An Exciting Night at the Auction

Darcie, my bestest friend and shopping buddy, and I were each other's dates for an auction that our church was doing to help our missionaries. Rich and Nate had to go to a football conference in Grand Rapids, so the two of us girls decided to go and spend our men's money...and that we did!

So Darcie and I had never been to an auction before. We had no idea what to expect. We first walked in and received our paddles with our numbers on it. I picked 28 to go with my number. I have a hard time remembering things so I figured if my paddle was my age, I would be all set. (Look at us fun girls with our paddles! Darcie's mom took our picture when we returned. Next auction Darcie, we'll bring our cameras!)

The first part of the auction was the silent auction. There were four tables with tons of items on them from homemade cards to beautiful paintings. I saw this cute little baby sweater when I walked in that had a matching hat. I do not have kids yet, but it was too cute to pass up. I kept my eye on it and won it! Yeah! When I showed Nate his comment was, "Oh boy! Now people are really going to be talking." I also won some cinnamon rolls. I lost a lot of others things, but it was a fun time watching everyone stand by the items they wanted and go back and forth with the silent bidding. Darcie got a gift certificate for new contacts and a very nice creative memory book. Great work Darcie!

Next came the live auction. So we both really wanted the condo in Florida for a week. We knew that it was going to start out high. The bid started out at $1000. No one went for that bid so it was lowered to $500. Darcie and I looked at each other and went for it. We knew we would split it between the two of us. Well, let's just say the price quickly rose and we were out of the running. I think it went for $1200. Oh well.

The next item that we had our heart set on was a 3 night cabin at Crystal Mountain for this summer. The bidding started at $300. We were in! Well the owner announced that it was also good for the winter. It quickly went up to $700. Darcie, Nate, and I are not skiers, so we sadly let the others go at the bidding. We were so sad! We did have fun watching everyone else go back and forth with bidding. There are so many generous people in our church.

So just when we thought we were done bidding for the night, the owner of the cabin decided to throw in another 3 night cabin stay for the summer. Knowing that it was four bedrooms and there was golf available for the boys, we both looked at each other and decided to go for it once more. The bidding started at $300 again and quickly rose. Darcie and I were so nervous. Everyone said we kept giggling and looking at each other funny because we didn't know what to do. I was so excited that I even hit my head with my paddle. Well, do you think we won the cabin? We sure did! For $500, we got a lovely 4 bedroom condo right on the golf course. The Marshall's, Jackson's, and Mihalek's will be living in the good life this summer at Crystal Mountain for a couple of days. We are so excited! What a fun vacation we are going to have and it all benefits our missionaries!

After we paid for our items, Darcie and I became very nervous because we realized we would have to tell our husbands what we did. We knew that if we played the golf card really high they wouldn't have any problem with it. We were right. The boys are so excited to go! Darcie and I are such pros now at the auction thing. I think we've become addicted!

Snow day #7...Starbucks and Crayola Crayons

That's right... another snow day. I really did expect it last night when driving home from conferences. It usually takes me 30 minutes to get home, but last night it was almost an hour! What terrible roads to travel, but I will say that I have the best vehicle for it!

Nate was extremely excited this morning too because he had a snow day. We slept in, but never as long as we would like! We got ready, ran to Starbucks for some morning energy, and headed into Nate's classroom to do some school work. It was fun working together and getting caught up on some stuff. He was doing boring paper work and I was coloring some fun stuff for some new games I'm making. It is so much better being an elementary teacher than a middle school teacher. He does the boring work and I get to color! He won't admit it, but I think he's jealous of the fun stuff I get to do.
This afternoon we're just relaxing, catching up on laundry, reading, and I'm still coloring. I love when I get to bring out my crayola crayons and markers. It the small and simple things in life that bring me so much joy. I feel just like a kid again!

Snow day #6

That's right... another snow day. I woke up this morning, turned on the news and there at the bottom of the screen was my school closed again. (Nate had to go in. I think he was jealous of me!) This is our sixth snow day of the the year! I just can't believe it, although part of me can since the weather was so awful yesterday, blowing snow and very slippery roads. Oh well. I had another day to get caught up on house work, laundry, grocery shopping, and more school work. It always feels good to get caught up!

Well I really hope this is my last entry titled, "Snow Day #_ " until next year of course! Like I said before, snow days are great because you get to get caught up on things that you're to tired to do after a long day at school. I am ready to get back into a normal schedule and try to get my students focused again. Wish me luck! It will be very hard considering we have conferences next week and the students only report on Monday and Tuesday.

I hope that this is the last of the winter blast. I was on my way home from grocery shopping and looking at the snow covered bike path just thinking how much I miss seeing bikers, runners, and walkers out there. I can't wait until Nate and I can get back out there and walk, especially down on the board walk! Oh spring...where are you? Please hurry up and come our way!

Snow day #5

Well today was my fifth snow day. I can't believe it! After yesterday's snow storm, I guess I can believe it. As much as I enjoy snow days, I am getting a little sick of them. The first couple snow days are always welcomed, but after that it just makes you more and more behind in the classroom. My students haven't had a full week of school since our first full week back from Christmas vacation. With younger students it is hard to get them back in the swing of things with routines and procedures. Oh well, I guess it was another day to relax and try to get caught up. Next week will be a crazy week with 100's Day and Valentine's Day! Oh the joys of teaching! There is always something to celebrate.


Nate didn't have a snow day, just a two hour delay, but it's conference week for him. He has had the flu all week and missed a couple of days of conferences, but will attempt them tonight. We both usually get sick after conferences because we go and go getting ready for them, have our conferences and then are run down from the whole week of longer hours... we just crash. This happened before his busy week. He's feeling somewhat better, but should lay low the whole weekend.

Please send some prayers our way for our health and energy to be restored. It seems that we're both running on empty. The weather doesn't help any! We both can't wait until spring and some sunny weather to come our way!

Snow days #3 and 4

Wowie wow wow! (A familiar phrase for those of you that are Junie B. Jones readers) More snow days? Nate and I were so excited for our snow day on Wednesday. He was able to do our taxes and I was able to do some never ending things for school. That was our third snow day of the 2007-2008 school year that we had together.

Friday morning..."Staci, you don't have school!" Nate said.
"Shut up!" I said.
"No really. Your school just came up on the TV," said Nate. The phone rings. "And there is your phone call."
"Are you kidding me? Another snow day this week?" I said to Jessica (the wonderful teacher that informs me when there is no school).
"Yes. Can you believe it?" said Jessica in a somewhat tired, but excited voice.
"I really wanted to go to school today, but I guess I'll take it!" I said.

I did really want to go to school today. I had a fun day planned for the kids. We just finished reading my all time favorite children's book Charlotte's Web and were planning on watching the movie today and doing some other fun educational activities. Oh well. I'll just do it some day next week. Being flexible is my job!

So what should I do today? Well, I still got ready. I felt guilty because Nate had to go to school. I started my weekly cleaning (less I have to do on Sunday before the Super Bowl Party). I have a ton of work that I can do for school today. Never a dull moment around the Mihalek house, especially on a snow day!

Oh the joys of teaching...snow days. They are great to have, but in the long run...it puts you more behind than you already are!