A Little Christmas Preview

While I have been away from blogging, I have been enjoying the weeks that lead up to Christmas.  A lot of time was spent with family, friends and in the stores!  I have some great stories and pictures of Christmas Day that I will share later.  For now, here is a preview involving Christmas crafts and jammies!

 So proud of his Christmas chain!

 Cheese!

(you can also see the Santa ornament he made)

 Can't forget about this precious little girl!

Christmas jammies!

 

A Very Harry Birthday

For Ella's 11th birthday we decided to celebrate in a magical fashion.  Ella has read (and loved!) the series and has been working her way through the movies.  We (Frank parents and I) thought that she would love to celebrate her birthday with the Harry Potter theme.  Thanks to my insane love for Harry, Dan and Reb's creativity and inspiration from my friend Kelly, the party was starting to come together.  It was a surprise and the week before, a letter was delivered to the fireplace inviting Ella to attend Hogwarts and to attend a party to celebrate her acceptance.  There are a lot of pictures, so sit back and enjoy!

After Ella arrived, the first thing that needed to be done was the house sorting, receive her class schedule (had the list of things to do at the party) and get her wand.  Ella was excited to be placed in Gryffindor and look at her class schedule.

 I played the role of DumbleKenzie!

 Checking out the class schedule

 The wands

 The happy Gryffindor

We first needed to attend Potions class.  Our teacher was Professor Vaniverus Severus.  She was a good teacher, although she had a hard time teaching and doing the potions herself!

After potions class, we visited Weasley's Wizard Wheezes run by Fred Weasley.

We played with exploding canisters

Next we went to Honeydukes and The Three Broomsticks for some refreshments.  All of my food pictures turned out really bad, but Rebekah did a great job making food from Harry Potter!  We had cauldron cakes, chocolate frogs, Botts jelly beans and cockroach clusters.

 
We finished our time with cake, presents, the Harry Potter Scene It game and a Harry Potter movie.

 Ella "lit" the candles on her cauldron cakes

Thank you Ella for letting me be a part of your birthday party.  

I think it was as much fun for me as it was for Ella!

Happy Birthday Ella Sue!

Ella is 11 years old!

Picture credit: jamie hudson photography

Ella loves animals, enjoys school, plays the clarinet, is detail oriented,

likes to eat bread and loves raw spinach, still calls me Meme, plays video games with Josiah,

is silly-crazy, kind, tender-hearted, a great big sister, loves Jesus and her family!

Ella, you are a beautiful girl with a big heart.

Happy Birthday Ella Sue!

Stay tuned!  Details on the Potter Party are coming soon!

Looking to the Past

This past Friday night I got to spend the evening with "my kids".  Anyone who knows me, knows which kids I am talking about.  Josiah, Ella and Vani are some of my favorite kids and I love getting to play "in-town auntie" to them!  While I was baby-sitting them (can I even say that anymore?  They watch themselves nowadays.) I had my laptop with me.  While I had it out, we looked through my Picasa files and watched all the random videos I had of them.  It literally brings tears to my eyes when I realize what a special part I have been in their lives.  From birthdays to school programs to lazy days in the backyard, I have been there for a lot of it.  I feel truly blessed.  Since these 3 kids are so cute (or at least they used to be until they got sassy with the mouth) I thought I would share some of our favorite videos!

In the first video, Josiah is in first grade waiting at the airport for Dad, Mom and new sister Vani to come home from India!  In the second video, Ella is 4 1/2 and it is also at the airport.  In the final video, Vani is 3 celebrating her birthday and singing the birthday song herself!

Man, I love these kids!

Where Have I Been?

Has it really been 6 weeks since I have blogged?!  Now, I know that all my readers (I think there are 3 of you) have been eagerly checking everyday for an update, and I finally have one for you.  Between teaching, grading papers, church stuff, more grading, 3 family birthdays in October and starting to run again I have stayed busy!  Here are some pictures of other things that have been keeping me busy too. 

These 2 cuties have been keeping me pretty entertained on the weekends:

Our family has had the blessing of moving my grandma this fall from a care center in Burley to here in Boise.  After she moved in, we celebrated my mom's birthday with an all girl dinner at the care center.

Halloween rolled around and I carved my first pumpkin in a very long time. 

 Can you tell it's an owl?  

I had some issues and now tell a story of an owl who was attacked and lost an eye and ear.

My pumpkin was in good company!

Did I mention these 2 already?

 I have also been coaching girls basketball at my school.  I love these girls and we have had a great season!  It ended last night when we lost our tournament game but the girls and I will be partying this week instead!  They played hard in every game and learned so much this season!

That sums up my fall so far!  As November rolls on, I have been thinking through the big and small things in life that I am so grateful for.  Salvation, family, friends, coffee, peanut butter and so much more!

Today is One of Those Days...

Today is one of those days where being single has been lonely and hard.  Now I know that marriage can be hard work too, but being single can have its moments also.  It all started with yard work woes.  I live in a very picky HOA when it comes to yard work and I will also be the first to admit that yard work is not a strength of mine nor an enjoyable hobby.  My lawnmowers, yes 2, wouldn't work.  This resulted with me in tears and frustration.  Unfortunately, most of the time when this happens, I begin to feel that if I had a husband, maybe the situation just wouldn't be so bad.  I would have someone to help me figure out what might be wrong with the mower, and someone to go to Lowe's with me to help make a great decision on a new one.  And let's be honest, if I had a husband, I might not even be the one mowing the lawn!  That's a lot of emotion over trying to mow the lawn, right?

While contentment with my singleness and trusting God's plan for my life is an on-going thing, here are a few petty things I list in my head to make me feel a little better:
1.  I get to hold the remote and watch what I want when I want.
2.  I can make a meal and have it last me for 3 days - and I make what I want.
3.  I can plan my day and week without needing to check with someone else.
4.  My coffee and peanut butter supply is tampered by no one but me.

Sadly, the list stopped there today and I kept crying.  However, I now have a green, mowed and nicely trimmed yard and I figured out the mower issue myself.  And as I continue this day trying to move farther from the emotional edge, I pray that God will use me in this and I continue to grow in my faith.

Seeing God's Faithfulness

There have been many times where I wonder how God will work in my life and where His path will take me.  I also wonder about that in my family's lives as well.  As many of you can relate to, it is always easier to see God's plan and purpose in someone else's life and yet so difficult to see it in the midst of our own craziness and walk.  The past three years have been that for me and my family.  Probably, like many of you, I feel the burden of what my family is going through and often take on the stress that they feel.  I think any close-knit, loving family goes through this. 

Three years ago this December, my dad was laid off from Micron.  It was a hard blow for someone who worked for the company for 22 years and unemployment became a rut that was hard to get out of.  My dad fell into the category of "not old enough to retire but too old to hire".  Catchy huh?  I should sell it to Obama as some type of slogan.  Anyway, it was hard.  My parents have worked hard to make-do with my mom's income, but it was difficult and the sacrifice of many things came with it.  My mom's faith through the past three years have been such an encouragement and testimony to me.  She has not wavered, always trusting that God will provide in the short and long term.  Today, God was faithful and my dad is now employed as a contractor for a company, whose name I cannot remember.  The irony?  This company is building out at Micron, so my dad will drive to work out there for the next two years just as he did for the previous 22.  Praise God for His timing and provision!

On a smaller scale of God's faithfulness, I will be able to help my family move my grandma into her new assisted living place here in Boise this week.  I was bogged down with a meeting and a schedule that just didn't seem like I would be able to help at all.  This left me in tears yesterday and feeling completely overwhelmed.  The blessing?  I had an email waiting for me this morning saying the meeting has been changed to next week!  I can now help with the moving process!

Isn't it amazing to see God's faithfulness in the big and small?

"For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations."   Psalm 100:5

'Twas the Night Before School Started

'Twas the night before school started and all through the house 

sat a fourth grade teacher struggling to come up with something witty to rhyme with house.  

She's sharpened pencils with care 

and prayed that lice does not get in her hair.  

The copies are made and name tags in place 

for tomorrow the kids will be in her face.  

She knows she will not sleep well so Starbucks is a must, for tomorrow begins the learning and trust.

Tomorrow starts another school year!  I currently have 20 fourth grade students enrolled in my class and I am excited to be their teacher.  Last year was my first year teaching 9 and 10 year olds and I love them!  I went from liking teaching to loving it!  Getting ready for the first day of school has had its challenges and some of them are still ongoing!  However, summer is gone and a new school year is here and I am ready to welcome it (I think).

A Picture Tour of My Classroom:

 From the back 

Do you see the smartboard?  That's one of those ongoing challenges.

 View from the front

 The daily clip system.  Will it stay on green?

 The paper stack, read aloud book and lesson plans ready to go!

My desk

Introducing...

Harper Grace

8lbs 2oz and adorable!

Harper has made her family wait for her arrival and has toyed with her mama for the past four days.  Kayla had been having labor pains all weekend and finally today was the day.  Kayla and Sean headed over to the hospital around 4am this morning and by 12:03pm we had this precious little girl.

Kayla invited me to be in the delivery room months ago and I felt a little wary about the whole thing.  After watching a video, I was even more wary!  However, after getting to be there and watch this precious gift make her entrance, I wouldn't have missed it for anything!  Now, that's not saying I wasn't a little grossed out at the same time.

 

Holding Harper for the first time

Grandma Watson stayed with Sawyer through the early morning hours and then brought him to the hospital.  Sawyer was not quite sure what to think of his new sister or of his mom sitting in the hospital bed.  He says hi to Harper but doesn't want to touch her.  Although, he was excited about showing her stuff from a cell phone!

Thank you Lord for this amazing, precious girl!

A Little House Dream

 
Last month when I was visiting California, Jennifer and I were in the Simi Valley area.  When Jennifer said Simi Valley, I immediately got excited.  For those of you who don't know and are obviously living under a rock, I LOVE Little House on the Prairie (LHOTP for short) and LHOTP was filmed in Simi Valley!  A few years ago, Simi Valley had a huge fire and destroyed the remaining set from the show.  However, I was content to stroll around what would have been the dirt streets of Walnut Grove and run down a hillside.

 This is exactly what I had in mind

We were able to find a map of the Big Sky Ranch area where it was filmed and started off to find it.  While driving I was becoming more excited by the minute and also more anxious.  It was getting dark and I was worried that my moment of fame and running down a hillside would be unable to be photographed.  We followed a twisting road only to meet a dead end with a locked gate.  I was so disappointed!  I was grateful that Jennifer was so willing to try and make this nerdy, little dream come true.

I have watched Little House for as long as I can remember and somewhere in junior high and high school the obsession took full force.  I recorded and collected episodes on VCR tapes until they started coming out with the seasons on DVDs!  I would buy the set the minute they were released!  I can name every episode and season it is in.  I only need to watch about 5-20 seconds of it.  You are probably wondering how I can put that skill to good use?  I'm thinking a Trivial Pursuit game of Little House and I would beat the pants off of all of you!  If anyone would play with me...

I have been excited to do a post on LHOTP for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity.  I would also like one of these some day:  A 1976 lunchbox with Thermos included!