2013

2013 -
Grey and I both have some goals:
Grey wants to be able to squat 405 lbs by April. (He's currently at 335lbs)
I'm still currently training for my half marathon in March...we'll see how long that continues :)
Grey is taking his first actuary exam some time in the spring semester (it'll be the first of seven that he'll have to take). He only has to take and pass the first two before he can get a job
My New Year's Resolution?
Get into couponing!
Upcoming Events:
My friend from kindergarten is getting married
We're hoping to go on our first cruise with some college friends
I've got another mud run in April

What did we do in 2012?
Celebrated 2 years of marriage
I ran my first mud run
Grey and I ran a color run
We got a gym membership! :)
We finished our second year of teaching and started our third
We found a church that we adore and thus decided to stay in Spartanburg
I finished the quilt for our bed (took me 8 months!)
We went to the mountains, Florida, Savannah, and Asheville

2012 was a WONDERFUL year - full of love, health, and happiness! Thanks Jesus!

Oh Christmas

How I'm so thankful for you
*Time with Jesus
*Time with families
*Hot Chocolate and fires in the fireplace
...
Not to mention, A BUTT LOAD OF PRESENTS! :)

Hey - I got a $130 dollar mini keurig in a spicy color for $59 - how's that for couponing?!

If you had a million dollars and you could get a new *something* every day, what would you get?
Ex: My brother in law would get a new pair of socks to wear every day
I would get a new toothbrush every day

Gotta love the small things in life - what would you get?

Hope you guys had a good one!  Merry Christmas!

My Christmas Wish List

1. Younts (a miniature yorkie) :) WON'T be getting one of those....sigh
see this post for reasons why:  http://www.jeanbeck.blogspot.com/2012/07/younts.html
2. A keurig (WON'T be getting one of those since...well, we don't really drink coffee)
3. Christmas China and a bread pan (Grey's Christmas presents to me opened yesterday)
4. More pieces to my Willow tree Nativity Set
5. A food processor! (bring on the hummus pesto, and pizza dough)

What are you wanting from Santa?
Merry Christmas Eve Eve!!

2 years of wedded bliss

Ahhhh...As of this exact moment, we've been married for 2 years. :)

Can you believe it?!  Not this girl.
I seriously look at Grey all the time and say:
"WHAT?!  We can't snuggle IN A BED!  We're not married!" (and then he just laughs at me and reminds me "gently" that yes, indeed we are)
"Can you believe we're married?!"
"Hey - you're my husband...did you know that?!"
" Dude...I'm SO glad I married YOU."

It's been two years of:
Getting to know one another
Getting used to sleeping in a bed with another person
Adjusting my sense of humor to actually find Grey humorous :)
Loving and praying for one another

Two years of:
Rummy tournaments
Frozen yogurt runs
Spontaneous trips
Late night slumber parties :)
Movie marathons

Two years of...wedded bliss.  Marriage hasn't always been easy and I know it won't always be easy in the future. 
I am confident though that I picked a dern good one and that makes it all worth it.

Be Jealous

"Chubby Nativity"

 

"Peanuts Nativity" 

 

"Serious Nativity" 

 

"Nesting Dolls Nativity"

(Sorry for the bad quality of this picture)

 

"Rubber Ducky Nativity" 

 

"Veggie Tales Nativity" 

 

Also! I learned this today from one of my students. I thought I'd share...
"Mrs L - you know if she starts taking off her earrings, something's about to go DOWN"

This was the only good picture that I had of all of us and yet the bride doesn't look too happy??  I don't think that was planned...

Newtown, CT

One of my fellow teachers put it so well-

"Remember that for every nut sack out there with a gun, there's a nut like me in a classroom who is ready to do whatever it takes to protect your babies.

Because from 8 til 4, they're my babies too."

We live in a sick, Jesus-less world.  My heart and prayers go out to those families. 

10

I just ate an entire 10oz bag of spinach for dinner. (That's one of the big bags)

Think my pee will be green?

This past week

This past week was a doozie.

On Wednesday, I called almost 30 SETS of parents.  It was so. much. fun. explaining that their HIGH SCHOOL  aged child tried to stick rulers up other kids' noses. And their HIGH SCHOOL aged kid wouldn't quit farting. And their HIGH SCHOOL aged kid wouldn't quit turning around and stealing the ruler from the girl behind him. So. Much. Fun.

Thursday morning, I got the best phone call ever.  I had a student call me before school started with her mother in the background saying, "Apologize!  You apologize to that teacher!  How dare you act like that!"

:) Made me smile.

