Beverly Hills Chihuahua

This is Haley's Chihuahua, whom she named Triton. He has the sweetest temperament of all our dogs. We were pretty excited to learn that Triton's grandmother had the starring role in the movie "Beverly Hills Chihuahua"! We finally got to see the movie last night. We really enjoyed the movie and it was very cool to see Chloe. Not only is she a gorgeous dog, but she is really amazing! Although the dogs who played Delgado and Papi where also very good, Chloe really stole the show. I think this also speaks volumes about Sherri's abilities to breed dogs that are not only adorable and good natured, but intelligent as well.
Well, I'm off to teach Triton how to "sit". After all, Disney may decide to make a sequel! lol

Vasquez Rocks

I hope everyone else's weekend was as nice as ours! Sunday after church, we were invited over for dinner by our friends, Jared and Joleen. Just because I think "cook" is a four letter word, doesn’t mean I don't admire the talent of those who can whip up a wonderful meal. And Joleen makes it seems so effortless! Even though she has a newborn, (along with two other young children) she prepared chicken cordon bleu, asparagus with hollandaise sauce, home made mashed potatoes and a salad. She even baked cookies for dessert! We had an awesome time.
Monday we joined our friends Jeff and Sherri and their kids for a hike through Vasquez Rocks in Agua Dulce. We enjoyed seeing the amazing rock formations as well as the company of friends. The weather was just a bit overcast for most of the day and not too hot. Perfect hiking weather! We hiked for three hours, and the kids were pretty great. By the last hour, Kaelyn started to get pretty tired. I was really amazed by Jeff and Sherri's little guy, Austin. He is younger than Kaelyn; he didn't seem to get tired at all. As a matter of fact, He didn't want the hike to end!
The kids stop for a well deserved break.
Jeff, Haley & Kaelyn having a Zen moment.

Feeding the Ducks in Acton

This week...

I know this may come as shock to some...but I am not the world's greatest driver. Why just a couple of days ago I received a stern reprimand by a gray haired ranger for speeding through the park. (I was doing 10 miles per hour in a 5 mile zone). So my recent accident may not come as a total surprise. It was a dark and stormy night (really) and I took a wrong turn back to the trailer. I went to make a u-turn, when I found the only guard rail in town. In my defense, they don't believe in street lights here. My minivan is currently in the shop. In the meantime, I am driving a rental. Some of you may be thinking "Kia", but I am currently driving a Dodge Ram pick up truck! Something about people nervously waving and then dodging as I come down the road makes me feel rather powerful. ;)
As I have mentioned before, it gets very windy up here. Recently, the high winds knocked down a large tree by the adult lodge. This is a photo of the stump of that tree.The tree took out the southwest corner of the wrought iron and brick fence surrounding the pool.
Skylar, Haley and Kaelyn surprised me this week by their enthusiasm helping me do the laundry. I thought perhaps my little darlings have inherited some kind of domestic gene from a remote ancestor, rather than my housework phobia. However, it turns out that while I was distracted with over-bleaching the laundry or untangling my unmentionables, the little angels were giving each other spine tingling rides in the laundry carts. You would think other patrons of the Laundromat would frown on child laden carts hurtling into the dryers; however they just smile fondly and grow misty-eyed recalling their own offspring's similar antics. I am certain that some day I will look back on some of the more harrowing moments of motherhood and grow teary-eyed...perhaps in gratitude that I survived!

Homeschooling vs. Roadschooling

Several months ago, I discovered a website for "Families on the Road". (The link is provided below) This site is dedicated to families that RV fulltime. There, I discovered that families that home school while living on wheels call it "road schooling". Doesn't that sound cool? We currently home school through a charter school using the K12 curriculum. I thought road schooling would be no different from homeschooling. However, like everything else in our new lifestyle, road schooling has presented a unique set of challenges. Most of these are due to our limited space. For example, we are provided with a ton of workbooks, but we haven't anywhere to put them. Fortunately, this problem was easily solved. We are able to download and print most of the workbook pages from school website. Unfortunately we are using a ton of paper and toner. Not exactly the greenest way to go. We are also having trouble figuring out how to complete school art assignments (and our regular arts and crafts projects). Not only do we have a tiny dining room table, it is completely carpeted underneath. It's just not a suitable area for painting, cutting and gluing! At first, the solution seemed simple enough. There is a wooden picnic table at our camp site. We would do arts and crafts outdoors! We could enjoy both the beauty of nature and our craft time together. We soon realized that it was too windy here in the winter. Papers, beads, feathers, markers and even glue sticks were quickly blown into the bushes. We organized the art supplies into a small Tupperware type container with a lid. That worked well. We tried putting small rocks on the corners of our papers to hold them down on the table. They were to light, and the stones soon joined the markers and paint brushes in the bushes. We tried larger stones, but they took up to much of the paper. Next we stapled the papers to the wooden table. This worked great, however, I am not sure the park management will be thrilled to find staples all over their picnic table. Then the rain started, and finally the snow. We had to give up art projects altogether. Although we are back to beautiful, sunny weather, it is still very windy here. We are still working on the perfect solution to this issue. The other issue we are having is not related to space at all. I'm not sure it is even really a problem. My children have always lived in the city or in the suburbs. Our contact with nature has been limited. The fact is we are enjoying camping full time. The distractions are endless! It is hard for the girls to concentrate when the outdoors is constantly calling to them. During our regular "school time" the girls frequently ask for breaks. "Mom, can I go out for some fresh air?" is a frequent request. Once they are out, they get their much needed breath of fresh air by running around like a pack of wild banshees playing and exploring. It's hard to get them to settle down again. Although I do sometimes find them intently watching an insect they've never seen before or trying to sketch a raven or hare. We've been able to incorporate some of this into our curriculum. We've discovered that we can see a million stars here, so the girls are now fascinated with the constellations. We have been picking up some astronomy. BTW, we found an awesome web site, Astronomy for Kids. The site is: http://www.kidsastronomy.com. I believe that using the method of homeschooling known as "unschooling" would solve this particular problem. However, this is not something I am free to decide on my own, so it is out of the question for the present.
Anyhow, I am sure that we will rise to the unique challenges of road schooling. After all, when we first started, homeschooling was no piece of cake!

