Merry Christmas!!!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!!! I'll have a new post up after all the festivities. They started for us today... Christmas with my parents and sister! Tomorrow we have Jon's family in the afternoon and then the Steenie side at night. Then Christmas morning we have Christmas with the Barr side! Busy busy, busy, but I LOVE it!!!

Light Show

Ok... so all of you are probably not going to think this is funny at all... but I DO!!! There are quite a few evenings, when I am sitting home, where I look back at old posts on my blog. This is one that will always make me laugh!

I absolutely love my school and love the staff I work with. We are all quite young and make work a lot of fun! We only have 3 male teachers and 2 of them teach 5th grade. The one in particular is hilarious. He sends out whole staff emails frequently about the funniest things, just to lighten peoples days. Well, today the other 5th grade teacher emailed us, and the funny one responded. I COULDN'T QUIT LAUGHING!!! So, I decided to share this one with you. Again, you may not laugh, but at least in a couple months when I look back at it, I will! :)

A quick inside scoop: Ben, normally the funny one, is hosting our Christmas party this Friday. He has been gone A LOT lately with different meetings, and I have been his sub!

Here is the email :) P.S. what they write is NOT true! :)

Jeff: "I saw Ben's house on TV last night due to his awesome light show. I thought I'd just give everyone a peek at what they will get to see on Friday! No wonder he volunteered to have the party."

Ben's Light Show!

Ben: "You should see the back yard! A live nativity scene spoken in 12 different languages and a Santa's workshop made entirely out of sugar cubes and coffer creamer. What do you think I'm doing with all my sub days... this stuff doesn't just happen."

(Hope you at least enjoyed the light show) :)

Not Sure Why... :)

Saw this on another blog today while bored and looking at lots of others blogs. Thought it was super cute! The song just has a catchy tune...

2010 Christmas Cards

Lucky Day = Understatement!

REALLY Lucky Day = More Like It!!!

I just won ANOTHER giveaway! Seriously???

This time I won a set of 5 magnets! Either super cute colored ones, or ones with family pictures on it... SO COOL! I'm telling ya' people... just enter!

Here is a sample of what I will be getting...

-OR-

Thanks to "A List Maker's Life" for hosting the giveaway AND
Bloem and Grow for the Awesome giveaway!

Lucky Day

I would have to say today gets the title of "My Lucky Day." I have really never been the type of person to enter myself into drawings. I used to, but NEVER won anything. You all know I love reading random peoples blogs... Well, many of these people have weekly giveaways. I never used to enter these either, until not long ago, my friend Kari actually won something! (and gave the super cute camera strap to me:)) Sweet, these things are for real! Every since then, I enter every single giveaway I can. Well, guess what friends?? I ACTUALLY WON! I got home from work today, checked my email, and in the inbox was an email titled "Giveaway Winner." I couldn't believe it! So anyways... enter away... its worth the 2 minutes!

Here is a picture of what I won...

Thank you to "Savvy Chic Savings" for hosting this giveaway AND
Island Girl Bags for the cute purse!

Lovin' This Time of the Year!!!

The first snow fall is one of my favorite things to look forward to every year. As much as I despise the snow, driving in it, being cold... I still love the first time the ground is covered in a blanket of white! It just means that the holiday season is getting even closer! It also makes the Christmas lights look so much better! :) However, right now, I am enjoying sitting in my living room, nice and WARM, enjoying my Christmas tree, watching the snow fall outside!!

The lights on our house! Hubby did a great job! :)

Our Christmas tree!

Photoshoot!

Our little photoshoot with the Heeren's :)
Here are some of our favs... Hope you guys liked them.









Then they took a couple of us...


Then we went out for some drinks :)
Thanks for a GREAT night friends! Let's do it again as soon as little miss Cora can sit up! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

A list of things I am thankful for....

*My Husband : : Two and a half years ago, I married by best friend! I am SO thankful that I have someone that will always love me, care for me and be there for me no matter what. Love you Jon!!!

*My Family : : I am so blessed to have grown up in the family that I have. They have always there for me whenever needed and I know they always will. I'm glad we still live close to my parents and can eat there during the week :) I am thankful that my sister loves to come over and hang out at our house. I love that even at 25 years old, I still see all my aunts, uncles and cousins as if they were my siblings.

*My Grandparents : : This thanksgiving, I am forever thankful for the health of all 4 of my grandparents and that they are still here to celebrate together! I am so close to my grandparents and can't even begin to imagine the holidays without them.

