Fish Fry

Tonight we went up to the Tennessee Fellowship Center for a fish fry. But, someone didn't catch the fish they were supposed to so we just grilled burgers and dogs. Still delicious. We played LOTS of volleyball. We just got a new load of sand up there and really felt the need to try it out and make sure it worked. Much better than the old sand. It's not filled with goose poop- yet. We probably played volleyball for about two hours before we split up and did a few other things.

Some people played baggo or cornhole or whatever you want to call it, some people went inside to the air conditioning to start getting supper ready, and Jessica and I headed for the new paddleboat. I think they just got it up there a few weeks ago and I hadn't been on it yet so that was just as important as trying out the new sand. Jessica is 16 and just got done with her sophomore year of high school -love that girl!

Then it was supper time, compliments of Ryan's grilling services. Here we have the two church babies, Kiera and Lauren enjoying their nummies. I guess they're not so much babies anymore. Kiera turned two in April and Lauren turned two yesterday. They're both darling. I just want to scoop them up and smother them with kisses every time I see them. Unfortunately, that is not their favorite thing to do. They would rather be off exploring, as two year olds do.

And then there's Emily. Not a shy bone in her body. Ryan turned on the mics for a little bit while she sang us a special number. She didn't do one in church today so I guess she decided she's do it tonight. She always sings either Jesus Loves Me or I'll Be Somewhere Listening. Funny girl right there.

Tyler and Whitney brought their dog, Porter along. The kids loved her, especially Braeden. He showed us tonight how he learned to ride a two wheeler by himself. I was impressed- I don't remember riding a two wheeler until I was like, seven. He's going to Kindergarten this year and I already miss having him at the preschool.

After supper a few of us girls played baggo. Guess who won:) Maybe I should forget Racko and stick with Baggo? (That's for my family who has shared my Kentucky Racko experiences with me)

I just liked this picture of me and Bekah. We snapped it real quick while we were taking a drink break from volleyball and I thought it turned out cute. Good thing she agreed to marry Mark because I love having her down here!

It's days like today that make me love Athens with all my heart and never want to leave. Don't get me wrong- I love my family dearly and I definitely miss them. But I don't think I could ask for better "stand ins" than all my Athens family. They are such a blessing to me and I love each and every one of them.

Once Upon A Time

I was just reflecting back on my high school days. A couple years during HS I did a program where I would go over to the elementary school during my study hall and help out a teacher. The first year I was in a first grade classroom and loved it so much. It was then that I decided I would one day work with kids. From the time I was in third grade up until that point I had planned on being a vet. But after I started doing the PALS program I completely changed my mind. I was so sad when the school year ended because I had grown so attatched to those kids. Well then the teacher I had been helping got pregnant and decided that she would not return to teaching the next school year. (By the way, the teacher I was with was actually my third grade teacher. She said I made her feel old.) So I had a choice of staying with first grade and being with a new teacher or moving up to second grade with the kiddos I had come to love. I knew one of the second grade teachers pretty well so I decided to go ahead and move up. And I loved it the second year just as much. Ever since then I'd see some of those kids names in the paper for some kind of achievement or what not. But now, I'm the one feeling old because I just saw all their names and pictures in the paper for graduating high school. Kinda weird.

Crazy Busy Emotional Weekend

Well I'm pretty much wiped out right about now. As the title said, I had a crazy busy emotional weekend. It was great but it was crazy and busy and emotional. I got to leave work Thursday afternoon about 2:00 and head to Illinois. At that point I was really excited for the weekend, was in really good spirits and had a fun book to listen to so the drive went pretty fast. Friday morning I cut my parents grass which was pretty fun because I haven't done that in years. Then off to Doc's in town for lunch. Friday night I headed to Gridley to see some dear friends of mine, including but not limited to Leah and Tricia. Since all my other friends have gotten married, this group of girls has really stepped up and taken a very special place in my heart. I love them dearly and am so thankful for them.

We spent our evening eating a delicious supper that Katrina grilled for us. Pork chops and shrimp marinated in a carribean jerk sauce. It was incredible. And we found a frog. Rumor has it that if you kiss one, it will turn into a prince who will fall desperately in love with you, marry you and you will live happily ever after. After a little experimenting, we discovered that the rumor IS NOT true. I think Nicole was a little dissapointed to find that out.

