We're Back!

So much has happened in the past few days! Be sure to read the other Sea World post first. I caught a stomach bug, my son also ended up having a double ear infection and a sinus infection. He ran that fever then was fine then WHAM. I believe that there can be spiritual warfare against us because God's word says in the book of Ephesians 6:10-12 - "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." I believe that the enemy, satan, can and will try to mess with the plans that may be layed out for us. I look at this as many attempts to get me to back out. Instead I prayed and walked through it all, I would not back down. My husband ended up taking a much needed break from work and stayed home Monday, so my son could come home and take it easy after his couple of hours in school. He was on antibiotics and was allowed to go to school as long as he wasn't running a temp. So he went and had a couple hours of fun with his friends. Otherwise the original plan may have worn on him to much. God works in mysterious ways, my husband really did need a break..... I got on the Bus and felt totally fine. It also wasn't "that time of the month" :) until today, the day after! I know you didn't really think you needed to hear that, but to hear how much God loves us and answers our prayers, you needed to hear it. Also, no pre-headache yesterday. All was well, we had a great time.

When we arrived at Sea World we had some free time before the classes started. We wandered around for a couple of hours then went and participated in some classes. We learned about sharks, rays, animal trainers etc... they played games, made a shark tooth necklace had a lovely buffet dinner in an area that looked like Gilligan's Island and had a wonderful night. The next morning up at 6:30 to pack up and get ready for some more behind the scenes at Sea World. They fed the Seals, the rays and ate breakfast with the whales. That was a beautiful experience. Afterwards more free time in the park where the kids attempted to get as wet as they possibly could by going back and forth between the rapids ride and the Atlantis water roller coaster. Together with standing at the bottom of the Atlantis ride and getting splashed each time the coaster came down from the huge drop. I took a million pictures of kids in lime green shirts. They gave us these shirts to identify us as "Camp Sea World" participants. So every time I saw green shirts coming down Atlantis I had to capture the moments, while awaiting my daughter and her friends taking just one more ride about 4 or 5 times :) The weather wasn't quite what was forecast. It was pretty toasty both days, for California in April that's a rarety. We left in the afternoon and were home by late evening. During the trip I met some new friends and it was great to witness the bonding experience for the kids, also as many of them as there were, so many know one another. This was an experience they won't soon forget, nor will I. Today a new day begins and back to school and somewhat normal we go. Thank you God for an awesome trip, you were with us all the way!

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The Ant and the contact lens: A True Story

Brenda was almost halfway to the top of the tremendous granite cliff. She was standing on a ledge where she was taking a breather during this, her first rock climb. As she rested there, the safety rope snapped against her eye and knocked out her contact lens. "Great", she thought. "Here I am on a rock ledge, hundreds of feet from the bottom and hundreds of feet to the top of this cliff, and now my sight is blurry."

She looked and looked, hoping that somehow it had landed on the ledge. But it just wasn't there.

She felt the panic rising in her, so she began praying. She prayed for calm, and she prayed that she may find her contact lens. When she got to the top, a friend examined her eye and her clothing for the lens, but it was not to be found. Although she was calm now that she was at the top, she was saddened because she could not clearly see across the range of mountains. She thought of the bible verse "The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth."

She thought, "Lord, You can see all these mountains. You know every stone and leaf, and You know exactly where my contact lens is. Please help me."

Later, when they had hiked down the trail to the bottom of the cliff they met another party of climbers just starting up the face of the cliff. One of them shouted out, "Hey, you guys! Anybody lose a contact lens?"

Well, that would be startling enough, but you know why the climber saw it? An ant was moving slowly across a twig on the face of the rock, carrying it!

The story doesn't end there. Brenda's father is a cartoonist. When she told him the incredible story of the ant, the prayer, and the contact lens, he drew a cartoon of an ant lugging that contact lens with the caption, "Lord, I don't know why You want me to carry this thing. I can't eat it, and it's awfully heavy. But if this is what You want me to do, I'll carry it for You."

I think it would do all of us some good to say, "God, I don't know why you want me to carry this load. I can see no good in it and it's awfully heavy. But, if you want me to carry it, I will."

God doesn't call the qualified, He qualifies the called.

