Stay tuned....

for all the pics, videos and more from last night.  Heres's a sneak peak

Blake Shelton when he first took the stage! 

FINALLY...

Our snowy front yard....please ignore the trash (that was suppose to be Tuesday)

we actually have S-N-O-W to enjoy!  I mean the last 3 days have been all ICE, but now on day 4 let there be SNOW.  Yippee!!  I HEART snow like cRaZy!!  Snow is my favorite, however I like the wet snow so you can build super amazing snowmen.  This snow was "forecasted" to be only a "light dusting." HA HA HA, we are talking 4-5 inches around us.  That's some DUSTING if you ask me.  Needless to say we have many things to do regardless to this snowy day.

First it started with sweet WINSTON heading to the puppy spa!  I booked his appointment way before this ice mess began.  Now we who live on a slight hill...know what it is like out!

HILL+ICE=SLIDING DOWN

the large snowy/icy hill from the top

Chris' snow angel!

pretty nice looking angel

The sun...trying to peek in!  

Therefore we mapped out the best route to his puppy salon.  Thankfully when I booked the appointment I went with the neighborhood spa.  However, it sits on the TOP of a HILL!! Yikes! Therefore a little creative driving and walking was put into play.  We drove to the closest point then well...WALKED from there! Winston LOVES the snow so he was in puppy heaven to walk the hill.  It was a good choice as we slipped just walking on the snow covered ice.  Once he was dropped of, we just kept our little truck up and walked across the street to Starbucks.  That was nice, as we sat and enjoy the HUGE snowflakes falling.  

The car in the back is inches from the main road...but she just parked anyways.

This lady tried to enter the parking lot 2 times.  She kept sliding...so what do you do?  Well, she parked and walked up, got her order, and headed back to her car.  Now I don't really recommend parking in the driveway entrance...but it worked out for her.  She must have REALLY needed that frapa-whatever! On our walk back to the car I took some pics.  It was nice little stroll around! 

Bob out enjoying her freedom while Winston is away! Plus it is her first time to see the snow! 

Sweet Bob I love her to death!

Thankfully the sun began to peek out and the temp actually warmed up.  This is the warmest it has been all week.  On our trip to pick Winston up the roads were better! Now I just hope this keeps up because tonight is our SUPER BOWL PARTY with BLAKE SHELTON!!  I have already called, and YES the show will go on!  Now its figuring out the best route to take with the least amount of hills covered in ice!  Hope you all are enjoying your Friday as much as we have! 

Life Iced in...

Thank you to MEXICO who is allowing us to use their power!!

Well we are now on DAY 3 of being "iced" in...or what others say as a snow day.  Sorry it is not snow that is keeping our schools shut down...its ICE.  Oh and did I mention the "rolling black outs" that they are now doing.  Yes, randomly you will lose your power.  However, don't worry it wont before long and you will benefit from it!  Ha Ha Ha

Needless to say I have now spent my 3 days of just kicking back and enjoying the heat.  I am a bit sad that of all times I brought home no papers to grade.  I think it was because I stayed late on Monday (the only day we had of school this week) doing that and was well beat down from it.  As you saw from the last post day one was spent downtown playing around.  Last night we spent a lot of our day playing the Wii!  It gets a little completive at times, but all fun here! Today (day 3) I slept in, AHH!  Chris had to leave for a few appointments (so I am a worried mess of course).  Winston and I just caught up on the DVR!  Oh and I got a great LAUGH when my sister told me that "Little Bears school was getting an early dismissal today due to the chance of snow"....ha ha ha so just because the weather person says it may snow they got out of school early!  Of course they are down south of Houston who rarely gets snow...but still funny!

As for tomorrow....well our students already had the day off to attend the Stock Show!  However, it was to be a teacher inservice day.  I guess we will wait and see if they make us attend tomorrow or not.  We are too maybe get snow tonight or tomorrow morning.  Hope the rest of you are having a great week and staying warm!   Oh and there is a pretty cute little video from downtown Fort Worth by the news reporter click here to see it!

SnOw DaY FuN!!

his shaggy hair is paying off today

Amazingly enough Chris woke me up this am and said that school was CLOSED!  I couldn't believe what he said.  I mean rarely do we miss school.  This was very exciting but yet sad news.  Now we will have to make up our day on Good Friday, thus the sad part!   Well needless to say it was a good call because all the roads were PURE ICE! (this snow day was already better than last year...when we had NO POWER for 3 days)

However that didn't keep us from having fun. Chris, Winston, and I all bundled up to go out and play.  Winston LOVES snow!  We think maybe he dreams of living in a very cold place.  Keep in mind we his owners don't dream of that.  Look at the happy little guy....

Did I mention he LOVE LOVE LOVES the snow!

the boys foot/paw prints

Nothing like a 12 degree walk! 

RUNNING like a CRAZY dog!

