30 Days of Thankful

Last November our family worked on a thankful turkey. It was a simple concept where each day we'd paste a feather encrypted that for which we were thankful onto the body of a turkey.

(Read about it here).

This year I had a similar project in mind. I thought we'd do a wreath full of thankful leaves. It was a great idea except that I didn't get the leaves cut out in time. And then a week into the month when my mom got sick and almost went into a diabetic coma, I just threw in the towel.

However, I was and still am very thankful -- for a lot.

So, in honor of the 30 days of November, here they are:

I am thankful for......

1. The unconditional love my children share with each other

2. A Saturday morning all to myself

3. Faith Formation at church where both J and I have the opportunity to learn more

about the religion that has guided me throughout my life

4. Dim sum with the family on a Thursday

5. The bruise on my mom's face because that means she hit her face and not

another more serious spot on her body

6. The strength God bestowed on my mom to be able to crawl to the phone and call my Tia after the fall off the bed that caused said bruise

7. My Tia and Tio

She for getting to my mom in a jiffy and driving her to the hospital, and he for staying with her after she was released.

8. The means and opportunity to leave a few days early to be with her and the peace

I felt listening to her snoring in the next room

9. My Comadre Roseanna who despite short notice, a late hour,

and a stitched up finger was able to pick me up from the airport

10. Sacramento

Because being there pulls me back into the idiosyncrasies of my heritage and all the beautiful traditions that keep me grounded and are a constant reminder of where I come from

11. Seeing my brother

12. The joy I felt seeing my Tia Eleanor walk into my childhood home and the fact

that it was full of family on a Tuesday afternoon

13. Finding my wedding band after it had been MIA for 8 days

14. My hubby, who carries more than just the weight of his daughter on those shoulders

He keeps us safe, provided for,

and laughing


15. The extended family God gave me

16. And the family that by His grace I was lucky enough to meet
and embrace as my own (see No. 9)
17. The wonderful food we ate at Thanksgiving
18. Two awesome days in San Francisco visiting with yet more family
19. The twinkle in My Tia Chona's eyes and the remission that put it there

20. My mom
I'll leave it at that -- to elaborate would take too long

21. Being reunited with my family after nine days of the genders being
divided in two different states

22. Wishes coming true
D's to indulge in crabs and an Anchor Steam in SF

and J's to ride a cable car

(Really thankful that I could stop him from jumping off and into the street to retrieve the stuff that spilled out of my purse....yeah, that's a story in itself all right)

23. My niece

24. My nephew,

who despite all the challenges he's faced in his short life, still manages to smile (sometimes)

and make others do the same

25. The way the gaps of both distance and time close when the cousins are together and

the joy it brings to their days

26. The doctor that gave us the good news on the day before I left

that my mom's tests all came back negative;

that she's in good health; and that she's able to resume her normal day-to-day activities
27. My friends

For opening their homes and their hearts to me and my family

and for giving me the peace of mind of knowing I can ALWAYS count on them

28. My cozy home and comfy bed that were so nice to return to after two weeks away

29. Late start days

Especially after getting home at midnight

30. The opportunity to be here once again with so much to be thankful for

'Hood Crawl

Like a kid-friendly version of a pub crawl that included an eclectic cast of characters:

Jesse & Buzz,

Jaws & Casper,


Wolverine & Spider Girl,

a spider-observing dragon,

And Princess Leah,

they went from house to house;

five in all.

For there were crafts to be made,

games like Pumpkin Bowling,

and Skittles Toss to be played,

A pinata to crush,

cupcakes,

worm-infested dirt,

and candy to be eaten.

Not to mention a Haunted House scary enough

to have the Defender of the Universe

biting his nails!

It was the Woodtrails

1st Annual Halloween

'Hood Crawl!

This to That

It was right around this time last year that I told myself I was going to take a sewing class. While I don't aspire to stitch together haute couture, I do think that it's helpful to know your way around a sewing machine for certain things. On top of that list would be Halloween costumes. There's always the stuff at the store, but there seems to be two categories for those, cheap and ugly or decent and expensive.

When I decided M was going to be Jesse this year I looked to see what I could find. There was plenty that fell into both of the slots above but nothing in her size. So I went to JoAnns and bought the fabric. After some cutting and trimming, stitches were added to this,

along with a hat,

and she ended up with that:

You'll notice the after buying the fabric, the word "I" was never used in the above step by step. That's because "I" didn't do anything but buy the fabric. I haven't even taken the sewing class yet. My mom gets all the credit for her costume. She did it all by hand. She's amazing at doing stuff like that. When I was young I would show her a dress I liked and she'd go home and make it without a pattern. She made the mattress for the kids' bassinet and more recently she stitched a place mat into a pillow.
Intimidating? Yeah, a little. I should have learned from the best when I had the chance to do so. (Sigh).

