Amazing

Sometimes God does something that I am not expecting and it totally blows me away.  Yesterday I was playing outside with the new dog I am dog-sitting and a guy in a truck pulls up.  He rolls down the window and asks me if I have seen a big white dog.  I tell him no but I will look for him while I am outside and when I go to work.  He says thanks and drives off.

I really don't think about it again because I have a very playful lab wanting me to throw the ball for him so I get back to it.  After about 15 minutes pass I go inside to get ready for work.  As I leave for work it's been about 45 minutes since the guy asks me about his dog.  I'm driving down the road and see the guy turn onto the road in front of me so I say a little prayer that God lets him find his dog.  I am not joking about this. In less than ONE MINUTE after saying the prayer I round a curve and the guy is loading up his dog.  I've had God answer prayers before but never that fast.

I thanked God and then smiled.  God is great.  Sometimes little prayers can have big effects.  It put me in a good mood for the rest of the day.  I really needed to see it.  I'm getting tired of being alone and God just reminded me that He does answer prayers.  Sometimes it might take awhile but other times it might be right away.  All we can do is say His Will be done and accept his way of answering our prayers.

Thank you Dear Lord for answering this prayer.  You amaze me.

Hope y'all have a good weekend!

Elementary School

I'm a middle school teacher but this year I am working with elementary age students.  Can I just say they are FUNNY!  I love middle school but these kinders, 1st graders and 2nd graders are really fun.  They make me laugh.  This past week we were testing them and that's when their funny comes out.


Examples:


We will call him B.  B is a kinder.  I was asking him to look at letters and identify them.  He started out ok and then just kind of forgot what he was doing.  He would turn around in his chair and look at the wall and not at the page in front of him.  I would try and get him on track but it wasn't easy.  I could help him identify the letter if he didn't know it so I did ONCE and only ONCE.  When I did, B looked at me and said "I don't believe you."  He then preceded to turn around in his chair and started playing with the mat I had around my station.  He was through identifying letters.  This kid was constantly moving.  I would be surprised if he could sit still for more than 5 minutes.


Our next test was to tell me the sounds of letters.  I knew this would be fun.  He identified a few sounds and then started naming letters.  I redirected him to tell me the sounds.  It just so happened that M was the next sound he needed to tell me.  He started out in a normal voice and then got louder.  "Mmm" "Mmm" "Mmm!" B was yelling the last "Mmm."  I had a real hard time keeping a straight face and so did the other teachers who were in there and heard him.  It made my day.  Good thing he was my last kid to test for the day because I don't know if I could have done another. 


I had a 1st grader named L.  He was a talker.  I learned his entire life story in the 15 minutes it took me to test him.  He loves video games.  he is trying to kill this person in his game but he cant because the cops keep shooting him.  He doesn't like cops.  So when he was reading to me he saw the word favorites.  L didn't know it but looked at it, saw the v and yelled video game!  He was really proud of himself.  He kept smiling and was very happy to read.  Good thing he put me in a good mood because after him I had the above kinder named B. 


The last 1st grader I tested was A.  She has a serious concentration issue and she says she needs glasses because she can't see.  I learned that she missed school to hold a funeral for her dog who passed away the day before.  Kind of sad but kind of cool her family loves dogs.  Anyway, she had to identify numbers and letters.  There were 8 different tasks each one minute long and she couldn't do it.  She never finished a task without talking to me about something else.  I really was having a hard time keeping a straight face because she was talking about random stuff a 1st grader finds interesting..  When we got to the reading she read one line and then started singing to me.  I kind of lost it then.  She kept singing the only sentence she knew.  It just so happened to be the first sentence of the paragraph and we never went any further.  When she left to go back to class I couldn't help but just sit there and giggle for about 5 minutes. 


Kids.  They are funny.  It made my Friday end with a laugh and started my weekend off on a good note.


Hope y'all are having a good weekend!

Laser Hair Removal

I bought laser hair removal for myself when I saw it on Groupon and I am happy I did.  I would really suggest if you are white (i.e. ghostly pale like me) and have really dark hair you NEED to get it.  I have only had one treatment and can already tell a difference.  My lower legs have half the hair they used to and my underarms are almost completely hairless.  I have five more treatments to go and I cannot wait to see if all my hair is gone by the end.  I bought them because I'm tired of shaving and since having a baby my hair has decided to turn darker except on my head.  It has decided to turn grey.  One day I am going to stop dyeing my hair so I can see how grey I really am.  My sister is older than me and I don't think she has one grey hair on her head.  Maybe I need to stop stressing and worrying about things.  Maybe that would help me from being completely grey before I'm 35.  Kind of sad and scary...


Anyway,  hope you all have a good weekend!

