Back to School

I 've already worked a couple of hours in my classroom (sick, I know). Hey, school starts in a week and a half! I put up cute yellow "curtains" that were once flat sheets. I'm still waiting on my new computer, but have the other two set up under my WebTV. Not much else has changed--some rearranging of shelves & things.

Harry Potter

I finished the book last night. I've discussed some opinions with Kim, my sister-in-law, about the outcome. I promise I won't give anything away. I did like the book, but have some strong feelings about the ending. Jon wanted to know how many more movies until they caught up with this book--avid reader, that boy.

My baby needs a bigger bed. This pillow is acutally the size of half of a couch--it's one of the back cushions that was replaced when it started coming undone after a month. I think he'd be happy with a twin mattress.

Grace

Yes, since we don't have any human kids of our own, we are forced to post pictures of our friends' kids. This is Grace Beckham, and she is a DOLL. Plus, she likes us, which is always nice. She loves watching our fish, and looks at the dogs through the sliding door in our bedroom--kind of like a zoo.

Ebay

This is what 244 regular beanie babies and 43 teenie beanies look like when they're packaged to be sold on ebay. Yes, that's what I've been doing instead of blogging.

Yesterday I repainted our shelves so that I could hang them in the dining room. When they were on the living room wall, you couldn't tell that the "dark green" was lighter, but in the dining room, it was gross. Anyway, I've been fiddling with the stuff on them, trying to get it to look right--not too cluttered, not to empty. I'm sure I'll mess with things a bit more, and Jon's sure to change a few things as well. Eventually we'll get a screen for our new TV and we'll probably have to build new shelves for in there.

Slumber party

On Friday night I had seven middle school girls spend the night here. Actually, six of them were with me from noon on, having helped out at VBS. It was considerate of them to not make their moms drive back and forth, but did make for a long afternoon. The "slumber" party was pretty fun--played board games, video games, ate pizza, watched movie, had makeovers & fake nails (not me, though--don't be silly), made brownies AND cookies at midnight, etc, etc. All the makings of a great time. There were enough girls that most of these events occured at the same time--some would play a game while others watched a movie. Luckily, they weren't co-dependent (Chris, come and do this with us). I went to bed around 2:30am, checking on them at 4 and 6:15. Some of them slept, most of them didn't. You could tell the sleepers by the lipstick writing or cat whiskers on their faces. Oh, and you can tell by the pictures that the dogs LOVED all of the attention. I think they're finally coming out of their depression now.

One of my middle school girls--Megan--has been coming over at about 7:15 each morning so that she can help me with VBS (her mom then goes to work). This morning, her cousin, Austin, came too. For those of you that know, he's the one who was in my summer school class--talk about a conflict of interest! Anyhow, they're both in middle school group, and Kronk pretty much beat both of them up today.

While I was typing the peanut butter post, Kronk came and sat next to me on our exercise thingie (official title).

Dogs and Peanut Butter

We like to put some peanut butter in some dog toys called "kongs," and we just heard the greatest tip with this. We filled them with peanut butter and put them in the freezer--entertains them for hours now, rather than minutes. Anyway, we used up the peanut butter that we had, and in a rare moment, we gave the dogs the peanut butter jar (they're normally not allowed any people food, except in the kong). Once they made it as far as their little tongues could go, we held it for Kronk--look at how long his tongue is!!! It's borderline gross.

Ebay

I know, I know, I'm posting a lot of thoughts lately rather than pictures, but face it, who wants a picture of my dentist? Anyhow, Jon's been selling things on Ebay recently, and making a profit. It started with his old surround sound speakers--a requirement for buying new ones. Then he's been buying some bulk items (computer cables, DVDs, video games) and selling them individually. Now we're going through and selling some of our old DVDs and VHS tapes. Can I just point out that the weirdest things sell? I mean, I realize that people have different movie tastes and all, but there are some very strange bidders out there. Movies I thought we'd sell for the $.99 we started with are actually making a couple of bucks. Random.

Hurricanes

Several people are concerned about our welfare, what with Dennis knocking out plenty of things. But don't worry. We haven't even received a drop of rain on our thirsty lawns. We are in the very upper left hand corner of Louisiana--17 miles from Texas, 30 from Arkansas. A storm would have to hit east Texas in order to affect us, especially since once they hit land, they tend to head northeast.

Oh, and another note about the dentist--I've never had them floss for me before. I wanted to remind her that most people floss right before they come (for some, it's the only time they floss). Oh well.

Jon has to take a test today. The NSI (don't ask me what these acronyms mean--they're just very important) is here, and I think they're people who make sure that the AF is doing what they're supposed to with the things that they have--bombs and stuff. They chose 2 people from Jon's shop to take a test, and he was one of them. It's kind of like a compliment in disguise--they knew he'd do well, so they chose him.

Dentist

I feel I should update on my dentist visit. I got x-rays, the hygenist cleaned my teeth, and when the dentist was checking my teeth, he asked, "Have you ever had any cavities?" I told him I hadn't and he said, "I hate you." Anyhow, he was very impressed with my chompers, and was pretty funny, which put me at ease. No horrible torture tools coming near this mouth!

Middle School Group

Yesterday, we had NINETEEN students in Sunday School. That is by far a record. We could also name at least 4 that weren't there. It was so amazing. This was our first Sunday in the new room--the kids were so excited, especially the ones that weren't there on Wednesday.

On another note, VBS started today. I'm doing games, which sounds fun--until you go outside. I think I sweated off 10 pounds. Well, I wish. Anyway, of course I had about 6 middle schoolers show up who wanted to help me, which is sometimes nice, and sometimes too many. And why is it that they always seem to get into trouble--eat snacks that they're not supposed to, or go into areas that they shouldn't? Argh.

