My plate is too full

I can't focus.

I'm not getting anything done.

I can't spit out any cohesive thoughts.

I need a lifeline.

People just keep adding to the pile, I need it to be July!

(or this could all just be the clo.mid talking)

Being Social

This title makes me LOL...because I know how not social I tend to be.  Because face it, when you're hopped up on hormones one is usually not too pleasant to be around.  (just ask John)

However the last two Fridays we've had dinner plans with friends.  Both times we had a blast.  Completely different types of people each time as well.  I think I need to get out and be more social more often.

I find, I'm so much happier getting out and having that time where I'm allowed to not think about National Board writing, planning, video taping etc.  Also, with the added 101 year celebration of learning for our community that I got put in charge of and of course my new church responsibilities.  I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed.

Ok, face it.  A lot overwhelmed.

So, my goal is to do more social things with people that make me happy.  Like these last two weeks.  They've been amazing evenings and good stress relievers for me.  I feel my blood pressure dropping as I spend time with people I like.

This is a good goal because this next week I get to go to my niece's baptism.  She even called me herself and asked me to speak.  I adore her and I'm so excited!  Plus, my friend is coming into town with her family who I absolutely adore.  Next week will be a busy weekend but full of fun for me!

Well, now off to go type up some more for my National Board.  On today's agenda, the planning section for my Integrating Math and Science Lesson.  And if I get brave watching my Social Studies lesson.  (I'm really scared to do that for fear that it won't be what I need it to be).

More than Last Year

Well, my posts might have been short and inconsequential, but I have blogged more this month than I did through all of last year.

I don't really have a reason.  However, I did want to contribute to this community as much as I've taken away from it.  And to me, that means blogging and keeping up my side of the blogger relationship.

So, I looked at all the bloggers I just love and realized they post consistently and about seemingly inconsequential things as well as the bigger, more important things.  I decided that would be a good place for me to start.

There are several bloggers that I just adore! I feel like I know them and would be able to have great conversations with them and be the best of friends, if only we could meet in real life.  I am thrilled when they e-mail me back after a comment or include me in a reply tweet.  The best way I thought to contribute was to allow people into my world.  That's only possible as a blogger if you post.  So that's what I've done.

I don't know if I'll post every day all year or even every day for the rest of this month.  But, I do know that I love hearing your comments and visiting your blogs to see what you're all doing.  I'm super busy and shouldn't really be blogging right now, but here I am doing it anyway, because it's important to me.  This community is important to me.

Decisions

Self medicated was my decision.

I don't really know why, except the multiple doctors who have drilled into my head BCP unless we're trying. And I don't have any BCP, but I do have clom.id.

Plus, it buys me another month to try and figure out a new plan. Right?

Am I thinking rationally? Eh, who knows at this point. Rational thoughts are asking a lot at this point!

YW President

In my church, all of the organizations are run by members, including our bishop. No one is paid. Everyone has outside lives and respondsibilities.

Sunday, 3 minutes before sacrament meeting started, I was called/asked to be the new Young Women's president. That means I'd be in charge of all the 12-18 year old girls. I said yes, because I already knew it was coming.

You see, my friend I wrote about that was moving away, was our YW president. I was serving with her. Ever since Wednesday I'd been discussing with my Heavenly Father about all the reasons why it couldn't and shouldn't be me.

Obviously He had other plans. I'm sure He's having a good laugh. It's a good thing He knows His eternal plan for me. Because my short sighted plan-seeing self is very overwhelmed.

Field Trip

Today, the 2nd and 3rd graders went to Las Vegas on a field trip.  We were on the bus for a very long time, about 2 hours.

We headed to see the Secret Garden at the Mirage.  It was AMAZING!  We got to be just feet away from dolphins (so close, in fact, that I was concerned that one of my darling kids would drop their camera over the edge or worse one of them would fall in!).  We also saw lions, both white and golden tigers, and a black and spotted leopard.  The staff there were phenomenal with our kids and everything was very informational and well run.  We had a great guide, too.  My favorite part was seeing the newest baby dolphins.  The white tigers were also pretty amazing.  For being nocturnal, these guys were wide awake for us this morning!

It was probably one of the coolest field trips I've been on.  Definitely the one that was easiest for me to participate in because, thankfully, I wasn't in charge.

