Reunion, Blind Date, and Umbrellas in the Sun...

Something about reuniting with the cousins of one's youth really brings out the competitive spirit in a guy...namely my dad :D Then it spread to his son-in-law....

....and to his nephew...

The reunion was so much fun. One of the best parts was getting to see a couple of cousins that are my dad's brother's kids. All of my dad's newphews look so much like him, I think. Mark, I had seen briefly ten years ago, but he was here with his whole family of big grown boys. Here they are with Mark to the left and his kids on the right. Last time I saw those boys, they were toddlers.

Then his sister Debbie was there who I last saw when I was around 12 and she was about 18. They invited me to come spend a week down at their house with them and I felt so honored at the time. She was the lifeguard at the Mission Viejo Lake and I just thought she and her sister Teri were so cool. They had boyfriends and I was just so impressed at my ripe old age of 12. Here's my family just hanging around with Mike in the back. It was great having him there. He told me he had other plans, but I begged him to be a part of it and he showed up.

He also helped me carry all those heavy chafing dishes and clean them up. He was a big help.

As far as the kids go, they pretty much did their own thing, as you can see here in the picture.... Austin is ready to fire off a "3 pointer" while Ressa is doing some ballet. To the right Stephanie's Mitch has taken Marilyn's Mark hostage.

Even though it was a reunion for my dad's side of the family, I was glad that mom went and picked up Grammy for the party.

She seemed to be happy to be there.

Here's Barbie, Grammy, Marilyn, and my cousin, Jimmy. He brought the $5000 "segway" to the park and taught people how to ride it. Some commented as they saw only girls in his line for demos, that he brought it as a gimmick to get closer to all the girls there. Haha! It was the life of the party though. Wish I had tried it, but I didn't get a chance.

Here's a better shot of Grammy (my mom's mom, for the record). I just hope I look that good at 86!

The hula hoop contest at the luau was in full swing with Stephanie's son, Mitch taking 1st place. Here he is out in front. I just had to laugh---he was going like a machine out there. I've seen my mom in action with a hula hoop and thought she had a pretty fair chance at winning. Here she is ...unstoppable!

It was fun watching a bunch of 2nd and 3rd cousins line up to play "under-over" where two lines passed a pineapple back to see which line could get it down the line and back, first!

Both my husband and Barbie's made the best of it....not knowing too many people.

Here's one of my dad's older brothers, Jim with his granddaughter, Marina to the left.

Jim didn't order a reunion t-shirt and said he had an "even better choice" to wear for the picnic. And I had to agree....here he is sporting the coveted 50th aniversary year t-shirt of D'Elia's Grinders, our favorite Riverside food establishment!

Mark's daughter Kelsey wanted to come back and visit for another week, so she's been with us since last Saturday. Everything's going well. Austin got a call yesterday morning from a friend of his who's family was spending the day at Magic Mountain. They had an extra ticket and invited Austin to go. He didn't get back until close to midnight last night. Had fun though and my meticulous sunscreen application on him (which he hates with a passion) held up and did its job.

Kelsey, on the other hand, was bored to tears. She wanted somebody to go see Simpson's Movie with, but call after call proved nobody home. She later gave me permission to come up with ANYBODY I could who might like to go with her. I called around and got ahold of my Mexican friend, Angelica, from church. She had a household full of nieces for the summer up from Mexico and South America. Knowing how Kelsey goes to school out in Ventura where the school population is roughly 80% hispanic and knowing how well she communicates with them....I thought I'd call Angelica.

Was I ever surprised when she said there were no girls home, just her son, Jeremias. Knowing this boy (after driving him home from school along with his brother and Austin for the past two years) I said, "Oh well he would be WAY TOO shy to do that!" My friend replied, "Oh no, that's my other son you're thinking of....let me ask him.....tiny pause...... "He wants to go!" OK then, I said. I thought he was 16, but winds up he is one year younger than Kelsey. He's a real nice guy and has been on the "academic decathalon" team in jr high and high school. He's into sports and speaks perfect English. I picked him up and drove them over to the mall theater about 5 last night. When Kelsey heard he was 15 she said, "Oh well you're just a baby." From that moment on, I had nothing to worry about. She set up a barrier with that very comment, I'm sure. Hahaha! As it turned out, he was a perfect gentleman and insisted on paying for her movie ticket. She, in turn, insisted on buying the snacks. After the movie, they walked over to Borders book store and browsed through the Ripley's Believe-it-or-not books for fun. Kelsey offered the "family prayer" later last night and said, "...and I'm thankful for the chances I'm getting to hang around really nice people." It really made me feel good....and happy for her!

