Because mud happens...

...even when you don't plan for it.  And because mud is fun.

Summer Swimmin'

We signed the kids up for the swim classes at HSU.  It goes Monday through Friday for two weeks.  This is the second set of swim lessons we've attempted this year.  I say attempted because Jonah is a Swim Lesson Drop Out.  The first set of lessons was a no-go.  This time around though we made Jonah stick with it.  He mostly sat on the step at first...

Cairo was great, though.  Her confidence in the water has gotten so much better.  She is even able to swim a little on her own.  I know that if she fell in, she could probably keep her head above water enough to reach the side of the pool.  She's not a swimmer yet, but she's close.

As time went on, Jonah went a little deeper in the water...

 ...and Cairo got better at floating on her own. (She was lucky enough to be the only kid in her class several times... so she got a half hour of one-on-one lessons.)

By the end of the first week, Jonah was happy playing on his own on the steps.  On.His.Own.  You see, Jonah's problem wasn't the water or the idea of learning to swim.  His problem was that he was surrounded by strangers and Mommy and Daddy weren't there to hold his hand.  Every time his very nice teacher came over to him, Jonah gave him the look like "you better not even think about touching me" and scrambled away as best as he could.  Once and a while his teacher was able to snatch him away from the step before he knew what was happening.  Jonah would give in and cooperate, but gladly return to his step at the end.

Cairo's Birthday Continued...

It was Erik's job to do our last blog update on Cairo's birthday.  As you can tell by the pictures, I decided I needed to add a little more.

Cairo's birthday landed during the middle of the week, but since it was our summer we call got to enjoy the day with her.  Cairo woke up to a pile of presents, a birthday banner, and her breakfast of choice.  As usual, everyone spoiled her with wonderful, thoughtful gifts.  I hope she knows how much she's loved and how lucky she is.  The biggest excitement for Cairo, though, was her make-up.  She's been asking for make-up for a while but we told her that she needed to wait until she was five.  Heather got her a make-up kit full of everything a five year-old would need to make themselves pretty.  Cairo made up herself, Mei, Jonah, and me... much to my delight.  Our conversation went something like this:

C: Mommy, I want you to be prettier for my birthday.  Let me put make-up on you.

Me: No, I don't really think I want to put any on right now.

C: Do you want to do with this the easy way or the hard way?

I chose the easy way.

For Cairo's birthday we took Cairo, Jonah, Mei, and Lili to the movie theater to see the new Disney movie Brave.  The movie came out a few days after her actual birthday.  Each kid got a popcorn bucket, a small baggie of candy, and a little toy.  The candy was gone before the previews finished and the popcorn was quick to follow.  Jonah was glued to the movie the entire time.  I don't think hw even blinked.  I ended up with Mei and Cairo in my lap towards the end.  Cairo was crying, not because she was scared but because she was sad that people and other bears were trying to get the mommy bear.  For Lili, the whole thing was a new experience.  She would stand up and instead of looking at the screen she would turn and look at the audience.  Then, she'd turn around and sit up nice and tall on the edge of her seat and watch some more of the movie.  I had a great time and was excited that we didn't have to leave the movie once to take any of them to the bathroom.

Cake! Yum!

 Cairo also got a fun ABC twister game.  The kids has a great time trying to twist their bodies to touch all the right letters.

One last present...

Cairo Turns Five!

Happy Birthday Cairo!

The girls are going to be headed off to kindergarten soon and they are both really excited.  Nick and Kyoko got them matching backpacks for all of their important school supplies.

June 19th, 2012

There are a lot of important dates in our lives.

• October 31st, 2001- the day Erik and I started dating.
• June 26, 2004- the day Erik and I got married.
• March 16, 2006- the day we brought Guinness home  :o) -- I had to throw that one in there to tease Erik because we know how special he is to Erik.
• June 20, 2007- the day we became parents and welcomed Cairo Raine to the world.
• May 29, 2009- the day Jonah Skye come into the world and completed out family.

It's time to add one more day to the list- June 19, 2012.

It all started seven years ago.  I had just finished Grad School and had my teaching credential.  Erik and I were a year into our marriage and living in Santa Cruz.  Our plan was to move back home to Humboldt... and in fact, we even moved back up there and took temporary refuge in Erik's parent's back room.  Teaching jobs were far and few between and when they did open the competition was fierce.  My plan was to sub for a while and get to know people.  Then, a job opened up down in Monrovia (in the school district I grew up in), I interviewed for it, and I got it.  A real job.  A first REAL job with health benefits, retirement, a REAL paycheck.  It was too hard to pass up, so away we went.

Moving in with my parents was supposed to be temporary.  You know, a month or two until we got on our feet and had a chance to look around.  Then, we accidentally bought a house.  In fact we bought the house before I even set a foot in it.  Darn internet postings.  Erik checked it our before we closed on the house.  I can't believe they actually sold it to us.  The only problem with the house was that it was up in Bayside, Humboldt County and we were in Monrovia.  Why buy a house 12 hours away?  Well, we wanted to get back.  We've heard so many stories from people about people getting stuck and comfortable in a place they didn't really want to live.  Our hearts were up North and this was our way to make sure we could get there.

So, now that we had a mortgage payment a good paying, steady job was important.  Over the next seven years I looked for jobs (sometimes daily) up North.  The jobs were very scarce.  I went on a few interview and always ended up the second choice.  We had Cairo and Jonah... and for a long seven years my parents were amazingly generous to us and let us stay with them during the school year.  Every summer, winter, Thanksgiving, and Spring break we headed north to be in our home.  It was a hard seven years, knowing where we wanted to be, investing so much into a house we could live in about 3 months of the year, and NOT knowing when we would actually get up there.  We made ourselves a promise, though.  Cairo would start Kindergarten up there.

