Merry Christmas

I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas Holiday! I wanted to take a minute and blog to tell everyone Merry CHRISTmas on this special day. Remember what the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas, rather than getting all wrapped up in gifts and hustle and bustle. Today is our Savior's Birthday. Jesus is the Reason for the Season!
Hope everyone has a great Christmas~

URGENT PRAYER REQUEST

Please keep one of my students (Justin) and his family in your prayers. He has had a difficult time adjusting to school this year and some family problems at home. Last Tuesday, his mom dropped him off at school late and was hurting with labor pains. She went to Somerville hospital (which is not equipped for labor and delivery) at 10:10 am and 5 minutes later, she was delivering her newborn baby Emily Ann. They were immediately rushed to St Francis hospital and the baby was put in the NICU. They were sent home 2 days later and the 5year old was adjusting fine to his new baby sister. The mom fed her 3 day old baby at 1am Friday morning and went back to bed. She woke up at 3 am with a bad feeling and found her baby girl not breathing. She went to get her mom who was asleep with Justin and told her what was going on. They thoiught he was asleep but he really heard everything. The uncle was the only one that knew CPR and he was so nervous with her being so tiny. She didn't make it, her lungs were filled with blood and fluids. The funeral was this weekend and Justin did not go, but saw the pictures and said, "my baby is an angel now". How sad and tragic for this family to go through such a tragedy during the holidays. I called and spoke with the grandma earlier today and she said the mom is having a hard time and the 5 year old keeps talking about how pretty his baby sister was. They only had her at their house for 12 hours. I can not even imagine being a mother how the mom feels right now. This family needs alot of prayer right now. Please pray for God to give them strength to make it through the holidays.
Thanks friends

The Nativity Scene

Today at church I read the Christmas story to my second graders. We made star ornaments and my assistant Jessica had an excellent idea to make these pop-up nativity scenes. They were so much fun and the kids loved them. Houston liked mine so much, he wanted to create one tonight. He was so proud and I thought he did a great job!

A close-up of Hou Boo's

My example of the Nativity scene. I am NOT the artist at all

A few of my favorite...

I have so many Christmas ornaments from childhood, given as teacher gifts, and some that are just special! I have also tried to change my tree a few times in the past 8 years, but these are the ones that I cherish!

I made this for Houston's first Christmas

(he was 4 months old)

My Tree this year

(I changed from a star topper to a silver bow)

This is a sweet ornament one of my 2nd grade Sunday School students actually gave me today at church. So cute!

Our first Christmas married 2002

Got this from my sister at an ornament exchange

Made this one this year! Jesus

Love this one with the nativity scene!

Made this one this year too. Made one for each of my kindergartners as a gift

This Willow Tree ornament was given to me by my great aunt the year Houston was born

So, these are a few of my fave ornaments. Do you have any special ornaments that you just adore?

A Second Grade Prayer

I was wanting to share a little prayer one of my 2nd graders in Sunday School said last week. It is kinda funny because Houston has recently started praying for things like this too.

He said, " Thank you Jesus for this day, our class and friends here at church", then he proceeded to say, "and thank you for even the planets, stars, moon and air we breathe each day". AMEN
I never thought about it before, but we take the air that we breathe for granted sometimes.

So, the other night when Houston was praying, he began to thank Jesus for our neighborhood and community. I got to thinking and we have been studying those things in Social Studies this week. Isn't it funny the way kids relate things they have been studying and learning to real life prayers?

Just wanted to share how cute these kids are! Teaching second grade Sunday School is truly a blessing. I have had so much fun with these children of God this fall.

A Christmas Angel story

Christmas is a time for giving! There are so many needy families out there that need our help during the holiday season.

I get so excited each year about helping with our angel tree at school.

My Bible Study group actually took on a family of three girls this year. I did not take pictures but a friend did and when I get them, I will post a few.

One of my friends, Katie Grisham mentioned a few months back that she wanted to help with the angel tree this year to help teach her 4 year daughter the "true meaning" of giving and Christmas. I turned in the name of a child in my class and this sweet family went overboard making it special for them this year.

The child had been sick and wasn't at school all week, so I called the family and we made arrangements to take it to their home.

We showed up and the kids were all outside in the driveway waiting on us to come. This family has twin girls in 2nd grade, a kindergartener and a third grader. It took all 4 kids, plus the mom, me,Houston, Becca, Katie and Brad to carry all the gifts into the house. The mom was very grateful and it was so exciting watching the children open the gifts.

Check out the pictures.

I think one of the favorite gifts was the DVD player. He would not put it down at all. I later found out at school today that they watched 2 of the movies after we left. They had never had a DVD player before and they were using a 13 inch TV to watch TV on.

Everyone in on the excitement

The twins helping with the uncle that also stays there

Group photo of Katie, Brad, Becca and Hayden with their Christmas angels

All the kiddos minus the 3rd grader

Me with my student

All the child asked for Christmas was a teddy bear. Becca picked him out one a Build a Bear with clothes and got him a gift card to buy more clothes. He was so excited about this bear. Also, the mom doesn't speak much english but when she saw the turkey, she said, "OHHHH TURKEY" and you could tell how happy they were.

This morning at school, my student was wearing his new Old Navy jacket from the Grishams and it still had the tags on it. haha, He had on his new shoes and his new corduroy school pants and was coloring in his new coloring book. I was so excited to see him with his new things.

There are so many of us that are so extremely blessed! Let's stop and think about the things we have this year and be thankful, because their are so many people out there that don't have near the amount of "things" we have.

Thank you Grisham family for making Christmas special for this family! Love you~

Houston's new pony~Lightning

I grew up with horses and was riding in horse shows by the time I was 2 years old. Houston got his first pony right before he turned 2. She is a little Shetland pony and is the size of a mini. You can probably put her in the back of my Highlander and I would never know. He has grown so much this past year, he is now too big for her.

Tim's parents got him another pony, Buck for his birthday in August. Buck is cute, but young and we don't trust him to ride by himself on Buck like he did on Dixie girl.

A family friend of ours, gave my dad a pony for Houston to have. Her name is Lightning and she is a doll! These pictures were taken the first time Houston met and rode Lightning. He loved every bit of it and I was so happy that she was such a sweet natured pony.

That day, we decided to ride in the Somerville Christmas parade. I started out leading her b/c I thought she may be scared of the bands, music, singing, microphones and other noises. I ran into some students from my class and took turns putting them on back of her and she just stood there. Of course Houston was in Heaven showing his new toy off to all his friends!

Check out the continuous smiles

Houston riding along side my dad and Tim in the wagon with the mules

Well, that is my blog on good ole Lightning! Thanks Mrs. L!
WE LOVE HER SO MUCH ALREADY!!!!

Tacky Christmas Sweater party

This sweet girl hosted a tacky Christmas sweater party this weekend and it was sooo much fun!

Everyone dressed as tacky as could be with Christmas attire from head to toe. There was great food, great friends and great fun for sure. We danced, sang, ate, talked and visited, laughed and had a such a great night. Here are some pics of our awful outfits.

This was the coolest sweater with mitten pockets

They were almost wearing twins shirts with shimmery glitter. Only Zach's was cooler with a tiny snowman ironed on the back in a random spot. Not centered at all, just placed on his back in a crooked way. lol

Dustin sporting the cozy sweater after he took off his stylish vest

The guys and their karaoke machine fun

ok, so Matt looked just like cousin Eddie from Natl Lampoons Christmas

Thanks Jennifer, Melissa, Mandy, Liz and Stephanie for such a fun night!

Room moms/Letter fun with Hh

Ok, I don't know if any of you teacher friends out there have good parental involvement in the classroom or room moms, but I must say.. I have a fabulous group of volunteers this year. This sweet lady comes EVERY week at least once if not twice and stay ALL DAY long. She is amazing! She automatically starts filing papers, sweeps, makes flash cards of sight words for the week, next week and I think right now she is 4 weeks ahead. LOVE HER!!!!!! The best part is, next year, she will have another Kindergartner and is already requesting me to be his teacher, so I get her for a whole nother year! Yipee! I also have a very involved dad and another mom that comes often. I am so blessed this year with great parents!

Here is a picture of me and Ms. Loretta on Horrible Hair day for Letter Hh

(Hers is sprayed blue and green, but is so dark, you can't see it here)

Here are some of my babies and their horrible hair.

I think I have Rainbow Bright's twin sister in this pic

This was my doo for the day. We actually had curriculum auditors come out and visit on this day. They thought my hair was pretty crazy. The one lady said she wished she was still in Kindergarten so she could participate too. haha

Just wanted to post about our most recent letter fun day! I had many other students create crazy hair, but without having their parents permission, I am not able to post their pics. I am friends with this group of kids moms and they want me to post pics of their babies online so they can show them off!

