"We have to go back, Kate":LOST Premier Season 5

Jan. 21st marked the legendary LOST party with some of our friends who are equally as into this excellent (and addicting) show. Here are some of the highlights. We all attempt at bringing themed food, this year was a bit stretched I must say. But for those of you who saw, we already have ideas for the Season Finale! Hint: Hot pockets, sandwiches with caviar, potato chips, vodka (pretty sure that one will be left out).

Sawyer on his raft. Nice touch. (Not edible.)

Hanso ice cream pie.

This is "You Taste Like Strawberries" cake.

Jello. I mean the crash site.

A conglomeration of pig-roasted boar bites (or something like that) on the left, shrimpy Mediterranean something on the right and some other stuff.

And you can't forget the Dharma Initiative "Beer" and other assorted boxed goods! Not pictured: MacCutcheon "whisky". Also a favorite!

a Mario love affair

Thank you, Cindi for blessing your brother with the coolest. shirt. ever. Oh, and your nephew, too. (Sense the sarcasm.) For those who don't know, Philip's shirt is the original Nintendo Mario Bros. cartridge and Deron is donning Super Mario Galaxy. These boys were SO excited when they unwrapped these shirts on Christmas morning. It makes me smile, but knowing my son will probably never wear it out of the house. Neither will my husband. I don't know. I just have a thing I guess. They are cute though.

I just threw this in here because it was so darn cute! Before leaving for school one day, Deron needed to put all of his "friends" back to sleep. So he covered them all with little kleenex blankets. How adorable is this! What a sensitive heart he has!

thoughts on student teaching #2

With the "Ice Storm of 2009" (what the TV stations have deemed it) occurring here and halfway across the U.S., we got 2 days off from school, which was appreciated. This is only my 3rd week student teaching, but I haven't even had a full 5 day work week yet. I am happy for that though. I am enjoying being there and teaching, but I sure am a tired woman by the end of the day. Then there's the nightly duties of a wife and mom to take care of, not to mention starting to feel like I'm carrying something - a wonderful something- with me all the time.

Friday I arrived at school a little later than planned to my cooperating teacher saying she tried to call my phone, but couldn't get through. (My phone has had the habit lately of turning completely off randomly. It's quite annoying.) She wasn't feeling well and wanted to know if I'd be okay with subbing the whole day. We hadn't discussed lesson plans or anything for that day, so I had 15 minutes to get the classroom set up for the 3rd graders and review all that she wanted to teach. Whew! Have I mentioned her days are nonstop? Only one brief planning time for about 15 mins in the morning and then whatever time you can squeeze out of a 25 min lunch. Oh wait, then there are also those 5 extra minutes (yeah right) that occur in the afternoon. So, it was a rush, but everything panned out fine. I guess teachers are trained to think on their feet a bit. I just know now what shoes NOT to wear next time.

student teaching thoughts #1

This morning was my first day of student teaching! To be honest, I was a little nervous up until today. I really don't know why. I've observed plenty and feel confident in front of kids, but I think mostly it was not knowing exactly what to expect. You know, the fear of the unknown. ]]

I'm at a local TitleI elementary school co-teaching music. I was actually surprised it was TitleI, thinking that that meant you had to regularly be dodging bullets to get from your car to the office. There wasn't anything particularly crazy that went on today, but I'll be sure to let you know. Jenn sure has a great time with her Kindergarteners. Oh, one fun thing was that when one 3rd grade class was in the room, I walked in and they all gasped and one little girl said, "She's so pretty!" in a whispery voice. I was flattered! That same incident happened a few days ago picking up the bug from his school! Well, I never.

But it was actually an enjoyable day. The kids weren't even angels necessarily, but then again, I am just waiting for my turn to be the boss. It is crazy to me though that my teacher has each class every day for 25 minutes. With picking the kids up, dropping them off, and keeping them in line, you only get about 15-18 minutes of anything productive! Then they go to P.E. which is the same time frame. Crazy. I think it's fabulous they get music everyday, but I wonder what the trade-off really would be if it were bigger increments of time vs. quantity of segments. Anyway...

This is going to be interesting to me as a simulation of a 2 parent working family. We shall see how tired I am at the end of everyday, putting a healthy and warm dinner on the table every night (or most), and oh yeah, growing a healthy, beautiful baby inside as well! Speaking of... I have felt quite well lately, with the exception of yesterday. The "nagging" in my stomach as Amity and I have decided is a great description is gently subsiding, but still making itself known every once in awhile. I can keep it managed pretty well with the aid of a coke and a snack (or meal) every couple of hours.

Thank you all for your sweet comments about this new precious baby and all of your prayers! God is so faithful in EVERYTHING, and I am so excited to see what He has in store, not just for my life, but all of those people around me. His desires are perfect and good for your life and mine. Wait and watch how sweetly He moves.

news news news

First off, we do have wonderful news!! We are expecting a new little baby Crumpton in August!! I'm about 9 weeks in, feeling okay mostly, but learning to manage the almost constant nagging in my stomach. New Year's Day was a horrible sick day for me, consisted of sleeping almost the entire day with short wakings to "uuuuggghh's" and "ooooohhhhh's". Fortunately it only lasted that one day, probably a combination of what I ate the night before and how late we stayed up.

Yesterday we got our first sonogram of the new little one. I must admit, after two miscarriages, I was a bit shaky. Since we found out I was pregnant, we've been bathing this pregnancy in prayer and claiming health and wholeness to this baby! I even asked God to help me feel the effects of this pregnancy more than before. All the others have been almost TOO easy. With Deron and the others, I felt wonderful the entire time, except for maybe some back pain and general uncomfortableness the last 3rd. So every stomach turn, every craving, every tired spell, I'm praising God for the beautiful life that is growing healthily inside of me. Even this morning, God graced me with Psalm 147:13b "He has blessed your children within you." Thank you, Lord! The sonogram looked great, we saw our little bean wiggling and squirming around, and it brought such peace to this mommy!


Today was also a big day for the Crumptons as Deron went off to the big world of preschool! Since I will be student-teaching in only about a week, Deron needed to start going somewhere all day, and he really is ready for preschool. I thought this would be so hard, tears and all, but he went in so calmly and started playing with the other kids! Yea!

After Philip and I dropped him off, we ran some errands, picked up some *decaf* Starbucks and I'm home now, listening to Frank Sinatra on Pandora loudly, doing much needed laundry, mailings, and general house cleaning, oh and updating the ever-so-important blog. Should I feel guilty? School is a good thing. I might even get to practice nowadays without a little guy begging me to stop! Haha... And reading! I can relax and read a book now, and I can also take a nap! This is going to be nice... for a week. Then, everything changes. *sigh*

He really was more excited than this. Just didn't want to take a picture. Don't 3 year olds realize that the first day of school is a momentous occasion!?