just another rez girl...

Happy Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T13:36:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying a currently new love (things, not people):

1. watching Bollywood movies. Watched Jab we Met and Jodhaa Akbar this morning. I love the simplicity of getting to know an individual through everyday events and getting twitterpatted. Does anyone remember that feeling... thanks to Netflix.

2. Soy Chai Latte: need I say more.

These couple of items make my downtime whether it be with family or alone, while everyone else is at work or at school more enjoyable. It also reminds me on this special day that simple gestures goes along ways and are remembered more when spent with family and friends. The films are foreign and one needs to read subtitles, but they show that new adventures can be scary or awkward at first but one can reveal new strengths that one may have not know that they had in them. This character can now be more magnetic bringing the relationships that continue to bring them prolonged rewards.

Enjoy Valentine's Day as it ends, but enjoy the upcoming adventures.

Finally, recovered... I think?

2011-02-11T13:11:00.000-08:00

Ok! So where have I been... I've being gone for quite a while don't you think? Well I completed by program and have graduated with my Dental Hygiene B.S. with a minor in Biology, FINALLY! It has been a long time coming, but it has happened in May 2010. And for the past several months, I have been recovering. It is hard to recover from a student's life to a home life. I need time to adjust, I am just now getting a handle on it. My family had alot to deal with just as cleaning out the bank account to take numerous exams (written and clinical) before obtaining my license. Many thanks to them, with out their support and understanding my goal of graduating would have been unreachable.

So, currently I am working 2x/week at a private practice of dentistry as a primary

Registered Dental Hygienist. Which I love!!!! My full-time job is being a wife, friend and mother with all its many rewards. My family is doing great. My husband is staying busy as ever being a Project Manager, Consultant for Core Structural Engineering and Hogan Engineering. My daughter just finished a 17-1 basketball season and is now playing softball for Prescott High School. Crazy, she is a sophomore-time is flying by. My son is playing basketball for the city, a seventh grader at Prescott Mile High Middle School, and I just have to say a typical boy. He won't let us cut his care very short,loves guns, video games and such. Well I'll post more pix of recent past and upcoming events.

Back to School 2008

2008-08-25T02:29:00.001-07:00

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

What was I thinking?

2007-09-05T19:07:00.000-07:00

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

2007-07-12T23:47:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-06-23T14:37:00.001-07:00

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

2007-06-13T22:03:00.001-07:00

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)

2007-04-26T11:34:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-04-12T21:06:00.000-07:00

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...

2007-03-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

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!

2007-01-05T14:10:00.000-08:00

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

What a great day! (12-22-2006)

2006-12-30T13:25:00.000-08:00

Isn't it awesome, we actually got a hint of snow. Barely to cover the ground, but there is snow. Probably will melt soon. Also, the kids Christmas break just begun after a full day of school and a party. So to celebrate this, we went to watch the Phoenix Suns play against the Washington Wizards.

As you all know the Suns finally lost, but who can blame them after arriving least than 2 1/2 hours before game time. After the cancel game in Denver, they drove the bus to Colorado Springs and flew in hours before.

As you can see the kids enjoyed themselves too at the game (before and after):
-Nakai got alone time with a cheerleader-I think this will be his Christmas card to some male family members next year

-Shandiin can't take here eyes of the game

I think is was worth it all, coming home at 2:30 am just to get Washington Wizard's Gilbert Arenas' autograph.

Happy Holidays!

2006-12-15T09:46:00.000-08:00

I wish everyone a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year!

My favorite time of the year!

2006-12-04T20:19:00.000-08:00

Well I think my husband would agree, it's Christmas!
I think some the reasons:

families coming together, everyone seems to drop just about anything to run home for mom's cooking ( I think...)
seeing old friends as they return for the holidays to see family
the smells in the air; such as pine, all the baking that happens, and the crisp, cool, air
decorating the home inside/outside; time to get the ladder out-my husband didn't care for all the containers around the house for a couple of days( they were in the way )
driving around to see parades (day or night) and all the homes decorated, seeing the Valley of Lights here in PV and looking at the Courthouse in Prescott all light up is a sight to see
giving and sharing gifts
taking tons of photos of family, especially the little ones-so I can procrastinate all year to do
finally, this is also that time of the year that there is little or no time for attending time for school-finals have past and this is the time to relax

So here is a couple photos from our home to yours.
I tried to get just a couple from both lights natural/artifical. These are two of my favorite from my little tree in the living room. I try to keep a look out all-year to add more to my native tree-a treasure hunter at heart.

This was the only photo that look decent from the outside at night. -My lonely pair-

Can't wait for Christmas...

2006-11-20T17:06:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I'm so bad about this. I was just a little busy with home, school and volunteering. Hopefully I will get better. So I attended the Winslow Christmas Parade, and guess what I am ready for the winter holiday. I can't wait for Christmas-Blame the parade... (nah! just kidding)

Well we start on our Christmas shopping way early. I need the time to get the perfect gift for the special someone. For me that is all the nieces and nephews. So hopefully, I will be done in a couple of weeks.

But the thing I can't wait for is the decorations. I know that Thanksgiving hasn't occur but, I think I will put up the tree or at least set it up (I won't even turn on the lights). Okay, I will put up some of the garlands too. So when I come back from Thanksgiving Weekend all I have to do is put up the trimmings. Don't worry, as soon I'm done decorating I post some pixs.

