Everyday Moments

Life...unedited. 

These random iPhone photos are dark, blurry, and untouched,

but they capture everyday moments from the last couple weeks.

On a sunny, 65-degree day, the girls enjoyed playing outside on the play equipment at school when Savannah was done with chorus:

Savannah and I baked two pans of blondie bars for her birthday party:

Cousins Savannah (10), Harper (5), and Hadley (4) shopped at Target on the evening before Savannah's birthday party:

On her birthday, Savannah was excited when her teacher gave her a card and Hershey bar:

The girls were excited when Grandma Judy sent them some Valentines in the mail:

On Sunday afternoon, the girls asked to go to the the mall since it was a rainy day, so we ate lunch at Moe's and then visited a few stores:

On President's Day, Tal and I enjoyed having a day date. We went shopping and then ate lunch at Carrabba's...where we had our first date 13 years ago this month. As always, we enjoyed having some alone time, peace and quiet, adult conversation, and a leisurely meal:

Savannah received the Effort Award in her class for working hard and completing her assignments. We are so proud of Savannah! 

The PTA at our school is awesome! They installed colorful decals on the stairs and painted inspirational messages in the bathrooms at our school:

On Saturday morning, our family volunteered from 9-11 AM at a church food pantry that is located 10 minutes from our house.The food pantry operated like a grocery store and distributed food to around 100 families. A family member walked around the "grocery store" with a personal shopper who pushed a shopping cart. Each family chose a specified number of frozen food, produce, pasta, bread, etc. 

Our family served on the bread aisle. Depending on the size of their family, each family selected 3-6 bread items, including bread, bagels, buns, rolls, and English muffins. Savannah and Hadley filled a paper grocery bag (while Tal and I supervised) with the bread items the family selected and then put the bag in the cart. The girls were hard workers and had positive attitudes while we volunteered:

After the food pantry, the girls and I went shopping at Target. We used a gift card to pay for a caramel frappe at Starbucks. To save money, I only get one frappe but always ask the barista to split the frappe into two cups, so the girls can have their own cup:

Next weekend we are having an indoor Easter egg hunt at our house, so Hadley and I filled about 200 eggs while we watched TV this weekend:

Tal and I recently started a chore reward system with Hadley. She earns $2 a week for completing her chores in a timely manner and with a positive attitude. Hadley's chores include putting her shoes in her mudroom basket, putting her dirty clothes in the laundry basket, putting her dirty dishes next to the kitchen sink, putting her trash in the trash can, putting away her toys/craft supplies, and putting away her clean socks and underwear in her dresser drawers. Hadley is excited to spend and save her money:

NC State Women's Gymnastics

Last night our family cheered for NC State during a women's gymnastics meet. NC State competed against William and Mary and Western Michigan University in four events: vault, balance beam, floor exercise, and uneven bars. Each event lasted about 25 minutes, and there was a 2-minute break between each event. NC State won the meet! 

It was a fun, family-friendly evening! There was face painting, balloon animals, and mascots. Our family sat on the front row and got a close-up view of the gymnasts. The gymnastics season is coming to an end, but we look forward to going to a couple meets next year!

We sat in the front row and behind the announcers:

Savannah caught one of the NC State T-shirts that the cheerleaders threw into the crowd!

Hadley got a butterfly painted on her face:

Playing around with the mascot Mr. Wuf 

  

Awards Ceremony

20 years!

Last week I celebrated my 20th anniversary in NC! In February 1999, I packed up my car and moved 900 miles from Illinois to North Carolina to start my teaching career. I only knew one family in NC. Looking back, I can't believe I was so courageous and adventurous at age 22!

Also, last week I completed my 20th year of teaching. 8 years as a 7th grade English language arts teacher. 12 years as a K-5 teacher-librarian. 20 years dedicated to changing thousands of students' lives.

