Xander is walking...

Tonight I had a fun evening with my cousins who are in from out of town. But before I drove out to see them, I stopped by my mom's house, where my brother and nephew were visiting. In those short few moments I had the thrill of seeing Alexander walk! He pulled himself up and walked 3 steps to see his proud auntie!

We'll get a video soon, but what a thrill! 10 months and 10 days old! He's a determined little guy!

Finally joining the world...

What a "vacation!" I've been sick in bed with this nasty cold for 2 whole days. Yesterday I sneezed anytime I was out of bed. Today I wasn't sneezing, but very, very dragged out. Clearly, my body was sending the massage to rest. Of course, I probably would've rested anyway because all of the Christmas stuff is done, but the cold forced me to do it.

By this evening I was feeling a little better and really getting cabin fever. I hadn't been out of the house since Friday afternoon when I came home from work. I needed to get out for sanity's sake.

I was craving sushi--I'm always craving sushi--and a good hearty (but not heavy) meal, since I've eaten so badly the last 2 days. My mom and I went to our favorite sushi place, Zono, on Lake Avenue in Pasadena.

Then we noticed that the beautiful Macy's store was open. It has been closed for months for renovations. I needed to be around people and the store was open until midnight, so we went in. I also wanted to look for a dress for my cousin's upcoming wedding this Saturday. I wanted something wintery, modest but youthful, and not black.

This is a very nice Macy's, and their dress department had a lot of choices. But my favorite one on the hanger is also the favorite one on me. A teal shirtdress by Jones New York that fit me so well it is like it was made for me. I loved it.

I tried to find a picture of it online, but could only find the red one, which is still very nice. I love this dress! It reminds me of a style from the 1950's. Yay!

Some Holiday Tunes and Other Things to Share...

I'm still trying to convince myself that I get 16 days off work. What a great feeling!

Last night I did some picking up in my neglected house and then settled back and watched 2 movies using my school's LCD projector. It is like having my own personal movie theater, which is great for "big" movies that are really meant to be seen on the big screen, like Phantom of the Opera, which I hadn't watched in a while. I felt it was appropriate since I just purchased some tickets to see it at the Pantages in February. I also watched Infamous, the movie about Truman Capote, which made a little less noise than Capote at the theaters, but is still very good. I find that story about the evolution of Capote's In Cold Blood extremely interesting.

This morning is turning out to be the morning of washing linens, and other things that are easily delayed when I'm working. Some Christmas tunes in the background have kept me going, and I wanted to share some of my favorites--most of which are not extremely well-known. Enjoy!











I really like Celine Dion's version of this famous John Lennon song:


And this one always makes me happy and want to do a jig. Merry Christmas to all! Beware--this one gets stuck in your head for hours...

My Awesome Co-Workers...

This has been a very normal week--a goal I had to try and make it go nice and quick so we could move right into the Christmas break. So, aside from one student's unbelievably lame attempt to write a note pretending to be his mother in order to be excused from doing homework, there isn't much else to write about.

Instead, I'll share a couple of pictures from last Friday's outing to Claim Jumper with my school peeps. I am very lucky in that way. No matter how frustrating things get with students and the district, I have the peace of mind that my co-workers are really great. Last Friday we went out and spent some time with our recent retiree, Kay. We ate and laughed and drank and laughed. (Me--coke, them--other stuff.) It was a very good time. It was great to be together outside of the school setting.

There were 9 of us all together, and we had a lot of fun.

me, Jose, Silvia

Ramona, Kay, me

The Ingredients of a Great December Day...

Yesterday I had such a great day. It was the perfect blend of productivity, getting ahead on a few things, relaxing, and spending time with family.

Although I never did get presents wrapped--which I absolutely have to start today--I did get lights up outside the house. My house doesn't have hooks to hang lights, so I just went crazy with little white twinkle lights all around the bushes. Since my mom has been cleaning out her garage, she has found bags and bags of twinkle lights that were bought over the years, packed away, and eventually swallowed into the abyss. But now they have been rediscovered and put to good use, because I used about twice as many twinkle lights this year as I have in years past.

