January 11 and January 12, 2011

January 11- Today  the sunrise was really spectacular.  Now if the saying is acurate, I should stay off of boats! (Please tell me that you know "red sky at morning, sailor take warning. Red sky at night sailor's delight".. do you?  My mom can't be the only one who knows every saying and phrase, can she?  )

Jan. 12-  Hannah got her official driver's license in the mail today.  She now has a valid form of ID besides her passport card or birth certificate (which we frown on carrying around on a daily basis)... Recently, California started making underage driver's licenses vertical instead of horizontal.. and if you hold a flashlight to the back of the card and look at the front of the card you can see a bear made out of tiny pin holes.  Pretty cool.. and true to every other woman driver in history, she hates her picture on the driver's license!

Hallelujah!!!!

Jan. 10, 2011- This morning the kids headed back to school after the 3 week Christmas break. It was 30 degrees when Hannah and I got into the car this morning! I know some people think that complaining about 30 degrees is being whimpy.. but this is the CENTRAL COAST! 30 is COLD! So anyway, Hannah started complaining that leather seats are cold when a lightbulb went off above my head (I really think it did!) and so when we stopped for Starbucks, We looked on the side of the seats and saw THIS! SEAT WARMERS! We have seat warmers!!!! I think I heard angels singing! :)

My New Project... Project Life

In 2011, I am going to participate in PROJECT LIFE.. basically, it is a photo a day.  Pictures of my ordinary daily life kinds of things with lifes special moments throw in as well.  For instance, on Sunday, our lives pretty much revolves around church.. so you might see pictures of things at church that we see every week and take for granted.  So come along on my journey and see my life through the lens of my camera.  I will try to post at least once a week, but maybe more.

January 1- Happy New year!  We had our freinds the Hoffman's come over from Fresno to celebrate the new year with us.  We have been celebrating with them for several years now.. so it is our "tradition".  Here are the girls, Kelsey, Kirsten, Bekah and Hannah just after the ball dropped on Dick Clark's Rockin New Year's eve...

January 2-  Kiwi loves the Christmas tree.  She loves to hang out under it.  I am not sure what the appeal is, but it becomes her favorite spot while it is up.

Jan. 3-  We get our children every toy and electronic thing known to man.. so what do I see when I look out the kitchen window?  Bekah and her friends.. sitting on the curb playing in the mud... really?

Jan.4- My friend Julie gave me these slipper/boots for my birthday in November.  I am really enjoying them during the extra cold winter days.. well ok, so in California "extra cold" isn't extreme but I am freezing on the days it doesn't make it to 60 degrees!

Jan. 5-  This year, I am the PTSA Auditor for Orcutt Junior High School.  I am responsible to check the books 2 times this year to see if all the i's have been dotted and t's crossed and that the books balance.

Jan.6- Today a miracle occurred!!! I had to got to the DMV to look into my renewed license.. I was in and out of the DMV in 15 minutes flat!  Our DMV is notorious for 2 and 3 HOUR waits.. so I felt very blessed indeed!

Jan.7-  Just before Christmas, I saw a perfect dining room set at Costco.  I talked my husband into going to buy it after Christmas, but they were sold out.  Last night, I called Costco and they were back in stock.  We went to buy it.. but I don't know what we were thinking!  It was 5 huge boxes and only one would fit in my little SUV.  We called on our friend Greg to come with his small pickup and help.. but only 3 boxes would fit in his truck!  So Tim and Greg made one trip to our house while I stood out in the parking lot with the other two boxes and read a book.. it was FREEZING and DARK!  I got several weird looks and an offer to help... today we rearranged stuff and now my new dining room set looks FABULOUS!

Jan.8- Kiwi loves to sleep in a sunbeam.  She goes out of her way to find them.  Today, I found her in the dirty towel hamper which happened to be in the sun!

Jan.9- Today Bekah and I were at church getting ready to watch the toddlers.  I noticed that Bekah matched the Zebras painted on the wall!

Rings and things...

So, last night, Hannah was given her class ring at the first EVER OAHS ring ceremony.  Basically it is to recognize that the class of 2012 has now moved from underclassmen to upperclassmen.. technically.  Since they are the top class at the school, they have always been the upperclass, but the symbolic move from the sophmore class to the junior class is a tradition that the school wants to start.  SO, here is Hannah with Mr. Majewski the principal.  He received the FIRST class ring tonight as well (it was a suprise to him)...we are all very sad that Mr. Majewski is leaving as principal.  The district is sending him to a different school. 

And in other happenings,  today is the LAST day that Bekah would walk to school at Dunlap.  She has one more day tomorrow, but it is the 6th grade breakfast, so I will take her to school.  She and her buddy Shawna (who is a 5th grader) have been walking to school everyday for a few years now.  I am going to miss watching them walk down the sidewalk together.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! She's DRIVING!

SO Hannah took the test to get her permit on Wednesday.  Today was her first behind the wheel session with the instructor, so now her permit is valid and she can drive us around.  Don't know if my heart will be able to take it, but she seems to be doing ok!

Elementary School is winding down...

We have had a child at Dunlap elementary school since the fall of 1999 when Hannah started kindergarden.  We have been to every back to school night, every fall festival, every family bingo night or movie night or spaghetti dinner, etc.  Well tonight was our very last Open House to attend.  Bekah will be moving on to Junior high school next year.  This year, we looked at all of her classroom projects, but we didn't have to go to the classrooms of the next grade up to "check out the teachers" like we normally do.  It was quite bitter sweet.  We have wonderful memories of the school and the kids, parents and teachers at Dunlap.   In the next few weeks, the 6th graders will be busy. Tomorrow is a swim party as a reward for the jog a thon money raisers. On Tuesday, they leave for Science Camp until friday. The last week of school includes, a trip to lake Lopez to release the trout that they have been raising, along with a few hours at the water slides.  And the 6th grade breakfast on the last day of school.  I will be taking some pictures to capture our last moments at Dunlap.

Where have I been???

Ok so what happened to March and April???  I really didn't drop off the face of the earth.  Let me see if I can bring you up to date.

In March, we had swimming and church stuff. Bekah's 12th birthday came and went and my parents came to visit.

April became our community service month. We started with helping 200 other people from churches all over town paint over graffitti.  Then the next weekend, Hannah did a 30 hour famine to raise money for World Vision AND she helped at the special olympics (while very hungry!).  the 3rd weekend, we helped clean up the high school campus for the Disney "give a day get a day" project. 

Now we are on to May.  Tim and I celebrated our 24th anniversary on the 3rd.  We are going to see James Taylor and Carol King on the 18th as our gift to each other. 
Mother's day was wonderful with lots of me time.

Tim's mom has been having lots of memory issues lately and today the doctor told her she needs to stop driving (an answer to prayer as we also thought she should stop, but didn't want to be the bad guys) so we have now taken up the transportation for her to all her appointments and shopping needs.

Now we are hitting the home stretch of school with about 5 weeks left. 

Whew.. I need a summer vacation!