Saturday morning started out with another trip to Doc's, this time for breakfast. Then we went up town to watch to parade. It's not terrible exciting- mostly old cars and tractors. But every year without fail, we have the bagpipers:)

Here we are towards the end of the parade when all the firetrucks come through. Libby wasn't a huge fan of all the noise. Oh, and the best part was Angie who was in the parade. She bought a big candy bar at my request and threw it to me when her float went by. Thanks Ang!

After the parade we went to the festival for lunch and to listen to my uncle Steve's group play. Yeah, he's pretty much famous! He's they guy in the pink shirt with the black hair.

Saturday night was, of course, the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. It was just lovely. Lots of nice things were said, laughs were had and tears were shed. I got to sit by Jared (Kristi's brother) so that was fun. He's planning to come down here in August and we will have a grand time, I'm sure of it:)

Saturday night Brit K and Julia spent the night at my parents house with me so they didn't have to drive all the way back home before pictures the next morning. Bright and early, 7:00 Sunday morning we all managed to make it on time with cheery smiles on our faces and hopefully not to terribly saggy eyes. Pictures were fun but I think the poor photographers were getting a little frustrated. We weren't being natural enough of something like that. But Taryn and Kristi did a great job. And since I can't figure out how to do a stinkin link, the website is www.imagineartists.net. Can someone tell me how to do that? And yes, I clicked on the little link picture and typed it in and everything. Anyways, it was great to be able to spend some quality time with Jules before she gets married in two weeks. I lived with her for a year before moving to Athens. We are very different in a lot of ways, but somehow we clicked. And sometimes I really miss that girl!
Getting ready to go over to the church Sunday afternoon.

I didn't get any pictures of the whole wedding party, but I did manage to get this one with Joel and Kristi. I'm so so happy for you two. I love you both and I'm looking forward to visiting you!

After the reception was over it was back home for just a little bit of R&R before going to Caleb and Erin's for Dustin and Mandy's going away party. They moved out to Leo today to serve as Alternate Houseparents. I'm really excited for them, but it's a little sad to see them go. Even though I don't see them a whole lot now, I will see them even less. But I do think it's great that they're going to be out there. And at the party I had a little bit of time to snap a shot of my and my brother Nate. It was fun seeing him and Jamie and Haley again too.

And one final picture with Dustin and Mandy. Caden was tired, cranky, and in no mood for a picture. Libby was a ham as usual. I love you guys!

So..... yeah. There was a lot going on with our family this weekend. Between Kristi getting married and moving to Mexico and D&Mandy moving to Leo, it was definitely emotional. But with both of them there is absolutely no doubt in my mind that it is all God. Absolutely, completely, 100% God. He is good, He is faithful. Even during the crazy busy emotional weekends:)

I made it back home about 8:15 tonight. After driving in rain most of the way and just being exhausted the "Alabama the Beautiful" sign was a welcome sight.

Heard Around Work Recently.......

After having some toilet issues we didn't let the kids flush for awhile. We just went in periodically and did it so they wouldn't get overworked. Today though, I told one kid it was okay to go ahead and flush and this was the conversation:
Dustin: "You mean it's okay to flush now?"
Me: "Yeah it's fine."
D: "Really?!?"
M: "Seriously"
D: "You mean the girls can flush the girls potties and the boys can flush the boys potties?!?!"
M: "Yep"
And as I walked away I heard him say "Wow, it's really fun to flush the toilet!"

After getting a small scrape on his arm that produced an even smaller amount of blood I hear one boy say "Chloe! Come lick this! Blood tastes just like chicken!"

Then there's poor little Ty who can't have ice-cream because his mom is conviced he's allergic to dairy. (I'm not so convinced.) Today he accidentally was given some ice cream and had taken a bite before we noticed and took it away from him. Which resulted in quite the meltdown. I told him he could lay on his mat until he was calmed down. And in between sobs he says "I-I-I-I'm... *sob* *sob* *wheeze * *hiccup* I'm C-C-C-C-ALM!!!" The kid's as cute as a bug and I just love him to pieces (how can I not- he says he's my boyfriend and tells me I'm beautiful!) but that just didn't qualify as calm in my book:)

Well now I've been sitting here snacking on blueberries and I just managed to polish off the entire box. They're so good! I'll have plenty of antioxidants in my body now but I just might regret eating so many come tomorrow!

