Busily Back at School

"Back to School" night seems like it should be "Still at School" night. I like my job, that's not it...I just never left, so I'm not returning. The thing that has returned though is the busy, busy schedule. Last week I had something going on every single night of the week. And the weekend. I always like having a busy schedule in high school. The difference now is that I don't get done with school at 3:30 and have the rest of the night to have fun playing sports and doing theater. I really do miss those things. Soccer is still happening on Friday nights, but it seems like I'm too busy to even fit that in. My responsibilities are not burdensome and I am not complaining, I'm just making note of the fact that there is a HUGE difference between the summer months and the school year as far as commitments go.

Tonight we celebrated Erin's birthday...I love that girl. I think it's so special to have had a friend since birth that is still around and the friendship is still maintained. We've seen each other grow and know each other a little differently than anyone else could know either one of us. She is very special to me and so here is a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY, I LOVE YOU to Erin...

Homeward Bound or Home Bound?

My thoughts and emotions about home buying vary frequently between excitement, frustration, determination, and relinquishment. Any time we get close to buying a home, something changes that causes us to reconsider the property and look elsewhere or otherwise. Sometime it seems we take a step forward and sometimes it seems we take a step backward. I really just want it to be over with. Maybe we should just continue to rent until we really make up our minds. The back and forth really frustrates me though. When we first got married, the goal was to have our own property within a year. That year has come and gone. The housing goal still feels far in the distance even though it looks like it's right our fingertips. 

Other goals of ours have come to full fruition though. Goal 2 - Ashleigh finish classes to teach preschool. Accomplished. Goal 3 - Adam work his way into officiating basketball for a second income. Accomplished. Goal 4- Adam get accepted to and start MBA program. Accomplished.

My most desired goal, however, looks like it needs to be delayed until Goal 1 of owning a house and Goal 5 of Adam finishing grad school are realized. Boo-hoo.

At least I have things to keep me occupied while Adam is busy with his MBA...like fulfilling my calling, going to Ducks games, watching football at Mom's, reading, NOT going to the gym because they are raising my payments AGAIN and so I'm cancelling, trying new holiday recipes, maybe going to institute, among other things.

In the meantime, we have dinner tonight at the Fitzgerald's and I'm totally excited about that...plus I baked a cake...nice!

Oh, and since I didn't blog in July, here is a photo-recap:

A Lasting Impression...

Extra-curricular excitement has been low, I guess. I've been playing a sport the last two Fridays and got bruises both times. Last night, however, the impact was a little harder and left somewhat of an impression on me. Literally. Can you guess what sport I was playing?

This was taken over 2 hours after the fact. Still looks like this the next day!

Needless to say, I blocked the shot - no goal. This is the best exercise for me because I really don't like the gym. Anytime I can get together with people and play something like soccer, volleyball, softball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, tennis, or likewise, I get excited. Maybe I should start setting things up with friends mid-week. Like Tennis Tuesdays or something. At least I'd get more exercise!

I Wish It Were...

I wish this is what I was doing right now...relaxing on a Santa Barbara beach, not worrying about anything except for whether or not Zoe is going to play in the water and sit in my lap again.

Two Weeks Teaching!

The last of my required ECE classes and my first two weeks as a preschool teacher have been completed. So far, so great! I really like the staff I'm working with and I especially like the Lead Teacher I'm working with. Not to mention the kids are awesome! To top off the end of my first two weeks, I had an experience that to some is just cute, but to me expresses why I knew I would love teaching:

A little girl in my class was in the reading corner where there is a mirror. She ran up to me saying, "Ms. Ashleigh, I think my eyes are cracking." 

"What do you mean?" I say.

"My eyes look like they're cracking."

"They look fine to me. Why do you think they're cracking?"

"Look!" she says, closing her eyes.

I see the veins in her eye lids networking across her eyes and realize she thinks they look like cracks.

"Oh! I see, those are veins!"

"What are veins?"

And I got to enthusiastically explain what veins are for and how we have them all over our body. She was so eager to learn something she had discovered on her own and excitedly checked out the rest of her body for veins and told others about their veins. 

Obviously, the new job is going great! Now the hard part is getting a new living arrangement in place! We have been looking to buy and prices are still dropping. Pray for us that we can make it happen!! 

Surprise, Grandma!

So let's see if I can finish this post within the next hour so I can start dinner (I'm going to make sausage and vegetable stir fry) and have it ready before my loving husband gets home...we'll see how it turns out.

