Home Stretch of Summer School

This is the second summer I've taught summer school. It's not a bad gig, but to finish off a long and tiring school year with 5 more weeks of teaching is a bit mentally exhausting. The pay is respectable, though, which helps finance our summer plans in July.

I'm actually writing this blog at school/work. I brought my class to the computer lab to type up their papers, so while they're working away, I have a moment to blog. After today, there are only 4 more days of summer school. We have a lot to do this weekend to get ready for our big trip next Thursday.

The kids are doing well in their afternoon swim classes. This is the first season Bella has had classes where a parent isn't in the water with her. The first couple of weeks were challenging. In fact, the first day had some tears and serious hesitancy. But as the days went on, she got a bit more accepting. She still didn't like going to lessons, but at least she got through them. By the time the third week started, she was really coming around. She loves her teacher, Brandy, and no longer was she the clingy, whiny kid who had to be comforted by the teacher (there were others that filled that role). She was getting into it. In fact, the other day Cristina noticed after class, when the kids get some free play in the pool, that Bella was lying on her belly in the shallow section, doing "bobs" on her own. (Bobs are when you go underwater and bob back up.) She said she was practicing for her next class! So she's done a complete 180 and is now a swim class pro.

That said, our plan was to leave town Thursday as soon as I got done with school at 2:30. Technically, the last day of swim class is Thursday at 4 pm. I wanted to skip the last swim lesson so we could get on the road as early as possible, but Bella is enjoying it so much, I think we'll leave town straight from the pool. The pool is on the south side of Phoenix, which is the way we're leaving town anyway. So the kids will shower off after their last lesson and we can be in Tucson in time for dinner. We're only driving about 3 hours that evening anyway.

I'm going to try to post blogs during our travels. Most of the KOAs have Wi-Fi, and we'll definitely have our laptop with us for dumping pictures. Not to mention that I'm taking an online PowerPoint class that I'll have to work on during our trip.

We're considering buying a GPS thingie for the car. We've admired them ever since Mom and Dad had one in their first Prius. They've gotten pretty inexpensive, so now would be the time to buy, before embarking on a cross-country trip. GPS systems have pretty much made the AAA trip-tych antiquated and obsolete.

Sofia goes to camp

This morning, Sofia left for Girl Scout Camp at Shadow Rim Ranch, near Payson. I volunteered to be a bus chaperone, so I was able to snap a few pictures. Here she is on the bus. I sat in the front row. She sat a couple of rows back, next to a girl she just met. I saw them chatting quite a bit, but at one point they were both reading books. Sofia didn't take any books, so her neighbor must have given her one to read. Unless Sofia snuck one on...


When we arrived at the camp, the counselors unloaded the bags. Then, each girl was greeted by their specific counselors. I'm sure I was embarrassing Sofia a little to be taking pictures, but she'll forgive me someday. If you're not familiar with Girl Scout camps, the counselors go by nicknames, which are printed on the backs of their shirts. So I guess one of Sofia's counselors is named Peanut.

Right before I headed back to Phoenix in the empty bus, I peeked in to the mess hall, where all the girls had gone. Sofia's group was playing some kind of name game. She looked happy. I tried to get her attention to wave goodbye, because I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye or give her a kiss or anything. I couldn't get her attention, so I just had to go.

She'll be back next Friday. I know she'll have a great time, meet some new friends, and learn something new about camping and backpacking (her session is called "Backpack Beginnings.") I'm so glad she greets adventures like this with openness and joy. She's awesome!

There's no cell phone service up there, but the campers can receive mail. It's always comforting to actually get mail during mail call (my nephew Steven can probably attest to that). Since the camp is only 6 days, it's not too practical to mail letters via snail mail, but they have an email service where you can set up an account, buy credits, and then send emails. The counselors will print them each morning and then deliver them to the camper at mail call. I set up a basic account so we could send a few emails. Hey, you all can do me a favor. If you would like to send her a little note (or make it as long as you want) please do it as a comment to this blog (write it as if you were writing her) and I'll copy and paste it in an email we send her. That way none of you has to sign up (and pay for) an account. I know she would love to hear from others! She won't be expecting it, so it will be a nice surprise. Thanks in advance!

Bella's 4th Birthday

Our youngest child turned four today. We started the day off with Bella's choice of breakfast, blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit. I stuck a candle in her first pancake and we sang, although she refused to blow the candle out.


She had already eaten half a bagel, so she didn't eat much of her pancake.

