{super} dad part two

the super dad

as introduced here....and did i mention that he can bake a mean batch of chocolate brownie cookies??? 

he's passing this knowledge down to our son so that one day chandler can carry the super dad torch! 

my taste buds say "thank you".....the lbs on the ole bathroom scale, on the other hand, are not quite so happy.  i have no willpower....especially when it comes to just-out-of-the-oven cookies baked by my two favorite fellas!!

top eleven things i've learned this year {so far}

i did a top ten things i've learned list (it's at the bottom of the linked post) after my first day teaching at an elementary school.  so, i thought i'd update with another one after 1.5 years there.  apparently i could do these forever because i always seem to be learning something new every day ;) 

so here goes.  top eleven things i've learned this year so far: 

1.  i can go all super incognito ninja spy just by straightening my hair or wearing my glasses.  they have NO clue who i am on those days.  i had a 5th grader stop me in the halls and ask if i was a sub the first day i straightened my hair.  and she was serious!

2.  referring to myself in the 3rd person becomes second nature with kindergarteners.  and even then they STILL can't remember my name!  i can't tell you how many times during the course of a story time i use the phrase, "mrs. shoaf is.....{looking to see who is following directions} {so proud of mrs.  ________'s class} {waiting for everyone to get in their 1-2-3}. 

3.  you can remove a tiny bell from a child's nose without panicking.  even when that child is your very own and that bell is WAY up there! (i looked and looked for a post chronicalling this experience.  apparently i never wrote one.  rest assured that a nasal passage vs. foreign object post is in the works even if the event occurred last year!  there's no way i'm not recording that event for posterity.)

4.  you can  look at a child who is throwing a full-on tantrum on the floor of the library and have the patience to say to them, "when you are done and are ready to get off a floor that has been walked on by MANY people today, let me know,"  and then walk away calmly. 

5.  almost catch the library on fire with a mouse pad and a projector and not let on to the 4th grade class that you are teaching that you are DYING inside of total embarassment (and trying not to panic at the same time because you know where the fire extinguisher is but you're not entirely sure you want your very first time using a fire extinguisher to be in front of 25 ten-year-olds who will TOTALLY judge you on your fire extinguisher form!)

6.  you realize that anyone over the age of 8 is SOOOOOO old.  like, really old.  and that i can still smile and not throttle the kid who just looked at me and said, "my mom is 28.  you must be REALLY old mrs. shoaf!"  **for the record, i'm only 32.  i want to find that kid when they turn 32 and remind them of that statement ;) 

7.  when you find a book for a student that they really really wanted, their eyes truly do  light up.  it's the coolest feeling :) 

8.  i can and have totally fooled everyone into believing that i know that i'm doing with technology (unless, of course, i'm trying to burn down the school with a mouse pad and a projector!).  oh, your internet screen is zoomed in too much?  you need the a.r. quiz icon added to your desktop?  shooooooot, i got that! 

9.  if my volunteers ever quit on me, i may have to retire early.  if anyone thinks they can't make a difference in someone's life by volunteering at their child's school.....allow me to correct your thinking.  mondays and thursdays would not be survivable for me without my fabulous volunteers.  life.changing. 

10.  i am TOTALLY capable of knowing that my principal has walked up to the story time room door (mainly because all my kindergarteners got all wide-eyed and sat up really straight!) and continue the lesson without throwing up from nerves.  she wasn't there for observation THIS time.....but i didn't know that until i got to a stopping point and could talk to her.

