June and July??? Where Have They Gone To?

I am going to post in a sort of, backwards order here, but it does go chronologically...only backwards! I don't do this on purpose, its just that I am no good with blogs so far and I can't seem to figure out how to post forwards without a whole ton of effort, so here it goes!



The second week in July we had the opportunity to puppy-sit for a friend of mine. We got to have 11-week old Bailey live with us for about five days. He's part Beagle and the rest is unknown, but he is cute and pretty smart for a pup! He took to Gabe right away and Gabe got his doggy fix for a while. However cute and playful, Gabe's comments went from, "I wish we could have a dog like Bailey," to, "I think I'm good with not having a dog for a while, now," by the end of the week! Not that it wouldn't be fun, but Bailey was good training for this little baby girl to come - he's not yet potty trained, so we got to work on that, gets up at 4 a.m. ready to play, hogs the bed, and barks at everything he doesn't recognize! Cute, but a lot of work! So, we'll stick to baby girl for now...doggies will have to come later.

One of his favorite spots to sleep - hiding behind the pillows

Gabe and Bailey "at work"

Tuesday, July 6th, Hollywood! - We picked up an old friend of mine from Hungary and her new hubby on their way back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Gabi and John David got married in Budapest, flew to Paris for 1 day, then onto Hawaii. On their way back, they stopped in LA for the day so we picked them up at 6 a.m., took them to a pancake breakfast, then onto Hollywood! The goal of the day was to see the Hollywood sign, but of course, the weather was so weird - drizzle and fog all morning long! We drove up to the Griffith Observatory hoping to get a glimpse of the sign since it is so close, but we could barely make out the observatory from the parking lot! Needless to say, we didn't see the sign. Next we headed down to the Avenue of the Stars and Grauman's Chinese theater to check out the stars and hand/footprints. They had a blast! Star-struck for sure, and neither of them had been to LA before. We also went to the Hollywood Wax Museum and Guinness Book of World Records Museum together (see the fun pictures below!). Around 1 p.m. we headed back towards the airport to drop them off, but not without one final attempt at getting a picture of the Hollywood sign...and finally, SUCCESS! We got it! The weather cleared up and Gabi and John David stopped traffic to get the best picture possible - from the middle of the street! It was a great, though fast, day and we all thoroughly enjoyed catching up with each other.

J.D. with Miami Vice (?)

Gabi with Charlie's Angels

Gabe with Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (Jim Carey)

All of us together at the entrance - picture perfect!

Monday, July 5th - Our 1st Anniversary! Gabe and I got 2 free tickets to Disneyland back in March for the Disney sponsored "Give a Day, Get a Day" community service project. Basically, we collected trash in a North Long Beach neighborhood for a few hours and we got free tickets to Disneyland - not bad considering tickets run about $76 a piece now! We decided to save them for our anniversary for some good, cheap fun. We had a great day and the weather was perfect! Granted, there were a number of rides we couldn't go on because of baby girl, but we had a great time anyways. We saw a hilarious music show at the Golden Horseshoe while we ate lunch, saw two parades, went on Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, visited Toon Town, did the Jungle Cruise (Gabe was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe because our "river guide" was stinkin' hilarious!) and just walked around a lot. It was a nice, easy-going day. We met my parents for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. We had a lovely dinner and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day! Below are some pictures of our visit.

Rainforest Cafe with Mom and Dad

Dorky, yet required, just married Mickey ears pic!
(No, we didn't buy them, we just put them on for the pic!)

Gabe checkin' out Chip & Dale's tree house in Toon Town

"Billy Hill and the Hillbillies" musical revue at the Golden Horseshoe

Gabe and me (lookin' chubby!) in front of the saloon after lunch...must have been those chili-cheese fries!

June 25th, 2010 - Huntington Park College Ready Academy High School Graduation at the USC Galen Center. This was a great night! I was so excited for "my kiddos" but I am sure gonna miss them! The ceremony was beautifully done, as were the speeches. I have taught many of these now graduated seniors for the past two years. I am proud of them beyond words and can't wait to see where the Lord leads them over the coming years!

Marilyn Limon - my adopted munchkin! I will miss her smile, her antics, her drama, and her "focus mode" - everything about her, really! Seriously, I would adopt this girl if her parents would let me - I love her to death! She will be attending St. Lawrence University in NY in the fall.

Jessica Jara - sweet, smart, and wise beyond her years - another of my girlies I will miss a ton! She will be attending Bucknell University in PA on a full-ride scholarship in the fall.

Joshua Hernandez - HE'S GOING TO HARVARD!!!!
Our valedictorian and full-rider-and-then-some to Harvard...yes, THE Harvard! I will miss this boy's dedication, drive for excellence, search for truth and understanding and humble
perfectionism - he is the ideal student and he is going to do AWESOME at the big "H"!

Jeremy Aguirre - the boy with more creativity and raw talent in his pinky finger than I will ever have in my entire being! I have had the pleasure to teach and learn from him over the past two years. I will miss him dearly but cannot wait to see what happens to the art world...look out, MINUS is coming!

Our graduates to be waiting for their names to be called!

June 24th - The last day of classes at HPCRAHS. So, the SEN10RS (this is how they spell it, S-E-N-the number ten-R-S, to still spell out seniors, but include their graduation year '10) decided to pull their senior class prank. I have to say it was very creative! Not every classroom was "hit" but mine certainly was! Each classroom was themed with a combination of "Class of 2010" or "Class of X" as they like to say (as in Roman numerals) and something they specialized up for each teacher. My room, of course, was baby themed since they have all had the pleasure of experiencing pregnancy with me this year (even throwing up in class in front of all of them once!)

My classroom door - note the "X" all mapped out in diapers!

My desks were arranged in a giant "X" with butcher paper messages all over them, a Greek column atop a stack of Art History textbooks, and baby clothes strung among all the table legs. Perhaps you can see the large "Best of Luck with Baby Brent" sign in the back? Also, (and my favorite part!) they hung diapers from all the artwork attached to my ceiling - I'd say there were about 40 diapers floating over the heads of my students all day long!

Third week in June - I had about 10 students enter the annual Huntington Park Juried Youth Art Contest this year. This is great, considering last year I only had 2 students enter! We did an awesome job representing our school! My students took 1st, 2nd, and Honorable Mention in Painting, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Graphic Arts (mainly drawing), and Best of Show overall! I have to brag a bit, because we are the smallest public school in the city and we practically swept the entire competition! I am so proud of my kids and all their hard work!

Me with three of my kids' winning entries in painting