Charli's New Toy!

I got a new laptop! This thing hauls on the internet- it is so fast! I love it!!!!!! Thank you, Craig! XOXO

Elf'ed Again- The Country Version!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

I Elf'ed Myself, and Craig, and even Zeus!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

We Wish You a Merry Christmas...

From Craig, Zeus, and myself, I hope everyone has has a great 2008! We have had an amazing year; 2008 has been very good to us. We found our first house, got our first dog, Craig got his "new" job, I was lucky enough to get more classes at the new gym, and many other exciting things. We have been blessed to have so many wonderful friends and family members in our life.



We hope you have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,


and Craig,
and Zeus!

Christmas Lights! :)

Craig and I (mostly Craig) succeeded in putting up Christmas lights for the first time ever! We are so excited to spend this Christmas in our first house and be out of that little apartment we used to call "home." We still didn't get a big tree this year because of my fear that Zeus would eat it (he's eaten a small magnolia and 3 crepe myrtles in the back yard already), but we put up our 4-foot fake tree at least. Here are some pics I took. I'm not the best decorator, so it's a work in progress... :)

The stockings are not hung yet because they haven't arrived- I ordered monogrammed ones from Pottery Barn. They were on sale and shipping was FREE. :)

Yep- That is Craig on the roof...

Yay! The finished product. :)

My Daddy's Birthday

Went to my parents' house today to celebrate Daddy's birthday. Zeus sure has gotten into the Christmas spirit:

The guys just hung out smoking cigars on the back patio:

As for my mom and I, well, we just hung out inside with Chico!

According to my brother we are cheering for OU today, but only if they win by a small margin. Supposedly that will help his beloved Longhorns. So, I wore my OU shirt just in case that helps. Other than that, we just hung out and relaxed. :)

Boomer Sooner! (with a dash of Go Cowboys!)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

With this holiday in mind, here are some of the things I am thankful for, in no particular order:

• My loving husband
• My sweet puppy Zeus
• My amazing family
• McDonald's sweet tea and Chic-Fil-A lemonade
• Les Mills Fitness Classes (without these I would probably go crazy)
• My amazing math department at work
• Friends who care
• Students who do their homework and come to tutoring
• Hall's sore throat lozenges
• Kids who have manners and respect authority
• My awesome friends and co-workers at the gym
• My friends who have/are having kids- I learn so much from them
• TUMS and Prevacid (haha)
• Whoever discovered how to make ice cream
• Internet
• Text messaging
• Stephenie Meyer and her amazing books
• Slipper socks

I'll keep adding to the list as I think of things today... I am sure it could go on forever if I really kept thinking about it!

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

Love,

That's All Folks

Another football season come and gone. Poor guys played a great team and fell in the 2nd round of playoffs. A bunch of the kids I taught my first year will probably be on Varsity next year, so hopefully I will get to see some games next season. Now Craig has to learn the strategy and skill of a new game- he's going to coach JV boys soccer for the first time ever. Thankfully he's got a lot of support and wonderful coaches to work with to get him ready for this new adventure in sports.

Just two days of school this week, then a much needed 5 day break. Although I am sure it will fly by, I will thoroughly enjoy every minute of it!!!

Hope everyone is ready for Thanksgiving! :)

One more week... at least...

Congrats to the Varsity Football team! I am proud of those boys for breaking the recent curse of getting knocked out of playoffs first round. They had a rough time the past couple of seasons, but now they are back on top. They did FANTASTIC Friday night and beat a tough team. They will be playing somewhere near Austin next Friday. The opposing team is ranked very close to ours, so it should be a good game. Good luck guys- Go Big Green!

Football, Presidents, and Twilight...

Tonight was Craig's team's last game. They won, as they did at most of their games this season. I never got to see his kids play, since I am always teaching BodyPump at the exact time his team takes the field each week. Guess I can't be everywhere at once. :( He will still have things to do to help Varsity finish out their year and go to Playoffs, but after that it's all about the shin guards and cleats...

I might get to watch some of his soccer team's games. This will be his first year coaching soccer, and he got assigned to JV. Thankfully, the kids have mostly all played together before, so that will help him out a lot. The other coaches will fill him in on what he needs to know. He will do great- kids love him. He loves the kids. It's a win-win. :)

Hope everyone has had a great week- it was an eventful one. Did I forget to blog about our history-making election? The nation's first African-American president was voted into office. I don't know if it has sunk in yet that I lived during such a milestone in the history of the US. It is one of those things that my grandkids will ask about one day, and I will finally realize just how big a deal it is.

Oh- and how could I forget, Twilight the movie comes out Nov. 21. You bet your britches I am going to see that movie. I am nearly done with the third book, and the 4th book is waiting patiently on my kitchen counter. I hope it is everything I wished it to be! I love that book.

