Half-way point

This week I am 20 weeks pregnant. This marks the half-way point in the pregnancy! I cannot believe that I am already half-way through this! In 20 more weeks (give or take a few days) I will meet my son. Very hard to wrap my brain around this still! Time has gone by so fast already and I know the 2nd-half will go by faster!

We found some really cute bedding at JCPenny.com. It is the "mod turtle" bedding if you want to check it out. It is adorable!! We both love the brown and blue turtles. We haven't found a baby bed yet. Still looking.

We are still trying to figure out which room will be the nursery. I really like the walk-in closet in the front bedroom, but that room is bigger and accommodates the full-sized bed better than the other room that is a little bit smaller but doesn't have as big as a closet. I know the closet may not sound like a big deal, but I want to be able to easily pick clothes out without having to push around hangers! So we'll see. The room with the smaller closet is also the back room, furthest from the family room with TV noise. So that is a nice plus too.

This week I really need to be cleaning out and organizing all our bedrooms so that we can be rearranging. I'm not getting very far with that though! I haven't been real motivated. Go figure! But we're running low on time to reorganize!

I had a great time scrap-booking today with my friend Bethany. We got together several times over the summer and scrap-booked the day away and just haven't found time since then until today. I scrap-booked my awesome 70's-themed 30th b-day party. It was neat to bring back the memories of that fun night. Here is Bethany and me at my party. Note: she doesn't normally dress/look like this! ha ha!

Well, not too much else going on. We had Taco Tuesday tonight at Rosa's with Toni and Kyle. Toni's sister Becca was there as well as her parents. They are visiting the states from Guatemala. It was great to see them and catch up with them.

Better run and do something productive....we'll see what I get to! :)

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Seabourn's! (all 3 of us!)

And the sonogram says....

It's a BOY!!!

Wahoo. We're really excited to finally know!!! Now the shopping can begin! :) I've spent the last 2 hours looking online at bedding, strollers, furniture, and all that baby stuff!! What fun!

A little Christmas Cheer

Each year I look for an ornament for a big event that happened during the year. Last year we bought a new home ornament and 2 new kitty ornaments and we got a bride/groom the year before that. I thought it would be cool to find a volcano ornament this year in honor of our Guatemala trip, but have not had much luck finding one. I have also been hoping to find an expectant mother ornament this year. And I did! Isn't is cute?! I just had them write the date on it b/c we don't know if it is a boy or girl yet. (We should find out today at 4! YAY!!).

We had Christmas with Justin's dad last night. He took this picture. I love the tree! It's so pretty and I love being able to look at it. Also, the cats still enjoy pawing at low ornaments and messing up my tree skirt, oh and Jill likes to sit on a low branch, all 11 1/2 pounds of her!!! I have also enjoyed my other Christmas decorations too. It's neat to unpack them and remember when I bought them and they just make the house look nice. The cats have not bothered any other decorations, so I'm glad about that.

Better go get ready for the sonogram! Wahoo!! I'll post and let y'all know if we will have a baby boy or baby girl in May! YAY!!

Sorry no posting marathon + FPU

Sorry folks...no posting marathon happening here, huh? Really, I wanted to leave the last post up there for a little bit so people could see and comment on it! Honestly!! I'll try to be better. Only 3 days left of school until I'm off for 2 weeks. YAY!! I can't wait for Friday at 3 pm.

You may be wondering what FPU means. FPU = Financial Peace University. Justin and I did this at church. It is the financial program by Dave Ramsey. It was a 13 week session that we went to every Wednesday night. It was really good! There are 7 baby steps to follow. Let's see if I can remember them all...

1. $1,000 in a savings account
2. Debt snowball (pay off the smallest amount first and then use that money to pay off the next smallest amount and so on until your DEBT FREE! We're really close. Just 2 more loans to go)
3. 3-6 months expenses in a fully funded emergency fund
4. Invest 15% in retirement
5. College fund
6. Pay off the house early
7. Build wealth and GIVE!

Now let me go get my workbook and see if I am right. Hold on...I got them ALL RIGHT!! Justin would be proud!! We both really enjoyed the classes and the lessons we learned. Dave Ramsey really has some good ideas. I'm excited to get all our debt paid off. Just 2 more loans to go!! During the 13 weeks we paid off my students loans and my car!!! WOW!! It felt really really good to get the car title in the mail this past Monday. And as my luck would have it, we finally pay that thing off and we're going to need a bigger car! My car is not very suitable for car seats!

Our church is offering the course again in the spring. If you are interested, please check it out. It is really cool!

Well, I better run...OH YEAH! I have my big sonogram on Monday the 22nd (I rescheduled it for those of you that knew the original date). I'm really excited to see the how the baby looks and see how big it has gotten. I sure hope the baby cooperates so we can find out if it will be Ginger or Brandon! I'll definitely post and let y'all know!!

Better head to bed...I'm pretty tired! Have a good night...Bundle up if you're in Ft. Worth. It's freezing out there!

Notice anything???

I'm pregnant!!! WAHOO! I'm 16 weeks right now and just beginning to show. I've bought a few maternity clothing items, but can still wear my regular pants. They are getting a little tight, so I need to go shopping some more! My due date is May 20, 2009. The timing is perfect with school. That is only 2 1/2 weeks left of school, so I won't miss much. (which is good b/c I would have to leave lesson plans for a few weeks). But now I need to find a long-term sub. blegh!

Here is our little one at 9 weeks. I was able to see it moving while the doctor did this first sonogram. On the last doctor's visit, we got to listen to the heart beat. There was also some "static" every once in a while during the heartbeat and the doctor said that was the baby moving! Pretty cool! I have not felt any movement yet, but hopefully I will soon. I go back to the doctor this coming Wednesday and can schedule the big sonogram then. Hopefully it will be either Dec. 19 or 22 and we can find out if we are having a boy or girl. We are definitely finding out. I'm too much of a planner and just want to know.

We went to our Sunday school Christmas party last night. Aren't we cute? This shirt made me look bigger than I really am. I'm just not used to looking pregnant! Guess that will change soon!

We are going to decorate the tree today. YAY!!! I can't wait to get it all pretty! We have had the bare tree up for a week now so the kitties could get used to it. I think each one has had a turn (well several turns) at climbing it. They are CLIMBING our fake Christmas tree!!!! I sure hope they do NOT break any ornaments! Oh the joy of pets! ha ha!! Good times!!

Bye for now!!

The best White Elephant Gift EVER!

We had our Sunday school Christmas party tonight. It was a lot of fun and Justin and I enjoyed visiting with the other couples from our class.

We did a white elephant gift exchange and I think this gift tops any I've ever seen! Someone brought a LIVE MOUSE, complete with a cage and wood chips, for a gift!!!! We were cracking up! I'm soooo glad I did not get this gift! Although the cats might have appreciated it.

Anyway, just thought it was funny and I needed something to blog about to keep my Posting Marathon going strong!!!

We're having breakfast with our friends Toni and Kyle tomorrow. Toni's 30th b-day was today and so we are having Cracker Barrel to celebrate!! I can't wait for some yummy hashbrown casserole and some sort of pancake or french toast. I'm drooling just thinking about it!!

Adios Amigos!

Growth spurt

Here is our Jill when she was a little kitty last year after we got her.

And here is our Jillie today! She's quite the chubby cat now! Just look at the difference in our fat cat!! ha ha

Hard to believe we've had Jack and Jill for a little over a year now. Here they are trying to sleep in the same basket that is barely big enough for one of them!

Sorry if this is not a very exciting post. But hey at least it's a post and it is 2 in a row this week! I'll post more soon. I'm going to try a posting marathon. 1 post a day for 5 days. Think I can do it??

Loser blogger, Yep! That's me!!

Hi friends, if you are still there! I'm soooo sorry for not blogging in forever! I mean, this is pathetic, isn't it! But I have only 12 more days until my Christmas break from school and hopefully I can catch up on all the blogging that I can do! I've got several birthdays to blog about and I guess Thanksgiving and hmmm... I'll have to see what else!

Well, I don' t have any more energy to think of cool things to say. so I'm going to bed! (it is just now 8:47, which is a little late for me lately!)

I'll blog soon. I promise!!!!

Happy Halloween!

We had a fun storybook character parade at school Friday morning. Here is my awesome team. R-L. Ava-the clown ( I can't remember the book), Shar-Goldilocks and the 3 Bears, Erin-Cinderella, and Me-A Queen's gardener from Alice in Wonderland.



Our Table for 10 dinner group met up for hamburgers and trick-or-treaters. We decided to wear silly hats. Most of us took our hats off for the majority of the night and put it on for the picture! Ha ha! Mine was itching my head!! We had a fun time and saw lots of cool trick-or-treaters!

Yes, I'm still here...kinda

I am still alive and kickin'! Even if it is just barely...

School has been really stressful (surprised?!) lately and I'm pretty miserable...again! Too much stuff is getting in the way of teaching and it is just not fun anymore. I need some prayer about what to do next year. Pleeeeeaaasssee pray for me! I can't take another year of this!! :(

We are fine on the home front! I was all excited to get my fall decorations out. Look how nicely I decorated...

Yep...they are all beautifully arranged in the middle of my kitchen table!! See how much motivation I had left over after getting them all out? This is how tired I am y'all!!

Not much else going on. I need to post a lot of stuff...maybe I'll find some time and motivation this weekend. We'll see....

Miss everyone!

Happy birthday to me!

Well, here is my 30th b-day celebration post, finally!!

I had a 70's themed party so everyone dressed up in their best 70's outfit. We ate some great snacks and just hung out. There was some singing and dancing, too! Those of you who left early missed Justin's solo performance! It was awesome!!

I had a fantastic time celebrating with my family and friends. I still can't believe I'm 30!! Thanks to Kelly and April who put it all together (and others who helped!)! Y'all are the best sisters! It was a great party and y'all made me feel special!

Also, if you took any pictures at my party can you please make me a CD? Thanks!

Enjoy this flashback to the 70's!

My niece is here!!!

Zoe Alexandra was born last Wed, Oct. 1st at 9:45 am. Everything went well and everyone is doing good.

For the full story, check out my sister's blog and snapfish pictures here .

Happy baby viewing!

Finally...Surprise Date Details!

I guess I've kept you in suspense long enough. Sorry that I've been soooo busy and have not had time to blog. Justin planned us a date and would not tell me what we were doing. He told me what to wear and let me pick out the restaurant we ate at, but he wouldn't tell me anything else. I LOVED it! He has never planned a surprise like this for me before. It was very cool!!

The date started with a yummy dinner at PF Chang's. I love that place! Their vegetarian lettuce wraps are delicious. :)

Then we drove to our next location. On the short drive over, Justin asked me to put his sunglasses away in the sunglasses holder in his truck. So I opened it to put them away and saw an envelope with the Bass Hall logo on it. Thinking he forgot he put that in there, I quickly closed the door and just sat there. I didn't want to ruin the surprise. Well, he let me sit there for a little bit and then said "What's up there? Did you see something?" I realized that this was all part of his plan. I was very impressed with how much effort he put into making the evening special! So I pulled the envelope out of the sunglasses holder and opened it. It was tickets to...Mama Mia!!! WAHOOOOOO!!!!

Justin and I had seen the movie and we both loved it! Yes, Justin liked it as much as me! The show was fabulous! It was fun to sing along to the songs (well, the words we knew!) and laugh out loud. The show is hilarious! It is great! Then as soon as we got in the car after the show, the radio was playing Dancing Queen! We had the music blasting! It was a great end to the evening!

Here we are posing to Dancing Queen!

We had an amazing date and I felt very special and loved! Way to go Justin!!! What a sweet, sweet hubby!! :)

Suprise Date...

My sweet hubby planned a surprise date last Thursday... Check back in a few days for the details! I'm too tired to do it tonight!

Hurricane Ike

Well, a lot of people I know stayed in Houston. My mom and sister, Kelly, were the only ones who left. And if it wasn't b/c we had my sister, April's, baby shower this weekend, I don't know if think they would have left either. My dad and bro-in-law,Steve, rode out the storm at my parents' house in Spring (north Houston).

Everyone is FINE!! YAY! There is only damage to the corner of my parents' fence and at my sister Kelly's house their fence blew over and a small tree fell onto the garage, but only broke the gutter. We were really worried about flooding at Kelly's b/c they live only 30 miles from Galveston, but there was no flooding at their house. And Steve has a big boat in a storage unit close to a bay down there, but the buildings all looked structurally sound. God is good to protect my family!!!!

Neither my dad nor Steve have power, but they are using generators. My dad has the fridge, a TV, and a window unit hooked up to his generator, so he is nice and comfortable! My mom told me he cooked dinner tonight. Their stove is gas, so it is working.

I don't know how long my mom or Kelly will be staying up here. There is no power in Houston, so I think they should stay a looooong time up here! I'm enjoying seeing them some. (they are staying at April's house since she doesn't work).

Well that's about all from me. Stress is starting to build with school stuff and I'm not happy about that. I'm trying not to stress too much and trying to roll with the punches and just keep going, but there is more and more we are required to do all the time. It really takes the fun out of my job. My kids were also HORRIBLE last Wed and Thurs. I mean one of the worst days in 5 years of teaching!!! They just won't stop talking. So I took away their entire recess. They (all 18 of them) just sat outside and watched all the other kids playing and having fun. I've never taken the entire class's whole recess away in 5 years either. But it made an impression (which was the plan) b/c they were better Friday. It definitely made for a long week.

I hope this week is better!! Now, I'm off to bed to rest up!

Phew...

Well, by now you've heard the news reports. YAY that things are much better after Gustav than anticipated!

My mom said it was sunny all day in Houston...not a single rain drop. Thanks for thinking of my family today!

Also, thanks for all the sweet compliments on my Good Hair Day post. Whenever I'm having a bad day I'm gonna reread your nice comments to make me feel better! :)

Good Hair Day

Don't good hair days just make you feel good and totally make your day?? Look at those curls! Doing my hair curly is always "iffy." Sometimes is looks great, like yesterday. And sometimes it looks more frizzy. Wish it would look like this every time! (and yes, I know I'm a dork to take pictures of my good hair day. Who else does that? What else am I gonna blog about though?!?)


Also, I survived the first week of school. The first day was pretty bad, but things calmed down and smoothed out by the end of the week. YAAAY!! I did have 2 migraines, though. BOOO! New record for me. I'm hoping to deal with the stress better this year and avoid those horrible headaches.

I woke up Friday morning feeling rested and refreshed, in a good mood, and early. These things rarely happen, esp. on a Friday. I'm usually wiped out by Friday! I got to school early, too, by like 7:20. This usually NEVER happens. And we had a good day on Friday. Wahoo!! Hopefully this is a good sign of what's to come. I desperately need a good year after last year! And I'm bound and determined to have one!

My family is going to stay in Spring (North Houston) this week while Gustav approaches/hits! A few years ago they fled from a hurricane and were on the road for over 20 hours straight in one loooooooong line of cars. It was HORRIBLE for them and they don't want to ever do that again, which I don't blame them!!! My parents live about 100 miles from the coast, which is good, but not quite far enough away for my comfort. Please pray for their safety over the next few days. I appreciate it! Y'all are great prayer warriors and I'm so glad y'all are my friends :)

I will survive!

I am clinging to this slogan right now!! I had a heck of a first day, but not in a good way. My kiddos were a little bad, mostly just talking when I was talking. I mean seriously, what happened to kids being scared of their teacher on the first day of school? ha ha! (Really I don't want kids to be scared of me, just respectful so we can have some fun!)

I had a much better 2nd day and feel a little more optimistic about this year. :) We'll see how long that lasts! Unfortunately, I also "enjoyed" my 2nd day with a migraine. YUK! I know it is a direct result of stress! Please pray that I won't get many more of these. They are NO fun with 20 kids in a small, confined space!

I want to thank my family and Emily for calling me yesterday and checking in on me! Y'all are soooo sweet! Thanks to everyone else praying for my first day. I appreciate it!

Well, off to Taco Tuesday! YUM!!

A few updates

My grandma starts radiation tomorrow (Aug 25) morning. After her treatment, they will check her into the hospital for a round of chemo. I think she'll be in the hospital for about 5 days. I appreciate your prayers as things officially get started tomorrow.

Also, Meet the Teacher Night went well!! Praise the Lord! I forgot to say a few things, but no big deal. I was not nervous and stayed pretty calm throughout the whole thing. Thank you for praying for me. I could feel your prayers and I appreciate it!!

First Day Jitters

Well, tomorrow is the first day of school. Now you might not know this, but teachers get a little anxious, too! Really, I'm not too nervous. I am just not ready for my summer to end yet. I have 20 students on my roll, with room for 2 more if needed.

Please pray for me to get started on the right foot. I have to be very firm and consistent in the beginning or discipline will be a joke later. I feel sooo tired right now, I don't know how I'm gonna make it tomorrow. Hopefully I'll wake up bright eyed and busy tailed and ready to go.

Also, please pray for my friend who is going to be teaching sign language this year in high school. She was offered the position 2 weeks ago and has not taught before. She has been at her school as an interpreter, so she is familiar with it. But teaching it will be a whole different ball game for her!

Thanks people!! I do hope I survive!!! Here are pictures of my finished room! :)

Pray for my Granny

My grandma, Jayne, has more cancer. She has bile duct cancer and will have to do some more chemo and radiation treatments. This round of chemo will not make her hair fall out, which she is thankful for. She will have fewer radiation treatments than she did with the lung and breast cancer. But it is still 5 1/2 weeks of radiation treatments. That is a total of 28 treatements. So my parents will be driving her to and from the medical center again. It is over 30 miles each way.

Please pray for the treatments to heal my Granny. Please pray that the side effects are minimal and not very bad. Also, please pray for my sweet mom who will be driving her to and from most of the treatments in Houston traffic. Please pray for strength and patience for my parents. The last round of treatments was hard them, too.

I really appreciate all your support. I'll keep you updated with her progress. They were hoping to start everything next Monday and hopefully they can.

Thanks again!

It's already started...

Well, after 1/2 day of inservice at school, I'm already overwhelmed and worrying about this year. I am also totally exhausted (getting up early the past week and 1/2 has caught up with me!) and being sooo tired is not helping my outlook. I'm not quite finished with my room and Meet the Teacher Night is in 2 days. Please pray for me on Thursday at 6 pm. That is the dreaded night for me. I don't enjoy being up there in front of all those parents!! No fun! I'll try to remember to take my camera to school and take some pictures of my finished room.

Still moving...

Here are some pictures of my new room. I wasn't kidding when I said I was CRAZY to move b/c of all the work involved. I finished moving everything out of my other room except for a few posters still hanging and all my old bulletin board stuff sitting in a big pile on the floor. Tomorrow, my goal is to finish arranging my new room and get the bulletin boards done. As you can see the room has been painted pretty cute. There is another small wall that has a tree with a bird, squirrel, and dog on it. I'll try to take a picture of that, too.

Moving...

Well one of the teachers on our team at school has been asked to moved down and teach kindergarten next year and we will be getting a new 2nd grade teacher. So today I decided to move into the open room that the old 2nd grade teacher just moved out of. CRAZY idea!!! Why you are asking? Well I'm right by a very very stinky boys bathroom. I have to close my door after school b/c the smell just floats right in. NASTY! And I have some mildewed shelves the district has yet to do anything about and after a year of waiting and being passed off to different departments, I'm ready to be done with that!!

I have been in my room now for 4 years and I've accumulated quite a bit of junk. So I don't really have time to sort through too much. But I've been able to do some organizing as I go. I've got the majority of my stuff moved today and still have 1 big cabinet and 2 small cabinets to move. My teacher friend Ava pretty much finished her room today and said she would help me tomorrow. YAY!

Justin, the WONDERFUL and AWESOME guy that he is, came up and helped. We moved the big stuff while he was there. He even took stuff off the walls in my new room that the teacher left and then went down to my old room and took down everything off my walls there. We also took down my dry erase board, but I'll have to wait for the district to come and hang it up. We'll see how long that takes!

I'm glad to be in a new room, but I won't be glad tomorrow when I'm soooo sore I can't move!! I also have blank walls I need to hang all my stuff back up on.

So much for being up at school 2 days this week and getting done fast. Oh well. I'll be glad when I'm done!!

Happy B-day April!

Yesterday was my older sister, April's birthday. (I didn't get a chance to post this b/c Ayden was over and then we went to April's to help her celebrate....Just so you don't think I'm a slacker!)



Here are some fun things you probably don't know about my cool, big, sis.
-She is 3 years older than me, but always seems soooo much older when we were growing up.
-She loves to stay up really late reading her latest book.

-She will research and read to find information on anything she wants to know about.

-She can create a brilliant web page outta nothing! Very impressive!
-She is a strong leader and very determined.

-She is very intelligent. Hey, she's even managed to have 2 genius children!

-She is very protective of me, well any of her family. She has told me that if anyone ever hurt me, she'd beat them up. Luckily for them she never needed to!
-Which leads to this: Apirl punches very hard. The Slug-bug game was outlawed in my family!
-She got to sit in the "way-back" of our station wagon. Well, it was b/c she was in trouble, but me and Kelly always wanted to sit back there and not wear a seat belt.
-She is a great softball player...oh and volleyball, too.
-She is very competitive and hates to lose, especially to me! (which doesn't happen very often, but it's nice when it does!)
-She is very good with words and editing. She has helped me come up with how to say tough things many times. Thanks!!

-She loves to figure out logic or thinking puzzles. (I hate these!)

-We have grown to look alike more as we've gotten older.
-She will have her first girl in October!
-She had the grand babies first and kept the pressure off of Kelly and me!
-She has become the greatest mom! We thought April would be the last one of us sisters to have kids. She was just not the motherly type before she had Ayden (and she'd tell you the same thing!). All of that has changed, and she is a wonderful stay-at-home mom, which we didn't think she'd ever do either. It's been neat to watch her transform into what her kiddos need her to be!
-She has become a close, close friend over all these years.

Happy birthday Prillo!! You're a great sister and friend and I am soooo blessed to get to call you my sister! I love you!!

Weekend Update

Well, we got everything back into the formal dining room. I LOVE the red still and think the room looks great!



Watching Superman, Justin's all-time favorite move. These boys are just adorable, don't you think??



Also, my nephew, Ayden, spent the night with us this past Friday night. It was his first time to ever stay over with us. We had a great time. We watched Superman, played his Leapster, played Sorry and Uno, and watched a few cartoons. Justin tried to get Ayden to watch the movie Son of Flubber (the sequel to The Absent-Minded Professor, I think) with him, but Ayden found the piano a little more entertaining! He did ask Justin why everything on the movie was black and white. I think this was his first experience with a black-and-white movie! ha ha! He's such a sweet little guy. I can't wait for our next sleepover!!

Tuesdays were made for tacos

We enjoyed Taco Tuesday tonight at Rosa's with Toni and Kyle. (If you are unaware of what Taco Tuesday is, you need to head to your nearest Rosa's and order a taco plate for $3.33. You get 3 beef or chicken (or no meat for me) tacos, crispy or soft, rice and beans, and tortillas). We hadn't' met them there in a while. It was nice to catch up, swap stories, and enjoy some of the best queso this side of the Mississippi! (OK, I'm a dork, but it is really that good!)

So sorry that my sister Kelly, brother-in-law Steve, and pal Jesse could not join us at Rrrrrrrosa's tonight. We have many, many great memories at Taco Tuesday. Hopefully y'all can come up here and enjoy some queso soon!!

Our Royal Red room

Well...here are the before pictures of the formal dining and living areas that we painted, complete with kitties Jack and Jill.



And here are the lovely red walls!! :) What do you think? We LOVE LOVE LOVE it!!




Justin's mom, Jolene, came and helped us paint. We want to say a HUGE, HUGE thank you to her for all her help. I think this is the 3rd time she has helped us paint! WOW!!! She's so sweet to come and hang out with us and perform some manual labor! :) It was not all work and no play though. We also enjoyed a mini I Love Lucy marathon on TV which was great fun!! Thanks again Mama Jo! You ROCK!!

We still might need to do a 4th coat of paint b/c the walls are streaked. You can kinda tell in the picture where some darker/lighter spots are. We thought that the paint would dry even, but it did not. My friend Rachael said she'd come help me paint tonight or tomorrow. (She used the same color red on a wall at her house and it was not streaked, so I hope she can solve our streaking problem!) Lucky Justin gets out of painting b/c he will be at work!! :)

I'll also post some pictures once we get everything put back up in there too, but I didn't think y'all would want to wait that long to see the walls!!

Summer heat wave!

Hey my out of town friends, it was 105 degrees today up here!!! OH MY GOSH that is soooo hot!! Luckily for me, I was eating at the tea room in the ac and floating around in a pool with my friends Rachael and Amanda! So I stayed nice and cool today!! I think tomorrow it is supposed to be cooler, only 102 degrees! aaaagggghhh!!

Big Brother is watching you...

I just finished reading this book today. I read it in high school, but wanted to read it again and remember it a little better. I had Justin's copy from high school and it was neat reading his thoughts/comments he had to write in the margins of the book. His teacher also made comments back and initialed by Justin's thoughts. He even had to write in the back of the book "I Justin promise I have read this book entirely," and then he had to sign his statement! ha ha (None of my teachers ever made me do this. Did any of yours?)

I was a little sad (for the characters, I guess) today after finishing it, which surprised me. I was just thinking of the awful conditions these people lived in. They lived in run down buildings and were given small rations for basic necessities, like razors and chocolate, which were always being reduced. The characters must obey every command of the Party and Big Brother b/c Big Brother is always watching and listening to you by "telescreen." It just was ridiculous that the people in the book just listened and did everything they were told, b/c they feared the consequences if they didn't. I'm so glad that there is no Big Brother watching and commanding our very existence. I'm glad we have freedom to think and be individuals. Can you imagine our world if it were like the one in the book? What a sad and depressing way to live! NO THANK YOU!!

Anyway, I'll stop before getting too philosophical. Did you have to read this book way back in high school? What do you remember about it? What are your thoughts about Big Brother?

Table for 8

Justin and I are in a dinner group called Table for 8. The other couples are our friends Toni and Kyle, Matt and Bethany, and Blake and Leigh. We were all in the newlywed Sunday school class toghether. Our group meets once a month for dinner and hanging out. We have gotten together 5 months so far, which we were all pretty impressed with!! Sometimes we eat out and sometimes, like tonight, we eat at a couple's house. Tonight we had a taco fiesta at our place. We all had a great time and enjoyed lots of food! We had been wanting a picture of the group and finally tonight, we took a one. (even if they guys hated it!)

Justin and I have really really enjoyed our monthly get togethers. What a HUGE blessing to have such great couple friends that we can spend time with and have a support system when we need it. Between all the guys and their tools and gadgets, I think we could open up a hardware store! We'll never need to buy any tools again!

Here are the ladies from L-R: Toni, Me, Leigh, and Bethany.

L-R couples, Math and Bethany, Justin and me, Blake and Leigh, and Toni and Kyle.


And here is just a good pic of me and Justin from last weekend! :)