Only Grace

...

2012-02-07T21:56:00.002-07:00

Since my last post didn't fully share how unproductive I'm being tonight...

I'm sure I have something I'm supposed to do...

2012-02-07T21:34:00.000-07:00

But it's more fun to play on the internet...

I made this...I might print it and frame it & put it somewhere. We'll see.The heart is supposed to be the big MG. It's a bit off, I know. I'm still playing with it. Sad news is that picnik is closing. :( How will I edit my photos and make subway art and waste time making this kind of stuff now? Guess I better start getting more familiar with Publisher.

I have pictures from the snow we got last weekend as well from my trip to canvasses and cocktails. They are on my camera...it's at school. Boo. Check out Colleen's post of our trip to canvasses and cocktails. Super fun! I maybe want to go back for my birthday...

I told Ryan about a FB post I read. The post talked about a children's book called "The Farting Fairy". Apparently the book is about blaming the gas passing on the "fart fairy". Take what you want from that random tid-bit.

Tank is a bum. He snores & has funny puppy dreams that make him make weird noises in his sleep. I LOVE him!

God is Good

2012-01-29T21:48:00.000-07:00

All the time. Tonight I got an email back from Gethsemane. The few things that needed to be tweaked were tweaked and taken care of, so that means that once the voter's approve the call, it will be officially extended. I told them that I would accepted the call when it got to that point. Hooray for having a job next year!

Funny of the Night:
I've been working on getting laundry done all day today. I told Ryan after dinner that I needed him to put his plate in the dishwasher and start it. I had already put the soap in it (those fancy little Cascade tablet things...) I was in the laundry room folding clothes and Ryan said to me "How do you work this thing again?" I started laughing and told him. I asked him why he didn't know how to work it yet. His response? "We've only used it 5 times since we moved in" OH IF HE ONLY KNEW...I laughed and told him that just because he'd only emptied it five times, does not mean it's only been used five times...

Okay, one more couponing story. Today I went to Walgreens to get a few things. I was able to get some more soap, deodorant, toothpaste, and shampoo for very little--I spent $22.15 but saved $21.72! AND I earned $9.00 in Register Rewards. I then took my $9.00 in RR, and used them in my next transaction. DiGiorno pizzas were on sale 2/$10. I had a coupon from the paper making them 2/$8. So I got 2 pizza's, some eyeshadow ($2.40 plus a $1 coupon), and some gum for &0.69 (because it wouldn't take my coupons & RR due to tax for $2.49! Woot! I went all nerd and created a spreadsheet to track the amount I spend, how much I save because of manufactured coupons, multiplied savings, grocery loyalty cards, and RR. :) I'm excited about it. Ryan, well, in December when I show him how much I've saved, will be SUPER excited. :)

Neglected....

2012-01-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

I realize I neglect my blog a lot...I don't mean to, I just don't make it a priority... bad blogger.

Here are some of the highlight from January thus far:

- Did my first Ever After Events wedding of the year on January 7. When the photographer posts pictures, I'll share the link, you can see some of my beautiful work. :)

- Interviewed for a new job at Gethsemane. My school is closing. BOO! So must find a new one to work at.

- Went to Alyssa's house warming party. Met some of her friends and had a good time.

- Hosted our own house warming party. Met some of the neighbors. Had lots of people here. LOVED IT! {Side note: When shopping for a new house, I told Lisa, our realtor, that I loved to have people over so I wanted a big open house so we could have people over a lot. Our house is truly our dream house. Having people over is joyful. There is plenty of room for people chatting and sharing in good food! Our party was proof of that.}

- Prepped some stuff to celebrate the 100th day of school with my students. We go 180 days so we are more than half way through the school year. Bittersweet.

- Got back into the couponing. Last weekend saved 47% at Safeway. Best savings yet! Saved a bunch at King Soopers, but since we bought produce the savings didn't average out to be so high.

- Went to a lot of basketball games to watch the Emmaus kids. Tonight our JV girls played in a tournament. They were playing for 3rd/4th place...they lost by 1 point with a seriously, last second shot. They played awesome. There are only 6 girls on the team.

- Spent quality time with Ry at Ikea and then in his office setting up the new storage unit we got for him at Ikea.

- Got a new mattress for our bed, now we OFFICIALLY have a complete guest room. Hooray for my parents and the cuz, Kayla, coming in April. Can't wait!

- Told Gethsemane that I wanted to take the call, there are a few things that need to be done and tweaked before it's official, official...

- Practiced being a crazy dog lady by taking even more pictures of Tanky. LOVE HIM!

So there you have it. The run down of January. I have some photos, mainly of my shopping trip, I'll have to get them off the camera and onto the bloggy.

2012-01-12T14:49:00.001-07:00

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I've seen this on Facebook a lot the past few days, so today during lunch I took the time to watch it.

I agree with a lot of what is says...

I'm Lutheran, through and through. Born, raised, and will more than likely die Lutheran.

However, I believe that we are called to go and make disciples, not Lutherans. Or Catholics, or Baptists, etc. Nothing in the Bible tells us to make these denominations, man has told us to do so.

I couldn't leave my Lutheran ways. In my opinion one of the coolest things about being Lutheran is the idea of Grace. When I try wrap my mind around how awesome Grace is, it makes me excited, joyful, thankful, and leaves me in awe. How cool is it that no matter how many times we mess up or how bad we mess up, we have a loving God who is willing to take us back, not because of what we did, but because of what His Son did for us on the cross.

My favorite part about the video is the very first part... JESUS > RELIGION. Jesus is greater than religion. It doesn't matter what faith we follow, it matters WHO we follow.

Me, I'm Lutheran, but more importantly I'm saved by the blood shed for me on the cross when Jesus died. I will celebrate in heaven one day because after His death, Jesus rose from the dead claiming victory over death.

Yay! Jesus!!

Living a mile high...

2012-01-09T07:22:00.000-07:00

This morning everyone in Denver is on top of the world...higher than the typical mile in which we live. Why? Because yesterday the Broncos one their first playoff game of the season. A playoff game that many did not even think that the Broncos would even be a contender. Now, I must admit that I am not a follower of the NFL. I'm a Nebraska girl... My students however are HUGE Broncos fans! I hear about it from them, and the news.

I can handle listening to the 5 minute clips here and there about the Broncos. What I can't handle more and more is the terrible disrespect that is displayed towards Tim Tebow. For those of you who don't know, let me introduce you to Tim.

I first heard about Tim Tebow as a Florida Gator. He and his mother were in a Focus on the Family TV ad during the Superbowl one year. The ad Celebrated Life. It was ProLife. It was Christian.

I don't know all the details about how Tim got to Denver, or anything about when he started really playing for the Broncos, etc. What I do know is this...after touchdowns (I think, or maybe just good plays) he pauses and prays, like this:

The media has begun to call this "Tebowing". People do it all over the world. Tebow is not shy about his faith, to which I say, GOOD FOR YOU! I think that it is important that our children have pro athlete role models like Tim Tebow, who always gives thanks to God for his talents, who always calls himself 'blessed' rather than 'lucky'. He seems to be a great man of God.

I think, however, that Tim's commitment to giving thanks to the One who gave him his talents makes people uncomfortable. I teach middle school. In middle school, when my students are uncomfortable or not sure how to react they tend to go towards either laughing or making fun. That's what I feel like the media has made Tim's pausing for giving thanks.

I've thought this for a long time, but this morning I was super irked about it. A radio station, that I RARELY listen to, that is often crud & rude, was talking about the Bible. This caught my ear as I was scanning for any type of non-commercial noise. I went back to it and listened. They were bashing Tebow for praying. They were saying that Tebow's Bible doesn't have Matthew 6:6 in it. This is where Jesus is teaching his disciples how to pray.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. 7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. 8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

I feel like Tebow's kneeling in the end zone was a private moment. Yes, it was in front of thousands in the stadium. I do not know, but I feel that he probably wasn't doing it to be seen by others. And if the darn cameras would just leave him be...it could remain a moment of prayer for him. Granted, I've never seen this happen, I have just heard of it.

The mockery that the radio station, and other media outlets have made of Tebow's Christianity is getting on my nerves. I can't believe that if Tebow was an other religion in the world that they would be allowed to, or even begin to be so disrespectful.

Why can a station that 9 times out of 10 is blatantly non-Christian pull ONE VERSE from the Bible and use it to scold Tim?

That's my small soap box.

To you Mr. Tebow, thanks for being a good role model for my students. Thanks for not being shy about your faith, thus making them to realize more and more that they don't have to be shy about their faith. And good luck in Saturday's game. May God bless you and keep you safe.

StayTuned...

2011-12-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

I'm gearing up for some changes to the ol' blog & I've got some posts that are soon to come...

2011-12-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge--Furry Faces

2011-12-12T08:41:00.000-07:00

I Heart Faces is having is accepting photos of Furry Faces today and tomorrow!

This is my favorite Furry Face--Tank the Christmas Dog!

(He's not sure how he feels about his Christmas sweater)

This photo was entered into the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

2011-12-01T11:02:00.001-07:00

Well today's December 1st so its only fitting that it would snow today. :) It took me almost 2 hours to get to school today!

Thanksgiving Vacation 2011

2011-11-28T16:44:00.000-07:00

Wow, never have 5 days gone by so fast!

I was out of school on Tuesday at 3 PM so Ryan and I started packing up some of our stuff at the Oakes. We had a lovely lasagna dinner with them to end our time staying there.

Wednesday morning we packed 98% of our belongings not in storage and headed down south to sign the papers to become home owners again. Our closing was at noon and we were done by 1:02 PM. It was great! After a quick meal at Wendy's we headed to the post office and picked up our mailbox keys. We were off to begin the mad unpacking!

We had purchased tickets to see the Lion King back in August and so we didn't have a lot of time to unpack on Wednesday. I stayed at the house and started unpacking while Ryan went to Lyssa's to pick up some of our stuff from her garage. He came back, we unpacked that stuff and a few other things then headed to R & C's to shower and change for the Lion King.

The Lion King was great!!

Thursday morning we picked up our final belongings & Tank and headed HOME! Ryan took Lyssa to the airport and I again hit the unpacking. He came home and we unpacked our containers until about 2 PM. We showered and headed to Castle Rock for Thanksgiving linner (as Ryan calls lunch & dinner). We came home hoping to finish our bedroom and go to bed...the problem was we couldn't find the legs to our bed.

Friday morning we worked feverishly on the unpacking and were able to get most of it done. Ryan's parents came & his dad helped with the final big things and saved the day when he found the legs to our bed! Cyndi & Colleen also came over and were a great help, unpacking boxes & putting together the futon & our bed!

Saturday morning Peggy came over and she and I unpacked the kitchen while Ryan went to the library to finish his final projects for his grad class.

Sunday we headed to church & then a few stores in search of blinds for our abode.

Today Ryan took the day off, and I'm told that he finished taking stuff from the garage to their appropriate location so we can park in there tonight! And he installed blinds in the entry way and the powder room! He was beginning to install them in our bedroom when I hung up the phone!

All in all I was reminded of how blessed I am! I am truly thankful for all that I have been given!

This Post Linked Up with Via Scribendi

2011-11-07T12:00:00.000-07:00

The current topic for Via Scribendi is "Who I'm Thankful For" So here's my post...

I'm thankful for:

Ryan, my husband, the most patient person I know, & loves me despite my desire for instant gratification & my impatience.

Mom, who every time we come home does our laundry & feeds us good food. Who always talks to me when I drive home, who is my best friend.

Dad, who will always fix my car 110% better than the most honest mechanic in town. Who has the one of the most caring hearts I know.

Adam, who is still here today. Who made growing up fun--I remember many nights of sleeping on the floor in his room & "building" a tree house in the front yard.

Ashley, for loving my brother & taking care of him.

Grama, who always makes me feel like my phone call was the greatest part of her day.

Gramps, for teaching me that meals are always better when taters are involved. :)

Ryan's Parents, who raised the amazing man I married, and who let us store stuff at their house during our time of homelessnes.

Ryan & Colleen, who opened their home for us during our time of homelessness.

Hannah, who is always a phone call away & loves road trips despite my dislike of them--you, my friend, are one of about three people with whom I would road trip.

Amy C, my favorite extemper! :) I still remember the day we met & am thankful that God put us at Seward at the same time.

Lindz, my favorite Spanish speaking friend. Thank you for taking me to Europe!

Mona, who introduced me to my husband. My only friend when I came to Denver. Thank you for making me a part of your family. And for allowing me to be the godmother of one of your children!

My aunts & uncles & cousins--holidays are more fun when we're all together.

I have many people to be thankful for. The obvious groups are my family and my closest friends. Many have touched my life along the way and formed me into who I am today. Thank you!

Look what I found on Saturday...

2011-11-06T21:46:00.000-07:00

We have CARPET!

I've been trying to figure out what they still need to do & the list of things that have been done is shorter than the list of stuff that still needs to be done.

November 17th is fast approaching! (That's the day we do our walk through)

We close the day before Thanksgiving!

Today we bought a fridge, washer, & dryer...almost there!

My School Halloween Costume

2011-10-31T07:01:00.000-06:00

Where's Waldo?

Hooray!

2011-10-26T05:00:00.000-06:00

Remember this blog?

DaNita at Delightful Order was celebrating her Blog Birthday by giving away a gift card to one luck reader. Guess who that luck reader was?! ME! I won a $40 Target Gift Card! I'm so excited to purchase some organizing stuff for our new house with it!

Thank DaNita!

And if you don't already read her blog, you should!! I love it!

Snow Day

2011-10-25T11:25:00.000-06:00

I need a snow day so that I can fix all my buttons on my "Blogs I Like" Page...

MAYBE TOMORROW! (We could get anywhere from 3 to 9 inches of snow tonight, it all depends on where the storm settles. I'm hoping for the 9 inches.)

Breckenridge--Professional Church Workers Conference.

2011-10-25T11:05:00.002-06:00

Found some pictures on my camera from my trip to Breckenridge. Enjoy!

Fall Festival

2011-10-20T13:08:00.000-06:00

Pastor, Myself, & Mrs. C

WHIP CREAM PIE THROWING...be jealous of the "beauty treatment" I received.

We have walls!

