246. Saxophone

Anthony is taking Band in school and chose the saxophone as his instrument.

He got to take his saxophone home over the weekend 

even though he didn't know how to put it together or how to play it.

Finally, today, he was able to put it together and play "Mary had a little lamb".

Apparently, it's not an easy instrument to play...

But it sure is cool!

245. Catie's New Look

Took Catie to the Veterinarian.

Good news, she is still doing very well considering her age!

Dr. Pope was pleased to report that all she has is a pretty bad case

of dermatitis (skin rash) with a little infection.

She gave us some topical ointment to apply to the affected area and some antibiotics.

And she wants to see us again next Monday to remove Catie's growth...

She agreed to do it under local anesthetics, given Catie's calm and trusting disposition.

So, in the meantime, Catie has to wear a t-shirt to protect the area from getting more infected and she still has to wear her cone!

244. Cone Head

Two nights ago, Catie woke me up a lot in the middle of the night; She was liking herself, scratching, etc... I had no idea what was bothering her until the next morning when I checked her fur and found out that she had been picking at her cyst.

She has had a cyst on her chest for a few years now. At first it was the size of a pea. The veterinarian said it was nothing serious and that it could be removed surgically. But since it wasn't bothering Catie, we opted not to have it removed. 

Of course, over the years, it has grown; It is now the size of an egg and up until Friday night, it didn't seem to bother her. 

But now that she has started to pick at it, she won't stop. It is irritated and she has managed to "lick off" all the fur around it! So yesterday, I went to the store and bought a cone. I put it on her last night and I have to admit, I slept much better!

I took it off in the morning so she could eat without any obstruction and left it off while I went to take my shower. In 20 minutes, she did even more damage... So the cone is back on and it is not coming off until we see the vet! Hopefully, Dr. Pope can get rid of it without having to put her under general anesthesia; I would hate for Catie to have surgery, given her age. And hopefully, it is not a symptom of something more serious.

Poor Catie... She doesn't seem to mind though. And when Allan started calling her "Cone Head", I yelled at him! I am a firm believer that dogs know when you are making fun of them. And Catie doesn't deserve this... She our sweet old girl!

243. Uniforms

For the first time in I don't know how many years, all three kids have the same color uniform for soccer. Nicholas, being with the SCV Magic wears green with a white alternate jersey. Christina represents Canyon Country and her travel team also wears green with a white alternate jersey. And Anthony, just happens to be on the Green team for his AYSO team.
Today, all three of them were playing pretty much at the same time. So, I only got to see Christina's game (they lost 5-0). Anthony's team also lost, today. But Nicholas' team finally won a game!
When Christina and I came back from Newburry park where she played, the boys were still wearing their uniforms. Nicholas noticed that they were all wearing green today so I suggested that we take a photo. Of course, Anthony being a "Grumpy Bug" didn't want to be there! So the first photo was pretty bad. But on the second one, Nicholas said something funny and I was able to capture all three of them smiling!

242. Second in League Meet!

It's been a busy week and I haven't had much time to post or even take photos. But today, Nicholas ran in the first Foothill League Cross Country Meet, which gave me something to photograph and write about.
The Foothill League includes 6 high schools from the Santa Clarita Valley. In the Soph/Frosh race, approximately 180 students participated. Nicholas finished in second place with a time of 17:35 min.

Nicholas took the lead early on.

He ran a strong race, taking the lead early on. He was running neck in neck with a runner from Valencia High School for the first mile but lost him quickly. He was still in the lead at the 2 miles mark closely followed by 2 runners from Saugus High School.

He was still in the lead at the 2 miles mark!

He was still going strong but was headed towards the last hill of the course. And that's when one of the Saugus runner made his move. At the top of the hill, Nicholas had fallen slightly behind.
He was able to regain the lead going downhill but his lead didn't last long. The Saugus runner past him again and this time was able to put some distance between himself and Nicholas. And despite pushing himself as much as he could, Nicholas ended up in second place.

He was able to regain the lead going downhill...

But his lead didn't last long.

Despite running as hard as a could to the finish line, Nicholas ended up in second place.

Still... Everyone was proud of him! But no one more proud than Allan and myself! There is another League Meet a few weeks from now and League Finals in about 1 1/2 month. I am sure Nicholas will continue to do well and hopefully meet his goal of winning the League Finals!

