Halloween '09

So can you guess what I am??


"Peace & Quiet"

Peace = me as the hippie Quiet = the mime head

The original idea was a couples costume. One dresses up like a hippie and the other one dresses up like a mime. I improvised a little and put the mime's head on a popsicle stick. Sorry, I can't take credit for the idea, but I can't remember where I got it from. One of those halloween costume websites.

Happy Halloween!

October NEW

My new for this month is something that I'm pretty excited about!

I was hired to write some curriculum!

A friend of mine works at one of the best companies for christian curriculum, ReThink. He asked me to write some activities for their Core Essential curriculum. Core Essentials is used in the school setting to teach character values. I got to write the activities for RESPECT.

I'll also be writing some more in the next few months. It was neat to think that somewhere, some teacher is going to use the activities that I came up with!!

Birthday to Remember

My birthday was this week. Woo-hoo! It still hurts to say it, but I'm 33 years old. [The same age that Jesus was when he died, mind you]. My mom's church was hosting a "concert" the same day as my birthday. I use the word concert loosely. You'll understand why a little later. My mom was working at it and she thought I might like to go.

A concert on my birthday? Why not?!

The group performing was a trio of girls. My mom thought I might know them. Why? I don't know. She told me they were a young group of girls...maybe late 20's.

You tell me.

Well, let me just give a description of the night in pictures:

This little old lady was one of the first people we saw walking into the concert. You think she's there to here some 20 year olds?!?! Yikes!


We had to fill out information cards. Look at the age I had to check: "31-50" I'm in the same category as 50 year olds?!?! What?



They did serve dinner at the concert so that was nice. Cupcakes were the dessert and my sister brought candles. Awww...


I won a gift basket! Don't be jealous.


Beloved "rockin'" the house. Another term I use loosely.


After the concert, Mandi and I had to make a pit stop before our long ride home.

This is what we found inside:

Huh?? What kind of church is this?


Good times were had by all!

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September NEW

This new years resolution of doing something new every month is really beginning to get hard! This month's NEW was not very exciting, but..hey, it is new!

I tried a new recipe! I know, I know...try to contain yourself.

Cheesy Chicken Pot Pie

Doesn't this just look like a great fall time meal?! I was; however, a little disappointed. Not necessarily because of the meal, but of some mistakes I made. The biggest mistake was that I didn't let it cook long enough. Make sure it gets a real golden brown on top. And then, for some reason, I couldn't find just a normal, ordinary veggie mix. They were all some kind of specialty and the most normal one I could find was for gumbo. So I would definitely change that next time.

But the Velveeta cheese makes it yummy to the tummy! Kids would love this. Who doesn't love veggies smothered in cheese?!

August NEW

Better late than never!

Fire department and a concert

Typically when I go back to work on Monday mornings, the first question from everyone is "So, how was your weekend?" And the usual answer is "It was good. Too short"

Well, this weekend was an exception!

DAY 1:
Saturday morning started off with a call to 911. Yep, that's right. I said 9-1-1.

I was sitting on the couch messing around on the computer and I got up to go in to the kitchen. I immediately smelled something that was not right. It was a burning smell, but not like food burning. It was more of an electrical smelling burn. So I flipped on the light and then I noticed a haze filling the kitchen. Not smoke, but a haze.

Going into panic mode, I ran around checking to make sure everything was off and that nothing was on fire. All clear.

I just couldn't find the source of the smell, so I called my dad. After explaining the situation, I could hear the panic in his voice, which made me panic. He said I needed to call 911.

Yikes! This is for real...is all I kept thinking.

The operator told me to get everyone outside of the house and wait in the driveway. So there I was, phone and purse in hand, hanging out in my driveway.

Then I heard the sirens going off because I don't live too far from the hospital. I then saw them turn down my street. Lights flashing, but thankfully they turned off the sirens. Lo and behold, about 10 minutes later another fire truck makes it way down my teeny tiny street. Oh, I'm sure the neighbors were buzzing!

