Things on my mind...

Blogs aren't cool anymore, 

just so you know.

The world blogging phase is over.

 A lot of my friends no longer blog.

I miss reading their updates.

I'm sure a lot no longer read my blog.

I'm fine with it.

Here are a few random things from my world...

I was super excited that our school counselor scored a ton of free prizes from a store that was going out of business. She made several pleas for the faculty to come and raid her supply. I went down a few weeks ago to see what she had and she had a bunch of stuff. I was super excited to get an entire bin full of toys and prizes to give to my class as rewards and class store things. It was seriously like Christmas in my classroom. I've got them all put away and take them out as I need them. I'm going to make them last.

We did a bunch of testing last week - too much testing. One of the rules is that the student have to stay in their seats during the timed 2 hour test. Without trying to be distracting, I snapped this photo of one of my students. He super cute but reminds me of Pigpen from the Peanuts comics a little bit. We had only been testing about fifteen minutes when I noticed his collection of books and Kleenex on the floor - you should have seen it after 2 hours! I finally went and put a box of Kleenex on one side of him and a garbage can on the other side. I won't be walking on that carpet without shoes any time soon. 

Ken and I went to an organ recital last night for a girl who goes to school with him. I snapped a quick picture of the inside of the concert hall. It was really pretty. I hadn't been inside of that building yet.

We pay an older lady in our neighborhood to help us take care of Tank in the afternoons while we're both gone. She comes and lets him outside and takes him for walks. I hate the extra expense of having to pay her, but I love the fact that I don't worry about Tank. Sometimes Tank goes on little field trips to her house. She always sends me pictures of him like the one below - Tank's snoozing on her couch. Sometimes I wish that I could text Tank during the day to chat with him and see what he's up to. Dumb thought, I know. But I think about it sometimes.

I'm super duper excited to go to Utah for Thanksgiving! We're leaving this weekend and will be gone for a week. I'm very much looking forward to going to my former school to eat lunch and visit with all of my favorite teachers. I really miss them! I'm a little scared that I won't want to get in the car to return to Texas.

I'm trying to find a balance of settling into Texas but it's hard. I feel like I should be in Utah for so many reasons. I feel like I should be teaching at my old school. My heart is there. My students here in Texas are a blessing in my life but I ache to be back to my life in the Beehive State. I feel like I should be with my family, helping my parents. My dad's not doing well and my mom is giving 150% to keep him going and it's dragging her down. I feel like I'm giving the least (due to proximity) to the people who matter the most to me.

We all have 'those kinds' of days. Someone asks how you are and the standard response is 'fine'. Why do we all just answer 'fine'? Why not say what we really feel?

Q: How are you?

A: I'm trying to hold it together.

I have a lot on my mind.

Some days I'm pretty happy.

Some days I fake it pretty well.

I worry about things I can't control.

I couldn't control them if I were in Utah, but it would make me feel more calm to be right there.

I'm afraid something will happen while I'm here in Texas.

I'm scared.

I want some things in my life to change.

Too many thoughts consume me.

I'm getting by.

How are you?

We need more honesty.

 I'm thinking of adding an ending-of-sorts to each of my blog posts. It's something random that I've been thinking of for a while. I think I'd like to write random notes and advice to my future child. Yep. You read that right. There is no baby on the way. Not pregnant. I just feel like I have things to say that could be something for a future generation - my future generation. Maybe there won't be a child in the future. Maybe there will. I just have this weird desire to write things down. I can't explain it. I just feel it.

Dear Kid,

There are just some things in life that can't be explained. Your life will be an adventure of ongoing feelings from the time you take your first breath. Babies feel hungry so they cry. Toddlers throw tantrums because they feel like they're not getting what they want. Teenagers, well, they just don't know how they feel. Adults feel scared and can say and do things out of fear. I like to think that once you can learn to harness the feelings you have, you can recognize it as guidance - guidance that you follow with faith. Your dad and I aren't the shining example of people who have perfect faith. Hopefully we have enough faith to start you off on the pathway you deserve in life. My faith is often self-clouded, trying to see the things I *think* I should be seeing. My focus is often off. Sometimes I miss some big moments in life because I'm too busy being fixated on the things that don't seem fair. Life's not fair, kid. It's a harsh fact. The sooner you learn that lesson the easier it will be to rely on the feelings you receive because of your faith. Heavenly Father gave us all our own unique personalities that respond to feelings in different ways. Listen to Him. Stay close to Him. The people who choose to listen to Him and follow the feelings He gives them are happy. You deserve to be happy. Life should be happy.

