More Christmas Pictures!!

Thursday Thirteen

Thirteen Things about Lori 1. I am a teacher. I teach 3rd grade at an inner city school & normally LOVE my job, but this year is challenging me in that area!! 2. I am about to be 34 next month, but I sure don't feel like it!! So, we'll just say I'm 29 again! 3. I am a major critter lover! I have a dog & 2 cats at home (who don't realize they aren't human). At school, I have goldfish, a guinea pig, and a bunny. Oh, and a pond full of goldfish in the backyard! 4. I LOVE taking pictures and scrapbooking! On the last Friday of every month, a bunch of us girls gather at my house to scrap, eat, and girl talk! (yes, it's tomorrow!! yippee!) 5. I am an aunt to a beautiful niece, Autumn. Her pictures are on here often! 6. I am with family more than anyone else. I love hosting get-togethers!! 7. I found myself single again in my 30's after over 7 years of marriage. After taking time to adjust to it, I am now loving it! 8. I cannot survive without my computer or my cell phone!! 9. I volunteer with a local boxer rescue group. I have had boxers since I was a little girl ~ they are the best dogs! 10. I am currently working on my masters in library science to be an elementary school librarian! (That doesn't mean I'm quiet by any means!!) 11. I graduated with a bussiness degree from UofA in Fayetteville and have another bachelor's degree from UALR in elementary education. 12. I am SUPER organized & can't help it! It drives some of my friends crazy!! I got on a roll just last night after taking down Christmas decorations and re-organized some cabinets in the kitchen and 2 closets! It's a sickness! ha! 13. My favorite things are a really good dessert, being with those I love, laughing, camping, scrapbooking, and seeing my dog jump around so happy to see me even if I've only been gone 30 minutes!! Whew! It's gonna be hard to come up with 13 things about different stuff each week!!! :-) (leave your link in comments, I’ll add you here!) Get the Thursday Thirteen code here! The purpose of the meme is to get to know everyone who participates a little bit better every Thursday. Visiting fellow Thirteeners is encouraged! If you participate, leave the link to your Thirteen in others comments. It’s easy, and fun! Be sure to update your Thirteen with links that are left for you, as well! I will link to everyone who participates and leaves a link to their 13 things. Trackbacks, pings, comment links accepted! View More Thursday Thirteen Participants

Some Friends are more like Family!

Michelle & me
Me, Jacob (her young 'un) & Chloe (her oldest! ha!)

Michelle and I have been friends for as long as I can remember & were roommates in college. Her house is one of the very few places I can go and still feel like I'm at home. Her & her husband have been with me through many up's and down's. (I even have a picture of Chris counseling me through a break-up in college!ha!) I hold them all very close to my heart & consider them family!! They stopped by the day after Christmas on their way back home to NW Arkansas. We had to exchange Christmas presents!!! :-)

Speaking of Christmas presents, I had some serious gift certificates burning a hole in my pocket that I took care of today! LOVE gift certificates!! I had one to Kohl's (one of my fav stores!!), Wal-Mart, and Target!! FUN!! I got all kinds of goodies!! Scrapbook stuff, clothes, snowman plates and bowls (I collect 'em), movies, a new memory card for my camera that holds a ton more pictures ~ look out!! The next two days, I'm scrappin' with the girls!! Does the fun ever end? LOL!

Keep your eyes out for a new template soon! I am trying my best to work on one but I'm finding that I'm not as talented as my blog buddy Lindsay!! :-)

Christmas at Granny's!!

Travelin' Arkansas for the Holidays!

I'm finally back home & just about ready to snuggle up in my own bed!! I feel like I've been on the road for a week, but it has only been since Saturday morning. Got some good family time in and will start posting pictures from the past few days tomorrow!!

Saturday, I went to the exciting town of Piggott for Christmas at my Granny's! We had a good time & Santa dropped by for the young 'uns. I think the cutest thing was when Summer (my cousin's 2 1/2 year old) told Santa all she wanted for Christmas was "pencils and paper please!" She is just precious! Last year, all she wanted was an apple! ha! Anyway - Santa gave her a package to open & it had lots of paper and pens in it. She looked at those pens and snarled up and said, "These are pens!! I wanted pencils!" LOL! It was cute!!

The adults play dirty Santa and exchange gifts that way. Usually I am the only girl that will steal, but this year after I stole Kim's treasured Razorback watch, it set into motion a fun cycle of taking gifts! yay girls!! :-) I don't even have to feel bad (not that I did ~ ha) b/c Kim ended up actually getting the same Razorback watch I stole from her as a gift from one of her friends the very next day! So...see I did her a favor & we will both be cute at the next hog game!

