poohgirl_156's Xanga

Some new photos!

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:29:39 GMT

This is Dan. He's my boyfriend. Yes, I finally have a boyfriend. He's a great guy. Look him up on facebook.

Another lovely picture of Miss Juanita and I at this past weekend's LWML Retreat in St. Pete Beach, FL. This was before our one fancy meal. It was really fun to spend the weekend with her once again.

This is my entire group of YWR Friends from this past weekend. Laura who is next to Juanita in the front row was a YWR with us last fall and it was great to hang out with her again. Also, one of the girls in the middle (Sarah) I met last year and we've talked online a lot and stuff, but we finally got to hang out quite a bit which was nice. And another girl in the middle (Alisha) is friends with Jerry and Lynette!

Here we all are dressed up like we were in our skit. JoAnn and I were shepherds which is why we don't have a wooly face. Weren't the masks cute?

I heart this picture! These are my girls! I love them so much and there is nothing that I love more than to spend the weekend with them praising the Lord. Seriously...I love Gayle and Carol! We didn't line up according to height like last year...

These are the ladies that Gayle and Carol know from our zone and a former staff member of St. Mark's. It was nice to see them and hang out with them some. They are extremely sweet ladies!

And these are from the car ride home...

This is Carol's left side. I saw this a lot on the way home. But when she turned to me, she looked like this...

She had a lot of cute dances to the 60s and 70s songs on the radio.

This was about all that I could see of Gayle on the ride home. She's offering some peace here. She talks louder than Carol naturally, so that is why I sat behind her. Carol's voice doesn't carry as well.

And that...is....all!

A Survey because it has been a while!

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 23:24:06 GMT

1. What color is your toothbrush? green

2. Name one person who made you smile today? well, there were a few...Gayle gave me a really sweet card that made my school day and then I got a smile from Dan when I first started talking to him

3.What were you doing at 8 am this morning? opening my door for my students to come in.

4. What were you doing 45 minutes ago? talking on the phone and eating my dinner

5. What is your favorite candy bar? Reese's Peanut Buttercup

6. Have you ever been to a strip club? um...no

7. What is the last thing you said aloud? "What else did you find that is interesting?"

8. What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Vanilla

9. What was the last thing you had to drink? Coffee

10. Do you like your wallet? sure

11. What was the last thing you ate? noodles with alfredo sauce, broccoli and chicken and a piece of dark chocolate

12. Have you bought any new clothing items this week? shoes on Thursday last week

13. The last sporting event you watched? a St. Mark's volleyball game on the 19th.

14. What is your favorite flavor of popcorn? kettle corn

15. Who is the last person you sent a text message to? Dan

17. Do you take vitamins daily? yes

18. Do you go to church every Sunday? yes

19. Do you have a tan? I live in the Sunshine State, of course I do!

20. Do you prefer Chinese food or Pizza?eh...

22. What did your last text message say? I'm glad.

23. What are you doing tomorrow? working and going to a party

25. Look to your left, what do you see? a bunch of stuff I need to put away

26. What color is your watch? a little gold and a little silver

27. What do you think of when you hear Australia? Kangaroos

29. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive thru? go in

30. What is your favorite number? 23

31. Who's the last person you talked to on the phone? I'm on the phone with Dan currently.

32. Any plans today? I'm home right now.

33. How many states have you lived in? 2

34. Biggest annoyance right now? not enough time in my day

35. Last song listened to? Carol sang something by the BeeGees at lunch today

36. Can you say the alphabet backwards? no...unless I am looking at it on my classroom wall

37. Do you have a maid service clean your house? I wish I did...right now!

38. Favorite pair of shoes you wear all the time? my black flip flops

39. Are you jealous of anyone? not really...sometimes I am jealous of Margaret's piano skills

40. Is anyone jealous of you? Ha, they shouldn't be!

41. Do you love anyone? I love a lot of people...but there is this particular guy!

42. Do any of your friends have children? oh, yes, a lot of them.

43. What do you usually do during the day? work and eat

44. Do you hate anyone that you know right now? I don't hate anyone

45. Do you use the word 'hello' daily? Oh yes

46. What color is your car? gray

48. Are you thinking about someone right now? of course!

49. Have you ever been to Six Flags? no

50. How did you get your worst scar? I don't have any that are that horrible!

LWML Portland Convention and more...

