A Unique Deployment...A Fallen Hero...A Risen Victory!

As we once again remember our veterans on this day, it is hard for me to even put into words the thoughts that race through my mind on this day. So many of our loved ones have fought for the freedoms that we share in this great country, and sadly we only take a short twenty-four hours out of the year, as a country, to recognize these wonderful heroes. I will be the first to admit that I need to do a better job at thanking our service men and women. There are really no adequate words to express my appreciation, but to our veteran men and women - THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE!!

 
I cannot fathom the mindset that it takes to put your life on the line for people who may or may not appreciate your efforts. With this in mind, Veteran's Day always humbly brings to mind one particular veteran who gave his life for a wretch like me. 

(Note: This post is meant in no way to minimize what our service men and women do for us; it is to humbly recognize the sacrifice that our service men and women have endured for our earthly freedom while also shedding light on a veteran that sacrificed for our eternal freedom.)  

Webster defines veteran as "someone who fought in a war." Let me tell you about my favorite veteran, one who fought a mighty war against the Enemy, was deployed for nearly 33 years, and whose Tour of Duty is not yet finished. 
 
This whole war began about 6,000 years ago. Man was created, and unfortunately we fell prey to sin, taking too much pleasure in the things of the world and disobeyed the commands of the mighty father. In essence, we went against the Almighty God. 

• However, God sent his army of one, not to wreak havoc on us or "condemn the world, but to save the world through him" (John 3:17). Now, whether Jesus voluntarily signed up or this mission or was drafted by the Almighty Father, I have no idea; nonetheless, "God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son" (John 3:16).

• This was no ordinary mission. In fact, it was the most unique deployment in all of history. Forget the one-year, four-year, or more deployment - we are talking nearly 33 years. 

• He didn't come in with machine guns, a full brigade of armed men, and his combat boots strapped up; he came as a lamb, an innocent baby, but armed with the FULL ARMOUR OF GOD! - He stood firm with the "belt of truth," "breastplate of righteousness," "feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace," "shield of faith," "helmet of salvation," "and the sword of the Spirit," and PRAYER (Ephesians 6:14-18). 

•  Just as our men and women of our armed forces do today, He fought for his own, even though some of them would mock and ridicule his efforts, just as many shamefully do today to our soldiers. "He was despised and rejected—a man of sorrows, acquainted with deepest grief. We turned our backs on him and looked the other way. He was despised, and we did not care.Yet it was our weaknesses he carried; it was our sorrows that weighed him down." (Isaiah 53:3-4). 

• Jesus fought on the front lines for us and became a Prisoner of War. In fact, even one of his own followers (supporters) turned him into the enemy as he faced the "crowd armed with swords and clubs..." (Mark 14:43) He was taken and arrested by the enemy. Furthermore, he was tortured in his fight for US! They had Jesus flogged and prepared to crucify him. "They struck him on the head with a staff and spit on him." (Mark 15:19).

•  Jesus did not receive the PURPLE HEART medal, even though he was "wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him" (Isaiah 53:5). Instead, he received a purple robe and a twisted crown of thorns, just to have them mock him as the King of the Jews (Mark 15:17). 

• He did not receive the Service Cross Medal for risking his life in actual combat; instead, he carried his own cross and GAVE his life for us.

•  This soldier gave his life fighting for our freedom from sin - a fallen hero. "He forgave us all our sins, having canceled the written code, with its regulations, that was against us and that stood opposed to us; he took it away, nailing to to the cross" (Colossians 2:14). By his death, he ensured our freedom from the enemy of sin. He paid the ultimate sacrifice for us.

• Interestingly enough, Jesus even became MIA for a little bit when they found his burial tomb empty.  Nevertheless, it wasn't long before the people realized his risen victory!  It was impossible for death to hold him down! (Acts 2: 24).

• However, you will not see his name on a Wall of Honor. You will not see his name on a Veteran's or Hero's program. In fact, the mention of his name is even hushed in our schools and workplaces. You definitely won't see his valiant efforts in most history books. However, we can take joy in the fact that his commemoration is COMING...and coming SOON! Jesus' tour of duty is not yet over. Yes, he may have returned from his deployment on earth, but he is now actively serving as our mediator to the Heavenly Father. In fact, he has one more big war to fight against Satan. (Spoiler alert: Jesus will win!!) Then, just as most heroes on a quest, he will once again return to his people and take us to be with him! :)

Until that time, though, I think it's time that become VETERANS ourselves. The war with Satan is constant. We need to be active soldiers against him during our life on this earth. Jesus has already covered the frontline - "The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.” (Deuteronomy 31:8). Whose side are you fighting on? It's time for us to raise up and be in the ARMY OF THE LORD!!
 
