36 pounds.

36 pounds. Yes, that's how much One is weighing in at these days. This is the title because I have a lack of creative thinking this evening and Colin just had to move puppy from crying and trying to get in my lap while I tried to type. I was reminded by his struggle that One is extremely large. And getting larger. Just in this last week he has figured out how to get into the bathtub all by himself. So we frequently hear the water turning on all by itself and head into the bathroom to discover our ghost. Goober.

This little ghost moves around the house attempting to make a meal out of our pink chair or laundry hamper. The only two things he enjoys chewing (thank you, Lord!). Thankfully, this pretty pink chair and its shabby chic design camouflages his puppy teeth marks well...



Puppy love. One aspires to to be a hockey player one day. They don't have one of those Air Bud Hockey movies, correct?





We were fortunate enough to have a special person (and her precious puppy, of course) come and visit us last weekend. That's right. My bestest best friend in the whole entire world and her baby, Lucy. I guess that makes One and Lucy cousins. Although Lucy is small, she is packing. She is all muscle and held her own against One. It was such a blessing to spend the day with her and getting to have some sweet time before we go our separate, busy ways.



Last puppy update. Puppy Kindergarten. We attended our first class and received many tips as well as a treat holder with a belt loop hook. This treat holder has the same "coolness factor" as that of the fannie pack, so I guess it does validate Colin's strict adherence to NOT wearing it in public despite its super practicable nature. Perhaps that is why my hot pink Tweety Astroworld fannie pack went out of style.

Okay, school time. Promise broken: no pictures yet. I've actually changed things around a bit, but the pictures will be up this week! I love it. I think my kids love it. Speaking of kids, I have 19 of them. 19 wonderful, exciting, inventive, curious third graders. They are all so different - 19 different personalities, but all so sweetly unique. It has been a great week and the end of the week was really sweet because we are finally understanding how each other work. They know my high expectations and how much I love and respect them, and they will work for me because of that. They love our fun facts every morning:

Did you know that your teeth start growing 6 months before you were born?
Did you know that humans and pigs are the only living creatures that can get sunburnt?
Did you know that pink was the first color of bubblegum because the man making it ran out of other colors?
Did you know that a hummingbird weighs less than a penny?

Now you know!

Oh, and our Girls Bathroom pass was dropped in the toilet the second day of school. The really cute, handmade one I made using a large paint stick and wooden jungle animal. Which brings me to the most memorable quotes from the week....

Girl: "Mrs. D., I'm just wondering something..."
Me: "Yes, sweet girl?"
Girl: "I'm just wondering why all of my teachers are white."

[After the girl who dropped the bathroom pass in the toilet brought it BACK into the classroom [STILL WET] and laid it on the next girl's desk needing to "use it"].....

Bathroom Girl: "Ummmm here you go..."
Girl (appropriately responds): "Girrrlllll, why is this wet?! Whatcha lay this on MY desk for?! (chunks it across the room) SHOOT."
Me: "Just put it in the trash."

Not only did I take away sweet moments, funny stories, and lots of laughs and hard knocks this week as a teacher, I also brought home a yucky cold. I knew it was coming, but I just tried tried tried to keep it away. Failure. As a result, I am now accepting donations in the form of hand sanitizer. Me children are "germ juiced" pretty much every time before they breathe. One of my classroom jobs for the students is being our "Doctor" - making sure everyone is sanitized before making a move. I hope this pays off.

Side note. Colin and I made this quick and easy side dish with our "leftover" produce for the week to go with our BBQ chicken tonight and I have to share the recipe.



Bring water to a boil in a saucepan. Add green beans and cook for 4 minutes. Immediately remove and drain under cold water (this helps them crisp). In the meantime, back in the pot used for boiling, melt a little bit of butter (1 minute) and add sliced almonds, mushrooms, sliced red onions, salt, and pepper. Add olive oil as needed to keep from burning. Add green beans in 2 minutes before serving and Voila! Delish. So easy. Not wasteful.

Anyways, I am 1 hour and 43 minutes past my 9pm bedtime and the invasion of the college students back to A&M (IMAGINE!!) is making me anxious getting around town, so I need all of the preventative rest I can get.

Love.

P.S. Seriously, everyone put a grill pan on their registry. Any registry. Wedding, birthday, Christmas, baby, housewarming, ANYTHING. Just get one of these.
P.P.S. I never mentioned my better half. He spent so much time this week loving on me behind the scenes: making my lunch to bring to school (killer salads), doing the dishes, taking care of One, picking up dry cleaning, and writing love notes. Too wonderful.

YouTube Inspired

Well Happy Sunday to all. I write this anxiously awaiting tomorrow where I will officially start as a 3rd grade teacher during our inservices. Not that I haven't spent most waking hours thinking, eating, sleeping, "school" at workshops, trainings, and in my room, but I just love the officialness of tomorrow. Like I even ordered a school polo shirt and all. Legit.

As I write this, I am inspired by a sweet YouTube find by none other than the fabulous Hannah Dismuke (aheeeemmmm, my sister because if you haven't noticed, we share the same name....) Oh, and I have a sign outside my room that says "Dismuke". And yes, I still chuckle every time I walk by it.

Check this out:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYBuuz1izvs&feature=related

And this. Sorry, Jennifer Marie McCatharn, but who is Justin Bieber again?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-1rP-lI-Bo&feature=related

I'm at a draw as to dancing/singing/twirling with the dog/singing into a hairbrush when I listen to him. I guess that's what every singer dreams his 22 year old fans would do. He should be excited and mailing me a signed CD.

In other news, I found a haircut place that I LOVE. Since I'm married and technically live with my husband in College Station and have a job in College Station, I figured it was time to find a place in College Station. I get extremely anxious about things like this. I mean it's HAIR!! It doesn't grow overnight!! Well it does, just slowly. I got my hair cut and colored there and I feel like there is one thing in my life that doesn't stress me out anymore. I mean Priscilla can even cut my bangs the way I like them (gasp!).

In other news, this commercial makes me roll on the floor laughing, or ROTFL, for all of you tech-savvy individuals. Just something about it makes me crack up. Even if I'm the only one home. In t-minus 1 day I will say goodbye to television all together. Adios Old Spice commercial date, hello 3rd grade.
http://www.youtube.com/user/OldSpice?v=uLTIowBF0kE&feature=pyv&ad=5174223377&kw=old%20spice%20commercial&gclid=CNu926nEvKMCFRsNswod5SbCbg#p/p

Let's take a poll. Which direction do you hang your clothes? Like does the front face right or left? Because my husband does it wrong. I've recently realized that when doing laundry and putting his clothes away. I'm OCD like that and all things must face the same direction, so it's been a struggle letting him know gently this is incorrect. My OCD lets up during school because with lots of little ones touching your things, moving your things, using your things, you've just got to let it go. Thank the Lord for elementary school. I belong there.

Back to the laundry talk, I HATE FITTED SHEETS. Like how do you fold them? I still haven't figured it out. Confession: YouTube videos are no help at all. I told you this post was YouTube inspired. I have resorted to only using 1 of our 2 pairs of sheets. Like I take them off, wash them, and put them right back on to avoid the horror of folding them. When, on the rare occasion I do have to "fold" them, I roll them. Saves time, wrinkles, and bad words.

Puppy is growing SO much recently. Like sometimes I don't even recognize him. This isn't the same boy we brought home from the hospital, errr, ummm pet store. hahaha He has made me realize why I want NO children in our near future. He is still a total waterbaby. A few days ago, he had an accident while we were just finishing cooking dinner. He also walked in it, so I immediately took him to the bathroom and stuck him in the bathtub until I could get dinner off of the grill pan and bread out of the oven. 15 minutes later, I wondered where the little booger was.



Surprise. He was just chilling in the bathtub figuring out how to turn the water faucet on with his head. Genius I tell you!

As for food news, HEB has strawberries for $1.98 and they are GOOD. I am getting "berried out" for the summer because they are on their way out, but the ones they have now are good! So get to HEB and buy 3 packs like I did!

We had another little playdate outside with the pup. He loves being outside almost as much as being in the water. I realized I have NO pictures with our dog-child, so we took a few...



Did you know One was part rabbit?! Neither did we!




Next post (because I'm anxious and like to always know what's coming next): classroom pictures (because I HAVE to be done Thursday for Meet the Teacher night....I am the "teacher" part of that!! EEeeeeeeeee), chalkboard flower pots, One updates (duh), kitchen pictures. Annnnndddd I think my best friend is coming to visit with her new baby (by baby I mean puppy). Eeeeeeekkkk!

Faithfully.

Odds and Ends.

As usual, this blogpost is just word vomit. Sorry for the mental picture. I am having a hard time organizing my thoughts today for some reason and I have been keeping a short list (LOVE lists, duh) of odds and ends to remind me of what I wanted to blog about at some point in time over the past few days. I love to write, but in this busy season of life my writing has dwindled to shopping lists, to do lists, and love letters to my husband and best friends. So, here you have it, odds and ends.

Annndd now my husband is trying to convince me to watch an "iconic" football game from 1983 - BYU vs. UCLA. Negative. Moving on. Train of thought is slowly dwindling. I have spent the last week (8am-4pm) at a Computer Math training for my school, and have spent the leftover time attempting to get my room ready. It is slowly getting there. The only thing missing is kids. Our back room has been converted into an organizational haven.



Speaking of kids, we had a night last week where we got to participate in an outreach in the projects by my school and I got to see so many of my kiddos. It was so encouraging to see them and hear about their lives. I have missed that immensely. While I was walking some home, I was able to meet 3 parents of kids who are going to be in my class this year. As I was walking back to my car I noticed that pretty much every unit in the projects had multiple chairs on their front porches. I just loved that and the sweet fellowship that they had. I pray that though I might not always have chairs on our front porch, my heart would always be in a place to invite people to come sit and talk.

Speaking of kids (again), Colin and I's "kid" is growing up. He is definitely in the puppy stage, but is teaching me a lot about what training him means. It is such an encouragement as I am about to have a class that needs "training". Patience, unconditional love, and reflection consistently come to mind when I think about this season of life with this puppy. He absolutely adores Colin and almost knocks himself off of his own feet as he wags his tail whenever he sees Colin come through the door. He starts Puppy Kindergarten in 2 weeks, but is quite a bit ahead considering he has a Kindergarten-teaching mommy. He knows the words, sit, come, down, go potty, and no quite consistently. Sometimes I worry about him thinking his name is "No, One, no!" We are working on that. Like the day before yesterday he poured out an entire cylinder of uncooked oatmeal, running through the house with the container in his mouth. Or how while I was in the bathtub yesterday, he protested by ripping a bag of flour open and digging in. The combination of wet ears from the water and the cakiness of the flour was lethal and he got his wish of getting a bath. Here are a few pictures of his crazy self playing in the water today. For those of you who don't know, One is a total waterbaby. He does anything and everything to get in water. I even have to take a bath while he is asleep, otherwise he will cry, cry, cry until I put him in (after I am done, of course...don't think he is swimming in there with me).







I love this one...



Puppy likes the herb pots too...



Those ears get him in lots of trouble. Imagine those babies dragging water through the house...



Monkey grass is one of One's favorite things...




One and I had a visitor come and stay with us last week, and I think Onesie found a new best friend. Second graders make really great friends, y'all. Here is my sweet cousin, Zach, and One snoozing.



Oh, yeah. And Zach and his sweet momma brought us some fresh peaches from their recent trip to Arkansas. Let me just try to put into words how much I love peaches. Yeah, that's impossible. Let's just be honest, I have no shame in eating a peach. Juice could be running down my chin and I have no care in the world. Let's just put those peaches with strawberries and Blue Bell and I could pretty much die and go to heaven. Except I don't want to leave my husband and puppy quite yet. I might choose to lay off this obsession. Good thing peaches are about to go out of season.



Okay, last thing. I have a new obsession. Well, my list-making obsession is known to the world, but this organizational method is ridiculous. It is a day-by-day meal planner from OLLIBIRD. I usually have a list on my fridge, but this is an incredible chic, fun way to display, remind, and change with no worries (it's dry erase)! It's called the Scribble Menu and it looks like this:



I had it a 12x16 poster printed off at Kinko's for $15 and got a silvery frame from Hobby Lobby (frames are half off people!) And then my husband hung it in our kitchen for me. You can find it here if you want to download and make one of your own......
http://blog.ollibird.com/2009/04/menu-planner.html

Annnddd now my husband is serenading me to a Delta water faucet commercial. I need to go rescue him.