California Kicking & Screaming

In A 'Holding Pattern'

2012-02-04T11:41:00.000-08:00

First, I would like to wish everyone a Very Happy Chinese New Year! (Jan 23). Josie celebrated the Lunar New Year with her friend Katie. Katie's Mom, Jenny, is very active with the local Chinese Moms group. Jenny invites Josie to take part in nearly all their activities. We're lucky to have such wonderful neighbors!

James prefers the more 'Disney-fied' version of CNY. Josie and her Dad visited Disneyland and participated in all the CNY events offered. Photos by James:

Josie making a Chinese lantern

A dragon chain

Dragon Dance

The next few weeks will be torturous for all of us - Maddie is waiting to hear from the colleges she applied to. No matter how many times we tell her that the colleges don't mail acceptances until mid-March, she still runs to the mailbox everyday checking for those darn letters! Applying to college sure is different than when James & I applied... I'm quite upset by the whole process myself, so I can image what Maddie must be going through. Not fun.

Last weekend, we attended the LA Times Travel Show, held at the LA Convention Center. There were some awesome displays, events and demonstrations to see. There were booths representing countries that I never thought to visit, and booths from countries I can't wait to return to! I came away from the show vowing to take a proper visit back to Turkey and to finally visit Ecqudor, the home of dear Janina, the exchange student we hosted back in 2008.

One of our favorite demonstrations was by Chef Conor McClellan of the Rayanne House, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Given that 2012 marks the launch and destruction of the Belfast built Titanic, the Chef re-created two dinner entrees served aboard the ill-fated ship. How interesting! The first entree was Squab with a Champagne Saffron sauce and the second was a dessert. Here is the Chef working his magic:

The Taiwan Tourist Bureau had the largest display, complete with dancers and familiar Lunar New Year characters:

Today, we visited a local Farmer's Market in search of fresh strawberries - and we found a lot more! Incredible produce and locally produced artisan breads. There were also a few local artists and craftswomen displaying their wares. It was a great way to spend the morning with the girls! I'll only make quick mention of the near miracle it was to get Maddie out of bed before 11AM on a weekend morning :-)

Here's a bit of what we sampled:

And finally, for all you football fans - I'm going to try and insert a short movie below of my nephew, Jack, giving an exciting rundown of the Superbowl match -up. Jack gave the sports report at his school on Friday. I think he has a bright future in broadcasting!

Have a great Super Bowl weekend!

2012 - Off to a Great Start!

2012-01-21T13:57:00.000-08:00

The first 3 weeks of the New Year have brought a bounty of goodness.

The photo above is one of the Christmas cookies we made while the girls were on Christmas break. I kept Josie and her girlfriends busy for a full week by having them first make the batter for the cookies. Two days of measuring, mixing and licking the beaters clean of the batter. A third day was spent baking all the cookies. The rest of time was spent decorating about 10 dozen sugar cookies and packing them up for family & friends. The girls were just thrilled to show off their accomplishments. I think they also finally understood the "It is better to give than receive" concept of the holidays!

The beginning of January also brought a bountiful harvest from my lemon tree in the backyard. It was the first thing I planted when we moved here. Although I did have a few lemons on the tree last year, this year was a bumper crop! So, what does one do when handed a bunch of lemons? Why, make lemonade of course! We have been enjoying fresh-squeezed lemonade these past few weeks and from the looks of it, we'll be enjoying it for months to come!

Here's my tree after I picked about a dozen lemons from it:

And here's Josie showing off a few of the bigger lemons we grew:

We hit the after Christmas sales in a big way. I had been eying a new sectional sofa for the family room since late August, watching the price go up and then down. When it went on sale again on December 26th, we grabbed it! We purchased it from Macys and they delivered it 3 days later. Excellent service from everyone we dealt with - especially the delivery guys who were so efficient and courteous.

We were thrilled to welcome my parents here in California on January 7th. We've been looking forward to their visit since we left their place at the beach in early August of last year. The girls are so happy to have their grandparents on hand to spoil them rotten. Josie made no secret of her love of Grandmom's pancakes, so she had them nearly every morning of my parents two week visit! James just loves my Mom's cooking, so he was in heaven the whole time, too. Maddie and her Pop are as thick as thieves, so she was more than happy to have him insisting on his kiss goodbye every morning before leaving for school. I just love having my parents close by to talk to and relax with... I miss being only a few hours drive from them.

My Mom and her constant companions (Casey & Carson) settled in nicely on the new sofa:

Carson picked his favorite spot for working on the iPad :-)

While my Dad was occupied with the NFL Playoff games, Mom and I took in a few of the local attractions. San Juan Capistrano is just a few minutes from our house, so we headed there. We walked around town and then toured the Mission SJC, which was just wonderful. It was the first time either of us had visited the Mission and we were really impressed with the historic content as well as the beautiful grounds. Here are a few photos of the Mission:

The Serra Chapel

My beautiful Mom!

The ruins of the first Mission built on the site

We were lucky enough to have another family member in town this past week. My brother-in-law Greg, husband of my older sister, Suzanne. He was in town for a trade show and was able to join us for dinner on Thursday - which also happened to be his birthday! Of course, we HAD to have a birthday cake for him and you can imagine my utter delight when I found out that his favorite kind of cake was LEMON!!! I made both the batter and the icing from scratch using my own freshly-picked lemons! It was Greg's first visit to our home here in CA. I'm glad we were able to share his birthday with him.

Josie helped her Godfather, Uncle Greg, blow out his candles!

Yesterday, James and I took my parents to walk the beach that is about 15 minutes from our house. Another beautiful day to take in the beautiful scenery. We were also hoping to catch a glimpse of the pod of Orcas that were spotted off the coast that morning. Didn't see any whales, but we did have a nice time:

Mom & Dad near Dana Point

Dad at the Ocean Institute

Mom& Dad just south of Laguna Beach

As I mentioned earlier, my Mom & Dad just love indulging the girls while they are visiting. Josie's only request (besides pancakes!) was having a Family Game Night. So, last night we had a marathon Monopoly game! Josie was the banker, James and I were a team, Pop & Grandmom were a team, and Nyra and Josie played as individuals. Surprisingly, the girls were really into it and the game lasted over two hours. Both the little ones started getting sleepy. It's no wonder - they had spent the earlier part of the day playing on the Wii that Santa brought for Christmas. Just Dance 3 is a mother's dream come true... they totally exhaust themselves and bedtime is a breeze!

Family Game Night

Josie and Nyra shakin' it with the Wii !

That brings me up to date with all the excitement going on here. I hope everyone has had a great start to the New Year! Drop a line and let me know how y'all are doing!

2011 - I'll Hardly Miss Ye !

2011-12-30T15:49:00.000-08:00

I will begin my final post of the year with a bit of "Bah Humbug!" for 2011. By all accounts, including my own, this year was on track to be a great one. In reality, it actually was. However, the last 6 weeks of this year have brought me to my knees... I guess its true that "bad things happen in ______" (fill in your own number). My optimism, though tested, is intact. Just need to dig a bit deeper to reach it!

Time Capsule - Dislike!

So, I'll start this post kicking' it old style. The photo above, taken in July 2009, was my screen saver when we lived in Virginia. It shows a happy moment with some of my favorite people in the world. My Girlz, Pre School Posse Moms - Jamie, Sharon and Lori. Love these girls. But, in the time between then and now I've changed my screen saver about a dozen times.

Flash forward to Saturday afternoon, December 9, 2011. I am putting the finishing touches on the genealogy book I am creating. It is the culmination of 3 years of research. It contains over 100 images and about 20 pages of self written text. It describes just one branch of the four families I am descendant from. My goal is to have the book in Dublin by December 20th so my cousin Eileen can share it with our Irish relatives when she travels north to Donegal for the holidays.

At 4PM that Saturday my iMac crashed. It crashed bad. It was the first time that I ever had a Mac go kaput. I didn't worry too much though. We have the Mac Time Capsule - the small little box that sits next to my iMac backing up my hard drive once every hour. My biggest concern was that the book might be late getting to Ireland. I made my appointment at the Genius Bar for Monday afternoon confident that the problem would be resolved quickly and painlessly. I was partially correct. I had blown the hard drive. It was replaced within 24 hours. However, when I got the iMac home I couldn't get it to stay on long enough to even log in. After an hour on the phone with 800-SOS-APPLE, they recommended I return the computer to store to have someone take another look. The second look turned up a blown internal power supply which Apple kindly fixed at no cost because they missed it the first time around. Hooray! I get the computer back on December 17th Good As New!

Imagine my surprise - when I logged on and transferred the back-up files back on to my computer - to find the image of my three beautiful friends filling my 27" screen! It seems that the day I packed up my computer in Virginia for the move to California was the last day it actually backed up!! Seems that I didn't reconnect things properly when I set up the iMac in our new house. I lost EVERYTHING digital from August 1, 2009 to the present day. Every photo I had taken in the past two and a half years is gone. Every document I created - GONE! My Reunion 9 Genealogy program with the vital information for 183 of my relations - GONE! Worse part of the whole mess is that the wound was self-inflicted... James purchased a 500 GB portable hard drive for me over the summer and I never touched it! My pity party continues, but please don't feel obligated to join in. The bellyaching will end from this point forward.

Holiday Season

So, aside from my digital disaster, we managed to keep busy for the holiday season. We made the 7+ hour drive north to Sacramento to have Thanksgiving with James' family. Maddie stayed behind to share the holiday with her friend, Maddie E, and BF Israel. She missed an awesome dinner prepared by my sister-in-law Agnes! Josie had a great time learning how to play Wii Mario Bros. with her cousins.

December 10th James were up at 4AM to catch the lunar eclipse. I set up my tripod in the backyard and tried different lenses, settings, etc in an attempt to capture the event. Mixed results, but it was nice to be outside when all was quiet and dark.

We had teacher conferences at Josie's school in early December too. Just as we expected, Mrs. S confirmed that Josie is a stinkin' baby genius! Well, not a total genius - but she's doing just great. She's reading and getting 100% correct on her spelling tests. Math skill are great too. We're so proud of her!

Maddie received her first college acceptance letter - from the University of Alabama. It's not her first choice, but it gave her a much needed boost of confidence. In her words, "At least I know now that I'm actually going to college". The remaining schools she applied to won't send results until March. Fingers crossed she'll be accepted to a few of the East Coast schools she applied to... she applied to three California colleges to make her Dad happy, but has no intention of staying 'In-State'. Of course, it would save us a fortune if she did, but her college fund is ready.

Instead of buying Christmas gifts for Josie's friends here in the neighborhood, we treated the girls to a show - Disney on Ice: Toy Story III. We were able to get some pretty good tickets for an 11:30AM show at the Honda Center in Anaheim. The girls had a great time!

This year, Maddie and Josie decorated the Christmas tree completely on their own. It was nice to sit back and just offer suggestions. Of course, it was Josie asking for ornament placement advice... Maddie had it all under control. Once they were finished, Maddie declared it the best tree decorating job - EVER! Again, no surprise at Maddie's self congratulatory posturing! Our girl does not suffer from a lack of confidence - at least where tree trimming is concerned!

Oh! In case you were wondering... Why, yes, that is toilet paper on our tree! Josie and BFF Nyra decided to 'enhance' the tree by draping it with the toilet paper. "Mom, it looks like snow on the branches! Isn't it beautiful?!" I thought so! Josie can spend hour after hour looking at the ornaments and asking questions about each one... I love that about her.

So, here it is New Years Eve. It is a totally unnatural 78 degrees outside. Our daughters will both be going to parties tonight, so James and I will head out to an early movie. We'll wait for the girls to get home and (hopefully!) sleep in tomorrow morning.

I'll be happy to welcome a new year. This year brought great joys and sorrows. We were greatly blessed in 2011 - our children are strong and healthy; we live in a beautiful neighborhood where our little one can play safely; we enjoyed another summer of adventure in Europe; and added to our extended family by traveling to meet our Irish cousins. Much to be thankful for. We'll continue to pray and send healing thoughts to our loved ones who were struck with illness or suffered through hard times. It's our greatest hope that 2012 brings peace, good health and prosperity to one and all. Happy New Year!

Old McDonagh Had A Farm...

2011-11-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

This is the view right down the road from our Great Great Grandfather's (Michael McDonagh) farm in Derrygolagh, County Sligo, Ireland. What once was the family farm is now part of a forest of fir trees, just steps from the borders of Sligo and Rosscommon Counties. It is a beautiful, remote area. We wouldn't have found it at all if not for our cousin Liz - who scouted out the landscape back in the Spring of this year. She forwarded detailed maps with handwritten notes and landmarks so we could walk the land that our ancestors plowed.

Following Liz's directions, we first visited what is believed to be the cemetery where our Great, Great Grandparents are buried. Some of the headstone are now merely 'stones' worn by weather and time.

A beautiful resting place

We also stopped at another cemetery to see if we could find family names on the stones, but none of our McDonaghs or Morrisroes were there.

We then made our way to the parish church, St. Kevin's. We know that our ancestors worshipped, baptized their children and buried their loved ones here.

This photo of St. Kevin's around the time it was founded, was taped on the back wall of the church

Suzanne and I spent a better part of the morning chasing down the parish priest, Father Finan. I had written him back in August requesting to see the parish records. We checked all three churches under his purview, stopped by the Parish House, and even checked the closest pub ... all to no avail. Apparently, at each place we stopped we had 'just missed him' by minutes!! Everyone we spoke with told us that Fr. Finan was a kind and most humble man. We're sorry we never got the chance to meet him. We did get to see a lot of the 'auld sod' while we were chasing him, though!

For cousin Liz...I knew you were with us during the trip!!

To 'back-pedal' just a bit, I should say that we visited all these sights on Monday, November 7. We departed County Donegal on Sunday morning, Nov 6th. We took our time driving down the western coast of Ireland, stopping in a few small towns along the way.

That evening, we checked into the first castle we had ever slept in - Markree Castle. It was beautiful! We were just one of three rooms occupied in the castle that evening. A bit spooky, but we sat by the fire in the entrance hall and the staff told us stories about the history of the castle and which rooms were haunted. Thank goodness our room wasn't one of them!!

On Monday afternoon, we left County Sligo and made our way toward Dublin. We were meeting our cousins, Eileen and Phyllis, in town that evening. We didn't spend enough time in Sligo - there was much to see and the folks there were most welcoming. We hope to return there one day soon.

Running for Charity!

2011-11-18T08:36:00.000-08:00

I'm interrupting the travel log of our trip to Ireland to share some exciting family news!

My sister-in-law, Kim, ran her first marathon last Sunday, Nov 13 in Richmond, Virginia! Kim ran to benefit her sister Allison's charitable foundation Hereditary Neuropathy Foundation . Allison founded this entity in 2001. Both Allison and her Dad, Dick (who is one of my favorite guys ever!) suffer from Charcot Marie Tooth (CMT). To find out more about CMT and to read a detailed account of Kim's marathon accomplishment, Click Here

On Sunday evening Kim reported:

I ran the marathon in 5 hours and 41 minutes.
It was a fabulous experience. I am really sore but still in amazement of what i did!!!

Here's my niece, Kate cheering her Mom on to the finish line:

And my Brother, Chalie with Kate and Allison (founder of HNF) lending support for Kim's herculean effort!:

This is a huge accomplishment for Kim - one I know she is very proud of. The entire family shares that pride! I'm hoping to cheer her on in person one of these days... Perhaps when we move back East :-)

Meeting our Inishowen Family

2011-11-13T17:48:00.000-08:00

How beautiful and rugged is the coast pictured above?! That's the view from Malin Head, the northern most point in Ireland. Breathtaking! This is where my paternal Great Grandfather lived and worked in the 1800's. He was born in 1839 - just around the time the Great Famine struck Ireland. It's amazing he survived at all, let alone marry twice and father 15 children!

I have spent the past 3 years tracing my ancestors in Ireland, England and Canada. I have met some really incredible folks along the way. All the research culminated with a visit to County Donegal to finally meet my cousins - descendants of my Grandfather's sister Philomena.

I'll recount the happy occasion of our meeting after sharing with everyone the story of my incredible good fortune and simple 'Irish Luck'. I also believe that divine intervention had a hand in bringing some amazing folks into my life. See if you agree:

In March 2011, having reached the limit of genealogy information available on-line, I decided to look for a genealogy expert based in County Donegal. The records I needed to extend my knowledge of my ancestors were in Ireland. Most held by local churches. I also needed someone who had experience with obtaining public records and interpreting the 150 year old land records of the townlands of the County. After looking at many options, I found Boyd Gray of West Ulster Genealogy. Boyd and his business partner Barbara worked doggedly for months. They found siblings of my Great Grandfather Daniel and siblings of my Great Grandmother Susan. Boyd even made a trip to Culdaff in July to meet with my cousins and photograph the homes (or remnants of) my Great Grandparents. They solved the mystery of what happened to my Grandfather William's brother, Phillip. Phillip's name appeared on the family gravestone, though no one knew the exact story of his death. [He died in what appears to be a fishing accident off the coast of Wales] So many other little details were traced with enthusiasm - at times I was overwhelmed just taking it all in! Here's a photo of Boyd, who I was so thrilled to meet in Culdaff on Saturday evening, Nov 5th.

My second occasion of Irish Luck came in the form of an email from a wonderful lady named Ellen. Upon booking our flight to Ireland, I sent a letter to each of the parish priests in the towns we planned to visit. [We also visited the parish and family farm of my paternal grandmother's family in County Sligo]. The priest in Malin Parish responded to my request to view the parish records almost immediately. He informed me that he had forwarded my request to the Parish Archivist - who would search the records on my behalf. The letter included the names of my Great Grandfather and both his wives. Ellen is the Parish Archivist. She also happens to be our third cousin! What luck! She was able to put me touch with Paul and Maureen, who are also third cousins, living in England. We exchanged information, spoke on the phone and sent photos to each other. We also filled in a lot of 'blanks' on each others family tree. Amazing! Here's a photo of me, Ellen and her friend Mary, taken on the evening of our 'Clan Gathering':

On Saturday morning, Nov. 5th Ellen and her sister Margaret met us in Malin Town to give us a tour. They picked us up at 9:30 and we spent a good part of the day together. We had some really good conversations and laughs. I was so overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness shown by these two wonderful ladies. Here are some of the sights we saw that morning:

Another view of Malin Head

This cottage appeared in the pages of National Geographic & on a cereal box!

Suzanne braving the strong winds on the peninsula

Hmmm, I wonder if they are related?!

Locked out of our own pub!!!

That's Margaret on the left, Ellen on the right. Pumpkin Head in the middle!

Just one of the three rainbows we saw that day!

Remnants of a family homestead

This was once the home of our Great Grandfather, Philip Farren

This is Mr. McLaughlin, who allowed us to walk his property to get to Philip's house. Mr. McLaughlin provided a wealth of information about our ancestry - just by knocking on his door! Thank goodness for Ellen - Suzanne & I would never had dared!

This is Margaret and her husband. Suzanne & I will be helping Margaret with a project in the near future. [more about that later!]

Mr. McLaughlin's cows... I think we disturbed their lunch!

Finally, the big evening event was upon us... we were finally going to meet our cousins! This branch of our family - still living in the town where our Grandfather, "Willie" was born - are the children and grandchildren of our Grandfather's sister, Philomena. The second we walked into McGrory's Pub, there were hugs and kisses and smiles exchanged all around. In those smiles I saw familiar features... there was no doubt we were related! Suzanne and I were so touched and grateful that some of our cousins drove nearly two hours to be at the gathering. Eleven of us settled in nicely, enjoying a few drinks- (soda for me as I was driving those narrow Irish lanes!) and sharing a delicious meal. Here's the few shots I managed to take... we were all so busy laughing and talking, I'm lucky I got these!

Left to Right: Suzanne; Cousin Mena; Jamsie and Mary (Jamsie is the son of Philomena so he's our Dad's cousin/our 2nd cousin); the side of Ellen who is leaning over to talk to Kathleen, (the widow of Jamsie's brother, Danny and mother to 11 of our cousins!); and cousin Catriona - who, along with our cousin Eileen in Dublin, was instrumental in getting everyone together that evening!

And here's a photo of the family just as the evening was about to end:

Left to Right: That's me and Suzanne; cousins Catriona, Josephine and Mena; Kathleen; cousin Neal McGrory (proprietor of McGrory's pub/ our Great Grandmothers were sisters!); and sitting in front Jamsie and wife Mary.

