Quick Successions: New Mexico Edition

Hannah's school has a program where students can earn prizes for book reading. She had the goal of reading 30 books to her teacher for a prize, but she took it further and picked out her prize in advance. This dog was the object of her desire. After several weeks and much anxiety over whether she would read the required number and pick it out before someone else, she finally had enough points to bring home this dog. She named it Rainbow Party Polka Dots. It is a nice addition to the family. The day before I left for New York, she drew me this. It is us listening to music. Probably on Spotify. Me sitting in a hotel lobby in New York while it rained heavy cold rain. Eventually a friend called and we met at a restaurant for appetizers and good conversation. The weather was yucky but the conference was good. I need to renew my passport for summer travel. I was having a hard time finding someone to take the passport pictures in Albuquerque. I went to this Duane R...

Hannah had spring intercession and we went to the movies, visited Santa Fe, and had a little bit of a celebration. Sadly, we did not take anuy pictues at Easter. The top picture is inside the oldest church in North America. Built around 1610. Since March 15, I have been to Kansas City, Kansas; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas (twice); and Fairfax County, Virginia via Regan National Airport (twice). The purposes of all of these trips was to present work and to gather additional data. The scariest trip was to Kansas City where they murdered a guy in a parking lot on the street where I was staying. It was a nice part of town too. And that trip was hard because there was nowhere to buy food. I walked a couple of miles one of the days and found a little market. But it was hard. I found a Starbucks at one point and went into buy a pastry or something and they were out and I don't drink coffee. The worst flight was coming back from the Washington DC area the se...

Hannah's school had their awards assembly a couple of weeks ago. She got two awards for math and reading achievement. She wanted a perfect attendance one, but I kept her home several days before Christmas because she was sick. I told her not to worry about it, she could just try third term. Then, I go to walk her to school last week and the police were rushing to the school and a firetruck, so I kept her home until everything cleared out. I know enough from working in schools that they are just going to make the kids stand outside in the cold and that's what they did. Apparently there was a fire alarm and they resolved the issue. I took Hannah to school expecting that she would get a tardy, but the office people told me to just take her class, so I guess we are still in the running! When Hannah is not at school she spends most of her dressed as Batman playing with legos. The five-pound weight in the background is for her to become strong. She also got glasses over Mar...

On December 23, we had a special pancake breakfast. Red and green flapjacks Scrambled eggs Bacon For Christmas Eve, we cooked two pizzas we bought the day before and had a program designed by Hannah.  Opening Song Picture a Christmas Drawing Activity Stable and Manger Intermediate Song Feliz Navidad Story Time Christmas Story Closing Song Jingle Bells Closing Prayer Gift Exchange Movie Beauty and the Beast Christmas The next day we found some gifts had been left for us and we opened the rest of what was under the tree. I get up about 7 a.m. no matter what day it is or what my obligations are, but everyone else will stay in bed until about 10 if there is no where to go. It was a long three hours waiting this year, but I made it. The menu for Christmas Dinner included: Seasoned, slow-cooked roast beef Sweet potato...