Living the Questions

umm....totally can't believe that football game....so sad....uga, my bulldogs...what happened to you this year? thought i'd take this time to upload some pics for you...there aren't many, but here they are: these are the pretty leaves i saw on the way home from work each day. gorgeous. the crabs we made in class before our trip to the aquarium. aren't they cute?? the snow we had only about a week after i took that picture of the leaves! a couple of my kiddos watching the snow fall. they were too adorable! so, this past week we (meaning, gallery church ) decorated and served for a "fall" dinner at the kids' school. these are two of the decorations... i just love this quote... a few other quotes i liked: and this is the bottom of one of the vases that kristina put together one of the girls playing with the pipecleaners we put on the tables to keep the kids occupied. they ended up looking like decorations, but they were fun anyway! and finally, the pictu...

so. today was the first thanksgiving i've ever spent away from my family. it was a little strange, and being that i was away from the normal holiday traditions we have, probably didn't feel like thanksgiving as much as it normally does. but it was still good. i got to hang out with derek and kristina with their family, so that was nice. i watched the parade this morning. the whole thing. well, most of it. it's such a great holiday tradition. and santa was marvelous. i almost cried as meredith viera was talking about how emotional seeing santa in the parade made her. as thanksgiving night is upon us and i'm sitting here about to watch a charlie brown thanksgiving, i thought i'd do a little blogging. because it's thankgiving, i think i'm obligated to do the "what i'm thankful for this year" thing.... of course, there are many things in my life for which i'm thankful, but here are a few blessings in my life i'm grateful for at the moment.....

ok, so this post is really just about one thing that moves my heart, and not multiple things. kids. i love them. if you've known me any amount of time, you know how i feel about kids. they're precious and innocent and loving and can teach you so much if you let them. they capture your heart in more than one way. one of the girls that has been in my group at church for the last couple of weeks (not long at all, actually) came in today and asked specifically if i was going to be there tonight. it's just great to know that you're connecting with the kids you work with, even when you think you aren't. through the night, though, she was quite upset, and i never could figure out what was wrong. she kind of said something that makes me concerned for her and her brothers and sisters, but i don't really know what was going on. so precious. and going through so much, it seems. all kids generally are, but sometimes you get a picture of something that makes your heart ache...

i don't really have a lot to say, except that the holidays are almost here!!! thanksgiving is this week. i can't believe it. it came so quickly. christmas will be here before we know it. oh my goodness.

it's cold up here.... really, really cold.... what it would be in january in ga, it is here now.... and, it snowed today!!! not enough to do anything, but definitely enough to see and enjoy :) and when i left work, i promptly called my sister to let her know.....i'm sure she enjoyed that.... i can't believe we're only a week away from thanksgiving...november has gone by so quickly! that means i've been here 2 1/2 weeks already. i'm halfway through my 3rd week of work and of being here in baltimore. craziness... it feels like it's been longer than that, but at the same time it doesn't.....i hope that makes sense. :) how the grinch stole christmas was on tv the other night....while i loved watching it, i still can't figure out why it was on, randomly, before thanksgiving....

so, i love that movie :) and i had a moment today that made me feel a little like dorothy may have when she realized she wasn't in kansas anymore..... one of the things i've always loved about the south is the manners. granted, that sadly seems to be fading out in many places, but in general people in the south are friendly and respectful, even to strangers. while i'm not really living "up north", there are some definite differences. for example, today i was driving home from work, on the highway, and i get behind this car going pretty slowly. i see the blinker and think that maybe it's trying to change lanes, but it doesn't ever make it's move. about the same time, i see a car entering the highway with what appears to be a bright orange bumper sticker in their front windshield. i try to read it and think, "hmm, that's an interesting place for a bumper sticker. and why would you really want a bright orange bumber sticker says liberal anyway?...

it is 8pm and i am really, really tired. how sad is that? and it's been this way for a couple of days.... also, in the kitchen at the jcc a lot of the classes have been baking things that smell oh so good...and have left me wanting to make something.... i love the cosby show... how's that for a random entry?

so, i've been in baltimore for almost 5 full days :) steph was in town for the weekend and left saturday morning....we had a lot of fun and it was great to spend time with her again! we even had a chance to go see charm city cakes!! for those of you who don't know, i'm a pretty avid food network watcher. and i love "ace of cakes", which is a show about a cake bakery in baltimore. steph happens to love it too and really wanted to go find it, so we did. when we got there, we saw one of the people who works there outside the restaurant across the street....and debated whether or not we should really get out to take our picture because she might see us....for about a minute and then did it anyway.....and ta da!! yep. sorry it's small, but we wanted to get the charm city logo in the picture. it's a pretty building. also, you may not be able to see it, but i'm definitely rocking the red and black to cheer on the dawgs for the florida game. sadly, it did no...

so, recently i have found a couple of things online that i love.....and i decided to share them with you. first, one of the best abc books i've ever seen. it's not necessarily the best book, teaching wise, but it's really cool. it's called abc3d and it's just awesome. it's a pop-up book and almost all the letters are 3d. i think the 'u' is my favorite. if you click on the name of the book, you'll be able to see a promo video for the book. everyone should check it out....i mean it....you'll be glad you did :) next, i found a website called postcrossing . when you sign up on the website, they give you the address of another member who lives somewhere in the world. you send the person a postcard and eventually you start getting postcards from people also. real mail from all over the world. not only is this cool because you become connected to people across the globe, but i also think it would be an awesome project for a class to do. third, a projec...

so, we made it to baltimore. and by we, i mean my friend steph and i. we left steph's house at around 4:30 in the am yesterday and drove all day. we were supposed to meet a friend for a bit, but sadly she had to study for a test. we miss you, becky! anyway, we made great time and arrived at our desired time. we could have been earlier but got a little sidetracked (note...lost) in the dc area and then hit some traffic coming from dc to baltimore. however, when we got in baltimore, we got rid of the directions because we didn't find the road we were supposed to take and so.....i used the map and my very, very limited knowledge of the streets of the city and we found our way! an accomplishment :) as soon as we got here we headed to dinner with some of the church family at a pretty good pizza restaurant. after we unloaded the car we walked down to fells point for some gelato and to see what kind of halloween crazinesswas happening. lots of interesting costumes. and the gelato was m...