Happy Grandparent's Day

Happy Grandparent's Day to all those grandparents out there! Have a wonderful day!

Play-by-play

My husband informed me that the title of my last post, along with the picture, was deceiving since I never really discussed any football. He made a good point, so I thought I would post the play-by-play from the game last night.

• Players were on the field
• Players were on the sidelines
• The ball was thrown
• The ball was caught
• The ball was kicked
• The boys ran
• The boys tackled
• Fans cheered
• Points were scored
• Our team won

How's that, hubby? Did I cover everything?

Friday Night Lights

I can't believe I'm saying this, but my day ended a lot better than it started and it was because of a football game!

Mornings begin with my two groups of seventh-grade students. The kids in the first group are quiet as mice and I never have to remind them to work. My second group is another story. Today they were "lucky" enough to stay after class and miss out on some of their lunch break. I'm curious to see what next week brings. I'm sure I'll be ready to do battle and they will be little angels. They will have that twinkle in their eye and beautiful, innocent smiles on their faces. Then, when I (in a moment of stupidity) let my guard down, they'll strike! They can't add or subtract to save their lives, but they know exactly what to do when they see a defenseless teacher!

So, after my crazy little 7th-graders left, I had my Consumer Math class. Today's lesson was nothing short of a disaster. If they gave out a "Most Painful Lesson" award, I would have won first place. The problems in the book consisted of monthly calculations, but for my example I threw in weekly and yearly calculations. Why did I do this? Well, I hate my students and wanted to confuse them as much as possible. Of course that's a lie (or is it?) but confuse I did. I should not be around young, impressionable minds. To top things off, I had three boys who, every time I opened my mouth to talk, would look at one another and smirk or say something under their breath. So being the big fan of laughing that I am (I actually had a boyfriend tell me that I laughed too much!) I had to ask what was so funny. I've never seen smiles leave faces that quickly. I wasn't trying to be mean - I just really wanted to hear the joke. Okay, that's a lie. I knew I was the joke (as I should have been today) but I had lost my sense of humor by this point in time.

Following the train wreck: a boring lunch, 8th-grade students who are not yet taking Algebra I seriously, and 9th-grade Algebra students who just don't care. On top of all this, my stack of papers to correct continued to grow and grow (I'm thinking of just entering in random grades from now on - it will keep things interesting and save me a lot of time. Time that could be better spent counting down the days until May 22). These were all thrown haphazardly onto my collection of lesson plans, paperwork for the principal, and schedules for the special ed teachers. I have never seen my desk so messy or unorganized. By the time I left the school, I was feeling a little insane.

Things made a complete turnaround when I went back out to the school this evening for a football game. The evening was perfect. The sun was on it's route to setting and along the way provided us with beautiful colors and interesting shadows to watch. (Well, at least those of us not interested in the game.) The air smelled wonderful and the temperature was that lovely degree of 'brisk' where all you need is a sweatshirt and jeans to stay warm.

The weather itself was enough to make me forget my crazy day, but I also had a chance to relieve some stress by talking to the science teacher (found out that she is having the same problems with the 7th-graders) and work out my future plans with my 8th-grade students ("Mrs. W., do you live in an apartment or house?" "Mrs. W., are you going buy or build a house?" "Mrs. W., are you and your husband going to have a family?" "Mrs. W., are you going to teach your kids math?"). Why these kids were so interested in me, I'll never know.

The second half of the game was spent with two of my cousins who came out to keep me company. Our attention was rarely given to the game, other than the girls commenting about the players and me taking pictures of a game I know nothing about, but it was a lot of fun just sitting on the bleachers and being part of a small-town event.

I knew my day was going to end with a football game. I, however, did not realize how the game would end my day on such a wonderful note. There must have been some magic in those Friday night lights.

Happy Birthday

Today is my dad's birthday. Every year on his birthday he takes the day off from work and rides his motorcycle around the state. One of his goals is to ride every highway in North Dakota and today he happens to be in our part of the state. I look forward to spending the evening with him.

Happy Birthday, Dad!