I also have a kid that has started trying to sleep in my class.  I wake him up probably 3-4 times a day. I've threatened to call people.  I've made him get up and run a few laps around our pod.  No success.  SO! I talked to his coach yesterday about him sleeping in class.  Today, the class starts and the kid immediately puts his head down and starts sleeping so hard that he's twitching.  My phone is right by the kids desk so I call up his coach and leave him a voicemail saying that his beloved player is taking a nap in my room and I'd like him to do something about it.  The kid sleeps through the entire thing.
10 minutes later, coach calls up to my room and asks to speak to the kid.  After a good and thorough yelling, the kid is so embarrassed that he refuses to look at ANYONE for the rest of the class period.
He didn't put his head down anymore though :)

Success.

:)
Pics from MF's bachelorette weekend coming up.  (Hello MF's dad!!!) :)

Last year

Here are last year's New Years Resolutions...let's see how I did!
1. Keep our little family still down to just...two. :) Check!


2. Run the Cooper River Bridge Run. The last time I did this, I was just a little crazy about "diet" and exercise and this year, I'm bound to do it right - lots of running and lots of stuffing my face. :) Bring it on.
:( Got a hotel room and was running 4-5 miles and then our stinkin Boston trip overlapped that weekend.  Turns out that Boston and I didn't agree with each other...Bummer

3. Make friends. I'm not off to a great start. There was a girl today at church sitting all by herself. Only one person introduced himself to her during the greet time so I decided to introduce myself after the service. I went up to her and said, "Hey! I saw you sitting here alone so I wanted to come meet you and welcome you to our church" She responded with, "oh, well, I've been going here for 5 years. My parents are working the nursery so I just came out to hear the sermon"

Fail. I seriously already had planned in my mind that she would come over and eat lunch with us and we'd be hanging out later that week. I cried afterwards and told Grey I wasn't ever talking to anyone new again.
So since Jan of last year, we left our old church that I wasn't too passionate about and have since found one that we absolutely adore.  With it has come much needed community!  I now have friends!  Girl friends that are both married and single.  What a blessing!

4. Don't let my hormones get the best of me...see #3.
Let's see - Jan-May was pretty emotional.  August - December has been pretty emotional.  June and July?  Perfect! Hmmm...think school has anything to do with it? 

5. Finish sewing covers on my dagone pillows
Geez. Dang pillows.  All the pillow covers are made and two out of the 5 are completely sewn up.  I'll get there eventually...

6. Did I already mention that I'm starved for female attention?  Check!

7. I still want to pull an all nighter. That one stems from college. In order to do this though, I have to be allowed to nap until 8:00pm that night. No nap=no staying up late. I also have to have a couple days to catch up afterwards.
I stayed up till midnight once...does that count?

8. I already watched 27 episodes of Raising Hope...CHECK!
Ah. The joys of weekly tv. What a blessing comedy is on my life.

Stay tuned for "New Year's Resolutions 2013"
It'll be big folks.  :)

Hello :)

Sorry it's been a while.  Gotta say, I'm still a little depressed about the blogging situation. :)

I have a kid in one of my classes that has lived a ROUGH life. I actually cried when I first heard his story...anywho.  He's not a happy character to say the least and he gets picked on (not in my class)a lot throughout the day.

I caught him joking around and smiling with me for the first time 2 weeks ago.  It was glorious.

Tomorrow is his birthday. You know what my kids have been doing since last week?

Planning a secret birthday party just for him.

I was expressing my thankfulness and joy over them wanting to serve this kid and one of my girls responded with, "well we know he's not happy at home - at least we can make him happy during our class."

Even though I get so bogged down with the rudeness of some of my kids, I've really got some gems. :)

A side note:  I was reading through a book that I've read numerous times and came across one of my favorite quotes and thought I'd share.
“Happiness is a risk. If you're not a little scared, then you're not doing it right.”
― Sarah Addison Allen, The Peach Keeper

Love y'all.
-B

Thanksgiving!

I was going to upload all my thanksgiving pictures but apparently I'm out of space on the blog. :(
Thus, either I will never post pictures again or I'll start all over with the blog. Sad!

On the other hand, things I'm thankful for this Thanksgiving:
Jesus, grace and mercy renewed every day, a good (and happy) year of marriage, family, Nora, new friends and old friends, health, a roof over our head, and chocolate :)

Love y'all!
-B

Today

Made a high school boy cry today.

Ah...the joys of teaching adolescents.

Thanksgiving Menu

On the menu for the first EVER (annual) Lancaster Thanksgiving....

