Feel Good Work

Last nite I spent two hours working as part of the large grants committee at work. We have an employee foundation, which employees donate money to, and then we give it away to charitable organizations. We give away small grants which are up to $5k and large grants which are up to $40k. Since this is my first year at work, this is my first experience and it was incredibly inspiring.

So this is how it works. Organizations write a grant proposal and submit it to us. That proposal is very indepth, including information on their board, budget, metrics, etc. Then they come in and spend 10 minutes talking to us and answering any questions we have. With them is the employee who is championing the cause. The employee adds information about why they work with the charity and what their experience is. Some of the employees actually used the services of the charity and some are just volunteers.

The organitzations that came in were amazing.

There was a group that helps kids after they "age out" of foster care. They help kids learn how to write checks, get an apartment, grocery shop, etc. That is the stuff that parents usually teach kids, but kids who are shuffled around the foster care system, don't get that. Plus, when they turn 18, there are no longer any services for them, so they are basically thrown out on the street. This organization brought in a kid who they are helping and he told us his story and how much they have helped him. WHOA! I was ready to bring him home with me.

There was another organization that had a program called "Dare to Dream", which goes into classrooms in low income schools and teaches curriculum about goal setting and going to college. They target kids who have no one talking to them about their dreams and how to achieve those dreams.

Another organization helps kids from S. Central Los Angeles preparing them for SAT tests and taking them on college tours. They target kids who will be the first in their families to every attend college. The champion of this group was an alumni of this program and she is now a well educated, gainfully employeed young woman.

My experience sitting on this committee was one of those that bring clarity to your life. It made me clearly understand how fortunate I am -- and my family is. We have health, wealth and love. And I don't mean wealth as being rich - I mean wealth as in we have every thing we could possibly need and want. We have the ability to get the kids braces, have them go to private school, get educational therapy, etc. And there are kids out there that don't have someone telling them that they can go to college...or should even go to school everyday.

Count your blessings and help others who don't have those blessings. Help with money and time because no matter how busy you are or how tight your budget is, there are MANY people who would be happy to be in your position.

Milk Cartons

Keep the milk cartons coming....we have about 20 of them but I estimate we will need about 150 of them to make the igloo. So, keep saving them and hopefully we will have enough by the end of the summer.

Cabin Time

The weekend at the cabin was almost a complete rain out. However, yesterday the sun broke thru for a little while and we squeezed in as much outdoor activity as possible. First we went down to the lake and fished. We started fishing for blue gil and then switched to bass. We could see the bass in the shallow water, so we cast out a big juicy purple worm and watched him take it! Catching bass it great fun!

Then we came home and took a hike down to the creek. Everyone thought I was crazy (and a redneck) when I brought salami and two sticks rigged like fishing poles (Gracie had rigged them our last Cherry trip). They were all believers when I caught a crawdad within 20 seconds of putting the salami in the creek! Game on!!! Unfortunately, we did not catch many but it was great fun anyway!

Next, we decided to squeeze in some lake time, so we all jumped into our swim suits and headed back to the lake. Brrrrr..... by that time, the sun was coming and going and the wind had picked up. But we stayed there for an hour and had fun.

Fish Slayer!

We went blue gill fishing down at our lake yesterday and I killed them! We weren't catching a thing when a man came up to me with a tip....put two salmon eggs up on the line and a worm on the hook. It was like magic - first cast I had a bite within seconds! And then I caught one after another for the next hour! Life is good!

camping in the rain

So the big dummies who went camping in the rain came back around 3 pm the next day. And they, and all their gear, were sopping wet! We made the right decision by staying home. The first day they were there the rain was not bad. But starting that nite, it rained continously until they came home. They only caught one fish and spent most of the time huddled under an easy up. I would have been bored silly!!!

Why did the chicken cross the road?

BARACK OBAMA:
The chicken crossed the road because it was time for a CHANGE! The chicken wanted CHANGE!

JOHN McCAIN:
My friends, that chicken crossed the road because he recognized the need to engage in cooperation and dialogue with all the chickens on the other side of the road.

HILLARY CLINTON:
When I was First Lady, I personally helped that little chicken to cross the road. This experience makes me uniquely qualified to ensure -- right from Day One! -- that every chicken in this country gets the chance it deserves to cross the road. But then, this really isn't about me.......

