A little bit of this and that...

I've had a super great week, and I think I owe it all to DONNY CLAY! (that's for YOU, Travis!) Last weekend, thanks to our friends the Wolfes, Caleb and I got to see Jason Alexander's new stand-up act where he is "Donny Clay: Motivational Speaker." Hilarious! We had great seata in Studio 1A at the IP Casino AND All-Access passes. The best part of all? Travis said we could go into Jason's (yes, we are on a first name basis now) Dressing Room and hang out with him. We walked through a door with a star on it, and there was ole George Castanza! All in all, Mr. Alexander is a super nice guy. He was fun to chat with- not snobby or anything. After our time of hanging out with a celebrity, we went to the casino and lost four dollars.
On to Friend Weekend 2010! We threw Heather and Baby Jones a Baby Shower in Gulfport. Jones got the most adorable things I have ever seen! Amanda's baby, Kate, was there as well and she is ALL A GIRL NEEDS to catch Baby Fever. That little booger is too cute for words. I can't wait to meet Jones, too! All in all, it was so wonderful catching up with some of my most favorite people in the world. We shall meet again soon for Baby Wolfe's shower!

This next pic was on Caleb's camera. I got a sassy apron for Christmas and LOVE it.
Next up: my art. I don't care that it looks like it should go in a Freshman girl's dorm room. I made it myself and I am very delighted with the outcome. These scrapbooking sheets were on clearance, 8 for $1, so I snatched some up, a huge canvas and some modge podge and went to town!
Cheap art is good enough for us these days! (and please excuse the messy couch pillows... we have to arrange them in such a way so that PJ Joey can't jump up there. One day she will realize she can just drag the pillows to the floor THEN jump up there, but she hasn't yet.)
And last but not least: Friendship Bread. For 10 days, I have been "burping" and "feeding" a starter of homeade bread. Today was bake day, and I decided to make mine into muffins. You can't taste them in this picture, so let me tell you... Scrumptious. Really, they are SO GOOD! Every 10 days I will have 3 starters to give away, so if you would like some of your own, holler at me!
Now I am off to continue packing for my big trip this week! Please pray that I don't get kidnapped in Ecuador! Many pics to come! And as always, pray for Caleb- he has a Test pretty much every 3 days. And his tests aren't like "Plants and Humans" at MSU (which everyone laughs at that class and talks about how easy it is, but I did NOT make an A, I am embarrassed to say). Anyway, every test is horrible, so please keep him in your thoughts.

January Update

Dear Aunt Lisa, Lindsey, and Heather,

For some quick updates on us Butts:

Caleb- school is aweful to sum it up. But he still takes the time to hang out with me and he does the dishes every night after dinner. Pretty great hubby!

Tricia- despite my first concerns about teaching three different classes (thus having to prepare THREE different lesson plans every Sunday night), I am actually enjoying the classes. My English class is the biggest, with 30, but the other two are pretty small. The best of all, though, is that all the kids are GREAT. I do not have one single "difficult" student to deal with. Nothing even close to a smart aleck. It is a completely different WORLD in Portable 704 this semester!

PJ Joey- she is really calming down. She lets us pet her instead of snapping at our hands. She also hasn't snacked on any rotten turtles found dead on the side of the road lately either.

Things we are excited about- LOST. We can't wait. We've been looking forward to it since the jaw-dropping season finale last year.

How is Christmas Break over already? Horrors!

I sat down to (UG!) start lessons plans once again and thought I would procrastinate just a little more with a blog post. I don't think anyone really reads this anymore except for Caleb's Aunt Lisa (I'm glad you still read, Aunt Lisa!) so I think I'm going to start every post "Dear Aunt Lisa," from now on. So.

Dear Aunt Lisa,

Christmas Break was busy but good. I didn't take a single picture so this will be a boring post. My cousin took family pictures at my mom's side of the family Christmas get-together and here are some of my faves. Other than these 3, it will be image-less:

I bought the hats me and Molly are wearing for only $5 each! Caleb is still shocked I spent money on them, but I still say they are nothing short of amazing. My hat really helped me "BRING IT" in the Christmas Spirit category this year.

How did this picture miracle happen? We were walking across the bridge, my cousin was going to take our pictures, and I said, "on the count of three, turn around and smile" And everyone actually listened to me. Even McRae! It's a Christmas miracle. Caleb was extra sassy in it.
That's a good looking family right there!

Other than spending Christmas visiting with family, Caleb and I got to go to the New Year's Conference through the ministry for med students. It is just like what we did with Campus Crusade back at State, but since our little group was mostly med students, they got two doctors to speak just to our group during break-out sessions. It was really really great.

So now it is 2010 and I'm pretty pumped! I don't have a Drama Class this semester, praise be to our Lord in Heaven for orchestrating that! I will teach two classes of Junior English which is really fun, and one class of TV Production which I got to handpick the students for this class, and I picked all my favorites and it is going to be the A-Team of all Teams.

Between us two Butts, we have a lot to look forward to in the coming months. Caleb is going to take THE BOARDS. Gag me now please. I might be stressing out more than he is. While he is looking forward to that fun day, I am going to Ecuador in three weeks (site visit for International Mission Board trip that I'm helping coordinate for this summer), St. Louis in February (pre-project visit for PowerPlant trip I'm coordinating for this summer), possibly a trip to France with my Mom when school is out, going to Honduras with Caleb on a medical mission trip, then back to St. Louis and Ecuador for those individual mission trips. Have you ever heard of such? I am so thankful to have summers off again and even more thankful for the opportunities that have come my way. 2010 is bringin' it!