You Take the Good, You Take the Bad...

Thanks to getting the 10Q filed last week, I was able to take Friday off from work. Course, the main reason I needed to take Friday off from work was that I hit our time off limit so it was a take it or lose it situation. I wasn't about to squander the opportunity though. Mason had school and Siena had her day with Yaya so Luis and I went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was great. Course, now we have to wait 6 months for the second installment.

Yesterday my dad and I went down to Corvallis to watch Travis and the Timberwolves in the 6A state championship football game. It was a very rainy day but the rain held off pretty well during the game. Here's a shot of the stadium from the upper seats out of the rain where we watched the first half of the game.

Here come the Wolves!
Unfortunately the game didn't go as we all had hoped. 4 Tualatin turnovers in the first half pretty much did them in. Here's some concerned spectators - dad, Joanne, and Amanda.

Doug is trying to hold out some hope. It's pretty tough after an undefeated season to see them struggle, especially when we all knew they were a better team than they were playing.

Here's Travis warming up after halftime. They scored 2 TD's in the third quarter to bring the score within 11. That got the Tualatin crowd excited. Unfortunately Aloha tightened up on defense and pulled away for the win.

Here's the Tualatin team after the loss. It was sad to see them lose but amazing that they were able to get that far. It was still an amazingly successful season and as bummed as I know they are today, they should still feel very proud.

Gloria and Jose and going to Puerto Rico next week for the Holidays. As such, they gave the kids their presents a few days ago and they are now sitting under the tree. This is brutal for poor Siena who wants to bad to open that gift. It's as though it's taunting her. Every day she asks "now can I open my present" to which I have to respond, "no, it's not Christmas yet".

I've recently discovered my new favorite thing. Glee. I LOVE everything about this show from the story, the songs, and the crazy cheerleader coach. Here's the cast performing "Don't Stop Believing"...I could watch this over and over. Yup, I am a Gleek.

As good as that is, I also came across this disaster last week. Tonya Harding, Katarina Witt, George Wendt, Pam Anderson, are you kidding me? This is like the B list of 90's celebrities. And they're singing! Apparently it was some sort of Norwegian commercial. All I can say is Uff Duh.

Siena has her dance recital tonight after which I have to hop on a plane to San Francisco for CPE early next week. Of course we'll have an update on the recital but I wasn't sure when I'd be able to update the blog being out of town so consider this blog to be continued...

Most Amazing Football Weekend EVER!

It was a rare weekend in the land of Kris' fandom. Generally the teams I follow and root for, well, don't win. Case in point, Seahawks and Mariners. If there was a picture in the dictionary for perennial mediocrity, these 2 franchises would be it. The Blazers, I don't even want to talk about them today with their 6 game losing streak. Therefore, it was with nervousness and trepedation that I turned on the Oregonlive play by play as my alma mater, Tualatin High School, took the field Friday night against Jesuit. Jesuit is the local high school I despise most but lets not get into that.

I graduated Tualatin High more than a few moons ago as part of the school's first graduating class. We attended Tigard High our sophomore year of HS at which time our class was divided in half with half staying at Tigard and the other half attending the new Tualatin High School. There were no seniors during our junior year and, as such, we didn't win much of anything. By senior year, we had our feet under us but since it was a new school, we lacked some of the tradition and excitement of an establised school. Regardless, that's my school and I've always rooted for them. This is especially the case this year with my youngest cousin Travis being a part of the team. I was a senior in high school was a senior in high school when Travis was born but I digress.

So there I was with the computer pulled up periodically pausing my rented Season 1 of Glee to check in on the status of the game. Luis was working and the kids were in bed so it was just me and the cat. There were mere minutes to go as I saw that Tualatin scored a big TD to get the lead. Then they got a big sack on Jesuit's QB, causing a fumble which Tualatin recovered. They knelt the ball and scored a ticket to the State Championship game next Saturday in Corvallis. We'll be there!

Here's some pictures of Travis throughout this season, courtesy of some nice soul on Facebook. The fan club will be there in force next weekend!

Need I also mention that the Oregon Ducks are playing for their first National Championship? Are you kidding me?!? The same Ducks I've been watching and cheering for over the last 20+ years?!? Yippeeeee!!!

