Our Visit to Holy Trinity Catholic School

Lisa and I are thinking about what type of school Alex and Marisa will be involved with next school year. Should we continue to homeschool, send them to public school, or to a Catholic school? While living in southern California, the only option for us as a family was to homeschool. Our move to Colorado Springs has given us a lot more options because the public schools are so much better and the cost of living is drastically lower that we can look at a private school. This morning we visited Holy Trinity Catholic School.

We were able to spend a couple of hours touring the school. There are only about 160 students with an average of about 18 students per grade. We liked the fact that it was small, because we believe that it would be an easier transition for the kids. The local elementary school near us has around 700 students. Holy Trinity seemed to be a very nice community to belong because of its size. The principal gave us the tour and knew the names and activities of all of the students he met along the way. We really liked everything that we observed. Everyone was very welcoming to us and had no problems with us being there in their classrooms. Sending them to this school is definitely an option for us. Please pray for us as we continue our discernment process.

Birth Order of Children

I received this as an email attachment. It was too funny (because it's true), that I had to post it here.

1st baby: You begin wearing maternity clothes as soon as your OB/GYN confirms your pregnancy.
2nd baby: You wear your regular clothes for as long as possible.
3rd baby: Your maternity clothes ARE your regular clothes.
_____________________________________________________
Preparing for the Birth:
1st baby: You practice your breathing religiously.
2nd baby: You don't bother because you remember that last time, breathing didn't do a thing.
3rd baby: You ask for an epidural in your eighth month.
______________________________________________________
The Layette :
1st baby: You pre-wash newborn's clothes, color-coordinate them, and fold them neatly in the baby's little bureau.
2nd baby: You check to make sure that the clothes are clean and discard only the ones with the darkest stains.
3rd baby: Boys can wear pink, can't they?
______________________________________________________
Worries:
1st baby: At the first sign of distress--a whimper, a frown--you pick up the baby.
2nd baby: You pick the baby up when her wails threaten to wake your firstborn.
3rd baby: You teach your three-year-old how to rewind the mechanical swing.
______________________________________________________
Pacifier:
1st baby: If the pacifier falls on the floor, you put it away until you can go home and wash and boil it.
2nd baby: When the pacifier falls on the floor, you squirt it off with some juice from the baby's bottle.
3rd baby: You wipe it off on your shirt and pop it back in.
______________________________________________________
Diapering:
1st baby: You change your baby's diapers every hour, whether they need it or not.
2nd baby: You change their diaper every two to three hours, if needed.
3rd baby: You try to change their diaper before others start to complain about the smell or you see it sagging to their knees.
_______________________________________________________
Activities:
1st baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics, Baby Swing, and Baby Story Hour.
2nd baby: You take your infant to Baby Gymnastics.
3rd baby: You take your infant to the supermarket and the dry cleaner.
_______________________________________________________
Going Out:
1st baby: The first time you leave your baby with a sitter, you call home five times.
2nd baby: Just before you walk out the door, you remember to leave a number where you can be reached.
3rd baby: You leave instructions for the sitter to call only if she sees blood.
______________________________________________________
At Home:
1st baby: You spend a good bit of every day just gazing at the baby.
2nd baby: You spend a bit of everyday watching to be sure your older child isn't squeezing, poking, or hitting the baby.
3rd baby: You spend a little bit of every day hiding from the children .
______________________________________________________
Swallowing Coins:
1st child: When first child swallows a coin, you rush the child to the hospital and demand x-rays
2nd child: When second child swallows a coin, you carefully watch for the coin to pass.
3rd child: When third child swallows a coin you deduct it from his allowance!

--author unknown

March Poker Winnings (Losings)

This is the first time in over 2 years that I have had a losing month playing online poker. I attribute this to two facts: 1) I have not been able to play as much due to our recent move. 2) Because the U.S. government has been cracking down on the companies that help players move money to and from the different poker sites, the amount of players online has drastically been reduced, causing a higher concentration of better quality players left. I lost $34 this month. So I did not withdraw any money from my poker bankroll. YTD=+$800. '06-YTD=+$1,700. '05-YTD=+$500. My next withdrawal of $200 from my winnings is due by April 30, 2007. Please continue to wish me luck and keep me accountable.

More Posts Coming Soon

Have been busy in our new surroundings. I have not forgotten the blog. Come back soon for new and exciting posts.

We Are House Owners!

We got the keys today to our first house! Finally. More blog posts to come after we get settled in.

