A Paone Thing

It’s been a long week, but I’m sitting here at my parent’s house with Jude napping, so I thought I’d catch up my  blog.

We ended up taking almost a whole week to make it to Texas, but we enjoyed the trip, so it was worth it. We met up with Sam and Maria and co. in Las Vegas. I had no idea how cheap hotels there are if you go during the week. The kids were in awe at all the flash and dash of the place. We went out walking one night and stopped in at a few hotels. Treasure Island and Bellagio with the dancing fountains were awesome, but the…. Venetian. Ah, I was wowed with that place. You feel like you’re walking down the canal in Venice headed to St. Marco’s square. It’s got the canal, gondolas, singers, shops, bridges and the village houses that are above the shops. I’ll have to post some pictures although I doubt they would do it justice.

We watched a show or two, and Justin, Sam and Maria and I all spent a few minutes down in the casino. Maria was the only one who came out ahead on the black jack table. I think the attraction the kids loved best was… the hotel room? Yep, these kids are easy to please. Bouncing on hotel beds… first rate entertainment. Jude also learned a new word… “TV”.

We tried to swing the Grand Canyon, but it ended up being very uninviting weather wise, which is surprizing for this time of year. It was freezing with cold wind and then finally rained and sleeted. We high tailed it out of there and got back on the road. We were just so thankful we hadn’t tried to pull off camping there the night before. That would have been a very chilly nightmare.

Anyways, we are here now and are settling in. Justin just took off for Chicago this morning for the new job. Weep. We miss him already. I hope it won’t be the full 3 months before we see him again. Somehow it doesn’t feel as far as California was, but I know it’s a long haul. We’ll be counting the days.

I am house hunting, car hunting, unpacking me and the kids, packing my husband, trying to help two kids adjust, and doing a million things at once. Being here feels like the ultimate test for a multi-tasker. So many goals, so little time. I need to pace myself, I think. Ah, well….

The other day I was rummaging through the Encinitas library book store and came across a book entitled “Start late, Finish Rich, a no fail plan for achieving financial freedom at any age” by David Bach. That wouldn’t typically catch my interest, but being that we are entering a new phase of our lives and are launching out as a family for the first time, I thought I’d check it out. Turns out it’s a great book  with a lot of good, practical, realistic advice on staying out of debt, how to save for the future, ways to bring in extra income on the side so you can save for your future,  and even amass wealth, along with a lot of good common sense counsel for how to be penny wise and how you can build a nest egg with any amount of income. It’s been a big help to Justin and me in guiding and shaping our financial goals and plans. Of course, our end goal isn’t “riches” per se, but having something saved up for the future is definitely on our list of goals. I highly recommend “Start Late, Finish Rich” as an encouragement that it is possible for anyone to start saving today in little ways and reap great results with time. David Bach also wrote a new book that I just ordered called “Start Over, Finish Rich” which has post recession updates. I haven’t read it yet, but I’ll let you know if it’s worth the read.

We recently read “Who Moved My Cheese” by Spencer Johnson, where the characters in the story set out into “The Maze” to find new cheese stations and new cheese. If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend it and it’s an easy read. Anyhow, it struck a chord with us with all the changes all around. I thought it might be fun to add a new category to our blog and make that our online journal of our quest to find our new “cheese.”

So, starting June 9th (if all goes well), we enter “The Maze”.  I can’t quite believe it’s “Maze time” for us. It hasn’t registered yet, but anyways… tennis shoes are on and here we go. Pray for us! This is our biggest adventure yet as a family and I’m pretty nervous. Excited too, but also a teeny weeny bit scared! Things are coming together though and as our adventure unfolds, we’ll keep you posted.

I am enjoying my new Canon camera. It turned out to be my birthday and Christmas present combined. Ordering from Amazon turned out to be the never ending nightmare, so I switched to another vendor (Adorama Camera) and I am now the proud owner of a Canon Rebel. Arg. That was an ordeal, but it’s made the enjoyment of my new camera toy that much sweeter. Phew!

Turns out my little Canon S2Is made it all of 50,000 pictures and videos and is still plugging along.

Now, with fresh inspiration — on to the next snap the next 50 K. Nyahaha.

We missed the excitement of the earthquake altogether today. Justin, the kids and I had just decided to go to the beach so were either in the car or at the beach (great spot to watch potential earthquake related tsunamis — especially if you don’t know there was an earthquake). Heh. I hear it was more the rolling sort and some people definitely noticed it and others not at all. In any case, I’ll be the first in line to miss feeling an earthquake any day. I’ve felt enough in my life time. Phew. Jesus loves me!

Steve and Linda leave Wednesday for Puerto Rico. I am sad!

Yes, I made it to LAX and back again! I’ve had this mental image of LAX as a dingy, hard to find, traffic jammed, slummy/homeless shelter airport which I’ve avoided like the plague. I finally had to face my fears today and came to find out it’s the most fool proof airport to get to and from, there was very little traffic, it was nice and bright and in a nice area of town. (sigh of relief)

Our reason for the trek was Violet and I saw Titus and Deren off back to Japan today. (weep) They were here for a week that went by way too fast. I miss them so bad already. We did a lot of shopping so Titus and Deren would have clothes to wear till their next visit since they don’t “see” tall people in Japan, but we also had a very nice time just talking, chilling, drinking a little wine, playing a few board games and enjoying a brother and nephew I see far too seldom.