Sea World Adventure

I am getting ready to embark on an adventure on Monday with over 100 6th graders! There will be 4 6th grade teachers as well as our Media teacher, PE teacher and Principal going and at least 30 parents as well. It will be an overnighter to Sea World San Diego. The kids will have classes, feed sea lions, eat breakfast right next to Shamu.... it is going to be a memorable, fun time!
I am looking forward to it with much anticipation. I'm also at the same time cracking myself up. We will spend several hours on the bus traveling to Sea World. The thought of going on a charter bus and not being able to go "back to the room" or "to the car" or "to the store" is causing me to think that I need to carry a backpack with supplies for every known possible scenario that I could encounter. I'm too funny I'm LOL. Let's see now, there is always the possibility of "that time of the month", fact of life people, need supplies for that and medicine to keep me comfortable during those uncomfortable moments (in the event that they happen, God forbid please) plus a snack in case I need to take the Ibuprofen, can't take it on an empty stomach, that will lead to other problems, we need rain ponchos since we don't want to get soaked to the core and not be able to go back to the room since we only get one night in it. Our luggage will be packed away in the bus from early morning on with no possibility of retrieval.
I have been praying and asking for prayer that it's NOT "that time of the month" for this trip. I know some may wonder why I'm mentioning this, fact of life! I've even asked God if it has to be, it would be by Friday otherwise it would hold off til we get back. I also get this "day before horrible headache" and I've prayed that that wouldn't happen either. It's been pretty consistent for sometime now. It is a rough time for me in ways you really don't want me to mention :)

The forecast for our time there:
Day 1:
High: 73 °F
Low: 59 °F

Day 2:
High: 64 °F
Low: 56 °F

Beautiful weather is in store, not the 90's as we are accustom to. Drying time will not be in a matter of hours as it would be at home, thus wet uncomfortable long ride home..... I'm thinking though that any really wet rides we'll do first thing that we have free time. Then there is the shows though, if we are front row or so we will get drenched. Back to my backpack items, most importantly I need my camera for I have to capture these moments for they will never again occur in time, also can't get it wet, that equals disaster. Also I need to pack pepto bismol just in case of stomach upset, etc.... so I'm going to have quite the back pack on. Prepared for just about anything :) I know I have failed to mention one very important thing, God is with me, he's been awesome! He's going with us too :) I'm just prepared for whatever he may need me to do right :) My son was running a fever last night, I prayed over him and this morning he's back to normal. God is good!!!!!! Can't have him getting sick, not in the plan! He's going to be cared for by two awesome ladies by day and by Daddy after work. My husband is taking the day off to take care of him day 2. We will be getting back on a school night at 10:30 PM, go figure? The next day the kids have cap and gown photos at school, should be interesting. Maybe they'll fall asleep on the bus? Are they to old to expect that from them? Well it's going to be fun. I'll post when I'm back.

Afternoon Nap

We don't do naps anymore at our house. I stopped trying when my son was 4. It just stopped being a regular thing, he didn't seem to need them anymore. There are times though if I know it's going to be a late night that I will take a little drive down the sleepy road. There is a road nearby that I like to drive down that goes into the desert where there are only mountains and cactus no homes or buildings. The road has some curves and slight ups and downs which equals NAP! There are also days like today when I'm guessing he's just played hard and is so comfortable on the couch, he falls asleep. After lunch I let him watch a little TV. I was doing my previous post. I thought it was kind of quiet in the house, I peeked around the couch to see this precious site :) Lately I also been reading to him at night and twice he's fallen asleep during the story! That what kids are supposed to do :)

Art Masterpiece Today

This morning I did an Art Masterpiece presentation and the artist was Jean-Honore Fragonard (pronounced: zjahn oh-no-reh Fra-go-nahr)

