Yikes!

I have been asked to LEAD THE MUSIC for a funeral on Friday!

Not that it's about me, but it is a little panic making. I have no problem leading the primary children, (I enjoy that), having adults, (and I assume) lots of them, watching me is NOT in my comfort zone!

It is Oral Petty's funeral. She died Monday night. I am sure she is happily dancing around with Charles now.

April Steimle called and asked me to be her partner and lead the music. I tried to get out of it, gave a different suggestion, but April was having none of it!

I said OK!

The two songs I am leading:

• Have I done any good in the world today.....6/8 time!
• Put your shoulder to the wheel.....4/4 time (easy)

Wish me luck!

Sometimes Dinner is NOT all that Great

Ok, at least I have made dinner.

Last night, I tried a new recipe - Potato Soup. Thought it would be so good. It was barely ok. In fact Quinn, Kylie, Griffin and I ate some soup - it didn't do it for us, so we dumped it and ate cereal. Zak does not really like cereal. He said he has to eat it in the morning, he would just keep going with the Potato Soup. (!) Dad came home and thought it fine....then ate cereal too.

Tonight it was Taco soup. I was excited to eat this; knew it would be great. It was a passable "6" for me. Everyone else liked it.

Zak had his Spanish final today. It was hard. Tomorrow is biology.
Griffin played with a friend.
Kylie had violin AND batting practice
Quinn is busy finishing homework.

I will enjoy Lost tonight.

hmm, I should have taken pictures of my meals.
There's always tomorrow....which just may be spaghetti!

Quote From Zak

Toast:

"It is only a bridge from one meal to the next - it only makes you hungrier".


He was still hungry after dinner, so I was suggesting other things to eat, one of them being toast.

Staved Goblet

So I saw this thing on the internet, and I thought I could do it. Plus I wanted to come up with something nice and small to give to Nana & Bumpa for the graduation gift they gave me. It was took a lot of preparation to glue all the different woods together, but I'm really happy with the result.





The middle part is made out of Bloodwood and some stuff I found called Pau Amarello. The outside is done using Walnut.

In other news, Steven and I went snowboarding on Friday night. We don't have pictures because, well, it was dark. But we had a lot of fun going off jumps and just having fun down the mountain.

Friday, Saturday Night

Friday night we watched Appaloosa.
We love westerns....
We didn't love this one.
Ed Harris, what were you thinking??
It was very campy; bad dialogue, bad sets, bad lighting

Saturday night we watched Eagle Eye.
That was much better.
I heard that the ending was bad - I was prepared, so it wasn't so bad for me. It was a "worth it" movie. I was VERY glad for the clear play. Zak LOVED the movie because there was a scene with STEVEN JACKSON in it.


It rained for most of the day.

Griffin got to go to a birthday party for a class mate.

Zak and Quinn practiced church basketball then went to a place in LA that sells old fashioned, long neck sodas. They brought me back a Sarsaparilla. Zak got a Rose Petal soda! (Tasted like soap). Quinn got Orange Creme and Grapefruit. I liked the Grapefruit. Oh, and the Sarsaparilla. Thanks.

The place is called Galco's. You can check out their site: sodapopstop.com

The Caramel Apple

Zak called, I had to race out the door to pick him up from school. Just as I was leaving Griffin told me he was hungry.
I suggested:

• a banana
• a pretzel
• an apple

I had to go, if he needed help, I would help him when I came back home. He told me that he wanted a caramel apple! (What??) I told him we didn't have that - he went on to say he wanted the kind with the stick in it - I repeated we didn't have that. He suggested that he make his own. "How", I asked? He would just eat a whole Popsicle, use that stick to push into an apple. Sure, I thought; it would never happen. I told him to go ahead. Whatever we had in the fridge he was welcome to.

When I came home, he told me that he made his "caramel apple" but now he was done, where should he put it? I was shocked and impressed. (No caramel anywhere, just the apple on the stick.)

Oh, in case you were wondering, this was Zak's arm on Friday (I think). You can see where it was blistered.
In other news:

• AHS finals start on Wednesday
• Zak has 4 (four!) projects due for English (Sis. Swift) Those projects will get him an A. One for a D, 2 for a C, 3 for a B, 4 for an A. Good choice, Zak.
• Raining in Southern CA
• Chicken Stroganoff for dinner (recipe care of Mary Harmon)
• I hope Christopher and Steven take some pictures of their skiing & post them
• CHASE wrote a short e-mail! Check his site to see!
• I am playing the piano for someone who is singing a special number for a Church meeting on Sunday night. She has neglected to tell me which song she chose. I guess she thinks I am that good. Let's all hope.
  

