Missed Prizes...

For those of you asking about what prizes CJ and I missed out on this past Wednesday by not hearing our name called on Shine.FM, they are as follows:

Day 1 - "Deck the Kitchen" pack
includes your Christmas Ham from Honey Baked Ham of Bourbonnais
Christmas CD pack
a pound of coffee from Moon Monkey Coffee Company in Bourbonnais
Day 2 - Reading pack
a one year subscription to Relevant magazine
a one year subscription to Christianity Today
the "Relevant Book" pack
Day 3 - 10 pack of skating passes and skate rentals for OAK Arena-Kankakee, IL
Day 4 - Two meet and greet passes for SHINEFEST '07
Day 5 - Blue Man Group tickets

Bummer, huh?!? I would have really enjoyed seeing the Blue Man Group again...and I absolutely LOVE Christianity Today magazine. Two meet and greet passes for ShineFest '07 wouldn't have been bad either. Oh well...maybe some other time...

Holiday Gathering #2

~Ashleigh, JR, & Sara~



~Ashleigh and "her boyfriend"~


~Madison~


~Ashleigh & her boyfriend again~


~Ms. Ashleigh Paige~


~Ashleigh trying to direct little sister Madison
and her boyfriend CJ to look at the camera...
it looks like she missed the shot!~


~...and again!~

We had our second holiday gathering with more friends tonight, the Thompson's. We always enjoy the entertainment brought to us by Ms. Ashleigh Paige...a 13-year-old drama queen stuck inside of a 3 1/2-year-old's body! She is extremely infatuated with CJ...he has been her boyfriend for quite some time now. Normally she will make her way right in the middle of us to sit, and she enjoys climbing all over CJ. Tonight she kept calling him "Andre," after the movie about the seal. haha She also kept telling him he looked beautiful. Wow! She is something else. I never thought I'd be competing against a toddler for my man! It seems as if Ashleigh knows what she wants...

CJ and I finally got our wedding album yesterday!!! We were both discussing how on one hand, it seems like our wedding was a lifetime ago, yet on the other hand, it seems like only yesterday we were saying our vows and becoming "Mr. and Mrs." for the first time. Regardless of how it feels, we will have been married for 5 months on December 28th, and it is so nice to have our highly-anticipated album to keep and look at over and over.

I was so disappointed to find out at 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon from Shannon Kotynski that Shine.FM called our name on the air to win the "6th Day of Christmas" prizes! Shannon called and left me a message at 8:35 yesterday morning, but my students were already in the classroom by then, so my phone was put away. Johnny Hamstra called CJ around the same time, gave him the number to the radio station, but by the time CJ called, he was 6 minutes too late. :( Poor CJ had no clue what was even going on...he doesn't listen to Shine.FM, and I didn't tell him about the contest going on. So when Johnny called him, he was thinking, "Huh???" Oh well, at least he tried! After being disappointed with the fact that I missed hearing my name and didn't win the prizes, I told myself that maybe the person who did end up winning yesterday needed the prizes a whole lot more than I did...and in that case, I would want them to have the prizes instead. It was still disappointing, however, because I never win anything!!! Oh well! Maybe next time...

So I'm down to 1 week before Christmas break begins! I'm taking off next Wednesday to get stuff done before CJ and I leave for Tennessee, so next week I'll only have to work 3 1/2 days. The Superintendent of my school is dismissing the students at 12:30 next Friday and then the Principal is serving us lunch afterwards! THEN...I am officially on vacation until January 8th. CJ will be on vacation until January 3rd...so we will definitely enjoy our time off together (most of it will be spent in Tennessee). We have a Bulls/Suns game to look forward to on January 2nd (go Steve Nash on the Suns). :)

This weekend is CJ's cousin's graduation from Indiana State University...maybe I'll have some new pictures to post from that. Our little nephew, Elijah, got all of his hair cut off, so I'm excited to see that and take some pictures. :) Have a great weekend everyone!!!

A few more BBall pics...

Unfortunately, CJ's team lost the championship game today, but they played a good game! They only lost by 5 points, and CJ scored a lot of 3's. I enjoyed being in the cheering section, and I look forward to his next league which begins in January at Purdue. GO CJ!!!

1st Christmas Gathering of 2006

~Leif & Adrian (and Baby Boy-to-be)


~CJ & Moi~


~The Happy Couple Again~


~Me & Adrian (and Baby Boy-to-be)

We officially began our Christmas gatherings for 2006! We enjoyed dinner at Adrian and Leif's place, as well as a game (CJ and I reigned as the champs), dessert, and early Christmas presents!!! We have a few more gatherings this season...we look forward to getting together with friends and family in the next few weeks!

Today's Thoughts...

Well, last week at this time, I was down in the dumps and feeling rather blue. This week some other comments blew me away, but this time they were good! Yesterday the kids got to go home at 12:30 while the teachers stayed and had meetings until 4. The teachers were all working with their grade levels while the Principal, Social Workers, Dean, and PE teacher were in another room discussing discipline. After the meetings were over, the PE teacher stopped me in the hall and said, "I just wanted to tell you that your name came up in our meeting, and a lot of nice comments were said about you by other staff members, such as how you really get along well with the students." She then went on to say, "You're very respected among the staff." I nearly cried again because of how much that meant to me...God knew just what I needed to hear after last week! I thanked her profusely and briefly explained my disappointing day with the kids last week. It just gave me that extra boost to keep doing what I'm doing...and doing it with the strength that God gives me each day. I definitely felt a lot better when driving to work this morning!!!

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So I was reading in my Christianity Today magazine about how eugenics has made a lethal comeback. The authors were comparing modern-day eugenics to the movement 80 years ago! Back then it was Darwin's theories and Hitler's actions that led to racism and discrimination among certain types of people. Today the thoughts and actions are resurfacing...scientists are using human embryos to find cures for diseases, women are selecting their artificial-inseminated babies' fathers based on levels of intelligence or gifts, parents are being pressured by doctors to abort imperfect fetuses, and one of the most disturbing to me: some ethicists are arguing that it's ok to kill disabled children after they are born!!!

"English scientists are attempting to create 'designer babies' by transplanting the nucleus of a woman with defective mitochondria into the healthy egg of another woman. It's the first step toward genetic engineering of human beings."

The article just infuriates me because this is obviously not God's plan. As the authors state towards the end of the article, "As we celebrate the Incarnation this month, we are reminded that every stage is precious in God's design." God help the world!!!

My Favorite BBall Player...

I love watching my favorite player play his favorite sport! It never gets tiresome, boring, or old! Now the NBA is a different story...but not when it comes to watching my man! :) CJ's been playing in a men's basketball league out in Hobart, IN on Sunday afternoons. Next Sunday (December 1oth) will be the championship game. Yesterday, CJ scored 20 points, and 5 of his shots were 3-pointers! He's my star. He will join the intramural season at Purdue Calumet in January...definitely more pictures to come in the future...maybe even a video or two of him in action!