What does this mean?

Today I was substitute teaching at the same school that Skyler goes to. I subbed in the 2nd grade and will be there again tomorrow. I like subbing and I don't like subbing. I like it because I still get to be around the kids and try to inspire them to love learning and hopefully actually teach them something. I don't like subbing because I have to get up so freaking early, get a sitter for Lily and wonder, hmmm, I wonder what Lily is doing now, and the major thing is that I haven't really got any control while I am in that room. I can't implement any type of discipline system for the one or two days that I am going to be there; I just have to get by. Anyway, while I was subbing today I got a phone call from the school district that I was subbing for. This is strange, because they never call you if you are subbing for them, because they know that you are working. So, when I had a break I listened to my voicemail and I was in shock. They wanted to interview me for an elementary position! Wow! I was surprised because I never applied for an elementary job, only to sub. I called them back and asked if it was a full time job, they said yes. I said no. They asked why and I said because I have a little adorable 2 year old at home that I couldn't leave everyday! So, she asked if I would ever be interested and I said yes, in two years. She said ok and that she would keep my information in the open applicants pile. This seems so strange that all of this happened. I wonder if I would really like a teaching job for this district, they seem to push their teachers soooo hard, would I ever be home? I don't know, but I have a few years to think about it and pray about it. I guess we'll see what God has to say about it.

19 miles!!!!

Chuck took the day off today and we decided to go on a bike ride. Skyler was in school, so we just had Lily. We knew we needed to head some place where there was a park and a place to picnic before we turned back home. We decided to take the 9.5 mile trip to Hayworth Park and back, for a total of 19 miles. Chuck rides his bike to work about twice a week, 26 miles round trip. I've ridden my bike like two times this whole summer probably for a combined total of 10 miles. We made it to the park with no problems. My body was screaming and Chuck's hamstrings were screaming; he's not used to pulling a 70 pound trailer! We had a nice lunch and Lily played at the park. On our way back, we were attacked by grasshoppers! They were everywhere! A couple even got inside Lily's trailer, which is zippered shut, mind you! She freaked out. I mean freaked out!!! We had to stop and take her out and that's a picture of Chuck loving on Lily and telling her that grasshoppers can't hurt you!!! We finally made it home with about 5 minutes to spare before Skyler's bus came home! It was a great ride and a great time. Chuck and I got some good talking in, Jesus and I got some good talking in and the weather was spectacular!

Forgiveness

Forgiveness

I have been struggling with forgiveness for most of my life. I am not one that finds it easy to forgive others when they hurt me. When I am involved in a friendship, I put my whole self into that relationship. When they do something to hurt me, it really hurts me and it is hard for me to move on. My heart has been aching this summer with the hurt caused by a good friend and the fact that I knew I needed to forgive them and move on, but I just couldn’t. Our pastor even had a whole sermon dedicated to forgiveness a few weeks ago and I still couldn’t do it. My heart hurt even worse after listening to the sermon and I felt my face was on fire because what he was saying was so true for me. I have been praying about this since the whole stupid thing happened and about a week ago, I felt it. I felt the forgiveness coming out of me. I knew what I had to do. I was planning on writing this person a letter and telling them, “hey, I forgive you! “ I had the whole thing thought out in my mind and it sounded good. And, before I could write it, whammo! They do it to me again. They did it to me again. I was so angry last night that I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t sleep! I was like, “I’m done, this is it, I’m done! It’s over!” And then, that little voice, you know the one, says this to me: “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. Matthew 18:21-22. Really? I mean I’ve already felt like I have forgiven more than my share of times and not ever felt like I’ve been forgiven much. Instead I feel like I get an attitude and there is no real friendship there anymore. But again, I hear "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. And, after I heard that little voice, I felt the forgiveness flowing out of me. Am I happy about it? NO! Am I still hurt? You bet! Am I over it? I don’t know. But they have to live with the constant back stabbing and leaving me out of things, not me. I forgive you!

