Some Pictures for GG (and others)

Before Thanksgiving we had some pictures done (thank you Molly Snelson!). These are a few of the highlights. Just enjoy!

Back to Work

This is the start of my 11th year of teaching. How on Earth has the time gone by so quickly? What has changed in these past 10 years?

My address (a few times)

My last name (only once)

My favorite nickname (is now momma)

The number of pets I've had (good-bye Jackie, Hello Gipper and Nancy)

Where I go to church

What I do when I come home from teaching (remember the days of coming home and taking a nap? Or watching TV? Or...just lounging around? I barely remember that, and that was only a few years ago!)

I enjoy teaching more than I thought I would, but this year I am on an 80% contract, and I love it. So hoping that will help keep me teaching longer.

That it. Just checking in with the two of you who follow this blog. What is the end of summer like for you?

What we have been up to...

We did two weeks of 'parent and me' swim lessons. This equated to 30 minutes a day of holding Macie trying to get her to blow bubbles. It was terrific. I loved every moment of it. She enjoyed the water more and more each day, and by the end, we even 'dropped' her off the diving board (into the hands of her instructor). She signed that she wanted 'more'. It was super cute.

Isn't this girl just adorable! Below is us today. The swim lessons have made me look super tan, but now I don't have foundation that matches my skin tone (I know, poor me!). I'm just justifying the lack of makeup I have on.

And lastly, my cousin got married on Friday and posed for a picture. It was beautiful, and we had a nice time. Macie missed her afternoon nap however, so by 7 o'clock she had had it.

Jose only has 2 more weeks of summer school and then we'll get two weeks off together as a family before teacher meetings start. Where does the time go? I'm not worrying about it, but every once in a while I have to remind myself that summer won't last forever.

What have you been up to?

Summer Vacation

Well, here we are and I love it! This is the second week I've been out of school and I'm just lapping it up. Last week was fun because Jose had 3 days off before summer school started, so we really enjoyed ourselves. We had debated about renewing our dis.neyland passes because we knew she was just too little to appriciate all things di.sney. HOWEVER, we realized that most of our friends have them and WE miss them, so we took Jose's coaching stipend and purchased them.
Family picture outside the petting zoo.
Waiting for the Mark T.wain boat to go!
We went on a few rides - I think Dum.bo was the current favorite, and have since been there 3 times (only for a few hours at a time...girl's got to nap).

Here's Macie girl with her dad on the teacups.

Then we were able to take a short family vacation to Huntin.gton Beach and stay at the Hy.att (which I HIGHLY reccommend, especially for families).

Okay, and this picture is just one of my favorites. my mom bought this outfit for Macie and I realized I needed to put her in it before she outgrew it. Shirley Temple Black lookout!

And this last picture just goes to show the bigger you are, the harder you cry. (this is baby Logan with Macie by the way)
Happy summer everyone!

Macie's First Birthday!

So it's been a while since I've updated (and I know the 3 of you are on the edge of your seats) but I got my brother's pictures from Macie's party, so I thought I'd share a little of our fun day.

We were at a local park and we had a cowgirl theme for the day. It was super fun to surprise my mom (the next day was mothers day) by flying her sister and mother down from Northern California for the pary.

Mostly the day revolved around the cake.

And Presents (thank you everyone!)
It was a day long coming, and for those of you who prayed for Macie even before she was here, we thank you. Hopefully there will be lots more fun to be had. And next year, we're going very low-key. Ha.

A trip to the beach

A few weeks ago Jose and I got to be tourists at the beach. We meant to just walk around but it was such a nice day we ended up actually getting our 'feet' wet. The good news is that Macie loved the water! She didn't complain at all, until it was time to go. And it wasn't exactly warm water.

I think one of the funnier parts is that none of us were dressed for the beach, but I had an extra outfit for Macie in her diaper bag, so we just let her get wet in her onsie. I was in jeans and Jose had regular clothes on too. I was laughing while taking these pictures because we must've looked like we were from the great plains where people don't exactly know how to dress for the beach. It was worth it though for the memories.

Do you think Macie feels this way every time I kiss her cheeks?

What are some of your favorite day trip locations?

Things that keep me humble

This year my husband (who teaches high school chemistry) has a blind student. He's told me a lot about her and I met her once while in DH's classroom (remember, we teach at the same high school).
She told me she has heard my voice before and I told her I'd say hi next time she walked by my classroom.
Yesterday I saw her while I was holding the door open for some of my students. I said "hi!" and she said hi and then asked me how my day was. I said great, and she said her day was going well. I said "That's great! See you later!".

Then I put my palm to my forehead and realized how inappropriate my comment was.