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!

Sick again

This family can't seem to stay healthy this year. It seems like once one person gets well, someone else gets sick. Mia was sent home Friday with a fever, and she ended up with an outer ear infection and sore throat and cold, and $97 worth of meds! Saturday I woke up with a fever, and was either freezing or sweating all day. Yesterday I thought I'd be better, but no luck there. Today I planned to go to work no matter what, because next week is the math TAKS test and I need to be with my kids. But I woke up with another fever and an extremely sore throat, so I skipped work and went to the doctor. Glad I did, because I have strep and mono. I really hope the steroids and meds kick in quickly so I can get to work to help the kids cram for their math test. The good news is that Mia seems to have responded well to her meds and is doing much better.

House Hopes

I found it. The house I want. It doesn't look like other houses in Killeen. It has 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths, and a bonus room above the garage - perfect for ALL the kids' toys (and for Marc when I need a break!!)
So now we have to decide if we want to seriously pursue it or not. But I really love it. And it has a red front door. Marc claims that's not a reason to buy a new house, but I think it helps...kind of like the cherry on top of a sundae!

Look down...

Not sure why, but I finally published my Easter photos, and it appeared a few entries down, so scroll down for Easter pics of my kids!

Baby Jack

My friend and college roommate Darcy had her baby last night. They are both doing well. I wanted to put this on my blog to ask that you all keep her and baby Jack in your thoughts and prayers. Her husband was killed a few months ago, so she is going through this wonderful experience without her husband, and I can't imagine how hard that is for her. Thanks.

Color blind?

It's late, and I know I need to be asleep, but I am online researching color blind tests. Now, anyone who knows me well would know that I know my colors and am big on matching - things have to be just the right shades to go together, and I feel that I am quite good at my color matching skills! Anyhow, recently I had my eye exam for contacts, and I get a bit stressed every time I have to go. Since my first eye exam when I guess I was in 7th grade, I have failed the color blind tests. You know those circles of dots? Well, in many, I see nothing. And once again, I failed it. So I got online tonight to try to figure out why I fail those tests. I made Marc come over and look at the dots, and he saw things I didn't. It really frustrated me, to not understand why I see nothing, but seem to know and see all my colors well. It's a lot less common for women to be color blind than men. I know there are lots of variations of it, and I read that it can be inherited. So family members, anyone else out there ever fail it? And if you're not sure what I'm talking about, then you must have good vision. You can go to the following site to take a mini-test. Let me know if anyone else has issues... I'm just frustrated about it all right now!!


http://colorvisiontesting.com/online%20test.htm#demonstration%20card

Easter

Ok, so I'm a late with photos. I know. We went to church in Killeen, and then drove to Brenda's for brunch and our annual egg hunt. We had a bad day of photos though - noone wanted to cooperate much, so there's not really anything where everyone is looking. Oh well. :)If you look closely at the one of Luke adn Mia dressed for church, you'll notice her teeth are blue. The only way she'd sit quietly without crying was if she was eating blue peeps!!

Spring Break Hilights

So I know break isn't quite over, but the majority of our outings are done since mom, dad, and grandma leave tomorrow morning. We have kept busy this week. Sunday Marc and I took Luke to Houston to the Rockets game (Marc's birthday present) and spent the night there. It was good to have that time with just Luke. We went to the Aquarium for dinner and had a great time there. Yesterday we went to see Horton Hears a Who, and I hear it was a great movie... I only caught about 40 minutes of it since Mia was fussing and I had to keep leaving with her. Luke summed it up for me today - I asked him if there were tiny people in the speck, and he said "It doesn't matter how little you are -we are all people." So I guess he got the underlying message of the movie! (If you haven't seen it, that may mean nothing to you!)Today we all went to the zoo in Waco, and then hung outside at Brenda's enjoying the sunshine, and unexpectedly got our first sunburns of the year. By the way, another very exciting moment this week when was we got our replacement Samsung TV! We only had to call them for 8 months and complain before they did something about it. And Mia had her 1 year appointment yesterday. She is still at 18 pounds, and went from being in the 80/90th percentiles to the 10th! Not sure what is going on there. She looks great to me and the doctor, so maybe she's just watching her figure and doens't want to gain too much weight. The girl sure does eat enough though!

At the Rockets game, with his new Clutch bear


Hanging out outside the Aquarium Restaurant, waiting for dinner


On the balcony of the restaurant



Leaving the hotel


Luke and Carsyn, outside of the zoo, waiting for everyone else to arrive. They found this little pile of leaves and were so happy playing in it! We don't get piles of leaves around here much.


Checking out the stinky elephants (they argued on the way to the zoo about whether they were stinky or not... and they sure were!)


Mia, checking out the elephants from the stroller view


I wanted to make sure we got a photo of the kids with great grandma, and we found a great spot out of the sun at the end of our zoo trip. Thanks grandma for making the trip to see us!!

