Sunday Gratitudes, a day late

I haven't done these for a while, so I think it is high time I get back into it!

1. I'm grateful for the chance to fly to Phoenix to spend time with my family as my parents renew their vows for their 25th wedding anniversary. :) It is going to be a fun time and I'm looking forward to see my sister Katie. She's very pregnant, so that will be a fun thing to see too. :)

2. My girls are both healthy, and happy. Faith is steadily improving in school and Jamie is excelling. How blessed I am to have two such wonderful girls.

3. I recently started making a menu for the month, and am suprised at how much easier it is when dinner time comes and I know what is for dinner! I'm thankful that I'm able to feed my family and that it is a little easier now that I'm a little more organized. :)

4. I'm grateful that my husband has a good job and that this job can move us down to Phoenix so we can be closer to my family. In a little over 2 months, we'll be in Phoenix! :) I'm so excited.

I hope all is well with you. I'd love to hear what your grateful for! :)

Some of my Favorite Things

These are some of my favorite things:

To Drink:



To Wear:



To Eat:



To Watch:



To Wait for:

Falling down the hill

Ok, now that I'm 40, I'm falling down the hill that I went over last week. And it seems like I'm falling fast! I'm patiently, okay, maybe not so patiently, waiting for my Oregon Teaching certificate to come in the mail. They are still processing certficates that were received in December! Mine was received at the end of January, and expired in February. Luckily they gave me an extension until the end of school.

Next, the rolling down the hill continues. We are trying to clear our storage shed of all the clutter we haven't needed, but still want. This means that we are going through a lot of boxes and bringing everything to our house to store in our garage. The movers, which are coming in June, don't go to storage sheds. YIKES! We are about 3 months away from moving! I'm sure those three months will go by fast. It sure seems like a long time from now.

In the meantime, I'm enjoying the friends that I've made here and trying to have a 1/2 way normal life for the girls. Jamie is still taking piano lessons and Faith love to play with her friends. Life is going pretty well, even with all that rolling down the hill. :)

Standing at the top of the hill!

I'm standing at the top of the hill! I'm looking down at where I'll start walking in two days. YIKES! I'm about to turn 40! Where did the time go? I don't feel 40, and I don't think I look 40. I sure don't dress like a 40 year old. Should I dress like a 40 year old? I like my converse, and vans. And the kids seem to relate to me better when I wear those shoes. :)

I don't mind turning as long as I don't have to act like it or look like it. :)

On my way to being a teacher in Arizona! and Oregon.

I am almost finished with all of the assessments I need for my Oregon certification. I passed the PRAXIS and Special education assessments. Now I just need one more assessment on Child Abuse prevetion and anit-discrimination.

Luckily these assessments work for the state of AZ as well! Whew! I want to take my assessment to be a high qualified Reading specialist as well before I get my AZ certification. I am pretty sure I need to take one class, and then I'll be set for AZ. Wahoo!

Joe is coming back from Holland tomorrow. Then he'll be off to Phoenix some time in March. We'll follow him in June when school is out. Which as of now is June 10th. There are a few days they can add on at the end of the school year if there is money. This is highly doubtful in my eyes. And why bother! It is the end of the school year, it isn't like there is a whole lot of learning going on the last few days of school anyway.

2 NY's resolutions

I have two resolutions for this year. 1 will be helped by me moving to Phoenix. I want to better my relationships. I have already started working on this by calling my mom and sister more often. I need to call people more often. I've been very lazy about this.

Number two is to try to get my triglycerides down by March. I am going to schedule my 80,000 miles check up, aka my 40 year check up. That's right! In March I'll be 40! OMGOSH! I would like for my doctor to be happy about my cholesterol this year. :)

So what are your resolutions for this year? Do you have any?

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! I think we all need to remember what this holiday season is all about. It isn't about the presents, shopping, trees, decorations, etc. It is about the time we can spend with our families, and most improtantly the birth of Jesus Christ. Without His birth, He couldn't have died for our sins 33 years later. And without that, we wouldn't be forgiven of our sins. It is through this grace that we can be assured that we are going to Heaven. Praise God.