What was your excuse?

As you can imagine, being a PE teacher I get many "excuse" notes from students...trying to get out of any running that we do. Here are two of my favorites- so if you ever need to get out of running in PE, perhaps you could try one of these:

So apparently we all need to wear really great eye protective gear outside, as getting any kind of air in your eye really hurts. It just so happens it hurts even more on mile day. Maybe next time I would have more sympathy if she said she had the flu...

My favorite part on this one is- "any subject"... watch out, you may do some jumping jacks in English class. I love the P.S. part... since when do parents include a "P.S."? This student apparently forgot this was a note for the teacher and not the girl sitting next to her in science class. I guess she did sound somewhat adult when she said "menstrual cycle". And, we don't want any PE student tired- I mean you could almost die if you leave class feeling a little tired! Don't you worry though- I hold firm....actually, I try not to laugh when I read it, and then respond..."Nice try, go get dressed. You still have to run"
Guess it keeps my job entertaining :)

Grandma Van Every

My grandma passed away last month, and I was able to make it to the funeral. In fact, all my siblings and I made it up to Idaho, so we had a great time together. Just as with all funerals, there were many tender moments, but it was such a great family gathering altogether. All my cousins, aunts, & uncles were able to make it (except one cousin on a mission) so it was a pretty neat occasion. We still managed to have fun as a family while remembering grandma. She was a great woman, just as all grandmas are. Here are some pictures from the trip: (sorry they are backwards)

We love you and miss you grandma...

Christmas Part I

Here are some pictures from Christmas...I would post a lot more, but sometimes I get rather impatient with how long it takes to upload one picture. Anyone else feel the same? I don't know if it's my computer, but man it feels like it takes FOREVER. Hence the reason I am not the best blogger. But....here are some pictures from our Christmas in Austin!

The trail of lights. It was a rather chilly night

We went to a DNBA game- we had great seats up close...and the players were HUGE!

Ahhh....Bluebell Ice cream-what a treat.

Family Picture! One of my favorites!

Update in Order

Since I have been horrible at updating my blog, we'll get all caught up...but we have to go in order. In November, my parents came down for a weekend to help us with a few home projects, and it was SO great, we got so much done.

Project #1: Garage Shelves. No Van Every home is complete without shelves in the garage!

Ta dah! All done.

Project #2: Begin installation of wood flooring downstairs.

BEFORE:

PROJECT COMPLETE!

(We still have to get a piece of carpet installed in the square)

Just as many of you, we got snow too! For about the first time in 30 years, school was cancelled and we had a sinful city full of snow.

Backyard:
Christmas Pictures to come!

Movin' Right Along...

Well, we bought a house. Yes this one. And we live in it.

Okay, it's done and I am so lame that I have not taken a picture of the outside, but a picture will soon come. And I am even more lame that I did not think to take pictures of the inside before we moved all our stuff in it. So needless to say, the place isn't quite organized to perfection and it's still under construction on the inside as we are putting in all new flooring. To a brand new house you might say? Yes, because as many of you know, builders charge a billion dollars for most upgrades...so when you can do it yourself its great to save those pretty pennies. I will share pictures once it looks like a house again. Hopefully soon.

We have had company come down since we moved in 2 weeks ago, and we have made great advances on all our projects. My grandma came down two weeks ago, and my parents came down last weeked. It was GREAT. Thanks to the veterans! (I mean as in Pros in home improvement) Pictures to come!

The Green Hulks

Here are pictures from our visit to St. George last weekend. (Sorry, I am a little late). As always, we had tons of fun with the kids! I think they should stay this age forever, they are too fun!

It was a freezing cold morning

Always gotta have a muscles picture!

All tuckered out!

Celebrating Mandy's birthday eating yummy Thai Food and Sushi! Mmmmm....

Tagged!
8 TV shows I love to watch

1) Dancing with the Stars

2) Super Nanny

3) Reba

4) Cosby Show

5) Family Feud

6) Jeopardy

7) Wheel of Fortune

8) Sports (as you can tell, we don't have cable, so my selection over the past 2 years has been quite limited!)

8 Favorite Restaurants

1) Pin Koaw (Thai food)

2) Pho Haoung (Vietnamese)

3) Chipotle

4) Tropical Smoothie

5) Ohana's

6) Chili's

7) My Husband's Kitchen

8) My Dad's Pizza

8 Things That Happened Yesterday (I picked Friday, it was a more 'normal' day)

1) Made my PE kids run/walk 3 miles on the track

2) Then gave a motivational speech on exercise, and why it's important

3) The sewer was backed up at our school...we had the nasty smell in the locker room for about 4 hours. Yes, it was disgusting.

4) Listened to Glenn Beck on the radio reveal truths about Barack Obama

5) Went to Sam's club to buy water/gatorade to sell at school

6) Talked to an old college roommate and laughed about the good ole' college days...like our roommate having a pet rat that eventually developed testicular cancer and had balls the size of...well, golf balls.

7) Ate baked potato w/ steak for dinner

8) Watched a movie with my husband

8 Things I am Looking Forward To

1) Having a family

2) Living in a house

3) Holidays- Christmas!

4) Going to Texas

5) Summer Vacation

6) Seeing all my nephews: (Tyson, Kianoa, Keawe, Makaio)

7) Going to bed

8) Barack Obama losing the election

8 Things On My Wish List

1) New living room furniture

2) Bedroom Set

3) A house

4) Lasik eye surgery

5) New wardrobe

6) 6 pairs or Nike Tennis shoes- various colors to match outifts

7) A chef

8) To move back to Texas

8 People I tag

1) Holly

2) Jenny

3) Melissa

4) Tiffany

5) Shelly

6) Kristen

7) Amber

8) Tyler

Funny Chillins

Every now and then when I am not collecting cell phones or telling students to take out their various facial peircings, or to quit saying the "F" word...I get to enjoy some funny comments like these ones:

Right now we are doing an aerobics unit, and today we did a cardio kickboxing video. After about 20 mins, the kids were getting exhausted so we took a little breather and I let them get some water. (I always do the workout with the kids from the back so that I can make sure they are all participating...and I get my workout for the day as well.)

As the students in my last period class were walking back from getting water, an exhausted student looked at me and said...

"Mrs. Lawther, this is your 3rd time to do this workout video?"

I said, "Yep! Sure is!"

She said, "You're crazy! Man, being a PE teacher is worse than being a Math teacher!"

Ha, ha! That one made me laugh. Maybe I should tell that to the Math teachers. Think they would agree?