One special highlight was Deren deciding to serenade us serenade us with “What a Wonderful World” as we waited for dinner tonight. I videoed it and will post it. It was too sweet and too cute. He takes his singing so seriously. He almost looked like he was going to cry as he was singing. I got a little teary eyed as he sang. He has an amazing voice for a 6 year old.

I did feel a little on stage, however, as Titus and I walked around a very asian section of LAX with a cute little asian boy in tow. We got a lot of odd looks like they thought we were stealing him or something. I had to keep saying very loudly every now and then… “I’m sure going to miss my little nephew when he goes back to his mom in Japan.” Heh.

Thank you for all the effort to come to this side of the world, Titus. And thank you, Mia, for letting the boys go for 2 weeks. Violet and I kept trying to console each other the whole trip back. We’ll be praying you get to visit a little sooner this time (and that all the clothes fit). We love you!

All those disney cartoons about prince charming, marriage, etc. put thoughts in my little girls head that should not be there yet. Violet told me today who she plans to marry. Nic and Sherry’s little guy, Daren, apparently “looks very nice and is a very good friend.” She went on to say she wants to marry him when she’s older.” I told her she’s too young to even think about such things, but she told me “Don’t worry, mommy. I won’t get married now. I want to marry him when I get older.” Heh.  They sure laugh and giggle a lot. Ah, well…

Justin and I just got back from enjoying Avatar for a second time. It really is an awesome movie in 3 D and, if you watch it in Mexico, it’s half price. Heh. I just wanted to see it again in a theatre as the 3D feature is 90% of the experience, well, that and the amazing scenery and concepts for Pandora. Anyways, if you haven’t seen it in 3D, you really should check it out.  Of course, now that it’s apparently the highest grossing movie of all time (thanks to ticket prices being doubled for 3D) I’m pretty sure it’s the wave of the future and there will be plenty more such experiences for me to feast my movie junkie eyes on.

Ah, someone commented about my blog and how they used to read it. I am sure I’ve lost most of my readership with how unfaithful I’ve been. The thing is…. okay, to be honest, what took over is Shutterfly photo books. They started sending me these deals I couldn’t resist over Christmas. (Justin’s not allowed to comment). I ended up making photo books for Christmas gifts for some folks, which is fun, but slightly time consuming. Pretty much any free moment I would get was spent building, tweaking, editing, checking, changing – arg! And just when I thought I had enough, I had to go make a few for myself and catch their new years sale. I am a total sucker for deals, I’ll admit. So… that’s my real excuse for being absolutely absent from BOTH Face book and blogging. Well, that and helping to plan Christmas events. That always swallows up any available time at this time of year. Anyways… I plan to get back to blogging soon.

In other news, my good friends Nic and Sherry arrived last night. I still can’t believe they came back to San Diego. I thought they were gone forever, but here they are with 3 beautiful children to show for their time away. Violet spent a good part of the day being insecure, overwhelmed and shy, but she had a blast tonight, pulling out every toy she had to impress Riana and Jude enjoyed having Daren around, a little boy to be rowdy with. He gave him the “i’ll see if you still like me after I beat you over the head with a tinker toy stick.” and Daren, after a few tears, did pass the test and was rewarded with a sweet, I’m sorry hug afterwards. Let’s hope Daren survives.

We had vacation and got to spend time with friends — Steve and Linda, Feli, Michael and Amy, Phil and Paula. Phil and Paula have a cute little apartment. I didn’t get to see the college crew’s pad, but I hear it’s equally cute. Oh, one major highlight had to be the Munchkin game Justin and I played with Kenji and Jer. It’s a very silly take off on games like Dungeons and Dragons. Anyways, the big news is I actually won. I’m feeling very proud of myself considering Jer and Kenji (and Justin) are all very intimidating to play with. I’ll probably never repeat that, but the feeling was… priceless.  We spent quality time at the San Diego Wild Animal Park on a number of days. I’m going to have that place memorized, but the kids love it.  Going through their pine tree botanical gardens made me miss Yosemite though.

The kids are doing well. Jude is understanding a lot these days. He does very well at shaking his head for “no.” He has a whole sentence that means “yes” though. Like “voovooovooo dadadad dididibabia” or something like that. He shakes his little finger at you if you tell him “no”. I haven’t figured out if that means “I get you. I heard you say ‘no’. Now excuse me while I do it anyway.” or if he really is just sassy and saying, “don’t tell me no.” It feels more like the former, but hey, I’m the mom. Don’t we all give our kids the benefit of the doubt on everything?

Violet got a few more cavities filled and did just great. She’s now the proud owner of a few “Aurora” teeth and a Cinderella tooth, I think. She looked a little like she had a lipo job on her lips for a few days though. She’s still growing like a little weed, or beanstalk? I think she may be growing out of the princess dress phase. She doesn’t seem to care about them all that much anymore. Ah, well. I think the tom boy phase may follow. She’s started wanting to take pictures. I’ll have to post a few when I get a chance.

Have you seen the new books Activated Ministries just got in? I bought a set for Violet and Jude last week and they’re Violet’s favorite books for now. They’re created by Daniel Miller and his company, Golden Quill in England. I was very impressed. You should check them out if you get a minute. Jude loves their Baby Bible and Violet’s favorite has to be “the Camel’s Nose.” We’ve had a little war going on when we have to choose a book to read. My favorite is the “Rock in the Road.” They are well done, good art, funny, simple text, are stories I’ve loved growing up, and they keep my kids’ interest.Very nice