Specialized Colorado License Plates

This is the Respect Life license plate that is available here in Colorado. It actually is a commemorative plate for the tragedy at Columbine High School on 4/20/1999. Surprisingly to me, this plate was approved by the legislature here even with the inherent 'Pro-Life' message. I see this plate more than any of the other specialized Colorado License Plates (over 100) that are available. This is the one that I will probably get (a one-time $25 fee), as I need to get rid of our California tags soon. I remember a few years ago, California tried to get a respect life plate passed. It was billed as a pro-adoption message. It failed miserably. The pro-abortion advocates really got involved with the defeat.



There is also a Knights of Columbus plate that you could get. I may join the Knights just so that I can get this plate.

Mass at the Mall

I have never seen or heard of anything quite like this before. There is a 'store' at Citadel Mall here called the Catholic Center at the Citadel. They celebrate eleven Masses per week here. At the mall! You can also receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation there whenever the mall is open. What a great concept. Not only is it a convenient way for Catholics to receive Sacraments during the busy work week, but it is also an effective way to evangelize to others.

"Forgive me Father, for I have sinned...I just purchased a $4000 flat panel television here at the mall without letting my wife know about it first..." (for example, not me talking, really)

February Poker Winnings

As per the updated resolution that I made last month, I have withdrawn $200 of my goal of $200 from my poker bankroll this month, plus an additional $200. YTD=+800. '06-YTD=+$1,200. '05-YTD=+$100. I am going to continue to have the lower goal of $200 per month (as opposed to $500) until there are easier ways to deposit and withdraw money from the different poker sites. My next withdrawal of $200 from my winnings is due by March 31, 2007. Please continue to wish me luck and keep me accountable.

Prayers For Bupa

My 95 year old grandfather is in the hospital due to an extremely low hemoglobin count. See my sister's blog for details: Family of Aloha II. Also, prayers for my parents who are humbly and compassionately taking care of his well being.

Another Road Bump

We were initially supposed to close the sale of our home on February 9. Still not closed yet. There may be a little light at the end of the tunnel as escrow has finally received the loan documents from the buyers' lenders yesterday. They were told that they would have them 2-3 days earlier. So according to the timetable given by escrow, we should finally close on Monday or Tuesday of next week and receive our funds on Wednesday. No guarantees.

We are currently scheduled to close on the purchase of our house on Wednesday, so we may have to ask for a day or two extension. Depending on how fast things can get done from here on out.

Customer Service?

Lisa has giving me permission to get a pool table for the basement of our house. I was checking out prices of pool tables on Overstock.com. (Before reading on, please know that I like this site, and will continue to shop here in the future.) They actually had a nice selection of tables and they were reasonably priced. I was a little bit confused about the dimensions of the pool table. All it said was 4' H x 8' L. I assumed that this meant the playing area of the table and not the actual dimensions. I wanted to be sure about this, because I would hate to receive it and it turned out to be the total table dimensions (which would be too small).

So I fired off an email to their customer service. I received a response fairly quickly that the representative didn't know the answer to my question, so they would be forwarding my message to a 'specialized representative'. Cool, I will be happy to wait for the correct response rather than a guess.

A little later, I received another email saying that they did not know the answer to my question, so they have forwarded my request to the actual warehouse where the pool tables are stored. I should expect a response in 1-2 days. Great, perhaps I will get an actual measurement. Wow, what great service!

Then I received a message from customer service saying, "Thanks for your interest in shopping with us. I am sorry for the confusion regarding what the dimensions are for the Solid Hardwood Pool Table with Free Installation. I personally know how frustrating this type of thing can be. After researching this information, I have found that the dimensions are 8 inch by 4 inches. I hope this information is useful to you."

OK, that is one small table! Even if they did mean 8 feet by 4 feet, it did not address my question. I give up, you win. I probably need to actually see and touch a pool table before purchasing. I'll look elsewhere. Thanks.

House Update

We were supposed to close the sale of our home in California on February 9th. We still have not closed. The buyers had to find another lender because their first lender (allegedly) had $12,000 in undisclosed fees. They walked out at the signing of the loan documents. They have another lender who plans on funding escrow tomorrow. So according to our realtor, we should receive our funds on Friday. Hopefully this happens without another roadbump.

We are scheduled to close the purchase of our house here in beautiful Colorado Springs on February 28th.

The Hike

On the spur of the moment, we decided to take a hike today. Lisa was home for Presidents Day. It was a very nice day, temperature in the 50s. We found a few trails to choose from in the Cheyenne Mountains. There was a map at the beginning of the trail that showed where the different trails lead. The trail that we decided to take was one that went around this fresh water lake. It didn't look too long. So we decided not to carry any water. Too much trouble.

After about an hour and a half of casually walking and enjoying the scenery, we realized that the trail that we chose would not take us back to where we started. A little panic hit as we knew that we might have go to back the way we came. Another hour and a half without water or toilets. There was no chance of us getting stranded, there were other hikers and homes around. Using my internal global positioning, I decided that we should just continue forward. After another half an hour, we found our car. The water never tasted better. Lesson learned. Next time, we will be better prepared. Hopefully Alex and Marisa are not permanently scarred by this hiking experience (they said that they aren't).

While I was in the 'panic mode', I was thinking that when we are most lost, have faith and God will lead you. That is what kept me grounded and calm. This is a message that does not necessarily have to do with hiking.

Here are some pictures of The Hike.

Ever Wonder...

Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?

Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed? !

Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?

Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?

Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?

Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons?

Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?

Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?

Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?

Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?

Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections? !

You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?!

Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?

Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?

If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?

If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

(unknown author)

Lock Bumping

I received the following YouTube clip from our realtor. It shows how easy it is to open a deadbolt lock. Good information to know and take action against this happening to you.

More Hypocrisy

A blog post by Terri Schiavo's brother Bobby Schindler once again shows the hypocrisy of the mainstream media. On the post titled: If Only My Sister Were A Convicted Murderer, Schindler writes, "I don’t believe in the deliberate killing of any human being. But if the press is so worried about cruel and unusual punishment of convicted murderers by lethal injection, perhaps they would consider it better to starve and dehydrate them to death. Because as the press constantly reminded us, death by dehydration and starvation of innocent disabled people who have committed no crime is a “peaceful and painless” way to die."

Terri Schindler Schiavo Foundation

January Poker Winnings

Well, it looks like my ability to make a little extra cash is seriously hindered. Neteller (member update) has stopped processing deposits and withdrawals into the different poker sites for U.S. citizens. Luckily I only had $400 in my account when they stopped. They say that my funds are safe, it will just take awhile before they can process it back to me. As per the updated resolution that I made on my June 26, 2006 post, I have withdrawn $400 of my goal of $500 from my poker bankroll this month. YTD=+400. '06-YTD=+$600. I am going to have to lower my goal to $200 per month until the online poker landscape becomes a little clearer. My next withdrawal of $200 from my winnings is due by February 28, 2007. Please continue to wish me luck and keep me accountable.

Go Bears!

(I had to post this one, it was too good)

This morning a Gary, Indiana kindergarten teacher explained to her class that she is an Indianapolis Colts fan. She asks her students to raise their hands if they are Colts fans, too. Not really knowing what a Colts fan was, but wanting to be liked by their teacher, their hands flew into the air.

There was, however, one exception. Susie had not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asked her why she has decided to be different. "Because I'm not a Colts fan" she reported.

"Then," asked the teacher, "what are you?"

"I'm a Chicago Bears fan," boasted the little girl.

The teacher asks Susie why she is a Bears fan. "Well, my Dad and Mom are Bears fans, so I'm a Bears fan, too" she responded.

"That's no reason," the teacher said. "What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was an idiot. What would you be then?"

Susie smiled and said, "Then I'd be a Colts fan."

Prayers Needed: Fatal Accident

It will be a somber day at The Colorado School for the Deaf and the Blind today. "Reid Hunt, 32, died after [accidentally slipping and] falling down a series of ice walls near Old Stage Road, south of Seven Falls...Hunt was supervisor of student life at [CSDB] and oversaw athletics, dormitories and the transition program, said school spokeswoman Diane Covington. He had worked at the school for three years."

Lisa had met him and said that his wife Rona also works at the school. Please pray.

See this story for more: Local ice climber falls 170 feet to his death (where some people are leaving the most insensitive comments at the end of the story)

Day One: Searching For A Home

Yesterday was the very first day that we went out and looked at houses here with a realtor. We were able to look at five houses in the morning and another three in the evening. Lisa had her binder in hand and was taking meticulous notes on seemingly every tiny detail. We saw a lot of good things and a lot of bad things. By the time we arrived at the last house at around 6:30, we were ready to go home. Things changed.

