Halloween Night

(Yes, I am back log blogging.) Akorren was sick today and I was called at about 11:00 AM to come and pick him up from school. I called my mother-to-be, Lois and had her stay with the girls while I went to go and get Akorren. He did not look well. Said he had an upset stomach, feeling "ooogey" (as we call it in my house) and he had no interest in eating anything. He had a slight fever of 101. We get home he gets his things out of the car and then stops short of going into the house, doubles over and empties his stomach contents in the patio area (fun). He is upset and I comfort him. He gets inside and then once in the kitchen, empties his stomach a second time. I get him to the small bath roon just as he is done (yay, good timing Mom!). I yell to Lois to keep the girls out of the kitchen and get Akorren set up on the living room couch to rest and then clean up the kitchen and patio area. He rests and I try my best to keep him quarantined from his sisters. Everyone takes naps to rest and I hope he can go out at least for a little bit tonight for Halloween.
We finally get the crew dressed and ready and head out the door for some low key trick or treating by 6:30 PM. With the full to the brim bag of candy that Zhivanna got from her preschool we leave a large bowl of it outside on our door step so passing costumed kids can take it off our hands. We make it around to about a dozen houses when Akorren, our Merlin wizard, gets tired; I head back to the house with him while Glenn takes the ocean fairy, and fairy princess out to hit a few more houses. Can't get enough candy you know! They make it back about an hour later and we close up shop at 8:00 PM due to so many trick or treaters. I don't know if it is the recession but in the past years we have never had so many children come by our place before this was the first year we "ran out of candy". I thinking being able to take the children out to get candy for FREE was a good activity this year for many families. Hope you had a Happy Halloween. Akorren as Merlin, tinkerbell-mom, ocean fairy Zhivanna, fairy princess Merlova & Superman daddy. Us by the front door before we head out to trick or treat.

Dancing Girls

This is the first semester that Merlova gets to dance at Starlight Dance Studio in League City with her sister Zhivanna. I have been so forgetful to take photos over the past months. But today I remembered to bring the camera. And on this day of course Merlova had to be trouble and have a 'hissy fit' after the mom's came in to watch them dance at the end of their class today. She wanted to go eat tacos right after Ms. Sharon talked about holding tacos in their hand and eating them (just for pretend) so that they could put their taco hands on their hips. I had to leave the room and she cried and cried and was put out so the rest of the class could do their dance. I had to work a 1/2 sub teacher job and Lois came to be with the girls. She was able to get a photo of Zhivanna when she danced. They are both really doing so well with it 9despite Merlova's bad day), I will be fun to see what the do with their recital in May of 2009. I love my two ballerinas. Zhivanna with her class doing tap, Merlova and her class (Ms.Sharon in front), the littlest dancer Merlova.

Pumpkin Carving

Now we have had the pumpkins for a while. We bought them as part of a fund raiser for Gilmore, Akorren's school. The kids have been playing with them for at least a week. Putting them in the play shopping cart and driving them around. Placing them on my living room pillows so they would be comfortable and imagining that they are some sort of Pokemon characters. Well tonight Daddy lead the group in designing, cleaning, cutting and tracing the pumpkins into being. Akorren did most of the work himself and even designed the writting of the word "BOO" on his. For Zhivanna's scary skull Glenn ended up doing a lot of it as well as for Merlova's cat. She did get in on cleaning out the guts of it though. After the children were put to bed by mommy, daddy finished up the last of the carving. I think they did come out nice. This year Glenn sprayed some Windex on the inside of them and it really prevented all that gray mold from forming on them when they began to decompose in the days following Halloween. Akorren with the seeds, the final carved pumpkins, Merlova helps out, Zhivanna cleans the insides out.

A vist with Anne/ Restful Day

Today I tried to sleep in again but to no avail my phone rang a little before 7 PM this time it was a friend from TX who did not know that I was out of town in CA this weekend. Oh, well. I slowly started to get up. Clyde wanted to take Christine (my sister in law) out to breakfast this morning since it was going to be her Birthday tomorrow. So Vincent, Christine, Daniele, Clyde and I walked down in old town Newhall to an egg place, it was packed and we had to wait a while. We had a nice breakfast/lunch and then walked back to the house. I tried to call my old girlfriend Anne Stewart now (Brooke) who was living in Castaic now with her new husband and kids. I had not seen her in ages and so I wanted to try and get with her before I had to leave tomorrow. I did not make contact and tried to call her back later that day after hanging out at dad's relaxing, she left my phone number when she went out and did not get back to me until later that day and at around 5:30 PM, so I headed over to her place to visit. It was so good to see her, her children were all grown up and beautiful/handsome and so nice. She ended up marrying this really nice younger man, Jeff. Anne looked so happy and it was great to see her in a good place in her life. I had a glass or two of wine and stayed later then I had wanted to knowing that I would be getting up rather early to head on back to TX and the reality of home life again. Seeing people like Anne and others who so touched my life was a blessing on this trip. I am glad that I had a chance to come to CA. Kristen, Me, Anne & Ryan, Anne & I, Anne, Jeff & her grown up kids.