Check out this drama to Jason Upton's song Dying Star! It's time that we become in the Army of the Lord! I hope this encourages you as it did me. Go confidently in the Lord this week! 
 

 

 Until next time...

While the coffee cup may not seem big enough for some days, I can still joyfully say MY CUP OVERFLOWS!! God is good!

As we begin this month of thanks, we truly have so much to be thankful for. In this crazy, fun, chaotic series of events that we call life, we often forget to take the time to really count our blessings. As we talk with those around us, we seem much quicker to count our woes; however, I propose that if we simply took a few moments a day to reflect on all the joyful occasions, we might actually be surprised at what we realize. I, for one, know that I was quickly humbled at all my blessings as I sat down and began pondering what to put in this blog post. I am always amazed at how all those seemingly "small things" throughout our days really do add up to some pretty amazing memories. 

I challenge you, as you are reading this, to take just a few moments to make a small list of just the good, happy times over the past week. If you are like me, I bet that list doesn't stay small for very long. With each passing item, our joy begins to grow. As our joy grows, so does our thankfulness (or so it seems to me). And....if you are like me, by the time you finish that list, you will be able to say with confidence:

While the coffee cup may not seem big enough for some days, I can still joyfully say MY CUP OVERFLOWS! 

As I write this (at 9 pm on a Monday night), I have just returned home from a night of basketball games with my cheerleaders. As tired as I am right now, I cannot help but be amazed at how hard they have worked this year. Here is a link to the video of them practicing their dance (and, yes, I have their permission to show this): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjGG290iF8E

Aren't they just precious?! They get even better each day, and I am just as proud as I can be. I am so thankful that God blessed me with the opportunity to teach another year at, what I am convinced, is the best school around. I may get tired and worn out, but I absolutely love my job, my students, and my co-workers. I know that not everyone can say that, so I truly try to cherish it (some days I do this better than others lol). I even got my first official yearbook picture made as a teacher!! 

 Last year, I just had to take a pic on a random day, and, of course, it just happened to be the day that I had my hair in a ponytail. Yay for a bald looking teacher, lol.  Nonetheless, God has blessed me with another year at Central and another wonderful year on this earth, as I reached the big 24 this year! Okay, so maybe it's not that big, but still.... In fact, I made the mistake of saying "back in my day" in class the other day, and one of my students replied: "When was that, Mrs. Lanza, last year? You are so not old." haha I have to say that my birthday was wonderful and probably one of the best yet. 

 I finished out year 23 in my penguin PJ's and a very unhealthy dinner of baked mac-n-cheese. Then, I got to celebrate with my honey, family, and in-laws. Paul made sure it was an awesome day, complete with a night out to eat at Rolo's (my favorite), a strawberry cake with real strawberries and cool whip icing (there is nothing like it!), presents, and a dozen red roses. Isn't he just awesome?! I also had a meeting I had to be at that day for work, and it finished a little early, which allowed me to go home early on my birthday! Awesome, right?! I would love to say that I made good use of that extra time, but this old woman definitely went home and took a much needed nap. Needless to say, it was a pretty incredible birthday. My students also knew that I was going to be out on my birthday, so they sang to me the day before during lunch. They are just so sweet. One even brought me a cupcake the next day. 

Speaking of birthday wishes, I also received a nice little birthday message from my grad school (even if it was an automated message). It was still nice to receive.

In regards to graduate school, I am now officially registered for my next class. I will begin taking my third graduate class in January, Human Growth and Development. 

 
I am going to have to take some pointers from the hubs on how to balance work, school, and life, but I know that with God's help I can do it. It also doesn't hurt to have a husband who helps out A LOT. In case you can't tell, I am so very grateful for him and all that he does! We have so much fun together, and we even get to take time out for each other and friends. This past weekend, we celebrated our extra hour with the time change by going out on a fancy date night: dirt cheap, Steak 'n Shake, and a dollar movie. haha It doesn't take much to please us. By the way, Monsters University is a really cute movie. 

