Photo Tour #3: Our Ole' Stompin' Grounds

We flew from Northern California to Long Beach

where our wonderful friends, the Plakes,

loaned us their car, let us take over half of their house,

and welcomed us with open arms!

Truly wonderful friends!

Ken and Kim, we're thankful for you,

for the roles you play in our lives and in our kids' lives.

Love you!

We made plans for almost every morning

and almost every evening,

protecting the afternoon time for downtime and naps.

Turned out we really needed that downtime,

and had to carve in a little extra,

to help the kids (especially Tay) stay grounded.

I went to wake Tay from her downtime nap, and only saw this!

She was so out, even after I pulled the covers back

she was still sound asleep!

Traveling is quite exhausting at times!! =)

We got to stop in and spend some sweet reunion time

with our ole friends the Mackies.

Robin is a good "soul" friend

and has played the role of mentor for me on several occasions.

Kirk is our pastor from our California church

and has played the role of mentor and teacher for both of us.

And their boys are wonderful, took turns babysitting Jacob,

and engaged the biggers for a while

so we adults could sit and chat some!

Thanks Mackies for including us in your Mother's Day celebration!

 

We had dinner with another wonderful couple,

our dear friends the Makhloufs!

Both Greg and I worked with Anne at our ole' school,

and got to know Mac while there too.

What a generous, Christ-like, joy-filled couple of people!

Thank you for your sweet friendship Maks!!

We stopped over at Biola

and reconnected with one of Greg's ole bosses and mentors, John.

As we sat and chatted we marveled at all the changes

(both in our family and on Biola's campus)

in just the ten years since we were students!

 

We hit some of our most-missed restaurants and fast food places!

We had some In-N-Out, Pick-Up-Stix,

Baja Fresh, BJ's Pizza, and

our most memorable and favorite place, Chili's!

Here we're at Chili's with Ken and Kim.

We had Thomas and his new wife Dani over.

We hadn't seen them since before their wedding,

which was timed right around the time of Jacob's due date.

We had a great time quickly catching up,

and then Dani and Thomas played a rousing game of Old Maid with Taylor!

We drove into Anaheim to see our lovely friend Jane!

We spent the morning there, catching up,

standing in awe of their HUGE lemon tree

(the tree's actually small,

but the lemons are about the size of a small watermelon!)

Jane had not yet met Jacob, so she highly enjoyed giving him some sweet snuggles.

Ken and Kim were such gracious hosts.

It's fun to see how Jacob, Robbie and Taylor

bring such light and joy to their faces!

There's something special about watching others love your own kids

with as full a heart as you have for them.

We had wonderful weather while in Fullerton,

and the kids got good use of their sunglasses =)

We went to Chik-Fil-A with sweet friends,

and Taylor reconnected with her best Cali buds!

She still calls Owen and Silas "Oh-wee and Sy-Sy"

and she refers to them as her "step brothers".

She was so excited to see Eli,

she wasn't really sure what to do when she saw him!

Then we headed over to the church playground

and hung out in the shade so we weren't melting quite as badly!

These boys are SO special to our kids!

Taylor and Shannon have had a special relationship

since before she can remember!

Like I said above, there's something extra special

when you know someone loves your kids like you do!

We saw other wonderful people,

but for some reason or another

I didn't pull out my camera to capture the moment!

Maybe I was too caught up in that moment =).

There are phases I go through

where my heart aches because it's so stretched.

I love and miss so many people---from a distance!

I'm grateful for email, blogs, even Facebook,

as it keeps me in touch with people

I wish I was getting face-to-face time with!

Thanks to friends that carved out time to let us chill with you!

And to those we didn't get to see, we missed you!

Of course we don't, right now, have current plans for our next trip,

but I know we'll be back again sometime!

A Thanksgiving Thriday Tham Thoto

Today we celebrated our "Thanksgiving"
by joining with some dear friends
and partaking in
Turkey AND Ham
Stuffing and Green Bean Cass
Smoked Sweet Potatoes (wow!)
Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Fresh Homemade Cranberry Compote
Pumpkin Souffle and Pecan Pie

Delicious!

So here we are,
taking our FFF
on our way to yummy dinner this afternoon!

These are our gracious hosts, Ken and Kim!
What great friends!
They had our lil' family and another couple from church
for whom this meal was their 2nd Thanksgiving Feast =).

And just for fun I thought I'd include a few pix of my class
celebrating Thanksgiving last Wednesday.
We made little shirts with turkey handprints
that said five things we were thankful for
and we made turkey hats too.

Here we are about to partake in the feast!
(I'm behind the camera)
Taylor and Daddy joined us too,
but they aren't pictured here.

