happy halloween!

tonight we had trunk or treat at the church.  about 500 kids came through our parking lot!  it was incredible.  i love this event because i really feel like we're doing something nice for the community by having a safe place for the kids to trick or treat.  here are some pics from the evening.

               

                               

the highlight of the evening for me though was when sweet nellie got harassed by a clown!  she HATES clowns!  she has ISSUES with clowns!  so i thought i would try help her overcome her coulrophobia {fear of clowns} and i sent a child dressed as a clown to do some "therapy" with her.  all the clown did was walk up to nellie and look at her.  that's it.  she followed her around for a bit, but she never said anything or touched her.  all the clown did was look at her!  and can you believe nellie thought I had something to do with that? {gasp!}

but the best part was when the clown came back for a follow-up therapy session just to check on nellie.  now i really had nothing to do with that one.  the clown was kind enough to come back all on her own.  i just happened to have my camera there when the clown quietly walked up behind nellie and stood there waiting for her to turn around.  when nellie saw the clown again she immediately assumed i did it {gasp, again!} and slugged me in the arm!  ouch!  violence!

i was really innocent on this one, but it was so funny!  i'm sorry, nellie, if you have nightmares tonight!  

this picture was taken just before nellie realized the clown was back:                                                                                   

blah

i am thinking back on today and wondering what to blog about.  nothing really exciting happened. as i was replaying my day in my mind i noticed that i was not very nice today.  i was in kind of a blah/ornery mood.

first off, i called the t-shirt guy a maroon (bugs bunny for moron) on an email that i sent to several people.  that wasn't very nice of me, was it?  {he did make me mad though.}  {not very nice}

then we got a happy little reminder to send our secret pals a gift if we haven't done so already.  the email said that tomorrow would be a nice day for a "treat" since it's halloween.  so i replied back to the whole school, "or a trick!"  and put a little smiley bat with it.  {ornery} 

later in the day when i was watching my friend jill's class for a little bit, i changed her wallpaper on her computer to this:

{totally ornery}

but that actually turned out funny.  her students saw this picture on her computer and one of them asked jill, "is that your husband?"  then another kid said, "that's the guy from the movie christmas vacation!"  and the best quote of them all, "if that's your husband, what are you doing in a dump like this?"

i've just been in a blah mood today.  i gotta snap out of it.  this isn't like me.  {the orneriness is}

 

that's MY boy!

tonight was the first game of the post-season tournament.  i have to admit that i was NOT looking forward to MORE football games.  i was ready to be done.....until tonight.  spencer got to play a lot of defense tonight, and he tackled a guy behind the line of scrimmage at just the right time!                                                                                                                                                

 

 the other team was way too close to getting a touchdown, and our defense held them!  {these pics are right before the amazing tackle and right after the amazing tackle.}

but the best part was after that tackle the announcer said, "and the tackle was made by number 89, spencer hayes."  that was the first time this whole season that spencer's name had been announced for making a play.  it was such an exciting moment for me!  i stood up in the middle of the crowd and yelled, "wooooo!!!"    

i couldn't believe how proud i was to hear MY son's name.  it's not like he'd won the spelling bee or anything.  i even had tears in my eyes!  who knew football would have that effect on me!

they won their first tournament game 12-0.

so now i want them to keep going in the tournament.  i want them to win it all.

GO BA WHITE 4TH GRADE TIGERS!

pumpkin carving

tonight we carved the pumpkins.  spencer went for a disco ball effect.  he started by poking golf tees into the pumpkin.  the holes weren't big enough so we tried the knife sharpener.  it made bigger holes, but it still didn't turn out like he wanted.  i think it looks cool.  it glows instead of shines.     {if you look real close you'll see a little orange dot.}

                                                                       

colby went the more traditional route and had me carve a face.  he's had this face planned out for quite a while.  he had a sketch for me to follow!

i messed up and only cut two teeth instead of three, but Colby said that was ok.  here is his jack-o-lantern. {i wish i wouldn't have drawn the face with permanent marker!  i didn't think about the lines showing up so badly!  oh well....}

gettin' the spirit...

