A Sweet Moment, Friday Funnies, and 7 Things...

A Sweet Moment....(completely candid!)

Karen (my mother in law) participated in a "Friday Funnies" and "7 things about you" post and I thought it would be fun...

Friday Funnies:

Our son, Noah, is a VERY skeptical and inquisitive child. Whereas Katie loves to pretend and imagine and will believe anything you say and not question further, Noah isn't so easily appeased. While we have recently been considering the idea of adding to the family we have casually discussed the idea in front of them..such as "what would you think about having a baby brother or sister", the typical stuff like that. (by the way, no immediate plans are made, just broaching the subject) ANYWAY...I guess Noah has been thinking about this a good bit. I know Katie does...she always has, even before we talked about it, pretending, drawing pictures of us with a new baby around, etc.
The other night when we were settling down for our evening devotional ritual, Noah asked, "So, how exactly does the baby come out of your stomach?"
(He has definitely seen lots of "with child" moms around our church, we run about 10-16 in the BABY nursery each week) Stalling for time I said, "What do you mean?"
and he said, "well, does it just pop out?"
My response was..."It is just a miracle. It happens however God wants it to happen."
He countered with..."Does the doctor cut open your stomach and get it out then glue you back together?"
My response: "There are different ways it happens and it is just a miracle that God decides how it will happen."
Then we moved on.
Well...apparently my answer was not satisfactory because he asked my mom the same question last weekend when they were staying with them. My mom answered: "I really think that is a question you should ask your mom." And he said, "I already asked her, and she doesn't know either."

HA!

"AND NOW
FOR SOMETHING
COMPLETELY DIFFERENT"

So, even though you didn't ask, here are 7 things about me (that you may already know but hey, here goes):

1. I am crazy about Disney World. I'm not sure why, or where it came from, but I am! I don't even love thrill rides, but ever since my first visit when I was in the 8th grade, I have fallen in love with the elaborate "theming" of theme parks. Corey and I went for our 6th anniversary to Universal Studios and Epcot, the family went for the first time in February 2008, and for the second time in February 2009, and Corey and I have an "us" trip tentatively planned for December of this year. Our Disney blog chronicles all our trips and plans! It is my escape (well, other than blogging!)

2. I am kind of anti-medication. Truthfully. I don't think that there are near as many drugs that are truly useful as there are drugs that just cause more problems for you. I think most everything that is wrong with anyone can be cured with diet changes. My current kick is "anti-artificial sweeteners, especially aspartame and Splenda."

3. I have recently become very thankful that my children were born less than two years apart. At the time it was a very stressful and crazy few years, but now that I am homeschooling I have discovered what an incredible blessing it is! They get along so well and can do many lessons and activities together which makes it a lot more fun for them. What perfect planning, right Corey?! HA!

4. I have never been camping in my entire life. Not in a tent, camper, or under the stars. And...I really don't look forward to changing this fact though I am sure it will happen...maybe.

5. I want to write a book. This is something I have always wanted to do and it on my "want to do list" still. But, I just can't seem to do it and don't know where to start as far as submitting and publishing. I have a few ideas of stories I have made up for Katie and Noah, but I am just doubtful because it seems everything has already been "done."

6. I really enjoy getting great deals with using coupons! (Did you know that?! ha!) Yesterday I spent $11 at Publix and saved $35! I got 6 (24 ct) packages of Chinet lunch plates, 4 (6 ct) boxes of Orville Reddenbacher popcorn, and 2 large bottles of Glass Plus. The $ saved just from my clipped coupons was $17.20!

7. I am kind of thinking about getting a Saturday job. Not sure why....no REAL need. Just an itch I suddenly got for some crazy reason. When I went to Hobby Lobby the other day they had a sign advertising that they need help and it has been on my mind ever since. I even picked up an application and filled it out. Still playing around with options.... a friend suggested tutoring at Sylvan since I have a teaching certificate... but that idea isn't appealing to me as much as Hobby Lobby. I think it is because I love shopping at Hobby Lobby, so that probably in reality isn't a great idea for a place to work! It might not be profitable!

The End.

Aquarium Visit #2

We are very much enjoying our aquarium passes! This was just the second time we have been, but I can't say enough how nice it is to not have to spend all day and completely tire ourselves out by trying to see and do every single little thing every time! Here are some photos from our second visit...it was the day before Katie got her haircut...8/2/09

This next one is my absolute favorite! Someone get this girl some acting classes!!!!! ha ha!

Noah had made up his mind when he got home from our last visit that he was going to be brave enough to pet the stingrays this time. He didn't want to pet the sharks, but when he stuck his hand in both swam by really quickly so he got to pet them both anyway!

I love the lighting in this photo....

Noah inside the "crawl under" tank. Katie still hasn't done this. Maybe by the time our year membership is over....

Another shot with the penguins...

Noah was "poser" of the day.

Welcome August!

We finished week #3 of our school year today. 15 down, 165 to go.... I am unusually preoccupied with the counting this year since it is our first year of reporting attendance..sorry!

It has been an extremely busy summer! The kids have been working on a musical at Graceland on Wednesday nights, Noah's t-ball was every Monday and Tuesday, and I had book club every other Monday night. Combine that with Corey practicing until very late on Wednesdays and *something* going on about every other Thursday and THAT made for a fun-FILLED summer that breezed by entirely too quickly!

Noah's t-ball has ended, and there are only a couple more weeks of practicing left for the musical. We have really enjoyed both of those things, but it will be nice to have dinner at home more than once a week for a while! Soccer will just be one weeknight and then games every Saturday, so hopefully that will keep us at home more.

