Let go of...

This week I saw an article on the internet with 20 things to let go of for the new year. I'm not a resolution maker but I liked these 20 things. Even letting go of one or two of these things could be the beginning of something better. Just thought I'd share...

1. Let go of all thoughts that don't make you feel empowered and strong.

2. Let go of feeling guilty for doing what you truly want to do.

3. Let go of the fear of the unknown; take one small step and watch the path reveal itself.

4. Let go of regrets; at one point in your life, that “whatever” was exactly what you wanted.

5. Let go of worrying; worrying is like praying for what you don’t want.

6. Let go of blaming anyone for anything; be accountable for your own life. If you don’t like something, you have two choices, accept it or change it.

7. Let go of thinking you are damaged; you matter, and the world needs you just as you are.

8. Let go of thinking your dreams are not important; always follow your heart.

9. Let go of being the “go-to person” for everyone, all the time; stop blowing yourself off and take care of yourself first … because you matter.

10. Let go of thinking everyone else is happier, more successful or better off than you. You are right where you need to be. Your journey is unfolding perfectly for you.

11. Let go of thinking there's a right and wrong way to do things or to see the world. Enjoy the contrast and celebrate the diversity and richness of life.

12. Let go of cheating on your future with your past. It’s time to move on and tell a new story.

13. Let go of thinking you are not where you should be. You are right where you need to be to get to where you want to go, so start asking yourself where you want to go.

14. Let go of anger toward ex's and family. We all deserve happiness and love; just because it is over doesn’t mean the love was wrong.

15. Let go of the need to do more and be more; for today, you've done the best you can, and that's enough.

16. Let go of thinking you have to know how to make it happen; we learn the way on the way.

17. Let go of your money woes — make a plan to pay off debt and focus on your abundance.

18. Let go of trying to save or change people. Everyone has her own path, and the best thing you can do is work on yourself and stop focusing on others.

19. Let go of trying to fit in and be accepted by everyone. Your uniqueness is what makes you outstanding.

20. Let go of self-hate. You are not the shape of your body or the number on the scale. Who you are matters, and the world needs you as you are.

Secret Santa Week!!

It's secret Santa week at my school. The entire school put in names and 4 days worth of "wants" - we have a treat day, school supply day, Christmas ornament day, and home item day. I randomly ended up drawing the name of one of the teachers on my team. Getting her name made me more excited. So, I got everything together and got wrapping.

Day 1 on the right and day 2 on the left.

Day 3 on the left and day 4 on the right.

I tend to go a *little* overboard with wrapping and ribbon.

I liked the way everything turned out and loved the fact that my coworker wouldn't open her secret gift today because it was "too pretty" and she wanted her sister and husband to see it. Ha ha! I'm glad the fun wrapping makes her feel extra loved!

P.S. I felt loved too! My secret Santa gave me M&M's, a Christmas pen, and a candle today. School supplies tomorrow. Woohoo!

School's cancelled...

We had a big ice storm come through our part of the state last week. The school I teach at was closed Friday, Monday and Tuesday. Ken's college was closed too. We got storms of rain and sleet which hit the ground and froze solid. The roads were closed and people stayed in, except for the people who ventured out and we ended up seeing them on the news. Ha ha!

We went and chipped on the driveway one afternoon to decide if we wanted to get out of the house for a few minutes. 

 

After looking at Ken's iced over car,

and the driveway of solid ice, we decided we weren't going anywhere.

Our neighbor's fountain was frozen. It was cold!

This is a view from our front porch. It really looked like nothing more than a dusting of snow.

However, everything was a solid slick sheet of ice.

I was SUPER lazy the entire time. But I did manage to get our Christmas cards ready to be mailed out.

Merry Christmas from us!

On a side note... Ken trapped a lizard in the house this week. It gave me the shivers. We nicely coaxed the little reptile right on out the front door into the frozen world.

I enjoyed my lazy days hanging out with Ken. I got some much needed sleep, but I'm not looking forward to making up those school days in June. Sigh.

Home for Thanksgiving...

Due to Tank being 14 years old (I can't believe my little mutt is THAT old) I refuse to fly him. He doesn't see or hear very well and he has been known to put himself into a complete panic attack - no joke. We have sedatives for him but I just couldn't bare to be sitting in the airplane knowing that he's either below me in the loud, dark cargo area or trapped in a tiny cage shoved under my seat where he cannot be taken out. It'd freak him out... and me too. For that reason, we drive. Day one we drive to Albuquerque and spend the night. Day two we drive into Utah. It's a long, long drive. It's a good thing Ken and I are good traveling companions.

Tank was king of the car. He was a perfect puppy and was happy to just cuddle up, be held, and enjoy the ride.

We didn't know how eventful our drive would be. We got stuck in a pretty bad snowstorm that went from Texas, to New Mexico, and Colorado. The more we drove, the more the storm kept up with us.

Yep. This is Texas.

 

New Mexico.

And this is driving into Utah. We took the new car and discovered that it was fine, but definitely doesn't have tires for snow and ice. We drove a lot of the first day pretty slowly. I have never seen so many traffic accidents in my life! A lot of them were semi-trucks that had rolled and wrecked. We saw a lot of slide offs and fender benders. The more we saw, the slower we drove. We were glad we were kept safe.

Tank was clueless about the weather. He was just happy to be with his people.

