A House Full of Characters

One of my bucket list items was to host a murder mystery and we scratched that off the list this past weekend!! Baroness Audrey von Munchen was murdered and our Sunday School of 32 people gathered at our house to investigate who did it! I, Freddie Farr, the Baroness's lawyer, was thoroughly impressed with every guest that came. They were dressed up beautifully, according to their character and so many of them stayed in character nicely throughout the whole evening. At the end, no one officially claimed they knew who the murderer was, even though some tried to say afterwards that they knew who it was. Hindsight bias does that to you everytime. :)

Overall, I think it was a HUGE success and we'll definitely be sure to do it again. Perhaps this summer we'll do a pirate themed version. I can't wait!

As always, Eloise

Hooked on Gardening

One of my closest friends, Karessa, has always told me how much she loves working in the yard and in her garden. I never understood why until this past week during our spring break. Joel & I decided to create some curb appeal to our house (since there was none).

Thanks to our wonderful Sunday School leaders, Scott & Dee, we were able to help plan out what shrubs we wanted in the front of our house. They were so helpful in figuring out which ones would work well on that side of the house. One afternoon they came over and we drove around the area to look at various shrubs to see which ones we liked.

Then we planned it all out and stopped by Hughes Plant Farm in S. Tyler off of 69. Instead of buying expensive plants at Lowe's or Home Depot, we bought them for 1/2 the price @ Hughe's!! We did buy one plant @ Lowe's and that was a beautiful hydrangea.

Over 2 days, we worked our butts off creating flower beds and planting some beautiful shrubs!! We're now hooked onto gardening and can't wait to tackle the backyard this summer!! Now let's hope we can keep them alive even through the hot TX summer!!

As always, Eloise

Good grief!

so it's pretty lame that it's been over a year since I've blogged. So here it is...a new post!! The end. ;) More to come later....hopefully not a year from now.

As always, Eloise

Raggedy Owl: An Inspiration in the Quilting World

For those of you familiar with etsy.com, then you need to go immediately to Raggedy Owl's shop. You will find the most fabulous quilted, crocheted, and crafty creations this side of the Atlantic ocean! My "next door roommate" from Geneva College, Angela Mitchell, creates all of these fabulous projects out of her home in Erie, PA, while taking care of her 2 precious boys.

She also has a blog that also displays her latest creations and her thoughts behind them and so forth. :)

http://raggedyowl.blogspot.com/

Whenever I become a stay at home mom, I hope to be just like Angela and use my crafty skills to create lovely items and sell them on etsy. After all, she is my inspiration. =D

As always,
Eloise

Life as I Know It

A typical Sunday afternoon consists of planning out my week at school...or at least Monday, grading the previous week's journals of all of my students and additional papers I've slacked off in grading. If I have time, I'll take a much needed afternoon nap and maybe do some laundry. Sadly, that's as good as it typically gets. Although, we did attend our first couples shower at Sean & Becca Spray's lovely home today! It was for Josh & Bonnie Pehl who are expecting their first baby within the next 3 weeks. :)

On a much more interesting note: all day yesterday, I was a lean mean productive machine. I cleaned most of my house yesterday in addition to doing several loads of laundry. I even folded most of it...but of course, I haven't put it away yet. It's residing on its temporary home...the loveseat. AND to top it off, I cooked 20 meals to freeze for later enjoyment. :) How's that for being efficient and productive!?!? Let me tell you though, I haven't been like this in a long time, basically ever since school started. I don't know where the energy came from!! In fact, I've been feeling like I'm getting a head cold...so I shouldn't have pushed myself. But I couldn't resist...the house needed some serious cleaning and we were running out of clean clothes. Basically, when we're struggling to find clean unmentionables, it's time to do laundry. ;)

And now it's off to finish some much needed laundry and grading. Be jealous.

As always,
Eloise

At long last...

Sadly it's been about 2 months since I've updated this, so here's a quick synopsis of the end of summer/ beginning of Fall 2009.

We sold our 1998 Honda CRV via craigslist and bought a 2006 Toyota RAV 4. We absolutely LOVE it!! I would recommend this car to anyone, especially someone with kids.

In late July, we went to Destin, FL for a week with some friends from church and had a great trip! We even went to Tallahassee for 2 days to visit friends and then drove back to Texas. Overall, it was a lovely trip with friends.