My Godmother Lorraine

Lorraine looked the same to me, a little smaller but the same beautiful woman who cared for me when I was a young child attending St. Elizabeth's Catholic School. She was my care taker and I would stay with her every day after school until my mom got off of work and could pick me up. She has three sons Kevin, Keith, and Kenny Richard and I had spent most of my elementary school years playing and growing up in their home. Lorraine made a nice Italian chicken meal with asparagus, brown rice and a salad. She is still such a great cook. We chatted, I showed her all the photos of my children and tried to catch up with her on all that has been going on in my life since I had last seen her some 10+ years ago. I wrapped up my visit a little after 10:00 PM since I knew I would have about a 45 minute drive to Newhall from Altadena. It was so nice to be able to see her and Ken. Lorraine and I after dinner.

Our Scottish Friends

Driving up Lake Avenue in Pasadena going into the Altadena area was such a trip. I saw so many more new buildings and I was trying to recall the ones that stood there when I was younger. I drove past St. Elizabeth's church and school on my way up (I had attended there from K to 6th grade), it still looked the same. I drove past what use to be the Pasadena Theatre Company, now a dance studio, where I did several theatre productions (with my mom) and under the direction of Beverly Bishop (who died last month from a stroke).
The Stewart's house looked much the same, some new paint and landscaping brought it into the 2000's. David Jr. answered the door with hugs and smiles, "You look so much like your mom!" My mother Cecelia had been life long friends with Marina Stewart and helped raise David, Malcome, and Anne. Marina looked about the same but now seemed much smaller and frail in frame. The many years of alcohol had worn her body down some. She was still full of joy and memories from my mom and all the fun time the kids had together. Malcome made it home from work and was happy to visit for while. Soccer stories of Coach Herman and his "pie" (a defensive soccer play) still brought chuckles to all of us. Photos were shared, taken, and hugs given. I then made my drive (a whole 7 min.) to the Bertoneau's house for a late dinner a little after 7:00 PM Malcome/Melissa/ Marina, David Sr./ Melissa & Marina, Marina/Melissa & David Jr.

Ramona Reunion Class of 88'

I had to get to Ramona a little early to help set up the memerobillia items I brought to share with everyone. I brought our old school uniforms, dance flyers, prom booklets, etc. Many of my classmates recalled these items but most seemed not to have kept them. The first few familiar faces I saw were Tisha Neal, Suzie, Alina, Sarahi and Melissa Abich. They all looked the same. In talking with them I had found out that one of our classmates Emily Marquez had died about 10 years ago from breast cancer. She was the most beautiful girl in our class. She left behind her twin children and never ended up marring the man who fathered them.
We had already stared in on the sangria when a large group of our class walked up the steps and their was one of my best buddies Kathrine Blum. She still looked like the same old Kat to me. Beautiful long blonde hair, all thin and healthy looking. We started to talk right away using every minute to catch up on what we have been up to over the past 20 years. Both Kathy and I graduated from Cal Sate University Long Beach with B.A's, married nice men, and both of us have 3 children. The other long time buddy of mine who was there was Mary Tomlinson (now Mu Larsen). She was so slender, wearing braces, and just stared life off with her second marriage (no kids) and would be finishing up her graduate degree studying Chinese medicine. She looked like she was doing well.
The time flew by and we played a few silly "remember when"/ 'Life at Ramona" games and I was able to win 2 prizes. One for being the farthest person to travel to attend the reunion and the the other for winning some quiz. We watched a slide show of photos that were sent in by the class and took a tour of the campus. It was a really fun time with things finally wrapping up after 5PM. I had planned on seeing Marina Stewart and Lorraine Bertoneau later and needed to head up to Altadena for the evening. Lots of hugs and phone numbers, emails exchanged, then I headed out to the Stewart's place. Ramona as I remember it before the Oct. 88' quake, all the Ramona women who attended, the survivors of the reunion (ladies who attended Ramona since 7th grade), Kathy and I.