Wishing you and yours...

A Very Merry Christmas!!!
much love,
Shelley and Family

Another Contest...all welcome!

So Mama Cass is setting up another contest. Any and all are welcome to join. I have one more round on me! Any takers? Take a look.

www.mickmonkeys.blogspot.com

S...l...o...w...l...y

That is how fast your annual Nevin Christmas Letters and Pictures are getting mailed. SORRY! They are on the way though!

San Antonio Temple Trip

In November we were able to go to the temple with our two oldest children. What a wonderful experience! It was Sadey's first time, along with about 8 others. Our youth group consisted of 30 great youth, many of which had both parents enjoy the day too.


It was a beautiful day.

How many is too many?

We have decided that Friday nights are friend nights. We order pizza, they all start here and eat around 6pm and then spread out or stay here. We know who they are with, enjoy visiting with them, and it makes for a fun night.

This weekend I have good friends who traveled to run a marathon (go Diana and Richard!) and left their 3 beautiful girls in our care. We are loving it. Here is a quick rundown in numbers from our last night fun.

4 pizzas plus
3 2liters of pop plus
2 packages of oreos plus
1 gallon of milk
_______________________

10 happy kids.

I LOVE a house full of kids.

Twilight Night...LOVED IT!

So I went to hang out with my peeps for the Twilight premiere. Yes, I went at midnight, yes I was giddy, and yes, I still taught my first graders the next morning bright and early. My expectations of the movie were not so high knowing the budget and all. I loved it!! It was fun seeing something that wasn't even in production when I read it come to the big screen. I had plenty of time to work through the casting. I am so glad I have read the books to know the depth of the storyline and characters but really had a great time. My cheeks hurt the next day because I had a permagrin on for an hour straight, at least. Anyone else go? What did you think? Thanks for the pictures Angela!







Thanks ladies! We had a blast!

How would you live?

I have a friend currently helping her mother through her last weeks of life. This experience has caused me to reflect on some of the things she is going through. One of her journal entries asked the question, "How do you live each day knowing that it might be your last?"

Isn't that how we should be living? Shouldn't we love more, give more, share more, care more, thank more?

This is my thank you to you....all of my friends and family who care. I am so blessed.

We really are here! With no help from AT&T

OK...so the family has moved...and we attempted to switch cable networks. DIDN'T WORK! After weeks, we are here again. Our move lasted a couple of weeks and we are nicely settled in our home as of Oct. 15th. We moved in the first weekend in October and trickled in all the junk after that. WE LOVE IT! This is truly a blessing to us and we are often overwhelmed. It is just across the main road from our old address so the ward and schools are the same. Email me and I will send you our new address.

Thanks for your patience and for still checking on the lame blogger that is me, Shelley.

Love you all!

Ode to Shalyce

This is my niece. Her name is Shalyce.



She had a birthday and ate lots of geese. Note the stomach.

LOVE YOU SHALYCE!!! HERE IS THE UPDATE YOU REQUESTED. I am now hopping on to yours to check out your latest. Hope it's a tummy pic like I requested! :)

Is that what I think it is?

So today we had 5 classes of first graders out at recess. All of the sudden, a skunk comes running around the corner from the front of the school, along the edge of the playground and behind a portable, which had some of our kids on the other side. What would a first grader do if a skunk came racing toward them?


I have a possible idea.




I also know that it is a hilarious site to see 5 teachers running the other way trying to round up 100+ kids in a matter of seconds.

Oh, the joys of teaching.

This was more fun than the bull snake that came up out of the sand on the kindergarten playground in Arizona.

-10%

For those of you who may not have read my earlier post, I am in a somewhat competitive group of losers, weight loss that is. We all have 12 weeks to loose 10% of our weight. If we are able to do this and maintain the loss as of October 6, we get part of the pot. (It's not gambling when it is for a good cause, right? :)) Today was the wonderful day that the scale screamed back at me that I reached that goal!!!!!! YEA!!

I still have some Brody weight left but feel so much better. Thanks for the boost Mama Cass! Couldn't have done it without ya!

A little glimpse

Take a peek at the curtains and pillows that now grace my classroom. My friend Mindy, to whom I am forever indebted, made them for me. I LOVE THEM!!! It makes my days so much better working in a happy room! Thanks Mindy!!!!

It's ONLY been a decade.

My posting might not be so regular the next week or two. Just giving a heads up. I am so excited to be wrapped up in my wonderful first graders!! I will be back though! I'm a bit rusty at running my own room...it's only been a decade!

What do you want to be when you grow up?

Last month, Todd's work had "Take your kid to work day." Todd doesn't take 1 kid, he takes 4 kids. Fun for him, I'm sure. This year they had things planned from early morning until 4 pm, and I had a day at home all alone. WOW!!! As they left I told them to have a great day, kissed them all and asked them, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

Jesse - An NY Yankee baseball player
Sadey - cosmetologist
Mairzey - a cake artist
Brody - Kindergarten Art teacher

When they all got home they gave me the rundown of the day. Jesse loved playing Wii in the break room for 3 hours, Sadey learned a little about saving money, Mairzey loved the fake badges and pretending to swipe it all day, and Brody loved learning how to make origami puppies and they were amazed that king size candy bars are 35 cents in the break room too.

Hmmmmm.
So I asked, "Now, what do you want to be when you grow up?"

Not one of them changed the first answer.


We love Todd. He is such a great papa and provider. :)

List of Me

So, today I spoke in church. I had the hardest time getting this talk together for some reason. My topic was Joseph Smith. At first I thought the task was going to be easy but the more I thought about giving a synopsis of who he was, what he did for mankind, etc. in 12-15 minutes, I panicked. I wrote most of a talk that went out the window this morning at 5:30 am after sleeping restlessly all night. I finished at 7 am and went back to sleep, peacefully I might add. FINALLY!!! It was finally the right talk. I ended up listing 10 adjectives I would use to describe this special man and then gave evidence of my claim.

This got me thinking...how would I describe myself? What would my list include? What would you include on my list? How do others see me?

If you are reading this, leave me a couple of adjectives you would use to describe me. I'll hop on over to your blog and do the same. Be nice. I am dieting, remember??? :)

It's coming.....

3 Days....3 Days!!!!!!!!

I'm in the lead!

OK, so it isn't winning....YET!

We are now up to 8 people in our quest to loose some unwanted fluff.

Weigh in occurs Monday morning and I am in the lead, down 7 lbs.

YYYIIIPPPEEEEEEE!!!!

For those who have asked, I am going at this with the South Beach diet. I figure, this is getting me WAY closer to the word of wisdom than I was before.

Mindy said I would loose fast the first couple of weeks.

It's fun being in the lead!

I'm not competitive or anything.

(Todd's eyes always seem to roll when I say that. I don't know why!?!)

Here goes week 2!!

Camping Fun

The boys headed south for Scout Camp last week. Todd was able to go for some of those days and enjoy time with Jesse.

I wasn't sure the whole "basket weaving" was real but here it is! Jesse came home with a couple of baskets that really made Mairzey happy to have.

Making his Mama proud...nice and healthy. 4 Chocolate milks and 2 pieces of cake. YUM!

Todd nearing the top.

Todd and Jesse with all the scouts.

They had a fun time and weren't eaten alive by mosquito's like last year.

I love my boys!

I am not craving ANYTHING!!!

This whole no sugar and carbs for 2 weeks is going quite well,

thank you.

I have absolutely no cravings for things like ...

Crunchy, salty, cheesy, cheetos or

crumbly, chewy, chocolatey cookies.

Ya, WHATEVER!!!

Away it goes.....hopefully!!

OK...so for some reason I have finally decided it is time to drop the baby weight. Call me crazy, but since my baby is 6,
years NOT months,
I think it may be about time! Any thoughts?

So a friend of mine has put me to the challenge, and hit up my wallet for a pot, and off I go in an attempt to loose 10% of my weight in 12 weeks. Maybe since so few of you are seeing this, I can just delete it if it doesn't work out?
Or plaster a picture of me rolling in the doe when I WIN!!!

You're so gonna lose Mindy!

Shel Froze over...she's starting a blog!!

Yep...I have caught the bug. I really can't believe I am attempting my own blog. I told many of you I would NEVER do this. I can't really file this one away with all of my other journals I have in a box, each with 6 to 8 attempts at capturing some of my life in words. Hopefully, with the help from my kiddos and friends, this attempt won't be in vain. I owe an update now and then to family & friends far and friends near.

Shel must have froze over!!!!

Here goes my new advernture...