Saturday, March 25, 2023

Spring Break!

It has been an excellent spring break and I'm sad it's almost over. It was so great to kick it off with a relaxing weekend with my girlfriends in McCall. After that, I went straight into project mode working on my desk upcycle. I want to put this desk in my room and move the desk in my room into the closet. I want to put my sewing machine on the closet desk and keep it out. I hope it will help me to use it more. For a minute it didn't look like my experiment of mod podging paper on the drawers would work but then it did! Huzzah. Now I need to wait for a few weeks for the paint to cure. 

Before spring break the kids made a list of things they wanted to do and we did everything. We went to the park, went on a Target run, made homemade bread and had honey with cheese (weird Hart tradition) and pickle sandwiches (grilled tuna with homemade bread), went swimming, went to pojos, and made muddy buddies. Corbin did not really do any of this but he did have 2 sleepovers with friends. 

I drove to Rigby for my niece's wedding reception. It was fun to have some hang time with my sister and help her out a little bit as well. Shae is so cute and she looked very happy. Her wedding day was FREEZING! Spring please for the love come! 

It's probably too soon to start counting down until the school year is done but I can count down to my Disneyworld trip. I'm going to Disneyworld with the Boise High and Borah High FCS teachers for some culinary convention? I'm not sure, I am mostly excited but of course nervous about sharing a room because I am straight up crazy. Let the countdown begin...T minus 26 days. 

Before
After
Before

After


Pop of surprise coral.


Scott doing some voodoo witch doctor mad scientist plant stuff.

Look at her face! and mine. haha.

I love when Charly sits on me while I watch shows. 

The kids had mega success at Pojos! 

Look at that face! 


Victory in the reflection


Fort collapse!

So cute!

Gabby spent Monday playing with Piper and Ryan and kept them off electronics and entertained them all day.

So cute!

The kids watched a movie in the back of the van. 
Me and my sis!
Cooper took at on of pictures so we got some candid shots.
Smile! Trisha, Shae, Joe, Me
The Black family love to dance to the Dancing Queen. It's a tradition and they have a bit of a dance routine. 
This was so cute to watch!

Sunday, March 19, 2023

Girlfriend McCall trip!

I'm so happy I made it to spring break! I was super tired and I didn't even make it through the week. I got pink eye and decided that was good enough reason to take a day off so I took Wednesday off and it was so nice! I took a 2 hour nap, and it really helped me a lot. I had my formal evaluation last week. It went fine, I'm glad it's done. There's a lot of paperwork that goes into that process and it's a little stressful. About half of the students are done sewing their bags, I'm hoping the rest can finish in two more sewing days. I can't wait to put away the sewing machines. I'm happy that so far the students that have finished have done a good job. I was pretty worried throughout the process that none of my students would be successful, but they were! Phew. I'm very excited for a needed break from school. 

I had a weekend trip with my girlfriends to McCall. It was so great! We have all been friends for about 7 years and we have never done anything like that. It was way over due in my mind. It was a miracle we could all make it. We mostly sat on the giant sectional couch and talked and ate. We also sang karaoke, played a game, watched a scary movie, hit the hot tub, went shopping and ate out several times. I think it was a much needed break for all of us. 

Scott held down the fort and the kids had a weekend with some sleepovers, spring cleaning, cooking, baking, and tree hunting. 

We don't have any specific plans for spring break. We've made a list of things that we want to do for fun and I want to work on a painting project...pictures to come. 

We stayed at a great air b&b cabin.

Jaynee and I bought matching sweatshirts. So cute!

Team Teluride. 

We ate dinner at the Shoreline Lodge (it was booked so we crammed in a bar bench).

Gabby made dinner Saturday night, ranch chicken, twice baked potatoes, and broccoli. Yum!

Ryan fort.

Corbin helping Ryan get rid of some of his stuff.


My students made drawstring backpacks. It was hard for all of us. Haha.




Sunday, March 12, 2023

Tropical plants?