I have to go to the dentist today. It's not my favorite thing. I guess I don't hate it--cleanings & x-rays aren't bad--but it's the fear of something more. I assume I'd notice if I had a cavity, so I'm not anticipating anything like that, but the idea of a shot in my mouth, or anything beyond that, like a root canal or something, terrifies me. Literally. They'd probably have to gas me or put me under or something. Needless to say, it's time to go brush, floss, & get ready to go.

Look at my cute baby! So, if you haven't guessed, since we don't have kids, we have to dote on, and post tons of pictures of, our dogs. Namely Kronk. Not to play favorites. He's just funnier. And my favorite.

On Saturdays we let the dogs up on the bed in the morning, since that's the day we wash the sheets. Usually they know when it's Saturday and come up on their own--probably because it's light outside and we're still in bed. Anyway, as you can see, Kronk doesn't leave much room for anyone else. Smalls is toward the head of the bed, and Deeds usually bails early.

We had 8 for our first meeting--I was pretty impressed. We did games & worship with the high schoolers, and split off for the Bible study part. When I asked if they wanted to change anything--we could do our own games & worship--they said they loved all of it. The girls on the right asked their mom every hour (apparently) if it was time to go to youth group yet. So cute!

This is the back of the main room. On the right is the sound booth. You can also see the brick that Jon & I put up in this room as well.

Our friend James Ernandes created this mural using spray paint--nothing fancy, just regular spray paint. Amazing. He lives down the street from us, and is related to the Geists, for those that know them.

This is the stage in the main room. Our youth group is called "Remix".

Inside view of the snack bar. For those of you that build things, you will appreciate the craftsmanship--we sunk the particle board shelves in so that the "legs" of the counter are all solid, and the shelves are flush with their braces. I don't really know how to explain it, but it took us about 4 Sundays and 5 weekdays after work to build it.

A close-up of the snack bar that we built.

Another shot of the game room. We have mini pool, foosball, air hockey & ping pong. The wall on the left (that you can't see) had a fake brick facing on it that Jon & I put up.

We had our very first middle school midweek meeting last night. Up until now, we'd only met on Sunday mornings. The high schoolers met on Wednesday nights, and middle schoolers were welcome, but not many ever came. Since our church moved to this new building, our middle school group had boomed--16 being our record on a Sunday morning. Several of us help build this awesome youth hangout over the past 3 months, and this was the big reveal--no youth had been allowed in until then. This is the game room--Jon and I put up the long counter, and built the snack bar (covered in corrugated tin).

Side view of my class--again, now I have a white board over the left half of it.

The front of my classroom this past year. Granted, it looks different now, since I have a WebTV and huge stand.

Same with this picture--can't find a before. It's on a CD somewhere. Imagine brown paneling EVERYWHERE, ugly huge brown ceiling fans, no recessed lighting, and strofoam tiles on the ceiling rather than the plaster.

I'll have to track down a "before" picture, but imagine light blue tiled floor with gross brown carpet over half of it, and nasty flowered wallpaper.

Kitchen afterwards. You can tell I'd been watching too much home improvement TV by the stripes.

Before picture of the kitchen--I had peeled blue flowered wallpaper off of where the dark yellow is. Note the lovely curtains.

Here's an after picture--it went from baby blue to light gray, dark gray & white. Jon even bought me some cute gerbera daisies for Valentine's day to put in the windows.

And now, to bore you with house stuff! Here's a before shot of the house (and my cute Mini Cooper--sigh).

We rented a scooter and rode around the island of Grand Cayman, including a brief visit to Hell. The city.

Nice pirate ship in the background.

My goofy husband, ready to go to Grand Cayman.

A gorgeous view of Puerto Maya from the top of our ship.

In December, Jon and I went on our belated honeymoon (hey, what's a year and a half?). We went on a 7-day cruise in the Western Caribbean, stopping in Belize, Puerto Maya, Grand Cayman, and Cozumel. It was AMAZING. I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I highly recommend cruises, and if you need to stay here and leave out of Galveston like we did, we'll give you a ride.

Acquiring Kronk led us to trade in the Mini Cooper for a car that would actually haul us and our "family" of dogs. I admit, I cried at trading in the Mini. If any of you ever find one that you'd like to give me, let me know. But, I now love the Pathfinder. We went camping, we take the dogs to the lake, we can haul something larger than a watermelon (the Mini was horribly impractical). Plus, working with the youth group, we kind of needed a car that we could drive kids around in. This seats 7, so it's perfect.

In December, we got Kronk. He is named after the big dumb bodyguard in the movie, "The Emperor's New Groove." This movie is probably one of our favorites. I won't assault you with weekly photos of his growth, but it's been insane. He's currently 8 months old and weighs in at about 110. We didn't originally play to add another dog to our family, but he was the cutest dog I'd ever seen in my entire life, and let's face it, he stole our hearts. Having a Great Dane has been an experience--as you've seen by some of my first pictures--but I think I'm truly addicted to them. They are huge, lazy, lovey dogs. Smart, too. He impressed the vet by sitting & lying down on command when he had to get his stitches out from his 6-month surgery (hernia, and, uh, other things he doesn't like to talk about).

This is Smalls, my dog. She's named after the kid in the movie, "The Sandlot," because most of the time you want to say, "You're killing me, Smalls!" You'll notice that we are movie nerds as you get to know our pets.

This is Deeds, Jon's dog. He was named after the movie, "Mr. Deeds," and Emilio is just too hard to say for a dog's name. ( If you haven't seen the movie, Emilio is the hilarious butler who is very "sneaky, sneaky," as is Deeds.)

For some reason I have to have this posted in order to have the picture next to our bio. Weird.

Flowers Jon sent me at school for our second anniversary.

Poor puppy, getting a bath. You'd think it was some form of cruel torture.