October fun

And now on a lighter note ;)

October has been a fantastic (and busy) month for Larsonland.  The past few weeks in particular have been jam-packed with fun.  To start, our trip to Minnesota...

Since we won't be able to make it back to MN for the holidays, it was great to get up there for a long weekend (with Matt being able to go for work thankfully - thank you Medtronic for the free flight!) and spend some time with Matt's family.  We got in late Friday night, and headed to downtown Minneapolis to watch some soccer on Saturday morning:

We then spent much of Saturday with all of the Larson/Vandervort crew at Suzie and Steve's house.  It was so wonderful to see everyone and celebrate the arrival of the newest Larson in a few months!  Good food, great family, and adorable new baby toys/clothes were a treat.

Siblings/Cousins:

Sunday was mostly spent with our fabulous brother and sister-in-law, David and Emma.  They live in North Dakota, but I'm trying desperately to get them to move to Denver.  :-)  I absolutely love hanging out with them, and even just exploring the sculpture garden, the Target Field Plaza, and a Thai restaurant in Uptown was a perfect day for me!

That night we had a family dinner and got some fun family pictures in while everyone was actually there for once!  That doesn't happen often anymore these days...

And a few of Matt, BL, and I:

After spending time with Pam and Emma on Monday, Matt and I enjoyed an amazing dinner at Chino Latino in Uptown with his folks.  The sushi platter came out with dry ice for ambiance, and the desserts had sparklers when they heard we were celebrating the arrival of Pam and Barry's first grandson!  Great food, great atmosphere... if you're in Minneapolis ever, be sure to check it out!

It was a great trip back to spend time with the Minnesota family.  We can't wait to see them again for Sara's wedding in June - and for everyone to meet BL!  Hopefully several of them will be able to come out this winter to meet him too :)

In other adventures, Bryan was in town last weekend for CU's Homecoming game against Oregon.  We won't speak of the actual game, but it was great to spend time with him on Friday night and then while tailgating on Saturday... and Matt and I were lucky enough to score some club tickets (the only way I can watch games anymore!) from my friend Eric at the last minute, so we even got to "enjoy" the game.  

And Mr. Noah even came by to show some CU love!!

Wednesday night also saw the first of our four childbirth classes at Rose (where we'll be delivering in January).  It was actually a really enjoyable time - we both learned a lot and met some really neat couples who are due right around the same time as us!  Every little step is getting us closer and closer to meeting the little guy, and we cannot wait.

And after a LONG, exhausting week, Matt somehow convinced me to go with him to the Rapids game last night (our only successful sports team in Colorado - defending MLS champs!).  It was a COLD night (in the 20s I think), but they pulled off a win, we got to see an old friend, and it was a fun time.  Thankfully, I have no school today, so I've been able to do nothing for the first time in a LONG while... and I enjoyed every second. 

Inspiration

On paper (or google calendar, rather), this week has looked and felt extremely packed.  Student teaching full time, 3 hour class on Monday night, 3 evenings of parent-teacher conferences, one night of book club, and our first of four 3 hour childbirth classes tonight (wait... it's only Wednesday??), and I'm exhausted.  Physically, I'm not doing all that bad... sure I don't get much sleep at night with my big belly, back aches, heart burn, and a dog who tries to snuggle all night with a cone around his neck (under the covers no less)... but mentally, I am spent.  This is also why the "update blog" bullet point on the top of my to do list is going to sit there for a few more days until I have time to weed through some pictures and catch up on all that fun stuff...

But, I have failed to blog recently about how inspired I am by my students... and this is a disservice to myself and my collection of thoughts and ramblings here on the Larsonland blog.  The past few weeks at school have been filled with so many moments and memories that I hope are not pushed aside in my brain once the year is over.  I regret not writing everything down.  I regret not keeping a journal of the things that remind me that I'm doing exactly what I should be doing right now in life.  I know I'll need those reminders someday (likely sooner than later!) when I'm feeling burnt out and completely worn down.

And so, in a far too quick attempt to capture some of my thoughts, I just want to say (to myself mostly) that I am so glad that I chose to go into teaching to work with diverse, urban students.  I honestly have never felt so challenged (I mean, seriously, it is HARD work), appreciated, encouraged, discouraged, frustrated, hopeful, sad, joyful, or inspired in my life.  Two weeks ago I was working individually with a student who transferred to our school from a tough school district where he was prone to getting into trouble or falling into the routine life of drugs and gangs.  After spending an hour studying for a history test together, sharing thoughts on life, and occasionally having to listen to me lecture him on the importance of being responsible for yourself and your academics, I realized that I was witnessing a strong, tough, weathered, 17 year old boy not only become a bit vulnerable, but mature.  I hope to never forget what he said to me after our time together (after silencing three phone calls he got after class ended, a sign of seriousness if I've ever seen one!): "Mrs. Larson, I've had a lot of teachers, but I've never had anyone who really cares about me doing well the way you do.  I've had teachers call me the N word, put me down, or act like I couldn't do anything well because of who I am.  But I know you'd always have my back, and that you believe in me."

I did my best not to cry until he actually left the classroom.

I'd like to share more stories, but I'm not exactly sure how much I can share since I'm in a public school and all... so to respect my fabulous students, I will simply say that on several occasions I have found myself silently fighting back tears after talking with a student or feeling such a gigantic sense of pride after seeing some of their accomplishments that I want to burst.  It's these moments that make me feel like I am exactly where I should be.

