2014 Recap

2014 was a mellow year

JANUARY - Los Reyes Magos brought me an external HD 3TB. Marvin Lizzie and I got sick after dinner at Panera. On the 25th I backed on a nurses car at the dialysis area :( Big jump in insurance!

FEBRUARY - Watching the Winter Olympics. Got a box of chocolate covered strawberries from Marvin. Celebrated our 49th Anniversary. Planted 3 tomato plants.

MARCH - Visit to the doctor for Marvin, OK. Planted more tomatoes. Tristan turned 16 years old. 5.1 earthquake in La Habra on the 28th

APRIL - Lizzie to Austin. Mia came April 9th. Eclipse of the Moon. Lizzie, Sandy and Tristan came down on the 18th. Celebrated Marvin's 74th Birthday. Mia left back to Sweden the 26th.

MAY - Norbert to Manila, got engaged. Very hot weather. Pick tomatoes.

JUNE - Sandy's 48th Birthday. New King in Spain, Felipe VI. Got me a new computer chair.

JULY - Sandy and family vacation Isla Mujeres. Norbert had an accident and had brain trauma after a fall. ICU.

AUGUST - Tristan came on the 1st, Sandy came on the 8th. Nice visit. Norbert getting paranoid. Sad.

SEPTEMBER - Catalan Independence March. Mia's 60th Birthday.

OCTOBER - Eclipse of the moon. Get new floor and carpet.

NOVEMBER - Tristan to Sadie Hawkins. Lizzie to Atlanta. Sandy to Sacramento. Sell the SSR. Lizzie's 43rd Birthday.

DECEMBER - My 71st Birthday. Whole family over for Christmas. Family pictures. Cold days.

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I read 78 books in 2014

HAPPY NEW YEAR

The Holidays

I haven't written since my birthday, I tried to but for one thing or another I ended up not doing it. So I will write about what we did for Christmas sand then later on I will do my yearly recap :)

Lizzie came over the 23rd late at night, bringing goodies she baked herself. I just finished the last truffle yum! Christmas Eve I took M to dialysis and she went to pick up Sandy and family at the LB airport.I love it when we are all together! I cooked macarrones and we also had a greek salad. Before that, of course, they had to have In'n'Out. They were all tired so after talking and drinking a little, it was bedtime.

Christmas morning was all about opening presents since Santa came to visit us :). We all were pleased with our gifts. I got a lovely sweater from Sandy and house shoes, Lizzie gave me a nice garden light with 3 flowers, very pretty, also a nice frame. Of course there were more things but it takes too long to name everything for everybody. Even Lulu got some gifts.

Lulu and the hedgehog

After opening presents, I cooked breakfast bacon, sausage and waffles, and got started on  dinner. Jeff came in the afternoon. For dinner we had a cheese tray, nuts, assorted cold meats with crackers, then Catalan soup and breaded pork , and of course several desserts. And Cava.

This is a long post!

Friday was picture day!!! I will write more about it later. It was fun! Thank you girls!!!
In the afternoon Marvin's family came. Marvin made chili and Jeff made  pork loin sliders. Yummy! We had a very nice time, having all the family together.

Jameson and his Xmas present

Saturday we went to El Cholo for lunch and then we went to Sunset Beach to watch the sun set :)

And Sunday, they all went back home. It was a great Christmas!

Another year

Today is my birthday. It's been a very quiet one, quite different from last year's. Of course last year my age ended in 0 so it calls for a bigger celebration :)

It's been raining quite a lot lately, last night we had heavy rain, wind and thunder and lightning which is unusual for Southern California. Luckily for my big birthday surprise last year, the weather was just perfect. So things have a way of working right.

Marvin and I went to one of our favorite restaurants for a late lunch, The Original Fish Company. Unfortunately they didn't have my favorite monkfish, so I had fresh fillet of halibut with little yellow potatoes and New England clam chowder, it was very good. I didn't have dessert because I already had my favorite chocolate cake that Lizzie brought me last week.

