I'm taking the challenge.

Found a great challenge on one of my favorite blogs.
I resolve to get in front of the lens more often. Really. Even if it doesn't come out "just right".
Here's the first one!

oh spanish 4.

seniors are a fun group to work with. they are smart, and work well, ask great questions, and you can reason with them like adults. the tough thing is, is that once they are just right, and you work together so well, it's time for graduation!
today i taught the last spanish grammar lesson for these guys, along with a brief overview of when Cortés arrived in the New World. imperfect subjunctive. it's a beast,and i was not messing around. they worked through the whole lesson with me, (even on the day they got their yearbooks!) asked great questions, and they were able to do it! Seriously, the lesson went off without a hiccup! and i told them, "you can't move on now. we finally understand each other!" it's that time of year again, so bittersweet! i am going to miss these guys.

AND THEN... I saved this message. Never posted it. I am home tonight, just after graduation. I am SO VERY PROUD of those guys. I will never forget you, class of 2010!!

18 months old.

Hannah Lynne is 18 months old today.
She is tall and strong, with curly brown hair and still has her daddy's blue eyes (with a teensy bit of brown in the middle, thanks, mom!) She has a mouth full of teeth, a big smile, and sometimes a dimple under her right eye!
Her favorite things to do are:
Run around!
Drink milk, water or iced tea when she can get her hands on it!
Dance!
Watch for birds and planes (she's so good at it, sometimes I am sure she's got radar)
Play in water of all kinds.(the bathtub, the dog bowl, fountains at the Spectrum. And the dog bowl. Over and over again)
Eat breakfast. Cheerios, muffins, toast, bananas, Hannah is up for breakfast at any time!
Empty drawers: my teaching supplies from the desk, tampons from the bathroom (she hides them like Easter eggs, weird) my shoes (I am hard pressed to find a matching pair of flip flops most days, unless I keep them up high) and the lids from my pots and pans. She likes to put the wok lid on Gus while he sleeps. It's his "hat".
Hannah loves to play in the sand, climb on the playground, and she goes down the slide all by herself! I am pretty sure if she ever ran away, that she would run immediately to the slide at the park. It's for sure the first place I would ever look!
Hannah loves to watch Sesame Street in bed in the morning with Daddy. Elmo is her fave! (We are so happy that she loves Sesame Street. So many of the other kid's shows are kind of weird.)
We also just found out that our little Hercules can "wheelbarrow" around the house on her hands if Daddy holds her feet. She is SO STRONG!! I'm pretty sure that she'll go crazy for gymnastics if we get her in a class soon!
Well, that's a wee lil update on the little lass. I can't believe it's been a year and half already. Good news is, most of the time I feel like we're getting the hang of this. Except for the sleeping thing. My fault. I should be in bed. Nighty-night!

Service Day

It has been a long couple of weeks, lately, as the school year is winding up at the beginning of June, work on the shower finished up, we are gearing up for groundbreaking in the backyard,and Hannah is faster and smarter than ever... nothing is left unturned! And I continue to find fun things in fun places. Today, one of her shoes was on a shelf in the fridge. I think she snuck it in there while I was getting stuff out for dinner.
But, the good news is: today is Friday! And even better, today was Service Day. Twice a year, my awesome school takes the day off from classes, and teachers and students alike serve at various sites throughout the community. The Spring Service Day is my favorite by far, because the juniors and seniors host "Day of Dreams" - a special day where students with disabilities of all kinds come and make friends with one of our students for the day. They play games, color, work with clay, dance and sing on the stage in our performing arts center, make music, and have lunch.
I was stationed in the art room, and couldn't have been happier helping students and their buddies play with clay all day! I thought of Micah all day long... I played with clay, watched a car show that was running on the projector, and then headed out the AMAZING car show they had set up in the lower lot. (Can't believe I didn't get a picture!) He would have loved my job today!
But, my favorite thing to watch, by far, is the singing. I had to go check out the "performance" in the Nechita Center, where our students and their buddies were rocking out to "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. It's fun to watch them all be rock stars for a day!
I needed this day today. It's a great change of pace, yes, but kind of humbling too. I was out of my element for a while today, trying to communicate with deaf students. One of my students, accustomed to having me translate things, asked me to ask his buddy a question. Then he realized that I don't really know much ASL! I was so wishing that Julianne was there to help! But, thank God we remembered how to finger-spell... problem-solved! I totally enjoyed the challenge, and I know it was good for my students to see me struggle with communication and prevail in some way. I still felt really pretty shy about the sign language for most of the day. I am so used to noise (and a lot of it!) in my classroom that I had a hard time paying attention without the sound. Our classroom was almost full, and it was reeeeeally quiet! So, I just watched. Totally enjoyed taking it all in, and I'm pondering many things in my heart still. I love my job on any given day, but it was a special blessing today, being able to serve alongside my friends and my students.
A great start to the weekend. Oh, the weekend. It's finally here, gracias a Dios.