Bailey went to the groomer first thing in the morning and was returned to me looking very clean and handsome, and my Auntie Nene (Mom's sister), cousin Laura, and cousin Cassidy came out in this direction so my mom and aunt could photograph my grandparents' house. We will be dismantling it very soon and they wanted to always remember how it looks on the inside.

We had a big ol' In 'n Out picnic in the family room, turned on some Christmas music and took pictures and reminisced. Then, with an hour before they closed, we went over to the cemetery to visit the grandparents.

Back at the house we said our goodbyes. We'll have one last Christmas Eve there this year and then it will be time to divide up many of the items in the house. I don't foresee any problems except the inevitable guilt from taking their things out of their house. It's been quite a year.

I came home, plugged in my Zune player and took Bailey for a half-hour walk listening to Christmas music and enjoying the decorations around the neighborhood. Then I came home and recorded 4 more songs over on MySpace Karaoke. Such a fun site. Such a great day.

I HEARD THE BELLS ON CHRISTMAS DAY

BLUE CHRISTMAS

SILVER BELLS

THE FIRST NOEL

And a few more...

Yay! The weekend! Only 5 more working days until a much-needed 2-week break. This afternoon 8 of us from school went to Claim Jumper and ate and drank and laughed--a lot. We had a very fun time.

I came home all wound up and recorded a few more songs. Now I'm wiped out!

DO YOU HEAR WHAT I HEAR?

HAPPY CHRISTMAS (WAR IS OVER)

AWAY IN A MANGER

MARY'S LITTLE BOY CHILD

Santa Baby..

It's been a pretty quiet week here--which is just how I like things. The only things worth sharing right now are a couple more pictures of Xander--all dressed up and ready to take on his first Christmas. I know I'm biased, but, man, he's cute!

Look at him go...

Alexander is getting REALLY mobile. He's crawling around like a little freight train and pulls himself up to stand whenever he gets the chance. He's also experimenting with taking steps while holding onto something for support.

Yesterday I got to babysit him for about an hour. Since my house is not baby-proofed at all, I had to keep a close eye on him as he zipped from room to room. I had a bunch of things for him to play with in the family room, but scooting around the house and touching the breakable stuff is much more fun! He's so cute! (And, no, he didn't break anything.)

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas...

Now that I have my laptop back, I can share the fruits of my labors in decorating the house. I got a new pre-lit tree (Walmart) because the one from the past 2 years had a whole section that stayed lit only 50% of the time.

Since I don't have hooks on the outside of the house, I go a little crazy with lights on the inside. It took several attempts to get decent pictures with no flash, but they look a lot better with the natural lighting.

I know that there are some adults who, as they get older, have a hard time embracing the Christmas spirit, but I am not one of them. No matter what else is happening, I really do love this time of year. (click each picture to see it full-sized)

Xander and the Clauses

Today was a good day at school. I felt SO much better when I woke up this morning.

As soon as the bell rang I rushed home (safely) and my mom and I took my nephew to the Huntington Library (which is more like a museum with botanical gardens) so that Xander could take his first picture with Santa Claus.


We waited in line for an hour and he did remarkably well as he watched the older, more mobile, kids running around on a big patch of grass in the middle of the line. A dad behind us said, "It reminds me of a dog park..." That was pretty funny.

Inside the building, each family got some quick, personal time with Santa. You had to bring your own camera and the window of opportunity to get a good picture was very small, but it was still fun to chronicle Xander's first Santa experience.

Earlier today and a couple of days ago, my mom got some really good pictures of him. I love the first one! We adore this little boy. He is such a joy to spend time with. (Click on each picture to see them full-sized.)

The Earliest Bird...

Clearly, I am having an off week.

Yesterday I woke up at 4am, extremely worn out from decorating for Christmas the previous afternoon. I ached and my stomach felt weird. With the way I was feeling, I thought it best to call in sick. I never like using my sick days, but I always seem to use them all plus 1 or 2 more by the end of the school year. I wrote out lesson plans and emailed them to the school at 5am. Then I went back to bed, not feeling well, and not sleepy enough to sleep.

