Ever wondered what the inside of a laptop looks like?

Hmmm? No?

Me neither, but when you need to replace your graphix card, keyboard or fan, then you get to see all the guts.

This is kinda fun... yeah, i know. geek fun. but i like it!

The happiest girl ever!

You KNOW how a Nona lurvs them horses. Check out her pretty, prancing, pony promenade. If you look closely you can see she swiped some chess pieces (knights, of course) and put them in there.

Well, we did it. We broke down and bought Nona her own... horse.

As close to real as she's gonna get. No, we didn't get the "Smores pony", she can't "ride" it.

Here she is in all her glory.

And.... yes. She does the whole "Lady Godiva" thing as well. Would you expect any less from her?!

.... of course, this horse came in a BOX, which i had to FULLY assemble, which then lead to... well... she was napping... and... OH! I just couldn't resist...

What's that sound coming out of the hole in the wood?

It's the guitar, it's the guitar....

If you don't know then don't ask. If you do know then, go ahead and have yourself a nice little laugh, cause yeah, it's funny.

Okay, okay. Mike just got his guitar today and he's well on his way to becoming a rock star. Well, that's what he thinks anyway.

I'm not saying anything else about that, cause what if he does become this musical titan.
Then I'll hear, "you never supported me" or "you didn't think I could do it".
Blah blah blah. Yadda, yadda. Ramble, ramble.

This is gonna be fun.

Field trippin'

Dondan's class was in dire need of chaperons, they need at least two, there were none, the field trip would be cancelled.

It's difficult for me to commit to volunteering at school with Nona attached at the hip and Toenail absent or working. Uncle Mike agreed to help with the crisis. I discussed it with the teacher and we worked out a loop hole. According to school policy I couldn't be a chaperon if I brought a sibling, because I would be attending to the sibling and not focusing total attention to the students. However Dondan has a small class, I would be in a "group" with Dondan and a couple kids, not chaperoning. Leaving Uncle Mike and the teacher to tend to the rest. Everything worked out great.

It was a "walking" field trip, so we had to make sure no one was run over. Everyone was ready for a nap at the end of the day, including me and my aching feet!

We went to the Fire station and the police station, the kids had lots of fun.

There was a k-9 exhibition, where Uncle Mike had the experience of being a chew toy.

See for yourself.

Other pictures from the trip...

On the fire truck

Suited up

He is not amused...

The kids were getting out of hand, so we threw them in jail!

A little outing...

Uncle Mike took us to a roto sushi restaurant. Sushi on a conveyor belt, you just grab what you want. It was so delicious. There was chicken strips and fries for Nona.

Nona approves!

Next...
We went to play around at a local arcade.

Nona tried her hand at Okinawan drums.

Jack Skellington came to chill with us!

This is a neat ride!

You put in money and get a card.

You swipe the card and the puppies on the card show up on the screen.

You pet the puppies during the ride and a love meter comes up.

It was super fun!

Ever wanted to ride on a super hero in flight?! Well, there ya go!

A perfect end to a fun-filled day!

The "right" answer

One portion of Dondan's homework asked for the shaded portion of a prism:


I had to help him with this because "HIS" answer was NOT one of the choices.
Dondan: "Mom NONE of them is the right answer!"
Mom: "Okay, then what IS the right answer?"
Dondan: "It's a parallelogram Mom."
I would have to agree with him on that, but after much deliberation and convincing we concluded the answer was rectangle.
I was rather impressed, I didn't know he even knew what a parallelogram was.
Go Dondan.

Daddy?

Nona has adopted this little fellow from the thrift store here on base.
She has been calling him Daddy and giving him kisses... and taking him shopping.





In unrelated news Nona STILL goes to the bathroom like a boy-girl, she sits down backwards. It's better than diapers and yes she still likes hangin' out in the buff!

Dondan on adoption

It's morning before school, i'm combing and spiking his hair, "but NOT like a mohawk" were his specific instructions.
Dondan: "Mom?"
Me: "Hmmm?"
Dondan: "When I grow up I'm going to adopt."
Me: "Um, okay?"
Dondan: "I'm just saying when I get big I'm going to ADOPT kids."
Me: "That's nice, but you might want kids of your own too."
Dondan: "No, I don't want to mess with babies, they're too messy, you have to change diapers and they don't know how to eat and they make a mess all over the place."
Me: "So you want kids that can already take care of themselves?"
Dondan: "Yeah, they can go to the bathroom and you don't have to wipe their butts."
Me: "mmm hmmm." "Well, I think you might change your mind when you get older."
Dondan: "No I won't." "When you grow up do you HAVE to get married?"
Me: "No, you don't HAVE to, that's your choice, but you might want to."
Dondan: "I just want to have kids, so I don't have to be alone."
Me: "Well, you'll never be alone, because you always have your family, you have Mommy, daddy, aye Michael and Nona." "You can see us anytime you want." "Now, off to school."
Dondan: "Okay."

More pix i just got in the mail...

Family pictures we took with Lola in Dec 2008

Foto OP

Abuela Cynthia and Lola Emily came to visit in (Sep'08)

Christmas in Portland (2008) we had so much FUN!

A recent photo we took on island 2009.