What a Way to Spend a Lunch Break

I'm sitting here in the quiet of the first grade classroom. It's rarely this peaceful in here, and it's wonderful!
The happy hustle and bustle is wonderful too :)

I've spent my break reading over old posts from the blog I kept before we were married. It's so fun to reminisce!

I love reading back over the things I wrote that I was looking forward to...and thinking "Oh yes! That is wonderful."

God took such amazing care of both of us--preparing us with hearts to love and serve another. Reading through that blog again reminds me how truly blessed we are.

Thank you, God!

http://bethanyeliseblogs.blogspot.com

Bless You!

My favorite moment from Friday came when the kids turned in their spelling test moments after they had taken it. One of the little guys came up to me, and when he handed me his paper, I noticed that there were drops of moisture spattered on it.

"Sorry, Teacher," he said, wiping his mouth with the back of his sleeve, "I hachooed on it."

Such a Sweet Idea

I just saw this on This is Reverb's blog, and I love it!

I'm putting it here so that in a few years, I might be able to do the same thing.

Kate, I'll be calling on you as my photographer!

L-O-V-E

Here is the finished project.

How cute is that?!?

Feeling Oh-So-Productive in a Not-So-Prioritized Way

There are dishes in the sink, baskets of laundry waiting to be folded, a bed that didn't even get made today, and a dinner that never happened tonight (besides Pops! cereal...) but I'm home alone and taking a night to refresh!

I went to JoAnn's Craft store after school today and was blown away by the sales. I was there last week and eyed a few items I wanted, but decided to be a good girl and wait until my coupon was active. Boy, did I score today! All of their rubber stamps and accessories were 30% off, and I dug right in to make some fun cards. I've been itching to do it for a while, and here's where patience pays off :)

So, while everything around me sits in heaps waiting for attention, I have spent the entire night making even more of a mess with papers scattered everywhere, in addition to layers of ribbons, decorative scissors, new rubber stamps and old, embossing powder, adhesive, ink pads, and a glass of water that has been threatening to spill all over everything tonight.

It's been so wonderful!

I needed that. I think too often I come home and stress about how the house should look, or stay at school until I'm too exhausted to do anything but sit with the computer in my lap until Jesse comes home. It's been a long time since I had a good hearty night of craftiness.

Also, I finally had time to listen to some podcasts my friend Paris had passed on to me. I listened to three of them tonight while I made cards, and I feel so refreshed! Growing up, I thought I'd never say this, but I miss sermons that were more than 15 minutes and really went in-depth on something I needed to hear. First, I was just listening to Ryan Detzel's sermons, but then through his website, I found other podcasts that were equally fulfilling.

Anyway, I'm also really enjoying the blog of the pastor who makes the podcasts. You should really check out his website >>This Is Reverb<< It's just an all-around wholesome site. He's a husband, a pastor, and a dad to two adorable little ones, and his insight on God in our lives is inspiring, humorous, and laid-back. I think I need that.

Well, I got the call from Jesse, which means he is on his way home! Good thing he loves me and won't be upset about the lack of housework and the over-abundance of craft supplies sitting on our kitchen table!

Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other. Psalm 85:10

LORD, you establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished you have done for us. Isaiah 26:12

Birthday Pedicures and Sushi

Since our birthdays are two weeks apart, Momma B and I like to celebrate together by going out once a year and getting pedicures. We have so much fun!

I drove out to Redlands on Tuesday as soon as my last little kiddo was picked up, and met Momma B at her house. We got in her car and went to Papillon Beauty Spa. It is such a nice place (lol, because my knowledge of spas is so great after having 2 pedicures in my life!). Mom treated us to the most luxurious package, and we got to enjoy over an hour of pampering! Foot baths, scrubs, even a paraffin wax foot masque. That was amazing.

It's so interesting to me how talented people can be with a little bit of polish and some sticks. See how cute our toes turned out?




I'm completely inspired. I'm a big do-it-yourselfer, and if there's a way to recreate this at home, I'm bent on figuring it out! I went to Sally Beauty Supply yesterday and bought the same white and silver polishes that they used on my toes. I also bought bottles of bubble bath, foot scrub, foot masque, and foot lotion to be able to do at home what they did at Papillon.

Only problem is, now I have the things to do it all, but super cute toes I don't want to mess up! I already asked Jesse if I could practice on him, and got a resounding no. He's still not happy about the last time I practiced on him before realizing we were out of nail polish remover! I'll have to see what Kate's up to this weekend... :)

Anyway, after our pedis, we went out for sushi at a new place by Mom's house. It's a much more modern/stylish place than our beloved Miyako's in Glendora, but the food was really good. We shared a crunch roll, an ozeki roll, and a spider roll, and decided that we really don't like soy paper. Mental note for next time. Ozeki was the only one that had soy paper, though, and the other two were so good! The ozeki would have been really good without the soy, so next time, I would just ask them to make it with regular old delicious seaweed wrap.

We had such a fun night! I really lucked out in marrying a man who has no sisters--his mom spoils me rotten! We have a blast being girls together :)

Birthday pedicures and sushi--can it get any better than that?!?!

Our College Girl, Kate!

I helped my sister Kate move into her new dorm at Azusa Pacific University last week.
She drove down to Rosemead and picked me up at school, and then the two of us drove up to Azusa together to get her registered and set up her new dorm.

Here we are on our way!



To reduce the risk of embarrassing her on her first day, I was forbidden from taking any pictures on campus, which is why I don't have the cliche first day of school pics of her standing in front of APU's sign, or smiling with her new dorm key, or posing in her room. Sad day.

Jesse came and met us at APU and stood in line with us while we waited to get her dorm key. It's so nice that our church is only 5 minutes from Kate's new school! Jesse is excited about being close by whenever Kate needs something. I'm excited about having her within half an hour! (And you can rest assured, Kate, I will be bombarding your dorm on Sundays!)

After we got her all set up in her dorm, she came back and spent the night with us. We had fun teaching her how to play Settlers of Caton and watching her favorite show, The Mentalist. It was a great night! I was bummed to see her go the next morning, but I know that having her this close will mean we will get to see her more often. (Or at least, I HOPE so. We live half an hour away from Jon-the-bum too, but he never comes to see us.) I say it all with love.

Dad, Mom, and Laura came out the next morning with all of Kate's things to officially move her in. I was working at school, so I wasn't able to be there, but Jesse helped and they got things all set.

On their way home, Dad, Mom and Laura came back with Kate and Jesse to our house for an afternoon of "Let's Eat Pizza and Avoid Labor Day Weekend Rush Hour Traffic." It was lots of fun!

The following is a study on Kate and Laura:
I almost didn't include these because they're blackmail-esque, but Laura made a special request. Here you go, Louly! Don't blame me! ♥











These girls are two peas in a pod. I honestly don't know what they'll do without each other! I can't wait til Laura gets her license so that she can come out and visit often!

September 11th

It's been eight years, but I remember exactly where I was.
I was 14, a sophomore in high school, and was sick that day. As the rest of my family packed up and left for school, I sat on the couch watching again and again the only footage they had so far: smoking, crumbling buildings, people jumping from floors high above the ground, reporters running away and hiding behind cars as the towers imploded.

As I was sitting in front of my class at Circle Time this morning, I thought about mentioning it before we said the Pledge of Allegiance. Then I realized that not a single one of them was alive that day. In their little five and six year old lives, do they even know about it yet? My heart was heavy today with remembering. They were lighthearted and giddy because it was Friday. What a strange difference.

Wondering what my feelings were 8 years ago, I just pulled from my bookshelf the journal I kept in 2001. Here is an entry from the day after our lives changed.

Wednesday, September 12th, 2001
Our country is under attack. Yesterday, America was invaded by terrorists, and thousands of innocent lives were lost...I saw the entire thing on the news yesterday, and I just couldn't believe it.

I watched as the second plane crashed into the tower and blew up. The whole building caught fire. People were running as fast as they could, trying to escape. Others jumped from the building. It was the most horrifying thing that I have ever seen.

Then, the tower crumbled. All 110 floors of it came crashing down, along with the several thousand people who were captured in the flames. It was a scene that I will never forget.

There is a cloud hanging over New York City. A cloud of smoke and debris. It is a reminder to all of us how hateful we can be. Don't the people that did this to us realize what they have done? Don't they realize that they have killed thousands of innocent people? I don't understand how they could be so hateful, whoever they are.

Thousands of people were killed yesterday. Thousands of moms, dads, brothers, sisters, and grandparents. Thousands of people who won't be coming home tonight, and why? Because there is hatred, and sin, and they were the victims of it.

I don't understand at all.

An Airforce general said that this was worse than Pearl Harbor, and that it is the beginning of another war. Will this start World War III?

Right now, I'm in my mom's classroom. I can hear the music students downstairs singing the Star Spangled Banner. Their sweet voices fill the room patriotically.

We are proud to be Americans. God bless America!

Bethany Elise, 2001

:)

Hopefully you don't tire of reading about cute little first graders, because I have lots of stories!

Today, I had the students do a creative writing piece where they had to draw a picture and then tell a story about what they would do if they were bears. The story their Language Arts unit is on right now is about a bear who lives in a treehouse, so I figured it was ample ground for the imagination.

I was excited when Scott came up to show me his work--an entire page filled with writing! It was a big step for a little guy whose imagination is so big that he rarely finishes his assignments instead of staring off into space and daydreaming. I looked at the page, but so many of his words were spelled phonetically (and boy, can first graders be creative with sounding things out!) that I was really at a loss as far as reading it aloud myself went. Instead, I said "Wow, Scott, that's a lot of writing! Would you please read it to me?"

This is where semantics can nip you in the rear, because the response I received was,
"Yeah, I would, only, I can't. You're the one who knows how to read--not me!"

Adding to the List

This afternoon as we were getting ready for lunch, one of the first graders tapped my side.
"Mrs. Rulebreaker," she said, still tapping on me, "I need help tying my shoes."
Another girl walked up, put her hands on her hips importantly, and informed the other girl, "Evelyn, it's not Mrs. Rulebreaker, it's Mrs. Rudebaker!"

Not sure how contortions of my name went from sweet and innocent "Blueberry," "Bakery," and "Blue Bagel" to Mrs. Rule Breaker and Rude Baker in a single day!

Also, here's my irony for the day: the same child who asked me during Writer's Workshop this morning how to spell "read" is the same one who corrected my spelling of Webkinz (how would I know it ends with a Z instead of an S? I had to look it up online to make sure I even really knew what a Webkinz was!) But yes, my first graders can spell Bakugan and Webkinz, but not "read."

What a world, what a world!