Bella's birthday coincided with a shindig at Desert Marigold called Splash Bash, where the kids come to school and enjoy some water play. Hoses, little pools, sprinklers, slip-and-slides, stuff like that. It's mainly a meet-and-greet for new parents to the school. We decided to combine the Splash Bash with Bella's "party," instead of trying to get some friends together afterwards. Last night I bought a big cake with 5 frosting balloons on it (Bella picked it out). I wrote B-E-L-L-A on the balloons with white frosting. At the end of the Splash Bash, we gathered everyone together, sang, and before Bella had a chance to blow out the candles, a breeze blew them out for her! She said she didn't want me to relight them for her. It was a huge bunch of kids and adults, so I cut the pieces small. It was good though. By a count of plastic ware we used, we served about 80 pieces of cake!


Back at home, after an exhaustion-induced tantrum, The kids watched a DVD from the library. Bella opened some presents: silk dress-up clothes, fairy princess kind of stuff...capes, crown/veils, flower-petal blouses...the whole shebang.


The birthday dinner that Bella chose was pizza with black olives. We made a big salad to go with it, and sweet tea.

After Bella is in bed, I'm going to see You Don't Mess With the Zohan with Peter. I'm not a huge Adam Sandler fan (I like about half of his movies). The trailer for Zohan looked pretty entertaining, so I'm up for a few laughs.

Summer 2008

I'm well into teaching summer school, the kids are done with their school, and the highlight of each day now is swim lessons at Pecos Pool. Our plan for our summer travels this year was to do the west coast. Drive over to LA and see Dom and Lucinda, then to Los Olivos to see the Yakis. On the way up north, we'd swing through Yosemite and the Redwood National Park near Eureka. See some friends in Eugene, Oregon. Swing over to Bend, Oregon to visit my Uncle Bill. And up towards Seattle to see my friend Amy and, finally, Cristina's cousin Trip.

There was only one glitch in the plan. I teach summer school until June 26 and then I have a reader's/writer's workshop training from July 7 to July 11.

Cristina and I finally sat down a few days ago and tried to hash out a plan to make it all work around the confines of my schedule. We came up with a plan, but it just didn't feel good. No matter how we tried to maximize our traveling efficiency, it still felt too rushed. And due to the amount of driving and the relatively short amount of time, it was going to necessitate staying on the road about 16 nights. In order to make that even close to affordable, we'd need to tent camp. But to drive all day, set up a tent (probably in the dark) and then break camp in the morning to hit the road again...and getting back home right before school starts...it just felt too stressful.

So we reluctantly altered our plans, cutting out the Oregon and Washington parts of the trip. We'd see Dom, see the Yakis, and see Yosemite and the Redwoods. But even with that plan, I would still be either flying back for my training, or the whole trip would be starting after my training, effectively shortening our trip to about 2 weeks. Now, most people would be perfectly content with a 2 week vacation. But knowing that Cristina and the kids have 9 weeks off, it was deflating to think that they'd be stuck in the desert, away from family and friends, on account of my teaching summer school and workshop training. So we came up with a new plan.

One of the big drawbacks with the west coast plan is that we don't have any central base to spend a big chunk of time at. That's the secret, if you want to call it that, of how we can afford to travel so much. We may not have much money, but we have family and friends that often can house us for quite a while. So while it may seem luxurious to go to Costa Rica for 6 weeks, our main expense is the airfare. We spend those 6 weeks living with Cristina's dad, not living it up in fancy resorts or tourist areas. And I'm not complaining. We love it that way. We'd much rather live in the thick of reality and be a part of our family's or friends' lives...even if it sometimes means sleeping on the floor!

With all this in mind, we made a new plan. Here it is:

On June 26, my last day of summer school, we'll leave Phoenix in our trusty Honda Odyssey and drive to Benson, Arizona, about 3 hours away. We'll stay the night in a KOA cabin. The next morning, we'll drive to Carlsbad, New Mexico and spend the night at another KOA. The next day is dedicated to exploring the caverns, something I missed out on last summer when Cristina made the drive with Elena and the kids. After a day at the caverns, we'll make a short drive down to Van Horn, Texas to another KOA. Next day (Sunday) will be a big driving day to San Antonio where we'll stay in (you guessed it) a KOA cabin. And then, our big treat: Monday we will spend at Schlitterbahn, a huge water park in New Braunfels, Texas. A few years ago, the Travel Channel had a show on the top ten water parks in the country. We were surprised to learn that #1 was Schlitterbahn, since we'd never even heard of it. This will be the first time the 5 of us will be passing within 10 miles of New Braunfels, so we have to take advantage of the opportunity.