After School

We try to go to the park after school as much as we can, but it was pretty warm a couple of days this week and I just thought it was too hot to go to the park. So, we had a couple of after school water days with our neighbor and some other friends. It was a blast and the kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

My little discoverer

Lily and I went to Wild Wednesday at Neale Woods. It is a great parent - child program that allows children to discover things around them. The theme this session was Forest Friends. We got to play at some cool centers and then we went on a scavenger hunt in the forest. Lily loved it! She loved using the magnifying glass, she loved all the things we found in the forest and was really excited to look for HER animals in the forest. And of course, she loved touching everything she found!

Svajgl Family Fun Night #1

We had, what I plan to make a regular event at our house, family fun night last night. Our theme last night was the Olympics and we had our first ever 2008 Svajgl Olympic Night. The night started off with some Chinese food in honor of the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. We had egg rolls, fried rice and stir fried shrimp with hot spices. It was yummy. While we were eating we decided which countries we would be in our games.
Skyler was Mexico, Chuck was Canada, I was Sweden, and Lily was the United States. Then, we went and played our games. We did the ring toss, hurdles, basketball, and a race. The medal count was as follows: Canada -2, Mexico -1, the rest of us -0. Although Lily did get a medal for effort. Here are some pics from the night, including one with all the winners!

License Plate Update

Here are the states that I still definitely need. I have a few states that people said that they may be able to get, I may have to add a few to this list if they don't come through for me:

Alaska Arkansas Connecticut Delaware Florida Hawaii
Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kentucky Louisiana
Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Mississippi Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina
North Dakota Ohio Oklahoma Pennsylvania Rhode Island
South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah
Vermont Virginia Washington Wyoming


Thanks!

2008 Air Show

I love the air show that our air force base puts on every year! I have been an air show junky for over 26 years when my parents took us to our first one. It was one of my favorite childhood memories. Right after we went to our first air show, we moved just a few miles away from the base and every year we would have people over and watch the air show from our own backyard. We could see everything so well. But then all of the trees my dad planted grew too tall and they built housing developments (particularly mine!) that all block the perfect view of the base that we used to have. We then started going to sit on the flight line with my parents who always got passes. It was fun to be right on the runway. We haven't been for a while, but luckily that changed this weekend. Chuck and I have both been so busy lately and he hasn't been home much, but instead of staying here and watching what he could from our house, he took Skyler down to the base, not just on Saturday, but on Sunday too! On Sunday, they sat on the runway and Skyler had the time of his life! I am so thankful that he has such an awesome dad! I stayed here with a napping Lily, but she woke up both days in time to see the Thunderbirds fly right over our house! We had a crazy busy weekend, but it was worth it to hear Skyler going on and on about the airshow!





This picture of Skyler has special significance because it is just like the picture of Chuck that was taken after he got his private pilot's license.

Bye Bye Hair

This is how much hair I got cut off on Saturday. Yes, it does say 7 inches! I feel so much more free now! It is awesome and I got a great easy to take care of hair cut. Thanks Rachael! You always do such a fantastic job on my hair, but this one is my favorite for sure!

License Plates Needed

Hello Everyone!

I am writing to you all to request license plates. I know that seems like a crazy thing, but I am making something special for Chuck for Christmas and in order to do that, I need a license plate from EACH STATE in the US! This is a huge undertaking and that is why I am calling on all of my blog reading friends. I know you may have some old plates from the various places you have lived, OR, you know other people who live in other states who could possibly help. So, please see if you can help me and if you can, shoot me an email at stefls@cox.net and we can exchange some information.

Thank you all for your help and I can't wait to show you the finished product, once I get it together!

Lilyisms part two

There are a few new phrases Lily keeps saying, over and over and over:

• I don't know
• Skyler did it
• Lily ride bus too
• Lily go to school now
  

Yes, it is a Mohawk!

