Happy Holidays to Us

Well, for those of you that haven't heard yet and for those of you who already knew and have been waiting for this post, here it is...WE ARE HAVING A BABY! Sparky Jr. or Sparklette will be born sometime in June. June 16th is the due date, but I don't think I know a baby that has come on it's actual due date. We are sooooo excited and can't wait. We know it will be a huge change in our lives but we are ready. Since we are making such a huge change in our lives I thought it only right to make a blogging change as well. So this will be the last post on this blog. We will now be posting at http://sparkysfamily.blogspot.com/.

25th Birthday, Good Friends, Christmas Stuff and Racheal Ray

Let me start this off by saying that I have the best husband in the world! Now, let me tell you why. On November 29th, 2007 I celebrated birthday number 25. Very exciting to be a quarter of a century old. I had no idea what I was getting. For weeks Russell had been prepping his gift as the best present ever. I couldn't think of anythig that qualified except a house and I knew it wasn't that. Well, I go to school, enjoy my day and then come home to no electricity in the apt. because someone had run into a transformer and knocked it out. So, I am sitting there waiting for Russell to get home and it is getting dark and we had no flashlight that I could locate. So, I go and wait outside. Russell calls and tells me he is almost home and I tell him I am outside. He tells me to go back upstairs because it's a big present and he doesn't want me to see it in his car. He comes in and tells me I can go outside and see my present but I have to cover my eyes. I follow the intructions and he moves me outside and tells me I can open my eyes. There is Terri Lee on my doorstep yelling, "Happy Brithday" in my face. I was sooooooo excited!! He had planned this starting in like September. It was the perfect birthday present and the best yet! I was totally surprised and we had a great time. Here are some pics from the weekend. Terri has more but she hasn't sent them to me yet. (hint hint)

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This was Sunday at lunch.

I had my first homemade cake on my birthday since I've been married because Russell had Terri make it for me. This was also Terri's first time to make a 2 layer cake. It was yummy and beautiful. Thank Ter!
Getting ready to sing happy birthday and blow out candles!
Thank you honey for the best birthday present ever. I will take the same thing next year! Now onto some other things.

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This is a pictures of me, D'lynn and Allison. We have been friends for a long time. D'lynn was in my wedding and Allison was my coordinator. I couldn't have done it without her. Anyways, D graduated from ACU a few years ago and decided she wanted to be a world traveller so she moved to Hawaii and started teaching scuba lessons and other things. This was the first time I had seen her in almost two years. So it was very nice to see her!

I put on a Christmas concert at school with my 4-6 graders and here they are. We had so much fun and they did a great job. Everyone said it was the best christmas production in a long time. I was quite proud of myself.
Here are my Christmas decorations for the apt. Sorry the tree is turned the wrong way but you get the idea!

I was doing some shopping in Southlake recently and just happened to walk into Williams and Sonoma and guess who was there doing a book signing. Racheal Ray! I was so excited to be in the same place as her. She wears me out on TV but I love some of her recipes. I called my sister because we share the same love for her and told her I was standing like 20 feet away from Racheal Ray. I ran into a lady in Starbucks later and she had stood in line to get her book signed. She told me she stood there for 3 hours! WOW!
Well, now that I have caught up on my updates maybe I will be able to stay on top of things better. I still have one more really big update to do and hopefully that one will be coming soon. I hope everyone is enjoying their holiday season! I know I am! Merry Christmas!

I know, I know

I promise a new post is coming! I am going to do it this week! Can't wait I have so much to tell everyone!

Football Season is Over

Well, I attended Russell's last football game last week. It was a great game! The ref made some bad calls, the parents got a little rowdy and the game was tied 0-0 until the last like 2 minutes. It sure was cold though and it was the first game of the season I had seen with the sun down. So onto some pictures!

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Running some play.

Having a huddle
They won the game 8-0. It was a nail biter!
The coaches telling their team "Great Job"!
The Proud Coaches

Coach Smith and Coach Thomas

Now it is time for the middle schoolers to air up their basketballs. They have had b-ball tryouts all week. Russell said they made 4 kids cry already because they had to cut them. They have a ridiculous amount of kids that try out. Can't wait to post basketball pictures!

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Russell is one day away from his Thanksgiving holiday and I am one day, a weekend, and two more days away from my holiday beginning! I can't wait. I am soooooo ready for a break. I can't believe it has gotten here so quickly and then we go back to school for three weeks and it's Christmas break! I can't believe I am almost halfway through my first year of teaching. It has been a pretty good first half. I don't really have too many complaints.

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Well, that is all for now. I will post more after the upcoming holiday! Happy Feasting!

