Oldies But Goodies

It's almost 30 years since we graduated high school. We all ate, played, laughed, cried, studied, and grew up from being young innocent teenagers to 'young' mature adults. We attended college at Cal Poly, UC Davis, Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Santa Cruz or UofW. Then we graduated college; found jobs; went back for more schooling; got teaching credentials, Masters, MD's and PhD's; changed jobs; dated; married; bore children; adopted children. We all made the best of what God has given us.

Now you see before you: educators, medical professionals, engineers, even a self-made businessman.

Get-Together 2011

Most of us still live in the same area. One even lives a couple of houses down from the house he grew up in; his kids are going to the same school he went to as a kid. Another one has moved so many times I lost count. (btw, I need your new address!). One even lives as far as 'down under'. But no matter where we are we try to get together as much as we can.

Dave & Leanne's Wedding 1990

Darryl & Jennifer's Wedding 1993

Bryan & Angie's Wedding 1994

Betty & Al's Wedding 1994

My Wedding 1995 - I am so bummed that I didn't have a group picture. That's what happens when I'm not taking the pictures. I guess I was a bit busy.

Get-Together 1996

Get-Together 1999

Get-Together 2004

Get-Together 2007

Get-Together 2009

Yes we have tried to get together throughout the years. Not all of us make it but those who can, do and we have a great time reminiscing about the past and sharing about the present and future. Our kids get together and even though they don't know each other as well as we grown ups do, they still bond by doing the universal kid thing: play!

The girls swam outdoors and ate..

... while the boys ate and played indoors.

I am very lucky to have these cherished childhood friendships. We all haven't changed that much since high school. Yes, we have more responsibilities: our own home to care for; a job to go to; and bills to pay but we still stay true to who we were some 30 years ago. Our personalities are still the same, and hey, some of us still look the same. The phrase "young at heart" rings true for all of us. Yes, I am very blessed to have them in my life!

Off to Work I Go...Kind of...

Professionally I am a teacher, currently a substitute teacher. I really enjoy teaching and it's always so rewarding when the students are engaged and excited to hear what you're teaching. The kids are a blessing too. Well most of them, a few can be 'challenging' even at a private school.

I enjoy working part-time. It gives me the opportunity to do things for myself and I am not tied down on the weekdays at the school. Grocery shopping in the mornings on a weekday is the best since it's never crowded and you can always find parking right in the front of the store.

With all this 'free' time, I started my own little business. Scrapbooking, both traditional and digital, for clients. I personally scrapbook the girls' growing up, school years and all our vacations.

These are a few traditional scrapbooking pages...

Disneyland trips were some of their favorites.. we tried to get pictures with all the characters.

My brother's wedding where the girls were the flowergirls.

Playing in the snow...

Swim lessons in the summer..

Ever since my husband got a digital camera, the amount of pictures I had traditional scrapbooked increased threefold. Eventually traditional scrapbooking took up too much space, materials-wise, so I have been transitioning to digital and I've have been very pleased with it.

There are a lot of digital publishing software out there. And I've checked out many. They are all different. It depends on your desired style, easiness of use, quality of the printed page, and of course cost. Cost is a huge factor because it is not cheap to make a digital album. But the benefit of doing a digital album is that you don't have to go out and purchase all the different materials: paper, embellishments, adhesive, album and printed photos. For a digital album, all you need is a computer with your pictures downloaded and appropriate software to be able to open the desired publishing software. It's organized and designed on the computer and you just click 'order' and a professionally bound album comes right to your door by a delivery service. 

I've looked at many different scrapbook services.
creativememories.com
blurb.com
snapfish.com
costco.com
mypublisher.com
kodakgallery.com
iPhoto (apple.com)
shutterfly.com

I prefer Shutterfly for their variety of designs;

Trip to San Francisco to visit my brother at his work..

Our Annual Christmas Gathering with friends...

Emily's 4th Grade album...

Hannah's 2nd grade album...

 ....and iPhoto (an Apple product made only on the Mac) for cost and efficiency.

Our Florida Trip...

Our China Trip...

I really enjoy the traditional scrapbooking since it allows you to be more more creative and personal but it can be more costly.

Since I am now blogging, I can also make my blog into a hardbound book one day. If you have a blog, you might want to consider making it all a book for memories sake.

If you are like my family we have literally thousands of pictures on our computer. Now after my brother-in-law painstakingly scanned all our negatives (remember those brown strips we used to get with your pictures after you develop them at the store?) our pictures have increased tremendously. It's easy to forget you have them on your computer so I try my best to publish them all in an album so you can easily show your family or friends. It's much harder to show people your pictures with a laptop or have them come up to the computer monitor.

The nicest thing about digital albums.. You can print multiple copies to give away to those who treasure them... Aka grandparents.

