home sweet home

happy to be home after a week away from home.

we had such a fabulous time with jay's family.

soaking up time with our god-daughter, spending time with cousins, aunts, uncles and siblings.

lot's of jokes and laughter and baking and eating.

it's always good to be home though - no matter how much fun you've had.

today has been filled with unpacking, laundry, sleeping in and coffee-sipping.

tonight we're celebrating christmas with my side of the family.

hope you all had a wonderful christmas season.

i'm looking forward to more blogging.

I Can't Believe I'm Doing This ...

Because I'm just sitting here watching a movie ... might as well.
Have you ever?

Bold if you've ever:
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked (sorry mom, it's true)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (nope, only Camp Fire Girl cookies!)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been a passenger on a motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Kissed a stranger at midnight on New Year’s Eve
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (GROSS!!!!)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Got a tattoo
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee

I'm more worldly and interesting than I thought.

:)

Happy Holidays {2010 edition}

Happy Holidays from my family to yours.

We certainly hope you are spending the holidays
with friends and family,
and that you're surrounded by love.

Love,
Jay, Lisa & Cooper

And then Jay & Lisa {again} because I can't resist a good deal.

And my parent's card with all of the kids.

follow-up

a little follow-up to my post yesterday.

i knew i wasn't feel right.

my head was really stuck in the past yesterday.

i kept bursting into tears last night and couldn't quite shake off the yucky feelings.

then,

this morning,

i woke up really sick.

all my student are sick.

the majority of my co-workers are sick.

and now it looks like i'm sick.

just in time for my vacation.

perfect.

at least i have a bit of insight into why i've been so emotional.

i always get this way right before i get sick.

just woke up from a 3-hour sleep.

ate some dinner and now i'm heading back onto the couch to constantly blow my nose and swallow razor blades.

my spirits ARE better today.

yippee!

reflective

today, our school had a holiday sing-along.

all the kids got together in our gym, and sang christmas and hanukkah songs.

right before we walked into the gym, for some reason, i realized that the 1st baby we lost, would be 7 months old right now.

i have no idea why i thought of it.

it just came to me.

these ideas sometimes come to me at the most random times.

like when you're walking your 1st grade class to an assembly.

and they stall me in place.

i have to force myself to keep moving forward, while my brain tries to catch up with reality.

it was so difficult to look happy while singing songs.

it's always around the holidays that i miss our babies.

our 1st should be 7 months old today.

i should be 6 months pregnant with our 2nd.

it just made me really sad.

i don't mean to depress you with this post.

just wanted you to know that while others' lives keep moving forward ...

my thoughts stay stagnant sometimes.

in the past.

stuck where the losses happen.

longing for what "could have been."

while life moves on, my heart still aches for my babies.

A Post About Nothing Interesting

Catchy post title, right!?!

It's like the Sahara Desert over here.

I've got nothing to write about.

Really.

Nothing.

I work,
I come home,
I feed my dog,
I eat dinner,
I lay on the couch,
I watch TV,
I address Christmas cards,
I read books,
I sleep.

Repeat.

Weird huh.

I think I'm just counting down the days until Winter Break.

Not sure.

Sorry I'm so boring this week.

I took this picture the other day to blog about ...

It's a nightlight someone gave us for Christmas that Jay LOVES.

I thought it would be funny to blog about how much Jay likes it ...

But then when I looked at it, I thought,
"What a boring picture.
Who wants to read a post about this picture?"

And so I've still got nothing to write about.

I'll try to be more interesting and witty next week.

The End.

goal in focus

q: want to gain weight and feel super fat?

a: start taking progesterone.

oh.

my.

goodness.

keeping my eye on the prize!

Jingle Bell Run

Jay and I participated in the Jingle Bell Run yesterday.

It was BEYOND pouring down rain - but we live in Seattle, and that's to be expected!

We had such a wonderful time
supporting one of our school community families.

Here we are,
happy to be done
and proud to have crossed the finish line
with this very special 3 year-old girl.

It was our honor to walk with this family
and to raise money for the Arthritis Foundation.

