Welcome...

More Christmas Traditions

Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:21:34 -1000

One of the things I wanted to do when Cris and I got married in 1995 was to begin family traditions that we would eventually enjoy doing with our children. It’s funny to remember because one of those ideas was to go and see the Nutcracker Ballet during the Christmas season.

That first year we were married, Cris was quite amicable and he willingly went with me to the Blaisdell Concert Hall for a production of the much loved story. Five minutes into the ballet, Cris turned to me and said, “They don’t talk in this?” That was proof of not only Cris’ love for me, but his desire to go along with my ideas of “building family memories.” Needless to say, I had learned that marriage was about giving more than getting and we left after the scene ended.

With that idea scraped, I settled on one that has lasted these 15 Christmases. Each year, we find something that was memorable during the year and use it as an ornament. It doesn’t hang on our tree. Instead we have a garland and the ornaments serve to tell the “Bartolome Family Story” each year. If you visit us during the holidays, the children love retelling our history. I thought I share it here too.

1995: Cris and Christina got married in Makawao Union Church on Maui. The location was selected because both of our parents also got married at this historic church on Maui.

1996: Cris and Christina traveled to Huatulco, Mexico. The Club Med vacation included canoe surfing, wind surfing, volleyball, golf, and a whole lot of lounging on the beach .

1997: This year, Cris and Christina traveled to Bali. We saw the terraced rice fields, monkey occupied temples, famed surf spots, and villages where hand crafted wood pieces and silver jewelry have been created for generations.

1998: Cris got “the call” and started training as a Fire Fighter Recruit with the City and County of Honolulu. Yes, this was the year that Cris shaved his head!

1999: Our family grew by one with the premature birth of Cortez McKenna, 11 weeks early. He spent almost eight weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. When we brought him home he was only four pounds.

2000: Our family traveled to Colorado to celebrate Grampa & Grams Smith 50th Anniversary. We stopped in California on the way home and it was Cortez’s first time to Disneyland.

2001: We welcomed Aiyana Camille to our family. Cortez would wake her up in the morning by crawling into her crib to read her a book saying “Good morning Princess!”

2002: A 30-year commitment was made and we moved from our townhouse in Ewa Beach to our present home in Aiea. Finally, our own mailbox!

2003: Due to his premature birth, Cortez doesn’t produce any growth hormone on his own. After a lot of testing, Cortez was approved for Growth Hormone Therapy. He started receiving nightly injections and will continue to until he reaches puberty.

2004: We were happy with two, yet our lives wouldn’t have been complete without one more. Cortez & Aiyana were overjoyed to welcome Isabel Callie to our family.

2005: Grandpa & Grandma Bartolome treated us to a trip to Kauai because Grandpa promised the kids a cruise. Hey, they are kids, the Fern Grotto boat was like a cruise to them!

2006: We traveled to Las Vegas to visit Uncle Alan & Auntie Donna who were living there. A spin through the San Diego Zoo, Legoland, and Disneyland also kept us busy.

2007: We gave organized sports a try by signing Cortez & Aiyana up for soccer. We since tried tennis, flag football, basketball, and cheerleading for the girls.

2008: Cris had a work conference in Sacramento and was able to stay longer so we all met up with him in San Francisco. The kids loved the city. Everything from the food, the weather, catching cabs and trolleys, to staying the The Palace Hotel.

2009: This year, most of our time revolved around the building of a new, larger, and covered deck patio. Uh, yes, it’s still not finished, but the kids totally are enjoying playing on the scaffolding and beams so I’m not sure they are looking forward to its completion as much as I am!

Christmas Tradition

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:38:41 -1000

So much to do, so little time! It’s as if I didn’t realize they changed the date of Christmas and moved it up earlier in the year. Wait! We’re at the end of the year already!!!!

Realizing that time was running out, we made the kids get dressed up and proceeded to torture them until they smiled and looked extremely cute. This was the result.

