Hello Old Friends!

My Dad's 50th Birthday

Pop's on his birthday!! Gotta love him!

Me and Brian....this is how we feel after a week of school!! Haha!

Here we are...in case you forgot what we looked like!!

Well after much harrassment I am updating our blog for ya!! We have just been so busy running between volleyball games and choir concerts for PTA that we have not had time since school has started! We celebrated my Dad's 50th Birthday this month and it was so much fun....I think there like a 100 people in our house....ok so that is an exaggeration, but there were 20+!! We have just been teaching, coaching and trying to stay awake long enough for our shows every night!! Haha, I feel old!!

Brian has now moved from his middle school placement at Dunbar to his elementary placement at Roscoe Wilson. He had so much fun at Dunbar with John Paul and the kids and was not ready to move to elementary! After a few days of convincing he realized that Roscoe Wilson was not so bad! Now he comes home with stories of how cute the kids were today rather than how bad the kids were!! Graduation is just around the corner, he has a countdown going on his ipod, and checks it regularly!! After passing his PPR test that he has to take to be a teacher he is just waiting to get into a music test so that he can be fully certified!! I know that he would never tell you this, but he has received so many compliments from several people, even people who have nothing to do with teaching, but just work at LCU!! I am so proud of him!

I am still working like a mad woman at Atkins with my sweet little angels who are not so sweet most of the time! We are just finishing up Volleyball season this week, and I am a little sad! The girls worked so hard, and I am so proud of them! Things have been pretty good, although we are suffering from several losses at Atkins. Two of our teachers have lost immediate family during this school year, my sweet Kammi from last year lost her dad, and one of our current athletes lost her mom, so we are struggling. Aside from the loss, we are having a good year, hard but good! Second six weeks is hard because the newness has worn off and the kids are starting to get a little braver about breaking rules. So mean Coach Cole has to come out every once in a while...and we all know that mean Coach Cole is a little crazy!

Well that is all for now, hopefully I can keep you a little more updated!! Maybe it wont be months again before I post!!

The Devil's Plant...and DISNEYLAND!!!

The Devil's Plant (Jabba the Hutt)

Well, I told you the other day that we were headed to Disneyland but before I get into that you have to hear about the most awful plant in the world!!!  The Cactus!  Brian's Grandma asked that if while we were here we would take care of this little problem she had...little did we know that the problem was not so little it was actually a huge problem!!  So we went to Downey last week with work on our minds and got busy!  This cactus has been growing for forever (or at least it seems forever) and it was huge!  When we first started Brian took his machete and started chopping, the scary thing about this cactus is that if it had been cut off at one time, it started growing in a new direction, I tell you the Devil's plant.  So we were chopping away and we start seeing spiders everywhere, and these weren't just little spiders, these were black widows...BIG black widows! Eek, I hate spiders! I eventually had to get over the spider fear and kept chopping! Another problem was that Brian's Grandma had planted a blackberry bush, and if you have never dealt with a blackberry bush consider yourself blessed.  They grow like vines, and they are covered in little thorns!!  So we not only had to worry about the cactus, we had to deal with the blackberries also...HORRIBLE! We really had a hard time after we chopped most of the new growing cactus because after it had been chopped once it died it petrified and was just like trying to cut through wood.  So Brian had to put up the machete for now and we had to saw through it and this was awful because the cactus was growing through each other weaving in and out....huge mess!!  Well, (I am tired just telling you about it) after we cleared out most of the plant Brian, Doug and I were just pulling and cutting and pulling and cutting then all of the sudden this little white face pops out!! There was a baby possum that had been living underneath the cactus!  

So gross!!! While we were trying to get rid of all of the cactus the possum kept going deeper and deeper into the cactus and as Brian was trying to get it out it started hissing at him...I hate possums!  We finally got him out and he went to a new home inside all of Grandma's other plants!  Ugh!!!  So we finally were able to get the rest of the cactus down, and only shared a little with the neighbors over the fence...on accident!!  When all was said and done we had a huge pile of cactus back in the back and a huge pile of cactus and brush in front of the maverick, many cuts and scrapes, a new pet, and a huge feeling of accomplishment!! Every time I see a cactus now I will have to run the other direction, really fast!!  

Brian and Doug with one of the smaller limbs they pulled off!!

I pulled a root!!! Woohoo!

