Getting to Know you...

Well as a teacher there is one thing I have learned to do very well...and all teachers do this, don't let them tell you otherwise!  BORROW other peoples ideas!  Ha ha, well I borrowed this post from Amber.  She does it on Sunday, but my Sunday post was already done.  Plus I try not to post more than once in a day...unless it is super important.

Here ya go:

1. what inspires you?
My sweet husband and his determination to meet goals.  Also my family...they are amazing people.  However, I would have to say that my sweet 2nd graders inspire me a lot as well. 
2. what was the last thing you bought yourself?
This weekend, I bought some new tennis shoes.  After playing on a semi slick court I realized new ones were much needed.  Oh and I bought a few new dresses at Ross the other day thanks to my friend Amy! 
3. would you rather watch a movie in a theater or from the comfort of your own home?
Movie Tavern is the best way to watch a movie...we love that place you can enjoy your show as well as a meal!  Normally we try to hit up the early Sunday showing after church! 
4. household chore you don't mind doing?
ummm....can I say none?  If I have to pick I would say cleaning Bob's litter...not because I truly enjoy it but because I am the only one who will do it.  Chris really, really, really enjoys unloading the dishwasher (read with much sarcasm).
5. coffee or tea?
Sweet tea all the way!!!
6. what could you eat every day and not get sick of??
Ruffels chips and ranch dip...my favorite treat of all time!
7. what's the last book you read?
Well I can't tell you the last ADULT book I have read, but I can tell you the children's book.  The book we read on Friday was called "Library Mouse" it is very cute and was donated to our room from the Book Fair!  Gotta love my kids and parents.
8. do you think you "look" your age?
Heavens no!!  For those of you who don't know my age,  how old do you think I am?

Spring Blog Swap

Okay so you have heard (or read about) me talk about the spring blog swap I am doing!!!  However, I have not really followed up on it.  Anyway long story short my swap partner is Janna!!! LOVE this girl.  I love how we match up so well.  Isn't it funny how you can become friends so quickly.  I feel like I have know Janna forever....yet it has only been 3 weeks.  We are very similar in so many ways.

I mailed out Janna's goodies at the very end of spring break.  She has finally gotten them!!  YIPPEE, I was so excited to hear they made it to her.  Plus I wanted to know if she liked it!  I love buying for others!  If you want to see what all I sent to her......click here!  She posted about her goodies yesterday.  Silly me, I didn't take pictures before I mailed it out.  I blame that on the "moving" phase I was in at the time.  Anyway, swing by and check it out.   I can't wait to post about my goodies when they arrive (we are having a few mail issues, but soon it should arrive).

Weekend Recap

Please ignore my awful sunburn!

WHEEEWWWW!!!  I think this is the first time all weekend I have actually sat down and relaxed!  We had yet another busy weekend on our hands.  For starters I was playing with Claire in a tennis tournament. Thankfully the draw was not too large....allowing me to find a way to leave Saturday night open.  Our first match was on Friday night...but let's not talk about it!  Um, it was not the best tennis either of us have ever played!  Enough said!!

Saturday morning, Chris went a head and finished up our flag stone walkway.  It looks SUPER!!!  I hope it will help sale our house too.  Then we (Winston too) ran to Lowes and picked up some other things.  Of course we had to eat a hotdog while we were there too!  We really love the Lowes hotdog guy, actually we prefer them over Home Depot.  (if you have not tired their hotdogs you should...mmmm...) Next we rushed home and I took off for match number 2.  The good news is that we got on court a bit earlier than scheduled, the bad news is we took forever to play!  Once our match was over I had to RUSH RUSH RUSH home and clean up.

Last night my school had their annual art auction.  For those of you who have no idea what this is....well let me enlighten you!  Basically our sweet art teacher works on projects with each grade level.  They start working on these projects around October besides the normal art class items.   Each grade level has a theme!  My second graders had Andy Worhol (he did many piece with silk screening)  and Charlotte's Web!  The kids made time capsules of items to be opened in 2015.  They placed their items in a screen printed box....it was so cute!

Okay back to the info...so there are a total of 12 "master pieces" that are student created you can bid on.  But also there is a HUGE HUGE HUGE silent auction.  The items in this area vary from food, house decorating, romantic getaways, and teacher parties.  There were a couple of things Chris and I wanted to win!  When you arrive you may begin bidding on the silent auction items.  That continues on through the meal and then ended around 8:30.  Of course you have to keep "stalking" the items you really want!  We bid on a cooking package where a chief came and cooked 5 meals at your house!  Also on a cooking party for up to 20 people.  Chris wanted a golf package.  Also we found something for our sweet little pup!!

