Our Family News

Family Update

2007-09-10T14:02:00.000-07:00

The school year has begun. This is a picuture of the first day of school for Rachel (9th), Matthew (6th), and Hannah (4th). Nathan's first day started a few days later, but we included him in picture.

This is Nathan's first day of school. Since we included him in the other picture, we included the other three in his picture.

On August 26, Nathan celebrated his 4th birthday.

This picture is so precious to me. Mike was relaxing on the couch and Nathan crawled up to relax too.

This past Friday night, Rachel kicked a chair. We thought maybe she broke her toe.

On Saturday, she still had troubles walking and said it was painful when she put pressure on it. So, we took her to the doctor. Sure enough, she broke it! This is a funny shoe that she has to wear. We have to see a bone specialist before they will release her to participate in PE. She is not a huge fan of PE, so she is ok with it. We do have an appointment on Wednesday to see the bone specialist.

Back to school/Happy birthday Nathan!

2007-08-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

Oh wow!!! I have had troubles getting the blog to work. I thought I would give it just one more try before I completely give up. I have quite a few pictures to post since my last update and will post those in the next couple of days

We have gotten off to a great start in school this year.

Rachel is in 9th grade. She loves most of her teachers. She has already had a quiz in most of her classes and did pretty well on each quiz. One quiz, well, she just may have to study harder next time.

Matthew is in 6th grade. He has two of Rachel's former teachers and both are great teachers. We had a "good phone" call last Thursday just to let us know he was off to a good start.

Hannah is in 4th grade. She has two teachers this year. This is the first time she has had a man teacher, but I know she will do just fine.

Nathan started K-4 last Thursday. Rachel walked him in on the first day for me and said he went into class with no problem. He has two teachers. Mrs. Wasser was also Matthew's and Hannah's K-4 teacher so we are excited to get her again. The other teacher is one we have know for quite a few years. So, it was nice to get people we know.

Today is Nathan's 4th birthday. We decided to celebrate last night. Rachel and I made a cake for him and wrapped his present while he took his nap. After dinner, we ate cake and icecream. Then we brought out his present. We got him "Mr Potato Head" set. It is something he saw in the store a few months ago and REALLY wanted to get it. We thought it would make a good birthday present, so the next time we were at the store without him, we went ahead and bought it for him. It's been hidden ever since. Anyway, when he opened it, he was so excited.

This morning, we told him that after we get home from church, we are going to eat dinner, and then have more cake & icecream. He then said, "and get another present?!" So, while I cooked dinner, the kids all went into their rooms and each found something they thought he would enjoy and wrapped it up. Rachel gave him a small pillow that looks like a cookie. Matthew gave him a "Tow Mater" ball cap. And Hannah gave him a stuffed animal. He had more fun opening up the old stuff than he did the new stuff. When he saw the cap that Matthew gave him, he commented"Look, Matt, it's like yours!" Little does he know...

Well, thats about all the update in our lives for now. Now that I can get back on the blogspot, I will post pictures again!!!

Pictures

2007-07-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

I just looked at my camera and realized I have not put any pictures on the blog in a while.

We have given Nathan his first chore. He is my official person to unload the dryer. He does a great job! We figure he needs a job to do like the others have jobs to do and this way, we don't have to break our backs bending over to unload the dryer.

Matthew and Hannah went to Camp o' the Pines last week. Here they are walking ahead of us to "check-in". We could hardly keep up with them because they were so excited.

I love this picture, I hollered at them to stop and look back and snapped this picture of them.

Matthew in front of his cabin.

Matthew says goodbye to Nathan.

Hannah in front her cabin.

Hannah says goodbye to Nathan.

Hannah says goodbye to Rachel.

Special Nursery Days...Tomorrow is Circus Day. I was going to dress Nathan up as a clown like we did when Hannah was in the nursery, but when I try to put the wig on him, he refuses it. He claims it belongs to Hannah. I finally asked him, what he wanted to dress up like and he told me "a lion". So, here is my attempt at a lion costume. I will take better pictures tomorrow before we leave for nursery.

We made him the mane out of an old headband that has kitty ears on it. I wrapped it in twine. I cut about 4 inch pieces of the twine and each time I made a wrap, I placed one the pieces to create the look of the lions mane. It turned out cute, but when we put the head band on him, it looks like he has been electricuted and his hair is standing on end. He is wearing a brown t-shirt and dark khaki pants. I also made a big bow but we decided that the bow was more for a clown rather than a lion so we will not use the bow.

Here is a closer look of his face. We used lipstick and made a triangle nose. With eyeliner, we drew on the whiskers.

He even has a tail. I found a piece of trim in my craft box of odds and ends that we tucked into his pants to give him a tail. I will definately take better pictures tomorrow. The lighting my our house isn't the best. Maybe if I take pictures outside, they will turn out better.

More Special Days at Nursery

2007-07-09T19:45:00.000-07:00

Last week they had Patriotic Day. Here is Nathan wearing Matthew's 3 corner Colonial hat and flag shirt. I posed him with our flag to try and create a more "patriotic" pose.

This week they were to bring a picture of their pet. We have two pets. Here is Nathan with Hannah's pet mouse named Ginger.

And here he is with Rachel's pet betta fish named Alpha. We had a problem leaving for school because he did not understand that he was just going to take the pictures we took of him and not the actual pets.

Last Year School Pictures

2007-07-08T11:40:00.000-07:00

We finally went and had the kids school pictures done for the 2006-2007 school year. Instead of having school pictures done at school, we like taking them to have them done ourselves. This year, we kept procrastinating and finally, over vacation, we figured we better get ourselves into gear and get last years done before it was time for this coming years to be done.

Doctor Day!

2007-06-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

I just love that the Nursery has special days throughout the summer for the kids. Today was "Be a doctor, nurse or dentist" Here is Nathan as "Dr. Nathan Tabor, Dentist"

He is wearing one of Matthew's old white dress shirts as a "lab coat".

I made him the thing on his head out of two pieces of card stock paper stapled together. Then I took the lid to a Pringles potato chip can and cut the center out of it. Then I covered it in foil and stapled it to the head piece and WALA...the thing that doctors wear on their heads.

I even made him his own name badge. It's hard to see in the pictures but it says, "Dr. Nathan Tabor, Dentist" and it has a picture of a tooth. Check out his pocket, we place a toothbrush in his pocket.

We were going to have him carry a toy drill to school, but we couldn't find it so he took a pair of play pliers instead. In the above two pictures, he is performing a tooth extraction on himself.

Here is he is showing his nifty pair of pliers.

Here is his first patient. Rachel bravely poses for this picture so that Dr. Nathan can work on her teeth.

Tabor Update

2007-06-19T16:16:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that the last time I updated my blog was on May 1. We have been busy over the last few months. We love living in our new house. We are all settled and into a good routine.

In April, Rachel and Hannah had their piano Recitals and both did a great job. This was Rachel's last recital. She has taken lessons since she was in 3rd grade and has decided that she no longer wants to take lessons.

Also in April, Hannah and Matthew played in the Elementary Concert. Hannah played the clarinet and Matthew played the trumpet. Both of their groups did a great job. Even though Hannah's group sounded GREAT, she has decided that clarinet is not her thing and will continue with piano instead.

Also in April, Rachel's choir sang in the High School Concert. I really enjoyed hearing her group sing. I am so glad that she will continue in choir next year.

At the beginning of May, we had our Master Club Awards Night. Don't they look good?

At the end of May, we headed off for vacation. Our first stop was Maw Maw Mary and Paw Paw Doug's house. Rachel didn't feel like playing in the slip n slide, but Matt, Hannah and Nathan sure had a blast. This is a posed picture because we just couldn't get Nathan to actually run and slide down the slide.

After a nice visit with Maw Maw and Paw Paw, we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's house for a visit. The kids all stayed with Grandma and Grandpa while Mike and I drove over to Houston to celebrate our 17th anniversary. Rachel took good care of the kids for me while at Grandma and Grandpa's. Here she is reading a book to Nathan.

Here's Nathan, Matt and Hannah enjoying Grandma's swing.

In Houston, Mike and I enjoyed time alone. We were able to visit with my sister and family and also got to go to church with them on Sunday.

After our Houston trip, we picked up the kids and headed back to Maw Maw and Paw Paw's. Mike's mom had an evening planned with many family members at Chuck E Cheese. We had a BLAST. Here is Mike and Nathan on one of the games. Which one is having more fun?

We took our time getting home. We made many stops. This is a rest stop in Layfayette. It was like a mini museum of life on the Bayou. There was as short film and a few things to see. It was a nice stop. They have huge stone type statues. Nathan liked the turtle.

As soon as we got home, we began preparing for Rachel's trip to the Bill Rice Ranch with the Youth Group. She let her friend take this picture of her on their trip back on the bus. She had a great time and is ready to go back next year. Isn't she cute in the cowboy hat that she bought?

After returning home from camp, she had to prepare herself for the next phase of her life. Rachel has entered the work force. She is working in the Food Service area for the college. She gets to help set out the trays and clean up the trays from all the Sports Center Day Camp kids. So far, she seems to be enjoying her "job". It's fun to see her "at work" when we go to lunch. She fits right in and it looks like she knows what she is doing.

That's it for now.

All moved in...

2007-05-01T13:47:00.000-07:00

Phew...what a chore! We are finally all moved into our new home. It took a whole week of moving all our little stuff and then one big day for a crew of college guys to move the big stuff. By Saturday night, our house is basically set up. I still have boxes of stuff out in the carport to go through, but it won't take long to actually got through those.

It's a busy time of year. Work is busy as we are working hard to get ready for graduation.

The girls played in their recitals this past week. It was Hannah's very first recital and she did a super job. It was Rachel's last recital. She played a duet with her teacher and it sounded absolutely beautiful.

Matthew and Hannah had a band concert on Friday night. Each of their groups did very well.

I do have pictures of the recital and the concert, but I just haven't had time to put them on the computer yet.

Well, I have some more boxes that need unpacking....later...

Moving

2007-04-22T12:28:00.000-07:00

We picked up our keys for the new house on Friday. Everyone had plans on Friday night except for Hannah, Nathan and me, so the three of us moved what we could into the house. I am so please with what a great worker Hannah is. She did whatever I asked of her and with a good attitude. Nathan helped some, he helped carry small things to the truck and then help get small stuff inside the house. We worked until 9:30. Saturday morning, everyone had plans except for Rachel, Nathan and me, so we worked in the old house, packing and cleaning. By lunch time, everyone was back home so we all spent the rest of the day, moving stuff over and setting things up in the new house. By about 6:30, we were all so tired that we decided to call it a day and go back to the old house and collapse. It's going to be tricky this next week to spend much time moving stuff as we have obligations every evening. Monday evening I have a PTM meeting and Mike has an appointment. Tuesday evening I have to work-Mike has bowling. Wednesday evening we have church. Thursday evening is the girls' piano recital-Mike has an appointment. Friday evening is Matthew and Hannah Elementary Band Concert. Thankfully, Mike and I requested to have Friday off and it was given to us. YIPPEE, that will give just the two of us time to get things done before the big move on Saturday. It will be nice to have the time together while the kids are in school.

Tonight during Master Clubs, it's my turn to tell the story. I haven't had the time to devote to practicing the story. But this is the same story that Matthew taught last year during the Regionals and won 2nd place. So, he is going to tell the story in my place. He practiced it several times this afternoon and I know he is going to do a great job. One time he practiced it, it took him 10 minutes to tell it, the last time he practiced, it took him about 20 mins. He actually has between 10 and 15 minutes to tell it, so I think he will be just fine.

Packing has begun

2007-04-13T20:02:00.000-07:00

We are moving!!! We get the keys to the house on the 20th. We will use that full week to move in little stuff. On the 28th, we will move all the heavy stuff. This past week, we have been packing what we can. I am soooooo tired. I have been setting aside stuff for our yard sale. We will have two sales. Our first one will be tomorrow. Rachel will manage the sale while I continue in the house packing and cleaning. I told her the objective is to get rid of stuff, so sell it all cheap!

The week that we will be moving in small stuff, will be a very busy week. I will actually only have that Saturday and Monday help because on Tuesday night, I have to work, Wednesday is church, Thursday is the girl's piano recital and Friday is the Elementary Band Concert (which Matt and Hannah are both in it) Mike will have move stuff without me. However, we are asking to take Friday off so that he and I can work all day while the kids are in school. Mike has a whole crew of guys lined up to come help on Saturday. I can hardly wait to be in the new house. I hate all this packing, cleaning, and throwing out stuff, but I know it will all be worth it in the end.

Matthew's Poster

2007-04-02T21:47:00.000-07:00

If you want to see a "Movie" of Matthew's poster, click on this link:

Matts poster with lights II.MOV

Honorable Mention

2007-03-29T17:19:00.000-07:00

Matthew's poster received "Honorable Mention". From what Matthew said, there were lots of great posters and he was very glad to get "Honorable Mention".

Congratulations, Matthew, on a job well done!

Regional Winners!!!

2007-03-24T16:42:00.000-07:00

Today was our Master Clubs 2007 Regional Competition. It was a great day. Mike and I were able to be judges for one of the events. I got to help judge the Arts and Crafts and Mike judged in some the of the individual events.

Matthew did a GREAT job with his preaching. I was able to watch and was extremely impressed. Before he got going on his sermon, I snapped a picture. I didn't want to continue to take pictures through out because I didn't want to mess him up in any way.

