Not only has practice made life busy but we just finished our Missions Conference week.  It was a great week but we were at church every night from Wednesday to Sunday.  James and I also had the privilege to help paint some of the set for the play.  It looks wonderful but has kept us busy.

After the Play performance on Sunday morning James and I will be heading to San Francisco for Spring break.  We will get to spend time with his family and also John, Mary, and Melissa.

I took yesterday off work to go see my allergist since I had been having problems with really watery eyes. ¬†I am now on Zithromax and Prednisone, along with allergy eye drops and antibiotic eye drops. ¬†Hopefully I will be feeling better in the next few days. ¬†The Prednisone is a steroid and for those of you who don’t know these make me really hungry and I eat all day long. ¬†I have been on them once before and ate more than James, so the next week should be fun! ¬†Along with going to see the dr I also did 6 loads of laundry.

My sister in law, Ruth, sent me this today and I found it quite entertaining: “Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not, whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot, we’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.” From a 3rd grade science book!

So along with Spring today is the day that we all wear green to keep our friends from pinching us. ¬†March 17th is becoming more and more of a popular thing… I mean we saw a huge bottle of green food coloring, it was at least 16 oz if not more. ¬†Who wants a HUGE bottle of green food coloring? ¬†At school today we encouraged the kids to wear green to remind us of the beautiful earth the Lord has given us. ¬†It was fun to see all the different greens together and some of the crazy outfits people wear, like me for instance. ¬†Yes, I went a little crazy. ¬†I wore a bright green wig and I have neon green fingernails. ¬†All the little kids kept asking me if it was my real hair and where is your real hair if you are wearing that. ¬†I told the 6th graders I had shaved my head to wear a wig! ¬†It was great to see the reactions of the high schoolers and those who were trying to figure out who dyed their hair bright green. ¬†I had fun and James gave me a wonderful compliment. He said, “I mean this in the most endearing way, you look absurd.” lol James and I are wearing matching shirts that say “Lucky Shirt” on them. ¬†I hope you all had a wonderful day and that the pic below doesn’t scare you too much!

I was hanging out with Lori and we drove to Mission Viejo to pick up a package that UPS had attempted to deliver, but hadn’t left since no one was home. ¬†After we did that we went back to her house and watched a movie. ¬†I walked home around 10 and headed to bed.

Friday dawned beautiful and I had to work… I did my normal morning work and then headed upstairs to sub in Spanish… I know, what is Renae doing subbing in Spanish since she doesn’t even speak it? ¬†Well the teacher left very good detailed instructions of what her students were supposed to be working on and how they were to act. ¬†I managed just fine. ¬†That night, James had a softball game and I went to freeze, ummm… I mean cheer, for him. ¬†:) His team, The Goats, won, he ended up sliding at some point in the game and tearing the scab off his leg… It was a big scab on a sore he had gotten sliding the week before. ¬†When we got home he cleaned it and we headed to bed.

Saturday dawned cloudy and rainy. ¬†We headed to the church around 9 am for Cantata practice. ¬†I didn’t get to sleep in like I normally do, but that is okay… We were at the church until 12:30 and then we headed to Chino so I could get my allergy shots. ¬†Then James took me home and I took a 2 hour nap. He headed back to Bethel to work on some design stuff that had to be done by Sunday. ¬†He arrived back home around 5 and we went to South Coast Plaza, which is a ritzy mall close to our house. ¬†We walked around the mall for about 2 hours and then headed to Souplantation for dinner. ¬†It was a great end to a busy day.

Sunday was a typically “normal” day… arriving at the church at 8 am, heading home after service for lunch and a nap, back at the church at 4 pm for choir practice, and back home to relax before work on Monday.

Monday turned out to be pretty laid back… I worked my normal hours and then headed home to do some laundry and then went back to pick James up from work and then back home for the rest of the night.

Tuesday, I worked all day. ¬†I did my normal morning work and then covered a k-4 class in the afternoon. ¬†After school I helped out by organizing some choir music and then went over to a friend’s house for dinner and a movie. ¬†I went straight to bed when I got home at 10 pm.

