Winnings!

Well, sickness has completely infiltrated our house, except for Sooie of course. I gave my cold to David and now we're both taking lots of cold medicine. I think we are both on the mend though. It's just hard to get well when it's so cold! My week was good but busy. David did lots of good studying.

I had an in-service day on Friday and didn't have to go into work until 9:00, which was really nice. On my way into work I changed the radio station and heard the end of an announcement about "call now to win." I didn't even know what I was calling for, but I started calling! Somehow I got through and was caller 14! The DJ was sad to find out that I didn't even know what I was calling for but I won a $100 Price Chopper (a grocery store) gift card and two Pepsi folding chairs! I couldn't believe it! There is no telling how many times I've called the radio and not won, and now we get free groceries for a week! Woohoo!

The social studies unit that I am teaching right now has to do with income, taxes, service jobs etc. I had the kids pick a service job that they might want to do and then draw a picture of the service they would provide. I'm not completely sure if Ethan got the point of the activity, but his picture was so good that I had to share it with you.

You can't tell it in this picture, but this scientist originally had spurs (sp?). Didn't Ethan draw an intersting idea of himself in 20 years?

The end of a busy week

We have finished up a very busy week! On Wednesday we were pleasantly surprised by a visit from my cousin Clancy! He is currenlty living in Portland, Oregon and was brought down for about 24 hours to Kansas City by his company. We were able to pick him up at his hotel on Wednesday night and bring him back to the house to hang out for a little while. It was really special that he took the time to come over and I was super excited to see him. We were sort-of playing partners growing up, so it's always fun when we get to hang out.

On Thursday I had yet another grad class. It went good, but then I had to get home and make some desserts for dinners for eight on Friday night. When I got home David had made dinner! On Friday our dinners for eight group met at the original Oklahoma Joe's and then game back to our house for dessert and games. Our group is really fun!

This next week is going to be pretty busy again. David has lots to study and a lot of lab work. I will be leading practice on Monday after school, monitoring the cheerleaders at two games on Tuesday night, and then class on Thursday night. Luckily, we have in-service on Friday, so I don't have to go in until 9:00 and will be done before regular dismissal time!

Cheer Girls

We had a nice wrap-up to our weekend. On Sunday we went out to eat with our Sunday School class at this place called Chedders. Apparently they have them in lots of cities, but we had never heard of it. It turned out very fun though.

On Sunday night we FINALLY got to spend some time with Becca and enjoyed some greasy breakfast food from ihop. The food actually reminded me of a Waffle House. Too greasy for me. We LOVED not having work or school on Monday. Thank you Dr. Martin Luther King!

Last night (Tuesday) I had to come back up to school to monitor the cheer girls at a home game. I can't believe how much better they have gotten and they seem to truly enjoy doing it. When I see them having fun at the games it makes it worth it (especially when I get annoyed dealing with 11 teenage girls). Here they are after the loss last night.



I think they look really cute in their uniforms.

As a side note, we're really loving the new car and still waiting to sell the old one!

A Busy Week!

Wow, this was a busy week! Teaching was good and the kids were well-bahaved after their much-needed break. On Monday and Wednesday I led cheerleading practice to get them ready for the game on Thursday. On Thursday I had my first grad class of the semester from 4:30-6:00 and then I rushed home to pick up David and we both went up to the basketball game at Westminster. They lost. We didn't end up getting home until 10:15! Late for us old people I guess. Last night we went to eat at this place really close to the house that we've been wanting to try called "Lucky Brew Grill." It turned out to be really great, so we're looking forward to going during warmer weather when we can maybe ride our bikes there and sit outside.

The snow on the ground is still hanging around and so is my cold. :(

David and I have upgraded my car to a four-door, so my red 2005 Honda Accord is now for sale. If you know anyone that's in the market tell them to give us a call please! For sale by owner!!!

Here we go!

It looks like tomorrow things will start back up again. No more days off!

On Thursday night, Brett and Sarah Busenitz came over to watch the National Championship with us and play some games. It was so much fun! Sarah and Brett both work at Westminster with me. Sarah teaches 2nd grade with me, and Brett teaches 5th grade. They are really fun to hang out with and we're thankful to have them as friends!