Turkey and Gravy
Ham
Stuffing
Mac and Cheese
Greenbean Casserole
Twice Baked Sweet Potatoes
Homemade Crescent Rolls

Maybe a dessert thrown in there?

Some how my dear sweet husband thinks that he will go hunting all day Tuesday and Wednesday morning and then come back after his adventures to brine and cook the turkey in order for our lovely guests to arrive around 5:30-6pm (on Wednesday)...

Hmmm...

ONE MORE DAY OF SCHOOL!  I can do this.

You know what my kids told me today?
Student: Mrs. L, you have no patience at all.
Me: Really?  Are you still alive?  Well...that seems like patience to me if I've been putting up with y'all for 60ish days and I aint killed anyone yet.

Today's Conversations

"M'am, I am afraid that your child decided that it was a good idea to glue rulers to my desks.  He'll be coming in during his lunch to clean all of my desks."

"I want a baby too but I ain't ready!  I'm 25 years old and I've been married for 2 years.  You're ** years old with a boyfriend of 1 week. What makes you so ready?"

"M'am, I'm calling to tell you that your child won't quit farting in class.  He/she kept purposely interrupting a presentation today done by their classmates."

That wasn't even half of it folks.

Glory.

Neighbors

Just wanted to give a shout out to all my faithful readers -

Our next door neighbor (the single momma who refused my casserole when she broke her leg) just told us that she lost her job 3 weeks ago and hasn't been able to find anything yet.

She asked us to come watch her little boy (who was puking) while she went to go pick up medicine and dinner.  When she came back, she immediately started crying about her job and telling us how desperate she is to find something else and how hard it's been recently.

We just ask that you guys pray for her.

Thanks a bunch.  Love you mean it.
-B

Today

*Is the day before Election Day
*I slept for 11 hours
*I had a kid have one of the worst bloody noses yet...blood dripping out of his hand, all over his papers...ek.
*I had a bee fly into my classroom and thus had multiple students screaming every second and standing on top of desks.  I finally whacked him with a poster.
*Grey and I decided that we're going to do our own Thanksgiving dinner the Wednesday before.  The only problem with this is that we're completely divided on the main meat.
Grey wants turkey.
I want ham.
Solution? Buy all of our groceries at Ingles until Thanksgiving and earn enough turkey points to get a free turkey.  Then we will buy a ham. :)

Happy Election day tomorrow.  Go vote.  People have fought and died for your freedom to vote.  So do it.

:)
-B

Apparently

Apparently when you put a plastic bag on a really hot stove eye, it burns.

Apparently playing Justin Bieber's "As long as you love me" song to your sweet husband in hopes of it becoming "y'all's song" will not work. ;)

Apparently cooking pecan breakfast bread, lemon blueberry bread, and cookies in one weekend is too much to consume in just one week's time.

Apparently eating hot dogs and chili right BEFORE you go to the gym is not a good idea.

Apparently there is nothing wrong with desperately wanting to go to bed at 7:00 every night this week.  The kids at school are crazy yo. They WHACK.

Apparently chasing a cat around the house popping him on his butt repeatedly scares him so badly that he shakes in your arms for a good 5 minutes. (Sorry Oliver but you made me REALLY mad)

Apparently your hips widening is just a normal part of life even when you've lost weight for that week

Apparently it is perfectly normal to disregard a teacher's plea to "put something away" and then get utterly mad and angry when she takes your precious item

Apparently Chickfila is so good, that this girl can crave it for 2 weeks straight.  Don't worry, Beck-o-Baggins is going to get some tomorrow.  My end of the week treat :)

Apparently, the term "swag" is "so last year"...Learned that one while being yelled at by all my students today when I told a kid that he had swag. Oops.  Get on the ball Beck. Geez.

Apparently, the new word is DOPE.  Like, you are so dope!  That outfit is so dope!  Girrrrllll matching your shirt to your shoes?  DOPE!

Apparently Oliver has short term memory loss.  He apparently has forgotten the "above incident" and it now trying to crawl into my lap.

That is all. :)

My "Very Productive Saturday"

Everything I did:

Pecan Breakfast Bread

Folded Laundry

Crockpot Taco Soup (also made the parmesan pork loin but forgot to take pics)

Made one batch of cookies (Grey is delicately decorating)

Sadly, some of our best work :)

Lemon Blueberry Bread

I cut out the material to make 2 matching Christmas trees! :)

WOO HOO!

On the agenda today

Since I couldn't sleep past 7:30, I'm declaring today a, "Very Productive Saturday."

Oh. Boy.

