Phantom of the Opera

Tonight Isaac and I went to see The Phantom of the Opera in San Francisco with my parents and siblings. We left from a family dinner at my grandma's house around 6:30 to get to the Orpheum Theater to pick up our tickets at will call. It was great timing, actually, because we got our tickets, took a few pictures outside, and then got to go sit in the lobby, out of the cold, until the house opened and we could find our seats.

I didn't much care for Raul, but I basically liked the other people. This Carlotta is the longest running Carlotta worldwide, supposedly. She has done over 4,500 performances. The weird thing for me was the chandelier. It was always close to the stage, and when it "fell," it sort of coasted onto the stage slowly with a flash but no crash. I swear when I saw it 13 years ago, it fell straight down over the audience and then swung onto the stage. Tonight the chandelier was pathetic, really. Oh well. The rest of it was cool. The stage was beautiful, the music is enchanting as ever, and this time I didn't even have Patrick sobbing in the seat next to me!

Merry Christmas!

We hope everyone is having a lovely Christmas! Among many wonderful gifts, we got one that really sucks. I mean really. It even sucks up dog hair, which is my favorite thing about it!

Merry Christmas!

Elder Anderson No More

We picked Patrick up at the airport around 4:45 PM today. He's certainly different, but in good ways. It sounds like he had a good mission, but I feel like we barely scratched the surface of the last two years. I wish Christmas vacation started tomorrow! Anyway, here is a picture from just before he left two years ago...

and a picture from today...

He seems happy, and it's fun to have him back. We are all looking forward to hearing more about the past two years... and about why his clothes are so big they are practically falling off him.

Thanksgiving Week

Matthew and Sarah, Isaac's brother and sister, came to visit us this week, arriving Tuesday night and heading back for BYU after Sacrament this morning. We thoroughly enjoyed having them, and hopefully Sophie was not too crazy for them. :)

Wednesday, Isaac worked a lunch shift, so I took Matthew and Sarah to eat at the Elephant Bar. I got a Greek salad I had never had before, and it was pretty good. We went to Mom & Dad's house for dinner; Mom's meal consisted of Mahi Mahi, shrimp and fresh pineapple among other things. Sarah, Isaac and I made chocolate chip cookies for Thanksgiving.

On Thanksgiving, we had Belgian waffles with syrup, whipped cream, strawberries or peanut butter, then we made deviled eggs and went to Grandma Anderson's house for dinner. We had all the traditional turkey, corn, potatoes, yams, stuffing, jello, rolls, a variety of desserts... I forgot to take pictures ON Thanksgiving: lame. I took a few the rest of the week though.

Friday, Isaac, Sarah and Matthew started the day early by going to Kohl's and Half Price Books for a little Black Friday fun, and I decorated for Christmas. I've been waiting so long! we went to Half Moon Bay and explored a couple of beaches around there. We ate at In'N'Out and watched Twilight in Union City. Thankfully, it was even better than some people expected it to be.

Saturday, we went to San Francisco. We went to Golden Gate park and saw the bisons, the windmill, the Cliff House, the Bath House ruins, and the beach. Isaac, Mandy, Sarah, and Matthew explored the old ruins, where Isaac and Sarah were drenched by a surprise wave. We ate incredible ice cream sundaes at the Ghirardelli Factory. I ran into a former student when we were getting salt water taffy and sourdough bread at Fisherman's Wharf. That night we played Cranium, watched football, and ate a fabulous dinner prepared by Isaac, the grill master/wave magnet.

My Birthday

I woke up to these flowers from Isaac and Sophie--so pretty!

I have always loved that my birthday is on a holiday that is small enough that most people aren't busy with family activities but big enough that there is no school. This year was no exception. Isaac and Dad took the afternoon off from work, and we picked up Grandma and went to a delicious lunch at the Cheesecake Factory at Stoneridge. Mom & Mandy picked all of us up, and Uncle Sean met us there.

We all had yummy lunches and got a chocolate mousse cheesecake (my very favorite) to go. We were there for a long time, but it was worth the wait.

We Voted!

I made Isaac take this cheesy picture with me... and I guess Sophie felt left out. Can you tell she jumped in the air just as the timer went off? She was trying to see what I was pointing at, so now my sticker isn't even visible, lol. Oh well. We did our civic duty.

Happy Halloween!

