Just a quick update.
If you thought my last post was an annoying advertisement, which it really was, I wanted to let you know that I was emailed my promotional code yesterday and ordered my cards today.
At checkout my total was around $70.00. After my code it went down to $8.00 to cover shipping!!!
Totally worth your time!
I'll share the card after they've been mailed
I have a great site to share with yall! I'm sure you are all familiar with Shutterfly but if you haven't checked them out this year for your Christmas card then you have got to go check out their precious photo cards. Here are a few of the possible cards you may be finding in your mail box from me very soon.
My favorites are cards where the picture is the main focus.
These are fun and a little funky. I love the pink!
These are classic and both beautiful
Happy belated Thanksgiving! I hope you had a wonderful long weekend celebrating your blessings. Because my weekend has been so long and full of late night shopping and way too much to eat, I'm going to blog a numbered list of what's been going on.
1. Aside from the Lord, my family, friends, health, home, and all other things very dear to me, I'm most thankful this week for a break from school. We were off all week and it was much needed. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel that is this semester and the weeks until Christmas will be full of lots of fun and memories with my kiddos.
2. Sunday night my friend Jennifer sent me a text asking me to babysit on Tuesday and Wednesday. I debated at first how to respond because part of me wanted freedom on my break but I wanted to see her kids and help her too. I told her I would so I kept Cate, Maggie and Walt for two days. They are so much fun! We went for a long walk around Jefferson on Tues and to see Tangled on Wed. My review on Tangled- super cute!
3. Wednesday night Mom, Lydia and I went downtown to see the lighting of the court house. This year is beautiful! Washington St. is covered in colored lights and there are two light shows every night where the court house lights are choreographed with a Christmas song. So much more to do and see than in years past.
4. Thursday was a lot of visiting and eating with family. Lydia and I were gearing up for Black Friday on and off all day.
5. Thursday night around 11 Lydia and I went to pick up our cousin Shelby and headed out to Wal-Mart. We did our shopping there and got everything we went for. We dropped Shelby off and went straight to Old Navy. They were over capacity (a little before 2:00 a.m.) when we got there so we waited outside in a short line until enough customers came out for us to be allowed in. We did our shopping and got in line to check out. When I say line I mean a LINE! The line wrapped around the perimeter of the store and we were in it for over an hour. The trade off was great deals! PJ pants for $5 and I got some jackets and sweaters that are priced at $34 and $39 for $15. My receipt says I saved $96 so I thought that was successful. I've been trying to get a big sack of clothes together to get rid of and now that I have some nice new things I will be more motivated to clean out some. Hopefully.
We got home around 4:30 Friday morning and went to bed!
6. We saw more family on Friday and today (Sat.) and now I'm exhausted!
(Sorry the pictures stopped after 2 days!)
7. My Christmas decor is up at my house and I'm loving my tree. I will do a special post with pictures soon. There's a few more things I want to grab and add before I take the official pictures.
8. Tomorrow is church and getting ready for the week. I was so ready to get out of the school last Friday that I left my room a mess so I'll be up there at some point getting that cleaned up and prepared.
9. I think I mentioned in a previous post that Chelsea's cousin was very sick. She passed away this week. Please keep them in your prayers.
10. In less than a month Chelsea and I will be headed to Nashville to see this guy. So excited!
Have a great week!
Outside my window... ~cool and dark. Today was the first work day since the time change and I couldn't help but take a little snooze before dinner when it was dark at 5:30
Lots of little witches, super heroes and one police man. Happy Halloween!It has been the longest week! It may have something to do with the fact that most of the day Tuesday I thought it was Wednesday and then on Wednesday it really was so I basically had two Wednesdays if that makes sense. I was out of my room testing today and stayed busy all day making sure I finished so today went by quicker and tomorrow is Friday and I always find plenty for us to do on Fridays. A few times a year my grandmas sisters and their daughters, daughters in law, grand daughters, etc. get together for a weekend and that is this weekend. My cousin Shelby and I are just going for the day Saturday and I think we're going to this craft fair. I remember going with my mom and aunts and grandma to something similar, it was called Connie Hines, when I was very young but I haven't been in a very long time, unless you count Canton and you know I've been there plenty. Anyway, I thought I would just share some pics from my phone that I've taken lately (ignore the quality.) Have a good weekend!
A few fun things in my house right now-
My sweet across the hall friend Lauren married our PE coach a few weeks ago. They are loving married life and the wedding was beautiful! This is the picture I took to show my kids the Monday after the wedding. They thought it was way cool they were married!
