The month of September is flying by.

*Elden had his b-day party (although his birthday was in July) this past Saturday. It was pretty crazy having 15+ kids in the pool splashing around, but it was great seeing all our old friends.

*Elden started his second week of preschool. The first week was a bit of adjustments, but today he did much better. His teacher tells me that he seems nervous and rather sit on the sideline and watch the action. But at least he didn’t cry. He did tell me that he sang the “Good Morning Song” and that the teacher has a dog.

*Brennan started his first week of homework and is quite motivated about it. Yesterday he did three pages and today he told me that he wants to go to to the library today and do more of it. So we will be heading off there in a bit, after they finish watching Blues Clues. His teacher told me that is a very good kid. I am looking forward to the first parent / teacher conference.

*Brennan really enjoys drawing pictures and then narrating stories for them. Also, he loves dinosaurs and reading Magic School Bus books. I hope the actually starts reading on his own soon, although he can read short words.

*Brennan’s has a loose tooth. He is so thrilled about and every five seconds keeps asking me when will it fall out.

*We didn’t enroll Brennan in any sports for the season. I would like to sign him up for Karate or some other sport soon. He needs to stay physically active, once the weather starts cooling down.

*I finally finished building my SFG and planted carrots, beets, romaine lettuce, and iceberg lettuce. I have some more seeds that I want to plant this week. I also hit the jackpot on where to buy seeds. Kmart has a pretty good garden section and had tons of seeds. I will probably wait though until spring to build a flower bed SFG. I do need to make another layer of the compost, which is btw doing well. But it is starting to pile up.

*I have some new fall ideas for polymer clay stuff. I do have to make some time soon to make at least one thing. I wanted to make stuff to sell, but I just don’t have the time or skill level to do it. So oh well. I guess if I can just make one thing, I will be happy. Heck,

*My classes are kicking my ass, and I can barely keep up with two classes, but I am making major efforts. My GIS professor left for two weeks to Thailand to a gems and gemological conference. How lucky is she? I couldn’t convince her to hide me in her suitcase, but she volunteered me to set up SL session for the rest of my classmates in the class, so I posted to BB to see if anyone would be interested in having a basic SL tutorial and to take a field trip to a GIS SL location. Actually I have to work on another project as well in SL creating a Machimina of the classroom experience. Also, the new president of SJSU will be making a visit in SL, so I have to plan a quick event this Friday for a cool avatar contest for his upcoming visit.

*I can’t believe that less then two months until elections and that Halloween is next month.

*Oh, I don’t know why when I hit publish, it posts two of the same posts and then if I try to delete one, both of them disappears? Oh well for now!

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I would write an entry about the week, but I had done that twice this past week or so, but WordPress 2.6 is acting wonky on me and for some reason I keep accidently deleting the posts. I am so technologically illiterate.

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I can’t believe the summer is almost over. With the move and settling down at our new place, getting the townhouse rented, keeping the kids busy (or in our case, really not keeping the kids busy - lots of loafing, tv watching, making baked goods, and swimming, the time just flew by. I was worried that the kids would go crazy and drive me crazy, but actually it has been quite pleasant. Okay, nevermind! I am so past crazy.

I also signed up to do a presentation on audio podcasting for an upcoming American Library Association Student Chapter Emerging Technology Symposium in early September. The entire symposium will be online in Elluminate. This is actually my first presentation, since all time that I have been enrolled in the program. Yes, I admit that I am a little bit nervous. Mostly, I am afraid that I will be covering too much information that the audience may not understand what I am talking about.

The house is fully furnished, except I have not done any decorating, nor have I put up any family pictures, except our wedding photo. I plan to do this as soon as I actually receive a paycheck from my research assistant position this month. This move pretty much drained us financially. I am really looking forward to decorating this house, since I never did much with our previous place. Mostly that place was decorated with toys.

Speaking of decorating, I found this super cool seashell photo series from Z Gallerie the other day, which I think would go great in our kitchen, but my brother talked me from purchasing them that day. I will most likely go back though and get them because I can’t get them out of my head and I keep picturing how cool they will look in the kitchen. I was also thinking of taking pictures of shells, but I don’t have any shells to take pictures of, and I would have to end up buying them at Target or something. How lame would that be?

I can’t believe that Brennan will be starting Kindergarten in two weeks. He is so excited to start and make some new friends. I did register him to this one school back in May. I had called the elementary school that I went to when I was growing up, but then the referred me to this other school, so I ended up enrolling him there. But then last week, I was driving around the neighborhood on the other side of the hill, and we stopped by this one park. I noticed a flyer on the window of the rec room or at least that what I thought it was. It ended being a flyer for a preschool at that very location and room. It turned out the teacher was there at the time, and I popped my head into the room. Coincidently, she mentioned that registration for preschool was going to start on the 18th, so I ended up signing Elden up. Originally, I was going to sign him up for the YMCA preschool out here. We actually toured the YMCA preschool back in April. I was definitely not impressed with the place, but I was okay to send him there because the price was right and it was just down the street from Brennan’s school. The day that we visited, the actual teacher was not there, and there were only like 3 or 4 kids. The equipment was outdated, the place didn’t look too clean. I noticed that there even a metal slide, which I have heard has been banned from schools.

