Thought for the Day

Supposing today were your last day on earth,
The last mile of the journey you've trod;
After all of the struggles, how much are you worth,
How much can you take home to God?
Don't count as possessions your silver and gold,
Tomarrow you leave these behind,
And all that is yours to have and to hold
Is the service you've given mankind.

Special Day

so... today i subbed for special ed in middle school. i mean REAL special ... i was in shock the first half the day. literally , i didnt even know what to think. or do. or say. i was just in complete shock. i was like speechless. like a few kids in the class. at first, when the bell rang i was pretty worried. nobody was there... not any of the 3 aides i was told about, and no students either. i didnt know the office extention and i didnt know if maybe i was in the wrong room, but i thought i was in the right place... so i waited, and then come some wheel chairs. i felt a little better when they showed up a few minutes later. i was in the least functioning of the special ed classes...there were 5 kids (i just remembered i forgot to turn in attendance) and 3 of the 5 were in wheelchairs that they were strapped to and like had VERY little control if any over their body, they were drooling, and couldnt control their limbs and could only make weird noises. it was actually kind of funny, this one kids named stephen always made a lot of noises, but i didnt know if he understood people or not, so i was asking one of the aides, and the other aide was helping another student and wasnt really listening but was, and i asked the aide next to me "does he understand , like what his name is and things like that ?" and the aide that wasnt by me, helping the student, overheard, and was like "because his last name is garcia?" and i looked at the aide next to me like "what?" and i was like "no ..." and i was thinking in my head "no because he doesnt seem to understand anything..." and then me and the aide next to me started laughing, and this other aide realized her mistake (she knew this student ). anyways it was really funny. she was thinking at first i was asking if he understood spanish, and she said because his last name is garcia because he isnt spanish i dont think... it was funny. and then the other 2 students didnt talk , and were sort of like just roaming the classroom picking something up every now and then. one of the kids liked to throw stuff, and the other liked to tip over chairs. at first i was thinking, why? thats all i could muster in my brain.. i was like thinking if God wanted them to be healed, they would be normal instantly. and then i thought, but he doesnt. there is a reason they are being protected from Satan. they are like little children, satan cant touch them. they must have been very righteous before they were born. they have a golden ticket straight to the top. so in that way, they are very lucky and very blessed. but i dont envy them at all...i felt very ungrateful for my body and mind being around those kids. i have complete control of both, and i think i take that for granted most of the time. i get caught up in little things and i miss the big picture. just being able to eat food that isnt spoon fed to me from a gerber baby can. ...
so tomarrow i am subbing my first middle school non special ed class. its 7th grade language arts, aka english. we'll see how that goes!! im a little nervous cause i've never subbed normal middle school before. i will get a new class every hour and a half i believe, they have a /b day schedule. one class on day A, a different class on day B. anyways, well im gona go!

Company!

Jeremy and his wife Crystal and their baby Jayden came down for a visit, and we had a good time! heres a few pictures we took before they left.

Jinxy

 here is one of me and jinx dan took the other night, jinx has taken to sleeping on top of the couch recently.

Chill

so not much exciting has been going on since we went hiking, just working in the yard, added some plants and 2 small palm trees, dan is very concerned about frost or freezing since ourlows have been in the 20s and 30s lately, and so he put up our Christmas lights on all the ficus trees (we didnt have them all up outside for Christmas, so jan 15 we were out stringing lights, our neighbors probably are wondering what is going on) but its supposed to keep them warm. anyways, then dan dumped water on the trees to keep them warm, and it shorted out the lights, so now they are purely decoration... subbing (today for special ed at middle school), helping dan with mortgage notes, he looks them up and i write the letter and address the envelope. so far i think i have 50 something ready for him. anyways, just getting ready for Robert to come fly in monday for the 3 day training. just sort of chillin at our house.

Hiking

heres some pictures, it was pretty bright up on the top!

Camelback Mountain! Hold to the Rod. The Iron Rod..

We got up early this morning...and a slow start it was. we dropped my mother off to the airport at about 7 or so, and headed over to Camelback Moutain. we thought it would be somewhat of an easy trail, a little over a mile each way. however, it was a VERY steep trail, parts of it we had to hold to the rod! the iron rod! and other times we were climbing up rocks after rocks, sort of a steep hill that has big rocks everywhere. tons of hikers too! not TOO much but a lot, and lots of dogs. that really kept emma going. was seeing how the dogs were at the top, and having me ask the owners if the dogs liked hiking or not. that question made me feel really stupid, asking dog owners if their dog liked to hike. OBViOUSLy the dog did. but it made emma happy. luckily i only had to ask one owner for emma to be satisfied that all dogs would. and then she really didnt want to continue about half way... she told us that saturday mornins were her day to sleep IN! and that this wasnt very fun to her. and that her legs were tired. it was sorta funny. but then dan and dave had gone alittle ahead to i left audrye and emma cause emma wasnt going anywhere, and then audrey convinced her i had the food and that i might eat the food if she didnt come to with us. it worked! emma caught up to me, and then she was a GREAT hiker !! after that, she hardly complained at all. everybody commented on how cute she was a what a good hiker she was. dave and dan were ahead of us most of the time , me and audrey and emma, because emma was a little slower since she is still quite small, some of the rocks were harder for her to climb over quickly. but thats okay, we had fun! the summit was very cool, you could see Mt Lemon all the way in Tuscon. well, heres some pictures! enjoy! Oh, and we took lots of breaks, we left at 8 exactly and were back in the car by 11:20. a little longer than we thought, but we did hang out on the summit for a little while.