I had a nice surprise getting a package from Mia, it had 2 big apples, 3 nice pears, 4 mandarines, hot chocolate mix, pistacchios, almonds, and candy. Thanks Mia! I also had my daughters sing Happy Birthday to me, and Tristan called me and I wasn't around so he sent a nice voice mail. I also heard from my two sons (in law) :)

That's about all I did today. I was going to wrap some gifts but I got lazy. I was going to decorate the house a little, but yes I was too lazy. I wasn't even in the computer too much today, so basically I did nothing much :)

Tomorrow I'm taking Lulu to the doggie salon, she needs to have her nails trimmed and also a hair cut. And maybe I will get a burst of energy and get some work done!

Rain, hair, rain, lunch

It rained A LOT last night, rain and wind, even a small tornado a few miles from here. After many dry months, the rain is most welcome, just wish it wouldn't come all at once.

Yesterday and today I did a couple of things that cause me some anxiety, mainly because it entails to be sitting down fairly still for longer than I like. Yesterday I had a manicure, barely. I went to a nail salon next to the dialysis center. Is Vietnamese owned and all the ladies working there are Vietnamite as well, their English is very poor. I ended up with a mini manicure, no nail polish, basically just had my fingernails trimmed and cuticles softened, and a pretty nice hand massage. I really don't know how to relax and enjoy being pampered :)

So today I went to get my hair done. I finally found someone I liked and that I was comfortable with and naturally she had to move, and now I had to try a new salon. The salon had rave reviews at Yelp, so I made an appointment. It was one of the very few times where my stylist was a man, I really get along better with men. He is super nice and did a nice job coloring and cutting my hair and being very friendly. It didn't hurt he offered me a glass of wine, well two. I will go back.

I told him I was going to lunch after I was done and asked him to recommend a place, he did. It was a Mexican Restaurant, but with a twist. I really enjoyed my meal, and the waiter told me there was a celebrity in the house. I turned around and saw a few people eating and enjoying themselves, the "celebrity" was Mario Lopez, he of the deep dimples. Do you know who he is Mia?

A couple of days ago Jennifer came over and told me the long, sad story of her latest breakup with the moron she's been going with for the last 3-4 years. I hope this time is for good. We went out to dinner and did a little shopping, it was fun.

And tonight Lizzie came over and is always nice when she is here, I think we'll go to El Cholo tomorrow :)

And now, good night!

Christmas Lights

I think I mentioned that I asked Jennifer to help me put the lights around the house since Norbert is in no shape to climb ladders...well Sunday my next door neiughbor was putting his lights up and offered to do ours. I said yes thank you! He did a good job and fast.

I called Jennifer and told her the lights were up already, but she will be coming Wednesday after school and help me to maybe rearrange some furniture and string some lights inside the house. After we'll go to dinner and she will spend the night here, and surely keep me up in her soap opera life :)

A few other things in my agenda this week, I want to go get my hair cut and I am already anxious about it, I really don't like to go to the salon since my stylist left. Maybe I'll try a different place. Also I want to call the Merry Maids and make an appointment to get my house clean(er). And of course Lizzie is coming this weekend, maybe she can help me decide on menus and stuff when everybody is here :)

I have been watching some Christmas movies, most of them I have already seen. My favorites are National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Love Actually, White Christmas, and this one.... do you know which one it is?

Back to School

My school district keeps on calling me almost daily to sub. I do not care to sub in schools other than Jersey, and I won't sub in any other grades than Kinder, and I won't sub on Tuesdays, or Thursdays. So I really haven't been subbing too much, and I am OK with it. By the time they take Federal and State taxes it's hardly worth waking up early ;)

Once in a while, I do sub. Yesterday my school's secretary wanted to know if I could sub just in the afternoon for the PreK and K SH class, the teacher had to go to a meeting. I said OK.

I got there and talked to the teacher before she went to the meeting. The class consists of 8 children, 3 preK and 5 K, there are 4 aides + the teacher. The children have several levels of autism.

I had never worked with an autistic class. I worked with deaf and hard of hearing, ADD, and Asperges children, that were going to be integrated into a regular K classroom.

