RELAY FOR LIFE

Do you RELAY? If you don't all I can say is WOW!!!! This was unlike anything I have ever experienced before. Since January, I have been attending monthly meetings for the commitee doing logistics and another meeting for team captains. Basically all logistics does is set up the day before, handle problems as they come up on the day of the event and clean-up. It is a lot of work and there were 3 of us doing it. Rena, Joanne and myself. I had to be on a radio for the entire event so needless to say I didn't get many pictures because I had to carry that around, my cellphone and my camera. There are no pictures posted with this post because they wouldn't download but I wanted everyone to know how it went.

On Friday morning, (at 9am when it was already 90) I went to the fairgrounds with 7 kids and helped map out were tents were going, garbage cans, RV's and such. Friday evening Ruben, the girls and I went down to help guide everyone coming in with their stuff not to mention setting up our trailer and tent site. We were back down there at 7am on Sat to tie up loose ends and then RELAY started. My mom was there and she was overwhelmed with emotions. Opening ceremonies started with the colorguard, a personal story and then the survivor lap. All survivors wore a purple shirt and all the particpants wore a white shirt (I had ugly yellow because I was part of the committee). After they finished, each team member took turns walking the track for the next 24 hrs. I was a team captain and had to organize everyone's hours of when to walk. We also had a booth set up selling pizza, soda, a basket raffle and a dart game.

We didn't make a whole lot of $ at our booth because there was so much of the same stuff and it was too hot to eat pizza. But our team did excede its goal of $1500. I believe we made around $2500! The whole RELAY at last count made $80,000!!!!

At dark, they did a luminaria ceremony which was beautiful. White bags decorated with survivors and those who have lost their battle had candles in them and lined the track and HOPE was spelled out on the grand stands. In the morning they did a last lap with everyone walking and following a bagpiper who also played amazing grace. I thought that was a great end to a great thing! You really have to be there the whole time to get the whole experience.

My team was wonderful!!! Thank you to everyone who walked and helped out. I know some of you walked and worked more than others but it was great and all worked out! From my WHOLE HEART- THANK YOU- Jen M., Mom, Ruben, Maggie, Olivia, Izabell, Corinne, Ben, Alex, Kelly, Jen C., Robert, Christina, Tia, Megan, Trina, Jake, Steph, Stacie, Allison, Janette, Lisa and lastly Kerry. Kerry lost a friend on Friday who has been battling cancer for the past year so I know how much this ment to her.

Being my first RELAY, I now know what to expect. I will be doing things differently next time. Yes, there will be a next time! I can not explain to you how it makes you feel! So all I can say is...

Do you RELAY?.......If you don't you MUST!!!!
In honor of you Mom, I LOVE YOU!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CARLY!

Last Monday, Olivia and I went to a Giants game for Carly's 9th birthday with her and Jen. Olivia was so excited all day and wanted to get ready at 9:00 in the morning. We don't get to see each other much with our busy schedules so it was great to get the girls together. Carly (and her mom) are huge Giants fans and know everything about every player. My neighbor asked if I wanted to wear an Angles hat since they were playing against them, but I said no because they probably wouldn't let me in the car! Goofy Girls!
Wouldn't that be cool to hang off the side of a trolley if it were actually moving?
Jen had Carly's name put up for those celebrating birthdays and she was thrilled! At least they got it right this time. She went to a game a couple months ago and was chosen to announce the players and they said Carly Dixon instead of Carly Mendisco from Dixon.
No, our buddy Berry didn't hit a homer but it was a great game and they won!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CJ!!! ATCHI LOVES YOU!!!

Olivia's awards

Olivia didn't have "graduation" but she did participate in the ceremonies. She received an award for "an oscar winning performance" in her Snow White play and one of only 3 in her class to get Presidential Physical Fitness. Look out 4th grade!!!!

Maggie's graduation

I can remember going to Maggie's graduation from kindergarten 7 years ago. I can't believe it has been that long!!
Maggie had to say something in front of everyone while they were singing. She said, "God is my friend, Lord, may my lifes song sing to you". She looked beautiful and confident. It was a bitter sweet evening because she will be starting junior high next year not to mention going to public school! Oh Lord, her innocence is gone! Maggie recieved her diploma from Mr. Suderow and got an award for most friendly (not surprised) and national physical fitness.
Her class permormed a song with all the hand motions. My mom and I love to watch her sing because she really "feels" the music.
She had her hair done (thanks Kitty) , brows and legs waxed and I did her nails. She looked like she was 15!