This past week has been challenging but I made it through. My job (especially during the sewing unit) is exhausting and if I have personal stuff going on I can't function normally. Luckily I knew this and asked for some help last weekend and some of my friends came and helped me cut fabric for 2 hours. One of them brought me dinner on Monday night. I made 2 dinners on Sunday night for the week and Hart and Jory brought over pizza Thursday night. Another friend did a grocery delivery and brought dinner and treats and more! It was SO nice to have some extra support because I didn't have the energy to grieve and function. I was able to come home and pretty much do nothing after work and recover for the next day. Trying to help a classroom full of 8th graders how to sew is REALLY REALLY hard. Luckily all of my classes have better behavior this semester so I'm just dealing with running from one messed up bobbin to the next and trying to explain seam allowance and I might as well be speaking Chinese. My 4th period does have behavior problems and I asked the behavior specialist to come and help me. I cannot help everyone sew and manage behavior on top of that. I might try to see if I can kick one student out, it would make ALL OF THE DIFFERENCE. 

This weekend has been nice, I haven't had to do any work and I had just enough down time and time to do errands and other things. Scott is a total gardening nut. He has been working on building a greenhouse next to the shed and he's ordered so many trees and plants. Tropical trees in Idaho, this will be interesting. 

After I finished my Master's last year another teacher told me about easy professional development credits at NNU. At the time I was like ahh don't tell me that, but after a few weeks of down time I felt like I could start working on earning my last 30 credits and maxing out my pay. I took 9 classes last summer but they cut me off and I couldn't take any more so I planned on taking the last 5 classes this coming summer. A few months ago I felt like I would rather take one class a month and be done before summer started rather than having to do it during the summer time! I started and got on a roll and just finished them all up in a couple of months instead. I won't get my pay bump until next school year but I don't have to worry about taking any more classes until I need to renew my license in 5 years. I am so excited. I've been taking classes pretty much straight for the last 2 1/2 years and I've earned 69 credits. I'm very excited to be done taking classes and I already have plans for future non academic projects. 

Grieving is weird when a person in your life dies and they aren't in your regular daily life. It makes it difficult to process. I am looking forward to going to Utah to the celebration of life ceremony and grieving and seeing everyone. It's just really sad and hard to fathom. 


I love this picture so much! haha.

Many more trees and plants to come!

So many trees.

Scott has been working tirelessly for the last 2 days. He is now exhausted!

I came home to a tropical forest on Friday. 

Cute. 

Bunk party.


We went and saw my friend Rachel's new baby chicks.
This has been on my computer since last summer. I finally got to take it down!

Cute!

Sunday, March 5, 2023

RIP Sarah

All of us close to Sarah are in a state of shock right now. On Friday night we lost her suddenly and unexpectedly. She died from kidney failure. My heart hurts for the loss of not having Sarah here with us and my heart hurts for her and for what she was trying to deal with in an unfortunate way. She died too soon and it is tragic. I am not good with words so I stole a post from a Facebook friend who captured Sarah perfectly:

Rob Alvord: 

Sarah was the whole package. An incredibly beautiful woman, and an incredibly sweet soul. Truly, she was the best of us. 

It isn’t much hyperbole to say she was the fourth member of Fat Candice. She was at so many shows dancing and making friends. Her infectious personality and inviting spirit probably brought in more fans than our actual music. 

Whenever discussing new covers, or recording a basement demo, I’d always be eager to hear what Sarah thought of it.  

Sarah didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She included everyone, no matter how they looked or behaved. She would make instant friends with whomever she met. 

So often at shows, I’d see her having a blast with somebody. I’d ask, “How do you two know each other?” They’d respond, “We just met tonight”. She was just that kind of person. 

She always made time for children. Once we were hanging outside of Kiitos, and the food truck guy had his young son with him. With no other kids around, and nothing to do, the boy was miserable with boredom, until he met Sarah. Sarah spent the whole night playing with this boy. (Similarly, she always gave the best attention to my two boys.)

She was also a true badass. She could smoke cigars and tell dirty jokes with the boys. No problems keeping up there. 

I'm grateful to have the privilege of calling her a friend. Her love lasts beyond her mortal life. Last night in the ICU there was so much love between everyone, even though many of us weren’t personally very familiar with each other. It is because of Sarah’s love. We all still feel it, and will forever. 

I don’t know if I’ll be able to play another Fat Candice show without her. I don’t know if I’ll be able to play golf with Clark without her sitting in the cart making funny comments. There’s likewise just so many people who can’t imagine life without our sweet Sarah. 

Our hero. Our friend. RIP 

That is all I feel up to writing about this week. You are missed, Sarah. We love you.