Finally

The jolly green bathroom has been updated. We spent 2 weekends working on it. I did the painting and Ryan did the plumbing, lighting, and all the little touch-ups like adding a chair rail. I am no longer embarrassed to have guests use the bathroom. Maybe I'll even start offering them drinks now.

We are still in the process of re-modeling one of our other bathrooms so you know what we will be doing this weekend.

A Day Off

Liza had a fever yesterday so I took a much needed day off to stay home with her. She still wakes up happy as a clam. Today is her lucky day because she has free reign over Isabel's toys, at least until school is out.

Some funny stories from work:

My co-teacher was trying to explain the meaning of the word "literal" to her kids. Her kids hear us describe our students with autism as being very literal. So my co-worker is trying all kinds of ways to explain and finally says its when something is black and white. Her 1st grade daughter says, "oh I get it mom. Its like my friend Hannah. She's both black and white. She's brown so she's literal."

I have a student who is obseessed with fashion. He was sharing his observations on skinny jeans, mainly that more girls than boys wear them. His hypothesis: Boys don't wear them as much because they are tight and might hurt your cuticles.

Ha Ha

Love is....

Peek-a-boo on a Saturday morning.



looking out for each other.



spending time with old friends.



visiting family.



playing with my sister.

Merry Christmas

This post is just a little late. We had a wonderful Christmas. My parents came to visit and Almas was over for dinner. Its hard to believe its been a month since Christmas. We are busy remodeling two of our bathrooms. Hopefully I can post before and after shots soon. As for work.....I have entered the dreaded ARD season. Every special ed. teacher knows what that means. Lots and lots of paperwork and meetings.

Santa-tonio

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit so we took them to San Antonio and did all the touristy things: The Riverwalk, The Alamo, a horse carriage ride. Isabel was so excited and I finally figured out that she thought we were going to Santa's hometown of Santa-tonio. It was only in the 40's so it felt like the North Pole to us.

Only a matter of time...

I knew Eliza would find the tree. We didn't hide it very well.

'Tis the Season...

We've hung our stockings and done our shopping and Isabel wrote her 1st letter to Santa. She's expecting a dollhouse, a Barbie computer, and a pony, stuffed not real. Liza started crawling the day we brought out all the Christmas decorations. So far she leaves them alone though. She is content to follow after Isabel.

Giving Thanks

We had a nice relaxing Thanksgiving. Ryan always cooks the meal so that may be the best part for me. Sam (our cat) caught his own bird and was quite proud of himself.
Isabel told us she is thankful for "her" baby, her family, Santa, and her dolls. I was thankful not to be out shopping at some awful hour on Friday. We always spend the day after Thanksgiving at the zoo. It beats the mall...the animals at the zoo have better manners.

Some old favorites

Just a few pics

Haircut

Isabel got a haircut yesterday. It was only her 2nd one so when the hairdresser told her to pick out a movie to watch, Isabel thought she got to keep the movie.

Lesson learned for the week: Never feed the baby prunes again.

"Those People"

The haunted dining room



Where the real fun happens



2 grouchy kids at this point



Family Portrait



Let me at that candy!


Another Halloween has come and gone. I don't know if everyone is aware that Halloween is Ryan's absolute favorite day of the year. He thinks its criminal that its not a national holiday. And you know when you drive through a neighborhood and you see that one house that went all out for the occasion and you think "who on earth lives there?" Well on our street that is us. I can't possibly describe the amount of decorations we have and the time it takes to put them up. Ryan has music playing and a fog machine and of course all of our monster friends outside. He measures his success by how many kids drop their candy and run in fear. One poor kid got tangled in the cobwebs and couldn't get away fast enough. I had to take Ryan driving through the neighborhood so he could see if any houses had us beat and one did. So there are already improvement plans involving a strobe light and cemetary. The competiton is on for next year.

And the girls. Well Isabel talks a big game about going Trick-or-Treating but when it comes down to it she is just too shy. She hides behind me and won't even take any candy. We just go to a few neighbors. This year our famous puker Liza managed to spit up on Isabel's costume so she demanded we take the costume off RIGHT NOW. Never mind that we were in our neighbor's entryway. Isabel prefers to watch when the kids come to our house. And I must admit, it is quite a show. Now the big clean-up begins.

Election Fever

My friend sent this little bit of election humor my way and I couldn't resist posting a link. Too funny, Thanks Almas. Click here

Pumpkin Carving

Ryan completed his annual pumpkin carving yesterday. Isabel helped by picking out the pumpkins. And my favorite part~roasting the pumkin seeds.