Top moments from this week

This has been a crazy week, full of highs and lows, so I'll quickly recap for you:

7.Sunday night, a group of coworkers got together at my friend Mandy's ranch and had a potluck BBQ. We had a good time, and Luke loved playing with other kids and opened up to some adults and talked.

6. Luke started his new class Tuesday, which is considered kindergarten at his daycare. He feels so big and important now that he's in kindergarten already! The best part is that he no longer naps, so as soon as he got home Tuesday, he fell asleep in his chair.

5. My knee has been hurting off and on for over a month, so after waking up at 2:00 this morning in a great deal of pain, I finally went in today. I'm very happy to know it's not as bad as it feels - it's an inflamed bursa sack (didn't know I had one) and with a month of meds and rest, it should get better. If not, I just have to go in and get a shot in the knee, and that'll do the trick. As long as their is relief in sight, I'm happy!

4. I got my money for mentoring two teachers this past year on Thursday. Well, I got paid for one and a half, because I'm still mentoring one until January. So after taxes, I got over $900! Nice extra pay to start off the summer...

3. One word - CRICUT. If you're a scrapper, you may know what it is. I've been eyeing it for a while, and once my pay went in Thursday, I went to hobby lobby and bought it! It's pretty cool - just haven't had the time to check it out. And to go with that, I made my first ebay purchase this week - and it was for a cricut cartridge. I felt pretty powerful winning my ebay bidding war in the last few seconds.

2. Tonight we went to Pluckers, a new wing restaurant that is opening on Tuesday. Marc was selected to go eat for free on their training night tonight and up to 4 people could go. So we packed up the fam tonight, ate among tons of KISD employees, and had a great, way too filling and fattening free meal! Good stuff.

And the #1 highlight (or should I say lowlight??) from the week goes as follows:
I was in the hall with my friend Camill, who also teaches 3rd grade. A prek class, taught by my friend Ms. Cuevas, was walking by and a little boy (who happens to be the grandson of our custodian) looked at me and Camill and said to Camill, "Is she your granny?" in reference to me! So maybe I'm no spring chicken these days, but a granny??? I had to admit after feeling a bit depressed for a second, that I got a good laugh out of it... and as word spread, so did many other coworkers, especially the custodian!

Hope you had a good week too!

Like father, like son

Monday, Marc went out to mow the lawn and Luke usually goes out to play while he is mowing. I peeked out the front window to see what Luke was doing, and this is what I saw:

Class of 2008

Today Luke graduated. When he woke up today, he walked in the bathroom and asked me, "Do you know what special day today is??" I knew he was very excited about graduating!! The kids all looked so cute in their graduation caps! Luke didn't like his much, so towards the end it had to come off in photos. Marc missed the ceremony due to being out of town, so I focused more on the video than the photos, but did get some of Luke and his classmates. There were lots of tears from the teacher, kids, and parents. Ms. Kuehl was such an incredible teacher, truly being patient with Luke's shyness and she did wonders with him. Each child wrote a "speech" that they were to read at graduation. They could write about whatever they wanted, and draw a picture. Ms. Kuehl and I were both suprised and very proud when Luke's turn came, and in front of probably 30+ adults, he read his speech aloud! It was very simple... "Off and on." I'm sure there's a deep meaning to his words in there for you all to ponder, but he drew a road and sky and water. I'll let you analyze what Luke wanted you to learn from his speech! I was disappointed though when he read his speech - as I took the photo, a boy stood up and got in the way, and then he was done. Enjoy the other photos from his big day!

13 more days...

It's Sunday evening, and I'm just dreading Monday morning arriving, but am taking joy in the fact that after tomorrow, I only have one more Monday of this school year! And it'll be quite a Monday too... I get the math TAKS scores first thing in the morning.

We ended up spending most of the weekend in Bryan at Marc's parents' house. We went Friday, stopped there briefly, then all drove to Houston to go to the cemetery where Nonni was buried. We went back to Bryan after that and planned to leave Saturday morning, but I think we all just needed a little more time together. Friday night we all went to the park, even Molly, and I tried to capture some photos of the kids (and by kids, I mean Luke, Mia, and Nonno!) playing and just having fun! Saturday the girls went to the mall for a while, and then we left this morning.

And in other news, Mia took what I'm calling her first steps tonight! Ok, so maybe she was just on her way to falling down and it took a few extra steps to do so, but they looked like real steps to me!!






Mia loved the tunnels, but this one was very hilly, and she got stuck trying to get up the hill!


Luke loves checking out Nonno's garden - they picked some fresh zucchini for mom to take home and make bread!


Peek a boo! This is from a few days ago, just showing Mia's talent of carrying things around in her mouth!

Hey everyone!

Well, I know I've been missing for a while, so I wanted to take a few minutes to give an update on everything going on with us.
First of all, Marc's grandmother, also known to Luke as "Old Nonni", passed away this week. She was such a neat lady. I loved how her face lit up when she saw Luke and Mia. It was so easy to tell how much she loved her great grandkids. It's been a hard week for everyone, so keep us all in your thoughts and prayers.

In other news, I am pretty much back to 100% health. I still crash exhausted once in a while, but otherwise doing just fine.

We are anxiously awaiting the end of the school year. This year we get out so much later, but still, only 15 days left!! There is an end in sight... We don't have any real plans for the summer, but I'm sure we'll manage to plan a trip or two sometime in there.

As for the kids, here's what they are up to:
Luke - We are planning his 5th birthday party! Hard to believe he's almost 5. He "graduates" next Friday from pre-k. He is getting excited about coming to Mommy's school every day and being in Ms. Gonder's class. Next year, my friend Ginny will most likely be his teacher, and her daughter will be in my 3rd grade class! He is working hard on overcoming his shyness. He is earning stickers every time he speaks to someone that normally he wouldn't, and working towards some fabulous prize when he gets his sticker chart full. He is growing up so much. Instead of falling asleep to cartoons or a movie, the other night he asked to put on the Astros game. He is really enjoying watching sports with daddy, and learning a lot about the teams. I guess a love of sports was inevitable as long as Marc was around him!

Mia - Well, she's just our crazy little one. Still not walking on her own, but getting very close. Her favorites/tricks right now are singing the Itsy Bitsy Spider, sneaking in the bathroom and trying to play in toilets, putting blankets, toys, etc on her head as a hat, climbing onto the coffee table, playing with Luke's trains, carrying things in her mouth (toys, blankets) as she crawls or walks around the house, and telling us constantly that she wants to eat in sign language. And, she is finally getting hair!!

I won't take up any more of your time, but wanted to update the world on our family. I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day!!

O-R-E-O

Saturday night we were all in the mood for some cookies, so Marc bought us some double stuff oreos. Mia had never had one, but loved it! I guess I didn't think ahead about how messy a 13 month old with an oreo could be!