We moved Grandma Chase into an assisted living home Thursday. She is having a hard time adjusting. Mom, Dad, Uncle Sean and Mom's cousin Chuck moved stuff all day, and Isaac helped once he got off work. We all had dinner together, then Mom, Mandy and I took Grandma back and talked to her for a while. She was fine giving us a tour, and then suddenly lost it. She looked around, and said, "Wow. You moved my bed here... and my table and chairs..." like she hadn't noticed before. Her short term memory is totally shot. I stopped by to see her after school on Friday to show her my Halloween costume and see how she was doing, and she seemed to reset every seven minutes or so. We had the same conversation over and over...

Grandma: "You look so nice! I like your costume. Did you make it or buy it?"
Me: "Mom made it with the materials I picked out."
"It's so good to see you! It feels like ages... I don't even remember the last time I saw you. You were probably in high school. It's been so long, right?"
"No, I saw you yesterday."
"Really? What did we do?"
"We ate pizza for dinner."
"Oh." and then she proceeded to tell me about how she is forgetting stuff now, like that hasn't been happening for several years now.

It must be so hard for her to have everyhing constantly be new; she wakes up in the morning feeling like she is in a hotel but sees her own furniture and freaks out. It has been a rough few days. We hope she adjusts and gets friends soon to help her out.



For Halloween, we decided to be Dorothy, the Scarecrow and the Cowardly Lion for Halloween. We thought that the Cowardly Lion was a good fit for Sophie's personality, lol. She's the one who knocked over a little cookie tin the other day and was terrified of it until we put it away... Isaac ended up getting the chance to work, and we couldn't pass up an extra shift, so I went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat with just Sophie, but she was pretty cute once we got her calmed down so she didn't shake off her costume anymore. She certainly fit the part. She was afraid of the little running, screaming kids at first, but she is content to have them pet her, and to sniff them when they aren't looking, and lots of them liked to see the doggie dressed up as a lion, lol.


Isaac ended up getting off work a little early, and he came by for the last ten minutes or so. He wasn't in costume, but at least he got to say hello, and we took a family picture anyway.

Same old, same old

I almost can't believe it's been a month since we blogged... Then again, it's not like our every day is a bundle of wonder, lol. In the last month, we've done a few things mixed in with the working, looking for work, and other normal stuff.

We went to an A's game and sat with the BYU Alumni. The A's won.


We went to a birthday party for Danielle. Her kids are still as adorable as she is.


Last weekend, we went to a scavenger hunt hosted by anonymous members of the ward. I didn't figure out one until we got there that night, and I didn't figure out the other one until someone basically told me at the end, lol. They were very sneaky, and incredibly creative. It was so fun.


I still love my classes for the most part. Mom says this time last year, she was worried that I wouldn't last the year because it was such a hard year already, but I am enjoying this group of kids. They are FUNNY, and they understand sarcasm, and when I ask them to discuss, they actually do it. It's cool. :) Plus, I actually really like the sixth class I picked up. It's nice to have a period to really be able to test the newcomers and get them to talk, even if it's just simple things like "Today is Wednesday. Nhi is wearing a purple shirt." At least they're speaking English, which is what I'm supposed to get them to do, lol.

Isaac has another test with OPD this Saturday... we'll see how it goes. Keep your fingers crossed for the best because he would really like to leave Elephant Bar and start Academy someday. :)

Also, we are getting ready to move Grandma into a retirement place in Fremont at the end of the month. I'm so happy. It will be a relief to know that she is not on her own doing who knows what. Her memory has gotten horrible. Plus, it will be nice to have her so close that I can stop by to see her on the way home from work if I want to.

Okay, and I just took a break to clean up my dog's puke. Could you also keep your fingers crossed for my carpet? :( She developed (yesterday) a taste for the tomatoes growing in my parents backyard... BAD for doggies. Yesterday she was okay, but today she ate more tomato, and this apparently didn't set well. I hope that cleaned her out and she isn't sick so I have to take her to the vet. Poor dumb dog. :(

What a Start for September!

Isaac and I have had an interesting month already. We spent Labor Day morning at my classroom, and Isaac put up posters and lowered heavy boxes for me that he had put up to store over the summer. I frantically wrote lesson plans and put everything in its place. I feel behind because I didn't do much planning for the regular school year during break with summer school to plan for, but I am keeping my head above water so far.

The next night was a Teacher Work Day, so I made copies, cleaned and got ready for students to come on Wednesday morning. Isaac got a phone call from Cattlemen's that night to tell him that the Newark location had been closed. We were more than a little bummed about that. He liked it there, made good money, got better hours, it was only a 7 minute walk from home, and they were considering him for a new position over banquets. (sigh) He is still looking for a second job.

