Russ has been cranking out our fireplace plans like it's nothing! Although it does help that he doesn't have a job right now. But he truly is so talented at his craftsmanship and can make all my wild dreams come true. Here is the progress we have this month!
I have always wanted to do built-ins in our living room. Now that Russ is unemployed, we thought now would be the perfect time to start that project. I have been going back on forth between wanting something dark and modern or wanting something bright and light. Here are some of my pins and ideas from pinterest. This is also us taping out what the design might look like in our space.
This month, Brooks got to go watch Steph Curry play against the Jazz (his choice to go see this game instead of doing a birthday party with friends). It was a close game but the Jazz pulled out the W! For 100 days of school, we made a poster of the Golden State Warriors court and 100 basketball stickers on it. He is killing it in school and is above average in where he should be as a first grader. He is also killing in his reading with his reading tutor. He still loves basketball and has mastered his left-handed layup. He refuses to work on a right-handed layup but if he got that, he'd be way ahead for his age group. Proud of my little Brooksie boy!
Sadly, I missed the kid's parent teacher conferences because I had COVID. But, Russ and the kids told me all about it and their teachers have nothing but good things to say about both of them!
Brooks (Teachers: Mrs. Horne and Maestra Esparza): He is "super smart" and doing a great job in English and Spanish. He has been reading words in Spanish that they haven't even learned yet. He was described as a "very serious" student, "great in class but quiet." On his self-assessment, he marked himself as "very good" in all the categories except, "I always take responsibility for my actions." His teacher then said she disagreed and said, "For example, if you threw a pencil across the room and I asked who threw the pencil, would you say you did it or would you blame your neighbor?" Brooks then responded, "I would blame my neighbor." His teacher then laughed and said, "Welp. That is the first time a student of mine has admitted to that." Haha!
Hallie (Teachers: Mrs. Gutierrez and Maestra Garza): Hallie is 3 levels of where she is expected to be in regards to Spanish. She is the best "non-native" Spanish speaker in her class. She is the class secretary and does amazing and helping her teacher. She was even given her teachers phone, while her teacher had to go to a meeting, and was in charge of her class for a bit. She was quite proud of herself for that!
When I get feeling better, we promised we would take the kids out to Leatherby's to celebrate them being such awesome students!
Welp it took 4 years but I finally got hit with the COVID-19 bug! On Sunday I had a really mild sore throat. It continued on Monday and then I went to work on Tuesday. After only an hour or so, I completely lost my voice at work. It was crazy how sudden the laryngitis came on. I felt pretty fine to be honest but was sent home from work because no one could hear me. I slept when I got home and then proceeded to go to Brooks' basketball game. On Wednesday I slept all day long! I was so tired! How grateful I was that Russ is unemployed so that he could take care of the kids, and take Taco to his speech therapy. Besides being tired, I did have this annoying headache. I'm not a "headachy" person and so when I felt like I needed to take Ibuprofen every 6 hours, around the clock, I thought that was odd. So, Thursday evening I took a covid test. To my surprise, it was positive So, I stayed home all weekend and Russ had to take the kids all the places. I was tired and took multiple naps a day but overall covid wasn't as bad as everyone made it out to seem. The kids went to a new indoor playground called "The Big Green Playground" and besides Hallie, the boys had a blast. Haha!
Hallie and I are absolutely devastated that her soccer trainer, Jarred, is moving to California for another coaching job. We have cried so many tears about it. Jarred has been phenomenal for Hallie. Her improvement this year has been incredible. And it is all because of Jarred. He has a unique way of coaching that is fun but also teaches technical skills and really improves his players. He is a great person inside and out and we are so sad to lose him. We secretly hope he hates California and comes back to Utah so we can train with him again. Haha! In the meantime we will try to find another trainer that Hallie vibes with.
Valentine's Day was great! Heart attacked doors, little gifts (legos/monster trucks, bath bombs and candy) for the kids, flowers and a sweet card from Russ, valentine boxes for the older two, a sweet poem left on our nightstands from Hallie, candlelight spaghetti dinner (with the candlelights shaped into an XO with a heart in the middle by the kids), cookie decorating and Hallie let me smash a cookie in her face decorated with a TON of frosting (thanks to Stockton). I think everyone felt special and loved today, and hopefully they feel that way always.
