We have had a WONDERFUL week here in Phoenix. We arrived last Tuesday, and on Friday morning when most people awoke to go shopping, we arose at 5:00 AM and ventured over the Hoover Dam and through the mountain trails to Las Vegas. Spent 1 night there, and saw all I needed and ever care to see. The light show at he Belagio was very cool, as was the inside of the Venitian, and some other hotels. Had lots of good laughs. We took the long way home crossing into California, back into Arizona and going to Lake Havesu City. This is where the original London Bridge now exists and is in use. For those who are from the south or any other part of the US, perhaps I'm not the only one who didn't realize that this was over here.
I had a great time seeing all of God's beautiful creation while driving through Arizona, Nevada and a part of California. The best part was spending time with Aaron and his family. I am so very blessed to have such a wonderful family of in-laws, most especially my MIL. We very much missed having Adam and Stephanie here with us though!
Tonight we spent time having dinner with Grandpa and Grandma Thompson, and shared many more laughs. We are now packing up and getting ready to head back to Tampa for a CRAZY week!
We will leave on Friday to head to Mobile for a wedding of a great friend that I grew up with, and I'm very excited to see my family and stay with my aunt!
I'm very thankful for this time of year that allows Aaron and I so much time with family.
Hope that you all had a wonderful time with your family.
sounds like a wonderful time! i had no idea about the bridge either! kent and i were just remembering life B.C. (before child) and how much fun it was to travel together. the A.C. is way cool too though! :)
I actually found out this past weekend during a board game about that bridge in Arizona. Craig told us about it b/c it was related to a question on the game. I'm so glad you had a good time! Sounds like a fun, busy time! :)
That is a great road trip! We saw the London Bridge one long weekend. It was a neat site to see! I love going fun places like that..makes for good conversation! :-)
my sweet husband who has been so very helpful lately! I have spent so much time at the local Panera, McDonalds or Starbucks meeting with a group for school project (up to 4 hours 3 to 3 evenings a week), and Aaron has been very helpful around the house. He even built an entire work bench and organized the garage! All this considering that he doesn't get home til at least 7 each night lately.
Grad school has been a little (ok very) laborsome and tiresome lately, but wonderful work weeks of great therapy like I had this week, and especially todays like today make me remember why my degree is so important to me. Here's why:
I am especially humbled today though by the thanksgiving dinner I attended today at the middle school I work at. It was the annual thanksgiving dinner in the PI (physically impaired) classroom. These students have a wide range of disabilities from Cerebal Palsy, Muscular Dystrphy (MD), stroke at birth, to traumatic brain injury. They are my favorite and most fun class to work with. The non verbal ones seem to be noisier, funnier and more talkative (using their communication device) than most of my other students. Well...each of the students stood up (or wheeled their way to the front of the class) and read what they were thankful for. (which it took them a week to write). Many parents were there and other staff members too.
Here are some of their thoughts:
"I'm thankful for my mom because she changes me and moves me from my wheel chair to my bed." - 13 year old MD kiddo
"I'm thankful for my mom because she feeds me as much ice cream as I want, without ever saying I'm going to slow" (12 year old CP in wheel chair who used a communication device to talk for him to say this message)
"I'm thankful for my mom because she turns me over to my other side when I'm laying down" (11 year old CP kiddo)
"I'm thankful for my mom becuase she loves me even though I have trouble remembering stuff" (14 year old traumatic brain injury from car accident)
"I'm thankful for all of my friends in my class becuase you all make me laugh and we have wheel chair races...and mine is the fastest chair in the room" 14 year old MD kiddo
I'm thankful for my job and these wonderful kids! I'm impressed and so respectful of their parents for their love and dedication to their kids!
Aaron and I are leaving to go to Phoenix on Tuesday. We will be there for a week, and are going to take a 2 day trip with his parents over the Hoover Dam and into Las Vegas. I'm looking forward to being with his family! But will very much being with mine!
That's so sweet - I bet they're all thankful for you, too - it takes a special kind of person to be good at teaching, and an even more special kind of person to have the patience and desire to make a difference in the lives of kids with disabilities. Happy Thaksgiving!