This week we've taken the opportunity to go over to the big high school pool for the "open swim" which is offered from 1:15 to 3:30 every afternoon. It's $2/kid and cheaper than any other entertainment around here. There are actually two pools over there. There's the big 10' deep pool with two diving boards about 3' above the water. Then there's a bigger pool that goes from 3' deep at either end to 5' in the middle. I must have looked like a well-cultured Asian woman out there... the only one sitting in full sun in the bleachers (the best spot to see the kids swim) holding a black umbrella over my head to block out the sun. I never would have been seen looking so silly like that in the middle of summer without a cloud in the sky....but things are different now. I kept telling myself...not an old Asian woman...think Mary Poppins. I guess that proves I'm getting old. But I don't care now that my Uncle Dave has had skin cancer, Papa (my mom's dad) died of melanoma, and now Grammy (my mom's mom) has basil cell carcinoma on her head that needs to be operated on ASAP. I had a mole taken off my back a few years ago, as a precaution....which came back as one step away from melanoma! At that point I decided to spend the next couple years having anything more than a freckle removed from me and after about 12 of those procedures, all but one were PRE-MELANOMA! Scary! So I actually sit there in peace under my umbrella and don't care what anybody thinks. In recent years, I wouldn't be caught dead with an umbrella if there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but things have changed.

That's Melody on the board ready to jump. It's so fun to see Ressa and Melody spending all their time now in the deep pool going of the diving boards constantly and swimming by themselves over to the ladder. Finally, everybody can swim. It's both a milestone and a relief! Until the kids say something about it, I'll continue to cheer them on and watch their every dive, jump, and trick from under my umbrella on the bleachers, the best seat in the house.

Tuesday's "To do" List

1. Fold & put away 3 loads of laundry.
2. Get girls out to 8am summer school.
3. Clean out car.
4. Clean my bathroom.
5. Do dishes.
6. Get the boys to do dishes later.
7. Set up a hair appointment.
8. Set up Joey's senior picture appt.
9. Confirm reunion reservations with restaurant owner for Friday night reunion luau.
10. Confirm reunion Reservation with Knott's Berry Farm and give adult/child count.
11. Return stuff to Walmart.
12. Return stuff to OSH. (Didn't need every chemical they sold for this new "pool")
13. Go do banking at the bank.
14. Shop at Party City for reunion decor, plates, utensils, etc. etc.
15. Take Ressa out to get shoes.
16. Get girls to swimming by 4:35pm.
17. Take the kids home to change.
18. Go out for "TACO TUESDAY" at the restaurant where Joey & Ashley work where all tacos are $1 on Tuesdays.

Is Nothing Sacred?

...or have I lost my sense of humor? I actually received this from a relative recently. This wedding announcement just made me a little sad. Knowing the parents of the bride-to-be, and their level of "class and sophistication," I wasn't surprised to hear they had not seen one of these announcements. Judge for yourselves, but this is way too crazy for my taste.

The 4 Worst Reasons to Postpone a Wedding....

1. An alcoholic in the family says you should.
2. The couple wants their own child to be old enough to walk down the aisle in the ceremony.
3. To wait for close family to reach 21 so they can drink alcohol there and "really celebrate."
4. To give estranged, squabbling relatives time to patch up their differences.

I'm just blowing off some steam here. I've honestly heard it all! Don't ask me how I came up with these so fast....

Heard Around the House...

• Melody: "I don't have to go with you guys to drive those plants."
• Mom: "No you can stay with Daddy if you'd like."
• Melody: "Well, I already HAVE a grandma and I don't need to go drive and see anybody else's Grandma! Even if she's Andrew's grandma, SHE'S NOT MINE!"

HEARD IN THE CAR....

Melody: "Since all the grandmas are supposed to have white hair, why does my grandma have brown?"

Mom: (giggling to myself): "I guess you'll have to ask her."

Melody: "Ok, I will."

(Long pause)

Ressa: "Melody, that's probably the rudest thing you could ever ask a Grandma!"

Bad Neighbors, Good Neighbors, Plants & Spiders...

