HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

We wanted to pause a moment and wish a very happy and blessed new year to all of our wonderful family and friends!!! May you all have a fabulous 2010!



Happy New Year from the Halvorsens--New Braunfels New Year's Trip 2009-2010!!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all of our wonderful friends and family!
We hope you all have a blessed and wonderful Christmas and that anyone traveling is safe and warm!

Time flies...

...when you're having FUN! Since our trip to Denver, life has been a whirlwind! Finishing up grad school projects, going back to teaching full time after my intern left, celebrating Thanksgiving, and of course preparing for the blessed Christmas season--my favorite time of the year!!!
Here's a little of what we've been up to:

For Thanksgiving, we continued our tradition and spent the day at Justin's sister, Andrea's house. It was hard to believe that it was my 6th Thanksgiving at the Schlafer house! Wow! We were joined by Justin's parents, Aunt Tracey (Kyle's sister), and a friend from Kyle's work. We had a great day eating wonderful food and browsing through the Black Friday ads. Yes, that's right folks, I was up and ready to go again for my sixth year of Black Friday here in Austin. It's a fun time, though I do wish I had friends or family to go with me! This year Kohl's was first on my list, because I had LOTS of things to get. Because I had so many things to grab at that store, I knew I would have to get there extra early to snag one of the few, and precious carts. I planned to be there by 3am (last year I got there about 3:30 and it was not early enough!) but I happened to be awake before my alarm, and of course I was so excited I could NOT sleep, so I was actually at the store by just before 2:30am. But, I was prepared this year! I was the fifth lady in line (so I was not quite the craziest person there) and I had a big blanket and a book to keep me busy until they opened at 4am. At 4, I grabbed my cart, grabbed more than half of all the gifts I needed to buy for the year, and braved the LONG line for the cashiers! Luckily, by then, my mom was awake so she kept me busy chatting in line =). Sure wish she lived closer so she could have been with me in person! After Kohl's, I of course hit the other regular stores and finished up about 1pm. All in all, a great day! And, I had 99% of my shopping DONE! After that, Justin and I enjoyed watching NE beat CO =).
After Thanksgiving, there were only three weeks of school left in the semester--which was crazy! I was very busy trying to finish up units, get students prepared for finals, and get all the finals written! It was definitely a whirlwind three weeks! Plus, we kept busy celebrating Justin's 32nd birthday, attending small group Advents, and having a blast at our annual small group Christmas party.

Thanksgiving Pictures:

This is actually when we were babysitting the girls after Thanksgiving for Andrea's birthday...Abigail is on the left and Hailey is on the right)



McKayla and Aunt Michelle...I love this picture!



Justin and I...our SIXTH Thanksgiving together--wow!!!



The Halvorsen/Schlafer Family...a little tough to get all the little people to look at the camera at the same time =)

Finally this week, school finished up and we started to slow down, sort of =). Yesterday we were able to celebrate Christmas with Justin's family, and it was lots of fun. My favorite two parts of the evening were when I first arrived and McKayla told me she was ready to come visit my house again, and mommy said she could, once her and the twins were healthy again (they've all been sick recently). Then, later in the evening we were playing (just Aunt Michelle and McKayla time) and she wanted to know if I could go ahead and spend the night...too cute! Her Aunt Tracey lives in CO, so she gets to stay the night, so I guess she thought Aunt Michelle should be able to stay the night too...makes perfect sense...right? Of course it was also fun to see the girls open all their gifts--my favorite part of Christmas is the gift giving! McKayla of course loves it since she still gets to help everyone else. She'll be bored one day soon when Abigail and Hailey can open their own gifts =)!

Halvorsen/Schlafer Christmas:

Hailey



Abigail and McKayla opening presents...Abigail pretty much just loves ripping up the paper!



Justin with his buddy Abigail



Grandma and Abigail--she was quite pleased with herself =)

Today we've been busily preparing for our trip to NE. We will head out tomorrow at 3:30am for the LOOOONG drive to NE. Long, but totally worth it! We're so excited to be able to spend the whole week in NE with my family. It seems impossible that I haven't seen Re since Memorial Day and haven't seen my parents since early June. Wow! Justin and Kat will be there Wed evening, so then the whole family will have a few days of fun together celebrating all the wonder of Christmas!

That's the wrap from here for now. To my Nebraska friends Amy & Rachael--can't wait to see you gals in G.I. and travel safely!!! To all my other family and friends--we wish a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! I'll post again after we're back from NE with the "NE Christmas" pictures.

SNOW!!!!

NO, there was NOT snow in Texas =)! However, for the end of our Denver trip, Colorado blessed us with a beautiful little snow storm and we so enjoyed spending some time in the cold, snowy weather! It is kind of crazy to wake up to a beautiful winter wonderland in Colorado and then end the day back at home in hot/humid Texas...though word has it a "cold" front is coming. Here's what happened during our trip to Denver (in no particular order):

1. Saw old family: We met up with my mom's cousin Cheri, her husband Steve and her daughter Cindy, husband and new adorable baby. It was fun re-connecting with them and hearing stories about my mom and dad =).

2. Saw some GREAT friends: I got to see some of my favorite friends from Wash U at the NABT conference! We really need to start up a school where we all can teach together, cuz those people are totally AMAZING!!!! We were also able to meet up for lunch with our brother-in-law's sister, Tracey (the other aunt to our nieces). It was fun to see her in Denver since we usually only get to see her when she is visiting down here in TX. Then, we got to see some of Justin's "old' friends from Colorado, Andy, Julie and their two adorable boys Jackson and Layton and Michael & Jennifer and their adorable daughter Audrey. We so enjoyed spending time with them and wish CO and TX were closer geographically!

3. Toured CSU: Justin finally was able to give me a little tour of his alma mater-CSU. It was fun to see where he went to college and the campus is beautiful! We also met up with some old co-workers/bosses of his. While we were there it started snowing, and it was so beautiful! A little cold, but beautiful!

