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Yes, that really is the name of the town.
Saturday, January 18, 2020
Summer 2017
In 2016 I was obsessed with making everyday memorable and making everyday the perfect adventure for the boys. That turned out to be too much for me to keep up with. In 2017 we had plenty of adventures and a lot of fun but Daddy also realized the importance of just relaxing during the break. Daddy was also kept busy with his class all summer. This year our main family adventure took the form of Splash Kingdom Water Park. Despite going throughout the summer months I did not take many pictures. Water park plus cell phone is not the best combination. Plus I was more focused on making the memories rather than just recording them.
Zoo Field Trip with Curtis, November 17, 2017
Saw this old post in my drafts and decided to go ahead and finally post it.
Wednesday, January 1, 2020
2019 Year in Review
January
Pamela and I ended 2018 with a New Years' Eve date that led to an interesting 2019. We saw live music, fireworks, and danced the night away. January was great, Xander turned 7 and I became 34. I also started to seriously plan an overseas trip to Spain for my students.
February
Curtis became 5. I chose a tour with EF, put an exhaustive packet of information together for my principal and district, and was approved.
March
I took students to see the Hispanic Flamenco Ballet and held my first parent meeting for the Spain trip.
I also chose a topic for my thesis paper to finish my degree and signed up for a free trip to Berlin, Germany with EF to train me on how student tours work.
April
The definitive moment of the year happened on the 10th. I was in a car accident. The accident stopped me in my tracks. I almost did not finish my degree and almost cancelled going to Germany. It was a rough time where I had a hard time being a Daddy who just did not feel well enough to do much of anything. Despite this I did have the chance to go with Jane to Xander's Special Olympics race. He won and was so thrilled.
May
Fundraising for the trip went into full swing at this point. I feel like most of what I did during this period was sell candy like a crazy person, work on graduate school stuff, grade papers, and feel miserable. Toward the end of the school year I decided to take back some of my ambition by taking up a new hobby - studying German. I used Duolingo and other apps to study daily for over 80 days leading up to my trip.
A nice highlight was when we went to the Dallas Zoo as a family for their Dinosaur exhibit. Xander loved it, Curtis seemed bored though.
June
June was about trying to get back to normal, working on my paper, and trying to be there for my boys while studying German on the side. Was I crazy: yes, yes I was. It was about this point though that I told Pamela about an even crazier idea, starting a new degree right after finishing the one I was working on. I loved my time at SNHU and I love my degree in Military History but I now have a teaching job that I love and that has given me the opportunity to take students to Europe, a job teaching Spanish.
We really spent a lot of time researching universities and degrees and then going through the application process with UNK. Finish one Masters and then start another, what insanity.
July
With only one week to spare before my thesis was due I went to Germany. It was a crazy stupid thing to do, but it was magical. I got the rest I needed to come back and attack what remained of the thesis. It was a miracle that it was finished at all and a bigger miracle that it was on time.
The Berlin Trip was the best highlight of my year. It is a magnificent city, I learned so much and had such a great time. The only problem I had was that I missed my wife terribly during the trip, which is why I bought her so many gifts!
Potsdam is another amazing city in Eastern Germany. We were able to visit two different palaces there, one was the site of the Potsdam Conference that effectively created the Cold War World and the other was Sans Souci, the getaway home of Fredrick the Great.
Sans Souci
August
This month was all about back to school for the boys and back to work for Pamela and I. The About Me pictures were meant to be a little snap shot of our boys to help their new teachers get acquainted with our crazy.
End of summer party.
Coming back to school for me meant trying to recruit more people for the Spain trip as well as for the Spanish Club. It also meant preparing to become a student at UNK in their Spanish Education program.
My coworkers took me to a museum of Spanish art and then out to lunch at a French restaurant.
September
I honestly don't remember much about this month. My Dad turned 70, my degree posted, and I held meetings and submitted paperwork about the Spain trip. Between that and the graduate work I was doing, September is kind of a blur.
October
We decided to support the marching band this year by taking our boys to see a competition hosted here in town. It was a lot of fun.
We did less to celebrate Halloween this year than in the past. Central's big event had to be rescheduled due to weather and we did not make it over there.
One thing we did do was visit The Gentle Zoo, always a fun place.
November
November was a bit of a zoo month. We went down to Waco to check out the zoo there and had a wonderful family day at the beginning of the month. Jane really connected with an orangutan and we got her a memento for the day. A few days later I joined Xander on a trip to the fishery in Athens. Over the Thanksgiving Break we followed our tradition of seeing Pamela's grandfather. During the trip we went to the Birmingham Zoo.
For Sophie the highlight was going to a dog park and making some new friends in Louisiana.
Zoo in Waco
Athens Fishery Trip
After our second zoo day of the month my parents came and we had a joint Thanksgiving. It was truly wonderful to have both sides of the family together.
December
Pamela invited me to come to three of her events this year. First was a field trip to see the Nutcracker in Tyler. She worked very hard to plan and execute a Nutcracker themed Christmas program for this year. Several students had the opportunity to watch the ballet with us. Then we went to the Gaylord with her Panther Ensemble. Xander and I went along for the ride and went to the ICE Exhibit with her. The theme for this year was Charlie Brown's Christmas, so her kids watched the movie beforehand and then performed music from the movie on the Gaylord stage. All of the students were then checked out by parents, which left Pamela some time to enjoy herself with work friends and me to wander around with Xander.
After these events I attended Pamela's Christmas Program. It was wonderful, as usual. Several Nutcrackers, including a few that were purchased at the event in Tyler were used to decorate the stage along with some of Pamela's personal artwork.
