Wake Up Call

Now that I'm substitute teaching in two school districts I'm walking into lots of different situations. Lindsey (my bff of the West) and I were talking the other night about all the sad things we see in our classrooms every day and it really dawned on us how sheltered we are to what goes on in other homes. A couple weeks ago I noticed a little boy getting really angry and another teacher informed me that he was just moved to another foster home that week and he was on his fifth home…note that the student was in 3rd grade. This made me realize that not every child gets to go home to a loving family like I did and that the attention we give them at school might be the only thing they look forward to each day. Today, I had the same situation the Kindergarten teacher I was subbing for today told me that out of her 22 students that 4 of them were drifting foster children.

Sorry for the not so positive post but, just wanted everyone to think about how lucky they are and that there are others in situations worse. I asked B.J. if we could foster but, he replied very quickly with no bc then we would have to buy another ticket each time we went home.  I realize that we need to enjoy our time together as a single couple so I’ve started the process to be a BigSister!! The process is almost complete so I will keep you updated once I’m matched with a little girl in need!!

Baca Wedding

We made our first trip back to Texas this year for Jason and Amanda's wedding! We had a blast hanging out with BJ's old buds from TState. BJ thought he had died and gone to heaven when we arrived at the reception hall and there were wild animals all over the place :) It was a great trip home and can't wait until the next one.

NYE 2011

The Boening's hit Salt Lake City, UT for NYE 2011!! We had a blast in SLC and the best part was Barry and Tara joined us for the holiday weekend. We went shopping, skiing, sight seeing and more shopping :) We had a blast together even though having two Boening boys together for that long was a little much...if Tara or I heard "the Boening genes" one more time I think someone was going to get hurt :) We can't wait for them to come visit again but, I think they'll come during the summer months next time.

*Here's a pic of what we came home to the snow drift filled our entry way

BJ's Fu Manchu

Man month was over and I thought I was going to get my handsome clean shaven husband back, but I was wrong :( December 1st BJ decided to try this look out for the day...funny thing is people at his work thought this was normal!!!!!! So happy this only happens once a year :)

Tonight's the night!!!!!

Getting ready for Santa's big arrival with the boys was soooo much fun!! We spent the night eating taco salad since BJ's used to eating tamales which are hard to find around here so taco salad had to do :) We also attempted making a gingerbread house which came already broken. Our engineer couldn't even fix our dilapidated house...as you can see Jax found other things to do with the decor :) However, the boys were able to show their creative side by making Santa beautiful cookies. We capped the night off with a little family rock band before putting the boys to bed. Hope everyone had just as wonderful of a Christmas as we did.

Hartnett boys take on WY

We had such a great time with the boys and they really enjoyed WY. Activities for the week: water park (indoors of course), ice skating (wish we had a video camera for that), sledding (you should have seen BJ fly), skiing and movies. Time flew by...just wish they could have stayed longer :(

White Christmas

We asked for a white Christmas and our wish was granted! We got our biggest snow fall just in time for the family to see :) It was also perfect to have two boys who were excited to earn a little cash and put them to work shoveling :)