4: Michelle successfully presented a session at NABT!!! No one walked out, lots of questions were asked, and people seemed to learn something...plus her grad school bud Laura and her professor gave rave reviews...woohoo!!

5: We enjoyed the sight of Mountains! It was a little cloudy at times, but we still got some good views and loved being in the fresh mountain air!

All in all it was a fabulous trip and we are so glad we were able to go! Unfortunately, we are not quite ready for reality and back to work tomorrow, but such is life! At least the holidays and another vacation are just around the corner!

Here are some pics from our trip:

Justin, Michael, Jennifer, Audrey (and Teddy)


Justin and I enjoying the snow at CSU


Justin and I out to dinner with my grad school friends


Kelly, Valerie, and I (Kelly and Valerie are two of my very favorite grad school friends!)

Go Big Red!

This past weekend, we had the great joy of viewing a Huskers game down here in TX! It was my first Big Red game since I left Lincoln in 2001. Of course, it's not the same as a REAL Husker HOME game, but there were more Husker fans than Baylor fans, so that was pretty cool. We were pretty much surrounded by fellow Huskers, even though we were on the Baylor side. We met my brother Justin and his wife, Katherine, at the game, and then met up with our old friend from high school, Catherine for dinner afterwards. It was fun to see Catherine again, we met up last year in Houston and haven't been able to get together since. She's an awesome gal and it is always fun to be around her bubbly spirit! She actually stayed in Austin after the game and was able to drop by today to see our house and meet our dogs--which was a lot of fun. Mozart "talked" to her almost the whole time...I think he had a crush =)--haha! Anyhow, fun times with the family and the Huskers! Wish they played in Texas more often (and at places where the tickets are CHEAP!!!).

Hopefully we'll be able to snag tickets to next year's NE vs CO game for the day after Thanksgiving--Justin has yet to experience a true Husker game--and it's about time!

Here are some pics from the game and from Cold Stone after dinner (Kat and I LOVE Cold Stone and there are none close to us, but we seem to make it to the one in Waco whenever we meet there...and it rocks!).


The Sea of Red at the Baylor Game (this was looking across to the visitors side...there was also a good sized, though smaller, sea of red on our side!


Justin and I waiting for the game to start


Justin and Katherine, mid game


The Tough Justins...in their matching shirts =)

Where, oh where has the fall gone?

Is it really almost November? I can hardly believe it! Time sure flies when you're trying to teach an extra class, do masters degree work, and have some sort of life at the same time =). Here's the highlights of what we Halvorsens have been up to:

In Sept. we took a fun little weekend trip to Boise, ID for Justin's friend, Nate's, wedding. Boise is really beautiful and is a fun little town. We tried out a couple of restaurants suggested by the bride and groom and enjoyed some great sushi that was super cheap (the perfect combo in our minds!). We had a great time and it was good to get away from everything, even if it was only a couple of days!

In Sept., I also added mice to my classroom. They have been quite an adventure, and are part of a project for my grad school class. I'm much more used to them now, and will even admit they are pretty cute...but they do take a LOT of work and kind of smell. I much prefer my dogs! =)

This month Justin has been focusing on building us a garden. Since our soil down here, well, stinks, he is working on building it up. He's what you might call a *slight* perfectionist, so he is taking his time, but by next spring we should have some great veggies growing =).

Most recently, we celebrated our adorable niece McKayla's 4th birthday (HOW is she FOUR already???). We played some on her new swing set, opened presents (just before opening, she asked me..."So, did YOU bring me some new toys???"), enjoyed some yummy food, and then had fun playing with all the new toys. She is really into G.I. Joe and Batman right now, but also likes Strawberry Shortcake. So, it was funny to see her play with all those new toys together. I'm pretty sure one of the G.I. Joe dudes kidnapped Strawberry Shortcake or something like that. It was pretty cute, especially seeing Uncle Justin join in on the role playing. We also enjoyed the time with Hailey and Abigail. Abigail finally has some hair, and Hailey is still working on it. They are just plain adorable, and they both seem to at least be comfortable with Justin and I now, even if they aren't sure yet exactly who we are =).

Upcoming events for us include a fun and much deserved work/vacation trip to Denver! I will be presenting at session at the National Biology Teachers Association professional development conference. I'm SO not ready, but I guess in two weeks I will be =). After I present and attend some other sessions, we will be taking a couple of days to spend with Justin's "Colorado" friends. We can't wait to see them and reconnect with them! We were lucky to see Michael and Jennifer a couple of years ago, but we haven't seen Andy, Julie, Joel or Angie since our wedding, which was almost four years ago! It should be a really great time, and I am seriously hoping for some snow...as long as the snow doesn't impede our travel too much =). After that it will soon be time for Thanksgiving and Christmas festivities. It really does seem that every year goes faster than the one before. Yikes!

Here are some pictures from this fall...for those wonderful friends (like Amy) who can't see them on Facebook =). Take care all!


The dogs, cuddling up as the weather is getting cooler


McKayla, starting to rip into packages =)


Swinging before the party gets started...only Aunt Michelle was allowed to push...Uncle Justin was actually instructed to "step away and stop pushing" =)


Hailey...don't you love her little "beer belly" gut...and she is getting so tall--still no hair though!


Abigail...tall as well...but she has started to get some hair =)!


Justin and I outside waiting for Nate and Liz's wedding to begin

Back to School...REALLY?? ALREADY??

Wow---time sure flies when you're having fun! It's hard to believe I returned from grad school over four weeks ago! I spent the few last weeks of summer hanging out with friends one last time, spending time with my niece, and of course--enjoying the new car =). I didn't do quite as much work as I had planned, but in the end I think that was a good thing! Though, it sure made for a busy "teacher" week this past week!

One of the last things I did for summer vacation was have McKayla (my almost 4-year-old niece) come stay the night with me. That was an adventure! We started out the day by swimming with my good friend Melissa, her step-daughter Avery, and our other friend Lauren. McKayla LOVES swimming and we had a great time. This also wore her out and I was convinced she would sleep well. Not so much. She did okay, but it took her a LONG time to fall asleep (11:30, and bed time was 9:00!). Then, when she did finally konk out, she flailed her arms and legs all over the place and kept me awake the whole night. It was kind of a rough night for aunt Michelle...but it was worth it! In the morning she was not ready to go home because she was having so much fun. However, the next sleep over will involve a special new sleeping bag which can be put on the floor of our room, because I am NOT sleeping with a 3-year-old again =)!!

