[February 29, 2012] Thankful for...movie dates!  My Aunt Beth and Aunt Joan came over to watch The Help with my mom and I, and we all really liked it. :)

[February 28, 2012] Thankful for...being able to vote.  Today was the Presidential Primary Election in Michigan - hopefully a lot of people will show up today!  When I went at 1:45pm, I was number 231...hopefully it grows throughout the day! :)

[February 27, 2012] Thankful for...The Bachelor - I know, it's crazy!  I love it because my friends all get together and chill out and laugh about what goes on during the show! :)  I always look forward to Monday nights, and there were already commercials for The Bachelorette, which I'm sure we'll be watching too!

[February 26, 2012] Thankful for...Skype!  Okay, actually I'm thankful for being able to talk to Scott and Aubrey, but Skype made it happen. :)  Some of our family was over on Sunday to celebrate my birthday, so I thought it would be a cool idea to Sykpe with Scott and Aubrey so that we could all talk to them. :)  We miss you guys! <3

[February 25, 2012] Thankful for...family recipes.  These are rolls that my Grandma V W used to make for every get together, and they are soooo yummy - mine didn't taste quite as good, but I'll try again sometime. :)  Some of our family is coming over tomorrow, so I was making food all day (or at least it seemed like it!).  Luckily, I started in the morning because I ruined a batch of these rolls (by "murdering" the yeast with too hot of water - yikes!), but this batch turned out better!

[February 24, 2012] Thankful for...snow days - enough said. :)

[February 23, 2012] Thankful for...new sensory items for my classroom!  Today I went to a Make-It-Take-It Sensory Workshop at the Ottawa ISD, and made (as in drilled holes, screwed in screws, colored, etc.) all these things!  We learned more about different ways that kiddos process external stimuli - really interesting stuff, I promise! :)  We made 2 one-legged stools and a scooter board (they need to be painted yet...), and a "Bucket Buddy" filled with about 4 pounds of rice.  If you come over to my house, you can try the one-legged stool, although it's made for preschoolers!

p.s. For those of you who know me, NO, I did not just freehand that lion on the Bucket Buddy...there definitely was a six step-by-step child's drawing of the lion that I tried my best to follow... :)

[February 22, 2012] Thankful for...a digital picture frame!  This is my Grandpa's picture frame that he has in his house, and he brought it over yesterday so that I could put new pictures on it.  I turned it on today and went through all the pictures that are on it already.  I love digital frames because they give you a chance to see several different pictures - and this one includes our family from near and far away. :)

[February 21, 2012] Thankful for...my Sports Illustrated magazines.  I love reading my SI's because they have some really neat interviews and stories, and awesome pictures too.  BUT, they come once a week, and I am super far behind...do you see the date?  January 16 - that means I have SIX waiting to be read, including the one I got today!!!  Yikes - oh well, guess I know what I'll be doing during Spring Break. :)

[February 20, 2012] Thankful for...Grand Haven!  My mom and I went shopping in downtown Grand Haven this afternoon...it was such a nice day to walk around to all the different shops.  We both got a new shirt from Michigan Rag Co. and I found a neat picture frame too...I'll have to take a picture of it when I get a photo in it. :)

[February 19, 2012] Thankful for...new songs!  I heard this song on the radio a couple days ago and just remembered to look it up - it's called "A Thousand Years" by Christina Perri...so pretty.  I guess it's been out for a while because it's on the soundtrack for the movie Breaking Dawn: Part 1, of the Twilight movies, but even if it's not brand new, I still like it. :)  Her songs are so pretty...here's the link to the video -  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtOvBOTyX00

p.s. the picture is of my computer screen, so it looks really grainy... :(

[February 18, 2012] Thankful for...sharpies!  I FINALLY finished my notecards by using these sharpies, provided by my friend Kelly. :)  So now all 366 (it's Leap Year!) cards all have dates on them and are ready to be written on. :)

[February 17, 2012] Thankful for...pretty snowflakes.  We got some more snow this afternoon - it didn't really stick much, but it's so pretty when it's coming down and sticks to the trees and bushes...

[February 16, 2012] Thankful for...cute crafts!  I know Valentine's Day is a couple days removed, BUT I had to take a picture of these Love Bugs my kids made on Tuesday.