Here is Hannah getting started on her story. Again, I didn't want to distract her by snapping lots of pictures, so I just took this one as she was getting started.

Here is Matthew just after he won 2nd place.

Here is Hannah just after she won 1st place.
And here are my winners!!!

I must stop here and give Rachel a HUGE thanks for taking care of Nathan today. Without her, Mike and I wouldn't have been able to help with the judging nor would we been able to sit and enjoy the awards ceremony. She completely took care of Nathan by playing with him all morning on the play ground. She fed him his lunch and then she sat home with him so that he could get a proper nap. Her some pictures that she took while they were playing:

Matthew's Patriotic Poster

2007-03-23T11:59:00.000-07:00

YIPPEE...We finally finished Matt's poster. Matthew is very proud of it. We put two blinking lights at the center of each fireworks. The three fireworks on the top are mounted on popsicle sticks that he painted blue. The flag is made from a piece of off-white material. We drew off the lines and Matthew colored it with fabric markers. The stars are simply wooden starts. We did some research about the actual flag that was flying when Francis Scott Key wrote the Star Spangled Banner and we learned that the flag had 15 stars and 15 stripes. So, we made sure the flag has 15 stars and 15 stripes. The scroll (we feel like we are such experts with scrolls after working on Rachel's science Project) is a piece of poster board. Matthew tea-stained it and I helped him burn the edges. The "writing" on the scroll is chocolate cake sprinkles. The cargo net is actual twine that he tided and fashioned like a cargo net from a boat. Although its hard to see from this angle, but there is an ink well next to the feather. We filled it with the same chocolate sprinkles and capped it off. The letters are just stickers (I love stickers....so much easier than stencils and cutting out letters.)

It's due Monday. We had to get it done because we won't have any time this weekend due to Master Clubs Regional Competition. Matthew will be preaching a message on 'OBEDIENCE'. He is taking the story of Joshua that he did last year and developed a sermon from the applications from that story. Hannah will be in the Story Telling competion. She is dressing up and telling the story of Hannah and Samuel. She is doing it all in first person. She got to be the story teller in my Master Clubs class this past Sunday. She did a GREAT job. She really seemed to enjoy telling the story to the 5 year olds.

We might be moving!!!

2007-03-18T05:54:00.000-07:00

A few months ago, we requested to move to a bigger house. At the time, there was nothing available. This past week, we were notified that we could move into this house. The college recently purchased it and fixed everything up in it. It looks like it has all new cabinets, carpets and linoleum (sp?). It has been freshly painted and a huge deck built off the back of the house. It also looks like they redid the front porch leading to the front door. Here is a picture of it from the street:

It use to belong to a family that ran a plant nursery in the back yard. The back yard is HUGE. There are lots of trees and plants. However, its been awhile since anything has been kept up in the yard, so there is a lot of work to be done with the landscaping. Here is a closer up view of the front of the house:
The house looks so much bigger than what is actually inside. The living room and kictchen are open to each other. In the next two pictures, I stood in the very same spot and just turned to take the pictures. The kitchen is beautiful. It has a huge island in the middle.
Here is a picture of the living room. It looks so much bigger in the picture than it actually is. IF we take this house, our "living room" will have to take up 1/2 of this space while our dining room table will have to go into the other 1/2 space.
Those are all the picture I took of the house. All the other rooms look like empty rooms so I didn't see the point in taking and posting those pictures. Anyway, the master bedroom is HUGE. IF we take this house, we will be able to fit our bed, dresser,computer, 2nd TV and 1 recliner in the master bedroom. The master bath has a double vanity, large tub and separate shower (oh, and a toilet of course!) The living room will have the piano, couch, 1 chair, table and hutch. Upstairs, there are two good size bedrooms. Rachel and Hannah's room will have their bed, dresser, desk and shelf. Matthew and Nathan's room will have their bed, dresser, desk and shelf. There are two additional closets upstairs (a coat closet and a linen closet). The bathroom is sorta small, but just fine for the kids.

We are still trying to decide if we should take this house or not. We have to give an answer on Monday (3/19).

The kids want to move. Mike and I sorta want to. My two reservations about moving is the small living room and storage space. Mike said we can solve our storage space by putting a shed in the back yard. Other than that, I am really up for the move. It would help us deep clean and purge some junk that we have. Because the "living" space is smaller, it will force us to be neater.

We will keep you posted as a decision is made.

It was in the paper!!!

2007-03-13T14:17:00.000-07:00

Check this out....Rachel's name is in the paper!!!

Click on the image to make it bigger!

Way to go Rachel!!!! WE ARE PROUD OF YOU!!!!

And the Winner is....

2007-03-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

RACHEL TABOR

1st place

The science fair was pretty exciting. There were a total of about 160 projects displayed. They were broken down into two divisions. Division I was 8th and 9th grade...Division II was 10th and 11th grade. Each division had categories. Here is Rachel standing by her board. She had it set up so that people could listen to the tones.

Here she is again. Mike and I walked around to look at all the other projects and each time we passed by hers, someone was there either talking to her, admiring her display or listening to the tones. At this particular time, it was Matthew and his friend who stopped by her display so that Matthew's friend could listen to the tone.

Once again, as we passed by, a different group was there.

Here she is with all the other winners from each category. They were trying to take a picture for the yearbook.

Here is close up of the award she won. I am still learning my camera so the picture didn't turn out as well at I would have like.

(if you click on the picture, it will make it bigger so that you can read her name on the award)

As one of the top winners, she gets to take an all day field trip to Birmingham, Alabama to a HUGE science museum.

Phew...that project is done and out of the way...now it's on to the next one...which is Matthew's patriotic poster. It seems we just finish one project and have to start another. Stay tuned as we work our way through the poster project.

Nathan's Tent

2007-02-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

Isn't this adorable! My friend send this set to Nathan and he LOVES it! Thanks Lynette for making Nathan's day. It came with a sleeping bag, backpack, waterbottle and compass. After I set it up for him, he spent nearly an hour playing in it. I think he may even spend the night in it tonight.

I had an interesting evening. I volunteered to be a driver for one of the Jr. High activities. It was a Signature Scavenger Hunt. We had a blast. We had 1 1/2 hours to try and gather about 35 signatures. We didn't win, but we had fun. I had Rachel and three of her friends in our truck. Here's a few of the types of signatures we were looking for all over town:

Someone who had been married 50 years.

Someone whose last name starts with "Z".

The manager of a fast food restaurant.

Someone who owns a green car.

Someone who lives in an orange house.

Someone with at least 10 letters intheir last name.

Someone wearing cowboy boots.

A Registered nurse.

A bus driver.

A taxi driver.

A police officer.

A fireman.

Someone who works at a gas station.

A cats paw print.

Someone who had fruit loops for breakfast

Someone who is a twin.

Someone who was born in another country.

Someone who has ever eaten a live worm.

Those are just a few of the things I remember. After getting a signature, we handed them a tract. We all HAD to meet back no later than 8:00. For every minute late, one signature would not be counted. We made sure we were back 10 minutes early. After we got back, they had a devotional and they announced the winners. Then they had a snack. I must say, I had just as much fun as they did. I was more impressed watching Rachel with her friends. She wasn't intimidated in approching people and asking them to sign our paper.

To the Science Fair!!!

2007-02-07T15:16:00.000-08:00

Rachel's Science project was chosen to go to the Science Fair. She got a 98% on her board and presentation. Some of the teacher's comments were:

"Good work on your board"

"Good job"

"Great"

"Very prepared"

"Seemed comfortable in front of the class"

"Good mention of Biblical reference at beginning"

"Good explanation of the ear"

"Good explanation of problem"

"Good Procedures"

This is the outfit she wore when she did her presentation. We call it her "Great Grandmother Outfit" because the skirt and shoes belonged to Mike's grandmother and the sweater and shirt belonged to my grandmother.

Science Presentation is OVER!

2007-02-02T18:49:00.000-08:00

From the reports of Rachel and her friends, her presentation was a success. Her presentation was supposed to be between 4-6 minutes. Her official time was 4 min. 30 secs!!! Each time she practiced it at home, it was between 6-7 minutes. After she was done, one friend told her she thought that this project was a winning project. Another friend told Rachel that when she first heard about the project, she didn't think it sounded interesting, but after the presentation, she said it was VERY interesting. After she was done, the teacher asked questions (as he does with each person) and she was able to answer all his questions. We will probably find out on Monday what her grade is and if she makes the Science Fair.

Now with this project over, we get to begin the next one. Matthew has a patriotic poster due sometime in the near future. It hasn't been officially assign to him yet, but at the last PTM, his teacher mentioned it.

Science Project

2007-01-30T21:52:00.000-08:00

Rachel and I are jumping for joy....We just finished putting the science board together. We pour many of hours into this project. We tested 100 people. Thank you to all those who helped us out by being one of those 100. We made a huge journal and a few graphs. Then we had to actually construct the board. The board was white so we "tea stained" it to give it an antique look. We printed all of her reports on paper with a scroll background. We burned all the edges of each report and then mounted them on black construction paper. Her presentation is this Friday. All we have left to do is put together the notebook of all the stuff we did and then practice her presentation. We can hardly wait for it all to be done!

For a closer look at the project, click on the picture to make it bigger.

Happy 14th Birthday, Rachel!!!

2007-01-29T18:58:00.000-08:00

Today is Rachel's birthday. She had a pretty good day. I let her wear the new dress that we bought and set aside for Easter. She looked so pretty this morning as she went to school. We were running short on time so I didn't get a picture of her. I made one of her favorite meals for dinner. Since this weekend so a busy one for each of us, we decided to wait and celebrate her birthday next weekend.

Rachel is just about done with her Science Project. She does her presentation on Friday. We worked most of Saturday setting up to board and getting everything just right. All she has left to do is finish mounting some things on the board and then practice her presentation.

Welcome Ginger!

2007-01-11T13:47:00.000-08:00

On Saturday while Rachel, Hannah and I were out and about getting people to test their hearing, we visited a room of a Graduate Student who had a mouse. Since this student will be graduating in May, she is looking for a home for her mouse, Ginger. Hannah fell in love with Ginger the moment we walked into their room. While Rachel and I tested the girls in that room, Hannah played with the mouse. The student told us that we could have it in May. Hannah could hardly wait until May. Well, the next day, the girl's roomate saw me at work and told me that Hannah could have the mouse whenever she wants it! So that afternoon, we picked the mouse up and Hannah couldn't be happier!

100 people tested!!!

2007-01-06T20:57:00.000-08:00

Yahoo!!! Rachel and I tested the 100th person for her Science project today! PHEW!!!
I had talked with the ladies I work with and asked them for convenient times to go to their homes today. From 9am until 5pm, Rachel and I drive from house to house testing people. By 5:00, we tested the 99th person. Mike was our 100th person to test.

Now we just have to put all the information that we have gathered into graphs and build her science board. Her Oral Presentation on Feb. 2!

Here is a picture that she posed for that we are going to put on her Science Board.

So far, she has 119 journal entries, she has put in 2,657 minutes, and has tested 100 people!!!

Nathan

2007-01-06T05:38:00.000-08:00

Nathan woke me up this morning and he was still hugging this bear he found last night It's a bear that I think Hannah had gotten for a birthday a few years ago and Nathan has just discovered it and seems to have become attached to it.

I had a few things to do to before getting my day started so I set him in my chair to watch tv and eat a pop tart...isn't he sooo cute?!

Happy Birthday to ME!!!

2007-01-05T21:40:00.000-08:00

Mike gave me a new camera for my birthday! I have been playing with it for the last few days and thought I should now figure out how to post pictures on my blog! Here is my first posted picture using my new camera.

Nathan was just so adorable after he fell asleep tonight that I couldn't resist getting a picture of him.

More Program Pictures

2006-12-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

Christmas Program

2006-12-20T20:34:00.000-08:00

The program is over and it was sooooo good! I had some friends take pictures for me since my camera isn't working. I took some pictures with a disposable camera. I took the camera to Wal-Mart right after the program to have the pictures put on a disk so that I can put them on the blog tomorrow.

Here are a few pictures my friends took for me:

Here is Hannah on stage as one of the weary travelers.
Mary and Joseph visit one of the Inns and are told there is "No room!"
Because there was no room, Mary and Joseph have to go to a stable. Here is Joseph handing Mary the newborn baby.
Mary holds the baby while Joseph stands there.
A few years later, the wisemen visit Jesus when He is a very young boy. The wisemen bow and worship our King!

No more Practices...tomorrow is the big night!

2006-12-19T20:01:00.000-08:00

Tonight was the last practice! Everyone did a great job. Many small details were worked out.

Nathan did a supurb job. When he saw certain props brought on to the stage, he knew his turn was coming! He got very intent and wanted to stand up. I had to really just hold on to him to keep him from going on the stage. As soon as it was his turn, he marched right up onto the stage and stood on his spot. When it was time for everyone to exit, he turned and went their direction instead of heading back to me. Later, I told Matthew to watch and make sure that Nathan is turned in my direction and make sure he exits my direction before he goes off with the other kids.

It doesn't look like Rachel will be able to perform in the choir. She has a sore throat and can barely talk. She doesn't feel all that well. She will probably end up just sitting with us rather than participating in the program.