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
We've greatly enjoyed our weekend
and pray that you have as well!

Hi Ho- Hi Ho

Hi Ho- Hi Ho
I surivived a week of work-o
*whistle-whistle-whistle*
Hi Ho- Hi Ho
Hi Ho- Hi Ho

Well this past week was return week for teachers.
We had meetings on T and W morning
but had those afternoons to work on our rooms
or on our curriculum paperwork
(of which there is lots...!)
and then Th and F were day long meetings/inservices.
But it has been a good week, as far as work goes.

I am still getting myself
"into"
all that teaching entails.
One faculty member asked,
"So, are you excited?"
and my response was,
"Um... not yet. But I know I will be!"
It takes a few days for my head
to wrap around all that is school
and to feel ready for it all.

But on Saturday
my lovely, wonderful, supportive hubby
walked with Tay and I to school,
helped me move some heavier stuff,
helped me put big paper on a few remaining bulletin boards,
and then helped me staple borders up on the high parts.
Monday I will go in on my own
and set up my desk,
and make sure I feel ready for students to arrive
because Tuesday it all starts!

This week we'll have only half days,
which is a HUGE blessing
because then there's the afternoons
to feel like you can catch up to what it means
to be back in the classroom!

I'll take photos of my classroom soon,
and in about two weeks
we'll start blogging again,
which will be so fun!

Please pray for the students
as they prepare themselves to be ready for school
and pray for the faculty and staff
as we gather our energies
and get ourselves ready to jump on in!

(A note on Greg)
He will begin a week after the students do.
This week of half days
does not lend itself to PE,
so he will be working on Tues & Thurs
at ACS, teaching PE for the day.
And then on Mon, Wed & Fri
he'll be working at home...
takin' care of Taylor!
This is a blessing,
but will also be a bit of a sacrifice financially,
so we appreciate your prayers
as we learn to get by with less income,
but not much less expense.
Thanks!

Also,
Greg's wrist is doing fairly well.
He has a follow-up with the surgeon tomorrow,
where he's hoping to get the stitches removed.
And he hasn't taken meds for a few days.
He found it interesting how
the pain wasn't actually at the incision point most of the time,
but rather it felt like his bones and knuckles of his hands
hurt if he started using his hand more.
But that has mostly subsided at this point.
Thanks for your prayers!

Oh,
and update on the prego bod!
I feel MUCH bigger these days
than I did at this point with Tay's pregnancy.
But people say that with the second one
the muscles "know" where to go
so they spread and stretch earlier... ha!
Little Man moves a lot!
Greg has gotten to feel him a few times.
His movements seem to be getting stronger
and more frequent the last few days!
Sugar levels had a ROUGH week,
but I seem to have figured it out
over the last three days.
I think Little Man must have had a bit of a growth spurt!
Plus, being back at work
and sleeping a little less
can also affect all that happens to my sugars.
I'm praying for peace, patience, and perseverance
as I begin to work a five day week
with a whole different kind of stress!



Love to you all!

Last Day of School (a few weeks ago)

Here's my class on the last day of school.
We had free dress the last week, which the students greatly enjoyed

But a few days before the end of school
Lieutenant Gowan came to visit the class
(surprise them!)
and he shared for about an hour and a half
as they asked SEVERAL questions
and stayed with their eyes glued to him!
I had two absences that day
and BOY where they bummed when they found out the next day...

We also went outside
and Lieutenant Gowan taught them to stand at attention
and then gave them some instruction on marching.

Anyway, this is also a Father's Day post
so I want to tribute my two wonderful Grandfathers,
Douglas Hillis and Travis Gowan
(whom we got to spend a lil' time with at the wedding,
what a blessing!)
and I also want to tribute my father and father-in-law,
John Gowan and Gary Hickle
(both of whom we get to see more of this summer
which is a humungo blessing to us and to Taylor)
and also I'd like to tribute my husband, the father of my child(ren),
Gregory Hickle
(whom I can NOT imagine life without,
and who leads me with strong hands and a strong heart.
I get SO excited and my heart flutters
when I think on how he gets to be the Daddy to my kids,
and teach them what real men are like!
I LOVE YOU!)

Welcome to Third Grade

I've been working a lot on getting my classroom set up!
It almost feels pointless to spend so much time on the walls

when I know I have to remove it ALL in June...

but none, the less, here's a tour of the Third Grade Classroom.

A few weeks ago we had an Open House.
So we got everything ready for that...
And had extra student work up,
as well as newly renovated Bulletin Boards
(the fire marshall came in TWO WEEKS before our event
and told us that we had backed our boards
with non-fire-resistant paper,
and would therefore have to CHANGE it
within the next few days... wowza!)