I dealt with neighbors from the depths of you-know-where for the seven years we've lived here and I've even got the front door to prove it....still peppered from bb gun shots all over it. I've been cussed out for no reason on my porch and harassed for being a Sunday churchgoer. Those days have come to an end though as we watched the dreaded Victor and family move away this summer.

On the positive side though, we had the house next door to us go up for rent a year ago and the nicest family straight out of "Best Neighbor Almanac" (if there is one) moved in. Their 10 year old and 7 year old boys have been Austin's best friends. Though Austin is 13-1/2, he's a rather naive teenager and thrives on being a role model to these boys. They also have an 11 yr. old daughter who was so friendly to the girls and boys. This family had good values and were trying to raise their kids the way we try to.

When they announced they were moving up to Stockton, we were pretty crushed. The kids had been out riding bikes and playing outside in front of the house everyday. Now it's like pulling teeth again trying to get them to get out and do things. These neighbor's grandma would drive down from Adelanto to spend every afternoon with her grandkids when they got home from school.

Before we had any idea, their Grandma told me they were already discussing how she would get up to Stockton to visit them and the plan they all liked best was for Austin to travel with her as her travelling companion either by plane or car and stay for a week. Hmmmmm. I've never let him go away like that and I'm still wondering how that would be....

They had no room for all their huge potted plants when they moved, so they have been occupying most of my porch and side of our house since they left. I promised we could put them into the van and drive them up to Grandma near Victorville for her. So that's our plan for this morning. She is Filipino and a terrific cook, so we've been promised a special noodle dish for lunch today.

The only immediate concern we have is that we have seen black widows dropping out of these pots at night. HELP! After getting bit by one in '97, I'm rightfully leary about it. She dropped by with big plastic arbage bags that we can bag over them, but Joey just came in and informed me he "ran through all of them with gloved hands and is convinced they are spider free now." HELP!!! So after a little check-in at weight watchers in a few minutes, I'm off with the kids to do some major plant delivery.

Anybody have any ideas as far as reunion games. I'm supposed to do "Ancestor Presentations." I'm trying to think of how to do that to make it fun and interesting, but I'm stuck on "ANCESTOR JEOPARDY." In my mind, I hear...."I'll take Ammon, Idaho for $200!" I can't get past it though. Any ideas???

Long Time No Blog...

It's been a while since I wrote anything. Last week I spent Monday through Friday at my mom's house logging in 42 hours of bookkeeping for my dad's business between Tues. and Friday. Whew! Lots of catch-up work....and then some. I'll be back there from around 10-3pm to do some more. I hear my sister Marilyn and her kids are there through the weekend so the kids will all have fun playing together

.

I have a real nice neighbor lady across the street named Chris. She's a year or two older than me, never married and teaches 7th grade nearby. I relate to her quite a bit, as she's the oldest of four girls in her family also. She's a presbyterian and very active in her church like I am in mine. Well, she walked over today arm-in-arm with a handsome catch and said they just got married on 07-07-07. What a surprise!!! I'm really happy for her. Her new husband works on the Alaskan Pipeline and works there "on" for 2 weeks and then off and back here for 2 weeks....year-round. Reminded me of my dad and brothers up working in North Dakota right now. They've been "on" for what seems like 2 or 3 weeks now with no word on when they're coming back!?!? Maybe that's what they need to do....work on 2 weeks and then be off for 2 back home. We'll see what happens.

And what a thrill to hear that my good brother got permission from his probation officer to remain up in N. Dakota working for up to six weeks at a time without checking in. He showed good faith leaving the opportunity and driving back to check in with probation and seek their permission to continue. I'm so proud of him for making such an obvious committment to leave the old life behind and fly right forevermore.

I've been quite busy with the Ball Family Reunion that will be upon us next week, 7/26 - 7/28. There have been some very big changes since we were in the planning stages. Previously we barely had 20 interested in lunch at Knott's, so we had everyone just plan to pay their own way when they get there. The reality of it now is that I'm about $75 in the hole because with a party of 60 the restaurant charges a $75 banquet room fee and the flat per adult price will be $16.75 with 2-pc. chicken, drink, tax and tip all included, but no pie. Or there's the $20.45 price with 3 pc. chicken, drink, tax, tip, WITH PIE. I'm having very uncomfortable daydreams just before falling to bed of 75 people coming and only 50 paying. Help! That's a lot of money!

