No More School, No More Books...

     Today was our last day of school!  We ended the year off great with a half-day filled with fun!  I cannot believe that my first year as teacher is over!  It still has not quite sunk in, but I am certainly enjoying the fact that it is 2:20 and I am peacefully sitting in my clean classroom with no students in it.  Everything has been taken off the walls and bulletin boards, desks have been washed, chairs have been stacked, chalkboard erasers have been cleaned, and children have been sent home! 
     The more I think about it, the more it seems like school just started, but in reality it has been 9 months!  I have definitely learned a lot this year!  One major thing I learned was that if I want to be an effective teacher, I have to send up many prayers to the Lord during the day!  There were many times when I did not know what to do in a certain situation, and had to send out a big cry of "HELP!" to the Lord.  I would hate to make a decision on the spur of the moment that would affect a student for later years.  The Lord was definitely good to me this year, and helped me get through those difficult times.  Having 8 students, ranging from 5 to 10 years old was definitely a challenge!  They each came from very different families and backgrounds, and I had to learn what made each of them "tick".  As the year progressed and I prayed for them, the Lord gave me a love for each one of them, and helped me to understand what their specific spiritual and emotional needs were.  I am so thankful for the Lord's leading!
     Last night was our "Closing Program", and my kids all performed beautifully!  There were many things during our practices that happened, which caused me to have some butterflies in my stomach when the time came for the program to start.  I had to wonder, "Will they all do what they are supposed to do?"  Thankfully they all remembered when they were supposed to do what, and what exactly it was they were supposed to say, etc.  I was so pleased with them!  Of course, after the program when I talked to them and told them how well they had done, they wanted to know if they were going to get a special treat for doing a good job.  I guess kids will be kids:)!!
     Even though there were many speed bumps and rough spots along the way, I can look back and say that we had a good year.  I am looking forward to next year, but first: a nice, long summer before me!  Although I am sure that our (hopefully soon) addition to the family will make it a very busy one!

The Power of Post-it® Notes...

         Yesterday, my wife & I went to the graduation of a young man in our church! At least in the United States, it is a tradition at wedding & graduation to "deck out" a person's car with various things, whether it be balloons, silly string, etc. Well, yesterday, I saw a couple of cars "deck out" that caught my attention. The first one was a car that was shrink wrapped all the way around the car. Then after the graduation as I was trying to find my car in the ocean of cars, I saw this car!

      If you are not able to tell, the car is covered with Post-It Notes, even spelling "Class of 2012!" & "Congrats" (first picture). I did not realize until yesterday that Post-It Notes had so much sticky power. If you have ever been to South Dakota for any length of time, you know that we have a lot of high wind, especially on the prairie. Well, this graduation took place at the Ellsworth AFB's High School. It was very windy yesterday, but the "little stickies" held on for dear life! Oh, the Power of Post-It Notes!

"Do NOT under estimate the Power of Post-It Notes!"

36 Weeks

I just wanted to let everyone know that I officially have 4 weeks until I am due!  I cannot believe how quickly the time has gone!  For those of you who complain to me that we never put pictures on our blog:), I thought I would post a picture from last night of how I look at this present moment!  You are not allowed to make fun of how big I am!!!!!!!!

I Am Blessed!

     Last night I realized once again just how blessed I am to have the husband that I have!  I love him dearly and it is times like last night that I am reminded again how much I do love him!
     I woke up yesterday morning with a pinched nerve, and my right leg was hurting terribly!  No matter what I tried to alleviate the pain during the day, it did not work.  Our dear little son seems to be doing that to me A LOT lately!  By the time we got home from work and from visiting someone in the hospital, it was past 6:00. Just the thought of making supper and cleaning up made my leg hurt worse!  As I headed toward the kitchen, I heard Tyler say, "I'll make supper tonight".  Oh what blessed words those were!  I asked him if he was positive that he wanted to do that.  He reassured me several times, and then told  me to go sit in a nice, warm bath, which usually seems to help when I am having back problems.  While I did that, he cooked up a wonderful supper!  I definitely ate too much!!!  When we had finished, I got up to do the dishes and clean up.  Then Tyler said, "I will clean everything up tonight!"  He had to reassure me several more times that he was perfectly fine with doing dishes and cleaning and sweeping, etc.  He made me then lay down and rest!  What a wonderful night it was for me! 
     The Lord has definitely blessed me, and I am so thankful for my husband.  I think that as wives, we don't let our husbands know how much we love them and how thankful we are for them as much as we should.  I praise the Lord that he brought Tyler into my life 3 1/2 years ago and that He has blessed us already with so many wonderful times and memories!
    

