Truckee

We were generously given a stay at a beautiful cabin in Truckee (near Tahoe) over Thanksgiving from a student at my school last year. We had a great time for a weekend getaway with lots and lots of snow! I even attempted cross country skiing for the first time. Fun! Tim and I are cherishing these little getaways now before the baby comes.

Thanksgiving

About half of us gathered in this picture after eating turkey in Visalia.

My sister, her husband Rudy, and of course the baby. (Not too happy about the bright, outdoor sun here) So much for the perfect Christmas picture.)

Our nephew Rudy Jr. is getting so big. We had a great time with him being the center of attention during family time. In this picture he is getting his hair gelled up for his Christmas picture. So cute!

Joy!

Some of you know, but many of you probably don't know that almost exactly a year ago I had a pretty serious miscarriage after about 3 months. Our lives really seemed shattered after hearing the news. I had surgery to have the baby removed in December and then found out that it was called a molar pregnancy. I had never heard of the thing, but apparently it was pretty serious. I had some abnormal cells growing after the surgery and they could potentially become cancerous. So every two weeks I went in to get my blood checked to make sure my hormone levels were normalizing. The doctor told us that we could not get pregnant for a year in case the cancer showed up. Talk about having to seriously wait on the Lord and understand his timing and hand in everything that we just couldn't understand. Thankfully my hormone levels normalized about 7 months later (this July) and I was able to stop doing the bloodwork this September. Shortly after we were in the clear. I am now 15 weeks pregnant!!!! I am due on May 20th. Tim and I are so thankful for the Lord's hand in all of this and continue to pray for a healthy baby. We really learned a lot in this last year, whether we wanted to or not. This pregnancy is considered a high risk pregnancy, so of course I have my daily worries that I am trying to overcome. We were already able to see ultrasounds at 6 and 9 weeks, and heard the heartbeat last week. Hooray! Pregnancy really is a miracle to behold and we are learning that more each day.

October in Review

Happy Halloween! Every year all the teachers at school dress up for the kids and parade around downtown. It is such an exciting day for the students, and completely exhausting for the rest of us. It's been a little tradition that Tim usually accompanies me for the parade in costume. (He loves to dress up, totally opposite of me)

Disneyland was another adventure in the month of October. It was a blast to be able to go with Tim's parents. We had free tickets from the Disney promotion that was going on last year. We volunteered with an organization for a day and then got free tickets. We had to use them by December, so we were running out of time. It was really fun that Disneyland was all decked out for Halloween.

We hit the jackpot again by winning another contest. Tim entered a radio contest on the internet for a big event happening on the Central Coast. Sunset magazine was coming to put on a weekend called, Savor the Central Coast. It was a pretty high dollar ticket to get into the event, so as much as I wanted to go, we wouldn't have had the opportunity. We were shocked when the radio station called us and told us that Tim had won the tickets. (Same radio station that we won the Vegas trip from, although we didn't mention that when they called) We had won the grand prize (weekend of activities worth $600) So it was quite a weekend. It started out with a winemaker's dinner on Saturday night at Novo in SLO. We had an amazing six course meal paired with wines from Clayhouse. Yummy! I'm sure everyone was wondering what we
were doing at the dinner. (Average age: 60 and rich!) Then on Sunday we went to the main event out at the Santa Margarita Ranch. Basically it was every restaurant and winery from the central coast offering their best! They also had the brand new volvos out on a test track to test drive. This was a highlight! We got to drive the volvos down as fast as we wanted through the coned obstacle course. On the way back the professional test drivers showed us how to really squeal the tires. Super fun. I felt like I was in one of those car commercials. We were also given seminar tickets in the historic barn where we learned how to blend our own wine and got to make our own blends. Pretty cool, but the talk was way over our heads. We had fun experimenting. Lastly, we were given tickets to attend the Chris Isaac/Amos Lee concert with more food and wine at the Avila Bay Club. Definitely a high roller weekend that I will probably not experience again.

Tim blending wine...

Driving the Volvo...

Winemaker's dinner...

Rudy Rickey Jr. Has Arrived

My sister had her little boy on Thursday, September 16th. He weighed 7lbs 12 oz. and was 18 inches long. We made it up to Watsonville Friday night to meet little Rudy. They are all still in the hospital recovering after a c section. Hopefully they will get to go home today. He's pretty cute. Nobody wanted to put him down, and he definitely wanted to be held the whole time. We miss the little guy already and will have to wait for another weekend to visit again.

Mr. & Mrs.

Here's some fun pics from Devon and Tim's wedding. They were married at the Dana Powers Barn. The bride as well as the surroundings were beautiful.

2 1/2 Weeks Down

I havn't posted yet about my new class this year. I just havn't found the words to describe them I guess. Had I posted about them the first week of school negativity would have been all too prevalent. The negativity is fading slightly, but I havn't come to terms that the school year really could be like this all year long. Usually the kids are quite timid the first day of school. New teacher, new students, new grownup surroundings in a classroom where more will inevitably be required. Was I in for a surprise. I barely survived the first day. The 35 fresh faces in front of me carried on like it was a ten year reunion. I was simply invisible to them. I actually told my principal that I wouldn't be coming back the next day. (in a half joking, half serious attitude) Never in my seven years of teaching had I experienced a first day quite like this.

While getting dressed and ready for my second day of school I had made up my mind that I would take no prisoners. I had to be somewhat congenial the first day. Day two would be a different story. I was ready for battle and needed to instill the fear. I even remember asking Tim if I looked like I was ready to battle before walking out of the house. I completely changed my tactics walking into the classroom. We would have no more frilly first week of school activities. Today would be reading, writing, math, science, history, etc. One right after the other. Believe it or not... I made some headway.

The beginning of the school year is always so difficult. I think I seem to forget that the kids are really still fourth graders and that it takes weeks of training to get them to the point that I just completed with my last class two short months ago. Really, beginnings of any kind are difficult. Things just take time to establish and grow. I have already been praying a lot more in my classroom in those moments of frustration. Maybe I'm the one that will grow through these kids. (Although I really don't see that being the moral at this point)

So I leave you with a tidbit of conversation in my day as the negativity wears off a little more.

Mrs. Romano: Student X did you remember to bring me your library card today? (I've been asking for the last 2 weeks)

Student X : No my parents and I aren't really big fans of the library.

Mrs. Romano: Well every time you don't have your card, your grade is dropping. So I hope you become a fan real quick.



Student Y: (In tears) Student Z called me a brat!

Mrs. Romano: Is this true Student Z?

Student Z: Yes, but Student Y said I was acting like a brat.

Mrs. Romano: (to Student Y) You know calling someone a brat and telling someone they are acting like a brat are the same thing.

Student Y: Oh they are? I didn't know that.

Mrs. Romano: (in my head) Ya right!