"Parental carbon units are heading your way"

--A text from my mom haha

So the parents and relatives descended upon Tucson last week! It was an awesome craziness!! Mom and Dad got here on the 19th and left on the 25th. Some highlights were:

• Teaching Mom and Dad to play Settlers of Catan (the board game that we're obsessed with!) and Mom won!
• Going out to Asian food (Indian and Thai! Jen can handle more spicy food than I can!)
• Casa Mariposa on Wednesday, introducing my parents to the wonderfulness of the their house and unexpectedly seeing Father Matt there! Cece, Maggie, Daniel and Jeff's parents were also great additions to a very crowded but fun dinner! I made peanut butter brownies:)
  
• Going on a run with Mom and Dad through the U of A and showing them around my neighborhood.
• Bringing them to school with me and teaching 2nd grade with them there. The kids were so cute when I was like "Can anyone guess who these two visitors are?" They all raised their hands eagerly and I called on one of them who said of course, "Your parents!!" And and I had the class teach my parents a bit about input and output devices. So fun!
• Going to the Rodeo Parade (the longest non-motorized parade in the US) and finding out I like motorized parades much better because they actually have floats and not just a whole bunch of horses and bands. Seeing Ronald McDonald in a sombrero was entertaining tho! These two pics are from the parade.
• Mini family reunion with Mom, Dad, Bob, Kathryn, Bill, Carla, Don, Elaine, Mario and Kimm at Bob and Kathryn's. Oh and Mom and Dad almost bought a house there!
• Introducing the parents to Barrio Brewery where my Mom and Bill tried all 11 kinds of beers in a sampler! Of course the Razzberry is their best beer. I didn't have to try them all to know that;)

Ok that's enough bullet points. I was going to write more stuff like how we went to San Xavier mission, had a party at our house with everybody, got Eegee's, went to Sabino Canyon, went to Mexican with the Chavez family, had some great meals at Don and Elaine's hotel, etc. Basically it was a VERY busy but FUN week!!!

<-- That picture was taken by Kimm btw. [Bill, Carla, Bob, Kathryn, Me, Mom, Dad, Mario. Elaine in front of Bob and Don is kneeling down]

So, after the parents and relatives took off, our house drove up to Phoenix! We went to go visit Casa Bart who came and visited us in the fall. (and we saw Casa Truth too!) It was really fun re-connecting and having a barbeque. We even grilled vegetables and pineapple! And we went on their roof! It made me want a roof to watch the sunset on. Ok I guess I've always wanted that:)

Anyway, we got back last night and hopefully there will be some downtime before our next adventure. In the meantime, I'm very involved in the book series "The Hunger Games." I read the first one in 3 days and am now addicted. Just like with Dragon Tattoo, Twilight, and Harry Potter, this series has an addicting pull to continue reading!!! (ok it's also written for young adults, but who cares?;)
Sooo yeah that's what I'll be doing!

Gettin Re-Orientated and Stuff

At the end of January, we left Tucson for 5 days to go to Aptos, California. Why does this town sound familiar? Oh yeah, that's because we had Orientation there too! And it was surprisingly about the same temperature even tho Orientation was in August and Re-Orientation was in January! Ok this one was a little colder, but not by much!

Annnyywayyyy so I was expecting it to...well...suck. But it didn't! It was kinda good! (not great, still had to sleep on the cots and be around like 80 people constantly) but it was good. The beach is soo pretty! I miss it living here in the desert...And it was also a great time to reflect on the year so far. We're halfway done!

Before Re-O, I think the four of us were stressing about what to do next year. Not that we aren't anymore, but I felt like after Re-O, we all came away with a little excitement over the opportunities. We have all decided to at least consider a second year of JVC. I am thinking of doing a year in the Northwest (maybe Seattle?) because it's close to home, but would still be far enough away that I could be present in the community there and not get too distracted. I have really enjoyed this year so far--my job, living simply, and in community. I think another year would be great! I'm also torn though because living in Portland sounds really good too. So, for now I have decided to apply to JVC Northwest and I might change my mind later!

Yeah...Re-O was fun. The best parts were sitting on the beach, playing games and hanging out with the other houses, and being in the rain. Yeah I'm weird--I miss rain haha. Oh and another thing was I got to go back to Santa Clara! So weird not being a student there anymore! But I went to the Bronco and saw Cora! And then in the morning I had breakfast with Rachel!! That was awesome!

Now, I'm back at work. It's going pretty well. We got 20 netbook computers through a grant for the school, so I have been busy setting those up (2 per classroom) and teaching still. I'm not tutoring as much anymore since Title 1 has started for both reading and math. I'll miss my little tutor groups, but now I'll have more time for the other random projects that get thrown my way:) Right now I'm struggling with Microsoft Excel trying to figure out how to graph something without gaps in the x axis. Maybe I'll call my Dad...

And the kids are as cute as ever. I missed work on Monday because I was sick, which meant I didn't get to teach pre-k again. They are soo cute I miss them :( But I'm teaching 1st grade today, and they are (usually) good. Little Anthony V. came running up to me today as I walked into school. He said "Hey Miss Devlin! Do we have computers today? And I said yep! And he goes "Yes! I LOVE COMPUTERS! And going to the library. That's fun too!" Aw little Anthony. So adorable.

So, yeah. I also got to see Bob and Kathryn on Friday, that was really nice~ We went to dinner and had some tasty pizza. A whole buncha the Devlin family is flying in next week, so that should be exciting!!!!