Yes, there were cute firefighters...but they all had rings on :(

Back to to the story.

Thankfully nothing was actually on fire. They narrowed it down to the ballast in the lighting in my kitchen or the refrigerator.

My dad and mom made it over during the midst of all this. Dad was able to look at the light and rule out the light. The fire department said I shouldn't do anything until I have an electrician look at it.

I could just tell this 911 call was really beginning to add up. Joy.

Thankfully, a really good family friend is married to an electrician so I was able to get that looked out and he was able to rule out any problems with the breaker box or outlets or any other electrical problems.

So then I had to get an appliance service man out to figure out what was wrong with the fridge. Long story short, the compressor had gone out and it's already been replaced and working great!

DAY 2:
The weekend ended on a high note. A free Tobymac concert!! Need I say more? I guess I should preface this part by saying that I'm a huge, die-hard Toby McKeehan fan. Who? Well, you might recognize him as part of the christian group DC Talk. Saying that I'm a fan is an understatement. Have all the CD's, videos, etc. Been to all the concerts and have even waited around afterwards and met them several times. (I'm willing to bet they don't remember me, though. Ha!)


I'm not the "psychopatic crazed fan with posters all over my room". I'm a mature admirer of his art.

He's truly an amazing artist and, not that I know for fact, but he comes across as one of the most genuine and real artist out there. I just don't believe you can fake that. And believe me, I've seen him enough to know!!

This weekend there was a free Tobymac concert! It just doesn't get any better than that! So I called my bff who is also a fellow Toby "admirer" to go with. Wasn't much arm twisting involved.
Here we are so excited for the show to start!


Oh, I guess I forgot to mention that a little band called Fee went on before him. I love me some Fee, but let's get real...I was there for some TOBY!



A little pre-show "admirer". The bus on the left is Tobymac's and the one on the right is Fee's.

All good admirers know that to meet the artists, you have to hang around the buses. This is Tobymac right before he went on stage!

Unfortunately, this was as close as we got to him all night! I could just be sick about it!! I guess growing old has weakened my "admiring" skills! The show was amazing! Truly, one of the best shows ever! He told us that he wasn't going to give it his all...and he did NOT disappoint!









I'm sorry because I know all these pictures probably look the same to you, but it just makes me so excited to see them!!
Ok, this next picture is going to make no sense unless I explain it. This was during their encore which they sang Jesus Freak! Vintage DC Talk. There's this one part in the song where the musics basically stops and then an all out jam session occurs. Right at the part where the music stops, the whole band...drummer, bassist, guitarist, keyboardist, table turner, and all singers FREEZE. They hold their poses for, and I'm not joking here, about 3 minutes. When you're in an arena with 1,000 people, 3 minutes of no one on the stage moving seems like an eternity. Then they break into the jam session part in full out force! The crowd went wild and don't think I didn't start gettin' my jump on! It was amazing!

So after the concert, we hung around forever trying to find him! We walked all OVER trying to find him. No such luck. We waited around so long that this was what the parking lot looked like:

We thought we got some inside scoop about where he was. Would you believe that we went to 3 hotels, a Starbucks, 2 Waffle Houses, a Steak & Shake, and an Applebee's looking for him?!?!

I think I just crossed over to the stalker side!!

Coke is it!

If it ain't broke...

God is practical

I love it when God shows you something about Himself.

I got sick a few weeks ago and had to miss 2 days of school. Now, any other time, I'm happy to miss school. As long as I'm ready for it and can leave detailed sub plans. But having to be out 2 days in a row and leaving my class up to someone else is a little unnerving.

At that time, we were studying the metric system. Yawn. I don't really care for that unit and it's always been something that the kids either get it or they don't. There's really no in between. Plus, it's not something we use here in the states, so it makes it that much harder.

What does this with God being practical? Hang on...it's coming!

In checking in with my teammates, I found out my sub was 1) someone who is a regular. That's a good thing. She knew the school and I actually taught her daughter. [But here's the kicker!] She's from South Africa...

[What? You're not equally excited?!]