On Friday night we attended our first couples baby shower. Jason and Jessica Heine, some friends from our Sunday School class, are expecting their first baby in late January. It's a girl, and our Sunday School class got together to give them some goodies! We played a game at the shower that was pretty fun. The females were blindfolded and had to feed their husbands chocolate pudding. After all the pudding was gone the guys had to blow up a balloon to match the size of Jessica's belly, put it under their shirt, and try to tie their shoes. David and I won! The shower was very nicely done and fun for the wives AND husbands.

On Saturday morning I took hopefully my last praxis test ever. On Saturday day we gave our house a deep cleaning and David cleaned out the basement. It looks so much better now. On Saturday night we went and ate sushi with Jay and Katherine and then went back to their apartment to play some wii. It was a fantastic night. It was definitely nice to be warm and inside playing games.

Tomorrow David goes back to school for his final semester before going into the clinic. We feel ready to get things kicked up again. The break has rejuvinated us enough to make it through another hard semester like the last one. David will have TONS to study again and I will have grad class and coaching the cheerleaders after work. We've got some thoughts for extra fun things to do this semester, so we're looking forward to setting those things up amongst the studying. Here we go!!!

One day of work all week!

Well, the only day this week that I will have gone to work is Tuesday! We have gotten the rest of the week off, which is perfect, since David is still out of school. We're all bracing for the -30 degree wind chill that they are saying is coming tonight. About mid day today we got a smidge stir crazy so we headed out to shovel the drive-way and then find an empty parking lot to cut some whirly jigs. I was working on learning how to drive in the snow and control a fish-tailing truck...which turned out to be pretty fun.

This is from right before we started shoveling. Yes, WE. I shoveled too. :)

Tripp, this is Lynn's boyfriend's car. It might not look like he drives it much, but he gets this little beauty started every day and takes his lady for a drive in it.

Right when I was starting to hate snow...

Right when I was starting to hate snow it totally redeemed itself! On Sunday night I was feeling a little bit annoyed with how cold it was and was coming to grips with the reality that the 7 inches of snow that we have was not going to melt until essentially March...then, on Sunday night Kathy (my principal) called and said that school was canceled! Yahooo! The cold weather and snow had gotten me another day to enjoy Christmas break. David is not back in school until next week, so we felt like we had won the lottery with another day to spend together. On Tuesday I went to school feeling great and had a good day back with the kids. Then snow made another move to redeem itself! No school today! (wednesday). There is apparently a legitimate snow storm coming in this afternoon and it's just going to dump on us...so all the school districts closed! Another day off! So great. We're going to try and run some errands this morning before the snow hits and then hunker down with some hot chocolate and watch it pile up. Hopefully, weather permitting, Ben is going to come and hang out with David during the day on Friday and get some brother time in. Hopefully we'll have some new snow pictures to post soon. Happy snow day!

Here is a picture from the local news station we thought was funny! We would build one of our own, but can't stand the cold for long enough.

Back In KC

We are so sorry that we haven't posted any pictures from Christmas. Somehow we didn't take any pictures on our own camera and are working on collecting pictures from Mom, Kathy, and Aunt Lisa.

Anyway, we are successfully back in KC and were greeted by a driveway completely full of snow. We went to pull our car in (mine) and got stuck! We couldn't believe it! There was 5-6 inches of solid snow covering our whole driveway. Luckily we had our muck boots (thanks Mike!), so we spent about 30 minutes shoveling a path for my car. David had the big snow shovel (thanks a ton Tripp!!!) and I had the regular shovel. :)

After unloading everything we just couldn't wait to set up our new TV (thanks Mom and Dad!), so we decided to wait to eat and get it set up! SO GREAT. We ordered a pizza and watched TV a good portion of the night.

It is bitterly cold up here and we opted to stay in on New Years Eve and cook dinner. It was so relaxing and we just hung around and enjoyed being off of work and school. The high tomorrow is 12 degrees, so we're really working hard to stay well yet again. We had a wonderful Christmas in Little Rock and North Carolina! Thanks everyone for a great break!

On the way back to KC, we stopped to say hello to Lauren and Parker! Look how big he has gotten! He is just over 2 months old now.

We had our work cut out for us on the driveway. We got a path cut though! I'm sure everyone driving by wondered why we had chosen to shovel our driveway in the dark 4 days after the snow came down!

Mom, Dad, Tripp...Sooie seems to really be enjoying the TV...as well as the Planet Earth DVD's. She especially likes the clear picture on the TV and seems to love watching the baby polar bears.