To Do Lists

I'm in the car somewhere between Memphis and Jackson and I've been working on my to-do list for the rest of the week. I've been living my life based off of to-do lists lately. I make them at school on a yellow notepad and have a really hard time remembering to take my little yellow notepad home with me. I recently downloaded a free app for my phone that helps me keep up with all the items on my to-do list. Before Christmas the list consisted of shopping, making out finals, grading projects, packing for Texas, etc. Now it's made up of looking over my curriculum for this semester, putting away Christmas decorations, organizing wrapping paper/closets, etc. Here is a screen shot of my current to-do list...



Maybe I should make a "to-do list" for all my New Years Resolutions that I'm NOT going to give up on this year. More on that later. :)

No more radiation and...

My dad is completely finished with his radiation treatments. PRAISE THE LORD!! He has been such a trooper. He has blisters inside his mouth and on his neck, face and ears. Everything he eats tastes like metal and he barely weighs more than me... But he's only going to get better from this point on. It's been hard to see my dad not acting like himself. I know it's been hard on the rest of my family for the past two months, too. Everyone is exhausted. My Granddad was released from the hospital Saturday night and taken to a rehab facility. Hopefully he will continue to get stronger so he can go home in the next couple of weeks.

Christmas is almost here and I'm ready for Blake to be here, too. I've been busy but I'm really ready for him and Maverick to be here. Please keep my dad (and rest of the family) in your prayers. Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas

Thanksgiving Day and a Much Needed Break

Day two started out semi-early. We left the hotel at 7:30 to grab a spot to watch the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We wandered around for a bit and found a great spot... probably one of the last ones. :-) The weather was great, kind of chilly but not wet at all. Great for taking pictures! The parade was excellent! So much better than seeing the balloons blown up under nets in the rain the night before. After the parade, Jim, Emily, Grant, Megan, Blake and I went to Bryant Park to sit and eat a snack. I don't have any pictures from Bryant Park in the collage. We ate Thanksgiving dinner at Metrazur in Grand Central Station. It was a beautiful place to eat and the food was d.e.l.i.c.i.o.u.s. I didn't even eat turkey and dressing on Thanksgiving but the Prime Rib was amazing. After dinner we got on the subway and headed to Queens to hang out at Emily's apartment for the night. (We ate dinner at 3:30.) Sharon and I were the only ones who had seen Emily's apartment before so it was fun for everyone to see where Em spends her time away from the library. We played Wii and Rockband for several hours. Thanksgiving day was great.

I give my first final exam tomorrow morning and another on Thursday morning. This semester has taken a toll on me. I'm exhausted. Hopefully I'll be a better teacher next semester. Not that I was a bad teacher, I just think with one semester under my belt I'll be more prepared, know better how the kids will act, what they are capable of, etc. Needless to say, I'm ready for a two week break. I'm leaving for Texas on Thursday after school. I'm heading to Texas to spend a week with my family before Christmas. I'm flying and Blake will drive in with Mavy on Christmas Eve. Please pray for my dad over the next couple of days. He has his last chemo treatment tomorrow and the first one was really rough on him. If you could pray for his peace and healing it would be much appreciated! Thank you!

I'm thankful for...

The four wonderful days I got to spend in New York City with the Farmer family. This is a little taste of Day One...



We got in to NYC about 10:15 local time. Jemily (Jim and Emily) met us at the airport and escorted us to our hotel in Chelsea. Richard and Sharon went to bed as soon as we got to the hotel and Gregan (Grant and Megan) and Blake and I went to get a bite to eat. We got sandwiches and pizza at midnight in some random deli. Very New York. We slept in a little the next morning and walked to Grenwich Village and then had lunch at the World Famous Katz deli. It was quite delicious. We had a one of those waiters who told you what you wanted like, "You come all the way to NY and order chicken salad? You don't want chicken salad you want the pastrami. You're having pastrami." It was really funny. Probably only because he didn't tell me what to have. After lunch we walked through China Town (I didn't buy anything) and then headed back to the hotel to rest before dinner and the show. We had dinner at Rosie O'Grady's. The food was good but our server was terrible. I don't remember if he got a tip or not but he definitely shouldn't have. He was that bad. We then headed over to Jersey Boys and it was wonderful! I knew every single song and had to try really hard not to sing along. It wasn't "Wicked" but it was still great! After the show we had dessert at Roxy and then took pictures in Time Square. It was an exhausting first day but SUPER fun! I'll post pictures of our Thanksgiving Day activities later this week. I'm sure you're on pins and needles!!