Five for Fridays

Our sweet little baby zonked out on Jessica's chest.  We needed a sitter on Wednesday for about an hour while I went back to work and Brady came from work.  I am super happy that I have a handful of students whom I have taught in the past who I would (literally) trust my whole world with.  Jessica being one of them!

1.  We had a sick baby all week.  Ironically, we left him in California with the Aunties because we thought the whirlwind trip to Michigan would be too overwhelming and tiring for him....  but instead, he ended up staying back and worked on a molar and a bottom front tooth as well as a virus.  He was super fussy on Sunday when we got home (was even fussy while skyping with his other Auntie... which he never is).  On Monday we sent him to daycare, until Mary gave us a call and said he felt super warm, and wouldn't eat anything.  We took him to the doctor where they took his temperature and it was at 103, poor little guy :(  That night as we were bathing him I thought I saw something in the back of his mouth, and sure enough it was his first molar popping in.  So of course, we took absolutely no time off of work to fly to Michigan, but when we get back, Brady had to take Tuesday off of school to stay with Brez, and I had to take off Wednesday morning off of work.  He finally kicked most of it by Wednesday night after a 3 1/2 hour nap.

2.  SYTYCD.  If you see me up on facebook, you know that I am in love with So You Think You Can Dance.  The finale was this week and I was super bummed with the male outcome.  (Although I loved all four dancers, I totally feel it was rigged this year, and America's vote was for Cyrus)!  I am looking forward to going to the top ten tour coming up in October.

3.  My fifth Back to School Night at Valencia!  I can not believe that I am going on my fifth year.  I have seen so many amazing students through out the years, and am looking forward for the many more I will encounter.  I am super excited for this year, because the kids are awesome, and have some really great, encouraging, and supportive parents.

4.  I had a great time in Michigan (for the 24 hours we were there) with family and friends!  I am in love with baby Hannah LaMacchia.  Even though we live 3,000 miles apart, I am looking forward to Breslin becoming best buds with Hannah and Teagan!  (Breslin gets on his play phone every once in a while and we pretend he is calling either Hannah or Teagan... we are working on their names as we speak so hopefully come next weekend he can say them).  And I was so happy to see Lauren and Sean, even though they now live closer than they have before, we see and talk to them waaaaaaaaayyyy less!  I miss them so much, but am looking forward to some great trips to Colorado in the future!

5.  In the category of "things we don't speak of" would include that certain game that we flew back for.  All I am going to say is, I can't wait til tomorrow... when we can finally move on from the weeks before game.  And one of the many reasons I love college football is last week I couldn't stand Notre Dame and the Irish... however this week, I am the Irish's biggest fan!  Let's go Rudy!!!  Beat those rodents!

26 hours of a whirlwind of a trip

 Lauren and me

 John, Dana, Hannah, Sean (hiding in his ND shirt... no hes not a ND fan, but his best friend graduated from ND and they bet on the game every year... obviously Sean lost the bet last year, and had to wear a ND shirt for the game) Lauren, me, and Brady.

Mom and me

Oh... it would have been nice to come out for a quick weekend trip and beat those stinkin Irishmen...  I took some pictures from the game, but I would rather block those moments out of my life for the time being.  So instead, I will look at the positives from those quick 26 hours that we were in Michigan.  We had left Breslin back in California with his California Aunties, (because it was such a quick turn around).  We got in at 6am from the red eye, got into Williamston at around 7:30/8:00.  Took a 2 1/2 hour nap and then got ready to go.  We went out to lunch, then off to look at more MSU apparel (like we need it).  Then we headed off to RuthAnne and Keenan's tailgate.  Lauren and Sean were in town from Colorado, and Dana, John, and baby (whose not such a baby anymore) Hannah were there to tailgate.  We lost track of time and spent about three hours just chatting, eating, and drinking!  We were planning on heading out to see Kathie, but there was no time.  We did, however find enough time to see Brady's family friends and uber MSU fans Lisa and Jeff for a few minutes before the game.  Then that thing called a football game happened.  And it was time to turn around after about four hours of sleep and fly back to California.  It was a quick trip, and even though the Spartans lost to my second least favorite team ever, we still had a good time!

