Christmas time!

I love this time of year! I love the sights, the smells, the tastes of the holidays! I am so happy that it is cold outside and that there are twinkle lights lighting up houses and storefronts everywhere!

Don't you just love it?

Another exciting thing for me is that my school actually celebrates Christmas! My old school was so afraid of offending anyone else that they didn't allow us to even really use the word Christmas. It was winter break, winter party, winter this, winter that. Not here though! We have Christmas trees ready to greet you right as you walk in the school, the library, and almost every classroom. It's fun. The kids love it.

Speaking of the kids. Another thing we do at my new school is write letters to Santa and they get published in the newspaper. I remember doing this as a kid...anxiously awaiting my letter to get published...anxiously awaiting Santa's reply. Oh, I loved it! And so do my kids. They were so excited to write their letters. The best part is that each kids still believes. I was waiting for someone to say, "But Santa's not real." But no one did. I just sat back and listened to one of my classes as they talked about how Santa is magic. How he must be magic to get their bike into the locked garage. Or how he must be magic because he gets down the chimney. Or how he must be magic because they don't have a chimney and he still makes it in.

Oh, the wide-eyed wonder of kids at Christmas. It is just so fun!

When there are no toys...improvise.

Since we have no children, our house is not very kid-friendly. Now, I don't mean that in the sense that we have such nice stuff that kids could mess it up, no, I just mean that we have no fun toys for kids to play with.

We get together often with our friends, Phyllis and Brandon and their three kiddos. You would think the kids would not enjoy coming to our house, or that they would feel like it is boring. But, no, not these kids. They make the best of a no-toy situation. I thought their improvisation was too good not to share!

Cade made a toy out of a cabinet with sliding doors.

and then the brothers wanted to play.

"Come on, Cade, let us in!"So Cade gave in and let the big brothers take a turn.
Jake and Spencer slide in
All smiles!
And finally, the dog crate tunnel/fort.

Who needs expensive toys? :)

50,000

Join me! This is a wonderful cause!



I was blog surfing, when I came across a blog of a blog of a friend. :) I wanted to share her story with you and tell you about this cause. Her teachable moment with her daughter about giving to those less fortunate was so touching to me that I wanted to pass it on. To read it, click here: Bring the Rain.

What an incredible cause. Pay just $5 and this donation provides 2 pairs of shoes to people who need them. This is a great way to get into the Christmas spirit!

Join me in giving soles 4 souls!

Courtney's head coaching debut

Well, this is what Courtney has been working for the last 6 years. His first game as a head coach. He could barely sleep the night before and it was such an exciting night.

The first game was supposed to be against Pittsburgh, but they are still in the play-offs for football, so no basketball game for them. That's what happens in a small town when all your players are football and basketball players. So, they had to forfeit the game. Courtney really wanted to get a game on the schedule so he called Atlanta (my district). Now, Queen City and Atlanta are HUGE rivals, but have not played eachother in about 5 years. Atlanta is now a 3A school and QC is 2A. But since it is a pre-district game, the two coaches agreed on playing eachother. Courtney was so excited about bringing back the Atlanta/QC game. Let me just tell you, so were the kids. The crowd was huge, standing room only and the kids were going nuts. To all my Holdenville friends--think Wewoka/Holdenville games. Nuts. They were afraid there may be fights between student fans, but everyone used a fair amount of self-control and didn't do anything too stupid. Our student fans call themselves "Bleacher Creatures" and they dress up in wigs and crazy clothes, so that was fun.

So, onto the game. We ended up losing 55-61, but it was one of those games that goes down to the wire. QC led for most of the first half, but got down in the second half. We spent the whole second half trying to pull ourselves out of the hole. But the boys did not give up and they fought hard until the end. With 10 seconds left, we were down by 4, and in basketball, that is certainly doable, but we just couldn't pull it out. It was a very exciting, loud, high energy game.

I was so proud of Courtney and of the boys. It was fun to see Courtney as THE coach out there.

Rallying the boys before the game

Tip off

Coach
Time-out, strategizing

Come on! Get the ball to LA!!!

One more thing that was too funny that I just have to share. After everyone cleared the gym, Courtney sat in one of the chairs from his bench and put his elbows on his knees and his head in his hands and was just looking down at the floor (can you visualize?) and he sat there for a minute and then said, quite profoundly, "I am wearing shoes that do not match." Indeed, he was wearing two different black shoes!! It was hilarious. I, being the nice wife I am, starting laughing and called over the other wives to check out my husband's mismatched shoes. He was a tiny bit preoccupied as he got ready for the game, I suppose!

I had to document that moment on the blog. :)

My first 5K!

I did it! I ran my first 5K! I drove to Edmond to meet up with Keysha and we got up early Saturday morning to go out and brave the cold at Stars and Stripes Park at Lake Hefner in Oklahoma City. As you can see by my first picture, it was C-O-L-D and so we had to bundle up! I was not prepared at all for such cold, windy weather and did not come with warm enough clothing. I had to borrow gloves and a scarf. The wind chill was about 22 degrees when the race started. We were running right next to the lake too, so we got the chilly gust right off the lake for most of the race. The wind was so strong and freezing. At one point, I thought that it was possible that my throat might bleed from breathing in the cold air!! It was that cold.

We had a great time though. My goal was to run the entire race without stopping and I did that. I finished in 33 minutes and 17 seconds. My goal for my next one (because I have been bitten by the 5K bug and cannot wait to do another one) is to hit the 30 minute mark. Maybe with less windy conditions and a little more training, I can do that!

all bundled up

me with my number on, ready to go

us, after the race

We felt so proud of ourselves!

Keysha thought she might get hot, so she wore capris. We got out of the car and she instantly regretted that. She said that her ankles were the least of her worries once she got going. Gosh, it was so cold!!

Keysha, I am proud of us! Can't wait to run another one with you soon!

Tidbits

This quote was sent to me through an email at work and it was a thought that made me stop and think. Don't you love those?

There are two ways to get enough: one is to continue to accumulate more and more. The other is to desire less.

Here's to desiring less.

Weekend Adventures

This weekend I went on a women's retreat with my old church in Plano, Fellowship Church. It was a women's weekend road trip. Since I am obviously not longer going to Fellowship, I am grateful to my friend Laura for inviting me to this fun-filled weekend.

The retreat was held at Allasso Ranch, the camp built by Fellowship for retreats, training, and of course, kid's/jr high/sr high summer camp. I was so excited to see the camp now that it is all finished.

We thought we were going for massages and relaxation, but we ended up having one outdoor adventure after another. It was so much fun!

the signs welcoming us to camp

We did not know we would be doing so much outdoor activity and neither of us brought shorts, so we had to roll up our pants. It was hot! Laura had on pretty striped socks!

Laura next to her bunk.

Me and my bunk

getting ready for our bike ride

they are right...it comes right back to you!!

ready for a canoe trip, but all that were left were kid life jackets.

This is me, squeezing into it. (I could not button the bottom buttons!)

It was so peaceful out there.

trying not to tip the boat

Laura guiding us across the lake

view from the canoe.

THE ZIPLINE!

all geared up for the zipline.

Me right before sitting down to go...I was quite nervous, as you can see.

READY.....SET....

GO!!!

(Makes my palms sweat just seeing it again!)

That is me, way down on the line, legs flailing!

We also rode horses, but my camera died and so those pictures are on Laura's camera. I will post the rest when I get those.

What a great weekend!