Wednesday, September 5th, 2012
Yes, it has been almost a year since I last posted. However, this year, I really am going to try to post more often, maybe even monthly! I think we are finally getting back on track from the year I taught school, and getting used to Andy traveling as much as he has been. So, on to what you really want to know:
Sophia continues to be “intense,” but has added some teenage-angst and attitude to her personality. She has a very focused mind, and knows exactly what she wants to do, when and how. She continues to be the perfect combination of both Andy and I, which means neither of us exactly knows how to handle her! It has been a fun year, though, and I love watching her develop from a toddler into an incredibly smart, sweet, loving, passionate, wild little girl.
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Monday, September 26th, 2011
Is on its own page!
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Monday, September 26th, 2011
I recently read an article online about “strong-willed” children, and it called them “intense.” That is a perfect description of our little girl. Though at times this can contribute to power struggles between her and us, it generally leaves me in amazement over how capable and knowledgable she is.
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Monday, September 26th, 2011
Many of you know (and some of you may not) that for the 2010-2011 school year, I taught high school English at a local Christian school. This was after spending the 2009-2010 school year taking alternative certification classes, spending hours job searching online and attending multiple job fairs in which I was one of thousands searching for a teaching job. HCA was the only school to call me for an interview, and upon walking in the doors, I knew I would get the job. I was very aware at that moment that God wanted me to teach at HCA. I was really excited to be a teacher.
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Friday, July 9th, 2010
Sophia turned two years old at the end of May, but things have been a little busy around here so I have not had time to update the blog. She is no longer a helpless infant, and has turned into a little person with her own mind, ideas about things, and plans of action.
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Friday, April 30th, 2010
Last weekend, Sophia and I took a trip to Austin to visit our friend Erica Green. It was mine and Sophia’s first trip together without Andy, and we had a good time. We drove down Sunday afternoon, and stopped at Dairy Queen just North of Waco for lunch and ice cream. Sophia helped give their basset hound, Flash, a bath, and then decided she needed to go for a swim in the kiddie pool he was bathed in. Then she got upset that Flash had to stay inside to dry off. She LOVED Flash. We had delicious eggplant and zucchini lasagna rolls for dinner, and then Sophia went to bed. She wasn’t too keen on the fact that I wasn’t going to bed with her and informed me “Mama, NAP” while pointing at the bed. I told her I had to go potty and I would be right back, and that seemed to calm her down and she let me leave until Erica and I had chatted into the night. The next morning we leisurely had breakfast, packed up and then went to the botanical gardens at Zilker Park. Sophia loved looking at all the plants, though she thought it was fun to run away toward the parking lot when it was in view. Erica chased after her and carried her back to the path. Erica is going to be a great mama one day! After the park we all met up with another friend, Kelly Morris, who lives in Austin, for lunch at Kirbey Lane. I was introduced to the deliciousness of Kirbey Queso, and Sophia got a giant grilled cheese sandwich. After lunch we drove back home, and Sophia slept the entire three hour trip! We will definitely have to do this again, because we had a great time. Here are some pictures:
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Monday, April 19th, 2010
So the vegetable garden has so far been surprisingly successful. I have had “baby” lettuces to make salads out of for about two weeks, as well as “baby” spinach. Today I noticed bean pods coming out on my green bean plants. I am super excited.
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
So last year I set out with a plan to create a large vegetable garden in our backyard, with four raised boxes that were 8 ft x 4 ft. We bought all the wood, and I even bought seeds to plant from Irish Eyes Garden Seeds. However, the project got started too late (end of April) and required too much work in too short a period of time, and it was just too much altogether for us to get done. This year, especially after reading books like In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan, and seeing the Oscar-nominated documentary Food, Inc., I was really motivated to do something about creating a vegetable garden in our yard. Andy and I discussed it, and it was decided that we would scale down the project to two 8 ft x 4 ft boxes, plus various stand-alone pots for things like mint that might take over the garden.
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Saturday, March 6th, 2010
So, last weekend Andy and I were attempting to work outside in the backyard to get the boxes built for our vegetable garden, and we realized that Sophia is now too old to be stuck into the pack-n-play with a toy or two to occupy her while we do things. In fact, not only does she not sit still for very long, but she wants to help. The plan is to build her her own box to put dirt in that she can “plant” things and “garden” while I do my stuff, but that was not at the top of the priority list when we were getting our stuff together so we can plant this weekend. We attempted to give Sophia a paintbrush and a bucket of water for her to “paint” the fence, which was fun for a while, but then she was back to helping us or messing with things on the patio. We realized Sophia needs something to play with in the backyard. We started looking at small playground-style swingsets and climbers with slides, but even the small ones were hundreds of dollars. We scaled down and started looking into simple plastic slides, and thought maybe we would get a slide with some other things, like a big-wheel tricycle or something, but the slides were almost $100 and the tricycles were at least $40. Andy got the idea to look on Craigslist, and we found an awesome smallish climber with slide from someone in our city for only $150. When we went to look at it, the guy told us that they had only had it a year, and were getting rid of it because they were upgrading to something larger. It looked in great shape. We decided it was going to be an early birthday present, and Friday after Andy got home, he put it together and Sophia tried it out. She is so thrilled, and now all she wants to do is play outside. She is so grown up! Check out the pics, some from Friday, some from this afternoon.
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