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.

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 %

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.

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.