Workin' in an Elementary School

(sung to the tune of Walkin' in a Winter Wonderland)

Children scream, they're not listnin'

When they go, we're not miss'n 'em,

In all of the pain, we try to stay sane,

Workin' in an elementary school.

Christmas comes, they're excited,

Though our nerves they've ignited,

They're off of the walls, they run in the halls,

Workin' in an elementary school.

In the lunchroom we can hear them yellin'

And we know that they are really wound,

someone hits, the other says, "I'm tellin'!"

And that is when our heads begin to pound.

Pretty soon we'll be restin'

'cause our nerves, they've been testin'

We're happy, it's clear, it comes once a year

Christmas in an elementary school!

I must note that I did not write this and if I knew who did I would give them full credit, but it mysteriously showed up in my mailbox at school today and I HAD to post it!

My effort in decorating for Christmas.

"Oh(teeny tiny) Christmas Tree"
"Down from the chimney"

I can't help but giggle when I see this picture. For many reasons, we decided to go for a small tree this year (we have TWO cats) and I think it is decorated quite lovely but I didn't anticipate how dwarfed it would be up against our rather large mantle. Then J and I decided that our gift to each other would be the hutch that goes with our TV stand (see right). I absolutely love the hutch and it makes our living room look so much more "homey" and welcoming but our sweet little tree now looks a bit on the dorky side. Oh well, at least there's next year.


On the tree- I am terrible at placing the ornaments on the tree. Apparently I lack the skill of spatial reasoning. All my ornaments tend to be in one spot or I'll have end up with a naked spot and well, it goes on and on. So, my mother, who would give Martha a run for her money, came to visit about the time my tree went up and obviously I let her place the ornaments ....it was perfect...... Fast-forward twelve hours when I came home from school only to discover that our cats had knocked down my mothers creation leaving me to try re-decorate. So there you have it. You can stop making fun of my tree decorating disability now.

On the hutch- If you look closely, you'll notice the big red bow on the top. J won't let me take it off yet because the hutch is technically a Christmas present and well, it's not yet Christmas. He is so cute sometimes...:)


On the decorations- I must give a shout out to Hobby Lobby and their 50% off sale. I was able to scratch my Christmas- time itch without breaking the bank and for this, my husband now loves you more than I do.

Meet the Schwarzwalder's

Schwarzwalder was Justin's name before it became "Americanized". Thank goodness it did! Can you imagine my poor little first graders trying to pronounce that?!


Friday's are date night and this week we went to the Royal Bovaria to indulge in some fine German cuisine. If you haven't been there, you must go....immediatly. I had all the intentions of taking the camera to capture us pigging out on pork loin and spatzel, somehow in the midst of my furry of hunger I forgot and this was the only picture we ended up with. It was taken while we were waiting for Diana and Scott to pick us up. Check out my husbands beard!

A little embarrassed

I should be ashamed of myself. I took a ton of pictures at Justin's family's and this is what I came home with from my family's festivities. A picture of my Mom's dining room table, my nephew who I'm pretty sure is naked, I say "pretty sure" because I didn't take the picture and couldn't even tell you who did and let us not forget the oh-so-pleasant picture of a dead dear.

Giving Thanks part I

Justin and his Grandmother

Justin and his Momma

Diana, Justin and me

Justin, Diana and I made the long drive (3 1/2 hours) North to Stafford, Kansas to celebrate Thanksgiving with the Staab family. Justin's sweet Grandmother did all the cooking for her huge German family and it was pure heaven. I love going to Grandma Staab's house, it reminds me of the many Holiday's when my own huge family would pack ourselves into the tiny little house of my Sweet Grandmother Keeling. Grandma Staab's house is just as warm and welcoming and it even smells like Gran's Gran's did. I choke back tears walking through the door. I met Justin's Grandmother a year ago this Thanksgiving and I couldn't wait to call my mom and tell her how much she reminded me my Gran Gran. I watched Justin's little cousins running around playing outside and making up games and I couldn't help but think about how excited I would get as a little girl to go to Gran Gran's and play with my cousins. What precious memories.

I am so thankful for Justin and so proud to be a part of his family. I feel just as at home and loved with his family as I do when I'm with my own and I thank God for that blessing every single day. Now, I must get off of here because tomorrow I am making the long (3 1/2 hours) trip South to Bokchito, Oklahoma to visit my family. To mark that occasion, I will leave you with this......