Wow, finally to today, Wednesday! ¬†Today I had a somewhat fun day. ¬†I was privileged to go on a field trip with James’ 5th grade class. ¬†We went to The Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana. ¬†Most of you would know it as the place with the big black cube off the 5 fwy. ¬†It was a lot of fun and gave me a break from the “normal” work week. ¬†I was able to take a 20 minute nap in the auditorium after we got back and so along with that and a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbuck’s I am ready for church.

I hope you have all had a great week so far!

Beside the exiting afternoon, this week has been fairly normal. ¬†On Saturday we went to a wonderful wedding for some close friends of ours. On Sunday morning I wasn’t feeling the greatest but made it through church, that afternoon and evening I stayed in bed. ¬†We had Monday off to celebrate Veteran’s Day, James and I slept in and had a relaxing day at home. ¬†Tim came and visited us that evening, which was nice since he hadn’t visited us in a while and we hadn’t seen him since Oct 1.

Tomorrow I am working all day, I am subbing in Spanish in the afternoon. The reason: our friends that got married on Saturday, well the bride is the Spanish Teacher at Bethel. So she is on her honeymoon. I didn’t take Spanish in high school but I am hoping that she has a ¬†very carefully laid out lesson plan. ¬†I am actually not really worried about it I enjoy subbing every now and then.

On Sunday we had a great day at church.  The evening service was a prayer and praise service.  It was so refreshing to have a time of prayer and encouragement.  I love singing and praising the Lord.

Chocolate Biscuits  

¬†For our main dish we made Stuffed Spinach Shells. ¬†We used ricotta cheese, cream cheese, spinach, and of course cocoa. ¬†:) ¬†You couldn’t really taste the cocoa. ¬†They turned out okay. ¬†I wouldn’t make them again, at least not with cocoa.

Stuffed shells

For dessert we made a chocolate pizza.  It had a sugar cookie crust, cream cheese & cocoa for the frosting, and peanut butter chips and chocolate chips on top.  We also drizzled chocolate sauce over the top.  It was the best hing we made.  

Chocolate Pizza

One of the other teams made things like: Chocolate croissants, chocolate breaded chicken, chocolate mousse crepes, rice with chicken boullian, cocoa, and cinnamon in it.

 The third team made: Chocolate covered strawberries, Chocolate tri-tip, Layered chocolate mousse.  

I was tired of chocolate at the end of the end of the night.  Sounds funny but it is true.  

Our team came in 2nd.  We were happy with that.  

For more pics you can go to the pictures page or click on this link Pictures

On Tuesday I subbed from 10:30-12:00 after that I did my normal k-5 nap room from 12:05-12:35 and then I headed into Chino Hills to get my allergy shots.  It was warm on Tuesday also, 85 degrees.  The heat had me feeling a little sick so I enjoyed the a/c all evening.  Tuesday night instead of cooking dinner we headed to the mall to eat at Baja Fresh.  I had gotten a gift card for my birthday.

 Today I woke up to an overcast sky.  I was heading into sub from 8:00-12:00 in k-4.  It has been a good day so far.  I just laid the kids down for nap time.  It is nice to have peace and quiet for a little bit.  At 12:05 I am going in to do my normal k-5 nap room and then I am done for the day.  We have church tonight so i will only have a few hours at home.

Tomorrow so far is a normal day with teacher breaks from 9:00-10:20 and playground duty from 11:00-12:05 and then the normal k-5 nap room from 12:05-12:35.  After that I am free for the rest of the day.  

Friday is a totally different story. ¬†I have my normal work hours (same as Thursday) then I am subbing in a k-4 class from 2:00-2:30 and then the school has Spring Festival starting at 3:00-8:00. ¬†On top of that, we have a ladies meeting at 7:00. ¬†I will be at the school all day and it will be a busy one. ¬†:) ¬†I don’t mind busy days or weeks, it is nice to be able to serve the Lord, impact the lives of children and add a little money to my paycheck. ¬†

On Monday, James and I had a blessing. ¬†James’ phone died, like not just messed up, but wouldn’t even turn on at times. ¬†So on Monday we went to purchase a new phone for him. ¬†I had been teasing him about getting the new one and he taking my old one. ¬†Well, we went to Ryan Thomas’ AT&T store and James picked out a Samsung Propel.

