I've been to the land down under....

Our summer holiday led us to the land down under! Our travel partners were Courtney and Chris. They were excellent planners! I would definitely travel with them again! {hint, hint, C2} We went to see my BFF, Missy, who has moved there for a year for work, but spent lots of time sightseeing while she was working. The trip was amazing. We traveled to 3 of 6 Australian states in 10 days!

Here are some in no particular order, which is really rare for me!

Snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef
We all tried scuba diving. We had a quick lesson and then went out to be put to the test. Let's just say that Missy and I make great shopping partners! Good job to the others who were able to do. Maybe I will try again next time.

That's my Boo Bear diving down to take a picture of a sea turtle. A professional took this cool picture!

Boone even had a snorkeling adventure

We got to pet this cutie at Featherdal Wildlife Park! He almost seemed fake! Hubby actually thought he was.

What a cool bridge and amazing scenery!

With the 3 Sisters at the Blue Mountains

It's Kanga and Roo!

Don't mind me petting this kangaroo! Yes, it is eating out of an ice cream cone.

Our Friday adventure around Sydney is just getting started

A typical, dorky hat picture with Missy

Street Art in Melbourne

Boone visiting Missy's office

My first (and probably last) Australian Census. We were asked to fill this out on the night of August 9th. They want to know how many people were in their country on that exact night.

We were so sad to leave our friend! BUT, we had an amazing time!!!

Only 170 days to go...

Day 2 of school and still no Australia post. Sorry folks. In due time it will come. :)

I had 2 criers today. When I say they cried, I MEAN, they CRIED! Cried so much that my principal came to check on me. I saw his head peeking in the window giving me thumbs up (as a question). After peeling one off of mom, she was fine 10 minutes later {just as she was yesterday too}. When this child saw mom at the end of the day, she kind of looked at her like, 'is it really time to go home?' I told her to remember that in the morning when I am peeling her away again.

"__ is really good on the pole!" WHAT?! You guessed it! Right out of the mouth of babes. This child was referring to a pole on the playground. It's one of those that has another pole winding down it. I guess it is called a coil climber. It looks like this.

Today in class, we talked about the Magic Triad, which consists of a smile, kind words and a soft touch. We only covered smile and kind words. We showed smiley faces to each other and talked about how even a smile can change how something sounds. Later, we talked about how kind words make us feel. We worked on making our own triad out of popsicle sticks and pieces to go on our classroom triad on the wall. While we were doing this a little girl came up and said, "you know how we were talking about kind words?" I answered 'yes' wondering where this was going, when she said, "You look so pretty today!"

I also had to call a mom. Yes, on the second day of school. I did inform her that 'I know it is the second day, but I want to nip this problem and attitude in the bud. Right now.' The little friend did not seem too phased about having to call, as she started the conversation asking, "where are our swimsuits?" This was after I said --loud enough for mom to hear through the phone--,  "take the shoe out of your mouth so you can talk to mom on the phone."

Tomorrow is a new day.

In other, more exciting news: We got a webcam on Saturday! I have Skype'd my niece twice! We also have a date to do it again on Saturday! It is so fun and I am irritated with myself that we didn't do this sooner. She is funny because she doesn't want Uncle Preston to be in on our fun but he is the one that bought us the camera (after Claire 'typed' to him asking if he would, AFTER I suggested she ask him instead of me). Of course he said yes and we were off to Wal-Mart within in the hour. I said, "You have to go now. You told Claire you would get it tonight and you don't want to let her down."



this is from our 2nd call together :)



Where does the time go?!