241. Pride

Yesterday, Nicholas participated in the Woodbridge Invitational Cross Country Meet, in Costa Mesa, CA. This is the biggest Cross Country Invitational in the state. He was one of 5 Sophomores from Golden Valley to attend the 3 miles race. His race,  was a Sophomore only race and the total number of participants was over 250! I couldn't be there since Christina had a soccer game at the same time, so Allan went with him.

I'm sorry I missed it... He ran a personal best of 16:50 minutes, ranking 46/250+! I couldn't believe it... That's more than 1 minute faster than his previous personal record of 18:05 minutes.

Needless to say that Allan and I are very proud of him. His coaches were pretty surprised and very happy. And of course, Nicholas was ecstatic! He came home with a medal, and a huge smile!

240. Happy Birthday Catie!

Our old girl, Catie is turning 14 years old today... That's 98 years old in human years! And she is still looking pretty good/healthy! 

She has definitely slowed down in the past year. And some days, she needs a lot of coaxing to finish our morning walk. But she is still the sweet and loving Catie that we adopted 6 years ago! 

Let's hope she still has a few more years ahead of her...

239. Snake or Dragon?

I found this drawing in Anthony's room.

My son never ceases to amaze me!

He is so creative!

I just wonder... Is it a snake or a dragon?

And why is he obsessed with these creatures?

238. 18:05 Minutes

Crescenta Valley Mid Week Meet

Ran Varsity for the first time.

Time: 18:05 minutes.

That's 2 minutes better than last year on the same course.

Came second for his team.

Way to go Nicholas!

237. Scheduling Conflicts

Escape Theater began last night and the scheduling conflicts started already! Christina's soccer practices are on Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 PM to 7:00 PM. Rehearsals for the Ensemble are Mondays at 7:00 PM. 

Last night we had to leave soccer practice half hour early to make it to rehearsal on time. Wednesdays are Leads Rehearsals. And this coming Wednesday (i.e. tomorrow), 

 is the audition preparation. So Christina will have to miss the entire practice. 

She did get a half hour of private lesson with Coach Joel on shooting today. And we will take her again on Sunday. She likes Coach Joel and he is very good with her. It's not the same as practicing with the team, but it gives her a chance to practice on skills that she needs work on. 

We knew this was going to be an issue, but it's like she told Coach Donald on Monday: 

Soccer is third on her list of priorities:

1. Dogs

2. Acting/Theater

3.Soccer

236. Club Volleyball

So Anthony tried out for Club Volleyball tonight... He has been invited to join the team! There were only 8 players at tryouts so assuming they all accept the invitation, there will be a U14 Team. We are crossing our fingers!
Anthony is excited... He is really looking forward to playing more volleyball. This afternoon, he even asked me if I could practice with him! That's how serious he is. Both Allan and myself are also excited; We used to play in a coed league, when we first moved to California. It was so much fun!
Plus, having only 8 players on the team means a lot more playing time! So let's hope everyone is in. We will find out for sure next Sunday if there will be a team.

235. Soccer and Thunder Storm

Got to see all three kids play soccer today. And it was a great day for soccer! The weather was perfect; Not too hot, not too cold. 

Except for the one thunder storm, in the middle of Anthony's game! In the 9 years that our family has been involved in soccer, this was the first time that a game had to be stopped due to a thunder storm. Soccer goes on no matter what... Except when lightning and thunder is too close. So this afternoon, about half way into the first quarter of Anthony's game, we had to exit the fields and wait about 10 minutes for the storm to pass. The boys came back into the game and score 3 goals, one after the other,  before ending the first quarter. The game ended at 5-2.

Nicholas was the first to play, this morning, and had a pretty good game; He ended up playing about half the game and definitely contributed in the offense. He has another game tomorrow morning and I am looking forward to watching the whole game this time (I only got to watch the first half before taking Christina to her game).

Christina's team tied 2-2 and represented Canyon Country very well!

234. Guess What Time It is?

It's soccer time! The 2011 Fall Soccer Season is upon us... 5 games this weekend; Two games each for Nicholas and Christina and one game for Anthony.