DR. PHIL:
The problem we have here is that this chicken won't realize that he must first deal with the problem on 'THIS' side of the road before it goes after the problem on the 'OTHER SIDE' of the road. What we need to do is help him realize how stupid he's acting by not taking on his 'CURRENT' problems before adding 'NEW' problems.

OPRAH:
Well, I understand that the chicken is having problems, which is why he wants to cross this road so bad. So instead of having the chicken learn from his mistakes and take falls, which is a part of life, I'm going to give this chicken a car so that he can just drive across the road and not live his life like the rest of the chickens.

GEORGE W. BUSH:
We don't really care why the chicken crossed the road. We just want to know if the chicken is on our side of the road, or not. The chicken is either against us, or for us. There is no middle ground here.

ANDERSON COOPER - CNN:
We have reason to believe there is a chicken, but we have not yet been allowed to have access to the other side of the road.

JOHN KERRY:
Although I voted to let the chicken cross the road, I am now against it! It was the wrong road to cross, and I was misled about the chicken's intentions. I am not for it now, and will remain against it.

NANCY GRACE:
That chicken crossed the road because he's GUILTY! You can see it in his eyes and the way he walks.

PAT BUCHANAN:
To steal the job of a decent, hardworking American.

DR SEUSS:
Did the chicken cross the road? Did he cross it with a toad?
Yes, the chicken crossed the road, but why it crossed I've not been told.

ERNEST HEMINGWAY:
To die in the rain. Alone.

JERRY FALWELL:
Because the chicken was gay! Can't you people see the plain truth? That's why they call it the 'other side. Yes, my friends, that chicken is gay. And if you eat that chicken, you will become gay too. I say we boycott all chickens until we sort out this abomination that the liberal media white washes with seemingly harmless phrases like 'the other side. That chicken should not be crossing the road. It's as plain and as simple as that.

GRANDPA:
In my day we didn't ask why the chicken crossed the road. Somebody told us the chicken crossed the road, and that was good enough..

BARBARA WALTERS:
Isn't that interesting? In a few moments, we will be listening to the chicken tell, for the first time, the heart warming story of how it experienced a serious case of molting, and went on to accomplish its life long dream of crossing the road.

ARISTOTLE:
It is the nature of chickens to cross the road.

JOHN LENNON:
Imagine all the chickens in the world crossing roads together, in peace.

BILL GATES:
I have just released eChicken2007, which will not only cross roads, but will lay eggs, file your important documents, and balance your check book. Internet Explorer is an integral part of the Chicken. This new platform is much more stable and will never cra...#@&&;,^(C% ....... Reboot.

ALBERT EINSTEIN:
Did the chicken really cross the road, or did the road move beneath the chicken?

BILL CLINTON:
I did not cross the road with THAT chicken. What is your definition of chicken?

COLONEL SANDERS:
Did I miss one?

DICK CHENEY:
Where's my gun?

Betty

When we left town on Thursday, Betty was limping! Not sure what was going on. Her leg and foot looked fine. My mom is going to check on her when we are gone....not sure why though, its not like we can do anything about it.

It's a bust!

We were suppose to be outback camping at Cherry today....but it was a bust. It rained the whole way there and while starting to launch the boat. So those of us who are smart (me, Tina, Maddie and Gracie) decided to turn around and come back to the cabin! The rest of the bozos decided to move ahead with their plan....and last I saw them, they were dripping wet while launching the boat. It has rained off and on since then. They plan to come back some time today and I expect that they will roll in looking like a bunch of wet rats!

Those of us who have more brain cells spent yesterday eating mexican food, reading and playing games! Delightful!!! And we had a great nite of sleep in a warm bed.

Gone Gone Gone

The kids let the frogs go! Grandma took Gracie to the pet store to see what we could feed them and they said when they are small like the ones we had, there was nothing she had that would work and it was best to let them go. So we let 11 little froggies go in the front yard. Each morning since, I walk out early in the morning and there are frogs everywhere!

Hop Hop Hop

The kids and I caught 11 baby frogs last night on our walk and of course, they wanted to bring them home. So we are now the proud owners of 11 frogs! The kids are designing a habitat for them. I will get pics as soon as I can.

New Mantra

Jim and I went to a lecture this week about raising the whole child when there is a learning disability. It focused on what parents can do to manage the situation, how to build the childs confidence, etc. It was really a great session and I found one nugget that I thought I would share:

"Only compare yourself to yourself."