While I still have not completed my Australian holiday post, I must post about the first day of school. It is hard to think that yet another school year is upon me. Today, I had the first day of school for the sixth time in my career! How am I that old?
It will be a whole new year. It is refreshing to start fresh. New principal and new students. Quick highlights of my day…
• 23 students
• Having my principal spend roughly 30 minutes in my classroom with a crier
• Crazy lunch hour, yet pretty smooth
• Surprisingly calm “brain break” [which did not consist of worry of “pooping or peeing in my paaaantieeees”]
• Quick afternoon due to specials and a short all school assembly to just get the hang of going in there
• Talking to 3 parents after school about self control
• Feeling drained at 4:20


Did I ever mention that school lasts until 4:00? Well, it does, which makes the afterhours at school seem to fly by. Oh, that’s right they do! We are in school until 4:00!
Today I felt very overwhelmed. I had done the first day of kindergarten before and under more forced tenses but this year seemed even more stressing than last year. Maybe I went in too confident since I had done it. Maybe I went in with too much of a ‘plan’. Maybe I had a huge case of the First Day Jitters. Whatever it was, I could do without it tomorrow.
Some things on the agenda for tomorrow include practicing our line order, sitting down, pushing our chairs in, lining up, sitting down, lining up, sitting on the rug, lining up walking in the hall, sitting down, pushing our chairs in… do you get the idea for tomorrow?
I even received a special delivery! Too bad I didn’t get to see the delivery boy! I hear he was quite the hunk!!!

I'm back!

I have returned, physically, from vacation. Mentally, I am still gone. Time change really does a doozy on a person's schedule.

Here is a snippet from my Australian adventure:

A little taste of what may be to come....

Meet my friend, GBoone Pickens the second. His owner is my mother-in-law. He came to her several years ago when she broke her hip... well, the first generation did. It was a real sad day when he broke his hips in a freak sky diving accident.

Bags are packed for an adventure!

Met a new friend, Gnomeo. Pistol Patti would love him!

Tested out the shade bush, also known as a hibiscus

WHOOOO's ready for fun?!?!?



Gnomes and rainbows just seem to go together
Not really pictured: faint rainbow in the sky





Stay tuned and you may get some more adventures with Boone!



Summer Rundown!

One would think that with all of my summer time, I would have plenty of time to blog. Just ask Pa, he will let you know that I have not kept up. :)

I have felt pretty busy but also felt like I haven't done much at all. Does that make sense?

• The week after school was out, I helped at VBS. Since my regular job is being a teacher, I was just a 'helper'. A helper that was in charge of the group. I was lucky to have a couple boys that were pretty good with the kids!
• For Father's Day, we had a cookout with our family. A little sad I didn't even take any pictures. It was a lovely time though, once they got the grill going...
• The 3rd week of June, I subbed for 4 days at summer school. There were 9 kids in my class but I don't think I ever saw all of them at the same time. It was so nice to have such a small group. I was able to sit and work with them and there weren't any behavior issues. If only every day of school could be like summer school!
• We also saw our Ohio friends! They were in town for a baby shower since they are expecting. It was great to get together with many of our college friends. While the girls were at the shower the boys went for a quick, 6.5 hour round of golf.
• The last week of June, I went to 3 days of Phase 2 Literacy First training (meaning it was part 2. I attended part 1 several years ago). I had always heard that Phase 2 was SO much better because you got more ideas for literacy centers. Well, this one was not. I felt like I got lots of Phase 1 refresher and a couple new ideas.

Can you believe that was my June? In a nutshell. Oh! I skipped something! The first Tuesday of June, I took Tobie for a walk. The short version is- she was attacked by another dog! I was so mad at that dog, I may have kicked it. BUT, don't mess with my little girl! We were just minding our business on our leash when it happened. It was so sad because she was yelping, loudly, and I was yelling at the dog, loudly, and I just wanted to get her out of there. I had to jerk her up by her harness and as the dog was still trying to get her, it scratched me! I think that is when the kick came in. Oops. NOT! Animal control was called the next day just because I wanted to make sure that dog was current on its shots. Guess what? It wasn't. Go figure. So, I took Tobie to the vet. They shaved her hair and gave her an antibiotic to take for 10 days. She is fine now but we (I) am very on edge when we head out for walks.