Happy Thanksgiving Ya'll!

My husbands secret...

Do you remember these? Last night J and I were visiting his mom's house. I had followed her into the spare bedroom to chat while she was hemming some dress pants. I was sitting on the floor by a bookshelf when I looked over and saw it...."A popple!" I said with the excitement of my former 8 year old self when she replied with a slight giggle, "That's Justin's!" Ahhahahahha! I'm not sure what was funnier, the fact that my husband actually had one of these(the girlie one none the less) or that it was obviously a toy that he had once adored and drug around the house. This poor little popple, other wise known as Pancake (fitting for my husband) carried all the battle scars of a child's favorite playmate. It's once soft and fuzzy fur was all matted and stained. It was very apparent that this was not a toy that sat on a shelf simply for visual effects. Justin is going to kill me for blogging this, but I just could not resist. On the way home I teased him of a future nursery decorated in an all boy theme. I can just picture it, black and white and green with soccer balls and sports memorabilia seeping from every corner and what little boys nursery would not be complete without the lone childhood toy of his daddy, Pancake the purple and pink popple!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

We have a tree. It is decorated. It is small but perfect and is awaiting a few finishing touches. I know you all are on the edges of your seats for a picture. Have no fear my fellow bloggers, it is on it's way!

I couldn't have said it better myself.

The secret of teaching is to appear to have known your whole life what you just learned this morning. -Author Unknown


If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job. ~Donald D. Quinn

And now for giggles....

The only reason I always try to meet and know the parents better is because it helps me to forgive their children. ~Louis Johannot

Word to the wise...

Do NOT play Rock Band with someone who can play a real musical instrument. It's just flat out humiliating. Brian (on the drums) is freakishly amazing, I couldn't concentrate on what I was supposed to be doing for wondering how the heck he was moving so quickly. It took me 2.5 seconds to realize I would be better off playing photographer. I knew he meant business when he asked if it were ok to take his shoes off. Apparently he's broken two petals on his own game, and the bare feet seem to cut down on the destruction factor. Brian, you rock!

Would someone please enlighten me?

How the heck am I supposed to get my background to change? I've tried several times by copying and pasting the code into my edit HTML (just like it tells me to do) and it always says it's not in a good format or something or another. I am tired of having a boring background but I am even more tired of this silly thing not working!

P90(ouch)X

Justin and I decided we needed to kick up our fitness routine a little. Several of the guys that Justin works with have been doing this workout video called P90X (you may have seen it on a infomercial) and have been telling Justin of thier success stories. Of course we had to try it. Wow! It is tough! After doing one session of "Ab Ripper" just for giggles, we decided it was time to get serious and use the program like it was meant to be used.......Bright and early Saturday morning I was chomping at the bit to get started. Our first round included 50 minutes of chest and back excersises. I don't think I have ever done so many different kinds of push-ups. Two days later and I can barely lift my arms enough to put on deoderant. Now, before you look at this picture and make fun of my husband for looking so beaten up I have to be a good wife and take up for him a bit. Justin works out at least five times a week lifting weights and running, not to mention he plays outdoor soccer once a week on top of all the other suff but this litteraly kicked his rear! It is sooo hard people! At one point we were supposed to be doing inverted push-ups which required us to prop our feet up on the couch and try to push the rest of our body up with our arms. I. could. not. do. it! I got stuck. Yep, I found myself just lying there with half of my body on the couch and my face implanted into the carpet (you can stop laughing now). I did make it through and had just enough energy to stumble into the office and retrieve the camera...:) Last night we did Plyometrics which is basically a hundred different kinds of lunges and squats (1 hours worth). There are no pictures to commemorate this as I couldn't feel my lower half until, well, I still can't so even stumbling to find the camera was not an option. Tonight we are looking forward(not) to arms, shoulders and another ab ripper and if after 90 days I don't look like a flippin super model I am grabbing my cheetos and heading back to the couch for good!

Weekend in numbers.....

Celebrating one of my best friend's upcoming wedding with pole dancing lessons (oh my!).....$20


Finally taking the Oklahoma Professional Teaching Examination......$150


Ingredients for Mom's mac and cheese.......$ 10


The look on my husbands face when he discovered that he left the grill brush IN the grill while warming it up, thus starting a fire within two feet of our BRAND NEW HOUSE!..........priceless



Justin and Scott finally got the fire out but not before burning up my only wooden spoon. 123,567 hours later ( ok fine. It seemed like that long though), we were able to grill the biggest steak known to man. Honestly! I have a picture of it that I will post soon.

