Hole in One

I am proud to announce (a tad bit after the fact) that Benny got his first hole in one! He was golfing with his dad, brother, and uncle over Thanksgiving Break when the marvel transpired. They say that Ben was jumping, screaming, and causing a big ruckus. Knowing my mostly cool as cucumber husband, I find that a little hard to believe. Either way - definitely something to be excited about it. Not to mention, he's the first Hawley/Kritz to accomplish the feat. 

 

playing school

I can tell what kind of teacher I've been at school lately because of the things I hear my students say while "playing school". Today during social centers one bossy little thing was 'being Mrs. Hawley', while the others must have been her unruly students. A few things I heard her say (all in a loud voice):

Are you kidding me?!?!

If I hear one more person tattle... 

Do you need to go visit the pre-k room for awhile?! 

Try asking me again without the whiny voice.

I have a headache.

Santa is watching you! 

Sometimes I think, "I am so lucky that these kids keep loving me day after day."

But then sometimes I think, "These kids are so lucky that I keep loving them day after day."

I guess that makes us even. 

The other day was Over Achiever Mom's snack day.

Yes, she made a little individual fruit pizza for every child. I'm sorry if you don't think this is blog-worthy, but I just thought it was nuts. The kids loved it! Emma said it was "scrumptious" and Gabriel said it was "courageous" (but I'm pretty sure he meant to say "outrageous"). 

We're still working on their vocabulary and grammar. Especially the kid whom I had this conversation with today:

Mrs. Hawley: "Sam, are you going to wear your PJs tomorrow for pajama day?"

M: "I are!"

Mrs. Hawley: "Try again."

M: "Me is!"

And apparently this is what I look like to my students. Really flat hair, a fat neck, scary face, 5 fingers total, and practically no legs. But she loves me, so that's all that matters. 

I miss my little babies everyday

I've been watching this about 10 times a day lately. Sweet Daisy.

I love seeing Jesus in my students.

I don't know how long I had been grumpy today before my sweet little one showed me Jesus. I didn't see Him till social centers, which is at the very end of the day. I'm glad she snapped me out of it. I hate to think of all the times I could have seen Him today, if only I'd been looking.

She was in art center, and I was busy signing everyone's folders. She had asked me like twenty million times if I would come look at her picture. When I finally made it over there, I was so pleasantly surprised! She prefaced by singing me the song:


This is the Cross

This is the cross where Jesus died.           

(Make cross with fingers.)         
This is the hill where Mary cried.         
(Put two fists together.)         
This is the tomb where Jesus lay.            

(Hold two open palms together.)            

This is the stone that rolled away.            

(Make circle of thumbs and forefinger and "roll".)        

AND THEN she showed me her picture. Yep, she had drawn a picture for each line of the song. It was perfect. She finished by telling me, "Mrs. Hawley, you know the BEST part?! He's ALIVE!" with the biggest smile on her face. 



Also today: 
boy #1: Mrs. Hawley! Boy #2 pushed me!!
boy #2: Nobody saw it!
Me: Well, Jesus saw it. (I realize this isn't entirely legal for me to say) 
boy #1: And so did the demons! 


That one wasn't as sweet. 

I overheard an interesting conversation at the art table today:

Mean Little Boy: You are ugly!

Smart Little Girl: Whatever, I write my ABC's way better than you.

Also, we about had a major disaster on our hands, when one child decided to announce to the whole class during circle time that THERE IS NO SANTA CLAUS!

I frantically rambled for about 10 straight minutes, and I think everyone's pure innocent imagination was spared. But I'm not sure. And you better believe that ornery child ended his day on red. (That's really bad in the kindergarten neighborhood)

Wedding Pictures! (finally)

One year, three months, and 11 perfectly perfect days later....
I've finally ordered wedding pictures! Here are a few of them.

Click here to view this photo book larger

In other news, 4th year of medical school is turning out to be a breeze! No Friday clinics for a month! I had Parent Teacher Conferences this week, which resulted in me also having Friday off. Ben and I spent the day with Bennett which included:
holding a rat
petting a snake
The Lion King
popcorn, M&Ms, and french fries for lunch
Centennial Land Run Monument
Bass Pro Shop
Wal-Mart
and a camo sweat suit, that Zach says he has yet to take off

I forgot I had a blog.

