Christmas Break

We have had quite a busy break already! With special permission, my family got to call Patrick two days early so Isaac and I could be there for his one and only Christmas call (he was in the MTC last year). He sounds somewhat more mature, he talked a lot more than Mother's Day, and he sang us a song that he made up. I was only able to record a part of it, and it's not a brilliant song, but the sentiment is good, and he has a nice voice. It was awesome to hear from him.



We got to go to Tennessee to be with Isaac's family for Christmas. We had a beautifully smooth trip out, no delays, and no problems. It was great to spend time with everyone since we are so spread out. We played games and had lots of time to talk, and everyone enjoyed watching Grace.





It is nice to be home because of the relaxed feeling that gives, but I also know that I have a million things I should be doing, lol, and there never seems to be enough time to take it easy, read for fun, clean house, spend time with family while school is out, AND grade the leaning Tower of Essays...

Oh, and we got a beautiful silk plant today for free. I am happy to have a plant that I cannot kill, even though I seem to have quite a knack for that.

Day After Thanksgiving

Today I spent a few hours wrapping presents and decorating for Christmas. It's my favorite time to decorate, although it wasn't as fun as I expected because Isaac wasn't here to bounce ideas off of. I did everything except put up the Christmas ornaments because we will do that together. Anyway, Sophie mostly just lay around and watched me or napped, but once I had the tree up and turned the lights on, she got a little wild. She chased her tail off and on to get my attention for nearly ten minutes this afternoon, and I laughed so hard!

Happy Halloween

For Sophie's first Halloween, we worked off her costume. She and I were ladybugs, and Isaac was a bug catcher. I looked weird, but at least I didn't look like a total clown because that would have been particularly embarassing today...

The head of curriculum at the district, Dennis Brown, came to our school today. I didn't think he would come to my room because I am a newer teacher, I'm not in the main part of the school, and he was supposed to get there around 10, when I am on my prep for the next 45 minutes. HOWEVER, Mrs. Bedi called me about five minutes before the end of our prep to tell me he had just arrived, and she wanted the standard that covered elements of a short story for ELD since I had the standard binder. I still didn't really think he would come to MY room, but I made sure I had the right standard up on the board (we have to display them every day, but that is not high on my list of priorities, so I frequently forget to change it... for days sometimes...) When my class came in (my rowdy class, of course), I forewarned them that Mr. Brown from the district might be coming in, and that if he did, they should be on their best behavior and ignore him unless he asked them a question. They were amazing. They were actually being pretty good anyway, especially considering it was a holiday, but as soon as he and the principal stepped through the door, there was silence in the room as they worked on their scary stories except if they were raising their hand to ask me an individual question. As soon as they closed the door on the way out, the class let out a giant sigh chorally, lol, and asked if that was really Mr. Brown. I laughed and told them they did a good job, and then they kept working on their stories, but talking a little now. Anyway, it was good, even if it was funny to me that my class was one of only seven they visited.

After school, I stayed to help a student with her missing writing assignments. Her mother asked me to stay after school to teach her daughter that sometimes you have to make sacrifices to get what you want (in this case, not failing my class so she can go on the Washington DC trip at the end of the year). I didn't think it was very fair to ask me to stay the way she did, but whatever. I was there grading anyway, and I DO want the kid to pass.

After school, I came home and got ready for tomorrow. Then I got us ready for tonight, and we went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat. Sophie stayed in the car for a while, and I sat with her part of the time, and the kids loved that there was a puppy dressed up. I put her on the tailgate where Mom was handing out candy, and we called her the Trick, while Mom gave out Treats. She was pretty adorable!

Isaac and I went to watch Jaws at the Caldwells tonight, but about 10:30 I had to go home because I was EXHAUSTED. I don't know why it's so much later than that now, and I am still not in bed... probably because I ate caramel apple and looked at our pictures... (sigh) Time for bed!

Our hoop jumping puppy

After she bumped one towards the end of our first visit, I was worried she would stay away from the hoops for good, but she started warming up to the lower one again on our last visit. It's pretty exciting for us to watch her do her incredible jumps.

Together, Isaac & I have hit 47 states!

