Halloween 2009

Haunted gingerbread house

Last weekend, we did a little Halloween project and created a gingerbread haunted house.  We had a lot of fun!

Rebecca was particularly enthusiastic about this project!

I think Rebecca was just supervising at this point.

Then she decided that she better help us out.

She was determined to stick those candy bats all over the haunted house, in exactly the right places!

Every haunted house has a line of pumpkins on the eave of the roof, right?  Would you believe that Rebecca refused to eat any of the icing or candy decorations?  I have to admit that I was not above trying some of it.  Thick black icing...still pretty yummy!

Rebecca's motto is that if a few decorations are good, more is better!  At this point, she was just sprinkling sprinkles onto the roof.  Apparently, it was Grammy's turn to supervise (or else she had been relegated to sit-and-watch status).  Please note that Jonathan the Giraffe was not a contributing member of our haunted house construction and decorating team.

Good work, team!

What a masterpiece! 

Still here!

It's been much too long since a blog post!  Unfortunately, I have hundreds of photos that still need editing!  Nonetheless, we're all still here and doing fine.  My mom was just here for a long weekend with us, and we crammed the time with lots of fun and love. Rebecca is increasingly joyous by the hour.  Thanks be to God, none of us have been sick...(yet!)...and we're hoping to stay that way.

I'm sure that this weekend, I'll be inundating the blog with lots of posts and pictures.

In the meantime, please remember several people who are dear to me.

The first is Laura Beck.  She is so critically ill, but her precious family surrounds her with love and devotion, as it seems that her healing will not come the way anyone had hoped.  My heart really aches for her family, but thankfully her pain is being controlled. 

Our friend Marilyn ("Aunt Mimi") took another fall and has been in Neuro ICU with a brain bleed.  Many prayers to find out how to get this spiral of medical problems under control.

My good friend Julie is still in NYC without her hubby and is struggling with the demands of a pregnancy, internship, living in the Big Apple, and chasing a 1 year old.  She's also had a really sucky string of bad luck and really deserves some awesome news! 

And...some really wonderful news.  I learned that one of my favorite patients at Casa Colina, who has been in the transitional living center for over a year now (and is over 18 months past her massive brain rupture) has just been cleared from swallow therapy.  After eating absolutely nothing for a year and being brave enough to be part of a treatment program, she has taken baby steps back to being able to eat anything she wants.  She's also just been able to walk a few steps completely on her own.  This is absolutely amazing progress from a woman who has defied every medical odd and is nothing but a joy to everyone who meets her. 

Pumpkin patch

Each year, Cal Poly Pomona hosts an annual pumpkin patch on a single weekend in October.  Last year, I didn't realize it only happened on one weekend and drove all over the campus trying to find the pumpkins, only to be disappointed.  This year, I was ready!  I'm really confused about this place though and the logistics.  I initially assumed that they just brought in truckloads of pumpkins, because, let's face it, this is Los Angeles, and fields of pumpkins isn't really the norm.  However, Cal Poly does have a working farm and really nice farm store, and the patch definitely had had things growing in it.  So I think they probably do grow some pumpkins there, but then they truck in tons of them and lay them in the field.  I'm not sure why that has been important for me to figure out, and I'm probably the only person who has pondered it for more than 1.3 seconds.  But there you have a little insight into my mind.

We had initially planned to go on Saturday, but it was 100 degrees and Rebecca was already tired from dance class.  Since the forecast was for cooler temps on Sunday, and since we went to Mass again on Saturday night, we decided to go on Sunday morning.  It was a mere 93 degrees on Sunday.  You will notice in some of the pics that it looks like Rebecca's face is red.  That's because we were all melting in the heat.  The pumpkin patch also has face painting, pony rides, a petting zoo, arts and crafts activities, and lots of food booths.  Rebecca was only in it for the pumpkin.

We traipsed all over the field to examine each and every pumpkin, I believe.  Just as we were at the Back-40, Rebecca announced she needed to pee-pee so we flew across the field and to the restroom, only to find out that it was a false alarm.

Rebecca was especially attracted to the ugly little green squash/gourd-like things that aren't flat on the bottom.  She carried two of those around and pretended to be their mama for the better part of an hour. 

I wanted a white fairytale pumpkin, so I picked out a perfect one of those.  Rebecca was continually distracted by all the weird pumpkins.

Eventually, Rebecca was convinced that we needed a big orange pumpkin for carving. 

She and Ramy had to search for just the perfect one...

Then it was very important that Rebecca lift the pumpkin herself.  She finally consented from "help" from Daddy.  But she proclaimed this to be the perfect pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern.

Finally, it was time for us to get out of the heat and purchase our pumpkin finds.

