My Week At a Glance...

I feel like I just experienced my week at a glance. Whew! I'm very much enjoying my kids this year - each day proves to be a new adventure. We are having a wonderful time learning new songs, dances & games together. Since this is my sixth year at this school (seven if you count student teaching) I am very comfortable with the kids, my room, & my classroom management style. This in turn creates a much more relaxed music teacher & lots of fun/learning to be had by all!

This week we started Honor Choir with 100 elementary kids. I also began a 3rd grade choir where 80 kids showed up. I run it at recess time & the recess duty people told me only 25 kids were on the playground...that's because the rest were in my room. It was a LITTLE bit crazy, but they were so good & so excited that I can't turn any of them away...maybe they're on to me.

This week I will begin 4th/5th grade choir at both schools (I'm at one school all day & only teach choir at the other school). All of this plus leadership team create a busy schedule (not to mention my 18 classes twice a week) - but a very happy worker. :)

Sunday - Wednesday this past week Tim's dad was in town for a work convention. I came home from dinner with Jenny & Trisha Tuesday night to find the boys in the backyard (for hours) playing with lights & taking photos. Here is one of the photos from their adventure. I thought it turned out very cool - not sure how they did it, but neat-o none the less. Richard & Faith will be back to visit us again in November for our Veteran's Day concert with Master Chorus.



Thursday & Friday this week were spent working & getting ready to leave town. A very dear friend of mine, Linda, lost her husband to cancer a week ago. She & Dick (her husband) had asked a group of us from Willamette to come sing the Nunc (Chamber Choir's signature piece) for his life celebration service. The service was Saturday in Redmond, OR. It was a very nice service filled with words of hope & love about a man of God who lived his life to the best of his ability. It was such a blessing...
It was also an honor, as always to be able to sing with some of my dear friends from Chamber Choir. Although the circumstances were very sad we were able to sing together & make music as one of Dick's last wishes. I love those people & am so honored that we were able to serve Linda & her family in that way.

Not much to report for today. I spent the morning cleaning & preparing for the week. This afternoon Nicole & I went to Honey's house for a 'knitting bee' party. It was a great time of relaxing, knitting, eating snacks, & hanging out. Afterwards, I went to an AWANA meeting & then helped with AWANA. I'm hoping to head to bed sometime soon. :)

I just wish I had just one more day of weekend...

Choir Reunion

Last weekend (Sept. 14-16) was our Chamber Choir reunion at Willamette. What a wonderful time we had. Some friends I hadn't seen for 9 years - it was so fantastic to reconnect, make music & put together a concert in a weekend (oh, and exhausting too). We had SO much fun that weekend, I can't really even get into it, so I'll leave you with these photos...


Wonderful friends: Cullen, Georgina, & Nicole

Dr. Long (our choir director)

Yep, we're causing trouble...still

Reunion choir

...11-20...

Continuing on with my thankful list...

11. Warm sweaters for fall weather
12. Teachers that have inspired me
13. My experiences at Willamette
14. Good choral music (& music in general)
15. Talking on the phone with a 2 year old, 3 year old, & 4 year old...
16. Love notes from loved ones
17. Green Tea Lemonades with 3 pumps of classic - thank you Starbucks
18. Furry, friendly kitties
19. The color pink
20. E-mails in my in-box.

Thankful

As the weekend comes to a close - I thought I'd take a few minutes to update you on our festivities (or lack there of).

Tim came home late Friday night (hooray!) so Saturday we slept in until 10:00 - so great. We got up & went to Costco & Saturday Market. After the market we went to lunch at an authentic Mexican restaurant for tacos - they were delish. We came home & took naps (I love lazy days) & then got ready to have some friends over for dinner.

We had a great time with a BBQ & games with Jessica & Lucas. Jessica & I haven't ever hung out before & we found that we have a lot in common - it was a lovely evening.

Today started with worship team rehearsal at 8:00 AM (ugh) & then two services. The sermon was on being thankful. One of the challenges was to make a list this week of 50 things you are thankful for. I thought I'd use some of my blogging efforts for this list - but only for 10 items, not all 50....yet. :) So - here goes:

Things I'm thankful for:

1. God
2. My husband
3. My family
4. My friends
5. My home
6. My church
7. My job
8. My transportation
9. Food to eat
10. Sunshine

Wow - that was easy. I don't think a list of 50 things to be thankful for will take me very long. What are you most thankful for?

