The Lone Star state

Another first day...

Today was Claire's first day back at preschool. She was excited, until this morning. Then all morning she kept saying, 'I don't want to go to school'. Once she was there and settled in, she was just fine. She did this all last year too, I can't figure it out. Maybe because she is the 'baby'.

Olivia's first day of school

I can't believe my 'baby' is starting first grade today! She seems to be in a good class and there are 4 other students from her Kindergarten class. I tried to get her to eat a big breakfast, but she was pretty excited. It's a big transition to 1st grade...no more play time in the classroom, no more snack time, and it's all day.

On the Road Again

We just made it to El Paso from Houston last night. It took us almost 11 hours. We thought it would be more like 12, but after San Antonio, the speed limit is 80, so we made great time.

This morning we will drive to Blythe, CA, it should take us about 8 hours. Then on Sunday, we will head home to Bakersfield, CA.

We had such a great time on our vacation, but it will be good to be home and sleep in our own beds. After my trip in New Orleans, we drove down to the Austin area to spend several days with friends. The landscape is so pretty and it immediately brings back memories of my days spent at summer camp in the hill country.

After Austin, we headed down to Houston to spend time with friends. We had a great time with friends, eating out, swimming at the pools, going to the Children's museum...it's an awesome museum. And now we are headed home...bye bye Texas!

N'awlins mission team

For those that might be interested in my church's work in New Orleans, here is a link to our blog:
http://5real.blogspot.com .

On our 5 week summer adventure

We left Bakersfield on July 3rd and drove to Texas. We stayed for a few days in Dallas and then flew off to Newark, NJ where we planned to visit with my brother in law and his family. For 3 days we stayed closer to NYC and visited Manhattan...Staten Island Ferry, Statue of Liberty, WTC site, Times Square, American Girl store, Toys R Us, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Central Park, Museum of Natural History...and all the while we walked, took trains, subways, ferries and buses and the girls did great.

After NYC, we went to stay at my brother in law's in Princeton. One day we went to Morristown National Park and learned about George Washington's encampment in the winter of 1779/1780. The next day, we drove about 2 hours into Amish country in Pennsylvania and spent most of our time in Bird in Hand, PA. We ate at the Good 'n Plenty and the food sure was good and plentiful! The last full day we took a day trip to Philadelphia. There was so much to see, but we managed to see the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall, Franklin's (as in Ben) Court, and Betsy Ross' house.

We returned to Dallas just on the 17th and here I am today (July 19th) in New Orleans. Yes that's right I am in New Orleans and I am sans family. The kids will stay with their grandparents for the week I am here, while my husband returns home and to work on Monday. I am here on a mission trip with my church. I'm really looking forward to helping out. I have been wanting to help ever since Katrina devastated parts of New Orleans. Having grown up along the Gulf Coast and spending a lot of time in Louisiana, I feel so tied to this area .

Happy Belated Birthday to our first born!

Olivia turned 6 years old on July 1st! We actually had her birthday party early though. She ended up with a backwards party. It was so much fun because no one knew what to expect. We sent thank you cards as invitations (which did cause a fair amount of confusion!). After all the guests arrived, we opened presents first! Then we practiced singing 'Happy Birthday' backwards and the kids had cake and ice cream.

After cake, we played games but played them backwards and at the end of our time, we had pizza for everyone.

Olivia's ballet 'Gala'

Olivia has been learning ballet all year and just performed in her school's 'Gala'. This year, the first act was Dr. Seuss and the classes each had small parts in it along with the older, more experienced dancers. Olivia's class performed in Gertrude McFuzz and they were 'Little Birds'. They were so cute and I'm so proud of Olivia. I worked backstage and therefore, missed her performance. We will be ordering the video. They had 4 different casts perform the show, the second act was all jazz, hip hop, modern and tap.

Summer Days are here...

I went to prison...

Our church helps to sponsor a program called Get on the Bus. The program bring kids to visit their mothers in prison on the Friday before Mother’s Day every year. I help out by sponsoring a family, which means I meet with a family who wants to go and make sure they fill out the visitor form to get approval and have all the proper documents. One of the other family’s guardian is not approved so the 11 year old boy needs someone to accompany him for the visit, I volunteer to go on the bus with Byron. There is a strict dress code for visitors, you cannot wear certain colors, especially any type of blue. I’m told the best color to wear is black. All the volunteers and kids are given purple ‘Get on the Bus’ tshirts and the kids our church sponsors are given black sweatpants to make it easier to get inside the prison.

