My Phi is Going to Junior High so Let's Reminisce

I think another reason I am not ready for the school year to start is because this year is going to be a transition year for Phi. She is going from home-schooled to a regualr everyday junior high school. Just the thought of it makes my stomach hurt with nerves. The worst part is I have to plaster a fake smile on my face so that Phi doesn't sense my nervousness. I don't know why these kind of things make me so nervous. Always has. Even in graduate school I would get stomach aches and would not be able to sleep the night before a new semester. I would be scared of things like...

• not being able to find my classrooms
• not getting my locker to work
• not finding a parking space (if you went to CSUN around 2002 you know this was a legit fear)
• not being on the roll call sheet
• not getting a seat
• being late to class
• being a ghost and not knowing it and that's why people are ignoring me but I don't know I'm a ghost so I just think people are being mean.

It just  gets weirder from there.

Now looking back junior high was such a fun time for me. Of course I had to dig through pictures to really remember it all. Maybe a little trip down memory lane will help me feel better about Phi starting junior high.

Let me start by saying that I am sorry the pics are so grainy but my junior high day were from 1989-1991 and most of these pictures were shot on a Kodak Disc Camera.

Oh you don't remember what those look are?

Let me refresh your memory..

Man I loved this camera!

So junior high,... here is a little back story. My experience was a little different than most because I went to a tiny school. About 300 kids from kinder to 8th grade. This mean I went to school with the same 25+ kids for 9 years. So junior high just meant we moved classes during the day. All of us. Together.

So remember,1998-1991 so the hair is going to be permed and the bangs are going to be sky high.

You have been warned.

I had my absolute best friend with me all day long. We got to sit next to each other practically all day long. We had lunch together and only had to separate at the end of the day because we took different buses home.

Jessica is the perfect BFF, she is smart, funny and teachers love her so we got away with pretty much anything. She is the only girl in a family full of boys and that made her braver and much more daring than me. I wouldn't have had half as much fun if it wasn't for her encouraging me.

We were in the band together and that meant we had an excuse to go to each others house.  Flute practice.

Looking back at this pictures I notice the big air, the double tongue LA Gears, the double and sometime triple socks. But I can remember the feelings. The giggles and the happiness. I remember life being so exciting during this time that talking with your friends all day, and even on the phone after school wasn't enough. You had to spend time writing notes to each other.

Keeping up on who likes who, and who asked who out. Writing out in explicit detail what our weddings to Joey McIntyre or Donnie Wahlberg would be like. Even taking the time to put together wedding invitations. (NKOTB Forever). We schemed ways to go to the little league to talk to boys who didn't go to our school.
 

Junior high was a confusing and really formative time. There were rounds of truth or dare in the hallway and lots of discussion of what french kissing really was. There may or may not have been diagrams. We were going through puberty, our bodies were changing and there was so much to learn but I had such great friends to go through it together. There was not any topic that Jessica and I did not discuss.

And of course there were boys. By 7th grade I had noticed them and they had noticed me. I remember the nerves of going to a school dance. (They were held during the day after lunch!) I was such a nervous wreck because Matthew was going to ask me to dance. A SLOW ONE. And he did, and we swayed to "Have you Seen Her" by MC Hammer. How do I remember that? Well it was written on the back of the photo as well as things like "Matthew & Elissa Forever" and MEC". We use to make these monograms of the guys initials with your first initial in the middle. This does not make sense to me now but it's what we did. So in our different colored acid washed jeans we danced and my BFF was there to take a picture so that all these years later I can still remember that feeling. The excitement and being so nervous being that close to a boy.

seriously...the jeans...

And it just a few short years it was time to shop for a graduation dress, make that oh so important decision on who you would walk into the ceremony with. (Thanks Jaime P!). I found a beautiful white dress and Jessica wore pretty peach dress with ruffles. Someone bought us corsages and we ended junior high vowing that we would be best friends forever. And we have kept that promise for 25 years and counting.

So did this stroll down memory lane: junior high edition help relieve some of my nerves about my tiny baby starting junior high school? Not really.

I am nervous that I will completely mess up the drop off line, or get the times mixed up and pick her up an hour after school gets out. Ot what if the kids don't like her clothes or her backpack?

But looking at old pictures was fun!

We want our August back.

10 weeks. That's all my kids go for summer vacation this year. And as I start adding school orientation and school clothes shopping into my planner I feel like we are getting ripped off. Big time. I mean what happened to August? My kids start school on August 9th. THE 9TH!

I remember August being the month of summer when you finally got bored. When the days seemed so long and you thought the heat would never end. When you got tired of watching the same movie (Little Shop of Horrors for me) over and over again. Your annual summer vacation was behind you and the conversations with BFF on the phone start turning to the new school year. Those last few weeks of August are there to make you ready for school to start.

With just 10 weeks off we feel like we just got into the summer groove. We just got used to lazy mornings and late nights. We just started movie marathons and even went on our annual summer trip earlier than usual. We are not bored yet. Not even close. There was still so much we wanted to do but instead we are shopping for pens and backpacks and waking up earlier everyday to get our bodies use to it. (spoiler alert: they never get used to it!)

