The day after Christmas is my grandson Kai Castro's birthday. This year was a special one! He turned eight! That's the other reason we were excited to be together in Texas. Kai was going to be baptized!
Kai's aunts, mom and nana (me) sang a Primary song called "When I am Baptized" for his baptism. Nana spoke on baptism and Uncle Tanner spoke on the Holy Ghost. His daddy baptized him. Uncle Sean and Aunt Emily gave the prayers. Grandpa and Uncle Sean were his witnesses. We had yummy refreshments afterwards that we brought, but mostly were furnished by a lady from their ward.
After the baptism guests were gone, we went into the gym and tried to get family pictures. We brought in two maroon upholstered chairs for the grandparents to sit on, while the siblings stood behind us and grandkids stood or knelt beside and in front of us. It was fun actually. We took a serious family picture and a silly one. We got shots of siblings, individual families, just grandkids, and generational shots as well. It didn't take as long as I thought it would, and went pretty well. The sequence the photos were taken in, allowed the kids to run and play in the gym between the poses they were needed in. That was helpful.
Marissa's family stayed awhile at Rachelle's house, while we went to Emily's for dinner. Later when we came back, before the Palmer's had to leave to go home, we played Apples to Apples while the children watched a movie or played with toys. It turned out to be a good day!
Saturday, January 24, 2015
A small back track for a moment
I'm gonna backtrack for a moment...
I don't want to forget to write about Christmas 2014.
We managed to arrange for Paul and I and both boys to fly to Texas to spend Christmas with all the girls and their families. I was so excited to be able to have the entire family together in one place for Christmas this year! Paul and I left on Saturday the 20th, with the boys following on the 24th.
We stayed with Marissa's family through Christmas and then drove to Longview to stay with Rachelle. The boys stayed with Emily's family. Space issues... (Marissa is the only one with a house big enough to fit all of us.) We had a good Christmas! Sadly, by Christmas day, some of us were starting to feel a bit under the weather. Myself included. We either don't plan enough to do or too much with too little time. The latter was the case this year. I think most of us wanted to just kick back and take it slow and easy. Just enjoy having everyone together. We didn't manage to do all we intended that week, but we enjoyed being with all the family nonetheless! That's what really matters anyway.
The girls and I had a girls day out. We went to lunch at a French restaurant called La Madeleine. It was tasty and fun to hang out with the girls!
We enjoyed a yummy BBQ dinner together while we were all there. Unfortunately, we were misinformed as to the boys arrival time. Grandpa, Aubrey, and Carlos had to spend a couple extra hours waiting at the airport for them. Fun experience for Grandpa though! :) Aubrey was tired but still chatty when they arrived home around 10:30pm.
The food was yummy Christmas day! Marissa had made a tofu chocolate pie for dessert which was tasty, but because of the tofu, had a running joke about it. Most of the guys don't like tofu and especially don't like being surprised by mystery items in their food!
We discovered a new board game called Truth Be Told. When the kids were down for the night, we adults would play it for hours. It was hilarious! It's kind of a cross between Balderdash and Apples to Apples. Every night we would try to play it once the kids were down for the night. It seem to become a bonding experience learning about each other in such a funny way.
I don't want to forget to write about Christmas 2014.
We managed to arrange for Paul and I and both boys to fly to Texas to spend Christmas with all the girls and their families. I was so excited to be able to have the entire family together in one place for Christmas this year! Paul and I left on Saturday the 20th, with the boys following on the 24th.
We stayed with Marissa's family through Christmas and then drove to Longview to stay with Rachelle. The boys stayed with Emily's family. Space issues... (Marissa is the only one with a house big enough to fit all of us.) We had a good Christmas! Sadly, by Christmas day, some of us were starting to feel a bit under the weather. Myself included. We either don't plan enough to do or too much with too little time. The latter was the case this year. I think most of us wanted to just kick back and take it slow and easy. Just enjoy having everyone together. We didn't manage to do all we intended that week, but we enjoyed being with all the family nonetheless! That's what really matters anyway.
The girls and I had a girls day out. We went to lunch at a French restaurant called La Madeleine. It was tasty and fun to hang out with the girls!
We enjoyed a yummy BBQ dinner together while we were all there. Unfortunately, we were misinformed as to the boys arrival time. Grandpa, Aubrey, and Carlos had to spend a couple extra hours waiting at the airport for them. Fun experience for Grandpa though! :) Aubrey was tired but still chatty when they arrived home around 10:30pm.
The food was yummy Christmas day! Marissa had made a tofu chocolate pie for dessert which was tasty, but because of the tofu, had a running joke about it. Most of the guys don't like tofu and especially don't like being surprised by mystery items in their food!
We discovered a new board game called Truth Be Told. When the kids were down for the night, we adults would play it for hours. It was hilarious! It's kind of a cross between Balderdash and Apples to Apples. Every night we would try to play it once the kids were down for the night. It seem to become a bonding experience learning about each other in such a funny way.
New Year~new job
So January 5th rolls around. It's time to head back to work after the holiday break. This new student hasn't been in school for the last year due to family issues. So they have modified her schedule to compensate for that. She attends Kindergarten in the morning and buses to first grade for the afternoon. Then at the change of the semester, she will be transitioned to full day first grade.
She's a little cutie, but has NO FEAR. That, along with no understanding of social behavior norms, make her a handful! We adjust fairly well to each other prior to the transition date. The first day of transition went better than I had expected, but it was still a TOUGH day for both of us. By day three of transition though, she is beginning to understand expectations and is mellowing out a bit.
Who would have guessed that this is what I would be doing this year after interviewing for three different elementary positions! I never expected this opportunity to come along, when I was trying so desperately to move out of my old position.
She's a little cutie, but has NO FEAR. That, along with no understanding of social behavior norms, make her a handful! We adjust fairly well to each other prior to the transition date. The first day of transition went better than I had expected, but it was still a TOUGH day for both of us. By day three of transition though, she is beginning to understand expectations and is mellowing out a bit.
Who would have guessed that this is what I would be doing this year after interviewing for three different elementary positions! I never expected this opportunity to come along, when I was trying so desperately to move out of my old position.
January 24, 2015 life is surprising sometimes
It is surprising how life takes it's twists and turns sometimes.
I can't believe it's been half a year since I last blogged. At that point, I posted about a job interview that didn't pan out for me. Life has taken some interesting turns since then with respect to work.
At the beginning of the school year I was asked to come meet with my principal. He told me, that because of my shoulder injury and inability to do my current position, they didn't have a place for me. I needed to go discuss this with the Superintendent and Special Ed director. When I did, it didn't look promising. After some serious fretting and their discussion, they finally placed me at the HS with a boy in a wheelchair. He needed little assistance beyond me being his hands. The first week of school a women at the Middle School quit her job. Since my current position appeared a temporary fix, I decided to apply for this other job. Two weeks later they moved me to this new position. There I was assigned to work with two boys all the time. One who was autistic, and the other Undiagnosed ADD. Along with them, I had a boy who needed reading assistance 2x week and later another who needed math assistance 2x week. It was a good placement. The only real drawback was that the undiagnosed ADD boy talked non-stop, which drove me nuts. I received an email from the SPED director asking if anyone had Sign Language skills. I hesitated to respond, not knowing what I might be getting myself into, but responded anyway. Early December, she cornered me and said she wanted to offer me a position working with an hearing-impaired girl. I thought to myself, "Finally I have something the district needs!" That's pretty rare! After discussing it with Paul, I agreed to accept the position. I wouldn't start until after the holiday break though.
I can't believe it's been half a year since I last blogged. At that point, I posted about a job interview that didn't pan out for me. Life has taken some interesting turns since then with respect to work.
At the beginning of the school year I was asked to come meet with my principal. He told me, that because of my shoulder injury and inability to do my current position, they didn't have a place for me. I needed to go discuss this with the Superintendent and Special Ed director. When I did, it didn't look promising. After some serious fretting and their discussion, they finally placed me at the HS with a boy in a wheelchair. He needed little assistance beyond me being his hands. The first week of school a women at the Middle School quit her job. Since my current position appeared a temporary fix, I decided to apply for this other job. Two weeks later they moved me to this new position. There I was assigned to work with two boys all the time. One who was autistic, and the other Undiagnosed ADD. Along with them, I had a boy who needed reading assistance 2x week and later another who needed math assistance 2x week. It was a good placement. The only real drawback was that the undiagnosed ADD boy talked non-stop, which drove me nuts. I received an email from the SPED director asking if anyone had Sign Language skills. I hesitated to respond, not knowing what I might be getting myself into, but responded anyway. Early December, she cornered me and said she wanted to offer me a position working with an hearing-impaired girl. I thought to myself, "Finally I have something the district needs!" That's pretty rare! After discussing it with Paul, I agreed to accept the position. I wouldn't start until after the holiday break though.
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