I Needed a Plan B

I went to church for yesterday for the first time in Idon'tknowhowlong.

I didn't want to go.

I have been reallyreallyreally angry with Him. I haven't talked to Him. I haven't been to His house. I haven't had my morning quiet time.

I have been angry and miserable. Angry and miserable does not make for a happy blogger.

But I went here. And this place feels like home.

What's even better is that we both like it.

I walked in the door and I knew He was talking to me.

The new sermon series is "Plan B: What happens when life doesn't turn out the way you thought it would?"

The pastor said a couple of things that I haven't been able to get out of my head:

1. God is most powerfully present when we feel like He is most apparently absent.
2. I can choose to trust in God's IDENTITY, not in God's ACTIVITY. I wept on and off throughout the entire service.

I decided to stop being angry about things that are out of my control. I decided to focus on what I can do: love her, pray for her and rest in His identity.

If you would like to listen to what I believe is an amazing series, click here. The podcasts are free! :)

You should definitely check it out!

On The Night Before Valentine's Day

I had the hiccups.

Right when I wanted to go to bed.

Not my favorite thing.

My sweet boy *might* have heard me moan and groan about the aforementioned hiccups.

I went on with my face-washing-teeth-brushing-contact-cleaning routine before bed.

Just as I am putting on my pajamas, the "sweet boy" sneaks up behind me and SCREAMS.

Ladies and gentlemen, this was not a normal scream.

It was very loud.

It even came with a crazy face.

It was worse. Trust me.

It scared me so badly I cried for 5 minutes.

I was very thankful I did not pee my pants.

(I am not a fan of scaring.)

The "sweet boy" had to hold me until I stopped.

Only he was laughing the whole time, so then I got mad.

I made him promise never to cure my hiccups that way ever again.

It is a good thing he got me this for Valentine's Day:

My new favorite.

Anybody else have a Valentine's Eve story they'd like to share?

Editor's Note: The "sweet boy" would like me to note that my hiccups went away. 
Don't care. 
Scaring is bad.  

A Letter

Dear Neighbor,

That flailing mass of purple you saw go flying? Yeah, that was me.

You know, it is generally polite to STOP and ask someone who has FALLEN ON ICE if they are okay. That's right. I saw you. Your daily run around the neighborhood should definitely not be interrupted. But if you don't want to be interrupted, then you should probably not GASP and make EYE CONTACT with the person who screamed curse words on her way to the ground. You certainly didn't need to bother with the cracking noise that followed the cursing. That was nothing. Probably a rabid squirrel fight.

You are totally the best neighbor ever.

Love,

Abigail

PS - You might want to be on the lookout for random snowballs being thrown your way tomorrow on your run.

PPS - I probably shouldn't compose letters when I have an angry head injury.

Stir Crazy

I am now headed into my fourth day off from work due to the nasty road conditions. I was actually jealous of Bryan as he headed off to work for the first time earlier this morning. Do you know how sick and twisted that is??

In all seriousness, I am ready to go back to work. I was actually hoping for a workday tomorrow - maybe Friday at this rate?  I miss my friends and the munchkins. If we don't go in on Friday, we won't go back to work until next Tuesday!! (MLK holiday on Monday) That is nuts!! Right now, there are also rumors floating around that they will take away our February break in order to make up for the lost days this week. Knowing how l-o-n-g the distance between MLK weekend Spring Break in April feels, I am not a fan of that idea. At all.

On a happy note, I've gotten a lot done at home - caulked a bathtub, blogged, written lesson plans, cut coupons, folded about a million loads of laundry and cooked 3 meals a day almost every day since Saturday. We've even managed to stick to our New Year's low/no carb diet. Do you know how hard that is when you are stuck inside and all you want is a grilled cheese and soup??? Luckily, on our trek to Kroger I found some low carb tortillas on an almost empty bread shelf and viola! Cheese Quesadillas and Soup!

We've had fun together - playing Wii, watching movies and our good friends John and Neeley came over last night.  I made a big pot of black bean soup, a salad and some "goo" (Thanks, Mom!) and we were able to enjoy the sound of other peoples' voices for a few hours. :)

I hope this finds everyone warm and toasty! I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some sunshine this weekend!!

Snowmaggedon 2011

I am currently enjoying my second day off, watching Scott Pilgrim Vs The World with my sweet boy. We picked it up yesterday on our walk to Kroger. That's right, our walk to Kroger.



Our front steps:
3 inches of snow covered with a lovely icy sheen


We did discuss using the car, but on our way to the car we almost broke ourselves so we decided to hoof it. We were going to get beer for the big game and it turned out to be quite the adventure!

That would be the ice that kept us from driving.
There was lots of it.

If you think he looks happy here, you should have seen him after we got the beer!

It took us about an hour and a half to walk there. We were super-bundled up: multiple shirts, sweaters and coats, pajama pants under jeans, gloves, scarves and boots. There were a few fools driving, but we were pleasantly surprised to see lots of other folks walking - and most of them for the same reason!

Evidence that we weren't the only crazies.

When we arrived at the blessed Kroger parking lot, it was empty but the inside was a different story. Packed! There were lots of other "walkers" who were loading up with similar goodies. We have plenty of food at the house, but times like this make me crave a few essentials: hot coffee and tomato soup. We also grabbed several Redbox flicks: Scott Pilgrim, Easy A and Grownups. The walk back was shorter, 45 minutes, as everything was downhill this time. After our 3 hour adventure we decided that we had probably burned all of the beer calories we would consume during the game. :) We did enjoy a delicious pot roast once we thawed out and warmed up again.

As we sat down to watch Scott Pilgrim this morning, Bryan had a revelation: "Crap. We have to take all those Redbox movies back."

Stay warm and stay tuned for Part 2: Return to the Redbox!

Point, Click, Give! :)

I know I recently asked for your help regarding my sweet Ruby, but this help only requires you to click. :) 

Oprah recently named Donors Choose one of her favorite things for 2010. In a partnership with Bing, she is trying to donate $1,000,000 to teachers in need. If you follow a short registration process to make Bing your homepage, they will send you a $5 email gift card/donation code to apply to any project you want! 


Guess who has a project on Donors Choose?? ME! :) 


If you would, pretty please, follow the steps below and use a $5 donation code to help fund my project, it would mean the world to me! It won't cost you anything but time!


1. Click here: Bing Holiday Project: Donors Choose 
2. Click on the orange "Start Here" button.
3. Fill in your email address for "I Choose. Bing Gives $5."
4. Visit your email and retrieve the donation code.
5. Go to my Donors Choose page and look on the right hand side for the Give Any Amount pull down tab. Type in $5 and click the green arrow.
6. Review your cart and click through to check out.
7. Copy the donation code from your email and paste it in the "I have a gift code!" box.
8. Click on "Place My Donation" to apply it and you're done!


I really appreciate anyone out there taking the time to do this. It's quick and painless and will (hopefully!) provide my kiddos, my co-teachers and I with some invaluable technology to help them "close the gap." 


Please do this before the opportunity "expires" on January 15th!

Muchas Gracias from all of us in Room 3! :)

A White Weaver-Vegas Christmas!

We had heard earlier in the week that it *might* snow on Christmas Eve so we were hoping for a white Christmas, but we had no idea it would look like this:

Mama and Daddy's house

View from the back deck

Unfortunately, all of this gorgeous white stuff has kept us from driving to meet Bryan's family in Florida. The roads leading to the highways are super-frozen and our little Matrix does not have 4 wheel drive. It's an odd feeling to be thankful for extra time with one family while missing the other family... the things married life teaches you. :)

We did play Dirty Santa last night. Among the gifts opened were:

Some awesome fake teeth.

A Bump It!

And... the world's best bathroom decor EVER!

After we decided that the roads were just too icy to drive on, we bundled up and went for a walk to prevent Cabin Fever from setting in.

Daddy and Mama

Bundled up!

Wishing Nattie wasn't stuck in Mars Hill!

A Boonie Bundle!

I will admit to having some fun at Mama's expense a couple of times... we *might* have pushed her down in the snow. :)

On the way back we stopped off at the neighbors' house to borrow a couple of sleds. Oh, the fun we had! :)

My sweet snow boy!

Getting ready to ride!

The snow is still falling! We are hoping to be able to head home tomorrow afternoon. It has been quite the adventure here in Weaver-Vegas!