A day that will go down as...anti-climactic (A Memory for my daughters about Covid 19 Quarantine)

I woke up early as usual, got my coffee, turned on Alexa for the news and started typing away. That was pretty typical in my position as an Innovation/Technology specialist at Anderson Elementary. I woke up because I needed to make some tweaks before I sent out my "masterpiece" for others to take a peek at, having no clue what a big deal it was going to be for me and I clicked SEND to a few Instructional Support Coaches and my boss. It wasn't really a masterpiece, so much as a format that I wanted to share with my teachers on what their lesson plans might look like if we were to move into e-Learning.

The Toilet Paper we got from HomeDepot

The signs of Covid 19 started in the months before. Covid was in the news, but we had heard it before from SARS, H1N1, etc. Tony said that masks were being hard to come by at Home Depot. Our friend who, sold dental equipment mentioned that he could't keep mask in stock cause they were all shipping to Washington State. A friend at work who said she had some insider information, said that she knew that schools were going to be closed. Then Auntie Kaylee, a Sophmore at ISU, was told not to go back after Spring Break. Just the Wednesday before "Covid Day", I had booked a $200 round trip flight to San Francisco at the end of April to see my new baby niece. Then of course, there was the "run" on toilet paper at the stores...Luckily Tony had gotten a new shipment at work, and I told him to pick some up cause our Amazon shipment said that they would not be fulfilling it. My mom was currently in California waiting for my sister to have her baby girl and I was nervous for her to get stuck there.

Friday, March 13th, will be the most influential days I think that I will ever have in my teaching career and ironically that was the day that my niece was born, so I will always remember. After my tweaking, I got to school and found every single 1st and Kindergarten teacher that I had not yet gotten a hold of and said that I wanted to get their students into a program that we call SeeSaw, to get the students ready to use that tool independently. It was a "hail Mary" but I needed to know that if we had to go remote learning that these students "kind of" knew how to do that.

It was becoming around 11 and I got a 630 number, so I answered it. It was our Teachers Union president, he said that he needed me to come down to the Administration office immediately and that I needed to keep it quiet. My heart was racing and my adrenaline was pumping. I casually got my stuff and said that the needed me in a "meeting". On the way, I called my mom and told her that I thought that they were going to bring me to the Superintendent and "rip me a new one" for causing panic to the masses by sending my "masterpiece" ideas along to 20 teachers and ISC's. I assumed that this would be a small room with a few people. Not a small room a big room...The Board room.  I turned the corner and was met with applause and cheering. My upper lip started quivering and I almost started to cry. The room was filled with Admin and, Instructional Support Coaches from all grades, people that I had admired throughout my 14 year career and they were grateful for ME! This group had been brought together to create the very plan that I had already started. My name and work was brought up when the task came at hand, and it was suggested that I be brought in to assist.

I felt like we were in the "situation room" at the White House, we were planning and "what if"ing  tweaking to make a more robust document for our teachers to plan instruction for 2 weeks and was to be sent out to teachers as soon as it was ready.  While I was creating with these ISC's, Anderson Elementary and the rest of the district, was being told at noon, by email, that they needed to send all Chromebooks and essential supplies home and that the students would not be back for 2 weeks. Looking back on this now, I am very grateful that I got to "be in the room where it happened" but guilty that I wasn't there to help the teachers, or get to see the students one last time. The day ended at 430 and when I got home the Governor had announced that schools would be closed till the end of March.

My last day with Kindergarten Teachers

The weekend will full of creating and planning and thinking. . Monday morning at 7am, I was at Anderson and ready to help those teachers to show them every single tip and trick that I could think of to make this two weeks be as successful as it could be. I taught See Saw, Screencastify, Google Meet, Google Forms, Google Classroom, you name it...I felt so needed and loved and appreciated, but did not leave till about 530 that night with maybe just one pee break. That night I took the girls to Sam's Club because I had a computer monitor on my wishlist, so that I wasn't having to stare at my little screen while working. I made this an essential item for these 2 weeks and I honestly think it was the best purchase I had make in 10 years.

I woke up on Tuesday ready for this exciting day of e-learning and to get some energy in me, I drove to the Gym, but it had already been closed down for the foreseeable future. So I headed to Walmart to get one last cord for my monitor and for some reason a cute pair of shoes...not knowing that that would be the last time that I stepped in a store in 68 days from today.

