good kind of tired

i've been at a family retreat all weekend in taleqhah, oklahoma.  it was so needed.  i spent most of my time exploring nature.  our lodge was on the bank of the illinois river, and there was so much beauty all around me.  {this picture is the view from the back porch of our lodge.  so beautiful.}  i had a hard time staying inside with the rest of the group.  gina said i kept disappearing, which was true!!  :)   i tend to do that when i'm out in nature.  i'll post some pictures and stories later, but right now i'm going to do the dishes and then go to bed!  ahhhh.....my bed!  can't wait!  

so sad

i have been bawling for the past 30 minutes....how could he die?  it's not right!

for all of you ER fans out there, i'm in shock that they killed off Dr. Pratt!  he was one of my favorite characters.  i missed several episodes last season, but other than that i have watched ER since the very beginning.  i know it's time for ER to end, but i'm also sad that it's the last season.  

i can't believe i am so emotional about a tv show!  what is wrong with me?  i'm going to bed!

goodbye, Dr. Pratt.

happy picture day

today i found some great photo opportunities as i was killing some time after i got out of an extremely BORING workshop!  {who gives a training on computer software and doesn't let the people in attendance have access to a computer????}

anyway, i couldn't go back to school yet to get the boys because school wasn't over yet, so i took a mini road trip!  i just headed east on 71st street until i was somewhere i hadn't been before. 

here's what i found:

look!  fall is peeking through in this red tree among all the green!  makes me smile!

love this fence in front of the beautiful wildflowers......

this dog statue next to this red fire hydrant {in the middle of nowhere}  really made me smile!

this next picture makes me feel like an idiot.  yesterday on our way to school, we saw three deer crossing the road in this same spot with fog drifting across the road.  i didn't have the camera ready, so i didn't get a picture.  i was kind of bummed.  so this morning i had my camera ready just in case....i knew it was a long-shot.  but as i topped the hill i saw something standing in the road!  i got all excited because no one was behind me.  i stopped in the middle of the road kind of far back so i could take pictures without scaring the deer.  i took several pics, and the deer was still there so i rolled a little closer.  i took a few more pics, and it still hadn't moved so i inched in even closer.  i was going to get a fabulous picture!!! i was so excited!!!  so as i zoomed in with my camera ready to snap away, i noticed that the deer had an awfully long tail. so i zoomed in even more and discovered that my deer was just a dog!!!  but from a distance, as 

in this picture, it looked like a small deer!!!

at least the preacher said it was a cool picture.  he said it looked like the cover of a book!  that makes me smile, too!

guess what i did today....

ok, you'll probably never guess, so i'll just tell you!  i got to pet a real live tiger cub!  it was amazing.  i've never been that close to a tiger before.  it was so adorable....especially his paws.  i wanted to scoop him up and just snuggle him, but i didn't figure he would like that very much.  as soon as i get the picture my principal took of me with the tiger, i'll post it.

i just love animals!  if i wasn't a teacher, i think i might be a zookeeper. 

ta-dah!!!

i finally finished the cross-stitching project i was working on!  remember this was done totally from my brain...no pattern!!

who broke the balloon rule?

  

i didn't know we had a balloon rule in our family, but apparently, we do and i broke it yesterday!  we ate at red robin's and as we were leaving colby asked me to get him the yellow balloon.  so i did.  we got in the car, and the preacher asked, "who broke the balloon rule?"  

"what rule?" i asked.

"the rule where we don't get balloons," he said.

i guess he has issues with balloons that i was completely unaware of.  he doesn't like the boys to have balloons because they fight over them, they pop and the pieces get all over the house.  ok...

not two seconds after he said that, colby started squeaking his balloon very loudly and spencer yelled at him to stop.  then they started fighting over the stupid balloon, and the preacher smugly said, "that's why we have the balloon rule."  he made colby hand me the balloon to keep until we got home.  while i was holding it, i kinda, sorta accidentally/purposely picked a hole in the balloon to let the air out.  i thought that would take care of the problem.  WRONG!

as we were driving to church tonight colby was loudly re-inflating the deflated balloon through the hole i had put in it.  then the balloon slipped out of his mouth and all the slobber he'd been pumping in the balloon came flying out, some of it landing on spencer!  

more yelling....  

maybe i will just have to obey the balloon rule after all.

you can't always get what you want...

today, i fell in love with this adorable little guy....