Just because

I never really posted any kind of pictures from our wedding. Last night, Justin and I had a social with our fellow volunteers for the Ronald McDonald House. Justin's (and now my ) friend Brian and his wife greeted us with a surprise CD of some pictures they snapped at our reception. Here we are eating, big surprise! Thank you Brian and Breanna!

Success!

The most wonderful thing happened at school today. Most of you know that I am a teacher. What you may not know is that I teach Special Education. Most of my kiddos suffer from mild learning disabilities but I do have a few that are diagnosed with MR ( Mental Retardation) which means these sweet angels really struggle in an academic setting. I (along with the regular classroom teacher) have been working with one particular child on learning letter names and sounds. This may sound like a simple task, but to a child with MR, this is a huge challenge. Just recently my little guy has learned all of his letters and sounds. Today, he actually read a few words! Cat, hat, bat, and just to make sure he wasn't memorizing the words but rather using phonetic rules (phonics) I threw in zat, nat and lat (non-sense words). HE DID IT! Guys, this is HUGE! I think I may have even scared him a little I was squealing so loud with excitement. We jumped up and down and gave each other high fives. I had tears in my eyes and chill bumps up and down my arms....... What a feeling! THIS is why I became a teacher.

Way to go kiddo, Mrs. B is so incredibly proud of you!

Memphis in Pictures

Actually walking in Memphis. It's hard to get a good picture together when you're vacationing alone but this turned out pretty cool I think. I should also mention that I sang songs about Memphis, much to the dismay of my husband, the entire week before we left and in the car on the way there but I kept mixing two songs together and it was driving Justin insane. I would start out singing Walking in Memphis and then somewhere during the chorus I would morph it into Maybe it was Memphis without even realizing what I had done. Finally around day three, Justin asked me "What in the heck are you singing?" We both got a good laugh when we realized what I had done. I finally got that out of my head though when I heard a local band playing a cover of Honky Tonk Women. I was so disappointed that I had missed that one. You know, " I met a gin-soaked bar-room queen in MEMPHIS" ? Not the best message does that song send, but it's one of my favorites and I can't believe I had forgotten it. To make up for it, I sang it over and over until we got home. It was during this time that I realized how much my husband loves me because let's face it, I'm not exactly known for my vocal skills...:)

Here I am signing the wall outside of Graceland. Call me a nerd, but I LOVED Graceland! Moreso than I would have ever imagined. We spent the good part of 5 hours touring the land of Elvis. This picture also started a tiff between my husband and I because in the first attempt, he managed to get a big picture of my hiney and I WAS NOT HAPPY. I made him take it again.

The story behind this picture is actually more entertaining than the picture itself. We had just entered a free fly zone of different kinds of birds. I decided it best to put my hat on because, well I think you know why.

The zoo was amazing. I've never seen so many animals up close and personal as I did at the Memphis Zoo. All of the animals were out and about and playing with each other. This little chimp kept reaching down and spanking the little otter! This was probably our favorite exhibit. I have a ton of zoo pics and I know that Justin wants me to post more than these, but he has no idea what a pain blogger can be and I'm not sure many of you really care about looking at too many....:)

This is Justin and I after eating our weight in Bar-B-Q Ribs and Fried Chicken. Seriously, I could not believe how good the food was. I had no idea the amount of food my stomach was capable of holding until this trip.

Here we are on Beale street our first night in Memphis. I was so excited that it was cool enough to wear a jacket and my scarf. If you look closely, you can see the tiny tip of yet another cup of Starbucks coffee. I am pretty sure that I was the only one walking around with a huge cup of coffee as opposed to a huge cup of beer. I didn't mind one bit. I took pleasure in the fact that I would also be the only one who didn't wake up with a nasty hang-over.

Starting off right....

A road trip, or any trip for that matter, is just not a trip without your "poison". In my case that would be a non-fat, no-foam vanilla latte.....Ahhhhhh, Heaven! I promise I do not intend on posting our whole trip one picture at a time. I actually had several pics chosen; however, after waiting exactly 1,234 minutes for them to upload only to realize they were all out of order kinda put a kink in my creative plan and as if I wasn't aggravated enough, when I tried to switch them around I wound up deleting pictures. So, before I deleted every last one of them, I decided I would just post this for now and try again when I had more time. In the meantime, I've made all of you want a Starbucks so while you run out and get one I'll be thinking of my next post.

