November 26, 2006

Not much to say...

Nathan continues to promise a post from me and that will be about this or that. But sorry if you were greatly anticipating some thing which he mentioned. I think that the trip was pretty well documented and I am still struggling to get us all back on some normal schedule. I think we may be headed in the right direction now. Although we are still sleeping in awfully late. Tomorrow it will have to change since Sadie will be starting back to school again. I will definitely have to set the alarm, arrrgggh!

Following our return, I went to have a root canal. (Fun wrapped in a bundle of joy.) Then next day was Thanksgiving of which we have no pictures because I told Nathan not to take any since I had not made it out of my pj's when it came to dinner time at 630pm. My excuse is I was too busy with the cookin. After dinner, we decorated the Christmas tree and, boy, do I like pre-lit artificial trees. After getting the gigantic box up two flights of stairs from the basement, I had it put together, lit and ready for decorating in about twenty minutes. Sadie and Emma had a good time putting the ornaments on the tree and Nathan enjoyed complaining about how all of our ornaments are not kid proof. He suggested that they all be made of felt. But they both did great.

November 24, 2006

Volume 7 of 7: The Return to Jersey



Are we bad parents? These are our precious daughters, waiting for their car seats, at Newark's Liberty International Airport, at 2:00 am on a Tuesday. You'd think when you arrive at 1am there would be no delay in getting luggage, but there was some sort of mishap on the tarmac...the luggage arrived after close to an hour, and most of it was wet. But we didn't really care at that point.

There was actually a real live limo driver there waiting with us with a sign that indicated he was waiting for a "Jim Guido." After waiting 45 minutes for our luggage Sara overheard him calling back to HQ..."There ain't nobody by dat name hee." So he left Guido-less, I guess.

Sadie was on her last 24 hrs of being sick on the flight home. Poor girl, still had the fever, but she slept for more than half the flight. Pretty much back to normal now. The same type of 'beef' that we ate as a 'sandwich' for lunch on the way over was served again on the way back, but this time in a different shape, and this time called a 'burger.' Oh well, at least there was food. We don't go to restaurants to fly, so...

We had a lovely visit to SoCal. Sara will probably provide her perspective in coming days.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

November 21, 2006

Volume 6: Turkey and Football

Sunday-- Although it was not the actual holiday day, it felt like it. Sara and Emma went to the Winklea family pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving that was being staged early to accommodate our travel schedule. Sadie and I stayed at Nana and Papa's house because Sadie was not yet well enough for the big party. We made sure not to tell her about it so she didn't really know that she was missing anything. When Sadie was laying in bed in the morning with a fever, she said to me, with huge crocodile tears, a tremble in her voice, and a pouting lip..."Daddy, I will be really sad if you are gone"...meaning, if I go to the party and leave her there in bed. So, that was an easy decision. At Nana and Papa's house we relaxed, played games, read books, and watched the Denver/San Diego football game. At the pre-Thanksgiving event they ate lots of food, the newest cousins frolicked together, and a good time was had by all. (I will let Sara give you a more detailed description in a later post--cuz I wasn't there.) Out in Lemon Grove, we were excited when Sara and Emma returned with some pecan pie and pumpkin pie (which Sara made) and some Key Lime pie. Tomorrow is Volume 7: The Return to Jersey.

Photos below from the pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving.







November 19, 2006

Volume 5: College Reunion Day

Saturday--Sadie was still too sick to be running around town. So she stayed home with Nana and Papa while Sara, Nathan and Emma went to the PLNU Class of 1996 10-yr reunion lunch. It was a wild a crazy time. The burrito bar was straight from the Caf, the iced tea was unsweetened, and the door prizes included key chains AND bumper stickers. We received the door prize for the farthest distance traveled. There was a slight controversy when the win was challenged by the entrant from Albany, NY, but she didn't particularly like the hat that was offered, so we got the prize.

We had been to the 5-yr reunion in 2001, at which Sara was pregnant with Sadie. This 10-yr version featured many children under age 5. We noticed that a lot of couples from the college days are still together (including the two of us). It was great to see Matt and Alisha and their boys, and Lauren and Lee and their newest addition. And everyone else, too.

We stopped in to see the PLNU Lady Sea Lions (no, not the marine mammal...imagine a feline with beach-front property) play the second half of their game against Southern Nazarene University. They pulled out the win, and Emma was enthralled by the bouncing ball and the back-and-forth.

Hoping Sadie will be back to normal soon. Sunday was pre-Thanksgiving turkey day...details tomorrow.

See photos below. The first one is an outdoor art piece at PLNU.