11.  scented smiley face stickers are WAY cooler than regular smiley face stickers.  and even if you give 18 kindergarten or 1st grade students the exact same scent....they will all smell their stickers and give you 18 completely different answers for what they smell like.  really???  you think the strawberry stickers smell like popcorn???  hmmmmm......  ;)

whoever thinks that teachers do all the teaching and students do all the learning....well, they are just plain wrong.  i have been educated by these kids, i tell ya!

oh yeah....i found this on pinterest...if anyone knows where i can find it for reals, i TOTALLY want it for my library!  i get asked questions like that one the regular.  or my other fave is, "i want the same book that __________________ has.  do you have it?"  ummmmmm, i'm pretty darn good at knowing lots of randoms stuff, but we have 700+ kids at our school and i do NOT keep a mental check-out list going on.  i'm going to need a title of said book if you want a shot at actually getting it!! ;)

apple classic 5k

time:  35.52. 

hammock bay

walton education foundation  apple classic 5k

this past weekends race was not a great one for me.  let's just say that i ran a 5.5k  ;) 

sometimes it REALLY pays to listen when the race coordinators are explaining the turnaround points. 

aside from adding some extra length to my run, the race was still fun!  the weather held out....but the humidity didn't make gasping for breath any easier.  and the temps were MUCH more desirable than last weekend.  only in northwest florida can you run a race one weekend in 20 degree weather....and run another one the following weekend in 65+ degree weather.  gotta love it. 

and west defuniak elementary was well represented: 

i love how i don't look NEAR as pale as i actually am right now (that's me sporting the numero uno...too bad that wasn't my final race position!) since i was all red and wheezy when we took this picture. 

i'm thinking about doing another race next month to try and redeem myself from this weekend.  we'll see how that works out for me. 

 oh yeah....and the OFFICIAL results from last week's run: 

time:  33:14   avg pace per mile:  10:43  117th out of 259 runners.   13th in my age group

what's in a {name}?

**i was looking back through my old posts trying to find one i wanted to link to in a different one i'm writing and i stumbled across this one.  don't know why i never published it!

i remember growing up, i always wondered what i would end up naming my children. thank goodness that i scrapped several of my first faves from way back when....i won't list off those names just in case they are anyone's current faves though ;)

when i found out that i was pregnant with hannah, the first thing that popped into my head was, "i have to name this child!"  it felt like a huge responsibility.  i mean, you don't want to saddle a child with a name that will get them trash-canned on the first day of school.....or give them initials that will spell out a less-than-desirable word. i remember the "friends" episode when ross and his ex-wife were trying to come up with a name for their baby.  things like "helen geller" came up.  and then ross and rachel trying to decide on a name for their baby..... and they each got to have a veto when names like "sandrine" came up.  

i always knew that i wanted my children to have family names.  i am named after both of my grandmothers and i always loved having that connection to two great women in my life.  i knew that i wanted my children to have something similar.  so, here is the long and short of how my three little angels received their monikers and what they were ALMOST named!

hannah kayden:

hannah and me:  may 22, 2005 

we found out that hannah was a girl when i was about 16 weeks pregnant with her.  this gave us ample time to decide on a name (and i didn't even have to use up any brain power on a boy name!).  my grandmother's maiden name was "hanus" which in polish roughly translates to "descendant of john".   we decided on "hannah" in honor of grandma pat, as well as austin, whose first name is actually "john".  my grandmother passed away when i was 5 months pregnant with hannah, but i remember her telling me that she had a dream one night that i had a curly haired little girl (and this was before my ultrasound!).  i love that hannah is named after her :)  

hannah's middle name mainly came about because i loved the idea of being able to call her "hannah kay".  i knew that she was going to have a really common name and i figured that if she was in a class with 20 other "hannah's" she could always go by "hannah kay"!  i saw the name "kayden" and loved it.  we had a vote one night at family night and "kayden" won the vote.....even still, we weren't totally sure until we saw her that she would definitely be a "hannah kay" (side note:  every single instance of the name "kayden" that i've heard or seen has been a boy....but i can't figure out why because it's such a pretty name!)

names she almost got: 

hannah gabrielle, hannah riley, hannah katherine (i REALLY wanted a "katie" but looking at her now, i can't imagine calling her that!)

