some of my favorite things.

The above items, though simple they may be, warm my heart and bring a smile to my face!

That time again? Again!!

Right before the first bell rang this morning there was a knock at my door. I opened it to see a former student, a now first grader, holding a bag of cookies that I had ordered awhile ago. My Girl Scout Cookies had come in. The Thin Mints are my absolute favorite. Let's just say that I have enough to help me get through my long night of studying for the next three weeks.

time.to.relax.

I couldn't wait to get home this evening. I have been going all week. I averaged 2:00 am bed times and I was just ready to sit at my table, with a hot cup of tea, a lit candle and my computer. I hadn't had time to check all "my blogs" or even post like I wanted to. So that is what I did. I brewed some tea, which if you know me very well is not something I do very often. I'm not a big hot tea girl, my first choice would be coffee, but I didn't need any more stimulant. I am now finished with my drink and I have caught up on all my computer business. I am heading to bed...it's only 9:20. My body won't know what to do!!

Night All.

Great Day...

A big thank you to those of you who helped me celebrate my birthday. I had a wonderful week!! I wasn't really excited about this birthday, but with lots of thinking and pondering, I am looking forward to a great year. This last one was a little rough and I am excited to see what is in store for me! I know that God has something great planned!!

Birthday fun!

My Cousin Kendra and I share very close birthdays. Hers is the 22nd of February and mine is the 25th. I feel like we have been celebrating all week. It started out on Wednesday night when Kendra and Sarah came to my house and t.p.ed it and then kidnapped me and we went and "hit" three other houses. After the dirty work was done and we had captured 3 other ladies, we went to IHOP for some early morning sweets. It was about 3:3o on Thursday morning by the time I got to bed. It was a fun time. Kendra turned 30 this year and she wanted to go out in style. I wish I had pictures to share, but I didn't take my camera with me on the "attacks"!

Kendra's party was on Thursday night. A group of us met at Shorty's for some line dancing lessons and darts. I have never lined danced in my life, but I really enjoyed it. You can certainly tell who the regulars are on Thursdays. They know their dancin'!

On Friday as I walked into my classroom, I was met with a beautifully decorated room. It was a great birthday surprise. I have two wonderful ladies that work in my room and they treat me so well. They had planned a little party for me. Mrs. Williams and Miss Angela are so very sweet and thoughtful. I am blessed to get to work with them.

5 year olds + snack time = A big Laugh!!

This is a little gross, but I just had to share it. As most of my readers know I teach kindergarten and I have 60 students between two sessions. I admit that somedays get a little long and today was one of them. I have some little pistols in my afternoon class that keep me on my toes. Today they had come in from recess and were having their snack before they went to p.e. From out of nowhere I heard this HUGE belch come from one of my littlest boys. I looked at him (trying not to laugh) and said, "What do you say"? He replied, "I just puked in my mouth and swallowed it"! Upon hearing this another little boy pipes up and says, "Can I see"? The little belchers says, "It's gone now, but if I do it again I'll let you see it"! How gross is that?! I just stood there in awe that they could have this perfectly disgusting conversatain and not even laugh...they were completely serious. Being able to stand and observe their conversation made my day and was a great reminder of one of the many reason why I love my job!!

To cat nap or not...?

I don't know if I am able to cat nap. I have come to that conclusion in the past few weeks. It has been the pattern that I come home from work on Tuesdays, I eat supper and then tell myself that I will close my eyes for just a few minutes and then I will get up and do homework. Well, the past few weeks, the few minutes have turned into 2-3 hours...I know, not a good thing. Tonight I was falling back into that horrible pit of lies and was able to pull myself out of the pit and get up and get dished done, laundry started as well as homework started. I am off to a great start. Let's just hope it stays that way.

Beautiful Winter Day

As I sit in my classroom gazing out the window, I'm thinking about what a beautiful winter day it is. I know that I'm having to work inside today, but that doesn't take away from the beauty of the day. I've been reminded today in small ways of how good God is. I've been reading the new Max Lucado book, Facing your Giants. It is the story of David. I don't have time to go into it right now, but it talks about how David made some major mistakes in his life, but he also was a man after God's own heart. If you really think about it, that is HUGE!!

Today God has just been reminding me in little ways that he is there and He does care about me. That is a very beautiful thing!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I hope everyone had a nice day. I sure did!! We partied like rockstars in our classroom today! We decorated boxes and then handed out our Valentine's Day cards. The students had a great time. After we passed everything out, we got to have a "party" snack. I'm sure their parents were thrilled with me after I sugared them up and then sent them home...what can I say?!

Happy 30th Birthday Jason!

I was able to fly home this past week-end to surprise my brother. His wife, Leah, planned a great birthday party for his 30th. My parent picked me up at the airport in Rapid City and we drove to Nebraska. The party was in the basement of the church. It was a great turn out. We ate Indian Tacos, one of Jason's favorite meals and had some homemade Angelfood Cake that Leah made. After we ate, we had a wild night of cards. The men played Pit, while the ladies played Pitch. Saturday morning I got to play with the kids for awhile. They were a little emotional from being up so late on Friday night, but they were still fun. It was such a sweet time of being together. We headed back to Hot Springs Saturday afternoon and I was able to spend some time at home with my folks before I flew back to Boise yesterday afternoon.

I was glad to get back to work today. I am grateful for the few days off, but I needed to get back to my "kids" and get them back on a normal routine. They can only handle a sub for so long! Have a good one all!!

Foto Phun!

Over the summer I was able to go back home for a long week-end and it was a nice realxing time. Because my family lives in the Black Hills of South Dakota, there are a lot of tourists and sometimes I envy them and the enjoyment they get from visiting the Black Hills area. I think that a lot of time, the people who live in the area take the beauty and neat attractions for granted. It truly is an amazingly beautiful place. So, while I was home, I wanted to play tourist for a day. I wanted to go to Mt. Rushmore, take a drive through Custer State Park, go into Keystone, get fresh pulled taffey and also get an old-time photo taken. When I was a little girl, our family came to South Dakota on a vacation and we had gotten an old photo taken then and I thought it would be fun to do it again. We had such a wild time. When my dad walked into the studio, I giggled so hard with him in his floppy hat and too small boots they gave him to wear. The above picture sits in my living room and I look upon it with fondness and think of how blessed I am to have the parents I have and how fun they are!!

Special Treat

The other day while shopping at Target, I ran across some of my favorite cookies that I hadn't had for quite sometime. There is a reason I hadn't had them for awhile...the holiday season need I say more? Well, I talked myself into buying them on one condiditon: I could only eat one after I had got some homework done. Needless to say I haven't gotten to eat any yet. It's not that I haven't done homework, but by the time I am finished for the night it is too late to be snacking on sweets. I'm thinking I should start with a cookie to get my blood sugar level up and give me energy and strength to get my homework done.

Pick-up VS. Truck

The never-ending debate! Is it a truck or a pick-up? I have noticed that a lot of people are confused with the difference between a pick-up and a truck. Well, I am going to set y'all straight tonight. A truck has 18 wheels and a pick-up has four!! There is nothing more frusterating than people using the wrong word when speaking of a pick-up. This all comes about because my car has been in the shop the last few days and the sales guy at the Ford dealership gave me a very nice pick-up to drive until my car is done. I don't know how many people have stopped me and said, "Nice truck." I really want to be stubborn and look around the parking lot and say "I don't see a big truck, all I see is a pick-up!" But I don't, I just say thanks and go about my business. I really don't understand how hard it can be to get them right. Anyway, enough about that. I have absolutely loved driving this pick-up. They way it sits up higher than my car, I feel I have more controll on the road and the only thing that would make it perfect was if it were a diesel. God made me a pick-up girl. I just know it!!