My hands are cold. Thanks for nothing, expensive heating bill.

I totally had this blog open a month ago, typed 3 sentences...and never finished.  I am a terrible blogger. haha

I apologize for my lack of blogging this past month and a half.  January was such a blur and I still can not believe that we are in February already. :P

Caleb's grad class these 8 weeks have been SO great.  He is on week 6 and has really enjoyed this recent course.  He has done really practical and applicable work.  He actually has to write a lesson plan to use in his classroom for this class...and one of his peers must review it too before he submits it.  The relaxation level in our home has increased dramatically with the addition of this class and also the end of 2nd quarter.  :)

In January, Caleb and I had the opportunity to see my cousin Kim (and Jim)'s new baby, Cora, come to the waters of Holy Baptism.  It was a joy to see a bunch of my family and to watch Cora's baptism.  Here are a couple pictures.

In January, I also had the chance to attend a conference at Valley Lutheran High School about the new Common Core standards, which many states are switching to instead of GLCE's.  (For my non-teacher friends, these are the things that the state tell us what we NEED to teach in each subject, for each grade level.)  It was fun to be there with my other Lutheran teacher friends and talk about these new standards.  This also was in the same week that we had the funeral for my church's retired emeritus pastor, Pastor Pankow.  He passed away from cancer (I hate cancer) but it in no more pain now...and he gets to party in Heaven. :)  Lucky man.

Caleb and I also began to play on a co-ed volleyball league with Aaron/Teddy's girlfriend, Jenny.  It has been super fun as it makes me remember how much I love volleyball.  I have never played for "real" so I am learning a lot. (HAHA I just pictured an "alot" sitting at a desk, learning. The ALOT is better than you )

The end of January came with SUPER exciting news as one of my best friends and room mates from college, Amy Schultz, had her baby!!  Claire Lynn Schultz entered the world on January 31 to the happiness of mommy and daddy, Josh.  She is so sweet and I get to meet her on Friday!  I have probably been really obnoxious to the Schultz family...but I can not get enough of how adorable and sweet Claire is.  I can only imagine how ridiculous I will be with my own child. Haha.

Caleb and I are going down to Ft. Wayne for part of this weekend, which starts tomorrow for us.  Most people have next weekend/ President's Day, off.  We get the weekend before off.  We will spend the night with my other best friend, Liz, and her husband, Dave.  Friday then will be spent coddling Claire and helping Amy out at home. :)  Caleb and I will come back on Friday night so he can play basketball on Saturday....Monday, Kim and Cora are coming for a visit. Hooray for long weekends.

Talk about getting my baby fix this weekend.  And boy do I need it. :)