Sacramento Training...

Hey all! Well most of you know I am in Sacramento this week doing training for work that is going great! I am super passionate about this new program and bringing it to the staff of the VA. It is called Mental Health First Aid and I have proposed to my superiors to bring it to the VA and teach it. They have given me the funding and support to initiate this program, and so I am STOKED!

On a separate and more extraterrestrial note ;) I got out of class today early to practice for my presentation on Friday and I chose to utilize my time wisely... by going to the California Aerospace Museum - obviously a mental health worthy use of my time.
Starship hallway to connect exhibits and bridge and telepad...

They currently are hosting a Star Trek Exhibition and to Hank's dismay I spent the afternoon on the Enterprise Bridge and transporter pad! It was AWESOME!!! A couple of pics for you guys to enjoy ( even though I'm sure none of you are nearly as impressed as I was -- well maybe Hank ).

The Bridge

Space the Final Frontier... These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. Its five year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before... Live Long and Prosper! First Officer Spock's station

I even got to sit in Captain Kirk's chair (like the best thing EVER! Anyway, it was a neat and exciting experience and I loved it. Captain Kayla!!!

It is amazing how much of today's technology came from the ingenuity and random ideas of this small little show from the 60's. Some day we will explore 'outer-space' and "Go where no man has gone before". AWESOME!!!The Telepad -- Beam me up Scotty!

San Juans Labor Day 2010

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Tara's Summer Wedding

The other exciting thing that Jacqui and I were involved in during August was our good friend Tara's wedding. She had it planned and personalized down to the flip flops for the reception! She hand made nearly everything, including toothpicks with flowers on top for the dessert table. In her fashion, and with her vision, Tara created an amazing and beautiful wedding. She was married in her parent's back yard, and they really presented their house and yard in an amazing fashion. The yard was perfectly manicured. Once we (I) got all the chairs (165) set up and all the 100 something yards of fabric draped around... it was time for the ceremony. It was lovely and went off without a hitch. I don't have all the pics from the wedding, just a few that I took with my own camera and they happen to be all of the girls... Jacqui was the flower girl and Alex's (the groom) step-brother was the ring bearer. I was one of the 4 bridesmaids. Tara had a gorgeous gown with a removable insert to enhance the bling! The colors were black, white, and fuchsia. It was beautiful and turned out to be a perfect day, even though we were pretty worried that morning because of the 30% chance of rain. What an event and what a gorgeous setting!

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First Day of School...

Well, since we are a family of teachers... I know this is super busy time of the year for everyone, getting the classrooms ready, meeting the kids, and assembling some kind of order in a chaotic classroom :) I am not a teacher (thank goodness!) but now have my baby in 1st grade! I can't believe she is already in 1st grade and all day school... She is SO excited to start; and this year will hold many firsts for both of us... She is going to a new school from last year, has a new teacher (of course) and will have all new kids in her class since she changed schools. She is also changing programs, which I am super excited about and will be in the Spokane Montessori program. We were able to meet her teacher early this week and check out the classroom. They have a turtle and some other little creatures that the kids take care of. Jacqui is stoked to be in all day school and is so far LOVING it! She did mention on Friday that the 2nd day of school was "way more complicated that the first day, I actually had to work on stuff today mom!" It was great!
Since I'm working day shift now, Hank and I are juggling schedules to try to get her to and from school... Jacqui opted to be in the before school program at the school. It is a great program, and I can drop her off before I go to work, since we don't start school here until 9am. They will feed her, help her with her homework if needed, and generally just hang out with other kids in the mornings before school for working parents. It is a neat program that Spokane offers, and Jacqui wanted to be AT school, not at day care, so it worked out well :)
These are her pics of her posing for her first day of school:) She is excited as you can see... Love the colors this year, the 80's are coming back! She has her 'Twinkle Toe' shoes on, apparently a hot commodity for her age group (gotta love TV marketing!). She loves her teacher, loves her class and is already making friends. She said she is the tallest person in her class. I'm not sure if this is accurate as she is in a 1-3 grade classroom, but I do know she had a few inches on many of the kids we saw at orientation... she's growing and will pass me up quite soon I'm sure!
Miss you all and hope the beginning of your school year is going well and settling down!

Grandkids Weekend 2010

Well August has flown by and I haven't had the chance to catch up the blog with pics... So I'm going to try to get some posts in, in the next few weeks of what has been happening!
Earlier in August was our annual 'Cousins Only' weekend with Grandad and Grandma and it was a perfect weekend in Walla Walla for us to all spend time together. The weather was beautiful, and we made the decision to take our pics earlier in the day, instead of in the scorching sun and dusk of the evening -- which has been a challenge in past years :) We all shared stories, laughed, and cried, and generally just had a good time being TOGETHER. We also had a great surprise with Levi showing up from Arizona... Grandma cried :) It was a great weekend! A small slide show of some of our great pics... We are an entertaining, performing family!

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