Here is the after picture!  Notice the full trash cans and the huge pile of horribleness!! (The corner is where the cactus used to be)

 This is the one pile in front of the Maverick (we had already filled up both dumpsters)

This summer the Cole's found Disneyland tickets for 3 days and I was 3 times as excited! I love Disneyland!!  So Tuesday was our first trip and we thought we had planned it to where it might not be as crowded, boy were we wrong!!!  By lunch time the park had reached maximum capacity and we could tell!  It was shoulder to shoulder people and every ride had an hour wait at least!!  But no matter how crowded and how hot it may be Disneyland is always great!! Brian, Doug, Amanda, Katie and I went up early that morning and Jenn and Julie met us for lunch. We thought that after lunch it might settle down, but I was wrong, again!!  But we did some pretty good people watching while we were in line and hopefully our next day will not be so busy!!

Talk to ya soon! Brooke

Quick Hello

Good morning!!! I just wanted to say hello and give you a little taste of what is to come!! We are headed to DISNEYLAND today and I am so excited!!! So I will let you know about that tomorrow! I will also post about our adventure at Bob's house (Brian's Grandma), here is a picture for ya!  Just imagine that horrible thing and all the horrible creatures that live under it and I will tell ya more tomorrow!!! It was bad!!! Talk to ya soon!! Love, Brooke

WE'RE BACK!!!

Well hello blogging world!! We have missed you!!!  There is so much you have missed so I will try to catch you up in a cliff's notes version!!!   Right now we are in Temecula visiting Brian's family and we are having so much fun!!  We brought sweet Riley with us this summer and it has been nothing short of an adventure!!  But to start back since we have last visited we need to go way back................

Lets start with April/May time!!  I was ending the school year, finishing track season and just getting everything ready to leave for the summer!  I had a little taste of success at the City Track Meet this year, my 8th graders placed 3rd in the 800m Relay, and one of my 7th graders placed 3rd in the 400m Dash!! I was so proud of them, they worked hard....well sort of, maybe we were just fast!!  But as the school year came to an end I was a little sad to see my 8th graders go, and really I was sad to see most of the 8th grade class go!  They were so much fun!!! During these months Brian was finishing up his semester of methods and not without a ton of stress to end the year!  He actually made it through with more sanity than I can remember finishing with!!  So now he is waiting to take one more summer class and then student teaching!!!  

So now we can head into June which has been super busy already!!  The week after school ended I worked the Monterey Basketball Camp for a couple of days and then we loaded up the car and headed out to sunny California....which turns out to be not so sunny...yet!!!  On Tuesday night (or morning if you want to be technical) we got the car ready, got the dog ready and we left Lubbock around 1:00 am!  We decided that it would be better to get the night part of the driving out of the way first so that when we were most tired it would at least be daytime!!  So we left Lubbock, Brian..Brooke..Riley..little Mazda..18 hours non-stop. Riley was a little anxious at first!!  I guess if I was a 60 pound dog shoved in the back of a car in the middle of the night I might be a little nervous too!!!  But really and truly as soon as he realized that we weren't stopping he settled down and just relaxed the whole way!!  The only thing we were worried about was that he would not go potty!  We would stop every once and a while and let him out and nothing!  So finally we were either in New Mexico or Arizona, who knows, he started whining and pacing in the back seat so we knew we had to stop so I pulled of (yes I was driving) and we just let him out, no leash no nothing, and the poor guy ran to some grass and let loose, and we probably stood there waiting for at least 2 minutes...I felt so sad for the poor baby!!  Since we have been here we have been pretty lazy! Riley met Denver (The Cole's dog) and they seem to be better friends now, we have decided that Riley kind of annoys her (he is two and she is 12ish). He also met Phyllis (The Cole's chicken...no joke)  but they are not allowed to hang out together...Riley thinks she is a running, squawking toy (not so good for Phyllis)!! Riley was accidentally let out in the backyard with Phyllis one day and when Katie looked outside Riley had Phyllis in his mouth, luckily she looked out when she did because he might have had Phyllis for dinner!!  As far as the cats go, I don't think they have officially met, but I don't think that is part of the plan!! Poor Riley, he just wants to be everybody's friend!!  

Since we have been here it has been pretty gloomy.  Everyone keeps saying "oh ya, June gloom" but I am saying sad day for cold weather!!  I have had to wear jeans and a jacket at night so no beach for us, at least not yet!!  Oh, but it was so cute the first day we drove in it had been thundering and lightening all morning and Julie (Brian's mom) was telling us the cutest stories from her kids that morning.  They don't really have thunderstorms here so it was quite exciting...and scary for her kids, most of them cried all day, and some would not even go to the bathroom!! So cute!!!

Well, I guess that is all I will bore you with for now, I will try to keep you updated as our trip goes on! So glad to be back with you in blogger world!!!

Breaking & Entering

"The Suspect in Custody"

I know that it has been a while since we have last talked, but I was waiting for a blog-worthy moment...tonight it happened!!!

