Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Longest Blog Entry that I Will Ever Write: Catching Up in Pictures
I have been having a hard time keeping up with life in the written form. I guess you could say that I have been busy living it. Here is a look back at some events from 2009.Mat and Lia had their First Annual Miracle Mile Second Annual Over Thirty Pre-Holiday Bar Crawl. They made T-shirts again for the event this year and there is definitely something fun about wearing a "team uniform" so to speak. It is always so nice to see Lia and Mat. Unfortunately, they will not have a third annual get together this year because Lia is expecting and will be delivering a baby any day now! So exciting!
Check out my delicious, swampy mojito - one of the best I have ever had!
We celebrated our first Christmas in the new house! Bula even dressed up for the occasion!
The holidays can be a very stressful time of year. However, one of Ben's mom's neighbors doesn't let the stress of finding the right gift get him down or, maybe, he completely loses his mind. You decide: holiday spirit or Christmas Crazy...
Bella, Bula's adorable sausage of a sister, came over.
And even though it was like looking into a mirror, they didn't seem to remember each other.
We made many trips to the beach this last year.
I even witnessed someone catching a leopard shark. I had no idea how many sharks can be found off the Ventura coastline. In fact, all of the great white sharks that have been captured and tagged by the Monterey Aquarium were caught off the Ventura and Santa Barbara coasts. This kind of freaks me out! The fish below is the second biggest one I've ever seen caught from the shore.
This year, I also joined a belly dancing class with some friends from work. We all eventually dropped out (I decided to be a belly dancing drop-out one class before the final recital - not sure why so many people wanted to dance in a final show...), except for Brandy, who is a belly dancing genius!
Megan, Kari, me, Joyce, Brandy and Stacy The draftsman also finished carving Marilyn's headstone. Danny drew the sparrows connected by the rose and holding the banner that reads: Together Forever. And after a long time, Keith finally decided on what he wanted to be written on the stone: Devoted wife, mother and grandmother. Her family was her world. Her love and strength, our inspiration. We still miss her.
I also spent a lot of time exploring Moorpark even though I have lived here for 7 years (Wow! Time flies!). And after living here so long, it is difficult to find new things to do in such a small town. But guess what? We have alpacaaaaaaaaas (Say it like Oprah would)!
Last school year, I also started a new job as an EL support teacher. The district office is a whole different world. You get strange e-mails about a mysterious pod that will be showing up in the parking lot. Then you are given a contact if you need more information. We had to check this mysterious pod out because it brought hours, I mean HOURS, of speculation, mystery and laughs.
The wicked witch even showed up in Joyce's drawer one afternoon. This is what happens when your brain is fried and you think, "What would the kids do right now if they were here???"
Luckily, I am still working with Kari who taught 4th grade at Park Oaks, while I taught 5th. We work with teachers of English learners throughout the district. Because we are out of the classroom and working at the district office, we have had opportunities to attend trainings. And before California went broke, we even attended the CABE (California Association for Bilingual Educators) conference in Long Beach. We stayed at the Hyatt and probably had way more fun than we should have had at a conference. We even had a chance to meet up with Maya and her wife Reesa.
While at CABE, we even planned a 32nd birthday party for my sweet angel milky bear, Benjamin!!!
First, we went to the Cliff House for dinner!
Then we returned to the house, for a small party. Ben and I frantically put up curtains and put together the fire pit. All the neighbors came out and friends, too! Everyone loves Benjie!!!
The birthday boy!
The backyard fire!
Bill tells a story...
Ben and Dale
Kari, me and Jo
Lacey, me, Ben, Jo and Brian
The night got pretty wild! Jo was eventually doing shots out of the peppers that came with the veggie platter!
It was a good time!Chad celebrated his birthday, too and couldn't keep his face out of the cake!
Too have this much fun, I also need to make the dolla' dolla' bills, so I have been suckered into doing some teaching work on the weekends. Two Saturdays each year, the district puts on a math/science event along with an art day for gifted and talented students. Believe it or not, I participated in the math/science Saturday and taught an art lesson! Ha Ha! But never again, I say - too much preparation and not enough money!!! But it was fun! I gave each student a square inch of a photograph that they had to enlarge. This requires some thought about fractions along with gradation in color. At the end, we put all of our pieces together to form a larger version of the original photograph. To avoid having students try to copy the image, they did not see the original photograph until the end. Below is a photo of one of my more successful groups that day. In the background, taped to the white board, you can see the enlarged photos I did of my family, my parents on their wedding day and my mom.
Sasha came out for a short visit and as her year of surgeries is finally coming to an end, I hope to see her again soon. We met up for dinner in Glendale and it was a mini high school reunion.
Amy and Tom came to visit in the spring and we had wonderful weather. We stopped at Underwood Farms and once again, were greeted by alpacaaaaaaaaas (say like Oprah)!
Of course, we headed toward the coast. Our first stop was Point Mugu. Tom flew his kite!
We ended up at Leo Carillo.
Lifeguard on duty!
Following the Liebls' visit, we did our annual camping trip. Because we lost track of time and had less than 6 months to make the reservation, we were lucky to get a spot at all. But once again, it was a blast! Days spent at the beach, nights by the fire, good food, friends - awesome!The campground sits on the bluffs that overlook this beautiful beach.
Beautiful sunsets end the day and welcome the night.
After a day at the beach, we get ready for the night's events. Olga and I loved how skinny we looked in those murky mirrors.
In the evenings, we gather around the campfire to talk, listen to music and relax under the stars.
Even Bula loves it, especially if he's kept warm!
After everyone had gone, Olga remained. Of course the last night was windy and the day that followed was stormy. But this did not stop us from having a good time!
Back in Moorpark, they opened our first real bar. We have spent many nights celebrating.
In addition, we also have the nicest dog park in the hills of Simi. They replace patches of worn grass instantly. Bula likes to play (and fight) with other dogs there.
My friend Cindy, who owns her own marketing company and does a lot of work for Casa Pacifica, invited me and my neighbor Kelly to the Food and Wine Festival. VIP BABY! (And notice, once again, that the pod is following me around...)
Me, Cindy and Kelly
I also was laid off at the end of the school year. So once again, I had to be in fight mode (the year prior, we fought to keep my school open and won). The union took the district to court over their lay off criteria which was based on many bits of misinformation and seemed unfair. The judge rescinded Kari and my pink slips, but it was not without our rally/protest participation. And even though I have a job for now, the district needs to cut $7,000,000 for next year. Where will these cuts come form? There is nothing left to cut, but people. We have already gotten a 2% pay cut which includes a fee for health insurance. Class size has increased (and it was already ridiculous in the upper grades)! The new textbook adoptions are no longer. And everyone is scrambling to take money from every available fund before that, too, disappears. It is a mess and bad time for schools and students.
I was able to be CELDT trained in San Diego and stayed with Olga to help the district with some of their financial problems. We spent the afternoon I arrived in Balboa Park, one of my favorite places on earth!
And finally, we welcomed Nathan Michael Cash into the world! We love him!Mommy Megan with baby Nathan.
Daddy Jason with baby Nathan.
And baby Nathan with Ben, who wishes Nathan was his.
To end this extremely long winded entry, I will leave you with a sunset from our backyard. The next entry will (FINALLY!!!) include our summer trips!
# posted by RZV @ 6:50 PM 
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what a beautiful life! the art/science project was super cool and the beach scenes almost bring tears to my eyes. i miss my nome beach. bula and his sis are precious and your backyard sunset is fantastic! i can only imagine the hilarious pod coversations and it makes me miss you even more. glad you put this all together. it inspires me to do the same. love you my love!
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