School has been different this year. My seventh grade honors classes are new for me, and I am thoroughly enjoying them so far. They understand sarcasm and puns, volunteer good responses in class, and have clear, organized writing for the most part. Also, seventh graders seem to come with a little fear built in, which has been funny to watch. My ELD classes, on the other hand, are INSANE. It's like the flood gates opened with the Olympics. For two periods every day, I have 31 students who speak little to no English. They are so relieved to be in a place where everyone has the same issue that they talk all the time (not in English, lol), and they need more help than I am capable of giving. There are always many hands waving in the air. It's completely exhausting. The only other ELD class is a levels 3 and 1 combo, which is a very challenging class with that vast difference in ability (3s being nearly ready for mainstream English and 1s being non-producing non-speakers), and she has 40 students! As EL Liaison for our school, I brought it to the attention of our administrators that our numbers are simply to high for those students to receive the help they need. They appealed to the District Office, and we were today granted another section for ELD. Guess who gets to teach it. I'm excited to be making more money, but terrified of planning four different classes every day without a prep period.

What a boat we find ourselves in. Isaac is looking for another job, and I have more work loaded on me for the year. I guess that's a blessing.

Can you tell school has begun? My poor desk at home can...

Our trip

To make a long story short, our trip was great! Oregon and Washington are certainly beautiful, and we had a blast seeing the sights. I enjoyed the unusual weather more than Isaac did, with it being warm and sunny and rain-free for so many days in a row. What can I say? I brought the CA sun with me! We drove up to Medford the first day, to the coast and stayed in Ilwaco, WA the second day, spent the third day in Seattle, explored the Olympic Peninsula (& sights mentioned in the Twilight saga) on the fourth day, and went to church and saw historic Port Townsend on Sunday. We saw four temples, a rainforest, many lakes & mountains, crossed a number of bridges, visited a training facility for dogs for the deaf, ate in the rotating restaurant in Seattle's Space Needle, found a plaque dedicated to the fictional Dr. Cullen on the Forks Community Hospital, and found out that you cna't pump your own gas in Oregon, among other things. :) It was a blast. Some pictures for your viewing pleasure; I had a very hard time cutting down to my favorites because we saw SO MANY gorgeous sites, but here are the ones that made the cut...

One More Funny Picture

I was playing with our camera today, trying to figure some things out before we go on our trip, and Sophie was my mostly very patient model. This picture was after I pointed a camera at her for nearly half an hour. I love her face... "Can we stop this now, please?"

In between activities

I wish I could say that I had something very interesting to post, but I don't. I was excited to finish up summer school Thursday; the kids were totally checked out the last two weeks, so it was rough getting them to do anything. Basically I would say the word "write" and the moaning would commence for the remainder of the classtime. It was terribly fun. I especially liked when they tagged a bookcase in Sharpie. Luckily, my Mr. Clean Magic Eraser came to the rescue. In any case, my summer job earned us enough money to take a little trip this month, so in a few days, we are off for Oregon and Washington, two states neither Isaac nor I have ever been to. The stake just got home from YW Camp yesterday, and so the last week, Isaac and I dog-sat Haylie. Sophie was ELATED to have a friend around 24-7. This is a picture of them hugging in between play fights, lol.



Anyway, hopefully we'll have some more exciting stuff to post after our trip. For now, we're just enjoying the two and a half weeks before I go back to work.

My "little" brother

We got word yesterday that Patrick will fly home on December 15, exactly 150 days from yesterday, lol. He sent us a picture (one of very few we have seen of him since he left) on Monday. It's not a great picture, but he looks older, at least to me.

A picture I took of him a few days before he left for the MTC...


The picture we got Monday of Patrick with his companion:

Touring CA points of interest

Tuesday, the Snows came into town. We picked up Bruce, Cathy and Teresa from the SFO airport, and ran into little traffic on the way. We went for a walk through the neighborhood and around part of Newark's lake, as time allowed. It was a really nice day, but I perhaps planned an excessively lengthy walk.

Wednesday Isaac had a work training in Dixon, so we went to the Jelly Bean Factory in Fairfield and took a tour, and we visited the Vacaville Factory Outlets before picking him up.


Thursday we went to the dog park and watched Haylie and Sophie unimpressively try to work their magic on the agility course.


We also went to the Santa Cruz beach boardwalk. We had In'N'Out, which made Teresa very happy.


Friday we went to the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, and then to Flames for lunch, which was practically next-door. The Mansion was beautiful yet bizarre... ;)


All in all, it was a great week, and I hope everyone had as much fun as we did!