This is a bulletin board
with a map of Fullerton.
The Legend,
in the top left corner,
explains how the
background colors
of the buildings depend on the year
they were built.
Local History
is in the Third Grade
Curriculum Standards
and I've learned SO MUCH about our city of residence over the past four plus some years.

This is our prayer corner.

I don't get to teach my students

Religion Class, so I swap with the 4th Grade Teacher
and I teach her Math class.
It works out nicely.
But, at times, I wish I got to be their Religion Teacher
because I love to connect the Religion studies
with the other studies.
None-the-less I still integrate our Faith, though,
so it's a blessing to teach at a Religious School!

Class Helpers- rotate every week.
Homemade Currucular Posters-
I am of the philosophy
that making posters IN FRONT of the kids
(also known as imprinting)
allows students to connect with the material
and then reference it throughout the year,
achieving better retention.

Back when Mom visited in February,
she helped me start up Charlotte's Web
on the wall of windows in my classroom.
Since then,
I've changed my room around,
moved furniture,
recreated bulletin boards,
and added a Charlotte,
some of Charlotte's writing,
and some third grade writing.
Super fun!

Under Charlotte you might note an aquarium

and upsidedown vase with pipe cleaners.

In the aquarium, is Rosie,
a Chilean Rose Tarantula,
on loan to us from the Pre School Teacher
while we study Charlotte's Web.
In the Vase are two Daddy Long Leg Spiders.
One is carrying her egg sac all around the vase.

This next picture is of the Mommy Daddy Long Legs

and her many many babies
that hatched on Friday, April 8, 2011.
We have plans to let them go in our garden this week
before Spring Break.

This next photo is a bulletin board I did
of the Scientific Method.
We studied the Scientific Method,
and then made a video of what we did
for an experiment involving egg breaking,
and my students narrated the video.
Very cute!
Check out our Third Grade Blog
if you'd like to watch the video.

Also-
check out other entries on our blog
and leave comments =).
My students LOVE when they hear
that someone has read their entries!

Anyway,
That's about all I've got for today.
I wrote these up on Sunday
so that I could get more blogs out to you this week.

Now that it's posting,
we're just hours away from SPRING BREAK!
Can't WAIT to chill with my family.



Lt. Gowan

The Third Grade prayed for Lieutenant Gowan yesterday, being that it was a Tuesday, and I was proud to show them a new picture he had recently sent. They were "oohing" and "aahing" .

Caleb, I think we are your biggest fans in this classroom.

One SUPER cute thing they prayed yesterday:




* Please help Lieutenant Gowan's Christmas tree not to die but to keep growing so that it can keep him happy until he comes home.

We love you Lieutenant Gowan!

Yell A-C-S!!

During Catholic Schools Week
(which some of you helped us celebrate
by commenting on my students' blogs
at our classroom blog:
www.thirdgradefamily.blogspot.com
and I thank you for that!
They are so excited every morning
to see if anybody commented on their writings.
Now my task is to teach them
that when THEY comment,
they need to say more than "asome" (a.k.a. awesome)
hahaha)

Anyway,
During Catholic Schools Week
each class was assigned to their buddy class
(8th grade buddies get 3rd graders,
7th grade have 2nd grade,
6th grade have 1st,
5th have Kinder,
and 4th get PreSchool)
and with their buddy class
they were tasked with writing, choreographing and performing
a SCHOOL PRIDE CHEER which was so fun!
I was skeptical of whether the
"I'm too cool for this" 8th graders
would all get into it,
but I think my third graders' excitement
was so contagious, it influenced positively!

Check it out for yourself:


Remember you may need to go to the site to view the video.
www.hickles.blogspot.com

Yell A-C-S!

Thanks for watching!
And always feel free to click over to our classroom blog
because we weekly,
if not more than that
will have updates on what we're learning.

We will begin our science experiment next week,
which will be a TOTAL BLAST!

PS- this too was a "post ahead of time" post
but I think you can still assume
that I'm thoroughly enjoying having my mama around!

We go to Merced and Folsom this weekend.
Yippee!

Thanks!

This is the beautiful gift my students gave me today
to celebrate Catholic Schools Week Wednesday,
which was CELEBRATING OUR TEACHERS.
Too fun!

I'm feeling blessed.

Thank you to those of you that have commented on our Third Grade Blog.

thirdgradefamily.blogspot.com

You wouldn't believe the faces of amusement and enthusiasm everytime we put the blog up and someone has commented on their posts! Thanks!

For those of you that haven't yet- they'd love to hear from ya =)

See previous post for instructions!