Once school was out we finally had some time to be with family. We finished decorating for Christmas mere days before the holiday and we took the boys on several outings to look at lights. One of the things we love about Texas is the Christmas light displays. The two big displays we saw both had accounts of Christ's life, death, and resurrection, not just His birth. Both also paid tribute to fallen soldiers.
On Christmas Eve we were able to board a train at a Texas State Park where they reenacted the Polar Express story for us and gave the boys bells.
Christmas Eve
Light Display
We ended the year with a bit of a bang. It is so warm here in Texas that the last few days of 2019 were spent playing outside with our boys.
Here's looking at a great 2020.
February
Curtis became 5. I chose a tour with EF, put an exhaustive packet of information together for my principal and district, and was approved.
March
I took students to see the Hispanic Flamenco Ballet and held my first parent meeting for the Spain trip.
I also chose a topic for my thesis paper to finish my degree and signed up for a free trip to Berlin, Germany with EF to train me on how student tours work.
April
The definitive moment of the year happened on the 10th. I was in a car accident. The accident stopped me in my tracks. I almost did not finish my degree and almost cancelled going to Germany. It was a rough time where I had a hard time being a Daddy who just did not feel well enough to do much of anything. Despite this I did have the chance to go with Jane to Xander's Special Olympics race. He won and was so thrilled.
May
Fundraising for the trip went into full swing at this point. I feel like most of what I did during this period was sell candy like a crazy person, work on graduate school stuff, grade papers, and feel miserable. Toward the end of the school year I decided to take back some of my ambition by taking up a new hobby - studying German. I used Duolingo and other apps to study daily for over 80 days leading up to my trip.
A nice highlight was when we went to the Dallas Zoo as a family for their Dinosaur exhibit. Xander loved it, Curtis seemed bored though.
June
June was about trying to get back to normal, working on my paper, and trying to be there for my boys while studying German on the side. Was I crazy: yes, yes I was. It was about this point though that I told Pamela about an even crazier idea, starting a new degree right after finishing the one I was working on. I loved my time at SNHU and I love my degree in Military History but I now have a teaching job that I love and that has given me the opportunity to take students to Europe, a job teaching Spanish.
We really spent a lot of time researching universities and degrees and then going through the application process with UNK. Finish one Masters and then start another, what insanity.
July
With only one week to spare before my thesis was due I went to Germany. It was a crazy stupid thing to do, but it was magical. I got the rest I needed to come back and attack what remained of the thesis. It was a miracle that it was finished at all and a bigger miracle that it was on time.
The Berlin Trip was the best highlight of my year. It is a magnificent city, I learned so much and had such a great time. The only problem I had was that I missed my wife terribly during the trip, which is why I bought her so many gifts!
Potsdam is another amazing city in Eastern Germany. We were able to visit two different palaces there, one was the site of the Potsdam Conference that effectively created the Cold War World and the other was Sans Souci, the getaway home of Fredrick the Great.
Sans Souci
August
This month was all about back to school for the boys and back to work for Pamela and I. The About Me pictures were meant to be a little snap shot of our boys to help their new teachers get acquainted with our crazy.
My coworkers took me to a museum of Spanish art and then out to lunch at a French restaurant.
September
I honestly don't remember much about this month. My Dad turned 70, my degree posted, and I held meetings and submitted paperwork about the Spain trip. Between that and the graduate work I was doing, September is kind of a blur.
October
We decided to support the marching band this year by taking our boys to see a competition hosted here in town. It was a lot of fun.
We did less to celebrate Halloween this year than in the past. Central's big event had to be rescheduled due to weather and we did not make it over there.
One thing we did do was visit The Gentle Zoo, always a fun place.
November
November was a bit of a zoo month. We went down to Waco to check out the zoo there and had a wonderful family day at the beginning of the month. Jane really connected with an orangutan and we got her a memento for the day. A few days later I joined Xander on a trip to the fishery in Athens. Over the Thanksgiving Break we followed our tradition of seeing Pamela's grandfather. During the trip we went to the Birmingham Zoo.
Birmingham Zoo
For Sophie the highlight was going to a dog park and making some new friends in Louisiana.
Zoo in Waco
Athens Fishery Trip
After our second zoo day of the month my parents came and we had a joint Thanksgiving. It was truly wonderful to have both sides of the family together.
December
Pamela invited me to come to three of her events this year. First was a field trip to see the Nutcracker in Tyler. She worked very hard to plan and execute a Nutcracker themed Christmas program for this year. Several students had the opportunity to watch the ballet with us. Then we went to the Gaylord with her Panther Ensemble. Xander and I went along for the ride and went to the ICE Exhibit with her. The theme for this year was Charlie Brown's Christmas, so her kids watched the movie beforehand and then performed music from the movie on the Gaylord stage. All of the students were then checked out by parents, which left Pamela some time to enjoy herself with work friends and me to wander around with Xander.
After these events I attended Pamela's Christmas Program. It was wonderful, as usual. Several Nutcrackers, including a few that were purchased at the event in Tyler were used to decorate the stage along with some of Pamela's personal artwork.
Once school was out we finally had some time to be with family. We finished decorating for Christmas mere days before the holiday and we took the boys on several outings to look at lights. One of the things we love about Texas is the Christmas light displays. The two big displays we saw both had accounts of Christ's life, death, and resurrection, not just His birth. Both also paid tribute to fallen soldiers.
On Christmas Eve we were able to board a train at a Texas State Park where they reenacted the Polar Express story for us and gave the boys bells.
Christmas Eve
Light Display
We ended the year with a bit of a bang. It is so warm here in Texas that the last few days of 2019 were spent playing outside with our boys.
Here's looking at a great 2020.
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