A month and a half?

Boy, this was a long dry spell, even for me!  No excuses, other than that I just am too tired to blog. 

At the end of May, Rebecca and I went on a  trip to Tennessee.  We had a wonderful time with Grammy and got to see so many friends.

Rebecca enjoyed a lot of time playing outside.

The hydrangeas were in full, glorious, showy bloom!

One of Rebecca's favorite things was playing in the sprinkler in Grammy's front yard.  The only thing that could make a summer day in the water better is for the ice cream man to come by!

 

My mom has a friend named Marta who lives in Albuquerque.  Mom and Marta have been friends since they were young 20-somethings.  When I was growing up, most every summer Marta and her family would come to visit Tennessee.  I always looked forward to seeing good friends Sjaak and Bram.  Thank goodness for Facebook or we might have lost touch. Fast forward more years that I care to count and it just so happened that Sjaak's family was road-tripping across the country and came to Lincoln County when we were here. It was so nice to catch up with Sjaak and Ginny and see their children.



Rebecca with her new friends Ariana, Karina, and Alex.

 

We also got to hang out with Aunt Molly and Jack.  We met up with them for dinner at Cahoots, and then the kids somehow convinced us that we should take them to the park.  They were climbing on the monkey bars, swinging on swings, and sliding down all manner of slides, having a ball.  Molly and I got to catch up a little, but not nearly enough!  All of a sudden, the sky turned black and it began to thunder, so we quickly hugged them goodbye and ran for the cars. By the time we were pulling out, the sky was falling!

Just in time for our visit, Aunt Margaret was adopted by two cats who were with kittens.  Some were about 2-3 weeks old and some were just starting to open their eyes.  Though I am terribly allergic to cats, I just couldn't help but love on them a little.  Rebecca was delighted to get to hold the kittens, which were the first ones she'd ever seen.  I tried to play a little trick on Ramy by texting him a picture of Rebecca with one of the kittens and just said, "Guess what???"  I thought he would think I was bringing one home, but he knows me (and my allergies) too well for that.  Good thing, or he might have had divorce papers drawn up!

Aunt Charlotte also happened to be visiting Fayetteville while we were there.  In true small town style, we happened to be browsing at an antique store on the square when we ran into her and her sister.  The next night, we met up with them for dinner at Cahoots.

I had two nights out with my girlfriends while I was there.  We had a Memorial Day cookout at Lucy and Ricky's house.  It was the first time I had visited their house, which is gorgeous!  They've lived in their house about the same amount of time we've lived in our "new" house, and they have it all completely painted and decorated.  Meanwhile, all our walls are still white!  I need to get on the ball.  Anyway, we enjoyed a long night of laughing and gossipping.  Then before we left, we met up again with those who could make it for some Mexican food.  I miss my Girl Posse!

I also got to have lunch with my good friend Brian.  Unfortunately, Stephanie was working, but since I hadn't seen him the last couple of times I was home, it was really nice to hang out with him. There's something awfully comforting about being with friends who've known you most of your life and have seen you at your absolute worst! 

Rebecca spent a lot of time in the back yard picking flowers.  And dandelions.

 

 But of course, the best thing about being in Tennessee is getting to spend time with Grammy!

Ten on (the day after) Tuesday

1.  Still on jury duty!  So glad I will be compensated for my time by the $15 per day the county gives me for my service, along with the 30 cents per mile that I drive.  Too bad they only pay it for one way.

2.  Rebecca shared with us tonight that it had been the "Special Day of Prayer."  She told us that everyone stopped to pray today (I think that she envisions that every single person in the world stopped to pray at the same exact time they did - what a nice thought). Her school celebrated it by joining hands and praying and then releasing balloons into the sky as a symbol of their prayers going up to heaven.  Awww!  So very sweet.

3.  Last week, I got paid from my first big private practice case.  Hopefully that was just priming the pump for more to come!

4.  For the last few weekends, we have been working in our yard, taking out ugly bushes, digging holes for new ones, picking out plants and flowers, and planting.  Ramy even created a replica of the posts with hooks for hanging baskets and sunk those in the ground in concrete for me this weekend.  Rebecca and I created four hanging baskets to go on them, and we'll have more to do for the others this weekend. Our back yard is really shaping up!

5. I am apparently the last person on earth who has neither read nor seen The Hunger Games and has no intention to do so.

6.  I have been trying to get Rebecca into swimming lessons for the summer.  I intended to do so last summer, but with the new house and move, somehow it just didn't happen.  It sounds like a simple thing.  But no.  The most convenient place is at the Y, which is just down from us.  Convenient times and dates.  The kicker is that the classes are impacted, so they have a morning a month or two in advance where you have to get in line a few hours before the registration starts.  That wasn't cool with me, so I decided to check out other options.  They are all either three times a week, in the middle of the day, or places that only do private lessons.  What the?  Who knew it would be so hard to enroll in swimming lessons!?!? 

7.  I read a few blogs, and several of them had recommended youtube makeup tutorials by the one gal.  So when I was killing time, I checked them out.  Those things are addictive!  I ended up watching about a hundred one night (when it was already past midnight and had to get up for work before 6 am).  If you like makeup and have some time to kill, check out kandeejohnson on youtube.

8.  This week while on jury duty, I have had some quality time with my iPad. I downloaded and read Stephanie Nielson's book about her recovery from her major burn injuries after her plane crash a few years ago.  I've read NieNie's blog for years, and she reminds me of the amazing power of healing that can come to the body and the spirit.  Highly recommend!

9.  Lately, we have been watching Little House on the Prairie almost every night.  Rebecca loves Laura and Mary.  I even passed up one of my Bravo shows the other night to catch an episode where Laura and Manly get married.  What has happened to me?

10. The hunt is on for my summer purse.  I keep turning to various straw bags, like these.  But I have some kind of inner objection to straw bags, though I haven't fully explored why.  It's truly a dilemma, akin to the way that I feel about Toms shoes. I may need psychotherapy.

Grandma's Surprise Party

On Saturday, March 17, we hosted a surprise birthday party for Grandma (Ramy's mom) at our house.  Ramy's sister Myrna originally suggested the idea in January, and we had been planning it since then. The funniest part of it was that we actually had all the family over for dinner a week beforehand to finalize all the details, and Grandma was there.  Rebecca kept her distracted, and she is hard of hearing anyway, so she was none the wiser.  We invited relatives of Grandma's and served mostly Filipino food (no fear - there was macaroni and cheese for those of us who aren't fans of Filipino delicacies.  By the way, if there is ever a room full of a Filipinos and a dish of fish, don't get in their way).  The only downside was that it was pouring down rain on the day of the party, so everyone got a bit wet coming in and we weren't able to mingle in the yard at all.  Otherwise though, everything went off beautifully! Grandma was surprised and seemed to enjoy the day with people she loves.  Everyone enjoyed the food. A good time was had by all. 

  

Back from a bloggy hiatus

Apparently, I took a little blog hiatus this past month!  It was nothing planned or intentional - life has simply been very busy.  My work has been especially demanding.  Grammy was here for a visit around Easter. We've been working on stuff inside and outside the house.  We've confirmed an elementary school for Rebecca. Just the everyday details of life! 

I have been doing some private practice work in addition to my regular job.  That has taken up several weekends of late, in doing the testing, and then there is the extra work of scoring and interpreting the tests, sifting through the volumes of medical records, and putting it all together to figure out what is going on with the client and what is likely to happen to them over the course of their life. One of my fellow neuropsychologists resigned, which makes for an increased workload for myself and our other colleague.  I anticipate that it will be awhile before we hire a replacement, so that's difficult.  Though my job is stressful and there seems to be no end to the work that needs to be done, I love my patients and their families.  And I work with a great team of therapists, nurses, case managers, behavioral technicians, and other staff.

Ramy's office has been moving.  He is just a couple of blocks away from his old office, but of course that comes with packing and moving and unpacking and relocating.  I have pics from his mom's birthday party last month that I intend to post. 

This weekend, we did a lot of yard work.  We planted some new bushes and plants.  Our herb garden is growing and doing well.  Rebecca has a multitude of plants that she tends to, including a set of 6 little bedding plants she got this weekend and has planted, dug up, and replanted a few times.  She also keeps close watch over our bird feeders.

Our church is embarking on an ambitious quest to complete a $6.1 million dollar building project for our ministry center and pay it off in 3 years.  We're so happy to be part of a large, thriving parish that puts great importance in investing and nurturing our young people.  Our youth attend World Youth Day wherever it is held every other year. They have groups and gatherings every afternoon and evening, regular retreats, and the youth come to church just to hang out and socialize. I figure that when it comes to the middle school and teen years, as much as we will want to still influence Rebecca, her peers will have as much or more influence.  Whatever we can do to stack the deck in her favor to have good friends and the right kind of peer group will pay off for her in the long run.

Rebecca will be attending Chino Hills Christian School for kindergarten.  We anticipate that she will stay there through elementary school, unless something unforseen comes up.  After that, we'll probably look to St. Lucy's, which is a very academically rigorous Catholic high school that is a great college prep school. It seems so far away, and yet I know that the time will fly by!  She is a very eager student.  She looks forward to school, sharing time (e.g., show and tell), chapel, and whatever they are learning about.  She finds particular subjects she is interested in also.  For awhile, it was King Tut.  At Easter, she watched a lot of shows on the History Channel and A&E about Jesus, and more recently it has been about The Titanic. She also likes watching Little House on the Prairie, which has become a nightly ritual here. Reading is also a new pastime. We were printing out reading pages so she could learn the different words that have the same endings (e.g., can, man, pan, tan; pot, hot, not, got). This has developed into a really good ability to sound out a lot of words.

I'm looking forward to getting to take some time off work in the coming months.  At the end of May, Rebecca and I will be heading East to visit Grammy in Tennessee for about a week and a half. Then we are going to be going on vacation (location TBD!) at the end of July.  Grammy will be here to visit in between.

We are all well and happy! 

Ten on Tuesday

1.  This past weekend, we threw a surprise party for my mother-in-law at our house. There was a ton of Filipino food as well as some American favorites.  Relatives galore. Fun was had by all, I think, so it seems to have been a success.  Pictures coming soon!

2. I was inspired by all of the DIY ideas I'd seen on Pinterest of cute centerpieces.  I knew I needed a pretty large centerpiece, which would easily have fun $100+ even if I provided the container.  Instead, I did my own and was so happy with the way it turned out!  It was actually quite easy - maybe there will be another DIY post coming soon with that.

3.  Rebecca had her testing last week in preparation for kindergarten enrollment.  She was quite confident that it had gone well.  We're not too concerned that she is ready for kindergarten - no question about that.  It will be interesting to see what tests they gave and what the results were. 

4.  Rebecca has recently become very, very interested in reading. She is sounding out words, using contextual cues to figure out what the word is, and knows all about consonant blends.  She gets excited for me to print out "reading pages," which are lists of words with the same ending (e.g., "cat, pat, hat, mat..."), which she then reads triumphantly to everyone who will listen.

5.  I never cease to be amazed by the ability of the developing mind to naturally gravitate toward that which it is ready to learn.  I've strived to let her develop her interests and learn based on her natural sensitive windows for accumulating new knowledge. Even still, I occasionally get sucked in to the idea that learning to read at 2, doing algebra at 3, might be the best way to assure ultimate success, even though I logically know that isn't true. Then I get this reassurance that going at the pace God intended really is the best way to instill a love of learning, which I hope will be lifelong.

6.  Spring is here!!!  That means that it is time to start thinking about what my new spring purse will be and to peruse the selection of new sandals. I really like this bag, but I'm thinking that I'm not willing to invest that kind of moolah for it.

7.  I have several patients right now who are very dear to me.  All very young and profoundly impaired.  While their survival and progress is miraculous across the board, unfortunately, theirs isn't complete healing - far from it.  Their families are looking at a lifetime of care for them, which is overwhelming to consider. I can't tell you their names, but God knows them.  Would you pray for them?  And while you're at it, please pray for a TBI patient from my hometown and another sweet lady in my hometown who had a stroke this week. In addition, my mom's dear friend "Aunt Mimi" passed away suddenly last week, after a series of problems. She was one of my few loyal blog readers!  Please pray for her family as well.

8.  I was approved for two weeks of vacation from work!  This is huge, because we are typically strongly discouraged from taking more than a couple of days off.  I will be heading to Tennessee at the end of May.  Then we're hoping for a family vacation in July/August.  Of course, there are some staff changes going on at work, so I just hope that my vacay time doesn't get yanked. 

9.  Speaking of work, I have some exciting professional opportunities on the horizon.  Please pray they pan out in the best way for my career!

10. Lots of good TV on right now. Real Housewives of OC, Bethenny, Jeff Lewis, and a couple of new Bravo series I'm following.  Mondays and Tuesdays are my hardest days at work. Is it sad that being able to look forward to Housewives drama helps me make it through the day?  That said, Bethenny is starting to make me nervous. I've always loved her, but she is putting too much introspection on tv. I find her psychotherapy sessions fascinating, but I just want her to quit it and focus on her family.

Rebecca's First Report Card

Today, we received Rebecca's "progress report" on her level of preschool academic performance.  Probably because this is the time when they start doing the kindergarten readiness testing at all the local private schools.  We are so proud that our girl got straight A's!  The comments were the highlight.