Christmas and a New Year

It has been a busy few weeks.  The New Year has started and we are slowly getting back into the rhythm of our normal schedule.

 

This is the New Year's Super Moon over my neighborhood on the 1st.  This is about 8 in the morning, maybe 7:30.

On New year's eve, we took our AFS student (I am her liaison) to see the lights on the hill.  You drive this sculpture park that is all decorated with Christmas lights.  It was pretty.  She wanted to go see the lights at the zoo, but the temperatures were -13 F (which is something like -20 C) with the wind and that is just tooooooo cold to be outside walking around.

On the 30th, we celebrated the first birthday of H1 and H2.  They turned one on the 26th, but this was a chance for us all to come by.  It was only the second time I have seen the girls since they were born, and I am guessing that is the way it will be.  I made the girls fleece blankets and we gave them each a book.

H1 and H2 eating their cake.

This is H1- really H2 by birth, but H1 by name. She was happy to eat gold fish crackers while I held her.  She is sooooo tiny.  She is about the weight of Rocket when he was little.

H2's birthday cake.  Each cake had their name on it.  There was a separate cake for the guests to eat.

 

Great- grandma (my sister's husband's mother) holding H1.  H1 was happy to interact with everyone and smile.  H2 was not smiling or interacting at all.

Rocket in his new bunk bed.  We are on a new adventure in 2018, we are opening our house to foster kids.  Maybe there will be kids that get to stay forever, but the goal of fostering in the US is for the kids to be reunited with their birth parents or family.  So we will have kids come and go.  I will not be able to show them on the blog at all because of government rules, but I might I say we have more kids in the house for a while.  More to come on this as things develop.

Sunrise last week- it looks like the sky is on fire!

Rocket with his new hair cut- just like Ronaldo

the new taco place that our friend, Lisa, showed us.  this is from Tortilleria Gracia.  Fresh made tacos.  They also sell masa and tamales.  Masa if I want to make my own tamales or fresh tamales if making them is too much for me.  Excitement!!

Rocket with his 2 favorite gifts from Christmas- the US practice jersey and the official soccer ball from the CONCACAF cup.


Love and hugs to you all,
Deb

Count down to the end of the year.

Pablo- the jingle dog.  We bought this jingle bell collar for Pablo over the weekend.  He liked it the first time he wore it, but he hates it now.  It is too noisy and he can not sneak up on the birds and squirrels in the backyard.  Rocket is determined that Pablo should wear it all the time.  Poor Pablo.

the sunrises have been pretty the last few weeks- bright colors.  But, I will be happy as of the 21st when the days start getting longer again.  I am tired of getting up in the dark and eating dinner at 5:30 in the dark.

Tree sale season is over.   The boys sold 250 Christmas trees in just 2 weeks!!!!

 this is day one when we unloaded the trees and then worked our 4 hour shift.

this is our last shift- 7 days later.  I made soup for all the workers and we had a good time eating warm soup and selling trees.

the first official basketball game of season.  Rocket scored the most points on the team this week- which is not quite as exciting as it sounds.  The boys lost 5- to something.  Rocket had 3 points for the team- see the video below for the actual shot.  I was the score keeper, so this is the only picture I got.

Video of Rocket's 3 pointer.  He has been practicing hard this year.

second tournament of the season (they are getting them in early).  The boys lost 10-40 something.  Rocket had 4 points for the game.  It is going to be a long season.

Christmas tree is decorated.

 

I have 4 more days of work this year!!!!!!  

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

A season of Thanks Giving

We are entering the holiday season here, Halloween has come and gone, Thanksgiving is coming and then Christmas is not far behind. 

the high school that Rocket wants to attend held their grade school night- all the kids from the local grade schools are welcome to come and attend for free.  If your kid is into football, cheerleading or band, they encourage the kids to join the big kids for dinner and then out on the field.  While Rocket loves football, he really loves the band.  So I dropped him off at 4 pm, went and had some dinner and then came back to for the game.  Rocket got to march in with the band, play in the pregame show and then stay with the band during the first half of the game.  At half time, the junior band folks lined the sideline while the high school band played their show.  You can see Rocket in the white shirt in the middle of the photo below.  He is standing next to the person in the white shirt too.  She is in black shorts and he is in red shorts.

A closer view of them talking during the show.  Rocket got  to wear the marching drums and he looked comfortable in them.

Then the junior band went out to play the song "Believer" by Imagine Dragons and the school fight song.  Rocket is the one in white with the boy in red standing sideways by him.

Such a cool experience.

That weekend, we celebrated Auntie Lulu's graduation from college.  She finished her associate's degree.  She has started and stopped many times, changed her major many times, but she persevered this time and she got her degree.  I am so proud of her.