 

His Phone

 

Her Phone

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As Ryan is finalizing the transaction he looks at James and says, “these phones are buy one get one free right now.” ¬†So I got a new phone since we were already paying for James’ ¬†Isn’t the Lord good? ¬†I am really liking the new one. ¬†It has a full keyboard so I am having to get use to that, but I don’t mind. ¬†

On Saturday, we have to get my allergy shots in the morning, a youth activity (Iron Chef) in the afternoon, and a young marrieds activity in the evening.  So our day is full.  Maybe I will get to breathe on Sunday.

Hope you are all having a good week!

We were only at the beach for about an hour and right before we left Matt gave a 5 min devotion about¬†perseverance. ¬†He talked about how everyone found a way to keep warm and have a good time inspite of the wind, that no one just gave up and went to the vans. ¬†He talked about how sometimes we want to quit and we have people around us who encourage us on in our Christian walk. ¬†He also talked about how different people play different roles in your life. ¬†It was short but very encouraging. ¬† All in all it ended up being a great activity. ¬†everyone walked away with sand in their mouths, shoes, purses, phones, etc… but we also all walked away with a valuable lesson.

Tim Jumping over the girls

The palm trees blowing

The sunset

James and I staying warm

We did have an enjoyable time. I am just glad we didn’t try to eat there. ¬† My hotdog would have been full of sand. For more pics see the pictures page

We started the day off in the special exhibit that they had.  It was a CSI exhibit.  You wait in a  line and are given paper to record the facts from your crime scene.

Paper for the crime scene

¬†Then you are taken into a room and briefed on what to do, and then the real fun begins. ¬†You are taken to your crime scene and told to note the things you see, you have a place on your paper where you can draw in the things from your scene. ¬†Ours was a lady laying by a dumpster, her purse was on the ground and it’s contents spilled out, a little bag of some white substance was laying on the ground, and she had tire marks on her, there was no blood and there was a fly on her arm. ¬†After going over the crime scene you head back to the labs. ¬†This is where you start checking your evidence. ¬†They had cool computers that showed things like who the girl’s last text message was from,¬†

Seeing who the last message was on the cell phone

there was also a place to find out who’s prints were on the picture found at the scene

Drake looking for fingerprints

They had four different patterns of tire tread to match to the cast from the crime scene

Matching tire tread

Another thing that they could investigate was when “Penny” died. ¬†They had a microscope with a larve fond on Penny’s body. She had been killed 3 days before her body was found.¬†

Figuring out when she died

We then found out that Penny wasn’t her real name. So we got to try and match a DNA chart from Penny to Parents who had missing children. ¬†Penny’s real name ended up being Lucy Cannelli. ¬†Penny Golden was her stage name. She had run away from home at 14.

Everyone writing down the real name

ONe of the last things that you do is get a medical examiner report.  they did an awesome job at this part.  they had a table with a dummy lying on it and a projector over head made it look like you were right there for the whole thing!  A screen on the back wall had the dr talking to you and you could see everything he was talking about on the dummy.  

Medical Examiner Report

At the end you file your report.  So our case:  Penny Golden AKA Lucy Cannelli met up with a friend on the evening of May 4th and was given some drugs that she took.  If you remember me mentioning that there was no blood on the victim, yet she had been run over by a car.  This is because she was already dead when the car ran over her.  She had died from drug overdose, or the combination of drugs and alcohol.  Her friend, Diana was the last person to see her and had given her the drugs!  So Diana was arrested for selling illegal drugs.  

The whole thing was an awesome experience and look into the life of a forensic scientist.  I really enjoyed it.  

The California Science Center is free.  The CSI exhibit will be there until April 26, 2009.  If you are interested in this kind of stuff or just want to check it out.  The rest of the museum was great fun also.  there are a lot of interactive things for kids to do.  It is open from 10:00 am Р2:00 pm.  You can bring a picnic lunch and only spend money on gas and any souvenirs you might buy.  

The rest of the pics can be viewed in an album on the pictures page!  :)

The last 9 months have been wonderful!  I love James more today then I did yesterday and we are learning to handle things together.