Tea Party with Emmer

I know the pictures are dark, but here is my Emmie drinking tea at the Chinese restaurant with Gramps and I. She Is definitely my more adventurous eater and tries pretty much anything. Hence, she LOVED the tea!

Pink panther shades

Ah, the toys that you get from Burger King...The latest are the Pink Panther shades.

Emmer and I at Z's soccer game. It was FREEZING, as you can see!

Screams and yells

My boy tends to get sick in his throat while Em gets sick in her ears. Hazen usually gets croup at least 2-3 times a year and/or has a sore throat which causes him to lose his voice. He woke up a bit on the hoarse side the other morning and here was our conversation last night:

Me: How are you feeling?
Hazen: Well, I still have my yell (he demonstrates what his "yell" is) but I don't have my scream (again, demonstrates the "scream").
Me: Why do you think you can't scream but you can yell?
Hazen: Because, my scream is not inside my mouth but my yell is like this...(demonstrates)
Me: Who do you scream at?
Hazen: Dominic (a kid at his sitter's house). I scream like this at him...
Me: Oh I see, and who do you yell at?
Hazen (smiling evil-like): Emmie.

HA!

Been away TOO long...

Hello all. Can't believe it has been so long since I posted last. It was the beginning of the school year and now we have 16 days left! Where has the time gone? This will probably be a fairly lengthy post since I have a lot to update!

Let's start with Hazen. Wow, has he gotten big. He turned 4 in January, which is so crazy to me. It seems like he was just a teeny baby! I was looking at pictures with the kids the other day and he has changed so much. He is very independent and loves to help me with anything I am doing. He is quite the observer and has an excellent imagination; he asks great questions and comes up with some hilarious answers to my questions too. He is definitely a sponge and loves to repeat my favorite phrases..."you're killing me" and "here's the plan" are some that he says all the time. Always makes me chuckle when he acts like me and says them with such feeling and emotion--especially when it's "YOU'RE KILLING ME!!" Ha! He is playing soccer and so far is doing really well. He is very fast and understands the basics of the game, which I am pretty impressed with. In his first game he scored 2 goals! Maybe I have the next Pele in my family! :)

Emmie is also growing up too fast. She turned 2 in October and is quite my chatterbox. She refers to herself as "Emmie Grey Princess" though Hazen calls her "Emmie Grey Rotten" just to rile her up! She LOVES books and every night will fall asleep with books in her bed (Hazen does that too!). It's too cute. She is quite the pistol and much "harder" than Hazen--he is very mellow and she can be SO high maintenance! Must be the estrogen! HA! We're working on potty training and so far it's going pretty well. We're almost there! She loves her "big girl unees" and my sitter told her that she needs to stay in the "Princess Club" and not go number two in her pants! HA (it's worked so far--still in the princess club!). She and Hazen aer very close and 90% of the time they get along and play together. It's so nice to see them together like that!

As for me, hoping to be at my school next year but won't know until May 15. They are doing a lot of hiring and firing at our high school which means we will feel the trickle down of teachers that are misplaced. Hopefully I will still have a job. I am applying for a new position which would be teaching all levels of ELL, which is what I REALLY want to do. It would be a pretty tough job as far as planning for 3 subjects but the class size is MUCH smaller which would be ideal. Plus, that's what my master's degree is in. So, it's the hurry up and wait process for now! V moved in with the kids and I in October and things are going pertty well. I know it was a big adjustment for her, especially with the kids, but she has adjusted well. The kids love her and she loves them. We have our rocky moments, as any relationship does, but that's life! No big plans for summer--might sub for summer school and make some money. We're supposed to go to Texas to visit her dad and stepmom at the end of July (nothing like Texas in the summertime! YIKES) That's pretty much it. I have included a bunch of pictures of my kiddos. More soon!



My Hazen playing in the snow!

Spiderhazen...

Pouty Em at Christmas

Arrrrr Matey! (Hazen says, "Arrrr, Mickey!" HA!)

V and I

Kids at the Aquarium--one of my FAVORITE pictures...

Kids and I

Baking Christmas cookies

Haze turns 4!

My soccer STUD!

Hazen and Boston

My devil and again one of my favorite pictures....

Emmie a few days after she got out of the hospital--I have never been so happy to see her smile and eat! One of my favorites again...

Em watching brother play soccer

Easter Emmer

Em and her birthday cake!

More birthday pics!

Sleeping Boston

Em at the Aquarium

kids and back to school!

So, here are my lovelies that decided they wanted to be human canvases and draw on themselves with markers. Yep, never a dull moment around here!

