So This Was Christmas...

Bothered

This is what it would look like if I, an Ewok or Chewbacca wore a strappy, high heeled boot.
I don't think that's the look most ladies are going for.
So why do I see the ad for these boots on every web site?
They are hideous.
I hate them and they are stalking me.

Season's End

Grump.

Today was the 2011 NorCal Level 4 State Championships.  As you can see from the photo, Lydia was not happy with her performance.

Happy Little Lumberjack

Luckily, her Lumberjack's Breakfast cheered her up pretty quickly!

 She really didn't do so badly, my Lydia is just hard on herself.  She got medals for every event.  You can see the scores in the chart I made up below. (I had to make my own.  I wasn't happy with the score tracker sites out there.)

Medal Wall!

I think Lydia had a great first season.  She placed in 35 out of 40 possible events.

Two of those medals were 1st place, one was 2nd and seven were 3rd place.

Lydia also holds the title of "Zone 4 Vault Champion".

We are super proud of her and can't wait for her Level 5 season!

Silly Kid

Goofball!

Date	Meet	Level	Vault	Bars	Beam	Floor	A.A.
08/13/11	Meet At Mavericks	4	8.525 (13)	8.325 (7)	8.875 (3)	8.425 (6T)	35.150 (7)
08/20/11	2011 NAWGJ Judges Cup	4	8.900 (3)	8.025 (7T)	8.225 (8)	8.550 (8)	33.700 (7)
09/10/11	2011 River City Classic	4	9.175 (9T)	8.675 (4)	8.600 (4)	8.275 (12)	34.725 (4T)
09/17/11	Candyland Classic	4	9.275 (2)	8.725 (3)	8.625 (3)	8.625 (6)	35.300 (3T)
10/08/11	Tumble in the Jungle	4	8.700 (11T)	8.675 (6)	9.150 (3)	8.750 (11)	35.275 (6)
10/15/11	2011 Circus Parade	4	9.500 (1)	8.975 (3)	8.875 (4)	8.825 (6T)	36.175 (4)
10/30/11	Zone 4 Championships	4	9.525 (1)	8.300 (12)	8.750 (8)	9.275 (4)	35.850 (7)
11/20/11	NorCal State Championships	4	9.000 (8T)	8.925 (7)	8.975 (8T)	8.900 (8T)	35.800 (9)
~*Personal Bests*~		4	9.525 (1)	8.975 (3)	9.150 (3)	9.275 (4)	36.175 (3T*)
							*Highest place does not coincide with highest score.

Rowan Lost A Tooth!

Rowan is very happy to have lost her first tooth today!  She's been dying to lose one for years.  

I remember her as a tiny, little 3 year old saying, "Look, Mom, my tooth is wiggly!"  as she shook her entire jaw at me.  

This tooth started wiggling for real on the morning of Halloween.  She played with it so much that day I was sure it would be out by nightfall.  It hung on for 10 more days despite the constant attention from it's owner.  This morning, Rowan decided she'd had enough and pulled it all on her own!

Although she tells me she doesn't believe in the tooth fairy, Rowan will still be putting her first tooth in the lovely box she got from her friends Eva and Irenie for her birthday.

Update!  Rowan's best friend, Ciara, pulled her loose tooth on the same morning as Rowan did.   They really do do everything together!

Rowan's Tutorial

Rowan teaches you how to make a toy. Daddy says she's our future Martha Stewart.

Tumble in the Jungle 2011

Lydia had her first late meet on Saturday.  It started at 5pm in Larkspur.

Until now, all her meets have started early in the morning.  It was quite a change for all of us!

Lydia was not happy with her performance.  She expects to earn medals for every event.  This time, she placed in 3 out of 5.

I think she did a fine job. Although she didn't place on floor, she did earn her highest score to date!  She also received her highest score on beam (9.15), which earned 3rd place.

In addition to 3rd on beam, she placed 6th on bars & 6th all-around.  That puts her up to 21 medals for 5 meets!

All the gymnasts received a cool leo as their gift.  Lydia is modeling it in the picture Daddy took with a Droid app.