September 11

This day 11 years ago changed each and everyone of our lives forever, some much more than others.  But it affected all.  As I was sitting in my classroom today watching our high school news show and the memories and moments from that day, it brought me back to that particular day and the impact it had on me and the people around me.  I (as will many of you) remember exactly where I was at the exact moment it happened.  For me and my classmates, we were some of the last to know.  We were in our three hour lab class, where our cell phones had to be completely turned off while we were there.  The class started at 8 am and finished at 11.  As we were all heading out for the day, 11:00, 2 1/2 hours after the planes had hit someone told us what had happened.  None of us could believe it.  I quickly headed back to my dorm, and there, my roommate was glued to the tv watching everything on it.  I remember it being one of those things where we were all so stunned we didn't know what to do and how to react.  We still went to practice that day, (2 of my teammates at the time were from New York, so the news hit pretty hard, but luckily all was okay with their families), and continued on.  And as the days progressed, I remember seeing how America came together as a nation and carried on...  We will never forget, we will always remember... and we will carry on. 

What surprised me the most, today, was it has already been 11 years...  where did the time go?  It truly seems like just yesterday.  I scanned my classroom, looked at the faces around me and realized that this moment that has shaped all of our lives and had such a huge impact, did not impact any of these students nearly as much as us (if at all).  These students are 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old... when the planes hit they were anywhere between 3 and 6 years old, but what is cool to see, is they get it... they understand... they know why today is "Patriotic Day" as it says on my google calendar, they talked about it afterwards and we reflected on it.  Today is my generation's, "you know exactly where you were when it happened", just like the generation before it was MLK or JFK assassination.  My only hope is that my students' generation will never have a "you know exactly where you were when it happened" moment.

If it takes me a little longer to get through the security checkpoints at the airport... I remember why... I don't complain, I just wait... I let them frisk me, I let them look in Breslin's bottles, I let them look into my bags.  I don't want a repeat of what has happened before.  Hopefully, at some point today, you stopped and reflected.  You thought of all of those lives that were taken on this day 11 years ago.  Kiss those you love tonight and each and every day after.  Tell those you love, you love them.  Give hugs when you need to.  Never leave on a bad note.. we never know that moment when our last breath is taken...  Live life to the fullest with absolutely NO REGRETS.

We Remember.  9/11

Five for Fridays (or Sunday)

1.  Gotta love a four day week.  The end of summer officially came with Labor Day on Monday, but you wouldn't be able to tell with the weather out here still in the high 90's.
2.  Week 2 of college football is in our midst.  Michigan State's defense looks amazing as ever, and our offense looked a little more in sync.  After watching what happened to the B1G conference over the weekend, we have as good of a chance as anyone to compete for a championship.
3.  As we get more into the school year, I am really getting to know my classes.  I have a feeling this is going to be a GREAT semester!
4.  I covered an English class on Friday... I had to lead a discussion on what are the good things in our society and what our things we need to improve on...  Let's just say the other classes (the teacher said) discussed between 20 and 30 minutes.  I am pretty sure our discussion lasted about five minutes.  I am just going to say I am a MUCH better math teacher than english teacher.
5.  Breslin is continuing with his language expansion!  If you have read my previous posts his three new words are "please" "baby" and "go green."  He can now say "please" when he is reaching for something and I ask him, "what do you say?" and he responds with "please."  It is amazing to see him grow and learn!

Speaking baby!

"Go Green"

"Please"

"Baby"

Of course, we were super pumped when the words "Go Green!" came out of Breslin's mouth on Saturday night.  We have been working on that one for awhile!

Brady and I, as well as Mary (the daycare lady) have been working on the "please" for a little bit now too, because Breslin now does this thing where when he really wants something he reaches for it and screams and whines.  (That's not annoying at all)!  So every time he does that we say, "Please," then we give it to him and say "Thank You."  For whatever reason, tonight he said it about 5 or so times when he wanted yogurt.  We are trying to raise a polite Midwestern little boy (not that Californian's aren't polite), but Midwesterners tend to be a little more outgoing in their politeness.

And the word "baby" came tonight as well.  Brady and I had purchased Breslin a Beluga stuffed animal back when I was pregnant from Sea World.  We had made a little song up way back when and called it "Baby Beluga," and for whatever reason, I started singing it tonight.  Breslin proceeded to say Baby over and over again while holding the beluga stuffed animal.

He is growing WAY too fast!

Heat...