chandler austin:

chandler and my mother:  september 13, 2007

chandler's name was a little more obvious with the family connection.  my mom's maiden name was "chandler"  and i always knew that if i had a little boy, that's what i wanted to name him.  i was in a sort of "race" with my brother and sister to have a son first so that i could get the name....fortunately, i won ;)   i wasn't sure if austin was going to go for the name, so i kept a list on the fridge and wrote every boy name that caught my attention.  i would cross off names as austin vetoed them, but "chandler" always made the cut.  

just like with hannah, chan's middle name wasn't for sure decided until he was born.  we had several different family names on the table.  i was always leaning towards "chandler austin" and envisioned calling him "chas" for short (side note:  i have never called my boy "chas" ever....and couldn't imagine calling him that now! i swore he'd never be "chan"....but just guess what we call him 95% of the time?!?!).  and the look on my mother's face when we told her what we were naming our son after he was born?  absolutely priceless.  

names he almost got:

chandler dean, chandler glen

ava paulina:

ava and my mother-in-law:  september 19, 2009

ava's name was a struggle.  we didn't know if we were having a boy or a girl during this pregnancy....we chose for it to be a delivery room surprise.  for the first time, austin and i were forced to create a girl name list AND a boy name list!  if she had been a boy, her name would have been "brantley thomas".  "brantley" after austin's sister, brandy lee, and "thomas" after his great-uncle tom.  honestly, i was so convinced that she was going to be a boy that i really had a hard time coming up with girl names.  (in my defense, i ended up with puppps syndrome in which the odds of having a boy are something like 70%).  just like with the other two kiddos, we knew for sure that if it was a girl her name would be "ava" but the middle name was throwing us for a loop.  austin wanted to give her my middle name but i wanted to give her something in honor of austin's mom.  i remember talking about it on the way to the hospital and trying to figure out what the final girl name would be.  i wanted her to have a palindrome like "hannah" and that is where "ava" came from.  i am just word nerdy like that ;)

we decided on "paulina" in honor of my mother-in-law, paula.  it is oddly fitting for ava girl because she really IS a "little paula".  hannah and chandler were both born with dark black eyes and brown hair.....ava was born with gray eyes and blondish-reddish hair.  now, with her blue eyes and blonde hair she looks JUST like her grandma for whom she is named!  

names she almost got:  

ava pauline, ava pauletta, ava lisette

brantley robert, brantley thomas

so, there you have it.  way more information about the names of my children than you probably ever wanted.  

see. alison. run.

this past saturday brought about the 2nd annual new year's resolution 5k for the northwest florida ballet company.  i ran (well, "ran" is a relative term here....but for blogging purposes, let's just say i ran!) in this race last year...marking it as my very first 5k to actually sign up for and run in. 

i was WAY more prepared for this year's race.  and i had a goal.  i wanted to go for 2 miles before stopping to walk at all (upon re-reading last year's post, apparently i ran 2 miles before stopping then too.  i think i MIGHT have lied last year because there is NO WAY i ran nonstop for 2 miles then!!).....and i wanted to beat my time of 34 minutes from last january. 

the race was in fort walton, which is an hour away from where i live.  AND it was 20 degrees when i left the house.  that may not sound too bad to some folks who would love to see 20 degrees right now, but for us wimpy floridians, 20 degrees usually means we are staying inside all day, huddled around a cozy fire.  the mere mention of actually going out VOLUNTARILY and to run 3.1 miles got some pretty good laughs and a few "you're crazy"s!! 

but, my mom and i loaded up the kiddos and headed down bright and early.  once we got there, i attempted to attach my number to my shirt....which was made more difficult by the fact that i couldn't feel my fingers.  i chose to wear my march for misty shirt in honor of a friend who passed away after losing her battle with cancer.  the 5k that was organized in support of her back in 2010 was the first 5k that i had ever done (i TOTALLY walked that one!) and was the first time i had ever even entertained the idea of getting my butt in shape enough to one day run a race. 

my mom had her ipad handy....which afforded me to have spectacular shots like this: 

let's just say that the only stretches i know are the ones they made us do when i played basketball in high school.  this is probably a huge no-no stretch....so if there's anyone out there who is "in the know" for running techniques...don't laugh at me!!

it was pretty cool to see how many people were running this year.  the crowd was much larger than last year's race!  they requested for the fast runners to be in the front....which means that i parked my jogging behind right in the middle...juuuuust in front of the walkers ;) 

once we all got situated....they let us ready, set, go.  mom caught this picture of me at the beginning of the race.  notice that i'm smiling.  understand that about 4 minutes after this picture was taken, i was no longer smiling.  the smiles got in the way of my gasping for oxygen!!

and here was my cheering section!  i have to admit....you get a little surge of adrenaline when you know that your precious children are watching. 

and while their mommy was pounding the pavement and praying that a life-flight trip wouldn't be necessary by the end of the race....the trio got to have a little fun (i'd guaranteed my mom that they'd get to have AT LEAST 30 minutes before they'd see me approaching the finish line!).  there were several characters from the ballet on hand....which made hannah extremely happy.  chan, on the other hand, would have nothing to do with the nutcracker!

they returned to the race course just in time to see me drag myself run towards the finish line.  i don't know my official time yet, but the time clock was at 33 minutes when i crossed the line.  AND, i made it to my 2 mile marker.  in fact, i hit about 2.2 miles before stopping long enough to grab a cup of water and then keep on going.  i stopped again and walked the hill at about 2.6 miles....and then kicked it back up again for the final stretch. 

next saturday i'll be running in the apple classic 5k in hammock bay and i'm shooting for a little better on my time AND no stopping til at least 2.5 miles. 

oh yeah...the upside of taking the kids?  fabulous cheering section!  the downside?  they have no concept of how jelly-legged i was...therefore they didn't see ANY reason why we shouldn't walk down to the piers for a little while after the race!  guess who got their way on that one? 

that's okay though....i hit up starbucks on the way home and that white chocolate mocha made everything alllllllllll better ;)

standing up for {amelia}

i rarely post on the weekends.  but today is different.  you see,  i have a heart.  and it's hard to read about people being heartless.  cruel, even.  and it's even harder to read about heartless, cruel people doing heartless, cruel things to innocent children. 

imagine that your precious child needed medical attention.  not just for a scrape or a broken bone....serious attention necessary to continue to live.  and then imagine a doctor looking you right in your face and telling you that your child is not worth saving because she is mentally retarded.  and because she's mentally retarded, she has no quality of life and therefore shouldn't be wasting the medical team's precious time. 

i cannot even fathom what my reaction to that would be....but it is actually happening to THIS mom.  the children's hospital of philadelphia is wrong on this.  terribly and horribly wrong.  the family plans to find a donor within their own ranks....they don't even want to go on the donor list.  all they want is someone to perform the surgery.  and CHOPS is refusing.  and highlighted on the refusal are the words "mentally retarded".  for no other reason.  if you'd like to help change the future of a little girl....go HERE and sign the petition.  i know that i did.  it only takes a moment of your time.....your short moment might help create a lifetime of moments for amelia.  she is a beautiful gift from God and she deserves the chance to live just like any of my children.  being mentally retarded does NOT preclude someone from life.

{super} dad!

my family is blessed.  i have a husband who works hard every day.  and then finds the time to do the grocery shopping so i can uphold my new years' resolution to stay out of walmart (which i think he has ulterior motives on that one.  it's not just about my desire to stay out of that insidious store.  i'm pretty sure it's also about his desire to see the credit card bill cut in half!  apparently i stink at sticking to grocery lists and bargain shopping!)