I'll try and get some pictures uploaded soon.  It was seriously cool!

The only downside, AF showed up in full force on the way down and I had no protective measures in place.  I didn't let it keep me down, at least not until I got home tonight.  It's been the first night where I've really missed my TV!  (yes, because 2 whole days of not missing it, is a big deal apparently!)

Home Videos

So I borrowed my step father's Video/DVD recorder forever ago and meant to burn all my home movies I stole from my mom years ago.  But, I never got around to it.  So now, with no TV to watch... it's finally getting done.

I'm currently watching Christmas of 1999.  I'm honestly shocked to see how very much the same we each are.  I mean my youngest brother who's now 19 acted the same exact way at age 7 as he does now.  It is uncanny to watch this little person act like my now adult brother.

Not to mention me.  WOW!

I have NOT changed in my mannerisms much,  the words might have changed that I use to express disbelief or excitement but I'm the same.

And the crazy clown lounge pants my dad always wore, Oh man, good times!

It's also really neat to hear and see my dad.  It's been 4 and a half years since he passed away.  I miss him like crazy.

I miss that.  I miss my little family all driving each other crazy but all being together.  With none of my siblings living near by at the moment I'm missing them all like crazy!  So now, off to write my 3 missionaries.

Moral of the story, I have the best family EVER!  So glad they're my eternal family!

No TV

Well it will either be the best decision we've ever made or by Tuesday we'll be pulling our hair out.

We finally cancelled our DirecTV.

2 1/2 years after our contract was up.

I LOVE TV and in our little realm of the universe it was our source of entertainment without having to drive 10 miles into town.  I have so many shows I love.  However, that's probably why now was the perfect time to get rid of it.

I couldn't swallow the price.  Not when we're trying to get all our bills paid.

We're still not sure if we have access to local TV.  We may pursue that avenue at a later date.

But for now, today was the most productive stay at home day I've had in a long while.  Especially with National Board.  Yay!

Thanks! and What to do?

First of all, thank you for all of your prayers and well wishes for my sister.  I found out today my mom is going to get to go down to CA for a few days when it happens.  Could be as soon as Tuesday.  I'd love to go to, but I hate planning for a sub! Plus, I don't think I could leave her there.  The last year has been killer to not get to talk to her all the time!


Well if the awful hormone headache is any indication of what's in my immediate future... I probably should figure out how we're proceeding.  I currently have one round of clo.mid that we never used last year I could self-medicate... or I should, you know, actually see a doctor! 

My RE in SLC seems to be blowing me off, or he actually decided to retire and just not tell me... Do I keep trying to work with him?  It's such an inconvenience that he's 5 hours away.  Or do I just move on?  And if I move on where do I go?

I wish I had a million dollars to do what I wanted, when I was ready, when it comes to this whole trying to have a baby process.  Unfortunately for us, it all comes down to money or technically our lack thereof. 

A problem with being related to me...

I feel really guilty.

I mean, I know I didn't DO anything to cause this to happen.  I also know there isn't a reason why this happened.  Also, there's nothing more I could have done to prevent this from happening. Ugh! Regardless, I still feel awful.

My one and only sister also has PCOS and endo.  She has always been reluctant to believe me that I knew what her pain was from and to listen to the *wise* words I offered her.

Currently, my sister is serving a full time mission for our church.  She hasn't been on BCP for a long time... She says, "I don't like how they make me feel."  Which, I can totally understand, but take them regardless because of the benefits.  

She's been having a really rough go. She's been in some constant pain for years.  However, it has gotten severe since she started on her mission.  She also has a huge and growing cyst on her ovary... (I'm saying its most likely an endometrioma).  Her 1 female doctor that is on her insurance has been blowing her off over the last 3 months.

By some miracle she ended up seeing one of the other doctors in the practice.  His first question was... "Why hasn't she removed this?" So hopefully before the month is up she'll have had surgery to remove the huge cyst and the endo.  Of course the doctor told her there were risks with the surgery, namely that they may end up having to take the whole ovary... and my mother's words of what were said "but you only need one".  Oh how I cringed and laughed out loud in annoyance at nonchalance of it all.

I'm so hoping this will help her be in less pain.  I'm so sorry this is what it's come to for her.  I always was wishing she wouldn't have to be on the same path as I am.  However, I'm thrilled she'll finally be able to get the help she needs and hopefully be able to finish out the last 6 months of her mission pain free.