Last Sunday night, our power went out at 9:00.  No reason why, Brady checked the breaker's outside and had to switch the main switch.  Everything was fine.  Monday, the power went out approximately 6 times in two hours, all while the air was turned on.  If the air wasn't turned on the power ran just fine... No big deal, just keep the air off.  It was 106 degrees on Tuesday and Wednesday, so that really wasn't an option.  So Tuesday night an electrician came to the house.  Spent an hour trying to figure out what the heck was wrong, $125.00 later he referred us to an air conditioning guy.  We called the air conditioning guy, explained our problem, he was like, this sounds like an electrical issue, here is a number to an electrician.  FML.  They referred us to you.  They came over and spent two hours to no avail.  Mind you, it was still in the 100 + outside, and the upstairs of our house was 90 + with a one year old.  I was freaking out just a bit on how warm Breslin's room was.  So anyway, on Wednesday the guys came out again, figured out it was something electrical, but wouldn't be able to fix it unless Edison (the electrical company themselves) came to unlock something.  They didn't come.  Another night of 90 + in the house....  Thursday came, and we were headed off to Michigan (thank goodness, get out of this crazy Santa Clarita Valley heat), the problem was, Edison finally came to unlock whatever needed to be unlocked, so now the electrician could come back in and fix what he thought needed to be done.  But we weren't going to be there.  So he tried to fix it without us around to test it....

While the electrician was at our house working on fixing it... we were on our way to Michigan... to get out of the heat...  Here was the issue, the Delta Terminal.... ummm yeah, their air was broke.  Seriously?!?!

Oh wait, it gets better.

We get to Michigan, thinking, oh,  it'll be 80 degrees, with a bit of humidity.  Nope we were wrong, it got up to 99 degrees on Friday with humidity.  Could we not get away from it?  At least my mom's air conditioning worked.

Off to lunch before we head out to tailgate.  We go to Mongolian Barbecue.  We were there for about 15 minutes before the power went out there.  Two times, it's ironic... three times... I'm not sure.  All we wanted to do was enjoy a great Michigan State weekend with great weather....  But what in the world?  I told Brady that maybe we shouldn't go to the game, what if the light's go out there?!?! JK.  We were going to the game no matter what....  Even if it was high 80s with 100% humidity.

The rest of the weekend, the weather was great.  We flew back today and so far... the air and power works.. hopefully our dumb luck has run it's course. 

Stay Cool!

Playdate with Hannah and Teagan

Every time we come out to Michigan, we try and have a playdate with Teagan and Hannah.  Having the Michigan State game be on a Friday freed up a lot of time for playdates and family fun the rest of the weekend.  We headed over to Anna's for brunch (pancakes and these fabulous little egg bacon muffin thingy's).  Hannah also stopped by.  The three of them played and played and played for about two and a half hours.  Inside and outside.  At one point we looked at our poor little California baby (who is not used to the humidity at all) and he was drenched in sweat.  But he was just running around, playing with the dogs, bubbles, the new play yard in the back, going UP the slide and DOWN the steps.  Non stop all three of them were.  The playdate was such a success that Hannah went home and took a 3 hour nap.  Breslin didn't even make it out of Anna's street, he was already conked out in the car within 1 minute, and proceeded to take a 2:45 nap.  Thank you so much for letting us trash your house Anna.  We all had an absolute blast!

Just having a little bit of pancakes with Teagan this morning

The three amigos

Hannah



This was right after Hannah got told "no" by her dad for getting on the table... I think Hannah is telling on Breslin.

Breslin helping Teagan mow the lawn

Teagan

Staredown

Teagan and Breslin exploring the backyard

Group Shot!  Teagan, Hannah, and Breslin

Attempting one more group shot.... ummmm yah, that's not gonna happen

Brady, Breslin, me, Anna, Teagan, Hannah, and John.
 

It is these people, these little ones, and my family that make me want to move back.  It was so much fun getting to watch the little ones play while the mommies and daddies hung out and talked.  I can only hope that Breslin will be a "long distance" friend with Hannah and Teagan.  I look forward to the many visits that they will have with each other, but feel sad we can't do it all the time!  We love you guys.

First Spartan game of the season!

Me and Christina in front of the new portion of the Stadium

The new part of the stadium... Kick A$$

The Yarbrough ladies in full Spartan spirit

In the stadium... it was a warm one!

The new LED Screens were AMAZING!!!!

Justin Hovis (one of Brady's former baseball Wildcats is now on the Spartan baseball team), all of the MSU teams were out on the field prior to the football game

17-13

Pre gaming it at the house before the tailgating began

Yarbrough Spartans!

This pic is for your Scott!!!  Mady looks great as a Spartan girl!

Tailgating (that was my gym teacher in elementary school)!

mmm... beer and food

Michigan State 17 - Boise State 13

It was a stressful game but MSU eeked it out with a W.