Outside my window... ~dark and quiet sidewalks are wet from a sprinkler left on too long this evening in an attempt to save the herbs in our front bed from this drought
I have so much to update that this is the quickest way. I'm afraid if I tried to write it out you wouldn't stick with me until the end.
*We're almost through the 3rd week of school. My class is darling! They keep me smiling and laughing most of the time and make me want to teach them and be with them. I couldn't say that a lot of times last year. I can already see with the changes I made from last year plus having a group that works a little better together that they are going to learn so much an do so well.
*My sister left for college (LA Tech) last Friday. Mom and Dad took her and got her set up. I hated to miss the day but could not leave my class so soon into the year. I went on Monday and saw her room and she showed me around campus and town. It was all very nice and she seemed to be doing really well. She is doing rush this week and has a few sororities she's interested in and classes start tomorrow.
*Chelsea and I have a new roommate. Aaron moved on to a new career venture and it made sense for him to be in the Longview/Tyler area. Mom mentioned to some friends at Elysian Fields that we had a room and they put the new ag teacher, Jessica, in touch with us. She came and checked out our room, liked it, we liked her and she moved in. We haven't gotten to spend a lot of time together yet but I'm very thankful to have her. Chelsea will be traveling most of the fall and I do not like staying alone so the Lord sent Jessica to us.
*This weekend my 1st grade team will be going to Ft. Worth for the bachelorette party of one of our teammates. It's been such a strange week after being out on Monday! We've had to squeeze everything into four days and are leaving as soon as the last kid walks out Friday afternoon so we won't have the usual after school work time. I loved my three day weekend and can't wait for our trip but will also be glad to start next Monday back in the routine we started last week.
*I am amazed at how well I feel after my surgery. I am back to 100% after recovery. Before the surgery I had several symptoms from the cysts and fibroid that weren't fun but that I was living with. It's nice for those to be resolved.
*That's all for now! Will hopefully have some pics soon!
Hey friends! I got a really random email today from a girl at some fashion message board site saying she had been to my blog and it was wonderful. I'm sure it was just a form email but I got to thinking that if she did actually read it that it's way behind and that I better get it caught up.
Some of you may have known that I've had a little surgery recently to remove an ovarian cyst and a fibroid from my uterus. It's really been a trying time for me because I was both anxious about having major surgery (they couldn't do it laproscopic) and really questioning God about why I was having these problems. I think God's answer might have been to a) remind me I'm not in charge of everything, even my body and b) to slow me down.
Earlier in the summer when it was determined that I did indeed need the operation it was scheduled for the very end of July, yesterday actually. I was a little anxious about it being so close to school starting but everyone told me that I should be fine so I was ok with that. Well in mid July on a Sunday evening I was at home watching tv and texting Mom and I told her that I was actually starting to look forward to the surgery because I was starting to have some pain from the cyst. I knew that was the cause of my pain because I have had cysts on and off since jr. high. I ended up calling the doctor on call that night because I was just nervous that if this cyst was so bad that it needed to be removed and was now causing me such pain like it never had before, I was worried what would happen if it were to be leaking or rupturing. I got the other doctor from my clinic that night (I love them both!) and treated it with pain meds and was to follow up with my doctor if I continued to have trouble. The pain did ease up and I was able to babysit Monday and Tuesday, even had my cousin and her boyfriend over for dinner Tuesday night. I was still uncomfortable some but assuming I just would be until the surgery and I was ok with that.
I settled in Tuesday evening watching Real Housewives and reading blogs like any normal night. I was getting pretty uncomfortable from some pain but was determined to watch my show. I called my mom when it was over and let her know that I was afraid something was up. It was much worse than the spell on Sunday. I ended up calling the doctor (bless his heart, it was late!) and he was much more concerned at this point and began to explain to me that the cyst could be turning in way that was restricting the blood flow to my ovary which would, without removal of the cyst, kill my ovary. Being a nearly 23 year old with no kids yet, this is not what you want to hear. He encouraged me to go to the er for an ultrasound to make sure this wasn't the case and to get some pain meds. Mom rushed over right away and we went. I was so uncomfortable that they gave me morphine and luckly the ultrasound showed normal blood flow. We were thankful but were also realizing we were not going to be able to stand me having random bouts with severe pain for two more weeks. I talked to my doctor the next morning and within the hour he had my surgery moved up to the next Monday.
We went in last Monday morning and got things under way. I went back quickly and woke up well enough to eat lunch and visit with a lot of sweet friends, while only having minimal pain thanks to my handy pain med pump. It's been funny to remember back on the visits I had during that time. They're a bit blurry in my memory! ha! Mom kept commenting on how I wasn't sleeping like she expected I would. I was very happy!