But first, this cute little pie pumpkin called out to Rebecca to be rescued, so we had to bring him home.  Rebecca has since named him Peter and attempted to put her pajamas on him and refers to herself as his mommy.  This has let me and Ramy to many warnings about the unforgiving nature of tile floors and how if Peter gets dropped, he will break, and she'll be sad.  So far, no pumpkin guts on the floor, but I expect it any time.

On our way out, Rebecca was so enthralled that she even had to give the scarecrows a hug.

It was a really fun day, and Rebecca proclaimed (in the car on the way home), "I like that pumpkin patch! It was fun!"

Two cuties

Last night, we met up with the Contreras family for dinner. We enjoyed getting a chance to catch up with Ana and Simon.  Isn't Little Simon just the cutest little boy?  Rebecca said afterward, "I like that baby!" 

A fast week

This week really flew by.  It's so nice to have a long weekend, but it makes for a pretty hectic short week!  Some of my regular clients really can't go two weeks without being seen, so I had to schedule some of my Monday clients on Tuesday and Wednesday, in addition to seeing my regular Tuesday and Wednesday clients and groups on those days.  I thought I was going to get my quarterly evaluation from my primary supervisor on Tuesday or Wednesday, but she wasn't finished with it yet.  I hope that means that she is trying to find enough different positive adjectives to describe me, but I have to admit that it makes me a little nervous!  I got asked by our training director to do kind of a political mission for our internship though, so I know at least he likes me.

On Thursday, I had to run the gauntlet for one of my Perinatal girls to get services.  She needs to be on medications, and she needs to be in the DBH regular mental health system to continue services after she graduates from our program next week.  Because she's pregnant, I will still be able to see her in the Perinatal program, but it will only be until her baby is born.  So I've been frantically trying to get a safety net in place for her.  Unfortunately, she took it upon herself to go into one of our regular clinics to get meds, and she ran into the wrong pit bull guarding the gate.  Some people who are allegedly mental health professionals don't really understand our clients at all.  As soon as he heard the words "substance addiction," he turned her away.  I was livid.  If there is any client who meets criteria for services, it is this girl.  So I did something that I have never really done before - I totally pulled rank using my position.  I didn't even know I had actual authority, but apparently I have more than I knew!  I kind of went into mama tiger mode and put him a bit in his place and asserted her rights for her (sadly, she has no idea what her rights really are) and told him that if he was going to turn her away, I wanted a Notice of Action explaining that, despite her diagnosis from a staff psychologist that she had multiple qualifying mental illnesses and having Medi-Cal, he was denying services for her.  It worked, and she is now on medication for the first time in her life.  So at least the first step is done, and now I'm trying to get her into our Full Service Partnership program so that she'll have wraparound.

Rebecca has had a good week of the usual playtimes, nightly dance fests, and generally living the good life of a preschooler.  We enjoyed one nice week of fall weather, had our first rainfall of the season, and then today, it was 99°F.  Argh! 

We have a busy weekend planned, so there will be many pictures to come!  This picture was taken at the Farmer's Market at the Grove last weekend.

Columbus Day

God bless Christopher Columbus.  I'm so glad he discovered the New World in October.  (Wait, did he actually discover it this week in October, or is it just when we randomly decided to celebrate it?  A quick Wiki tells me that it was actually on the 12th of October 1492 when land was first sighted on his ships).  I so needed this three-day weekend. It was relaxing and productive!

Friday afternoon, Ramy and I both got home early, even though I had taken advantage of my early afternoon off by running a bunch of errands.  We had a quiet, relaxing night, because Ramy was feeling a bit under the weather and Rebecca had a runny nose.  We just ate at Corner Bakery, went to Target, and got coffee/tea.  Rebecca and I went to dance class on Saturday morning, and she did great as usual.  They decided to split her class in two and were taking the ones who needed more special attention into the smaller class.  Rebecca actually doesn't need special attention like most of the littlest ones, so she gets to stay.  She's actually the only 2.5 year old left in her class, I think.  Fortunately, she doesn't have to change teachers, which is great, because Rebecca is quite attached to "Miss Di-nana."  Afterward, Rebecca decided she needed another breakfast.  We decided to go to Saturday evening mass, so that we could sleep in on Sunday morning!  So we went to church at 5 and then went out to dinner, except that Rebecca was confused and thought it was breakfast since we just got out of church.  Fortunately, we went to Mimi's, where they have breakfast all day and she was satisfied with her Mimi Mouse pancakes for dinner.  Sunday was the day of canonization of Damien of Molokai, which is a really big deal, because he's of the same group of priests as are our priests.  So there's also now another Saint who was from the USA.

