Another Great SOL

I have truly enjoyed being a part of this SOL Challenge again this school year. Even though life happened and I wasn't able to slice everyday, I still loved being able to take part in this. From doing this experience I have been able to really reflect on the day, and see what life lesson surfaced for me. Even as an adult we are still learning! We are learning how to communicate with others, how to handle day to day events, how to better ourselves, and so much more. For me I learned how I interpret the events of the day and how I let them affect me personally. I have also learned that it is almost like a release for me to write about my day. It is such a calming experience to type out the day's events and truly see just how much was accomplished. 

If you could narrow your SOL experience in 3 words what would they be? 

Mine would be...

Reflective

Challenging

Meaningful

Thank you again for this opportunity to participate in this with you all! I am excited to see a lot of you in the JH next year! Come see me!

Your Fellow Blogger, 
Mrs. Hulstine

31 Reasons

Today I turned the big 31! The day was perfect for some many reasons!

1. My boys sang to me first time this morning!

2. Brock picked at an Ariel Princess doll because he said that I am a princess!

3. Lots of my students came in to tell me Happy Birthday!

4. 4 classes came in during 1st hour to sing to me (as Mr. Belt said once, this is not suppose to be pretty sounding)

5. My sweet aide bought me a book light! (Mr. Hulstine was excited because that means he doesn't have to keep his light on at night while I read)

6. My sweet friend made me a charm bracelet!

7. My parent pal spoiled me with chocolate and a shopping gift-card.

8. My husband sang to me multiple times (including one time with a horse mask! DON'T ASK)

9. My mom, brother, and sister-in-law all come over!

10. I ran 5 miles today!

11. Received a singing voice message from my 2nd mom (Mother-in-law).

12. My husband brought home sushi for dinner!

13. Watched the latest episode of The Voice with my boys!

14. Another sweet friend hang signs outside the library telling everyone it was my birthday!

15. My sweet dog has been by my side all evening!

16. A sweet student brought me the sweetest cute with a cute little Spiderman ball.

17. Lunch with my husband

18. Beautiful sunshine today!

19. Brock got me some Peeps!

20. I did NO housework after school!

21. Brock was able to rescue Ariel from Venom (he is the one who put her in the box)

22. Reading stories to my little man

23. Was able to finish ALL my grading at school!

24. Great conversations with some close friends!

25. Went for a ride in my brother's new truck!

26. Lots of sweet messages on Facebook from my family in England!

27. Lots of sweet messages on Facebook from friends and family!

28. How could I forgot, I received a Cadbury egg!

29. Warm blankets to snuggle with!

30. FaceTime with the family!

31. Thankful for another year of celebrating with my family!

The Things Adults Tell Children

Listening to the storm blowing in tonight makes for the most relaxing and peaceful sleeping. Well, that was probably the case before we had Brock. Before his bedtime routine started, I kept noticing the lightning. Going back and forth between the lightning I could see in our dining room and looking to see if Brock noticed was making me have a sore neck. We made it to the shower, brushing his teeth, and reading his bedtime stories without him even noticing a thing. The lights go out to snuggle for a few minutes and BOOM! 
He sees it!!!! 

With my husband reassuring me MULTIPLE times (when Brock wasn't around) that it was just a thunderstorm, I can enjoy hearing the rain hit my roof and the flicker of light coming in through the curtains. Brock not so much!!!! He was freaking out (literally) and telling us that he thinks it would be best for him to sleep in our room. After multiple times of trying to reassure him that it was just some rain I remembered a story that was told me when I was a little girl afraid of the thunder and lightning. I was told that it was a sign that God was bowling. 

The thunder represents when God is throwing the bowling ball down the lane, and the lightning tells you that he got a STRIKE! Brock loved the idea of God bowling because he loves to bowl! Grant it that is with bumpers on the side, but that is beside the point right now! :) He went from freaking out to lets see how many strikes God can get. Some may disagree with me telling my son this, but I started to really think about the things that make me nervous and scared. When I am feeling a little anxious it is because I am thinking of all the negative things. Is it not true that once we see the positive our fears, anxious thoughts, and nervousness seem to disappear as well? When we can turn our fears into something positive it doesn't control us anymore. Instead, we become more powerful and willing to go forward. I think that is something that some point in our lives we want to do. There will come a time when you really want to try-out for something, apply for that dream job, but there is that little voice inside of you creating doubt or fear. Maybe that point is right now in your life. 

You have two choices: 

1. You can hide under the covers nervousness waiting for that next strike of lightning OR

2. You can wait with excitement for that next strike of lightning to see if you got the STRIKE! 

The choice is yours! 

