Pages

Thursday, October 30, 2014

31 Days---Day 30

As the month comes to a close, I've not meet my goals, but I've written a little more than I normally do. I plan to keep posting at least once a week. I am in the process of reading some books that I received from Tommy Nelson Kids, so that I can post a giveaway. I also will be giving away some of Tricia Goyers books over the next few weeks.  We will be on fall break Monday and Tuesday, although they are calling for snow it's still fall break. I will be transferring my blog to an easier to find website. After the transfer is over I will be holding a contest to help increase my followers with a gift card giveaway. I will announce that as soon as the website is up and running.

This week is getting pretty exciting. The sheet rock guys are at the farmhouse. It's getting really close for us to start moving things. I hope to have most of it moved during Christmas break so we can put the other house up for sale. I finally braved up and went to the cellar. It's not as spooky as I thought it was.

Maggie was Mayor of Biztown Monday. Her class had studied all about the workings of a city over the last few weeks. The students filled out job applications and the teachers chose them by interest and personality. Maggie was little upset that she was Mayor at first, but afterwards was very excited to have been chosen for the role.

Michael went back to school this week and other than being tired he has done well.

Mollie played a B-team tournament. She was a nervous wreck at the first game. During the second game she got the ball, dribbled down and passed off to the point guard. She LOVES basketball now she said.

Mattie has been working hard on her part in Once On This Island, JR. My students perform next Thursday. If you're local you will not want to miss out on it and Into the Woods, JR. Mattie is also working on her speech and campaign for Vice-President of the state Beta Club.

We hope to rest some this long weekend between the cleaning and discarding of things we don't need. Here are a current pic of the farmhouse. You can read about the house here.

Have a great weekend!!




The outside still needs a few little things and a Caribbean Blue front door.

The cellar wasn't so bad.

Friday, October 24, 2014

31 Days---Day 23

What a week. In my last post I talked about MagPie's birthday and how she serves Krispy Kreme for her birthday. Well, she decided she wanted a cake with Littlest Pet Shop figures on it. Guess who ate the entire sheet cake by herself, me! Maggie didn't eat a bite, she just wanted the toys.

Michael went on Friday morning to have his tonsils and adenoids out. He has battled lip licking, throat clearing and restless sleep for several years. It wasn't until this year's well child visit that the doctor and I picked up on it being more than just a bad habit. We visited the ENT and he decided we would start with surgery and if that doesn't remedy the issue we will do more testing. We hope to see a change over the next few weeks.

Mattie spent two nights at the National Beta Club leadership conference in Gatlinburg and had a great time. She is Vice-President for her school Beta Club and is running for Vice-President of the state club at convention in November. She along with the other officers and two sponsors enjoyed meeting new friends, enhancing their leadership skills and of course shopping and running around town.

Mollie played in her first elementary basketball game Monday evening. She isn't sure she likes it, yet. She loves soccer. I think she will love it once she gets used to it. Being the baby she is used to everyone picking up her slack. We got all the way to school, 30 minutes from the house, and she begins to cry, again. She was already upset because Michael wasn't going to be there to eat breakfast with her. Maggie works Safety Patrol every morning so she can't sit with her. On Friday, she needed basketball clothes for practice. As we pulled up at school she realized no one picked up her bag. After school I found out that a couple of the other basketball players, both boys,  sat with her because she was crying and they felt bad for her. Maggie's best friend Amanda sat with her all this week.

Saturday morning I received my four week keychain and five pounds lost star at Weight Watchers. I've done Weight Watchers before and didn't stick with it. I gained all that weight back plus some. I lie all the time that I don't care about the number on the scale just the one on the label in the back of my pants. We all know that if the scale goes down the label does too. Although, last time I weighed 157 pounds and wore size 16/18 pants. This time I was at 168 and in size 12's comfortably. I'm pretty sure that is in thanks to kickboxing at Red Dragon Martial Arts, even if it's just a couple times each week. This week I fully expect to pay for that entire sheet cake I ate with a gain.

