Rea's Kindergarten Graduation!!

My, what a busy week it's been! I guess for the Smith household, summer has officially started because school's out! Their last day was Thursday (it rained the ENTIRE day!!) and it felt soooo nice to sleep in the last couple days!! The whole week was kind of a "goof off" week - Monday was the zoo, Tuesday was just packing things up from their classroom and sending home thousands of papers in bulging backpacks, Wednesday was graduation, and then Thursday was supposed to be Field Day, but the rain sorta threw that off a bit! They were all stuck inside playing games and face painting and eating hotdogs, and I'm sure the teachers were very happy to send everyone home for the summer after that!!!

Rea's day was very exciting for her, she was so thrilled that everyone, especially her big brother David got to be there. We even picked out a new dress for her special occasion!! We are so proud of you, our little Rea Sunshine!!

San Francisco Zoo!!!

Last year I was disappointed that I didn't get to go with Ma-lak and his class for the funnest field trip of the year - the zoo! So this year, I was ecstatic that it worked out for me to go with Rea and her class. I barely remember the one time that I have ever been to a zoo, I think I was maybe 5 or 6, and it was in St. Louis. I vaguely recall being afraid of a polar bear.... But needless to say, I have been just as excited as Rea, maybe even a tad more, to go on this adventure!!

There were about 45 kindergarteners from the three classes at Rea's school, along with roughly half as many parents/teachers that went to the zoo. For the most part, it was a 1:2 or 1:3 adult to child ratio, which you would THINK was pretty good.... But once we got there, everything they saw, they either chased, rode, climbed on, pet, or ate! The adults were matched with kids to be in charge of for the day, and then everyone was free to roam around on their own and meet back at the zoo park to leave together. Rea and her best friend Karla were my "charges" for the day, and we had a great time!

The SF Zoo is apparently known as one of the better zoos in the world because of the very natural, spread out setting for the animals. My favorite part was the view, since the zoo sits right on the edge of the city, and overlooks the Pacific ocean!!

Tons of fun, and can't wait to go next year with Ni'ke's class, to the Oakland zoo!

Flower Child

I finally was able to get my flowers planted yesterday, despite being caught in the rain! (I actually didn't mind...) I seem to forget from time to time how much I enjoy planting flowers. I have great memories of planting with my mom and grandma, and it's so relaxing and therapeutic. The end result is always so satisfying - lots of beauty to enjoy all around!

Rea was a good helper when we went to Home Depot - I threw caution to the wind and let her ride the big flat bed carts all "Titanic style" (ignoring the signs that warned how dangerous this was)as we drove around picking out flowers.

Thank you so much to my awesome siblings for such a thoughtful and beautiful birthday gift... You know me well!

Rainy Walk Home!!

Speaking of Languages...

I have always loved languages. Even English, despite it being a kinda weird and hard-to-learn language. (At least that's what some of my friends say who speak it as their second language.) I love when I read a book by a really great writer who has the ability to say something in a certain way that I've never heard before. And you think, "Wow, I never thought of it that way!" or "What a neat way of describing that, I totally get what she's saying!" It's very captivating, very inspiring, and so creative! And I just read on and on and on.....

When I was in high school, a delightfully eccentric woman was hired on to be our French teacher. Violet Cogswell was quirky and zany and I loved her! She didn't consider herself fluent in French, but of course when I heard that beautiful language come out of her mouth I would fight to disagree! She knew so much about the people, the history, the food and the culture that you'd think she'd lived there for years! (I actually don't think she'd ever been there!) But that didn't stop her from being the most amazing teacher...

This was the first time there had been a foreign language teacher at our school that I knew of, and while French didn't seem to be a "practical" foreign language to learn in northeast Missouri, who cared!? Several of us jumped at the chance to be in her class, and I took 3 years before I graduated. I even took a couple years in college and loved it!!

So fast forward 15 years to me now living in California. This is not the land of the French, by any means, so anything I learned years ago has not proven useful here!
Except for this one patient I had about 6 years ago who was a cab driver in France, I think, and spoke four different languages. She was in her 60's and had a man's name like Toby or something, and she was absolutely fascinating! We were able to converse a little bit with her in French, but finally settled on Spanish, because more people could speak Spanish than French who were taking care of her, and she knew both languages.

