Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Wii Little World

It is definitely a Wii World this Christmas. Everyone wants them and no one can find them because they sell out before they even hit the shelves. The sad thing is that most of the people buying them don't want them for themselves they just want to turn around and sell them on Ebay or Craigslist for double the price they paid. What a racket!! So of course...what do my girls want for Christmas this year and who was bound and determined to get one for them. Yep, the spoiler herself, Grammy! Curse that woman. It became her personal mission to go out and find one of those foreign machines for her way too spoiled, don't need another thing, don't play with the stuff they already have...grandchildren (who by the way already have a PS2, Xbox and old school Atari system)! So began the journey into the dark and dangerous blackmarket world of the Wii. Just kidding about that.

This is the part where I get drug into the whole crazy mess. I just happened to be
browsing Craigslist one day (I am suddenly addicted to that) and I noticed a posting about some Wii's that were just put out at the Best Buy near my mom's house. So I called her and she called the store and they said they had 35 units left. She tried to get them to hold one for her, but they said it was "first come, first serve" so the old lady put on her support hose and put the pedal to the metal all the way to the store. When she got there, she parked in the handcapped spot up front so she would be closer, jumped out of the car, rushed into the store (knocking down 2 little kids who had the unfortunate luck to cross her path) and acosted the salesman who had the very last Wii in his hand. As she grabbed it from him, 10 frantic shoppers ran in behind her yelling for Wiis. The salesman pointed at mom who proudly did a little victory dance complete with a bootie shake and took the very last wii to the checkout counter. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

Feeling as proud as a peacock...Grammy took herself on over to The Walmart to buy some games for her newly purchased Wii! Guess what they were putting out on the shelves. Wii's. 8 of them...So the one Wii owner decided to buy another Wii just in case...So now not only does she have one Wii, but 2. But just so you know, she didn't turn around and sell it on Ebay to make a profit, but instead gave it to my teacher friend at cost.

UPDATE: Since the first posting of this, Grammy has once again stumbled across a new shipment of Wii's at Walmart. She didn't buy any this time though.

Saturday, December 8, 2007

Merry Christmas

Well here it is, 2 weeks until Christmas, and once again I didn't get around to sending out Christmas cards. So...this new blog will have to suffice.

2007 was a busy, but exciting year for the Goebel family! We had the opportunity to do quite a bit of traveling. As a family we went to Washington DC and Colorado. The girls spent two weeks with their grandparents this summer. One week in California and one week on a cruise. (They are just a little bit spoiled!) Ryan took his 3rd trip to Haiti, did some work for NAMB and spoke to youth groups around the country. This summer I had the incredible opportunity to go to Moldova, a country in Eastern Europe, on a mission trip. It was an amazing experience. I had no luggage the entire time, but managed to do well.

The girls still play competitive soccer and it has turned into a real family event. Ryan is the assistant coach and I am the team manager. Anna continues to excel and is the leading scorer for our team. Kayla plays up 2 levels to play with her sister and despite her size she runs the mid field. It is amazing to see her go up against girls twice her size and come out on top. She has no fear.

Anna is in 6th grade, her last year at our school. She is in the gifted and talented program and plays the trumpet in the band. She is also on the yearbook committee and the Student Council President. Kayla is in the 5th grade, a straight A student, on the yearbook committee and in student council. She plays the flute in band and is also in chorus.

Ryan has been the student pastor at Mountain Ridge for 3 1/2 years and the group continues to grow. He is on the state student evangelism team and was just elected 1st Vice President of the AZ Southern Baptist Convention.

This is my 10th year of teaching and my 7th at Bellair. In the spring I won a national essay contest for teachers sponsored by Honeywell and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. I got a $10,000 classroom makeover and a trip to DC for the whole family. Check out the video of the room makeover on youtube.com. Just type in my name.

Hopefully we will be able to catch up with some of you at Christmas. We will be in Indiana Dec. 26- January 4 and in Nashville Jan. 4-5.

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!