No More Sharpies...PLEASE!

Clearly I have left one too many sharpies lying around the house... Why are my kids the only ones going to school next week with beards? Where did I go wrong?...

It's time...to CELEBRATE!

Finally, a REALLY cool and unique concept restores and breathes life back into one of Long Beach's landmarks that was dying a slow death! Let's celebrate and support this entreprenurial endeavor as a statement of "YES! We want and will support independent businesses!" This theatre is now owned by Helen and Mark Vidor (our neighbors that we recently met and totally dig!). They backed up a vision of restoring this little dilapidated theatre on 4th street. Let's go, let's go, let's go! They've got wine and coffee bar--another mom from our neighborhood caters their pastries and food at the coffee bar!

I'm so booked this month for a mommy night out (and plan on going once with hubby), but I'd love to go November 1 if anyone wants in! The movies change every two weeks. Dinner first perhaps? Check out the website, it looks devine! http://www.arttheatrelongbeach.com/

Ciao,

Priscilla

Coffee Tuesdays

Hey mommies... if you have the time/interest in meeting for coffee, it looks like Tuesdays could be fairly regular days. So far, I think the Starbucks next to Barnes and Noble (in the Marina Pacifica shopping center) is pretty central to all. Come on down after you've dropped off the kids-or not (915ish)!

See you there!

FRIDAY NIGHT FUN for FREE!

We're heading up to Santa Monica Pier for the Free Friday Night Movie on the Pier. Grab tickets from the table at CDC or ask me... While its a bit of a late evening, its great fun, free and proceeds from the evening go to a cancer relief fund. We usually have dinner at home, get the kids into p.j.'s and sweatshirts, then drive up to arrive at the pier by 7:15 - the movie starts at sundown. We also bring blankets and beach chairs (although if you rent chairs at the pier for $5 each the donation goes to the relief fund). The movie this week is Open Season (rated PG for "some rude humor, mild action").

Hope to see you there! kfk

In the news: No library closure, cleaner air, and mayor tries to win over priscilla LOL!

The city's budget is balanced AND without shuttering the Main library--well services for two days will be cut back, but drastically different from the original proposal!

Also in the news, the City of Long Beach won a lawsuit to uphold it's law against high polluting trucks. The mayor, himself, told me; ))) see below. This is a major win, in my opinion, for our lungs! I feel for drivers of older trucks, but our City (and our world) needs to clean air. This is a step in the right direction!

CIAO!
P

Articles to review:


Balance Budget Passed By Council, Library To Stay Open
Read the article: http://www.LBPOST.com/

A letter from The Mayor to me (and everyone else who has been yelling at him for the past several weeks; ))) I sent back a big thumbs up--gotta give props, too, from time to time. Politics, funny game, eh!

Dear Friend, Today, a U.S. District Court Judge decided in favor of the Port of Long Beach's Clean Trucks Program. This means that on Oct. 1, the Port of Long Beach will begin to ban the oldest and most-polluting diesel trucks from entering the Port. The litigants may still decide to appeal the judgment, but I wanted you to know about today's important decision that will help us reach our shared goal of cleaning up the air in Long Beach. Please feel free to contact me at mayor@longbeach.gov if you have any questions or comments. Sincerely,
Mayor Bob Foster
City of Long Beach

Marina Park Farmer's Market Wednesday @4:30

Me and the kiddies will be stockin up on organic fruits and veggies and sitting under some trees to eat dinner (lots of cooked food options there) and watch random kids play soccer. Join us. We'll be there till 6:00. call me if we should look for you. 213 703 7729

Farmers Market Belmont Heights- Open Wednesday 2-7pm.
E.Paoli and E. 3rd St, Long Beach

Back from the Walk...

...and boy am I exhausted!

I just wanted to give everyone a little condensed version of the highlights from the MS Walk this past weekend.

Friday morning, my teammates (Rita, Sam and Christy) and I started walking at around 8am. I knew we were in for a long day, so of course I planned a craft project for the difficult second half of the day. About a mile or so after lunch, I got out 4 ziplock baggies with each of my team members names on them. Included inside was: a foam pirate hat, glittery letter stickers to spell your name, glitter glue and multi-colored jewel stickers. As we walked, we decorated and personalized our pirate hats and then put the ridiculous things on our heads and kept on going. For some reason, there were alot of pirate jokes and "Arrrrgh mateys" coming from passers by. About 3 miles from the day's finish line, we were picked up by a friend and former team member, and driven about a mile (the most difficult mile of that day). She dropped us back off - secretly - so that we could march across the finish line together with pride (so... we only walked 19 of the 20, who is counting?).

