Sunday, October 25, 2020

Students in the Classroom!

 This last week was pretty crazy. On Monday we had online school per usual and we spent the day getting ready to have students return in person the next day. I was busy all day and stayed after for a few hours prepping and getting ready with protocols and seating charts. I didn't sleep hardly at all that night stressed about all the things to do and remember in school the next day. Doing all the things on Tuesday with the students wasn't as bad as I thought, (like all of the sanitizing and covid precautions). We cooked in all of my classes and that was so fun to cook with the students. The students love it. This is such a fun subject to teach. I hope I can teach it forever. Wednesday and Thursday evening we had online parent teacher conferences. Mine went well. I didn't have any parents get mad at me. Ha. We didn't have school on Friday because of parent teacher conferences so that was nice. The week was just crazy and busy and mostly working 10-12 hour days all week. Now that we have students in person I have zero time to lesson plan and grade. Another teacher with my same schedule teaching at both schools brought this up. We both talked to the principal about it. Hopefully I will get paid more for not having prep time. I'm working it out with my principal right now and will follow up with him for sure. 

To add to my stress of the week I got called on jury duty next week so I've been trying to plan ahead and get things squared away if I get called in. It's just extra stressful to be on stand by and at a time when it's not easy to get subs and the schools don't really want subs in the schools just because of how complicated everything is right now. So we will see how this week pans out for me. The last time I got called for jury duty I just had to make a phone call every day and never had to show up at the court office. I'm hoping for the same luck this time. 

We got family pictures on Friday. I've been wanting to get them done for months but finally was able to coordinate a time that worked with my friend. I had to return all of my summer outfits and find fall picture outfits. I hope I did a good job picking outfits. It's SO hard. The weather was beautiful so hopefully we get at least one that turns out. Gabby somehow got some crazy plant caught in her hair and I thought we were going to have to cut her hair off. The plant is sticky and barb like. I finally doused it with vegetable oil and got them out with much struggle. I had to wear leather gloves to protect myself while pulling them out. Luckily she did it AFTER pictures were done and luckily we didn't have to cut her hair off. Sheesh! We decided to go out to dinner as a family that night which we never do. The kids were so excited and had so much fun. 

Yesterday was a baking day. I felt badly that I never made cupcakes for Piper's birthday so she baked cupcakes with me yesterday and we had to make our annual popcorn balls so Gabby helped me make those. We also watched some Halloween cartoons while we cooked. 

Today I had to go buy some supplies for the kitchens at Boise High. Later I need to do a bunch of grading. I figure I'll watch some movies and grade this afternoon. 

Well that's about it. Wish me luck with stand by Jury Duty this week. Luckily I have most of my sub plans ready to go already either way.

Funny Ryan quote...I overhead him while he was playing roblox..."well well well...we meet again." I died! Ha.

UPDATE: I called to check on my jury duty status tomorrow and due to covid all cases settled for the week so my service is done! WOOT!!!

That plant is the devil. It was SO hard to get out of her hair. SO hard! 

Sad crying Gab face. Again, that plant is the devil.

Pipes made the cupcakes and did the dishes.

They were good! Nice work Pipes...already more skilled in the kitchen than my high school students. 

These popcorn balls are my FAVORITE! 



Gabby helped Ryan with his online school work. Thanks Gabs.

La Casa Mexico. Yum!

Gabby hand sewed her rats some bows and a bow tie. She's a crafty one who LOVES her rats.

Sunday, October 18, 2020

We are in the Red Zone

 This last week was pretty good. I was especially feeling good about having established a new routine that I felt was manageable and even started fitting in more workouts. Unfortunately, it was short-lived. Ada County is back in red with corona numbers and Piper and Ryan are going back to school every other day instead of every day. I now have to worry about ensuring they are getting their school work done as well. Piper does pretty well but Ryan is much too young and needs my support in his assignments  It's hard to come home after work and try to teach Ryan a day's worth of school work. UGH! Teachers in the West Ada school district are mad because they don't want to teach students in person at all in red and parents want their kids to go to school. I feel really bad about the people in charge. 700 teachers in the school district called in sick for Monday and so the school district had to cancel school. It's such a mess! So I'm wondering if they will go back to online full time. Meanwhile, in my district, I am supposed to start having kids come back to school this week. I just checked my work email and as of right now that is still the plan. I will be very curious about what this week brings. I'm pretty stressed about it and am trying to think about it tomorrow. My co-worker Janet and I were too nervous to buy cooking supplies on Friday because we weren't sure if we would be staying online. Mondays for my district are always online so we have tomorrow to see what happens and buy supplies if students do in fact come back Tuesday. I teach 2 classes at Boise High and they haven't had an FCS teacher for a few years so I have no idea what supplies I need to get over there. I will be in survival mode this week for sure. I also have parent-teacher conferences this week. Hold on tight!

I started to get a bad headache last night and still have one today. My stomach also hurts. I'm staying in bed all day and hoping I will feel better tomorrow. This week will be a doozy. 