This year I have already made 12 digital albums: 4 of which were gifts, 5 were for clients and 3 were for myself.

If you are interested in having me make an album for you, traditionally or digitally, pop me an email and let's chat.

Do You See What I See?

I started wearing glasses in fourth grade. I figured I needed glasses since I was always squinting to see the board. I vividly remember doing that all the time and then when I put on my glasses for the first time.. TA-DA!! It was like everything was bright, shiny and clear!! What a huge difference!

Since then I wore glasses until my senior year of high school. No, my eyes did not magical improve (I wish!). I got my first contacts! And not those yucky hard ones that my cousin got that looked so painful to put on ... with saliva, I might add. Double yuck! No, I was a wimpy kid and chose the soft kind.

But unlike my cousin, my eyesight continued to get worse while hers remained stable due to her wearing hard lenses. Yes, soft contacts has it's drawbacks. I enjoyed soft contacts for many years until I became pregnant with my second child. I was so tired from carrying one in me and carrying one out of me (in my arms that is) that I was just plain tired all the time. I took many naps and felt that wearing glasses was more comfortable in the long run than putting on and taking off my contacts. After I had my second child, I continued wearing glasses just because it was more convenient.

When I turned 40, I noticed that I was having trouble reading with my glasses. My optometrist said that I needed bifocals or 'transitionals' now since I needed two different powers/degrees - one to see close and one to see far. Sigh.. bifocals? That's for old people! He said it was all due to aging. And I thought it was because I was working full-time and the stress of teaching made my eyes worse. (I think it did make it worse with all the computer usage and grading all those zillions of papers.) So I got the transitional glasses (there isn't an obvious line in the middle of the lenses) last year and they seem to be working well...

...Until this year. I noticed it was still harder to read up close and found out after my annual eye exam that I went up 4 'clicks' in my farsightedness. It didn't change my prescription as a whole too much so I didn't need to order new regular glasses but I decided to order a prescription transitional sunglasses to protect my eyes from the sun you know.. UVB and UVA rays.

I also wanted to order some new contacts since I haven't worn them in awhile but would like to whenever I'm in the water or on vacation. Let me tell you it's not as easy as it looks to find the perfect bi-focal or they call it multi-focal contact lenses.

My optometrist said the easiest thing was to get a set of contacts for my nearsightedness (which I've always had) and buy a pair of reading glasses when I need to read up close. Now don't you think that the whole reason I wore contacts was to not wear glasses?!? It kind of defeats the purpose of wearing contacts when you have to wear glasses over them! So I nixed that option.

So I was to find a pair of muli-focal contacts. I can't explain to you how they work (because I don't know) but they allow me to see up close clearly and see far clearly. Sounds good right?

Well.. after eight different sample pairs I still have not found the right fit for my eyes. I tried different powers and different brands and am losing hope that I will ever be able to find the perfect fit.. or I'll even settle for a 'good' fit. Since my prescription is so high, my options are limited. Sigh again..

The ones I tried were:
Air Optic (4 different pairs) all great far but blurry up close
One in the Office-not sure what the brand was (1) great close but very blurry far
Purevision Multi-focal (1) clear close; blurry far
Proclear (1) hard to focus close and far
Comfilcon A (1) good close; good far but still little bit blurry

I am currently waiting for my 9th pair of contacts.. pray that this is THE one!

My girls also saw their eye doctor who is also my eye doctor and my husband's. The whole family goes to him! Matthew's eyes did not change! He's had the same prescription for at least the last five years! Of course, he wears those hard lenses.

Hannah's eyes are 20/15. Great so far. And I thought she was the one that needed glasses because she complains that she can't read the board in class well. Maybe it was the teacher's writing? :)

Emily's eyes were not so good and she had to get glasses. I was shocked because she never complained about not seeing clearly. She only needs to wear it in class but I know she won't want to wear it because she was so upset finding out she needed them. It took her forever to find a pair of frames because everything looked 'ugly' she said. She should have seen the selection I had when I got my first glasses; They were ugly and geeky. But today the children's frames are so stylish and cute!

That was why this daughter of mine was upset that she wasn't getting glasses. She loved them and couldn't wait to get a pair. No worries there.. she'll get them soon... she's Chinese.

She does look cute... and looks like me too with dimples and lots of teeth!

A 'Real' Outdoor Adventure

Those of you who know me well know that I am not an outdoorsy-type of person.  I am a home-body who likes staying at home in the home as much as possible.  I also do not enjoy any type of recreational physical activity. Like I said, I'm a non-active homebody. (But I do love to vacation but that's another topic.)

Mixing physical activity and outdoors is almost never on my want-to-do-list. But sometimes I do it, for the sake of my family. Plus I want to prove to my youngest daughter that I DO know how to ride a bicycle!

