A Day on the Mountain

This Saturday Cami was able to take his first "Adventure Institute" trip. The Adventure Institute is something my husband has been dreaming about and planning for quite some time. It will one day be a non-profit organization combining at-risk youth with transformative outdoor experiences. But for now, it is day long excursions with select students designed to build Cami's understanding of the adventures available around LA, get our students out of the city and simply keep my husband sane (he needs his nature!!).

So here are a few pictures from the adventure

Oscar all suited up for the morning mountain air

Andrew and Yesenia (Mary's younger sister)

And the view!! The team hiked to the treeline on Mt. Baldy. Maybe next time they will summit!

And of course, the love of my life!!! Isn't he so hot!

P.S. Sorry I am a day late, we were at work late last night trying to fix computer problems :(

16 on the 16th

First, let me update you on what happened with the story I told you last week . So our former student Ana came over on Wednesday to get some math tutoring and told us that here dad's boss had posted his $20,000 bail Tuesday morning. Once out, Ana's dad tracked down all the necessary paperwork and was informed that he was wrongfully charged. He had been locked up for vehicular fraud (fraudulent tags) but it turns out the cops who arrested him were not very thorough in their investigation and he should not have been arrested. Furthermore, they forced him to leave his 17 year-old son David stranded at the airport. David had just home returned from two months helping relatives in Mexico.

The worst part about it all is that Amy and here siblings grew up in the inner-city of LA, a community that breeds hatred for law enforcement. Ana and her siblings already struggle with trusting cops, feeling like they are always out to get them. While standing at the airport David said to me, "I hope this just teaches [dad] that all pigs (i.e. cops) are bad." Why are they the ones who have to been hastily charged and treated so poorly? At least there dad is free again.

Now for the title.......16 weeks that is. Today I am officially 16 weeks pregnant with our first child (40% of the way wooo whooo!!) Luckily I was spared from morning sickness and have rarely experienced any side effects - that just makes it harder to believe that I am actually pregnant. But my emotions have been a little unusual as of late.....let's hope that is pregnancy related :)

And here is a picture of our other addition: Oscar - he joined our family back in April and is a real delight to have around. You can expect to discover more of his story in future posts.




For those who have been asking, there is not really much of a baby bump to capture yet, so no pregnancy pictures for now.

A Night with the Potters

In light of the fact that our blog has suffered gross neglect recently, I set a goal this weekend. Every Monday I am going to update our blog and if there is no new news on the Potter front, I will just highlight one of our students. So today comes, the first day and my intentions are good. After work I would make dinner, enjoy a leisurely meal with my family, go grocery shopping and then update the blog before reading a little and catching some z's.

But this is how my night went:

Dinner was thrown together quickly and my husband ended up eating in the car. He had to stay late at work to help search all the boys because rumor was one of them had an ounce of weed, but he left before he heard the outcome of the search because we had to be at our boss's house by 6 to watch their toddler and 4 foster children. After an eventful dinner with them, we headed straight for the grocery store still thinking the rest of the night would play out like planned. Cami, Oscar and I had a lot of fun at the grocery store and were all giggles on the way home until we got a call from one of our former students Ana. Her dad had just been arrested, leaving her younger brother and van stranded at the airport. So we quickly dropped off our groceries (couldn't let the milk spoil) then picked up Ana and her mom and drove to LAX. By the time we got there they had taken her dad away. So the ladies headed to the police station with the police and we took David (who had just returned from Mexico) home. Then I dropped Oscar and Cami off at home to work on English homework and hit the road again. Ana and her mom are now safely back at their homes and I have just returned to mine at 11:27 pm.

So I am still writing on the blog (I just set the goal two days ago, I can't compromise already) but I think the Potter update will have to wait until another day. It is way past my bedtime.


P.S. I do have a softball sized parasite growing in my lower abdomen. But more on that later.