I have had our apartment decorated for some time now, but I have not had a chance to post any pictures.  So for those of you who are interested, here are some of my favorite decorations.  You may have to click on "Read More" in order to see them.

There are some days when I am teaching, that I want to simply sit down in the corner and cry, others when I want to pull my hair out, and yet others when the kids make it so worth while. Luckily, the last scenario is what happens the most. I had a pretty rough time of it this past week (I think that the kids are past ready for Christmas break), but there were little rays of sunshine, in the form of children, that made it survivable. I want to share some of these moments with you:

when a kindergartener that you have known for 2 and 1/2 hours sighs contentedly and says, "Teacher, I love you!"

when a first grader wearing a shirt with the John Deere logo on it says, "Mrs. Darr, this is my favorite shirt in the world!...but what does it say?!"

I am so excited that it is finally December!  I look forward to this time of year so much!  I love to decorate, and I think that decorating for Christmas is the most fun (though I do hate taking everything down on New Years).  I also love the wonderful feeling that I get during this time of year.  Maybe it's the music, maybe it's the fact that people seem to try to be nicer to each other, but it just seems like there is a warmth that is not present the rest of the year.  I am also excited because a lot of my family will be able to come down between Christmas and New Years.  I love to see my family (even though it gets horribly loud and confusing at times...then we shove all the kids outside

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!

I thought that I would copy something that I saw on someone else's blog (thanks Tasha!) and list a few things that I am thankful for:

1) My husband: He is such a wonderful man who cares for me and takes good care of me.  He really is a blessing in my life. I am so glad that I get to spend eternity with him!

2) My home:  I realize that even though our apartment is small, it is ours, and I am grateful that we are able to live on our own.

Okay, so it has been a while since I have posted a blog.  This past week was really busy...mainly with work.  I taught the same kindergarten class all week because the teacher had a training to go to.  The week actually went really well.  It was a half-day kindergarten, so in the morning I would help the morning teacher and then I would teach my kids in the afternoon...so in reality, I was only teaching for about 3 hours...awesome!  I say awesome, because those three hours were the most exhausting hours of the day!  I have forgotten how intense teaching kindergarten is...you are constantly on your feet (and crawling on the floor).  There are shoes to be tied, noses to be wiped, fights to break up, (yes, I did actually have to break one up after one kid

GIRL'S NIGHT CRAFT NIGHT!!  Tonight at 6:00 there will be a girl's night craft night at my friend Kristen Andersen's house.  We will be making Christmas ornaments and having a really fun time.  The ornaments will run you about $6.00 if you want to make them both, but there will be another ornament that is free, you just need to bring old Christmas cards. 

Yesterday was really fun.  Paul and I went to Knott's Berry Farm (every November the park lets veterans and one guest get in for free).  We met some friends there and had an awsome time.  The lines were so short!  I kept on remarking throughout most of the day...I can't believe how short the lines are...this is amazing...this rocks.  We were able to go on the two newest rides there: Pony Express and Silver Bullet.

I had been complaining about not having a place to put my spices, and this is what Paul came up with...I think it is supposed to be a shelf for a kid's bedroom, but it works pretty awesome for my kitchen!

Well, I've finally done it...I created a facebook profile.  My friends have been bugging me for a while to do it, so I finally did.  So if you are curious, go ahead and go check it out.  I think that I picked some pretty high privacy settings, so if you have trouble seeing it, it is due to that. I guess that that is pretty much it!