I enjoyed being home for a bit... I like sleeping, I liked my commute up the stairs with a cup of coffee. I do take a shower, get dressed, put on makeup, just to have a sense of normalcy. I have been so grateful during this remote learning time that I have been able to be helpful, not only to my teachers but to teachers and leadership across the district. I was even more honored when they  asked me to assist with professional learning to help them with those tech tools that they needed. It has been very rewarding for me to feel so needed and appreciated. I have absolutely loved my work that I had contributed.

As for the world....its a roller coaster. People being told to stay home and Netflix it out. 2 weeks was fun, but had I known that I would have stretched my Tiger King binge for a few more weeks. Schools were closed through the end of the school year, so as I write this we are at March 70th. With Restaurants closed, we try our best to eat out local as a family 1x per week and I have been making it a tradition to go to Big Apple Bagel every Monday morning from Bagels and Coffee. Reagan's 9th Birthday was a huge success with ordering out for dinner and a surprise Birthday Parade with all her friends and family. I hope she always remembers that.

Tony's work has been very busy. Being a disaster relief store, people are using that to paint their house, work on their garden and many other things that people need to do to keep busy and not bored, not exactly essential, but I understand peoples need. Unfortunately, they are also giving their employees lots of paid sick time, so they are  short staffed, which makes every one of  Tony's' work day "Black Fridays". He is tired.

Reagan has her school work, she gets it done, but needs an extra set of eyes on it to make sure it is completed properly. Braelyn has a folder of papers that we give to her, 2 per day and usually a video from the pre-school. I am so lucky that they are old enough to just need me sometimes, and  for the most part they know that when I am working they are to go be bored and go play. We made a rule that at 9am you will be off the iPad, dressed and ready for school. I had high hopes that the school work would last all day, but Reagan is usually finished by 11am. Reagan and Braelyn are getting along pretty well considering that they have to be each others best friends till whenever we can break out of this.

Each week we look forward to choosing a local restaurant to eat out at. Easter is usually full of people and good food hosted at our house but that weekend we kept busy by creating drawings on about 20 of our friends and family's driveways and then ding dong ditching them, if we didn't get caught. We had a nice breakfast of creapes and Mimosas and Tony smoked a ham and Mac and Cheese. We look forward to Zoom calls with our friends every so often. The strangest thing is drinking while Zooming and then getting off and realizing you were actually alone the whole time. Thankfully the girls have also keep connected with family and friends through FB messenger and phone calls. They have even come up with a way to play hide and go seek. The girls got caterpillars that will turn into Butterflies so that is something to look forward to. They miss their Grandparents, so on day 60ish, we snuck out and had a driveway party with Baba and Grandpa and then the next day Grandma Deb came for dinner outside.

We are so so so fortunate to be riding this out with food on our table, warm beds at night, a large house to spread out in, a WHOLE lot of alcohol, and knocking on Springtime. We know that not all families are as lucky as ours. We hope that this will bring us and others back to the simple things in life. I like to be a optimistic that this will allow people to connect to their families, value education, value their health, value receiving a paycheck, value work, value freedoms that I do think that we took for granted.

Zooming with our family

Had to keep busy some how

Lines outside Home Depot (Only 100 let in)

Gas is sooo cheap. 

Reagan's Birthday Parade

Our ding dong ditch Easter Weekend

Auntie Kaylee made masks for the masses! 

A Gif for our PD that I created...oh Lori! 

The Caterpillars

Reagan's New Loft Bed made by Daddy

Zoom meeting with her Pre-School Class

Oh the Lori Lightfoot Memes

Girls and I made a Scavenger Hunt..that was only day 5. 

This was just funny, so I made it into a meme with our friends. 

Breaking the rules with Driveway Party with Baba and Grandpa

We are more alike than different RIGHT (or LEFT?)

My Mama says "Don't talk about sex, religion or politics?" I just don't know if Mama knows that's best.

I am obsessed with politics! Tony rolls his eyes every...single...time that I bring politics up, which is pretty often. Yes, even to strangers. Sometimes he will give me a warning not to talk politics, cause he might just not be in the mood to have to listen to it. The banter, the questions, the topics, the learning, the wondering...My favorite!!!

