Halloween Snippet

So I haven't had much time for anything other than grading and grading and grading and prepping and grading. (Poor Luke and Todd) Which means that I'm only posting a Halloween snippet because the classroom parents emailed me a couple of photos. So I'll post a few of me, then I'll post Luke Halloween photos later.

Fans of Luke, you'll just have to wait.

A few years ago, one of my super-enthusiastic (but full-time working) mom's made everyone their OWN personalized fake pumpkins. Seriously. Like, 20 pumpkins, with everyone's eye and hair color to match. Crazy time. I kept mine and pull it out every Halloween. I have about 5 decorations, so it stands out.

Currently, the only picture I have in my Snow White garb. I never took a picture of myself with a real camera (I think I have a phone photo floating around somewhere) so this is all I have right now. Mostly, I really like my hair. And that is my hair. My first year teaching, I wore a wig and I hated hated hated it. So I swore after that that I would never wear a wig on Halloween again. (That sounds really dramatic, doesn't it?) So I've worn headbands and hats, but no wigs.



More Halloween later. Certainly, more of Luke's Halloween. But you're stuck with me for now.

*The grading period ended today. I bet you can't wait to see my STACK of grading. *

Grateful - Day 4

So we have decided to try the "Elf on the Shelf" to give us a few months of the THREAT OF SANTA.

Luke loves the story and loves our elf, "Jimbo."

Last night, when he was picking a story, he asked me to read "Jimbo on the Bench."

I'm grateful for Luke's sense of humor - he makes me laugh every single day.

Grateful

So technically, it is the 3rd of November, so I’ve missed a few days.  But the good news is that the first thing I am grateful for is worth a few days, so we’ll say this counts as Grateful: Days 1 –3.

Last year, Luke began school in November, missing his picture day by about a month.  I was curious (dreadfully apprehensive) about Luke taking pictures this year.  Some might call him “full of personality,” others might call him “willful” or “active.” He is all of these things . . . and more.  I just didn’t know if he would smile or not. Or stay still. (Have I posted his 1 year pictures? They are a piece of work . . .)

Hearing stories from the photographer, I was so relieved.  Luke laughed and got all the other kids laughing, which was important as he was the first student to have his picture taken.  Apparently, preschoolers cry a lot at school pictures.  (I saw the class photo – there were definitely a few!)

The bonus about being a teacher at the school your child goes to? You can get pictures with your kid! Woo hoo! Unfortunately, his picture day was before mine, so by the time it was my turn, he was wearing his regular old school clothes. Oh well. 

His favorite picture?

Guess : )

So I’m so grateful for this happy smiley little face.  He frustrates me, he pushes buttons I didn’t even know I had, but man, he is one happy kid.  Luke has a belly laugh that fills my soul with joy I had never imagined was possible. He is smart and clever and pretty slick (wait till my Halloween post . . .) but he is a sweet, kind-hearted kid who has really good manners. I love good manners.  I love that Luke is Luke . . . the happiest kid I have ever known.

It's November

Last year I spent the month of November reflecting on all the things I was grateful for. I think that, even though I'm a few days late and already into November, I'm going to attempt to do the same thing.

So I'll start off with saying that I am grateful that October is over.

Okay, that's a total cop out.

I am truly grateful for all of my friends and family for their support and love and kindness and understanding. October was exceptionally difficult for so many reasons and I'm so thankful and blessed to have the people in my life that I do. Especially my Todd and my Luke. They are such amazing people and keep my smiling every single day . . . no matter how tough the day has been.

Example:

Tuesday was crap.

So, Todd moved the coffee table, set up our air mattress and as a family we cuddled and enjoyed a movie. On a Tuesday. For no other reason than it was really fun and it made me happy.

Love that man.

So thanks everyone for being there. Happy November.

*tap tap*

Is this thing on?

Are you there God? It's me, Noella.

Yeah, I'm just wondering what the plan is. I'm sure you get this a lot, I'm just one of many. We've always seemed to be on pretty good terms, but I'm having a hard time. Is this like an open letter? Or an open prayer?

