where the fun begins...

photo of the day #220

park lane teachers

today all of the teachers in the broken arrow school district met at the new performing arts center for a back to school pep rally. the PAC is beautiful, and i'm pretty sure that showing off the new PAC was the goal of today's rally.

the pep rally was {to put it nicely} disappointing. the president of the broken arrow chamber of commerce got up in front of all the BA teachers and said the the chamber had no idea about the condition of some of the BA schools! he didn't know just how many portable buildings our district had! has the man had his head in hole for 20 years???

then there was some praising of SOME schools, not all, and a video which showcased SOME schools, not all. lots of us from park lane left there feeling less than motivated by that 1 1/2 hour performance! we even got to hear how it takes 3 people to be in charge of the PAC, but there isn't even enough money in the budget to hire teachers so our 4th grade teachers don't have to have 30 kids crammed into portables!!!

anyway........i really am looking forward to this school year. park lane is a wonderful school! i'm sad that it's my last year there, but i'm so thankful to God that he put me there these past 3 years.

quote of the day: A cross-eyed teacher can keep twice the number of children in order than any other, because the pupils do not know who she's looking at. ~Four Hundred Laughs: Or, Fun Without Vulgarity, compiled and edited by John R. Kemble, 1902

see you later

tonight we said, "see you later" to our brothers and sisters at 29th & yale.

photo of the day #219

see you later

they gave us a nice going away ice cream social! you can't go wrong with ice cream!

almost all the smors were there {missed you, nellie} to send us off. it wasn't very sad for me tonight because i know i'll see my friends again. bartlesville isn't that far away, and we haven't even moved yet! i know it will be different when we've actually moved away.

quote of the day: "Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them." ~Michael W. Smith

pool party

today the boys and i celebrated drake's birthday at their neighborhood pool.

going to that pool is like stepping back in time! the place is very well kept, but it doesn't look like they've changed a thing, and i had a blast taking pictures there!!!

colby roamed around the pool seeing just how many noodles he could gather.

spencer learned how to do the can opener.

i took some really fun pictures of this squirrel!!!

photo of the day #218

enjoy

as the party was coming to an end, spencer and the lifeguard had a sour candy showdown. they were trying to determine who was the toughest by seeing who could keep the most warheads in their mouth the longest. they both popped five of those nasty things in their mouth, and then stared at each other....

the lifeguard said he technically won because spencer's eyes started watering even though both of them kept 5 warheads in their mouth without puking or spitting them out!

quote of the day: One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one. ~Charles Dudley Warner

camouflage

photo of the day #217

where's spencer

i came home tonight from my first day back at work, and the boys had apparently been shopping! spencer had new bedding (finally!), a haircut and his school supplies. colby also had his supplies and a shirt to wear on the first day of school. wow!

quote of the day: "Each day when I awake, I know I have one more day to make a difference in someone's life."~James Mann

last day of summer '09

it's official. my summer is over. i spent the day working in my classroom, rearranging the furniture in order to fit more students in my cozy little space!

photo of the day #216

back to school

the poor 4th grade teachers have way more kids than 5th grade! i feel sorry for them.

quote of the day: "All good things must come to an end." ~English proverb

bummer, again

so i guess i can talk about yesterday's exciting news because it's today's disappointing news.

a 5th grade position at an elementary school in bartlesville was posted yesterday afternoon, and this is just what i was hoping for. i immediately applied and then called some people that i knew had connections with school people in bartlesville. to me everything seemed to be going great. but today i got a forwarded email from one of my contacts that came from that principal stating that she was done with the interview process and hoped that if i didn't find a job that i would substitute for them. i was bummed.....i even cried a little.

i'm just ready to move on. i'm ready for my entire family to live, work and worship in bartlesville. i report for work on friday in broken arrow. so if i don't get a job in bartlesville tomorrow, then i'll be commuting to broken arrow as soon as our house sells.

i know that god has better plans for me. i know that he will send me the right job, and maybe the one i have right now IS the right job. it just stinks to be told, "no." sometimes.

