"These words... from my heart flow/ I love you"

And since I'm already here....

In celebration of Easter I made the decision to teach my kids a string of six bible verses. My nieces learned it at their school when they were five. My kids are three or four. They remember bible verses from October. I thought, Let's give it a try. The first day was rough. They struggled with the world "Sabbath" and they didn't understand that "dawn" didn't mean the name of one of the girl's moms. And then I started handing out SweetTarts and Hershey's Kisses anytime the kids got a line right and the ball started rolling.

We learned the verse in two weeks. That means some of the kids learned it in FOUR days (the other kids in six... still impressive!). I was so proud. But that didn't mean we didn't have some stumbling blocks along the way. The last line in the verse is "He has risen!". Instead of risen, one kid said ribbons, another prison, and presents got mentioned a couple of times. It references Mary Magdalene and my assistant had a baby girl named Mary Ellen a few months ago. We talk about her a lot and all the kids think she's really cute. And apparently they always have her on the mind because one girl said "Mary Ellen and the other Mary Ellen went to look at the tomb". And if there was ever a tricky word, we would break it down syllable by syllable and say it over and over until it wasn't scary. This lead to us chanting/screaming "cru-ci-fied" for about twenty seconds until I realized how it must have sounded to passerbys in the hall and we moved on.

We really pounded this into the kids' heads. On Thursday, the last day of school before Easter, I was telling them about the "Angel Rolled Back the Stone" craft we were going to make later that day. And I asked them what the angel said to the women and they ALL automatically replied, "Do not be afraid. For I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, He has risen!" I said, "Wow. I kind of turned you guys into robots". And one little boy laughed and said, "No! If we were robots we would sound like this: "Do. Not. Be. A-Fraid" as he did the actual robot. It was AWESOME. And then we were done going over it for the morning so I started to tell them what I had planned for the day. I said "First we are going to have snack. Then you need to go potty before music. After...," and several of the kids jumped in and started with "After the sabbath." Like I said, robots.

But I am SO proud of them for learning SIX verses all together (Matthew 28: 1-6). They are little rockstars. I would totally post the video I spliced together of all nine kids saying it but I don't want to get fired for privacy issues. And if you want more kids stories (and I want a paycheck) let's not and say we did.

Happy Easter!

"Just got paid/ Friday night"

For the first time, I took part in a little Black Friday shopping today. I wasn't one of the crazy people awake at midnight or three a.m. Just around lunchtime I headed over to Target, Old Navy, Borders, and Wal-Mart. I know, Wal-Mart. The armpit of the earth. But supposedly they had some good deals. Only got one thing there. Target was the big winner in my book. Tons of deals, no lines. Unlike Borders and Old navy where the line was weaving through the stores. Luckily my coupon for Borders lasts until Sunday so I will be good. So I got several people checked off my list. Hooray!

I also checked out Amazon and got a super good deal. I'm getting a Flip Cam for Christmas from my mom! Yay! And I saved quite a bit thanks to the special deal. I am so excited! I like making home movies so now that may increase.

"One night and one more time/ Thanks for the memories"

I'll admit, Thanksgiving has never been one of the holidays I get into a frenzy about. I know it's one of the big three (along with Easter and Christmas) but it's not one I get all excited about. Probably because I starve myself all day then eat three bites and am super full and sort of want to die. Hopefully that won't happen this year.

This year I am thankful for my family, my friends, my job and the people and kids at work, and the fact that my sister's family who's been in Seattle for the past 2.5 years are moving back to Atlanta as we speak! So hooray for my whole family being back in the southeast! So I am very thankful for that.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

"Together we will fly tonight/ And leave all the rest behind/ I'll wait for you"

As of 4:45 today, I am on Thanksgiving Break from work. Sweet. But I did realize how much I do enjoy my job because I am genuinely going to miss those kiddos for five days. Not like I won't enjoy the vacay but it will just be weird not to hear "Ms Annie..." 78 times a day. But I did get lots of hugs from the kids, some of the parents, and my coworkers today and it made me a little misty-eyed. But you know me so that shouldn't be that surprising by this point.

It's always been a tradition in my family that we start listening to Christmas music during Thanksgiving dinner. Normally I'm not that excited about it. I mean I expect it but I don't necessarily look forward to it. But this year since I am itching to get into the holiday spirit, I am very much looking forward to it! Especially since Glee released a Christmas album and I have been making myself wait until Thanksgiving to buy it. But my will power is starting to dissipate. All I know is I can't wait to finally listen to it as well as The Charlie Brown Christmas cd. And yeah, yeah I might have a little David Archuleta from last year. What? He has the voice of an angel!

Happy Thanksgiving Break to everyone else lucky enough to be done with work and school for the rest of the week!

PS. Seriously can't believe I've stuck with this for 16 days. Oooooh we're halfway there. Oooooh! Living on a prayer.