Today we went on a family bike trip up to the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge and Coyote Hills Regional Park. This was the last 'field trip' of the summer with their cousins.

Last time I went on a family bike trip was in 2006, exactly five years ago.

Hannah and Z were 3 and they were 'towed' by my husband on his bike.

Now they ride their own bikes!

And Emily is still using the same helmet!

We have to get her a new one. She's been using the same one for almost 8 years now.

We biked all the way up to the Coyote Hills sign. I thought, for our first family biking trip, we would be riding on a nicely paved flat surface the entire time... to accommodate the little ones, of course.  But my husband is the adventurous one and planned a very scenic but bumpy (dirt roads) and hilly (up, down and around the hills) ride.

We saw a huge quarry where trucks were loading and unloading rock and dirt.

On the top of a huge hill, we were able to get a clear view of the Bay going towards the bridge...

...while D was on the other side against the 'lush' hills.

Trying to keep up with Hannah

We road for  2-1/2 miles and stopped at the Visitor's Center to have a picnic lunch. After lunch, the kids wanted to explore the marshes and spent some time trying to catch tadpoles.

J actually caught one with his magnify container.

But he felt it was too small so he let it go. Unfortunately he couldn't catch a bigger one.

There was a huge white pelican in the marsh.

My oldest daughter has become a bird enthusiast and gets so excited whenever she spots a feathered creature. She doesn't call them 'birds'.. instead she calls them by their 'real' names.

This is a snowy egret.

This is a black necked stilt.

These are red winged blackbirds.

Overall, we rode 5 miles and all I can say is, boy, my bottom was sore! I guess I don't have to exercise today!

As I reflect on all the outings we went to this summer.. the 'free' ones were the most memorable and most enjoyable for the kids. I guess 'Nature' has it's perks! I'm not complaining. 'Free' and 'Fun' go together like two peas in a pod!

The Boardwalk

(My continuing summer 'field trip' series.)



We headed to visit the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. It was a very windy and overcast day but the beach was busy as it should be since it's summer.

We had a bunch of ride tickets left over from last year and Emily had some arcade tickets that she wanted to redeem. It was getting expensive to ride the bigger rides and the arcade was just as costly.

The Tsunami - they were the only ones on the ride!

But the kids really wanted to go to the arcade. It had a lot of games which needed a lot of tokens. Hannah received a total of 319 tickets from her $6 worth of tokens. Her last 4 tokens gave her 250 tickets from one special game.

The machine that counts the tickets..

All you do for this game was to push the big red button, a ball drops to land in a hole which are all assigned different ticket numbers. Hannah's ball landed in between the Hole 7 and Hole 250. And it just sat there. I tried to bang on the wall to have it drop but no go. A nice boy about Emily's age was waiting to play this game and he kindly banged onto the window for us and it dropped into the 250 hole!! What a nice guy!! Boy, did that machine spit out a ton of tickets! All 250 of them!!

She was so happy because all the things she wanted to trade her tickets for had high ticket prices. She eventually got a little battery-operated hamster, a bead kit, and some Twizzlers.

Emily got a total of 259 tickets and chose to purchase little goodies to put into her Operation Christmas Child Boxes. Then a nice couple gave me another 169 tickets because they didn't want to get anything from the prize booth. What a generous couple! And the kids were thrilled. But it took even longer for them to shop now.

I always felt that the most time spent in the arcade was at the prize booth. It's easy to play all those arcade games because each one lasts only a few seconds. But we could be standing at the prize booth for hours just looking for what they want to get but can't because they don't have enough tickets so they frantically decide (since we parents are telling them to hurry it up) on getting cheap and cheezey toys that will break or get lost from the time we leave the arcade to the car. But that's the part of the excitement of the arcade, I guess!!

Being the 'baseball' players the boys were, they each tried to hit 3 to get a prize. They really wanted the huge pikachu (the bottom yellow creature) but the most they could get down was 2 (by D.).

I have to say that I enjoy the variety of food here at the Boardwalk! They have hamburgers, hot dogs, tacos, burritos, pizzas, wraps, terayaki rice bowls, buffalo wings, smoked turkey drumsticks, salads and I could go on. That's not even mentioning all the desserts available too! I love the Texas donuts because they are huge. Almost the size of my little Z's face! But I passed on it.. I chose a chocolate dipped ice cream instead.

Emily loves the dip n' dots.

Check out this metal key chain maker below. I remember making many of these when I was little at the Flea Market many many years ago. I remember typing in my name and all sorts of personalized words for myself. (I don't remember the specific words though. It was too long ago.) I treasured those tags. But I guess one day I realized they weren't too important because I don't have them anymore. Have no idea where they went. But it brought back some fond childhood memories.