Saturday, December 30, 2006

Snow!



Lydia was so sure that she would see snow this Christmas after all the Christmas shows and commercial images, but I'm afraid this is as close as we are going to get. Someday, we'll go see some snow for Christmas.


We went ice skating today. It was the first time for Ryan and second for Lydia. We spent a lot of time on the ice, like knees and hands on the ice. After a few big sprawls and slides, Ryan liked to sit for a bit after every lap. We had a great time, and now the kids are with Erica and Chong at Chong's sister's house with other nieces and nephews. It is so peaceful.



Last night, Joel and I dropped the kids at Martha and Phil's house where Jeremy and Rufaro were official babysitters. We saw Dreamgirls. It was so good. I thoroughly enjoyed the entire show from music, to acting, to costumes and dancing. It was just fun, and moving in many parts as well. I hadn't put Jennifer Hudson together with American Idol until I was watching the movie. She was great. She didn't age as she should have, so that was a little more difficult believing, even though she probably was only supposed to be a little older than her actual age at the end. You just couldn't believe that she had the life experience she was supposed to have at that point. Beyonce was also wonderful, but had a few acting moments that didn't have much power behind them...although she was altogether powerful. She is so beautiful. I enjoyed the entire cast. I never saw the stage show, only knew the music. It was highly entertaining.

I also saw Happy Feet with the kids. Fun, Fun, Fun! Cute show that had me laughing and tapping my feet. Two movies in a week...I think I only saw two movies the entire last year.

Thursday, December 28, 2006

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


Oy! It has almost been a month since I last posted. Of course, that is still more recent than my Mother's blog.


We have been very busy with holiday excitement all leading up to a wonderful Christmas spent in Richmond, VA. The Schmidt Clan (although there are truly not many with the last name of Schmidt...) gather yearly at Donna and Tom's

for a delightful celebration. I believe that there were 20 this year.




Not everyone was seated for the photos, and I was eager to eat the delicious meal, so not everyone is pictured...but you can count 20 place settings if you please.
Below is a picture of the kids on the Cousin Joe Monster Couch. As you can see, lots of entertainment.






Thank you very much to the Greens and the family for a very special and happy time. I hope all friends and family had a joyous Christmas Day.
PEACE

Thursday, November 30, 2006

Poor Ryan




Is there anything to say?

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Thanksgiving Day


We had an absolutely delightful Thanksgiving with the Cox cousins in Newport Beach. Craig, Joel's cousin, wife Sue and kids Eric, Kevin, and Sarah are always fun to see. We do not see enough of them. Ben was able to come as well. They have a beautiful home that is also quite comfortable.


Sarah kindly entertained Ryan and Lydia for most of the time we were there. Note the marble game that Ben also helped with. That is a long marble track. The Cox kids are a good looking and enjoyable crew. Eric is in his freshman year at USC. How time flies.




The food was delicious, and there was a lot of it. Joel made his tasty sweet potato dish and I made an undercooked pumpkin pie (the two I left at home were perfect, but I chose the undercooked one to take) and a good pecan/chocolate pie that the crust stuck to the bottom of the pan. Lydia helped me with the pies, so we had fun even if they weren't perfect. Sue made a number of delicious items including brussel sprouts that even I liked. Her turkey was also wonderful. She made a pumpkin pecan pie that I loved, too.





Joel and Ben talked about the Redskins

and Joel played the piano a bit.

Thank you very much to our fabulous cousins for hosting us! Lydia and Ryan didn't break anything or hurt anyone, so that was one more thing to be thankful for.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Happy Thanksgiving From Sunny SoCal!



It is warm and beautiful here, but not feeling much like Fall! Lydia had an inkling to Hula yesterday, so little Mr. Me Too joined her. They were all at Lydia's friend's house in the friend's pink pajamas yesterday, too. Ryan is also enjoying playing with Lydia's princess things. He is in touch with his feminine side, in between being Superman and throwing balls at everything and everyone.

Ryan's new nickname is Pigpen. Linda took a picture of his clothes one day when he came home from school. He is generally caked with dirt and a variety of other things. If he has any skin showing, it is brown, too. The day the picture was taken, his face, including forehead, was also filthy. I said to the teacher, "Wow, he is always pretty dirty." She said, "Oh, everyone is". I closely scanned the room and did not see one other filthy child! Not sure what she was seeing.




Lydia had her last day of soccer last week. It was a lot of fun, and Lydia did well. She was very aggressive and scored many goals. This is simply a random comment to go with the picture. The next picture is the "Princess Pirates" which was the name of the team, and then the hair dohickies which were the most imp0rtant part of the uniform.





