Chrsitmas 2008

Well, my goal of all this blogging stuff was to write at least once a month. The last time I wrote was November 1st, and it is now December 26th, so I guess I'm okay so far!
As you all know, yesterday was Christmas and now that all of us kids live in different places, Christmas isn't exactly the same as it used to be.
David and Jeannie came over to my house Christmas Eve so Jeannie could open her presents. Then on Christmas we Garcia clan opened our own presents, ate a ham/hash brown casserole that we're trying to make a tradition, then hung out and played with our new toys!
Mom and Dad called and said they would be at my house at about 1 p.m. So about 1 they pulled in the driveway and they were unloading presents for a while. After everyone had been in the house for a few minutes, the doorbell rang. I just figured it was Little Josh messing around so I told Sophia to go open the door and it was my brother Josh!! We thought he was in Australia, so that was a big surprise! He had shown up at my parent's house the night before and they didn't know he was back, either. He had planned on staying in Australia until about March, but he wants to start his master's in the fall and you have to interview in person for that, so he decided to come back in time for Christmas.
Aside from seeing my brother, my best present was a portable hard drive from my big brother David. I'm so excited to use it!!

Dia de los Muertos classroom story

We celebrated Dia de los Muertos yesterday at school (I'm a Spanish teacher) and one of the teachers had an alter set up in her room where students could put up pictures of loved one who had passed away, as a way to respect the dead. I don't have my own room, so I couldn't do anything like that. So during my 9th period class, I took my whole class down to the other teacher's room because a couple of my students had prepared letters for their loved ones.

One girl had written a long letter to her "papa", who was her grandfather. She had also brought a photo of him from when he was young and in the Marines. The letter was absolutely beautiful!! The entire class was silent as she read her letter. She started to cry at the end and everyone was just watching her because it was just so emotional and moving. When she finished everyone clapped and she seemed very happy to have honored her grandfather in that way. It was such a lovely thing to see and I think that the class sort of bonded with her on a level that they could not have done had she not read that letter.

I'm not Catholic, but I think that the idea of remembering the dead is great for Dia de los Muertos.

So during 10th hour today, Cathy, one of our secretaries, comes over the intercom and asks me if I have a brown leather bag. I say yes, and she tells me that she thinks she has my bag in the school office! I was very surprised at this because my bag had been in the foreign language office. So after school I go down to the office and sure enough, there is my bag! Someone had stole my bag and rummaged through it and then left it in one of the girl's bathrooms! It was not my purse, just my school bag, so there was no money in it. So that was a relief.
But then after that, I talked to another teacher who had been in the office today as well, and she is missing her wallet! She didn't have a lot of cash in her wallet, but she did have credit and debit cards in there. So I hope this gets resolved quickly . . . we have cameras and I'm going to file a report tomorrow morning!

New Job

So I have not written in a long time, so sorry for starting this blog and then not keeping it up to date! Well, the first nine weeks of school is already over and it is going great. Even though I don't have my own room, it's great. Hopefully I will have my own room next year or the year after, and I don't mind paying my dues.
Joshua had his last soccer game on Saturday. He has 2 goals for the season. I think that's pretty good for his first season! So now, we're going to see about signing Sophia up for gymnastics. I just talked to my preacher's wife tonight about where she takes their daughter, so I think I'm going to go check out their website and call them tomorrow.
The kids and I went to my parent's house yesterday after church and hung out all afternoon. We went to eat at Wheeler's for supper and then I went home. All three kids fell asleep on the way home and stayed asleep for the night!! That was nice! I dusted the mantle and all the photos above the fireplace in the kid's living room, which Jose has been complaining about for a while. I picked up all the toys and stuff downstairs, too, and then still had time to chill out and watch some TV!
This week is the Educator Discount Week at Barnes and Noble, so I went tonight with Joshua to buy a couple books. I saved a lot of money! I'm going to go back when I get paid to buy some more!

Freddie Meowie

So we have a female cat named Freddie Meowie. (Don't ask, Sophia named her.) She was limping around Thursday night and meowing really loudly, so I figured out that something was wrong with her left front leg. I grew up on a farm, so I didn't really think a whole lot of it, I just decided to wait until the morning. Well, she spent all of Friday under the couch in the kid's living room. So I took her to the vet this morning to see if they could make a diagnosis. She broke her leg in 2 places!! Now I think that Joshua had something to do with her injury, but I'm not totally sure. The surgery to fix her leg was going to be around $800 so we decided to take her home and just let it heal crooked. I know it sounds mean, but we got her some apin medicine so she won't be in pain the whole time. She actually seems a lot better today. I am going to talk to some people at church tomorrow and see if any of them know a country vet that can maybe just put her under anastethia and then splint her leg or something. I'm sure that would be cheaper than a surgery with pins and plates and wires.

