Erik Harrison Szopa as William Henry Harrison

Erik had his biography today in his third grade class. He had to read about and research a famous person in history. His obvious choice was someone who shared his name, President William Henry Harrison. It was a cute presentation and you can't see it, but the placard in front of him is an actual reproduction of Harrison's campaign poster. Erik and I found a copy on the Internet and made the campaign poster. He has had a great time studying and preparing for this report.

We have been taking great advantage of the weather for the last month. Every night after dinner we either go for a one or two mile walk or go to the park and skate or play handball. One night when Chris and I didn't have the kids, we walked to the store, bought groceries and walked home. We felt very San Fransisco. We are going again for our weekend bike rides at the beach. I can't wait, that is my favorite! It has been very nice to leave immediately after eating and get out of the house. We have picked up some of our old hobbies and have been enjoying that as well.

We are in the middle of parent teacher conferences at school this week. So far, the kids are all doing very well. It is nice to always got to the conferences and not have issues or areas that need help. We are truly blessed and we know it. We do not take it for granted that is for sure! We work very hard as parents and we are grateful to have such wonderful kids. At least that is what we think :)

Next week is the last week before Spring Break AND Passover. In a way it is easier to have them both at the same time, and in another it is harder because we cannot plan a trip. We are thinking about going camping for a weekend before Passover but I am still working on that and cannot decide where to go and what days. Before you know it, summer will be here. But before that is the crunch time that comes with end of school. After Spring Break all the projects, reports and tests are crammed into 2 1/2 months. It is really a hard time and then when summer comes.....aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!! Relax.....................for awhile.

Well that is all for now. I have to get ready for a check up appt with my Doctor. Hopefully, I will be home before the kids get out early and Chris won't have to come home at lunch to pick them up!

Good weather blessings to you all!

Love,

April

Ships, Bikes, Fevers & Puppies

We were at the beach riding our bikes along the bike path in Long Beach with Dad and Sandy. Erik looked out into the water and asked "What kind of ship is that really large one Grammy?" to which Grammy answered "it is a container ship Erik." "Oh" said Erik, "I always wondered where Tupperware came from!"

Need less to day, we were all in stitches. The blessed minds of children, how they make us laugh!

I am addicted to biking at the beach. I jones for it. I wait for every weekend so we can go to the beach and bike along the ocean, watching the waves crash, hearing the spray of the ocean breaking and feeling the warm rays of the sun beat down on our tender winter skin. Aaahhhhh.... I am longing for it again. I can't get enough. We have been going on the weekends when everyone is well, and that has been few so far. This weekend we are going on Sunday, if it wasn't Rachel's birthday this Saturday, we would go twice. One weekend we went twice. I can't get enough of it. The weather is supposed to be 77 on Monday and Tuesday. I'm thinking about sneaking off while the kids are in school on those days and going to the beach to bike. Aaaaaawwww........ take me away!!!!!!!!

It has been a hard winter here. Since January we have had to deal with many deaths. We have lost 2 friends/neighbors, 1 cousin and 1 Aunt. That is a tremendous amount in such a short time. I didn't expect 3 of them so they were surprises. Sad though. We are still dealing with it here. It really brings back to the forefront how fragile life is and how we really don't have as much time as we think we do. Also, makes me really antsy to put things in order and make sure we are protected as much as possible and prepared in case of an emergency. SO that is on my agenda right now. Preparedness. Chris and I both have task lists that we are working diligently on to ease our minds a little.

Speaking of a hard winter.....I don't know about the rest of you but our area has been hit hard with viruses!! We have all been sick simultaneously and repeatedly. Fevers, chills, body aches, upset tummies, upper respiratory infections, cold, sinus infections! It has all been too much. Even Chris who never gets sick was out of commission and stayed home from work. I have been stuck in the house for the past 6 weeks taking care of sick people or being taken care of while being sick. Hence, why the beach is so important to me right now. Gratefully, we are all well right now and all our friends are well now. They have been dealing with the same stuff we have. The whole school has.

Even while being sick, we have started walking after dinner each night to get fresh air and to get out of the house. We put a leash on Little Lou and head out the door to walk a mile around our neighborhood. Tonight we are upping it to 2 miles. I can't wait. I hope the kids and Lou can hold out. We will be walking down the hill toward Walgreen's and the pet store. It will be a nice stop over to go into the pet store and buy a leash for the new puppy.

We have a new addition to our family. His name is Baby Jack Valentine. We call him Jack. He is another Chihuahua. But this time he is smaller than Lou. We got him as a family Valentine present. He is now 3 months old and weighs just 2.5 pounds. He is so tiny! Lou loves him so much, they play, cuddle and fight just like siblings! The kids are in love as well. They come home from school, say hi Mom and then run into the house, dropping all belongings along the way and pick up the puppies and start loving and cooing to them. On the weekends we will come downstairs to find the puppies being held by the boys while the boys are watching cartoons. They will not put the puppies down. We have such an active little house right now and we are enjoying it. It's a lot of work but as with children, the rewards far surpass the work.

Well, I will get photos posted hopefully this weekend of the puppies, but it will be a busy weekend so I might not get to update until Monday. I hope all of you have a great weekend!!
Love,
April

Stockings hung by the chiminey with care....

Happy 2009!!!

Well, it's finally here!! 2009! So much has happened to catch you up on, at least that's what I think.
We had a great Chanukkah and celebrated Christmas with Dad and Sandy. They came down on Christmas morning and we had a lovely breakfast of hot fresh from the oven chocolate croissants, sausages and orange juice. The kids came home from Pam's at noon and the party began. They opened their wonderful Christmas stockings from Uncle Mikey that were hung from the fireplace mantle. They delved right into them spreading out all their tiny treasures on the floor and meticulously pouring over every thought out piece of loveliness. They had their favorites: yellow snow, elf pillows, giradelli chocolate and many many more. They moved onto opening their cards from Gram and Pappy. Rachel got a digital camera that videos as well as being able to use it underwater as far down as 3 meters deep. Rachel was soooooo excited! She got one last year from Nammer and Dziadziu but accidentally dropped it outside while taking pictures and we were unable to fix it. The boys each got money to go to their skate board fund. They had been saving their allowances for a long time to buy expensive Tony Hawk skateboards and were able to do just that. They went out the next day, took advantage of the after Christmas sales and got 40% off their skateboards so they were able to get really, really good ones. They were soo happy.....now if they knew how to stay on the skateboards........ we finished the night with lighting the Menorah and having a feast of roasted capon, port stuffing, port gravy and latkes with applesauce and sour cream. After the feast the kids opened their gift from us and it was the wii game system. They were in heaven!

The next night Gram and Papi stayed with us until late. The kids opened their second gift form us and it was Rock Band 2. Well, you would have thought we gave them new ponies! They went insane jumping, screaming and just utter joy! So many kisses, hugs and I love you's, who says you can't buy love?? The video above is a sample of them playing. Dad added a few effects for us. The kids and Chris have not stopped playing Rock Band since that night. As a matter of fact while I am typing this, they are playing the song Pinball Wizard.

After resting that night, we got up and cleaned the house again, cooked more latkes and had 20 of our friends over to celebrate Chanukah with us. What a wonderful night. It was the same 3 other families that we went to Yosemite and Palm Springs with. We are so blessed to have them in our lives. The best part is that all husbands, wives and children get along so well and are such good friends. After lighting candles again and another feast, we all converged into the office/gameroom/guest room to play Rock Band. The adults took over and sang and played instruments for hours! The kids all gathered in and danced while we played. 20 people in that room at once, it was a sight! A true celebration! After everyone left, Chris and I cleaned up and talked about how blessed we are to have finally found such a great group of friends that are so like minded and that enjoy so much. We truly feel like they are family.

The next day we rested slightly as we took down all the decorations and packed them back into the boxes for storage, saying goodbye to yet another wonderful holiday. I spent the following day resting completely before packing up for Palm Springs.

New Year's Eve we left LA about noon and drove to Palm Springs. Dad and Sandy met us there. Chris and I had spent New Year's there last year and we definitely wanted to go again. We dressed up fancy and went to the fabulous New Years buffet they have every year at the JW Marriott in Palm Desert. It was tremendous! By the way, we decided as a family to stop practicing Kosher (we weren't very good at it anyway). So this was the kids first real experiences with a plethora of seafood. Rachel, who already loves sushi, made a beeline for the custom order sushi bar and ate herself into oblivion with raw tuna ans raw salmon, yum yum! She was such a happy girl. She did try a few bites of crab and shrimp but did not care for it. She also made her way to the prime rib and ordered a very rare piece and ate it with gusto. Erik has a penchant for everything shrimp and happily placed as many shrimp onto his first plate as it would hold. He then wandered on to the sea scallop bar where they were searing them to order. He returned again and again for sea scallops devouring each of them with enthusiasm. He even went and got some for the rest of us because he wanted to be sure we all had a taste of what he claims is 'complete heaven'. Erik tried crab liked it as well and then very daring tried the green lip raw mussel. He finally found a sea creature that he did not care for. Jason liked the crab but did not want to try the other stuff. He did find his way to the kid buffet where he indulged in his favorite food of all time, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. He had several of them and a bite or two of prime rib. I had sushi with Rachel, crab and shrimp with Erik, prime rib with Rachel, lobster with Dad and lots of raw oysters on the half shell with Chris. I even put tabasco on them! What has happened to me? Chris had everything including the lobster bisque and tons of his favorite sea scallops. As if we could eat another bite, they had a milk, dark and white chocolate fountains with strawberries, marshmallows and other tid bits to dredge in the chocolate of your choice. The kids had bite after bite of that as well. Chris and I had just a little dessert which included the best grapefruit mousse I have ever had the pleasure of eating. Chris was quite happy with the bread pudding station where they warmed it up and poured hot carmel sauce over it. This little feast lasted 2 hours as we paced our way through all the delicacies. When we finished we went to the dancefloor and boogied to the band to work off all the indulgences. Erik and I danced quite a bit while Chris and Dad were off getting champagne for us. Rachel and Jason then joined us on the dance floor and proceeded to twist the night away. Jason got tired first and Chris put him on his shoulders and continued to dance with Rachel. Erik and I danced next to Dad and Sandy. Everyone was having a great time but the boys got very tired. I took the boys back to the room and we got into our pj's and watched the ball drop over and over in the different time zones. Jason finally fell asleep about 20 minutes before midnight when Chris, Rachel, Dad and Sandy came back to the room and we all rang in the new year with streamers, horns, hats, confetti and noise makers. Jason did wake up for that part and was quite energized by all the celebrating! We sang, kissed and then called it a night finally about 12:30.
New Years day is mine and Chris's 5 year wedding anniversary, so we woke up in a glow of 'wow, we made it'! Five years is a long time for us because it has been a very bumpy road with sometimes not knowing if the bumps were ever going to end. But they did, we survived and it truly is a celebration and a testament to our love that we have been through more in 5 years than most people go through in their 40 years of marriage. This is definitely a milestone for us and truly feels like it. We had a wonderful breakfast and walked around the beautiful grounds of the hotel, watching the swans, ducks and cutes. We took pictures of the snow covered mountains framed by lush palm trees and reveled in the fact that we live in the most beautiful place on earth. Again, we truly feel blessed to be here in this stage of our lives. We went back to our rooms and packed while my parents took their grand kids out to play put put golf on the grounds. It was time to say goodbye to yet another wonderful trip to Palm Springs, gateway to heaven. We came home, played a little Rock Band and I went to bed.

Yesterday I stayed in bed ALL day. You can see why. Today I am back up, a little more rested and back to cleaning, cooking and updating. All is well in the world and I am grateful we are all in it together. Happy 2009!

Love to you all,
April

Getting Everything Ready

'Tis the season! So yesterday was a rainy, cold and soggy day. I know for those of you that are dealing with single digits you don't want to hear us whine! Well it has been down in the 40's and 30's at night here, which is super cold for us and we do not even have the clothes for that kind of weather. In and out of the rain, I finally got al my packages mailed out, they will be delivered before New Year's. Chris and I braved Costco to get most of the food we will need for our several dinners. We will be having my parents here for Christmas/4th night of Hankuah celebration. We are also having about 4 other families over for 7th night of Hanukah celebration. So many latkes, so little time!

Last night I was up late cooking delicious homemade pecan sandies. I got the recipe from Jason's teacher. They are the most wonderful cookies I have ever had. I made several batches last night and couldn't resist testing each one. Yum. I also made roasted pecan brittle last week and Chris has not been able to resist that. He took some to work and it was gone fast! This was my first time using pecans and the brittle tastes even better than peanut brittle. I used to make peanut brittle every year until Rachel was little and tested positive for peanut allergy. I gave up making brittle but started agin this season with pecans. The kids loved it as well.

Baby update. Chris and I have a new nephew! Richard Scott Szopa was born yesterday, 6lbs 7 ozs and 19 inches long. They texted us a picutre and I wish I knew how to get it on here. I will post one when they email us a few pictures. Of course that made me think of our little babies and when they were born. I found a video of Jason's 2nd birthday and will post it on here if I can. I miss them being little and wish we were closer to spend time with our new little nephew and his sweet parents.

I know everyone is doing their shopping, wrapping, cooking and shipping so I wish you all well with your busy holiday preparations! May your tape never run low, may the lines be only 2 people deep, may the butter not burn and may all of your purchases be on sale!!!

Love to you all,
April

Here We Go Again!

OK, for those of you that have been wondering why I haven't posted in awhile it is a two part answer. One, it is the busy season and I haven't had that much time to dedicate to it and two, Lacy wanted more pictures posted on here and every time I had a chance to update it, I couldn't get the pictures to upload. Writing in the blog is easy, posting pictures is hard. I am still learning and will have to really study it to find an easier way. It takes me waaaay too long to upload a photo so I know there has to be an easier way.

This past week has been craaaaazzzyy! Rachel had a Holiday Choir performance on Monday night that lasted several hours. Rachel also had a class play about the internal organs system this week and she played the mouth. The play was adorable including the kid dressed as a raging hormone that would come screaming in and out. Also, for Rachel this week she had her class holiday party in which I made latkes for everyone and read a Chanukah story to the class and helped them with a craft. We also worked on and completed Rachel's major weather project this week and had it ready to turn in on Thursday! Wow, that was just one kid! Erik had his class Holiday performance this week and he got to dress up in a crazy hat and crazy socks and sang beautiful holiday songs. I also delivered to his class gelt and cookies for their treat. Jason Sang holiday songs too for his class performance this week and had a party after the performance. He looked adorable up there singing his heart out. Luckily the boys did not have big homework this week so they had lots of neighborhood kids over to play with while I was cleaning, cooking and helping Rachel. I made the teachers gifts of southern pecan brittle and coriander lemon curd cookies. Jason's teacher made me some cookies as a thank you gift that were the best pecan sandies that I had ever tasted! I asked her for the recipe and she is going to get it to me after the break. I can't wait to make them. Really, the best pecan cookies in the world!

After all the craziness of the past week including making, wrapping and shopping for gifts....I got completely exhausted. I spent the entire day in bed yesterday sleeping on and off and just resting. It was great! I so needed it to keep my immune system up during these celebratory times. I knew this would be the only chance I would have until January to really relax and take care of myself, so I did. Chris rested as well, but took a 2 hour break to go play football in the mud with friends of ours. He had a great time but came back, took a shower and got back in bed for a nap! He was worn out too. This is his crunch time at work and with all the holiday performances, he has been working early and late so he needed the rest. By the way, our gifts will not be there on Christmas but will be there by New Year's. What a great way to spend New Year's opening more gifts and celebrating!

Chris is expecting his first nephew tomorrow. Katie will be induced tomorrow in Texas. We wish we could be there as we are both so excited for them!! They are having a boy and in the ultrasounds he looks just like Jason.

I need to go get in the shower now, I have been putting it off for hours today. We are going caroling with our group of friends at 5:00 tonight and that should be very fun. Gratefully, no school for the next two weeks!

Hope everyone has a great couple of days before Christmas!!

XOXOX,

April

Return to Normal

OK, life is back to normal. Well, as normal as it usually is anyway. I am busy signing homework papers, writing down dates for holiday plays and reviewing papers brought home. The kids are working on their homework right now. Erik has a Lunar chart project where he charts the phases of the moon for 28 days. He needs to rewrite some of the dates because it looks too sloppy. Rachel is working on a weather forecast project where she had to pick 4 areas of the country to chart the forecast, actual, humidity and wind speed for a week. She chose Laguna Niguel, Houston, Tulsa and Caribou Maine. There are always projects for the kids to do during the end of the year when the holidays are here and I find that a bad time to be adding extra work.

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I know we did. My parents came over early Thursday morning so we could all have a wonderful holiday breakfast together. Then they played with their grandchildren while Chris and I started cooking, then they came in and cooked with the kids and brought delicious stuffing, gravy and pie!

After dinner, Erik opened his presents and boy was he excited when he saw he received the Mr. Wizard DVD's and a video camera. What a blessed boy! We all watched Mr. Wizard in amazement and tried a few of the experiments and cannot wait to try some more. This was the first time my parents and Chris had ever seen the show so they were as enthralled as Erik. What a pleasure to watch everyone learn together.

The next day we went to my ex brother in laws house for a visit and barbeque. Alex, Elisa, their daughter Alexis and my niece Valarie were all there. We had another wonderful time. It is so nice to be able to catch up with everyone after not seeing them for the past 2 years. Elisa made a bunch of delicious appetizers and Alex grilled carne asada and chicken for tacos. It was fabulous. Dad and Alex reminisced about going wild boar hunting and how much fun they had out there in the desert. We are all planning a day trip up to Alex's sister in Big Bear over the holiday break to go sledding and visiting. Seeing Valarie was so good for the kids. I luckily, had just seen her in Oklahoma, but the kids haven't seen her in years. They love their cousin Valarie!

On Saturday, graciously, my parents stayed and babysat for Chris and I so we could go out and do a little shopping. We had a party to go to that night so we needed to grocery shop and we still needed our holiday lights. Chris had promised Rachel for the last 2 years that he would hang holiday lights. We finally found some beautiful twinkling snowflakes that hang down. They look lovely. As I cooked the chili for our party, my parents helped Chris hang lights and they finished in record time. Oh what we can do with the help of our elfs!! Chris also built a large menorah for the front that has individual electric candles on it so the kids can light one up each night of Chanukkah.

After all the cooking and decorating, we went to our friends house where we were one of 4 couples that came together for chili night! The kids had all their best friends there. It was a wonderful night of good friends coming together, sharing holiday stories, family secrets and getting support for just being who you are. Chris and I feel so incredibly blessed to have all these wonderful people as our friends. We truly feel at ease when we are with them and feel like they are a part of our family. The holiday could not have ended on a better, sweeter note.

After resting yesterday, today it is a little hard to return to normal. But, alas, I must. The kids are now finished with their homework and Rachel needs to get on my computer to do her daily weather logs. I have to clean out the frig and contemplate going to the grocery store to stock back up. Oh, but take out seems to be calling my name tonight!

Love to you all,
April