Last year around this time my dad had a terrible accident on his tractor. He was riding around on his property and rolled off a cliff...he was pinned under the tractor. Thankfully, he had his cell phone with him and so he could call for help. He spent the night in the hospital with some damage done to his ankle. He was on crutches for a while and mom had to doctor his bandages where a part of the tractor had pierced his leg. Ahhh! Here are some pictures (you might be able to click on them to make them bigger):

torn to pieces...

Oops! off the cliff

The sad thing for him was that his tractor was messed up. After a year of tracking down the right parts in VA and in NC, a paint job, and who knows what other repairs, he finally got it back this weekend. He was so excited...mom said, "like a boy at Christmas!" He is really proud to show these pictures:Looks good!

For the last 4 weeks at school, we have had secret pals- I gave my secret pal small gifts of encouragement throughtout the week, and whoever had me as a secret pal did the same for me. Yesterday after school we had a "revealing party" and I found out who she was...she was a great secret pal! She lifted me up so many times during the week with lots of perfect gifts! The funny thing is that I used to know her when I was younger from Girl Scout camp every summer...I still call her Giggles (her camp name). It was a fun end to a fun exchange.

Last night we went out with Joey, Sierra, and Michael (Michael is taking the picture). We ate a new Mexican restaurant called Abuelos (Aaron and I have been there 3 times in 3 weeks!), and then saw the 300 movie. I turned my head for most of it...a man's man movie.

On Thursday night Aaron encouraged me by going with me to my school's Family Reading Night. We had two cars full of the families of my ESL students (I knew they really wanted to go, but it's hard when they don't have transportation!). We had a good turnout- about 3/4 of the ELL students were there. The kids loved it, and it was good for me and Aaron to get to know the families better. They served a spaghetti dinner, read lots of stories, and opened the bookfair. We hope these kids get the message that reading is important!Stanlyn and Jovina came from a Liberian refugee camp last spring. They are so sweet! All the kids wore their pajamas to get them in the mood for bedtime stories.

Rosa and Maria are from Mexico...close to where Peepaw is from. I really enjoy teaching them.

On Wednesday we spent 3 1/2 hours at the DMV to get our new drivers licenses and tags. We caused so much trouble, but I guess the guy at the counter had sympathy for us and gave us several breaks so that we wouldn't have to go back. Glad to have that finished (it only took us 4 months to do it)!

Mom and I have signed up for a quilting class- Beginner's Hand Piecing and Quilting. Scary! We had our first class last night and it was a fun start...a little intimidating, but I think we'll get the hang of it. This is the piece we worked on (we're working together on the same quilt to start off)...it looks ragged, but it's supposed to! Our homework is to make 9 more of these for the next class...doesn't seem much, but it takes a while to do with clumsy hands! If you've seen pictures of our living room, you can tell by the colors that it will probably go in there.

We have become members of a church! When considering the decision to move to Salem, church was heavy on our minds because we weren't sure of the choices in this smaller town. We remembered, though, that if God was calling us to be here, that he already had one that was right for us, so we were reassured about the move. The first sermon that we heard at West Salem left us just staring at each other- we weren't surprised at God's faithfulness, but speechless with thanksgiving. We joined this past Sunday and it was a great celebration.
Check it out at www.wsbaptist.org

This Friday night we went to see the reigning 2006 Miss Groovy Teen Michael Flores walk the runway one last time. Glenvar High School has the longstanding tradition of raising money for prom by letting the junior guys dress up like women for a beauty pageant. We are so proud of Michael for his title.

Lots has happened since our last post...a week is full of fun things! Last weekend we mentioned that we were going to a party for CJ. It was a great time, and we are pretty sure that he was surprised (good job, Carissa!). Here are some pictures for that.
Carissa is talking with CJ's dad about business.

Looks like Jeremy is bowling on the Nintendo Wii.

We were able to meet CJ's family, too.

My favorite spot! Very yummy desserts :)

I had also mentioned that we were going to have dinner with some Italian friends on Sunday night. We were glad to get to know them better. Franco and Antonio are some of my students. Franco Sr. works with his brother Tony at NY Pizza, wearing the gold chain and all. They are a fun family to talk with!