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 15:09:14 GMT

This is a picture of my roommate and fellow Floridian, Juanita! We spent the entire convention together and she is such an amazing person! Here we are at our dinner with President Jan Wendorf who reminded us that we are all princesses because our Father is the King! Honestly, I have never really thought of that, and it was really nice! That is one thing from the convention that I will never forget! Juanita and I are already planning on going to our district retreat together and future national conventions!

This is a picture of Crysten Sanchez who I worked with at camp many years ago! I was really excited to see that she was also going to be a YWR at the convention! I didn't have much time to sit and talk to her, but it was really nice to see her! Check her out on facebook because she has made some of the most gorgeous looking cakes! She has a real talent, people!

Here's a picture of Juanita and I working on our servant event project. We tied quilts and we met some really awesome women while doing this! It also has me thinking of some great service projects that I could do with ladies of my congregation!

Here's a picture of the ladies that I hung out with during the convention. What cracked me up is that most of them are nothing like the people that I normally hang out with, but they just loved that I am from "Hollywood". They are amazing children of God! Tina, who is standing on the left side of me in this picture, is a friend of Margaret's from college! It really is a small lutheran world!

This picture is not from the convention at all, it is from the night before I left. This is Margaret and I when we went to see STOMP for her birthday! I wanted to surprise her and bring her to something musical, so I didn't tell her where we were going until we were in the parking garage! It was cute to see how excited she was! It was also nice to surprise her with a fun outing! She is an amazing person and I am truly blessed to have her in my life! As you can see, I was supporting the Johnny Cash outfit this evening!

The Birthday!

Mon, 25 May 2009 15:03:11 GMT

It is true, people, that Saturday was my birthday! I enjoyed my day quite a bit! I started my fun with spending some time on the phone with my parents and with my grandmother! It was quite nice. Then, Margaret and I went out and got haircuts.

Here we are showing off our haircuts that we got at the Aveda Institute. I have heard a lot about going there, but never been there. So, Saturday was the day. It was nice. Margaret had some coupons, so we got free haircuts. For the people being students, they did quite well. And they wear all black which I realized while waiting for Margaret is a very slimming color. I may switch to being Johnny Cash and wearing all black. We'll see!

After the hair fun, we went over to Joy's house and Carol, Darla and Christina joined us. We had a fondue party which I had never done before and it was a lot of fun. It was really nice!

Here is Margaret, Ronnie, Carol and Christina enjoying the fondue. In the front right corner, you can see Joy's arm. That is the only picture that I got of her that evening because she was always in the background.

Here is Darla and Christina enjoying dinner!

Then we played some games and opened gifts! I really dislike opening gifts in front of other people because I am afraid that I am not going to be as excited as they would expect me to be when I open the gift. I enjoyed all of my gifts and I don't think that they should have gotten me anything, but it was very kind of them!

I think that I am telling a story here about Brent and I at Sweet Tomatoes. That is the only thing that I can think of that I would have had everyone looking at me so intently. Christina helped some with the gift opening!

Then we had cake. Joy slaved hard to make me this gluten free cake which was really hard and wasn't as pretty as she wanted it to be, but I loved it because I could eat the whole thing and not worry about feeling ill later! Carol and Margaret were having a hard time choking down their pieces, but it was good!

I had a really awesome day and I was glad that I got to spend it with people that I really care about! They are wonderful!

The Talent Show and Stuff...

Sun, 03 May 2009 01:11:01 GMT

On Thursday, Lynette and Jerry were over and we had eaten dinner and Lynette was just sitting there and was like, "Do you have any yarn and a hook? Will you teach me to crochet?" and so, I did. Here is a picture!

Tonight was the talent show, so I played the piano again. I played "A Spanish Fiesta" and "Amazing Grace". Here is my awesome piano teacher and myself!

I was quite happy because I didn't stop when I messed up and I didn't shake my head. Both are very big accomplishments for me! I achieved my goal, I made my piano teacher proud!