Another duct tape booty

When I got home from Girls' Camp 3 years ago to find that Isaac had wrapped a heel injury in paper towel and duct tape, I couldn't believe how bizarre that was.

When I got home from work a few weeks ago to find that my mom had wrapped Sophie's skinned foot injury in paper towel and duct tape, the shock had worn off. I'm just glad she got back to running around after about a week.



We got a car to replace our poor Accord. The interior is pretty rough, but in general, the car is in good shape. The dealership we got it from took a picture of Isaac and sent it to us.



Beyond that, we're just working a lot. I am freaking out over finishing BTSA. My hour long interview is in a week and a half. I'm excited that Breaking Dawn comes out right toward the end of summer school. Interesting cover, released today.

Family Reunion

We had an Anderson family reunion/ Grandma Anderson birthday celebration At Uncle Ryan & Aunt Jan's beautiful newly remodeled home in Madera this weekend. It's hard having a husband paid hourly because we had to squeeze our time at the reunion in between his work shifts. He was able to get a few shifts moved around, but with it being Mother's Day weekend, he couldn't get out of working Friday lunch and Sunday lunch (his one Sunday a year... sigh...). We were going to drive separately Friday evening and Sunday morning, but Mom didn't want Mandy to miss school and wanted to be back in time for Patrick's Sunday phone call at 2 on Sunday, and they wouldn't have been able to attend church if they had left Sunday morning with Ryan's church being so late, so long story short... We all made the quick trip together. We were sad it was so quick, but since Mom & Isaac had serious allegies out there, and I ended up feeling sick for the last week, we were probably not very much fun, so maybe it was better we weren't there for a long time.


It was fun to see everyone. I hadn't seen several of them in years. Pyper was an adorable talking little girl who liked playing with (and complaining about :)) our dog, and I don't think we'd seen her since her baby blessing, or maybe Grandpa's funeral. All in all, we had Grandma, her five kids & four of their spouses, sixteen grandkids & 3 signifcant others, 2 great-grandkids, and four dogs. It was quite a full house! We were only missing Bryce & Dena, Patrick on the mission in CO, Brittany & Michael, and Uncle Bob.


We gave Grandma a memory book that Jan put a million hours into with contributions from most family members aforementioned, siblings and friends. Jan did a beautiful job. Sarah brought her magazines from the year she was born (1928), and Kimberly brought her a small pot to float flowers in. My cousins are so creative. The presents we gave her back on her real birthday in April were not nearly so clever. Anyway, it was cute to see Grandma lookng through it with the little kids huddled around her looking for their pictures. Mom said if I ever put her on he spot like that (Grandma had to sit in the middle of the circle while we all stared at her), she would kill me. Note to self: Do not do something like this for Mom. At least not in public.


Everyone talked and played games (volleyball, ultimate frisbee, cards, etc.), and I mostly watched the dog, my little cousin Sarah, talked, and tried to avoid getting anyone else sick. I hope I succeeded. No one around here seems to be sick, not even Isaac.


All in all, it was a lovely trip, and I'm glad we made it, even if not for very long. Hugs to Ryan and Jan for taking such good care of all of us!

This makes me wish I had an SLR

Can you imagine taking 3 pictures a second? That would make me so happy. (sigh)

Happy Easter!

Juggling

If you turn off the volume and don't listen to my lame introduction, I love this video. :)

Happy Valentine's Day

Sophie at 9 months old

I keep pretty busy with work, and Isaac keeps pretty busy reading... but Sophie makes the time we are all home together a lot more fun. First is a video f how happy she is to play. She jumps on command, then plays with a barking toy she got for Christmas from my uncle.



This is a picture of her with her favorite toy. She demolishes with incredible speed most of her toys, not only chewing them open and unstuffing them, but eating them as well. It is a little weird to watch how it makes her so happy to eat her toys, but I can deal with that since she seems to understand that she can chew on her own toys and stays away from furniture and that which is not hers. This dog, however, she plucked the eyes off, and chewed off mot of one ear and the tail, but she hasn't torn it up yet. Instead, she carries it around like a little kid carries a teddy bear or something. On this particular occasion, she picked it up off the floor, jumped on our bed with it, and fell asleep right next to it. It was pretty cute.

Sophie's Tricks

So, going through this year's visual archive, I came across some cute pictures from September that I thought I would share, if it's okay for Sophie to show off a little bit. These are a few of her tricks...

Shake & Sit Up


Stay... this one is a little boring, but impressive for such a food hound


Walk... we still have a lot of work to do on this one