colby and i had an hour to spare before spencer's football game, so we went to petsmart in owasso.  it was adoption day, and i was ready to adopt.  this precious little dog was so sweet and calm and so CUTE!  i took several pictures of him so i could show the preacher.  

i convinced him to at least go look at the dog after the game.  i hoped we would go as soon as the game was over, but we went to eat first.  when we got back to petsmart, this little guy's cage was empty.  i wanted to cry.  i looked down the aisle and saw him attached to a leash that was in the hands of his new owner.  

i know i tell my kids all the time that you can't always get what you want.  boy is that a hard lesson to keep learning.  i REALLY wanted this dog, but i guess God has other plans.

today was a good day

i just decided this morning that today was going to be a good day no matter what happened.  i'm tired of having bad days.  i know life is what you make of it, so i was determined to make it better.  it started off with this great photo opportunity (although spencer was in the backseat shouting, "we don't have time for pictures!"...i thought we had straightened that out last week.)

then later in the morning i checked my school mailbox and there was a $50 gift certificate to scraphappy's in it!!!!  it was a thank you for watching a friend's son way back in august!  wow!

after that i went to our coke machine, and mr. pibb was back and it was cold!  {we've been having issues with our machine.}  not only was it cold, it was so cold that it was slushy!! BONUS!

the kids were better behaved today and my intern did a fabulous job on her science lesson!  {i am so blessed to be working with her this semester.  it would be awesome if she could get a job at my school. :) }

tonight i went to dinner with gina, trish and rhonda and had some yummy zucchini sticks, pizza and nutter butter ice cream topped with hot fudge!  

all of my boys, including the preacher, are home safe and sound right now.  so it's been a good day.  i hope tomorrow is another good one.

do you know how hard it is for me to photograph the moon?  i have tried many times the past couple of nights to get a really great picture of it, and they all come out blurry!  i want so bad to capture it's beauty the way i see it with my own eyes, but i can't.  this is the closest i've come to what i think is a cool picture.  maybe i need a tripod.  i tried propping my camera up on my mailbox, but the moon was already too high in the sky.  so i went in the garage and got a plastic box to set on top of the mailbox and even that didn't work.  any suggestions????

volcano taco

spencer's been dying to try taco bell's new volcano taco, so tonight i bought him one after football practice.  he was pretty disappointed after the first bite.  he said it wasn't hot at all!  (you know on the commercial the guy's face is bright red and there's smoke coming out of his ears....geez....isn't that false advertising? :) )  so he took another REALLY BIG BITE and.....the pictures speak for themselves! 

{i know the pics are really out of whack, but it's hard to take pics when you are laughing and driving at the same time!!!!}

all he said was, "dang.  that was hot.  i'm not eating one of those ever again!"

did you see the moon tonight around 7:00-7:30?  it was beautiful!  it literally took my breath away!  {i love it when god gives us those kinds of surprises.}  we were leaving church and we'd just driven past the big thrifty dollar (i don't really know what it's called...) building and the moon seemed to jump out from behind it!  spencer yelled, "mom, take a picture!"  but unfortunately my batteries were dead!  {i love it that spencer is seeing the beauty around him and wanting to take pictures of it!}

here is a cool picture that colby took for me last week.  i think he did a pretty good job!  i love the colors in it!

what a happy day!

gee whiz!  there's so much to tell today!  you might want to get a little snack and use the potty before you read today's blog because you might be here a little while!  go ahead....i'll wait......

first of all, it's saturday!  no work!  AND the boys were so good and quiet this morning that i slept in until 9:00!  sweet!

then before spencer's football game, colby and i ran in to the shell gas station to grab a snack.  and guess what i found... BIG RED.... in a 20 oz. bottle!  i {heart} big red, and it's not that easy to find around here unless you buy a 2-liter or a 12 pack.  

and the rain held off until the last few minutes of spencer's game so it wasn't as miserable as i thought it was going to be...another happy thing. {we won't talk about the score, though}

at 4:30 our babysitter arrived to watch the boys so we could go to the american idols concert!!!!

before the concert, the preacher and i had dinner at johnny carinos where i left my first hope revolution card!  {these cards are just happy little notes to encourage strangers.  i made them the other night with nellie and gina.  if you want to know more about this, google hope revolution.}

then i slipped another card in with the cash we gave the parking lot attendant downtown, and she read it right then and said, "awww, thank you so much!"  that made me {smile}.  i left my final card tonight in the mens' bathroom at the BOK center.  yes, you read that correctly....the mens' bathroom.  {they closed some of the mens' bathrooms and designated them for women tonight}.  i was going to leave it on one of the urinals, but there were lots of women in there, and they might have thought i was a bit strange.  so i left it on the toilet paper holder inside one of the stalls.  i didn't take a picture because there was a line of women waiting to tinkle, and you know how impatient women can get!

