rainy days

our fence fell down during all the rain we've been getting... so now we have an AMAZING view of our neighbor's yard. and consequently, since we have no curtains... well, you know. so... we decided to build a new fence! scoob is channeling his inner carpenter (from the beckman side of the family) and is feeling confident that we can get this done quickly. we went to home depot with joel, maria, papa, gramma, grampa, and our neighbor with her 4 kids (wow...) and i think we got everything. here goes nothing!

thankfulness

i am thankful for...

god. actually, sorry... God. he has blessed my little family so much over the past year and i really couldn't be thankful for the rest of this list without him. sorry. Him.

my boys. all of them. matt, jack, pepe, and greco. mostly the first two though. these guys make everything worth it. they brighten every one of my days. then maybe they destroy everything in the garage or play in the toilet water - but then they look at me with a sweet sweet face and everything is okay again.

my beautiful house! it is always a work in progress (especially the yard right now) but i love it. being able to turn off all the lights and lock the doors at night in my house is wonderful. and then to walk down the hall and check on my sleeping scoob is even better. but then squishing under the covers with my hubby and my little dog and knowing that the house is OURS (not the landlord's) is the best part of all.

our families. free babysitting 20 minutes in either direction is priceless. lemme tell you. it was ROUGH going back to work last year when the boy was only 4 weeks old. but knowing he was going up to papa and kimma's house made it so much easier. we are so blessed to have family close by to help us with jack and the house.

a job. as hard as it is to say it... "i am thankful for a job". this is definitely not the best year so far... i would even say that this could be in the running for "hardest year yet". but with the economy the way it is and the profession the way it is in the district that we work in.... "i am thankful for a job".

our friends. most of them. =) man, when i'm having a rough day, i can always count on someone to call me up for poor man's noodles, or someone to come over and coax me into watching three hours of baltimore's best, or my favorite elf to come over and get crafty with me. or even, just when i'm about to murderize someone, one of our friend's will call up with an invitation for my hubby to go to vegas. our friends really lift me up and keep me on my toes.

now. i would be remiss not to include a pic or two of jack so for anyone who made it through to the end of this post... enjoy.

the hair and the turtle

went down to the salon and got our hairs did the other night. cousin alisa mia gave jack his first haircut and he looked soooo handsome!

we also set up the mr. turtle pool that we finally found on craigslist (thanks klimas' for picking it up!) and let jack go wild. it's been so hot that he was totally stoked to splash around for a bit. here's some pics of our goings ons...

news

after a few awful job offers (mostly middle school) i was offered a long term sub position (second grade) at reidy creek today. this means i take over this classroom until one of two things happens:

1. the teacher comes back from whatever she's doing or

2. a permanent position opens up somewhere for me

hopefully #2 happens sooner rather than later since long term subs don't get benefits.

also. kind of bummer news that we need some prayers for. our good dog, greco, has something wrong. basically his stomach has swelled up with "fluid" (we don't know what it is) and we don't know why. so we had bloodwork done yesterday and tomorrow we are getting an ultrasound to see if he has a heart condition (not uncommon for boxers, apparently). it also could be a liver problem which is just s bad if not worse than a heart condition. so, we would appreciate prayers for greco's health. =)

more updates as news develops.

jack's first birthday!

so in true simmons fashion we celebrated jack's birthday with not one but two parties, a trip to disneyland, and a dinner out with mommy and daddy. weeklong? just about. so here are links to pics of the parties (if they work):

Family Dinner

Birthday Beach Bash

both parties were super fun and there was only one incident involving a party hat...

i'm working on pics of disneyland too. although if you can - imagine an adorable cherub straight from heaven. in a boat. surrounded by small animatronic children singing in harmony.

that's what it was like. for reals.

first steps?

i think so. last night while at the klimas' house (holla!), jack spent a good amount of time practicing his walking. no he's no expert... yet. but! he did take several steps from kim to me or from me to her SOLO! and then he would lunge at whoever was closest - but he's really trying. these steps were preceded by other first tries at our house - most notably with plus (holla squared!) that ended with him lunging into the bottom of the couch. awesome baby only gets awesomer with age.

a little less greco

poor guy got the big snip today. he was wandering around the house like a sailor just off the boat. and he has a "party hat" that he has to wear for TWO WEEKS! poor babe. i'll get a picture to post later.

