Techno E-Literate

Ever have those days where technology just gets too far ahead of you and you want to just cry out "uncle"?  That has been me for the past two days.  I cannot seem to get blogger to allow me to post photos that are stored on my computer.  Sounds simple right?  But no matter what I do it tells me I can only upload photos from my phone, (which I tried only to find out my phone is a I4 not an I5), pixasomthing (which I learn, I am not a member of) video camera (which is dead) or the web (where my photos are not located).  I am beside myself that the simplest easiest format will not work.  It worked last week.  What could have possibly changed in less than one week?  So until I can figure this out, I cannot post my photos :-(

Cirque du "light"

I love Cirque du Soleil. I have been captivated, memorized and often haunted by each performance I have seen. Now, that being said, I am not a fan of a regular circus but something about the aerial artists, meets Diane Arbus and crosses with Chinese acrobats set to music gets me every time. I've seen four performances with my favorite still being "O" at Bellagio in Las Vegas. So when I heard Cirque was coming to northern California I was excited to take the yahoos. When I discovered it was going to cost us close to $600 to attend, I decided plan B of taking them to the Cirque du Soleil movie3-D was a better option.

Sew another holiday season passes

While I know I am in the minority out there, but my favorite time of the year is not the end the of the year holiday season. Despite years of trying to get "in the mood of the season" it just does not happen for moi as I am more of a "welcomer" of January and the promise that a new year brings. I do not enjoy "decorating" for the holidays, but I do enjoy "cleaning up" and more importantly putting away. One of the things I truly do not enjoy is the physical act of decorating a Christmas tree, so each year I let all of the kids decorate it, with NO rules, requirements or expectations. Given this freedom, I am constantly surprised by the creativity of my yahoos. As I was taking all of the decorations off the three this year here is what I found.

Reduce, Recycle & Reuse

Not sure what is worse.... having ones cats bring home dead rodents and deposting them at the front doorstep...or having ones children bring home all of the neighbors dead/dying holiday folliage and placing them all over the front porch... of course for all of the neighbors to drive by and see... I guess my budding "decorators" are really taking reduce, recycle and reuse to heart.

Edies Virtual Book Group

Who's Edie you say? Well is someone I have never meet in person yet have come to know quite well by frequenting her blog. She is smart, witty, sassy with a great sense of truth and lives in a world very far from me. For someone I have never met, I find her quite inspirational and captivating with a zest for life even through the most troubling of times. She is starting a monthly on-line virtual book group based on classics. I am looking forward to dusting off some books from the shelf and revisting them with others.

Sorry for the delay, I've been blog-jacked

Yes, I have been MIA as my blog was blogjacked and I could not gain access to it. Funny becuase whoever took the time to steal it never did anything with it or at least what I can see. Who knows, I may have been selling heaven knows what in Russia. Anyway, I am back and the count down of the last days of summer are upon us. School starts on Monday and for the first time since school started, I am the one who is not ready for summmer to be over.

Linjit has Landed in the Philippines

Linjit has landed in the Philippines to complete her documentary "Gwapa". We are so proud of her Linjit for helping raise awareness of cleft affected children around the world and their barriers to treatment. Send your prayers out to Linjit and the team. If all goes well and their success continues they will find themselves at Sundance Film festival. We sit and wait for status updates on the children undergoing their cleft repairs and pray that all goes well.

The Tooth Fairy is a Fraud Okay!!!

The Tooth Fairy and competitive kids do not mix...nope not one bit. One 2nd grader yahoo looses a tooth and the other second grader will work and work and work until their tooth comes out. Next thing you know I have HooHaa coming to me with a large molar telling me he would like 20 dollars for it since it is so big. I tell him no - 1 dollar like the others. He askes for ten dollars, I hold firm at one dollar. Next he tries for five dollars and I say no one dollar is my final offer. He then tells me no thank you he would rather keep it for himself and negotiate with the tooth fairy on his own. Guess who will be doing all of my barting next trip to China?

