To school….

On errands…

I love Luke’s face in this shot. He is such a ham!!

To the groomer…

I spend what seems like lots of my time in the car, but I sure do have cute passengers!

If I do say so myself.

{I didn’t take pictures while driving, by the way. J}

I remember when we first got married I was given a lot of advice.

One piece of advice came from the then secretary at the church where we worked. She said I should write down the things I love about Dan then, so that I could look back on them farther along in our marriage.

At the time I thought this was such odd advice, but now I really think it’s great.

Sometimes life and to-do lists and obligations take the forefront in life and it’s good to focus on what characteristics you love about your spouse. And it’s good to look back on those early times.

So, I like to think back to those simpler times when I went canoeing and to the beach with a young guy from church. And went to Barnhill’s and spent evening’s keeping score at basketball games with a certain recreation director.

So, in honor of our ten married years together, here’s my list of 10 things that I loved about Dan in 2000 {in no particular order}.

1. His big laugh that I can hear coming down the hall.

2. The way he sings out country songs to the top of his lungs no matter where he is. {even if this does embarrass me walking down the aisle of Walmart.}

3. His love of country music, pickup trucks, blackeyed peas and sweet tea. {a bit superficial, eh? I love the southerness of it all, though}

4. His relationship with God.

5. His positive attitude.

6. How much of a people person he is.

7. He’s not afraid to try anything.

8. He is a hyper wild man!

9. He pours himself into his work.

10. His old fashioned values.

Do I have to remind myself of the big picture {and this list} when I’m aggravated that clothes are strewn on the bedroom floor? Sure. {Love ya’ babe. J}

Are these still things that I love about Dan? Sure, {although he doesn’t sing loudly at Walmart too often anymore and has calmed down a lot!} he’s still that same guy.

Just ten years older.

And my list has just grown…

I took some pictures of my room both before school started and this past week, so this is a compilation. I’m trying to take pictures of lots of the projects that I do as well as how the room looks, so that I can look back on them and jog my memory each year. Note in picture form I suppose, since I’m a super visual person!

I redid my calendar/teaching board twice this year, but I think I’ve gotten it where I like it! J

My kiddos are getting graphing down. I have a question each morning and they graph their answer and then we read the graph at circle time. They LOVE the Question of the Day.

Blocks and Art Centers.

House Keeping.

I also have a Science, Letters, and Puzzle Centers, but didn’t get a good picture of those.

View from the front door.

View from my table.

My bee rules.

I totally copied this from First Grader… At Last! It is the cutest teaching blog and I loved her bees. Ours are a bit different and we only have four. 

I love them, they are super cute.

Well, that’s where I spend 3 days of my week. And can I just say that there sure is a lot of prep for a 3 day a week job! J But I wouldn’t change it.

A piece of work…

A character…

A card…

A wild man…

A ball of fire…

A sight…

Luke got up from his nap yesterday and went into the den to sit with Daniel. He made it part of the way up on the couch and fell asleep again.

He proceeded to sleep about 30 more minutes like this.

Sundays can be quite exhausting!

I walked over to computer desk the other day and this is what I found.

Minnie Mouse.

Handcuffed to the desk.

I’m sure when Minnie came to live me as a young girl, she never thought she would see the day that two little boys handcuffed her to a desk.

I never thought I would have seen the day myself.

Exhibit A           Exhibit B             Exhibit C             Exhibit D             Exhibit E

They were being so sweet together, which is always a welcome treat. J

Poor Daniel, I covered half of his head with my hair.

I like this one of me and Luke… and Daniel. Luke and I were taking our picture and here came Daniel! J

Today was Luke’s first day of preschool and he was beyond excited. He couldn’t get there fast enough.

He actually walked into his classroom this morning, found his name card and sat down to wait on the teacher. I couldn’t believe it! He had to have his teachers pull him off of me every day in the two year old room, so this was a great change.

He came home with happy reports about the fun, food, friends, games and songs from his classroom. I’m so happy that he had a great day!!

Last year on the first day:

Think he’s changed a little bit in a year? J

• I took a huge nap today and it was wonderful.
• I woke up with that ‘where am I?’ ‘what time of day is it?’ feeling though.
• I don’t like that feeling. Especially when my husband is heading out of the door and I can’t figure out where he’s going, because my head is still all foggy.
• I’m so excited that fall is coming up. Even though it’s like 105 right now, cooler temperatures are coming!

  

• Along with jeans and long sleeve shirts and pumpkins and yummy smelling candles and fun holidays…
• I should go and fix my family something for dinner. Too bad it won’t be salsa chicken and ranch florentine tostadas.