Christmas Program Practice

2006-12-18T19:56:00.000-08:00

Tonight's practice went very well. It was a dress rehearsal and all the kids looked great. Hannah did a great job as one of the travelers. Matthew as Joseph did a great job. He looked so grown up. He LOVES being Joseph. He said that some of the kids have made fun of him, but he really doesn't care. We don't see Rachel, we just hear her in the choir. The choir sounds so neat coming from the balcony.

Nathan gets to play the part of Little Boy Jesus. We were so sure that the other child would do the part. We sat with the other child while we waited for his time to go on stage. He was so excited and was determined to make his mommy and daddy proud of him. His turn came and he refused to go on stage. So we tried Nathan out. NO PROBLEM...he went right on the stage. He passed up his mark to stand next to Mary and immediately stood next to Joseph. Matthew had to prod him to go to the right spot. The the director got down on Nathan's level and talked to him and showed him where to stand and told him to let Mary put her arm around him. We tried the scene again and Nathan marched right to the mark, stopped, turned and let Mary put her arm around him. It was flawless. I felt soooooo bad for the other boy. I just knew the other boy would do a good job. When Nathan returned to his seat, the little boy said, "Good job, Nathan". Then Nathan said, "OK, it's Davey's turn." But Davey declined! So, Nathan gets to have a part in the program along with the other kids.

One more night of practice until the big night. It's going to be an awsome program. Our director is doing such a great job! The gospel will be clearly given. We are praying that lost people will come to our traditional Christmas program. Every year it just seems to get better.

Yipppeeee!

2006-12-16T22:22:00.000-08:00

Rachel and I are so very excited because she tested her 50th person today!!!

We are earnestly working on her science project. In order to test her theory that at about age 21, we loose the ability to hear 18 kilohertz, she has to test about 100 people. It's been very interesting getting people to test for it.

One Saturday, we went to a college student's room (Don't worry, we know this student very well and she let us come) and in a period of about 3 hours, we tested 10 college students.

We have had to get creative in finding people....For two weeks in a row, while Mike bowled on his league, we asked the Sports Center Supervisor if we could use a room to test people. We were so greatful to this supervior. He opened up a room for us and were were able to test about another 10-15 people over those two weeks.

Early yesterday evening, Rachel and I walked around the Commons over at the college and talked to students. We recruited 4 that were willing to come to our home to be tested. Mike called a few of his student workers and 2 of those guys came over.

Today, Rachel and I made a few phone calls to kids in our neighborhood. We basically set up appointments for different times all afternoon. We were buzzing all afternoon. We tested about 15 people just today.

We are so excited...We set a goal to test 50 people before we leave on Christmas Vacation. Well, today, we tested our 50th person!!!! Yahooo....Yippee.... We even got all the information for all her data entered into the computer! Just in case anyone's interested -- So far, we have 65 journal entries; We have worked on this for 1,975 minutes and we just completed testing the 50th person.

Watch out friends and family....we are bringing the test with us on vacation so that we can test our family members who live in Louisian.

Well, I better clost. I am getting very sleeping.

Christmas Program

2006-12-16T10:47:00.000-08:00

The church's Christmas Program is this Wednesday night. We had our first practice this morning and will practice also on Monday and Tuesday evening. I am always amazed at how well the program goes for just having three main practices. All the kids were cast for their parts and have been practicing for about a week in their own small groups. Today is the first time we start to actually put it all together.

Rachel is singing in the Teen Choir. They sound so good. They sing from the balcony which makes for a neat effect during the program. Rachel is also playing one piano piece in the prelude. She has been working on her song since last February or March.

Matthew is Joseph!!!! He was so excited. He doesn't have any lines but is on stage just about the entire time. He wanted a speaking part, but is completely satisfied being Joseph. He never in his wildest dream think they would cast him as Joseph. He though he would be either a shepherd or a traveler.

Hannah is a weary traveler. She walks in with other "travelers". She is one of the last of the travelers and the Inn that she gets to has no room and she has to stand outside for a little while. She gets to stand on stage as Matthew comes on stage.

Nathan is the backup Jesus boy. The little boy they were trying to used during practice today did not want to be on stage at all. I suggested that maybe we use Nathan because Nathan might be more apt to stand there next to Matthew. The director and others liked the idea and we will try Nathan out on Monday night.

The practice seemed to go very well. It's always fun to watch all the practices and then see it all come together on Wednesday night.

Merry Christmas!!!!

2006-12-15T14:15:00.000-08:00

Nathan's teacher took this picture of Nathan. I thought I would share it.

Fat Lips

2006-12-08T17:49:00.000-08:00

Not only has it been a busy week, but Rachel and I have had some sort of weird illness.

Rachel started complaining of chapped lips on Monday. By Tuesday morning, her lips were very swollen. I bought her some stuff called "Bert's Bees" at the reccomendation of a coworker. It sure did the trick for her. By the next day, the swelling was all gone and she was able to smile again.

Yesterday at lunch time, my lips felt a little chapped. The stuff I bought Rachel came in two tubes so I had the extra tube in my purse. After lunch, I started applying it to my lips. By last night, my lips were swollen like Rachel's had been. This morning, they were about double in size. They feel as though I have had a shot of novacaine and they are just as big as they feel. I took a Benadryl and slept pretty much the whole day. By the time Mike brought the kids home after school, he took one look at me and said that he was going to take me to the doctor. My lips had gotten even bigger!

I suspect that it's more of an allergic reaction to the "Bert's Bee's" lip balm. They are made from bee's wax. Since I am allergice to stinging insects, I wonder if there is something in the wax that has given me an allergic reaction. The doctor wasn't sure if it's an allergic reaction or not, but he is treating it as such. He gave me a prescription of Pregnazone and I am to continue to take the Benadryl. Benadryl makes me very sleepy so it looks as though I will be sleeping the weekend away.

I wish my camera worked so that I could post a picture of my fat lips. It's is quite a site.

A Great Thanksgiving

2006-11-25T17:16:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We slept in for as long as Nathan allowed us. We put the tree up mid-morning. For lunch, we had our sandwich feast. The kids LOVED! After dessert, we put Nathan down for a nap while we played board games. Our day ended by going to the Alumni Reception on Campus. We go every year and the only people we see that we know are those we work with all year round. This year, I did see someone that I knew from our college years. It was fun to catch up!

The science project is well on it's way. Rachel has officially tested 7 people. It's going to go pretty good now that we figured out how to test properly. Rachel was very afraid that she might hurt someone's ears that she had the volume waaaaaaaay down. It was taking between 30 seconds to a whole minute to hear each sound. That's not all that bad, but multiply that by 12 different tones and then double that because we have to test each ear...THEN multiply that by 3 because we have to test each person 3 times. It was looking like it would take about 1 1/2 hours to test each person. We re-calibrated the volume and now it is only taking about 30 minutes to test each person. The last few that we tested, the time went by quickly.

Christmas Fever is upon us. Matthew really wanted to put lights outside. I don't mind putting them up, but I hate taking them down. So, I told him, if he wanted lights outside, then he has to do it. He readily agreed. Mike, Rachel, Matt and Matt's friend Ben all worked outside this afternoon to put the light out. Ben and Rachel wrapped the one lone tree in our front yard, while Mike and Matt put the lights in the bushes. I must say, they did a good job.

Family Update

2006-11-18T06:11:00.000-08:00

Since coming back home from the funeral, we have been very busy. We were able to get the kids homework while we were gone which was a big help to keep them up-to-date with their school work.

Rachel is well on her way to do her science project. We heard that there is a kilohertz that adults can not hear...so she is testing people from ages 10-21 and find out if she can determine that age. In order to do so, we had to buy a decent pair of headphones and an AUDIO CD with all the kilohertz tones on it. The CD arrived this week and we had fun testing our own hearing.

Matthew doesn't really have any school projects due anytime soon, but he has been working on quite a few of his Badges for Masters Club. Our goal is to get all he can done before Christmas so that he can really concentrate after Christmas on his verses and whatever he choses to do for Regionals.

Hannah just finished her Animal Notebook and it turned out GREAT!!! It's actually due at the end of the month but we worked hard to just get it done. I hate dragging out projects. By getting the Animal Notebook done, it will give us more time to put into Rachel's Science Project. It also cleans up my dining room table so that we can eat together as a family again.

Nathan is doing well in his class at school. He knows his letters and sound up to letter G. He knows all his colors, numbers, and shapes. He even knows a few Bible verses.

I had a real scare yesteday with Nathan. I was rushing too fast to get him into nursery. I was trying to save time so I decided it would be quicker to just carry him in. As I was walking too fast, my foot caught the edge of the sidewalk and we both fell forward! I was really worried I hurt Nathan. I watched as his head actually "bounced" on the sidewalk. He cried immediately, but within a few minutes, he had stopped crying. I sat on the ground with him for a few minutes just to make sure he was ok. I was pretty shaken up so thought it would be best to go back home, settle down and make sure Nathan was alright. I called Mike and he met us at home to look us both over. As soon as we got home Nathan said, "I need to go potty!"...then he said, "I want to play with cars." He seemed just fine, I, on the other hand, was really shaken up. I sat and watched him play for about an hour and then decided that we were both ok and could continue our day. I took him to nursery and they said he did fine all day! I went to work, but I had troubles concentrating. I am much better today. I am a little sore from the fall. My right foot feels bruised.

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving. We like to put up the Christmas Tree and decorate. We are going to have a very untraditional meal. We are making yummy sandwhiches! I am going to put together a platter of all sorts of different types of lunch meat and cheeses. We bought the good kind of bread from the bakery and everyone will make their own sub sandwich! For a side dish, we are having our family's tradional "4 C's Potatos". For dessert, we are having a chocolate cream pie.

Well, that's about it in our lives right now...until next post...

The Funeral

2006-10-28T19:39:00.000-07:00

The funeral was absolutely beautiful. It was held at the church. The pastor she had when they lived in Texas came. He shared the message he preached the night Maw Maw got saved in his church. Then they played a tape of Mike's mom singing a special song just for Maw Maw. Then the four oldest grandchildren got up together and stood behind the pulpit and each shared from their heart what Maw Maw meant to them. By this time, there were plenty of tear and some laughter. I know this was hard for each of them, but they did a great job. Then a lady from the church sang before the Pastor preached. From the beginning of the service to the very end, the gospel was clearly given several times. If there was anyone there not saved, they have no excuse.

The hardest part was the closing of the casket. Paw Paw stood for such a long time holding her hands and crying. The whole family gathered around and held each other up as Paw Paw said he goodbye. I didn't actually see them close the casket, but I know this was hard for the family.

She was then placed into the car and we all proceded to the cemetery. There was a nice pavillion where they placed the casket. Her pastor for Texas read an encouraging scripture, her pastor from Louisiana lead in prayer and then a lady from the church sang a hymn. There was lots of hugs. Many took a rose from the top of the casket as a keepsake. They then placed her back into the car and drove her to the gravesite. A few of us joined her at the grave, Mike's brother lead us in antoher prayer and then we all sang Amazing Grace. It was really difficult to turn and walk away from the grave.

I recently learn more detail about the events that lead up to her death. On Saturday, she asked Mike's mom to fix her hair just in case she felt up to going to church. Sunday morning, she wasn't feeling well, and wasn't able to go to church as she had hoped. After everyone got home from church, she was feeling much better. She even ate dinner unlike she had eaten in a long time. She was in a great mood and like her old self. Later that night, she said that she could no longer talk. Then she had the stroke and did not know anyone. They took her to the hospital where she lay unresponsive. Paw Paw had not had much sleep so his brother (Uncle Joe) talked him into going home for a rest. Uncle Joe and his wife sat in the room while Paw Paw went home. Uncle Joe said that she opened her eyes, smiled and took her last breath. He said it was so peaceful. I am sorry that Paw Paw wasn't in the room, but glad that Uncle Joe was there to witness Maw Maw's homegoing.

It's been an emotional week for the entire family. Please pray for Paw Paw now. After the funeral, we all headed back to the church for something to eat. The entire family was all around. But I sat back and watch as each family group, one by one, had to leave to get back to their lives. Eech told Paw Paw good bye and then gather their crew and headed out the door. The group got smaller and smaller and smaller until it was our turn to leave as well. I know that the days to follow are are going to be rough for Paw Paw.

We are heading back to Pensacola tomorrow (Sunday). Pray for our safety on the road. By Monday, we will be getting our lives back on normal track. We must move on as Maw Maw would want us to.

The Viewing

2006-10-27T15:19:00.000-07:00

We went to Mike's grandmother's viewing today. I must say, it was sooooo neat. Yes, there were some tears, but for the most part, it was more like a huge family reunion. There was much laghter and rejoicing.

Those of you who know me, know that I don't want ANYTHING to do with funeral homes, death and dead bodies. I have always been very creeped out about this sort of thing. Rachel seems to have that same tendency as I have. Well, I was very proud of our whole family today...