Blues Clues rise Again

Looks like it's going to be a blue new year. Yesterday I sent in Canoley to take a shower. When she was done, I went into the bathroom to make sure all of the towels were picked up and noticed shades of blue finger prints all around me slightly reminiscent of blues clues. 
Blue tub, blue walls, blue cabinet, blue door. I was completely stumped what could be so blue. Then I remembered seeing Canoleys hand...it too was blue. Thinking at the time it was ink from a marker, I had ignored it.

I called and asked Canoley what was blue and why was it everywhere in the bath room. She looked blankly at me and said her usual..."don't know."

I walked back into the bathroom and opened the cabinet to get the cleaning wipes and noticed an unwrapped blue toilet bowel tablet placed nicely on the shelf. I had found the clue to my blue and discovered that Miss Canoley learned the hard way that blue toilet bowel cleaning tabs do NOT make very nice bath fizzies.

Au Revoir 2011 don't let the door hit ya in the butt

Tonight is a very good night. Yes a very good night indeed. 2011 kicked my butt, and I have lived to tell or not tell as the case may be with the lack of posting to this blog.

In a nutshell 2011 will be the year of:
Thyroid Cancer Cleft Surgery
Four kids 2 different schools
Commuting for the first time in 11 years
Going back to work for someone else
Juggling two jobs
Paying off taxes - yuck!
Old car issues
Old house issues Starting the process of moving
Ending the process of moving
Finishing my graduate program at Stanford University- FINALLY after many years!!!

Needless to say, I survived and more importantly, those around me survived. I am looking very forward to 2012. Something about the sound of it. Or maybe it is as simple as I think even numbers. Regardless I'm happy to start the new year and as always the promise of change it brings.

Cleft Affected Children - A documentary and how you can help

Gwapa, meaning beautiful in Visayan, is the fitting title of this vibrant, real-life story that follow two Filipino families and their struggle for a healthy future. Every year, 4,000 - 5,000 Filipino children are born with cleft lip, cleft palate, or both. Cleft lip and palate are two the most common and curable of birth defects. Sadly, most clefts go unrepaired in developing countries. Just one surgery can change a child's life forever. Gwapa (Beautiful) is Thirsty Girl Films' first feature length documentary dedicated bringing awareness to the high number of children born with cleft deformities in the Philippines and the great need for free reconstructive surgeries among the Filipino islands. This stunning and remarkable film will draw you into a powerful tale of strength, love, determination, and hope.

http://www.indiegogo.com/Gwapa-Film

Wise Words for Trying Times

Moshe ben Maimon (1135-1204) was a Jewish rabbi, physician and philosopher. He is most commonly known by his Greek name, Moses Maimonides (or more formally Rabbi Moses ben Maimonides), and subsequently many Jewish works refer to him by the acronym of his title and name, RaMBaM or Rambam.

According to Rambam, there are eight levels of charity, each greater than the next.

[1] The greatest level, above which there is no greater, is to support a fellow Jew by endowing him with a gift or loan, or entering into a partnership with him, or finding employment for him, in order to strengthen his hand until he need no longer be dependent upon others.

[2] A lesser level of charity is to give to the poor without knowing to whom one gives, and without the recipient knowing from whom he received. For this is performing a mitzvah solely for the sake of Heaven. This is like the “anonymous fund” that was in the Holy Temple [in Jerusalem]. There the righteous gave in secret, and the good poor profited in secret. Giving to a charity fund is similar to this mode of charity, though one should not contribute to a charity fund unless one knows that the person appointed over the fund is trustworthy and wise and a proper administrator, like Rabbi Hananya ben Teradyon.

[3] A lesser level of charity is when one knows to whom one gives, but the recipient does not know his benefactor. The greatest sages used to walk about in secret and put coins in the doors of the poor. It is worthy and truly good to do this if those who are responsible for distributing charity are not trustworthy.

[4] A lesser level of charity is when one does not know to whom one gives, but the poor person does know his benefactor. The greatest sages used to tie coins into their robes and throw them behind their backs, and the poor would come up and pick the coins out of their robes so that they would not be ashamed.

[5] A lesser level of charity is when one gives to the poor person directly into his hand, but gives before being asked.

[6] A lesser level of charity is when one gives to the poor person after being asked.

[7] A lesser level of charity is when one gives inadequately, but gives gladly and with a smile.

