January Disappearance

January Disappearance=Midwinter Prep, Pep Rally and Dance

 Dave did a few projects at home (balloon stands, lollipop walk-way, lollipop stands, foam cutting) and Andrew helped.  Andrew loved all the extra time spent outside while daddy worked.

 My Freshman had the Lord Licorice section of the gym and started working early (November) and then continued every Tuesday until they finished (way early too).  I had a few seniors in my group and enjoyed watching/helping the seniors mentor the freshman; there were a few moments of total nerdy teacher joy involved.

dance centerpieces in the process

 I also had a ten other committees of 3-4 kids that were responsible for other little projects for the pep rally and dance.  Although they should have started early, most of the groups didn't start working until Finals week (Jan. 15-18).  I supervised/encouraged/taught the groups after finals from 1-5ish each day.  Although it was a lot of "my" time, it was great to watch the kids rise to the level of my expectations, help each other, show great talent, and most importantly, show a huge desire to be involved.

lollipop walkway

 Dave and Andrew stopped by to help finish some of the construction jobs.

the front stage (minus the red carpet)

 Pep rally set up was January 31st from 4-9 pm.  Putting all the pieces together is always time consuming, but awe-inspiring.  Not only was the gym decorated well, but the kids were proud of their work. 

 The freshman section

 Friday (Feb. 1) was the pep rally and all went well.  Friday afternoon, we moved all the pep rally decor that we were using for the dance to the venue, I packed a very last minute items and tried to sleep.  At this point I was also REALLY, REALLY sick (and trying to ignore it).

 Saturday morning (Feb. 2) my dance committee met up at the Vecino building to decorate for the semi-formal dance that night.  We sent the girls home at 11 am and the rock-star advisers finished decorating.  My mom came to help and make the candy bar look fantastic!

 Cassie, my partner in crime, was an amazing helpmate for the day!

My fellow ASB Advisers

Back Row: Cassie, Lisa, Louie, John, Melinda, Theresa

Front Row: Jennifer, Ivette, Claudia

Wordless Wednesday: Devil Child

Orange Empire Railway Museum

On New Years Day, we joined Louie, Kristin, and baby Enrique for a cold trip to the Orange Empire Railway Museum.  Their website promoted that everything was open and the trains were running and we were both free!  Louie was more excited that anyone!

 Andrew immediately recognized the trains and began the pointing and "ohhs" and "awws" over the choo-choos.  He enjoyed the view from his multiple layered jackets and blankets!

 It was pretty empty (literally we were the only ones there for the first few minutes and then another family added to our tour) so we had our very own tour guide.  He led us into and out of several train "barns" giving us information and history about the trains and other items in there.

 There were several of these mini play trains to climb in and out of--all the boys got in!

 Andrew's favorite part was ringing the 10 different types of bells and whistles.

 To end our trip, we rode the trolley around the entire museum with our very own conductor.

A clean boy and his toys

 Sometimes Andrew is so dirty after dinner, he goes straight from the high chair into the tub.  This was one of those nights!  With spaghetti sauce covering his face, hair, arms, chest, and even his toes (can't even figure that one out), in he went!

 A clean boy shows off his toys.  This Tupperware bus was mommy's toy and Andrew loves it too. 

It says 'choo choo' right now like a train.

 Andrew really enjoys getting into small spots and playing.  Daddy's old keyboard allows Andrew to type his life story.  His blog is right around the corner I'm sure.

Missing you...

I have so much to say and so little to say at the same time.  I'm not sure how that works, but I do know that I get irritated when I read the same saying at other people's blog without much substance behind it, so I'll give you a random list of my things to say.

My home list:

1. Andrew is becoming such a little boy.  Every single day he surprises me with what he does, says, and understands.  He shows total brilliance (I am biased).
2. The temper tantrums are epic.  They are exhausting.  I probably should just cherish the "smallness" of my kid, the moments where I can teach him how to respond properly to situations, show anger/frustration, etc but I mainly just want to pull my hair out.
3. The "I yous" for 'I love you' and the kisses are enough to make any day better.
4. I haven't cooked in weeks, okay, lets me honest, months.  We've lived on way, way too much fast food and things from a box.
5. I'm behind on everything and by the time each weekend gets here I am ready to sleep, but that doesn't happen a lot.
6. I've been sick for weeks and finally took myself to the doctors on Thursday.  A sinus infection and double ear infections greeted me and I'm on antibiotics so hopefully the daily headache and constant congestion will go away too.

My work list:

1. Life at work is overwhelming.  Not necessarily my teaching classes, nor the extracurricular stuff, nor the admin responsibilities... but all of it combined is just a bit out of control.
2. I know I shouldn't do as much as I do at work.  Others telling me to 'just say no' doesn't help the situation.  Actually, it makes me angry.  I do most of it because I love it. 
3. Working with students in a true teaching/learning environment (outside of class) is powerful; it's the part of teaching that I greatly miss about yearbook. 
4. One of those hugely time-consuming extracurricular tasks is as one of the ASB class advisers. The job description is ever changing based on our expectations of ourselves and my open-mouth-give-idea-execute-idea problem. To be honest though, I wouldn't change it for the world.  Building leadership capacity with these kids has been totally worth it.
5. Change is in the air all over the place at work and it sort of stresses me out.  Not necessary the actual change, but the uncertainty of the potential of the change.

And no post is complete without a picture:

Happy Valentine's Day!

 Andrew wishes everyone a Happy Valentine's Day to all our faithful readers who are missing his adorable face!

 I really, really wanted Andrew to "give" the flowers to the camera from purpose of "giving flowers" to the Grandmas, but he wanted nothing to do with the flowers.

 Then, Grandma put lip gloss onto the center of the flower... which meant that Andrew would hold it and seriously ate the lip gloss off it with his finger... yep, this isn't a cute thinking face, this is a face of a 22 month old who is eating peppermint lip gloss off of a fabric flower and getting away with it!

 This one is my favorite.  His little squished nose against mine makes my heart warm!

 

Andrew's shirt, vest, and bow tie is from Children's Place.