So many of my friends are posting (on facebook) how sad they are that summer is gone. Well, I don't know where they live, but it is just now about to be August, so summer is FAR from gone here! In fact, it will be summer all the way until September 22nd and I am betting it will still feel like summer for a while beyond that point as well.

With all that being said....I have to say... Welcome August! Welcome to meals at home together and soccer season.

Welcome to another month of school and days of learning, playing, and just being.
I want to say another welcome to a dear friend of ours as well. Welcome HOME Andy! He got home yesterday from a 5 month deployment in Afghanistan, so I know he is enjoying his homecoming and we can't wait to see him soon! Head over to Bethany's blog to post a message to him if you want... I know I am so thankful and proud of him for what he has sacrificed!

Asking and Seeking

We are approaching this sign it seems and we won't have a chance to make a different choice once it is made.
Actually, life may make the choice for us,
so we will have to just have wisdom in what to do with it.

(For a couple of you reading this, it isn't what you think it is.)
Please pray for us.

We need:
Wisdom.
Peace.
A Word.
Clarity.

1 Down, 179 To Go!

I promise this isn't what we did ALL morning, but I can't very well take a picture of myself with them! ha!

New Addition!

This is the new view when you walk into our house! Notice anything different?!

Here is a little bit closer view.....

I haven't had daily access to a piano in 8 years! (since I got married)
I am SO thrilled!
We have this perfect little spot in the kitchen/dining area.
Hopefully it will be prove to be a safe spot, as it is partly over a return vent and I have read mixed reviews about it..it seems that with it not being an "output" vent it should be okay.
We will keep a close eye and ear out for it.
This is a very special piano.
My mom's dad gave it to her when she was a little girl. He passed away when she was 13 years old. She learned on it, I learned on it, and now my kids will learn on it!
I am so thankful for Corey's brothers and our friend who helped them move it today. We have about 10 steps coming up our front porch but they got it moved pretty quickly and easily. We fed them some Zaxby's and homemade cherry walnut banana bread as thanks!

I have already been playing! It doens't seem to be too terribly out of tune really. Just a little in the upper notes. It is probably more out of tune than we can tell just from playing around a little, but I am so very excited to have it and I can't wait to get back in practice. I will also be using it to begin to teach Katie and Noah this year.

Now I have another kind of working out to add to my routine every day....
I will have to get back in shape if I plan to be a suitable teacher this year!

School At Home

We are starting school Monday. I am so excited and refreshed and READY! Katie will be doing first grade and Noah will be doing Kindergarten. As I explained in an earlier post, yes it is the same "grade" they did last year, but the material is really a grade ahead by using Abeka. SO anyway..I spent all day today cleaning out our room and getting it all ready to begin Monday morning! Here is the view when you walk in....

Here is the area where my children will learn this year. From me, their mommy. The best teacher in the world! *smile* ha ha. Really though, who could know them better? This little carpet is going to be the launching point of all kinds of new discoveries...Noah learning to read, Katie improving her comprehension skills, both of them learning about God every single day and beginning their days with family prayer. I am just so excited I can't stand it!

Here is a view from the other corner of the room. I should have closed the door to get a better picture. I brought back a little wooden table this year, just for fun. Not really their work space, but more of a play spot. I also removed some of the bigger things like the HUGE white art cabinet/table and the kitchen playset and created a play area in the room right outside this one. I didn't take pictures, it is just a basement room with toys! ha ha!

Here is my most favorite spot in our classroom...the books! I love putting out new books based around the theme or season. Also, on the top of the bookshelf is my framed degree in Education from Shorter College. I am proud to have such a prominent spot to place it!

So, the countdown is on! 4 more days!
They are so excited also...Noah asked all day if we were going to have school today.
I think that is a great sign!

Eight Years

Today my wonderful crazy husband and I are celebrating eight years of marriage!
Happy Anniversary Corey!

It is so fun to be your wife, and I look forward to many more anniversaries together!

A Tree Like This One...

Have you ever sat under and looked up at tree like this one before? As I was doing that today I was thinking about many other very similar trees and similar weather days yet very different circumstances surrounding the occasion. Many different ages, stages, places, settings. I don't know, it just made me think and remember and it made me so thankful for the occasion that brought me under this tree on this very day of July 3rd, 2009.

Not too many years ago this week I was hastily putting together a wedding! If you have read the story on my blog before you know that Corey and I moved our wedding up and decided the weekend before July 7th that we were going to go ahead and get married! So, this week is a sentimental one for me even if not already because of the holiday. (Today is also the 90 day milestone in our Disney trip countdown, so you can click here to read more about that!)

This week, 8 years later, we are enjoying a sunny afternoon at the park with our two beautiful and sweet children! Here is Katie with her umbrella "to keep the sun away."

Our two kids, tree-hugging!

Goofing around...doing "absodutely nothing" (Katie's words)
That's Corey sitting under the tree.

Sweet.

Tonight, getting a ride on Daddy's back to their bedrooms for bedtime. Doesn't everyone have a picture like this? They have done this so many times, but I finally got a picture tonight. That's 111 pounds of cuteness on his back! (yeah, it only happens about once every couple of weeks! ha!)

Sweet day and priceless moments!

$3 Worth of Fun!

We took a trip to the Chattanooga Zoo and Coolidge Park in Tennessee today. Thanks to our friend, Christi, we found out that on Wednesdays, admission to the zoo is only $1/person! Christi actually wasn't able to make it, but 3 of us took our 2 kids/each for a fun day! Here they are posing with the giant chimp.

Noah, Brendan, Zion, Katie, Canaan, and Kaitlyn.

This bird was funny...it would peck on the window at the kids which they thought was hilarious! Below they are sitting on the fountain in front of the red panda exhibit.


Now for a silly pose! Pray a special blessing on Ms. Bethany and Ms. