Job on the home front...

Well, career is more like it. I am official! I am through the rigorous training classes and now dipping my toe into the field of opportunity! Here is my professional photo that you may or may not see around town. I am working with Prudential California Realty. located at 1900-C St. Andrews Drive, Seal Beach, CA 90740.

Of course if anyone would like information on the market or buying and selling homes in the Orange County area, don't hesitate to call. The office number is (562) 594-0535 and my Cellphone is (714) 398-6913. It is truly the best time to buy!

An Ever Changing Life

Well, yesterday we went to the Muzeo. It was a very nice museum. It was a bit confusing on how to get to the museum from the parking structure and then they had told me there would be docents throughout the exhibit that we could ask questions. I never did find one docent. The exhibit was nice (Jane Goodall; Chimpanzee) but seemed fairly small.

My husband attended a meeting of lawyers and drivers about a class action against one of Jim's former employers. He seemed to think that it went well. He is looking forward to changing his work shift at the end of this year. We are looking forward to him being on days.

I on the other hand, started looking for an at home job. A LAGITAMENT one. With no tier structure or sales. Something that I can do to supplement our income. It has been thirteen years since I was employed....do you think anyone will even look at my resume? I would love to be financially independent, but again... I am not a sales person. :) Just not in my blood. We shall see what comes along.

Time goes by with new adventures

My daughter returned with wonderful tail of her time at sea. The two biggest highlights are the bioluminescent plankton and all the wonderful playful interaction of her sea mates. She didn't even tell me about the fish disection where they found the male fish had testis half the size of his entire body! LOL But that is what happens when you have spent over a year volunteering at the aquarium. She had such wonderful adventures.

Just as we are getting all settled into our normal routine, Jim decides he wants to get our painting done. We have been painting the interior of the house. All except the kids rooms. So, we are almost done. Two more days go by and I don't have most of the "stuff" that is misplaced back to where it belongs.

My son has a wonderful opportunity to go away to camp for two nights with a friend. So, he is going. I will be "one less" again. I am so glad they are having such a great summer! How much fun. But I can't help to wonder..."when do I get to go away and have fun?" I would love to do all of the things my kids are doing. But if I went, I wouldn't fully enjoy it because my mind would be on all the things I could be getting done at home. No, I think my away time will come when the kids have moved out and it is just back to being Jim and I. Then of course I will probably want him to come with, so..? LOL

One Less.....

My daughter left on a schooner this morning. She will be gone for five days. The one she is on docks at Long Beach next to the Aquarium of the Pacific. (http://www.americanpride.org/) She will have a ton of fun and learn quite a lot. I wish I could have stowed away....

While she is away my son and us will play. He has plans for us. We will be going bowling today as well as miniature golfing. Tomorrow we will be heading to the beach! We will have tons of fun. It just will be a little weird with one gone.

Second Half of our Vacation

We left Tombstone AZ after staying there for two days. Our next destination was Sedona, AZ. On the way back through Phoenix we stopped to see my dad's tomb plate. He's remains are at the National Memorial Cemetery of Arizona. It is funny, when you think of Cemeteries that hold the remains of our Veterans, you usually get a mental picture of grass and white headstones as far as the eye can see. This place is a desert, no grass in sight and no white headstones either. They have the flat grave markers instead even though there isn't any grass. (Most Cemeteries now use the flat markers so that they can just ride the mower right over everything.) We still got the same feeling though with all those markers and knowing what they gave up so that we could, well you can fill in the blank with your own thankful thoughts...

It was a nice drive to Sedona, lots of open spaces. Sedona is where my dad last lived and I took a drive past his old house. I was thinking that it would have sold and been torn down to make a newer, more modern house, but it was still there. If you ever go to Sedona you will find that the red color in the earth there is breathtaking. No pictures can do it justice, but after a couple of hours, it looses the aaawwww factor. We had heard about the vortexes that are in the area and had to check it out for ourselves. The vortexes are where there is minerals in the earth that make a type of magnetic field. People have all types of ideas about these areas. We took the animals for a hike to check one out and see what (if anything) we would feel. Well, we definitely were hot! You could feel a little something....almost like static but no shocking discharges.