We arrived and found some of the family in a room. Mike's mom, dad, grandfather, sister and a few cousins were already in the State Room. Mike chose to go in alone while I watch the kids. When he returned, he wanted me to go too. I surprised myself...I actually wanted to go. It was so beautiful. There was soft music playing, a video playing, the picture board that I helped make were around the casket. All the flowers were just beautiful. His grandmother looks absolutely wonderful. She looked so at peace. It looked as though she was just sleeping. After that initial time in the State Room, we returned and I shared with the kids what it was like. Matthew and Hannah decided they wanted to go in. Rachel chose to remain outside the room. Matthew and Hannah did a super job and even returned several times through out the day to look around at the pictures. Rachel finally decided that she only wanted to go in as far as the video. She saw Maw Maw from across the room and that was close enought for her. I give her credit because if it were me at that age...I would not have gone that far at all. We stayed for most of the day and I got to meet many family members that I have never met before. We met Maw Maw's little sister. We were all amazed at how much she resembles Maw Maw. She even sounds like her. Then we got to meet her little brother. The only picture I have seen of him is a picture of when he was about 20 years old and he was very handsome. He is 75 years old now and he is still just as handsome. I really felt honored to meet those people who were so close to Maw Maw. The outpouring of love was evident.

The other night, there were some high emotional tension between two of the family members, but today, they were just fine with each other. I heard they talked it out and are ok with each other. I am so thankful because what we witnessed the other night was not good. It was so bad that we excused ourselves from the house and got away. We did not feel our children (nor ourselves) needed to be apart of the emotional tension.

The funeral is tomorrow. Mike, along with three of his cousins, have letters they are reading as part of the Eulogy. Then Mike will also be one of the ones who carry the casket. Although today the emotions were good, I fear that tomorrow will be bad. It's not going to be easy when we get to the grave site and have to put her in the ground.

Please pray for the family at this time. It is a difficult time. The fact of knowing she is at the feet of Jesus in Heaven makes it so much easier. She has suffered a lifetime with Asthma and now for the first time she has no more struggles.

Mike's Grandmother

2006-10-24T20:12:00.000-07:00

Mike's grandmother past away this afternoon. Please pray for the family. The family is a very close family and Maw Maw Merle will be greatly missed. However, on a happier note, she is saved therefore she is in Heaven. Please also pray for our family as we travel to attend the funeral.

Happy 11th Birtday Matthew!!!

2006-10-23T14:12:00.000-07:00

Matthew has had a good birthday. Earlier this month we celebrated Hannah and Nathan's birthday too by taking the family camping. We had a great time. We gave them their gifts, ate cupcakes and lots of junk food. We played board games and enjoyed the camp. Yesterday we gave him a new watch. Grandma and Grandpa sent him money and he is itching to go to to Toys r us to spend it.

Sorry no pictures. My camera needs to be replaced. I am hoping I get a new one for Christmas.

Mike will get to see the Saints Play

2006-10-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

One of the guys that Mike works with was able to get free tickets to see the Saints play tomorrow! Watch for him on TV....their seats are on the 40 yard line on the Tampa Bay side about 9 rows up. Needless to say, he is very excited!

Matthew's Mammal Post Update!

2006-10-04T19:35:00.000-07:00

The kids in Matt's class got to take home their posters today except for a few to display in the classroom. Matthew's was one chosen to remain on display. The first PTM meeting is this Monday night and I can't wait to see it hanging with the others.

Matthew's Mammal Poster

2006-10-01T14:27:00.000-07:00

This is Matthew's Mammal Poster for science class.

Mother/Daughter Picture

2006-09-21T17:20:00.000-07:00

This the picture that they took of us at the Mother/Daughter Brunch.

Hannah's Baptism

2006-09-20T19:03:00.000-07:00

Hannah was baptized tonight. She was going to do it last month, but since she didn't know the man doing the baptizing, we chose not to do it at that time. She was really disappointed that we didn't let her do it then. We entertained the thought of letting her get baptized at Mike's home church in Lake Charles, but Hannah was really set on getting it done here. Tonight was another opportunity so we left the decision up to her. She is able to tell us clearly that she is saved and that the reason for getting baptized is to show everyone that she is saved.

Happy 9th Birthday, Hannah!!!

2006-09-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was Hannah's 9th birthday.

We are going to celebrate Nathan's, Hannah's and Matt's birthday in October by taking everyone to Camp o' the Pines.

On Thursday night, I took Hannah shopping with Grandma and Grandpa's birthday money and found a cute dress for her to wear to school of Friday. We bought her a watch that has a traditional face on it with numbers to help her learn how to tell time. Rachel and Matthew gave her a coloring book but sent her on a scavenger hunt around the house to find it. Some friends of ours teased her about getting her a pony for her birthday so they got her some books about horses.

She was REALLY looking forward to going to school on Friday because she learned that she and her teacher share the same birthday. Hannah had treats to take, a new dress to wear and a new watch to show off. At 10am, I received a call from the school nurse that Hannah wasn't feeling well. By the time I picked her up, she was crying so hard because her tummy hurt. I brought her home. After she ate lunch she fell asleep and didn't wake up until about 2:30 and she then felt fine. Needless to say, she didn't get to share her treats with her class so she is going to take them again on Monday.

Happy Birthday Nathan

2006-08-26T09:02:00.000-07:00

Today is Nathan's 3rd Birthday!!!!

Yesterday, his teacher sent home a present for him to open. It was a puzzle and he immediately sat down to play with it.

We plan to actually celebrate his birthday in a few weeks. Today is Mike's Fantasy Football Draft so for part of the "refreshments", Rachel baked a birthday cake. She hasn't decorated it yet, but when she does, I will take a picture of it.

Nathan seems to be doing well in his new 3 year old class. He even wore a "good" note home on Friday. I think you can see the note on his shirt in the picture I just posted.

2006-08-21T16:17:00.000-07:00

First Day of School Pictures

Here's all 4 kids. Nathan wasn't too thrilled to stand still and participate in the photo.

Here is Hannah, Rachel and Matt.

I was trying to get a nice picture of Nathan. Just as I was going to snap the picture, he swatted at a bug. It looks like he waving.

Summer is Over

2006-08-21T15:54:00.000-07:00

Summer is over and school has begun.

Matt and Hannah learned to dive off the diving board while at Sports Center Day Camp. I had to see it for myself, so one day last week, I took them to the pool so they could show off their new skill.

The lifeguard on duty, showed Matt how to do a "knee dive".

Then the life guard on duty encouraged Hannah to jump off the HIGH DIVE and she did it!!! Hannah concluded that she did not like it at all.

Well, Matthew wouldn't be outdone by his little sister so he jump off the high dive too. He love it so much he did it a total of 3 times.

Rachel is home from camp!!!

2006-08-07T13:27:00.000-07:00

Rachel got home Saturday afternoon at 4:45. She had such a great time that she is already planning on going back next year. She got to go on a horse ride out to have breakfast. This was her first time to ever ride a horse and she LOVED it. She said the breakfast was really good. Everything was cooked on an open grill. They had steak, hashbrowns, eggs and toast. She got to play on a few sports teams and also sang in one of the choirs.

She got stung by a sweat bee and got attacked by a wood tick. That would be enough for me to not want to go back, but not Rachel.

It is soooo good to have her home again. We all missed her. She said that she stayed so busy that she didn't miss us. sniff...sniff...Well, I guess I would rather know she is having a good time and not sitting in some corning crying for us. From all the things she told me, I believe we got our money's worth.

Rachel Left for Camp!!!

2006-07-30T19:58:00.000-07:00

We got Rachel all packed up for camp yesterday. I had to have her at the meeting place by 7:00 this morning so that the group could pull out by 7:30. I had nightmares last night about getting her to the bus before it left. She was so excited about going, that she woke me up at 6:20. I got up, got dressed and helped her finalize packing all her stuff. I had her at the bus right at 7:00. Her suitcase got loaded and then she and the rest of her stuff boarded the bus. I spotted where she was and stood with all the other sad mommies until the bus pulled away at 7:33. OH, It was soooo rough watching that bus drive away. I tried to hold back my tears, but it was no use. I cried all the way back home. I was glad that Mike was up when I got home so that he could console me. The kids missed her immediately. They were somewhat upset that she left before they were out of bed. We told them last night that she was leaving early and to say the goodbyes before bed time. They did say their goodbyes, but I don't think that it really sank in that she was really gone until they got up and she WAS gone. Nathan is really funny. We ask him, "Nathan, where's Rachel?" and he says, "She's gone! she's gone to camp!" He is completely fine with it. It's funny that he understands that she is not in the house but she's at "camp". There is an information line that our Youth Group has that we can call and we get updated information on what is going on. I called the line this evening and found out that they arrived close to 4:00. They had their dinner and were heading to their first church service.

Nathan had a GREAT day at school today

2006-07-24T20:51:00.000-07:00

I am so excited that Nathan had a great day at school today. As soon as I arrived to pick him up, his teacher told me Nathan did SOOOO much better today. He sang songs, he was alert and joined in with the class.

PHEWWW..Maybe he will prove himself so that he can move on to the 3 year old class. This moring, Rachel and Hannah helped me work with him. I had him several times practice standing at his table and turning his chair. I had all three of them line up and they followed me through the house. We did it once as Nathan leading the line and once with Nathan as last in line. Rachel walked way too fast for him to keep up, but when the "line" stopped and he caught up and he lined himself up at the end of the line.

Home from Camp!!!

2006-07-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Matt and Hannah are home from camp. They had a blast!!!

Matt had a great time but he did have one day of "trouble". Some other kids irritated Matt to the point where he "tackled" them. The Camp Director called Mike and let Mike talk to Matt about it. Then they moved Matt to an older kids group for the day and they told him if it happens again, they will have to send him home. I believe that Matt was very cured of his actions. He tried to appologize to the kids he tackled but they would never accept his appology. I even had Matthew go and appologize to the Camp Director. Other than that day, he had a great time.

This was Hannah's first year. She loved it and is looking to go back next year. She had a few times of getting dehydrated. She said that the nurse made her drink a whole bottle of water and it made her tummy hurt. She loved the waterslides and made lots of new friends.

My parents came through on one of their trips and were able to stay and go with us to visit the kids at camp on Wednesday night. I knew my parents were coming, but wasn't sure if they would be able to stay and go with us, so I didn't mention it to Matt and Hannah. Boy, were they ever surprised to see Grandma and Grandpa at camp!

When we picked Mat and Hannah up on Friday night, they were full of all kinds of stories. BOTH of them jabbered all the way home of all the fun they had. It is good to get them back home and our family back together again.

Now we start getting Rachel ready to leave next week for the Bill Rice Ranch in Tennessee. Since she didn't try out for any of the music stuff and doesn't want to play sports, she and her friend got to together and made signs to cheer on our church's sports teams. She will leave EARLY Sunday morning on July 30th and will return August 5th.

Once Rachel returns from her week of camp, we will begin getting ready for the next school year. I just can't believe that this summer is almost over. This has got to be the shortest summer ever.

Rachel will be in 8th grade, Matthew will be in 5th grade and Hannah will be in 3rd grade. Nathan will be 3 next month, but he will probably stay in the 2 year old class. At home, he gives us every indication that he is ready to move into the 3 year old class, but as school, he acts differently. The Nursery Director said that he doesn't talk, sing and he always seems to be in a daze. I am puzzled about it and can't figure out why he would act so different at school from the way he acts at home. I spoke to his teacher who also told me that Nathan doesn't talk at all. While she was telling he doesn't talk, he was yapping at me and trying to show me stuff and tell me "stories". His teacher said that he doesn't do this at school at all and they will work with him more to get him to open up.

Matt and Hannah are at Camp

2006-07-16T21:36:00.001-07:00

I took drove Matt and Hannah to Camp this afternoon. I could just kick myself because I forgot the camera. GRRRR!!! I guess my mind was occupied with so many details that I just plain forgot. Mike wasn't able to go because he had a meeting to go to at 4:30 and we didn't think we would be back in time for him to make the meeting. I pack most of Matt and Hannah's stuff yesterday and finished it just after church this morning. This meant getting all the kid laundry caught up. Just when I though we had everything, I was missing some of Hannah's socks. This sent us on a sock hunt through the house to find her missing pairs. She has a habit of just taking them off and not getting them to the the laundry basket. After locating the socks, we had to do another load of white laundry so that she would have enough at camp. Rachel and I got up early this morning and handmade cards for each of them to open each day. We hid the cards in the midst of their clothes in such a way that they should get a new card each day. Like I said, after church, I finished packing their stuff. I made each one take an extra good shower (who knows when they will get the next good shower...probably next Friday night when they get home). I really don't like driving to camp, but because Mike couldn't go...I HAD to. It wasn't bad at all. We took Mike's new truck which drove GREAT! I love his new truck. I got them checked in and to their cabins. I met each of their leaders. Hannah was so excited. She just couldn't believe that she was finally old enough to go to camp. It seems for years, we take Rachel and Matt and she has to come home with us. Well, NOW, she gets to stay. As excited as she was to stay, she expressed how much she was going to miss us. In fact, before we left home, she brought me a note that said, "Dear Mom your the Best Mom I ever had I love you and I miss you SO MUCH" On the note, she traced her hand and placed candy in the note. It really touched me that she put candy in it because she saved some candy that we bought for her while we were on vacation. This was her way of giving a "gift" to us. She gave similar notes to Mike and Rachel. Matt was just as excited if not more excited to go. He LOVES camp. He has been counting the days down all summer. There are 5 weeks of camp and we signed them up for week #5. He was very disappointed when he realized that the week of 4th of July, there was no camp. So, that week didn't count as a week number, but Matthew thought it did and he thought he was going the week after the 4th because in his mind that would be week #5, when in reality, that was week #4. He was devistated to learn that he had to wait an entire week more to go. We was chomping at the bit to get started that he couldn't wait for me to say goodbye. He gave me a huge hug and he told me he loved me and then he literally disappeared. Rachel already misses them. On the way home, she asked me how Hannah handled it all those years when we would drop everyone off and then come home by herself with us. So, I know she already misses them. We will be going to visit them on Wednesday night and I will take my camera to I can take pictures of them.