By 9am, my nephew had been dropped at my mom's house. I went over there for about an hour, but I still didn't feel well and came home. I sat in my chair in the sunroom and fell asleep. The sunshine really helped.

Two hours later, I decided to shower. I was feeling better. As soon as I was done I got a call from Best Buy, my laptop was ready to be picked up. I had dropped it off 10 days before with a corrupted hard drive. The good news is that I got $130 back because it was a hardware problem, not the result of something I had installed. More good news is that they were able to back up all of my data on my external hard drive, so, technically, nothing has been lost. The bad news is that I needed a new hard drive.

So, essentially, the laptop was returned to me in the condition as if I had just bought it, with nothing on it. It is like moving into a new house. I made some progress on it last night, but I haven't even touched the stuff on the external hard drive yet, and I don't even want to think about what this is going to do to my Zune player. I am going to have to put everything that was on it back into the Zune software exactly as it is on my player, otherwise the synchronization will get all messed up.

And then the kicker...

I fell asleep at 8:30 (thrilled that I would get a good night's sleep to return to work today refreshed...)

Then I woke up at 11:45 and I've been up since then. I tried and tried to fall back asleep and could not. I read, got very sleepy, and turned the light off 3 times, then would rouse awake and start the cycle again.

I really did try. By 3:30am it was getting pointless and I could feel myself getting more and more anxious as the minutes ticked by. That certainly wasn't going to help me sleep, and it was too late to take a sleeping pill. I reluctantly called in another sick day and emailed plans for today's sub. It is a mad, helpless feeling. I would be useless on 3 hours sleep and yet I hate the thought of having to use another sick day. I try so hard space them out throughout the year and this year has not worked out that way.

So, here it is, 5:21am, and I've been at various stages of being awake since 11:45 last night. I guess I'll go and read again and see if I can fall asleep now...

It's Not the Same, Is It?

I know, my blog has taken kind of a dive in the last few days, hasn't it?

It is mostly attributed to the fact that I have now been without my own laptop for 8 days. Feels like an eternity! The little Mac I'm using from school is so basic and small that I just use it for the necessities.

Our Thanksgiving dinner (on Saturday) at my house went off without a hitch. The food everyone contributed was great, the house was very festive, and we all enjoyed each other's company a lot. I'll post pictures when I get my laptop back.

The only casualty of the evening was a salad dish that I broke during the washing process. The set is 70-80 years old, so replacing it will be near impossible. I'm mad at my own carelessness.

Yesterday I spent another 2 hours cleaning up and getting the house back in order after the family gathering. A small price to pay for being the hostess, which I really enjoy. By the time the house was back to normal, I was exhausted, and it was only 10:30am! The rest of the day I spent vegging in front of the TV, alternating between old Friends episodes and finishing up the day with a Thorn Birds marathon. That'll keep you in your seat. What a great mini-series.

I had high hopes for today, but my kids were really out of sorts and it led to a very discouraging day--I'm putting it mildly. Actually it was a stinker of a day.

I'm hoping that tomorrow we'll be back on track, the kids ready to work and behave, and that we can move swiftly through the month before Winter Break.

Thanksgiving Preparation...

Today is a busy day getting ready for the family to arrive tomorrow for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a little weird not celebrating on the actual holiday--we've never done this before--but changing to Saturday insured that everyone can be there.

Luckily, this is the day my cleaning lady comes and helps out, so I don't have to do everything. We also do a potluck dinner, so I don't have to cook, just to prepare the house. That's my contribution--harder than it seems!

This morning I was up at the crack of dawn after falling asleep really early last night. I don't know why I'm surprised. I'm usually yawning by 7pm or so and asleep by 10:00 or 10:30.

After throwing the tablecloths and some curtains into the washer, I went to the car wash, then came home, weeded the yard a bit, ironed and replaced the curtains, and went about setting the two tables for our big meal tomorrow. 8 people at one table and 4 at another. That is a time-consuming process, but I don't mind. The weird thing was taking out the little place-cards from years past, seeing the ones that have my grandparents' names on them, and knowing that we won't be using them anymore.

And now I'm taking a break. Setting the tables and washing curtains were my big jobs for today. I also want to put up little white lights in the living room around the windows and doorways, but that is better to do when it gets a little darker. Right now I need a break!

