Friday, March 23, 2012

Future Volleyball Star

I played a lot of volleyball when I was younger, and over the years, Jason has coached a lot of volleyball teams through school.  We would LOVE for our kids to play this sport as they get older!  We jumped at the chance to sign up Grace for a volleyball clinic through Hoover High School these past few weeks.  What appealed to us is that since she's still young, the clinic focused on building skills.  There were no games and it took place once a week for 6 weeks.  Grace seemed to really enjoy herself, and we certainly enjoyed watching her. 


Sunday, March 18, 2012

Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day!

An occasion to hang out with friends, dress in green, eat good food (and drink Guinness)?!  Count us in! 

On Friday night, the kids and I baked some rainbow cupcakes to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  Grace and I used to bake a lot- these days, life is just too hectic.  Friday night reminded me how I really need to do this more often with the kiddos!

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day with our friends, the Wiens and Brooks families. Aaron made a fantastic Irish dinner consisting of corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, and he even made Irish soda bread! For dessert, we had Guinness Chocolate Cake with Bailey's Buttercream Frosting and the kids enjoyed our rainbow cupcakes. 

I think these turned out pretty well! :)

The kids loved them, and that's all that really matters!
Such a fun evening- I think we should make it annual tradition!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Could've Done That for Free!

Jason typically takes Jeremy to get his hair cut, but I had to do it this time.  His hair was out of control!

We have always gone to Cool Cuts for Kids since they are very kid-friendly.  Well, the stylist we got this time around was new.  She asked what I wanted, and I told her we wanted a trim.  "We'd like it to be a little shorter."  I should've guessed that something was wrong when she got out the razor.  Just like that, she buzzed Jeremy's hair from the front to the back of his head in one motion.  My jaw must've dropped because she said, "Oh, was that shorter than what you were expecting?"  She switched the razor guard and somehow managed to make things worse because his hair was completely uneven.  I pointed it out, and after she examined her work, she excused herself.  A few minutes later, the manager came over.  She looked at the hair on the floor, looked at Jeremy's head and said, "O-kay. This is definitely short..."  She spent about a half hour trying to fix it and even it out.  I texted Jason, who responded with, "I could've done that for free!"  The stylist stayed in the back and didn't come out while we were there.  We ended up not having to pay for the haircut, and the manager gave us her card and assurances that we won't be paying for the next two haircuts.  Check out Jeremy's new haircut!   

Friday, March 9, 2012

Sick of it!

We are sick of it!  Sick of Jeremy getting sick!  It seems like it has been an ongoing cycle- Jeremy has gotten what seems like one ear infection after another.   In addition, his symptoms of runny nose and severe coughing have been magnified during specific times this past year.  We've had to make numerous visits to the doctor and to urgent care. We have struggled over this a lot, and Jason has ended up missing quite a few days of school to stay home with our sick son.  Part of the problem is also that his daycare refuses to administer any type of medications, including his asthma inhaler.  If you think this sounds outrageous, we totally agree!  We looked into the laws and asked several medical professionals who confirmed that this is in fact legal!  California allows daycares to opt out of administering meds.  So, every time that Jeremy goes into lengthy coughing spurts, they call Jason to come give Jeremy his inhaler.  Luckily, Jason's work isn't too far away, but it sure has been inconvenient, when all the daycare staff would have to do is give him two puffs of his inhaler!  We've heard the statistic that it only takes 7 years of living in Fresno for a person to develop major respiratory problems... Jeremy's only 4- how bad are things going to get for our poor boy?  We'd love prayers for Jeremy's health!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Some Positives

It has been a very, very tough year this year, and I have often found myself focusing on the negatives instead of the positives.  Well, I will confess that this post is mostly for me, about me.  In the midst of a lot of stress, I need to shine light on the following:

Odyssey of the Mind
I have been coaching 2 Odyssey of the Mind teams since Winter Break.  It has been extremely time-consuming and has definitely taken a toll on me.  I am so thankful for the support of one of my teacher colleagues, who helped me oversee one of the teams- the stress of coaching both teams was truly difficult to manage.  Well, the regional competition took place on Feb. 18 and one of my teams advanced to the State Finals that will be held in Brentwood on March 31.  I was actually half-hoping that this would all be done with by now, but we'll need to continue with this until the state finals.  Wish us luck- it would be nice to be rewarded for all of the hard work that has been put into this competition.

Science Fair
I believe that I am one of the few 5th grade teachers in our district who actually teaches and uses class time to teach my students about the scientific method.  Many teachers just give their students the information and assign for the work to be done at home.  Many of my students don't have the support they'd need from their families to know how to do these Science Fair projects.  Well, the hard work paid off!  At our District Science Fair, I had one student take 1st place and another student take 2nd place!  This is the 2nd year that one of my students has won 1st place at the District Science Fair!



I am incredibly proud that I got to be the teacher who guided these students to achieve these amazing accomplishments.