What time is it where you are?

This is Palm Desert, Ca. time...

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Today is for you Mom!

Kids say "Hi Grandma!!!!"











Kids wanted to say hi after I got off the phone with you! LOL












This is from their recent field trip to the local fire station down the street from their school!







"Flashback"...many years ago in our McDonald's here in Palm Springs...If I'm not mistaken, they are still in diapers.


Love you!

Sunday, May 25, 2008

"Surprise!...We're going to Disneyland!"

All week the twins knew we had some sort of surprise for them, and we promised to tell them on Thursday. Once they got home Thursday, we told them we were taking them to Disneyland!
Away we headed for an all-nighter... and braved the cold, drizzle and wind.
Lines were short, not alot of people, and it really was a perfect day to go!
This was a day we took 102 RCMS kids...CJSF, ASB and Yearbook..on a bus...we left at 7:00am and didn't get back until 1:00am! I think everyone had a great time and I taught my ASB kids all about Disney Pin Trading...collecting and trading various pins from Disneyland staff...it was really neat to see what they ended up trading, and coming back home with. I think they really enjoyed it!
Here are some pics from our day Friday~









The Dapper Dans singing acapela









Caught in the "Bone Cage" on Pirate's Lair on Tom Sawyer's Island












Harassed by local pirates









'Mean look' because I wouldn't let her climb on ferry boat fence









This is how Cope rode every ride.









Climbing all over "Pirate's Lair"









Yes...be still my heart!









A band of scurvy pirate knaves at Pirate's Point










Riding the "Mark Twain" big, white steamboat









Time out for a hot bread bowl soup lunch!









Riding the Carousel












Ending our long and perfect day

Saturday, May 24, 2008

Our 1st Mosaic Art Show was today

If you have ever visited Palm Springs, you probably have been to the Palm Springs Air Museum.
It is a really neat place to discover old war planes, see them fly, hear stories from actual pilots who flew them, and much, much more!
Louisa Castrodale is a wonderful lady who works for the Palm Springs Unified School District. She incorporates the schools with anything related to the arts. She put on a fabulous show which included art work from the whole PSUSD, as well as allowed us to sell our mosaic art pieces the kids made! Here are some pictures for you to enjoy.
If a child is standing near a project, that is probably the one they made.
*We have one more show- June 3rd, from 5-8...in the RCMS gym. Admission is free and we are combining forces with the RCMS Talent Show which will be during that time also! Please come in and see (or buy!) the incredible artwork these kids made! Most artwork is $15.00- making it a great buy! Donations are always welcome too!












































































An Added Note-

Great news!

On May 12th I posted about my frustrations about not being able to figure out how to use my new Ipod... well I finally figured it out due to my great students giving me directions and helpful hints... and it really IS easy now that I know how to do it! I now have 105 songs (so far) which is 6.8 hours worth of music to listen to! I just love it~
Now...does anyone know what these "sleeves" are you can put on them, and where I can see what they look like on-line?

After a long absence...again

Thanks to ERIN, I have the answer to my question about "S.O.S"- Great job ERIN!
Anonymous Erin said...

SOS is the commonly used description for the International Morse code distress signal (· · · — — — · · ·). This distress signal was first adopted by the German government in radio regulations effective April 1, 1905, and became the worldwide standard when it was included in the second International Radiotelegraphic Convention, which was signed on November 3, 1906, and became effective on July 1, 1908.

From the beginning, the SOS distress signal has actually consisted of a continuous sequence of three-dits/three-dahs/three-dits, all run together without letter spacing. In International Morse Code, three dits form the letter S, and three dahs make the letter O, so "SOS" became an easy way to remember the correct order of the dits and dahs. In modern terminology, SOS is a "procedural signal" or "prosign", and the formal way to write it is with a bar above the letters, i.e. SOS.

In popular usage, SOS became associated with phrases such as "Save Our Ship", "Save Our Souls", "Save Our Skins", "Save Our Stuff", "Shoot Our Ship", "Shoot On Sight", "Sinking Our Ship", "Survivors On Shore", "Save Our Seamen", and "Signal On Sand". It is mostly known by "Save Our Ship" and/or "Save Our Souls". However, these phrases were a later development, most likely used to help remember the correct letters—something known as a backronym.

I did some research to, and found this explanation.... (Mom, remember?...)
What does SOS means: by clarry : Picture 1"Other than the distress signal it is also the military jargon for chopped beef in gravy on toast, commonly called "Sh*t On a Shingle". I actually like it if it's made well."- by Anonymous from AnswerBag.com

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Stumped?!

In the car driving home...
...kids watching a DVD
...headphones on...


..."Mom!"

..."Yes?"

..."What is sosz?"...

..."Sauce?"

..."No! Sauz!"...

(long pause from Mom)... "Well, it is... (chuckle) I don't know. What is happening in the movie?"

Tierney: "S....O....S Mom."

Mom: "Ohhhhhh... well that means distress, needing help...."

Mom thinking to herself... "S.O.S... what does S.O.S stand for?"

Anyone know? I'm stumped! Post comments below.