...where they use the metric system!!!!!! How cool is that? She probably taught it better than me!

So what does this have to do with God? Well, time and time ago God has proven Himself faithful. And when God proves Himself, He doesn't do it half heartedly.

When the Israelites left Egypt, it's not like they had time to pack up all their belongings. They left with the clothes on their back! No time to pack up road trip snacks! Now if that was me, I'd be in a heap of mess without my facial cleanser, lotion, hair straightener, toothbrush, makeup, and accessories. Don't think I would've really survived in Bible times!

So how does God provide for them? Only by giving them everything they needed.

~He provided food for them. Did they have to go and search for it? NOPE! He dropped it out of the sky for them! How cool is that?!?!

~He provided them with water. Water from the ground where it could get dirty? NOPE! Clean water straight from a rock.

~When they didn't know where to go, He gave them their own personal GPS system. They got a cloud to follow during the day. Aren't clouds wonderful on a hot summer day when the sun is just beating down on you? I'm sure God didn't choose a cloud out of happenstance. Not only was that cloud direction for them, but it was also relief. At night, He gave them a pillar of fire. There goes God being all practical again! A giant flashlight at night?!!? AND a giant heating system because the desert gets really cold at night.

I'm so grateful that God cares about the details of my life. And even thought I may not agree with everything He does, I'm learning to trust in Him. The Israelites had everything they needed and yet they still found something to complain about. I'm guilty of doing the same. I'm sure we all are at some point.

But in those times when I'm likely to complain, I try to remember all the details of my life where God has come through...in a big way. I've often felt spoiled by God because He has given me so much and spared me from much more. I definitely don't deserve it, but graciously accept it.

Thank you Jesus for loving me...unconditionally and undeservedly.

Labor Day

We had a nice, relaxing day today around these parts. We went over to my parents house and grilled out. It was a combination of Labor Day and Dad's birthday.

I hadn't been over there in a while, so I was excited to see the progress of the pool! I just can't wait until it's done, although I doubt we'll be able to enjoy it this season. But just knowing it'll be there next year makes me so happy!!

Well, here's how it looks:



What was fun was looking a little bit closer at all the critters that were in this yucky, stagnant water. It was a science teacher's dream!




Yes, that first picture is a baby snake! What was even funnier is that at one point, the little snake caught a ride on a leaf. Just floating around on his little raft!


Brooke was my partner in crime. We probably counted a dozen or more frogs!


Here's some pics from the rest of the day:

Couponing

I tried using coupons today at the grocery store and I found out 2 things:

1. Coupons don't really seem to be geared toward a single person b/c most of the ones I had said you had to be 2 or 3 of the item to get the discount. You know how long it would take me to use up 2 or 3 cans of cinnamon rolls, packs of cheese or lunch meat?

2. I wonder if I bought some of the items simply b/c I had the coupon.

I saved about 10 bucks and yes, that's good...I guess.

So I'm calling on all you professional "couponers" for some advice!

Bumblebee Birthday!

Today we celebrated my niece, Megan's, first birthday. Her mom went all out with a bumblebee themed party.

The cake table


Megan's smash cake



The cake for the rest of the family



Food table


Tables
(The centerpieces were 1 year old framed pictures of the birthday girl that the guests got to take home)



Goodie bag table
(This was a candy buffet where guests got to fill their goodie bag with treats!)


Marshmallows
(One of the treats were these cute marshmallows. All you do is lightly coat the edges of a marshmallow with water using a brush. Then roll them in sugar sprinkles)


We also played Bingo. A Megan version of Bingo! It was so cute! All the squares were things that had to do with Megan: the hospital she was born at, all her cousins, aunts, uncles, etc., height, weight, trips she'd been on, etc.


I won a round! My prize was a bottle of honey...to with the bee theme, of course!


While Megan opened her gifts, Mandi had "The Bee Movie" on upstairs if kids didn't want to hang around for it.

Everything was so cute and color coordinated and even some of the guests wore yellow & black.

Here's some pics from the rest of the day: