Fall is Texas is one of my favorite times of the year. The weather is in the 60’s, 70’s and low 80’s. My roses come back to life and bloom beautifully, and I even get another crop of tomatoes. And it lasts until we transition to spring, with just a few random cold winter days scattered in there.

I am definitely not sad about it being November – it is the best. One of the things that happened this Tuesday was that because it was election day, there was no school. So Tuesday morning, Kevin, Lily, Derek and I went to my school to vote. The outcomes of the elections may not have all been something I was happy about, however I am so incredibly grateful for the right to vote and make my voice heard, and doing it with four of us was especially cool.

Because I had the day off, I took advantage of the extra time to attend the Temple with my sister, Wendy. It was so good to be in the house of the Lord, and amazing to see and catch up with Wendy. It had been too long.

Later on, I was able to get together with my friend Penny, watch a movie with Lily, and get a bunch of planning done for school. It was definitely a gift of a day.

Speaking of school, Arthur had the awesome experience of the author, Jennifer Neilsen, come for an author’s visit. I sent him with my copies of her books to get signed, and he was able to attend a special event with her over lunch.

I had a few birthdays in my class this week, which is always fun. They especially love to sit on my chair and wear the silly glasses while we sing to them.

I don’t know if I have mentioned her before, but I have an amazing high school student from Reagan who comes every day for 1 1/2 hours as part of a future teacher program they have there. Bradlee is amazing and helpful, and seriously the kindest teenager ever. And she made the cutest decorations for the door of our science lab.

I have also been doing a lot for both science and social studies lately. For Social Studies vocab review, each student had a word they taught the person across from them, and then they had to come up with an action that would help them remember it. They were pretty hilarious. In science, as part of our review before our test next week, we did a transfer of energy lab. I think their favorite parts were the slinky, the cup phones, and smacking toy cars into each other. Good times 😂.

On Friday evening, Derek had a special get-together with the other service missionaries. They ate, played games, and inspired each other. It is crazy to think that he only has six months of his mission left.

Friday night was also a fun night for Lily and Arthur. They went out to dinner, and then followed it up with going to Bush to watch the production of Frozen Jr. They loved getting to watch it, and I loved that we had a break from rehearsals this year because Arthur didn’t audition.

While the kids all ditched us, Kevin and I went to Five Guys for dinner and took a trip to Costco. And once we got home, we watched some episodes of “Ted Lasso” to finish things off. It was a great date night and a wonderful way to spend the first week of November.