Recent Projects and Upcoming Projects

Sat, 04 Apr 2009 20:43:59 GMT

So, I decided to write a bit about knitting and crocheting since I haven't really had that much going on lately, but I always am working on something.

Right now my digital camera is broken and my mom is sending me one for my birthday with my aunt when she visits next week! So, some of these have been taken on my cell phone. Pictures of my other projects will be added soon!

Here is a picture of a diaper bag that I made for Janine and Rocco's little boy, Caleb Joseph!

I found the pattern on the back of a skein of yarn label and thought it was cute and would give it a try! It was a lot of fun to knit. I didn't like the fur stuff that I used, but Janine was a big fan of that, so I used it on this pattern. It was relatively simple to make, but I did not enjoy sewing it together after it was finished! Janine emailed me to say that she loves it!

Here is a picture of a preemie hat that I made for Josh and Jamie's new little girl, Zoe! I used a pattern that I found online with hearts in it.

This was not a hard pattern at all if you are good with double pointed knitting needles. It was cute when I finished it because I was at book club and everyone got excited when I turned it the right way and got to see it! Jamie emailed me and said that she loves it and can't wait to put it on Zoe. I saved the rest of the skein to use as edging on a baby blanket that I am working on for Zoe right now. I will try to put a picture of that up when I finally finish it and get it in the mail!

This is a jacket that I am making for my aunt, Sharla, who is coming to visit on Friday. I made this pattern for myself in college and my aunt apparently loved it enough to ask me to make one for her, so I bought some yarn and got cracking on that. It was a lot of fun to make again because there were things that I did differently this time and it isn't nearly as long as the last one that I made.

I will let you know how she likes it when she gets here on Friday.

Some other things that I am working on right now are:
-a dishcloth and towel set for Lynette's birthday
-Zoe's V-Stitch baby blanket
-an afghan for Joy

I am soon going to be making an afghan for the Hoyum's also...I just picked out the pattern out of a magazine that Valerie has and I am going to knit Sarah some socks with some sock yarn that I bought for her!

I am also teaching a second grader named Samantha how to crochet on Wednesday afternoons. She is such a delight to teach! She really is getting a good grasp on it and is making her Barbie's a little blanket right now. I am trying to decide what I should have her work on next. I was thinking that she could just make a longer chain and make her dolls a blanket and then when she has finished that, she could start learning the double crochet. Then I will start her on reading patterns. That is so much trickier than people think! This has been really fun because it really makes me think about how I crochet and the things that make it what it is!

The Update

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 22:43:43 GMT

Well, it has been a bit since I updated. We had National Lutheran Schools Week this past week which had a ton of interesting happenings. My personal favorites were the volleyball game that the staff played against the middle school (middle school won) and mini-olympics/Grandparents day! When we were playing our VB game, I realized that if Lynette and I were ever on a sports team together growing up, I wouldn't like her, so it is good that we don't play in a sport regularly because I love that girl!

Then on Friday night after I got home from babysitting Christina, I got an email telling me that I am accepted to be the LWML YWR for FL/GA at the National Convention in Portland this June! I am really excited! I texted Carol to call me when she woke up on Saturday and she texted me back that she was still up, so I called her and was so excited to tell her and I didn't want to call Gayle because I don't know when she goes to bed. But I got to tell Gayle in person on Saturday when I picked her up for a meeting which was so awesome because she wrote my letter of recommendation and really has encouraged me to keep going with this! Gayle and Carol have been so amazing and so supportive with this that I can't even put it into words!

On Friday after Darla and Jason got home, Darla and I were talking about gardening because she has a nice garden out in her back yard. She was telling me that her secret was composting and I got to thinking, "Why don't I compost? I eat a lot of produce and various composting stuff." So, I decided that I will start doing that to improve my soil in my flower bed in the front yard. Perhaps I can grow some tomatoes, carrots, and peppers up there. Maybe even some onions and rutabega. Darla and I will have to have some more talks about this. Plus, my house plants can grow better with compost also. So, I am composing a plan.

I talked to my mom on Saturday and she hasn't been feeling too well and she is going to have some tests done on Wednesday to see what is wrong. Today she told me that she is feeling a little bit better and she just hopes not to have to have surgery.

