Tuesday and Wednesday

After snow on Monday, Tuesday was sunny. 

I drove over to Liz and Clay's and picked up Izzy for lunch and grocery shopping.

This is the view from their carport of their front yard.  Can you see the water? It is a creek that flows into the Patuxent River.  When the trees are full of leaves, you can barely see the water. 

 

I told Izzy she could pick where we went for lunch.  She wanted to go to the food court at Patuxent Naval Air Station.  So off we went.  She loves the Chinese food.  

We opened our fortune cookies.  Izzy read her's first: You are next in line for a promotion in your firm.  She grimaced and said, "I don't think I got the right one." 

So then I opened my fortune cookie and as I read mine I laughed and handed it to her to read: You are a bundle of energy, always on the go.  She looked at me and said, "This one is about me.  I was right.  The one I got would be much better for you Grandma."  Love that girl. 

We went shopping at the exchange and then headed to the commissary to stock the pantry and freezer.  I love having Izzy go shopping with me.  We always have a great time.   

For dinner, I used one of my freezer dinners - mini burritios.  Thanks Teresa Murray, they were yummy.  Ellie tried sour cream for the first time.  She likes it!

Today I had to write a paper for my Thursday night class. Liz and Izzy came over and visited downstairs with Sarah, Abby, and Ellie.  After lunch, I went outside with the girls while they rode their bikes.

They have lots of fun riding together outside.

Izzy zips around and is very careful not to crowd or bump Abby.

They have such fun together. 

I think it is about time to get a bigger bike for Izzy.  We keep a bike for her here so she can ride with Abby. 

Then we headed to Target for some shopping.  We needed to find Easter dresses for the girls. 

 

After all that shopping, Abby fell asleep in the cart.  I will add that she is recovering from strep so she still gets tired easily.  

Ellie loved this headband with the big flower.  She kept putting it on and taking it off.  Don't you just love her smile!

 

After our shopping trip one happy Izzy and one very tired Abby.

Who is that huddled under Auntie Liz's sweatshirt?  Why Abby of course.  After a rest on the couch, watching some Scooby Doo, she was ready to play again. 

I love spending time with all of my girls. 

 

Snow Day!

 

If you don't count the weekend, then today is the first official day of my Spring Break and I woke up to snow. 

 

When I was a kid, I loved snow days! My dad was a teacher and snow days meant we all got to stay home.  We would help with shoveling snow and then we could build snowmen, snow forts, snow parade floats, and just have fun in the snow. 

We also played board games and put jigsaw puzzles together.  Mom always made yummy food and snacks for us too.  Lots of fun memories!

As a mom of school age children, I enjoyed snow days too.  I tried to recreate some of the fun memories from my childhood for my girls. Gary still had to go to work, but the girls and I had some great snow days together.  Of course we had the added advantage of technology and could have movie days on snow days. 

When we lived in Hawaii, we had a tsunami day.  I was one of the few moms home, since I was a teacher, so we hosted a neighborhood tsunami movie day.  Jurassic Park had just come out that day.  I went to the exchange to buy the VHS tape and had all the neighborhood kids in to make cookies, pop popcorn, and watch the movie. 

Now that I am just a teacher with no children in school, I cringe when I hear on the radio that it is a snow day.  Usually thanks to technology this means that I am blasted by Facebook posts of people saying how ridiculous it is that there is a snow day when there is so little snow or even on a couple of days just rain.  Unfortunately, some people think the teachers are in charge of this. Not True!

I would much rather be in the classroom with my students, but if the weather forecast (even if it doesn't end up the way the forecast predicted) says that it would be unsafe for my students to be on the road, I would rather have my students safe at home than in a ditch, a hospital, or worse!

 

I loved my time as an at home mom and enjoyed spending time with my girls.  Now don't get me wrong, not every day was filled with joy from dawn to dusk, but I loved the time I was able to spend at home with my family.  We created lots of fun memories together and I am now enjoying watching Liz and Sarah creating fun memories for their girls too.

 

As a teacher, I love my job! I love working with children and watching them learn and grow! Again, not every day is filled with joy from the beginning of the day until dismissal and then the grading and planing after the students have gone home, but I love what I do and can't imagine doing anything else at this point in my life. 

 

Hopefully no one will try to blame the snow today on teachers trying to get out of work since it is our spring break.

So today, I will stay in my jammies, blog, read a book for my book club, plan and cook dinner, play with Abby and Ellie, write a paper for my Thursday night class and enjoy my Snow Day! 

Cook-kie

Ellie can say "cook-kie" now.  She asked me for a cookie and after clearing it with mom, I got her a cookie.  She was so excited.

Sarah told me later that usually she just gives her part of a cookie, but she didn't tell me that until after I gave Ellie the whole cookie.  Ellie didn't seem to mind at all!

She just stood right by Sarah eating her cookie and saying "Ummmm"

Ellie was one happy little girl. 

I love being close to my children and grandchildren and being able to spoil them. 

Horsey-ing Around

Abby got a new stick horse.

She loves horses.  She even makes a noise that sounds like a horse galloping.  None of the rest of us can make the sound.

She loves this horse.  When you squeeze one ear, it makes a magic sound and the other ear makes a horse sound. 

Ellie, meanwhile, is enjoying listening to The Piano Guys with Papa's headset.  Oh, and munching on the mouse too.

She had fun sitting with Papa and listening to his music.

Lots of fun evenings around our house!

Another Busy Week

With warmer weather, the girls love being outside.  Abby will even ride her bike in her princess dress.

 

On Tuesday, Abby came afterschool to visit my classroom when her mommy had a meeting.

She loved the Smartboard in my classroom.

