Wishing you all the best...

...for 2010!

With good health, money and love, as they say in catalan...salud, amor i pesetas!

Sad news

Saturday was a quieter day, we all got together again and we all went out for dinner at a little Mexican Restaurant in Magna called El Habanero, we all enjoyed the food.
On Sunday, Sandy fixed a wonderful breakfast of bacon and sausages, hash brown potatoes, scrambled eggs and rolls. After a while Jeff went back to their Hotel to nap (his back had been bothering him), and we just hung out and talked, we were planning on going to Costco for lunch, when Lizzie got a call from Jeff saying his sister had called him to say their father had an apparent heart attack and was in the hospital. Jeff's father is a preacher and he lives close to Seattle, Washington. Jeff told Lizzie he was waiting for more news, but they decided to drive to Seattle and go see him. Marvin and I and the girls went to Costco for lunch and then took Lizzie back to the hotel and wished them a good trip to Seattle (868 miles from Salt Lake City, quite a long drive). Shortly after we got home, Lizzie called saying Jeff's father had died. He was only 58 years old. They drove to Idaho and spent the night in Burley, where we used to live, and drove to Washington Monday morning.
May he rest in peace.

December 25 Navidad

It was so nice to have the family together for Christmas.
Lizzie and Jeff came over on Christmas Eve, Sandy cooked a very nice dinner starting with a baked ham, and Mormon potatoes, Marty made Margaritas for all, we all had a very nice evening. On Christmas day I was the last one to wake up, Tristan had to get me up, he was excited! We all opened our gifts by the Christmas tree, we all , including Osi, enjoyed the gifts, and took pictures, and had breakfast.
We had our Christmas dinner around 6PM, Sandy cooked a great rib roast, with mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole (yum), corn, salad, rolls, and cheesecake and ice cream for dessert, of course we toasted with Cava.
It was a wonderful Christmas!
I will post pictures when we get back home.

A Christmas Carol

Last night Sandy, Tristan and I went to Hale Center to watch "A Christmas Carol" http://www.halecentretheatre.org/
We were sitting in row 3 , it is a theater on the round where we had a great view from all angles. It was a really nice play with lots of singing, very well done and we enjoyed it very much. When we came out the whole area outside the theater was snow covered and all trees had lovely twinkling lights, it really felt like Christmas :)
A highlight of today was going to Les Madeleines http://www.les-madeleines.com/, where I bought some of those glorious pastries called Kouing-aman, they are without a doubt the best pastry I have ever eaten, sweet, crunchy, soft, buttery...yummmmmmmmmmmmmm!
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve, Sandy and Marty have to work in the morning, Marvin and Tristan and Sandy are going to a basketball shoot around for a while. Lizzie and Jeff will be here sometime too. It will be so nice to spend Christmas all together.

A year older, a year wiser?

Yesterday I turned 66, it seems impossible I am already that age, but here I am not feeling any different inside, but with a few more aches and pains and wrinkles in the outside. I had a very nice day, besides Marvin, I talked to all my favorite people that called to wish me a happy day, my daughters and grandson, my sister in Sweden, and my Hungarian friend. And of course the kids in my class. We had a fun party decorating cookies, singing Xmas carols, and having a book gift exchange. I also got several nice gifts. At night we went to El Cholo for dinner, I really enjoyed the food, the company, and the Margarita :)

Today was the last day of school and we had a pizza party, and more gifts. We had the school party but I didn't go because I had a lot of things to do to get ready for our trip to Utah on Sunday. I was also tired from 2 days of kids parties !

Mia was telling me about the cold weather and snow they are having, here's La Mirada weather tonight in Centigrade, are you jealous? lol

Marvin is feeling better but still has trouble hearing, hopefully his hearing will come back shortly. We are excited about going to Utah and spending Christmas with our daughters and grandson and Marty and Jeff.

Love you all.

Happenings

This has been a different week. On Monday, Jennifer and I went to dinner at Acapulco, Marvin didn't come because he had an earache. Jennifer spent the night here and we had a nice talk , we don't see each other much in school anymore. Tuesday & Wednesday, we had the same people that did our kitchen doing the service area, they put down the same floor as in the kitchen and painted, changed the lights and the faucets for the washer and dryer, they also installed the new washer and dryer. Marvin was still complaining of a sore ear and headaches.
Thursday morning as I was getting ready to go to work, Marvin came to my room looking pale and shaky and asked me to take him to ER, his ears and head hurt a lot and his balance was a little off , he couldn't hear and had some double vision. I called my principal and told her I wouldn't be going today, it was too late to call for a sub, but luckily they found one after all.
The ER for Kaiser is at the new building in Imperial Hwy. It's a huge building and everything is nice and new. The checked him in right away. He had a bad infection in both ears, he prescribed codeine and antibiotics and was released. On the way home, he took some of the codeine and immediately he felt a little better. Then I noticed the lights in the car had come on saying the tires needed air, I was also low in gas. When we got home, Marvin went to bed and I called Norbert, he came soon after and took care of the tires and the gas, then we went to Acapulco. He's leaving to Las Vegas next week so we wished each other a Happy Christmas.
Also this week we had a lot of rain, it is very needed but when it rains people in Los Angeles forget how to drive! I went to do a little shopping today Saturday. That was totally stressful, the rain, the people...lol I am the worse shopper ever!
Marvin is feeling a little better today but is still weak and hurting, I hope he feels better this coming week as we were planning on leaving a week from today. I am afraid I'm coming down with a cold too :(
So here's for better days next week!!!

Family get together

Today Marvin's family came over for dinner and pre Christmas fun :) Dewey, Mary, Bettie and Lee, and David and his son Alexander. Iris couldn't make it, she was looking for an apartment because her mother is coming from Costa Rica and...well too long and complicated to explain here.We decided to have a "white elephant" gift exchange rather than spend a lot of money on things we really didn't need or want especially since the economic situation is not as good as it had been for some of us.

We had hors d'oeuvres, and Marvin cooked pork spareribs, with beans, salad, rolls and custard pie for dessert, very good. He really can cook the tenderest most flavorful ribs! After we ate, we played the game of gift exchange, it was fun, we had enough things so everybody had 2-3 gifts, some were pretty nice, and some were really "white elephants". I ended up with some nice lotion, some air diffuser reeds and a digital timer.

We watched a lot of college games, Florida vs Alabama and Texas vs Nebraska. I guess the title game for best college team will be in Pasadena December 7 between the winners Texas and Alabama. Boise State had a great season, they were undefeated and hopefully they'll get to play in a bowl.

Alexander has grown a lot, he's very energetic! Mary and Dewey are staying the night. And poor Emily too of course. It was nice seeing everybody.

Why I was crying in Facebook :)

On the last day of November, Monday the 30th, I tended my resignation from LLCSD. The incentive given by the District was too good to pass, and I had been thinking of retiring this year or next anyway. Kindergarten is getting to be too much about reading and writing and pushing pushing the children, it's all about scores and tests. There really is not a lot of fun anymore, although I try to keep some of the "old" kindergarten feeling alive for the kids.
I already had some thoughts in mind about things to do in retirement at least for the first couple of years.
Well...today the superintendent of personnel called me at school to tell me there were not enough teachers wanting to retire this year, and he had to rescind my resignation.
Which means, I have to work an extra year (2010-11)in order to have my 25 years of service and thus retire with an adequate monthly income.
Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! :)