ANYWAY.... My round about point was that you can't live in California without picking up SOME Spanish, and being a nurse, I often have patients who are only Spanish speaking. Also, the church that we have been ministering with for the past 3years is a Spanish-speaking church, Generacion de Josue (Joshua Generation). My exposure to the language has only increased, but my ability to speak the language hasn't really changed. I understand much of what I hear, but can't generate the right words in my head to give an intelligent response, which is often the case when learning a new language, so I'm told.

Many of the members of the church are bi-lingual, but when my husband preaches, he preaches in English and Pastor Carlos translates so that everyone is able to understand everything he says. This also is true if he's doing one-on-one ministry. I remember coming home one evening with such a personal feeling of disconnect after one incident. Pastor Carlos's wife, Sorabel, is this amazing, beautiful, delightful woman of God, who speaks very little English, and therefore our interaction has been pretty limited... "Hola Hermana Sorabel! Dios te Bendiga!!" ("Hi Sister Sorabel! God Bless You!")

We had a fellowship meal together after a recent service, and my husband and Pastor Carlos were jabbering away a million miles a minute like they always do. Sorabel's mother had become very ill (and has since passed away last week) and I wanted to comfort her, say SOMEthing to her, ANYTHING. In my broken Spanish I managed to say something like, "I know you're very sad, my mother is my best friend and I know this must be hard for you, too." It must have come out pretty bad b/c she laughed and said, "My English isn't much better than your Spanish!" She went on to say that this is why she never speaks to me, but hoped we could both work on our English and Spanish, and could speak together more. I said something about "meeting in the middle" in English and she nodded that she sort of understood.

That night on the ride home is when I started thinking about where God had put us and how blessed we were to meet these amazing people, so passionate in their love for Christ. But I literally HATED that I couldn't speak with them!!! Without of course a translator. What if God speaks a word regarding someone and no one is around to translate? I believe that God can get a message to anyone anytime anywhere, but WHAT IF He wants to use me to FACILITATE the delivery of that message??

I've always thought myself pretty good at communicating, a "people person" my mom says. I love to sit down with people and listen and share and tells stories and "get in their heads". But I haven't been able to do that truly with the very people God has placed us with. I can hear their hearts when we are worshipping together (because worship is God's universal language), but I can't hear their thoughts when we're ministering/praying together. It seems so INHUMAN almost to not have that very basic element of communicating with one another.

I shared this with my husband, and he in his ever-so-deep, philosophical and wise way, said, "Well what are you going to do about it?"

So this is what I'm doing about it: I am learning Spanish. I'm sorta doing it on my own, because our schedules don't really allow for a class at the junior college right now, though that is on my radar for this fall. I have several books to learn from, and my dear friends at work have offered to help by conversing with me only in Spanish when we have time to do so. (NOT in the middle of a code situation or other crisis, but maybe over lunch...) I had ordered a Medical Spanish course several years ago when we first moved here. Sadly it's so old that it came with cassette tapes! The information is still good, and it will help me with the conversational aspect of conversing with my patients, which is as much of a point of frustration for me as not being able to talk with our church family.

I'm also thinking about Rosetta Stone. I've heard this is a very good system for learning a language quickly, and wonder if any of you have any experience with it or know of someone who does, or know of anyone who would like to sell it at a good price, or do you have any other suggestions?

The biggest obstacle for me will be to not play head games with myself about it and put all these unnecessary pressures on myself to learn it FAST and know it NOW. I'm a wee bit impatient that way. One time I actually prayed and asked God to just supernaturally implant the language in my head. I really wanted to just wake up in the morning and KNOW Spanish. He chose not to answer that prayer in the way that I had hoped, and I trust that this way will be much better for me.... :)

So, this is one of those things that is dear to my heart, and I would so appreciate your prayers for this. Making the time to devote to it, the ease with learning, the patience with myself as I learn something new, the right heart and attitude....

I was wondering this morning about how a person even has enough "brain space" to learn something like a whole knew language. Obviously there are people who know lots more than even TWO languages! I figured if I can memorized every single word of The Princess Bride, which really is a completely useless feat, then surely I can learn a new language....

Muchas gracias, amigos!! Muchas bendiciones a todos!!

