I was looking at the blog and realized I hadn’t posted anything since last month. Whoops! Here’s a brief recap: Joseph got a pretty cool award at school, Abigail had her grade-level music performance, Paul went to Liberty Con in Washington DC, we celebrated Valentines’ Day, and I’m plugging away at 4th grade. More in-depth info in the captions.
So, in one of his classes, he wrote a letter that was supposed to be from an Alamo defender to a family member, describing what was happening at the time. His letter was selected as one of the best ones and he was awarded this trophy.I took this picture not long after our snowy day…to show how quickly Texas weather changes. I was in short sleeves and not cold.Anyone who knows me knows I love pretty books. I had picked up a fancy copy of Pride and Prejudice as a gift for someone and decided I needed my own fancy copy.Look at the back!!Since this is the year of the snake, I only felt it fitting that I wear my snake earrings. Sights like this make me happy: sunshine coming into the room, the view of the tree from my window (I can hardly believe how big they’ve gotten…but then I remember we’ve been here 12.5 years), a floral quilt on the bed…Oof…I’ve been struggling with over-socialization in my classroom. This was the perfect shirt to wear. I feel like now I have some new behavior policies in place that may cut down on some of the things, so here’s to hopefully experiencing less trying days than this one was.How I have fun on a Friday night…kidding…but I have been trying to stay on top of my lesson planning and grading so that I have my weekends completely free of work stuff. It’s been refreshing.When Paul was in DC for Liberty Con, I took the kids to Buc-ee’s. Trust me, they had more fun than this picture suggests. I think the sun was behind me, which made it hard for them to look at me.At Liberty Con. Paul told me that this guy is a pro wrestler.Here he is with an editor for Reason Magazine. He did an interview for them.Here’s a throwback!! Paul was looking through photos to scan and found this one. We were baaaaaabies.On Friday, she was hanging out in my room after school as I worked on some things and she was doing such a good job sounding out the words in this book. Plus, I could tell that she was understanding the text and not just decoding. It was a really awesome sight.Paul said all he wanted for Valentines’ Day was a card…so I made him a card and got him some snacks at Buc-ee’s.He surprised me with this Luna Lovegood mini backpack and Herbology wallet. Luna is tied for first place for my favorite Harry Potter characters (the other one is Tonks), and I love all the plants. After we opened presents, we left the kids at home with pizza rolls and went out to the movies. It was a relaxing evening!I already had this shirt (I got it a couple years ago), so now I have a bag to go with it!
The time between getting home from our California vacation and now kind of feels like a blur. A lot has happened in that time frame: we finally got Christmas put away (inside took longer than outside since we were limited on our free time due to work and other constraints), Abigail got baptized, and we had Snow Day 2025 (today). Enjoy!
Showing off a unicorn headband she got as a treasure box prize.Before the baptism. This is the look I get when I ask her to smile.I’ve found that if I keep clicking, I eventually get a good one of her looking at the camera.Proud big brother!In front of the font.I’m glad I snapped this candid shot of her contemplating the ordinance that was about to take place. She was SO excited!Capturing personalities. Almost got everyone looking at the camera……there we go!When we were at Mom’s, we found a set of scriptures that were probably hers on her mission with Dad. After checking with siblings, we decided to take them home and give them to Abigail for her baptism. Now she has a little bit of Grandma with her all the time.Finding all the hidden pictures in her Shine-a-Light Dinosaur book.Paul hung up the awesome puzzle my friend put together, framed, and gifted me for Christmas.He also hung up the cool piano lessons sign my mom made when she started advertising that she was teaching as well as the needlepoint that she did.I can remember sitting next to her on the couch as she worked away at this.Paul bought new bedding for our bed…it’s so pretty!This was me when Paul told me he was going to take my picture…as he was bringing me dinner after I had just gotten out of a training and realized there was stuff I needed to do in my classroom that couldn’t be done the next morning…I think I finally got home about 7:30 that night. Oof.So, I got these ears at Universal Studios with the thought that I could wear them to entice my students to not chit-chat so much (basically, if they are not quiet, I take off the ears and they lose 50 of the points that they are trying to steal from me so that they can have Fun Friday). Well, I completely forgot I was wearing them and NOBODY in the halls said anything until the STEM teacher was like, “Oh! I love your ears!” You know you work in an elementary school when something like this happens, haha.Chilly nights are meant for popcorn, hot chocolate, and board games.Our shelving unit was getting overfilled with games, so Paul bought another one. Now it looks so much better!This is the other one. I pulled some games out of the bins we have in the living room so now the ones we play the most are out.Paul made stew yesterday. The meat was venison from a deer he hunted and the potatoes are from our garden.There’s something rewarding about a meal where key components are things that you either procured (without a store) or grew. I made rolls (not pictured because I already have a ton of roll pictures, haha) that I felt very accomplished about as well.The first “dusting of snow” picture: the cats we are feeding ventured out to get food and probably decided to hunker back down (Paul thinks they’re hanging out under his office shed).We got an email last night cancelling school in preparation for crazy weather. This is what our part of San Antonio got.Being reminded that snow is, indeed, frozen water.The teen even ventured out into it.Not much came down.Scraping snow off the slide (they discovered that scraping it from the ground just meant…muddy snow.Getting ready to try to throw some at Joseph……but it wouldn’t stay together.I guess this is what they mean when they talk about fresh powder.Look at that stink face, haha.Documenting Snow Day 2025…and trying to figure out how I was going to combine two lesson plans into one for tomorrow so that I don’t fall behind.He figured out that getting a big handful and then vigorously brushing it towards her was more effective than trying to throw it. That’s a GT mind at work, haha.Right before they decided they were done. I think we made it about 20 minutes. It was all gone by lunch time.I decided that as a reward for successfully figuring out a way to merge two days worth of lesson plans into one (without losing too much content), I would put up Valentine’s Day decorations.I know I’m early, but it makes me happy and I don’t know when I will have another day as wide open as today was…and yes, that is a Halloween countdown. It stays out all year long because once Halloween passes, I switch it to Christmas (the sign flips)…and then back to Halloween.