So, in closing, Congrats to the Freshman football players for a job well done. Everyone say a little prayer for Craig and the JV soccer kids. And to President Elect Obama- Good luck, God Bless, and maybe you will be what this country needed. Guess we will find out right?

Unlike Edward Cullen, I do need sleep... ;)

Good night.

Apparently I still look like a kid...

The air conditioning crew at my school came by my room during my conference period. I was filling out paperwork at a student desk (my desk is always too messy to actually work at). I told him that the AC in my room felt fine, but that my neighbor's room was too hot. He went by there, talked to her about her room for a bit, then asked her this question:

"Do you happen to know how the teacher next door feels about the temperature in her room? I stopped by, but there was only one student in there at the time."

Wow. And back in '05-'06, I was put in the student section of the yearbook. I hoped that I finally looked grown up enough that I wouldn't be mistaken for a 14 year old anymore. Guess not!

Internet down- How will I ever survive?

My internet at home is so shady- it will be down for about a week.... AT&T figured out it was our DSL modem overheating and malfunctioning, so they are mailing us a new one. I might not post anything this week, but there's not a lot going on for us right now anyway. (Watch, something will happen because I said that... hope not.)

Anyway, see you in about a week probably...

Love,
The Harbins

Wow- Quints... Amazing...

So, my high school boyfriend and I don't keep in touch at all. I hear stuff through the grapevine from time to time, but that's it. And when a local news website said that a Houston area couple recently grew by 5, I thought it was an interesting story and clicked the link online... never expecting to recognize the name of the couple, just wondering who gave birth to quints...

As I am reading, it has his name and his wife's name, though I am thinking MAYBE it's coincidental at first... Then it mentions The Woodlands, and I knew they lived around there somewhere... Then it says that they met at Texas A&M. I was thinking "no way- It is exactly who I think it is..."

So it a strange twist of fate and fertility, they gave birth to 5 healthy babies on October 25. They had one son already, who is about a year and a half. I would have never pictured him having so many kids, and all at once, but I am so happy that they are all doing well. I wonder if I will be teaching any of their kids in 13 years?

Here's the link if you want to check it out. ***UPDATE*** This is a NEW link than the one I posted previously!!! This one has pics and more details!

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/6087899.html

Love,

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Halloween on a Friday-
I'm excited because it is the first time for me to pass out candy at my HOUSE! Complete with a porch light and real front porch! :) It's hard to believe I was in a 3rd floor apartment at this time last year. We didn't pass out any candy- ??? Halloween was a Wednesday in 2007, but who knows what I was up to. I honestly cannot remember... Craig probably had something for football, I probably subbed a class at the gym so that the other instructor could take her daughters trick-or-treating. In fact, I think that is exactly what I did!

From a teacher's point of view, I am SO glad Halloween is not on a school night. Last year the kids were having a hard time focusing and getting anything done on November 1. If they weren't on a sugar high, they were in a post-sugar-high comatose state. Now they have the weekend to unwind.

Speaking of Halloween, that reminds me I have a book about vampires to read. I am in book 3 (Eclipse) of the Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer. Must go find out what will happen next between Bella Swan and Edward Cullen! :)

Happy Trick-or-Treating everyone!

Just random thoughts

So our internet model/router/thing has decided to go on the fritz once, sometimes twice, a day. We have to unplug it, wait a while, plug it back in, and see if it decides to work. Then, Zeus decided to start digging holes in the back yard- and the crazy little dog behind us has jumped on a couple of fenceboards so much they are coming undone. I swear I almost saw that dog come through our fence this afternoon. Grades are due, but I left a pile of them sitting on my desk at work when I was supposed to bring them home. My desk at work is already a total mess, and it's only been 9 weeks. Only 3 people were at my Step class tonight. Today was just not my day...

Then I stopped to think about this further:
1- At least I have a computer, and internet. A lot of people don't get that luxury.
2- At least I have a pet who loves me. A lot of people don't get to experience that.
3- At least I have a fence, and a yard, and a home to call my own. Millions don't have that.
4- At least I have a secure job. In today's economy, it's hard for anyone to feel as safe about their future as I do working in education.
5- Not everyone is as "passionate" (some call it "crazy") about fitness classes as I am. Most people have a life, and a family, and 101 other reasons to skip a night at the gym. I should be grateful for the 3 who came and trusted that I would provide a fun workout, no matter how small the group.

Lately I have realized that I should be more grateful, thoughtful, proactive, punctual, and productive. I need to get a routine down and stick with it so that I'm not waiting till the last minute on everything. I need to find a way to balance everything I have on my plate better...

Off to bed- hopefully tomorrow will be a fresh new start! :)

My first blog!

Hey y'all- welcome to my blog. I am brand new to this site, so bear with me while I learn how to post blogs and make my page cute! :)