It's been a while....

There are so many things to update on...first and foremost, Dallas got the Police job! He got the offer about a week ago from the county and his first day is 12/22. The Academy starts at the end of February and it lasts 21 weeks, yuck. He starts physical training and everything next Tuesday which he's really excited about!

We are finishing up this week at school and there have been so many things we've done! We went on our first field trip on December 1st to the Nutcracker at the Gwinnett Center. Here are some pictures:

The school also had a Holiday Luncheon for the families. Here are some pics of our kids and Dallas and Chris (Amy's husband) joining us for lunch!

Halloween

So Friday was Halloween at school, and we had so much fun! This was the first year our students could NOT wear a costume (bummer) and there was no costume parade either :( Instead, we decided to carve pumpkins all morning! Amy has never carved a pumpkin before...I can't believe someone who has lived in America her whole life has never carved a pumpkin!!!! Then we had our unofficial Halloween "party" (that we're not technically even allowed to have) in the afternoon with yummy cupcakes and cookies! It was also crazy hair day, hence the neon pink hair and pipe cleaners sticking out.

Here are some pictures of our class carving. We carved the big one as a class and then each table got 2 to dig out the innards and seeds:

We had so many trick or treaters this year!!! I ended up turning off the lights and locking the doors when we almost ran out of candy around 9:30. What a difference a fence in the backyard makes with a dog that goes crazy when the doorbell rings!! I really enjoyed just sticking him outside with Summer and letting them bark at all the trick-or-treaters out of earshot.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!!

Classroom

Here are some pictures of my class this year....I'm team teaching with my friend and my class houses the math and reading portion of our day. I have the calendar in my room, as well as the door to our garden. The easel was given to me by Dallas's mom over the summer, I LOVE it!!!! It's probably my favorite thing to use now. The kids can use the back of it because it's magnetic. I'll probably be transferring to a new school next year, so just imagine how fun it's going to be when I have to pack all of this stuff up (again), plus Amy & I combined ALL of our books in the library in her room, so we have to sort through those also!

The Awakening

So our church, 12Stone, recently aquired a new sculpture piece in the front of the building. It's called "The Awakening" from Rick Winike, displaying Gideon's journey. It's a really neat sculpture to be able to look at each Sunday. Here is what we watched the other week when Rick was invited to speak:
The Awakening

We're in the middle of the book of Daniel, so here is what we watched this past Sunday :) We don't take oursevles too seriously at church, obviously.
Too Late for Biggie Fries

I'll be posting new pics of my classroom soon!!!

Aunty Kara!!!!

A NEW BABY!!!! Our brother and sister-in-law, Isaac and Jennifer, just told us they are expecting a baby at the end of April!! Dallas and I get to be an uncle and aunt for the first time! They live in Tennessee, so we won't get to see the baby as much as we want, but we're still really excited! It's the first grandchild for Dallas's mom, too! Congrats Isaac & Jennifer!!!! :)

Here's a pic of me and Jennifer from last Thanksgiving:

So, on a different note.....I have decided to go back to school to get my Specialist's. And then I'll be completely DONE with school!!!! I just graduated at the beginning of August with my Master's in Special Education, and I really want to have my Specialist's out of the way before we start having kids. There's not a lot of choices of schools that are convenient to where we live, so I've narrowed it down to UGA, Ga State, Brenau (where I got my Master's), Piedmont, and Lincoln Memorial. Hopefully I'll be able to start in the Spring/Summer of 2009, and most programs are only 1 year long! It's so worth going back when you work in education...automatic pay raise!

Here's some pictures of graduation:

We worked HARD on that hood!!

Gas

So every single one of the gas stations near us are out of gas....thank goodness we filled up both cars Friday night! Dallas's store is one of the only QT's in the area that still have gas, and even more in reserve, so he'll be driving my car later this week to top it off again. I don't know how everyone else is filling up around here!

Maybe we'll get a day off from school this week if the busses can't fill up their tanks :)

Weekend Cleaning...

So this is what was staring at me in the face on Sunday when I decided to clean out our flower bed by the house...I think it's called a writing spider and it's absolutely terrifying, even though Dallas thought I should have just killed it. Yeah right, I can't even step on a roach, let alone a spider the size of my palm!!! I just let Moe out, looked over by the corner of the house, and yep....it's still there! yuck. Maybe Moe will do me a favor and eat it, since he likes to eat everything else in our trash cans.

We're eventually going to put some fresh mulch in the front and then plastic sheathing/mulch in the back so that grass won't grow in the beds. Our little trees we got from my friend Janet (thanks!) are still growing, even though the biggest one died...probably since the root was humongous!

First Posting!

Hello everyone! Well I have decided to start up a blog for Dallas and me. I have a lot of friends that have blogs and it's a really neat way to stay in touch with family and to keep everyone updated with new things! I'll be adding more pictures and stuff on the website frequently- my class, Dallas's job, church, school, etc.