I have said it before, that I feel that I live in a bubble of Northern Illinois, I am surrounded by the deepest "Blue" within 2,000 miles. Since "that day", I have read, and researched, and asked questions that I have never asked before. I didn't "get it" and, sometimes still "don't get it", but I have tried to change because now I LISTEN to others, instead of secretly rolling my eyes.

Maybe it is because I have gotten older, or maybe it is because of all the questions and listening, but I realize that I am certainly not, duh, duh duh...a Democrat. I thought I had to be because I was a teacher; pro-union, pro-education, pro-big government. The thing is that my mind has changed a bit, and that is ok to do! (NO really...)

Don't get too worried, because I am def not a Republican either!!! Oh no, no, no. Pro-choice is my number one reason...sorry not sorry.

I think..think... I have convince my husband too that we are Libertarians. We believe if you want to have an abortion (or in-vetro fertilization), its your body, your choice for your family and the government has no reason to tell you what to do. You want to own a gun, good for you, just get a license and don't freckin' kill anyone.  You want to be a hooker and get paid for it, Work It Girl (might just want to wrap it up).  You want to send your kid to private school, sure but make sure it aligns with your beliefs. You want to go to college; Coo, coo, best work at JCPenney to pay for that shit, just like I did.

The last election, I stayed "quiet" (but not silent) because I was so cocky and sure of the results. A smug eye roll and assuring glance at Tony every time it was brought up. But who was smug on November 9 crying in their bathroom at 5am...me! So this time is different, I am going to ask questions, I am going to try to understand, I am going to attempt to convince others of my opinions, in my most respectful and resourced way. I am going to try my best to convince, OR not be so naive.

My challenge for you is to not keep quiet and be smug. I encourage you to respectfully ask questions and sometimes you even have to say "I am just trying to understand your opinion", or "I don't have a lot of information on that, can you tell me more". Sometimes you do have to fact check to see if their sources are current if you don't believe something (thanks Android phone) but maybe you want to check to see if YOU were misinformed..opps!

I don't have a news station, so the best I can do is a Facebook group titled "Let's Step into the Other Room (and talk politics)" in honor of my brother in law and my political talks that are always greeted with eye rolls and "you aren't talking politics again". So we take that cue, grab our drinks, and head into the other room, and always with respect for one another, will talk politics and even send text talking about our favorite political topics. Todd, you have taught me a lot about seeing others opinions, so thanks for participating. I hope this group too helps move everyone's learning and processing forward in the respectful way that I have tried to have over the past 3 years in my political conversations. Feel free to join us, invite others, chime in, or just observe.

I believe in LISTENING, sharing your opinions/perspectives/backgrounds, be willing to change your mind, or even be willing to "agree to disagree". This is where we can realize that we are MORE ALIKE THAN DIFFERENT.

A Letter to My Children's Teacher

To the hard working Educators that have and will teach my Daughters:

First of all thank you for all that you do. This job is fun, hard, exciting, exhausting, mind blowing, exhilarating, full-filling, and draining, but always rewarding.

There are a few things that I want to do my very best to promise to you:

1. I promise to always call you by Mr., Mrs., Doctor, or whatever other name that you wish for my child to call you, because we are not friends. You are my child's teacher, and I want to show you the fullest respect. My child will call me Mom, and Dad, will be called Dad.  They will never call us by our first names EVER!  I will never call my Dentist, Andrew or call my Gynecologist... Jenny. Therefor in person, over email, at the Costco, and the Bar on Friday night, you will be called Mr, or Mrs. Whatever...ALWAYS!

2. My child is always wrong.....
Until further investigation by adults occurs, I will ALWAYS believe you. Even if you are wrong, my daughters will never know the difference. I will never assume that my child is telling me the truth, as children most likely do not have the maturity to admit fault for their wrong doings. If they did they would probably not need to be in school,  and would be driving, or have jobs. I understand that teachers do not send emails, make phone calls, or ask for meetings on Friday afternoons, unless they absolutely feel that there was a problem with my child.  I am certain that you have better things to do, like creating lesson plans, analyzing data, or giving my child feedback to make them more successful. I thank you for contacting me regarding my child's behaviors, as I am fully aware that my child is NOT perfect, and that telling a parent that their "precious" being was not being respectful to adults, children or property in school, is NEVER an easy conversation to have.

