January 19, 2014

The boys are both back in school and things are returning to normal after a long Christmas break.  Justin was nervous about going back and it was like the first day all over again.  He was even concerned that he wouldn't know where his cubby was or who was in his class.  Since his birthday was during the Christmas break, he was able to take cupcakes in on the first day back.  That meant that I carried them and went all the way to his classroom with him.  That helped him to settle down a little bit.

Ryan was jealous that Justin got to go back a day before he did.  He was also excited to take in birthday cupcakes.  I got pretty sick of making cupcakes, but at least that is done with for awhile.

Friday the 10th I was able to finally get Ryan's hair cut.  He no longer looks like an unloved dog.  Of course with the dry air and the need for hats, his hair is still quite interesting much of the time.  We went with Jack, Charlie, and Nune (their nanny) to get their hair cut while Nune's sister watched Justin at our house.  When we were done, Charlie got to play Skylanders with the boys for awhile and of course they had fun.

This week the boys had a snow day on Tuesday!  We got 6-8 inches of snow and the roads were deemed unsafe for staff and students.  Luckily they have the teachers call in such cases because I never would have thought about a snow day.  Since we walk to school, road conditions are not a thing I think about.  I also don't know what is and is not unusual snow accumulation here. 

Rob had a two hour delay to work, so he did the driveway. 
Good exercise, but his back paid for it later.

Ryan wanted to run around the yard and look for buried toys.

This is the plow that comes around our community to do off the roads. The nice
thing is a little tractor (the one that pulls the garbage trailer) comes by later and makes
sure the driveway isn't blocked from the snow the plow has moved.

I have no idea what Justin was doing.

I made a path through the backyard so it would be easier to cut through
on the way to school on Wednesday.

The kids can sled on the hill during recess so Justin has been taking in a sled each day.  It is kind of a pain to drag it back and forth, but the kids have so much fun.  When we go to pick Justin up, I try to go a bit early so Ryan can get some sledding in. 

Justin's class was studying world religions as part of their social studies curriculum.  He made a little book about Islam with illustrations that are, in my opinion, priceless. Rob and I cracked up over the charity and the fasting pictures.

Faith: Muslims believe in Allah and love Allah.
Drawing says I love Allah!

Prayer: Muslims pray to Allah 5 times each day.

Charity: Muslims give things to poor people.
Drawing shows someone receiving a car!

Fasting: Muslims do not eat when the sun shines during Ramadan.
Drawing shows sad faced figure looking at drumstick in the day,
smiling figure looking at drumstick at night.

Pilgrimage: Muslims go to the holy city of Mecca.
 

Justin's class has students from many different countries and of many different faiths.  I like that he gets that exposure.  One day he was asking me which country is the best and I told him that people usually love the country that they are from.  During our discussion it seemed to click with him that just as he loves to visit family in the States and spend time there, his peers have other places they like to go.  He has friends from the UK, Russia, Armenia, Germany, Vietnam, Korea, India, and other countries.

Wednesday I went to my monthly book club.  I dread going out in the cold dark night, but I always have a good time when I am there.  I volunteered to host in March so I need to choose out a book soon.

Thursday was the PTO meeting.  Again, not a lot of fun to go out in the cold dark night, but it is a super short walk at least.

Friday we got my teaching supplies and some other stuff that had been in storage since Rob and I left Maryland for China.  Now I get to go through it and see what I want to keep.  I think that there will be a lot of things that I am ready to throw out or donate.  Yay!  Less stuff!  We didn't know how this overseas lifestyle was going to work for us so we pretty much put everything in storage since it was paid for.  Now all that is left in storage is our furniture.  I think a lot of that can be donated too, but we really don't want to get that all shipped out here.  Perhaps someplace we will. 

This week I also finally put up my fourth shadow box.  The nail has been waiting for it since about August.  Oops.  I have another empty one and think that in the future I will group them differently.  Two have things that belonged to my grandparents, one has things from Namibia, and the last has things from China.  I have some things from Japan to put in one and some things from Zimbabwe for another.  I have some smaller frames that I want to put some Thai things in.  Not sure how I want them displayed in our future homes, but for now I am happy to be putting small keepsakes and souvenirs somewhere besides a box.