The Story of Jumping Mouse

If you haven't read the above pictured book, YOU HAVE TO! It's about this loving and giving mouse who wants to reach the far-off-land. It's a long journey, but before he goes a Magical Frog gives him jumping legs to help him along the way. So off mouse goes and as he does, he encounters other animals who are not as fortunate as himself. So helps each one immensely by giving away his sense of sight and smell and then he finally gets to the far-off-land to live there forever. Ahh.....I just LOVE this book!!! So, when today was Book Character Day at school, I was jumping mouse with a big ol' heart :)

Pumpkin Patch

Last weekend, our good friends The Clark's came to visit Smithfield. But instead of staying in Smithfield, which was already a good 30-45 minutes away from their house, we continued to drive another 30 minutes to Surry County. Surry is even more rural than Smithfield, but it has the best "you pick" farm. In the spring, we go strawberry picking. In the summer, we could pick blueberries and corn. In the fall, you can pick pumpkins. Above is us getting ready on a cold, rainy day to do such. Here is Aubrey, her best friend Alex, and the tag along buddy, Liam.

We first tried the corn maze, but got rained out. So we back under the shelter for the rain to stop. Then we got our umbrellas and drove to the field. Ryan was also along for the trip, which was so much fun. Here they are cutting Aubrey's pumpkin off the vine. And below that is Aubrey with her pumpkin.
It was so fun to watch Aubrey and Alex explore. Liam was also pretty cute! (See our Hanson Girls Shutterfly account for more pictures...) Below is a picture of Alex and Aubrey with their pumpkins.

We finished off the day by trying some yummy, but COLD pumpkin ice cream. Aren't they cute feeding each other?!

I love FALL and good FRIENDS:) What a great combination!

one of my favorite things...

...is reading something just when I need to hear it. This morning I read, "I do not ask to be set free from sorrow, pain and care, but only that I be given strength my cross on earth to bear. May take me by the hand and help through this day; then trusting him, I'll carry on and work, love, laugh, and pray."

I don't like good-byes, but I like knowing I can trust God to give me strength to carry on and work, love, laugh and pray. (sigh)

I love my town :)

Smithfield is the cutest little town. If I have to live in VA, I am SO grateful that I get to live where I do:) Today was "Town and Country Day". Check out the link http://visitsmithfieldisleofwight.com/townandcountryday.html just to see how cute my town is!

My friend Christina and her two-year old daughter, Eleanor, came out to join in the festivities. Last year, I ran in the Hog Jog (named such because of Smithfield Hams), but was slacking this year and didn't. Instead, we walked down to the after party and along the way we saw LOTS of old, fancy, shiny cars. It was fun! Then we tried to find the Kid's Fun Run, but those kids were MIA so we walked to the Farmer's Market. Yummy goodies and beautiful crafts!!! Here are the girls taking part in the longest hug ever while standing in front of some plants for sale.
After that we walked to the Windsor Castle Trail and walked in the woods for a bit with the girls while waiting for lunch. We spotted lots of spiders and enjoyed the sun and conversation.
Finally, it was 11 o'clock and lunch was ready. Local Smithfield churches all band together to provide "Souper Saturday". Tons and tons of people make all kinds of soup and desserts. The soups are donated to one church who houses the event. The charge is $5 for adults and $3 for all you can eat, and all the money is donated to the Isle of Wight Christian Outreach Center. Talk about small town community working together for the greater good! Christina and I devoured 2 yummy bowls of soup and the girls thoroughly enjoyed their cupcakes for dessert.
What a GREAT day in a GREAT town:)

Feeding the Fish

There is a nice housing development behind our apartments that has a pretty big pond in the middle and is within walking distance.Here is stopping to smell the flowers on the way:

The pond is nice to walk around, maybe a 1/2 mile and has pretty Willow trees and fountains. There is also a dock to launch a small boat from.

One day, we discovered there are fish in the pond that LOVE to eat. We have fed them Goldfish crackers, Rice Krispie cereal, even french fries!
The majority of the fish are small sunfish looking things, but there were 2 BIG catfish around this summer. Well, we just fed the fish tonight and there were at least 5 HUGE catfish who were feeling frisky! They were going at the bread we fed them tonight, so hard in fact, that Aubrey and I were all wet because of all their splashing!

You can also check out some more pictures and a video at: http://hansongirls.shutterfly.com/

Back to Life, Back to Reality

Summer vacation is always wonderful. I love and cherish the extra time with Aubrey, and not having to work is, AWESOME!!!!!! And then reality hits and it's September, well August since that's when teachers report back. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. Teaching is my hobby and I am thankful that I truly do enjoy what I do. (And NO, not because I get my summers off. I actually love the kids!) I am also SOOOOOOO grateful that I do get at least 6 weeks off in the summer because many people are not that fortunate.

But, going from working to playing and then back to working again is an adjustment. It has been a challenge this year to get myself, Aubrey and the dog back on a "working mom" schedule. There have been 3 blocks to making the process easier:

First, my dog is MAD that mommy went back to work. It means long hours all alone. So, when Emma gets mad, she pees. She has decided the best places to do this were under my dining room table where I could "feel" it, Aubrey's bed, and my bed. All in ONE night, I realized what was causing a funky odor in my apartment (the saturated pee carpet under my dining room table) AND she peed in Aubrey's bed while she was in it. This was after she thought that peeing in my bed a couple of nights earlier would also get her point across. Yes, she is still alive!!!

I think the cutest thing about that whole awful night was Aubrey's comment as I was pulling off her sheets to wash them at 9 p.m., after I had just steam cleaned the carpet and still had a lingering scent so I had to go buy 2 bottles of Nature's Miracle and douse the carpet (yes, the smell is gone!)...was when Aubrey looked at me, smiled and said, "Mom, I am lucky because I get to sleep in your bed now!" God is good to give me a girl like her!

The second block has been figuring out our "schedule". I could go on and on here, but mornings are a bit of a struggle to get out on time. Plus, now that we have a bazillion 7:45 a.m. meetings, it has made it even harder this year!!!!! For example, we've had quite the bout of rain the past week. One morning, Aubrey and I walked Emma and it was not raining. So, we got ready to leave for the day and loaded ourselves down with 3 bags, purse, lunch sack, coffee mug, and garbage. You get the picture of LOTS of stuff??!! When we stepped out of the apartment door, we could see and hear that it was pouring! So....we put everything down, walked back in the apartment and put on our rainboots and got our umbrellas. Finally, we loaded ourselves back up and off we went. All that took time so yes, I was late for my 7:45 a.m. meeting.

I won't even go into the evenings and cooking dinner, but I will say that Aubrey is learning lots about cooking and made the best chocolate chip blueberry heart pancakes with me:)
Third, being a teacher is a lot of work. It's not a job that you just leave at the work site and forget about. I have spent many hours after Aubrey goes to bed working on "stuff". As I get ready to leave Aubrey after we read our books and say our prayers at night, she always asks, "Are you going to do work mommy?" Yes. I am. But, the important thing to me is I try very hard to not let my school work overwhelm me. I focus on being with Aubrey when I am with her becuase that's my first job! School will always be there. I will always have something to do. And it always gets done, just when it's supposed to.

So....the moral of my ranting and raving about my life is that no matter what's happening with the dog, no matter what our schedule is like or our lack of one, no matter what we eat for dinner, no matter what the house looks like, no matter what school work I get done, no matter what time I get to work, no matter what........

It's all about the relationship I have with my beautiful daughter,
And it's all about the relationships I have with my students. Those quality relationships make the adjustment back to work alright, and well worth every struggle:)