Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas to everyone from the Kelly house!!

I got home the Friday night before Christmas. Since then, we have done a variety of traditional and not so traditional things here during the holiday season. Here are a few snapshots of some of our fun-filled holiday activities.

Me, Molly, Bonnie, Aubs, and Cayd have taken a night each year to go and look at the coolest Christmas light displays around San Diego county. One house that even appeared on a tv show from around the country as one of the neatest houses actually sits right here in our very own Escondido! We are famous! We got lost a few times and didn't find everything we were looking for but it turned out to be a smashing evening and we still got a semi nice kodak moment out of it.



Mom bought a kit to make a gingerbread house but it turns out that she had the same great idea last year because we found a year old kit in the cupboard already! We didn't want to make the new one and leave the old one for another year, and we didn't want to use the old and save the new for the next year and keep that going, so we decided to do them both!



Our Christmas Eve traditions consist of Bonnie and her kids (and now her dog) sleeping over, going in the spa that night, and having pizza for dinner. I think the pizza "tradition" started this year because that's what Bonnie felt like for dinner that night and she claims that's what we always have! Oh well. . . it works for me too. :)

Christmas was a great day as well. The kids are not early birds like we were as children so finally at 7:30 we could stand it no longer and me and Molly went in and woke up the kids that morning. Present opening is always entertaining when there are two kiddies busting through gifts like wild banchies and a mom who won't let you open that next gift until your other wrapping paper is already in the garbage sack. But it was a good and happy day and I think everyone had a fantastic Christmas. Below are a few pictures of some randomness of the day. I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas as well!

SNOW DAY!!!

Yesterday (Wednesday) kids didn't come to school because of parent teacher conferences- bleh. During the day, it began to snow again. I finished up around 3 oclock and left rather than staying to get stuff done. The roads were not terrible but they were starting to get snowy and It was kind of a scary drive home. (Brought back scary memories of commuting to work in Utah). I got home and figured I would be there for the night even though I had so much shopping and things I needed to get done before this Friday.

Anywho. . .around 10pm that night I got a text from a girl that said schools had been closed for the following day! I looked it up on the district website just to check, and sure enough- school had been canceled! I was so way excited. Up in Utah we NEVER got snow days even though sometimes we got terrible amounts of snow! So I woke up this morning to see a beautiful blue sky and all our snow melting away. At 8:50 in the morning I had a bit of a scare when I received a phone call from my school. I feared that they had changed their mind because there wasn't any snow left and now I was late for work! But it was just a friendly reminder that school had been canceled for the day-- phew!! I spent the day shopping, and taking care of my first speeding ticket. I got the ticket last month and because i had recently switched my insurance, I didn't have that proof with me. So instead of just paying online for the dang thing, I had to go to the courthouse. What a pain in the butt it was and so many scary yucky people were there, definitely makes me want to be a more responsible driver. . . besides the hefty $200 fine!

So- I had a most productive day and got all my errands done. Now we go back to school tomorrow and then off for Christmas break! Hard week I tell ya. . . Haha- my first snow day in Las Vegas-- who would've guessed!?

Today was just one of those days. . .

the kids were driving me crazy. They weren't listening, weren't paying attention, and were being unusually loud. This is the last week before Christmas, we still had snow outside, and we have no school tomorrow, so as a teacher this kind of day is expected, yet still really gets to me.
One little girl drove me crazy all day long. She is a bright little thing, but when she doesn't want to do something, she doesn't. I say stop, she keeps going, I say sit, she stands, I tell her to use markers, she uses crayons. . . she was finding anyway and everyway to disobey me. In the meantime, she got absolutely no work done. By the end of the day. . I was fed up. I had tried talking to her, moving her, bribing her, yet nothing worked. We were working on a math assignment that was too easy for her to begin with yet she just sat there without doing a thing. I kept prodding her a long, warning her, and finally in frustration, I snatched the paper from her desk and said, "You know what this is?? A big fat F!" And I kind of stormed off. (I know it was mean, but I was so done with that child). She laid her head on her desk and began to weep. I ignored her, and we went on to our "fun" activity that she was not allowed to participate in. When that was finished the kids were doing an independent writing assignment so I sat at my desk. This little girl's desk had been moved away from all the other kids during the day (obviously)so she was practically right next to me with her head down. "Cassie," I called to her. Nothing. "Psss... Cassie," I whispered again. . . she turned her head away, showing me that she had heard me, yet chose to ignore me. I had a pile of little papers on my desk that were scratch papers, so I wrote "Hi Cassie" on one, crumpled it up, and chucked it at her head. She looked up, glared at me, picked it up, and tossed it in the trash. So I wrote another. "I love having you in class Cassie," (which at the time, I really was not feeling). Again, I chucked it at her head, again I got the glare, and again, she threw it away. The other kids were noticing at this point, and kind of giggling. Cassie looked up at me as I wrote my third note, "Cassie, why you throwing my notes away?" Crumpled it up and tossed it in her direction. She grabbed it, opened and read it, then preceded to the garbage can to find her thrown out notes. "Hiya Cassie!" landed right on her desk. A smile slowly formed on her little face, yet not for me to see because she wiped it right off when she saw me looking at her. "No smiling Cassie!" "No smiling in mean Miss Kelly's class!" She picked up her pencil, jotted something on the paper, and threw it back at me. I opened it up to find she had crossed the word "mean" off of my note. Haha. . . our notes continured. She eventually told me that she was crying because she had never gotten an F before. I asked if I should give her an A on an assignment she didn't complete. She said "no, that wouldn't be fair." I told her I would give her the grade she deserved as long as she finished the assignment. It was her choice, and i hoped she would make the right one. Then I folded her unfinished assignment that was on my desk into a little airplane and flew it at her. "I'll try!" was her final note and she immediately picked up her pencil and paper and finished the assignment. Throughout the whole thing, not a word was spoken out loud and the rest of the class just kind of looked on with curiosity, amusement, and I think a little jealousy.

