[March 29, 2012] Thankful for...Spring Break (like I acutally needed my Google calendar to remind me...)! :)  I'm not doing much, just some things around the house and hanging out with my cousins Joel and Jack. :)

[March 28, 2012] Thankful for...American Idol with my mom. :)  We've been pretty faithful about watching it this year, so it's been pretty fun to watch the people we liked in the beginning still be on the show!  These are three of my favorites...Elise, Colton, and Phillip.

p.s. I've liked Phillip Phillips from the beginning, just check out my post from January 18! :)

[March 27, 2012] Thankful for...Zumba with Katie!  It's the first time for a while that we had both been there...we did some new songs too. :)

[March 26, 2012] Thankful for...going to bed early.  This week at school we have conferences, so that took up most of my weekend.  After conference week is Spring Break, so we have something to look forward to! :)  I have lots of things to do each day at school this week, so I headed to bed earlier than usual today, and am thankful for some extra sleep. :)

[March 25, 2012] Thankful for...tennis again!  I called my Aunt Joan's house to see if anyone wanted to play tennis this afternoon, and Joel and my aunt came...it was fun, and so nice outside AGAIN!

[March 24, 2012] Thankful for...awesome spring weather!  It was super nice again today, and my dad started mowing the lawn already because it had gotten pretty long - and it's not even April yet...crazy!

[March 23, 2012] Thankful for...bake sales.  Our youth group is hosting a Craft and Vendor Sale at church tomorrow to rasie funds for travelling to Guatemala this summer.  They also had a Bake Sale, so I made these little hamburgs! :)  They are more of a summer goodie, but.........they're so cute. :)

[March 22, 2012] Thankful for...blossoms on the trees!  At our house today, the temperature hit 86 degrees, and a lot of the blossoms are coming out on the trees - this one is right at the corner of our house.

[March 21, 2012] Thankful for...sunrises.  I have about a 15 minute window where the sun is at the perfect position right when I am getting into Holland in the morning.  There is a church in Holland, pretty much out in the middle of nowhere, that I go by on my way to school, so I just pull into their parking lot and snap a picture!  My window is closing, though, with the sun rising earlier each day, but I will keep stopping for pictures as long as I can. :)

[March 20, 2012] Thankful for...my volleyball girls!  Tonight was our tournament, and last games of the season.  We ended up playing well, and were in a 3-way-tie for first at the end of our games, so then we played 2 quick games against the other 2 teams...and we all won 1 game and lost 1 game, meaning another tie. :)  We then added up all of the points we scored over the course of the night, and we ended up in 3rd place.  It was still fun though - we always have a great time together! :)

[March 19, 2012] Thankful for...a shopping day!  My mom, Aunt Joan, and I headed towards Detroit this morning.  We stopped in Howell at the Tanger Outlets, and then headed to Ikea afterwards.  I don't always get a lot there, but LOVE to look! :)  I got just a few things...some magazine boxes, some cute paper clips, and some storage baskets for my linen closet.  It was a fun day! :)

[March 18, 2012] Thankful for...tennis!  I got to use the tennis racket I got for my birthday - I did not expect to use it this early though! :)  I played with my cousins Joel and Jack, and my Aunt Joan.  My mom, dad, and Grandpa came to watch, and my Grandpa even played!  He said it was the first time he's ever played, and he's 86 years old - you're never too old to try something new! :)

[March 17, 2012] Thankful for...warm weather.  It was warm enough out today to wash my car, so I got that done, and then put my new MSU decal on the car. :)

[March 16, 2012] Thankful for...fog delays.  Today the fog was so dense in the morning that several schools, including mine, had a 2 hour delay.  Since I only teach in the mornings, my director called and let me know that I didn't have to come to school.  Pretty much that meant just sleeping in a little because I had some things I still needed to get done for school next week. :)

p.s. I took this picture at 9:30 this morning...2 hours after I normally leave for school, and it was still really foggy!

[March 15, 2012] Thankful for...signs of Spring!  Can you spy the little bird? :) I've started to notice the birds chirping more and more, and saw this one sitting in a tree near our house.  You can see the buds beginning to bloom too...I'm fine with Spring coming in March. :)

[March 14, 2012] Thankful for...my cousin Alec!  I spilled water on my computer this afternoon....sooooo not good.  I turned it off right away and got some paper towel and spent about a half hour just trying to soak up any of the water that got underneath the keys.  I usually trust Alex or my Uncle Bear to help me with my computer problems (most of the time!), so I took it over for Alec to look at, and try to take apart, but that always makes me nervous too. :/  Anyways, he looked it over pretty good and felt that it was okay, and it's been working fine since then...fingers crossed it keeps working.

[March 13, 2012] Thankful for...Aubrey being home for Spring Break!  We went to Zumba tonight at a local church, and had a great time! :)  Hopefully during the summer we'll be able to do it again!