Saturday morning, at 7am we began the dreaded climb up Torrey Pines hill. I didn't have any blisters to complain about, but, the tops of my feet were so bruised I could hardly walk. After taking lots of Motrin, I warmed up just enough to hobble on up the hill with my team. Day 2 is usually a much slower paced day for us, so we bring lots of distractions. We had a TV trivia game, paddle ball toys, yo-yos and lots of singing. This brought us all the way to lunch - just barely. Once there, we were able to enjoy a sit down, fully catered, real chairs/forks/glasses/napkins meal courtesy of the contest that our team as a whole won for raising the most money in the month of July. After lunch, Rita decided that she'd had enough and called for our friends to pick us up and take us to... well.... a bar. The mimosas were WONDerful! The owner of the bar supplied us with complimentary champagne and orange juice and a lovely spot on the patio where none of the other walkers in the event could possibly spot us. We met several friends while there including Julia who drove down to have dinner later and celebrate the walk with us.

Which brings me to Saturday night. Now, Saturday night is always a lovely buffet dinner with lots of wine and yummy desserts - in addition, Saturday night is very emotional. They call it the candle light ceremony and turn off the lights and have people stand up with their lit candles as they call out groupings of people. First group to stand with their candles are those with MS, then if you have a parent or child with MS, a grandparent or aunt or uncle with MS, and lastly, a friend of the heart with MS. By this time you can imagine the emotions and crying going on. I don't know why every year I insist on wearing make-up because by the end of it there isn't any left. The evening was touching and inspiring and I left it feeling very connected to that group of more than 300 people in the room. Scientists and researchers are so close to finding a cure! There are more clinical trials going on for MS medications than for any other disease - we just need to keep up the momentum by throwing money at it.

I keep saying this, but, if they had a sign-up sheet for next years walk posted at the door for people on their way out from Saturday night, I bet they would get every single person in that room.

Sunday morning was super easy... comparatively. We needed only to walk 9 miles in a 3 hour period, which would have been easy had we not stopped for coffee, an icee, french fries and a philly cheesesteak sandwich. What? We were easily distracted and hungry! Our little group of 4 made it by a margin of about 10 minutes to the staging area before the final 1 mile to the finish line, where the entire group would march together. We donned our white or yellow shirts, got in line, took a ton of photos and marched together as one across the finish line.

Now, I hope that those of you who donated don't take offense to the fact that we only walked about 40 of the 50 miles. Those mimosas were SO worth it! I also hope that everyone reading this might consider joining me next year - it is only 40 miles after all...

Thanks to everyone! Smooch!

a

LUNCH BOX NOTES

Head over to my tangarang blog to download these lunch box notes I just designed in honor of the start of school!

Snow in August?!?! Well, I guess it isn't called the Great White North for nothing!!

Well, so much for a relaxing Labour Day weekend camping in the mountains! Last Saturday night, just as our camper's propane tank ran out, the park warden came around to let us know that snow was forecast for the night (August 30/31!!!). So, without our camper's little furnace to take the edge off, we (the grown ups at least -- the kids were apparently warm enough) shivered through a fairly sleepless night and were summoned out of our eventual brief sleep by "Mommy, Daddy, it SNOWED!!!! It SNOWED!!!!"

It was 32F in the camper when we woke up. Nice. And the kids thought it was great until P inadvertently (well, I'm not positive about that adverb actually) stepped in a giant puddle (in his canvas sneakers) up to his shins. Hmm ... useful life lesson for surviving the winter in Canada: it HURTS LIKE HELL when you get wet and it's freezing outside!

So, we, with our wimpy California blood ... packed it in and came home a day early. Oh well. Apparently we'll try again in the spring ... like next June???

Please think of us when the sun is shining and it is warm and toasty there (or even mild, for that matter!). Tomorrow the daytime temperature is not supposed to get above 53F (with rain too - yippee!) And it's only Sept. 3!

ps -- P's shiner is due to a well-placed mosquito bite ... who knew THAT could happen?!?

GOOD LUCK!

Good luck to everyone starting school this week...remember...deep breaths!
Our dear Abby had two bits of great advice that really helped our first week of kindergarten:
1. Have a nice snack ready for your weary child...they've worked really hard and will be HUNGRY!
2. There are an awful lot of "have to's" at school now, so keep the "Do's and Don't's" at home to a minimum.

A change of venue for Nonviolent Parenting

In order to accomodate child care, we have moved to Seal beach. Here's the scoop:

This 10 week course will be taught at the Seal Beach Center for Spiritual Living in Seal Beach (500 Marina Drive). Class time will be 6:30pm to 8:30pm. Quality, Loving child care provided for a family fee of $5 a night. Course cost is $180 for all ten weeks or $20 a session. (add an additional co-parent for half price).

Email me if you have questions twpusl@yahoo.com or tova_nvparenting@yahoo.com