That evening in Culdaff will remain in our hearts and memories forever. All of our relatives were so forthcoming with the stories of their lives and what they knew of our families here in the US. We shared many stories - some hysterically funny and some so very tragic. We shared with them the losses we knew of... the deaths of our Grandmother Kathleen, our cousins Patty and Valerie; and the loss of our Aunt Kathleen. We were not alone in our losses - our Irish family had witnessed tragedy as well. The exchange of information regarding our losses helped to identify common illnesses that seemed to run in the family. This will benefit all of us, knowing that there might be a genetic link to some of the maladies that have affected our ancestors and our contemporaries.

I should also mention here that our cousins are an accomplished lot. They are all successful in their chosen professions and have beautiful families. In the past week I have seen incredible photos of the next generation of cousins - they are a stunning group of children - all with angelic faces (and I'm hoping a bit of devilishness too!). The evening was just the beginning of all of us getting to know one another. I can tell you though, I really like knowing that I'm related to such wonderful individuals. I can't wait to see all of them again! As you might guess, we are expecting them here in California and in Philadelphia in the coming months/year. I'm looking forward to sharing more fun times and having our kids meet their Irish cousins!

Handsome Irishmen...

2011-11-08T18:37:00.000-08:00

Aiden & Barry

...that we just happen to be related to!

Suzanne and I were so happy to share dinner this evening at the home of our cousin Phyllis! While Phyllis' beef stroganoff was delicious (really, really delicious !) it came in second to the delight of meeting her family! Pictured above are Aiden (age 8) and Barry (12). Below are Aiden, David (14) and their Dad, Walter. Not pictured are the lovely hostess (who, like most Moms was multi-tasking all over the place) and beautiful Ava Beth (age 4).

I'll be able to share more photos of all the 'next generation' cousins soon. For now, I wanted to keep my promise to Aiden that I would show his handsome face to all our friends and family in America! I also want all of the American cousins to see their Irish cousins, too! So, Maddie, Josie, Kate, Jack, Liam and Zach - say hello to just a FEW of your 3rd cousins!

Aiden, David & Walter

Belfast and the Antrim Coast

2011-11-06T01:25:00.000-07:00

On Friday morning we were up early, having decided to take 'the long way' along the Antrim coast to Co. Donegal. The drive along the coastal route is reported to be one of the most beautiful in the world. The route passes through quaint villages and historic sites. It's main attraction is that it leads to the Giants Causeway, a designated World Heritage Site.

First thing first, we headed to the St. George's Market to stock up on provisions. We planned to have a picnic lunch at one of the many picnic spots along the way. Suzanne picked out Welsh and Irish cheddar cheeses, apples, grapes and a freshly baked load of crusty bread. Here's a few photos from the market:

After an hour at the market, we said goodbye to Belfast and headed North along the coast. Our first stop was Carrickfergus Castle. I should mention here that we had the most beautiful sunny day for our sightseeing. We had been told by many people that it had been raining non stop for the past 6 weeks. We also had good luck in the fact that we arrived at the Castle about 10 minutes before a giant tour bus. We had the Castle to ourselves for most of our visit!

By the time we made it to the Giants Causeway, it was 2 PM. It is a dramatic coast line with rock formations that make a natural staircase to the sea...

In true Murphy's Law accordance, our planned picnic by the sea ended up begin more of a 'take out' meal than we expected... I drove while Suzanne used a knife 'borrowed' from the hotel to slice the cheese. She ripped chunks of the crusty loaf of bread to fashion little sandwiches for us both. Not quite what we had in mind, but fun and delicious nonetheless ! We arrived in Co. Donegal ay our B&B just as it was getting dark. Another beautiful day in Ireland.

Belfast Day Two - Irish History

2011-11-03T16:34:00.000-07:00

This morning we started out with a Black Taxi Tour of Belfast. Suzanne did the research for the tours, which are considered a 'MUST DO' for anyone visiting the city. I have been a student/lover of Irish history since I first read Leon Uris' Trinity when I was in my teens. Although that book was fiction, it awoke my interest in the subject of a divided Ireland. Trying to put hundreds of years of conflict into perspective is a tall order. Our guide, Patty, presented a dramatic and informative tour that we both really enjoyed. I have to say that the real thrill for me was in just being in a city that not even 10 years ago was considered a 'war zone'.

Belfast today is a stunning city. It is the cleanest European city I have ever visited! Folks here take a lot of pride in the fact that there is peace and that strides toward equality for all are progressing... Though I'm sure the pace of that progress will never be fast enough for those that suffered through The Troubles.

Our tour centered mostly around West Belfast, where the Peace Wall still divides the Protestant and Catholic neighborhoods. Patty took us through the Catholic section first, where we learned the circumstances depicted in the murals. We made a stop at Sinn Fein headquarters before heading over to the Protestant side of the wall. Here are some of the Catholic murals we saw:

The weather has been less than ideal, so our tour was a lot of jumping in and out of the taxi. Usually, Patty walks guests through the neighborhood where most of the Protestant murals are located. Didn't happen for us today, so we didn't get as close as we would have liked. Here are some of the images from that part of the tour:

It's getting late now, and we're up early tomorrow to visit the natural beauty of the Giants Causeway. We'll enter the Irish Republic tomorrow when we make our way to the Inishowen Peninsula of County Donegal.

Belfast

2011-11-02T14:10:00.000-07:00

Suzanne and I landed in Dublin about 8am this morning! After passing through customs and picking up our rental car, we hit the road for Belfast. There was no traffic on the M1 and I did awesome driving 'on the wrong side of the road'! For any of you who are familiar with Pennsylvania, the drive from Dublin to Belfast was very much like driving in Lancaster County. Lush green fields, cows grazing and quite a few really fluffy lambs! The drive was 2 hours door to door

The folks here at the Hilton Belfast were kind enough to let us check in early. We were enthusiastically greeted by bellman-valet-consierge John, who took great care of us. We grabbed a bit of lunch and took a badly needed 5 hour nap.

Belfast is the host city for the MTV European Music Awards, which will take place this Sunday night. There are concerts all over the city, including the outdoors. This massive stage was erected outside of the historic Belfast City Hall:

After walking around town a bit we stumbled into a nice local pub, The Garrick Again, just the nicest people to talk to! The food was awesome. Suzanne was thrilled that her Sheperd's Pie was made with Irish lamb. She washed it down with a half pint of hard cider. I had a nice risotto with prawns & scallops, which was impossible to finish. We walked back here to the hotel in the light rain. The wind is really kicking here, but it's not a cold wind. The temperature is right around 50 degrees, so it's really pleasant.

Tomorrow morning we are taking a Black Taxi Tour of Belfast. I can't wait to see where the Titanic was built and to learn about The Troubles' from a Belfast local. Promises to be a great learning experience!

October Round-Up

2011-10-23T11:57:00.000-07:00

Recently, all the activity in our house seems to be swirling around Maddie. She's visited colleges on the East Coast, been filling out the college applications and enjoying the Senior Year activities at school. While it's been fun watching her grow and mature before our eyes, our little Josie is also providing lots of excitement. I decided to start off with what Josie's been up to these past few weeks- which is plenty!!

Josie and James have slacked off a bit on the Disneyland Sundays. In the past 6 weeks I think they've only gone twice. As soon as Labor Day hits, Disneyland starts decorating for Halloween. Josie loves Halloween! She's still not thrilled with the increase of Disney "villian" characters that stroll the park during the Halloween season, but she's getting better about running into them. James reports that she no longer hides behind his legs or makes him take detours around the characters when they are within her general vicinity. Here's Josie enjoying Disneyland 2 eeks ago:

James seems to be branching out with his 'Father/Daughter' outings, at least with Josie. Last weekend James took Josie and BFF Katie up to Cal Poly Pomona for their annual Pumpkin Festival. All kinds of fun stuff for the girls to do. However, it was a sweltering day. You can see in the photos below that the girls were just roasting!

To take a pony ride, the kids had to wear a helmet. To wear the helmet, you had to wear a disposable shower cap :-(

Back at home, we're seeing less and less of Maddie. Josie is taking it pretty hard. We are blessed in the fact that our girls truly love one another. They have the best time together! And, they never leave the house without giving each other a kiss and an "I love you"... Ever! Sometimes, they can be quite devilish together, teaming up to make me feel a bit steamed. Case in point: I was folding laundry the other night while Josie was in the tub. (She gets 10 minutes of playtime after she's washed and shampooed!) I asked Maddie to go in and help her sister out of the tub. I hear them laughing and giggling and then Josie screaming, "Mom!" Maddie comes running out of the bathroom, without Josie, to show me what they were up to. (I should say, 'what Maddie talked Josie into doing...'):

Sometimes, big sisters are just so mean! Josie objected strongly to the photo once she saw it, but then just started laughing. I had a good laugh myself!

Last night was Maddie's Homecoming Dance at school. It is the first and only formal dance she will attend at this school - the Prom is held at the Disneyland Hotel in late May. A bunch of friends and their dates got together and rented a 'party bus' for the occasion. They met in the school parking lot and took the bus to Laguna Beach to take photos and to have dinner together. The bus returned them to school in time to attend the dance. Afterward, they had an 'after party' at Madie E's house. I have to give a big shout out of thanks to Madie's Mom, Nori, who fronted the kids the cash for the party bus, followed the bus to Laguna Beach to take photos of the kids and held the 'after party' at her home. She really went all out to make sure the kids had a very safe and enjoyable evening. I promised her that I would take the lead on whatever plans the kids want to explore for Spring Break. Here are a few photos from the evening, a few of which I posted on FB:

The whole gang in front of school, just about to board the bus.

Maddie and Israel

Maddie giving her "Aunt Claudine" pose! (Any event photos we have of Claudine include a pose like this...:-)

Madi E and her date.

The Party Bus

Inside the Party Bus - And Yes, that is a stripper pole in the middle... (*shaking my head!*) Thankfully, no reports of anyone taking a swing on it!

And finally, the next time I post here I will be in Ireland with my older sister, Suzanne. We're headed to the Emerald Isle to walk the land our ancestors plowed and to visit with our Irish cousins. We will also be spending two days in the previously 'off limits' Belfast, Northern Ireland. We'll be touring the dockyard where the Titanic was built; viewing the political murals of both Protestant and Catholic neighborhood previously torn apart by war; and finally experience the natural beauty of The Giants Causeway, the Inishowen Peninsula and the rugged western coast in County Sligo. We are so excited to making this trip together! I can't wait to share the photos and experiences here as well... Stay tuned!

Six Weeks of Chaos!

2011-10-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

From September through mid-October our family life is always hectic. We have the first days of school and many birthdays. We start the month with my sister Claudine's birthday on the 4th, then my Dad's; my Grandmom's (she's passed, but not forgotten!); our niece, Kate (who just turned 13 Woo Hoo!!); and I celebrated (I use that term loosely :-)) my 49th birthday on the 30th. My nephews Zach (19) and Liam (14) are our October babies. One would think that at my advanced age I'd have things a bit more organized. Still, I find myself making multiple trips to the card store, shopping on line at the last minute and then completely forgetting my own birthday! I honestly jumped out of my skin when James woke me up with a kiss and "Happy 49th Birthday" on Friday. Yikes!

We started the month off with a really pleasant visit with James' parents in L.A.'s Chinatown. It's a great halfway point for all of us - about an hour North for us and an hour Southwest from Mom & Dad's home in the desert. Like most Chinese families, we shared a weekend Dim Sum meal. I love having Dim Sum because it is instant gratification - the carts loaded with goodies come to you and all you have to do is point to what you want! It's great when you have hungry and impatient kids to feed.

Here's our spread:

No waiting for a meal as the carts circle the dining room

James and his Dad usually make the selections for all of us

Here's Maddie watching BF Israel try Chinese noodles for the first time!

And of course, Josie and her Ma-Ma get caught up on the news of First Grade!

Mid-September brought a well deserved indulgence for my husband... After hemming and hawing for nearly a year he finally purchased a new BMW convertible for himself! We had a 2001 BMW convertible that James purchased about 4 years ago in anticipation of Maddie getting her driver's license. It was a manual transmission car. Once Maddie got her permit James made the fatal mistake of having Maddie drive the car without any practice - he just put her on a busy road and said "drive". Not a smart move. Maddie was so scared and intimidated from the harrowing 6 mile drive home that she refused to get into the car again - EVER. So, James has been driving the convertible ever since. Here's is James' New Baby:

This car has a Turbo 'something' engine and it is a SWEET drive!

This past Wednesday, September 28th brought more excitement - but not the kind we like. James returned home from a business trip that evening and jumped back into his routine of washing each of our cars. (He washes 3 cars EVERYDAY and details each of them on the weekend!) The girls and I believe that washing the cars keeps James sane - his own little therapy session in the driveway! Anyway, James walks into the garage, comes back in the house and says, "Where's the water in the garage coming from?" Of course, I have no idea - I only go in the garage to grab my gardening tools and to pull my car out. I walk out to see what he is talking about and see a nice little stream coming from the roof and dripping down between the cars.
"Didn't you notice that?!" he asks.
"Um, No I didn't. I don't hang out in the garage. There's a reason they're called Man Caves..." I reply.

The muttering under his breath begins. It continues as he places a call to the Home Warranty company, shuts off the main water supply line, and finally makes his way to bed. Such are the burdens of a man who lives his life surrounded by females.

The next morning the plumber, Mike spent about 2 hours trying to locate the source of the leak. He cut 4 holes in the drywall ceiling of the garage before determining that the leak was coming from the master bathroom shower supply line on the second floor. Bad news was that the line was only reachable by cutting a hole from the outside of the house. So, up the ladder went Mike:

Finally, my big day arrived. The last year of my 40's began on Friday and I was looking forward to having a nice relaxed celebration with the girls and James... Pepperoni and Mushroom pizza dinner followed by birthday cake. It was not to be, though. Maddie informed me that afternoon that Israel was taking her out to dinner to celebrate their 'anniversary'. (They have been dating for 4 months!) And, to be fair to Maddie, I will divulge that she did ask me in advance if I wanted her home for my birthday dinner. So, my birthday song was sung by Josie and she helped me blow out my candles. It was a nice birthday celebration for me just as I liked it - quiet and low key.

Here's Israel waiting for Maddie... and being entertained by Josie and BFF Nyra.

And, the happy anniversary couple!

I'm looking forward to a quiet October before leaving on my next adventure on November 1. I will write about that in my next post... Have a great weekend, everyone!

Grades 1-12 In A Day!

2011-09-07T10:40:00.000-07:00

Well, I guess one could say that today was the beginning of the end... Maddie started her Senior year of high school and Josie began the First Grade.

Maddie's school has so many events and deadlines for the Seniors that they issued an on-line 'Senior Book'. James and I have already attended the 'College Night' meeting in which the school presented THEIR deadlines for requesting transcripts and letters of recommendation from teachers for college applications. The counselors also advised us that our Seniors should have narrowed down their list of colleges to 6 but no more than 10. Ooops! Maddie still has 16 colleges on her list. Guess we need to get on the ball with that!

Senior portraits were taken in late July. These are the standard Cap & Gown/fake drape photos that will be used for the yearbook. They turned out 'so-so' and are prohibitively expensive to order. The smallest package available started at $310. If one wanted to order 'a la carte' it was basically about $80 per 8.5x11 sheet. Wow! Don't remember my senior photos being that expensive, even with the adjustment of the dollars value 30 years ago!! Anyway, we'll order just 2 8x10s for the grandparents and one 5x7 for us. Something that is different out here in California is that the seniors have 'candid' photos done as well. These candids are the ones that the kids exchange in wallet size and parents have made into portraits instead of the Cap & Gown photos. We were really lucky to find Susie Kim, an extremely artistic college student who works as a photographer in her time away from school. We had over 200 shots to pick from and these are my favorites:

And here is Maddie leaving for her first day of her senior year:

As for our little Josie... she was so excited about starting the First Grade that she came into our room at 5:30AM! She informed me that if I didn't get up and make her breakfast she would be late to school. Ummm, I don't think so, little one! We had laid out her clothes the night before, packed up her backpack with the items from the school supply list and even remembered to put her name on her lunchbox. (I have a feeling that there will be quite a few Princess lunch boxes among her classmates!) The school did not post class assignments until yesterday afternoon (4PM). Josie is familiar with her new teacher so she's got a leg up on James and I already! She seemed happy about her class, having found quite a few of her kindergarten friends are in the same room as her.

I can't believe my precious, petite angel is off to full-time school! I didn't cry - but actually felt so very proud of our Josie. At one time she was so shy she would hide behind my legs when she met people. This morning she was polite and outgoing - shaking hands with her new teacher and greeting her friends enthusiastically with hugs and smiles! She has grown so much! And, I'm sure that she will give us so much more to be proud of in the years to come! Here's a few photos from Josie's first day:

Proud Dad with his Girls!

Best Wishes to everyone for this new school year. I hope its wonderful for all of us!

Back to Reality

2011-08-14T13:39:00.000-07:00

We've been back in California for about 2 weeks now, having fully enjoyed our 6 week European/East Coast vacation. Even with that much time, we still didn't get to see a lot of our friends and family! But, we're most thankful for those we were able to spend time with and for the wonderful memories made during those visits.

One really important and super fun event that took place in July was actually a lifetime milestone... Maddie and I accompanied my Goddaughter, Katie on her wedding dress shopping outing!! I won't burden everyone with the usual "I can't believe my little Katie is getting married - it was only yesterday that she was in diapers.." (Because it was JUST yesterday that she was in diapers and I am thrilled that she has found a wonderful man to share her life with!!!) I will, however, give a preview of what a stunning bride she will be by posting this photo of one of the 'non-contender' dresses she tried on...

Maddie helps Katie with a Vera Wang dress that was stunning, but not 'right' for her.

Our niece, Elizabeth - sister of the bride and Maddie wait to see the next dress...

Never let it be said that our Katie is indecisive... she only tried on a few dresses and purchased the first one she tried on! (She had a photo of the dress in hand when we went to the Salon.) It was such a lovely day and I'm just thrilled that I was on hand to share such a special occasion with the first three "little loves" of my life!

We spent a majority of our time on the East Coast at my parent's house on the Delaware Shore. On July 25th Josie and I headed up to Cape Cod to spend time with our dear friends Nick & Mary. Maddie had returned to California on the 19th to attend "ComicCon" in San Diego. (The tickets for the 'sold out' event were a gift from Uncle Rich, James' brother!)

Maddie and Maddie E. at ComicCon

Maddie and comedian Paul Shear at ComicCon

Big news for the girls was that they got to see Bradley Cooper and Jeff Bridges as they swept through the convention floor with their handlers. I told Maddie she should have given a shout-out to Bradley Cooper - a fellow Philadelphian! I'm sure he would have stopped in his tracks! ;-)

While Maddie was here in CA, Josie and I were being tortured up in MA with just about perfect beach weather. Josie made new friends - Caroline and Joseph - who were from Virginia... they were visiting their grandparents who just happen to live next door to Nick & Mary. The kids shared a lot of beach fun - and the family very kindly invited Josie to join them on a Pirate Cruise out of Plymouth. They walked the plank, captured pirates and brought home the booty!! What a great day for our Josie!

Joseph, Caroline and Josie - Marshfield Beach

Beach companions Mary and Anna

Nick - Hunting and Gathering...

The yummy result of Nick's efforts!

We finished up our visit in Marshfield with a wonderful beach bonfire:

Josie enjoying s'mores with the kids: later there was stargazing!

I'm not talented enough to capture a decent photo of the bonfire!

So, now we're back to the reality of shopping for school supplies and bracing ourselves for the madness that will accompany the college application season... Wish us luck - a high school Senior and a first-grader! Never a dull moment!

Del-Ahhh-ware

2011-07-16T13:32:00.000-07:00

We've been in Delaware for six days. It is so nice to kick back and relax with my parents and the kids. We've managed to squeeze in a few activities besides the beach and pool.

Suzanne, Zach and Liam were down here with us from Sunday to Wednesday. PopPop treated the kids to a deep-sea fishing outing. The half-day trip 'netted' no fish! Maddie was the only one to catch a fish, but it was too small and had to be thrown back in!

On Thursday, Maddie and Tori rented a waverunner and had a ball. It was the first time for both of them. They returned to the house all smiles, determined to do it again soon!

Every year James orders fresh seafood from the Pikes Place Fish Market in Seattle, and has it shipped to my parents house. He wasn't on hand to enjoy it this year, but Tori gladly filled in for him!

On Friday, the girls had their long-awaited visit with Auntie Karen! It's a mutual love-fest and always a fun time. We hit the beach for most of the day and then shared a family dinner here at Mom and Dad's house. I was happy to see Karen recovered nicely from her car wreck - looking healthy and fit. It was nice to sit and talk for hours with my friend of 30+ years...

