Four Feet More

This week, the kids have been in day camp, and it has been GLORIOUS! From around 8:30 am until 3 pm, they are at the local community center doing fun activities with friends. This week's theme is "Totally Talented," which translates to a lot of karaoke, camp songs, and talent shows. Although they did learn the dance to Michael Jackson's "Thriller" the other day. It was funny to see them dancing (jerking) around with their zombie faces on. Unfortunately, the video camera was not charged, and by the time it was, Vika and Eamon had forgotten most of the dance. *sigh*

The best part about camp is not that the kids get to be out of the house having fun, but it's that I have some actual free time to myself. I haven't had that for over 3 years now, and I'm enjoying every minute of it! I've been knitting my sweater (this little number,which I really want to complete in time to wear this Fall) and watching a lot of "The Tudors" on Netflix. Although I was a bit put off by some of the explicit scenes at first, I have come to love "The Tudors." I must admit that I am lured as much by my admiration of Henry Cavill as by my interest in English history - however fictionalized it may be for dramatic effect. "The Tudors" is something you definitely don't want to watch when kids are around, so having Vika and Eamon at camp has been a perfect opportunity to catch up.

Next week, we're off to Florida and Disney World. It may be hot and sticky, but since we haven't had a lot of hot weather in Northern California this summer, I figure we're about due for some heat. Although the poor kids did get a bit sunbured on their faces yesterday. I lathered on the sunscreen, but they went on a field trip to the waterpark and forgot to reapply later in the day. This prompted a mini-lecture from Jeff on the merits of sunscreen and why it's important to protect your skin. He did a wrinkle demonstration and then said that "once the damage is done, there's nothing you can do about it."

Eamon, ever the optimist, replied, "We could wish...on a star...."

Now, is that a kid who's ready for Disney World or what?

Usually, I ignore requests from third parties to publicize their organization or product on my blog. However, this time I was contacted by an agency I might actually want to help, if I lived in the right geographical location. So I have decided to give them a little space on this blog in case others out there would be interested in helping as well.*

The Fresh Air Fund, a non-profit agency, is looking for volunteers to serve as a host families for inner-city children this summer. They are particularly in need of host families for August. The goal of the Fresh Air Fund is to provide summer vacation experiences for children from low-income communities in New York City. These are children who otherwise might not be able to have the experience of lazing around by a lake-shore, playing on the beach, or taking a trek through the woods. If you are interested (and live in New England or Virigina), please check out their website here.

* I am not receiving any payment to advertise this agency. Just in case you were wondering.

There's no real way to sugar-coat this, but the kids are driving me insane! Sure, I enjoy spending time with them, but all those Summer projects I planned on doing... well between, "Mama, what's for snack?" and "Mama, Eamon's not getting out of my room when I asked him to!" and "Mama, can we watch TV?", not a lot of projects are getting done. So, when Mel invited us to play at a new park in her area, I jumped at the chance (even though it's more than an hour drive away). Anything to get the kids running around, and hopefully exhausted, so that I can have a little quiet time to myself later. Being able to hang with my best friends, Mel and James, was an added bonus!

Since I had my choice for this week's You Capture, and because the 4th of July is right around the corner, I decided to capture the symbol of our nation's Independence, the American flag. For most of my life, Independence day has meant BBQs, fireworks, and summer memories with the family. However, after teaching 5th grade (where we study American History), I've acquired a bit of a different perspective on the holiday. Reading about the great men and women who fought for America's independence from Britain, their trials and victories, has made this holiday and our flag mean so much more.

John Adams said in a letter to his wife Abigail (of the original Independence Day - which was actually July 2, 1776), "I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival." It's kind of cool to know that his prediction came true, even if he was off by 2 days. I wonder what he would think about the various ways the holiday is celebrated and our flag is depicted today (on clothing and home decor, for example)?

Another piece of American trivia for you: Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson died on July 4, 1826 - 50 years to the day from the birth of the country they helped found. Isn't that an interesting coincidence?

OK, I'll let my teacher side slip for now and show you the photos.

Happy 4th of July (3 days early)!

School's been out for a week now, and finally I feel as if I'm beginning to relax. That anxious feeling that I have to grade papers or prepare lesson plans is gone and I'm getting into the rhythm of being home with the kids during the day. A few updates from my summer so far:

• I may be a Trekkie. I saw the new Star Trek movie on Mother's Day (and again since then), and absolutely loved it. I've always been more of a Star Wars fan than Star Trek, but I enjoyed the movie so much that I've begun watching episodes from the original series on Netflix. And let me tell you, they are HILARIOUS (probably not intentionally so, but that's besides the point). Seriously, if you have some time, you should check them out. "The Enemy Within" from Season 1 has some especially smashing acting from William Shattner (and I mean that literally) as well as an extraordinary space dog (some poor mutt in a shag carpet with dixie straw antennas).

