Valentine's Day

I had a great Valentine's Day yesterday! My day started with this song on KLOVE. 

I need to listen to this song every morning. 

Throughout the day I was reminded of how much God loves me. 

There is no greater love than His love!

A new word

Favorite conversation of the day.... I looked at one of my students at carline today and noticed that his jacket looked a little different. We've recently had some problems with his jacket so I was a little nervous about it. Me: Jonah, what happened to your coat? Jonah: oh don't worry it is comeoffable! Apparently you can take the outer layer off. But i had to turn around and try really hard when he used the word "comeoffable." Hilarious!!!!

Do Not Be Anxious

I've had this song stuck in my head all day long. 

This song/verse brought about some good conversations with my students today. It is great to have God's Word in my thoughts all day long!

New Plan

I've been feeling convicted over how much time I spend on my computer and ipad. I don't spend near enough time reading God's Word and praying. So I have a new plan. From now my electrontics (except my cell phone) will be turned off from 9:30pm-6:30am. That still gives me the time I need to get things done as well as do more reading.

I can do this! It isn't the end of the world. Can you tell I'm trying to convince myself? Lol! I rely way too much on these two things for my entertainment.

Starting now!
Ahh! I'm already 4 minutes late!
Shutting down now. :)

Out for a walk

My mom and Julie had a baby shower to go to this afternoon, so Dani came over to play at my house. We had a great time. Went for a walk, ran around in the field near my house, and met a nice kitty who really wanted to play. It was such a beautiful day! 

When we got back to my house Dani looked at me and said, "Auntie, do you have any food?"

"Yes, I do. Would you like some grapes?"

"Mommy, was wrong!" Was her response. 

Busted, Julie!! 

Hahaha! I will admit that I usually don't have a lot of food at my house. But it was funny to me that they had already had that conversation. 

2012 Goals (finally)

I started writing this post as my goals for this year (last month). The list was too long. There are so many things that I would like to improve on during 2012. Then I was listening to Klove and they were talking about choosing a word to strive to be during the year. They talked about the same thing last year too and I didn't think much of it, but this year I think I'm going to focus on it. 

At first I thought the word I would choose would be organized. I am not a very organized person. The most organized part of my life right now is my Pinterest boards. (bad bad bad) Over the last few months I've been so frustrated with how un-organized I am. Let me tell you, I've been really annoyed with this problem I have. 

As I thought about it longer I decided that my word for the year was going to be faithful. I want the Lord to find me faithful in everything I do: my time in the Word and prayer, with my family, friends, my job, the commitments I make, my finances, and how I take care of myself. I firmly believe that if I take care of the first two items on that list then the rest will fall into place. 

Item #2 check!

I've been waiting to check off #2 from my 30x30 list for a long time. For the most part I enjoyed growing my hair out. I figured out some fun ways to fix it, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my haircut! The girl who cut my hair (at a "Cool Cuts") was able to cut off 10 1/2 inches. Just enough to donate it. Phew! 

I love having short hair. Several weeks after I got it cut my sister dyed it for me. It is a little darker and I really like it. It is fun. :) 

I still have to mail in my ponytail that was cut off. It is weird to think that it was once connected to my head. Lol! I wonder if they will send me a picture of what it looks like as a wig for someone. Hmm. I'm excited to send it in a hear that they use it for someone who needs it. 

Really?!

Oh my, has it really been over 2 months since my last post?! Good grief! I haven't even posted my goals for the year. I started to write them and then got too busy to finish.
What has happened since the last time I blogged...


Thanksgiving - Enjoyed a wonderful day with family and friends.


Danika's Birthday - Hard to believe that my adorable niece is 4! We had a get together with some friends. She still hasn't had her party with her friends because both times it has been planned she and/or Julie was sick. Poor thing.


Julie's Birthday - I am so thankful for my wonderful Carmelita. :)


Haircut! - Yes! I finally did it! Chopped off my hair. I love my short hair cut. Julie colored it for me too. That was a first. I might be hooked. I love the color. :)



Christmas - We celebrated Christmas in Wisconsin this year. It was wonderful spending time with my grandparents. We even got a little bit of snow. Just enough to build a snowman. I think I was just as excited as Danika was. :)



New Years - Not a very eventful night. But that is ok. 2011 was a good year.


