Aloha!

Well folks it's official. I'm a DVC'er for life. I just bought into the Hawaii property Aulani http://resorts.disney.go.com/aulani-hawaii-resort/gallery. As you can expect, I will be spending all of my future thanksgivings in paradise, mickey style. Maybe I'll try a new season there. I knew there was a reason I've been saving my hawaiian miles all these years. I probably have 4 tickets! yahoo. Taylor is very excited about returning back to hawaii. This property won't open until August 2011, but they are booking starting September 2010.

I need to start really using my points for vacations. I sold some last year to pay for this coming spring break trip. I am at a loss for vacation right now. My summer is packed but I need a release. I am looking and looking but finding no good time to go. I just want a quick beach trip before school starts. For god sakes, I live in california I should be able to get to a beach at some point right!

My kid is off to sleep away camp. They post pictures and she looks like she is having fun. I sent her an email today which the replacement for snail mail nowadays. I'm glad because when she gets back she's got some book reports to do. Fun summer homework.

Happy belated 4th of July to you all.

It's summer time! My favorite time of year..just not this year.

Lets see..where did we leave off last time?? Oh yea just before mothers day. This year I had planned to have a nice generational lunch with great gma, gma, me and tay. My uncle, however, had to come with us. Oh well. We still had fun. Went to the Ben Lomond Lodge for brunch. It was..interesting to say the least. The lodge is really neat and back in it's heyday it was a happening place but now it was less than steller. And not made any better by the fact that my uncle had my 92yo gma putting food from her plate into plastic bags for his dog to eat...and did I mention that the dog was in the car the whole time we were inside. Oh yea white trash at it's finest. So AWESOME!

Taylor finally had a playdate with her childhood friend, Lise. They had such a good time together and are just both so big. It's so amazing to see the young ladies they've turned into.

Next it was time for the medival festival at school. The kids had to dress in costume and then perform skits. Taylor was the narrator for her groups performance. She did a great job!

Before I knew it, we were at the last dance/bbq. This year the student council (me and virginia) hosted a bbq for the entire middle school. The 6th and 7th graders got their yearbooks and they had a nice time signing each others books. Then the DJ started playing. The kids all started dancing and having a great time. Taylor got a chance to "spin" with the DJ.The 8th graders just couldn't say goodbye to each other and ended the night past the dance time. Lights came on and they were all in a circle just swaying back and forth. It was adorable.

Next up came graduation. We went to the afterparty this year because our friend jillie graduated. We don't have a pic of the graduate but this is a pic of my two tays. Her brother graduated also. It was a fun night. My daughter told me she couldn't wait for her gradutaion. I, on the otherhand, can totally wait!

So now school has ended and the first monday after I have to go to work , but I don't turn on my alarm clock and chill. Guess who shows up on my back porch?? Hermie the sweet stray cat who hangs in my back yard. He never shows up on a weekday morning, so I take advantage and pick him up, which he happily lets me do, and put him in the carrier and promptly take him to the vet. I really love this raggedy animal, but I have wanted to get him looked at for a year. If he's going to hang with my maddie he needs to be disease free. So, the vet tested him, fixed him and even gave him advantage so he would get rid of the fleas. I brought him home to the bathroom. Set up a lovely kitty area. He was happy and rested, ate and just allowed me to pet him and hold him for 2 days. After he was healthy enough to go outside, I let him out figuring that he would run back in, but hell no. He took off outta my yard like nobodys business and then didn't come back for a week! How's that for gratitiude.Here he is looking up at me! Now he comes back once a week. BUT at least he's disease free, flea free and can't knock up any other strays. Sorry dude but the nuggets had to go!

After that excitement came sadness. My boss left his job today. I get to pick up the slack until they hire someone to take his place. Lovely. I wish him the best. I will miss his wit and charm. We had a good time with our picnic on the knoll today. I am sunburnt from it. I hope he and his wife join us for trivia and I'm sure I'll be walking with his wife sometimes.

This also means no vacations this summer for us. Just to busy with work. Oh well. It'll make our spring break cruise so much better.

Tay is getting ready to leave for sleepaway camp. Then she comes back to volleyball camp, then she goes to camp dad. I'm sure I'll be putting in a ton of hours while she's gone. Oh joy.

