Strike Day 3= FINAL DAY!!

Yesterday I carried on in the 2nd grade classroom. The kids are delightful, I loved their questions and the way they worked together. BUT...I am not their teacher. I missed "my" kids and parents!! I hate Math worksheets...

Seeds were sprouting....children were sprouting...BUT THEY wanted their teachers. They missed them, I missed them.

TODAY will be business as usual. The union reps negotiated until after midnight to settle on an agreement...thank you Jesus!!! Teachers will be teaching their students...and better yet....I WILL BE TEACHING MY STUDENTS. It was a trying time...but we carried on and made it through.

Teacher's Strike~ Day 2

Today was the 2nd day of the Teacher's strike. Once again, I left my regular post (teaching Mommy and Me classes to ESL parents and children..which I LOVE!!) and was in with the 2nd graders. They were delightful and I had a great day with them, but I would much rather this whole thing be over so the children get back to their normal routine. Today, I decided they needed to have some fun. SO....I decided to bring some activities in from my classroom and let them play...they had a blast! Check out what they did...as you can see I did not photograph any of the children's faces as they are not "my" children. They made amazing structure with the blocks!

And beautiful patterns with the Geo-Boards!

They especially loved the Dot Paints. Many of the children had never seen Dot Paints...they made some beautiful pictures!

Outside of the school the teachers were yelling, chanting, singing, playing tamborines, blowing whistles...it is so terrible. Below is the District Office that I passed by on my way home. You can see many teachers surrounded the office and picketed ALL DAY LONG!!

I hope this is all resolved before Monday. The kids deserve a quality education with teachers who love them!

Teacher's Strike Day 1

Our teacher's are on strike...and it makes me really sad! The entire school year they have had meetings, negotiations, fact-finding missions, and disruptions to our kids school day. I feel so bad for the teachers, but also for the kids. I have been pulled from my "regular" assignment into a classroom. Today I worked with 2nd graders, and they are amazing, but they want their regular teachers and I don't blame them. I took this photo today at recess time. The teachers were outside the fence with signs and chanting and blowing whistles. Of course, all the kids ran over to see their beloved teachers. There was news media and yelling back and forth. The bottom line--it's terrible for all of us. I am not sending my kids to school, no normal teaching is going on and I don't think they have to see all of this. Hopefully, tomorrow will be the last day!

Wordless Wednesday #39 ~ My New Favorite Cleaner

Smells great. Works great. Great for the planet. Go get it at Target! Am I the only one who has a favorite cleaner?!?

How to Easily Make Hamburger Patties...Delicious!!

I LOVE me a good hamburger...especially grilled with Swiss Cheese and Avocado on a Wheat Bun!! I prefer to use fresh ground beef instead of the pre-formed patties, but it is a pain in the butt to get the patties formed so that they are uniform in size and they don't fall apart. Many years ago, I bought a hamburger patty maker from Tupperware! It works SO great...I don't know why anyone who NOT use it!? I know that is not proper English...whatever!

You just section off your hamburger meat. I usually buy about 4 pounds and section it into 12 pieces, so each patty is close to 1/3 pound. Put the handful of meat in the bottom of the Tupperware thingy.

Top it with the handle press. Press and turn at the same time for about 3 seconds...literally!

Lift the handle and...Wa La...perfectly shaped burgers!! It does not get easier that that!

Keep going to use up all the meat. I always make at least twice as many as we will eat and freeze them. It's a good snack/lunch/dinner on a busy day. Especially during baseball season when we don't get home until late, and many days have 2 games in one day. WAY better than fast food, and ready in minutes.

All of these patties took me maybe 5-10 minutes to make. Buy a Tupperware hamburger maker, it is not a gimic, I use mine regularly.

Okay, I must go now...and eat a burger!

Christian Hernandez Rotation

We went to watch a friends' son play with his band. His name is Christian Hernandez and he is a recent graduate from the Berkeley School of Music. It was FANTASTIC, but really loud!! Kind of updated jazz...all their own stuff. I was very impressed.

The lady above was older and did not care that she was the only one dancing. I loved that she had no hesitation about dancing in front of so many people, even while wearing a weird purple shirt!!

His guitar playing skills were amazing. He also plays bass and drums. VERY TALENTED!!

This is his Dad, Mike. He also has a son who is Nathan's age. He is such a proud papa...rightly so!

Kyle's Baseball Team...So CUTE!!

Before each Varsity home game, we take turns having the whole team to our houses for dinner. It's so fun to see the boys "off the field." A couple of days ago, we had the party at Sammy's house and we were the helper family. I brought drinks, dessert, and appetizers and Sammy's family supplied the main dish. Since they are Japanese, his Mom made sushi!

