The Icing on the Cake

My birthday began with surprises. The first one from my husband. After frustrating him by shaking the present to find it was a puzzle, I quickly opened it to find a panoramic puzzle of Times Square. The second surprise came once I got to work...

I walked into the 6th grade hall to find a teacher waiting for me and quickly pulled me into her classroom. She asked me all sorts of crazy questions, like asking me to name all my favorite Christmas carols. After a few minutes of this, I asked if she was stalling, sure that something was going on. With a big smile on her face she said, "Yes, so make yourself comfortable. I am supposed to stall until the tardy bell." After another ten minutes the tardy bell rang and I was off down the hall. I arrived at my classroom door to find this.....

Behind the cracked door I could hear "shhhh!" and "quiet!" and "she's coming!" I slowly opened the door to find all 46 kids crouched in the doorway with a handful of confetti and paper streamers. I quickly called Matt to drop the camera off at the school after finding the kids had arrived early to decorate my classroom, with the help and supervision of my team teacher, Mrs. Brown. In true party fashion, the kids brought a few yummies to share with the class. I got tons of hugs from the kids (the best present) and a few fun cards and surprises on my desk. My favorites included a Christmas light necklace that blinks, flowers, a football helmet animal bracelet, and several handmade cards. One was made by all my homeroom boys, complete with their sweet signatures and Alabama drawings. Another card came from one of the boys in my homeroom. It read, "Mrs. Tanner, I hope you have a great birthday. You are a great teacher. In "girl talk" that means: i <3 (heart) u!" All my birthday items are in my "Why I Became A Teacher" box; a box I keep around for those tough days on the job where I need a reminder of why I put my all into each day at work.


Here are a few pictures from the day....

The bookshelves in the back of the room

Decorations on the window (the balloons did not stay up for long, thanks to my boys)

The sign they made out of Kit-Kat candybars behind my desk

My sweet Yaseen, who teaches me more about sign language each day

While they remind me each day that they are all stubborn, anxious, and emotional preteens, they also reminded me that they are caring, funny, eager to please, sweet, and sneaky! I always said growing up that I would be a teacher, but NEVER for middle school. Funny thing is, now I can't imagine teaching anything else!

Tanner - Party of 17

Next on the update list is our cheerleader sleepover!

Last year, Jana - the other 8th grade cheer sponsor with me at HMS - and I started having a sleepover for their cheerleader Christmas party. This is something I have always wanted to do with the cheerleaders, but living in an apartment did not provide me enough space. (or insulation for noise!) The girls march in the Homewood Christmas Parade on the first Saturday in December each year, so we have the sleepover on the Friday night before and take them to the parade in the morning.

The night began with a group outing. We met at the Summit on Hwy 280 to eat dinner and watch a movie. The 17 girls and 4 adults (Jana and I with our poor husbands) ate at Macaroni Grill, where the girls colorfully decorated their tablecloth with the crayons given to us by our overwhelmed waiter. The highlight of dinner came toward the end. As if the 21 of us did not attract enough attention, the girls decided to make sure the restaurant noticed their table. A young woman was coming around to each table singing opera-style Christmas carols. Upon arriving at our table, the girls did not want to hear "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" or "Silent Night," they wanted "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." She did not get through the first line before all 17 girls were (loudly) singing along with her - and including the hand motions and the funny parts in between the verses. It was not long before the entire restaurant was looking our way - some even standing up or letting their small children stand in their chairs! The girls received quite a round of applause from the restaurant!

After dinner we took a short trip across the shopping mall to see The Blind Side as a group. Trying to find 21 seats together on the second week of the movie opening was difficult. The girls sat together while Jana, Will, Matt, and I sat a few rows behind. The movie was fantastic - all the girls loved it! (If you have not seen it, I strongly recommend it! It is wonderful!) A big surprise met us as we all walked out of the theatre together - SNOW flurries! As we headed to the cars while the girls boisterously sang their "We Rode With Matt" rap, Jana and I quickly caught up on weather updates, which were predicting 1-2 inches of snow and ice throughout the night. We packed the girls up and headed back to the house for more Christmas fun, worried that 17 girls could be snowed-in at our house!

Once arriving at the house, the girls unloaded and unpacked - but not before waking up our neighbors as they sang out in the snow in our driveway. Once inside, many changed into their pajamas and were eager to play! Jana brought items for them to build gingerbread houses, so the girls were broken into groups and got busy! They were VERY competitive, but only one team could win! After building, eating, and then demolishing, we played another game where the girls had to guess facts about their teammates that their mothers shared with us. We wrapped up the night by watching some old dance team and cheer videos of mine and Jana's. It was not long before the girls slowly disappeared downstairs and the rest were asking if they could go to bed!

Second Place!

The Winning House!

Erin is out on our deck around 1:00 am and yes - she is barefoot!

During their sing-along in the den

After a few hours of sleep, Jana and I were up and getting the girls ready for the parade. We were also greeted by quite a bit of snow, since the prediction was just "flurries." The girls took a few moments to walk around and play before heading to the parade. When I called to make sure the parade was still on, the man on the phone was very surprised at my question and almost seemed to wonder if I was joking. We found out shortly it was because Homewood did not get near the snow that we did in Hoover on top of the mountain. After a bitter cold parade with 17 chilly, sleepy girls, we walked back to teammate Riordan's house for breakfast and meeting moms. The girls had a great time, but Jana and I left the breakfast eager for a nap and the SEC championship game!

Giving Thanks

While there are so many things to update on, I will start with our Thanksgiving holidays.

We started our Thanksgiving holidays with a trip down to Dothan. After a rough start, we finally reached Dothan in the early morning hours of Wednesday. Matt and I awoke to the pitter-patter of little feet downstairs and whispers that sounded through the halls. It was Matt's two little cousin's kids - Lillie and Ella - twin girls eager to play. Breakfast was full of anticipation and excitement as Ella was cheered on by the table while she wiggled her loose front tooth. When a sixth graders pulls out a loose tooth, it is no big deal. I had forgotten the thrills of a little one pulling out her FRONT tooth! There were many cheers, applause, and pictures to be taken! The afternoon consisted of trying to get Lillie to come down from the tree in the backyard and Christmas shopping. We woke up Thursday morning and had a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch with the family and had to say goodbye to our two favorite blonde twins and head to Auburn for the big football game on Friday.

Auburn was a good time! After riding with friends, David and Anna, from Dothan to Auburn we were able to catch up on recent happenings. Friday was full of friends, tailgating, and football! After a VERY eventful football game, both Matt and I surprisingly left the game "happy." I say "happy" because although his team played very well, they lost and while my team did not play very well, we won. (Editor's note: I have been asked to clarify "happy." Matt was in no way happy about the loss, but happy about the apparent direction his Auburn program is headed in, but hey - whatever - it's my red Alabama star on top of our football tree in the den.) We wrapped up the night with a nice dinner with lots of Auburn friends to close the football season until next year. Again, we stayed with more friends and woke up again to the sounds of pitter-pattering little feet downstairs and whispers. However, these whispers came from Sarah and Joseph's little boys, Ford and Luke, wondering when we would be up to play. Ford came up to show us that he got to sleep in the playroom (since we took his bed) and then showed us his new toys downstairs. After visiting with the family for a bit, it was back to Birmingham.


Once back in Birmingham, Christmas came a bit early for us! Some neighbors in mom and dad's neighborhood were looking to get rid of some of their dining room furniture. After getting back in town on Saturday afternoon we went by to look at the furniture and were eager to take it off their hands. So now we have a dining room, complete with table, chairs, china cabinet, and buffet table. It may need some work this summer, but we are glad to give it a new home!