Happy Halloween!!!

You ate HOW much candy?!!!

Comments

In response to some of your comments today:

• I had to cancel my Moms In Touch meeting today due to sick children. (Not mine but those of others in the group.) Kat, I'm so glad you're starting a group! I'll be praying for you!
• Parent/teacher conferences went well. Funniest question I was asked: "Do you notice my child with his hands down his pants a lot? He does this at home and then trips and can't get his hands out fast enough to catch himself." No, I hadn't noticed that, but I'll keep an eye on it!
• Kelly, I've got so many books to read I don't know which one I'll take to the doc's with me. I still have to finish the one I'm reviewing for Thomas Nelson, plus I told a bloggy friend that I'd review her book as well. I would love to just take my laptop and be able to catch up on everyone's blogs, but I doubt I'll get internet there.
• Oh, and GO PHILLIES!!!!

"I Get To" Tuesdays

The thought behind this is to list a few things that could come under the category of "Ugh...I have to (you fill in the blank)". However, I want you to look at these "have to's" as blessings of "I get to". We all take for granted such things as our health, jobs, family, friends, etc. and sometimes don't appreciate them or see them as blessings as we should. So here are a few things for me this week.

Praise God that this week has started off better than last week did!! However, I still have my share of "I Get To's"!

1. Today, I get to conduct parent/teacher conferences for 2 1/2 hours! For some parents, this can be an emotional meeting. Sadly, I sometimes get to hear about difficult issues concerning their family life. I don't mind this, but I feel badly for the family. This time period can be exhausting, but it is also nice to get to know the parents better. (I'll get to continue with conferences on Thursday.)
2. I get to go to my Moms In Touch meeting right after work today. Normally, I wouldn't mind this, but since I lead the group and will be talking all morning as it is, I'm afraid I'll be a bit worn out. I'm praying I'll have the energy to be an encourager to the other ladies in our group.
3. We rent our home. On Saturday morning, our landlord called and asked if he could bring a contractor by in a half hour. Not much notice! We got to quickly clean up the house a bit before they arrived. They spent an hour here but never came inside! At least we got some cleaning done, and we're going to get a new front porch, some new windows and a new back door due to their visit!
4. On Wednesday, I have a doctor's appointment. I'll get to sit and wait for him forever! He's always running a good half hour to an hour behind schedule! Well, I'll get some quiet reading time in! Plus, perhaps he can figure out what is going on with the skin on my cheeks and around my eyes.
5. Since it rained this past Saturday, I'll get to sit through a double header this Saturday for Coop's baseball team! I'm not good at this unless the weather is perfect. Although, I'm lucky I get to do this. When I think back about my older son's first baseball season, I remember that it seemed as if half the parents had cancer or heart problems. It was like the Dooms Day Bears. One of the moms died the following year. I need to appreciate my time spent rooting for my son's team. This Saturday will be the end of the season anyway.

If you decide to post your own "I Get To" list on your blog, use Mr. Linky below. Remember, try to find the blessings in your "I Have To's" and turn them into "I Get To's"!

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful for those of you who have been praying for me and my toilet plumbing issues! No problems for at least the last 72 hours!
2. I am so thankful that Eric is back from his fishing trip (and that he had a good time). I am spoiled by the fact that he's usually here to help get the kids out the door every morning. Getting up extra early last week to make sure we were all ready on time was killing me.
3. And because he knew I was tired, Eric let me sleep in past 10:00 on Saturday! Thank you Dear!
4. Tonight, Eric is taking the boys out, and I'll have the evening to myself!
5. I am grateful that my Moms In Touch group has been going well thus far. I pray that our group can make a difference and that more women will come out to join us.
6. THE WORLD CHAMPION PHILLIES ARE GOING TO THE SERIES!!!! Now if the Angels would just knock out the Yankees!

Please join Sonya at Truth 4 the Journey and blog about what you are thankful for today!

"I Get To" Tuesdays

The thought behind this is to list a few things that could come under the category of "Ugh...I have to (you fill in the blank)". However, I want you to look at these "have to's" as blessings of "I get to". We all take for granted such things as our health, jobs, family, friends, etc. and sometimes don't appreciate them or see them as blessings as we should. So here are a few things for me this week.

