Tuesday, November 30, 2010

End of November

Well I did it, I wrote every day but the 2 days in San Diego. It's been challenging.

Here's the list of the books I read in November:
Dominick Dunne – Too Much Money
Laurie Frankel – The Atlas of Love
Cathy Holton – Revenge of the Kudzu Debutantes
Cathleen Schine – The 3 Weissmann’s of Westport
Cathy Holton – The Secret Lives of the Kudzu Debutantes
Sue Ann Jaffarian – Corpse on the Cob
Lori Lansens – The wife’s tale
Oh, and just in case you are interested...I got my license :)

Monday, November 29, 2010

Happy Day


Yesterday they had elections in Catalunya, CiU won! That's the one all my family voted for and the one I would have voted for had I been there. It killed the Socialist party that was in power.

So that was good news to me, and today there was "El Clasico" which was the game between Barcelona and Madrid, the great rivals. Madrid spend countless millions of euros getting all the big names for this year, Ronaldo, Kaka, etc...but Barcelona just trashed them 5-0 !!!!! I was in school checking the scores once in a while and when the game finished I applauded and went half bananas which of course made my class go bananas also, we had a good time! :)

Tomorrow I'm taking off to go get my driver's test. I have been doing DMV tests online, and I did pretty well. I just need to really read the questions cuz sometimes they are tricky. I am still worried about my vision test, but I hope it'll be OK.

Just finished watching the movie "Bride and Prejudice", I forgot I had already seen it, but it was fun watching it again, lots of music, Bollywood style and gorgeous costumes.

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Windy day

It was really windy today, it came from the north, so it was quite chilly too, but really nothing to complain about.
I finally made it to Trader Joe's, yay! I love that store, It was all set for Christmas and I got the Advent calenbdar for my kindergartners, I also got a Gingerbread Man cookie, it's already baked, about 15 inches tall, and it has everything you need to decorate it. We will do it next month in class when we read The Gingerbread Man book :)
Tonight we went out to eat at Carino's, I had chicken Marsala and it was good, but I think I like Sandy's better!
Random note..I am member of a Facebook group called Cuantos Perello en la red? one of the members, is Ramon Perello, he was born in the same town my paternal grandfather was born, I wrote to him saying maybe we are related.. well we have commented back and forth, he's very nice. We usually write in catalan, sometimes in Spanish, but today he wrote in my wall the following:

Handsome congratulations soon touches, i raise the flight to me. A hug from Catalunya

Your guess is as good as mine, lol.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Another quiet day

Today Marvin went to WW, he lost 2 lbs. I didn't go out at all, a few days ago I went to Trader Joe's, I drove around the parking lot about 8 times, it was packed, with cars turning their blinking lights when they saw somebody on the way to their cars, it was madness. So I left. This is a bad week for shopping, I don't enjoy shopping anyway and with all the people even less. I did a little Amazon.com and it was all right.
We were going out to eat, but decided to leave it for tomorrow, so I worked on Report Cards, and used the Jacuzzi, and read. For dinner I made breakfast: hash browns, eggs and sausage.
I have an appointment for my driving test on Tuesday. I need to read the booklet a little more, but I did fairly well with the online tests.
And so it goes.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Musings

I read Lizzie's blog where she writes that we have never been a "traditional Thanksgiving family". She has a point. It's not in my background, we didn't have Pilgrims and Indians, and I really don't need one day to give thanks for what I have, I thank God every day for all my blessings.
When I came to the States, we had Thanksgiving over at Marvin's parents house. It was not very different from Christmas, only we didn't exchange gifts at Thanksgiving. It usually was us, Mary, Dewey, Bettie, grandpa Moore and the boys, and later one Mart and Verna, Lee, and as the family grew, the grand kids. We had always turkey and dressing and gravy, yams, salad, and pies. Opal made the dressing Marvin likes which we haven't been able to duplicate, she also made great pies.
I remember one year we had Grandpa Moore and Opal and Marshall over for Thanksgiving, it was in Dixon in the apartment that had 2 floors. I remember the dress I wore, Sandy was about 3 years old. I think it went OK :)
When we moved to Idaho, it was just the four of us. We did have turkey and trimmings, and I remember going once to Ralph and Rowena's, and another year to Larry and Casey's. Then the girls grew up, we moved to California and Sandy went to college to Idaho State U. She came home for Christmas and a few times for Thanksgiving too...who can forget our Thanksgiving meal of Chinese food???? When Lizzie started college too she came home sometimes, sometimes she spent it with friends.
And now, they both have their own family, so for the last few years, it's been Marvin and I, and since neither one of us are crazy for turkey, we usually have whatever we like.
Sometimes I feel bad because it is a big American holiday after all, but since we sure are not surrounded by friends and family, it really makes not much sense to make a huge meal with lots of side dishes, pies etc. just for the two of us.
This year, we enjoyed the Jacuzzi, the grilled steaks , and each other :)

