Lovely November 2018

I have some cheery, wonderful picture memories to post for November.  It was a pretty good month. :-)

Here are some fun pictures from a couple different days of Carissa and the kids hanging out on the bed and having a good time.  I'm not sure what in the world they're seeing on the phone that is so funny. 

Elizabeth let Carissa play with her sensory toy.  I can't remember right now what that one is called.  

Whenever I get the kids to do a project listing the attributes they like about themselves or to describe themselves, it's hard to get them to say anything, lol!  I was happy that Olivia spontaneously made this. 

LOOK at this amazing collection of things from my sweet Colorado friend Laura sent us from her stock in the health food store she owns.  She sent us food (including chocolate bars!), herbal supplements, lip balms, medicated balms, herbal teas, bath salts, soap, lotion, cough lozenges, and more.  This was a wedding gift she sent to Carissa and me, and we both agreed that it was the most fun box of gifted goodies to go through ever.  I love Laura; she's an amazing woman, and we were so grateful for the thoughtful gift.

I took the MOGEA, which is the basic skills test that is four-hours long (it didn't take me quite that, thankfully) that is required in order to enter a teacher education program.  This is just the first of several assessments that are required for teachers.  Before I am able to engage in demonstration teaching (student teaching), I shall have to take the MCA (Missouri Content Assessment) for elementary education (then I plan on taking more content exams to become certified in middle school and high school language arts and more), as well as an educator profile, and an evaluation during demonstration teaching.  I underwent background screening and had fingerprints taken for clearance, as well.  I had to also do a background check for the family care and safety registry.  I'll even have to pay for liability insurance before I do my student teaching.  There is so much!

Anyway, I did really well on the MOGEA.  The minimum required scores differ by university but are in the high 100s to low 200s ranges for the four subtests.  I scored in the high 200s on all of them (the highest possible score is a 300).  I dislike taking tests, especially having to stare at a computer screen for so long, but having done well on this set of tests helps me not worry at all about performance on the content exams. 

Gift bag time for the kids!  Isn't Elizabeth's snake so cute?  She loves it and sleeps with it.  She was obsessed with spiders, but now she is all about snakes.

William beat Carissa in tacking up the plastic for the chickens to keep them warm in the cold months.  

Look at this gorgeous sunrise one morning!

Ha!  Looks like I messed up and neglected to put the following pictures on the October post.  Olivia turned nine at the end of October, and she requested plain cake, no icing, with strawberry ice cream. 

It was a great month!  December is coming right up...

October: A Month of Many Happenings

October was busy, but nice.  I'll go quickly here through all the happenings.

Fall pictures.  I was pretty pleased with these.

Carissa and I married on October 26.

We shared two nice couple's lunches, one on the day we married, and another with a gift card we had from something.

We went to Tulsa twice.  The first picture I pulled from a video.  I had to perform several speeches before audiences that I found on my own.  I gave a speech at one of Carissa's grandma's house, another at her other grandma's, two before some of Carissa's fellow workmates, one before a big group of her other family members, and one in front of my teacher education class.  Whew!  I am so glad that is all past me.  I had no idea when I signed up for an online speech course that I had to go speak live before audiences and have it recorded.  I thought I'd be uploading video to my fellow students.  I signed up for the 8-weeks course, too.  Six speeches in eight weeks!  And two of the speeches were long and required visual aids.  That was on top of four other college courses. 

This particular trip did not involve a speech, thankfully.  We took the youngest three kids.  

Mmmmm, something yummy.  I think it was zucchini bread that time.

Carissa started us playing a fun game where we all take turns drawing something to add to an overall picture.  Carissa, William, and I created the following one.  We each used a different color of colored pencil. Collaborated drawing!

Remember when I had the kids make nature bracelets? Well, we did it again, but I decided I wanted to do it this time, too.  I can't remember whether I got Carissa to do it or not, but I know the top bracelet below is the one I made; I'm unsure of the other.

Ok, that's it for today.  Look for November's post soon!

September 2018 Doings

I had done some research on humane zoos in the U.S. and found one called Tanganyika Wildlife Park in Kansas.  I decided we had to go, so we took a trip to Kansas and tent-camped, then visited the zoo the next morning and came home.  It was so nice. It was beautiful, clean, well-kept, and the animals all seemed healthy and happy. 

We all got to choose one "special" animal from a few options that we wanted to feed.  Carissa chose to feed a giraffe.  

This poor, sweet momma monkey kept having to get away from another monkey.  At one point, the other monkey took her baby!  She got her baby back, but I felt so bad for her.  She just wanted to protect her infant.  

 

The kids and I all chose to feed lemurs.  That was so cool!

I really enjoy seeing what Elizabeth brings home from school.  She's such a sweetheart.  

Livi likes to get butterflies on her. :-)

I like to read for school outside on a blanket.  I'm grateful for being able to do this.

Look at this pretty spider!  I think it's a green crab spider, but its legs are not splayed out in the crab-like position.  

Delicious!  This was my chocolate birthday cake and some divine-tasting herbal tea.  I turned 36!

My sister bought me the "Dried Herbs" hanging board last year, and it gets good use.  Carissa is more into drying her own herbs than I am.  I love it!  Purple basil is one of her favorite things to grow and dry.  

How fun!  I brought out the autumn fundana that Gamma Pat got William long ago, and I had the three youngest compete to collect as many items as they could. 

 

October's post is coming right up...