I'm very excited to report that on Monday I will be going wedding dress shopping with my beautiful Goddaughter, Katie. I'm a bit overwhelmed by how quickly the years have gone... diapers to wedding dresses. I am so honored to have this experience with her. Her Mom, Nancy, is a dedicated teacher who is attending a seminar that day. We'll meet her for dinner on Monday night and hopefully have some real contenders to share with her! I'll post photos of the shopping spree, hopefully on Tuesday. Until then...

Sorry - No Pictures!

2011-07-08T13:44:00.000-07:00

I can’t believe that I’ve only had the ability to update the blog once since we set sail. Internet access is spotty – that’s to be expected, I guess. We’ve tried to hit up all the free WiFi spots in the various ports we’ve visited, but carrying the laptop around gets a bit cumbersome. So, now that it is the evening of our last port visit, I’ll try to play catch-up.

We departed Malta on July 1 and sailed for Palermo, Sicily. Our original itinerary included a stop in Tunis, Tunisia. There is a huge, exotic souk in the center of Tunis that was I was looking forward to exploring. However, with the unrest in many Northern Africa countries – Tunisia being the first in the early part of this year – our port call was cancelled and Palermo was the substitute. I was very excited to visit Palermo. I had done all my reading and found that there were many of the ‘mercados’ that I love visiting. I love getting a taste of local life and the markets seem to be the best place for that.
We were warned that Palermo was an ‘iffy’ place. One step onto the wrong block in town could put one in a dangerous situation. Instead of exploring on foot, James and I opted to take the kids on a three-hour car tour that was supposed to hit most of the major points of interest. That “three-hour tour” thing should have been our first clue that we were on an ill-fated journey.
We hopped in the cab and the first thing I said to the driver was, “The kids really want to visit the catacombs, could you please take us there first?” (Of course this was done with lots of hand gestures and my very limited Italian) His reply was “Catacombs close at noon,” (it was 11AM) “I take you up the mountain.” Not a great start.
We visited the Shrine of Santa Rosita, which is literally built right into the side of the mountain. It was beautiful, and offered incredible views of the city below. From there, we visited the opera house. The steps of the opera house are where the final scene of the Godfather III film took place. (I tried to talk the girls into posing for a picture sprawled out on the steps like Michael Corleone’s dying daughter, but they just wouldn’t accommodate me!) We continued on to the beach – again, just beautiful. White sand, azure blue water, lots of fat guys in Speedos. The next stop was The Duomo (cathedral), which didn’t disappoint. Its architecture is a mix of Moorish and Italian renaissance, with touches of Spanish and French influences. It was fantastic.

We were nearing the end of our three hours and it became apparent that the kids were not going to get to see the catacombs. Our final request was that we visit a Mercado so the girls could get a shopping fix and I could find some interesting subjects to photograph. Our driver pulled to the side of the road, showed us where the market was and gave us walking directions back to the ship. Tour Over!! James said the driver made a ‘typical foreign cab driver’ point of letting him know he wanted a tip. James also said that he responded with a ‘typical American’ gesture of giving him a lousy one! All I can say is that the market was not the one we were hoping for and that Palermo looks a lot better from a cab. It is a really dirty city. I’m glad we got to see it, but I don’t think we’ll be looking forward to returning anytime soon.
I was able to post a few photos on Facebook from our visits to Naples, Rome and Florence. Naples was great because we met up with our Virginia friends who are stationed there. It was a great reunion. We enjoyed a leisurely afternoon at a pizza restaurant, thereby ticking off one item on the teenagers ‘bucket list’… Pizza in Napoli!
We spent a majority of our time in Rome touring the Vatican Museums, the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica. This was our third visit to Rome, but Hailey and Liam had never been. So, the Vatican was a ‘must see’. We also made sure that each of the kids had a chance to toss a coin into the Trevi Fountain – ensuring that they will one day return to Rome. The weather was a bit overcast, which made it an ideal day for all the walking we did. It was a long day though.
Florence was a total bust. It is such a beautiful city but it was jam packed with people. I counted 6 different cruise lines that were directing tours around the city. The lines were so long for every major attraction that we didn’t have time to tour the Duomo or Santa Croce. Heartbreaker. Most cruise ships dock at Livorno, which is about an hour train ride from Florence. Our ship, however, docked further up the coast in La Spezia. It was a 2.5-hour trip each way to Florence/La Spezia. We were up at 6AM and returned to the ship at 7:30 PM. In between, I think we walked about 20 miles! I was also terrified of losing Josie in the crowded streets.
After Florence, we were ready for a slower pace. Our stop in Corsica was the perfect remedy. Ajaccio, Corsica is one of the loveliest places we have ever visited. (It helped that my French is outstanding compared to my Italian!) The shopkeepers were friendly and very kind. We visited the outdoor market, which was just perfect! Butchers carving meat right off the bone for customers, children working along side their parents, and all took the time to explain their offerings. The city was so clean and the scenery was breathtaking. It was like taking a step back in time to a gentler way of life. James and I were really happy to just walk around and learn about the city through its monuments and lovely townspeople. Just a great experience.
Today, our final stop was Villefranche, a lovely little town that sits between Nice and Monte Carlo. James and I left the kids behind on the ship and took a short tour to the hilltop village of Eze, followed by a wine and cheese tasting in Nice. Perfect fit for us – given James is the wine drinker and I am all about the cheese! Both the wines and cheeses were made locally in Provence, so we learned a lot about the local culture while drinking/dining in a stone wine cellar that was over 500 years old!

We returned to Villefranche , grabbed the kids and walked around town for a bit. I made my second purchase of the trip when I found a lovely, locally produced ‘Country French’ tablecloth. I also picked up a few hand embroidered, monogrammed, lavender sachets. I was really happy to have found such nice mementoes of our trip.

So, we have a day at sea tomorrow (Friday) and we hop our flight home out of Barcelona on Saturday. I’m looking forward to being with my parents on the East Coast. We’ll be visiting with family and friends for the next two weeks. Can’t wait to have my Mom’s cooking!!

We're At Sea! Valetta, Malta

2011-07-02T01:24:00.000-07:00

Internet access is really limited here on board, not to mention very slow. I've posted a photo album in slideshow form with captions to explain what's going on.

The kids are having a great time. They took a 4x4 tour of Malta yesterday and returned to the ship very happy and a bit sunburned. Their driver, Allan, was "awesome". James and I roamed around checking out the historic sites. Josie stayed on board at the Oceaneer's Club where she has made many friends. It's open from 8AM - midnight and I think Josie would stay there the entire time if we let her!!

We've just docked in Palermo, Sicily and we're headed out in about 30 minutes. First stop, chosen by the kids, is the catacombs. We're told there are still skeletons there, unlike other catacombs which have evacuated their residents!

Barcelona - Last Day/Busiest Day

2011-06-28T13:55:00.000-07:00

I have quite a few photos to share, so the less I write the better...
Our Final Day in Barcelona started at 9:30AM when we boarded the Barcelona City Tour bus with the kids. I'm not usually one for grand scale tours, etc. but this was the easiest and fastest way to transport the 6 of us to multiple sites. It worked out quite well! The main attraction for all of us today was to see 'Most Things Gaudi'. We did pretty well on the Gaudi route: * Please let me know if I misidentify any of the following!

Casa Batllo

Detail: Casa Batllo

La Pedrera Apartment block

And the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) Cathedral:

Part of the Nativity Facade by Gaudi: Lots of plant and animal species depicted along with the traditional nativity scenes

Nativity facade

Kids by the Nativity facade

The Old and the New: the Cathedral is expected to be finished around 2030.

Under the animal sculptures - Nativity facade

The Passion Facade: completed in 1978 by Josep Subirachs

Judas Kiss, Christ is beaten - The crytogram on which all the numbers add up to the age of Christ at the time of his death.

Mary tends to her son's body - such sorrow on her face!

Cathedral Interior:
Very, very different but at the same time surprisingly traditional

This is a bit of an optical illusion: Use the doorframe at the lower left for reference - on the right are windows! Next photo shows the windows just about head on:

Very cool! Though it took me a while when editing my photos to figure out what I was looking at!

I took well over 100 photos at the Sagrada Familia - you'll have to come visit us in California so I can bore you with the full set ! :-)

Next on our agenda was Mt. Tibidabo. I just love saying the word Tibidabo. Makes you sound Spanish without knowing any of the language! Anyway, to get up to Tibidabo, you have to catch the Funicular. It's over 100 years old, pretty creaky but runs great. There is a trolley to take you up the steep street leading to the funicular. But, the older kids were in such a hurry to run ahead of us, that they bypassed the trolley and headed upward. About 3/4 of the way up the 30+% incline, I started hearing "Um, why didn't we take the trolley?" and "OMG, I'm sweating, how far up is this thing?!" and "You must be wrong, there is no way that we haven't just walked all the way up Mt. Tibidabo!" One would have thought they were all dying!

James is much more likely to indulge the girls, so he found a bus stop along the way and let the kids jump on for literally the last 1/8 mile. We arrived at the funicular building in less than 2 minutes. After such hard work, they were hungry and hot! Here's the view from the restaurant where we stopped for a quick bite:

Everyone was in much better spirits after cooling off!

On the funicular: Ready to visit Tibidabo!

This is the path that the older ones thought I was making them walk! Ummm, NO.

Here's the prize: The Temple Expiatori del Sagrat Cor

The Temple of the Sacred Heart was built by Enrich Sagnier between 1902-1911. We took the elevator up the main tower and explored up high until we all started feeling a bit funny in the stomach:

By the time we finished up our tour of Tibidabo, we only had time and energy left for one more stop. This stop was all about Liam..we visited the FC Barcelona Football Stadium and checked out the stadium tour which included the team showers and spa room, the press box, the field and displays of all the clubs awards through the years. Although we didn't take as much time as we would have liked, it was still a neat thing for Liam and the girls to have experienced:

Its getting late here, and each of the kids fell asleep at one time or another in the past 4 hours. Josie went swimming with Liam, came back to the room and had her bath and proceeded to sleep right through dinner. She's just now woken up and is not happy at all with her Mom! I'll try to post one more time before we board our ship tomorrow at 12:30. Adios Amigos!

Barcelona Day 2

2011-06-27T15:56:00.000-07:00

I must be getting old... I fully expected to be up and about early this morning. When I first stirred this morning I thought it was just dawn. Turns out it was 11:45AM. Yikes! I haven't slept that late in decades! Oh well, I guess the kids were relieved to know that the full day of walking the Barri Gotic, La Rambla and the Port Vell I had planned would have to be condensed to just the major sites. It was still a very relaxing day and we all had fun.

First, La Rambla. Lively pedestrian area of shops, street performers and sidewalk cafes. Above is a photo of the kids with one of the 'moving statue' performers. Josie didn't care too much for these guys, hence every shot I have of her near one of them includes someone's leg she was hiding behind!

We left the main drag to venture off to the Placa Reial, this square features mid-19th century buildings, Gaudi designed lampposts and a beautiful center fountain depicting the Three Graces:

We left Placa Reial and headed in the direction of the Barcelona Cathedral. We roamed the narrow streets, finding beautiful churches and chapels along the way:

We also saw some really interesting shops:

Dont ask about this one unless you are looking for genital shaped candy or marital aids. (This situation arose because teenagers MUST walk at least 50 yards in front of their parent/chaperone!)

I loved these little plaques found on the walls of nearly every street in the Barri Gothic!

Finally, we reached the Barcelona Cathedral:

It was just about 7PM when we left the Cathedral, We returned to La Rambla and walked down to the base of the avenue to the Placa del Portal de la Pau:

After exploring the waterfront for an hour or so, we took the bus (yes, I figured out not only how to use connecting bus routes but also how to identify the 'express' routes!) back to the hotel and enjoyed a late (10:45PM) dinner. The older kids hit the pool after dinner and now I think everyone is back in the room and getting tucked in. Good thing too... it's about 1:45AM Tuesday and we're scheduled on the 9:15 shuttle later this morning!

!Hola! From Barcelona

2011-06-26T16:46:00.000-07:00

Our flight from New York to Barcelona went smoothly. We departed at 9:00 PM and arrived in Spain at 10:30AM. The kids were exhausted, as was I...sleep on airplanes is impossible. In an attempt to reset all our body clocks, I forced the kids to go to the pool upon arrival at our hotel. It was a beautiful, sunny day - about 85 degrees. I heard a lot of belly aching, but once they were at the pool they enjoyed the refreshing dip. We stayed at the pool for an hour then headed up for a 4 hour nap.

My plan was to take the kids to Montjuic, an historic area that features museums, gardens and even a castle. It was also the site of the 1992 Olympics. We were going to have a leisurely evening walking Montjuic, have a late dinner and then return to the hotel.

As is the case with the best laid plans, everything went wrong. We took the bus into town to the Placa d' Espanya, the recommended entryway to Montjuic. I noticed within 2 minutes that we had left off at the site of the 2011 Pride Espanya celebration. Back in the US this is called Gay Pride Weekend/Celebration. We harbor no bias in our family, so it wasn't a problem per se. Our two biggest problems were 1) trying to keep hold of Josie in the crushing crowd and 2) dealing with the disappointment of Maddie and Hailey who had dressed their best to enjoy their first night in Barcelona, only to realize it was Cousin Liam who was getting all the attention from the handsome men in attendance!

We walked through the festival headed toward the Poble Espanyol. This is a village reconstructed from a mix of famous buildings and street throughout Spain. It features artisans in residence, bars, restaurants and what was supposed to be an impressive array of artisan demonstrations. The information I had stated that the 'village' closed at 2AM. We arrived at 10:30PM and were turned away because they were closing. Oh well. James, Josie and I had no problem with rearranging the evening and began searching for a sidewalk tapas restaurant where we could all enjoy a meal while people watching. Maddie, Liam and Hailey were less thrilled with the change of events - all were eager to see the the beautiful views they were promised at Montjuic.

Hailey and Liam enjoy their first sip of Sangria.

A delicious dinner seem to cheer all. It was after midnight when we finished dinner so we headed to the bus stop to catch our ride back to the hotel. Second big mistake in my planning process was failing to realize that the regular buses stop running at 11:30PM. I figured out which 'night bus' got us closest to the hotel (The airport express) and we would then take a cab from the airport to our hotel which was about 5 mins from the airport. The three oldest looked at me like I was nuts... "Why not just take a cab from downtown to the hotel?" Short answer: "Barcelona cabs, by law, are only permitted to carry 4 passengers at a time. We are a group of 6". We much preferred taking the bus and then paying only for the short trip from the airport to the hotel in two cabs.

Anyway, the plan worked fine . We got back safely and I can hear the older kids laughing in the room next door. So, not so a bad of a start. Tomorrow I expect that everyone's body clocks will be back in order so we can enjoy a full day touring Barcelona. Until then...

La 'Dolce' Vita

2011-06-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Maddie's boyfriend, Israel, got a new puppy yesterday. Her name is Dolce. She is an 8 week old Pit Bull Terrier. She is the sweetest little thing you have ever seen!!! Since Israel had to work today and his younger brothers are still in school, we volunteered to 'babysit' the precious girl so she wouldn't be all alone on her first full day away from her dog family.

Its no secret that we are 100% dog lovers. We take great joy in having our two Jack Russells - but we were worried about how our spoiled dogs would react to the puppy. Carson, always the most protective of our two, took to Dolce right away. He wouldn't sleep last night until we let him into Maddie's room. It was an adorable sight that greeted me this morning... Maddie dead asleep, Dolce laying with her back up against Maddie's stomach, arms/paws outstretched and Carson - asleep at Maddie's feet. So sweet!

James and I are up early most days. This morning, the whole house was up at 6:15. Dolce needed to go outside and then have something to eat. She still had her 'puppy smell' from the breeder's place, so we gave her a much needed bath. She wasn't too happy about it, but she smelled like a little girl at the end! Truly Love at First Sight for the whole family. I miss her already!

Around the House

The exterior painting is complete and the gardens are in full bloom! Here's how it looks:

We're spending the weekend getting ready for our vacation. On Thursday, we fly to Philadelphia. On Saturday we fly overnight to Barcelona. Three days of fun sightseeing before we board our ship for a 10 night adventure. We'll visit Malta; Palermo, Sicily; Napoli, Roma and Firenza; then on to Corsica; and our final stop will be Villefranche, on the French Riviera.

After our cruise, James will return home but the girls and I get to stay at the beach at my parent's house for an additional couple of weeks! Can't wait!! I've covered all my bases so I can fully relax while we're away... We have a very large Czechoslovakian friend (really!) and his wife housesitting in our absence. The dogs will be spoiled rotten and I will have peace of mind. Ahhhhhh, I can taste the sangria already...!!!

I'm planning to update the blog at each port call, so check back to see how we make out!! Love to All !

Yosemite

2011-05-29T16:57:00.000-07:00

We high-tailed it out of town on Thursday afternoon in an attempt to beat the holiday traffic on our way up to Yosemite. Of course, there's no getting around L.A. traffic... It turned our 5 hour trip into a 6.5 hour journey. Upon arrival, we figured out it was well worth the wait. It was 43 degrees when we arrived at the Tenaya Lodge. The valet attendants had two fires burning to warm us as we jumped out of the car. The air smelled lovely - all piney and fresh!

We were really fortunate to plan our trip when we did. Yosemite had experienced an unprecedented winter. Record snowfalls and the subsequent melt had produced raging waterfalls - the likes of which had not been seen in a generation. Everyone we met talked excitedly about the beauty we were going to experience the following morning.

Our lodge was one mile from the south entrance of Yosemite. The closest attraction to the South Entrance is the Mariposa Grove- giant Sequoia trees for as far as the eye could see. The photo above is of the girls on a fallen Sequoia. I had no idea that Sequoia trees need fire to reproduce - once we learned that fact, it explained why so many of the trees had char marks on their massive trunks. I have to hunt down James' photos of the Grove because my photos didn't turn out great - I was messing around too much with the settings on my camera and most were overexposed...

After a 2 mile hike through the Grove, we backtracked to the South entrance and made our way into the heart of the park along Wawona Road. We pulled off the side of the road about 7 miles in when we saw this small waterfall:

Last year, this would have been a small trickle of water along Alder Creek. It was our first indication that what everyone had been saying was true - we were in for some beautiful sightings! Also, the Park Service announced that (Friday) morning that Glacier Ridge Road, usually closed from early October until early June, was going to open at noon. We passed about 50 cars lined up at the gate to road around 10:30AM and decided to hit Glacier Ridge on our way back out of the park. We continued on the Wawona Road toward Yosemite Valley - the heart of the National Park.

Our next stop was Inspiration Point. It is a massive granite outcrop that (if you hop over the wall and climb down some smaller rocks) offers an impressive view of the Yosemite Valley. At this stop, we found out that Josie LOVES rock climbing! I would never have guessed - she is soooo NOT our daredevil child!!

On the rocks at Inspiration Point

On the right is Bridal Veil Falls, on the left Half Dome and El Capitan.

Another view from Inspiration Point

We went through a tunnel that connected the Wawona Road (Rt.41) to the Southside Drive. As soon as you exit the tunnel there is another viewing area. Breathtaking is the only word I can use and it seems an understatement...

Here, it looks like Josie is propped up against a fake background! It was just so beautiful!

I thought this shot offered a bit of perspective... How incredible is this view?!

We made our way into Yosemite Village to park the car and take the hike up to the Lower Yosemite Falls. (1 mile loop) We found the wildlife to be quite at home in the village:

Seems even the deer know to use the crosswalks!

Yosemite Falls was raging!! You could hear and feel the rumble of the water hitting the rocks long before getting near.

We took quite a few photos at the base of the falls, but the spray was overwhelming - my camera was nearly soaked! After viewing the Falls, drying off and grabbing a light lunch we headed back toward the South Entrance with a planned stop at Glacier Point. ( We didn't know it until late Saturday, but we truly were very, very lucky to get up to Glacier Point - the park rangers closed Glacier Point Road on Friday night and it didn't reopen... Snow was falling on Saturday night and as we left on Sunday morning!)

Taken from Washburn Point (elev. ~6700ft)

Washburn Point

We finally made it to Glacier Point (elev. 7214 FT):

Yosemite Valley floor as seen from Glacier Point

There was still about 8-10 feet of snow on the side of Glacier Point Road as we made our way back down and headed home - it was about 7PM and we had a really full day!

On Saturday, our pace was much slower. The traffic in the park had increased about ten-fold due to the holiday visitors. We planned to take the gentle hike to Mirror Lake/meadow and then have lunch at the beautiful Ahwahnee Hotel. Again, because of the record snowfall and melt, Mirror Lake was not offering reflective views. The usually still and slow moving waters were raging - but it was a beautiful sight.

Here, my Daredevils return from climbing a rock... James does not set a good example!