After playing in the snow, playing the WII, and watching tv we thought we would try and risk the roads.  They were bad but we stuck to the ones that most of the world had driven on....still not very good! Off we went to downtown very slowly!  Why?  Well, we wanted to enjoy the ESPN hype; and hang out with my other fellow teachers!  First stop was ESPN at 3 because they do a live show for Sports Nation.  We enjoyed watching, and being on tv when they panned out for commercials.  After being out in the cold, we needed to warm up a bit.

Courtney and Richard

That blue screen with the GB player is normally up in the air....due to the wind it had to be lowered! 

The girls working it and ready to S-C-R-E-A-M

Here we all are...I think I was the warmest! 

Chris having a blast...then it began to snow more! 

Part of the camera crew who enjoyed our "fun" with us

We had a blast and learned a lot about the shows.  I mean those poor guys were probably freezing to death.  They were sitting with heating blankets on, but it was still cold from there hips up!  I give them major props for a great job of NOT looking FREEZING cold!

see the blue heating blankets...and small heaters

Midway through our FUN out and about we found out that there is NO SCHOOL again tomorrow!  Yes, I will get to sleep in tomorrow too!  After a few more moment with the ESPN crew I forced Chris to leave.  I of course the driver...didn't want to drive in the dark because then the mush turns back to well ice.  We left the girls eating with the ESPN crew and headed home.  Thankfully we are about 8 minutes (on normal roads) from downtown....because the roads were HORRIBLE!  I can now see why we have no school tomorrow, just after 7 it was freezing back up.  If you head out be safe.  I recommend sitting under your warm heating blanket like I currently am!

Oh Where, Oh Where

Currently the FUZZY FUZZY FUZZY pup at our house! 

has my cute little pup gone?  He seems to have been over taken by well....fur! I can't seem to find that cutie pie anywhere!  Look how fuzzy a puppy can get.  Good thing your mommy loves you...and scheduled you a SpA DaY on Friday!  I mean we must have you looking good to host our Super Bowl party on Sunday!

This is what he NEEDS too look like! 

Super Bowl Madness!

First of all I should let you all know, in case you um live under a rock, that the Super Bowl is here!!  You know where I live! It is big news all over the place!  The ESPN crew has taken over downtown Fort Worth! Okay on with it....

Let me set the scene for you:

Picture oh 3 weeks ago, on a Friday night.  I am of course attending choir practice (aka happy hour) with the group. (at our normal Friday night spot)  We were having a blast!  We were chatting about our weeks and what was up next....as the evening passes various people head home.  Then we are left with oh about 8 of us hang out and enjoying our adult beverages.  Out of no where come the "promo" gals!  You know the kind...way to short of skirt/shorts, the tatas all pushed up for some major cleavage. They were the Coors Light girls!  Of course they were promoting Coors.  Fancy that, but Chris prefers this beer!  They come over and do the small talk about Coors, blah blah blah.  Then everyone at the table gets a complimentary drink.  They place the coster on the table and ramble something about entering for a chance at Super Bowl tickets.

Of course we were well past the phase of small talk with these gals, I mean heck we got the free drink now move along.  Then I randomly decided, FINE I will enter the silly giveaway.  I mean my theory on this is...I have unlimited text so why not!  Here is what you had to do.

text a picture of that funny box with the Coors mountains

Take a picture of that sign on the coaster.  Then text the picture to that random number.  It was a done deal.  I sent the pic, and got some type of conformation text back.  I really left it at that.

F-A-S-T F-O-R-W-A-R-D! Now it is LAST Wednesday, January 26! Here I am teaching away when I keep hearing the vibrating noise of my phone!  (Yes, my phone is always on my teacher table....its the way I check all school emails throughout the day; since my main computer is hooked up to the promethean board) I couldn't figure out why it kept going off.  I mean Chris had left that morning for an out of town trip...was it him? had something happened? I was a little worried.  Needless to say I was 10 minutes from a break.  I took my kiddos to specials and then jumped right on my voicemails.  No it wasn't Chris! Wheew!  But it was a random IL number!  Why?

I called the number back to find out..............I was a winner of the Coors Light Super Bowl sweepstakes!  Are you KiDdInG ME?  I couldn't plan this stuff, really!  Folks, we didn't win the 2 tickets TO the Super Bowl.  However, I won a pair of tickets to the Coors Light Super Bowl Party "Silver Bullet" on Friday, Feb 4th!  Not only that but the party will be at the local Honk'e Tonk down the street!  The lady gave me all the info she knew, which was NoNe!  I gave her may address and away we go.

The tickets arrived on Sunday! I was crazy excited because I needed more info.  I mean I have been wondering all weekend about what will go on there.  Will they have a band?  Will we just go and have drinks?  So many questions!!!  Most of the questions have been answered!  The main performance will be BlAkE ShElToN!  I love him! (Chris not a big country fan, but is excited for the drinks)  I can't wait to go have a blast!  What a fun weekend will be have Super Bowl Parties almost every night!  Can you believe this?

