In The Meadow We Can Build a Snowman....

Thursday, November 30, 2006 No comments
...or at least in my backyard! Yea, it snowed today....and sleeted, and rained last night so it didn't stick to the ground, which is a good thing because we had school. I know it seems a little cruel, but I'm not a big fan of the snow day because we have to make it up later with one of our spring holidays (usually Good Friday!).....but I am a fan of the late morning starts....just in case Jack Frost wants to create a slippery slide just long enough to delay school starting tomorrow, the 'snow' moved in about 9 o'clock this morning, and because I remember the torture of sitting in a classroom and getting a rare glimpse of snow out the window before it melted by 3 when you finally got to go out to view it up close...I took a mini field trip outside to touch snow with the kiddos. It just so happens it fell on a day when I was doing a unit on Holidays around the world and today was Christmas and I had planned hot chocolate....talk about a thematic person's dream come true. How fun is it to say it's snowing on November 30th in Texas?! I remember how magical it was to wake up as a child in the middle of the night after it had started snowing, and to look out and the world was so bright with all that snow on the ground. It's such a bizarre season, as I drove home today and looked at all the fall leaves still daggling from the trees, and the snow covering the ground.....I figured this would be an interesting weekend....shoveling snow, then raking up leaves :O)...by the end of the weekend I'll probably be sun bathing! If you have any request for me to eat a snowflake for you, let me know quickly before Ole Man Winter heads out for a bit!

Patience

Monday, November 27, 2006 No comments
I definitely struggle with being 'patient' with just about everything from Christmas, to summer vacation to pay day and major life changes.....I have to be 'patient', because I don't want to settle for anything less than what God has promised us if we wait for His timing, His plans, His way...but I guess I would call it more 'tolerating' the time lapse on my part....Yesterday I stumbled across this little perspective on patience by Jim Smoke "Patience is enjoying the distance between promises." How true that is...I'm definitely going to work on that 'enjoying' part to turn the foot tapping wait into patience! For my fellow patiently challenged friends.....it gave me a little 'ah ha' moment.

Weekend Review

Sunday, November 26, 2006 No comments
I was going to create separate post, but the time has gotten away from me, so I'll do a summary of the last few days.
Friday morning I woke up, not feeling so hot...I went shopping, but not at the crack of dawn.....it was a few hours later, and thus, I didn't spend as much as usual, which can be a good thing.
Friday night Kelly and I went to dinner and met up with Ann and Lizette from High School, then we went down to McKinney Ave afterwards. It was nice to catch up, but by the end of the evening I was feeling really sick. I woke up at about 4 am and got s-i-c-k! Yuck. I stayed in bed until two, when I rolled out of bed and met up with family for Brian's Birthday festivities. It is his 17th birthday, AND Roslynn's 28th! We went to Main Event and went bowling, played Arcade games, then went and had dinner followed by cake....I came home and went back to bed, woke up long enough to chat with Roslynn and then called it a night. This morning I got up and went to church, Kelly came with me, and then I came home and mowed my lawn and got out my Christmas decorations....my Mom and I were laughing over that contradiction earlier :O). It's almost time to rake again, the leaves have really piled up, but there are so many left to fall, I want to make it worth my while before I get out the rake for the first time, usually they are all bagged up by this time, but the seasons have been really odd here in Texas. Anyway, it'll be a fun holiday season b/c we have a full month between Thanksgiving and Christmas, which gives me plenty of time to enjoy the anticipation. It also means four more weeks of work until the holiday break....I think I can, I think I can.....

Gobble, Gobble

Thursday, November 23, 2006 2 comments
Holly came over yesterday and we did a little pre-Thanksgiving baking, including the pumpkin shaped pumpkin breads (this year's table decoration). We also baked some cookies, just for fun, that I saw in the Sunday paper, I already had most of the supplies and thought they looked fun (and delicious), they are little turkeys, some people didn't seem to recognize their shape. Everything turned out well, the food was good, Jason and the family came over along with the Mariams(Jason hung the Christmas lights on my house while I 'supervised'). After a game of basketball 'Turkey' we headed out to see the new movie-Santa Clause 3-The Escape Clause, it was a cute, especially for a THIRD sequel. Now it's time for me to skim the ads for a reason to get up at 4 am tomorrow....I'm sure I can find one :O) I hope your Thanksgiving was full of reasons to be thankful.....and that you have a little wobble in your step tomorrow because you had so much fabulous food!

Star's Game

This past Wednesday night I headed out to a Star's game, they beat Nashville, yea, and we were on the jumbo vision b/c the boy in the seat directly in front of me was completely covered with body paint (compliments of the rowdy guys that brought him along)....it was a good experience, a win is always fun.....and I never get tired of looking at Mike M (number nine in the picture, for those of you who haven't spent more than 5 minutes with me)! I haven't been to a Star's game since the strike! I definitely hope to get back before they strike again, or M M retires :O).

Sandye's Shower Part Two

Sunday, November 19, 2006 No comments
Today I attended Sandye's shower, hosted by some ladies her mom is friends with. I got to meet her future Mother-In-Law, who seems so kind, and her adorable, future cousin, who will be a junior bridesmaid in her wedding. The ladies had a dessert buffet with these cute little custom mint tins for favors (as seen on the cake). It's been a week of wedding showers, I went to a shower for Mary Anne last week, though I didn't bring my camera.....the festivities just keep going :O)...with many more to come in the near future!

Driving School....

Sunday, November 12, 2006 2 comments


Jason finally took his drive around the speedway. This was his 30th birthday gift from Mom and I, and according to him "the best experience of his life." I know he loved the driving part (ten laps around), but the riding part was the thing that really threw him for a loop, he said the g forces were so strong, and they were so close to the other cars they were racing, it was an incredible experience for him. The first picture is him sliding into the car he drove, and another of my Mom and him before 'class' began, the last is of him actually 'driving' by...I guess all he has to do now is wait for Nascar to call him for recruitment ;o).

Introducing Sandy Carrie M

Saturday, November 11, 2006 No comments

No, she's not mine, but she sure is cute. This is my cousins' new dog, Carrie (name pending)? I don't think her last Mommy taught her how to chew with her mouth closed...she looks like she's laughing about the whole situation.....? Santa came early this year (she looks just like the puppy Brian had on his Christmas list)....Brian, we will talk later about how you pulled that one off, he has YET to bring me a puppy....

The project I'm working on....

Friday, November 10, 2006 2 comments
This is a part of the quilt I'm currently working on...and the dog I'm currently looking for a home for b/c he stood on the quilt I was working on.....big jerk. I'm making this quilt for myself this time......I'm debating on whether or not to add a border (my quilting 'expert' friend says yes, but another gal who quilts says I don't have too), I still have to sew the border, and backing, then take it to be 'quilted' then sew on the binding....so it's quite a ways from being done....but it is actually starting to look like a quilt.....I've only had it since last March ;o)....I'm sure it won't be the last time you see it, but I thought I'd send a little picture of what I've been doing in the evenings lately :O).

Nascar Race

Monday, November 06, 2006 No comments
Yesterday we headed out to the race. We left home about 6 am (which was actually leaving 'late' compared to when Jason went last year) and swung by to get Jason and Tonya. We arrived a little after 8 at the Texas Motor Speedway, met up with some friends of my Mom's who were staying out there the whole weekend and then walked around 'shopping'. The race was delayed b/c of the rain (see the cloudy sky for the picture of the day), but after drying the track (with JET ENGINES) they were finally able to start. It was a true miracle that it did not rain anymore b/c it would have been a huge delay if it had. In addition to what turned out to be a nice day, Jason's driver, Tony Stewart, won for the first time in Texas! It was a lot of fun, lot's of wrecks (though nobody was hurt).....he stayed ahead for some unseemly number of laps and the end ended up being really exciting. I snapped WAY too many pictures, but here is one of Jason listening in on the driver's radio frequencies, it's 'the thing' to do at the races. You can hear them talking with their pit crew and vice versa. Afterwards we ended up eating dinner while a storm blew in, but we wanted the traffic to die down. It literally is at a stand still for HOURS afterwards. Even after waiting almost 3 hours to leave we got stuck waiting. I guess releasing 200,000 people at once can be a bit of a problem, but the parking was FREE, how about that? It can be b/c the tickets were so outrageous. It's something you should do at least once. I think my ears still hurt though, even with ear phones and ear plugs it was rough on the hearing. We finally managed to get home about ll. I didn't get anything done, INCLUDING a call to Marie, who's birthday it was yesterday, I'M SORRY!!! Carla got a call a day late too (Saturday).....in fact, I don't know that I've actually hit anyone ON their birthday, the last week and a half there have been 5 and if I didn't call the day before, I called the day after.....BUT it's a VERY important day, Marie is a very important person....and next year I'll call at least 28 times and she'll be BEGGING me not to call her on her birthday anymore! Happy Birthday, Marie! This last picture is a shot of Tony Stewart drivin behind the pace care during a caution, my favorite line of the day is "This is about the only car that's been in front of Tony Stewart all day." So what did he do? He started tapping it with his bumper, and they had to call down and tell him to cut it out.....which I think pretty much covers his personality, you love him or hate him, Jason loves him. ALMOST as much as I like Marie, did I mention I'm sorry I didn't call on your b-day?

Boot Scootin....

Saturday, November 04, 2006 1 comment
I know, I know, it's been awhile, I'm going to try to be a little more faithful about blogging (though I know it's more than some, it's not meeting my usual standards for updating ;O)). I'll have more to post tomorrow, but I thought I'd fill in a few little tidbits of the week.
Halloween-Went well, tmy students were relatively behaved, though the sugar definitely hit in as the week progressed and there was a big stir on Friday, but hopefully we will live through it, you never know the parent's reactions when you send home paperwork regarding misbehavior. It's getting to the point in the year where I'm a little tired and we all just need a break and hopefully they will forget some of their bad behavior habits over the break ;o)...or at least I'll be refreshed for what they throw my way. I've had a lot of classroom visitors this last week as well, but I think that's another blog for another time, and there are more stop in's planned over the next few weeks.
Friday-I met up with some old pals that formerly worked with me before the big turnover last year, including the ex principal who is happily leading a new and amazing (distant) school. We all headed out to Trail Dust and had a fabulous meal, some participated in a little line dancing to a fabulous band, and then we ended the evening at Obzeet's for dessert and coffee. It was a really tame night considering some of the attendees, and what they have done in the past. I know they are planning a future outing that is slightly less tame, but more so then spring time outings. Some of these gals have hit a little something known as a midlife crisis. They are trying something new out every month (or at least that was the goal). Which in itself isn't bad, but the things on the list are a little silly at times. It's been interesting to hear about (and experience) a few of their adventures.
Tomorrow is the Nascar race, we are praying for no rain until the race is over, and then I hope the heaven's open.....I can't wait to share more pictures because it may be a one time thing....it's a little pricey and I can think of quite a FEW things I'd enjoy more...but it's good to try things once.....