2011-10-17T13:12:00.000-06:00

Yesterday Ryan and I went out to the house to see the progress and guess what?! The drywall was all up on the main floor! In addition to the main floor there was drywall in the master bedroom, the loft, and one bedroom! Hopefully when we go back later this week they will have taped and sanded the drywall! We're not sure exactly what goes next. My guess is that they will do the cabinets next, then painting, then flooring! Hooray! We have a closing date of the Friday after Thanksgiving. We were really hoping for Monday or Tuesday that week as I have no school Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday which would be fantastic for unpacking. Unless they are super ahead of schedule, I don't foresee them changing the closing date. We'll see. I'll post some pictures soon of the progress. Every time we go out there we take pictures.

Things I Google...{Via Scribendi}

2011-10-10T10:00:00.000-06:00

Goo-gle: Verb--to search for something on the Internet.
What do I Google? The better question is what don't I Google?!?!?

Directions
How to cook
How to write a resume'
How to get funding for my school
Abe Lincoln
Thomas Jefferson
Newton's First, Second, and THIRD Laws
Forces
Paul's Missionary Journeys
Bible verses for Teachers

You get the idea. Google is a part of our lives...daily! The question is what did people do before Google? I know, I know, they used Yahoo! Why didn't Yahoo! catch on like Google? My personal thought is the gruffness that the two "g"s provide.
Googling however can go the wrong direction quickly. You know what I'm talking about...you started your Google search so innocently... "Why is..." the rest of the question is supposed to be "...the sky blue?" but instead something silly comes up like "Why is my poop green?" And THAT is ALWAYS when someone walks by you or sees your computer screen! In fact, a quick Google search will show that there are actually websites and lists being formed on the Internet that tracks these sort of silly Googles.
Sometimes one can even Google things simply for the laugh in which they are sure to provide. Cake wrecks. Dear Blank. Failbook. The list can go on and on. And if you need a funny joke about ducks and light bulbs, have no fear, I'm sure you can find something on Google. (Great, now I'm going to go Google that to see if there are any...hold on....{nope, just a bunch about light bulbs, and a few about ducks, none that are in the same joke, bummer!})
Google, the new verb. Everyone's doing it. And everyone has a different reason for doing it. It's fun. It can become a time waster. Those of us who love to procrastinate (or just simply do it because) can use Google to hopefully save are rears or spark an idea so that we can do chapel in an hour because we forgot until we opened our computer at school that we were in charge of chapel...
Now that you've read about things I've Googled and my thoughts on Google, what are you going to Google next?

Officially "Homeless"

2011-10-03T17:41:00.000-06:00

Well we did it, we got our whole house packed with about 8 hours to spare. We had to be out of our house on Saturday at 9 AM. Friday at 12:30 AM we were on our way to our hotel for the night...DONE!

Let me tell you a few things I learned about staying in a hotel with a dog:

1. EVERY little noise makes him growl and/or bark. He's not usually a barky dog.
2. It doesn't matter how nice your hotel is, when you take your dog out to go potty there might be a "lady of the night" outside who thinks he's cute and when she bends over to pet him she shows all her goodies on both ends...
3. Allowing the puppy to sleep with you in hopes that he won't bark/growl quite so much might work...a bit.
4. Allowing the puppy to sleep with you keeps you super warm!
5. Allowing the puppy to sleep with you means you are in the middle and he might take up more room that your husband on the bed.

Currently we are staying in Arvada, housesitting for some people from church. Let me tell you how glorious my morning was today.

Woke up at 4:30 AM to shower. Laid in bed while Ryan showered. Got up at 5:15 to fix hair/do make-up. Left house about 6, stopped to get gas and a sandwich (I HAD to have a cold lunch today because my class went to the zoo...no microwave...I forgot.) and still made it to school by 6:15! Hooray for not living in Kansas for a while!

Ryan's morning was probably a bit longer than mine...he'll live...it's only 3 weeks. {Anyone got an extra bed we can have beginning October 24th? We have a dog...}

and we're getting a house...

2011-09-27T19:02:00.001-06:00

That's right, after about 7 weeks of trying to sell our house, and looking for houses we've found one! Let me start at the beginning...

About this time last year I saw online that there were three houses for sale in the Wheatlands. They were a bit out of our price range but I wanted to look at them anyway. They were KB Built to order homes that had been built and for some reason or another the buyer had backed out so KB was trying to get rid of them. Ryan was less than interested at the time so one Saturday I went by myself and fell in love with the Montgomery model. I tried for a long time to get Ryan to go see it. I was in love. I wanted to make it our house for the next hundred years...

I took many people to my favorite house in Aurora to see the model. Kathleen, Hannah, maybe Colleen? and FINALLY after Kathleen told Ryan about how great the house was he was willing to come with me. We looked. He agreed, it was great! There was one ~~small~~ large problem. They wouldn't take contingencies and we had one...a house to sell. We knew there was no way to commit to building a house in this market when selling our house was no guarantee. We also weren't sure what we would do during the 120 to 150 days it took to build it. So we did nothing.

Finally in July we got hooked up with a FABULOUS realtor, Lisa. {If you're buying or selling in Denver and need a realtor, call me. She's amazing!!} She's so fabulous she sold our house in 3 weeks!!! {The house next to us has been on the market for a year now...}

Anyway, as we looked for houses we always compared all the houses we saw to the Montgomery. Finally about 3-4 weeks ago we found a new house to compare all other houses to. We started calling it the Doane house (because it was on Doane Street...clever?) So we put an offer on it. But it was a short sale which meant it was going to take a long time. Meanwhile we have to be out of our house on October 1st {EEeeek!}.

Last week we had some great friends and family come help us pack up our belongings in three containers from Door to Door. They all went home and we realized we needed more boxes. So we headed to Sam's club to get said boxes. As we drove that direction we saw signs that said "QUICK MOVE-INS AVAILABLE" above the KB Home signs. We thought, maybe they will have the Montgomery avaiable. So we called. No answer. We decided to just stop over there and see what they had for a "quick move-in".

THEY HAD A MONTGOMERY!

So we talked and looked, and talked some more. We went home and made a Pro/Con list to compare the Doane house to the Montgomery. In the end, the Montgomery won. So we met Lisa on Sunday at the KB Sales office and signed a million pieces of paper to become owners of the house.

The house had been started by potential buyers who for whatever reason had to back out. The frame work is up and the plumbing has been put in. The previous buyers had put in over $70K in upgrades...in our dreams we can afford that... So we are going to the design studio on Thursday to put in our own "up"{down?}grades. We will do some upgrades and some standard things. We're super excited. We should be able to move in the week of Thanksgiving!! Hooray for having a real plan!

The pictures below are Ryan & I changing out the "available" tag to a "SOLD" tag on the property map! Yay! The second picture has Ryan pointing at the location. The third picture is a better shot of the cul-de-sac. Huzzah for having a house...almost!!

Generosity

2011-09-23T20:48:00.000-06:00

The topic for Via Scribendi this time around is Generosity. When I read that generosity was the topic I instantly thought of my parents.

My parents are the most generous people I know, and I feel that they have taught my brother and I to be fairly generous as well. Now, after being away from home, I see even more how generous my parents are.

When Ryan and I were home last we weren't sure what our plans were concerning moving. I had mentioned that we might want to borrow my dad's new pick-up. He was more than willing to let us drive it back to Colorado and use it until further notice. When we go home my mom routinely picks stuff up for us after working 12 hours. Last time we were in need of some Benedryl as we had forgot to bring ours. She was super willing to go after it for us.

I like the quote I found from Winston Churchill, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give." My parents worked hard to make a living. But their generosity in giving is what made our lives great growing up. My parents were giving of so many things. My mom gave up finishing her RN degree until later in life to raise us. She finally finished it in 2009. My dad always drove the older cars with broken electric windows, no a/c, etc., so that my mom and eventually my brother and I could drive the cars we did.

My parents taught me to be generous. One of the greatest things I've picked up, probably more from my mom, is that you can't take "it" with you. Life isn't about collecting stuff. We can't take our new cars, our iPhones, our Coach bags, etc with us when we die. What we can take with us for life is our memories.

2011-09-22T20:57:00.001-06:00

I know I'm behind on this blog! I've been distracted. Saturday we pack up all our stuff. So a packing I must go! Maybe Monday I'll have a real post...

Did you see?

2011-09-14T20:57:00.002-06:00

I took some pictures on Sunday. They are on their own page. I had so much fun taking them! Hooray for pictures!

Most Amazing!

2011-09-07T20:46:00.000-06:00

organizational post I've ever read! <-----Click it! Read it (actually it's mainly pictures, so it won't take long.) Hold on to your jaw, it might drop! I want my house to be this organized someday SOON! :)

Pictures!

2011-09-07T18:43:00.000-06:00

Okay, so these aren't all from the ones I've been promising, but they are pictures none-the-less. :)

Last weekend Ry & I with the Tankster headed to Nebraskie for a wedding. A family friend of ours finally said "I do" after 10 years of dating! (Which would be a REALLY long time if he was older, since he's not, it's just a long time). We headed out on Thursday and stayed until Sunday.

I think I appreciate my trips to Nebraska more and more as I age. It's so nice to be there and not have a care in the world...or so it seems. It was nice to settle down and not worry about finding a house and dumb house stuff.

The wedding was on Friday, so we got dressed up all pretty for that...

My dad loves the camera...can you tell? Here's the bride and groom...

Ryan needed to pose with Tank before we left for the wedding.

On Saturday the Huskers played their first Big 10 game against TN. They won. Being home on a Husker game day was a great chance for Tank to model his new Husker fashion. Mom made him a bandana in July so he sported it on Saturday. Here I am with him.

When we go home Tank has to be on a leash when he's outside because we're afraid he'll chase a rabbit and we'll never see him again (okay, that's a stretch since there are like 100 people in Meadow Grove...) Here he his posing in the grass.

Isn't he the most awesome dog you've ever met? (or seen?)

Good news! We have a place to stay once we give up possession of our house! Two ladies from church who have a house in Arvada are going on a month long trip in October. I asked them if they needed a house sitter and explained what was going on with Ry & I and today they told me that they would LOVE to have us house sit for them! Yay for not being totally homeless! Now if we could just get the bank to accept our offer...

It's getting darker earlier...

2011-08-31T21:09:00.000-06:00

Fall is on it's way.

This magazine came in the mail this week.

Tank was quick to go through it and start making a Christmas List...

He would like a fluff free snowman, seen below...

And these treats...

Which would allow him to enjoy one special treat a week for 51 weeks...almost a year. He's decided that he can take a break from the special treats the week of his birthday because all of his loyal followers will get him a special birthday treat.

PS...

2011-08-29T20:38:00.000-06:00

Have you checked out

It's rockin' over there! I love it! I can't believe how quickly it's taking off!!! Every day I give Ryan the follower report. It goes like this:

Me: (said with TONS of enthusiasm and excitement!) I have another follower on TT!

Ry: Oh

I guess it's only fair since when he tells me

"I figured out that the tag line in the firewall incorrect and that was redirecting the traffic from the tunnel I created thus making it difficult for you to send emails from school. But I think if I reset the router and make the commands execute on the even minutes, then it will work"

I say

"Whatever."

I'm going to post pictures

2011-08-29T20:32:00.000-06:00

I swear!

Last week really got away from me. Before I knew it, BAM! It was Sunday night & I hadn't even started my lesson plans. (I usually do them on Thursdays & Fridays but I had to stay late at school both nights working on tuition and billing...) So no pictures yet. But here's a quick overview of the weekend:

Saturday--Met with a bride, looked at tons of houses {7}, made an offer on one

Sunday--Church, Fall Festival Meeting, Change oil in my car {Ryan}, go grocery shopping {Me--I saved 45% on my King Soopers bill alone...I heart couponing!}, lesson plans

Monday--Found out there are other offers also submitted on the house we like. It's a short sale. We resubmitted our offer (and changed it up). Pray! Call Xcel man, find out that the inspection report may not have been 100% true concerning the gas leak (there wasn't one, hooray for Xcel's fast, free response to check for said gas leak), waste time reading blogs, make yummy hamburger and beans like grama used to make (too bad I didn't have any potatoes, fried potatoes would have made it), blog, create some Language Arts worksheets for tomorrow.

The. End.

Snap Shop Giveaways Galore'

2011-08-25T13:02:00.000-06:00

So I follow a few blogs about taking pictures. I want to take better pictures. I stumbled on all of the blogs when I started following The Macs. I enjoy reading all of them. Last month, one of the bloggers, Ashley Ann launched her Snap Shop Online course. I thought it was a great idea and have plans to get in on it sometime. Well this week THREE of the blogs I follow are giving away spots to the Snap Shop Online Photo class. So if you're interested, stop at Ashley's blog and read all about it then stop over at the other blogs and comment to get your name in for a chance to win a free spot.

Ashley's Blog {Learn All About the Snap Shops Online Course}

Meg's {Whatever} Giveaway

Cookie Mondays Giveaway

Jess's {The Macs} Giveaway

This Weekend

2011-08-21T21:22:00.000-06:00

Did you hear? Our house is officially UNDER CONTRACT! Hooray! Do you know what that means? We have about 5 weeks to find a new house, pack our belongings, and hit the road. So guess what we did this weekend? Yup! We looked at houses.

I got to say, I love our realtor. She's great. She's a lot of fun and I really feel like she's "got our back". We met her at 9 AM Saturday morning to look for houses. She had sent about 30 listings to us a few weeks ago. Our task was to hit 6 houses. We found out that 2 of the 6 we wanted to see were no longer available, but we picked up a few more along the way. Here are the houses we saw, according to our thoughts on them:

Angry man's house with dog poop in living room.

These people weren't ready for us to be there and the man wasn't too happy about us being a bit early. We rushed through and when we left Ryan asked me if I saw the poop on the living room floor. I didn't, thank goodness!

80's House

This is the house that Ryan said reminded him of one his parents had owned. It was built in the 80's and it showed in many ways. Updates had begun in the kitchen (which is what sold me in the pictures and made me think we needed to see it), but the rest of the house was far behind.

Dream House

This is the one we liked the best. It seems to be perfect. It's a short sale. The agent still hasn't called our agent back to let us know where in the process the house is...we haven't got high hopes for it working out

Long house, tiny master

This was a ranch, we saw the For sale sign and Lisa called to set up the appointment. It was set up with two long sides. On one, a huge front room, a giant wall, kitchen, dining. The other side (they were separated by stairs going downstairs) was tiny master, bathroom, bedroom, bedroom.