beach day

went to the beach with the scoob today... he decided to finally try that greatly under appreciated delicacy... sand. at first he was cool with a couple fistfuls in the mouth but soon decided that it was not for him. he did a lot better in the water, though. this was his third time in the water and he was much more excited about it than he has ever been. he only cried once. when i accidently let a wave hit him....

we're back

wow! it's been too long... really. so here's a quick update. we moved! after much drama, many mishaps and just as many chiropractor's visits to work it all out, we are moved into our house! little by little we are fixing small things, painting, and trying to figure out what the previous owners were thinking....

jack is loving having a big carpet area to sit on. and that's about all he'll do on it. sit. the boy has zero interest in crawling but i did see him scoot on his bum to get a block once. once. he will, however, walk like a crazy person if you hold onto his hands for him. he loves it! we "chased" pepe through the house the other day - i use that term very loosely... it was more of a slow mosey but we caught up to him a couple times.

both dogs are stoked about our big backyard that they can run in... pepe kind of does a perimeter check every once in a while and greco is trying his best to sniff out gophers. so far he's done a fantastic job of catching quite a few dirt clods. give that dog an "a" for effort.

matt and i are enjoying having the summer off... we all went camping for a week right after school is out and we're trying to get the most out of our zoo passes. matt is also channeling his inner "mommy" and watching jack during the week when i'm down in del mar. (p.s. you gotta hand it to del mar - they may have money but they still have some wackadoos).

anyway, matt went to vegas for the weekend and so i got some quality scoob time. we went to brunch at the gaare's and the beach with the brockhaus (holla!)! i think a good time was had by all. i'll try and add some pictures to this post when i get them uploaded (and backed up on something, right andrew?)

the waiting game

i'm not particularly good at it.... waiting.  and matt is even worse i think.  so waiting for our new house to close escrow has been excruciating!  apparently, everyone has a "hiccup" in their escrow and ours came late in the game.  now that we are 2 weeks over our original closing date the time crunch is starting to set in.  we have to be out of our current rat palace by sunday.  so....  say a little prayer for the mitches.  

real quick i want to say "congratulations!" to my friend kelly who just had her baby!  kaelyn (i think i spelled that right) elizabeth jacob is here!  you can catch up with them at their blog.  just give them a chance to settle in at home a bit first!

also, as i mentioned before we aren't very good at waiting for things and it must run in the family.  jack saw something he wanted the other day and couldn't wait for it... so introducing...

Greco!  our new boxer puppy.  we love him and hope you will too.  pepe's still working on summoning some love...

firsts

we have been so blessed in the past week!  we've got a lot of firsts happening..  primero.  jack's first easter!  so much fun!  he had a blast watching us run like crazy all over papa's yard from the safety of his new ride.  segundo.  a house! a house! a house!  we opened escrow on a great house and can't even wait to get in there!  beyond exciting!  and tercero.  jack's first little tooth came in!  he had been acting a bit crabby but i wasn't really thinking "tooth" since he's been pretending to be teething for like 4 months.  but i couldn't find soothie quick enough yesterday, stuck my finger in his mouth, and sure enough - tooth #1 was popping through on the bottom!

we're back to school tomorrow after  two awesome weeks of spring break.  eight and a half weeks left until summer... =)

awwww rats... up since 4:30am

so we've been up for a little bit already this morning... our furry friends are back and bolder than ever.  i woke up to the sound of things falling off my table in the living room and then some rummaging noises...  it seems they may like girl scout cookies.  nasty, right?  i know.  so i woke up matt (who apparently can sleep through almost anything) and he went out to investigate the situation.  he didn't see anything at the time (invisible rats?), but i found some incriminating poop - i mean evidence - this morning.  ewwwwww.....  matt said he's gonna take care of it today.  i think that's manly talk for "gonna kill me some rats tonight!"  (i imagine this in a kinda foghorn leghorn voice - i said, i said).  hopefully we sleep better tonight.  =)  also, this is what i imagine the rats look like..  kind of like the scary rats of nimh...  it makes it easier to want to kill them.

monday monday.

today i saw:

>  a first grader who had given himself a haircut.  in class.  during reading groups.  he was kind enough to clean up and throw all of his hair into the trash can... where his teacher discovered it.  he may not have a future in this profession - i noticed several bald spots.

>  an enormous rump.