 

The college is on Spring Break, so I didn't have my class this week.  I did keep busy though.  On Tuesday evening, I attended a Freezer Meals group.  Six of us met to cook and share freezer meals.  I made cheesy potatoes and ham. I made one for us and 5 more to share.  I got to bring home white chicken chili, mexican lasagna, mini burritos, and chicken pot pie.  Yummy! We had the mexican lasagna on Thursday and today we had the chili.  I even have lunch for tomorrow too.

Abby is taking swimming lessons on Thursday evenings

Since I didn't have class, I was able to go and watch her.

She enjoys the water!

 

Friday evening I attended a baby shower for Alex, our school media specialist. 

 

Lots of fun with some great women that I get to work with every day.

*A sidenote: Tony finished the basement here.  My friend, Kelly, was excited to show off her newly remodeled basement and let everyone know that Tony did the work. 

A beautiful view as I was leaving the baby shower.

 

Saturday morning I had my monthly conference call with my brothers and sister.  We have a conference call the third Saturday of each month to discuss how Dad is doing.  So far, physically he is doing great.  Our goal is to help him stay in his home as long as he can.  Dementia stinks!

Then we had some playtime with Abby and Ellie.  Ellie is walking now - so cute!! Abby loves Legos and Ellie joins in with the Duplo blocks.

Gary and I headed out to the fair grounds for the public library's annual book sale.  They had books in several buildings.  I picked up a bunch of books for my classroom.

Gary found some books he liked and I found a couple of books from a series I used to read when I would go an visit my mom every summer.  Hopefully when this class is over, I'll have some time to read for fun.

Gary carried our purchases to the car.

Then we went grocery shopping. 

After we got home, Gary went out to burn leaves and Abby joined him outside.  I worked on my PowerPoint Presentation and brochure for my presentation in class on Thursday night.  It is a group project, so we are emailing documents back and forth and I am compiling the final product.

 

Today Gary didn't go to church because he is preparing for a test tomorrow. He will head up to Georgetown University Hospital to swallow a capsule camera.  Then he will head to work for 8 hours and then return to the hospital to turn in the transceiver belt from the test.  Then we wait for results. 

 

Since Gary couldn't eat tonight, Sarah invited me to come downstairs and eat with them.  We had green eggs and bacon. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

 

 

Random Post

It has been a while since I've blogged, so this is a random catch up post. 

Kettlecorn is yummy!

Tony finished my craft room table

The mat for the craft room table arrived.  There is a drafting chair too, but it is still down in Tony and Sarah's apartment. Tony says it works great as a bar stool in their kitchen.

 

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening this semester, I head to St. Mary's College of Maryland to take a special education course so I can renew my teaching certificate next year.  Class starts at 6 so I just stay at school and work in my classroom until it is time to leave.  Class is from 6 - 8 and then it takes me about 45 minutes to get home.  So Tuesdays and Thursdays are long days.  I will be so glad when this class is over.  I finished my 30 minute power point presentation on multiple and severe disabilities that I have to present on March 21. Yeah!

On my way home from class the other night, my car turned over 30,000 miles just as I turned in the driveway.

 

Ellie has discovered that she can rock on the rocking horse!

Sarah and Tony made chocolate covered strawberries and shared :-)

A water main break occured near our school last week, so until we found out if our water was affected, we didn't let the anyone drink the water.  Our water was ok, but three other schools had to send their students home at 10:00 am because their water was contaminated. 

Saturday was the women's conference at the stake center.

We had a great time! Over 30 women from our ward attended.

Izzy got glasses.  She told Liz that her vision was blurry, so Liz made an eye doctor appointment.  Sure enough she needed glasses.  She is far sighted.

Ellie is eating big people food now. She loves spaghetti.

 

MSA, our state testing is in full swing.  We have to cover up anything that might be a resource for the students - like the number line, the numbers around the clock that help my students as they learn to tell time on an analog clock, and other learning posters.

Even part of my pledge of allegience poster has to be covered because it gives definitions of some of the words in the pledge.  The cursive alphabet chart has to be covered because it is in alphabetical order.  One would hope that by the time you are in third grade, you know the alphabet in order!

Some of my kokeshi dolls from when we lived in Japan. 

This is the book we are reading in book group this month.  I'm enjoying reading it. 

Getting the house ready for St. Patrick's Day

 

As we continue our Gluten free journey, I am finding lots of ways to make foods we enjoy without gluten.  I had no idea before Gary's diagnosis of just how many foods have wheat or gluten in them.  Twizzlers - who would have thought they had wheat in them! I found this recipe for soup or sauce (SOS) to use in place of cream of anything soups in my cooking.  Try it! No additives or chemicals added either.

Soup or Sauce [S.O.S.] Mix

Ingredients
2 cups powdered non-fat dry milk
3/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup instant chicken bouillon (regular or low sodium)
2 Tbsp dried onion flakes
2 tsp Italian seasoning (optional)

Directions
Combine all ingredients in a recloseable plastic bag, mixing well.
Equal to 9 (10.5 oz) cans of cream soup.

To substitute for 1 can of cream soup  Combine 1/3 cup of dry mix with 1 1/4 cups of cold water. Whisk until well blended. Cook and stir on stove top or in microwave until thickened. Add thickened mixture to casseroles as you would a can of soup.

Storage

Store in closed plastic bag or air-tight container until ready to use. It does not have to be refrigerated.

Abby was having a great time enjoying the spring-like weather riding her bike in her princess dress.

Ellie was thrilled to play with Papa in his truck.

Sarah got a cute video of Ellie and Gary playing peek-a-boo in the truck, I'll try to figure out how to post it next time. 

Wouldn't this be awesome in the yard.  I think I have another project to add to the list for Tony and Gary.