Enough yet?

Ok so I had a little catching up to do. As you can see I've been busy and my back has been out this week. Boo-Hoo. I will post Mag's graduation pics tomorrow. I have relay stuff I have to get done. Have you remembered to donate? Relay is 8 days away! Go on-line to www.acsevents.org/relay/ca/dixon/powerfulpinkpeople or send me a check! Our team has almost reached their goal!

Izabell's graduation

Tonight was Maggie and Izabell's graduation. Olivia partcipates too but it is a commencement ceremony for K's and 6th graders. Izabell received her diploma and got an award for Fantastic Phonics. So I'm a freak... Who cries at a K graduation? This just choked me up watching Maggie put on Bell's cap. It seems like yesterday I had just had Bell 11 days before and was at Maggie's K graduation blubbering. Now look at my girls....my baby is graduating from K and Maggie from 6th!
Here's Bell and some of her buds. I think they clean up pretty good.
Bell had to get ready hours before graduation. Shower, hair and nails!
She was so serious about her singing. They sang a song in Spanish and one in sing language. She was one of the only one's who remembered all the motions.

Snow White? or brown?

Last Monday, I took the daycare kids to see Olivia's play. Snow White and the 8 dwarfs. (It should have been Snow and not so White). Her class rewrote the story and did a great job performing it. Her prince telling her he loves her and wants to marry her. She told me she was glad he had long sleeves on because they had to cross arms and she didn't want to touch him.
Her prince happened to be one of my daycare kids Max whom she butts heads with. She managed to keep the eye rolling to a minimum!

The Johnson's have left the building!

After doing the last of their packing, we had the Johnson's over for one last BBQ. We will miss them as our neighbors and wish them the best of luck in San Diego. After all they have been through in the past 3 years they deserve much happiness!

Go Dolphins!!!!

Somewhere inbetween the recitals, we managed to fit in a swimmeet. Here is Maggie doing breast stroke. Her WORST stroke. Other than breast, she got 2nd or 3rd in all her events. Goofy Bell. She has to put on her cap and goggles 1/2 hour before her race so she's not late to the ready bench.
Last week Bell told me all she wanted this year from swim team is to get 1 first place ribbon. Her first event of the day she got 1st ( her in the pink cap)! Her first blue ribbon. She was so excited and screamed so loud, she almost busted my eardrum!
THE TEAM! Having the kids take this picture always makes me nervous because of how high they have to stand on the bleachers. Even more so now that Maggie is getting closer to the top!
I think this is Olivia's year to shine. She got 1st and 2nd in most of her races. Here she is doing the 50yrd free in lane 4 in 1st!

Recital

No just kidding, this isn't my dancer.... I only drug Ruben 1 night because he is trying to get the kitchen floor done. He did enjoy himself as you can see......
Last weeeknd the girls had there annual dance recital. After 2 rehearsals and 2 nights of dancing, Izabell and I were pooped. On Sunday she and I stayed home and a friends of my took the other 2. Thanks Sandra! Needledd to say they looked adorable and did a great job. Amy and Stacy (their teachers) put on an incredible show. None of the actual recital pictures turned out because it was too dark...

Graduation

Congrats to all the Grads we know! We went to a Grad party for Ruben's cousin in Winters. It was held at the same place Ruben and I had our reception. Can you believe it's been almost 15 years? Same place, a lot of the same people, same food and couldn't be complete without the Mariachi band! We saw people we haven't seen since our wedding we are all just a little fatter and have more grey hair!This was the graduation cake I made for Chelsea (our neighbor) and a few of her friends.

Here is Gabby, Ruben's cousin. I had to snap this without her knowing because she is very shy. Congrats girls!

Can you guess?

The kids (and a few adults!) had fun with these masks from Over the Hegde...can you guess who they are?

Happy 6th Bell Bell!!!