And I still miss my Toshiba laptop desperately. This little Mac from school is very slow. Grumble, grumble...

Here's the progress so far:

I'm Thankful...

Despite the fact that yesterday was a discouraging day with my students, I'm very aware that I have a lot to be thankful for. We talked about that a lot. Some kids get it and some don't, but they will eventually.

Here's my short list. I'm thankful for:

• My family. What can I say? They're awesome.
• My mom and brother. They get their own category.
• My little nephew. He's perfect.
• My health.
  
• My house. I love, love my house. I'm grateful for it every day when I wake up. I'm also grateful for the location of my house--a lovely neighborhood, across the street from my mom, and relatively close to the rest of my family.
  
• Brad. Our time together was incredibly short, but he left an impression on me that will last a lifetime.
• My pets. Bailey, my 100 lb. shaggy black dog and my 2 kitties, Darcy and Ashley, are great little companions.
  
• My job. It may be frustrating at times, but it is sure never boring. And, considering that I'm in the teaching profession, the pay is competitive in my district.
  
• My intelligence. This is not a brag. I'm a smart person and I know it is a gift.
  
• The gift of being born in America. Yes, this country is far from perfect, but we have a lot more than a lot of other people.
• Not to be corny and repetitive, but I am SO glad that Obama got elected. America is going to get so much healthier with him in office.
• And many, many more things...

And, speaking of Thanksgiving, my family is celebrating the holiday on Saturday this year because my cousin, Laura, has to work tomorrow. It will be at my house. I love hosting. I don't like cooking, but I like hosting, and we do a potluck dinner anyway.

This year is our first year celebrating the holidays without the grandparents, and I know it will be odd, so I want to do something special. My uncle converted some of their old home movies to DVD. Back in 2000 he had them narrate them and put them on VHS, but now they're updated to our current format. I brought home the LCD projector from my classroom that we use for the Smartboard and the speakers I bought.

Last night I set up the projector, the laptop, and the speakers in my sunroom. After removing a picture off the wall above my little 22" TV, I was able to project an image about 60"-70" across on the wall. After inserting the DVD of my grandparents' home movies in the laptop, I watched them for the first time.

WOW.

It was a little unnerving hearing their voices for the first time since they both passed away, but after I got used to it, it was pretty great too. There are videos of their wedding in 1941, yearly birthdays of my mom's first few years, family outings, my aunt's graduation from UCLA that I went to when I was 3 months old, my parents' wedding (some videos were out of order,) and a Christmas when my brother and I were the only grandchildren in the family.

I found myself wiping away tears several times.

Other family members may have watched their copies of the videos, but we've never sat and watched them together and we've never had them projected so large, so this will be a special thing to share on Saturday.

Today I'm just doing laundry and some basic prepping for the company that will descend on the house in a couple of days. It rained last night and has stayed gray and wet today with a few cloudbursts. I like it.

A Little Sushi, a Little Twilight, and a Corrupted Hard Drive...

Yesterday was, well, interesting...

It was supposed to be a normal day of resting and recuperating after such a long day on Saturday (helping my mom for 7 hours with her yard sale and then some errands in the evening.) Instead, it turned into another busy day.

In the morning I did what I always do, which is go onto the laptop and check the weather and the headlines. I was going to post a couple of pictures of the fog outside, but then everything froze. Doing a "force quit" didn't work, so I did what I sometimes do, which is just turn the computer off without shutting it down correctly. Bad move. Bad, bad move.

When I turned it on again, the desktop never came back. Weird messages appeared and after trying all of the options I was given except putting in the recovery disk, at the risk of erasing the hard drive, I decided that I had exhausted my knowledge. Time to take it to the Geek Squad at Best Buy. There are probably other places I could take it, but I don't know of them.

I dressed quickly so I could be at Best Buy before they opened at 10am, because a line usually forms outside of the store before they open, especially around the holidays. I got there at 9:45 and was surprised to find that they were already open. Special holiday hours.

