Top Ten List from Christmas Break

One of the biggest pros of being in education is having breaks at home with Trey throughout the year.  Christmas break was highly needed this year with the new job, and I did my best to enjoy it as much as I possibly could.  Here are the top ten highlights of the two week break:

10. Trying new recipes: having some time off from work allowed me to try some new recipes and do some more cooking than I do during the work week.  I didn't get as much accomplished as I'd hoped, but it was fun to try some new things.

9.  Finishing my blog book: I now have four volumes of my blog book, one for each year, and I worked on this last volume a lot over break. It goes from June to June (Trey's birthday), so since I just now got this last book done, one can see that it takes a lot of time.  I use blurb.com to upload the blog, and then formatting the pages takes forever.  I really value these books, and I hope Trey will too.

8. Visiting with friends: I got to see friends over break, not as much as I'd like due to the holidays, and it was great to spend time together.  On the first Sunday of break, we drove to McMinnville and had dinner at Dan and Kristina's with Jeanne and Paul. The six of us always have so much fun together, and Trey loves playing with the kids.  How did I get through the night without taking any pictures?

7.  New Years Eve at the Kopplins: We spent New Years with good friends, and the night was perfect.  Trey had so much fun with the kids (oh, the noise! oh, the chaos!), and Randy and I had fun catching up with our friends too.  We went home just after 9pm, of course, but it was a perfect holiday.

Neil, Sarah, Bruin, Kathleen, me, and Randy

6. Seeing Wild, the movie: I have been waiting a long time for this.  I have both read and listened to Wild and have seen Cheryl Strayed speak multiple times.  I cannot say enough about how her book and message has impacted me as a reader, mother, and daughter.  Her love for her mother and her grief due to loss of her mother has resonated with me more than anything I can really describe.  Mindy and I met one night over break and watched Wild and I just loved it.  Every part of it.

5. Dinner at Departure: Randy, Kris, and I went to Departure for dinner (poor John was home with a man cold), and it was the best meal I have had in a long time.  Randy said it was the best meal he has ever had.  Gregory Gourdet, the executive chef who is currently in the top four of Top Chef, came in and I felt like I had a celebrity sighting.

With Randy and Kris at Pioneer Square post-delicious dinner

4. Reading three books: I got a lot of reading time in over break, and it was the best.  I really enjoyed all three of these books.  Nora Webster was a quiet story, but the writing was excellent, and the characters stuck with me.  I got through Orphan Train in less than 48 hours as it was hard to put down, and it was a moment of the right book at the right time.  The idea of children being unwanted or uncared for at any time breaks my heart, and this book struck a chord at the present time due to some of the things my family is faced with right now.  Lucky Us took a while to get into, and I was tempted several times to put it down, but I stuck with it because I like Amy Bloom as an author. By the end, I was sucked into the story and glad I finished it, but it wasn't my favorite book I've read of hers.

3. Not having to work: Work has gotten a little better, I guess, but having two weeks where I didn't have to go to school, teach, and deal with the daily goings-on of being a resource room teacher was pretty awesome.

2.  Christmas with our family:  We spent Christmas with my side of the family, and Randy's parents came on the 26th.  Experiencing Christmas through a child's eyes is a special thing.

Grady and Trey

1. Mornings with Trey: Hands down, no question, the best part of break was having mornings with Trey.  We were able to sleep in until 7:30 or 8:00am, relax in the morning and watch Super Heroes or Rescue Bots, and not have to rush out the door to work and school.  My ideal day would start around 9:00am, and holiday break reminded me of that.  Every.  Single.  Day.

Honestly, I was pretty depressed about going back to work and dreaded it like I haven't dreaded anything in a long time - well, except for maybe school starting in September.  We are 1.5 weeks in to the new year, and it's been pretty busy.  The busyness certainly makes me grateful for the time I have off.  45 days until spring break!

Modern Day Christmas Letter 2.0

Hello and welcome to my blog if this is your first time!  I'm happy to see you here.  I have been keeping up this blog since Trey was born and find it a good way to journal on our adventures as a family, my experience as a mother, and also, here and there, some thoughts on books I have read.  Maybe you've been here before for my last Christmas letter or maybe you visit sporadically, but here's a blog version of 2014 and the ups and downs of the Clark family.

In January and February, we celebrated Randy's birthday, Trey experienced his first real snow, and we went to California to visit Randy's parents and go to Disneyland.  This was likely our last trip south for a while because Doug and Carmen have since moved to Port Townsend, Washington and are enjoying retirement.

