January Ups and Downs
I can't believe the first month of 2014 is already coming to an end. It has been a busy month. I have wanted to blog a million times about my random rants, but have managed to stop myself. You are welcome.
Hold on though, I am not letting you off that easy. The thing is, when I am long gone and my kids are reading all my crazy blog post, I want them to know how much I valued the Thank You note. I am sorry it is just one of those things I find important. (Melissa you can stop laughing now.) For those of you that haven't seen the YouTube video "Stuff Southern Women Say" you need to watch it. The last line was written for me. Ok rant over.
Now that I have that out of the way, I can get on with the month.
January held some fun times.
Some sweet friend or ours gave us their Razorback tickets because they were on a trip to Africa. I know right. Marshal loves basketball. I love football. Needless to say we don't go to very many basketball games because we all know that my family is all about doing what makes Andrea happy. Ha!
Our friends also have a parking pass they let us use.
Oh I am so spoiled now. No hauling kids up hill both ways, just waltzy do right up to the door and walk straight in to the seats. Arkansas ended up losing to Florida in overtime, but we enjoyed the game and were grateful for the tickets.
We also took the kids ice skating this month. I love downtown Bentonville. Not only is it so darn cute, but there is always something fun to see and do around the square. (Yes we picked one of the random warm weekend days this month to go. What's up with this weather ? Negative 4 one day 65 degrees the next. Craziness!)
We celebrated my moms birthday. I was excited it was on a Friday this year, because that meant dinner at The Wooden Spoon. Oh my yumminess. Then we went back to our house for cake.
Yes there are two cakes. My mom likes Italian Cream cake. My kids won't eat that and we are under the firm belief that you have to eat cake to celebrate with the birthday girl. Hey don't judge. One of my dear friends orders random birthday cakes throughout the year just because she wants cake. I am not to that point yet, although with the invention of leggings I might soon be. I am kidding really. Ok at least for now.
Marshal's birthday was next.
He was sick this year on his birthday and nothing about the day went as planned. He ended up spending half of it at a hazmat incident. Jaxton had a Jitterbug performance and we signed up to take a meal to Ronald MacDonald House.Oh well blah blah. We did end up going out on a birthday date. It was really nice.
We had time before our reservations to have a couple of drinks and just visit. When we got to the restaurant we were acting silly and just having fun. I went to take his picture and he was making silly faces. When I turned on the flash this is what I got...He is so going to kill me for sharing this. I can already hear him...."ANDREA"! The photo just made me laugh and laugh so why not include it on my blog.
Ok I guess to be totally fair I will embarrass myself now too. We went to the gas station on the way home. I got bored sitting there waiting so, I decided to take a picture of my hair. Sounds dumb I know. A coworker and I had just had a conversation about sexy hair and how we end up taking it down by the end of the night because we can only handle having it fixed for so long. Any way I was trying to document that I kept my hair pinned back all night.
This photo made me laugh and laugh also because check out that sexy gas station lightening. My favorite photographer of all times, has perfected the sunlight shots (Benny light). His pictures are absolutely gorgeous! But take that Dale Benfield, gas station lightening is all me baby. Ok I am a dork.
This month has had it's share of downs too.
Our cat, Ty, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and glaucoma. He is on a new special diet and he has medicine and eye drops to take twice daily. Hurts my heart to think about my fur babies aging. Not to mention hello vet bills. Ugh! He has already lost sight in one eye, but we are hopeful that his strong eye will stay healthy and he will not require surgery.
The big down has been my job.I have had a difficult month at work and it has me questioning my choice in careers. I love my children and love teaching them. It's just that the politics of this career seem the be overshadowing the classroom right now and it stinks. It is no fun seeing your school board members arguing in the newspaper. It is no fun to be in a school that has had major staff changes two years in a row. And don't even get me started on the slap in the face working for a school district that has the motto of " excellence with every step" yet when budget cuts are needed their first thought is to take money away from their teachers that sought out excellence by getting their National Board certification. To say I am frustrated would be an understatement. There is so much more I could say on this topic, yet I fear I have probably already said too much.
I wanted to include the happies on my blog because I am so blessed and have so much to be happy about, but honestly the yucky stuff seems to be hard to ignore. The current sermon series at church is all about gratitude. This past Sunday several members of our church stood up and held up their cardboard sign testimony. I sat through that sermon and just cried. It brought me back to five years ago when I was asked to hold up my cardboard testimony in front of the church. It's was one of the more difficult things I have done. Yet one of the most powerful for me. I wanted to rush right home after church and pull out my sign. I got busy and didn't do it until last night. I sat there and just stared at the sign for a long time. When I wrote the sign, five years ago, it was all about my miscarriage. I find it interesting how much I need to focus on those same words and how they apply to me today.