>  a small child (grade level unknown) white knuckling the concrete edge of the drinking fountain and screeching at the top of her lungs... to no one in particular and for no particular reason.  

>  the jagged bottom of a glass bottle... just before one of my students stepped onto it while he was running the track.  it was a close one folks.  he missed.

>  zombie wannabes.  

ahhhh... mondays.

over it.

okay friends.  here's the scoop.  i have so many super cute pictures to post (snow day, bath time, nekkid tummy time, etc.) but - i am TOO LAZY!  i apologize.  there really is no excuse for it.  in all reality, my camera is about 3 feet away from me and the cord to attach to the computer is right next to it in my purse but i am sooooo tired that i can't even think of getting up.  

in fact, i should give you  a huge update on happenings with the mitches but again TOO LAZY.  my eyelids are resting upon toothpicks as i write this.  quickly.  scoob has been sleeping all night, in his crib, in his room.  i know.  a miracle that a) we never crushed our baby when he slept in our bed with us (imagine!  what horrible parents) and b) that we have such an awesome baby.  makes me scared for what #2 will be like (or as matt refers to our yet to be conceived baby - "charlie brown").  also, house hunting.  that's all i will say about that for fear that god will strike me down for being over confident.

finally.  i believe that i am the victim of a never-ending head cold (or should i say "neber ending").  i disgust myself daily with what is going on inside my nose/ears/throat/mouth and pray for it to end soon.  here's where you say 

"but sam, why haven't you gone to the doctor?"

and i say

"because i am TOO LAZY."

i am convinced that one morning i will wake up and it will all be better.  this prayer began (no joke) 3 weeks ago. 3 WEEKS!  ick.

finally (again).  matt has to teach "health and hygiene" to all the fifth grade boys at rose.  hee hee.  that's all.  =)

shrek throat

so i'm the only one awake in our house right now and decided to do a little catching up.  by the way, it is also furiously hailing right now outside and i am beyond excited.  it is incredibly loud too!  maybe it will scare away all the people coming to see our house.  hold on.

okay, i had to go and take pictures of this event.  it even woke matt up, so i am now one of two people awake in this napping house.

so our landlords have decided to sell the condo we are living in.  that's cool - except we have to be available  to show it for them (unless we want a lockbox on the front door - we don't).  so as of now we've had three different showings today.  we have one scheduled for tomorrow and another for mon. afternoon.  this is all fine - ooooohhhh!  thunder!   =)  okay, so this is all fine for our landlords because lots of people are interested in their condo for sale (dirt cheap).  but... we live in it.  until the end of march.  and then we will need somewhere new.  yikes!  best get on that, huh sam?  

meanwhile, we had a battle with rice cereal but i think we came out okay.  we ditched that demon slop and have since become very fond of oatmeal...  i say "we" but only the scoob and i really like oatmeal.  and really it's the scoob who i'm speaking of.... the "royal we".  also, we are fixin' to try some sweet potatoes for the first time tonight.  

in the classroom, we've had a rough couple weeks in room 25.  not only have we had several emotional outbursts - but the kids are really acting up too.  =)  no really - i sent someone to anger management the other day after he screamed at the principal for an hour.  also, we have had a "shrek throat" outbreak in our class.  i've heard it's really nasty... you don't want it.  

okay.  i'm also adding some pictures for the benefit of your imaginations.... they may not be as vivid as mine.

my big boy.

i love him.  these are picks from his walk with kimma today.  look at how big he is!

is it friday yet?

apparently my students don't subscribe to the idea that four day weeks are cool, therefore, students should be cool as well.  trust me - any chances my kids had to be cool today were spit upon by aforementoned demon children, lit on fire, and then waved in my face.  in short, rough day in grade one.  can tomorrow please be friday?

who's the furry guy?

just a quick post to try and fill in like a months worth of happenings....   back to school, boo.  started rice cereal, a second time, and it seems to be a hit.  big news is that jack just figured out that we have a dog.  i know that pepe is quite small - and with our present living conditions my son very well could have thought that pepe was just a relative of our wall dwellers - but no, he is a dog.  jack can't get enough of him.  he sits and watches him run around the house and is completely enthralled with this hairy little creature.  we visited auntie plus' house today and she also has a dog that jack was totally into.  i think dogs stump him.  that and his own hands.  hands...  what a trip.  who knew?