{Catching Up Is Hard To Do}

I’m going to do my best to play catch up today. Trying to find a free moment to blog has been rather difficult these days.

This past week as I sat in class, one of my classmates and I were discussing the summer class schedule. I asked him if it was bad that I was fully counting down to the end of the semester, only because this is my first semester and I have a few more ahead of me. He kind of laughed and said “nope, we are ALL on a countdown!” I have to admit, that made me feel a little better. 

I will share that going though the Master’s Program is a bit tougher than I originally anticipated. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t expect it to be a walk in the park but I guess I was hoping that there would be some sort of transition. Things are a lot different and sometimes I feel like I am 10 steps behind. It’s been an interesting start to say the least. The good news is that in about 4 weeks, I will be done with my first semester as a grad student!!!

Okay enough about me! 

There have been a few things going on at Casa de Mall.

First and foremost,

We CELEBRATED St. Patrick’s Day!

I guess the first question would be

“Did I make corned beef and cabbage?”

The answer to that would be

HECK NO!!!

Poor Jason is deprived every year because my Mexican heritage stomps all over my Irish roots when it comes to this meal!

I AM NOT A FAN!!!

I think this year he kind of forgot about it (shhhh don’t remind him) because instead of eating a traditional Irish meal, we were treated to our first crawfish boil of the year!!

As Travin would say

“I tell you what, that was some good eatin’!”

   

Did I mention how much fun 1st grade is?!?!

Last year we got to make our very first St. Patrick’s Day hat.

It was such a fun project to do with Kalyssa that I couldn’t wait to do it with Travin. Trying to come up with a clever design for the 1^st Grade St. Patty’s Day Hat Contest was a bit interesting but after a long visit to the craft store, we finally figured out a plan that was “boy acceptable”.

Once again I missed out on an {embrace} moment. I actually thought about blogging at the last minute because we did snap a few shots on Thursday but I didn’t want to leave Bryanna out of all of the fun and her snap shots didn’t come until Friday.

This week we celebrated the end of the third 9 week grading period. It’s so hard to believe that we are now in the final stretch of the school year!!!

The kids have been working really hard this whole year. 

Bryanna set two goals for herself at the beginning of the year. The first was to have perfect attendance and the second was to keep a straight A average. I am beyond proud to share that as of this moment, she has achieved both of her goals!!! She is more determined than ever to make it to the end of the year.

Kalyssa was recognized as an all A honor roll student. This quarter was extra special for her. Last quarter she missed getting an A in reading by a couple of percentage points. These 9 weeks she was determined to get her A back. She worked extra hard to push up her grade and it all paid off because she was presented with a BUG (bringing up a grade) award without letting any of her other grades slip.

Mr. Travin received his third A/B honor roll award. This quarter was an extra special moment for Trav because he also recived his very first BUG award. We have been putting in a lot of extra time at home trying to master some skills. We have been working really hard on reading, writing and math. There have been moments of pure frustration. There have been moments where we had to walk away and try again another day. We have even shed a tear or two. However, one of the things that I have learned about my son over the past two years is that he is a fighter. He doesn’t quite know how to give up and after he has had his moment to let it all out, he always comes back ready to tackle whatever is in front of him. Travin brought up his math grade from a B to an A which gave him all A’s and 1 B on his report card!!! This was a huge moment for Trav. He worked so hard to earn his awards and I can’t even begin to explain how big my smile was I watched him cross the stage. Although it probably wasn't as big as his =)

I bet you were wondering what in the heck happened to the uniforms. Well, the special reward for meeting the AR (accelerated reader) goal for the 3rd 9 weeks was a day in regular clothes. Of course our two "smarties" took complete advantage of that prize!