ice ice baby

You're welcome for getting that song stuck in your head now.

I got a lovely text at 6:22 this morning that school was cancelled due to icy roads. Apparently there was a decent amount of freezing rain last night that left a layer of ice on everything. This was fabulous, as it was just about time for me to roll out of bed and shuffle lazily into the bathroom to get ready for work.

So I rolled over and shared the good news with Husband, who grumbled his response in jealousy. We cuddled in bed until he had to get up, and then I went back to sleep on the couch when he left. I can't say that I've been super productive today. I got a little work done for school, and write down a big to-do list of all the ideas I've had in my head the last few days pertaining to school. Other than that, I've worked on getting my 10,000 steps in for the day and got some quality TV time in.

And I've thoroughly enjoyed spending some time with this nugget today.

That little white nose...gets me every time!

That makes this the 4th day of school that's been cancelled this year. And it's not even February yet. We've officially used up all our days, and are giving up professional development days in the spring now too. Any more days we miss will have to be made up. So as much as I love surprise days off like this, I'd prefer not to have any more. I have over 20 days of personal time that I can use if I desperately need some time off.

Until next time,
xoxo wife

the vintage radio.

Ty had been out of town all week for a work conference, so I was super happy to have him home this weekend! He had to work on Saturday, but only for a few hours. Then we spent the rest of the day together. We headed out to a vintage shop we'd tried to get to a couple weeks ago, but was closed. This time it was open and we shopped around a bit.

Everyone's been talking about this shop a lot lately, and I was really excited to check it out. And while it does have some neat things, I wasn't as impressed as I thought I'd be. It's not the kind of place I'd go very often. I did however, love this view and asked if we could hang a canoe from the ceiling.

While walking around, Ty found an old vintage radio, that was actually still in working condition. He's been talking about wanting one for a long time, and the price was right, so we got it. I wasn't too sure about it at first, but once we got it home and found a place for it, I kind of really love it.

And Ty's pretty pumped about it too.

Enjoy your week!

xoxo, wife.

100th day of school and an impromptu dance party at 6:00pm

Alas, the 100th day of school has come and gone.
I know I've said it before, but I just love the 100th day.
I've done the exact same things every year for 4 years now...and it never gets old.
It's so exciting in fact, that I didn't even take pictures to document a lot of it.

But I got a couple.

I channeled my inner "old lady" and headed to school in this get-up.

But my friend Emily clearly outdid me!

We did tons of stuff with the number 100, but like I said, I only got pictures of a couple things. Here we are making necklaces with 100 fruit loops.

It's always such a crazy day, that I end with my favorite quiet-time activity at the end of the day. I challenge the kids to write their names 100 times. In 4 years, I've probably only had about 10 kids actually finish. This little lady was one of them!

Please excuse the nasty tape marks on this table. We just got new seats which means I took off the old name tags. It's embarrassing...but I have WAY more to do in my day than scrape gunk off my tables.

When I got home I wanted to wash the gray outta my hair, but I figured I'd workout first. I put some music on my phone and got ready to head downstairs to the treadmill. But the music was good. So I ended up having an impromptu dance party in the living room/kitchen. It lasted over an hour. And was way more fun than any other workout I'd planned. At the end, this is how I was feeling.

Still gray...and now sweaty. But it was worth it. Look!

Boom. These are my stats for the day. As of 7:26. Blew my goals out of the water. And now at 7:37 I'm showered, in jammies, on the couch with a book and tv, and plan to stay here until it's time for bed.

I see more impromptu dance parties in my future.

But if you plan them...I suppose it's not impromptu, huh?

xoxo, wife.

stuff lately.

I was sitting on the couch Saturday, trying to convince myself to run some errands. Except those errands (grocery store and teacher-supply store) didn't sound like a whole lot of fun. Then I got a bright idea: I could go to Hobby Lobby! But only if I did the other things too. And suddenly I was off the couch and in the car!

I had only planned to look around and maybe get a few knick-knacky things, but when I got there...the whole freaking store was on sale! So naturally I decided to re-do the wall in our living room.

Here's what the wall looked like before.

I liked it...but after 4 years I was ready for something new. So I walked around that dang store for two and a half hours trying to pick out things I loved that actually all went together. This is what I ended up with:

I kind of really love it. And so does Ty, which is also a plus! And all of this was LESS than $100!

Monday was MLK day and so the Hubs and I both had the day off. We spent the entire day prepping and installing our new washer and dryer!

We got them for free from a friend of my in-laws. They're really nice, and I've been doing laundry non-stop...it's so fun! (For now.) We are super blessed and grateful for such an amazing gift. 

While Ty was working on hooking up the washer, he asked me to bring him his slippers because it's terribly cold downstairs. As I was carrying them down, I slipped at the top of the stairs and fell down 4 of the stairs. Now I have a sore body and a bruise that looks like this:

Yeah...it hurts.