I don't even know where to begin with this post today! I'm not even going to number my "I Get To's" this time around.

On Saturday and Sunday I got to spend my time writing up student profiles for my 3-year-old class. We'll be having parent/teacher conferences next week. Doing these profiles and meeting with the parents really does help me get to know my students better.

Let's see....at 4 AM Monday morning my hubby got up to use the restroom. When he came back to bed, I could hear water running. At first I thought it was raining. Then I thought Eric forgot to turn off the faucet after washing his hands. I nudged him and told him to go check the water faucet. He got up with a moan and discovered that our toilet was overflowing once AGAIN! He began grabbing towels and cleaning up the mess. Being the great wife that I am, I stayed in bed because I had to be up in two hours, and it was applesauce day at school. (I'll get to that in a moment.)

Eric went downstairs to get more towels only to discover water coming through our dining room ceiling again...this time through our light fixture! He moved our furniture and put bowls around the room and then went back up to the bathroom to finish sopping up the water. Thankfully, Eric was back from his fishing trip and able to take care of all of this for me!

At 6 AM my alarm went off. I went downstairs to the laundry room to get some clean towels and a clean bath mat. I immediately saw something in the middle of our living room floor. A gift from Otto. I had no idea what it was or which end it came out of! I proceeded to get my towels, headed back upstairs and told Eric that if he could figure out what Otto left for us, then more power to him! Thankfully, Eric cleaned it up for me so that I could get my shower. (We still don't know what it was!) At least Otto has seemed just fine!

By 6:30 Sam was up and having diarrhea. He ended up staying home from school. Again, at least Eric was home all day yesterday.

As I mentioned earlier, my 4-year-old class was scheduled to make applesauce yesterday. It was a crazy morning, but we got it done! I was very grateful to have 3 moms helping us. One of the moms told me that she doesn't know how we do it everyday with the kids. She said she guessed she didn't like kids enough to be a teacher. I chuckled at this a bit because she is pregnant with baby # 3! (And her first two are very sweet!)

After class, my assistant and I got to clean up the applesauce mess. We ended up leaving later than usual. At least this event is over for this school year, and the kids enjoyed the whole process of making the applesauce! And our classroom smelled wonderful!

Then I got to go home and clean up all of the messes from the middle of the night! I washed two loads of towels; washed the bathroom floor; scrubbed the spot where Otto had left his "gift"; vacuumed; unloaded the dishwasher; reloaded it and hand washed all the bowls Eric had used to collect the water dripping from our ceiling. My house looks a little better now.

Oh, I am so looking forward to the rest of my "I Get To's" this week! If you decide to post your own "I Get To" list on your blog, use Mr. Linky below.

Remember, try to find the blessings in your "I Have To's" and turn them into "I Get To's"!

Thankful Thursday

1. I am thankful that Eric will be returning from his fishing trip soon.
2. The toilet overflowed AGAIN last night. I'm thankful that the water didn't leak through to the dining room ceiling this time and that I was able to get the toilet unclogged.
3. I am thankful for the article Chatty Kelly wrote about today being Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. You can read it here.
4. I am very thankful that I don't have to go ANYWHERE tonight. Especially since it's raining and cold outside.
5. I am grateful that my 3-year-old class this morning went more smoothly than my 4-year-old class did yesterday. I have several special needs kids and just plain stubborn little ones in my MWF class. Yesterday was a hard and exhausting day.

Please stop by Sonya's blog, Truth 4 the Journey, to share what you're thankful for today!

"I Get To" Tuesdays

The thought behind this is to list a few things that could come under the category of "Ugh...I have to (you fill in the blank)". However, I want you to look at these "have to's" as blessings of "I get to". We all take for granted such things as our health, jobs, family, friends, etc. and sometimes don't appreciate them or see them as blessings as we should. So here are a few things for me this week.

If you read my 200th post on Saturday night, you know what my #1 is for this list today!

