The bar has been raised

Visit here

watch the second video in the Jesus Chronicals part 2 (the wait is over- Christ or coors) - I promise you'll be surprized

Or really any of them.

This is where we've decided to go to church. This has been week 3 and it has raised the bar substantially

Wordless Wednesday (I'm chronically late- or early in this case, depending on how you look at it)

Holiday weekend!!

Yippeeeee!!!

Hope everyone has a good weekend!!

I just realized I'll have 2 weeks off as I'm down to working only on Mondays until I get my license and get another job. (long story)

And on that note-
Did you know in other cultures women get married off at 9 years old? to a 13 year old? And don't go to school at all? (Nepal, for example)
Wow.
I wonder how that works out. really. 9!!!!! She wasn't even in puberty then. And ready to manage a home?
I could go on.....

I should have studied anthropology...

Consider it all joy

When stuck in traffic When your trailer loaded with 12000 lbs looses it's tire on the freeway

literally lost - 2 lugs broke and it went flying.

we were flagged down by an off duty police officer who saw it happen.

We picked up our diapers from port yesterday. We haven't heard about the house's fire hazard status from the landlord yet. But since we (that would be Larry) needs to fix the broken lugs before we bring it back to base, it will be in the neighborhood long enough to aggravate the people with trailer vendettas. Apparently our nice neighbor (the only one we've met) also received a nasty gram about her boat trailer 2 weeks after she removed it from her house.

SHE informed me "they" can't do anything if we park it on the street- we just can't park it in the driveway. Cool. I'm thinking of painting "Hillbilly Trucking" on it just to irritate them. I think "they" is the homeowner association who makes the rules for this subdivision. "They" also gave the plumber on the street who has a plumbing truck a hard time and he's the one who told her who told me about the the "they have no control over the street" loophole. He can't park on his driveway, but he can park on the street. (go figure that logic- the same logic that says in the even of a wild fire you need to be able to park your cars in your garage since.. well.. they won't burn there, right?)

I wasn't kidding

(about the shoes)

"we just called to make sure you still needed housing"

My hopes were up and... I was ready to start packing...

BUT.. they called to see if they could take us off the waiting list.

And- Oh, but if we're willing to take the 3 BR tiny house we'd be eligible to re-apply for the waiting list in 6 months. (they've offered us this house 2 times already. NO. it's smaller than a single wide. seriously. I'm ok with small, but, really... maybe I'm being a snob, but no, thank you. We have way more space than we need now, but that would be really tight. Our dining room table and bunk beds wouldn't fit in it and... no.. we're not getting rid of the table. (its not like it's huge, but it seats us all)

UGH.

Back to the original plan- stay here, put up with it and in December when we know where we move in June we can make plans to move..

And.. today I think I finally got the smell factor reduced a tiny little bit. We've had the hepa filters running 24/7 and I read somewhere about putting baking soda in the rug (which I had done before)

3 boxes of baking soda in 1 room left for 6 days and then vacuuming it for an hour to get it all up..
And I think it smells better. I'm not sticking nose to the carpet, but from 5 feet it smells substantially better.

But I haven't closed the windows since we moved in. This is southern CA- it's supposed to be perfect weather all the time, right?

ISO (in search of)

a new job
the joy in homeschooling
organization
perfection here on earth
a new place to live

If you have any of the above available, please let me know.

I spent 2 hours in traffic driving home from an awful day at work

Homeschooling my son is about as easy as brushing a cat's teeth

I can never find what I'm looking for. I spend at least 15 mintues daily hunting for keys or cell phone

I am impatient and falling short of what I wish I was

And we got a phone call from the housing office. I get to call them back tomorrow and we'll see if we get housing soon.. (That one I'm actually happy about. I'll deal with lack of air conditioning if it doesn't smell like cat) I assume our landlord should get his housing hazzard letter tomorrow, so I'd be really happy to tell him that we're moving. I crunched the numbers and in 5 months we'd break even money wise my moving into base housing if we lost our entire housing deposit. Otherwise, I'm thinking of an ultimatum- replace all the carpet since we're allergic or we're moving. And really.. I'm sure he'd be happy for us to move since he's already had 1 complaint about the trailer visiting too many times/too long and now the fire hazzard letter (which I'm pretty sure is 100% because there is an over grown tree in the yard that is within a foot of the chimney (not that we use the fireplace... who puts fireplaces in places where wild fires are problem?!) The "rules" say all trees have to be at least 13 feet from chimneys and 6 feet from houses.