No matter how you feel about race or socioeconomic issues, I hope that most people see how youth in our country suffer from vast injustices that are no fault of their own.  When I get to know my students and hear their stories, my heart breaks for so many of them.  But in some small way, I feel like the smile I can offer, the encouragement I can provide, the hope I want to instill, the confidence I try to build, and the skills I hope I can impart will in some way help these kids realize that life can get better. But don't be fooled, these students inspire me in more ways than I could ever explain.  Students who speak multiple languages to relay information between their parents and their teachers, students who take the public bus for 1.5 hours every morning to come to a school where they can thrive amidst diversity, students who go home every night to apartments without heat, or with neighborhood curfews because of violence, or with siblings raising them, students whose only meals may come from our cafeteria... these students, who show up to school every day, try their hardest, and yes, struggle at it, inspire me.  I see the pain in their faces at times, but I also see the joy of learning and dreaming.  And it's an awesome sight. 

If this is how God wants me to chip away at our broken world, I do it happily (though not without exhaustion and frustration of course).

And now that I have all this off my chest, I can rest well and try to prepare for another crazy, but inspiring, day at school!

Quick update: 28 weeks and counting

So, 28 weeks in, 12 weeks left... I honestly can't even read those numbers without serious amounts of disbelief!  I have much blogging-catch up to do, but before I get to those much more interesting posts (including fun pictures from Minnesota!), I thought I'd share some things I've been pondering lately.

Things I love about pregnancy:

* feeling all the little kicks and punches throughout the day (and night)
* let's be honest - the mostly regular intake of dessert without (too much) guilt is not a bad thing!
* taking a nap if I want to (though, this doesn't happen nearly enough)
* the smiles (and hugs) from friends, family, and strangers
* asking my husband for backrubs (or, more commonly, to play with my hair), and getting a usually pleasant response
* having an excuse to peruse through random baby/nick-knack stores
* dreaming about what our little guy is going to look like (especially in all of the adorable outfits we've inherited!)
* hearing "Good morning Mrs. Larson, good morning Larson Baby" from one of my students every day
* the excitement and nerves that come along with anxiously awaiting our SON!

Things I do not love about pregnancy:

* oh how I miss sleeping on my back or stomach...
* one word: heartburn
* one even worse word: stretch marks
* still feeling guilty about gaining too much weight
* the back pain, oh the back pain
* maternity clothes. period.  (though I suppose stretchy top jeans are not all that bad...I could really get used to them)
* not looking like the adorable, perfectly baby-bumped women
* SO many books and not enough time or energy for them all (what on earth did pregnant women do before the printing press?)
* worrying about if our little guy will be healthy
* worrying about how on earth he's actually getting out of there!

Anyway - that's it for now.  We've got a fun weekend ahead, so I must sign off for now and will hopefully find some time to update the blog on Larsonland adventures in the coming days.

Singapore and more

To start things off, here are some pictures from Matt's trip to Singapore!  He had a great time (though of course detested the ridiculous humidity...) and took my camera to take what I can only guess are the first set of more than 2 pictures in a row that he's taken in years :)  I'm so proud!   He got to explore the city a bit, meet some fun people, do a ropes course (that he didn't tell me about til I saw the pictures on the camera... he says I "worry" too much), and eat some crazy food (which he loved, of course!).  I'm so glad he had a great time, but I'm even more glad to have him home. <3

When Matt got back to town on Friday, he met me for lunch (and got to meet a few of my students and see my classroom, which was so fun!) and then basically headed straight to the Great American Beer Festival with a couple of his friends.  While I was enjoying a nice, relaxing dinner on a fabulous deck looking out at the flatirons in Boulder with Kari and Noah (and getting plenty of motherly advice!), Matt was busy sampling many of the 3900+ beers on showcase.  Needless to say, he loved it.  I have no photographic evidence, but trust me, he was in beer-snob heaven.

The weekend couldn't be all fun and games... it never really can anymore, can it?  So, we got a little more work done on the nursery.  Touched up a little paint here and there, put the crib together, painted the "cove" red... slowly we're getting a little more checked off the to-do list.  A trip to Ikea only resulted in a cute $4.99 red hamper for the nursery, but we're still feeling excited about it all coming together.  (We're ignoring the fact that currently, the crib, changing table we're picking up next weekend, and chair we're getting from Amber will not technically "fit" in the room...)

But, back to more fun, we did stop by Mike and Laura's hat party celebrating Laura's 30th and Mike's completion of the architecture exams.  It was a fun time with the fabulous photobooth once again :)

  (not at all sure what face I'm making here...)

I've been busy trying to get my work sample/portfolio together and ready to implement in a few weeks, so school life has been a little crazy.  Pregnancy-wise, I'm entering my 3rd trimester at some point in the next week or so (I think...) and I'm really starting to feel the tiredness once again!  I'm so thankful the heat is dying down, but I hope my energy can keep up a bit longer while I work with my energetic students :)  It could be a long two months if not.  My belly is not all that impressive these days - you'd think being 26 weeks (just about), I'd be showing quite a bit more, but given that I already had a larger tummy than most of my beautiful, modelesque friends and sister, the cute preggo belly that most people get just isn't appearing on me.  But that's ok... I'm content feeling him kick and punch around in there!  We just can't wait to meet him.  :)