Not Me Monday!

Here we are again at another Not Me Monday, courtesy of MckMama. I am so excited to share with you some things that I, in NO way, shape, or form, did this week!

1. I didn't go with Kevin and Lindsay (my 16 year old sister) to Freebirds in College Station for a huge burrito the day after Thanksgiving. And even if I had, I would have never teamed up with Lindsay to build a crab out of foil. And even if THAT had happened, I would NOT have tried to stick all different kinds of foods into his pinchers before finally deciding on a piece of fajita steak and a tomato. I then did not take a picture of said crab, because I did NOT think it was brilliant. I'm an adult.

2. I did not give up on Texas A&M during the first quarter of the t.u. game. Then, I did not start hoping only that t.u. did not make the 35 point spread. I then did not almost cry when in fact, they crushed us by 40 points.

3. After spending a fair amount of time painting mine and Kevin's names onto our Dollar Tree stockings, I defintely did NOT get really angry when Kevin, while making his second dinner, scraped his plate across my name and messed it up terribly. I did not get even more angry when he said "It was just an accident. My plate was laying right there." I then did not take a HUGE amount of pleasure in what I was doing as I took out the scissors and chopped his stocking in half, while saying "It was just an accident. The scissors were laying right there..."

4. Speaking of stockings, I did not already stuff Tex's and Bella's with their Christmas goodies. Why would I do that? It's still 15 days before I even start giving them one each night until Christmas. And if I HAD already stuffed them, I certainly would not have done it in front of them, squeaking each toy in front of their faces and then shoving it in their respective stocking. Then I wouldn't have made a huge deal of placing their stocking on the mantle, just above their reach. I didn't start feeling guilty immediately after and decide to start the goodies tomorrow, either.

5. While getting ready to hang our Christmas lights, I would have NEVER allowed my husband to back his truck up next to the roof, place our 6 foot ladder into the back of it, and climb onto the roof that way. And I POSITIVELY did NOT come up with this idea myself.

6. While hanging lights on the bushes and trees, I did not get scolded by Kevin for "wrapping before thinking," in respect to how my creations were going to be powered. I never get ahead of myself. Pshhh...

7. I did not wrap every single present that is already bought simply so I could place them under my tree, because I felt sorry for it. Whay would I feel sorry for a dumb tree, just because it's so cold and lonely with nothing under it? I do not personify trees, or anything else for that matter.

8. I did not choose not to read an email that was sent to the church listserve, only to find out that it contained some very important info about bible class - namely, that there was none. I then did not show up an hour and a half early to church. Then, I was not called out during the service greeting by a man that said "I would like to give you an attendance count from bible class today. There were two people here. I won't mention any names, but we love our nursery teachers." I did NOT turn bright red and slink down in my seat.

9. I didn't discover today that Kevin wanted me to arrange for friends to go out to dinner for his birthday tomorrow, after assuming that we would just spend it with the two of us like we usually do birthdays. I then did not feel so bad about it that I went out and bought two more presents for him, even though we had agreed on zero presents.

10. I did not open my big fat mouth before thinking about it and invite our friends over for chili this week. I am not regretting this decision because I, in fact, have never made chili in my life and, as a rule, am not particularly great in the kitchen. I ALWAYS think before I speak.

What have you NOT done this week?

Check back tomorrow for Tattle-tale Tuesday! !

Thanksgiving and hanging lights :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families! Kevin and I got home this afternoon from our trip. We started in Temple with Kevin's mom's side of the family. We had a great Thanksgiving day lunch with everyone. I made these excellent things called Oreo balls and they were delicious! I have been instructed to make a triple batch for Christmas.

From there, we drove to Bryan/College Station to see my family. We had leftovers there for dinner and then just hung out. Friday Kevin and I took my sister Lindsay into town to visit A&M. She's a sophomore in high school and plans to go there in a couple of years - good girl. While we were there, Kevin and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures under the Century Tree. Tradition says that "If two lovers walk together under the branches of the Century Tree, one of the oldest trees on campus, they will spend their lives together." Of course, Kevin and I are already married, but it was still fun. Here are some pictures from our visit to A&M.









Saturday evening we went down to "the bottom' for a country meal with our family. My aunt had shot a deer the day before, and her and my uncle fried the backstrap for everyone. I was a little nervous about eating deer, but it was very good!

When we got home today, Kevin and I hung our Christmas lights on our house. It was a lot of work but it was also good time that we got to spend together. Here are some pictures of our lights:







Tomorrow it's Sunday school, church, and then off to Fort Worth to celebrate Kevin's birthday with his family. His birthday is actually on Monday the 1st. He'll be 27!