after braving the lunchtime walmart crowds, he still has the energy to come home and run our four-year-old son up and down the driveway for a couple of hours just because chandler decided he wanted to learn to ride his bike without training wheels.  apparently hannah achieving this feat caused a little sibling rivalry to rear its head!  no matter that he's 2.5 years younger than her ;)

and to cap off his day, our he-man cuts and grinds all of the deer burger that we'll need to feed these massive kiddo appetites for the year!  (and he did it with an audience, no less.  i can imagine that three sets of eyes watching your every move and three mouths asking a million questions can make any activity more difficult). 

and i think that the kitchen cleanin' he did the other night deserves mention as well...because that sure did make my day! 

we don't say it as much as we should, but this superdad deserves our thanks each and every day.  and hugs....LOTS of hugs :)

and just because it was cute....here's a picture of hannah "helping" ava ride her bike around the yard while austin was working with chan: 

mama gots a new pair of shoes ;)

so these were sitting on my front porch today: 

yup, black glitter TOMS!  oh so cozy with a splash of sass.  AND a child in need somewhere in the world got a new pair too.  thank you so much to my dear mother for my fabulous Christmas gift.  and i love that i got them several days after Christmas....because it makes it feel like the holidays are still upon us.  i think next year i am going to request my gifts to be given at various intervals throughout the year!!


also, today i cut my hair.  no big deal?  howsabout the fact that other than a quick trim 6 months ago, i haven't cut my hair in 2 years!?!?  i was honestly nauseous....and truth be told, i chickened out and didn't get it cut quite as short as i had intended.  i think haircuts are like cold water....i can't just jump in all at once.  i have to ease my way in to lessen the shock.  maybe next month i'll go in and have her take a bit more.  or not ;) 

either way, i'm kinda getting used to it.  we'll see tomorrow when i actually wash and style it.  i may end up looking like a wooki on crack!

(and i am officially stating for the record that i am horrible at mirror self-portraits.  there...it's been said!)

i {resolve}....

when austin and i had our date night last night, he asked me if i'd made any new year's resolutions.  i sort of vaguely threw some comments out....but honestly, i hadn't really thought about it.  i mean, i'm constantly working on myself.  constantly seeking God's will for my life.....seeking His strenght to make the changes that i know that i need to make.  but sometimes?  sometimes ya just have to make it official-like. 
so i'm putting some resolutions out there.  i've written them down (twice now) so maybe that'll hold me a little bit accountable for them.  so, here goes: 
1.  make my words and actions deliberate.  i am too fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants.  i impulse buy.  i say things before i think about them. 
2.  say "i love you"....and mean it.  at her living proof live event beth moore talked about how we too oftern leave out the "i" in "i love you".  this goes back to being deliberate in what i say.  i need to take ownership for my words.  i need to keep in the "i". 
3.  smile and laugh more.  i worry too much.  i fret over things that are so way out of my control.  matthew 6:34 tells us, "34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."
4.  be inhindered in my joy!  i hide my emotions....i always have.  this year, i want to shed that exterior. 
5.  stay.out.of.walmart.  seriously.  it's the devil. 
6.  use what we have as much as possible.  i don't know HOW many times i've opened the pantry and said, "we have NOTHING to eat!".  really?  a whole cabinet of food and we have nothing to eat?  i've been places and seen people who had nothing to eat.  and i am NOT one of them. 
7.  be a positive role model for my children.  this means curbing the road rage.  this might be harder than i thought!
8.  pray multiple times a day.  not just once.  not just twice.  but continuously throughout the day.  i can change NOTHING about myself without my Father's help.  and let others see me pray.  i am so private.....and heaven help me if someone asks me to pray out loud.  i need to get over it. 
9.  give thanks always.  to friends.  to family.  to my God. 
10.  give back.  i am so blessed.  no matter how much i complain about this or that....i am blessed beyond measure.  i know there are those who desperately need help.  austin and i are planning on going back to guatemala this summer.....but there are also those RIGHT HERE who are in need. 
10.  find a family verse (thank you, jason and alicia!!)
11.  breathe before i act.  impatience and a bad temper need reining in. 
12.  keep a prayer journal. 

