Home to party!

We went home yesterday for Dan's little brother Johnny's grad party. He is an awesome kid and, as always, I always had a blast hanging out with him and other friends last night. We had an awesome time, ate a ton of great food, and left early this morning to get back in time for a call back Dan had at 1! (Dan is still there right now and that is a good sign!) It was a bummer to not see my mom or Jill while home, but I'm looking forward to the Hengel family reunion in a few weeks where I will get to see them.

Johnny and his girlfriend Maddy

Not what bocce balls are for

climbin'

Johnny has jumping stilts.

Saturday morning before we left for home, we met Megan, Jake, Nori, and Henley for breakfast at Sara's Table. Our food was delicious and our company was great, too!

I'm excited for this week because I have the 4th AND 5th off! Woo hoo! Can't complain about a three day work week : )

Rain or Shine

That's right, I work rain or shine. Shine is better than rain, though. Just my opinion.

Reading goosebumps aloud to them in the loft. They were super calm, as you can see.

Raining outside means game-day inside. Abby bought zombie playing cards because she is so cool.

"I F'ING LOVE SORRY" -Caleb. (just kidding)

Trouble makers playing Uno

 Finally, a nice day! Quick, go to the park!

These are eleven of my goons. Try to find them all.

Oh fer cuuute

A toasty walk home

Show Time

As promised, here are some nice pictures from the wbl alum show last weekend!

Full Cast, Crew, and Band

Before

I'm a little awkward

: )

Sangin'

Our high school director, Mrs Suoja, also performed

Seasons of Love Finale. I had the first solo and was awkward there, too.

It was fun to participate in this neat event. I felt pretty weird about it at times because I feel like I haven't been on stage in ages. Last show I was in was over two years ago! (and it was cats... so it barely counts, haha.) But the audience seemed to enjoy it, which is cool. Suoja said that if it turns out to be a great event she may try to do it every other year. If that happens, I am thinking maybe I will just be an audience member next time ; )

Catch Up

WHEW.

Last week was super crazy! THIS one is crazy too! Last week was my first whole week of full time school-age teaching! Then Friday Dan and I came home on our second anniversary, Saturday we sang for White Bear Lake's fundraising alumni showcase/went to Kristen's grad party, and Sunday I hung out with my daddio and came back to Duluth. Now I am trucking through Australia week and I am the most tired person! : )


Let me tell you about last week. It was Mexico week and we had a great time. I started the week by making passports and coloring/cutting/gluing Mexico passport stamps. We colored maps, painted Day of the Dead skulls, made armadillos and more awesome stuff. For the most part it was nice! The kids are still pretty darn difficult to contain most of the time. They are all individually spectacular but can really bring out the disruptive/distracted/jealous/loud sides of each other. Except for this one girl named Ella. She is the biggest sweetheart. Lauren too.

TAKE A LOOK AT THESE NICE OUTSIDE PICTURES

All the girls

I like low attendance!

ALSO, this week we went to the park!

School-age and Preschool!

King of monkey bars and/or arguing about pokemon

Drama queens and proud of it!

The teeniest first grader

Friday was the cutest little 2nd anniversary of Dan's and my first kiss. Oh shucks. I got us tickets to see Urinetown at the Jungle Theater in Minneapolis and he took us to dinner before. Dinner was scary! I told him I was willing to try something a little more adventurous for food and he totally went all out. WE WENT TO A JAPANESE RESTAURANT. It was this super hip place, our waitress was great and understanding of our trek into unfamiliar territory and we had a great time! We both agreed that the food was a little too weird for our liking, but also that the experience was totally worth it. And then Urinetown was SPECTACULAR. Bobby and Hope were fairly boring but Lockstock and Pennywise were so dang spectacular that we didn't even care. It was such a nice night. In case you forgot, we were both in WBL's production of Urinetown together a little over 3 years ago and that is how we first became good friends. I played Hope and he was Lockstock. He was so good. We both won Hennepin Theater Spotlight Awards for being "outstanding in a leading role" and then got to perform on the Orpheum stage together. It was neat. (I also just realized that the first spotlight award was on June 14th 2010 and that is exactly one year prior to our first kiss - I'll just call it our nega-versary.) So yes, anyway, seeing Urinetown was way sickeningly sweet and such an awesome thing to do. Also, he is cute so I am happy.

Intermission photo. Urinetown, November 2009.

Post Orpheum performance. Nega-versary - June 14th 2010

Summer 2011

June 14th 2012

June 14 2013

SATURDAY WE SANG IN THE WHITE BEAR ALUM SHOW. We didn't feel too great about the performance but based on audience members and generally pretty honest family members (love you mommy) it seemed to have gone pretty well! I will tell you more when I get my hands on some pictures - hopefully soon!



Father's day was lovely. I spent time with my bro and dad at the Kelliher's. Grandma, Grandpa, Steve, Joe, Jeff, and Dennis were there too. A whole family affair : ) I also wore a new dress, so the whole day was pretty great.

disappearing into the green screen

Dad opening his present while wearing g-ma's sun hat

YAY FAMILY

PS. There was a rainbow when we left for Duluth Sunday evening.



PPS. I will do my best to not be so horrible at blogging anymore. Sorry for the lonely week and a half.

Pee

Today I worked my first full day. FINALLY. At the end of my third week here I finally work a full 8.5 hour day. I closed on my own, which went fine. I can totally vaccuum and flush toilets no problem. The only bummer was that the last preschooler was alone for a full half hour after all the others left and before mom picked up - and once mom finally arrived, I noticed that the preschooler had definitely peed in her pants and not told me. Whoops. Pretty professional, letting a kid get picked up in her pee soaked pants. Dangit.

My school age kids are going to be a lot of work. The boys like to rough-house and the girls like to make bffs and exclude others. It is also definitely a different experience that my group doesn't take naps. On top of my exhastion, I have to remind myself that I only had 7 today! WHEW. Live and learn? Spending more time with them as the summer goes on will help a lot as I learn to deal with each kid's quirks. So far I just think they like to break as many rules as possible without getting caught. 

Despite behavior worries, I am really excited for the summer. Each week we are going to study a different country around the globe. Today my project was making passports so that they are ready to travel next week. Each week we will get stamps in our passports, make a map of the country, and then do other little projects to learn about the country's culture. Next week is Mexico week and I have some pretty neat plans. At least I think so.

Overall, I am still really happy about this job. I really like the ladies I work with. They are super flexible, supportive and friendly! Having friends there makes everything just that much better.

Hey! Did I tell you that my car doesn't work? Well, my car doesn't work! I got in it yesterday to head to work at 11 and when I turned the key absolutely nothing happened. I didn't know what to do so, naturally, I called my parents. Doesn't matter if they live 2.5 hours away, it's still the first instinct. Neither answered though so I maybe just cried for like 5 minutes instead. I was the last one out of the house that day since my shift was so late and so I couldn't even beg any of the guys for a quick ride! I texted Dan even though he was at work and luckily he was on a small break between a training class and his actual shift. He was able to come pick me up, we dropped him back off at work, and I took his car to my center. I took it again today and he caught a ride with a housemate/coworker. The preschool teacher at work told me about a garage that she really likes, and hopefully I can get my car there tomorrow. She also said if anything like this ever happens again she and the director are both super willing to come pick me up. What nice people. (Even though they laughed at my stranded-not-knowing-ANYONE-in-town situation)

Thank goodness for weekend.

I need to go make brownies.

Tourists

Yesterday was so beautiful that we decided to be Duluth tourists again. It was seriously incredible outside and I got accidental face sun burn. We planned on just going to the rose gardens and taking a little walk but then we kept going through Leif Erikson Park all the way down the lake walk and to Canal Park! Because of the huge script Dan learned for Vista, he know tons of little facts and historical stories about the landmarks we passed on our walk. Luckily I find all that stuff super interesting : ) We even ate mini donuts while waiting for the boats to come through the canal and Dan got pooped on by a gull! Can't beat a day of sunshine, tasty treats, a little learning and some gull poop on someone other than yourself!

Rose Gardens. No roses yet.

Canal Park - photo taken from the Marine Museum

Lift bridge is up - here come the boats!

Vista Star - Out house mate Jim was guiding the tour so we cheered him on

A humungous salty ship

Bye big boat!

PS. Last night we made bacon grilled cheese. If it were up to me, I'd make some for you tonight - because it was delicious.

WICKED

MY AWESOME AUNTS JILL AND WENDY GOT ME A TICKET TO SEE WICKED IN OCTOBER. It's gonna be pretty darn cool. It'll be especially cool because the whole gang is going, including me, Aunts Jill, Wendy, Holly, my mom, and my sensible cousin Megan. Girl party, girl party. I can't wait.

Alphaba and Glinda - Frandzz 4 Evr

Defy that gravity, grrrl!

Livin' the Emerald City Lyfe.

HOLD ME NORBIE!

 (In all reality, though, I really would like a Norbert Leo Butz hug. Dan would be so jelly, Norbie is his favorite, too. If you care about awesome things, you might watch this video of him in Catch Me if You Can.)

 Jill, Wendy, and I went to Wicked together the last time is came through the cities a few years back. It was a great time then, too, and I am so excited to share it with more great family this time. WEEEE!!!!

Omg so cuuute

Thanks Wendy and Jill! 21 will be an awesome birthday! I won't even miss the annual pair of shoes : )