Mel's Box of Chocolates

At our house we don't just carve pumpkins we CARVE pumpkins...What do you think?

This is my fourth year teaching and every year it seems there is something new to learn and apply in my classroom. My second year of teaching I was moved to the elementary school where I am now and was stricken with fear at the thought of being transferred from my safe place where I had student taught and then taught for a year to go to a school where I knew nobody. In order to get my foot in, at the end of the year before I moved I went over for the day to just say hi to the principal (whom I had never met). The principal met with me for about 5 minutes and then put me with a teacher and told her to show me around. This teacher is now one of my closest friends, Lyndie ! Lyndie has been a teacher for 7 years and is awesome at what she does. She has a way with kids and really goes out of her way to make learning fun. I have stolen many of her fabulous ideas over the past three years and am very proud of it. She is such an inspiration to me!! I am always telling her how when I grow up I...

It's another weigh in day and another half pound gone! I know I am always the one telling others that they should celebrate the loss no matter what, but I have to admit that I am getting a bit tired of only losing a half pound at a time. I only have 14 pounds to go until I reach my goal, but at a half pound a week that is going to take me 28 weeks or roughly 7 more months! I knew that the closer I got to reaching my goal the harder it would probably become to lose the pounds, but I'm starting to frustrate myself. My other problem is that I am somewhat content with where I am weight wise and clothing size wise so I find myself slipping on counting my points. While in the back of my mind I am still counting and keeping track I have not consistently recorded them in my Points Tracker. So I have decided that in order for me to get these last pounds off, I must step it up so I can get them off at a quicker rate than 7 months! So what am I gonna do, you ask? I'm going track ever...

Last Sunday, after church, we headed to Mr. Pepper's Pumpkin Patch for some fall fun. Of course we were sweating the whole time since it was 80-some degrees...not cool (no pun intended!) I am so ready for fall. We kept putting off going hoping for some cool weather, but since it didn't seem like it would be here before Halloween, we decided we were just going to have to get it done. Dylan and Zoe took turns being the leader as we made our way through the corn maze. You can't go picking pumpkins without catching a hayride! Of course, finding just the right pumpkin was our mission. I think we completed the mission with flying colors! There is just nothing better than spending a day with the family making new memories!

Zoe's 3rd birthday was on the 11th and I just realized that I never posted any pictures...bad mommy that I am. She was lucky on her actual birthDAY because she got to spend the entire day with her Grampy and Gramma. They spent the day having fun, eating at McDonald's, and baking her birthday cake. Gramma was nice enough to do birthday dinner too so we had a juicy steak (which is exactly the words that Zoe used when she was asked what she wanted for her dinner), brocolli, green beans, mac n cheese, and rolls. Yumm!! The cake was so cute in the heart shape with strawberry pink icing and topped with a strawberry. Of course every birthday comes with presents and she was tickled pink with her Barbie ballerina and pink Barbie mustang. She also got a pretty white leotard for ballet from Grampy and Gramma and mommy gave her a Barbie book with music player so we had our own ballet performance after dinner. I think the winning present was from daddy...Zoe got her very own digital camera....

The night before Zoe's birthday we went to Toys R Us to get some things for the party on Sunday and Zoe thought she hit the jackpot. An employee there asked if we were signed up for the birthday club and when Zoe told them her b-day was the next day, well they had a few surprises for her. They gave her this paper crown that you would have thought was the Queen of England's crown the way she beamed when they put it on her head. Then she also got a balloon, and well do you know any 3 year old who isn't thrilled with a balloon. She also got some stickers and whistle. Here is a pix of her in all her glory on the way home... And the birthday celebration begins...