a bit of the weekend and...whine whine whine - anyone have some cheese?

the kindergartners got me. several sneezing everywhere, coughing everywhere. so, yeah. i got it. and i'm feeling very sorry for myself. i'm tired of being sick. it started hitting me on friday (so some of it could have been from my brownies on tuesday). on saturday we went to connie's and i was still feeling pretty much like a big ickfest. on sunday, i called pat and bob to let them know i was sick so pat could take her tamaflu (?). i was feeling better on sunday and greatly enjoyed seeing all of rob's family. it was a lot of fun. i did my best to stay away and i was washing my hands a bit like a crazy person. the food was good, the part was great and the company was fantastic.

irene very happy to get a piece of yummy dense chocolate cake w/the best frosting on the planet.

rhys thought it was pretty good too.

i still don't understand why the pictures aren't coming across correctly...so this looks like rhys is walking on the walls, but he's actually walking on the ceiling (thx to uncle john)

here we have:
debbie, rob, melissa, and connie. in the front are bob and pat
rob's the youngest of his sibs

and here are three generations of de haan boys (men?)

we went home on monday and i still felt ickyickybobicky..and i still doo dadgummit. whine whine.

i'm tired of being sick. most of us in the house have been getting sick...rhys, irene, me...ugh. rob's had to deal with some of it too.

okay - enough whining. rob has a softball game tonight. hopefully we're all going to get to see him (it's an early game).

early morning and monday morning

yesterday and today i've been subbing, so i haven't been blogging or really having much of a chance to visit my usual suspects. this weekend we're headed to berkeley for a fun family get together w/rob's family. we'll primarily be celebrating some big birthdays :D.

i wanted to plug monday morning books - they are having a sale on their books through the end of june. i realllllly like these books. i've used them as a pre-school teacher, a sub, and for homeschooling and augmenting the public schooling at home as well. Marilynn Barr has done the illustrations for a lot of the books. the kids really enjoy her art and it helps to engage them in the different activities.

Alphabet Puppets is one that i love. what's really wonderful about these books, *I* think, is that they can be used in several ways. you can use the books ideas of how to use the pictures/games/etc, or your child (or you) can figure out different ways to use them. when i used Alphabet Puppets with Irene, she colored the puppets but wanted to find her own things that started with the different letters instead of some of the things that you can put in the puppets that are on the pages. i really hope i'm making sense - it's 3:15 and i've got insomnia...*wan smile*

along with the pre-k and primary grade materials, monday morning books also have great resources for upper grades and middle school as well books that could be used in high school as well.

Murray Suid of Words of a Feather fame (i plugged this wonderfully fun book back in december - you can see it here) has also penned a number of monday morning books, including How to be the President of the U.S.A. , How to be an Inventor, and Journey to the Moon Timeline, which we have in our little nook by Rhys' room. i took the whole timeline and then stapled it around the nook. it's INCREDIBLY cool!

so - it's now 4:00 am and i really need to head back to bed so i'll be ready for the kindergarten classes tomorrow (about 30 kids in each class - one AM and one PM).

i really hope all the links work...

picture post

first, let me say, i have NO flippin' idea what's going on w/blogger and pictures. it doesn't want to do any portrait style pictures, so you'll have to flip your head around :( sorry about that.

so, it was quite a weekend of winging it. it was a special surprise weekend for irene b/c we i didn't tell her we were going to see her best friend, rose.

here is a picture of me and irene close to the summit. mom was on the phone w/my uncle b/c my gramma has had a bad spell and they needed to talk a bit without cell phone cut outs due to the mountains.

after arriving at rose's house (and tanya, curtis and little max's house too), i left irene there and proceeded to take mom to the airport so she and cousin vicki could go down to the grannies. i don't remember a whole lot of the trip to and from the airport. i did it pretty quickly - from novato to oakland airport and back in under 2 hours - that's pretty surprising.

so, the girls got to play with each other and i got to visit with tanya and curtis. poor little max felt that a fever might be fun to add to the mix. poor little guy was just not a happy camper in the evening. possibly an ear infection. just not a fun thing at all for a little guy who is not yet 2. we gave the girls some time to try and sleep in the same room. heh heh. at about 10:00 i got irene and put her in the front room where i was sleeping. she wasn't thrilled about that, but she was asleep in minutes. they had been reading and talking. it was fine.