She's my hero!

Friends

I am having a really hard time finding and keeping friends that live close enough I can see on a regular basis.  Don't get me wrong, I have a few really excellent friends that I get to see almost every day because I'm lucky enough to work with them.  However, that usually means they've had enough of me by the end of the day/week that they're ready for a break. ;)

Tonight I found out that one of my newly found friends is moving... in two weeks!  I feel totally gipped (this is how the mac says I should spell this word... blogger says its gypped and I'm to lazy to go look in an actual dictionary!).

I mean, I've known her for the last 5 years that I've lived here but never had a chance to/made time to get to know her.  So I guess it's technically my fault that I didn't realize how great she is before now.  The last 6 months we've worked together at church in the same organization and I just  ADORE her!  I'm so sad I didn't get to know her better sooner. I'm lame. Phoenix, you're getting a really awesome new family in two weeks!

I'm going to start to have abandonment issues if people I like a whole lot keep leaving me!

The new recess fad

My kiddos are loving to play "human dominos"  on the slide at recess.  After a week, I finally pulled out my phone and remembered to take a picture from behind so you can't see their cute faces. (However, the quality is AWFUL so you couldn't tell who they were even if you could see their faces!)

They really are my life for the  9 months I'm allowed to be their teacher.  I'm so lucky!

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day

So I totally posted this on my other blog when meaning to post it here.  Sorry if you're reading it twice because of that! 

I'm so thankful for a day off of school!  It allowed us to have an extra low stress day.  It was lovely!  We slept in, ate a yummy breakfast, got in some game playing, laundry, exercising, blog reading, and yes I even did some things for school.

However, I'd be remised if I didn't express gratitude for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  As I've taught my third graders about this man and his dreams for America over the past week which will continue this week.  It has been interesting discussing segregation, civil rights, and equality and hearing their points of view.

While I do believe the simple version of Dr. King's dream has come true... I do still believe we have a long way to go as a society to accomplish the real intent I heard when listening to his speech in its entirety today for the first time.  So, let's keep moving towards the end goal.  I know its attainable if we can put our pride aside.

Also, to the state of AZ... I'm disappointed you've renamed the holiday Human Rights Day.  Give Dr. King some credit!

Look What I Made

Hannah requested something sock monkey for baby Matthew's 1st birthday coming up.  Here's what I made.  It is my first attempt and in no way perfect.  But I think it turned out fantastic!

I found the pattern here.  Unfortunately she's not blogging anymore because I LOVED the pattern!  It may be a little big, but that just means he can wear it longer.

Hope you love it as much as I do.  I have a feeling I'll be making many more of these.  It was super fun!

Stake Conference

It's been a very blessed day. It is stake conference for church this weekend. We've been lucky enough to have a general authority, Elder Choi (pronounced Chay) and his wife in town.

The Chois are funny. They're from South Korea. It's been a lot of fun learning about the church and their conversions in South Korea.

I have a really hard time with these conferences. So much talk about raising families and all. But today wasn't too bad.. I dealt with it well, at least.

We talked a lot about building our faith. Which we can all do. We had two meetings tonight 3 1/2 hours worth. The same tomorrow since we work with the youth.

 I can't wait for tomorrow!

The year of 10th anniversary begins

Ok, so the years of 10th anniversaries technically began last June 15th which would have been the 10th anniversary of our first meeting.  Then, the random day in late November when we started chatting online.  And of course the 10th anniversary of the infamous Christmas Eve phone call that I made from my garage while home in Indy visiting my family.  But some people say none of that counts... so for them

10 years ago this weekend John and I went on our first date.

Our lunch at the Morris Center on BYU campus was the first time we'd spent with each other for longer than 5 minutes.  I had several girls eating lunch at the same time within eyesight just in case it didn't work out I could signal them.  However, between that lunch meeting (because I refuse to say it was a date seeing as I (ok really my parents because they bought me the meal plan) paid and had a back up plan ready) and our official first date that evening, I KNEW I was going to marry him.

I knew so certainly I didn't want to go on the date with him!  I was terrified.  Not to mention I was determined NOT to be one of those girls that went off to BYU and got married their first year.  So, when I went to meet him for our date, he met me with a dozen purple roses.  I used this time, taking the roses up to put them in water, to freak right out and telling anyone that would listen that I just couldn't go on this date.

But I did go.

And I'm SO thrilled I did.  I can't imagine my life without him.

We went to see the 10th anniversary release of Beauty and the Beast in the IMAX theater.

And so for this 10th anniversary of our first date Disney decided, just for us, to re-release Beauty and the Beast in 3D.

Of course, we're going.  It will be absolutely lovely.  I bet neither one of us realized what a perfect first date that was when we went.  I have a feeling we may be having one of these very dates every ten years for the rest of our lives... and I couldn't be more thrilled!

Love you John!

ps I promise to post pictures of my dozen purple roses he brings me since I told him it wouldn't be the same without them and pictures of our pages I scrapbooked from our first date sometime soon! 

Bad start

to yet another busy day!

We had a staff meeting this morning at 8:00 (we're supposed to be at school by 7:45).  I was supposed to talk about our Celebration of 101 years of learning in our small part of the world.  Yeah... I showed up about 5 after 8 with a hole in my shirt and no breakfast.  I totally lost my composure after the meeting.  I just cannot seem to keep my life pulled together these days.  Luckily I have the best most compassionate co-workers.  They talked me down off a ledge and fed me breakfast.  I'm forever grateful!

I'm so thankful for a three day weekend and a half day tomorrow.  If I had less things on my plate I'd love to run away somewhere, but I just can't.  I want to curl up and pretend I don't have one million things to get done.

Anyway I did manage to get  close to everything on my to do list accomplished and done well might I add.  Also, I've sat on the couch since I got home at 6.  I think I'll go to bed early.

John's at the school board meeting and that might never get over.  I'm sure there were or will yet be some explosive fireworks, I know a lot of community members were upset by a board member moving 1 of her 3 kids across state lines to attend school. Should be interesting to hear about!  Its meetings like these when I'm thankful I have my doctors orders to fall back on... "no unnecessary stressful situations".

***Update: Apparently my fellow upset community members kept to themselves this evening.  No one said a thing in the 3 hours John was at the meeting.  Its so interesting the things people won't say to someone's face but have no problem complaining about otherwise.  (I'm this way too with certain people about certain things, I have to be in order to keep my job!)

Wednesdays

Wednesdays are the LONGEST days of the week.  Especially right now.  I feel the need to share my Wednesday with you.  

6:40 alarm goes off. snooze til 10 after 7. 

7:40 Leave for school

7:45 arrive at school (run around like crazy person trying to get everything accomplished while at the same time forgetting to do all the REALLY important things like charge my video camera battery, ugh!)

8:30 school starts 

• 8:55 got to spelling bee, spend 1 hour there... good-bye math
• 10:00 sick student, Reading time
• 11:40 take kids to lunch, run around like crazy person and try to eat my own lunch (today I actually got to eat lunch during lunch time because my mom came to school and she cooked it for me!)
• 12:10 back to get the kids for small group
• 1:00 Specials (today was computers) Get ready to video tape and completely loose track of time. Still forget to charge my video camera
• 1:30 Prep students for video taping.  Review rules, procedures, and give examples.
• 2:15 finally ready to video tape.  Have to re-adjust group locations so the video camera can be plugged in.  Should be able to pull 15 minutes out of 35 minutes worth of tape.  
• 2:20 stop video taping to review rules and procedures.
• 2:25 start video taping again.  
• 2:50 stop video taping and scramble to get ready to go home in time. 
• 3:05 finally headed to the bus
• 3:15 finally start tutoring
• 4:00 head to the bus
• 4:05 argue with bus drivers who have chosen to not do what we told them yesterday to do

4:15 finally at National Board meeting

5:00 finally home

5:10 read scriptures

5:30 NBC nightly news (the only thing John MUST watch on TV)

6:00 get things ready for mutual

6:45 eat dinner

7:00 Mutual for Young Men and Young Women at the church (John and I are both working with the 12-18 years olds at church these days) 

8:45 arrive home from Mutual

9:00 exercise on the Wii

9:30 shower

10:00 blogging

10:30? bed

No wonder I'm so tired!  I'm sure all y'all don't really care, however this doesn't even take into account the number of times I heard "Mrs. Reyes" today.  LOL  Or the number of times I asked the same students to close their mouths or follow directions or try it by themselves.  Sheesh.  Anyway, I'm one busy lady.  Especially on Wednesdays.