 

We even made time for friends and had a wonderful time a couple weekends ago with our Bible class. We had a fun time roasting weenies, toasting marshmallows, hanging around a bonfire, going on a ridiculously chilly hayride, sipping hot chocolate, and more---oh how I love the warmth of friendship on a cold night! 

 

All of this fall fun is just so exciting. We even dressed up on halloween at school. I, of course, went as Pebbles, and I was joined by some of my co-workers (Alice in Wonderland, Where's Waldo?, and the Wicked Witch). We even had Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus, but I don't have a picture of that one. 

We even had Ponyboy show up to school that day from The Outsiders book. 

 

and.....Of course, Paul's decorations was a big hit with the kiddos on Halloween night. Weather and all, we still ended up with about 150 trick-or-treaters, complete with screams as the jumping spider lunged at them as they rang the doorbell. Nevertheless, I cannot say that I am sad to see all those decorations go. Now, the REAL FUN begins. The Christmas lights are slowly making their way up, and I could not be more excited! This is the most exciting time of the year to me! I just love it. Of course, the lights will not be turned on until Christmas, but Clark Griswold is already busy setting everything up. 

This is just a glimpse into the Lanza happenings, but what joy we have! As always, we are BUSY, BUT BEYOND BLESSED!

Back to my earlier sentiment about my cup overflowing, I can testify to the goodness of God's promises. Luke 6:38 : "Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

You truly cannot out-give God. Take a moment to simply say thanks to our Father today. :)

Until next time, 

News crews, pom pons, and the joyous blessings of FALL!

My apologies for being so late in updating this....but, whoo!, this month has flown by!

It seems like just yesterday that I joked about it being October and celebrating my birthday all month long! Now, I'm only a few days away from getting "old." Just kidding! I'm actually excited about the TWO-FOUR this year (maybe, eventually, I will quit being mistaken for a student at school). :) I'm just hoping all this youthfulness pays off in future years.

Now that we are over halfway through the month of October, the halloween decorations are in full swing. I'm not a huge fan of halloween due to what all it symbolizes for some people; however, the kiddos in our subdivision sure do love dressing up and getting their candy. (For me, I'm just pumped that this means that Christmas is right around the corner - yes, Christmas card ideas are being pondered, and I am SUPER EXCITED!). Nevertheless, we are going to have to stock up on the candy even more this year. The decorations draw the kiddos in, and last year we ran out of candy. Let it be known that we really prepared for kids last year - however, we didn't really plan for 150+. haha This year we will have our game face on, especially since our new next door neighbors decorate even more than we do. Here is a collage picture of some of our decorations (the night picture didn't show up so well):

Speaking of kiddos, you know I can't do a blog post without mentioning our precious Inner City babies. Since the last post, we have taught the kindergarten class three more times covering the stories of Noah's Ark, Abraham and Isaac, and Joseph's coat of many colors. They LOVED talking about all of their favorite animals during Noah's Ark (and the stickers were a big hit).

Sweet babies loved the story of Abraham and Isaac. The graham cracker was the "altar", the "chocolate bar" represented Isaac who was put on the altar. Then, the children took off the chocolate "Isaac" and replaced him with the marshmallow "the ram" that God sent to take his place!! Of course, they got to eat the S'mores after the lesson. Yummy!

This past week Paul taught them about Joseph and the coat of many colors. I could not be there due to other obligations (which just so happened to include a girls' night!). One of our sweet friends helped Paul teach the class, and from the picture, I think it's safe to say that a good time was had by all!! Again, they LOVE stickers!

With mentioning girls' night, I have to admit that Paul and I have enjoyed some girl and guy time with our friends lately. We seem to get so busy with life sometimes that it is so refreshing when we just take a small break to catch up with friends. This past weekend, Paul enjoyed the Alabama game with some guys over at the house. With their enthusiastic yelling at the tv during the game, I was not heartbroken to leave for awhile to catch up with one my besties. I met up with my friend Lindley, and we enjoyed girl talk over a wonderful Japanese dinner at the new Fuji restaurant in town. (Highly recommend it - not a fan that they only have miso soup (with tofu) and ginger salad, though). Then, last night I was blessed to have a girls' night with some awesome ladies from my Bible class at church (all young married women) at P.F. Chang's (one of my faves!).  God has truly blessed us with some awesome friends.