Lucky for us, the three games tomorrow are local games and there is enough time in between that we should be able  to see most of the games. The two games on Sunday are at pretty much the same time and are away from home. Which means that Allan and I will have to split up; Allan will go with one kid and  I will go with the other one.

Since Nicholas has missed a few practices in the past few weeks, I don't expect that he will be playing much. I don't think he really cares at this point; He told us that if we hadn't already payed for him to play, he would have quit! He is really excited about Cross Country and is planning on devoting all his time to running, next year. Until then, he will go to as many practices and games as possible and play as much as his coach will allow.

By the way, Sunday evening is also Anthony's tryouts for Club Volleyball! Busy weekend...

233. A Great Beginning

Nicholas had his first Cross Country meet of the season today; it was a friendly meet between Golden Valley, Crescenta Valley, Camarillo and Newbury Park. It was a very hot day and the coaches decided to reduce the course to 2.3 miles instead of the usual 3 miles. They also kept the course pretty flat with only a small hill. Not Nicholas' best conditions; He prefers longer races and loves hills!
They also combined the Frosh (Freshmen/Sophomores) race with the JV (Junior Varsity) race. That's a lot of teenagers!
So, imagine how happy Nicholas was and how proud I was when he finished 5th!
We don't know how fast he ran... the times weren't available before we had to leave. He will surely find out tomorrow at running practice. It doesn't really matter anyways since it wasn't a full 3 miles race. But it should give him a better idea of how fast he can run and should help him set his goal for the next race.
Way to go Nicholas! Hard work does pay off...

232. Class President

Christina announced last night that she has been elected 5th Grade Class President... She is in a 5th/6th Grade split class with about 20 5th graders. Of course, this is mostly just a title as the 6th Grade President and Vice President will be representing the class during most functions. But still, I was impressed that she won the election!
She had prepared a pretty good speech (I read it) and I know that she has no problems speaking in front of an audience; She is such a little "ham"! But what I didn't know is that she is apparently pretty popular amongst her peers... Way to go Christina!

231. Goof Ball

Look at me! I'm a big, old Goof Ball!

230. Labor Day

We usually go to the beach on Labor Day...

Not this year; After checking the forecast for Venice beach, we decided to stay home.

Nicholas came back from Lake Mead this afternoon and was pretty tired.

He is also a little bit worried about not having enough time to do his homework!

I think he is having second thoughts about soccer this year;

It might be too much for him to handle...

Allan and I don't want him to quit but it might come down to it!

229. Soccer Schedule

Finally got our schedule for soccer; It's going to be a very busy season! 

With both Nicholas and Christina on a travel team, it's going to be pretty hectic! 

And to add to the craziness,  Nicholas has 4 Cross Country meets that fall on a Saturday!

The insanity starts next weekend...

228. Outnumbered

The boys were outnumbered today; With Nicholas gone to Lake Mead with Greg, and Anthony gone to La Jolla for surfing, Allan and Rocky were the minority at the Devantiers' home!
So since it was only Christina and us, we decided to just stay home, rather than going to the beach like we usually do on Labor Day weekend. We took the dogs to the dog park in the morning and Christina got her hair cut. Allan and I took a short nap in the afternoon while Christina watched a movie!
I finished ready my book and started a new one and took some photos of the dogs in the backyard. It was a nice relaxing day... That's it! Not much more to tell!

227. Banana Chocolate Chips Bread

Banana Chocolate Chips Bread

1 1/4 cups sugar

1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (3 to 4 medium)

1/2 buttermilk or yogurt

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all purpose or whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chocolate chips

Heat oven to 350º. Grease bottoms only of 2 loaf pans.

Mix sugar and margarine in large bowl. Stir in the eggs until well blended.

Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients except chocolate chips just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips and pour into pans.

Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Cool 5 minutes. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans.

Cool completely before slicing.

Wrap tightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days, or refrigerate up to 10 days.

226. Souvenir

Before Allan left for England, Christina asked him to please bring her back something. So when Allan came home today, she wanted to know what he had gotten her. He brought her back this little house; The funny thing is that it was given to him, he didn't buy it. Even funnier, it's actually a bottle of boose!
She doesn't care... To her, it's a present from daddy and it comes from another country!
Of course we told her not to open the bottle; It would probably wreck it. And we forbade her to drink the alcohol!