If You Want to Join the Hardin Family....

Your going to have to have an amazingly weird sense of humor....or else you will just think we are beyond crazy and run out of the house on Christmas morning screaming!! Here are a few things about Christmas that you all should know if you want to be spending it with us...

1. No one can go anywhere near the stockings/santa presents until everyone is awake and can do it at one time. (This year Mattie held us up wrapping all her gifts at the last minute)

2. Bryce still wants to get up at 6 am to do presents (NOT happening Mary Price!)

3. When you get shoes as a gift, they go on your ears...not your feet!

4. Bryce is not exactly all that good at giving presents....
     Benjamin got fun erasers
     I got cat nip toys
     Mattie received a dog chew toy
     Mom was given a pet blanket
     And best of all Dad got a pink "peace and love" journal to write in. (we suggested he used it when                   meeting with his clients to take notes)

5. Mom will always forget what she got us, so she is usually just as surprised as we are with our gifts.

These are only a few little things that go on in our household on Christmas.  So if any of you are thinking about joining our family ever....you might want to make sure you have a great sense of humor!!!

One Semester Down, One More to Go

So I just finished the first semester of my Junior year.  And that means only a year and a half till I graduate....scary I know!  I am so happy that this semester is over and that I can move past some of the classes and professors I had.

This semester has been one of many blessings and many new beginnings. I don't know if you all remember or not, but going into this semester was super hard for me.  I was struggling with many relationships and I had no idea how this semester was going to go.  God truly blessed me though with an amazing semester.  Relationships were healed, and I was able to make many new relationships that I am so grateful for.  I must say this semester has been pretty awesome.

I am so looking forward to next semester, and there are many reasons why.  Becky and Kelly will be back at Milli!!!!  I get to continue working on new relationships!!  I get to keep working with my awesome kids at my church!! And I get to take Child Psychopathology (yes I know this is really nerdy of me to say, but I really am excited about this class!!!)

Needless to say while I am sad my time at Milli is going by so fast, I look forward to everything God has in store for me and my friends this next semester!!

Look what I found!

I found this on Pinterest (my fave site) the other day.  And as I read it all I could think was "this is how I want to live my life". It was written by a 95 year old woman and I was uber impressed by what she had to say.  Here are a couple of my fave things!

Strive for excellence not perfection.  For me this is not always the easiest thing to do, but I feel like she is right in this.  Perfection is not everything!

Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.  Totes something I have learned is important.  No matter how mad you are at them or what they may have done to you, saying I love you can solve a couple problems.

Take responsibility for every area of your life.  You are the one who lived it so accept it and claim your life as your own!

I love all of these and so many more.  Hope this inspires all of you as much as it has me!

Reasons Why I Will Be Missing My Roommate

For the past year and a half I have been very blessed to have the best roommate ever!!! Seriously I do not know what I would do without her! Lindsey is not just my roommate but also a very good friend! While she is having an amazing time up at Mountain Christian Church next semester, I will be missing her like crazy!!! And here is why I will miss her:

1. She is just awesome.
2. She loves me.
3. She keeps her side of the room clean.
4. She is very generous in sharing all of the goodies her mom sends her.
5. She has a lot of scarves that I like to borrow.
6. She has an overflowing amount of quarters that she lets me use for my laundry.
7. She is very considerate of me when I am trying to sleep.
8. She never ever has a bad attitude.
9. She lets me decorate the room however I want (and she adds a lot to that)
10.  Most importantly she is one of the biggest examples of Christ that I have in my life.

I love you Lindsey....like a lot.  You have been awesome and amazing and I will miss you so much when you are at Mountain.  Know that there will always be a bed open for you when you want/need to come to Milli next semester!! Thank you so much for being such a great friend and roommate.  Though the chances of us rooming together again are slim, we both know we always have a backup plan :)))

Praise Jesus it is Over!!!

I am finally done with Curriculum and Methods!!! Seriously people this class was the biggest stress of my life for the past couple months, and I am so happy it is over with.  I turned in my last assignment on Tuesday and I am so grateful to not have anything else to do!!

To say that this class kicked my butt is an understatement.  It was also very eye opening for me.  I learned a lot about myself and about teaching while in this class.  I did learn some awesome new teaching strategies and how to write lesson plans, and I learned what grades I would rather not ever have to teach again. 5th graders are just not my forte!

Tomorrow is the last day of classes, and then we have some finals to take, and then I will be on my way home for a much needed break!!  So looking forward to this :)

Home with My family

So I just realized that I forgot to tell you all about the wonderful time I spent with my family.  It was the first time in almost 3 months that we all had been together.  So of course it was a good time.  Being at Milligan, puts me about 12 hours aways from home.  And while I love it so much here, I hate that I cannot go home whenever I would like. But that does make the time we have together more important and definitely more fun.  Here are some fun things from home!

 Mamerz and her baby Esau (he's only a little fat...)

 A boy and his dog...I am not sure who was excited more: Benjamin or Ella. They played together all week. Ella had missed her bubba.

 I am pretty sure the boys played more poker than anything all week.

 So many fun fires. Love that we now are able to do this.

 Oh little Brycey, How we love you so much...even when you do things that are not so cute!

I just loved being able to sit outside and read and look at this.  Not half bad is it?

Decorating the House!!!

For the past 2 years I have not been home to help my mom decorate the house for Christmas.  Now people this is one of my favorite things to do.  I love the way our home looks for Christmas, and Mamerz would probably say that all of the decorations I enjoy are the ones she hates to do.  But to me there are just certain decorations that must be put up in order for me to feel like it is Christmas time at the Hardin Household.  Here are a few of my favorite things:)

Here is all of the decorations ready to be taken out of their boxes...yes we have a lot.

 The Dining room table set for the holidays

 I just love the way this table looks :))

 This is by far my favorite decoration.  When you walk in the front door of our home we have three columns.  I love putting the garland and bows and decorations all around them.  Mamerz sometimes feels it is too time consuming to do, but she also knows it is my favorite thing.  It just screams Christmas when you walk in the door:)

 The stockings hung by the chimney with care...and this year there are three extra ones...for the pets.

 Sugar town is also another one of my favorites.  Again a little time consuming to put out, but looks so pretty when it is there.

 Close up view of all of the precious moments that are part of Sugar Town. (it snows there too which is pretty cool for being in florida)

And last, but certainly not least, our Christmas tree.  This is the first year in about 10 years that we have had a real Christmas tree.  We all went out as a family and picked it out.  And then me and Mamerz decorated it together!  For the first time in forever I strung the lights...and people that is no easy task to accomplish!!!

Needless to say I am really excited to get home for break and enjoy all of the wonderful decorations set all around our home :))