Happy Retirement, Dori

A little over a week ago, Dori's co-workers threw her a wonderful Retirement Party (Thanks, Kristi and Linda and Snow School Staff). Andrew's mom, Dori, is retiring from teaching this year after more than twenty-five years. She's practically a local celebrity in our small town of Newark - we can hardly go anywhere without running into a former student, parent, or district personnel. Fortunately, she's not saying good-bye cold turkey and will still be doing a little bit of part-time teaching for Snow School. In Dori's honor, people made a donation for her favorite charity - she raised $824 for the Snow School Library - what a great charity! A couple of staffers put together an amazing slideshow of pictures and comments from current students, former students, and fellow teachers. Maybe 10% of the students' comments included Mrs. Ringlein's stern view of breaking pencils...from the mouths of kids:
"Tells us not to break pencils" -Taylor
"Doesn't let us throw pencils around" -Janisa
"We can't break pencils because they cost a lot of money" -Yvette
"Mrs. Ringlein doesn't let us break pencils" -Lesly
"Broken/short pencils we can trade in for a sharp one" -Nolan
"She keeps us safe from doing bad things like breaking scissors." -Christina

Had to throw in one about broken scissors instead of pencils...but I think we've got a new title for her, The Pencil Nazi. Andrew promptly came home and scattered a couple of broken pencils around.

Does this mean we can expect more cookies?The newlyweds, Adam and Maria - looking great, you wouldn't hardly know she was 21 weeks along!

Here's our little group - this day was at the end of a heat wave week...I think Hope looks a little ragged - but we still love her!

Redneck Car

So, a while ago I pulled a little too close to the stub distributor in a parking garage, and left my mirror hanging sadly. Andrew was all stoked to help repair it and come to the manly rescue, until he assessed what he'd need. I bought said supplies, and Andrew's steam disappeared. (I'm sure if everything was on hand at the time, I'd have a fixed mirror). I drove with a dangling mirror for several months until the wind seemed particularly strong one day and the mirror dangled in newer ways. I had driven to my brother's house and asked for a quick-fix from him. Dean and my brother-in-law Jim assessed the situation and produced the man's solution to everything - duct tape. So...Andrew now believes that it's fixed, and I haven't been able to get him to truly fix the situation. I'm not sure which was worse, the dangling mirror or the duct-taped mirror.

Fun in the Park

For Mother's Day my family celebrated with a BBQ in the park. Good family + good food = good fun.

Hope had fun running over to daddy while he was sitting under a tree. I'm not sure who had more fun with Victor's little car, Hope or Aunt Renee.Julia had fun playing on the playground with Hope.
(By the way - I'm amazed with what they're doing with playgrounds these days - this was the first park I've seen that had recycled tire bits on the playground instead of sand or tan bark)

How to get ink out...

Hope, like most kids, likes to draw. Hope, like most toddlers, doesn't always render precise control over drawing instruments. As such...when I did not take the ballpoint pen out of her hand promptly, it ended up on her darling dress, the first time she wore it. Thank goodness for the internet - the solution I found that I hadn't heard before was nail polish remover. The instructions that I followed were:

1. sponge the stain with water to first remove as much ink as possible
2. allow spot to dry
3. apply nail polish remover (it suggested to back side of stain, but as the dress was lined I couldn't do that)
4. blot dry (it said to use a clean terry cloth washcloth - I just used a paper towel)
5. apply laundry pretreatment

BEFORE
I circled the ink in red, the pen she used was actually black, and I took this picture after step one - sponging the stain with water, so it's a little faded from the initial stain.
AFTER

Okay, so there are wrinkles - but no evidence of the ink. Success!

Note: As I'm writing this Hope is eating cherries in a white shirt...okay, so I'm not the smartest mom (live and learn, right)...and I'm thinking I'll be looking up a new stain soon.

Happy Hollow Zoo

Friday we took a little trip to Happy Hollow Zoo with some playgroup friends. Hope had fun seeing the animals, although often times it's like Where's Waldo - there's a leopard in here somewhere...She liked feeding the goats too, as long as they kept their distance, a little too much licking was overwhelming at times.

Here's a pic with Anusha, Roshni, Mimi, Lily, Angela and Hope
Hope also had fun riding the carousel. She did great for her first time!

Happy Wedding, Maria!

Andrew's sister got married a couple of weeks ago - these are a few pix from the wedding. It was such a beautiful day, couldn't have been more perfect.


I'm thinking somebody must've said something funny just before this pic.

Fresh breath is an important matter

A lady always knows when to get her beauty rest

Our little Ringlein family

The day is done...

Hello World

In the past couple of weeks, Hope has officially turned into a toddler. What I mean by this, is the defiance has come out...Andrew actually started calling Hope - Defiance for a couple days. She's gotten sassy - she thinks it's funny to be told no. She keeps getting sillier and sillier. Anyhow, here are some recent pics - the first few are from us at a wedding.

Hope is having fun dancing with the big kids.

Shala and Jazzlyn came to visit and Hope was so enamored with Jazzlyn. She kept checking on her and trading toys with her. Pretty amusing.

A note on life with the Ringleins - okay, so it's totally fun to talk about Hope, and she does take up a good percentage of our time. But there are other things. Andrew is still playing poker professionally. It's got its ups and downs, but ultimately, it's such a blessing for him to work from home and have extra time to spend with our family. Angela is currently organizing a student exchange for a group from France coming to the Bay Area for a few weeks this summer. It's pretty fun. She also got released from her calling in Primary after 4 1/2 years and then promptly got called into the Relief Society as a secretary. It's been a lot of fun so far, and more fun to look forward to. Wishing you all lots of love!