Christmas vaca 2008....

What a fun couple of weeks it has been! And I am hoping for even more fun the upcoming 2 weeks=) These pictures are from the Christmas PTA program at my school, and then the others are all from the Kirby/Carl Christmas party that we had at my parents house. That is always a blast-I'm glad we got to do it again this year-although we were missing some people that are normally there, it was still fun be together. I am happy to announce I have finished my Christmas shopping AND wrapping-so I get to just sit back and relax for my break! I am so glad I did that over Thanksgiving break.

I learned something very interesting last week with my students. We talked about Boxing Day. You've all seen it on the calendar, and if you're like me, you just think of some weird people in another country that 'box' the day after Christmas, and then you never think about it again. Well, since that is MY BIRTHDAY, I thought I would find out its true meaning. I was pleasantly surprised with what I found out! Boxing Day is related to St. Stephen's Day (St. Stephen was the first Christian Martyr) and it is based on the tradition of giving gifts to the needy. People would 'box' up their leftover food, gifts and give it to the less fortunate on this day. It was also a day for masters to give 'Christmas boxes' to their workers that have worked so hard for them throughout the year. It's always nice to learn something new, especially if its something you had the completely wrong idea about before!!
So.....let's reflect:what will you 'box' up for me on my birthday??
hahahha gotch ya!! just kidding=)

Spazmatics

OK, so Jordan and I found a new love...(thanks to our friends Joe and Bonnie!) They are the Spazmatics!! They are so amazing! They are an 80's cover band and they are not only hilarious and entertaining but they are great musicians! There 'sets' are SO well thought out and everybody knows all the songs making them sooo fun to sing along to!! It was so great to get to go see them Friday night with Joe and Bonnie. Every now and then it is so nice to actually "go out", it seems like lately we've been home bodies-which is fine-but every now and then its fun to get dressed up and go out! =)
The Hanging of the Greens Talent Show (on Sunday) was so cute! Jordan and I did a pretty good skit where we sang 'A Christmas Carol'. I had planned on recording it on my camera, but of course, there wasn't enough memory space on my camera. I'm waiting for someone else that was recording it to email it to me! Once I get it I will definitely try to upload it on here-b/c it will make you laugh. I'll give you a little taste and let you know that I get to basically smack Jordan in the face about 5 times during the skit!!=)lol
Well, I can't believe how fast December is going-Only 2 more weeks till the break....it's going to be fun!
1st pic-Me and Bonnie!
2nd-All of us in the crowd trying to take our own pic-Joe is looking like a goofball...
3rd-The Spazmatics Band-please take a look at their amazing attire
4th-Me and my baby before the concert started!

Thanksgiving break 08

I must say this week has been SO amazing. I am very grateful for my teaching job. It was so relaxing last week that I could rest in the fact that I didn't have to get up at 6am...to know that I didn't have to go to meetings, AND I didn't have to discipline kids! (Well, I guess maybe I did a little with Jordan..j/k)
The other great thing about last week is that b/c Jordan is still in school he ALSO had the whole week off. We had such a great time together....we were sort of 'forced' to be together every day b/c almost every one we know was either really busy with family or out of town! ha, so that was a nice thing (ask Jordan he might say different...=)
We were able to cook, clean, go Christmas shopping together(NOT on black friday), take our dogs to the vet and on walks, put up our Christmas decorations, go out to eat, SLEEP in, and see MOViES=) We love movies and we hadn't been since the HULK came out, so we went to the movie theater 5 times!! It was great.Thanksgiving was such a blast with all of the family together...we had Thanksgiving at just my parents house b/c Jordan's family was in Ohio with their grandparents all week. I got to see my Aunt, grandparents, siblings, nieces, nephews=it was awesome.
I am so excited now about Christmas break. I know that sounds bad b/c I just had a week off-but I'm excited that I will get to have that time with my family. In the past I've had to work retail jobs that have no regard for family time; and it really takes away the joy of Christmas when you're trying to get that last person to buy that diamond neclace on Christmas Eve at 5:30. So I will be VERY thankful this year to have the 2 weeks off to spend with family!! Not to mention I won't have to work on my BDAY-woohoo!!

But, I am nervous about this next 2 weeks coming up b/c of the Christmas program coming up-its my first one and I hope the kids didn't forget ALL the words over the break-yeesh. I guess we'll find out!!

Hope your week was enjoyable=) The pics above are 1. My brother matt and his family (Alethea, Peyton and Madeline)
2. My other brother Josh w/ his gf Jennifer 3. Is Jordan getting out MANCALA game ready-we played it a million times this week together-it's a lot of fun!! 4. Jordan and I on Thanksgiving 5. The doggies at my parents house! 6. My mom and I cooking in the kitchen for Thanksgiving! and 7. Is Jordan and I at Victory Park eating before we go to the STARS game=)

the woes of teaching?