Alarm What?

We all knew this day was coming, but there was still that tiny part of me that was thinking it was another day away. 

Oh how nice it had been to not have to set an alarm, could take a nap whenever, and just relax. Not so much this morning. I set my alarm for WAY TOO EARLY (at least earlier than the previous week), laid out my clothes for work, got my workout clothes ready, backpack in check, and off to dreamland for such a short amount of time. Everything was perfect in my dreamland until that dreaded ALARM went off!

What is that loud noise blaring in my ear? It was the wonderful thing that had been shut off for a week. The sound of a new day to educate the youth of America. It is the sound that another day has be given for you to share and make memories with others. Now, at first I was not thinking all those happy thoughts when I first heard that alarm. To be honest, I may have hit the snooze button a couple of times (like for another 30 minutes but that is not the point). Today was back to reality, back to the blessing of having a routine, back to not taking a nap or sleeping in till 8! 

Although the alarm was not my best friend this morning, I started thinking about just how blessed I am to have the kind of job that I do. I am able to enjoy breaks through the year that I don't have to work at a job for so long in order to get 2 weeks of vacation. I have a job that allows me the opportunity to be out of school with my son if there is a snow day and not have to worry about who can watch him. I may not have a job that makes a lot of money, but I have a job that I enjoy being at. Isn't that what we want. We want things in our lives that we love. I may not have liked getting up so early, but once I was there I rediscovered just how much I love my job! I love having the time off, but I truly enjoy doing what I do. I hope and pray that each of you are able to say that in the future! Now is off to bed as I have an alarm that will be telling me it is a start to a new day here soon!

Happy Monday!

Collection of 1st over Spring Break

1. Ran my first 8k in Branson

2. Brock roasted Marshmallows for the first time

3. Won Glow in the Dark Scavenger Hunt

4. Brock played BINGO

5. Planted a Garden (praying it actually grows)

6. Ate dinner outside for the 1st time this season

7. Ran 6 miles for the first time

8. We all got our first sunburn of the season

Love making memories with my family!

Last Day at Big Cedar

Today was our last day at Big Cedar, and we had a fabulous time. The day started out with breakfast and a movie at the condo. 

After that, I went to the fitness center to run. I am happy to say I was able to get 5 miles in. It is super easy to run on a treadmill that has a TV attached to it! I felt like I could have ran forever just watching What Not to Wear and Love, Lust, or Run! Not going to lie, I was starting to really question my fashion sense after watching those shows. Once I returned to the condo we had lunch, and then my son wanted to go swimming. 

Yeah! It was cold! I can say that I was not brave enough to get into the water! I was just fine in my sweats watching him splash around. After about an hour of freezing out, Brock was totally fine, we decided to head back to the condo to get ready for our next adventure of the day! BINGO!!!

We played about seven games and I can say that we never won! I discovered during this little activity just how competitive my 5-year old son is! At one point he looked at me and told me he was bored because he wasn't winning. I love his competitive side, but teaching him how to handle losing is definitely our next focus topic. That is kind of hard when you live with a football coach! Instead of cooking tonight we decided to eat out on the resort. We made reservations and had a wonderful dinner at Devil's Pool Restaurant. After dinner we walked over to the Devil's Pool Bridge where there is a beautiful waterfall. 

Now are all snuggling up watching and movie and relaxing. I have loved being away and getting to spend some much needed quality time with my family. With that said, I think I speak for all of us when I say we have enjoyed our time at Big Cedar but there is nothing like being home. It has been a wonderful Spring Break and we definitely have a lot to write down for our Memory Jar! 

Hulstine Spring Break 2015 can be marked as a SUCCESS! 

R & R Day

Today was what I would like to call a R&R kind of day! That is a rainy relaxing day! Even though we are on vacation it was nice to just hang out around the condo and relax. We all stayed in our jammies until while after lunch time. Brock watched movies, Nathan watched Dirty Jobs, and I read an amazing book by Karen Kingsbury! 

Something I have noticed as I have gotten older is that some of the most perfect vacations are those that you aren't doing something all the time. Vacation is suppose to be a time of relaxing and rejuvenating yourself. Today was the perfect day to do that! The place we are staying out is mostly known for all of the outdoor activities you can do. They do have movies you can rent and an indoor swimming pool at one building (which of course today was crazy busy!) 

It was a perfect vacation day for all of us! Do you keep your schedule crazy busy with all the to-dos of life, or do you sometimes let the rain control your day! It is comes down slow and steady with little noise! Relax...it should be a word in all of our vocabulary!