3. I value your feedback
When you tell me that my child is struggling with being kind to others,or their  multiplication  facts are difficult, bringing a healthy snack is a challenge, or their reading fluency is poor, or they are having difficulty   making friends,or her desk is a hot mess, etc, I promise to do everything in my power to make sure that I am doing everything that I can to help them. I appreciate you bringing this to my attention,  I am sure that you have data, observations, and have had conversations about my child on how to make them the best that they can be.
Recommending websites, resources, etc, are greatly appreciated, and I know that it took a lot of time to gather those for us. Thank you for involving me in the conversation, as this child will be forever mine (and maybe in my basement at one time) and any feedback that I receive in regard to their social and academics is amazing.  Grandmas only tell me how wonderful they are...they/we are biased, so an outsiders perspective is beyond appreciated.

4. I promise to never talk about you in front of  my child or on Social Media: 
Just as I would never want you to talk about me in front of my child,  I promise to never talk about you in front of them either, as this makes my child seem that they do not have to respect you, because I am not respecting you.  I am sure there will be things that I will not agree with you upon, but I will either keep those to myself, or confront you. If we can not agree, I will then follow the chain of command and go to your principal, but I will never go behind your back or above you, because we are adults.  Good or Bad,  no one deserves to have their name posted on Facebook/Twitter/etc, without their knowledge (ex. I got Mrs Hernandez, I heard she is strict). Teachers are not celebrities, and certainly do not get paid like a celebrity, so they should not be discussed in public forum as celebrities are.

5. I will never buy you something with an Apple
Teachers do not get paid enough, and if I knew that you needed more Sharpies, or pencils, or crayons, I would buy you that, just let me and other parents know, I am sure that those markers will be used  by my child, as she is a Marker Whore just like her Mama! For the holidays, I will never buy you an apple key chain, or a soap set...Do Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks sound ok?  If I knew what kind of liquor that you liked, I would buy you that....

Thank you for everything that you do for my child. I absolutely could not teach my child... in fact...do you have any plans for Spring Break???????

Kind Regards,
A fellow Teacher and Parent

Are they just words?

Words like crybaby, flake, low life, low IQ, clown, dummy, phony, dopey, weird, slob and so many more, could all be accusations that are brought to me by 3rd graders on a daily basis. The way that I as a 3rd grade teacher handle this, is to bring student forward and have a chat about only using nice words to our friends at school. Usually at this point in the year, we have a whole class chat about how we need to treat our classmates with respect and that name calling is not the way to get what you want. We talk about how in fact, it make your classmates not want to be your friend, because who wants to be friends with a bully? And no, these words were not used by my 3rd graders, but were used by some top political officials.

I am at a cross point that I wonder if this seeming correct advice that I give my students is complete crap? Am I wrong, do adults get ahead in life by slinging insults to make other feel less then they should and this get what they want?  Do men and woman in board rooms scream "clown" across the room and miraculously everyone is willing to sign a million dollar deal?  At Best Buy, does a customer call my husband a "beaner" and all of  a sudden Mr. Hernandez gives them that television at the discount that they asked for? At United Airlines, does my mom give a customer that had problem with their flight a flying voucher because they call her a cunt?  Is that what I need to teach my students how to convince other to get what they want?

Why the hell would I vote for you?  You felt it was acceptable to re- posted on your personal Facebook from the Rotten Illinois Politicans page about "Jelly Butt Pritzker etc, etc, etc.". Even though I have never voted for a Republican in my life, I almost voted for you, because I thought you had some great ideas about how to make Elgin be successful. However, from what I observed you feel that insulting someones weight helps to prove your point about political issues. In my opinion, you need to work on having some better ideas to convince me to vote for you. Give me facts about your work, ways your going to bring jobs to Elgin, and make our downtown better, instead of criticizing someones weight...because you lost my vote with that irresponsible repost,  and I will work to let everyone I know not to vote for you either. Sorry not sorry, please be better.

I tell my students,if you are witnessing something that is not ok, you are just as guilty. If you do not speak up and say something, then you are guilty too. So when people ask my political opinion, I say that some people treat others in ways that I can not defend, and if I don't speak up an say something than I am just as guilty.  How can I preach one way to my students and own children, and then believe a different way in my leaders. Melania Trumps initiative is called #bebest. I will keep working on this initiative in my classroom to teach my students ab, out well-being and social media use and I hope that my friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, school districts, and elected officials will too. I will  be voting this year: I will vote for decency and kindness, no matter what your political party.