Soon after we got back from vacation, school arrived. Mid-August found us being all consumed by paperwork and preparation. To this day, our lives fully revolve around teaching and probably will until the beginning of June. I, Eloise, am a first year teacher with 4 different preps, meaning that I teach 4 different classes [6th grade math, reading resource (6th-8th grade), 7th grade math resource, and 8th grade math resource]. Plus, I'm a special education teacher meaning I have lots of additional paperwork to attend to. As Mary Hanson, one of my amazing co-workers from across the hall, and I like to say "in my spare time." We'll always have a ridiculous amount of work to do and whenever we add one more task to our "to do list," we say we'll do it "in our spare time." :)

Joel, in his 4th year of teaching/ 3rd year at Whitehouse H.S., has finally learned that he LOVES teaching, especially economics. His love of economics has inspired him to pursue a master's degree in business administration. He's taking 2 master's classes and feels a little overwhelmed with his workload at times. But he took his first test in one of his classes recently and got a 98%!!!! Of course, he was upset that he missed ONE question. ;)

As if we didn't have enough on our plate, I've joined an Apples of Gold bible study, which has been AWESOME!! This community of older women mentoring younger women via cooking, marriage, & family has proven to be a beautiful way to fellowship. Our community group and Sunday school class are both great, as always. We're continuously blessed by those relationships. AND last but not least, I've joined an adult hip hop class at Dance N Drill. Every Thursday night, I join ladies of all ages in looking like idiots and acting like we have rhythm. It's a great stress relief and I've met some really fabulous women!!

All in all, it's been a most busy autumnal season and will continue to be...more updates to follow as time allows.

As always,
Eloise

Eloise

It is my turn (Joel) to put in my two cents on this blog, since it is named for both me and Eloise (Joeloise). What dost a blogger blog? My heart's condition? My mind's frequent and feeble wanderings? News? Such an odd condition to be in. To have a need and want to write something, but not have any idea what to say. So many things to write about, but a loss for words. And yet, if there is any one thing to write about in my life, one all encompassing, important, heartfelt story to tell, it is about Eloise, my beloved and beautiful wife.

Eloise, the name itself implies a singular personality. Not many people under 60 named Eloise, are there? There is really no way to acceptably describe Eloise in one statement, however, if I absolutely HAD to, I guess I might describe her with four words: joyful, social, prepared, and forward :). Basically, Eloise, at her heart's core absolutely loves to be with people, whether it's just me, or a group of friends, she is most comfortable when she is interacting with humanity. Her most endeering attribute is her ability to have fun in any situation (most situations, it so happens, includes other individuals).

With her bright blue eyes, sunlight blond hair, and her infectious laugh and manurisms, it is also difficult to be melancholy when she is around (which is good for me, since I can easily give in to the blues). She likes to do two things, interestingly, they both involve fun and/or service to others: GAMES and COOKING. If there is a game within ten miles, she will mostly likely want to join :). Whether it's a fun interactive game like Cranium, or thought provoking, puzzles like Set or Word Twist, she will compete fiercely. As for cooking, well, give her a measuring cup, and a cookbook, and you will easily have attained her friendship. For instance, today she cooked enough food to last for a month, literally. Thirty days of eating created in one day! What else does a man need? Other husbands, insert your answer here.

And whether it's playing games or cooking a vastly enormous amount of food, she must have music. Oh, Eloise likes all kinds of music, but I think, although she may not admit to any partiality, her favorite is hiphop or dance music. For the most part she loves this kind because she adores dancing. Her secret heart's desire is to be a dancer, which is why I am blessed enough to watch limitless episodes of Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You can Dance, and America's Best Dance Crew.

In addition to these great and, happily, positive characteristics, I must mention her great strength that I, unfortunately do not possess. There are few people in this world that are forward. You may attempt to contradict this statement, but I have not finished it. Yes, Eloise is forward, like many, however she is forward in an acceptable and loving manner. She has not the fear or hesitation that many have when it comes to saying that which most feel awkward to say. If there is something to say amongst friends or family, and it is most unpleasant, Eloise will probably say it. However, her comment will be made wistfully and humorously so as not to burn, but only to convey her thoughts and feelings. Although many may say that this is not a desireable attribute, I disagree. It is one of those gifts that I find most valuable in my dear Eloise.

And, speaking of gifts, it would be a most unfair to describe Eloise without mentioning her greatest love language: Receiving Gifts. In the numerous occasions that Eloise has taken the Five Love Languages Test, Eloise has always ended with the same result. Yes, words of affirmation are helpful, and she does appreciate me telling her that I love her, or that I believe her to be the most beautiful woman I have ever seen; and she also enjoys spending a lot of quality time with me, but if there is one thing that will make Eloise giddy with excitement and love, it is when I get her a gift. It warms my heart when I have the opportunity and the means to bless her with a gift. And it does not go a short ways. There is nothing more filling to Eloise's heart than a present.

And as if this isn't enough, there is one thing I am absolutely sure of, Eloise loves me outright and passionately, and I adore her infinitely :)

Blessed Beyond All Reason,

Joel