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST....the american idols concert!!!  it was so awesome!  the BOK center is really nice.  we had great seats, and all of the artists performed well.  this was their last show, so they played around and really enjoyed themselves.  kristy lee cook and sayesha made me cry with their songs.  kristy sang "god bless the usa" and everyone was standing and singing and i got all choked up.  {music does that to me}  then sayesha got all emotional at the end of her set, and that got me a little misty as well. {i got a great new message for one of my cards from sayesha's last song!}  and even though i'm not a big david archuleta fan, he did a great job tonight.  i really enjoyed his songs.

but the best part, of course, was david cook!  he opened with his remake of the lionel richie song, "hello".  i loved it!  then he performed the winning song from american idol, which he obviously didn't like, but that's ok.  i don't like it either...it's way too cheesey.  at one point he actually was out in the middle of the audience standing on a chair singing!  i would have had a great picture, but the heifer in front of me stuck her arm up right as i snapped the picture!  

i'm in love with the preacher

i confess!  i am totally in love with the preacher!  he's such a wonderful guy.  today he took off work to stay home with the boys since i had a professional development day.  he also had the boys cleaning the house!  when i got home it looked awesome!  AND he cooked supper!  how cool is that?  i am truly blessed.  thank you, God.

time DOES stand still!!!

today was on the verge of being considered cruel and unusual punishment.  a day like this could drive a person to drinking!  wow!

for those of you who've ever said or thought that teachers have it easy because they only work 9 months out of the year, i DARE  you to step foot in my classroom on a day like today.  first of all, rain makes kids crazy!  you would think hurricane ike was bearing down on us right now. second of all, my afternoon class had a substitute all morning, so they were doubly wound up.

not 20 minutes after they arrived a boy announced that someone had peed all over the toilet paper, the toilet seat and the floor.  when i went to check the bathroom out, not only had ALL of that happened, but it looked like someone had been finger-painting with poop on the back of the toilet!  that's just nasty...I KNOW.  this is my world!

so we had to shut down the boys' bathroom until it could be decontaminated which meant that the boys now how to leave class, go out in the rain to the main building to use the restroom.  so guess what?  suddenly ALL of the boys had to go potty!  {where is a box of Depends when you need them?}  so i laid down the law....the boys only got ONE trip to the bathroom so they better make sure they REALLY had to go.  we got through that trauma and BAM! the power went out!

holy cow!  do you know what happens when the power goes out in a room full of kids?  they turn into idiots!  it's like werewolves coming to life during a full moon...utter chaos!  the power stayed off for almost hour!  that 50-something minutes without power was longer than the week without power during the ice storm!  

there is a VERY GOOD REASON teachers "only work 9 months and have their summers off."  it's called mental preservation!  if school were year-round our mental institutions would be over-flowing!

but don't get me wrong...i love my job.  there's never a dull moment!

today's colby moment

today i got an email from colby's teacher that she sent to all the parents reminding us that our little kindergartners had homework due.  she kindly thanked the {11} out of 24 who turned it in today.  unfortunately, we were NOT one of the eleven!  can you believe that???? how embarrassing!!! i am a teacher for goodness' sake.

anyway, since i was working late today, i told colby that he needed to do his homework and turn it in tomorrow.  his assignment was simply to draw a picture of his favorite thing to do with his family.  so he sat down and started working.

i asked, "so what are you drawing?"

colby, "i don't know."

me, "i see green on your paper."

colby, "it's just grass."

me, "ok."

i went back to work.

 a few minutes later colby shouted, "i know what i'm gonna draw!  the front end of a combine! 