And finally, just a few shots taken while we were waiting to be seated for lunch: (the weather turned quite chilly and windy soon after... glad I took these while the weather was still nice)

Yosemite Falls from the Ahwahnee Hotel

As I mentioned above, it was snowing when we left our hotel at 7:30 this morning. When we pulled in the driveway here around 1PM it was 70 degrees and sunny. Just a small indication of how incredibly diverse the geography of California is. Until next time... :-)

House Painting 101

2011-05-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

"The Jordans" ( first and second on right) and their crew

Over the past 11 years we have lived in 4 states and bought/sold 5 houses. This is the first time that we have ever had the exterior of our home painted. Our house here in California is a typical Spanish style house. It has a stucco exterior, curved tile roof and wood facia trim. We've lived here for a bit under 2 years so it was time to update the ONLY white house in our neighborhood.

The color of the house is regulated by the Home Owners Association. We were limited by the color palate for not only our style of home but in which subdivision of the overall community we reside. I cheated a bit with the color selection... our neighbors Steve and Lori had their house painted in the same palate just a month ago. (They have the only other Spanish style house on our cul de sac.)

Back in March, we were solicited by two young men we now refer to as "The Jordans". They are college students who have their own house painting business . They dropped off an information sheet, a list of references and photos of their completed works. They followed up with a phone call and a visit to the house for a no cost/obligation estimate. James said he would much rather have our money go to kids working their way through college as opposed to a commercial painting company. We signed a contract with them in April and they followed up in early May with a proposed schedule, color chips and a walk-through of the process.

The Jordans and their crew arrived on time (6:30AM!) on Tuesday morning. They conducted a safety drill with all the workers before beginning work - ladders, ropes, harnesses - the works. I was so very impressed with their professionalism. They kept me informed on what was expected to be completed each day, on an hour by hour basis. This really made me feel secure in our decision to hire College Works... On the other hand, Maddie and Hailey were absolutely thrilled to leave and come home to all the 'eye candy' each day! :-)

Here's a few before and after photos of the work that is still in process:

Before - the house looked dated and was the only white house in our subdivision

Safety Instruction and actual painting began in the backyard

Back of house

Matt starts on the side of the house

This was a tricky area. The ladder couldn't be angled much because of the garden wall. Matt handled this part like a pro!

End of Day Two (my camera setting was off, so it looks REALLY yellow!)

Cameron preps the courtyard.

Courtyard, End of Day Two

Believe it or not, the work will be finished today. The boys will perform a walk-though and inspection of all the work before a check is written. If you live in Souther California, call these guys!

Anyway, we're headed out later on this afternoon for our weekend trip to Yosemite. We're staying in the southern part of the massive park in an area called Fish Camp. Weather is supposed to be nice. Low to mid 60s during the day, into the low/mid 20s at night. Brrrrrr. I'm ready for some chilly weather!

Coming Up for Air

2011-05-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

Josie and Maria enjoying a visit to Carl's in Fredericksburg.

I've been absent for a while... When things are going 'not great' or get really hectic, I tend to go underground for a bit. This has been the case for past few months. I've not had a chance for reflection or updating the blog because there's been a Perfect Storm of events demanding my attention. I'll try to remember everything that has gone on so I can update everyone on what's kept me away...

In early April, my husband was kind enough to send me and Josie back to the East Coast for a few days. It was a hastily planned trip, with little time to arrange visits with friends and family. We arrived late on Tuesday, April 5th at BWI airport. On Wednesday, we drove down to Fredericksburg to visit with our friends from Josie's preschool. We spent a lovely day with Jamie and her girls. Other friends that we had hoped to see were busy - short notice on our visit and other life events have a way of getting in the way.

I had contacted my friend (HS classmate/Annapolis roommate/BFF) Karen to see if we could squeeze in a quick lunch or drink somewhere. I was shocked to learn that Karen had been in a horrific, head-on collision the Friday before our arrival. She was going in for surgery while we were in town, so I made sure that I had all day Friday to devote to a visit with her. Upon my arrival at her house, I found her to be in good spirits - bruised and battered, but mobile. She handed me the police report from the accident investigation which (Karen had warned me...) read like a novel.

A teenager had stolen his parents mini-van and run away from home. He and some friends were partying while driving and smashed into Karen's car head-on. (Karen was returning home from work. It was nearly midnight) The driver and his passengers bailed out of the van and took off. It was another driver who witnessed the accident who rendered aid to Karen and called 911. The EMTs who responded to the call told Karen that her BMW had saved her life - and they were right. The BMW has two front airbags for the driver - one deploys from the steering wheel to protect the upper body and head. The other deploys below the steering column, preventing the driver's legs from being crushed as the frame absorbs the impact of the crash. This was the life-saver for our 6 foot tall Karen! I'm happy to report that her beautiful legs remain intact! The impact of the collision, along with the airbag deployment caused a few facial bones to break. It was frightening to see the amount of blood on the airbags. I'm so thankful that my dear friend lived to tell the story...

During our visit to Maryland, my sister Suzanne drove down from Philadelphia with my nephews Zach and Liam. It really was a great effort - Suzanne missed work and the boys missed school just to visit with us. It was really great to see them and their visit really lifted our spirits. We were able to share a fun family dinner with our parents and Claudine - who was so wonderful to host Josie and me during our stay.

We returned to California on Saturday April 9th. We hit the ground running as James had planned a belated birthday celebration for the girls at Club 33.

In mid-April we were thrilled to meet up with James' brother, Rich and his family, at Disneyland. Josie loved having her cousins on hand to ride the rides and go to the Princess Faire for storytime. Later in the evening, Maddie joined all of us for a big family dinner at Naples.

Maddie with cousins Alicia and Zoe

Alicia, Zoe and Josie listen to the electric violinist

During this time, Maddie was wrapping up her SAT Prep course and taking both the SAT and ACT. Such a stressful time for her. As a parent, there's little one can do to help. There is so much pressure nowadays on students who want to go to college. It seems to have changed so much since I was in High School. The guidance counselor at Maddie's school had her convinced that only kids with 4.0+ GPA and outstanding SAT scores would be accepted to college. I had to spend a lot of time talking her down off the ledge - assuring her that there is a college for everyone. Why must these 'professionals' lead kids to believe that anything less than perfection is a failure? Very frustrating for me given Maddie has a solid GPA and scored well enough on the SAT and ACT to meet the entry requirements for the colleges on her 'Wish List'.

I tend to take on the anxiety that my children are experiencing - how could any Mom not?! Maddie has been working so hard to maintain her GPA this semester - she has both Chemistry and Geometry, which demand so much of her effort. I know this story can be told by every parent of a high schooler... it's mentally exhausting for me.

In addition to all the college prep drama, we have been preparing for two big trips that we will be taking in the next few weeks. We will be spending Memorial Day weekend (and our 11th wedding anniversary!) at Yosemite. Josie is very excited about "going hiking" and I am looking forward to finally holding my camera again. James and girls gave me a new Wide Angle Zoom lens for Mother's Day and I'm very excited to start playing with it!

Once the girls are out of school (late June for Josie) we will be heading to Barcelona, Spain. We'll stay in Barcelona for a few days before embarking on an 11 night Disney cruise. We'll be visiting our favorites again (Rome & Florence) and checking out some new places (Malta, Corsica, Sicily). We haven't been in the Mediterranean since 2007 so we're all really excited to be returning. Our nephew Liam and Maddie's friend Hailey will be joining us on this adventure. We'll return to the US in July and stay on the East Coast until August.

Anyway, that's about it for now. Fingers crossed, I'll be posting some beautiful photos from Yosemite and beyond in the coming weeks. Thanks for checking in on us.

Josie Turns 6 and Playing Hookie!

2011-03-18T11:52:00.000-07:00

Our precious Josephine turns 6 years old today! She's been counting down the days since February! A funny thing about Josie is that she equates getting older with getting taller. So, before she did anything this morning, she insisted that James and I measure and mark her height on the 'measuring wall'. Turns out she was right! We last measured Josie on 8/10/2010. Since then she has grown 7/8 of an inch! She was so proud of herself! Of course, she still weighs less than 40 pounds... I think the last time she was on the scale it showed 37.5 lbs.

Our loved ones didn't disappoint - showering Josie with beautiful cards, gifts and $$$ for her college fund. She received a toy and clothing from her Gung-Gung and MaMa; Books, clothes and a Barbie doll from Mom & Dad; Barbie Fairy Friends from her big sister; a beautiful cookie bouquet from Uncle Chalie, Aunt Kim (Josie's Godmother) and cousins Kate & Jack; a Diva Dogs creative set from Aunt Mary, Uncle Nick & Ryan; and the highly coveted "Barbie, A Fairy Secret" movie and doll from Grandmom & PopPop!

To start the birthday celebration in the proper fashion, we played hookie from school on Wednesday and headed to Palm Desert. Our dear friends, Nick and Mary, visit this time each year for vacation. They invited us to join them, Nick's parents and their son, Ryan at the villa they have in Palm Desert. It's a beautiful golf course community - so lusciously green and peaceful. The pool area is just steps away and had every amenity one could wish for! Here's the view from the pool:

We don't see enough of our Massachusetts friends- so we jumped at the chance to prolong our time together. It's a quick 2 hour drive to Palm Desert. We would have gladly driven twice the distance to have such a wonderful time being together!

Needless to say, the girls adore their Aunt Mary. She has a really special relationship with each of the girls. It's really special to watch them in action:

We haven't had Josie's Official Birthday Party (with her friends) yet. I guess I'd better get on that soon - Maddie's birthday is on March 29th and I'm sure she has all kinds of plans that I have yet to hear about!

Mold Remediation Begins!

2011-03-14T14:53:00.000-07:00

It's sobering to see how much damage a [pin-hole size] leak in a water line can cause. Today, the mold remediation team began the removal of the drywall in the effected area of our family room. The wall was dry and solid to the touch. When the restoration company brought in a moisture meter, however, it told a different story. I was informed that mold forms after just a two or three day period once a pipe springs a leak. We estimated that this leak went undetected for about 2 1/2 months. I don't EVEN want to imagine what the inside of that wall looked like.

The set up began today at 9:15AM. I took Josie to school and then dropped the dogs off at the Vet's office to be boarded for the day. Since there was nothing I could do at home, I met up with my friend, Allison for a coffee talk. When I returned home a bit before noon this was the full set up:

This containment area will be in place for the whole week. There are two huge 'air scrubbers' in place. One is inside the containment area and one is in the kitchen. They are metal boxes that measure 3 feet long and stand about 2 1/2 feet high. They run 24/7 and will be in place until Thursday. The team will return tomorrow morning to do another anti-mold treatment. On Wednesday, an independent testing company comes in to certify that all the mold has been removed. Once that certification is filed with the Restoration company, the tent can come down. Then, the repair phase begins....

I'd Like to Return to Our Regularly Scheduled Life...

2011-02-26T12:32:00.000-08:00

I'll get the cuteness right up front, as my sweet Josie and her friends have been one of the only sources of joy for the past few weeks! There's been a lot going on here and most of it hasn't been great. I'm really not complaining - I believe that all the happenings are just a part of normal, everyday life. While most of the activity has kept me away from blogging or doing my genealogy research, it's not earth shattering or difficult.

Josie continues to blossom in kindergarten. Her teachers have identified her as being above grade level expectations in Math. So, I've been supplementing her weekly homework with Grade 1 Math workbooks to keep her interested. I'm not a Tiger Mom, so we work on the books whenever she voices an interest. She has also advanced quite quickly with her piano instruction. Her teacher recently switched from a duets book to one that has Josie playing with two hands. I'm quite impressed with my little one, because I have no talent musically or mathematically...it seems almost magical to me how she seems to just 'get it'.

Last weekend, we made the long overdue trip up to the Sacramento area to see James' parents new house. They have been commuting between their residence in Lancaster - out by Edwards AFB - to the newly built house for the past 6 months. It's a grueling task - a 7 hour drive each way between the two. James' Dad is retired from his job as an engineer at the Rocket Propulsion Lab at Edwards, so all of their retirement services (healthcare facilities, etc) are located in Lancaster. We, along with James' brothers and their wives, have been trying to persuade Mom & Dad to start scheduling these long standing appointment to a facility closer to their new home. I'm sure all of you who try to persuade parents to do anything can empathize with us!

Anyway, the house is lovely. It has beautiful stone work on the facade and the layout is really just perfect for them. It features granite countertops, a huge island in the kitchen and a downstairs master. Very nice. They are just now getting around to planting fruit trees in the yard. We brought the traditional tangerine tree as a housewarming gift, so we look forward stealing some of that fruit in the future!

From the new house, we drove to James' youngest brother's house. Ken and Agnes, cousins Alex and Brandon live about 20 minutes away. Maddie and Alex were down with slight fevers so we decided to order out from PF Changs and shared a nice family dinner. After dinner, we drove into San Francisco. We had planned to watch the Chinese New Year parade - the largest CNY parade outside of China - but the weather just didn't cooperate. We spent Saturday shopping at Union Square, going to the Kidzeum, and then walking into Chinatown for the street fair. Once the sun started to set, it really cooled down and got very windy and rainy. We decided to skip the parade and instead headed to the North Beach section of town to grab a relaxing and delicious Italian dinner.

I didn't take my camera out once! I was really trying to focus on being in the moment and 'present' with the girls & James. It worked... we all had a really nice time together.

Maddie is really into ghost stories and supernatural phenomena so she requested to visit the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose. We met James' middle brother, Rich, and family for brunch on Sunday morning before touring the Mystery House. Josie loves being with her cousins Alicia and Zoe. Alicia is at the age (6) where she finds older kids just fascinating. So, Maddie obliged Alicia by showing her extra attention and talking about all the girlie stuff Alicia had questions about. Very cute.

The drive home was uneventful. Maddie drove a majority of the way and I rode shotgun. I finally took out my camera and tried to get a few photos of the beautiful scenery. It was difficult - moving car, cloud filled skies and darkened hills. Here are a few that turned out just okay:

On Monday (21st) I finally got around to investigating an issue with some standing water in our backyard. It seemed like a drain pipe had been leaking quite a bit for the past few months... it just never seemed to get dry in that one particular spot by our back door

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that our interior hardwood flooring was showing signs of water damage...

Time to call the plumber! I was scared to death that I had caused the leak when I hung a picture on the interior wall... I had done this once before (I hit a drain pipe in our powder room in F'burg while putting up wainscotting) and I was not looking forward to telling James I had done it again! But, thankfully, I didn't cause the leak! A pin-hole size defect in a copper supply line had been leaking - under pressure - into the wall for over 3 months!

So, the pipe got fixed. That was easiest and least expensive part of the job. Our Home Warrantee company covered the repair of the pipe, but not the associated damage. We kind of guessed that we were going to have a bit of a mold problem - everything the plumber pulled out of the wall was soaking wet, not to mention I had been seeing the water puddle outside of the house for months.

Enter: Mold remediation company. They will set up a containment area and tear out the drywall along the entire back wall of the family room:

(There's another window on the left, for a total of 3 on that back wall)

Funny thing is, the mold guys won't replace the drywall, so we have to hire a third contractor to that. Aie, Yie, Yie!! I'll let you know how this whole process goes - I have a feeling we'll be looking at wall studs for a while!

In the middle of dealing with all that mess, Maddie went in to have her wisdom teeth removed (Feb 24th). We feel blessed that it wasn't too bad for her. She doesn't have a tremendous amount of pain and suffered just a bit of swelling on the right side of her face. I followed all the surgeon's instructions regarding placing ice packs on her cheeks and giving the ibuprofen and it seems to have worked. She was able to attend her SAT prep course this morning, though she missed Thursday and Friday at school.

I'm hoping for a smoother time in the coming weeks. I'm a real stickler for schedules and routine - so I'm really out of my element right now. Fingers crossed, we'll have an uneventful and boring month of March!!

Chinese New Year - Disney Style!

2011-02-06T20:37:00.000-08:00

No real explanation or journaling needed for this post! Sunday. James & Josie. Disneyland.
(Although James did say he was really quite impressed with how elaborate the celebration was...)

We will be headed up to San Francisco again this year for the Chinese New Year Parade on February 19th. This time we'll also be visiting James' parents who have moved to the Sacramento area. We're all looking forward to the trip - there's no shortage of fun events in San Francisco - on any day!!

Gung Hay Fat Choy!!

Hello February!

2011-02-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Things here are returning to normal - whatever THAT is! My parents departed yesterday for Las Vegas and from there they will continue home to Delaware. It was wonderful to have them here. They were supposed to stay until the 19th but Mom got homesick. I fully understand her desire to be in familiar surroundings carrying on with her normal social routine. My Dad would stay here forever - he doesn't miss the snow and cold temperatures on the East Coast. He is happy where ever he is as long as he has computer access and beer in the fridge.

My parents took a cruise to Mexico from January 22-29th. Their port call in Mazatlan was cancelled due to the overwhelming violence of the drug gangs in the area. It seems there are fewer and fewer safe areas in Mexico right now.

On Saturday, James and Josie picked up my parents from the ship. The Port of Los Angeles (San Pedro) is about an hour away from our home. (I was scheduled to begin a photography course that same day and Maddie was beginning her 8 week SAT Prep course.) Since they were in the LA area, James arranged for his parents to have lunch with my parents. Needless to say, Josie was spoiled rotten in the presence of both sets of her Grandparents! They enjoyed Dim Sum in LA's Chinatown and then headed back to their respective homes.

While here, my Mom took great pleasure in meeting all of Josie's friends. She commented often on how lucky Josie was to have such nice little girls to play with in such a safe area. It's true. There is little to no crime in our area and we live on a cul-de-sac - so no cars screaming down the street. As I have said before, Josie is a 100% 'Grandmom's Girl'. My Mom has endless time for and patience with Josie. They color, play cards, dress-up, and cook together. Josie cried buckets when we dropped them off at the airport yesterday.

On Sunday, James and I took my parents up to Yorba Linda to the Nixon Presidential Library. I remember seeing Nixon resign on TV the summer before I turned 12 years old. Obviously, at that age, I did not understand the magnitude of the situation. I have to say that the curators of the Library had a challenge on their hands... How to frame all the good of a presidency that ended in disaster. It was well done and a beautiful tribute to a complex man.

And finally, I'd like to ~~strangle~~ thank my sister, Suzanne for overriding my parental authority and giving Maddie a gift certificate to have her ears double pierced and cartilage pierced.

I was especially thrilled with the accompanying card which promised a belly-button piercing for her 18th birthday. OMDB - (Over My Dead Body) is heard often in conversations between my daughter and I... She takes great comfort in having two 'cool' Aunts (don't EVEN get me started on Aunt Claudine!) helping her with her 'lame' Mother! HA! I am sooooo glad that Suzanne's son, Liam, will be coming with us on summer vacation this year ... paybacks are hell!!

Busy Me

2011-01-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

I haven't had a lot of 'quiet time' to work on the blog for the past few weeks. As expected, my parents arrived on January 4th. My Mom wasted no time in scheduling a whole bunch of "projects" to occupy our time. My Dad, who takes a much more laid back approach to visiting, has kept himself busy in different ways.

The first two days of my parent's visit was spent adjusting their body clocks to California time. The weather has been superb, with temperatures in the 70's and 80's. My parents have been taking advantage of the warmth with daily walks - taking a favorite nature trail along the nearby protected Canyon ridge. There have been many reported sightings of coyote, mountain lions and beautiful Golden Hawks in the area, though they haven't run into any of these creatures... yet!

One of the first "projects" my Mom and I tackled was refinishing our patio furniture. Though we prepared well for the task, it took a lot longer than expected. Our glass top table is unique - it is rectangular in shape and can comfortably seat 8. It was a rare find when we purchased it back in 1998. (At that time, Hechingers was going out of business and we got an awesome deal!). We had to drive to 3 different stores to procure the matching chairs. The set has been moved to 5 different homes and really needed to be freshened up. We sanded, primed and painted the table trim, legs and all 6 chairs in one day. It was a long day!! Results were great, though:

My Mom was also on hand to see the "fruition" of her efforts from her last visit... We had planted a lemon tree in a container last November. When we had the sprinkler system and sod installed last April, I moved the tree from the container to a small planting area in the backyard. We're finally seeing lemons on the tree which made my Mom nearly squeal with delight!

Josie has been absolutely overjoyed to have her Grandmom here. Everyday she custom orders her breakfast: pancakes, yokey eggs, bacon, english muffins - you name it, Grandmom makes it! They play cards together in the afternoon, arrange Josie's stuffed animal collection, and generally just hang out together. My Mom is totally taken with Josie's friends who are at the house every afternoon. They play outdoors until it gets dark and Mom loves taking out little snacks and drinks to them while they play.

