Christmas in New York

Travis and I were overwhelmed with the generosity of family this Christmas.  We were showered with some pretty amazing gifts, great quality time with extended family and an experience in NYC.  I got to meet my newest cousin, Jacob, and Travis got to meet a whole lot of new people.  Here are a few snapshots of Christmas with the Maddock clan in New York.

Arriving with no luggage.

Seeing the grandparents for the first time since our wedding.

My cousin's baby, Jacob.

Aunt Jackie

My cousin Jessie and me

My cousins Josh and Scott with Travis

A lot of the family (although 3 of my dad's 5 brothers were not here)

Bus tour in the city

9/11 memorial

The Empire State Building

Mom and me thawing after the bus tour

Punched in the Thanksgiving Gullet!

 In short, Thanksgiving 2k12 absolutely slayed Thanksgiving 2k11.  We’re talking an Arnold-Schwarzenegger-as-Conan beat-down.  There was good food, friends, and glorious relaxation.

Em and I both had 9 days off for the holidays.  Not many school districts organize their years that way, and I’m so glad ours does.  One thing that I was not prepared for in transitioning from teaching high schoolers to teaching fourth graders was the holiday hysteria that apparently targets anyone younger than 10.

My last day before the break was a hurricane of hyped-up kids, food, and even a couple of parents.  My homeroom had a Thanksgiving Feast for lunch, which involved a couple platefuls of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and the fixings.  The mixture of unstructured holiday celebrations and vacation anticipation proved too much for most of my kids to handle.  There were tears, near-vomiting, more tears, and a game of jeopardy that resulted in a tiny riot.  Whew.  I was ready for the break.

Em and I went to Jim and JoAnn’s for Thanksgiving.  A couple of months ago, Em was overtaken by some serious Martha Stewart urges, and she has been knocking any and all meals she attempts out of the ballpark.  Thanksgiving was no different.  It was one of the best feasts I’ve ever had.  Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, amazing stuffing, great turkey, butternut squash mixture, broccoli crisp, homemade bread…my plate looked like an episode of Hoarders.  To use a common Gasper phrase—“I packed it in.”

Other than eating, we did a whole bunch of TV watching, reading, biking, and relaxing.  That’s what being responsible for the daily well being of so many kids has done to us—we are relaxation junkies. 

Now it’s back to work for four weeks until Christmas in New York City!    

Travis and the Fall Festival

This past weekend we had two fun events.  One, my friend Jennie came to visit.  Houston was a stop along the way as she traveled to Monterrey, Mexico.  Jennie works with The Mission Society and will spend the next 5 years serving in a school.  Here is a picture of her petting a goat (I think it's a goat):

"Where did we come across a goat?" you ask.  At Austin Elementary, Trav's school.  Friday night we all drove out to Cut and Shoot for the festivities.  Here are a few:

 The Live Auction in the Cafeteria

 Bouncy Thing

 We couldn't ride...

 Travis's Favorite Activity

Karaoke- (The Song Firework about 8 Times)

 The Aftermath of the Silly String War

Yay for turning 29!

So I turned the big 29 on September 30, and Travis came up with some great ways to celebrate.  On Friday, my parents came over while Travis cooked out.  We enjoyed a delicious meal, and they surprised me with killer presents.  Quick backstory: my beloved camera was stolen a little less than a year ago, so I haven't been able to take pictures in a while.  My parents surprised me with a Nikon, and Travis got me an iPad.  I felt incredibly spoiled (and very techie).  I have already taken a bunch of pictures and posted video grammar tutorials for my students using the iPad (super exciting stuff).
On Saturday we saw the movie Pitch Perfect and ate dinner with friends at Olive Oil.  Here are some pictures of the festivities.

 Delicious birthday cupcake from Frost.

 Dana, Devi, me, Adriana

 You know us

 Trav and Katie

 Greek musicians...or musicians playing Greek music

 Adriana and Benji

 My mom and dad

Back in the Swing of Things

So Travis and I have survived the first few weeks of the new school year, and the best news is, we're loving it.  My first week was about a thousand times easier this semester than it was when I started in January.  There have been no major incidents thus far, and my kids are super entertaining.  A few told me that I remind them of Anne Hathaway while another told me that I could be Andy Sandberg's sister.  I'm not really sure what to do with that.
My kids from last year come by my room on a regular basis to tell me that they are failing physics and wish they were still in my class.  (They have such rose colored memories, but I'll take it).  I am trying some new teaching techniques this year, and I'm hoping to instill a love for Spanish is a few kids.

Trav's 4th graders are keeping him laughing as well.  They mostly stick to telling him that he reminds them of Edward Cullen.  I think it's the hair.  His goofy sense of humor and passion for reading and writing are a great fit for this position.  I'm excited to visit his school one day and meet all of his students.  

Please continue to pray for us as we spend time with all these kids.  We want to serve them well, and they come from such diverse backgrounds.  We need wisdom, patience and love.  

I listened to a speech given by a woman who won teacher of the year, and she said that what our kids need most is grace.  They come with extreme greatness and extreme weakness, but none come with perfection.  We need to let grace transform them just as it transforms us.  So with that in mind, please pray that we will be instruments of grace in people's lives.    

Trav's latest publication

Many of you have probably seen this link, but for those of you who haven't, I wanted to pass it along.  Travis was published in the Houston Chronicle, and it is a story worth reading.

A tribute to my father, a deceptively inept dad who raised three sons on his own

On the horizon

Hers:

It has been a solid 2 and a half months since we've written anything, so here's the scoop:

On May 30 the seniors of College Park High School graduated.  At the beginning of the ceremony all of teachers walked in wearing black gowns.  I tried mine on before heading to the event only to have my husband say, "You look like a child."  It was true, the gown was quite large, and I looked even more high schoolish than usual.  Thank God the staff gowns were a different color than the students'.

All that to say, I finished out the semester alive and excited to teach at College Park again next year.  Although, it is kind of crazy to think that my students were born in 1995, and when they reference Vanilla Ice they say things like, "Oh, Miss G, that was back in your time."  I didn't realize that my time was over, but apparently it is.  Thankfully I am still somewhat in touch with what my students are listening to, so when they start rapping things like, "99 Problems," I can put the kibosh on it.


His:

Here's the surprise, M. Night Shamalayan end twist to my last couple of months:  I am going to be a 4th grade language arts teacher.

Now, this was not something that I decided out-of-the-blue, by my own volition.  It began with a friend connecting me with an elementary school in Cut and Shoot, Texas (that's not a joke, it's really the name of the town).  The school needed help with tutoring for the approaching standardized test, and I arrived expecting to tutor in language arts.  Instead, I tutored first, second, third, and fourth graders in Math.  To my surprise, I loved helping with math.  To my bigger surprise, I loved working with elementary school kids.

In the endlessly creative minds of the little kids, I became "that vampire guy" (because of my spiked hair I think?), Math Yoda, "that most famous guy", and in one of the more interesting sentence constructions of a third grader I was helping with English: "Mr. G who lays frog eggs in the afternoon."  I was hooked.

A language arts position opened up at the school and I received the position.  So now I am elbows deep in learning how to teach 4th graders reading and writing.  I also have to think of some decorations for my new room.  I'm thinking Finn and Jake will need to make an appearance.