He SO blows me out of the water on this with all his east coast travels, but here is our combined map. Nice idea, Val! This makes me look so much more well-travelled...



create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Dog Park

Sophie is enjoying our trips to the dog park, and I am enjoying having a good reason to get up early on Saturdays. Before conference this morning, we took Sophie and Haylie to the park, and I remembered my camera this time!

Grace's ABC Adventure

Since I have no children of my own, we picked the bext best thing. :)

Our New Home

I finally feel pretty much moved in to our new condo. It's nice to own our own place, although the stress of having mortgage payments that eat up literally almost half of our income is a little scary. We don't have a dining room table yet, and we are going to cover our dining room seats in maroon fabric instead of dangerously-susceptible-to-stains-white, but overall, we're happy with how everything is moved in.

The picture over the fireplace is one I took in Gijon, where Grandma Chase's family lived and where Mom lived for a summer as a kid.

The picture in the entryway is of the castle in Segovia. It's hard to tell from this photo, but it's a gorgeous picture. Isaac just wishes we had a ceiling fan in here instead of just a light fixture. He can hardly wait for the fall to come and for the weather to cool

down, lol.

Sophie likes the long hallway in the house where she can tear after tennis balls. This is her happy fetch face.

Happy Pioneer Day

Today I was just exhausted still. I think it's because I went to bed late and Sophie cried a few times and to calm her down I lay on the floor next to her crate even though I just wanted to sleep in my bed. Then I got up at 7 to take care of her because she was ready to get up, and she definitely let us know. I can't wait to move into the condo and paper train her in the bathroom. It's so much easier than crate training, but I didn't want to paper train here and then have to start all over when we moved since she had already started crate training before we got her.

ANYWAY, Isaac and I took her to her vet appointment this morning. It's the first one we have taken her for, so we had them do a new puppy check up. Everything looks good! Ears clear, skin clean, no fleas, no hemorrages, good clean teeth... I had them check to make sure her microchip was still in (it's the first time we've been able to check it since they put it in and occasionally there are problems), they trimmed her nails, and she had her second booster shot. One more in about three weeks and we can take her on walks! :) She was very well-behaved and everyone loved her.

Day 2

We woke up about 3:00, but it was so dang early and no one else was awake, so I went back to sleep and got up at 6:45 AM. I was a little surprised that I was able to sleep for 12 hours, but then again, it was like sleeping for two days... We had breakfast at 7:15 downstairs (cereal, fruit cocktail from a can--super sick, juice, bread, and these AMAZING chocolate pastries that are like my new best friend). We left about 8:30 for the Museo del Prado, finally found a public parkig garage, and walked to the Museum. We walked through the museum, which is huge, and it was cool to be in a famous museum that I had actually heard of before. I even saw a painting that I remembered from a Spanish textbook or something--Familia de Felipe IV, by Velazuez--http://www.spanisharts.com/prado/e_velazquez.htm

Info on the painting that I looked up on the Prado site when we got home:
Of the many paintings by Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez that so distinguish the Prado by their presence, Las Meninas is what most people come to see. Completed in 1656, it is more properly known as La Família de Felipe IV (The Family of Felipe IV). It depicts Velàzquez himself on the left and, in the centre, the infant Margarita. There is more to it than that: the artist in fact portrays himself painting the king and queen, whose images appear, according to some experts, in mirrors behind Velàzquez. His mastery of light and colour is never more apparent than here. An interesting detail of the painting, aside from the extraordinary cheek of painting himself in royal company, is the presence of the cross of the Order of Santiago on his vest. The artist was apparently obsessed with being given a noble title. He got it shortly before his death, but in this oil painting, he has awarded himself the order years before it would in fact be his!

We walked through the Parque de Recuerdo after the Prado and looked at the fountains and the Crystal Palace. It was pretty cool. We got back to the hotel around 4:30 PM and I was hungry! Then there is the fact that they don't eat until 10 PM, so almost nothing was open when we tried to eat at 7. Not even open! I was amazed. We found an American style restaurant, VIPS, that was open, and we ate there. I think we all died of sticker shock when we got the bill after eating food that was not so great (Mandy's "five cheese pizza" was disgusting...). It was like 75 euros, which is like $100. We learned how to eat more cheaply after that. We went back to the hotel and all crashed.