Love,

Mom

Friendship Blessing Mix...

I don't remember if I posted this last Thanksgiving or not. I tried to look through past posts but didn't see it. I made these for Ken's home teaching families last year. If I get on the ball, I could make them for his families this year. I had a student give me a little "friendship mix". It was cute but I wanted to make it cuter. I put together a label and a poem.

I mixed up the ingredients.

I filled a gallon size Ziploc bag with the mix. I put the bagged mix in the boxes so the boxes wouldn't get grease spots on them from the Bugles.

I put the labels on the front of these cute boxes.

Added a bow.

Finally, I tied the poem on with some jute.

I'm not trying to pat myself on the back but they were super cute and really easy.

It's not too late to make a friendship mix!

Turn on your color printer, leave me a comment, and I'll happily send you a PDF of the label and poem.

5 seatbelts and 1 fan belt...

I might be losing my mind.

I'm not sure.

Last night after we ate dinner we headed out to Old Navy to get Ken a new belt. Instead, we came home with this...

Yeah... bought a new car - well, it had 14 miles on it, is that new? Ha ha!

I'm still not 100% sure how it happened.

Just for fun, we stopped at a dealer to drive through and look. We thought they were closed as it was 8:00 p.m. We've been talking about buying a new car for him in a year or so. We had no intention of buying anything for quite a while. Uh huh. 

The only thing I can say is that it will be soooo nice to have 2 reliable cars. Ken's previous car was 14 years old with 150,000 miles on it. We called it our "tithing car" - as long as we paid our tithing it kept getting Ken where he needed to be. We feel like it was the question of not if it would break down but when. Maybe 6 months? A year? Next week? He has a long commute to school and I'm glad we got something practical, with good gas mileage, and reliable.

We still need to get him a belt. He's on his own for that.

The other white meat...

We've been having the missionaries over at least once a week. They're having a hard time getting their meal calendars filled each week. I've told them countless times that if they don't have a meal that they have to let us know. I texted them yesterday afternoon to see if they had a Sunday dinner and they didn't. 

I went to the store yesterday with the intention of buying a beef roast for Sunday dinner. I was horrified to find that it was $7.99 a pound! When did that happen?! For a medium sized roast it was just under $30.00. Sorry but I wasn't paying that much.

I noticed that the grocery store ad had pork tenderloin on sale for $1.19 per pound. I despise pork. Don't know why, I just always have. Without knowing how to cook it, I picked up a giant roast for about $8.00. 

Against the advice of my older brother, I cooked it in the crock pot. I added chicken broth, garlic, dry onion soup mix, and pepper. That's it. I flipped it after 4 hours, added another packet of the dry soup mix, and let it go about another 3 hours.

Oh. 

My.

Gosh.

I LOVED IT!!

I'll be buying more at the store to freeze. Easy, delicious, and a great price!

Here's our two sister missionaries. We love them!

Here's what was left of the cooked pork after we had all had seconds.

This was my plate. The roast fell apart. I made gravy from the drippings (I added a few tablespoons of butter to the drippings) and could have drank it all up out of the pan with a straw!

I may be pushing 40 years old, but I think I may like pork.

Well, at least MY version of pork. Yummy!!

2013 Turkey Trot...

Saturday was a community event at the school I teach at. The faculty and staff were all asked to come and volunteer at the Turkey Trot - a one mile jog with a can of food as a the entry fee. The food is all donated to the local food bank. I'll be honest... I was NOT thrilled about going to my school to volunteer at 8:oo a.m. on my day off. Not thrilled. But once I got there I was actually really glad I went. A lot of my students were there and were excited to see me there too. Here's a sneak peek at the morning...

On your mark, get set...

 

We had a lot of community members there.

I was assigned to be in charge of the P.T.O. (Parent Teacher Organization) table. We had some brand new shoes donated and were giving those away. There was only size 11, but a lot of them found a home.

I was also in charge of selling Y-Ties - but at $4.00 a pair, no one bought any.

There were also muffins and candy bars.

There little cuties came over to my table. The little girl holding the shoes was so excited because they were just her size. Her sister on the left was so sad because they were a little too big for her.

I told her to take a pair anyway because they would fit her in a little bit. Look at her cute face. She was thrilled!

I also had a student give me this yesterday. It says...

To: Mrs. Adams

From: Laysha Adams (her last name is NOT Adams, by the way)

I love you so much. You are the best thing that ever happened to me.

(I really hope my eyelashes don't look like that)

Awww... that made getting out of bed worth it!