I'm also calling the hospital personel office about seeing if they can find me a job.

In between trying to motivate my son to learn or pay attention or even try....while keeping his little siblings from getting into the crayons and coloring the floor (again...grrrr) or cutting their own hair (again.... grrrr)

Red sparkly shoes didn't work

So, the shed is back in boxes and ready to return to the store as soon as we bring the (banned from the neighborhood) trailer back here to pick it up...

Really, it was going back, anyway. I really really thought it was a bad idea and Larry conceeded to return it before the fire hazzard abatement letter.

And this is post worthy- today I saw the mountains in the distance!!
There is an amazing (strong) wind off the coast today and could see the mountain range in the backyard sans "haze" (or, at least with substantially less haze)

Someone told me it was because of the cyclone in Cuba, but I'm thinking they don't have a meterology degree... a cyclone off our coast, I'd believe (and if there is one, I don't know- why bother watching the weather- *I* can tell you- there is a 0% chance of rain, if you're on the coast, it'll likely be warm in the sun and if you're inland it's going to be hot. (see, if the refugee job doesn't pan out, I'm talented in other fields)

And....speaking of my job with the refugees...
Today at the library.. I borrowed the 'learn arabic in your car in 40 easy lessons' cd and book set. lol. because I'm having a hard enough time mastering spanish, I'll just really stretch that shriveled part of my brain.. I came to the realization that learning a few phrases in Arabic would some in handy this week when 90% of the new patients spoke it and 100% of those arriving this month will speak it..

I also read the easy reader on Iraq while at the library today (we were in the kids' area, the easy reader was close by) Facinating stuff. The Tigris and Euhrates are there. Nebechenezzar - there. All that Old testament stuff (Ok, not all, but alot)- took place there. Facinating....

So.. Old dog here, learning new tricks..

Trying what I learned from a movie

"there's no place like home"

Click heels
Click heels
Click heels

open my eyes.

Dang it. Still here.

Trying again.

Nope

Guess you can't believe everything you see on TV


So.. Why now? Why has this blog become a why-I-don't-particularly-care-for-CA ranting ground?

(hint- for other than the obvious I don't really care for it - read below)

Because..
Today our landlord was supposed to receive a notice that our house is a fire hazzard, and instead it was delivered to us.

And in true old-school TV detective fashion, I knew something addressed to him personally from the city was going to be bad... I steamed it opened to read.

Oh, hurray!!!!!
He has 10 days from date of the letter (which was 4 days ago) to get in compliance because our house is a fire hazzard!!

So.. HE has to get the gutters cleaned out, the massive tree trimmed and remove the debris HE left outside the house

WE have to remove the shed Larry bought and put up (which I'm actually ok about- I thougth it was much too big for the space we had there) remove our debris from the outside of the house and clean up the dead vegitation from the flower beds that are dead because a bunch of the sprinkler heads are broken and we don't own the place, so when we realized it wasn't going to be an easy fix, we are leaving it. And because we have to pay for the water, too, we're not over watering the entire yard to let it saturate and water the parts that aren't getting water from the sprinkler head in their area.

I can just wait to hear what might be said about our highly flammable card box collection of diapers in the garage (which is supposed to be holding cars, remember?)

And even better yet- the inspection will probably happen the day we get back from port picking up our next load of diapers (it's been clearing customs for a week now... ) so I can REALLY wait to hear what they'd say about that..


Trying again

Maybe it's the shoes that are preventing this from working.. humm, maybe it can't be sandals?

I'll be hitting the store tomorrow looking for sparkly ruby red shoes...