I CAN'T BELIEVE MY BABY IS 6!!! Izabell turned 6 on the 4th and we had a little party for her. Just swimming and some hotdogs. I think I ended up inviting 23 kids and about half showed up because of illnesses and graduation parties. It was perfect size though. She enjoyed it and loved sharing her pool with friends. I really can't believe she is already 6. Maybe it's good thing we can't have anymore? I've had baby fever lately. My cousin and family are coming ina couple weeks with their new baby so I'll get my fix then!We had a lot of firefighter wives at the party and it sure made them nervous when the kids did this. They kept joking that they may see daddy yet today! If our kids only knew what we did as kids!!!
We had a teddy graham water slide cake. I made it after Izabell went to bed the night before so she was so excited when she saw it when she woke up.
Poor Jake was out numbered by the girls! Someday this won't bother him so much. What a stud!
All the slide pictures were blurry, but this is what Nonnie and Pompie got her for her birthday. It was a big hit!

Floors

On Monday of Memorial Day weekend we put laminate in the living room. I love it!!Nice face babe...doesn't he look like he is having so much fun?
Yes I do love the "real" hardwood under this but it would have been more work for us to redo it and it scratches much easier. Sorry about the toes....I need a pedicure!!!

Memorial Day Weekend

We were going to go camping, but Ruben was going to have to work then found out at the last minute he didn't. We figured since he has had little time off lately that we would of course work on the house. We FINALLY finished the rest of the cabinets in the kitchen and thenstarted tearing up the old lino tiles in the kitchen. That was a job! Olivia helped screw down the backer board. Luckily we have awesome neighbors who took the Maggie and Olivia different places for two days and Izabell chose to go to a friends house instead. On Monday they went and hung out at my moms. It was kind of nice for Ruben and I to just work together without the kids. With all the frustrations that come up when your doing home repairs, we didn't have one tiff!!
BEFORE-where's my sink?
DURING
AFTER- all that needs to be done now is to lay the new tile!! Who know that may not be until our next 3 day weekend!!! The kitchen took two days and on Mnoday we did something else......
I'll post it tomorrow. We had a dance rectial tonight and a swim meet in the morn so I'm tired....

Softball is over!

I am sooooo glad that softball is over!!!! Izabell was so happy to receive her first softball trophy!!
This year didn't seem like a real season with the first couple of weeks getting rained out. I felt very detached all season.....maybe it will be better next year!

WHAT'S UP WITH THAT?!?!

Ok fellow bloggers-This blogging thing is frustrating sometimes because I try to blog pictures and it won't let me load them!!!! I am trying to get caught up. I promise!!! Maybe if I went back to scrapbooking it would be easier! I know some of you are seasoned bloggers..... so do you have any advice?

Do you remember the rain?

Olivia had a soccer tournament here in town on that day it rained cats and dogs a few weeks ago.(Yeah, so my blog is a little behind!) Her team hosted it so all of us parents had to do the snack bar. It actually was pretty fun. There were 23 teams and it was busy! Her team didn't do so well but the girls held their own with all these highly competitive teams. I love this picture, just too bad its blurry on here. I forgot to fix it before I blogged it! Sorry.
Tent city!! With all the parents trying to stay dry and out of the sun when it would peak through!
Here is Ruben and Miss Bell (in the center) working the snack bar. Bell loved it because she got to eat junk all day!
Maggie even did her part. She referred 9 games and made $60. I think she enjoyed it!

I'm trying to get caught up...Finally, some more camping pictures

This is one of the famous driving threw trees that was hallowed out by fire. It is now held up by cables. We couldn't drive threw it with our truck. We would have got stuck and believe me there were marks of paint on the inside from people who have tried!
This was the biggest banana slug I have ever seen! It would've eaten Ginger!
Have you hugged your teddy bear today? Some of the carving we saw were very cool. Bell liked this one because she could lay on him.
Burger and a beer? Well beer, sprite and a cosmo! We really love our new little table! Perfect size to put up anywhere and easy to assemble. Thanks again bunco girls!!
Poor Ginger. She went into heat the morning we left. We had to keep her locked up a lot of the time because we had pitbulls next to us. That's all we need is bull weenies!LOL