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Thanksgiving



Another quiet Thanksgiving for Marvin and I. It was a nice sunny day, we went to the Jacuzzi in the morning and saw some hummingbirds feeding, love them!

We decided to have steak instead of the traditional turkey since neither of us are crazy about turkey, Marvin loves the dressing his mom made but we haven't been able to make something remotely like it, so steak it was! I grilled them, while Marvin made potatoes, green beans, rolls, and garlic mayo.

I watched two movies, one of my favorite holiday ones, "Love actually", and one I had never seen before "Elf". Marvin has watched some football but mainly he's been reading a western.

It's a day of giving thanks, we are thankful for our daughters and grandson, and for all our family and friends, and we are thankful for our health, and for having a nice house and a nice life.

Here's a picture of Marvin (with a moustache), me and the girls. Thanksgiving 1972.

I hope you all had a lovely day!

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Another day

Southern California people are weenies, they are complained about the cold weather, ha! they should be in Idaho, or Utah, or Sweden! But it is chilly for our area. At 10:00PM the outside temperature is 59 degrees brrrrrr lol
I called Bettie today to find out how her cataract surgery went, she said it went well and she's fine, we chatted for a while. I asked her what was she doing for Thanksgiving, she said they were having breakfast with Christina and Rick, and then she and Lee were going to David and Iris for dinner. She asked me what we were doing and I said Marvin and I were just staying home.
A while later, Iris called us to invite us to her house for Thanksgiving dinner. Very nice of her, but we declined. I still have a cold and neither one of us felt like driving to Burbank.
Tonight we went to El Cholo, we had tortilla soup, tacos and enchiladas, and of course, my Margarita.
Have a good night (or good day) everybody!

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Stressed ?

Well yes, there are a few things looming in the horizon that sort of stresses me.
#1 - I have to renew my driver's license. And have an eye test, I worry I may not see it well enough because of my eye problems. I am studying for the written test.
#2 - I have to go on jury duty on December 20th.
#3 - It's getting closer to Christmas time, I have not done any shopping. You all know how I feel about shopping!!!!
#4 - My hair is getting thinner and flatter, yech.
#5 - Report cards!!!!
How's that for starters? And yes I know I like to whine about things that are not really that stressful, and at least I have all this week off to take it easy )

Monday, November 22, 2010

San Diego




I missed writing for 2 days because we went to San Diego. On Saturday morning Marvin went to Weight Watchers and we left as soon as he got back home. I was not feeling too well because of my cold, it was raining pretty hard most of the way down, but the traffic was moving nicely. We got to Lizzie's and left to the Fish Market Restaurant with Dakota too, Jeff got there a little later. We had a very nice lunch, calamari for starters, and we all had fish/sea food. I was not too too hungry because of my cold but enjoyed the food and the company. Dakota mentioned to the waiter that it was Lizzie's birthday and they came singing and bringing a great dessert, it was super good! After lunch, Jeff took Dakota to a friend's house in Coronado, and Marvin Lizzie and I went to my favorite dessert place and got cake slices for all, Lizzie and Marvin had white cheesecake with fruits, Jeff and I had raspberry chocolate cake...yum!!!! Jeff had a house concert in Oceanside, so Marvin and I left after visiting for a while. We checked in at our Hotel http://portovistasd-px.trvlclick.com/ and napped for a while. Later on, we walked down to Little Italy (a couple of blocks from the hotel) and looked for some place to have a light dinner, it was pretty chilly and breezy, and then it started to rain so we went in at the first Restaurant we found called Zucchero, which is a very nice Italian Restaurant with a great bakery http://www.cafezucchero.com/. We both had tortellini chicken soup. We walked back to the hotel and thankfully the rain had stopped.