Then there's the '69 corvette. That's another story in itself. We expected to have it done by now and be taking bids on it. Well, not exactly the case. It's costing us $300/month to make payments on it until it's all dolled up and ready to sell. The guy fixing it has determined that it has 115k miles on it, NOT 15k. He found 7 layers of paint and one door which was not original, but from a different car ompletely....indicating it was in an accident. The wiring has been monkeyed with and there were no brakes at all. He needs two more months to get it ready, but he promises it will be in cherry condition when he's through. We can only cross our fingers and hope!

The kids are doing well. Ressa and Melody are in summer school 1/2 days Monday thru Thursday. Melody was getting bored to tears by it, and not wanting to go yesterday. I promised I'd ask the teacher if I could be Melody's kindergarten buddy for a day. The assistant wasn't there so it worked out perfectly. I have not had that productive a morning nor a more solid schedule I've adhered to from 8am-12:30pm since I was in elementary school myself! Wow! I got to run a center writing L and l. Then I ran an area taking 8 kids at a time to play bingo with the numbers 1-20. The teacher's method of disciplining and keeping order was truly amazing and definitely takes some effort and skills. It was comical at first, but I bit my tongue and supported her every move. If the kids were sitting in a circle and one kid blew in another kids' face, she say, for instance, "Thank you Johnny for not blowing in people's faces." Or if a kid blurted out something without raising his hand, she'd say, "Thank you for raising your hand first if you have something to say." Or to the kids shouting and bugging each other in line, she'd say, "Thank you for being quiet with hands to your sides while you wait in line." In each case, the kids quickly obeyed and tried to anxiously adapt to doing the right thing right away. By the end of the day when kids started fighting over wanting the winning bingo card for the next game, (with a giggle) I made myself say, "Thank you for being happy with the card you have!" It was tiring but all worth it when Melody said last night, "Mommy you really were a pretty good kindergarten buddy." She was as surprised as I was, I guess :D

We had fun last night sitting with several cups of blueberries in our lap and reading "Blueberries for Sal" together before bed last night....among about 3 others too. The girls started off saying, "I hate blueberries. I don't want any." I replied, "Well I think the big ones are great. I thought it would be fun to eat some while we read the blueberry book." After reading 30 pages all about a boy and a bear that love eating blueberries and never get their pails full because they eat so many....well, by then both girls started snacking on them and wound up liking them by bedtime. We read a chapter in the scriptures together and that always makes for a good next day. Reading daily in the scriptures as a family definitely increases the kids obedience to parents and decreases the contention between the kids on the following day. I've always noticed that, but I don't know why we end up going a long while not reading....then we'll think, "Geez, we haven't read for so long!" Then we start up again and the blessings are apparent.

It takes planning on my part though. Dinner needs to be ready by 5:45 when Mark walks in. Then the girls do showers and shampooing. I'm taking time to read "Where the Red Fern Grows" with Austin right now. I read it together with Joey when he was around 11 or 12 and he ended up burrying his head over in my shoulder crying and crying in the last chapter when the agony of the dog dying of a broken heart takes places. I was amazed at the effect it had on him. He was not an emotional kids at all at that time, but that book really got to him. I figured it would be a good one for Austin too. We'll see how he handles the ending....

We're on the final stretch of swimming lessons now. Nearly five weeks down and one to go. Melody has declined going off the high school diving board into the 10' deep pool the entire time (even though she jumped off several times LAST summer!) But this week, they accidentally skipped a level and moved her into a harder class. A couple friends of hers are in it and she didn't want to leave it. I told her yesterday before class that she has to do whatever they do INCLUDING GOING OFF THE DIVING BOARD. "And if I don't?" she asked. "Well, they'll kick you out down to the little kids lessons."

So there we were yesterday, and the only time I've left sight of them in five weeks, I go to my car for 5-10 minutes to get something. I come back to find out that Melody went off the diving board (about 3 feet above the water!) She didn't just go off it, the teacher instructed the kids they would be practicing DIVING OFF THE BOARD!!!! AND SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!

So today, I'll be there, eyes glued to the scene for sure. Ressa's doing awesome herself. She is swimming with kids 8-9 and swimming the distance of the high school pool back and forth maybe 6 times a day (backstroke, breaststroke, etc.) and then they have to tread water for about 5 minutes. It's a great workout and she's probably the smallest and youngest in there, but she completes everything.

I pulled out some frozen "carne asada" meat this morning. Now to figure out what to make with it. I think we're looking at fajitas tonight. That's all folks!