As always, you can check out the full scores by following the link.  ---->

Updated Scores!

Lydia had her 4th meet today.  Check out her scores!                                                                      

Pre-meet photo by Rowan. :)

         














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Desmond's Bath

While the girls & I were cleaning, Desmond decided he wanted a bath.  Instead of asking for help, my self-sufficient little boy just helped himself!

Dinnertime

Judges Cup Meet Results

Lydia's 2nd meet was today.  This one was local, but it was still an early day.  Wave took this picture of  Des sleeping during awards.  It was really loud, so you know he was a tired boy!

Lydia had another successful meet!  This meet was much bigger than last weekend, so awards were given up to 8th place.

Lydia earned a trip to the podium for every event!


Here's the summary...

3rd place on VAULT (A great improvement from last week when she got last place.)
7th place on BARS
8th place on  BEAM & FLOOR
7th place ALL-AROUND

Once again, her team took first place!  Yay, Byers!

If you'd like to support Lydia at her next meet, it's September 10th at 8am at Byers Elk Grove.

Meet At Mavericks - August 14, 2011

As most of you have heard, Lydia's first gymnastics meet was this past weekend. It turned out to be a great first experience for her (and me!).  Use the link  to view the pictures and videos we all took throughout the trip.  2011 Meet at Mavericks

On Saturday, Grandma Susie came to Sacramento and we all piled into her car for the trip to our hotel in South San Francisco.  After a long trip due to the heavy traffic, the kids played in the pool & hot tub with their Daddy. We followed that up with snacks and drinks at the hotel happy hour.  Wave and I picked up some fast food for Grandma & the kids then went out for sushi by ourselves.

Sunday morning, we were up at 6am.  Lydia's hair still takes me a while to put up properly.  We were out of the hotel at 7am.  The trip to Moss Beach took about 1/2 an hour.  Breakfast muffins & orange juice were a pretty good on-the-go meal.

It was chilly in Moss Beach.  My favorite, foggy-type weather.

The meet started at 8am.  Byers competed on beam first.  Amazingly,  Byers girls earned the 1st, 2nd & 3rd best scores in Lydia's division and they held for the rest of the meet!

We are so proud of Lydia for her 3rd place score on beam!  Beam is the event that she has shed the most tears over in practice.  Parts of the routine were really hard for her to master and a fall caused her a lot of anxiety over the dismount.  3rd place at her first meet is a great accomplishment!

Along with 3rd place on beam, Lydia tied for 6th on floor.  She ended up with 7th place all around.  Her all around score qualifies her to compete in the Level 4 State Championship on November 19th or 20th!  Byers took home 1st place as a team. Here are  the  full results for her division.

Lydia Performs

Lydia performed at the Byers Olympics on July 17th.   Lydia is in the middle, her best friend, Zoe, is on the left and Sylvana is on the right.

Lydia will begin competing with the Level 4 team August 14th.  We are very proud and excited!

Here's a link to her competition schedule.  I'm sure she'd love to have some support at meets.

Check out my YouTube channel for videos of Rowan's performances at the Byers Olympics.

Right Now...

A compilation CD is playing on the stereo.  The girls are off chasing lizards.  Wave is on the couch.  Des & I are enjoying the deck. Aaaaah....

jen.
-- Sent from my Palm Pre

The Best Salad Ever

I ♥ you, arugula.

I had the best salad ever today.  I can't stop thinking about it.  It was so, so good.

Today we had brunch at a little place in Davis called Ciocolat.  Some other people ordered some other things, but I ordered a salad.  A spinach & arugula salad to be exact.

Spinach & arugula are two of my favorite things.  I eat spinach several times a week.  Arugula is more of a luxury.  It's not available all the time or in every grocery store.  I get it when I can.

But I digress...  Back to the salad.   Mmmm...

Picture a good sized plateful of the aforementioned leaves, cubed mozzarella, shaved parmesan, hearts of palm, a drizzle of olive oil, salt & pepper.  It was so good, I ate it without the dressing.  I also ate it without thinking to take a picture.  You'll have to enjoy the arugula field instead.

Thanks for lunch, Mom.  Good find!

7:54 am

So far this morning...

Bunnies escaped from their backyard cage.
Desmond pooped on the floor.
Captured rabbits. Got scratched.
Desmond pooped on the floor again.
Smoke detector went off.
I'm out of coffee.

It had better get better...

I ♥ Books

I love books.  I  L-O-V-E books.  I ♥♥♥♥ books.  I won't go so far as to say I luv books, though.  That's just wrong.

Lydia had an assignment recently to estimate the number of books in her house.  (Incidentally, completing that assignment  earned 5 free books!)  She did this by counting the number of books on a few shelves and getting an average number.  Since all our shelves aren't the same size, she used a tape measure for the length.  Working together, we came up with this equation.  23 inches = 25 books.  It took some time, but she came up with 1250 as her answer.

Since then, I've been looking around and realizing that we missed some books.  There are books on tables, in tables, under tables and in baskets.  There are books ALL OVER Lydia's floor and under her pillows.  I have stacks of books in my room.  Rowan & Desmond sleep with books in their beds.

Still, it's not enough.  I need more books.  I can't enter the library (which we do at least once per week) without perusing the sale shelf.  Most of my coins go into the mouth of that hungry, metal box.

I've recently discovered PaperBackSwap. It's a site where members can list books they are willing to part with.  If someone else wants one of your books, they'll request it.  You then send the book to them.  You can even buy and print out postage right from the site.  For each book you mail out, you get to choose a book from someone else's list.  You earn bonus books for listing your first 10 books for trade and for signing up new members.  (Use that link up there to help me get more books! :)

I'm actually a pretty picky reader, so most of the books I want are not available on PaperBackSwap.  They do have a lot of books that Lydia wants, though.  She's been reading an average of 2 books per day, so I need all the help I can get to keep her in books!

My new source for my books is Borders.com.  They have an amazing selection of used books at truly amazing prices.  With the $10 gift cards Matt send Desmond & I for our birthdays, I was able to get 14 books!  Yes, really.  Fourteen books for $20.  I'm a Borders Rewards Plus member, so I don't have to pay shipping ever.  (That's really worth it, by the way.  It's $20 per year.  You get $10 back in Borders Bucks to spend + free shipping + and extra 10% off a lot of things in the store.)

Another book site I like is The Book Depository.  They have a good selection and shipping is always free.  They also have a really cool map that shows what people around the world are buying.

It is so exciting to me that, at this very moment, 16 books are speeding their way to us through the mail. (I got 2 yesterday.)  Even more exciting, I spent hardly any money on those books!

Yay, books!

Benches by Rowan

Happy Friday!

For Papa

Lydia was excited to show Papa her round-off back handspring, so she and Rowan made this video of each other (and Desmond).

Check It Out!

I've added a couple new videos.

My YouTube Channel

Porthos Paints

Do you think this is what the Easter Bunny looks like when he's done dyeing eggs?  

Porthos ate part of a picture Rowan had just painted and ended up blue from his nose to his tail.

Our bunnies live in the same room as our art supplies.  It's a constant battle to keep it all cleaned up and out of reach.   These naughty little rabbits eat everything they can get their paws on; books, crayons, pencils, paints & paper.  Nothing is safe!

Good thing they're cute...

DQ

Signature pose.

Signature style.


Desmond has been picking out his own outfits.  They usually include Rowan's red shoes.  What do you think of this one?

Old Shipwreck Surfaced At Ocean Beach

Old shipwreck surfaced at Ocean Beach | Photos | KGO

This is so cool!  Wish we were still there to see it in person.

When Arlene Gives You Lemons...

...make lemonade!

When Nancy Gives You A Cookie Recipe... 

                                    ...Definitely, Make Cookies!

We made these pretty, 3 ingredient cookies the same day as the lemonade.  Yum!

INGREDIENTS:

1 C Peanut Butter

1 C Sugar

1 egg

(These measurements are for all-natural peanut butter.  You may want to reduce the amount of sugar if your peanut butter is sweetened.)

METHOD:

Preheat oven to 350.

Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. If you don't have parchment paper, you can probably slightly butter and place powdered sugar on the bottom of the cookie sheet. Or butter and a tiny bit of flour. You just don't want the pan to be greasy.

Toss the ingredients into a bowl.

Mix till well combined.

Take about 1 Tablespoon of the dough and roll into a ball.

Place on cookie sheet.

You can leave as balls and bake or you can take a fork and flatten. 

Continue this until you fill the cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-13 minutes. 

Let cool slightly.

Eat!

Variation: If you leave as balls, once baked, you can press a Hershey's Kiss into the center. This will flatten the cookie.

Thanks, friends! :)

My Gymnasts

They passed!!!

I am so proud of these two.








Rowan passed the Level 2 Junior Olympics gymnastics test!  She did a great job on all her routines and conditioning.  She'll be moving up to Hot Shots in the next month or so where she'll work out 6 hours a week.


Rowan has been a natural gymnast since her first parent-participation class at 18 months.  A few months before her 3rd birthday, she moved up to Kinder classes and she was asked to join the Super Kids when she was still 3.  This past December, she passed Level One.  Lydia is already teaching her the Level Three routines!

My sparkly 5 year old is on track to compete next year!

Lydia passed Level 4 testing.  This is the big one!  She'll begin working out with the team in the next month and start competing in August.  She is very excited that she'll be spending at least 9 hours a week in classes!

Lydia's gymnastics journey has been a whirlwind!  In October, she was asked to join the Hot Shots.  This meant a move from a 1 hour a week recreational class to 6 hours a week team training.  In December, she passed Level One and was allowed to skip Level 2.  She passed the Level 3 test in February and now Level 4.

I knew my girls would make it to the team, but I never thought we'd be moving so quickly!  It is really exciting to watch them work hard and do so well at something they love.

Hail, Yes!

I am the Lorax. And so are you.

Greetings Jennifer, Remember that little Dr. Seuss character who speaks for the trees? Well, today's his day--and all of ours--it's World Forest Day! To thank you for being a true forest (and ForestEthics) fan, we've compiled a list of the top five reasons to raise a glass for the trees. The recap is below, but don't stop there--read more from our executive director Todd Paglia. Top Five Reasons to Hug Your Inner Tree Geek: 1. Forests are good for our health. Did you know forests provide more than half of our medications? From digoxin for the heart, to taxol for cancer, forests  literally save our lives.  2. Forests create the air we breathe. It's that basic high-school biology thing: in goes the carbon dioxide, out comes pure, fresh oxygen. So go ahead, take a deep breath, and say, "Thanks, forests!" 3. Forests give us water. Yup, it comes out of the tap for most of us, but the truth is far more fascinating: forests help purify and store nearly two-thirds of the US water supply.  4. Forests are home to countless species. That includes those of us with opposable thumbs. 80% of terrestrial biodiversity on earth call forests home. And for all of us who enjoy, you know, breathing, or drinking water, we've got forests to thank. 5. Forests have been battling climate change for a very long time. For thousands of years, forests have played a crucial role in absorbing and storing whatever carbon is emitted into the atmosphere. We need their help more than ever. Thanks, forests!  Want to spread the forest love? Here are some quick and easy things to do: Take our quick survey and tell us why forests matter to you. Share Todd's blog post on Facebook, and tell your friends about forests. On Twitter? Click here, and be sure to include @forestethics Take a hike! No really, go say hello your local forest. Visit our action center and get to work. For the forests, Kristi Kristi Chester Vance Deputy Director IT'S WORLD FOREST DAY Want to join in the celebration? Take our quick survey and share why forests are important to you. Read our Executive Director Todd Paglia's top five reasons to hug your inner tree geek. Home  |  Take Action  |   Donate   |  Unsubscribe ForestEthics - because protecting forests is everyone's business San Francisco | One Haight Street | San Francisco, CA 94102 | 415-863-4563 Bellingham | 601 West Chestnut Street, Building A | Bellingham, WA 98225 | 360-734-2951 Vancouver | 301-163 Hastings Street W. | Vancouver, BC V6B 1H5 | 604-331-6201

Fighting

The Baughs are fighters.   We don't let people walk on us, we are not content with the status quo, we don't accept our fate.  If you know us, you know that.  It can make life difficult sometimes, but it's just who we are.

I remember my mom going to the principal's office to dispute some rule or decision when I was in junior high.  I can't remember the problem or the outcome, but I have a vivid image in my mind of my mom storming into his office and making sure her opinion was known.

My dad fights for what he thinks is right everyday in his position as a Shasta County Supervisor.  He was even featured in a PBS program about stopping hate crimes in his area.

My brother has had countless fights with his employer & his union.  My sister, very recently, fought with her childrens' school over homework policies.

If you've read my blog for a while, you know of my fight with Borders, you know I write letters to politicians telling them why I won't vote for them.  I have issues with Starbucks, junk mail, plastic bags and waste.  I sometimes feel like I am always fighting.

Recently my fight is with South Sutter; the charter school I have been so enamored with for the past two years.

About a week and a half ago, I was informed by our E.S. that the golf clubs we purchased with school funding (from an approved vendor) in August were going to be confiscated by the school.  The reason given was that they never should have been purchased for the girls' use.  Someone in the South Sutter office made a mistake that wasn't caught for 6 months.  To remedy the mistake, the clubs must be returned and put in a closet to ensure no child might use them.

I made phone calls and wrote emails, but was unable to change anyone's mind before they were taken last Friday.  It was either give them up, or have all our school funding frozen.  After surrendering the clubs, I was informed that the portion of the girls' funding used to purchase the clubs would not be returned to them.  I've asked repeatedly, but no one will give me a reason for that.

On Tuesday, my E.S. called to tell me that I had been accused by the school's office of stealing the clubs I had returned.  They are insisting that both Lydia & Rowan had sets with 5 clubs each and a bag.  In reality, Lydia had 5 clubs and a bag, and Rowan had 3 clubs with a bag.  Apparently, they don't keep receipts.  They have  refused to answer my emails about their accusation or issue me a receipt for the clubs.

So far, I've sent about 20 emails and received only one response.  The one response promised to forward my email to someone who would address my concerns.  They haven't.

I've contacted South Sutter, the corporation that owns South Sutter and the district that licenses South Sutter. My next step is to make phone calls and attend the next school council meeting.  I will contact all these people again as well as every person on this chart who is in any way involved with education.

My children and I followed all the proper procedures for obtaining the golf clubs.  We used an approved vendor who only sells golf equipment.  The school approved our request, submitted payment and delivered the clubs to us.  Six months later, they decided we couldn't use our funding for golf clubs and took them back.  They refuse to accept responsibility and return the funding.  They've accused me of theft.  They've ignored all my emails.  That's not a fight I can back down from.

Unless policies are changed and I receive some concrete answers, there is  no way I will be able to trust South Sutter to  be involved with the education of my children.  I now believe that anything provided with school funding might be suddenly taken away.  Classes may be cancelled, books may burned, science kits or instruments may be confiscated.  What really matters to South Sutter and IEM is the bottom line.

Bed Handsprings

Desmond Poops!

Desmond just pooped in the potty for the first time!  He's been peeing in the potty (when he feels like it) since right after Christmas, but hadn't been able to poo sitting down.
 

With the offer of a treat, he produced this massive beauty effortlessly!

I am proud!  My boy is not even 22 months old yet!  I think he just might beat his sisters to the finish line of potty training.

Still reading?  Good!  Then you weren't too scandalized, squeamish or startled by my topic today.   I'm not going to apologize, you knew who's blog you were reading!

Have a great day!

Desmond Does His Own Makeup

Bunny Hypnotism

Lydia and Rowan have discovered they possess the power to hypnotize the bunnies!  

Happy Dinner Friend

Wave poured balsamic vinegar and olive oil for our dinner bread, and look who showed up! Our totally unplanned on friend made our spaghetti dinner extra fun!