A Day in the Life

Whew! So the teacher is out all week, looks like. I seemed to have become the I.A. that is in charge while she's gone, which is kind of cool since its what I'm going to school to do anyway. We have a substitute each day, of course. They don't really do anything, but the law requires it so we do it. Each one is cool, but they always say, 'I know you know the kids better than I do, and the routine, so I'll just stay out of your way.' Its cool when they are still engaged in the class, but there are those certain days that you get one of the lazier subs. This week has not been that way, thank God. We've had two great ones. The kids are doing great, but their 'great' is still a pretty taxing day.  I've also become the coolest person in the world to the kids at recess and lunch and I'm constantly mobbed while I'm trying to make sure my 'brothers' (as some young man from the first grade referred to them this afternoon while trying to start a rousing game of tag) aren't in the mud or wrecking someone's sandcastle. Its a great job, but a long day. Mr. Robins is ready for his P.J's and a glass of wine, thank you very much. 8>)

It has begun! ... again.

September is here (almost) and we are finally back to work (almost). Gabe started back the 25th and I start back the 6th.

This season Gabriel is teaching with a new teacher in the 3/4 grade class of the SUCCESS program at Palmayra Elementary in Orange. Gabe is so excited to be back, teaching his little guys from last year. He is so great with his class of kids with autism and it helps that he has charmed the pants off of all the other teachers and staff!

I start back with the Imagination Machine at the end of September and we go back into rehearsals this coming week! As of now, I will still be working with our Orange County office mostly full time. But the exciting news is we have a hand full of new bookings for IM LA! Last year we had 12 bookings for IM LA and am hoping to double it this year. Keep Praying!

Coming out of the summer is always so hard but I now feel like we can see the light at the end of the tunnel. This is going to be a new season of savings and responsibility and we CAN DO IT! WooHoo!

The Fall of 2011

Back in 2006 I was well into world politics and current events. I've been obsessed since childhood with the way that world events have unfolded over the last 100 years and the various prophecies that surround the times that we live in. There was one thing that I just couldn't wrap my head around during my NPR shows. The Economy. I wasn't sure what all the numbers were or why they were up or down on certain days. So, I decided to figure it out. I began to listen to Marketplace on NPR everyday until I began to understand what Kai Ryssdal was talking about. Since I was listening to the news everyday I learned that Kraft Foods had bought itself out from Phillip Morris and saw the potential for investors to put money into it. That was the first piece of stock I ever bought. It was fun to follow its rise and fall over the next year and listen to world events shape how the stock market worked. When the housing market went south in 2008 I had already sold my Kraft stock (which had done pretty sweet for the little time that I had it) because I was hitting on hard times. However, with all the knowledge I had gleaned over those years I was well aware of what was happening and fascinated by its effect.
Here we are now, three years into this madness. We haven't moved forward in any direction really since the situation began and last week's credit downgrade by S&P has had a devastating effect on the market today. What sucks about this time is now Amber and I had invested a little bit into some stock that looked good a year ago. I was lucky enough to sell the two that had pretty much doubled in that year, but I decided to hold on to the rest because they were long term investments. We don't plan on selling them for at least ten years, but its still very disconcerting to watch your money tick away day by day at such an alarmingly fast rate. Luckily for us its only a couple hundred dollars we are dealing with. I couldn't imagine the stress that real investors are feeling right now.
8>)

Death of a Salesmen and the Flute

     Earlier this month our friend Dave Chorley ask for some help with the music for a show at one of our local theaters (Stages). He needed a flute player to play the main theme for Death of a Salesmen so he could mix it into the show for dramatic effect. (Something he is very good at!)
     I have played the flute for almost 18 years, but the the last 9 have mostly been in the privacy of my own home. He sent me the tracks and I got to transpose the music into flute music. Something I hadn't done since my music classes in college! It was way fun and I remembered more then I thought I would. We met up twice to record the different music.
     Dave got Gabe and I comp tickets to see opening night. It was so cool to hear all the music and hear how he mixed in my playing with the rest of the music for the show. It was very nice to be a part of something on the instrumental end of a performance!
     The show was wonderful! Death of a Salesmen is not the most "happy-go-lucky" show in the world, that's for sure. The actors and director did a great job playing the realness of the sad situation. I love it when you forget your are watching actors on a stage because you are so caught up in their story. Well done Stages Theater.

     If you are interested in seeing this well done, classic show, go to www.stagesoc.org

     Thanks Dave for letting me join you on this journey! Good times had my all!

Arlo and the Water Glass Fight

Hey Look! The Robins Family now has a blog!
Congrats to Arlo for being the first adventure of the blog.

      So, last night we were having a nice time hanging out with our great friends Arlo, Eric and Nancy. Eric was making dinner for everyone and since he is a fancy chef, we were just trying to stay out of the way. Arlo was washing up a few glasses to use with dinner and that's when it happened. I guess this glass didn't like the way Arlo looked at him, so he (the glass) exploded and took Arlo's pinky finger out with it! It was kind of gross.
      We wrapped it up as much as we could, ate our dinner and Arlo tried to tough it out. But within the hour we knew he would need some medical attention. At about 10pm Gabe and I drove him over to Kaiser ER and we sat there with all the other crazies who go to the ER in the middle of the night. Arlo's pinky finger needed 5 stitches! Poor pinkey. It didn't stand a chance. But now the little guy is going to have a bad ass scar and be a tough pinky finger from now on. No water glass will mess with Pinky every again.