Maddie had finals this past week so she was really hitting the books. She did manage to squeeze some time for mischief with her Pop-Pop though. The two of them have always been as thick as thieves - and my Dad takes great pleasure in having Maddie chauffeur him around in her car. No complaints from anyone as they always return with Maddie's gas tank having been filled up by Pop and some extra change jingling in her pocket! My Dad is also loving the fact that the football games start at 10AM out here. Although, his usual routine of having a beer while he watches the game seems a bit inappropriate at that time of day!

Mom has helped me execute a few of the plans I had on hold, waiting for her input. I found some decorative items for the kitchen that I wasn't sure about... she thought they were nice so I went ahead with them. She also motivated me to get the upstairs hallway squared away. I had all the items (tables, original watercolor paintings we purchased in China and a few of my framed photographs from our trip to China in 2006) and I had an idea of how I wanted to use them. My Mom just jumps right in and says "Well, if you don't like it, you can always change it". Right she is!

The top photo is what my desk looked like this morning - covered with all the things I still need to get to... returning the Ariel princess shoes that are too small for Josie; putting photos on CDs for my sister and my sister-in-law; scanning the kids award certificates and other important documents; flight arrangements for our summer vacation (can I just tell you that airfare prices for the summer are RIDICULOUS!!!); and filing of my genealogy records. My cousin, Liz, in Sheffield, England just sent a package of photos to me this week. More lovely photos of my Grandmom in her youth - which I just love having. I have to get them scanned and then get the photos and documents entered into my REUNION software.

My parents left yesterday on a 7 day cruise from LA to Mexico. They've not taken a cruise in a few years and they really splurged with a mini-suite for this trip. We were all so excited for them and I know they are going to have a great time.

I will enjoy having my computer and plenty of 'quiet time' this week... maybe I can knock out a few of my tasks and get my desk cleared off a bit! I'll let you know how I make out! 'Till next time... Have a great week!

A Visit That Made My Heart Sing!

2011-01-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Last Night we had a wonderful visit with our friends, Tom & Marlene. It had been about 10 years since we sat in the same room and shared so many laughs. Tom & Marlene are in California to escape the cold of St. Louis. I believe they are golfing their way up the coast from San Diego - then heading to Palm Desert for more golfing and visiting. I think their trip should be called the Tom & Marlene Reunion tour! They are visiting so many friends along the way - Tom's logistical prowess is really being put to use!

I met Tom & Marlene when I was waiting tables in Annapolis, MD. They had been visiting the United States Naval Academy - their daughter Megan had been accepted to the Academy and they were getting the lay of the land. We struck up a conversation as I took their order. I think that day we spent maybe two hours exchanging stories and laughing quite a bit. It was instant chemistry and the start of a decades long friendship.

Once Megan was through the roughest part of her plebe (freshman) year, Tom & Marlene visited Annapolis about once a month. They always came by to share time with me - if I wasn't working they would visit me at home. Back then, 'home' was my apartment with my dear friend Karen. We lived on Prince George Street, in the heart of historic Annapolis and just two blocks from the main gate of the Academy.

Through the 4 years that Megan was at the Academy, we came to know each other's families. I visited St. Louis and went to see Kelly, Tom & Marlene's younger daughter, at her college. My parents shared Sunday dinner with T&M before they would catch the late flight out of BWI for home.

When I was pregnant with Maddie, Tom & Marlene were so solid in their support and friendship - I honestly don't know what I would have done without their constant love and attention. Marlene considers Maddie "her baby" . Last night, you would have heard the squeals of delight from both of them half way down the block. Tom seemed thrilled to see Maddie so 'grown up' and I think she's now the same height as him, if not a shade taller! And, Josie took immediately to her Uncle Tom - playing piano for him and sharing her silly bandz. This is a huge deal in our house, as our Josie is the most reserved child with those she doesn't know well.

Tom & Marlene are now the grandparents of 5 beautiful souls: Megan and her husband, Chuck have Patrick, Brendan and little Colleen. Kelly and her husband, Steve, have two daughters - Peyton, who is the same age as Josie, and Taylor. I can't tell you how much I adore my extended Midwest family! I can guarantee that the girls and I will be visiting St. Louis soon. Aunt Marlene would like Maddie to see some Mid West colleges and Josie MUST share some Princess Time with Peyton, Taylor and 'Sunny'!!

Josie's meltdown at about 8:15PM marked the end of our visit. Poor child didn't have a nap and was up at 5:30AM. She really was upset and told me directly, "Nobody is paying attention to me!" Ooops! There goes that Mother of Year Award again :-(

Visiting the Rose Parade Floats

2011-01-02T18:53:00.000-08:00

We were up bright and early this morning to make the hour drive up to Pasadena to see the floats featured in the Tournament of Roses parade. The clouds were dark and threatening to rain. Temperature was about 43 degrees and we saw snow on the distant mountaintops. It was a beautiful drive.

We watched the parade from the comfort of home yesterday. I have to say that one cannot fully appreciate the beauty of the floats (even HD!) until you see them up close and personal. The attention to detail is astounding. I tried to capture some very close shots so that the details could be seen. These are some of my favorites from the visit:

Anheuser-Busch float

HGTV Dream House float

Only one organization provided this type of chart... I really enjoyed locating each of the species used on the float.

City of Beverly Hills float detail - Spectacular!

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-26T20:02:00.000-08:00

Santa was so very good to us this year! James and I decided early in the season that we would ease back a bit on our Christmas activities. This was our first Christmas in California. Last year we flew home as soon as the kids were out for Winter Break. This year we stayed put. Although I really missed the 'big' family Christmas, having a small "just the four of us" Christmas wasn't so bad. There was no rushing around or shipping Santa gifts. No cold weather and we actually baked the cookies for Santa ourselves!

Josie had us up at 5:45AM. She crawled into our bed, put her face right up to mine and said, "Mom, I think Santa came here. I saw only two cookies on the plate we left him and the milk is all gone!" James groaned, rolled out of bed and went downstairs to put on some lights. Most importantly, he started a pot of coffee! Maddie, who has never been a morning person, managed a smile for Josie when we sent her in to wake up her big sister.

Santa left Josie a new pair of ballet shoes in her stocking!

Josie thinks Maddie's "Slingshot Underwear" is hilarious! Josie picked them out for Maddie all by herself... it was VERY hard for her to keep these secret from her big sister!

Santa (Maddie!) also left me a pair of thong underwear! This is wrong on so many levels, I won't even start....

Hailey and her Mom, Jane came by for a visit on Christmas night. We are lucky to have found such wonderful friends here.

Notes from the Roadtrip:

We had been thinking about taking a trip to the Central California coast for a few months... Promising ourselves we'd get around to it during the winter break. The plan was to take our time with the drive and follow our fancy. Well, the rains here in Southern California kept us indoors for nearly 7 days. By Wednesday, we were ready to bust out - cabin fever stinks!

Many of Maddie's classmates' homes suffered terrible damage in the storm. One of her girlfriends posted a video of the furniture floating in 4 feet of water in their home... she was also filming when they lost power and were evacuated by the Fire Department. Very scary. We did not suffer any loss or flooding. Our community here was built only 10 years ago and the developers really did a great job with irrigation design.

Here are some photos from the roadtrip that I didn't post to FB:

The Drive:

After stopping at Meridian Winery for a tasting, we took a tour of Hearst Castle. We chose the "Experience" tour which included an IMAX film about the inspiration for and building of the Castle. Very cool.

We drove about 40 minutes south of San Simeon and stayed in San Luis Obispo for the night. We enjoyed a delicious dinner at the Creekside Brewery in the quaint downtown. We walked around a bit and then headed back to the hotel. The kids and James were asleep within 30 minutes. I was able to stay up until 10PM!

We had breakfast at a roadside diner where the pancakes were as big as your head: (really.)

We stopped in Pismo Beach to see the rugged coastline and the sea lions:

(Love this one!)

We made a longer stop in Santa Barbara. We took some time to enjoy the beach, grab some lunch and shop around town:

And finally, here's a photo of my husband in full road trip mode:

We call this his "Hey Yo Yo" look: part gangsta/part geek!

Have a Safe and Wonderful New Year celebration! To my friends and family on the East Coast: Stay Warm!

Gingerbread & Germs

2010-12-16T18:50:00.000-08:00

The granite countertops were installed in the kitchen last Wednesday. We are very happy with them. We had to leave the two-level island in, given we didn't want to get into the plumbing and reconstruction of the whole island structure. So, we extended the top level to make it more functional. Before, it was just 12" wide. Now, it's 20". It can be used for serving kids on the go or doing homework - which frees up the kitchen table for family meals. We have a painter coming for the final phase of renovation next Tuesday. All in all, a relatively painless process.

Just when the dust settled (literally!) from the granite install, Josie came down with a wicked 'bug'. She woke me up at 3AM Thursday to tell me her throat was really dry. One touch told me that she had high fever. We settled her back to bed with some ice water and some Motrin Jr. and she was able to rest until 6AM.

Josie was hoping to attend a friend's birthday party on Saturday morning, but it just didn't happen. For 5 days her fever was between 104.6 and 101. She was at her absolute worse on Saturday. She was lethargic - just not herself at all. James and I had to cancel all of our plans for the weekend. We missed a Christmas party and a lunch with two of my High School classmates who live here on the West Coast. Total bummer. But, when you're 5 years old and feeling terrible and sick - all you really want is Your Mom. So, James & I stayed home and cuddled Josie all weekend.

While she was sick, Josie did all of her homework. She practiced her penmanship. We played about 100 hands of cards, read every book she owns and built the Gingerbread house pictured above. Of course, no one will be able to eat it because she coughed all over it while we were making it :-(

Josie's fever broke about noon on Monday, but left behind a terrible cough and runny nose. I kept her home on Tuesday to be sure the fever didn't return. Wednesday was Pajama Day at school and there was NO WAY our girl was going to miss it. So, I bundled her up in her Princess pajamas and a warm coat and off she went. She had a great time in school, but when I picked her up at 12:30 she told me she just wanted some lunch and to take a nap. Today was much better. Her cough is nearly gone and we're not going through a box of tissues every 3 hours! Her girlfriends have been knocking on the door every afternoon wanting to play... Today they played nicely outdoors for an hour and a half and Josie was happy to come in for dinner. She's currently watching Finding Nemo with her big sister, waiting for her Dad to get home from a business trip.

I'll post photos of the kitchen next Thursday. The new stainless range hood is due in next week and the painter will be done his work by then. Just in time to settle in for a Long Winters Nap!

Well, I Didn't See THAT Coming....

2010-12-06T08:15:00.000-08:00

On Friday our kitchen remodeling process began in earnest. I had only 3 hours while Josie was at school to begin the removal of the hideous 6" white tile countertop in our kitchen. I have no idea why these countertops are the builder standard here in California. I would have much preferred a formica countertop instead of scrubbing every grout line, everyday. One drip of coffee on the white grout seemed to take on a life of it's own, spreading across half the countertop like a virus. I swear I have gone through a case of Tilex in the year and 4 months that we have lived here.

My first task was to remove the top level of the two tier island where our sink is. James and I thought that the two tier island was undesirable - it seemed to interfere with the flow of the room, which adjoins the 'family room'. We thought a lower profile, flat top island would not only look better, but also look bigger and be a bit more functional. As it stands, the higher tier of the island is used to collect junk... mail, toys, and the 'take upstairs' pile that seems to always be in Josie's wake.

Stage One complete in 2 hours

Stage Two, Island countertop demolition complete

The houses here are very small. Unless you want to pay $1 million for a 3000 sq.ft. house, one is resigned to make due with a smaller footprint house for a bit (and I do mean, just a bit!) less money. Since we move so much, I'm always thinking 'Resale'. I would want granite countertops in a house in our price range. I'm sure in a few years, when we sell this house, buyers will want to see them too. We're trying to update the house without losing a chance to turn a profit, so we have to invest in only those items that will give us a return on investment. Kitchen & Bathrooms are where the money is well spent.

Our house was built in 2000 and owed by the same family until 2008 when it went into foreclosure. In April of 2009, an investor bought the property at a tax sale, fixed up the interior by painting, cleaning the rugs and installing distressed, wide plank hardwood flooring on the main level of the house. James put an offer in on the house in July 2009, while the girls and I were still in Virginia saying our goodbyes and taking care of the sale of the Virginia house. We took possession of the house on August 8th of last year.

I completed the island work on my own on Friday. On Saturday, James called in the Big Guns in the form of his childhood friend, Fred. That's when the 'man-sized' tools came out and the real demolition began. Maddie was very eager to vent a bit of frustration, so Fred supervised while she pried, smashed and chiseled a good part of the remaining countertop.

The demolition uncovered two really unfortunate realities of the initial construction of our house. First, once the top tier of the island was removed we discovered the reason it was a two-tier design. There is a return pipe directly behind the sink that must be higher than the drain. So, if we want the single level island, we're going to have to get into the plumbing. That's an expense we didn't anticipate. Second surprise was behind the cooktop and along the backsplash of the full counter... It appears the original builders used a substandard drywall and an equally inappropriate, stronger bonding adhesive to install the backsplash.

All was going great until we hit the backsplash and found the drywall behind it to be the consistency of marshmallow, caving in at the slightest pressure.

This afternoon, we have a handyman coming by to repair the drywall and to give us options on what to do about the island. I'll let you know the outcome... the granite is to be installed on Wednesday. Wish us luck!!

The Holidays are Here!

2010-11-27T10:40:00.000-08:00

In the past 10 days, we've had a lot of events. Most were happy, just one sad. Not to be a downer, but I'll start with our sad goodbye to Josie's very dear friend, LoLo. LoLo was Josie's first friend at her pre-school here in California. LoLo, like the pre-school friends we left behind in Virginia, is a Hugger. We love Huggers! The girls adore each other, so this was a tough one for Josie. LoLo and her parents Ross & Leah will remain close in our hearts as they start their new life in Colorado.

James turned 49 years old on the 21st. As is our tradition, he got to pick his birthday dinner. This year he surprised us with a request for Cream of Crab Soup. I found an excellent recipe on the Old Bay Website and doctored it up a bit (added quite a bit of Sherry and other spices). We served the soup in bowls of sourdough bread. It was VERY filling and really delicious! A crisp green salad went along with the soup and of course, red velvet cake for dessert.

Disneyland switched over from Halloween to Chirstmas decorations in record time. We took Josie to see the Christmas tree on Main Street and then her favorite -"Its a Small World" -all decked out in lights. It took us 45 minutes in line to get on that darn little boat and honestly I had that song as an ear worm for the next 3 days... Torture!!

This year we decided to do a bit of local exploring for Thanksgiving. James' family was unable to make the trip to visit us and my family was gathering at my sister Suzanne's house in Philly. I certainly didn't feel the urge to spend all day cooking for just the four of us, so off we went to San Diego.

We stayed at a Marriott resort on Coronado Island which was really 'old school' but lovely. Josie loved the flamingos and ducks which had free run of the resort. Did you know that flamingos eat bread? I didn't, but found out rather quickly when Josie held a roll in her hand...

We spent Thanksgiving Day visiting the Hotel del Coronado's beachside ice skating rink. It was a bit odd, but fun. The day was sunny with temperatures in the mid 60's. It was Josie's first time on ice skates. Initially, she wasn't too thrilled with the concept but she got more brave with each trip around the rink. In the end she declared that she 'loved' ice skating.

After we took off the skates, we took a walk on the beach. Just writing that is pretty weird, but the experience is what we all deemed "Soooo California"! It really was a great time for all of us.

Being in San Diego was the perfect excuse to resist the urge to hit the 4AM Black Friday sales. Santa is going to be a bit stingy this year... 3 big presents for Maddie. For Josie, well.... We've spent the better part of the month trying to convince her that there was NO WAY Santa's sleigh could carry everything she is wishing for. Our girl does have a lovely heart though... In her letter to Santa Claus she asked him to please bring new toys to the 'poor children'. What a kid :-)

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Maddie Gets A Ring...

2010-11-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

This evening was the Junior Family Mass where Maddie and her classmates received their High School rings. The rings were blessed during the course of the mass and then given individually to each student.

We were thrilled that Maddie and her 'Gang of Four' cohorts were chosen to participate directly in the Mass through readings and offerings.

(Sorry for the blurry photo... church lighting stinks!)

Brianne, Maddie E, our Maddie and Hailey - The Gang of Four!

Josie and I sat next to Hailey's parents, Jane and Rick, during the Mass. James is out of town on business and I know he was very disappointed to miss this big event.

Jane, Hailey and Rick

Finally, never to be out of the spotlight for long - Josie had to get into the photo with the girls! They all adore each other, so I'm glad I was able to get this last shot...

It really was a beautiful celebration and it gave us a chance to count our blessings just a bit ahead of Thanksgiving.

My Husband, A Poet? I think Not.

2010-11-08T12:49:00.000-08:00

Disclaimer: James would be a blogger if he didn't already use all his spare time writing articles about cars. He is a member of the Motor Press Guild. He writes for his hometown newspaper's Auto section; Roundel BMW magazine; der Bayerische magazine; and other auto publications. He doesn't like when I edit his work, so here is his attempt at poetry in raw form. Though I pride myself in being a loving and supportive wife, I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say he should really stick with writing about cars :-)

Twas 45 Days until Christmas

And throughout Disneyland

Were lights and cameras

And lots of stagehands

Because this Sunday

Which Josie and I didn’t know

Was the day that Disney

Taped their annual Christmas Day show

There was snow of the roof

Of Sleeping Beauty’s Castle

Half the park was cordoned off

Which made walking a hassle

In front of the castle

Was a brightly lit stage

And in the middle was Selena Gomez singing

The kids screamed in gleeful rage

She and Nick Cannon shouted out to Ryan Seacrest at Disney World

Who, if you watch the E! show “Soup”

Is said to be quite short

And somewhat aloof

We saw Woody , Buzz, Ariel, and Tiana

All dressed for the cold

Carrying holiday flora and fauna

A classic look, I'm told

We thought where we stood was safe

But instead

The Queen of Hearts pushed me aside and screamed,

“Off with his head!”

Selena Gomez sang “Winter Wonderland”

And dressed for snow

But it’s 80 degrees

She needed water to complete her show

We saw seven dwarfs , Tigger.

Mary Poppins and Bert

All dressed for Christmas

The Princesses in English Holiday skirts

Instead of riding rides

We watched the Toy Story Christmas Parade

Spreading holiday cheer

On this warm Southern California Day

As we left, a Disney employee said

“Thanks for helping us create this Happy Holiday sight

For it let’s us be with our families

On Christmas Night!”

Halloween 2010

2010-11-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

Josie at the Pumpkin Festival - Cal Poly Pomona

Josie & Mom (Evil Queen & Snow White) Friday night

Maddie & Haley (Alice & Queen of Hearts) Friday night

Josie & Hailey

Pumpkin Painting - Friday night

Maddie and the Gang - Halloween

Jane (Hailey's Mom) as Cruella de Ville and the Gang

Antoinette, Brianne, Maddie, Maddie & Hailey - Halloween

James, Josie, Carson the Spartan and Casey the princess

James & Josie - Halloween

Isabella, Katie & Josie - Halloween

Calling All Golfers and 'Do-Gooders'!!

2010-10-27T10:25:00.000-07:00

A one-time-only photo of James, My Dad and my brother, Chalie on the golf course!!

I received this message from my brother yesterday. He is participating in a great event and is looking for pledges. If your life has been touched by cancer or if you know of a child who has lost a parent to cancer, please consider sponsoring Chalie in this awesome endeavor! Any amount will help!

I've sponsored him for $5 a hole... Can't wait to see if he makes it!!!

Thanks!

Dear Friends,

I hope this letter finds you well! I would like to tell you about a feat that I am undertaking on November 8, 2010. This event will take place in Charlottesville, VA in support of the UVA Cancer Center. It will be a huge challenge for me but I am up for the task and the rewards are priceless!

As you know I am an avid golfer and I'm going to be playing golf from sun up to sun down in hopes of playing 100 holes of golf. You are probably asking yourself the same question I did, why would I want to take on such a lofty goal. The answer is simple.... to help children who have a parent with late stage incurable cancer. These kids are faced with the reality of loosing their mom or dad in the very near future and I am committed to helping.

I have partnered with the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation. When you are diagnosed with late-stage, incurable cancer, you think immediately of your children. You realize the many future memories you looked forward to with your children-the birthday parties, the first crush, learning to drive, going out to the ball park, graduations, weddings & grandchildren will not be realized as they were supposed to. This is the most anguishing & distressing facet of late stage cancer, its impact on the children left behind by a parent who dies.

