Mountain Beauty

I finally found my favorite scenery pictures. They are near sunset coming out of Bishop on our way home from June Mountain. It was breathtaking!

Sequel Pic

I don't have any great photos of late so I've decided to share past ones. I'm looking for my absolute favorite and haven't been able to find it yet. However, these first two are from our one and only trip to Mount Shasta. It was literally white EVERYWHERE you looked! (This was after the storm cleared out.) When we first got on the mountain you couldn't see 3 feet in front of you. Great snow but one of the most difficult times I've ever had snowboarding until the storm blew out.




































Since everyone liked the last picture of my honeymoon pics so much, I thought I'd share a sequel. :) It's of Phil on the balcony.

Honeymoon Nostalgia

I just created a whole post and it didn't work...we'll try it again. These are some of my favorite pictures, they also happen to be from our honeymoon.
















On the way up to Whistler

















The hotspring on top of Blackcomb

















Phil on Whistler. Check out the break in the clouds.

















Christmas Eve. View from our hotel balcony. It was amazing!

I'm on a Roll Today...

1. Grab the book nearest you, turn to page 18, line 4? "...horse of the same color as Neighbor Dixon’s horse. Was it…” (Excerpt from Indian Captive, The Story of Mary Jemison. An interesting book about a young girl who was kidnapped and raised by Indians…true story)
2. Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What can you touch? The couch, pillows & my running shoes.
3. What's the last thing you watched on TV? TV? Don’t have it.
4. Without looking, what time is it? 8:05 pm
5. What time is it actually? 8:06 pm
6. Except for the computer what can you hear? My sweet husband clearing off the table, loading the dishwasher and starting it.
7. When did you last step outside and what were you doing? Walked home from school. Started that last week and I’m going to keep doing it!
8. Before you started this survey what were you doing? Eating dinner.
9. What are you wearing? Adidas shorts & a t-shirt.
10. Did you dream last night? Yes, I’ve been having interesting dreams, as in I liked them when I was dreaming them but I can’t remember what I dreamed.
11. When did you last laugh? Reading my aunt’s blog. However, I made a stupid noise when I laughed which Phil then teased me about for 5 minutes.
12. What's on the walls in the room you're in? Our engagement picture that’s frame was signed at our wedding, two colorful scenery pictures and two pictures Phil and I bought this summer. He broke the glass in one of them about 2 weeks after we bought it. He was swinging around his badge from work and it “swung off.” He didn’t even realize he had broken it until the next day when he saw glass on the couch. (I was out of town. Figures) It looks like a baseball hit the picture.
13. Seen anything weird? I work with kids…of course I see weird things! Now can I think of anything off the wall at the moment…of-course not.
14. What do you think of this quiz? It's different than most I have seen.
15. Last film or video seen? A ghetto movie I wouldn’t recommend.
16. If you became a multi-millionaire overnight what's the first thing you'd do? Move out of state where land is more plentiful & where I don’t live in a desert anymore. I would then take Phil and travel to Bangladesh to visit the land and people I love. Buy a house and probably get a professional decorator because I’m not very good at decorating. I’d then offer to buy places for my family and Phil’s family to move nearby. I would tithe to give back to the Lord what is rightfully His and then invest the rest.
17. Tell me something I don't know about yourself? I like to scrapbook but never do it!
18. If you could change one thing about the world regardless of politics what would it be? I wish people wouldn’t trash where they live. It frustrates me to see people break things, graphitti, litter and just disrespect their community. Our world would be such a better, cleaner place if EVERYONE took care of it!
19. Do you like to dance? Hehe…you’d laugh too if you saw me dance!
20. Your first child is a girl what do you name her? Amber Jade
21. Your first child is a boy what do you name him? Tiago (I know I know…it’s unusual. J So get over it. It’s Brazilian and we like it).
22. Would you ever consider living abroad? I would love to! If the Lord ever opens the doors, I’d leave in a heartbeat.
23. What do you want God to say to you when you reach the pearly gates? "Well, done good & faithful servant..."
24. Five people you want to do this quiz? I tag: Sarah K., Julie, Rachel O., & anyone else who wants to.

More Pics

For some reason, I couldn't get all my pics to load on the last blog so here's a few more.

















Phil & I at the Hard Rock Cafe

















CityWalk






















A cute picture of Kim

Bits & Pieces

The other night, I told Phil, "I need the computer so I can blog." He said, "You don't need it, you blog too much!" I did tell him that usually I was READING blogs rather than WRITING them but he still denied me the use of the computer. So, that's my excuse for not blogging about my first week of school until now. :)

Here's a pic that I took the other night when we went to Santa Monica after we got our new car. We had a nice time walking around and then ate at a crepe restaurant. Mmm. yummy. (Jealous mom?) Didn't take many pictures because Phil was non-photo-cooperative that night.

Last Saturday, Phil and I, along with Kim & Cam went to the Hard Rock Cafe at Citywalk to celebrate Courtney's birthday with her. Happy B-day Courtney! I thought some of the photos turned out pretty nice.
















The night-life at CityWalk





















A cute picture of Courtney & Kim


For those of you waiting for an update on my class, I can't say much but here it is. I definitely have a pretty diverse group of student ability wise. I have a wide-aray of students but I think this year will be a good one. I'm sure I will always compare my classes to last year's class because I had such a GREAT Year then. I definitely am getting back in the swing of things and already have TONS of paper piles in my classroom. I am SO NOT READY to grade papers again! :) Anyone want to come help? ;) There's just a lot of beginning of the year things to take care of. Class lists, charts, classroom jobs, assessments, teaching procedures (VERY SLOWLY!) Life goes on and I'm sure I'll have a great year with my students! ;)

Remember When...

...you had 3 months for summer?
...you wished school would start because you were bored with summer break?
...school started after Labor Day?

No longer. I start school tomorrow after only 8 short weeks off of school (1 1/2 of which I worked for my district on reading assessments!) I am definitely NOT bored yet and it's nowhere NEAR Labor Day!! I feel like this summer has literally flown by.

I've been working in the classroom everyday since last Thursday. Yesterday we were at meetings all day so I didn't get a whole lot done. This morning, I arrived at 7:45 and worked until 9:40 at night with just a lunch break and dinner break. I had A LOT to do. I'm definitely NOT a last minute kind of person, however this year it sure seemed like it. I finally finished my seating chart and lesson plans right before I left. I "think" I'm ready for tomorrow.

I'm getting excited but I'm definitely a little nervous as well. This is going to be a "depend upon the Lord" year for sure. (Although every year should be that!) I have 19 boys and 12 girls. Yikes!! Many of my students have special needs whether it be a learning disability, a medical issue etc. It'll be fun to work with another class and encourage them and help them meet their goals. Keep me in your prayers if you think about it. I'll try to post a little feedback this week as to how things go. Unfortunately, I can't really post pictures of the kids due to privacy issues. Well, gotta head for bed.

We had a little work done on our car...

Phil and I are very excited because this past weekend we had a little work done on his old Daewoo from college days. What do you think of the changes???




They did a pretty good job huh? ;) Our little old '99 Daewoo essentially morphed into a beautiful 2001 Audi A6 4.2 Quatro! Here are a few more pics.