Christmas Pictures

December is always a busy month. This year has been no different. We are DONE with school as of today. Hurray!!! I know I am more excited than the kids. We will start back on January 6th. We had Abby;s piano recital last Saturday and the kids Christmas choir program on Sunday. They all did so well. We are ready for Christmas. The presents are wrapped, we have firewood, hot chocolate, lots of good creamer for the coffee and cookies......isn't that everything. James Spann even eluded to a chance of some white stuff on Christmas day. How fun would that be? Merry Christmas Everyone!!!

Samo is 7 Today!!!

Wow. Seven years old. I can hardly believe my baby is 7 today. He has really grown up over the past year. His r's are a little more easy to understand :( He still loves swords and shields and fighting the battle. He plays well by himself. He loves playing with action figures and building with legos. Every night he says "Mommy, will you lay with me?" and most of the time I do.....just for a minute. He loves his Daddy. He hardly ever lets Dave leave without running to the door to give him a hug. He has started reading really well this semester. He still loves for me to read to him. He loves playing soccer and wants to play football next year. He has aspirations of being a drummer........he drums on everything. He gets his rhythm from Dave......that's a good thing! He likes to skate in the kitchen and ride his bike on the street. He asks alot of questions. His little mind is always going. He is starting to understand salvation. Some of his questions are hard to answer.

Dave and I were quite surprised when we found out we were expecting Samuel. But oh what would we do without him. He has brought so much to our little family. He is such a sweet little boy. He should be up in a little while. He asked for pancakes for breakfast. Then he's going to help me bake a chocolate cake with sprinkle icing. Then, being the disciplined (no laughing please) Mommy that I am, we are going to do our school work. You should have heard the protest when he realized we would be having school on his birthday. We took him out for his bday Friday night and he got a Nintendo DS. He has not stopped playing it. He has told me a bunch of times how much he loves his new DS. I love that little boy! So happy birthday to my baby boy.

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

You can feel it in the air. The cool temperature. Leaves falling. The smell of a fire in the fireplace, cooked apples, warm cider. The anticipation of the holidays to come. My birthday. ..... :) So many reasons why this is my favorite time of the year. I even like to turn back the clock and lose the hour or so of sunlight. I know that's weird..huh. This really is the most wonderful time of the year....makes me want to sing :)

We are having a great school year. Abby is still taking piano and begging Dave to teach her to play the trumpet. Erin is now taking violin lessons, which she loves. Samo wants to be a drummer.....

All three played soccer this fall. Three different teams. We won't be doing that again. Too many different directions. Next time at least two have to be on the same team! Samuel's team won the area tournament. We were so proud!

I am sooooo looking forward to the holidays. I love getting to spend time with family and traveling and shopping and the good food and.........you get the picture. I am going to try to keep this blog updated more often for all of my many readers...haha...jk. We are off to a soccer team party at CC's Pizza. Fun Fun Fun!

School Days

I LOVE THESE KIDS!!!!

My blogging has been a bit lacking lately. We have been BUSY!! We are having a great school year so far. We have completed 15 days. We start around 8 every morning and end whenever we finish. Some days that is well into the afternoon. The kids are learning alot!! I am so proud of how well they are doing. They are really working hard and it is paying off. I am rewarding them for making 100's on tests. They are all into that. They get trips for ice cream, extra hours of tv, trips to work with Daddy.....needless to say, they are all trying really hard to make 100's on their tests.

School Days

We have completed 6 days of school. The first day was overwhelming!!! We are doing all new curriculum this year. It is great, but there is alot of work to do each day. So here's what we are doing......

Samuel -1st grade

Sing, Spell, Read, and Write

Horizons Math

He is doing Bible with Abby each day.

I include him in Erin's Science lesson.

Erin- 3rd grade

Horizons Math

Bob Jones Reading

Rod and Staff English

Bob Jones Science/Big Science Book

Story of the World

Matin Latin

Bible

Spelling Workout

Abby- 4th grade

Horizons Math
Bob Jones Reading
Rod and Staff English
Abeka Science
Story of the World
Matin Latin
Bible
Spelling Workout

Abeka Health

We have full days!! The kids are also playing soccer, girl scouts, cub scouts, and piano for Abby. Dave is teaching the girls the Latin class in the afternoons. It's going to be a good semester.