The painting was titled "A Young Girl Reading" it was painted in 1776. Fragonard lived from 1732-1806, he began painting at 18 studying under such famous artists as Chardin & Boucher. Boucher encouraged him to enter "Prix de Rome" which from what I've learned sounds to be a scholorship for Artists. At age 20 he won Prix de Rome. At that point he wasn't sure as to what he wanted to paint since he mainly did landscapes. He spent some time searching and learning and also spent time in Italy. He was then accepted into the Royal Accademy in France and his reception piece drew a lot of praise, it was sent to be copied into a tapestry. He would have possibly had an illustrious career as a court painter for Louis XV but turned his back on the opportunity. He instead chose to paint commissioned work for Aristocrats (it was funny when I was telling the 6th graders this, AristoCATS came out instead :) I quickly corrected myself. The time period style paintings were "Rococo" which is described as delicate colors, curving forms, cherubs, myths of love & portraiture. Fragonard was commissioned by Madame du Barry (Louis XV's last mistress) to do several paintings. She rejected his work saying they were passe' it was the late Rococo period. The other two painting I have pictured are from that group. One is called "The Meeting" and the other "The Swing". Of his work I am more fond of these, than the Young Girl Reading but the kids had quite a few comments about it. They questioned if she may be reading the Bible. One boy said her finger looked like a noodle. Another comment was that her pinkie stuck out and we talked about that being an aristocratic thing. There was also a lot of discussion as to where she was sitting because of the pillow behind her. The girl is unidentified so we speculated as to who she may be. I thought it would be good to bring in other work he'd done. I also brought in a picture to show the difference between Baroque and Rococo style. Baroque came before Rococo.

Fragonard's career was destroyed by the French Revolution since the nobility was obviously destroyed by the Revolution.

The Beauty that surrounds me

I noticed some beautiful Cactus in bloom this morning on the way to school. My camera has been acting up lately but I was able to get some shots with it. I came right home and had to go back and take pictures of these beautiful cactus before the sun closes them back up again. Then I took pictures of the flowers in my own yard. I was looking at the bottle brush yesterday, it really does look like a bottle brush. Isn't it cool how it first starts to bloom in the little clumps and they all straighten up after they have fully bloomed. God is so amazing! It felt so good to be taking pictures again. When we are pursuing our passion it is then that we feel most alive!

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot

Well I finally broke down and turned on my A/C. I had it all down to a science, I would open the windows downstairs in the morning while the upstairs windows have been open pretty constant. The house has been very comfortable, even a little chilly at night, until today. We went to Church this morning the house was comfy. We were gone until about 3:30 this afternoon, we did some shopping around afterwards. When we came home it wasn't to bad since the ceiling fans were on, once I started moving around it hit me, HOW HOT IS IT IN THIS HOUSE? 88 degrees! Funny how just seeing that number made me want to pass out on the spot. I had to put that A/C on. Our weather, if the forecast is accurate, looks like this for the next few days:
90° | 59°Mon
92° | 61°Tue
90° | 56°Wed
79° | 54°Thur
I always question when it goes from 90 to 79, looks kind of strange doesn't it? Like what is going to happen there? That should be interesting to see if that happens. I'm thankful that it cools down at night. Before long once summer is in full swing it won't cool down that much. Oh well the beauty of central A/C is that it won't come on if it's cooler than 78 degrees in the house, we've determined that to be a comfortable temp for us.

Maybe my seasonal allergies will be more controlled with the windows closed. Every morning I wake up going through about a quarter box of tissues and several hard sneezes first thing in the morning, then I'm good to go. I have taken a couple of different over the counter meds. to find they aren't as good as the prescription strength. I'm not a big fan of nasal sprays but have started taking Astelin, a nasal spray. It seems to be helping better. My back yard is full of green, a must for me to live in the desert. Something has been aggravating my allergies for a couple of weeks now. Funny growing up in New Jersey I never experienced seasonal allergies. It wasn't until my 20's in Florida that it started.

We have quite a few trees in our yard, there are a couple I've yet to figure out what they are called, they smell just like orange blossoms to me but they aren't. They smell so nice and they have a tiny blossom on them. It's been so nice outside lately that we have spend a lot more time on our back patio. If you sit long enough and watch you can usually spot a humming bird.

