9 inches of snow (and counting)!!!

Let it snow!

So we had a snow day with no snow yesterday, it was very interesting! I was very productive with my time and went out and did some shopping and just had a nice day off. Today, the snow is really here. I am guessing we probably have 2-3 inches outside right now. I am enjoying the fact that I am warm and cozy inside and that my roommates are here with me! :) Here are some photos I took a little bit ago:

My poor roommate's car completely covered.

Why I love my job...

1) My kids are the cutest.
2) The staff is amazing, I am very close friends with most of them.
3) Snow days.

A few of my precious kiddos dressed in their Christmas best for the Christmas musical.

3 of the 4 girls I have in my class. :)

My class is so precious. After having such a challenging class last year, it is nice to have an easier one this year. There are some challenges but nothing like last year. These kiddos are so well-behaved and make me feel so loved.

Angela and I posing for a picture.

Angela, Todd and I being our silly selves.

Suzie and I posing for a picture.

Last week, our staff Christmas party was held at a board member's house (mansion). It was a lot of fun: we were silly together, ate yummy food, played pool and just enjoyed one another's company. I never really play pool and have never been good but somehow I showed some talent last week as Todd and the guys were trash talking the girls and saying they would win. Let's just say I helped them see who was boss! :) I love my coworkers!

The adventures of Fred Bush...

Yes, we did name our Christmas tree. He just needed an identity and so we gave him a name. Oh what fun we had that evening! My stomach hurt from laughing so hard...the memories we created!

Melynda holding the tree tight against the car roof. It did a lot of good! :)

Katriina showing off her mighty power and becoming one with the tree.

Trying to conquer the tree and get it off the top of the car.


Lifting weights really does pay off....

Katriina and I trying to figure out the darn tree skirt (yes, both of us are lifting our legs...apparently this helps).

Such a happy family! :)

Showing our frustration with the tree and thousands of pine needles we had to vacuum up.

The finished product! :)

My sweet class

I thought you all (whoever really does read my blog) would enjoy some pictures of the sweet faces I teach every day. They bring so much joy and laughter most of the time, other times they drive me crazy :) But all in all, I do love them!

Enjoying the Thanksgiving feast. Aren't these faces precious?

Too cute for words!

Here are a few quotes for your entertainment:

"If we keep talking about guns we could get exploded." A student who was suspended last week for talking about bringing a gun to school shared this with the class after a few of them were talking about guns. I am pretty sure he meant "expelled".

"We are just really full as we try and hold it as long as we can so it takes longer to get us empty" A student in all seriousness telling me why he took so long in the bathroom.

"You can't be a teacher, you still play volleyball. You are still a teenager."

Oh the joys of being a teacher!

December

Yikes! Who knew that December could be such a crazy month? Okay...I guess I did. Sorry that there are no pictures for this post. I need to find my memory card reader so I can upload some pictures.

My December is full with Christmas parties, going home and trying to finish up my first quarter as a graduate student. At this time tomorrow I will be done, yahoo! I am so glad to be done with my statistics class, that was such a pain and I really thought it would eventually become the death of me. I am looking forward to taking more interesting classes next quarter.

Thanksgiving was fabulous! It was great to have everyone together up here. It was so fun to see Grampy up here in the northwest. It was sad to notice that we were missing someone but it was good to be together. While we were all together, we celebrated my dad's 60th birthday and Sydney's 2nd birthday. What fun times! Oh wait! Now I remember that I do indeed have pictures. Here are some of my favorites from our Thanksgiving celebration...

My sweet family...not sure what Micah is looking at! :)

Can he be any cuter?

Sydney in all her cuteness!

Gramma loving on Levi

Grandpa Jim getting some "help" with his candles.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there! Here is another list of what I am thankful for today as I am mindful of all the blessings in my life:

1. Being with my family for a few days of uninterrupted fun.
2. Watching Sydney and Micah loving on each other.
3. Amazing and supportive friends who have become some of the best friends I have ever had this past year.
4. A great church.
5. Grampy being able to join us in Seattle for Thanksgiving dinner.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving and enjoys their time with family!

More Thankfulness

1. Laughter and goofiness with friends.
2. A nice, warm white chocolate mocha.
3. Waking up in the morning excited for the day and my job.
4. The excitement of being with family for the next 5 days.
5. A parent telling me that I am the best.
6. Hopes of a great day.

Thankful

So many of my friends are writing blog posts about what they are thankful for this week so I thought I would do the same. I have been so emotional and grumpy as of late, so I think I need to be reminded of all the things in my life that I am grateful for (graduate school is not one of them right now :) ).

1. A wonderful working environment where I feel loved and appreciated. Staff/coworkers that are true friends and genuinely care about my life.