I attached this to the letter I left on the owner's door. A neighbor saw it go down and told me where the dog lived.

Oh, poor little girl! I think it hurt me more than it hurt her!!

July was a slower month.

• One of my teacher friends got married. She and her man were adorable together. They were both so excited to get married. It was very sweet. Another teacher friend and I helped set up the reception place, which is when we found out there were bats! Not like sporting ones but flying rodents. Fruit bats that were NOT invited. The building was putting on a new roof and disturbed them in the attic (if you knew they were there, wouldn't you get them out regardless of a new roof???). Her mom went to talk the person in charge Friday afternoon about the issue and the lady was not very nice saying they wouldn't get any money back it was just out of their hands and the 'they haven't ruined anything.' UM, they are nasty flying rodents, though they are a little bit cute. Well, the lady had a totally different perspective Saturday morning when there was bat poop on a table and they had already caught 7 by 9:30a.m. They had also caught like 25 on Friday. It was crazy. 3 hours before the wedding the lady was wanting to move it but it just wasn't going to happen. So we were doing the cupid shuffle when all of a sudden a bat came flying out! There ended up being 5 flyers at the reception!!! Which led to people leaving. They will also be getting their money back for the place. I would be throwing a huge fit and demanding more than that back. It's a good thing I was not the bride that day.



We tied all of their centerpiece balloons to their car! :)

• I hosted Bunco, which is always a good time.
• On July 17th, I saw NKOTBSB!!! Don't know who that is? New Kids on the Block (NKOTB) and Backstreet Boys(BSB)!!! Both very popular boybands when I was a kid. (During some Fridays in June and July, a friend from church and I were trying to win tickets. God bless our honies because they went with us to try and win.) We didn't technically win but stumbled onto some tickets. We were in the nose bleed section but had lots of fun anyways!!!

Us trying to win tickets. All you had to do was show up and put your name in the box but someone, who may have spare time on their hands during the summer, may have made shirts. I'm not going to mention any names.

Really bad judgement on self photo skills. A GREAT time was still had!

• We attended some festivities of our 10 year high school reunion. I am very glad we did not use our 80 bucks to go the dinner/dance. We opted for a low key dinner with our my girl friends that we still talk to! Later in the evening, we met up with Hubby's friends. Everyone that attended the other described it as "awkward". No thanks. :) [again, I took no pictures. sad day.]
• I finally got out my Christmas present! A new pillow case it is!



Excuse the scare factor, something about being summer that sometimes makes a person not want to shower. :)

Hubby and puppy testing out the finished project

 Until next time, which will probably be in 3 weeks. Can you believe school will be starting up again?!?! 

The Difference in a Year

What a difference a year makes! This time last year, a short little scripture was brought to my attention. Not only did my brain hear it but my heart did too. Proverbs 16:9: ”The human mind plans the way, but the Lord directs the steps.”



A year ago, I was living out of a suitcase waiting on pins and needles to jot down information coming from a doctor’s mouth. Bless that notebook. :)


On Thursday, July 1st 2010, I was taking Tobie on a leisurely stroll around the block when I got a phone call from my mother-in-law (MIL) saying my father-in-law (FIL) was being prepped for an emergency triple bypass surgery. I then had the job of telling her two sons that their dad had 99% blockage on his “widow maker” vein, also known as the left main. At this point, we didn’t really know how serious things were but I knew that we would be heading west as soon as Hubby came home for lunch.


By 4 p.m., we had drove to Enid, dropped off Tobie at my grandparents and made it back up to the hospital just in time to see the surgeon when he came out. He informed us that they had to do a quadruple bypass instead and that it appeared he had several heart attacks before leaving him with quite the damaged heart. Some words of his spoke loud and clear, “I have done all I can for him. Now it is up to his body and a higher power to take over.” Not that any heart surgery isn’t risky, but this had turned into a lot more than I was expecting. Hubby then needed to call his brother to tell him he needed to be with his family. They say that the 24 hours after any heart surgery is very crucial so we (Hubby, MIL, Aunt BA, the brother in law and his fiancé (as soon as they arrived), and I) camped out in the ICU waiting room.


