What was I thinking?

I have returned to school after quite a break. But, I like to think of it like a vacation. The first week was hell - I didn't think it would end. Totally crazy. I am just glad that is all over. I was so stressed out, I would say that I am finally getting back on my feet. One thing that I could say is the dental hygiene program at NAU has totally sucked my pockets of $$$. It just seems like there are just more and more to buy. Okay, enough of me complaining. It was fun though recieving our instruments. It was like christmas - opening all the packages.

Enough of me, the kids are doing great in school. They have been back to school for about a month. Stanford and the kids have adjusted okay without me at home. I say this only because, I haven't hear any complaints. Maybe they see me too stressed out, so they don't even say a peep. I would say the hardest part was leaving them for school. Very hard, okay we won't talk about that. I don't want to start the water works. Once you get me started, it is kinda hard to compose myself.

Well as you can see - the house is still on the market. But all the open houses have really good responses. We just need that one. We have a couple taking another look this week - so hopefully they are the one. I hope so my family could move to Flagstaff, so we can have the family back together. We are always around each other every moment and then to not have that. I'm lonely - no not really. I have such a great support system from my family, parents and peers - making the adjustment not so bad.

This is me for now....

PV Allstar Major Softball

These are some photos from my daughter's softball games at Camp Verde. Boy, was it hot down there. It was hard to stay cool. The attempt was useless-I think this photo was a good example. I got so involved in softball, that I even made a banner. I think I am a little crafty. I used a screen material so the girls can kinda of shaded from the beaming sun. I thought it was cute. My favorite part was the numbers. I used a yellow material and put red stiching to mimic the thread on the softball.

Well the 1st game started off a little rocky. Our major softball girls had played with the wrong ball all season. As our girls practiced right before the game, an empire approached our pitchers and notified them that we needed to use the 12" ball. All the girls didn't like it, but the game must go on. The girls were having a difficult time catching the ball, since most of their gloves we better suited for a smaller ball. But, as the game went on the girls got over this delima to win the game 21-4 against Camp Verde. Yippie!!!!

The 2nd game was the next day against Verde Valley. Boy! were these girls bigger and better. So, as you can guess the girls lost. I don't remember the score (who cares). Don't I sound all bitter. Since, it was a Friday-my parents asked us to go to Gallup the next day to do some shopping for my daughter for upcoming ceremony. So, after the game ended at 11:30 pm we left Camp Verde for Winslow. Are we genius or what. But, we haven't gone to Gallup in quite a while-I think more than 8 years.

Since the girls lost game 2, we knew we had to play again on Saturday evening. We thought we could make it back in time, but of course we didn't. The girls had to play Camp Verde again and we thought we had this one in the bag. But, I was kidding myself-the girls lost. Well since we lost 2 games were out of the tournament. I was kinda of glad-since the second round was in Tucson. Can you just imagine the heat. Besides, my daughter would of have to miss them-she had a ceremony that was starting at the same time. Oh! well, this was a fun for her.

I can see the light @ the end of the tunnel...

I was so glad the season for little league ended for the kids and then both of the kids got selected for the All-Star team for Prescott Valley. I was excited until I found out that they would be playing at the same time in two different towns. Most evening during the weekday in Williams and Camp Verde simutenously. Crazy huh? My son was gracious enough to for go playing, but my daughter will continue to play until they lose-since they will be closer to where we live. I am just not looking forward to driving back those last nights after midnight. I am just awful-I just want to be lazy. But this is not going to happen anytime soon. But, I don't mind the daily workouts or should I say I don't mind watching my daughter practice.


I only say this because, we had a realtor look at our home today. She made some suggestions on to repaint a couple of rooms to make it more appealing for buyers. She keep telling me to tone it down. This was quite hard for me to do. I was raise with the plain white walls, though my parents let me paint my room whatever I wanted to right before I left home. But, I am not a fan of white-maybe trim only. Then she tells my husband and I to cancel our plans to re-tile both of the bathrooms and the kitchen. Man! Did I like the tile, but my husband was all excited he didn't need to pay for something eles. All we need to do is paint some walls, replace a broken window(softball incident), plant some flowers and have the carpet clean the high traffic areas. Minor stuff, I just hope we can sell quickly. I want to be settle in the new place before school starts.