I also went over to Joy's on Saturday and helped with Ronnie for a little while and worked out on the Wii Fit. I have lost a few pounds since I was on there last time. It was really nice to spend some quality time with them.

I went to BJs today and bought a good amount of food. I have a lot of broccoli to eat in the next few days, but I like it and don't mind eating it a lot. I might make Lynette a bit of the salad that she is so fond of with broccoli!

I am off to finish some much needed things! Blessings on your week!

Also, my camera died, so until my aunt visits in a month, we will be pictureless!

She Moved!

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:49:53 GMT

This is a picture of Brigitte, my assistant the last 2 years. She moved to California today! It was a sad day yesterday having to say good bye. She is such an amazing woman! I really got to know her and grow in faith in Christ with her. We went on a youth trip this past fall together and I just can't believe that she is gone. So, yesterday we had a big party for her in class. We had a lot of food and I had the kids draw her pictures that my room mother (who is beyond awesome) put in a scrapbook that just looked gorgeous! When she got the gift, she bawled! The kids drew her such great pictures!

This is the cake that one of my room mothers had BJ's make. Isn't it adorable?? I had my room mom's camera last Friday to take pictures for the scrapbook and she took this one. When we had the cake, Brigitte got to eat my picture! She thought that was pretty funny! The kids thought it was great that they got to eat each other on the cake!

Please keep Brigitte and her family in your prayers! She's so awesome and I am really missing her already and it is only going to get worse as we go back to school on Monday!

After my week-long break...

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 18:10:04 GMT

...I finally worked out again today. Normally, I work out every day that I have a break at lunch, but last week, I made every excuse not to work out...first I didn't feel well, then I walked to the library (does that count as a workout?) and had a meeting on Friday. Well, I realized that I need to keep going because I want to be fit and it helps my mental status and my confidence when I do this regularly, so I came home today and instead of doing the elliptical, I ran...and let me tell you...it wasn't so bad. I can do like 3-4 minutes without taking a break to walk and that is far better than I have ever been before. I am so excited! I am going to start alternating between the elliptical and the running to keep my butt in better shape! Hopefully I can keep this up...

...and I can thank this all to Alison who said, "You have an elliptical. Do you use it every day? I would if I had one." and i thought to myself, "Why the crap don't I?" and have been pretty good about working out since then! Thanks, Alison!

A Sentimental Christmas

Sat, 31 Jan 2009 16:52:27 GMT

This past Christmas was quite the emotional one...I got the most sentimental gifts from a lot of wonderful and loving people in my life who show me Christ's love in all that they do and say and I would like to share some of these things with you!

When I had completely given up hope on being able to take piano lessons this year because of my funky work schedule this year, my dear friend and piano teacher, Margaret, gave me a very sweet Christmas adult piano book with a really sweet message written inside "Keep making beautiful music!" which brings tears to my eyes because a lot of times I feel like all I do is badger Margaret about when we can have piano and what songs I want to learn...etc...etc....etc... and it was just great to see that she was telling me to not give up and that we could make piano work. She's a great friend!

This past summer, I taught Valerie how to crochet so that she could help her daughter, Sandy to do it. Well, Valerie is the one who actually took a true liking to it and enjoys spending her time crocheting and watching movies like I do. Well, Valerie has been having a hard time because her husband and her split up and she has 2 girls and for Christmas, she gave me a pair of crocheted slippers (which were perfect for MN) and told me how thankful she was that I taught her to crochet because it has helped her to get through a lot of the things in her life. Enough said.

Then I received a beautiful, homeade picture frame from Joy and Ronnie with a baptism picture of Ronnie in it. I will have to take a picture of this one to show you! He's such a sweet and adorable boy!

Jerry and Lynette gave me the most wonderful and adorable Christmas gift. They gave me this adorable Santa Claus that is supposed to hold a bottle of wine and when I opened it up, Lynette told me to open and look inside, so I did. Inside was 2 packages of gluten-free baking flour because she knows that I miss making cakes and muffins and other baking things. Then I opened the other box and found a CD that they had made for me of Lynette playing piano and them both singing! It is so beautiful! No one has ever made me a CD before! I am going to try and upload one of the most beautiful songs on there that brings tears to my eyes.