Anyway, once M's costume was all done, I started to look for something J could wear. There was NO way I was going to put my mom through making a Buzz Lightyear costume without a sewing machine. Although she probably could have if given some time.
Instead I resorted to the store variety. The cheap-and-ugly store variety to be exact.
I couldn't bring myself to spend $50 bucks for the Disney Store version.
Did I mention it was the Wal-Mart-cheap-and-ugly store variety?

But when I added these

to the polyester, one piece, painted on, no muscle
Buzz Lightyear, he had this:

A much more respectable Space Ranger if I do say so myself.


Our trip to the pumpkin patch was late this year
and it was slim pickins once there:

But we did manage to get a decent one.

With a little bit of this

and a little bit of that

we had a scary Jack 'o Lantern in no time.

And so the day finally came.

The sun was out and the rain stayed away.

The candy, the kiddos, and the house were ready.

And just like that, it went.

The candy bowl is empty; the costumes, piled on the floor;

and the sun has been replaced by wind and rain causing the

pretty looking porch to go from that to this

in less than 24 hours.

Happy November Everyone!

Going Batty

I don't know about you, but I don't remember having to write a report in first grade. I don't remember exactly when it was, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't this early on. I asked D and he said the same.

Nevertheless, J had his first report due last Thursday. They are studying bats in his science segment and each kid chose a bat they were interested in and wrote a little bit about it. J chose a bat by the name of The Little Brown Bat. He had to turn in some preliminary findings and then the actual report would be written at school.

His teacher was kind enough to send us the grading scale, and I was really surprised to see how much detail she wanted in addition to the writing elements: Full sentences, neat writing, several facts. It seemed a little advanced for six year olds, and I have to admit I was a little concerned to see what J would come up with.

In addition to the report, the kids were also to turn in a visual of their bat. Again, the grading scale was extensive: distinctive features, several colors, habitat. All with one caveat: she wanted the kids' work -- not the parents.

That's all great and wonderful, except that my kid wasn't really that interested in doing much more than a picture, which would have been fine, but you only got one point for that -- if it was a good hand-drawn picture. A computer picture wasn't acceptable. J is good at many things but art isn't one of them so going that route, even one point was going to be hard to attain.

And, to be honest, I really wanted him to reach for more than the easy way out. A model could yield five points and I knew if I did the legwork I could get him excited about doing a project. I was right.

He glued cutout bats, he water colored the background, cut up some felt, and glued the eyes and fangs on. Anything that required the glue gun I did.

He was really happy with the finished product.

He presented to the class two days ago. I was amazed when I saw his scores. He did so well! In addition to his teacher he was also graded by some of his peers. He got the highest marks in almost every category.

The next day was the "Bat Gallery." Families were invited to come in and see all the wonderful work the kids did. This was the first time we got to take a peek at J's report. Turns out I had nothing to worry about, because it was great. There were full sentences, decent writing, and lots of information.

And not just J's was amazing. As surprised as I was at the expectations for these kids, I was even more surprised at how easily they exceeded them.

He looked so proud of his work,

and I love that he's enjoying learning so much!

hAPPy

About a month ago I got the new iph0ne 4. It is one of the coolest gadgets out there and I have no idea how I navigated this world without it for 44 years. Aside from my wedding ring it is my favorite material thing that I own.

Several weeks before that, Daddy was issued an ipad from work. Another amazing machine from the folks at Apple. This picture doesn't do it justice. It's basically a larger version of the iphone but without the calling capabilities.

By the time J and M are old enough to read this there will be unimaginable things for them to work and play with and they'll laugh at me for being so excited over something that by then is sure to be today's version of an eight-track tape. But for me, this is innovation at its finest. Just a couple of decades ago the thought of literally having so much access at your fingertips was unimaginable to me.

Needless to say, both D and I have been playing around with our little pieces of technological goodness non-stop. He's downloaded a couple of books ~ even finished one which is quite a fete for him. I've downloaded some applications, also known as apps, and some music.

AK was here the other day and we were comparing smartphones. He has one from another company but many of the apps (I feel so cool when I use the correct terminology) are the same. He intoduced me to one of his favorites: An LED light, sort of like a little flashlight in your phone. It was free so I downloaded it if for no other reason to show J who for some reason or another likes flashlights.

It hasn't even been two weeks and I had real use for it last night. Our power went out while we were upstairs. Both the kids were already asleep but we wanted to make sure we were prepared in case they woke up to pitch darkness and were scared. I found my phone, pressed the button, and WA-LA, there was light.

We went to sleep hAPPy campers after that.