The lady at the computer support counter was very nice and knowledgeable, but she told me that, realistically, my hard drive might have to be wiped out and the computer returned to me in the condition it had been when I first bought it. She also needed my external hard drive, which I zipped home and retrieved quickly. After signing a bunch of papers and listing my files in order of priority, I said goodbye to my 6-month old laptop for the next week and a half. I'm telling myself that there really isn't anything on there that I can't afford to lose, but I'm still really, really hoping I'll get some things back. Ugh, the thought of loading all of my CDs in there again is daunting. I won't be able to synchronize my Zune player with the computer until the Zune software and everything in it is back the way it was. And, despite the fact that I had a service plan, only very little of it covered what is going to be done (backing up all the files and going over the hard drive with a fine-toothed comb...)

I left Best Buy trying to stay hopeful, but I have a feeling I'm going to lose everything on the laptop. Right now I'm using the little Mac from school, which has a 12" screen and is around 5 years old. It's in desperate need of replacement, but today we received a letter outlining the possible budget cuts our district could endure over the next couple of years because of the dwindling economy. I think this laptop is going to have to last a long while.

When I left Best Buy I was starving. I ran to the nearby mall and went to my favorite Japanese buffet, Todai, enjoying the fact that I was able to get out and enjoy a little diversion. The Twilight movie was playing at the mall's theater-- maybe I would go and see it? I checked the show times on my phone. It was 12:01pm and the next show was at 12:05. Yeah, I could make it. It doesn't bother me to go to movies alone. I've done it tons of times.

I raced across to the other side of the mall, bought my ticket from one of those automated ticket machines and settled into my seat. The movie has elicited a variety of responses. I was curious to form my own opinion of it.

So what did I think?

Cinematography: B+
The look of Forks, WA was exactly the way I had imagined it in the book. Very overcast, but after a while I wanted to give everyone a powerful light bulb.

Casting: B+
The actors also looked the way I imagined they would, except for Bella's scatterbrained mom. Robert Pattinson was very good as Edward both in look and acting. The one I didn't like was Kristen Stewart as Bella. She fits the part physically, but her acting is so one-dimensional and bland that I was really unimpressed. Of course, it could also be the fault of the director.

Screenplay: B
Yes, it is a movie being adapted from a book, but I think some poor choices were made in the adaptation. The part that really was hacked was when Bella was walking with Jacob and he's telling her about the Quilute legend of the "cold ones." That is a crucial part of the book, but in the movie it is glossed over very quickly. I also felt like the silly-looking jackets that Jacob and Bella are wearing in the scene are very distracting.

Supporting characters: C+
I liked the actors they chose for Carlisle, Alice, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, and Bella's friends Angela and Mike. The actor who played Bella's dad was OK, as well as the ones who played the villains, James and Victoria. I have never liked Elizabeth Reaser (Esme) since she was on Grey's Anatomy, and I didn't like her in this movie either, and I thought the girl cast as Bella's friend, Jessica, was a real misfire. She was just plain annoying. But, clearly, I am not the demographic this movie was made for.


Overall grade: C+
Seriously, I wanted to like it more, but the movie had a lot of shortcomings and I found myself looking at my watch. I think that having one of the main characters be so boring (Bella) was a real disadvantage to the movie because she was in practically every scene. Having said that, though, I would still like to see it again and give it another chance on another day.

Some Blasts from the Past...

Today was Day 1 of my mom's yard sale. I helped out from 8am until 3pm. Aahhh...what a good daughter. I made $9.75 off some old jewelry that I never wear anymore.

But in the process of cleaning out the garage, my mom found some old art by my brother and me, along with some old pictures. Now, in this digital age, we can scan those kinds of things and preserve their images forever. On Thursday night I scanned 50, yes 50, pieces of art so that my mom could upload them onto Snapfish, where they were offering a deal on a 20-page book.

I'll show some of the art here another time.

Today, she had me scan a few old photos. Guess who? Click to see them full-sized...

A day of tiredness, frustration, and superheroes...

Today was odd. On the frustrating front, a good 1/3 of my kids didn't finish their homework, despite the fact that they had 2 days to do it. They didn't have school yesterday while I had 18 conferences and stayed until 7:30pm. I was not happy.