JAJF ensures the children and their Mom and Dad capture indispensable memories together that will be both a return to some normalcy now and a legacy to cherish. They have and are securing a wide range of"WOW! Inventory" defined as: shared family experiences such as VIP status, special access, privileged guest appearances/tours, tickets, perks, and meet and greets.

WOW! Experiences™ include resorts, award shows, concerts, professional and college sports, all-star games, The NBA Draft, PGA Tour experiences, theme parks and attractions, Broadway, etc.


	*PLEASE TAKE A MOMENT TO WATCH THIS!!!!!*

Here is a great segment by Ann Curry in a recent TODAY Show piece she did on the foundation

http://jajf.org/families/multimedia.cfm

Here's where I need your help! I am raising pledges based on the number of holes I complete this day. My goal is to play 72 holes, myself and those children who are loosing a parent would so appreciate your support.

Please click on my fundraising pledge page to make your pledge to help these families

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE

Please visit the website of the Jack & Jill Late Stage Cancer Foundation's website at www.jajf.org to learn more about the great things that are making a difference is these families lives.

Thank you,

Charley Farren

Chalie with Jack and Kate

Chalie and wife, Kim

Club 33...Shhhh, It's a Secret!

2010-10-21T18:09:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia:

Club 33 is a private club located in the heart of the New Orleans Square section of Disneyland. Officially maintained as a secret feature of the theme park, the entrance of the club is located next to the Blue Bayou Restaurant at "33 Royal Street" with the entrance recognizable by an ornate address plate with the number 33 engraved on it. When riding Pirates of the Caribbean, just as the ride departs, the Blue Bayou restaurant is visible, but the balconies above it are actually a part of Club 33. Club 33 members and their guests have exclusive access to the club's restaurant, and the premises are not open to the public at large. It is the only location within Disneyland to offer alcoholic beverages.

Now, before you go getting the idea that we are the type of people who would pay $10,000 a year to eat at a restaurant... We are not. The (private) company that James is employed by does offer some nice perks. Use of the membership of Club 33 is one of them. Dining at the Club was a unique experience, very hush-hush and secret handshakish (new word!)

A dinner reservation at Club 33 includes a complimentary 1 day park-hopper pass for Disneyland and California Adventure for each person in the party. The first thing diners are made aware of is the fact that no entree on the menu at the Club is priced below the cost of a day's entrance to Disneyland. Best to be forewarned, wouldn't want anyone choking when they see that the 'kids meal' (which consists of fruit salad, 3 chicken fingers, fries and a dessert) is $59.00 !!!

Our dinner at the Club was a belated birthday gift for me from James. We brought the girls and they each brought a guest.
We chose the Chef's Menu:

Forest Mushroom Vol au Vent Spiced Mango Cream
Rock Lobster, Tree Ripened Peach Risotto, Charred Asparagus
Braised Chateaubriand Medallions, Maui Onion Consomme
Regional Artisan Cheese
Lemon Creme Fraiche raspberry Gateau, Milk Chocolate Ice Cream

The Rock Lobster Second Course

The Chateaubriand Third Course

Special kids dessert - vanilla cake, chocolate ice cream, chocolate fudge icing, edible Mickey face

We'll be going back to Club 33 when my parents come for their visit in January. I'm sure they'll love it as much as we did!

My 30 Year High School Reunion

2010-10-20T10:46:00.000-07:00

I'm wondering how this could have happened... Going to my 30 year High School reunion when mentally, I'm still about 18.

For most of the summer I busied myself with preparations for the reunion. One would think this meant a crash diet, some laser work around the eyes or a few Botox shots. But, no! For me this meant sitting in front of my computer, getting reacquainted with some old classmates.

I really haven't met too many people who can claim that their high school experience was terrific. The teen aged years are fraught with insecurities - trying to find one's place in a group, a school, a community... the world. I was no different. Outwardly, I guess I did all the 'right things'. I kept reasonably good, but not stellar, grades. I was a cheerleader. I was the Photography editor of my yearbook. I kept out of trouble.

I transferred to Old Mill High School in December of 1976, having spent grades 1-8 at Maternity BVM grade school and the beginning of my Freshman year at Archbishop Ryan High School for Girls (Philadelphia). Public school was overwhelming for me. For the first time ever, I had to have clothes to wear to school. I never thought I would wish for a school uniform, but those first few weeks at Old Mill I cried for my solid blue jumper and Peter Pan collared shirts!! I missed my friends in Philadelphia terribly and was devastated when their letters stopped coming or when they arrived containing details of how life was going on there without me.

In Maryland, the neighborhood kids tortured me. I was a 'city slicker' (really.) Apparently, they also had some imaginary source of information about me before I arrived... my 'reputation' was assailed almost immediately. I was constantly ridiculed for my 'accent'. This, from a bunch of hicks who didn't wear socks with their shoes! (My Dad nearly died laughing when he saw Docksiders worn with no socks - never really understood why he found it amusing but he used it as evidence of being surrounded by bumpkins all the time!) But, time moved on. I made some nice friends, became active in school activities and just prayed for it all to end quickly.

I was so pleased when, over the course of the summer, I came to know my former classmates as some truly outstanding human beings. Turns out, they suffered some of the same indignities as I did. They felt the same sense of befuddlement and alienation. They turned out great. I guess I did too.

Once I accepted that I was not the 128 pound 17 year old cheerleader anymore, I began to really enjoy getting in touch with old friends. I had no judgement for my female friends who had put on weight or male friends who were losing their hair. I just loved them... really just adored all of them. I was really happy to be in their presence for those few hours on Oct 9th.

Pictured above is me and Chip. We have been friends for 30+ years. He has always been a source of fun, laughter and general mischief for me. We were on the yearbook staff together and generally ran in similar circles. We've kept in touch for all these years with quick visits squeezed in when we were both in the same area. His Mom, Kay, is still one of my most favorite people in the world. I loved watching him become a Dad with his incredible daughter, Grace. He's a keeper. He was one of the people I spent a good part of the summer working with on the reunion. He will be one of the people who shares all the happy times to come.

Here are a some photos and details from the reunion:

This is Laura, who was the driving force behind the reunion. I spent more time laughing with Laura than I have with any other person in years. In high school we ran in the same general crowd and were on the yearbook staff together. I didn't know her well then, but I adore her now. I miss talking/emailing with her everyday. From this point on, all trips to the East Coast will HAVE to include visits with Laura and her family. She's another keeper, can't imagine not having her in my life from here on in...!

This is Karen and Deb. Both have been my dear friends for 30+ years too. Karen and I were roommates in Annapolis for a number of years in the early 90's. We carried on like sisters for the longest time... we fought, we shared, we worked together. For most of the past 30 years though, we have been staunch allies and the best of friends. Deb has been a near constant in my life for 30+ years as well. We double-dated midshipmen together, attended each other at our weddings, celebrated the birth of our daughters together and shared just about all major life events. She is a trusted and life-long friend.

Here's Maddie with Karen and Deb. (Maddie came along to work the registration table)

Other highlights of the reunion:

Helen, me, Dana and Annette.

Helen worked on the reunion committee, too. We have been fortunate to have shared company with Helen twice here in California. She's a great gal and we hope to see her in the months to come. My dearest Dana, whose home I practically lived in for most of my high school years, has weathered some incredible adversities. 6 hours after arriving in Maryland I sought her out... I found her looking just beautiful and none the worse for wear after surviving a brain tumor 3 years ago. The tumor left her deaf in one ear and she has some memory issues. However, she recognized everyone at the reunion and I think she had a great time. Maddie, Josie and I visited her and her Mom, Miss Gloria, on the day after the reunion. It was great to be 'home' again! Annette has been married for 26 years to Carlos, who was such a pleasure to share time with. I learned that my Dad had worked with Carlos & Annette when he was in real estate many years ago. I found Annette to be the same fun-loving girl I knew so long ago.

Carole and Leigh

Yeah, I'm secure in saying that Carole turned out to be the class 'hottie'. I thought there would be a line of male classmates lining up to greet her and I wasn't too far off. She is a treasure. Leigh and I were cheerleaders together - she was very low key in HS, kind of like the quiet amongst the chaos... Look at how beautiful she has remained!

Cindy, Burt and Sandy.

It was the first time I had seen Cindy since leaving high school. She looked fabulous and glamorous. Burt was my cohort in mischief for a good part of our HS years. He is the person I hold personally responsible for our homeroom teacher, Ms. Green, hating my guts. He's a grandfather twice over, married for 28 years and still a troublemaker. My Maddie absolutely loved him... like Mother, like daughter. Sandy was on the reunion committee, in charge of press releases and promotion. I was thrilled to learn that Sandy and I share the bond of being adoptive parents. I'm hoping to meet her children and visit with Sandy when I return to the East Coast...

Cindy, Susan, Christine and Marilyn

Susan remains the ultimate cheerleader, like she was in HS. She still has boundless energy and enthusiasm for everyone and everything! She is the mother of 3 handsome and accomplished sons - a one-person booster section for each, I'm sure. Marilyn has her own business - successfully spreading joy in the form of Botox shots for a large clientele. She has 3 beautiful kids, a handsome husband and no doubt, a lot of joy in life.

I could go on and on about how successful, friendly and accomplished my former classmates are and how much they have contributed to their respective communities. Time, and a monkey named Josie climbing on my back are preventing me from doing that! I am happy to report however, that based on the suggestion of another Old Mill alum, we will all be getting together to celebrate our 50th birthdays in 2012. It's going to be a lot of fun and I am determined to not only attend but to actually have full conversations with everyone who attends....

Cruises and Colleges... Oh My!

2010-10-13T16:02:00.001-07:00

I’m feeling a bit of ‘let down’ these past few days…

I feel like I’m always playing catch-up. Took me nearly four days of thinking, unpacking, flying and driving just to sit down at my computer to update this blog. Writing here is like therapy – with pictures! So much has happened in the past 10 days – really important stuff – that I’m still trying to organize it in my mind and share it with all of my family and friends. It all feels like an unfinished sentence…just on the tip of my tongue then poof - its gone! But, I think I can get it all down now…

Our trip ‘Back East’ was wonderful. It began on Friday, Oct 1st with a trip to Annapolis for shopping and an early dinner with the girls. We had dinner at a sushi restaurant, Joss, which is on Main Street. When it first opened in the early 90’s I had dinner there about once a week. Back then, it was a well kept secret. Now, they’ve expanded and the line is out the door! Got my favorite – spicy scallop roll (pictured above). YUM!

Later in the evening we met up with my Goddaughter Katie and my dear Karen. Katie’s boyfriend (Josie’s too!), Jesse, worked the bar. Maddie and Katie were deep in conversation and Karen and I discussed details of our up-coming 30th High School Reunion. A very fun evening.

On Saturday, we boarded the Enchantment of the Seas for a 5 -day cruise to Bermuda. Joining us were Josie’s Pre-School Posse BFF’s , Maria and Emma, who were kind enough to allow their mothers and big sisters to tag along for the trip! Maddie and ‘Big’ Emma disappeared into the teen center on board and we saw them only at dinner and curfew. Last year, Jamie, Lori, Claudine and I took a cruise without the kids. This year we decided to bring our girls along, due in no small part to their fathers’ collective inability to multi-task for longer than a few hours!

This year, Claudine stayed at home with her new ‘dober-daughter’, Midori.

In her place, Lori’s friend Karen provided the 4th wheel to balance our traveling road show. Such good company! Here are a few shots from our trip:

Maria & Josie with the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in the background

In my late 20's, I spent lots of time sailing under this bridge...

The posse: Emma, Josie and Maria

Emma and Maria rock out on Guitar Hero!

Maddie and 'big' Emma (Jamie's older daughter)

Hamilton, Bermuda

Hamilton, Bermuda

My Girls at the Snorkel Park

Jamie and her Girls

Maddie and Emma on the way to snorkel Bootleggers Cove

Three beauties!

Exploring together is the Best Fun!!

More of the Bermuda Aquarium

Lori assists the girls at Bootlegger's Cove

Such a drag to be missing school!

The Captain made a BIG mistake when he let these two drive the boat!!

Our second day in Bermuda.

The post-cruise blues...

We call this the "Aunt Claudine commemorative portrait" (She did this in nearly every group shot on last years cruise!)

While we were on the East Coast, my sister Suzanne suggested that we join her, Zach and Liam for two campus visits. Zach is a senior at Archbishop Ryan in Philadelphia. He’s determined to go to the University of Pennsylvania, but we all felt it best that he have a few ‘back-up’ schools. Maddie is a Junior at a Catholic HS here in CA – a school which encourages students to start campus visits in their Junior year.

We were truly fortunate, while touring Georgetown University, to meet up with Chris D. Chris is a sophomore at Georgetown and also the son of one of my grade school classmates, Michelle B-H. Chris is such an accomplished young man. He answered all of our questions honestly and was quite patient with us. Thank you Chris, for making our visit to GU so enjoyable…

Meeting Chris...

Sacred Heart Chapel, Georgetown University

Suzanne with Zach and Liam on the Georgetown Campus.

Madeleine loved Georgetown, as did I. I loved watching her look around and take it all in. Next year, she will finally make the first real adult decision of her life - where she'll live for the following four years. We've moved around so much. I told her this is her chance to choose where she wants to live, the kind of community she wants to be a part of...the kind of people she wants to surround herself with. It's an exciting and important prospect. I know she will make her choice carefully.

Next post will cover my 30 year High School reunion. It was a blast! Can't wait to share it!

Bell Schedules & Bull$#!T (literally!)

2010-09-24T12:38:00.000-07:00

I found this photo of Josie in my phone's memory - taken December 2009

It's been a really weird two weeks here at Casa Michele.

I've spent the past year pointing out the differences between California and everywhere else we've lived. I'm really getting to like Southern Orange County - the weather is near perfect and just driving the kids to school I get to see the most beautiful scenery. Josie is becoming the leader of the neighborhood tong (Chinese gang). Maddie is finally settling down into her school work and producing remarkable results.

The one thing I'm having trouble acclimating to is the darn bell schedules for the schools. This is the most unusual and frustrating thing I have encountered as far as the kid's schedules go... I checked Maddie's school calendar and there are only about 3 weeks of the whole year where she goes in at the regular time (7:35) and is dismissed at the regular time (2:40)! This past week Maddie had two one-hour late starts (Tues. & Weds.) and one two-hour late start (Mon.). In addition, every Wednesday Josie's school starts 15 minutes early and dismisses 45 minutes early!!

I don't know how working parents handle this situation. Last Wednesday, I was aware that Josie's school dismissed early - but I neglected to check the actual dismissal time. (I erroneously believed that since she went in 15 minutes early, that she would dismiss 15 minutes early...) A call from the Front Office (after I was 20 minutes late for pick-up) had me high-tailing it to the school and apologizing up and down and sideways!! One really nice thing though - Josie's new friend, Ava, insisting on waiting with Josie until I arrived. Ava's Dad, David, was kind enough to indulge her request. What a thoughtful child! Such a small act of kindness - it made a huge impact on both me and Josie. (We cut some roses from our side garden to give to Ava the next day - and thanked both David and Ava for the thoughtfulness.)

After a hectic week, the weekend brought more frustration. The on-going gardening dispute between me and my husband reared it's ugly head again. I'll offer a short explanation: My husband is a car guy. That's his thing. He buys them, sells them, maintains and cleans them. My car gets washed everyday - Detailed every weekend. (this is not an exaggeration - he will wash the cars even when there is snow on the ground!) I haven't had to fill the gas tank in my car in over 14 years! For this, I love and respect him. I don't mess with the cars.

I, on the other hand, am a gardening girl. I LOVE mowing the lawn, landscaping, growing, planting - you name it. I take great pride in having a great looking lawn. I used to do my best thinking on my riding mower. In fact, if I was having a particularly stressful day, I'd keep riding my mower and cut my neighbors lawn! Some of the best conversations I've ever had were with my neighbor Barbara while we were both pulling weeds. So, I am the lawn expert.

Imagine if you will then, my utter horror last weekend upon finding out that my husband had paid a ridiculous amount of money to have a bunch of schmoes spread 'steer manure' on my lawn!!! The guys were just driving around the neighborhood with a truckload of manure and my husband actually flagged them down!

I have heard of putting manure around plants to fertilize them, but I have never seen manure spread on a lawn. To add insult to injury, we have the AC off because the weather has been beautiful & Breezy. The stink is unbearable! The flies are unbearable! The neighbors are giving me dirty looks! My kids are just mortified! I'm just thankful that we only have about 20 square feet of lawn - otherwise our house would be declared a Super Fund site!!! MEN !! Can't live with them, can't shoot them.

Hmph! **deep breath**. I apologize for the rant and airing my 'dirty' laundry!

Anyway, this last picture is of a local landmark in our old hometown. (another photo that was on my old phone's memory) Take a good look at the bottom sign for the Chinese restaurant...

Of course, everyone in town has their own 'Fukien' expression:

"Hey, Where's my Fukien chicken?!"
"Honey, the Fukien delivery guy is here!"
"I ordered the Fukien Beef, not the Fukien pork"
or my new personal favorite:

"Somebody tell my Fukien husband to stay away from my Fukien lawn!!"

Until next time :-)

Sunday from Josie's P.O.V

2010-09-13T23:26:00.000-07:00

Daddy reading the Sunday L.A.Times

Lucky me! I was fortunate enough to get Maddie's 'hand-me-down' iPhone. I rarely use my cell phone. My last phone was 7 years old and I could have used it for 7 more. The basic idea of being available 24/7 doesn't appeal to me. So, my phone gets left behind, a lot.

Josie, on the other hand, loves anything Mac. She is a whiz on my iMac, has mastered the iPad in 3 short weeks and she's had the iPhone down for over a year. She asked if she could "bow row" my phone on Sunday morning. I didn't see Josie or the phone for most of the day. I found the phone this morning, tucked under Josie's pillow. I plugged it in to re-charge it and these are the photos that downloaded when I did... I'm sharing the photos she took with you now. It is a perfect photo essay of Josie's Day!

While Mom and Dad enjoy coffee and the paper, Josie plays with her dogs:

Josie's playmate, Naira comes over to hang out:

Watch a few videos at Disney.com:

Lets her sleeping teen aged sister lie:

When Mom tells Josie to clean her room, she decides instead to pose Bamboo (her webkin from Auntie Karen); Woobie (the little bear we sent in the care package to China before we met her!); Princess (her new PillowPet given to her by cousin Kate); Blue (the stuffed Husky dog Maddie got in Alaska for her); and Bear (Daddy's original teddy bear - now almost 50 years old!)

Our little one certainly knows how to amuse herself! I think the photos only covered about 3 hours of her day! Exhausting!!

Hellos and Goodbyes...

2010-09-01T20:27:00.000-07:00

Ever have a memory triggered by scent? In the years to come I am quite certain that the smell of roses and freesias will transport them back to the first day of school. James hasn't missed a year yet - his girls all get fresh bouquets on the first day of the school year. They start things off on the right tone. We're always thrilled to have the heavenly smell of flowers in the house!

Maddie always gets roses!

Josie prefers mixed bouquets like her Mom

Josie and James with Casey & Carson - walking Josie to her 2nd day of Kindergarten

Just the beginning...

I don't have any photos of Maddie's first day because she was running late and James takes her to school on his way to work. Lesson #1 for the new school year: Don't keep Dad waiting!
I'll try to catch her this week - if she allows enough time for me to grab my camera!

While we were on the East Coast we received the disappointing news that Josie's dear friend, LoLo is moving to Colorado. LoLo is one of the two really close friends Josie made this year at pre-school. (The fact that I really like their Moms is incidental!) We are both really sad to have to say goodbye to our 'new' friends, but we know that Leah, LoLo and Ross are on to a new adventure. We wish them much joy in their new home and environment. We will miss them a lot!

Leah and I finally managed to get Josie and LoLo together for a day at our community water park. We met there last week and actually found two chairs for me and Leah to recline on. (no small feat - the water park is very popular and free of charge!) Josie is not a water-loving child. She doesn't like to get her face wet, doesn't like to get splashed, doesn't want to wear a vest or floaties... very frustrating. I thought once she saw all her friends playing and swimming in the water she would want to join in. I was wrong. Josie is her own person so for now, I will just have to keep trying to get her interested. God, I am praying this is just a 'phase' and that she comes out of it soon!!

As you can see, LoLo loves the water!

Leah and Josie: Leah has shown Josie a lot of love and kindness.

