Fall Time is Coming!

We all made it through another school week. Corbin skipped a day because he crashed 3 times at practice and was super sore the next day and Piper skipped a day because he teeth hurt so badly after she got her bottom braces. I had the kids an extra week because of weird scheduling stuff, so that was an extra treat. I'm managing okay at work, bit by bit. I am liking the high school. We had our first cooking lab in Foods and they had to cook a hamburger patty on the stove. It got SO smoky in the classroom. I am SO glad we didn't set off the fire alarms. Not setting off the fire alarms and no cutting off fingers are my main goals on cooking lab days! We had a good weekend. Lance, Katie, and Caleb came down from Northern Idaho so we had a Beal gathering at Gabe's house and had pizza and some went swimming. Corbin spent half the weekend with his mountain bike club. They raced at Magic Mountain in Twin Falls. His races take about an hour and a half. I think it's kind of tiring and painful for him but really good too! The temperatures were a little cooler so we channeled our love for fall and had caramels and apples, pumpkin pancakes, and turned on the fireplace. Fall time is my favorite! 

 

Back to School

It was kind of a crazy week. Adjusting to the early mornings and busy full days is a lot. I'm REALLY tired right now. This school year is going to be tough. It just will be. Teaching 3 new subjects is a ton of work even if you are given the materials. I still have to figure them out and figure out how to teach it. I'm taking it one lesson, one day at a time. I am sort of ready for tomorrow. I will fake it until I make it all year for sure. I am really liking having my own classroom (even if it's so full of junk I get claustrophobic), and I am enjoying high school. During the passing period I thought the students weren't leaving their classes because it was so quiet. It was SO weird. I am used to absolute mayhem at North. It's so loud and overly crowded at that school it's crazy.  The classroom vibe is way more relaxed and chill as well. It's nice! One day at a time!

Corbin is in 11th grade. He's taking pretty easy classes this year, he took a lot of hard classes last year and I don't think he wanted to do that again. He is on the Centennial Mountain Bike club team. It is super expensive and I'm glad I have some baby money to help pay for it. He is really liking it though. My brother talked us into joining in the hopes that his kids would also do it but his kids bailed. I was hoping Gabe would be the one to take Corbin to the meets so that was unfortunate. LUCKILY one of his teammates has a generous and kind dad who will take Corbin and other teammates to the meets. I DO NOT have the bandwidth to try drive to a mountain on a Friday after working all week and camp to attend the meets. No way. I think he will be able to get a ride for the season. Halleluiah. I don't have any pictures because I'm not awesome enough to drive 2 1/2 hours to watch a race.  

Gabby is a Freshman! Crazy. She is taking choir and art. She is in her 3rd year of Spanish. She has decided she wants to do dance again this year so she will be joining Piper's dance class. So far she is adjusting to high school well.

Piper is in the 7th grade. Her elective this quarter is FCS (home ec). She got out of advanced math which was a smart choice because math made her cry everyday last year. I'm hoping 7th grade can be more smooth for her than 6th grade. Adjusting to middle school was really hard for her last year.

Ryan is in 5th grade. It's his last year in elementary. He cried the night before school because of it. He does not want to go to middle school next year. Growing up and change can be hard. He said his teacher is nice so that's good. 

Ice cream before the first day of school. (Corbin was with his friends).

11th Grade!

9th Grade!

7th Grade!

5th Grade

Both in High School togeher!

1st Day with students at Borah

My flowers

Cutest puppy.

Back to Workie

 I went back to work on Tuesday. The first week of work is boring meetings and teacher work time. I do appreciate that we go back before the students come in. It's nice to start getting used to the schedule and get ready in the classroom. I am not ready but my goal is to survive. I have next week's lessons sort of figured out. I think it will be day to day. I had a busy weekend with doing my house and yard work and preparations for the work week with grocery shopping and meal prepping. I also did quite bit of work this weekend. Overall I'm feeling okay and not as stressed as I thought I would going into the new school year. I do have some experience under my belt now and I've done hard things plenty of times before. I should have taken a picture of my room. It's big but it filled to the brim with STUFF. It makes my skin crawl a bit. Every drawer and cabinet is filled. I'm in the wrong profession as a minimalist. So many random games and toys for child development and tons of kitchen equipment of course and 3 wheelers and car seats and creepy fake babies. It's not my favorite. It makes me want to go organize a closet in my house or something. I have no idea what I will need or use so I'm not even worrying about trying to actually clean out the room and organize it. Luckily most things are hidden and I'll pretend it's not my nightmare waiting in the all the spaces. 

I'm so excited to get my kids back. They have been gone for 2 weeks. Luckily it's gone by fast because I've had a very busy couple of weeks and did a lot of social things as well. I will have them for the next 2 weeks straight and it will be a little chaotic as we all try to adjust to our school routines. The summer went fast!

Pregnancy is going great. I feel really good. It's hard to dress and look cute at this stage where I mostly just look like I had a big lunch. I'm 16 weeks now!

Charly was my buddy all week since the kids couldn't take her to St. George with them. I think she will be very happy when the kids come back tonight as well! 

16 weeks!

Last Week of Summer Break

I had a really fun last week of summer break. I went to Twin Falls to hang out with my friend Brooke. We went to a paranormal circus show and the next day we went kayaking. She is really fun to do things with. I hiked table rock and took my kids swimming to roaring springs. I went paddle boarding and took my kids school supply shopping. I've been dog sitting this weekend which feels like a staycation. I just watch movies on my friend's big TV, eat snacks, and cuddle puppies, it's pretty great! I am really really really not ready to go back to work. I have not prepared AT ALL. I hope that adrenaline and luck with get me through. I will need all the help I can get. The pregnancy is going well. I had an appointment last Monday and the heartbeat was good. I'm feeling really good. 

Paddle boarding by Lucky Peak with my friend Shelly and my cousin Sherry.

Puppies.

Circus

Kayaking. The canyon and river in Twin Falls is really beautful.

Roaring Springs. Corbin taking a nap. They stayed up WAY too late the night before. Oh well! 

 

Last Days of Summer

Well I can't believe it but this past week was my last week of summer with my kids. We are on a weird schedule for the next 4 weeks to accommodate holiday times with family. I feel like we didn't do much this summer but that's okay. We went swimming in Gabe's pool and to the climbing gym. We never made it to Roaring Springs so I'm going to steal them from Scott's this week and hopefully get that in. Corbin got his wisdom teeth out last week. So far so good. Fingers crossed he doesn't get a dry socket or something. Well, that's all I've got! 

Corbin made 10 eggs the other day! Crazy boy. It was more than he could eat, I helped him out!

We tried a new pizza dough recipe and made it on a pizza stone. It was yummy and fun. We made 2 pizzas. We will do it again for sure!

Atomic Days!

This past week was good. I had an extra ultrasound and blood test on Monday. There are additional tests that people in Israel like to run during pregnancy so we did that. I don't know the results yet but I'm sure it's fine. I am now 13 weeks and officially in my 2nd trimester. Wahoo! I'm starting to feel less tired and less sick so that's great. It's just in time to go back to work, which is good timing really. I got the kids early this past week so they could join me for the Beal reunion in Arco. We always like to get together for Atomic Days. Hart, Lance, and Keaton's families didn't make it but mostly everyone else did. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins and the adults enjoyed visiting in the shade. This is my last week with my kids during my summer break so we are trying to figure out what things we want to do. Crazy that it's almost time to go back to work! I hope I can figure out my curriculum next year. My goal is to survive and not get fired. 

I announced my surrogacy on Facebook this past week. 

I am finally done with IVF shots! 12+ weeks of shots. Glad that part is over.

I went paddle boarding with my friend Shelly.

Atomic Days Parade!

Cute kids.

Corbin and Benett are thick as thieves and up to trouble. They got so filthy riding the 4 wheelers. 

Ryan built a fort, tent?

McCall!

We had a great week. It's HOT in Boise right now. It was 108 on Wednesday! The first half of the week we laid low because it was hot and the kids were tired from their Utah trip. On Thursday we went to McCall with Gabe's family for the weekend. Other than Corbin, my kids haven't been to McCall in the summer so I asked Gabe and Christy if we could come up. We had the best time playing on the beach and in the lake. I bought a paddleboard and that was so fun. I didn't get any pics of us on it though. The trip was really great and it probably will be the highlight of my summer. I loved it!

I'm 12 weeks pregnant now. It's crazy. I have an appointment tomorrow and I'm excited to see if the baby is still looking good and how my hematoma is doing. I think I might be feeling less nauseous and have more energy but maybe not. I've felt pretty good the last few days but everyday is a little different. We will see. 

So cute!

 

Pretty view from my morning walk.

Proof I was there. haha.

These boys played in the sand forever. It was so funny and surprising to me. 

Sand City!