February 2k19 PART TWO

Finally pulled this beloved pink dress out for Carma to wear - complete with the pink and white hat that I wore with it when I was little. Jack and Will were dressed similarly enough to Sam and Cody so we did a little photo recreation in the front yard before church. I was a pretty lucky little girl to have two big brothers to love and idolize and Carma is even luckier that she has three!

And let's not forget my fantastic little brother. I posted this on social media in early February: Today - in between loads of laundry, hiding under blankets to read, and giving my children helpful directions like “find yourself something to eat” - I’m pondering the awesomeness that is (are?) siblings. Because I’m the only girl and I’m also sappy, I tell my brothers pretty often how much I love them and because I’m imaginative and self-assured, I tell myself pretty often that they love me too 😏💁🏻‍♀️🤗. I found this screenshot today of Quinn, and it brought me as much joy as it did last summer when I handed him my phone to take a picture and he also gifted me with all these selfies. I always wanted a little sister but Quinn was even better: he was my best little buddy and confidante but never stole my clothes or had a crush on my boyfriend (although who would have blamed him, Chuck is 🔥). Quinner, I think you’re a swell guy. Just FYI.

A lot of my thoughts about family and siblings at the beginning of February were prompted by the loss of my Uncle Terry, seen here with his beautiful daughter Lindsey. She's holding baby Jack; this was from my cousin Cory's wedding open house a few years ago.

And here's Lindsey's beautiful post about her dad, complete with this darling picture from when she was a baby. Lindsey is the youngest of five, and I love that Uncle Terry looks just as in love and joyful about his fifth child as he did the previous four. I loved watching him joke around and interact with his kids. Terry's memorial service was really lovely; we stood together to escape the rain and listened to incredibly sweet and funny memories of him as a young boy, as a skier and fisherman, as a  brother and dad, and eventually as a very beloved and attentive and involved grandfather. It meant a lot to me to be there and hear those stories. 

This is another picture from the same wedding open house, featuring my Grandpa with four of his children (just missing my Uncle Lon). My aunt Diane and I always joke that Braden girls are strong and can handle anything because they survived growing up with only brothers.

A sweet part of all of this was some cousin time! Quinn hitched a ride with Sam and Terri and their kids to be in Boise for the memorial service. Carma was in heaven with girl cousins to paint fingernails with!

Not a ton of snow this winter, but Jack was always ready to shovel when we got a bit. Pretty cute helper:

I don't remember where we were going when I made these four line up for a picture before getting in the car... I just remember thinking how cute and big they all are and wanting to capture them in these moments of silliness and fun and adventure. 

Jack and Carma created this ... play? musical? something? and we were delighted to sit and watch... for the first few minutes. Pretty sure it turned into improv after about ten minutes and we clapped it over :).

 Harry Potter themed Scout night? Don't mind if we do!

Ahhhh Valentine's Day prep. Love it. (sigh)

President's Day means no school, so we packed up a couple friends and met up with Grandpa in Boise for some fun! First a trip to the Discovery Center... 

then up to our newest favorite spot off Federal Way, Terry Day Park! The kids zip lined and swung and played tennis and ran around and had a blast:

And we finished the day with a trip to the car wash, so couldn't have gotten better. 

Oh, this kid is the sweetest thing ever. Especially when he's asleep ;).

 Cookie Wednesday at Janell's! Today included some piano from Jack and some Mickey snuggling from Carma.

I have no idea why/where Will drew these pictures of our family but they bring me joy:

There's a slight chance that Carma is a daddy's girl. Pretty sure Chuck's a-okay with that.

Found this on insta one day, and it really struck both Chuck and me. Trying to help our kids figure this out - hard things won't be taken away, but you'll be strengthened and buoyed to get through them.

Um, this is slightly terrible but made me laugh SO MUCH. Carma likes to use 'talk to text' and predictive text to send me messages from my mom's phone while she's with Grandma. I'm not sure which one gets the blame/credit for this lengthy text but "b!tc# I want to speak with grandma" pretty much killed me... especially right after "Hey mommy I love you so much" hahahaha.

 Movie night with popcorn, ice cream, and a friend? Lucky kids.

 I have never regretted banning Fortnite from our house approximately ten minutes after it started being a thing back in the day. We like our Minecraft addiction juuuust fiiiine, thank you.

 Every day of elementary school, yo.

This was a very blessed day in my life:

THIS IS ALL OF MY CHILDREN. Holy moly guys. Keep it on the freaking dl. 

 Reminiscing about the times I unroll the window and make Clyde hang his nasty feet outside as we drive home...

Things got pretty real on social media one day haha:

Instagram caption: SO much love in this car 💓☺️. Real life caption: SO much love in this car... also lots of passive aggression 🙃, infringed upon space 👀, lingering resentment from earlier scuffles 🤜🏼🤛🏼, one kid 20mins late to school 🕗😬, two kids 20mins early to school 🕗😅, two kids overdue for baths (jack’s disheveled hair has been disheveled in the exact same spots for multiple days now 😳🤦🏻‍♀️), a radio playing slightly louder than necessary to drown out whining 🙉🎶🎵, and mom-ordered smiles at a stoplight to capture this fleeting moment 📸😍😂. Next up was a quick pep talk about how rough mornings leave nowhere to go but up, we can choose good attitudes and happiness, and a quick family prayer before we parted ways 👋🏼✌🏼. I really love these yahoos and I’m really okay not seeing them for a few hours 😂😂

I think that was my takeaway from this month in general - family is where it's at. It's hard and it's work but those relationships are so worthwhile. I'm grateful for that reminder.