Equal Rights - Boys & Girls

One of my FAVORITE things is to capture pictures while I am out and about in the world. I got this one while driving down Santa Anita to pick up Zak.

See that girl in the front of the line in the cross walk?
Notice her SAGGY PANTS!
I guess she wants to wear her pants below her bottom just like the gangsta boys do.

If she looks at this blog - it's not cool - PULL Your Pants UP!she is wearing pink pants, sagging below her bottom. She took her underwear cues from Christopher & Steven's "gangsta halloween costume".

In other news:

• Jeff Kent announced his retirement today
• Our dinner conversation tonight was what sports players were and were not on steroids
• Those with stomach aches today: Christopher, Kylie & Griffin - hope they feel better!
• Do you know the 3 executive orders that were signed today by President Obama?
• Chase got a jury duty notice in the mail.
  

Artist & Architect

Griffin has been our little artist lately. He quite enjoys making pictures with markers and glue. Hmm, reminds me of someone... Kylie, (I think Griffin helped and so did Zak) made this very tall tower. I think she built it several times. It kept falling over.

In other news:

• Pork chops and rice for dinner, yum - I thought it would take longer to make than it did, it was done early!!
• No e-mail from Chase this week!! I guess I will make it until next Monday.
• Zak has 2 more merit badges to get before his Eagle Project....environmental science, and physical fitness. It will be an Eagle Project summer!! All helpers invited!

Burn, Baby Burn

If Zak didn't burn his arm, what would I have to blog about?

Today, Tuesday, when I picked Zak up from school, I was shocked to see Zak's burn. It had one big blister, 2 smaller blisters (at least). I told him I thought he should go and show it to the famous "Sue". (She is the trainer at Arcadia High School, and today I referred to her as a cheap way to see a medical person; and it worked.)

Zak came back to the car with his arm bandaged. Sue said that the burn could get infected, to watch it and keep it covered! My "medical" training is very low on burns. I would like to keep it that way.In other news:
Griffin got to play with Vincent today
Kylie went to Achievement days
Everyone watched the Inauguration


In TV news:
I really enjoyed 24 last night
Tonight it is Biggest Loser

Dinner:
We'll have spaghetti because I couldn't think of anything else and it will make the burn victim happy

Zak's Burn Day 2

Just know that the red color YOU see really looks purple. Zak says it doesn't hurt so much though.

Other than healing, we did do our cleaning and laundry. Yea. Maybe it wasn't fun, but the results are great.

Thank you.

Back at it tomorrow!

24 is on tonight. I will be watching that.

Zak is the News

Zak is pretty much all the news of late!

On Saturday, he went to an "every one can come" track meet. He did a personal best pole vaulting record of 8' 6". He was very happy.

THEN, during the fixing of dinner, I asked Zak to please get the stuff out of the oven, hurry! The buzzer was going off. Zak, did, he quickly got the hot pan of baking chicken breasts out of the oven. He spilled a large amount of the HOT, chicken fat/grease on his arm! He held the hot pan for about 2 seconds, then dropped it on the floor, spilling the chicken and drippings all over.

I wish you could see it better, but Zak arm is VERY red and burnt. I have drawn a blue circle around the most visible red part in this picture.

He kept ice on it from when it happened until around midnight when he finally fell to sleep. It looks red and parts of it swollen today, but it does not hurt as much.

The next picture is of our fried rice that we had for dinner on Saturday night. I told Candice we were having that for dinner, she was shocked that fried rice was the whole meal. I told her it contained protein, vegetables and starch; what else do you need?

Quinn also played in a regional soccer game on Saturday; they lost.

Kylie played tennis and tried out for softball.

(The baking chicken breasts were for Sunday's lunch - Chicken Devon. It was VERY good.)

Saturday is a Special Day

Quinn: soccer in Glendale at 8:00am
Zak: track meet; meets as AHS, but going to Northridge at 9:30am
Kylie: tennis at 10:00; softball at 1:30pm

Tanner coming over for the day at 9:30ish am

That's all.

Fantasy Football

My predictions:

For their final picks, I think most everyone has mostly picked 2 teams, the ones that they think will be in the Super Bowl.

I have not.

I also predict that only 2 people will be correct in their guesses.

What, No Update??

