This past week was a bit of an adjustment for some of us. It was a bit hard getting up early again. It was a pretty good week, though. Paul and I even squeezed in a date night with friends to go see the comedian, Jim Gaffigan. It was a pretty funny show with bits about getting older, dealing with technology, and the joys and pitfalls of parenting. Abigail had a crazy dream early one morning about a gang of rattlesnakes that attacked her (they were talking rattlesnakes with poisonous horns). She woke up right before they actually got her. Since this happened right before I got into the shower, I told her to go ahead and get dressed and head downstairs to watch some PBS. By doing that, she was already ready when I was and we left the house for school totally chill for the first time in forever. This prompted me to try again the next day, waking her earlier and letting her have a more relaxed morning rather than letting her sleep until the last minute and then we’re both stressed, trying to leave the house on time. It worked! It’s been nice not feeling that stress in the mornings. Now we just have to make it through a short week (we have Friday off for Good Friday) and then it’ll be Easter weekend!
A while back, Joseph’s science teacher told his class that the scientific term for spring was “vernal” and that she thought it was a weird word. Well, Joseph and some friends decided to start using it more often as a way to joke with her. This turned into forming the “Vernal Club” and making up a dance and everything. His teacher was such a good sport about it all. She told them she would make them shirts for the Vernal Equinox. He told me, but I thought she was joking. Nope. She made them shirts. I laughed for about 30 seconds when I read what they said. The phrase, “Live, Laugh, Love” has been poked fun at tons of times, but this has to be the best. I love awesome teachers that care for the kids they teach!And then there’s this: the Converse…the Nintendo shirt…and he had just come in from skateboarding…is it really 2024? It feels kinda like 1984. 🙂
So…it’s been a couple weeks since I last posted something. Usually I’m pretty good about posting every week, but I hadn’t been taking many pictures leading up to spring break. I was busy with report cards, we were passing some sort of respiratory illness around (first it was Abigail, then it was Joseph, then me, and then finally Paul), and life was just…crazy. It did slow down a bit this past week due to spring break (thank goodness). Paul was working for part of it. He did take one day off so we could take the kids to Six Flags (we decided to get passes for Six Flags rather than renew our passes to the zoo) but then he was sick at the tail-end. Both kids were pretty mild (they mainly had fevers and congestion) when they were sick, but mine (right at the beginning of spring break) was more like severe congestion (but no fever) for about 3-4 days. Paul went full-blown sinus infection, poor guy. He recognized what it was, went to urgent care, and they gave him a steroid shot and some antibiotics (hooray for doctors that trust that we know our symptoms of these repeat illnesses we get). He started feeling quite a bit better, which is great!
The hawk is back! Paul joked that it was sitting there waiting for a rat to appear (have at it, my dude).I put up St. Patrick’s Day decorations, though now it’s time to pull out the Easter stuff!!Abigail loved getting to be in the book character parade for Read Across America Week. Since my class is out in the portables, we opted to stay outside and cheer for the participants as they went from one wing to another.My students recognized her and cheered really loudly when she walked by. She loved it!Fresh bang trim!!I love when the old leaves fall off as the new ones are growing in. I think “new leaf” green might be my favorite.I also got a trim…and love my new teacher t-shirt. My students get a kick out of it, too.Since I was all sniffly at the beginning of spring break, I took advantage and read my next book club book. It was so nice to just sit and read. 🙂Spring break vibes: Joseph practicing skateboarding (using a borrowed board) and Abigail bubbling.She also pulled out the sidewalk chalk.I did take them to the zoo one day since our passes were still good for a bit longer. They’re doing a lot of construction, so there were a lot of places blocked off. Both kids were also a bit underwhelmed. Abigail liked seeing the animals (it was fun to see the Jaguar on top of his temple), but after one trip around our normal haunts, they were done. Joseph aged out of interest a while ago, but this was the first trip where I felt Abigail had, too.This was one of the first time we’d actually seen the capybaras.She had a hard time spotting the lions at first……so I zoomed in for a picture and then showed her. The marvels of digital photography!I was totally getting rhino vibes that day. It was crowded and starting to get a bit warm at this point.She did have to get onto the lion statue one more time.This…is the first picture I took at Six Flags. We decided to get passes because a) both kids love amusement park rides, b) it’s a lot closer to us than the zoo, and c) it seemed like a natural transition now that the kids are getting older.She loved this teacup ride (I loved that she did it solo…I don’t handle spinny rides very well).She also loved this dragon.On the carousel.Paul took Joseph and I took Abigail. Joseph loves that there are bigger rides here.After lunch, we swapped kids. Paul took Abigail to get a souvenir (it’s Krypto the dog from Superman…Six Flags is Looney Tunes and DC superhero themed).On the Green Lantern planes.On the Looney Tunes bus.In front of the Six Flags sign.He convinced me to go on a couple of big rides with him. It was so fun!Abigail had an egg hunt for Primary Activities. She loved it!I loved the sunset as we were getting ready to go home. 🙂We’ve got lots of potatoes……and some tomatoes……and some more potatoes……and an actual tomato!I made corned beef and cabbage in the crock pot for St. Patrick’s Day today. 3 out of 4 Darrs liked it (big guess on who didn’t, ha).I thought it was cool that it actually looked like the picture on the recipe, ha.I also made soda bread. We decided that next time, it would be even better with some jam instead of just butter.
This past week, the weather took a turn. The beginning of the week was like February, but then by the end, it was more like March or April. It even got up to the 80s! We started off the week with a holiday for Paul and the kids (it was a teacher work day for me). Paul spent a big chunk of the day looking at new cars. His Mazda 3 still ran okay, but it was rather low, so it was hard for him to get in and out of sometimes with his knees (wrestling and the Army have taken their toll). He’s been thinking on it for a while and decided to get a CX-5 (which is what our other car is). He got a used 2021 CX-5 Touring (our other one is a 2022 CX-5 Select that we bought new a couple of years ago). The height difference is crazy. It’s much easier to get in and out of and he likes having the space to haul things (today he loaded it up with soil, manure, and plants). When I got off work, he called me and asked that I bring the kids down so that we could get all the papers signed. The rest of the week was spent doing our regular stuff. I had a field trip with my class on Friday to the rodeo. It was more educational than entertaining (there were stations they went to where they could learn about different agricultural things), but they did get to see some animals (they got to pet baby chicks) and watch a trick horse show while they ate lunch. Oh, and they did get to watch pig races, so that was fun, too. It was a busy but good week.
The seed potatoes that Paul planted are growing!I think it’s fun that we have two cars that are almost identical. 🙂 Paul’s is a bit fancier with a sun/moon roof and slightly larger tires (and he has a power lift for his back hatch, which is nice), but they’re almost the same. He wants to get a tow package like we got for mine so that if he needs to, he can attach a trailer to haul stuff. Don’t mind the red blobs…I just didn’t want to post a picture with our license plate numbers on there.Paul surprised me with license plate frames for my car. It means a lot that even after 22 years of marriage he still likes to do little things to make me smile. 🙂I rocked my students’ world the other day by completely rearranging our desk set-up. Before, I had my small group table at the side of the room by the whiteboard and the desks were in four groups of five. It was…cramped. I got to thinking on how I could get more space and came up with this set -up. This way, not only do we have more space, but I can now have eyes on all my kiddos even when I have a small group.Now there’s a lot more space between the desks and the cubbies, too.One of the things that Abigail got as part of her Valentine’s Day haul was a miniature paint set, complete with canvas and easel. She painted this that same day, but I kept forgetting to get her picture with it. She’s super-proud of her first “real painting”.
