Like I mentioned yesterday, me and the hubs travelled back to Indiana for the holidays. The drive wasn't so bad with Justin Bieber and Eminem/Tupac on repeat... Not like those aren't complete opposite musical genres or anything. We had a pretty great time visiting with family, even though it is somewhat stressful trying to make time for everyone, as well as seeing friends. But, we somehow always end up making it work (hopefully!) This post is going to be picture overload.
Also, I need some advice (especially from you teacher bloggers!) Scroll to the bottom to read about it :)
If you are friends with me on Facebook, then you have most likely already seen all of these pictures :)
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| Me & Matchu... I'm surprised he allowed me to take this picture. He HATES pictures! |
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| It's been 5 years since we have been together for the holiday's. So glad Biggy got the time off from work! |
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| Christmas Eve... AKA Gallistasch Family Christmas! |
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| One of my best girls... I love her and her family! |
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| Blooper TAKE 1... I love Poppy's face in this one. My dad's hilarious! |
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| Me & Momma Bear |
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| Christmas at the Cavallaro's... It's always one of the things we look forward to the most! Wish we lived closer to all of them to spend more time with them! :( |
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| Will it be door number 1 or door number 2? Choose wisely! |
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| Missy had to jump on one foot and sing a Christmas song... Gigi and Molly wanted in too! |
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| I have the best family imaginable. |
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| Trio. My heart and soul. |
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At about 10 pm on Christmas night every year begins what we like to call CHRISTMAS DOS AKA MATCHU'S BIRTHDAY. It's always one of the CRAZIEST NIGHTS/DAYS. And it literally lasts a full 24 hours.
This is such a fun group of guys! They have been best friends with Matchu since middle school! Cj (left, just moved from Saudi Arabia to Honduras to teach English. He always argues with Matchu about whose smarter!) Jimi (third, lives and works with Matchu at the same law firm in Denver), Matchu (fourth, he doesn't look like the genius he really is. Nor does he look like your typical lawyer... Haha!), Alex |
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| One of my favorite pictures. The two additions to the family (Although, Hubs has been around for 7 years, this was Karina's first Galligan Christmas and she survived! Way to go, sister! Can't wait for her and Biggy's wedding THIS YEAR!) |
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| LOLA NEEDS TO GO ON A DIET! No wiener dog/beagle should look like this... |
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| Matchu is always arguing with CJ about who is smarter. |
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| Only my brother shovels snow in a t-shirt. Notice CJ and Jimi in the back in SNOW SUITS. |
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| First time Karina has seen this much snow! She successfully crossed 4 things off her bucket list... Shoveling snow, making a snow angel, having a snowball fight and sledding! |
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| I wouldn't turn around, Jimi. |
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| Right after this we went sledding and decided to create a game... Whoever was sledding was able to be tagged by snowballs while they were going down and running back up the hill. Matchu's genius idea. Except he was packing ice balls. He tagged Biggy so hard in the face that we're all surprised Biggy didn't have a black eye. Nice arm, ex-baseball player! |
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| I realized while packing for this trip that I am NOT accustomed to cold weather anymore. All I packed was DRESSES. Yes, I packed dresses with two feet of snow on the ground. So we had to find whatever we could to go sledding in. Thanks for having all the tacky clothing, Mom & Dad! |
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| All of us are Texans now. I love living only a few hours from my Biggy. We couldn't wait to get back to our "warmth" of Texas. |
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| I told you Matchu hates pictures. He refused to get in this one! :( |
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| I consider all three of them my brothers. Murphy was such a big part of our family while growing up, that my parents even put him in one of our Christmas cards! He's had a long, hard ride the past couple years but i'm proud to say that he has been COMPLETELY CLEAN FOR OVER A YEAR NOW!!! I am SO proud of how hard he's worked to better himself! |
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| Just celebrating our main man, Jay! He's a hot shot LA Californian now... |
UGH, I AM SOOO NOT READY TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL ON MONDAY! Break never lasts long enough for me. I'm already stressing out knowing how much stress will be put on me once the new semester starts up again. Students took 9-week Benchmark Tests TWO DAYS BEFORE BREAK (who does that?) and the scores were NOT good, even though we had been preparing all semester long. Actually, the district scores were in the toilet as well. I need some new ideas on how to reach my students and have them REALLY understand the curriculum. Because what we are doing is not working and I really need them to do better on those tests. The tests are just SOO hard (even to me!) and it's like their confidence is just PLUMMETING after taking them. I've tried incentives, i've tried everything I can think of. I know my kiddos are SOO much smarter than those tests are showing!! I'm SO frustrated!!! Any tips out there, fellow teacher bloggers?