This past week was the ever fun and exciting teacher week at TSD. It was fun and exciting to see all my teacher buds and catch up with everything. The four hour meetings however, not so fun and exciting. Any time not spent in meetings I was crazily trying to get all my curriculum ready, decorate my room, and get all the parent letters/syllabi ready. It was a little insane. Plus, I was helping host a baby shower for a good teacher friend so we were busy making plans for that all week so that we would be ready to host on Saturday. Kind of nut-so...but lots of fun too!! I still don't feel quite ready for students tomorrow, but like a fellow teacher told me this week--even if we're not ready...they're showing up tomorrow! At least the first day is pretty easy =).

This year should be pretty exciting. I am pumped to teach a new class to TSD--Anatomy and Physiology. It was one of my favorite classes in high school and I hope it will turn out to be a favorite for my students. Lots of hard work for them, but it should be lots of fun too--I hope! Plus, I will be finishing my last three master's degree courses. I can hardly believe I'm 3/4 done and will graduate in May! In November I'll be presenting a session at the National Biology Teacher's Professional Development Conference, held in Denver. Justin gets to come with me and we're also going to be able to see his "Colorado" friends. It will be so fun to see them again--they are wonderful people!! So, we have lots on our plate for this year!!

To my fellow teachers--good luck and may you have a wonderful year and be blessed with wonderful students =)!!!


My new skeleton in my classroom, for Anatomy & Physiology



Me in front of one of my bulletin boards...for the HS "bulletin board" pictures



Me with Tamara at her super fun baby shower!

TaDa! The New Car--FINALLY!!!!!!!!!!

Phew, we finally, finally, FINALLY have gotten our brand new car---YIPPEE!!!! Can you tell I'm just a LITTLE excited about this? Let's just say, in our family I'm more on the "spender" side and Justin is definitely WAY over on the "saver" side. Luckily, we balance each other out quite nicely. So, I'm not really used to just saving, and saving, and saving and saving for things. We started saving for this new car over two years ago...and Justin has been researching new cars ever since. I have been very, very, very patient =). We decided recently we should get some quotes and see what happened, while my Olds was still alive and trade-in-able. Little did we know that we would get really great quotes!! It was SO easy. Justin expected this horrible, long, drawn out process and everything went so smoothly! What a true blessing!

So, below you will see some pictures of my beautiful new Honda Accord EX (with a SUN ROOF!!!!!).




And, here's my advice to any new car buyers out there.
A: Use Consumer Reports and read their stuff on how to get the best deal on a car...it's awesome advice.
B: Pay the $14.00 for the consumer report print out that tells you exactly what the dealer paid for the car you want to buy, and what your starting asking price should be (to give the dealer a fair and reasonable profit, but still get you a good deal). And C: USE THE INTERNET for quotes! We got the best quotes online, and got other stuff too because we were then considered "Internet buyers". AWESOME!
D: And finally, if you ever, ever need any kind of saving, financial or car buying advice, ask my hubby cuz he's the bomb at this stuff =)!!!!


In other news, I finished up my last summer session of grad school. It was truly great. I enjoyed the classes more this year overall and because I already knew everyone it was more fun from the start. Though I'm happy to be home, and of course miss home when I'm away, a small part of me will miss traveling to "nerd camp" next summer to hang out with my grad school buds and learn cool new things. At least I have graduation to look forward to (it's May 21st...not that I'm excited or anything!).
Since I've been back, I've concentrated on getting the new car and was so distracted by that I didn't get much else done, except start reading the Twilight Series. I promised my sister, and some students, that I would read it over the summer, and so far I'm totally hooked and LOVE them. I'm almost done with book 2 and I just started two days ago. Good thing I'm a fast reader! Other than that, I will spend my last two weeks of blissful summer enjoying my new car, getting in those last moments with good friends, and of course, working on curriculum for the upcoming year. Hopefully I can keep everything balanced and have a good amount of fun while still getting lots of work done!

The Video You've All Been Waiting For....

Here is the video my awesome group did for our final project in "Transformations in Matter and Energy". Admittedly, if we had more time, it would be better and smoother, but this is what we came up with in just ONE day! The first and last parts are the best...the middle is a little dry....but overall we are quite pleased! Enjoy =)

Post from Grad School #1

Hello from the land of St. Louis!! I'm officially half way through with this summer's grad school courses and it's SO hard to believe I've been here for a week and a half already! Time really flies (even when you're NOT having fun!).

It was so fun getting here and seeing all of my grad school buddies again! We all just clicked back into the groove of having classes and hanging out together and have been really enjoying spending time with each other and catching up on what's happened over the year. Even though it's hard to be away from home and my awesome hubby--at least I have cool people to be around while I'm away!

As far as classes go, it's been a mixed bag so far. Last week was AWESOME!! Our class was neuroscience and I LOVED everything about it! The professor was amazing (smart AND an incredible teacher) and the labs were really interesting and fun. This week has been, well, not so awesome. It's called "Transformations in Matter and Energy" and sounds about as exciting as it is. It's pretty dull. Mostly because I think the information is dull and I don't teach much of this info...and the professor is less skilled at teaching than last week's professor. 2.5 hours of lecture with a boring professor is not my idea of a fabulous time. Oh well...at least the labs have been okay. The best part is we have a group project to make a video on an alternative energy source. My group has biodiesel which is REALLY super cool and our video is going to rock. I am the producer/editor and it's such fun to play around with imovie! I will post the video once we finish it, so you can learn all about biodiesel fuels =)!