Scott snagged a picture of me and Ryan's bedtime storytime. 

I was so tired of sitting and working on the computer all day that I decided to sew an apron on Friday while at work. It was a good way for me to figure out the school sewing machines and I don't have a lot of time at home to do it. Huzzah! 

Our dryer does not work well and we had it professionally blown out! It's much better now. Our vent runs all the way under our house and is impossible to clean out ourselves. 


Sunday, October 11, 2020

McCall Getaway

This last week of work CRAWLED by for me. I normally share my room with my co-worker Janet but she was gone all week. She went to Texas to help her son who is going through a divorce. By 9:00 am on Monday morning I knew it was going to be a LONG week. I don't really know any of the other teachers and because of covid we just hide out in our rooms anyway so it was really lonely to go to work and be alone in my room for 40 hours last week. I'm really glad I share a room, I mean that's annoying and a mixed bag in other ways but in the having someone to talk to way it's great! I will be happy to see Janet at work tomorrow. Halleluiah. 

I'm not sure if we will be heading back to red this week and what that means for my kids and school and what it means for my students. I'm trying to get ready for my students to come back if they do. I need to buy a bunch of cooking stuff. We want to cook as much as possible when they come back if they come back. 

Scott and I got married on October 8th 15 years ago. I love October so much. I'm really glad we got married in October. Rustin called a few weeks ago and said that Cory had a concert in Boise the weekend of our anniversary and they wanted to come up and kick us out of the house for the weekend so we could celebrate our anniversary. That worked out perfectly. I was already thinking Scott and I would go to McCall for our anniversary and I was going to ask some friends to watch our kids so this was even better. Nana and Papa ended up coming up as well. They also brought Greta and Attie. They are having a party at our house. They celebrated Ryan's birthday early yesterday and did who knows what else. 

Scott and I had a great day in McCall. We drove up after Scott's work Friday night. The drive did freak me out quite a bit and I felt like my mom. I closed my eyes a bunch. It's such a windy road and I kept thinking about deer. I was glad when we got there. Yesterday we slept in and went to a late breakfast at The Pancake House I've heard about this restaurant and it didn't disappoint. They also had a cute shop attached and we treated ourselves with some nice slippers for a little gift. I'm wearing them right now. In love! It was cold and rainy so we just took a drive around the lake for a while. It was really beautiful. After that, we came back and watched a Joss Whedon horror movie, (loved it), and took a nap. We went all out at Steamers, a fish and steak house, for dinner. We even got an appetizer and a drink. Ha. It was probably our most expensive dinner out together. After 15 years we've earned it. It was really good. We went back to the hotel and watched another horror movie. Ha. Tis the season. We went to bed early so I can't sleep in anymore. I'm typing my blog while Scott snoozes away. Check out is at 11:00. Still unsure what exactly we are doing today. It's been a really nice relaxing getaway. 


Pretty flowers in front of the restaurant. We wore our masks as to not forget when we were celebrating. Ha. Stupid 2020.

Scott read some "Farmer Putnam's Philosophy" found in the antique section of the restaurant. Ha.







Our anniversary slippers. Way better than crystal. 

Scott was happy to order his cheeseburger breakfast.


The Pancake House

Our hotel

Pear, walnut salad.


Scott's 16 oz buffalo steak
My salmon
Spinach artichoke dip. YUM!

Sunday, October 4, 2020

A Cold!

 Well we have been passing around a cold this last week. It started with Gabby and slowly spread to most of us, Corbin woke up today feeling pretty yucky today. So far Scott has lucked out. Fingers crossed for him. It is such a hard time to have a cold. Do you get tested? How much will it cost to get tested? Can you go to school? Work? Ugh! I went to work but I wasn't sure if I should and I didn't really want to ask. It's just a very mild cold but it's really hard to know what to do. It's stressful and we are at the very beginning of regular cold and flu season. I feel like no one can go to school or work. It sucks. That's all.

Ryan went to school every day which was awesome. Piper starts going every day tomorrow. Although the numbers are growing so it might get shut back down to online? Or every other day? Not sure. Ugh!

I'm not a relaxed person and I'm already trying to figure out things for next year work wise. It's only October, I need to calm down. I'm sure something will work out for next year and I have enough to worry about until then. I really love teaching family consumer science though so I think I will plan on either getting my endorsement or possibly getting a Master's degree in it. It would be hard for me to go back and teach anything else. Time will tell. Waiting...my favorite!

I made homemade chicken noodle soup yesterday. My brother Gabe had his annual soups and sweaters birthday party. It is THE best. Everyone brings soups and we just chat for hours. My kids were playing so hard and long with their cousins. It was really fun. That soup makes a TON so I am taking some to my friend Jaynee who had an adorable baby boy last week. My friend Chelsey lives in Texas and her mom (in Boise) broke her collar bone and she asked if I would bring her mom some dinner. It was super easy since I was already making a giant pot of soup. This soup is best to make when you need to share anyway. It worked out!

Alright well that's all!


Ryan was being my helper making the noodles.

Yum!