Steady Job

At BYU I almost got my degree in special ed and then later decided a general elementary education degree would be more flexible. I'm still glad I chose that and had the wonderful, and if not always wonderful, memorable experiences I had teaching in general ed for 3 years. I loved teaching those kids, and I loved who I worked with. Although it was hard to leave, I was kind of excited for a little change when I came down to Texas... I love mixin it up. I'm the type of person who refuses to eat a sandwich or any same thing everyday for lunch. Well, things have been mixed. Substituting was going well, but it just wasn't keeping me busy enough. I wanted to be working more than twice a week. So, one of the classes that I had been in before needed a sub for a full week before Christmas, so of course I said Yes! It's nice to have jobs planned out. At the end of the week, they told me that the aide I was substituting for had been injured and was not expected to come back for at least a month. So I filled the position, and I'm in it for as many months as they need me.
It's quite a change going from being the teacher in a large class of 11 and 12 year olds to being an aide in a class of only 4 kindergarteners with autism. It's only been a few weeks, but I already love those kids. And I'm not the type of person who just loves all kids. I should, but I don't. I sure can fake it though! But I don't fake it with these kids. They make me smile a lot everyday. Sometimes it gets a little frustrating when they don't sit up or when they don't answer questions or when they throw a fit, but it's just so dang cute when they repeat funny things they've heard or when they do answer questions and when they behave for a Dorito. Some of my favorite things so far have been A.C. singing "For the Longest Time" word for word in the mirror with a fake microphone and big star glasses, F.S. saying "Miss Christie" with a smile when I got him out of the car in the morning, M. laughing really hard when we played the I'm-gonna-get-you game, F.S.'s Oh-no-I-gotta-go-#2-now face (which really was an Oops-we're-too-late face), A.C. repeating "Nokia, AT&T, Miss Christie's phone" over and over and then taking lots of pictures of himself with it, and M. constantly keeping her distance from her pursuer A.C. who loves to smother her, watching the Kinder class do their calendar songs in the morning-especially the month Macarena, and A.C. calling me "Christina Pomper" since that's how he read my name on my name tag the first week. Oh man, I really get a kick out of these kids. Working on their goals 1 on 1 at the table is sometimes difficult, but it's really rewarding when they get it. They're such smart little kiddos. The other great thing about the job is that there isn't any planning after school. Being an aide isn't so bad after all. It's steady, and I'm happy. Plus, it's busy season for James right now and he's gone a lot, so this keeps me busy. Poor James. It won't last forever though, and I'm just grateful that we both have jobs.

Christmas!

James and I were so excited for Christmas that we put up our Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. Is that allowed? We figured since it was our first time to enjoy our very own Christmas tree in our very own house, it was okay. The best kind of trees are fake ones that don't make you sneeze, don't make a mess, and that come free from your in-laws when they get a new one. Also, between the ornaments James's mom has been saving for him and the ones from my mom, we had a pretty full tree! The only problem is we don't want to take it down.
This Christmas, we were lucky enough to spend some time with both sides of the family. My parents made it up for a quick weekend and we filled it with food, a temple trip, Cowboys football, Yogurtville-twice, a choir performance-thanks, Mom, for saving us, The Princess and the Frog, and caroling with family.

My parents left on Sunday, and we flew out to California with James's family the next morning. His oldest sister and two older brothers met us there to spend 4 days at Disneyland and California Adventure. It was James's first time to Disney, so that made it even more fun for me. I tried to explain how Disney goes overboard on everything, but he had to see it to know what I was talking about. It certainly was magical! The only non-magical things were the lines on Christmas. We were glad we had 3 days before that so we could go on all the rides we wanted. We also became very proficient at using the fast passes and stroller passes thanks to the little kids in the family. Some of the highlights were Soaring Over California (smelling the oranges..yum), the Tower of Terror, California Screamin' rollercoaster, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Space Mountain. The shows were fantastic as well. We had fun, fun, fun!

We filled up a shuttle easily with 24 people.

A wet ride on a cool day.

The C's- Cohlee, Christina, Christie, and Cade

James and Weston on Space Mountain

Most of the nieces and nephews waiting for Space Mountain



It's Tough To Be a Bug show


The Tower of Terror

Mr. & Mrs. Incredible

Pluto!

Family dinner on Christmas Eve

Also on Christmas Eve I got to meet up with my friend from college, Heather! How crazy is it that we were at Disneyland at the same time? We never knew when we'd get to see each other again, so it was a pleasant surprise! Maybe we'll meet up next at the Grand Canyon and camp out for a few days. =)

We didn't get a picture that day, but we've taken plenty in the past, so here's an oldie but goodie of her at Courtney's wedding. Aw, if Courtney could've been there too...

On Christmas morning, we presented the Nativity with little stuffed characters and Christmas songs, and we got to open a few gifts from the parents.

Palmer Family on Christmas Day

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving

At the last minute, I decided to go down to Beaumont with my brother and family on the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Even though I didn't want to leave James, I realized I would probably be pretty bored all day waiting for him to come home and only get to see him for 3 hours before it was time to go to bed. The schools up here had that whole week off, so there was no possibility of subbing. It's always so nice to go home and spend time with my family. It's so fun and relaxing. This Thanksgiving, here are some of the things we did...

We bounced.

We traveled all the way to the Beaumont mall parking lot and went on some rides with the kids.

We made a ridiculous amount of ridicuously good food with my new BFF Greg (all the food is not pictured). As his sous chef, I learned a lot of great tips.... one of which was that as long as you're feeling good inside, you'll cook great food... and a little butter doesn't hurt.

At dinner, we took turns sharing what Thanksgiving means to us, and it was great to hear what everyone had to share. There was a lot of love at that table. I couldn't help but be overwhelmed by how blessed I am. What a wonderful holiday.

The kids made crafts and played.

We watched football.

The boys played basketball and football.

The girls cheered and chatted.

We had hammock and swing time... this never got old.

We dropped Mom off at the convent.
(She was the accompianist for Nuncrackers the musical.)

We went to a fun place near Beaumont that had bumper cars, mini golf, and paddle boats.

We held and hugged all our perfect nieces and nephews. All the little ladies love Uncle James. I don't blame them.

And we went to church and gave thanks for our bounteous blessings.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Rat-> Mouse -> MICE HUNT!

I stand corrected. We are actually dealing with MICE here. How do we know? We keep seeing them!!! Our 1st attempt was this...


Failed. And we probably just invited more mice into the shed because I'm sure squeak got around that the Palmers have tasty peanut butter. So, on to another option.. poison! Apparently they nibble on it and get so dehydrated that they go out looking for water... and die there. Kind of sad, but good for us since they won't all die in our shed.
But there's just one problem. The mice are kind of cute... I hate to say it, but it's true. James even named 2 of them. I told him you can't name them and then poison them!
This is what we see when we open the shed...


This is Sam. We put 2 big bars of the poison in there, and they were gone the next day!! Do we have an army in there, or is Sam just that hungry? He does look kind of chunky...
We've since put in 2 more bars, and they've been munched on too. We just hope we don't have to see Sam and his friends dead in our yard next to the puddles. I'm sure it'll be any day now... So long, little rodents.

Rat Hunting

James went out to get the lawn mower from the shed last weekend only to find tons of pellets on the ground. That only meant one thing.... a RAT! James and I both HATE those things, but who really likes them? So, right away he went to Home Depot to get a mouse trap. The guy at the store said there's not a rat in the city that can get by this nasty trap. So James lathered it with peanut butter and set it in the shed. While he was out there, it was confirmed that there was a small rodent in there.... because it scurried away when he went in! Ahh!! Well, the next day rolled around and James went out there to inspect.... only to find that we've still got ourselves a very clever rat on our property! Every drop of that peanut butter was licked off the trap, but there was no rodent to be found.

To be continued...

Halloween!

Halloween never gets old. I love thinking of costumes, seeing everyone else's ideas, and eating lots of SWEETS! This year we were lucky enough to have 2 different excuses to dress up -- a party the week before Halloween and Halloween night. The only sad thing was not getting to dress up as a teacher at school this year.

So our first costume was from a children's book (James says it's famous) that I didn't know until he introduced me... If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Every time James eats cookies, he always wants milk. And he always quotes, "Well, if you give a mouse a cookie..." which I didn't understand at first. He found the book in the store and proved to me it was a real book, so now it's one of our favorite little stories. I read it to him every night. Ok, no, but I did get it for our anniversary as a little joke. And it's not just any book; it has 4 of those If You Give a ____ a _____ stories in it with recipes and songs! What's not to like? Anyway, our costume idea bloomed into this...

So then on actual Halloween, we dressed up like this....

And when I was wrapping James up with sheet strips, I was reminded of one of my all-time favorite costumes...

Courtney and I were Egyptian mummies for a ward party, and everyone was probably jealous that they didn't think to wear gold face paint. ha I don't even look like myself. Oh, how I miss Courtney.

This year, we only had 1 round of trick-or-treaters, but that's probably because we turned our light off after they came, or word got around that we only gave out 1 piece of candy. Either way, we had a great time, and I'm happy I still have candy left over to eat for the next few weeks!

Our Crib

So finally here's a tour of the house through pictures for those who want to see but can't come in person. I put forth my best effort of taking pictures that would get the best view of the room, which was a difficult task! Hope everyone DOES come to visit though because there's a spare bed thanks to Nat and Jeff! (See room with brown bedding.) =)

A couple notes... the previous owners left the curtains and rug in the dining room, and they were meticulously clean so we didn't mind keeping them, there's also one completely empty room upstairs by the guest room, we actually enjoy the plaid and log patterns of wallpaper =), and yes, we want to paint the green bathroom a different color.