01: A relatively easy last day of work at UYA. Mom - thank you for watching the boys today since it was not easy for Troy nor me to take the day off of work.
02: Val - thank you for heading to UPA with me for the morning/afternoon to help me set up my new classroom. Jen - thank you for coming up to the school to open it up for us to get some work done!
03: having friends and family with kids around the same age as Logan and Ellis. I love getting together and seeing all the kiddies play together
04: an easy first day back at UPA. So happy to see my old peeps on the 4th floor (Kelli and Pam) and see some familiar student faces,
05: Starbucks! It's Election Day so we don't have students today. We were told that breakfast would be served for us, but something happened where it wasn't delivered. So, in between meetings, Pam and I made a run to Starbucks. I don't think I sucked down a frappuccino so fast in my life!
06: A work-night with no work to do. Ever since the beginning of the school year, once the boys have gone to bed, I've always had some sort of work to do. Tonight, I sat down to watch "The Voice" recordings while enjoying some Cold Stone Creamery - no work to do tonight!
07: Troy - thankful for him allowing me some "me" time this weekend since he will be hunting next weekend.
08: follow up from #7 - having my Christmas cards made already. My "me" time consisted of going to mom's house and working on my cards. Except for putting them in the envelope, they are done!
09: thinking before I spoke. There is a bit of daycare "drama" going on and it all started this weekend. While I could have responded very matter-of-factly to what I would consider a very rude email, I figured that it would just be best to talk it over in person when I pick the boys up on Monday so that my tone wasn't taken the wrong way.
10: a decent commute. We got our first burst of snow today and all I could think about on my way to work was "dang, how long is it going to take to get home today?" The first snowfall usually comes with people forgetting to know how to drive in snow. Luckily the dusting didn't throw anyone off too much and I got home in a decent amount of time.
11: an awesome sunset coming home from work. So calming to drive through the neighborhood and see such beautiful colors in the sky. I did take a picture of it while stopped at a stop sign, but the picture sure doesn't do it justice.
12: boys that play well together. Okay, so it's not all the time, but I loved seeing the boys work together to take their train tracks off its table and make a much bigger track loop on the ground. No pushing or taking - just good, fun playing and working together.
13: Logan and Ellis improving with their speech. It seems to be a slow moving process, but Logan has really picked it up a lot this past week or so. Julie, their speech teacher, has even documented some things during their class today of his improvement. He is even starting to say some two word phrases. Ellis isn't saying as much, but is gabbing a heck of a lot more than he was, which is also a good sign.
14: my mother-in-law. Rosie, thank you for coming out and staying with me and the boys for the next couple days while Troy is up north hunting. The boys love spending time with you and of course I like the company and help!
15: a girls night out. I can't remember how long it's been, but some good company from UPA and UYA got together tonight to hang out in Mexicantown for dinner and drinks. We MUST do this more often!
16: one last decent weather day to clean up the leaves in the yard. With Troy being up north hunting and me being by myself with the kids today, I took advantage of the time that the boys napped to mow the lawn/pick up the leaves. It must be the OCD side of me that loved seeing the yard all cleaned up!!
17: keeping our power during the huge storm and wind we had. A couple flickers, but no major loss. I always feel bad for Nicole and Mark, who seem to lose power quite often during storms like these, and unfortunately I take it for granted that we have it.
18: watching the boys so engaged in number activities. With Logan's improvement in speech, he loves saying the numbers 1-10. Tonight while I was working on some school work, I pulled out a couple number activities and both Logan and Ellis were completely engaged for so much longer than they were over the summer when I tried them. Happy to see some of the busy bag activities I've had for so long, be put to good use.
19: Professional Development. After being at UPA only 2 weeks, I was asked to go to a professional development around data. My favorite! (yes, I'm a nerd - I'll admit it!) Although the ideas I got are ones that will take a ton of planning to do, I'm excited to use what I learned to hopefully push my students and fill in the gaps that they have from previous years in math.
20: impromptu visits. Power is still out at the Reaves' house so they came over after Morgan got out of school to hang out, eat dinner, and visit. Thankfully for them, just before they left, they got word that their power was back on.
21: beer. I'm not a huge fan of field trips - not that I don't like them, but for some reason they wear me out so much more than normal school days. So, although I never drink a beer after I get home from a normal day of work, it was just one of those days where I cracked one open to have with dinner.
22: Beer Friday. I always love having an "excuse" to get together with the Chandlers.
23: family gatherings. Since the Reaves are going up to Lansing for Thanksgiving this year, our side of the family got together for the afternoon/evening. We do a Secret Santa exchange with the 6 of us adults, so we pulled names, had some pizza and watched the kids play around. Yet another thing I wish we did more often!
24: a short work week. It's always easier to look forward to the week ahead when there are fewer than 5 work days in it!
25: Kelli, thanks for taking my last class today so I could leave early and go check out a new day care with the kids. Also, thankful that the boys really seemed to like this new day care so that we don't have to keep searching for other possible places to take them.
26: terminating our current day care. I know it doesn't seem like I should be thankful for such a negative sounding thing, but I was glad to make it official with our provider. I wasn't looking forward to telling her but I wanted to get it over with since we have to give a 2 week notice. After hearing her comments once I told her, I am 100% sure it was the right move (nothing negative about the kids, but more her business-side of things).
27: an easy day at work. Between a lot of students being absent because of Thanksgiving tomorrow, and students having little parties in other class, keeping them out of my class, it was an even easier day today than I thought it would be. I'll take it!
28: seeing the boys with their grandparents. I was so happy to have both sets of grandparents here for Thanksgiving. The boys had a blast and of course they love all the attention they get from all 4 of them.
29: Black Friday sales. I did head out for a few hours yesterday morning and not too many stores were terribly hectic. I got a few good deals for gifts but was most excited about my Michael's purchase. I'm not exactly the most savvy with decorating, but I got a few things to decorate our house a bit more for Christmas. Let's just see if my vision works out in reality!
30: internet shopping. oh how I love amazon.com - enough said!
I'm looking forward to tomorrow - time to put the tree up, decorate it, and take out my minimal Christmas decorations. I'm interested in seeing how the boys react to the tree since they were a little hesitant at first last year with it, but then got much better after a day or two. I'm looking forward to the holiday season this year with the boys. I'm know they still don't totally understand the whole Santa/Christmas thing yet, but I LOVED watching their faces tonight as we watched "Elf on the Shelf" that we recorded on TV yesterday. Ellis was so excited and I don't think Logan even blinked during the entire show. Perhaps we'll have our first non-screaming visit with Santa this year? We shall see! Enjoy the rest of your weekend and stay tuned to updates with our holiday happenings in the days and weeks to come. Happy December!
(And just a little video of the boys showing their love for each other ! Of course they did it spontaneously just a minute before, but we had to prompt them along so I could get it on video. I'm sure they will hate every second of this video when they are older!!)
(And just a little video of the boys showing their love for each other ! Of course they did it spontaneously just a minute before, but we had to prompt them along so I could get it on video. I'm sure they will hate every second of this video when they are older!!)
