Out of the Mouth of Babes...

I LOVE TEACHING!!! I just had to say that first off. I want to tell you what happened yesterday that brought me to tears but first lets have a flashback to the 90's

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In the 7th grade I decided what I wanted to do when I grew up. I had other "Backup plans" such as, Astronaut, Zoo Worker, Housewife, and Storm Chaser. I know I was weird. Well in the 7th grade I met Miss Verde/Mrs. McGee we called her Mrs. McVerde, she got married later my 7th grade. Anyhew, she was my favorite teacher, my band teacher. I loved her. She was so fun and entertaining in band and pushed our band as much as she could to make us be the best. She helped me love music, and I mean really love music. I told her at the end of my 7th grade year that I wanted to be just like her when I grew up. So I decided that I was going to be a Jr. High Band Teacher. For the years to come I had it set in my head that I wanted to teach that age group with the idea of instilling one student with the same love of music that Mrs. McVerde passed on to me.

Present:

Well the dream of teaching Jr. High was quickly squashed during my college years as I helped out with a local High School Marching band, granted it was not Jr. High but I figured that it was close enough of the age group that I couldn't handle it, as most of my charges were freshmen. So when Matt and I married I told him I wanted to teach privately when we were at a place long enough to make a difference in the kids life. My dream of why I wanted to teach came true yesterday with my cute little red-headed horn player. Her mom talked to me after the lesson and told me that her daughter told her that she wanted to be just like ME when she grew up, and teach private horn lessons. she loves music and loves playing the horn Her mom said that she has never been so excited about one thing other than animals in her entire life and they are very thankful for me. This is huge for the daughter, because she has always only wanted to do something animal related for her future, but now she has changed and wants to teach horn, and she said that she might need to learn piano as a backup teaching instrument. I started crying because that is the EXACT reason why I wanted to teach. So dream fulfilled, I can stop right, NO WAY! I am going to help ALL my students love music. I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

Seeing Red

I have finally painted a new room in my house. In my favoritest color of all RED. A deep dark red just like I had with my wedding roses. My dining room is now a beautiful, appetite inducing, inviting room. It took a while to find the perfect shade of red but I finally found it thanks to the Pottery Barn. It is one of their Summer and Fall colors for 2009 called Caliente. but I will will tell you that it was very frustrating to do this red. I did 2 coats on Saturday, and finally my brother in law, Seth, finished off the third one yesterday while I cut in. He just did a better job at applying the paint than I did. Here is a swatch color and pix to come.

Oktoberfest 2009

Here in the Allen Home we celebrated Oktoberfest last night. I love doing these theme nights because I always try something new. Last night I made Jaegerschnitzel, Potato Dumplings, and Cranberry Apple Dumplings with Crimson Sauce. Everything turned out AMAZING!!! We all loved the Apple Dumplings, they were so good. Here is the pix from the website I got it from:

There is a sauce that goes in and over it, it is made from whole berry cranberry sauce orange juice and red hots. It was soooooo good. Anyhew things are going well here. My parents are coming to visit in a week from Monday so I am excited to see them and play tourist. Matt will be doing a TON of training for his job and for the Military for the whole month of November but will come home for Thanksgiving, thank heaven. Matt's bro Seth has been living with us since September to spend more time with Matt and Matt has been gone most of the time. Seth has been helping me around the house. We are going to paint the dining room this weekend along with our pergola. I hope all is well with everyone and that they are enjoying the beautiful fall weather.

CW2 Allen

CONGRATS MATT ON YOUR NEW PROMOTION TO:

CHIEF WARRANT OFFICER 2 IN THE US ARMY RESERVES!!!!!

LOVE YOU!

After 3 years of trying to complete his Warrant Officer training, Matt has officially been promoted to a CW2. Lets just say that it has been a long awaited promotion for him.

7 years

Not only is it our dear puppy's birthday but it is also our 7th Wedding Anniversary. I can't believe that it has actually been 7 years. I will tell you that it has been a very fast 7 years and it has been full of difficult times of separation due to deployments or work obligations, but it has also been the best years of my life. I am so happy with where I am in my life and who I get to spend all eternity with. I am so excited to what might happen during this next year of our life together. Here are some pix of our Wedding Day for your enjoyment.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ARCHER!!!

Today is our wonderful puppy's 7th Birthday. We are so happy to have him as part of our family and he has been such a wonderful friend to us.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUPPY!!!!!

~Archer at 2 years~

~Archer at 4 years~

~Archer Today~

Goodbye-Hello

Goodbye Matt's 12 year old Nissan Pickup, that we went on our first date in.

HELLO! Nissan Versa.

We have added a new family member to the Allen Fam. After the disappointing news that Matt's truck didn't qualify for the Cash for Clunkers, which originally we were told that it did, it has been a bother thinking about what we could have had. So after talking about how much money we will actually be saving on gas every month, we decided that it was time to get a new car and donate the truck by the end of the year. So we went with the Versa. It can get up to 40 mpg, even though the stickers say 34 in big lettering, but that is an average on how well you drive. (Matt drives like an old man and gets killer gas milage, so he will probably get close to 45 mpg.)

Anyhew, we were going to get used, but found a base model cheeper than the used which had 50,000 miles on it already, can we say rent a car. So we are getting AC installed this week and my anniversary gift to Matt is a radio system so the car will be perfect for commuting. Needless to say I was ready to get rid of that truck since the AC died, a few months ago. I'm just glad that I don't have to drive that thing in the afternoon with 95% humidity and in the 90's. Matt is pretty excited too that he doesn't have to do that anymore.