yesterday, january 29 and today, january 30

can you believe it? another snow today!!! i don't think i've ever seen this much snow in one season! i was afraid we were going to have school yesterday because when i went to bed thursday night, it hadn't been canceled. at 6:00 a.m. though, my phone rang and i knew it was good news!

so i went back to sleep for a while, and then stayed in my jammies all day long!

even the doggies enjoyed the lazy snow day!

around 2 o'clock the boys (the 2 little ones and the big one) decided to go sledding. they tried the hill on the golf course behind the house, but it wasn't steep enough. we had to go find a better spot.
first we tried behind the church, but that hill wasn't steep enough either. the snow was deep enough to cover the asphalt, though, and daryl managed to drive off of it and get the car stuck for a while! he and spencer had to push it while manned the wheel!

we ended up at the soccer fields just down the road from the church. daryl had driven by there earlier, and he said the place was packed with sledders. but when we were there, only a few families were sledding.

colby was the first one to go! he had the fastest sled, and it didn't take long for him to reach the bottom of the hill!

there many wipeouts at first! daryl and spencer had the hardest time staying upright! colby crashed once and rolled right in front of another sledder and took him out, too! it was awesome!

after watching the boys for a while, i couldn't stand it any longer. they were having way too much fun without me! so i handed the camera off to daryl and trekked up the hill for my ride. i gave spencer specific instructions NOT to give me a push until i was completely settled on the sled. i had ONE cheek on my sled, and the next thing i knew he shoved me and off i went! i screamed the whole way down while snow went up my back above the one cheek i was sliding on!
this is what i looked like when i finally came to a stop at the bottom! of course i wasn't mad at spencer because i had too much fun going down!

i love this picture of me and my man!

spencer got tired of waiting for colby to bring the sleds up the hill, so he sat down at the top and waited....

photo of the day

1.29.10

family fun day!

susan put out bird seed yesterday hoping to attract some cardinals, and this evening as i was cooking dinner, i saw one! i grabbed my camera and had to zoom in through the blinds to get this picture. i know it's not the greatest photography ever, but i still like it! the cardinal is beautiful!

photo of the day

1.30.10

snowman and picture by spencer!

daily grateful: snow

today, january 28

for the entire week, tulsa meteorologists have been saying we're getting slammed by a major winter storm starting wednesday night into thursday. be prepared, they said.

the storm slowed down, and so they issued a winter storm warning beginning at 6:00 a.m. today. so of course the kids have been anxiously awaiting this storm so we could be out of school early today and all day tomorrow. well, it didn't start doing ANYTHING here until about an hour ago (7:00 p.m.)!!! all of the major school districts in the tulsa area have cancelled school for tomorrow because the major storm hit them this afternoon. they have ice everywhere, but as of right now, bartlesville is still in session and there's just a little bit of snow on the ground. ugh!!!

one weatherman just said that it's still coming down though, so i'm not giving up hope yet!!!

photo of the day

1.28.10

he finally lost a front tooth!

daily grateful: a warm bed

yesterday, january 26 and today, january, 27

monday one of my students said, "i can't wait until friday." i told him i was looking forward to the weekend, too, and he said, "i'm not excited about that. friday is when i get the food from the office to have over the weekend. we're almost out of food, and we're getting hungry."

my heart broke for this poor little boy. so yesterday i took my boys to wal-mart and we got some groceries for them. i'm not telling this story to pat myself on the back. the part of this story that's really cool is i ran into someone from church while we were at wal-mart. i told her about this poor family and why we were there. we met her a couple of aisles later, and she asked," do you think they'd eat this?" i said, "who?" she said, "your sweet family in your class."

i told her i didn't tell her about them expecting her to help. she didn't know them. to which she replied, "hush. god put you in my path today for a reason, and i'm going to help." how amazing is that???? i love that about god's people. so loving and so generous.

i took the food to that family today during my conference period. the mom cried. i told her that god has blessed our families, and we wanted to bless theirs, too. she just cried some more and said thank you.