Aside from classes, I've been having fun going out around St. Louis and also got the chance to drive up to Bloomington, IL last weekend to meet up with my old ISU roomie, Sara, my old Red Lobster waitress buddy Erin, my friends Mike and Carla that I lived with for the last few weeks of college in 2003 and my old Deaf ed professor. It was so much fun to see old friends and I marvel at how much fun we have together even when we haven't seen each other in years!! I will post some pictures of our fun times below.

The upcoming weekend should be fun as well as we have plans to TRY and get tickets to a Cardinals game and we will be going on a float trip down one of the MO rivers on Saturday. Oh, and there will be some studying for our final exam in there at some point too!

Be watching for the posting of our biodiesel movie...cuz it's gonna ROCK =)!


Sara, Me, and Carla under the BIG Giraffe


Mike and Carla rocking it at Putt-Putt


Sara and I at Red Lobster--our FAVORITE Bloomington restaurant!


Erin (old waitress buddy) and I at "The Lobster"...we had some good times there!

Happy Birthday Mom!!!!

Just wanted to post a very Happy Birthday wish to the best mom ever--my mom Jennifer! 4th of July has never been just about Independence Day for me, it's an extra special day because we get to celebrate my mom too--the firecracker baby!! Hope you have a great day mom and I wish I could be there in person to help you celebrate--LOVE YOU!

Goin' Bananas & Goin' to Grad School

I have had the great pleasure of spending more time with my adorable 3-year-old niece McKayla in the last two weeks. Last week we had a flier on our door (one of MANY annoying ones) and I was surprised to find it actually useful. It was for a place down the road called "Goin' Bananas Playnasium". I had never heard of it or noticed it so I looked it up online. Turns out it is this GREAT indoor play place with tons of little tike play things and tons of huge blow up fun bouncy/slide things. I thought that McKayla would enjoy this, so Andrea and I started prepping her for it and I took her there yesterday. We had a BLAST! At first she was scared of the big blow up things, because they were so high, but eventually I talked her into trying them out and she loved them! Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes three field trip groups showed up and there were tons of wild kids running around like crazy. This scared McKayla, and frankly me too, since none of the kids were paying attention and would have run right over her. So, she decided (and I agreed) to go back to the little tot area to play with the little tike stuff. That was much calmer and she still had a lot of fun. I have a feeling Aunt Michelle will be taking her there again in a few weeks! Here are some pictures of the fun:




In other news, I leave in just four days for my second summer of grad school--YIKES! I am excited, but at the same time I'm just not quite ready to leave home again for three weeks. At least this is the last summer! Next summer I'll have my degree--woohoo! This summer we have three classes: neuroscience, matter & energy transformations, and molecular basis of heredity. I'm really looking forward to neuroscience (I LOVE brain stuff) and the heredity class. Not so sure about matter and energy transformations...but 2 out of 3 isn't bad =). Hopefully they are as interesting as I am expecting them to be. The best part is the first class is taught by a guy that is HUGE in cochlear implant research...wow will it be fun to talk to him =). I hope to have some good conversations with him about sign language vs cochlear implants, etc, etc. I'm such a nerd! Anyhow, the other exciting thing about traveling to St. Louis for three weeks is seeing old friends! My roommate from ISU, Sara, lives near Chicago so we are meeting up for a weekend in Bloomington, our old stomping grounds. I will also get to see my old waitress buddy, Erin, while I'm there. It should be a fun time, and will be a nice break from the grad school madness. I'm sure, just like last year, the three weeks will fly by and before I know it I'll be posting about how I'm back home already =). Then, the countdown to school starting will have to being...but we won't think about that now!

That's about all from here right now. No exciting plans for us for the 4th, since I fly out at 8am on the 5th and since Sierra is completely terrified of fireworks! It is my mom's birthday though, so a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the best mom ever!!!!

Weddings, Friends, and Fun

I had the great pleasure this past week of spending special time with my good friend Amanda. Amanda and I have been friends since 5th grade and realized last week that the two of us actually stayed friends all the way through middle school, high school, and college and never went through a weird "your not my friend now" phase. She's an awesome gal and I love hanging out with her, and it was so much fun helping her prepare for her wedding last Saturday. Now that I'm married weddings are a really fun time to reflect on my own wedding and how fun it is to be married to my fabulous husband! The wedding fun included a BBQ "get to know each other" event, a fun personal shower, the gal's luncheon and pedicures (where I received the best pedicure EVER), the rehearsal and of course the wedding itself. Mark and Amanda had a BEAUTIFUL wedding and I will post a few pictures (all of them can be found on facebook). It was so fun to be involved and running around all day helping out.
Plus, my parents came so then I was able to spend Saturday evening, Sunday and Monday morning with them. My mom and I got in some quick shopping and we also enjoyed dinner on Sunday evening with some dear friends that lived across the street from us when we lived in Maple Grove while I was growing up. Patricia and Lance are very special people and even traveled to GI for our wedding a few years back. It is always fun to see them and I got to try P.F. Chang's for the first time. Then, on Monday morning we met my best friend Dawn for breakfast. After that, my parents headed for home and I got to spend the last few days with Dawn, her husband Eric, and her adorable daughter Kaitlyn (oh, and of course Miley the puppy!). It was FABULOUS to spend time with Dawn and I so enjoyed getting to know Kaitlyn. Then, today I tried to go home...tried being the key word. Dawn and Kaitlyn dropped me off at the airport (where I met up with Justin and Katherine for coffee...long story short-they flew into MN also, for a different wedding, and were returning to Dallas around the same time as me, on a different flight). I checked in, had some chatting time with Justin and Kat, and then Justin got out his iPhone and checked my flight. I learned it was 1.5 hours late and I would be missing my connecting flight, which I thought was the last flight out of Denver to Austin. So, I waited around with Justin and Kat for a little while longer and then headed to my gate to determine what was going on. Come to find out, the plane in Denver hit a bird (crazy!) and was running very, very late and yes, I would indeed miss the last flight out to Austin from Denver. So, I could fly onto Denver and spend the night in a hotel OR have Dawn come and get me and fly out in the morning. So, I called Dawn and she graciously agreed to come back and get me and take me back in the morning. While I am happy for a few bonus hours with my best friend, I am a little bummed about not getting to see my hubby tonight since I've been gone for nine days already. However, I am very happy that I am safe and have a good place to sleep for tonight =)!
All in all it's been a wonderful time and I am so blessed to have such great friends and family to hang out with! If only I lived closer and could see them more often! Poor Kaitlyn even cried when I left (or tried to!) today! What a sweetie! She agreed to come visit me some day, although she also agreed that Justin, me, and our dogs could come live with them...so she might just agree to most anything =).
At any rate, hopefully by this time tomorrow I will be snuggly tucked into my own bed, in my own house, with my awesome hubby and sweet doggies. While vacation is wonderful, going home is always nice as well!


Dad and I on the boat during the reception


Mom and I on the boat during the reception


Amanda and her gals--Rebecca, Heather, Laura and Heidi

The Last Week of School...

Ah, the end of another school year is finally happening. In some ways this year was REALLY long and in other ways I can hardly believe the year is actually over already. It's very crazy to think about.
What I'm really thinking about lately though is the point-less-ness of the last week of school. Because we are a residential school, all of our days are full days, until the final day which is a half day. Most high schools do 1/2 days for finals, so kids go, take 1, 2 or maybe 3 finals, then go home. Perfect, right? Well, for us, they still only want the kids to take 2 finals, but then they have to still be there the whole day. And, our finals started last Wed...so, as of today all of my kids are done with their final projects, have done their presentations, and yet we still have 2.5 days of school left. Which means that for the next 2.5 days I get to stick in a movie and play babysitter while cleaning my classroom. Kind of lame. Do we really need to have them come just to watch movies? I suppose we have to for legal reasons, but I really wish there was some way they could figure out how to get finals done and not always have 2-3 days leftover for us teachers to play babysitters. I guess at least I have helpers in cleaning out my room =)! I'll think of the positive.
The other craziness going on right now is preparation for awards day. Two years ago, another newer teacher and I, Tamara, agreed to take over the planning of awards day. We're both very organized people, and she's an English teacher so she's good at editing everything. For the last two years we've been planning, revising, and perfecting the awards day ceremony. In the end, it always turns out well, everyone is happy, and all is good. But the process at times is maddening! This year especially people just keep adding and adding things to the program...and yet they still think we can finish in 2 hours. Yikes! We will be so lucky to finish in 2 hours...I have serious doubts about the possibility. Hopefully people know not to blame Tamara and I =). Ah well, that's what we get for volunteering our services =)! Maybe, just maybe, some day I will learn how to say "NO thank you"...HA!
Well, that's all for now, I'm off to enjoy an evening of no paper-grading and no school work!

Two Month Hiatus

So I realized today that somehow I've gone over two months without blogging...how is it that two months could have passed already??? Yikes! Here is a little bit of what's been going on in the Halvorsen Household since my last post:

Spring Break! I had an INCREDIBLE time having my sister here for the whole week of spring break. We haven't had real, serious sister time like that in years, and it was so wonderful to just hang out together. Reanna, you need to move to Austin as soon as possible =). Re also got to meet "the babies" (aka Hailey and Abigail) and had fun playing with McKayla as well. And of course, we did our sister pedicures, a must whenever we get together. During spring break, Justin and I also celebrated our third year of marriage--crazy! It is so hard to believe that we've been married for over three years now, and that we've been in our house for three years too! Wow!

And on to...Easter! Easter was really fun this year because Justin and Katherine came down to spend the weekend. But, it was also their anniversary so they ended up staying in a hotel instead of at our house...so we got to see them but didn't have to wash sheets for the guest bedroom =)! We had a great time hanging out with them and love that they live so close to us now! They joined us on Easter at Justin's sister's house and they also got to meet the babies and have fun with McKayla. She was getting to indulge in lots of chocolate, so she was on high-energy mode the whole time. Definitely a very fun weekend!

Next up was my birthday...entering my last year in the twenties. It really wasn't very traumatic. I'm convinced that since Justin is 2 1/2 years older than me I will pretty much always feel young and am not really that worried about the "Big 3-0" approaching. I got to celebrate one day early with my brother because I took my physics class to Six Flags in Dallas and he decided to meet us there. It was really cool for him to meet some of my students and see me "in my element" (as he said). The only bad part was it rained for half the day, but we still had a great time. Plus, he surprised me by bringing pop and cup cakes for everyone...which led to the great question "How OLD are you?". Gotta love high schoolers! On my actual birthday Justin and I went to the Broadway Across America production of "Avenue Q". Kind of raunchy, but totally hilarious and we loved it. It was a really fun way to spend my birthday since we hadn't been to a show like that in a long time (and it set up me being able to convince Justin that we HAD to go to RENT!). All in all, not a bad way to turn 29!

And next comes the most exciting part of the semester--finishing my projects for my master's degree! The last weekend in April I finalized everything and happily pushed the "send" button to email the projects off to my professors. I still don't know my grade for one class, but I don't even care. Unfortunately, I haven't seemed to slow down too much, but at least I've had some time for planting and yard work on some weekends!

The next big event was my impromptu trip to OK City to spend Mother's Day with my mom. I think my brother called very late the Monday night before Mother's Day (yes, just a few days before) and proposed that Justin and I drive to Dallas and then drive to OK City with him and Kat to see mom for Mother's Day weekend. Unfortunately, Justin could not go due to work, but I decided there was no reason for me not to go (except for feeling guilty about leaving Justin behind!). So, early on Saturday morning I headed up to Dallas and joined Justin and Kat for the remainder of the ride to OK City (yes, a total of about 7 hours in the car-fun!). Then, we had a great time with the rest of the family which included a trip to the Yellow Rose Theatre where I won a "Peacock Prancing" dance-off. Yes, I am THAT cool! Unfortunately, they couldn't take pictures...it really is too bad =). Then, on Sunday afternoon we turned back around and headed back home. It was really neat to be able to be with my mom on mother's day, since it's been at least five years (if not longer) since I've seen her on mother's day...and she was absolutely thrilled to have all three of her kids (and Kat!) with her on the special day.

