Tuesday, November 30, 2021

Thanksgiving 2021 Rewind

We had a great Thanksgiving week! We packed a lot in and going back to school and work was a big of a challenge on Monday, ha! Just makes me ready for Christmas that much faster.

Thursday we went to my in-laws and celebrated with his brother and his family. Lunch was delicious, but I am ALWAYS getting through the food to get to the dessert!

Girl cousins playing Candyland

Gurley men drinking wine

The pumpkin roll my mother-in-law and I made!
Our first attempt and it was DELICIOUS.

Gurley wives enjoying champagne!

DESSERT!!!!! Pumpkin roll and chocolate pie, YUM.


Sibling love

Saturday we went to my parents' house to get together with my extending family and also celebrate my dad's 70th birthday!

9/12 first cousins

2nd cousins! I'd have to think for a minute to get the # of this generation, ha!

My mom and her siblings/spouses

My boys

Paige telling us stories

Paige and her Pops


Happy birthday, Dad!

It's a shame no one loves this girl!


Play hard, sleep hard

And this is how we felt Sunday! {grin}

Sunday we decorated the outside of the house for Christmas, and I am so ready!


Monday, November 29, 2021

Currently: Stuffed

Current Book

These 2 are in addition to the 2 physical books and 1 audiobook.

Current Song

If I'm being honest, Christmas carols have started. BUT...
Trent did introduce me to a new song that I like.
Stay The Kid LAROI and Justin Bieber

Current TV Show

We are so excited about this!!!

Current Podcast/Audiobook

I love listening to memoirs read by the authors!

Current Drink

I despise eggs...but discovered last year, I love egg nog!
I had my first {and second} delicious glass on Saturday.

Current Food

I'm eating some delicious Whataburger as I write this post, yum.

Current Shame-Inducing Pleasure

I think I gained 100 pounds this week from all the yummy food.
It's definitely holiday time. :/

Current Outfit

Went on a 3.5 mile walk with my ladies and hung outside Christmas lights!
Workout clothes were most definitely needed.

Current Celebrity Crush

Anybody else excited for this and think Austin Stowell is adorable?

Current Mood

DEPRESSED. I'm so bummed vacation is over and it's back to work/school.
Just 3 more weeks until my time off for Christmas, yay!

Current Anticipation

So many fun things coming up!! Yay!
-2 weeks off work
-Paige's birthday
-Christmas
-Our trip to New Mexico
-Drew's birthday


Current Wishlist

I am super close to finishing my Christmas shopping,
I am so happy! And so far...nothing has come from Amazon!
Definitely looking forward to being totally done.

Selfishly I need some new tennis shoes - my feet hurt.
I have 2 pairs of workout shoes, but when you workout 6 days a week...
they break down fast! Going to have to shop for myself soon.

Current Movie

I'm so excited I saw 2 movies in November. 
There are so many good ones coming out soon,
and I definitely want to take the girls to see this one!

Current Picture

Happy 70th birthday to my dad!!!


Monday, November 22, 2021

Movie Review: Clifford the Big Red Dog

Our Thanksgiving Break officially started! And we started it off with a movie with friends! We had 4 moms and 10 kids, and we went to see Clifford The Big Red Dog.

Plot: A young girl's love for a tiny puppy named Clifford makes the dog grow to an enormous size.

Review: This was cute but also silly and cheesy. I definitely laughed out loud at parts but also rolled my eyes at others - which I think anyone would expect from this movie. The kids who went ranged from 4 {Paige} all the way up to 14 {our friend's daughter, Macey}, and all the kids enjoyed it, so I think that's a pretty good movie when it can entertain that many kids!

After the movie was over, we weren't ready for our day to end, so we went to a local hamburger place that has a playground and the moms drank wine and the kids played. Such a great day!

All the kiddos!
{It'll be these 10 plus 1 more for our trip after Christmas!}

Moms gone wild!

So very happy to have a week off!!!


Thursday, November 18, 2021

Fall Conferences

Our fall semester is chugging along and feeling so very normal, and it's been glorious. We had fall break last month and right before that, we had fall conferences with the kids' teachers. We haven't had an in-person conference in 2 years so that in itself was really, really great. 

I never start with Drew, and since I had her conference first, I thought I'd share about her first. As to be expected, she is doing GREAT. Drew LOVES to learn and absolutely loves school. She has a great group of friends, including her best friend, Zara. She is so happy to go to school! Her guide told me she is doing great, is a class leader, makes sure the other kids stay on task, and is a huge helper. Her guide also told me she is the first to check on classmates when someone is upset. That warms my heart so much! She also scored excellently on her MAP testing {testing they do 3 times a year to see how they are trending against the grade-level required learning} and based on those should do great on our standardized tests, STAAR. She does have a tendency to get silly with her friends and can talk too much - this is feedback I get every year but is very small potatoes when compared to all her other great contributions. This is her last year in Lower Elementary, and she is killing it!