In March, April, and May, we filled our days with the things we normally do: work and daycare during the week and fun adventures on the weekends.  Whether that means fishing for Randy, playdates for Trey and me, spending time with Grady and Case, my sister's sons, or family outings in the gorge or at the coast, we generally have a good time.   In April, Randy and I were lucky to be included in the wedding of two of our closest friends, and it was in Hawaii to boot!  It was such a fun getaway and just what we needed to rejuvenate.  The springtime was pretty stressful for me as my job as an Evaluation Specialist at the Clackamas ESD got eliminated and I was searching for a new job.  

Digging for treasure! 

 The view from our deck

Trey and my sister's sons, Case, and Grady

Summer 2014 included Trey turning four, a trip to Walla Walla on the fourth of July, my 40th birthday, and countless playdates with good friends.  I am so lucky to be in a profession where I get summers home with Trey, and I really do enjoy our time together.

Turning four! 

Trey's first time fly fishing 

Staying cool with Grady, Trey's cousin 

Waiting for fireworks in Walla Walla 

Trey and Camille's first sleepover 

40th birthday party with my sister, Julie

This fall I started a new job as a resource room teacher at Columbus Elementary School in McMinnville School District.  It has been quite the adjustment from my former job, but it is a lot like my first job in the Woodburn School District.  This is not a change I was looking forward to making, but it is nice to feel like I'm having an impact on a program and on the students with various disabilities in my school.  Randy continues to work at the Primate Center at OHSU and has been working very hard on a variety of research projects, mostly involving Huntington's Disease.

The fall has seemed busier than usual with my new job, but we are making do with minor adjustments here and there.  Randy does daycare dropoff in the morning and most pickups in the afternoon, meal planning is a must, and sometimes the floors just don't get clean.  We continue to focus on the important things - time with our family, playing with friends, and alone time - this usually means fishing for Randy and time with my girlfriends for me.  Trey is doing well in swimming lessons and is also soaking in early academic skills like a sponge.  It's hard to believe he will be in kindergarten next year!

On our way to Port Townsend for Thanksgiving with the Clarks 

Visiting Santa

It's New Year's Day, and today I am feeling especially grateful.  I finally finished my Christmas cards, and while they are getting out a little late, looking through all of the envelopes and including messages on the cards just reminds me how lucky I am to have so many special people in my life.  This is a lesson I hope to impart on Trey - the value of family and friends is immeasurable.  Happy New Years to all of you and may 2015 bring love, some extra peace, and countless joy.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Clark family!  We have had a really fabulous vacation from work and school, and the holidays just seem like the cherry on top of a very relaxing and cozy sundae.

I'm realizing as I post these pictures that I just didn't take very many pictures of our Christmas festivities.  You'll just have to take my word for it that we had a really nice time.

On Christmas Eve, Trey was practically crawling out of his skin to open presents.  He got so excited that he wanted to wrap up his own toys for me and Randy to open later.  What that meant, of course, is a ginormous waste of wrapping paper (one of my big pet peeves) and also extra presents for Trey to rip open because he decided that was how it needed to be done.

Okay, what impresses me about this picture is that when I told Trey how to spell Dad, he was able to write the D-A-D as I told him the letters, but then what was even more impressive is that when Randy told him to write Mom, he said Trey just wrote the letters on his own. What?????

First we went over to my sister's house for Christmas Eve dinner.  My dad was there, and we had a great dinner with our small family.  I made a super easy super yummy pork tenderloin, our traditional raspberry jello dish, and an apple dessert.  Julie made twice baked potatoes, green beans, pumpkin pie, and of course glog.  It was all delicious.

Here is my dad playing Grady's shape app on the tablet 

while the boys played on the floor.  

Hmmmmmmmm.......

Grady and Trey cuddling on the floor before dinner.

Grandpa Gerts came to stay at our house on Christmas Eve, and he was here when we woke up on Christmas morning to see what Santa had brought for Trey.   After gifts, Julie and her family came over for Christmas brunch.  It was a great morning and I am so lucky and grateful to have my sister just a mile away to make these family get togethers so easy and convenient.

Grandpa and Trey on Christmas Eve

The obligatory cookies, milk, carrots, and note to Santa

Trey actually slept until about 7:15am on Christmas morning which I was impressed by.  He was so excited to see if Santa heard his many Christmas wishes for new toys.

Yay!  More little guys to add to the collection of millions of little guys!

Trey and Randy building some of Trey's new Legos.