Rewind and repeat....that is the name of the game here....nothing NEW to talk about!

We did have spaghetti on Monday night. I will use these pictures to tell the "What's Up"

Kylie: she started tennis lessons on Saturday! She enjoyed them. She has softball try-outs this Saturday. She is going to the San Gabriel Mission on Friday with school. Quinn: he is enjoying his All Star soccer team. He is also trying out for the Foothills Middle School soccer team. He is happily enjoying that fabulous 8th grade year with very little homework....except for last night when he stayed up till almost midnight!

Zak was the first to say, take my picture of all my spaghetti....yes, there is spaghetti under all that sauce. He is busy with track. He is not enjoying all of his homework. He doesn't' really like to talk about it, although he does do it!

Griffin! My little reader....he likes to play with friends most every day of the week. He is right now enjoying "Aloha Scooby Doo". I taught his class art on Tues. It was not fun. The lesson was way too complex, shockingly the class had to paint 150 pieces of paper for this lesson! It was more stressful for the adults than the kids.

Dad and I are putting one foot in front of the other, I have not taken a picture of that. I have not seen anything so exciting "out in the world" to take a picture of....of except I did see a gay couple in the grocery store! I did not think it appropriate of me to whip out my camera and capture their smooch.

Fantasy Football is winding down here, but the tension (for the big win) is growing. No one will talk much about football strategies, in fact Zak has almost stopped talking about football altogether! He doesn't want to give me any advantage! Oh, yea, I am in first place right now. Wish me luck!

Hmm, more adventures to come tomorrow, I'm sure.

Congrates Quinn

Quinn was just asked to be on the Soccer All Star team.
Yea!
They don't play on Sundays!
Good for Quinn!

Happy Birthday, Elvis!

We will always remember that we got our FURNACE fixed on The King's birthday.

He would have been 74 today; or maybe he is still alive.....

Let's hope our furnace lasts that long.

I've Walked Through This Door

Christopher & Steven happened to go a store (a guitar facility) right next to Mary Kawakami's College of Beauty. That is where I graduated from 27 years ago!
My how time flies!

picture - courtesy of Christopher's cell phone

Trying To Be Swingers!

We are all trying to get in the swing of things! The weeks off were very enjoyable.
So BACK AT IT!

• doing laundry
• late homework
• always dishes
• cleaning up rooms
• encourage Kylie to practice her violin

Maybe.....

• we'll get our furnace fixed today

Today......

• I will go and help a friend set up a blog for her son (Jake) who is going on his mission next week!

Happy News....

• Griffin can read all of his sight words: I, see, the, like, my, can, to, and - AND yesterday he read most of the book, "Hot Dog". It is very exciting.

Soccer news.....

• finally, Zak got "The Word" from THE man - (Franz) it was no, it's too late to transfer anyone over to soccer. So, Zak will stay with track. I think Zak's track coach is sucking the fun/life out of track for Zak. If there was a bit of a let up, maybe he could find some fun in that sport.

There is Tues and Wednesday.

After Christopher Flag Football

The Saturday after Christmas, there was another Flag Football game at Foothills Middle School.

This is a FABULOUS running shot of Steven. I should be a sports photographer!

Run, Steven, Run! Everyone there.

Scott Colton was the Referee. He did a fine job!

Zachary's Birthday

Zak at 16!

His stack of presents

He got a new eraser - a useful gift

Some gift certificates

a close-up of those certificates A much needed notebook

Deoderant. Nothing like useful gifts.

Some full-size candybars!

He also got to have 2 dinners that he really wanted. Good thing Chase is not home, as they were both pasta, and Chase does NOT like pasta. Chase is hoping Zak gets it out of his system while he is gone.

Christopher's Woodworking

During Christmas vacation Christopher worked on his woodworking and loved it!
He made these 2 stools. You can buy one if you want - just leave a comment Christopher's lathe

Some saw - what kind is this Christopher?

Christopher also made a couple of bowls, pens, a new peg to hang a coat on, fixed Zak's dresser. He was VERY handy.

Winter Leaves!

Now you see him....

Now you don't!

The 3 rakers

There are lots more leaves out there again!

Graduation Suit

This is me in my new suit, shirt, and tie. Only Mom and I saw the suit before I went away with it, so here's the picture. I wore it today at church.

Things I'll Blog About Later

1. Zak's birthday + photos!
2. New Year's Eve Party
3. Back to real life
4. I am sure there is something else....