This past week was pretty good. My culinary class had to make treats for Sophomore Night. Borah hosts a night where incoming sophomores come to the school to see which classes, sports, and clubs are offered. I was happy to have that off my list. I hate staying at the school into the evening. Our treats turned out well, and I was happy with my table advertising my classes. 

I signed up to have some mentor students come to my classroom from BSU this semester. I had no idea what I was signing up for. I will have 2 students come for a full day every week. I guess it will help me up my game a little bit. It might be nice for them to see that I fly by the seat of my pants most of the time and that it's okay to not be perfect right out of the gate. I'm a work in progress, shall we say. We will see how it goes.

Gabby is a social butterfly, and she is GONE. She has her own car and driver's license, and girly is gone most of the time. I do absolutely love that I don't have to go pick her up at her friend's house at midnight anymore! Corbin had the flu this past weekend. I hope the other kids don't get it. We had an inversion for what felt like a million years and the sun has been out for the last couple of days. Thank goodness!

I think I may have found my wedding dress. It's a bit more casual than the average wedding dress, but I think that's what I want. I might see if I change my mind down the road. I ordered the girls' dresses and the boys' outfits, but I'm waiting for them to come. It would be amazing and a miracle if they all fit and looked good. I really want to have that all sorted so I don't have to worry about it. I want to keep everything as simple as possible.  

Chocolate mint cookies, brownies, lemon bars, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate-covered strawberries.

Posters and flyers for the classes I teach. My table was very busy because of the treats of course!

I never thought I would be a dog mom, and certainly not a dog mom to 2! These dogs love me a lot; it's pretty hard not to love them hard right back. I was sandwiched between them both in a nap earlier today. They both follow me around all of the time. Hutch hasn't had any accidents for weeks! I think that has passed. Thank goodness!

 

This past week crawled! I'm so glad it's the weekend and it's a long one. Woot! The weather has been really cold, and the sun hasn't come out much. Woof. It makes me happy to have my happy lights.  We scheduled our wedding and applied for our marriage license. I've been looking for an inexpensive wedding dress on Amazon; they have quite a few options. I've tried two so far with no luck. We will see if I can find something I like that looks good on me. Corbin is in McCall for a Beal's man weekend. He's in his happy place, skiing and hanging with his favorite cousin Benett. 

Shahar's 1st birthday was on Tuesday! Crazy! I can't believe it's been a year. I feel very lucky I was able to have a healthy pregnancy and an easy delivery at 43. I have a childhood friend who is 44 and she had her baby 6 weeks early due to pre-eclampsia (baby and mom are okay). I am forever grateful for what an amazing experience I had being a surrogate and for how it blessed their family and mine. 

Ho'omaluhia Botanical Garden, our wedding venue

First week of the semester done! I was surprisingly not tired and didn't have a hard time adjusting to my work schedule. I'm feeling pretty good about my classes. For the next three weeks I will be teaching lessons I've never taught before because last year at this time I was on maternity leave. Crazy. I feel like the next few weeks will be a bit more challenging with navigating brand new material and lessons but I just have to do it a bit at a time and then it works out. It's a little chaotic and last minute but that's kind of how I roll. I'm somewhere between a type A and a type B personality, not sure, it depends on the day! Lol. My kids did great on their semester grades. Corbin and Ryan all A's and a few B's and Gabby and Piper straight A's. Last year Piper was crying everyday over school work, crazy. This year has been so much better! 

Hutch didn't have any accidents last week. Fingers crossed that's done! We have been planning a trip to Hawaii this summer for a wedding/honeymoon/family trip and I got the idea about going over Spring Break instead and John was on board. Just like that I booked flights and a hotel. I'm so excited. We are trying to figure out details about getting eloped while we are there but we will see what pans out. Going to Hawaii in March sounds way better than July and I won't have to worry about lesson plans or subs. I'm sure it will still be crowded but according to the internet it's less crowded than July. Huzzah!

I put up my Christmas stuff over the break and busted out my January decor. It's Christmas light. I love it! I need warm and cozy lights in cold dark January. It absolutely makes me feel better. Love!

Just like that, the break is over! This week will be rough for all. I have been going to bed late and sleeping in for a few weeks, but my kids, forget about it, they stay up really late and sleep in extra. Good luck to them! Luckily, tomorrow is a teacher workday which is sooo nice. I really need a day to get my crap together before students come on Tuesday. I really should have worked more, but I did get some stuff done over the break. My google classrooms are ready to go. It was a laid back week. I didn't scrub my showers but I did organize a bit. On New Year's Eve, John and I met his friend's family in Caldwell and had dinner and then we checked out the lights. They are really good. Good job, Caldwell. Afterwards, John drove me downtown and we checked out the lights on Warm Springs and Harrison Boulevard. It was a really fun night. We have new neighbors next door that like to party with LOUD music. They had music blaring until 4:00 in the morning on Christmas Eve. They partied until 4:00 am on New Year's Eve (although the volume was turned down a bit at least) and until 2:00 am on New Year's Day. SOOOO annoying and inconsiderate, I can't even handle it. I'm not quite sure what to do if it continues. People are cray.  