I'm headed down to Disneyland w/o the kid to check out DVC Hawaii. I can't wait to see what they are offering. It'll be a quick overnight trip with the hughes. Adults only, but we plan to spend the day at Dland and I am excited about that! I hope we have time to check out the new light show at california adventure.

That's the update for now. As the kids say H.A.G.S. (have a great summer!)

In the home stretch of the school year!

This year has had alot of firsts for tay. Moving to middle school, first club sports and afterschool sports, first broken bone and first dance! You decide which was her favorite. At her last dance, she got ready with friends and one of them helped her put make up on to wear to the dance. She was very excited to get yet another first done!

One night while hanging out at the mall with friends, tay decided to become a model...or a mannequin. Can you tell which is real and which is tay??

The 6th grade has had several big projects, but one of the favorites is Astrogation week. The kids spend the week making rockets to launch into space. These 2 pics are tay ready to launch and watching her rocket travel up!


It was a fun day full of sun and I got a nice pink face out of it!

We are winding down the school year preparring for summer and lots of different camps. Tay is very excited to be going to sleep away camp again. We are trying a new one she gets to fly too! One of her school friends is going to the same camp so it's making it even better. No big vacations this summer. We are waiting for our spring break disney cruise next year. Can't wait. I followed a magic in the med blog this time around and am feeling very sad that I didn't get to go back on the magic this summer. Airfare is crazy right now. I spoke with an aquiantance who works for a major airline and they said if you can find a deal buy it as they are getting fewer and farther between. It's very discouraging for those of us who need a deal to get where we want to go.

I'm looking forward to this school year ending. My favorite event we do...ENGAGE THE SPIRIT..is coming up soon. I have started walking on the path to running again. I am embarrased to say I let myself go this year big time. I really need to get off my fat ass and get back into it. I did have a good reason that I let myself go which I'll keep to myself, but it's been well over a year and even though I put on weight I feel much better. AND in the end, it was the right choice and I'm glad I finally did it. Weight can always come off right?!?!

There's a first time for everything!

On our first official day of spring break, my daughter broke her wrist in 2 places. A fun night spent in the ER at her dads work to get her arm in a full cast. Kind of killing the freedom of the week! We go in for the hard cast next week. She can get all her friends to sign it and she's very exited for that!

After that unwelcome start to our break, We took a quick planned trip to look at colleges with her cousin and aunt during the week. Since I didn't go to college it was very eye opening. I have been freaking out for the last year about high school and now I have a whole new fear in how to pay for college! I will say it was very hard to look at these kids and schools and not have a tinge of jealousy. I wish that I had been inspired by anyone in my life to go to college. Many people say to do it now, but I can find a million excuses to not go back. Most involve time and money. I keep saying, someday....

Back to the college visits. We went to Cal State Monterey. A very nice looking school and super small. If you are into tech or marine sciences this is your school. Otherwise, I wasn't impressed.

The weather was beautiful during the week. I got a nice little face/chest tan. I wish I had been more preparred for the weather. We stayed overnight in Morro Bay and had a gorgeous view of morro rock. We went out to the rock and walked around. The kids took of their shoes and chased the waves. We saw otters and squirrel rats (as I call them) We walked around the downtown had dinner. It was a great evening.

Next up, Cal Poly SLO. I was definately impressed with this school. Beautiful campus, lots of friendly/helpful kids. Great Tour guide. We met up with a former student from tays school and she was super helpful. She even let us see her off campus house. It was such a typical student apartment. Reminded me of my first apartments.

After our visit we headed in the opposite direction to Hearst Castle. Since this was the first visit by the aunt/cousin we did the same tour #1 we've done before. I think later this summer, tay and I will head back and do tour #2. It was a gorgeous day to visit an amazing place.

We then headed south to down to Santa Barbara. On the way we stopped at my dining place, Addamo. I wish I wasn't driving so I could have tasted. I don't think anyone else really cared about my wine but me. Oh well. Next time I'll just stop for wine and keep heading south.

We arrive in SB after 8pm. Too late to look around and too early to go to bed. We just lounged, cleaned out the car, showered. No alarm needed the next day since our tour was at 11am. At this point toh and tay were tired of walking around. Cyn was getting tired too. I was getting there, but then we got to the campus. OMG..such a beautiful place. The weather was fabulous, the campus was active with students on bikes, playing soccer, studying and even laying out on the lawn in their bikini's! This was a true so cal school with the exception of our over achieving tour guide. Scholar student, A++ grants given. She told us the tale of her first "C" and how she turned it around getting help at office hours. I didn't really think toh liked the school, but her mom said she did however it was far away from home. A concern for both parent and child. To me it doesn't seem so far, but I like to travel and love the sun/sea so I'd be inclinded to visit my daughter over having her come home if she was at a coastal school.

I had wanted to stop in Solvang on the way home, but found I just wanted to get home. We had hung out at campus for a bit after our tour. Had lunch in the student union and got to watch the ASU speech/debate. Tay was really paying attention to this! I don't think my kid was too impressed with the schools as she is too young to care. She was super pissed that I did not purchase a sweatshirt for her at any school. Really, her arm is in a full cast, by the time she can wear it, summer will be here! No good reason to spend $50 on a sweatshirt.

All in all a good time. I have been talked into a trip to magic mountain with the kids this summer. Tay feels that she's old enough to handle it. I suggested we check out some additional so cal schools and throw magic mountain and disney into the mix. We'll see. We have a busy summer planned and are waiting on scholarship information for 2 seperate camps for taylor. If she gets in we have a small window of time to do vacatons. Plus, I really don't want to spend money yet, since we'll be doing our big spring break cruise next year. Less than 1 year from now...can't wait!

Hope everyone had a great easter. Final countdown to the summer begins..yahoo.

They're over...phew!

Well the competitive sports have ended. We now can go straight home after school to do homework and make dinner and the "normal" family things. Although "normal" really is a thing of the past. So many of the kids from kindergarten thru high school don't really sit for family dinner anymore. We are all lucky if we get 1 night together. With the amount of homework and activities these kids have it's amazing they can do it all. My daughter has realized her limits. She has decided to go down to one sport at a time next year. Soccer and volleyball with a possible softball team. Depends on if she makes volleyball and when ends.

It's been an interesting year so far in middle school. While tay has started off well she struggles in one class. It's so frustrating to watch them struggle. I think back to my middle school days and really can't remember my parents helping me with homework or even checking to see if it was done. Really nothing back in the past happened until it was too late. Nowadays we are trying to get in front of the problems so they don't happen in the first place. Is that right or wrong? Should our kids experience some kind of failure?

For example, last weekend was tays last volleyball tournament. They tanked it. Teams they had beaten hands down were kicking our butts. The girls, however, we having a great time. Goofing off, laughing having fun during the breaks. At the end of the day a couple of them, including my child, were shrugging their shoulders at their last place finish. So what, who cares. Have we protected them so much from failure that when they do come in last they don't care? And personally, I think they should care. I received a little blowback when I stated that I was displeased with their performance. Aren't we supposed to learn from our mistakes? How are we supposed to learn if we don't think or care if we're making them.

Just my thoughts after the end of our first official year of team sports.

Ski Trip Fun! and other sports updates

Yesterday we went on a school ski trip. I chaperoned and tay skied. It was the first time either of us had been up to the snow in about 5 years to ski. Tay goes up to her cousins and sleds with her dad, but not on the slopes. Last time tay took snowboard lessons and tried that out. This time she took a ski lesson. Final outcome: Skiing rocks over snowboarding!

As usual my picture taking skills lack and I took 3 pictures. 1 of tay sleeping and 2 of kids eating lunch. Blah!
We took a bus at 6am from school and headed up to Bear Valley. A 3 hour bus ride took 4 1/2 because our lovely driver could not get the chains on the bus. Although we offered to help, pay for the chain people to help he wanted to do it all by himself. We also had to pull over for an imaginary train (imagine my suprise that a BUS driver is into TRAINS, it's like my dad was driving!) as at least 15 cars, trucks and BUSES passed while we waited at the side of the road and we had to make a short pit stop to let a puker get some fresh air. I have a stomach of steel as I cleaned up his mess!
As was well as soon as we got there. Our lift tickets were waiting for us and the kids jetted off on the runs. I waited with the lesson kids until their lesson started. Then I went inside the lodge to secure a seat for most of them. Just as I was getting comfy and cueing up my movie..the first wave of lunch bunch came in. Kids passed thru the lodge to eat and chill and then head back out. My lesson kids came back excited about their new found skill and quickly ate to head out and fall and fall again. That was their claim to fame..how many times they fell!
At the end of the day we loaded back on the bus and I am happy to report that I had 2 losses only ...a cell phone and a glove. No broken anything, no bleeding. YAHOO!
The kids had so much fun that they were suggesting we do a sleepover next year so they have 2 days to ski! I'm not ready for that yet.