I'll update later in the weekend, have a fabulous Sunday everyone!

A First Grade Thanksgiving

Yesterday was a day filled with Thanksgiving festivities! Our day started with some last minute practice for our play and a "dress rehearsal" during which I recorded the performance. We still had some time to kill before the parents arrived, so we played some Sight Words Bingo, which the kids adore.


At about 10:45 "Mr. Kevin" arrived to meet my class. If they weren't already hyper enough, that put them over the edge for sure! He stayed throughout our feast and performance and hung out with us. As he was leaving, I jokingly asked him "Would you like to trade jobs with me?" With a dead serious look on his face he replied "Not in a million years."

Shortly after Kevin arrived, the parents started trickling in. I found out later that the Kindergarten classes were having their feasts at the same time as first grade, so apparantly there were over 200 parents trying to sign it all at once in the office. Next year we'll have to coordinate better. We ended up with over 60 adults in my classroom for the party! Only two students did NOT have someone come for them, and luckily the other parents were very attentive to them so that they felt included.

We started out with our play. The video is too long to post, so I'll just post a couple of pictures. I wish you could see the whole thing, though. They were AMAZING. So many parents commented on how "polished" they were. I was a proud teacher :)


Then they sang their two songs, which were also adorable. My favorite is a funny one about having too much turkey on Thanksgiving. The other is a spin-off of the Twelve Days of Christmas, called The Ten Days of Thanksgiving. Both are too long to upload and post, but you don't know what you're missing!!! After the performance was over, it was time to feast! All of the parents brought something to contribute to our table. I unfortunately did not get a chance to snap a picture of it before everyone dug in. Several of the kids decided to change into their "fact family headdresses" to eat. Here are some pictures of the kids (and parents) enjoying the food, which was delicious.



The parents had all cleared out by a little after noon. We took the kids outside for a nice long recess to give them a chance to run off all of that sugar from the feast. Some of them decided to sleep instead. Here's 'Jake' enjoying a nap in the afternoon sun, on a nice bed of...rocks.



Other kids took the opportunity to play very silly games, such as the one below, in which a raptor attacks other students on the playground:


When we got inside, we read some Thanksgiving books and watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." Just as I had remembered from last year, it was a crazy day, but also a wonderful day. I really enjoy the opportunities to just spend fun time and "hang out" with my class. Unfortunatly, there are not as many of those times as I would like!!!

I hope you all have safe travel and a wonderful Thanksgiving with your families!

(Another) Bad Case of the Stripes

Some of you may remember the story I wrote in September about 'Jake' and the book that he is absolutely terrified of - A Bad Case of the Stripes. Basically he has a paralyzing fear of even SEEING this book. If you weren't a reader back then, or need to refresh your memory, just look here.

Today the worst possible thing happened. I had allowed my kids to go to free centers (I know, brave right?). I was working with a small group when all of the sudden I heard terrible screaming and looked up to see Em running toward me yelling "Something is wrong with 'Jake!!!' He is freaking out and I can't calm him down!!!"

So I sprung to my feet and ran to the library center, where I found him. He was curled up in a fetal position on a bean bag with an open paperback book in his hands. He had his face shoved into the book all the way into the spine of it and had it clamped tightly around his face. He was screaming, yelling, hyperventilating, and crying all at once. Of course I could not calm him down. It took me 2 minutes just to figure out the problem. He had seen the book. He wouldn't take the other book off of his face, either. I know him well enough to understand that, as long as he was in the same room with that book, he was not going to calm down.

I picked him up and carried him, paralyzed with fear, into the hall. I sat him down and he finally removed his face from the other book. He was panting, screaming, and crying so hard that I thought he was going to throw up. Finally he told me what happened:

"I saw the rainbow colors," he said, "and THEN I saw the S. The S that goes with the STRIPES!" He was afraid that someone was going to get it down and show it to him. I assurred him that this book was on the UPPER shelf, and that children were not allowed to touch those books, only grown ups. That's where the story gets even better.

In the most sincere (irrational, but still sincere) little voice ever, 'Jake' asked me the following question:

"But what if you make a machine? A machine that turns little kids into grown ups? And then two kids from our class jump in it when you're not looking and they pop out as grown ups? And then they grab that scary book and SHOW IT TO ME??? Oh I can't even think about it! It's too hard, it's just too hard!!!!!!!!"

Yes. A machine that turns little kids into grown ups. If I had such a machine, I would put him it to make him grow up and not be scared of BOOKS! Anyway, he had to sit in another room while I "removed the book from our classroom." When he believed me that the coast was clear, he came cautiously back in.

But he didn't go back to the library center.

He may never.

Only time will tell.

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Tomorrow is our bog Thanksgiving feast day at school! All of the parents signed up to bring different foods and the kids have been working so hard to prepare some songs and an adorable play for them. It will be a crazy day, but one of my favorites all year long, no doubt. Kevin is joining us for our feast, so I'm excited about that, too.

Wish me luck!

Bella's New Spot

Bella has found a new hiding place in our house. She now spends most of her time under our christmas tree. Here are some pictures that are too cute not to share (that is, if you are an animal lover like me)!

It's Beginning to Look a lot Like Christmas!!!

Today Kevin and I spent the day (after Saturday School) shopping and decorating for Christmas. We were so excited because it's our first year in our house! We spent what seemed like forever at Walmart picking out our lights and other decorations, then we headed home to put together our tree. We bought the tree last year in the after Christmas clearance sales in hopes that we would have a house this year, thus needing more than our little table-top tree. God has truly blessed us since then!!!

Kevin doesn't like real trees, but he compromised with me by allowing me to buy a whole set of evergreen scented candles so that I can PRETEND that our tree is real. Haha. Not quite the same, but I'll live.

We haven't gotten to the outside yet, because by the time we wanted to start it was dark and even colder. We might do it tomorrow, or maybe even next weekend. I'm just happy to have my tree up! Kevin wanted to put the tree in the other living room and I threw a pretty huge fit because I NEED my tree to be in the room where I spend most of my time so that I can just look at it. Man I love Christmas!

Here are some pictures of the inside so far...outside to come soon :)

This is our tree!


Here is it from another view, also showing my favorite stuffed snowman and my cute table decor!


The mantle in our TV room with all of our stockings :)


And this is looking over our dining room table into our living room.


The living room and the mantle on the other side of the fireplace. See that adorable sign with our name on it? Kevin's sister gave that to us last year :)




The only thing that IS decorated outside already is our front door. I love this wreath I found for half price at Garden Ridge today!


I hope that you all are having a fun, relaxing, and happy weekend! Enjoy your Sunday!

First Grade Fun

Let's see if I can sum up my week with a few pictures...and a few short captions:

Me: "Don't worry guys; I'll just make my queso for the teacher birthday lunch during planning time. Good thing I have this cool can opener to open my Rotel with. Wait, did this thing just run out of batteries mid-can? What, it's stuck? Oh well, I'll take it home to Kevin. That's what he signed up for when he married me."


Jake: "NO! I will NOT wear that birthday STICKER! I hate stickers! Why do you always ask me to wear a stupid dumb sticker???"

Note the sticker PINNED (paper backing still adhered) to his shirt.


Two small words, one HUGE disaster: D's desk.


K: "Mrs. White, um, I'm having a little problem with my take home folder. Would you mind just taping the note onto the front of it?"


D: "And he likes to bite noses!!!"


A few other noteworthy happenings that were NOT captured on film, mostly from today:

-Jo: "Mrs. White, when you grow up, are you going to be a cheerleader?"
Me: "Well, J, I already went to high school and college, and those are the times to be a cheerleader, so I guess I already grew up PAST being a cheerleader."
Jo: "WERE you a cheerleader, then?"
Me: "Nope."
W: "Well, were you a dancer?"
Me: "As a matter of fact, I was."
3 kids at once: "Can you do the SPLITS?"
... This is where I made the mistake of promising to do my splits (in jeans) for MY show-and-tell at the end of the day, if the class earned show-and-tell. Then of course they did. So I did the splits. It hurt. The bright side is that it prompted Jake to share his Soldier Boy dance with the class, which is always enjoyable.

-Jake, during show-and-tell: "These are the little men that were on my birthday cake when I was turning one year old, so they are so special to me."
Aa, interrupting him: "NO! Those were actually on your cake last weekend."
Jake: "NO!!"
Aa: "Actually, yes they were, Mrs. White."
Jake, turning to me with his back to Aa: "Anyway, Mrs. White. These were on my cake when I was turning {turns dramatically to Aa}...ONE... and I was so thrilled!"


There were many more bright spots in my challenging week, and I would love to share them with you but I am exhausted and I must get to bed. I have to teach Saturday school in the morning.

Have a great weekend!