The Last Hurrah Before We Go Back to School

January 6, 2018

This weekend my sister and my niece came up for a quick visit.  Lisa already had to head back to school last week, and most of the rest of us start up again on Monday, so it was nice to get a get-together in one more time before we hit the ground running with the new semester.  Today was a whirlwind--we had brunch with Nicholas, Danielle, and Taylor, then drove Danielle to the airport so she could spend a couple of days with her dad.  Then Lisa and I got together with Mo for a bit before heading to REI (for a couple of hours!) to pick up some much-needed gear for the trip we'll be taking in early spring.  Naturally, we ended up at Me N Ed's (a Clovis must-have) in the evening and were joined by our friends Bill and Renee.  Lisa then met up with an old friend in town while Doug, Taylor, and I hung out at home and watched a little Black Mirror.  When Lisa got home we went out walking to make sure we got our 10,000 steps on our Fitbits (especially in light of all the eating we did today!)  Lisa and Taylor will get up bright and early in the morning to head back to Fullerton, since Taylor has to work tomorrow.  I will be getting back into school mode ahead of Monday's professional development day, but today was all about family and friends!

Off They Go

January 4, 2014

My sister just left after a four day visit. I love it when we get to spend time together, but I'm always sad to see her go. This time around, Lisa and my beautiful nieces brought along two lovely young ladies to add to the party. As always, no matter what we do, we make our own fun, and this trip was no different. Already looking forward to the next time we can all get together!

Full Day

January 3, 2014

We got the kids all rounded up and headed out to Cal Skate--Roller Town to us--for the afternoon.  Nicholas and Danielle weren't terribly adept, but they managed.  Lisa's girls were a little more light on their feet, but I can't say anyone was especially good at skating.  Luckily, we don't need exceptional skill to have fun.

After skating, we went to pick up Doug at Classic Billiards and ended up letting the kids stay for an hour or so to play a little pool.  Next up was a delicious dinner at Capo's, followed by a very long walk around the neighborhood while blasting tunes and singing loudly and unabashedly.

Once we got back home and settled the kids in to watch a movie, Doug and Lisa and I went to Thai Fusion for a little karaoke.  It was a pretty fun ending to an overall great day.  I love being so close to my sister and my nieces!

Geo-Caching

January 2, 2014

Lisa and the girls are still visiting, and with such a big group, we like to find fun things to do that don't break the bank.  One of the activities Lisa and her kids have really gotten into is geo-caching, which is a big old fashioned scavenger-hunt gone high-tech.  You can search out apps on the smart phones that tell you where little 'treasures' are hidden, and you go find them.  The treasures are in small containers out in public places (literally all over the world!), and many of them have a log inside where you record when you found them.  Usually there's a small trinket there, and you can take that one out and replace it with a new trinket for someone else to find.  Some of the treasures come with requests, such as a request that the trinket or treasure make some specific journey (i.e., to travel from the West Coast to the East Coast).  Anyone who can help the treasure make it further along in its journey is asked to deposit it in the next hiding spot along the way to the destination. 

The apps on the phones help to record not only these 'special requests', but also any helpful hints or suggestions, as well as a handy compass to help the treasure seekers. It's kind of funny to see a big group of people staring at their phones (compasses) and wandering around a given area hoping to find the hidden container, but that's what we did today.  We looked for a few that were indicated fairly close to our home, and we actually managed to find 5 out of the 6 we were looking for.  What a great way to spend the afternoon!  If you don't know about this global hide-and-seek, you'd never know how many treasures are out there.

Happy 2014!

January 1, 2014

The New Year--January 1st, specifically--is the time of year we all tend to make promises to ourselves that we ultimately fail to keep.  So why do we keep doing it?  Why set ourselves up to fail?  Well, because it's hard to get somewhere if you don't have an idea of where you want to go.  Now, if I don't make it all the way to my goal, or even if my goal changes in the course of the next year, that's okay.  I can't beat myself up about it if I don't reach the end of the line, so to speak, or if my road takes me down a different path.  As long as I get started in the right direction, I can feel good about the progress I've made.

So here we go. 

Yes, I'm going to make the obligatory resolution to lose weight/eat better/become more fit.  I've got some tools in place to help me track what I'm doing via Fitbit, and some plans in place for Lisa and me to encourage each other on this path.

I've used this blog in the past as a means to express my philosophies and observations, but also as a place where I can record family events and memories for posterity, including photos of family and friends.  I've gotten away from that purpose somewhat, so I not only want to keep up with that here for this year, but I want to back up and post previous events and photos that I've missed this year.  Every six months prior to this year I have had Blog2Print create a hardback copy of all of my entries as a permanent record--I want to update and then have those published from 2013.

I want to continue to pursue photography in new ways, as well as explore other artistic formats.  In 2013, I did some photography work for a friend of mine, and I dabbled in painting (in oil and acrylics) and even sold my first painting.  There's definitely more in those fields I want to explore.

I intend to continue to be mindful in how and why I teach, so that I can continue to grow and guide my students to the best of my ability.

Most importantly, I want to continue to work at being fully present with my family and friends, and be the best wife, mom, sister, and friend I know how to be.  The traditions and memories we are building now are the times my kids will look back on in their future, and I hope they are memories of love that they cherish.

To that end, our first pictures in the new year are of our traditional pizza night with my family, Lisa's family, and some good friends.  We've also got pictures from the Lutjens-Smith/Gaetje family Christmas gift exchange.  I'm so thankful Lisa was able to bring her kids (and a couple of their friends--Tia and Kimberly) up on the train today to spend the first few days of the new year with us.

Karaoke, Family Style

February 10 2013

When we were in Las Vegas over Christmas break, we gave thought to trying to find a family-friendly karaoke spot, since we had Lisa and Glenn's girls with us.  Although we didn't end up finding a place there, when we went to Lisa's house for a visit, she had scoped out a local place that does karaoke for the whole family on Sunday nights.  We had dinner there at Pineapple Hill Grill, and at about 7 the karaoke DJ started up.  Apparently this was the first Sunday night family karaoke of the year, so word of mouth hadn't much started up.  For at least the first hour our family had the mics to ourselves, with our DJ Miguel and the bartender jumping in every now and then.  Although the food was pretty mediocre, the DJ was very cool and the atmosphere was nice.  I was really impressed that both Devin and Bailey jumped right in, doing a great job of performing for the family.  Of course, Doug and Lisa were great, as always, and I even jumped in with a few songs.  We decided to close out the night with a whole family rendition of "Summer Nights."  It was a lot of fun, and we'll very likely return again in the future.

The Next Best Thing to Home

November 24, 2012

It was really strange to not have all three of my kids home for the Thanksgiving holiday.  Bree's schedule and finances conspired against us getting her home for the long weekend, especially since she had just been home a couple of weeks before.  However, she was able to make the relatively short journey to spend Thanksgiving with her Aunt Lisa, which was the next best thing to home.  On one of the vacation days, Lisa took all the kids, plus some additional friends of her girls, and the went to the local trampoline place to bounce off some energy.

Homecoming at the Gaetje Household

October 20, 2012

The girls are all grown up and dressed up!  Sophomore year Homecoming Dance for Miss Natalie and Miss Taylor:

 Taylor and her boyfriend, Chris

Last Day in Newport

August 6, 2012