A Tour of Papa's Work

It's been just over two years since my Dad's company relocated to a bigger, much nicer facility. When it first opened, they held an Open House for the families of all the employees to come and tour. He works for a major grocery chain here in Southern California and it was fun to see the behind the scenes of the company.

At that time, it was just the corporate offices that were completely finished and operational. The grocery warehouse had yet to be stocked, and the frozen/cold food warehouses were yet to be built, the same for the bakery and meat warehouse. But in the last several months, everything is finally done, stocked, and operating, which meant it was time for another tour!

With a Daddy that works from home, as well Uncle Robbie who also works from home, it's sometimes hard for Rachel to full understand that when we go to Papa and Gramma's house during the day and Papa isn't home, he's at work. This tour hopefully helped her understand what "going to work" actually means, at least for Papa.

The grounds and locations of the warehouses are so spread out, that the company rents trams to help move everybody from the various destinations available for touring. The frozen and cold food warehouse wasn't complete at the time of the last tour, it was this time and boy was it COLD inside. Here, Rachel and Gramma try to keep warm with snuggling.The corporate offices were once again open for touring, so we visited a few destinations that were not open to the public at last tour, and then a couple other areas. We visited Papa's desk and the room where they train the grocery checkers. Both those stops on our tour were fun!Last Spring, at Rachel's preschool, Papa arranged for an awesome field trip to one of the grocery stores. I wrote a long, detailed blog post complete with pictures about the field trip and Papa showed the pictures to someone and my blog post got printed out and put inside a display case! That was pretty cool!!! And Rachel enjoyed seeing her blog as well!There were a few roaming product representatives about the grounds. We saw Tony the Tiger representing Frosted Flakes, we saw Lucky the Leprachaun for Lucky Charms, there were the Campbell Soup kids, and most importantly, there was the red M&M!!! Which is Rachel's most favorite candy!! She got her picture taken with the yellow M&M last time.It was a fun tour, complete with lunch and balloons! Thanks for the tour Stater Bros!

Camping at Vail Lake

We've been camping the last few days at Vail Lake, a resort just outside of Temecula. Not too far from home, only 45 minutes, but far enough for the surroundings to be absolutely beautiful. We were with church family. And Rachel spent the last three days with two of her closest buds - Isaiah and Caleb. Isaiah and Rachel are in the same Kindergarten class, so they spend A LOT of time together!! LOL. Crystal brought her little dog and Rachel loved walking it and holding it and playing with it. It's not the first time we've camped with Preston, the dog, and Rachel loves it when he comes camping. Rachel played all day long and into the evening hours with her friends. There was a lot of grass and tree swings in our area and the kids had so much fun! Rachel loved every minute of camping and has proven to be a great camper.

Christmas 2009

Rachel was very excited for this Christmas. She's at the age where she understands the holiday and traditions and can't wait to experience it all.

Christmas Eve was started off right by attending church together as a family. Rachel and Hannah both sang at our Christmas Eve service and did an excellent job. Both girls could hardly manage to sit still during the service for they knew that Great Grandma's house was where we were headed after church.We arrived at Great Grandma's house in the middle of dinner, and once again the girls were forced to wait patiently. But at least they were with their cousins now, and soon, the family of 21 people would cram into Grandma's tiny little living room to open presents. Rachel was most pleased with her presents, a lot from her Toys R Us list she made a few weeks back, including Star Wars Galactic Hereo's and a Pogo Stick!!! Christmas morning, for some reason, Rachel chose to sleep in. She's not normally our sleep in kid, so it was surprising that she slept so late and we finally woke her up at 7:30. Christmas morning she found a doll crib put together in front of the tree. She was very happy with that and carted (it's on wheels) it back and forth from her room to the family room all day long.She also got a DSi. She's always playing with Hannah's old Game Boy and Leapster and we really felt it was time for her to get something new, and not a hand me down electronic toy. She absolutely loved it! The girls got DSi's and then accessory packs with a game as well. Christmas proved to the be the year of DSI's as three of the four girls got them, and McKenzie got hers a few weeks ago for her birthday. Once all the presents had been opened, the girls disappeared into the rooms and we really didn't see much of them all day long, they were too busy chatting with each other and playing games. The day after Christmas we braved the crowds and made some returns and let the girls spend some gift cards. Rachel still has a gift card to spend at the Disney Store, or at Disneyland. But Christmas is officially over and all the new toys and presents have found homes and Rachel did her part in helping write Thank You Notes this year!

Kindergarten Christmas Performance

This morning, as well as tomorrow morning, Rachel's class and the afternoon Kindergarten class that shares her classroom will be performing their Christmas songs and poems. The two classes learned a total of 15 songs and poems and did a GREAT job!!!

Field Trip to the Christmas Tree Farm

Today, three of the five Kindergarten classes at our school went on a field trip to a local popular Christmas Tree Farm. (It's also the Pumpkin Patch during the Fall months.) Sixty kids, a dozen or so parents, and three teachers all managed to get on one school bus. We were supposed to go last Friday, but due to a rain storm, the trip had to be rescheduled to today.