Laundry Detergent

During our Ladies' Retreat in March, we had a few "FYI" sessions where some of the ladies taught us how to do different things.  One of the sessions was on how to make your own laundry detergent.  At the end, we were told that in doing so, we would be spending only a penny per load of laundry that we did!  With a baby coming, which means more laundry, I thought that it was something I should look into doing!  I printed the recipe off from online, and bought all of the ingredients the next time we went grocery shopping.  The night that I made my first batch of it, I was very determined to take pictures of it.  It was then that I remembered that my camera was at the church!  I had to take the pictures with our phone.  That, combined with the fact that I am not that great at taking pictures, produced the pictures that you will see.  I am sorry that they are not the greatest pictures.

 Here are the ingredients:

1/2 cup of Borax (I bought 20 Mule Team Brand)

1/2 cup of Washing Soda ( I used Arm & Hammer)

1/2 cup of Baking Soda (You can use more or less depending on how fresh you want your clothes...I also used Arm & Hammer for this)

1/3 bar of Fels-Naptha soap

The first step is to grate the soap into a pot.  It was kind of funny because it did look like cheese, but by the smell you can tell it is not:)!

This is what the soap looked like after it was grated...it also smelt very good.

You then put in 6 cups of water and heat it until the soap has all completely melted.  You of course need to make sure that you are stirring it.

Then add the borax, washing soda, and baking soda, and stir it until it is all dissolved.

Put 4 cups of hot water into a bucket, and then put the soap mixture in and mix it up.  You will then add 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and you are done!!!!! 

I doubled the recipe, so it made about 4 gallons of detergent for me...I bought this 5 gallon bucket at Wal-Mart since I did not have one large enough.  I was a little nervous about this whole endeavour, but it actually turned out to not be very hard, and I am very glad to be saving us some money.  One more thing about this detergent that is nice is that you do not have to use dryer sheets if you wash clothes, so that is another way that we area saving money.  One last note--you use 1/2 cup per load.

**Make sure you continue down and read the next post...Tyler and I both happened to have time today to write one, and I do not want you to miss his since it has been a while since he wrote!

Sheddin' the Pounds!

                About a month ago, I decided to start yet another diet! I know! You have heard so many different people saying that they are going to start a diet, but this is not just any diet! It actually is not a diet! It's eating the foods that God intended for us to eat! (Of course, I am not saying that a little sweets here and there are forbidden by God, but God intends us to take care of our bodies!)

  This diet is called "Eating for Life"! The name sums the diet up in a nut shell! 

(For my "Fairhaven Fans", many of you probably are familiar with this diet!)

             This all came from the fact that we are going to have a baby very, very soon! (about 6 short weeks! Trust me, I am not excited at all! HAHA LOL!) Especially, when I heard that we were going to have a boy, I began to think about what kind of dad that our boy would like to have! After the Lord convicted me about the way that I had been eating, I decided to start this "diet"!
              At first, it was very hard, because my body had been accustomed to eating large amounts of food or pretty much whatever it wanted! Then all of sudden, it was only eating certain portions of food and only certain kinds of food! But over time, I began to realize that this diet made me feel good and energized!
              The food that I am able to eat is not nasty or packaged food. It is normal food! The claim to fame and success of this diet is: THE RIGHT FOOD, THE RIGHT AMOUNTS, THE RIGHT TIME & THE RIGHT COMBINATIONS! My favorite meal of the meals that I have had so far is the Chicken Enchiladas! They are delicious! And guess what, my portion size is 3 Enchiladas! AMEN!
               Of course with every diet, there is a period of time that you are able to eat something different than the diet food! In this diet, it gives you one day of your choice to eat whatever you feel like eating! No joke! Well, the first day off came around! I woke up and had a desire for some pancakes or french toast! So my wonderful, beautiful wife made me some delicious french toast and a big glass of milk! Well, as the day went on, my desire of eating whatever I wanted soon decreased, because I felt full and nasty!
                Soon, I found the difference between eating right and eating whatever my pea pickin' heart desired all the time! The climax of my "day off" experiences was this last Friday! I woke up again with a craving for some french toast and again my beautiful wife fixed them for me! Then we decided to go to Chiles for lunch! I had a Chicken sandwich, fries, probably 4 glasses of Strawberry Lemonade (the all-time best!) and a Brownie delight, which is a warm, gooey brownie with ice cream on top! Am I making you hungry yet? Needless to say, after eating all of that, I felt so full and sick! When we were ready to go, I could hardly walk! Then to top it off, later that night, I went to Applebees with some guys since my wife was having Ladies' Bible Study at our home and I definitely was not going to stay around for that! WOW!
                 In the last month or so, I have lost 15 POUNDS! PRAISE THE LORD! By His grace, I am going to continue to "eat for life"!