Maybe tomorrow while everyone is at the tension filled school board meeting that I'm not allowed to go to (best doctor's orders EVER!) I'll go snuggle my friend's new baby some more.  I haven't seen her in a whole week!

Winners

I decided since there were only 4 comments I'd make something for all 4 of you!  

First winner is Hannah at Life Happens When You're Making Other Plans.  She has the sweetest baby Matthew who is just adorable.  In fact, click here to help him win the cutest baby contest!  

Second winner is Nicole at Whispered Words Forever Captured.  She's mom to one cute baby girl and she's also a huge advocate for Endometriosis Awareness.  

Third winner is Gretchen who blogs at Not enough devotion.  She's is one of my longtime friends and will be a lifetime friend.  I have 1 person from high school I ensure I stay in touch with and it's her.  She is a high school English teacher.  She is also the owner of one of the cutest big dogs Schmoo.  She's amazing and I adore her! 

The final winner is Nivette who blogs at a connors' conundrum.  Nivette and I have more things in common than not.  She was my college roommate for 2 whole years, we share the same birthday and so many other random things.  She is the mom of 2 and a master seamstress.  Go check her out on Etsy!  

So, let me know what you want me to make for you 4.  Thanks for reading and commenting! 

Taco John's

So, my husband is the BEST cook.

I know, I know I'm a lucky lady.  He also does the laundry and the dishes!  He truly is amazing.  This semester he's not taking classes and so that means for the last 9 days I've gotten a home-cooked delicious meal.

I like most everything that John makes.  There's been a few of his cooking experiments (Experiments 626 to be exact) that we both haven't loved but he's gotten really good at making things we like.  However, there is rarely a day that goes by where he doesn't lament my dislike of eggs.  He's gotten me to like a lot of things, maybe in our next ten years I'll change my mind about eggs.

I've posted many pictures before of all of the yummy creations he whips up for dinner each night.  However, one of my most favorite meals he makes for me is tacos.  These are 'authentic', or at least more so than the 'Blackburn style tacos' I have to beg him for when I'm feeling homesick.

My favorite part of having a big Sunday dinner of roast beast, potatoes and carrots.  (OK, yes I did write roast beast instead of roast beef. I blame my husband and The Grinch.  That's always what he's called it and it is now just in my everyday vocabulary.)  

Anyway, tonight, Taco John's was open for business and the tacos were delicious as usual!  Good thing I don't have to share him or his tacos with anyone else.

Gophers

We have a gopher problem. We've had it for a few months but they've stayed out of the back yard and only along the side yard.  However, today they made their presence known to us and Tuffy.  They finally broke ground within the boundaries of the fence.  


 We also have a westie.  Westies "were bred to chase down small prey such as otters, foxes, badgers, and vermin."  Therefore, Tuffy went into "must find gopher" mode, or "Squirrel!" mode if you've seen Up. Totally immune to any requests we had of him or paying us any attention all morning.  


Finally, he gave up and came in at some point while we were at church because when we got home he was curled up on the back of the couch where he usually is.  Thankfully there weren't any gophers inside our house when we got home.    


Hopefully, he doesn't dig under our chicken wire along the bottom of the fence and escape.  That's my biggest fear at this point.  He's part of the family and I couldn't function very well without him.  However, I wouldn't mind if he solved our gopher problem.  I guess we'd better go get him caught up on all of his shots!  

Vortex

When its storming up north we always have a ton of wind.  Today it didn't start up until about 2.  But John came home from town to a pile of tumble weeds several high and deep.  The picture was taken before I tried to move them all out of the way.  But they looped right back around.  We aren't protected in any direction from the wind so our house creates this vortex effect causing things to circle around and around.  it took john at least 30 minutes before he could pull the car in the garage.

It's Official I'm a National Board Certified Teacher Candidate

Well, it's official.  I'm a candidate for National Board Certification.  I got the official letter in the mail that I've been cleared to test.  I think there's something like 4 tests...ouch!