I only have one more real day of work left this week. Just tomorrow, that's all. I'm going to make cookies with my kids. Thursday we're taking a field trip to a local park so that will be a fun morning and I'm leaving Thursday afternoon for home for Kristi's wedding which will be even more fun!

Good night!

It's Boots and Chaps and Cowboy Hats

High five to the first person to tell me what song that line is from. (The line being the title of the post.) And who sings it.

I started out my day this morning by going to Devin's tee ball game. He won. Woo hoo! But I didn't get any pictures. Didn't even take my camera. Then I ran a whole bunch of errands, then it was rodeo time! We ate at Logan's before we went. Mmmmmm......... those rolls are amazing.

Then we headed to the rodeo arena. It's right in Athens and we have a rodeo in May and one in July. Hope left us because the weather was pretty iffy and she wasn't super excited about going to a rodeo anyways. I don't know why- I love going. So if I love it, everyone else should too, right? But the rain held off the whole time thankfully.


Okay, from here on out bear with me. Between the poor lighting, poor camera and very fast motion, it was nearly impossible to get a good picture. But since I enjoyed myself so much I wanted to post them anyways. So just use your imagination on the blurry ones:) They kicked everything off with the bareback bronc riding.




Then (Kristi, brace yourself) it was calf roping. Kristi went with me to the July one a couple years ago. She had never been to a rodeo before. After the fact she decided that she liked it except for the calf roping. She thought it was a little too inhumane or something.



There was also steer wresting which I really like but the pictures I have of that are so bad there's no use even trying to use your imagination. In between each event they have some sort of entertainment. For instance, chuckwagon racing........

A chicken chase for kids 10 and under. There's about 50 kids and 5 chickens. If you catch the chicken you get some money and the chicken!

Then after lots of talking and blah blah blah about who won Miss Rodeo queen blah blah blah, it's time for barrel racing. Which I happen to think is pretty cool.

Finally at the very end is the bull riding. Only one guy made the buzzer. He deserved it though because the bull slammed him into the gate and knocked him out. He was okay- he came to after just a few seconds and shook it off.

And what would a rodeo be without the clown? I guess he decided that since the arena had pretyt much turned into a swimming pool he would take full advantage of it.

So it was fun. I know not everyone would be into it, but I'm a pretty big fan. I hope you weren't too terribly bored reading through that. I suppose if you were you're probably not still reading. But anyways, that's my exciting news for the weekend!

Pomp and Circumstance

Well we didn't actually play that song tonight but we did make it through graduation. The kids did awesome and, as usual, I got a little choked up. I always got choked up when I worked at Jacob's Ladder, too. You spend so much time with these kids and it's just kinda sad when they go off to Kindergarten. We'll have a few of them over the summer still but a lot of them will be done at the end of May and they the only time we'll see them again is if we happen to see them around town. It just makes me feel a little squeeze in my heart to think about it. Nothing too major happened. The biggest incident was when my class was up. Of course. They were reciting a poem and they each had a line to say by themselves. The first girl went and it was fine. But this girl is about the most ram-rod child I have ever met. Nothing, and I mean NOTHING she does is gentle. She is my biggest challenge everyday. She wears me out let me tell ya. Anyways, she says her line and instead of just handing the microphone over to the boy next to her, she pretty much threw it to him and it smacked him right in the mouth. He was stunned but after a few seconds started to say his line. Which was when I discovered that the impact of the mike on his mouth made it short out or something. So I messed with it for awhile but it was no use. So my poor children had to try and shout their lines loud enough for everyone to hear. And they are all pretty timid around strangers (except for girl number one) so the shouting didn't work out so well. I know nobody could hear them. Oh well. We sang two songs as well and they did great on those so I guess it's all good. I'm really glad to be done though. It's a load off my shoulders, that's for sure. It's been a long day, I'm really tired and my feet hurt. So on that note, good night.