I went home to Mom and Dad's late Tuesday evening and they've taken great care of me. I can't thank them enough. It's been tough because I am independent and in charge and having to be cared for and not able to jump in the car and go to wherever I want isn't an easy pill to swollow. I reminded myself over and over how my sweet grandparents were both in this situation for much longer and in much worse pain. I was with them constantly during that time but having a little bit of a glimpse at what it was like for them gave me a much different perspective. Again, I'm very thankful for sweet friends who check on me and visit and my family who's taken care of me and put up with me being on their couch for all of this time asking for things.
I'm recovering really well. My mom has been back to work so I'm up and down during the day taking care of myself more and more. When I start huring and get frustrated I have to remind myself that I have a large incision and stitches on my ovary and uterus so there are three places trying to heal and it hasn't even been two weeks and overall I'm doing great. I've caught up on a lot of tv and have just relaxed.
Thank you so much those of you who kept up with what all was going on and visited, checked up on me, brought goodies, and prayed! It's been a great blessing to be loved on!
Next on my agenda- breaking out of this joint and getting to my classroom! I'm so excited for a fresh new year!!
So.... What's been going on?
Other than a work conference in Dallas and a quick trip to Abilene, summer has consisted of a lot of lazy days here in Marshall.
I've been keeping Henry and Jackson while Caroline is at camp. This weekend they will trade out and she will come home and Jacks will go. Hopefully I won't have to work so hard to get someone to go to the pool with me when my girl gets back.
So I mentioned my conference in Dallas. This was my view and the whole week consisted of a lot of talk about teaching kids to read, cold conference rooms and some room service.
After a quick day in Abilene I rushed home because I was scheduled to be Minnie Mouse at Daisy's 2nd birthday party.
I think the picture says it all. It was a precious little party!
Yay Summer!!
My summer started off in a rush as school ended and I headed to South Texas with Mom and Lydia. We've made a habit of sister/mom trips the past few years and they really are great fun.
We hung out around the river walk, did some shopping, ate goooood food but the biggest part of the trip was going to Schlitterbahn. We love water parks!
Mom and Lydia are big slide riders. I am too typically but on this trip I loved the tube river rides and laying out by the pools, because I'm the ultimate people watcher. Laying by the pool was where the thought for this post came about.
Here are a few random thoughts and questions from my lounge chair at Schlitterbahn:
Where is that mans wife and does she know he is wearing those goggles?
Roasted corn? Yes please.
Does the lady standing in the wading pool watching her kids play realize she's getting a little carried away with the dancing to Single Ladies?
That man does not need that turkey leg or ice cream cone!
More stairs?!
Hey! There's that guy again and his wife.... and he's still wearing the goggles!
And lastly, one more vacation observation that actually occurred at The Alamo:
Does the leash you have on your child really do any good when he's running so fast from you that you can't catch it?
Happy Vacationing!
PS: If you look to the right you will see a new widget that is the link to my "community." If you have no idea what Blog Frog is you should check it out. Tons of links to great blogs and discussions. If you're here because you came across me on Blog Frog, I'm glad you clicked over and hope you come back!
PPS: My in real life friend and blog friend Christina is probably the most educated person I know when it comes to food and she started a new blog just for that! Here is the link. I checked it out today and I know she'll have some great things on there!
Months ago when I was reading over the Show Us Your Life schedule, I remember seeing there was going to be a week dedicated to your town and I thought to myself that I would definitely love to do that. I was really excited when I realized it was this week!
I live in Marshall, TX, a small town in East Texas with about 23,000 people.
The center of our town is the downtown square which is home to the historic Harrison County Court House. The court house was built around 1900 and although isn't currently used was recently restored and will be open again soon. On the square and streets surrounding the center of town are several cute shops and restaurants. There are organizations who are very dedicated to making Marshall a great place to be and you can tell they've worked really hard to make downtown nice.
One of the main tourist attractions in Marshall is the Wonderland of Lights in December. There is an ice skating rink, carriage rides, home tours and a lot of lights everywhere.
I love downtown but another one of my favorite parts of where I live is Caddo Lake. Caddo is the only natural lake in Texas and Caddo Indian legend has it that the lake was formed from a giant flood but other theories suggest an earthquake. I love the narrow waterways and the cypress trees.
(Picture credit)
(Photo credit)1. Every chance I have to get some sun! I layed out for a little while yesterday and got in the pool. It was amazing!