Ok, so I'm starting to get angry about this, but I just keep telling myself-2 days till Thanksgiving...2 days till Thanksgiving. What am I angry about?? oh, just the fact that I had just started to feel much better this past Sunday and up until Wed morning when I feeling SICK as a dog, again. Same symptoms as before. Luckily I got to sit all day and observe another teacher (which was a lot of fun and very helpful-it made me feel a LOT better about the things I'm already doing in my classroom) but then when I got home, I felt SO tired and worn out, and sick-and I didn't even do anything! I couldn't do anything but lay down and snot everywhere (sorry for the graphic image). Anyway-very frustrating....I just need to make it through 2 more days of school and HOPEFULLY after the wonderful resting time of Thanksgiving I will feel better!
Ok, now I feel better I got all that off my chest!=)

worship @ youth retreat..

Ok, so honestly, I NEVER know what to put as my title...I am so not clever with that kind of stuff...so sorry, I could not think of anything. anyway, Jordan and I's weekend went really well!! It did not start out as well as I would have liked, but it ended up ok=) On friday I woke up very sick and that was NOT fun. I actually went home sick from school (there's a first time for everything) and I made it to the doctor who gave me a wonderful antibiotic shot-which kicked in about Saturday morning. So friday was SLEEP time, and good thing b/c Saturday we had 3 different worship sets we had to do at a youth retreat for Ben's (jordan's cousin) church. We were really excited about it and we think it went well! We were very tired vocally and physically, but it was well worth it. I took a few pics (and that's what the ones from below are from) The other members in the band are people from our church that play with us on Sunday morning.
I am so excited about Thanksgiving break! Having extra time to relax, get things done around the house and spend time with family sounds really good right about now. I wish ALL of our family was going to be here, but, maybe next time.
Anyway-enjoy the pics!!
1st Pic-Me and my wonderful hubby!! (we sang and played together-what fun!)
2nd-is of the whole band for the youth retreat!!
3rd-Jordan playing and singing...he's really into it=)
4th-Me being goofy at the piano
5th-Jordan and his cousin Ben (this is his church, and I forgot to get a pic with Abby!!)
6th-Just a candid shot of people walking around at the youth retreat before one of the services started...

my heart is yours

Jordan and I feel like this is SUCH a crazy week. We have Jordan's grandparents in town and we are eating dinner with them tonight after all our work stuff...then Wed we have Bonnie's bday celebration we are doing with them (which will be fun) but you know how middle of the week activities can really poop you out?=) Then thursday night Jordan and I will have a LONG and late worship practice b/c we (and a few other band members) are playing at a Youth Retreat this weekend for someone else's church. We played at this same retreat last year-but it was JUST me and Jordan...and no sound system, very acoustic. This year we got a whole band together and we are gonna ROCK out for God-its going to be awesome!! We are so excited and thankful that we have these opportunties to do stuff like this together=)
We are most excited about the fact that we "stumbled upon" a new song that has really touched our hearts and we feel it will really touch the hearts of the many m.s. and h.s. kids that will be at this retreat....It is challenging for us to play while we sing b/c the vocal parts are kind of difficult/taxing..but we love the message of the song so much it makes it rewarding to sing.
If you get a chance, check out the link below and listen to this amazing song that is based off of Song of Solomon!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a3spvQYlB-I
Please be in prayer for Jordan and I as we have a busy week and mostly for the youth that will be attending this retreat this weekend...that they will see God and know Him-especially those that do not know Him.

party time!

The weekend was pretty fun! I still cannot believe how HOT it is outside, but I'm not going to complain=) Friday night was Halloween, and as you can see our little doggies dressed up! ha, it was so cute=) Don't worry, I didn't torture them for too long! They had a blast riding around at the Harbor in Rockwall in their Doggie 'cart', if you will. They like the fact that they won't get trampled on...Bella was a little devil (of course) and Zeus was a skeleton. We ate dinner at the Harbor after we walked around there for a while. The next day was busy with little Joey's one year bday party! I had to put a picture of the decorations b/c they did such a cute job!! It was a safari theme=) Then we went over to the Carl's house and hung out with them for a while-busy busy day. Sunday was a nice day for relaxing and getting things done! I cannot believe it is only 3 weeks till Thanksgiving! This year has blown by. I am ready for the break for sure though!=)
PS> I am so thankful for the fact that we live by both sides of our family. I know not to take that for granted b/c it might not always be the case...and I love that almost ALL of our family (excluding only jeff and becca=( is only about 30-45min away. I WISH we could see all of them more, but, at least we get to see them as much as we do!=)

Halloween 08!!