I enjoyed a day off with Michael this week and then four stress filled days preparing for upcoming choral and drama performances at both middle schools. Someone said this week they wished they taught music so they could sit behind the piano all day. I told them I might think about swapping. I have five performances including a school board meeting between October 30th and November 11th. During that time we also have two days of fall break. Once those are over we start Winter Concert. My evaluations never truly reflect what my students learn, because our performances don't count as part of my evaluation. Yet, I don't worry about the evaluation. The true evaluation is indeed the performances and the great comments I and my students and principals receive in town and the bragging the principals get to do at their monthly administrators meeting.

To end the week I took Maggie and Amanda to a 4-H/livestock meeting last night. We are moving to the city, have three and one half acres zoned agriculture, can have livestock and they want sheep, goats, chickens and horses. I'm not convinced we can pull this off and they aren't sure they want to give up basketball to care for their animals everyday but we will see what happens.

I have a couple of book giveaways coming up in the next few days so be on the lookout for another post. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Thursday, October 16, 2014

31 Days---Day 16

Yesterday was a whirl wind of activity. We had a Student Council meeting afterschool, bought three pairs of basketball high tops and took MagPie for her birthday dinner at Olive Garden. It's a 45 minute drive with the crazy traffic even on a Wednesday evening. Luckily for us, the schools in the county where we attend church was out for fall break, so no activities, we could celebrate. We waited for 45 minutes and as busy as they were we ate for over an hour, mostly waiting on more bowls of endless chicken and gnocchi soup. I about died when we pulled into Krispy Kreme for her birthday doughnuts for her school party today. The hot sign was on. If I didn't have to weigh in at Weight Watchers Saturday morning and hadn't ate three bowls of soup already I would have consumed a dozen right there. I restrained and left them in the car overnight. Bad mistake, let me tell you. The car smelled like doughnuts this morning. Maggie has outgrown her food allergies of white potatoes, mushrooms, peanuts, navy beans and chocolate, but she still doesn't like to eat cupcakes so she always takes Krispy Kreme. The kids at school love it. Many of them never get doughnuts at least not that brand.

Maggie is 11 years old. She is one of the most thoughtful, loving kids you will ever meet. I often tell her it's not fair she's got it all brains, beauty, creativity, athleticism, the works. She can do anything she sets her mind on. She has wanted to be a missionary since she was in the 2 year old Sunday School class with Mrs. Mary. She plans to be a large animal veterinarian so that she can travel oversees and help animals and tell others about Christ. Maggie is the "Mother" to every kid she ever meets who needs one. Maggie is perfect in every way. Happy birthday, Maggie!




   
 

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

31 Days---Day 14

It has rained a lot is an understatement. I'm not sure how we missed out on the severe storms but it had poured rain all day. Fifty-seven severe weather warnings in our area, thunderstorms, flooding, flash flooding for every county.

As we were cooking dinner, I noticed the sun was shining at the back of the house. It was still dark and pouring in the front. I knew there was a rainbow somewhere. When I walked out there it was, not one but two and both ends touched the ground right in front of me.

The girls started walking to see if they could stand where it touched the ground. I just started taking pictures. East Tennessee weather, the beautiful leaves changing colors and God's glorious rainbows.

The last two pictures are pointing west as the rain came to an end. The top layer of clouds was moving from south to north and the orange, fire looking bottom layer was moving west to east. They all were moving really fast.

As wet as I was running in and out of school yesterday morning, changing schools at lunch, to a meeting after school, to basketball practice after that and finally into the house, I was so blessed with this beauty. Life happens, it moves fast, but you've got to slow down and dance in the rain, and admire God's handiwork.

Thank you Lord for you blessing today.





31 Days---Day 12

Sometimes life gives you friends that span generations. The Sweeten's are one of those families. My parents best friends. They travel together several times each year. Their children and I are still great friends although we are grown. Now grandbabies who will grow to be friends.