I recently read something that because we are in a buyer's market, buyers are going through homes looking for things wrong in order to eliminate the house from the vast list of potential homes they have. That is what we were doing throughout the day. Trying to find things that were wrong. Some of these included: smell, dog next door, worn carpet, old kitchen counters, paint color, price vs size, backyard size, dated plumbing fixtures, old light fixtures, etc. We had a hard time finding things wrong with the last one we looked at. We really liked this one. Our realtor, perhaps jokingly, said that she had paperwork in the car if we wanted to make an offer. Since it was nighttime we could not get a good view of the outside or what the inside looked like with sunlight. We thought that it would be better to sleep on it and come back and see it in the morning.

Our realtor called the sellers' agent to see if there were any offers in the works. He said that there were people who had already seen the property three times. He was waiting to hear something back from them. This house had only been on the market for five days (a very short time compared to all of the others we had seen). It was definitely priced to sell at $315k. We felt that we needed to decide quickly.

Lisa and I were married less than a year after meeting each other. Lisa became a Catholic less than a year after first stepping into a Catholic church after we were married (I followed three years later). Our decision to homeschool was fairly impulsive after I attended a homeschool convention (on the spur of the moment). We decided to make this move to Colorado Springs after spending only three days here this past August. So, as with other important life changing decisions Lisa and I make, we took another leap of faith.

We decided to make an offer on the spot. It was a good thing that we did. Early this morning, the sellers received another offer (presumably from the people who looked three times). The sellers were able to look at both offers. We offered $5k below their listing price and the others offered list price with a $5k credit for closing costs. Basically the same bottom line, but the sellers accepted ours, even with the contingency of the closing on the selling of our home, scheduled for February 9th.

Hopefully everything will work out in the end. If it does, then we can move in on February 28th! We thank all those who have been praying for us.

This house was built in 1996 and has 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, a finished walk-out basement, 3040 sqft (about 1000 on each level), a huge 13598 sqft lot, incredible views of the mountains & the city, and is very clean & well kept (and on and on and on). I 'borrowed' the following photo from the realtor's listing:

Many Choices

We met with a local realtor yesterday. We are very excited about our dream home search. We have so many choices. Our first group of listings that we received had about 40 different homes to look at. That was after inputing a fairly fine filter on our search.

This is such a contrast to the last time that we purchased a home five years ago. The only thing that we could afford was the home that we eventually bought. I suppose that was an easier decision back then. Do we want to buy or not? Now, we need to narrow down the listings to a manageable number, look at the properties, compare the properties, then make a decision.

What a difference it is to be the buyer in a buyer's market rather than the seller. We are lucky that our home in LA was 'only' on the market for about 2 months. Some of the homes we have been looking at here have been on the market for over 6 months. You can get a whole lot of house here for $275,000. We are looking at homes as high as $350,000. We just need to prioritize what is most important: school district, new home, finished basement, living area square footage, lot size, neighborhood, price, drive time to work, etc.

I took a look at the sales statistics for the area. The average sales price for existing homes in 2006 was $243k, up 5% from the previous year. That is a big difference from Los Angeles where the average was around $500k. We made that right decision to move (another affirmation).

Pictures Are Coming

We have not been able to take any pictures since before we left California. We assumed that our digital camera was buried somewhere in storage. I was seriously thinking about buying a new one so that we could take some pictures. We have no photo documentaion of our transition to Colorado Springs.

I found the camera! It was with all of the karate gear. Lisa had taken it to their last karate class with Master Kwon. I kept the gear out of storage because I thought we might start karate here soon. We had it with us the whole time. Coming soon: Photos!

Accepted Offer

I received an email from our realtor that our counter offer has been accepted by the potential buyer. It was a long (in my opinion) negotiating process. There was the initial offer plus three more counter offers. Hopefully the negotiating phase in the selling of our home was not indicative of what our closing phase will be like. We are praying that we will have a smooth and fast escrow period and close.

Only in America...

Only in America.....do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front.

Only in America......do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries, and a diet coke.

Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain the pens to the counters.

Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in the driveway and put our useless junk in the garage.

Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight.

Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning 'bloodsucking creatures'.

Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille lettering.

(unknown author)

Your Tax Dollars at Work II

Just got back from a trip to the post office. This was a different experience than the trip to the Social Security office (see previous post). When we walked in, there was no line, but there were 7 windows open! Granted, each window had a customer in it, so we might have walked in when they were trying to clear the line down. I would rather have too many lines open rather than too few. Although, the person who helped me did make a disparaging comment about my Chicago Cubs cap. He was a Pittsburgh Pirates fan so who was he to talk. And the clerk next to him (a dreaded Cardinals fan) had to pile on.

