What a Pair of DINKs!

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It’s happened again.  I meant to write, I swear.  Really, I did mean to write, but now, so much time has past that I literally cannot remember the last time I wrote or what I wrote about.  Which means that I don’t know where to start this blog.  Huh.

Ok, well… work. Work is good.  Pako and I are both quite enjoying our kids this year.  And by our kids, I definitely mean our 150 seventh graders, not our biological kids.  I’m teaching 2 ESL classes, to English Language Arts classes (ELA) and one Spanish Language Arts class (SLA).  Pako works in 7^th grade Humanities (our fancy, very IB way of saying social studies), 7^th grade Math, 7^th grade AVID (Achievement Via Individual Determination – a college prep class), 7/8 Spanish Language Humanities and my 6^th grade SLA class.

Pako is mentoring two kids officially and a whole slew of other kids, unofficially.  They.love.him.  Love him.  It’s fairly adorable to tell the truth.  Teachers love him, too.  It turns out, he hasn’t forgotten all that stuff he learned when he was getting his teaching license.

Oh.  I just went back and checked just how long ago it was the last time I wrote.  It was August 6^th.  That means that you might not know that Pako is working at the middle school with me.  He is a Bilingual Assistant Educator and works with the 7^th grade.  His first day at work was his one year anniversary in the US.  We’re now officially DINKs.  Dual income with no kids.  Rolls right off the tongue.  DINKs.  It’s like music to my ears.

We won’t be DINKs for that too much longer, though.  That’s right, you guessed it, we’re adopting... a puppy!  We left our beloved, deranged Chihuahua in Zihua with Pako’s family and we really, really miss having a dog.  Pako thinks it is ludicrous to live in such a chilly (ahem) place without a dog to hug.  I agree, but the grouch gave us one rule to live by: no dogs or babies in the basement.  Sheesh.  What a grouch.

BUT, we are going to adopt a pup because we bought a house.  That’s right, we bought a house so that we could have a dog.  I mean, there were some other reasons involved, but we really, really want a dog!  The whole business happened SUPER fast.  We did not expect to buy a house, but here we are, homeowners.  We looked at 3 houses and bought the 2^nd one we looked at.  It’s a 1951 rambler on a parkway in North Minneapolis.  We love it.  3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths and a rocking sun porch.  We have lots and lots of plans for it and no furniture.  Seriously, we have nothing.  Do you have a couch that we could have?  We need two.

Just kidding.  Except, we really don’t have any furniture.  Which is ok, because I can’t, for the life of me, decide on a color scheme.  Seriously.  It’s getting stressful.  One minute I think I’ve got it, the next, I’m going in a completely different direction and headed to Home Depot to buy a new sample jar.  Speaking of Home Depot, I love that place!  Who knew that T-shaped transition boards could be so fascinating?

Tomorrow, I’m going to set up auto-pay for all of our new house bills.  It’s giving me anxiety.  Like, it’s Friday and I’m exhausted from a crazy week of school, but I don’t think I’ll sleep because our new budget is CRAZY kind of anxiety.  I mean, I know absolutely positively that it’s fine and all homeowners take the leap and everything, but DANG.  HOLY SMOKES.  Ok, I’m done now.  AAAAAHHH.  Sorry.  For real, though.  We do have pretty, new hardwood floors now, so that’s nice.

What else has happened since we last talked?  Oh yeah, almost all of football season.  The Packers started out not so great and then had a great record and then lost to San Francisco in the 2^nd round of the playoffs.  If you don’t like football, that’s all you really need to know.  If you do like football, you already know about home much I love me some Aaron Rodgers, Clay Matthews and Charles Woodsoon, so no need to go on.  The playoffs this year have been pretty great and come down to the last seconds and I’m excited for the Superbowl, but it’s always sad when the Packers’ season is over.  Ask the grouch, he feels the same way.  It’s how he signs his emails these days.

Christmas was nice, but I don’t have any photographic evidence to prove it.  We had fondue on Christmas Eve and it was delish.  We all ate more than we should have and then we sat down to unwrap gifts.  Pako and I got a crockpot and a roasting pan.  Pako was overjoyed, let me tell you.  Ok, maybe that was me, but he’ll benefit from it, too!  Christmas day we had some friends over for a ham dinner that featured my Grandma Claire’s rolls, which are delicious and merit a mention on the blog.  They’re that good.  I dressed up, too.  I always see people’s Christmas photos and they’re always nice, so I thought, I’m going to get dressed and not wear sweats so that we can have nice Christmas pictures, too.  My mom has two digital cameras, Pako and I both have our own and all 4 of us have camera phones.  No pictures.  None.  Should have worn my sweats.  Elastic waistbands are always the way to go, especially if there’s no photographic proof.

Um, I guess that’s all for now.  The grouch will be back soon with something scintillating, I’m sure.  I am actually sure because I know what his next blog is about, but I’m not telling you because that would ruin the surprise.  Pako and I aren’t going to Mexico this year because, well, because we bought a house.  We’re going to spend the summer playing with our newest addition (due to arrive in May or June) and teaching summer school and being homeowners.  Seeing as how I don’t write for months at a time, the next time you read, we’ll be proud pup parents! Yay!