Another Birthday!

It was my birthday on Sunday! Although I didn't get to laze about all day, I did get to have dinner with my family. I had a wonderful dinner and homemade chocolate cake. Yum! My birthday is always a time of reflection for me. As I get older, I find that I dwell on the goals I had set for myself. This year was no different. Last year had its ups and downs for me. I did well in school...managed to maintain a 4.0. I was invited to join Phi Theta Kappa and the National Scholars Honor Society. That was one of the highlights. Another was my first year as a grandmother. The lowest point was losing my small business. I really love working from home. Because of the changes in our living arrangements, I no longer have a land line, which is necessary for what I was doing. I hope that I will be able to find something else that I enjoy as much and that I can do while living "on wheels". Although I am not currently in school, I hope to take online classes in the Fall. I think that should give me plenty of time to adjust to our new lifestyle.
This week has also brought some sadness. Down the hill from us in a huge 5th wheel trailer there lives an older gentleman named Ralph. The 78 year old is a caretaker here at the RV park, and so is a "permanent" resident. He lives alone. Ralph always stops with a friendly "hello" for the girls as he drives his work truck with it's wooden trailer up the hill and past our trailer. On Tuesday morning we awoke to a commotion down the hill, and the sound of sirens. Ralph had a stroke. We offered to help in any way we could, as he was taken away by the ambulance. We have not heard anything since. I am sure that the park management will not say anything, so as not to alarm the guests. My heart goes out to Ralph. I hope that he has family to care for him.

Abuelo turns 97 years old!

Here is the handsome gent with his namesake, Little Rafael, and his oldest grandson, Ryan.

Starting out the New Year...

The Ortega girls had a nice quiet New Year's Eve at home. We played board games and put together puzzles as we waited to toast in the New year with apple cider. My girls are also big on the Jonas Brothers...sigh :( So we watched them on TV. On New Years Day we did our usual activities,a bike ride around the RV park, were it was a beautiful sunny day and a short hike with the dogs. Ani gave all three of the girls binoculars for Christmas, which make our walks and hikes a lot more fun. We had a change in plans, however, as we got a wonderful surprise. Ani and Alvin brought the twins up! We showed them around a took a stroller friendly walk through the RV park. We had such a great time...To top it off, USC won the Rose Bowl! I hope everyone else had as nice a start to their year too!

A New Year!

Wow! So much has happened since I last posted to this blog!It's a new year, with a great many new changes! We are going to have a new President, gas prices are down and people in general seem so much more optimistic! We had a lot of changes as a family. Kaelyn had a birthday & she is 5 years old! She is now a big kindergartner. :)Haley had a birthday too! She turned 7 on Halloween.. A few days before Christmas, the twins had their first birthday!
However, our biggest change as a family came in November. We no longer live in a regular "stick" house. We are officially full time RVing! We have a 37' trailer. We are currently in Acton, California. Acton is beautiful, we are in the mountains. It's a nice change after several years in the desert. It is strange to go to the post office and see a sign advising customers not to tie their horses to the rails! lol. We will probably be here until mid-January. We are enjoying "camping full-time" and have already had many adventures. Being city girls, we are not used to seeing much wild life. We have already seen raccoons, rabbits and coyotes. We were actually snowed in!Adjusting to our new life has been interesting. We were already homeschooling, so it was just a matter of establishing a routine. Our trailer has a separate bunk house, so the girls have their own space. The biggest adjustment was living in a much smaller space with a lot less "stuff". I think it is really a good experience. We are realizing just how materialistic we had become. I do miss my washer and dryer. The RV park has its own laundry facilities, but it's not the same...lol. We also shop for groceries a bit more frequently.On the other hand, we are fortunate enough to have a full sized refrigerator. Although RVing with children has not turned out to be very difficult, RVing with pets is another matter! I can no longer put the dogs into the back yard and let them run around to do their business. They have to be walked...frequently. I can't let them out alone for fear of coyotes and hawks. So, I get up at the butt-crack of dawn to walk them, no matter how cold it is, and I can't go to bed at night until they've been walked, rain or snow. As the old saying goes...every cloud has a silver lining. I have lost 10 lbs with all the extra exercise! All in all, we are really enjoying ourselves. We'll be posting more about our new life.
Happy New Year everyone!