Monday, May 12, 2008

Losing Brain Cells



Is it age that makes you feel like you are losing brain cells? (Phen-Fen)

I received this adorable little itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie IPod Shuffle from the kids for Mother's Day... and have spent a little over 2 hours pouring over the website instructions on how to set it up- all to no avail...I feel so stupid!
I am not dumb, I understand most electronic things... but I cant seem to figure out how to work this little thing. Can anyone help?
I am serious!
Write this mantra down and live by it...what if we ALL did that?

*Laugh when you can, apologize when you should, let go of what you can't change, kiss slowly, play hard, forgive quickly, take chances, give everything, have no regrets. Life's too short to be anything but happy.*



Can you name when or where this was? Post in comment section!

Sunday, May 11, 2008

Happy Mother's Day!

Well, it was for me! I am so excited to tell you Jeff and the kids did a great job!!!

We got back from Pammie's and took a shower right away as we were filthy and sweaty. Jeff treated us to Panda Express (my favorite) and then we celebrated Mother's Day and what a day it was!
I had some very lovely cards from everyone, which I secretly love, and received two beautiful flowering plants from the kids, a GPS from Jeff!!!!!!! which is IN COLOR and BIG! and a cute, amazingly tiny IPod Shuffle, which I'm still trying to figure out what it does and how it works! I'm hoping to figure it out and be able to enjoy all my favorite songs while relaxing this summer!
Yep- Jeff did good and definitely deserves an "Atta Boy John" pat on the back.
Love you Honey! Thank you for a wonderful day!

More to add....

Friday was the kids' Spring Carnival~ now this was EXTREMELY IMPORTANT because we didn't get a chance to go to the Halloween Carnival due to being out of town and Tierney has not let me forget it... so we HAD to make sure we went to this one!
The kids had a grand time and of course the first thing was the Cake Walk!










Then it was the basketball throw... which was great because no matter if you won or not- you still received something!












Then it was cotton candy time....









Even Snow White was there!


And in between 5:00 and 7:30pm, there was also ping pong toss for a free goldfish (T won) and Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream, bounce house, pizza slices, floating duck race, cute little pig races, lollipop tree, cake walk again... you get the idea!
They were exhausted by the time we got into the car, and fell asleep promptly on the way home.
We woke up the next morning to get ready for our cousin Danielle's graduation party from Loyola Marymount U! Yeah Dani!!!! It was a great party and met LOTS of great people and it was so good to see family!
Squeezed in a late dinner with Aunt She (Shirley) before we left town and arrived back home around 12:30 am!
Woke up and was at Pammie's house finally loading up the limbs we had cut from her back yard, to take to the dump. MUCH MORE than I thought there was!










Our truck bed and rented tailer was packed, the driveway already had a load in it, and the infamous trash truck arrived AFTER we had everything done.
All in all a great weekend!

After a long absence...


I am back and ready to face what comes my way...

I want to catch you up on the past week,and here we go!
First, Cope and Tierney planned a great picnic in the living room for us last week
and we sat and had food galore!
Then Tierney showed us her new trick she can do...




Then we had a fire start on a nearby hill, which was VERY close,
even though it doesn't look like it here...










And somewhere in there Cope wanted a mohawk...
His mohawk has been a hit with most people, and he has learned how to style it himself! (Grandma says it must go before our Idaho trip)

Sunday, May 4, 2008

A great way to start off the week!

Who says Sunday has to be the END of the week? How about Sunday STARTING off the week?!
I need to give my friend Donna credit- she put it on her blog, where I saw it for the first time.
This reminds me of my brother-in-law Robb! I can totally see you doing this Robb!
Still having problems uploading it! :(

Saturday, May 3, 2008

Who says you can't play with your food?!

Evidently no one told this person!


Can you tell what they made it out of?

I saw these gummy bears on a great blog- Her name is Michelle and she lives in Alaska, a mother of four, writes daily and happens to be very entertaining! I love reading her blog everyday! So she had on her blog, a chandelier made out of gummy bears, and I checked out where it came from, and saw this rug...so I owe this whole gummy bear info to Michelle! Thanks Michelle!
Check out her blog-http://scribbit.blogspot.com/

I've got to catch up!


The Mola Mola fish or Sun Fish courtesy of en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mola_mola

I can't believe I have days to catch up on! I was out Monday-Thursday because of having the 24 hour flu, or whatever it was... but now I'm back and have lots to share with you!

An old friend, Milinda, sent me a great link to watch a really fascinating video on sea creatures. Now if you don't know me, the SEA has always been my first love and my dream for so long was to be a cook on Jacques Cousteau's ship so he could teach me about Marine Biology, and I could learn French at the same time. Pretty slick, huh?
I believe this video is about 5 minutes, but it is really neat...check it out...Incredible Underwater Video.

Then I checked out the whole TED website and I'm assuming these 1000 people get together every year to discuss what neat things they have been working on.
Check out TED. Their claim is: Inspired talks by the world's greatest thinkers and doers...I Love it!

So then I was fishing around on TED and found an interesting video and speaker and realized I had been assuming one thing, when it really wasn't true. Have you ever heard of the Sunfish? Those big, awkward-looking, floating-on-the-waters-surface fish that seem to serve no purpose? (see above picture) Well, I'm willing to bet after you watch this video, you will feel different too! I was really surprised and find it so fascinating that while I toil away each day at my job, there are so many doing what I WISHED I was doing! LOL
I find it very informative and inspiring that people then share what they are learning! Come check out TED for yourself!