As I mentioned, I ended up signing Elden up for this preschool, which is actually through the city center. When I talking to the teacher, she mentioned that there was a new elementary school across the street. It was actually built 5 years ago, but definitely new compared to the other elementary schools in this town. They are also rated as #1 i n this county, whereas the other school is #3. Not that it matters that much to me. I know that Brennan will do well no matter what school he is in. Just for the heck of it though, I went over to that school today, to see if they had any openings. The principal was the only staff working today, so I ended up talking to him. He didn’t really have a list of the spaces that were available, but mentioned that most likely in the afternoon there would be something. And also said that the office manager would have more of an idea, by next week. The afternoon time would definitely not work for us, since Elden will be in class in the morning time. I am hoping that they both will be in school for a little while, so that I can work on my studies.

Oh, so I thought this was odd, but I had visited the school that Brennan is enrolled in the other day, and the office manager mentioned to me that when she started working there about 2-3 year ago, the enrollment was 600, but now it is down to 300. I thought that with all the cuts in school that wouldn’t be the case. At least I didn’t to see a drop in enrollment. I was talking to one of my old friend from highschool friend Nina, who is a teacher, and she thought maybe more parents are enrolling their kids in private schools, but she thought it was also very odd, since this district rates very high on the testing. I should ask the newer school what their enrollment is. Maybe since this new school was built, that perhaps they are funneling students away from the other school. The office manager also mentioned that because of low enrollments, they were cutting the budget. This is definitely something that I will be looking into and writing about here in this coming year.

I know I have more to write about, but I am just about drained, and want to practice my presentation before I hit the hay. And no I haven’t been watching the Olympics, although I did see part of the opening.

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Why sagging breast and not sagging breasts? Oh and mother facker, that’s a funny one. Many eons ago Den made up this slogan for me for a packaging assignment that I had made up for these made up Benthic fish crackers. It went like this - Don’t be a slacker you mother facker, eat snacker crackers! Hahahaha, I still can crack myself up, even if people think I am looney.

Here are 87 different keyphrases:

elden 18 13.7 %
title 9 6.8 %
about 8 6.1 %
password 4 3 %
sagging breast 2 1.5 %
life ponderings 2 1.5 %
video 2 1.5 %
mother facker 2 1.5 %
brennan 2 1.5 %
usually 2 1.5 %
photos 2 1.5 %
there 2 1.5 %
happy 2 1.5 %
podcasting 1 0.7 %
rubber 1 0.7 %
turned 1 0.7 %
a week in diapers 1 0.7 %
jelly 1 0.7 %
himself 1 0.7 %
living afraid 1 0.7 %
looks like agapanthus 1 0.7 %
belly at 38 weeks 1 0.7 %
chocolate 1 0.7 %
joined 1 0.7 %
technology 1 0.7 %
november 1 0.7 %
knock 1 0.7 %
october 1 0.7 %
annual 1 0.7 %
beach 1 0.7 %
kettle 1 0.7 %
cheese 1 0.7 %
ramble 1 0.7 %
making 1 0.7 %
developer 1 0.7 %
december 1 0.7 %
really 1 0.7 %
lucky 1 0.7 %
make donuts with polymer clay 1 0.7 %
swiper no swiping! the demonology of dora the explorer 1 0.7 %
tripod 1 0.7 %
paper 1 0.7 %
birthday 1 0.7 %
going 1 0.7 %
my recipe for life is not being afraid of myself afraid of what i think or of my opinions. 1 0.7 %
legoland 1 0.7 %
last week belly 1 0.7 %
trolley 1 0.7 %
advertising 1 0.7 %
38 weeks belly 1 0.7 %
online 1 0.7 %
vacation 1 0.7 %
little 1 0.7 %
reading 1 0.7 %
supplies toscrapbook recipies 1 0.7 %
search 1 0.7 %
would 1 0.7 %
balls 1 0.7 %
funky 1 0.7 %
thanksgiving 1 0.7 %
polymer clay necklace 1 0.7 %
stacks 1 0.7 %
workspace 1 0.7 %
sushi 1 0.7 %
other 1 0.7 %
memes 1 0.7 %
polymer clay 1 0.7 %
weekend 1 0.7 %
mail mother facker 1 0.7 %
trick 1 0.7 %
yankiwi 1 0.7 %
polymer clay donut 1 0.7 %
after 1 0.7 %
poems about the 80 s 1 0.7 %
polymer 1 0.7 %
memories 1 0.7 %
marie radford 1 0.7 %
classes 1 0.7 %
santa 1 0.7 %
working 1 0.7 %
water 1 0.7 %
primo clay in toaster oven 1 0.7 %
tests 1 0.7 %
because 1 0.7 %
quinntillion 1 0.7 %
refrigerator 1 0.7 %
headache 1 0.7 %

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Since I still haven’t unpacked any of my supplies yet from the move, I thought I would share with you one of my favorite rubber stamp companies, yankiwi. They have a fantastic collection of stamps and some fun embellishments that they call Gorgeous Wee Ones. I have made some polymer clay work and other fun stuff, which you can see in my Flickr Yankiwi page. I personally love their stamps because they are deeply etched and the patterns are fantastic to use on polymer clay. In addition, you can use their GWO as mini molds as you can see here.