To start...I had to kinda stretch the truth with my mom a few times so she'd fall for the big surprise. I told her to prepare a list of things for her birthday on which she could make no plans other than to spend the weekend with me. On Thursday night I would drop off part of her gift that she could choose to wear on her birthday the next day if she so chose...so Thursday night, I did not call before I went over. Instead, I used my key and announced my presence. Fortunately, Mom was on the phone AND cooking so she acknowledged me but did not turn around. I walked in the kitchen with Ashton on my hip and Jess just behind us...Ashton did a VERY good job keeping silent. Then, mom turned around and jumped with a frightened/surprised voice when she saw Ashton and he jumped too, scared by her sudden movement. He thought it was funny though. Mom was pleasantly surprised and we let Ashton tell her what the plan was for her birthday....Legoland! She's actually been wanting to check it out for years, so we made it happen! 

 
Legoland was pretty perfect. We made it around the whole park in one day and even caught a fun little performance! I like that a handful of rides require some effort on behalf of the rider. For example, if you want the roller coaster to go faster, you have to pedal! Ashton was tall enough for all except two or three rides. The four of us had a great time and us old folk were exhausted! 

Saturday, Grandma and Uncle Adam had to work, so Grandpa, Mommy, and Aunt Ashleigh took Ashton to the beach! I asked Ashton if he wanted to invite my friend Caleb who is his age as well as Caleb's sisters. After telling Ashton about Caleb and his sisters, I asked Ashton if he wanted to play with Aunt Ashleigh and Grandpa of if he wanted me to invite Caleb too. Ashton replied, "I want to play with the sisters." Haha, watch out Joe & Lu! :-) Unfortunately, my little friends were out of town, so we left with just the family. Grandpa insisted on going to Salt Creek which worked out PERFECTLY because we ran into Uncle Scotty whom we haven't seen in YEARS! I was seriously probably in elementary school still. We've missed him sooooooooooooooo much and he taught Ashton how to surf. Well, kind of.

Saturday afternoon, we played with Ashton all day and come evening, Jess, Adam, & I went to have dinner with Winston for his birthday!! What a great weekend for friends and family!

 

Sunday morning, Jess asked Ashton if he wanted to stay at Grandma and Grandpa's or if he wanted to go to church with Uncle Adam and Aunt Ashleigh to learn about God. He chose to learn about God and Jesus! Adam and I were very impressed with his behavior since we go to church for three hours, but fortunately I happen to spend the second two hours with the three year olds anyway, so he was with me the whole time. He learned about why bugs are important and who made bugs. Then he colored(-ish) a box with butterflies and grasshoppers and other bugs which he showed to all of the adults at church and then to Grandma, Grandpa, and Mommy. He also like the butterfly game we played in Sunday School. When we were leaving the classroom, I told Ashton that we needed to find Uncle Adam first. He said, "You mean your prince?" Cutest!! 

Later that afternoon, the Fawleys came over for Mom's birthday cake...made by Dad and Jess. The cake was great and Mom loved her present that ALL of us there pitched in to get for her - a stand mixer! Finally! And Ashton provided the entertainment! :-) We told Ashton that Erin was Tinkerbell. He LOVES Tinkerbell. Ben really wanted to teach Ashton that this fruit Ashton had was a lemon and not an orange, so I went out a picked an orange. Ben held the lemon behind his back and Erin sprinkled pixie dust and Ben turned it into an orange! Ashton thought that was funny. Then, back behind Ben's back, Erin sprinkled MORE pixie dust and WOW, a lemon AND an orange! This time Ashton's expression was much more perplexed and intrigued. "Make applesauce!" I rush into the kitchen to find applesauce and we do it all again. "Make a fish!" I find a plastic fish and we do the routine again - Ashton is loving every minute! "Make a dog!" "Make a horse!" And we ran out of pixie dust... ;-). That night I cuddled with Ashton 'til he was ready to go to bed and he told Adam and I to have a boy cousin for him.

Monday morning, I heard Ashton had a hard time sleeping. He was crying all night that he couldn't find his Tinkerbell. Awww....he didn't like that Aunt Ashleigh didn't have magic powers like Erin the night before. I drove over so Jess could pack their things and I took Ashton to the park for an hour. We played Prince and Princess as well as Superheroes until Grandma showed up and brought snacks! When it was time for Jess and Ashton to leave, we ate a quick lunch and sent them on their way. I was so sad to see them go. I wish they could move out here...I'd love to have them around. And I know Jessica would love the help! Anyway, Mom's birthday really couldn't have gotten any better in my opinion.