School

A lot has happened since I really got on here the last time. Matthew and I celebrated 8 years of marriage last week. Whoo-hoo! :)

This was taken right after we came back from our honeymoon. Neither of us REALLY wanted to get back out, in our wedding day clothes and take more pictures. However, now we are both very thankful that my father-in-law talked us into doing it.

Also, school has begun for Ally, Noah and me. Ally was a little unsure about a new teacher, new classmates and the big jump from kindergarten to first grade, but she is loving it! Noah started preschool and enjoys having one of his best friends in his class and also loves all of the "fun stuff" that his teacher does with her class. As for me, I am enjoying every moment of it!! I have 8 little 4 yr. olds, and they are ...well, 4 yrs. olds!!! :) We have our ups and downs, but I try to look at the downs as challenges that make me a better and stronger teacher. There is one little girl who reminds me so much of my little Ally at that age. A very smart, outgoing little girl! The first week, I had each of my students come to the front of the class and share a little bit about themselves. I had to drag information out of each of them except for this little girl. She got up and said something very similar to, "First of all, before I get started, I would like to thank you all for coming today. I would also like to thank God for all that he has done for me...". She then shared quite a bit of information about herself. A few days later, she came in that morning and asked to make an announcement to the class. She stood in front of the class, like she prefers to do, and again thanked them all for coming and God, for what he has done for her. Then she told the class that she would choose one of them to be her helper for the day. I had to stop her there and continue with our morning routine. :) They all make me smile for one reason or another, but I will stop rambling on about "my kids".

I am so happy to be able to share chapel time with the others there and see Noah during this time. It has been so nice, knowing that he is right across the hall from me! Getting off at noon allows me to make it to Ally's school in time to have lunch with her occasionally! Yay! I LOVE my job!

Update! :)

Ok, so first of all, somehow I did a "system restore" on my computer right after adding more memory. This restored my PC back to the way it was when I first bought it! I had to re-add a lot of programs and re-delete the ones that I didn't want or use. Anyway, it could have been much worse! All of my pictures and documents are still there! :)

What happened to my computer?

My computer was running low on memory and I decided that I couldn't put it off any longer and had to add more. I have done this once before, so after re-reading the instructions on what to do (and what NOT to do), I felt very confident purchasing and adding more. Two nights ago I opened up my computer to reassure myself that I knew what I had, needed and was going to buy. The inside had quite a bit of lint, so I used the hose on my vacuum cleaner and very carefully vacuumed it out. I took the current memory stick out and after looking at it for a brief moment, I put it back in it's place. Then I closed it back up and restarted my computer. Right away, new notices and messages started popping up, including something like, "congratulations on the purchase of your new computer"! What?! Then an option for a tour popped up along with many others to add things and change settings and such. The first thing that I did, was to check for my photos and documents that had been saved. Yay!!! They were still there! Whew!!! What a relief! All of the programs that I had were still showing on my desktop, along with several new ones (ones that I think I deleted shortly after I bought the computer). This seemed extremely strange, but it could be much worse! I went that next day and bought what I needed and added it as soon as I got home. I was so happy to see that it was running MUCH faster again and went to open a program that I use often. It wouldn't open. It said something about the registration info missing. I tried another program that I had added, and the same thing. Then I got a little worried! After trying a few things, I think I am just going to have to add these back one at a time. Has anyone ever experienced this? Know how or why this happened? Maybe have a clue how to easily fix it? :) I asked someone when I was buying the memory, but they told me that they don't understand why this would have happened. I am a pretty optimistic person, and find myself saying a lot, "things could always be worse!". In this case, it is so true! Although I do have an external hard drive that I have saved most photos and important documents to, I could be without that and have lost them on this one as well! Thank you Lord, that it is not as bad as it could have been!

riding the mower

Two days ago, I got out on the mower to mow the lawn again. Noah and Ally both like to ride with me for a little while, then they get tired and get off. This day, Noah got on with me as soon as I got started and rode for several laps around the backyard. He was barely sitting on the front edge of the seat in front of me, kind of standing while leaning back. I thought it would be more fun for him to steer (with a little help, of course) and put his hands on the steering wheel. It seemed like every time we made a turn he would let go, so I would put his hands back on the wheel. I also gently pushed the back of his head up against me, so that when we went over bumps, his head wouldn't bounce anymore. After making several rounds like this, I looked down and realized that he was about out of it!! His eyes were closed and he was trying to sleep! The poor thing! No wonder he kept letting go of the wheel. I don't know how he continued to stand there. I lifted him up and placed him on my lap. Then he went from my lap to over my shoulder. I finally decided to take him in. :) My poor baby was exhausted!!!

saying goodbye

I thought for sure that I would be in bed early last night. It was one of those days where all I wanted to do was come home and take a nap! :) I took the kids swimming with their cousins yesterday morning, so I think that may have had something to do with it (although I didn't do a whole lot of swimming myself). Then I went to work and took all of the kids to their Tae Kwon Do class. I hadn't really done a whole lot before I got home, but still, I felt exhausted! Somehow, I ended up crawling into bed around 3:30 this morning!!! I finally got into cleaning the house, and once I get started, I like to clean it all! I had been trying to get a lot of this done ever since I started this new job, and it just seemed like I couldn't find the time. Once we were dressed and out of the house, we seemed to find something to do before coming back home. Anyway, it is so much easier to clean when everyone is in bed and I have no interruptions, and I got a lot done.

Today will be the last day for a long while that we get to spend with my oldest brother and his family . They leave to head back to Spain in the morning. It has been great seeing them after two years! We will miss y'all very much Matt, Pilar and girls!!!

the dentist visit

Today was art day at work. We have field trips 3 days a week, and since I am one of the drivers, we usually only have art twice a week. Since I had a few kids tell me that they weren't here for some of our crafts, I pulled out all of my leftovers from the previous weeks, and allowed each of them to use those and other craft materials to make whatever they wanted. We had some make caterpillars, purses, crosses, family trees and several other interesting things. They really enjoyed it I think.

As soon as I got off at noon, we headed to the dentist's office. Noah has one cavity. Ally will be in braces in about five years. Ugh! That's something that I know very little about, and I am not really looking forward to.

Ok, I'm off to get some cleaning done before dinner.

Pedicure

BEWARE! There is a photo of my feet at the bottom of this post. I have been told that they look like Flintstone feet. I had to post this pic though, because I had my very first pedicure a couple of weeks ago, and I LOVED it!!! Matthew and the kids bought me a manicure & pedicure for my birthday, and the gift certificate expired in 6 months. Since it was winter at the time and I didn't see my feet much then, I decided to wait. I actually called the place the weekend before and told them that my certificate expired that Monday, and could I come in on that day and use it. They said yes, so I finally went alone to make sure that it didn't expire and become a waste of money. I knew that I would probably enjoy it, but it was for a place out of the way, and I knew that I'd have to find someone to keep the kids for an hour or so. I finally got there and enjoyed every minute of it! Well, the pedicure. The manicure was nice too, but the pedicure...why did I wait 6 months for a free pedicure?!! I think this is something that I will have to treat myself to often! So, here they are. :)