"I told you so!"

This is what happens when you're do-it-yourself husband gets the bright idea to groom the cat himself. I told him at least a zillion times that he was going to make a huge mess and that it is worth the money to take her in and let a professional groom her. This is Lola, she is usually a beautiful tortoise shell Persian, usually. At this point, she looks like she has the mange. I'm sorry Lola, momma tried to tell him! Now, my sweet husband gets to take her into the vet and show them his "masterpiece". The funniest thing about this whole episode was the conversation between Justin and I shortly afterward.
Justin(in the saddest little boy voice you've ever heard) says: " She doesn't like it!" To which I not so calmly replied, "YOU THINK?"



Sidenote: I do have pictures of Memphis to be posted soon, this just took precedence.

Walking in Memphis

We will be. Tomorrow night. Stay tuned for pics!

Yay for fall break!

Birthday and Rock Band

Happy Birthday roses

For safety reasons, Justin chose the single question mark candle....smart man.

If you have to put on your glasses to play a video game, you're getting old.

After the feeling came back into the right side of my face and my Bells Palsy symptoms dissipated I was able to enjoy my birthday festivities. I did make several observations about myself as the evening drew to a close. For starters, I need to stop wearing my hair like that. It makes me look Amish. Secondly, my hand-eye coordination is not what it used to be. Last but not least, I should give my husband more credit in the kitchen, the cup cakes were delish! Thank you to my sweet husband, my mother-in-law and our new friend Scott for making my birthday so much fun!

Holy Tumbleweed!

This is what I came home to earlier this week. TUMBLEWEEDS. Where are these ugly things coming from? They were blowing all over our neighborhood. I can't complain much because some of the houses had them piled all the way up to the roof. You can't move them, they blow right back to their undesirable home which happens to be our front porch. If anyone has any suggestions on how to get rid of these ugly weeds, please enlighten me.

On another more painful note, tomorrow is my Birthday. I don't get very excited about October 11 anymore, after 21 they're pretty much just a sad reminder that you're not getting any younger. For my birthday present, I won a date with the dentist. Don't. Be. Jealous. I'm sitting here typing this most likely with drool running down my cheek. I'm not sure though as I can't even feel my nose. I only hope that I am able to eat my celebration dinner at Musashi's (is that even how you spell it?) tonight. Justin is supposed to make my birthday cake and I am very interested as to how it will turn out. Oh well, cake is cake I suppose and if it's terrible I only have myself to blame since it was my big hairy idea to start a new tradition and make each other cakes this year, Ha! I'm going to stop now because I'm pretty sure I have just bitten a hole in the side of my tongue.

Oh, and I am so glad I took the day off of work because I look like I have Bells Palsy.

Wanna Race?

Every three minutes a women is diagnosed with breast cancer......

Join the Race and help find a Cure!


Justin, myself and a couple of my girlfriends will be Racing for a Cure this weekend in Bricktown. Come and join us!

"Party" Pics

Happy Birthday to the Hubs!

Today is J's 29th birthday! He's such a young pup! We are celebrating with dinner at Texas Roadhouse and homemade birthday cake after. Yum Yummy! Yes, you heard me correctly. I said HOMEMADE! Last year I had the cutest soccer ball birthday cake made for him and it turned out so well, but this year I wanted to start a tradition (I love traditions and Justin would say that I start new ones everyday) and make him a cake. So that's exactly what I did and it turned out okay for a first time baker. I am a pretty good cook, but I don't bake much and I have never tried to make a two layer cake. Quite frankly, I'm just glad it stayed up-right.....We will eat it tonight and I'll have pictures up soon. Not to show off the cake of course but of my cute hubby. Anyway, Happy Birthday to my sweet, sweet husband! I love you!

Thank Goodness it's only once a year!

Pork chop sandwich, corn dog, fried cheese, chocolate covered strawberries, Indian taco and so many Dr. Peppers I'm afraid to actually count. Justin and I go to the fair strictly for the food. The exhibits are only a distraction until we can eat again. Don't worry, we shared all of the so bad but Oh so good fair food and trust me we only eat like this once a year. Ahhh, it was purely delightful! Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some serious running to do.........

