Monday, February 18, 2013

Love Is...

Love is...
 
...cuddling with the ones you love.

In this case, my husband sleeping with the umpire trophy he recently won.

Also Grant with Reagan.
...being happy. Here is my niece, Claire, on her first Valentines Day.





...helping others. Grant had a performance last week at school and on the way home, helped feed Reagan. When we got home, this is what we found.


...sharing.
Grant had his Valentines Day party and got to give and receive plenty of Valentines!








...doing something you don't like, for someone else.
Daniel can work our steam mop so much better than I can for some reason so I asked him to do it. I'm sure he didn't want to but gladly accepted it. I never once heard him complain.


...thinking of others.
My friend Amber made me this awesome pillow for Reagan. She had been out of town, has 2 kids, and a full schedule yet she took the time to make it for me. So sweet!


...using your manners and being respectful.

Every time someone gets caught using their manners in the lunchroom, they get a ticket. At the end of the period, the principal draws out a few tickets. Grant won recently, he was so excited!


A few days later since he won, he got to eat a special meal at a special table in the cafeteria.


The principal says she is impressed at his manners he uses ever day. Although I was a tiny bit shocked, I am very proud.


...being scared of your family and loving them anyway.
 
Uh, enough said.  :)

...beautiful. 
Just like my baby girl.  Here she is at 2 months.

Here she is after her bath one day.  She LOVES bathtime.

Sunday, February 10, 2013

Back in the Saddle Again

A few days ago I went back to work. I had been cleared for everything by the doctor a little earlier than that but decided to stay out some more.

I was excited to try out Daniel's bike and the trailer. I had to bribe Grant with candy to ride with me, but he enjoyed it.



It's been a while since I had been on a bike, and this one is a little tall for me so it wasn't always smooth sailing. I was glad to be out enjoying the cool weather I love.



The day I went back to school I had first day jitters. The semester had changed and that meant a whole new group of kids for me. Some even thought I was the 'sub' for the class! I'm also teaching a brand new class that is brand new to the school. Every single year I've taught (7) I've had a new prep. One day I counted and I've taught over 17 types of classes! From computer programming to yearbook. That is SOME resume!

However, already counting down to summer.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

The Space Shuttle Columbia

On February 1, 2003 I was in my senior year of college in Nacogdoches, Texas.  I remember that weekend vividly.  It was a Saturday and I woke up to a phone call from my parents.  I was trying to sleep a little late because I was going to have a busy Saturday, but that didn't work.  They told me I missed the sonic boom of the space shuttle Columbia exploding.  It was all over the news.  Then I began to call around to my friends.  People were already finding things on their cars.  

From there, I got ready for the weekend which was a church retreat with my friends from the Yellow House, a student union on campus.  We arrived to a retreat location out in the woods outside of town.  The owners had found this:


That is when things felt real. These 7 brave men and women died on re-entry to the Earth and their safe place for the l6 days of their scientific mission.

Word spread quickly that CNN was camping out on the downtown square, so I knew this must be the epicenter of it all.

My friends and I went about our business, and that night a news crew from Austin showed up as well as the county Sheriff.  He instructed us not to touch this part of the shuttle nor anything else that we might find.  I remember him saying, "We do not know what kind of chemicals are on these items, so don't touch it.  You might grown a third eye or something."  Now picture that statement with a big east Texas accent.  
 Come to find out, they just didn't want you taking things home as souvenirs   Someone on our campus got arrested in the middle of class the next week for trying to sell a piece of the shuttle on eBay.  He took government property.  The campus was all buzzing about the event.  I kept this issue of our school paper, so glad I found it today.
For the next 6 months or so, I met and saw men working from NASA who were temporarily relocated here to search for pieces of the shuttle.  After it was all over, they found 82,000 pieces of debris, or only 38% of the shuttle.

A year later NASA revisited Nacogdoches and put on a thank you presentation for the city for their help and hospitality.  

I was too young to remember Challenger, but I will certainly keep Columbia in my memory for a long time.