After Granny's, I went to Rector (about 15 min. away) to visit Kevin and his family for Christmas. He is doing really well and is in a good frame of mind. His parents and him have mapped out a plan of AA meetings, bible study, and counseling that will help him to get to a place where he won't want to drink. We are all very hopeful that is on the path to a healthy, happy life. The desire is there ~ he just has alot to overcome. But, we all had fun playing games and talking and laughing. His parents are wonderful people and very easy to be with. We played a game called sequence that we played over Thanksgiving. Kevin's Mom beat us pretty badly over Thanksgiving, but we came back this time and won all but one hand!!! :-)

On Christmas Eve, I went to church with Kevin's family. The service was really beautiful. The youth group did a stick service performance. It was amazing!! I don't really know how to describe it - you would have to see it. Anyway - after church & lunch, I headed to my Mom and Dad's place (back in the car!!). We just hung out and got the house ready for Autumn & Bubby to come over today. Then, wham! Christmas morning! It sure was a cold, wet yucky day!! Autumn was,of course, the star of the day! She is a hoot! I hope one of the video's I took of her performing (singing & dancing) turned out. If so, I'll post this week!

Anyway - I'm tired from all the driving! But ready to spend all my gift certificates this week and take all my Christmas stuff down!! I know it is Christmas night & I'm already talking about taking it down, but I'm ready to have my regular stuff back out! ha!

Hope everyone had a safe and happy Christmas Day today! :-0)

Happy Holidays!!

Wishing a "purr"fect Christmas & a "howling" good year to all our friends and family! Love you all! Thanks for the prayers, calls, and emails!

PS. You will all be happy to know that even with the added stress this week, I didn't smoke!! That is HUGE for me b/c in times of stress, that is when I most want to smoke!

Be safe traveling everyone!! :-)

Life

I'm mainly making today's post so I won't have to re-tell it over and over ~ especially over the holidays! It is easier on me to hit everyone with one punch on this one & I know there will be mixed reactions. Trust me ~ I know everything you can & will or want to say. Here goes (with minimal details b/c some things should just stay "off the record"):

I am almost positive that all of you know that Kevin is a recovering alcoholic. He is very open about it, & it is not a secret. This is a disease that he will struggle with on a daily basis for the rest of his life. He has had a relapse in the past few days. As a result, we are no longer "seeing each other" because I strongly feel he needs to have all his focus on himself and overcoming the disease. I KNOW he can beat this b/c he is a good person with a big heart, AND he wants to win this battle!!

I will continue to support him as a friend. We have been friends since we were little kids, and I will not turn my back on a life-long friend. Some of you will agree with this & some will not. That is your right. All I ask is that you try not judge him. Instead say a daily prayer for him that he gets well so he can lead a healthy and happy life.

I ask for your understanding in that I don't want to really talk about this ~ I am taking it a day at a time. Don't worry about me - I've been here before unfortunately, and I will pick myself up and move on like I always find the strength to do.

Simba

I think I have given all my fur kids a good introduction ~ with the exception of Simba! (And he is the one who rules our world around here!!) This cat honestly thinks he is a dog first of all! He goes to the back door to get let out and back in ~ and he will tell you off big time if you don't do it in the timely manner he wants it done in! ha! He was big buddies with Rocky & I know he misses Rocky. He used to greet Rocky every morning by rubbing all over his face! :-)

Even people who don't normally like cats end up liking Simba ~ must be that he thinks he's a dog! ha! He even comes when you call him! But don't fall for the "I'm rolling over on my back so you can pet my belly" trick ~ that is when he attacks!! LOL! (only really he is just playing really rough!!)

Monday blues!

I have had a horrible day!! I'm not going to bore anyone with it ~ but wouldn't it be nice if money really did grow on trees??? I think everyone should get double on their December paychecks so no one has to worry about money around the holidays! :-)

In good news:
1. I had a high stress day and did not smoke! It has officially been one week!
2. I have two work days left until vacation starts!!!
3. I found out I made a 96% on my final!! That gives me an A in the class! yippee!! So far, I have a 4.0 in my masters program!!!
4. I do have lottery tickets for Wednesday night (hey ~ you can't win if you don't have tickets!!)

PS. Send sane thoughts my way from about 1:15 to 2:30 today (tues) that I survive the holiday party with the kiddo's at school! LOL!

BoxAR Fundraiser!

SANTA!!
Takin' a break...

Nice puppy!!
I've been very good this year Santa!

We have been at Petsmart all day for the fundraiser for BoxAR. Kevin did a great job and was most gracious about playing Santa for 5 hours!!! We made almost $200 for the rescue so we were pretty busy!! We even had one lady bring in her cat! It looked just like my Nala too! And...Santa only almost got bit twice! LOL! Both times I thought, "oh if he gets bit, he's gonna kill me for this!!" ha! Anyway...it was good practice for next weekend with the kiddos! :-)

Today's adventures...