• Lately, Vika is asking me to do her hair "like Uhura's" and Eamon wants his hair to be like Bones'. So I may be making my kinds into Trekkies too. Poor things. They don't really stand a chance. I'm making them into geeks already!
  

• Tomorrow we are going to see the King Tut exhibit in San Francisco. My parents visited it in San Francisco back in the 70's, and I remember as a child looking through the King Tut picture book they bought, amazed at all the treasures and the story of the boy king. I tried to see the exhibit in Chicago a couple years back, but tickets were sold out. So we bought our tickets for this one way in advance and are planning to take the kids (I hope they aren't bored out of their minds). We're going to see the exhibit on the same day as the Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco, so I hope it's not too crazy there. Nevertheless, I don't think we'll take public transportation. Seeing a grown man with his bare bottom peeking out of backless leather chaps is not an image that the kids need to have burned into their brains at this young age. ;)

For your enjoyment, and in honor of the occasion, I give you King Tut. Have a great weekend!

Sorry about that. I've been terribly busy at school and more than a little stressed out about the uncertainty of my future employment. Open House was last night, which is one big thing out of the way. It went well, and many parents expressed dismay that I wasn't going to be returning next year. Now I just have a colloquium and exit interview for BTSA (the program to clear my teaching credential), Science Camp, final report cards and packing up my classroom before I'm on Summer Break!

On the job front, a nearby district is hiring teachers, so I've put in an application. Hopefully I'll get an interview, despite what is likely to be huge competition from other teachers laid off in my district. I'm also looking at jobs outside of classroom education, so we'll see what happens.

The job search has raised an important question in my mind, and maybe some of you can help me out with this. What do parents who work basic 9-5 jobs do with their kids during school breaks? Suggestions?

This past year has been a difficult one at school. In addition to the budget cuts and the knowledge that I most likely won't have a job next year is the increased work-load heaped upon us by the district. Just the other day we all received books for a new art program which we are supposed to implement somewhere in our already packed schedules. It's really hard to stay motivated and positive, but I'm doing my best for the sake of my students.

It's been a hard year for Jeff too. As a real estate broker during the current economic crisis, deals have been pretty thin. Add to that the fact that he has to make three trips to the kids' school each day (Eamon is a "late-bird" and therefore starts school 3 hours after Vika), and it seems that Jeff has had little or no free time since September.

The kids see our stress and exhaustion and I'm sure they're feeling it too. So, even though we don't have a huge amount of disposable income, it's clear that we all need a vacation this summer. But where could we get away from it all without spending a lot of money. The answer may surprise you: Walt Disney World.

At the risk of raising Kate's anti-Disney ire, I have to say that I absolutely LOVE both Disneyland and Disney World. I grew up taking road trips from Arizona to Disneyland, and the park is the highlight of many childhood memories. However, in recent years, we've gone to Disney World more than Dinseyland - even though it's on the other side of the country. There's one simple reason for this: the food. Jeff and I are foodies, and Disney World offers much more in the way of dining than Disneyland. The Animal Kingdom Lodge is home to one of our favorite restaurants, Boma, at which you can sample African dishes such as bobotie, fufu and cocomisu (probably not really African, but still good). Epcot also offers samples of cuisine from all over the world, which we enjoy despite the fact that much of it is "Disneyfied." Since I am on a personal mission to both give my kids wonderful childhood Disney memories and have them grow into foodies like their parents, Dinsey World is always on my list of potential vacation spots.

The last time we went, in September of 2006, we were able to get the free dining plan, which saved us around $1000! Jeff and I enjoyed it so much that we swore that if they offered free dining again, we would try to take advantage of it. Well, check it out: Score! Because of tough economic times across the country, we were able to get a discounted rate on a room and park tickets as well. And, thanks to our air miles program, we are flying to Florida practically for free! It's almost as if we can't afford not to go to Disney World. That's how I'm justifying it anyway.

So, now we all have something to look forward to this August. The idea that we wouldn't be able to swing a family vacation this year was depressing me quite a bit, truth be told. Jeff and I have worked too hard! And while Disney World may not be the relaxing vacation we probably need, is there really such a thing as a relaxing vacation with kids? My guess is no. So we'll just embrace the crowds, the humidity and the chaos of the four Disney parks and have a great time making memories.

Summer is officially over. Today, Vika and I go back to school, and for the first time, Eamon is joining us. He starts kindergarten today! Dang kids are growing up too fast.

