I have tried to give them to God to work out.   

My Fleeting Kennedy Ideal

As I do most early mornings, I get up before everyone else and enjoy a cup of coffee.  Often I watch something tivo'd with Nutmeg on my lap.  I have Oprah on our record schedule but delete her shows 95% of the time after reading the subject info.  Just get frustrated with her, but occasionally there's a famous person on her show and on those shows (for the most part) Oprah keeps her 'new age' opinions to herself.  

I caught yesterday's re-running of Maria Shriver.  I've always loved the classic Kennedy ideal.  In my head they were a big family of hard-working, faithful Catholics who were pushing for the rights of the common man.  Okay, this was what I thought in 5th grade when I wrote a report on Jacqueline Kennedy (the cover of which my Mom completely changed after I went to bed - but that is another story for another day).   In my mind that 5th grade ideal has stuck a little...maybe even when it shouldn't have. 

So, Im a little interested in what Maria has to say.  She has a new book out, Just Who Will You Be?  They talk about how in October of '97 at a Woman's Conf. in CA she let it out that she was LOST.  Her role as First Lady of CA led her to become a person looking to fulfill what other's needed her to be.  She then realized this had been happening since she was a kid.  I started to cry thinking of how hard this must be for....for poor little rich girl, with a powerful husband, four beautiful healthy children, who's had a national career on television, parents who have loved her, a national platform on which to stand whenever she had something to say, great hair, great teeth (okay I'm going to stop there and I didn't cry).  

Is she watching too many Oprah's shows?  Too much of - you have the power to be anything you dream to be, just leave all your responsibilities behind and think only about yourself?  I may sit down and tally how many times I heard her say 'I' or 'me' in that conversation. (Okay, maybe that would be a waste of my time.)  Not once did I hear anything about her husband except to refer to how she had to give it all up for him when he became Governor.  ...two become one?...love and honor?...married in St. Francis Xavier Roman Catholic Church?

What about your faith Maria?  What about what God created you for?  In all fairness, maybe she has examined that but there was no mention of it and she's going to lead many, many women to examine how unhappy they are in their role as wife and mother.  She will keep searching and feeling LOST but the publicity from the book and the pat on the back from Oprah followers will disguise it for awhile.

We do have to be who we are, who God made us to be.  If He has given us a good husband and the blessing of children, then it's a good chance He wants us to be the person He made us to be and love them.  That doesn't make us less of the person we were meant to be?  True yes, many are called to do more outside this primary role.  ...but this primary role doesn't get in the way, it enhances the person we are.  What I'm trying to get out is that Maria shouldn't consider herself LOST in the role as First Lady standing beside her husband.  The humility just may make her a better person, the one she was truly meant to be.