Oprah's Big Give

Does anyone watch the show? I have heard negative reviews, but I like it because people are actually helping someone else for a change, not being selfish. Anyhow, I called dad from Houston last night and talked him through the process of recording it on my DVR for me, and I'm glad I did! I watched it tonight, and they were helping out two Texas elementary schools. The one school, Velasco, wanted a Christmas celebration because its kids are so economically disadvantaged and they wanted them all, for once, to get a gift. The neat part was that Velasco is in Freeport, TX, where Marc and I taught 5 years ago! I interviewed to teach and that school, and of course they loved me and wanted to hire me, (seriously, they did!) but I didn't like the principal at all. He seemed nice enough when he got a 50 inch TV though! I just thought how neat it was that I could really picture those kids, as that school was maybe 2 miles from the one I taught at, and I know the kids are quite poor - many are even from migrant families. Now I appreciate the efforts of the show even more as I can personally identify some of the people affected by unselfish generosity.

Princess Mia's Birthday Bash

Today we celebrated Mia's birthday with a princess party. Thanks to everyone who came - grandma and grandma Davis, great grandma Davis, Nonno, Nonni, and Michael, Brenda, Marcus, Carsyn, and Payton (and a brief visit from Scott), Doug and Jill, and Malcolm, Adrian, and Kennady. Once again, my cake lady came through with an awesome crown cake. Mia received many great gifts, but seemed to enjoy her spoons from her tea set the best for now!

Good morning! I'm ready for my party!!


Mommy and Mia pre-party


The cakes


The princess, posing on her throne with her gifts


Blowing out the candles (with help from big brother Luke)


Mia enjoying her smash cake


After a bath and a costume change, Mia took some time to check out her American Girl Doll of the Year, MIA!


Luke and Mia playing with her new little people house


And towards the end of the party, she just couldn't take it anymore. Within a minute of laying her down, Mia was sound asleep and snoring!

Happy Birthday Miss Mia!

It's hard to believe little miss Mia is already 1 year old. She started her day off by getting her new chair, which she loves! After school we took her out for ice cream since it's her favorite thing ever. She will get the rest of her gifts at her party on Saturday.

At one year old, Mia...
... has 8 teeth, including a new molar
... eats everything and loves big people food!
... walks holding onto things, but not on her own
... waves and smiles at everyone, and is learning to blow kisses
... knows "eat" in sign language and looks to the kitchen when we say it!
... can find mommy, daddy, Luke, and Molly when we ask her where they are
... and her favorite trick - opening her jar of puffs with her teeth!


Here she is, in her new big girl chair, taking the lid off her puffs as mentioned earlier, and wearing her birthday tshirt (compliments of Aunt Brenda!)


Enjoying her ice cream


Not the best shot, but Luke had cookie monster ice cream... blue with cookies in it. Nice. I believe his hands and face are stained blue still.

Random photos from the past weeks

Baby "Linus"


Sound asleep...


Last game of the year, kicking the ball in


Luke celebrating the end of soccer and showing off his medal


Mia stealing Luke's hat and soccer medal!

Quote of the Day

In the words of one of my third grade girls...

"Mrs. Minatrea, you look like you just came from Las Vegas, like one of those girls that shakes everything."

Um, is that a compliment?
(For the record, I wasn't wearing anything sparkly or with a feather headdress!)

TAKS Time

Tomorrow is the much anticipated TAKS day for my third graders. I can't believe how hard we've worked the past weeks to get ready. I'm not as stressed this year, but it's also the first year that all my kids have a shot at passing the first time, so my hopes are a bit higher. I can't wait until Tuesday afternoon when it's over!!

In other news...
This week is sure to be busy! Tomorrow is TAKS. Luke has 3 soccer games -Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. This is conference week for me, so I have some pretty much every day and quite a few on Thursday. Marc is balancing soccer and being in Austin for the state basketball games Thursday-Saturday. On top of all this, I'm preparing for Mia's birthday party, and battling illnesses. I woke up early Saturday morning very sick, and finally felt better last night. However, today at school it all came back but I made myself stay to get the kids ready for TAKS. Luke had a fever Saturday and Sunday. We did what any good parent would do - shoved him full or Tylenol and sent him on to school today - and so far, no call that his fever came back. Hopefully he's done being sick!

I'm excited about Mia's upcoming party. It's not a huge ordeal, but it's princess themed and I also found out mom, dad, and grandma Davis will be making the trip down for the party. Now my biggest stress is what she'll wear, and getting her 1 year photos taken by someone other than Aunt Amy!

February seemed way too crazy - with TAKS prep, soccer, basketball season, birthdays, valentine's day, sick people, family job situations and doctor visits... so I sure am glad to welcome in a new month. Hopefully March will be full of positive experiences and good news for everyone!

I know I have some photos to post, and will try to put them on in the next day or two.

Long Time No Blog

Wow, the past weeks have been very busy and even more tiring. To sum it up, basketball is over, Mia's been sick and got 2 new teeth, we've had birthday parties and soccer games weekly, and it's 2 weeks to TAKS time for me. Marc's team missed playoffs by just a few points in a tie-breaker game. They played well, but just didn't pull off a win in the end. School has been crazy for me. I interviewed for a new aide for my grade level and the one we hired started Friday. It's nice to have a little help again since we've been without an aide for about a month. Below are a few photos of everyone from the past days.


Causing mischief, her new favorite thing to do!




Watching buddy's soccer game


Hanging out, waiting for some action as goalie. He enjoyed it, until the ball went in. Then he just looked at me and said "I don't want to be goalie anymore!"



Waiting to block a goal at last Thursday's game