2. A wonderful class this year with students who make me laugh every day and make me feel so loved with their hugs, sweet words and sweet cards.

3. The most amazing roommates who are always so forgiving of my faults and make me laugh so hard when I need it the most.

4. My family who I adore so much. I am so thankful to be so close with my family and be involved in my niece and nephews lives.

5. The chance to bake chocolate chip cookies (yes, I was procrastinating).

6. Sunny days with beautiful sunrises with Mt. Rainier in the background that remind me of the beauty of God's creation.

I feel better already! :)

Humbled...

I have a myspace account simply for the purpose of keeping in touch of some of my favorite (oops...did I say that?) middle school students. I have loved keeping in touch with them and watch them as they start their high school lives hoping that what I taught them or who I was as their teacher affected them in some way. My biggest hope and prayer as a teacher is to make a positive impact on my students. I want to be a teacher that my students can look back on and remember as being someone who impacted their life.

Here is something that one of my old students wrote in her "heroes" section on her myspace page:

Ms. Amber Bobst: You taught me a lot more than just seventh grade math and eighth grade science. You inspired me to become someone so much greater than I would have ever wanted to be. I admire you so much more than anyone, and I can't wait until the kids you teach notice how lucky they are. (:

Wow. Cicely was a great student: sassy and lovable. Her middle school years were rough ones as she had run ins with drugs and dealt with her best friend getting into drugs. Cicely confided in me about this multiple times and I know God used those talks for His glory. I am just so humbled by what she wrote and this verifies the reason why I am a teacher...to make an impact on my student's lives, not through what I teach them but through who I am as a person and the influence I have on these precious lives.

Yikes!

It has been way too long since I have updated my blog, sorry about that! Life has been a bit crazy to say the least. There have been good days and bad days but overall, I am just surviving right now! :)

As many of you have heard, my Grammy passed away suddenly a little over 3 weeks ago. This has been a hard reality for me. It was great to be able to go home for 10 days and just be with my family as we prepared for the service and just had some sweet family time. There are days where Grammy being gone is a huge reality and there are days that it just doesn't seem real. Grammy was not perfect, but who really is? She was such a sweet and caring lady and that was shown in many ways during her memorial service. I found myself walking away from that service proud of who my Grammy was and all of the lives she had impacted. I also walked away determined to live my life in such a way that I leave a beautiful legacy such as hers. Her death has transformed my life in many ways, putting things into perspective and having this feeling that she is looking down on me from Heaven and watching as I live my life out.

Besides that, I have been super busy and overwhelmed with my schooling. Working a full-time job, taking 3 classes (each require 10 hours a week) and coaching volleyball has just drained me. I am trying my best to stay on top of things but it is hard at times. I never see my roommates, which is such a bummer since I love them so. I am trying to prioritize my life and make time for some small things that bring me joy, I need that. Spending a whole weekend in the library is not necessarily my idea of fun or that great for my mental stability! :) Thankfully the quarter is over halfway over and I am on the homestretch...I just hope I can make it through with decent grades and my sanity still intact!

Thankfully, volleyball is over. I loved coaching the girls this season as especially coaching with my friend Angela but the complaining parents made it a full time job for me and I was ready to be done. I thought for sure that once volleyball was over, I would have so much more time on my hands but that has proved to be wrong! Where does the time go?

I will leave you with a few pictures from my time in California...

Mom, Auntie Brenda and Grampy...precious!

I love this picture for so many reasons.

Grandpa Jim is so popular! :)

Grampy meeting Levi for the first time.

This was where we first started our journey: at the airport. For the first five minutes of seeing each other, Micah and Sydney held hands, giggled and just kept staring at each other. They love each other so much and it is priceless!

Auntie to 3...

Heather's new little peanut was born 10 days ago, October 1st. He is absolutely beautiful and I love being his auntie! I love seeing Steve and Heather as parents of 2 and Micah demonstrating that he has the skills he needs to be a big brother! :) I was over there today and I would be holding Levi and Micah would come right up to us and give Levi a kiss along with a sweet pat...he is in love with his baby brother and that is so sweet to see.

Here are a few of my favorite pictures. There is a movie on the bottom showing how sweet Micah and Sydney play together (along with Grandpa Jim).
My favorite picture of all....they are both just adoring each other! How sweet!

New family of four!

Proud Auntie

So sweet.

Other than enjoying my new role as an auntie to another little peanut, life is extremely full. I started my master's degree last week at Seattle Pacific, am coaching middle school volleyball, teaching 2nd grade and trying to have fun as much as I can! :)

P.B.

So, I just got off the phone with my best friend from growing up, Jen Picos. She told me that the pastor I grew up with has been diagnosed with cancer in his brain. He has had melenoma (sp?) skin cancer for years and now it has apparently moved into his brain. Apparently he doesn't have long to live. He is in his 80's and has lived a great life but it is still sad to think that his life might come to an end soon. Jen said that she was going to write Pastor Bonner (my family nicknamed him P.B) a letter about how much he has meant to her over the years and all he has done for her family and I couldn't pass up that opporunity myself. I think I will write him a letter but in the meantime, I wanted to let my blog friends know a little about the difference this precious man has made in my life.

When I was home for Christmas last year, my sisters and I took a trip to the grocery store to pick up some ice cream and in walked PB. He asked how each of us were doing and was so sincere with his sweet words, telling us he was proud of us and happy for where our lives have taken us. He knew what each of us were doing and all about my sister's families. It was obvious that he cared about us and was keeping up with our lives via our grandparents (or some other source). This is who PB is, a genuine, sweet man who truly cares for people.

One of my favorite quotes (I am not sure where it is from) is, "Preach the gospel and when necessary...use words". PB lives this quote out perfectly. Looking back on all the years I have known him (or remember him since I have known him all my life), I don't remember the sermons he preached but I do remember him showing me Christ through many things: his actions, his concern for people, his sweet nature, his nonjudgmental nature and his love for life and God. I have respected and admired this man all of my life, there is not one negative thing I can say about him. He has lived his life truly loving and serving God and His people and it shows. I remember PB as someone who always visited the sick in the hospital, attended all the funerals, showed up at many youth events, showed up to graduation parties (I still can remember the hug he gave me at my high school graduation party and the words he shared with me about how he was proud of me), played with the kids, and he seemed to get along and connect with all age groups.

He truly is a man of God and has lived his life to the fullest. I hope that one day, when I have aged, people can look back on my life and say that my love for God was evident and that I showed Christ to others not through my words but through my actions.

PB is a special person and I truly hope that I will be able to see him again this side of Heaven.

Back to School

Yes, it is that time again....I can hardly believe it! The summer months went by way too fast and I had way too much fun! :) It was a great summer full of great family time, fun weekend trips with friends and nannying for a very sweet family.

I feel like this post is boring without pictures but you will have to wait for some pictures! :) In the meantime I will leave you with some highlights of the first week of school (minus no sleep and the craziness of getting back into a crazy busy routine):

1. Receiving big hugs and love from my students from last year. Even though they were such a challenging class, I miss them and love every time I get to see any of them!

2. Hearing one of my new students tell his classmates that this is going to be his best year ever on the first day of school.

3. Coming back to my classroom not knowing that my students were in there waiting for me! I opened the door and the said, "Surprise! we love you!". On that day, I so needed to hear that!

4. Coaching volleyball with my great friend Angela and hearing my volleyball girls use the word "precious" because they know I am obsessed with that word.

5. Having a parent from last year tell me that my love for my students is so evident and that I made a significant difference in her son's life.

6. Being back in the community that I love and having so many meaningful conversations with my amazing coworkers.

Can you tell I love my job and where I work? :) It definitely has its challenges but it so rewarding all at the same time.

Being an auntie is the best...

I have had so much fun hanging out with Sydney (and Tiffany and Nick :) this week. I have missed being able to play with her as much as I am able to with Micah. Tonight I am watching Sydney as Tif and Nick went on a date. I thoroughly enjoyed my one on one time with her: we laughed, played, laughed some more and then played some more! :) For the month of August, I am living with Steve, Heather and Micah as I am in transition from one apartment to the next (long story), so it has been fun to see Micah (and Steve and Heather :) every day. Sydney and Micah both have such sweet personalities and are so easy to love! Here are some recent pictures of their cuteness.

Micah and Sydney playing together.

Sydney has been fooled into thinking that yogurt is ice cream.

I leave the room for one minute and this is what I come back to....

She is so easy to love on and make laugh :)

Micah playing in one of my moving boxes. He had a blast peeking in and out of there. He looks so big and handsome in this picture!

Redfish Lake

Once again, our family vacation to Redfish was a blast! We had crazy weather: sunny, warm, thunderstorms, pouring rain...it was fabulous! We spent most of our time at the beach this year which was fun and entertaining with two little ones!

Sydney reading her "booka"

Heather, Micah and Mom doing one of our favorite Redfish activities: sitting in front of the lodge.

Micah showing Sydney some love.

Sydney and Auntie

I only went on a very short kayak run this year as it was so windy and hard to steer but I still had fun! :)

Where has the summer gone? I have had such a blast this summer: traveling and nannying for such a sweet family. I am not ready to give in to the fact that school is just around the corner!