When we weren't watching or thinking about football, we mostly hung out at home. It was a nice weather weekend so the kids and I went for a walk yesterday though the neighborhood. Today we went to a roller skating birthday party. It's the first time Mason and Siena had ever skated. Siena picked it up pretty quick, helped I think by the dance lessions she's taken teaching her some balance and coordiation. Mason improved as he continued but it was challenging. Fun party though. With the close nit community of parents and kids and Mason's school, we are invited to a number of b-day parties and events and feel very fortunate to have been able to make some good friends and have these opportunities.

Happy 10Q filing week to all and to all a good night.

Thanks.

Seasons greetings all. It was a quiet but nice Thanksgiving for the Cruz clan. After baking a couple of apple pies, we headed up to Yaya and Papa Ron's to celebrate Thanksgiving with them and Annette and Walt. Here's an action shot of Yaya making gravy.
Oh yeah!

The official turkey cutter in action. Note the sleeves rolled up for the job.

The kids are ready!

After dinner Papa Ron, Mason, and I went out to the shop to look at cars and listen to the juke box. Mason has a number of favorite songs on Papa Ron's juke box - Who Put the Bomp, Runaround Sue, Rock Around the Clock...the kid likes his oldies!

Turns out Mason also likes to open up the hood of the tractor.

And smell the gasoline.

He also demonstrated skills in filling the go-cart tires up with air.

Papa Ron has made some good progress in filling out the family tree on my mom's side of the family, going back to the 1300's on both of her parent's sides of the family. I was excited to see that we were relatives of the Griswold's!

On Friday the kids and I went to see Tangled, which turned out to be a good movie for all of us! We ate popcorn and candy.

Saturday night I had dinner with my good friends Sarah and Laura (aka Bacon and Lettuce). The sandwich is growing with kids getting added to the mix over the years. It's always good to see them.

In a bit of sad news this week, my friend Jill from grade school passed away after battling cancer for the last 7 years. I had known Jill since kindergarten. Her mom was one of our Brownie leaders. We were part of the same group of friends all through grade school where we had countless slumber parties and played at each other's houses.

Jill and I got to be especially close in 6th grade after she had been "dumped" by the so proclaimed popular kids. I suppose I was the next tier down from that group (I never worried much about such things) and she turned to me a bit at that time for friendship. She was so funny and so much fun to be around that I was more than happy to hang around with her more and we became close friends during that year.

During junior high and high school we drifted apart a bit and went in some different circles of friends. I will always consider her a friend and grateful to have known her.

A Happy Serving of Starch!

Random weekend in November. What is there to do but gather with family and eat some kumla! This time the kumla destination was Auntie Jo's house.

Siena found her Yaya.
The kid's table. It should be noted that it was only a couple of years ago that Luis and I, along with our cousins were still at the kid's table.
Mason came back for kumla seconds! We were so proud that the only thing missing was confetti and streamers. Good little Nor-rican.

Mason tested out Jay B's new hip...the giddy-up seems to be back in full form.

Auntie Lou and her frock. This was the picture she didn't know I took.

And the one she did know I took. Apparently this apron has been handed down a couple of generations. I thought she was just making a fashion statement.

Happy 93rd birthday to Grandpa (in a couple of weeks)! No better way to celebrate than with some kumla in your belly!

Yaya's got a birthday coming up in a few days too. Of course her candles had to be in some pumpkin pie. And Siena had to help with candles.

Heidi displaying her cup labeling skills...or rather Dan's who didn't think Heidi's was sufficient.

Miss Rory. We wore her out.

So we ate kumla, celebrated birthdays, and enjoyed hanging out. And of course didn't get home until 9 on a school night. Totally worth it though.

Good luck to Tualatin football this Friday in the state playoffs! Especially good luck to my favorite defensive end #3 (my cuz Travis)!

The Photographic Stylings of Siena

Hi all - It was an normal week in the Cruz household although not particularly one with a lot of photo-ops. After working late for the first week of another quarter end, it was nice to have a laid back weekend. The kids and I went to a holiday bazaar at Mason's school with Yaya. Yaya found her birthday gift and I found my Christmas gift. The kids found some silly bracelets so everyone was happy.

Yaya was kind enough to watch the kids for an hour so I could go for a run on Saturday which I haven't been able to do since Luis started working so that was nice.

Today we hung out at the house and hit Sushiland for dinner - kids request.

Since I didn't take any pictures this weekend, it seemed like a good time to share some of the pictures Siena has taken with the camera she got for her birthday. She is often her own favorite subject.