My new Neice......Katie Rae

Katie Rae Hart arrived today at 11:55. She weighed 7lbs 14 oz.

Look at those cheeks!!

Lori Before Katie arrived.

Recovering

I had a partial hysterectomy on Monday. I am home and recovering. I am hoping that this will make me feel so much better. Dave is taking very good care of me. He and the kids are getting me whatever I need so that I don't have to get up very often. Our sweet friends are bringing us dinner each night, and we are so thankful for that. I feel OK until I try to get up. They were able to do a laproscopic surgery so I have 3 incisions on my tummy. I am hoping to start school next Wednesday. So if everyting goes well we should be able to get started. I did all my preparations last week so we would be ready. Samuel's leg is healing nicely. He gets his stitches out on Friday. He said he is going to go swimming and take a long bubble bath after he gets them out. We haven't been able to get the incision wet, so he has been getting sponge baths this week. Thank you to all who have prayed for our family this last week.

Samuel

this is what he is doing with his days, playing inside

his battle wound!!!

I haven't blogged in a while. It has been quite an uneventful summer. So I didn't want to bore you with our daily laziness. This weekend was very eventful so I thought I'd share. Dave and I headed down to Summer Beach Project for return training with the students. Abby, Erin and Samuel were not interested in going, so we left them with Mama and Daddy in Talladega. Samuel was with Lori at Tracy's for the day. We got a call around 6:00pm from Tracy, just as we were pulling into Ft. Walton. She needed our insurance information, Samuel had "cut" his leg and they were on their way to the emergency room. I didn't freak out at first.....but I did freak out. All I could think about is how far away I was. 5 hours. What was the fastest way I could get home? I knew he was in good hands, but he was not in my hands. His Mommy!! Dave and I went to the Sand Man.....the Beach project housing.....dropped off the things we had for the students, and headed back home. By this time we had a better understanding of what had happened. He had run into a utility trailer on his bike and gashed open his leg on his right upper thigh. Tracy, my sister, who is normally very calm, FREAKED OUT when she saw it. She told me all this the next day, as to not upset me so bad since I was so far away. It cut through all the layers of fat and stopped right before the muscle. It looked bad. Lori my other sister that was there is actually a wound care nurse.......but that night she was just an Aunt to Samuel. She is 3 weeks away from delivering her second child. That day she and Tracy had a yard sale so Tracy's house was turned upside down. As Lori was running to get something to wrap his legs in, she fell on some beads and cut her foot. Oh my, it was an interesting night to say the least. Dave and I arrived at my parents at 1:30 am. I couldn't wait to hug my little boy. He was glad to see us. We took him Monday morning to the doctor for a tetanus shot. He had to have 12 stitches, 4 on the inside layer and 8 on the outside. The cut was almost 2 inches deep and 2 inches wide. He cannot get it wet until the stitches come out next Friday, the 7th. So the hard thing now is keeping him from getting it wet, dirty, or playing rough. He is a 6 year old boy, rough is his middle name. Tracy and Lori told me that while they were waiting with him at the ER, he said to them "It would have been worse(think of him saying this with his "R" sound) if it had caught on fire." Sometimes I just wonder what goes through his mind.

What have I been up to?

I have been ordering books, books, and more books for school. I have almost ordered all the books we will need for the school year. I am excited about what we are doing this year. I love curriculum. I know that's weird, but I love looking at the books and researching what is best, and seeing what other people have to say about them. This year Samuel will be doing Sing Spell Read and Write and Horizons Math. I ordered a full year of lesson plans for the girls that came with a book list. They have chosen some of the best curriculum for each subject. I have almost gotten all the girls books and I really am excited about what the girls will be doing.

We are having a good summer. A very lazy summer. We will be going back to Summer Beach Project in a couple of weeks to be with the students before they come home. Then it will be time to begin school. It has been nice having Dave home a little more this summer. He has been quite the Mr. fix-it this summer. Our house is at the point where a lot of things are needing to be repaired or replaced. So little by little we are doing repairs.

So I'm off for another lazy day! Oh the joys of summer.