It also became hard because I LOVED my job.  I loved the people I worked with.  I loved my students.  I loved my classroom.  I loved the programs I started and invested so much time and sweat into.  I also love my family.  My mom and dad, who helped me raise both my kids from day one, my sister and her little Xander-mander, that scarcely seen little brother of mine- all in the LA area and I would be moving SO far away.  The kids life would be turned upside down.  No more daily sightings of Grammie and Bapa, no more afternoons with X and Ta-ta, no more late night visits from Uncle Danny.

So on the eve of Cairo's Kindergarten year, we had some big decisions to make.  This is the decision we felt we had to make.  Erik was going to move north with both kids and I was going to continue teaching in Monrovia until one of us could get a job, any job, that would provide health benefits for the family and make enough to pay a majority of our bills.  Erik was going to try and get his foot into something and I was going to continue to apply for an job I could.  It was easy to say, "you and the kids move up north and I'll visit you every chance I can."  The truth was that it was a heartbreaking thought.  I wouldn't get to be there on Cairo's first day of kindergarten, I would miss all the stories and all the moments for a year in the life of my kids.  I would miss reading to them and tucking them in each night.  We were going to have to break up the team.  Erik was going to be a single parent and I would have a FaceTime relationship with my kids.  That is unless I could finally get a job up north.

In May, two science teaching jobs became available.  I applied for both and was granted interviews for both.  The first was for a middle school about a half a mile from my best friend's house.  It was for 8th grade science.  Can you say perfect?  I have always interviewed well and I put a lot of time preparing for it.  I came into it with a portfolio to share and seven years of experience and all the tools, ideas, and strategies that come with it.  I went into the interview confident, I came out of it not so confident.  I left out so many things I wanted to tell them and I didn't feel that I really represented everything I could do. The only comforting thought was that I had another interview- it was at a school a little farther away and at the high school level.  A decent job, but not the perfect one I was looking for.  Needless to say, I was pretty bummed the next few days, thinking there was no way I got the job.  But, I had things to do.  Cairo's birthday was coming up and Erik and I were working hard on redoing her room.

June 19, 2012: As were were trying to finish the final touches on her room the day before her birthday, we got a knock on the door.  It was the  Fed Ex delivery man.  With him we had Erik's brand new, flat screen television that he had scrimped and saved for, for a year.  Now, despite the happiness this brought Erik, this is NOT way the day has become important.  It did brighten my gloomy day, or should I say dayS.  As we were opening the box to set it up we got a phone call.  I answered it and was offered the job at the middle school!  Score!  It was shocking and unbelievable. The first thought that went through my brain was, "I'm not going to have to leave my babies!"  That thought was quickly followed by the thought that we had finally made it.  Seven long years.  Bouts of lost hope, disappointment, frustration, longing- all coming to an end.  At last, we get to settle down for good.

It seemed that on this day all the pieces of our life that weren't fitting together finally all fell into place.  On June 19th, here we were, permanently living in the home we plan to raise our kids in, I have a job that will mostly support us, provide health benefits, and a retirement package.  Cairo was getting ready to start Kindergarten at an amazing school and Jonah was all signed up to start Preschool and an equally amazing school.  Somehow, my school loan was unexpectedly finished being paid off.  Each day we were becoming more and more thrilled with the new car we bought the month before even though we were trying to hold out for a while longer.  Our best friends were now minutes away, instead of 12 hours, and though we will be missing out on seeing my family daily, we now get to see Erik's family.

So, June 19th is a pretty awesome day in my book.  It reminds me that dedication and hard work pay off in the end.  The road to reaching a goal may not always be easy, it can be bumpy, hard, frustrating, and humbling; but, keep your eye on the goal and don't give up because some day you will reach it!

Summer's in the houuuuse!

Summer is finally here!  It's been a crazy year at work, it's been a crazy year at home.  I love my job, but this year it has turned into a bit of a soap opera.  While I was not a character in the ever unfolding drama, it definitely had an effect on me and I was glad to escape it all.  Home life was crazy with Erik's whole back shenanigans, not to mention that fact the there are these two little munchkins always running around causing chaos. So, sigh, we're finally back home in Bayside.  The whir of endless end of the year activities has come to an end and we're settling in to the slower pace of summer life.

This year marked a big move for us.  We've made the decision to move back to Bayside for good.  At least, we are hoping we can all move back here for good.  Cairo starts Kindergarten in the fall and that has, kind of, been our deadline for moving back up here.  So, we packed up all our stuff and moved it up here.  No more living between two places, no more saying good-bye to our lovely home.  Downside, we need jobs.  So, while the move up here is permanent for the kids and Erik, there is still a chance that I will have to go back to Monrovia at the end of the summer and work again.  I'm looking for a job up here and would even be willing to leave teaching if it means I can stay with my family and still earn enough to support them.  Time will tell.  I hate the wait.

We packed up three cars (my parents helped us make the move) and were able to make it up here in time for my birthday.  It's been years since I was able to spend it up here.  We went over to Erik's parent's house for a family dinner and cake/ chocolate torte (mmmmm, my favorite).  Cairo got to play with Mei- one of her number one favorite things to do- and Jonah spent some time with Koko playing with marbles.

See, I'm there, too.

Koko's party trick.  I LOVE it!

Keeping busy while we're finishing dinner.

Blowing out the candles... I know what I'm wishing for!

The little cousins playing together.

The big cousins playing together.

 We enjoyed having my parents here for a few days.  We went on a few outings.  One included a trip to Agate Beach.  We spent a while searching for agates.  By the time we left everyone found at least one.  My mom worked the hardest at it and was the last to finally find one.  Way to stay with it mom.  :o)

Teaching Cairo the art of looking for agates.