February 2k19 PART ONE: school stuff

February is gonna be two posts, boom, and then we movin' on people. 

Have I mentioned (five hundred times) lately how much I love subbing? Where else can you wander down the hall and get your foot run over by a robotics car?

 Okay, this was rough though... insta caption: Turns out immersion therapy is a bust when it comes to me attempting to not get emotionally attached to movie characters - I watched Everest with six different classes over the course of the last five days (in for two different ELA teachers) and I still cried just as hard the sixth time as I did the first 😭😂🤦🏻‍♀️ (although each class watched it in 40 minute increments and of course the tear jerking moments were plentiful so really I cried like twenty times 😅). This is why I haven’t seen Infinity War, people! (also why I read cheesy romances 😘). I don’t do angst 🙅🏻‍♀️🏔☃️🥶😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 *I did enjoy being a source of amusement to various seventh graders who loved checking in during passing periods to see how much I’d cried so far that day 😑😒🤣

Another insta caption: 

I’m just guessing these flattering sentiments were added to the board before I broke the news that they couldn’t listen to music that period 😏😎 #meanestsubstituteever Also, I love impromptu D.O.L. lessons ☺️👩🏻‍🏫💯

February = LOTS of basketball games watching Clyde. Carma and I got a pretty sweet system down, comprised of tons of snacks, a million little toys, various coloring options, etc. She was a rockstar!

Carma very frequently sneaked up to sit with the 'Spirit Club' members and advisor, Ms. Zanot. 

This away game featured a half time performance by the school's dance team. Carma was MESMERIZED and also tried to keep up haha.

Another away game. Slightly alarmed how many toys she can fit in one purse - Mary Poppins vibes over here.

So fun to watch our cute boy play!!

Chuck made it to as many games as possible, usually leaving straight from there to head to work. He patiently put up with my selfies as well:

Facebook profile pic right here, yo.

But seriously. There were usually two game days a week. We usually stayed to watch A team too. That's a lotta hours... and a lot of popcorn purchased and consumed haha.

Carma eventually even scored some pom-poms as an honorary member of the Spirit Club. Cute!!

Park Ridge PTA hosted a super cute Valentine's Day glow in the dark Bingo Night:

Another evening it was time for Literacy Night! We loved doing the activities and getting to see Jack's work in the hallways.  

Super cute set-up in the gym: tents and blankets and books for some reading time! Loved it.

Literacy Week was dress up week, hence this picture and insta caption: This was going to be a heartwarming post about how Will didn’t have a buddy for Twin Day at school so Clyde happily stepped in to be his twin even though they’re at different schools 💕.... but no one was feeling appreciative of my need to take an early morning picture SO instead it’s a post about their matching shirts and matching non-smiles 🙎🏻‍♂️🙎🏻‍♂️ 🤦🏻‍♀️😂🤦🏻‍♀️😂🤦🏻‍♀️😂

Jack brought home this paper from school (you'll know it's his by his impressive cursive signature up top. Self-taught, nbd) and it's obviously the cutest thing ever. Jack and Carma are such fun sibling friends:

We got to give McKay a ride home from preschool one day, and Carma was DELIGHTED to have a few extra minutes with him ;).

Sometimes you're subbing and your kid digs this crumpled paper out of his backpack and drops it on your desk: 

Insta caption: This cute picture is up on a school bulletin board for student of the quarter 🤩 and I love that he was recognized because he puts so much into being kind and helpful to his teachers and classmates. In his morning prayers on the way to school he’s often grateful for chances to serve and asks for more. Of course, this is also the same child that gets VERY fatigued/slammed by homework/ random tummyache when it’s time to tackle the laundry pile or dishwasher ... but I’m chill with him giving cheerful service in public and grumpy forced service at home 😎😏. We love our Clyde Monster 💙

There's a chance February was a bit chilly and I wore my puffy orange coat like every day haha:

SO fun - I was subbing at Columbia and it happened to be when different food vendors were invited to offer samples for students to taste and give feedback on for school lunches next year. I was taking my theater students on a guided field trip and ran into my uncle Randy! We got to talk for a couple minutes and it seriously made my day. I love him!!

Random fan mail from students - TOTALLY NOT forced or anything. Just off the top of their heads. Their own ideas. Completely.

I mean, this one sounds very legit.

One of the sweetest students made me this balloon flower!!

I found this in a comments section on an educational post on fb, and I didn't screenshot it well enough to include the commenter's name for attribution... and there's no way to re-find it... BUT I think it's incredibly wise and worth sharing. I keep reminders like this on my phone and scroll through them regularly and it's helped me immensely as I interact with middle schoolers.

The end of February brought a change in work for me: I started a longterm sub job at East Valley for a security aide! I was grateful to have been thought of and grateful for Chuck's encouragement and my mom's availability to continue to help with Carma so that I could accept it. I didn't have any intention of working this much when I started at the beginning of the year... and it was hard to give up some other sub jobs (theater at Columbia!!) that I've really enjoyed, but taking the long term security job really felt like the right step.

This was the weather for my first day reporting to duty... did I mention that I spend like two hours a day outside in this job haha?

 Luckily day 2 was a staff dress up day and catered lunch... definitely made the slushy weather worth it ;). Honestly, I could tell from day one that security was going to be super fun!