A Unique and Casual Outdoor Dining Experience!

The best $20 ever spent at a garage sale...

Open House at Meadowview!

We have been so blessed that Ma-lak and Rea have had the teachers that they have. Mrs. Corwin and Mrs. McDaniel are absolutely perfect fits for our children, and I can't imagine anyone else teaching Ni'ke and Ya'shar when they get there!

I always love this time of year, we get to check out their classrooms and projects they've been working on and see how they've progressed in such a short amount of time! It's amazing to me how kids can absorb soooo much and how impressionable they are in ALL areas of their lives.

Rea's doing great, reading at a second grade level as she heads into first grade! We hope to keep up the momentum with her this summer and I plan on stocking up on some fun series for her that I used to read as a kid, The Box Car Children and the Baby Sitters Club! Hoping to get to Borders or Barnes and Noble this weekend! Anybody have any other good suggestions for books or where to get good deals? We might have to dust off the library card, too, now that I think of it... :)

Ma-lak did great this year, too, but tends to get a little bored once he's already learned something. If he learns it once, he's good, so if the teacher is spending time reviewing or going over it with kids who are struggling, then he's daydreaming and goofing off and doesn't do his work. I know that there are budget cuts in all the schools EVERYwhere, and it's becoming a pretty serious situation. Our districts here are for sure in for a rough school year this coming fall as many of the teachers who are retiring or leaving will not be replaced. So the class sizes are going up to 30-33 in some situations instead of the standard 20, and some of the grade levels are being combined to accommodate the cuts (1st and 2nd grades combined, etc...)

Teachers, you are amazing and we love you and our family prays for you daily!!

Having said that, as a parent, you tend to start to worry about how this is going to affect your children and their learning environments - more stressors in an already under-performing school doesn't seem to add up. There are more programs to aid the struggling ones than there are to continually challenge the ones who are doing well, and so goes the perpetual "teaching to the middle" saga. I'm equal parts sympathetic and frustrated. The talents of the gifted are leveraged towards the needs of the underachieving, and while it's nothing personal against the teaching abilities of the staff at ALL, it's just an infuriating flaw in the system!!!!

I have no easy solutions, and therefore I can't criticize, only observe and watch and pray and offer my help in the classrooms whenever I can. Ma-lak definitely has so much more to learn and he'll do well wherever he is, but right now we're just trying to figure out where the best place is for him to keep going in the right direction. If I weren't working, I'd home school in a heartbeat, but that or private school is out of the question right now. So, we'll just wait and see...

One thing for sure, these children are excited about summer break!!! Only 2 more weeks from today and I get them all to myself for 3 months!! Can't wait!!!

"Chick," Please!!

"Mommy! Mommy! Can we have a pet?!?!?!"

This was Rea the other day as she raced into the house after coming home from school.... Apparently after weeks and months of anticipation, the baby chicks finally hatched in her classroom!

After I explained to her that baby chicks, while cute and small and cuddly NOW, grow up later to be ugly, big and mean, not to mention smelly, poopy, and territorial. And they don't go with the furniture. As I reflect on my answer to her, I realize that I may have come across as sounding a little jaded. I blame this on the fact that I grew up on a chicken farm, and my daily chores consisted of cleaning out the chicken roost and gathering the eggs...

She insisted that she would keep the chick in her room or in her closet, and when that didn't work she came up with genius suggestion of, "I know!! How about on top of the refrigerator!!??"

Well anyway, since none of the little furr balls will be joining our family, the next best thing was getting to visit them at the open house yesterday. Everybody held one but Ya'shar, and that just wasn't going to happen. This might just be as close to farming as my little urbanites are going to get.... We are going to be CAMPING this summer when we head back to Ohio for a visit, so I may be able to "hillbilly" them up a little bit then, we'll see...

Iron Mama Birthday!

Today I'm 36 years old!!!

Wow, let me try that one out again.

TODAY, I'M 36 YEARS OLD!!!!!!!

Feels gooooood............

I had a great birthday today - I really did! I know that I am absolutely blessed and loved, and I can't give enough thanks to all of my precious friends and family for the phonecalls, messages, texts, emails, cards, gifts and hugs! How special and spoiled you made me feel!