{On our way home..a detour}

2006-10-02T21:55:00.000-07:00

For us it is just never just a drive home. We have to take a scenic route if there is any light. So we go through Sedona. We enjoyed how some of the trees leaves had turned to the bright autumn colors. Fall is setting in-it's offical. The yellow, orange, and red leaves make this drive very romantic. Even with the kids they enjoyed the noise of the rushing water and how it made them very relaxed. They wanted to camp-out. So maybe one more camping trip before it gets to cold.

We always have the camera ready, since we are tourist. Though we have those moments when the battery wasn't charged. But, you will never see me in the photo-since I'm the one always taking the photo. I want my kids to remember the time we shared not what they own material wise.

We just can't get enought of the view and how nature can be so inviting. The photos remind us a that life is all around us so enjoy it as much as you can.

My son the fisherboy~

2006-10-02T21:32:00.000-07:00

Who can get any luckier than my son? I was shocked when he told me that he caught two fish at one time. That is why my husband always takes photos of all his catch, so they don't become just another story. He brings home proof. This occured at Clear Creek near Winslow, who would of have guessed? Yup! Gross- but my husband and son love to fish. They both got up pretty early, especially for me, about 6 a.m. for their mission. They caught and release about 18 fish, I think. But I thought that this cat-fish was the ugliest, caught also by my son. I still think that fish are gross, especially to touch, but that doesn't seem that way to my son and husband. Nakai, wanted to bring this one home-but my husband convinced him otherwise.

Now the both of them carry their fishing gear with them everywhere we go, just in case there just happens to be water. Lucky me---

A slow beginning to a new soccer season.

2006-09-26T03:10:00.000-07:00

A rough start to the beginning of the season. First practices were canceled day after day, due to rainy weather, thunder and muddy fields. Finally Marcus attends one practice and then the 1st game, the Green Dragons win 7-0. Marcus missed a goal, but he had fun. He couldn't wait to play again--then the world came tumbling down when his allergies kicked into high gear. First he missed to two days of practice, then three days of school (it got that bad) and sadly he missed a game. But I know he enjoyed his endless hours of playing with his Game Cube. I also know that he missed all his buddies from school including his teacher and of course his bus driver. His days must of being long, since he had to spend it with his mom.

But that is okay, this is a new week and Marcus has return to school and practice had now resume. All is well in the world of Marcus. He can't wait for his next game.

-Labor Day Weekend-

2006-09-09T22:54:00.000-07:00

First time going back to the rez for a while-the to do list begins:

visit family
a traditional wedding
birthday party
and being a tourist

Spent the night in Winslow, went around Ganado, visit a niece. Stop near Rock Point for an evening wedding. Spend the night and following day in Utah for the birthday barbecue, fishing. Going to Cortez for shopping(husband loved that by the way-that's what happens when you send the girls alone). Along the way home stop at Mexican Hat, Monument Valley for photos. Also, did some window shopping by the roadside vendors. Visit a grandma(Black Mesa), that was rewarding she gave us some peaches-delicious by they way. Visit an uncle(in-laws), briefly near Red Lake. More photos here and there, I just like the scenery. My husband always says that I'm just a tourist-but that is okay by me. Just not what we see on a daily basis around the Prescott surrounding. I guess I just miss it, makes me keep coming home-meaning to my family. Visit more family in Tuba City, caught up on some home videos(graduations that we missed). Finally we made our way all the way back home-some of us were sleeping though. All in all the trip was great, can't wait for the next time to see what we missed. There is way to much to see or just can't get enough of.

From this photo it looks as though my kids get a little tired of me always stopping to take more photos, so they entertain themselves. At least they're not bored huh?

Returning to School . . .

2006-08-29T21:17:00.000-07:00

I'm kinda of writing this late. But, I thought it is better to share than not. I will be better about this. So ....

Isn't this great the kids have now return to school? Well I think so, the activities with the kids or should I say entertaining them have tremondously slowed down. From hauling the kids around from swimming to little league, I was definitly the taxi driver for the summer. School is a salvation from the crazy gas prices. So to celebrate the kids return we decided to go camping. Since, we hardly did that this summer--we thought we would squeeze one in. The view at Ashurst Lake toward the Peaks was breath-taking. But, the fishing were just nimbling an unfortunate event for Stanford.

The kids return to school the first Monday of August. Don't they look exhausted from the camping trip. Boy, did we learn out lesson. But with the month almost up the have return to a regular schedule. They are happy to see their friends old and new on a daily basis. The teachers are happy to have them for the year, but that is too early to proclaim-I think anyway.

Returning from...

2006-07-31T14:58:00.000-07:00

How to spend time during your birthday? The only answer is to go to the happiest place on Earth-DISNEYLAND. So that is what we did for Shandiin's 11th Birthday. But, before we did that we went to Huntington Beach with Michelle (my dad's niece) and her family. Lucky we had family to take us to unfamilar places. The fun-filled day ended with an evening of roasting marshmallows.

Even though we were tired from the day before, we went to Disneyland/California Adventure with our 3 day pass. For the next couple of days we endured recording breaking temperatures, miles and miles of walking, long lines(thank goodness for Fast Pass), all the foreign tourist and expensive foods. All worth it to see the faces on Shandiin and Marcus. The laughter, screams, and the phrases "we are tired, hungry, or hot". Would do it again in a heartbeat, if finances could permit. Even with all this surrounding us Stanford still thinks of fishing. I guess he is keeping his priorities straight.

We have now returned from our extended trip to cloudy and more agreeable weather. Solution to a resting period before the kids return to school on August 7th.