For Christmas dinner, Kris and John came over and we had a delicious roast that John made along with a yummy new salad that I've made twice so far, smashed potatoes, homemade rolls, and fabulous wine.  Kris and John also brought a super delicious dessert that I don't know the name of but it was divine!

I was really trying to finish my book, so I was able, with minimal success, to play super heroes and read at the same time.

Randy's parents, Doug and Carmen, came on Friday for the weekend.  We had a nice visit with them and are so happy they are within driving distance.  It was a pretty low key visit, but Trey had a lot of fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and even put Grandpa into "toy jail."

Grandpa in "toy jail" 

Randy, Trey, and I are so blessed to have so many special family and friends with whom we get to celebrate the holidays.  We are thankful for all of you and hope that you all had an awesome holiday with your loved ones as well.  

Getting ready for Christmas

There's really nothing to make the holiday spirit more alive than experiencing Christmas through the eyes of a four year old.  Trey was so excited about everything - especially related to Santa and getting toys - and there were holiday events and traditions that I may have skipped except I wanted Trey to experience them.  Overall, we had a nice few weeks leading up to Christmas, and this holiday break from school has been awesome.

I stopped in Sherwood one day to run a few errands, and saw this outside the library.  So pretty, minus the port-a-potty.

Trey and Randy have really bonded over the past months, and it is so fun for me to see Randy finally getting the cuddles and physical closeness with Trey.

I'm getting more settled into my job, and while some things are getting less overwhelming, some are getting worse.  The math, for instance, might push me over the edge.  Oh, the new common core math curriculum, some of you might be thinking.  Yes, that's part of it, but what makes me want to pull my hair out is the utter lack of number sense that some of my fourth and fifth graders have, and my utter lack of skill in teaching that to them.  I personally do not feel that I have the skills to teach 10 and 11 year olds how to do math when they still have to use their fingers to add 3+1 or 5+5.  Some of them have trouble counting three digit numbers, and they have a difficult time placing a two or three digit number on a number line.  I just don't get it.

Also, the schedules of the LRC (my program) have been thrown into disarray due to one child who needed excessive constant support in the classroom, and I am so thankful to my two assistants, Marcelle and Mary Ellen, who were flexible throughout this process, and also to the classroom teachers who were accommodating to us and the constant change of substitutes coming in and out of the classrooms to work with or pull out the IEP kids.  It was a tough month, but I am hoping things will be more settled when we go back in January.  I can't say enough about the flexibility of my assistants and how hard they work for our program.  

Marcelle, Mary Ellen, and me at our staff Christmas party

The next morning we took Trey to see Santa.  I made an 8:30am reservation at Washington Square to see Santa, and Randy thought I was nuts.  I'm here to tell you that it was awesome.  No trouble parking at the mall, no lines, no crowds.  It was perfect.

Determining whether Trey was on the naughty or nice list.

We wondered if anyone ends up on the naughty list and/or if parents can tell the people working there to put their kids' names on the naughty list.  That would be so cruel.

Showing Santa his list.  

Santa said, "Wow, that's a lot of toys..."

Glad we got a normal looking Santa this year.

After seeing Santa, we stopped by to deliver donuts to Grady and Case.

One night in the days leading up to Christmas, we had Curt and Ana and the Kopplins over for dinner.  It was fun to all hang out, and the kids did great together.  At the end of the night they watched some movie (can't remember which), and that was great because it gave the adults more time to catch up.  We are so happy to have Curt back in town!

At the beginning of Christmas break, Julie and I took the boys to the Children's Museum.  Trey loves it here and runs around from room to room.  We haven't been in a while, and I definitely need to go back again soon.

I'm not sure what this room was for, but it was sort of like a snowball room?

On the drive home, I nearly had a panic attack when I saw this sign at our neighborhood school.  How is it possible that it is time to send my child to kindergarten???  I thought he was still my baby!

More Daddy and Trey cuddles while watching sports

One of Trey's favorite holiday traditions is making sugar cookies.  I surprised him one morning by saying we were going to do it that afternoon, and he was thrilled.  Maybe he'll be a cookie decorator when he grows up...

On Tuesday before Christmas, Trey's preschool had a Christmas program where the kids sang some songs.  It was pretty cute! I also must say here that one of my biggest Christmas successes was getting holiday cards and gifts to his preschool teachers BEFORE Christmas this year.  I cannot say the same about last year.

Trey has been enjoying the advent calendar I made for him last year, and, just like how Julie and I were when we were growing up, the ornament he was most excited for was Santa on the 24th! He knows what this means!  Finally time for Santa to come!

Christmas Eve morning...

the longest day of the year in the mind of a four year old!