A New Motto

I just read the most encouraging words of wisdom tonight from this blog. Check her out! What she learned from a previous intern pastor was the best advice I have heard in a long time.
When upset, feeling are hurt or angered by someone, think about this before you get upset or shoot off your mouth.



1. Don't curse it (the person who hurt your feelings)
2. Don't rehearse it (retell the story of how you have been wronged umpteen times)
3. Don't nurse it (feel sorry for yourself about how you were treated unfairly)

I love this and it plan to work hard to make this my new motto for the future!

100th Day of School!

We celebrated our 100th Day of School on Tuesday this week! I can NOT believe how fast it has came and gone. This is always a special day for Kindergartners to celebrate. We count to 100 daily by 1's 5's and 10's to prepare for this event starting back in September.

Here are our 100th Day of School Projects that were required to be submitted fro 2 grades. One for having 100 objects displayed in a creative way, two, for counting to 100.

Love this one with the Jolly Ranchers

Here is what hung from our doorway entrance

We created a portrait of what we may look like when we are 100. One child told me, he wanted braids. lol

WE made and wore "I am 100 Days Smarter!" hats

We sorted, counted and ate a hundred snacks

We also:

walked 100 steps

did 100 jumping jacks

made 100 glasses to wear

drew pictures of what we would buy with $100

Drew/colored pictures of what we will look like when we are 100

wrote our numbers to 100

counted by 1's, 5's, 10's and 2's to 100

100 hops

100 punches

ate 100 m & m's

counted /ate 100 skittles

and tons of other fun snacks.

I asked the parents to bring in 100 of any snack or candy to share with the class for extra credit points. I had great participation and we had a fabulous 100th Day of School!

A Little Bit of Everything!

Gosh, it seems like forever since I last blogged. I know .... excuses, excuses.........

We took Hou Boo to get some of that long hair cut off. He wanted to grow it out a little, but we got tired of the shaggy look.

Check out what Houston got in the mail all the way from Hawaii
Yes, it really came in the mail like this. Tim called me at work to tell me someone sent us a coconut. How funny? Our sweet neighbors vacation there every year for an entire month and they sent Hou Boo a happy present.

We have been having game nights with friends and at my sister's new house the past 2 weekends. They have a new house that is really pretty and she got the game Quelf for Christmas at a secret Santa party. Talk about fun! This game is the bomb! You should check it out. I am serious, so much fun to play!

The kids had a fun night too!

This was one one group of people that were at game night

We took Houston skating. He wanted to go before school started back, but they weren't open (crazy hours) so we caught up and Houston has actually learned to skate and is really good too.

We also went to Incredible Pizza to celebrate him earning Principal List again with straight A's in EVERY subject. I am so happy that he loves school so much. He had all 98's 99's and 100's as final grades and he said, "mommy, I just tried my hardest" Love my smart boy!

*Prayer Request- This week I had a friend I went to school with K-12th grade whose husband passed away. Please take the time to watch this touching story and pray for this young widow as she is only 31 years old and had only been married one and 1/2 years.
I am so happy that this testimony was been shared so may times, even though Kevin is gone, he is still touching lives of others. http://vimeo.com/35538994

I went to the funeral home Monday night and met up with a group of childhood friends. It was so great to see everyone, but so sad to see a life so young lost. He was a fireman and there were about 6 firetrucks parked out front of the church and about 40 men in uniform, I was amazed at the respect, support and honor that was witnessed in the room that night from the fireman and paramedics.

*One More Prayer Request- Please pray for my Pop and his safety. Now that he is getting older,I worry about him. He has always gotten around pretty good, but lately he has had a few scary instances he encountered. I was running behind for work on Tuesday (praise the Lord) and I was traveling down our country back roads when I came around the corner and noticed a truck and trailer off in a kudzu ditch. I was so scared when I realized it was my grandfather. I ran to see if he was ok, and he informed me that the sun had gotten in his eyes and he ran off the road. It was a pretty deep ditch and his trailer had jackknifed and was blocking the entire road. I called Tim to come and bring the tractor and luckily, he was home and came to pull him out. Thank God for protecting him and his vehicle.