The place we were excited to go to was Slide Rock! Oh, that was fun! It is a national park, so we couldn't bring the animals. It is a stream that meanders down moss covered rocks that make a natural water slide. There were a few places that you could dive into nice deep clear pools. A few of the dive areas were 10ft high. Here are a few pix of the kids and Jim having fun.

On our way home we swung through one of my old stopping grounds, Jerome. It is a mining ghost town that I have wonderful memories of. Of course, it still looks pretty much the same. We had lived in what was once a miners house. It was nice to visit and share my memories with my family.

What a fun exhausting trip!

Our Arizona Vacation!

We packed up our animals and luggage and headed out on the road on June 6Th. Our first stop was Tombstone. We checked into our pet friendly Best Western after a 10 hour drive. As we got acquainted with our new surroundings we felt right at home seeing a mural on the wall of someone who reminded us of a friend of ours named Tommy. This hotel had a fabulous restaurant, Ranch 22, attached that had gourmet food at a decent price.

Rich in history and characters. There was a lot to see and do, we started out with, what else, the old Courthouse Museum (we are homeschoolers after all) then a gun fight! It was a funny, yet informative show. Right after the first show was over there was an other one starting. This time it was a trick riden, rope wranglin, and whipping good time. We were dazzled by Texas Kate who had won a trick riden world championship in the past. She astounded and then floored us when we found out she is in her 50's and still doing all these tricks! Just amazing.

As you can see Jim was having loads of fun. So I asked Texas Kate for some Bull Whippen tips. Wouldn't you know it, I wound up leaving with a 8ft bull whip. Watch out, I may just learn to use it!

Next up was a trolley ride tour to get a lay of the land, so to speak. It was a very informative tour and had some nice twists to it. We even had western Elvis on board for a short while. Uhhn uhn. He wasn't dead, just lives in a ghost town. LOL I have to let you in on a little tip. If you by the trolley tickets, they give you a discount on most of the other attractions and even a few restaurants.

So, can you guess what we did next? After all this excitement we were famished! We mozied on over to the OK Cafe and dug in to some yummy grub. The kids even opted for a genuine Sarsaparilla. MmmMmmm Now that we were refreshed and full, it was a good time to get in some walking and check out the stores and of course the saloon. It had the original beautiful wood bar! We even got to drink the actual whiskey that Doc Holiday had a liking for.

The shops had an array of merchandise and not many that carried that normal cheep souvenir stuff either. One store even had fudge! We found a few good bobble's for some friends and ourselves and headed to.....Boot Hill. On our way out the door, we were distracted by the beginning of the reenactment of the famous OK Coral gun fight. They lead you straight to the coral where they have the rest of the reenactment for only $15 per person.

At one of the shops we were told we would find some interesting grave stones at Boot Hill, the only one we found amusing was this one. After that, we headed back to the hotel and the pool.

Here lies George Johnson
Hanged by mistake
1812
He was right
We was wrong
But we strung him up
And now he's
Gone

This was only our first day out of three.....More to come.....

Chinatown Field Trip in LA

We had a very exciting time in Chinatown last Friday. We were given a walking tour explaining some of the buildings and how the immigrants started their new lives in America. It was funny to see that they had re-opened a former French Hospital that had a Joan of Arc statue and memorial in front. The Chinese had left the statue/memorial there and takes care of it to this day because Joan of Arc was important to the French. We also were treated to a temple. Beautiful temple, such gorgeous workmanship and the incense smelled so good. We got to go inside and experience it all, some even lit incense.

After the walking tour we had luch! The food was good and they even had a show. We saw a traditional fan dance and ribbon dance and were told about the hierarchy of the Imperial family down to the Imperial Guard. They had asked a person from several tables to dress up like the family. :) Then there was a wonderful balancing act and a funny magician. It was all very good!

