Darr Family Blog – Page 26 – The place to follow the Darr Family

We Made It!

We finally made it to spring break! Paul is still stuck working, but the rest of us have an entire week off, which is going to be so great! This past week was a busy one. Paul was busy at work because they moved locations from one office space to another. It was a lot of physical work and quite stressful at times. His schedule should be back to normal this week, though. It was busy for me as I was compiling grades into my grade book, testing my students to get updated reading levels, and completing report cards. We also had field day, which was fun, but kind of stressful at times because I was wanting to be able to keep an eye on all my students. One funny story about Abigail: while she was at field day, she picked up the bucket of water that the students were using to fill their water shooters and decided to dump it on herself…it was a good thing she had a change of clothes in her backpack, haha. I was walking down the hall, about to make some photocopies when her teacher nabbed me because Abigail was having a hard time getting dressed. Her jeans were so wet that she was having a hard time getting them off to get her dry ones on. I got her adjusted and back to field day. It was fun getting to see Joseph interact with his classmates and friends (I’ve never been able to volunteer for one before). Oh…and I took the first of the three tests I need to take in order to upgrade my one-year certification to a standard certification. I already got my results (it only took two days!) and I passed!! Now I just have one test in May and the last one in June. I can’t believe how quickly things are progressing!

Abigail made a card for Paul. Halfway through, she decided to make it for me as well…but couldn’t figure out how to give it to both of us, so she cut it in half. The left side is her and me and the right side is her and Paul (do you see his beard?). I love kid drawings!

The spray bottle fight was a lot of fun on a warm day!

They had to fill up the shooter and try to see who could knock the cups off the table first. I imagine this was the station Abigail was at (her field day was on a different day than Joseph’s) when she dumped the water on herself. Always keeping me on my toes, that one is!

An epic light saber battle ended in a truce and both parties journeyed upstairs to play. I love the relationship these two have!

The zipper on my previous Chromebook case busted, so I told Paul who said he’d grab me a new one. The previous case was the one Paul had used when the Chromebook belonged to him, so it was a plain black one, which he prefers. He mentioned he decided to get me a cute one, but I didn’t realize just how cute until it came. He’s got good taste and has a firm grip of knowing what I like. 🙂

One More Week and Signs of Spring

There’s one week before we get to spring break. I think I’m looking forward to it as much as the kids, haha. This next week I need to get my students’ reading levels updated and try to get report cards done (they aren’t due until the Monday after spring break, but I really don’t want to be working on spring break if I don’t have to). This past week, we had Read Across America. Abigail’s favorite day was getting to walk in the Book Character Parade. She borrowed Joseph’s old Sonic the Hedgehog comic book and she was ready! I spent most of yesterday planning and grading (in between grocery shopping and laundry) and Paul spent most of yesterday doing yard work. He reconfigured our front porch area and even though it’s not quite done yet, it’s already looking great! The kids spent yesterday doing what kids do best: playing and relaxing, haha.

She loved getting to give my students high fives during the parade!

She was moving so fast, her hood kept falling off. 🙂

It always makes my heart melt a bit when I see the kids in Paul’s old uniforms.

The snap dragons didn’t survive the last freeze, but there were enough seeds buried for some to pop up on their own! The wildflowers are also starting to grow, which makes me happy.

This area next to the walkway has always struggled to grow grass, so Paul decided to take the stones from the patio planter area and make this planter. Abigail picked tulips to plant there. 🙂

My shamrocks bit the dust with the last freeze, but there’s this one little guy popping out. We’ll see what happens. 🙂

His plan for this area (now that he moved the planter) is to make a bench and then put the rose (which somehow survived the last two freezes) on top of it.

Paul planted tomato seeds a while back and we’ve got seedlings! We’re well on our way to our spring garden.

Officially Official

Well, things in the workforce for me have escalated. My one-year certification application was processed faster than I was anticipating, so I was able to actually meet with HR at the end of this last week and I signed my contract. I’m officially a fifth grade teacher! I still need to take three tests in order to get a standard certificate (because the one-year one is exactly that…it’s only good for one year), but I’m already registered for those and have testing dates secured. As soon as I take those tests, I can apply for the standard certification. The fact that things are falling into place so easily lead me to believe that this is the exact path I was meant to take at this time. As for the rest of the family, everyone is doing well. The kids are adjusting to this new normal and Paul has been an amazing partner. Recently, he built a cabinet for our powder bath to give us more storage. We looked at prefabricated cabinets, but couldn’t find one that would fit just right, so Paul came up with the design, bought materials, and built one. He did have to modify his plans a bit as he ran into different challenges (doesn’t every project go that way?), but he adjusted his plan and the product is awesome!