So it was about a 2 ½ hour bus ride to the prison and we arrive around 8:30 in the morning. I was reading online and the VSPW (Valley State Prison for Women) is one of the largest women's prisons in the world, they have several thousand inmates. There are so many women inmates, they cleared out the men's prison down the street and have turned it into a women's prison as well. As we were arriving, we had to fill out a form stating who we were and minors coming with us. We had to check off what we were bringing with us, such as jackets, jewelry, glasses, etc. Really, the only thing you can bring in is money (up to $50 for adults in dollar bills and quarters) in a clear bag. So we get checked off and are given a ticket, then they wanded us to make sure we weren't carrying anything in our pockets, etc. We went through a metal detector then outside where there is a series of gates. We have to stand and wait for the gate to open, we walk through and then have to wait at the 2nd gate. After that we are on the prison grounds and can walk over to the visitor center

After we go in the visitor center, we have to check in at the desk and they tell us which room to go to. There are 2 large rooms, one which allows media coverage, the other does not. Byron is meeting his mother in the media room to the left. He knows exactly where to go, this is his 4th trip on the Get on the Bus program, he shows me the ropes. His mother is waiting for him, I go to the desk at the head of the room, where 2 guards are standing and have to turn the ticket over. We will need to check out at the desk when we leave. I go meet Byron’s mother, Gale. Her mother passed to me $20 in one dollar bills and quarters for her, but Gale cannot touch it, I have to use the money for her at the vending machines. Gale is very friendly, she introduced me to her ‘co-defendant’ whose family was also on the bus. She also introduced me to one of her roommates, Bobby, whose son came to visit from another part of the state. Several of the families from Bakersfield know each other from previous trips and the inmates know each other.

The first order of business for Byron and his mother is to buy snacks from the vending machines, this is a special treat for his mother. In the other visiting room, we learn an outside vendor is selling food, 6 hot wings for $6, small order of onion rings for $3, slice of cheesecake for $4. Byron’s mom asks me to go over and buy her a hot wings and onion rings, this is also a special treat for them. Byron goes with me and he buys cheesecake with his money. I know Byron and mom want to talk and spend time, so I walk around to take everything in. Some inmate volunteers have set up a face painting table for the kids, which is free and in the children’s room, they take pictures of the families with a polaroid camera. By the visiting room, there is a small outdoor area where some kids go to run around and some families visit. It is a gorgeous day outside, sunny, cool in the morning, warm in the afternoon.

Back to the children’s room… In each visiting section, there is a small room labeled children’s room, I think where the smaller children can go and play with some toys. The rest of the visiting room is layed out like a cafeteria with numbered round tables. About 2 weeks ago, the children’s room was painted to look like a jungle, it is beautiful and was done completely freehand by an inmate. The children’s room in the other visiting section is painted like an ocean with fish, octopus and the like.

I am free to go between the visiting rooms but a guard stands at each door to let us in and out. Since the vending machines were broken in our visiting room, I go with Byron to the other side to buy snacks. Fortunately someone later comes and fixes the broken vending machines. I talk with Gale a little and she tells me a little about the jobs the inmates can have. She says she has her refrigerator license now and now for the past 2 years she has been making glasses for the ‘free world doctors’. She earns money for doing this job, she likes this job.

I also sit with another family who is visiting Valerie, she is mother to 4 children. Three of them, a 7 year old boy, 8 year old girl and 11 year old girl came with her grandmother who they live with. Her 15 year old daughter who lives with her father’s mother was not allowed to come for the visit by her grandmother. Gloria,Valerie’s grandmother, says Valerie has been in and out of prison, the first time was for 6 years. Gloria tells me once they are in the system, it’s hard to get out. When Valerie was out, she made another stupid mistake and had to go back in for 6 months. She has only a few months left on the latest violation so Valerie has told her children she is coming home in September, but Gloria tells me she has another case pending. She is not happy with her making promises all the time that she cannot keep.

