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Ice Cream Scoop?

This is what our ice cream scooper is used for these days.

YUMMY!

Friend or Foe

find out on Tough Enough

New Blog

Notice up at the top that there is a new link called Tough Enough. This is a new blog that Trisha helped me set up. I will be using it to catalog my progress from now until the Race for the Cure. If you are interested in seeing how I am doing, want to encourage me or keep me accountable please visit this site.

Thank you all in advance for your love and support. And remember that I would love for any of you to join me in walking or even to just pledge a couple bucks towards this worthy cause.

Bandwagon

Cate is organizing a team for The Komen Race for the Cure. It's on Sunday, September 24th. It will be a 5K or 3.1 miles which is possible even for those who haven't exercised in quite awhile. If anyone would like to join the team please click here. If you don't want to run or walk 5K but would like to help out such a worthy cause please visit this site. Thank you so much.

Sun Diego

22nd June 2006

Hutch, Amy and I all went down to SD in hopes of finding Amy an apartment since SDSU sent her a letter saying there was no more dorm space. After seeing the apartments just a 5 minute walk from campus I want to move in with her. They are furnished apartments, very spacious, balconies, 2 bed 2 bath and beautiful. She and Hutch signed the lease agreement and assuming that Amy's background checks out they should be giving her a call soon to reserve her spot.

I drove down separate from Hutch and Amy since Paul was working every other shift for a few days. I spent my time cleaning out closets, throwing out trash and getting stuff ready for a garage sale. We also raked the front yard, bought a BBQ and a screen door. It was a very productive few days. Hopefully next time I am down I will be able to schedule some time to meet up with friends and do lunch.

ConGRADulations Dippy!

June 16th, 2006 Amy Elizabeth Hutchins graduated from H.S.

Congratulations to our sister on a job well done. She sang with the choir before the ceremony started, then she and 3 other girls sang the National Anthem. Amy walked across the stage and got that diploma she has been waiting so long for. Wahoo. During the ceremony there was not a lot of hoopla although some beach balls were confiscated. Bradley tried to get Amy to walk across the stage with a lightsaber. She didn't =( but at least we got a photo with it afterward.

Proud Parents!

Jean, Papa and Mair beaming with pride.

Too Cute

Here are a couple more photos of the Askew kids from the Angels game on June 15th because they are just too darn cute.

DLFN Radio

June 13th, 2006

My third graders performance. All 5 classes took part in putting together a show. It was a radio show which had on Disney characters as guests. The guests gave advice to Carmela students. The show was a collaboration of Disney songs which they worked on for months learning the words, motions to the songs, sign language and a dozen or so learned how to swing dance. It was so much fun to see the completed show. I was excited to have Paul with me to watch. I know he would have rather done other things but it meant a lot to me that he was there.

Breaking Bread

On Sunday June 11th we joined many friends at Buca to have a surprise goodbye dinner for Nick as he prepared to leave for Oregon. There were good eats and we had a nice time with everyone. You will be missed bro.

I didn't mean your actual mom. I meant the universal "your mom".

"Smrt, Smrt, oh I mean S-M-A-R-T"

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

Please pray for us....

I have no idea how this one is going to turn out, but it's not looking good right now.

20 years changes a lot

June 9th-11th, 2006

My mom has not been to Vegas in over 20 years so after Amanda's graduation we headed to Sin City. We checked into the Hilton around 2am on Friday morning. We stayed till Sunday. There was much fun, gambling and a couple shows.

Dinner at Planet Hollywood

Margarittaville!

REBA

Menopause: the musical

Amanda's Graduation

June 8, 2006

Beach Balls. Thunder Sticks. Air Horns. Naked Blow Up Dolls. Gymnastics. The Wave. and "o six, o six" every time the year was mentioned.

Amanda front and center

Cousins!

Proud Mom

This guy seems pretty cool...

