Workin' in an Elementary School

(sung to the tune of Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland)

Children scream, they're not listnin'

When they go, we're not miss'n 'em,

In all of the pain, we try to stay sane,

Workin' in an elementary school.

Christmas comes, they're excited,

Though our nerves they've ignited,

They're off of the walls, they run in the halls,

Workin' in an elementary school.

In the lunchroom we can hear them yellin'

And we know that they are really wound,

someone hits, the other says, "I'm tellin'!"

And that is when our heads begin to pound.

Pretty soon we'll be restin'

'cause our nerves, they've been testin'

We're happy, it's clear, it comes once a year

Christmas in an elementary school!

I must note that I did not write this and if I knew who did I would give them full credit, but it mysteriously showed up in my mailbox at school today and I HAD to post it!

My effort in decorating for Christmas.

"Oh(teeny tiny) Christmas Tree"
"Down from the chimney"

I can't help but giggle when I see this picture. For many reasons, we decided to go for a small tree this year (we have TWO cats) and I think it is decorated quite lovely but I didn't anticipate how dwarfed it would be up against our rather large mantle. Then J and I decided that our gift to each other would be the hutch that goes with our TV stand (see right). I absolutely love the hutch and it makes our living room look so much more "homey" and welcoming but our sweet little tree now looks a bit on the dorky side. Oh well, at least there's next year.


On the tree- I am terrible at placing the ornaments on the tree. Apparently I lack the skill of spatial reasoning. All my ornaments tend to be in one spot or I'll have end up with a naked spot and well, it goes on and on. So, my mother, who would give Martha a run for her money, came to visit about the time my tree went up and obviously I let her place the ornaments ....it was perfect...... Fast-forward twelve hours when I came home from school only to discover that our cats had knocked down my mothers creation leaving me to try re-decorate. So there you have it. You can stop making fun of my tree decorating disability now.

On the hutch- If you look closely, you'll notice the big red bow on the top. J won't let me take it off yet because the hutch is technically a Christmas present and well, it's not yet Christmas. He is so cute sometimes...:)


On the decorations- I must give a shout out to Hobby Lobby and their 50% off sale. I was able to scratch my Christmas- time itch without breaking the bank and for this, my husband now loves you more than I do.

Meet the Schwarzwalder's

Schwarzwalder was Justin's name before it became "Americanized". Thank goodness it did! Can you imagine my poor little first graders trying to pronounce that?!


Friday's are date night and this week we went to the Royal Bovaria to indulge in some fine German cuisine. If you haven't been there, you must go....immediatly. I had all the intentions of taking the camera to capture us pigging out on pork loin and spatzel, somehow in the midst of my furry of hunger I forgot and this was the only picture we ended up with. It was taken while we were waiting for Diana and Scott to pick us up. Check out my husbands beard!

A little embarrassed

I should be ashamed of myself. I took a ton of pictures at Justin's family's and this is what I came home with from my family's festivities. A picture of my Mom's dining room table, my nephew who I'm pretty sure is naked, I say "pretty sure" because I didn't take the picture and couldn't even tell you who did and let us not forget the oh-so-pleasant picture of a dead dear.