After a long day at work, and Brian had a long day at school we like to just come home and relax.  After dinner, tanning and watching a few shows we were getting ready to go to bed.  Brian went outside to the car to get his ipod and sneaky little Riley snuck out with him.  I had gone back to the bathroom to go potty (I know T-M-I) and I heard this loud crash; I assumed that Riley was just looking out the window and had pulled the mini-blinds down and I was going to be mad.  As I started walking down the hall I noticed glass, and Brian, from outside telling me that the dog had ran through the glass door.  As I rounded the corner I saw Riley cowered over in the dining room and Brian trapped outside with no shoes on....oh ya, and glass all over my house!!  So the first step to recovery was to get the dog outside and shoes on Brian! In the meantime I am trying not to cry because my poor little puppy ran through a door and I knew he was scared, and that he might have been hurt, so I got Riley outside and checked him over...I really needed Shanna tonight, and got Brian some shoes.  Now came the hard part, there was glass from the front door all the way to the opposite wall leading to the backyard and it wasn't like big chunks of glass, there were millions of teensy weensy pieces of glass all over. While Brian took the door off the hinges I started sweeping up the glass...I should have put on real shoes instead of flip flops because little glass pieces were getting all over my feet!!  After about 30 minutes of sweeping and vacuuming we thought we had all the glass up, and it was not until we went to get the dog that we noticed there was glass by the back door...how it got way back here we don't have a clue.  We are so amazed and so thankful that our sweet little puppy (who is not so much of a puppy, obviously he can bust through a glass door) was not hurt at all, no scratches no anything...CRAZY.  So after the feeling to cry went away Brian and I had a good laugh because how often do you hear of a dog running straight through a glass door!!  As far as our door goes...we didn't like that door anyway!!!  

Blogger and I were in a fight!

Ugh, I think I am technology dumb!  I spent at least an hour last night...45 minutes this morning and just realized that in order to change my background I couldn't just add a gadget, I have to delete the others in order to get my new picture!  I was literally fighting with it and now I feel a little stupid....OK a lot stupid!  I don't know how every person my age can be so technology savvy and I don't have a clue?  It is like when people our age were born they were given some knowledge about this stuff and I missed the bus!  I feel so left out!!!!  Anyway, I am done with my pity party, I got it changed, I just feel sorry for my keyboard (I think I hit it a little harder than it needed) ha!

Well Brian and I are back in full swing with work and school.  He is busy juggling methods and all the hoopla that goes along with it.  If he can get through the busy work and crazy lesson plans he will be golden!!  I am going full swing with basketball, but also preparing for track.  We found out last week that Atkins is in charge of hosting the first track meet and this year the district changed the meets from two days to one.  So not only am I learning how to host a meet at someone else's track (the middle schools don't have tracks, we have to go to the high schools) I have to figure out how to change all that they have done in the past and make everybody happy!  I know it is possible, but I don't know if it is possible to have it run off in the short amount of time that my coaches are used to.  We (Atkins) were actually not allowed to run off a track meet last year because they ran it off way to fast the year before!  The male coaches are extremely precise in their timing and like to get through things fast!  It will definitely be interesting!!  Maybe a little clashing between me and them...but that is nothing new!!!

Well I guess that is all I have to say for today, sorry no pictures, I don't think you want to see anything from our lives right now (a bunch of smelly middle school kids, or Brian's homework)!!  Not really, the kids don't smell that bad!  We will try to get some photos up soon! Have a great week!!

Just a quick hello!

Ok friends and family, I just have a short update because it is getting further and further past my bedtime but I thought we should say hello!!  

The second semester of school is in full swing and I am already exhausted!!  Today was a crazy day at school, everybody showing off their new Christmas clothes (or hooker boots in the case of the kids at my school) and so many hugs for missed friends....middle school kids are too weird!  And just to top the day off we had a game!  Thank goodness my girls decided to come together and get a good win because I was going to be quite evil if we had lost all of our hard work from before Christmas!  So lucky them, I guess I will be nice tomorrow, at least at the first of practice! Ha ha!  

Brian will start methods tomorrow, which is the last set of classes that he takes before student teaching and graduation!! So we are so excited to get this last semester out of the way!  

I am so sad that the Christmas vacation is already over!  We are so blessed to have such great family surrounding us, we just ran and ran all through the holiday trying to get around to see everybody!  First we spent Christmas with my family in Shallowater, then a few days later went to Lovington, then a few days later went to Snyder, and then just a few days after that we were coasting along in sunny California with Brian's family.  We always have so much fun spending time with our families, especially when presents are involved!!  Not really....it just was an added perk!  We really did have a great holiday, it was just too fast!!!

Well, that was just a little snippet of what has been going on in "Cole Land" (that is what Brian's sister's boyfriend Garrett calls the Cole family gatherings) we have so many more stories and pictures to share, but maybe another day when it is not after my bedtime!!