My Helper

When I asked mom to come help this past weekend, I knew she had a great eye...but in all my years, I hadn't ever watched her decorate. She's wonderful at it, and she just gets it done. I have now recruited her to help me decorate for Christmas every year. This should be a fun tradition.

Christmas at the Walker house

With bagels and coffee in hand, mom arrived around 10:00 this morning to help get our house ready for Christmas. We got right to work decorating, as soon as I finished grading the last of the 100+ essays for school. We transformed the house in just a few hours, and Wes did a fantastic job on the outside hanging the fresh garland on the front door. Here are a few highlights: (Some are taken without the flash, thus the blur.)

FYI

Just so you know...I made it all the way to the gym today, through 45 minutes of cycling, the locker room shower, and then realized I forgot my makeup. Geez. Luckily, I've made a new friend this week during our early morning workouts and getting ready for work, and she let me borrow her makeup. She even uses most of the same kind I do! Whew!
And I didn't fall today. However, the kids haven't lived it down. They talked about playing charades this morning, and they wanted to imitate the teachers. They all said I would be really easy. They would just fall as they act out Mrs. Walker. I said, "What else do I do? Come on guys, I've only fallen once." They responded in agreement, "you talk." Sweet...I fall and talk too much. What a great picture they have of their English teacher.
Thank goodness tomorrow is Friday!

One Silly Day

I woke up this morning at 4:30, put on my gym clothes, brushed my teeth, got my lunch from the frig, picked up my bag, and headed out the door. About three miles into my drive to World Gym, I realized I had forgotten my hanging clothes for work. Still driving south, I tried to think of an outfit I could put together with the clothes in my car. No such luck. I had lots of tops, but no pants. I don't think that would be acceptable at school. So I turned around at exit 85 and just headed back home. Of course I would have been too late for my gym class, so I just went back to bed. Stink. I was going strong, two days in a row of morning classes at the gym. I guess I'll just pick it back up tomorrow...and this time, I'll remember my bottoms.
Next, I'm at school walking into homeroom. I went back to my desk to get an attendance sheet and while walking to the front of the room, I completely wiped out. Now, you would think that a simple fall wouldn't grab that much attention, but in a room full of 8th graders, I was received by a roar of laughter. I, of course, laughed back and became the target of all the jokes all day long. Kids would walk by me, flail their arms, and do a fake fall. Real funny. I think it will die down soon, but I was sure hesitant to tell them that I fell again alone in my room during lunch. It was a combo of slippery floor and slippery boots.
One silly day it has been.

Thankful for a Break

It's been a long stretch of time since my last break, and I am very thankful to be spending it with family. I haven't been counting down the days, and I'm also thankful for that.
So, enjoy your break, eat lots of good food, and know that I am thankful for those people who actually read this.

One Month Later...

I'm still just as busy...maybe even busier. However, I know this is not a good excuse for letting thekatebox go unupdated for almost a month! This past month has been a phenomenal one, with a couple of major events and numerous smaller moments.
To start with, my girlfriend reunion was just what I needed. It was refreshing, encouraging, challenging, and so incredibly comfortable. I LOVE these friends so much. We started the weekend with pizza at Guido's in Rogers, and then we moved the party up to my house for the night. The nine of us participated in our first "Share and Tell"-- a tradition that MUST continue. We each brought something that represented our past year to give to everyone, and then we all told about the year. We got an awesome So You Think You Can Dance DVD and a great mixed CD from LC, a copy of "The Heat" by Needtobreathe from Lindsdawg, a book thong (I had never heard the name for these little bookmarks before) from Ying, a beautiful scarf from LT, and a little bundle of LeeLee's "Favorite Things" including nail polish, hair spray, peanut butter M&Ms, perfume, and many other things. Brooke gave us all notecards, Beth gave us each one of her business cards as a real-life physical therapist, Lily brought an apple (the size of her baby that week) and some whole grain Goldfish, and then I gave everyone one of my school pictures, some trail mix with dark chocolate M&Ms, and we made little note pads as our craft. This "Share and Tell" took us way into the wee hours of the morning, and we finally headed to bed right before the sun rose again. Saturday morning was a little dance party to "Sanctuary" and then primping for our photo shoot. I'll let the photos speak for themselves on that section of our weekend. We then headed to Fayetteville to Marketplace Express for a late lunch before heading to Different Strokes to paint pottery. We watched the Arkansas-Ole Miss football game on TV at LeeLee's house, and then we came back to Bentonville to rest our eyes for a few hours. Sunday morning was Lily's surprise maternity shower, lunch with the guys, and then lots of tearful hugs. Man, these girls mean the world to me. At the drop of a hat, any of us would be there for the other.
The other big event has been taking place over the past week and half. JB and the kids are spending almost a month in Arkansas, and we have gotten to play a little and celebrate a family wedding in Little Rock. I love my families, and I just feel incredibly blessed every time I'm around them. Mom and I got to do a little shopping this weekend in Conway, and those times are so dear to me. It's a mother-daughter bond that Wes is starting to understand. :)
Let's see...other news. I started teaching an old school hip-hop dance to the cheerleaders today. They are performing it for the first basketball game in a few weeks, so my afternoons will be taken up for a while. I still love my job, and I am so honored to work with the people around me. I definitely have trouble keeping my head above water, but luckily, I don't let it get to me that much.
Thanksgiving is soon, and that means Christmas is around the corner. I LOVE "the holiday season." So I promise to post some pictures and other stories soon. I've decorated the house for Thanksgiving, and I really think it may be the first holiday decorated for in my house that no one will see but Wes and me. I'll take some pics and share so I'll feel like it served some purpose.

A Good, Busy Life

Well, I've been a little tied up lately. Teaching English is tough. It requires a lot of attention and time. Teaching 8th graders requires even more of both of those. Plus patience and a sense of humor. I believe I have been successful at most of it, but teaching, as many of you know, is a career where you always feel like there is more to do. I want to give more, understand more, challenge more, encourage more, love more, share more, grow more, the list goes on... I never thought I would be so passionate and concerned to get every one of my wonderful students to learn whatever it is I am teaching. And when you have 110 kids at different levels, that's what makes it tough.
Besides teaching in the classroom all day every day, I've stayed until 7:00 p.m. two nights this week for parent-teacher conferences and just got home from a downer of a football game. (I think I'm going to have to play encourager tomorrow morning when the players are still processing tonight's loss.) All of these events are, luckily, things that I enjoy. Getting to meet the parents of my kids and watching the passion in the guys on the football field are really cool.
So, my fall would be busy enough if I just had my job.
However, teaching isn't at the top of my priority list. I've gotten to spend great time with friends and family lately celebrating marriages, babies, and anything else we feel like making an excuse for so we can get together. My weekly Bible study has been such an awesome time, and I feel like God is really trying to work through me and teach me. This weekend is the 2nd Annual Reunion for my college girlfriends. I absolutely can't wait. This time is so incredibly special, and we all really are a little bit too excited. We have emailed over 75 messages in the past day and a half. Being the host, I have also spent 2 nights this week conducting cleaning parties. I borrowed Leslie's Dyson vacuum tonight, and I think I'm in love. What an amazing machine. Clearly, my life is busy, but I have no complaints. Ok, I'm probably rambling, and I need to make my lesson plan for tomorrow. (Perfect example of my life right now. Running on last minute pace, but loving every second of it. Just glad I don't get stressed easily.)