Thoughts on a Busy Week....

Last week was very busy for us. If we did nothing other than go to swimming lessons everyday which are Monday - Friday from 6:40-7:10pm, it would still feel busy to me. I get the girls over to Summer School Monday - Thursday, from 8:00 to 12:30. Ressa seems to enjoy it for the opportunities to play with new friends everyday. Melody is in it to help her keep up her socializing skills too. Shyness is a big challenge for her right now. She finds it hard to even look in the direction of the person speaking to her. However, her teacher, being aware of the situation, crafted an opportunity for her to really open up and be herself. The class played bingo and guess who won....Melody! So that gave her a chance to speak up and shout, "BINGO!" She got the point across that she won and got a prize. She seems to enjoy it too.

July 4th, we got tickets to the big Celebration/Fireworks Display that goes on a the "Epicenter" every year. We hadn't been before so it was a new experience. This stadium is just a mile down the road from us and is where the "Rancho Cucamonga Quakes" play baseball. They're the rookie baseball team that feeds into the Anaheim Angels. There was a concert with a Beach Boys-type band that had people come up from the audience and compete for the best "Amateur drummer" and other things. They set up each contestant with the song "Wipeout" and gave them a chance to play the drum as fast as they could. The best part was when the women in her 60s (looked like Grammy's twin sister) won! They had a 20 minute firework show at 9pm and all had a good time.

On Friday, Mark took the day off and we had planned to pick up his mom in La Crescenta and go look at the stars' homes and walk around Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. We got off the 134 freeway and headed up the windy Mulholland Drive all the way to the top of the Hollywood Hills and back down again. I pulled a list off the internet that had a list of all the addresses of which stars lived on Mulholland. We passed by the homes of Molly Ringwold, Jack Nicolson, Bruce Willis (they're next door to each other), Mary Tyler Moore, etc. It was fun, but troubling as we passed by the driveways into Jack Nicolson's and Bruce Willis' places and saw all the vans and cars lined up down the street, some even parked along inside their driveway (private road, is more like it) with their big cameras around their necks just standing around....waiting. It was the papparazi! It made me a tad bit sick to my stomach to see all that and put myself in the celebrities place....knowing all those people were waiting outside blocking/surrounding my property.

Then we went over to Westwood to eat at Junior's Deli. Mark and I have always stopped to eat there every time we made a trip up to the temple in Los Angeles. I think my parents always stopped there too. Food was great as usual. Then we headed over to Rodeo Drive to see the sights. A Rolls-Royce identical to this one was parked along the street. I had seen them before, but apparently a lot of people had not. When we passed by, Austin had to peek in the window and was only concerned with the maximum speedometer reading.....260 mph, he reported! After passing it though and then coming down the other side of the street, we look over and there's a mob of people that have crowded out into the street, completely surrounding this car with cameras and all as though it was a famous person or something.

Mark headed our Chevy Express Van right into the valet parking under the Beverly Wilshire Hotel without any hesitation. Us passengers weren't paying too much attention until he said, "OK, everybody out!" There we are in a line of cars waiting to be valet parked. I believe we were sandwiched in between a Masserati and a Mercedes convertible. I could have died. The valet seemed very surprised as he watched 8 people pour out of the van when the sliding door opened! I was so embarrassed, I could have died! It would have been much more my style to find a place to park way off the beaten path and then walk our way back to the limelight, per se. As we exited the hotel, the next sight was this one:

The original, one and only Jose' Eber hair salon. I used to see him on talk shows giving makeovers and the greatest haircuts. I came very close to going to get a cut there when I was about 21. He charged $100 for the cut......I just couldn't justify it in the end.

I don't know these people, but this was the first part of the walk we took.

Of course palm trees were everywhere. The items in the stores were priced to atmospheric proportions. Sports jackets at $2000 and up. Didn't stop Austin from browsing through them though.