Wedding #2

Well, these are just a few pictures from the wedding this last weekend. It was a beautiful outdoor wedding. The weather was perfect! This was the wedding of my good friend Katie. I got to know her and all her family when I was in Abilene at school. Her brother Will is one of my best friends from school and their parents took me in like I was part of the family. They were my home away from home! Thanks Riggs Family I love you guys.

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Katie and her now husband Matt got married at the "Jacob's Dream" sculpture at ACU. Matt's dad actually designed and built the sculpture. I thought that was a really neat thing. If you get a chance you can check out the sculpture on the ACU website. Now onto the pictures.

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This is Will

Katie, the beautiful bride. (not my greatest picture, but we didn't have much time)
My dear friend Randy! A fellow soprano.
I took a picture of this because I thought it was cute. This is how we found our table at the reception. Our name and table number stuck in a pomegranate. They used a bunch of different fruit. Real cute!
Well, that does it for now. Have a great rest of your week! Oh, yeah Happy Halloween!

Wedding #1 and Yamboree Fun

This past weekend my good friend Amy got married! It was a beautiful wedding. I was lucky enough to be one of her bridesmaids and share this special day with her. She was beautiful! This was the first wedding in a three weekend marathon of weddings! Here are two pictures from the wedding.

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Amy and I before the wedding!

Russell and I after wedding. He asked if I was going to take pictures at the other two wedding we are attending. I told him "Of course".
Also, on the same weekend in Gilmer was the world famous Yamboree. This has been a tradition in my family ever since I can remember. It is like a big Dean reunion plus a few surprises every once in a while.

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If you look really close you can see my mom and dad, as well as some Spencers, and scattered in there are some Dean's that most of you don't know. I promise they are there though.

My brother and I
I found two really cute girls and decided they needed their picture taken. I thought Rach needed a picture with Ros since she is usually the one behind the camera! Sorry she's not looking but I bet you are used to it.
Well, that's my update for now! I will post some next week of my second wedding in the marathon. Have a great weekend everyone!

My Man

I got this off of Terri's blog, thought it looked fun. Isn't this the best picture ever! I thought it was appropiate since this is October!

1. Who is your man? My Husband and Best Friend, Russell

2. How long have you been together? Married for 2 yrs and almost 4 months

3. How long did you date? Nine months, we knew we were meant for each other

4. How old is your man? 26

5. Who eats more? Probably he does

6. Who said "I love you" first? He did, we were at his apartment and I said "Thank You!" Not my finest moment

7. Who is taller? Definately him

8. Who sings better? Me

9. Who is smarter? I am going to have to say that he has more knowledge and I think I have more common sense, but we are mostly pretty even. I think he would give you a totally different answer though. Who knows.

10. Whose temper is worse? I don't think either one of us has one

11. Who does the laundry? I do, unless I was a bad wife and didn't do laundry on the weekend

12. Who takes out the garbage? He does

13. Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? which right? If you are looking at the bed, I sleep on the right and if you are laying in bed on your back then Russell would be sleeping on the right.

14. Who pays the bills? I used to, but he has officially become the money man

15. Who is better with the computer? I think I am

16. Who mows the lawn? we haven't had to worry about that yet, i secretly hope he does

17. Who cooks dinner? That would be me and Russell helps with the clean-up

18. Who drives when you are together? Russell

19. Who pays when you go out? I have the best sugar daddy

20. Who is most stubborn? Probably me, I think anyone can tell you that though

21. Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? Probably Russell, I like to be right

22. Whose parents do you see the most? We see both parents pretty frequently, we like to keep it even. Luckily we both have great in-laws.

23. Who kissed who first? I think he kissed me first, but I think it was pretty mutual

24. Who asked who out? I don't think I ever got asked out, it just sort of happened

25. Who proposed? He did and it was the best proposal ever

26. Who is more sensitive? That would be me, I am a sympathetic crier about lots of things, when anyone cries I am right there with them

27. Who has more friends? Me

28. Who has more siblings? I do, one sister and one brother and he only has one sister

29. Who wears the pants in the family? I guess since he is the man of the house he wears the pants more often than I do, but I think we share the pants roll pretty evenly.

Waffles, Cannons, Cards, and Football

Hello out there! My wireless has been down for about a week and so I haven't been able to get these pictures up! Soooo, there are quite a few. Russell and I got to enjoy a wonderful day off of school today. Russell went and played golf and I had brunch with my sis-in-law (Rachel). I think we both enjoyed our day! Well, lets get started with the pictures.

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Russell and I went to the State Fair yesterday. We had a great time! While we were there we got to see a lot of interesting things. Here is one of those things.