We went to my brother Brian's house on Monday. My mom and dad came with us. Taking my dad places is getting to be a bigger deal these days. His Parkinson's is getting worse and he isn't very stable. He shuffles rather than walks, and has no energy to really walk anywhere. The cane is a new addition since we moved to Texas. It was hard to see - the changes in him in the last 4 months.

Ahhh... it was so good to see the mountains again! I have missed my mountains!!

Home wouldn't be home without going to Gardner Village - all decorated for Christmas!

I was so happy to see the work being done on my parent's house. They're adding onto the exterior and remodeling the interior to accommodate my dad's declining health - they're fighting it the best way they can!

They're making their bedroom larger for wheelchairs and adding on a hospital bathroom. They're also moving the laundry room upstairs, making all of the hallways and doorways wide (for a wheelchair), moving closets, etc. They're basically making it their own personal rest home/ care center and I couldn't be happier!! It's the home they brought me home from the hospital to and the home I hope they stay in until the day they take their last breaths. I'm glad they're modifying it for them - isn't that what makes it home? That makes it even more special to me. All of my childhood was at that home!

My contributions to the Thanksgiving dinner... one of the turkeys (it's uncooked here in case you're wondering why it looks so gross)

and my infamous green bean casserole - which is really 2 pounds of mushrooms, 2 large cans of french fried onions, and 1 can of green beans. Ha ha! Don't worry. My whole family mocks it but they all love it!

My dad wasn't having a very good day on Thanksgiving. He did eat at the dinner table with us but then spent the rest of the day in his chair. I like the head to toe blue plaid. It's fun!

We had to leave Utah much too soon. Ken had classes/finals and I have a small commitment called teaching. It wasn't very hard to leave because I knew we'd be back in less than a month.

You want to know the worst thing about long drives? When two semi-trucks sit side by side on the road both going about the same speed. You're stuck.

Welcome to Texas.

Tank was one happy sleeping camper. See that tongue? Weird.

I'm excited to be sleeping in Albuquerque again one week from tonight - it means we're heading home!! This time we get to stay even longer. Best Christmas present ever!!

Dear Kid,

There is nothing on earth more important to me than my family. It's in my genes. Your grandma and grandpa Chidester raised me that way and I know that your grandma and grandpa Adams feel the same way. Hopefully that is something that will run through your veins as well. Just so you know, Grandpa Chidester hasn't always been sick, but even superheroes get a little under the weather. He still has super powers, though. The love that he shows to his wife, kids and their spouses, and grandkids is by far the most powerful thing about him. And having lived with it firsthand I can tell you that it is super! Just know that without your family you won't get very far in life. God put us into families for a reason. They successfully get us through this life and help us return to Him. It's the plan. I am who I am because of my parents, and hopefully that's a good thing. Always love your family, always. 

Love,

Mom

Ft. Worth Stockyards Field Trip...

The week before Thanksgiving break our third grade classes went on a field trip to the Historic Fort Worth Stockyards. I was a 'little' bit excited to go myself. The kids had fun but got tired quickly. We did a lot of walking and listening.

There is a museum there that has 75+ different types of transportation from years ago. The kids thought that was pretty neat. All of the wagons, except for one, had been restored. We've come a long way in travel since then.

Here are some of my cute students listening to the tour guide (in pink) talk about Civil War uniforms, soldiers, weapons, and ammunition. 

There were aisles and aisles of these displays - all tributes to world famous cowboys.

We got to learn about branding, cowboy life, and steer roping.

There was the afternoon cattle drive through the streets. Those horns on those steer are huge!

The highlight for the kids was this maze. They asked about it all day. They loved it!

Here are two of my students trying to figure out where to go next.

They had the area decorated for Christmas. This was the most fake tree I've ever seen in my life but it was still fun.

Part of the walking tour took us to the indoor coliseum that still holds Friday and Saturday rodeos.

Here is part of the indoor rodeo grounds. It was built in the early 1900's. 

This is one of my students with the tour guide. My kids LOVED being so close to the horses, goats, and even camels. 

It was a fun field trip, although the weather was gray and chilly. I would love to go back again with Ken and walk through the shops and some of the other sites. I had no idea that all of that went on right in the city of Fort Worth!

Ice isn't nice...

Well, today has been a good-for-nothing day. Wednesday we had temperatures in the 80's but it all changed overnight. There has been a huge ice storm come through the area. Most school districts, including mine, cancelled school today. The university that Ken attends also closed until Monday. I'm grateful because I really didn't want either of us to be driving in it.

This is a picture of my car's rear window on Thursday after school. It might look like water but it was solid, thick ice. Who took their snow scraper out of their car? This girl. Good thing another teacher was scraping off her windows as I was leaving. I borrowed hers.

This is one of the hedges at the house. Solid ice!

Poor Tank is not liking this. He slides all over.

It's breezy and cold and miserable outside.

We huddled together the potted bushes we have and covered them up. Hopefully it will keep them from freezing.

Here's a picture of the patio floor. Nothing but slick ice.

 Ken stood on the front steps. The sleet had frozen solid a good 4-5 inches. He stood right on it and didn't even put a dent into it.

We talked about maybe venturing out tonight to grab something to eat and get out of the house for a little bit. After actually going outside, we quickly decided that was a BAD idea. So, we're stuck inside with the fireplace lit and planning on making gingerbread later. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night! We'll be warm, cozy, and guaranteed to not be involved in any traffic accidents!