In memory of summer, I leave you with this video from our recent day at the beach (on August 8th - hence the date in the sand) with Mel and her family.

Please take note of Eamon's superior hula hooping skilz!

My summer vacation is going by really fast. There was so much I wanted to do while school was out, but I just don't seem to have the time. My project list may have been a little ambitious, but I have made some progress.

• The Kids' Lifebooks: A lot of progress made here. I've put in all the new birth family information and have included most of the major events from Vika and Eamon's first year home. Unfortunately, I'm completely inept at scrapbooking, so I tend to fiddle with the pages until I finally give up in a fit of frustration and just paste the text and pictures down, usually in the configuration I had them in the first time I tried the layout. I'll post some pages later.
• Disneyland Photo Album: Complete! I did this online on Shutterfly, and hope to receive it in the mail soon.
  
• Blog Book: Pretty much no progress here. I'm printing the blog using Blurb, and it's slow going.
• Christmas Knitting Projects: Well, all I can say is, I've bought the yarn for a few of these! I've still got plenty of time though, right? No way will I be knitting furiously up until Christmas Eve this year. ;)
• PIF Projects: I finished the second one of these - now I just have to mail it out and finish project number 3. I've been completely slacking on this.
  
• Eamon's "Knight" Sweater: This is about 1/8th done. *sigh* I'm creating my own pattern for this one and have restarted it 3 times now.... In the end, it should look like a roll-neck raglan sweater with a Gryffindor lion on the front. If I ever get it done, I'll post a picture.
  
• Vika's Caplet: DONE! And she likes it!

Meanwhile, in other non-project related news, we had our "National Night Out" last night. Do any of your neighborhoods do this? It's when neighbors get together for a mini-block party to get to know each other. The idea is that this will help prevent crime. We had Dr. Pepper floats at ours (Which is just wrong. What happened to the root beer?), a fire engine (complete with cute, flirty firemen), as well as a bunch of games organized by the older neighborhood kids.

After much lobbying on my and Jeff's part, our neighbor's dog, DaVinci, won the dog trick competition (he initially scurried away with his tail between his legs, but then found some courage and jumped though a hoop. Twice. Now that's talent!). No one won the chalk drawing competition, although an interesting hopscotch course did get honorable mention.

The highlight of the evening though was watching my son discover the Hula Hoop. Now, Eamon is not what I would call coordinated. He's inherited my family curse for clumsiness and often trips over pieces of lint. However, sometimes he surprises me with his agility. Like when he did a full-on flip into my brother's pool. Where did he learn that? Last night was another one of those times. At first, he was completely spastic with the hula hoop. It would kind of spin around his knees once or twice before falling to the ground. But Eamon kept at it, and by the end of the evening, he was keeping that hoop circling around his waist for longer than I can! He even began to do some tricks, ending with the hoop on a raised foot. Seriously, the kid was good! The other neighbors were watching him with these huge smiles on their faces, enjoying his enthusiasm. At then end of the night, the organizers gave Eames the hula hoop to take home. All in all, it was a fun evening.

I hope you all had a fun 4th of July! Here are some images from our day.

After the week from H-E-double L, I'm finally done! Monday was the 6th grade pool party, which was held after school (can you imagine how much work was done during the school day? None.), Tuesday was Olympic Day, which is our school's field day, and Wednesday was 6th grade promotion. 2 days out in the sun and one day checking out students. On the last day of school, Mean Father #2 cornered me in my room, asking that I prepare work for his son to do over the summer (5-6 hours a day would be good). Sure... I'll get right on that... I'm happy to spend my last day of school gathering worksheets and projects for your son, who couldn't be bothered to complete the work I gave him to do while school was in session! Needless to say, I nodded politely and then blew his request off. A bit too little too late, in my opinion.

Yesterday was spent clearing out my room and moving stuff to the room in which I'll be teaching next year. That room belonged to a teacher who is retiring, and she left it packed with all kinds of stuff I might be able to use! I'm looking forward to diving in and seeing what kinds of treasures she has.

Finally this afternoon, I reached the light at the end of the tunnel. My keys were turned in, my name was checked off the Principal's list, and I was set free for 2 months! YAY!

Oh, and remember how I was complaining about wearing sweaters in June? Well, those days are long gone. It's HOT, and we don't have A/C. I won't complain though. I've done enough of that already. I'll just sit in the backyard, hosing the kids off and drinking iced tea.

Hello summer break! I've been waiting for you.

It's been in the 60's out here with a cold wind blowing nearly every day. I'm still wearing sweaters, and it's JUNE. There's just something wrong about that.

Here's hoping we'll get some warmer weather soon.