Do you know what Innovation is?

Maybe  I am naive, or hopeful, or maybe it's because I have entered down a dark rabbit hole and I am freckin' going back...

Have you seen the latest iPhone...I don't know what number they are on now, maybe like 13 or something, but point being that we don't have these anymore
... and thank god, because I don't think that brick does Snapchat...or even has the Dunkin Donuts app on it. Have you heard of Amazon? Did you know they are not popular for just books anymore? They have innovated their business to make it better for their customers....

See, companies have to make their products better, if they didn't then they would be out of business.  They are CONSTANTLY evolving, they have to. Why can't teachers evolve, why can't we ask our customers/students what they need and make it work for them? Why don't we ask our parents what they want to see from their child's classrooms? Students and parents are our customers, why don't we do what every business does and ask them. 56l

An Innovation Specialist is a teacher, that works within schools to  help teachers create lessons engaging, real world, hands on, "techie", collaborative, project based, community involved and FUN! When my 3rd grade students need to understand why we have to learn multiplication, we can create a  hands on project that requires them to create their dream house with game rooms and luxurious bedrooms with pools in them, and 5 car garages. We can then use the tiles on the floor to show square feet and discuss how they can use that measurement to map out their 40 x 200 foot bathroom. Then we have them use centimeter grid paper to shrink down their mansion to fit onto a poster paper. We then have them decorate their house with expensive furniture that they researched on the internet with only a budget of $10000. After that they might understand the purpose of multiplication

If they are hesitant to learn their multiplication tables,we can create a land of wizards, that earn shields, satchels, wands, wizard hats, crowns, and wings for every multiplication table they conquer. With this simple change, we can get even the most reluctant math students to be begging to be  We can teach elections not by reading about them in the newspaper, but by creating a real life caucus. We can fund raise for our field trip by creating a business plan with advertising, and charts, and calculations to show them how math and speaking and listening and writing are all connected.  The problem with all of these projects is that there is just not enough time between the follow up phone calls to parents, the chat in the hallway with lunch monitors, planning supply list for next year, the interventions, the grading giving of test, the grading of test, the recess duty, the PTO meetings, and on and on, and on.

This position that was almost, is my DREAM job, it's what I know that I am made for. Last spring and summer, I was fortunate to teach a class called Innovation Inside the Box, which district teachers took to be able to learn about ways that they could be innovative in their classroom lessons. It was so amazing to see that teachers sometimes just didn't know where to start, they were afraid that they couldn't align the standards to these projects, and that they had to read their lessons out of the manual. It was incredible to see their projects that they created to make their classrooms interactive and exciting not just for their students but for them too. I wish that I could have been with them to help and adjust and give feedback right there while they were teaching, that is what an innovation specialist can do.

I know what you are thinking, this does not sound like what would happen in a school, but maybe what would happen in a business when a consult comes in to spark some ideas and give feedback, you are absolutely correct and why not?  Teachers need to learn, and collaborate, and reach out, and create too; just like a business does.

A perfect classroom to me, is a classroom where students are working in groups, making...something, maybe it is a poster, a cardboard marble run, a map of their new land, an online game they created,  a math project that uses real world problems, interacting and collaborating with students across town on a project via their laptops, graphs with data they collected for their writing pieces, etc, etc, etc, and of course there is more that I don't even know about YET!

The problem with this new position is that our Learning Resource Directors positions were in jeopardy. Now, before we get on a debate about libraries/librarians being obsolete, I have to say that I am not NOT anti-library or anti-librarian. If you have ever read the brochure, or walked into the most beautiful library in the world, Gail Borden in Elgin, you will see that this is not a place to be quite and read books. Those librarians have created a magical world of everything that the families of Elgin could ever dream of. There are games, their are robots, their are computers, their are STEAM activities, their is crafts, a creativity lab, their is a 3D printer, their are movies, there are diversity seminars...this library has evolved, just like that iPhone 19. We need to be better and although our new district plan is start, it is still missing that teacher collaboration piece that elementary school teachers need.

