Maruschak Mommy: May 2012

Allison is Knowledgeable

Allison's 1st Grade Promotion and Awards Ceremony was this morning...

All the 1st Graders received a promotion certificate

Ten of the scholars received certificates for being the 1st grader who best exemplifies each of the International Baccalaureate Learner Profiles. (The IB Profiles include: Inquirers, Knowledgeable, Thinkers, Communicators, Principled, Open-Minded, Caring, Risk-takers, Balanced, Reflective.)

My amazing, wonderful and SMART little girl received an award for best exemplifying KNOWLEDGEABLE.

Here's what her teacher, Mrs. John, had to say...

(It's very heard to hear, so turn the volume up!)

And here is a picture of that amazing little girl with her Promotion certificate and her IB Learner Profile certificate.

I am very proud of you, Allison!!!

Mother's Day 2012

Today is Mother's Day and my 42nd brithday. It's bittersweet as it's the end of what is affectionately known as "Amy Jo Week". Usually Amy Jo Week is the week between my birthday and Mother's Day. But, since my birthday falls on Mother's Day this year, I declared Cinco de Mayo as the official beginning of Amy Jo Week... and my husband (who knows what's good for him!) dutifully played along.

Saturday, Cinco de Mayo, the beginning of Amy Jo Week, began with margarita's (my favorite!), fajitas, pico de gallo, a guacamole. A great homemade dinner! One Tueday, my sweet husband brought me a bunch of flowers. On Wednesday, during a power outage we celebrated with a birthday cake. (We'd planned on being out of town this weekend, so he'd gotten the birthday cake early!) Thursday Jim had taken off work so we could go to breakfast together, but alas, motherhood interfered and we ended up with very little sleep and a very sick Carter to take care of. We rescheduled our weekend trip and spent Friday and Saturday resting and caring for sick/recovering kids and even Mom didn't feel so great.

And now we're at Sunday. Mother's day. My birthday.

I was offered breakfast in bed, but I decided to get up and enjoy the morning with my family. Breakfast included copious amounts of bacon (a Maruschak family tradition for all celebrations!). And for a follow up they showered me with gifts.

Thirty-three posts (so far) on Facebook wishing me a happy birthday...

I am feelin' the love.

What a nice day.

Card from Allison

Another card from Allison

Cards from James

(with art by Allison, James, and Carter)

Cards by Carter

Pandora Bracelet from James & the Kids

Cookbook from Allison's Class

Picture made by Allison at School

DUST STORM!

Wednesday afternoon at Carter's soccer practice we noticed some dark clouds off to the south-east. I was excited... maybe it would rain?! By the end of practice the dark blue and grey clouds had turned an orange-ish pink... DUST STORM!! It was close so we loaded quickly into the car to get home before it was on top of us... But we were TOO LATE! We didn't make it even halfway home when it was on top of us and after near zero visibility as we were driving by a dirt field, I elected to pull over into a neighborhood and "hide" behind a wall.

We watched the storm from the safety of our car and got a little nervous about the blowing trees near us...especially after we saw a limb break on a tree just a short block away from where we'd parked!

And then the rain started... first one drop on the windshield, then another, then another, then... just like that the rain was over leaving nothing but dusty drops on our car! After 15 or 20 minutes we decided it had calmed down enough to driving home... but it was still dusty and windy!

When we arrived home the garage door wouldn't open! YIKES! The power was out! It was still daylight, about 6 pm, but it was dark because of the storm. So we lit some candles and let the kids choose something from the pantry for their dinner. Allison had cereal while Carter chose poptarts. Then, my wonderful, sweet husband who had planned on celebrating my birthday early because we were going on a weekend trip and wouldn't be home on my actual birthday, declared that all the CANDLES had given him an idea! He brought a birthday cake out from its hiding spot and we had CAKE for desert be candle light!

The power came back on after an hour or so and the wind calmed down. Fortunately, none of our trees lost any limbs. One of our corn plants was blown down, but we propped it back up and I think it may be alright.

And here are the pictures from the storm...

The front edge of the dust storm about to roll across the road in front of me.

Blowing dust and whipping trees in front of us as we waited out the storm.

Blowing trees and dust to the west of us as we waited out the storm.

My awesome husband with my birthday cake...

A perfect desert during a power outage!!

Remnants of the "rain" we got during the dust storm.

(And a cute little boy inside the car.)

Bloomin'

Spring has SPRUNG!

I was out watering the garden yesterday and was amazed by everything that is growing back there!

Here's the grass looking pretty good (thanks weed & feed!).

Sissou tree is getting big.

Octopus Agave with its giant stalk!

And the hose that is perpetually stretched across the yard so I can water the garden daily.

Blooming hibiscus!

Each flower blooms for only one day.

This is the most flowers I've ever seen on it!

Look very close and you'll see a couple of buds on my
gardenia bush.

There are at least 12 buds so far...

They smell so good when they bloom!

This bush was my mother's day present last year. :-)

Oranges on the orange tree!

I love this orange tree!

It blooms in February and smells so good.

Then we get to watch the oranges grow.

They will be ripe and ready to eat on Christmas.

Ears of corn are already growing!

(And it's not even July!)

A small "slicing cucumber" is growing.

I LOVE garden cucumbers!

Here's our first "burpless cucumber"!!

And here is our "bottle tree".

Every spring it starts to green up...
and then it loses half of its leaves.

This year, with some extra TLC from Mom,
it is looking really good.

But let's face it, everything grows better
with extra TLC from Mom.

And that's the end of the tour of our Bloomin' backyard.

Eager Helper

This morning I told Carter that after school today we were going to vacuum under the cushions on the couch. He responded with and very enthusiastic, "I want to vacuum!"

So I let him!

Here's the story:

This is what happens when a family of four eats chips, crackers, etc. on the couch...