On Sunday morning, we slept in late, which was glorious.  Ramy and Rebecca walked to get us breakfast, and I picked them up.  Around lunchtime, we headed out to West L.A. and went to the Grove/Farmer's Market.  It was a beautiful cool fall day.  We shopped and walked around, got some yummy food, and enjoyed the nice long weekend.  We came home and watched a documentary about Jonestown.  I'm not sure how that's related to our day at the Farmer's Market, but Ramy and I were both intrigued, and Rebecca was asleep!  We slept in again this morning.  Ramy took Rebecca with him to visit his mom and dad, while I tackled some household projects.  Namely, I finished the closet switchout.  In addition to weeding out the last of the summer clothes, I also got rid of all the extraneous wire hangers that breed in my closet.  Nonetheless, I decided that our next house needs a walk-in closet for each season's worth of clothes...for me.  I made homemade chicken noodle soup, with homemade chicken stock, home-roasted chicken, and home-made noodles for dinner tonight (and lunches!) and also got tomorrow night's dinner made as well.  Rebecca has enjoyed her nightly dose of the 70s.  She's been dancing around here to the Bee Gees tonight, buck naked (or, "nekkid," as we say in my neck of the woods).

 So now it's time for another week, unfortunately. I say unfortunately only because I really like hanging out at home with my husband and daughter, sleeping late, watching tv, and playing "bouncy ball."  Since I do have to go to work, I'm glad to be really loving the work I do. It was a busy week with a lot of clients seen and a lot of work done.  I was busy every second of the day!   Last week, I learned that a client that I did an intake on a few weeks ago committed suicide.  I actually haven't had a real client of mine commit suicide while I was seeing them (thankfully).  This client was one who wanted meds only, so I only did the intake and got her in with the MDs.  It made me feel bad, but not for as long as I think it would if she had been my ongoing client.  We got the list of charts that will be audited from our clinic by Medi-Cal.  Wouldn't you know it, two of my charts are on the list, and they're both ones that I inherited and that are about 3 inches thick each.  Since no one wants to have a chart get disallowed, I'll be checking these charts with a fine-toothed comb.  I'm supervising three practicum students, and I am enjoying that.  My Perintal girls remain my favorites, although I had to seriously confront one of them on Thursday.  So, all in all, life is good.  Now I just have to get cracking on finishing my dissertation and embark on the postdoc/job search.

KC, Rebecca, and the Sunshine Band

It's a nightly ritual in our house for there to be some kind of dancing/jumping to the oldies!

The Crazy, Jumping, Booty-Shaking Rebecca, just before bedtime

Pumpkin spice cake recipe

Last weekend at Nordstrom Cafe, I had a little slice of heaven in the form of pumpkin spice cake.  Now, since I happen to be in a state of adoration of anything made with pumpkin, it was a hit before it came to the table.  The spice cake part of it just made it even better. 

My dad and I were pumpkin pie aficianados.  The problem with most pumpkin pies, my friends, is that they simply do not have enough of the spices.  You need to generally start with twice as much as is in the recipe, taste test, and go from there.  My dad's favorite kind of cake was a spice cake with caramel icing (for me, it's second place).  So, as you can see, I really needed that pumpkin spice cake.  It was really a tribute to my father, right?  I knew he'd be disappointed in me if I didn't have some.  It did not disappoint, but I knew I could do better.

So I searched various cookbooks and online recipes and then baked the heavenly creation today.  Here it is.

Pumpkin Spice Cake Recipe

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
3 eggs (or 2 extra large eggs)
1 cup pumpkin puree
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. fresh ginger, grated
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. fresh nutmeg, grated
1/2 cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°F.  Grease and flour 9x13 baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffly (about 3 minutes).  Add the eggs, mixing after each addition, until fully incorporated. Add the pumpkin puree and vanilla and mix well. 

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.  Add the fresh ginger into the buttermilk.  Add the flour mixture and buttermilk alternately to the creamed mixture, beginning and ending with the flour, mixing on low, just until fully incorporated.  Pour into the prepared pan.  Bake at 350°F for 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool completely before frosting.

Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup butter, room temperature
2 Tbsp. sorghum molasses or pure maple syrup
2 cups powdered sugar
1/4 tsp. fresh nutmeg, grated
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

After cake has cooled, beat together the cream cheese and butter for 2 minutes.  Mix in molasses or maple syrup.  Sift powdered sugar and nutmeg and add while mixture is beating on low speed.  Add in pecans and mix by hand until fully incorporated.  Spread on cooled cake. 

L.A. County Fair

Last Friday evening, we went to the Los Angeles County Fair. We briefly went through the animal barns, but Rebecca proclaimed the pigs "stinky" and had no interest in petting a goat, so we went through that pretty quickly. Then it was on to the rides!

This was the first time that Rebecca was able to ride anything by herself, although she is still too short to ride most of even the kiddie rides alone.  She and I rode the Merry-Go-Round first.