nope, we needed that.

micah and i wondered if it was frivolous to buy a dust buster when we could just use the vacuum to clean up the cheerios hannah was dropping last summer.
now that she's a full-blown toddler with the motor-skills to destroy a piece of toast/spill her beans and rice/fling pasta, etc in 4 seconds flat, we are realizing that this was definitely NOT a waste of money! I use this thing at least 4 times a day!
Now, if only they made a tiny robot to run behind Hannah and put stuff back when she moves it... it's unbelievable where I find things! Like this morning: my brush. in the dog's water bowl. outside!
Though we are really busy, I love this stage of life,and my curious little one!

i heart trader joe's.

I know, I know, every one hears how much everyone else LOVES trader joe's.
Initially, it was not the ideal place for me to stock up for the Nourse home. They do not sell Coke. Nor are there any baby diapers there. I can buy all of these at my neighborhood Vons. BUT, I can also buy just about anything else you can think of at Vons... resulting in a HUGE grocery bill. Eww.
I heard a Trader Joe's ad on the radio challenging the listener to come in and see if they saved money on their groceries shopping at Trader Joe's. YES! It works!!! I save at least 30 bucks each time! Seriously!

And, each time I shop there, I find more things that just make me happy to shop there!
1. sweet potatoes, already peeled and cut in the form of french fries!
2. the triple berry bran muffin mix (Hannah's absolute favorite, even more than the ba-ba)
3. blueberry bread, so awesome for toast (Hannah's second fave)
4. the lemon yogurt. and the greek yogurt too, but the lemon yogurt is the best I've ever had
5. the samples!
6. pizza dough
7. i like how not all the meat comes in those gross styrofoam trays. hamburger comes in exactly one pound square, i love it!
8. 100 calorie dark chocolate bars.
9. their coffee, though it all comes in whole bean. then i discovered the grinder. works much better than my blender at home!
10. the raffle for free groceries. just for using one of their cute shopping bags!
11. that they load the groceries for me! saves on my achy shoulder!
12. freeze-dried fruit. hannah will do anything for those bananas... magical
13. their corn tortillas. awesome. taste so fresh. and the salsa autentica. anyone knows how particular i am about my mexican food, too!
14. they gave hannah stickers today. as if she didn't love the grocery shopping enough (because i was letting her snack on the bananas!) it was hilarious watching her figure what those were good for! sticky-ness was so mysterious for her!
15. happy people work there!

cinco de mayo.

Just an FYI, Cinco de mayo (that's Spanish for "fifth of May!) is not Mexican Independence Day (Sept 16!). In short, the holiday commemorates the Mexican army's unlikely victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla on May 5, 1862.
But, I am ALWAYS looking for a reason to celebrate, yes, despite Micah's 6:00 board meeting with the HOA (life is SO BUSY) we did have some fantastic homemade tacos that day, Hannah's favorite black beans, and I had made plans for an authentic coconut rice pudding, but we're saving that for later, along with the chipotle beef tacos with caramelized onions. It was the dinner I intended to make, but I've actually learned to expect a wee bit less of myself lately in exchange for playing in the park with Hannah, or getting the necessary grading/laundry/cleaning/shopping done! Maybe this weekend (or... next weekend?) we'll have our Mexican feast. I'm pretty sure it'll be glorioso.
In the meantime, one of my favorite ways that America commercializes this holiday is Dos Equis' version of the Most Interesting Man in the World. He's pretty much the Spanish Chuck Norris, and I've included of course one of YouTube's finest samplings
but sadly, there is no video for my favorite installment thus far... this year's 5 de mayo ad:
"The Aztec calendar has his Cinco de Mayo party chiseled in"
"The front of his house looks like it was built by the Mayans, because it was"
"The contents of his tacos REFUSE to fall from the shell"
"Cutting onions does not make him cry, it only makes him stronger"
"He has never filled up on chips."
I want to be the most interesting (wo)man in the world.
(It would make my Spanish class FASCINATING.)
Hope you all had a fantastic Cinco de Mayo, too! It's always a fantastic day when we eat Mexican food!