Labor Day Weekend

Moving our *new* furniture

Ruth & her ever-growing Shane!

Alyson trying out my glasses! :)

Included some laborious activities and some not so laborious. :) It was such a treat having the McFarlands (William's sister Ruth & lovely family) visiting Friday & Saturday. We so wished they could have stayed longer, but were so happy that they made a pit stop with us. Then we slept....A LOT. We've both been SO exhausted. I slept from about 1pm until 5:30 and William didn't get up until 7:30pm. It felt so good though! We finished our evening watching P.S. I Love You. Today, we played hooky from church (sorry, Jill!) to get our lives in order. We cleaned the house, moved in new furniture (thanks, parents!), did 6 loads of laundry & put them away... you get the point, I'm sure. We also walked the dogs too. And tomorrow is dedicated completely to school work for the both of us. It's great to have 3 days to get things back in order. Hopefully, the next holiday will be for vacationing! 

First Day!

I survived the first day!! It was fantastic and I love my class. They are very sweet natured, although it was just the first day. It'll be splendid to bond over Outdoor Ed week in October. I so tired though. First day back and standing all day long. It definitely went fast but I'm already ready to go to bed... at 5pm. And I desperately need a pedicure. Yikes!!

ANNOUNCEMENT TO MAKE!

We have some NEW ADDITIONS to tell y'all about!
Now I know what you might be thinking. "New additions" might mean something about a bun in the oven, no? Actually, not this time. What we have on our hands here is an odd couple. Now you're probably thinking, "Neil Simon, that was a good play," and you'd be right. But we're not talking plays here. We're talking dogs.

Two of them, to be exact. One is an adorable little boy by the name of Pancho. He's your standard, less than ten pound, not-so-bug-eyed Chihuahua with the prance of a man who's in charge (once he's comfortable with his surroundings, mind you). The other is a beautiful girl, Jojo, a 40ish pound faint reddish brown with white chested American Pit Bull Terrier with the sweetest disposition. They were found together roaming the streets of Oakland, already a pack of their own. So they were kept together in the kennel and advertised as a pair at the Oakland Animal Services as they hoped to sent them out together so they could remain a pack. If you read the ad at the beginning of this paragraph you can clearly see that we changed their names. We were not about to use one of our mothers' names for our dog. 8o)

I'm certain you'll have more pictures and posts regarding our new additions scattered throughout our blog from time to time, but I wanted to make sure y'all knew what was up with us! Jess says that there are cuter pictures to come...but for the time being, these are our new dogs, Jojo and Pancho:

One Year Anniversary...

Is coming sooner than we think! We are both so excited to celebrate & get away. It's about 4 months away but prices are already going up. And we'd like to go somewhere fun. We're torn about what to do & I feel like we should really get out since we are still just two for now. We've been thinking about Colorado, Costa Rica or Napa. It'll be in December so we have to take that into consideration too. And we're hoping to do Swenson Christmas before Christmas this year since our anniversary falls on the following weekend. So where did you go on anniversaries or where would you go? Any ideas or suggestions?

Google Images Fun!

Rules: You must answer each question by typing your response into Google and picking your favorite image from the FIRST page of links. Have Fun with It!

My First Name, "william" (this guy is where my mother-in-law got my nickname "Wills"):

A place I’d like to travel to, "australia":

The town where I was born, "anaheim":

My age:

A Past Love, "caramel macchiato":

My favorite color, "green" (I knew this was going to be rich):

My favorite food, "steak" (if I'm not mistaken, God said "it was good."):

My favorite animal "flying bird"(not necessarily this bird, but flying birds in general):

A past pet, "black rat":

My favorite place, "mountain":

My favorite object, "chef knife":

A bad habit, "nose picking":

NOTE: THE AUTHOR MADE THIS POST IN THE SPIRIT AND FUN OF "GOOGLING"AND IS IN NO WAY POSTING THIS AS A REPRESENTATION OF HIS OWN WORK, NOR IS HE MAKING ANY MONEY FROM THE PUBLISHING OF THIS BLOG. IF YOU WANT TO FIND THESE PICTURES AND WHERE THEY ARE FROM, GOOGLE THE WORDS IN QUOTES OR RIGHT CLICK ON THE IMAGE, CHOOSE PROPERTIES, AND GO TO THE WEBSITE.