Matt and Hannah are at Camp

2006-07-16T21:36:00.000-07:00

Getting Ready for Camp!!

2006-07-15T10:58:00.000-07:00

Matthew and Hannah get to go to Camp this next week. We are in the midst of packing their stuff. This is Hannah's first time to go and she is really excited. Both Matt and Hannah have been looking forward to going all summer.

Rachel is preparing to go to the Bill Rice Ranch in Tennessee on the 30th. I still cringe at the thought of her being so far from home. She and her friend Stephanie have been planning all the fun thing they are going have. We just learned that the only time they can wear coulottes is during sporting events or hiking. This is not a problem for her, but all her clothes are too small. She only has about 2 skirts that she can wear. So this afternoon, we went to the GoodWill store to see what they have to offer. She found 4 skirts (2 of them are jean skirts and the other 2 are Khaki). So, she is all set to go.

Mission Prayer Band

2006-07-03T17:30:00.000-07:00

One of the students that works for Mike heads up the Mission Prayer Band. He asked Mike to be tonight's speaker. The girl who plays the piano for the music also works with Hannah's group at Sports Center Day Camp. When she learned that Hannah's daddy was going to be speaking, she asked Hannah to sing a song.

Here is Hannah singing her solo. Sorry for the dark picture, my camera is acting up.

Here is Mike at the beginning of his message.

I was very proud of both of them.

All Better

2006-06-28T04:55:00.000-07:00

I am so amazed at how well my burns have healed!!! I royally burned them Sunday afternoon and here it is Wednesday morning and you can barely see any marks on my hand at all. I firmly believe that the quick action of immediately placing my hand in ice water and leaving it there for such a long period of time was the best thing to do. I also put several applications of a generic first aid antibiotic cream which helped as well. But the main thing is getting my hand into the icewater.

Of course, the better thing to have done would have been to not touched the hot cookie sheet in the first place.

Ouch!!

2006-06-26T13:25:00.000-07:00

I burned my fingers pretty good yesterday! I took a cookie sheet out of the oven and temporarily set it on a pot of spaghetti sauce. I had just made spaghetti noodles and decided that I needed to "test" the sauce. Without thinking...I grabbed the cookie sheet. I quickly realized it and dropped it! I immediately put my hand under running water and called for Mike's help. He helped me get a bowl of ice water and got me to the couch to sit down. Then he had to finish making dinner for me. I had a terrible time eating my dinner because my hand hurt sooooo bad. I literally sat all day on the couch with my hand in the bowl of ice water. I couldn't even go back to church at night because I felt I would look real silly carrying my bowel of ice water. I couldn't even go to bed because everytime I took my hand out of the water, my fingers would hurt. Finally around midnight, the pain eased up to where I was able to go to sleep. When I woke up this morning, all the pain was gone. You can see very visible blisters on the pads of three of my fingers, but because of where they are burned, I can still type without any pain. I wore band-aids to work today just to protect my fingers. My work wasn't hindered at all.

I asked the kids if they learned anything from my experience (I was thinking as far as first-aid goes) and Matthew said, "Yes, don't touch a hot cookie sheet". Just where does he get his sarcastic streak?!!!

New Truck

2006-06-24T16:30:00.000-07:00

We traded in Mike's old Chevey S-10 for a 2000 Chevey Silverado. We bought the old truck before Nathan was born and back then, we all fit in it. Now Rachel is getting bigger, she just doesn't fit in those tiny seats in the back of the S-10. This newer truck has bench seats across the front and back and all 6 of us fit comfortably. We got a great deal on it and it only raised our monthly payment $2.00. It has 64,000 miles on it. Mike mostly uses his truck to go back and forth to work when he can't ride his bike. So he shouldn't put many miles on it. White wasn't my first pick of a color, but for the price and the deal we got, I can live with the white.

Taborism

2006-06-17T18:32:00.000-07:00

Here's a cute thing that happened between Rachel and Nathan this morning...

For breakfast, Rachel offered to make some toast for Nathan. Nathan agreed that he wanted her to make the toast for her. She left for the kitchen to put the bread into the toaster and Nathan headed to a chair to watch tv. Rachel returned and asked Nathan if he wanted jelly on his toast. He gave her a puzzled look and said, "No, Rachel, I don't want jelly on my toes!"

Vacation is Over

2006-06-16T19:48:00.000-07:00

Ok, Ok, Ok, I just know everyone is sitting on the edge of your seat just waiting for my next post.

We had a wonderful vacation. We stayed home the first few days and then went to Louisiana to visit family. We stayed with Mike's family. We treasure each moment we spend with his grandmother as we just don't know how much longer we have with her. Her health is failing and failing fast. Honestly, Christmas 2 years ago, I really felt that was going to be the last time I would see her. However, she is a trooper and bounces back after each sickness.

Nathan and I got to visit a whole day with my family while Mike and the kids went to a Water Park (By the way, they all got burned!! I gave them sunscreen to put on. Mike asked Matthew to help him, and well, Mike got the most interesting burn. You can almost make out a small handprint on his back. They were going to go to the Water Park the day before and spend the day with me at my family, but due to thunder and lightning, the park had to close. So, the plans had to changed. We got to see Jim, Ramona and Elizabeth. Mom cooked her traditional spaghetti dinner. YUM YUM! I got to see Diane for a brief moment. After our long weekend in Louisiana we headed back home for three days.

I had to work three days because a few years ago, I was awarded my 2nd week vacation a year too early. So, they had to clean up their books. They gave me two options, I could either take my 2nd week unpaid, OR, come back and work. Money is very precious to us, so I chose to come back and work. However, I put in a request for two "personal days" (Friday and the following Monday). To my surprise, they gave it to me! This gave our family some time to finish our vacation at Stone Mountain. I have tons of pictures from our trip. If you would like see the pictures, e-mail me and I will send you the link.

Stone Mountain was beautiful. I have always wanted to go but the opportunity just never presented itself. Although it was extremely hot, the weather was beautiful. There wasn't a cloud in the sky. The view from the mountain was spectacular.

So now we are all back home and back into our summer routines. Matt and Hannah go to Day Camp each day. However, Rachel is too old for it know. But, the college is letting the kids who are too old for camp and too young for summer jobs, volunteer at the Day Camp. Rachel works with the 6 and 7 year olds. She comes home with some pretty cute stories from these kids. Her first day, a little girl came to her meowing like a cat. Rachel very politely told her, "Oh, I am sorry, I can not play with you because I am allergic to cats!" The girl stopped and appologized and then began barking and acting like a dog. Rachel really seems to enjoy her job. One of the perks of the job is that for lunch, she gets to pick the food from the food line like we do. So, she can have any choice of food and dessert she likes. And believe me, the college food is fantastic!

Mike and I are learning our new positions. Right now, we are in the middle of planning a "Teacher's Meeting". I'm a bit nervous about it because some of the teachers that will be there...well, I feel they are much more qualified than I could ever hope to be. I think they would do better job conducting the meeting then me. One of the teachers is the teacher I had when I was doing my Student Teaching back in 1989. EEEEK...she is the one who would sit in the back of the classroom and evaluate and grade me. Oh, the nerves...Anyway, one of our responsiblities is to periodically sit in on the classes. Hmmmm, and just how should I evaluate this one teacher? Is this payback time? No, just kidding. I just simply find it ironic that I will be evaluating her. Again, who am I to evaluate her. (she helped write the K-5 ABEKA Curiculum).

Well, that's about brings you up-to-date on our lives.

Our Vacation has begun

2006-05-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

For the first part of our vacation, we are just staying home. Today, the kids got out the old slip n slide and had a blast.

Here is Hannah at one of her attempts down the slide

Here is Matthew's turn down the slide

And here is Rachel...This is a very "posed" picture. She hurt her toe a few days ago and didn't want to run and slide. So she just posed like she had slid down the slide.

It took Nathan a Looooong time to warm up to the idea of playing in the water. Here is when he FINALLY got close to the water.

The Summer Has Begun

2006-05-26T19:17:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the last day of school. I can't believe how fast that school year went. Rachel is now officially an 8th grader. This means that next year at this time, she will be ready to enter high school. That just makes a pit in my stomach. She is growing up so fast! Matthew is now a 5th grader and Hannah is now a 3rd grader. OOooo, third grade Animal Notebook...here we come!

We are not sure if Nathan will be promoted to the 3 year old class or not. At the time they evaluated the children, his maturity was lacking...however, I have seen much improvement since they talked to me about him so maybe over the summer, they will change their minds.

Last night, Rachel had another one of her friends spend the night so that they could sleep in the tent. They really seem to have had a lot of fun. Matthew's friend was not able to come tonight so Mike and Nathan are camping out with Matthew. They all went outside at about 8:00 this evening. They have been out there for about an hour and all seems to be fine. I figured Nathan would be coming back in but so far, Mike hasn't sent Nathan back in yet. The night is still young so we may see Nathan before this night is over.

The reality of our new position in the church is setting in. I picked up keys to the building today which gives us a real sense of responsibility. I have already had to make minor decisions about who works when. Please pray for us. I know we are going to learn a whole lot and we will be stretched.

Our vacation has begun, but we aren't leaving town until June 1st. (Mom, I will be e-mailing you our plans) We will spend next weekend in Louisiana and the following weekend in Atlanta. It's going to be nice to sit around the house and relax before we hit the road.

The kids are all signed up for Day Camps. Rachel is too old for Day Camp this year but they are letting her still go and "work" as a volunteer worker. She gets to set her own hours. She is planning to work Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays during my work hours. On Tuesdays, she will stay home to babysit Nathan and to do light housework for me. Thursday's will be her day off to do whatever she wants. The last week in July, she goes to the Bill Rice Ranch with the Youth Group.

Matthew and Hannah will not only go daily to the Day Camp, but in mid July, they will go to Camp O' the Pines for a week. This will be Hannah's first week. She is glad that Matthew will be there the same week.

until next post...

Fiesta Day

2006-05-25T13:49:00.000-07:00

Heres is Hannah's outfit for Fiest Day!

Hat Day

2006-05-24T18:49:00.000-07:00

Hannah chose her Minnie Mouse Hat to wear for hat day. Notice the necklace...it's a Micky Mouse necklace!

2006-05-23T20:14:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture from our crazy weekend. This is the tent we set up that the girls slept in. Now isn't that a rustic scene with a wonderful view of the college campus behind it?!!! We are leaving the tent up until this weekend. Rachel is having a friend over on Thursday night and Matthew is having a friend over on Friday night. THEN that tent MUST come down.

Each day this week at school, Hannah's class is doing something special each day. Monday was "Icecream Day". I dressed her up as an Oreo Blast from Sonic!!!

Her look would not be complete with out doing up the hair!!! We put her hair up in a very high pony tail and tied a piece of rick-rack to resemble the chocolate syrup on top. Now you have to have something to eat this yummy treat with, so we found a plastic spoon that is shaped like a icecream cone and placed it in her hair.

Tuesday was Beach day.

Wednesday (tomorrow) is hat day. She hasn't quite decided which hat she is going to wear, but I will take a picture of her before she leaves for school.

Thursday is Fiesta Day. I can't wait to put this look together. We have absolutely NOTHING that is Mexican. I went to Wal-mart tonight and found some Mexican looking fabric. My goal was to make a very full circle skirt out of it. Well, I guess I really didn't know what I was doing because, the skirt is now a poncho. It's still going to be cute. I found a beaded necklace and bracelet that match the fabric and also I found some hair bows that look good with the look. I will french braid her hair and put the pretty bows at the end of the braid. BUT...you will all have to wait until Thusday night for those pictures.

Tomorrow night begins Mike's and my new position as Children's Church Directors. We are looking forward to working in this new position. Thankfully, the people we are taking over this position from are not leaving the church or moving away so they are there for us if we have any questions.

What a weekend!!!

2006-05-21T22:07:00.000-07:00

It all began when I picked up the children of one of my friends for the weekend. My friend and her husband were going out of town for two nights, and I volunteered to keep their children. We worked out the sleeping arrangements. Hannah would give up her bed for Stephanie and Nathan would sleep on the floor in our room so Wesley would have a place to sleep. Friday evening was uneventful. Everyone settle down the their own sleeping spot with no troubles.

Saturday morning, I got everyone up early and dressed so that we could all be at our 9:00am ballgame. Wesley is on the same team as Matt and Hannah. That was probably the best ballgame this team has played yet! Too bad this was the last one for the season. Hannah hit the ball each time she was their and scored twice. Matthew hit the ball each time and I believe he scored each time. Wesley hit a beautiful homerun. I felt bad that his parent missed it.

Saturday afternoon, I took them all to the college pool. While there, Rachel and Stephanie ran into one of their friends, Abby. We invited Abby for dinner and then also to spend the night. After we got back home, we let Hannah call one of her friends to come spend the night too. Because we were in need of more sleeping space, the boys (Matt and Wesley) said that if we set up the tent, they would camp outside. This worked out great as we would let Hannah and her her friend Rebecca sleep in Matthew's room. All was going well, until it got dark. Wesley changed his mind and did not want to be outside. Rachel and her two friends quickly agreed to camp in the tent. So now Hannah and Rebecca had to move their "party" out of Matthew's room so that Matthew and Wesley could have the boy's room back! NO ONE wanted to go to sleep. I kept urging everyone to go to sleep because we had church the next morning. I don't know if you picked up on just how many children we had at the house, but it was 8 children.