After a full day at the water park, we'll make a relatively short drive to a hotel in Columbus, Texas and sleep well, I'm sure. Then, Tuesday morning we drive to the Baton Rouge area. This is the only spot we don't have a reservation for yet, since the KOAs don't have any available cabins. We'll probably wind up in a cheap hotel. Wednesday we drive to Tallahassee and (maybe) stay the night with Cristina's Uncle John and Aunt Kathy. And Thursday morning, July 3, we arrive in Gainesville.

After enjoying fireworks and hot dogs and all that jazz, I'll rent a car and drive to Orlando early Sunday morning. I'll fly back to Phoenix (my buddy Peter will pick me up from the airport...thanks Peter!). While I'm doing my training, Cristina and the kids will enjoy some time with Jarue and Elena. It seems that Cristina's brother, Ramon, will have just shipped out to Iraq (again), so unfortunately we're going to just miss seeing him.

On Saturday, July 12, I fly back to Orlando. We'll spend about 4 more days in Gainesville (I want to hit the Ichetucknee at least once) and then drive up to Asheville, North Carolina. We'll spend about 10 days there and then I'll fly back to Phoenix (from Atlanta) on July 28, a day before I start back at school. Since the kids don't start back for another couple of weeks, there's no point in us all coming back that early. Cristina and the kids will spend a little longer in Asheville, maybe spending a few days at the Beaudets, and then eventually they'll hit the road towards Phoenix. We haven't nailed down exact stopping places for their trip back, but they'll probably spend 3 nights in KOA's and then a couple of nights at my Uncle Doug and Aunt Lynn's near Albuquerque. As long as they're back in time for the kids' school, they can take as long as they want.

So there it is. I didn't want to announce it all until we knew for sure it was happening. Since we've now reserved a bunch of KOA cabins and one hotel, I think it's a safe bet that our plans are locked in.

While we will miss our west coast people, it will be nice to have a repeat (almost) of our last summer, which we enjoyed very much. And it will be a little easier not going to Chicago this time.

We'll figure out how to accomplish our west coast plans some time before we leave Arizona for good!

Indiana Jones

Tonight I am going to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I've been following the evolution of this film for several years now, from long-running rumor, to protracted script re-writes, and finally to actual shooting. And now today is the day. I can hardly wait.

I remember when Raiders of the Lost Ark first came out. I was almost 9 years old. My parents went to see it first and afterwards, I vividly remember my mom recounting the propeller scene and how gruesome it was. In my mind, I pictured it much worse than it actually was, but that's imagination for you. They took me to see it and I was hooked. Before long I was looking up the Ark of the Covenant, as well as archeology, in our World Book Encyclopedia. I also put some "treasures" in a cigar box, carefully buried it in the woods in our back yard, and then, starting on the far side of the woods, trekked through the jungle, occasionally checking my tattered map, until I arrived at the treasure. Ah, the good old days. When kids actually pretended, and acted out scenes like their heroes. Now, they just play the video game. But I digress...

In the pre-video days of Raiders, when movies were re-released a few times, it was very common to go see a movie several times in the theater. Especially if you were a kid. But that didn't mean there was always an available parent or adult willing to take you. About 10 months after the original release of Raiders, it was playing in re-release at a small theater relatively close to our house. I just knew that, at 9 1/2, I was mature enough to handle going to see it by myself, since I figured no one would want to take me again. So I wrote my mom a letter asking for permission and put it in our mailbox.


Amazingly, I still have the letter. I recently found it in a file folder of short stories and drawings that I made around the same time. As persuasive writing, it's quite good, if I say so myself.


And the good news is my parents let me go see Raiders of the Lost Ark, for the third time...by myself. I don't remember who took me or picked me up. But I'll always remember how cool it was to spend 2 hours in a dark theater with my hero.

And tonight, 27 years later, I get to do it again.

Words of Wisdom

I've been jotting down little bits and pieces of self-advice, words to live by. I thought I'd post a few. If you have any of your own, feel free to leave them in the comments section.

There is no such thing as perfection. But that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying. It’s a slippery slope, though. Striving for perfection, while knowing that it can never really be reached, is healthy. Yearning for perfection and feeling bad because you don’t reach it is destructive.

If you don’t like all the sex and violence on TV, you have the power to change it. It’s called the on/off button. There is one truth in television: they will produce what people will watch. If people only tuned in to shows without sex and violence, believe me…that’s all that would be on the air.