Now that I've taught for 20 years, I'm eligible to receive paid health insurance, as well as partial retirement benefits for the rest of my life. Lord willing, I plan to continue teaching for the next ten years. After 30 years of teaching, I will be eligible to retire with full retirement benefits at age 52. 

During the last 20 years, I've lived in five homes, taught in four schools, earned my master's degree and National Boards certification, gotten married, and had two babies. Although I miss my family in IL, NC has been a beautiful, safe, and affordable place to live, work, play, and raise our family.

Everyday Moments

Life...unedited. 

These random iPhone photos are dark, blurry, and untouched,

but they capture everyday moments from the last couple weeks.

Cute cousins Harper (5), Hadley (4), and Savannah (10) at Marbles for Savannah's birthday party:

Grandma Barbara and Uncle Benny on the pirate ship at Marbles:

On Monday morning, Savannah, who is a member of the Student Community Club at school, helped create Valentines for the teachers:

The girls were excited to drink Icees while we shopped at Target:

At Target, Savannah picked out pretzel treat bags to pass out to her classmates at her Valentine's Day party. When we got home, she wrote her classmates' names on the treat bags: 

Savannah recently added a new chore to her weekly chore list. After the trash gets picked-up on Wednesday afternoons, she is responsible for rolling the trash can back to the side of the house:

Savannah used some of her birthday money to buy two wooden jewelry boxes from Michael's. She painted her jewelry box, while Hadley made a watercolor painting:

Hadley arranged all of the pillows on the couch and said that she was sitting on her island:

On Sunday night, Hadley got a stomach bug, so I stayed home with her on Monday:

By Monday afternoon, Hadley was symptom-free, so the girls hung out with me after school, while I got ready for my classes the next day:

Savannah got a 100% on her timed multiplication test:

On Tuesday morning, Savannah worked as a Junior Librarian from 7:30-7:45 AM. She and her team took the library cart and collected books from the six classes that had library for specials that day. Then, she checked-in the books and put them on the shelving cart:

Savannah's birthday was on Tues, Feb 12! Tal took the day off from work, so he and Savannah could have a Daddy-Daughter Birthday date. Tal brought Chick-fil-a for Savannah and ate lunch with her in the cafeteria. 

During lunch, Tal helped Savannah pass out her birthday cupcakes to her classmates. 

After lunch, Tal checked-out Savannah from school, and they played at a indoor fun park in our neighborhood for two hours. They had fun jumping on the trampoline, driving go-karts and bumper cars, and playing putt-putt in the dark:

For her birthday dinner, Savannah chose to eat at Buffalo Brothers. After dinner, our family got dessert at the frozen yogurt shop in our neighborhood:

We enjoyed picking out our fro yo flavors and toppings. Yum!

At the beginning of 2019, Savannah set a goal to save $100 this year. Last week she deposited $101 in birthday and chore money into her bank account! Savannah set a new goal to save $200 by the end of 2019:

Birthday card from Grandma Barbara

Birthday card from Grandma Judy

Birthday card from Gran and Grandaddy

Savannah and the Student Community Club sold candy grams to raise money for NC schools affected by Hurricane Florence last fall. 

Savannah loved surprising students when she delivered candy grams to their classroom:

Hadley thought the kissy lip pops that she got for Valentine's Day were hilarious:

On Thursday, Hadley had her regular check-up at the dentist. We also discovered the reason for the tooth pain that Hadley has been experiencing over the last few weeks. She has a cavity, so she'll be going to a pediatric dentist to get that fixed soon:

Hadley got a token for her good behavior at the dentist and got a necklace from the treasure tower:

As I've mentioned before, Hadley has excellent fine motor skills. She has remarkable strength and control in her fingers, which enables her to color inside the lines and press down on colored pencils/crayons to create bright colors:

Last week the girls enjoyed some 65-degree days by playing outside and doing sidewalk chalk after school:

Savannah and Hadley enjoyed making sand art...using one of the craft kits they received for Christmas. They filled an empty container with alternating colors of sand: