Christmas '08

I was taking a peek at everyone's blogs and saw all of the fun Christmas pictures, traditions, and updates so I thought I'd better join in the fun! We had Christmas with just the two of us first and exchanged a few small presents. My favorite was an exercise ball! Funny....first Christmas as a married woman, and I'm getting exercise equipment...hmmm...(Although Kyle frequently reminds me that I asked for it, it wasn't HIS idea--hehe!)
We headed to the thriving metropolis of East Chain after work on Wednesday. We had Shiho (one of our foreign exchange students from 4 years ago) and her boyfriend Kohei staying with us over Christmas. It was fun to celebrate and share family traditions with them. We had our big feast (steak and shrimp--YUM!) on Christmas Eve and opened stockings...here are a few favorite pics...

Shiho decided it would be fun to WEAR she and Kohei's stockings! :)

The guys all got the same "AWESOME" pens in their stockings.

On Christmas Day we went to church, relaxed, played games, and then piled up our plates with yummy snacks to get ready to open presents. A few more favorite pictures...

Rylee was a central participant in all of the family fun.
She was just glad that she got to be in the living room, and not outside!

(L-R) Kyle, Mel, Felicia, Cameron, Kohei, Shiho

TOOLS!
(Can you hear the manly grunting???) :)

On Friday we headed up to Breezy and just beat the snow/ice. We had another fantastic Christmas meal with something new to try for me--king crab legs! They were so yummy!!! We openned presents, played more games, went to see Marley & Me (GREAT MOVIE!), and enjoyed a wonderful church service on Sunday.
Whew! We had so much fun with family over Christmas, and were continually reflecting on how thankful we are for them. We had many great times of remembering Christ's birth, and thanking Him for all He's done for us as well. We hope you had a Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

Our First Christmas and some "Wild" fun!

Wicked

If you EVER get a chance to go see "Wicked"....DO IT!!!!! We went last weekend with some family members and friends as part of a fundraiser for Gillette Children's Hospital, and it was AMAZING! I will never watch "The Wizard of Oz" the same way.

We're Home Owners!

Thanks to everyone for "patiently" waiting for the update :) I put all of the pictures I had on our Shutterfly website, but I know that my mom took some really great ones of the Saturday moving crew as well, so I'll update more later. We have officially lived in our new home just over 2 weeks. We feel more "at home" everyday. Although last night we already had a police officer knocking at our door!!! YIKES! She wanted to welcome us to the neighborhood, but someone must have tipped her off to how wild and crazy we are....hmm.....;) We are still waiting for a mailbox, and waiting to meet neighbors (I think everyone is hibernating!) but we are enjoying the area, and being "up north".

We are just SO THANKFUL....

1. For the help and support of family and friends. We wouldn't have been able to consider moving into a home without your help--you are blessings!

2. For the help on moving day (and pre-moving night!!!) You were all troupers!

3. For a warm place to live, and to share with others. You're ALL welcome to stop over, or stay WHENEVER!!!!!

4. For a garage--hehe!!! :)

5. For laundry machines that do not cost $1 to operate :)

The list could go on and on....

We hope you enjoy Christmas with family and friends, and celebrating the Reason for the Season--Jesus!!!

Almost done!

Hello friends and family! We just visited the house again yesterday, and it's true....they're almost done! We updated the website with pictures just in case you want to see. :) Everything looks to be finished on time, and we've got almost everything we own in boxes, ready to move.



A few things to continue praying about:

• Safety for moving weekend
• Peace as we transition to a new neighborhood, and from renters to home owners
• Sublet for our apartment (Dec-Jan)

We have felt so blessed to have such a great support system around us through the past months and weeks. We have seen God's faithfulness through your love, encouragement, and support. His timing was definitely better than ours too, and it's been exciting to see how He has been in all of the details. We'll try to update the website once more when the house is finished, before the move.

Thanks again for everything!

Moving Day...

It's here! We just heard from our Realtors that we will get to close on our house the day before Thanksgiving. What a big blessing to be thankful for! We'll be moving out of our apartment and into our home that weekend. Mel doesn't have to work on Friday (perk of teaching!) so she'll be moving small items, food, breakables, etc.... that day. Then "the big moving day" will be on Saturday. Thanks again for all of your prayers as we finish up this process. We have felt tremendous peace through all of the decision making, and overwhelming support and excitement from you all! We're going to take a "drive-by" look at the house in the next few days, so we'll update the photosite with new pictures soon.