Customer service employees never deserve to be yelled at. Remember that we customers don’t always have the whole story. Also remember that all customer service employees have a manager. If the employee has erred, talk to the manager. Even then, though, be civil. If you’re prone to blowing your top in public, acknowledge that you’ve got the problem, not them.

People are not meant to live in the same place all their lives. You know that expression “the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence?” Ever experienced that feeling that things just seem better, or more appealing, somewhere else? I think the urge to go somewhere else is instinctive. There’s always an exception to the rule, and most people suppress the instinct, but I think somewhere deep down it’s in all of us. Ever been at a museum and they’re theorizing about why a certain group of ancient people left their homes or disappeared? They always have the same theories. The river dried up. The food source disappeared. The winter was too cold. But maybe they just wanted a change of scenery!

Don’t get angry at people who walk really slowly through a crosswalk, forcing drivers to wait. Have you ever been about to turn at an intersection, and waited for a person who was crossing the street, only for the person to walk intentionally slow, even holding up traffic? Sometimes they don’t even have a “walk” sign when they’re crossing. Sometimes they slow down even more when they realize a car is waiting. I used to get really bothered by this. We all know the point they’re trying to make: I hurry for no one because I am a slave to no one. But I realize now that anyone whose psyche is so injured that they feel compelled to make that kind of point in the path of a vehicle that weighs several thousand pounds should be pitied, not detested.

There are some foods that should be enjoyed, even if they are not healthy. Life is too short to eat fat free sour cream. God made chocolate delicious for a reason. We should, however, take full responsibility for our health and practice moderation. Movie theater popcorn every day is foolish. But occasional movie theater popcorn feeds the soul.

Angry people are usually just scared of something. No one likes a mean person, but if you understand that most angry or mean people are that way because they are afraid, it might be easier to avoid getting angry back at them. Look at the animal world for confirmation of this. I was once accosted by an angry squirrel on the balcony of our apartment. I couldn’t figure out what had gotten into this crazy squirrel. Without fully understanding, I hated that squirrel for jumping out of my potted fern and scaring me, and then hanging around, chattering nosily at me. But when I found the baby squirrels inside the plant pot, I realized that the squirrel wasn’t crazy or angry or rabid. She was just scared that I was going to kill her babies. We don’t always have the whole picture. In fact, we rarely do. Remember that before reacting.

It is not difficult to make a good cup of coffee. “Barrista” is just a fancy word to make you feel better about paying too much for a cup of coffee that you could have made equally well at home.

Hanging clothes

I got home from work yesterday. Cristina took my briefcase and kissed me. I sat down in the immaculate living room to look at the newspaper. Sofia was reading a book on the couch and Alex and Bella were quietly playing a game on the floor. "Smells good!" I said. "What's for dinner?" Cristina had whipped up a nutritious but tasty dish with whole wheat pasta, tofu, and vegetables. She brought me a cup of tea, and I almost dozed off with the paper until dinner was ready...

Yes, that's a dream. I'm realizing more and more how the concept of a quiet, peaceful house is an elusive one. Life is busy. Everyone has a schedule of things they need to do. And then there's the massive list of things we want to do, but can't get to because there's not enough time in the day. There's never enough money to do what we want to do, and to attempt to do what we want to do, we work more, which gives us less time to do the things we want or need to do. It's like a whirling vortex of busyness, which no doubt has undesirable results on everyone. I'm tired and grumpy. Cristina's tired. No one wants to cook. There's a backlog of chores. The kids fight. We yell at the kids because they're fighting. They tune us out because we're yelling. The dog just pooped on the carpet again. There's cat hair on everything. Gotta get everyone to bed so the process can repeat the next day. The vortex swirls.

As I walked to my classroom this morning, I glanced at a house near my school. There were clothes hanging on a line. My first thought was how fast clothes on a line must dry here in Arizona. But then I thought of Costa Rica, and Ramon and Maritza's little house in Pavas. In the middle of their house is an open courtyard with several lines to hang clothes on. It was part of the daily ritual while we were there. Wash a load or two of clothes and hang them up to dry. And the simplicity of our time there, where your main obligation of the day was to maybe hang some clothes and take them down when dry, seemed so peaceful and...simple. The simple life. Hanging clothes to dry. Just the task alone denotes patience. There's no buzzer announcing that the clothes are done and now you must fold. Just clothes, hanging quietly in a pretty courtyard, slowly drying, encouraging us to do the same and take a break.