Hummingbird Festival

Korra and I went to the Hummingbird Festival this morning where we enjoyed eating kettle corn and looking at the arts and crafts. 

Also I bought this amazing Harry Potter necklace!

Memma

Korra suddenly named her baby doll. The doll formerly know as Baby is now Memma. No idea how she thought of it, but it's pretty cute. Also worth noting that though several stuffed animals and dolls sleep in her bed, Memma is the only one she won't sleep without and us also the only toy she regularly asks to take with us places. 

Date Night

Tonight's romantic date night included dinner at a Mexican restaurant and a trip to the grocery store. 

Flirting

After noticing how many girls he calls "mi princesa" on Facebook, I taught Danny a new word in English: flirting. 

New Job

I forgot to mention that Nate started a new job.  He's working as a teacher's assistant in the mornings at the elementary Montessori school.  They were looking for someone full time, but decided they'd rather have Nate for the morning than someone else all day.  Of course, this is in addition to watching Korra plus her two Daytime Sisters (4 years and 9 months old) all afternoon.  I'm a little sad that he won't be able to help out around the house as much (you mean I have to go to the grocery store and fold laundry now?), but so happy he has this great opportunity.

Teacher Update

She hasn't responded to my request for written assignments in the future (so we know exactly what she expects from Danny) and when I asked her what she meant by including SAT vocabulary in the essay, she responded by copy and pasting a definition of SAT.  No mention of if there's a list she's getting these SAT words from or if she wants definitions or what. She must know (since I've emailed her a dozen times from my school address) that I am both educated and interested in specifics.  She's just being a turd.  So I called the school counselor and set up a parent-teacher conference for Monday.  

Curlers

PSAT Steps

Administered the PSAT today and walked 8,000 steps just by pacing the room during the 4 hour test. 

A Long Rant about a Teacher

On Friday I noticed that Danny's grade is his literature dropped from a 95 to a 47 because of 3 zeros on essays. I immediately emailed the teacher asking what the assignments were and if he could make them up.  She responded with a complaint about Danny's behavior in her class- that he just smiles, laughs and "pretends" like he doesn't understand her when she tries to help him. Could that be because he actually doesn't understand her?!  Anyway, in the next 12 emails I try to get clarification on what exactly these assignments are. I speak perfect English and gave a master's degree (and I've read the book they are reading for class) and I'm still not sure what she wants him to do. Not only does she not have the original assignment to show me, she doesn't have the work Danny turned in.  So Danny and I spend an hour last night looking over the chapter he's supposed to be writing about (including examples of all the figures of speech) and I realize that not only has he never written an essay, he doesn't actually know what an essay is. And though The Hunger Games is hardly a taxing read, it's still way above his current reading comprehension level.  I know he's a high school student and teachers want to encourage responsibility and independence at this age, but Danny is not a typical teenager (at least in his education) and he needs an advocate at school to be successful. 

Water Heater, Part 90

After 2 phone calls with HeatWorks, we found out that while they will reimburse us the expense of the water booster heater, they will not reimburse us the expense of having professionals install not one but two of these boosters. They'll send us a THIRD replacement but we'd still have to cover the cost of installing that one. I am so frustrated but not nearly as frustrated as Nate is since he spent a good part of the day in the crawl space dealing with this.  (So thankful for our neighbor who helped both last night and today).  So we're out $450 and gave nothing to show for it.

Hamilton

Listening to the soundtrack to the Hamilton musical.  I am head over heels in love!

Hot Water Heater Saga, Part 89

Came home to find the hot water heater booster had stopped working (meaning we gave no hot water) and that it is leaking water into our crawl space. 

Family Photo

Danny requested a family photo. :)

Beach

Genevieve and I took the 4 kids to the beach today.

Samson

Why in the world would anyone take a weekend trip to Samson, Alabama?  To cuddle a new baby!  Going to meet our new niece Aoife In a few hours!

Stereotypical

Brought a stack of books to read with the  students in English class. Then I brought a book to read while I ate my dinner at Chick-fil-a for our school's spirit night. But I ended up talking with former students about books. I'm such a stereotypical librarian. 

In with the New

It only took me 4+ hours and an order from Amazon but I figured out how to connect the brand new Chromebooks to the smart boards/projectors (which of course are older and lack HDMI connections) AND how to get around our school's firewall so I could do a Google Hangout with 4 teachers. All in preparation for tomorrow's Google Hangout with celebrity scientist Steve Spangler!  Fingers crossed it goes smoothly!

Picture Hair

I was debating whether to let Korra go to school today (picture day) with her usual headband (Nate's default hair styling) or to wake her up almost 2 hours early so I could fix her hair.  Found a good compromise when my sweet neighbor offered to come over and fix Korra's hair before school.  Our neighbors are the best!

Out With the Old

Today our IT department is bringing a large truck to haul off 25 overhead projectors, 30 large TVs, 3 ancient scanners, 6 VCRs, and a couple of boxes filled with miscellaneous old keyboards, cables, mice, etc. It is a very exciting day!

Grocery Shopping Sidekick

Godparents

Our friends who we had brunch with yesterday surprised and honored us by asking if we would be godparents to their baby who is due in March!  

Seminary Friends

Having lunch with a couple of Nate's friends from seminary today!

A Glorious Hour

Nate, Danny, and Korra all left to help with a 5K this morning. This means for the first time in I don't know how long, I am alone in my house for an entire hour.  Lovely. 

K-o-r-r-a

A few days ago Korra surprised us by writing her name.  The handwriting station seems to be her favorite at school lately.  

Memory

Playing a game of Memory with Korra. She wins about half the time. This kid honestly has a better memory than me!