the next morning, the girls went out to play and fix up the little fairy house by the tree in the backyard. they made fairy dust (shhhh! how to make it is a secret!) and just had a really wonderful time. as i told tanya, i really wanted to take lots of pictures of them during it all, but didn't want to break the magic, so i waited until it was almost time for us to go. above shows them by the tree. below is the fairy house.
then it was off to berkeley. many many thank yous to jaye, julie, william, and pamela for accomodating us. i was pretty wiped out from almost 6 hours of driving the day before, so driving to berkeley was much easier than driving to daly city (though i really wanted to see jaye's remodled kitchen etc -- another time!).

we went to breakfast at Tacubaya - oh my DOG the chilaquiles were divine! irene had churros and they were made just right - not too greasy. yum! then we went to The Ark b/c the kids had been quite good - irene was pretty tired, but not whiney. william was happily drawing really wonderful pictures. pamela thought they were pretty snazzy too.

above is a picture of Jaye and Pamela looking through the merrimekko scraps at the Crate & Barrel outlet. i got some pasta bowls for us as ours (which we've had since we got married) were breaking or chipping.

then it was on to the trunk show. here is Julie showing her paper quilt to all of us. you can see Pamela and irene and just a weeee bit of Jaye.

and here it is closer up - it was fun to feeeeeel it!

this is Jaye's My Quilt My Rules quilt that she made in Pamela's class yesterday. cool, eh?
and here are her pineapple blocks -- i didn't realize that they were so big - they are about 12"x 12" i think. i love how bright they are.

Pamela and Jaye talking.
this is a reallllly cool quilt of Jaye's - the quilting (of which you can see none) is really nice and goes well with each season.

after the trunk show, irene and i started to head back. we stopped at the cool sculpture below.
i'd wanted irene to pose like the sculpture, but she was having none of it :)
we were going to go to Peets so that i could get a coffee fix for the long drive home, but there were about a bazillion people waiting for coffee, so we went back to tacubaya


we got a limonata for me (fresh, lime pulp, deliciousness!) and agua fresca (fresas) for irene (again, fresh, very strawberrerry ;)). from there we stopped at hydra (where i'd parked my car) and we got some bath salts and handmade souap ends. they were having a sale on the salts! 50% off! so lovely! so we got a few different flavors of bath salts and then headed on our way.

i was very VERY close to running out of gas...i thought i could make it all the way to colfax (and i probably really could, but i didn't want to risk it). just after auburn (about 18 miles south of colfax) the car gave a "DING" sound - you know the one - the one that just about hollars "DUDE! HAVE YOU NOT BEEN PAYING ATTENTION TO ME??? YOU HAVE 12 DROPS OF GAS LEFT!!!" we got off at nearly every offramp using precious drops of feul only to discover NO GAS STATION at several of them...so, 2 offramps away from colfax, we hit paydirt! phew!

of course, b/c we'd gotton on and off the freeway so many times, we got to Cuppa Joe's (is that what it's called??) 15 minutes after they'd closed! this was very sad b/c i was dearly looking forward to a Toffee Mocha Freeze, and irene was looking forward to the Piña Colada smoothie. ah well. best laid plans and all that. we instead went to starbucks. it was okay, but not what i'd really wanted. but the caffeine was really what i needed to get me that last 1 1/2 hours home. it worked.

we got home close to 6 pm. irene was overtired (b/c why would you sleep in the car??) and didn't end up falling asleep until 9 something. poor thing. she also had a bit of a meltdown b/c we forgot her jams at rose's. normally, this would not be a big deal, but b/c she was so over tired, it was the end of the world. she hasn't mentioned them since! heh.
**edited to explain that jams are pajamas**

mom is still in escondido. no one is entirely sure what's wrong with gramma, but she's very delusional right now and apparently last night she was very pleased because her mother had come to see her. gramma is 92. hopefully the antibiotics (that she should have been given one week ago) will do some good. if this delirium is caused by the bacterial infection, it will go away. it's just a wait and see game for right now.

