Post Break-Looking for more breaks

Beauty in the Common Things: Wind. It seems to go unnoticed most of the time until there is too much of it or you are in need of it. I once met a woman who told me she tried to teach her grandson to 'take in' everything from the world around him. Including 'feeling' the wind. On pretty days, I try to do the same. Then when we got to working hard raking all our leaves this morning, I was looking for it!

Dinner Plans: The local elementary school had a spaghetti dinner fundraiser. I knew what I was going to eat tonight almost a month in advance. Thats my kind of dinner planning!

Listen In: Clothes washer and dish washer running. I'm behind on housework.

View from the Kitchen Window: Less leaves! 6 truckbed loads of leaves have been banished from our yard after 5 hours of work, 2 blisters, and 2 nasal cavities of pollen.

Sunday evening was the first time all Spring Break that we had with just the 3 of us. With that, we took Grant to the local park to feed the ducks. It was a pretty evening and we just happened to have some 'butts of bread'.

It was a long week after Spring Break...a very busy one. We had something do about every night until about 9pm it seemed. Grant had 50s day at school earlier this week. Of course, I was excited for him to dress the part:

This picture took forever to take. He cried about me putting gel in his hair to slick it back (which it didn't do much slicking at all!) and then he insisted on sliding on his playset after running around the yard like the toddler he is. I finally forced him to stand there and I told him he BETTER smile for me. Phew, he listened to me and it turned out so cute! On that same subject, I told him earlier today, "You should always listen to Mommy." He replied, "No, thats dangerous!" He's been saying that to several things lately for some reason, but that one really made my giggle. Even though it is very wrong!

Notice Grant has colorful handful of snakes. He's been getting them (as well as Matchbox cars and DumDums) out of his grab jar for doing good on potty training. We've been doing this for about a month or so. We are S-L-O-W-L-Y progressing, however I know he'll have it down by the end of summer!
Don't expect much from this blog for a while, we have from now until mid-May full. I'll just cross my fingers now for some down time. For some good news, tomorrow I finish my last class before my masters internship and then you can call me 'the cool chick with the masters degree'. Awesome!

Spring Break

Beauty in the Common Things: Being off of work. Its interesting how it boosts your morale and even revs you up to go back. I have some great new ideas to implement after I get back into my curriculum. However, I might have forgotten all my students names. Whoops.

Listen In: Grant has a magnetic dress up boy he's dressing up as a pirate and yelling "Arg, Mateys!"

Dinner Plans: Sour cream enchiladas. I've made these before and they were so good and so easy!

View from the Kitchen Window: A freshly painted house. That was our Spring Break adventure. We scraped and put the first coat on of 'Gallery White'. Will have to do it again in a few weeks with the second coat.

GiGi and PawPaw Fred (Daniel's grandparents) came in last week for some much needed aid in giving the outside of our house a face lift. It needed a good scrape, paint, and some boards replaced. So last weekend we started the process.

Sunday we continued with our month long job as 'Wee Worship' teachers. About 20 3-4 year old kids for an hour is about all I can handle. We are studying being a sheep to our shepherd and letting the Lord guide us. As you might have guessed, we've already used every cotton ball in our home for craft purposes!

From there we went to visit Daniel's family for several days. Daniel and I caught up on some much needed sleep and I got several things done for school that I needed to finish. I also actually read a book (which is rare for me, unfortunately). It was recommended by a few friends of mine, "Heaven is for Real" by Todd Burpo. It is a true account of a minister and his family. His 3 1/2 year old son was gravely ill and later he finds out he actually died and went to heaven. His son shares all the things he saw in heaven and what Jesus shared with him. All accounts are accurate and many things his son would have no way of knowing unless he indeed was with Jesus. It iss a short read that is inspirational and made me think of loved ones that have passed. Made be smile to think that yes, most likely my grandparents have seen my handsome son. I highly recommend it.

We also went to visit the neighbor's 'farm'. Apparently they used to have a petting zoo type farm where you could have parties and such there. They since closed the 'zoo' but kept some of the animals. Grant loved seeing the animals as I tried my best to keep him out of the mounds of animal poop. Somehow I managed to get out poop free!

Grant got to ride sit on the miniature donkey.



This camel was in love with me. His name is Frosty and he talked to me and as you can see, gazed into my eyes.



Loved my sister-in-law Erica as well.



Erica and I had a great time laughing at this animal. He sniffed a donkey's bottom then made this awful face. I'm still laughing as I type this...



This week we also watched "Temple Grandin". It won several Academy Awards last year and it stars Claire Danes, whom I love! Its a true story of a woman with autism who comes ends up developing processes that change the cattle industry. Another recommendation for you! I have dealt with several autistic students since I've been teaching and it helped give me a little more insight into their thinking processes.

Well back to home we trotted after some days off and then back to work on the house we went. A few more weeks and we will go back for the second coat.

This afternoon we've been resting and our niece Vivian came to play for a while.





Guess we are back to school next week...then the countdown for summer goes from there.