Very Religious & 3 Kitty House

This was one we saw as we were driving. The owners were home. They let us look. They had not done much de-personalizing. There were tons of photos everywhere! There were also tons of Virgin Mary's and saints and crosses. They were displayed in a manner that I felt was a little overboard/tacky. (We had, up until we started packing away a lot of extras in our house, a cross wall. I felt it was done nicely. The crosses all had special meanings to us--our baptisms, our confirmations, our wedding, one made from Camp Luther wood, etc. I think you can decorate with religious symbols nicely. This house was a bit extreme.) It had four bedrooms upstairs. One was decorated perfectly for a baby. (Winnie the Pooh--I LOVE Pooh!)

Schizophrenic House

This one had essentially 4 levels. The "100% completed basement" was about 5 stairs down from the hallway into a giant den/bedroom area. (This area was the greatest craft room I've ever seen. I asked if we could request that the craft stuff stay...) The main floor was the formal dining, the kitchen, a bathroom, a front room/bedroom, a laundry room. The next level up was just the master bed & bath, the next level was a loft and two other bedrooms.

I don't remember much about the back yards and what not. Most were pretty decent. We realize that we are probably going to not have the great yard we currently have. We're giving up space outside to gain space inside.

Tuesday we are going to go see two or three more houses.

Saturday night was spent entertaining the teachers at the annual Back to School BBQ at the Glover's.

I have tons of pictures from today. I'll share them later this week.

Calling All Denver Readers (Or those who might be in Denver...)

2011-08-19T11:13:00.000-06:00

Colleen at The Ranunculus Adventures is giving away a free night at the JW Marriot in Cherry Creek! Jump over to her blog, read it, comment, and you may just win!

(Such a prize could be great for family who wants to come into town to help their daughter & son-in-law move sometime in the near future, just saying... *wink wink*)

I promise a more exciting post this weekend. The first week of school is intense! But it's almost over!

Fun!

2011-08-16T07:00:00.006-06:00

My Stick Family from WiddlyTinks.com I found this website via a blog I was reading. So I just HAD to make a little stick family! {I don't know why Tanky's name won't appear, I swear I typed it...}

This Post Linked Up with Via Scribendi

2011-08-15T10:03:00.002-06:00

Beginnings...

Beginnings are always messy. -John Galsworthy

That’s how I’m feeling right now. This blog is a new beginning & it started with me not knowing much about how this whole Tumblr works. I had a draft ready to go but learned that I can’t add pictures as easily as I can with blogger and would need a few more self-taught lessons on how to add my own pictures, so I deleted what I had.

The first day of school is Tuesday! To prep for it I had to make a mess in my room. On any given day for the last few weeks you could walk into my classroom and find full trash cans and general disarray. Messy. I can’t even begin to describe my office at the beginning of the year with all the papers people give me and the requests they make. Sunday I did everything I could not to be in there because it was such a mess, and it’s the only place with air conditioning in the building.

Even though right now I feel like things are messy as I prepare to begin things in my life, I’m excited about the new beginnings and where they will take me. I don’t think of myself as much of a writer, but I’m excited to learn to maybe become more of a writer.

My classroom may have been a mess for longer than I liked, & on Tuesday it’s sure to become disorderly again, but the beginning of the school year holds so much potential! And sooner or later I’ll get to my office and get things filed properly.

Beginnings are a blessing. -Me

{I'm part of a blogging adventure with 6 other ladies across the US. We'll be posting on different themes every month. The first theme of the adventure: Beginnings. You can check it out here.}

Our Past Two Sundays

2011-08-14T21:00:00.000-06:00

The past two Sundays Ryan and I have been at church/school from the time church starts until about 8 PM. (Okay, two weeks ago we were so late for church, we didn't go, shame on us...) But still we've been there a long time.

I'm pleased to announce though that because my husband is brilliant, our school now has a web filter. That's right, in his free time, the husband-extrodinare has been building us a filter so that the kiddies can't access any information they aren't supposed to access. Sweet huh? (He threatened to block Facebook which nearly sent me into cardiac arrest, {I only check it on my recess breaks, sometimes, and before and after school} but in the end he hasn't blocked it...yet)

Tonight was our back to school picnic. We had a lot of new faces there with our CDC program. I love parents of preschoolers! They are so cute and it's all so new to them to have a child in school that they are eager to help out. All through my presentation there were three moms smiling and nodding their heads with everything I said.

Tomorrow Ryan took the day off so we can spend my last day of summer together. Sweet, huh? Yeah, he's awesome like that. Here's what I would like to do tomorrow...

Here's probably what we'll actually do (especially since we don't live near a beach...)

Him working on the filter and me blogging, blog searching, pinteresting, or working school stuff.

Thought we might go here...

We'll see. I'll let you know.

I'm SO EXCITED

2011-08-14T13:57:00.000-06:00

You may notice the background layout has changed. It's no longer teach-y. That's because I'm excited to announce a new blogging adventure.

All summer I've been reading blogs. Mainly crafty and teachy blogs. I've often wished there were more blogs out there for middle school teachers. I have a hard time finding them. Then I thought, hmmm, maybe I could start blogging about teaching middle school. But I love my Only Grace blog. I love that it's a smorgish board of all things me--teaching, traveling, crafting, photography, living, etc. I don't want to give that up. So my solution was to begin a new blog.

Yesterday when I was delivering flowers with Colleen I had, what I think was, a brilliant idea. I would name my new blog *drum roll please*........... TEACHING TWEENS! Perfect! So last night I came home and got to work on it.

I've provided a link to the right on this blog so you can check it out if your interested. This blog will continue to exist in its original purpose--to keep family and friends updated on our life. There won't be as much teachy stuff here though, you'll have to click over to the other blog for that. I'm super excited about this adventure and am hoping to really link up and get & share ideas with other middle school teachers.

Here's the button to link over to the other blog.

Hanging with Maddie

2011-08-12T16:01:00.000-06:00

Yesterday I got the privilege of hanging out with the coolest 6 year old I know. I drove to Colorado Springs to pick Maddie up at noon. Our mission: Have a fun girls day and find her a baptismal birthday present. Our plan...well I didn't have one, because I don't really know Colorado Springs.

I picked her up at noon and asked her what she wanted to for lunch. She told me we should probably go somewhere close to her house and that there was a King Burger {Burger King} nearby, but she didn't know if she wanted to go there... So we drove in the general direction of food. As we were driving she was supposed to be watching and choose a place to eat. She was quite talkative in the back seat and I kept having to ask her where we were going. Then she decided on the Black Bear Diner. I loved it! It was a cute little diner that reminded me of my days working at The Cafe in Meadow Grove. There were cute little black bears all around.

Once we left we were on our way to the Target Mall because they have a play area. I didn't know where this mall was so I was trying to use my detective skills. I asked if there was a JCPenney and Dillards at the Target Mall--yes, there was. So I drove to where I had seen the JCP & Dillards only to be told that it was not the Target Mall. So then I drove to Target, which was a stand alone store. Then she remembered that the Target Mall was in Denver. So we just went to Target.

We were probably in Target close to two and a half hours. We made three trips to the fitting room.

It was great. I loved the pink shirt with the cupcake but it was "too hot" for her, even though I tried to explain that it was going to be winter soon. The skirt she is wearing with the yellow shirt was HUGE, but it had these elastic pulls on it so we were able to make it fit, we decided that was a maybe because she could grow into it and wear it longer. The leggings that came with it were super cute. After many yes, no, and maybes we went to look at toys, then shoes, then clothes again. Finally she settled on a super cute outfit {which I didn't get a picture of, Boo!}

We had to pause in between fitting room trips and toy aisle trips. We laid out all the possibilities while still keeping in the parameters of spending I had set up. So we went and got a push-up from the Target food court.

She got two pairs of leggings, one brown with white polka-dots and one pink.
The cutest pink skirt--think tutu only a bit longer. (I tried to find a pic on Target.com, but couldn't)
The yellow shirt pictured above.
A white shirt with a rainbow on it.
...and the shoes.
She also got a Smurf because it was kind of killing her that she wasn't getting toys (Auntie Sarah was trying to carefully persuade her away from toys that would only be played with for a few days and then forgot about)

When we got back to her house she went and put on the brown & white leggings, the skirt, the white shirt with a rainbow, and the shoes. SO CUTE!

I also regret that I didn't take a picture of the two of us. It was super fun spoiling her. I might have went $5 over the amount I set. She NEEDED the Smurf. :)

I Heart Faces Photo Challenge--Friendship

2011-08-09T19:59:00.000-06:00

These are three of my favorite people with me on my wedding day. I've known these girls for 11 years and feel blessed to call them BFFs!

Check out more friendship pictures at I Heart Faces!

A B C's of the Last Two Days

2011-08-09T17:59:00.000-06:00

{Okay, so I don't really have 26 things to share with you, but what I am going to share is in ABC order}

Army Wives! Netflix is streaming ALL the seasons of Army Wives. I used to watch this show regularly when I had cable & a DVR! I've missed it. I decided to start from the beginning and watch it through to it's current season...

Breakfast Burritos! I made 12 of them today. Yummy!

Colleen & Cowgirl Cookies! Yesterday when Colleen was here she had some Cowgirl Cookies from a birthday party. We decided to make them. They are delicious!

Goulash! I made a pot of goulash last night and divided it into smaller bowls to freeze & have ready for lunches.

Ikea! Colleen and I went to Ikea finally! It was fun. I can't wait to go back when I really need some things. I did find four things that I just simply couldn't live without... A new stool for my classroom, a cute little lantern that I'm not real sure where I'm going to put it but I loved it and it was $4, two boxes (one package) for Ryan's receipt & paper collection, and a new dish drying rack!

Lazy...that's what I was today. I slept in a bit, laid around and read, surfed the Internet, created a newsletter to email to my staff weekly, worked on Smart Board stuff for my classroom, and generally didn't leave the couch much.

Pots & Pans! I have washed them a lot yesterday and today. Sometimes multiple times. This may be why I don't like to cook much?

Summer is ending...Sadness. Only a few short days before the bell starts to ring at school daily at 8 AM and I have lovelies waiting for me to teach them...I think I like summer and my summer schedule of life better.

Tank! World's laziest dog, for real. Today he slept in the kitchen while I made breakfast burritos, in the living room, right under my feet, in the bedroom while I folded some laundry, in the bathroom while I showered, back in the living room, outside he soaked up the sun & slept, and currently I believe he is in the hall sleeping. I'll be taking him on a walk tonight so he'll sleep through the night.

10 Reasons You Know It's Back to School Time {Link Party}

2011-08-07T18:11:00.001-06:00

I'm linking up with Tunstall's Teaching Tidbits on this one...

10. I've spent more time in my classroom than in my office since August 1.

9. I'm not at school alone anymore, most of the teachers are popping in a few times a week, sometimes day.

8. I've spent close to my tax deductible $200 on school supplies and still have a list of a few things I need to pick up yet.

7. I took the plastic covers off of my bookshelves and dusted them.

6. The laminator smell is permeating the hallways almost daily.

5. When I get online my first stop is a list of teaching blogs and checking Pinterest for new ideas.

4. I've been at school everyday this week, including SUNDAY!, for about 6-8 hours a day.

3. I started setting my alarm again in hopes of training myself for school hours. {early to bed, early to rise}

2. I've made phone calls or visits with my students & their parents.

1. The calendar says August 7th!!! Only 8 more days of summer!

What did YOU do this weekend? (get your coffee...this is a looooooooooong post!)

2011-08-06T20:35:00.000-06:00

A few weeks ago (maybe a month) I got a Groupon email offering me a $30 savings for an "Urban Scavenger Hunt." After I read the details & checked out the website I thought, hmmmm....this could be fun. I contacted our friends Jeff & Kath to see if they wanted to do it with us. They were already committed to mud volleyball {gross!} but they wished us luck. I also called Amy & Phil to see if they would do it--Phil is in OKC this weekend with Air Force stuff, so then I went to my dear husband, who loves when I schedule things that he normally wouldn't do and said, you know what, I think it would be fun and we should do it. He agreed and I bought the Groupon: one for me and one as a "gift". I signed us up for the race. Here's what the Challenge Nation website has to say about the whole thing:

"Challenge Nation is a series of urban adventure races coming soon to a city near you! Each Challenge is part 5K race, part scavenger hunt, and part urban exploration--which all adds up to 100% fun as you compete against other Challengers to quickly solve the clues and beat them to the finish line!"

And fun it was. Ryan and I don't know a whole lot about the Denver area. As we were driving there today I told him we might have a fighting chance because I had written a scavenger hunt for my students to participate in recently so maybe, just maybe some of that information will be helpful. I'm going to say that it was helpful.

Registration was between 11 AM and 12:45 PM today and the race started at 1 PM. I wanted to leave in plenty of time, but that didn't work out (it rarely does and it's not always my fault...) I thought I knew EXACTLY where I was going: The Tavern Downtown. We got there and there was NO ONE around. Now this is a race for 475 participants to the fact that we saw no one made me double check my email. It was at The Tavern UPtown. It was 12:44 PM...

I thought for sure we were out $40 and they weren't going to let us participate. I was driving as fast as I could to get there. Ryan later told me that every time I pushed on the gas his stomach lurched and then when I slammed on the brakes everything he thought he was going to lose was forced back into his stomach--so dramatic....

Anyway, we got there, I pulled into 7-11 and told Ryan to park the car and I was going to try to get our packet and hope we could still participate. Turns out that the emails they sent were really mean, but they were not really mean about sticking to what they said. We were participants 372 & 373. Ryan found me and I told him I was going to run to the restroom. When I came out all the teams had the clues, but Ryan had no clue (literally and maybe a bit figuratively). I asked him if he heard the directions or knew where to get the clues...Nope. So I went and got some clues and we were off...kind of. We sat down to read through them first to get an idea where we were going. Oh, and the rules--we could use our fee and public transportation, which was limited to RTD, Mall Ride, and Light Rail.

Below are our 11 of 12 stops with the clues in the order we achieved them. (Oh, and there was a costume contest so we wore our Betty & Barney Rubble costumes from Halloween.)

NOTE: Clues are numbered as they were on the sheet we got, but shown in the order we finished them.

CLUE 8: Unlike the one row of purple seats at coors, THREE separate stpes on this building have been marked "one mile above sea level" over the past 100 years, as a measurement methods have become more accurate (or the sea level is falling? Don't tell Al Gore!) Find any of the markers, stand on its step and take a triumphant photo with it and your team spelling out "D-E-N" (teams of two will have to sue some artistic license)

I was knew this one thanks to my scavenger hunt planning: The Capital Building! We had checked Facebook for some "hints" this morning and it said "We think 15 is accurate" so on the 15th stair we stood. Our idea was first to form our body into "D-E-N" but then when we got there I told Ryan, "Duh, sign language!" Then a girl from another team decided to jump in and help us finish spelling out DENVER.