Sunday morning, we had breakfast at the hotel, and then drove back to Lizzie's. Jeff had a session going on, so Lizzie, Marvin and I went out to lunch at a Philly Steak house. It was very good and we really enjoyed it. We went back to Lizzie's and watched TV and talked and hang around a while. That night, Jeff's Citizen Band was playing at the House of Blues, we had planned on going but my cold was getting worse so we decided not to go. We went back to the hotel and I took some cold medicine and napped, then we went to the hotel roof garden and watched a beautiful sunset. Later on we again walked to Little Italy and went to the Princess Pub http://www.princesspub.com/ for some yummy fish and chips.


Monday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, walked around the roof garden and took some pictures, and left to go back home. We took the PCH route, and has a lovely scenic drive home. It was still a little chilly for Southern California but clear and sunny.


It was a really lovely weekend, and a nice way to celebrate Lizzie's Birthday! :)


Friday, November 19, 2010

Happy Birthday Lizzie!

It seems like you are having a very nice day. Can't wait to see you tomorrow.

I, like Sandy, have all next week off, 3 days furlough and 2 days holiday. We all liked it, nobody at school complained, but some of the parents did lol
As usual, it seems that every time before I have a few days off, I catch a cold, and this time has been no exception. I hope I feel better tomorrow going to San Diego. We have a forecast of rain, wind and cold for the weekend so I am a little disappointed about it, but we'll make the best of it :)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

SST

School Study Team is is a meeting with teachers, principal, counselors etc for problem children. I had one of those meetings today for 2 of my kinders. The one with ADD is a big problem because he cannot sit still and is always in motion, and he impulsively hugs kids really hard to the point they cry when they see him approaching. He's not on medication, he barely turned 5 and I think it's too early to put him on Ritalin, but I guess it's up to the mother and doctor to decide. The "advice" I was given by the team, is to massage his head and back before recess, before lunch, etc. to calm his energy?!
My other problem kid is very young as well, he's 50 lbs overweight :( and his problem is, well he's way too big and lethargic, he has no interest in learning and the only time he seems happy is when music is playing, he dances up a storm! unfortunately today he fell on another kid while dancing and I had to send him to the school nurse because he was crying and aching all over! The team's "advice"? jump rope with him (say what?) and do push ups daily.
So here are my new teaching duties...massaging one kid, doing push ups with another, oh well!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Almost forgot!

Tonight Jennifer came over to spend the night. We first went to Acapulco, with Marvin too, to have dinner and of course my Margarita :)
When we got home we watched TV and talked and talked (since she's in 2nd grade we don't see so much of each other in school). Anyway she was in my room talking and then we said goodnight just a few minutes ago, and I turned off the computer and was getting ready for bed as well, when I remembered the blog!!
And here I am, just writing a few lines so I don't miss a day, although I will be missing Saturday and Sunday writing because we'll be in San Diego :)

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Hmmmm

Much as I've tried, I can't honestly think of anything I could write about today.
I could write about my school day, but nothing unusual happened other than my friend Jennifer coming to my classroom and telling me for the 100th time that she's done with teaching!
I could write about coming home and telling Marvin I felt like waffles tonight and he went to the store and get the fixins for it, and they tasted great.
I could write about enjoying reading Sandy's daily posts.
I could write about being annoyed that rain is forecast for our weekend in San Diego.
I could write about how time goes by so fast....
But I guess I just did write.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Annoying things

We have been testing the kids at school on Math, reading, and writing. One of my kids wrote the following: I go to the park with my mom and dad. A kid in another class wrote: I og to the prk w my brt. Out of a possible 4 points, my kid got 2, the other kid got 3(I had scored mine with a 4)Why? because he wrote phonetically the sounds he heard. I argued that my kid already knew how to write park and with, so he wrote the whole thing. But to no avail.
On a different vein, just before going home, I was looking in my classroom for some work I had prepared for my kids to do tomorrow. The teacher next door came in and asked me what I was looking for, I told her I was looking for some stuff I had prepared, she said, I'll help you look...where did you put it? I went grrrrr if I knew where it was I wouldn't be looking for it!!!!! Then she said, well OK, do you remember what you did with it? At that point i told her to go back to her room pronto!!!!! lol

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Sunday


Last day of my mini vacation, it's nice to have a loong weekend, now I'm looking to having all next week off!
It's hard to write every day, Sandy has been good at it, Lizzie tries to catch up by doing 3 posts in 1. By the way, how does one know when is NaBloPoMo or whatever it's called?

