Giving Thanks part I

Justin and his Grandmother

Justin and his Momma

Diana, Justin and me

Justin, Diana and I made the long drive (3 1/2 hours) North to Stafford, Kansas to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Staab family. Justin's sweet Grandmother did all the cooking for her huge German family and it was pure heaven. I love going to Grandma Staab's house, it reminds me of the many Holiday's when my own huge family would pack ourselves into the tiny little house of my Sweet Grandmother Keeling. Grandma Staab's house is just as warm and welcoming and it even smells like Gran's Gran's did. I choke back tears walking through the door. I met Justin's Grandmother a year ago this Thanksgiving and I couldn't wait to call my mom and tell her how much she reminded me my Gran Gran. I watched Justin's little cousins running around playing outside and making up games and I couldn't help but think about how excited I would get as a little girl to go to Gran Gran's and play with my cousins. What precious memories.

I am so thankful for Justin and so proud to be a part of his family. I feel just as at home and loved with his family as I do when I'm with my own and I thank God for that blessing every single day. Now, I must get off of here because tomorrow I am making the long (3 1/2 hours) trip South to Bokchito, Oklahoma to visit my family. To mark that occasion, I will leave you with this......

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

My husbands secret...

Do you remember these? Last night J and I were visiting his mom's house. I had followed her into the spare bedroom to chat while she was hemming some dress pants. I was sitting on the floor by a bookshelf when I looked over and saw it...."A popple!" I said with the excitement of my former 8 year old self when she replied with a slight giggle, "That's Justin's!" Ahhahahahha! I'm not sure what was funnier, the fact that my husband actually had one of these(the girlie one none the less) or that it was obviously a toy that he had once adored and drug around the house. This poor little popple, other wise known as Pancake (fitting for my husband) carried all the battle scars of a child's favorite playmate. It's once soft and fuzzy fur was all matted and stained. It was very apparent that this was not a toy that sat on a shelf simply for visual effects. Justin is going to kill me for blogging this, but I just could not resist. On the way home I teased him of a future nursery decorated in an all boy theme. I can just picture it, black and white and green with soccer balls and sports memorabilia seeping from every corner and what little boys nursery would not be complete without the lone childhood toy of his daddy, Pancake the purple and pink popple!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We have a tree. It is decorated. It is small but perfect and is awaiting a few finishing touches. I know you all are on the edges of your seats for a picture. Have no fear my fellow bloggers, it is on it's way!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

The secret of teaching is to appear to have known your whole life what you just learned this morning. -Author Unknown


If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn

And now for giggles....

The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children. ~Louis Johannot

Word to the wise...

Do NOT play Rock Band with someone who can play a real musical instrument. It's just flat out humiliating. Brian (on the drums) is freakishly amazing, I couldn't concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing for wondering how the heck he was moving so quickly. It took me 2.5 seconds to realize I would be better off playing photographer. I knew he meant business when he asked if it were ok to take his shoes off. Apparently he's broken two petals on his own game, and the bare feet seem to cut down on the destruction factor. Brian, you rock!

Would someone please enlighten me?

How the heck am I supposed to get my background to change? I've tried several times by copying and pasting the code into my edit HTML (just like it tells me to do) and it always says it's not in a good format or something or another. I am tired of having a boring background but I am even more tired of this silly thing not working!

P90(ouch)X

Justin and I decided we needed to kick up our fitness routine a little. Several of the guys that Justin works with have been doing this workout video called P90X (you may have seen it on a infomercial) and have been telling Justin of thier success stories. Of course we had to try it. Wow! It is tough! After doing one session of "Ab Ripper" just for giggles, we decided it was time to get serious and use the program like it was meant to be used.......Bright and early Saturday morning I was chomping at the bit to get started. Our first round included 50 minutes of chest and back excersises. I don't think I have ever done so many different kinds of push-ups. Two days later and I can barely lift my arms enough to put on deoderant. Now, before you look at this picture and make fun of my husband for looking so beaten up I have to be a good wife and take up for him a bit. Justin works out at least five times a week lifting weights and running, not to mention he plays outdoor soccer once a week on top of all the other suff but this litteraly kicked his rear! It is sooo hard people! At one point we were supposed to be doing inverted push-ups which required us to prop our feet up on the couch and try to push the rest of our body up with our arms. I. could. not. do. it! I got stuck. Yep, I found myself just lying there with half of my body on the couch and my face implanted into the carpet (you can stop laughing now). I did make it through and had just enough energy to stumble into the office and retrieve the camera...:) Last night we did Plyometrics which is basically a hundred different kinds of lunges and squats (1 hours worth). There are no pictures to commemorate this as I couldn't feel my lower half until, well, I still can't so even stumbling to find the camera was not an option. Tonight we are looking forward(not) to arms, shoulders and another ab ripper and if after 90 days I don't look like a flippin super model I am grabbing my cheetos and heading back to the couch for good!

Weekend in numbers.....

Celebrating one of my best friend's upcoming wedding with pole dancing lessons (oh my!).....$20


Finally taking the Oklahoma Professional Teaching Examination......$150


Ingredients for Mom's mac and cheese.......$ 10


The look on my husbands face when he discovered that he left the grill brush IN the grill while warming it up, thus starting a fire within two feet of our BRAND NEW HOUSE!..........priceless



Justin and Scott finally got the fire out but not before burning up my only wooden spoon. 123,567 hours later ( ok fine. It seemed like that long though), we were able to grill the biggest steak known to man. Honestly! I have a picture of it that I will post soon.

Just because

I never really posted any kind of pictures from our wedding. Last night, Justin and I had a social with our fellow volunteers for the Ronald McDonald House. Justin's (and now my ) friend Brian and his wife greeted us with a surprise CD of some pictures they snapped at our reception. Here we are eating, big surprise! Thank you Brian and Breanna!

Success!

The most wonderful thing happened at school today. Most of you know that I am a teacher. What you may not know is that I teach Special Education. Most of my kiddos suffer from mild learning disabilities but I do have a few that are diagnosed with MR ( Mental Retardation) which means these sweet angels really struggle in an academic setting. I (along with the regular classroom teacher) have been working with one particular child on learning letter names and sounds. This may sound like a simple task, but to a child with MR, this is a huge challenge. Just recently my little guy has learned all of his letters and sounds. Today, he actually read a few words! Cat, hat, bat, and just to make sure he wasn't memorizing the words but rather using phonetic rules (phonics) I threw in zat, nat and lat (non-sense words). HE DID IT! Guys, this is HUGE! I think I may have even scared him a little I was squealing so loud with excitement. We jumped up and down and gave each other high fives. I had tears in my eyes and chill bumps up and down my arms....... What a feeling! THIS is why I became a teacher.

Way to go kiddo, Mrs. B is so incredibly proud of you!