Jinx!

We are in the middle of putting up our over the ranger microwave, and jinx LOVEs that plastic that is sitting around, she sleeps in there all the time.

Last days of Break!

ITs a Beautiful DAy!

Heres some pictures of the latest and greatest happenings here in Casa Grande! My mother leaves tomarrow morning, so we were baking bread today. and i took some more pictures of our paintings we did yesterday, and today is gorgeous outside!! we layed in the hammock in audreys backyard for 1/2 hr and it was so nice. didnt wana get up! it was so relaxing. tonight i think we will go out to dinner, and then who knows whaT! tomarrow morning we want to go hiking bright and early at Camelback mountain.

Painting

Yesterday my mother and I finally got to have a painting day! we started about 2 or 3 and finished up around 8. it was a lot of fun! at first, that rock was really hard, but i kinda learned how to do it. my mom taught me about leaves and trees, and flicking to make the rock look more real! it was a lot of fun! thanks mom!

Sleepy kitty

Christmas Eve

Here we are Christmas Eve. We get new pjs every year! i got a robe this year, which i have loved! and then there is a picture of us outside my parents house on our way up to see the Mesa Temple's lights.

And a happy new year!!

Here we are on Christmas, Everybody! the kids have all gone away, dave and emma went to Des Moines to see their grandma there, tom and michelle left this morning, and my dad flew home to alaska.

Welcome, welcome Christmas Morning

Here are some of the last of Christmas Eve, and then some at my house on Christmas Day. Us and Jinx, Dad and Tom and Michelle. We were cookin a lot of breakfast that morning, so its messy! Orange rolls, waffles, eggs, sausage, smoothies....

Merry CHristmas

So here we are again, climbing the tree, when the family got to the park, tom decided he would get the balls down! and he did, after a lot of thorns and climbing.

So here we are! we started out playing football, on Christmas Eve, but our footballs got stuck in this thorny tree, and then someone threw up the soccer ball i had just ran home to get and pump up , to get them down, and punctured the soccer ball all over. so, mary went climbin. but couldnt get the balls so we just played basketball. but then the net was all tangled, and would not let balls go thru. so dave tried to untangle it, but that didnt work, so then we tried playing at the other end of the court, but it was too bright, looking into the midday sun. so we went back to the other side , and mary tried untangling the chains, and it worked! so then we played half court.

Merry Christmas!

how did your christmas go? we had a pretty good one! lots of family here, tom and michelle, audrey and her kids, mary, my mom and dad. and me and dan of course! it was nice to have everybody together- almost everybody, we were missing 4 McLeans and 3 Ingrams. and they were greatly missed! after the kids opened Santa's presents , they came over to my house and i made breakfast, i made dan's mothers buttermilk pancake recipe, but everybody wanted waffles, so i switched to waffles. and they were SO good! and michelle made orange rolls, which turned out VEry nice. and dan made smoothies, those were great too! i think my mom made eggs and sausage, but i was too busy with waffles to notice much of that. so we had lots of food for breakfast! so then we went to church, and then came back home, and went over to my parents house, and they opened all the rest of the presents. mary gave me and dan an official size Tetherball set, and 2 white sweatbands to go with it! haha. my parents gave us a realy nice backpacking backpack to store 72 hour kits in, and these really handy wind up flashlights, that NEVER need batteries so they will always work. nice! Dan gave me some pillows i'd been eying for our couch, they are green and the same material as our couch, i love them! they look fantastic! and then he gave me $$ to go shopping today, so i got some great sales! it was very fun. everything was like 1/2 off! got some christmas decorations for next year, got some Kitchenaid cutting boards, a green runner (rug), a dining set (since i dont have a whole set of any one kind!), some REALLy cool red and purple plates that are much bigger than normal plates, and they are shiny, whats that called? ... i cant seem to remember. oh yah- chargers. they are beautiful! dan picked out some GREAT gifts:) then we came back and played some ultimate football (like ultimate frisby), with me, mary, dan,and dave. at first it was me and dan against mary and dave, but then it was a little unfair, so it was me and mary against dan and dave. it felt very good to exercise since we've been eating so much junk food the last week! the kids are off today to Omaha, where their grandma will pick them up and take them to des moines until sunday i think. or monday... and tom and michelle will leave tomarrow in michelles new Lexus Rx 300 tom bought her! anyways, thats all thats going on so far. my dad left this morning for Alaska! Okay , later!

DOnt, worry, im a Professional!

Well. its officially Christmas Break for me!! school is out! until jan 09, 2006!! had a good week, today we got out of school at 12:50. so that was nice, we went over and saw camies little baby, and that was fun. hes so tiny, 8 pounds, and a c-section baby. healthy, and it looks like camie's doing well, he is a week old now! his name is Gunner William. cute eh? today i subbed for 2nd grade, i've done every grade now except kindergarten, i've done preschool, 1st grade, 2nd grade (like 3 times) , 3rd, 4th, and 5th. so i'm really a professional. you know, any teacher, paid any amout of money, is a professional teacher? so i really AM! i am over at my moms right now, dan is on his way home from work, he was painting his first house today! i think its been going well. david and my dad went up to help him. i need to do my christmas shopping still, so if anybody has good ideas for dan, he hasnt let me in on any really! Merry CHristmas!!