On Sundays, we usually have a big breakfast, Marvin brings it home, Denver Omelet, hash browns and bacon. We had a late lunch of croquetas I made yesterday and for dinner it was either tacos, or beef soup I made, we decided on soup,

I have been cleaning some of the drawers in my room, they were over stuffed, I basically rearranged the stuff since I don't like to throw things away. I found an bunch of pictures and I decided to scan them and file them in my expansion drive. Here's one of the pictures, I think is a cute one of the girls in the plane on our way back from Spain, 1988 (I think).
And now...back to work tomorrow :)

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Another day

Just another beautiful fall day in California.
Marvin took this picture as we were about to leave for dinner.
We went to El Cholo, love their Margaritas!!!
I hope everybody is having a nice weekend :)

Friday, November 12, 2010

how do you know?

How do you know who's reading your blog? I think Marv, Sandy, Lizzie and Mia are the only ones that read mine. I did get 2 comments from some catalan people one time, and then also one other person saying I had a nice car lol. Very random.
I do read random blogs, and sometimes I comments and sometimes I don't. I don't even have my blog listed in Facebook.

And just because I can't think of anything else to write,
here's a Becquer rime, one of my favorites:
Los suspiros son aire y van al aire.
Las lágrimas son agua y van al mar.
Dime, mujer, cuando el amor se olvida,
¿sabes tú adónde va?
My free translation
Sighs are air, and go to the air
Tears are water, and go to the sea,
Tell me woman, when love is gone,
do you know where it goes?

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Veteran's Day

It was nice to have the day off, it was a beautiful California day, nice and warm, a little windy, sunny, beautiful You could see all the mountains in the background, nice.
I decided to go shopping , you all know how much I like to go shopping, but it had to be done :)
I bought some sundries, went to Walmart, and Lowe's and Marshall and Rite Aid. I bought some fall flowers to plant in the backyard, red and white mums, yellow and white daisies, orange and yellow dahlias, and primroses.
Other than that, I just lolled about, watched TV, made croquetas, had In'n'Out for dinner...Marvin emptied the Jacuzzi and filled it again so tomorrow I will soak for a while, my legs have been hurting a little lately and I think that the Jacuzzi will help.
Love you all!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Blue Ribbon

Today it felt like Friday, why? Because we have tomorrow and Friday off (Veteran's Day + 1 furlough day), which makes a 4 day weekend!!!
All teachers had a big smile in their faces.
We also smiled because we were nominated as a National Blue Ribbon School.
Blue Ribbon Schools Program - A federal No Child Left Behind program that celebrates many of America's most successful schools. Its goal is to promote and support the improvement of education in America.
There were 35 schools in California that were nominated -out of over 9400 schools- Our district only has 9 schools and yet, 3 of our schools in the district were nominated. Quite an achievement! (I guess we are better than I thought lol).

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Nothing to say?

I feel like Sandy sometimes when I write this blog, nothing much was going on today...woke up, hadbreakfast, go to school, test children on reading, (by the way they had a horrible day, they wore me out), have a working lunch, come home, check mail, read, watch TV, eat (Marvin's excellent chicken and dumplings) and some more TV (watching Glee right now), then some school work and bed.
But...it's a way to keep in touch . I love to read all your posts, it makes me feel closer to all of you.
We all have or should have a few minutes to spare for keeping in touch, even to just say...nothing much was going on today...