feeling better and off for a brief trip

i finished the subbing stint and after two days of feeling really quite awful and thinking i might have to call for a sub to sub for me (argh!), i miraculously began to feel better! phew! it was really great subbing for one class for an entire week b/c i really got to know the kids and they got to know me. they definitely knew i'd follow through w/whatever i said i'd do. they were a great class of 2nd graders. it was fun. next thursday and friday i'm subbing for a kindergarten teacher. yea!

today, irene, mom, and i are going to stay the night at my girlfriend, tanya's house. it's a surprise to irene. she's been pining for rose and will be very excited when she realizes where we're going. i'm very much hoping that they can make the most of their time together and play nicely. they are both strong girls and both like doing things their own way. often when we get together (whether it's rose or another friend we don't get to see much), there's that adjustment period. i'm hoping we don't have much of that b/c our time will be at a minimum. sunday morning we're headed to see several talented fiber artists. we will for sure for sure see Pamela, Jaye, and Julie. Pamela (hopefully that link will work) is in town (berkeley) to teach some classes and sunday is her free day. she's from canada, eh, so it is extra fun that we will get to see her again. i'm supposed to bring a few things to show and tell. i've got not a whole lot. i'll try to remember to bring Jaxin's blessing quilt.

okay - now i need to load up the iPod and get packed for our little journey. hopefully i'll be a better blogger for part of next week.

this week

hey there - i'm subbing all week, so i won't be home much and probably won't blog much. i'm also feeling left of center and have a sore throat. this does not bode well for the fact i'm subbing all week. hmmmm.

rob has a late game tonight so when he leaves i'm going to take some nyquil and just sleep.

picture analysis

First and foremost, HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all the mothers who read this. I'm lucky enough to have two wonderful moms and a fabulous mother in law :) hopefully they all feel as loved up as i do today.

the lovely and incredibly creative debR over at Red Shoe Ramblings had this on her site and i decided to give it a go


What does your drawing say about YOU?
if you can't tell, i have a mountain range, a river (w/a fish), a trail w/the kids, rob and i walking together (me w/irene in the front, rob w/rhys in the back). there's a bird, some snow on the left mountain, some trees and a few flowers, our tent and another tent up the way just a bit, a big picnic table and benches, a fire pit and branch on which to sit. yeah yeah, perspective perschmective! there's also a big sun and some happy clouds.

and this is what it apparently says about me:

You tend to pursue many different activities simultaneously.
sometimes i find this to be true, other times, i just work on one thing.

When misfortune does happen, it doesn't actually dishearten you all that much.
um, what? i am still desperately trying to bloom where i'm planted. i don't know that i wasn't disheartened when we realized we'd have to leave california. there are some misfortunes that i *can* just sort of move on - i go into sort of a figure out what to do mode and go from there.

You are a direct and forthright person. You like to get to the core of the issue right away, with few signs of hesitation.
i certainly *strive* to be that person. but i don't know that i always succeed...and i don't know that i show only a few signs of hesitation.

You like following the rules and being objective. You are precise and meticulous, and like to evaluate decisions before making them.
HAHAHAHAHAHA! i don't know that i always like following the rules. but i do like being objective. and precise and meticulous? dear lawd, have you seen my house? well, if you know me you probably have, but it's not precise or meticulous...there are some things that i am pretty precise about, but not much. and i do like to evaluate decisions most of the time, but i can also make a decision on the fly.

You have a sunny, cheerful disposition.
aw gee, 'fanx. i do try to. i've dealt a bit more with the blues in the past few years, but that's not my natural way of being. i'd like to say that for the most part, i *DO* have a sunny and cheerful disposition.

i didn't really like the questions it asked me about my picture. i didn't have just one mountain and i didn't have enough control over my trackpad to do detailed pictures. ah well. it was fun.

if you decide to do it, let me know so i can see yours too :D

Three Little Cajun Pigs

Three Little Cajun Pigs arrived yesterday!!!! even though amazon said they wouldn't arrive until late next week! hooray! the kids proclaimed it a hit and it was very fun to read. Petite Rouge is still my favorite out of the two of them, but this one is quite fun. Claude has got to be the best villain ever. Mr. Artell again has a glossary in the front of the book and we get to learn a few new cajun phrases and i learned that Thibidaux is pronounced Ti bi dough - not Thi bi doux. and Ulysse is NOT you liss ee, but rather, you LEASE.

