Mother's Day Cookout!

Mother's Day this year was great!  Last year I spent it out to Brunch with two of my good friends.  We had a good time but this year I was really glad to have the hubby back.  I'm a little selfish.  I knew he would take care of Grayson and let me sleep in, which he did!  Can I say I have the greatest husband ever??

Let me start off by saying Gabe and I rarely get each other gifts.  We buy one big gift for Christmas every year but for all other occasions we like to make a gift or do something for the other person.  this Mother's Day was no exception.

Gabe let me sleep in until 10!  Do you know how long it's been since I've gotten to sleep in?  Almost two years ago!  It was INCREDIBLE!  I forgot how much I love to sleep.  I'll have to return the favor on Father's Day.   I even got to take a long, uninterrupted shower.  Those have been few and far in between since Grayson came along.   After I showered, did my hair and makeup and got dressed, we left for Chena Lakes.   If you live near North Pole I would suggest taking a day trip here.  It's a nice little recreation area. 

The lake looks so much bigger with Grayson standing in front of it.

When we left our house it was warm outside so I wore a long sleeve shirt with a short sleeve I could wear if I got hot and shorts.  By the time we got to Chena Lakes it was cold, cloudy and windy.  I was freezing!  Gabe had to build a fire so I could get warm.  Thank goodness we had extra clothes in the car for Grayson and three fleeces for Gabe.  For some reason I had taken out all my winter clothes except one sweatshirt.  I could not get warm so I took one of Gabe's fleeces and put my legs through the arms and zipped it up.  Then I had to use a paper clamp to keep it from falling down.  Let's just say I looked really silly but I was WARM!  That's all that mattered.

 The sun came out for just a little bit but it was still cold!  At least it wasn't snowing!

 See my wonderful fire the hubby built for me!  I had a really great Mother's Day.  I'm one lucky gal!

 Blackberry face!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Homecoming!

As I sit here looking at Grayson I realize how lucky I am.  Gabe is HOME!!!  He's been home for a little over a week now and I am just now ready to write about it.  It was such a special event.  I've been through one before but this one felt different.  Maybe because of Grayson.

After being told different dates multiple times he finally arrived on a Thursday night.  I do know I have never felt that much excitement in one room.  You could actually hear a crackle in the air.  It was incredible!!  I kind of want to go to another one just to see it as an onlooker.  When we heard the buses were here my heart started pounding.  When we heard the doors go up and saw them walking I think I blocked everyone else out and just started looking for Gabe.  Then I saw him and the butterflies started.  I don't know if I ever loved him as much as I loved him then.  In that one moment my life was complete again.  I had my husband back.  Grayson has his Dad back.  It was awesome.  As awesome as it was I don't want to have to do it again.

That's one reason I haven't written about it yet.  I have just begun to realize he is here to stay.  He doesn't have to go back after two weeks.  The readjustment period is a little difficult.  The first time Grayson called for his Daddy instead of me I have to say I was a little jealous.  I have been Grayson's only one for a year and now I have to relinquish control.  It's HARD!  I'm glad to do it but at the same time I'm a little sad.  Grayson remembered his Daddy.  He smiled and went right to him.  They have been having a ball with each other.  It makes my heart swell with love for the two guys in my life.  How did I get so lucky?

I love my family!  Thank you to all of you who helped me get through this deployment.  The prayers and the shoulders to cry on and the ears to listen to me vent.  I hope you all know you mean a lot to me.

It looks like Grayson is saying Yes!!!

Hope you all are having a wonderful Easter!

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.