Sunday morning was very challenging. We got up at 7:00 and we needed to have everyone up, showered, dressed and fed by 8:30. Each child was given 10 minutes bathroom time. When they came out of the bathroom, I ushered them to the breakfast table an then to finish getting ready. It was an amazing morning...we were all totally ready to go by 8:30...right on schedule!

Now, we just don't have enough room in our vehicle for all these kids, so we arranged ahead of time, for Hannah's friend Rebecca, to go home after breakfast to get ready for church. She just lives across the street so it was no big deal for her to leave when she did. Abby's family came by and pick her up at 8:30 and the rest of us made it to church with time to spare!

Needless to say, I was exhausted by the time church ended. I was so happy when Mike agreed to take us out to eat for lunch.

After lunch, I literally crashed on the couch and slept a few hours.

We had so much fun with all those kids that we are making plans to do another big sleep over next year. Rachel and her friends are planning to camp out again next year. The only thing different for next year is that we will do it on a Friday night. Doing it on Saturday night was too hard because our Sunday morning was rush...rush...rush.

Because Matt didn't not get a turn in the tent this weekend, he is inviting a friend over for next weekend so that he can enjoy the great adventure of camping in the backyard.

Matthew's Math Exam

2006-05-18T13:35:00.000-07:00

If you will remember that last year at this time, we were all very concerned that Matthew might have to take summer school because he was struggling in Arithmetic. I worked all summer with him to try and help him. This year, he has done very well in Math. A few days ago, he came out of school all upset and concerned for his "Math EXAM" He was afraid he was going to fail it. I tried to encourage him by telling him that the word "exam" is just a fancy way of saying "test". We prayed for his "exam" that God would help him to do his best. I told him to pray before he actually takes the test and ask God for help. After he took the exam, he said that he felt like he did very well. All his division problems worked out (which is always a challenge for him). Today, his teacher told him his grade....He made a 96% on the EXAM!!! God DID help him. We are so proud of him and the progress he has made over the last year.

Silly Sock Day

2006-05-17T14:17:00.000-07:00

Today Hannah's class had "Silly Sock Day".

There was contest of who had the silliest socks. Hannah WON!!! She won a pad of paper shaped like a foot in a flip flop.

Picnic

2006-05-16T19:55:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine graduated from the Master's program and is moving away. She has gotten close to the kids. She was a broadcasting major and used each of the kids in her different projects. Since she is leaving, she wanted to take the kids on a picnic to say good bye. Here is a picture she took of the kids at the park:

Rachel got her bug collection back today....She got a 100% on it! While I was waiting for her to come out from school, I was watching others come out with their bug collections. I was trying to get a look at each one for ideas when it's Matthew's turn. One really cute one I saw was one shaped like a tomb stone. It was really cute.

2006-05-12T14:47:00.000-07:00

Last week, when I dropped Nathan off at school, his teacher asked to take a picture of us. She took pictures of all the kids with their moms. She used all the pictures to make buttons for us to wear. This morning when I dropped Nathan off, she had him hand me the button and also gave me a flower for mothers day. I am not too terribly fond of me in this picture, but I thought Nathan took a great picture.

The bug collection is DONE!!!

2006-05-07T18:04:00.000-07:00

Yippee, Horray! We are so happy that the dreaded bug collection is DONE..DONE...DONE!

We have been collecting bugs since last summer. We had friends collecting too. It was such a delight to have my co-workers bring me bugs to work. ICK!!! All these nasty bugs have been taking up residence in my freezer for almost a year.

We figured this was such a nasty project, that we wanted to do our best to make it as creative as possible. We watched a Disney Movie this summer called, Summer Magic. There is a song in it called the Ugly Bug Ball sung by Burle Ives. We decided then that would be the "theme" to the bug collection. Rachel had a great idea of finding a picture of a ball room. Something like you would see in Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast. We searched the internet and couldn't find any pictures we liked. I finally stumbled upon a website that sells grand staircases. We browsed their catalog and found a picture we liked. Then we made a banner for the title of the project which reads, "Welcome to the Ugly Bug Ball". Mike was VERY helpful in getting all the bugs onto the board for us so that we didn't have to touch any of them.

We decorated the back of it too. We made and "invitation" and we also put the words to the chorus of the song so that her teacher will know where this idea came from.

All in all, we are delighted that this project is done! It's not due until May 15, but we just wanted it done and out of the way. Plus, I was very tired of seeing these bugs in my freezer everytime I opened it.

Baseball

2006-05-07T12:17:00.000-07:00

The team that we were supposed to play yesterday did not show up. So the kids played against the parents. We had a blast!

Here is Matthew after he made it to first base ready to run to second!

Here is Matthew at bat and look who the catcher is...it's Mike!

Nathan tried on Matthew's catcher's mask.

Hannah is ready in the Outfield!

Matthew as catcher

Mike at bat!

Rachel batted, but I missed getting a picture of it. She let Nathan "run" for her. Mike had to help Nathan get to first base. Here is Nathan after he "ran" to first.

2006-05-05T20:04:00.000-07:00

Hannah had to dress up like the job she wants when she grows up. She said she wants to be a teacher or a principal. She worked very hard on her "teacher look" this morning. That is why she isn't smiling, she is trying to convey a stern look. That's funny to me, because her teacher is sooooo sweet. I can't image such a stern look from her teacher.

We worked hard on just the right hair do. We put her hair up in a bun and then stuck pencils through it.

This was such a cute picture, that I have to include it with this blog. Nathan was completely enjoying his bath. He kept pour water on his tummy and saying "AHHHHH".

Long time since I last posted

2006-04-29T11:00:00.000-07:00

WOW! I can't believe it's been so long since I last posted.

We had a nice Easter. Here are the kids all ready for church:

Here is Rachel (Looking so grown up)

Here is Matthew (isn't he hansome?!!)

Hannah looked so cute getting into the truck that I just had to snap a picture of her:

Awww, and here is Nathan. He had just picked a leave off the bush and then looked so adorable!

I finally had my tooth pulled this past Monday! YIPPEE! I have two more appointments to have a bridge put in. I can hardly wait to be back to normal. I haven't been able to eat like normal. I have had lots of soup and very soft foods. I lost 2 pounds this week.

The kids won their ballgame today. We were SOOOO very proud of Matthew. He got too close to another child who was practicing swinging the bat and got knocked in the nose. He had a lot of blood and it took a little while to get the blood to stop. He was in some pain. Mike took him to the restroom to get all the blood cleaned up and when they returned, Matthew was SUCH a tough guy. He continued to play and really came through the experience a trooper. Matthew has a history of being a "cry baby". He has been made fun of because he can cry so easy. Well, I dare anyone to to call him cry baby anymore! The nose doesn't appear to be broken. Several people looked at him and all agreed that it didn't appear to be broken. We will keep a close eye on it.

We have begun the dreaded bug collection. ICK! Anytime we find a bug, we have just been saving them in our freezer. If Mike comes across a neat bug at work, he has been bringing them home. We have friends who have been bringing us bugs too. Her collection is due May 14th and so we began the decoration process today. The title she has chosen for the project is "The Ugly Bug Ball". We found a nice picture of a grand staircase that she is using for the background. She was going to paint the box silver, but the silver paint we bought didn't work the way we wanted so she opted to just paint it all white with paint we already had. She is going to make an "Invitation" to glue on the back. The date of the Ugly Bug Ball will be the due date of the project. She is making it look Old English. So, she and I are making it look as pretty as possible and then we will let daddy stick the bugs on!

Work for me has gotten VERY busy. Graduation is May 10th. I worked quite of few extra hours last week in order to keep on track! My supervisor gave a WONDERFUL group of ladies to help assemble the regalia. This group was so good that we assemble it all in record time this year. The job usually take us about 3-5 days and we did it in just 2 1/2 days.

Rachel's recital is quickly approaching. It's May 11 and she is really struggling to memorize a few lines from it. She has the beginning and end down, but the middle is tough.

Hannah is in the midst of her Reading Contest at school. In just 1 week, she has read a little over 1,000 pages. She is trying to win 1st place this year.

Mike and I have been asked to do something new for the church. We will be the Children's Church Directors. We are in training right now. Over the next month, we will be meeting with the current directors to learn what we need to do. I am really excited about this new position.

Well, that about brings you up-to-date in the our lives.

D-Day! or should I say Tooth Day!

2006-04-24T03:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry that I haven't posted in quite sometime. Life around here has gotten VERY busy.

I spent the week before Easter rearranging things in the house in preparation for some new furniture we bought from a friend. It was quite a feat! In the midst of all this rearranging, I was attempting to make 3 Easter dresses. Hannah's turned out great. Rachel's turned out ok. And mine...well, it just didn't turn out. I was very glad when that week was over.

This past week has just been plain busy. My job at work is been extremely busy as graduation is rapidly approaching. It's like a roll of toilet paper...as we approach the end, it comes more quickly!

We didn't not have a ball game Easter weekend, but we did have one this past Saturday. It was a GREAT game! We played against one of our own churches team. We have have so many in this age group, that we have 3 teams in the league. At practice last week, all the moms brainstormed and decided that we needed some huge team spirit to beat our own team. We all wore the same color, we made some banners and waved tubes (the kind when you twirl them, they make a noise) in the air. It was a lot of fun! The kids picked up on our team spirit and they won the game 19-3!

Today is dooms day for me! I go for my first of three dental appointments to get my broken tooth fixed. Today they will extract the tooth. I am very nervous. I just want it all to be done and over with! This is a horrible time of year for me to take a day off. But this is the day the dentist wanted to do it. Thankfully, my work supervisor completely understands. She just recently went through some dental work. I am supposed to work on Tuesday night, but she told me if I didn't feel up to it, that I didn't have to. We shall see. From what I have read and been told, today will be a rough day. I just keep reminding myself that I had all sorts of dental work done as a teenager and came through just fine...I also have had 3 C-sections and did just fine, so this one tooth can't be that big of a deal.

Until next post....

Computer is fixed!

2006-04-08T10:25:00.000-07:00

Computer is all fixed!!! It runs quicker and better now.

Last week's games went exceptionally well. I almost stayed home, but at the last minute, changed my mind and decided to go. I am so glad I did! Hannah hit the ball and made it to first, then she made it to second. Someone else made the third out so she didn't make it all the way around the bases. The second time she was up to bat, she struck out. But the third time up to bat, she hit the ball and made it to first. With each batter, she made it to the next base until she SCORED!!! It was exciting.

Matthew played a great game too. He had to RBI's and scored 2 for the team. He plays catcher and almost caught and out, but missed. It really was a great game.

The game this week was rained out. By the time we got there, it wasn't raining anymore and we just played a scrimage against another team that showed up. It was great practice for the kids.

Nathan has an ear infection. I stayed home with him on Thursday. He responded well to his medicine and was able to return to the nursery on Friday.

We bought some bedroom furniture from a friend. We are getting a bunk bed, single bed and two dressers for just $150. It's really beautiful and really don't see why they wanted to sell it. We are going to replace the boys bunkbed and dresser with the new bunkbed and dresser. We are getting rid of both the girls dressers and giving them mine to share. We are getting rid of Mike's dresser and we will share the new one. We will use the matress from the new single bed for the bunkbed and then get rid of the single bed.

I get to go to another dentist on Wednesday. HOPEFULLY, this one will be able to fix my tooth for a reasonable price.

That's about it for the week.

Sick Computer

2006-03-31T19:59:00.000-08:00

Our computer is very, very sick right now and needs to go to the computer doctor. It just shuts down with no warning. Then we have to go through the long process of restarting it several times when trying to complete simple tasks. This can be very trying! We will be without a computer for a couple of days. Hopefully not too long.

Regionals

2006-03-25T18:52:00.000-08:00

WHAT A DAY!!!

We had to be at the church to register for the Regionals by 9:15. It made for a very long day! Matthew was in a few group events and individual events. One of his groups placed 3rd.

I have been talking a few weeks now about his story! PHEW..I am so glad it's over! I borrowed my friends camcorder so that I could record Matthew and let him see himself. We worked on it all Thursday and Friday evening. His time was way over and we had to work on getting his time down. We finally did it! We got his time to under the required 7 minutes.

He did a great job in front of the judges. He was somewhat nervous and did speak really fast. He got more nervous when the judge held up a sign that said 1 min. It made his stumble and then he just sorta stopped his story. Thankfully, he was very close to the end of the story.

He did a great job, but I just didn't think he would win because he was not only competing against the kids in our church but also against 5 other churches. The competition was tough. I listened in to one of the other kid's story and it was REALLY good.

We were relieved at the Awards Ceremony when Matthew was awarded 2nd place in the story telling! YAHOO...I cried. When he returned to his seat, I gave him the biggest hug I could give him. All his hard work paid off!

More good news for Matthew...This past Thursday, he found out that his Patriotic Poster won 3rd place in his class. If you want to see a picture, I posted one a few weeks ago.

The next thing in our academic life is Rachel's Bug Project. I am NOT looking forward to this one at all! We have collected many bugs and they are all in different containers in my freezer. I really could care less what grade she gets on this. This is one project that Mike going to get actively involved in. I can help make the display board look good, but I am not handling any bugs!

