So Much to Blog About... Friday

I love Fridays. Fridays just have a good feeling to them. Today my bright students earned a marble party. They collect marbles as a class through out the week for good behavior, correct answers, or showing Christ-like character. We set a goal of how many marbles we need to collect before earning an award. Yesterday they met their goal and today we had a bubble party with root beer floats and a bottle of bubbles for each student. I thought it would be a little warmer so after our treats and the boys popping all the bubbles the girls could make, we went inside to play.

Snow Much to Blog About... Tuesday

It seems silly that I get the song "Snow" from the movie White Christmas stuck in my head. Although I love the song's harmony it seems silly living in south Texas because we never get snow. Never say never (hey I think that's a song too right?) It snowed/iced for awhile. You know you're a teacher in Texas when the whole school is excused to "play in the snow." For a minute it felt like home in Colorado... for a minute. I was surprise to see the snow piled up on our doorstep. I really do like the Texas winters. They are such a relief from the harsh summers. The best part about Texas snow ... no shoveling!

So Much to Blog About... Monday

As a teacher a phrase I dread hearing is "Mrs. Estrada... what's that?" You know those words aren't good. Ah oh! A little girl in my class asked me this while we were in our daily reading groups. I am working with a small group of students at a table in the back of my classroom. Hanging beside me is a strand of paper lantern lights. These act as our "reading lights." "Mrs. Estrada what's that?" she said and pointed to the lights. Good question, I looked and saw something hanging off of one. "Oh it's just a leaf," I said trying to not draw any attention to it. But as they say in the NFL"upon further review" I saw what it really was... a BAT! Ok city girl here, does not like furry, small, creepy things. I like all of God's creatures I just like some of them better stuffed and bats would fall in this category. "Ok class clean up your desks and let's go to lunch." They responded "But there's 15 minutes till lunch." Once they all realized this they acted quickly and were all very obedient. Two teachers came to my rescue and captured it and released it. I have never seen a bat in my room before, but one of the doors to my classroom was taken for repairs and left off overnight. The bat must have gotten into to building and decided to rest on my paper lanterns that hang by my HEAD! Thankfully the next day the door was returned and it's safe to say we are bat free! You can be sure I make sure the doors are closed and locked before going home.

Shootout!!!!!

This is the video of our hostage situation tournament championship. After 3 rounds i was the ol' John Wayne!

And This is Love...

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD
THAT HE GAVE HIS
ONLY BEGOTTON SON,
THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES
IN HIM SHOULD
NOT
PERISH BUT HAVE
EVERLASTING
LIFE. JOHN 3:16

Happy Valenyine's Day

Baking Cookies to celebrate Valentine's Day for our Sunday school and youth group!

I wanted to take a cute picture of my valentine and I... but this is what I got.

Take Two... Our first Valentine's Day as Husband and Wife. We spent the day with a Family from the Midland Church. It was such a good surprise and a pleasure to worship with them this morning.

Some of her sweet tea...

This post I would like to talk about tea. Teas have been important in many different cultures and across many times. Even today I believe the "coffee break" stems from a need for a traditional tea time. Teas can be formal like in the day of Jane Austin or praised in country songs about good Ol' Texas. A few friends and I hosted a Jane Austin Tea for the girls in our youth group. We got to enjoy a formal tea setting and watched the new version of Pride and Prejudice. It was so much fun to plan and attend. My favorite part was talking and getting to know the girls better. Oh yes, and I developed an addiction to Chi tea now.

Living in Texas for almost a year now I have learned a few customs of Texans. For example, salsa is called hot sauce here. Another very important part of being a Texan is sweet tea. Now, in my Yankee ignorance, I thought sweet tea was iced tea with sugar mixed in. WRONG! After having lunch with some friends I learned the science and art behind brewing sweet tea. For homemade Texas sweet tea, the hot tea is poured over a ridiculous about of sugar instead of pour in sugar into the tea and mixing it. This way the sugar becomes one with the tea rather than just getting mixed in. Crazy, I know but there is truth to this method. I tried making sweet tea for my hubby and I today and this method totally worked. I have never made sweet tea this good before. I don't know if I will go as far to say I am becoming a Texan but I will admit that I am glad I can make a good cup of sweet tea... at least I can try to fit in. :)

Things we are looking forward to in 2010!

Here is part two of our top ten lists. This time it is a list about some of the things we are looking forward to this year. Again it is in no particular order and by God's grace.
1. Hubby's graduation in March
2. Celebrating our one year anniversary in March
3. Hubby starting his new job and schedule of five days on and four days off
4. Visiting family
5. Late nights with friends
6. Searching for/building a house
7. Growing closer as husband and wife
8. Paying off truck
9. Summer adventures
10. Serving our church