 (for those of you non-country people it's pronounced com' bine...accent on the first syllable {rhymes with tom}...and it's farm equipment kind of like a tractor)

me, " what?"

colby, "a combine."

me, "we don't own a combine and you've never been on a combine."

colby just giggled and said, "i know."

the {boy} cracks me up!

hole

i didn't realize how addicting this blogging thing would be!  i can't wait to come home each evening and see what comments i've received and what my friends have blogged about.  but tonight there's a {hole} in my blogging world and in my heart.

my sweet friend nellie didn't blog last night, and so far she hasn't blogged tonight!  i miss my friend.  where are you and your awesome blog, nellie bellie?

always time for pictures...

on our way to school this morning, i decided to stop {in the middle of the road} and take some pictures.  i saw some birds on a power line, and that just makes me smile.  when my mom was a little girl, she thought the birds were having church when they were all gathered on the power line.

after i took that picture, i looked out my window and noticed this white fence just stood out against the green grass on this gray morning, so i {HAD} to take a picture of that, too.

spencer was in the backseat saying, "mom!  come on!  we have to go!  we don't have time for pictures!  we're gonna be late."

to which i replied, "there's ALWAYS time for pictures."

so i was adjusting the camera out the window to get the shot i wanted when spencer yelled, "cow!!!"  i looked to my right, and sure enough there was a cow right there by the fence just looking at us!  i love cows!  they really make me {smile}.  so i took my picture of the fence and then started to take a picture of the cow and spencer excitedly screamed, "give me the camera!  i can get a great picture from here!!"

of course i had to say, "but we don't have time for pictures, remember?"

he took a great picture, and we made it to school with 3 minutes to spare! :)

(colby liked the picture because spencer managed to get a picture of the cow's udders.  good grief!  that child is crazy!!!) 

more cravings

"dude, when you're my age, you'll be craving girls, trust me.  but some of the girls that are hot have really ugly toes."

~ 4th grade boy talking to my 5 year old son on the way home from football practice!

serious craving

tonight i had serious craving:  Long John Silver's!  i haven't had that in years, but for some reason i [really] wanted it tonight.  so on my way to pick up 3 {very stinky} boys, i went through the drive through and ordered a combo #7...2 pieces of fish, fries and hushpuppies.

  {oh, and i ordered a side order of crumbs!  yum-o!}  i didn't even eat the fries and puppies!  

check out the size of this crispy crumb!  it was awesome! :)  all of it tasted sooooo yummy at the time.  long john silver's always tastes yummy as i am eating it, but a few minutes later i just feel like poo.  why is that?  hmm....grease, maybe?  anyway, i gave in to my craving tonight and maybe i shouldn't have!

random news story

as i was typing the previous post, i was listening to the news.  they said recent research has shown that people choose their spouses because they look like their moms or dads!  they said men are more likely to choose women who have lips like their mother, and women are more likely to choose men who have the same bone structure as their father.  

i don't know about you, but i found this very strange.  i don't think daryl looks like my dad AT ALL.  and i just asked the preacher if i looked like his mom in any way and he said no.  what about you?  does your spouse remind you of your parent?

where does he get this stuff?

oh my goodness!  varmint #2 kills me!  {in a happy way}

in bible class today, they talked about baby Jesus and how he came to earth and there was no room at the inn.  they wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.  so his teacher gave each child a little baby doll and piece of fabric to swaddle him in.  after class Spencer (a.k.a. varmint #1) told me that Colby (v #2) told Ms. Lorrie  HIS TEACHER that he was going to sell his baby Jesus on ebay!  What in the world?  i don't use ebay.  no one in our house does!  where does he get this stuff?  

that's MY boy!

i have to brag today!  i am so proud of varmint #1 (a.k.a. Spencer)!  yesterday he {finally} got his scores from the state test from last year and he ACED the math test!  didn't miss a single question!  that's what i'm talking about!

and then today he had a football game, and he played great!  i was so proud.  i'm usually not one of those moms who yell at games.  but today i HAD to yell.  i was in the middle of the [red sea]. i was completely surrounded by union fans! usually the preacher and this other really loud mom are sitting with me, but he had to work the chains today and she was at the other end of the stands from me.  there were so many loud union fans there that i felt compelled to cheer for our {tigers}.  it was kind of fun thinking that i was annoying the union fans...especially since they got SPANKED by the varsity tigers last night!  well, unfortunately for union, another one of their teams got SPANKED...this time by the 4th grade white BA tigers!  final score:

so, like i said, i am very proud of Spencer this week!  he worked hard and played hard.  i'm always proud of him when he gives it his all...win or lose.

today i went for a walk.  i didn't tell my family where i was going.  i just grabbed my camera and walked out the door.  the weather was so beautiful.  i felt like i was being pulled outside.