Valerie is very hyper and cannot sit still or stay focused, I can’t help but wonder to myself if she could be on drugs. When it’s lunch time, hot dogs, chips and sodas are provided for the families and volunteers. I sit with Valerie’s family who also brought me a hot dog, her family holds hands as I join in as well and one of the girls says a prayer. Then Valerie’s son, Michael, asks if she is a Christian, she says, yes, I have come to God and she doesn’t know what it is, but she feels Him in her. Michael says “Finally! She is a Christian!” The kids sing some Christian songs, I can see tears well up in Valerie’s eyes, she is so proud. They start reciting Bible verses they have memorized and Valerie is hugging on her kids. Gloria is a bit stoic, she knows Valerie makes promises she can’t keep. Valerie says a group called Daystar came to visit from Texas and turned her towards God.

Soon they start calling off buses, it’s sooner than they expected. Somehow the moms thought the kids were staying until 3, it is only 1pm. I tell Gale that we are expected to leave at 1:30pm. As the buses are announced, the visitors have to go check out at the desk and receive their ticket. Our bus is announced at 1:30pm, I go to the desk to checkout, but the guard tells me I have to have Byron and his mom with me, she has to leave the room before we can be dismissed. Gale is outside taking last minute pictures with friends and family. She and Byron come in to the desk and they say goodbye, she thanks me and gives me a hug.

Before the bus leaves Chowchilla, every child receives a personalized blanket wrapped around a stuffed animal. Several of the children receive letters from their mother. Most of the people go to sleep on the way home. I’m glad I was able to go, I’m touched by the circumstances these children live in. I cannot imagine being away from my kids for so long. I also worry about these kids and hope they do not make the same mistakes their mothers have. I wish I could show them there is another way to live.

Video footage from our local media

Laisser les bons temps rouler!

For those of you unfamiliar with 'cajun speak', that means, 'Let the Good Times Roll!' The last month or so I was really busy planning a New Orleans fundraiser for our church's mission trip to New Orleans in July. I'm looking forward to going in July to help victims(still) of Hurricane Katrina.

I think the fundraiser was a success, especially for a small church with only about 200 members. We raised close to $2000 for the trip. This will help with some of the transportation costs and fees for our stay at the church where will be staying.

I found this fantastic 7 member jazz band to play free for us and got lots of food donated for the dinner as well as a few raffle prizes. I was really overwhelmed by the generosity of our community and our church.


"The Dixie Nuts" With the dimmed lights, our fellowship hall really did have some atmosphere, you can't really tell in the picture.

Silly Claire!

Sayonara!

Here is a picture of Olivia and Claire with our exchange student, A, who stayed with us at the end of March. She was only here a week, but we had a great time. This picture was taken at the Sayonara (goodbye) party the night before the group left. She understood English pretty well and she was really trying to learn English. When we watched t.v. or we were driving around town, she would whip out her electronic translator and type away to learn new English words.

We had a really busy week with her and it was sad to see her go, she already emailed us the day after she got back home to Japan!

Happy Easter (belated)!

A "Snow" Day!

At Olivia's school, the Kindergarten classes had a "snow" day. The kids bundled up in jackets, mittens and hats and ran around the playground throwing "snow" (marshmallows) at each other. Needless to say, it wasn't terribly cold, so they all got pretty hot!

Special Projects

Here are booties for someone at church who is expecting a baby girl next month. I got the pattern from my friend Jessica. It was so quick, but the straps were tricky.

A couple of weeks ago, Olivia had a friend over and we all made snowpeople. Hers was quite colorful! We used different colors of Fimo clay and baked them.
Mine is the more 'traditional' one on the left.

An update, part 1

Thought I would post an update since it's been awhile. I've been recovering from the holidays, I think I overextended myself, taking on so many things. But I wanted it to be a great holiday this year. We decided to host not just one but 2 exchange students from Japan, I guess we'll call them M&M since both their names start with an M. Actually, we had one for 2 weeks, and only hosted the other one for a week while her original family went on a skiing trip. Their English was extremely limited so that was a bit disappointing, but overall, we had a great time and M1 (our 2 weeker) bawled when we had to put her on the bus.

