A Day Off

Good morning!  Can you just wait a moment while I run to the kitchen and get my cup of coffee?  I turned the pot on about 20 minutes ago, but haven't gotten up yet to actually enjoy my morning beverage.  I'll be right back.

That's better.  I've got my favorite brew in hand - a homemade cup of Einstein's Hazelnut Coffee..... mmmmm delicious.  I've been drinking cup after cup of tea recentely (I have a nasty cough), but I just needed a cup of goodness this morning.

Today I have a day off. 

It's not like a day off, it is a day off. 

We worked parent-teacher conferences the last two nights, and since they can't pay us for it, we get the next day off.  Hence, no going to school for me today.  However, I apparently don't know how to take a day off.  I made my to-do list for this weekend, at least half of which I hope to accomplish today.... it includes grading all the work for my online class I got behind on when I was grading all the work for my IRL classes before PT conferences (I don't have any more abbreviations, or I'd throw them in just to be funny), grading workbooks, planning the next week of online curriculum and getting it uploaded, doing laundry and putting away the piles that are still out in the basket from last week, cleaning the living room, kitchen, dining room, birdcage, master bathroom, master bedroom, guestroom (and, in all that cleaning, hoping to freshen up the house from the "dog" smell we have now), walk the dog and walk the horse. 

But I'm also drinking my favorite coffee, wearing my favorite sweatpants.  And later, I'm going to spend the evening with some of my favorite friends at small group.  And walking the dog and horse (not simultaneously, of course), is fun for me and fun for them.  And I hope to see my parents and sister sometime this weekend.

And having the chance to stay home instead of go into work truly makes it, regardless of what I am doing here, a day off.

Love it.

Here are a few pictures I'm dying to show you!

A double rainbow (the top is very faint) we saw on our drive to Wyoming to see Husband's family.

The first leg of Grandma Harriett's retirement / birthday party - she's the one dressed like a prisoner.  The theme of the party was her parole, as she retired from working at the Wyoming State Penn.  It was quite a fun night - after this stage, the party continued with close family friends and their kids and kids' friends (all now in their 20s) talking, laughing, singing (oh yes, singing), and more.



Here's a picture of our little snuggle bug - she seriously loves to cuddle, although she still wants to play a lot of the time!  We decided to name her Ginger, but call her Ginny for short.

And I'm in love with fall (although it's a little warm again today) and wrote a post about it here, but wanted to show you my mantle.  I love it.  It's a little busy, I know, but it's beautiful to me.

Happy Friday!  May your day be like a day off, too.

Fall Has Arrived

I love fall.

Don't get me wrong - I also love summer, winter, and spring.  Each season claims something incredibly wonderful - winter brings snow days and Christmas and hot chocolate, spring brings flowers and newness and color, summer brings sunshine and outdoors and vacation. 

But fall, oh, I love fall.

Fall brings beautiful colors. 

When I first moved here, I missed the vibrant reds and oranges and yellows found in the fall colors of the East Coast.  I've learned that there is almost nothing more beautiful than a sea of dark evergreen and golden yellow as the aspen groves mingle among the pine trees.  And scrub oaks, while ordinarily nothing special, turn a brilliant red for a pop of sensational color every so often.

Fall brings crisper weather.

I do love sunshine and outdoors and summer fun, but after months of being hot, I love to put on a pair of jeans and a sweater.  To go outdoors and feel my cheeks get a little pink from the cold.  To go outside and watch a football game without being hot or cold, but just perfect.  And since this is truly the land of sunshine (sorry Florida, you're not really the sunshine state), crispness is usually accompanied by the sunshine, and it's lovely.

Fall brings muddy dirt roads and much needed moisture.

After a dry, almost rainless summer, you know fall has finally arrived when the clouds roll in one day, the fog is heavy, and finally, finally, the dusty roads out at my parents' house are no longer dusty, but even a little muddy.  When the grass has droplets of water and the air smells like rain. 

Fall brings special occasions.

Fall starts a series of my favorite occasions - college football games with family, high school football games where Husband and I cheer on the kids I spend so much time with.  My birthday comes towards the end of October - and while I'm not a huge birthday person, I still love celebrating the possibilities of what the next year may hold.  Thanksgiving, a family favorite, with good food, the Christmas tree, and the first watching of A Muppet Christmas Carol.  The holiday season, with decorations everywhere, goodwill towards others, time with friends and family, a respite from work, a chance to celebrate the best Gift ever.  And, of course, the arrival of the Gingerbread Latte, my personal gift from God.  (Seriously, if you know me at all, a Gingerbread Latte makes everything better.)

I love Fall.

And it has finally arrived. 

Stephanie's Ponytail

Have you ever read this story?

I hadn't, but my little sister read it to me the other day.  When I say little, I mean younger.  She's 22 years old and doing her student teaching this year.  She's just finished up a rotation in first grade, and it's been a really good experience for her, I think.

See, Sister went into this year pretty much freaking out about whether or not she was going to be able to be a teacher.  She wasn't sure she was grown up enough, or if she was brave enough, or if she could balance classroom management and good interaction with kids.  We of course, knew she could, but she needed to know herself.