It's starting to get much crazier for us as the holidays approach. We got to go to GCA's homecoming-it was really good to see some old friends and teachers. Congrats to Lauren Vacendak for winning queen!! Oh, how we remember the days of high school! Then Jordan and I went hiking with Zeus, Bella and our friends over at Grapevine lake-that was a blast!! It was so beautiful. And last, but not least we carved pumpkins last night. It was nice after roasting hot dogs and marshmallows by the fire pit to carve pumpkins. It's also the one year anniversary of when we brought Zeus home!! He's come along way in the last year so we are very happy to have him.
I am glad to announce that the little puppy we stumbled upon yesterday has potentially found a new home with one of my students, so I am very glad to hear that...I think it will work out great.
The next 2 months will be so very busy and stressful. Jordan will be finishing up the semester at school, I will be getting ready for Christmas programs and the like, and we will be trying to figure out everything for next year with Jordan's schooling and such, and family issues panning out. Please keep us in your prayers and our families as we will yours!! God is always faithful, but the joy comes when we are equally faithful to His provision and His will for our lives!!

midweek

OK, so I will just come out and admit it. I'm ADDICTED to scrapblog. I don't know what to do with myself. I feel like a new glorious world has come into my life and I can't stop! I love it. Anyway, but on to more important things. I love this weather-its perfect. I am sad that I keep getting sick over and over again, but hopefully (thanks to some good prescriptions) I can make it through. B/c I don't like missing school for being sick!

I'm very glad tomorrow is Friday though!! We are going to GCA's (our old Highschool)  Homecoming=) That is kind of exciting to me, but we'll see how it all pans out...sometimes there's drama. But it will be good to see some old friends, teachers, ect. I am also glad that nothing is planned on Saturday. We haven't had a Saturday with nothing planned for who knows how long...so that will be nice. 

Did I mention I love my husband? He's awesome!=)

Katie and Stephen's Cancun Wedding

I know it has been a long time coming, but I am FINALLY putting pictures up and blogging about my best friend-Katie's wedding. It was in Cancun, Mexico on the top of the Beach Palace Resort at sunset. My mom and I went on Friday afternoon and made it for the rehearsal dinner, and then the wedding the next day-we left Sunday afternoon. I had the honor of being a bridesmaid in her wedding. Katie and Stephen stayed in Cancun for a week after the wedding to honeymoon there. They then went back to live together in Los Angeles, California. Stephen is trying to get a youth pastor position out there, and Katie has a great internship at Fleisman.

On the day of the wedding we were quite worried because the weather was NOT looking good. They said it was going to rain, and the people in charge of the wedding were saying that she was going to have to have it inside. Naturally, they were very upset and worried-b/c there dream wedding was about to be ruined. Thankfully, the rain come and went-and right around the time Katie was walking down the aisle, the sun was setting and it was absolutely gorgeous!! It was all worth it=) The ceremony was great, I loved how Christ-centered it was, and their vows were amazing. I was so glad that I was able to go. My mom and I had a great time together as well. Enjoy the pictures!! 

oooohh....poor Zeus.

As most of you know, we have two dogs...(shown in profile picture above) Zeus and Bella. Bella is the red girl, and she is fiesty, fast and smart! She always gets everything we've ever tried to teach her pretty quickly...now, she also has a strong will-so she might not always do it if she doesn't "feel like it". Then there's Zeus.....he's the black one and he's the boy. We like to call him our "special needs" dog. He doesn't always get things. When we first got him all he did was sleep. He slept so much that there would be an imprint outside from where he laid that day.
Well he finally got over that stage (although he still sleeps a lot) and he's much more playful. He's actually learned to sit, and down. He's the kind of dog the is scared of everything...even treats. He somehow thinks you might be trying to poison him or something...he's a unique dog to say in the least.
Well, we have this doggy door in our house. And as soon as we got it Bella knew exactly what to do. She goes out and in whenever she pleases (and thankful to go to the bathroom). They always say dogs will follow other dogs-its best to teach them something together so one can lead right? We tried that with the doggy door. It took about 6months and many hours of training Zeus in and out of the door for Zeus to finally at least just follow Bella outside the doggy door. But then we ran into the problem that he wouldn't come back in. We were afraid when we left the house Zeus would run outside and of course, never come back in. But we still wanted Bella to be able to go out there to go to the bathroom...so we've been kind of in this rut of not knowing what to do about this whole doggy door thing and Zeus. We just have been leaving them out, and if Zeus goes out, then he's stuck out there-whatever.
So last night was a pivitol point in Zeus' dog life. We came home from a long night away from the house, got out of the car and realized Zeus was in the backyard (not anything super unordinary). Then we came INSIDE the house and there was Zeus barking and frolicking around out of joy that we were home.....wait a minute. Zeus was inside. We were just outside and he was outside. What is going on? So out of sheer excitement we quickly ran outside the door around to the backyard/gate area and called Zeus. We saw him run out the doggydoor (as we were peering through the fence posts) then we ran around and went in the front door-again calling Zeus-and low and behold HE RAN INSIDE the DOOR! If you're reading this and you don't understand why I'm actually dedicating a blog to this story-then you've never met Zeus. We were so proud of our little boy dog, we did it with him a few more times and gave him lots of praise and treats when he came back in on our own!!
I will conclude this story with how this morning went. We woke up-let Zeus out. When we called him to come back in (still excited from last night) he looked at us with this blank face and just stood there. He never came in-we had to "let him in"....
what is wrong with this strange dog?
hopefully one day he'll "get it".