I couldn't believe the boys LOVED the sushi! They also had Teriyaki chicken, eggrolls, and fruit. The boys are SO CUTE and well-mannered!

After the dinner, they went in the front yard to play a game. Basically, it goes like this. You have to catch 2 baseballs, one in each hand, at one time...thrown across the circle. If you drop one, you remove one article of clothing, if you drop both, then 2 pieces of clothing. We were CRACKING UP. After the boys had removed as many clothes as possible, they must leave the game. Well...shortly after this picture, the coach pictured in the front of the photo, turned on the hose and sprayed the boys. They scattered and so he drenched their clothes...

I am very proud of Kyle for the choices that he is making and the friends he chooses!

Chick-fil-A

SO...we do not have a Chick-fil-A close to us...boo hoo!! However, last week Nathan had an appt with the pediatric neurologist and it is a ways away, but we don't care 'cuz there is a Chick-fil-A on the way home!!! Oh ya baby...I told Nathan I would only stop if he would stand by the cow so I could take a picture.

It was 10:00 in the morning, but they made chicken nuggets for Nathan. He got a 12 pack to eat then and a 12-pack to have for lunch.

This is what I had...a multi-grain bagel with egg, cheese, and chicken. Can you say "scrumptous!?"

This is a Chick-fil-A drunken face. Our dear friends Jill and Brent introduced us to Chick-fil-A about 15 years ago when we visited them in North Carolina...and it still is JUST AS DELICIOUS!! By the way, I think we also had our first Krispy Kreme donut on that trip...wow, that was a great vacation!!

Oh, on a side note, Nathan was released from neuro care, because his headaches have pretty much gone away. Hopefully, that was just a weird couple of months and the headaches will never again rear their ugly "heads."

Wordless Wednesday #38 ~ Grillin' in the Rain...

Just grillin' in the Rain...What a glorious feeling...I'm happy again!

Easter Decorations...

I changed up all my Easter decorations this year...I thought it looked great...Lots of bunnies!

Easter Bunny Bread!

This bread turned out SO CUTE, but the pictures are so bad. I took 2 loaves of frozen bread dough, thawed it out, shaped it into a bunny, let it rise, baked it, and cut out the tummy for dip and veggies. It was actually fairly simple.

Tilly the Poodle

Larry got a new poodle, her name is Tilly. She is 5 years old, has tons of energy, and she is considered a "blue" color.

You got a good new family Tilly...you'll be spoiled rotten in no time!!

Lithuanian Baseball

Last night Nathan's Little League team played a Goodwill Game against the All-Star Team from Lithuania! It was so fun to watch, but freezing cold and windy. SO, I took pictures of the pre-game hoopla, but no game photoes...my fingers were frozen. The boys were very kind and welcoming of the team.

Just "regular" kids who love to play baseball, but happen to live near Russia. On the field, they were yelling out calls in their language. The coach was yelling at them in Lithuanian...our coach was yelling at our kids in English. Probably saying the same exact thing in 2 different languages!!

A couple of kids from other teams were chosen to help play in this game. Darrell is one of the coaches for Nathan's team.

The Lithuanians traveled with 2 ladies and 1 man coach. They had been here for 2 weeks, playing many games, and were going home today. I bet some of the kids really missed their parents. (I'm nervous about sending Nathan to Science Camp next month and it's only for 4 days 2 hours away.) The kids played GREAT baseball. We were all cheering for BOTH teams. It was so cold, but we didn't care...we were watching kids be kids, they didn't care about politics or geography or wars or education...they were there to play baseball and have fun!! Oh, and by the way, it did help that WE WON!!

San Diego Zoo

Yesterday we went to the San Diego Zoo and had a great day. The weather was perfect and the zoo was mobbed with people, but we didn't care. We took our time and read about all the animals and stayed most of the day.

The flamingoes are always one of my favorites...although they stink really bad!

My "monkeys" waiting for me...aren't they cute??!

Trying to take a self-portrait of Nathan and I and the guy behind us decided to add to the photo. Weirdo!

Skinny polar bear...

The meerkats are very interesting...the second after I took this photo they all ran underground.

HUGE ELEPHANTS!

Checking out the monkeys...Nathan loves to watch the monkeys!

Inside the Aviary, a beautiful bird just looking at us!

My favorite of the day...The mama and baby Panda Bears were so gorgeous sleeping beside each other. Amazing to think these animals are almost extinct and the next generations may not be able to see them...