So on Sunday I was at her house hanging out with her and saw "Stephanie's Ponytail" on the floor.  As it was a children's book I'd never read, I asked her if I could look at it.  Her response, "No..... But I'll read it to you!"  And so she took the book, sat on the floor "criss cross apple sauce" style (umm.... Indian style, from my days of elementary school) and read me the story.

And she was fantastic.  As she read it, she interjected little anecdotes about what had happened as she'd actually read it to the group of 1st graders - where they had laughed hysterically, when they clued in to the repetition of some of the lines and started saying them with her.  At one point, when even all the little boys in the story had ponytails "coming right out the top" of their heads, her little Haitian boy Djimmy grabbed the top of his head and said, "But I have no hair!" 

My point is this.  My sister is awesome, and, despite her own misgivings, is clearly going to be an incredible teacher.  Here's to you, future elementary-school teacher of the year.  You're the bestest.

Sister giving the best toast ever at our wedding a few years ago - already proving that she does a great job in front of a group of people.

What's in a Name?

Apparently, quite a bit of thinking, debating, discarding.......

Meet the newest member of our family.  We just got her yesterday from the Humane Society, and are already quite in love with her.  She's a 7 month-ish old pitbull-beagle (peagle?!), super sweet, calm, and has already interacted with about 30 of my high school kids since we're in Homecoming week and we had to set up for our Luau last night.  (Then she went home with Husband before all the hundreds of students showed up.)

Anyway, we're struggling to find her name.  We've rejected bazillions.  Okay, that was a slight exagerration, but at least a dozen have been thought of and discarded.

Who do you think she looks like?

Today I'm linking up with Emily and others at Chatting at the Sky, for Tuesdays Unwrapped.  I'm celebrating the cutest little peagle in the world, who is currently asleep at home, waiting for me to get there and take her for a walk at lunchtime.

Picture This: Coffee Company 9/24

Picture this:

Who: 20 - 30 high school boys and girls, myself, and Husband

When: Tonight and Tomorrow

What: sleeping over in the school, playing Sardines, having a dance party, cooking breakfast, and working on pre-Homecoming decoration stuff. 

That's right, StuCo is having a lock-in tonight.  We'll get together here tonight, play a bunch of fun games, be silly, and eventually, go to sleep (boys in one room with Husband, girls in the other with me).  Tomorrow morning we'll get up and cook breakfast: pancakes, bacon, cereal, and fruit are on the menu.  Once we've cleaned up, we'll head to the cafeteria where we'll start painting, building, and doing other preparation tasks for next week's Homecoming Dance.  The more we do tomorrow, the less we do next Saturday, when we're here again (minus the sleepover).

Wish us luck!  (Especially Husband - this is his first lock -in. :)

And, for those of you who had trouble "picturing this," I will try to get some real pictures today and tomorrow and share them with you all next week!

Coffee Company 9/17

Hi Company Girls!

I was thinking of writing a new post for today, but I decided I really just wanted you to read what I wrote yesterday.  Last time I wrote about all the plates I have spinning, and was relatively stressed.  The last few weeks I haven't had time to blog, but came to a realization yesterday, and want you to hear about it.

"I haven't much time to blog these days, it seems, even though blogging is quite therapeutic and, often, gives me perspective. It opens my eyes to my life, to the world, to God. It even often brings me clarity and furthers my relationship with the One.


Yet, just like my paper-and-pen journal, my blog-well dries up in times of busyness or avoidance or stress....."

Click here for the rest of the story, and to see a gorgeous photo that Husband took.

The Ink-Well

I haven't much time to blog these days, it seems, even though blogging is quite therapeutic and, often, gives me perspective.  It opens my eyes to my life, to the world, to God.  It even often brings me clarity and furthers my relationship with the One.

Yet, just like my paper-and-pen journal, my blog-well dries up in times of busyness or avoidance or stress.  I've been doing a really neat challenge with my friend Carly, called 24-in-24, where several women are striving to spend an hour a day with our Lord for 24 days.  I knew that an hour a day wasn't going to happen, but as she wrote us the other day, it's our heart and our pursuit that matters.  "God isn't concerned with our perfection as much as our pursuit," she said.  And so I have, although not nearly for an hour, been spending time with Him, reading, praying, writing, for some time each day.  Yet I find that I'm a little stiffled, dry, and, to be honest, not connected like I'm hoping to be. 

I have always known that when my figurative ink-well is dry, often so is my spirit.  It runs low because of stress, or busyness, or disappointment, or hardship.  Yet I am convinced that, if I push through the dryness, with the help of my Maker and of my people, the other side will be quite beautiful.  And so, I'm back to blog, although I don't really have the time, nor anything much worth writing about, nor anyone who really reads me. 

I'm back to blog (as I continue my efforts to do 24-in-24 in my journal and here), because I know that the dryness will not continue as I continue my pursuit of the One.

And when the dryness is gone, this is what will be found.

Photo taken by Husband in Rocky Mountain National Park