photo of the day

1.26.10

blessings

tonight at church it was my turn to teach the 5th graders. they are notorious for being varmints! i was way off my game tonight because before class had even started one of them had picked my pocket! i had the keys down in my pocket with my happy face strap hanging out. one of them disconnected the strap and passed it off to another kid! i didn't even notice until i looked down and saw one kid swinging it around! i was about to say, "i have one just like that," when i reached down for my own and realized it was gone! wow!

photo of the day

1.27.10

daily grateful: blessings

today, january 25

today was a good day.

daryl didn't even groan when i asked him if he wanted to be my picture of the day and put the camera in his hairy little face!

photo of the day

1.25.10

daily grateful: iTunes

today, january 24

colby and i spent all afternoon in my classroom again today! it was a lot of work, but my room looks awesome! it feels so much more like me now. i hope the changes don't make kids nuts tomorrow! oh, well....there's no turning back now!

photo of the day

1.24.10

daily grateful: smiley faces

yesterday, january 22 and today, january 23

yesterday was a good day. it was hectic at school, but not bad. we had a fire drill, then a tornado drill, followed by a lock-down drill....good times at jane phillips elementary!

last night we went to hear my niece and nephew perform with the edmond memorial choir at victory episcopal church in downtown tulsa. other schools performed, and the singing was so beautiful. that old church was designed for music, so i think it's a shame that they have all those big pipe organs everywhere. oh, well. i didn't get any good pictures from the performance because they wouldn't allow flash photography.

photo of the day

1.22.10

today the boys and i spent the entire day at my school redoing my classroom. i started working there in october, and it's taken until now to have the desire to make the room my own. it's way past time, and today i was actually excited about doing it! i didn't get finished, so i'm going back up there tomorrow to hopefully finish. can you believe i'm going to forfeit my sunday afternoon nap to work in my classroom??? {me either, i'll believe it when i see it!}

photo of the day

1.23.10

totally random gnome picture

daily grateful: my job

today, january 21

daryl is out with the guys from church, so i went to dinner with 2 very handsome, younger men! after supper we went to BigK...the super K-mart! i haven't been to a K-mart in years!

i only went there to avoid going to wal-mart, and i'm glad i did! we found exactly what we needed, and it was on sale! while spencer was trying on jeans in the fitting room, colby was checking himself out in the big mirrors.

i was waiting outside the mens' fitting room when i heard, "hey mom! i pulled out a nose hair! cool! i got another one! wanna see it?" then colby came trotting out holding his pointer finger up on display! he was proud of his discovery!

photo of the day

1.21.10

as we were walking down another aisle, colby and spencer were still discussing nose hairs {which is better than the discussion they were having about the bras we had passed earlier!}. colby told spencer that he was going to pull out all of his nose hairs because he didn't want to be "one of those old men who have really long hairs hanging out of their nose!"

daily grateful: short faculty meeting today!

yesterday, january 19 and today, january 20

yesterday was another non-eventful day. i was even wondering what i would take a picture of to represent my day! i took a picture of myself driving home after school...nah. and then i took a picture of a squirrel that i nearly ran over....nah. and then when i walked in the door, i knew what my picture of the day should be.....rocky. every single day he greets me at the door barking hysterically and wagging his little body. it's so nice to have something that exciting to greet me!

photo of the day

1.19.10

today the weather was so beautiful that i decided to get out and go to lunch. so i went to my favorite sonic in the world, right here in bartlesville, oklahoma. i think i've mentioned this one before, but i just love it. all of the employees are super-nice, and the service is quick! when the guy brought me my food today (on skates, no less! they all wear skates!) he asked me if he could get me anything else, so i asked him for 15 straws. i told him my class needed straws for a math assignment we were doing this afternoon, so he reached in his apron and gave me a handful!

then he told me that the carhops at that location had decided to have a fundraiser on saturday. they're going to be showing off their moves on their skates as they deliver food, and they are going to give ALL of their tips to help people in Haiti! how cool is that? i'm definitely going to make a special trip across town to visit that sonic on saturday!

my sonic is so awesome that i just had to call the corporate office and brag on them!

photo of the day

1.20.10

my sonic

tonight i taught the kindergartners and first graders at church. yikes! we were talking about how we could shine like stars in this dark world. during craft time one of them, my own child maybe, decided to decorate me! how cute!