As we were leaving the Capital we saw all these people around the statue at the bottom of the stairs, but we had NO idea which clue they were referring to. We thought about just taking the same picture as everyone else and figuring it out later. Then we heard someone say "11" and once we read the clue we still had no clue...

CLUE 11: On your route from clue 7 to 8 (or reverse) you'll come across either a monument that has the word "stow" on it, or a monument to a Colorado first--the photo pose is up to you.

Still clueless Ryan started to walk around. We were looking on one side of the monument that everyone was pointing at--I was trying to find the word "stow" then all of a sudden Ryan realized the monument was for Colorado's First Calvary! Hooray, we were on to our next clue.

One of our clues involved finding someone from another state. My philosophy on this was look for people with cameras around their neck! As we crossed Lincoln Ave to head to the library for clue 9 I decided to ask this family of four if they were from out of state. Here's how the conversation went:

Me: Are you guys from out of state.
Lady: Yes.
Me: Does your state start with a L, N, O, or P?
Lady: Yes, Pennsylvania.
Me: Great! Um, could we take a picture with you...and your driver's license for this scavenger hunt we're in?
Lady: Uh, sure.
Me: We also are supposed to make our arms look like the state in which you are from...what's PA look like?!?
Lady: A rectangle, with a weird cut out on the side (shows me her DL) like this!
Me: Uh, hmm...I think my boob can make that cut out.

CLUE 4: We promise you'll interact with a few folks for this one--find a friendly stranger who hails from a state that starts with the letter L, N, O, or P. Have them prove it by taking the picture with them and their drivers license and then all of you should (approximately) form the shape of their home state with your arms.

I would like to note that the first people we asked fulfilled this clue! Huzzah!

CLUE 9: Just like last year, it's pretty warm out there by Rocky Mountain standards (the clue above not withstanding, V.P. Al just may be on to something...) So just like last year, this clue is a MANDATORY 5 minute indoor breather. Find the place that's cool and quiet (even though it's full of volumes) In the central lobby you'll find a clock...take one photo with your team and the clock and then another photo at least 5 minutes later acting our your team's favorite scene from any offering in this building. Note: Challenge teams are aLWAYS quiet, courteous and respectful while indoors--please whisper!

This was a no-brainer for me! The LIBRARY! We hurried over there. We did take two pictures, though only one is here. Seems the lady we gave our camera to for the 5 minutes later picture wasn't a great photographer--it was super blurry. Here we were also able to get a pencil so we could cross off clues as we went.

CLUE 7: The Bard says "all the world's a stage" in As You Like It (we're very cultured) but sumtimes you really need an...actual stage...to find your inner actor. So find this monumental outdoor venue constructed in 1918 that's south of the city's first standalone library (funded by none other than library fan Andre Carnegie...he built 35 here in CO alone)--if it looks pretty spiffy, that's because it just underwent a $9.5 million renovation. Hop up on stage and pick our a (reasonably) recognizable movie scene and act it out with another Challenge team or a talented passerby. Be creative.

Again this one I was fairly certain of because it's near the library and I remembered it being under construction last summer. So here we are with another team acting out Romeo & Juliet. (The other team's idea, we were just happy have a team to join.)

It should be noted here that it was SUPER important to read through the ENTIRE clue...we walked from the stage area to the US Mint only to have the guard at the Mint tell us that everyone was coming there, but we needed to go to the Federal Reserve Building...

CLUE 1: Everyone knows the 10,000 pound Big Blue Bear--he'll make his way into the convention center some day. One you find this three-dimensional concrete giant, you'll be near a far more flat rendition of a President who fell in love with the American west, Colorado especially. A Centennial State national forest is named for him, in fact. When you spot him, act out his most famous quote or any scene from his life in the photo.

When we got to the Convention Center, we were getting ready to cross and we knew we were looking for Roosevelt. Then Ryan very carefully told me to look at the building across the street from the CC, and did I think that was it? YES! We casually took off in that direction only to find no one to take our picture. We ducked into a parking garage (shade) to read the clue again and figure out what we were going to do. I Googled (we were allowed to use Smart Phones & GPS) "Famous quotes by T. Roosevelt" and found one he said about being courteous. I told Ryan to make it look like he was letting me go in front of him. Then a man and woman came over and thought they were in the same predicament with no one to take their picture, out we popped, switched cameras and Ta-Da!

CLUE 6: Yes, you have a U.S. Mint here, one of only four in the country that still make our coinage (see why I thought we had to go to the Mint?) But you have to settle for a "Denver Branch of this other entity of the federal money apparatus, (see why I should have read the whole clue?) based out of... Missouri of all places. Once you find its main entrance, look at your feet for some noisy grates. Locate one and listen for a little bit--have your team mimic what you hear in the photo.

When we got there we heard pig noises in the grate. By the time we found another team to take our picture there was opera singing. We decided that since when we got there it was piggies we were going to make piggy noses in the photo.

Here again is where we went about a block out of our way. As Ryan was directing us to where we thought we were going I re-read the whole clue and told him NO! We gotta go here...

CLUE 5: You know, it's a good ting that the chefs at Ted Turner's Montana Grill don't know about this particular herd on 16th--the customers would probably complain that their burgers were a little tough. When you rustle up this location, your team should pose juuuuuust like the sculpture-- you won't look silly or draw attention at all! (previous statement: false)

All of a sudden it made sense to us why people were taking pics with the cows all over the 16th Mall, but I remembered that the logo for Ted's is a buffalo.

Here we took a breather, we were down to our last clues...and we were clue-less. We were both Googling things like mad and again, Ryan aka Super Smooth Man, turns around and says, oh, there, at the bus stop, are the chess pieces...

CLUE 3: What's with all the larger-than-life sculptures 'round these parts? These oversized regal chess items actually mask two vents for the subterranean space the sit atop. A stone's throw away, find the temporary megasized resting spot, which is part of a public awareness campaign--make like Forrest Gump with your team and pose on it.

Even when we got there I was still confused as to what we were doing--I was hung up on the chess pieces because I hadn't read the clue all the way through... The team who needed a photographer sat down first and so we followed suite. Afterwards the light came on...Forrest Gump...waiting on a bench for a bus...the chess pieces cover the bus stop.

The whole time we were doing this we were looking for someone to fulfill this clue...

CLUE 2: Like most Americans, we're amused that professional athletes and wealthy team owners in several pro sports have found it tough to agree just how many gazillions of dollars they'll make from teh average fan. But for this clue, find any stranger (non-Challenger, that is) wearing any professional sprots gear from any team EAST OF THE ROCKIES. Here's the catch: no Denver teams adn you can't throw a hat on someone in a sports store, and this person cannot fulfill any other clue's objectives. Snap a photo of them mimicking a play from the sport they're rocking.

I failed this one earlier--we snapped a pic with a guy in a Kansas Jayhawk shirt...ooops, not professional. Sorry dude.

When we saw this guy I told Ryan I was fairly certain his shirt was a St. Louis Cardinal's baseball shirt, but to be sure I asked. Fail 2 would be that we didn't pretend we were playing baseball....doh! But he was friendly...Ryan was weirded out that he put his arms around us.

Down to 2 clues!

CLUE 12: Denver's home to the first location of many popular restaurants that have franchised across the country...We left one off the list that has the most locations of all, more than 4,000 (although many are toast: 1,000 have closed in the last few years). But the original is still open: find it and have your team pose out front.

We googled and found out it was Quiznos. We also were told the original was on 17th...wrong. When we went there though, the lady told us it was on 13th & Grant. Back on the mall ride and a few blocks from there...

Now all that was left was to head back to The Tavern Uptown...

We got there and took a load off. (We had stopped at Starbucks on our way to Quiznos.

The costume contest involved nominating yourselves. We decided to, after all we thought we were creative. We got 3 votes...2 were ours. Boo. We were up against Nintendo Characters, Smurfs, Ladies in Angel wings with devil horns and forks, three girls dressed as super heros, ZOMBIES?!?!, and Pirates. The Smurfs won the $50. We might still stand a chance on the FB voting.

All in all a fun day! And we finished in 1 hour, 44 minutes, and 21 seconds. Hopefully you were able to read this marathon post in less time that that...

If Challenge Nation is coming to your city or one near you, you should do it!!

Blog-Block

2011-08-05T20:29:00.000-06:00

I've opened my blog quite a few times this week to blog, but couldn't think of anything fantastic to write about so I simply closed it and went on my merry way.

This week has been full of working in my classroom. I love my job and wouldn't trade it for much, but I really want to just be a "teacher" this week and next. I don't want to be interrupted from working on my classroom because another teacher needs workbooks or because a parent has lost yet another registration packet and needs a school supply list or to show a trash guy or sign guy around so they can come up with a proposal for us to "save" money. But, since I'm the principal, I will do these jobs. It just means that I need to get to school WAY before everyone else so that I can focus on my classroom and then when the rest of the world strolls in at 9 AM I can be there for them. The only problem is that this is how I feel about alarms and early mornings:

I set my alarm to get up early and then hit snooze and eventually shut it off and then all of a sudden it's 60-90 minutes later than when my alarm first went off! I've scheduled some meetings here and there and I suggest morning meetings so I'm not stuck at school if I don't want to be, except my definition of morning is 10 AM!

Tomorrow Ryan and I are participating in an urban scavenger hunt through Challenge Nation. I got a Groupon for discounted registration. I asked a friend about doing it but she and her husband were playing mud volleyball which sounds like a nightmare to me. So then I asked Ryan if he would do it. I'm not sure if he actually agreed or not. :-P So tomorrow we have to be downtown by 12:15 PM to pick up our packets. One of the requirements is to have a digital camera to take pics at various locations, so there will be pictures for sure tomorrow! Get excited!!

PS--If you've not watched Friday Night Lights yet...START! I love it! It's been my summer TV show marathon. Netflix streams the first 4 seasons!

Tami Taylor is my inspiration--she doesn't put up with any crap! This year I will be a principal like her! And she wears cowboy boots with her dresses and looks super cute--I kind of want cowboy boots...

Guest Blogging at the Ranunculus Adventures

2011-08-02T17:11:00.000-06:00

Today the Ranunculus Adventures (Colleen's blog) features me as a guest blogger! The topic: "If I Got Married Today." It was super fun to do that post! Click HERE to read it! Thanks for the opportunity, Colleen! I hope to get a chance to do it again! :-)

Food Fast

2011-08-01T20:44:00.000-06:00

Today is August 1. Sadly that means that there are only 15 days of summer left. Boo! Hiss! Boo! I wish that we could split the summer/school year evenly. I'm thinking summer from April 1 to October 1 and school in between? Perfect. Someday I'll be the President and make it happen! (riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!) Any who. As August approaches many exciting things are happening here at Casa de Glover. The biggest is that Ryan and I have officially put our house on the market and have begun the search for a new home.

Some people assume that I am with child and that is why we are upgrading our house. That is a bad assumption. It is true that some day we hope to have children and that we would like a bigger house to raise said children. That being said, it seems to us to make sense to move before we have children because hypothetically it will be less involved.

As we prepare for a large adventure, we've decided to partake in a food fast--as in, for the month of August we will not eat out on our pocket-book. To prepare for this event, last night we went all out. :-P We had Mexican for our meal yesterday. (It was at about 4 PM, neither lunch nor supper, we called it Linner). Once we got home we did a few things and then decided it was necessary to go get some Fro-Yo! So today was day one, and I had Chipotle for lunch. BUT, the Board of Ed paid for it, so it doesn't count. Tomorrow is Chicken Cordon Blue at the base--Ryan's already asking for an exception. :-P I guess they only have it once a month and Ryan really likes it...guess that means I better learn how to make that, huh?

In other news, I went back to school today for a teacher's meeting. I don't want to be back at school, but it pays the bills... ;-) so I'll go back.

U-Printing

2011-07-29T21:56:00.002-06:00

Did you know there are other companies other than Vista Print that can do printing? Jan is giving away 100 postcards from U-Print on her blog! Click here to enter! I've already begun looking at designs to try and figure out what kind of other postcards I can use within my classroom!

I did it!

2011-07-28T22:23:00.000-06:00

I saw a pop-up ad for 80% off of Vista Print, so I ordered a few things for my classroom!

I ordered 250 business cards to use as Homework Passes. I wanted to just have them print my name in pretty script, but I decided that would make it too easy/tempting for students to try to access them on their own.

This is a self-inking stamp. It was 99 cents! I've been looking for a stamp to quickly stamp late papers. I picked up a business stamp a few years ago that says "Past Due" which was good, but this one I can make say what I want. I also added a place for parents to sign the paper so that they are aware that their child has turned work in late.

This is a postcard. It's modeled after an old EVHS idea. The "up" slip. I want to focus on being more positive this year and one of the things I want to do is send parents a note when their child is doing great in class. I got 100 of these post cards for $10! Perfect for writing a quick note to parents and sticking in the mail!

Finally, a pen. It was free! I was hoping it was maybe 10 free pens, but only 1. It says Mrs. Glover's 5th & 6th Grade. I removed it from the shopping cart to see if the shipping and handling was cheaper without the pen, and it wasn't so I figured, FREE PEN! Sure!

I'm super excited!

Crafting with Colleen

2011-07-27T21:46:00.000-06:00

Monday was craft day! After making my checkbook holder & skirt-apron I was inspired to continue using my sewing machine for a few more days. I called Colleen and told her to come over and craft! She gladly accepted.

I made her an apron & checkbook holder (both which took no time after already once doing them) and she made me a wreath for our front door (which sadly fell down today! [I think it was too heavy for our 3M hook that had been baking in the hot sun all summer, so I'll remount the hook with the other sticky thing that they come with]). Below are some pictures of everything.

Our first stop on our crafting day was JoAnn's. Ryan's mom had sent me an email with a 50% off coupon! I printed two so we could both use one!

Side note: While in JoAnn's we were in line to get our fabric cut and there was a lady there with three kids. She was buying gobs of sparkly ribbony stuff (Colleen things she is making costumes for beauty pageants.) Any way, two of her kids, girls, the oldest and youngest are kind of running around the store. Two other kids of joined in. They ran past us and knocked over a bunch of material. Then she looks at the boy in the cart and says "Do you want to get down and run around too?" I was shocked and appalled. I wanted to rip her head off! Are you kidding me? This is a store, not your back yard or the playground!!!!!! The police officer in line behind Colleen and I then went to her and said, "They just knocked down a whole bunch of material." She was like, "the kids???!?" No lady, the little old lady in front of us with her cart! YES THE KIDS! Then, noting the police officer, she decided to be hard core on the kids and keep them from running, but they still ran. Except the boy in the cart, who started screaming because she wouldn't let him get down and run around. *rolling eyes*

Measuring and ironing nice neat hems.

Like my awesome snap bracelet/pin cushion? I was going to use my 50% coupon on it, but it was already 50% off, and the coupon was only for regular price items. It was helpful and allowed me not to have to sit down and the sewing machine, realize I didn't have a pin cushion and then get up and go to the ironing board--or vice versa.

Sewing away. Actually at this point my machine was being a pain in the @$$!!! It used to always have a special bobbin, then one day I used it and BOOM it worked. Well, Monday it went back to it's old ways. I think it has to do with the tension, but I don't know how to change it. (Mom, how do I change the tension?!?)

While I sewed the apron, Colleen worked on painting the numbers for our wreaths.

And then glue them onto the wreath...

She burnt her thumb on my "high-temp" hot glue gun. After that she wasn't so fond of it.

The wreaths--though not quite finished. Mine is the burgundy one & hers the baby blue one.

Cyndi came over in time to model the apron. It was bright in the house! :-P

All done! Much easier to make than mine. Though I almost cut the top part with the pattern going to other direction...that would have been crap-tastic! I used a ribbon for the ties because sewing two rights together and then flipping them the proper way is a pain in the butt--I only do it for the neck part.

Finally, below we have two pictures of the checkbook cover I made for Colleen. She loves owls, and when I saw this fabric, I knew it would be perfect for her, and it was on sale! She carries two checkbooks, one for her business & her personal one. Knowing this I wanted to make hers a little different to make it easier to get them in and out. I decided to make it a tri-fold. (Oh, & I bought the interfacing stuff to use rather than an old Hudson Garden's folder.) I had received a bunch of fun buttons from Lois's sewing supply so I wanted to use one of those too. [note to self & mom--Learn to use the button sewing function on the machine]

The loop that I tried, unsuccessfully to hid between the seam is a hair elastic (unused). I was going to cut the half that wasn't being used off, but I feared that it might slip out then. I probably should have hand sewed it in, but I just kept running the machine over it.

There you have it, crafty goodness. All accomplished in one day. (Oh, do you like the pretty yellow fabric that the checkbook cover is on? I bought it to make placemats for our kitchen table. I made the first one and realized I didn't have as much fabric as I thought. I tried to find the same fabric again at JoAnn's so that I could make 4, but I couldn't so now I'm not sure if I'm going to make three and keep looking, make two and call it good, or just use the one as a mini-runner?)

K & R's Professional Pictures

2011-07-27T09:00:00.000-06:00

Here are some of the professional pictures from K & R's June 12th wedding.

The photographer was Rene' Tate:

Genius!

2011-07-26T07:00:00.000-06:00

Through Pinterest I have found a GAZILLION teacher ideas and blogs! I love it! This is the newest one that I've found.

She gets free things from Vista Print and uses them in her classroom. Such a great idea! I think I might order some homework passes from there. I used to buy these cute homework passes for $1 for about 40 of them at the Dollar Store. The kids loved them. But I was constantly running back and forth to the Dollar Store. When I ran out I would just use Post-It notes, but they kids didn't dig that as much. Wouldn't it be great to have custom made homework passes?! I think so! I could order the free business cards, 250 of them for $4! And if I wait for some sales I could order other things! I love it! Things like this make me really excited to get started back at school! So many simple solutions for classroom management!

Book Blog Hop

2011-07-24T19:44:00.000-06:00

One of the teaching blogs I've started following is The Schroeder Page. On there she links up to a Book Blog Hop hosted by Mrs. McCumbee--a new blog to add to my classroom collection of blogs.

Mrs. McCumbee's book blog hop is about sharing your favorite childhood/young adult book and the lasting impressions they had on you. She is doing this to help her prepare for Reader's Workshop in her classroom. I thought it would be good to link up with it also because I have been trying to figure out exactly what I'm going to read with my students this upcoming year.

I recall reading The Devil's Arithmetic by Jane Yolen in Mrs. McKenna's 7th grade. I have always loved reading. I am one of those readers who lets her mind wander and I visualize what I think things look like based on the author's description of the details. I still can remember quite vividly what Hannah would look like (and she didn't look like Kirsten Dunst).

When I was a sophomore in college I went to a Sedar dinner with a pre-sem guy and I remembered learning about the Sedar in this book.

I have read this book once with my class, and had forgotten about it until I started to brainstorm for this blog. I may have to read this book again with my kids.

Skirt to Apron

2011-07-24T09:00:00.000-06:00

So I got this great skirt at the thrift store a few months ago. I loved it. The only problem was that it was a bit snug...I thought, meh, for $2, I'm going to get it and maybe it'll fit by the time school starts.

I also have been looking for a really cute apron. We have two aprons here--one from iHOP and one that my mom made Ryan out of snowman material that says "Kiss the Cook" on it. I wear the iHop one more because it's a bit thicker but it's not cute. (Because being cute when cooking is important?)

So I was talking with my mom about maybe making it into an apron. Well, Thursday I decided to try it.

After cutting it in half I used a plate to trace some scallops.

Good help is hard to find!

I made a few mistakes along the way, but I made it work. My biggest mistake was when I cut the top I forgot to leave an extra inch all around so that I could hem it properly. But I fixed it. I aided 4 inch black ribbon to the parts where I didn't allow the extra fabric and then hemmed that. I think it turned out pretty darn good.

You can't really see the black ribbon in the photo, but it's there (and not too pretty), but it looks alright for being in the kitchen. I also had NO idea how I was going to hem the scallops, so I didn't hem them. {GASP!}

I did put a stitch all the way around the bottom and then use pinking shears along the bottom. Hopefully that will hold until I go home in September and can ask madre' to help me out.

I have the cutest god-daughter!

2011-07-23T23:17:00.000-06:00

Today Ryan and I traveled over to Faith Lutheran in Denver (really close to Emmaus). The reason we went over there was to celebrate Maddie's life. Yesterday was her 6th birthday! And this year she has been cancer free for 5 years! Friday I met up with Mona, Katie, and Maddie and we all got pedicures. Since it was her birthday, they gave both her and Katie cute flowers on their big toes. When I got to Faith today, she told me that her flower didn't wash off in the bath. I guess she was nervous about that. I, being the horrible, but maybe great, god-mother that I am could not think of anything to get Maddie. I usually give her baptism birthday gifts rather than birthday gifts so that the other three don't wonder why I don't bring them gifts on their birthdays. But today I wanted to do something as being cancer free for 5 years is a pretty big deal! I remembered how Grama used to take us kids to lunch and then wherever we wanted to go. So I pulled Maddie aside later and told her that I just couldn't decide what to get her so she was going to have to go shopping with me to pick something great out. She was super excited about it. She was even hoping that it could happen today or maybe tomorrow. She told me that she wasn't going back to Colorado Springs until tomorrow afternoon. But we have a silly voter's meeting tomorrow, so I told her that I would make plans with her mommy to come and get her sometime soon. I can't wait to hang out with her for the day!

Here we are right before I left.

Love It!!

What We Ate Monday

2011-07-22T12:54:00.000-06:00

I wish I had taken the time to take pictures of the amazing-ness that we ate on Monday, but I didn't think about it until now, but I wanted to share the recipe because it was super easy and quick!

I found the basis of the recipe online, but I don't remember where. I kind of "tweaked" it to make it work for us, so without further ado, I present Yummy Chicken Penne Pasta

8 oz of Penne Pasta
2 Chicken Breasts (I grilled ours, the original recipe said to fry)
2 Zucchini
Baby Carrots
Broccoli
8 oz SHREDDED Parmesan Cheese
3/4 Cup of Heavy Cream
1/2 Tbls. Oil

Boil pasta, in the last 4 minutes of the boiling process add your veggies. Drain.

In a saucepan mix oil, cheese, and cream. Heat until cheese is melted.

Grill or fry. (If you fry it, you can use 1 Tbsp. of oil and then put your cream and cheese in there after you're done cooking the chicken.) Cut chicken up.

Combine chicken and veggies and then pour melted cheese mixture over the whole dish. I think I used too many veggies and too much chicken because ours wasn't super creamy, but it was still very yummy! And it made a lot! We froze 6 containers of it and left 3 out for lunches.

Enjoy!

Crafty Goodness...

2011-07-21T17:06:00.004-06:00

I carry a checkbook (though I'm quite positive that in the next 10 years no one will.) I don't have a check book cover. Here's what I carry...

Gross, huh? It's a bright lime green envelope (thanks Colleen!) that holds two smaller envelopes. One of the smaller envelopes holds my checkbook and the other holds cash and receipts when we travel and take a larger sum of cash with us. I pulled it out the other day in church to write a donation check and thought that I was pretty much crazy! I thought "I should get a nice check book cover". But I don't carry a register, just the checkbook, because I don't balance the checkbook. We have duplicates (greatest thing ever!). And, with a typical checkbook cover it can split if it gets caught in something else you've shoved in your purse (I'm a shover).

SO

I decided to do something about my envelopes. I had this laying around:

and had recently read this blog by Colleen's friend, Jan about making cash envelopes for her Dave Ramsey-ness. Today I thought, I should make a checkbook cover. So I did. But up until 2 seconds ago when I found the blog to link it in this post, I didn't go back to Jan's blog for her directions. I just pulled out my checkbook for the measurements and guessed and by-gollied the rest. And it worked!

I used a boring khaki fabric to put in the middle and the cute polka dots on the outside. I knew I wanted it to be sturdy, but I didn't have interfacing like Jan mentioned, but what I did have was a white folder from Hudson Garden's that I was going to throw away. So I cut a square out it to put it in between the dots and the khaki. If a seamstress (or my mom [well probably anyone]) looked carefully at it they of course would see imperfections. I ended up with too big of a square, but I already had such nice edges that I didn't want to do again, so I tucked them in a sewed them. One side has two lines of stitching that almost look decorative, the other side, not so much. But here's what it does...

It will hold my checkbook in a less tacky way than my current lime green envelope does. And I won't feel quite like a crazy lady with my envelope. I will probably still carry an envelope of cash when we go on trips because it doubles as a receipt collector, but I never {Big SMILE} go on trips, so that won't be for a while.

It's Over...

2011-07-16T23:13:00.000-06:00

...The last movie of the Harry Potter series has been released. A bitter sweet ending to an exceptional series. A series, I must admit, I was reluctant to read in the first place. I remember finally picking up the first book my senior year of college. Once I got through it I was hooked. I couldn't wait to finish it and at the time J.K. Rowling had only written the first four books!

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Ryan and I had a Harry Potter Party. We invited some friends over to watch Harry Potter, 7.1 (the last book was so thick that they broke it into two parts when making the movies). We had some Harry Potter inspired good eats, watched 7.1 and then four of us headed to the movie theater to watch 7.2 .

Below are some of the pictures that were taken at the party--Colleen was the photographer.

Colleen & I enjoy some ButterBeer

Cyndi likes the magic wands made from pretzels.

Sisters!

Tank supervises the set up.

MMmmmm....cheeseball

"Wands"

Bulgers--Used in playing Quidditch (it's a wizard sport)

The Golden Snitch(es), also used in Quidditch.

Butterbeer--one shot of butterscotch schnapps, and cream soda. Top with whip cream if you want.

Lyssa and Ryan

The Schredls

Somehow the Wilson's avoided the camera. Oh well. It was requested that I put the recipe to the cheeseball on here, so here it is:

2, 8 oz. packages of softened cream cheese
1 packet of dry ranch seasoning (for making dips)
Chopped Olives (I buy the smallest can and use about half of them)
Chopped Bacon (I like bacon, and so does Ryan, so we usually put 4-6 slices in it)
8 oz block of Shredded Cheese (I use colby jack. I put most of it in the mix and then roll the ball in what's left)

Mix together and then form into a ball. Refrigerate 2-4 hours, serve with Triscits. :)

There is no place like Nebraska...Madison & Pierce

2011-07-10T21:14:00.000-06:00

On Friday Ryan & I headed to Aunt Donna & Uncle Den's for supper before heading to the Madison County Fair. Kayla and Andrew were home for the weekend so after supper the four of us headed to Madison. The Madison County Fair is "The Best Week in July" and inlcudes three nights of rodeo action and two nights of concerts. Mom & Dad purchased the fun pack which included tickets for all these events. They were kind enough to let us use their tickets on Friday and Saturday.

I wish I could show amazing rodeo photos to you, but I didn't take my big camera to the rodeo. I frequently do this...I think, oh, it's too bulky, then when I get home I wish I would have just taken the dumb thing with me. The rodeo was fun, though not the best rodeo I've been too. Many of the cowboys and cowgirls just couldn't get it together. Many calves went unroped, bucking broncos & bulls unrode. Sad day.

Saturday we put on our swimsuits and headed to Pierce with the A. Donna, U. Den, Kayla and Andrew. We were off for a day of boating (tubing and skiing). It was a fantastic time! I did take my big camera for this experience. There were so many great pictures that I decided to make a collage of them so it wouldn't take so long to load them on here. You can click the picture and it will make it bigger.

None of these photos have been edited, just put into a collage. Here are my two favorites of the day...

Saturday night ended in a Josh Turner concert. I had never heard of him before the concert, but did enjoy his voice. It was super deep most of the time. I might have to download a few of his songs now.

Today we drove back to Denver, it was a nice drive and Tank slept about 5 of the 8 hours and as I type this blog he's laying on the floor snoring...must be ruff.

There is no place like Nebraska...OMAHA

2011-07-07T22:56:00.000-06:00

When one leaves Denver for a week in Nebraska the question that enters many people's minds is

"What are you going to do for a week in Nebraska?!"

This was the question I asked myself on the second day we were here! We made plans to go to the Madison County Fair at the end of the week, but what about the beginning? Well, I jumped on Facebook and sent my cousin a message that said something to this effect: we're going to be in NE for a WEEK. We'll need something to do...we're thinking Omaha and visiting you!

My original thought for Omaha was the Henry Doorly Zoo! If you find yourself in Nebraska for a week, make a trip to Omaha for this place! The last time I was there was in 6th grade and it was pretty great then and I know they've made many changes since then! They have an indoor rain forest! Here's what Wikipedia has to say about the zoo:

Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo is nationally renowned for its leadership in animal conservation and research. Evolving from the public Riverview Park Zoo established in 1894, today the Zoo includes several notable exhibits. It features the largest cat complex in "Kingdoms of the Night" is the world's largest nocturnal exhibit and indoor swamp; the Lied Jungle is one of the world's largest indoor rainforest, and the "Desert Dome" is the world's largest indoor desert,as well as the largest glazed geodesic dome in the world The Zoo is Nebraska’s number one paid attendance attraction and has welcomed more than 25 million visitors over the past 40 years.

Pretty cool, right? Well here's what I didn't think about...in July, in Nebraska, during the day, it's HOT! My husband, he does not really like being hot. The fact was simply this: If we go to the zoo, we're going to sweat and be hot and probably border on being miserable. So the zoo didn't seem like the best idea.

So here's what we did. We left my parents about noon (I thought it was earlier because my computer was (and is) still on MST). We got to Omaha about 2 PM and still didn't have a plan. I had suggested the SAC Museum--a place I had been on my senior class trip. Ryan decided that the museum would be great. Ryan got out his phone and checked Google Maps for directions. It's actually located in Ashland, NE, a suburb outside of Omaha. I want to say it's on the South, maybe Southwest side? It's on I-80 between Lincoln & Omaha.

The SAC Museum focuses on USAF paraphernalia as well as educational information about the planes, missiles and spacecraft. It includes two large hangars and a traveling display. It has one of the top collections of strategic aircrafts. Not a lot has changed since I was last there, ahem 11 years ago, but it was fun to see again.

Outside the SAC Museum (which I know has been renamed since I was there my Senior year, but Strategic Air and Space Museum doesn't have a cool acronym like Strategic Air Command Museum does...) there are three rockets. Above is the largest of the three. Upon entering you are greeted by this:

Ryan knew right away what it was--SR-71A built by Lockheed. I thought it was an airplane. Turns out it's really a spy plane. The admission to get into the Museum was $12 per person. We paid our fee and headed over to Hangar A.

Hangar A featured many plans that were flown during the WWII era. There was a section of the hangar that discussed Nebraskans involvement in the Doolittle Raid (not sure what that is, watch Pearl Harbor, it's not 100% historically accurate, but they talk about the Doolittle Raid-- it was the first air raid by the US after the attack on Pearl Harbor.) Below are some pictures of Ryan with various planes and parts of planes.

As you can see they had a few child friendly areas that you could sit in and push buttons and be cool. Ryan took full advantage of that. After Hangar A we headed to Hangar B. Hangar B is where they have more of the space stuff. They have a few more planes but also some rocket stuff and information about the various spaceships that have headed into outer space.

*As a side note, I'm a little sad that the space exploration program is ending*

Ryan continued to wander and look much longer than I did. We skipped the traveling exhibit--John Wayne. Not sure that he really fits into Air and Space, but whatever.

After our time at the SAC Museum we headed to the Old Market--another place I went on my Senior Class Trip. The Old Market is only a block and a half long. We stumbled into a ~~junk~~ antique shop. This shop had ANYTHING and EVERYTHING you could imagine. My favorite part of the shop was the area with stuff from my childhood. Remember when Pizza Hut used to give away glasses? Well this shop had them all, including Popple AND Care Bear ones! I wanted to get the Popple one that matches the Popple that I still have...

but I didn't get it. Now I kind of wish I had. Oh well, I least I have the real Popple! They also had Care Bears, Strawberry Shortcake, Rainbow Bright, Ninja Turtles, and CALIFORNIA RAISINS! They also had a section dedicated to toys you got in kids meals from various restaurants--you know, when the toys were good!

After a walk through the Old Market and Ryan being uncomfortable because he was hot (good thing we didn't go to the zoo), we headed to meet Kayla and Andrew for supper at Andrew's house. They made grilled burgers, pasta salad, beans, and french fries. Kayla even went all out and brought strawberries, sugar, and cookies for dessert. :-) We sat around the table and chatted with them for about 3 hours before we packed it up and headed back to the big MG!

Tomorrow's Agenda: Madison County Fair!

Blogging for more

2011-07-07T21:44:00.000-06:00

Since I discovered Google Reader I've become a blog reading fool. I have so many blogs in my Reader that I can't even keep up with them all!!

The blogs in my Reader can be broken into the following categories:

Blogs of Friends
Jesus Blogs
Craft Blogs
Photography Blogs
Coupon Blogs
School Blogs
Travel Blogs

As I read through these blogs and leave comments in hopes of winning big giveaways! (I did win free Purex within the first 10 comments I posted in hopes of winning...) I think, this blogging thing is HUGE! There are people out there who are getting paid to blog! They are getting free samples of things to try and then blog about them! The are going to FREE nights in hotels, and then blogging about their stays. They are going to conferences and talking about blogs. They are making their blogs look like professional websites! They are spending A LOT of time blogging...but totally reaping the benefits of doing so!

Some of the blogs I read I stumbled on and now I feel like I really know those people! Take the Macs, cousins of a guy I knew in college. I first found out about their blog when their family was going through a crisis and Nate asked us to pray for their family. Now when I check my Google reader I get excited when I see that Jess has posted something new. She's an amazing woman of God! I have her blog saved as a Jesus-Crafty blog. Through Jess I stumbled on to Meg's blog.

Meg doesn't know me from Jane down the street, yet I feel like I know her family. She blogs about her children and has Craft Thursdays with them and is always posting amazing crafty things. She's also a photographer. Anytime I think about taking pictures of a family or baby or teenagers I go check out Meg's blog to see how she's posed people and check out her ideas.

Both of these ladies also give things away on their blog and link up with other really cool blogs!

Colleen is another blogger that I can't wait to read what she's posted! She's taking her blog to the next level as she leaps into her dream career as a writer. If I'm not sure if a movie or book is any good, I can always check out Colleen's review section. She also has a knack for taking pictures of ordinary things and making them look extraordinary! We go out and get chips and salsa at Chilli's, she takes a picture and posts it on her blog and then when I read it later I need chips & salsa because the photo looks so good!

As I read these lady's blogs and many more I started to wonder if I could ever take my blog further? Could I get free hotel rooms for Ryan and I? Could I get Circut to let me try their fabulous machine and then give one away? Could my thoughts on teaching be helpful to other teachers? Could I make money on my blog? (Colleen currently thinks that I'm trying to make money on everything...it's not true, but if one could get paid to do something they are already doing...why not, right?)

So in an effort to do more with my blog, I'm adding a few things. I've added an "About Me" page and an "Classroom Stuff" page. I will probably add a few more pages and do more with them in the near future but it's a start for now. I also am going to take a hint from iHeartOrganizing and keep a running list of blog ideas. While my blog will continue in its original purpose: Update family in Nebraska about what's happening in Colorado, it will probably start to include a few more posts on random things that I'm interested in and that others might be interested in if they stumble on to my blog.

So to my loyal followers/readers...thanks! Hopefully you will see my blog begin to do more in the near future, which will mean more posts. Happy reading!

2011-07-06T14:14:00.001-06:00

Test. I'm trying to see if I can really make updates to my blog from my phone...

There is no place like Nebraska...

2011-07-05T17:14:00.000-06:00

Saturday Ryan and I packed up El Tank-o and headed East. Our destination: The ONE and ONLY, Meadow Grove, NE. This was Tank's first long car ride with us and we weren't sure how he would do. He was a rockstar! We had put towels all over in the backseat in case travel didn't agree with him. For the first four hours I drove and he alternated between the back seat and having his front paws up on the the counsel and back legs on the back seat. From North Platte to Kearney he slept in my lap. Then he was the co-pilot the rest of the way home.

This trip has been about firsts...first time Tank meets the family and his "cousin" Fred (the horse! (Adam & Ashley's chocolate lab)), first time Ryan get's to buy and shoot off fireworks, first time Ryan rides a 4-wheeler, etc.

Fred--He's HUGE!

Fred & Tank playing fetch.

Half the Fireworks...

Ryan with all the fireworks.

True story: We went to the firework place (one of MANY) and we saw fireworks that had 340 shots. The cost? $79.95 Estimated duration? 43 seconds. One could LITERALLY blow $80 in less than a minute! Needless to say we did not purchase that. We did get a lot of "buy 1 get 3" deals. We also got some pointless ones simply because I remember doing them when I was younger...

- Smoke Balls: They don't even do anything cool...just leak colored smoke

- Parachutes: Light it, a parachute pops out, catch it...over

- Tanks: waste of fifty cents...they light, the MIGHT move, then they spark, over. We bought two so we could race them...

Mine won! Ryan's didn't even move!

See the blue smoke? (Sorry Ryan's so blurry)

Yay! He caught the parachute.

Lighting a flower-spinner thing.

We lit the big boomers at Adam's. I like how Adam looks like a ghost in this picture.

Some in Colorado asked Ryan if the corn was really "knee high". Here's Ryan, on July 4th (note him holding up four fingers) in a corn field in which the corn is clearly taller than his knee (see how he's pointing at it). So yes, for those who are wondering, the corn here really was "Knee high by the Fourth of July".

Adam owns a 4-wheeler, because he's a farmer...they need them to check pivots. So on Sunday he told Ryan and I we could ride it. I was leery, it's been about 10 years since I've been on one. I remember having to shift and everything and thought it might be too difficult. Turns out 4-wheelers are nicer than they once were. Put the brake on, push a button, go. We took it from his house back to town--approximately 3 miles on gravel. Then we took it to the shop (a big chunk of land with a shop on it that my parents own) and rode around there. Then we took it out to the river and on gravel roads. We tried to get down to the river, but everywhere we tried the bank was too high and we couldn't actually get to the water. Then we took it to a sand pit, then back to the shop. we had a good time with it. We might go get it again. :)

Ah, Nebraska......the GOOD LIFE!

K & R's Wedding--June 12, 2011

2011-06-22T18:22:00.000-06:00

Ever After Events had the pleasure of being the Day of Coordinator for K & R this month. Working with K was so much fun! She is also a teacher, so she was super flexible when I asked if we could meet "after school". I usually try to not let it slip that Wedding Coordinating isn't my full time job, but that day it did. She laughed and said, that works perfect, we dismiss at 3:15! She was also super laid back. We had discussed the ring bearers & flower girls the Monday before the wedding. She was worried about them being distraction, so we had a plan to get them to their parents. The night of the rehearsal the venue coordinator changed the plan. I quietly went to K and asked how she felt about the change. Her response was, "You know me, Sarah, I don't care..." I smiled and let the venue coordinator have her way.

Here are the details of her wedding:

Venue: The Gate House at the Lionsgate Event Center, Lafayette, CO

Caterer: The Rib House, Longmont, CO

DJ: A Music Plus, Denver, CO

Florist: Oakes Fields Wedding & Event Florist, Northglenn, CO

Cake: Intricate Icings, Erie, CO

Photographer: Rene' Tate Photography, Denver, CO

And my favorite vendor--Wedding Coordinator: Ever After Events, Aurora, CO

K was all about PINK! Her bridesmaids wore grey dresses and carried beautiful bouquets of pink flowers. My favorite flowers in the bouquets were the peonies! They are so pretty! And smell nice too!

Because K was so relaxed about everything wedding related, they had a BBQ buffet. They had these cute little bibs on every chair and wet naps on every place setting that said "Marriage is Messy, K & R, June 12, 2011". All the older grandpa men had the bibs tied on as soon as they sat down and wore them to the buffet table and the bar. K's parents also are in the coffee business so their favors were little bags of coffee beans with a cute card that said "The Perfect Blend--K & R, June 12, 2011". Below are some of the photos I took.

K & R wrote their own wedding vows. The thought of this makes me cringe. I picture one person going through great pains to write the perfect vows and the other person saying "I'll love you until I die". They both did a great job. Their vows were short enough to not be awkward, included an inside joke between the two of them, and maybe a few others, and were very sincere--thank goodness, not cringing needed.

Love the Cake Topper--The Bride & Groom are High Five-ing

Beautiful K, ready to walk down the aisle

K & Her dad

So Happy Together!

1 Year of Wedded Bliss!

2011-06-20T21:55:00.000-06:00

Hip, hip, hooray! Today is our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! This past year has been fantastic. We have done so much and have truly been blessed beyond belief!

When talking about what to do for our first anniversary, Ryan suggested we take a honeymoon. I reminded him that we did that and it's usually done right after the wedding. He said it would be an anniversary honeymoon. So Thursday we left town.

We drove to Pagosa Springs, Colorado on Thursday. This was my suggestion. When I suggested it, I thought it was a 2 hour drive. Turns out it's more of a 6 hour drive! (Those of you who know me well know how much I HATE driving!) We left about 11 AM. Ryan drove most of it and I read, talked his ear off, and snoozed.

We arrived about 6 PM. We are staying at a studio apartment we found on Homeaway.com. I first hear about this website when I went to Arizona with Ryan's family for Aunt Julie's wedding. His mom had rented us a fantastic house through Home Away. The apartment is great. It's so close to everything! We went and ate dinner at the Pagosa Brewery.

When we got there we were told we couldn't order food yet because the kitchen was really backed up. So we enjoyed some drinks and looked around and decided exactly what we wanted as we would be the first to order when the kitchen was open again.

We headed back to our cute little apartment and watched a little TV and sat on the porch.
Friday we planned a pretty relaxing, easy day. We slept in and got up and headed to The Rose Restaurant for "brunch". Our apartment was right downtown and we could walk to just about everything. We walked from our brunch to The Springs Spa and Resort. Once we got there we headed to the spa. We had made reservations for the "Romance Package" [fancy words for a massage, with both of us in the same room]. It was a glorious 60 minutes! As we were checking our we learned that our Spa package included vouchers for the hot springs! Huzzah! The lady told us though that once we were there, if we left we were out of luck. So we headed back to the apartment--stopping at the little shops along the way. We hung out in the apartment for a little bit and eventually headed to Kips Mexican for some dinner. After dinner we changed into our suits and walked back to the hot springs where we learned that we were VIP and we COULD have come and gone all day long. Silly lady in the spa!

Also with our VIP-ness we got access to the five adult only pools! (A $5 value per person!) We stayed at the springs for about 2 hours. Turns out it's a little bit boring......

Saturday was our hiking day! We left late and headed to Subway to have some lunch. From there we went to Treasure Falls. A 15 mile drive east of Pagosa Springs and a 1/2 mile hike once you get there.

