Another year...OVER

Another school year come and gone. This year (2016-2017) was my first job-share experience with Lisa. It was a success! We have the same philosophy for teaching and parallel discipline plan, so all of that was easy. We were so lucky to have Joanna as our first assistant and Susan as our next assistant (Susan is next to me in the pic) since we taught the STARS, or drop out prevention class. These kids are the low of the low, those that should have been retained in previous years but since the new motto is, "We'll catch them in third grade," no one is held back. It's the dumbest thing I've ever heard of, but that's another blog. 

We had 7 on our team this year and we all meshed well together. We looked out for one another and shared responsibility. I'm going to miss them greatly. Lisa and I are going to job-share next year, but in 5th grade. I'll miss those that are staying on the third grade team, but most of all I'll miss working with Susan everyday. She is so hard working and a positive light on each day, making my crazy life this year so much easier. 

A HUGE shout out to Lisa, who makes my life possible. If she wasn't job sharing with me I'd probably be tossed into another school with another teacher that I don't know to job share with, and sharing students and a classroom isn't the easiest scenario with a complete stranger. 

I'm looking forward to being with my old team from fifth grade (the previous two years I was with) and hopefully I have some students in my class who are motivated to learn!!! That would be so super exciting! 

After our last day of school we went to Lisa's house for drinks and food. We soaked in the pool and watched the sun set, some paddle boarded but I had two kids to chase until daddy finally showed up. It was a great ending to a lame year. 

Is it summer yet?

These last few weeks of school are going painfully slow, although each time I look back on this school year everything seems to have flown by. I'm so very anxious for summer. 

Here is Cathy, one of the two amazing PT's we see. Everett did so great this day. 

We went to "Rock the Spectrum" for a playdate with two other "Rockin' Moms" which is the nickname for us mama's with kids who "rock the extra chromosome". 

We even ran into other friends there. I taught this little boy's big brother and am friends with his mama. His twin sissy is somewhere else playing. 

Three cuties and one rockin big sissy to the left, of course Clary wouldn't join the pic. I wasn't going to push it. 

Clara and I at Green Festival at my school. So fun! 

Clara "built" Fi a bday cake, the rolling pin is the candle.

Her illustration of Nuns da boons

Yea, so I filled this out. I'm excited and petrified all at the same time. Clara will go to PK3 which comes before PRE-K. She NEEDS to be in PRE-K but she misses the Sept. cut off. She will go to my school so we will drop her off in the morning. It's all day long. So I'll go grab her in the afternoon. I still need to job share to keep up with all of Everett's therapy needs. It'll be so nice for her to be in school and me to be able to focus on Everett during therapy just the two of us. She is excited about school. I'm excited for her to be there instead of therapy, for both of us. She will benefit from the interaction with the kids and structure the teacher provides. All PK3 classes are 7 typical students and 7 ESE (special education) students. Bubby will be going the following year. WHAT?!?!?!? Yea, don't even get me started on that sob story. 

Look at this little man. SO happy he got his tube out, that is a very exciting day! 

I have to take the walker down the street to get Bubs to walk more, he b-lines for the pool when we walk in the lot outside our condo. Then he hangs onto the rails and screams to go swimming and refuses to walk after the answer is no. Sissy is a big help when Everett needs a break, most of the time! ;) 

Love these sleepy heads. 

We got him drinking from a straw cup again. For some reason he quit. His feeding speech therapist and I have been working really hard with a lot of distractions to get him to use it again. Hopefully he doesn't quit on me again. 

Sissy helping daddy hang the new canvases I ordered. 

Perfect cool morning at the park. It'll be the last time it's this quit as it's only one more day until school is out. We enjoyed the park to ourselves for the last time for a long time. 

Clara and I went for an evening stroll one night. I asked her if she thought this tree looked cool, never being trimmed with all the palm fronds and dangling. We thought it looked like hair, then she thought it was more like a monster. Needless to say she has become obsessed with it and we visit it daily for more pictures by it's side. Oh, and the bush next to it, because it would be sad if we left it out. duh.

Happy Birthday Aunt Leesie

The fam was sick and so I went solo to Lisa's bday and anniversary bash. She got married on her bday, crazy lady, so she shares it with her anniversary = birthaversary! They had a crab boil and I felt so bad the whole time not loving shrimp and crab, I tried it, like I always will. I can swallow it now, but it doesn't go down easy. I can't handle the texture of shell fish. :/ 

Lisa is the sweetest friend that exists. She saves me daily. She job shares with me and let's just say it's a lot of work for not so much money, not really worth part-time. She is the best listener, always lending an ear if I need one. She makes me laugh daily and is always uplifting and positive. She shares her beautiful family with me and makes us all feel like we are part of the family. She is the most giving and caring person, always willing to provide or help in any possible way, I try so hard to prevent this but she always finds a way to do way too much. She is the best friend a gal could ask for and I thank my lucky stars for her every single day. 

Happy birthday to the sweetest person I know, other than your mom. You two tie.  ;) 

Sweetest, most giving couple I know...and HILARIOUS. My face hurts so bad every time we're together.

Another amazing woman in the making...

Old school Lisa, I don't think she has aged a bit.

Congrats to Jer!!

Jer retired after 28 years in the air force, an amazing accomplishment. I really wanted to be there to support him but was unable. I'm so glad he had family there. Everyone said it was great and we look forward to celebrating together in July when we're all home. :) 

I'm very thankful for your service and sacrifice dear brother, I love you so much. 

Mother's Day 2017

As usual, these are all out of order. We went to Aint Krissims for din din. It was so funny. Ellie (Kristin's dog), Kristopher's girlfriend's dog came, two kids, all shut in and or out of rooms to keep the peace. There was a lot of laughter about the chaos, it was funny chaos for sure. 

To the beach in the AM

Selene was in town. We went to Muneca's place to swim and hang together. It was fun for the kids and so nice to see everyone. It's such a bitter sweet day as always with both of our moms gone. It was also the day Andre's dad died. It was important to be with family and we all enjoyed the day together. 

Oh, and I got the prettiest roses!!!! 

Crazy, but makes sense. What's the most crazy, is we do it over and over again?!?!!? 

Trying to get a family pic after dinner, the chaos was amazing.