The Rhythm and Dancing of Uganda, Africa

My sister, Annie and her husband Walt are headed to Uganda tomorrow. They will be spending two weeks taking pictures and video to help to spread the word of what is happening in Northern Uganda. This is a part of the world that is really suffering. Please be in prayer for them as they travel and spend time in this unsafe part of the world. Annie sent me this video tonight and I thought I'd post it for you to enjoy as well. How precious are these kids? They have got some SERIOUS dance moves. Here's the blurb: This is a music video from Uganda, in East Africa, where orphans can dance and praise God despite their suffering. It's a compilation of clips from someone's missions trip to the city of Kampala, where they worked in a children's village and in a local Christian church. Visit www.africagreaterlifemission.com for more information.

Oh Mexico

We're back from a wonderful vacation. It was a bit hard to go from perfect, 85 degree weather to cloudy and 53 degrees. I'll admit, I didn't have the best attitude at work today. However, the real world must continue. We had a splendid time and I have tons of pictures to show for it. Too many, I think. I will most likely be doing this in shifts. Tonight, we'll start with a few favorites. I'm pretty sure I'm going to do an entire entry just about the food and another about the resort and the incredible service. So without further adeu, let's get this photo train rollin'...

Our last night in Mexico - eating at La Hacienda. Muy Bueno.


This is what I did for 5 days straight. (the laying out, not the pictures)


The sisters - waiting for a table at breakfast.


On Thursday night, we had our Christmas in my parents hotel room. Mom had brought her docking station for her iPod so we had the classics playing while we opened presents (Amy Grant Christmas, of course). Here is our 2006 Christmas picture. (the unofficial version) We also dressed up one evening and Walt (my brother-in-law/family photographer) took pictures of us all. I still don't have them (ahem, Molly), but when I get them I'll be sure to post the official photograph.


And these are my super-fun parents. Without them, this trip wouldn't have happened. My sweet grandma passed away in February and left my mom some money. Instead of just buying something, mom wanted to have an experience that included all of us, so they took us on a family vacation all together. We toasted to grandma numerous times throughout our vacation. We love her so much and miss her lots! Thank you grandma!


In my next blog post you'll find out the answers to these pressing questions:

How much guacamole can one person eat?
Do iPods survive dips in the pool?
Did anyone in our party wear a speedo?
How many times was I told "no" on this vacation?
Can you really order two steaks in one sitting?
How lazy can one person get?

Wish you were here...

viente y seis hours and counting...

That's right you non-spanish speakers. 26 more hours. (I am SO fluent) In 26 hours we will be headed to the airport to transport ourselves (and a bunch of our stuff) to Mexico. Riveria Maya to be exact. I will try my best to do a blog post from there, but no promises. Mrs. Sarah needs a vacation. I will if the mood strikes me.

I have parent-teacher conferences today and tomorrow and then I'm outta here. Currently, it's 10:24 a.m. and I am still in my bathrobe. I love this. One of my favorite things about not going into school at regular time is that I can lounge in my p.j.'s as long as I want to. Quite possibly one of the best things ever. However, working from 1:00p.m. to 8:00p.m. is NOT one of the best things ever. Yes, we had to rearrange our schedules so that our parents could come to the parent-teacher conferences. I, however, have to go in even earlier because I have left my room in shambles. On Friday, I got the wild idea to rearrange my entire classroom (with the help of one of my teaching assistants). I was really excited about it until about, oh 4:10p.m. Then, I just wanted to go home.

Any of you teachers out there know that the last day before break - when the kids leave, YOU leave. That is the best feeling in the world to say goodbye to your students as they board the bus and then skip and jump (in my case hobble) to your car. Sweet freedom! A whole week of no students! I did this, after I had moved bookshelves, desks and huge binders. So, today I'm going in early to make my room look presentable and scrub the crayon off of my table. (I've got a lot of faith that the magic eraser will help me do this)

Anyway, I'm off. I hope you all have a fantastic Thanksgiving! Enjoy your turkey and stuffing. I'll be feasting on tortillas and salsa.

'Ole!

Lots of things, really

In my absence of blogging, life continues to go on at break-neck speed. So much has happened. Wait, it is too much, let me sum up. (can you name that movie?)

1. Mimsies meet Trim and Fashionable, Trim and Fashionable, meet Sarah. Bloggers united at a Ohio Red Robin late Sunday evening with husbands in tow. Fries were eaten, stories were shared and friendships were strengthened. It was so great to meet Trim and her husband! You can read more about our experience on Mimsies' blog.

2. My life as a gimp continues. I've discovered that the stylish boot is about 1 inch higher than my other shoes causing some delightful back tension. Oh well, at least my foot is getting better.

3. Our trip to Mexico begins in only 6 short days. It cannot get here fast enough! It seems that my students have caught on to the fact that Thanksgiving is coming soon and feel the need to be extra hyper. Only two. more. days.

4. Dave and I just went to see the Titanic exhibit tonight. They were offering a teacher preview night, so we both got in for $5 each. It was an amazing exhibit! There were all kinds of things that they recovered from the bottom of the ocean. It was fascinating to see actual money, china, clothes and letters from the ship. I highly recommend it if it comes to your area!

