Weekends

I feel like I look forward to weekends more and more but I don't know why. I haven't had a "relaxing" weekend in such a long time. When the weekend hits it is more like it is time to get things done and get as much done as I can.
This weekend was no different. I was planning on having a relaxing night on Friday, go home, relax some, go to the first men basketball game, then come home and relax while waiting for Brian to get done. Instead my Friday turned into something completely different. I helped out a teacher at school figure out a game plan for her math groups. Then I rushed home, I had found out earlier that my grandma had ended up in the hospital and had emergency surgery. Everything went good but my sister was headed to my parents and had decided to go down the rest of the way to visit her. So I ran home grabbed a bag and packed some stuff and headed to my parent's house. When I got there I ate some dinner, started laundry, and went to visit my grandma. She was doing great. She had no pain, not even when she coughed. She was just wishing that she could have gotten some of her iv's and things taken out. But they got take out the next day. We didn't take any flowers to her but my sister's husband who is an artist spent a little time at the white board with a marker and created a flower for her.

It turned out pretty darn good if you ask me. We then left from visiting and went home where my other sister had shown up and her and her husband had gotten started on fulfilling one of my mom's wishes. She wanted a tile area in front of the front door. We had already changed the door so we did the floor this weekend. It turned out really good for amateurs, old floor, and only a little time frame to do it in. It wasn't all the way cleaned the last time I was there so I will get a picture of the door and floor later.
The next morning I got up, went on a great brisk walk with my mom and my little niece who was up early. It was fun and I got her to say bird and tell me about the birds.Then when we got home I ate breakfast and started making apple juice. My parent's only had nine regular size boxes full of apples and one bushel basket. So I thought, this will go super fast. I was wrong. The apples had frozen (which is great because you get more apple juice) which made them mushy and the machine wouldn't spit them all the way out as easy as crisper ones. We figured out a system and got through eight of the boxes before we had too much juice and couldn't put any anywhere else and we were starving. So we emptied out as much as we could from our ten gallon container to finish straining the stuff we had in our two pots. Then went to eat lunch. This is when our neighbors came over to work on their apple juice. We were happy for the break. When my other brothers got there they brought two more boxes from my grandparents so we had three boxes and a bushel full of apples left to do. I went out again and worked on them. These ones weren't as frozen and went through the grinder better. We had at this point filled up quite a few two quart jars. So we finished up the juice and others filled up jars. When we were all done we had more juice then we had originally thought we would get. (which is really good because this stuff is soooo yummy). I helped process the juice while my parents helped get my sister back home.
Then Brian and I headed home, went to bed, got up early, got stuff together for his soccer game, and had a full day until his game was done. Then we went home together, ate lunch, and took a well deserved nap.
I guess one moment of relaxing is better then none but I also love feeling accomplished so I guess it is still good. We had a fun filled, busy weekend.

Pumpkin Walk

Every year Logan has their annual pumpkin walk. It is such a fun thing to go to because they have scenes made out of pumpkins that fit into themes. This year I decided to do it as a field trip for my Kindergarten class along with the first grade. So when I went with family I made sure to take all the pictures I could so I could do some other activities with my students later. Both of my trips were great and my kindergarteners surprised me at how smart they are. I had them each pick their favorite letter and they had to find something that started with that letter. Some got a little confused but they still found their letter....in writing and counted how many times they found it. Then one kid picked Y and he found Yoshi. I sure do love my job (on most days).
Here are the pictures of every scene. We went after we had a birthday party and a football game. It was a packed day and then we went out to eat after and stayed out later then we had ever planned....but I guess that happens when you have your big family with you. I wouldn't change it for anything else though. I love my big families.

Brian and the nieces and nephews rough housing

One group of nieces and nephews jumped on the school bus

Warm night we only needed our sweatshirts

 Here is where we get picture overload. Like I said every scene got a picture except the very last one because my camera died. Yep I hadn't charged in forever and it was low and lasted through the whole thing about. I was pretty darn impressed. Also just so you know the theme was "Let the Games Begin..."

Probably one of my favorite ones. Candy land

This one was super cute. It was about the game of life and adoption. They had some cute messages coming from the pumpkin people about the children's thoughts on their birth moms.

This is my group of kindergarteners ready to enjoy the morning at the pumpkin walk and it was cold. We almost had to cancel because it started to rain really bad early that morning. But I am glad we didn't because the sun came out and we had a great time.

Next year I might do a scene with my class and the first grade at my school. We thought it could totally tie into our writing and would be such a fun project. We will have to look into it a little more but I am hoping we can really do it.