This means when you complain about something about yourself comparing it to others, such as "I am not as good as Betsy in spelling"....you are taking the wrong approach! You should be comparing yourself ONLY to yourself and the statement should be, "I am making progress in spelling compared to last school year".

I felt this was a lesson for all of us. Who couldn't benefit from ceasing all comparison to skinnier people, smarter people, richer people, etc. Next time I say...."my butt is bigger than so and so's", I am going to stop and re-phrase it as, "my butt is smaller than it was last month". Of course that will be a lie.....but that is a whole other issue!

Book Club

Tonite is the first meeting of the Hot Mama Book Club! I have finished the book and picked out some favorite quotes to share. And I made tomato crostini this morning for a snackie to bring with me! Yum - can't wait to eat it. Will let you know how the meeting goes. Those of my friends who are total dorks like me are fired up....

SNAKE!

This morning I went out to take Drew to school and found this in the middle of the street! Gracie and I looked it up and determined it to be a California Mountain Kingsnake. Below are some details for those who are nature buffs like us. BTW - it was seriously dead! Especially after a car ran over it while I was waiting to take a pic!

Range and Habitat
California Mountain Kingsnakes are found in the western U.S. from the Columbia River area of Washington State in the north, to northern Baja California, México in the south. They are found in mountainous areas throughout their range, such as the Sierra Nevadas, Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, and high Peninsular Ranges of California and Baja California. Within the Peninsular Ranges, this species is found at the higher elevations of the Santa Anas, Santa Rosas, Palomar Mountain, Lagunas, Juarez, and San Pedro Martirs.
This snake inhabits moist woods from sea level to extremely high elevations. In the southern portion of their range, the California Mountain Kingsnake is not found near the coast, instead preferring coniferous forests and woodlands above 3,000 feet. This species appears to prefer rocky areas, but also is found beneath logs and under bark.
Natural History

This species is an obvious mimic of the coral snake. It is non-venomous and often mistaken as a dangerous snake. Interestingly, there are no coral snakes overlapping the range of the California Mountain Kingsnake in the present day. The evolution of color pattern mimicry occurred in the past when its ancestors' distribution overlapped the distribution of coral snakes.
Behavior:

This species is mostly diurnal, but will be active at night in warmer whether. It is an excellent climber, prefers southwestern facing slopes, and often retreats beneath granite flakes.
Prey and Predators:

Will eat lizards, snakes, birds and their eggs, and small mammals.
Breeding:

This species lays 3 to 13 eggs in June and July

Spud Gun

Last nite we had friends over for a poker party and they all wanted to see the spud gun fire. So off we went to get the aqua net (for fuel), the hockey stick( for stuffing the potato in the barrel) and the potato (for ammunition). No one had ever seen a spud gun and boy were they in for a treat! The trusty gun fired the first time and shredded the potato. It was so fun we did a round two. There is a video of round two and I will try to get it to post here.

Ranch time

Today Gracie and I went out to my friend Ehmie's ranch. Then we drove down the road to her friends ranch to see her baby horses. There were two of them, each born on the same day about 1 month ago. The pic is of Gracie and my friend, Ehmie, sitting with Speedy who was having a little rest after a play session. He was like a giant lap dog! The ring around Speedy's eye is his baby hair coming out and his new hair coming in. Apparently it starts around the eyes and snout. While at the ranch, we checked out the chickens - that is Gracie holding a little bantam. And we checked out Marley, the guard dog... Yep - that is the guard dog on his back! He was hardly vicious and actually didn't come out of the bushes until we had been 2o mintues! He guards the animals all night so he sleeps all day. It was great fun!

Doctor Adam Bricker from the Love Boat????

Just got a call from my mom in France. My dad was in the emergency room after waking up with numbing and paralysis on one side of his face.

It happened a couple days ago while in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean on a cruise. They saw the ship's doc who consulted with a neurologist and diagnosed it as Bells Palsy. Just to make sure they went to the ER when they docked in France. Those docs agreed with the diagnosis and my folks are continuing on their trip.

If its not one thing...its another!

Betty!

I did not become a vegetarian for my health, I did it for the health of the chickens.

~ Isaac Bashevis Singer

Tenacity

"People are either defeated by it (dyslexia) or the become more tenacious." Craig McCaw, pioneer in the cellular phone industry. He is a billionaire!