You should be receiving your own copy in the mail soon and if you don’t, it’s probably because I don’t have your mailing address. You can email it to me and I will add you to our list or you can opt out of the hard copy by emailing me too. (Yes, I know, I know... save a tree or two!)

Click the link below to see where I posted our annual Bartolome Banner 2009. It’s our tenth consecutive year which meant I did a little reminiscing before getting started. Talk about changes!

Bartolome Banner 2009

Off To Camp

Mon, 9 Nov 2009 15:41:44 -1000

This morning Cortez walked away from the car carrying an overnight bag, home lunch, a sleeping bag, and his pillow. He is off to 5th grade camp in Makakilo. Such a big boy. It made me think of how it will be when I send him off to college. No, I’m not trying to get rid of him just yet. I just think although it’s be a bittersweet send off, I’ll be more proud and excited then sad. I also am SO paying for him to have a cell phone!

We started packing for this activity last week. Shorts, shirt, rain gear, sleep clothes, underwear, towel, toiletries. Thank goodness for lists because he acted as if I have no clue what he should put into that overnight bag. All he wanted to pack were two books, a visor, and my lifting gloves that he’s taken to wearing lately. That’s it. Really. Socks? Nope. Toothbrush? Nope. Clean underwear? Not at all.

After convincing him that what I wanted him to pack actually matched the list his teacher provided (yes, we went through it line by line), all weekend Cortez would share little tidbits of information that, if shared earlier, would have been extremely helpful.

“Ah, mom, we need to get to school at 7:15 in the morning on Monday.” Then later that day.... “Mom, you know, if you want to help us get organized, Ms. Shirai is looking for parent volunteers to come at 7:15... you know, IF you want to help.”

“We can still bring donated items for camp. Because we need candy for the s’mores and I signed us up to bring that.”

“I really want Spam musubi for my home lunch and two cans of juice. Oh, and I have to have some vegetable or fruit if I’m going to pack a home lunch.”

I so know one of my New Year’s resolutions will be control my frustration level when reacting to comments from children. (Code for: I will count to ten and not raise my voice when responding.)

Despite my annoyance, this morning Cortez woke up and the first thing he did was lumber over to me, half awake, and give me a giant hug and said, “I’m going to miss you.”

I held the hug and told him how much I would miss him and how he’ll have so much fun, and how I got up early to make him two Spam musubi and that I loved him. He held me the entire time. He’s so going to love college AND I know he’ll call me most everyday and tell me all about it!

Update... Seriously? What Have I Been Up To?

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 09:23:23 -1000

Crazy! It’s been just about a month since I posted a blog entry. What have I been doing? Busy working in our home lab of course!!

The kids helped choose the characters for this one and then Isabel watched it over 50 times and can now do all the dance move! How’s that for a super productive day?!?!

Change of Plans

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 22:40:34 -1000

Seriously, did we just negotiate for LESS pay? I guess that it’s more of a tactic than anything. Teachers were faced with taking the equivalent of three days a month of less pay. So to answer that, our union determined that we would willingly work two days less a month and accept the reduction in pay that came with those days “off.”

Everyone has an opinion about this decision. Of course. Who wouldn’t have an opinion about school-aged children missing seventeen days of school? At the forefront are the parents who are now faced with finding childcare on these “Furlough Fridays.” Many others claim outrage at the obvious priority (and I mean lack of priority) that public education has to our politicians.

I think it is the most logical response from an overburdened, single-system, bureaucratic, and struggling educational institution. Instead of really looking at existing programs and making hard decisions to eliminate, stream-line, or combine services and activities, the solution is a broad stroke to hurt everyone.

The pay cut will be about 8-9%, another 2-3% with the increase in medical insurance. Of course our union dues won’ t feel the cut since, according to our website FAQS:

“Currently there are no plans to reduce dues. Unfortunately in times like this, it actually costs the Association much more money to operate, especially since the Governor's actions have forced us to resort to extraordinary measures, including several legal actions, which leads to costly legal fees. We also anticipate an increase in HSTA's representational efforts (primarily staff time), resulting from the newly negotiated agreement.”

For our family the reduction in income is a blow. It’s a significant amount of money each month. Enough that we need to be concerned about how much is going into savings, how much is being spent on necessities and exactly what we consider necessities!

Painting done... now to finish the deck!

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 09:53:40 -1000

Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU to Darren Takemoto and his crew! Our house being cleaned and then painted went, well, relatively painless and the results are great. This morning when it rained I was a little upset because I worried about the house getting dirty!

Darren came by about three years ago. (Yes, you read that right – three years ago.) Our neighbors had just painted their house and we were thinking about painting ours so Darren gave us a quote. Things happen, life goes on, and we instead, started our outdoor patio/deck project.

Last month, when Cris was painting the ceiling of the new deck, Darren happened to be at our neighbor’s house and he offered his services again. He needed the work, we needed our house painted, and the rest just fell into place.

Okay, okay, there was that one night when Cris and I argued furiously over the wall, trim, and accent colors. Thank goodness Darren had a plan! Not only a plan, he also completed all the paperwork for our association, got the approval, and had his crew repaint the gutter downspouts because I didn’t like the first color they painted them.

We had to do a couple days of prep work and repairs. I do me we. Cris took off one day of work to replace sections of the belly band. (Thank goodness Larry has left his table saw in our garage during the deck project.) Then we all (kids included) worked to take down the pickets on the railings, cut the tops and bottoms at an angle (so the rain water doesn’t sit on the tops and cause rotting), sand them, pre-drill with countersink the holes, and then screw them back up.

Cris removed the band across the window and replaced the bottom. He also replaced the corner of the belly band above the electrical box.

Seriously, there were over 170 pickets to remove, cut, sand, pre-drill, and then put back up.

So the deck status? We are getting quotes for the cement work and continuing to do the electrical work. Once those two things are done it should be smooth sailing to put in the railings (since we can do the pickets ourselves!) and then the flooring. Yeah, pretty much I’m hoping the more I say it, the more it will be true.

Before

After

Another First for Isabel

Fri, 7 Aug 2009 19:03:34 -1000

Well, today was THE day for my youngest child. After an agonizing l-o-o-o-n-g Orientation Week for Kindergarten, which included an assessment, a free day, a classroom visit, and a half-day, Friday finally arrived. She. Was. Ready!

Up almost a half an hour earlier than usual, Isabel KNEW not only was this the day she would spend a full day in school. This was also the day she would ride the school bus to school!

What a difference this is than when her older brother started school. Cris or I drove him and picked him up every single day. We couldn’t conceive of him being “old enough or “big enough” to ride the school bus by himself. Ha! Here is little Izzy all of 4 going on 5 years old, getting on the bus and heading off to school.

Just wait until she realizes that all she needs is a couple of dollars and the City Bus stop is also right at our corner!

When she got home and stepped off those gianormous bus steps she had the biggest grin on her face. She was so proud.

Her smile soon disappeared when I had to explain she wouldn’t be riding the bus tomorrow since it would be Saturday!

Don’t worry, I assured her she would be riding again next week Monday-Friday!)

After School Snack

Thu, 6 Aug 2009 18:59:59 -1000

Last week in an attempt to clean house, I started to go through part of our pantry. I came across some Instant Jello boxes and figured why not have the kids help make an easy snack. Little did I realize that gelatin must have an expiration date because even after 24-hours, the Jello did not get any firmer than when we first mixed it.

Of course, my children did not miss a beat. They attempted to freeze the mixture which seemed like it should work, but really created something they were more excited to play around with eating than actually eating. (Jello also stains things easily... just so you know.)

This week, in an attempt for redemption, I purchased some fresh Instant Jello mixes and put Cortez and Isabel to work reading the directions and then mixing until “completely dissolved.”

Much better results and very happy children!

*The chocolate chips were all Cortez’s idea!