Thanksgiving Week

I have to start out by saying... "I LOVE this time of year!" Thanksgiving, Christmas and birthdays, what's not to love? I'm blessed to have this whole week off and couldn't be more excited. After the last week of work, I'm in desperate need of some R&R.

I'm really looking forward to a week of family time and Christmas shopping. I'm usually the person that waits until the very last minute to do all my shopping, but this year I'm going to try something different. In fact, I bought my first 2 presents last weekend. I don't know why I always wait until the last minute, maybe because I'm so busy when I'm working that I never want to do anything on the weekends; who knows.

Well I'm off to get ready so I can go do some shopping with Robin today. I'm going home to see the parents either tomorrow or Wednesday and I'm so excited; Brad's even going to be there for a few days too :-) I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving and a blessed and safe week.

Lot's on my mind...

For the first time in a really long time, I find myself with lots of things on my mind. In fact, this past week could almost classify as pure hell. I've had kids in and out of ISS, Chris has been acting funny and I'm just about ready to lose it I think. For the last 2 days all I've wanted to do is curl up in a ball and cry. I've been doing so good emotionally for a long time now, but just something has me feeling on edge.
I can hear my daddy now, "Just take a deep breath and relax." Well... I've been doing that and it's not really helping me, so I find myself on here venting my frustrations. Hopefully things will return to normal soon and I'll get back to my "happy place" Until then, I'll just do my best to get through the rest of this week. Thanks for listening :-)

I LOVE shopping!!!

Everyone who knows me knows that I've always had a weakness when it comes to shopping. I don't even have to buy anything, it's just fun to walk around and look at everything. I really love this time of year when I know that I get to buy things for other people. These past 3 days have been prime examples of my shopping addiction.

On Saturday, mom and I left her house with every intention of going to eat lunch, then visit my grandparents and finally go to the grocery store. Well lets just say things didn't go according to plan. We made it to lunch and then decided since Target was right there to run in there "real quick" About 2 hours later we walked out of Target with a bunch of stuff neither of us needed, but felt we couldn't live without. After our Target experience, we went to Sam's. Sam's is one of my favorite places for some reason and I always seem to find something that I just can't live without; Saturday it was wine :-) Once we finished our Sam's adventure, we went to HEB to get a few things. For those of you who have never been to an HEB, you seriously don't know what you're missing. It's kinda like a Central Market, but not quite as "fancy." So mom and I got our few things and got out of there when we realized it was already 5 and we had been gone since about 11. Needless to say, we didn't make it to my see my Nan and Pops, but we sure had lots of fun shopping the day away.

Sunday morning I was awakened by John, my step-dad, shooting a shotgun outside my window and then coming into by bedroom, turning on the light and saying, "wakey, wakey, eggs and bakey" Lucky for him I was already awake, but just not ready to face the world. Once I got out of bed, mom and I cooked breakfast and then decided to run to HEB to get some wine for the fondue we were making for dinner. Mom and I somehow managed to spend 3 hours walking around HEB trying different samples, looking at all the rows of things and drinking about 5 gallons of tea. I'm telling you HEB is seriously one of my most favorite places to go shopping.

Today, I had to head back home and get back to the real world. It was nice having the day off today though and getting to spend that extra night with mom. Chris had the day off too, and no kids, so we actually got to spend some time together. He took me to lunch and then we went shopping at Grapevine Mills mall. You would think that I'd be tired of shopping, but nope, I was ready to go at it again. We had so much fun walking around looking at all the fun stuff in the stores.

Tomorrow it's back to work, but only for 9 days and then I'm on vacation for a week. I can't wait to see my daddy and the rest of my family over Thanksgiving; I just wish my brother was going to be able to come down too :-(

I hope this finds you doing well and as ready for the holiday season as I am. This time of the year is always fun for me, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Brad's Birthday, My Birthday, Christmas and New Years all within about 2 months of each other. FYI... Friday begins the one month countdown until I turn 29 for the second time.

Back to life as I know it....

Life is officially back to normal........ hopefully. With yesterday being Halloween, the Haunted House is closed and my schedule should be back to normal, or at least a little more regular. These past 6 or 7 weeks have been nothing less than an adventure. What started out as a one time thing, turned into so much more. I've learned how to use and apply costume make-up and more about what goes on behind the scenes than anyone could ever want to know. My favorite thing was for sure learning how to do make-up. At first, it was a challenge getting it all right and Chris would be like, "let me do it." By the time this past Friday rolled around, I was doing just as much of the make-up as he was, if not more. I did take a picture of one of the girls whose make-up I would do all the time that I'll post later hopefully.

