Fall Smorgasbord

I'm sorry, there is no good way to categorize this random string of photos and events, except that they all happened in the fall.  So here is our October: percussionists, broken fingers, days off, chores, ordinations, straight A's and all!

 As a 5th grader, Delia has the opportunity to join the band this year.  She was excited to sign up in the percussion section, since dance class has given her a pretty good sense of rhythm.  Our band director makes all his percussionists learn to read music by playing the xylophone before they can start "banging on things".  Learning music is hard, and Delia has already asked to quit, but we're obviously making her stick it out for at least the year.

 The girls ministry I help teach has launched again for the school year and I forgot how much I missed these goofy, amazing, (now) 5th grade gals in my class!

 A parent gave me a generous gift certificate to our town's sweet little home goods store last spring and I finally found something super special there that I wanted to spend it on!

 Ella once again decided to be on the girls' basketball team.  But then, on her SECOND day of practice, she took a tumble and broke her right pinky finger.  Soooo...another night in the ER we spent!  The break was actually a pretty common one and healed in just a few weeks with only a splint and no follow-up even required.  But, the night we spent with the x-ray technicians was the night of a big band and choir concert at school and many tears were shed over the missing of this important event.  Also, the basketball team had to be given up, as did piano and saxophone playing for the month.  It's been another good life lesson in learning to be flexible and not too distraught when our plans don't work out the way we want them too (something Ella and I BOTH have a hard time with)!

 One Friday night we attended a Harvest Party at some friends' house.  There were fun fall foods, good fellowship, pumpkin carving, and this hilarious trio of costumes!

 We had a Monday off school and spent it catching up on our relaxing!  What is better than board games in bathrobes with waffles and hot chocolate?!

 Another Saturday the girls worked hard getting all my dusty windows sparking clean, inside and out.  They did a great job and got this chore done without complaining.  Aren't they awesome?

 We spent a special Sunday celebrating the ordination of our good friend, Patrick.  Our church has been SO blessed by his ministry these past 2 years, and Dave has been blessed by his partnership.  Though nothing really changes in his job, we recognize the significance of our denomination and church affirming his gifts and calling and making him an official reverend.  We had his family, and our beloved chaplain and his wife, Pastor Jack and Sharon, over for a celebratory lunch.

And last...this is what Delia brought home last week-- a straight A report card!  We are so proud!  Her teacher had lots of lovely things to say about her at parent/teacher conferences too!  Though Ella expected her harder year to be reflected in her grades, she also did great and had As in every class but one.  What smart girls I get the privilege of parenting!

Puppy Love

Getting sick of pictures of my kids on the blog?  Not to worry!  We have an adorable new puppy to oooh and aaah over, so all my phone pics are now of her! :)  We've been a family of 5 for a month now, so here's another update on how Ivy is doing.

The above pic is when she made her Facebook Debut! :)  The letter board was a birthday present from Kristen and I LOVE it!  Also, since the taking of this picture, Ivy has learned how to work doggie door and has not had another accident in the house!  She's also much more chill about us leaving her during the school days, because she now has the independence to pass the hours running around and exploring outside!

 She's mellowed out about the guinea pigs too, though she still watches them intently and still under supervision.

 Ivy has also fallen head-over-paws in love with Delia, who gives her the most energy and attention.  They are good play buddies, wearing each other out every night.  I wonder if Ivy senses Delia is the smallest in our family and treats her like a companion, instead of a master, like Dave...

Or a cuddle buddy, like me!  Ivy has learned that I am the one who will provide her belly rubs and snuggles.  She curls up in my lap every day, a feat getting more and more difficult considering she's gained about 10 pounds already!  When I rest, she joins me.  I do like coming home to a quiet house after my day of teaching, but I love that I no longer come home to an empty one!

 Poor girl was spayed this week and spent one whole day not herself at all.  We gave her lots of love and were relieved that she perked up and was actually completely normal the next day already!

And just for the sake of keeping it real, I'll confess that life with a new puppy hasn't been 100% snuggles and tail wags.  Ivy's favorite trick is to take the toilet paper from our little bathroom and run outside with it, TPing my entire back yard!  She's gotten 3 whole rolls now!  The solution is easy enough-- keep the bathroom door shut.  But, it only takes one time to forget and we have quite a mess to clean.   Ivy has also decided that a certain pillow and a book had to die a terrible, million-pieces-everywhere, kind of death.  Frustrating, but the things she's destroyed can still be counted on one hand, so that's good, I guess.


Here are a few videos...

This one is Ivy demonstrating the 3 commands she mastered in her first week with us.

This is Ivy and Delia's favorite game.  It gets us giggling every time!

Fabulous 40th!

I must admit, I don't really care much about my age.  I totally get that it's just a number and because my job literally requires me to be playful and silly every day, I don't feel old at all.  But 40 is a significant milestone, I guess, and man did I get the royal treatment for reaching it this year!  I am just blown away by all my loved ones' generous and thoughtful gestures-- from a classroom full of decorations, to a mailbox full of gifts and cards, to a FB wall and inbox full of sweet greetings, to a lawn full of decorations and 40 balloons!

