What a Cutie!

A.J. came into the world today to prove that boys can really exist in our family!

Thanks, Cutie pie! Can't wait to see you in March! :-)

For more info, go to http://www.heathertyrrell.blogspot.com/ or http://www.naomicalle.blogspot.com/

Fuzzy's First Bath

"You expect me to do WHAT? You've GOT to be kidding me!"

"This is not how I pictured my Saturday morning. This is going to go very wrong very fast"

"Under the sea...do do do do....Under the Sea...do do do do"

(Michelle singing the tune from Little Mermaid)

"Do not apologize and bribe me with those treats. You call yourself my so-called daddy? I TRUSTED you!"

"Get that camera outta my face!! You think this is funny?!?!"

"I think I'm good for another five or six years"

"You are not helping matters. I shall re-cleanse and dry myself."

"What they did to me is now going to cost me hours of time refinishing my precious coat. I need to speak with my lawyer."

"Get me the h*** OUT!"

The end of the first semester

"Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."
1 Thess. 5: 16-18

Words I am trying to live by! :-)

The last couple days have been really nice in 1st grade. I really love my kids, and now we are half-way through the year. I feel like we are really starting to understand each other and have fun. I thought only the older grades could be this much fun, and I even talked to my principal this week about switching for next year but now I do not know. There is one boy in particular who is an absolute GENIUS and I so wish I could take credit for him but he came to me this way. I am getting ready for grading day on Monday and finally finished reading assessments today. He was my last one so I thought him and I would have some fun. This boy skipped preschool and headed straight to Kindergarten last year and he could skip 1st if they really wanted to. The only problem is he is so small and has not mastered full control of his behavioral impulses. Anyway, I tested him at an 8th grade level for reading and he got 100%. So then we tried 12th grade (he thought it was hilarious but I was in shock). I would say he got about 50% at a 12th grade level!It is so unnatural to see someone so small read words perfectly and he told me he had no idea what they meant. I just thought that was cool. All of my other kids are really, really smart too for being in First grade. I have seen such improvement over the past few months...it is really amazing to watch!

Counting on Snow

Today was my day off. Did I do much? Um...hmmm. No. Of course, the night is young. Once again, Bryan told me that he does not feel like going to the gym tonight. This seems to be becoming a pattern. I cannot blame him, however, since I just woke up from a nap and am still sortof out of it. Yes, I took a nap. Oh, and I slept in today. Am I lazy? Yes. I think it is because today felt like another day of winter break. But no, tomorrow it is back to school. On Friday I have an observation and have NO idea what to teach. That was today's project, but procrasination may also be my reason for the lack of progress today. I did order three boxes of girl scout cookies, however, so that is like a annual tradition that I was on top of today. Basically, I am now counting on a snow day this week. The temps have dipped down and they are talking about a good chance later this week. But of course, because it is IN the forecast, it will most likely not happen. Last week we had a teaser with a two hour delay due to ice on Tuesday morning. I just ended up going in to work early.

If you ignore my last statement about not going to the gym, I am doing well so far on my New Years resolutions. In general, I just need to get in a good pattern and keep going. Since Bryan is totally content with frozen waffles for dinner tonight (his idea), I guess I do not have to cook though I was planning a big meal. I am staying organized (overall..except for today and every night after work) with my time, I have been reading more (but also watching more of my new favorite tv channel E!) , I have been getting more into understanding finances (though lately I just put a load on my credit card again). Okay, so maybe I am not doing so well on my resolutions since I can think of direct contradictions right now to everything I just said...sigh. But it is only January 21, only 21 days into the New Year. I can do it!

In my last couple of blogs, I wrote about maybe going to Seattle and Texas. Well, I did and am doing both of them! Bryan and I left on Saturday morning for Seattle and got back yesterday afternoon around 3. I had a great time, Bryan liked everything except for actually being in downtown Seattle. We stayed at his sister's house and it was relaxing and fun to catch up with them and play with the kids. We drove to downtown late Saturday afternoon and evening and walked around the art museum and Pike's street market. We were going to ride the monorail to the Space Needle, but the monorail was broken. It was also pouring down rain and we were all poorly equipped for the weather so we got soaked! We ended up just hanging out in a mall for awhile before heading back to their house. When we got home last night, we just unpacked and ate dinner. My friend Brittany brought her car over for Bryan to look at and then her and I ended up going to see the movie "27 dresses" which is really cute.