Happenings

Beauty in the Common Things: The Internet. Common today...not so much 15 years ago. Daniel and I will be teaching Wee Worship this month at church and the internet is a great resource. I can talk via video to friends far away, go shopping, get my masters degree, and read books that are out of print all by a few touches of a button. Amazing!

Listen In: The Fresh Beat Band on Nick, Jr. We don't watch this often, but its kind of a cute show for kids.

Dinner Plans: Hmm....thats too far from now.

View from the Kitchen Window: A dreary day? A sunny day? Can't fully tell...but I know its colder outside!

Since the last blog entry, I had my birthday. Some people avoid their birthdays. I milk it! My husband actually spoiled me this birthday...maybe because its so close to thirty! I got an iPad, a cake, and ice cream. Daniel said he tried to get me one of those Barbie dress cakes because I happened to mention how I always wanted one and never got one...but he got this Little Mermaid cake instead:

It was so sparkley and YUMMY! Good job HEB! I got to keep Arial and Flounder doubled as a mirror...haha. We shared this and ice cream with our lunch buddies at school. I'm also enjoying the iPad. I use it to play games and journal as I'm settling down for the night. Grant loves to use it for games and to watch movies off of Netflix that streams through the internet. Another plus for the internet, watching movies on demand without a fat VCR!

The weekend before my birthday, Daniel, my brother and I went to the Iron Man Professional Bull Riding contest at Cowboys Stadium. Thank you to my friend Amber for the tickets, even though she didn't sit with us! I got to catch up with my big brother, see some adorable cowboys, and giant bulls. It had been a long time since I went to something like that, and I enjoyed it.

Our seats were right near the arena, or as I accidently called it-the bull pen. HAHA. I knew that sounded odd...can you tell I'm not a huge baseball fan??

Speaking of baseball...or something like it...Daniel is now back at umpiring softball. This is why I have some time to blog because he's out in his uniform yelling at teenage girls...haha.

I made him pose last week when he did a tournament for jr. varsity. Grant and I got to watch him for a while why we waited for our play date to come pick us up. Ok, we didn't really get to see him...Grant just yelled "Daddy! Come here!" half the time, and I was chasing him around the ballpark the rest of the time. One of the reasons I support him via telepathic style.
Today Grant and I were supposed to have another play date, but I'm not feeling up to par. This started yesterday and my Mom kind of feels the same way. We can't decide whether its allergies or something else. I'll just keep downing my Allegra and Flonase and cross my fingers.
So to take it easy today, I'll be doing plenty on the computer and doing "Just Dance Kids" for the Wii on the couch with Grant. My brother got me that and "Just Dance 2" for my birthday. If you haven't tried it, its pretty fun!

All You Need Is Love

Beauty in the Common Things: Time. I have none as of late. I am behind at home, at school, and I feel behind in sleep. Daniel has been a great help with easing some of it though :)

Dinner Plans: breakfast for dinner

View From the Kitchen Window: He's not out there now, but the other morning I had fun watching a woodpecker go after our telephone pole. I just kept wondering how that doesn't hurt him! I want to get a big birdhouse this spring like my grandmother had. I remember finding eggs underneath it one time and taking the eggs home. I tried to hatch them by putting them in a left-over Jack In the Box egg roll container and having Smurfette sit on it. I now find it odd no one mentioned how Smurfette just doesn't have that kind of heating capacity.

Listen In: Go, Diego, Go!

Last week I spent 4 days in Austin at the Texas Computer Educators Association Convention. This was my first year to attend. I was excited to go, but nervous about leaving my boys.

I'm glad I went because I had a great time. I learned some things, had a few laughs, and met a new man:
Ok, its just a dude in a robot costume, but I thought it was funny! I got to room with one of my best friends, saw my brother and his family, got a bunch of free junk, and won a $3500 piece of educational hardware. Good week all in all.

When I got back, I came home to a house full of Valentines Day surprises from Daniel. I also saw he and my son made it just fine without me. :) But then again, I already knew that. Skype was our friend!

Speaking of Valentines Day, I spent the evening with my 2 Valentines. Below is the picture I sent to family for this holiday. Red hair and dimples? Seriously...cupid who?

No Cabin Fever Here!

Beauty in the Common Things: Today is chalk full of beauty. My husband woke up early, gave me a sweet kiss, and said "Baby, its still snowing. We have about 4 inches." I said a quick "HOORAY!", then rolled over and went back to sleep. When my body finally woke up, I was super excited! More of that to come later.

Listen In: Watching Oprah. Its been pre-empted all week due to the weather, I've got to get my girl shows in.

View From the Kitchen Window: powdery snow everywhere and 2 dogs that were just let out for a potty break

Dinner Plans: I've been cooking a lot since we've been stuck indoors...sopaphilla cheesecake, chicken pot pie, pork chops, cheesy bread, sloppy joes....maybe tonight will be leftovers!

Last weekend, Daniel and I took a group of about 35 students to our college Alma mater for a tour. Bad thing about it though, one of us had to ride the school bus with the other sponsor. Grant wanted to get on, so I decided to join him. Turns out when you ride with your toddler who is super excited for his first bus ride, its not so bad after all!

