Well, the school year went by, just like we knew it would, and here we are in the middle of summer. This last year of teaching was much easier than the first and I think it will just keep getting better. There's nothing like those last few weeks of school. Everything is winding down and there is a feeling of excitement in the air. Oliver and I have enjoyed (for the past 2 years I've been at Mountain View) the final school assembly. It's a talent show at 8 am. We think it's hilarious that it's so early in the day. He comes and watches it with me. I was quite put out that there was no bacon left by the time I got to the food at the faculty end of year breakfast. I will miss some of my students. I love teaching 10th grade. They are sweeter than 11th graders...well, it's really a case by case thing, but generally I like 10th grade more. I got in a full-on fight with a fellow teacher after the last parent teacher conference over who got to use the life of Pi books. I think we can both look back and laugh about it now. I'm excited to teach a semester of humanities and a semester of creative writing next year in addition to my English classes. We are in the process of choosing new books for 10th grade. It's harder than it sounds. Oliver is heading in to his last year of school:) Okay- so that's it for the school year.
As far as the summer goes, we have been enjoying the heck out of it. The first part of the summer was very busy with moving. We moved in to the Belle Monet condos in Pleasant Grove. We love love it here. Our place is so nice and has awesome little perks like stainless steel appliances, jacuzzi tub, walk in closet, 3 bedrooms, etc. Plus, we are loving having a pool and a raquetball court right across the street. I've always wanted my own pool and one day I will have one in my back yard, but I've actually really enjoyed sharing a pool because I always seem to meet someone new or make a friend when I take Gabe down to go swimming cuz there's often other moms down there with their kids. I've decided that swimming with a child is a very different animal than swimming with other adults. Obviously it's much more fun to swim with other adults cuz you can play all kinds of games, but it's nice to take Gabe down and he loves it. Once in a while Oliver and I will sneak down by ourselves:) We also go play raquetball often during Gabe's nap. We play 3 game tournaments and the winner always does a fun victory dance involving their raquet. Am I not spelling racket right? oh, well. Another thing that we have had more time for this summer is FHE and dates. FHE with Oliver is the best. We love conducting it as if it's a grand, formal affair and it's a great time to go over the calendar and upcoming things. Then we take turns giving the lesson and planning an activity. Activities have included: board games, sing-alongs (with Oliver accompanying, of course), reading on the porch together, swimming, walks, and crafting. I would love to hear any and all ideas for things you have done with FHE. Soon Gabe will be involved more in our FHE. We have had good intentions for dates like going hiking and exploring new things, but for the most part we are tired and just want to relax when we go out so we end up going to movies or dinner. We did go mini-golfing on our last date, though, and it was quite fun. Yesterday we went back to school clothes shopping pretty much all day with a break in the middle for Gabe's nap. He loved playing at the mall playground and can now go down the slide by himself. He's way too big. Oliver and I both had to stop ourselves multiple times from going over and helping him when other kids would be not that cool to him, but we wanted him to be a little bit independent and he did great. Oliver is loving having more free time this summer and is a little reading machine. He has gotten in to the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I listen very politely when he tells me about it;) We are using our library cards constantly. What a wonderful thing: the library. We are always amazed that we can use all this stuff for free.
Gabe, as I previously mentioned, is huge and smart and really just getting cuter than anyone has the right to be.
We recently got back form a trip to California.
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