In other news, things are going well.
As you can tell... work takes up more hours of our day
than anything else,
but it's good work!

Taylor is HUMUNGO and SO OLD
and I can't handle it!

Love to you all!

Calling All Commenters

This week is nation-wide Catholic Schools Week
and our school designated something/someone
to Celebrate for each day.

Sunday we CELEBRATED OUR FAITH
by having an all school Liturgy
at one of our Parishes, St. Philip Benizi.

Monday we CELEBRATE OUR STUDENTS
This is where you all come in!
Today my students ALL get to blog on our class blog,
as a way to celebrate them.
They LOVE receiving comments on their blogs.

Would you consider commenting?

Here's the site:
thirdgradefamily.blogspot.com

To comment
You click on COMMENTS at the bottom of a post
(I might ask that you comment on one that doesn't have one yet)
and then type in your comment.
But, so that we know who you are,
I also ask that you select "Name/Url" from the drop down menu
at the bottom of the comment box
and type in your name.
If you have your own blog they could see,
then you can leave your URL, if not, just leave it blank.

Thanks!
They'll LOVE seeing your comments!

FYI- they will be posting through out the day,
as we only have three computers they can use at the moment.
But comment whenever you can.
We will read the comments later this week!

Break Throughs

I mentioned last week
that my students have committed to pray for Caleb
each Tuesday, as well as often other days.
Well this week, my WHOLE inner-calendar was way off,
and I didn't realize that Tuesday was Tuesday,
so when I got to school on Wednesday
students immediately and adamently told me
we had to be sure to pray for Lieutenant Gowan today!

When I began in the "regular" classroom last October
one of the things I realized
was that just telling the students we were going to pray together
left them speechless
unless I told them which prayer we were going to say...
So I have begun to usually tell the students
"Today we'll pray the Our Father"
or
"Today we'll pray the Morning Offering"

But I've also decided that I would like to model for them
that sometimes we can talk to God
with the words that are on our hearts and minds.
And I most often do this
when we are praying for Lieutenant Gowan.

So on Wednesday of this week
I sat them on the carpet with me,
we did the sign of the cross,
and I closed my eyes and prayed aloud.
I was fully aware they were watching me.
Their wandering/wondering eyes
were fixed on my closed/focused eyes.

After I'd prayed for specifics
(strength, rest, peace, patience, for Caleb)
we did the sign of the cross again, said Amen,
and I opened my eyes.
This "means" we were done praying
however, I felt called to open it again,
and let them offer prayers for him if they wanted.
And when I suggested it
you should have SEEN the sparkle in their eyes!

So I asked them to close their eyes,
and I said I would start,
by saying a sentence of what I could pray for Lieutenant Gowan.
I said something like,
"I pray that today Lieutenant Gowan would be aware
that you are with him in all that he does."

And it wasn't two seconds before I heard students
offer these beautiful petitions to our Lord!

I pray for strength for Lieutenant Gowan today.
I pray for Lieutenant Gowan to be safe.
I pray that he would have good food to eat today.
I pray that he would sleep really good tonight.
If he is injured I pray he would get better fast.
I pray that people there would understand what he is there for.
I pray that he would come home safely to us.
I pray that Lieutenant Gowan would feel peace.
I pray that he would not get sick while he is there.
I pray that he would win the fights.
I pray that he visit us when he comes back to California.

I was so blessed to hear their prayers.
They asked the Lord for specific things,
and I felt they understood they were really speaking to Him.
I am praying these things WITH them!
I'm praying for His Spirit to continue to move
in each of my precious third graders!

P.S.
I've included a few of my fave pictures of Caleb, just for fun!
My students will be excited when I show them the pics tomorrow
cuz they keep asking to see more pictures of Lieutenant Gowan.
They feel SO close to him!

Just before Caleb deployed he and Nancy came to visit us!

Chilling with Taylor Lee
(my goodness she's changed a lot since this pic!)

On Tay's Dedication Day

On Caleb's Commissioning Day
(The whole family up to then...
with Daisy and Tay
knitting together in their mama's wombs)

The first day we met Nancy
Valentine's Day

A Visit with 'Buela Gowan

PetCo Park in San Diego
Watchin' the Padres
At Folsom Lake for Thanksgiving

The only Gringo Telephone Workers in Guatemala! haha
Just Kidding- we were about to go ziplining

A Special Memory with Caleb
where we got a one-on-one date
and went to San Diego Zoo

Drill Team

Playin' Tetris or Dr. Mario
on the Original Nintendo

Sibs in Salinas
Missing you, and praying for you Dudeh!
Love ya!