Ahhhh . . . my day of freedom

I have been wanting to do some things on my own for a while. Like go shopping, get a coffee, look for a book, all without 3 crazy kids with me. Don't get me wrong, I love my kids, but I need a break sometimes. This summer I've been with them 24 hours a day and with Jose being gone, that was tough. I was starting to think of my kids as annoying and that's not how I want to see them!! So today, I went to McCutcheon in the morning and met with two of the other teachers there for about two hours. Then I had to go to Wal-Mart to get some necessities for the house, but it was nice because I was by myself. It felt like a vacation. I dropped the stuff I bought off at the house after that.
Then I went to the mall and bought some shoes at Macy's and some shirts at B.Moss and at JCPenney. I also bought some jeans and shirts for Joshua for school. After that, I went to the AT&T store to ask some questions about my new phone.
I had a Weight Watchers meeting at 6 and I was excited to go to that because I knew I had lost weight. I have lost 21 pounds total!!! I got a special little key ring today because I have lost 10% of my body weight. I was so proud of myself! I still have a little ways to go, but I'm more than halfway there!
After my meeting, I went to Barnes and Noble. I got a Starbucks and then went to browse the books. I looked at some knitting books and found some really cool ones, but I decided to wait for the educator appreciation days where I will geta discount. I did buy 3 Spanish books that I want for my classroom. I picked out about 8 to look at and went over to one of those armchairs they have and browsed my books and drank my caffe mocha. I decided which ones I liked the best and paid for them. I know it doesn't sound like a big deal, but it was a great day for me. I feel relaxed and I was so happy to see the kids when I got home!

Getting used to it all . . .

Well, I had a lot of stuff to do today for my new job. I went to turn in a bunch of paperwork at central office and ask questions. So I turned in what I had done, then took the rest home to finish. it. Jose and I agreed on what kind of insurance we wanted and so I filled all those papers out. When I went back to turn in the papers I had to go to another teacher's house to have him sign the letter of recommendation he had written for me.
After that I went back to central office and turned in the rest of the paperwork. All they need now is a verification from CP on how many days I worked last year and how many sick days I have left, etc. I also got to take my photo for my ID. It was very exciting (I know I'm a big dork) to get my ID and everything!
After that, I went to the AT&T store to get a new phone. Jose needs a cell phone, so we decided that he will take mine and I can get a new one. So I was gone for quite a while, like 3 hours, and Jose called me about 4 times in that 3 hours. When I got home, I expected Jose to be a little mad at me for being away for so long and leaving him with the kids, but he didn't say anything. While I was gone, he had washed the dishes and cleaned the stove and countertop. He was in the process of sweeping the kitchen floor, so I took Diego upstairs with me and he mopped the floor when he was done sweeping!! He also had the 2 older kids taking naps on the couches. Sophia fell asleep but Josh didn't, so Jose took Josh outside with him to mow the lawn. They are still out there picking up sticks, mowing, and weedeating. I am here at the computer and Diego and Sophia are both asleep. It's so nice to have a break!!
Jose will start back to work tomorrow and will work half days this whole weekend to get back into the hang of things, then he'll have Monday off. Well, I better go. I want to go play with my new phone and see what it can do!!

Jose finally gets home!

Jose got back okay and everything went fine. He did have to wait the night in the El Paso airport, so that wasn't good, but he's back now so it's all good. He got his visa Monday but by the time he got across the bridge to the US, and then to the airport, the last flight out had already left. So he took a flight out in the morning and got into Indy at about 1:30 Tuesday. We went home first and then went to mom and dad's later because Sophia was still with them. The kids were so excited to see him!! Diego has already warmed up a little, but he still prefers me, as I imagine he will for quite a while. Jose gave the boys a bath this morning and then put lotion on Diego. Diego loves that, so it was kind of cool to see him so happy with Jose. He just furrows his eyebrows and lays there really still because he likes it so much! He's at the restaurant right now talking to his brother. I think he has to go back to work on Saturday or maybe Friday, so at least he gets a couple days at home.