Our little Cowboy

Toby has officially begun his cowboy training! He took 2 laps around the barn yesterday! All those piggy back rides from Dad are paying off :)

Fingerpainting!

Toby did his first painting yesterday!

Not happy when it was time to be done!

In other news: I've got my own classroom now! I took over on Monday for Ms. Bauer at Kenmore Jr High teaching 7th grade life science. We're learning about the human body systems right now, and then we head into genetics and evolution (my favorite subjects!)

Toby's first birthday!

We had Toby's little birthday party at our house yesterday. Notice was very short, and only a few people were invited because of limited space and planning time. Layla was the only other baby in attendance! We had a pretty good time, and the little man was such the entertainer.

Toby with his birthday balloon

Can you say "Just gimme a Dr. Pepper?" (already emptied)

The cutest guest

Structural testing of the cupcake was essential before any tasting could be done!

After thorough investigation, the cupcake was deemed acceptable.

Completely unhindered by the fact that this present was bigger than he is!

Dad helping train Toby in the art of aerial assault!

Hard to tell who was having more fun...

Shark attack! The shark prevails as one of the favorite toys.

Big toy adventures

Toby's first big toy adventure! (From February)

Updates

Our family lost another great matriarch last week. My great grandmother, Faye Louk, passed away at 89 years of age. Services were held Tuesday in Sumner. Ted and I both took the day off to support my grandparents in the loss of a mother.

At the end of the day, we went to the park. Toby was climbing the big toy all by himself! And very keen to see what all that running water business was about in the creek. (Pics to come)

Today at Jenn's house Toby said "cheese" as he got his cheesy snack!!! It's all going so fast! I know, I sound like a broken record by now.

And I've got news on the job front... I got the maternity leave position in Northshore SD to start Mid-April and possibly continue to the end of the year!!! I'm very excited about the opportunity.

Today I subbed at SAS, the alternative secondary school in NSD. It was a great day! I got to play my fair share of 4-square (which I haven't done since elementary school, myself). The kids were working on a program called Garage Band, where they make songs by mixing tracks, writing music, and recording vocals (this was science class, mind you). It was also really great to catch up with a couple of my colleagues from UW's teaching program. I would love to spend more time there.

Grandma Jones

Grandma Elmoline Jones passed away Sunday night at 11:40 pm at 81 years of age. It has been a long and hard year for her battling bleeding ulcers, blood transfusions, dimentia, and the dialysis ceasing to work for her. She is in a better place now, but the world will not be the same without her. Funeral is Friday, February 22nd at 1pm at Evergreen Baptist Church in Renton.

Losing a matriarch

My mom called me tonight on the way home from work to tell my that my Grandma Jones will probably pass away before this weekend. She's been heading down hill for a year now, but has had a really rough couple months. She hasn't had dialysis for 3 days now so her body is shutting down. We went down to Renton immediately to say our goodbyes and console family members. It was a long night (I say at 2am) and I'm sure these events will last into the weekend or next week. The world is losing a wonderful woman...