To my daughter on her 7th birthday

What a fun day you had at Lake Tobias with 35 of our closest friends and family and neighbors.  We did a safari ride and reptile show and petting zoo and then walked the zoo.  It was fabulous!  We came home and opened presents.  Mom Mom and Pop made you a Little Free Library and Daddy and I got you Lea Clark American Girl Doll and Nana and Pap got you the Elena of Avalor Costume and accesories.  You are staying overnight at Mom MOm and Pops and then we head to Elk County for a stay in Camp Cant Keep it Up Cabin in Benezette!  We love you Audrey

Happy 6th Birthday

Today you are 6.  You have opened your American Girl Doll Salon and Spa Sets and are already done playing with them.  Now, you are watching HOME on tv and enjoying a plain bagel with butter.
In just 2 weeks, you are heading to Kindergarten.  The last few months have been a challenge for 4 hours a day, as you are in my classroom.  It is sometimes hard to manage your "personality" in class.  I have a feeling you will be the class clown. And that makes me laugh and worries me at the same time.  If I discipline you for your craziness, you tell me that you just want people to think you are funny.

You ARE funny.  You can spell now, even words that we dont want you to sound out.
Those times lead to VERY funny times.
You are kind. You are the first kid to help another kid.
You are stubborn.
You love BIG!  You hug BIG! You Kiss BIG!  You Speak BIG! You live Life BIG!
You love to dance, you love to sing!
Your favorite things are mint chocolate chip ice cream, Taylor Swifts Shake It off, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Cartoons, going to Hershey Park, and anything at all really.
You come up with ideas and work on them daily, like your box car racer and a farm to design in place of Browns Berry Patch.
This year you have enjoyed a trip on the train to NYC. We managed to go crazy at American Girl Store. You bought Kit Kittredge.
We have enjoyed our camper and visits to Hershey Park with our season passes.
You had a BIG party a Monkey Joes this week to celebrate!
You are the best of both your dad and I.
You are very smart and growing so tall.
We cant wait to see where life takes you this year!

Love, Mom

Getting Ready for Summer

I am going to vow to get back to blogging, not for anyone else but truly myself. Well, and I want Audrey to have it to read when she is older.
Life is the Salter House is in full out ready for summer mode.  We have opened the camper, the boat is in the new dock at City Island, School is ending and the summer program is beginning, Hershey Park Season Passes have already been used twice.  We are so ready to enjoy the summer before Kindergarten begins. Audrey will be moving into my classroom for the summer months.  I am sure it will be an interesting challenge, but one I am ready for. I am hoping to keep to some sort of a schedule so her internal clock sets itself to be ready for kindergarten.
The Golf Cart is serviced, the patio swing is hanging. Let Summer 2015 begin!

Merry Christmas Friends and Family

It is Christmas Eve. I am sitting here in my new Christmas jammies, a holiday tradition.
This year, I didnt get Photo Christmas Cards!  As a matter of fact, I did something unspeakable...I mailed Christmas Cards in response to the ones I received.  THE HORROR!  Sorry if I missed ya...it may mean that your card came after the 23rd, I figured after that I wouldnt get it out in time anyhow.
Here are some smiling pics of our year:

What a year!
Audrey has, learned to ski, gone to farm camp, joined soccer, and so much more....

This past May, a newsletter came home from Audrey's Preschool. It noted that the Pre-Kindergarten Teacher was going to be retiring and that the position would be vacant.
I laid the newsletter on our counter.
Jim read it and said, " I think that is your job"
I laughed at him.
But God's plan was certainly just that.  I accepted the position in June.
It has been an amazing wonderful challenge. I have my own classroom of 15 kiddos with an awesome assistant.  I am surely blessed to work with a group of amazing teachers. Who would have thought that 18 years after I graduated with an \Education degree I would finally be using it.

In July we bought a new camper and parked it permanently at Pettecote Junction Campground in Cedar Run PA. We are so grateful to my mom and dad for landscaping, extending the deck and making it a second home for us.  We look forward to spending many weekends in the year to come. It is right along Pine Creek, perfect for kayaking, swims in the creek, biking along the rails to trail. We even have our own eagle pair with twin babies. With it, we bought a golf cart, and goodness knows we need the Dish Tailgater. But, it is a second home!