I'll take whatever you've got.

I've been trying to be responsible and plan accordingly, but I'm getting some pretty strong hints that you're not particularly interested in my plans. Since my plans are apparently a big ol' pile of stink, I'm more than open to hearing what you've got.

Really. I'm just looking for anything right now. Lay it on me.

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Noella

Happy 30th Birthday! (x2)

 

We celebrated Linda’s birthday towards the end of August.  She was turning 60 (shhhhh . . .) but we decided that “60” just didn’t fit her.  So instead of having a 60th birthday party, we had a 30 (x2) birthday party.  The décor, the cake – everything!  It was so much fun!

The 30 (x2) cake

Todd was so awesome – he did a 15 hour smoke on a pork butt that made THE MOST INCREDIBLE pulled pork sandwiches.  Not only did he smoke the pork butt, he also smoked a few racks of ribs.

Still not enough?

Todd also made HOMEMADE soft pretzels.  Have you ever been to a party that served homemade from scratch soft pretzels? I will have another blog post dedicated to the glory that are the soft pretzels.

Glory of Ribs.

Pulled Pork Heaven.

Luke and Great-Grandpa enjoyed a “Look and Find” Cars book.  Always a lot of laughing coming from those two!

 

Luke and Great-Grandma are so cute together.

Of course, it is Luke’s responsibility as the sole grandchild to help “blow” out candles on everyone’s birthdays.  And by “blow,” I mean spit on the cake.

 

While it is certainly a few months late, Happy 30th Birthday (again) to my most fabulous Mother-in-Law!

New Experiences

 

We decided that it was part of our “parent responsibility” to take Luke camping.  I’m not a camping girl.  Not because I’m fancy or find personal cleanliness particularly important, but mostly I’m just lazy.  Camping takes a lot of work and I don’t like pretending I don’t have a home. Or a bed. Or a potty I have to walk down a road to find in the middle of the night.  But Luke might like it. His friends go camping. So maybe we should too.  The Gartins were kind enough to bring us along for the trip.

Please note: I have not been camping in at least 9 years. And that last camping trip . . . well, it was a one night deal and I didn’t have to do much since I was only 12. Now I am an adult and responsible for others. Or so I’m told.

How grossly underprepared the Bickels were.

Camping in August? Hot, right? No. No it wasn’t.

I can’t say that I have ever been so cold in my entire life.  We didn’t even bring pants for Luke. Not even pants.  It was so cold and wet . . . that part was pretty miserable.

We did have fun though – the boys had a great time and it was nice to relax and hang out and be away from cell phones and tv.

How did it become “Noella-style” camping? We went out to breakfast the first morning. Woot! Why you ask? Because everything was soaking wet the first morning and raccoons attacked all our food. But I got nice warm breakfast at a restaurant! Score!

Off for a walk with the boys

Just because one is camping in the woods does not mean that one does not take one’s Sally with them.

Luke figured out how to ride a scooter – he thought that was pretty awesome.

After the first wet and abysmal night, we bought a pop up screened in tent-y thing at Walmart to cover up the table and the gear.  Please note – it did not rain.  The condensation was so heavy that it fell like rain.  But only in certain parts of Mt. Madonna.

You know, our campsite.

The pants came from the excursion to Walmart post-breakfast as well.

As long as we have a thumb and a Sally, we can go just about anywhere and do just about anything.

Fire and fruit snacks – life’s simple pleasures.

The boys had so much fun chasing each other in the woods and searching for banana slugs.  They thought banana slugs would both repulsive and awesome.  I’m more in the “repulsive” camp, myself.

Every Saturday night during the summer, they have a folk group that plays live music at their amphitheater.  It isn’t much but it was a lot of fun.  We ended with smores (a hit) and glow sticks (also a hit.)

Overall? A lot of fun and we’ll do it again, definitely.  The clean up stunk as everything was completely soaked.  But the kids had a great time and admittedly, I did as well.