Can I tell you how thankful I am? I am thankful for many things, but this week it is something that may seem petty to some of you. In December my dishwasher died. So since then we(Dave and I) have washed many, many dishes. Our plan was to get a new dishwasher in November because that is when it worked into our budget. Last week my parents had to do some unexpected work in their kitchen, and gave us their not so old dishwasher. It is just like new. Oh how thankful I am for my new dishwasher.

Erin Rebekah

Eight years and 9 months ago Dave and I got some very surprising news. We were gonna have another baby. Abby was 3 months old and we were expecting another baby. We were a little overwhelmed and excited at the same time. I saw my doctor on June 19th and he scheduled for me to come to the hospital at 5 am June 20th to be induced to have my baby girl. Dave and I arrived there right on time and the nurses got me all set up and ready. Just like with Abby's birth, everything went great. It was a pretty uneventful morning. Dave actually ordered drill for his marching band show around 10 am. A short time after that I was holding a precious little girl with a head full of brown hair. Abby looked just like Dave ( and still does), so when Erin was born I now had a little girl who looked just like me. She was precious from head to toe. She weighed 9 pounds and 1 ounce. Her personality was evident from the very beginning. She was a bit fussy and cried alot. She was and still is a mommy's girl...although she has warmed up to her daddy lately:) She is a sweet little girl who I call "Little" sometimes. She takes her time to do things....just like Dave. She looks just like I did as a little girl and shares the name Erin with me. I love her sweet smile and infectious laugh. Happy 8th birthday Erin. I love you.

June

What a busy two weeks this has been. My baby girl turned nine, we spent a week vacationing at the beach, and then Dave and I headed to Summer Beach Project. Our vacation was great. We relaxed, swam in the ocean, played in the sand, ate lot of really good food, and spent time just hanging out with our family. We went with my entire family....me, Dave, my 3 sisters, their husbands, all 8 children, and my mama and daddy. It is so nice getting to spend a full week with them every summer.



Next Dave and I headed to Ft. Walton for beach project with campus outreach. We had intended to bring the kids, but the day before we left, my parents asked if the kids wanted to go home with them. It was unanimous that they would spend the next week with mamaw and grandaddy rather than at beach project with us. I miss them like crazy! Our time with the students has been good. Beach project is definitely a character building time. Tight living conditions, getting to know different people and lots of different personalities can be hard.....but so good for building character. The students are learning alot.



Saturday, June 13 Dave and I will have been married for 11 years. Happy Anniversary Dave! I love you and look forward to many, many, many more years.

Abigail Grace

Nine years ago today my life changed forever. All day long I had contractions on and off. I was already three days past my due date. I was getting quite miserable and I was so ready to meet my little girl. Dave and I left for the hospital on Sunday afternoon excited and scared at the same time. I knew when we returned to our house it wouldn't be just the two of us anymore. We would have a cuddly little baby with us. We got to the hospital around 5:00pm on Sunday afternoon. It was a most perfect night. I am serious. Everything was perfect and at 3:00am Monday May 29, 2000, I was holding a beautiful red headed baby girl. She was perfect. 8 pounds 5 ounces, 21.5 inches long. Simply perfect.

Today my little red headed baby girl turns nine years old. My how fast the time goes by. Happy Birthday Abby Grace. Mommy loves you!!

Daddy's Retirement Has Finally Come

Today we had the privilege of doing something very special. Mama, Tracy, Lori, Giny, and I went out to the Army Depot for my Daddy's retirement ceremony. I can only remember going onto the depot one other time when I was very young. It was nice to finally see where Daddy has worked all these years and meet some of his co-workers. They presented him with several certificates, one of which was his certificate of retirement. YAY!! He has been counting down to this day for 2 years. His demeanor has even changed over the past few months. I think retirement is going to be really good for him. His co-workers also gave him some gifts. A sort of gag gift spoke alot about who he is. This bag had different things like duct tape, an empty coke can and water bottle, a rock that they had written the words "dumb as a rock" on( one of his favorite sayings). These items all have a story and would mean nothing to you unless you know him. This was my favorite part of the day. When they presented him with this gag gift I realized that my Daddy has a consistent character. He is the same all the time. He has gone to the Depot for all the years and maintained good integrity and gained respect from his fellow workers. He is not a people pleaser, he is who he is. I liked seeing that today. It was a special day for him and for us.