I was giving Skyler his buzz cut on Saturday and he asked, while I was in the middle of doing it, if he could have a mohawk. So, I did my best. I am not a professional by any means! Chuck did not like it at all. It will be cut off this weekend, because I told him he could have it for two days, and he has had it for 4 already and mostly because he has school pictures next week!

Dragon Papercutting

Go here to check it out

The first day of school!

Well, I survived the day!!!! Skyler, who never wakes up early on his own, and who is very difficult to wake up, woke up 15 minutes before he needed to this morning. I thought Chuck woke him up and when I thanked Chuck, he told me that Skyler did it all on his own. He said he was just so excited to go to school that he couldn't sleep anymore and he also said he was a little scared that I would not get him up in time and he would miss the bus! I had an old fashioned film camera this morning and took his annual first day of school picture and pictures of him getting on the bus at our house, off the bus at school and walking into his classroom. I am glad no one was taking pictures of me, since I was crying, but I wasn't completely ridiculous! Skyler did keep looking at me like I was acting weird though. I bought my new digital camera while he was at school and was able to take a picture of this bus coming home and him getting off the bus. He said he had a great day, and asked if tomorrow I could just stay home and let him walk home, since it is only 3 houses away. I said yes, that I only did it today because it was his first day. Man! He doesn't appreciate me! He had a great day and just loved school! I am so glad, and that is what I was praying for! So, all in all, we both survived. He, of course is better off than me!

The Day Before

Today is the day before Skyler goes to full day, five day a week kindergarten. I am very emotional about him going to school tomorrow, and lots of people laugh at me because of it, but that is who I am. Yesterday, I asked Skyler what he wanted to do on his very last day before school starts. I was expecting that he would want me to take him some where. I was wrong. This is exactly what he said, " I want to drink and eat and watch movies all day long. I want to have a pajama day." I was very shocked. Since we never do anything like that, I thought, what the heck! It truly is his last day of freedom. Tomorrow will be the first day of school for the next 12 + years, a little movie watching on the day before this starts isn't going to hurt anything! I asked him what he wanted to drink; root beer, milk and water. He wanted doughnuts to eat, he got doughnuts. We watched The Fantastic 4 and Holidaze. 2 movies and it made it his day.

My good friend brought us each a little kindergarten present today. It made our day. Skyler got Spiderman and Batman stuff and a cowboy picture frame. Lily got stickers and a cowgirl picture frame and Hello Kitty stuff. Chuck got RED BULL, popcorn, and chips, and I got coffee, KLEENEX, stickers and a mouse pad, a note pad, and bubble bath! We also went out to lunch today, which was good. I kept thinking about the open house at school today and what it was going to be like and if I was going to cry. Well, we went and I did. Tomorrow is another day and I already have plans to go work out immediately after I follow Skyler's bus to school and walk him to his classroom. I am such a sad, sad mother! Really, this is ridiculous!

And, on top of all of this, my digital camera is dead-DEAD-! So, I am going to buy a new one tomorrow! That should put a smile on my face, we'll see!

Newest Letters

Go here

Happy Birthday Bro!

Happy Birthday Andy!! 32 years ago you were brought into this world and although I have tried many times to take you out of it, you are still here! Thanks for being such a great brother and a great uncle. I have so many fond memories of you as we are growing up; like all of the bike rides we went on, and all of the exploring that we did. The time we had lice together because we would sneak off and steal those dirty puppies every day and then return them at night! Fun Fun stuff. I hope you have a wonderful birthday and many more. It's good to see your hair hasn't changed much over these years!

Lilyisms

For the first time ever since I have had children, my Lily actually told me she was tired!

"Mama, Lily tired"

I knew this from the way that she was acting, but to hear her say it was amazing.

Other new cute things she has been saying:

When she wakes up, the first thing she always says is:

"Where's my Skyler?" I think it is so heartwarming.
The second thing she says is:
"Waffle time!"

She has also been saying:
"Me too! Lily too, mama"

Yes I know, you won't be excluded, I promise!

And one of my favorites:
"Good job, mom!"

I get that one no matter what I am doing, it's sweet.