I was so excited to be able to photograph them Sunday. It was pouring rain and the park we wanted to use was a muddy mess. We made the best of it and luckily they have a wooded area across from their house so we stood in the carport and used it as a background. Here are a few of my faves.



 




Thursday, October 9, 2014

31 Days---Day 9

No matter what, I'm behind. Instead of trying to get caught up I'm just going to skip the last two days. Today is fall picture day at my afternoon school. Teachers are suppose to wear either black or white shirts and our neon accessories will be supplied. I'm interested to see how this works out with that lovely blue background. The yearbooks will be neon so that explains the theme. I wish I had past yearbook pictures to post so that you could see just how goofy I used to look. Even now they are pretty goofy. Since we've just come off of Spirit Week and Literacy Day I thought I would post a goofy picture of my kids, three nerds and a hillbilly. They won't make it into their yearbooks in those outfits but they will be in there in plenty of other pictures. Here's to all those yearbook pics!




Wednesday, October 8, 2014

31 Days of Life---Day 6

In my Bible reading today my question for the day was about facing addictions. Being totally honest here, I have several addictions. I'm addicted to Facebook, Pepsi, Mountain Dew Icees, Fudge Rounds...do you see a trend. I have been back on Weight Watchers for almost two weeks. It's a struggle, but class makes me accountable.

But my greatest struggle isn't with food. It's putting Bible study before Facebook surfing. Today I prayed for the many prayer requests I saw posted on Facebook but as I read my Bible after surfing I came across this verse in Psalm 109:30. It says, "With my mouth I will greatly extol the Lord; in the great throng I will praise Him." Verse 21 says, "But you, O Sovereign Lord, deal well with me for your name's sake; out of the goodness of your love, deliver me."

I need someone to keep me accountable that I read and do my Bible study before Facebook. As I think about what my mission on Facebook is I believe I need to be posting more verses and encouragement. Yes, my family is crazy and I don't mind to tell it on there but I think I can help others with a daily verse. An accountability factor that I've had to study and read before I can post it.

Have you read today? What verse stuck out to you?

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

31 Days of Life--Day 5



Nothing exciting happened on Sunday and I'm still trying to catch up. This is from Mother's Day this year at my parents. Mollie couldn't take a picture without making a face if her life depended on it. We love being able to visit all of our grandparents. They are just 20 minutes away. We don't get to see them as much as we would like, but have a great time when we do. Mikie and I are both fortunate to have Christian parents who raised us in the Lord and made sure we had everything we needed. We didn't always have everything we wanted but we never needed anything. Watch for more family photos from the other side of the family in the upcoming days.

Monday, October 6, 2014

31 Days of Life--Day 4

So these two went to the UT/ Florida game Saturday afternoon. Maggie has never been to a football game except middle school games. Kellie's family has UT season passes. Of course this was the game they would checkerboard Neyland Stadium. They were prepared. Excited was an understatement. Kellie's Mom, Wendy, caught this pic before they headed out the door. Wendy is one my best friends and an awesome photographer. Check out Wendy's photos at her website Wendy Iven's Photography. The girls had a great time and Maggie can't wait to go to another football game.

Friday, October 3, 2014

31 Days of Life

I'm three days behind, because, well, life happens. I am attempting again this year to blog for 31 days as part of The Nester's 31 Days of Writing Challenge. My posts won't be long, some days just a picture, uploaded from my phone. I'm hoping to document our life. My word for 2014 was live. You can click here to read why. I've attempted to take a picture everyday to put in my journal. I haven't blogged much this year because we have been living. I haven't posted here but have posted snippets on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. I'm having problems linking to those at the moment. I'll try to revisit and link up later. Wish me luck as I attempt to succeed at 31 days of blogging life happenings in our family.

31 Days---Day 4

31 Days---Day 5

31 Days---Day 6

31 Days---Day 9

31 Days---Day 12

31 Days---Day 14

31 Days---Day 16

31 Days---Day 23

31 Days---Day 30