Good Day / Bad Day

On Thursday we went with the Askews to the Angels/Royals game. Our seats were in the outfield, but we were in the row right behind the bullpen so we got a up close view of the pitchers warming up throughout the game. The Angels ending up winning 3-2 in 10 innings, plus I got a spiffy Angels Gilligan style hat. Good times!

The not so good times was that the game was also a chance to say goodbye to Nick. As of Sunday he is now a resident of Eugene, Oregon where he is starting his new job and waiting for their house to sell so the family to join him. I know it's not goodbye forever, but it will still be weird not having my closest friend around. We first met just under 10 years ago at Biola and have been close friends almost since day one.

Coming Soon

The last two weeks have been busy. As a result I have not had a chance to post. I am at work right now so I cannot post photos but hopefully tonight I will have the opportunity to post about my sis and counsins graduations, vegas, and everything else we have been up to. So stay tuned. Lucky for me as I have not had a chance to do blogging, Paul has picked up the ball and is keeping everyone entertained.

So do you?

do you like american music?
we like american music.
I like american music, baby.
do you like american music?
we like all kinds of music,
but I like american music best, baby.

Separated at birth?

Really? What gave it away?

Are you ready?!?

After months of waiting, it's finally time for football again. My fantasy football league got together last Saturday for our annual draft lottery lunch. We meet at National's Sports Bar and pull numbered ping pong balls out of a box to determine the draft order we'll use this season. I had a pretty good season last year, which meant my odds of winning the #1 pick were slim. I ended up falling one spot, so I'll be picking 11th out of 12 teams. Ugh. I'm not as good at managing my team as most of the guys in the league, so my season always depends on how strong my draft is. I've got some research to do now if I want to have a fighting chance.

This is the 7th year they've done a lottery like this. Craig Petinak has won it 4 times including the last 3 in a row. It doesn't matter what odds he has, he always manages to win. Josh Banker ended up winning this year, but Craig was in his usual position near the top with the second overall pick.

Aloha

Last week we had our annual open house at work. It used to be a Christmas party, but my bosses decided early last year that they wanted all the group homes to spread their parties out throughout the year. We weren't too happy about it since we would get a lot of donations due to the holidays. Everyone picked a date, but the other houses were slackers, and we ended up being the only house not to do it in December. We had 2 kids graduating high school and our program last year so we did a summer kickoff party instead. Only 7 people showed up. We had food for 60.

This year we did a Hawaiian theme. We had lots of good food (honey chicken, BBQ flank steak, mahi mahi) and went all out with the decorations. I hooked up a mini wall of TVs and showed surf DVDs with a soundtrack of beach themed music I put together. We had a much better turnout too -- about 50 people showed up. It looks like we may get a new weight bench and free entry and poles for some fishing tournaments this summer from some of the Optimist club members that came.

These parties are always a lot of fun, but a pain to put together. I ran around all week after work buying the food and decorations. The boys don't care about it beforehand, so they usually try to fight things every step of the way instead of helping out a little. Most of them have never heard of a party without lots of alcohol and drugs to go around. And I don't know how many times I had to explain that the senior citizen donors that were coming probably didn't want to hear their stereos blasting 50 Cent and Tupac. I did manage to get them to wear Hawaiian shirts and leis so at least they looked festive.

We've been busy, so here's something to distract you from the lack of real posts lately.

Three Steps Back!

On Thursday my mom and I drove up to Victorville for my cousin Amanda's graduation. We asked if there was anything we could do to help or if they wanted us to stay over night. We were told "no" we should make the most of our weekend. So my mom and I decided to head up to Vegas as she has not been there in 20+ years. We got home around 10pm and saw this message from my Aunt Robin. Please keep them in your prayers. With both my aunt and uncle sick this is a very difficult time for the family. Thanks, Cyndi