I am now super excited for my next (solo) trip to Texas. Yes, I am doing this one alone and it is the longest and farthest I will ever have flown! I have a layover each way in San Fransisco, so I am hoping the good airport personnel there will be ontime and make sure I have my luggage! I will be there from the first Saturday of Spring break through the next Saturday. So, I will unfortunately miss Easter with Bryan and the rest of the families but his heart is not breaking so that is good (he is not that big on Holidays...even religious ones). I think having time away from each other makes a marriage better anyways, but that is not why he is not going. He just cannot get the time off of work. I am looking forward to seeing my sister Naomi's new house and the new baby boy who is due to show up any day now! Hopefully Bryan and I will be able to go together sometime soon...maybe Christmas?

Well, the smell of waffles is now wafting through the air so now I suppose it is my turn to go raid the fridge for leftovers! Have a good week and THINK SNOW!

I'm goin' to Texas!

YEE-HAW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay so I retract that statement...

So if I would have taken the time to delve into my memory from TEN and SIX YEARS ago, I would have remembered that I was a bridesmaid two other times before, for two of my sisters. And what an honor it was. Luckily they returned the favor to me not so long ago. I just meant that it will be the first time LATELY that I have been a bridesmaid, and the first time for a friend who is not a sister. My apologies.

My brand new bedroom

So this week I made some changes to our bedroom. First of all, I was SO excited to get new flannel sheets with red snowflakes from my mom for Christmas and then I bought myself a present with part of my portion from our kicker: a SoundSpa radio. It is the coolest thing ever. It has 6 different modes of "whitenoise" that are nature sounds, such as thunderstorm, summer night, oceans, etc. Then it has a projector that displays the clock and the outdoor temperature on the ceiling, and then the indoor temperature also displays on the clock. Plus it is a radio and an alarm clock. Then yesterday, I was out shopping with my friend Liz and totally stumbled upon a cool piece of art to hang above our bed that draws my bedding colors and my bathroom theme all together. And to top it off, I got a really soft and cozy pj set for under 10 dollars yesterday at Kohls! Since sleeping is my most favorite thing to do, aside from eating, it has been a good week for me! It has also been a good week for Fuz, who has recently become ADDICTED to wet food. We only keep feeding his addiction, literally, as we have bought over 50 cans for him. And Bryan is having a fantastic weekend as well, as his long awaited ECU finally came back to him in the mail with a new chip in it and some other expensive piece of plastic that I bought for him for Christmas and I have no idea what it is.

So the weekend has been a great one for our little family of three. Despite starting off feeling on the sick side (and we both still have headaches), we kept busy and got a lot done, helped out some friends and spent time with family and more friends. Tomorrow is my mom's birthday, so after church today we went to my sister's for brunch and visiting and then we came home and napped and then Bryan's brother and dad were going out for Buffalo Wings so we went along and now I am completely stuffed and no, we did not make it to the gym! The Christmas pictures came back and I am appalled at how big I look so we will definately be working hard to get back into the routine, though now Bryan is happily busying himself with his car.

This next weekend we are going to try to make it up to Seattle to visit his sister and the city but we have been saying that for awhile and life keeps getting in the way, so we will see! Bryan, as it turns out, is not a fan of traveling. He told me today he would be completely happy driving around Beaverton the rest of his life. So the "surprise" trip to the Hot Springs next month is therefore cancelled because it is a long drive and a lot of money for something only half of us want to do. I like to stay home too, but I would like to make a weekend trip or longer at least once a season, before we have kids. Since we were married the summer before last, we went to the beach for our honeymoon in summer, camping in the fall, Mt.Hood in the winter, then I think we skipped spring and went to Vegas and Cali in the summer, and then the beach again in the fall, so now if we go to Seattle this weekend we will have our winter weekend getaway complete! I will keep my fingers crossed...

Speaking of marriage, I read this week on MSN that somewhere in Europe a couple got married and found out later that they were actually TWINS separated at birth and adopted by different parents. Inevitably they had a bond that was mistaken for intimacy and passion but was actually that of the umbilical cord and it got me to thinking: If Bryan were actually my brother, and we were required to get divorced by law, what would we do? I asked Bryan this and he said he would puke if he found out he was sleeping with his sister and he would totally be fine with us being only siblings and the attraction would be gone. I, on the other hand, think I would be missing any future family gatherings because I would still be very attracted to my brother and that is very upsetting and wrong. Maybe it is because I do not have a biological brother and I do not have that intensity to vomit when I think of him as my sibling but I do know it would be hard to change my love for him as a husband to that of a brother and I do not think I would be able to see him again for a long time. I do not know if this story is true but it is definately bizarre and it just got me to thinking because you hear about marriages breaking up because of dishonesty and cheating, but not because people find out they are siblings...However, Bryan and I both carry strong resemblances to each of of 2 parents so I think we are safe...

2 other big pieces of news: My very good friend from college and grad school, Melinda, just got engaged so I get am very excited for her and I get to be a bridesmaid for the first time! Also, I am making good on my other resolutions (besides getting fit). I am happy to report that I cooked a lot this week AND I went to a financial planning class with my Dad. Woo hoo!

And Mom, this message is for you: I found a rip in my pants tonight. Do not be surprised if they end up at your house to be mended! It is just too bad I do not have time to learn how to sew...

Insight from Bryan

*Good-Fast-Cheap*
You can only pick two:

Fast and cheap isn't good.
Good and cheap isn't fast.
Good and fast isn't cheap.

Which one to pick?

Hmmmm.....

So I am sort of at a loss what to say in this blog. Unusual when you consider my latest rantings. I feel like this break has been two weeks and it feels like forever since I have been to our classroom. At the same time, I am not enjoying this Sunday evening wistfullness as I think back over the last two Sundays that I have been able to enjoy without thinking "Another work week starts tomorrow!". Well, it is back to business as usual I suppose, though I know this week will probably fly by! But I cannot tell you exactly what I have been doing the last couple of weeks except to say I feel like I got a lot done but at the same time there is more I would like to do. Thus, added to my resolutions: Figure out finances and stick to a program. Who knows the best way to go about preparing financially for the rest of your life? I guess I will go on and do some internet searching on this, my last day of break ,and you are all witnessing procrastination at its finest as I sit here and blog about how clueless I feel. I guess I could talk to a financial planner? Oh and not to mention, taxes are coming up too! Grrr....

I did get a chance to get some reading done over break and as my community group (Bible Study) has been finishing up a study on Proverbs, this verse stuck out to me: "The hopes of the godly result in happiness, but the expectations of the wicked are all in vain." (10:28) For those of us who know God and try our best to walk with Him daily, this is a joyful message and one that I found perfect to start off 2008 with. I know that when I have a lot of worries on my mind I can be hopeful and happy and rest easy knowing that God is there to handle it (if I do my best to have faith, which is not easy). But if you don't have a personal relationship with God how can you expect to handle all your worries and concerns on your own? If you do not love and honor God, the ruler of the Universe and the One in control, you will not be blessed and your efforts will be worthless. I don't know, just a thought...I do not usually go quoting Bible verses because I am not a Bible scholar and I worry about misinterpretation but if you are looking for good advice, Proverbs and Psalms is where you can go to find it.

Have a good week!

P.S. WHEN is it going to SNOW?!?!

Resolutions 2008

Things I am going to work on:

1) Save time by being a little LESS organized. (I have a tendency to write lists, then re-write and over-plan which results in frustration and time lost).

2.) Recipes: Find and implement. Low fat ones would be a bonus.

3.) Child-proof. Follow up with doctor for effective means (see last blog).

4.) Put pictures in albums rather than in a box. Added incentive: I recieved not one but two photo albums for Christmas.

5.) Read. My bookshelf and nightstand are currently overrun by borrowed books and periodicals I can never seem to get to (I have every issue from Reader's Digest last year that I have yet to read).

6.) This is the most important: Be thankful. See below.

Today was a good reminder to myself of how to be thankful. Bryan was all set to go to a dentist appt tomorrow morning. Something told me I should call and confirm this appointment. Surprisingly (sarcasm) the secretaries at the office messed up AGAIN and the appointment tomorrow does not exist on their records. Instead of being angry, I looked for the good in the situation. I am thankful that Bryan did not take unneeded time off work to drive all the way to Tigard to find this out. I am also thankful that this mistake afforded me the opportunity to call Bryan's boss to find out a little more about other dental insurance alternatives since we are looking to switch from this company.

Science has proven that stress and worry do a number on your body and ultimately your life expectancy. So for 2008 I am going to *try* to move my stress to the happy part of my brain that makes me more thankful. I have learned that in every bad situation you can always find several things to be thankful about (i.e. the common phrase: "It could have been worse"). Now, I am starting this year off with several stressors on my back (including the above mentioned beef with our dental/insurance provider, the stresses of parents and an impending observation at work later this month, and of course, finances...January would not be January without this stress as credit cards bills show up in the mailbox as sure as spit). So today I prayed this prayer that I felt compelled to share: Dear Lord, stress affects not only my health but the ability I have to have faith in You. Please forgive me for my apparent lack of faith. Please give me wisdom and discernment, as well as opportunities to face these obstacles effectively. Thank you. Amen.