open house :(

well - these are most of my angels. the one all the way in the front is isaiah. this was taken on his last day of school. which i thought would make my life a whole lot easier, but i got walter. he's all the way on the right with the bunny ears. walter doesn't know his times tables, can't divide, spell, or read really. so i'm slightly confused as to why he's in my class. anyway - i have been tutoring but it is definitely like pulling teeth. if you think of it pray for walter. the other kids in the class don't really like him so they make fun of him. its sad - we're working on it.


well the reason that i'm posting so late is we have an open house at school - so i'm sitting here doing nothing. pretty much no one cares about 6th grade. :) so i'm bored!!! so i thought that i would update!! pretty much that's all that's new. no houses recently. hopefully some will come up soon!

thanks so much for your comments - i do appreciate them!! have a fabulous night!

the ups and downs of home buying!!!

well - we didn't get the house. my mom said that that is the way it works. sometimes you put in a lot of offers and you still don't get the house. it takes awhile. well for someone like me who lacks patience it makes the situation difficult. especially since i got so stressed out about putting in the offer in the first place. oh well - there is another house like it that the realtor sent to us so we'll see. its disappointing but we know that God can provide.

anyway - another freezing cold week in southern pa. we can't seem to get a snow day if our lives depended on it. the stupid weather people will even say that we are getting snow and then we will get little or none. ugh!!! we could really use the rest found on a snow day. but once again we know that God can provide. :)

well - i hope that you all have a wonderful week. hey feel free to leave a comment. i do like responses - its like getting mail. :) (which if you would like to send would be great too. :))

Taking the BIG step!!!

well - mark and i are taking the big step today. we are going to make an offer on the house. we'll see what happens. part of the reason that we are doing it so soon is that we found out that there is another offer on the house so we wanted to get ours in. anyway - we're not sure what will happen so if you could be praying for us and the offer that would be wonderful. we do know that if we don't get the house it is God's will - He knows our needs and He will provide for us. This is another lesson in faith.

this is a picture of mark and i after our date night. we have to set these aside especially during basketball season. we went out to dinner and saw a movie (the first one in a very long time!!!). all of it was paid for with gift cards - gotta love it! anyway it was a lot of fun - so we took a picture!!! :)

we hope that you all have a fabulous day whether you're in the about to get rain/snowed on northeast or elsewhere!!! :)

The possibly new house????

well - even though we've been living in the apartment we've been looking to get out and our realtor has been sending us houses since the summer. most of them are too far away and too expensive. then we got this one a little while ago - this one is 10 minutes away and almost perfectly priced. there is even a little yard for charlie - so we were so excited about it that i wanted to post some pictures to let you know what it looks like. we're not positively sure that we're going to buy it. but we are definitely thinking seriously about it. :)



this is the kitchen - we would get to keep everything that is in here. its not wonderful, but its do-able.

this is the master bedroom - not anything spectacular, but again it is something that we can live with and fix up if we like. the plus about this house is that the master bedroom has 2 closets!!!:)
this is a picture of the garage from the outside. there would be a lot of room for storage even besides a car which will be helpful.
this is the outside - #28 is the one. yeah that's our realtor locking up. :)
and this is our porch with our little backyard that we can fence in for the pooch. behind us is a cemetary - i guess we won't have to worry about it being too noisy.

well - i hope you enjoyed please let us know what you think!!! and we'll let you all know what we decide. :)

What Teachers Make!!!

someone sent me this e-mail and i thought that it was really good.