A perfect classroom to me, is a classroom where students are working in groups, making...something... maybe it is a poster, a cardboard marble run, a map of their new land, an online game they created, a math project that uses real world problems, interacting and collaborating with students across town on a project via their laptops, graphs with data they collected for their writing pieces, etc, etc, etc, and of course there is more that I don't even know about YET!

Even if I were not to get my dream job, I NEED this position in my building. I need some someone to bounce ideas off of, someone to throw the Hail Mary to and then get feedback from, someone that has some time beyond emailing parents about missing lunches, to create "stuff" and would also have the time to align my crazy ideas to a standard or more, and be able to justify the lessons with test data. Teachers are busy, and we all want to do better, but especially in the elementary school there is just not enough time.

Best Summer EVER!

Ever since we had Reagan, I have staked that that summer was the best ever, but every summer does just keep getting better and better! I feel that every summer, I get my Mama Mojo and we take on more and more kid adventures. Every year Tony gives me a huge eye roll when I ask "what do you want to do this summer?" I guess I don't blame him...                                                        

Swimming at Lords Park Pool

 I tell people all of the time that I have the best job in the world. Teaching is very rewarding and I truly love it. I can't complain...I get about 4 months a year off People! Let's not lie, I have earned it! When the summer comes, I do feel that full relaxation of not "working", even if I did work 17 full days this summer, which is a lot in teacher world I like to call summertime for teachers, "working lite", because I can't help but check my emails, or my Twitter, or pin 500  teacher ideas on Pinterest. I can't complain about "working lite" because it gives me some time to reflect too.

Aunties

Primrose Farm

In the summer, I can stay up late, I can make plans on a weeknight, I can do my grocery shopping anytime I want, I can binge watch the Today show till 10am, while drinking 2, yes 2 cups of coffee, and the best part...I can pee when ever the hell that I want to! (This is a true teacher problem!) This summer, I probably should have done more reading, and working out, and more library trips, and more healthy cooking, and more cleaning of the house. AND... I think that I spent a little too much time drinking wine,  and snapchatting, and watching the Bachlorette, and I probably ate way too much guacamole, and let Reagan spend too much time on the iPad, and spent too much money, but we lived life too! 

Molly Swimming in the Fox River

Ears Pierced!

Prior summers were fun, but I feel that I was either pregnant, breastfeeding, worrying about nap schedules, or working my two other jobs. This summer, we still consider the naps because they are ESSENTIAL! But now, Braelyn is finally potty trained, and I am able to throw them some fruit snacks, and juice boxes and we are off for our adventures. They are both at such a curious age and I feel that they can actually appreciate all of the hard work that goes into these adventures. Other summers, we would lug everything to the zoo. You parents know; stroller, sunscreen, breast pump, 40 diapers, wipes, bottles, snacks, formula powder, baby water, 3 tops, 3 bottoms, umbrella, 50 toys, 2 sunhats, and the babies! Then, when do you leave? Nap is at 10-12, then there is the 3-4 nap, then bed time, but we don't want to sit in rush hour traffic, but we have to be back for bottle number 5 cause we have no more milk! (Sorry Casey...) All that so that we could say we were being "great parents" and "taking our kids out for these "grand" experiences"...how foolish we were to think that they would remember even a bit of all of that, or all of the preparation that we did! 

Cousin Love!

Jammie Walk

First Fire in our Firepit!

Camping for one night! 

White Sox Game

I am going to try to enjoy these summers because I know that in not too many years, my girls will not want to go to the zoo, or to the farm, or to the movie in the park, or camping in the living room. Just like all well-rounded pre-teenagers/teenagers they will want us to take some expensive airplane ride to some white beach far away, so that they can put headphones on, and try to ignore that we are their parents. I know soon enough that there will be summers that it will just be Tony and I going to the zoo again, because they will be working, or off with their friends, or moved out. I want to enjoy this time now.  So till that day comes, I will continue to make lists every summer that we want to accomplish, and I will try not to forget "Tony and I time" in those adventures, and we will do our best to check them off because sometimes the list doesn't get completely checked off.

New Ferris Wheel at Navy Pier

Baba and Grandpa

Touch the Pacific!