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We witnessed the Waffle House waffle eating contest. We got to see three of the top rated professional eaters in the "sport". I say sport very loosely. I mean really, eating as a sport? I don't know about that. Anyways these are some of the pictures from that.

The winner was Pat "Deep Dish" Bertoletti. He ate a wopping 29 waffles in 10 minutes. I don't really know where he put them all. His hands were bright red after the competition from whatever he was dipping his waffles in.
This guy right here is known as a human cannonball. That's right he gets into a cannon and get shot out at like 50 mph. His top shot is like 175 feet, the one for the fair was only like 152 feet. Very cool and I am thankful not to have his job.


See the top of his head as he is sliding down getting ready to go. Glad he is not clausterphobic.
We rode the Sky Tram over the park. It was pretty cool. Here are a couple of shots from up high!

I like this one because you can see downtown Dallas behind the ferris wheel!


This is a record making cardstacker. Pretty cool what he can do. He is going to try to break his most recent record with a building at the State Fair.

This is what he is breaking his record with. It is going to be SUPER high. He is going to have to put the top of the building inside the attic of the building he is building it in. Crazy!
WOW!
My friend Heather came in last weekend for her birthday and here we are! Heather and I met in my one month of grade school. She is great!

These are the last group of pictures and they are of Russell's team playing football. I love getting to go to his games. This one they won big time! I was very proud of him.

After the game in the huddle. I have always wondered what they say in these things, I guess I will never know.
Well, that's all for now. We start a four day week tomorrow and I think I love four day weeks. I don't care for the 5 day week next week, but I can deal. The apartment is slowly but surely getting put together. It is such a slow process when I work every day. Maybe by Christmas I will be able to put up some pictures. Anyways, have a great week!

Coach Smith

Nothing really exciting has been going on around here. I have been teaching music everyday and coming home pooped! I also have had a meeting after school 3 out of 5 days this week, so that has kept me busy. I guess they think new teachers don't have enough to do already,so let's add a few more things for them to do.

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On Tuesday I didn't have any meetings and Russell had his first football game of the season. So being the supportive wife that I am, I went. I really like going to his games, because they get me out of the house and into the outdoors for a few hours a week. I am gonna be honest and tell you that half the time I don't know what is going on out on the field, but it is still fun. I think I need a guide book for referee calls. I mean all of a sudden the ball is caught and moved pretty far down the field but they are starting further back than when they first started. I don't know what happened. I guess I never will.

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Russell is a wonderful coach! His kids won the game 24-14. He works at a wonderful school and really enjoys what he is doing. I took a few pictures and I hope you enjoy them! I thought you might enjoy seeing the coach in action.

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Half-time pep talk.
Check out that score!
Getting his team together.

Kick-off
After the game! Like I said, they won 24-14. Best coach ever!

Just a Quick Update

Just thought I would let everyone know that I have completed one week of school and I am planning on going back next week! It was a good week. I had some tough kids and I had some great kids so it kind of balances everything out. Russell and I did get moved last weekend. Yes, it was the weekend before school started. My mom and dad were such troupers and came down to help unpack. I was a little bit worried about having the big stuff done before school got started. Mom stayed up late on Saturday night and got my kitchen and some other stuff unpacked for me. Thanks mom and dad we couldn't have done it without you. Well, that's about it for right now. I hope to have some pictures up of the new apartment in the next month. It will be a little slow getting it decorated since I have a real job now. Once we get internet in our new place I will try to put some pictures up of my classroom. It is super cute!

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That's all for now! Have a great weekend!

Thought you might like to know...

I GOT A JOB!!!

I am going to be an elementary music teacher in Arlington! I just got the offer this morning! Russell and I are so excited! Thank you all for praying. You can now pray for strength to get through the next few weeks. I will start new teacher stuff next week and we are going to move in two weeks. So I will be gone everyday and then packing at night! I am already feeling a little overwhelmed, but I know God is in control!

I am so excited to see what this year brings! I can't wait.

Take me out to the ball game...

I can't believe I am getting two posts up in the same week. I am so impressed with myself! Just wanted to share some pictures of the Rangers game we went to last night. My dad took last week and this week off so he had some spare time. Russell thought a Rangers game was just what he needed. We had a super great night! Thanks for coming up Mom and Dad. It is always great to get to spend time with you. We love you.

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Russell and Dad talking sports.

It took three takes for mom and I to get the perfect shot. Aren't we adorable.
I have been waiting all summer for someone to be at the game with us to take our picture with the field in the background!
We took this picture so mom could show off her hat.
I love you guys!
Keep praying for the job search. I promise to let everyone know when I get one. Have a great rest of your week.