Favorite things giveaway...from Tracy

Giveaways...my luck has been tested lately! More to follow on that in the next post. However, Tracy is hosting her favorite things blog giveaway.  She has lots of fun little items you can win.  Many of which are some of my favorites.  Head on over to see by clicking HERE!  You have till the 17th to get your entry in! Go check it out NOW!!

5 Question Friday!

Yes, I am joining in again with Mama M's 5QFriday!  I love that my tennis has OFFICIALLY been moved to Wednesday nights for various reasons.  *blogging *super tv show watching *happy hour with my old school girls.....oh I digress back to 5QFriday.  Here we go:

1. If you had $1,000 to donate to a charity, which would you choose?

I would donate to The National Alopecia Areata Foundation.  For those that are unaware of Alopecia you can find out more detailed information here. My sweet niece has Alopecia, it is where your body fights your hair follicles. Therefore your hair will not grow, or will grow but falls out frequently.  Thankfully my niece is not in the extreme cases and has less than 40% hair loss.  

2. Snow days: Do you welcome them happily or are they a pain in your butt?

Well can I say...a love/hate relationship.  I personally LOVE, LOVE, LOVE snow days.  I love having a reason to sit at home and snuggle.  However, for work sake I hate that we have to make up our snow day on GOOD FRIDAY!  Yes, my school district uses Good Friday for a snow make up day.  If it were any other day then I would have a love/love relationship. 

3. What talent did you wish you had and why?

ummm....maybe not a talent, but I wish I had rhythm! Ha, I did Zumba the other day and realized I really am the most unrhythmic (is that a word?) person out there.  But that doesn't mean I wont keep going and acting like a FOOL! 

4. Are you a news, politics or celebrity gossip junkie?

CELEBRITY JuKiE all the way!  I love all the gossip and DrAmA that goes along with celebs! Bring me an USWeekly, Intouch...or People any day PLEASE! 

5. What is your favorite "cocktail"? (Are you a beer person, a kiddie cocktail junkie, or perhaps your more the "Cosmo" kind?! Anything flies...doesn't haftabe alcoholic!)

well...my favorite "cocktail" is pretty simple really!  If you want to make my day you need to bring me a BiG'Ol SONIC Dr. Pepper!  Yeap...my weakness is Sonic Ice, Styrofoam cup, and Dr. Pepper! I know not as exciting as and "adult" beverage, but it is my Happy Place!!!

**Way to go Chris**

I'm so proud of you!

This week Chris found out that he has won a wonderful award through his company AXA!  He has worked so hard the past 2 years.  He has been hiring advisors and showing them the way.  His hard work has finally paid off.  In April Chris and I will get to enjoy a wonderful vacation to San Diego.  AXA will be hosting their 2011 National Leaders Forum there.  I am so PROUD of Chris.  Chris you have had such an amazing year! I am very grateful that he loves his job so much and wants to succeed more than any one else! His drive and determination amazes me each day.  I love this man so much, way to go honey!

^SIGH^

AHHHH.....well I have just taken a huge sigh for the past couple of days.  Life around here has been a little crazy.  On Friday my grandma had a seizer.  This was very worrisome to our family.  Grandma has not been doing amazing for the past 6 months, so we could have done without this.  Needless to say while my grandma was under going this trauma; my sister was also having a procedure done.  FRIDAY was CRAZY on the WORRIES!!  Abby's procedure went as well as planned.  Grandma seems to be making steps towards recovery as well. Thank you to my sweet friends so sent out an extra pray this week.

Then we proceed into this week.  Today I had one of my biggest days yet at school. I had my FORMAL OBSERVATION at school. (non teacher friends...this is like your major moment to see if your principal thinks your are teaching to the TOP potential) Therefore, my Monday was spent worrying about how TUESDAY would go and planning, planning, planning.  I mean I get observed pretty regularly (once every 2 weeks with a quick 15 minute walk through), however you still want to be OUTSTANDING!  This morning I sat all 25 of my sweet darling BEEs down for a quick recap on all our rules.  I also explained that Mrs. H would be joining us at some point today.  They were very aware of my EXPECTATIONS! (not that they are much different from a normal day)

Thus the reason I can now take that HUGE DEEP BREATH & SIGH.  I feel like it went pretty spectacular if I might say so myself. (picture a pat on the back here)  All Majority of my sweet darling bees were right on target.  Of course with 25 it is almost impossible to ensure they all are following 100% of the time.  However, I will take majority for now.  Now tomorrow a few of my bees will receive a small "debriefing" from me.  The rest of course will get some STICKERS!  Ha, they are so cheap to please....I love that.  AH for now I plan to take a moment and just relax, then back to life! **Oh and a lot of laughing at my husband who is YeLlInG at Angry Birds as I type.  (I love his determination)