November 18, 2006

Volume 4: Grammy's House

Friday we went to visit Grammy and Great Grandpa Wink in Point Loma. The weather was again picture-perfect San Diego stylin' mid-70's with a light breeze. Aunt Sonja came down from Los Angeles to see the girls (we know it was not to see us parents). Grandma Joyce--who is in town from Tempe, AZ to visit--also came over to Grammy's for the afternoon/evening. Sadie had complained on Thursday of a headache and we were pretty sure she was coming down with something. By the time a crew of six of us (Sara, Nathan, Sonja, Grammy, Sadie, Emma) crammed into the Impala and went out for In-N-Out (a SoCal Burger specialty--shout-outs to Uncle Tedd), Sadie was deteriorating quickly. (This next part is going to get graphic. Reader discretion is advised. Make the children look away from the screen.) Sadie wouldn't take her medicine, and in forcing it into her mouth we also forced her breakfast onto Grammy's bedroom floor. She took a different medicine, and her fever went down, and she felt well enough at dinner time for some pizza and running around. However...long about time for leaving Grammy's, the pizza apparently had forgotten something it had left on the living room floor, and returned to retrieve it. You can see in a couple of the pictures below that she was not her normal self. But we got her home and in bed and she kept some more medicine down. She's able to hang around and watch shows and not do a whole lot--we're just trying to keep the fever down.

It was great for Sadie and Emma to see Grammy and Wink and Sonja and JoEllen. Grammy's house is always full of fun surprises like new dolls or talking frogs or painting projects or heart-shaped rocks or extra-large rubber ears in boxes covered with shells. Wink shared some of his great stories from WWII, and everybody had their picture taken by Sadie the Shutterbug.

Today was homecoming at PLNU. You will hear about that in tomorrow's post. See photos below.







November 17, 2006

Volume 3: Nicole+Neela+Burritos+Beach

Yesterday was a reunion for Neela, Sadie and Emma. We went to Ocean Beach to spend the day with Nicole and Neela...the girls instantly hit it off and were running and screaming through Nicole's house. We headed down the hill toward the beach for some Mexican food at Rancho's (this was our third Mexican food meal in less than three days). After lunch we walked to the beach and the girls rapidly went from tentative exploration to fully drenched and sand-encrusted. After the beach we walked to get Thrifty ice cream, then back to Nicole's house to hose off the short people. The day ended back at Nana & Papa's house where we had a meat loaf dinner with Grandma Joyce. Then Polar Express viewing before bedtime. See photos below.










November 16, 2006



Here we are in La Jolla for a sunset. I now realize why Amilda loved coming here. Sometimes you don't realize how truly wonderful a place can be until you come back after a long time away. The ocean has a tremendous restorative power which I miss so much where we are now.
While we were there, Sadie and I went down to the sand and played chase with the waves and Emma joined us toward the end. Of course Sadie did NOT want to leave but it was getting dark so we headed up for a visit to the Fila store and on the way she saw a seal jump out of the water at seal beach.

Volume 2: Monkey bars




Sadie masters the monkey bars. Sadie has not been able to do the monkeys bars up until today. I think she was afraid of falling and would not try to do it by herself. Here at this playground she could jump up and grab the bars. She says she will try the bars at school when we get home. On the playground at school the current judge of superiority is the ability to cross the bars by oneself. So we will see if she can join the ranks of the "big" kids soon.

Vacation series: Volume 1: Getting there is half the battle



Checking out the planes after arriving in San Diego.

November 09, 2006

Is this June or November?

november06
Here is a little album from today. School is closed today and tomorrow for a statewide teacher's convention. So we got together with the Wests for the afternoon. We started with pizza for lunch, what else would one have, this is New Jersey. After a brief run around the gazebo, we headed over to the park for scooters and bikes and then hit the ice cream shop for a treat. The day was topped off with lollipops. Everyone had fun, in between bouts of whining and crying about who is riding what and when it is time to trade, who could ask for more. On top of that we had one of the nicest days of the year, reminding me of an average day in good ol' San Diego. I think the temp topped out at 69 with a nice breeze. I asked Sadie about 42 times if she wanted to put on a sweatshirt and every time she said she was fine without one. Really, the only reason I asked was because most everyone else was in long sleeves and pants. All in all it was a lovely day.

November 06, 2006

Cool Cat

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We are heading out to our 10 year college reunion this month. Nathan and I have known each other now for 13 years. That seems like a long time and the memories seem even longer ago. After finishing school, it seems life goes into acceleration mode.

I found this photo when I was looking through an album from Amilda for one of Nathan to match Sadie school photo from this year. It came out so cute. Anyway, when I found this above photo the first thought into my mind was, "I actually MARRIED this guy," followed by laughing. I will have to remember this when I need a good laugh.
Thanks Nathan for all the fun times and great memories. I love you.


Sadie, school 2006.

November 03, 2006

Cookie Day

From cookie day

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