Family Friday

Just some pictures and trivialities to highlight our week. :)

Paul and I played war (the card game)...we never finished--it was a LONG game--and with wars like this, you can see why!  It made me chuckle a lot.  :)

We made sushi for dinner one night.  Cerene had never had it before and now wishes she had known about its awesomeness, and Caida had LOVED it at break-the-fast and wanted to make some with me.  It was a BLAST!  It's fun to have dinners like that and fondue and make-your-own-pizzas that everyone can get in on...especially for Caida's sake!

As for me, other than doing visiting teaching I got hooked on pinterest this week.  A lot of the time spent has been setting things up, but I have to say, it's turned out to be a HUGE blessing.  I got onto it for craft stuff, but I have found SO MANY TEACHERS with great ideas for math, literacy, and science lessons--not to mention ideas for classroom organization, management, and decor--that I feel like it's just a huge collaboration of teachers.  I have been so inspired.  (The crafts are fun, too...and I'm going to be doing some hand sewing soon, turning old shirts and too-short-for-me-skirts into tee-shirt-dresses for Caida. Thank you, Pinterest. :)  I've also had literally 4 job openings brought to my attention this week, all (sort of) in my field, so guess what I'll be doing later today?  Yup--applications and cover letters! Even if I don't get any of them, I can always be a sub.  In fact, I'd almost prefer that at this moment because of the flexibility and the ideas I'd get, but you can't argue with the regularity of $10+/hour and benefits.  Starting next week I'm a free agent again and I can work!

Speaking of teaching, Paul started teaching his own class this week!  He's officially a trainer, training others instead of just training to be a trainer!  Woohoo!  He really loves it, even if it is hard.  And he has a new appreciation for lesson planning.  I told him at least he doesn't have to worry about classroom management *too* much AND he only has to come up with like 5 or 6 weeks of lesson plans, then he gets to repeat that over and over again.  :)  Anyway, his students really love him lots already.  He's gotten amazing feedback and positive reviews.  So proud of him!  It makes all the long hours away from each other worth it, knowing that he's doing what he does WELL and building references for when he becomes a teacher someday!

Caida has had as rough a week as ever, but she's still learning.  Some days she at least had a positive attitude at school...and others, it's like she didn't even try.  She's a sweetheart still, though!  And adventurous.  And silly.  She popped right up and scared me like a monster this morning when I went to wake her up, which surprised me since she's almost always impossible to get up and moving in the mornings!  But then I learned the secret--it's Friday...she gets to go to Grandma Linda's tonight!  That always puts her in a good mood.  :)  Cerene has been having some pain in her lower back and has been busy, busy, busy, what with being a working mom and all now!  But she's pretty much gotten used to being on the phones at work and is looking forward to improving her stats for next week.  And having a paycheck that she gets to spend how she wants to is always a perk!  Meanwhile, she mostly just spends her afternoons/evenings with Caida and James, especially meeting with teachers and such after school hours and helping Caida with spelling and homework.

Oh yeah, and Obi chewed off Voodoo's collar when we weren't looking...so we bought them BOTH new, matching pink and flowery collars.  I just love how cute they are, and now no one will wonder what gender Voodoo is! :) I wish dogs weren't so difficult to photograph, or I could show you a picture.

That's pretty much it in a nutshell!  Looking forward to Conference and all the autumny goodness coming up!