Last night our 3-5th boys (who won the county wide tournament last month) were challenged by the local middle school to play against the 6th graders in a basketball challenge. Tim came to the school and met up to watch the game. It was such a great game as we were winning the entire game until the last 5 minutes and they got on top of us. They beat us the last minute of the game by 3 points, but our boys gave it their all! Way to go Hornets!

*Praise-Today I was had my first evaluation in Instruction. if you are a TN teacher, then you know how the evaluation process has changed this year and how strict the rubric is. I felt confident and gave it my all. My 12 kids were so good too, now to have my feedback meeting next week.

*Here is a funny! During my observation today, we were talking about Folk Tales and I was explaining that they are false stories. We defined what false meant and one of my students said like, "false teeth". I didn't hear him, due to being nervous and my evaluator said, "did you hear what he just said about false teeth?" I just about lost it when I heard. Then another student informed the entire class that her granny wears false teeth all the time. Absolutely hilarious moment for a teacher.

We also celebrated the 100th day of school this week, but that calls for another post!

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

Lately.........

I have not been worth much on blogging lately, heck I haven't even blogged about Christmas yet ;(

We have been running running running as usual! Here is an update in pics

Houston got a 2 remote control helicopters for Christmas and we have been flying them around the fields.
We have been dancing with friends and have learned some really fun dances. Even Houston knows how to line dance.

This has been the BEST gift ever! His Kindle Fire. I am so addicted to Words with Friends. He gets on it each night and plays his games he has downloaded. I Love the Zoodles one. It emails me his pictures he has drawn and tells me how long he was in each subject area and how he did. He LOVES math and stays on that app NONSTOP!

We have been playing/meeting up with friends and helping host a Gender Reveal Shower that was so much fun!

We attended a couples Game Night and played Quelf!. OMG, this was seriously the most fun game to play with a group of people. We had 8 people there and laughed all night long at the crazy things we had to do.


(his new pony)

We have been riding horses. One day we rode 12 miles to my grandparents farm and back home. Houston was so tired, but making that memory was great!

We went Roller skating before we headed back to school. Houston has only been 2 other times and not succeeded very well. He took off this time and was very impressive. He is actually pretty fast too!

We have been attending/visiting a new church for a few months and we are staring to meet new people. Houston enjoys it too!

I got to head out one night last week for a GNO and MEXICAN. It was so much needed. I had a terrible day one day last week. It was like the devil was throwing balls at me, but once again, God pulled through and is on my side! I know he is not going to put us through anything that we can't handle.

Tomorrow, we are headed somewhere to celebrate something very special for a very special little boy!

Well, there you have it! A few pic and bullets as to what has been going on with us!

WE won!

This is our picture we submitted for the Shocked Picture contest and Houston won. It was a close call as we had some tough competition. We won with 480 votes and 2nd place had 428. The 2nd place winners were neck to neck with us the last 2 days of the competition. I was so nervous, but tons of facebook friends and complete strangers pulled us through just hours before it ended.

Do you think he was shocked enough when he opened the coonskin hat? He was so happy to see that. Now he is ready to coon hunt he says. lol

Love it! He wears this coonskin cap everywhere! He even wore it to church this morning. Tim kept taking it off during teh service, but Houston put it right back on :) Love having a boy!

Gender Reveal

No, not my Gender Reveal for inquiring minds. hehe

Melissa and I hosted a gender reveal party for our friend Beth. She told us last month when she went in for a special ultrasound. When I heard the news, I was a little ecstatic, but I knew I had to keep my lips sealed for month. UGH, that was hard to do, but I did it!

Here we are with Beth~ isn't she cute with her little bump?

