Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving! Here's a visual of today's festivities minus the HUGE family shot (all 20 people) which I'll post it once my cousin sends it to me. Hint: Put your mouse over the picture and the caption will come up.

Because it's Thursday and Thanksgiving, here's this week's Thursday Thirteen (well 10)---Things I am Thankful for:

1) That I am loved by my Savior. No matter what I do He could never love me any more or any less. I thank Him for his everlasting grace and mercy. This year has been an emotional and tough year but the Lord is forever faithful and soverign.

2) My amazing husband. I truly am blessed with a husband who is caring, loving, and has such a servant's heart. He puts up with my craziness, drama, and still loves me all the same.

3) My incredible family. I have such a supportive and loving family who not only are close by but that I get to see often (which is super important to me!)

4) My friends...you guys are great...thank you for being there.

5) Living in the seminary "bubble"-- though I joke about it often, I love that the Lord has us living in this bubble for this stage in my life. I have learned so much about being a wife, a mom, and a follower of Christ. I wouldn't change these last 3 years....well maybe not having a dishwasher I would.

6) Our church...they have a true heart for the Lord, for serving one another, and serving the world

7) That I live in a country where I am able to speak freely about what I believe, think, and feel

8) For the the little joys in life...pumpkin spice lattes, frozen yogurt, Grey's Anatomy

9) That I have a job where I can make a difference in the world and in our family. I'm thankful that I have had a stable job over the last 3 1/2 years while Jeremy has been in school.

10) That Jeremy's school is paid for so that when he graduates in May we will be school-debt free.

Blog Stalkers

Friday night Jeremy and I went to Moe's for dinner and we saw some old friends of our the Ishams. JR and Lindsey also attend seminary and were in a small group with us once upon a time. We asked them to join us for dinner so that we could check up.

As we began to talk, Lindsey and I realized that we didn't really have to catch up because we knew what was going on in each other's life. Not because we had seen each other recently but because we had been reading each other's blogs. Seriously I know more about Lindsey from her blog than I know from her actually ever telling me. Our husbands kept looking at us funny because talked like we had seen each other yesterday. Jeremy was confused why Lindsey never had to explain something to me or backtrack to explain a story. It was really quite humorous!

After we left I realized how much blogs have changed the way we communicate with one another. No longer do you have to call and catch up with someone because you can click on their blog and find out what is going on in their life. We have taken the human interaction out of knowing one another.

I have to admit that I am a blog stalker....I have a LONG list of blogs I check on quite frequently..many of which the people don't even know me. I believe that I have blog stalkers out there too so this week I am asking you to unmask yourselves and let me know who is out there reading my random thoughts. I would love to hear from you so leave a comment!

Also while you are at check out Jeremy's new web portfolio. We're getting close to the seminary finish line and it is time to start looking for jobs so we're posting his work in hopes that someone will see it and want to hire him. Feel free to point others to it as well. Thanks!

Thursday's Thirteen

13 Pet Peeves I have:

1) Houses and stores that decorate and play Christmas music before Thanksgiving!! Don't skip a holiday period. Plus you make Christmas anti-climatic if you celebrate for 2 months!

2) People who jump in line esp. when you've been waiting for a while

3) People who leave their blinker on forever after they have turned

4) People who are late when you are waiting for them

5) People who walk in the middle of the aisle in the parking lot when you are trying to go down.

6) People who don't turn right on red.

7) People who stop in the middle of an aisle in the store to have a conversation and block the whole aisle

8) Email forwards---don't send them to me please

9) When people who hit the wrong button and reply to everyone on a listserv when they only meant to send it to one person

10) Students who say it was an accident when I know they did it on purpose (most of the time I catch them in the act and they deny it)

11) People use apostrophes incorrectly as well as homophones esp. there, their, and they're

12) People who make judgements based on someone else's opinion rather than forming their own

13) People who don't return phone calls in the allotted time they said they would

Ok so I realize this is a lot...and I realize that many of them are due to a lack of patience on my part. I just thought I would share. :)

A Day of Rest

Two posts in one day...aren't you surprised?

Thanks to the Veterans I had a much needed day off from school. At the end of last school year, one of my students gave me a $50 gift card to a local spa. I decided it was much needed at this time so I called on Friday and scheduled it for today. Oh my gosh, it was wonderful!! It was an hour of total relaxation and pampering for my full body. I would highly recommend one if you ever get the chance. Thanks to the lovely ladies of Iatria for the wonderful day!

After that it was haircut time! If you've kept up with my blog, you know how much I love haircut days. Here is the final result...it doesn't look as good as it did afterwards since I went walking with Alyson and Miranda.

It was so nice to have the day to do whatever. I actually got to go visit Jeremy at work complete with a Frosty. I participated in one of their office golfing games and got to hang out with them for a while. It was a great day and I wish I could have more days like this.

Come On Defense, Let's Turn It Over

Sunday Jeremy and I went to Charlotte to cheer on the Panthers. We found some cheap tickets on stubhub.com and decided it would be nice to get out of Raleigh.

On our way in, we decided to stop Bojangles for a little pregame lunch. It was by far the slowest Bojo I had ever been too and it took us 30 minutes to get our food. As we were eating, my dad called me asking if we wanted to meet up after the game. He was there with his company up in the skybox. He asked me if I wanted to speak to someone and my brother gets on the phone. They had been planning this for weeks and hid it from me. I'm still not sure why they were hiding the fact that he was coming with him. I guess they thought I would be jealous. Needless to say, I was a little jealous that BP got to sit in the box where it was warm and food was free.

Once we finally arrived at the stadium we made our long trek to the top. I knew we were pretty high, but I didnt know we would be 3 row from the top in row 32! People got winded just trying to get to their seat. While the game wasn't too exciting, our surrounding fans cracked us up. Next to me were 2 rednecks (who smelled bad) who constantly made comments about the sponsors and calling people on their cell phone telling them how much they paid for parking. Next to Jeremy was an older man who had the worst ear hair and kept yelling, "Come on Defense, Let's Turn Over" every time we were on defense. Jeremy was about to scream.

After the game, we met up with Dad and BP and went out to dinner. It was a fun day though the Panthers didn't pull out the victory.

Exciting News...

In my last post, I failed to mention some other exciting news. Erin, one of my roommates in college, and her husband Scott have been in the process of adopting an adorable brother and sister pair from Uganda.

They first traveled to Uganda right after they got married to work in the Amani baby cottage. After they returned to the States, they realized how much they wanted to bring these two home. They went back to Africa in April thinking they were going to go to court and bring them home. Well...long story short...it didn't happen and you can check out their blog (by clicking on the picture above) to see their whole journey. But the reason for this post is that they are FINALLY going to be able to bring them home 7 months later. Erin is currently on her way over there so please be praying for her and the kids. It really is an amazing story! Praise the Lord for His timing and provision!

Rollercoaster of Emotions

My students and I are in the computer lab for their "Fun Friday" activity. This by far has been their favorite Fun Friday and it took me no effort to plan it (just sign up for the lab.) God knows how much I needed this break. These kids are wearing me out.

The beginning of the week started with some glimmer of hope as my principal began working on finding a new teacher to create a new class. Over the last few weeks, she had said that I would be able to move one of my students that has been giving me the most trouble. Well Tuesday she informed me that she was keeping in my room because she didn't want to do that to a poor new teacher. Well what about me and what he has been doing to me all year? The child is very low academically and thrives in a smaller group size. Everyone my team told her that but it didn't seem to matter. Instead she moved one of my other boys who was once a behavior problem but now working nicely for me. Then she had on the list to take my 2 strongest boys out. I was so upset...this was not helping the dynamic in my class at all.

On top of that, I had conferences this week. Lots of questions by parents and staying till 7:30 two nights in a row. It was emotional draining. Finally, Thursday afternoon my principal gave us her list and she had made some changes. She didn't take both of my highest boys and she switched out my behavior problem! We also interviewed a possible candidate and we liked her so hopefully we'll open the new class soon. Finally some happy news!

This weekend is a 3 day weekend for me. Thank you Veterans! I wanted to get out of town as I am tired of Raleigh but neither Jeremy or I could think of a cheap place to go. We settled on going to a Panther's game when Jeremy found some cheap tickets on stubhub. While I like football, I'm sure you can guess who is more excited. :) I am excited however to go to Charlotte and get away. Also I finally scheduled my massage for Monday that one of my students gave me last year. It is much more needed now then when he originally gave it to me.

This year will be the end of me...

The Weekend's Events

Sadly I don't have a picture but Saturday was Father Daughter Day as Dad and I spent the day together at our alma mater cheering on the Tarheels. Jeremy was busy playing intramural football and Mom was at the hospital with Ma-Ma (my grandma...and she's doing better now...she just had some chest pains) so Dad and I head off to the game. We tailgated with my aunt and uncle and their friends and it was some kind of yummy! Uncle Mark is a phenomenal chef and we had a gourmet tailgate including shish kabobs, marinated tomatoes and cheese, baked potatoes, and eclair.

The game was great...we finally pulled out a victory though it got scary at times. We're hoping Butch will one day lead us to a winning season and some great bowl but right now we're giving him some leeway since it's his first year.

Dad and I had a great time and it was great just to be able to hang out just the two of us. In addition, I got to see many old friends at the game and catch up with them so that was fun.

In other news, our friends the Hoppers are pregnant and my heart has hit a twinge of jealousy. I've got baby fever no doubt and the more our friends get pregnant the worse it gets. It is all in the Lord's timing but selfishly I wish it were sooner than later.

Also today after church we happened to walk into the same restaurant has our friends the Rileys and the Michels. They invited us to join them and it was a great time to check up with them. Mr. Riley is a great story teller and I was enjoy hearing him. They were so kind to pick up our bill at the end so I wanted to thank them again publicly.

It's been a lazy Sunday afternoon thanks to early releasee on Friday that allowed me to do all my planning for the week. Sweet Alicia has been praying for me that the Lord would give me time to do this and He answered and we are so grateful. Thank you Lord for the much needed rest. We're off to small group...

Thursday's Thirteen

I knew it would happen...I was so good this summer about keeping this updated but now life has gotten crazy. Today's 13 will reveal the 13 things I've been doing instead of blogging.

1) Teaching

2) Lesson Planning...last year one of my teammates and I planned everything together. Now she's in a new position and so I'm somewhat by myself. Planning 4 subjects by myself is time consuming.

3) Writing report cards... surprisingly we're already through the 1st quarter so it was now time to start the dreaded reports. They are so time consuming! What happened to the days when we gave As and Bs and just averaged the grades together they made all quarter? Not anymore in Wake County.

4) Attending a thousand meetings...I'm on the student support team which has 3 meetings a week, plus grade level meetings as well as staff meetings

5) Attending Spanish class every Tuesday night. I am taking a Spanish Class for Educators on Tuesdays nights. It's fun but time consuming.

6) Maintaining the school website.

7) Trick or treating...Last night I went out with my friend Kim and her two daughters out in their neighborhood since the seminary doesn't celebrate.

8) Having coffee dates...and loving Miss Alicia who speaks truth and wisdom into my life always. Love her!

9) Doing laundry...we had lots

10) Setting up conferences with parents and having to call parents of misbehaving kids

11) Running a booth at our small group's neighborhood Fall Festival. We did bobbing for apples...it was quite gross actually. All the kids spit

12) Teacher Workday-- again more meetings upon meetings

13) Getting scammed...ok long story short...I was trying to sell my Palm Pilot (b/c I don't use it enough) on Craig's List. A man agreed to buy it and when it was time to exchange the money, he was trying to do some weird wiring mess and we realized it was a scam. Luckily, we were smarter than him and we saved ourselves from being a victim.