Your Tax Dollars at Work

We had to go to the local Social Security office yesterday because Lisa needed a physical card as part of her employment. The office opened at 9:00 AM, but they open the doors at 8:30 so that people can come in and take a number to be served. We didn't know about the early open, so by the time we got there at 9:00, there were at least 75 people waiting in the office.

They started with two windows open in the beginning, and I noticed that at most, there would be three windows open for business. Lisa was able to finish up her paperwork at around 10:45. She was on company time.

While we were waiting, a big truck pulled up to make a delivery. I was hoping it would be computers so that they could open up more windows. Nope, it was about 6-8 high back super-deluxe office swivel desk chairs. If I were to guess, they were probably around $250 each. If it were up to me, these particular federal government workers should be sitting on those $6 plastic chairs from Wal-Mart.

Well, now that Lisa is a Colorado State employee, she will not be contributing into the Social Security system. That is fine with us. We were not planning on receiving anything from it when we retire. So we are saving 6% of her pay in Social Security taxes. Thank God for small favors.

The Power of Punctuation

An English professor wrote the words: "A woman without her man is nothing" on the chalkboard and asked his students to punctuate it correctly.

All of the males in the class wrote:
"A woman, without her man, is nothing."

All the females in the class wrote:
"A woman: without her, man is nothing."

You decide which is the correct statement...

Harry Potter Book 7!

There is feverish excitement in our household as the title of the seventh (and final?) book in the Harry Potter series is announced: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Akeelah and the Bee

We all watched Akeelah and the Bee yesterday. I would recommend this movie. What was strange to me was the fact that of all the movies out there to choose from, Alex and Marisa wanted to see this one. It kept their attention throughout. Perhaps it was because Alex has an interest in entering a Spelling Bee. And Marisa looks up to her brother.

The movie is about a young girl living in a very 'tough' neighborhood in South Los Angeles. She has a gift of spelling. Hence the title of the movie. OK, I admit that the movie was very predictable and seemed to play up the different racial stereotypes a bit much. But it was very inspiring and there were many good messages and lessons throughout. You won't be disappointed.

from movie: "...Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others." --Marianne Williamson (incorrectly attributed to Nelson Mandela in the film)

The Rambling Post

I haven't been able to post anything lately, but I have a little time now so I'll just ramble on (reflect) about the past few weeks.

We have been in Colorado Springs now for about 2 weeks. Even though the weather has been a little out of the ordinary (a lot of snow and cold), we are all in agreement that we made the correct decision to move out of southern California. The way I look at it, if this is the worst that it will ever get here in the winter, then we have been handling it well and we will be able to survive the 'normal' winters. That seemed to be the biggest concern for Lisa.

It is all about perception. We are temporarily living in a furnished apartment until our home in Harbor City sells, then we will have funds to purchase a home here. It is kind of funny that a couple of the 'locals' here have said to be very careful because we are living in a bad part of town. What? You do not know what a bad part of town is. In the LA area, this would be considered one of the better neighborhoods.

We have gotten a few offers on our home. What we have found is that the people interested in our home are looking for a starter home. Can you believe it? $390,000 for a starter home in Los Angeles. Offers have fallen through because potential buyers have poor credit or are trying to buy with no money down or just can't afford it. A starter home here in Colorado Springs would probably be around $150,000 or so (I'm guessing).

There is definitely a different culture here. I have noticed that (w/o exception) the people here are a lot friendlier. The employees in stores actually look like they enjoy their jobs. It shows. There seems to be a lot more teenagers working in positions here that would be taken by people working because they need the income to live in Los Angeles. For instance, in the grocery stores, the cashiers are young high school or college age kids. In LA, these positions are taken by people who have been working at the store for 15, 20, or 30 years.

Speaking of grocery stores, you cannot buy wine and they have a very limited selection of beer there. You must go to a liquor store. And because of the law, all liquor stores are closed on Sunday.

I have seen the following message on at least 3 different billboards around town: "Abortion is always wrong. --God." This is something that would be out of the ordinary in LA. It seems to be the norm here.

Lisa started her job on Friday. It seems that she will really like her job. I drove her into work during a snowstorm. I am getting used to driving in the snow and ice. We actually 'discovered' that our minivan has front wheel drive! Something that was not too important in a warm weather climate. We hit a major traffic jam on the way to work. Luckily we left a little early because of the storm and we got to her work in 10 minutes instead of 7.

Things that we still need to do (pray for us):
--sell our home
--buy a home here with at least 4 bedrooms and a big back yard.
--find a parish
--decide whether we will continue to homeschool
--continue to enjoy Colorado Springs' awesome scenery