Room Separating Apparatus

Living on the bottom level near the parking lot leaves room for peepers into our living room. Since we do not have or need air conditioning, our doors are open all the time. So Nate and I bought a room separating apparatus to go on our patio. This is to keep the sun out, the peepers from being able to see into our living room (esp at night with our lights on) and to add a little more privacy.

Check it out.

Outside patio 

From the inside 

From the parking lot

Maggiano's Crew

A couple of fun picture from work....

Ricky from work started drawing different members of our staff.....They look so much like all of us!

A close-up of me....and a little bit of exaggeration on my size...but not much.  

A Bunch of Nothing

Not a lot to talk about on this post. I know I have not been posting as much lately but that is because not much is going on in our day-to-day life. Nate is still loving his job and doing great at it. The kids and I are taking daily trips to the pool and getting lots of sun and reading done. The kids still have 2 weeks of summer and we are all ready for school to start back. Joel will be going to 5th grade (his last year of elementary school). Cori will start 7th grade and has been practicing to try out for volleyball this year.

Cori wants to get her ears pierced before going back to school. I'm sure she is ready and can take care of her ears but she is scared about the "possible pain" of getting them pierced. We will see....

Cori was at a friends house this Saturday night and so Nate and I took Joel to South Coast Plaza (a big mall by my work). We had dinner and shopped for a few hours. It was a fun evening spending time with just the boy.

That is about it, we work, we eat, we play, we sleep and do it all over again.

Nephews are Awesome!

A few weeks ago I got to take a trip back to Alabama. I got to visit with all my family and some friends. It was a fun-filled week. My biggest joy of the week was spending time will my 4 nephews.

Lucas (3 1/2) spend 2 nights at my MIL's house with me. I took him to the mall where he was able to build a lego block to go in a giant Buzz Lightyear, took him to dinner (which he slept thru), and played games together. Since he spent the night at Nate's moms then he got to feed the fish, which was Joel's job in the mornings.

Building a lego box

watching Scooby-Doo on my bed

Love you!

Eating Chips and Dip

Love the water at the zoo

Alex (3) and Davey (1 1/2) stayed at my mom's house for the week. We played and laughed, went to the zoo with Lucas, Daniel and Leigh. I shared my orange slices with Davey, and watched Scooby-Doo with Alex. 

Getting into stuff

Zoo Rides

Roll Tide!

Bryce (9 months) spend the weekend with us at his grandma's house. We laughed, tried to walk a couple of times, chewed on drawer knobs, played patty-cake, fell asleep in my arms, and went to church together. 

So thankful for the fun week with my family and especially my 4 nephews. Aunt Val loves you very much! 

Gel Nails!

Most people who know me, know how much I love to paint my nails. There is this new kind of nail polish/treatment called gel nail polish. This may not be new to most people but it was to me. Gel nails is a polish that is almost as thick as acrylics but does not have to be filed and sanded and done in a salon. It goes on like a nail polish and is cured with a small UV light. It lasts up to 3 weeks on one treatment.

I went to a friend who does this all the time. Cost me $20 for her to do my nails. I wanted to see how they worked and lasted before starting to do it by myself. It took a while to do my nails the first time I tried but I know I will get better and faster at it. I Love the fact that the polish stays on so long and still looks really good.

This is the nails after 2 weeks. ( I forgot to take one after 1 week)

This is after 3 weeks of the gel nail polish and 2 weeks of serving

This is my first try at the gel nails. They look pretty good.

STAR Student Report

California student testing for the state is called STAR testing. The state and teachers put a lot of stock in these tests. At the beginning of spring Joel's teacher called us into a meeting to talk about how he needs to study and work hard in order to do well on the tests. I have NEVER had a teacher focus so much on this test. Every year my kids follow the rules and go to bed early and get a good breakfast the week of testing but for a teacher to call attention to the test in a private meeting was really kinda scary for us.

Joel buckled down and worked harder in school but we tried not to make that big of a deal on the test as it does not facture into a pass or fail grade and doing your best is all that matters.......Well

I got the test results today in the mail.

Joel scored 410 in English-Language and a 446 in Math which are both in the advanced level and highest bracket for the test scores.....Way to go Joel! He was so excited and wanted to know if on the first day of 5th grade he could go tell (rub in the face of his teacher) his teacher about his grades! He said he knew he was smart and that his teacher was wrong about him. I am glad we did not put extra pressure on Joel about this test. It seems his teacher did enough of that himself.

On the actual breakdown of the test, Joel scored above adverage in all areas.

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Cori's Turn

Cori is another story. She is a self-motivated girl who Hates to make bad grades. She checks her grades online weekly and sometimes daily. She stresses over her tests and still comes out on top. There was a little drama when her test scores came in.

Cori scored 409 in English-Language and 383 in Math. The English score is in the Advanced level and Math is in the Proficient level. With Joel scoring higher and math being her favorite subject you can imagine the crying that followed getting these results.

After a calming pep-talk from myself....all is right in the Barber house again.

I am SO proud of BOTH of my kids and the hard work they havecompleted this year in a new city, new house, new school and new friends!

New Photo Website!

Shutterfly developed photo websites for individual people. I have created one on their site too. Here is my link http://californiabarberstyle.shutterfly.com/ This will let people view, comment and order photos from my collection for their own homes. I hope you enjoy this new site.

Been to Bama and Back!

The last week on July I was able to make a visit to Alabama to see family and friends. I stayed at my mom-in-laws house for the week. My brother and his family were able to come down from Arkansas and stay at my moms. Nate's sister and family came in from Tenn for the weekend too. It was a great time of visiting, eating, playing games, spoiling nephews, shopping and lots of laughing.

My kids had requests for different items to bring back to them. Cori got 2 Auburn shirts and a hat. Joel got a new coffee mug (used for hot chocolate and soup) and some clothes and toys. I found a great Alabama shirt, hat, new shoes and a Vera Bradley bag.

Here are some pictures of the fun times in Bama!

Dawn's Baby Shower

Bryce and Aunt Val 

Attack of the birds at the zoo

Taking a break with Alex

Alex, Aunt Val and Lucas

My Granddad, Me and Aunt Dawn

Davey (eggroll), Aunt Val and Alex

A special "shout-out" to a few friends I was not able to visit with....Michelle, Lynn and Allyson. Sorry ladies, the week went by so fast. I hope we can catch up via email and cell phones.