The Hotel Hettich is full and busy. Last week Daryl, our friend from Chicago, visited for a week. While Daryl was here, we also had a visit from our friend Per from Sweden. He has visited several summers in the past. The lucky guy gets over a month each summer for vacation and often comes to the US, so he stops by if he is in California. In the past, he has just spend a day, but this year we had a nice surprise and he stayed three days. We took him to the zoo, along with Daryl and the kids. Unfortunately it was on the hot side, so a lot of critters were sleeping and not as active. I did get a few good pictures though.

 

 

Per is in the red shirt, Daryl in black and Joe in yellow.

Per left Sunday, Daryl left Tuesday and then Mel and her four kids arrived on Wednesday. They came in late Wednesday, so we didn't get home from LAX till after midnight and even 2 days later I am still a little more than groggy. I am hoping to sleep in tomorrow a bit. Mel's kids seem to be enjoying their visit, it is their first trip to the U.S. and some of their comments are amusing. For instance, we got caught in exiting traffic in the airport parking structure and Deej said we were in gridlock. He also declared that the Lincoln Navigator was the best car and every American should own one. It was difficult to not giggle too loud.

In the next day or so, we hope to take the kids to Legoland. There are also plans for the zoo and SeaWorld as well as a week in Big Bear while they are here for their three week visit. My biggest challenge the last two days is just figuring out how to do meals for 9 people. It is a whole different approach then when I am just cooking for the girls and Joe.

Anyhow, if I am not around much to blog, please understand. On top of this I am still trying to finish getting things out of the old house so they can start working on new floors and painting. Hope everyone is having a great summer!

Oh, despite so much going on, I did manage to read Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It rocked and I was not at all disappointed! 

Milkyway

And now for a word from the cat...

 

 

I keep waiting for my blog to update itself, but I think I am missing the wetware (Geek talk for a connection between brain and computer).

My days are very full with work the last few weeks, thus the lack of posts. I have a guest arriving Thursday for a week, then the day after they go, our friend Mel and her four kids are arriving from Scotland to spend 3 weeks. So I have been having to sort rooms, rearrange, and plan for everyone to have a place to sleep, bedding, towels, etc. To do so I cleaned each of the girl's rooms out, top to bottom, taking out something like 10 or 11 full black trash bags of junk for trash guy, as well as 3-4 full bags for charity. Well to be fair, that also including cleaning the bonus room, top to bottom and going through some boxes that had yet to be unpacked.

But darn it, everything is very clean, sorted and organized. Martha Stewart could not have done better!

On top of our own place, Gene has FINALLY moved out of the house, but in order to do it, I had to hire an attorney and threaten a lawsuit. He found a one bedroom apartment that would take a cat. In order to try to move things along, I went and spent a day packing up the kitchen stuff for him and then the following day, Joe and I rented a U-Haul and helped him move all his furniture over.

But now, I have the task of the house and trying to get it into some sort of condition to sell it. It is SO gross! It took hours to scrub the guest bathroom so we could have a place to use the toilet and wash up. I don't think Gene had done a thing in that room since I left 2 years ago. There was urine all down the outside of the toilet bowl, on the floor, on the wall behind the toilet... and stuff of a nastier nature that I will leave to your imagination.

We found that the den had been used as a mega litter box, for god knows how long, and had cat feces all over. That part made me down right angry. How dare he let his own kid's live in filth like that! And of course all the appliances and counters in the kitchen were filthy. I have spent days, going top to bottom over each item, trying to get them clean again, since they will be part of the house sale.  Joe started to pull up the filthy carpets and we have found they are just soaked all over in cat urine. So now we will have to get special chemicals to soak into the cement foundation to get rid of the the urine that has soaked into the it.

It is a huge project The house will need new floor throughout, new paint inside and out. The yard will have to be totally ripped out and redone, as it has been very poorly maintained and is either overgrown, dead, or weeds, depending where you look. Plus Gene just has junk all over, that he has 'saved'. Things like parts of chain link fence, a broken electric wheelchair, a moped that doesn't run, etc. It will be at least one huge dumpster, perhaps more to get it all out so we can start work inside.

So, if you don't hear from me, I am trapped in the old house, with an endless project in front of me.

In other news, we are all well. The kids are enjoying summer and I am glad there is a really nice soaking tub in our bathroom! I am hoping to take the girls to a Harry Potter party at the local bookstore on Friday night, it sounds really fun.

On Sunday, while our friend Daryl is visiting and the girl's are with Gene, we hope to go to Temecula to do some winery tours, since Daryl is a big wine fan, as are Joe and I. It should be nice and relaxing and I look forward to the break.

So that is about it. I hope everyone is having a great summer!

Our family is busy enjoying the summer and the weather seems to be cooperating nicely. Today was warm, sunny, with a light ocean breeze. Really lovely to enjoy while taking a walk with Joe today, while the girls were visiting Gene.

The girls have started the summer reading program at the library and are busy trying to get 10 check-ins, so they can win a gift card for Barnes & Nobel. I am SO glad I have raised two kids that consider a trip to the bookstore to be at least as good as a trip to the toystore.

Around the house, I have been busy hitting area after area to do sorting and organizing that has been put off. I redid all the linen cupboards and have it logical and organized now. Then I went and did the girl's desks, going thru every drawer and cupboard there, collecting all the crayons in one place, the pencils in another, etc. Then next I hit the bonus room where the kids keep craft things, books, etc. We have overflowed the bookshelf for the girls, so I sorted out books they no longer use and got a second bookcase to take care of the overflow. There is still work in there, but it is already a lot less chaotic. Unfortunately it has become the dumping room for orphan toys, so I still have all that to go through. Then yesterday, I went through all the stuff in Megan's room and got that organized and sorted, taking out two full Hefty bags of trash. She is pretty easy to work with when purging. If she doesn't play with something anymore, she easily gives it up. Becca, on the other hand, wants to save everything. Even dead leafs, dirty rocks and random pieces of twigs and shells. Everything is special and/or has a special memory. So her room is going to be more of a challenge to purge and organize. Perhaps I will wait till a day when she is with Gene and just do it. She doesn't seem to miss things she has not seen in a long time, it is more that once she sees something again, she doesn't want to let it go.

The girls have been saving aluminum cans to raise money to donate to the local animal shelter. This was born of an idea Becca had about six months ago.She and Megan even went around the neighborhood and collected cans from the neighbors to redeem for cash. In addition, we have been saving all the lose change in a piggy bank. We cashed it all in and the girls had earned $67! I took them to the animal shelter this week and they presented the money to the shelter. The director of the shelter was so impressed that he came out himself to meet the girls and thank them. It was very cool and then the girls had a fun time going around and seeing all the animals. They not only had cats and dogs, but we also saw bunnies, reptiles and two pigs!

Friday we took the girls to see the new Disney movie, Ratatouille, about a rat with gourmet taste, living in France. It was really cute and charming, but not filled with the silly, giggly humor of previous Pixar movies. None the less, we really enjoyed it and I am sure it will become a classic.

Saturday, Gene had the day off from work, so he took the girls early and I used the unexpected free time to work on my minis for the first time in at least a month, probably more. I devoted all my attention to trying to finish my Mimi's Cafe. It is a piece in quarter scale (1:48) and I built it several years back, then got lazy and didn't get the furniture and interior done. But I been working on focusing on completing a number of projects like that, that were started and I intended and wanted to finish them, but "stuff" came up. I mean what is the point of all the work that has already gone into them, to just leave them sitting partially finished on a shelf in my workroom. Anyhow, I am hoping to have this project completed in the next couple of weeks, if not sooner, and I will post some pictures. The biggest trick in summer, with the girls here almost all the time, is just finding time to myself to focus on it. I don't imagine it will take more than a couple more afternoons to actually finish.

This next week, I am predicting a lot of long afternoons at the community pool, with our nice weather. The girls love the pool because it is not only fun, but seems to be the place to meet up with other kids in the neighborhood and make new friends. And I don't mind the opportunity to sit and either read a book or work on needlework while they swim.

I hope everyone has a fun, safe and lovely Fourth of July!

Okay, as promised here are some photos of recent events. First, Megan's Girl Scout bridging from Brownies to Juniors (the brown uniform up to the green one, for those not in the know.) The bridging was held on a Sunday afternoon, at a local park, the weather was great and we had a nice potluck BBQ afterwards.

 

Megan putting on her new vest

 

Ready for new adventures

Then, later that week, Becca had her 5th grade promotion. It was so cute, all the girls were taller than the boys, they are at that age. Almost all the girls wore dresses and really looked nice. The school principal asked the boys to give a thumbs up if they thought the girls looked good and the boys sat there, like deer in headlights. Finally, a couple meekly held up their thumbs and we all laughed. The principal said, "I can promise you will be much more excited about girls in a couple years." The theme, as you might guess, was Hawaiian Paradise.

Becca getting her certificate from the principal

Becca and two of her friends

After the ceremony the 5th graders headed over to The Wave, a local waterpark and spent the day having a lot of fun. Then, for the last day of school, the kids went bowling in the morning and came back that afternoon for a luau and games.

Becca at her luau, with her friends. (That is Josh in the back right corner, in orange. Becca's guy friend who is just a friend and nothing else and don't think otherwise!)

So now, we are full swing into summer and I am adjusting to the girls being home all day. Late this summer, we will be going to visit Williamsburg, VA, so I am planning some fun activities tied into learning about Colonial America. I plan to dip candles with the girls, make tin punch lanterns, sew quilted pillows and learn now to naturally dye yarn. I also hope to sew a colonial dress for each girl to take on the trip and wear in Williamsburg. My mom made me a colonial dress in 1976 for the bicentennial when I was around Becca's age and I always like that. I am hoping this will be special for the girls as well, both now and years later. So stay tuned for updates on our adventures.

Six jobs I have had:

1. Day care teacher
2. Key cutter and metal engraver
3. Office manager for air conditioning repair company
4. Web site designer
5. Manager of software testing at Sony Online
6. Contracts Specialist, Level II

Six  Five places I have lived:

1. Southern California - all over, most recently San Diego
2. Pensacola, Florida
3. Watkins Glen, New York
4. Plymouth, Massachusetts
5. Cherry Hill, New Jersey

Six TV shows I love to watch:

1. CSI, the original one in Las Vegas
2. Heros
3. Project Runway
4. Hell's Kitchen
5. Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends
6. Just about anything on HGTV

Six places I've been on vacation:

1. Costswolds, England
2. Orkney, Scotland
3. Black Forest, Germany
4. Big Sur, California
5. Killington, Vermont
6. Boston, Massachusetts

Six of my favorite books:

1. Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
2. Born on a Blue Day by Daniel Tammet
3. Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood
4. Kiss the Girls by James Patterson
5. Harry Potter series by J. K. Rowling
6. Illusions by Richard Bach

Six places I'd like to be right now:

1. See six places I've been on vacation!

Stay tuned for pictures of Becca's promotion from fifth grade!

It is the girls last week of school and so we have been very busy with all the year end activities. Our house guest, Mel, went back to Scotland, last Tuesday and I am busy with catching up on house keeping and such, that always falls behind with guests.

Wednesday was Field Day at the school and Joe and I volunteered to help for two hours. They had set up various activities on the big grass field, like sack races and an obstacle course. Joe and I manned a football toss both were kids aimed the balls at vertically hung hoops. Luckily they were Nerf footballs, as the kids were not always the best about waiting for us to pick up the footballs from previous tries, before doing there own. It ended up being a rather intense workout, chasing balls and bending over and over to pick them up for two hours. We were both sore the next day like old people!

Thursday was a end-of-year Family Picnic at the school and the third grade play. We were surpised to learn that Megan had a really large speaking part in the play (well it was more a musical with a little bit of speaking) and she had kept it secret! She had the longest part and did it great, never even looked like she had stage fright! The picnic was fun, kids running all over, parents chatting, a great sunny afternoon and touching farewells to Megan's teacher, Mr. Rogers, who is retiring..

