Kelee's Baby Shower

Worlds collide! My friends Kelee (a childhood friend from Washington State) and Annah (a friend from high school) are friends with each other, living in the same town, going to the same church, and having baby boys only days apart! It was so fun to see them together at Kelee's shower.

We served appetizers and had a tractor theme, as Baby Parker's room is decorated in th same theme.

Mmm... cookies and cupcakes!

More tractors, more cookies...

One of my mom's students made this diaper cake with a tractor theme!

Here is Kelee next to Parker's crib. Our friend Andrea made the canvases above.

My sister, Michelle, me, and another Michelle (both Michelles are from high school as well!)

Here's Andrea's sweet daughter, Emory, my sister, and Andrea.

Dewar's

Okay Amy... Here they are. Patience! Patience! This is Amy. I used to be her Bible study leader and substitute teacher when she was in high school. Now SHE'S a 6th grade teacher, like me. WE'RE COLLEAGUES! Here we are in front of Red Brick Pizza (I think that's what it's called.). But the really good stuff came later...

This is me and my pump at Amy's former place of employment - Dewar's. It's basically the best ice cream in the world. Thanks to la bomba, I could eat this entire sundae without losing any sleep. I definitely didn't lose any sleep... or any weight.

Pump, pump, pump it up! Pump that Mustang spirit up! Did I mention that Amy and I went to the same high school? Go Stockdale Mustangs!

Her face is so sweet, but that sundae in the foreground is even sweeter.

Two More Reasons Why I Loved Being Home

1) Dad's cooking. This was breakfast.

2) Fresh flowers, my favorite snack, and a Diabetes magazine awaited me in the guest room. I felt so loved. My parents are the best!

I'm Old

So at the football game, I was thrilled to find out that the West High Vikings were playing the Frontier High Titans. You see, most of my former 7th grade students from Freedom Middle School now attend Frontier, all of them now JUNIORS and SENIORS. Boy did that make me feel old...

I sneaked over to the opposing side and walked the bleachers, looking for kids that were familiar. It kind of felt like I was looking for missing children whose faces from five years ago were on a milk carton, and I had to find the older versions of them in a sea of people.

Lo and behold, I didn't have to walk very far before I heard someone yell, "Miss Sampley!" I turned and saw a blond girl pointing at me and smacking her friend on the shoulder to get her to look. Then, I beckoned them down from the bleachers and we caught up and took a picture. It was so exciting!

These two I had my very first year of teaching, and now they're in the drum line in the band and going to college next year. I'm on my tippy toes, but look how tall they are!

This one, whose brother is the blond one above, has the worst handwriting of any kid I've ever had. When he saw me he said, "Hey Miss Sampley! I get good grades now!" While I was thrilled for him, I'm not sure what that said about me...

Friday Night Lights with June Bug

Junie's daddy is a high school football coach, so we got her dressed up in her West High Vikings green and went to dinner before the game.

My daddy's ready for the game too!

Here we are at Rosa's pizza, one of my favorite restaurants in Bakersfield.

Here's my sweet friend Kelee, who is pregnant with her first child, a son, who she and her husband are going to name PARKER. :) There will be more pictures of her baby shower to come.

A Picture or Seven of June in Her Crib

I can't help it. She's so cute.

Stroll to Cure Diabetes

After reading my friend Jamie's post about Saturday's JDRF Walk to Cure Diabetes, I thought I'd steal her post title. There were thousands of people there, so the walk was more of a stroll. I don't have the camera with me today, so I'll post pictures later, but you can go to her blog to read and see about the event from her perspective.

Thanks Jamie!