1. I got to clean up the mess of our overflowing toilet! I used just about every bath and beach towel we had to clean up the floor. Then I had to wash them all so we had clean towels for the morning. And, of course, I had to wash the bathroom floor, too! (This all took place around 8:00 Saturday night.) Thankfully, my hubby was home. I am just not strong enough to plunge the toilet, and it's the only one in the house! Our dining room ceiling only suffered minimal damage and none of our furniture was harmed.
2. I get to be a single parent for a few days! Enough said right there. I sure hope the boys don't have math homework that they need help with. At least my husband gets to have some time away to relax and gets to spend time with his brother. (Just please pray for safety....they're fishing.)
3. I get to drive my husband's car since he took my jeep. Now his car drives nicely, but there are too many blind spots in it for me. If I have to back up or change lanes, watch out! He left me with a full tank of gas, but as I was driving to work, I noticed that there are messages flashing, such as, "check oil soon" and "wiper fluid is low". Also, I discovered that the turn signals work on the back lights but not on the front lights. At least I have transportation, right?!
4. I get to go sit in the cold tonight and watch Cooper's baseball game. Eric is the team's head coach, but since he's away, I definitely have to be there. At least I get to see Coop play. I've missed several of his games this season because I've had to be other places.
5. I got to volunteer my time at work this past Saturday. We had a Fall Festival for our students and their families. It was the first time we have tried something like this. It was a success and the kids seemed to have fun. It was nice to have the time to talk with some of the parents, too.

That's my "I Get To" list for this week. If you decide to post your own "I Get To" list on your blog, please let me know, and I will post a link to your blog here.

Remember, try to find the blessings in your "I Have To's" and turn them into "I Get To's"!

UPDATE: For those of you who thought the conversation between my kids on Sunday was precious, I have another one for you. On Sundays, Eric likes to watch football. That means the kids can't play video games. Well, Coop is our gamer and this kills him. Around 4:00 that afternoon, Sam fell asleep on the floor, and I decided to go upstairs and take a little snooze before dinner. Cooper got this evil smile on his face while looking at Eric, and he said, "Two down, one to go." Yeah, precious, isn't he?!

The Lord's Day

Okay, here is a brief conversation I just heard between my two sons.

Sam: "Why is the weather always nice on Sunday?"

Cooper: "Because it's the Lord's day and He wants it to be nice!"

My 200th Post!

Well, I didn't think this is what I'd be posting about on my 200th post!

I was getting ready to sit down and catch up on reading YOUR blogs tonight. I was going to use the restroom, get a drink and start reading. The flush of the toilet changed those plans! Water began pouring out of the commode! I began grabbing towels and then realized that I really needed to turn off the valve to the toilet. I yelled to Coop to go out and get Eric from the garage. By the time he got inside, the water was flowing out into the hallway. (Thankfully, our hallway is not carpeted!)

I then told Cooper to go check the ceilings in our pantry and dining room. Sure enough, water was beginning to seep through our dining room ceiling. So then we had to move the furniture! Eric ended up poking some small holes into the ceiling to let the water drain out. There's a pan under one of the holes collecting the drips of water. We have to keep Otto from trying to drink it....GROSS!

I used just about every towel in the house to clean up the bathroom floor, so now I'm doing laundry! Thankfully, yesterday when I cleaned the bathroom (Did I mention it's our ONLY bathroom in the house?), I skipped washing the floor. I love my Swiffer Wet Jet!

This will definitely make my "I Get To" list this week!

Thomas Nelson Book

Some of you have asked me what book I am reviewing next for Thomas Nelson. It is Voices of the Faithful, Book 2. It's a devotional with "inspiring stories of courage from Christians serving around the world". It is compiled by Kim P. Davis. The series creator is Beth Moore. She also wrote the introduction. It's a pretty long book, so please be patient with me!