Sisters

Just when I was beginning to think the girls would fight forever and wondering if they really even like each other, I found this piece of paper in the back seat of the van. Abby spent of couple of days with our family in Talladega and Erin really missed her, especially at bedtime. I guess absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Abby's Recital

Abby just completed her first year of piano and did a great job at her Spring Recital. I think of Abby as my big girl. She has always been my big girl. Erin was born 2 weeks after Abby turned one. Then came Samuel one year later. So she was always my big helper, and she still is. I call on her to do so much more than I do either Erin or Samuel. I guess because I know she will get it done. I am working on not taking advantage of her and making my little ones do a little more. She has always been compliant and responsible. We use to joke and say that if Abby was with Samuel and Erin when they were playing it was like having the Holy Spirit with them. She is a good big sister and a good daughter. She is my big girl! So the other night at the recital when she was standing on stage with the other students, I could not believe how little she looked. I sometimes forget that she is just 8. She will be nine in a couple of weeks and to hear her talk you would think she is going to 16 and getting a car. Turning nine is a big deal to her for some reason. I loved these pictures of her playing.

Coupons

For the past month or so I have been trying to make the most of my food dollar. I have been clipping coupons and researching couponing online. So far in the past few weeks I have averaged saving $3 dollars a week with coupons. Not really so great. But I am determined to save more. I have signed up online at O Charley's, Chucke Cheese and by doing this you get great online coupons. From O Charley's I got a $5 off coupon which we used. With the fact that kids eat free there, it was a pretty inexpensive meal out for our family. Yesterday I got a coupon from O Charley's for a free appetizer. These are a couple of the sites I use :

Eversave.com

ppgazette.com

http://www.becentsable.net/

I'm always looking for new information if any of you have any wisdom to share. My goal is to be one of those mama's who can go into the store and buy $40 worth of stuff for $5 with my coupons. I'll keep you posted on my savings!

Think On These Things

This semester I have been doing a precept study in Philippians with some ladies from church. This week we focused on chapter 4 verses 8-9.

8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me practice these things; and the God of peace shall be with you.

These two verses really focus on our mind. Dwell on these things and the God of peace shall be with you. So we have to replace the thoughts of fear, anxiety, worry, etc. with what is true, right, pure, lovely, of good repute, and worthy of praise. So if we obeyed these teaching......how would our lives change? Would it change what we read, watch, listen to, talk about, think about? How can we do this? First we must take every thought captive (2 Corinthians 10:5).

But then we must replace those thoughts with something new. A friend of mine gave a great illustration of this. Imagine you have an empty toilet paper holder. You take some of the toilet tissue and stuff it inside the holder. To get that tissue out you have to replace it with more....something new. That's the way our mind works. We must replace the anxiousness with the peace of God. I love this. If you are like me and struggle with worry this is a great thing to put into practice. Back to the question, how would this change what we watch, etc. I think we have to rely our conscience unless it is obvious sin. Can you watch it etc. and still dwell on whatever is......lovely...etc. I'll finish this post the way Paul ended Philippians.....the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your Spirit.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Samuel's first soccer game.

Friday we took a field trip to the Space and Rocket Center. The kids favorite part was the rock wall. They had a great time with their friends. It would have been more educational if we had done a guided tour. But you live and learn. Right?

Saturday was Samuel's first soccer game. He did so well. I loved watching him play. He scored once and did a great job blocking. ( I don't really know how to play soccer....so not sure of all the terminology). When we got to the game he asked me if it was too late to cancel the game. They have postponed the games so many times he was afraid they would cancel it again. He was so cute in his uniform. :)

Dave and I had a great date night on Saturday. It was a nice to just hang out with him. We saw the movie The Soloist. I would highly recommend that movie. So a good meal, a movie, Ben and Jerry's ice cream.....and of course a trip to the grocery store. What else could a girl ask for:)

This week is SAT testing for Abby. She was pretty nervous last night. She was OK after we got to the testing center and she saw some of her friends. The other two and I are doing our school work at the library during the test. They like that....anything different.

Its hard to believe its almost May. The weather is beautiful and we just want to be outside. Only 14 more days, then our summer begins!!

Monday

Good news. The air conditioner is working and it was only a small problem that was easy to fix. I always dread calling the repairman, I'm so scared he will tell us we need a new unit. Thankfully not this time.

This is a busy time of year for us. Our life seems to run in semesters. We are on a sprint...then we slow down and have some down time. With Dave teaching again, doing college ministry, us being in school, homegroups at church, everything is really busy during the Fall and Spring and we wait for summer to slow down and relax. We are getting ready for our end of the year school program. Each family chose a person to focus on and study this semester. We chose Martin Luther. We all learned alot about him and how he was such a great leader in the reformation of the church. We have a presentation to do at our open house. So we are working on that. Abby is getting ready for her spring piano recital. She will be finishing her first year of piano. Erin is ready to start playing something. She really wants to play the violin. I for one am ready for this school year to come to an end. It's hard to believe Abby will be in 4th grade, Erin in 3rd and Samuel in 1st. Where does the time go? It really just seems like I blinked my eyes and they were not babies anymore. So no more blinking!

Air Conditioner Issues

If you read my 100th post you would know that one of the things I really love, I mean really love, is air conditioning. I am so thankful to live in the time in which I do. You know, a time when cars have air, most homes have air, restaurants, schools, most buildings have air conditioning. I think I took air conditioning for granted until June 14, 1998. That is when my love/hate relationship with air conditioners began. Dave and I got married on June 13, 1998 and the next morning we were leaving for our honeymoon. We got into the car headed out and realized the air was not working. So you can imagine how HOT it was riding in that car in the middle of June. But we managed and it was a great trip and it gives us a good story to tell. We got back home to our little rental house in Gordo and our air conditioner did not work more than it did. This was a character building experience for me and Dave. Once when the twins(my sisters) came to visit, they were so hot that we went to the grocery store just to cool off. Oh the memories:) So then we moved to the east side of the state. Our central air unit went out and we had to replace it....which was a big chunk of cash!! Now 10 years, almost 11 years later we are still having air issues!!! Every year it seems we need to have our unit repaired. A few years ago we had the repairman out to fix our unit and he found a snake wrapped around the inside of the outside unit. Thankfully it was dead. So here we are again. The beginning of another summer and our air is out. What do you think God is trying to teach me? I guess I haven't gotten it yet. So tomorrow we will have an air repairman come and work on this old unit again. Thankfully today was in the 60's.

Spring Pictures

Wisdom for Today

I was reading one of my favorite blogs today and wanted to share it with you.

Jesus Led With Silence

http://www.praiseandcoffee.com/



Its often hard not to defend ourselves against lies, but Jesus was such a perfect example for us.

Catching Up

The kids bathroom....I have no idea why these pics are sideways:)

The hall bathroom.

Last night Dave was saying how the last two weeks had been a blur to him. That's been about how long its been since I've blogged. Dave had two weeks out of school/one week off from the church. So what did we do? We did lots of little projects around the house. Dave tiled both upstairs bathrooms with a little direction from Ricky and Jason(thank you guys). He did a great job. Little did we know the tiling would not be our biggest problem. Putting the potties back on was extremely hard and quite yucky. We put the potties on and took them off...repeat...repeat...and never could get the wax rings to seal the potties in place. I definitely know more about the bottom of a toilet than I ever wanted to know!! We finally called a plumber...and it was worth every penny. Also putting the doors back on was harder than expected. We had to cut the doors off because the tile made the floor higher (I use the term "we" loosely, I did not really help with that). Dave, being the perfectionist that he is not only cut the doors off, but sanded, primed, and repainted them. We (again, using the term loosely) got finished with that project on Saturday afternoon.

Life at our house is as busy as ever. Abby has an ear ache at the moment. I took her to the doctor this morning. The other two have had bad coughs for a while. Sometimes it's hard to decide whether or not to take them to the doctor when they aren't running fevers. Our doctor tells me use your judgement, when you feel uncomfortable treating them, then bring them in. I just tend to second guess myself alot of times.

My Kid's Market trip was a big success. I got lots of great things for the kids. They were very pleased with their new clothes and Dave was pleased with me for staying within my budget. Kim and I had a great time as usual.