An Evening Visitor

This week was pretty busy for all of us. The kids had school and church activities, I had work (progress reports are coming up, so I was making sure all my grades were in on top of all the other things I needed to do), and so did Paul (work always keeps him pretty busy). I went to pull up the pictures I took during the week only to realize I…didn’t take any. Paul did get a nice picture of the hawk that was just chilling on our backyard fence, though.

We were finishing up dinner and I glanced out the sliding glass door and saw this guy (or girl). Paul had the challenge of trying to get a picture without startling it, so that meant leaving the door closed and dealing with the reflections of things in the glass (the dark square is the reflection of a piece of art we have on our wall and the dark splotch at the bottom is a faux plant arrangement I have sitting on a corner table). I think he got a great picture, all things considered. He was able to get most of the hawk’s body unobstructed.
 

Mother Nature Finally Figured It Out

This past week, Mother Nature finally figured out that it’s January. She did go a bit overboard, though. Monday was a holiday, thank goodness. We stayed home all day (except when I decided I really wanted tacos and fideo, so I braved the below-freezing temps to go get it) and just hung out. Tuesday was just as cold. When I got to work, it was 18 degrees outside. It warmed up to just above freezing by dismissal. The days after that slowly got better, but we’re back down into the 30s and 40s now with nighttime temps below that. Humid cold is NOT my favorite. It just feels…colder. I’m looking forward to the end of next week when our highs are going to be back in the 60s and 70s, ha.

This was the temperature it was when I decided I really needed tacos and fideo.
This is fideo. It’s short noodles in a broth that has tomatoes, onions, and spices. It’s just a little spicy, which hits the spot on a cold day.
This was what greeted me on Tuesday morning. Luckily these icicles are not indicative of a frozen unit, just that there was condensation dripping off the unit (like it normally does) that froze. Luckily, the heater was working just fine.
This was right under those icicles. It was either frozen solid or just about. The kids were able to knock on it and even stomp on it. It finally broke when a student from the other class jumped on it in the afternoon. He was none too thrilled when his socks got wet and icy.
There were even icicles coming out of the water spouts from the gutters.
Every time we needed to go somewhere (lunch, Discovery, etc.), it meant needing to bundle up. Thank goodness for warm clothes!
I love this girl’s sense of style. She said these two articles of clothing matched because they both had pink. 🙂
She then decided to wear this Hello Kitty shirt with her flower pants instead. Not sure why she decided not to smile…she’s hit or miss with smiling in pictures.
More proof that they normally get along. They were playing a game where he was on his computer and she was on her tablet, playing the same game.
 

A Bunch of Busy Bees

This past week was pretty typical. When school is in session, we’re all pretty busy (Paul is busy all the time). I try my hardest to work hard through the week so that I don’t have to do any work on Sundays. It means a lot for the rest of the week, but making Sunday a true day of rest, which is nice. Abigail went to her first Primary Activity (an activity night for children 7/8-11 that happens twice a month) and loved it. Joseph is part of the Deacons still (12-13YO boys) and is in one of three quorums (which are groups) that we have. Our ward congregation is a pretty sizable group and there are a lot of children and youth.

With Sunday being a rest day from work, I decided to splurge and make homemade pizza for dinner. Abigail was super excited and sat there for a lot of the baking process.
First grade did a fun presentation where the kids all got to have a chance to share their personal narratives with everyone. They also got to enjoy popcorn and juice (Abigail liked the popcorn but not the juice…she’s rather…particular about juice). Her teacher shared this picture with me.
There was one day this past week (Friday, I believe) that was the 80th day of school. We were told to dress up in 80s attire. I knew there would be a lot of neon colors going on, so I decided to go the opposite direction. Plus, it gave me an excuse to get an 80s band shirt. 😉
Abigail already had this shirt, since she is a Care Bears fan (it’s funny how trends circle around), so she was excited to know that it would work for 80s day.
This kid cracks me up. He came in and randomly asked me how many hoodies I thought he had on. I guessed that there were three and was rewarded with this smile. He’s kinda my favorite 12YO.