Happy 4th of July!!!!

Since July 4th fell on a Sunday, our town had the celebratory activities scheduled on Saturday. So we celebrated Independence Day on July 3rd at the Desert Diamond Casino. It was filled with great music, food and of course fireworks. The girls had a fun time dancing and eating, while Dave and I sat watching. It was really enjoyable and the weather was great too. Summer in Arizona can be pretty brutal so we were lucky to have a cool breeze in the air.


This was Bree's first time watching the fireworks so I was a little nervous at how she would react, but she did really well. The fireworks were accompanied with great patriotic music so it made it all the more moving.

Isabella's Year in Kindergarten

This year was a very exciting year for Isabella. She was blessed to have had Mrs. Tingle as her teacher, voted Teacher of the Year! Isabella had a rough start learning that things don't always go her way. But she began to realize that Mrs. Tingle was helping her to be a smarter and more responsible girl. I am grateful to Mrs. Tingle for helping Isabella. Ironically, Mrs. Tingle is married to my old Algebra teacher, Mr. Tingle. Mr. Tingle was my favorite math teacher in high school so it was very special having my life come full-circle.

Isabella did extremely well in her ability to learn how to read considering that she was behind developmentally from her other peers. She worked her little tail off so much that she was exited from Speech and Special Education services. She is currently working just as well as her peers. In fact, she was doing a bit better. I owe thanks to her teacher, and the special diet and multivitamins and supplements that she is taking. She has matured quite a bit and i'm extremely proud of her.

She made so many friends and enjoyed making everyone laugh. She was so silly and fun. I've uploaded some pictures of events that took place in her class. I look forward to her beginning her new adventures in First grade.

Summer Fun 2010

Well it's been exactly a year since I've posted anything to my blog......I've been quite busy. I completed my 2nd year as a Special Education Math & Science teacher. I also have completed my Master's in Special Education and will have my graduation ceremony on November 6th.....yeah!!! I'm super excited. Since I don't do well with downtime, I decided that it would be a good idea to start working on my Ed.D in Educational Leadership in December so I'm gearing down to start down the 3 year journey to being called Dr. Madeline Del Rio-Logsdon. I hope to eventually become a Director of Special Education for a school district. It definitely will give my family a more financially stable life for sure. We're hoping that it takes us on a new adventure in a new part of the country. We shall see.......

Summer has begun and I'm really happy to be able to enjoy this summer with the entire family. The girls and I are enjoying our pool time for a few hours in the day but then spending a lot of time indoors. It's only July 3rd and we've already finished two bottles of sunscreen spf 50........!! The downside to living in the Arizona desert is the fact that it's 108 degrees, which means we spend a lot of time indoors. Not something I really like to do at all! But we're catching up on our movie time, reading and cleaning. The girls are learning more responsibility and they are earning quite a bit of rewards in doing so. Kylee is here for the summer again and they are having a blast! They sleep in each other's rooms and read stories to each other as well as the regular sibling rivalry......arguing...........lol but they manage to work things out.... as they should. Overall, things are working out for us this year.......we'll keep you posted.

Home Sweet Home

It has been so wonderful having Kylee back home. She's fallen back into the swing of things. She's enjoying her room and new Disney Princess Television and the solitude of just being a kid. It's great to see how sister's just instantly fall back into the "sibling" thing. We made cupcakes tonight along with smores using our gas fire pit in the back. Dave had a great idea of using tiki lamps to help us see better in the dark. Overall, it was a great first day having the whole family together.

Great Day!

I know I haven't posted much lately. I've been sooo busy with finishing up my first year as a high school Math & Science teacher and dealing with IEPs left and right. Isabella graduated from Preschool and will be starting her first day of Kindergarten on August 4th. I am now taking more classes toward completing my Master's in Special Ed and am enjoying my summer home with my babies. Our family today learned that Kylee will be coming home! Yeah!!!! Although it's for the summer, we'll take it! We're super excited to finally have our family complete again. We're looking forward to spending fun-filled days together.

Dave the Flamenco Dancer!

Here is the video I promised of Dave dancing a Flamenco dance! He is right in step with her, very impressive@! Sorry about the video being sideways but that's how it was shot.

The Start of a New Year!

Dave and I were able to go on a date, finally! We contacted a high school student who has watched our girls before on Friday night. We met some of my co-workers and their husbands for dinner at a Spanish restaurant in Tucson called "Casa Vicente". This small quaint restaurant was amazingly decorated with beautiful paintings from local artists, as well as a live guitar player and a Flamenco dancer. The music and company were great. It was nice for us to be able to get out and spend some time laughing and socializing without the kids. Don't get me wrong, I love my girls, but we needed some alone time. I ate a plate called Bacalao, which is cod fish in Spanish. It was prepared differently than my mother's recipe but it was delicious. My mother makes this plate for me often and has done so since I was a little girl.

Dave had a salmon dinner prepared similarly to my plate. Surprisingly, I managed to get Dave on stage to dance the Flamenco dance with the dancer. He was a hit! It was a great evening and it was great to just relax and enjoy the company. I will be attaching a copy of the video I took of David on stage once I get it from my co-worker. Great start to a new year! Enjoy!

Here is my mom's recipe for authentic Puerto Rican Bacalao:

Ingredients
2 yautias (taro root)
2 chayotes (also known as Mirlition, vegetable pear)
2 malangas (root vegetable with brown skin and white or purple flesh)
2 papas (potatoes)
2 plátanos (plantain bananas)
2 yucas (cassava)
2 ñames (root vegetable with brown skin and white flesh)
2 apios (Not Celery-root veggie)
2 batatas (sweet potatoes)
1 large onion sliced into rings
Olive oil
2 hard-boiled eggs sliced
1 large avocado
1 large tomato sliced
1 lb. of bacalao (salted cod fish)

Directions
Bring the bacalao to a boil and change the water about two to three times. This removes the salt and cooks the bacalao at the same time.

While the bacalao is cooking, start washing, peeling and cutting the root veggies into 2-inch cubes.

Put the Rican veggies into a large bowl. Add some lemon drops to keep their color. This includes the yautía, yuca, ñame, sweet potatoes, malangas, bananas and apios, etc.

After all the veggies are peeled and cut, put all the veggies (except the potatoes and chayotes) in a big pot covered with water about 2 inches from the top. Cover with lid and boil for about 45 minutes or until the fork inserts into the veggies softly, but firmly. Boil them an extra 5 minutes if necessary.

Boil the potatoes and chayotes separate, since they will cook faster than the others. Do the fork test again. Boil them an extra 5 minutes if necessary.

Remove the pot from the burner.

By this time, your bacalao is done. Shred it and de-bone it carefully.

Serve your bacalao and your veggies on a big platter; place the onion rings, avocado and tomato slices and eggs around it.

Drizzle with plenty of olive oil and enjoy!!!!!!

BON APETITE………………………