Nine

Today I discovered that I don't like how I say nine. It sounds really weird coming out of my mouth and I don't want to say it anymore. My classes will no longer be doing any problems where I will have to say "nine."

Problem solved.

Catching Up 6 - The Aftermath, Etc.

The Aftermath

The wedding was wonderful, but not without casualties.

Three of the four groomsmen tore their pants and my father-in-law threw up on his vest. Two of the groomsmen were in a scuffle with a drunk friend (don't ask!) and this particular pair of pants belonged to the groomsman who thought he could do the splits. Need I say more? I didn't think so.


Etc.

This picture is of our unity sand jar. My husband and I chose to do this rather than the candle ritual because not only did we love the idea, but it worked much better outdoors than candles and fire. The white represents God's love and protection, the gray represents my husband, and the purple represents myself. I'm thrilled to have this beautiful memento of our marriage and look forward to that day when I come home and our children have either dumped it out or shaken the jar to blend the colors.

Missile Silo

Last night while lying in bed, my husband and I were having a serious conversation about when we might start a family. While I was talking about being surprised by the sex of the baby, my husband interjected with:

"Open missile silo."

"Fire missile."

*FART*

"Close missile silo."

And he says he doesn't need to have kids because he has me? I think I can now fairly say that I don't need to have kids because I have him.

Raspberry-flavored Tractor

My parents went to a Steam Thresher Reunion yesterday. While they were nice enough to invite me and my husband to go along, we had to pass. See, we are not farmers and the thought of spending eight hours outside looking at farm equipment sounded like a less than ideal way to spend a Saturday. In fact, I was bored out of my mind just reading the information provided on the website!

Even though I didn't make it to the event, my parents did bring me back a tractor - raspberry flavored. Now this is the kind of farm equipment I can truly appreciate!

Dad's Photo

My dad showed me this picture today because he was excited about the unique wing markings the dragonfly had. While I do admit they are very interesting - we've never seen one like it before - I was more excited about his shot. My parents know very little about photography or how to use their camera. It rarely gets used, especially by my dad. So, to see him using it and getting a beautiful picture like this makes me thrilled! Of course, he didn't realize how awesome his shot was - that I would love to call this one my own!

Catching Up 5 - Wedding Day

I can’t believe tomorrow will be four weeks since the wedding! (I can’t believe I’m only blogging about it now!) Time for me to have a little fun reliving that day.

The morning began with my hair appointment.


Then it was on to my make-up appointment. I never wear make-up and therefore know very little about the products and application, so I thought it best to go to someone who knew what they were doing. I went to the department store where Mitch and I met and the women who knew us while working there were just thrilled to see me dolled up for the big day.


After my hair and make-up appointments, my bridesmaids and I all met up to get ready together. It only took four ladies to help me get into my dress! During this time, my bridesmaids gave me "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" gifts. My sister gave me old, blue butterfly pins to put in my hair; my cousin gave me an old handkerchief with a blue flower on it, sprayed with my husband's cologne; my other cousin let me borrow her blue sapphire ring; and my friend gave me an anklet with a heart attached to it. They were beautiful gifts and it was so thoughtful of the girls to do that for me.



After the girls were ready, we headed out with the photographers and spent two hours taking pictures. It was a lot of fun and I can’t wait to see how they turned out!

At 4:00, the ceremony started. We couldn't have asked for a better day. The sun was shining and there was a slight breeze. The scenery and music were beautiful and I didn’t even cry! (I guess I got it all out at rehearsal.) Instead of performing the unity candle ritual, Mitch and I did things a little differently with a unity sand service. It has the same message, two lives coming together to form one new life, but is completed by each person pouring a different color sand from their container into a new, "unified" container. I will post a picture of our jar later.



Following the ceremony was the reception, dinner, and dance. The food was delicious and the dancing was a blast. Several guests told us we should throw more of these parties! (We will be sure to do that the next time we get married!) My husband and I definitely have family and friends who know how to have a good time!





The day went by so fast, as everyone said it would. It was absolutely perfect, though – everything I hoped it would be and more.