Friday was spent rotating… taking turns in the room, going home to shower, just getting a little peace of mind outside of the hospital. FIL was doing okay. We later found out that the surgeon did not expect him to make it through the night, so in that manner he was doing wonderful.


We were fortunate enough to have amazing night nurses (Pam x2), who said we were normal to compared to other people they had seen (don’t think I would forget that comment!), and felt confident in his recovery so we spent Friday night at home, well, the in-laws home. Saturday (July 3rd) morning, I got up and headed to the hospital because to visit before heading to my grandparents to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary. FIL was doing lovely! I hung there for a while and then went to spend the day with my family. It was nice to have my cousins come in to honor such a lifelong commitment that my grandparents continue to make. It was low key but all that was needed. The grandkids had previously sent out a card inviting people to mail them warm wishes for their anniversary. Nandy and Pa received more cards than I could have imagined!


I left their (my grandparents) house at 10:30 to help work on wedding invitations for Ryan and Priscilla’s upcoming wedding. When I got there, Hubby was still up at the hospital visiting (which technically was against the ICU rules to be there that late). When he got back, he didn’t stay up long. The rest of us chugged along putting the invitations together. We wrapped it up about 12:30 and received a dreaded phone call a little after 1 in the morning. FIL had coded. He was back and responsive but they still recommended we come to the hospital, the chaplain would meet us in the ER.


All sorts of emotions were going on throughout the 10 minute car ride to the hospital and the next several critical hours. The nurses said his body was extremely tired and they wanted to put him on a ventilator for 24 hours to give his body time to rest. Needless to say, it was more than 24 hours before he was taken off of the ventilator.


During this code, his brain was not affected but his kidneys took the shock. Due to his low blood pressure, he needed a special kind of dialysis (that Enid does not have) to give his kidneys a chance to get better. We were in the works of transferring to Tulsa where a family friends dad works... until the VA Hospital in OKC called. Their option was move to our hospital because we can treat him or foot your own bill. Tulsa is now out of the picture.


This is when our faith was put to work. There were 2 options: transfer to OKC hoping the dialysis would work or wait it out in Enid “knowing what will happen (as the surgeon said).” How I saw it was: we know what will happen if we stay here. Your body needs your kidneys. If your kidneys aren’t working, your body will slowly follow suit. So basically, we are giving up. OR we can take a leap of faith, pray that the dialysis helps his kidneys and that we don’t harm anyone moving to the VA hospital.


So, Tuesday afternoon, we were off to the VA. What an experience! To think that we, as a country, will ask men and women to fight for our freedom and not take better care of them if they return wounded or need care as a veteran. What an eye opener. The poor doctors and nurses are doing their best but the short handed staffing circumstances that they are left with are sad. FIL left Enid around 4:30, meaning he got to OKC sometime between 7 and 7:30. At 9:30, when we finally talked to the resident nothing had been done. Now this resident was also on call at the OU Medical Center across the street but come on if you are that busy maybe you need to wake your attending!


We went through a variety of issues during the stay in OKC. However, at the end of July, he left OKC on his own two feet. While you never want any of this to happen, I felt very blessed. Being that it happened in the summer, I was able to be there with my MIL when her boys and Priscilla had to go back to work. Talk about a blessing. It reaffirmed my belief in the power of prayer (which my mother firmly believed in) and I think opened others up to it more.


A year later… FIL has a pacemaker/defibrillator and is still trucking along. Doctors that have seen his file are amazed that he is the one that handed it to them. For that, there is only One to thank. For any trivial things going on in my life, I try to remind myself to stop and be patient. There is a plan. I may not know it and I may not have picked that path but it has already been chosen for me. I just have to trust that when I take a leap a faith, I will be caught.