3rd Quarter of School - I still feel so blessed to be teaching my own class this year. I love my students so much. God is teaching me so much as I teach these kids.

Ok, I think I am somewhat caught up. I know more has happened, but that is all for now.

Jam

A very fun way to spend a morning off of school. It went very fast with the 5 of us. 

Halloween Fun

We had a very fun evening Trick-or-Treating. Dani was TinkerBell and Julie was Captain Hook. What a cute pair! Julie always dresses up to go with Dani's costume. 

These pictures don't show all of the little girls who went with our group. There were a lot of them. It was fun and entertaining. Good times. 

Blond Moment

I had a major blond moment this afternoon. It was hilarious! Thought I'd give you all a good laugh.
I went to pick my sister up at work and take her to a memorial service of a family friend. She told me that she would meet me in front of the library. Easy place to pick someone up downtown. Well, I was several minutes early and had it in my head that I would have to drive around the block at least once before she would be out of her building. So I drive past the library and am about to turn the corner at the other end of the block when I see my sister frantically waving at me from in front of the library!
I have no idea how I missed her! And she was wearing a very red coat! Finally made it around the block and picked her up. I guess I was really wasn't thinking that she would be out there already. Hahaha! She told me that a guy rolled down his window as she was waving laughed and said, "I can't believe she missed you!" Where is my brain?
...I'm so embarrassed.

Very Thankful 1-5

Last year for the month of November I posted something I was thankful for every day. It was such a blessing to me. I was reminded daily of all God has given to me. Some days it was easier to see what I was thankful for that day and other days it was harder. But it made me find the good things from those harder days and not just dwell on negative things.
It is hard to believe that November is here and we are 5 days into it! Time flies when you are having fun (and when you are busy most of the time). So I'm starting out the month playing a little catch up. Ha! I'm not too surprised at this.


1. My Salvation - I'm so thankful that God sent His Son to earth so many years ago. Jesus did for me what no one else could ever do. He provided a way for me to spend eternity for Him in Heaven. I don't deserve this at all. But I've been forgiven. Thank you, Lord!

2. Working at a Christian school - I have the wonderful blessing of teaching at the school I attended for all of my elementary, junior high, and high school education. I'll be the first one to tell you that when I graduated I didn't really want to leave. So to many people it isn't a surprise that I am back. I love teaching there. The best thing is that I am able to share the Gospel with my class. Everyday we spend time talking about the Lord, praying and worshiping Him. It is such a wonderful blessing. Chapel times are especially great as we sing and hear a message. The chorus of children's voices is sweet and I'm able to worship my Savior along with them. It is great.

3. Thursday was a rough day at work for me. By the end of the day I was exhausted, frustrated and ready to cry. When all of my kids were picked up in the car line I started to make my way back to my classroom and I spotted my dad. I'm so thankful that my dad and I work at the same place. Because of a "little" rearranging of school offices this year I get to run into him a lot more. Thursday it was especially nice to see him because I really needed a hug. I love my dad so much! He gave me a big hug and asked me what was going on. It was wonderful.

4. Fridays - For someone who works 5 days a week Fridays are wonderful days. I love remembering that it is Friday when I wake up in the morning. I can dress a little more relaxed at work and it is almost the weekend. But it is also a time when I usually have time to catch up on work in my classroom. I spent over an hour yesterday just working at organizing things in my classroom. I'm nowhere near done, but it felt good to do it.

5. I have to say that this morning I'm very thankful for the heater I have in my apartment. It is nice to have a warm place to be on a chilly morning. I realize that it is colder in many places of the world right now, but to this California girl it is pretty cool here.

Well, I'm glad to have started this back up for this month. I am feeling so blessed already!

Oh yeah!

I did it!! 
I made it through the month of October without buying any Starbucks and I didn't eat a single bit of fast-food! I wasn't sure how it was going to go. About a week ago I almost caved, but then I remembered how close I was and resisted the temptation. :)


Now for November. 
My new plan is to again have no fast-food for the month. As far as Starbucks goes...I'm going to put some money on a gift card and that is all I'm allowed to buy for the month. I'm not sure how much that is because I haven't finished my budget yet. But I'll have it figured out soon.