Though out the night we got to mingle with all the parents and teachers that were there.  I really enjoyed getting to chat with many of my moms in a more informal setting.  You know I wasn't having to be the "teacher" telling them how good their child is or what they need to work on at home.  Once the silent auction ended the fun really began!  Now it was time for the bigger items...the art!!!

I am completely amazed at how much our parents were willing to spend for their child's class piece.  Now keep in mind all this money is going to improve our school...they want to build a running track around our play ground!  The first few pieces went for 300-400 dollars...then we hit a fourth grade piece!  Man that piece really got things going.....if I remember correctly it went for 2,500 dollars.  I love that our parents want the school to be amazing.  I love that they are willing to help out!  I also love that they enjoyed all the art pieces the kids have worked on....each piece was created with such love!!

The company was wonderful, the event was amazing, we raised tons of money, oh and we won one of the silent auction pieces.  What was it?  Well.....only the best for our pup!  We bid on a 100 dollar gift card to Winston groomer...and won it!  Winston will now get 2 hair cuts for the price of one! ROCK ON!!!

Our goodies for Winston! 

Oh yeah and did I mention...Claire and I got 2nd place today after our very LONG match this morning.  That's right folks it was a rough start but we pulled it off in the end.  Enjoy your Sunday!

Amazement...

everyday I see many wonderful things happen in life.  If it is not one of my students helping another child in class it is something else.  This week I saw amazement in you my blog followers and dear friends.  I posted on Monday about my high school friend and her new son Seton.  I wanted to thank you all for stopping by their page.  I noticed that over 90 people read the post and can only hope that those extra 90 prayers or thoughts helped little Seton gain more strength.

As of yesterday, they have taken their sweet son home.  Of course his venture home comes with many extras such as feeding machines, oxygen machines and much more.  However, I am surety are loving life with their son at home with them.  Thanks again for your sweet thoughts for the Olivers  I know the Olivers' are very grateful as well.

A nice surprise

Today I was headed home from work just thinking about what I would do with the rest of my evening.  You know trying to plan out how to fit everything in for the night/week.  Of course when I got in the house there was a sweet face greeting me!  The weather was so very nice (minus our crazy wind)  I couldn't pass up a little walk with my friend.  We headed out...and stopped by a Dylan and Jessica's also know to Winston as Playa and Carmen's.

Normally I make Winston keep going, but today I had some things to chat about with Jessica...you know neighborhood talk and good old gossip.  I love that they live on the block behind us!  It is nice having good friends as neighbors.  Anyway, there sweet little girl greeted Winston and I at the window.  Jessica and I got to chatting and time got away from us.  Wouldn't you know I ended up staying and eating dinner with them!  I love unexpected events like this in life!  Thanks Dylan and Jessica for having me for dinner.  Jessica is a great cook...maybe I should happen by more often!  Winston and I loved catching up....and well he loved running in the yard with Playa and Carmen.

If you have some extra time

I have a small request!  If you're a frequent visitor of my blog you probably noticed the link on my side bar.
 LIFE WITH THE OLIVERS
Well, one of my sweet high school friends has recently given birth to her first son.  Her pregnancy was pretty routine, until the 34 week check up.  It was at that doctors visit that her and her husbands life changed.  They found out that their soon to be son's brain had stopped developing.  From there they spent many days in different doctor offices....traveled to Dallas to seek more information for their unborn son.  None of the information of course was positive...many test were done yet no true answers had been found.

Since then Shawna has given birth to Seton, as of today he is 11 days old.  Each day they face new challenges with their son.  Today Seton has been moved from the NICU to a "rooming in" space.  Basically Shawna and Zane (the parents) are able to live in this room with Seton.  They are learning the many things necessary to keep their baby boy alive.  From this point the doctors have little hope he will survive much longer.  Of course he has already over come many difficulties that none thought possible.  If you have a moment please swing by their blog....Zane (the father) has an amazing way of sharing each and every feeling they have with you.  Also if it is not too much to ask please add them to your prayer list.  Seton has proven to be a very strong baby, but every little thought helps.  Thanks for taking the time to send up an extra thought I know they are very appreciative!

Just for fun...

I was checking out my blog swap partner Janna's blog and she had something fun.  She is linked up to another blog that is doing a little get to know you blog.  I thought it would be fun to link up too!  Head over to Jennifer's blog to link up!

Q: What is your middle name? 

Rebecca....after my mother

Q: When you were a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up? 

 I was always going to be a meteorologist! I even studied it in college for 2 1/2 semesters! YIKES!!

Q: If you could have 3 wishes granted, what would they be?