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colby gets the photo of the day credit. he took this adorable picture of rocky this afternoon.

photo of the day #215

afternoon nap

quote of the day:For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. ~Jeremiah 29:11

not so busy

today was the complete opposite of yesterday. the only "work" i did today was clean my shower and cook supper {which was very yummy, i must say!}

i had every intention of being very productive today. i had planned to go to my classroom and work for half the day and then come home and clean the house. but one little phone call totally ruined my day. that's all i'm gonna say about that.

my whole mood was shot. i felt like i was having one of those really bad days when i was first diagnosed with depression. the only difference was i wasn't crying. but i laid around all day feeling sad, angry, blah......

the only reason i cleaned the shower was out of pure guilt that i'd done nothing to get this house ready to sell, and daryl had been working all day. i don't have days like this very often anymore, but when they hit, they aren't fun.

but around 6:oo this evening, things started turning around. i can't talk about it yet, but i'm praying very hard that God is opening a new door for me very soon.

after visiting a friend in the hospital tonight, i was driving home and realized that i hadn't taken a picture today. so as i was cruising down the BA Expressway i whipped out my camera and tried to take some cool pictures of the road...that didn't work. then i remembered that at my exit there are two american flags at two different buildings that are lit up at night, and for some weird reason, i've always liked flags.

so i tried to get a decent picture, but didn't have much luck. i was sitting in an empty parking lot in the dark, so i was scaring myself thinking that someone was going to "get me". i took the picture from my car because i was too scared to get out, and my hand wasn't steady enough to get a good picture. i really needed to balance the camera on something stable....oh well!

photo of the day #214

flag at night

quote of the day: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not.”~Dr. Suess

incredibly busy day

i think today was the busiest day of my summer so far!

i left the house around 10:00 a.m. and didn't get home until 6:00 p.m. the longest and most fun part of the day was caroline's birthday party at incredible pizza! {she's one of colby's best friends from school.}

the room the party was in was FREEZING! for those of you who know me, i don't get that cold very often. so if i'm saying it was cold, then you know it was cold. most of the adults sat with their arms crossed. colby and rhett decided to act like turtles to stay warm!

at the end of the party the kids were given a card that allowed unlimited access to games and attractions for an hour and a half! woo hoo! colby had a blast!

after we got home from the party, daryl put the boys to work. spencer and daryl had already painted the boys' bathroom while we were gone, and they were working on colby's room when we got back. colby loved painting!

spencer was being a nerd not wanting me to take his picture so he pretended to be sticking the screwdriver in the electrical outlet! he was supposed to be putting all the covers back on in colby's room. nerd......

something cool happened tonight. it may not seem like a big deal, but it was to me. all 3 of my boys, daryl included, called me to take a picture of something tonight! i love that!!! sure they gripe about me taking pictures all the time, but maybe deep down somewhere maybe they like it.

colby even came running in the house tonight saying, "mom! where's your camera? i need to take a picture! there's a full moon!!!!" how cool is that? i love that he's noticing the beauty around him. i love that god has given us so many treasures to see on this earth...just think how awesome heaven will be!!!!

well then he wanted me to come out and see it for myself after he showed me his picture. {love that too!} then of course spencer followed us out there and the next thing i know we were having a little photo shoot in the dark!

this one's called bubbles in the dark.

photo of the day #213

pure joy

i love the expression of pure joy on spencer's face. i hope he always finds joy in sloppy dog kisses and silly moments in the dark on a warm summer night.

quote of the day: "Yes!!! I'm gonna have armpit hair!" ~Colby {this exclamation came today right after i explained to colby that he, too, would one day have armpit hair. unfortunately it was a much longer conversation than this, but i'll spare you the details....}

God's family

photo of the day #212

dinner with the gang

tonight we had dinner with what i call "the gang" {minus the hallmans....they couldn't be there.} it's probably the last time we'll all be together like this for a while. in just a few weeks, these 3 families will be worshipping in three different congregations.

i pray that god will heal some hearts and grant his peace among my brothers and sisters at 29th and yale. even though we'll sit in different pews soon, we're still members of the same family......God's family. nothing will change that.

quote of the day: "...There'll be no more parting. With Jesus we'll be. Together forever, God's family...." from the hymn God's Family

house for sale

photo of the day #211

house for sale

can you believe it? i didn't take a single picture today! the only pictures taken with my camera today were of our house, and daryl took them. so the credit goes to him for my photo of the day!

we cleaned, packed and worked on getting the house ready to sell. man that's a lot of work!

quote of the day: "What's next on the to-do list?" ~me