Merry Christmas from my home to your's :)

I love decorating for Christmas at my place.  I finally have the right amount of decor, so it doesn't feel over done.  I've found decorations that suit me and fit into my home.  Some years I enjoy having my nieces over and they help.  This year was a slow process and I did it by myself.  :)  Some years are like that.  Here's to a very merry Christmas season! 

My cute little tree, proportioned perfectly :)

My dining room.  All that light is from the flash on my camera.  You'd never know the only lights on are the tea lights in the chubby snowman on the table and the ones ontop of the hutch.

My snowman lava lamp :)  He's probably my favorite decoration.  Good luck finding him!

I do love having little snowman families set up around my house for some reason.  All varieties and sizes.  They make a good mix. And more candles.  I go through an entire 100 count bag of tea lights from Thanksgiving to New Year's every year haha

I should have taken a better picture of my chubby manger set from Emi.  You can barely see Mary by the lamp.

The manger scene, a family tradition.  I've got to find a way to get a light in it.  And that Santa sitting on the shelf? haha from my elementary school days.  Nothing but sentiment there.

Finishing up with my Pier 1 snowman.  Meg loves him haha I'll leave him to her in my will. And the lava lamp.

Merry Christmas!

My weekend in pictures

First I started with a couple loaves of bread.  I was out and for some reason I make my own during the winter.  Weird.

Then I made a batch of gingersnaps, the forgotten cookie, in my opinion.  Why don't I make these more?

Why not throw in a couple lemon meringue pies for good measure?  P.S.  I've never made lemon meringue pie before.  Not bad for a first timer, I'd say.  And I didn't run out of meringue.  I just HATE it so I left some of it without the nasty stuff for me. :)

And then a couple of batches of rolls.  I don't know why the picture loaded this way but I'm not fixin it.  You get the idea haha

A veggie platter with ranch/dill dip.  Notice no cauliflower or broccoli.  No one likes it anyway so why put it on?

Finally, a cheese and cracker tray with a Tuscan cheese ball, complete with sun dried tomatoes.  *sigh*  Heaven on a platter.

Why did I do all this?  To show off my mad culinary skills, of course!  HA!  No, my mom is carrying on the tradition my grandma started of having our side of the family have Thanksgiving dinner the Sunday before.  Then my siblings can go to their in-laws without having to work around us. :)  Good idea, Grandma!

P.P.S.  I get my mad skills from my grandma.  That's her lemon pie recipe, as well as her roll recipe.  When those rolls came out of the oven, I couldn't help but say a little "Thanks, Grandma"

Going private

Hi all,
After much consideration, I've decided to privatize my blog.  If you're reading this, then the invitation worked!  haha I hope I did it right. hmm.  Anyway, the world is just becoming too small and my school life always finds a way to make an inconvenient appearance in my private life.  So, from now on, I'll have a little more control over who sees my blog and my thoughts and my life away from school. :)  That is all.

For Meg

We'll see what happens

There is a bill being proposed for the upcoming 2012 legislative session nicknamed the "At Will Bill."  Basically, it is a bill saying you can fire a teacher without cause, without notice and without retirement.  It takes away any kind of "tenure" and negotiations for contracts.  It takes away the due process procedure currently in place to let a poor educator go.  It means that a district can hire/fire at will.  Say you have a 28 year veteran teacher, no complaints, good person, very expensive compared to a first year novice.  If the bill passed, the district could choose to terminate the teacher without reason simply so they didn't have to pay their retirement costs.

I will be the first to say that education, particularly public education, is in a rough place.  There are so many factors to consider when you say "education reform."  So I'll be the first to say  "Yes, get rid of crappy teachers!"  However, this is not the way to go about it.

The Senator sponsoring the bill heard so much feedback about it, he decided to hear what educators had to say.  He held meetings throughout the state to listen to over 1,000 educators, administrators and classified employees.  He has compiled his responses into his senate blog.  You can read it here. 

Being that he's the senator who replaced Buttars; being that he's the newest senator on the hill; being that he's the least experienced, I can only hope for another year of talks and negotiations before something drastic happens.  However, it was refreshing to have someone up there hear and translate and then share what he heard and be able to do it in a respectful fashion.  Thank you!

Wordful Wednesday- Bravery

My sister follows a blog by a woman of the name of Cocoa.  Both she and my sister homeschool, however, as far as I can tell, neither of them use their food storage cans to make suits of armor, intentionally braid their daughter's hair to look plain NOR do any of them wear hosiery under their jeans, which are under their dresses, and then put on high top Reeboks. :) 

Anyway, back to the topic.  Each Wednesday, Cocoa does something called Wordful Wednesday and then provides a word on which to expound your thoughts.  Rarely do I look at Cocoa's blog, unless Meg chooses to participate in something Cocoa is doing, like her Wednesday activity.  Two weeks ago, Meg posted her contribution on the word bravery.  Since then, I've been more attentive the the things I see people do every day that are scary, or that show bravery in some way.  I don't consider myself to be brave in most ways, although maybe I've done bold things, as opposed to brave.  However, I thought I'd list a few brave things I've seen just as some food for thought.