Today me, Kevin, Tanner and Jax went geo caching! What is geo caching you ask? Exactly b/c I did not know this existed either!! Here's basically what it is:

Geocaching is an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.

Here's what I didn't like: I don't know ANYTHING about gps (global positioning system) or have any sense of direction (which way is north?), so I was lost the whole time!!! Tanner & Kevin were loving it and all pumped up, while Jax & I were basically wondering around like dumb and dumber! LOL!

Here's what I did like: I love the outdoors, and it was a gorgeous day! I love being out in the woods & exploring! And, I like doing things that you can just take the dog along!

For more pics from today, check out the slide show on Tanner's blog: http://dirtjumpert.blogspot.com

Dog Tired!

Is he spoiled or what!?! LOL! He tucks his pillows just the way he wants them! Funny!

We were both "dog tired" today & I played hookie from school. I just couldn't get up the energy for battle today! BUT, I did finish all Christmas shopping! (I only liked Dad and a little something for Kevin's mom.) But I am DONE!!! It is really worth it to take off and do it during the week - no crowds or rude people!! :-)

And, I still haven't smoked!!! yippee! Hope everyone has a relaxing weekend!!!

School Stories...

A funny one: I have a stool that sits at the front of the room that both myself and the kids use on a daily basis. I usually sit on it while they are reading aloud or sharing their writing pieces. Today, we wrote stories about traveling back in time. The last 5 minutes before lunch, we were ready to share some of the stories aloud. I sat on my stool to listen & KABOOM - it totally collapsed!!! I landed on my rear in the floor! LOL! My kids were shocked & actually checked to make sure I was ok before we all started laughing! ha!

Another funny: We write in journals weekly. Each week they write about whatever they want, and I write back to them. There is a boy in my class who has the biggest crush on one of the girls in the room. He wrote a whole journal about her last week. So, I replied, "What is it you like about her?" hee-hee! His response this week: "She is nice and pretty. But mostly because she is a hottie with a body!" Oh my! They start young! ha!

In frustrating school news: They are literally bouncing off the walls & I don't think the holiday break is going to get here fast enough to save us teachers!!! It's not just my room ~ it's school wide! (of course my class and one 5th grade room has the reputation as being the worst in the school ~ so multiply our troubles!!!) My class started a food fight in the cafeteria yesterday. Anyone surprised????

Carolin' @ the Capitol

Sadly, none of the pictures from today turned out very good! They were all dark, and when I lightened them on the computer, they just got a grainy look. But anyway - here we are caroling at the State Capitol today (yes I survived!!!). Their performance was AWESOME! Their behavior on the tour afterwards was not so much! ha! But again, I survived! It's over & I have 6 work days until vacation!! Almost there!

I don't want to jinx myself, but I am trying to quit smoking!! You all know my plan was to quit when school started this year ~ then I got this class from you know where & that plan kind of went out the window!!! Well ~ I hate smoking and all the yucky stuff that goes with it, so I'm really giving it a go! Since Saturday, I have only had one! I know I can do this b/c I quit before for 6 years!! If it weren't for the stress from that darn divorce, I'd still be a non-smoker! LOL! If I can make it a month, I'm laughing! :-)

Cute Puppy Alert!!!!!

Sandy's Christmas present
Isn't he just too cute??? Santa came early for Sandy today! ha! Her present to herself was this cute dachshund bishon mix! Can't you just smell the puppy breath? :-)

And, I am finished with my masters class!! Yippee! I actually think I did good on the final ~ pretty sure I nailed the essay questions. Now, we wait to see the grade! And, no classes until January! If only work were off for a month! ha!

Since my bloggin' buddies did so well today wishing me luck, wish it to me again tomorrow as I take my crazy class on a field trip!!!!!! YIKES!

Christmas Cards Past

Christmas 2005
Christmas 2004
Christmas 2003

I am having a big "I miss Rocky" moment & came to the computer to look at some pics of my old buddy. In the spirit of Christmas, I wanted to reshare these Christmas cards from the past three years. I still have a hard time with the fact that he wasn't here for this year's! It just isn't the same....Jax just truly hates making the Christmas cards ~ I'm sure you can see it all over his pitiful face! ha! But Rocky just ate up the attention & smiled for the camera!!

I have, however, been forgiven by the cats for my Christmas card stunt this year! LOL! And people wondered why they hadn't been in the picture in years past! Ha!

Wish me luck on my final Monday night for my master's class!! After tomorrow night, I will have 3 masters classes down! (No need to count how many to go!)

HO HO HO!