Well, thats it in our household...until next post...

2006-03-20T13:33:00.000-08:00

Matthew told his Bible story of Joshua and the walls of Jerico for the 3 year old class. He did a great job!

Weekly update!

2006-03-18T14:18:00.000-08:00

We had a good baseball game this morning. We had to be there at 7:15 for pictures! Instead of getting individual pictures of Matt and Hannah, we had them to take one of both of them. I think it will be a nice picture of the two of them. We did not win the game, but they did have a lot of fun. The other team was REALLY good! I couldn't believe the way those kids could hit the ball and catch the ball. I think we only scored about 3 runs. We just couldn't seem to get anyone to score a run. Matthew was able to hit the ball and made it to first...then on the next play, he made it to second. Then on the next play, he HAD to run towards third. The other team threw the ball and got our runner to second out and because Matthew HAD to run, they just had to tag him to make him out. It really was a good play even though Matt was out! At one of Hannah's turns, she hit the ball and made it to first! Then she made it to second, but our player running to first got out and it was our third out so Hannah didn't have the chance to run any further. Even though we lost, it was a good game.

Matthew continues to work on his story. He has been practicing it this week trying to bring it down to a 3 year old's level. We went to the library and found flannelgraph backgrounds to go with his story. He is comeing up with new things to put into his story. For example, as the children of Israel march around the walls, Matthew marches around the easle. I am going to get out my camcorder and see if I can get it going. I would LOVE to film this. The last I remember, the camcorder wasn't working right so we haven't tried to use it in quite some time. Next week is the Regionals. This is where Matthew will tell his story to some judges. This is our first year participating in Regionals so we really don't know what to expect.

The big bad allergies have hit Matthew and Hannah! I took them to the doctor this week so that we could get a refill on their prescriptions. Matthew has responded well to the medicine, but Hannah is still struggling. I called the doctors office and they told me to give it a few more days for the medicine to get into her system.

I did got to another dentist this week. I am very discouraged about it. This dentist said the tooth is not able to be saved! In order to fix it, it's going to cost us about $2300. We had some money saved up for vacation to Tennessee but it looks like my tooth is going to take all that savings! Mike is convinced that it shouldn't cost that much. He is going to call around and find a dentist that will do it cheaper or a dentist that will take payments. I am experiencing a little pain from it but nothing real bad just yet. Hopefully I will be able to get fixed soon. I just feel bad that it's going to take our vacation money to fix it.

That is all for this week, if I can get a picture of Matthew "teaching" his story, I will post it as soon as I can.

Until next post...

Matthew, the Story Teller

2006-03-12T19:50:00.000-08:00

I am just so excited about Matthew. Like I said in an earlier post, Matthew will be telling the story of Joshua and the Walls of Jerico for Master Clubs Regionals at the end of this month.

There was a practice last week that he missed because he was sick. Therefore, we felt a little "out of the loop" at this afternoon's practice. Rachel and I were there to give him moral support. We sneaked into the back of the classroom where he was teaching his story. I was so proud of him. There is room for improvement, but not much. He did such a great job, that we had him tell the story for our 5 year olds. Wow! He did a super job! He was even asked to do it again next week for the 3 year olds. He has some more "polishing" to do with the story and he will be very ready for Regionals. He and I talked about it this evening. We really do not care if he wins anything at all. We believe that he is already a winner just for having the courage to stand in front of 25-30 5 year olds and tell a story and then to be asked to tell it again for next week. He's already a winner in my book. If I had known he was going to actually tell the story for real in the 5 year old class tonight, I would have brought my camera along. I do plan to try and get a picture of him next week when he telling the story to the 3 year olds.

He is also going to play a short trumpet solo. He played it tonight for the main leader. I listened in on that one too and he did a great job. Again, we do not care if he wins or not. This is all just great experience.

Another Week

2006-03-11T16:36:00.000-08:00

Sorry, no pictures to post this week.

This week was less eventful than last week.

Matt and Hannah's ball game went well this morning. Their team one. Matt I believe scored once. He played his favorite position of catcher. It was fun to watch him play catcher. Hannah struck out each time. She gave it her all and did her very best. Her form and swing all looked great. She just couldn't make contact with the ball. I thought she was taking it all well until the game ended. She broke down and began to cry. She felt bad that she did "bad" when everyone else did "good". She perked up when explained to her that she is part of the team and she can take the credit of the team winning because she was on the team.

After the game, we went and visited one of our church's widows. It was such a neat time. This woman is handicapoed and I believe she has probably spent her entire life in a wheelchair. She met her husband about 15 years ago. She was told she was unable to have children. Well, she has 2 boys both close to Matthew's age. When they lived in GA, she sent her children to a Christian school. Half way through one school year, the school closed down. She was determined that her children have a solid education so she and her husband moved to Pensacola about 7 years ago. She opened her own Tax Office and has done a phenominal job with it. Last August, her husband passed away of a heart attack. Her mother lives in Georgia, but drives here once a month to help. I was just so amazed with this woman and all her accomplishments. We went there to be a blessing to her and walked away being blessed more. Her mom was there while we visited and she really took to our children. Nathan even warmed up to her enough to let her take him outside to play on the trampoline. Matthew played with her son while we had a nice visit.

Springtime is upon us. Thankfully, the springtime allergies have not affect us yet. Hannah usually has a horrible time with springtime allergies, but right now, she is just fine. Mike got the lawn mower out this afternoon and was able to mow over 1/2 the yard before the mower decided it was done for the day.

Matthew is working on a story to tell for Regionals. It was suggested that he tell the story to a group of children to help him practice. He will probably be a "special story teller" in my Masters Club Class in the next few weeks. He is going to tell the story of Joshua and will use the trumpet to bring down the walls of Jerico.

Hannah's little finger seems to be all better. She wore the splint on it for about 4 days and only had to take Motrin for the first few days. I believe we can declare her "all better".

Rachel is working on her Recital piece for Recital in May. It's a very pretty sounding piece. I enjoy it when she practices it.

Mike is close to the end of his season of refereeing. He gets paid for it all at once. He is looking forward to that money because he wants to buy a shed to put the lawn mower and generator in.

I am going to another dentist Monday afternoon. From this initial appointment, I will get to make another to actually get my broken tooth fixed. I can't wait to get this tooth fixed! It is just starting to give me some pain. The other dentist gave me a perscription for pain. I went ahead and had it filled just in case. I took my first dose last night. Whoooa, that medicine must have some powerful stuff in it. It made me very loopy!

Well, gotta go....It sounds like the family is about a boardgame. I think I want to join in the fun.

2006-03-04T19:53:00.000-08:00

We have had a very eventful week!

On Tuesday, I finally went to a dentist to have my broken back tooth looked at. WOW! It's really going to cost some money to get it fixed. Now I know why we don't visit the denist like we should. The dentist said that my tooth had an infection and I should be in great pain. Thankfully, the dentist gave me a perscription to clear up the infection and I am not in any pain. He gave us several options and details on how to go about getting the tooth fixed. Mike did some calling around and found another dentist here in town that will look at it and possibly fix it cheaper than that first dentist.

Wednesday, Matthew and Hannah's choir sang in church. I tried to get a picture of them in their choir robes actually singing during church, but I was too far away and the picture did not turn out. But here is a picture of them when they practicing before church started:

Matthew and I have been working on his patriotic poster. He orginally wanted to make the Liberty Bell. As he was drawing his sketch of it, he saw a picture of an Eagle and he quickly changed his mind. We finished the poster today. It's not due until March 21, but we just wanted it DONE and out of our way!

This is a close up of it. He made the white feathers out of white rice. The body is made of coffee. The beak is made of pop corn kernals. He painted the poster background like a flag and then put the eagle on foam board so that it has a 3D effect. The lettering is stick on letters. I love those stick on letters...so much easier to contend with than by making our own.

Baseball started this morning. This was Hannah's first time to play in the "Coach Pitch" league. She struck out each time she was up to bat, except for the last time. She hit the ball and made it to first base! I was so proud of her. She never got upset when she struck out. She kept a positive attitude and did her very best. Matthew played a good game as well. He and Hannah are on the same team. He hit the ball each time and made it around all the bases except for his last time up to bat. We had two outs. He hit it close to third base. The other team got the ball and got the person going to third out. He also got to play "catcher". He loves that position.

We had a minor emergency this afternoon. Hannah came running into the house screaming and holding her hand. She was across the street playing basketball with her friend. The ball came down on her little finger and bent it all the way back. She was in great pain. It began to swell, so I took her to the Urgent Care. After 2 hrs, 3 x-rays, 1 doctor, and 2 nurses, it was determined that she only sprang it. Thankfully it is not broken. She has to wear a splint on it for about 5 days.

On the way home from the doctor, Hannah and I pulled through Burger King to pick up dinner! We ordered our food, but we had to pull around the building to wait for them to make our order and bring it out to us. While we were waiting, a police car blarred his siren in the parking lot near us and then took off extremely fast darting across the street, through another parking lot and then on down the street. Meanwhile, as we continued to wait, two shady characters came out of Burger King. I was uncomfortable sitting there with my window down, so I rolled it up and made sure the doors were locked. We were a little freaked out by the look of these two characters so it really alarmed us when shortly after, two police cars squealed into the parking lot right next to us slammimg their breaks. Two policemen jumped out with their guns drawn pointing towards the back of Burger King. We were trapped. I told Hannah to just get down. She freaked out! Not long after another K-9 police unit pulled in right behind me. We could hear the dog barking. Hannah continued to freak out!!! I freaked out too. I called Mike and told him all that we were seeing. Then we spotted two more police cars further away in the parking lot and they had someone in custody. It wasn't those two characters..I think they just looked creepy. Still Hannah was freaking out! She begged me to just leave and forget about our food. I couldn't leave, I had two police cars in front and one behind me. All I could do is just sit. As quick as it all unfolded before our eyes, it all settled down. We were so glad to finally get our food and get home to safety. I believe that will be my last Burger King meal for a long time. At least at that Burger King. Big Lots is in that same shopping center and there have been times that I have gone by myself to pick something up...oh, but no more. I will steer clear of that shopping center at night.

Well, that about wraps up our week. Hopefully next week will be calmer.

Celebrating Rachel's 13th Birthday

2006-02-25T17:10:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Rachel's birthday by taking her and 3 of her friends to Orange Beach for the night. They had a slumber party in the hotel! Mike and I got a room that had a door that connected to their room. This way, I could keep an eye on them, but at the same time be out of their way.

We grabbed dinner on the run on our way out of town. We arrived at the hotel around 7:00. After we settled in our rooms, I took the girls down to the pool. The pool is an indoor/outdoor heated pool.

Here are the girls posing for a pictures. They are holding up a total of 13 fingers to represent Rachel's 13th birthday.

After we swam for a while, I walked the girls down to the beach. It is so awsome to stand at the shoreline at night and listen to the wave crash against the beach. Here is Rachel and Jessica posing. As you can see, it is very dark behind them, but we could see the waves cresting and breaking behind them.

After our swim time, we went back to the room and got comfortable. The girls ate junk food, played games and watched DVDs. We brought along Matthew's playstation so that they could watch DVD's.

I checked on them frequently however, by a little after 1am, I was very sleepy so went to sleep. The girls stayed up until 3am. They told me that they wanted to see the sun rise, so at 6am I woke them up and took them back down to the beach. It was very cloudy so we didn't have a great sunrise, but the girls had a great time walking along the beach and playing in the surf.

This where the pictures end for now. I am have difficulty with uploading pictures. I will attempt to post more pictures later. I will explain the rest of our adventure.

Our morning walk and playtime was fun. We must have been out on the beach for at least 2 hours. We returned to our rooms for breakfast (it was a delux breakfast of Pop-Tarts-yummmm). The girls watch another movie and then we packed up. I took some more pictures of them standing on the balcony and them of them sitting around the pool.

We checked out of the hotel and went suvenier shopping at one of the neatest shops I have ever been in. The front of the building is a huge shark. The entrance to the storr is in the sharks mouth. It was fun to walk around and around looking at all the stuff. Of course, the girls enjoyed shopping. What girl doesn't like to shop?!

We had lunch at Godfather's Pizza and then we played a round of Putt Putt at Pirates Island. Pirates Island was so neat. Everything had a pirate theme. The course we played on even played through a pirate ship. I got a cute picture of the girls posing at the last hole.

After Putt-Putt, it was time to return the girls to their parents. I believe the each had a memorable time! We made some great memories.

You maybe wondering where Matthew, Hannah and Nathan were through all this. I would have loved to have had them with us. I know they would have had a blast doing all the things we did, but it was just better that this be Rachel's time with her friends. So, the Petersons kept Matthew, Hannah and Nathan for us. I am so glad that they had fun at the Peterson's house. Matthew and Hannah were fully aware of the things we were going to be doing and really wanted to come so I was a little leary about not taking them. All in all...EVERYONE had a great time.

We have enjoyed Orange Beach so much, that we are making plans to take the whole family there this summer during part of our summer vacation.

Well, that about wraps it up. Maybe later the blog site will allow me to put more pictures on.

until later....

2006-02-18T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hannah's Missionary Poster....

To help kickoff our Missionary Conference, the children's church children are encouraged to make a poster. The winner in each grade will get to carry a flag in the Parade of Nations during Children's Church. We e-mailed four missionaries and asked them for information. It was a hard decision but we finally chose the Zerbe's in Alaska. Here is Hannah's poster...

