Blog in a Box (295-301)

Day 295


I came home to find Aaron cooked dinner for us- brats, beans, and cornbread. What a tribute to the autumn season!

Day 296



You get to see this exciting picture of a copier because that was most of my view Wednesday night. The school's printers have been down for over a month and on top of that, the copiers went down. I therefore, commandeered Aaron's office for the evening.

Day 297



Today was the junior-high's homecoming and the fifth graders are invited every year to attend. Some of the activities included toilet papering teachers, pie-ing cheerleaders, and having a dance off in the middle of the gym.

Day 298



This weekend we planned on going to the West Texas area band contest in Odessa. Not only was Seagraves a participant, but one of Aaron's best friends is a director of a band that was competing. We drove to Stanton Friday night so we could help my in-laws move heavy furniture into their newly-built home.

Day 299



Aaron and I got to the competition in plenty of time to see both bands we were supporting perform. It was a lot of fun watching the different shows. My school growing up attempted two different times to have a band, and neither of them worked out. Therefore, I hadn't really been exposed to that world until I started dating my band-nerd of a husband.

Day 300



After such an exciting weekend, I was too sick to do anything, including church or catch up on grades. I have been fighting off a cold all week and it finally caught up to me.

Day 301



I am so excited to finally post this on my blog! I had been planning this for over a month but I couldn't say anything because my mom reads these (hi mom!).It was my mother's milestone birthday and I wanted to do something special for her. Unfortunately, I live 381 miles away and her birthday falls around report card time so there was no way I could make it. Instead, I hosted a surprise birthday for her. I sent my dad a "birthday party in a box" with instructions on how to put it together. My dad, not being the "party guy" delegated it to my grandmother. It was a great turn out and I got to attend via Skype. I will post more pictures up once they get sent to me by various party attenders. Happy annual thirtieth birthday mom!

Your Name is Now Dorothy (288-294)

Aaron pointed out that it has been six months since the church voted us in as music minister. Time sure has flown by.
Day 288



I just want to point out the fact that I drew the United States to review for geography and everyone, including my kids, knew what it was. Don't ask me to draw Texas.


Day 289



Today was national boss day, so we had a Mexican fiesta for my Hispanic boss. I made mocha con tres leches. I should have taken a picture of the kitchen. Cleaning up was a lot more work than actually making it. After I baked the cake, I had to poke holes all throughout the cake and than poured this milk/ coffee all over it. My cake turned out to be less flat and more dome shape so the coffee concoction spilled all over my stove. I am still finding spots I missed.

Day 290



I went to small group by myself because Aaron was in Abilene recording for Singing Men of West Texas. Afterwards Lucy helped me clean my house. What is up with animals and vacuum cleaners?

Day 291



The fourth grade invited us to watch their demonstration of how sound moves by putting a tray of cornstarch and water over a loud speaker. I wish I could show you the kids on here because one of the kids I had to crop out had a face of pure joy while he was watching it work. To better explain of what we were watching, here is an example on youtube:



Whenever Aaron got back into town, we turned around and drove to Midland to meet my brother and sister-in-law. It was my sister-in-law's high school reunion so they stayed with us in Seagraves. We were so excited to see them. It was really cold at the game, so we didn't last long. I did finally get my first pumpkin spice latte of the season, and it was heavenly.



Day 292



Today I was really wanting to make some kind of fall snack and I found this recipe for "scarecrow mix." I kept calling it "monkey" mix and I kept calling my great-aunt "Dorothy" instead of "Doris." I think this is a sign that I need to watch Wizard of Oz

Day 293



My brother and the only Fiat in West Texas drove back home to Round Rock today. He was not looking forward to that seven hour drive and I can't blame him. That's why we are overly-excited anytime we have visitors. It's rare someone has an excuse to come to this side of the world.

Day 294



We finally took Lucy on a walk. It was one day in a long time where we weren't too busy or it wasn't too cold or dark to go out.

Irreversible Delete Everything You Wrote Into the Depths of Despair button (274-287)

This is my second attempt at writing this thing. I got about 80% done and apparently there is an "irreversible delete everything you wrote into the depths of despair" button. I clicked it, threw the closest object to me (thankfully it wasn't the puppy), got ice-cream via Aaron and Dairy Queen, and here we are.

274



It was homecoming week and today's theme was nerd day. I went as Amy Farrah Fowler. I think one person got it, but that is what you get for working at an elementary school.

Day 275



Today was a day of 2's. My kids like to give me Mexican candy to try. This particular morsel tasted like jolly rancher and caramel. Also, one of our deacons gave us and the pastor's family free pumpkins.

Day 276



We haven't gone on our normal walk in a week or so and our neighbors have noticed. We attempted to go today, but the sun sets a lot earlier than in the summer.

Day 277



Homecoming day! We had an early release so our kids had an earlier lunch. That means I taught for a total of 1 1/2 hours. We also had a parade after. Most of my kids were on one of three floats. They were so excited to see me, they showered me with candy. By showered, I mean chunked candy at my head.

Day 278



Today was "Celebrate Seagraves." There was a softball tournament, a car show, and a lot of booths. Aaron and I took Lucy and had good timing to be put in a dog contest at the last minute. Lucy won second place because she didn't know any cool tricks. Next year, Seagraves. Next year.

Day 279



Today, some of the teachers went to Lewisville for a conference. The elementary teachers were in a bus together. It was so great to talk to other teachers to hear what they were doing in other grade levels. I think if you put us on a bus for two hours regularly, we will eventually solve every other problem in the world.

Day 280



Everyone was assigned a table so we would be with different people other than our district. We had to come up with a metaphor for what "the learning platform" looks like. We said it was like a restaurant where the students are the customer and they get a choice for how they want the content (curriculum) served.

Day 281



We all went out to eat at Saltgrass. Sorry for the blurry picture. I haven't found a "cool" way to tell people I blog.

Day 282



We got back to Seagraves around 8:30. Aaron and I went to the one of two restaurants that are open about this time. This is actually a picture of Mexican Coke in my kitchen but I figured it was close enough because we always get Mexican Coke at this restaurant.

Day 283



Aaron and I were invited to a small group in Denver City. Some of the teachers at my school go there and have been inviting me for seven weeks now. We really enjoyed going and it was nice being able to hang out with people around our age.

Day 284



We had to postpone going to a Hardin-Simmons homecoming another year. Aaron got sick with a stomach bug so we watched Netflix and went to bed early instead. Next year, Abilene.

Day 285



We took a spontaneous trip to Lubbock to do a corn maze. We had amazing timing. We got through the maze just in time to go on a hayride and see a bunch of pumpkin art. The maze had different points with number markers. For example, we would go through part of the maze and try to find a sign with the number one on it. Depending on the category we picked, we would answer a question and go the direction the answer we chose told us to. We got through the maze pretty quickly by picking the path with the least amount of people on it.

Day 286



The choir sang today, so the men were putting the modesty railing up. Being a minister's wife requires one to be flexible. Today I played soprano, sound guy, and piano accompanist. The ironic thing was that we were talking about being so over-involved that we can be distracted from spending time with God.

Day 287



Pardon the dirty floor. This is Lucy's room, so it tends to get the dirtiest. I swear Lucy is getting quirkier and quirkier. We usually find some random sock or underwear outside but today we found that she has tried to take everything in her room outside. This resulted in a huge pile of junk in front of her doggie door.