In August, we traveled to Yellowstone National Park and all of the surrounding points of interest.
10 days in a Class C motorhome with my mom, dad, Jim, Audrey, myself and our turtle Sundance,  It was crazy and awesome at the same time! We visited Jackson Hole Wyoming, Rapid City South Dakota and so much more.  Too bad the gas prices werent the same now as they were then.  LOL!  What memories!

Jim has seen some changes with his job at Equipment Depot but has risen to the challenge.  He is covering a wider territory, but is enjoying every minute of it. And of course, he is still The Chief.  I am pretty sure I will be saying that for awhile. He makes me proud, as I watch him serve our community.  Sometimes it gets the best of me, when I put dinner on the table, and the pager goes off, or when we have a plan, but the pager has a different plan. But...being the Fire Chief is who Jim is, so I love him through it.

Audrey is growing like a weed. Seriously, she is 4 ft tall. She is doing well in her classroom (right next door to my own) and I can hardly believe that in 2 months we will be enrolling her in Kindergarten for Fall.  She says she isnt ready. I dont think that I am either,
As I type, she is sleeping in MY bed, with visions of Elsa dolls dancing in her head.
Christmas is magical to her.  And it makes it magical for us.
She loves her Elf on the Shelf, Cookie, who leaves with Santa to go back to the North Pole Tonight. She has been making her Santa Wish List for months now.  I hope that she is pleased with what she unwraps in the morning.

Tonight at dinner, she told us that the best things about Christmas are family, friends and Jesus. That is all I really need for her to understand.  She knows the reason for the season. I am so blessed by that!

May the reason for the season, the baby born so simply in a meager manger, no crown for his head even as a king, bring you peace on this Christmas Day. May HIS presence fill your day and the year ahead.

Merry Christmas!

The Salters

A journey that got a late start

So as some of you know I have headed back to the classroom, after 18 years of not being in the classroom. I accepted a positio at Audreys school and I am loving it. I started summer class there and now have begun Fall semester with a new set of students.  I feel so blessed to be doing what my original plan was!

A letter to my daughter on her 5th birthday

Dear Audrey:

You just fell asleep in my bed. Funny, you do that still quite often. But I realize, as I lay beside you, after prayer and a book, that it really won't be like this for long. Soon enough, you will want to do it all, everything, on your own.  5 years old, is that when the turn begins? I sure hope not.

The past year has been beautiful, yes, that is the word I choose; beautiful!

We have celebrated so many awesome days, from our Halloween Disney Cruise to Farm Camp at Paulus Farm Market. You make my life so enjoyable, even when our day goes awry. We always come back to happiness.  This year, you conquered the Bunny Class with Mrs. Shute. I am amazed by all that you learned and how much you grew and I cant wait to see what the year ahead holds...the year before Kindergarten.

We made the choice to give you an extra year before we send you off, I am trusting GOD that the next year will be filled with all of the learning you need before you head off on that big yellow bus.

You are bossy (lets call it leadership in training), you are always good for a silly comment that completely throws me off for the day. Your heart is so big. You love people with all of your heart! 

You love church, school, riding your scooter and bike, watching the eagle and getting ice cream at Pettecote, and everything in between. 

You are my GOOSE, my buddy, my whole world wrapped up in beautiful brown eyes and a dimple in your chin!

God has so many amazing plans for this year, your 5th year of life.

Happy Happy Happy Birthday Goose!

Mommy

Easter with Mom Mom and Pop

Audrey is almost 5 and she has never had a holiday at my parents home, so we thought we would say no to our usual church obligations and say yes to going to Wellsboro and allowing my parents to put on Easter for their one and only. Jim and I got to enjoy a night sans kiddo at the Hershey Bear final game with some of our UAFD  friends and made our way back to my parents early Easter morning. They had an easter egg hunt all set up for Audrey, as well as a trophy for the egg on spoon race she asked for. She even had a prize table to pick from....little did she realize ALL of the prizes were hers.  She loved it!
The food was great and so was the company.
Thanks Mom and Dad for a relaxing easter!