To me Grad school was much easier when it comes to making good grades, I felt like I hardly had to worry about grades. The hard part of all of the time/work. Looking back I don't know how I did it. I always had dinner with Jana and took a break each week from Saturday at lunch intil Sunday night worship services were over.
If it weren't for the books I wouldn't have liked the movie, but I did enjoy it - both times and in fact am going to see it again in Mobile over Thanksgiving weekend. There was a lot of cheesiness - but I hope New Moon will get better especially with a bigger budget.
That is so sweet! Thanks for sharing that! Have a wonderful trip! You know, Vegas is not tooooo far from Reno...we have a spare room if you wanna extend your trip a little! (:
Isn't it interesting when you hear things like that and it just totally humbles you? Sometimes you think that your life can't get any worse and you see/hear/read something like that...it really makes you count your blessings!!! Hope your vacation was great!
wow, *tears*, I'm not really even sure what to say. It's times like that that makes me remember how much I love teaching. Thank you for posting that, I really needed to remember that right now :)
1. Having a random person tap me on the shoulder in the Dollar Tree to ask me what I think of her new haircut/color. I laughed to myself for 5 minutes when I got back to my car. "She said, you look like an honest person, so I know you will tell me the truth about how it looks" HA! (this is the 3rd time this has happened to me in the last 2 1/2 weeks!)
2. Spending time with a great friend while cheering on other friends run a 13 K at 10:00 PM Saturday night in Orlando.
3. Coming home from a night with Amanda at Starbucks and checking out the new Dillards/Macy's by our house, only to find my cute husband outside covering our house in Halloween lights and flying Ghosts and bats.
4. THE WEATHER! It never reached about 65 degrees here yesterday, and God gave us a beautiful blue sky to go with it.
5. Feeling like an "adopted" member of the Gates/Areallano families this weekend while they were all in town putting a new roof on Erika and Caleb's house. Getting to know Noemie and Michael better while they stayed at our house for the weekend.
6. Mid-week singing at Worship tonight
My goal lately has been to focus solely on positive things. I work with 2 Speech Path's who have been consumed by the stress of work and their personal lives, and I have been trying to be the positive one lightening things up. This is leading to so many positive conversations about the Lord. Ha, in fact, yesterday one of the girls (they are both within a year or 2 of my age) told me that I am one of the most mentally healthy people she has ever met! I just snickered, that's because Aaron is the only one who really ever catches my melt downs! He is truly the optimistic one in our relationship.
I need to be more positive at work especially since everyone else is so down because of our year. Maybe that will open more conversation doors on my team.
How funny about the $1 store lady. So what was yor response? You seem to be a very positive person anyway so I'm sure you have let your light shine with how positive you are. That is so great! :)
We actually saw that, we're always checking woot, I love that site! :) I think we were going to wait until Black Friday to see what kinds of deals we can get then. Shoot me. :)
Kris! I love keeping up with you too! Well, my "bright spot" was reading this post from you! I too have really been working on being more positive and trying to push negativity out. A "bright spot" I had this weekend was watching the movie 'The Secret'. I had never heard of it but it really helped give me a new viewpoint on positive thinking. So thanks for your everpresent encouragement! You are my SUNSHINE! (:
Thank you! :) I really hope you can meet them one day. There's a slight chance we'll be coming to lectures this year! (Michelle and Daniel maybe too!) So...no hopes up yet, but it'd be pretty stinkin cool.
The uproar is unbelieveable...and it has caused a nagging headache in the back of my head. There have been chants up and down the hallways "Obama Y'all" in between EACH class pd. It's so frustrating
yes, I'm sure we'll be making a trip or two to watch my sis.
We're trying to plan a trip to Tampa right now to see Jamie's family. We haven't bought our tickets yet...they're too high!!! I'll let you know when we decide on dates.
I'm just so excited that you'll be here that weekend! Can't wait! I saw Charlie and his mom this weekend at 1000 voices! It was great to see them! I can't wait to hug your neck!
Hey, I just feel like we snubbed you guys this weekend :( I am so sorry, my only excuse was that by Sunday PM we were SO, SO exhausted, we had been up since 4am and just couldn't hardly go any more. I hope that I can spend some more time with you guys when you are here for Bryans wedding. We sure love you guys and treasure time with you. See you guys in just a few weeks. Love to both!
Speaking of the trailer work, sorry that it imposed on your breakfast with them. I knew they wouldn't stick to their original plans (to go out) is Randy was over there and I am sure it took Mr. Julian away from you during that time. Sorry about that, Randy was glad to help.
that can be a scary topic- me and kent? :) does he go to n.blvd. when he's visiting his girlfriend? kent and i would love to see you guys soon. we really need to figure out a time!
Backsliding to Saturday: Making $90 at my yard sale.
Monday: Time with Amanda, then Allison...babysitting Baby Braden Ciampa, getting a haircut.
Monday night: Surprise date night to try a new resteraunt
Today:
I was driving home from work and errands thinking, "hmmm, I'm really hungry, I may have to have a snack before dinner". God was listening.
I stopped at a red light, and this Giant 7 foot slice of pizza walked up to my car window...handing out individual boxes/slices of Papa John's pizza as an advertising gimmic. Good Stuff. Now I'm perfectly satisfied until dinner time.
So my bright spot so far today? Unexpected Pizza Slice. Bright spot #2: Mid week worship in a couple of hours. Hope you all find a sunny spot in your day too!
Your bright spots sound great. I wish I could see Amanda and her sweet baby. She REALLY needs a blog.
My bright spot for today: Parker giving me an unexpected hug around the legs.
We're actually in Columbia, SC...we started out in Tampa, went to Charlotte, NC to Nashville, TN and now to Columbia, SC...crazy! I would love to see you guys too, not sure when we'll be down next but hopefully it will be soon.
ARGH! That would TOTALLY make my day... being handed a slice of pizza! Ohhh... you thought I was going to say hanging out with you 'manda and Al!! That too! :)
We are doing really great, thanks!! We're both just staying busy and enjoying fall. :) Hopefully Justin will get an anwser from dental school in December!
:) Isn't it funny how before you have kids, you have to clarify that you're not trying to get pregnant every time you make a comment about "when we have kids"? :) Everyone gets excited when you mention the possibility. :)
I was told by a few people I needed to update. Problem is...
I really have nothing to update about. Perhaps as I type, I will be filled with some randomness of interest to you all. I sat through a super long training today, and that was quite unenjoyable. School (the school I'm paying for) is moving right along this semester. I am putting out my fall decorations today, and looking forward to having Jared in town this weekend. Aaron is really excited to see him. Of course the downside, not having Jess here too!!
Like I said, I really have nothing good to say. I have been in a super "fall" mood and am loving being able to open our windows so much (temperatures in the 80's by day and 70's by night have been a much anticipated thing!) and have pulled out all of my fall candles and airfreshners.
I hope that everyone else is enjoying October so far. I'm already scoping out pumpkins and trying to figure out what I want to carve on my perfect pumpkin this year. October 2nd is my favorite day of fall, becuase 12 years ago, on Oct. 2, 1996, I decided to put away my old life and be washed with Christ to become a Christian. It's a constant process to keep growing and learning, and I look forward to another year in God's service!
Hope you all have a wonderful weekend! Maybe I'll have something more interesting to update with next month!
I love Fall, too. I have a Pumpkin Pie scented Yankee candle burning right now. It's my favorite.
Yay for the anniversary of your life as a Christian. Fight the good fight.
Love Comes Softly is the first in a series by Janette Oke, and Inside My Heart is by Robin McGraw. They were both suggestions from peeps on pleo....so we'll see!
Being a Christian does take constant effort! It is a mean world we live in but it helps to have such great friends in the same boat! I enjoyed reading your post! Happy October 2nd to you!...sunshine!
I know...a few people have said that! I've been weird around those whom I've wanted to tell but wasn't totally ready to break the news...so that is probably why!
Hey! I've missed you lately, I wasn't able to go to the retreat either, but I think they all had a good time! Love to you both, any trips home any time soon? or just holidays?