When I rolled in my driveway from school, this was the jaw-dropping surprise I found!  My wonderful and sneaky friends came over to decorate my house in the morning.  I and the girls were just delighted!  I didn't learn until later that it was Jetta and Amy who had gifted me with this fun, and I totally enjoyed the pictures Amy texted of them setting it up...

We enjoyed the 40 balloons until Wednesday and then I brought them to school to hand out to my students, which delighted them too!  So cute to watch all my kids walk out with a shiny Mylar balloon tied to their wrist and a huge smile on their face.  Thank you, Amy.  It was a good birthday, and this surprise was one of my favorite parts of it! :)

Dave and the girls gave me a really exciting gift too... which I'll tell you about later and get sometime between Thanksgiving and Christmas, when our contractor church friend is able to come and do the work on our house.   I can't wait!  For now, Delia is amusing people by telling them, "We got my mom a puppy for her birthday!" :)  These 3 also took me to a restaurant we've been excited to try-- a brewery with delicious food and a fun outdoor atmosphere.  

Even though it was the big 4-0, I did not wake up on the 22nd expecting to feel any different, but I actually did.  I felt MORE loved and MORE appreciative of the amazing people in my life than I even realized.  Thank you, everyone!

Meet Ivy!

One week ago we set out to buy some guinea pig food at the pet store.  As we always do, we stopped to check out the puppies at the Saturday Adoption Event the store was hosting.  This adorable little pit mix caught our eye.  As we admired her and learned more about her from her foster mom, we fell more and more in love.  We were told she was the most docile, obedient, affectionate puppy the woman had ever fostered.  She told us she'd recommend this dog for guide dog training because she was so smart and easy to train.  We held a little family meeting in the store's bird aisle and decided our perfect pup had finally found us!  We signed the papers, added some dog supplies to the guinea pig food we went to buy, and brought her home!  We named her IVY for our Chicago Cubs and the defining feature at Wrigley Field, and also because we thought it was cool to have another dog with a plant name.  

Ivy has been with us for exactly one week now and is doing wonderful in our home!  We knew our lives would change, but she hasn't been as disruptive or destructive as we expected.  She's playful, but not too wild.  She is nearly potty trained and does a good job going outside 90% of the time.  She does not bite us with her sharp puppy teeth, but instead covers us in kisses.  She has managed to mangle 2 flip flops and the rubber bathtub stopper, but no other causalities besides these cheap and easy to replace things!  She is our whole world right now and we are just looooving the joy a puppy brings to our family and are so excited to be dog owners again!

 Here are the things we have learned about Ivy this week: She loves belly rubs! 

 And the sun spot in our living room.

And ALL the attention, which the 4 of us are happy to provide.  The girls make her art and read her bedtime stories.  We play a lot of fetch and tug of war.

 She loves treats and is highly motivate to learn and obey.  She's already learned "Sit", "Stay" and "Down".

And she love, love, loves Dave!  Dave is by far her fave!  She follows him around like, well, a little puppy.  Dave was the most realistic about how much work she'd be during our bird aisle family meeting, and, with us at school all day, he does a good amount of it.  But she has captured his heart and I love seeing them together!

Ivy does not love: the vacuum cleaner, the guinea pigs, or the time of morning when we all leave.  After watching her for a week, we think she may be a pit/pointer mix.  She's funny about the pigs and freezes and "points" at things when she's outside.  And her belly is covered with the pointer's traditional black and white spots.  We look forward to uncovering all the other loves and personalty traits of our newest family member!

Labor Day with the Sequoias

Having actually spent most of Labor Day weekend down with fevers, colds and coughs, when Monday rolled around and we were all starting to feel better, we decided to get up off the couch and stretch our legs at Big Trees State Park.  This is one of our family's favorite hiking outings, so, even though we have not visited in about 3 years, the sights (and pictures I took) felt familiar.

 Thanks to numerous hikes around this state park, we DO know our trees!

 Tree huggers.

 Ella at the end of a long tree tunnel.

 Delia gave me lots of "Muscle Girl" poses on this hike.  

 This is a crevice inside a tree.  Both the girls took turns sliding in here.

 Above and below, playing inside the hollow, fallen tree-- wide enough to fully stand inside!

A sad shot of what's left of the Pioneer Cabin Tree, the one you used to be able to walk through, after a big storm knocked it down this winter.

And after we hiked around our favorite North Grove Loop, we headed down to the river, which was really high and rushing!

Between the grove and the river, we knocked another 2 miles off our "Hike 40 in 40" List.  Just 5 more miles to go before December!

BTS 2017

Well, we've survived our first full week of school!  As always seems to be the case, at this point, there is exhaustion and mixed emotions about our grueling new routine.   