daily grateful: stars

today, january 18

today the kids were out of school, but all the bartlesville teachers had inservice meetings. yippee! my brain is literally stuffed with too much information. i don't know how to sort it all out so that i can put it into practice!

i had grand intentions of getting to school early this morning to start rearranging my classroom. i've finally gotten the desire to really make it my own now. there are still lots of things in the room and on the walls that belonged to the previous teacher, and it's time to take it down. i want it to feel like MY classroom when i walk in.

i didn't make it early, so i probably won't do anything until this weekend because it takes me many hours to totally rearrange a classroom. plus i'll have to do a lot of sorting and packing up things that aren't mine. i want to do it right.

i didn't take any pictures today, so i asked spencer to pick a 3-digit number. he picked 765. so i went to my 7th folder, the 6th folder in that folder and the 5th picture to get my picture of the day. it is a picture of becky meador (spencer's teacher in BA and my 5th grade team member). good friend and good memories. great choice, spencer!

photo of the day

1.18.10

daily grateful: daryl and spencer cooked supper!

today, january 17

today i went to worship, ate lunch at hunan, and then slept all afternoon! i wasn't planning to sleep that long, but the room was dark and the bed was warm! i couldn't help myself. everyone else was watching the cowboys lose to the vikings so it was also nice and quiet upstairs.

after my nap we went to the annual singing night with the adams blvd. and dewey churches of christ. this year it was in dewey. the singing was beautiful....a glimpse of what heaven will be like. we sang "the lord bless you and keep you" with the 7-fold amen, and when it was over i had goosebumps all over and tears in my eyes. it reminded me of chapel at oklahoma christian.

we had supper at mcalister's deli. i stepped out of my little box and had something completely different...havarti grilled chicken panini with chipotle peach sauce. it was yummy! colby and spencer both got super spuds which are actually 2 baked potatoes put together. i didn't think about how big those were when i ordered! when they set that down in front of colby i thought there was NO WAY he was going to even make a dent in that!

boy was i wrong! not only did he make a dent, he ate the whole thing! as we were leaving he loudly said, " that was a good tater!" don't you think that would make a great slogan for mcalisters?

daily grateful: a cappella music

today, january 16

road trip!!!!

today i met lisa in skiatook for a day of treasure hunting. it was so good to hang out with her and search for happy junk that we don't really need.

the first store was nice which in our minds equals over-priced. if there are wide aisles and tidy booths, then we're probably not going to find a treasure. we were looking for bargains! that store had lots of awesome pyrex bowls, but they $25, even $45 each!!! yikes! that's too much for a bowl!

however, if i had lots of money, i would have purchased every piece of this pattern that i saw! i love the colors and the design. i could picture it on my dining room table in the fall. ahh....but it was way more expensive than the pyrex, so it won't be happening on my dime!

i was very tempted to buy this awesome blue typewriter! it was only $18, which was pretty reasonable considering the price of the other things. but i already have an old typewriter, so i left it there. {sad face} i told lisa that if i ever go back to that store, and it's still there AND it's marked down, then i'm definitely getting it!
since we couldn't afford their stuff, we just played with it! don't we look beautiful in these vintage hats?

there were actually 2 other antique stores in skiatook, but one of them was closed. the second store we visited wasn't that great at all, but in the back corner there was a Delorean! i'm not a car person AT ALL, but i do know enough to know that this was the kind of car in the hit 80's movie back to the future!

after a yummy meal at ron's hamburgers, we decided to go east on highway 20 to collinsville to check out their antique stores. i googled 'antique stores in collinsville' last night, and only found one. there were actually 3!!!

the first one had some really amazing things in it. if you were a true antique collector {which i'm not} then that would have been the perfect store!

the second store was boring.

but the third store..........HOLY COW!!!!! it was not for the faint of heart. we walked in and were immediately surrounded by junk! it was piled everywhere! you literally had to dig through stuff to find anything. this was EXACTLY the kind of store we were looking for.

we hadn't gone very far down the first row when i spotted this:

photo of the day

1.16.10

blast from the past!

