Thursday, April 30, 2009

Mouth of Christ

At MCA all students take a Bible class and our JH Bible teacher is AWESOME! I'm continually surprised and impressed by what they're learning, talking about and writing. Amy (the Bible teacher) was telling me last week that she had her 7th graders write an in-class unprompted journal where they had to pick a teacher (past or current) and write about what part of the body of Christ they represented. When she collected the papers and began reading them that night, she was tickled to see than an OVERWHELMING majority (something like 27 out of 30) had chosen to write about me and they had all said that I was the mouth of Christ. :) Here are some of the reasons they said I was the mouth:

- I talk a lot (ha!)

- "God has gifted Mrs. McAnally with the ability to talk to us on our level. She is able to take tough concepts and put them into words we can understand."

- "Mrs. McAnally would be the mouth of Christ becuase she takes the time to talk to students not just about school, but about things we care about and about our lives."

Wow! Hello, wakeup call!!! Apparently students are actually listening to what I'm saying - and not just about equations, factoring and proportions :) This situation just up and smacked me in the face with the realization that I am an extremely influential person in these kid's daily lives and what comes out of my mouth (ALL THE TIME) needs to be things that do in fact honor and glorify Christ.... in simpler words, if I'm the mouth I better pick my words carefully.

Then I started thinking about this situation beyond the classroom - respresenting the body of Christ as the "mouth" outside of school and the classroom and started to think about my word (and tone of voice) in other situations - with my friends, with the clerk at Hobby Lobby, with my family... hmmm.

Anyway, just a little nugget of insight I've been mulling over the past few days and I thought I'd pass it on to all my readers (ha!) - like it or not people are listening to what we say, do, etc and we need to try and make sure that as a member of the body of Christ it's a favorable representation.

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Home Tour

If I had a quarter for every time my mom asked me to put pics of the new house on the blog so my family could see... :)


As you ALL probably know from my numerous posts about "the move" - we moved into our new house almost a month ago. We're absolutely loving it - it's more space and SO close to Gibi and Grandpa - it's perfect.


Front Door


Standing in the front hall looking in (Cadence shouldn't be on the tile, but I guess she was sneaking around while I was taking pictures)The family room (please don't be overwhelmed by the "peachy" color - I've picked out a gorgeous "gold/green" and as soon as I get the mouldings primed I'll be ready to paint)

Family room and front door

(This is "supposed" to be the formal living/dining area - but since we're not all that "formal" we're using the living room space as our family room and the dining room space as a play area for Luke... similar to what my mom and dad did at their house)
This is the hallway before you get to the kitchen... the door on the right is a hall closet, the door on the left is a bathroom, also on the right is the 4th bedroom (which has nothing in it right now) and at the very end of the hall is Luke's room (the closed door) and a door to the study.
Another shot of Luke's play area (I LOVE the windowsw out into the sideyard)

This next picture shows the door leading into the eating area as well as the previous-bar area that is now just additional counter-space:
This space is "supposed" to be the family room, but we've made it into our dining area (I've always wanted a fireplace in my kitchen!). We switched out the ceiling fan for the dining room fixture and will be painting the walls a gold color (and getting window treatments).


This is one of my favorite things... there's this cool brick wall/bar seperating the eating area and the kitchen: Brick wall again:

This little area is "supposed" to be the kitchen table nook, but we've turned it into a little sitting area. We like to sit and read books here and it gives Luke a fun place to play while I'm working in the kitchen (the white door is the pantry):


Here's the kitchen sink area with a pretty bay window looking into the sideyard:

Another view of the sitting area:





This is the hallway off of the eating area that leads to the master bedroom:
Standing in the door of the master bedroom... these windows look into the backyard:

Looking into the master bath:



This picture shows how the study is connected via french doors to the master bedroom:
Standing in the master, looking into the study:

LOVE the built-ins!
Another one of my favorite things is the storage built-ins in the study...