A Smartboard training for the 5th and 6th grade teachers was scheduled for this afternoon, which was new information as of this morning, and that really put a kink in our day and our week. I've decided to just stretch out our week through until next Tuesday. We only have school Monday and Tuesday next week. It is hard getting anything done this time of year with the many interruptions and crazy schedules.

The Smartboard training had some interesting points and I learned a few new things, but many of the teachers are at different levels with their technology knowledge, so we kind of jumped from one thing to another.

At the end of the day I got a call from the office saying that the mother of one of the kids I have in the morning from another class is unhappy because I marked her son tardy 3 times last month. She felt it was unfair. Yeah, OK. If he was on time I wouldn't mark him tardy. It's pretty simple, really.

I left right after school, got a haircut, and now I'm home just counting the hours until the weekend and next week's 5-day break. I feel that combination of exhaustion and adrenaline at the same time.

So right now I'm trying, trying to relax and wind down, hanging out in the sunroom, doing the wireless internet thing with my laptop on my lap, and watching Iron Man, the latest Netflix delivery. Nothing like a little superhero escapism...

Half Blood Prince Trailer

Even though I'm excited to see the Twilight movie, I have no idea what to expect. But when it comes to the Harry Potter movies, I know they are going to be great because all of them have been.

It's a bummer that the release date for the 6th movie was pushed from this month until next July, but it is certainly something to look forward to when school lets out for the summer. I loved the 6th book, which has Dunbledore taking Harry through Voldemort's childhood in the hopes that getting to know the Dark Lord better will help Harry defeat him one day...

Click the picture to see the trailer. It looks good!

It's Parent Conference Week...

Yes, it is that time of year.

A week ago today I scrambled furiously after school to complete report cards, and this week I get to go over them with the parents.

I wish I could say that I enjoy parent conferences, but I don't. They are very draining. Most of our parents are great, and very open to listening and taking suggestions, but there are always a few that get easily offended over the slightest thing and transfer all responsibility back over to the teacher.

Fortunately, since I took my class from one grade to another this year, I am familiar with most of our parents, and I don't anticipate problems with the parents I haven't met yet.

The kids had a 1:50 dismissal time on Monday and Tuesday so we could schedule conferences after school. I didn't schedule very many, like I normally do, which now I regret. Report cards and conferences really snuck up on me this year and I got thrown by the 4-day weekend two weeks ago.

On Monday I had 5 conferences scheduled and only 2 parents showed up. Not a great way to start, and very unusual, because our parents are often anxious to hear how their kids are doing in school. Yesterday I had 4 scheduled--one at 7:30am--and all of them showed up.

Today, however, is the BIG day. The kids have no school and the teachers' hours are from 12 noon until 7:30pm. I have 22 conferences scheduled for today in 15 minute increments. Yes, 22! I plan to be exhausted when I come home. Conferences are exhausting, mostly because I have a certain image as the teacher that I need to maintain and I have to choose my words so carefully.

To add insult to injury, I've been fighting a cold since I woke up on Sunday morning. Going to bed really early and trying to take it easy has helped a little, but with a week like this, there is only so much time for taking it easy. It feels great not to have to rush around this morning, but it is hard to rest when I think about the huge day ahead. This is the first time I've been sick in over a year--what a time for it.

So if you are reading this, think of me today and wish me luck! I'll need it!

Another use for Scrapblog...

After being at Bernadette's house last night, I was inspired to do some cleaning out and updating. I have never considered myself a cluttery person, but she's got me beat by a long shot! This morning I organized the front of the refrigerator, scrubbed my lunch box, and cleaned out this little dish on my counter that has odds and ends (post notes, check for the gardener, batteries, paper clips, etc.)

I also decided to update my pathetic little sketch on my fridge that I use for my sprinklers. The house came with automatic sprinklers, which are great because I'm sure my lawn would be dead without them, but there are 9 different zones that I need to remember if I want to water one manually.

So I decided to use scrapblog.com to make a new diagram. Not as easy as it seems, but as long as I understand it, that's what matters. So I went from this:
To this: (click pictures to see them full-sized if you are so inclined...)