4th of July Parade

Beauty and the Beast at Festival Park

This summer was unique. I think that I reflected a lot about living life to the fullest! I wanted this summer to be about "Carpe Diem". I want to enjoy my children, my husband, my family, our friends. This summer solidified that we love our little family of 4, and as much as I cherish all of the beautiful babies that we get to love in our life, that "my" babies will always be in these two spunky little girls that we have been blessed with. Unfortunately,"the best summer ever" is almost over. Thank you to everyone that joined us on these crazy adventures, and let me know what you want us to put on the list for next year!

Swimmin' time!

Date Night at ENLL

Anniversary Dinner

Uncle Bret's Baseball Game

Strawberry Picking

Boat Races

An Ode to Strong Woman

Does being a strong woman mean that you are a bitch? Maybe it is, but if being this strong woman means that I get to be part of a group of amazing grandmas, moms, sisters, aunts, cousins, and friends than I guess I will stay in this bitchy/strong woman group. This might seem all great and wonderful, however this group is very complex. This group can shock me; piss me off, amaze me; inspire me; make me laugh; make me stream in hate, and makes me who I am.

I always struggle with being a strong woman, because I use to think that it meant that you had to be really athletic, and always play with boys. I think even in middle school I didn’t want to even be a girl. I would always wear my Dad’s sports shirts, so that I could try to be at least “girlie” as possible. As I have become older and a wife and a teacher, and a mom. I want for my theme of being a strong woman to show in many ways. I like to be around strong woman, I like to do things like dance in the kitchen and go down scary water slides, to show the world that I can still be a girl; but not be afraid to be brave and strong, and scared, and nervous, and mean, and sappy, and loving, and strict, and myself. I know that when I wake up every morning I want to be a strong model for those eyes that are always watching me, sometime there are four eyes, and sometime there are more!

Our family had another grandma loss this week. Tony's grandma Toni, passed away, and I would definitely consider her a member of this strong woman club that I get to belong to. She was a spunky soul that surly learned a lot from raising 5 kids. There are too many stories to tell, but even though her English was not very good, she always tried her best to say a caring word or just be all together. She loved her family, and for that I will continue to be inspired by her. She will truly be missed, but I know that her soul carries on with the incredible family that I get to be part of.

My own grandmother was a strong woman. She is my inspiration. She was much less "judgy" then me. She tried to understand things before she made a decision. She was stubborn, but she knew what she wanted and that was that. She always loved to read and learn. She always told me never to say “hate” about anyone, no matter what. My Baba was just as strong, but more on the stubborn part. She would actually tell others what she thought of them, which surly got her in trouble. She was ambitious though, she survived a German work camp during WW2, but strived to make her life better in America. For that persistence, I will always be grateful for the sacrifices that she made for a better life. Both my grandmas were amazingly hard workers, that must be where I get that from.

This theme with strong woman continues in ALL of my Mamas! My own mom was feared, and probably still is, in our neighborhood growing up. She doesn't F around, but is still loving and caring and would do anything for us. I remember in elementary school being mortified cause she once stopped the car and broke up some kids fighting in the middle of the side walk. Funny thing is, that is ME! As an adult, I would have done the same thing! The kids at Corron Elementary school know when MRS. HERNANDEZ is coming! Tony's Mom persisted. She had 3 kids and would do anything for them! ANYTHING! She still does! She reminds me to be more compassionate to my own children, and sometimes I need that. She reminds me that no matter what, your children are always your babies and you will do whatever you can to be there for them. Judi, Tony's stepmom, shows me that you can have a balance, you can be a great mom, and still be a great worker, but keep your family, your home, your friends. This is important part of being a strong woman...otherwise you can't be!

Friends are where I get to keep my balance. Sometimes our adventures are park play dates, sometimes "girls night out", sometimes it is mini-vacas! My friends inspire me to be a better wife, mom, employee, and friend. We bounce I think we would all agree that more time could be spent together, but we all do what we can. I am so lucky that all of these people that I get to call my friends (and even sister, or sister in laws). We are all on this journey to strong womanhood, as they are all there for me in many different ways and I hope that I am there for them too.

Being a strong woman can get you in a ton of trouble sometimes, because you are not afraid to say and do what you think is right, even when you are wrong. All of these people inspire me, and as we get to reflect on our loss of a matriarch this weekend, I am grateful that I got to call her Grandma, and that her efforts will not go unnoticed in this family. I strive to be, and continue to show examples of strong woman for my daughters. We surly need someone to carry on this bitchiness!