The hike was fairly simple, but I was a bit disappointed about how cold it was once we got to the top. We couldn't get very close to the fall because the water was spraying us and it was cold. We took a quick picture and then hiked back down

After hiking Treasure Falls we headed to Sliver Falls. We read that there might be water across the road in places. Well we ran into some water but were able to easily cross it...until the very end. It was there that we hit swiftly moving water that was pretty deep. We figured we were pretty close to the Falls, but we weren't sure how close. We contemplated taking our shoes off, crossing, putting them back on and then hiking until we found it. However we were doubtful as to where we were going. As we were turning around, a man in a red pickup was coming through the water. He offered to take us to the falls. We got in with him and found out that we were about 25 yards from the trailhead, but we didn't know we were that close... I'm glad we got in with him, because it was BEAUTIFUL!

After Silver Falls we got back in the car to head to Opal Lake. This was a longer hike--about 40 minutes in to get to the lake and then another 40 minutes out. We hiked through the most amazing Aspen forest. I had never seen Aspens so tall! I took a ton of pictures of them! They made the hike. The lake was pretty, but I think the Aspens were more amazing.

After heading back to our apartment we ordered in some Pizza Hut and watched a lot of the Duggers on TLC! It was great. :)

Sunday we had planned to go look at the shops, walk around a bit and maybe go to the hot springs again at another place. However it seems that everything is closed on Sundays. So we walked around looking for the open shops and going in when we could. It was much cooler on Sunday than it had been the other three days, so we headed back to the apartment for a Sunday afternoon nap. GLORIOUS! We got up and headed to Tequila's for dinner. It was a nice. We sat near the windows that overlooked the San Juan River as well as The Springs Spa and Resort.

Today we packed up and headed home. We arrived to find a dirty dog in our kitchen! We quickly decided that El Tank-o needed a bath...bad! We discussed whether or not we wanted to attempt to bathe him in our bathtub. Then I remembered that sometimes they have bathe your own dog places. We found one, Bark N Wash. We loaded Tank up in the car and headed over there. He looked so sad and pathetic when he was all wet, but man, oh, man did he look so much more handsome when he was done. When we got back home I also went to work sewing holes that our lovely fido friend put in his bed. Three larger holes to be exact. I restuffed one hole, because I thought there were only two, and then I found the third, but had already sewed the stuffing into what I thought was the biggest hole. Oh well, he's sleeping in his bed now, so it must be okay.

Zumba

2011-06-11T21:37:00.000-06:00

About a month ago I received an email from Living Social. It's a website similar to Groupon that sends you daily deal for your city.

On this particular day I received a deal for 10 Zumba classes for $30, which sounded amazing to me. I thought about it for about 2 hours and then decided to go for it. I then emailed it to four of my friends who I thought might like to join me for 10 weeks of zumba.

I mean, look how cool these people look. An hour long dance/workout, sounded like loads of fun to me! One of my friends, whom I emailed, Kathleen, decided to take the plunge with me and bought the deal too! We signed up last week to attend Zumba on Wednesday from 5:45 to 6:45. The location of the class was perfect for us--Downtown. Kathleen works downtown and Emmaus is so close to downtown that I could easily meet Kath for Zumba and then take her to her car at the light rail station.

So Wednesday was our first day of Zumba...

This, above, is what I wanted it to be like...we just join a group of awesome people and instantly know what is happening, because the instructor calls out exactly what to do

"Left kick, right kick, two hops, left kick, right kick, two hops"

Instead, it was more like this...I stared at the instructor and just when I thought I knew what she was doing, she switched the step. Every time the group turned around, I turned the opposite way. I hardly ever got my arms to match what she was doing, and rarely my feet were doing the right thing. All in all it was an awkward first time, but I loved it! Can't wait to go back!

Summer vacation.........oh how I love you!

2011-06-05T21:12:00.000-06:00

So last Friday, May 27th was the last day of school. It was glorious! That night I went back to school at 8 PM for our annual middle school lock-in. We spent many hours up at Boondocks in Northglenn, then we headed to the Village Inn in Lakewood and then back to church. At church we played minute-to-win-it games and noodle tag (we allowed the kids to beat each other with swim noodles). We also played some sardines and hide and seek in the church. It was a looooooooong night! I got home about 8 AM on Saturday and slept until about noon.

Mmmmm....Village In at 1AM!

I delivered a wedding in Watkins, CO for Colleen on Saturday. I had no clue where Watkins was--I should have googled it! The actual wedding site was about 10 miles from our house. If I had googled it, I would have made arrangements to meet up with Nicole at the site. Instead I drove about 40 minutes up to Northglenn to Ryan & Colleen's then another 40 minutes to the wedding site, did our thing for about an hour, then drove back to Ryan & Colleen's and then drove home...lesson learned always check google maps first!

This wedding was a little bit amazing...I wanted to go to it.

Monday

was the BB, which you have already read about...

Tuesday

I was supposed to have a summer staff meeting, but three of my five staff members couldn't be there due to circumstances beyond their control, so I worked in my classroom until about 10, came home and watched a bunch of Friday Night Lights with Hannah. Then we went shopping at Target! I got a new purse! Hooray!

Wednesday,

I took Hannie to the airport, sad day, and then headed back to school for our staff meeting. It was over in about 4 hours...not too shabby. I then did some re-arranging/decorating in my office.

Thursday

I went to Colorado Springs to watch the three oldest Book kids at their field day. I can't believe how big they are! RJ just finished 3rd grade, Katie-1st grade, and Maddie finished kindergarten! My how time flies! We went to lunch at Culver's. I headed back to Denver, by way of the Castle Rock outlets. :) Ryan and I then headed to Gibby's to play some volleyball.

Maddie, Crab Racer Extrodinare

Friday

was the first day of break where I got to sleep in...it was glorious! I did some laundry, took a nap, did some more laundry, took another nap, got up and got ready for the day. Ryan came home and we had some grilled burgers and watched more Friday Night Lights.

Saturday

I went to a pampered chef party and then did more laundry. Ryan fixed the brakes on my car. I also baked rainbow cupcakes for church, but I didn't get time to frost them, so they became rainbow cupcakes for us. I had made mini chocolate cupcakes with oreo frosting--those I did take to church.

They look so pretty...I didn't really want to put frosting on them anyway

Today

has been about me making a mental list of things to do, but not actually getting them done...so tomorrow.

Currently

my dog is going crazy, running in and out of the house with a sock and attacking it. He's such a goober!

For mom...

Here are some pictures of our yard. I wish I would have taken some before pictures. These are the "during" pictures, as we are not quite done. We are probably going to put in a sprinkler system and then we need to decide if we're going to lay sod or plant seed....

So if you imagine putting these three pictures together, you can get a full view of the back fence area.

And putting these three pictures together will give you an idea of the view from the back fence to our house. We put rock 6 feet from the house to create a sort of "patio" area. We also put rock between the fence and house on either side of the house. Then there is a 2 foot border all the way around the fence.

This picture is looking down from the gate into the back yard.

New Years Resolution...CHECK!

2011-05-30T22:06:00.000-06:00

So in January I made about 15 different resolutions for the year 2011. One of those resolutions was to "run" [participate] in a 5k this year. I was telling Hannie this on the phone one day and she told me that she too was "picking up running". She had joined a running club and was going to run a 5k as well. I then told her how I had always wanted to participate in the Bolder Boulder, to which she responded, Let's do it! So in January we agreed to do it.

I "trained" pretty well from January to about April. I routinely went to the gym and used the treadmill, slowly increasing the amount of time I was "running" [jogging?]. Then April hit and chaos of the end of the year erupted all around me. I stopped going to the gym, but continued to walk 2 miles Monday through Friday with Peggy before school every morning.

Two weeks ago when Hannah and I registered for the Bolder Boulder we were discussing what wave to be in. I had my doubts about my ability to actually do this, but the plane ticket was bought & I had agreed. We registered in the Walk/Jog--mostly walking category. We felt that would be a safe place for us.

Today we went to Boulder. Our start time was 9:15 AM. We left Aurora around 7 AM to ensure we didn't miss our start time. Our friend, Susie, who lives in Colorado Springs, also joined us, as did Ryan's sister. I still couldn't believe that I was really about to do this. 10k is 6.21 miles!!!! That's going to take at least 90 minutes! And it was in Boulder--not exactly the flatlands of Nebraska! The summit of the race was five thousand, three hundred, and some odd feet. There were 2 hills...the last one into the stadium for the last, maybe 300-400 meters of the race! It was a looooooooooooong race!

I had decided that I was going to finish it in 90 minutes. So 90 minutes divided by 10k means completing a kilometer every 9 minutes. I started my timer as soon as we crossed the start line. Every time I would see a sign ahead, I would check my watch. I ran some, I jogged some, I walked most of it (after all, I registered to participate in the mostly walking heat). Here's my results...1 hour, 30 minutes, and 31 seconds. I'd say my pace was right on target for what I wanted to accomplish!

Here are some pictures from the day. Ryan took them. He never saw Susie, Lyssa, or I at the hill/finish line, but he did get a picture of Hannie at the end. He did a good job of documenting the crazy costumes and the masses of people there. These are just a few of the ones he took.

Susie, Hannie, Me, & Lyssa after the race.

Ruth B Top Girls--Susie, Hannie & I

Finished!

The Finish Line

Lego-Man, there were costumes every where!

The last hill.

Tank LOVES that we are getting some landscaping done!

2011-05-26T09:19:00.000-06:00

Our friend, Chris is putting rock in around our fence and off the back of our house so we can get it ready to SELL! :-D He put down the black stuff yesterday to get ready to lay the rock today.

Photography

2011-05-22T21:27:00.000-06:00

So I've been begging people to let me take pictures...

Here are some of my favorites: A & H: The granddaughters of my Administrative Assistant. H just recently joined Karate and they wanted a pic of her and her belt. A came a long for the ride. I taught A last year in 5th grade--they go to another school now. I cannot believe how beautiful A is! I asked her dad if he had a big stick to chase the boys away!

Our good friends J & E are having a baby. I took some pics of them. I can't wait until baby is here and I can take some pics of him!

And finally, Saturday I spent two hours asking the following question "Are you T or E?" T & E are the twin boys (4 years old) of two of the teachers at Emmaus.

Extreme Couponing...

2011-05-14T13:29:00.000-06:00

So I haven't seen the TLC show about the extreme couponing, but I have seen snippets of it on the news and it intrigues me. ESPECIALLY if saving moo-lah on groceries means more moo-lah for us to TRAVEL!

I've been cutting coupons now for about three months. I went from a coupon organizer with really no organization (I could never remember if I filed coupons by brand name (goldfish) or by what it was (crackers), so shopping took WAY to long. However in the past month I have refined my couponing skils and methods.

I purchased a package of baseball card organizers a few weeks ago. I dug out an old binder that was mainly collecting dust and then I created a beautiful coupon binder! I had also purchased sticky tabs to create categories. So now my coupons are arranged nicely in the following cateagories:

-Meats
-Veggies
-Fruits
-Snacks
-Pharmacy (this is essentially personal care--deodorant, soap, TP, ect.)
-Cleaning
-Doggie
-Store Specific
-Restaurants

Because they are stored in a see-through page, I don't have to pull out all the coupons in that category out in order to find the one I want!

Before going grocery shopping I sit down with the ad (usually online because King Soopers & Safeway let you click on the items you want and then you just print the grocery list from your clicking.) I make my list and pull out all the coupons I know I will use and put them in an envelop that I keep in my coupon binder. Then it's off the store--I take Ryan with me so he can push the cart. :-) I take the coupon binder with me because we never end up sticking just to the list. I can hardly contain my excitement to get to the register and read at the bottom of the receipt how much money we saved!

To aid in getting the most savings I started following a few blogs, including The Krazy Couponing Lady who posts a million times a day. I always check her out once I make my list, as she has a list, in ABC order of printable coupons. I also follow a girl I went to college, Kristen's blog, Joyfully Thriving. Recently Kristen hosted a giveaway on her blog in which she was giving away coupons for FREE Purex! Ryan & I love Purex. It's our laundry detergent of choice. Recently I had a small panic attack because I thought they had gone out of business and stopped making it. I think they just were changing up some product design stuff. Well, to make a long story short, I won the coupon! I'm super excited! That will probably be a savings of about $5 to $8 depending on the fine print of the coupon!

So, that's what's happening here with grocery shopping...aren't you glad you asked. :-P I can't wait to have a larger house some day with a larger pantry & fridge/freezer so that I can truly stock up and save!

Outdoor Ed

2011-04-30T08:07:00.000-06:00

Tuesday I took my class up to LVR for our annual outdoor ed trip. We all had a good time. Tuesday it was snowing up there, which wasn't fantastic, but sitting in the Lodge by the fire sure was. :) Wednesday was BEAUTIFUL so we hiked up to Cedar Mountain after breakfast. After lunch we headed to the climbing and repelling area and did that for a few hours. The fifth graders LOVED it. I think they repelled about 5 times each. After dinner we played a game of softball with a 16 inch ball, and ended the evening with campfire and s'mores. We headed back home on Thursday after lunch. Here are some pics from the trip.

Repelling

Snow, day 1--The sunglasses kept the snow out of my eyes.

Trust activity

Cedar Mountain...this is the best class I've taken up there. Not ONE of them complained once.

Glover Happenings

2011-04-18T21:27:00.000-06:00

So here's what's been going on a Casa de Glover:

I had a 31 Gift Party on Saturday. We looked at a lot of bags. I can't wait to get my new lunchbox! It was fun. I made some guacamole, and then there were cheese, meat, and crackers, a bowl of strawberries & blackberries and finally the best cookies ever. I made Ryan take the cookies that were left to work today so I wouldn't be tempted...

Ryan's job during the party was to make sure the ~~monster~~ doggie didn't cause any problems.

It's sad being a doggie behind gates...

In other news...I think I might have a problem: BOOKS! I heart them very much. Look at the current stack on my nightstand!!

I like to pick books up from the thrift store. Sometimes for my classroom, sometimes for me, sometimes because they are pretty. In the nightstand stack I've read 3 of them, and the one on the bottom...I just finished it and now it's going to be a movie! Woot!

I also like series. Only need one more hard cover of the Harry Potter collection. Apparently The Chamber of Secrets is rare in hard cover. I am also one behind in the Wimpy Kid books. I have been told by my students I'm missing the purple one. This collection is mine & Ryan's hard cover collection. I was super stoked to find the first one (red) at the thrift store Friday for 99 cents. I had bought it in paper back and my student's loved it... A LOT. I'm pickier now about which books get to go to school. If they are 99 cents it's not a big deal, but when they are $6.99 I get crabby when I see them jammed in desks and backpacks.