Megan and Mr. Rogers

Today we took the kids to see the kid's penguin movie Surf's Up. It was fun and cute and the girls liked it a lot. They play a lot on a multi-user game for elementary aged kids called Club Penguin, so both are a bit into penguins now anyhow, especially Megan.

Right now I am busy baking eight dozen chocolate chip cookies to take to Megan's Girl Scout bridging ceremony tomorrow. She will be moving from Brownies to Juniors and change from the brown vest to the green one. We will have a potluck meal and I am providing cookies for 40-60 people expected.

Next week will be more focused on Becca. For her fifth grade promotion to middle school they are spending one day at a waterpark and the next day with bowling and then a luau party. And of course there will be a graduation ceremony. A girl in her class is also throwing a promotion party next Saturday for even more fun and celebration!

Meanwhile, the Miniature Gazette, a publication put out every other month by the National Association of Miniature Enthusiasts, have asked me to write 3 how-to articles for the next issue. So I have been busy with that as well. It sounded fast and easy when I said yes, but has taken a lot longer than I expected! I think, if there is a next time, I will keep it to one article at a time!

 o, that is about all our chaos. This time next week, the girls will be out of school and probably already complaining they are bored and don't know what to do! LOL! But (buhahahaha) I have plans for that particular complaint!

Things are winding down at the girl's school with just two and a half weeks left of the year. They are already half into summer-mode and luckily, the worst of the homework and projects finally seem behind us. This week Becca was finishing up a multi-phase state report and will be giving her verbal presentation this week. Another part of the project was to make a mini-float (no bigger than 20x20x15 inches) to represent her state. Since she is doing Wyoming, she decided to do Devil's Tower. She originally wanted to do Old Faithful, trying to talk me into rigging up something with water and dry ice so it would 'erupt' and I told her it would just be too hard. In the end, Devil's Tower was more than enough work, but gave me giggly flashbacks to Close Encounters of the Third Kind. (If you have not seen that movie, this just won't make sense to you, sorry!). So, without further ado, here is the finished project. I had fun being handi-mom and doing all the woodwork for the base and attaching skateboard wheels so it would roll.

In other news, we were very happy to find that we got both of the school requests we made for the girls for next year. Being in a new housing development, they have been busy making a new elementary school for all the new kids in the area. So the school the girls were at this year, was not supposed to be the official school for our neighborhood. However, their current school is the best academically in the area and both girls have done really well with the high expectations. Becca moves on to middle school next year, but Megan has two more years of elementary school, so we hoped to keep her at this school, rather than move her to the new one next year. Besides that, this is already her third elementary school, do to district shuffling in the old school district, she needs some stability! But, a lot of other parents wanted to keep their kids at this school too, because it is so good academically, so there was a long list of hopeful parents. I wrote a long letter to go with Megan's application and I think that made the difference. She gets to stay at this school for the rest of elementary! Hurray!

Meanwhile, Becca was supposed to attend a middle school that is closer to our house, but the majority of her friends from elementary will be moving on to a middle school that is slightly further away. So she asked us to see if she could go there as well, so she would know people. That request was also approved and she is very excited. Her boy, who is a friend, Josh, will be going, which I think was her biggest reason to go there. Ahh, young love..err, wait, they are just friends. Right. Friends. Speaking of Josh, Becca has been bummed, he has not been in school the last two days, due to asthma.

You know, I felt I grew up in a fairly high tech time period while in school and collage, but I felt down right old today when Becca announced she needed a flash drive so she could move school work between the house and school computers! And the other day, I was helping her write a bibliography and I had to look up how to site sources from the internet and CDs. 

[said in old lady voice] "And there were no VCRs, you just had to wait for a movie to be on TV, Speaking of TV, we got 4 channels, that was it. There wasn't such a thing as cable! And music was on vinyl records...."

Anyhow, our friend Mel arrives late Friday. Hopefully this visit will go better than last time, when she had to just go straight home the next day because of her father's health. I also hope we get some sun before then, it has been grey and cloudy for the last week, above and beyond the typical May Gray you see in Southern California.

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend!

I am starting to feel summer. Not all the days are warm yet, but we had a spell of days with highs around 90 degrees F. Where we live, there is normally a nice ocean breeze, so the combination of the sun and breeze was really great. I spent Saturday afternoon on the patio relaxing while the girls were in the spa. It is so nice having a backyard we can use and enjoy!

The concert we went to last week was outstanding! We end up getting upgraded to a junior suite room, right by the concert area and restaurant, so it was very convenient to everything and very lovely. Looking off our balcony, we had a view, across the bay of the city of San Diego. We had a lovely dinner, in a dinning area over looking the marina. Dinner started with a crab salad with a plum basalmic dressing that was out of this world. Then I picked a chicken breast stuffed with olives, served with cous cous in a mild curry and fresh veggies. Dessert was included and Joe and I each picked something different and shared. There was a raspberry cheesecake and a dark chocolate cake. Both were yummy and sampling from both was a nice taste combination.

 

The marina next to the left of the concert stage

The concert venue was outside, right beside the marina, so people in boats there had the option of enjoying the music as well! Our seats were outstanding, in the fourth row, right in the middle! We were actually glad we were not in the first row, it would have been like in the first row in the movies, straining your neck to look up and see. The weather was perfect, not too cool, not too warm and the music was just heavenly. She did all my favorite pieces and I can't think of anything I would improve. It is too bad she did so few stops in the U.S. She said she has just recorded a new performance that is scheduled to show on PBS, so if you are a fan, keep your eye out for that. I believe it is called Nights in Alhambra, filmed in Alhambra, Spain.

Mother's Day was nice, mellow and relaxing. The girls surprised me with red roses which still look pretty good, considering they are almost a week old now. Megan made me a card with kitties all over it. It was so very Megan! Becca's card said on the outside, "Mom, today is Mother's Day! Today is all about you!" and on the inside said, "So enjoy it, because tomorrow it goes back to being all about me!" I almost died laughing. She has a fantastic sense of humour for only 10!

Tuesday, Joe and I went over to the middle school that Becca will be attending next year and had a PTA hosted tea with the principal. She seems really nice and has two daughters of her own in high school. We also learned that she lives in our housing community, moving in about 5 months before us! So she is basically our neighbor! The school seems very nice and set up well. I think Becca will be very happy there and likely make a lot more friends, since she will move from a school of a few hundred to a campus with at least twice as many kids.

Tuesday was also Megan's last regular Girl Scout meeting! Sniff, sniff! My little girl is growing up. In a few weeks she will have a bridging ceremony to move from Brownie to Junior. (Which reminds me, I need to finish sewing patches on her Junior vest, to wear at the ceremony!)

Becca has been very giggly, in an embarrassed way, this week. Friday she is getting the "growing up" stuff they do in school, talking about puberty, what to expect, personal hygiene and all that fun stuff. She keeps giggling about it, how the boys have to go off by themselves and the girls by themselves. Her girlfriend, in her old school district, has already done it and informed Becca that is was 'kinda gross'. I just remember the silly film they showed us when I was that age. If I recall, it had a talking tampon that told us how great it was that we were growing up now. Hopefully the films have improved since then! The joys of youth, yep, wouldn't do it over if you paid me! LOL!

In closing, I thought I would share this cute picture I took of a duck family at the hotel the concert was at. We saw them Saturday, on the way back to the car to go home.

 

While I have been on the quiet side, I have been busy with a few projects here. While in Chicago, I started two needlework projects for the girls. I decided to make them each a decorated pillow case, as I had ones similar when I was a kid and I really like them. Yesterday I just finished off the second one. Here they are:

For Megan, a kitten, what else?

And a branch of baby birds for Becca...

While at the Chicago miniature show, I took a class were we learned to make a chest of drawers in mini from wood. I just finished that this week as well. I used the Early American Miniwax stain, after I finished assembling it, then sealed it with 3 coats of semi-gloss varnish, sanding in between with 000 steel wool. It is not perfect, but I learned a lot and think it looks pretty good. I added a quarter in the corner so you can get an idea of scale.

Anyhow, I need to go pack for the concert tonight. We have a lovely dinner on the bay, followed by the concert and a romantic night by ourselves in a hotel there. Thank you American Express reward points! LOL, I sound like a commercial. See you all later!