Riviera Maya

Over Labor Day weekend, we went to the Riviera Maya, which is South of Cancun Mexico. It was meant to celebrate the miraculous recovery from my tumor this Spring. It actually could not have come at a better time. We were both exhausted as we boarded our plane to Cancun on Thursday afternoon. The week before we left, my school had a "surprise" site visit from big-wigs at KIPP and Justin was working on some pretty huge matters at his firm. We also had just moved out of our home and into our temporary home at Justin's grandparents house. All of these crazy shenanigans contributed to me forgetting our "good" camera charger in the car, which was at the airport in Oklahoma City. So, these pictures were all taken with Justin's iphone. We also had some pretty pictures taken on the beach by the resort photographers. We ended up doing absolutely nothing but laying on a beach under tiki huts. I played my Nintendo DS (I beat my first video game, Professor Layton and the Curious Village), Justin listened to his iPOD and we enjoyed the perfection that was the Mexican beaches. Our resort was immaculate. We had so much fun!

House Update

Here are recent pictures of the progress that is being made on our new home. We hope to be in by Thanksgiving.

Boys of Summer

We have enjoyed both of our nephews this summer. Andrew has loved t-ball and we have loved watching him love t-ball. Grandmother and Granddad brought Andrew some Yankees batting gloves on their recent trip to NYC and Noah got a new Yankees hat. Look at how adorable they are!
My sweet friend from childhood, Jeannette (along with her husband and adorable son, Cohen), are moving back to Oklahoma this summer. I met up with J and Cohen at Cuppies and Joe for a little afternoon treat. Cohen enjoyed the icing off of not only his cupcake, but also mine.

Building our Home on The Rock

Progress is being made each day on our soon to be new home! They broke ground two weeks ago. The footings and plumbing has been built and it appears that they are nearing the stage of pouring the foundation! Yesterday, Justin and I buried some trinkets in the ground directly below every room in our home. We think these verses will solidify our home's foundation.

(the verse we recited at our wedding)

One Green Apple

I was in New York City at Columbia University this past week studying literacy at the Teacher's College. Professional development experiences like this always leave me feeling a healthy sense of inadequacy partnered with an unquenchable thirst to grow my practice as a teacher.

One of my classes was on whole class read-alouds becoming an avenue for deeper comprehension skills. There is a science to reading books aloud, apparently. I found that there is a great deal of skill work that can be done on very simple stories that can resound as complex ideas about the world around us.

The book that I was assigned to prepare was titled "One Green Apple" by Eve Bunting. I was initially impressed with the beautiful artwork and the simple words. I read it once and thought it a beautiful story. When I went back to figure out what it meant and how I could push my students to deeper inferences and interpretations, I was moved. "One Green Apple" can be so much more than a pretty book with simple phrase. It is a calling to accept those different than you and not to reject those whom you don't understand. It is a commentary on how our differences make us unique, and how our similarities enable us to blend.

Nothing Freaky Deaky

So, last Tuesday I had my first post-craniotomy MRI. It went as most MRI's do-it was cramped and somewhat unsettling, but I got through it and happily spent the rest of my afternoon with my awesome friend Kinsey. On Friday morning, I received a call from the neurosurgeon saying that my MRI IS COMPLETELY CLEAR. That means no tumor, no hemorrhage, nothing freaky deaky, just a brain as normal as can be. Still no driving until the end of July, but I'll take the awesome report until then! 

Rocky Mountain High

 I asked Justin, 

"What are the chances that your firm would open an office in Denver? Like one in a hundred?" 

He said, "More like one in a million." 

and I said, "So, you're saying there's a chance."