blake-riversii

[blake-riversii]

You know what? Let's make this a thing. You come up with an excuse to not be able to teach for a week and I'll fill in for you and I'll do the same thing. I bet you wouldn't even last two days with my classes.

You think I’ve got it easy? Oh, please. Trade jobs with me for a day, and then try and tell me that. Because I’ll bet you’ll be taking that back.

[blake-riversii]

Ha, good one. My kids don't even pay attention in class when their parents are paying thousands of dollars for them to get an A on every assignment. Then take it out on me because their child wasn't doing their work. You're totally the one who's got it easy here.

You’re right. They aren’t. They’re twice as bad. Those parents invest thousands of dollars a month to have their kids trained by me, so when I pull them from a meet, their parents get very angry.

[blake-riversii]

Are you trying to compare me dealing with the parents of angry students to your angry gymnastic parents? Those parents aren't even half as bad as mine are.

That definitely sounds like it’d be amusing. But not nearly as amusing as parents who are angry about you pulling their kids from a meet.

[blake-riversii]

When you fail half the kids in the class and they don't understand why, they tend to get a little upset over it.

Oh god, were they bad?

[blake-riversii]

You would have loved the parent's comments back then..

Oh, absolutely. Probably one of the funniest grading sessions of them all.

[blake-riversii]

You're still stuck on me grading their midterms, aren't you?

You may hate it, but your comments get better and better with each paper.

[blake-riversii]

Finally having a break from grading papers is probably the best thing. I swear, I'd probably kill one of the kids if I had to read one more assignment that five kids clearly copied.

[blake-riversii]

"Is your person Tyler?" Blake said to his five year old daughter. "Nope!" She had a big grin on her face as she shook his head to answer his question. "You liar, that's the only one left!"

[blake-riversii]

It's rare getting him to calm down for a while, but even more rare getting him to take a nap.

[blake-riversii]

He's definitely a Lego kind of kid. He's also a dump every single Lego onto the floor kind of kid.

[blake-riversii]

Dear Frankie, 

Right now you think I'm writing a letter to Santa with the kids and in a way, I guess I am. I'm not sure why I'm still writing these letters to you, but I guess it's the same reason I take pictures all the time, I don't want you to forget. I don't want you to forget all the memories we've been making since things back at SMA, our wedding day, the day we moved into this house, the kids, even me. I know that sounds stupid, but there are so many things that could go wrong from here until the day we die and it just scares me to think that one day everything we had together could just be lost.

But that's all depressing things. It's almost Christmas, so I'll get to the more happy part of this letter. Blake's almost six, can you believe that? He's five, he's happy, and most of all he's healthy. I'm sure you still remember those nights when I wouldn't shut up worrying about if he turned out like me. All the times you would have to drag me back to the bed and tell me everything's going to be fine. Well, I never actually believed that until the doctors confirmed it. The only thing we have to watch out for now is him growing up to be too much like Dad. He already has the running around and screaming at everything part down, so I'm actually a little scared to see what comes next. 

Aside from all of that, he's a great big brother. Allison takes after you, I can already see it. Every time I have let her watch videos of your gymnastics meets, she's tried to imitate your moves. She's about as good as a three year old can be, but I swear she'll be as good as you one day. She's just about as sarcastic and stubborn as you already. I bet you sat down and taught her all of that one day. She even loves elephants like you. I remember that one time we took them to the zoo and couldn't get her away from the elephants until one of us went and bought her one. All of those things are what I love about her though. They're also things that made me fall in love with you.

It's still crazy to believe that we made it. It's been sixteen years since we first met and here we are, still together. I love you, Frankie. I've always loved you and I always will love you. Merry Christmas, babe.

Love, Blake

[blake-riversii]

#tbt last spring break with the main man. Missing him a lot.

[blake-riversii]

I'm the King of the Ocean! 

[blake-riversii]

I don't have a fancy freshman year letter that I wrote to you to read, but uh, I do have somethings to say, so here goes nothing... I’ve always had goals, aspirations, things I wanted to do in life, but when I met you, I learned what it was to dream. You dreamed of graduating high school, making it to the Olympics, doing things I never even thought were possible, and you accomplished every single one of those dreams. Since the day I met you, I’ve learned to dream of things too. And this- this right here, this is my dream. To marry you, to love you, to spend the rest of my life with you. God, I just- I love you so much.

[blake-riversii]

Francesca Lorena Vega, even though you are bossy, stubborn, and you think that you know everything because you're older than me, I love you. I love the way your eyes light up when your favorite song comes on the radio, how you don't complain every time I pull out a camera, when you do that little thing with your toes when you're happy, and every other detail about you. I have loved you for ten years now. I loved you before we started dating, I loved you when we were dating, I even loved you when you were gone. I love you and that's something that's never going to change, even if we're ten thousand miles apart. And I want to love you forever. Will you marry me?

[blake-riversii]

Six years, that's how long it was until I got to hold her, until I could tell her I still loved her, until she was mine again.

[blake-riversii]

“It would seem that you have no useful skill or talent whatsoever," he said. "Have you thought of going into teaching?”