A Christmas Update

As with many blogs, this one began with the intention of keeping everyone up to date on the happenings of life in Gasper land.  We kind of fell off the wagon of writing regular updates, but since Christmas time is upon us, this seems like a good opportunity to give a snapshot of the past six months.

After we moved into the house, we started decorating.  Travis set up his man cave upstairs, and I pretty much took over the rest of the place.  It has been a fun project (although Travis has had to suffer through numerous trips to Ikea).  Here are a few pictures:

The entry

Where we spend most of our time

The half done game room (notice the picture of Jean Claude Van Damme in the upper right corner)

Our first semesters of school flew by.  I have awesome kids who keep me on my toes, and Travis has a really challenging group of fourth graders.  He told me a story the other day that I thought was really inspiring. 

Some of his kids have unique needs and tend to meltdown easily.  Travis is really good at calming them down, and the other kids have seen him do this.  Last week, one student lost it because he could not find a library book.  All the other kids had left the room to go to the library, but one student came back because he had forgotten something.  This child has meltdown tendencies as well (major meltdown tendencies).  Travis got really nervous to see him come back to the room since the two can trigger each other.  Much to Travis's surprise, this student went over to the hysterical boy and started patting him on the back saying, “It’s going to be okay bud, we’ll find your book.  It's okay.”  The kid completely calmed down, found his book and went to the library. 

Empathy and compassion are not characteristics typically displayed by 9 year old boys.  I thought it was a great example of how the kids learn by example and then put into practice what they see modeled.  It was a good reminder to myself to treat my students with as much kindness and respect as possible.  They are always watching. 

All and all, the past 6 months has been filled with good meals with friends and family, game nights, a great Tim Keller Bible study, Parks and Rec episodes and lesson planning.  We've been thankful for this season and all its simple moments.  Hopefully the next blog post won't be at the end of the school year, but I can't make any promises.  Enjoy the rest of 2013!

A few of the simple moments:

Halloween - we went as Tobias and Lindsay from Arrested Development

Our first Christmas Tree 

Tacky Sweater Party

Same Party

Turning 30 (Travis did this last year)

My classroom door decorated by super cool students

Double Rainbow!!

The Next Chapter

So it's official.  We are homeowners.  It is funny how a simple conversation in the car one day turns into actually looking for, finding and purchasing a house.  We closed last on April 26 and proceeded to haul our belongings on over to Imperial Oaks.  With the help of some great friends and a few professionals the process was fairly painless.  Granted, I (Emily), was at a training on the main morning of the move so I probably carried 1/8 of what Travis carried down the stairs.  He's the best.

We feel like this house is a huge gift from God and is a combination of things that we both were looking for.  Travis wanted a two story, and I wanted something with light.  Travis wanted a game room, and I wanted to have that, "This is home," feeling.  It is hard to put that one into concrete terms because you really only know it when you are there.

So here are a few shots of what it looks like after a week.  If you are in the area, feel free to come on over!

A Candy Monster Among True Candy Fiends (aka 4th graders)

Another epic Peggle battle....lost.  My wife has chosen the spoils of her victory--a new blog post written by yours truly.

I guess it's about time for me to poke my head out of the jungle of a 4th grade classroom (proof it's a jungle--check out my YMCA dance moves in our previous post) in order to write down intellectual and serious thoughts about life in general.

Or maybe I can just show you a music video planned, sung, and partially filmed by the 4th graders at my school.  Yeah, that sounds much more fun.

I love being a 4th grade teacher.

I can't even begin to describe how fun it is to drive to Cut and Shoot, Texas every morning, not quite knowing what kinds of knock-knock jokes, creativity, weird t-shirts, Minecraft stories, or 10 year old drama awaits!  I love that my kids are writing meaningful stories about their worlds and lives.  Their writing has blown me away this year.  One of the more touching pieces was an essay written recently by a student who lost one of his dogs.  I have spent a lot of time teaching my kids how writing is a window into our lives and a way for us to order the things (both good and bad) that we experience.  This boy took my advice to heart and wrote his essay about how his other dog began grieving like a human when he lost his best friend.  It was touching and a little heartbreaking.  Then I had a girl who wrote a story about the time she pranked her grandma by putting flour in her hairdryer.  Laughter and tears.  That's what 4th grade is all about.

Life outside of the classroom is busy and fun.  Emily and I found a pretty amazing nature reserve a mile from our apartment.  It's a good place for walking, talking, and sweating through my shirts (thank you, Texas).  It doesn't hold a candle to the beauty of camping in Wisconsin, but not much can. 

Speaking of camping in Wisconsin, my dad recently sent me some pictures of a father/son canoe trip we took a couple of years back.

Proof that I knew how to set up camp at one point in my life.  I'm hoping that Em and I will be able to test out my skills sometime in the near future!

