Odds & Ends

Here we all are... not too bad considering the camera was on a timer and I had to do a
mad dash through slippery leaves to get to the table.

2011 has had its share of ups and downs. The biggest up? Baby Jessa of course! Jessa has brought so much joy to our house. She  has 7 people in house spoiling her and that doesn't count the grandparents! The kids have been fantastic with accepting our newest (and last!) child into the family and while adding #6 has been a tough adjustment for me (more so than any other except maybe #3), one smile from her and that is all forgotten.

Jessa and I do a lot of waiting in the car for the other kids while they attend activities. I love my iPhone for its entertainment features alone!

A little light humor in a school year that has been very challenging. Can you tell what he went to
 work as for Halloween?? Answer at the end of the post

And the biggest challenge of 2011... the earthquake.

Doug moved positions in our school division at the beginning of the summer. He is now the Assistant Superintendent for Administration. The job had a learning curve to begin with if the school year had been a typical one but it has been far from typical. On day 7 of school everything changed when an earthquake was felt up and down the east coast and the epicenter happened to be right in the same small town where our high school and middle school are located. I was at the middle school at the time (downstairs under the desk with another teacher and a class full of students) and Doug was in his office (upstairs and thought the building was going to collapse while he said the people downstairs didn't feel it as much), Brynn was at her school (minimal damage there), Nyah and Jessa were at my parents ("Grandma's things fell and broke.") and the boys were in PA and didn't feel a thing.

In less than 45 seconds two of our schools were damaged to the point that reentry was not possible and the decision is still up in the air whether or not they will be fixed or new schools built. The damage is awful. Thankfully no major injuries and having seen the inside of the school they say is the better of the two, that is a blessing. Our house had minimal damage... a few broken items and cracks but we were fortunate there as well.

School resumed miraculously two weeks later with the destroyed elementary school moved into trailers at one of the other elementary schools. The high school, also destroyed, now shares the middle school building, with high school students going M, W, F from 8 until 4:50. The middle school students (where I work) go Tuesday, Thursday, and every other Saturday from 8 until 4:30. A modular high school is being constructed in front of the old high school (basically a lot of trailers) and should be open February 1st so then both schools will go 5 days a week with 30 minutes added on to the school day. Hopefully a long term decision will be made soon.

So back to Doug... he has been forced to make a lot of decisions in areas he is not familiar with and while he knows you can't please everyone all the time, the whole situation is stressful. Still I know I am not alone in saying that he is a great person to have helping lead our school division during these very challenging times. Hopefully in February life will calm a little bit ~ then again our lives are rarely calm. Right now we will just pray for no snow so we can have our Spring Break and get that beach vacation we couldn't take in September.

Okay, one more shot of some cuteness.

She didn't stay little long! She is such a babbler and a nosy Nellie!

And one final candid...

The kids going down the basement on Christmas to see the new ping pong table.

Looking forward to 2012 and all it has to bring! He was a ceiling fan!  Happy New Year!