The incident with Cassie today was just a little reminder to me that these kids are still just that... kids. 7 year old kids. They have feelings, they get hurt, they can drive ya nuts, but in the end you still gotta love them.

An unexpected Surprise

I woke up to just another typical day. Got dressed, went to work, and as I got out of my car a few snow flurries began to fall. Fun, I thought. .

Yeah- well those snow flurries changed from little flurries, to actual snow falling, and it didn't stop all day long! At first it was kind of exciting, it was fun to see how happy it made the kids. Snow isn't typical for the Las Vegas area you know. About an hour into school the snow was really starting to fall, so I took the kids out to play in it a little, as if we were getting anything done as it was! There was quite an actual bit on the ground already and I wanted to get a few pictures before it melted away. As the day progressed however, it just kept falling and falling.
My "good" idea of taking the kids out to play stuck with me all day long, in my non water proof shoes. My feet were wet, and because our classroom is situated outside the actual school, we go outside a lot. We take bathroom and drink breaks. Go inside for our special classes, and during my planning time I am in and out of the building doing who knows what. The grounds aren't really set up to take much moisture either because they just flood- major. By 1:30 in the afternoon my poor feet were literally sopping wet and frozen solid. The only thing I wanted to do after school- was leave. I unfortunately had a couple of parent conferences to get through. . . then I was out the door! My car was covered in snow enough that the window wipers wouldn't take it off. Did I even bring my snow scraper when I moved? Absolutely not! And any sort of warm winter clothing is stuffed in a box in CA or has been given to my sister Molly who lives in Indiana and actually needs it. So I was using my little sweater I happened to wear today to free my car of it's blanket of snow.
The 25 minute drive home was not great. I was trying to peel my socks and shoes off as I drove and I was seriously frightened that my feet would be black from frostbite (you know like on Mr. Deeds?) I mean. . . I had walked in sopping wet shoes for over 5 hours! Luckily though, not a black speck on em. . . and they did eventually thaw!

It was a miserable, cold, wet day, but the drive home was pretty from the snow and made it feel like it really is almost Christmas, which is something I didn't really expect when I moved here. So part of it may actually have been kind of a fun surprise. . .

It's Finally Done!

After miles and miles and hours and hours of dedicated running, the half marathon is finally behind me! Ok. . . we will be honest here. I did not exactly put hours upon hours of dedication into this thing and certainly did not run for miles and miles, but I definitely put in my fair share of stress for the LACK of preparation I was doing. Bonnie was at home being so good and keeping up with our schedule and I was a major slack off. In my defense, it was just hard to find the time to do as much running as I should have. It gets dark SO early these days, I would have had to leave straight after work to get home and changed and in a decent run before it got dark, and frankly, I rarely, if ever am capable of leaving work right after school ends. I feel like I live in a safe part of town but there can be some wackos on the streets and its scary at times!
Anywho, the half-marathon was last Sunday. Mom and Bonnie drove up here on Saturday with the kids. They got here in the early afternoon but right away I could see it was going to be a long weekend. Cayden was bouncing off the walls as soon as he got here. . . and have I mentioned my lack of internet and cable at this here home of mine?? It is something I have learned to deal with but it was another story keeping a houseful of guests entertained who are not used to lacking in such luxuries.
So we went and signed ourselves in that afternoon and wandered around the little running convention they had going on there. Got some cool free stuff and bought my new memorabilia sweatshirt. . . they had booths and fliers all over the place for other marathons around the country and there were several I thought would be awesome to do. But realistically, I know I don’t have the time to put into training for something cool like the Nashville country music marathon. . . though it would be so much fun.
That night we went and ate our spaghetti dinner, had a “fun” bowling adventure, took a trip to Baskin Robbins, then hit the bed somewhat early.

We woke up on Sunday at 4:40 am! After loading sleeping kids into the car, mom dropped us off on a street corner and wished us luck. It was very nerve racking, but exciting as well. The race began on Las Vegas Blvd (The strip), and since it was still dark out, all the casino lights were still on and lighting our way. Fireworks began the race which was neat as well. Bonnie was a good running companion to have. Right away she was weaving left and right through people telling me that we had to immediately get into our 9 minute mile groove. . . something I was hoping she wasn’t going to actually hold us to! But I followed along and got into a pretty good pace. There were lots of silly people running, Elvises, Santas, a man carrying a huge American flag (on the stick and all!), girls in tutus, and other bizzaro costumes. Bon and I went shopping over Thanksgiving to get cute matching outfits and Bonnie expressed concern that it may cause us to look foolish. . . haha obviously that is something that needn’t any worry!

The people and scenery and running companion made for a quick first half of the run. We were busy watching for mom and the kids, our only spectators so we didn’t want to miss them! Every once in a while Bonnie would just start shouting “Mom? Mom?” through the crowds as if she would happen to be there. . . it was quite entertaining. We did eventually find them and it was fun to stop and catch a few Kodak moments with them.

Then somehow, we had made it and it was almost over. My legs hurt SO badly by the last few miles but I made it! 2 hours, 1 minute and some odd seconds later. . . yahoo! I got 1641st place. . . not bad for a race of over 11,000 people though! The family was right there on the finish line along with our smashing new medals! The snacks at the end were kind of a disappointment but all in all it was an excellent experience that I wouldn’t mind repeating in the future.

While we were running, Molly was flying into Las Vegas so we immediately left at the end to go pick her up from the airport. Then we went back to my house and kind of passed out for a while. Neither Bon or I could move our legs at this point, but luckily Molly and Mom were there to entertain the kids sort of. We had all had really early mornings so most of us were not in the mood for anything. That night we did go out and eat and FINALLY hit the movie Twilight because long ago Molly, Mom, and I agreed we wouldn’t see it without each other and this was finally our first time to all be in the same city together after it’s debut of course.

Then the next morning the family headed out while I headed out to the beginning of a long week at work! Luckily, I was able to somewhat walk by then!
Overall, it was a fantastic weekend. It was fun to see my family and show them where I live and the race was not as horrid as I thought it would be. So. . . trip to Nashville anyone??

DUH SHAWNA

I moved into my new house exactly one month ago to the day. Needless to say, there have been issues getting "settled in." Because the house has been recently bought after it was foreclosed on, many utility type places have been dragging their heals in getting us what we need because they were not paid for on this house in the past. . . namely the internet, which I still dont have. Another thing however, was my bathroom light. My bedroom has it's own bathroom and when I moved in, I discovered the light in the bathroom didnt work. I changed a few lightbulbs, but still nothing. Mom said that the circuit might have just been tripped but I couldnt get the dumb box open to even check. The week after I moved in, I went to CA for the weekend and while I was gone, my roommate's friend looked at the circuit box and got it back on so when I got home at the end of my weekend, I flipped the switch to discover there was a fan in the bathroom, yet still no lights! The girl that owns the house keeps saying she will have someone take a look, but since then I have just stuck a small lamp into my bathroom and have been dealing with that way, for a MONTH. Showering and doing most stuff in the semi dark has been fine. . . I will admit that I probably walk out of the house pretty regularly looking like crap though because I put my make up on in the semi dark as well... anyway, last night, I was laying on my bed, just thinking about how I have been living here a month and I am still having issues like this. I turned and looked at the bathroom (the small lamp shining not so brightly) and I focused my eyes on a light switch OUTSIDE of the bathroom door. I lay there a second, wondering what in the world that switch would be for. . . and it dawned on me. I swear if that is the bathroom light I am going to hurt myself! Well. . . sure enough. . . click went the switch, and click went on the bathroom lights! I dont know why I never noticed the switch before. . . I dont know why they would put the fan on a switch inside the bathroom while the lights are on a switch outside of the bathroom. . . but either way I feel like an absolute moron. The good news however... I finally now have lights in my bathroom!