We all have this Thanksgiving week off. It is such a treat. On Thanksgiving Day, we will head off to the Cox cousins in Newport Beach for what I'm sure will be a wonderful day. I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and lots to be thankful for. We certainly do. Love to all!

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Baby Ella


I have been remiss and not shown any pictures of the beautiful Ella, Madelaine's daughter. She is cute as can be. Madelaine, Andrew, and Ella have moved to Fayetteville, Arkansas where Madelaine is going to pursue her Master's in some sort of Biology. They seem to be doing very well.


Saturday, November 11, 2006

Happy Halloween! A Little Late...


We did have a marvelous Halloween here. Ryan was really into it. I only wish people would hand him the candy, though, instead of giving him carte blanche to take handfuls. I know they didn't think that he would take HUGE handfuls, but he did. I would try to catch him and really worked on him only taking one, but just when I was successful, the next person would say, "Only one? Oh, you can take more than that!" So two handfuls later, we would be on our way. By the end of our evening, Ryan was leaving a trail of candy behind him from his overflowing bucket with me trying to clean it up...at least the chocolate bars. Lydia would have trick or treated late into the evening. She wanted to go to every home in the neighborhood.


We got around 5 trick or treaters at our house which is an all-time high. Joel bought Skittles and Now-or-Laters and we have lots left over. Not a fan of the fruity candy. I should be happy he didn't buy candy bars, because I would eat all of those. This candy will last forever!



In my school district, we can only have 2 parties a year that involve any sweet foods, chips, or other non-nutritious foods. Otherwise, we are not allowed to give out any junk at all...ever! We have a list of approved foods. I gave the kids apple juice on Halloween and had other teachers asking me if that was allowed?! Don't let anyone catch you handing out a fig newton.
Some of the kids I teach did not trick or treat because they did not have a costume. I didn't realize that they weren't going to be able to put any sort of costume together until after Halloween or I would have provided something. It is hard, because I need a translator to talk to their parents and I don't know if they would have gone out even if they did have a costume. I need to learn Spanish.
But...Halloween can be an awful lot of fun when you have young kids. So many things are magical.

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Voting

I have become a Democrat. It used to be that I thought I had no real party affiliation, and would vote for the "person" not the party, but I have to now admit that I am a Democrat. I do support Arnold, our illustrious Governor, but otherwise can vote right down the party line. I also find myself calling certain politicians names and getting angry over elections. I never thought that I would feel so strongly and get so upset, but here I am.

Here in CA, we have a bundle of Propositions every election. This election, we voted for 34 offices and 17 Propositions. The Propositions require quite a bit of homework as they can be wordy and confusing. I have to go in with my filled out sample ballot if I don't want to be voting for 30 minutes while I try to remember which way I was going to vote. I don't remember it being like this in VA which was the only other state I voted in.

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Fire

You may have heard about some of the fires we are having here in CA. We do have some every year, but it is particularly horrible when there are deaths as there have been in this fire set by an arsonist. 3 firefighters and one person trying to evacuate too late lost their lives. The fires are out by Palm Springs and in Riverside, CA right now.



Last night, while watching the news, we saw they were broadcasting about the fires from Beaumont, CA. That is where my brother Ron is living right now. So, I called him.




"Hi, Ron."

"Hi."

"How are you doing?"

"OK."

"Aren't the fires out near your house."

Nonchalantly, "Naw, It's OK."

"But, aren't they right by you?"

"We're fine."

"But, I saw them broadcasting from your town."

"Oh, yeah...(still extremely casually) I did get a picture from my front yard this morning."






Let's hope they get these fires under control. We did have a day of ash and horrible smoke all the way out here in Carlsbad.

Sunday, October 15, 2006

Bate's Nut Farm

What a grand day we had today. We went to Bate's Nut Farm for their Fall Festival. It was beautiful. My friend Joanna lovingly calls it Nate's Butt Farm. I am going to simply post a group of pictures. You can click on the pictures if you would like to see them larger.

Saturday, October 14, 2006

Ryan's Party


We celebrated Ryan's birthday last Sunday. We started the day at the "Walk of Ages" in San Diego to benefit Elder help which is a group Karen does graphic design for. Joel and Lydia did a modified mile and the rest of us did a modified 3 mile. There were lots of places for cheating...I mean modification. It was a really great event with fun stuff for the kids. Ryan's favorite was the Jumpee.
We then ran home and set up for the party. A good time was had by all. Linda made this amazing Superman cake. It even tasted delicious. Usually these cakes with all the dark icing and decorations don't taste great, but this was an exception.

The Last picture is Ryan after the party passed out with his new pajamas and Superman umbrella. He loved the party and all gifts. Thank you to everyone!

We had a soccer game this morning, off to the firestation open house and then the kids are going to the Pumpkin Plunge at the pool. Busy day. Cheers!