Hands Down, Best Husband EVER.

If I had to rate my husband, out of five stars he'd get six. On a scale of 1 to 10, he's 100. He gets 3 thumbs up. He is just, hands down, the best husband EVER. This has been the most interesting, exciting, difficult, surprising, and wonderful four years of my life. I just don't know exactly how to put it all in words, but as I hear the helicopters flying overhead, knowing my husband is flying one of them tonight, pride just fills my heart and makes it all worth it. Each day I am reminded of how patient and kind and loving Adam is. When I met him, it was as if my heart had finally found a home. Last year, when he was deployed I felt like a nomad with no home wandering for months just waiting for a place to finally rest my head. And though he is gone at times, I have never doubted for a moment his love for me. I am so blessed that God has given me this man to love me and teach me and show me how much He loves me. Here's to many more!

Has It Really Been Over A Month?

Oh my goodness has the time flown by since my last post. The list has been finished and many, many, many more lists have been made, crossed off, thrown away, or misplaced.

Adam has been plugging away at the squadron, flying, studying, and learning his new job in the S-4 shop. He's also been busy every night working on his first grad class through American Military University. There is nothing planned for the squadron at the present moment, which I know is frustrating for the pilots, but perfectly ok with me for now.

I've been planning and teaching away while also working on one of my last grad school classes. (I just have to finish this year.) Our county just went through district re-accreditation and, of course, Stateside was one of the schools visited. Everyone prepared their rooms, their lessons, and their bulletin boards for the visit. The school was shining and spotless, everyone had put up their student's best work, and we were ready to show off all the awesome things we do at our school on a daily basis anyway. It was wonderful and exhausting, but totally worth it for the shining report the county recieved. You can check it out here: http://www.jdnews.com/news/school-73244-first-achievements.html

Now we are into a cold and rainy March and I am so ready for Spring Break.

Lists

I am a list person. I make lists. On any given day you can find lists in my purse, on my desk, on my refrigerator, or in my phone. Lists of things to do, things I want to do, or things to buy at the store. I buy colorful post-its or pretty pads of paper just for my lists. I like being organized and I like to accomplish many things in a day. I like getting up, making a list, and crossing things off of it. I like making a list and including things I have already completed just so I can cross it off the list and feel accomplished.

Today I sat down to make a list. Laundry. Check! (It was already in the washer), lesson plans, blog, bills.....Then, I coded it. I made a star for things that were time sensitive and MUST be done today. I put a mark next to the things Adam could do for me. I circled things that could be done simultaneously. (I LOVE multitasking. I am one of the most efficient people I know.) I felt so accomplished and like a huge nerd. (I pretty sure Adam was thinking what a crazy wife he has.) And I have spent the day completing tasks on my list. I feel pretty good about it. Although, with all the lists I make, I might spend more time making my lists than actually doing the things on them.

I have flowers!

In the midst of the freezing temperatures and empty trees, my garden is yielding these beauties:

Thank you God for the winter-blooming camellia.

He's Home.

Cowboys and Indians

This week at school we hosted a Literacy Night. In an effort to get parents involved we have started a Parent University and try to offer workshops. This week it was about reading with children at home. In the classroom we worked on projects for Read Across America, where each grade level got a region of the U.S. and read books related to that region. Third grade was assigned "The West" and I chose cowboys as our theme. We also tied it in with our social studies unit on Native Americans. So my students studied the Navajo, made slideshows, models of hogans, and read the book "The Toughest Cowboy". I stayed at school until 7:30 two nights in a row, allllllll week we worked on our cowboy character charts, cowboy paragraphs, and prepared our room for visitors. I also got to dress up like a cowgirl, boots and all. Here are some pics:

In other news, as I write this, Adam is making like the Pilgrims on the Mayflower and heading West. He is due to arrive quite soon and I could not be happier. I've spent the last few weeks cleaning and buying him presents. It's been a long year of training and deployment, but I have to say, God has been merciful and loving throughout.

Wasting time...

I was enjoying a conversation with a friend the other day when the topic of Facebook came up. She asked how long I had been friends with someone on Facebook, and I responded that it had been about 4 years. She said, "Has Facebook been around that long?!"

Yes. It has. In fact, I have been on Facebook since 2004. Five years of my life spent on Facebook. I wonder how much time I have actually wasted checking profiles of friends and aquaintances? Probably as much time as I've spent right now writing this post instead of finishing report cards for tomorrow.

Loving and loathing Facebook all at the same time.

P.S. Here I am at Facebook headquarters in Palo Alto, January 2008.