Not too much has been going on.

We've (Ben) applied for residency!! It's actually surreal to me that this school biznazz is almost over.  Oklahoma University School of Medicine, we will not miss you. So anyways, in 8 short months Benny will be a doctor and we'll be living who knows where - but here's to hoping it's in the very close vicinity of all our family and friends.

Putnam City Public Schools finally realized that it's both crazy and dangerous to have the class sizes that we do, so we're in the process of hiring a new kindergarten teacher to spread out our kids. This is both good and bad. Good, because I'll have room to walk around my room and have 5 or 6 less kids to corral; and sad because I'm losing a few snit snorts. 

Ben left me yesterday for The Centennial State - where he is busy hunting for one of these babies:

Who knows if he'll get one. I'm great either way - If he gets one, he'll be so happy and I'll be so proud. If he doesn't get one, I won't have to hang it in my house.

Back to School

Today was my first day back at work. The kids come on Thursday.

I am so excited to meet my new snit snorts. 

But I'm even more excited about seeing my old ones, my big bad first graders. 

I hope this year's students are even half as lovable as last year's. 

But I hope they're a WHOLE LOT better behaved. 

I've made some New (School) Year's Resolutions

1. spend more time teaching math

2. raise my voice less

3. reward more and punish less

4. do a better job at showing God to my colleagues

5. have assigned seats

Any other advice is SO welcome. 

Empty Nest

Ben has been doing his "rural rotation" in a small town near Henryetta, thus we've moved back in with my parents. The last two weeks have been so great. There's been lots of swimming, and shopping, and Big Brother watching. Sadly, I go back to the real world this week, and I'm leaving Ben to fend for himself with the Jenson clan for two more weeks.

We moved Grant to college on Wednesday. I think Grant's giddiness and excitment might have actually cancelled out my parents' and my despair. He's just so big. When did he get to be so big?

In the midst of my mom's sobbing, she assured me that "I cried for you too, hunny." But I know that this one has to be harder. I'm just glad that Ben and I were there for my parents. We let my dad pay for our meals, and we let my mom do our laundry - just so they'd still feel needed and parental. Wasn't that so nice of us?

I love you, Granty. I'm proud of you.

27 days

away from this guy...

with no diet dr. pepper...

unable to sleep in my own bed cuddled up next to my husband...

27 days was made, not only bearable, but absolutely heavenly...

because of these (plus about 70 other) snit snorts.

I was so blessed to be able to go home to Zambia for a few weeks. A very special thanks to Benny for letting me spend money that we don't have, while he was stuck at home working 15 hour days, with no one to iron his shirts or fix his dinner. 

I cannot even begin to put into words the love I have for the babies and my friends at Namwianga, and the ache I feel when I'm not with them. 

First Things First

I've been gone the last few weeks to the best place on Earth, with some of the best people on Earth - more on that later. But first things first: Family Vacation.

Remember that freezing cold trip I mentioned? It was a total success (minus that fact that Dad got a tad bit grumpy once or twice, Ben's flatulence tortured everyone, and that one minor freak-out that I had on the top of a mountain cliff where I thought we were all going to die.)

The trip included:

lots of four-wheeling (along very narrow trails - hence the said freak-out),

a bit of snow, 

a tour of the occasional gold mine, 

and sack lunches in a Walmart parking lot while waiting for the tire shop to fix a blowout.

Ben and I also celebrated our one year anniversary while in the beautiful Silverton, Co. We opted out to not stay with the family, in the trailer, on the bunk bed...

We stayed at an old hotel, that used to be a brothel (how romantic..but seriously). And my mom surprised us by bringing the top of our wedding cake. She thinks of everything. 

 (I couldn't really get this stupid hat off of him the entire vacation.)

Thanks for the best year of my life, Benny.  

Happy Father's Day!

These three weirdos somehow convinced my mom and me that it would be a good idea to go to a place where the average low is 30 degrees at night - for our SUMMER vacation. That's right - the five of us (plus Rachel!) are going to the mountains of Colorado for the next seven days. And did I forget to mention that we're all riding in a truck together for 12 hours, and sleeping together in a travel trailor, AND not eating out one time? I'm seriously so excited. 

