Ornament

Introducing you to the 2012 ornament made by my sweet, creative mother:

If you look closely, you can see at least one of the men that came to help me move. The other man is on the other side of the truck looking out. Thanks to Uncle Kyle for helping create this one of a kind! What an adventure it was and has been!

Christmas Eve

We headed to Grandma Gribble's house to spend Christmas Eve together.

Heartbroken

I learned of the school shootings during my lunch Friday. By the afternoon, I found out it involved "the babies". So many thoughts began and tears flowed that evening. You practice the lockdown drill a few times a year; everything goes as planned. Lights are off, kids are huddled in the corner playing "hide -n-seek", door is locked, cards are placed in the window, and you wait while they check the doors. The door handle jiggle makes my heart jump. You are brave because small faces are looking up to you for comforting. You hear the all clear and it's back to normal.
Tears flowed with sadness for those families and tears flowed out of fear. My job is to protect those children. What if I don't get the call in time, what if I don't get the door locked quickly enough, or what if I think the door is locked but it's really unlocked. You believe it won't ever happen but truth is I have to be prepared. However, I can't live in fear. So, the children are running on high levels of adrenaline and this will require extra coffee to survive. There are 5 more wake-ups until break and I'm going to enjoy every minute I get to spend with my classroom full of wonderful children. I am thankful and blessed.

Just another day

Here are 2 things heard in the classroom that just makes these last two weeks of school manageable with a good laugh!

1. "My grandpa is in jail for making moonshine". WHAT?! I would expect that from my old school in the mtns but here?! Then I thought, maybe I'll get some for Christmas! ha!

2. After the child was walking and just fell down: " I must have just had a foot fart". I tried so hard not to laugh but couldn't keep it in. I almost cried from laughing!

Parade #2

It excites me to see how this holiday season is unfolding. When I moved I wondered what I would do to replace the famous Gingerbread houses or the downtown lights. Yesterday I ventured out to a second local parade and will be heading downtown to the History museum this afternoon for some free holiday music with friends. I add this to a staff holiday party, a neighborhood cookie exchange/wine party, and of course watching Christmas movies with only the tree lights on. Lucky for me the festivities aren't over and there is more entertaining to be had!

We had several comments about our gear...and might even be in the local paper!

Campfire Music

Here are a few clips from the campfire evening. It just took awhile to upload.

Get your tissues...Phillip wrote this song for his son:

 

 

 

Here are a few more to enjoy:

 

Holiday

The tree is up, the decorations are hung, and I even have a mantle to hang the stockings with care.

 Mom told me to put my prettiest things on the mantle. This display sits on the left side of the mantel. The card is one MeMe made and gave me one year. The angel sits besides the picture I love of MeMe and Pa...two angels watching over me.

New Friends

I hosted a Friendsgiving of sort the Monday before Thanksgiving. These are my new team members and my new friends. Thankful they have embraced me into their lives.

What?!

Conversation between myself and a little boy in my room:
T: Did you play soccer?
Me: Yes I did. How did you know.
T: My mom and I were thinking that because of your shingles.
Me: My shingles? (I'm thinking shins?)
T: Yeah, your shingles.
Just as I'm about to ask if maybe he means shinguards? I'm lost there with this idea!
T: Oh, I mean freckles...because of all the freckles on your face.

WHAT??!!! You just never know what you'll talk about during the school day!

Decorating

Sawyer and Caroline helped decorate PaPa and GG's tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Thankful

Thankful to have family to spend time sharing stories and laughing. Grateful to Aunt Kathryn and Uncle Tom for hosting Thanksgiving again this year. We had a wonderful time with the family that could make it and were missing the family that were in other places.