Random photo of the dog, Pablo, eating a treat under my desk.

on the 29th, we joined N for his birthday at a new laser tag place. The boys got pizza and video games and laser tag time.

Halloween was Tuesday night.  Rocket decided to be a soccer player (wearing basketball shoes).  He and I built a fire before he went out so that I would be warm sitting outside handing out candy.

Pablo even came out- though he was not happy that he had to wear the harness.  I put in a harness so he would not bark at everyone

 Our friends came by to pick up Rocket (their dad was walking with them too). They all dressed up like versions of Dr. Who.  I love it!!!!!!

the fire later in the evening

I love fires!!

Picture of the fire, the house and the rising moon above the tree.

This past weekend, Rocket's school had their fall plays.  Rocket did the spotlight for the second play.  This is him and his 2 buddies.   P (the tall one) really shot up over the summer.  He is probably as tall as me now.  Rocket is growing- I just had to buy him size 10.5 shoes!  And E- well I don't think he is going to get too much taller based on how tall his parents are.

 

So much to be thankful for this season.

 

 

Love and hugs,

Deb

school pictures- 7th grade

this the boy's school picture.  I cannot believe how much older he looks this year.  The kid is not such a kid looking kid anymore. I know I say it regularly that I can't believe how much time has past and how much he has grown, but I think I am in for a rude awaking the next few years in how much taller he is going to be.  

I measured him a few weeks ago and cant remember if I put it out here.  The boy is 5 ft 3.25 inches tall now, that is 160.7 cm.  He has not even hit his biggest growth spurt yet.  When we go to visit Guatemala in 2018, I think that boy is going to tower over some of the girls in the foster family. It is going to be quite the change.

The boy and the dog.  Pablo is getting older, you can see it in his muzzle. This is in the morning before school.  My silly boys.

random sunrise this week. 

The leaves are finally changing, though it is still quite hot here.  I am ready for cooler weather.

Love and hugs,

Deb

Is this week over yet??

This post is going to be all over the place.  It has been a long week.  The School walkathon is Friday and most of the committee has chosen not to help out in the last few days or has been so spotty with help that L and I have not even asked for help.  Here you can see the tee shirts all bagged and ready to go to school.  They are separated by home room.  Each bag has a spreadsheet with all the kids name for that classroom, the size shirt they ordered and the tee shirt for the teacher.    22 bags worth of tee shirts (average class is 20 students), plus there are 2 bags for non homeroom staff shirts.  I took all the bags to school at lunch today.  Thankfully there was a junior high class leaving the library so I got some help there and one of the 5th grade teachers stopped to help carry bags too.  I expect I will have some emails tonight about kids needing a different size (why don't parents get that these kids can wear these shirts for years and order a size bigger???).  I know of 2 staff members that did not order shirts- one I might not be able to get them a shirt because they wear a size we did not order more of, and one that I should be able to get the shirt tomorrow.

This is what 550 tee shirts look like- some parents ordered shirts too.

After walkathon on Friday, this is the book I am reading next week.  I need some calm, positivity for a while.

I took Bug Rocket out to dinner on Saturday- we went to his favorite place- Buffalo wild wings.  I think he only likes it because he can play on the tablet the entire time.  We ended up having a discussion about ignoring people while eating because he was busy playing- a learning experience.

Saturday afternoon, he helped me sew some rows on Auntie Lulu's quilt.  I just need the binding on now.  I might add some quilting in the middle of squares, but I am not sure.  Rocket did a great job.  With his eye for color and his sewing skills, I think my boy could be a great quilter. 

A few Fridays ago, one of the parents in Rocket's group set up a pokemon tournament down at the local university.  Really it is a way for them to have friends with them while they wait for their daughter's dance class to be done.  But, it was an opportunity to get out of the house, hang with friends, and just have a  good time.  I spent the evening talking with one of the moms- it was so nice.

The boys- or the usual suspects.

I am waiting the neighbors kids in the morning before school.  this is what my living room looks like after breakfast is done- every kid on their own device.  It is pretty quiet- because I make them keep the sound down, but it is also hard to get them moving.  I have to start telling them to turn off the devices and get their things about 5 minutes earlier than I really need to just to ensure we get out the door on time.

The little ones are starting to resist putting down their devices, so I might start backing up the time just so they understand that "turn them off" means it is time to do it now.

I think that is it.  I start classes on Saturday for the next 2 months, so pictures will be limited as I wont see the boy for the entire day.  he will be with friends or family, so he will be having a great time.  I am more worried about Pablo- he has not been left alone for 10 hours ever at our house.  I am going to see if the boys in the picture can come over once during the day on Saturday and let Pablo out to do his business.  We will see how that goes.

Love and hugs to you all,

Deb