Finally...

We are finally going to the fair! I can't wait! I've been sending Justin count down emails all week and day dreaming about which not-very-good-for-you food I'm going to devour first....Woooohooo! Isn't it funny how the silliest little things get us so excited? One of the things that I love so much about my husband is his tendency to get just as excited as I do about the little things in life, like the fair. So, if you see a short brunette with her head buried in a funnel cake, please stop and say hello. If you do, I promise not to talk with my mouth full.

Odds and Ends

Bricktown about a month ago. IT. WAS. HOT.

This is Justin waiting on me to bring him coffee in the morning....Ok fine. This was at the zoo Labor Day Weekend. I LOVE the zoo and I could watch these little guys for hours!
Here we are last weekend at the German Festival. If I look tired, it's because we waited in line over an hour to get our food only to find out they were out of schnitzel! I tried really hard but I couldn't help but give the girl a dirty look. Sorry, I know it wasn't her fault, but I'm not perfect.


I've been really lazy lately on posting pictures with my blogs. It's not that we don't take pictures, I am seriously too lazy to plug in the darn camera and download the pics. So, I've decided to play catch-up. Some of these I've blogged about and some I have not. I'm still hoping some day I'll wake up and be the most efficient person I know, until then you're stuck with me the way I am.

Shopping or schnitzel?

During Third grade lunch duty....


"Mrs. Blackwelder, how are you doing today?" I reply with a shocked look on my face because of the impecably polite manner in which this little guy has just acknowledged me while at the same time pronouncing my name correctly. "I'm doing well, thank you for asking. Are you doing anything fun this weekend?" As he casually slides into his place at the lunch table, slinging his Cars lunch bag up from his hip he replies: "Ah... not much, just hanging out with my girlfriend."

When I asked him what he and his girlfriend were going to do, he told me they were going to Dallas with their moms. In my head I'm thinking "Wow, this third grader is taking his girl to Dallas for the weekend(you know those moms are going shopping) while I get stuck going to Choctaw for the German Festival, what is up with that?"

Actually, I'm excited for the weekend I just thought it was funny to compare the weekend "date" of a third grader to that of his teacher. I do have one question though. Don't you think it odd that the German Festival is in Choctaw? I mean wouldn't you think it would make more sense to have I don't know a pow-wow or something in Choctaw? Oh well, we can celebrate both of our heritages this way I guess. In case you were wondering, my people would have been the ones involved in the pow-wow. What? Did the blue eyes and freckles throw you off?

New family member on the way!

Congratulations to my sweet cousin Jennie and her husband Thomas. They are expecting their first baby in May. Our big crazy family LOVES babies and I know I speak for everyone when I say we cannot wait to have a new baby to hold and cuddle with during the holidays:) Jennie is going to be a fabulous mommy, I am so exited for the both of them. This will be the first grandchild for her parents (my aunt and uncle) and let me tell you that little baby on the way is so lucky. My neice and nephew love their great uncle Ken and aunt Leigh, they are so good with kids, I can only imagine how excited they are right now. So, this post is for you Jennie, Thomas. Uncle Ken and Aunt Leigh I love you all and can't wait to meet my new cousin!

I should change my title

I should really change the title of my blog to The Things Kids Say or Don't you wish you're wife were a teacher like me? or Little People Big Mouths or well, you get the picture. It seems like all I've been blogging about lately are stories involving elementary students, but they're just so darn cute and I figure you all get to blog about your kids, so until I have my own, these are my kids and I want to share their cuteness. So without further ado.......


"Mrs. Blackwelder, when I grow up I'm going to have a wife, but we have to get through lots of grades first."

"Yes you do! Like elementary school, high school and COLLEGE!"

In my head I'm thinking "Maybe if we were focusing on the 3rd grade instead of on "wife getting" we wouldn't have to come see Mrs. Blackwelder for reading and math."

Looking forward to the weekend

I have been looking forward to Friday all week! Justin and I get a three day weekend, what will we ever do with ourselves? The zoo? a movie? football? shopping? the choices are endless but the one thing I'm sure of is that there will be lots of coffee drinking, lots of walking around with no make-up on and lots, I mean LOTS of naps! WOOOOHOOOO! I think I'm even going to turn my phone off. So don't call me. I won't answer.

