Christmas Concerts at School

This year our concert theme was Christmas at the Movies. We did themes from The Polar Express, The Grinch, Muppets Christmas, It’s a Wonderful Life, and John Williams famous songs from Home Alone. I made wreaths to go with our theme and the kids had a great concert. I would put videos up, but we had an unfortunate accident and a student threw up on stage. Jason was super excited that he was able to make it to the concert and get it on video. Never mind the good singing, he was impressed with his cinematography of the barfing. Oh well! The kids handled it very well and I was very proud of their concert. One of their pieces was 64 pages long and they also learned how to read 3 part music this semester. They are some pretty awesome kiddos.

I had to put this picture up on the blog. It is just amazing. The background is the cover of the Polar Express book. Our art teacher painted that in 5 days during her planning time. She is amazingly talented and a wonderfully giving person. We are very lucky to have an art teacher with so much talent!!!!

The stage before the concert. We ended up having about 350 people come for our concert.

Christmas Decorating

This year I had a little more time than I did last year, but not much. Jason and I were still both in school and I still have all of my winter concerts, so it is still a busy time. I decided to add to my Christmas decorations this year and do some different trees and swags. We were very happy with the way it turned out.

My music tree

Thanksgiving in Mississippi

Jason and I drove to Mississippi for Thanksgiving since we were not going to get to see Danny, Erin, and Cam at Christmas again this year. We wanted to spend some time with them too since we hardly got to see them during the blizzard weekend in Connecticut. We had a wonderful relaxing (despite the long drive) Thanksgiving holiday. It was so nice to spend time together and have nothing to do except eat and play. We were a little worried about the dogs since Nala was not a big fan of Flash at Wesley’s graduation, but they were awesome together. I would even go as far as to say that they might have liked each other. Flash was obsessed with Cameron and his toys. I think Cam and Flash got along best of all. They had a blast together. Flash isn’t used to all of the fun cars and toys!

While we were there we did out Christmas gifts with Danny and Erin and we also got Cameron a really cool lightening McQueen car that he and Flash loved. Cameron really liked the wrapping paper too!

Cameron playing with Flash’s big feet. Such cute pictures.

Flash, being an awesome traveler on the 17 hour drive home.

Jim and Debbie’s Visit

After the wedding Jim, Debbie, and Wesley came to visit us for a week. We got to do a lot of fun things while they were here. Unfortunately, I had to work but we still got to go to Annapolis, D.C., visit some vineyards, take a tour at Jason’s work, and Jim and Debbie got to experience the season of Fall, which they haven’t gotten to do in a while. I think Debbie took most of the pictures while they were here, but I managed to get a few in DC.

The new WWII Memorial

Halloween Weekend

We didn’t get to do a lot of our normal Halloween stuff because of traveling, Halloween was on a Monday, and because it snowed, so no fabulous pumpkin carving this year. I probably would have been mad if I had worked really hard on the pumpkins and then they shriveled up in the snow. However, we did have time to dress Flash and DOG up for trick or treating. They were Dumb and Dumber. It was such a great costume.

Worst Blogger EVER!!!

 

I have been such an awful blogger and I am horribly behind. I finally realized that I haven’t blogged since the end of OCTOBER!!!! I suppose all of our traveling, Jason and I both in school, the holiday season, and my holiday concerts caught up with me. So, here are some of the highlights from Halloween weekend (yes, 3 months ago) and I will try to do better!!!!

For Halloween weekend we went to Connecticut with Jason’s family for his cousin Danielle’s wedding. Little did we know that there was going to be a blizzard in October. Good thing Jason and I unpacked my car and packed the Pilot the morning that we left. Danielle and Frank had a beautiful yet slightly drama filled wedding with all of the weather that no one was planning on. We are so happy for them and we were so glad that they were able to have the wedding despite the blizzard.

Some pictures of the snow from the car. Doesn’t Jason look nice cleaning off the car in the middle of the road in his suit??

The beautiful wedding.

Baltimore Running Festival

This past weekend, I completed my first half marathon (13.1 miles) in Baltimore. After, 2 and a half months of training and 300 miles later, it’s finally done, which was definitely exciting. It is difficult to tell from the pictures the magnitude of this event but there were 30,000 runners in the festival. I finished in 2 hours and 8 minutes. This was probably the most difficult but inspiring thing that I have ever done. The streets are lined with people cheering for you and holding up signs. One of my favorites was a little kid with a sign that said "Worst Parade Ever!"  Many people also have charity teams that run. It was amazing to see the support that was out there after months of training.
Some people in the race did the marathon in wheelchairs, and there was also a brain cancer patient undergoing chemo who ran the marathon with his surgeon from Johns Hopkins. Several fathers also ran pushing their child in a wheelchair for the full marathon. When you get to mile 10, 11, 12 and think you can’t go any farther, those are the things that really push you and put things into perspective. It really makes you realize how many things are out there that are so much bigger and more difficult.
On a lighter note, it’s also demoralizing to watch a guy in a pickle costume running in a tube with no arms, just little feet moving under the pickle, pass you. Also frustrating to see a guy run and JUGGLE for 26.2 miles while you’re just trying to get your feet through the first 13.  Regardless, I had a wonderful time and I now have the bug…on to the DC Hot Chocolate Run in Dec. and the Rock N’ Roll marathon in March…Jason’s running this time!

Marathon photos for the finish line and during the race are at the link below. You have to enter my last name and also scroll down to Baltimore marathon 2011 for the event.
  http://www.marathonfoto.com/index.cfm?action=site.login

Finish line at Raven’s Stadium

Full marathon start with the elite runners who ran 26.2 in 2 hrs 15 minutes. They’re nuts!

Waiting in my bay to start. There were 3,000 people just in my bay.

Half Marathon start line. The start line was about 3/4 of a mile long.

In the start bay with Chris and Stephanie, 2 co-workers who ran with me.

Go TIME!!!!! We’re off!