Ok so I've been remiss....

I haven't updated in forver....

Rico had a birthday...he's 6 now and very excited because 6 is SO much better than 5!

We went to Chuck E Cheese and then came home and had cake.


And, of course, today is Halloween....We have a Candy Corn Witch and Luigi from the Mario Brothers. They had a blast Trick or Treating, got lots of candy and then came home and helped give out candy.

We gave out every single piece of candy we had! 5 big bags worth and the kids still kept coming. We had to blow out the pumpkins and turn out the lights. We've never had so many kids!

But Marielle and Rico had a blast....the best Halloween ever!

Update

I haven't written much because I don't like too much out in a public forum....at least not until things are settled. We are preparing for Marielle's IEP meeting at the end of this month. This has taken a lot of my time but I know that we will be going in as prepared as anyone can be.

Her teacher told me at her parent teacher conference that she is "not working to her capabilities" which leads me to believe that the teacher does not recognize that Marielle has a disability but instead thinks she is being a slacker....not a fun place for Marielle or myself to be.

Send some love our way...because we need it!

What's going on...

I haven't written much because there isn't much to write about.

We are starting to get into a routine with Ralph gone. It's weird, not having him here again, but we are all getting used to it.

We continue to have difficulties with Marielle and school and hopefully we can work them out.

Rico is thriving at school, is so into school, reading, math, etc., it's really fun to see.

Winter is about to come, as we are expecting our first storm of the season. We haven't seen rain, but for one day, since about May, so I'm actually looking forward to it. I can't wait to make my first fire in the fireplace.

I've got some kind of bug...I don't think it's the flu because I haven't had a fever, but otherwise feel like I got hit by a truck...body aches are the worst, stuffed up, sore throat...same thing most people around here who are sick are experiencing.

Foo-Foo and Fuzzy's Great Adventure

Ralph took one stuffed animal from each of the kids up to Alaska with him. They picked one out,and had him take it, so Daddy wouldn't be lonely so far away from home. Before he left, I told him to take pictures of the stuffies on the trip north.

He emailed them to me on Saturday and I made a book on Saturday night, after the kids went to bed called, [U]Foo-foo and Fuzzy's Great Adventure[/U]. The kids were happily surprised when they got up on Sunday to see all the things that Foo-Foo and Fuzzy had seen. It's really cute...starts out with them belted into the passenger seat on the truck, there were pictures of them near signs of towns that DH had stopped in, with totem poles, looking out the window on the ferry to Juneau. Really a fun way to show the kids the trip that Daddy took.

I told Ralph that he needs to take more pictures now, so we can continue the story and so that the kids can see what Juneau is like.

Alaska!

So Ralph got a job....it's a one year contract, which is great. The only downside is that the job is in Alaska. So he left on Thursday and is currently in Canada, at Prince Rupert and today he gets on the ferry that will take him to Juneau.

I sometimes wonder if people who have pretty safe jobs even realize that there is a recession going on. I know this, people are shocked when they get laid off and then even more shocked when they realize how hard it is to get a job right now. See, even if a company is doing all right, they aren't hiring. People hear on the news that the unemployment rate in CA is what....10%, 11%? But do they realize what that translates to in actual people who want to work who are just unable to find a job?

Ralph retired from the Coast Guard in January, 2008. He would have liked to stay in, he was on active duty for the last 8 years, but he had too many years in, so he had to retire. In 2008, he worked a total of 5 months after retiring. By the way, we get no retirement benefits. He was in the CG for 34 years, but only 15 of those were active duty, so no retirement benefits until he is 60.

So he went up to Alaska last year for 5 months, the only work he could find. Then he came home and tried to find something locally. After about 6 months, he realized that there was nothing going on locally, so he broadened his search nationally. Finally, he found another job in Alaska.

Construction, especially large construction projects, are just not happening right now in CA. And even if they are getting funded, there are so many people lining up for those few jobs that it's pretty near impossible to get one.

We are very lucky in that we always have lived the life of saving. Always lived below our means and socked money into the bank. We have no debt, except our mortgage. I wonder how many people can say that, after having the breadwinner out of work for a year? That doesn't mean it's been easy. It hasn't been. But we made it. And now we have income again. And now we'll start to replenish our depleted savings accounts.

Brownies...

We went to a Brownie meeting today to see if Marielle would be interested in joining. It was rather chaotic...first meeting of the year and then I guess last year the Daisy and Brownie troop met in the same room and today the Daisy leader decided they need to break apart and have separate meetings, which just added to the chaos. The talked about what activities they wanted to do as the year went on, but they didn't have a specific activity for this meeting and Marielle was rather unsure about joining. Then, as the parents talked, the kids all started playing tag. After that, Marielle decided she did want to join.

So, looks like there's going to be a Brownie in the house....

Let's Go Fly a Kite!

It was a perfect day for kite flying today...the weather was in the high 70's with a nice, stiff breeze coming off the Marina.


Ralph got the kites up into the air and then the kids took very short turns holding them. I really think that Ralph was the only one who flew a kite for more than 3 minutes.

But it was a lot of fun, anyway!