He didn't sleep the entire 3 hours, but didn't begin to get crabby when were 20 minutes away from our destination. He claimed the bus was "too little" for him and he needed to get out of his car seat.

We went on the official tour of the school and showed them some of the ropes. They are only sophomores, but it was nice to see them get excited about the future.
While in town, we visited with some college friends of ours who have a daughter six months older than Grant. I found he is a little gentleman with the ladies. Right before this picture was taken, he opened the Jeep door and said, "Hey, you want to go for a ride?" Miss Avery jumped in a looked back with this adorable face.

It was hilarious watching them. When he'd drive, she'd play with the Barbie radio and when she would drive, he would try to control the radio, and the wheel. Typical couple...haha.

It was a beautiful January day, so we also got in some swinging time as well.

Grant and Avery were worn out be the end of the day. They had a nice pillow fight with their pillow pets and then watched Toy Story 3.

Thank you Suttles family for letting us stay with you and enjoy your home and family! I can't wait to see Miss Maitland arriving in a month!

This week has been so, un-Texas-like. We went to school Monday, then an arctic blast came in. Temperatures were in the teens and you could ice skate on our side walk. The ice was at least 2.5 inches thick. School was canceled for 3 days due to the ice and bitter cold. Our district, and surrounding schools, knew they may not be able to handle the single digit wind chills. I know that people up north laugh at us for such things, but this is so rare, everyone freaks out. Last night we had snow come in. We woke up to some beautiful powder.

Here is Grant and Daniel throwing snow. It was not wet enough to make snowballs nor a snowman.

I thought our birdbath looked neat with a blanket of snow on it.

Daniel was laughing at Grant. He found it hard to walk and just feel down.

7 inches total, on top of all the ice.


Daniel actually did a snow angel? He must have been really excited! He never does that!


This can give you an idea of our weather.

Rowdy and Honey did not care for the bitter cold

I am so grateful that I don't have to go into work on days like this, and even if I did...it is only about 5 miles from my home. I am grateful for my heat, 2 boys to cuddle with, and a beautiful fire in the fireplace to look at. More snow may be on the way later next week. I give props to all the Global Warming Issues:)

Happy Trails and Happy Meals

Beauty in the Common Things: Having clean language. I'm not saying I'm perfect when it comes to appropriate language but compared to a girl I had to deal with today, I am a saint! These teenagers and their fowl language is absolutely driving me crazy lately. Makes you think twice what they hear at home.

Listen In: Grant is using his Leap Frog Tag Jr. and I am catching up on Oprah. Not even sure why I'm watching this episode...its making me angry.

Dinner Plans: Homemade Lasagna. Hmm, I think I put a little too much garlic in it.

Never mind, all I taste is blood now. My son just busted my upper lip from being too rowdy. Oh my...

Besides Grant being a little rowdy sometimes, he is always very sweet and quite funny. (side note: He knew he hurt me right away and apologized). One day Grant was playing in his room and I found that someone was getting ready for another flood...apparently led by the cows. I tried to get Noah in there with them, but Grant insisted he stay seated in the school bus!


Grant and Daniel had a night together recently while I went to play Bunco. Daniel decided it was time for Grant's first Happy Meal. That was ok by me, because I didn't have to eat it...I can't stand McDonald's! But I do love both of my boy's expressions...haha!
We have some great friends in town that I don't get to see often. I used to babysit their two girls. Now they are growing up and don't need me anymore, but now they get to keep my son! They have a great stocked pond, so we thought it'd be nice to visit and fish. Grant has a pole and really just likes to throw it back and forth in the water.

I got Grant some rubber boots because I knew it'd be really muddy...glad I did! He loved his frog boots! Grant is here holding his new rubber snakes he got as a reward from going on our latest adventure...potty training! See below.


Random cute picture of Grant and his older buddy Sean. We ate at the haunted Catfish Plantation and I couldn't resist taking this.

Ok, so back to the potty training. Grant has not been interested much at all about it, but we decided to buckle down last weekend and put the plan into action. So far he's doing fairly well, but we still have a ways to go.

Daniel designed this adorable Thomas the Train potty chart. 1 sticker for using the potty and then 5 stickers gets him something from the grab jar.

The grab jar is stocked with dinosaurs, cars, snakes as well as other animals, and dum-dums. All a little boy could want!

Snow Day!

A week after the new year began, Mother Nature brought us a nice weekend surprise! Heavy snowfall came in which made for a fun day and a late start to school the next day. Extra bonus!

Grant kept looking at all the snow coming down, as did I.

Our view of the backyard with GIANT flakes coming down!

Caught in the act...
FABULOUS!
Rowdy and Honey enjoyed the snow, but not the cold!

Grant found out that the best snow was on his playset.

Our neighborhood turned into a winter wonderland.

Grant loved throwing snowballs and his Dad and I.


I kept trying to show Grant how to catch snow on his tongue. He took one look at me and put his head down like he was embarassed. I'm sure that won't be the last time!


Daniel was trying to get Grant to make a snow angel.

Look at those rosy cheeks.

We joined the neighborhood kids to make a huge snowman.

This one we made in our yard. He finally melted almost a week later.