Frozen Yogurt date with my son

Just before lunch today my little guy and I went out for frozen yogurt to the Golden Spoon. LOVE that place! I had a coupon for 2 free! I know it's not the perfect lunch but we had a good ole time. He got the usual "chocolate" boy after my own heart. I got the 99% fat free Heath Bar, with Heath Bar topping! I'm not concerned about the 99% fat free stuff just the flavor. It was a beautiful day and a little cool in the shade. So we opted to sit in the back of my SUV. We opened up the back hatch and there we sat comfy in the parking lot. We totally enjoyed each others company. I asked him how school was and what was going on. We talked about our flavors of choice. He didn't understand why I didn't get chocolate if I like it. Hard to explain to a 5 year old that our taste in frozen yogurt and ice cream expands as our taste buds develop and we learn of all the other cool flavors. What a nice time we had together. I cannot take credit for the picture, I just thought it would go nicely with the post :)

The Past weeks happenings

Our weather has been in the upper 70's and 80's, some have been a little toasty lately we are getting ready to hit the 90's this weekend :( Today is a beautiful day, it's cloudy and in the shade it's only 58 degrees, and it's already after 9 am! It's only supposed to be a high of around 70 today. I haven't put my A/C on yet. We were holding out until April 1st and that's come and gone. Our A/C runs about 6 months out of the year.

On Saturday my husbands company had a picnic at the zoo. The zoo was a tad bit crowded with approx. 4000 employees plus family, it was like a zoo in there :) I'm sure not all of them showed up, but there was also another company picnic happening at the zoo that day also. The parking was a pretty hairy but once we got in, we had a nice day. They kids were each given little giraffe stuffed animals, they had lunch and bounce houses etc...

On Sunday my daughter was Baptized! She had been asking about being Baptized lately and the Church scheduled a big youth baptism so she chose to do that. It is our belief that when are children are babies, we present our children in a "dedication" service before the congregation. What that means is that we are standing before God and other believers agreeing to raise our child to know God, the Pastor says a prayer for the parents and the baby. Then when they are old enough to believe and accept Jesus gift of salvation they acknowledge that and as a demonstration/declaration of their faith, they are publicly baptised. It was a special time. My husband and I got into the water with her and baptised her. The photographer at Church took some pictures, but I don't have them yet.

Last night I had a Sea World meeting. My daughter is in 6th grade and we'll be going to Sea World this month with all of the 6th graders. They are only able to take so many parents and I was one of the "chosen ones" :) We will be gone for 2 days. There will be some behind the seen learning and activities that sound awesome.

Next month is the last month of school. The 6th graders are having a promotion ceremony. This is an emotional time as my first born baby is going to Jr. High next year! I look forward to the year ahead for her with mixed emotions. All the firsts she will experience. New opportunities for her since she'll be able to start taking electives. The new friends that she will make. There will be a lot of change and more responsibility will be put on to her. It will help to build her confidence because she's at the age where she is stretching her wings and testing the air. It's a little scary, but I know she's in God's hands and he's got a great plan for her. I have to have confidence that we have been teaching her and she will make good choices. This will help her to gain more confidence. It's hard to let go as they get older but it isn't right to hold on to tight. They need to experience all that God has planned for them.

Art Masterpiece Today

Today for Art Masterpiece at school I brought in this painting by Eugene Delacroix. It's called Frightened Horse. The kids had a lot to say about this painting, there was a lot of observation in this. We talked about what they thought was happening in the picture and the repetitive curves in the painting. Some thought there may be water in the background and that waves were crashing and there was thunder and lightning which was frightening the horse. Personally I think the horse had a pretty crazy look in his eyes. I'm hoping the horse lived through this because he looks very stressed out, he's thrashing around (I know it's just a painting.....)

Delacroix was born in the late 1700's and died in the mid 1800's. He was born near Paris and both of his parents died when he was 16. He was destined for a musical career, but his Uncle saw some of his sketches and encouraged him in Art. His fame began at age 24, his style was Romanticism which often is emotion provoking and his subjects were either political, historical, but often dramatic. He was inspired by poetry and literature of Shakespeare. His work inspired the Impressionists that came after him.

After I was finished I told the kids that a generous donor was paying for them to go to Paris when our study was finished (April Fools!) wish it was true though. Their teacher told them that they had to go for Jr. High shots today, new requirements. I was in the classroom at the time and immediately wondered why I hadn't been notified (she got me too) I thought nobody is giving my daughter shots without my permission, she was so serious, who knew. She let me in on it. Later on she walked the class to the nurse. Then they found out that it was just an April fools prank.