2025 was a great year! Amazing end to my surrogacy journey and beginning with John. We will see what 2026 brings!

It's Christmas!

This past week has gone by in a flash. We didn't do much. I tried to set up something with the Beals, but that fell through. I tried to do something with the kids, but they didn't really want to do anything, so I didn't worry about it. We really enjoy just hanging out at home, so we had a great time. I was very busy for days cooking for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Gabby got her driver's license. She couldn't really relax until Christmas Eve morning after she passed her written and driving tests. We played a lot of games and watched a lot of Stranger Things and Christmas movies, and other movies. For Christmas John got us all season passes to Roaring Springs. That will keep us very happy and busy this summer. We went out to dinner for Corbin's b-day and our Christmas splurge to Kyotos, my favorite. My kids really like it too. My aunt Bev and cousin Sherry came over for dinner on Christmas Eve, and it was fun to host them. John and I headed to Middleton on Friday to have Christmas dinner with John's mom and stepdad. They are both excellent cooks, and it was really good. My kids go to their dad's tonight, and they will go to Utah and party hard and do all of the things. I need to clean up Christmas, possibly do some deep cleaning, and get ready to start a new semester, plus maybe binge-watch a show or two. Hutch has been motivating me to walk outside this winter. I really like having the motivation to force myself outside. I quite enjoy it once I get out there. Hutch hasn't had any accidents this week. Yay! We put him in the laundry room when we leave, which is the easiest place to clean if he does have an accident. Well, that's all!

Christmas Eve games. "Speak Out"

Piper's Christmas gift. A custom chess set from her favorite YouTuber. It is pretty cute.

Pictionary

Charades

Headbandz

Christmas Eve Dinner

New Driver

Pics from my favorite Israeli's.

Shahar is so beautiful! 

A new game, "5 Seconds," from John's mom.

He's 18!!!

Kyotos

Christmas Break!

Wahoo! It's Christmas break! I'm so excited. The last week of school wasn't too bad. I will have some new students next semester and some of the same students. It will be good to change it up a bit. I don't know many of the teachers at Borah, but one of them got diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last week, and she won't live beyond a year. So devastating. She's in her 40's. Really sad. Life can change in an instant. 

My kids come back tonight, and I get them for the week of Christmas. I'm very excited. We will try to plan some fun things to do and some yummy food to eat. 

Well, Hutch has had too many accidents, and I've reached my limit. I had John throw the ottoman away. It's been peed on too many times. We put him in diapers, but sometimes they don't stay in place, and he pees somewhere in the house. From now on, he will have to stay in the laundry room while we are gone. It will be easy to clean up if he pees. I shampooed all of the living room furniture and the carpet, and I think the pee smell is gone. I cannot handle smells, and I do not want my house to be stinky. I think we might buy new couches when they go on sale. I'm thinking President's day maybe. He's a sweet dog, and I do love him, but I'm done with the pee!

Piper had a mini recital of sorts at her studio. You can skip the first 40 seconds.

5 more school days! I'm doing pretty good with not being too burned out, but I'm still very ready for Christmas break. It was a busy week. On Tuesday, my club ran concessions. We got done at 9:00 rather than 9:30, so hey! This was our first week with the kids and John living here full-time. The transition seemed smooth to me, and I think the kids as well. I tried to be really intentional with John and my kids and ease the relationships and transitions. The main hiccups are John goes to bed early for work so my kids have to shower sooner and try to be more quiet at night. Also Hutch has had his fair share of pee accidents? We don't know why he's peeing. He peed in Gabby's bed twice! How? I swear we try to keep the doors shut. We got a baby gate so he can be locked downstairs, and John purchased some diapers that we are putting on him now when we leave the house until he can stop doing it. We are hoping that it stops. 

My Child Development class hosted the Christmas preschool party, and it went well. Yay. Tonight I went to a Christmas dinner for Shelly, thrown by Christy. She is such an amazing friend to Shelly and makes her life so much fuller. 

We are trying to get caught up on Stranger Things, but having everyone home and available at the same time is hard. I think I'm done Christmas shopping for my kids. I need to get stocking stuffers and wrap presents. 

Love her!

Preschool party.

John put on Ryan's shark suit for a laugh; it worked!

Such a pretty table setting and tree!