Well, I sure have been slacking in the blogging department. My days are filled with teaching 8th graders, lesson planning for the next day, putting lessons online, attending and planning young women's activities for church, and (with any spare time) making meals, helping my own kids with homework, and trying to run my own house! I have been using Walmart grocery pickup a lot these days because stopping at Walmart on my way home from school seems to be the only chance I get to buy food for our family! Many days, it's McDonald's drive-through for dinner if we have other things going on in the evening because I get done with work at about 4:15 and then sometimes we need to be to the church in the evening for activities or Josh has an "Alive at 25" class to teach or a high council meeting to attend or something! I have to admit, only having school 2 or 3 days a week DOES sound appealing sometimes!
But our school district is very gung-ho about staying in school. We went back to school on August 26 and, with the exception of "spud harvest break" in October, we have been sticking to the five days a week schedule ever since! I'm sure it's for the best, but boy am I tired most days! Other veteran teachers have told me, "Your first year as a teacher is always hard, but this year as a first-year teacher is crazy." We are all expected to teach five days a week, yet also have everything online for those kids who may be affected by Covid at any given time and have to miss school. Everyone is just stretched so thin. The school sent out an email to all the teachers a few weeks ago saying, "We are sorry, but our custodial staff is very short on people right now. Therefore, teachers will now be expected to also clean their classrooms every night before they leave." It's like... I think teachers are getting to their breaking point. I don't mind cleaning up a little and it's fine, but we are already being asked to do so much... I wouldn't be surprised if some teachers leave after this school year. I have a co-worker who also is new this year too and he's already told me he doesn't think he will come back next year. It's just been super overwhelming.
We had a fun little Christmas assembly right before school let out for the break. The students make "wishes" and some get granted (within reason.) Someone wished for the English teachers to sing "Dominic the Donkey" at the assembly, so we did that. One of my coworkers got pied in the face. That was funny! Here's a picture right after he got it all over his face!
So! That's my teacher life! I do really like 95 percent of the kids I teach and this second trimester has already been better than the first. The curriculum is more literature and less grammar, which I love. I had a ton of students who moved their schedules around so they could stay in my class for the second trimester (instead of switching to another teacher) and that's made it really nice because I already know a lot of my students now. The only downside is, my classes this trimester are HUGE compared to the first trimester (which ended right before Thanksgiving).
Our school gives the students a choice on who they have for teachers and the word must have gotten out that Mrs. Rhodes' class was the place to be, because all of my classes are FULL to the 30 student capacity limit! During the week before Thanksgiving, when students could move around their class schedule online, I would have students running into my class during lunch and grabbing a laptop and saying, "I heard a spot just opened up in your third hour! I have to get it before someone else does!" One time, three boys came in at once and it was this race to see who got it! Haha, it made me feel flattered, yet scared for how full my classes would be. There are other teachers that only have 16 students in a class, while I have all four of my class periods at 30! It's kind of unfair really, but everyone keeps telling me I should feel flattered they all love me so much. (I'll try to tell myself that as I am grading 120, 3-page essays in a few weeks.... lol) Here is a picture some of my students actually took DURING class one day (and then texted to me.) As you can see, soooo much learning was going on in that moment! I think Tanner actually jumped off a desk to take this picture.... Yeah... I'm a good teacher. lol It's no wonder the kids want into my class!
For Thanksgiving, we had dinner at our house and just relaxed! It was so nice to not have to go anywhere! Of course, that did mean that I had to make the entire dinner myself, but it was fine. I would still prefer that to driving to some church and having a big dinner with tons of people. I did a lot of shopping online this year (like everyone, due to Covid) but Gabe and I did sneak away on "Black Friday" and shop in Idaho Falls for a couple of hours in the afternoon. it was CRAZY down there though. It was enough to make me say, "That's enough shopping in stores for this year." haha Here is a picture of Avery helping me make some Thanksgiving food and another one of her hanging out with Zeus while we had church at home one Sunday morning!
Amazon, Kohls, and Target were the three main stores I kept in business this year. I also bought some restaurant gift cards for fellow teachers and friends for places in Rexburg like Freddy's, Cafe Rio, Jimmy John's, and Da Pineapple Grill. So in a way, I guess I supported local businesses! We also adopted a family for Christmas this year. We weren't planning to, but this boy moved into my class in October from Missouri and it quickly became apparent that their family needed a little help. He's the sweetest boy and he would often come to eat lunch with me in my classroom and talk to me about things. I had told another friend about this (the ones we went on the cruise with last year) and she said her family would like to help. We were able to put together lots of gifts for him, his little brother, and his older sister. We did the "doorbell dash" drop-off one night and the kids loved it.
As for our own kids, this Christmas we probably the smallest one we've had in a while. There were no big surprises like last year when we surprised them with a January cruise! The boys are to the age where they really just want electronics. We decided to put them both back in the same bedroom a few weeks ago and do something we said we would never do - put a TV in their room. This is because very often the boys will have friends over and want to play on the Play Station. This has always been in our living room, so it's very annoying because we don't have a large house and when there are five boys parked in the living room yelling and playing a video game, it makes me want to pull my hair out. So we decided, to save our sanity, we would put the boys in the same room and put a TV on the wall and move their gaming stuff in there, buy a couple of bean bag chairs, and tell them that was their new spot to hang out. Their Christmas gifts included the TV, the bean bag chairs, an extra PS4 remote, some new games, some headphones for when they play the games, and a gaming keyboard. They also got some clothes and Caleb got some Baby Yoda stuff.