yes, that's right.  that's our fireplace with the fire going.  for some reason i just can't get warm tonight, so daryl lit the pilot light so we could have a fire.  it may be really cold this time of year, but i love it!  october, november and december are the best 3 months of the year.  there's just something in the air.  it's kind of magical.

and you can see that i've changed my picture at the top of my blog!  i'm ready for christmas decorations and lights.  i've been listening to my charlie brown christmas cd for a couple of weeks now.  it's getting me in the spirit!  once i whip out my kenny g christmas cd and the holiday music channel is on satellite tv, then it's official.

great day

today was a great day!  i was wide awake at 7:30 (i don't know why.) so i got up, got ready and went shopping.  i found a pair of jeans, a pair of khakis and a sweater.  i was just starting to shop in another store when the preacher called to tell me that my parents were on their way to our house!

surprise!  they came to watch spencer's football game.  i'm so glad they came (and grandma, too!  she arrived yesterday.)  it makes my heart smile that the grandparents love their grandkids and would give up part of their weekend to come to his game.  i know he was glad that they were here, too.  i love you grammy, pappy and grandma.  thanks for loving my family.

there's a new sheriff in town...

howdy, y'all.

today was crazy hat day at school!  it's one of my favorite days!  i love wearing goofy hats.  this is the newest hat in my collection.  i'd like to say that i found it, but actually i have to give credit to brett.  gina, brett, nellie and i were at the halloween express store on saturday and i saw him wearing it!  

as soon as i saw it, i WANTED it.  i was so afraid that he was going to buy it, but he was just playing around.  what a perfect hat for me being a TEXAN...a ten gallon cowboy hat!  it's so awesome!

not a failure

  this was the end of week 1 on my "no more excuses" journey.  that's my motto for getting healthy and losing weight.  NO MORE EXCUSES.  so i weighed in this morning {5 times} and went with the reading i got most often.  unfortunately, i gained a pound.  i'm not surprised because even though i stuck to walking every morning, i didn't watch my points as carefully as i should have.  i know that.  i can't do anything about last week.  i can only do something about right now.  

so like my friend jill's mom said, "you're not a failure as long as you keep trying."  so i'll keep trying.  I'M NOT A FAILURE.  i will do this, and i know that i must rely on God a whole lot more to help me do this.  there is absolutely NO WAY i can do it without him.

hidden objects

when i was a kid (and still now) i liked the pages in highlights magazine where you had to find hidden objects in a larger picture.  now it's i spy books which are just as fun.  so let's play a game.  i want you to look at the picture below and see if you can find the box of parchment paper.  look carefully....

do you see it?  OF COURSE YOU DO!!!  it's right there in the middle.  it's the longest box.  so why is it that my 9 year old son who's in gifted classes AND made a perfect score on his state math test couldn't find it?

i'm sure you're wondering why i'm asking....and if you know anything about me and my life you KNOW there's a story coming...

did you know that you CAN NOT put wax paper in the oven?  OF COURSE YOU DO!  i guess that's one of the 'facts of life' that we neglected to share with spencer because when he was cooking his frozen pizza tonight he used wax paper instead of parchment paper on the pan.  i'm sure you're thinking that's understandable...he didn't know.  true, he didn't know, but the ONLY reason he used wax paper is because he said he couldn't find the parchment paper!!!!  he's cooked frozen pizzas a gazillion times before, and the parchment paper is ALWAYS in that drawer!!  why didn't he see it tonight????

do you know what happens when you put wax paper in the oven???  OF COURSE YOU DO!!!  it melts.  it stinks.  smoke alarms go off (loudly).  dogs bark (frantically).  birds chirp (shrilly). and moms who already had a headache lose their patience (quickly).  

spencer wants to know why i'm blogging about this instead of our wonderful day at the pumpkin patch. gee, i don't know.  maybe because this is {my right now}.

i want that

i know it's a blurry picture, but that's ok.  i told daryl this is what i want for christmas...a shed.  this one is much cuter than this picture shows.  it has a little porch and a window.  it's made of wood and has a real roof.  i would just want mine to have a window unit for a/c and a space heater.  it would be my scrap shack.  i'd put shelves everywhere and  have room for tables so friends could hang out.  i'd put a comfy chair and a lamp so i could read in quiet.  wouldn't that be wonderful?  my own little hang-out?