this is the exact same bank i had when i was a kid!!!! i gasped really loud and then grabbed him off the shelf saying, "oh, my gosh!!!!!! i had one of these when i was a kid! he's mine!" i carried him around the store safely tucked under one arm. another couple that was not too far behind us heard my cheering. when they walked by the husband said to his wife, "i guess i won't be getting that bank i was looking at. she had one like that when she was a kid." he was just teasing me, of course! i guess i was louder than i realized...imagine that!

when we went to check out, there was another happy find just waiting for me at the counter. blue dice! and they were only 50 cents a pair! score!!!!
daily grateful: treasure hunting

yesterday, january 14 and today, january 15

so, yesterday and today were just regular ol' days. nothing exciting or bad happened. that's a good thing.

school is getting better, so that's making things a lot happier for me. it's amazing how much power test scores have. when they're good, people actually believe that you've been teaching! amazing.

in case you didn't know it, last night was spongebob jammie night. so if you missed out, i feel really bad for you!

photo of the day

1.14.10

spongebob "jammie"pants

tonight i'm so bored that i decided to go down to the basement to hang out with squirt! i didn't like the movie daryl was watching because i don't enjoy watching people die even if it's because of a natural disaster. that could really happen, and that's just not entertaining to me.

photo of the day

1.15.10

my friday night date!

daily grateful: guinea pigs

yesterday, january 12 and today, january 13

i didn't blog last night because it was the season premiere of american idol! since we recorded it, we didn't start watching it right at 7:00. by the time it was over, i was tired and ready for bed.

when i got to my room, i realized i hadn't blogged or even taken a picture for the day! yikes! {it's too early in the year to break my habit.} so i looked around the room for something to photograph. i usually keep several things on my nightstand that i use before i go to sleep. i thought, "hmm....i will take a picture of my favorite items on the nightstand."

photo of the day

1.12.10

i'm currently reading the book by kate jacobs called knit two. on top of that is a new happily, brightly colored notebook i got at drug warehouse the other day for a dollar! daryl's old

i-phone is now mine because he got a new one. i'm not using it as a phone, just a toy. so lately i've been playing bookworm on it before i go to sleep. {last night i played for an hour and didn't even realize it! it's addicting!} then i also have a cup of crayons for when i feel like coloring...it's very relaxing. and finally there's my container of eucerin cream for my terribly dry hands. there you have it--my favorite nightstand items. what's on your nightstand?

nothing terribly exciting happened today either, so my picture of the day was taken while i was driving to church. there are a couple of really long smears/streaks on my windshield, and i can't get them off because i ran out of windshield washer fluid on my way to work this morning! ahhhhh!!!!!! so annoying!

photo of the day

1.13.10

daily grateful: the power of prayer

today, january 11

it was back to work today. no more snow-covered streets and no more arctic temperatures to keep us out of school. it was kind of weird this morning.....

the kids were actually quiet for the first few hours of the day! they even noticed the silence. i thought it was heavenly, but they didn't like it at all. it didn't take long before they remedied that situation!

tonight i played bunco with my new bunco group! yay! i'm officially a member of a group! i've wanted to play for a long time, but wasn't able to find a group that was needing a full-time player instead of just a substitute.

i didn't have the most wins or losses tonight. i won the middle of the road prize.....9 wins and 9 losses. i had one bunco the whole game, and it is my photo of the day!

photo of the day

1.11.10

bunco!

daily grateful: my new bunco buddies!

today, january 10

photo of the day

1.10.10

tonight was the 2-hour season premiere of Chuck! yay!!!!!!! i love that show, and it seems like forever since it was last on tv!

daily grateful: chuck

today, january 9

tonight colby went to another birthday party at the conoco-phillips gymnastics center. this is the 2nd on in about a month. he loves going there.

the enter center is open for the kids to just run and play. there are trampolines, a rope hanging from the ceiling over a pit of foam blocks, a parachute, balance beams, spring boards, etc. colby finally figured out how to get on the rope by himself, and so he spent most of his time swinging on it. you can actually climb up the rope. it is attached to the ceiling, and there is a bell hanging up there for you to ring when you reach the top. only one kid could do it, and it definitely was mr. colby!

the white spots you see in the pictures are from the dust the gymnasts use on their hands! it's everywhere!

photo of the day

1.9.10

daily grateful: birthday parties