From the past few days

We learned about butterflies, and this butterfly learned it probably shouldn't wander into our yard again..


And.. from the swap meet, we found another power wheels. It is locked into the backyard now. Joey has run the battery down and seems to confuse it with a monster truck. He backs into something and rather than go forward and around it, he just runs it over. And it the truck doesn't have enough umph to go over said thing, he pushes it over it.

(yes, that would be patio furniture in the background. and yes, he's run into it countless times. And no, we didn't pay for it, we were given it by Larry's friend who downsized and had 2 sets of patio furniture and we were happy to take it and put it to good use with the all the other furniture he gave us...)

Sometimes you need a little encouragement

And sometimes it comes at just the right time

OK. I'll admit I've been dealing with discouragement since before we stepped foot here and it's found new foot-holds in our house/neighborhood (who sent the landlord a "warning" letter about the little trailer visiting the house too many times but didn't seem to notice who stole Joey's Power Wheels), the kid's school, the job, the Navy...

And the patients/families at work this week really tore at my heart with the stories of what they've endured prior to coming here. Stuff I hope to never never never have to endure. (moms watching their son killed in front of them, families watching their loved ones tortured or enduring it leaving them blind- really really awful) This month we've had alot of refugees from Iraq and most of them are not Muslim.

So. I worked today, in the usualy chaos- feeling discouraged that I was going to make any difference here (but trying not to let it show, of course)

And who should come to the window but this young couple looking nervous.

(ahh, I think, they want something.. maybe drug seekers or raising money for something?)

And they say "This may seem weird, but we're going up and down the street asking people if they need prayer."

Checking my hearing "did you say prayer?"

"yes"

Me: "Well, now that you mention it.. OF COURSE we need prayer" and elaborate on the needs of the people we serve, the clinic, etc... (not violating hippa, of course)

And he prays right there.

Cool, huh? (sorta weird to me, too, but.. ) talk about answered prayer- as I'm asking for confirmation that this is where I'm supposed to be, new signs come in when I need it most.

Just enough to keep me going.

And one of the staff today, having a particuarlly bad day asked me "why are you different? are you really spritual or something?"

Talk about an open door, God. You're not giving me subtle hints, are you?
So, in 2 mintues or less, I share I have a faith in God who cares and provides for me, so I don't have to worry, there is a reason and it will all work out.
(**snort**- I should record that and replay it to myself when I freak out over stupid stuff, right?)
And kicking myself that I didn't say something like "would you like that kind of relationship with Christ, I can lead you in a prayer right now" but sorta thinking the timing was really bad for that- someone walked in and interrupted the end of my brief summary, anyway.. And I'm a big chicken and God knows that. I'm willing to bet that he'll be stretching me in that way...

Nothing like 'haze' calling 'smog' dirty

So.. I was listening to the radio this AM. And the topic on nearly all the morning talk stations was.. the olympics, of course.

And I almost choked when I heard them saying what a shame/how gross/can you believe the smog condidion in China around the olympics.

Uh.. hello?
Have you looked out your window at the sky lately?

Brings to mind that verse about getting the plank out of your eye before getting your neighbor's speck out.

And for the record- I was listening to the radio to and from our charter school first day orientation. I have alot of mixed feelings on it - on allowing them to "tell" me what I have to do to the degree that they seem to. Mixed feelings on classical teaching after I had spent so much time researching unit studies and mentally geared myself up for that.

And I'm sorta disappointed that you HAVE to use their cirriculum if you're going to use their lab days. sigh sigh sigh. So.. I have until Thursday to decide if I'm going to go with their cirriculum (which I suppose is a fine cirriculum and will be easier than making my own schedule) or going with my own and then not having the option for the full day labs. (2 days a month where the kids GO and get to do cool stuff you don't get to do at home- science experiments, microscopes, etc.. )

On the other hand--- this is KINDERGARTEN. duh. --like they need microscopes for science at this age.

