Flash Mobs & A Recipe

Last week I received an email asking me to participate in our pep rally today. I LOVE stuff like this. It reminds how much I've come out of my shell since high school. I've really lightened up with stuff like this and I know I owe it to the husband. Anyway. I saw that it was a dance so I jumped at the opportunity to participate. It also said something about a flash mob, and being uncool, I had no idea what that was, but it sounded fun.

When I learned exactly what a flash mob was, I even more excited. Apparently it's a new craze. It's planned, but appears spontaneous. One person starts dancing in the middle of say Target. Slowly one by one people start joining in until there is a crowd doing this dance.

So there are kids sat enjoying a typical pep rally this afternoon when our high school principal started to make an announcement. He barely got started and all of a sudden a Justin Beiber song started blaring. He pretended to be upset that he had been interrupted and then he broke down into our dance. He really hammed it up. The kids went wild immediately. One by one several teachers, including me, made our way down to the gym floor and joined him.

It was so much fun. Since I was dancing I didn't get any pictures. You'll have to take my word that we were GOOD and the kids loved it. :)

Just another reason I'm blessed by my job.


I found a recipe on pinterest awhile back that I wanted to try. Ya'll I never get excited about a new recipe. I don't enjoy cooking. But I've been excited about trying this one. Andrew has been working extremely late for a couple of weeks and we've pretty much eaten dinner separately except on the weekends for the past two weeks. He has been getting ready for tomorrow, when he leaves for a couple of weeks.

I was determined to try this recipe tonight even if it meant I didn't eat until 8. We still ate separately, but we ate the same meal this time.

The recipe was for sweet and spicy bacon chicken. You can find it here. I baked instead of grilled because I have no idea how to turn our grill on. That's the husband's territory.

The chicken was really good. I'm not a huge fan of glazed brown sugar so I would probably leave that out next time. I know that takes away the sweet part. Ours was pretty much all sweet because I didn't use enough chili powder. I was fearful of using too much and ended up using too little.

The husband told me several times that the chicken was really good so we will be adding to the short list of meals I not only know how to make, but will eat. HA!

I also made dessert. We love cheesecake and it's an easy dessert that I know will not go to waste. Over the week, we (or I since he is leaving) will eat the whole thing.

But you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.

Psalm 3:3

A Shining Light

I think there are a lot people out there who believe God is no longer in public schools. They think our government has the power to remove Him from public schools.

People can be ignorant sometimes.

First of all no man made law has the ability to take God out of anything. He is there in those public schools whether people want to acknowledge it or not. Personally, I praise Him for being in those public schools. I work in one.

I am extremely blessed to work in a place where God is not only acknowledged, but welcomed. I'm blessed to work for a boss who quotes/uses scripture on a regular basis with students, parents, and faculty without hesitation. I'm blessed to work for a boss who prays for her school and community. I am blessed to work with a group of people who meet once a month to pray for each other and for our students.

In Matthew 5:14, God tells us that we are the light of the world. We are to let our light shine and not hide it. I'll confess that I work in an environment that makes it easy to let my light shine. I am so thankful that I can openly discuss my faith with my students.

There are so many people who are persecuted for even owning a copy of God's Word, let alone sharing about it. I pray for those people and beg you to join me in that prayer. That type of persecution is something that as a Christian in the United States, I can't even fathom. The worst I deal with is someone disagreeing with me. My life isn't threatened because of my belief in God.


Today one of my student's allowed her light to shine. Every once in awhile I'll reward my students with some music while we work. The rule is if I have never heard the song, we can't listen to it. Today a young lady in one of my math classes was begging me to listen to her new favorite song. She wanted to listen to At Your Name by Phil Whickam. No way could I resist that one. She proudly played her song and we had a little praise session right there in math class while working on congruent figures. It was GREAT!!!

I'm telling you, God has really been moving through HGS this year. He has done some amazing things. I've watched him turn ashes to beauty. I wish I could even begin to share with you the things I've been blessed to witness this year. They can all be summed up in the fact that God is good. Always!

Now I stand on solid ground, and I will publicly praise the LORD.

Psalm 26:12

Our Weekend in Pictures

The iPhone has been busy lately. I've been taking pictures of everything we do. I might possibly have a sickness. The husband is tired of me shoving my phone in his face and telling him to smile.

We had a nice weekend together. Thought I'd share a few of those pics and record our weekend for memory sake.

Ms. Liberty Belle got a new toy. She loves it!!

Andrew and I had lunch @ McAlister's Saturday. It wasn't my first choice, but was actually pretty good. My s-i-l, Joy, will be proud to know I'm learning to like their sweet tea. HA!

We followed with dessert at Shake's. Butterfinger Concrete = YUM!

Liberty and I curled up and watched the Miss America pageant Saturday night. We were a little disappointed with the whole pageant, but we had fun watching online with our twitter and facebook friends.

I want a leather jacket. I considered this one for about half a second. It's a cheapy from Target. I want a brown one.

Liam Bailey and I went and picked up dinner Sunday night. He's by "go" buddy. He loves to go bye bye.

I bought some new workout clothes for Zumba. I feel so athletic wearing real workout gear. I normally just wear gym shorts and a t-shirt.

I scored a new Karen Kingsbury book for $3 @ Mardel. I can't wait for the last book of this series to come out in March so that I can read them.

I bought a new razorback shirt on etsy. I was excited to see it in the mail this weekend.

The blessing of the LORD makes a person rich, and he adds no sorrow with it.

Psalm 10:22

Up, Up, and Away

Yesterday was the big day. I woke up excited to go flying with the husband. Of course the closer we got to the flying center the more nervous I got. I really do not enjoy flying.

We thought we would do some debriefing down on the ground, fly for 30 minutes or so, and then more debriefing on the ground. That's not what happened at all. As soon as we got there our instructor took us out to the plane.

We climbed in and got all buckled up. Andrew and the instructor went through a pre-flight checklist and started contact with the control tower. I had the biggest smile on my face during all this. I knew Andrew was loving every minute and that made me a happy wife.

The control tower gave us permission for take off and we were on our way. It was a little scary at first, but it didn't take long for me to relax and enjoy the flight. We had a bit of turbulence which I was not a fan of at all.

I enjoyed seeing God's creation from a new perspective. It was beautiful. I would LOVE to go during the fall when the leaves are changing colors. Our instructor flew us out to Petit Jean so we could circle around the waterfall. Though I loved seeing the waterfall, I was not a fan of the circling. That plane was way too slanted for my preference.
After he circled the waterfall a couple of times he asked Andrew if he knew which way Little Rock was. Apparently lots of people get up there and don't know which direction home is. Andrew said he knew the way and then proceeded to fly us home. Our instructor took back over when we got close so that he could land the plane.

I actually really enjoyed the flight. I think it was because I knew Andrew was loving it. It is something I would definitely do again.

But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.

Isaiah 40:31

Celebrating Number Eight

Eight years ago I had the honor of becoming Mrs. Andrew Weaver.

He is truly my best friend. The past eight years have been full of ups and downs as I'm sure it is with all marriages. We are two sinners. That's always enough to make things interesting.

We usually celebrate with dinner at Applebee's (where we went on our first date) and a movie. This year we decided to break tradition. His mom and dad gave us a gift card to Outback for Christmas so we decided to dine there. It was so yummy.

Andrew started with ahi tuna. He loves it! I can't bring myself to try it.

I chowed down on a yummy plate of pasta.


In between all the yummy food, I gave Andrew his anniversary gift.


One of the things I love most about my husband is that he is a dreamer. That man can make anything sound like a good idea and I mean anything. I am absolutely terrified of planes. I cry every time I go to the airport. Yet, this Saturday I'm climbing into a small plane and going for a nice little afternoon flight with my husband. As a little anniversary surprise, I scheduled for him to take a flying lesson. He has always wanted to get his pilot's license and someday own a plane. We can't really afford a plane right now, but he can at least have fun for a day.

I have been so excited to tell him. I think he was pretty shocked. He said, "I'm feeling better already." I think it had been a long day of work. :)

I'll take that as a good sign.

We opted out of the movie this year. Reality took over. I go back to work tomorrow and honestly I've done nothing to prepare. I need to make a few seating charts and write a few lesson plans. Nothing too big. HA! He is getting up early and heading to Alabama for work. We didn't need to be out late. I guess that is what eight years of marriage looks like. :)

I don't mind. I told a friend today that each year gets easier and better. I love being married to my husband. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else other than right here by his side dreaming with him.


So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Ephesians 5:33

Tuesday Tunes: Day After Day

I've mentioned before that KLOVE has free songs for iTunes on their website. They offer a new song every other week or so. I LOVE this. My playlist has filled up pretty quick with their free songs.

Right now they are offering Day After Day by Kristian Stanfill. It's a really good song that I think you will like. Give it a listen and then go download it for free.

2012

It seems we are already two days into the new year. I love starting a new year. I always go into it with high hopes. Some of my hopes may be unrealistic, but that's part of the fun in my opinion. Andrew and I are dreamers. I like that about us.

I always start the new year with the goal to spend more time in the Word, more time with Jesus. I think it is the most important thing I can do with the year. I recently started reading The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges. I did a Bible study by him a few years ago on respectable sins that I truly enjoyed. It was one of those studies that cut deep down to the core. Those are the best kind - the hardest kind, but the best kind. I'm a chapter into this new book and I've already been convicted of things in my life that need to change. It talked about how we seem to downsize our sin because there are other people out there doing sins that are worse. That just isn't factual. In God's eyes sin is sin. He doesn't categorize sin the way we do. Our sin is offensive to God no matter how small it may seem to us. That is the thing that has stuck out to me the most. I'm trying to grasp just how offensive it is to God. We are sinning against Him.

Okay preaching over. It was more for me than you anyway. I'm trying to really take my time with this book and process it. As a lover of books, I tend to just read through it and move on without mediating and soaking in what it is God wants me to learn. I'm trying to not do that with this book.

While we are on the topic of books, one of my goals this year is to keep a running list of all the books I read in 2012. A few days before Christmas break, one of my students asked me how many books I had read since the beginning of school. I keep a board in my room that lets my students know what I just finished reading, am reading, and plan to read. Some of them really like to see it change. They've noticed it changes quite frequently. I was not able to answer the question of how many books I'd read, though I think I came up with a pretty good estimate. So this year, I plan to keep a list of books that I read. I'm curious to see how many I will read this year

I go back to work Wednesday. I'm sort of in denial about the fact. I'm not dreading it. I've missed my students and we have some exciting thing coming up this semester. But at the same time I have truly enjoyed my free time. I've read and scrapbooked and just enjoyed being home. I hope I can keep up with my scrapbooking once I'm back at work. I have several projects to finish.

Andrew and I have spent the past few days doing a little cleaning and organizing. We've haven't accomplished as much as I would have liked, but we have definitely made some progress. Our big project was cleaning out and organizing our attic. We hope that will help up with the inside of the house. Now we have a place to store things.

I'm looking forward to seeing what 2012 brings for our little family. There are some pretty big things that I would LOVE to see happen, but I'm trusting God in all of it. I am trusting that if we will let him, He will do big things in our lives and through our lives.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.

Jeremiah 29:11