We will be trying to update the blog more frequently in the future.  I know I will lose many more Peggle battles, since I'm pretty sure my wife has been hustling me!

Starting the home stretch

It seems that we have fallen off the wagon of keeping an updated blog, so in an attempt to not totally abandon the effort, I thought I would write a bit.

I can hardly believe that I just submitted my third quarter grades.  That means that we are down to the last marking period, and the fight to keep kids' attention is in full swing.   The year has flown by.  Travis and I have both had amazing groups of students this year, and we are incredibly grateful to be able to spend our days with these kids. 

Travis coached the robotics team at Austin, and his fourth graders made it to the regional tournament.  They brought home a few trophies after beating out a number of 8^th grade teams.  I was super impressed, and the kids were super pumped. 

The Tournament

The Trophy

College Park, my school, has a world renowned robotics program, and I have absolutely nothing to do with it.  I stick to teaching Spanish and cheering my students on at their sporting events. 

The state STAAR writing tests are next week, and Travis has been working all year to prepare the kids for these exams.  They have made a ton of progress as writers, and last Thursday they had, “Camp Write Along.”  You can see Travis singing below.  Pray for his students as they take these tests.  Sometimes 4^th graders and 4 hours writing exams result in mini meltdowns.   

Looking back over this year, I feel like God has given us tons of opportunities to speak into the lives of these kids.  Whether it be dating advice with the older ones or consoling the younger kids when they are having a hard time, Travis and I see the ways God is working here. I know that the jobs we have here are a gift not to be taken for granted. 

Although we have no idea what the future holds, we are embracing being here now. 

Spring Break in Savannah with Justin and Julie

My newish really good friend Jennie who is a missionary in Mexico came to visit last week.

Christmas in New York

Travis and I were overwhelmed with the generosity of family this Christmas.  We were showered with some pretty amazing gifts, great quality time with extended family and an experience in NYC.  I got to meet my newest cousin, Jacob, and Travis got to meet a whole lot of new people.  Here are a few snapshots of Christmas with the Maddock clan in New York.

Arriving with no luggage.

Seeing the grandparents for the first time since our wedding.

My cousin's baby, Jacob.

Aunt Jackie

My cousin Jessie and me

My cousins Josh and Scott with Travis

A lot of the family (although 3 of my dad's 5 brothers were not here)

Bus tour in the city

9/11 memorial

The Empire State Building

Mom and me thawing after the bus tour

Punched in the Thanksgiving Gullet!

 In short, Thanksgiving 2k12 absolutely slayed Thanksgiving 2k11.  We’re talking an Arnold-Schwarzenegger-as-Conan beat-down.  There was good food, friends, and glorious relaxation.

Em and I both had 9 days off for the holidays.  Not many school districts organize their years that way, and I’m so glad ours does.  One thing that I was not prepared for in transitioning from teaching high schoolers to teaching fourth graders was the holiday hysteria that apparently targets anyone younger than 10.

My last day before the break was a hurricane of hyped-up kids, food, and even a couple of parents.  My homeroom had a Thanksgiving Feast for lunch, which involved a couple platefuls of Turkey, mashed potatoes, and the fixings.  The mixture of unstructured holiday celebrations and vacation anticipation proved too much for most of my kids to handle.  There were tears, near-vomiting, more tears, and a game of jeopardy that resulted in a tiny riot.  Whew.  I was ready for the break.

Em and I went to Jim and JoAnn’s for Thanksgiving.  A couple of months ago, Em was overtaken by some serious Martha Stewart urges, and she has been knocking any and all meals she attempts out of the ballpark.  Thanksgiving was no different.  It was one of the best feasts I’ve ever had.  Mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes, amazing stuffing, great turkey, butternut squash mixture, broccoli crisp, homemade bread…my plate looked like an episode of Hoarders.  To use a common Gasper phrase—“I packed it in.”

Other than eating, we did a whole bunch of TV watching, reading, biking, and relaxing.  That’s what being responsible for the daily well being of so many kids has done to us—we are relaxation junkies. 

Now it’s back to work for four weeks until Christmas in New York City!    

Travis and the Fall Festival

This past weekend we had two fun events.  One, my friend Jennie came to visit.  Houston was a stop along the way as she traveled to Monterrey, Mexico.  Jennie works with The Mission Society and will spend the next 5 years serving in a school.  Here is a picture of her petting a goat (I think it's a goat):

"Where did we come across a goat?" you ask.  At Austin Elementary, Trav's school.  Friday night we all drove out to Cut and Shoot for the festivities.  Here are a few:

 The Live Auction in the Cafeteria

 Bouncy Thing

 We couldn't ride...

 Travis's Favorite Activity

Karaoke- (The Song Firework about 8 Times)

 The Aftermath of the Silly String War