MERRY CHRISTMAS!

May you all have a very Merry Christmas, celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior!

Pantene

Emma was ready for a change. She has been asking to get her haircut. Last time she had it cut, she was in Kindergarten and she cut off 12 inches and donated it to Locks of Love. Since then, she has been growing it again to donate it yet another time. Today she had 8 inches cut off and we will donate it to Pantene. This is the same organization I donated mine too. We have both done this in honor of my friend Marcia, a breast cancer survivor. Here are just a couple of pics I took with my phone since I forgot my camera.

Insomnia

So it is the middle of the night and I am awake. I don't like it when this happens. I woke up coughing. Now I sit here on the couch, watching Touched by an Angel, typing on the computer, listening to the rain. Or is it sleet? Which ever it is, it is loud. And so I sit.

Thankful

I have a lot to be thankful for. My list could go on forever, but for now, I will just write 10 things I am thankful for (and they are in no particular order)...

1. I am thankful that God loves me. And that God gives me grace daily.

2. I am thankful for my wonderful family. I have a great husband (who is also my best friend) and the two sweetest girls ever! :-)

3. I have great parents that live right behind us. They make great neighbors! :-)

4. I am thankful for my sister and her family.

5. I am thankful for ALL my family - near and far!

6. I am thankful for great friends - near and far!

7.I am thankful for my job. I work in a great school and I have a great class this year.

8. I am thankful for my house.

9. I am thankful for my car - love that FIT! :-)

10. I am thankful I live a relatively peaceful life.

No Cure

I have decided that there is no cure. It is hopeless to think that one day it will get better. There is never going to be an end to it. No matter how hard I try to manage it, I just can't get ahead of it. The laundry is never going to be done. It will continue to pile, and though I do load after load, we still wear clothes and therefore add to the piles. However, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I must say that I am thankful for clothes to wear and for washing machines and dryers that do most of the work for me. I can't imagine walking down to the river, scrubbing in the cold water, and laying my clothes on top of rocks and bushes to dry them. No thanks. I am just fine with my Maytag. And today that Maytag is getting a workout!

Fall Break

Fall break was great! Dave and I got away (without kids) for a few days. It was wonderful. :-) We left right after school on Tuesday and drove to Gatlinburg, TN. It was a long drive, but well worth it. We saw many beautiful colors and sights in TN. Here is just one of many photos. We had fun walking, shopping, talking, eating and being quiet. We came home on Friday so that we wouldn't miss Halloween with our girls. It was great time away. I miss it already.

Seasons

The calendar says it's autumn. The air really has no idea what season it is - since it skipped summer this year. But there is a crispness in the air now that wasn't there a few days ago. The trees are showing signs of change. So with that, I decided today it was time to switch the girls closets... pulled out the long pants, put away most of the shorts... pulled out some long sleeves and packed aways a few tank tops...

I am ok with autumn. I am ok with spring and summer... but boy am I dreading the fact that between autumn and spring is winter... I am so not looking forward to that!

Friday Night

Wanna know what we are doing on this Friday night?

The girls - playing upstairs

Dave - asleep on the couch

Me - on the computer

It is hard to handle all the excitement here in the Toevs house. :-)

Teacher

I am fully back in the swing of being "Mrs. Toevs" all day. I now have five weeks under my belt. I finally have some sort of rhythm going in my classroom. I don't feel quite as overwhelmed as I did in the beginning. There are still moments of stress, but overall, it is much better. I have a really good class. I am thankful for the group I have.

Family Night

Last summer we started a "family night". We picked it up again this summer and it is now our summer tradition. It has been something to look forward every week. Our activities vary (but often include ice cream!) and we try to do something that we all can enjoy - hence the ice cream. :-) A few of our favorite things to do have been: Ivanhoe's, Family game night at home and shopping at Lowe's and each one picking out a plant for the yard.
Emma planned tonight's activities. We went to Meijer and got ice cream cones first. Then the plan was to go to Tractor Supply to look at horse tack - remember, Emma planned the night! She was disappointed when we got to Tractor Supply and found that it had just closed. So we ended up at K-Mart and the girls were excited to find horse t-shirts in their favorite colors (aqua for Emma and pink for Anna).
I hope we continue this tradition and that as the girls get older, they will still enjoy it. For now, I will cherish them being young and still wanting to hang out as a family. :-)

What's new...

