My first blog

It is the day after Christmas and I find myself creating my first-ever blog post.  My friend Jamie inspired me to do this based on his great post reviewing his family's year.  Journaling is always a therapeutic way to chronical life's happenings and, with technology, a great way to share with the people we love.

We have been truly blessed this year.  The biggest news is that we moved into a new city and bought a new house.  The old gated community, HOA rules type of existence was not really working for our family.  So, we decided that a move to Valley Center was in order.  It is a great, rural community where it is just a short 15 minute drive to get to anything you need.  I cannot lie - it was quite an adventure!

We rented our house in San Marcos, but the house we were originally going to purchase was a "short sale". ("Short" having no relevance to the time it takes to close escrow.) So, we had to rent a not-so-lovely house for about 8 months until we found the home of our dreams!  It was vacant for 2 years, so we had to see past the black pool, 6 foot weeds and blue bathrooms, but ultimately got the perfect home for us.  It is 3,800 square feet with a 4 car garage and an unattached granny flat that measures another 1,000 square feet.  It sits on 2 1/3 acres and has a big pool in the back yard.  It is just secluded enough enough that neighbor kids won't knock on our door day and night and just close enough to give some quick directions and have a great party.

The kids are doing great.  Sri is now in pre-school and Colby is in the 2nd grade.  They are both such loving kids and overall they are happy, healthy and great little people!

Colby played Caps baseball this year.  He was such a great little player for being one of the smallest on the team.  Caps is where they use a pitching machine and the kids get 10 chances.  Then, if they don't hit the ball, they get to hit off the tee.  Colby only had to hit off the tee one time all season!  He also played his second year of flag football.  Flag football is quite cute with a bunch of 5, 6 and 7 year olds running around trying to play one of the most complicated games there is - football!  But, the coaches make it easy and keep about 5 plays in the play book and then it is "chase the kid's flags who has the ball".  Quite entertaining, but us parents take it very seriously!  And, hey, we won 1 game which is better than last year's record :-)

Sri is 4 going on 14.  She is already showing signs of being a very smart little girl.  She recognizes all of her letters (upper and lower case) and can write each of them.  Her teacher says she is one of the smartest in her pre-school class.  We are very proud of her!  She is such a trooper and goes to all of Colby's games with mommy and tries to remain patient.  Is is about time for us to find her little niche in life - cheerleading, maybe?  She tells me everyday how much she loves me and loves looking at pictures of people on Facebook with me.  She always says, "Who is that, mommy?"  Then, I have to explain how I know that person.  She is a very loving little girl.

Brian is doing well.  He is still at Pacific Rim Mechanical and coached the Caps Baseball team this year.  He is also now on the Board of Valley Center Little League and is in charge of the Caps and Tee Ball teams.  It is enjoyable for him and he loves helping out our little community.  He coached football last year, by default, but we have since decided that it is "not good for the marriage" for him to coach football, so we are going to stick to him coaching baseball. LOL

For me, I am still at River Springs Charter School and just celebrated my 10th year.  Working for an ever-growing charter school is always an adventure.  I am currently the Senior Director of Business and Student Services which is like an Assistant Superintendent position in traditional schools.  It is a very full-time job, to say the least, but I make sure to leave plenty of room for the kidlets and family outings.

Usually about now I would packing up to take the trailer and all of our toys to the desert for the weekend, but we are going to pass on that this time around.  I think hosting 2 parties and going to 3 others wore us old folks out for the week!  We love our toys, desert trips and family vacations around here, but sometimes a little relaxation is in order.

Thank you for reading my first-ever blog post.  I hope this finds you well.

Until next time...