What Teachers Make

The dinner guests were sitting around the table discussing life. one man, a CEO, decided to explain the problem with education. He argued, "What's a kid going to learn from soneone who decided his best option in life was to become a teacher?" He reminded the other dinner guests what they say about teachers: "Those who can, do. Those who can't, teach." To stress his point he said to another guest, "You're a teacher, Bonnie. Be honest. What do you make?" Bonnie, who had a reputation for honesty and frankness replied, "You want to know what i make? (she paused for a second, then began...) "Well, i make kids work harder than they ever thought they could. i make a c+ feel like the congressional medal of honor. i make kids sit through 40 minutes of class time when their parents can't make them sit for 5 minutes without an IPOD, Game Cube, or a movie rental. You want to know what i make?" (she paused again and looked at each and every person at the table.) i make kids wonder. i make them question. i make them criticize. i make the apologize and mean it. i make them have respect and take responsibility for their actions. i teach them to write and then i make them write. i make the read, read, read. i make them show all their work in math. i make my students from other countries learn everything that they need to know in English while preserving their unique cultural identity. i make my classroom a place where all my students feel safe. i make my students stand to say the Pledge of Allegiance to the Flag, because we live in the United States of America. Finally, i make them understand that if they use the gifts they were given, work hard, and follow their hearts, they can succeed in life. (Bonnie paused one last time and then continued.) "Then, when people judge me by what i make, i can hold my head up high and pay no attention because they are ignorant...You want to know what i make? I MAKE A DIFFERENCE. What do you make?

THERE IS MUCH TRUTH IN THIS STATEMENT: Teachers make every other profession!!!

this is jen speaking now. at first i was offended by what the business man said. but then i read all of it. and it definitely is true - and actually all of the things that she said that she had to make her students do - i am going through right now with my class. and my hope is that they will turn out the right way and become great because of the things that i have taught them. that last statement is part of the reason that i am a teacher.

so teachers keep pressing on. it may seem hard now (believe me - i understand) but look towards the future - try to see the end product!!!

Snow Camp!!!

Well we are finally back from snow camp and we have one year under our belts. this church does things a little differently than other churches that we've been to. they actually go skiing, snowboarding, and tubing. we waited a little too long to go to another camp so we did the same thing that they did. we went to camelback mountain in the poconos. it was a lot of fun. on friday night we went ice skating and then saturday we went to the mountain to ski etc. i got the fun job of playing policeman in the lodge. :) ugh!!! every night we stayed in a hotel - and of course mark and i were chaperones along with some of the other parents. it actually turned out to be a lot of fun. mark was the keynote speaker. (that's funny to say). he did a really good job. its neat to see him a position like this. its something that he hasn't really done before, but it is something that he is pretty good at. :) anyway here are some pictures of the mountain and my favorite place - the lodge!!! :)

camelback mountain - this was the skiing and snowboarding trails - the tubing was at a different hill.
this is a picture that mark and i took at the ice skating rink. that actually was a lot of fun, because i did better than i thought that i would. and while we were there we saw a girl fall and dislocate her shoulder. mark got to play doctor and help her out until the police and the ambulance people came. luckily it wasn't one of our own!!!
this is the lodge - the nice of the two. the tubing lodge is the one that i spent most of my time in and it was pretty much horrible. :) but then again i survived so it wasn't that bad. :)

Happy Thoughts

well - as we speak we are getting our first snow. of course it isn't sticking so that means school will go the whole day today, but it did a good job of getting the kids all excited. so mark and i get to experience our first winter weather since moving up here from florida - lots of fun!!! :)

well last night during youth group while mark was speaking, i found this verse in one of the corinthians and of course now i'm having trouble finding it. ahh - found it. although it was in a different version - i only have my school kjv with me.

I Corinthians 15:10

But by the grace of God i am what i am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but i labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Anyway - i thought that it was a neat verse. i am only what i am because of God's grace. it definitely encouraged me. i've been kinda questioning teaching next year, but we turn in our intent form saying that i am. and this just encouraged me that i can do what i do with God's strength.

also in my bible class God taught me along with the kids - its kinda unnerving when that happens. we were talking about God's mercy and how much he has done for us. then we in turn should show the same mercy and forgiveness to others. its easy to say - oh its different for me cause i'm the teacher and i can be mean cause i have to deal with you. but that isn't what God wants us to do. he wants us to forgive as much as he forgives us. he wants us to merciful just as he was and is merciful to us. just a thought to remember.



anyway - this is the picture that mark and i sent in our christmas cards. it was about the 15th pic that we took - the dog was not cooperating. but we finally got it settled. we have also decided that the dog doesn't like the cold weather. he gets all mopey and depressed and then when it warms up he is energetic and annoying - so tempermental!!! :)

have a great day!!! only 1 day till the weekend.

