Category Archives: Fun

New year!!

Well I can honestly say that I  have been feeling guilty about all the time that has lapsed between posts lately.  I have no excuses… no promises… just the real life fact that I am crazy busy, and very tired.  When I have to choose between sitting down at the computer to do something that requires my undivided attention, ie: edit, download photos, blog, OR enjoying my family… OR veg out in front of the TV… I will most often choose the activity that requires the least from me.  As a result, I find myself with almost 1,000 images of my own family to go through, download and edit… and not many blog posts to look back on over the past couple of months!  Sigh… GASP!! I’m exhausted just thinking about it.

Even after 2 weeks off from teaching, I haven’t found the time to catch up on my photos.  All I can say is that I am working on it!

For now, here is a pic from our family trip that we took this past weekend… more to come. (isn’t that flare sweet… ohh and the subject just melts my heart!) ;p

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End of Summer- August 2010

Well, it’s better late than never… I’m finally getting around to off loading my memory cards and blogging the end of summer. I’m really going to try to blog the months of August, September and October in the next week or so. Today will be August!

The month of August was spent trying to squeeze out every last bit of summer. I began to feel the pressure of the looming school year, and believe you me, I spent my fair share of moments on the verge of tears. I was completely overwhelmed with the thought of abandoning my, then, 3 month old infant! Some days, I would just look down at him, in my arms, and begin to tear up.

We hung around the house, played in the back yard, rode bikes, took walks, cooked yummy food, went back to school shopping, and slowly began to pull my new classroom together. I decided that it would be easier to get into my classroom a bit at a time to set up for the new year. I moved classrooms this year. Previously, I was in the little extra room that was in the preschool court yard. It was small! I mean            S-M-A-L-L. It was so small that I could only have 12 students because there wasn’t room to have more. I had everything in its place, because there was only one place that things fit ;o)

Now I am in a H-U-G-E classroom. I have 10 different places that things will fit in, and I sometimes forget where I put things. Anyway, the kids came with me to my classroom and “helped” get things settled.

We also took a long weekend and went to stay at my friend Lynn’s house in San Clemente. She has offered her home to me on other occasions, and I sorta dismissed the idea of taking a vacation to San Clemente. I mean really… I live a half an hour South, and work in SC every day during the school year. But… I decided that it would be the only vacation we would get this summer, so we decided to take her up on her offer this summer. We packed up for 4 days and headed out.

We settled in to the house. We went to the grocery store, we watched movies, ate junk food, played ping pong, drove the golf cart to the beach, sat in the hot tub, played on the Slip ‘n Slide, and went out to eat. We enjoyed having a dog for a couple of days, without the full time responsibility, and celebrated Rylie’s 3rd birthday. All and all, we really enjoyed our little weekend get away. It felt like we were more than 30 minutes away from home… we were in a different life… if just for a few days, and it was relaxing and fun.

Wesley started Jr. High School in August. I can’t believe that we have almost have an almost teenager on our hands. We picked out this fun little hat for him when we went school shopping. He looks so handsome! The awkward pre/teen years are here. He is too cool for pictures, doesn’t really want to smile, and he thinks he is the coolest thing around. We remind him that he is still the cute boy that we know and love by pinning him to the ground and tickling him. He tries to challenge his father, and the two of them end up in a martial arts smack down. Some day, he may actually be able to take his daddy, but for now, there is NO contest.

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The Great Shark Hunter- Watch Griffyn Go

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Extra hands and generous heart- visit from Aunt Rita

My wonderful Aunt Rita dropped her life and jumped on a plane to come out and lend a hand, during our second week home with Griffyn.  Her timing was perfect, and I was so grateful for the extra pair of hands.  Newborns are such a joy!  But as everyone knows, they take a lot of attention.  My aunt was amazing.  She swooped in here and just kinda took over with the girls.  She kicked me in the butt a bit too!  I had been making an effort to get out of the house, but she made sure that we were doing something each day.  She got up early, so I could sleep in, she made hot meals, and cleaned up after the kids… she took them on great adventures to the park, and explored the wild with adventures to the bike trail along the San Luis Rey River.  One day they even saw a huge snake!!  She read books, played Barbies, and hide and go seek!  I can’t even explain how amazing it was for her to be here… I wish she didn’t live so ding dang far away! We really love spending time with her.

One day, I suggested that it would be fun to go strawberry picking.  We have been doing this annually for the past several years.  I wasn’t about to try to take the kids alone, and Mike didn’t really seem very excited about going… so I took advantage of my aunt’s energy and enthusiasm, and we went to the U-Pick strawberry field in Carlsbad.

I stayed in the car with the baby through most of the excursion, but did manage to throw the baby into a sling and grab a couple images.

She even helped with the baby!  Thanks so much Aunt Rita… we love you!

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A few more from our last photo shoot as a family of 5!

blog1blog2Thanks Jen!!

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