In breaking news: Kevin is going to dress up as Santa this year at my family's Christmas at Granny's! Every year someone from Granny's hometown dresses up as Santa and shows up to hand out the kid's gifts. (of course the older ones this year know it's not real) but we still have two little ones that are 4 and under who believe!! It's so cute!

Anyway - this year, they were short on volunteers & Kevin has been volunteered & accepted the job! Don't worry ~ there will be photos! ha!

And, in case anyone was wondering ~ I have 9 working days left until Christmas break!!!!!! :-)

Christmas Cheer

A few favorites of mine during the holiday season:

* Christmas cards ~ don't you just love checking the mail during the month of Christmas??!! It is the one time of year when there is something cheerful waiting in the mailbox instead of just those darn bills that pile up!! I especially love the ones with pictures, and you get to see how everyone's kids have changed and grown over the past year. I really enjoy it from those friends far away that you never or hardly get to see & their kids are just too cute! Jax even got a card today from his boxer buddies across the way!! :-)

* Christmas lights ~ Kevin & I drove around a bit tonight looking at lights. I love it! It's so pretty! Starbucks and Christmas lights ~ I might be up awhile! ha! Even Jax got to go this year!

* Spreading the cheer ~ every year I bake some goodies & wrap 'em up & drop 'em off at the neighbors doorsteps. (if they have pets, I get them some treats too) Then I ring the doorbell and run and hide. I giggle the whole time! LOL!

* Vacation ~ hello!! I am now 10 working days away from Holiday Break!! Can I get a yee-haw? LOL!

Teacher xmas poem

'Twas the Teacher's Night Before Christmas

'Twas the days before Christmas,
And all through the school,
The Teachers were trying
To just keep their cool.

The hallways were hung
With Christmas art
(some made in November
to get a head start!)

The children were bouncing
Off ceilings and walls,
And seemed to forget
How to walk in the halls.

When out of the teacher's lounge
With "holiday shirts"
And "jingle bell jewels,"
The teachers looked festive
Enforcing the rules.

Suddenly, from down the hallway
There came such a chatter,
The principal went in
To see what was the matter.

The teachers were hiding
And trying to refuel,
On coffee and cookies
And treats from the Yule.

When what to their wondering
Ears do they hear,
But the ringing of school bells
-It's the children they fear!

More rapid than reindeer
The little ones came,
And the teachers all shouted
And called them by name;

Walk, Vincent! Walk, Tanner!
Walk, Tyler and Sammy!
Sit, Jamie! Sit, Laura!
Sit, Tara and Tammy!

To your desks in the room!
To your spots in the line!
Now walk to them! Walk to them!
No running this time!

So straight to their places
The children all went.
With fear of detention
Where they could be sent.

With manuals of lessons
Cradled in arms,
The teachers began
To use all their charms.

But the lessons presented
All fell on deaf ears.
The children were thinking
Of Santa's reindeer!

With a toss of their hands
They put the manuals aside,
Went straight to the cupboards
Where videos hide.

And laying their finger
On the TV remote
They set back to write
Their last Christmas note.

But you could hear them exclaim
At the end of the day -
Have a wonderful, happy and
L-O-O-O-O-O-ONG HOLIDAY!

Some kind of hawk?

Look at this cool guy that flew over my backyard yesterday. He is gorgeous ~ although I'm not real sure what he is. I say he b/c he looks manly! :-)

I LOVE my camera b/c I just zoomed right in on him & I was standing on the deck at the backdoor, and he was at the back of my yard high in a tree. Zoom is great!

Weekend

Well - here we are late in the afternoon on Sunday & the weekend has slipped away once again! Why can't we work two days a week and be off 5? LOL! Maybe when I win that lottery!!!

The holiday season is definately in the air! My aunt hired Kevin to put up her Christmas lights ~ all the outside stuff. He had gone over there twice working on it & wanted to finish up Saturday before the game started. So, we headed over & finished that on Saturday. It was COLD!!! I did get some Shotgun Dan's pizza for helping though ~ my favorite pizza around here!! yum! We kept having troubles with blown fuses and would get half the lights working and the other half would go out! URGH! We finally got it all working and got the heck out of there before any went out! ha! She called this morning to say they looked good, but when we saw her name on caller id, we were almost scared to pick up! I just knew she was going to say that half the lights weren't working! LOL!

Anyway ~ we finished up the day with good pizza and football (which Kevin took the Razorback loss better than I expected). At least we made it to the championship game ~ right? What do I know? I'm just a girl!

Watched my second favorite Christmas movie last night (first one being The Christmas Story). We watched The Polar Express ~ Kevin had never seen it!!! Love it! Do you believe?

Only 13 working days until Christmas break!! Yee-haw!!!