After Christmas, we all went up north to visit the Bay area and Sacramento. We also did lots of shopping which the teenagers really enjoyed. Some of these pictures are from Christmas, a few are from dinner with my friend in San Jose.

Running off dinner.

With my friend Jessica who I met on a mommy board, this was taken in San Jose.

Brrr....viewing of Holiday lights at our local 'zoo'.

Picture of girls on Christmas day which was sent out in thank you letters.

Annual decorating of a gingerbread house (with our Japanese exchange student, M)

At Olivia's class holiday party.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday

Wishing you the best for your holidays. It's just impossible to post anything these days, we've been sooo busy. Maybe I will be able to post again in the new year.

Welcome to Ponyville!

We finally had Claire's party this past weekend at our neighborhood park. Thankfully, the weather held out. I got there a little early to stake out the spot and decorate a little.

She had a blast! It was a great turnout, only a few kids who got sick at the last minute. I had way too much food though! I found out a few days before that my friend's husband does balloon animals, so he ended up coming and making some balloon flowers and swords (which were the biggest hit). The kids played for a while on the playground, then munched on food.

I cut out cute sandwiches with cookie cutters in the shapes of stars, flowers and hearts. They were pb&j and turkey and cheese, pirate's booty (at Claire's request), sweet snack mix I made and haystacks (chocolate, butterscotch, chow mein noodles); for adults I had spiral sandwiches which I found at Sam's, bagels and flavored cream cheese, cheese & salami tray with crackers, hummus (which no one touched) with pita chips and crackers. After eating, I planned pony races for the kids. I found 2 stick ponies at TRU on sale and had the kids race around 'barrels', jump over 'water' and cross a finish line where they were given ribbons with a medal. After that, they played 'pony, pony, horse' which is just like duck, duck, goose. After everyone had a chance to play, it was cake time. After cake, the kids played on the playground again and some colored some My little pony coloring sheets I brought, then we had Claire open her gifts. She was so excited about EVERYTHING she opened, even the panties she got from Grandma and Grandpa!

For the goody bags, I found horse puzzles at the $ store, crazy straws, play doh from halloween, snack bags of oreo, teddy grahams and goldfish, my little pony stickers from the $ store. I got different things for siblings, infants and older kids. It was great having it at the park, but just as much work as having it at home just because you have to plan everything out and transport everything. The park is around the corner from our house though and it gives space for the kids to run around.

Halloween festivities

First I had Claire's school carnival to go to which happened to fall on her birthday. I got to eat lunch with her beforehand. It was interesting to see what her class is like during the day. Wow, her teachers work hard!
Classic bean bag toss game.

One of the booths was 'bobbing for donuts'. They have it every year, it is a hit!

Claire and I.

Next was Olivia's class party. They had 4 centers: craft (bat hat), bingo (which I helped with), cookie decorating, and musical spot. Claire got to come and it was my hubby's day off so he got to come and help too.

The 3rd party was on Saturday and it was my moms group which was held at the park. The kids dressed in costumes, had a few activities and at the end a costume parade.

Pumpkin bowling....not very ladylike!

The 4th and final party was at our church. It was tons of fun. They had lots of activities for the kids, dinner and trunk or treating.
Our little 'angel'!

The car next to us was decorated in the Pirates of the Caribbean theme, they went all out. They had a strobe light, fog machine and the soundtrack playing.

This is our trunk, it looked cool at dark when the trunk or treating began. The Christmas tree lit up and we had green lights going around the trunk. It is 'The Nightmare Before Christmas'.

I wish I had taken pictures of some of the other trunks. Some other themes included: High School Musical, camping and the kids got to fish for candy, sports theme, harvest theme. It was fun to see the creativity everyone used.

My baby is 3!

Happy Belated Birthday Claire! She turned 3 on October 24th. We have had a busy week and month so sorry for not blogging!

Here she is in the hospital when she was born:

On her birthday at school. She attends a Montessori school and it is tradition to walk the earth (globe) around the sun (candle) to mark their birthdays. It was so neat to see this. I also had lunch with Claire and brought sugar cookies in the shape of the number 3 to share with her class. At Disneyland a couple of weeks ago: