Peace

i don't want to see the world come undone
i don't want to tell a child, 'Mommy's gone...'
i don't want to feel the pain of a lost son
i don't want to go home to no one

i don't want to see you bolt and run
i don't want to know how to use a gun
i don't want to hear innocents weep and rant
i don't want to have them bear War's brunt

i just want to watch kids play in the sun
i want them to know life as something fun
and so i pray for everyone
may Peace be with you and you with Peace.

Happy Spring (late)

I was away and didn't even realize that spring snuck in on me. I love new life blooming all around me and all the beautiful signs of spring. Happy Spring. . .happy, happy everything!

We made it home

Here are some of the team after the Salt Lake Regional competition. They won runner up medals and several other awards again Saturday. They were a great inspiration to other teams and this first time regional in Utah. We had a great time and are now gearing up for the World Championships in Atlanta.

A night of a bit to much wine. . .

I first need to apologize because tonight we had a little celebration from the team leaving tonight's competition and being in 1st place . . .ahead of every other team by 13 points. (All I understand is we are in 1st place and we get our 1st pic in alliance). The other mom Sally and I have drank 2 bottles of wine and 1/2 of it was shared with David the coach and Jon had a 1/2 class (only to take the holy basil I make him take). I am a bit buzzed. AND my room smell of awful teenage boys! and the smelly cow costume! I hope I don't die in my sleep.
Here is me getting licked by the cow aka Wyatt (who is the mascot for traveling). He thought it was so fun and had little kids chasing him all day long in that get up. Go Wyatt!

It snowed today and for 90% of our kids it was their first time seeing falling snow. They were so excited! 1538 is the team number and since I am taking pictures for the team I thought it would be cool.

Here is the pit area, this is where the Daisy Bell gets fixed and maintained and where Jon comes unglued, except for today only a little because I made him take that basill last night and in the morning. Our pit area is the best looking, most organized neatest pit in the competition. . .I know you don't have one to compare it too, I will get one tomorrow. Dad you would love it, they are very organized and every tool and part is labeled!

Here is the team after winning an award tonight and I am sorry I forgot what it was for. They did their best to look excited, They win it every year! I think it was for engineering design? The best looking robot I do not remember.

I will let you all know if they win the entire competition tomorrow.

Another Day in Salt Lake

That beautiful snow covered mountain at sunset. . . pictures do not do it justice.
The sign over the pit and I realized that I didn't get pictures of the pit area so that is on my list for tomorrow. Our pit is so organized and neat while others well. . . . not so much.

These are the kids checking in for the "Team Social"

(a.k.a lets promote our school and do a 2 hour tour before we feed you)

All the other kids from our team let me take their pictures except Gabby and Wyatt. UGGGHHHH. After the 20 minute power point presentation our team had an emergency and had to run out quickly. The school kids that checked us in were like "Are you leaving? Are you coming back?" and I was like I do not know? We have an emergency. The president decided she was not going to put the students thru that tour and we went back to the dining hall and ate. Smart kid!

Salt Lake

This morning we flew to Salt Lake City for another robotics competition.

PARENTS: Please do not ever send your teenage child out in public dressed like this; green crocs, giant green St. Patrics day bow tied onto his back pack and I couldn't get a picture of the front but he has a bigger sequin bow with green beads, and the tall green hat. Seriously it may have been cute to see them like that when they were 3 but its not so cute for a high schooler to be allowed out in public dressed like that. . . save them!

The beautiful snow covered mountains in Salt Lake. The kids were so excited to see snow, it is barely there but they didn't care it was 80 when we left San Diego so any tiny bit of snow probably looks pretty good to them.
OHHH if you ever want to come to Salt Lake here are a few rules we learned tonight:

1. It is against the law to dance after 2:00 am

2. You cannot buy alcohol at the grocery store, you can ONLY get it at the state run liquor store

you can get "half" beer in the store which contains half the alcohol(this is why Trader Joe's will

never come to Utah)

3. Before the Olympics were here you could never get a mixed drink only beer and wine.

Happy St. Patricks Day

I caught a leprechaun, did you?

San Diego skyline at night

I took this amazing photography class Sunday (10 hours). I learned so much about my camera and then in the evening we took these great pictures of the skyline. I love this city!

What is going on!

What is happening in my funky little town? I was driving to meet a girlfriend for lunch today and I see this guy twirling this sign! Of course me with a camera ever ready stops when the green light told me to go, and I pull out my camera as the green light turned red. I needed to get photographic evidence of this. This Spacolli wanna be (right down to the checkered Vans) was in my neighborhood twirling a sign for medical marijuana that delivers! He is shirtless and dancing.

So later I went to the movies and Mr. Fast Times was getting back from lunch, he takes his shirt off and starts his sign dance all over. YIKES!!!!! This movement to Keep Leucadia Funky is really working.

Afghan complete

I finished my first crocheted afghan. I thought I was going to make it all cream colored but when it was finished I knew it needed a bit of color so I added this yummy lemongrass green edge. Now I have 5 request for other ones. I have to get on the ball because they are so warm and cozy I cannot work on them during the summer.

Last Day of San Diego Regional Finals

Today was the last day of the San Diego Regional Robotics Competition.

This is the field that the game "Breakaway" was played on (a robotic soccer game, 3 team robots against 3 team robots).

1538 was High Tech Highs bot. That big arm sticking out of team 1717 was to hoist their robot up on the platform and earn 2 bonus points.

Jeffrey came down to watch a bit of the morning seeding and cheer on The Holy Cows. Wyatt just got done giving him a tour of the pits.

Here is an up close picture of Daisy Bell, she won the award for imagery because the robot looks so complete, must be the powder coating. They lost in the quarterfinals when Daisy Bell broke an axle and lost a chain.

This was the team after they won the Chairman's Award, the highest award given to any team. Its based on spreading the news of First Robotics through community outreach, supporting local events and their knowledge of engineering and technology.

Here is Wyatt first robotic medal. This was the second year that the Holy Cows won the Chairman's Award, it has never happened at the San Diego Regional.

Hungry, Hungry Heiffers!

Today was the first day for the San Diego robotics competition. Today was a check in, go through inspection, get your pit set up and have a few practice matches.
Wyatt and I had to be at the San Diego Sports Arena at 7 am. It was raining and as we were driving into the Sports Arena I saw the most amazing rainbow, of course my camera was in the way back of my car, it was pouring down rain. It stopped by the time I had to get out of my car and walk to the entrance.
I also had to help set up and serve lunch to the 40 kids from the team that were at the competition. They all ate a ton of food and tomorrow is the actual beginning of competition day an then Saturday will be another day of competition. I hope a bot doesn't catch on fire again. . . oh did I forget to mention about a robot catching on fire? Yes during a practice game one of the team robots was going over the bump on the field and got stuck, next thing you see is smoke and smelly burning electronic stuff (kids came running to see it, so I missed it all)

Lucky Day

Today is a lucky day, I found this sweet ladybug outside my house this morning. Since it is March I thought I would it would be fun to take picture of "lucky" items. What are your lucky items?
Enjoy this month and have the luck of the Irish with you!

Welcome March

Today was the first official day of my 2 week vacation, I got up early to take my friend to the airport and when I walked outside I saw this amazing moon setting. It was so close I felt like I could almost reach out and touch it. I am so glad that I was up to enjoy it.

On my way back from the airport I called and woke Wyatt up on his day off and asked him if he wanted to go to breakfast he said he wanted to go to the Potato Shack and get two Manhole chocolate chip pancakes. Naturally he was only able to eat half of this pancake but it was fun to look at.