I've been working on it since this time last year with a pre-candidacy class and a summer institute.  Participating in these two things allowed me to get a scholarship from the AZ K-12 center that covers the entire cost of becoming Nationally Board Certified.  ($2,565!!!)  I never would have been able to do it without this scholarship.  I'm thankful for the AZ K-12 Center.  They've been amazing and so supportive.

There are 7 of us going through this process in our district this year all at the elementary school.  (We're really small, less than 500 kids.)  Apparently, it's a pretty big deal articles in the paper and such.  We'll see how many of us actually achieve national board status.   It's extremely rigorous.

 I'm not gonna lie.  I really was hoping something would come up and they'd find a reason to not allow me to do it because it is SO much work.  However, now that I've gotten official word I can move full steam ahead without that hope holding me back.

I have to plan and videotape some pretty extensive lessons in integrating science and math and also in social studies.  I also have to analyze multiple writing assignments from a couple students and discuss my involvement as a leader, learner, and collaborator.

Ugh.  It honestly is the most work I've ever done over the course of the year EVER.  Its something like 40+ type written pages, even more supporting documentation, and two 15 minute videos.  Crazy!

I'm planning a Civil rights/Martin Luther King Jr./Civil War unit for my social studies lessons to be taken from.  Last year our whole civil rights/civil war unit was a huge success and it really got my students thinking.  I'm hoping this year is no different and I'll have a lot of videos to choose from.

I've had a much harder time with science.  I've had a ton of ideas, but haven't been able to get one worked out in my head.  A co-worker of mine who used to teach 3rd grade helped me track down some things to maybe do something with fast growing plants.  I think it's going to work, but it's going to take a lot of preparation on my part.

Are any of you teachers?  Are you nationally board certified?  How did you do?  Anyone have any great ideas for a civil rights unit or integrating math and science unit with third graders?

I'd LOVE to hear your ideas or have you point me in the direction of some amazing third grade ideas whether they'd help me towards National Board or not.

Sorry to write about this completely random piece of my life... but it's taking up a lot of my brain capacity right now and many of my "free" hours.  Also, I'm 6 for 6 (just in case you hadn't been paying attention).  

Have you not been keeping up with my blogging every day?  Be sure to enter my "Happy 104th post" thank-you giveaway. 

Oops! Happy 100th post to me; better late than never!

So, apparently I TOTALLY missed my 100th post.

OK, I didn't miss it.  It was my first post of 2012.

I just didn't acknowledge it.

This is post 104.  I'm determined to keep up blogging and hope to add another 100 posts this year alone... which looking at my history would be more than the last 3 years combined, go figure!

In honor of my 104th post, and my 5th day in a row blogging, and my recent craftiness, I've decided to have a little thank-you contest.

I'll give one of you that comment on this post something homemade or semi-homemade by yours truly.  I crochet, make jewelry, teach, and love scrap-booking and card-making.  You can pick your poison.  Also, if there's something you've found that you'd love to have me make you, link to it in your comment as well.  I'm not making any promises that I can make you what you link to, but I'll try my hardest! 

To enter, just leave a comment linking me to your blog, twitter account, email, or pintrest boards.   Make sure I have SOME way to let you know you won my little contest. 

This little contest will be open until Tuesday, January 10, 2012 at 9pm MST.  Good Luck!

And thanks for reading! 

in full disclosure, no one is paying me or giving me anything to do this giveaway.  I will be providing the prize, materials, and man power to make it at my own expense i just love this online community and want to give a small piece of me back. 


Thank you for those of you who entered my little contest!  Winners chosen. 

New school day...

Well, I had a typical day.

The administration extended our school day by 30 minutes since we've come back from break.  Also, I'm tutoring for an additional hour  Tue, Wed, and Thu so I'm now not even thinking about leaving school until 4 o'clock (i have to be there at 7:45 or earlier).  Needless to say I came home and crashed.  This extra 90 minutes is kicking my trash!  But I can do one more month of anything, right!? 

While I napped, Tuffy was barking like crazy, he does every day when the neighbor takes his two dogs  down past our house to the wash. So, John locked him inside.  When he came in he drained his water dish.  We forgot to open the doggie door when we left for mutual (church activity for girls and boys 12-17).  We were home a good 20 minutes before John discovered the shut doggie door and the literal river across the tile floor as a result.  Poor Tuffy! He's never had that kind of accident in the house.  Thankfully, I have my steam cleaner. (After we cleaned it all up and used cleaner on it.)