 Carrying on with the girl fun, cheer season is now in full swing for me. My girls have been practicing so hard to prepare for basketball season, and we have our first game on Monday. I am so proud of their progress, and I can't wait for them to show how hard they have worked. Their cheers are ready, and they are currently working diligently on perfecting a super cute dance to perform at a few home games. Creating the pom-pon horseshoe had also been an exciting, yet challenging, task. For some reason, this became much harder than it should have been, but they kept working until they got it! We are ready to bring in the new cheer season on Monday with new uniforms, exciting new cheers and dances, and some VERY CUTE new bows!!

 Another exciting part of this past week was having the news crew come to my class. My students were so excited as the crew filmed them in action using technology in the classroom. (A link to that production will be coming SOON!).  

During that week, I also took the opportunity to teach them about the news and how to read particular news stories. I showed them a site called Newseum, which you may also find extremely intriguing. On this site, you can view the front pages of papers from all over the world. How cool is that?! They LOVED it! To visit the site - click the link below and then go to "Today's Front Pages" once on the site. From there, you can search for papers all over the world. 

http://www.newseum.com/

As for new Lanza news, we have just been taking it one day at a time. Sometimes we feel that we are in over our heads, but I don't think we would know how to handle it any other way. We are on the go people. However, we do thoroughly enjoy not setting an alarm clock on Saturday mornings. Paul is still working on his graduate doctoral class (which is the hardest class he has had yet), while still managing time for Inner City, church, friends, his own projects, family, and me. He's pretty much awesome. I am THOROUGHLY enjoying my first full year teaching and gearing up to begin my graduate classes again in January while teaching. I took a break to get this year going on the right foot and while coaching the cheerleaders; however, basketball season will be coming to a close in January, so I will pick back up with classes, along with coaching. Nevertheless, the Lanza life is not all work and no play! We have enjoyed catching up on some of our favorite shows together (Duck Dynasty, Last Man Standing, Big Bang Theory, etc - television is a rare comodity at our house), and we have even squeezed in a fun date night of good eating and goofy golf! 

Finally, we have two special prayer requests. Please be in prayer for some close friends of ours. This is an unspoken request, but God knows the need. :) Also, we are in the planning stages right now for a potential mission trip in March. This will be our first mission trip together (or EVER actually), and we will be going to Baja, Mexico if all works out according to plan. God has been so good to us and opened doors that we never saw coming. To look back over this past year and a half is truly humbling. We prayed that God would use us even more together, but I don't think we had any idea of just how much God would indeed answer that special prayer!! As we have always said, we are BUSY, BUT BEYOND BLESSED!!

We hope you are enjoying the fall as much as we are!! Our beautiful fall weather is off to a great start, complete with pumpkin spice goodies. These are the easiest, cheapest, and best little things ever! Trust me, you want to try these and make them! The recipe is below the picture.

1 cake mix

1 - 15oz can of pumpkin puree

Mix the ingredients together well and bake at 350 degrees for 20 min.

Sprinkle confectioner sugar on them while hot.

(I used Duncan Hines yellow cake mix or spick cake mix.) 

We hope this post finds you well. We love and miss you and hope to see everyone soon!

Until next time...

Lessons Learned: When Technology and Coffee (and possibly the govn't) Fails - God is still AWESOME!

It has been a fun, crazy week filled with a mass variance of feelings and memories, but such is the Lanza Life -- and we wouldn't trade one single moment of it! :)

I started off the week strong by giving in to peer pressure and watching a viral video and taking a very interesting counseling quiz. Needless to say, not all peer pressure is bad. ;) I first took a Dr. Phil test that is used quite often in counseling sessions, and it was pretty neat to see how I scored. I ended up scoring a 34 and received the following results:

Take it and see what you score!

Dr. Phil's Test

Then, I gave in and watched a video that was becoming VERY popular. After watching it, I now totally understand why. If you are a woman, you definitely want to take the time to watch this. How often do we forget these important truths?