[February 15, 2012] Thankful for...pretty lights.  I see this tree every day on the way to school in Holland - it's by the tree farm on Chicago Drive.  It's been on every morning and night since around Thanksgiving!  The tree is completely covered in lights and is so pretty when it's still dark out.

[February 14, 2012] Thankful for...Valentine's Day!  My friend Katie and I went to see the movie "The Vow" - super good!  After that, we did Zumba together for a while...it was a great night.

p.s. Katie made these flowers, so I put them in a little vase - aren't they cute? :)

[February 13, 2012] Thankful for...girly nights!  My friends Katie and Becky came over to watch The Bachelor - a.k.a. The Courtney and Ben Show for the others of you that watch it... :)  While we were watching, we did our nails too!

[February 12, 2012] Thankful for...baking cookies.  I baked a bunch of these for my kiddos on Tuesday. :)

[February 11, 2012] Thankful for...popcorn!  My mom and I stopped at Family Fare today and grabbed a little bag of popcorn before we left - it was the perfect little afternoon snack.

[February 10, 2012] Thankful for...peacefulness.  It snowed today and whenever it snows, it seems so peaceful outside and the trees kind of reminded me of that today because they were so calm and "quiet", if you know what I mean. :)

[February 9, 2012] Thankful for...sunrises.  I usually try to think ahead to the next day about what I might be able to take a picture of so that I make sure and have my camera with me.  Last night I had a hard time coming up with something I could take a picture of today.  I knew I wasn't doing a whole lot today, just school and some things around the house, not much to take a picture of, BUT when I was leaving for school this morning, I saw this - it was perfect. :)

[February 8, 2012] Thankful for...my Grandpa (and my whole family)!  Today was his 86th birthday - it was nice to be around family for the night and to celebrate with everyone who was able to come! :)

[February 7, 2012] Thankful for...volleyball again!  We had a double header tonight, so we played six games instead of the normal three.  We ended up losing five of the six because we played some really good teams, but it was still fun.

[February 6, 2012] Thankful for...getting some work done on my notecards, finally!  I have been writing down a few things that happen each day on my computer, but just started transferring them to notecards.  Next year, I will write a couple more things down for that date on the same note card.  Each card will have six years worth of "tidbits"...it's kind of neat to think about what is going to be on those notecards in the next six years - I'm sure a lot of joy, excitement, sadness, among other things. It will be fun to look back at these in a couple years! :)

[February 5, 2012] Thankful for...(can you guess???) the Superbowl!  Today was a great day for sports...first, the Chelsea-Manchester United soccer game was on tv (they tied 3-3), then the MSU - UofM basketball game (MSU won 64-54), and then the Superbowl between the Giants and Patriots.  My cousins, aunt, and uncle came over for the game. :)

[February 4, 2012] Thankful for...jello.  That's kind of wierd, right? :)  I really like using my football jello molds, and the Superbowl is usually the only time I use them, so it's kind of fun.  I usually try to make the jello the same color as the helmets of the teams, but with the Patriot's helmets being silver, I had to improvise with red - I think people will still eat them though. :)

[February 3, 2012] Thankful for...high school memories.  Tonight I went to Unity's basketball game, and it was Winterfest.  For those of you who don't know what that is, it was kind of our high school's Homecoming.  We didn't have a football team until my junior year, so we had always done Winterfest, where there were skits, dress up days, and halftime games like tug-of-war.  Even after football started, Unity's continued doing Winterfest and watching it tonight brought back a lot of memories from when my friends and I did it in high school - which by the way seems like a long time ago... :)

[February 2, 2012] Thankful for...getting organized!  At school today, I went through a bunch of activities I did last year with my kiddos.  I'm trying to sort them into shapes, letters, numbers, seasons, animals, etc.  It's a lot of stuff, but once I finish it tomorrow, it will be a lot easier to find what I need later! :)

[February 1, 2012] Thankful for...basketball webcasts!  Dordt was playing their rival, Northwestern, and won - it was a great game!  Sometimes we can find Scott over by the students (it's usually a little blurry), but this night, he was sitting behind the camera.  During halftime of the game, there were a bunch of different gift cards given out to students, and he won $40 to Culvers!  It's really fun to watch the games knowing that he's there watching too - only 12 hours away. :)  Miss ya Scott!!