Merry Christmas!

 It's Christmas break! Yay! Half of the yearbook was due on Monday. I looked over those pages so many times and it was frightening to find mistakes right up until I turned them in. My last correction lead to a brilliant addition of a border to all of the sports pages. They looked so much better after that! We had school until the 22nd. Boo. Luckily they were shortened days but still! On Wednesday I had my prep period and my yearbook class. I asked the librarians if they would watch my yearbook students and I was able to work on a paper that whole school day. Yay! I have turned in 7 tasks so far. I am waiting for my results on the last two. I have already looked into my next course. Looking at each new assignment is always stressful and intimidating. I will worry about that tomorrow.

On Thursday I worked on WGU, decorated some gingerbread houses, and ran some errands including getting food for Christmas. I woke up at 7:00 am on Christmas Eve and there was a skiff of snow so I woke up the kids to go look at Christmas lights with me. I usually try to go when there is snow and we haven't had any luck this year yet. I figured we had no idea how soon it would melt so I seized the opportunity. Corbin stayed in bed but the other three got up with me and grabbed some blankets and got in the van. There weren't as many lights on but there were still quite a few. We then went and got hot chocolate and donuts from Maverick. It was fun! 

 I spent most of Christmas Eve baking and cooking. It was fun to watch Christmas movies all day and cook. I kind of overdid it and was pretty tired by the end but that's okay. I decided against a turkey dinner this year. I made two soups and breadsticks instead. That evening we read some Christmas poems and played a few games. We checked out a few lights and watched Klaus before bed. 

We had a great Christmas day. It snowed off and on which made it so pretty and magical! Corbin got a Nintendo switch for a combined birthday/Christmas/family gift. Gabby's favorite gift was her stuffed goat (we used to call her Gabby goat when she was a toddler). Piper can't pick a favorite gift, she loved them all (she got binoculars and a projector that shows stars in the dark). Ryan's favorite gift was his flying drone, (it is so loud, it is not my favorite). 

I asked Jory to wrap my presents for me. It helped me out SO much. This December has been very stressful for me. In addition to wrapping my presents she also gave us a few gifts that became favorite gifts as well. She gave us a new blanket that the kids love and are fighting over, (I love it too!). She also gave the kids a dart board and a 300 piece Charles Wysocki puzzle (my fav). There were many other treats and things. It was so wonderful and thoughtful. We loved it! 

Christmas breakfast was super easy and I chilled the rest of the day. It was glorious! I took two long naps and watched several episodes of The Witcher with Scott. I then did our new puzzle by myself. It was the perfect most restful day. I needed it! Scott made us stir fry for dinner. Yum! It was a wonderful Christmas!

Today we went to lunch for an early Corbin birthday celebration. I have jury duty this coming week. I don't have to go in tomorrow. Fingers crossed I don't have to ever go in! I will be busy resting, parenting, and doing WGU homework all week (and hopefully not doing jury duty). 

Light Christmas Day snow. Made it so pretty! 

Christmas Morning!

Piper made a "shark" clay snowman and an Idaho ornament. Should have taken a better picture.

Cuddled up on the love sack watching Klaus.

Christmas Eve games!

Broccoli Cheddar soup. 

Homemade gingersnap cookies. Yum!

Homemade cinnamon rolls.

Ryan and Scott date.

Ryan eats with his mask on.

Beautifully coordianted Jory wrapped presents.

My students decorated gingerbread houses for their final assignment. This was the best group.

A wonderful note from a student. 

Back on Track

Well as you can imagine...life has been crazy. On Monday, after I didn't get home until nearly 6:00 pm because I was taking yearbook pictures, I wasn't sure I had it in me to do more homework that night. Ryan was coughing his lungs out and I was like Ryan needs to stay home and I'm taking a sick day! I kept Ryan home for two days and I worked furiously on my WGU papers. I've been working like crazy and I am ready to turn in my 5th paper tonight...one day early. I was sooo tired yesterday I had to take a WGU break. I also took a nap and went to bed at 9:00 pm. I'm feeling better today. A day ahead and rested. Woot!

The kids are out of school. I'm so jealous! My school doesn't get out until the 22nd. Painful! My students are making decorating gingerbread houses so hopefully it will be fun and not very stressful. Plus they are only half days so that's good! I've been working on the yearbook like crazy the last couple of weeks. Half of the yearbook is due tomorrow. I think I'm ready! I'm feeling like it is looking pretty good. 

On Saturday we had a Beal family Christmas party. Hart and Jory invited us all to their climbing gym to have pizza and climb. The kids had so much fun! I was so tired I took a power nap on a random couch while the kids climbed. Speaking of Jory, I asked her to wrap my Christmas presents this year. She is saving me! I do not have extra time for things like that right now.

Scott has been helping me a ton to reach my crazy goal. He has taken over on the grocery shopping and laundry. This had been huge!

Alright, that's about all. I'm feeling pretty good at this moment but it's been really hard and my schedule is insane. Peace out! 

We got together for dinner last Sunday night since the Harrisons came to town.

Corbin climber!

Everyone watching a ferret documentary. Piper was dying from the cuteness! 

Ryan cat. He is going through an acting like a cat phase.

Gabby climber!

More Gabby.

Piper climber!

Ryan climber!

Piper again!

Scott climber!

Corbin again!