• One of my 9th grade students is incredibly shy.  He has trouble asking for anything, much less just conversing with anyone sitting around him.  He rarely speaks up and tries to be as invisible as possible.  This week during a review game, the other three teams had eliminated themselves and he was the only one left to answer.  I was worried he would stay silent, even though I knew he had the answer.  Giving the answer would require him to stand up and say it in front of the class.  I looked at him hopefully, then at the timer, ticking down 5....4....3....2.... He stood up!  And stated his answer with his voice loud and clear!  His team earned the points and he grinned from ear to ear for the rest of class.
• One of my best friend's is fighting an addiction.  He's battled with it for five years.  It had gotten progressively worse and worse until the past month, where I believe he finally hit his bottom.  We were able to get together for awhile yesterday.  It was his 10th day of sobriety.  As we spent some time together, the withdrawals were evident.  But he battled through them and spoke of how scared he was to fail.  I thought of the word "bravery" and wondered how much more courage it takes to be sober and make changes, to make amends and ask for the forgiveness of those you've wronged during your time of weakness.  Ten days doesn't sound like much, but in an addict's world, its a lifetime. 
• My last moment of bravery has to be my own, I guess.  As I've mentioned, I'm in for the 1/2 marathon in May.  That honestly scares me to death.  And it took every ounce of bravery (stupidity?) in me to log on the computer at 6:00 a.m. this past Thursday morning and fill out my forms to run.  Doing that made me feel empowered and courageous.  It made me feel scared and hesitant.  But again, I thought about the "bravery" and moved forward.

I saw a post on FB the other day from a friend of mine.  It said "I can do hard things."  That was the theme of the YW program in her ward this year.  I think all of us are capable of hard things when we remember to be brave.  In order to be brave, you have to have faith.  Faith in yourself and faith that the Lord, in his wisdom and care, will grant you the skills you need in order to be brave.  Whether you succeed or fail, you can say "I did the hard thing."

3668

That's my registration number.  For the 1/2 marathon.  On May 19th.  I'll be 39.  I'm in!

Gratitude

One of my oldest and dearest friends has started a blog.  She lives in Hawaii and you'd think WOW!  There's the life!  However, she's a military wife.  Her husband goes out on fast moving nuke subs at a moments notice.  Sometimes he is gone for months at a time and she is home by herself.  This year they just welcomed their first child into their home and she does the work for both parents while he serves.

As I mentioned, she recently started a blog.  She has taken on the task of writing down what she's grateful for each day for an entire year.  On her post today, she asked what the rest of us were grateful for.  While I have no plans to blog every day about my gratitude, I will share a few things I'm grateful for today.

First, I am grateful for my dear, dear friends, the D-Tats.  It sounds incredibly immature and childish to say we have a name for our circle of friends, but it came about quite accidently and just kind of stuck as a joke.  We tried to read "The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo" for a book club selection.  Suffice it to say, it was not what we had hoped and after two of us spoke up and said "WOW!  Don't keep going!" we decided to scrap it.  Little did we know how that book would bond us together and provide us with the nickname D-Tats.  These are the women that will be joining me for the 1/2 marathon in May.  There are just times in your life where you need certain types of people and they are who I need right now.  Amazing women with amazing talents.  They can be my Rascal buddies anytime. ;)

Next, I am grateful to be learning how to be patient.  I have never been a patient person- just ask anyone who knows me.  However, in learning how to run, in learning how to better handle stress, in learning how to handle a favorite friend's addictions, I'm learning how faith in the Lord brings peace and calm and the patience you need to move forward.

Finally, some small things I'm grateful for:  silly answers my students give on tests like "fat provides your body with extra skin to store food with"; 10 calorie Dr. Pepper (thank you!); my fridge being fixed so the noise has stopped; my hot beanie full of beans every night I go to sleep; and sweater weather.

A fresh new look

There's been a few changes here at my little piece of the web.  Obviously the layout and design are different.  I found these courtesy of my niece's blog.  She has a great background so I followed her over to LeeLou blogs and found some great stuff.  I've also switched up my name from A Day in the Life to Uniquely Me.  I was just bored with it and this suits me better for now.  My blog address will remain the same so no need to worry about tracking me down, although I AM thinking about going private.  I'll let you know if I do.

The first snowfall of the year showed up last night.  It made for a Saturday that screamed to stay inside and read and be warm.  I haven't picked up a book yet, but I've stayed inside and warm.  I was cleaning my house earlier and had just finished most of it, so I sat down for just a minute on my barstool.  As I looked around my home, I was suddenly overcome with a sense of "settled."  That's the best word I can think to describe it.  Maybe some would call it a peaceful moment, but I felt settled.  I don't mean settled, as in "I've settled that this is my life and its done so I should just accept it."  But more like I've settled into myself and feel confident in my choices and where I am.  I felt peace. I felt content.  I felt proud.  I felt like I had turned over some piece of myself that I had been holding onto for some reason and that piece was holding me down.  I wish I could pinpoint what that was so I could avoid having it come back haha  I felt re-freshed and challenged, but in a good way. 

Maybe that's what brought about the change in the blog haha Not that I'm so connected to my blog that it identifies who I am or what I feel.  But I feel like the newer, updated version of myself so the other parts need updating, too!  Either way, its been a lovely day.

Worked great, Meg! Thanks!

Just rearranging some furniture.  No worries, Meg, I saved the other retro piece for you :)