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO: http://www.transformation.com

(Also, just a tip, go onto EBAY and look for the "Eating for Life" Book. In the store, they are $35!)

Student Convention

     Well, we returned on Saturday evening safe and sound from our A.C.E. Student Convention in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  We had a great time while we were there!  If you have not figured it out yet, Tyler and I are not the best picture people, so I do not have any pictures to post for you to see.  I did take two pictures while I was there, which I will tell you about later...they will probably not be posted though.
     For most of the trip over there I rode in the boys' van, since Tyler was driving.  It was quite an adventure!  They did not stop eating from the time we pulled out of the church parking lot until we pulled into the hotel parking lot.  At one point I heard one of the boys say, "I don't think I have eaten anything for a couple of minutes, so I better eat something!"  There were also a couple of the boys that did not stop talking the whole time we drove!  For the last couple of hours I transferred myself to the girls' van for a little bit of sanity!
     Wednesday morning we were up and running early in the morning.  I had an early bird in my room who's alarm went off at 4:00 a.m., which was only 3:00 at home because of the hour difference.  We were all ready to leave the hotel by about 7:30, and thus started 3 days of extreme busyness!  On the first day I volunteered myself to time the track events as well as be in charge of the long jump.  About 15 minutes into it I was wishing I could be back inside.  It was cold and very windy and gloomy.  I was thankful after a couple of hours to finally be able to go back inside.
     That evening we heard our first message from Pastor Robert Watkins, who is pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in Yucca Valley, California.  He was the perfect preacher for a large group of teenagers.  He kept them in tune with him and listening the whole time.  As a young boy he was sick often because of respiratory problems, and he spent that extra time in his room practicing magic tricks and ventriloquism.  I have never seen anyone do ventriloquism as well as he did!  I sat in amazement as I watched a lamb, a duck, and a spider take on personality and come to life right in front of my eyes!  I remembered how I struggled and struggled in college when we had a section on ventriloquism in one of my storytelling classes.  He "threw his voice" so well, and not once did any part of his face indicate that it was him speaking and not the lamb, duck, or spider.  He preached some very convicting messages for me, and I am sure for the teenagers as well.  You could tell that he loved teenagers.  He spent a lot of time during the day talking to them and playing games with them, etc.
     Something fun that I was able to do was judge the instrumental competitions.  As I sat in the room, looking at the nervous kids who stood in front of me, it brought back memories of me having the same nervous look and sick feeling in my stomach that they probably had.  It was very interesting to be on the opposite side of it all, looking for mistakes and giving notes on how they could improve.  I tried to be as positive as I could, remembering how discouraging it can be to get the judges' forms back, showing what all you did wrong.  Each person did a good job, and I comend them all for the work they did.  I think that playing an instrument in a competition is one of the most difficult things to do.  I would rather sing or give a speech any day!
     One minor difficulty that I developed during the trip was with my feet.  By Wednesday night they were HUGE!  I have never seen my feet this large...they were at least twice their normal size.  It was not only my feet but also my ankles and legs.  I could feel the skin on my legs stretching.  It was a very odd feeling!  When I looked down at my feet with my shoes on, it looked like bread dough rising out of two black pans.  When I took my shoes off in the hotel room I had to laugh because my feet looked like two ballons with little toes wiggling at the end.  I did take two pictures of my feet, but I really do not think that anyone wants to look at my nasty feet!  By Thursday morning, the pastor's wife, who is also a nurse, told me to go take my shoes off and put on flip-flops.  It was a blessing to be allowed to do that, even though it was not according to their dress code.  My feet are still balloon size, and I am afraid that they will remain that way until this little boy of ours is born!
     Our students did a great job in all that they competed in, and we were proud of them.  They also all had great attitudes the whole time, even though they were very worn-out and tired.  On Friday evening, after all was said and done, we celebrated by going out to Olive Garden.  It was also a nice way to sort of celebrate Tyler's birthday a day early.  We pray that the Lord was able to use the week to deal with the hearts of our students.
     For the return trip, Tyler drove the girls' van, which was so nice for me! The wonderful South Dakota wind was horrible on the way home, and it took all of Tyler's strength to keep the van, with the trailer, on the road.  I am sure that he was the most thankful to be home out of all of us!
     All-in-all, it was a good trip, and we are praising the Lord for that!  I am looking forward to next year!

**Note:  I really am sorry that no pictures have been posted for months!  I will try to post pictures about something sooner or later!