2. The new night shirt/lounge dress I got at Old Navy this weekend. So comfy!
3. A clean house with the last load of laundry in the dryer with the previous loads already put away
4. Steam coming from the dishwasher
5. A refrigerator full of groceries with plans to eat at home all week. I must stay strong!
6. A yummy lunch packed for tomorrow
7. Freshly pedicured toes
8. Roommates who are home. Wasn't a fan of being home alone for two nights.
9. The last week school with all 20 kids!
It is so nice to be able to spend some time out side every day. We've used our front porch so much in the last few weeks. It's become my favorite place to be.
Last weekend Aaron got some crawfish and we spent all day outside getting some sun, eating, talking and listening to music. It looks like this is the only picture I have of the day. It's hard to take pics when your hands are dirty from crawfish.
School is winding down and I'm ready. Lately, I've been falling into bed every night and it's harder every morning to get up and moving.
Sorry for the short post. Just wanted to do a quick catch up. Have a great weekend!
For several months now I've been reading the blog of an amazing family, the Parkers, from Houston. They have 3 children of their own and had been in the process of adopting from Haiti when the earthquake hit. Their adoption was rushed and they were able to bring their son Ronel home. I read the blogs of others in the same situation and love to see how they have adapted their lives to love these little boys and girls who even though look different from them, are absolutely beautiful. I haven't watched The Blind Side yet because I know it will make me want to tell Aaron and Chelsea to bring every lonely teenager at Marshall HS home to spend the night, so you can imagine these little Hatian babies totally steal my heart!
I wanted to share this link to one of the best blog posts I've ever read. If you have a heart for adoption or kids for that matter, you have to read this! Such beautiful words.
Have a great weekend!
I was so excited the week of Easter when I realized that the weather would be so nice and that it might actually feel like Easter!
I'm a little old fashioned and think that on Easter Sunday we should wear our Spring dresses and sandals. I know that what you wear to church isn't the important thing but it's a definite sign of the times to look around and see tee shirts and jeans at Easter Sunday morning church.
Dad's clothes looked nice. I can't say the same for his expressions!
When I was young I remember Easter at my grandparents, my mom's parents, on Sunday afternoon. We would eat lunch and hunt eggs with our cousins. With the passing of grandparents and few cousins who live around here things have changed some but we were able to have a great time with my dad's side of our family. I so regret not getting a group picture! When there's a little one around it's hard for them to not be the center of attention. Of course Daisy had to hunt eggs!
I love the sequence of the next few shots
It was the perfect evening to sit outside and visit. While we were out, Dad pulled out his fire department gear. Before long this is what went down. We laughed so hard! Poor baby was not feeling it!
Happy Spring!!
Well since this is my journal and chronicle of my life, just because I'm behind on posting doesn't mean that the things I want to post about will be forgotten. I have a few posts planned out in my head and hopefully will get them all done this week and be caught up.
A few weekends ago my friend Lauren (see previous post!) and her boyfriend and dad entered a chili cook off at the winery in Harleton, Enoch's Stomp. I didn't have any plans and it was a beautiful day so Chelsea and I decided to head out there and give their chili our votes.
I had heard of the winery before but had never been. I was so glad we went! It was so nice!
You could see forever, which is uncommon around here. I always feel so surrounded by trees that I think the view was my favorite part.
The band
The winning chili cooks and helpers!
I was thinking tonight that I needed to post but there wasn't much this week to make a post out of. My week was really good by the way except for a small cold at the beginning of the week. My kids are working for bribes and I'm digging it. A few extra dollars on pepper mints, stickers, etc. is well worth me keeping what sanity I have left until the end of the year. Our class is over all so much happier too when everybody is working for something. We're all on our A game these days.
Ok back to what I was saying. I was thinking about something to write about and I was reading Beth Moore's blog and thought this was so cute. She listed 10 quirky things about herself. Here's mine
1. I can not stand to hear people eating or drinking near me. If I'm eating too it's not so bad but I can't stand it. Slurping is the worst!
2. Bad home decor makes me quiver
3. I don't like a lot of spicy foods
4. I tend to be so lazy with doing dishes that I throw away those Glad ware plastic dishes instead of washing them
5. On that same note, I've considered paying a house keeper to just fold my laundry
6. My family says I'm too negative. I have to be careful about that
7. I love the E*Trade baby commercials
8. Every time somebody says "sloppy joe" I sing the Adam Sandler Lunch Lady Land song in my head. "Sloppy joe, slop sloppy joe...."
9. I love to brush my teeth in the shower
10. I secretely (guess not very secret anymore) want to be some kind of employee for a TX Country music artist and spend all my time traveling to concerts. I don't know if such a job exists
Happy Weekend!
Friday night I went out with work friends for our 1st grade team member Lauren's birthday. Here's me and the birthday girl.
