thankful (ˈθæŋkfʊl) — (adj) grateful and appreciative

I decided the other day that I needed to blog and mentally blogged a wonderful post!  Now that I'm putting words on my screen, I'm a little lost.

The holidays are here along with the excitement and stress that comes with these blissfully hectic weeks.  Those close to us know that this year has been especially difficult for us financially.  Our bills keep increasing yet I remained furloughed.  With that said, we have been blessed on many occasions by our nearest and dearest.  Chris and I have the best families and friends that have allowed God to use them to bless us in many ways.  And some may not have realized just how much of a blessing they have been.  I know this is God's way of teaching us humility!  God has blessed us with a nice cozy little house filled with the pitter patter of little feet and loud voices.  He has also given us nice vehicles to transport all the precious cargo.  We have never missed a meal (although I could probably stand to miss a few.)

Have I mentioned how thankful I am??

I was recently checking out my insurance claims and realized that I have only had to go to the doctor with a sick child 1 (ONE!) time this whole year.  And I have 4 children, in case you lost track!  I have no doubt that God has His hands on my family's life.  (Of course, I like to think that their health is also related to them being breastfed!)  :)

My brutally honest child, Caiden, made an announcement at home the other day, "You know, Mom?  We really are lucky.  We have a Wii, an XBox 360, and 2 TVs in our house."  Yes, son, we are EXTREMELY blessed!

Here's my Grammy award speech:

Today, I would like to thank God first and foremost for always providing.  Thanks to my family and dearest friends for always being willing to offer a hand or an ear.  I love each and every one of you and can only hope that one day you will truly know what you mean to me!

Teach, Teacha!

So I've realized that I have not updated my blog in quite some time.  I've been accused of being MIA recently.

Here goes...

What have I been doing since this blog post?

Teaching, my friends, teaching.  But let me break it down for ya.  In the first 5 weeks of school I have awoken @ 5:45 a.m. to get ready and drop off my babies at daycare so that I can arrive to my school by 7:20 a.m.  I have met and am currently trying to remember the names of all of my approximately 250 students, 1/4 of those are new to our school.  (I couldn't imagine having to know all 750 of our students!)  I have worked alongside our Kindergarten teachers who are "blessed" with 30 babies students in their classrooms.  (Once again, I couldn't imagine more than 1 hour a day in those rooms.)  I have received countless hugs and waves (germs come with the territory) that would brighten anyone's day.  On the other hand I have encountered the most disrespectful remarks that would make (insert most disrespectful person you can think of here) feel ashamed.  I have tied shoes, fixed hair bows, buckled belts, and snapped snaps.  Students have proudly shown me new clothes/shoes and other homeless students have shown me how it smells to not have a bath for a long time. 

So far this school year, I have delighted in having my students show me what they have learned so far but I have also had my heart broken when a child is picked on for what they are wearing or because they are "different."  I have celebrated birthdays and called parents for behavior issues.  And as a parent, I have been called for "lazy" issues. I have had pictures drawn for me and former students expressing to me how they miss me this year.  I have had students tell me that they "don't want to learn Spanish.  I'm not ever going to go to China anyway."  I feel like a failure when I don't reach the unreachable but I feel like a million dollars when I do.  Believe it or not, I wake up everyday and do what I love to do.  It's a passion.  A way of life for me.  Some days I don't like my passion and I wish it would go away.  At the end of the day, I couldn't imagine another passion.  I love the Spanish language and culture and I love children. 

I ask for prayer for myself and my fellow teachers at my school.  We have a heavy load this year with full classrooms and MANY students that are not academically up to par.  Not only that, just watch the news.

***Please note that any reference of "I" can be replaced with "We, teachers"

9.5...officially.

Nine and a half.

I know, I know.  You're asking what the big deal is.  The honey and I decided to celebrate a half anniversary this year.  Various reasons behind the idea.  This is my version of the story:

I bought a groupon a few months ago for the bed & breakfast where Chris and I stayed on our wedding night.  Our wedding anniversary is always around MLK Jr. weekend so technically we always have the option of the 3 day weekend.  But let's face it.  Our anniversary is exactly 3 weeks after Christmas and January is not a good time of the year for us financially.  Which is exactly why we have arrived at 9.5 years of marriage and the only time Chris and I have been anywhere by ourselves-NO KIDS-was our honeymoon.  (Yes, I still feel like I have to justify being away from them.)

I decided that since I was still on my summer vacation that we should take a night out of the weekend and cash in on this one-in-a-9.5-year opportunity since I know that our decennial anniversary will probably be a nice dinner.  (If we're fortunate enough.)

I have to say that it was so nice to have my husband's undivided attention even if it was a short period of time.  Even better was not having to play paper, rock, scissors to see who was doing bath/bedtime with the babies.  It also was the perfect end to a delightfully short summer.  (Did my use of the word "delightfully" remind anyone else of the Hooter's slogan?)