After all was said and done, there was an emptiness I felt there that was with me the rest of the day. We had seen Jay Leno's house and the other most famous stars lived at the very top of the highest hills. Right smack in the middle of Rodeo Drive was a giant silver sculture of a woman's body, cut off at the neck and cut off just above the knees. It was high above the island in the middle of the road and seemed to me, representative of all that mattered around there. Just appearance---no personality, no heart, nothing personable. Everyone hid behind dark glasses with no expression on their faces. Mark commented on not seeing a single person smile. Mark's mother mentioned as we walked around...."we would have probably enjoyed a day shopping down at Montrose (old town shopping district in Glendale) much more than here. We looked back on the experience when we got back home and appreciated how much home and family relationships mean to us and make our lives rich. It was hard to believe people could lay down so much money for those items. I couldn't help but think of a single movie star living in a 14000 s.f. $12 million mansion and then imagine what could truly be bought for that.....40 - $300k homes. I tried to explain to the children how love, family, good health, faith, hope, prayer and extended cousins and family around us is what makes us rich. They seemed to feel the same way and were actually rather disappointed by what we found there.

Saturday we shopped for Joey who's headed up to Utah State University in Logan, Utah on Monday for the Especially for Youth (EFY, as the kids refer to it) program for a week living on campus like a college kid going to classes, dances, banquets, and just having loads of fun. He's going with two friends from church this year and should have a great time. He had to stop and buy an Angels baseball tie that looked real good with a gray button-up shirt. He got his first check from his new restaurant job. I was proud of him.....he took 10% off the top for tithing, then was ok with my insistance that 1/2 of the remainder go into the savings and 1/2 into his pocket for fun.

We returned Kelsey back to meet up with her mom at Disneyland after a 3 week visit with us. It went great overall and there were no major problems to speak of. She enjoyed reading book after book to the girls at night and swimming and being wild in the pool with Austin each day. There were lots of laughs and fun had by all. She introduced me to the store, Sephora where we tried so many different cosmetics and had a blast.

Quotable Quotes

Heard first thing this morning....

Mark: "Next time don't make so much of that tortellini salad."

April: (rolling her eyes)

Mark: "It was just a big diet saboteur. From now on, everything has to taste like crap if we're ever going to lose any weight around here!"

Weekend Highlight....A Backyard Pool!

Well, it's not the dreamy built-in pool of my childhood....but it's more than we had the day before yesterday! It's 15' diameter and 42" deep. Mark insisted that the kids needed something like this and I'm glad he did. The excitement was overwhelming, especially for Melody. Once she got in it, there was no getting her out of it for nearly four hours. When she finally had to get out and go up to bed, the older kids were getting ready to go in. Melody pulled out all the stops accusing me saying, "you only want to make my life miserable don't you!?!" She cried and threw a horrible tantrum for nearly an hour. I've never seen her so distraught. For heavens sake, it was 9pm and she's only six years old. By the end of the whole episode she believed I had said she could NEVER swim in it ever again. Good grief!!! We read stories though and she just couldn't keep up the wailing knowing I was reading one of those "George and Martha" books. (Ha! My plan worked!) I didn't react to her tirade, but just carried on with the normal bedtime routine, with an occasional "Shhh Melody, we're trying to read about George and Martha." Well, she woke up this morning completely opposite....just very happy. All was forgiven and water under the bridge.

Ressa had been complaining about seeing "lines and circles" lately in her vision. I thought maybe she needed glasses since Joey did right around 2nd or 3rd grade. After seeing the eye doctor he had to dilate her eyes a 2nd time since March and it winds up that the lines and circles are a residual effect from that horrible injury she had in March where her eyelid swelled like a golf ball. The slight thickening of the vitreous fluid in the eye causes those occasional lines and circles, but should subside over a years' time. At the same time though, she had just a slight problem up close...20/30 which isn't much at all, but he said it could account for her saying the notes look confusing while she practices piano. So she got some cute little glasses for reading and/or piano playing. It was funny in church today to watch her trying to find any excuse to wear them and then ask to get up and walk out of the meeting time after time to "get a drink," "go to the bathroom," just wanting her friends to see the new glasses. I think three of her friends all wear glasses actually. That's completely opposite from when I was in school. I would have rather run naked in the streets than show up at school wearing a pair of glasses! SCARY! I remember only one kid wearing glasses per class, maybe. Maybe all the print is tinier now and requires everyone to be wearing these flat microscopes out in front of their eyes? She does look very cute in them.

