A beautiful day at the pumpkin farm....

Today was such a great day!

I think my sweet little autistic student summed it up pretty well when he leaned over to me at lunch and whispered..."Today was the BEST fun I EVER had!" :)

We, the 1st and 2nd grade class, have been counting down the days till October 28....

For the last week I have had to stop fights about how many exact days there were till today....

For today we went on our first field trip of the year!!

To - G & M Farms

We were SO excited!!!

And it was everything we hoped it would be...and more....

Here is our day in pictures!!!

"Mrs. Balatbat!!!! We are HERE!!! "

Right away, we went on our hayride!!! Let me tell you CA definitely has more modern hayride equipment than IN.....haha...but that's only because they don't use it for actual farms!! :)

Ready to have a great day!!!

The hayride took us the the "pumpkin classroom" where got our very own "pumpkin lecture."

They loved it!!

He was having a blast!!

(btw...this is my autistic boy...one of these days I will dedicate a post to him! He is so special to me! His name is Bosa...)

the "pumpkin teacher" :)

Even the kindergarten were very impressed!

My boys!

Next on the agenda was the hay bale maze! It was lots of fun!!! They went crazy!

My girls!!!

After that craziness we found some more craziness over at the "corn" box....just like a sandbox but instead it was filled with corn! What a blast!

Bosa was having the time of his life!

He definitely had this coming to him! He stared the corn dumping fight!! I love this picture!

the girls were doing more girly things...like making "corn" snowmen..:)

until...they started burying each other in corn....

they eventually convinced me to join them...

it was so fun!

until...they started burying me...

all done!!

Then they all wanted a turn!

Next, we looked at the animal part of the farm...

haha..only Bosa!

Miss Kelso with the 3rd and 4th grade!

All of us with Bosa being the center of attention like normal....

Silly faces!

the more mature 3rd and 4th graders...

Our animals...

Bosa, the goat....

I'm so glad Michelle and I get to share these memories together!!

In the hay tunnel

I love him!

Eunice and her pumpkin!

Gabi and I picking our pumpkins!

All done :(

Going home....

Bye Pumpkin Farm....we had so much fun today!!!

We made so many memories today! I can't wait till our next field trip!

Let me just say...for those hours today I, for the first time this year, actually felt like it was Fall....all of you back home...don't take for granted your beautiful fall season...you don't realize how great it is until you don't have it anymore....

Prayer Request Time...

I realize I haven't really blogged much about the actual day to day of school since the year started...Let's see, how would I describe my life the last 8 weeks..btw, I can't believe it has been that long already! Time is flying by....

These are some words that describe my first eight weeks of teaching...

Long

Exhausting

Busy

Never a dull moment

Sore Feet

Crazy

Grading that never stops

Early mornings

Late nights

Frustrating moments

Crazy moments

Moments I just want to cry

Happy moments

Hilarious moments

......

Needles to say, I have never experienced anything like these last 2 months in my entire life...In the last two months, I have fallen in love with 12 little children. They are such a great group of kids! Not one day passes when I don't have some story to tell about them...

One of my absolute favorite parts of the day is prayer request time, during Bible class...

I hear so many things...sometimes they say silly things that have nothing to do with prayer, other times they share their hearts...Here are some things that I have heard when asking for prayer request...

1. Pray that we won't have any earthquakes today.... (this is a result of actually having one the very first week of school)

2. Pray for my Mom (very serious face)..."Oh, is she ok??"...Yeah, she just

stubbed her toe...(huge smile)

3. Pray for my baby sister's crib, that it won't fall down while she is

in it... "Oh, ok!!" Very confused by this one...especially since the "sister" isn't born yet..:)

4. I love you, Mrs. Balatbat... "I love you too...but is that a prayer request??

Remember, prayer request time is for things that we want to talk to God about" :) (How do you not melt when you hear that??)

5. Pray that that bad guy won't come to our church again next Sunday... hmm...I didn't really know how to respond to this one..so my reply was "OK" ... I found out later, there was a guy that was at their church making a lot of noise during the service..haha...

6. Pray for ALL my babysitters...(long pause)....I like them soo much!...

sooo sweet! :)

7. Pray that my Dad and Mom will stop fighting...and that my Mom will run the family business better... :( What do you say to that? That child has obviously heard way too much at home! Sad...

8. Pray for my Mother and my Father... Trust me this child is far far from being the type that would call his parents Mother and Father...that's why this one really made me laugh!

9. On Saturday, Giselle and me went to the zoo!!!! haha....once again...not something we talk to God about!

What can I say... I have some of the funniest, cutest kids on the planet in my class...

Just look at them!! :)

School Video!

A few weeks ago, AT & T came to our school and shot a video for the online yellow pages! I thought it would be fun to share it on here! Just click on the link and then press play on the video...

If you watch very closely you may catch a glimpse of me! :)

Click Here!

Complete again!!!!!

You might remember me telling you that on my wedding day, we not only gained a family member (JULIAN - in case you were wondering) :) but we also LOST a family member...our sweet sweet Golden Retriever, Dakota Brady. He was a very good sibling for almost 9 years and he is greatly missed...:( BUT...I would like to announce that our family is complete again!!!!!!

As of last Wednesday, I officially have a NEW brother...

I would like to proudly introduce to you......

REMINGTON BRADY

(a.k.a - Remi)

Seriously....you can't get much sweeter than that! :)

To all of you back home, if you see him, give him a kiss from me and tell him that he has the best sister in the world, dying to see him!!! :)

A new work...

I am a little late posting this but I would like to tell you about something very exciting that has been going on in our church! As of October 3, Bethel Baptist Church of El Sobrante, California has started a ministry (in hopes of it one day becoming a church) in Sacramento, California! The very first meeting was this past Sunday! It is so exciting to be a part of this new ministry! In the first church service there were 16 who attended. Nine of which were, as far as we know, unsaved! Please pray that this ministry will grow and we will be able to see a great work of God in Sacramento! Below are some pictures of the very first meeting!

Here is our Pastor and his wife! They have been praying and working hard for this day and were so thrilled to see it finally arrive!

Some of the visitors along with the ladies of our church that were there!

Here they are again by the new church's first sign!!

This is Marlowe and Becky! Lord willing, Bethel Baptist Church of Sacramento's future pastor and wife!!! They are so dedicated to the ministry and are such an example to Julian and I!

Here is a video of the beginning of the service! I thought I would share it with you! It definitely will be a wonderful thing to have as far as a memory years down the road!! I'm sure some of you will wonder where they are meeting at...Julian's parents own a care home for elderly/disabled people in the Sacramento area. What a blessing, that the new ministry is able to use this as a meeting place for a start!!!