It was very cold and rainy here today, so I guess it's good we didn't have any outdoor activities planned! My husband sent me off to the spa for some indulgent pampering, which was perfect for the 50 degree chill and horizontal rain.

The gal who gave me my massage today was named Channah (which means "grace"), and speaks fluent Hebrew, so my usualy "M.O." of NOT talking during massages or similar such pampering went completely down the drain. We jabbered the entire 50 minutes about this and that, mostly about my children and their names (which are a mixture of Hebrew and Greek with a good ole "Smith" thrown on the end.) Funny story: turns out we've been pronouncing some of their names wrong. At least according to her. Not their first names, so that's a relief, but a few of the middles ones we were apparently a little off on. We thought we had them down after lots of studying and listening to the language on tape and on the online lexicons AND talking to a Jewish friend of ours, but maybe it's like a po-TAY-to/po-TAH-to type of thing... Oh well, at least WE know who they are, God knows who they are, we're teaching THEM who they are, and we're all good! :)

Daryle and the kids picked me up in the afternoon and we headed to our next adventure, an early dinner at Red Lobster!! I'm pretty sure their lobster pizza is the stuff legends are made of, so imagine my disbelief when Ma-lak ordered macaroni and cheese... It's actually not too shocking at all - this guy will NOT eat fishy stuff! How are we related!?

And after that, the big highlight of the past WEEK - Iron Man 2!!!!! Daryle and David have always been big fans of the Marvel comics, and so the rest of us have also become so by association, I guess. So here's the verdict: I loved it, thought it was better than the first one. (I was also pleasantly relieved that there was no bad language! Good job, guys!!) Ma-lak and Ya'shar couldn't take their eyes off the screen, Ni'ke fell asleep, and Rea watched, but kept asking when we could go home and put on our pajamas. Daryle thought it was absolutely atrocious that Hollywood continues to ruin the Marvel comics by putting in strange storylines that include a super hero who reveals his secret identity. Because that NEVER HAPPENENS (in real life...)

Lots of laughs today, lots of love today, and lots of "blessing countin'!!"

(sigh)

My cup is full....

Happy Nurses Day!!

Almost exactly 14 years ago, I fulfilled my childhood dream of becoming a nurse! And when I say "childhood dream", that's really how long ago I started day-dreaming about becoming a nurse! (Some of you have heard the following story before, but please indulge me! You know how I love to tell stories, and this is one of my favorites...)

Once upon a time, when I was but a wee girl, my mom (who is the best nurse I know, by the way) had to take me with her to work because she didn't have a baby-sitter. I thought it was super cool, and busied myself with passing waters and playing checkers with the residents of the OMNI unit at the old Levering Hospital in Hannibal, Missouri. No one cared that I was there as long as I stayed out of trouble, and I enjoyed being there and making some new friends. One such friend was a very VERY old lady name Dempie Cluck. Really. That was her name.

She told me "I bet you're going to become a wonderful nurse one day, just like your mother!" And that was it. I said, "Yes, I AM going to be a nurse!" And I never wanted to do anything else! She gave me an antique-looking little gold mirror as a gift and it was one of my most prized possessions until I lost it years later.

So that's it. Not that exciting of a story, but it was a memorable defining moment in my life, I guess! The past 14 years have been the most wonderful, difficult, challenging, and rewarding years of my life as far as my career goes. No matter how many days I come home from work with a huge headache, covered in blood spatters and poop, or just fed up with the "politics" of it all, longing for the good 'ole days before electronic charting when I had more time to sit at the bedside and hold someone's had for an hour, I will always know that I made the right choice!

So for all of you amazing people out there who hold the privileged title of NURSE, you are MY heroes, and thank you for everything you do!

Some of My Favorite Nurses!

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In honor of this special day, I thought I would pay "tribute" to some of the people who were with me when it all started... NURSING SCHOOL, that is! I'm sure we all thought that those four long years would never come to an end, but they did, and we lived to tell about it! I wish I had as many pictures as I do great memories, but these will have to do! (I also wish I had a scanner, b/c taking pictures of pictures makes them pretty blurry....)

Happy Nurses Day to Sara (the best room-mate ever), and to Mary Jane, Robbyn, Leah, Betty, Angie, Sonna, Regina, and every other wonderful nurse who is a product of Blessing-Rieman College of Nursing!