The dynamic duo: Josie and LoLo

Finally, I've been putting off writing about our last few days on the East Coast because our vacation did not end on a terrific note. Yes, I did win the big $71.00 Jackpot while playing BINGO with my Mom. However, on our bus trip the next day to Harrington Casino, my wallet was stolen. I actually knew the moment it happened... I thought to myself, "This guy is not observing my personal space, he's too close." At that moment, I saw my Mom and was distracted for a few seconds. I went to get some money out of my wallet not two minutes later and it was gone! First thought was: OMG my drivers license is in there - how will I get on the plane home tomorrow? Second thought was: OMG I had a hundred dollar bill in my wallet! Third thought was: get the security team to stop the guy who 'bumped' into me.

The security team at the Casino was not really what one would call 'professional'. Apparently, the guy who grabbed my wallet took out the cash and dropped it on to a slot machine. A 'regular' player at the casino turned it in to the Security Desk within 5 minutes of my notifying the nearest guard. I lodged my theft report with the supervisor and he turned over my wallet. All the cash was gone, but my credit cards and drivers license were intact. I did notify my credit card companies within 15 minutes, just in case the guy had written down the numbers. It was a relief to know that only cash had been taken, but the security team could have caught the guy if they had responded quicker.

My Mom's BINGO posse: the ladies are a great (and lucky!) crowd to hang with!

One really nice thing about being at my parents house is seeing the all the wildlife that we don't have here in California. There is a Blue Heron that has made it's home in the pond behind my parents house for the past few years. I just love herons, they are incredible. I managed to grab a few shots of the heron one morning...

Look at the wingspan on that guy!

So, I think I'm finally caught up with reporting the news from the West Coast. Our summer was very nice and we are expecting a terrific school year with both the girls. Maddie will be a 'leader' for the Freshman retreat at her school, so she has to keep her grades up to be able to participate. Josie will start back up with her dance lessons and piano lessons in the coming week. Like most Moms I know, I will be in my car for a good amount of time in the coming months. I hope everyone has a great academic year and a colorful Fall.

East Coast - Part II

2010-08-24T12:35:00.000-07:00

After all the excitement of the big anniversary party, we all settled in for some family fun. James had to return to California on Tuesday, Aug 3rd and my brother-in-law Greg drove back to Philadelphia the same night as the party... there was work to be done. My siblings had rented a townhome through Wed. Aug 4th - so that gave us a bit of extra room to have everyone together. The kids were loving it!

Everyone's pointing at Aunt Claudine who got stuck at the 'kids table'!!

Lots of wine,silver queen corn and shore tomatoes!

In case you're wondering... My BIL Greg NEVER smiles!

These guys would stay in their Grandmom's kitchen ALL DAY if we let them!

Josie adores all her cousins, but Kate is special!

All my siblings packed up on Wednesday and left the shore. My brother Chalie, wife Kim, and Kate & Jack were headed up to the Hamptons for an additional two weeks of vacation with Kim's family. Claudine returned to work in Maryland and Suzanne and her boys drove back to Philly. While in Delaware, Suzanne decided to add to her family - a rescued Airdale Terrier named Lark - to keep their AT Chauncey company! Boy, has she got her hands full!

The girls and I stayed behind with my parents for a much 'quieter' few days! During that time, we got to spend two days with my old roommate and high school classmate, Karen. We hung out at the pool with the girls and got caught up on all the news. Karen was able to join us two nights in a row for dinner - she was astounded by how much my parents had 'mellowed'. Of course, she was pleased to confide in Maddie some of our adventures (misadventures!) when we were in high school and from when we roomed together in the early '90's. (I'm trying to plot my revenge for that! :-) Josie is 100% in love with her Auntie Karen. The panda webkin that Karen gave her was quite a hit. She is named Bamboo and is the reason Josie is now restricted from computer use!

Karen nearly flipped when, a while back, she found out that my Goddaughter Katie was the girlfriend of a friend of hers - Jesse. Not long after finding this out, she ran into Jesse and Katie and greeted her by saying "OMG, you're the Baby Harper!" (cute story, I'll get to later...) Turns out Karen and Katie have run in the same circles for a few years never knowing the connection between them... ME!

That brings me to the next stop on our trip - Annapolis, MD. I lived, played and worked in Annapolis for well over a decade back in the 80's-90's. In the early - mid 80's I waited tables at a popular waterfront restaurant on Dock Street. I loved working there! The friendships I made in that place continue to this day. One of my BFFs is Nancy - we worked side -by-side there and we both 'moved on' from there around the same time. Nancy was getting married to a Marine and I was going back to college. Fast forward a few years to 1987. I was getting married and wanted Nancy by my side. But, she was pregnant and living in 29 Palms, CA. I insisted to my then-husband that part of our honeymoon HAD to be spent at the Marine base in 29 Palms. And so, it was. The four of us took a quick overnight trip up to Las Vegas. In the first casino we gambled in I turned to Nancy, rubbed her belly and said, "C'mon Baby Harper, make Aunt Michele a winner". I turned around to a slot machine, put in two quarters, pulled the arm - and all kinds of sirens blared and lights flashed! I had won a $250 payout on those two quarters! Hence, the legend of "The Baby Harper" was born. My beautiful goddaughter (Katie) was bringing me good luck before she was ever born!

Here we are, all together again: me, Maddie, Nancy, Josie and Katie. The handsome guy behind Katie is Jesse (boyfriend extraordinare to Katie, new love of Josie's life!)

My precious girls!

Once we finished lunch ( with our bellies and faces sore from so much laughing! ) Maddie took the wheel and drove the 2.5 hours to our previous hometown of F'Burg, VA. She was calm and collected making her way through the notorious DC rush hour traffic. Fantastic driver... (must have had an AWESOME teacher!). We were to spend 4 days with my friend Jamie. We arrived just in time to cheer on Jamie's daughter Emma as she collected her awards from their community swim team.

Emma and Maddie - Buds forever!

Josie and Jamie's Maria. Preschool pals/Friends Forever!

Once we got through the initial hellos and hugs, this is pretty much how the next 3 days looked:

Maria, 'little' Emma and Josie. They played HARD!!

Jamie hosted a playgroup on the day after our arrival so we were able to visit with 'Big' Maria and her girls: Riley and Hailey. We're lucky because we get to see Maria and the girls in CA too! (Dad Noah has family here!). We also managed to visit with our former neighbors (this only served to make us miss them more than ever!); our former carpool partners (Shout out to my Boi Charlie, fo shiz!) ; my former trainer/friend for life Lisa and stepson Brady. (We were fortunate to see Brady - he was shipping out for boot camp only 5 days later! We're so proud of him!); and our favorite hang-out, Chez Sunrise (home of Lori, Dave and 'little' Emma).

Our time in Virginia ended too soon. But, we had to get back to Delaware... Grandmom and PopPop were waiting to get their girls back! I'll get to that in the next post - I know my eyes feel like they are ON FIRE from all this reading & writing. Until next time...

Our Trip 'Back East'

2010-08-20T09:20:00.000-07:00

Our long awaited (since December!) trip back to the East Coast began on July 29th. Maddie was in summer school, making up credits lost when she transferred high schools. Her final class ended at 12:30 that day and we were on the plane home at 3:30! We arrived at my sister Claudine's house at 1:45AM Friday the 30th. We were exhausted, but so happy to be in familiar territory.

We drove to my parents place on the Delaware shore once we were rested. We (my siblings Suzanne, Claudine and Charles) were hosting a surprise 50th Wedding Anniversary dinner for our parents on the following Monday, August 2nd. For the first time since Christmas, we were all together. We are blessed in the fact that all the kids absolutely adore one another - Josie just disappeared among her cousins and I didn't hear a peep from her for nearly 3 days! We shared dinner each night and had so much fun catching up on what everyone was up to.

On Monday evening, James, me, Maddie and Josie escorted my parents to the restaurant for the celebration dinner. Above you will see my Mom & Dad entering the room we reserved for the event. They were completely surprised and shocked. We managed to pull together a lot of the people who have shared a large portion of our parents married life.

The first surprise was seeing our neighbors from when we moved to Maryland from Philadelphia in 1976. Kathee B and her new husband, Dan; daughter Carey and her son; and Kathee's mom Shirley. We go back such a long way with Kathee's family. We were all so thrilled to celebrate Carey's birth and to see her years later with her own son was just awesome! As with any close neighbors, you don't only know them but their family as well. This was the case with Kathee - we knew her Mom and Dad and her brothers. We were so pleased to see her Mom, Miss Shirley - still a firecracker at 95 years old!! So much had changed yet stayed the same... the pure joy and love the families shared through the years was still there.

Maddie, My Mom and Kathee look over the photo book we had made for our parents

Also on hand were George and Celia P. They were our neighbors on the other side of my parents house. We lived next door to them for nearly two decades. George and Celia raised their two sons next door. Both my parents and George and Celia moved from the neighborhood around the same time... George and Celia built a beautiful home on the water in Maryland and our parents built theirs in Delaware. They both looked great and we were so appreciative of them making the long drive to the shore to share in our celebration.

George, Celia and Mom

Kate (Chalie & Kim's daughter); Suzanne; Celia; and Kim get caught up on family news

From the late 1970's until they built their house in 1996, my parents kept a travel trailer at the shore. They shared 20 years of summers with their neighbors at the campground. Most of these folks ended up selling the campers and buying permanent homes in the same area. Dot and Lou H. were directly across the street in the campground from my parents for those 20 years. They watched us grow up, then saw our children come to spend time with PopPop & Grandmom at the trailer! Our parents were very surprised and so thrilled to see Dot & Lou - as were we... I remember clearly Dot & Lou being my 'safety net' when I would go out on dates down the shore... "If you don't see me back by midnight, call the police!". Long before cell phone days, these two were our de facto guardians in Mom & Dad's absence.

Mom greets Miss Dot

'Uncle' Pete, Pop and Mr. Lou get caught up on all the news

Another couple who continue to share our parents lives are 'Uncle' Pete and Miss Donna. They too were campers - living right next door to my parents for over 15 years. Maddie and Dana (Pete and Donna's granddaughter) grew up together at the shore - they met as babies and continue to be friends to this day. Pete and Donna also moved into a permanent home at the beach a few years back. All 6 of the grandchildren adore their 'Uncle' Pete and Miss Donna. I honestly believe that they love my parents grandkids as much as their own!!

Maddie, cousin Kate and Miss Donna

Pop, Maddie, Miss Donna and Uncle Pete discuss how difficult it was for Pete to keep the dinner a secret...he is definitely 'the weakest link' when it comes to keeping a secret!!

Finally, we owe such a debt of gratitude to my parents current neighbors, Miss Mary & husband Ron and Nick & Jane. They see our parents everyday and didn't let on the smallest clue about the dinner! Miss Mary helped Claudine compile the guest list and advised us on a restaurant selection. As far as my siblings and I are concerned, Miss Mary had the toughest job of all! We cannot thank her enough for all the help she lent.

During our parents 50 years of marriage, we were truly blessed to be surrounded by their friends - who in turn became members of our extended family. Before dinner started, I gave a short speech describing how our parents met, how our Mom gave up all she knew to move from Canada to Philadelphia to marry our Dad; and how they built their lasting partnership. I described the invaluable lessons our parents had taught us, based on three simple principles:

LOYALTY: to family and friends. Be a good neighbor. Don't let people talk trash about your siblings or your friends. When someone messes with your sister or brother, they mess with you. And, when times get tough - dig in and stay true. Not one of us faced adversity without the knowledge that our parents were right there with us.

WORK HARD: at everything. Keep a good work ethic. Nothing worth having comes without a bit of hard work. It was not until we were older that my siblings and I recognized the sacrifices our parents made to keep us all in good schools and a safe environment.

HELP OUT WHEN YOU CAN: Always lend your time or resources to those in need. You don't have to have a lot of money to contribute to making the world a better place. Our parents were always available to help out a neighbor, take care of a sick loved one, rescue an animal or just volunteer time to their community. They continue to do so to this day! Our Mom volunteers at their church's thrift shop and collects school supplies for underprivileged children through her local Ladies Club. Our Dad has volunteered for years on election days, helping voters at the polls. Not to mention, his seemingly unlimited repair talents: He has performed work on all of our houses - even climbing on the roof of my home in Virginia (at the age of 70!) to power wash the house!!

I hope my siblings and I can pass these values along to our own children and live as successful lives as our parents have.

Finally, my brother Charles, led a toast to our parents. He thanked them for the love and support they have given all of us and wished them many more years of love and laughter.

Mom & Dad with their Grandchildren

Me, Claudine, Dad and Mom, Suzanne and Charles

All of us spent the next few days, until Wednesday, August 4th, at the beach with our parents. The kids had a great time hanging with their cousins. James and I were able to hear all about Chalie and Kim's new house, learn about Claudine's search for a new doberman puppy; and share in the excitement of Suzanne & Greg getting ready to have Zack starting to apply to colleges. It all seems to be going by so quickly! I'm sure that's how my parents feel about the last 50 years!

Tomorrow I'll share the details of the rest of our trip. I figure this is enough for one day!!! Have a great day!!

The Tutu

2010-07-25T09:26:00.000-07:00

I'd been putting off a project for 6 months - the 'No-Sew' Tutu - and last week I finally got around to it. Josie loves ballet and she loves playing dress-up. High on her list of requests was a new tutu to wear with her black leotard. I priced them out on-line. While performing the search for 'Tutus', I came across a number of blogs/websites that gave directions for a homemade version that required no sewing. That's right up my alley, since even with a sewing machine I can't manage a straight seam!

The version above was made with black and silver tulle, a 3/4 inch piece of elastic, and some sparkly silver trim. I hit a sale at JoAnn Fabrics so the final cost was around $5.00 It took me about an hour to assemble it. I'll admit, it's not the most beautiful tutu I've ever seen. However, for playing dress-up it fits the bill. Josie loves anything 'sparkly' and she doesn't seem to mind that it isn't perfect. I plan on making another (better) one for her by employing my 'lessons learned' on the current one.

We're on our final countdown to our visit to the East Coast. Just 4 more 'sleeps' and we will be on the way. We arrive in Baltimore at 1AM Friday. We'll catch a few hours sleep at Aunt Claudine's house then head down to PopPop & Grandmom's house at the shore. But, before we can do that... laundry must be done :-( I figure you can guess how my day will be spent!

Have a wonderful final week of July! Stay cool!

Smile, Smile, Smile!

2010-07-21T09:25:00.000-07:00

About a month ago, I wrote about sending hygiene kits to the children of the Siankaba Nursery School. Our friends Allison, Kevin, Jolie and Bella helped finance and assemble the kits. This morning I received news that the kits had finally arrived in Zambia!

Each kit contained:
2 or 3 child size toothbrushes with covers
1 tube (4.2 oz) of toothpaste
1 dental floss
1 face cloth
1 bar of soap
1 comb

It was just over a year ago that James and I visited the nursery school at Siankaba. Then, it was just a foundation of brick and stone. Now it is a fully functioning, solar powered building that allows for the pre-school education of 70 children aged 2-6. We dined with the headmaster of the pre-school - our friend Malindi - back in 2009. We were so impressed by his dedication and enthusiasm for preparing the children of the village for elementary school. That evening we pledged our support for the nursery school and for any effort that benefitted the children of Siankaba.

James and I were truly touched and overwhelmed by the hospitality shown to us by everyone we encountered in Botswana and Zambia. We sent the kits as a sort of 'anniversary' gift of our visit. During our visit, we learned also of the efforts of The U Foundation in funding the construction of the school. The U Foundation, based in Leicestershire, England, actively raises funds for a number of Zambian projects. Check them out if you get a chance!

Just take a look at these beautiful children! I just love seeing those smiles!

Major League Fun!

2010-07-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

With summer upon us, I have been struggling to keep both the girls busy. Of course, summer school takes care of Maddie - for at least half the day! That leaves my 'velcro' daughter to contend with! I have now become the 'master playdate maker'!

Last week, we went on an adventure to a new kid's museum - Pretend City. We met up with our friends Sydney and her Mom, Christine. The girls had a ball running around and visiting the different 'shops'.

The prettiest firewomen anyone could ask for!

What to do next?!

Checking out costumes

Performing at the Theatre

Working the sound board - Uncle Greg would be so proud!

Also last week, James took Josie to the MLB All-Star parade at Disneyland. It was a thrill for James, but Josie didn't quite 'get it'! She is so used to watching the Disneyland 'Celebrate' parade, she kept asking, "Where are the dancers?", "Where is Mickey?" Sorry little one, but this was Daddy's parade! I hope some of you recognize a few of the players pictured below, because I am totally clueless... except of course for the first photo. Derek Jeter.... just yummy!

Josie's reward for sticking around for the parade!

Finally, today we attended a birthday party on the beach for Josie's classmate, Kyle. Kyle loves pirates! He also loves the beach! We gladly made the short ride down to Dana Point and joined in the festivities.

As you can see, Josie talks with her hands... A Lot!

The birthday boy is in the middle!

The Orange County Fair opens this weekend, so if it cools down a bit, we're sure to go. Yesterday, it was 102, today it was the same. At the beach, it was much cooler - a mere 87 degrees! Hope my family and friends on the East Coast are staying cool! Have a great weekend!

The 50/80 Celebration in San Francisco

2010-07-07T08:21:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was the celebration of James' parents 50th Wedding Anniversary and his Dad's 80th birthday. The photo above is the Head Table where James' parents sat with their siblings and spouses. In Chinese culture, the birthday celebration is a far more auspicious event than the Golden Anniversary. I gleaned quite a bit of information and instruction from this book:

Planning for the event started way back in July 2009 with the selection of a 'Lucky Day'. There are only certain days of the calendar year that are considered 'lucky days'. These dates are when weddings, Red Egg & Ginger parties and Anniversary celebrations are held. Dad's actual birthday was in February, but it is considered 'bad luck' to have a celebration before then. That left us with only two more 'lucky days' that fell on a weekend. One of these dates was July 3rd, which fell within the month of Mom & Dad's wedding anniversary.

The party was held at Mom's sister's restaurant in San Francisco's famous Chinatown. There were 152 guests in attendance. The event was kicked-off with speeches by James and his brothers, Rich and Ken. James' speech focused on his Dad's early life and career. Rich spoke of Dad's life and accomplishments from age 30 to his retirement from the Rocket Lab at Edwards Air Base. Ken then spoke of Dad's retirement years. He described Dad's second 'career' of managing the 11 properties they owned in the Lancaster, CA area, marrying off his sons, and becoming a Grandparent. All the speeches recalled humorous events and challenges faced during Dad's 80 years.

Grandsons Alex and Brandon (sons of Ken and his wife, Agnes) then presented a speech honoring their Grandparent's 50 years of marriage. Brandon (age 10) read his speech in English then Alex (age 12) translated it to Chinese, which he is currently studying. All of Mom and Dad's grandchildren took part in the event: Josie, Alicia and Zoe (daughters of Rich and his wife, Ivy) entertained the family with an impromptu ballet performance at a dinner on Friday evening in San Jose.

(l-r) Alicia, Josie and Zoe

Maddie and (honorary third daughter/granddaughter) Hailey greeted the guests, handed out table assignments and manned the guest book.

Brandon even helped serve the dessert!

Instead of traditional table numbers, we used photos from the past to identify each table. Guests needed only to find the corresponding photo on their table assignment card to find their seats. This eliminated any language challenges and provided a lot of fun conversation topics for the guests.

The dinner featured the traditional 9-course (9 is a lucky number) menu for such events: An appetizer of cold meats and jellyfish; Sharks Fin soup; Roasted whole chicken; Sauteed vegetables (black mushrooms and bok choy); Peking Duck with steamed buns; Honey glazed prawns with walnuts; Sauteed beef with Chinese broccoli; Steamed whole fish in green onion and ginger sauce; and steamed Long-life birthday noodles. All courses were served 'family style'. The tables also included a bottle of sparkling cider, a bottle of brandy or cognac and a soft drink mixer. In a nod to our more modern ways, we also set up a small bar with juice boxes for the kids, sodas and bottled beer.

One of the most 'controversial' decisions we made during the planning process was the cake selection. The traditional Chinese cake for an event like this one is a yellow sponge cake with sliced fruit filling decorated with the 'Longevity' symbol and other symbols of the 80th birthday (peaches - symbolizing a 'sweet life' and longevity, and peach blossoms - representative of Dad's birthday month of February). In addition, a peach shaped steamed bun with sweet bean paste inside called shau toh is served.

There was just one small problem: My Father-In-Law LOVES chocolate. I lobbied hard for Dad to get the cake he wanted. After all, if you're turning 80 years old you've earned the right to have any darn cake that you want!! The brothers finally gave in. I'll call this next photo 'Victory'!

During the evening, traditional gifts were presented to Mom and Dad. Below is a photo of Mom receiving a golden plaque from her brother.