Thanks again for everything, and we can't wait to have you all over soon!

Our Pumpkins! :)

Since we don't have a great place to display fun, big, carved pumpkins we decided that we would paint some little ones! I think my little guy might be scared of the WILD pumpkin!

Translation...

I've now had the kiddos in my class for 2 months and am beginning to see the humor in the little things they say. I thought some of you (especially fellow teachers!) may enjoy some of these little comments, with the translation for what the kiddos are actually TRYING to say! :)

Direct quotes from kiddos . . . . . . . . . . . . Translations from Mel

"Oh guacamole!!" ........ Oh no!

"Hodie! Hodie!"(sounds like "hottie") ......Mrs. Hardie (they can't ever say the "r"), I need help!

"I don't have a girlfriend D*%&#*%#!!!!"...... Please stop saying I like that girl.

"Bachum" (while pointing to specific body part) ...... Can I go to the bathroom please?

"Hodie, what words octopus?" ........ Mrs. Hardie, what words am I supposed to put?
(it took me a while to figure this one out!)

These are just a few favorties from this week......I'm sure there will be more to come! :)

Quick housing update...

Things with the house are moving along! Last week we picked out floors, countertops, cupboard doors, doorknobs, and light fixtures. Who knew there were so many choices? When Natalie (our GREAT sales lady) pulled out the samples for laminate counter tops, there were OVER 300 CHOICES! Craziness....but we really are feeling good about everything so far. It's a little hard to choose flooring based off of a small sample and feel like it's going to look good all over your house, but we just went with our gut. :) We stopped by the house again last weekend, and they had added insulation--I guess we'll be warm when we move in winter! They're still saying that they are ahead of schedule with the move in date, so we could be moving as soon as the middle on November. WHOA! We'll keep updating as many of you have said you're up for helping with the move--THANKS!

Kyle's big catch!

Many of you know that Kyle has been in the fishing league with Eagle Brook Church for the past 2 years. They had a "species challenge" this weekend for muskie, and.....he won!!! He caught the BIGGEST MUSKIE EVER! :) It was 39 1/2 inches long! He caught it doing a "figure 8", which apparently was a good thing--I'm still learning all of these fishing terms. He had another big one follow his lure, but instead of grabbing the lure, he just bit off the tip. Bummer. Here's the picture of his big catch!!!

Praise the Lord, we got a house!

We met again with our Realtor tonight, and after much prayer and consideration, 3 1/2 months later we finally found a place to call home. We posted the pictures of our "framed house" on our Shutterfly link, along with the pictures from the "model home". The layout is the same but floors, cupbards, countertops, fixtures, etc. will be a little different! Thanks again for all of the prayers, encouragement, advice, and shared excitement that you've all provided. We still have a few details to work out with the process, but we think we'll be moving in about 45 days--YAY! We can't wait to have you all over! :)

This one, or that one?

Here's a REALLY QUICK house update. We found out this afternoon that we got a verbal agreement from the bank on the "Coon Rapids House" that we will have a contract ready to go by Monday. Whoa! GREAT! We also found out this week that through a connection we have, we are able to purchase a brand new detached-townhome in Lino Lakes for the same price. What?!?! We went from no offers, to 2 within a few hours! Sometimes I wonder what God is doing up there?!?! ;) We posted the pictures on our "Latest Hardie Pics" link, so take a peek and let us know what you think! Hopefully before the weekend is over we'll have our decision. We're going to look at both homes again on Sunday afternoon (we think our parents can come with too, which would be really nice) and we're PRAYING DESPERATELY for peace, clarity, wisdom, and discernment in making this decision. Thanks again to all of you for your prayers and advice. We'll let you know as soon as we know! :)

How are the kiddos?

The past 2 weeks have been tiring and full, but my students and I are starting to get used to each other, and there's been a little less "testing the teacher" going on. We actually got to experience something very special together last week--my parents were up in the cities for Cameron's knee surgery, and they decided to stop by my class. My dad brought soybean plants and corn stalks (which are 8 feet tall), corn and beans for the kids to run their fingers through, and little toy models of his combines and tractors. The kids were completely enamored by the corn, beans, and machinery. It was so cute to watch them try to process all of the statistics my dad was giving them, and the child-like questions they asked him: "Do you have pigs?" "Do you have cows?" "Do you have ANY animals?" "You don't look like a farmer...." This was fun for me to watch and really remember how many of my little ones have so many things they have not experienced yet. Even though they're stinkers a lot of the time :) they really are hungry to learn.