[March 12, 2012] Thankful for...rainbows!  Today there was a tornado watch for our area - we mainly just got some rain.  There was a full rainbow in the middle of it, when the sun came out for just a little bit - it was there for less than 5 minutes, but I managed to get a couple shots. :)  I was in the prayer room again today, and was reading about so many of God's promises, and today I was able to physically see one of those promises. :)

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Genesis 9: 12-16 The Message

[March 11, 2012] Thankful for...NCAA brackets!  Today was Selection Sunday, so I printed off a bracket to fill out...do you see who's #1 in the West??? :)  That is the direct result of beating OSU today in the Big 10 Tournament!

[March 10, 2012] Thankful for...being able to watch the Dordt basketball game.  I watched the game with my friends Lindy and Al because they both went to Dordt, and wanted to watch the quarterfinal game.  Scott was there with a bunch of his friends because he's on Spring Break (the tournament is being held near Branson, Missouri) - we even saw him and his friends a couple of times, all wearing black body paint. :)  Unfortunately, Dordt lost by 4, BUT..... they only had one senior on their team, so pretty much everyone will be back next year - hopefully they'll make another run at the National Tournament! :)

[March 9, 2012] Thankful for...my friend Renee!  She actually was my assistant in my classroom first, and we grew into being great friends! :)  We went shopping in downtown Holland and went for dinner at the 8th Street Grille...yum!  We always have a great time together, talking about our families and our faith...our conversations are soooo good! :)

[March 8, 2012] Thankful for...the Prayer Room.  This whole week, our church has been doing a 24/7 Prayer Room, where people sign up for one hour at a time to spend in prayer/reflection for people in our church, church ministries, and our own relationship with God.  Today was my day to go, and I didn't quite know what to expect, but I had heard SO MANY amazing things about it...and it was totally more than I expected.  I had heard others say that one hour was not nearly enough time, and they were right.  You think an hour is a long time, but when spending it with God, it's really not.  If you add up all the hours that people are praying and reflecting, it equals 168 hours! - and many wanted more time slots to pray, so this coming Sunday will mark week 2 of the 24/7 Prayer Room!  People are praying at all hours of the day and night, and what a blessing for each person praying, each person they are praying for, each ministry that is being prayed for, and each unbeliever that is being prayed for...
Sorry this post is kind of long, but I wanted you guys to get a sense of what it was like - ask me about it if you want to know more! :)

[March 7, 2012] Thankful for...cute octopuses - I know, I know, it should be octopi, but try explaning that to 4-year-olds! :)  We are starting our Animals theme and were working on letter "O" this week, so this was a perfect craft to do!

p.s. I knew that saving toilet paper tubes for the past 2 years would eventually be good for a craft... :)

[March 6, 2012] Thanful for...plants growing!  It's been so warm the last few days (62 degress today!) and these little green buds started coming up.  It's suppossed to be colder for the next couple of days - hopefully they'll be okay!

[March 5, 2012] Thankful for...finishing a Pinterest project (finally).  I've always collected my tickets from different events I've gone to - museums, movies, sports games, etc.  A month or so ago, I saw an idea on Pinterest to put them in a mason jar, which I did, but didn't really have a good ribbon for it.  I was scrounging around for a ribbon the other day, and found this cute pink one. :)  So even though it obviously wasn't a very difficult project, I'm glad it's done!

[March 4, 2012] Thankful for...MSU basketball.  Today MSU played OSU for the Big Ten title - if MSU won, they would win the title outright; if they lost, MSU, OSU, and UofM would finish in a 3-way-tie for the title....................and MSU lost........................by 2......................on a last second shot. :(  Total bummer, BUT there is still the Big Ten Tourney and the National Tourney to look forward to. :)

[March 3, 2012] Thankful for...my awesome volleyball!  I was cleaning in my room today in order to find the perfect spot for this volleyball!  My friend Katie gave me this for my birthday - it has Kerri Walsh, Phil Dalhausser, and Todd Rogers' autographs on it.  They played at the Delta Plex last Saturday, but I wasn't able to go see them, so she got this for me. :)  If you don't know who those people are, they are professional volleyball players who have won gold medals at the Olympics for Beach Volleyball...check out these youtube videos to see them. :)

Kerri - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yE_IHpx8jM&feature=plcp&context=C3bd9a26UDOEgsToPDskJIa4ZEAY-8Gs8HJ6yY_wum

Phil & Todd - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NT7hokfLN5I

[March 2, 2012] Thankful for...being able to send packages!  This one should arrive in  Northwest Iowa on Monday. :)

[March 1, 2012] Thankful for...one last high school basketball game. Tonight was probably the last boys' game I'll get to this year. I love going to watch them, ever since Scott played, about 3 years ago already! Tonight Unity played Otsego and won by 2 points on a last second (literally!) shot by our center - the whole crowd went crazy! :) It was such an awesome atmosphere...