Looking back ...

I did one of those "A Year of Status Updates" by Facebook today.

2010 was filled with many low lows, and many high highs.

And I wouldn't change a thing about them.

They have made me into who am today.

(you may have to click on photo to enlarge)

Our niece was born.

We miscarried our 2nd baby.

Jay's sister got married.

Jay's brother got married.

We became God Parents.

Those were the biggies.

Hoping for a 2011 filled with a little Stookey!

Just being honest.

QOTD

I'm loving this quote the last few days ..

"Reason is afraid
of defeat ...

But Intuition
enjoys challenges."

-- Paulo Coelho

Two Years Ago

All of this fun is going on right now in Durban, South Africa.

I wish I was there again.

It's been 2 years since I went and it feels like forever.

I'm itching to go back and spend quality time with these amazing kids.

Big hugs to all their teachers this week.

I'm thinking of you all ...

A big lesson in Team Work ...

Final day.
I didn't want it to end ...

So much hope ...

I miss you all!

visitor

It was a 1/2 day today,
So look who joined the afternoon fun ...

Love my little man.

xoxo

what's wrong with this photo?

God bless whomever made this sign
that hangs in our school ...

I fully admit that I submitted this picture to the Ellen Show
for her segment called "What's Wrong With These Photos" photos.

helped needed

Spelling Help ...

Example #1:
Student: How do you spell sol?
Me: Sol?
Student: Yah, sol.
Me: Sol is not a word.
Student: Oh.
Me: Use it in a sentence.
Student: Like, I SOL you at Molbalks.

i'm giving in ...

cooper's hip is still bothering him.

he runs and plays just fine.

but jumping into the car, on our bed or onto the couch is difficult for him sometimes.

he's too young to be feeling this way.

we've had him on glucosamine and fish oil for quite some time now.

it's driving me nuts.

i've put off getting x-rays because, well, they're expensive.

but i can't stand it anymore.

i can't stand the NOT KNOWING.

and when i don't know - i'm the QUEEN OF CATASTROPHIZE.

so any amount of money i'm about to spend HAS to be worth my peace of mind.

i drop him off on thursday for x-rays.

and hopefully we'll know what's up with this dang hip or leg.

in order to spiral myself into a full-blown panic attack, i have to keep reminding myself, "whatever is wrong, is already wrong ... now i'm just arming myself with the information to best help him."

but still.

my poor baby.

i just want him up and running again.

please keep your fingers crossed for decent news.

A Beautiful "Trip"

Student: Once, I got stung by a wasp. It hurt really bad but my mom gave me these special pills that make you sleep for a long time. And when I woke up, I was in this beautiful place.

Me: What do you mean by "beautiful place?"

Student: Well, we were camping, so it was really beautiful.

Me: Oh ... got it.

lesson learned

funny thing.

it turns out that if you leave steamed broccoli in your classroom refrigerator for OVER a week ...

it will smell like something died in your room when you come back.

no joke.

i looked for a dead rat in the cupboards & was about 2 seconds away from calling our custodian when i found the decomposing vegetables in the refrigerator.

there are not enough outlets in this room for my glade room fresheners to drown out this smell.

i feel bad for the kids.

they keep saying, "your broccoli smells terrible!"

ya think!?!

gross.

Diederichs Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving with my side of the family this year.

We made a weekend out of it and stayed up in Port Ludlow with my parents for the weekend.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from Thanksgiving Day.

Dad carving the ham ...

{We also had a turkey - but being a former vegetarian,

it felt gross to post pictures of it.

Don't ask me why I don't feel the same way about the ham.

I have no idea and can not explain my thinking on this.}

How pretty are these?

Our hostess' mother made homemade banana-nut bread

and wrapped them beautifully for everyone to take home.

I love thoughtful, creative touches like this.

The table was so pretty.

My Grandpa Diederichs.

Love him.

Trying to soak in everything about my grandparents that are still alive.

It was so heartbreaking losing my other Grandpa last year.

And I wish I would have just sat and listened to what he had to say more often before he passed.

I listen more, talk less now.

Nothing says Diederichs Family Get-together like chardonnay chillin' in the snow.

This is hands-down my favorite picture of the day ...

Hope you had a great Thanksgiving too!

Long Overdue Post

I have been HORRIBLE about blogging this week.

It seems that the hectic schedule of the holidays has already caught up with us.

Everything is so much fun, but I feel like I'm hardly ever home - long days at work - fun activities in the evenings - family get-togethers on the weekends - then right to bed.

I feel like I'm hardly ever home during the daylight hours anymore.

Oh right. That's because I'm NOT!

cRaZy fun chaos - but my blogging time suffers.

I'm going to get a bit caught up on Thanksgiving weekend.

We stayed at The Inn At Port Ludlow.

We LOVE this hotel, have stayed there many times, and always enjoy our time there.

Here are some beautiful pictures of the Inn's grounds ...





On Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) we visited Fort Flagler and Fort Worden.

Both were so beautiful but apparently I'm only posting people-pictures. :)

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Taters

I can't get enough of this girl ...

My god daughter is BEYOND adorable.

T-Day 2010

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope you were able to celebrate with loved ones.

Yippee!

No school again tomorrow!

So glad we're all able to stay home, where we're safe.

Looks like our 4-day weekend turned into a 6-day weekend!

Snow Day

What a beautiful day.

Check out these pics that Jay took on a frigid 20 degree walk today ...

Gorgeous.

Hope everyone is safely home.

Snowy Night

It snowed all day.

It's been snowing all night.

School is cancelled tomorrow.

Fun!

Weekend Wrap-Up

I've been working long hours, writing report cards and meeting with parents for conferences.

On Friday, I came home and crashed.

And by crashed, I mean I fell asleep at 7:00 pm and didn't wake up until 9:00 am the next day.

NICE!

On Sunday, I spent 9 hours making homemade chicken broth, and in the evening, I made chicken & wild rice soup.

Look how many containers it made:


Also, I hope some of you are noticing the BOX of Corbet Canyon wine behind the creamers!

Yep.

That's how I roll.

I'm happy to be back at work today.

It's snowing and Seattle is covered in a blanket of peaceful white.

Tomorrow I'm sure it will be brown, gunky sludge, so I'm soaking it all in today!

Water/Coffee Goal

I'm a self-professed terrible water drinker.

However, I make up for it in the area of Coffee Drinking.

I'm quite skilled actually.

Some may be jealous.

When I was doing Weight Watchers* I actually had to make a Water-Drinking Goal. Or perhaps it would better be titled as a Stop-Drinking-Coffee Goal.

I made it a point every day to be done drinking my coffee by the time my students went out for morning recess.

So basically I would chug down as must coffee as possible (which is actually difficult to do since you know, teaching involves talking, and talking is VERY difficult to do with a mouth filled with liquid glory).

The much-anticipated 10:30 recess bell would ring, and that was my signal to switch to water for the rest of the day.

I know, sad.

So, you can imagine my splendor of happiness when I quit WW (yah, I'm a quitter - but I accepted that about myself a long time ago when I dropped out of my Master's program) and the Stop-Drinking-Coffee Goal was null & void.

I DID however put limitations on my coffee intake by modifying the Stop-Drinking-Coffee Goal. I pushed back the 10:30 limit to 11:15.

Hooray!

11:15 is the time my students to go lunch.

So basically, I'd drink coffee all morning, and then will myself to ONLY bring my water bottle with me to the cafeteria.

There are days I falter and bring my coffee, but for the most part, I stay true to my goal.

All this being said, here is reason #1 that I love 1/2-days of school.

I may shock you by saying that reason #1 is NOT the conferences.

I'll give you a minute to absorb that one.

The #1 reason is (insert drum-roll) ...

I push the Stop-Drinking-Coffee Goal back to 12:20 on 1/2-days!

12:20 is the time the students get excused to go home ...

And the moment I switch to water.

Happy Drinking my friends!

What goals do you give yourself?

*Note: I'm still a member, but apparently I'm 'taking a break' from a lifestyle of healthy eating

One Year Ago ...

Grandpa died one year ago today.

I miss him.

I love imaging home holding my two babies in heaven.

I love you Grandpa.

I think of you every day.

I'm so thankful for your impact on my life.

Tonight, I light a candle for you.

And will let it run it's course,
and burn out when it's ready.

Baptism Weekend

I haven't had time to look through and edit pictures.

Here are some quick {unedited} shots from this weekend.

My beautiful God-Daughter Tatum ...

Tatum and her mama Tricia, The Mr.'s sister ...

I just love this picture ...

I love her so much ...

Back to report cards.

Conferences start tomorrow.

I'll resurface next week.

:)

Speechless

Oh. My. Stars.

If you don't want to watch the entire video
- watch the first minute, then skip ahead to 3:10 -

I'm speechless.

I so look forward to the day I'm reunited with my two angels.

Updates

Just a few quick updates while my head spins with report card writing, student testing, taking care of the mr.

• The heat is officially ON in the house and I couldn't be happier. Wearing a beanie and down coat in your house is only fun for so long.
• We are Godparents!
• This last weekend was a BLAST! Jay's parents had NO IDEA about their surprise 60th birthday party, the baptism was perfect, and seeing Jay's family warmed my heart hot enough for me to be warm until I see them again for Christmas.
• I am BEYOND blessed in the IN-LAW department. Seriously. Blessed.
• Doing everything yourself SUCKS: pack, load truck, drive 5 hours, unpack. Repeat.
• The mr has an appointment with an orthopedic specialist on Monday - we're praying there isn't too much damage in his ankle.
• Cooper is back home! The ex-mr had him for a couple weeks while we were busy and out of town. His hip seems "okay" but he's still slow to get up. Poor guy.
• I'm listening to The Help on CD again - seriously, this book is amazing. If you haven't read it - DO!
  

That's about all for now.

We took a ton of pictures from this weekend that I'll get uploaded soon.

Until then, back to report cards.

Happy Tuesday!

Transformations

I'm loving this today ...

"I can be changed by what happens to me. But I refuse to be reduced by it."
— Maya Angelou

*Our house is 62 degrees this morning. The thrill of this game is coming to a screeching halt.

Random Thoughts While Watching TV

• Jay's first trip outside of the house was a success tonight!
  
• I was credited $39.90 for the sweater I returned to The Gap, then spent $25.39 at Blue C Sushi for dinner. Go figure. Money comes in. Money goes out.
• Our house is freezing. F.R.E.E.Z.I.N.G. For some reason*, I had a goal of not turning our heat on until November. Now that it's November, I'm playing the "let's still see how long we can go without heat" game. It's a ridiculous game I play every year ... it's my lame and pathetic attempt to save money. The direct effect of this game is me wearing a beanie and my coat** while watching TV tonight. Hmmm ... relaxing!
  
• Girlfriend #4 in THIS post, heard her baby's heartbeat today! God is GOOD!
• TMI ALERT: I started my period on Monday and cried about it. This is a tough time. I'm learning to except it - I'm attempting to simultaneously honor my sadness & grief while staying present & grateful for where I am in my life. Because really - everyone says the grass is greener on the other side, but honestly ... my grass is pretty damn green. Regardless, it's tricky. Really, really tricky.
  
• Watching the CMA's. Why does Taylor Swift sound so bad live?!? Honestly. Sheesh.
  

*The reason is actually very clear. I'm cheap. Really, really cheap.
** Photographic Proof:

Exibit A: Picture

Just in case you were wondering ...

This is what "I'M NOT HAVING FUN ANYMORE" looks like.

Poor Jay.

He hates being cooped up all day at home.

Last night was his first night out of the bedroom since Sunday,
which is why I documented it with a picture.
(above)

Laying on the couch to watch TV.

A brave, bold move.

We're taking a BIG adventure out tonight.

Dragging him to The Gap with me to return a sweater.

He's thrilled to go outside.

It sucks when that's the most exciting part of your week.