If I fall off the blog-o-sphere...

know that I am alive. 

I am undergoing a huge amount of self-inflicted work. Yes, the outcome will be awesome and I am really excited about it...but man, I'm worn out and I still haven't completely started.

Starting next week I will be...

a. mommy to Jenna

b. loving wife to Jason

c. 5th grade school teacher

d. graduate student

e. ESL (English as a Second Language) student

f. and if I have time...myself.

I don't know if it's complete insanity, but I'm excited about my new undertaking of c, d, and e. I was assigned to also be in charge of our school enrichment committee - meaning I was in charge of assemblies, etc - but I talked to the principal and I'm now a member of the committee and not the chair. I didn't think I could give it even close to 100%.

So, starting Monday I will not only be teaching in my own classroom - how cool is it that I'm going to be a teacher? I'm thrilled to meet all my students and to get to know them next week. 

Thankfully Monday is an early out because it is also the first day of school for my university classes. I was only going to take 2 graduate classes, but then I found out I could get my ESL endorsement through the same university and get college credit instead of going through the school district. It'll take longer - an additional 18 credit hours, but it means that I'll get a huge raise and it fit better with my other schedule.

I also have awesome family who is going to help take care of Jenna when Jason and I are in school at night. Also, thankfully I have an awesome guard dog in Fez.

Did I mention that I'm exhausted? 

Disney totally rocks!!!

When Alia first got really sick she was on vacation in Florida - visiting Disney World and Sea World. In the past couple of months, she has fallen head over heels for Prince Phillip (from Sleeping Beauty). Now I don't know if you have ever searched for Prince Phillip merchandise, but it's pretty much non-existent. Alia smothers the case of the Sleeping Beauty DVD with kisses and hugs. Whenyou want her to give you a big hug, you ask for a Prince Phillip hug. When we went to Baskin Robbins, she wants Prince Phillip ice cream (it's the sherbet with blue, green, etc in it in case you're wondering).

So, I figured one night in my boredom, why not email Disney directly and see if they have something they could send me - a picture or anything. I didn't know if I'd hear back from them, but figured it was worth a try. I even asked for his autograph (we never ask for autographs when we go to Disney) A fewdays later I received an email stating they didn't have a picture of just Prince Phillip, but one with him and Aurora dancing. Of course I was ecstatic that they responded and were willing to send a picture. I emailed them back and said that would work.

That was a couple weeks ago...well, guess what arrived in the mail today? An 8x10 picture with 2 messages for Alia. The first says,
"To: Alia, Have we met before. Prince Phillip" in gold marker

the second says:
"once upon a dream! Princess Aurora" in silver marker

I forever will appreciate this kind gesture from them and will continue to spend a ton of money on anything Disney related (you should see our movie collection). I can't wait to take it up to her. I showed my dad and he volunteered to run up to the copy store and have a couple color copies made so that when Alia mauls (aka kisses and hugs) the picture we will have extra copies. I, of course, will have my camera with me when I give it to her to unwrap.

Here's a pic of it, it's kinda blurry, but oh well.

Our own little rodeo

we are so blessed to have awesome neighbors! We were invited over to visit them and ride their horse. Jenna, Alia, Landon, and then 2 other cousins came to ride the horse - a little shetland pony that they have been working with. All the kids were so excited and so were we. Alia was scared at first as she and the horse were scared of each others noises, etc - but after Alia watched the other kids ride she got on and enjoyed it.
Jenna and Landon got to take the reigns and guide the horse around (with the help of the owner who pretty much has the horse following him). Landon got really excited when the horse stopped to take a dump - he loved it! Silly boy. It was really cute b/c Jenna would pull her cowgirl hat down really tight and her ears would poke out. We got a kick out of that b/c that's what the bullriders do before they ride to try to keep their hat on.
Then, the kids saw the sheep and decided that they wanted to see the sheep. The neighbors were so great and were able to corral their sheep. Jenna has had this dream of mutton bustin' (aka riding sheep for those non-cowboy types). She was really scared, but she did it and fell off with grace and then went crying to mom and g-ma as any normal 5 year old girl would.
I swear, after today, I would so love to have a horse for Jenna - she loved it. But, alas, we will resort to the neighbors who have horses. One of the horses was actually used for queening (a rodeo pageant with horse and rider).