Christmas at Biltmore

 Last Tuesday, Michael and I made a quick trip to Biltmore to see the Christmas decor.  We were about to leave and hadn't took any pictures.  So we pulled over and took a few by the water. 

 

We also swung by his uncle's house...but didn't take any pics there. 

Christmas Day @ Mom's

We snapped a few pictures in Mom's front yard on Christmas Day.  I was happy with how they turned out. 

This one with Papaw may be my all time favorite!

Title Conference, December 7, 2011

    December has been a crazy whir-wind kind of month!  One of the biggest highlights that I want to remember came when my teammate and I presented at the Title I Conference in Gatlinburg.  That's Erika and me above.  I look like the pale-white zebra mammoth next to her.


   I have been to the Title conference twice before.  It's a conference where teachers from Title I Schools go for new ideas and strategies (and a much needed break from the classroom).   When the opportunity arose for us to present we jumped on it.
     We taught one hour long session titled "Reading Revived" where we showcased fun and hands-on activities that we do during our reading instruction.   I must say, it's really nice working with someone that you click with.  Erika and I do well presenting together because we can finish one another's sentences and give each other a hard time for a little humor. 

     We prepared our presentation on Prezi, which is like a glorified online power-point.   Our Prezi ended up being huge so we were praying for good internet connection (and I mean that relevantly).   At home, with a good connection, it would take about 20 minutes for the Prezi to load on my computer. 

    We knew our conference room would accommodate 100 people so we made 115 handouts and CDs with our accompanying documents. 

    We decided to go to the session that was in the same room as ours the hour before ours.  Those presenters struggled with the internet the entire session. We were beginning to sweat bullets!  About thirty minutes before the presentation we decided to pull it up on both of our personal lap-tops.  Erika couldn't get it to load at all on her computer.  I started praying and even sent texts asking for prayer.  Just a few minutes later, the whole thing loaded in less than 30 seconds.  I know the Lord touched my computer and I was able to tell the people in our session that.

    We ended up with a packed room!  We ran out of the CDs and I've made more to mail to people that requested them.  The presentation itself went so well.  We received a ton of compliments...and one lady even asked us to come and present at her school.  HA!

      The funny thing about this whole story is that Erika and I are two of the least likely people to get up and talk in front of people.  Afterwards we were definitely on an adrenaline high!

Merry Christmas

From the Joneses...and a poor neglected blog.

Here's to another week off work and (hopefully) some blog updates!

Bell Buckle and Grout

Friday night, Michael and I drove to Murfreesboro and spent the night.  On Saturday morning we drove to the tiny town of Bell Buckle for their craft show.  I had been looking forward to this since the summer when a friend from work told me about it.  It didn't disappoint.

It was so packed out.  Thousands and thousands of people.  Lots of greasy food and great crafts...needless to say I loved it!


My two purchases...

On the home front it's Fall Break...I hear the angels singing every time I say that.  Michael has took off work too.  Although he's gonna be remodeling I expect we'll sneak some time in together.  


Oh and there's grout in the bathroom!  Doesn't it look good?

Monthly Post

    I hate that this has become a once a month post blog.  I keep promising myself big promises only to let myself down...again....and again....and again.  
    I sat out my fall decor last night.  Nothing glamorous but it does make me happy.

The bathroom now has tile...as of today.  Michael's dad came up and helped with that project, and we're very thankful for that!  It still needs to be grouted.  

    And finally I leave you with our newest remodeling project....seriously! :)

Catching Up

     It's funny.  Things are crazy busy in the Jones' household yet I'm struggling to come up with quality blogging material.  We busy with just the normal life stuff.  

     Michael is still working 12 hours days.  I've started back to school.  I am loving my little class.  If you're of the teacher mind set you may want to check out my other blog...I've been trying to add some posts there.

   Oh and stop the world...there has been some progress made to the slowest great bathroom remodel of 2011.   It hasn't been a huge priority since we have another restroom.  Between Michael's work hours and keeping up with our yard work and our neighbor's he hasn't had much time to devote to it.  

 The big hole in the wall has been re-sheet-rocked, wiring re-wired, lighting hung, and fresh paint applied.  We went with a gold paint.  Huge change from yellow, huh?  But it really is.  We're sensing some tile flooring in our near future.