when i told daryl that's what i wanted he just laughed and said, "whatever." 

a girl can {dream}, can't she?

first time for everything

today the varmints and i did something we've never done before.....

we went to a corn maize!

i'd heard about this maze for a couple of years now, but i didn't know where it was.  but one day a few weeks ago i was just driving around and found it accidentally.  since we're on fall break this sounded like something fun to do.  

there was more than just the maze.  they had a family of goats that were adorable!  the little baby one sucked on our fingers!  it was so cute.  even spencer didn't mind a little bit of goat slobber.

we were given a map to help us through the maze, but to me it was useless!  i had no idea where we were starting so i didn't know where to go.  does that make sense?  for the first few minutes of our trek in the corn, the boys kept stopping to consult their maps. {they were cracking me up!}  each one of us had our own agendas while we were in the maze: 

 spencer was collecting corn that was on the ground.

colby just wanted to figure out the maze.

of course i just wanted to take pictures!  {like this one of a ladybug on a dried up corn husk}

so we had a nice day.  the maize wasn't super exciting, but at least we can say we've done it.  it was relaxing just to be out in the fall weather.

souper day

today was another tiring day, but in a good way.  fall break has officially started!!!  woo hoo!  i finished parent/teacher conferences at noon, got the boys and went to wal-mart to buy all of our ingredients to cook the wednesday night meal at church.  i was originally going to cook sloppy joes, but when i left school today it was rainy and the temperature had dropped.  so i change my mind!  i wanted soup.

so the boys and i made stew, potato soup, and tortilla soup.  we actually made 2 pots of stew because the first one burned.  i couldn't believe it!  i have never burned stew and have made it many times.  it turns out that the back left burner in the church kitchen has a mind of its own and just gets extremely hot no matter what it's set on!  

so we made a mad dash to the neighborhood market and started all over.  the boys were a HUGE help!  colby washed 10 pounds of potatoes all by himself.  spencer opened a bazillion cans with an old hand-held can opener. {neither one of us noticed there was an electric can opener on the counter behind us!}  

it was a hectic and frustrating afternoon, but we got it all cooked and on the table with 5 minutes to spare!  it's a real good thing we made 3 pots because only 37 people signed up to eat, but over 50 actually came!  

the bad thing is i didn't know that our garbage disposal at church is more of an antique than a functional piece of equipment.  if you put too much in it {even if you do it in little batches} it backs up somewhere down the line and floods the hallway by the preschool classrooms.  let's just say there was an incident in the preschool hallway tonight!  {i promise i didn't know that would happen!  i felt so bad.}

tired

today was a long day.  it started at 5:30 in the morning with my daily walk with nellie.  

i rushed to get to school for a parent/teacher conference that was scheduled for 7:45 a.m., but the parents didn't show until 8:20.  ugh.  i felt sorry for the boys because i had to drag them to school an hour early.  they were troopers, though.

so during my planning period (9:05-9:45) our 5th grade team had a "meeting" at Rocket Brothers (our local Starbucks).  while we were in line at the drive through our principal called and said, "amy, you have a parent waiting in the office for a conference that was scheduled for 9:15."  i nearly passed out!  i KNEW i didn't have a conference, but i have been known to forget things now and then.  luckily my partner teacher was there, and she did the conference for me.  when i got back to my classroom, i checked my schedule and the parent was there at the right time, JUST THE WRONG DAY!  she was 24 hours early!  thank goodness it wasn't my fault!

my little friend who showed me his dog's toenails came up to my desk today with his hand closed and said, "mrs. hayes, look!" and opened his hand.  {my immediate reaction now is to jump back when he says that!}  in his hand was a small, clear crystal-like object.  i hesitated, but of course, i asked, "what's that?"  to which he excitedly replied, "this is what nerds candy looks like when you suck all the outside off!"  thank goodness it wasn't nearly as gross as the toenails!