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We’ve traveled over 45 minutes east from our little beach weather in the city of South Bay town home to the what they consider out here in Los Angeles as the Inland Empire, hot desert suburbia. The move last Thursday, on July 31, went fairly smooth. The kids were excited though when we arrived. Brennan was so excited that he jumped into the pool with his clothes on. Nothing was damaged from the Chino Hills earthquake.

We received all our new furniture on Friday and Saturday, but still need a kitchen table and some few odds and ends stuff. We pretty much donated all our furniture except our bed, Brennan’s old bed, a beanbag (we had no where to sit, so this came in handy) that Jana handed down to us, and our old tv set. I have to admit that I was hesitant to donate the crib. It was the last of baby items, except for some baby clothes.

The electricity on the bottom left side is out, and so far no one has been able to figure it out. We have another electrician coming tomorrow. This effects my art room, the plug for our new plasma HDTV, the garage, and downstairs bathroom. We mostly have cleaning and more unpacking to do for the week. I really need to start unpacking my art room because it is filled sky high with boxes and I eventually want to make some stuff with polymer clay. Hopefully, it won’t be all dried out from the hot weather here. Although, it is rather warm after 1:00, we still get a nice breeze, since we are up on a hill, over the rest of the city.

I have this otherworldness feeling going on. I’m not sure how to explain it. I do experience flashbacks from my childhood. I guess not really flashbacks, but I guess little memories come up of living here as a child. Most are good memories. Maybe one or two memories of my mom chasing me down the driving for something that I did. LOL! Now my children will be growing up in the very house that I grew up in.

The old gate at the side of the house, with my the year 1975 is still there. My dad built all the concrete brick walls with his own hands. I still remember him mixing and pouring cement. We still have the nectarine, fig, and persimmon trees that my dad planted as well. The previous tenants planted a lemon tree, which will be great for lemon pastas, salads, and flavoring for my salmon fish meals.

Oh well, lots more cleaning and unpacking to do. I just wanted to drop an update on our move.

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I can’t believe we have been married for 13 years. I sort of remember the first time I met Den, well sort of. It was probably like his first or second week as a pizza delivery driver at my parents’ Round Table Pizza restaurant. Yes, really! People usually think I am joking when I tell them how I met him. My old friend Judy and I had just gotten back from Huntington Beach. That was usually my summer hangout. I was 16 at the time and life was carefree.

He was actually in the back making pizzas when I met him. When it was not busy, the drivers would have to help make pizza while waiting for their orders. I think I went over to introduce myself, which I usually did with new employees. I had to check out the new meat, so to speak. I would usually accompany him on his pizza deliveries and then we would eat salad together. Funny huh? I always thought he had the funniest sense of humor and he was just the nicest guy.

Through the years our friendship kept growing stronger. I dated a little but, and he was usually there for me through that period in my life. At some point, I had realized that I had more than friendship feelings for him, so one day we had a conversation about moving our relationship to a new level. That was an interesting time for us. I know initially he wasn’t quite sure about the idea. I guess maybe he didn’t know if he could trust me. (lots of back history to that, which I don’t feel the need to write here). That weekend I was going to Colorado with my dad because he was thinking about buying some real estate there. This time away from each other gave us some space to think about things.

Well obviously, he ended up going for my idea and here we are 20 years later. For the numerically challenged, we met in 1988, started dating in 1993, got engaged 1994, and got married in 1995, a month after I received my B.A. in Psychology and his M.A. in Medieval History. We waited 7 years before having children. Brennan was born in 2003 and Elden in 2005.

We are heading out for an overnight trip to one of our favorite spots, sans the kiddos to The Glen Ivy Hot Springs, located in Corona, CA. I am looking forward to a nice day relaxing in the mud and mineral baths, and soaking the day away in the pools.

On a sad note, I am deeply upset about the fires surrounding Yosemite National Park. So far the fires are only 10% contained and according to the latest from AP, 25 homes were lost. The park itself is still open, with highway 140 shut down, although Highway 120 at Big Oak Flat, Highway 123 over Tioga Pass and Highway 41 through Oakhurst are still open. This is a really special place for us and we try to make it out here at least once a year. The firefighters definitely have a tough fight on their hands. I hope that they make some headway into this fire soon.

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