Cooking

Since it's so cold here, I have decided I will become a good cook and a very crafty person.  Thanks to Pinterest I am on my way.  The other night I decided we needed to eat a Latin inspired dish.  I found the Chili Rellenos recipe in Cooking Light and the Avocado fries on Pinterest.  They were a little time consuming.  I'm really glad Gabe was here to help or there is no way I would have ever gotten these done.  They both are fried foods which I'm trying to avoid but they looked so good I decided I had to try them.

The chile rellenos were really good but spicy.  I'm seem to always know how to pick hot peppers.  I'm not real sure if I like the avocado fries.  I might try them again.  We were planning on having the leftovers the next day, BUT the dog I was fostering decided they looked to good to pass up and she ate them all.  Oh well.  That's what dogs do.  I know I will continue cooking the rellenos but I might need to give the avocado fries one more try before I decide if I like them or not.

Hope y'all are having a good week!

2012

What a great year 2012 is going to be!  So many good things will happen.  The most exciting thing is my family will be complete.  I cannot wait for all of us to go hiking and to play outside.  I'm so excited for this year.


I'm not going to make resolutions this year since I really never stick to them so I've decided to make a life change.  My goal for 2012 is to get healthy.  I'm talking mind, body and soul healthy.  I already started in 2011 and am going to continue in 2012. 

When my family is complete I am going to completely change the way we eat.  I'm really wanting to do a two week Clean Eating diet.  I love the idea of eating all fresh organic meals.  Plus with someone else to help take care of the little man I can actually cook!  I grew up eating food we grew ourselves and I want to get back to get that.  I will have a garden this summer and I will buy a farm share.  If you can you really need to buy a farm share.  It is a great way to experience new veggies.  I will probably always join one if there's one available where we are.

To get my soul healthy I have started going back to church and doing a lot of reading.  I see God everywhere.  I have always had a relationship with God but lately it seems I have really let it slip and it's time to get it back.

I'm getting my mind healthy by using it.  I'm reading more and doing crosswords.  I'm laughing more and loving more. 

I cannot wait to continue on this journey.  It's going to be a great year.

Pinterest dessert

I finally got around to making a dessert I pinned on Pinterest.  I did tweak it because the night before we had a Smores pizza from Papa Murphy's.  Let me tell you that pizza is incredible.  I'm usually not a smores person but I could eat a whole one of those all by myself. 


It's called Sopapilla Cheesecake and it sounds amazing all by itself and it's simple to make.  What else could I ask for?  Since I'm trying to be healthy I did cut down the sugar.  Here's the recipe from My Yellow Umbrella. 

Ingredients:
-3 cans pillsbury butter crescent rolls
-2 (8oz) packages cream cheese (softened)
-1 cup sugar
-1 teaspoon vanilla
-1/4 cup butter (melted)
-Cinnamon & sugar

Instructions:
Unrolled and spread 1 & 1/2 can crescent rolls on bottom of un-greased pan. Combine softened cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla. Spread mixture over crescent rolls. Unroll and spread remaining crescent rolls over mixture. Spread melted butter over the top and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes

I used the crescent roll sheets and I only used 2.  One for the bottom and one for the top.  I also cut the sugar down to 1/2 a cup.  When I spread the cream cheese and sugar mixture I sprinkled 1/2 cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips and 1/4 cup of brown sugar.  Then I sprinkled it with 1 tbsp of cinnamon.

I also didn't use any butter.  The crecent rolls have so much in them anyway I left it out.  When it came out of the oven I dusted it with powdered sugar.

Can I just say this dessert will become a staple in my house because it is AWESOME!  Even my picky little man ate some of it.  I really love Pinterest. 

I really hope you make it and enjoy. 

Happy New Year to all of you!

Christmas Leave

Can I just say this Christmas is probably going to be one of the bests if not the best Christmas I have ever had?   True our family is not here but Gabe is!  His leave wasn't supossed to be until February but it got changed again; this time for the better!!!  I thought my Mom was coming up here after Christmas but she was just playing along with Gabe   Those two started scheming and let me believe she was coming up here when it was really Gabe.  I do have to say my husband is really amazing.  What a great Christmas present!


He sent me a bouquet of flowers and a card telling me he was on his way home.  We love Mad Gab so he wrote the note in that style and I had to figure it out. 

Then I didn't get to talk to him for a few days so I wasn't really sure what was going on.  When I did get to talk to him he told me what was going on and I started smiling and I haven't stopped.  He got in late Saturday night.


We were told it would take a couple of days for Grayson to warm up to him but thank goodness it didn't.  After about 5 minutes of seeing Gabe and us doing some family hugs, Grayson decided he wanted his Dad to hold him.  He didn't really smile that big adorable smile of his but you could tell he was happy to see his Daddy.  I was holding him while Gabe went to the bathroom and Grayson started pointing toward it and calling Daddy.  Those two have a special bond.  I'm getting left out right now!  I wouldn't have any other way though.


The next two weeks are going to be amazing. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from my family up here in the North Pole!