To do:
Fold Laundry
Make Crockpot Taco Soup
Make Parmesan Honey Pork Loin
Make Lemon Blueberry Muffins
Buy Pumpkins
Make Pecan Breakfast Bread
Make (and decorate) Halloween cut outs (2 different recipes)
Sew 3-d Christmas Tree
Sew Christmas Tree Skirt
Run

I'll keep ya updated on how I do :)

Color run

We ran the Color Run!!!

SO MUCH FUN!

12 dates

Taken from ABC family's 25 days of Christmas, someone posted on Pinterest that they were going to do this instead...

12 Dates of Christmas

 

1st Date - Pick out a tree

2nd Date - Bake holiday cookies

3rd Date - Decorate the tree

4th Date - Shop for Christmas PJs

5th Date - Sleep under the lights

6th Date - Hot Chocolate star gazing

7th Date - Window Wonderland

8th Date - Festival of lights

9th Date - Driving light tour

10th Date - Fun with holiday food

11th Date - Movie marathon

12th Date - Dinner date out

 

I don't know what some of them are...but this sounds like a GREAT idea! :)   Maybe we'll try and take a picture for every date and post about it?

 

EK!  This is what I'm thinking:

1st Date - Pick out a tree and decorate house

2nd Date - Bake and decorate holiday cookies

3rd Date - Give cookies to neighbors 

4th Date - Decorate Christmas tree

5th Date -  Shop for Christmas PJs

6th Date - Sleep under the lights

7th Date - Wrap presents for family

8th Date - Hot Chocolate star gazing

9th Date - Driving light tour

10th Date - Movie marathon

11th Date - Dinner date out

12th Date - Go some place to celebrate our anniversary!?

Poll - vote to the right!

Here are some runs that I am thinking of doing:

Zombie Run
http://calendar.goupstate.com/simpsonville_sc/events/show/276832205-greenville-zombie-out-run

Jingle Bell run
http://www.kintera.org/faf/home/default.asp?ievent=1023254

Krispy Kreme Challenge
http://www.krispykremechallenge.com/

The zombie run - held November 3rd in Greenville at night.  You're given a belt with flags on it and you run the 5k around the park.  The catch?  Zombies come out and chase you the whole time trying to get your flags. :)

The Jingle Bell Run - held Dec 1st in Greenville.  It's just a normal 5k. The catch?  Everyone dresses up in Christmas costumes and puts jingle bells on their shoes while they run. :)

The Krispy Kreme Challenge-  5 miles throughout the NC State University campus.  The catch?  You run in teams.  Your team runs 2.5 miles, consumes 1 dozen donuts, and run 2.5 miles back...within 1 hour.

Thoughts?  Anyone want to join?!?!

Spirit Week

Spirit Week at good ole Lexington was merely a week filled with hall decorating and silly dress up days.

Not so much at Hillcrest.
We're talking 24 hours 7 days straight of FUND-Raising. Ms. Berg and I are the co-advisors for Student Council which means that we got the priveledge ;) of being at every event!!!

We sold donuts, biscuits, funnel cakes, fried oreos, chicken fingers, ribbon fries, pizza, ice cream, lollipops, and sodas...EVERY DAY

We had tie dye parties, paint wars, womenless beauty pageants, middle school pageants, talent shows, a rave/dance party, parents night out, kiddie camps, a 5k run, silent auctions, basketball competitions, volleyball games, dodgeball tournaments, a car show, field days, an art show, a yard sale, outdoor concerts, sponsored dinners....seriously, just to name a few.

We raised over $86,000 for our charity, Connie Maxwell Children's Home! :)

This week, I've left school every night but one after 10pm and I've had to leave my house no later than 6:40 every morning so I could go pick up the 2nd (SECOND!) round of Chickfila biscuits. My feet were so swollen by the end of the week that I had to pick and choose which shoes I could wear.  :)

This weekend, I'm going to sleep. Like, stay in bed all weekend and watch Friends.  Like, stay in pj's all day.  Like - kick Grey out of the house and make him go hunting (like that's really a punishment...) so I can have the bed all to myself. :)

So excited.

Also (this is totally random, sorry!), but I never congratulated my friend on her engagement!  Here's to Madison and Ryan!  Grey and I are so excited for you two!

God Winks

Today was hard. Extremely hard.  I had child after child (and I use the term child because that's what they were acting like) disappoint me, anger me, spit in my face... you name it.

But just now, the Lord was gracious to remind me of his love for me and why I am currently doing what I'm doing regardless of how I feel.