... perfect for all my "officy" and "crafty" things.
Hope you enjoyed the tour - Luke was sleeping while I took these and so I'll have to take pictures of his room later. Also, I'll post pics of the other bedroom once it's semi-assembled. Stop by anytime for your own personal tour (and a cup of tea!)

How Low Can You Go???

How low can you go??? I can't believe it - our crib can go NO lower! We just had to lower Luke's crib AS LOW AS POSSIBLE as we were afraid that he was going to literally jump out of it :) I can remember this time last year stressing over moving him from the pack-and-play in our room into his own crib and now it's already at it's lowest position! I'm extremely grateful that he loves to be in his crib and I think it's for two main reasons... 1) he gets to jump 2) he gets to have his paci. See for yourself:

Show me your belly!

We've been working with Luke on identifying his body parts (i.e. "where's Luke's nose", etc.) and as of right now the only part he has down is his belly :)

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Visor

At the Junior High Semi-Formal last weekend I gave out visors and tiaras as "prizes" for our mini-awards ceremony. Somehow an extra one ended up at our house and it turned into instant entertainment at breakfast on Saturday morning. :)

Crayfish

Ya'll know how much I love fish and all things fishy smelling :) and in case you don't I'm being extremely sarcastic... in fact I HATE, DESPISE and am REPULSED by the "fishy" smell. On a Washington, DC mission trip I had to leave the soup kitchen because we were making tuna fish sandwiches, in college I got a job as a hostess at RockFish and had to quit on the day of my training (what was I thinking?!?!)... you get the picture. So you can imagine my excitement when I found out that on Friday I'd be subbing for freshman biology and that they would be dissecting crayfish. Thankfully it only smelled like formaldehyde and not fish :) The large picture in the layout below cracks me up... the look on the girl second from the rights face is absolutely priceless. They performed their dissections beautifully and with few mishaps (we did have someone get crayfish "juice" in their eye and one kid removed the eyeballs and tried to flick them on someone else - but it wasn't as dramatic as it sounds - haha).

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Not so smart

This is my third year teaching and I consider myself to be a little bit "out-of-the-box" when it comes to teaching style. I like to take my kids outside and put what we're learning into practice, I try to come up with unique ways of explaining hard-to-grasp concepts (like the "absolute value shower" and how solving an equation is just like trying to talk to a celebrity at a party) and I let the kids bring treats to share on days that they have a test. This idea has been well-received and well loved by all of my students, but today I'm reconsidering my "sweet treat" on test day idea... as my clock has just rolled over to 12:00 and I've already eaten a piece of vanilla cream cake, a donut, a peanut butter hershey kiss cookie and a peanut butter cup brownie (this is not including the peanut butter toast I had on my way to school today). To make matters even worse, I didn't bring a lunch from home and so I'll be buying school lunch... Chick-Fil-A. :)
Please pray that this afternoon I have enough will power (or I'm just too full) to resist the tray of Rice Krispie treats that are sitting on my back counter...

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Two Things

I have two really cool things I wanted to share with ya'll...
I heard about this website from a student and was BLOWN AWAY! You can check out the site for yourself to get more details, but here's their mission:
"Motivated by our Christian calling to establish justice, to expose evil injustices, to minister to the needy and helpless, and to extend love to every human person, Abort73.com aims to expose the practice of abortion as an injustice of historic proportions. We believe the best way to do so is to persistently, creatively, and comprehensively educate individuals (esp. students) with the massive body of evidence that stands against it. We strategically target a young audience (e.g., high school and college students) and are taking full advantage of the technology available to educate as many people as possible (i.e., the internet). We think it is good and necessary to use both secular and theological arguments to make our case against the practice of abortion. Since abortion claims the lives of thousands of the helpless unborn everyday and millions every year, we cannot do nothing."
This is most definitley an issue that I feel passionate about (especially when it comes to reaching students) and some of they ways that they're presenting the facts are outstanding. I just ordered a t-shirt (see the pic below) and I think that it'll make a thought-provoking statement when I wear it...
... I love that it's a simple statement that isn't "judgemental" or "religious", but simply a question.

My mom sent me a link to this site and I'm super excited.
Here is what you do:
Get a red envelope
(You can buy them at Kinkos, or at party supply stores.)
On the front, address it to:
President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W.
Washington , D.C. 20500
(Please include your return address)
On the back, write the following message.
"This envelope represents one child who died in abortion.
It is empty because that life was unable to offer anything to the world.
LIFE begins at conception."

Put it in the mail and send it, go to the website and register how many you sent. They're trying to get 50 million red envelopes sent, one for every child who died before having a a chance to live. Maybe it will change the heart of the president, our senators, and/or our representatives.
I despise that we live in a society where conservative views are deemed "close minded" and people with those beliefs and opinions have to fear being publically mocked and put down by the media. I feel like abortion is an issue that's way too important to not to stand up and let people know about (whether that's by sending an empty envelope to the President or wearing a provocative t-shirt)... so there's my rant for the day :)

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Remember when???

Do you remember when you were in Junior High??? I do! I remember being entirely absorbed in the everyday drama, completely obsessed with what people thought about me and totally engrossed in my friends... well, it hasn't changed :) Friday night was our Junior High Semi-Formal and after lots of planning with my Student Government reps we managed to pull off a successful evening. There was lots of running back and forth to the bathroom, lots of sucking the helium out of balloons and lots of awkward slow dancing. It's always fun for me to see the kids all dressed up, especially since I normally see them in uniforms. The boys looked like 12/13 year old boys in nicer clothes, but the girls put on makeup and wear heels and all of a sudden they look like they're in high school!
Here are some of my 8th grade boys:

We had the event at the Heard Science and Nature Center which has this GORGEOUS space (lots of windows, a great deck, etc.) and the best part is that they have this GIANT projection screen. I "raided" the students' Facebook pages and pulled off about 600 pictures and then had the slideshow play throughout the dance - 'cause when you're in Junior High nothing is more fun than looking at pictures of yourself :)
7th Grade Girls:
8th Grade Girls
(8th grade seems to be the year where a lot of the girls find their own style - I absolutely LOVE these girls and their unique and artsy twist on semi-formal)
This year's theme was Hollywood Red Carpet and nothing says that like Chick-Fil-A trays (hehehe):
8th Grade Girls:
If you were ever wondering why viruses run rampant through schools this is the reason :)
No one knew which cup was theirs, but they really didn't care... they were drinking out of whichever one they "thought" was theirs! Sick!
We gave out about 30 "awards" to each class (Blabbermouth Award, Smarty Pants Award, etc., etc., etc.) and their "prizes" were these cheesy dollar store foam visors - surprisingly enough they loved them!

I still can't believe that the Semi-Formal has already come and gone! For me this always signals the end of the year and it's crazy to think that it's only 5 weeks away! Here comes Summer!!!

Livin' on a Prayer

Each class got to vote for their "class song" and the 8th Grade picked "Livin on a Prayer" by Bon Jovi :) It cracks me up...

If you watch the video closely (in the lower left corner) you'll get insight into the crazy antics of Junior High boys hyped up on LOTS of caffeine... don't you wish you taught 7th and 8th grades? hehehe

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Slide

This week we finally had a chance to put together the slide that Luke got for his birthday. There wasn't a whole lot of sliding going on yet, but he loved to steer and I think the sliding will come soon enough:

Who would have thunk...

So this week I discovered another "can't live without" item - Lotrimin AF :)
Luke has been battling this crazy yeast diaper infection on and off for over two weeks now. Regular diaper cream wouldn't touch it, prescription Nystatin didn't make a difference and before I broke down and filled my $39/tube (with insurance!) prescription for oxystatin I decided to try Lotrimin (antifungal cream for athletes foot, jock itch, etc - I used the equate brand at $2/tube). At first I felt wierd, but it magically did the trick and our days of "sitz baths" at every diaper change, a million dirty wash cloths and worst of all Luke crying at every diaper change were over. Along with a mystery fever (we think he had a sore throat) it was a rough week for our little guy. Thankfully he's feeling 100% better and you'll be glad to know that his little hiney is back to normal :)
Hopefully this wasn't too much info for ya'll - I just wanted to share my super find in case anyone else has to deal with the same kind of thing in the future.
Here are some cute pictures of our sicky hanging out during the week - diaper free, of course :)

Saturday, April 18, 2009

First Tooth!

We weren't sure it would ever happen, but it did... Luke got his first tooth! It popped through right before his first birthday and I've been trying to get a good picture ever since. We had to resort to Gibi prying his lips open, but hey, it works! Congratulations, Sweet Boy, on your very first pearly white! :)

Easter


This is Luke's new face :) He thinks it's fun to close his eyes any time I get the camera out, he's being silly, he's shy or he's in trouble. hehehe
After church, breakfast and a nap he spent the afternoon playing
Since it rained so much in the morning Cadence's paws were REALLY mudy and Dave had to give her a bath outside - Luke watched: At dinner Luke tried ham, baked potatoes and strawberry shortcake for the very first time
Overall it was a relaxing Easter Sunday!

Friday, April 17, 2009

New Videos

Here are a couple of new videos of Luke...

Here he is eating scrambled eggs for the first time (with ketchup, of course):

And this is what I see everytime I go get him from a nap:

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Matilda Jane

Okay, Ladies - get ready to swoon! I found this company, Matilda Jane, and they have THE CUTEST clothes. They're mainly little girls clothes, but they have a boys section (Little Acorns) and women's clothes as well. I'm going to host a trunk show at my house on Monday, April 27th from 7:00 - 9:00 and I want ya'll to come. Invite your girlfriends - the more the merrier. We'll make it a girls night and you can come and check out the adorable stuff, eat and hang out. The clothes will be there so if you want to try on (or want your kid to try on) they're more than welcome to come.
Leave me a comment or email me at dave-and-andrea@hotmail.com and let me know if you're planning on coming and also let me know if you're going to invite a friend so that I can make sure I have enough food and drinks. PLEASE don't hesitate to pass this on to your girlfriends at work, church, playgroup, etc. and if they need to be added to my readers list just email me (as long as they promise not to create a creepy website with pictures of Luke... hehehe) :)
Hope to see ya'll there!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Untitled

This post is completely miscellaneous and I'm having trouble coming up with a title, so it shall remain "untitled".
Here's a picture of Luke and Dave from earlier in the week and it cracked me up because they had on basically the exact same oufit - white t-shirts with gray shorts (with blue stripes even).
Please excuse my poor photo quality - Luke was in a particularly fidgety mood (side note: I had this shirt made for Luke to wear to MCA's district bball game, but he got double ear infections and didn't get to go - GO MCA!) Speaking of MCA, this week we had Grandparent's day in our brand new Student Life Center. This was the first time we (staff, students, parents, etc.) had been in the SLC and it was awesome! We now have a gym, locker rooms (YAY! no more huge lines in the bathroom after school), coaches offices, a training room, band room, choir room, music rehearsal rooms, a stage, art room and kitchen! I can't wait to see how this awesome building is going to change student and staff life at MCA.
(side note: I'm all about creative touches, how fun is this - there are scripture verses painted on the free throw lines so kids can look down and see Phil 4:13, etc.)
We've been up to our eyeballs in yardwork. The previous owners did not take the best of care of the lawn and gardens and we've been weeding and raking for a week straight (and have filled about 25 of those giant lawn bags). Luke has also been helping - if you call throwing books out of the wagon, picking leaves off the bushes and being an overall distraction helping) :)

We gave up on the wagon and set up a place in the yard for him to play - we had to put the blanket down so he wouldn't eat what little grass we actually have :)
I know I've said it a million times, but I can't believe how quickly Luke's growing up. When I got him dressed for church on Good Friday he all of a sudden looked like a little boy:
So handsome!

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