Does anyone have any other letter fun days that they do for letter Hh that they would share?

Freezing temps+NO school= Happy/wideawake girl

I got a phone call tonight that our school system had cancelled school tomorrow due to the cold temps. Well, I didn't think about it, but I am sure those buses are FREEZING!!! And the poor kids that have to stand out in the cold at teh bus stop to wait on the bus. This leads me to say that I am now WIDE AWAKE tonight and I am going to try to catch up on blogging a little.

I have no excuse why I haven't blogged lately. Yes, I have been busy, but I tend to lurk on facebook or craigslist and pi til around and don't have time to blog at night. I am going to do a better job during the CHRISTMAS holidays. (By the way, it is CHRISTmas, not Holiday or XMAS) We grew up celebrating Christmas parades and events, I don't know why people think we need to go and change things around.

So, there you go~Hope everyone has a FABULOUS week. I know I will, due to being out of school tomorrow and 1/2 day Friday, parties Wednesday and Winterfest dance on Thursday! YIPEE!!!
Merry Christmas yall!

Basketball Homecoming Night

Houston was chosen as a Homecoming representative for his Kindergarten class at school. The goal was to raise money to help the school. Whoever raised the most money would be chosen as King and Queen. As he went around asking for donations, all he would say, was, "I just want that crown on my head". He and Keshona worked so hard raising money the past two weeks.
Houston raised $200 and won first alternate!

Here they are after they walked out. Representing Mrs. Collins'class

Keshona and Houston

Here he is with another Kindergartner from the other class.

He and Emily both won 1st Alternate.

Again, he was so happy to sport the crown and trophy

He was told many times, he looked so fresh! ha

He we are with our happy KING!

Disgusted!

This billboard was created by atheists earlier this year. At church on Sunday, Bro. Jack brought this up on powerpoint. After hearing about it, seeing it and googling it, I am so DISGUSTED right now.

They are making fun of our saying "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" and have this board posted in major cities for all to see. And how in the world do they think it is a myth?

I read some of the comments on the website and really feel sorry for those people. How can anyone NOT BELEIVE? I mean, everything on this planet is truly amazing or a miracle. Look at Life itself.

I am so upset right now after reading people comments. I know that there are some cruel people out there, but this is awful. These people really need our prayers and we as Christians should stand up for what is right and what we believe.

Praying for these people right now~

Psalm 150:6 Let everything that has breath, Praise the Lord

After ONE year.....results are in

Today marks the one year anniversary of my journey to make healthier choices. Here are some pictures I found of me last year around this time and some pics I took tonight. I weighed and I have lost of total of..........dut, dut, dahhhh 59 pounds!

My siter Holly and I last year shopping at Khols

Awful picture of me with dad and Holly

(Notice the dress)

This was tonight in the SAME dress

Again

And this is just a quick pic of me.

Be on the lookout because I am going to take a pic of me in my fave jeans from last year to see the difference!

Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving!

Today marks the day that I began my journey seriously on making better choices to lose weight.

Thankful

This year, we have so much to be thankful for on this Thanksgiving week.

1.First of all I am so thankful for Jesus Christ for dying on the cross to save us from our sins.

2.I am thankful for a wonderful family and a loving husband.

me, mom and Houston at his thanksgiving luncheon

3. I am thankful for amazing friends.

4. I am thankful for a house to live in.

5. The food that goes on my table.

6. The cars I drive.

7. My job

8. And many other things in life I take for granted

This Thanksgiving we will celebrate by going to my great aunt's house like we have for the past 30 years and celebrate thanksgiving. She called and left a message saying they are baking 2 turkeys and frying one. YUMMY! I can't wait to spend the afternoon with family and chow down and eat. Of course tomorrow will be my cheat day and I will be lenient on the things I eat.

On another note, Friday will be spent shopping for Black Friday deals. I know, me and the hubby are crazy, but he is already talking about making a list of where to go and when. Also, Friday marks my one year anniversary of my weight loss journey. I was up to a loss of 57 pounds. I want to weigh again on Friday and have a total number. It has just been kinda hard lately and I feel like I have been at a standstill for a while now. But, I guess that it is better to be at a standstill than to gain any of it back, right?

I am going to close now. I have been out of school on fall break all week and have spent all day today decorating for Christmas inside and out of my house. I am exhausted! Hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving holiday spent with the ones you love!