  In an email from another teacher,

Did you teach **? I am positive this is about you! If not you have a life twin. The kids were asked to write about someone who has had a positive impact on their life so much that they would want them to be their "spirit guide." It goes along with the book The Great Divorce. I put the link in which explains it more, but anywho, ** chose you :) it was sweet! I wanted to share.

My spirit guide would have to be my old teacher Mrs. Lancaster. She is someone I adore and feel that girls could easily idolize. She shows kindness to those who are anything but kind back and she is one of the most selfless people I know. She is someone I can relate to, being a fellow athlete, Clemson fan, and Christian. Finally, she is in love with God and finds ways to show Gods love to others and glorfiy Him. She is someone that I think is very knowledgable about the Bible and how to live a Christian life.

God is good.
-B

Battle Wounds

They're starting to show up :)

And.......

I'm alive. :)

 

3.5 Miles

35 obstacles

1 hour 12 minutes

of pure MUD!

 

The guy giving us pointers before we took off

I brought swimming goggles just in case :)

And we're off!  The first obstacle makes sure you get real good and muddy

Going over an 8ft wall

I swam through this pit :)

Erica's two sweet kids found us near the end and ran some of the way with us

 On top of the hummer that we climbed over

 Finished!

And oh so bruised and scraped up :)

BUT! It was totally worth it.

Plans are already in action for next year!

Menu

On the menu for this weekend:
*Salads
*Balsamic Roasted Potatoes ( http://werunfree7.tumblr.com/post/21627387227/balsamic-roasted-potatoes )
*Crockpot Cubed Steak ( http://thepost-itplace.com/2012/01/crockpot-cube-steak-and-gravy/ )
*Taco Mac and Cheese (http://cassiecraves.blogspot.com/2011/07/taco-macaroni-and-cheese.html )
*Leftover Spaghetti! :)

Also on the agenda? 
My first ever mud run. With 15 of my teacher friends. Hopefully we won't break anything.  Pics of last year's run to wet your appetite? Done.

I'll let you know if I survive

Oven Proof

Oven proof my butt.  Didn't even make it 15 minutes while the oven was PREHEATING.
Esh.

Grey's fish

G-dawg went fishing

This guy was 0.06lbs away from being the biggest caught in Beaufort for the entire year!

Enter in 2 1/2 - 3 ft long shart....AK!

Valleys

Amidst the stress rollin' around in our "hood," I was reminded today (very gently) that my stress is but a mere dot compared to others' troubles.

So true.

We're healthy.
We have a house.
We have all of our family.
We currently have jobs.
We have cable tv (hahahaha)
We have Jesus.
We have hope.
We have life after this earth.

This valley is so momentary. There is sunshine and a mountain top straight ahead. I can't fear the unknown. God's got a plan for me - He'll provide.
-B

Math

My kids are NOT LOVING math today but they certainly are sucking up to me...
On multiple quizzes, I found:

*"I love math and it's the final countdown!"
*"Student A loves Mrs. Lancaster"
*"Student A deserves an A"
*"Mrs. Lancaster is beautiful"
*"I love you Mrs. Lancaster!"
*"You're awesome!"
*"I think you should give me a 100 simply because I'm awesome and I was out a couple of days and got behind...just saying!  You look pretty today by the way"
*"Mrs. Lancaster is the best!"

I'm feelin' the love people. :)

Pregnancy

I got asked today by a student if I was pregnant.  I grunted a violent "no" to which the sweet boy behind her very bashfully asked me,

"Well, when you are...do you think...you could invite me to the baby shower?  I think I'll have my license by then..."

:)

New Interesting Things

1. Our Internet is finally back from being out since Saturday.

2. I love lists, in case you haven't noticed.

3. Grey is drinking blueberry tea that Oliver drank out of and currently has 4 fruit flies in it.  He doesn't care.

4. Even after killing 500+ fruit flies, we still have them everywhere.

5. This is the cabinet before painting

6. This is the cabinet after painting!  Thanks Grey!

 

7. This is an incredibly disturbing picture that I really don't want you to see because you're going to judge me but I can't not post it.  See the rice looking things?  Those are maggots. Yep. Maggots in old bacon grease.  I almost threw up and immediately Cloroxed the entire kitchen.

 

8. Apparently we grow huge sweet potatoes (like over 2lbs per potato)

 

 

9. My niece is a thug. She takes after me.

10. Our old bedding....

 

 

11. OUR NEWLY COMPLETED QUILT!!!!! It only took me like 8-9 months. The pillows and pillowcases are homemade too.  Love love love!!! :)

 

12.  Student A: Mrs. L - what's my middle name?

Me: Psh if I know, what's MY middle name?

Student A: Beautiful

 

Happy Tuesday!

-B