Monday, January 16, 2017

First half of December, aka "Before Sarah came home..."

It's a good thing that we get these holidays off school every now and then so that I can blog...Here it is the middle of January (Yes, really! I know - it was JUST New Year's Eve...) and I haven't even blogged December yet. But now that it's MLK Jr. Day and I only have to teach ONE day this week (Friday is Teacher Work Day, therefore I will be working and must do report cards), I can blog. It also helps that the cold/ear ache/sinus pressure/sore throat/fever junk I've been fighting for about 2 weeks is finally beginning to improve (instead of getting worse) and I feel more human. I did not miss any school or functions because of the illness...just took LOTS of medicine and spent every moment I was actually at home lying in the chair or on the couch. This extra day was just what I needed to *really* begin to recover.


We had a fair amount of snow this past December and it was really fun...for awhile. We got one snow day out of it (which also cancelled our GEMS Christmas party, so that wasn't so great) and I spent hours and hours zipping coats and putting gloves onto the very cold hands of 18 kindergarteners. It snowed on us at school A LOT and we spent several recesses indoors, mostly because I was tired of zipping. We had some super cold & strong winds also, so that was another factor in the indoor recess decisions. 




I took this panorama shot of the girls...they wrote out SNOW in the backyard. Reminded me of the book, "The Biggest Best Snowman" - read it and look carefully at the pictures.


Becca finished up C team basketball - she played well and hard and learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I love C team basketball. Everyone just plays hard and respects each other and there's zero pressure except that you always do your best. 



December is the month of concerts...Above is the choir concert...always a favorite and the one with a packed house. Becca even had a tiny solo in one of the 7th/8th grade choir songs! They always end with "Peace, Peace" and I can't stop the wetness from leaking out my eyes. So beautiful and meaningful.



The High School choirs do "Carol-o-grams" as a fundraiser and we always pay for them to come and sing in the hallways in the elementary school. I love it. Those little Kindergarteners look up to the big kids and dream of being that big and important one day.


There was also a 5th grade chapel. The principal took my class for an hour so I could sneak over and watch Elise perform. Unfortunately, that was all before I got my new iPhone 6, so I ran out of memory and couldn't video her solo. :( But she did a great job and I loved the whole chapel!




Becca had a voice recital and we just love listening to her sing and love that she can take voice lessons from a phenomenal singer.


Elise had a piano recital and we love her piano teacher, too!


Then there was the orchestra concert that all 3 Ball girls were in! So fun to watch all of them participate together. They even had a mass orchestra piece that had 5th - 12th graders ALL involved!





Ball girls and their orchestra teacher. We love her.


Other memorable moments ^^ French toast for dinner by candlelight...


^^Snow "cones" with neighbors


^^An amazing and generous class Christmas gift!


^^And this! My new nephew in MI!!!



And having friends over!!!


All this busy-ness helped pass the time while we waited for the day Sarah would fly home. She sent us some fun pictures of her life as well...


CC buddies in the snow...



Her whole life, other girls jump on her back for pictures. Why? I don't understand...


Smoothies with a friend while studying...

And then finally, it was the day before she would fly home...and the flights were cancelled due to "Winter Storm Decima". :P It was at this point that I decided I did not like snow at all.

Fortunately, we got her on a flight about 10 hours later, and she ended up being only delayed a little on those flights and arrived in Seattle 12.5 hours later than originally scheduled...so we lost one day of time with her, but were thankful it wasn't more.


So very sweet to have her home.






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