October

James and I are sooo happy we were able to squeeze in our little trip at the end of the September, because October was busy!

To warn you, this next part is all about the nightmare of what my school has gone through over the last month.  If you don't feel like reading about it, skip ahead. :)

For starters, my school reopened after being closed 3 weeks because of severe storm damage.  The Saturday before we reopened the school called all the teachers to tell us that the building wouldn't be ready for Monday, and to call our class and say that Monday would be an all day day at the park.  So I called them all, told them the news, and went to school Monday.  When I got there the school said never mind, the park permit fell through, and to tell all parents that Monday and Tuesday they would need to pick up their children at 11:30.  At this point the school building still wasn't ready, so they divided K-12 into 3 areas.  Some spent the day under a tent in the parking lot, some sat at tables in the one remaining small building, and some sat on the floor in an abandoned old plumbing building.  WITH NO SUPPLIES to teach.  My class was one of the classes sitting on the floor of the plumbing building from 8:15-11:30 Monday and Tuesday.  NIGHTMARE.  Then Wednesday after school the news was broke to us that the contractors had decided our school building was a loss, and we wouldn't be able to move back into it for the rest of the year.  Over the 3 week break they had built a makeshift school for us in the strip mall where our school is located, which is where we have all been crammed now and will be until sometime around Christmas.  Around Christmas k-6 will be moving into modulars in the parking lot(I included a pic below).  We'll be getting 24x26 classrooms in these modulars, which is not big enough for the 28 students and all the furniture I have. However it will be bigger than the room we are shoved in now, and kinder and first have been luckier because 2-6 are all sharing classrooms, while we have our own.  Morale has been very low with staff and students, and teachers have been calling in sick a lot.  Which means if a 5th grade teacher calls out, their partner teacher is stuck in a room with 50ish students.  Students have been missing a lot of school, and their have been a lot of fights amongst jr. high and high school students.  On a good note, my class did have a fun zoo field trip this month.  I included a couple pictures of the class below.  I could go on and on about my school...but I'll stop here.  

The second weekend of October our close friends Jackie & Sean flew in to see us.  They lucked out because the weekend they were here the weather was perfect.  The following weekend it went right back to being hot again.  We ate a lot of great food, showed them the town, and spent time with my parents and Tricia & Michael.  It was a wonderful visit, and we can't wait until they visit again, and for others to come and check out Tucson!  Pictures below.

Speaking of Tricia & Michael, they will find out if they are having a girl or boy November 18th.  Tricia still gets a touch of feeling sick every once in awhile, but on the whole is doing fine.  They have both been really busy with their jobs, but little by little the details for their small ceremony in December are falling into place.  

Tricia & Michael brought their pumpkin carving talents to a pumpkin carving party we had mid-month.  It was a lot of fun, and at the end of it we had 9 pumpkin creations.  James won for creativity, his included pumpkin seed stitches and teeth, and a pumpkin gut mustache. Pictures below.    

For Halloween weekend I drove to Prescott with my parents to see Teri & the family and to celebrate Abby's 5th birthday.  Prescott's trees have beautiful fall colors.  We watched Amber's soccer team play a game, and went to a Fall carnival in Prescott's cute little downtown square.  We got to see Amber & Abby's Halloween costumes, too.  Abby wore Amber's candy corn witch from last year, and Teri went all out this year to make Amber a werewolf.  The best part was the jeans, which had little tufts of werewolf fur poking out all over the place, and a tail poking out of the back.  Teri is great at making costumes (Abby as Ursula last year was amazing!), and she's also an awesome cake maker.  She made Abby a chocolate honey cake with honey butter cream frosting and little fondant bees and flowers. I told Abby Winnie the Pooh would be very jealous.  Teri and Joe have a cute house in Prescott, and quite a menagerie of animals.  3 dogs, a cat, geckos, and a tortoise.  I finally got to meet their bull terrier Mingus(think Spuds MacKenzie) that they adopted a few years ago-he is very handsome! Prescott pictures below.  

So October was b-u-s-y, and now November will be a little less crazy.  We will be spending Thanksgiving here, so that we can spend more time with Santa Barbara family at Christmas.  Have a wonderful November and Thanksgiving!!!  Love to all!  WE MISS YOU!!!!!!!!!