We are glad it's the weekend. Mom and Dad came over last night for a relaxing dinner...we enjoy their company. Today we have gone to the gym, washed cars, cleaned the house, and eaten at a new Mexican restaurant in Roanoke. We are invited to a Nintendo Wii birthday party tonight for Carissa's boyfriend CJ, and tomorrow we will host friends from Italy for dinner. I hate to say that I live for the weekend, but sometimes these two days are more fun than the weekdays!

Aaron somehow convinced Charles and Brittany from NC to come visit us in the freezing mountains last weekend. We were so glad they came! When they arrived Friday evening, we had steak fondue and veggies at the house and then took them to downtown Roanoke to drive up Mill Mountain. On the top is this huge star...
where you can look out from and see the city (Roanoke is called the Star City). It was a pretty view, but it was so cold that we only had enough time to take these pictures before we went back to the car.
To warm up we had late night coffee, hot chocolate, and conversation in the coffee shop in Center in the Square.
Saturday morning, we ate breakfast at the house and then took them on the grand tour of Salem- to see where Aaron works (the office pictured above) and to my parent's house. Below Aaron is in the shop explaining how the battery business works to Charles.
That afternoon we drove 45 minutes north to see Natural Bridge, one of the seven natural wonders of the world. It was cool! It was a great day trip. Brittany and I enjoyed the shopping.

On Sunday they joined us at church to hear about the resurrection of Christ. After lunch, we took pictures and talked and then they had to leave us!
Charles was Aaron's roommate the whole 4 years of college. He farms in Nash County now. Brittany is also the sister of another one of Aaron's friends, so he has known them both for a long time. It meant a lot to us that they came up here to see us. We look forward to the next time when it will hopefully be warmer!

P.S. To all of you from Nash Co.: Charles and Brittany confirmed that it's only a 4 hour drive, so we hope to see you soon, too!

Yesterday I felt like an irresponsible teenager. I lost my keys and was (almost) late for work in the morning. Then when I was leaving work my car wouldn't start because I had run out of gas! It was one of those days, but when Aaron came to my rescue both times like a knight in shining armor, I remembered how wonderful it is to have him and I couldn't care too much about my troubles.

We had a wonderful Valentine's Day! There was a threat of ice on the roads yesterday morning, so school was not in and I didn't work. I slept in (for us, that's 8am) and cleaned the house top to bottom while listening to the music on our wedding DVD. Kari went to lunch with me at Olive Garden (all you can eat soup, salad and breadsticks!), and Carissa went to get hot chocolate with me at Mill Mountain. I met Aaron at a salon and we got a couples one hour massage...his gift to me :). It was awesome! When we got home, he ordered me to put on my pjs and read in bed while he made dinner for us. He is a very good cook, so this is a treat. Bow was supposed to help, but he got sidetracked with the crumbs that were dropped on the floor. We ate NY strip with green and yellow peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, and for dessert we had these mini chocolate cake hearts that mom made for us! Aaron also got the latest Afro-Cuban All Stars CD. It was a very memorable day...filled with the love of good friends and a great man.

On Thursday night, we had friends come up from NC to stay with us so that we could leave Friday morning for WVa. We came back yesterday. It was a perfect trip with perfect ski conditions.

A close up on the ski lift.Joey and Sierra came with us also.

On Friday night and Saturday night we ate at restaurants in the Village with the shortest wait time.

At several points I had a wing on each side.

This was our favorite view...from the top of Shay's Revenge.

It started snowing here about 3 hours ago. It's beautiful. Bow doesn't know what to think- I tried to take a picture of him in it, but he's moving fast so it's blurry.

I took a picture of my room at school so that you (Aaron) can see where I work. It is nice for an ESL teacher to have her own space!

My younger brother Michael and our friend Lauren came to join us for dinner last night. They are both seniors in HS and excited to make changes in the near future. We ate, talked about where Lauren is going to school next year (she's undecided), and watched a little bit of our New Horizons choir DVD. We are glad to be close to family. Bow was exiled to the basement for hyper behavior.

We are out of school today "due to inclement weather". I think whoever made that decision is embarrassed by now, because it's 1:30 and it hasn't started snowing yet! We could have had a full day! I'm not complaining, though, because I had lunch with my hubby and I'm painting another room in the house. :)