Running Behind Schedule

So far I'm not doing great with my school work. I think that's to be expected while I'm figuring it out. I was supposed to be finished with the first three papers by tomorrow but I'm not going to make it. I'm hoping that after the learning curve I can make up for lost time over Christmas break. Fingers crossed. I turned in my first paper and it got returned for corrections. So far I'm doing pretty well at sticking to my study schedule. I'm hunkering down and skipping some social events this coming week. I think 6 months of sacrifice is going to be well worth it. 

Thursday night Summerwind had a Festival of Trees fundraising event. Piper's class tree theme was "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas." Her class tree sold for $140! Nice! 

Piper made chocolate chip cookies by herself Friday night. She even did the dishes! She did a good job. She was insistent on using a recipe from one of her youtube people and I was not a fan of the recipe. She needs to use my recipe next time! 

Scott made the million-dollar club, meaning he got a million dollars worth of rescue loans. His work congratulated him with some cookies and lunch. Scott has made a lot of progress with work this last year. He's gotten several raises. Woot! He applied for an HR position within the company. He hasn't heard back about it yet and he has mixed feelings about making the switch. We will see.

Okay, that's all. I need to do some grading. Peace out! 

The girls were making mini presents for their room tree.

Ryan helped make some presents too.

Ryan got some snuggles while I watched a cheesy Christmas movie. Thank goodness for the weekend!

Million Dollar Club!

Piper cookies!

She did all of the dishes.

Festival of Trees. Ryan with his mask and no coat, and Corbin in shorts, per usual.

Hippo tree!

Gabby joins me at night and we do our homework together.

Bring On The Crazy

I started my master's program. I am trying to do my first assignment and I can't wrap my brain around it yet so I'm taking a break to write my blog post. I met with my principal on Monday and bless his heart his intentions were true and he was trying to help me but he did not. He couldn't have the other teacher take over so he was just going to finish the book with help from the old yearbook advisor. I was still going to have the class with the students so the burden was not gone and not only that I would be on the hook but lose control, that sounded much worse. My principal doesn't understand the time and work involved and he has zero time so to leave it to him is worse than me just doing it myself. Luckily I had my mental breakdown about it already and I had a much-needed Thanksgiving break. I took so many pictures last week and made a ton of progress on the book. I am not going to overthink it or make it perfect. I will just bust it out! That's it, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit. I'm hoping I do a good enough job to not be embarrassed but not a good enough job to be asked to do it again.  

I'm going to try to finish my program in 6 months. I know several people who have been able to do it. I will try very hard but if it doesn't work it doesn't work and that's okay. Alright time to figure out that assignment.

Ryan made his own bagel start to finish. Impressive! 

I have a classroom Christmas tree. Cute!

Day 1 of homework. 

Trying to wrap my brain around my first assignment.

We got a new roof back in November. Not fun money to spend but it was time. I couldn't remember if I already talked about that. We decided to pay more to make it black. I would have hated it otherwise. 

The roof looks good!

Scott has been taking the kids out on a weekly date one at a time. Cute!

Ryan date.

Ryan doesn't like to wear a winter coat, why? I don't know. So instead he wears many layers. In this picture, he is wearing multiple pairs of underwear and pants and several shirts. He is a quirky kid! 

Piper got all the fruit on her last date!

Cute Ryan toes.

Corbin and Gabby were doing math problems together one night for fun. Ha. 

Great Break!

This Thanksgiving break has been THE best. I've decided that I enjoy Thanksgiving break more than Christmas break. I LOVE it. It was very much needed. My stye in my eye is still healing. I'm trying to decide if I'm brave enough to go to work without make-up tomorrow. I really hope yearbook gets figured out next week, I hope I can pass it off. WGU starts on Wednesday. This month adjusting to going back to school full time will be interesting. Back to the break. I took the kids to my parent's house on Tuesday. Scott only gets Thanksgiving day off and I haven't been home in a long time so I went without him. Hart and Jory's family came and Kelsey lives by my parent's house. That night we chatted and watched Funny Farm. My parents were in Idaho Falls because my dad had to get last-minute surgery on his prostate. They came home around 2:00 on Wednesday. A few brave ambitious souls tried to hike to Lonesome Pine (an old Beal Thanksgiving tradition) on Wednesday afternoon. I stayed home and napped. It was glorious. They never made it to Lonesome Pine, they couldn't figure out how to get to the trailhead. That evening we had pie and watched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. We stayed up late talking. My dad talked a lot about his farm and what will happen to it when my parents die. It's weird to think about. 

On Thanksgiving day we ate "dinner" at 11:00 am. Haha. The great thing about this weird Beal tradition is that you get to eat leftovers ON Thanksgiving day. It's glorious. After dinner, we did a scavenger hunt that Justin set up for us. It was fun. Later that day I talked Hart's family into staying one more night! I was so glad they stayed. We had fudge and played Rage. It was so fun. Friday morning we headed back to Boise. I got my booster shot that day. I was worried it would make me sick but it didn't. Hooray! We've been relaxing and getting ready to get back to work and school tomorrow. Scott had Thanksgiving dinner at a co-worker's house. He wished he had more of a break. 

Well, this week will be interesting. Wish me luck! 

Corbin finally passed me! 

Taco, Cat, Goat, Cheese, Pizza Game

Corbin and Gabby played Uno all day. I loved it!

Ryan playing with his cousin Emmett

My dad telling stories.

Kid table.

Adult Table

Justin's scavenger hunt sent us all around town.

Treasure Box!

Rage!

I bought the Harry Potter set on Facebook marketplace for $50. I hope at least one of my kids will read it!

I made Andes Mint cookies for my students today. This is a  favorite recipe that is best eaten after the chocolate has hardened so I wanted to share it and not make it in class.