Any way I know this post was just a bunch of random mess thrown together. I apologize. I just wanted to get this all out there and done because my next post is coming very soon. Learning to be a dance mom.....
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Hold on though, I am not letting you off that easy. The thing is, when I am long gone and my kids are reading all my crazy blog post, I want them to know how much I valued the Thank You note. I am sorry it is just one of those things I find important. (Melissa you can stop laughing now.) For those of you that haven't seen the YouTube video "Stuff Southern Women Say" you need to watch it. The last line was written for me. Ok rant over.
Now that I have that out of the way, I can get on with the month.
January held some fun times.
Some sweet friend or ours gave us their Razorback tickets because they were on a trip to Africa. I know right. Marshal loves basketball. I love football. Needless to say we don't go to very many basketball games because we all know that my family is all about doing what makes Andrea happy. Ha!
Our friends also have a parking pass they let us use.
Oh I am so spoiled now. No hauling kids up hill both ways, just waltzy do right up to the door and walk straight in to the seats. Arkansas ended up losing to Florida in overtime, but we enjoyed the game and were grateful for the tickets.
We also took the kids ice skating this month. I love downtown Bentonville. Not only is it so darn cute, but there is always something fun to see and do around the square. (Yes we picked one of the random warm weekend days this month to go. What's up with this weather ? Negative 4 one day 65 degrees the next. Craziness!)
We celebrated my moms birthday. I was excited it was on a Friday this year, because that meant dinner at The Wooden Spoon. Oh my yumminess. Then we went back to our house for cake.
Yes there are two cakes. My mom likes Italian Cream cake. My kids won't eat that and we are under the firm belief that you have to eat cake to celebrate with the birthday girl. Hey don't judge. One of my dear friends orders random birthday cakes throughout the year just because she wants cake. I am not to that point yet, although with the invention of leggings I might soon be. I am kidding really. Ok at least for now.
Marshal's birthday was next.
He was sick this year on his birthday and nothing about the day went as planned. He ended up spending half of it at a hazmat incident. Jaxton had a Jitterbug performance and we signed up to take a meal to Ronald MacDonald House.Oh well blah blah. We did end up going out on a birthday date. It was really nice.
We had time before our reservations to have a couple of drinks and just visit. When we got to the restaurant we were acting silly and just having fun. I went to take his picture and he was making silly faces. When I turned on the flash this is what I got...He is so going to kill me for sharing this. I can already hear him...."ANDREA"! The photo just made me laugh and laugh so why not include it on my blog.
Ok I guess to be totally fair I will embarrass myself now too. We went to the gas station on the way home. I got bored sitting there waiting so, I decided to take a picture of my hair. Sounds dumb I know. A coworker and I had just had a conversation about sexy hair and how we end up taking it down by the end of the night because we can only handle having it fixed for so long. Any way I was trying to document that I kept my hair pinned back all night.
This photo made me laugh and laugh also because check out that sexy gas station lightening. My favorite photographer of all times, has perfected the sunlight shots (Benny light). His pictures are absolutely gorgeous! But take that Dale Benfield, gas station lightening is all me baby. Ok I am a dork.
This month has had it's share of downs too.
Our cat, Ty, was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism and glaucoma. He is on a new special diet and he has medicine and eye drops to take twice daily. Hurts my heart to think about my fur babies aging. Not to mention hello vet bills. Ugh! He has already lost sight in one eye, but we are hopeful that his strong eye will stay healthy and he will not require surgery.
The big down has been my job.I have had a difficult month at work and it has me questioning my choice in careers. I love my children and love teaching them. It's just that the politics of this career seem the be overshadowing the classroom right now and it stinks. It is no fun seeing your school board members arguing in the newspaper. It is no fun to be in a school that has had major staff changes two years in a row. And don't even get me started on the slap in the face working for a school district that has the motto of " excellence with every step" yet when budget cuts are needed their first thought is to take money away from their teachers that sought out excellence by getting their National Board certification. To say I am frustrated would be an understatement. There is so much more I could say on this topic, yet I fear I have probably already said too much.
I wanted to include the happies on my blog because I am so blessed and have so much to be happy about, but honestly the yucky stuff seems to be hard to ignore. The current sermon series at church is all about gratitude. This past Sunday several members of our church stood up and held up their cardboard sign testimony. I sat through that sermon and just cried. It brought me back to five years ago when I was asked to hold up my cardboard testimony in front of the church. It's was one of the more difficult things I have done. Yet one of the most powerful for me. I wanted to rush right home after church and pull out my sign. I got busy and didn't do it until last night. I sat there and just stared at the sign for a long time. When I wrote the sign, five years ago, it was all about my miscarriage. I find it interesting how much I need to focus on those same words and how they apply to me today.
Any way I know this post was just a bunch of random mess thrown together. I apologize. I just wanted to get this all out there and done because my next post is coming very soon. Learning to be a dance mom.....
Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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