In the past 2 weeks we've also had some "interesting moments". One of my kiddos looked up at me in the middle of the morning and said (with a lisp and a Spanish accent), "Mrs. Hardie! I have gum in my shoe!" Sure enough--HUGE piece of chewed gum in his sock! Huh... Needless to say, he went sockless the rest of the day. Another favorite, was my little Eduardo (who the kids keep calling EGGuardo--oh boy!) When I returned to the classroom in the afternoon after they'd had a substitute teacher all morning, he said: "Mrs. Hardie, you look....you look....you look good!" I think he was trying to say he missed me...nothing like a 6-year-old to boost the ego! Finally, I have a number of kiddos whose parents only speak/read Spanish. Fortunately, I have all of our Math homework and family letters in Spanish. One day last week I forgot to give the kids that needed them the Spanish homework. One little guy came running up to me, waving his English homework, and screaming (literally) "Mrs. Hardie! I need the Mexican papers!" Oh dear--he's not a shy one. ;) I wish I could show you pictures of them, but pretty sure posting them online without parent consent is a BIG NO-NO! ;) While this crew is a LOT more work than my classes the past couple of years, I am learning to find them endearing and love their little quirks....like how several of the little boys tell me "I love you" instead of "I'm sorry" when they're in trouble--wonder where they learned that from? And I think they'll learn to love First Grade too....Here's hoping!

Back in the game...

We went to see 9 houses on Saturday, and of those 9 there was 1 that really stood out. We went to see it again last night in hopes of putting in a lower offer than list price. However, when we met our Realtor we found out that there were already 2 offers that were made Thursday and Friday. So AGAIN we are the third offer on this house. We were told that putting in a full price offer DID give us a really good shot at getting the house this time, so here's hoping! We'll let you know as soon as we hear anything. IF we get it, we'll put up pictures too! :) Thanks for all of the prayers during this process--we're really trying to be patient and trust that God has our best interest in mind!

You can take the kids out of the country...

...but you can't take the country out of the kids! :) Kyle and I had our first adventure of freezing corn this weekend, just like we used to on the farm. This felt a little funny considering we were husking corn on the deck of our 3rd floor apartment, overlooking County Road D--HA! What a process this is! The best part was that I had NO VOICE--I got a cold and spent too much time "talking sternly" to my students this past week, so by Friday night I couldn't say a word. Throughout the night when I needed to get Kyle's attention to help me out by stirring corn, bagging, etc...I resorted to stomping my feet on the floor (sorry Ann!), clapping by his ears, and waving my arms in the air! What a sight! By the end of the night we were covered in corn (as was our kitchen), laughing hysterically at my communication attempts, and SO tired! Overall, it was a great night and we know that in the dead of winter, when we pull a bag of YUMMY sweet corn out of the freezer, it will have all been worth it.

Bittersweet Football...

Our house hunt is continuing on! We found out that we are "the middle offer" on the Bittersweet House. We don't know how much higher the top offer is, but we decided that we're not willing to go any higher than we already have. The bank is still processing the offers and hasn't given us the official "no", but we're going to move on assuming that they'll go for the highest offer. PLUS, it's been 3 1/2 weeks since we put our offer in--CRAZY! The Football House turned out much like the Vikings' first game.....just shy of winning. When we put in our original offer, they told us that there were no other offers on the table--BIG LIE! They countered yesterday with a price ABOVE the list price (don't they know what's going on with the market these days?!?!). Again, the other offer is just above ours, but we're not willing to go any higher because we don't want to be "house poor". So, the Bittersweet House turned out to be just that, and the Football House disappointed much like our favorite team. We'll be on the hunt again hopefully by next week. We're feeling really encouraged that there are still so many homes available, and we love the place where we're at, so there's no rush. That's the latest, and we'll keep you posted on any new developments in the future!

3 days down...

...177 to go! :) How shall I sum up the first week with the kiddos....hmmm.... I think I have the most culturally and racially diverse class that I've ever had! I was talking with someone and telling them about my kiddos, and they asked "Aren't you in the 'northern suburbs'?" Sort of, but things are changing! In my little class of 20, I have students from MN, Bosnia, Ukraine, Africa, Jerusalem, and Mexico. WOW! It has been so sweet to watch the kids help each other fumble through these first few days, often with more patience than I exhibit. (That's one area that I know I'm going to need to keep at the forefront of my prayers this school year!) Anyways, as I get to know these little ones, and meet their families, it is interesting to ponder how we all came to this point. Some just new to the country, others new to the school, some have been in the neighborhood for years, others struggling to communicate with me and yet I know they care so much about their child's education...and here we all are... Some of you know that there were times when I thought teaching at a different school this coming year HAD to be where God wanted me. But alas, as I look back with a little "hindsight" and perspective, I can begin to see now why I am at my school, with this special group of kids. It's not always going to be easy, but it's a good reminder that God's way is always going to be best. Maybe not my favorite all the time, but best. Anyways, here are a few highlights from the first week of First Grade to leave you with! Hopefully they make you smile (or roll your eyes)!

~several of my sweet English Language Learners began the morning in OTHER teachers' rooms because they couldn't find ours!
~we were making "hopes and dreams" for the school year, and one little guy told me that his dream was "to become a man".....WOW....not sure where THAT came from!
~"Who farted?!?" (there's one in every crowd!)
~"Teacher! Help! I have to pee SO BAD but I can't remember where the bathroom is!!" (Need I remind you that the bathroom is IN our classroom! hehe)
~getting hugs from each one of my kiddos as they leave for the day. That's really why we tough it out through some of the "rough patches", right?

Here 'goes nothing!

So, do you ever have those days at work where you feel like you aren't quite sure what you're doing? I always feel a little bit that way on the first day of school. All of these little ones come traipsing into my room....some speak English, some don't...some have had a wealth of experiences in their lives already, while some have never gone outside of their neighborhood.... There is such a variety of families, countries, backgrounds, and experiences represented. That's when I take a big GULP! and think, "Oh man...I'm supposed to teach them all to read? do math? be socially and emotionally developed?" YIKES! Here in lies the miracle of teaching; with so many wonderful professionals in my building, we somehow go from having 25 little ones in September who aren't quite sure how to read and write, to 25 not-so-little ones in June who are reading and writing so fast I can hardly keep up! It happens every year, though sometimes I'm not sure how! My students will be the source of many postings and updates to come, as we get to know each other and learn together this school year. However, on the first day of school, I know the phrase running through my mind will be "Here 'goes nothing!" Followed by a little prayer for strength, patience, and a hope that the best is yet to come! :)

House Hunting Stories

We have loved our apartment since day one. (Especially sharing recipes with our cute little neighbor downstairs!) However, since June, we have been on "the house hunt". This is quite the process! With the market being the way it is, and us not having a home to sell, we've been looking at a lot of great deals....unfortunately, everyone else thinks they're great deals too! We've been to about 20 showings, and so far we have had one house get "swiped" 10 hours before us, 3 others that got "swiped" before we made it to the showing, and another that we just put an offer on (but so did the other 2 people that saw it last week!).

Another unique part of house hunting is the, shall we say, extras that we encounter in each of these homes. Our favorite example: as we were wandering around one house we headed down to the basement. Much to our surprise, there was a strange man lying on a mattress in the middle of the basement living room. He was watching a battery operated TV (because of course there's no power in the house), had a month's worth of non-perishable food lined up around the room (because of course he can't use a fridge or a stove), and just sat and watched us look around the basement. YIKES! When asked if he knew there was a showing scheduled, his response was, "Uh yeah. They said somethin' 'bout that, but I didn't know when people were comin' so I thought I'd just stay here". WOW!

Needless to say, we've really enjoyed the house hunting so far, and are learning a LOT! We're also getting some very good lessons in communication and patience as this process continues. We'll keep you up to date as the process continues...

What's in a name?

So many people have been urging me to get a blog, and today I finally caved. I find the pressure of starting this a little overwhelming. Like picking a title...this is the name that everyone will see when they come and check for updates. What should it be called? The layout of the site...colors, fonts, and style? Postings....when to write a post? what to write? what type of post should it be? funny? serious? contemplative? So many choices, SO LITTLE TIME! Needless to say, I'm VERY new to "the blogger world" and I'm sure it will take me a while to get the hang of this. BUT, I'm so excited to be more connected to so many of you now--here's to many more postings to come!