I love my job.

I really do! I also really, really, really love that after today, I have 8 1/2 days left with students and 11 actual working days until I am officially on summer vacation.   

So, it's been awhile....

So, my last post was in 2013. Happy New Year....2015. Since my last post, major life changes have taken place. As promised in my last post, painting of rooms in our house have been completed, as predicted. Living room went from a light blue to a olive/mossy green, master bedroom went from white to a dramatic, dark navy blue, and both bathrooms are now painted. We've also built a deck on the back of the house. And by we, I mean Shane's Uncle Richard. In March of 2014, we welcomed a spectacular addition to our family, our nephew, the dapper Grantham Scott Bishop. Second best thing my sister ever gave me. April 2014, I completed my RCIA classes and was baptized. I'm now officially a catholic. Late June, early July, Shane and I drove (a long time) to Gulf Port, Mississippi for our vacation. We had a fantastic time, made a lot of memories (like one night at a casino I sat down at a slot machine, put my money in, and then realized I had sat down at a machine someone else was playing). In September, Shane's grandfather passed away and it was horrible.
This past October, I suddenly (finally) quit my position at Head Start after working there for the past 6 years after being recruited to teach kindergarten and 1st grade at St. Mary's....one of the best decisions and opportunity that I've ever made/had. I'm loving the freedom to teach that I didn't have the past 6 years and love working with my students. I never knew when it decided to become catholic that it would ever lead to a teaching position! So, there you go. Who knows? Maybe I'll post more often. If not, check back in 2017!


***Charity, I've posted, now it's your turn. 

Our house is a very, very fine house....

This past spring (I think it was early May, the first Wednesday in May) we awoke around 4:00 in the morning to an awful smell invading our house. A smell so bad that you could taste it. Now imagine that for a minute....being deep asleep and waking up to smell you can't escape. Our home had been sprayed by a skunk. I covered my head with our comforter and tried to go back to sleep, thinking that it would soon clear out. Fast forward a couple hours and the smell is still strong. We go to work and and 8 hours later we are back trying to rid our home of this smell. By about 10:30-11:00 that night we have pretty much gotten most of the smell out. All is good until early that Saturday Saturday morning when again we are woken up by the smell again. Not as strong but still there. We (I) go back to sleep and Shane calls the landlords to tell them that he thinks when they boarded up a small hole in our front porch that past Wednesday of the major spray, that they may have unknowingly trapped the skunk under the porch. They set a trap the next day and within a few hours we have a skunk....caught in a trap. Call the landlords to tell them and they come over to get trapped skunk. They ask Shane for one of his guns. I tell them (because, yes, I have researched this) that if they kill it the skunk will release all it's nasty spray and it will invade the house again. They kill it anyway. Right where the trap was. Right in front of the porch which is right where our bedroom is. A few minutes later the house is in fumes again. We move out for the night to air it out. We move out another night and call to get the house purified. Exactly one week from the first spray we can finally move back in. That evening Shane decides he hates the house and we are moving. We decide to become our own landlords and buy our own home. 1 week and 22 homes later we have a contract on a home. 3 days later we break the contract and look at 2 of the previous homes we had already toured. We make an offer on a home. Offer is accepted. July 22 we finally closed on the house and began cleaning and moving. We are now home owners! Thanks to the skunk, we are the happy owners of a 3 bedroom, 2 bath home in town with a top of the line kitchen, beautiful fireplace, and real hardwood floors in the kitchen and entry way. I guess the skunk was a sign from God that we needed to take the leap and get a mortgage! We've already began making some improvements and making it our own style/taste. We have 1 room painted and have major painting plans for next weekend. 

Snicker Salad

 Last month we were going to celebrate our parents anniversary and I was in charge of dessert. My sister had requested Snicker Salad, but before I could make it, we had a change of plans due to the weather. For Mother's Day today, we are again planning a family dinner at my sister's house and I am in charge of dessert. Since my sister (and brother in law) are to thank for my most favorite little person ever, I decided that I would attempt to fulfill her wish of Snicker Salad. So I searched Pinterest and semi followed this recipe http://junkintheirtrunk.blogspot.com/2011/08/snicker-salad.html?m=1

Here's my version:

3 large Granny Smith apples chopped with skin

16 oz Cool Whip (I used the Walmart brand)

1 bag mini Snickers chopped (I chopped them in my Nija food chopper. Best thing ever!)

1 pack vanilla instant pudding

1. Chop apples with skin on (I used lemon juice to keep them pretty).

2. Chop up the whole bag of mini Snickers. 

3. Mix apples and Snickers together. 

4. Pour dry pudding over apples and Snickers. 

5. Add cool whip. I bought the 16 oz size because the recipe I followed didn't say. I didn't use all of it. I think it just depends on how much you want.

6. Refrigerate for an hour and serve. 

I had my husband be the official taste tester (before refrigerating) and he liked it, so it must be good because he's picky. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Spank!

For valentines day....in January....Shane gave me two tickets to the play Spank! The Fifty Shades parody. This past Friday, my mom and I drove to the beautiful historic Midland Theater in Kansas City to watch the play. It was fabulous! We were the third row from the stage and missed nothing. From start to finish we both laughed the entire time. After it was over, we were able to meet (the cast of three) and have our pictures taken with them. When Shane gave me the tickets, I was unsure of what to expect. As soon as the play started, I knew hands down that this was one of the best gifts I have ever received from him! I didn't want it to end because we were having so much fun watching and laughing!!! After the play, we walked down to Power and Light and in front of the Sprint Center so my mom could see what they looked liked then we headed home. Yesterday I checked online to see if there was anywhere close by the play would be performing again and saw that in June it would be in Springfield so I'm hoping for an encore! If you have the opportunity I highly recommend seeing it!

The roof, the roof, the roof is on fire

***This post may seem out of sorts, but there's a lot I can't say due to ongoing investigations and safety concerns, but I wanted a somewhat account of it just so I could remember. What I can say is that precautions have been made and local law enforcement is monitoring our home, work, etc. until they find who did this.***

Last Wednesday morning, I was awaken by Shane jumping out of bed yelling "the building is burning down!" Not the best way to wake up. The building he was referring to would be his office...Probation and Parole. After a very nerve wracking day, which included my school being watched by the police all day due to me being there and safety concerns, and deciding if leaving our house for a couple of days (which in the end I made the call that whomever had set Shane's building on fire would not keep us from our home), we made a trip to survey the damage and see if any of Shane's personal items had survived...mainly his extensive University of Texas Longhorns collection that had decorated his office.

Real Time Adventure

Real Time Adventure with my parents yesterday consisted of price comparisons at different stores for a Shark floor steam cleaner, a mattress salesman at Sears thinking I was my Dad's wife...even though I clearly referred to him as "Dad" numerous times, a lady asking my dad twice if he worked at Kholes, and being along for the ride as the bought a new car and gave me the honor of driving my grandpa's car aka the widow maker back home. Life is never boring.