I saw this on Jodi's blog and stole it because it's been several weeks and I have nothing new to post... The items in PURPLE are the things I have done. It makes me want to travel...



1. Started your own blog

2. Slept under the stars. (I have in a tent...One of my favorite camping experiences was when my friend Tara and I camped in her backyard - with a TV and VCR - I bet we watched Clueless.)

3. Played in a band

4. Visited Hawaii

5. Watched a meteor shower

6. Given more than you can afford to charity

7. Been to Disneyworld

8. Climbed a mountain

9. Held a praying mantis (Unless I'm dead, this won't happen - bugs scare me A LOT.)

10. Sang a solo

12. Visited Paris

13. Watched a lightning storm at sea

14. Taught yourself an art from scratch

15. Adopted a child

16. Had food poisoning (Who hasn't?)

17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty

18. Grown your own vegetables

19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France

20. Slept in an overnight train (On A & E's E A Emily and I shared 3 overnight trains. My "favorite" had to be from Milan to Paris...oh Yenik, we'll never forget you and your 12 accordians.)

21. Had a pillow fight

22. Hitchhiked

23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (I haven't taken a sick day this year. Perhaps I'm feeling a little tickle...cough.)

24. Built a snow fort

25. Held a lamb

26. Gone skinny dipping

27. Run a marathon

28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice (Twice!)

29. Seen a total eclipse

30. Watched a sunrise or sunset

31. Hit a home run

32. Been on a cruise

33. Seen Niagara Falls in person

34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (Italy)

35. Seen an Amish community

36. Taught yourself a new language (I didn't teach myself Spanish, but I think it counts)

37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (I'm satisfied, but I'd love to stay home with kids one day, and I think we may need close to what we make on our two incomes to do so).

38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person

39. Gone rock climbing

40. Seen Michelangelo’s David

41. Sung karaoke

42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt

43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant

44. Visited Africa

45. Walked on a beach by moonlight

46. Been transported in an ambulance

47. Had your portrait painted

48. Gone deep sea fishing

49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person

50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris

51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling

52. Kissed in the rain (When Brian and I were engaged we were really careful with how much we were kissing/making out, and kissing in the rain was one of the things we were allowed to do - so you better believe we did when the opportunity presented itself. The parking lot of our apartment complex wasn't quite as romantic as I'd hoped for, but it was still great. :))

53. Played in the mud

55. Been in a movie

56. Visited the Great Wall of China

57. Started a business(I sold packages of gum out of my desk in the 6th grade...I made a decent amount of money - for a 12 year old.)

58. Taken a martial arts class

59. Visited Russia

60. Served at a soup kitchen

61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies

62. Gone whale watching

63. Got flowers for no reason (Is this possible? Don't you always get flowers for SOME reason? I did receive a dozen roses from someone on Valentines day one year when I was single...)

66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp

67. Bounced a check (I've charged more on my debit card than I had in the bank...)

68. Flown in a helicopter

69. Saved a favorite childhood toy

70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial

71. Eaten caviar

72. Pieced a quilt

73. Stood in Times Square

74. Toured the Everglades

75. Been fired from a job

76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London

77. Broken a bone (does your eardrum count? Don't break that one...it's not a good thing to break.)

78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (on my 3rd date with my husband - my first time on a motorcycle. After we went SUPER fast, he felt terrible and said he'd never be that careless with me again. I LOVED it though.)

79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person

80. Published a book

81. Visited the Vatican

82. Bought a brand new car (I've NEVER bought a car - I've always been blessed with hand-me-downs from my parents)

83. Walked in Jerusalem

84. Had your picture in the newspaper

85. Read the entire Bible

86. Visited the White House

87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating

88. Had chicken pox

89. Saved someone’s life

90. Sat on a jury

91. Met someone famous - My friend Jenny and I met Steve from Full House when we were in 4th or 5th grade.

92. Joined a book club

93. Lost a loved one

94. Had a baby

95. Seen the Alamo in person

96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake

97. Been involved in a lawsuit

98. Owned a cell phone

99. Been stung by a bee

100. Read an entire book in one day

Note to self...