Of course, no family gathering is complete without the 'little red envelopes' being handed out to all the children by their Grandparents, Parents, Aunts, and Uncles. Hailey was overheard saying, "Man, I LOVE being Chinese!"

Here are some more photos from the evening:

Mom & Dad's wedding portrait

50 years later!

Please notice the height difference! (I was in flats, Mom & Maddie in heels!

Hailey, Cousin Philip and Maddie

It was truly a wonderful evening. Mom & Dad were very happy with the celebration, which brought family and friends from West Virginia, Oregon, Texas and even China. The event was best summed up by my Father-In-Law in his remarks to the guests, "I am honored that my family has celebrated our past, but I am looking to the future. I look forward to celebrating my 90th birthday with all of you and many more years of marriage!"

Josie's First Dance Recital

2010-06-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

The video takes about 25 seconds to start (I'm still learning iMovie editing!)

Josie's Ballet/Jazz Class Recital Dance:

Josie has been practicing since January for this big event. I was so surprised that she showed not an ounce of shyness or stage fright. Is this the same girl who hides behind my legs when she meets a stranger?!?

Everyone turned out for the recital. Uncle Dave drove down from the desert. Maddie and Hailey put aside the usual weekend pool lounging and window shopping trips. Josie was thrilled to receive flowers from her sister and her Dad. What a special day!

However, you will see in the photos below, she started getting a little cranky after 6 hours of dancing, being photographed, bobby-pinned, hair-sprayed and curled!! I think I was able to capture a little of the 'Josie Attitude' for you. Now you will catch a glimpse of why my days are so fun filled and never, ever boring!!

Josie and her friend, Sydney, who presented Josie with a Lei after the performance!

Second Performance:

The dancer is getting tired of posing!

Josie and Jolie after their performances. Such beauties!!

This look is PRICELESS!!

This is what Josie will look like when she's around 20...

On the kitchen table... One last photo of the day!

Well, We Survived Another School Year!

2010-06-11T12:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of school for both Maddie and Josie. What a school year it has been! We've seen Maddie grow in so many ways. Academically, she's shown tremendous growth and maturity. She finally figured out her time management skills, which enabled her to keep up steady efforts in all her classes. Although finals finished this morning, the one grade we did see was a 94% in French II. Way to go, Maddie!

The other big change, that we are all getting used to, is that Maddie is driving. She still has her learner's permit so she doesn't drive alone. But, now she drives to and from school with James or me as her passenger. Although I am the most patient of her parents when it comes to instruction, I am a horrible passenger! When James drives I have to bring along a book to read or a Sudoko puzzle book to keep me occupied. Otherwise, I would be a nervous wreck! It's a control thing, I guess.

Maddie has once again proved to be waaaayyy too much like her mother when it comes to driving. She has a lead foot. To me, it seems like she is racing to get to the speed limit, rather than a gradual work-up to 55. Josie sits in the back seat telling Maddie, "Mad, you're going too fast" or "Mad, why you hurrying?" It's pretty funny and just goes to prove that there is never a dull moment with these two girls!

Maddie - this morning. Driving to her last day of school.

Josie had all kinds of events for wrapping up her pre-school year. At the end of May, her school had their annual Art Show. The show was open to the public and participation awards were given to all the kids. The art teacher, in our case Miss Mollie, selected one work of art from each child's collection to be displayed. Here's Josie's drawing, entitled DUCK:

After the Art Show, there was an open house so guests could visit the children's classrooms and see the other works of art the children created. Here are a few more shots from that evening:

Here are our girls - Josie was so happy to have her big sister at the show!

And here are the girls as we usually see them - cracking each other up!!

Here are Josie and Jolie with their big sisters: Bella and Maddie!

Josie has also grown in so many amazing ways - at home and school. I have always believed that the girls were capable of relatively complex tasks at an early age. At the age of 2, Maddie was helping out in the kitchen by measuring and stirring. Josie has proved to be better at 'clean-up', but she also had a willingness to 'help' at an early age. So, a few weekends ago I finally allowed Josie to start 'chopping'. I taught her how to properly hold a knife and how to hold what she was cutting. She is a natural! So, I'm posting these photos to let my Mom see that when we arrive in Delaware in August, she will have an able helper at her disposal:

More recently (Saturday) Josie had a photo shoot with Jennifer Eliason to capture her before her first big recital on June 26th. I posted a few of the photos on Facebook, but here are a few of the 39 Jennifer took (copyright permission given):

Josie and Jolie - her classmate had the appointment slot right before ours!

This is the costume she will wear for her ballet performance of 'Castle on a Cloud' from Les Miserables

And finally, on Wednesday, Josie had her last chapel at school. Awards were given for academic achievement and Josie received hers for Reading:

Josie and LoLo hold their certificates on stage with their classmates

As you can see, it's been a busy time around here. I only have two more 'major' tasks to accomplish before enjoying summer vacation. Tomorrow, Jolie's parents and big sister, Bella will join us here at home to help assemble and pack 70 personal hygiene kits for the children of Siankaba pre-school in Zambia. Jolie's family was kind enough to volunteer their time to help the children get these kits. They are a wonderful family who really want to 'make a difference' in the lives of children all over the world. We're going to work hard and then have a nice cook-out as a reward for our efforts!!

Last task is to finish preparations for the 50th Wedding Anniversary/80th birthday celebration for James' parents that we are hosting in San Francisco on July 3rd. We are expecting about 120 guests for the eight-course dinner. Speeches need to be written, table linens need to be rented, seating arrangements prepared and favors to be crafted. Luckily, I will have both my girls on hand to help out with these tasks! I'm off now to take a nap.. I hope!

Everything is Negotiable

2010-06-03T08:52:00.000-07:00

I'll confess that I try to keep things as positive as possible when reporting our everyday routines. There's really no point in bellyaching when I'm aware of how lucky we are... We have a roof over our heads, good schools for our daughters, good health and food on the table. During these tough economic times, that's no small feat. I really, really am so thankful that my husband works so hard to provide all these comforts for us.

But this week, my positive attitude has been sorely tested. My encounters with the 'trades' I deal with on a daily basis have left me so frustrated, I want to just scream!

Since we moved here to OC I've come to terms with what I like to call the 'OC Rule of Three'. It's a loosely defined formula that basically involves taking the standard price you would expect to pay for any object or service and times that by 3. The product of the equation equals the OC Price. This pretty much holds true for everything from real estate to groceries.

Our first encounter with the Rule of 3 came when we sought an estimate from a painter. We asked for an estimate of how much it would cost to paint 3 small wrought iron balcony railings on the exterior of our home. The largest railing was 5 feet long x 3 feet wide. We waited 2.5 weeks for the painter to submit his estimate and it came back at $2500. WHAT?!? That estimate held me back from seeking an estimate to have the girls rooms painted until last week.

Our second experience was worse because we actually believed the estimate and got nailed for that naivety. I called around to every rug cleaner in the area to find one who specialized in cleaning silk rugs and also picked-up and delivered. I told the gentleman that I selected I had an 8'x10' silk rug in our dining room that had never been cleaned... This is the rug we purchased in China when we travelled to get our Josie. The rug is a special memento of that trip, and we take care of it accordingly.

The gentleman I spoke to came to pick-up the rug and handed me a receipt with the quoted price for cleaning the rug. It would be delivered back to our home within 3 weeks. It was about double what I had paid to have our Turkish rug cleaned in Virginia, but I figured it was silk so the cost was justified. Well, the rug came back in 3 weeks and I had the check written out to hand to the gentleman. Upon delivery, I was handed another receipt - this one had an additional $230 tacked on for 'treatment of spots'. Umm... isn't that why rugs are cleaned?! I wrote the check and put that outfit on my personal 'Do Not Call' list.

I finally got up the nerve to contract a painter for the girls' rooms. I purchased the paint and two painters showed up at 8AM. They did a great job. They covered the path from the front door, up the steps and the hallway leading to the girls' rooms. They didn't blast music the whole day and they touched up along the ceiling where the previous painters had made mistakes. I was really thrilled with the excellent job the painters did. Until I got a call from the gentleman who prepared the proposal. He had looked over each room before giving us the proposal, so when he called I thought he was contacting me to see if I was happy with the job. No. He was calling me to let me know that the touch ups on the ceiling and two spots on the door frames were going to cost me an extra $80.00. Mind you, they didn't paint the door frames - just touched up the line where the wall and frame meet.

Am I missing something? A price quote is a price quote. I didn't accept a proposal with any kind of wording stating extra charges would apply. And, honestly, doesn't any professional painter provide these services as part of the job? I highly value tradesmen who perform well and believe firmly that one gets what one pays for. But, seriously?!? Those painters were making over $50 Each per hour. I'm sorry, but that's nuts.

Anyway, it was hard to capture the color of each room but here's what we were shooting for:

In Maddie's room, she has a beautiful Ralph Lauren bedding ensemble with incredible colors. We could have picked any from this duvet cover:

Here's a detail of the pattern:

Here's the subtle yellow we selected for Maddie's room: (please ignore the standard teenage messiness!)

Josie's room was much easier. She's 5 and the only color she was willing to consider was PINK. So, I handed her the color chips with all the pinks and let her pick one out. She selected Benjamin Moores 'Candy Stripe'. Of course, this selection was based solely on the name. So I told her, "Okay, Candy Stripe it is!". Then I selected the palest pink I could live with - which ended up being 'Pink Peony'. Josie is thrilled with the new color of her room and will tell everyone "It's Candy Stripe!!" Don't you just wish they could stay 5 forever?! Anyway, here's Josie with her new room color:

Aside from the drama with the painters, the gardener presented me with some challenges. All this, after having my 6th dental appointment in as many weeks. Dentist says I must be stressed... I have been clenching my jaw so tightly that I have cracked 4 molars. Imagine that...

A Decade in the Making!

2010-05-26T09:11:00.000-07:00

Today is James' and my 10 year Wedding Anniversary!

We had been together for 4 years when we decided to marry. On Monday, May 22, 2000 we went to Alexandria (VA) City Hall to get our marriage license. We were given the name of a Justice of the Peace who would perform the ceremony. We contacted her and were informed that she was available the coming Friday... Wedding date set!

On Wednesday the 24th, we sent out an email to friends and family that basically said,

"If you're not busy on Friday morning at 10, we'd love for you to attend our wedding."

I had ordered a cake for the wedding from one of our favorite bakeries and prepared a number of brunch items for the small reception we had at our townhome in Alexandria. We had half a dozen bottles of champagne, coffee and orange juice.

We were instructed to meet the JofP at a small park near our home. I wore a simple cream colored dress, James in a dark suit and Maddie, as my attendant, wore a beautiful cream colored, tea-length dress. Maddie's hair was in a fancy 'up-do' with flowers throughout. She was beautiful... and so happy. We all were!

Our guests met us in the parking lot at the park. My parents, friends from work and our neighbors, The Hagner Family, were in attendance. The Justice of the Peace neglected to inform us that our ceremony was going to have a 'rodeo' theme... she showed up wearing a black and white yoked cowboy shirt, black jeans and boots. At least she was memorable!

Our group walked about 50 paces to a meadow shaded by maple and oak trees and the ceremony began. Lucky for us, young James Hagner, our neighbors's son had just gotten a new watch - he timed the event. He informed us that our wedding ceremony was exactly 2 minutes and 39 seconds long. When I play the lottery, 239 is one of the numbers I always play!

After having the official signatures placed on our license, we were legal! We all returned to our house and my Mom helped me serve the brunch. It was a beautiful day and we all enjoyed it on the back deck. My Mom and Dad took Maddie with them when they left - she would spend the Memorial Day weekend at the beach. We continued sipping champagne with our friends until 4 PM when we decided it was time to hit the road.

We booked a 3 night stay at the Chateau at Nemocolin Woodlands in the Laurel Highlands of Southeastern Pennsylvania. One of the highlights of our visit there was when we toured Kentuck Knob, a home designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

So now, here we are 10 years later... with two exquisite daughters and two insane dogs. We have owned 5 homes in 4 different states and travelled as a family to Europe, Asia and Africa. Our blessings are too many to count.

Our plan for the next 10 years is to (at some point) stop our gypsy ways and settle down! Having lived in so many different places and so many different types of homes, we are going to build our next home ourselves. (With an architect, not with our own hands!!) That will be the place where, hopefully, we will enjoy the many decades to come.

I wish I could offer pictures of our wedding day - but there is only one. There is also only one photo of our guests on that day and it's in a scrapbook packed away in our storage unit... Someday I'll get them scanned and posted.

I hope all of you have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We'll be having a cookout with a champagne toast on Saturday to celebrate our anniversary! Cheers!

Playing Catch-Up

2010-05-17T09:57:00.000-07:00

Today is an extremely rare rainy day here in Southern Orange County. It's a good thing, as I don't feel compelled to be outdoors or 'making the most of daylight'! I've been juggling a few projects here at home - all of which keep me bound to my computer. Since the move, we no longer have an 'office' and my desk is now located upstairs in my bedroom. The difficulty in this situation is that Josie's world is located downstairs in the Family Room... her art supplies, Barbies, the TV. You get the picture...!

I'll have to backtrack a bit to report what's been going on lately. First off, Mother's Day!! I enjoyed a 'Mother's Day Tea' hosted by Josie's pre-school class on Friday, May 7th. All the Moms were treated like royalty! We were served ice tea, cookies and heart-shaped brownies by our children. We were also treated to a live performance of the 'Butterfly song'. Finally, we were given the most beautiful art creations known to Moms - paintings of butterflies, little books entitled "Let me count the ways I love you" and drawings covered with X's and O's !!

The following day, Saturday, I worked on a photo book for the teachers of Josie's class. Gotta love how iPhoto makes creating the book so easy! Collecting the photos from the parents and getting them in chronological order was a bit more challenging. The book is about 80% complete - I have only to add photos from the school's Family Luau being held this coming Saturday.

While I worked on that project, James and Josie headed up to 'Farm Day' at James' alma mater - Cal Poly Pomona. Josie had a ball - there was so much going on! They had pony rides, a dog show, tours of the gardens and tractor rides!

By looking at these photos, one would think we only have one daughter. Maddie keeps her weekends jam-packed with activities that revolve around school and her girlfriends. We were quite pleased to have her around the house this past weekend. It was nice to have a helping hand while I tried to get the house straightened up and laundry done. Another plus is having Maddie on hand to update my iPod with the newest songs. I heard some good ones this past weekend and all I had to do was yell "Oooh, I like that one!" and she hooked me up! Nice!

On Saturday evening, Fred joined us for a barbecue dinner and a nice pit fire after dinner. Maddie's friend, Hailey joined us a bit later. We roasted marshmallows, made S'mores and enjoyed the laid-back comfort of not having to go anywhere or do anything... very nice!

Yesterday, James and Josie took off for Disneyland. I'll tell you, those two are really getting their moneys-worth out of the annual passes! I don't have the patience for weekly trips to Disneyland, so James is more than happy to pull 'Dad Duty' when Disneyland is an option!

I have one more project to finish up this week, then I should be able to get back to my routine of blogging at least once a week... I'm finding out though, Facebook is also jamming up some of my free time. It's like reading mini-blogs by all my friends and I get sucked in. Only thing that bothers me about FB is some of the cryptic messages that some folks post.. Frustrating! I feel like I'm missing out on some personal joke. Anyway, if that's all I have to complain about these days then Life is Good!!!
Hope everyone has a great week ahead!

Fairies and Flowers

2010-05-03T12:32:00.000-07:00

Busy weekend for us here in the OC! Josie and I attended a birthday party for her friend, LoLo. We really had a great time! It was a beautiful day and the party was outdoors. There was also a visit from a special guest:

Tinkerbelle flew in to help LoLo celebrate her birthday! She did face-painting, balloon sculptures and played a parachute game with the kids.

Everyone at the party was so warm and welcoming! We really enjoyed our time with LoLo's family and friends!

Maddie stayed busy this weekend by performing her community service hours at a local nursing home. She always has such a great time when she visits with the residents. She puts in a minimum of 6 hours at each visit and doesn't really consider it 'work'. This time, her friend Madison (Maddie E) was along. The two of them had a lot to talk about once they finished their day.

These final photos are for my Mom. I promised I would send her some photos of the really unusual petunias I found out here. I know that in years past, yellow petunias were a bit hard to come by where my parents live. Well, not only did I find yellow, but I found a beautiful pink and yellow variety with crinkled edges. So, here they are Mom!

Busy week ahead - it's Teacher Appreciation Week. Hug a teacher! On Friday, Josie's class is hosting a Mother's Day tea. Should be a lot of fun! Till next time.... Have a great week!

The Weekly Report via Josie*

2010-04-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

*Photos for this posting were taken by Josie

This past week we had a lot of fun. Last Saturday, our friends Nick and Mary stopped in for an overnight visit. They were on their way to spend a week in the sunshine of Palm Desert with Nick's parents. We had to fore go our visit to their home in Massachusetts last year because of the move. It had been a year since we had all spent time together. We were all so excited to be together!

Nick and Mary came bearing gifts - fresh lemons and grapefruits picked from Nick's grandparents trees! Talk about 'freshly squeezed' lemonade!! Yum! Uncle Fred also came by - he lives the next town over from us - to visit with his grade school pals.

Nick & Mary left for the desert on Sunday morning. James headed off to Washington, DC later that night. The girls and I returned to our school day routines. The week went by quickly.

I spent a great deal of time nursing our 10 year old Jack Russell, Casey. She had been getting progressively worse with infection. Casey was diagnosed with a MRSA infection in her nose earlier this year. She developed a severe ear infection last week and it seemed the infection was taking over her body. We have been fighting the infection with strong antibiotics, nose drops, a sulfa drug and a steroid. Most of my time was consumed with figuring out how to get the medications into her - she turned her nose up at a chunk of ribeye steak, knowing her pill was inside it! I even smashed the tablets, added a bit of water and put the mixture into a syringe. When I went to put the mixture into her mouth (I swear I had the syringe half-way down her throat!) she let the mixture slide out the side of her mouth! Very clever dog. My final solution, and the one that is actually working, is to crush all her pills into powder and mix them into an egg and then scramble the egg. Works like a charm and she cleans her bowl. On Thursday, her vet told me there was nothing more they could do for her - so I tried to prepare the girls for the possibility that Casey could be going to 'doggy heaven'. I cried on the phone to James and then my Mom & Dad - we all love our dogs like members of the family... I was distraught at the thought of losing Casey.

It seems she has turned the corner. She started to perk up a bit on Friday. Yesterday, James and I tended to her for a good part of the day. She's looking better, not sneezing and coughing, and showing a bit of her old enthusiasm. Fingers crossed, we'll whip this infection and she will return to her healthy, active self.

Finally, we received some photos of my nephew Zack's Junior Prom. This occasion was bittersweet. In November, the Archdiocese of Philadelphia announced that they were closing Zack's school. Northeast Catholic is an all-boy high school with a long, proud tradition of excellence. Zack was attending on full scholarship. His is the last class that will wear the school ring. So, this was also the last Junior Prom to be held by the school. So sad. Zack will have to finish high school in a new school - can you imagine having to transfer to a new school as a senior?!? Ugh. Here's Zack and his date, Jen and also the group of his friends that all went to Prom together. They all look stunning!

Hope you have a wonderful week ahead! Can you believe that May is around the corner?!

Taylor Swift & The Girls

2010-04-15T20:07:00.000-07:00

Back in October, I bought 4 tickets for Maddie to attend the Taylor Swift concert at the Staples Center in L.A. The tickets were to be a Sweet 16 Birthday gift. And they were. Tonight Maddie, Madison, Hailey & Elyssa hit the town in style - complements of Dad.

Originally, James was going to take the girls to the concert. However, when this week rolled around we realized that he was chairing an industry conference in South Carolina. The idea of getting the girls up to LA and back with a 5 year old in tow was, to say the least, discomforting. So, Dad to the rescue! James ordered up a limo for the girls. This was a huge treat and the girls enjoyed having all the neighbors come out and wish them well.

The limo driver was a wonderful gentleman. As soon as the girls were in the car they loaded a CD and started blasting their music. I looked at the gentleman and said, "Oh you poor man, You're going to have headache by the time you get up there!" He responded, " Ma'am, I would much rather deal with noisy girls than drunk adults. Don't you worry about a thing, your girls will be safe." Once the girls reached the arena, he walked them to the door and made sure they were past the ticket takers and then called me at home to let me know they arrived safely. He also gave the girls his cell phone number and told them to call him when they were leaving the show. He met them at the exit and escorted them back to the car. He even stopped and escorted them into a Subway shop so they could grab something to eat on the way home! I can't tell you how thankful I am for that man's kindness and concern.