The New Year - Let It Ring!!

Well it is officially here. 2005 is suppose to be the great start to a whole new year however we (well me) are already facing challenges. I have to provide my daughter - Mealani with a cool birthday but do all the planning and setup on my own. Mealani is turning 5 on February 8 so we are having her party on February 5. She has invited her fellow classmates but she only wanted to invite girls. She also will ask several of her classmates from her previous school to attend.

I also will be facing some new challenges with issues with raising a daughter such as her curious questions about certain things she has noticed and also to continually challenge her so that she will not find school and life boring.

Mealani attends Oak Knoll Montessori now and the school has enriched her to the larger class. She is exposed to kids from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds. It seems to me that a lot of Asian parents and Indian seem to send their kids to Montessori programs. Its amazing to me when Mealani reads, write, and can do math when kids who are older than her cannot do any of these things.

I look forward to seeing my daughter grow up with her immense quesdt for knowledge. She likes to read books and is able to read many parts of the newspaper. I am not quite sure on whether to put her back in public school when September comes around or to keep her in the Montessori program. She is already way beyond the kindergarten level and could probably be at or a higher level than a first grader. I know I was never as knowledgable as her when I was five ... my how times have changed.

On the plus side, Mealani is sleeping in her own room again. She was sleeping there for almost 2 months when she went back to sleeping in grandma and grandpa's room. This happened after she returned from her Thanksgiving stay at her moms. Her mom lives in a one bedroom apartment with her brother, cousin, son, and sometimes another cousin. Amazing that anyone could live like that ... surely it cannot be healthy for my daughter to be exposed to that environment.

Well the month is almost over and the time will fly once again I think. Must be something to do with getting older. I myself hit the big 30 last year. It seems like the many things we took for granted when were younger are no longer taken for granted. You realize how important family and friends are ... and the realization that you will sacrafice anything for your loved ones.

Well as for my family, both mom and dad are going through some growing pains with my sister. She has not quite figured out that we are trying to watch out for her and I hope that she does not make the same mistake I made. Life is not easy but when you add in diffuculties like relationships, money, and other things ... well its all you can do to stay in the game. I have discovered that education is the key to better things in life ... it can make the biggest difference from working at a job that pays you minimum wage to one that pays you a decent wage.

Living in San Diego ... even making the median salary of 50 thousand dollars is not really enough to get by. Heck most homes are now between 600 - 800 thousand dollars. Imagine that ... the amount of money you need to bring home after taxes to afford a place like that. Luckily we did purchase our place four years ago so we are still in the plus side but it seems like housing prices are no longer skyrocketing like they were several months ago.