5. We made a fun purchase last weekend. After much saving and even more researching by my techy hubby, we went and picked up one of these. The best part? We got wireless! I can now lounge on my sofa under my favorite blanket and surf the world wide web in complete comfort. I can get used to this!

6. I've been working on an adoption portfolio for some friends/family. It's been a fun little project. This has been consuming a lot of my "after work" time.

7. I haven't forgotten about showing Halloween pictures - I just haven't had time to get it all together. Maybe over the weekend. I better stop building it up. We weren't THAT funny.

8. Dave and I joined Netflix a few weeks ago. LOVE IT. Go to check the mail and, oh what's that? A movie right in my mailbox? Thank you very much, Mr. (or Ms.) Mailman. When we're done, we stick it back in the same envelope and put it out for the magical Netflix fairy to whisk away and return with another that WE picked out! We have already watched Inside Man (some language but good) and Nacho Libre (quite funny, actually - lots of good one-liners).

Nachooooooooooo!

Look! A new shoe!

I have a stress fracture. I don't know how I got it. Weird? Yes, it is. My foot had been hurting for two weeks when I went in to see the doctor this past Monday. He x-rayed it and found a stress fracture. "Are you a runner?" he asked. No. "Are you a dancer?" No. I wish I had a good excuse for something like this, but I just don't. I haven't even worked out since school started back! My theory: one of my sweet kiddos in my class might've stepped on my foot at some point and I just don't remember it. Gosh, I don't know. I got a bone density scan yesterday to see if I have any problems there. I should hear back from the dr. in the next few days. In the meantime, I get to wear this stylish boot for three weeks. THREE WEEKS! That means I'll be sportin' this look to the beach in Mexico when we go over Thanksgiving with my family. Sigh. It's going to look great with my swimsuit.

Do you know who I am?

Ok, so it's 10 year reunion update time. It was actually fun. There was a great turnout (about 1/2 of our graduating class) so it made it interesting to say the least. Friday night consisted of Dave and I calling up our good buddies, Zach and Lisa. We were NOT going to do this alone.



We went everywhere together that weekend. "Safety in numbers" was our motto. We headed to the Homecoming football game where we had a whirlwind of ,"Oh my gosh! I haven't seen you in forever! What are you doing now?" type of conversations. The next day, there was a family shindig at our park in the middle of town. Here we could all show off our offspring and really see each other in the light of day. (It was very dark at the football game)

The prize for most kids went to the Herods (Dave was my prom date my Junior Year of high school). In 10 years, he and his wife had 4 kids! No one else even came close to them!



I got to see my best friend in high school, Brandy, and meet her husband, Chris. It was so fun to see her! We were partners in crime all through junior high and high school.




One girl had the nerve to come up to Zach and ask, "Do you know who I am?" Zach (being a no-nonsense kind of guy) said, "no". Then she took off her sunglasses and said, "Does this help?" Again, he answered no. How can you do that to people? Come on! Take note: this is a cruel thing to do to someone at a reunion. Never, ever do it. My cousin, Joanna was there too. It was great to see her!



Then came Saturday night. Oh, Saturday night. You have to understand where I grew up. Small town (about 7,000 people) in rural Arkansas where the nearest mall is 1-1/2 hrs. away and the nearest airport is 2-1/2 hrs away. So they had this get together planned on Saturday night at the Elks Lodge. One word to describe this place: shady. We called up our partners in crime and added the Herods to the list. We were not going at this alone. We head out to the country where the Elks Lodge resides and pull into the parking lot. As we exit the car, we can hear "Ice, Ice Baby" blaring from speakers inside. One of the spouses threw out the idea that we could just turn back now. "We can't do that!", I shouted, "I hear 'Ice, Ice Baby' playing - I'm going in!" On our way in, we noticed a bunch of motorcycles parked out front - one of them being in the "Exalted Ruler's" spot. yikes! We just HAD to stop and get a quick picture.



It totally made me think of Chevy Chase when he goes into the biker bar pretending to sell real estate. (Harley Davidson of Harley Davidson Motorcycles) Anyway, I digress...

As soon as we stepped in the door, I realized why I had never gone to the Elks Lodge before. Dark, Smoky, Loud and overall very creepy. To our left on the wall behind a big stage was this display - reminiscent of The Wedding Singer.



Apparently, there was supposed to be karaoke something that night - it never happened...not while we were there at least. So we all make our way to a table that has red and black balloons on it (our school colors) and little votive candles. (oh, so romantic) We spent the next couple of hours visiting and observing that really, everyone is still kind of the same. Some people had changed a lot, but some were still doing the same ole thing. It was really interesting to see what 10 years had brought to our class. I'm really glad that I went. The spouses of our class were such troopers! Dave sat through hours of mind-numbing Mena "fun" and didn't complain. (much)



I did find it amusing that the people voted "Best Personality" (myself and another classmate) were the ones sitting back at the Elks Lodge taking it all in. I didn't really feel like being social once we got there. It was too weird. I just took it all in. I got up a few times to mingle, but I had a short leash. I would quickly come back to the table and the safety of good friends. Which, I think is ok.

So, that's it in a nutshell. For your viewing pleasure, I've got one of my senior pictures to show. (Please don't ask what I was thinking with these earrings. They went GREAT with my prom dress)



Oh, and Halloween was fun at our house this year. That's another post for another day...pictures to come.