[8] A lesser level of charity is when one gives unwillingly.

My "Hon"some Boy Turns 8 Today

Who's got the most Hon-some boy around...I do! He woke up this morning and picked out a clean white button down shirt to wear with his jeans on his birthday. That's my guy. He could have worn the Mario shirt he received for his birthday but NO.... he chose the button down.

Move Over Harry Potter here comes Samba

Well the title says it all... Move over Harry here I come. Table 10 Samba 0. Not sure how it happened, but I was cleaning up the floor bent over and bang. I hit the very sharp corner of the glass table and managed to perform my own browlift, unfortunatly it went verticle instead of horizontal or I might have seen some signs of improvement. The good news is that I was able to get the emergency room doc to give me my suture set so next time I can take care of this at home.

FuFu's new Do and locks of love

We have been growing miss fufu's hair for four years. Last year she decided she wanted to cut it short to her "shoulders" I was not so sure this was what she really wanted and so I waited for one year. Well, one year later she still wanted to cut it and donate it to locks of love. She was very excited until the first chop of the pony tail and then the tears flowed like a waterfall. She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed but there was no turning back. When it was done we did some ice cream nail polish therapy and she perked up. Her hair came out adorable and she looks like... well, like a lot older than the little seven year old that went into the salon

Bunny FuFu turns 7 and that darn cat

So I wanted to post a couple birthday photos of miss bunny fufu, but I had a heck of a time finding them becuase they were buried on my camera by over 900 photos of this darn furry thing in the basket pictured below. Someone has been stealing my camera and taking HUNDREDS of photos of this darn cat! This cat, the one that came with our home when we bought it. This cat, the one who for seven years lived in back of the fountian. This cat, who only came out at night time when we were asleep as not to be seen by us. This cat, who has been known as ghost kitty for seven years. Yes, our little bunny fufu got upstaged by a darn cat who since Cokie died as taken over the lives of all four kids. Needless to say miss fufu is happy to share her lime light with that darncat.

Sacramento Snow?

This past weekend was a crazy one. One day hot enough to go swimming and next day....snow. Okay, so maybe not snow, but hey here if it is white and falls from the sky it counts as snow in our book. Just ask my snow deprived yahoos...

Avalanche of Class Projects

So what we have been doing for the past 6 weeks since we last posted. As we approach the end of the school year, we have been bombarded by an avalanche of school projects. Mission projects, bird nest projects, famous Californian projects, Old Oregon Trail projects, but this one takes the cake. The build a home project. Hons class are building homes to display at next weeks open house. I first thought of a Tepee or Igloo but after seeing those as examples on the list of suggested homes, I decided to pass and move on to something a little more interesting aka not on the list of suggestions.

After spending a weekend at Mrs Open Windows home and admiring their newest addition the spark of inspiration was lit. I am quite confident we will have the only Air Stream Motor home in the class. Take a look and see for yourself. Notice the two pink flamingos in the "front yard" afterall what would a trailer be without them? I was going to put a beer in the hand of the man reclining the the lawn chair, but decided it keep it PC for a first grade class.

My Favorite Foods

A school paragraph written by tobbers who has never written anything ---- EVER. Now, I am not sure if I am shocked by him writing it or by the subject matter and content.

Favorite Foods

To start with, breakfast is my favorite meal and the most important meal of the day. Sometimes for breakfast, I have Southern biscuits and gravy. I also like bananas and strawberry pancakes with whip cream. Other times, I eat scrambled eggs and cheese or a sausage burrito.
Another, at lunch I can’t wait to see if I am going to get my favorite foods. For lunch, I like pizza pillows. I like the little pepperoni chunks and the melted cheese. I also like hot dogs with orange soda, French fries, and BBQ chips. Other times, I like fried chicken sandwiches with a fruit cup and lemonade.
Finally, dinner is the most fulfilling meal. For dinner, I have macaroni and cheese with milk. I also like hamburgers with root beer. Other times, I like chicken pot stickers with soy milk. When I don’t eat my favorite foods, I get bratty!

So I must ask myself...if I ever wondered what Mr T has been feeding these kids when I am not home? I think I just figured it out...