We decided to take advantage of Obama's "Cash 4 Clunkers" plan. We traded in our '97 minivan and got more for it than we originally paid for it. Not a bad plan! :-) I never really wanted a minivan. It just made sense at the time (when gas was around $4 a gallon) to not keep the Jeep Cherokee. We did improve gas mileage with the van, but with Obama's deal, we have improved even more! And we didn't have to sacrifice too much space to do it... ok, we did give up a couple of seats, but I now have a much better vehicle - well worth the trade! I bet you're wondering what we got, huh?
First I must start with a story... it all started back in 1992. My dad bought a GREAT car that eventually became mine (the payments became mine too!) I LOVED that car! I got married and Dave also loved that car... until it was totalled in 2001. We have spent the last eight years missing that car. So we made the best attempt to replace it.
The trouble is, that it was a Honda Civic Si Hatchback, and those are no longer made in the states. So, we found a car very similar - a Honda Fit Sport. We got the same blue exterior and black interior. We bought a manual transmission because that is what the Civic had. We are loving it. And let's face it... it looks way cuter than any minivan. :-)

Getting Ready

I have started getting ready for the upcoming school year. I am excited for what lays ahead. I made a trip to the teacher supply store and was totally overwhelmed. There is so much that I don't have anymore. I have gotten rid of a lot of stuff... mostly because I didn't want to move it across country when we moved 7 years ago. I gave some stuff to Dave when he went from teaching middle school to teaching elementary. This feels like my first year all over again... starting from scratch. The only difference this time is that I have some idea of what I lack. My real first year, I was too ignorant to know what I was missing. :-)
As overwhelming as it is, I am enjoying setting up. It is fun to once again have a classroom. I have a lot of work to do, but I know that come August 11, I will be ready for those little kiddos.

My new job

It has been forever since I have blogged. A lot has gone on since April. For starters, I got a new job. It officially won't start until August, but I have already started getting ready. What is it? Well, I will be teaching Kindergarten next year at Westview. I am going back to the classroom after an eight year leave. I am excited and nervous all rolled into one.

In other news, Emma has now completed 2nd grade. She is already calling herself a 3rd grader. Our school corporation is "reconfiguring" and next year Emma will go to Northview. She is not excited about it being her 3rd school in 3 years. :-( The good news is though that with this move, teachers and students are all moving. Even her Dad is moving. Yes, Dave is going to be at NV next year. He will be and "interventionalist" for 4th and 5th grade.

Anna completed Kindergarten today. She is now proudly calling herself a 1st grader. We get to be at WV together next year. (Preschool-1st at WV and 2-5 at NV.) It will be fun to have her with me for another year.

All that has kept things very busy around here! We have been winding up this school year and with all the changes, we are now gearing up next school year. I know the summer is going to FLY by! But hey, at least we get summer break! And we are officially on it, as of today. :-) And only 5 more days until we fly to California. :-)

nothing earthshattering...

It occured to me that I hadn't posted in awhile. So I thought I would write something, however, I can't really think of anything to write about. Hmmmm.....

Life is good. Busy. But good. We are ready for just 8 more weeks of school. Then we're off to CA for our annual trip.
Here's something exciting... last summer when we flew out to Cali, we got bumped in MN. They offered us $$$ for dinner and 4 free roundtrip tix. The next flight out was only 2 hours later, giving us plenty of time to eat. So, we took the deal. We weren't sure exactly how the free tix would work and what kind of charges they would throw in, but still, we knew it would save us lots of money.
Dave made our reservations recently and the only extra charge was the tax. So 4 tickets to Cali ended up costing us $100. Not a bad deal! I hear there will probably be a charge for each bag we check in though... but still, we got a great deal! No complaining here!

So, that's life here. Like I said, nothing earthshattering....

hair

I just got the pictures from when I had my hair cut to donate. Thought I would share. :-)

More Snow Fun...

Last Friday we had a snow day from school. We mostly played in the house, but I thought the girls needed a little fresh air. Emma jumped at the chance to play in the snow, but Anna said, "I'll just stay inside." So, I announced that we were going to have "recess". Anna was excited to have recess and she then agreed to go out. Both girls had fun playing. Of course, it didn't take long before Anna was ready to inside for hot chocolate. :-)

Papa had fun giving the girls a ride on his sled.

Emma had a turn pulling Anna.


Then Anna had a turn to pull Emma.


I just wanted to document that I in fact was out there too. :-)

SNOW!

One of Emma's favorite things is snow. Go figure! :-) She was so excited the snow finally came. While she was out playing in the snow, Anna was inside watching TV... staying warm. :-)