2006-02-14T20:48:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day

Weekend Getaway!

2006-02-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

Mike and I were able to get away for the weekend. Mike and Luanne Feldt watched our kids for us.

We had an absolute wonderful time! We wanted to go towards Mobile to walk around the outlet mall in Foley so we booked a hotel near there. When we found the hotel, it was further away from Foley than we realized! It was actually on the beach. Our room was beautiful. When we stepped out onto the balcony, because it was so dark outside, we could only hear the waves crashing against the beach. It was such and awsome sound. We walked down to the beach and stood at the shoreline and let the water touch our feet. It was kinda cool outside. We looked into the sky and there was fog all around us except directy above us. We could see the stars so clearly. After we returned to our room, we kept commenting on how neat the beach was. At midnight, was decided to take another walk and go back down to the beach again. It was MUCH colder this time, but just a beautiful as before. We couldn't resist going back and watching the sunrise. Here is a picture of the sunrise...

It was all so beautiful! We couldn't have asked for better conditions (well, it was kinda cold, but all sooooo beautiful.)

We bought the kids hermit crabs as a suvenior. We talked to the kids on the phone, but only told them that their suveniors were four critters in a cage. They tried to guess, but couldn't. I think Rachel eventually figured it out. The kids each named their kids crabs. Rachel named hers...Kermit --- Matthew named his Mr. Krabs --- Hannah nambed hers Gary ---and---Nathan named his Paul. Whatever...those aren't names I would have picked!

We spent the afternoon at the outlet mall. We found some good deals on some things the kids needed.

By not having the kids, we were able to do our grocery shopping without them. It was nice to just meander around Wal-mart without HAVING to walk through the toy department.

Just as it was so wonderful to spend time away from the kids, it was just a wonderful to get them back. They had a great time at Mike and Luanne's house.

Next weekend, we will get to watch Mike and Luanne's kids so that they can have some time alone.

Today (Sunday) was a bit nerve racking for me. Last Sunday, we found out that Pastor Schettler was coming to visit Masters Club and he was starting his visit in our classroom. Last year, our partner teachers took charge of leading the children in a verse and song for Pastor and then presented our gift to him. This year, our partner teachers weren't able to do so. It was all up to me! I was so nervous! It all went well. Last year Pastor told us his favorite snack was snickers. I heard that his favorite soda is Verners (something that is made in Michigan where he grew up). I found Verners in Albertsons, so I picked up a 2 liter of it. He was really tickled with our small gift to him. He thanks us for the verse, song and gift and then prayed with our kids. As nervous as I was, I am glad that he does this once a year. It is good for the kids to see him close-up.

Until next post...

Happy 13th Birthday

2006-01-28T11:16:00.000-08:00

Rachel's Birthday is on Sunday, but I let her wear her new outfit to school yesterday. Here she is before leaving for school...

We aren't having a birthday party for her now. She wants to wait until the summer and have an EVERYBODY's BIRTHDAY party. She wants to have one big celebration for all her friends who are turning 13. Most of her friends are for it, but some don't care for the idea because they want their 13th birthday to be special just to them. I can understand that so we will invite and anyone who wants to participate can.

We gave her a "promise" ring for her birthday. Before we gave it to her, we talked to her about purity and she vowed to us and God that she would keep her purity. We wrote up a letter that explains the ring and gave that to her. Then we prayed together. It was a special time together.

She asked me to make one of her favorite meal for dinner tomorrow after church. For dessert we will have a Boston Cream Pie.

Grandma and Grandpa sent her a nice card with some money. Rachel found a garnet necklace that she wants and plans to use the money grandma and grandpa sent to buy the necklace. Little did she know when she was eyeing the necklace that it matches the ring we gave her.

Nathan has been potty training. I knew the nursery was taking him potty, but he wouldn't "go" for me when I would take him at home. While I was talking to his teacher one day, the Nursery Supervisor heard our conversation. She suggested that since he is doing well at school, that we start sending him in regular underwear. So, for about two weeks, I sent him in regular underwear and he continued to do pretty well at school, but at home, he still would not use the potty for me. I just didn't know what to do. I even had Matthew come "use it" in front of Nathan so that Nathan might get an idea of what we wanted him to do. Still, no luck. Anytime I would take him to the potty, he would call for Matthew to come too. Finally, it seems Nathan has caught on to the idea. Last Saturday, he showed up in the living room with out his underwear. Rachel said, "NATHAN!, wheres your underwear?!" He took me into the bathroom, got up on his step stool and went into the potty. YIPEE, from then on, he has it! Just about anytime I take him into the bathroom, he "goes" for me". I am so proud of him.

Matthew is in the middle of working on his State Notebook. He is really into it. He has quite a creative streak that I didn't realize he had. It's been fun working together on this project. He is still playing his trumpet. He brought home the music to "Oh When the Saints". He played it for me. I smiled when he finished playing, but honestly, I really didn't hear the tune like I thought I should. Over the course of about a week of him practicing it, I finally could pick out the right tune. Remember us struggling with him in Math? Well, things are looking up for him. He seems to be catching on. He got a 90% on his last test. Whoohoo! He was in a Math contest in his class and it came down to the just 3 students in the final round. He was one of those 3 students. He didn't win that contest, but he did much further than he has ever done before.

Hannah is doing well in school. She loves her teacher. It's amazing to listen to her read. She has come so far since last year at this time. She is still in her group piano class. She seems to be doing well in it.

The college semester has begun. Mike is refereeing for the football games. He did 3 games last night and 2 today. He enjoys it as it is a way for him to get some exercise. Last year, he lost 15 pounds do it. He is hoping to take off some more weight.

I am continuing in my Joy Journey Sunday School class. I am really looking forward to see what God has for me. I lost 25 pounds in the course of one year (oops, over Christmas, I put back on about 8 of those pounds). I have been working on getting those old pounds back off, so that I can begin on my new pounds.

Like I said, the college semester has begun, which means my work load picks back up as graduation approaches.

Well, that about wraps it up...until the next post.

2006-01-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

I just received my ring and opal necklace! Sorry the pictures aren't any better, but this the best I could get. I didn't realize how hard it was to get a "focused" picture of small objects.

2006-01-14T05:12:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone! Not too much has happened since my last post because we are back to our normal schedules. The kids all started back to school. Rachel and Matthew had a week of exams. They both feel they did pretty well on them.

I received some extra money this month and was able to spend it on a few things I have been really wanting. I bought a Mother's Ring, an Opal necklace, and a sewing machine. I was looking for a way that this money would NOT be spent on bills or be dwindled away. I figured the Mother's Ring and Opal necklace will last forever and the sewing machine would be something that will always keep "giving". I had to order the ring so it will be awhile before I will have a picture of it. I got it with 5 stones. The middle one is a diamond to represent Mike (April), the two stones to the left of the diamond are garnet (Rachel-January) and pink tourmaline (Matthew-October). The two stones to the right of the diamond are blue saphire (Hannah-September) and Peridot (Nathan-August). Matthew absolutley did not want me to get his pink stone. The other stone for October is opal. We tried to get an opal instead of the pink tourmaline, but because the opal is a soft stone, none of the companies would do it. Matthew was so dissapointed. So, instead, I bought an opal pendant. I think it made him feel much better.

With the sewing machine, I had Rachel pick out some pretty material. I am making her a skirt and shirt of the same material that has a coordinating jacket. Depending on how it all turns out, it will be for her birthday. We have a tradition in our house, that you get a new outfit to wear to school for your birthday.

Work is going well. We are getting ready for the semester to begin. Yesterday was really hard to work. Our office is getting new carpeting. This means we had to box up everything from our desks so that they could all be moved. I tried to hold out stuff that I could work on after the desk was moved, but 15 minutes before I was to get off work, I finished what I had. I tried to find one of my cabinets to get something else out, but I couldn't even get near it. It felt strange sorta just walking around not being productive in anyway.

Our next door neighbors moved to another house. They said we could have their swing set, but it would be too hard to move it. Besides, when Mike started to unbolt one of the bolts, lots and lots of little tiny bugs poured out. They were all carrying tiny eggs. So we figured that it wouldn't be worth our while to take the swings. So we left it where it was and just let the kids over over there and play on it. Here are some pictures from them playing one day...

2006-01-04T15:25:00.000-08:00

Rachel made this Birthday Brownie for me. She wrote Happy Birthday in marshmallows. She said she had to mispelled it because of space. So, she left out one "P" of HAPPY and shortened Birthday to "B-DAY". I was touched that she would think of me make sure I would have a special dessert for my special day.

Tallahassee Pictures Part 2

2006-01-01T17:48:00.000-08:00

Here's the rest of our Tallahasse Pictures. I found this one to be funny...here we drive 3 hours to Tallahassee to see a street sign for Pensacola.

There is a very nice museum there. The last time we went, I got a picture of the kids in this very same spot so Rachel insisted that we take another picture in this spot.

We are going to use this picture on Matthew's "Flag" page.

It was a long day and here the kids all crashed on the way back home. Funny thing is...we hadn't even left Tallahassee when I took these pictures.

Tallahasse Pictures Part 1

2006-01-01T08:09:00.000-08:00

On Saturday, we drove to Tallahassee for the day. Matthew will be working on his State Notebook for school over the next several weeks and we thought it would mean more to him to have pictures we actually took and to have him in a few of the pictures as well.

Here are the kids in the truck as we were leaving Pensacola.

It was a long drive there, but worth getting some pictures. Here is the Old Capital Building.

Here is Matthew in front of the New Capital Building

Matthew in front of the Florida Supreme Court

Part 4

2005-12-30T18:49:00.000-08:00

Here's the last of our pictures.

Nathan laid down with his beloved puppy and "posed" for this picture for me.

After he had been asleep for awhile, Matthew went in and took this picture for me...

This is the next morning. Rachel and Nathan relaxing on the couch...

2005-12-30T05:50:00.000-08:00

Here is Part 3.

After we left Mike's grandmothers house and we were backing out of the driveway, Mike went off the driveway. His grandfather had "filled" in the other side but hadn't gotten to the side we drove off of. (The next day, we noticed that it was filled in.) Mike parents live the next street over from his grandparents. It was going to be quite a feat to get the truck back up on the curb, in one of the pictures, you can see the kids in the driveway walking back to Maw Maw's house to wait while we figure out how to "rescue" the Tahoe.

only one more set of pictures to go. Part 4 still to come!

Christmas Pics Part 2

2005-12-29T16:57:00.000-08:00

Matthew REALLY wanted a certain play station game. Everytime he talked to me about it, I would act as if I just didn't understand which game he wanted. He would really get frustrated with me. I knew all the time that Maw Maw Mary had already gotten it. Here he is just after he opened it!

We found this "Learning Puppy" at Wal-Mart and thought that this would be a great gift for Nathan. We even let Nathan play with it in the store. Nathan fell in love with it. Before we had the chance to actually buy it for him, Mike's mom called and told us about this cute puppy she found! It was the very same one we had looked at in Wal-Mart. I went on walmart.com and found the puppy online that had a demo of all the things it says. Sometimes while we would be at the computer, Nathan would come and want into our lap and would ask to see the puppy. Anytime we passed that aisle at Wal-Mart, Nathan knew where the puppy was and HAD to play with each one. He was very excited to finally get a puppy of his own.

Here is Hannah with a pretty shirt she received.

Here is Nathan loving his puppy.

Matthew got some "THING HANDS". Nathan got a hold of them and was making some serious faces while he played with the hands.

That's it for Part 2. Stay tuned for Part 3

Our Christmas Vacation part 1

2005-12-29T09:24:00.000-08:00

We left our house on Friday at about noon. Nathan got car sick as we were going over the Baton Rouge Bridge. We are so thankful for the leather seats. We drove to my parents house for dinner. We were able to see Debbie, Ed, Jim, Ramona, Elizabeth, Brian and his family. I guess I was just so hungry, that I didn't think to take any pictures!

Ater dinner, we drove over to Mike's parents house.
Here is Matt and Nathan at Maw Maw Mary's house:

Hannah spent that night and a good part of the next day very sick. She didn't even want to go to Maw Maw Merle's house to open presents. While everyone gathered at Maw Maw Merle's house for lunch, I sat with Hannah at Maw Maw Mary's house. Hannah just wanted to sleep. I finally convinced her to get dressed and we met up with everyone. She didn't care to eat anything, she just wanted to go lay down. It was a few hours of laying down before she felt well enough to join everyone and we began to open presents.

Matthew got a set of "boxing" gloves. This is Landon and Nathan "boxing". Landon is Mike's nephew who is only about 3 weeks older than Nathan:

It looks like Nathan will not be a fighter...We call this picture THE KNOCK OUT:

As soon as it was time to start opening presents, Rachel didn't feel well. This is as far as she got with opeing her presents and decided she needed to lay down.

I have more pictures to share, but for some reason, I can't get them uploaded. I will try again later. Stay tuned for the rest of our pictures....

2005-12-21T19:20:00.000-08:00

The Christmas Program

Nathan "singing" with the other 2 year olds.

Hannah backstage in her Angel Costume!

All the Angels on stage.

Matthew backstage in his Soldier Costume.

Matthew on stage. He is the one with his back to the audience.

Rachel was supposed to play for the prelude, but some things got rearranged at the last minute and she played the postlude.