Carlsbad.

My parents had been looking online for beach house rentals for weeks at the beginning of summer. To get close to the beach, we were going to be spending a pretty penny and it looked like we'd only be able to afford about one or two nights away from home.

That's when one of our sweet family-friends happened to mention his parent's beach house in Carlsbad to us.
And then offer it to us for a week. For free.

I can't tell you what a blessing this situation was. There was room for everybody to have their own bed, we enjoyed all of our meals on our rooftop which overlooked the ocean, we were able to bring Toby along for his first vacation, and we were only a few steps away from the sand on a semi-private beach! We felt (and continue to feel) incredibly lucky to have such generous friends in our lives.

We were fortunate to have beautiful weather while at the beach house, too. Up until our last day it was nothing but sunshine, blue skies, and gorgeous sunsets. We all took part in some sunset swims, getting in to watch the sun disappear behind the ocean. I also almost drowned during one such swim because the waves were really rough and the tide was super strong… A little excitement for our otherwise relaxing trip haha, but that's a different story.

And after our long days of swimming and enjoying the sunshine, we'd all walk back to the house, get comfy and watch movies or play games together. It was so nice having us all there to enjoy each others company - with schedules these days it's not super often that we are all relaxed and in the same place. I think it was probably my favorite family trip we've ever been on. :)

Hello, October!

October is my favorite month. I like pumpkin-flavored things, brisk mornings, scarves and cardigans... Plus, it's concert season and I celebrate my birthday this month! What's not to love?

It's been a few weeks since I've written anything here and I wish I had more exciting things to share, but all I've got today are some pictures from a walk and a few updates about what I've been up to lately.

The first month of the school year has really flown by. It's been so fun getting to know the new kids and learning their personalities and quirks. Can't wait to share some of their funny quotes with you soon! 

My dad's band has played on several Saturday nights lately and it's been so fun getting to go out and dance to the sweet, soul, music with my cousins. Here's a little clip of my pop rockin' out if you want to see.

A few weeks ago, Weston and I watched The Wizard of Oz with the Pink Floyd album, Dark Side of the Moon, playing, because there's all that talk about how the two sync up. It was pretty cool! I know Pink Floyd claims it's all an accident discovered by someone with too much time on their hands, but parts of it are just way too coincidental for me to believe that it wasn't intentional haha. I call conspiracy! See for yourself here.

I haven't really been feeling my best lately. I had a few pretty rough days last week and it worried me a bit because the last few months had spoiled me and kind of made me feel like I was on the ups for good. Almost invincible. But now I have pain, my naturopathic doctor has been questioning my current hormone treatments and expressing some concerns about them long term, and my body is just generally just reminding me that I haven't been cured. This is a lifelong battle and I just have to take the good with the bad and stay positive!

I finished all the classes that I need in order to be a lead Pre-K teacher, which is very exciting. Now I just wait for a position to open up so that I can apply! I've been getting more opportunities to lead in the classrooms recently and I have noticed a lot of progress in myself over the course of a year in the way I handle situations and the way I teach. Seeing progress in oneself is not the easiest thing, I think, so it's exciting to feel that way and it makes me proud to do what I do.

Except this morning, I got to school and was there for like 20 minutes before I realized I had only cuffed one of my pant legs and the other one was down all the way. Hahaha oopsies! Not my proudest moment.

For everything else I've been up to, you can catch up on Instagram. @kelleoh.

I hope you're well!

Swimming Lessons for Toby

Toby is not the biggest fan of water, but yesterday at the dog beach, he ran into the waves the second we arrived. If that isn't a testament to how hot it's been lately, then I don't know what is.

That picture where Toby is sticking his tongue out had me cracking up for hours. In fact, I still can't look at it without laughing. It looks like he's taunting us from the water or something!

In case you didn't get your Toby fix from the pictures, here are a few videos that we took of his "swimming lessons". He was less annoyed about them than he usually is. Maybe he will learn to love water one day...? Haha I'm not gonna hold my breath on that one though.

I was telling my family at dinner last night, I really think one of the best feelings in the world is coming home after a day at the beach or after swimming. You were working hard, in the heat, and getting dirty all day.. and then you come home, have a shower, put on your stretchy pants, and lay on the couch. And just going from being hot to cool, active to lazy, and dirty to clean makes it one of the most comfortable things in the world, right? I don't know, maybe it's just me... but I've thought so ever since I was a kid and I'm stickin' with it.

