Also, I went to North Carolina for Thanksgiving...

Remember how I'm a terrible blogger?

Here are some pictures from my trip with my mom over Thanksgiving to visit Bud and Emily in North Carolina. The weather was awesome, we ate SO much delicious food and it was fun to spend it with just them... and their Christmas present/new dog Lacey!
One day we hit the beach!
Ice Skating!

Wilmington
The bird!

Christmas Bazaar!

Haley, Lauren and I decided it'd be a good idea to have a Christmas party or type of Open House because our house is SO cute around Christmas time. Haley and I threw a huge hit of a bash back in July for our Christmas in July Party so we thought we were pretty much experts. We decided to call it a Christmas Bazaar (no clue why...) and we got to planning and inviting our friends. It was such a fun night and lots and LOTS of people came! Here are a few pictures from the fun evening!Our house was looking spiffy!

The treats were ready!

Lots of lights and festive decorations on the mantle!
People were mingling and having the time of their lives!Especially Kelli and baby Kaisa!

Thankful

I'm so bad at blogging. So, so bad. Lots of things, lots of thoughts, lots of life... but I want to get back into this... So, here it goes.
So, I'm in North Carolina right now visiting my sister and my brother-in-law for Thanksgiving. My brother-in-law is a United States Marine - yes, he's tough! So, they live in Jacksonville, NC, which is home to a large Marine base. Needless to say, the airport in Jacksonville is very, very small. I'm pretty sure the only people who use the airport here are Marines or people who are visiting Marines. So, my mom and I arrived here in Jacksonville at the airport and we headed toward baggage claim to fetch our suitcases. As we're waiting, I hear 2 little angelic voices yell, "Daddy! Daddy!" I looked across the airport waiting area to see 2 precious little girls, about ages 3 and 4, welcome home their Dad, dressed in Marine fatigues. He bowed to his knee and they ran into his arms for a huge, long awaited embrace. Are you crying yet? I totally was. I lost it. They hugged and hugged. Their mom took pictures and the girls screamed and giggled, so happy to have their Dad home safe and sound. The hugging and giggling continued as they walked through the airport and I continued to observe and cry (I partially blame the emotions on getting up at 4:15 AM to go to the airport). It was just so precious.
On the day of Thanksgiving, I praised God and gave him thanks for several blessings. 1 - That both my brother-in-law and cousin make the sacrifice to serve and protect our country. 2 - What heartache that wife/mother and those girls go through all the time without their husband/father. I'm thankful to be in different shoes but that there are women out there who fill them. And thirdly, I was thankful to witness such a touching scene. How our Father must feel when we choose to welcome Him into our hearts. Or how must it feel to be welcomed home by our Father when we go to Heaven...
Lots of thoughts.

My Bad...

School started and that means I have even less free time than I did during the summer! Summer just flew by and then, before I even realized it, I had 23 little bodies and 46 eyes and ears ready to tackle 5th grade with me.

I'm so blessed to call my job, my job. It doesn't feel like "work," it's just school. It's just what I do! My class is great - for those of you who knew anything about last year, this bunch is a significant improvement. Now... I had students in my class that I really loved last year, but the combination of them was challenging to the point of almost daily frustration. If I had to endure another year of that, I would most likely quit my job. :) Luckily, I won't have to because this group is fantastic!

Funny story of the day...
I have a kiddo in my room who is pretty serious ADHD and is on medication but still struggles with staying on task and focusing - and really, he's 10 so you can hardly blame him, but still. Our school was broken into over the weekend and the medicine cabinet was broken into and guess who's medication was stolen? This kid's. Yesterday was so hard for him. You could just see it in his eyes that he couldn't make choices, he couldn't follow directions and he just wasn't THERE. He ended up having an ear ache and because of that along with the lack of meds, his mom came and got him around noon.
So this morning, I said, "Kiddo, how's the ear today?"
He replied, "Well....It's not so bad. BUT... I think the pain must have traveled through my body, all the way down to my foot because it really hurts. I think it's sprained."
Not buyin it... :)

Back to school... back to school...

This is what I was welcomed to last Thursday on our first teacher work day. All of my stuff. In a huge pile in the middle of my room. I about had a heart attack. I'm amazed that just 7 days later, I'm sitting on my couch reflecting on my 4 days of work/inservice and 2 days with students! It was a lot of hard work... sweaty, non air conditioned hard work and it's still a work in progress I feel, but we are up and running.

I may regret this in November, but I will say that as of now, my class is fabulous. Yesterday, they just sat and stared at me and hung on every word I said. Love it. I'm sure this will change, but it's a good sign for now.

God-girls

Emily and I are godparents to our cousin BJ and Betsy's two girls, Isabel and Abigail. They are the cutest little things and we love being able to see them and spend time with them whenever we can. I know Betsy must talk about us at home often, because even though I don't get to see them very often, it never takes them long to warm up. When I was home last weekend for Emily's going away party, we snapped some cute pics together.

Isabel - 3 1/2

Abigail - 2I should mention a funny story. As we were getting ready to leave, I was putting on my sandals - they're orange, they're Steve Madden, in other words, they're cute. Isabel watched and said "I was wondering whose sandals those were." I replied, "Oh, do you like them?" She answered, very matter of factly, "No." HA! I said, "Do you think they're ugly?" and she answered, "Yes." Kids!

Fisher-woman

So, I went fishing today... I should say I did NOT do that much work. The guys set up all of our poles and hooked all of our bait. But, I did reel this in. But.... one of the guys took it off the hook and threw it back.
It was still a blast.

Summer Blessings

One of the great advantages to my job are June, July and some of August. I know what you're thinking...
But really, last week was one of those times where I was so thankful to have the job that I do. My good friend Meg and her husband, my pastor, Dan, have an adorable son Quinton and TWINS on the way! Without going into all of the details, you can read about the trials of the past few weeks on their blog here. I received a call on Tuesday morning from Dan and headed over to the Rude's home where I got to spend much of the day with Quin-tin-tin. Same thing on Wednesday, Thursday another friend was watching the little man, but asked me to come over and help and keep her company and then Friday, Meg returned home from the hospital and I got to hang out with her AND Quinn.
I was so blessed to bless the Rudes. Their little guy Quinton is incredibly sweet and kind. I have loved watching him grow thus far and can't wait to welcome the twinkies into our church family! Here are a few photos from my afternoons with Quinn! Enjoy Meg! :)

Sarah couldn't find the bibs so we just ate topless. I don't think he was mad about it.


We were watching some BIG trucks lay a new parking lot. Fascinating.

And of course we walked to McDonalds to get a chocolate shake.
I love this one of him holding it with his cute little hands.

Needtobreathe...

I've gotta hand this one to my girl, Jill. Jill and I have such similar taste in music and she has introduced me to some awesome artists, including Needtobreathe. We attended a Gavin DeGraw show last fall and Needtobreathe opened. I'm not sure which act Jill was more excited for but the whole show was awesome and I was a fan right away. I love going to shows with Jill because she requires getting there early enough to grab the best spot in the house to enjoy the show to its maximum capacity.
So, Des Moines does concerts on Thursday nights in the summer down at the Simon Estes Ampitheater. This last Thursday was David Cook, former American Idol but opening for him was NEEDTOBREATHE. The tickets were a little steep and since NTB wouldn't play a full set as the opening band, we decided to hang out on the Walnut St. bridge. Like usual, we got there early... really early. NTB was doing their sound check and messin around on stage. They started to leave the stage and walk up to the street level and all of the sudden I felt the rush of wind as Jill ran past me toward Bear Rinehart, lead singer of NTB. Haley and I followed in her dust and we managed to chat with him for awhile and get this picture.Then, I turned around and saw Seth, the bass player ... the sight of this made Jill jump up and down three times and yell, "SETH!" That was hilarious. We got to chat with him as well and I shared my knowledge about his day's whereabouts (he visited East Village hot spot Smash where my friend Justin works). He was pumped about his new shirt that says "Des Moines - The Greatest City in the World." True statement. And then after we gazed at his incredibly pearly whites, we got a picture with him as well.

We ended our night with a stroll up to the beautiful capitol. All in all, an awesome evening! I love summer in Des Moines!

Picture Game

Kyli, you just tagged me because you knew I would do it! :)
Here's the directions:

1. Open the 4th picture folder on your computer.

2. Open the 4th picture and post it on your blog.

3. Explain the picture.

4. Tag people to do the same


Well, I had to cheat a little bit because my 4th folder only had one picture, so I went to the 5th folder and chose the 4th picture from that. This is a picture of a student from my first year of teaching. To be honest, I'm not even positive that I know who it is ... I'm pretty sure, but not positive. He is obviously wearing a fashionable jacket. During ITBS testing time we were studying the American Revolution and incorporating a lot of it into our Reading time. My co-worker, Laci, and I did lots of research and preparation to find fun projects that the students could work on to help them settle down/relax from test taking all morning for 7 days straight. This project we called the BioVest - a biography on a paper bag vest of course! The front had to include some required information and the back displayed a photo or drawing. Then, they had to present them to the class and answer questions taking on the role of their important person from history. This student did a particularly fabulous job!

