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Maggie's Blabber!

Check out my Teachers Pay Teachers store! :o)

I have really been putting more work into my Teachers Pay Teachers store, and it's definitely paying off! If any of my teacher friends would like to start selling your fabulous creations on TpT, just let me know. I'd love to have you as a referral, and I'm happy to share the things that have helped me increase my sales.

As always, my creations are free to close personal friends! Love you guys! :o)

Anna

Here's my store:
http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Anna-Colley/Products

My Store's Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Smarty-Pants-Teaching-Resources/174553419226123

Christmas Letter, Part Deux

As I started writing this year's Christmas letter, I was torn with whether to update everyone with all of the current events in the life of our family, or to take it in a different direction. I wanted to do the latter, but I was concerned that some of the current events info (like upcoming surgery for Maggie) needed to be shared. Here is the happy medium. I have cut and pasted the "current events" draft of the letter as a blog posting here so that I can write about something else in the Christmas letter. Hopefully you will still get our Christmas cards by Christmas so that you can read part one! :o)

The family update version of the letter:

Dear Friends and Family,

Here is what is going on with all of us...

Maggie is in kindergarten this year! She has two absolutely wonderful teachers, Mrs. Mercy Williams, and Mrs. Amy Simpson. These two ladies are loving, hard-working, knowledgeable, experienced, and faithful Christians to boot! Maggie adores kindergarten and is quickly learning to read and write. Maggie’s speech has grown by leaps and bounds since our last letter. We are still in speech therapy both in school and privately, but she is showing improvement. The doctors want to take out her tonsils next to help improve her speech by changing the structure of the back of her mouth and throat. We will schedule that for a school break so she won’t have to miss too much school. As always Maggie keeps us smiling and laughing, and she has such a loving spirit with little hugs and kisses and cards always abounding.

Our little man Jackson is finally talking. He was a little slow to start, but he is talking up a storm now! We love to hear him say, “No, no, Daddy!” and wag his finger at Daddy for whatever annoying thing he is doing at the time. Jack is smiling almost all of the time and laughs a lot! He is interested in exploring everything, closely examining each ornament on the tree and even the dust bunnies under the couch. (What dust bunnies? My house is spotless! Ha ha.) One thing that I treasure about Jack is how cuddly he is. He loves to sit on our laps or to lie next to us or to have hugs and kisses. He loves being held. Oh, and if you see Jackson anytime soon, ask him to show you his new shoes (Disney’s Cars). He will be thrilled to show you how they light up when he stomps and maybe he will scrunch up his face in that way he does and get you laughing right along with him.

As I write this, I am excited that both children are scheduled to be baptized tomorrow morning. What a special day for our family! I had some qualms over infant baptism for a while, but heard a very interesting interview on the topic and now feel sure that it is the right thing to do. I am so excited to publicly welcome them into the family of God. Maggie loves the Lord so deeply and purely, and I pray that Jack will grow to do the same.

As for the grownups (if you have Christmas letter fatigue, you can put this down now), Mike is still working at Sage Software, and I am still teaching fourth grade at Alcova Elementary School in Dacula. I am facilitating a Disciple course this year (Disciple 3) and really enjoying it. I love the way that these in-depth studies help me to grow more and more toward my goal of being like Christ.

We are hoping to save enough for another Disney trip in 2010. Maybe next year when you read our letter we will be just about ready!

Until next year...or actually, until you get our card sometime this week (I hope)...!

Love,
The Colley Family

Both of my kids have ear infections...

We are so unlucky! Both kids are now on antibiotics for ear infections. Sheesh! Hopefully this is not a sign of the winter to come!

Maggie's surgery went well!

I just wanted to let everyone know that Maggie's ear tube surgery this a.m. went well. She was a little sick from the anesthesia but is almost back to 100% this afternoon. She is enjoying having a special day to do whatever she wants and get plenty of attention. :o) She even got to ride in the wheelchair leaving the surgery center. She was tickled by that.

October is here...

...and it is time for an update from the Colleys.

I just took Maggie for a pre-op appointment today with his ENT, Dr. Ann White. She is due for a new pair of T-tubes (ear tubes) on 10/23. What is this, her fifth pair of tubes?? We thought we were going to be doing some plastic surgery in her mouth as well, but just talked to the speech specialist today and decided to hold off. They are recommending tonsillectomy again though, to help her speech. We are going to try to schedule that for a school break to minimize the impact of the 7-10 day recovery on Maggie's school and on our (puny) sick leave. Stay tuned for that.

I am listening to Jack yell Mama from the shower, and that is a sweet sound! I thought I'd never get to hear it. I'm not sure whether he is really calling me Mama or just enjoying the sound of his own voice! He sure does like to hear himself talk. I worry a little about his speech as I expected him to be talking more by now. He does sign to us and loves to say Bye-Bye.

Work is hard this year. There have been a lot of changes at the state level and the district level that are making teaching a lot harder and more stressful. :o(

Not a lot else going on. Oh, our beautiful camera got stolen. I guess it is realistic to call a spade a spade at this late date. About a month or so ago, I left it in a room at church for a few minutes and then it was just gone. Mike is still pretty ticked at me. I guess I am mad at myself too. I mean, who leaves a $1000 camera rig just lying around like an idiot??? I was naive I guess, to think that it would be safe at CHURCH. Oh well. We have replaced it with a much, much smaller, much less expensive, much less fancy camera. I miss the old one. I keep thinking maybe it'll turn up, as unrealistic as that sounds.

I am facilitating a Disciple 3 class this year and have a great, lively group of Christian friends in the class. We are having a good time and getting deep into the Word of God, trying to keep from getting depressed as we work our way through the prophets while the nightly news seems to mirror what we're reading. Just 8 more weeks until we get into the New Testament and Paul.

I can't think of anything else, and I am supposed to be getting Maggie ready for bed. Or should I say, supervising her getting herself ready. Oh, I'm on FaceBook now if anyone wants to look me up. :o)

See y'all!