We ate at Posados and it's probably the only Mexican restaurant around that I don't have a staple, go to dish. Although I think I discovered it Friday night. Chicken fajita enchiladas are to die for! 2 cheese enchiladas with sour cream sauce and grilled chicken. Yum! I could eat sour cream sauce like soup though so that might have something to do with the fact they were so good as well as the fact I wear Spanx with my dresses. After we ate and visited, the couples got together for board games. I passed. I said it was because I was ready to change and lay down but truth be told, I was ready to put out the easter decorations I picked up at Hobby Lobby before the party. I'll show them to you in a seperate post.
Saturday was both lazy and busy at the same time. Mom and I had to go to a funeral at Crossroads that morning and picked up Lydia afterwards and went into town. We had lunch and went to Wal-Mart and the car wash. We got back to Mom and Dad's just in time to unload and load back up to go to Carthage for a family thing. We ate and played Last Word. Lydia and Daisy were the entertainment.
This week at school has flown by! We had a little change in our lunch schedule last week that we will keep through the end of the year. We are now going to lunch 15 minutes earlier so when we come back from our enrichment time, we only have about 15 before lunch which isn't enough time to really start anything. It's making the afternoons fly by because I have to do what I usually did in 30 minutes before lunch plus our regular afternoon activities. We stay busy! I've been able to open the windows and we've had a good time getting our work done and a little afternoon recess time too.
Spring Break is in 2 days! I hope it doesn't go too fast. I can't wait!
Kelly's (I know I mention her in just about every post! Sorry she's my fav!) show us your life this week is what does your typical day look like. Here is a day in the life of a first year 1st grade teacher!
6:00- Alarm goes off for the first time. I hit snooze
6:10- 2nd alarm. Snooze againut
6:20- 3rd alarm. Snooze again
6:30- 4th alarm. Get up and get dressed and ready. Pack breakfast and lunch.
7:00- Leave home. I've gotten into a (bad) habit of stopping in at the corner store by my house in the mornings for a Diet Coke. Yikes! I need to stop that! My sweet friend Janie Jones is usually there too and I love seeing her in the mornings. She's so cheerful and always makes me smile. It gets my day off to a good start.
7:10ish- Get to school, sign in and go to my room. I don't have any morning duties right now so before I get my kids I pretty much just get things out and ready for the day and visit with whoever is around
7:45- Kids come in and start morning work. I stand at the door and meet them while I eat my orange and Special K bar (breakfast 98% of the time!)
8:00- Bell rings and we get started on calendar stuff and reading. We power through reading until 9:50 when the kids go to PE.
9:50-10:55- My conference period. I'm usually pretty productive but there are times when I waste this time and regret it later.
11:00- We get back to the classroom. We usually either watch a storybook video or I read something to them about a current event or our science or social studies topic.
11:15- Lunch
11:45- Recess!! My favorite thing!
12:10ish- Back to work. We do whatever science or social studies lesson or activity we have for that day
12:45- Math and math centers.
1:30- Tier 2 reading intervention. My kids have to work very quietly while I work with struggling readers. We have the kids grouped where we switch amongst the 4 of us 1st grade teachers. I love this time but hate how when one of us is out or we have some kind of afternoon activity (art, etc.) that it gets pushed aside. I wish it could be more consistant but I guess there's only so many hours in a day.
2:00- Second recess! My second favorite part of the day!
2:15- Writing. I love writing! We have great writing lesson plans and it's so fun to hear the ideas my kids come up with.
2:40- Pack up. This is the craziest time of the day. I'm trying to get folders stuffed with notes and papers and the kids behavior chart filled out and they're loud and usually bugging me and the ones who didn't have a good day are bombarding my table asking what color I'm putting on their chart. It's nuts!
2:50- I try to have everyone in their seat, the floor picked up of any trash and it quiet before I start calling everyone to leave. This is always my goal but happens about 80% of the time. Oh well. I have some sweet kids who don't leave until later who stay behind and clean up and help get things in order
4:00- I leave school!
4:15ish- Get home, get a snack, change clothes, and get on the computer to check blogs and facebook. I run any errands I have too.
6:00ish- Either fix something for dinner or go get something. Chelsea has had softball practice and Aaron has had soccer so our normal dinner routine is thrown off right now.
After dinner I usually lounge on the couch with my computer and watch tv until I get ready to shower and go to bed which is usually around 10:00.
I'm usually tired but not exhausted so I have to be careful and not stay up too late because I might not feel tired at night but will have a hard time in the morning.
This might have been totally boring but look at these sweet faces! Who couldn't have a great day with them?!