It was the first field trip of the school year, maybe the only one. It was the first time Rachel had ever been on a school bus and it's something she'd been desiring to do since the first day of school.

Lining up to get on the bus. Sitting in the VERY back of the bus. Family friend, Isaiah sat behind us. We arrived to the tree farm just in time to hop on some flat beds to be pulled by a tractor around the property for a tour. We saw the fields used for pumpkins in the Fall, and some Christmas trees, and some animals along the way. After our tractor ride, we went to an outdoor amphitheater and learned the anatomy of a conifer tree. Surprisingly, the kids all sat well for the most part and listened.After the 'learning part' the kids all got to go into one of the smaller petting zoos, which they all loved. There were bunnies, chickens (in a caged area), a large turtle, and goats! The kids had fun chasing the animals about. But it was soon time to line up and head back to the bus and then back to school. Thankfully on the ride home our class was the last to board and we were able to sit up front for the ride home. Again, the kids all loved riding on the bus. The tree farm sent home a seedling tree for each student, as well as a little coloring book and box of crayons. The kids all loved their little Christmas trees. It was a fun field trip and I'm so glad to have been able to have gone. I went with Hannah's class when she was in Kindergarten and Rachel was just a baby who stayed home with Gramma. So it was fun to get to go with Rachel's class!

Haircut!!!

Rachel has been in need of a haircut for some time now. Her bangs were getting so long, they were getting in the way of her beautiful eyes. It's been a very long time since the back of her hair had been cut. I'd been waiting for the hunks of hair she cut last December to grow and catch up to a reasonable length and it finally did!So today after school, I took her to get her hair cut. She sat so still and did a great job and was very pleased with her new haircut. Not only did she have her bangs cut, but she had about 2 1/2 inches cut from the back. It all looks so healthy and neat now! I have no immediate after picture, but there's one coming up in the pictures I took from her field trip.

Making a List

We took the girls to Toys R Us this evening to wander up and down the aisles to make a Christmas list. We did this last year and it worked out wonderfully! The girls had a good time writing down anything and everything they saw and wanted. Next step will be to figure out what it is that we want to buy her!

Funny Faces

Rachel and I were sitting in the car of a friend the other day, waiting for our kids to get out of school. Rachel found these googly eyes in her car. Little did I know that she took them for her own until we were on our way home and she called for my attention to look at her in the back seat, which is when I found her like this with the googly eyes. Most definitely a character!

Karate Kid II

Move over Ralph Macchio, watch out Hannah, Rachel started Tae Kwon Do tonight! And so did Daddy!

Apparently...

...she felt the need to fill the void in my bed with Daddy gone. And she brought along her furry friends for a sleepover as well.

A Rachel Funny

It was the week before Halloween and I was working in Rachel's class, sitting at the table in the back, busily putting homework folders together, hearing the kids hum and sing Christmas songs. I smiled to myself thinking how funny it was that we were a week before Halloween and here these kids have Christmas songs on their lips.

And then, all of a sudden I heard one of Rachel's classmates exclaim "He is too real!!!!"

A wave of panic struck me as I looked up and saw Rachel standing there and her saying "Mommy, tell him that Santa Claus is not real!!!"

I motioned for Rachel to come over and I whispered in her ear that we were supposed to remember that while we don't believe Santa Claus is real, a lot of kids do and we're not spoil their fun.

She then turned and as she walked away she got in the last word with "Well, he's not real at our house!!!" and back to her work she went. LOL.

This incident came to mind today as we were waiting to see Santa Claus at Disneyland.

To my children, seeing Santa Claus is just part of the holidays and is nothing more than a man dressed up, just like those of the characters at Disneyland. So of course Rachel wanted to see him. And as I stood here, watching Rachel tell this man that she was hoping to get a brown horsey (huh? where'd that come from??) for Christmas, a streak of panic set in and I wondered if she would tell this man he wasn't real and that it was Mommy and Daddy who brought the presents on Christmas and that Christmas wasn't about him. When in fact it's Jesus' birthday.

Not that I wouldn't have been proud of her for preaching the truth, but whoa, that would have been really awkward! LOL

Disneyland with Family

As everyone by now knows, this year, Disneyland's promotion is that you get into Disneyland FREE on your birthday. To make long story short, my sister in law and brother in law came from Oregon last week all centered around going to Disneyland for Ed's 40th birthday!

We spent the day all day with them on Tuesday, and they stayed in a nearby motel on Tuesday night and played all day on Wednesday. We just spent the one day at Disneyland. I was worn out and tired and wasn't up to dealing with the crowds that might come out as a result of Veteran's Day. But Tuesday as GREAT!!! We had a wonderful, wonderful time and did managed to squeeze a lot in during the short off season hours for the park.