And finally, our most recent escapade was Memorial Day weekend in Dallas at Justin and Kat's with mom, dad and Re. Thankfully, Justin was able to go with me this time! The dogs got to spend the weekend at the Kennel (which was actually a really beautiful ranch that even had an underground pool just for the dogs!) and we got to spend a fun weekend with the Longs. We visited the SouthFork Ranch (you know, where the Dallas TV show was filmed), saw the Grassy Knoll and I even got in shopping with mom and a pedicure with Re and Kat! Justin and I also experienced Wii for the first time...we rocked it out (ha!) on Guitar Hero and Justin gave brother Justin a run for his money in boxing. We also learned about a fun game called ladder ball (or ladder golf) and loved playing that...we must now buy one for ourselves! We also got to help Justin celebrate his 31st birthday...man my brother and husband are OLD--haha, just kidding guys! Though we were tired from the whirlwind weekend, it was really great to have the WHOLE family together! We look forward to Christmas when we can all be together again!

So, that's what's been happening around here lately...as you can see we've kept ourselves rather busy =). We plan to keep up the same as we go into the summer months (as I write this I relish in the fact that there are only 5.5 school days left-woot!). I will be traveling to MN for a week for my very good friend Amanda's wedding and to visit with my best friend since second grade Dawn; then comes a short stint at home before heading off for three weeks of grad school in St. Louis (I actually can't wait to be a full time student again for a few weeks); and then I return for a few more weeks before another school year starts all over again! While I'm jaunting around everywhere Justin gets to hold down the fort here in Austin and work his magic at budgeting for the state.

I will hopefully post some pictures soon of Easter, Memorial Day, etc...but I think most of you can look at them on Facebook if I don't get them posted here =). And, hopefully I will blog again without waiting for two months so you don't have to read a novel to catch up with what's going on in our lives!

Why I LOVE Teaching...

Last week I had the great privilege of traveling with my academic bowl team to WI for our regional tournament. This is truly always the highlight of my year and ever since I took the first trip four years ago, I've been hooked. I can't imagine continuing to teach and NOT coaching the academic bowl team. These are the best and brightest students at my school, and they are SO much fun. This year we had a pretty new team, with four newbies and only one returning member (one of my favorite students ever). My co-coach is Mike and he's been coaching with me for three years now (still miss you Marie!). We make a pretty good team since he's a whiz at Deaf history, regular history, sports, and geography. Combine that with my math, science, arts, literature and we pretty much have all the categories covered. Anyhow, we work HARD all year in class and after school for this one competition. We've been consistently competitive the last few years, placing third and fourth the past two years. However, this year, with our new team, we knew we had our work cut out for us. Mike and I agreed--"No expectations" and we just wanted the students to do their best. Well, did they did their best and MORE! They ended up with a record of 5-2 (amazing for such a young team) and were fifth out of 16 teams. Not quite good enough to take us to Nationals, but I don't know that I've ever been more proud of a team than I was this year. They all really did their best, and wow are they ever motivated to do even better next year. I can't wait to go to the competition next year, they will really be a force to be reckoned with! I feel it will finally be our year to make it to nationals! Anyhow, the weekend is packed with competitions, socials, and eating yucky dorm food. After the weekend is over I'm always completely exhausted and worn out, but as I reflect on the weekend I realize how lucky I am to spend time with such neat students, who give me hope that our nation will not be a total disaster one day. These kids are really neat and will do so many great things in their future.
One down note on the weekend occurred on our trip home. I blog about this in the hopes to educate anyone out there who might be ignorant to some of these issues. So, of course, traveling to WI, we flew. On our first three flights (2 up to WI and the first leg on the way back home), we had no issues. It's always funny to watch people and see their reaction to our group (since we are all animately signing, and inevitably laughing at something). In Milwaukee, the security people made a point to inform each other that this was a "special group"...and then of course one of them shouts out "Is anyone ORAL???" Ugh. Silly people. I HATE them figuring out that I'm the token hearing person. The kids (and Mike) can handle themselves, I'm not their keeper. Anyhow, I said, "Yes, I am hearing." So of course then they ask if I'm their interpreter. What? Ugh again. No, I reply, I'm their TEACHER. Thanks. Anyhow, that wasn't really the big deal. When we boarded the plane in Memphis to take us to Austin, the flight attendant was obviously NOT in a good mood. She was being quite rude to just about everyone, and was clearly frazzled and in a HUGE hurry. We really were not running that late, but whatever, I guess she was having a bad day. So, I'm sitting up in row 5, with Mike in row 4 ahead of me. Suddenly I hear rude flight attendant lady saying "Which one, where? Up there??" I turn around figuring, great, she's looking for me, the HEARING person. She then rushes up (she was back farther near two of my students) and says, "OH, can you PLEASE move back closer to those two?" All I said (and I swear I said it nicely) was "What for?" I thought that was innocent enough, since, HELLO??? Why would I need to sit by them...they are capable, smart, nice children who can handle themselves...and what would she do if I was not there? So, instead of trying to tell me why I should move, she dramatically waved her arm and me and pretty much shouted "OH NEVER MIND-UGH!" What? Okay, so then I turned around and realized two of my five students were RIGHT BEHIND me. Um, so I should move away from them and towards the other two? Sheesh, clearly she didn't realize yet there were more than two. So, now Mike is kind of mad, and wanting to educate this woman on the fact that just because the kids are Deaf, doesn't mean they are dumb and need supervision. Again, what would she do if they were traveling alone? So, finally, she comes over and she says, "So, you have one....uh..." I said-"Deaf?" Lady-"Yes, deaf, and two MUTE?" I just about died. "Mute" is like calling a black person a "Nigger"...and yes, she was black. I (as calmly as possible) said, "Don't ever use that word, that is not an appropriate word. They are Deaf. That's it. And there are six, including this other teacher." Sheesh. So, she promptly alerts the pilot about the six Deaf people on board. Okay, I think I've traveled now at least three times, on numerous flights and NEVER before have they made some huge deal about how many of us there were, and alerting the pilot. So, then Mike proceeds to educate her on the inappropriateness of her behaviors. She finally apologizes (I think we freaked her out since we wanted her name and everything) and ends with telling Mike "I'm so sorry, I never meant to offend anyone, and I love you in Jesus name." Um, wow. Okay. She was definitely acting like Jesus when she was thinking my kiddos were incapable and dumb, and mute. Total ignorance. Very sad. So, for all you out there, if you encounter Deaf people--treat them like normal people. Write notes, whatever, they will figure out how to communicate with you. And no matter what, do not call them "mute"! Later she again talked to me, wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings, she has to let the pilot know whenever there are (and I quote) "animals, prisoners, you know...." on board. So, now apparently we are grouped with pets and prisoners. It's good now that I can laugh about this. So, that's my story. Sorry I am long winded and it is likely a confusing story, but I hope it was at least somewhat educating =).
In other news, spring break is ALMOST here! YAY! Only seven more school days to go...I can do it! I am really looking forward to spring break because (hopefully) I will then have one of my master's degree projects finished and (the best part) my favorite-est sister, Reanna, is coming to visit me for the WHOLE week! YAY for sister time!!!! We are going to hang out, watch Center Stage (the BEST dance movie ever), get pedicures, drink good wine, and just have some good ole sister time together. I truly can't wait. It's been a long time since we've had a whole week to hang out together! That week Justin and I will also be celebrating our third wedding anniversary. It's really hard to believe that we've been married almost three years. Every day I wonder how I got so lucky to find him...and that despite my many flaws he continues to love me! I'm so blessed! We don't have time to take a short trip this year, but we are trying to find an interesting and fun restaurant to go to to celebrate. And of course, there's always the annual viewing of the wedding video-fun times!
Well, that's about all for now. Below is a picture of my awesome academic bowl team! Watch out for them next year =)!


Back Row: Me, Eric, Scot, and Mike
Front Row: Darby, Claira, and Christian

Busy

Well, I am officially a HORRIBLE blogger. But I offer up two excuses:
1--I am insanely busy right now and what little time I do have, I end up catching up with everyone via facebook
2--I do not have adorable and cute children to post fun stories/pictures of

So, those are my excuses =). Here is a little update of what has been happening in the Halvorsen household.

1) The dogs have apparently resolved to be good dogs this year (at least so far...after what-7/8 weeks of the year down)? They have only had one bad day, and all they did was take a Disney movie out of its case and then lay it on the floor....so they apparently still dislike Disney movies, but they didn't actually chew anything up, so maybe they were just letting us know that they can still do these fun things for us. Other than that, they have been little angels....I keep waiting to come home to some destruction, but so far, so good. Yay doggies!

2) Justin is getting busy at work with all sort of acronyms that I won't even try to explain. LBB, LAR, etc, etc....I try to understand it myself, but I can't really explain it except that he is in charge of delegating to other people the task of figuring out how each bill (and there are LOTS of bills) proposed by legislators would impact their agency. Then, after the other people do the work, he has to fix it and make it right, since apparently some people can't do their jobs (and maybe because he's a perfectionist and if his name is on it, it MUST be perfect--or as close to perfect as possible). This week he even got a call straight from the governor's office, so apparently he is pretty important these days...though he's always been important to me!

3) I am, as afore mentioned, insanely busy right now. My life consists of working out, going to work, leaving work, eating dinner, doing more work, and sleeping. Then, on my "workends" (I refuse to call them weekends right now) I do more work, mostly on my master's degree projects, but inevitably there is also TSD work to do. It is never ending and I REFUSE to EVER teach FIVE subjects again. It is beyond insane and I WILL learn how to explain to these people that it's craziness. I hope.

4) A few fun things we have done...
We got to spend Super Bowl Sunday with McKayla at our house. She had a great time (we think), and spent almost the whole day playing with my "fragile bears" (and yes, that is what SHE called them). For those of you confused about what "fragile bears" are, they are my Boyd's Bears. She made up stories about them, gave them all names, and in general just had a great time holding them. Apparently entertaining a 3 year old is easier than I imagined. I thought our house might be boring, little did I know how exciting 'fragile bears' can be! Add in about 20 readings of her favorite book at our house, "Mouse Paint," a few minutes "riding" her bike that we got her, and a quick trip to the park and we had completed a fun-filled day. Then, we took her home and spent that evening watching the Super Bowl with everyone. I, of course, held the babies as much as possible while watching the games. They are still only about 12-13 pounds (and 8 months old now from their birth date!), but they are rolling around like champs and Hailey is going to be crawling soon (if she hasn't already!). Unfortunately, we have not seen them since then, and I have no idea when we will get to see them again. It's pretty sad to live only 20 minutes from them and NEVER see them! Some day soon, hopefully.
We also celebrated our five year "together" anniversary and it was actually on a Saturday, so it was exactly 5 years. We went to an IMAX 3-D movie, the LBJ Museum to see the space exploration exhibit, and then tried out a new chinese buffet that had GREAT sushi. It was a lot of fun, and I was glad to have a few hours off from working/studying.
We also had a nice Valentine's Day, though I did have to spend a good portion of it doing work. We went to one of our favorite down-town restaurants where we had planned to sit outside, but after a week of weather in the 70-80's, Val's day was only about 50. So, we had to sit inside, but we made the best of it and enjoyed the time together.
We also recently got to watch a good movie that we recommend to all of our friends, "Fireproof". It's a Christian movie about marriage and I actually really enjoyed it and it had lots more action that I thought it would. Plus, when I found out everyone in the movie, except Kirk Cameron, was just a church volunteer I was even more amazed, they were actually pretty good! So, if you haven't seen it yet-go to Red Box and rent it--it's only $1 and totally worth it!

That's about it from our household for now. I will try very hard to be a slightly better blogger, but I make no promises! And one last thing, wish me and my kiddos good luck as we will be traveling to Wisconsin School for the Deaf this coming Thursday for our Regional tournament. The top three teams then go onto Nationals in Washington, D.C., so we'll see what happens! I love those kids, so I hope for the best for the team this year!!!

Take care everyone! I'll try to post pictures from our day with McKayla sometime soon too!

Halvorsen Holiday Happenings

Happy New Year Everyone! I can hardly believe that it is already January 7th and I am just now getting around to blogging about all our holiday happenings. So, here we go!

Holiday Happening #1: Halvorsen/Schalfer Family Christmas
On the 20th of Dec, we gathered to celebrate Christmas with Justin's family, which of course was totally fun because I got to hold babies and play with McKayla. McKayla was SO much fun this year! She definitely understood everything that was going on, and could not wait to get to the presents. The only thing that was confusing her was that she thought it was already Christmas Eve. It's not easy to explain to a 3-year-old why we are having "Christmas' when it's not really Christmas yet =). But, as long as she got presents, she was fine with everything. We even snapped a photo of Justin with both babies, which I will happily post below =). I must say, he looks good with a baby (though I prefer just one at a time, not two!). We all had a great evening, and can't wait until the twins are older too, and then the fun will really begin!!

Justin happily holding both twins!!



A GREAT pic of me and McKayla...just before I snapped it she exclaimed "I'm Smiling!"...we think she was trying to make a funny face (she's been into that lately), but it didn't turn out quite right =)

Holiday Happening #2/Travels to NE: Long Family Christmas
On the 22nd, we dropped the doggies off at the vet for boarding (poor Mozart was SO terrified, you would have thought we were dragging him to the gallows or something!) and then headed to the airport with the grand plan (my plan no less) to get on an earlier flight out of Austin in order to arrive in NE at 9:30pm rather than 12:30 am. So, we arrived, got on standby, got our luggage checked and then proceeded to sit at the airport for FOUR hours. Fun. It turns out that the flight we were on for standby was going to be delayed to take off later than our original flight. Crazy. So, of course, we stayed with our original seats. This was all fine and good because our plane was actually early to arrive in Denver so we rushed to the gate to see if we could still catch the earlier flight out of Denver to Omaha (we had about 10 minutes to spare). Luckily, we were still on the standby list for that flight, so we hopped onto the plane, called my parents to let them know we would be in Omaha soon, and away we went. Unfortunately, away our luggage did not go...apparently it got held back and was put on the original standby flight that left later than our flight. Silly, silly, silly. Oh well, we survived the two days with no luggage. Luckily, we were at my parents house where they happily provided contact cases, solution, toothbrushes, etc. Of course, I can't say I particularly enjoyed wearing an Amsterdam sweatshirt around town...though Justin was even less fond of the "Let Freedom Ring" sweatshirt he got stuck with =). He was very patriotic for Christmas this year! Anyhow, our luggage arrived Christmas Eve afternoon, just in time for us to get ready and head out to church. I asked my family to go to a different church this year, the church that my grandma went to, my mom grew up in and both Justin and I and my parents were married in. I wanted to visit them again, and it is such a sweet, small little congregation. It was really wonderful and the pastor was so happy to see us again, it was pretty cool. After church, we enjoyed our annual homemade soups and crackers for dinner, and then all headed to bed. We were pretty tired. Christmas Day was really wonderful this year (though I sort of feel bad saying that, since my brother was not there this year, although I'm sure him not being there is NOT the reason it was such a good day!). We took our time opening gifts, and then were pretty lazy the rest of the day (except mom who made us a wonderful dinner!). All in all, some good relaxing, family time. On Friday, my parents, Justin and I headed down to Atlanta (NE, NOT OH) for the big "Long Family" Christmas get together. We don't do this every year, but they try to do it when my uncle from CO is in town. So, I got to see some cousins that I haven't seen in quite a few years, and got to try and keep track of all their kids. I think I have over 20 cousins, and some of them have like four of five kids...it's crazy. Most of all it was just nice to see my grandma though, and catch up with a few of my "favorite" cousins. Justin of course, was totally bored most of the time...but he is a good sport about it all =). After that, we headed back to GI to pack up for the big drive back to TX.

Dad, Mom and me with Grandma Long



Me with my most favorite puppy in the WHOLE world-Gizmo-I tried to snag him and steal him away to TX...but Reanna wouldn't let me!


Holiday Happening #3: Long Family in TX =)
As has become a sort of tradition, Justin and I fly up to NE and then my parents drive us back so they can enjoy a few days of TX weather (and so my dad can golf lots). My mom and I enjoy the time together hitting the after Christmas sales, and dad loves the beautiful golfing weather. This year, to add to the fun, Justin's aunt and uncle from NC had come to visit his parents. Justin had not seen this aunt and uncle for at least 15 years (from what he could remember...they're not a super close family) and of course I had never met them. So, upon returning from NE (one day after a LONG 13 hour car ride), we hosted his aunt and uncle and parents for dinner. It turned out to be a lot of fun. His aunt is very outgoing (nothing like his father), and she told lots of good stories. I was a little nervous about the whole thing, but in the end everything was great. The next couple of days were spent shopping and hanging out with my parents, while poor Justin had to go back to work. On New Year's Eve, we said farewell to my parents as they headed up to see Justin and Katherine and celebrate Christmas/New Year's with them.

Holiday Happening #4: Ringing in the New Year
And to wrap up this year's holiday happenings...our very quiet (not boring) new year's eve celebration. This year Justin and I decided that we would spend New Year's Eve just the two of us, since we had spent so much time traveling, with our families, etc over the holidays. So, we rented some movies and settled in on our couch for a movie marathon. Sad to say, I fell asleep by about 10:00pm =)....but, I did wake up just before midnight so we were able to ring in the new year. The best part was all the fireworks around in the neighborhood totally scared Sierra so she had to sleep right next to Justin's side of the bed all night, and would not go to her own doggie bed. It's just too funny because she is really a super macho dog, not girly at all, but when it comes to fireworks she just can't stand it!

Well, that wraps up our holidays this year. I hope you all had a wonderful, blessed time with your family and have a wonderful 2009!!!