End of Little League Season of 2007

The kids have learned alot from there 2nd season as players in a new sport. Practice..practice and more practice gets you more playing time as you improve. Unless the coaches want their kids to play more. I didn't realize there would more drama with baseball(boys) than softball(girls). But that is something one has to deal with at all times in sports or any activities. But I am sure glad we don't have to deal with coming home after 9:30 p.m. with homework still due and everyone still needing to be fed. There was alot of take-out food this season.

Shandiin(pitcher & 1-3baseman) got really close to the team after a couple of weeks of being shy. She likes to lay-back and view the action before she dives right in. This was especially tough, since alot of the girl already knew each other from school since they all go to the same one. But, there were a couple that commuted to another town for more challenging schools. She got more confident in her surroundings as the season went along.

Nakai(2nd basemand & outfielder) went through a transition period being a batter this year. Last year all pitches were from the pitching machine and this year a live pitcher. He was confident in the beginning, but after being hit a couple of times with a fast ball he got a little shakey at the base. So to help with this his sister pitched to him until he got use to person pitching and not a machine. But, he love the game. Maybe-this was due to the snacks after each game. Something to look forward to. Another thing that he look forward to was catching a pop-up or getting an opponent out. And boy did he love getting dirty.

Well to end the season, we took the kids to Slide Rock to start summer. Though I don't know why-they complained about the water being too cold. Nah! after they played for a while they were fine. I think we will do this again when the temperature reached triple digits. But, that was such a scenic drive.

Tucson, AZ (weekend of 4/20)

This was such a great last minute trip. My husband was suppose to go alone to take his Structure II exam (hopefully, this will be his last test ever). The 8-hour exam is not something I want to be involved in, yet anyways.

We left PV and arrived in Tucson just after midnight. I guess we should have left earlier. Nakai fell asleep at dinner in Phoenix. But, Shandiin didn't seem to mind the long trip-she was watching a movie. Isn't it a lifesaver to have TV's in the vehicles and especially for long trips. Those of you with kids know what I am talking about.

Anyways, as Stanford is draining his brain with tons of calculations-we went shopping. And guess what, I found a scrapbook store down there-just out of the blue. Nope, I wasn't even looking. It was fate! In most cases, I am always on the look out for new things at different locations. I keep telling my husband they are not all the same. He doesn't get the concept.

Later in the early evening, the kids and I went and rescued my husband from the Convention Center-this is where the exam took place. I told my daughter, look as all the examinees ( I actually said Nerds) come out. They are doing to have their pocket protectors on, their glasses and all there books-the stampede. She got a big kick out of that one.

I didn't want to do took much exciting things that day

without my husband, so we waited until he was with us. We put off going to the planetarium until that evening. We walked through the U of A campus to get there. We watched a show, enjoyed the little science museum that they had on-site there and looked through the telescope to see Saturn. This was very exciting for the kids, since this was their first time to a planetarium. Afterwards, we had a great dinner @ a location that a friend recommended. To top off the night, we got to see long, lost friends and their two great, cute and funny boys. We definitely got to return to Tucson to see this family again.

The finally day on Sunday that we were there, we had to get some Wildcat souvenirs. We are such big fans of any UofA sports. We didn't know the softball team was playing until we made one final lap of the campus. Guess what, the UofA softball team (#3 in the nation) was taking on Oregon Ducks (#15 in the nation) at noon. The girls of course won, 9-1. Yippie! That was our first game ever- very fun and hot. But, I think I was the only one that sunburned-I was even under the umbrella. Shandiin was very excited, she got a poster and a shirt that was signed by the girls after the game.

Easter...

What were we thinking-we went camping out on the Mollogon Rim. Knoll Lake to be exact. The scenery getting there and back was great, the location was great also. But the weather was cold. A nice bonus (or lack of) was the slight malfunction of my husband's part. I blame him-since he is not writing. We forgot to pack the bearings of the folding tent tires. Who knew, definitely not me. Well, thank god for my love of taking photos of scenery-the tire didn't fall off. We drove very slow, since we were near the edge of the rim for the majority of the time (FR 300-for those of you in the area). My father notice it right away-the rest of us, you must be kidding. We were just complaining that everyone got there later that we all thought. Also, trying to locate our stake of our tents, and RV trailers. The guys in my family got into gear and with little tools on hand took of the now welded remaining parts off the axle. With the information needed to get a new bearings and additional items, my father and husband took a cruise down to Payson heading east on FR300. The remaining family members joked about how the guys would eat at Chili's before heading back to the campsite (only if they were smart). We even tease about how we should put in a order, so we didn't have to cook. Aren't we lame. Well-it was cold. With luck the guys got the parts and headed start back for camp. When they returned they commented on another trailer with the same tragic ending. But they just booted theirs to the side of the road with some major damage. Lucky for us, I'm a tourist. But the weekend went smoothly other than that. We decided on taking another forest road back to Winslow, so we took FR321. Take this road if you are headed to Knoll Lake, it is much smoother. Also, you will see a variety of pine trees. Very nice...I plan on heading back but later in the summer-when it warms up a bit.
*The picture is taken somewhere on the rim with my son and husband. Not much trees in the background, this is due to forest fire from several years ago. It must of being a different site to see with all the trees.

...transition time...

Only a couple of pics from the kids games, I kept forgetting that I had the camera w/ me. As the kids are becoming more focus on the game, I guess I also have followed. Shandiin has grown in the sport w/ only 2 yrs of experience, she is taking it a little more serious. Nakai on the other had is still having fun. He wanting to look more like his favorite player (Steve Nash, of course) so we are attempting to grow out his hair. Stanford doesn't like this too much. But, we know this is only temporary.

As basketball seasons is winding down, try-outs for little league begins. It has been crazy, trying to get the trophies out to the kids from the basketball and running to practice for both kids to two different locations. But one nice thing about Little league, all practices and games are on weekdays. So, the weekends are free to see family and friends. Hopefully, we can get more camping days in this year. The only down fall will be driving like mad people for the kids sporting events and having late dinners. Funny thing the first day of practice for Shandiin and I get a speeding ticket. There goes a Saturday morning for driving class-shows me to take off alot sooner than expected. Stanford wasn't to excited about that one. But that is okay.

Guess what, some good news. After taking a long break for school-I decided to return. Being a dental assistant wasn't good enough for me, so I decided to apply into the Dental Hygiene Program @ NAU and got it. Yippie... So the move is official, we will be putting the house on the market in April. We are finalizing the backyard's landscaping-but, with the rain stuff has been delayed. Don't get me wrong, I love the rain(now I get to have more of that in Flagstaff w/ the monsoons).

Happy New Year!

Today, wow… the first week of 2007 is almost over! I am excited. So much I want to accomplish, change, improve and make happen! It was kind of good to have family near for the holidays, even though we did lots of traveling. The worst part was leaving some home earlier than we wanted to but, there is so many families we wanted to see. We finally came home to our bed, which our backs were happy to feel. With only week left of Christmas break, we all worked together to clean up, do laundry, clean out clothes that don’t fit and toys that are no longer interesting, and put away the Christmas trees and all decorations. I hate to put away all the decoration, but it is also fun to organize all into it's right places. But my house looks so clean and nice with everything back in it’s place. A little bare but Valentine is coming...soon.

Some new hopes/goals for the year would have to include:

• becoming more healthy
• completing a scrapbook page per week
• purging some unneccessary items (husband would love this one)
• moving back up North to Flagstaff (to be closer to family)
• enjoy life more and reduce my worries about the little things