NYE

no, not bill nye the science guy.  my 2nd graders love him.  i mean nye like NYE.  

as in New Year's Eve.

kathy put pictures on facebook.  meet ila. and my pretty mom.

steven tried to teach me how to play tennis yesterday with my aunt.

the only thing i've gotten going for me is my power skirt.  {confession: i once told my dear friend corrie that i'm taking that skirt to the grave with me. it's my favorite to run in. and body combat in. and just work out in.}

and here's aunt gina!  she's gooooood!

and there's steven. also goooooood!

 this morning we met up with one of steven's friends and his fiance.  and i actually know his fiance from when we were little.

guess who.

guess who i found at the airport today?

yes.  i found steven. and what a good find that was!

fhe.

that stands for family home evening.


but first, a recap of my day {only because you are begging for one, i know}.

i went for a run.

i went to the dentist.

no cavities.

i went to trader joe's.

i ran some errands with erin.

hey, that is almost the same word.

i came home to miss ila jane.

luke and co. were at the beach.

then they came back.

luke likes to play monsters.

 erin wanted to hold luke like i was holding ila.

i think she was just jealous.

 i'm pretty sure that is my all time favorite shirt.

it's so comfy.

thanks gap. you did it again.

sometimes ila sits with her tongue sticking out.

so we were trying to make her feel better about it.

 ?

for fhe we took the ferry from balboa to balboa island.

we all wore black coats.

i even went so far as black pants!

 okay, so erin's is really a dark, dark navy.

we'll let it slide.

mostly because my glitter flats are really a dark, dark navy.

they look black, alright?

 i want dana's boots. santa brought them to her.

 mom looks so cute in her boots.

and she's wearing her warm fuzzy jacket.

and there's my debonair dad.

 we did not ride the ferris wheel.

 fruit = yum.

but i love veggies more.

so, veggies = yum. {and salad}

 my house will never look like this at christmas. although, i must say, this is quite spectacular.

{my 2nd graders love using the word spectacular. i'm such a good teacher.}

 Lady Liberty.

look familiar?

 yes.

{2007 with miss c.e.o.}

 t.rex!

erin's not quite as intimidating as i am.  if this were 60 million years ago {or whenever dinosaurs roamed the earth}, i would have eaten her up faster than you can say velociraptor. 

 this house had a light show. every 7 minutes.

 and snow bubbles. erin loved.

mom asked me to take a cute picture of her and dad.

i said, okay how about here. so they did.

 

and i did, too.

 the sign says "wilma's patio".

sara's mom calls her wilma.

 mike is obsessed with byu. i'm pretty sure this was the only non-usc flag up. actually there was a ucla flag, but balboa island is pretty much usc territory.

the end.

christmas festivities.

christmas eve started with a lovely trip to the gym for a run and body pump.  yesss.

then claire and i had a lovely visit at her place.

then i headed over to g.ma's to help her get everything ready.

the resat of the family joined a couple of hours later.  it was fabulous.

we ate hor d'oeuvres. i had some mini lemon and raspberry/blackberry cheesecakes {there were some other mini desserts too}.  we exchanged gifts.  we played with Luke and Ila. we chatted. we laughed.

and the sun was out. all day!

christmas morning was lovely.

i went for a nice, long run before everyone was awake.

i came home to a delicious breakfast, just out of the oven.

we ate. we read the Christmas story from the Bible. we opened our Santa gifts.

he brought me a camera. finally--no more phone pictures.

we went to aunt julie's to be with the fam again. it was so fun.

i had a cookie. never a good idea here. and then i had like 6 more.

 eh?

oh, g.ma.

always so entertaining.

Church today was wonderful.

always is.