~ Our dream home

~ Enough money to be have a happy life

~To have a health family

Q: If your house was on fire and you could grab only 3 things before leaving, what would they be?

~ Winston

~ Bob 

~ wedding pictures

Q: You wouldn’t be caught dead, where?

Living in a freezing cold place, I dislike major coldness!  Give me a beach any day.

Q: If you could be any cartoon character, who would you be?

This is probably the hardest one on here!  I have no true love with any character but my niece LoVeS Belle, so for her I would be Belle!!

Q: Who was the last person you hugged?

 since it is the end of a school day...25 sweet 2nd graders! 

Q: What do you think of when you hear the word "yellow"?

My favorite color!!  I love yellow it is so happy and warm! 

Now you need to go link up…

WORN OUT!

Well sadly spring break is over and I think I am more worn out that before.  But the good news is thanks to my mom, sister, and family I was able to check off many things on my list.  Without my people here to help it would have been so tough.  A HUGE GIGANTIC ENORMOUS THANKS to mom and Abby for everything.

First things first....we began the clean out of our house!  We are trying to "stage" the house so we can sell it.  I think we have made some tremendous progress.  I am just mad that I didn't take pictures before I realized I needed to. Grr!
Here is how the house looked (kind of) before!  Keep in mind all of our closets were packed with well wedding gifts I have yet to use due to lack of space.  Chris' parents were kind enough to send down a POD with some goodies in it for us when we get our "bigger" house.  Plus we are now able to move out some of our things....I mean my storage unit is pretty packed with my apartment stuff in it!  Okay get ready for some major pics....

BEFORE: 

This is where my sweet RED couch went in our bed room....out it goes! 

Here is our room during the mess of things! 

In the empty space was Chris' couch...again away it goes! 

our living room...yikes

This is the guest room also known as Bob's room....preclean out

Okay and here is a look at the POD in all of the goodies we got or put in! Ha it was a huge project to pack that sucker just so!  We had to make sure it was nice and tight so nothing would fall or break during the move. 

Again I should have taken pictures before we got all the stuff out! 

Here are all the things out of the pod!

Chris' mom was even nice enough to send all of Riley's baby things.  I got a great baby bed, amazing stroller, and a bike stroller!  Yippee this makes me want to have a baby. Yes, my mom just fell over as she read that! Ha...but no babies for us anytime soon we have to get a HOUSE first!

Okay in this pic you can see the first part of our stacking.  In the pod we have our guest mattress, both of our couches, the dinning room table and hutch from Chris' parents...thanks! Also a wonderful coffee table.  This was only the beginning of our POD fun.  My sister has a great pic of the pod closer to the end!  I will post those later!

Again our goodies waiting to go back in.

 AFTER: 

A clean organized closet...prior was stuffed to the gill with wedding gifts! 

Bob's closet cleaned out...with her box in there so we can hide it easy! 

My new bed thanks to my grandma....This room is wonderful now! Bob loves it too!!

Our bedroom!!  

The new TV stand area...remember it was where my couch went! 

A look at our living room from our bedroom.

A view from the kitchen 

A view from the door...

Okay so we moved these chairs over to make it look roomier.  Yes...the TV mess will be covered soon!  I have to go pick up a nice Tree plant thing to go between the chairs.  Then we need to do a few more touch ups here and there.

Oh and did I mention that mom and I also worked in the yard.  Here are a few pics of that too.

new mulch in all the beds....

Part of our new flagstone walk way.

We still have to pick up more flagstone for the upper area to the door.

The bed before we planted and mulched!

Weeded, mulched, and flowers added

Flowers added also mom brought down grandma's bird bath to add.

The side, almost ready to go! 

Well we are not 100% done with the yard as you can see, but mom and I can only do so much in a short time frame.  Oh and to top off all the fun!  I also got my BLOG SWAP gift ready and shipped off.

I can not wait for JANNA to open up all the goodies. I have had the best time getting to know her better.  I love this blog swap idea for so many reasons...but most of all for making new sweet friends! Oh and did I mention that Chris is out of town again!  Winston and I have been chilling...but he misses his dad.  I only know this because he always lays so he can see the door, as if he is waiting for Chris to walk in at any moment.  Poor guy will have to wait a few more days.  I hope your weekend was as productive as mine.  Enjoy your MONDAY!  Kicking and screaming I too will head back to work....

WILW

ooopppss...with spring break here I seem to be a day behind in my week! Yikes!!  Oh well at least I am willing to admit my errors, ha.

Here are just a few of the things I am loving:

• Chris and I went HOUSE HUNTING today!! YIPPEE I am so excited.  Although we are not ready to sign any papers RiGhT this SeCoNd we had made the first step.  We found the nicest realtor ever too thanks to a friend.  