Thankful Thursday

1. I am grateful for the lovely weather we've had this week!
2. I'm thankful that I was able to take Otto to the vet last week. She gave him a cortisone shot which has relieved his itching. He seems more like himself now. I don't think I'll have to continue with the really expensive food because it seems more like a contact allergy rather than a food allergy.
3. I'm hoping we have finally found a solution to our kids always asking for money and to the allowance dilemma. They haven't asked for money for several days now and are seeing that they need to budget their money.
4. I'm glad Eric was able to take a day this week to go fishing and just relax. Poor guy didn't catch a thing though! As he said, "Well, it was a beautiful night!"
5. I'm thankful that my November lesson plans are finished and turned in and that my classroom is finally done for October!
6. Oh, one more....the book I requested from Thomas Nelson just arrived this very minute! Yay! I can't wait to read it and post a review!

Please join Sonya at Truth 4 the Journey and let everyone know what you're thankful for this week!

Blessings to you all!

"I Get To" Tuesdays

The thought behind this is to list a few things that could come under the category of "Ugh...I have to (you fill in the blank)". However, I want you to look at these "have to's" as blessings of "I get to". We all take for granted such things as our health, jobs, family, friends, etc. and sometimes don't appreciate them or see them as blessings as we should. So here are a few things for me this week.

1. Last Friday I got to go on a field trip to an apple orchard with my 4-year-old class. This is the 7th year in a row that I've been on this field trip. It was a cold, gloomy day, but the kids and their parents had a good time!
2. I got to stop on my way home from work today to fill up my car with gas. Just one of those mundane tasks that we all have to do. This particular task usually hurts us in our wallet, too. I was surprised to receive $.40 off per gallon due to my pump perks card from one of our grocery stores! I thought the most I could earn was $.20 off per gallon. I ended up only paying $1.96 per gallon! (Kind of sad to say "only"!)
3. I got to be "single" mom yesterday because Eric went fishing. That meant going to work, running Sam around, getting Coop's baseball uniform washed, making dinner and being sure everyone's homework got done. The kids weren't thrilled with what I was throwing together for dinner -- a shepherd pie -- and I heard about it! However, Sam ended up loving it. He had 3 helpings! (Coop wasn't a fan.) I had enough left over for my lunch today. (Next week I get to be "single" mom for 4 days straight...another fishing trip.)
4. I get to make sure Otto gets outside several more times a day than usual. His itching was so bad that I took him to the vet Thursday night. She gave him a shot of cortisone which has made him feel much better. It also makes Otto have to tinkle a lot. Every time we let him outside he just goes and goes and goes!
5. I get to watch my oldest son go off to school every morning dreading his first period class. He has the toughest and meanest math teacher in the school and has to face him every day at 8 AM. From what I understand from other parents and former students, this man is the best math teacher because his students learn more from him than they do from any of the other math teachers. However, he sounds like a dictator in class. Sam has been waking up with stomach aches in the morning. I try to comfort him by saying that at least he gets his worst class over with by 9 AM. I'm praying that this experience will teach Sam how to deal with difficult people. I've told him that he'll probably have to deal with a pain in the neck boss at some point in his life, so he may as well learn how to handle it now.

That's my "I Get To" list for this week. If you decide to post your own "I Get To" list on your blog, please let me know, and I will post a link to your blog here.

Remember, try to find the blessings in your "I Have To's" and turn them into "I Get To's"!

Thankful Thursday

Is it Thursday already? Well, that means the #1 thing I'm thankful for is:

1. ...That this work week has flown by! Hello weekend!
2. I was able to go to Cooper's baseball game on Saturday. I've only been able to make it to 2 out of his 6 games thus far. Thankfully, Eric is his coach, so at least he's been at every game. And they made a comeback and won on Saturday!
3. I'm thankful that Eric has been willing and able to make the change to getting up before 6:30 AM during the week. He is NOT a morning person. But now that Cooper has to be out the door so early, I've needed Eric's help making sure Coop gets up and has breakfast while I get my shower.
4. I'm thankful that I did well and made it through last week, which marked the one year anniversary of my miscarriage.
5. I think all of us are finally feeling better! Therefore, I'm thankful for the health of my family!

Take the time today to think about what you're thankful for, post it on your blog and then hook with Sonya at Truth 4 the Journey!