the day dragged on for me and the students.  all of us were ready for fall break to begin!  finally at 3:40 they were dismissed, and round 1 of parent/teacher conferences began.  they all went very smoothly, but it's just exhausting.  finally at 8:00 p.m. i got to leave.  (this is my clock in my car, in case you can't tell.)

and tomorrow, i get to do it all over again starting at 7:30 a.m. with another conference (an hour before i am required to start conferences!)  gee, what a nice teacher! :)

chores

i just finished my daily chores, so i get to rest now.  i'm trying to do daily chores so that i don't have to clean my house from top to bottom on saturdays.  i hate it when i spend the whole day cleaning.  so i've divided up the major chores into one or two things a night.  monday night is laundry and my bathroom.  check.

out of all the household chores, cleaning the bathroom has to be the one i detest the most.  i despise scrubbing the toilet mainly because i'm NOT the one who makes a mess in it!!!  but now we have a clean throne for someone to mess up again!

happy bracelet

i just got finished helping nellie create the most adorable bracelet for me!  she is so creative.  i am going to use it to help me track my WW points and as a visual reminder of the things in this life that make me happy.  

it's off to bed now because it's early to rise in the morning.....i get to go walking!  {i'm trying real hard to have a positive attitude about exercising!}  if there wasn't someone waiting on me, i'd stay in bed.  there's definitely strength in numbers!

free woman

today i got to spend 4 hours all by myself.  it was so wonderful..........

first i went to the hitchin' post, which is a cute little antique/collectible store here in broken arrow.  there was a tent sale going on with some neat stuff in it.  i found a set of Peanuts curtains that made me smile.  {no, i didn't buy them, but i was tempted!}

then i went to a memory to scrap.  it's our local scrapbook store.  it's small, but she always has some cool stuff.  this is the only store in this area that carries october afternoon

{i love october afternoon scrapbook stuff.  it is so cute!}

next i went across the street from the scrapbook store to the goodwill store.  it was very nice.  i expected it to stink like old stuff, but it really didn't.  i was impressed with how well organized it was!

after that i went to Pei Wei!  yum!  i am the ONLY one in my family who likes to eat there, so i took advantage of being alone and went there.  it was so good.  love the honey-seared chicken.  

when i was finished with lunch i strolled around hobby lobby for a while.  it gets me excited to see all the fall and christmas decorations!  {the last three months of the year are my absolute FAVORITE time of the year.}

i figured i'd been gone long enough, so i came on home.  it was nice to be alone for a while.  that doesn't happen very often!

before....

NO MORE EXCUSES!

that's my new motto.  i'm tired of being fat and unhealthy.  RIGHT NOW is the time to do something about it.

so nellie and i are meeting every morning to walk/jog {she jogs, not me.  tried it.....not a good idea for a fat girl who hasn't exercised in months!}  we are also going to do Weight Watchers.  since i've joined many times in the past, i have all the tools and knowledge to do this without going to meetings.  i know that it works because i lost 30 pounds using WW before.  meetings are designed to make you accountable and get inspired to make it another week.  well, nellie is going to be my meeting.  we've already disclosed the all important {and embarrassing} starting weight and we are going to weigh in on monday mornings and report to each other.  WE ARE GOING TO DO THIS.  NO MORE EXCUSES!

so here is my before picture.  it is what i look like right now.  in a few months i will post another picture and there WILL be a difference.  you might not be able to see it because i tend to lose weight in weird places at first, like my fingers!  but i will know the weight loss is there because i will be feeling better about myself.

this is me one month ago at the american idol concert.

what a dork.

"cool!  i can stick my head in this box!"

"colby tv is now on.....hello.  my name is colby and i'm a dork."

this is what i saw and heard on my way home from school today.  never a dull moment.

