Attitude Adjustment

Carmen made a picture that reminded me to be thankful:

The Best (: (smiley face) Year (: (smiley face) Evr
I love January

When I find it again, I will scan it and post here!

Kids' Table

When Gabi & Jano were staying with us, the first night we served dinner to the 6 kids on the kitchen table, we served roast and hardly heard a peep out of them.

Gabriel noted, "We have room for one more kid and one more baby!"

The next night, we added Benjamin & Sofia, so Gabe was delighted that the table was full!

Gabe is now 3 and 2/3. I love this picture.

Carmen and her classmates were supposed to dress like they were 100 years old on the 100th day of school. David & I were a little offended by the idea at first, but Carmen looked cute and came home saying that her teacher, also in "costume", "looked BEAUTIFUL" and that several other girls were wearing pearls, too.

We had dinner with our friends, the Gillises, last weekend. Brian and I went to
police academy together, but he is still a police officer. He and Amy have a
daughter 6 months younger that Gabe named Caylee, who as you can see is
adorable. Carmen and Gabriel LOVE to play at her house!

More drawings to share:

A card from Carmen to make me feel better (because of my tooth--I'm getting a crown on Monday). (That's Gabe on the red couch with the pillows all stacked up.)

I had to move the last sentence because she's reading aloud as she is watching me type and although I tried to explain what parentheses do, it was too confusing when it was in the middle of the first sentence.

Next I had to stop and explain what a crown is!

Next, The Cat in the Hat (we are all-Seuss, all the time these days, including what Carmen checks out of the library every week... speaking of which, has anybody heard of Gerald McBoingBoing? I first saw him on Tickle U with Gabe during maternity leave, then come to find out he is vintage Dr. Seuss and he had a full-length film in the 50s! He is a little boy who makes noises instead of talking--great, sound effect-type noises! Reminds me of the guy in Police Academy--that's actually all I remembered about that movie!)

And finally, another Backyardigans picture (inspired by her Christmas present from Charis et al--thanks, guys!). If you'd like to know more about our favorite characters or the show, click here:

The Backyardigans

The Backyardigans blog

Besides drawing and writing incessantly, Carmen is also obsessed with playing the piano. Yesterday she was downstairs playing before anyone else was out of bed.
Her first song was "Away in a Manger", but now she is picking things out and reading the music with colored dots that came with our Chimalong Jr. (great in-tune xylophones made by Woodstock chimes). I wish our piano could stay in tune, but even more than that, I wish we could encourage this interest with classes or lessons.

Funny things she & Gabe have said recently:

"I thought you had very good remembers." --Carmen (when I said I forgot something)
"Paloma has pink teeth!" --Gabe

Paloma likes to sit in the high chair these days and watches us eat with great interest!

Sometimes Gabe pretends to cut my hair or Carmen's with one of his Home Depot tools. And he has been known to sing "I love being a princess" a la Backyardigans, however not at the same time he's cutting hair.

Seriously, though, he has apparently heard somewhere that he's not supposed to cry, so it's really pitiful when he does and he rubs hard at his face trying to bludgeon away the evidence, even while he's still almost hyperventilating during a real cry.

Carmen came home with "family homework" last weekend which we found to be a lot of fun. She was supposed to decorate a paper snowman. We decided to go with an office supply theme and spent a lot of time on it. (Could be procrastination... have not had the heart to put away Christmas stuff yet, and last Saturday afternoon when I got home from yearbook work, I couldn't stand to waste the beautiful sunshine-y day, so we worked on leaves for the fourth time this year, this time in the backyard.)

Our New Log Cabin

Last night I had a crown break/ fall out. This morning I called the dentist and they said to come in within the hour and they'd fit me in, but I couldn't do that on short notice, especially because I was expecting to be observed (which still didn't happen--this makes 3 times now!).

So now my tongue, which has been tortured all day by a sharp piece of metal sticking out, is killing me. Everything hurts, especially talking. I'm going to the dentist tomorrow afternoon, getting a half-day sub.

Today we nearly had a computer crisis--our cd burner quit working and I had to get help from another teacher to burn a cd when my rep came to get our pages. It is one problem after another with the journalism lab with its old computers, mainly because there are almost no Macs left in the district and also little Mac knowledge left in IT.

A year ago today, I was in Jim's office telling him we were doomed. I don't feel much better this year, although I have a better staff.

On a positive note, Gabe starts Bell preschool again tomorrow and this time I know all four of the students who'll be his "teachers" for the next three weeks.

And, my friend Amy wrote me today that she started a blog! My prostheletyzing is working!

I was so tired the morning of January 2nd when I had to go back to work (and David didn't! A first!)

How tired was I?

Well, I had finished reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix over the break and was looking forward to reading The Half-Blood Prince and catching up with the rest of the world. (There is actually a Harry Potter club at school and they play Quiddich! I read the first 4 Harry Potter books when Carmen was a baby, and that's because I was pumping breastmilk at work then, too.)

Anyway we met in the library that morning, so I went to look in the stacks for a copy, but couldn't find ANY HP books, so I went to ask the library aide, and only after I'd said it out loud did I realize I'd been looking on the -- you guessed it-- P-for Potter shelf instead of the R-for-Rowling shelf. How embarrassing!

Zoe especially liked the scissors she got in her stocking!
Paloma is not too sure about Uniqua!

New Year's Day

We finished opening gifts at Mom's since we ran out of time and daylight on Christmas. Gabe got a bike! Dad should've been wearing the new t-shirt I gave him that says, "When all else fails, dig the instructions out of the trash can" when he was putting Mason's basketball goal together.

Born to be Wild

Thank you, Aunt Maui & Uncle Mark, for the conversation-piece onesie and bib!

My friend Stacy and her family came to visit over the holiday. It was great to see them--we've only seen them a handful of times since they moved to Alaska in March 2002. At the time they said it was just an adventure and they only planned to stay a year. I was sad at the time that Stacy would miss Gabriel's birth since she had helped us with Carmen's (she's an RN). Little did I know she would still be gone when Paloma arrived!

Stacy loves getting to be a nurse in Alaska because they fly over the vast state and she gets to do a lot more trauma-type stuff that she wouldn't get to do as much here. Her husband Daniel has spent the last few months working in the Hurricane-ravaged states, while kids Steven, Lance and Abby are doing well and staying busy with lots of sports.