Also, 4 days in a row, if you're keeping track like I am ;) yay!

Back to school

So, today was the first day back to school.  It is AMAZING to me how much I ADORE some of the people I work with and how much I miss them when I don't get to see them 5 days a week and yet there are so many others that I hang out in the dark in my classroom pretending I'm not at school.  Do you all have that same sort of variety in your relationships with your co-workers?  Is this a normal feeling?

Regardless, I got to be back with my kiddos.  They're so much fun and truly why I keep at this job.  I'm just so dang attached to these families.  I've been here long enough that they know me and I have a reputation.

This year has been super stressful with trying to become Nationally Board Certified.  But, it'll all be over by the end of the year, with the classroom integrated tasks done by April.  I'm not looking forward to all of the typing I have to do over the next 3 months!  This may severely limit my blog posting... or maybe it will encourage it because it can be a nice distraction.  Either way at the end of this week I'll have less days left in the school year that we've already completed!  Yay!

Also, 3 days of 2012 and 3 blog posts.  This may be some sort of record for me.

Back to Reality

Well today was the last day of winter break.  It was nice to have a Monday to relax finish up those things we hadn't manage to accomplish in the last two weeks and best of all only having to change from one pair of pajamas into another ;)

We were super busy today. But we also got to sleep in (read 7:45) so it was bearable.

I straightened up the craft/guest room and found a home for all the table cloths my mom gave me for our gorgeous new dining room table.  I also found places for all the odds and ends craft materials that we accumulated over the month of December and my bright idea to "make all Christmas gifts".

We took Tuffy from looking like this: (John bathes him and I cut his hair with some assistance from John, but I'm learning its easier if i just do most of it myself.)



This picture makes him look much cleaner and much less scruffy then he actually was!

To now looking like this!  Such a handsome westie! And "Oh so cute and FLUFFY!" (name that movie)

And this picture really doesn't do justice to just how clean he is now and oh how soft his fur is!

We also found our desk.  It had been lost under a pile of stuff that was at least a foot high.  We're not quite done yet, but we made a sizable dent!  I can see the wood of most of the desk now!

I also gave John a hair cut, played the wii, and John went grocery shopping.

Then this evening we got a phone call from one of the sweetest ladies we know.  She's hosting a girl from China who's going to work at the school with us.  She was having issues getting her wifi working.  We went over to help.  I thought for sure I'd be able to figure it out... but then we got there and the girl's computer looked normal, but everything was written in Chinese!!! Yeah... I don't have all the menu's memorized on windows, nor am I that proficient without being able to read the tips and help screens. However, the sweet lady had a computer of her own so we logged onto it and I was able to help her get connected.  I was pretty excited that I was able to figure out a way to help her.  I'm excited to have her in my classroom and have her share her wealth of knowledge with my students.

So, as you can see, we had a very productive day.  Especially since I've now blogged two days in a row!  Go me!

Happy New Year!

I hope all of you had a lovely holiday season.  Ours has been fantastic.  We have enjoyed two weeks off together from work and gotten a lot accomplished.  We visited with friends, spent time with family, spent several hours at the St. George Temple, made lots of treats, ATE even more treats, made some part of EVERY single Christmas gift we gave, and hosted a lovely Christmas Dinner.

It's another new beginning to a new year.  Everyone's making resolutions and setting goals... I guess that's what this time of year is for.  However, I always make some fairly lofty resolutions that I never seem to live up to.  So here's my goals for this year. 

1. Keep my focus on what matters most. 
2. Do all the little things I know I should every day. 
3. Try new things, often. 

So there you have it.  I'd love to say I'll blog more, but I'm not making any promises.  I have inherited my sister's laptop while she's on her mission now that my brother is on his mission, too.  So maybe a little more blogging ;)

Who knows what this year will bring for us on the building our family front.  Honestly, I feel a little guilty when I say this out loud, but I really will be OK if 2012 passes by with no new additions for us.  There are enough loved ones and friends having babies for me to keep my arms full loving them!  And the most wonderful part, we have family and friends that allow us to snuggle up with and love on their kids.  We're so blessed!  

Happy New Year!  I hope this year finds you growing and learning, laughing and loving more than last year.