Classroom Status

Here's some pictures I took today of what I've been slaving over for the past 8 days. I'm so proud of how it turned out. There are bulletin boards for our first units in social studies, science, speeches, and one for the elections! It makes me sad to think about how I totally wasn't as prepared last year. I'm really hoping all this work pays off during the year. I feel much more prepared and confident this year (probably because I now know where things are)! I got my class list yesterday so now it feels official. I'm really looking forward to having a new group of students. And of course, I'm still not completely done, but at least it's only a few odds and ends like putting up team names, my name, and a title for another bulletin board. But really, who's keeping track?! :) I'm excited but exhausted! Phew!

Blessings!

I LOVE the body of Christ & the blessings that come forth from it. These past few days have been an over abundance of them. Last night, I had dinner with Lynn, a friend who gave me all her teaching stuff last year when she decided to stay home with her boys. It was so wonderful to catch up with her... I owed her a dinner since last year! We spent 3 hours over a salad dinner (it was hot, so lacking hunger!)-- so awesome to see her. She's been such a great Christ-centered mentor for wisdom in teaching, mothering, wife-ing, and in life.

This morning, a young Christian friend named Caitlyn-who's thinking about becoming a teacher-spent 4 hours of her summer break with me to help set up my room! It was SO awesome & we got SO much done. And it turns out that this high school senior is inspired to be a 5th grade teacher because of her former 5th grade teacher....Lynn!! The very same woman who I dined with the night before! I couldn't believe it! I love how Christ ties people together so beautifully!

This afternoon, I had coffee with my friend Kristen who I haven't talked to in like 10 years, but we picked things up like it was yesterday! One of her sisters & I played soccer growing up. It was wonderful to re-connect & we're already planning to get together again. Again, that Christ-bond is bigger than our natural selves--a wide inclusive picture-- such a blessing!

And tonight, William & I have two guests from Michigan. Two fun girls whom we've never met before tonight. Gretchen (my sewing mentor) is from there & knows these two girls, Ruth & Ellen. When she asked if I knew of anyone who could house them, I shouted "US!" We love having a guest room for the sole purpose of bringing others in. And how fun that these two adventurous girls could come out here & have a place to crash for a few days as they check out the golden state?!

Again, Christ's body doesn't have to know one another directly! They have a deep common thread between them so there is no fear but community far and wide. Such a beautiful thing!!

Project Runway

I just discovered this fun & creative show. The only reason I can think of that I didn't know of it sooner, is the fact that we don't have cable or even the basic channels. But I rented season 2 (they're on season 5 now) from the library & basically took today off from the classroom to watch it. (Total side note, but the library is so great!! Free rentals!! Great budget saver!) Total veg-session. Feeling a little guilty since my room is NOT done, but I enjoyed myself nonetheless. After finally showering at 4:45pm, I realized that I should enjoy these days while I can. There is no way I can get away with this once I'm a mom, so that helped the guilt..a little bit. :) Anyway, the show is so fabulous & since I'm learning how to sew, it definitely makes me excited. Not that I'll ever sew couture, but a girl can dream! And I think this will be my replacement for So You Think You Can Dance...Mom, you can start scheduling the DVR!!

Double Take

I found this fabulous blog that dedicates Wednesday to taking another, deeper look at movie's home decor. Here's a link to the main place to look over all the double takes like for Sex & the City, PS I Love You & others. What's really great is that there's links within the explanation so you can go directly to the store & purchase one of your own. How Fun! :)

Here's the PS I Love You Apartment Set broken down in the double take:

Baby Sale!