On the tay sports front.....

Winter Soccer is coming to an end. Rain and sickness have delayed many games. She has 2 weeks left and really can't wait to end. She is ready for a break. Her big complaint is she can't do sleepovers/playdates because she's always too busy. Which is true.

Volleyball is digging along (pun intended). They had their 2nd tournament last week and came in 3rd. Next week she has another and we're hoping for 3rd or better. The girls are leaps and bounds better than when they were with me last fall. Steph H. should be very excited for her 7th grade team next year.

Cheer is coming to an end too. Our last competition is coming up next weekend. This is the one sport tay is very happy to come to an end. She really likes doing it but the commitment is way too much for her. The girls have been working hard on their new routine and we hope for a better finish than last time.

Softball has just started up at school and tay is loving it. She asked me to look for a softball team to play on outside of school but all have started already (thank goodness).

Tay tried out for competitive soccer and did not make the team. I'm pretty sure she was going to decline to play as she had decided after the tryouts that she really didn't want to make the commitment. It would have been nice to say no. Oh well. She'll play house soccer back with her friends in the fall.

BRACES!


Tay finally got her braces on. After years at the ortho all her baby teeth fell out and it was time. After a couple of days of discomfort, she's totally used to them and happy again.

It looks like we'll just wind down march with most of the sports and then spring break we might go look at colleges with tori and her mom. See whats around our area.

Oh and I start coaching boys volleyball this week. AND we will have some games. Pretty cool.

2010 off and running...

A new decade begins! My new years started off with a lovely cold. That's right I was in bed asleep at 10pm on new years eve. It was worth it! I think I slept off the crap from 2009 because I woke up 12 hours later refreshed and ready to go. Started off with a birthday party to attend new years night. I gave the birthday girl a snuggie..she loved it. Those damn things are so warm.

We had no break from sports over winter break. It seems I'm always praying for rain now..heehe.

Things have settled down since xmas and here are the newest updates:

I booked my 1st 2011 vacation. We are so excited to be heading on the mouse to mexico! We are going to be joined by several friends from the area. The even better news is that I used my points to pay for the trip so it cost me ZERO! I am still thinking about alaska with med friends in july, but seriously disney out of vancouver is the same price as princess out of SF. Since Alaska is way down on my list of places to see....you get the point.

Soccer...Sparks are 1-3 after a bummer of a day today. Afer a strong start, we lost both games which stunk but they were great and worked very well as a team. Tay is loving winter select and is seriously thinking of trying out for competitive soccer. I just read about it and, while it would be great for her, I am not sure how down I am with 75min. away games and the costs. Guess you have to let them try.

Cheer...After the coaching snafu we have settled down and are working hard towards our first competition. Shauna did pick up coaching tays team and has recruited me to assist her. I have missed coaching cheer so it's been fun to work with the girls.

Volleyball...is rolling along. Our first tournament is coming up soon. They are all day tournaments..UGH!

I am assisting our boys basketball coaches. I have to say it's hysterical to see me out on the court with our varsity boys who are a half foot taller than me. The funniest thing is I make them nervous and they don't want to bump or push me. I tripped over one kids feet and thought he was going to freak, he apologized for 10 minutes.

Student Council is going strong. We have been commiting to our goal of local fundraising this year. The students also put together a ski trip for the kids. I will be chaperoning, but manning the lodge with plenty of books. 2 knee surgeries=no skiing!

Work is good. The economy hasn't really hit us too bad. The transistion to my new boss has been smooth and easy. I have enjoyed working for him, even working out with his wife. Although when the weather turned we stopped running. We'll start again in the spring. We switched to trivia at a local pub. Which is counter acting the excercise. Sitting on your butt with beer answering trivia not to active ya know.
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Hope everyone had a great New Years Eve. I look forward to this decade, watching my daughter go thru high school and start attending college. Crap.I just realized how old I am.