Also, I convinced my brother to watch LOST with me last night! It'll be his first time watching the series and my second time. I just watched it last summer and have been dying to watch it all over again. One of the best shows I've ever seen! I hope Nolan likes it as much as I did!

Overheard.

"Sometimes I like to pretend my last name is Bieber. Because I've got the Bieber Fever."

"Miss Kelle, you look like an apple core."

Teacher : You're on a time-out because you were throwing woodchips at those other boys.
4-Year-Old : But I missed!!

"What are you, speakin' Korean?!" (asked by a Korean child)

"We're playing Dinosaurs vs. Whales-That-Can-Turn-Into-The-Hulk."

4-Year-Old-Tattler : "Miss Kelle, he hit me!"
4-Year-Old-Hitter : "Miss Kelle, HE is not doing forgiveness!"

"Sometimes I just want to tell my brother to go outside and cry."

"Probably I will go to Kindergarten at Starbucks because my mom loves it there."

A couple months ago, my dad had a day off of work and decided to bring Toby to the school to visit me and meet some of the kids. They were so excited to finally meet my famous puppy in person and they all took turns petting him and showing him around the classroom.

Toby does this thing, where if you sing in a high pitched voice, or make any high pitched sound, he'll "sing" with you. So I told the kids if we all sang our ABC's in a high squeaky voice that maybe Toby would sing with us. Thankfully, as we all sang, he did, so I wasn't left looking like a total liar in front of all the 4-year-olds. And they loved it.

The next morning when I walked into the classroom, one little girl ran up to me.
"Is Toby going to visit us again, today?"
"No, he has to stay home, but he had a great time meeting you yesterday!"
"Miss Kelle, I have a question...." she paused, "How did you teach him his ABC's?"
I smiled, "You know, we never really had to teach him, he just sings if we sing in a high-pitched voice!"
"Does he know any other songs?"
At this point I just had to hug her. Too much adorableness.
"He knows almost ANY song you can think of!" I told her. ;)

All the pre-schoolers who said these little gems are officially kindergarteners now. So bittersweet!

Last week, I got my employment agreement for the new school year! Especially after how much time I had to miss this last year due to my endometriosis, I'm so thankful to have the opportunity to continue working at a school I love so much.

Can't wait to meet the new little ones in the fall!

oh, christmas tree.

tonight, we decorated our tree

with all the beautiful ornaments my grandma has made us over the years.

toby watched from around the tree (and under the tree a little bit, too)

nolan sipped on homemade horchata,

and pop donned his nerdy magnifying glasses 

like he does every year to fix the ornament strings that have broken.

it just wouldn't be christmastime without these things.

we had planned on having nice family pictures taken this afternoon for the first time in years, but we got rained out.
this resulted in an impromptu photo shoot tonight, that somehow ended up revolving around toby...
i mean how could it not, though. he's definitely the cutest out of all of us.
obviously he was thrilled.

afterwards, we gathered in the living room, lit a fire and watched "the santa clause" which is one of our family favorites. can i tell you how happy i am that it's christmastime? enjoying every possible second.

morning in arrowhead.

this morning at 8:00, i found myself sitting across the kitchen table from my dad.
both of us were dressed and ready to leave but at the last minute, our previous plans had fallen through.

"let's do something," my dad said, "like a hike.. or go somewhere or something."
ten minutes later we had grabbed jackets, loaded toby in the car, and were on our way to the mountains.

my pop wanted to go up to a little grocery called jensen's, that sells pastries that he and my mom really like. i ended up getting an apple burrito (basically an apple pie - awesome) and he got a pineapple bran muffin. after jensen's we didn't really have any plans. so we just drove around the mountain until we wound up at the lake.

hahaha this boy knows an opportunity when he sees one.  

we had kind of been looking for snow when we set off for the mountain, having considered all the rain that fell yesterday. but we didn't find any snow. just lots of fog. 

the clouds were scary when we were driving up the mountain and could barely see 5 feet in front of us, but when we got to the lake they were amazingly beautiful, just resting on top of the water. and it was cold! we could see poor little toby's breath! strange to think that only a week ago, we were running the air conditioner in 100 degree heat. i much prefer the cold. :)

toby was not such a fan of being on the dock. he stayed as lowww to the ground as possible.

couldn't have asked for a better morning with my pop.
(and my pup.)