Avery's room was absolutely out of control with little knick-knacks. I actually cleaned/decluttered it before Christmas and told her she wasn't getting any new toys this year. The toy she asked for from Santa was really only the big toy she got. It was this Disney T.O.T.S. animal nursery set. She also got some small Hatchimals (but at least these are tiny). For other gifts, she got a paint by numbers art set, a latch-hook craft, some more art supplies, some clothes, some nail polish and beauty stuff, hair stuff, and some other useful non-toy things. It was actually so nice this year because normally the day after Christmas, we stand around looking at all the stuff like, "Where does this all go now?" And this year we really didn't have that!
For Christmas, we also stayed home this year. We did go see a movie a couple of days before Christmas with Josh's family at the Paramount. Sidenote: I really am curious to see if the movie theaters survive in 2021. So many movies are just coming out now on the streaming service like Disney Plus, HBO Max, and Netflix. It makes me wonder if the idea of going to a movie theater in the future will totally die out. Sad. One of the many casualties of Covid-19.
On Christmas Eve, we ordered Chinese food and Josh went and brought it home and we ate it while we watched the movie, "A Christmas Story." I loved it! Then, the next day we opened presents at home, ate a nice "brunch" (breakfast casserole and cinnamon rolls) and then went to Fat Cats and saw "Wonder Woman 1984." (I really am trying to single-handedly keep the theaters in business!) We had our Christmas dinner when we got home. Note to self: I put the ham in the oven before we left for the movie at about 2:45 and I cooked it at only like 280 degrees, but it cooked really low and slow because we didn't get back until about 5:45. It was the BEST, most moist ham ever! I also wrapped it in aluminum foil and put about an inch of apple juice at the bottom of the 9x13 pan. It was awesome! I need to do that every year. 3 hours at 280 degrees as opposed to 1.5 hours at 350 degrees. Here are some pictures of Christmas festivities! We made gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve. The last one is Caleb reading Avery "The Night Before Christmas" in her room on Christmas Eve. He does this every year and I think it's so cute.
I'm trying to think of other things that were exciting that happened in November and December, but I'm drawing a blank. I know Caleb had his football party and we had a big dinner with the other players and their families. Soccer had already ended the last time I wrote a blog. Avery isn't really in any activities right now, which is fine. She plays with her friend, Maggie, every day after school at their house until we get home from the junior high. They moved in right next door over the summer and they have been such a blessing! I had originally hired a tutor for Avery that was a college girl, but she got offered a full-time job at a school (every school is so desperate for help!) and then left me high and dry! That was awesome. (Not!) Luckily, our neighbors said they wouldn't mind watching her at all!
Right before Christmas (December 23) Caleb got braces! He has braces once in third grade just to straighten his two front teeth, but now that he has all his teeth, they put braces on ALL his teeth. This should be the final thing and then hopefully in a year or so, he will.get them off and have PERFECT teeth. Our kids have really been keeping the orthodontist in business. Avery also has braces at the moment and will. have them again when she is a teenager I'm sure. Gabe is DONE! Here is Caleb's "BEFORE"picture. (They honestly don't even look that bad. He's like, "Why do I even need braces?")
Oh! One more big piece of news! We bought land! We had started thinking about possibly buying land to build a house back in the springtime. We had even listed our house for like a week in May, then we took it down because the timing felt wrong. We kept looking for land over the summer, but with no real luck. There was this 2-acre piece that we did put an offer on in August, but on the same day we offered, another family from Texas offered! They ended up getting it, and I remember just thinking, "There must be something better for us out there. It wasn't meant to be."
Then, come September, this farmer and his wife that live near Josh's sister decide that they might want to sell a little bit of land. We had told Josh's sister back in the spring that if anyone around them decided to sell land, to let us know. So we drove out there one day and met this farmer guy and his wife and walked around their field and they said, "This is what we are thinking of selling." We were like, "Yup! Let's do it!" We officially closed right before Thanksgiving. It's 2.5 acres and it's very close to Josh's sister, Janell. It's right off highway 33, which I love because I know that road will always get plowed and it leads straight to the Junior High! It is a little farther out of the city than where we are at now, but still only about a 3 minutes drive into town. I don't know when we will actually start building because it's so expensive right now, but probably in the next couple of years. It's just good to know we have land and can start planning. Here are a few pictures! There are some trees that line the back of the property, which I love, but there is a house back behind there too. We will probably plant more trees as soon as we can.
Land here is so crazy and hard to find. There are TONS of people moving here from California, Oregon, and Washington. Everyone is trying to escape the crap hole their states have become in the past year. The fact that Idaho is a conservative state and have our kids in school and our business open is very appealing to people from California, Washington, and Oregon. I just feel like they should sign something when they move here that says, "I promise not to bring my stupid opinions and liberal agendas with me because that is why I am leaving my former state." Would that be too much to ask? lol I just hope that when Biden takes office in January, things don't get even worse (even here in Idaho.) Everyone is so sick of Covid restrictions and I am definitely sick of wearing a mask when I teach! I have this plastic shield that I wear just over my mouth, so it really is the least invasive one I could find, but it's just so dumb to even have to still wear it. Like, 2 students in every class maybe wear a mask still.
So anyways! Here is one last picture of Zeus enjoying the snow with Avery. He lived in Arizona before this and so this may be his first experience playing in snow. He seems to be loving it!
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Here's hoping for a better 2021!!