One last thing: tomorrow is the 100th Day of School. I used an app to make all my students and I look like we're 100 years old, and tomorrow we're going to write about what we'll be like when we're 100. I wish I could show you all the kiddos...it's so funny! But since I can't, you're just stuck with 100 year old me:

All I have to say is, Ty is one lucky duck!

xoxo, wife.

saturday date day

The Hubs took Saturday off to spend the day with me. He said I could pick whatever I wanted to do and we'd do it. I planned to mostly run around to some local vintage/antique shops, grocery shop together (very rare), and a movie at home, because there were no good movies out at the theaters.

We slept in, then got up and ready to go. The day before had been a snow day for me, so Ty had taken my car to work. He'd left his truck key on the island for me in case of emergency. When he got home that night, he ran out quickly to snow blow before the pizza guy showed up with our dinner. He grabbed his truck key to run out and grab his coveralls. He didn't end up wearing them.

When we were heading out to our first shop on Saturday, he realized that his truck key was missing. Long story short, we looked everywhere and determined that it was lost. It must have fallen into the snow somewhere. The only extra key we had was one that opened the door and turned on the interior of the truck, but wouldn't turn the engine over. The dealership told us we needed to have his truck towed there so that they could make new keys for us.

We called the Tow Guy and he came over to load Ty's truck up and tow it over there. Soon we'd be going to our next shop.

But then the belt on the tow truck snapped. No big deal! The Tow Guy will fix it up soon and we'll be on our way!

Except that the Tow Guy couldn't fix it on his own. So then he called his dad to come and help him. An hour later, I was starting to lose patience.

Turns out Tow Guy's dad wasn't much help. Another 30 minutes later, we were still waiting.

We waited a total of 2 HOURS in the house waiting for the Tow Guy and his dad to get this fixed. They figured out something else that was broken so we followed them to the hardware store where they said they'd fix it and then we'd FINALLY be on our way.

We waited another 30 minutes in the car at the hardware. It's a good thing we didn't have anything that we HAD to get done that day. The Tow Guy was pretty young and almost started crying when it was all said and done. He apologized over and over and told us he wouldn't charge us. He was just so happy this happened with nice people like us instead of some crabby guy. He seemed like a nice kid.

We were finally on our way. We stopped at two more shops (one of which was closed, because it was getting late now.) Then we went out to eat at one of my favorite restaurants, then did our grocery shopping, stopped at Dairy Queen for some ice cream, and came home to unload groceries, put on our comfies, and watch our movie. I wasn't feeling the best throughout the day, due to a cold, so I went to bed right after the movie. 

So that was our Saturday. And this ceramic dove was our only purchase. I've named her Felicia. She likes her home next to Mama Owl (Eleanor) and her two children (Peter and Phillip.)

Today I've spent the day on the couch being lazy and trying to get rid of this cold before going back to work tomorrow. We've officially used up all our snow days, so let's hope we don't have any more this year!

xoxo, wife.

dear husband,

Thanks for doing all the "crap" stuff. You know, all those things that I say are "the man's job."

Thanks for snowblowing in the sub-zero temps.
For pulling the hair out of the drain in the tub.
For calling plumbers or anyone else who has to come out and work on stuff at the house.
For getting the mail when it's raining or snowing.
Thanks for paying the bills and student loans.
For mowing and trimming.
For changing lightbulbs...especially the ones over the garage door. So it's not dark when I come home at night.
For fixing things that need fixed...or hanging things that need to be hung. Basically doing anything that requires a tool of some sort.

I was thinking the other day that if God forbid anything ever happened to you, I wouldn't have any clue how to take care of myself. Sure, I could clean the house, and buy groceries and stuff. But the house would crumble around me.

I guess I just want to say thanks for taking such good care of me. Those "crap" jobs are sucky. And I know it. But I appreciate that you do them anyway...because you know you're supposed to. Because that's one way that you provide for our family. I want you to know that when you do all those "man jobs" I feel cared for. I love you and I love that you do all these things (and more) for us.

xoxo, wife.

first purchase of 2015...

Other than groceries...
Oh, and gas.
Which, can we talk about gas prices for a second? I feel like an old person, talking about cheap gas prices, but I honestly can't remember paying under $2.00 in the 11 years I've been driving. So these prices are fantastic!

But anyway, instead of blowing all my Christmas money on clothes, I went and got something I've been wanting for about a year. I got myself a FitBit!

What is a FitBit, you ask?

Well it's an activity tracker that you wear on your wrist like a watch. Now it's certainly not the most fashionable watch I've ever worn, but it gets the job done...and then some.

It tells me the time.

It tells me how many steps I've taken in a day. (My goal is 10,000.)

It tells me how many calories I've burned in the day.

It tells me how many miles I've walked in the day.

It tells me how many flights of stairs I've climbed.

It tells me how many "active" minutes I've had (aka: exercise).

And it tracks my sleep patterns (my personal favorite.)

It tells me all these things right on my wrist, and on my phone. I can also check in on the computer.

I've only had it for a couple days, but it's motivated me to get up and move a little bit more so that I can get closer to the goals. Especially since some coworkers have "friended" me...now I feel like I definitely need to move around more, because they can see!

