Valentine's Day

I love Valentine's Day.

Steve doesn't really like it and doesn't get why we celebrate it since everyone has anniversaries, but since you celebrate it with friends, family, and students, it's sounds great to me!

This Valentine's days was one of my favorites yet. I got lots of love texts from Steve throughout the day. And I got not one, but TWO vases of flowers delivered to work. I was surprised and thought that Steve must really love me a lot! But then I realized one of them was from my parents (THANK YOU!!!).

These are the flowers Steve sent me.

Because I love Valentine's Day, I had to decorate my classroom accordingly.

And this little puppy has been sitting on my desk since February 1st when my fav little student just HAD to give me my Valentine Day present early since it would be PERFECT for the baby's nursery.

One of the best parts of teaching on V-day are the boxes that the students decorate. These are some of my favorite from this year:

My students also made me this GIGANTIC Valentine card with sweet notes. It took up the whole whiteboard!

When I got home, Steve and I celebrated with a home-cooked meal of steaks and asparagus. We both got our own pint-sized fancy ice cream too. We exchanged presents and I surprised Steve with some Minnesota memorabilia.

And he surprised me with a prenatal massage gift certificate.

See....who wouldn't love Valentine's Day?

It's Official!

Steve got his acceptance letter from University of Minnesota today!!!

I am sooo PROUD of him.

He interviewed at both University of Michigan and University of Minnesota last week and Minnesota was his top choice.

We aren't even interested in interviewing with any other schools because Minnesota's program is exactly what Steve is looking for.

It's such a relief to have that figured out. We know where we're going in August. We know where we'll live for the next few years. We don't have to pay for any more plane tickets! Phew!

Yes, it is in the middle of nowhere and yes it is freezing cold for 5/6 of the year, but I came to terms with that a while ago.

It does have the Mall of America within minutes and everyone that has lived there says they loved it!

Go Golden Gophers!

As for me, I am now 16 weeks pregnant. I've had a fairly easy pregnancy so far. I didn't have much morning sickness, I actually didn't really have any symptoms until a few days ago. I have worked some longer hours this past week and have been suffering from terrible sciatic pain in my back and legs. I was hardly able to walk on Saturday, but I am getting a little better each day.

I feel like I am finally starting to show a little. I noticed my stomach this morning in the mirror and one of my coworkers told me she noticed an "eensy weensy bump". I'm not quite sure if it was my bump or the shirt I had on, but I take it as a compliment.

I haven't told my students yet. I think I'll tell them after my 18 week appointment in a couple weeks.

And we find out the gender on February 29!!!

Only good news over here in the Winder Household:)

Christmas in July

For Christmas this year, we exchanged gifts, spent time relaxing, and surprised our family with one special little gift.

This is our favorite gift of all and is due to arrive on July 18th:)

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Working in 3rd grade each day, I get to hear and read some of the most hilarious things.

Here is an example from sharing today:

Girl 1: My dog is getting fixed today and I am soooo sad she has to get stitches.

Girl 2: Getting fixed for what?

Girl 1: Getting fixed so she can't have babies. You know...like get married and stuff.

I also get to decipher some hilarious-looking words when they write. See if you can discover what all of these phrases mean:

"ounts a pona"

"woncapon"

"oncaponatime"

"once a pona"

"wance apoun atime"

"onece upon"

"ones a panda"

"ones a ponda"

I hope that writing doesn't reflect poorly on my teaching skills.....

And on a much sweeter note...I have the students do a journal writing each day when they came in. Today the board said "Do you like Christmas? Why or why not?" (I know, I'm really creative with their writing prompts).

Well, each student wrote all about their Christmas traditions and presents galore.

But one sweet little girl in my class wrote-

"I like Christmas be cus it is Jesos is Bday. And I love Jesos He is my brother and He died for us and I love him vary much and it is not all about the presins it is abot Jeses."

I was not expecting anyone to write anything so heartwarming.

If that doesn't put you in the Christmas spirit right there, I don't know what will!

Thanksgiving

Steve and I were able to take off 2 days of work and end up with an extra long Thanksgiving vacation.

We have a list of places to go in the U.S. and at the top of the list was NYC.

We figured now was the perfect time to go, considering he has 2 brothers that live out there, we don't have any kids, etc. etc.

So...we took the red eye out to NY the week before Thanksgiving.

It was a perfect trip.

There was just enough sightseeing and family time/relaxing while we were there.

If we had it Beaver's way, there would have been a lot more sightseeing. And if we had it my way, there would have been a lot more relaxing. But we got a lot in.

Here are some pics from the trip:

Statue of Liberty/Ellis Island tour

9/11 Memorial

Central Park

The MET

Tour of the Yankee Stadium

And to top off that fun 3 day trip, we took a nonstop 7 hour bus ride to DC to spend Thanksgiving with my family.

We had a blast eating, sleeping, and watching movies.

We spent Thanksgiving with my cousins, the Fairholms.

Let's just say, after such a great vacation, it was hard to go back to work on Monday.

This is How We Do Halloween

After hearing our first trick-or-treater ring the doorbell...

and after an extremely long hectic Halloween at school...

we decided to disable the doorbell for tonight:)

You may call me the "Grinch" of Halloween...but how many of you have had to deal with Halloween parades, parties, and parents all day long?

Fall Break

About a week ago, I got to enjoy the perks of being a teacher.

Fall Break.

It was wonderful. I got to finally do some projects around the house that I've been meaning to do and enjoy my two days off of school.

The first day of fall break, I decided to finally use my sewing machine that I got for graduation in April. I've done basic mending projects and worked on a dress with my mother-in-law, but I haven't yet tried to follow a simple pattern on my own. So, I drove over to Wal-Mart, picked up an apron pattern and $2 fabric, and after sewing all day long, I finished my first real creation!!!

I had a blast! It was SOO much fun and I can't wait to make some more stuff realllly soon.

Other fun happenings last weekend include carving our pumpkins. We pulled our kitchen table into the middle of the family room to watch a movie while we carved. And yes, we normally do look like this on weekend nights when we don't go out.

I used previous pumpkin carving experiences to decide that I would only carve a teeny pumpkin this year. I get bored in about 3 minutes, so this is what I ended up with:

Steve, on the other hand, could do this for hours. Here he is about an hour after I'm done still working on his stormtrooper pumpkin.

It took him so long he had to wake up the next morning and carve for another hour.

After the long and relaxing fall break, I couldn't wait to get back to school.

I have realized this past week that I LOVE my job.

I am starting to get excited to go to work in the morning, and I am not stressed out at all.

I love the 16 little kids I get to work with every day. Not a day goes by that they don't crack me up and remind me why I love teaching so much.

If you saw me last year, this is very exciting news. Last year was probably the most stressful year of my life. And having conquered it, I am so excited to see that I actually do love what I get to do each day.