Happy Birthday, Mama!

Happy Birthday to you;

Happy Birthday to you;

Happy Birthday dear Mama,

Happy Birthday to you!

I love you and hope you have a WONDERFUL 29th birthday!

. . .and a Merry Christmas to you!

Warning. . .this post may appear to be lacking in Christmas cheeriness, but please note that it is the last day of school and the kids just left! If you're a teacher (especially of middle schoolers) you understand the expression on my face above!

My grades are posted, my room is clean, my bags are packed, and I'm waiting on "the announcement". I keep this poster on the wall behind my desk, because it sums up how I feel most of the time (and I might even look like that most of the time). As hard as I try to be cheerful on the last days of school before a holiday, it is difficult to not get frustrated with the students' exuberant behavior!

On a good note, I did receive several sweet hugs, and gifts (the sweatshirt I'm wearing was a gift from one of my students). Christmas break, here I come!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This was a different sort of Thanksgiving for us this year! John Allen has semester exams beginning Monday, so he wasn't able to go out of town to visit family. He studied while we feasted. Bless his heart!

Sugar looked very Thanksgiving-ish!

I returned home today so that I could have Thanksgiving dinner with John Allen (thanks to our mothers' cooking and a microwave)! We were going outside to walk with Sugar, when John Allen stepped off the porch and turned his ankle. It looked like it hurt and it started swelling immediately. It looks even worse now. . all black and blue!

We had our own little Thanksgiving swollen ankle and all!

Diet Blues

Sugar has been on a diet for the past two months and has lost a little weight (a lb. or two). Ever since we switched her food to diet food, she has been eating anything she can get her paws on! I don't normally leave food out, but I don't always think about not leaving wrapped items on the counter. A couple of weeks ago, she ate a NutriGrain bar, a caramel apple (see earlier post), and countless scraps from the garbage.

John Allen and I left for about thirty minutes last night, and I had planned to cook chicken parmesan. I left a new package of pasta and a new can of Italian bread crumbs sitting on the counter. When I returned, the living room was dusted with bread crumbs and smelled like and Italian restaraunt. The pasta was strewn across the kitchen floor! It get better. . .

Today, I rushed home from school and tossed my school bag in the door so that I could hop in the car with my neighbor to go to the Holiday Bizarre on campus. I didn't even think about the GIANT box of Gobstoppers (I like candy) or the package of oatmeal in my bag. Guess who found them, and enjoyed them both? What are we going to do with her? Bless her heart!

Veteran's Day

You were thought of and appreciated today, as you are everyday! We love you and admire the qualities in you that make you brave and strong! John Allen and I are proud of your service to our wonderful country and we will always reflect upon the unselfish way you gave of yourselves! Thank you for giving us something to be proud of and for an awesome story to pass down!

Want to guess?

Just when you think you have all wifely duties figured out, you're thrown a curve ball! As most wives do, I have a laundry routine - sort, remove any stains, wash, dry, reload the wash, iron. . . . It's no surprise to see the usual stains - ink, mustard, mud, coffee - but I now have surprises in my laundry basket and I haven't figured out how to handle it yet. I have three categories now - whites, darks, and EWWW GROSS, WHAT IS THAT? Is this what I'm going to have to get used to? Anyone want to guess what left this stain?

This little kitty showed up on our doorstep on Halloween night! What a cutie pie! She belongs to our friends Daniel and Carla.

John Allen and Daniel reluctantly posed for this picture. I thought they looked cute in their matching hats and shirts. They didn't really think it was that cute.

One of my students made me a caramel and chocolate apple for Halloween. When I left school Friday, I put it in my teacher bag and never gave it another thought until. . . we came home from church Sunday and Sugar had pulled my bag into the floor, emptied it, unwrapped the apple and ate the good part! Please notice the icky dog hair stuck to it!

Oh yeah, our classroom door won the contest!