Over the weekend the kids had all been practicing in anticipation of being chosen for the Jedi Training Academy in Tomorrowland. To say Ryan is a Star Wars fan would be an understatement - he eats, sleeps, breathes Star Wars. So the first thing we did for the day was head over to the first showing of the Academy. We've seen the show dozens of times, but never once has either of our girls had the desire to go and try to be chosen. They were too afraid to fight Darth Vadar, let alone the scary looking Darth Maul. But on this day, Rachel was up for trying out! I think it helped tremendously that her two cousins had the strong desire to be picked. Turned out that all three of the young cousins got picked and they are now officially honorary Jedi trainees. They each did an awesome job and made this entire family of Star Wars Geeks proud!!! Rachel even says she'll try again next time we're at Disneyland!!!

The crowds were light and we managed to do sooo much. We spent the day focusing on the big rides and a lot of the favorite rides that our family hoped to accomplish while visiting. We all went on Autopia, and managed to be on the tracks that were side by side and had fun racing, passing up, and taking pictures. There were some rides that the smaller kids didn't wish to experience, and a time or two, Rachel wasn't quite tall enough to ride. So we had our fun sitting out and waiting for the rest of our family to get off the rides. The cousins all had a great time paling around and riding with each other and competing to sit with one another on rides, etc. We really did have a great day!Gramie with four of her five grandchildren.
Disneyland closed at 8:00 on Tuesday. We skipped dinner and took advantage of relatively short lines and then went out to dinner after leaving Disneyland. The kids were all tired, but they relished all the time they could have together...

Orthodontic Growing Pains

Off and on over the last couple of months, Rachel has been complaining that her tooth hurst. Her front top tooth is the one she always points to. We'd looked in there and kinda came to the conclusion that her 'funky tooth' as we affectionately call it, the tooth that is sideways in her cleft aveolar ridge (her gum) was moving down and pressing on her good tooth.

I took her to our pediatric dentist on Tuesday and she checked her over - no cavities, no visible problems. She took an Xray which showed her jacked up upper teeth, but nothing that really jumped out.

Our dentist emailed her Xray to an orthodontist to look over and his conclusion was that she has so many issues where her cleft is, that more than likely the pain she is experiencing is growing pains in the area of all the movement and change. Our plan is to keep an eye on it as there really isn't anything that can be done right now orthodontically.

Hearing Test

At Rachel's Crainofacial Team Appointment the end of January, after talking with the ENT, it was decided to have Rachel's hearing retested in 6 months. Her P.E. tubes had both fallen out and we wanted to stay atop of her hearing as it can affect her speech.

She really should have had her hearing tested in August, but with school starting that month, etc, it just slipped my mind. But now that we've gotten the ball moving on getting her speech through the school, I wanted to follow through with getting a hearing test so that the results could be passed on to the speech therapist and to her teacher.

She had her hearing test today and it came back 'normal'!!! Whoo Hoo! No need to see the ENT at this tube for possible tubes!

She did well for the first part, the part where they check the pressure and sound waves bouncing off the ear drum.And for the second part of the test, they took us into the sound proof room (aka the panic room for those that are claustrophobic, etc). She and the assistant sat down, the hearing test started, and things were going well. And then all of a sudden, Rachel stopped putting blocks in the bucket every time she'd hear a sound. She just stopped. I got concerned, cause I heard one or two sounds and I didn't have the ear phones on and yet, she wasn't putting blocks into the bucket! How could she possibly not hear that?!?!? And then the assistant put on a special set of ear phone looking things. I'd never seen these before and it concerned me even more. And then Rachel resumed back to following directions and putting blocks into the bucket.When the test was complete, the audiologist came into the room and we talked and he said that he'd gotten to a point in the test where she just stopped. He was making sounds as loud as her volume in talking and she wasn't picking them up. He said he got concerned for a moment, and then looked at her face and she must have just zoned out for a few minutes because she got back with the program and did it and passed it. LOL. The special ear phone looking thing he had the assistant put on, was to test the nerves in her ears, seeing how she wasn't admitting to hearing anything. LOL. That test too turned out normal.

So it's been proven, she can hear. Now if we could only get her to listen!!! LOL.

Parent / Teacher Conference and a Speech Update

This afternoon was our Parent/Teacher conference with Rachel's teacher, Mrs. Maingot. The conference went very well and she's already proving to be advanced in her Language Arts and Math! She listens well, follows directions, and has a great interest for learning. We were very pleased with how her first trimester of Kindergarten has gone.

Last Friday, we met with the Speech Therapist, the Assistant Principal, and with Rachel's teacher to talk about the need for further evaluation of her speech. It was a very short meeting whereas the teacher expressed her concerns, the Speech Therapist addressed what she saw in her initial brief screening, and we expressed our concerns. The next step is for a full Speech Evaluation and then we'll meet again to set up an IEP (Individualized Educational Plan), and then she'll begin Speech Therapy.

It's such a process with the public school system. But I'm thankful it's available and soon she'll be getting the services she needs. And it'll be school based which means the teacher will know whats going on, and can help in the classroom, etc. We go off track the end of next week for three weeks and then back for three weeks in December and then it's Christmas break, so more than likely, Speech won't begin until January.