• MOM is in TOWN!  I am so excited to have my mom here to help me.  I just feel like when she is here I can conquer the world.  We have tons to do around the house, but it is way better together! 

• Sister and Co. may also be heading down to help out!  I love that, because if you remember my last post....this is my first spring break without my niece and nephew! 

• SPRING BREAK!!!!  Need I say more?

• Of course my hubby....

Creepers, yard work, and more

Well yesterday was kind of my lazy day all day! Ha!!  Today I got up and thought I would start things off right with spin class.  I normally go to the classes after school you know the 5 or 6 o'clock class.  So hitting an early class seemed pretty exciting.  Well I had never got to this instructor before....and can say I will not return to her class.  There was only a total of 8 people in class.  If you have ever attended a good spin class at 24 hour you know this is NOT NORMAL!  But then again I thought well it is spring break and 8:30.  Yeah, that is more than likely NOT the CASE!!!

The class was horrific to put it nicely.  I mean in the first 30 minutes we had only turned our knobs 3 times...are you kidding me!  This was in no way a challenging ride.  Then to top it off this CREEPER was sitting next to me.  Picture a 40-45 year old man in super tight workout shorts and a tank top.  Yes, he picked the bike RIGHT BESIDE ME!  There are 20 bikes in this room (only 8 taken), and he pick directly beside me.  Okay no problem....until he was WATCHING me the entire time.  I mean it was the most creeped out I have ever felt in my life.  He would not stop watching me...it was so bad that I felt dirty.  Needless to say with the crappy workout and the creeper next to me...I ditched out of class a bit early! I felt like the stalking was over the top and I needed to go home and shower off!

After my amazing workout, I ran home and picked up Chris.  We had an appointment with the tax guy. Thank heavens we are done with taxes. Then a super great lunch date at our favorite, ROSA'S for taco Tuesday of course!  After lunch we headed over to Home Depot for a little yard renovation.  Nothing like picking up 12 bags of mulch, grass seeds, plants, and more to start spring break off with a bang.  Tomorrow we are going to meet with a relator to look at houses!  I am super excited for that.  Much like blog stalking I have been house stalking on line.  It has been great, but nothing beats checking them out in person.  Oh and about blog stalking.

I have been out and about picking up little odds and ends for my blog swap partner, Janna!  I am having the best time picking out goodies for her!  I love the spring blog swap.  I have just a few more odds and ends that I need to gather before I mail it of on Thursday!  Now I should do a few more "productive" things before Chris gets home from work, yikes.

What a start to

my spring break! I took a half day on Friday, because Chris' work is having a function out of town.  In order for use to make it there and enjoy our time we wanted to skip town a little early.  Of course we had to take this cute face to his favorite puppy spot!

Waiting at the door with his bag and bed! 

The thing I hate most about going out of town is leaving this face...and Bob alone!  However Winston LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Kerrie and Steven at 4P Doggie Dude Ranch.  They take the best care of him!  After dropping our little stinker off at the ranch we were on our way!  

Chris' company was hosting their annual awards banquet at the Four Seasons in Houston this year.  Have I mentioned that I love the Four Seasons.  We frequent the Scottsdale Four Seasons with Chris father and LoVe it!!  I love the personal service...Actually I love a billion things about the Four Seasons.  I will tell you a few of my favorite reasons: 

1. You are always referred to by your last name...as a newlywed I ADORE that! 
2. You get night time "turn down" service
3. The place is run amazingly

Thanks to Chris' amazing COUSIN we had a wonderful stay!  He made sure our room was perfect and so much more.  Here is our wonderful room! 

Our goodies as we arrived!

Chris enjoying the view from our wrap around window in the bedroom.  

The CoZy sOft bed.....love it!

Our living room too...

Once we got settled in we enjoyed a nice dinner out.  Then we headed back to the lobby for some fun with his Chris' cousin! We also found out that his cousin just got promoted to the LA Four Seasons!  How fun is that??

This is how I spent my first day of spring break!!!  Loving every minute of it, of course!!

Chris took all of these pics...little stinker

I got to lay in bed, watch some footage of the Japan disaster (so sad), and enjoy this view of downtown.  After some good old laziness...we got up and did a little running around town.  That evening we got all dolled up for the banquet.  The dinner, people, and awards were wonderful.  Here are a few pics we took before.

ready to head out

Doesn't he look so handsome!

I love that my spring break started out with such a fun and relaxing weekend.  Now that I am all relaxed and happy....I have to hit that TO DO LIST! YIKES! Thank heavens I have a wonderful mom who is willing to help out!  Enjoy your week.