PICTURES FINALLY!!!

well i know that it has been a really long time since i have posted any pictures. i have been having some problems with my camera and getting them to a postable site. in fact there were other pictures that i wanted to post but they didn't seem to get with the others. oh well - we're back at school, but thankfully we have monday off for martin luther king jr day. :) it will be nice to have a break. mark has been going to more away games now than before christmas so ia have been spending a lot of time with the pooch. he was very well behaved for awhile and during christmas, but now that he is spending a lot of time in the crate again, he is back to his old self. during christmas, charlie would play tug of war with my parents dog and it would wear him out nicely. but no kisha here so ugh. i have to do it. :)

nothing exciting has happened since christmas, just back to school and work. so here are some pictures from over the holidays and a little before.


mark and i had sharon and derek over during christmas break it was nice to spend time with them (we just watched a movie and played FRIENDS scene it that mark got me for christmas!!! it was a lot of fun.) but no clues as to when the big proposal will be!!! :) we tried to get it out of him but with no luck!! :) ( oh - notice our very small christmas tree in the background. we couldn't put up our big one because of the lack of space and our annoying dog would have treated it like a toy. :) )
this is my sisters and me with our stockings that we begged and pleaded for - even mark gets one - lucky!!!! he's one of the girls now. :) and very soon jonathon will be joining the very exciting club.
by the way - the stockings were really great this year!!! and we got them for my parents too so that they would see how fabulous they are. i think that they enjoyed it!!! yes we finally did have a youth group activity - it was nice we played lasertag and arcades and then came over to our apartment and played cranium. it was a lot of fun. and we all got to experience mark's amazing talents for dance dance revolution.
and this is the corbin family. minus the most exciting parts (me, Jeff (Cheryl's husband), and the boys.) we had a really good time there - it was nice to see everyone again. and if you think of it pray for mark's dad as he looks for another teaching position in the fall.

hopefully there will be more pictures to follow!!! :)

MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

well - we finally made it to christmas break thankfully!!! we spent some time with family and friends and of course relaxed (something that was definitely needed). and we were supposed to go back to school tomorrow but they cancelled school so we don't go back until wednesday!! so looking back on the pas t year, it has been neat to see how God has provided for us. we are enjoying being close to family and friends. and we are excited to see what God will do for us in the coming year. we hope that you all have had a wonderful christmas holiday and a blessed new year!!!

Is Christmas Break Here Yet????

ONLY 4 1/2 SCHOOL DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS BREAK!!!!!

i don't know about the rest of you teachers, but i am tired. and christmas program practices make me cranky. for some reason the students just cannont control themselves. so i am very thankful that there are only 4 1/2 school days left for me. luckily the program is tonight which means that our program practices are done - hopefully. well - i hope that the rest your day goes well. hang in there! only a few days until peace!!!!

Back to School!

well - we are back to school - ugh. coming back from a break is always hard. and the kids seemed to be feeling just as much as i was. i think that the break between thanksgiving and christmas is such a punishment for students and teachers alike. no one wants to be there which just makes life difficult. there were a couple of nice things about thanksgiving, for instance, charlie was completely worn out from playing with my parents dog. (a wonderful peace!!) we also got to see some friends and family (specifically steph, betsy, and the infamous sister stealer jonathon.) and of course i forgot my camera so i didn't get any pictures although my mom is supposed to be getting some copies for me. oh and mark's sister christy was home so the whole family on both sides was there. it was really nice - not very relaxing but nice. (we got up early two days in a row so that we could go to shady maple with both families. i never thought that i would be tired of that place - but i actually think that i am.) :)

and here is a picture of mark and me at northland. we took our basketball teams up there for their high school tournament. we thought that the boys would do better, but they definitely improved as the weekend went on. they ended up with 4th place out of 8 teams. the girls did okay - they ended up in 8th place (out of 8 teams - they are pretty young, so we'll cut them a break.) they had us staying in camp rooms - gross! i got to stay with a couple of 8th grade girls who were much calmer than i thought that they would be. it was kinda weird to be back and not be a student. i did take every opportunity that i could to wear pants and to hold mark's hand. anyway - it was fun. there weren't many people there that i knew - even teachers. a lot of them have left. anyway - the last couple of weeks have been good. we are looking forward to christmas - only 15 school days left!!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

well - i hope that everyone has a very nice thanksgiving. mark and i are going to be spending it with family. we're very excited about an actual day off. we have so much to be thankful for. we hope that you all have a wonderful holiday!

A Very, Very Late Happy Birthday!!!

Well i've been so busy with school and stuff that i haven't had time to wish my fabulous husband and my youngest sister happy birthday. yes this means that birthday month is almost wrapped up. although we have two more corbin birthdays in november. (mark's sister janice and our nephew kyle who will be the big 5). so to my husband - sorry!!! that it is so late. i love you and hope that you had a very wonderful day! i love you. and becca - so glad that we could spend the day with you! first time in a long time! hope that it was great!

mark with nephew #2 tyler who is 2.

and below this is mark and becca last new years

(sorry bec and mark this was the best picture i had)

The Pooch

well - i haven't posted any pictures of our pooch recently. and even these pictures are a little old. he is definitely growing by leaps and bounds. we took him to my parents on monday and he is the same size as their dog. just a few months ago he was so much smaller. now he finds great ways to use his time. for example he likes to jump up on the counter and see if there is any food there for him. on sunday i turned my back on some chicken for a few seconds and he was up there chowing down. he's a sneak. he's started this crying when he wants to get out of his crate. its so annoying. he'll wake us up on saturday mornings with his crying.

this is the one and only period of silence in our lives when we actually wear the dog out enough so that he falls asleep. then when he does we don't move and we definitely don't talk, because if we do he will wake up and the madness will begin.
here is a picture of charlie with my parents dog kisha. this is one of the few times when they aren't play fighting. charlie will chase kisha around barking at her. its really funny to watch. but also very noisy and kisha gets hair everywhere and my mom gets mad.
well - its wednesday and it feels like it should be friday. i'm so tired. but volleyball is finally over which means that i'll actually get to see mark for a little while. :) and hopefully we'll actually get to rest this weekend. we'll have to wait and see!

happy birthday steph!!!

jen and steph at sea world
Originally uploaded by jenandmark710.

yup that's right already another birthday. when we were younger these were the best couple of weeks, because becca's birthday is nov. 4 so we got to eat a lot of cake. steph is 22 today. she is spending her birthday at college is sunny florida - lucky!!! well - i'm sure that she wishes that she could spend her birthday with me. :) the last couple of years she has been able to. we would have her over to our apartment. the first year i tried to make fried chicken - man was that a disaster!!! oh well! lots of fun times that we will miss! this picture was taken when we were at sea world before mark and i moved. florida teachers get into sea world free. it was a lot of fun. they tried to convince me to go on the one and only ride at sea world, but i'm pretty stubborn and also very afraid of heights!!!

anyway - steph we hope that you have a wonderful day!!! we love you and miss you!

happy birthday mom!!

becca and mom
Originally uploaded by jenandmark710.

today is my mom's birthday! and finally this year i got her a real non-giftcard present and i can be here to celebrate!

this picture is of my mom and my youngest sister becca while we were at the lake for our family vacation. becca is experiencing being the only child since everybody else is in college or real life (like us). becca gets to spend this weekend with us since my parents are going away to celebrate their anniversary which is on friday! so lots of fun. hope that you have a fabulous monday!

Our Fabulous Apartment

Well i finally got this to work. these are pictures from our apartment. pardon the mess - this was while we were still unpacking.

this is our kitchen. we didn't have a lot of space to put our junk so we got these shelves to put stuff on and the microwave stand.
this is what the outside of our apartments look like. i'll have to take some better pictures soon.
this is our fireplace with our mammoth tv. it was mark's sister christy's but she gave it to us. it is so heavy that we can't find another place to put it. (its too heavy to move.) :)

i have some more pictures and maybe i'll post them again soon! i hope that you have a fabulous friday (thank goodness - i don't know about you guys but i'm tired!!)

a whole decade

jen and mark at jr. sr.
Originally uploaded by jenandmark710.

that's right mark and i have been together a whole decade. 10 years ago today we started "dating". yes we were in high school - 9th grade to be exact. its actually a pretty funny story that i would like to share with you all.

it was the week of homecoming at our school (you know spirit week, pep rally, and a huge game on friday). at the beginning of the week one of my friends told me that some boy liked me. now join me in the world of boys never liking me. (junior high had been very rough). so i guessed and guessed but they wouldn't tell me. i thought that it was very rude. and was in fact furious. on wednesday - we had youth group and i was still furious that they hadn't told me. (they said that this boy was going to talk to me about it - so of course i didn't eat all week :) ). well at youth group i figured it out. and go figure i hadn't even thought to guess mark corbin. and even worse i didn't like him at all. he was a gross boy that i had grown up with. so of course i dreaded the day that he would talk to me. i avoided him at all costs! :) then on friday during the night soccer game he cornered me with the help of those same friends. and we had a chat - he asked me to be his girl friend. i don't really remember what i said, but i do remember what i felt. i told him i would think about it. then my friends began their work. so later that night i agree to be his "girl friend". i thought that it would be like all the other relationships i'd seen - you know last a week or two at the most. (little did i know).

anyway - to make a long story short - the entire first year we hardly talked. then i tried to break it off, but i was dating the most stubborn boy in the entire school. we went through some hard times in high school , but we made it through. then came the process of finding a college - and God led us to the same one. Then God continued to develop us and we got married in July 2004.

so i always tell my class. little do you know - you might marry the boy or girl sitting next to you. of course they think that's completely disgusting. and i understand i felt the same way until God changed my mind.

i am married to the most fabulous guy out there!!
thanks mark for being so stubborn!!!
i love you!

Fun Facts!!!

i've seen this on some other blogs and decided that it looked like a lot of fun. Mark isn't here with me so i'll have to guess. but as most of you know - i've known him pretty much his entire life -so it shouldn't be too hard!!!

Jen will be in red, mark in blue, and both of us in green

01. Bought everyone in the bar a drink
02. Swam with wild dolphins
03. Climbed a mountain
04. Taken a Ferrari for a test drive
05. Been inside the Great Pyramid
06. Held a tarantula
07. Taken a candlelit bath with someone
08. Said “I love you” and meant it
09. Hugged a tree
10. Bungee jumped
11. Visited Paris
12. Watched a lightning storm at sea
13. Stayed up all night long and saw the sun rise
14. Seen the Northern Lights
15. Gone to a huge sports game (and survived the crush afterwards)
16. Walked the stairs to the top of the leaning Tower of Pisa
17. Grown and eaten your own vegetables - mark doesn't eat vegetables :)
18. Touched an iceberg
19. Slept under the stars
20. Changed a baby’s diaper
21. Taken a trip in a hot air balloon
22. Watched a meteor shower
23. Gotten drunk on champagne
24. Given more than you can afford to charity
25. Looked up at the night sky through a telescope
26. Had an uncontrollable giggling fit at the worst possible moment – who hasn’t?
28. Bet on a winning horse
29. Asked out a stranger
30. Had a snowball fight
31. Screamed as loudly as you possibly can
32. Held a lamb
33. Seen a total eclipse
34. Ridden a roller coaster
35. Hit a home run
36. Danced like a fool and not cared who was looking
37. Adopted an accent for an entire day
38. Actually felt happy about your life, even for just a moment
39. Had two hard drives for your computer
40. Visited all 50 states
41. Taken care of someone who was drunk
42. Had amazing friends
43. Danced with a stranger in a foreign country
44. Watched wild whales
45. Stolen a sign
46. Backpacked in Europe
47. Taken a road-trip
48. Gone rock climbing
49. Midnight walk on the beach
50. Gone sky diving
51. Visited Ireland
52. Been heartbroken longer than you were actually in love
53. In a restaurant, sat at a stranger’s table and had a meal with them
54. Visited Japan
55. Milked a cow
56. Alphabetized your CDs
57. Pretended to be a superhero - AWANA man
58. Sung karaoke
59. Lounged around in bed all day
60. Played Touch Football
61. Gone scuba diving
62. Kissed in the rain
63. Played in the mud
64. Played in the rain
65. Gone to a drive-in theater
66. Visited the Great Wall of China
67. Started a business
68. Fallen in love and not had your heart broken
69. Toured ancient sites
70. Taken a martial arts class
71. Played D&D for more than 6 hours straight
72. Gotten married
73. Been in a movie
74. Crashed a party
75. Gotten divorced
76. Gone without food for 5 days
77. Made cookies from scratch
78. Won first prize in a costume contest
79. Ridden a gondola in Venice
80. Gotten a tattoo
81. Rafted the Snake River
82. Been on television news programs as an “expert”
83. Got flowers for no reason
84. Performed on stage
85. Been to Las Vegas
86. Recorded music
87. Eaten shark
88. Kissed on the first date
89. Gone to Thailand
90. Bought a house
91. Been in a combat zone
92. Buried one/both of your parents
93. Been on a cruise ship
94. Spoken more than one language fluently
95. Performed in Rocky Horror
96. Raised children
97. Followed your favorite band/singer on tour
99. Taken an exotic bicycle tour in a foreign country
100. Picked up and moved to another city to just start over
101. Walked the Golden Gate Bridge
102. Sang loudly in the car, and didn’t stop when you knew someone was looking
103. Had plastic surgery
104. Survived an accident that you shouldn’t have survived
105. Wrote articles for a large publication
106. Lost over 100 pounds
107. Held someone while they were having a flashback
108. Piloted an airplane
109. Touched a stingray
110. Broken someone’s heart
111. Helped an animal give birth
112. Won money on a T.V. game show
113. Broken a bone
114. Gone on an African photo safari-at Disney World :)
115. Had a facial part pierced other than your ears
116. Fired a rifle, shotgun, or pistol
117. Eaten mushrooms that were gathered in the wild
118. Ridden a horse
119. Had major surgery
120. Had a snake as a pet
121. Hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon
122. Slept for more than 30 hours over the course of 48 hours
123. Visited more foreign countries than U.S. states
124. Visited all 7 continents
125. Taken a canoe trip that lasted more than 2 days
126. Eaten kangaroo meat
127. Eaten sushi
128. Had your picture in the newspaper
129. Changed someone’s mind about something you care deeply about
130. Gone back to school
131. Parasailed
132. Touched a cockroach
133. Eaten fried green tomatoes
134. Read The Iliad - and the Odyssey
135. Selected one “important” author who you missed in school, and read
136. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
137. Skipped all your school reunions
138. Communicated with someone without sharing a common spoken language
139. Been elected to public office
140. Written your own computer language
141. Thought to yourself that you’re living your dream
142. Had to put someone you love into hospice care
143. Built your own PC from parts
144. Sold your own artwork to someone who didn’t know you
145. Had a booth at a street fair
146. Dyed your hair
147. Been a DJ
148. Shaved your head
149. Caused a car accident
150. Saved someone’s life.

its not that mark hasn't done a lot - we just usually do everything major together!!! :) and i'm a little more adventureous in certain areas than mark. (as far as hair dying goes!!)

little angels :)

6th grade class
Originally uploaded by jenandmark710.

this is my class - we had just gotten back from a field trip so they were all wound up.
back row (left to right): George, Charles, Isaiah, Zhane, Michelle
front row: Nicholas, Dallas, Gavin, Felicia, Rolanda
very fron: Courtney

anyway - so the weekend is finally here and we can relax. the only thing we have to do this weekend is go to church. ahh...i know that it will go much faster than i want it to. ugh. and unfortunately there are no breaks in sight!!!

well - i hope that you all have a fabulous weekend. rest up because monday will come much faster than you would like!!!