And I think I will tag... Meg and Jill!

This one time... at dance camp...

I'm getting ready (or attempting) to head off to work for Just for Kix dance camps again this summer. I'm only working 2 camps, but it will be more than I can handle, I'm sure! I'm really excited but also think it will be a huge challenge. I worked camps for 2 consecutive summers, took a summer off to nanny full-time and then last summer was all set to leave for camp when the accident happened. I wasn't going to teach this summer - I got sucked in when I ran into some co-staffers at the MN high school dance team tournament in February. I thought I was too old and out of dance camp shape - I probably am, but I'm going for it anyway.
Here's a video I found on YouTube of the staff routine from the last summer I worked!

Beantown Highlights

Emily and I traveled to Boston last week for a little sisterly getaway. It was a great trip. There is SO much to do there! Here are a few highlights (in no particular order) from our 3.5 day trip!
The weather STUNK the ENTIRE time we were there. It was in the 60's and it rained all week. Not pouring rain (except the first day), but it was as if someone was spritzing a spray bottle at your face ALL THE TIME. It was quite a nuisance. The first day it was really raining, so we bought these fashionable ponchos.
On the second day, we went to Cambridge to visit Harvard. We took an un-official tour with a student lead company and it was great. So much history and fun facts about everything. This building in particular, is a student dorm and, was home to Matt Damon back in his Harvard years.
We took a Duck tour and it was fabulous! A DUCK is a vehicle used in the military to travel on land and water. Our tour guide and driver, Tom Foolery, was hilarious. He shared so many interesting stories and facts and we later took his advice about Boston Creme Pie at our hotel and Durgin Park in Quincy Market for dinner!
As we were walking around the Boston Common and the Public Garden, I just had to... Em is a fun hater and wouldn't do one with me.
I think the American Revolution is so interesting. We teach it in 5th grade and even though I don't teach (or care for Social Studies really :~), we integrate it into a few reading projects. I got some really great pictures of important places and statues of important people, like Paul Revere here, to share with my students next year!

The other highlight was Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. Probably my favorite part of the trip, and I forgot my camera that morning. I got some good shots on my phone but am waiting to receive the actual pictures from Emily. Fenway was awesome - so much history there and the tour we took was really cool.

You'll notice I have used the word "tour" a few times. We took A LOT of tours. My sister loves tours :) - and with her being a Marine wife, got military discounts almost everywhere we went, while I paid full price! All in all, it was a fab trip! I'd love to go back sometime and hope the weather cooperates a little more!

Chi-Town Review

Here are a few of the top moments from my recent long weekend trip to Chicago, Illinois, USA with my dear friend, Jilly Ann Trost.

6. Road Trip Snacks - What a grand idea! I purchased a small feast of snack items for Jill and I to enjoy and fuel our hungry tummies during the drive. This was great because we didn't have to stop for fast food, just drinks. Also, who forgot squeeze cheese existed? I sure did. It was awesome for our taste buds and a great way to entertain my driver, Jill, at the time.
5. The Hilarity - Many things that could go wrong on a trip, did for Jill and I. First, we got locked out of her brother's apartment. Then, I lost my wallet. We spent all morning riding the Metra to find it and success was ours. Jill got outbid on StubHub on the tickets we wanted for Saturday. Lucky for us, we got better seats for Sunday's game which was NOT delayed by rain like Saturday's was.

4. Jamba Juice - It's sweet, fruity, cold, wet and delicious. I'm seriously craving one RIGHT NOW!


3. Jumping Pictures - No excursion of any kind with Jill is complete without jumping pictures.


2. The Hustle and Bustle of the City - Chicago is probably one of my favorite places, if not my numero uno. I think it's because I know it well due to the fact that I spent 4 months there completing my student teaching during college. Anything you want to do, Chicago can offer it to you. Sight seeing, history, relaxation, sports, theater, music, architecture, PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION, etc. It's like no other city. I definitely appreciate it much more now than when I lived there.



1. Baseball = Awesome, Outdoor Baseball = SUPER great, Wrigley Field = Fantastic, The MINNESOTA TWINS @ Wrigley Field = The best day of my life.
Notice my positive attitude even though my Twins lost. It was still so great. I have been to Wrigley Field now 4 times total and each time, I love it more and more. This game was particularily awesome because the Cubs and Twins faced off in an inter league duel. The Twins came away with 2 out of 3 wins on the weekend series. Unfortunately, I witnessed the loss, BUT it was a really, really good game and I had a blast. I didn't get beat up in my Twins gear (there were TONS of Twins fans there!) and I survived sitting sandwiched by Cubs fans.

Thoughts...

If you haven't done so recently (or ever), I would recommend reading the book of Romans. I am being challenged like crazy and reminded of so many things. Paul's heart in this letter to the Romans is to encourage them in the gift of grace and salvation from the Lord. I've thought a lot about this verse in particular - it's one that many of us know but this past year at our winter conference, Faithwalkers, it kept coming up and it's been in the back of my mind the past 6 months...
¹Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. ²Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)
I also really like part of verse 2 in the NLT - it says: let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.

I mean... I could go on and on about this verse/chapter/book. I'm thankful that we have the gift of God's word and that it's not just some book about a dead guy but that the Word is alive and real and that God uses it to change people's lives!

Play ball!

One day at church, Haley and I were sitting and reading the bulletin before the service started. We read an announcement about a church slow pitch softball league and decided it was something we NEEDED to be a part of! As I sat and thought, I knew of one person who needed to be our fearless leader, organizer, manager, and coach. Trent. I spent many summer nights in Pella watching Trent and the other guys play for the Pella Pets in the men's slow pitch league. He's awesome. We got some people rounded up and our team was born!
There was much debate on a team name. I'm not sure where this one came from, perhaps Kelli, but we thought it was brilliant: "We got the runs!" Trent disagreed and said it wasn't mean enough. Did I mention Trent is also super competitive? I'm not even 100% sure but I think we are "The Green Machine." Works for me!
Here are some pictures from our first game last week. We beat the Jordan Park team 7-2. I believe my current batting average is .667.
Hoping our game today is still on, despite the rainy weather!

S.U.M.M.E.R.

S -Supercalifrajulisticexpealidotious
U- Unbelieveably awesome
M - Magnificent
M- Mostly HOT
E- Especially great
R - REALLY COOL!

I didn't... but if i would have had any of my 5th graders write an acrostic poem about summer, I would imagine it would turn out like that. It's the time we all wait for, students, young and old, and teachers especially. The year starts, it cycles through the autumn, into the winter, Christmas break, the winter drags on and on and on, then spring comes and you're on the home stretch. And then.... it's summer. Freedom.
I will be the first teacher to express my gratitude (ESPECIALLY) after this year, that the school year is the way it is. Praise God for a break. A time to recharge my batteries and reflect on what was an incredibly challenging year. I'm already excited for next year and the possibilities it holds... but I'm glad it's still 2.5 months away.
I will say as well that I wish EVERYONE could have a summer vacation. I say this because I know most of you are reading it while rolling your eyes because you have a REAL, grown up job and have to go all of the time. We need people like you! And while I'm enjoying summer... maybe I'll come meet you for lunch! :)

Happy Birthday JT Jilly!

Happy birthday to my dear friend Jill...
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Jill was my favorite find of 2008. Where this girl had been all my life, I don't know, but it seems we've been friends forever. I've never clicked with someone as easily as I click with Jill. We were introduced by our mutual friend Laura and once it was observed how similar our tastes are and how alike we are, Laura would repeatedly say "I just knew you two would get along!" How true, how true.



I thought, along with Jill's birthday gift of a pool bag and beach towel which I can't wait to break in together, I'd make a list of a few reasons why I love her....
1. Jill and I have an equal amount of love for Justin Timberlake. I think if the opportunity would arise and we had the chance to share him as our husband, we would.
2. Jill is SUPER sporty and I aspire to be like her in that way.
3. Jill is one of the only girls I know who loves baseball as much as I do.
4. Jill is a great email buddy.
5. Jill is one of those people who is better in real life, when she's right in front of me, rather than on the phone or over text messages. You can't get the full effect unless you can see and touch her!
6. Jill has some killer dance moves and I can always count on her to shake her groove thang with me.
7. Jill is always up for McDonalds.
8. Jill freely lends out her clothes.
9. Jill is a REAL person. No smoke and mirrors, no beating around the bush, she is genuine and so truly caring.
10. Jill loves the Lord with all of her heart and makes a great effort toward putting Him first in her life. She has taught me so much about prayer (REAL hard!), committment and giving and receiving grace.

I love you, Jill! Happy birthday!