This quote knocked me over because I have always describe Gracie as tenacious....even before I knew that she had dyslexia. Seems like this is a message to me that she will be one of the tenacious, successful people with dyslexia. She will be in good company with:

• Charles Schwab - creator of the discount brokerage business
• John Chamers - CEO of Cisco
• Richard Branson - founder of Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Records
• David Boies - celebrated trial lawyer best known for beating Microsoft
• Albert Einstein
• Winston Churchill
• Scott Adams - creator of cartoon, Dilbert
• Leonardo da Vinci
• Jay Leno
• Whoopi Goldberg
• Thomas Edison

Junior High Electives

Drew just got his paperwork for choosing his junior high electives. It is a tough choice! And that is a nice position to be in. He is leaning towards:

• 3 D animation
• Typing and Microsoft applications
• Video projects

All sound great to me!

Shoulder update

My shoulder has not gotten better since my surgery in December. Actually the orginal place it hurt is better and now it hurts in a new spot. So today I went to the doc for a second opinion. I saw the shoulder specialist that sees all the problem patients. He recommends that I have another surgery!!!

Apparently I have calcification on the rotator cuff which is causing pain. It could not be seen when the original surgery occured - so only half of my problem is fixed. This surgery is more extensive and it will take longer to recover.

I am not happy about having to have surgery again, so I am going to be in denial for a few months before facing reality. So if you see me, please assist with my denial and don't mention the surgery.

Recharging Complete

We spent the weekend in the mountains and recharged our batteries with the beauty and peace of nature.

The water was really low and the magic fishing hole was still flowing to hard for fishing. The fishing was really bad.... a little early in the season. Here are the highlights of the weekend and some pics:

The first rescue occurred before 8 am on Saturday morning. We were heading out to fish some local streams and we saw an empty boat floating in the middle of the lake. It did not look like anyone was laying down in it because there were no ripples in the lake around it. So we figured some one fell overboard or someone forgot to tie up their boat. Jim calls out..."keep your eyes peeled along the shore." About 30 seconds later we can see someone in a red sweatshirt waving their arms on the shoreline. We motor over to them and sure enough, they went to sleep without tying up their boat and the water rose in the middle of the nite, floating it away! We brought one of the guys out to the boat and then had to tow him back in when the engine wouldn't start!

Once they were saved, we headed out to do some fishing in the local streams. We have not done this before, so it was a big adventure. We hit two different streams and caught one fish! But we did get bites in a little tiny stream in the middle of a meadow. That was fun. And Jim found a coyote skull!

We saw three big snakes (Drew still screams like a girl when he sees a snake), caught two newts and saw a dead bird floating in the water (Drew gagged like a girl!).

It was about 43 degrees at nite and we slept out on the boat. So everyone was buried in their sleeping bags...even Daisy Mae was cold!

On the way home, we got a flat tire on the trailer. Luckily we had a spare....but it was flat! Luckily we had fix a flat (in a can) and it worked!

When we got home the dog was so tired she went out into the field and passed out in the sun!

All in all, an awesome weekend.

Chick pics

I A co-workers daughter has been incubating chicks in her kindergarten classroom for the last 21 days. Here are pics of them hatching and two of the two babies! I am trying to figure out how to get them to my house asap!

Finding inspiration

I had a very powerful experience this morning.

I have not been blogging much recently because my time has been consumed by learning about dyslexia and strategizing about how to move forward with Gracie. Those who know me well, are not surprised. I approach a challenge by gathering data and plowing, with all the force I can muster, forward.

One of the things I have implemented in the past few weeks is educational therapy for Gracie. Luckily more is known about dyslexia than any other learning difference. And with that knowledge comes scientifcally proven methods for teaching kids with dyslexia. So Gracie is seeing Tami, a great young gal, a couple times a week. Today was the sixth session and the first one that I sat in on. Watching the session was powerful and inspiring -- I saw how the different techniques being used were engaging for Grace and I could see her brain "getting it". Probably doesn't sound very powerful to you....but after 3 years of dealing with this situation, this is the first time that I saw the techniques using make sense to Grace! The trick is putting logic behind everything they do.

And inspiring? That kid is my inspiration....she has tried harder than any adult I know. And she has done so without complaining. She really is an amazing kid.