Sunday, June 11, 2006
Ron was discharged home on Friday morning. By the afternoon he was not doing too well. I had hoped that he would be discharged to rehab. but since he could walk upon discharge they did not feel it was necessary. Took him St. Marys ER Friday night to have a few tests run to see if he should be readmitted to Kaiser. Ron refused to stay, signed out AMA. Said he was tired of hospitals and just wanted to be home to get well. He slept on the couch Friday night and Sat. morning I found him unresponsive, collasped on the entry way floor. Parmedics took him to St. Mary's and he had a seizure in the ER. and placed back on a ventilator. St. Mary's stablized him and then he was transported with an ICU team back to Kaiser ICU where he is currently.
The St. Mary's Dr. thinks he may have had a stroke, but that is just a guess.
Amanda has been stronger than me, but it is melt down time for us both. Josh goes to camp for two weeks starting tomorrow, which is for the best.
Thank you for your continuing prayers.
Robin

Two Steps Forward

On Wednesday, June 7, 2006 my Aunt Robin sent the following update.
Ron is out of ICU. The vent came off a couple of days ago. He had no idea how he came to be in the hospital, how long he was there, etc... He said at one point he thought he was deadand in purgatory, and he was not kidding.
He remembers some people coming to visit but he was not sure if that was a dream or reality. The doctor believes he will have to go to a rehab. center after the hospital. Sometimes he is totally confused, but the doctor says that is normal. He has not been out of bed yet and they discovered a blood clout in his right arm from one of the lines they put in, so he is on blood thinner. No way he can come on Thrus. He gets short of breath just doing their tests, CAT scan, etc...
When he found out how many people had visited and the support they have offered me, Ron told Amanda to work for our office, that there is not a better group of people.

Thanks for the info!

Worst Job Ever

Since there aren't many sub jobs to be had these days due to school winding down, Cyndi filled out her application for a temp agency today. She figured it would be a good way to keep money coming in through the summer while she interviews for full time teaching positions for the fall. This reminded me of my brief experience working temp jobs right after college.

Even if I know someone real well, I usually don't like spending a lot of time on the phone with anyone. I never know what to talk about. So as you can imagine, I was horrified when I went to my first temp job at Cal State Fullerton and was placed at a long table with 2 other new temps and 3 phones. We were told that we were going to be helping to put together an auction that they were using as a fundraiser. They wanted to put together and auction off travel packages and needed to get people to donate nights at hotels and airline tickets. This is where I came in. Sort of.

They had a letter that they wanted to send out explaining what the fundraiser was and asking for donations. However, they didn't want to send out generic letters to these hotels. Thus it became my job to call the hotels and ask for the manager's name and verify the address and phone number.

That's when they gave me the book.

Apparently we weren't just supposed to call hotels in major cities where people might actual want to buy travel packages to. We were supposed to call every hotel.

I got Holiday Inn.

The book was huge. There are thousands of Holiday Inns. I should have walked out then, but I needed the money and didn't want to burn bridges with the temp agency on the first day. So with great dread, I opened it up to the first page: Alabama.

I quickly learned that old phones and heavy southern accents don't mix. I also learned that people get real defensive when you call and ask for the name of their manager. Most of the time I had to give them a spiel about why I was calling before they'd give me the information. If I was talking to the manager, they'd usually tell me they weren't interested. Then I'd have to make up some reason why I needed his name anyway.

This was my lot in life for close to 2 weeks, 8 hours a day. Every time I got to a new state, I'd have to get used to a new accent. Massachusetts and Louisiana were the worst. The whole south was bad. I found that about 30% had a manager with Patel as the last name. Forget outsourcing to India. Holiday Inn is providing them all jobs here.

Finally, one morning I got to the end of Wyoming. That's when my bad job got worse: "Holiday Inn -- International Guide" was placed before me. Kentucky is nothing compared to Guatemala, Pakistan, and Mozambique. I was stuck for another week. For 40 hours, I made one international call after another, just so some Holiday Inn manager in United Arab Emirites or Bosnia could see their name printed on the top of a form letter. That's your tax money at work Californians!

So the next time you see a Holiday Inn, no matter where in the world you may be, know that I have called there...and hated every second of it.