Monday, November 8, 2010

Free Hugs :)

I've been reading about Juan Mann, a 28 year old Australian man that started the "Free Hugs" movement. It has spread all over the world. You tube has many videos of people from many countries giving free hugs. The videos are of real people. It starts in black and white and changes to color when they start giving, and getting, hugs.
I found it inspirational and lovely and a great idea.
Here's Juan's story if you want to read about it: www.freehugscampaign.org/

This is one of my favorite videos. besides the original one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN8CKwdosjE

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Hugs to all who read this post}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Hug someone today!!!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

New chair :)


I have been having a pain in the a$$ for the last couple of weeks, in my outer cheeks so to speak :) I didn't know why, arthritis maybe? Sometimes when I got up it hurt down the back of my legs too. I told Marvin about it then he sat on my computer chair and wondered how I could sit on it for any length of time.

Yes, I sit by the computer a lot, and my chair has lost its softness in the seat part and it is actually flat and hard. I have had it for a few years.

So we went to search for a new chair. We went to Office Max and looked at chairs, and sat on them, and sat again, finally setting on a Fiorello chair. Very similar to the one I had, roomy and comfortable. My rear end is already feeling a lot happier :)

Saturday, November 6, 2010

The beach

Beautiful day in Huntington Beach. Went to Acapulco in Long Beach to eat and drink, nad look at the boats in the harbor, then the clouds started forming quickly, and it started to sprinkle. The sky looked awesome and the rain just lasted a few minutes, then the sun came out again and it was all good :)
DST tonight, I am going to bed early because I am tired. Good night!

Friday, November 5, 2010

Happy Hour


I just read my last few posts and they were pretty boring lol, it's hard to write daily when not a lot is going on, but anyway I will keep on writing

Today school was rather trying, the Kindergarten team met with the principal on ways to be more "effective" teachers, la de da!!! We have the highest scores in the District for the last 3 years, and instead of thanks we get a meeting about how to be more effective? My team mates were rather incensed!

So after school, we decided to go to Geezers for Happy Hour. The Kindergarten team was there, then came a 1st grade teacher and her niece, a 2nd grade teacher and a 3rd grade teacher. A little later came a 6th grade teacher, our principal, our secretary, and our ex principal now an assistant superintendent. We had a fun time, we had lots of appetizers, and lots of gigantic Margaritas.

The school day ended on a happy note :)

In the picture: Norma, Jessica, me and Gloria. The Kindergarten team 2010-2011

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Fall?or Summer again?

Today is November 4 and I wonder what happened to our Fall? It was hot, 91 degrees. A couple of weeks ago the children stayed inside during recess because of rain, this week they are staying inside because of the heat. At least my classroom is air conditioned so it feels good inside.
Saturday I think I am going to the beach, get my feet wet, and walk around the water's edge. I may even take my bike and ride around a little.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

pot roast

Norbert came over today to put the SSR's battery on. It's handy to have a mechanic friend! In exchange, so to speak, Marvin cooked a delicious por roast and brownies and invited Norbert to eat dinner with us.
Did Norbert enjoyed it? well, he had not one, not two, not three, but four servings of the meat, potatoes, carrots and corn. He throughly enjoyed it. And of course, he had a few brownies to top it off.
It was fun :)

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Elections

I also voted, by mail. I learned about the candidates and the propositions and voted accordingly, not across party lines.
I am so disappointed with some of the California results, most especially with the Senate race. I wish most of the incumbents had gone bye bye and we were starting fresh, not voting for the same ones that have let California go into bankruptcy and worst. Oh well.

In other news, is again testing time for Kindergarten. It seems all we do is test, with no time for teaching. At least we have 2 days off for Veteran's Day, and the whole week of Thanksgiving off.

We are looking forward to going to San Diego on the 20th for Lizzie's birthday and spending a couple of days at the PortoVista hotel in Little Italy. We went there a couple of years ago and really enjoyed our stay :)

Monday, November 1, 2010

Daily posts


I will also try to post every day.

Some random comments....

-Congratulations to the Giants, I don't understand baseball but hey is the World Series!

-I think Lizzie looked awesome as Janis Joplin. For Halloween I wore my usual fluorescent Jack'O'Lantern shirt, in spite of the ban on Halloween in our public schools.

-I am done with Parent Teacher Conferences, that is a part of teaching I really like, I learn a lot about the children by talking to the parents, very interesting. And they were all very complimentary about me as a teacher, so I was happy :)

-The weather today was gorgeous! 81 degrees, sunshine, blue sky, and a hint of Fall in the evening.

It'll be fun to read daily posts!!!