No, not babies but baby stuff from a really CUTE vendor called Quilt Baby. Really fun fabrics, homemade & on super sale. Can't beat that! (no, not for me at this point, but still fun to look at)

This bib 2-set was originally $40 & is now $8!!

Cute crib bedding (orange & has birds--so perfect!)
Traveling changing mat (which I can hopefully make one day!)

Too Funny!

My mom started a blog today. I find this quite humorously strange, but probably not as much as when she joined facebook. She's hip, I know. I'm so curious to see what she'll do beyond her travels & motorcycle road trips. Heehee, learning more about my mom via blogging-- so weird! Good Luck to you, Mom! And try to get Dad to post too, ok?! Make sure he works on good inner dialogue, not just giving the facts! He can come in during my lesson on this when we cover narrative writing! Love you guys! ;)

Is Summer Over, Already?!

William & I made it safely back from Texas last night. We had a fabulous time seeing some sites & just plain ol' hanging out with Kenny & Sarah. I'll post some pictures soon-- I left my cord that connects my camera to the computer so I'll be seeing that in the mail sometime soon (thanks, Sarah!) Today, we jumped right back into life! I spent 5 hours in my classroom, trying to get things organized! I'm still shocked by how I survived such messy cabinets last year...how in the world did I find things?! William is such a big help. He moved things around for me & we de-clustered everything. But I'm still NOT done. I know where I'll be next week. I've also started nannying again, beginning tomorrow. Needless to say, I'm working hard to hold on to summer, but it's quickly slipping away. I think we're going to try to camp or go somewhere one last time, but time is running out...

The Worst BBQ in Texas

This is Rudy's, a fabulously delicious BBQ place within a gas station. Weird concept but it totally works. And it's definitely cafeteria-style dining: your "fine china" plates are wax paper and you carry your food to your table in a coke rack/crate. Once you make your way to the backyard long table set-up, you lay your wax paper down with your meat & white bread on top. Quite the Texas experience! And I loved that a part of what created the line ropes before ordering was a long row of silver, open ice cases full of pop, beer and other bottled beverages. Just grab and go with plenty of choices. There is definitely nothing analogous to this restaurant in California! (Got to love the reverse psychology in their claim of being the worse)

We both loved it & were soooo full for the rest of the day.


Loved the yummy special BBQ sauce! Tangy!
Also (it just keeps going, can you tell I was just loving this?!) they had this crazy hand cleaning machine on the way in & out. In the picture above, you can see my "I Have Clean Hands" sticker that you get after you used it. Here's Kenny modeling the hand wash!

Google Images Fun!

I saw a fellow blogger passing this one on, so I decided to try.

Rules: You must answer each question by typing your response into Google and picking your favorite image from the FIRST page of links. Have Fun with It!

My First Name:

(Which was so hard because all of the pictures were PG-13/R of

actresses who share my name!! Grr..)

A place I'd like to travel to:

The town where I was born:

My age:

A past love:

My favorite color:

(this was way too hard to pick one!!!)

My favorite food:

My favorite animal:

(don't really have one, but I like this one)

A past pet:

(We tried various pets in our family,
although only Kitty Witty made it..so sad!)

My favorite place:
(In my husband's arms is
what I typed, but this will do :))

My favorite object:

(You can never have too many!
They just set a great mood!)

A bad habit:

If you read this post, you are automatically tagged! :) Have fun!

Operation Crafty!

While the boys goofed around & played video games together, the girls got crafty! I completed a reversible bag with ribbon handles. I copied the sunglass case idea + the unfinished make-up bag idea. Thanks, Gretchen-- your teaching paid off!! :) Together, Sarah & I made cute pincushions too. Sarah found a website for free instructions & off we went. A fabulously fun evening of sewing! I sew enjoyed it! :)

Sarah's (L) & Mine (R)

Double-sided purse with ribbon handles

Our Men :)