Next, Rebecca and Daddy rode the Dragon Whirl (like a tilt-a-whirl).  I wondered if Rebecca might not like the spinning, but she would have preferred it to spin harder. 

Then came the flying pink elephant ride, also with Daddy.

Rebecca and Daddy have talked about riding rollercoasters pretty often for the last couple of months (prompted by the many commercials for theme parks that we see).  It had been built up that Daddy likes rollercoasters but that Mommy is scared of them.  So Rebecca was ready to experience one.  Thanks be to God that there was a kiddie rollercoaster at the fair, because I'm not sure we'd have been able to get over it if there hadn't been the opportunity for Rebecca to ride the "ro-der-cos-ter."  Even though it was a kiddie coaster, it still had a lot of jerks and speed.  I thought she might be afraid, but she wasn't.  As they were coming off the ride, Rebecca announced she wanted to ride it again.  Before the night was over, she'd ridden the roller coaster four times!

Afterwards, Rebecca rode a little train by herself.  Although she liked it, she proclaimed that it was "too slow" after it was over.

We got something to eat (with a random Asian woman plopping herself down at our table with Ramy while I was up getting our food!), but Rebecca was more interested in getting back to the rides.  She rode several things by herself. It was a fun night. 

It's October!

What happened to September?  Wasn't it just Labor Day last weekend?  The last month has completely flown by.

Last week, my mom was here for a nice long weekend. She came in on Wednesday.  Nanny Rebecca brought Rebecca to me at the clinic and we all drove to the airport.  Nanny Rebecca was taking a trip herself and was flying out not too long after my mom got in, so that worked out really nicely for all of us.  As usual, Rebecca took possession of Grammy immediately upon her arrival. 

On Thursday and Friday, Grammy and Rebecca had fun.  They went to eat lunch at CPK and Johnny Rockets and bought treasures at the bookstore afterward and got ice cream treats. 

Saturday morning, Grammy accompanied us to dance class.  Rebecca was so proud of herself for getting to show Grammy how she dances.  The girls went shopping at Santa Anita afterwards and had a great time.  We were forced to buy some new things for Rebecca.  Sunday was church and resting.  Monday, Grammy and Rebecca went to breakfast at Mimi's and went to see G-Force at the movies.  Rebecca promptly fell asleep about 1/3 of the way through the movie.  Monday night, we ate dinner at Cheesecake Factory, and Rebecca got upset that Grammy was going to go home the next day.  When she woke up on Tuesday morning, she was sad and cried for Grammy.  So Grammy and I left quickly to avoid more tears.  She made it home safely (and Rebecca was fine by the time we were in the garage).

I've had a dreadful allergy attack all week.  On Tuesday evening, I feared I might have the flu and slept in the guest room.  Luckily, no fever, no sore throat, and nothing other than a lot of sinus pressure and that I can't breathe through my nose without a cocktail of Xyzal, Allegra D, and Afrin Sinus. 

Things are incredibly busy for me at work.  I have about 15 clients I see weekly at the Upland clinic, plus several intakes a week, treatment team meetings, psych testing, and crisis intervention work.  There must have been something in the air, because I had to make three suspected child abuse reports this week.  I'm also supervising three psychology practicum students, which I started last week.  I have one who is in her first clinical experience, and the other two are third years, and I really enjoy that experience.  Thursday was a typical (i.e., crazy) day at the Perinatal clinic.  I have my Co-Occurring group that I lead there, plus I see three pregnant girls every week and have open slots for crises du jour for another couple of hours before treatment team meeting.  Yesterday we marked the end of our first quarter of internship by a special breakfast and all went out together to celebrate after the end of the training day.  I get my quarterly evaluation from each of my supervisors this week.  The weeks fly by so quickly at work!

Rebecca says funny things all the time.  I had redeemed my Gymbucks at Gymboree this week and bought a little panda purse to go along with the outfit I got her.  Rebecca has been carrying her "woh-det" [wallet] with her everywhere she goes, but liked the panda purse.  Immediately, she wanted to put the wallet into the purse.  She heaved a sigh and said, "My woh-det not fit in my purse! TAke it back!" and handed me the purse back in disgust.  By last night, however, she'd decided she wanted to keep the purse to add to her collection.  We were at the mall and she discovered the Hello Kitty store.  She saw it from a distance, sucked in her breath and exclaimed, "Oooh, lookit that!" and then ran in to discover all the girly goodness inside.  She needed a little notebook and pen to put in her purse.  We also had to take her doll stroller and one of her "friends" (her dolls are "babies", while her stuffed animals are "friends") rode in the stroller throughout the mall.  Every once in awhile, she'd lean over to look at the bear and say, "You doin' okay?  You're a good boy!".  Then she'd twist her head sideways and press her ear to her shoulder and talk on a pretend cell phone while she pushed the stroller through the mall.  Lord help us!