The idea of getting Phi to school by 8 am already has me exhausted. And I know Joey is not looking forward to getting Louie out of bed and getting her ready for class even if its only once a week. And back to homework and homeschool. Back to not just keeping track of my stuff but all the kids assignments as well.

What happened to the good old days when school started the day after labor day?

We want out August back!

Day Date, Four Chords and a Gun

So you know that character from the show "Big Bang Theory" with the lisp? 

I believe the characters name is "Barry Kripke". 

Well the guy who plays that guy is John Ross Bowie. 

And John Ross Bowie wrote his first play. 

A pretty dang good play. 

A play about The Ramones. 

I know what you're thinking. "OMG a play about a punk rock band! This is like perfect for you Elissa because you love punk rock and plays!" I could not agree with you more. And super lucky for me Brian Nitzkin, the producer of the play thought the same thing, reached out to us and invited us to catch a matinee of ....

"Four Chords and a Gun" 

I know, great title. We were excited to accept and on Sunday we slowed down the car and kicked the kids out to stay with family. 

Look no kids in the background!

And we headed into LA to the Bootleg Theatre on Beverly Blvd. to catch the show. 

Now on a side note, child care is offered for the Sunday matinees but we opted to leave the kids with their cousins to spend the day swimming, but how cool is is that they offer child care right there on site? 

The venue itself was very cool. We got in, dropped our name and felt super cool and important for a hot second and headed in. And straight to the bar. 

"Four Chords and a Gun" tells the story of The Ramones and the recording of their 5th album "End of the Century". After 4 albums, a big fan following, this punk band from New York that is known as the founders of American punk rock, was just not seeing the commercial success they had been working so hard for. So for the 5th album they team up with infamous Phil Spector, record producer extraordinaire. Between the craziness that is Phil and the drama between the band members the story has no lulls. The story grabs you from the first word and doesn't let go until the end. 

Now how much drama can 4 punk rock boys from New York have between them? Let's say that the drama is at mexican soap opera levels. We are talking sex, drugs, guns and capes. Big velvet capes. 

The play has a cast of 6...

Marky Ramone.......... James Pumphrey

Johnny Ramone......... Johnathan McClain

Dee Dee Ramone....... Michael Daniel Cassady

Joey Ramone............. Matthew Patrick Davis

Linda Daniele............ Arden Myrin

Phil Spector............... Josh Brener (yup that guy from Maron!) 

After watching the play I had to a little side by side of the cast and the real Ramones to see how well it was casted. After the roughly 2 hour play I could not separate the real from the acting. You know how like after you see the movie Selena, and every time you try to picture Selena you see J. Lo? 

The Cast

The Ramones

Pretty damn good casting. Josh Brener as Spector steals every scene he is in. Even when standing next to 6 foot 5 Matthew Patrick Davis. So of course after seeing the play I am obsessed with all things Ramones. I spent the drive home googling every article I could about the band. Did you know that Joey Ramone once recorded with Debbie Harry?

You are probably thinking...

"I want to go see 'Four Chords and a Gun' but the run ends this weekend!". Well I have good news. The play has been extended for 2 more weeks. You can even head over bootlegtheater.org and get your tickets. 

An Added Bonus...

Louie and our CEO Jessica= BFF's

I am not a stay-at-home Mom, I am not a work from home Mom. Instead I have always labeled myself as a "Mom from Work Mom." 

What does that mean?

Well I have a very unique situation. I work for an exceptional employer who believes that children should be with their parents, even at the office. Both girls have grown-up in my office. When they were babies I had a pack and play in my office, a bouncer on the edge of my office doorway. Sometimes when I was on the phone with a client I was nursing a kid. There were times when they would literally nap on my desk.The girls are still here every afternoon with me. There is still a box of kids movies and a toy box here. Even now there is a small table with art supplies. The fact that I never had to put my girls in child care is a blessing that we will always be so thankful for.

The other day I realized another big bonus with having the girls in the office all these years. See I work for a company that has really worked hard to grow over the last few years. We purchased a competitor, we even applied for, was approved for and started a 30 student internship program. Now here is the bonus for my girls, this company is 100% owned and run by women. They are not just seeing their Momma solve problems, learn new skills and just work hard in general, but they are seeing our owner and her success. They can see how her hard work all these years has allowed her to work less and enjoy life more. They got to see how our CEO went from a consultant to running the show by working her tail off.

To my girls, powerful, successful women are going to be the norm for them. They won't assume that the owner of a company is a man, like 95% of telemarketers who call here do. They will grow-up to know that they can own and run successful companies because they literally grew up in the middle of one.  

Sea World with the Girl Scouts

Chances are you bought girl scout cookies earlier this year. You may or may not wondered where that money goes. Well for each box you buy about $1 goes straight to the troop you bought it from. Cookies is a major fundraiser for us and our girls work so hard. Each summer we plan a big trip for the girls all funded by cookie money. This year we bought each girl a Sea World Fun Card and a behind the scenes tour. At no cost to the girl scout! 

We went a few weekends ago and had such a great time. 

Of course the moment we walked into the park there was one place Louie just had to go to...

This would be the first of 4 different trips to the sea otters on this day. The last one was as we walked out of the park. She needed to tell them all good-bye and good night. 

We had a few more minutes to check out some dolphins before it was time to meet the troop.

We met at the group tour and were happy to be reunited with all our Girl Scout friends.

We have a really big troop and had a great turn out for this trip.

And off we went on a behind the scenes tour of Sea World. Here we go behind the gates!

We got to see these really cool archer fish. They would spit water to knock down food from branches. We got to touch shrimp, starfish and even jellyfish!

Even Phi touched a jellyfish.

We continued the tour by heading to the dolphins that are being rehabilitated. We passed by the flamingos on the way there.

It was amazing at how close we were to the dolphins. Of course we couldn't touch them but they swam right up to where we were standing. It was so cool until one dolphin got too playful and splashed half our group.

The last part of the tour was to the sea turtles. Here the girls got to be close and even feed lettuce to the turtles.

After the tour we stopped for lunch and then met up again at the Shamu Show! Still as great as ever. Before the show started they explained that because of concerns by the public the killer whale show is going to change. It will focus more on natural behaviors. Even the stadium will look different.

After the show we walked with some friends to the ride 'Journey to Atlantis'. Joey told Phi that she had to get on. She freaked. She cried. She hadn't been feeling well all day. But in the end she got on. What a trooper!

The day was hot so after the ride we headed to the Arctic exhibit to cool down. The ice wall helped a lot.

Just hanging in a polar bear den.

We also checked out the dolphin show. This was a really spectacular show!

The seals were hard to miss. They were so loud!

The last show we caught was the seal and sea otter show. This show was SO FUNNY! Of course the otter was a river otter named OP and Louie loved him. She even bought herself a new stuffed otter from Sea World and named it OP. As you can see OP is a DJ.

As usually we closed the park down and still did not see everything. The penguins were one of the last animals we visited. The last thing we did was ride the tower 350 feet in the air. It was awesome!

What a great trip! And with our Fun Cards we will be going back soon! 

Bass Lake 2016

This was our 29th year at what to the Gomez family is the happiest place on earth, Bass Lake, California. This year we went about a month earlier than usual and we rented a house on the North side of the lake near Falls Beach. As we counted down the days until vacation our only concern was water levels. With the drough in California we were afraid the house would be far from the water.

We had absolutely nothing to worry about. This was our back yard.

The drive was great and by Friday afternoon of day 1 we were settled into our rooms for the week and ready to get the vacation started.

As always the week went by way to quickly. We spent most nights playing Guesstures and Heads Up in the living room.

Of course one of the highlights is the big talent show. This year everyone came to win. Cari and Luis played a game where they let their kids put edible items in a paper bag, they were blindfolded and then they had to guess what they were eating. Yup pretty gnarly! One was a spoonful of ketchup. Oh heck no!

 
Elaine, Kelly and Ellie demonstrated that how only after 6 months of parenting they were able to understand every one of Ellie's cries. We all wrote typical baby dilemmas on a piece of paper. Kelly picked one and demonstrated the cry and Elaine had to guess what it was. Ellie just looked super cute.

Next up was Nana and Tata. After some set up they started the show. With Chone narrating they told the story of Little Felix getting ready for the school Olympics. As you can see from the picture below it was hilarious. For the first few minutes I could not even shoot pictures because I was laughing so hard. Louie watched the entire thing with a very confused look on her face. She could not figure out how they were doing this. I still don't think she has figured it out.

Phi and Louie did a skit all about a weird conversation with Louie. Every question Phi asked Louie answered by lip syncing a song. We had some technical issues with the sound but I was proud of the girls. They had practiced so hard!

Lili, Felix and Chone did a hilarious video about a yu-gi-oh battle.
You can watch it here. CLICK ME

The big winners of this years talent show were Nana and Tata. Their skit was hilarious. Enjoy the trophy for the year! We are going to get it back!

 One of the best parts of being together for the week is seeing the kids all together. This was The El's first year and she loved watching her cousins play and talk to her.

It feels like it was just yesterday that Chone was the baby we were passing around and putting into the lake for the first time. There are now 6 of these kiddos and they have my heart. Man I love these kids.

I think The El's is as tall as Chone's knee. And I bet she's taller than Louie in just a few years!

We all take turns making dinner. One night we let the kids make dinner. The made us spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread. It was delicious.

 Our days were spent in the water. Lili and Phi were the last ones out every single day.

There were trips to The Pines and dinners at The Forks. We even celebrated Father's Day at Miller's Landing.

Being able to spend a whole week with The El's was fantastic. She is still so new and squishy. She is such a good baby. It strange because when Chone was little I was with her practically everyday. With Lili, Felix and Ellie the visits are too far in between.

I don't think there is anything more relaxing than laying in a floatie and just floating on the water. Usually with a drink in my hand.

Gorgeous

 
I think that my family could go anywhere together and have a good time but we are so lucky to be able to go to this little piece of heaven on earth.

See you next summer.