I'm offically part of the working world again. Started with kids last Monday and have a week under my belt. One class is challenging but you have to have at least one to keep you on your toes! I LOVE my new school and staff. We are like a little family, which is something I have never had before. And, most of the staff is on the same page as far as student achievement goes, which again has never happened.

The kids have started at an in-home day care that is right behind my house, literally. They call it the "white house" and they really like going. It makes my heart happy to see that they LIKE going to day care. They are both getting so big, and I can't believe Em will be 2 in less than 2 months! CRAZY!! They have been going through an "I don't want to listen to Mommy" stage which I REALLY hope ends soon. So trying on my patience, which is a virtue that I lack!

Heading to good ol' Chadron on Friday for a little road trip/get outta dodge, and am excited to see my friends. It's been over 5 years since I've visited! Excited to eat some China House and maybe even some Common Cents nachos! Will post pictures when I get back!!

Oh Emmie!

My little one decided she just couldn't finish her fries before passing out! TOO CUTE!

Hazen AND Emmie for hire!

Well, this year I had to hire both of them to wash my car instead of just Hazen. They did a pretty good job. Were a bit obsessed with the soap, but the car ended up nice and shiny!! :)

Emmie's cast

In the middle of July, poor Em had to get a cast on her arm. Mean brother pulled on her arm at just the right angle and pulled her elbow out of joint. After 2 doctors tried to put it back in place, x-rays and 2 visits to the trauma center, they decided to give her a cast for a week. Here are some pictures to show off "Emmie's purple arm" as we called it...

Just got the cast on....
We decided to sign it with washable marker (not my idea) and of course Emmie decided to lick her cast...here's what she looked like!

NOT a happy camper!
A little better...
See, I heart my cast!

Puebla: Days 12-14

Itzel-super cute!
Me and the kids
Jeff and the kids
Eduardo, my fav!

The last 4 days in Puebla were spent teaching, giving final presentations and saying goodbye to the kids. Our unit we taught turned out really good--we had the kids write penpal letters to students in Boulder. Jeff's daughters go to a bilingual school in boulder and he had 3rd graders write letters to our kids in Mexico. It was awesome to see how excited they were when we gave them the letters from the kids in Boulder. The classroom experience was amazing and I had a great time teaching with Jeff. He and I got along great and became very good friends. Love him! Still waiting to get pictures from him and add them to the blog.

We had a going away party at the school that Thursday before we left. All of the teachers came, and they brought out 10 bottles of tequila! Too funny--something you never would see in the States! It was a good time, with a not so good dinner, dancing, gifts and drinking! Afterwards we went to a dance club where they were having a dance-off which was lame so we left. Jose and I went and had some tacos and great conversation at midnight! Tried to have Burger King and McDonald's but they were closed! HA!

The last night in Puebla, there was a farewell celebration on the roof of the hotel. The professors gave everyone awards, had a Mariachi band, pinata, food and lots of drinking. It was a good time had by all. Still need to get pictures from Katharine so I can post them. We had to leave for Mexico City Saturday morning at 5:30 and many people stayed up all night and were hurting units. (I was not one of them! Actually got a good 3 hours of sleep!)

Overall, I learned more about myself and relationships with people than I did about education and teaching. I missed my little ones and V tremendously. I missed American food. I missed hearing English. I missed my big, soft, comfy bed. I made some great friends--Jeff, Manuel, Jose. I bonded with people who I had been in class with for a year and a half and kind of knew before we went down there--Christine, Katie, Peter. I solidified bonds with people-Katharine, Joe and Emily. It was an unforgettable experience and one I will never forget.

Puebla: Days 10-11 Teaching and trip to the Mercado

Dinner out on the town...

Pigs in the Mercado

No, it's not touching my head!
Jose and his small bag o' cheetos.

Yum, tripe and cows heads!

Melia, Cesar, me, Morena at the Mercado.

Food stocked in the Mercado; floor to ceiling.

Chickens!

My kids singing a song. Too cute!

We spent Monday and Tuesday teaching the kids, taking classes and writing papers. Tuesday we went to the Mercado after we were at the schools, and had to spend $50 on food, grocery items to give to someone that we found on the street who seemed to be "in need." It was kind of a strange assignment because we basically bought food and then had to ask random people if they could use what we bought. We asked one man who was selling matches on the street but he said to stop bothering him because he needed to work and we were interrupting his selling. We found an 82-year-old woman who was selling vegetables and gave her the food; beans, sugar, oil, toilet paper, rice, etc. She was very grateful. I was glad that I had 3 fluent Spanish speakers in my group that could translate and communicate with the people in the Mercado. Morena is from El Salvador, and Cesar and Hector are from Mexico. Then there was Melia and I--the token white girls! :) It was a very interesting experience!