We also had a great time with our sweet Inner City kiddos on Tuesday night. We taught them about Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden. We had all the children around the table, which represented the garden. Then, we put a big bowl in the middle of the table to represent the Tree of Life. As we told the story and talked about temptation to do things when we are told 'NOT TO' (a very relevant point with 5 yr olds, lol), we poured a bad of M&M's in the bowl to represent the apples. The children put their hands behind their back to avoid the temptation to eat the "apples." Then, as we told about Adam and Eve's disobedience, we took it all away, just as the Garden was taken away from Adam and Eve. However, after seeing their pitiful faces when they thought they were not getting any M&M's made me quickly finish the story and give those precious babies some chocolate. Now, we are gearing up to teach them about Noah's Ark this week.

Needless to say, our week grew even busier from there. It was filled with doctoral classes for Paul, coaching cheerleading practices for me, both of us tutoring on Wednesday, and both of us striving to catch up (or rather working to become only "behind" rather than "really far behind") on school and work. How Paul does it all, I honestly do not know. By Thursday night, I had to call it quits. I cuddles up in bed, watched some of my girly shows, and took an early bedtime around 9 pm (that is VERY early for us). 

After a night of restful sleep, and 8 hours might I add (a once in a lifetime event it seems like lately), I felt like a whole new person. I started Friday off with the breakfast of Champions - coffee and a off-brand Oreos! haha

I have to say, though, even with coffee I will still super tired on Friday night. EPIC COFFEE FAIL! I took another early bedtime on Friday night and went to bed by about 8:00. After 9 hours of sleep or so then, I was truly back to myself on Saturday, and boy was it awesome! Early Saturday morning, we took off on a mini-roadtrip to see a wonderful friend marry his best friend. Adam was an usher in our wedding, and we wouldn't have missed his weeding for anything. We arrived near Gatlinburg a little early for the wedding and planned to be at the church no later than 3:30 (with the wedding beginning at 4). WRONG! For some crazy reason, neither one of our phones changed time with the changing time zones. We had both used our phones, and we are really not sure why it did not change. That has never happened before. Well, as we were killing time looking around various stores, I started thinking that it really should have been later than what our phones said. I told Paul to call his dad just to make sure we had the right time. As he was trying to call, his phone suddenly updated. The time read 3:55 PM. WHAT?! We hauled boogy to the car and rushed to the church (thankfully, we were already at the exit and only a couple minutes from the church). We rushed into the church, signed the guest book, and were seating right at four o'clock. If you know us very well, you know we do NOT like to be late. Even with another EPIC FAIL WITH TECHNOLOGY, we still made it to see a wonderful couple marry!

We also thoroughly enjoyed ourselves with the photo booth at the wedding. It was such a neat idea. After we took pictures, they gave us a copy of the pictures. Then, they put another copy in a scrapbook and had us write a message to the bride and groom. After their wedding, they receive the scrapbook and get to have fun looking at all of the goofy pictures. We had such a great time!

Then, on Sunday we tried to get back in the swing of things and prepare for the week. Paul has been spending most of his time studying for a big test that he has tomorrow.  This class has apparently been a doozie (even though he still manages a perfectly good A average in the class). My hubby is so smart! Being caught up on lesson plans, I decided to finally grace the gym with my presence once again. After about 6 weeks, it was long overdue!! It felt great to start the week off that way.

Lastly, on to the topic of the government shutdown -- with all of the other small FAILS (so to speak) that we had last week, I have to emphasize the fact that OUR GOD NEVER FAILS! We are so truly blessed that the government shutdown is not going to affect Paul's work schedule (at least not for now), and we are so very grateful for that! You can't out-give God, and we can definitely testify to that. Our God is an awesome God, and I loved the sweet reminder this morning on the way to work as I viewed a perfectly painted sky by the Great I AM!

While things may get a little crazy, worn out, funny, overwhelmed, exciting, and extremely busy - this chaotic blessing is what we call the Lanza Life -- and we absolutely LOVE it!!

Until next time,

Helping Those with No Place to Call Home

As we approach the cooler months and look forward to the upcoming holidays with family, let us not forget those around us whose yellow-brick road and ruby red slippers are long gone. What about those who have NO PLACE TO CALL HOME? Let us use our blessings to bless others. Find out the best way to help those less fortunate by reading this blog post. Interestingly enough, what you may think is the best way to help may, in fact, not be.