This was today's schedule:

11-11:30 lunch (the aides were with them at all times)
11:30-11:45 recess
Pre K went home at 12, the K kids went to Library after recess.
12:15-12:30 I read a book to them, their attention span is super short, I had to do a lot of different voices and animal noises etc, even so a couple of them totally ignored the story and did their own thing.
12:3-12:45 Singing, ABCs, numbers. (Fridays are "easy" days just fun thngs)
12:45-1:15 Centers
1:15-1:45 PE and Recess
1:45-2:15 Circle time. Clean Up and dismissal

Now that sounds simple and easy right? Well it wasn't. Wendell wanted to run out of the class at any time, had to be watched constantly. Jose would go around the class and take everything off the shelves, Luke liked to chew his clothes, he always had something in his mouth, his shirt, his pants, his socks. He tried to chew my blouse too! Ryan didn't stop crying for a second. It was funny because he did every gesture that went along with the stories while crying, he wanted to be picked up too.. Isabella was the only girl and she was really cute and I did not see many autism signs. Adrian looked really familiar, and sure enough, I had his older brother now in 5th grade, in my Kindergarten class, he was a sweetheart and so is Adrian.

Here's a couple of pictures I took at the Centers. Wendell is playing with the rice table, that was fun for me too :), Adrian and Isabella were doing puzzles.

When Isabella's dad came to pick her up and he hi Mrs. Wann what are you doing here? I told him I was subbing and he told me I had had 2 of his kids in Kinder, the girl Michelle is now 29, and the boy Victor is 27. He said Isabella was a surprise!. I remembered his kids after he told me the names, but wondered how he still remembered me after 20+ years...he said I just look the same!!! LOL, I heard it many times and I never know if I look good for my age or if I looked old 20 years ago :/

And of course, I saw a lot of my older K kids that call me Mrs Wann or Mrs Gummy Bear and some still ask me what grade I'm teaching now. As if I had not been gone. :)

I had a nice day.

LMAO

I find a lot of things funny, I smile a lot, but I do not laugh too much, just a little laugh sometimesd, but very seldom I laugh my ass off. But yesterday I did.

It's something I found in Facebook, the folks at Buzzfeed asked their London staff to name the US states & Americans to name the countries in Europe:

http://twistedsifter.com/2014/01/americans-and-brits-label-maps-of-europe-and-us/


and also the staff in Australia:

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jennaguillaume/sorry-america

Is not so much the naming of the states or countries, but the comments cracked me up!. Anytime I feel sad or moody, I will reread those sites and I will be in a happy mood again!!! :)

I noticed many named California, Nevada, Texas, Florida and NY. But got totally mixed up in the midwest.

In the European maps, most named Spain, France and Italy, and were pretty confused about the rest.

I know Sandy looked at the site and liked it too, but read about Europe, is also funny LOL

Raphael - a very random post

Raphael is a Spanish singer that was very popular in the 60's, he's about 70 now, and still singing, acting etc.

I have never liked him or his music. My godmother, tia Carmeta, was crazy about him. She had all his records and her dream was to see him perform. She "forced" me sometimes to sit and listen to him singing, or watch him in TV. He also sang in Eurovision and was known internationally, especially in Latin America.

There were rumors that he was gay, or "marica" as they were called in those non politically correct times, because of his mannerisms and way of singing. He married a writer that belongs to the high aristocracy of Spain, his father was a marquis. She is older than him and it was rumored that she was a lesbian (or "tortillera"), a marriage to cover their true leanings since they were both very popular.

They have 3 children and 6 grandchildren and are still married.

The reason I'm writing this is because a couple of days ago I watched a Catalan movie called , in English, The Tasting Menu. I enjoyed the movie very much and towards the end there was a group of people singing in the beach, and the song was familiar to me but I wasn't sure what it was. I watched the credits, and sure enough it was a Raphael song called "Mi gran noche" he was not in the movie, but it was his voice and some guy was lip syncing.

I haven't been able to get the song out of my head. I am singing it daily, I even sing it in my dreams, it is really weird. I don't really care for it and is really bugging me. Of course I went to You Tube and of course, there it was. Raphael in 1967 singing it. Here's the link just in case you wonder, I am pretty sure none of you readers will click it, but I probably will click on it when I have the urge of singing it again. I actually enjoyed the video is so retro!



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZFes__7cMA

OMG I am singing it again!!!!!!!!