I'm making a mental note to not mention that I'm any upcoming doctor visits to other teachers unless I am visably ill. Note conversation from my day:

ME: Hey Mr. D! How was your break?
MR. D: It was great, and yours?
ME: Fabulous - and very relaxing. Just so you know I won't see you at the end of class today because I'm going to the doctor. (I use his room for a class at the end of the day and I usually see him for a few minutes at the beginning and end of class - I was on my way out the door when I saw him)
MR. D: (serious stare about 6 inches from my face) Are you pregnant?
ME: Oh, dear, um, I hope not.
MR. D: So, are you?

Yeah. Keep info to myself...noted.

Um, dear? What happened?

Facial Hair. I hate facial hair. Almost always. One evening around Christmas in 2005, my then roommate Emily and I showed up at Brian Foxworthy's house for a friend get together thing, and Brian had facial hair. And I liked it. A lot. I knew, for sure, that I was a goner for that man. I'm so glad I finally got to marry him. Anyways, since we have been together I have never seen him without facial hair. So, for the fun of it, he shaved it off.

Here's the before....

During...(I think his face looks so silly it's adorable in this picture and I just had to post it.)

And after...

It was strange. I couldn't kiss him without laughing. It felt like I was kissing someone else. I prefer him with a hairy face and he's back to normal now!

Round 1 of 3

Christmas! Wahoo for Christmas! I was SO ready for this break to get here! I need a break from students who were equally ready to be done with the semester as I was. Brian gets a nice long break from work too! On the 24th we usually go see a movie with my parents and brother, but there weren't any movies that sounded good, so we decided to play some board games instead. My dad (who is one of the most competitive people ever) won Clue. I was mad because he guessed the correct answer and I was going to win on my next turn! We played Scene It after that - my mom and I were WAAAY ahead until the guys got some lucky rolls of the dice and went ahead of us - and won. :( After losing, Brian and I went back to our apartment so that we could change clothes before heading to Christmas Eve service. As we were driving up to the church we were talking about how we should have talked with our friends Andrew and Amanda and asked what service they were attending. When we pulled in the parking lot we were EXTREMELY excited to find that they had arrived about 30 seconds before us! The service was good - but I'm fairly sure I drifted off to sleep - it did start at 11:00. Whoops. We came home, went to bed and I actually slept through the night. This might only be the second year that's happened. I'm generally too excited for Christmas morning to sleep through the night - and I always have to go downstairs and peek under the tree. I'm a snooper. However, we slept in our own apartment. It was the first time ever that I hadn't slept in my parents house on Christmas Eve. I thoroughly enjoyed my own bed.

We finally made it to my parents and started opening gifts around 10:30. I love that I am now far more excited to see how people react to gifts given to them than I am to receive gifts. I had spent some time shopping with my dad for gifts for mom and I couldn't wait to see if she liked some of the things I/we had picked out. My dad got her a pair of uggs. I'm jealous. She looked pretty cute wearing them. My favorite gift was a cookbook, given to me by my husband. He went through tons of recipes on allrecipes.com and made me a cookbook - complete with pictures and all. It is SO impressive. I thought it was an actual cookbook that he purchased until I saw the recipe category labels printed in my favorite font. It's full of recipes for foods that I love! It's a perfect custom cookbook. I love it.

Once we finished opening presents my dad told us that my Aunt Chris had passed away in the early morning hours. She's had cancer for a long time, and it was expected, but very sad.

Round 2 is tonight with the Foxworthy siblings. Derin can't make it to Florida with the rest of us, so we're going to get together tonight.

Round 3 - sunny Florida. Can't wait!

V8 and Holiday Sweaters

Have you seen the V8 commercial where this guy orders a hamburger with extra bacon and no lettuce or tomato - just to be hit smack dab in the middle of the forehead by the woman working the drive through window? The narrator then says, "You could of had a V8." I usually have to chuckle when I see that commercial. I often find myself in my job as a teacher wanting to give my students a similar forehead smack for the dumb things they say.

Me: Why don't you have any of your stuff?
Student: I forgot my backpack in my car.

I mean, seriously. FOR REAL. How can you forget your backpack in your car...Didn't you notice you felt a little lighter on your feet walking into the building?

Me: Why don't you have any of your stuff for class? (notice a theme here?)
Student: I let some kid use my backpack and he stole it.

Oh My Word.

Student: Do you want us to do this in SPANISH?
Me: You can do it in French or Japanese if you prefer.

Yeah...Spanish...cuz we're in SPANISH class.

Student: I was absent yesterday. Did we do anything?
Me: No. I saw you were gone so we sat and did nothing for an hour and a half.

I mean, come on. Do they hear the words that come out of their mouths? Did we do ANYTHING? They can't possibly think they didn't miss anything, can they???

I have to share this story... About two weeks ago we had a spirit day at school and students and teachers were supposed to wear tacky holiday sweaters. I didn't have one to wear - because amazingly after four years of teaching I still haven't succumbed to "teacher clothes". I thought of borrowing one from my mom - but I hope that over the years I've made clear that holiday sweaters with snowmen and trees and fuzzy balls aren't fashionable. Stacy and Clinton (fashion gurus from What Not to Wear) have said it MANY MANY times. I have a student - she is just about the sweetest girl - I love her to pieces and she said, "Señora, I have this teacher and she had on a sweater today. I, like, totally wanted to tell her that I liked her ugly sweater. But then I didn't know if it was on purpose. It's, like, totally the kind of thing she would wear on a normal day. I didn't want to tell her I liked her ugly sweater if she didn't mean for it to be ugly." Oh, bless her sweet heart. I told her she made the write choice. When she told me what teacher it was...I emphatically agreed that she had made the right choice.

Ah - ya gotta love 'em.

it just felt normal...

Four years ago I moved back "home". Yes, I lived with my parents again - but I was student teaching and not only couldn't afford to live on my own but I also didn't have time to cook for myself, clean anything, or do my laundry. If it hadn't been for my mom, I may have been the mangiest student teacher around. Way back then it was just a blonde (Amy) a brunette (Emily) and a red-head (me). It was a hard year - lots of transition and we were so thankful to have each other. After a few months, we found a fantastic church - and although it took a little while, we got plugged in and got to know some wonderful women in the church and after time, many more of our friends moved to the area and church became a place of wonderful community.

Sadly, after a year after all seemed settled, people started to move, our church opened another campus and people changed campuses - we got married and started to go to first service. Church became, well, just a place to listen to a message and sing worship songs. I knew people at church, but my friends I had gotten to know over the last two years were at a different campus, in a different state or at a different service. It was not the great place of community it had been. This has been continuing on for almost two years now. It just doesn't feel right.

THIS morning, however, it felt like it should. I heard that the guy who used to lead worship for Christian Challenge was leading worship at our church's other campus. Brian and I decided to head to that campus this morning because this guy is AMAZING. We both wanted a little piece of college back for morning worship. He did not disappoint! We're praying he gets the job for the new worship pastor at this campus! In addition to an awesome morning of worship - there were tons of friends at church. We stayed and talked to people after church for a long time. It was what church used to feel like. It's what church should be like. It was just a refreshing morning full of good community and good worship!

A first...

Never have I gone shopping on Black Friday. Well, that's not totally true. I used to go with my mom and aunts to the outlet mall in New.ton - if there was time and the day allowed, but usually that was on Saturday. Today, on Thanksgiving, I ventured out to find some deals - and I did. CVS had their Black Friday deals start on Thanksgiving day. I got LOTS of stuff for free. I met another lady who was doing the same thing - she told me she had trouble sleeping because she was thinking about the deals she was going to do today! She was very nice - and gave me a coupon for gator.ade - which I think is disgusting, but it was free - so I'll take it anyway!

I paid about $6.50 for all this stuff - and my receipt says I saved over $142.00. I also made $20.00 in ECBs. This was my best day yet at CVS. I love that store. I'm now excited to fill my belly with yummy foods. I will NOT venture into the herds tomorrow...that's just a little too ridiculous for me.