January 2017

So. Sarah left. Went back to Calvin. And we tried to get back into the swing of things...I finally took down Christmas:

DURING:

AFTER:

Aaaahhhh...as much as I love decorating for Christmas, I love it when it goes away and I am left with more clear surfaces, simple white decor, and an organized living room.

^^^Some very dear friends from years ago came to our home for dinner and met 3 of our kids for the first time! We love visiting with them and catching up. What a blessing.

One morning we had the most beautiful sunrise over the mountains on the way to school and I just had to pull over and take a picture and send it to Sarah. She misses the mountains...I remember that was one of the things I missed the most when I was at Calvin, too. Without the mountains I felt lost most of the time...like I wasn't grounded, had no pivot point or frame of reference. Plus they're just so pretty. Now, I wasn't in the best spot in town to take this picture, and I only had my phone with me, so you can barely see the mountains, but trust me. They're amazing. 

We had Mother/Daughter night at GEMS with cake decorating! Then after the moms went home we had our sleepover!

My parents were gone much of January for another trip and I visited my grandma quite a bit. On this day I went to visit and she was just finishing getting her hair done and she looked so pretty. I said, "You look so pretty, Grandma, like you're ready to have your picture taken. Can I take your picture?" And she said, "Yes!" It was so cute and I want to remember it forever.

There was a day off from school and Elise's class had a party at Trampoline Zone. It was technically a teacher work day, so I worked in the morning and then took my work to the Trampoline Zone while she jumped and played and did flips. 

It was really fun for her and I actually got a lot of work done. I had to be anti-social to do it, but I had so much school work yet to be done...

Anyway, on the way home from the Trampoline Zone Elise started complaining of a headache and that her legs hurt. I said, "Well, you did just jump on a trampoline and do flips for the past hour." But then we got home and she came and sat by me and she was burning up! Over 102* fever! Poor thing. She was sick for 3 days.

Actually, quite a bit of January was spent with one or another of us lying on the couch or in the chair with headaches, body aches, colds, sore throats, stuffy noses, etc. She was the only one that got the fever, though.

For Christmas, one of the many amazing gifts from my class was tickets to "An Evening at the Well" with singer JJ Heller and speaker Mandy Arioto. I took my friend, Dee, and we actually sat with several other ladies from my church who also had tickets. It was SO very good for my soul, which I think was the point of the evening. :) I have been listening to JJ Heller ever since and even bought her Lullaby album for my classroom because it is just SO calming and precious. It'll be great next fall when I have rest time again and I even used it on a snowy afternoon when the kids were coloring and it was unbelievably peaceful in the classroom. 

January is also the month of the musical! I got to serve snacks for one of the dress rehearsals ^^ and then we got to attend parent night. The Sound of Music is utterly amazing and I think I will be singing "My heart wants to beat like the wings of the birds that rise from the lakes to the trees. My heart wants to sigh like a chime that flies from a church on a breeze" forever...that's Bethany's solo line. 

And yes. I cried through the entire performance. I cried when Bethany first came on stage. I cried at the end of "Do Re Mi." I cried for almost every song and I nearly lost it at the end. But I come by that honestly. My mom cried on opening night, too.

It was also LOL Week at school...Love of Literature...and it was fun. We had a great time in Kindergarten reading all sorts of fun books and having parents come in to read and coloring bookmarks and dressing up for the Storybook Character Parade! The other part-time K teacher & I dressed up like Piggy & Elephant! 

This is an awful picture, but the outfit was cute. 

Next up: more musical pictures and #snowpocalypse2017 or #snowmageddon2017, whichever term you like best...

Sarah is home, part 4!

So...another snow day here today and again tomorrow as well, so I guess I'll keep on blogging!

On New Year's Eve we had an extra friend around for part of the evening, which was pretty fun for all of us, but especially for my niece!

Once Noelle left, we got into serious party mode...after all, you gotta do something active to keep the old folks awake until midnight!

We had fun with more Minute-to-Win-It games! And of course, hats & "2017" glasses were in order.

We toasted to the New Year with sparkling apple juice leftover from Christmas dinner.

We also had a beautiful snowfall. 

^^Oh yeah! My parents got a small foosball table for the Kid Cave! So fun!

On Sarah's last morning, she & I headed out so she could take some snow & mountain pictures. I loved that time with her, marveling at the creation, looking for creative photo ops, and talking. 

We also celebrated my brother's birthday!

^^The door to the Kid Cave. The first thing the cousins did was make signs for the door! 

 

And then, all too soon, it was time to say good-bye to Sarah & the cousins and go back to school. We see those cousins again in July (Yosemite, here we come!) and Ed & I see Sarah (& the new baby and his family!) at the end of February. Bethany gets to see Sarah (& the new baby & his family!) the beginning of March, but Becca & Elise have to wait until the end of May to see Sarah. Sad. 

We were blessed by our time and love looking back on those memories.

Sarah is home, Part 3!

Okay, so Christmas break wasn't entirely perfect. We didn't do everything we hoped and we were missing 5 of our closest loved ones (including the new baby whom we are looking forward to meeting!) But I still have some more pictures to share! And since we are in a blizzard here in the Pacific Northwest, it seemed like a good time to share a few.

We went to a matinee of SING! which was way cuter than I expected.

We watched a lot of football.

AND we went ice skating! For many of us, it was our first time and we were a bit tentative at first, but honestly, it was WAY easier than I expected it to be! Once I was confident enough to let go of the wall, it actually got easier. I didn't even fall at all and no one that did fall broke anything, so it was a roaring success!

There was lots of reading and hanging out...

And working on finances for the new adult...

Oh, and lots of eating, as usual!

We went to find eagles...and found over 150! I know there are some great eagle pictures on the big camera that Sarah took, but I haven't gotten a chance to look at those yet. 

More football...

And lots of games!

This post is quite picture heavy, I think I'll save New Year's and the last days for the next blog post. Who knows...if this snow storm continues, maybe I'll blog again tomorrow! ;)