Enough about the HH, lets talk about my kids. They are still great and I love them more and more everyday. I'm officially down to 9 kids, which makes life so easy and pretty stress free. It's so strange having such a small group, but they certainly keep me busy. Last year, this group of kids was constantly in trouble so we're really lucky to have small classes because it certainly helps us control the bad behavior. I'm amazed everyday how quick the school year is going by and I can't believe that it's almost Thanksgiving. I know that nobody knows where life will take them in a year, but I for sure know that I'll be somewhere different and that's so strange. With my school shutting down in June and still no idea where I'm going to be in a year, the biggest stresser in my life right now is that. I'm sure as things begin to get figured out and people start to know more, I'll have lots more to talk about on this subject. We'll time to finish laundry and all that fun stuff. I hope this finds you doing well, and lots of love always!!!

Rain, Rain go Away

For those of you that don't know, all it has done here in the metroplex for the past few weeks is rain. I heard on the news this morning that October is usually a pretty wet month, and on average we get about an inch and a half of rain. So far we aren't even half way through the month and we've already had about three and a half inches of rain. I guess we should be thankful for the rain, but enough is enough already. Today's forecast is cloudy and cool and tomorrow... you guessed it, more rain. They are saying the weather is going to be great this weekend, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I'm ready to see some sunshine.

Enough of that, let move on to the more exciting things :-) Everything with me is still going well. I'm just as busy as ever teaching and working the haunted house. I have the day off today and I must admit that I'm enjoying the break from everything. This is only the second day in the last month that I haven't been on the go or had something to do or somewhere to go. The first one was a few weeks ago when I was sick and stayed home and the other is today, a holiday.

Things at the Haunted House are going well and really starting to pick up. We had about 200 people come through on Friday night and 300 on Saturday night. They say that by the time Halloween gets here, we will have about 800-1000 people come through a night. I can't imagine what that's going to be like, but I'm sure it will be even more fun than it already is. It still amazes me how much I enjoy going out there and doing this. There are a lot of high school kids that come out and volunteer for various reasons, and it's so much fun talking to them and being reminded how I wouldn't want to be that age ever again.

As far as school goes, everything is still going great. I had 2 kids move this past week, so now I'm back down to 10 kids, but I'm getting a girl from one of the other classes on Wednesday so I'll be back up to 11. My kids this year are adorable and I love them to death. We have so much fun and I've been able to build great relationships with each of them. I say a little prayer everyday for things to continue to go well with them. I feel so blessed to have this great group of kids since this is the last year my school will be open.

Well, off to do some laundry and things around the house.

Lots Going On

These last few weeks have been super busy and crazy for me, but sometimes I don't think I would have it any other way. Besides teaching, I've spent the last 2 weekends working/volunteering at a Haunted House in south Arlington/Kennedale. When I originally agreed to go up there, I thought it would be a one time thing. Needless to say, I've enjoyed it more that I could have ever imagined and look forward to going out there.

Here are a few pics from the Haunted House for your viewing pleasure :-)

This is the exorcism room. I worked in here the first weekend and had a lot of fun.

This past weekend I worked in the Morgue. It was so much fun standing behind the body bags and making grown men scream.

The finished product... I must admit I think I did a wonderful job on her hair :-)

This is my friend Chris doing one of the things he does best, making people look dead.

Hopefully I'll get more time to keep my blogs up to date, but for right now I wouldn't hold my breath. Life seems to be headed in a good direction and I owe it all to the grace of God.

Busy, Busy, Busy

School is back in high gear, and I'm just a busy as ever. The beginning of a new year is always exciting, but I never seem to remember being this busy all the time. I feel like I never get to sit down and actually relax until I'm going to bed. This constant go is keeping me young I guess, but super tired all the time :-(
On a happier note, I must admit that I have a great class so far. I only have 11 kids and am loving every minute with them. Having a small class is a new experience for me and it makes so much difference. I feel like we get so much more done and I'm not nearly as stressed out. I really hope things continue to go well for me and my students.