My second 1-on-1 was for Trent. He's in the Adolescent program this year, which is 7th and 8th grade. They do a little bit a hybrid model in class recognizing that the vast majority of these kids will go to a more traditional school in 9th grade. So while they still have a lot of Montessori flexibility but with a more traditional schedule - 7th grade math is at 10AM, science is at 11AM, etc. What was so interesting was the assistant he has this year, he also had in 3rd and 5th grades, so she has seen him through his school career at Goodwater. His lead guide and the assistant were SO complimentary of him!!!! He is having an amazing year. He is a leader in the class and ran {and won} the class Treasurer position. He is doing great academically and is in their advanced English class. His assistant thinks the hybrid model is really working well for him, since he does seem to do a little better with some structure. He is happy to go to school, has friends, and is having a great year. {Minus the stitches from an accident in the school orchard that his class takes care of and the black eye sustained in the gaga ball pit, ha.} This was 100% the best conference I've ever had for Trent, and I left with tears in my eyes.


Last up to round out my conferences was our little ball of sunshine, Paige. She settled into her classroom very quickly upon return from summer and is also having a great year. Her teacher told me she's worried she's going to run out of material for Paige because she LOVES getting lessons, ha. Everybody in class loves her {although it sounds like she can be a bit bossy - 'You can't sit next to me today because you sat next to me yesterday. Now it's xx's turn to sit by me.' HA!} - her guide told me that a handful of parents asked her who Paige was because their child talks about her non-stop. I love, though, that she is a helper in class, makes sure other kids are following the rules, follows the rules, and overall is happy and thriving. One story her guide told me that killed me was that she and the assistant will talk to each other in Spanish when they don't want the kids to understand them {they are both from Mexico} - they will sing songs in Spanish or learn some Spanish words, but they are definitely not in an immersive program - and one day the guide was asking the assistant {in Spanish} where one student's mask was who normally wears a mask, and Paige responded 'she put her mask in her lunchbox'. SHE UNDERSTOOD THEM IN SPANISH!


This is the first time I've had 3 for 3 on great conferences! This year has just been off to such a great start, and I can't believe we're a month away from Winter Break - it's flying by! I love our school and I'm so happy our kids are doing so well!


Monday, November 15, 2021

Movie Review: Eternals

OH MY GOSH. I am so excited - it is starting to feel like movies are coming back, and there are so many upcoming movies Allison and I want to see, I am hoping we can squeeze in a handful before the end of the year. SQUEEEEE! 

With that said, yesterday, we went and watched Eternals. Neither of us are huge Marvel fans {or DC or whatever} - we just like good/entertaining movies. And the trailer for this peaked my interest, and we were both wanting to see ANYTHING so badly, we decided to go for it.

Plot: The saga of the Eternals, a race of immortal beings who lived on earth and shaped its history and civilizations. [This is the weirdest plot summary, I do not feel like this is AT ALL how I would describe this movie, ha.]

Review: This was a lot of fun...but also really nuts. At one point, I thought 'Whoever came up with this plotline was high and drunk.' Allison and I both enjoyed it and definitely agreed we would see a sequel {which it's clearly set-up for and a no brainer for Marvel}. The acting was solid, as was the action. There were plot twists, I cared about the characters, just overall good. One thing we also both thought was you don't need to be knowledgeable about Marvel. I noticed one joke related to other Marvel films, so if this intrigues you too but you were worried about that, don't be! This was a good one to break out drought with, and I'm excited for more!


Friday, November 12, 2021

I Spy Week 44

Back with another I Spy link-up with Lysha! Her linkup is a lot of fun because they are always a little unique but not hard either ha.

{vintage}

I love our barn wall - 
the wood came from a real OLD barn that was torn down a few years ago.

{collect}

She seems to be collecting a lot of camouflage these days. And navy.

{seasonal}

LOVE all my pumpkins that I keep up through the fall.
This could have also gone under 'collect' as this is just a section of my pumpkins!

{zigzag}

I always have to take a picture of her braids after I finish for her approval.

{your choice}

Library adventures with these 3, they thought this art display was really cool,
and I did too! Our library always has neat displays.


Tuesday, November 9, 2021

Some October Favorites

These are not necessarily in order but some fun memories from October, since I did such a bad job of blogging! Putting all this together, I didn't realize how much we did in October and how many Fall festivals we went to. Lots of fun!

The kids played mini-golf and got burgers and ice cream with Brent's parents.
It's a shame this one hates ice cream!

                    My goddaughter and my daughter, all the heart eyes

A fun festival on our town square - I love our town!

If I haven't said it enough, I LOVE our neighbors

Playing Sequence with this kid, I love doing big kid things with him

Matching girls!

Lots of pictures with Tiger the Guinea Pig when we pet sat him for Drew's class over fall break

The cutest Brownie! {And a clueless mom}




Date night!

More fall fun!


Got to meet a new teammate in person, yay!


                                        Festival at the library!


                        Shenanigans with neighbors at the Country Club

Our church festival - this was the best I got when I asked the kids to look at me.

Our other Ride or Die Witch had Covid, but I love my neighbors!

Drew and her bestie, Zara - I love that Drew was Hermione!

How Halloween looks when you're 12!

My parents had 5 of #theSwopesix for a night, love these kids so much