She's Here...

'Lil red is here! She arrived on Friday & has been riding around in my purse ever since.

I took her to school on Monday to use & she did great! I'm so proud of her. :)

The funny part is my kids have totally noticed that I have a new iPod. Almost every class has asked me about it including 1st graders. I keep the iPod at the back corner of my room on the stereo, so it's not like it's easy to view - they are observant little ones. :)

I have video on it too. AND...I just finished creating a play list for my choirs & for the month of September. Who knew I would love technology this much?! Thanks 'lil red.

On It's Way...

Hee, hee. Look what's on it's way to my house (in red of course - if pink isn't an option, always choose red - right Erin?)!! I can't wait...

Our Weekend...

This weekend my parents came over to visit. Hooray! My dad & I have been trying to plan a deep sea fishing trip since May, and this was to be the weekend. I've been looking forward to this since May, as I've never been deep sea fishing before. My dad offered to take Tim, myself, Laura, & Mark & my mom offered to watch the girls while we were out at sea catching 'the big one'. Friday on their drive over, my dad called to say that because of wind gusts - they had canceled the fishing boats for the day & to be prepared for that to possibly happen to us. We were all disappointed, but decided to proceed as if we were still on. Saturday morning at 7:30 (yes, that's AM) I got a call from my dad saying the boats were out - & we were off. Our boat was to depart from Depot Bay at noon. Remember that delightful little place?! I was determined to hold tight to my keys...

About 5 minutes before we arrived my sister & mom (who were in a car ahead of us) called to say that they had canceled the afternoon boats due to rough waters. Bummer!!! I was so sad - maybe next year I'll get to go. We'll keep trying...

We decided to make it a family day (great idea) & went to the beach to play, but not before buying some much needed sand buckets for the girls (or Tim) to play with. :)

We headed down to the water where the girls & Uncle Tim played for 1 1/2 hours. It was freezing down at the water with the wind gusts. If the wind hadn't been blowing - it would have been about 74 degrees & sunny - instead it felt like 52...bbbrrrrr! The girls had a wonderful time playing in the freezing water & completely soaking their clothes. Thankfully Laura had thought ahead & brought them each a change of clothes for after the water time.

After we were played out (or frozen out) we went to the outlet malls. I found a new black dress (love it), a white shirt, & some pants all for great deals. After shopping we had dinner. We went to sushi & Laura discovered that she did indeed like sushi. My mom ordered Chinese food (she knows she doesn't like sushi) & the rest of us ate until our hearts were content with sushi goodness. It was such a wonderful day spending time with my family. A rare occasion these days when we can all be together for the whole day (yes Hamilton girls, I'm a bit jealous of you sometimes). :)

Here are some pictures from our adventures. Happy week ahead to all!

Dad & Mom

Water babies

Little Miss Mia-Bia

Pretty...

This weekend I got my new 'pretty'. I'm a sucker for necklaces, braclets, rings, really anything that is shiny. I know, shocking. :) When Andrea sent me the link to this I about fell out of my chair! Love her stuff. I ordered one the next day & have been stalking the mailbox waiting for it's arrival. I chose one that says 'True Love' on one heart with our wedding date (07.17.04) on the other heart. There is also a fresh water white pearl attached. So much fun!

Weekend Update...

Well it's over & so is my summer - tomorrow the kids come back to school. Today I put the final touches on my classroom & I'm officially ready for them! Do you remember how you were both excited & nervous at the beginning of the school year? Well even as a teacher that feeling doesn't go away. I already know I won't sleep very much tonight & tomorrow morning I'll wake up bright & early ready to start this much anticipated day. I will have 8 classes tomorrow - so I'll be 'hitting the ground running' so to speak. Teaching year #6 here we go...

These photos were taken yesterday. We went up to Dundee to go wine tasting with our dear friends Tom & Mary. Tom will be celebrating his 70th birthday in a couple of weeks & so we took the opportunity to celebrate early with them in what turned out to be a beautiful & super fun day.

Flowers in the garden at Argyle

The four of us...


This turned out to be the only damper to the weekend. I received my first ticket - ever! :( Poor me - that's what I get for speeding on a holiday. And to make the story even better (& true) I was on the phone with my father as the officer was pulling me over. Great...
According to Nicole your 30's are for things you've never done before...I hope I don't do this ever again. I'm just thankful he didn't double my fine as I was in a construction zone...I don't even want to think about that...