Me and Beth

again- Melissa, Beth and I
And here is TEAM PINK

TEAM BLUE

Mama Beth

The snack /food table

It's a...............

GIRL!!!!!!!!!

And here is proud big brother Neal!!!

I am so happy for her and Kenneth! And it was fun putting it together and planning it too!

Please Help us Vote!

Attention all facebookers! I know almost everyone has fbook. Even though we may not be fbook friends, you can still go to the Southern Style Photography Page and like their page. Then go to the contest and vote for the picture of Houston Collins with the coonskin hat (#1) and like it!



Please go to https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/southernstylephotography and like the page, then go to the happy/surprised contest and vote for Houston's picture https://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/photo.php?fbid=10150560690028735&set=a.10150560688488735.430764.185897453734&type=1&theater in the coonskin hat (it is #1)


WE have been in the lead for this contest all week and now it ends tomorrow night at midnight and we are losing by about 20 votes.

It does not take that long to like it and if you have a facebook, please take a minute out to do this to help us win!

Thank you so much!!! If you do, please comment so I can thank you in return!

Check out this ornament one of my friends got me for Christmas!

Go Tigers!
I was so sad, we were offered tickets to the Memphis Basketball game on New Year's Eve but had already made plans in advance. We definately plan on hitting some basketball games this season though!

I have an unspoken prayer request tonight. Please keep my husband in your prayers. He is having a difficult time with some things going on.
Thank you

Christmas Craftiness

This fall I have attempted to be crafty and make homemade arts and crafts. I am sure you saw my post this fall on some of the crafts I created, but here are some Christmas things Houston and I worked on. Most of of course.........Pinterest inspired

His handprint Christmas tree

His handprint Santa in a crafty block

With the lights off

I usually make my grandparents a DVD with all of all the grand kids for Christmas. This year, I made a photo book of all the kids, grand kids and great grand kids instead.

Houston had to add his creativeness to it.

It was 20 pages long

Also, Houston and I were invited to a Paint Party to create one of these precious reindeer pieces. Money was tight and Tim was in the hospital at the time, so we designed one ourselves. Houston had so much fun and I LOVE it!

He was so proud!

I have completed many other projects, but have not had time to snap pics. Does anyone have any cute pinterest inspired crafts they have done this year?

My Year in Pictures

January-Tim got me my new horse Chloe

(I started back riding again since Houston was a baby)

Houston enjoying his new 4wheeler Santa brought him in the snow


February


Houston LOST his 1st tooth!

March

Weather warms up and we start riding horses more. He is also enjoying his new Christmas pony

April

Celebrated a GNO for my 31st birthday

May

Houston was ring bearer in our friend's wedding
Family Spring Pics

Kindergarten graduation from my class

June

We celebrated Tim's surprise 40th birthday party and headed to the beach

We rode Wave runners for the 1st time across the Gulf

July

We headed back to the beach (Gulf Shores) to a million dollar condo with friends

Went to Lulu's and yes, there was 21 of us total

I was selected to go to Nashville with my coworker and friend Amy for the Model Schools Conference with 7, 000 teachers across the nation and got to meet Harry Wong.

August

Celebrated Houston turning 6 years old as a pirate

Got backstage passes and floor seats to Jason Aldean's concert

Went to the lake with my friend Melissa for the weekend (picture just got deleted from this post and I can't upload or it will be out of order :( )

Houston's 1st day of First Grade

Houston's 1st Soccer Goal! After finally coming out of his shell and became aggressive

October

Trick or treat and partied with Friends

November

Barn party with friends

I went to Nashville again with a friend to a Kindergarten conference and got to meet Dr. Jean Fieldman!

Thanksgiving

2 days later, Tim has a stroke from all the stress he is under and is hospitalized for 4 days and losses his eyesight

December

Zoo Lights with friends

and to close the year out on New Years Eve we went dancing

2011 wasn't the best year, but we have many great memories that we will never forget!

Here's to 2012~ The best is yet to come!