(this little varmint also hid my shoes when i was trying on tennis shoes yesterday at academy!)

it's a real good thing my varmints are so cute.........

i hope you're sitting down.

for those of you that know me, you're not going to believe what i'm about to tell you.  i hope you're sitting down, because you might just fall over or quit breathing momentarily.  

i am getting up at 5:30 in the morning to go walking.

breathe......

two unbelievable events occurring in the same sentence.  i know, it's crazy.  1) i am getting up early and 2) i am exercising!  i HATE to do both of those things, but it's time for a change.  i've got to take better care of myself, and my friend nellie is going to help me do that!

we met this evening at academy and bought new walking shoes.

did you know that academy has a bin of USED socks that you can borrow when you are trying on shoes????????  how nasty is that?  let's share toe jam and foot fungus with the entire world!  eww!!!!!!!!!  and if you notice the sign even calls these socks "soiled try-on socks"!  eww!!!!

i'm sure it's a trap to get people to buy new socks.  well it works!  i bought a package of clean, unsoiled white socks!

4th & 4th

ok.  i'm doing what nellie said to do on her blog:  go to the fourth file in your pictures and post the fourth picture in that file.

here's what i found:

this is spencer cooking.  i think we were making banana bread.  i know he doesn't look very excited about cooking in this picture, but trust me, he really enjoys getting in the kitchen.  he told me tonight that after football season is over, he wants me to teach him how to make the potato soup i made for supper.  he said it was the best soup i'd ever made!  how sweet.

i'm wearing red!

longhorns remind me of texas, not the university of texas, but the great state of texas.  so when i saw this guy today, i just had to take a picture.  so of course i stopped in the middle of the road, and spencer got all nervous.  i thought he didn't like it that we were in the middle of the road at the bottom of the hill because he kept saying, "go mom.  don't take a picture.  go!!"  there was no one around so i couldn't understand what he was so nervous about.  then he said, "mom.  he's gonna charge me!  i'm wearing red!"

such a brave boy!  i guess he didn't think we were protected by the barbed wire fence between us or the metal car we were in which could easily outrun this big guy!  

done.

finally.  i'm sending my mom (and mom-in-law) my boys' school pictures.  mom has been asking me for a while when she would get some new pictures.  {the last pictures i sent her were pretty old.  colby was probably still in diapers and spencer was probably just learning to read! :o) }

i didn't know which pics i had already sent to her, so i got out ALL the school pictures i have of them, and she's getting a plethora of pictures!  a pictorial buffet!  now i wonder how long it will take mom to give me what i've been waiting for.......buttons!

mom has a bunch of old buttons that belonged to my grandma.  i've been asking to go through them for a while now, and the last time i asked she said she'd make me a deal.  i could have some buttons when she got current pictures of my boys.  so now the ball is in her court!

i don't blame her if she makes me wait a while for them, though.  she's been waiting a long time for these pictures!

love ya, mom! :o)

go tigers!

once again the 4th grade BA white tigers defeat their opponents.  i actually enjoyed watching the game, and i'm not really a football fan!  

important health warning

i just found this out friday afternoon, and i want to share this with everyone i know.  this was just discovered by a first grader at my school.....

if you touch a caterpillar, you'll get diarrhea.

i HATE spiders.......

my parents won't find this hard to believe, but i really don't like spiders.  my dad could tell you a story about how i came in the living room one night telling him to kill all the spiders that were crawling on my wall.  of course i was just dreaming, but i just knew they were going to get me.  i don't even like spiderman, and he's a superhero!!  

BUT i am very impressed by the beautiful webs they spin.  i was completely fascinated by all the webs that were everywhere at the retreat.  i couldn't stop taking pictures of them!  so now you have to look at all of them! {well, not all.  i'll spare you!}

finally

i know, i know.  it's been a long time since i've blogged!  and i know that some of you "lurkers" out there have been missing my posts.  {i love having lurkers like E and Mom!  i'm glad you enjoy reading this.}

this past week was mentally busy.  we had all kinds of computer troubles at school last week, so i was the one rushing around trying to get everything back the way it was supposed to be.  it was mentally draining.  thank goodness i have such a great intern to take care of my class.  i could not have done all that extra stuff without her.

since i don't really have any news or funny stories to share with you, i'll leave you with some pics i've taken over the past week including some more pictures from our church retreat.                                       

see........how could i possibly stay indoors when all of this natural beauty was just beckoning me?  wooded trails and and a rolling river........i'm there!