When I was putting away my newest thrift store stash I found this...

I had totally forgot I picked it up. It was a thrift store find too. I recently wrote a sample research paper on Bethany Hamilton for my class so they could see how to write a paper. As I researched her I thought "I should borrow her book from the library." Well, this is my kind of library--my personal one that doesn't charge me late fees. (Which reminds me, I owe both the Aurora and Denver library $1 or 2 each......)

FINALLY....

<--------This with the the yummy chicken below was my dinner tonight. Best salad ever! All thanks to the new purchase we made Sunday...

That's right, we are now the proud owners of a gas grill! Woot! WOOT! We had a charcoal grill that I got from someone a million years ago. It worked great, but you had to know about 4 hours before dinner that you were going to grill. And, if there are fire bans in town you're technically not supposed to grill on a charcoal grill, the whole open flame thing. So I asked Ryan if we could PLEASE get one. He said yes, IF he could research them first. So he did, and we went to Lowes Sunday and picked it up. It was too big to fit in his car in the box, so we had to unpack it in the parking lot in order to get it in the car to take it home. Then we put it together and enjoyed grilled pork chops. Yum!

That's all for now. Sorry there's no pics of the Tank-ster. He wasn't in the mood for posing tonight for me. :-P

It's Tough, Being a Doggie

2011-04-10T20:39:00.000-06:00

Ugh, I hate taxes...why is my wife a church worker with all sorts of exceptions?!?

Achievement Testing Week

2011-04-07T10:21:00.000-06:00

This week has been Achievement Testing week at school. BOOOOOOOOOOOORING for me. I'm glad I don't teach K, 1 or 2! Those teachers have to read each and every test out loud to their students. Me, I read directions and then get anywhere from 20 to 60 minutes of free time...answering an occasional question here and there. Normally this is fabulous. However this week, it's not been as great as it could be. You see, my computer is sick.

It has a virus. Or two. It caught the virus on Friday. I took it home to my computer savvy husband and ~~demanded~~ asked nicely that it be repaired. It's Thursday. Still no computer. Yuck! So I've been forced to sit at the front of the room and use my classroom computer, (read: play on the Internet). You see I have NO files on my classroom computer that are useful for prepping for next week. Those are all housed on my laptop. So I've surfed the net a lot. I've planned Ryan and I many vacations during my surfing...one that I would love to take tomorrow (okay, sometime soon)-- North Carolina.

You see, my new thing is to listen to books on CD in the car. I'm one disk away from finisheing The Choice by Nicholas Sparks. Which like most of his books is set in North Carolina. And like most of his books, I'm certain someone will die...it's going to be your typical, tragic love story.

Not only is my computer sick, but my phone is acting the fool too! It randomly freezes up and has a completely black screen. I just need it to last until Novemeber because that's when we are eligible for new phones again. Though, I think that sometimes you can upgrade a few months early, which then begs the question: "Iphone or Droid?" or stick with the ol' Blackberry? Decisions, decisions. Currently the phone is rebooting because I yanked the battery from it to show it a lesson. (And hope that rebooting fixes it)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In other news, Tank has decided this week to be a momma's boy. He follows me everywhere. Even when Ryan is home, which is a change from what it used to be. Today I was in my bathroom getting ready. He came in and made himself cozy in the corner on my bathrobe and started SNORING. (I know, my bathrobe shouldn't be on the floor, but that's not the point.) He must have partied hard in his kennel last night because usually when I let him out in the morning he's crazy full of energy, but today the snuggling on the bathrobe was where he was the entire time I was getting ready.

Well, I suppose, my kiddies have been working about 40 minutes now, so they should be finisheing soon. RECESS TIME!

Hooray!

2011-03-27T21:05:00.000-06:00

I went out on a limb the other day and asked a couple we know that is having a baby if I could take some maternity pictures of them, and they said YES! Hooray! I'm excited to get to practice my photography skills a bit more! I think it will be a fun time. However, as I start making deals with people I know to let me take pictures, I start drooling more over other lenses...

In other photo news, I played with GIMP a bit the other day and did some editing with it instead of Picnik. I like Picnik and you can do neat stuff with it, but I DISLIKE having to upload my pictures first to my computer AND THEN onto the Picnik website. So hooray for fun photo taking and editing.

Well, back to reality tomorrow. I wonder if it's too soon to start counting down until summer? :-/ March flew by, here's to hoping April and May do too!

Tank's Photoshoot

2011-03-25T17:43:00.001-06:00

So I played with GIMP on the first and last picture. The others are just how they were.

NYC...Day 5 & 6

2011-03-25T16:58:00.000-06:00

So Wednesday was a crappy day for being outside, but a perfect day for being inside. We saw Spiderman: Turn off the Dark. The special effects of the show were AMAZING! Spiderman & the Green Goblin were sailing all over the theater! It was AWESOME. The storyline...we'll it was basically the movie Spiderman. The singing...nothing to write home about. This is the first show I've gone to where I haven't know the music first. All other shows I've seen I've desired to see because I knew the music was good. Not one song stuck out as fabulous or even just great. They were all okay. We ended up with fabulous seats. Row M, in the middle/stage right. The best part about our tickets is that the two of them were cheaper then one when I looked online before we left. I thought about surprising Ryan with the tickets for his birthday, but $172 each seemed like a lot!

After the show we headed to Chelsea Pier 61. Chelsea Piers is where the ladies from Sex and the City work out (which I don't recall being very often, but that's what we were told.) We boarded our cruise vessel for the night. It was raining and then it turned to snow. We did however park VERY close to the Statue. It was one amazing view. The food was okay. It was a good evening. Our waiter's name was Swan, no joke.

Ryan's gross looking food from the cruise. See the clam shell!

My much better chicken!

Our last day in NYC was pretty low-key. We checked out at 11AM and then headed to the Empire State Building. We met a guy who used to live in Aurora who tried to sell us tickets to go up in the Empire State Building, but we decided that we'd see how long the line inside really was--(he had told us it was a 45 min to and hour wait). Well the line was not long at all. We went up to the 86th Floor Observatory deck. We took many pictures. After that we also went up to the 102nd Floor. It was very cool. I had never done that before, so it was great. We headed to find some lunch and then went back to the hotel to get our bags. We arrived at the airport on time. Enjoy the pictures from our last day.

I'm holding the largest Macy's bag!

Macy's bag from up top!

Ryan took this cool picture of the ice on the sign. There were signs on every side of the building at the top.

Here are some other random pictures from days 5 and 6.

I as trying to take some self-portraits with the point and shoot camera, but I needed the flash and Ryan HATES the flash. He took one and he looked drunk, I laughed so hard and then we started being goofy.

(Note: Ryan probably actually took about 90% of all the pictures we took.)

NYC....Day 4

2011-03-23T10:23:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a relaxed day with no real agenda. We headed back downtown to get pics of the Statue without the fog. We also walked halfway to Brooklyn...across the Brooklyn Bridge. My highlight for the day involved getting tickets to see Spiderman today for 40% off! Woot! And I found a store called "Christmas in New York"--two of my favorite things!!!!!! We also found the Cosi deli that Kayla and I had found a few years ago. It was yummy! Enjoy the photos from yesterday.......we're off to Spiderman at 2pm then tonight is our dinner cruise. Hope it's okay for the cruise...it's kind of wet and yucky out there.

Lunch at 5 Napkin Burgers...yummy shake!

These next pictures are from near the South Street Seaport. We went down here to check out the tkts booth where they have the discounted tickets for day of shows. This booth also had next day shows.

Brooklyn Bridge from the South Street Seaport

Walking on the Brooklyn Bridge

View of the city from the Brooklyn Bridge

Dinner at Cosi

Ryan & Lady Liberty

"Awesome" subway band...they had posters about cloning dinosaurs. :P

Spiderman Theater lit up at night!

We are about two blocks from this theater!

These last few pics were on the other camera, so they are out of order.

On the Brooklyn Bridge

Sitting Near Pier 17

Our dessert for the evening

NYC....Day 3

2011-03-22T08:51:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was rainy so we stayed inside during most of the rainy time. We headed to Madam Tussauds.

While we were at the Museum we met up with many of the stars immediately in the "Opening Night" room. Here are just a few of the people we saw...

We then headed to the "History Room" where we saw poets, artists, World Leaders, and heroes.

This is Madame Tussaud. She had a wax figure of herself made before she died.

I like the look on Ryan's face in this picture...

Ryan & Bill Gates...go figure. :P

We saw a 4-D movie. It was the Wizard of Oz (12 minute abridged version). When the tornado came, then wind began to blow in the theater. Near the end I told Ryan we were going to get wet, and sure enough, when Dorthy threw water on the witch we all got sprayed a little bit.

Justin Beiber was there...be jealous.

After the museum we headed back to the hotel for some left over lunch. Then we went downtown. It was pretty foggy, but I figured one never knows. We rode the train to the last stop and were able to just barely see Lady Liberty.

This globe was in the WTC and was given as a symbol of peace. When the towers fell it was damaged. On 9/11/2002 it was put in the park near Lady Liberty. The pit in the front also has a flame in it all the time.

There she is...

After seeing the statue, we headed up to Wall Street and the Stock Exchange. Here's Ryan with the Bull.

Trinity Church

WTC Site. It's changed since I was last there. I saw it in 2004 and it was a pretty big hole that you could walk around and read signs and information about 9/11. I was back in 2007 and they were starting to build. Now in 2011 if you didn't know you'd think they were just building. We did go to the 9/11 Preview Site. The memorial is going to be pretty intense. Click memorial to see the website. I told Ryan that clearly we'd have to come back when it was done. :)

Today we got a really late start! It's easy to keep on sleeping when the dark drapes are pulled. Not sure what we're doing today, but we'll figure it out. :)

NYC...Day 2

2011-03-21T08:42:00.000-06:00

Today, I got bit by a horse.....more on that later.

We began the day with breakfast in the hotel and then headed to the train station. We rode the train to Grand Central Station. Ryan was in charge of the camera and he snapped this picture of this odd building by our hotel.

After getting off the train we headed to St. Patrick's Cathedral where we took some great pictures outside. There was a mass going on inside so we didn't go in very far to take pictures inside. All of the inside pictures included some other tourist as well because it was a small area that we were in.

This statue was across the street from the Cathedral. After we were at the Cathedral we headed to Rockefeller Center. There were many people skating on the ice. The Lego store was in Rockefeller Center so we went in there and saw some cool Lego creations, including a Harry Potter Quidditch Match. :)

After Rockefeller Center we started to wander and stopped at Au Bon Pain for lunch. It was a cute little sandwich shop & bakery.

From here we started walking again and realizing we were pretty close to Central Park we decided to head over there. There were tons of people who had bike carriages offering tours through the park, but we decided to take the horse carriage through the park instead.

Our driver pointed out various movie sights as well as some new Trump Towers. They have 18 playgrounds in the park along with a carousel and the zoo.

After we ended our ride, the driver took our picture with the horse, Jasper...that's when he bit me, on the arm. I was covered in horse saliva and my arm was throbbing. The driver even caught the bit on camera!

You can't see it real well but there is definitely a bruised outline of where his teeth were and then it's all red in the middle. This morning I was expecting it to be even more bruised, but it is not. It is still swollen though, and sensitive to the touch.

After our ride through the park, we decided to go ahead and walk through on our own. I had never really wandered into & through the park, so it was fun. We took lots of pictures...here's a few of them.

After quite a while in Central Park we started making our way out of the park. I had to use the restroom and we needed to get to the train station to go meet my family for dinner in Queens. We headed to find a Starbucks so I could use the restroom. On the way Ryan found the Statue of Liberty....

Then it was on the train to head to Queens. We met Ann-Marie, Anthony, and Aunt Melinda at Mi Tio for a fabulous dinner. Uncle John came in time for dessert, which we had at Carvel's. Here's some pics of the family...

Uncle John wasn't hearing anything of us taking the train back to Manhattan so he drove us into the city, and took us on an evening tour of the city. He knows a lot! He was telling us about what used to be here, there, and everywhere. It was cool. He also knew where we could get some sweet shots...he's a hobby photographer. And he took some sweet shots of us!

Empire State Building (colorful top)

United Nations Building

QueensBoro Bridge

(The water pictured is the East River.)

We got back to our hotel at about 11PM last night. It was a good day! Today it's raining so we are going to head to the Wax Museum. Then we will try to get some discounted tickets for a show tonight. If we don't get the tickets we'll probably head to the Met.

NYC...Day 1

2011-03-20T07:48:00.000-06:00

We received an email sometime Thursday or Friday about our flights. This was like the fourth email about our flight changing so Saturday morning I called to see what was up. Our flight was leaving 15 minutes later and it was now a NON-STOP flight! Huzzah! (Originally we were stopping in Kansas City....worst airport to have a layover of more than 10 minutes in!!)

We left DIA about 10:45 and landed at LGA at 4ish. We navigated the bus and train like a rockstar if I do say so...well that was after I checked to make sure it was the right bus about 20 times. We rode the M60 to the train station and got on the N. Well there was construction on the N line so we stopped at Queensboro Plaza. A place I remember well. There we got on the 7. Last time I was in NY we rode the 7 in to Manhattan from Queens everyday. We took the 7 to Times Square. We are staying two blocks outside of Times Square.

It's a little suite. We thought it would be nice to have a place to store leftovers that could then be eaten as lunch later during our trip. We also have breakfast available for us from 8AM to 11AM! Hooray!

After checking in we went to find food--We ate at Brooklyn's Diner. I had just told Ryan that we were going all out this trip. I had been saving money for it and we weren't holding back. And we didn't...we both ate $20 cheeseburgers! We were hungry and they didn't have a wait time and we sat down and I about fainted. We contemplated leaving, but justified that since we had only eaten breakfast, spending an addition $20 could be divided into two meals and so therefore it was fine. :)

After dinner we walked around Times Square and checked out M&M's World and the Hershey Factory. I didn't have my fancy camera so all these are taken with my point and shoot. Today I'll be taking my fancy camera.

Statue of Liberty kiss anyone?

M&M segregation...

I liked this cup...I thought of a few people who would appreciate "chocolate for all" :)

After wandering a few hours we were tired and headed back to the hotel. We stopped at the subway to get a map so we were ready for today. We are hanging out in Midtown and then meeting my family for dinner tonight.