30 by 30 Revisited & Revised

My 30x30 list has been on my mind lately. I have a 1 & 1/2 years to go and I'm thinking I need to make a few changes. I haven't crossed off nearly as many things from my list as I thought I would have by now. There are several things that I'll be able to get done, but I'm going to take out the ones that I don't think are realistic for me to do. 
(Bold items are ones I am working on right now)

1. Read through the entire Bible
2. Donate my hair to Locks of Love (I'm growing it out at the moment)
3. Publish a cookbook of my Grandma's recipes
4. Read 1 book a month from my bookshelf. (That is only 19 books - totally realistic!)
5. Draw one sketch each day for 30 days in a row
6. Make a quilt for my bed
7. Walk in a half-marathon
8. Take a cooking class
9. Loose 20 pounds and keep if off 
10. Make a Christmas quilt (I started cutting out the pieces a while ago and haven't picked it up in a while) 
11. Visit Yosemite
12. Eat at the Melting Pot  (Yum!) 
13. Cook through an entire cookbook
14. Visit another country (other than the ones I've been to)
15. Sew something I can wear  (I made an apron!)
16. Publish a children's book
17. Stick to my budget for two months in a row (I hope after 2 months it will be easy to stick with it for a long time)
18. Go on a hot air balloon ride (I plan to do this on my 30th Birthday) 
19. Visit the Grand Canyon
20. Get into the habit of calling my Grandma twice a month
21. Clean out my Gmail inbox to zero
22. Have a picture taken of me that I really like
23. Visit a winery in Sonoma County
24. Sing with someone famous (I still want to do this...but I'm going to change it to -- Follow my box of cleaning cards for 1 month) 
25. Go to the middle of nowhere and look at the stars
26. Get a massage (Amazing!) 
27. Learn to play the piano so I can sing a song while I play
28. Make a pie from scratch
29. Take a flower arranging class
30. Host a tea party at my apartment. 

Harvest Fair

We had a lovely time at the Harvest Fair this year. Mom entered some cookies and a cornstalk, and Dad entered a decorated pumpkin. We had a great time watching the grape-stomping, and of course Dani loved going on the rides. 

#12

#12 - Eat at The Melting Pot
Yay! I've completed another thing on my 30x30 list!








Can I tell you that I absolutely LOVE The Melting Pot! Yum, yum, yum! I was totally stuffed afterwards. We had a wonderful girl's night out!

Why?

Why is it that when I have a bunch of stuff to do all I want to do is clean my apartment? But when I don't have stuff to work on I don't want to clean!
Something is wrong with me!

October

It is hard to believe that October 1st is today! September flew by. I love that the weather is starting to get a little cooler. Bring on the fall weather! I am ready!
As I was thinking about October this last week I've decided that I'm going to challenge myself for the month. (Don't worry, not another 30 day blog challenge that lasts for 5 months) In order to help my budget and my weight I'm going to not buy fast food or Starbucks for the month of October. And I have to tell you that at the moment I really want to go buy some coffee. This is going to be hard. But I'm feeling very determined. Christmas is coming and I have to be able to afford Christmas presents for people. :)
So there you have it. My October challenge!

Cute Video

Someone showed this to me and I had to share it. I think it is cute. :) 

Sweet Sunday Afternoons

I love Sundays.
Church to start with is great! I love the worship, teaching and fellowship.
Following church I head to my parent's house. They usually don't get home for a while after I'm done at church so I either fall asleep on the red chair or watch tv. (Just ask my family, I'm always falling asleep on the red chair.) When they get home we have lunch and hang out for the afternoon, take naps (most of us), watch sports, etc.
This afternoon was no exception. While we ate lunch we all sat and watched the 49ers game. - Although, now that I think about it I think I left before the game ended. Oops - Somewhere during the game we got into this huge tickle-fest. It was crazy. Danika thought it was the funniest thing ever. And somehow she was leading the entire thing. She'd tell everyone to tickle someone and they would! (We are all wrapped around her finger. Can you tell?)  The funny thing was that she would tell us to tickle her too. It was hilarious.

Good times.