OK. I have talked it through- I'm going to go with my cirriculum this year and skip their labs. Maybe next year we'll re-evaulate if we're still in the area (another area of minor worry right now)

(And.. just because it's so fun to freak out my mom)
Mom- we're thinking we'll buy a house when we know where we'll be- even if it is in CA.

Check this one out

We don't need a passport

today we went to Faux Mexico (AKA the oceanside swap meet) All the ambience of an open air market - you can buy produce, baked foods, cleaning supplies, clothing, underware, kitchen accessories, CD's, Movies, Furniture, Rugs, tools and then there is the used stuff- like a square mile of yard sale. Pictures from late in the day- it was relatively empty and the 'shops' were closing up

You see these trucks all over- cramed full of stuff and heading towards Mexico (sorry for the windshield glare)

And today was Larry's birthday, so we had cake and ice cream. I know he wanted an ice cream cake, but that didn't happen. (sorry, Larry) We went and walked around the red-neck heaven of the swap meet together.

Mama said they'll be days like this

(the musical)

Admission: free

Place: here

Subtitle: Why oh Why did I think parenting was going to be this big love fest where everyone gets along well with no problems? Why did I think a dog wasn't going to cut it?

Today... my kids discovered they could relieve themselves without going inside to the bathroom.

ACK!!!!!! And of course, if one does it, they all do. I am at a loss of how to yard-train my kids now. I was outside and saw K drop her pants and swat. (huh?) and I ask her what she's doing and she tells me. (this was about 15 minutes after an "accident" where she had to go change) and then she tells me J told her to do it. I ask him, he does the guilty "no, I didn't tell her" routine then the other 2 pipe up that he did it first and did #1 and #2.

How does this happen? I mean, really- how does it happen that one would think.. "hmm, I want to poop, I think here is a good place" when you're not camping or stuck on the side of the road. he even burried it in sand like a cat.

Well.. that's it. No pets for us. I'm cleaning up the yard of poop from my KIDS.

This just in to the news desk

There is a pretty good chance we'll be moving next year

Place TBD (not by us, of course)

Our options range from:

• staying here (Pendleton)
• 29 palms (oh, please no)
• North Carolina
• Missouri (seriously? the Navy is in Missouri?!- actually I think that's a Marine installation, too- actually most of these are Marine locations)
• Texas
• Japan
• San Diego itself
• Florida (flight surgery)
• South Carolina

Ahhh.. all the choices too bad we can't decide...

But oh, heavens- ANOTHER cross country move is possible in a year? THIS time I'm asking to be medicated. Wake me up when we get there. Oh- wait- duh- JAPAN... THAT beats moving cross country. (shuddering at the thought and thinking maybe this time the KIDS should be medicated and we'll wake THEM up when we get there)

Internship would not be complete

Without a picture of a passed out intern with kids climbing on him:
And things that make you look twice:

And things I never thought I'd have to ask or say:

• WHY is there a dead dried up frog in your room?
• Did you think sand was shampoo? There's enough in your hair to build a castle!
• Why did you eat the soap? If it didn't taste good why did you eat so much?!
• You JUST went potty before we left 15 mintues ago- HOW did you wet your pants?!!
  

Life in the Navy (the good stuff)

So we went to go to the commissary (that would be the military term for grocery store, lest some of you civilians sneak on base and want to go grocery shopping) today. We did not come home with groceries. Instead... THIS was in the parking lot there- too much fun to pass up. There were a ton of tents in the parking lot, lots of stuff being given away. 2 bounce houses, snow cones, pop corn, etc.. oh yeah, and some American Gladiators. I hear they have some movie starts coming today, too?

This was the petting zoo. That's a chicken Joey's got there

The pony rides:(yes my kids dress themselves- Joey was going for the formal CA look and put socks on with his sandals. Casual CA is no socks)

This was last weekend- Sonia and Joey had Dance and Football camp for a few hours on Sat and there was face painting, bounce houses (again, the have those at EVERY occasion) and a BBQ after (all free- see don't you wish YOU were in the Navy?)

And how we felt when the petting zoo closed.