The most interesting part of all this is the sleep tracker. It seems pretty accurate so far. It uses movements (tossing and turning) as well as your heart rate to track how you sleep. It's been pretty spot-on with when I get up to let Abby out, and with how many times I feel restless in the night.

The bad thing is: if I have a bad night of sleep, it tells me.

Case in point: last night.

I could not fall asleep to save my life. So when I got up this morning, I saw this:

That's right. I got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. Now I'm a girl who NEEDS her 8 hours. And if I don't get it, I'm pretty cranky the next day. So the fact that I knew exactly how little sleep I got (and that I wasted a precious 15 minutes being restless) made going back to work this morning that much more difficult. But I made it through, and am still awake to tell about it at 8:30pm, and still going strong. 

Anyway, now that I've rambled on about this product (and I'm not even being endorsed for it,) I suppose I should get going. I've got rest to catch up on...obviously.

So that's my first purchase of 2015. 

Now I'm back to saving up for the next item on my list (and I'm not telling you what it is!)

xoxo, wife.

(Side note: my students were fantastic today. First day back after two weeks off and not one card flip. I love these kids!)

2015 goals.

(I've been wearing LIPSTICK on the weekends...wait, what?!" Color on my lips?!")

As I get older, I realize that I don't really like New Year's resolutions. For me it's like, "Hey...I'll SAY that I'm gonna do ________, but in reality I'm just gonna do the same old stuff I do every other year."

So I don't want to make a concrete resolution. But I will give myself a couple goals to work toward this year.

1. Make healthier choices.
I was general on purpose. I didn't want to say "lose weight." I didn't want to say "drop x amount of dress sizes." I didn't want to say "no more sweets." Because those goals overwhelm me. Making healthier choices allows me to take baby steps. Maybe it's only eating half of the cookie. Or eating pasta only 2 times a week instead of 12...who knows? If I take those baby steps, I'll be much more likely to attain other aspects of being healthier...like losing weight or dress sizes.

2. Get a bonus at work.
I did it last year. I'm hopeful that I can do it again this year. I feel confident that I continue to get better at teaching kindergarten each year. I love researching and finding new ways to teach old material. I'm so excited for the 3rd quarter to start in a few weeks. It's when we learn to read!

3. Save up money.
Ty and I each get a bi-weekly "allowance." This is our money to do with what we please. Now normally, that money burns a hole in my pocket and I spend it as soon as it's handed to me. This year, I have a few purchases that I'd like to make that are a bit more expensive than a sweater from Target. And as much as I REALLY want that sweater, there are things I'd like to save that money for. And sweaters in my closet that I could wear instead.

There are other things I'd like to accomplish in 2015, but I don't want to go overboard. These are 3 goals that I should easily be able to work toward and reach. If I make too many more, I'll fail myself. So we'll stick with these, and anything else will just be a bonus.

Bring it 2015. I'm ready for ya!

xoxo, wife.

hockey game 2014

On the last night of 2014, we attended a party with 10,000 other people. Okay, maybe it was a hockey game. And maybe my partner in crime (my sis-in-law) conveniently got the stomach flu a couple hours before we left. So then I was on my own with a hockey-loving family...with pretty much no one to talk to. (I did, however, get to sit by her empty seat AND we happened to be at the end of a row. This did wonders for my anxiety and claustrophobia. So thanks, Tara...you may have saved me from hyperventilating.)

Ty caught a shirt. And it wasn't even a cool one. He gave it to his dad. 

There was basically NO fighting...which is the only cool part of hockey. But there was ice cream...and I only had to wait 16 minutes in line for it. The best part is, we made it home by 11:40. Normally we're still on the road at midnight, and I have to settle for a quick kiss on the cheek so Ty can keep his eyes on the road. But this year we were able to get into our jammies and watch the ball drop. And I got a proper New Year's kiss. 

Goodbye 2014...it was grand.

xoxo, wife.

small glimpses of christmas

I didn't take too many pictures of Christmas stuff this year. But here are some quick glimpses into the holidays for us:

First up, Christmas at my mom and dad's:

It's all fun and games until your husband decides to knock over multiple Christmas trees. This had to be the highlight of the day. He was leaning down to check out what these fake deer were made of, and somehow managed to knock down more than his fair share of Christmas trees. This is after he'd repaired some of the damage.

Next up was Christmas with my dad's side of the family. This happened to be the only picture I got. My grandma with her kids (and a blanket of the kid who's in Florida.)

Christmas with my mother-in-law's side of the family.  I spent all my time much time talking, cuddling doggies, and playing with my niece, godson, and baby nephew.

Last up was Christmas with my father-in-law's side of the family. We had decided as a family to only get gifts for the kids this year. Ty's parents and grandma chose NOT to obey the rules though. :)

Ty and I cleaned house in Bingo this year. We took home the majority of these gifts!

Poor baby Silas wasn't feeling so well.

And that wraps up the holiday season for us. I'm hoping to take decorations down tomorrow and get ready to head back to work after the weekend. Time to get back to normal around these parts...and that includes not eating cookies, candy, and other various sweets 3 meals a day. Eek!

xoxo, wife.