Sunday is my favorite day of the week.

luuuuke!

he's so precious.

he looooves fans. fascinated by them.

i love his little outfit.

and his little smile.

i love when kids try and "smile"--so cute!!

we had some fun.

whoa, whoa, whoa. what is going on here?

mike and i fell asleep. 

dana's hair looks like my hair. so it looks long.

and i love it.

unfortunately, i will never have long hair.

 and then i rolled off the bed {purposely} and hit my head on the night stand. i said, "i need stitches" but really i was just being dramatic. instead i made erin get me an ice pack because i kept saying, "i'm going to get a gooooose eggggg!" but i didn't. i'm fine.

and then we ate a lovely dinner.
we played a lovely new game called FUNGLISH that i am making for my students tomorrow.
and then dana, erin, and i had journal sunday {we read our old journal entries. they are hilarious}.
and theeeeennnn...i fell asleep on the couch again {yes, i did twice on christmas: nap and night}.


and now i'm going to bed.

addendum

when i said slept [previous post], i meant in addition to my usual nights in provo.  which means like 7 or even 8 hours of sleep. plus some little power naps thrown in.

and here's one of us all.

NP

{you can do it mom, you can do it!!}

days before christmas.

i've been home for 2.5 days.

what have i done?

pretty much shopped {christmas & grocery} & exercised & slept {in that order of time spent}.

also, dana and i played on photobooth.  mom and em jumped in, too.

and i found some HILARIOUS videos my dad made on photobooth using the crazy camera things.

he is so funny.

this is us sad because erin is m.i.a.

she'll be back tomorrow night.

at least she's getting somewhat of a white christmas.

[i had mine before, thank you. and will have one for the next 4 months of my life. sad.]

merry christmas.

{i'm sure there'll be more to come later.  i get to see my cousin's babies today! ironically, provo deprives me of babies.}

i need to shower.

christmas is cancelled!

okay, maybe just school is cancelled.


that's right.  it snowed a ton friday night.  saturday and sunday it rained all day and washed all of the snow away.  late sunday night it started snowing again...


and it hasn't stopped.  monday night was pretty good since it was more of a slush snow.  like the angels are pouring 7-11 slurpees (sans flavoring) down from on high. 

yes, this is a photo taken at 7.20am at the bottom of my stairs.  underneath that 6-8 inches of snow is a cement path.  who knew!

so i get in my car and slowly back out so i don't hit tedi's beautiful bmw x5 (which i covet--dad...)

this is taken through my windshield while it was snowing.  poor cars.  thank you katie for leaving your covered parking open for me.

 i slowly drove to school.  the heavy duty "this is serious snow" plows were out.  2 in a row plowing the streets.

i rolled into school.  actually i slide into the parking lot.  kind of.  it hadn't been plowed and there  was about 8-10 inches of snow.

3 cars.  normal.  i was early and there wasn't really a need to be early on a day like today (last day before break).

i opened my door and the custodian who was outside plowing the sidewalks yelled, "hey kendrick.  go home.  no school today.  merry christmas!"

to which i replied, "really?  thanks! merry christmas to you, too!"

so i left and got about 5 minutes down the road (which meant on a normal day i was probably 1 minute away) and decided that since i didn't need to leave for the airport until 3, i would just get some stuff done at school.  i'm not coming back until the 1st of january, so that leaves me no time to get anything ready for monday, january 3rd.

so i stayed for about an hour and a half chatting with the principal and a few other teachers and i got some stuff set up for monday and christmas things put away.  (i just remembered i left my tinsel up everywhere.  oh well.  it's fun.)

i left and had a difficult time getting into my/katie's covered spot because the parking lot had been semi-plowed.  but, after 4 minutes, i got in! and i didn't hit tedi's car, nor was i even close to!

and this is how deep the snow is.  yes, that is half-way up my calf.

and then i got the mail and took out the trash.  and i put the towels and rugs in the wash.  and now i am going to take a nap for the next hour and a half.  i'm leaving for the airport at 1.  my flight is scheduled for 6.10 and so far is only delayed until 6.24.  i'd rather be sitting at the airport for 3 hours then stuck in the snow and miss my flight.  on the bright side, one of the teachers told me the snow is "pounding utah county" but is not near as bad in salt lake county, which is interesting because usually it's the opposite.  then another teacher said, "i've been married to pilots and navigators (more than one? or was it the same man?) and snow doesn't stop them.  it's the ice, so you should be fine."  HALLELUJAH.  just pray that i'm not at the airport for 5+ hours.  i can only take so much lesson planning.