so there it is.  maybe i'll check back in later on this year and see how i'm doing.  unless, of course, i'm failing miserably.  then, i'll just "forget" to revisit this list ;)

a holiday wrap-up!

well....the holidays are almost officially over.  i have to go back to work tomorrow (students don't return until wednesday so MAYBE i'll get some vital things crossed off of my work to-do list!).  it's back to reality.....as if staying home with all three kids, cleaning, cooking, etc etc (well, maybe not so much COOKING. lol) is a vacation ;) 
in honor of the end of my time off....i give you a Christmas holiday recap of events: 
my nephew andrew was christened on wednesday, december 21st. 

my lovely compadre pat and i scooted to destin for some serious Christmas list shopping and some sushi....i introduced her to a little-known sushi place that is fab-u-lous!  it's my little secret so that they don't lose their quaint atmosphere.  ;)
austin and i attended my dear friend letha's 30th birthday party....complete with borrowed bridesmaids dress.  letha requested the theme.....but i have never really kept any of my bridesmaids dresses (mainly because 2 of them were maternity and i am SO not going there!!).  i borrowed the pink dress from my cousin-in-law....and it turned out that dress was the one megan actually wore in letha's wedding.  i loved that :) 

the kids went to baytowne with my cousin and aunt to see the lantern parade and apparently engage in death defying stunts.  i'm reconsidering my aunt as a chaperone ;) 

Christmas Eve with my family!  chaos, food, puppet shows, and megan's new "finger pom pom" gloves (which i love and i think i need for all those college football games i don't get to go to!). 

Christmas Eve with austin's family.....complete with wedding anniversary celebration, delicious food, and funny hats.  hey....it's ALWAYS funny hat day on the farm!  and topped off with some good old fashioned baby snugglin'

Christmas morning at our house......the kiddos set out the cookies and milk for the man in red, hung the santa key on the front door, and then commenced sugar plums dancing in their heads as they snoozed.  they each had a new bean bag chair topped with goodies awaiting them when they woke up! note for next year....don't give ava her big gift first.  once she saw her new bicycle, the other presents ceased to exist!

Christmas morning at grandma and pa's.....this was andrew's first go-round so he got the traditional red boot :)  bat man caves, little people doll houses, and art supplies aplenty merited squeals of joy all around.  i think i was most excited about my new pasta pot with a strainer lid.  i think that's a sign that i'm getting "old".  oh....and BOTH of the deathly hallows harry potter movies. 

we took the annual nixon great-grandchildren picture.....i think we'll be needed bigger stairs next year!  this is actually missing three kiddos.  amabel was napping and karleigh & nicholas weren't there this year. 

Christmas night at mia's house.....after church, lunch, and naps, we headed to mia's for her annual soup and sandwich supper (after HUGE lunches, soup and sandwiches are usually all we can manage!) where american girl dolls,  bitty babies, and a baseball pitching machine took center stage.  i got an antique locket watch necklace and a shiny new pair of black glitter TOMS and austin got a bass pro gift card to put towards a new pair of sunglasses and a new football. 

my friend beth and i were able to score some baby-sitters and slip down to destin for some pedicures and a little panera bread lunch (if you haven't ever had their blue cheese and steak salad....OH.MY.WORD.  i'm obsessed!)  with a side of girl time. 
new years eve brought nick and beth with their kids, a bag of oysters, and a camp fire. perfection.  i ALMOST made it to midnight too.  many thanks for a couple of my friends who texted me NYE wishes just as i hit dreamland ;) 

the icing on the holiday cake?  the hubs and i got to steal away on sunday afternoon to go buy our Christmas gifts.  one new watch and pair of sunglasses later, we hit up a movie (sherlock holmes.  i HIGHLY recommend it!) and some hot wings before heading home. 
and thus ends this year's holiday.  it's been a good one....filled with kids, friends, and some serious house re-organizing.