*My Husband's Family (and now mine as well) : : I am so lucky to have married into one of the best families ever. From day one they have accepted me as their own and for that I am thankful! I am thankful to have 3 more people to call my sisters and 3 to call my brothers! (And 9 nieces and nephews) :)

*My Friends : : Jon and I say over and over how thankful we are for our friends. We have so many wonderful people in our lives who we are so lucky to call our friends! We couldn't imagine our lives without them! We always love our time spent with them and can't wait until we all have kids so they can be just as good as friends! (Yes, Jon and I are a little behind on that bandwagon) ;)

*My Job : : Even though I may not have a permanent job yet, I am very thankful to be in the education field. I have realized, this year especially, that I truly love my job! I am thankful every morning I get to wake up and know I get to go to school and see my kiddos. I couldn't imagine myself doing anything other than teaching! It is something that I love!

My Coworkers : : Not only do I love going to my job everyday, but I love the people I work with. We all seem to have so much in common. Everyone gets along great and I love that we can be together, outside of school, as friends.

My House : : I am so thankful that Jon and I were able to purchase a home. It is so nice to come home from work to a cozy place that we can call our own.

There are so many other things that I am thankful... the list could go on and one but these are just a few! I hope everyone has an awesome Thanksgiving and is able to reflect on the things that make them thankful!

Elf Yourself 2010

Once again, around the holiday season, the link is going around to "Elf Yourself" Well... I course I had to do it, so here it is :)

Ok... for some reason it is not working... try this link instead..

Jon and Ash "Elf Yourself"

Or just look at it through my facebook!

Weekend Recap

This weekend was everything BUT uneventful! I have quite the list of things that were accomplished. I was however, horrible at remembering my camera... So there are not any pics of all the fun :(

Friday:
*Subbed all day
*Home to relax with a glass of wine
*Griffins game with Curt and Steph (1st one this year)
*Back to our house for beer/wine and watching old movies. (Ones of Steph and I)

Saturday:
*Up early to go shopping ALL day in Muskegon with Mom, G-ma, Court, Geneva and Janet
*Visited Heidee and Baby Chaz in the Hospital

Sunday:
*Church at Ada Bible
*Scrapbooked with Julie

And now today, I am home, with no sub job, thinking I may decorate for Christmas!

Famous!!!

My mom and I were shopping yesterday at Gander Mountain for Jon for Christmas presents. We all know opening deer season is today. I should have known a hunting store would be absolutely PACKED! There were so many people buying last minute things. It was nuts. Well... to top it off, news channel 13 was there to film the chaos! My mom and I clearly tried to avoid the camera at all costs. I looked like a a total bum! Well... the news lady thought my mom and I were hilarious trying to figure out what to buy. I was on the phone with Matt, while talking to an employee, wandering around trying to find what we needed. Next thing you know, there is a camera in our face. YIKES!!! And to make a really long story short... they followed us around for quite awhile and then at 11:00p.m. my mom and I became famous. EMBARRASSING!!!

Well for those of you that so sadly missed our TV debut... here ya go! :)

Our Famous TV Debut!!!

Traverse City - 3rd Time Around

This weekend was the "Science Girls" 3rd annual weekend in Traverse City. We had such a fun weekend, filled with LOTS of laughing! There is never a dull moment when we are together!

Here is out attempt at a group picture on the look out along the way. We had to set up the self timer and balance the camera on Kari's car! Not too bad!

Wine tasting - one of our favorite things to do up there!

Out to dinner - Dee and Danielle

Kari and I

Our new matching hoodies :)

I always look forward to our next get togethers. Next on the list... possibly visiting Dee's school in the heart of Detroit, Christmas dinner, and Danielle's wedding!

Birch Run

This weekend was mine and Lori's annual Birch Run shopping trip. (Her sister joined in on the adventure as well) To say the least, it was very successful! We left the house at 8 am and returned at 10:30. This whole time was spent SHOPPING! We all came home with multiple bags. I have to say my favorite purchase would have to be my puma tennis shoes. Check out ALL the bags...

Here are the "for me" purchases
I got some Christmas shopping done as well.

This was all the Cutie stuff that Lori bought for baby girl! Plus Jaci and I got her stuff for Christmas and her "BIRTHday" This is going to be one spoiled little girl ;)

We are already excited for shopping trip 2011!

An Apple a Day

I have been loving every minute of teaching 2nd grade this year. I have the best students, and they are such a fun age to teach. Little did I know, teachers really do get apples from students. I thought this was just an old wives tale or something. Well, I have probably gotten around 10-12 apples already this year, but NONE of them beat the apple I found on my desk this morning. No joke, I have never seen an apple so big in my entire life! It was awesome! It was even a Honeycrisp... My FAVORITE! I asked the little girl where she found an apple so big... and believe it or not, she got it at Family Fare. Crazy! She was so excited to tell me where exactly I could go in the store to buy some more. She was also very excited to tell me how her and her mom dug and dug for the biggest one, just to give to me :) I LOVE 2nd graders! I'm going to miss them SO much when my time with them is done!

The giant apple was left on my desk with this cute little note!

Trying to show you in the picture how huge this apple really is!
Can't wait to eat it but I almost want to keep it out for a fall decoration! :)

Monday Motivational

I am a Teacher

I am a counselor and a psychologist to a problem filled child,
I am a police officer that controls a child gone wild.
I am a travel agent scheduling our trips for the year,
I am a confidante that wipes a crying child's tears.
I am a banker collecting money for a ton of different things,
I am a librarian showing adventures that a storybook brings.
I am a custodian that has to clean certain little messes,
I am a psychic that learns to know all that everybody only guesses.
I am a photographer keeping pictures of a child's early growth,
When mother and father are gone for the day, I become both.
I am a doctor that detects when a child is feeling sick,
I am a politician that must know the laws and recognize a trick.
I am a party planner for holidays to celebrate with all,
I am a decorator of a room, filling every wall.
I am a news reporter updating on our nation's current events,
I am a detective solving small mysteries and ending all suspense.
I am a clown and a comedian that makes the children laugh,
I am a dietitian assuring they have lunch or from mine I give them half.
When we seem to stray from values, I become a preacher,
But I'm proud to have to be these people because...
I'm proud to say, "I am a teacher."

~ Stacy Bonino

Best Deals EVER!!!

Okay... so I am so not one to promote other blogs. However... this one deserves to be shared with more people! I can't remember who told me about this blog... but I'm in love! It's sort of like a free version of savings angel. This lady posts deals to her blog every day. Sometimes its where to buy things the cheapest for the week, such as groceries. She also posts fun coupons and really good deals she finds on other websites.

Today's post was a SUPER good deal on OK magazine. I was pretty excited! I have always wanted a subscription to a "gossip" magazine but have never wanted and never would pay the price. WELL... I just got a one year subscription (52 issues) for $14.99! That's right... and not a penny more!

So... you are probably wondering what this website is! I won't keep you hanging any longer! :)
Go right now and check out http://www.westmichiganmommy.com/

You won't be disappointed!

A Hunting We Will Go!

This weekend we decided to venture up north with our hubbies for a little vacation. What a great weekend! The weather was perfect and we were with some of our best friends! The guys even got Joel up in a tree stand hunting too :) Here are just a few pictures from our weekend!

Cora and I at the farm! LOVE her smile!

Buffalo!

Jonny and I right before he headed out to hunt!

Our Hunters!
They SO did not enjoy getting their picture taken!

Oh My Gosh... I LOVE this little girl SO much!

Hail to the Victors!!!

Saturday, I attended my first ever U of M football game at the Big House!!! Oh my gosh, it was so much fun! The game was awesome! Michigan won, with a final score of 65-21. Jon was so proud of me... I spent more time actually watching the game rather than people watching :) But how could you not when they were scoring left and right. This is definitely a new yearly event for Jon and I. I am officially hooked :)

Lori and I, the night before the game.

Getting a tour of the Paleontology Museum

15th row seats. Doesn't get much better!

Me and Jon by the MI bobble head.
Matt photo bombs once again :)

Steph and I

Me and Jonny

The Tailgating Group!

Me and Jon after the game

Lori and I waiting around for the crowd to clear out.

Final Score 65 - 21 GO BLUE!!!

Oh, and P.S. I really did have maize and blue on. As a matter of fact, it was even a jersey, but it was way too stinken cold to take off my sweatshirt. At least it was a MI one.

Lukas' Soccer Game

This year Lukas has decided to play soccer instead of hockey. So crazy to me... they are just such a hockey family. I love seeing him so excited about something special to him though. It's something only he does, and not his brothers. I am so glad I was able to make it to one of his games. He played goalie for one quarter and had many saves! Go Lukas!!! You did great buddy!

(Don't mind these junker pictures, I only had my point and shoot camera and it does not take nice picutres)

Me and Tyce

Lukas and I

Keeping busy during half time :) I was pretty jealous by their new toy.