3 weeks and counting!!

Just a quick update before I go to bed, which I should have been in long ago. Anyway, the fair went really well, only a few students threw up on themselves from the rides. They just washed themselves off, rested and went on the next ride. That's kids for you. It was a lot of fun. Mary and I walked around the exhibit buildings and the animals barns. Mary has some animals and I grew up around the fair and animals so we both really enjoyed it.

I am now a week away from my last concert of the year and things are a little stressful. As a teacher, you just want your students to do their best and hope that they remember all that they have learned. They always do well but there is still that little bit of nervousness that creeps in.

After the concert, things sail through the last two weeks and then VACATION!! Brian and I are going to WA for a while and we are so excited to be able to visit family for a while. Of course, I will post pictures when they happen.

Talk to you later!!

Off to the Fair

Well, tomorrow I get to go on one of the best field trips of the year. Mary (the band teacher at my school) and I are taking some of our performing groups and going to the Maricopa County Fair to perform. It is so much fun because the kids enjoy it and after performing, they get to run around at the fair for the rest of the day. Yes, they are with chaperones. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my choir students but when they are in a setting like the fair, they can get really crazy and so that is what chaperones are for and for them I am very, very, very grateful. :) Hopefully I will have pictures to post but there are no guarantees. Now that I think about it, there might be some legal thing against me posting pictures of my students so I probably won't show you any in the end. Maybe I will get some pictures of Mary and I in the animal barns or something. Anyway, this field trip always comes around in April. The students have been doing standardized tests all week so they are ready to get out and have fun at the fair. And I love going to the fair so it is a great mix. Well, I will let you know how it goes. And yes, I will be posting more about my trip to Connecticut. Thanks for being patient with me. Until next time....

Wonderful time in Connecticut

I just spent a week visiting Ryan, Kjirsti, Owan, Clara and Elsie in Connecticut. I will tell more later but I wanted to just share a few wonderful pictures. As you will see, they are doing great and are beautiful children. I had so much fun getting to know them. I will tell more later, but until then, enjoy!

School, school and more school

I just wanted to post a little update. If you couldn't figure it out by now, my posts happen when there is not much happening at school or I am on vacation. Right now is neither of those times but I just wanted to say a little something. School is very busy for both Brian and I. He is busy getting used to actually teaching (which he didn't do much of while substituting). He is also helping with the school musical so that will be taking much of his time very soon. It is such a joy to hear him talk about teaching. It definitely has its challenges for him but he is doing what he loves and you can just tell. I praise the Lord for bringing him to where he is at today. I am teaching my usual but getting ready for All State choir with 10 of my students and District Honor Choir with about 20 of my students plus just getting ready for the normal concerts. But this is a typical 3rd quarter. It gets twice as busy and flies by like crazy so before long we will be in May and I will be wondering where time went. Anyway, other than school not much is happening. It is the beautiful January weather of being a little cool (in the 50s and 60s :)) and we have had a lot of rain the past couple of days so we have been enjoying that. I also just wanted to let you know that we still have an an extra bedroom whenever any one wants to come to some warmer weather. :) Until next time..........

The Decorating Continues

Well, Brian and I are on vacation and so we decided to do some more painting. We tackled the rest of our living room and the kitchen and the dining room all in a day and a half. Brian's uncle John is staying with us for the holidays and so he has been a big help. It looks so much better now that the rest of the walls are not a boring white. If you can't tell from the picture, it is tan. Technically, it is called Pony Tail but it is tan in the non-paint world. We really like it and it makes things stand out more. Well, that is about it. I am also posting pictures from our Christmas Eve dinner. I love cooking big dinners like this and it has been even more fun to eat the leftovers. Anyway, enjoy the pictures. I hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas!!

We put up our Christmas tree lights today. It was a lot of fun to decorate the outside of our house. It's simple but we like it. We also took our Chrismtas picture today. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas season. With all the things we can get sidetracked by, remember that it is because of God's amazing love and grace that we are celebrating. Merry Christmas and God bless your new year!

A Little Update

Here are just a few pictures to update you on how things are going. We have planted grass in our backyard and bought a lawn mower because the grass seems to grow really quick, which is very surprising in Arizona. Brian is loving have a yard to take care of and mowing our grass. Eventually some day we will finish the border on our yard but we have plenty of time to do that.

We are also getting into the cooler part of the year so my friend, Sonshine, her son, Titus, and I went to White Tank Mountains Park and though we didn't walk far, it was fun just to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Titus had fun playing in the sand while we watched. It was a fun day.

Now we are into the busy Christmas season and I'm enjoying decorating our house. I even made a tree skirt for our Christmas tree, thanks to a little help and direction from Mom. Both Brian and I are busy with school but have enjoyed this Thanksgiving break very much. We were with his family for Thanksgiving and enjoyed a beautiful 70 degree day. Now after this break, we have four weeks left of school and then Christmas break We will be very busy with different Christmas events going on, concerts, parties and a little shopping here and there. Hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and we would love to hear from you. Happy Thanksgiving!!