I highly recommend you get it and i especially recommend that you read it outloud because it's just plain fun.

still under the weather and BOOKS

I'm still feeling just generally ick. what's crazy is that i came home and slept from 12:30 - 5:30 or so. i was up for a wee bit, went back to bed and slept from 8 - 6:40! but still feeling a bit fluish.

blech.

i got irene to school and then came home w/rhys and just sort of collapsed for a while on the bed while the boychild played some mario.

and remember waaaaaay back on friday when i was telling you about how wonderful and fun it was to listen to irene read Petite Rouge Riding Hood by Mike Artell? well, he's got another cajunized book!!! I ordered it today!!!!! :) It's called Three Little Cajun Pigs and again, Claude dat ol' gater is in the story. I'm very excited about it. Even though the local amazon distribution center is 1/2 hour away, amazon is telling me i must wait until next monday to receive it....ah well. it will be worth the wait. And, i must also give props to Jim Harris. He's the illustrator of the books. It's fabulous fun to look at all the little fun bits in Petite Rouge. The little mousie is apparently in the new (to me) book as well.

while wandering around amazon.com, i also found that there are TWO MORE books in Debi Gliori's Pure Dead series!! They're both in hardback right now, so we'll wait a bit and see if we can stand not having them...i'm not sure if we will be able to wait or not. right now we're reading Pure Dead Trouble. I found these books when i was looking for another of her children's books (No Matter What and Polar Bolero are two that i can recite by heart i've read them so many times). then my brother ted gave irene two of the pure dead books for christmas. we've finished the first three and are reading the fourth. they are also challenging to read aloud.

because I can't do a scottish accent, i tend to do it all in an english accent - sometimes quite cockney, sometimes rather posh. probably all very fake. there are all sorts of names that are easy to read in my head (i read them first before we started reading them with irene). but try saying Auchenlochtermuchty Arms out loud - sometimes followed by Strega-Borgia or Strega Schloss. Or perhaps Lochnagargoyle. *smile* it's challenging but fun. rob has read more of them aloud than i have because it often ends up that he tucks irene in and reads with her and i read more and do the nighttime stuff more with rhys.

well, it's now several hours later than when i started this post and i'm finally feeling significantly better! i even ate dinner! and, more importantly, i *kept* dinner! yea me!

maybe tomorrow i'll tell you that the next book in the Charlie Bone series is coming soon too. so many books to add to my wishlist *beam*

this weekend

A few weeks ago, the kids and i went to cheer rob on in a 6:30 softball game. it had snowed earlier that day and we even went through a bit of snow getting to the game. We picked up something to eat at A & W. It was close and i really wanted something other than "chicken noggets" or "booger king" AND, best yet, we had a coupon. generally, when going to chicken noggets, the kids get chocolate milk. well, while A&W has some yummy kid dinners, they do not have fruit juice or chocolate milk (or milk of any kind, actually). what they DO have is Root Beer. The kids VERY rarely get soda - in fact, this might have been rhys' first time having soda. Irene was telling him that it wasn't beer with alcohol, they had taken the alcohol out of it. I explained that Root Beer had never HAD alcohol in it, so they didn't need to take it out. Rhys kept calling it beer. Irene and I kept saying, no no, it's ROOT beer. "OH! it's FRUIT beer! I *LIKE* FRUIT beer!"

This weekend was Rob's corporate challenge (i guess it's been going on for a while, but this weekend was the softball portion of it). We'd hoped to go and watch him yesterday and Rhys had it in mind that we'd get Fruit Beer while we were there (b/c that's what you GET at softball games in his mind). Well, we didn't get to see him play b/c Irene was feeling a little icky. we TRIED to get to the last game, but didn't get there in time. but i DID see *THIS* sign on the way there - it's just past UNR on Virginia.

This morning we went to the game - they had to win in order to keep going - they didn't win, but the kids had fun. IGT got bronze medals. I was in preschool teacher mode with Rhys, Irene, and two other bitties (maya is 3 1/2, i'm not sure how old zack is). we invited them over to play with us - their moms were playing the game. they had a lot of fun. after the game, rob and i went over with irene and rhys to a free field. maya and zack came over to play too with the moms looking on. it was very fun.

it's always good to bring dinosaurs. the dinos are eating the sun flower seed shells that were under the bleachers. don't think about it too much, you might feel a little sick...they WERE all dry though, so that's good.
NICE HIT!
running like the wind

rob is FLYIN' man!duck duck goose during the softball game.
It's a HIT!
gaggle of kids. zack is hitting, maya is catching, and rhys is the back up catcher.
zack hit the ball - now maya and rob are running after it to get him out. i believe zack got a home run!
not sure whether he's being a catcher or a hitter - heh heh. he spent a lot of time sitting on 3rd base playing with the dirt *smile*

on the way home, we stopped by safeway and i got some fruit beer and ice cream. upon arriving home, i started feeling like i had whatever irene had had and crawled into bed (still feeling pretty iffy and will probably head back to bed soon). anyway, when i came down just a bit ago, rhys had his dessert - a "fruit beer float" "Mama, i like my fruit beer float!" irene is at a friend's house having dinner, so she missed out on it today (though i'm sure she's not suffering - heh heh). okay. that's it for now. going to take a hot hot bath.

Cinco de Mayo is Holiday Time

anyone sing that song in 3rd grade? no? okay, well, that's probably b/c i was in 3rd grade in 1978 and you weren't...but that song is still in my head. funny.

anyway, today is KRIS' BIRTHDAY!!! Happy Birthday, Kris!!! She's having a garden party. Mom is going down and is taking the present that the kids and i put together for Auntie Kris. and Rob found out that today is World Naked Gardening Day! who knew? somehow i think that Kris' party will be clothed. :)

well, because it is Cinco de Mayo, we'll be having some mexican themed food today. and of course that will involved some yummy margaritas as well.

crumbs - i just looked at the time - i've got to get the kids to gymnastics, then we're off to watch rob play softball in the Corporate Challenge!! GO IGT!!!

Friday Fun - aka things that make me smile

okay, so it's not friday everywhere at this point, but it is here.

filed under the header of Too Dang Cute --

have any of you read the children's book Petite Rouge Riding Hood by Mike Artell? it is a delightful and fun version of Little Red Riding Hood. Mike Artell has cajunized the book. it's not the very easiest of books to read - it's written in cajunspeak and you get to learn about things like shrimp etoufee and boudin (pronounced bowdan) and file (pronounced feeelay) and Petite Rouge Riding Hood has a gran mere and a cat TeJean too and who can forget Claude dat ol' gater. we have a signed copy (To Irene and Rhys, Hot Saucily Yours, Mike Artell - with a cute drawing). it's one of the very favorites in this house. for quite a long time, rhys asked for this book and Fox In Socks (talk about a numb tongue - after both of these, it was time for a drink!).

last night, irene read Petite Rouge to rhys. it was the cutest thing listening to her take on the voices of each of the characters and read all that cajun slang. she did an excellent job. i wish we'd had a recorder going so we could play it back, but i didn't want to interrupt the moment to go and get it.

something else that is fabulous is that Tara's Babies has gotten a small short term loan to cover the last amount that was due for them to secure the land. they are still looking for donations to cover that loan, so if you are so inclined, you can still donate. and go read dara's blog too :)
Daramusing: Dakini Valley News

Rhys Paints

I hope i've done this right. If i have, you can now watch Rhys painting and discovering that he's just made brown :) we had fun using the colorations liquid watercolors. i used to use them at papermill and love them. halfway through our painting, i realized that if rhys wanted to, he could paint his pine dinos. he thought that was a great idea and painted two of them. it was good fun.

duh...

yesterday was tuesday. i knew ALL DAY LONG that it was tuesday. it was brownies so of COURSE it was tuesday. it was irene's music peformance, so, again, may day was TUESDAY. so, could you please explain to me why i sat downstairs with rob even though i probably could have happily gone to sleep waiting for LOST to come on?

yeah. lost is on wednesday.

so i was up until close to 11 for no good reason. and tonight, i'll be up until past 11 b/c today TODAY is wednesday. so TONIGHT is LOST.

oy.

what a lame-o.