Now, here's the version from Chris that I promised:

Dawn and I are going to a hotel for the night.

*sigh*  Such a romantic!

I can't write a quick blog without giving proper credit to my mommy, AKA Super Gra-nanny, for caring for our offspring so that we could enjoy some time together.  I'm so grateful for her because I never have to worry about the kids when they're with her.  (I do have to worry about her, though!) :)  Of course, she did say something about having 2 messes to clean up within the first 10 minutes that they arrived to her house.   Blah, blah, blah I say!  That, my dear, is what has made my summer so entertaining!

July: The most depressing time of the yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaarrrrrr!

(Note:  Title to be sung to the tune of Most Wonderful Time of the Year.)

Yeah, I said it. 

I should probably clarify that this mainly refers to teachers.  Our emotions can be accurately depicted with a bell curve.  From spring break until May we become increasingly less crabby happier.  After we have locked our classrooms or offices for the last time in a school year, we skip away at the height of our curve completely ignorant that another school year is peaking around the corner.

The peak starts to drop on June 30th.  On July 1st we awaken panicked and depressed because the summer is almost over.  We've accustomed ourselves to indoor hermit crab living and now we have to start preparing ourselves to enter the world of the living as pale zombie creatures scratching our way back to the laziness of summer.  Week 2 of July is usually a panicked succumber to time's constant passing with a realization that we have to do SOMETHING to classify the waning summer as somewhat productive. 

All the while, housework responsibilities tackled in the first week of summer vacation are creeping up because the last few weeks have been an emotional blubber of self-disappointment, self-pity, and last-minute plans "before the summer ends."  The downward spiral has already overtaken any power the already debilitated teacher has left. Thus the bell curve wins again and we bottom out just in time for all the kiddies to tell us their perpetual animated stories of what they did during summer.

Let's face it.  Summer is like chocolate.  We ALL love it but hate how we feel after shamelessly overindulging.

Los Padres

I'm laying here in bed on the Saturday night before Father's day and I'm kind of wishing I had planned a weekend trip like I did last year as a way to escape the reality of this weekend. Looking back on a blog I wrote in 2007 I made a comment about it being a hectic weekend because of accomodating all of the dads in my life. Boy, I would love to have that opportunity this year! You certainly never know when a holiday is the last one that you get to spend with a loved one. Make sure to give all the dads in your life some love this weekend. I'm so grateful I have my great husband and awesome father-in-law. Happy Father's day to them, my brother, Justin and my brother-in-law, Chuck! I love you all!
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Orange. It's the new "tan."

Since Father's day is upcoming I decided to blog a memory that I recalled this morning.  I recently posted on FB about a dream I had of my Daddy.  In my dream I could vividly recall every little detail about his looks, smells, behavior, etc.  I woke up just relieved that I haven't nor won't forget what he was like. 

This morning, I drove by Rooster's restaurant as I do sometimes several times daily and had a flashback. Spring/early summer 2007. Daddy was arriving back in town and needed me to pick him up from his truck yard.  I noticed when he sat in my car that his beard looked a little different but didn't think anymore about it.

Disclaimer:  Daddy was always trying home remedies (drinking vinegar and sometimes kerosene; daily doses of peroxide in his ears to turn the hair around his ears blonde).  With that said, there was no telling what he was "experimenting" with now.

Mom met us up at Rooster's for lunch and as we sat down at the table I started realizing that his face and beard had an orange tint.  I don't remember if I asked him about it or if he volunteered the information but he explained the discoloration to me very nonchalantly.

Apparently after a shower the day before he went to use some of my mom's lotion for his face because his skin was dry.  He didn't realize that it was her self tanner!  I laughed so hard because he really did not care if anyone saw him looking like an Oompa Loompa.  Nor did he bother trying to scrub it off...his face was moisturized: orange, streaky, and all!

I would give anything to call him for lunch today, Oompa Loompa or not. Memories aren't the same as having him but they'll have to do for now.

sextuple u?

Disclaimer:  If you didn't think I was a dork (not whale anatomy) before this blog you will after reading.

 

I've decided to share a conversation had a while back with my husband in the vehicle.  While listening to the radio there was an ad where the person was giving a web address.  Of course the person said "double-u, double-u, dot" missing the 3rd "double-u" which is one of my many pet peeves.  So what if I'm petty?  While expressing my annoyance with my husband I started to realize something.  Instead of saying "double-u, double-u, double-u" (www) can't we just say "sextuple-u" and it mean the same thing??  I mean that would technically be uuuuuu but if we're just tripling doubles can't we just say six or sextuple to make it easy?

I'm going back into hiding now.