jordan's 1st day as a sub...& my new instruments=)

So yesterday was Jordan's first day of substitute teaching in my district, Grand Prairie ISD. He taught 1st Grade-hahaha! He thought the kids were interesting and funny, but at the same time, they were trying to take "advantage" of the substitute. He had the same ups and downs all new teachers would say about all the disciplining and craziness that goes on-but at least he made it through the day. And on top of it today the teacher even asked him to come back and sub for 4 more days-so I guess he did good! 

The funniest thing that happened during the day, was while Jordan was reading the book, 'Ms. Nelson is missing', a little boy asked to go to the bathroom. Jordan's response was-'you can wait'....the poor little boy replied, 'no i can't mr. teacher, i gotta dookie!' and with that, he let him go.

Everything in my classroom is going pretty well. I have my instruments now and that is very exciting. I took some pictures of my r

oom with all the stuff I got in it-I added some risers for the students to practice singing on and then you can see all the instruments! The kids just LOVE playing them, every day they ask me if they can play instruments today. I think its great that they can be exposed to so many different kinds of music and instruments..I wish I had that when I was a kid, but oh well, I turned out ok=) And I second was Lauren said on her bl

og- I love teaching, but I am tired of ALL the disciplining that goes on...yeesh.

Lauren's Wedding 08

Well, Friday night was the rehearsal dinner for Lauren Smith and Ben Stevenson's wedding! We had a blast getting to see our friends again!

We ate a Springcreek BBQ-mmmm...yummy=) I think the whole time at dinner we spent talking about hilarious stories from 5th grade and middle school and the silly things that Caleb, Jordan and Teddy would do...haha. 

We reminisced about our days in 5th grade when we weren't aloud to talk at lunch and how we thought it was because we might choke....and then Caleb said that Jordan WOULD choke a lot b/c he laughed so much...haha. They told us about this funny story in 5th grade how Caleb and Jordan would buy a mentos pack every week at lunch 

and they had this "treasure" they 

were

 trying to build up and save these mentos for some day in the future....so finally, near t

he middle of the ye

ar, they reached their goa

l of "50" packs and they had dug it in the groun

d in a box or something. Then later they dug it up with pure joy in hopes of gorging on mentos....but to their dismay, the mentos were hard as rocks and they soon realized their plan was quite a terrible one....lol.

Saturday was the actual wedding!! Yay! One of my last best girl friends from my class to get married=) I'm so excited for Lauren-she's marrying Ben and they are moving to Colorado to live when they get back from their honeymoon!! We will miss her a lot! Their wedding was at Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church and it was beautiful! Her colors were very pretty too the black, apple red and apple green-nice choice. I can't believe almost all of my friends are married now. Before we know it we'll be at baby showers...time is really flying. But I'm glad we're still all very close.=)  This is a picture of me, the newlywed Amanda Sandlin and Lauren Coats!! Lauren was a bridesmaid and Amanda and I were in the houseparty!

The wedding party mainly

 consisted of Lauren's friends from Texas Tech, and then me, Crystal and Amanda were in the houseparty (sitt

ing in the pews). The

 wedding was sweet and beautiful! 

The reception was at the Atrium in Downtown Dallas-where we had one of our Sports Banquets from GCA=) Jordan finally got his iPhone (that was supposed to be a birthday gift back in june!) and he of course can't stop playing with it (as you can see from the pictures=) lol. 

The food was good and it was a lot of fun. Weddings are always so nice-to see the ones you love find their special someone and to be a part of one of the most important days in

their life, a day they will always remem

ber. 

After the wedding, Jordan and I went over to the Carl's house to see his grandma who was in town from Ohio! We had dinner with them and then had some fun blowing up a 7up can with Mentos!!=) It's always good to be with family. Always lots of fun, good food and plenty of love. I love my family and my friends. I am very blessed=)