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.

Thanksgiving Break Ya'll!

This past week wasn't actually that stressful, in Teen Living anyway. We did a two day group project making chicken noodle soup and corn bread muffins. It worked so well! The kids loved it! My creamy chicken noodle soup is so good. It was really hard to figure out how to cook it with my classes but my plan worked! I didn't have any students chop off any fingers while cutting vegetables, always a win. The rest of the week we watched McFarland USA. The kids liked it and it was so relaxing to grade, lesson plan, and work on my WGU orientation packet during class. I will do that the week before Thanksgiving next year too! Brilliant! 

In other more stressful news Yearbook has been stressing me out forever. I got a UTI and three stye's in my left eye last week. My body is falling apart. I got the idea Friday morning to try to see if I could get out of Yearbook. I immediately emailed a teacher I felt could take over and checked with her first to see if she would be willing to do it. She's 23, has no kids, is not married, did yearbook in high school, and is already a cheerleader advisor and goes to all of the games! Her 8th period (when I have yearbook) is her prep period! I emailed my principal explaining my stress and gave him a few ideas of how I could get out of Yearbook as well as a reminder of the other things I could do 8th period instead. He replied saying we would meet soon and work it out. I am worried he will try to make me continue to do it and I think I might have to tell him no, (hoping I don't lose my job). I did remind him in the email that I could teach Health, Biology, FCS, and Avid. I was trying to remind him of my worth and contributions to the school hoping I could have some leverage to say no if he tries to make me continue to do it. We will see what happens. I cannot do yearbook. It consumes my thoughts and I suck at it! We.Will.See!

I need to finish my orientation packet for WGU in the next two days. It's long. I moved my desk into my room hoping it will be a more comfortable space for me to do school work. I am hoping to do 20-30 hours of school work a week. This may not be achievable. We.Will.See.

I had the kids help me clean the house yesterday and we put up the Christmas decorations. Now I feel like I can relax! Other than some WGU homework I have nothing to do all week. I'm caught up on grading and lesson planning. Woot! So excited for this much needed break!

I LOVE having a Christmas tree in my room! Plus it's the kid tree with all of my kids' homemade decorations. Love! 

Love this tree!

Cute Nana Christmas jammies. Had to take a pic before they get stained and gross.

Yearbook pic. 

My homework station. 

Izumi's!

 Last week was stressful. I'm tired and burned out and so are the kids. Everyone is ready for a break. I can't wait for Thanksgiving break. I've come up with a two day chicken noodle soup lab for this coming week. I hope it works! I tested out my recipe breakdown for dinner today and it worked. I also adjusted my cornbread recipe for the right size for the class and made them in muffins today and that worked too. After that we are watching McFarland USA for the rest of the week. It should be a chill easy week I hope! On Saturday we went to Izumi's Japanese Grill with our friends for a belated birthday dinner. Kyoto's is where we usually go but it was under construction. Izumi's was good but we had to wait for 2 hours to be seated. Woof! After that we came to the house and had cake and played a game. Well that's all for now.

I LOVE Japanese grill food. SOOOO Good! 

Krista makes the most amazing cakes! Isn't it beautiful? German chocolate, my favorite! 

40th Birthday Ya'll!

 Gabby had a band concert on Monday. She did not want to be there and she hates band and she gave me dirty looks the whole concert but she did a great job despite herself. My yearbook rep came to the school to check on my progress and I totally cried and it was embarrassing. I have been feeling the weight of the yearbook and it's been building. My staff of 4 unmotivated students is not helping the situation. They won't take pictures after school and work for about 5 minutes per class. I am so over them! The good news about the breakdown was it caused me to ask for some help from another teacher who is willing to help. She is going to come and work with us once a week and help me take pictures too. Oy! I can't think about it, it stresses me right out.

In other news, it was my birthday week! Celebrations began Thursday night. Scott took me to Nordstrom Rack and I bought all the things! On Friday after work, we headed up to McCall for the weekend. We stayed at a condo. It was very cute and fun. I slept in uber late on my birthday and we went to a very late breakfast at The Pancake House. The rest of the day we chilled at the condo. It was so nice and just what I wanted to do. We had a Hunger Games marathon and I did a puzzle. It was perfect! Scott made me stir fry for dinner and the kids got to go swimming. Today we slept in again and due to daylight savings, we had an extra hour to chill in the morning. It was nice! We also got home with plenty of time to do laundry, yard work, and grocery shopping. It was a great weekend! I loved it! Cheers to 40!

Look at her face!

Piper found a giant leaf...she wanted to keep it, I said let's take a picture! Ha.

Brunch at The Pancake House. YUM! 

Scott's stir fry is so good! 

I worked on my puzzle for hours. Gabby started hers and finished way before me! 

Finished puzzles. I mostly wanted to do it myself but Piper helped. 

Kids gaming with each other.

Some of my family went on a train trip to a Colt's game. My dad loves trains and the Colts. I couldn't go but I loved these pictures and wanted to post them. Wish  I could have gone, they had a great time.