 We were all happy and excited on the first day of school!  

 Delia got an amazing teacher again this year!  Mrs. M. is actually the mom of one of Delia's best friends!  She's back to teaching after a long break of being home with her kids.  So far we've been blown away by her communication, attention to detail, fun-loving spirit, and prioritizing spiritual development for her students this year!  Of the three of us, Delia was the most reluctant to start school again.  She had SUCH a great year in 4th grade, she expected 5th to be a let-down in every way.  And so far, it has exceeded her expectations every day!

Ella is my girl who looooves school!  This pic is her on kick-off night, where she is given her schedule and locker and has her yearbook picture taken.  Ella is already finding 7th grade has more challenges, with its many teachers and class switches, than she's run into in the past.  She is a girl who is motivated and sets goals.  She has been to discouraged to learn that keeping her teachers' expectations straight is going to be hard and her goal of getting all A's just might not be possible.  Combine that disappointment with braces discomfort, extra fatigue, and general pre-teen moodiness and she has not been loving school thus far.

And as for me, I am finding the start of this year to be extremely difficult as well.  I compare the first month of teaching preschool to going into labor.  You kinda forget how awful and hard it's going to be!  My students seem especially young and they sure are tiring me out!  And though the new teacher I am training is a natural, she's just not a good friend yet.  Hard days and difficult students I can handle, but it does all seem more stressful this year as I navigate each day without the beloved partner I've had for the past 4 years.  The good news is that God has given me a wonderful gift in this: a built in reminder EVERY DAY that my little students will get there!  After I dismiss my preschool class at 11:15, a Stay and Play class made of 20 Pre-K kids, (18 of whom I had last year) bursts into my classroom, full of enthusiasm and hugs.  They know how to behave, they know how to clean up, they know how to sit attentively through a Circle Time lesson.  I LOVE them!  Right now they are my favorite part of each day!  (The above pic is drawn by one of those Stay and Play sweeties-- "It's me, Teacher Jen, Teacher Briana, and Teacher Liz inside our classroom last year.")

I KNOW it will all get better.  It always does. :)

So Long, Summer of 2017

In between the birthdays and holidays and vacations that I've been posting about, we had another wonderful summer that perfectly balanced activity with rest.  We started the season with a Summer Bucket List, which proved to be a very helpful tool when we had had one too many days cooped up inside and needed creative ideas for spending our precious summer hours.  We made 40 idea pins and were successful in dropping 32 of them into the bucket!

 We picked blueberries.

 We fed the ducks at the canal.

We did lots of bike riding and ice cream eating. Sometimes both!

 We used up many of the gift cards our church family and students generously shower on us.  One night we took Dave out for a fancy dinner for an early Father's Day celebration.

We spent a day at Great America and, with no lines, rode the super fun, super fast Gold Striker wooden roller coaster 4 times in a row! (We then nursed all sorts of aches and sick feelings...wouldn't necessarily recommend for you fellow 40 year olds!)

We enjoyed a busy wedding season-- attending six over the past few months!  We thank our newlywed friends for providing these regular date nights for Dave and I.  We dress up, we get a sitter, we eat a fancy dinner, we dance.  Just costs a wedding gift...and about 12 hours of work if Dave is doing the counseling and ceremony! :)

 We gobbled up all our favorite summer produce: peaches off our tree, tomatoes from our garden, and HUGE artichokes!

We had Baking and Crafting Days!  Frapuccino cupcakes, panda-colored button frames, and artistic gym shoes were the products.

We spent lots of time in our friends' pools.  And, unlike last year, we visited our community pool just one time this season.  But, we did it with some good friends and enjoyed having it pretty much to ourselves.

We've also been hanging out a lot at our new orthodontist's office!  The time has come for Ella to get braces.  We were discouraged to learn that she's got a long, expensive road ahead, with about 27 different steps and stages before her smile is perfect, but she has handled all the new aches and discomfort and awkwardness like a champ!

We headed to SF for a day to take in a Cubs game.  We do love beautiful, bay-side AT&T Park and had a great time watching warm-ups...

 And playing on the Coke slide and cable car.  And also running into school friends who are fellow Cubs fans!!

Good thing we had all this fun beforehand because the game was FREEZING and the Cubs lost.   

With Dave's busy schedule and whole weeks crossed off our calendar for Mount Hermon, VBS and our Midwest Vacation, we never made it camping this summer.  We decided to do a day trip to the lake instead and enjoyed a kind of "Condensed Camping" experience-- swimming, hiking, geocaching, but minus all the hard prep and sleepless nights of 3 days in tent and cooking over the fire!  Are we onto a brilliant idea here???

There is always a bittersweet feeling the night before the First Day of School.  I'm thankful for another superb summer and for the reminder from Ecclesiastes 3:1 "There is is a time for everything and a season for every activity under the heavens."  We praise God for a summer of rest and activity and trust He'll continue to guide, equip, and bless us in this new season of school!