A smaller group of us decided to go shopping after all the festivities and the teens ( and one young adult) decided to try the Century Eggs. Century Eggs are fermented duck eggs and they are so purple they are almost black. I didn't even have the courage to smell one, by my daughter was one of the teens to try one. Ugghh I staid away from her for a while.

If you would like to see the pictures you can go to share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuG7VuzZM2NQ You might have to copy and paste it in your address line. Some of the pictures there are from an earlier field trip to Tucker Wild Life Sanctuary. These photos are courtesy of Karin. Karin is kind enough to take them and she is the other half of the field trip excursions we put together.

BEACH DAY!

We had ourselves the first beach day of the season! It was so nice to lay on the sand and snack from our picknet basket of goodness. The water to was to cold for me, but the girls jumped in for a bit. Cameron made himself a new sand Pokemon with tentacles. Then we strolled along the beach and down Main St. On Main St. a man was handing out "free" flattened pennies with the ten commandments pressed into it. The kids later threw them into the fountain.

We were very hungry by then and asked the police officers which restaurant was a good deal with good food. They gave us a couple of suggestions and we wound up at Fred's Mexican Bar & Grill. The food was good and they had a party atmosphere that we would have enjoyed, if we hadn't been so tired. The price wasn't to bad, especially since we shared plates.

It was a fun exhausting day.

Spring has Sprung!

Well it seems par for the course in my life that when spring comes around my life gets busier! I don't know if the nice weather spurs my spirit into action, or if there really is just more to do? Either way, I love spring! I just have to make sure to control myself and make time to smell the wonderful aroma of all the newly blooming flowers. Soak in the scenery and relax.

I have been planning the small renovations we are doing to our house and planning field trips. Not to mention a fast approaching vacation. Oh, we actually get to GO have a vacation this year. The field trip ideas I got from a friend of mine. She had some great ideas of places to go. So, I am planning field trips again. I haven't done that for at least a year and a half. So, the first official one is to Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary. My family and I have been there many times but have never had a guided tour. It is beautiful and I am sure to learn many knew things about it.

The house is coming along nicely. The one exception is the flooring. I don't know what it is. We can't seem to get anyone to come through with an estimate. The first guy, came took measurements and we never heard from him again. Now we are waiting on Lowe's, it has been two weeks and we still don't have the estimate. So...on the good side, we replaced our stove and got a great deal thanks to a friend of ours. He sent us to a great shop called CTS Appliance, family owned and operated. We also replaced our toilets and the downstairs sink. What a hastle, but it looks much better now. The only problem is the toilets sound like they might suck you right down! They are the new efficient HT type, no more flap to be replaced!

As for our vacation, we are planning on going to Tombstone, AZ and then up to Sedona, AZ and back through Jerome, AZ. Lots of exploring and hopefully some rock hounding.

Well, we are off to the beach today! So, I need to go pack up the car. Hope everyone enjoys their day!

New Changes

Our family has high cholesterol, well all but one (ds) of us. While we have always been fairly healthy eaters, we are trying to improve on it as well as buy as much locally as possible. We found that our local 99 Ranch Market buys from local farms and has good prices. So we are trying to take advantage of that as well as looking into another store, Fresh & Easy. Our tendency leans toward Asian type recipes and our dd is really getting into preparing bento's. Here is a picture of one of the bento's she made for her father to take to work. We hope you enjoy your day and stay healthy!

New Opportunities!

We have brilliant news for everyone.....Chalise has just started her very first college class! She is taking American Sign Language 110! You could never hope to see such an enthusiastic student. Kinda reminds you of the character Hermione Granger in Harry Potter. LOL We are so proud of our teen! She is looking forward to adding more classes in the Fall semester.

Cameron and I are still volunteers at the Aquarium of the Pacific and he was asked to try out for a reading part in a podcast. He turned down the offer. Camera shy. It was still nice to get the opportunity though.