Leslie

1996

2001
2008

One of my best friends was able to make the trip to OKC this weekend to celebrate her birthday. Leslie or Lerlie as I like to call her and I have been friends since we were 5 years old. I don't get to see her as much as I would like since she moved back home a few years ago, but when we do get spend time with one another we pick up right where we left off. We've been there for each other through first dates and heartbreaks, laughter and tears, graduations, marriage and I was so honored to be able to be with her during the birth of her first daughter Alexis. Leslie has always been more like a sister to me than just a friend. I love you girl.

Happy Birthday Lerlie!

"Bringing Sexy Back"

Student: "Miss Blackwilder (still working on it) what is your husbands name?"

Me: "His name is Justin"

Student: With eyes as big as silver dollars "Justin Timberlake"?

Me: "No, Justin BlackWELDER. "


I had no idea this getting married/getting a new name thing was going to be so entertaining.

Miss Blacksmith

I actually answered to this name today. Oh well, progress is progress I guess. Just a couple of days ago I was Miss Blacklooder.

Conversations with a Third Grader.....

Student: "So Miss Smith, I hear you have a new last name!"

Me: "Yes, I do. I got married and now my name is Mrs. Blackwelder."

Student: "My mom's friend got married this summer too, so when is YOUR baby coming?"

Barf

Apparently my school didn't read my blog about how terrible my motion sickness is because I had to pull bus duty today. By bus duty I mean actually riding on the bus route to make sure every little kiddo got off at the right stop. I purposely chose the bus that got back the fastest yesterday but it made no difference, I got home an hour and a half ago and I'm still feeling yucky! If you're a teacher and you're reading this, THANK YOU for all you do to keep kids safe and parents from having break-downs. If you're not a teacher and have kids in school, THANK THEM, everyday! We cannot hear it enough believe me. If you're a parent, THANK YOU for allowing me all the joys that come from watching your most precious gifts learn and grow and for letting me be a small part of that, even if it means suffering through a little motion sickness every now and then....:)

I've got the fever!

Olympic fever!
OH.MY.GOODNESS.
Are the Olympics not awesome this year? I almost had an anxiety attack during the swimming relay the other evening and Justin has become quite amused at my squealing and yelling at the TV, TAKE THAT FRANCE! I made him sit down and watch my girl Shawn Johnson on the balance beam, is she not the cutest little thing ever? I just want to put her in my pocket! Justin made a comment about how short and stalky alot of the gymnasts were and I had to remind him not to be too judgemental. I mean has he forgotton what the two of us look like(and by that I mean short and stalky, I am not by any means comparing our bodies to Olympic athletes)? However, I am convinced that our future off-spring could very well be prime candidates for Olympic gymnasts...:) Ok maybe not Olympic but if baby gets momma's big thighs, I hope he/she will at least be able to turn a decent back hand spring or two!

Jinxed

So I completely jinxed myself by getting all excited about going back to school. We had our Back to School Bash last night where I found out my classroom (along with the first grade rooms) flooded last Thursday. YOU HAVE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME! I spent all of last year high on allergy medicine because of the nasty carpet in my room, I don't know what I am going to do. I mean come on, wet carpet in 100 degree weather with no airconditioning and no windows to help air it out can NOT be good for you. If you see me hauling around an oxygen tank, now you'll know why. Welcome back Mrs. Blackwelder!

I showed him!

Earlier this week Justin woke me up asking me to make his lunch for work. I started doing this for him this summer since I didn't have to get up and go to work myself and I really don't mind, but this particular morning I was having a hard time waking up and I was hoping he would make his own lunch this one time. Anyway, I whined and begged and covered my head with the covers but it didn't work, He gave me a guilt trip about running late (which was caused by him laying in bed watching the news for too long) so I got up anyway and drug my grumpy self into the kitchen. While I was making his sandwich I thought to myself that I was going to get him back for waking me from my peaceful slumber. I could only think of one way to do it.......

Hours went by and during my day of grocery shopping, running errands and trying to keep myself from being bored to tears I forgot all about the mornings activities of sweet revenge. Around four thirty I received the following text message from my sweet husband.

"I think we need to buy a mousetrap, something took a bite out of my sandwich!"

Ahh hah! That will teach him to drag me out of bed against my will!

