Weekend Plans

Our weekend plans are to spend the weekend with my family in Missouri. We haven't been there since christmas and I am needing a nephew fix! I know all 3 of the boys are growing and changing like crazy and can't wait to catch up with them! Of course, it will be nice to see mom, dad, sisters, and brothers-in-law too. :) We'll head up Friday evening, if all goes well.

In other news and equally exciting is the summer trip we're planning. We applied for our passports and hope to go to Mexico--possibly Puerto Vallarta, which sounds awesome! We're looking at all-inclusive options and I think we're nearly both in agreement--which is sometimes the hardest part of planning a vacation. :P Ryan would be perfectly happy with a cabin on a lake somewhere and normally so would I--but this summer we'll celebrate our 5th anniversary! Since we're usually so predictable and conservative, I'd like to do something a little more "exotic" and unique--neither of us have ever been out of the country, so Mexico seems like a start--besides, it's in our price range whereas a lot of other places aren't. :P

That's it for now--getting some more rain now; hailed earlier for a couple minutes--so not sure what tomorrow will bring for school--we shall see. :)

Day off

They just called school off here--it's freezing rain (which started around 6:00--when Ryan left for work at 5:30 everything was cold but clear). So, of course for the safety of children they don't want busses on icy roads--especially up in the hills of Bella Vista, which is in our district. But I'm definitely not going to argue--in fact, I'm going back to bed. :) Maybe I'll post something interesting (if I can think of anything) later today when I'm actually awake! For now--g'night at 6:24 a.m.

Roses are red...

Happy Valentine's Day weekend! (it's past the actual day now) I must say that although I told some of my students who were "down" about V-day yesterday morning that "it's just a commercial holiday for the stores, flower shops, restaurants, etc. to make a

lot of money..."--I must say that it turned out a little romantic. Ryan & I usually don't make any fuss about it; sometimes a card or chocolates but nothing major. Well, I got the surprise of our marriage yesterday when I turned around from talking to a student across the room and saw a guy sitting a vase with 3 red roses on my desk! I thought at first that it was one of the office helpers delivering flowers to me that someone had sent--then realized that guy was none other than my handsome husband! Of course the kids were sitting there looking at me waiting for a reaction and I blushed...then went over and hugged him-all the while exclaiming that in almost 5 years of marriage and 3 years of dating before that, he has not bought me one single fresh cut flower until now. I always tell him that I'd rather have plants or something that will last longer, but deep down I knew that there would be something special about getting roses or any fresh bouquet...and I was right! :)

After I got off work we went out to eat at a little Thai place nearby...it was nice! It's been very busy last 2 weeks, so just spending time together was great. I feel like I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off--but maybe the 3 day weekend that just began will help me get it firmly planted on my neck again. :P I could go on and on about work...but I'll spare you the details. Nothing else is too exciting either so I'll stop. I hope you're all having a great day/night/evening/morning/whatever it is wherever you are whenever you're reading this!

SNOW DAY!

An unexpected day off work--ahhhh! On a sunny day in June when we're at school to make up for today, it won't be so cool--but right now the break is wonderful! When I got the call at 6:00 this morning, there was absolutely no precipitation to be seen out our windows--roads dry, etc. (I know--that doesn't happen up north--but here it does and I'm grateful!) By time I actually got up for good a few hours later (we'll just leave it at "mid-morning") it was snowing and there was a good coat on the ground already. Still snowing...but light and hard to see...I wish it was the huge, heavy flakes falling--they're so pretty to watch!

At Ryan's request I took the camera out and shot a few pictures, although I'm not sure they'll meet his photography seal of approval--he's a much better photographer than I am--x10. He wanted me to go work for him so he could leave to take pics--hmmm...

Keep going...even when it seems uphill!

It seems most everyone could use a little encouragement on any given day...here's some for you!I hope you're all doing great; wanted to leave something new on the blog even though I don't have much to share. They're calling for snow early tomorrow morning--the kids were nuts at work today and will be even worse if we have school tomorrow, whether or not they see a flake of snow--it makes them cRaZy!

I Feel Boring

I don't know why I'm even updating today because I really don't have anything exciting to say--hence the title of this post, I feel boring. I apologize in advance. :P

Monday I had staff development at work (no kids--in training all day)...and it should have felt like a short week with the kids, but I guess the barometric pressure or something is off and they were CrAzY! So--due to that, I've got extra paperwork that they basically created for me with their crazy actions and bad choices to catch up on. But--it really wasn't a horrid week; work was just a little hectic!

We had a "date night" last night--which I know is probably funny since we spend more time together than most other couples our age get to. But it's great to have time that we set aside just for us--not for doing anything around the house or grocery shopping or spending "together" time with other people, or anything else--just time to talk, laugh, and enjoy being together! We went out to eat at a cute little family-owned Thai place close by and stopped in at Java on the Square (Ryan's work) on our way home.

Ryan's at work--all day until around 11:00 tonight. I am attempting to get laundry, some minor house straightening, etc. done and will hopefully get around to some of that paperwork for work--that will help with next week! I also need to make a trip to the gym at some point today (which has been going great--I feel wonderful and it really helps my emotional/mental state as well as making me physically feel better).

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!

Playing Catch-up

I guess life has gotten so busy since school started again that now I need to play catch-up with the blog. So, some things that are going on here:

*Ryan has a new "toy"--a Pentax K10D digital SLR camera--awesome! Technically, it's our toy but it will take me about 10 times longer to figure out than him--he's been researching and playing with it all week. In fact, as I write this he's getting home from being out with some friends duck hunting. He left here before 4:00 this morning--yikes! Only, since he hasn't had his hunters safety course transferred from WI, the only thing he shot is the camera--but it doesn't sound like anyone did any shooting of guns anyway. I guess they had a good time, though...and so did I--sleeping in!

*I'm on day 7 of a 9 day Isagenix body cleansing & fat burning program. I feel fantastic; it has been great so far! After this I plan to do the 30 day program and see what happens. Feeling this great is awesome--losing weight and inches will be a huge bonus to that!

*I joined a gym called Fit 4 Her--a women only place with weights, treadmills, eliptical machines, bikes, classes, massage chairs, tanning, and more. I've only been 3 times so far but have actually enjoyed my workouts--and hopefully I'll get in shape!

*In March I'll take the master's comprehensive exam that I will pass and finally receive my master's degree in special education! Of course, before all of that I really need to do research and prepare using the 6 study questions provided. So--there's the agenda for my "free time" the next couple of months.

*Ryan is now the manager at Java on the Square (moved up from assistant when the previous manager left to work for Wal Mart). All of the "problems" the employees have are very annoying (maybe moreso to me than Ryan) but the job has given him lots of good experience.