...thus the early Father's Day post. 

(I love this picture. I'm not sure what was going on with the cows, that it couldn't wait till AFTER the wedding, but I love it.)

I have the best dad. These are only a few reasons why I love him so much. 

1. He is hilarious

2. He is always striving to be a better Christian and to know more about God. He makes a constant effort to never be complacent in his faith.

3. He always seems genuinely sad whenever I leave Henryetta.

4. He lets Ben hunt with him.

5. He hates sitting still. Hates it. It's a little annoying when the rest of us want to read, or watch tv, or sleep in; but I love it about him, nonetheless. 

I love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day. 

And I could never forget my most faithful reader, and the best father-in-law a girl could ever ask for. Thanks for making me feel so loved. 

Ranting

People love Target. I get it - they have cute things and stylish clothes, and for most people, I assume it delivers a pleasant shopping experience. I try to be one of those people. But I can't. I love Walmart.

1. About a month ago I set out to do my grocery shopping, and attempted Target. After having to skip over a couple things on my list that I couldn't find, I finally lost it when I couldn't find plain chicken breasts. Chicken breasts! Not lemon peppered chicken breasts, or spicy chicken breasts - I just wanted plain ol' chicken breasts. I left my fully filled shopping cart right there by the frozen meat and high-tailed it to Walmart.

2. Last week I ran into Target to get some starch  - you know, to iron Ben's dress shirts. It wasn't with the cleaning supplies, it wasn't with the laundry detergent, it wasn't with the irons. You know where it was at Walmart? The first place I looked.

3. Today I went to Target to get a few things, one of which is disposable baking pans. You know - those foil ones? I needed them for our upcoming vacation, where it's my dad's goal to not eat out one time. Anyways, couldn't find them. At Walmart? On clearance. 

Sorry, I just had to rant. See ya at Walmart. 

By the way - HAPPY BIRTHDAY, H-BOMB! I love you, sister. 

Mini Benny

Bennett stayed the night this weekend, and completely owned us. Bless his heart, I absolutely love that kid.

Upon arriving:

 "Where ya going to sleep Bennett?" "In the tween of you guys!"

Picking out a Netflix: 

"Aunt Courtney, help us find a movie." "Well, what kind are you guys looking for?"

"Just a Disney type movie that's made for little boys and Uncle Ben's."

Driving around town, we spot a limo:

"Bennett, look at that limo!" "Wow, I wish we had one of those with a car seat in it!"

After banging a bobble head on the coffee table, thus leaving the coffee table annihilated, and Bennett hiding for his life:

"Come here, Bennett. I need to talk to you." 

"No, I don't want to. You're just going to tell me stuff, and I don't want to hear it."

In other news, my husband and my cousins forced me to stay up till 2 in the morning watching Hoarders. I laughed, I cried, and I ran to the bathroom gagging.

I love Summer!

Just a few highlights of my summer thus far...
1. Afternoon naps with my husband. (I love family medicine rotation. LOVE it. It's not too late to change your mind, hunny.)

2. Taking Bennett on his very first fishing excursion. (No, we didn't catch anything.)

3. Laying out - laying out with rachel; laying out with Kerri; laying out with Mom; laying out. And wearing lots of sunscreen.

4. Memorial Weekend in Chi Chi Ta and everything it entailed: Africa shopping with Sis and Sass, eating way more than my fair share of Rice Krispie Treats, and lots of Nerts playing.

5. Our long weekend in Henryetta and everything it entailed: Harley ride with dad, birthday dinners, shooting guns, burning brush, and lots of other things that can only be done in Henryetta.

6. And did I mention tons of time with my husband? I love family medicine rotation.

All Grown Up

This post is a couple weeks late, but important and special, nonetheless. Little Baby Grant graduated from high school! I was one proud seester. 

 I wish I could say that he was going to be at OC in the fall. But I guess going to school with your best friends is more important than going to school near your sister. 

The cutesy tootsy girlfriend, Rachel. We like her better than we like him a lot of the time. 

The family; I love that there are 5 of us now. 

The boys

Grant's Entourage. 

(Quite a few more people than the group that came to my high school graduation - not that I'm counting or anything...)

Happy Graduation! I love you, Granty.