If you have trouble viewing the pdf below, you can click the following link, and you should be able to open it:

Helping Those Who Have NO PLACE TO CALL HOME 

If you still have trouble, let me know and I will be happy to email you a copy of it to view it easier.

Until next time...

From Bold Lashes to Even Bolder Fires - What a crazy, fun week!

This post is going to be a bunch of randomness, but such is my life...haha Enjoy!

For starters, I left off the last post talking about how awesome my students are....and I just have to say it again. My students are such a blessing. I try so hard to encourage and support them, but it is just humbling when they do the same for me. Below are a couple notes that I received throughout the past week:

Speaking of students - you know I can't post a blog without mentioning our sweet Inner City babies. This past Tuesday was our second week teaching the kindergarten Bible class, and we got to share to story of creation. We started out the lesson with a globe underneath a black sheet. We had them close their eyes as tight as they could to see how dark it was. Then, we shined a light on the black sheet to represent the first day. We went on to uncover the globe to show the creation of land and separation of water, and we made our hands flash like stars in the sky. We made fishy faces for the day of fish and birds, and we pretended to take a nap for the seventh day of rest. They loved it, and I was so impressed with how well they paid attention. We had a poster that had each day attached to it with velcro. After the lesson, we took the pictures off and had the children help us put them back on the right day. They did so well! Below is a picture of the poster:

In light of of the Tuesday night bus ministry, please be in prayer for one of the sweet girls. She is a first grader and was in our class last year. She refuses to go into the first grade class because she has to be around Paul. She always tells him how she wishes he was her father (sidenote: her father is in prison for a LONG time; I do not even know if she has ever seen him out of prison). She will not leave the bus each week without giving Paul a big hug and telling him she loves him. I am so glad Paul is there for her, but it truly breaks my heart. 

On another note, we are also continuing to tutor on Wednesdays at the Inner City. This past week, I was blessed to be able to tutor one of the precious second grade kids, who also happens to be autistic. I worked with him all summer during their summer program, and he is just so sweet. He loves to draw and gets side-tracked very easily, but a little love and patience goes a long way with him. I got really frustrated one week with a tutor who complained about how he "just couldn't learn him math" and "didn't pay attention" and was "hard to work with." Considering this tutor is a retired teacher, I have to admit that I was quite frustrated with her attitude towards him. So, thankfully, I was able to work with him this week. I am happy to say that I beg to differ with the opinion of the other lady. After explaining how the ALLIGATOR EATS THE BIG NUMBERS (about ten times, but that's perfectly okay), I am proud to say he now knows his greater-than and less-than signs in math!!

Continuing the note of working with children, I completed my cheerleading sponsor duties this past week and washed all of the cheerleading uniforms and set the colors in them. I am now gearing up for their fundraiser for the year (which are very cute spirit shirts this year). 

Now, as promised by the title of this blog - I have an announcement to make:

BOLD

Attention ladies:

I have now found the best mascara ever! It is worth every penny and truly makes a difference. You have to try Benefit Make-up's "They're Real" Mascara. It's awesome! You can get is at Sephora and Ulta and many other department stores.

EVEN BOLDER

Even bolder than this mascara was the fire that we saw last week. My family came up to visit last weekend, and we went to Bojangles for breakfast on Saturday morning. As we were leaving Bojangles, we saw dark smoke coming over the top of the building. My father went to make sure the building wasn't on fire or anything, and about that time a lady drove by and said that a car was on fire in the next parking lot. Of course, we had to go see it, and WOW! This is what we saw:

It was definitely one of the craziest, coolest, and saddest things I have ever seen.


Speaking of flames, Paul definitely wasn't excited about the number of candles that would have been on his birthday cake this week. He is now 29 years young, but he claims that he is not celebrating any more birthdays. We had fun celebrating his birthday with his family and our Inner City children. They sang happy birthday to him on Tuesday night. I'm not sure if they were more excited about his birthday or the cupcakes, but they loved it.
 

It has been a crazy, but fun couple weeks. Now, it's time for me to get back to grading, lesson plans, and the ball game. I will post pictures later of some of my students' summer reading scrapbook projects. Some of them turned out so neat that I just have to share. Those pics are coming soon! Also, I will be posting a new post about my research on homelessness in America. With the cooler weather quickly approaching, I want to share ways that we can help. Now, let's Roll Tide Roll!

We love you all! Please keep in touch! Until next time...