This past week, we made what will be our last Christmas trip to California. Mom is now up in an assisted living place in Utah (Aaron’s kids are making sure the house is lived in and okay until it gets sold), so this trip was mainly me and some of the other siblings going through boxes and making sure the sentimental stuff gets sorted. It was bittersweet being there without Mom, but it was a good visit, nonetheless. We took the time to go to Universal Studios and Knott’s, so that was fun for the kids, too. Stap in for a lot of photos!
AC stopped by with his youngest daughter who is just a couple months younger than Abigail.The two of them had a ton of fun.Kayla pulling “oldest girl cousin” duties.I don’t really know what was going on here, ha.Jason and Luna came over as well.Going down to the Lower Lot at Universal where Mario Land is.We only rode one ride in Mario Land, which was Mario Kart. The line was long, but entertaining with tons of detail.Joseph made it his mission to pop his head into the background whenever possible.That’s one happy girl!The star in the background was cool.She loves selfies.Ope, there’s that “surprised happy” face.Yet another photobomb moment.The details in Mario Land were pretty cool.Pointing out fun stuff.The entrance to Bowser’s castle.I think Abigail was done with the line at that point.Playing with her power-up band.The other Lower Lot ride we went on was Transformers. Not as much cool stuff to look at…but a ton of buttons and switches to play with.With the spark.Cool Transformers logo.I asked to take his picture.THAT’s better!It was fun going during the holidays.Up where you can see out into LA.It was pretty cool to look out and see everything.Visiting Hogsmeade.It was crazy crowded at that point, so we didn’t go on any rides. We did the wand experience (for me and Abigail since Joseph had his wand from an earlier visit), got some butter beer, and called it good.Waiting in line for the wand experience.With Hogwarts in the background.We felt this was also really well designed for details.She liked the first sip, but once it got fizzy, she was done.Joseph didn’t mind getting an extra. The funny thing about this was that Sirius is moving around in this a lot (as is typical for Wizarding World newspapers), but I got the shot right as Joseph happened to be making the same face.We met up with one of Paul’s LP friends and she got some good shots of us.It was a long day, but fun!Snuggling with Daddy.My wand (made to look like Tonks’ wand) and some Mario mushroom ears.On our way to Knott’s, we saw a really cool vapor trail. I took a picture and you can see the jet at the top (it looks like a pin prick, but if you zoom in, you can see the jet shape).Hopefully the only time she’ll be behind bars.Right before Paul took Abigail to Camp Snoopy and I took Joseph to the big rides.The ride that probably did me in. We rode this ride and one other (which was much smoother than this wooden roller coaster) before my back muscles started to spasm really bad. After that, Joseph went on a few rides solo. The next day, I ended up in urgent care for muscle relaxers and extra strength Ibuprofen.One of her favorite rides.She loved being able to go on stuff on her own.Striking up a conversation with the kid next to her.She really liked this ride.I love seeing such a happy pictures of her!Joseph on Silver Bullet.See? There he is!Seeing a donkey.Any time she saw a coffin, she had to take a picture.See?Sitting with the other girls. We went on this train ride (which Abigail ended up not caring for since it was mostly in the dark)… …and this one which takes you around the park.Abigail with Snoopy and Yoshi.The measuring door at Mom and Dad’s.My address for the first 21 years of my life.The fireplace my Daddy built.This is a permanent fixture in the house.Foothills, citrus, and palm trees…The last time in the back yard.Man, I’m going to miss this house!The last time (for a bit) driving past the windmills in the high desert.One of the things I brought home with me…now I have a bit of home at home.