Wal*Mart Excursion number 1,583,294,803

I really have no clue how many times I've graced the Athens Wal*Mart with my presence. When I first moved I wanted so badly for something to do that I would go if I just needed a few things. I would have no problem going multiple times in one day because I was bored and needed to keep busy so I didn't get depressed and homesick. Wal*Mart is about 2 miles from my house so it's very easy to just make a quick trip. Over the course of the last 2 1/2 years, my feelings for Wal*Mart have changed drastically. I now avoid it as much as possible. There was much rejoicing and celebration when the Publix grocery store opened about 1/2 mile from my house. Now about the only reason I hit up that dreary old Wal*Mart is to get the preschool groceries. Which is what I was doing tonight. Monday is preschool grocery day. I like to try and go during the day if I can get away from work. But it's been a little crazy lately while we've been getting ready for graduation, so I have been going in the evenings. Tonight though, we had plans to help clean someone's house from church. So by the time I got to WM, it was 9:00. I was already tired. I pulled in and reached for my purse when I realized it was back at home sitting in my bedroom. Back home I went, got my purse and headed back. Now I was even more tired. And that cart gets pretty heavy when it's filled with enough food for 26 kids. I was just kind of dragging around the store. Then in the checkout line I broke a nail while reaching in to get some stuff out of my cart. And it hurt. That didn't help matters. But then when I was walking out, I saw a man who looked to be about 80 years old standing by the magazine rack. He was reading a Cosmo magazine. Kinda weird, kinda creepy, but funny enough to make me end my Wal*Mart excursion with a smile.
Now as a sidenote, if you wouldn't mind just sending up a little prayer for the aforementioned graduation that would be great. It's Thursday night. We only have three practices left and some of the kids hardly know their lines. I don't expect you to spend much time in prayer over this, but just a little "breathe a prayer" would be appreciated. That the kids could remember their lines. And also maybe that they would be scared enough that they behave but not so scared that they get complete stage fright and don't do anything. Thanks!

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to my mom. She's been pretty cool about dealing with me for all these years. Happy Mother's Day to Jamie- it's her first one! And Happy Mother's Day to all the rest of you mom's out there. Bless you for all you do for your kids. I've heard rumor that it's not the easiest job in the world:)

Today was busy. I had a lot of errands to run and odds and ends jobs to do. I'm not done, but the computer was calling my name, begging me to get on and waste some time. I started out by going to a class at the gym. Heather was the teacher today. The last time I went when Heather was teaching I couldn't walk right for almost a week. That was the first time I went to the class though so hopefully it won't be quite so bad this time around. I saw a lot of people I knew while I was around town today. I like it when that happens. It makes me feel like I belong here and this is home. I ususally feel like that anyway but it's always nice to see a familiar face.

Well, I should get going again on my to do list. If anyone wants to help me procrastinate just give me a call and I'd be happy to kill some time on the phone with you!

What's Wrong With This Picture?

I walked into the kitchen tonight and this is what I saw.

My Date Today

Well I had a long awaited date with Devin today. Devin is the kid from preschool that absolutely captured my heart like no other kid has. I mean, I love all my kids but Devin is something special. More than just a favorite or teacher's pet. But at the same time he was probably my biggest problem child. But I can't help it. When I first started out down here I couldn't stand him. But he chose me it seemed like. Even though I wasn't too fond of him, he was pretty fond of me and after awhile I just fell in love with the little guy. I almost felt like I needed to protect him from the outside world. But anyways, we spent two years being each other's buddies. Even when he moved up to the older class we never really lost that bond. When he went to Kindergarten I cried and cried. More than once. I gave his mom my phone number and we had every intention of getting together sooner than this but you know how it goes. Unless you just do it, there's always something keeping you busy. So finally last week we just did it. Set a date and went with it. So she dropped him off at my house and we headed to Chik-fil-a. If you've never eaten there, you're missing out. They have a playplace and the food is MUCH better than McDonald's. And it's founders/owners are Christian and they play Christian music over the speakers instead of light rock or whatever music fast food places play. And it's always clean too. He was pretty quiet all through lunch but then we went into play and he loosened up real fast.

After an hour or so he was ready to leave so I asked him if we should call his mom. He said he had something he wanted to do. He wanted to go back to the preschool. So we did and he played with all his favorite toys. We were there for a couple hours. I think he could have stayed there all night. He wasn't ready to go but I had some stuff to get done so I took him back home.

I loved every minute of it. I felt like a giddy school girl though when I was getting ready. I was so excited you would have thought I was going on a real date and not out to a fast food restaurant with a five year old.

I love my buddy!