Austin had a great time at camp and earned 4 merit badges: emergency preparedness, canoeing, astronomy and leatherwork. He took an opportunity to get up in church today and shared some experiences from camp last week. He had everybody busting up laughing when he told about the final day in the fishing merit badge class. He names this one boy (who probably didn't appreciate it) as being quite jealous of the other boys in the group because they all brought their own fishing pole and he didn't. You had to catch a fish to get the merit badge. There was a big catfish that continued to swim close-by the boys who were fishing near the shore. This boy without a pole, picks up a self-made "club" and begins whacking at the catfish every time it swam near the shore. Eventually all the clubbing did what it was intended to do and the boy had technically "caught" a fish. Well some of the other boys quickly went back to their scoutmaster and hypothetically asked, "Ummm, uhhhh, does it count for catching a fish if a guy clubs it to death? Uhhhh, just curious, wondering?" The scoutmaster, not wanting anyone left out basically responded with, "If a guy has caught a fish, I'm not going to worry about how he got it, as long as he got it!" Note: There's no way in a million years would that ever have occurred at girls' camp!

Joey is working at the restaurant and doing a great job it sounds like. Saturday night he bussed tables along with the manager's son. Everybody knows how those boss's sons are....Hahaha! Well, Joey said this character spent most of his time chit-chating outside with guys except for those brief moments when a manager or owner was staring at him. Ashley (my step-daughter) is a waitress there and was having a problem with this particular kid and said to him, "You better look out buddy because I'll sic my big brother on you and he'll beat you up!" She motions to Joey (who is thinking, oh geez, keep me out of it) and this tall, skinny manager's son trying to intimidate says, "Hey, don't EVEN make me reveal these big guns I'm carryin' around!" Joey just ignored him until a big truck pulled up with all these banquet tables they had to carry inside for a reception the next day. Joey walks up to the truck, grabs out a big table with the legs folded under and carries it in. He gets back to the truck and here's the big-mouth lazy kid still struggling to get ahold of his FIRST table and find a way comfortable enough to hold it and make forward motion. Hahaha! Joey is laughing to himself as he says, "Uh, you need some help." The kid responds, "NO!.....well, not usually....but, uh, tonight uh, maybe.....maybe I could." Joey helps him carry it in. The rest of the night the kid is trying to convince Joey that he needs to take the available 15 min. break. Joey is refusing saying, "Listen bud, I'm a trained wrestler and just so you understand, unless there's blood or broken bones I keep on working and don't stop till I'm done!" (that's my boy!!!) After that the kid just prefaced everything he said to Joey with "well since you're more responsible than me, would you.....? It was a joke, but Joey said he really made points when the boss saw him working hard then asked him where lazy guy was. Joey pointed out he was outside chatting again.....sure enough! Joey's got high hopes to becoming a waiter at 18 after seeing the tips they get. The other night Ashley got a $60 tip from a couple with a $50 dinner tab! Ashley says all she has to do is talk Nascar to the guy (everything she's learned from Jim) and it gets a big tip. everytime. Joey may be in for a rude awakening if it comes down to Ashley's cuteness that's bringing in the tips. Joey winds up with an average $8 cash per night as his part of the waitresses portion. He loves it though.

I'm so proud of them all. They keep me smiling and laughing!

Confidential to Cuz Kev: How Rancho Cucamonga Got So "Fancy-Shmantzy!"

Well, around here you've got one big housing development company referred to as K&B or Kaufman and Broad/Lewis Homes. They've built nearly all the homes in this town since the 1990s which doubled the town's population up to 160000 now. They've made a fortune and anybody who buys a NEW home here has to pay a tiny little assessment of tax toward the fund for city parks and recreation.

As a result, there are lots of beautiful, new parks around, a brand new mall, a performing arts center right here next to the new mall (Kenny Loggins is playing there in Sept.) and the library is next to it! Dance classes, preschools, art classes, etc. are all subsidized by the city and only cost a fraction of what they would in other places.

The only downside, in my opinion, is having everything in town named after a member of the Lewis Homes family.....For example, when we need to touch-up our paint, we have to visit the local Dunn-Edwards paint store and ask for the shade called "Goldie Lewis White." (wife of said builder) Or we say the dance classes are at the "Goldy Lewis community center".

Then when you go to our local Spaghetti Factory there is a big monument right outside the front door that you could fall over if you're not careful. It reads something to this effect: "every Spaghetti Factory in the chain is located in an historic old building that's been restored, EXCEPT this one. Thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis of Lewis Homes for funding the building of this new structure made to look as if it's old, delapidated, AND restored so this wonderful city can have this wonderful restaurant." I get just a tad bit annoyed at times. These guys sold us the house but never left town. I suppose I should be grateful for all they've done....but sometimes I think I'd prefer just a rebate on the home price. Oh well...

Just a bit of info to know and forget...