I laughed about this on and off for a good hour and the whole time I was thinking about how lucky I am that I'm married to someone with such a good sense of humor. Justin is a wonderful person and I am so blessed that I get to spend the rest of my life with someone who doesn't take things too seriously and knows how to make me laugh. I hope that we stay this playful with each other for the next 50(and hopefully more) years. I love you Justin and I will gladly make your lunch for you as often as I can, which means for the next week and a half when school starts and then you're on your own...:)

Can you see me now?

I was just on the phone to my friend Leslie and was telling her all about our trip. I was half way through this story when I thought to myself "I can't believe I haven't blogged about this". Anyway, now that I've set it all up it probably won't even be funny but just the same, here goes. So, I mentioned before the trip that I was very concerned about going on the cruise because of my motion sickness. I was afraid that Dramamine wouldn't do the job, so I went to the doctor and was prescribed two little patches that were supposed to work like a charm. I was instructed to place this tiny little band-aide looking thing behind my ear approximately four hours before we got on the ship. I was very careful about timing the placement just right, because I didn't want to spend ANY amount of time nauseous. I calculated and re-calculated and doubled checked my calculations with Justin until I was absolutely sure this thing would be working by the time we were on board. All was going well, except that every now and then I would reach back and scratch it because my hair would get caught in it and tickle my neck. Those of you that have ever been around me much know that my eyes are always itching, of course making me feel the need to rub them. Do you see where this is going yet? Little tip from Devy: Never ever under any circumstance put your fingers in or anywhere around your orbital area after you have just touched a motion sickness patch. It will cause your eye to DILATE only to return to normalcy six to eight hours later. My friends out there who visit the eye doctor on a regular basis know how uncomfortable it is to have your eyes dilated. If you don't, it stinks and the only thing worse than having both of your eyes dilated is having only one! So much for avoiding the dizziness! And the worst part of it is I looked like a crazed lunatic! I literally walked around for hours with one really large pupil and one teeny tiny one. I am sure that anyone who got close enough to me was sure I was about to go crazy and jump overboard or something. Justin kept his head down through an entire meal to keep from laughing at his new wife on their honeymoon. It just goes to show if there is any chance, any at all that something could go embarrassingly wrong, if I'm involved, it SO WILL!

I wasn't kidding

Our cats could care less where I am or what I'm doing. As a matter of fact, I don't even think they care if I'm even home at all, I can go all day without even seeing them and we live in the same house, but they follow Justin EVERYWHERE. Here they are eagerly waiting for him to get out of the shower, if it didn't have a glass door, they would probably jump right in there with him. He gets a kick out of the fact that they don't really like me. I told him to enjoy it, because when we have kids they're going to like me better...:)

I can't believe I'm saying this..

...but I'm fairly certain that I'm ready for school to start. All year I couldn't wait until this summer because it would be the first summer that I didn't have to work since I can remember. Justin and I had talked about me working a summer job, but with the wedding and honeymoon and house buying I thought it would be a little less stressful to not have to worry about working around a schedule. Well, all of that is over now and I AM DYING HERE! You can only play on the computer so many hours a day before you get sick ( I get dizzy from scrolling up and down, I'm a freak I know) and I've wondered around this house until I'm crazy! My cats sleep all day which really doesn't matter because they like Justin better anyway and my friends are not teachers so they, of course, are working. Now, one of these days when we have children, I am going to LOVE this free time, but I will definately be working a part-time job next year. So with all of that being said, bring on the meetings, bring on the paper-work and bring on the early mornings for goodness sakes because I AM READY and I miss my kiddos believe it or not.

Call me, Call me anytime

Or just wait until I call you.

Simple question. Why is it that I can go days without receiving a phone call, but the minute I have a fairly heavy bag in one hand, my purse and car keys in the other and am trying to return an empty shopping cart (like any polite shopper) back to it's appropriate home my phone will ring? This happened today and unlike most times I chose to answer the call and if all of this wasn't hectic enough the alarm goes off in the store because the nice sales lady forgot to remove a security tag from my duvet cover! This situation alone is just one of the many reasons I a.) don't like to shop and b.) hate to talk on the phone.

Side note: Don't worry honey, I still love you even though I've told you at least twenty times the year my car was made and how many miles it has on it and you can rest easy knowing that I finally exchanged the duvet cover and silverware that has been sitting in our entry way for almost a month now.

St. Maarten

That little froggie looking thing would be my husband.

Or St. Martin, depending on which side you're on. These pictures are from the Orient Beach which is on the French side of the island. This was our favorite port.