i decided to go see what was happening at my fishing hole.  for me going to the fishing hole is like escaping to another world.  it's just down the street, but it's like stepping into the wilderness. my mission was to find the simple beauty that God placed around me.  not man-made beauty....HIS beauty.  i couldn't believe how much beauty there really was in such a small area!  i usually just look at this place as just a bunch of weeds, but today was different.  today i found all sorts of beautiful treasures!

ok.  today's post is going to be really difficult for me, but i feel like i need to confess something...

for those of you who may not know me that well, i am a born and raised TEXAN.  to me anything north of the red river was Yankee.  i could never imagine living in oklahoma by choice.  eww!

but here i am, living in oklahoma, and i really like it.  tonight (and many other nights, too) i saw such beauty in the sky.  since i have been living in oklahoma i have seen some of the most breath-taking sunsets i've ever seen in my life.  just look at the colors of the oklahoma sky tonight...in a matter of 30 minutes:  {my pictures don't do it justice}

so here's my confession.  listen up, because i'm only going to say it once!

"i am no longer ashamed to admit i enjoy living in oklahoma"

BUT i will {always} be FOREVER TEXAN.

witness

tonight i witnessed a wreck right in front of the church.  i was on my way back from the neighborhood market waiting in a line of traffic to turn into the church parking lot.  i noticed a white suv trying turn left behind me.  i don't know if he got impatient or what, but suddenly he just peeled out into oncoming traffic.  i heard the sound of tires spinning on wet pavement, then i gasped and heard the sound of metal being crushed.  the guy slammed into a mini-van which then collided with a telephone pole!  

i immediately called 911 and reported the accident.  as i pulled into the parking lot, i looked back and saw a young girl stumble out of the van and just lay on the wet grass.  it was frightening!  i parked my car, took the bags inside and went back out to the scene.  i felt like i needed to do something.  i don't know why.  i could hear the sirens and the fire department was there in a matter of minutes.  

the girl was in the passenger side of the van, and her grandfather was driving.  none of them were seriously injured, including the driver of the other car.  but the girl was shivering, so i went back to the church and got a blanket for her.  i talked to her and her grandfather until the police arrived.  i told the officer what i saw, gave the girl the blanket and went back into the church building.  i was shaking, not because i was cold.  

the whole event really bothered me.  i watched it happen.  people's lives could have ended in a split second all because of a stupid decision on the part of another person.  life is so fragile.

i don't know why i shared this with you tonight.  it's not amusing, and i don't expect comments.  it's just on my heart tonight.  so please pray for this little girl...she was very upset.  even if you don't get hurt in a wreck, it's still very scary.  and be careful out there.  don't make stupid decisions because you are in a hurry.

Gustav on my windshield

here is what the remnants of Hurricane Gustav look like through my windshield:

little red table

isn't it cute?  this is the little red table i found at the thrift store this weekend.  {my mother-in-law calls it a stool, but she also calls a toilet a stool, so i am calling it a table!}  anyway, i just love this little table!  i guess because it's red.  here's the story:

my mom and i went to this thrift store called the EARC.  i don't remember what it stands for but i know that the proceeds benefit the local mentally disabled people.  {they're the ones who keep the shelves stocked!  my mom likes to go when they are working and talk to them because they are so nice.}  i spotted this table the moment we stepped inside.  it was right there at the front door....in some lady's hands!  ugh!  i confess, i was coveting her little red table.  i watched her browse through the store hoping she would change her mind and set it down.  i even had the fleeting thought of taking it from her!  shame on me!

i told my mom about the little red table i was lusting after, and she didn't seem as impressed as i was.  after 30 minutes or so of wandering around looking at all the happy junk :) i finally resigned myself to the fact that i wasn't leaving with the little red table.  so i went to the counter to pay for my happy face mug, and as the dude {he was definitely a dude...he looked and acted like he'd just stepped off his surfboard a few minutes ago.} was ringing up my 25-cent purchase my mom stepped up to the counter with the little red table in her hand and a huge grin on her face and said, "um.  didn't you want to get this too?"

i just stood there looking dumbfounded!  "where did you get that?"  

"over there."

{GASP}  "did you take it from that woman????"

she just said she'd tell me later.

so i paid my dollar and walked out with my little red table.  it turns out she just started a casual conversation with the lady and asked her where she'd found the table and were there anymore of them.  the lady said she wasn't sure if she was going to get it or not because it was for her daughter, not her, and she didn't know if her daughter would like.  so mom said she wanted it if the lady decided not to buy it.  the lady just handed it to her.  wow!  way to go, mom!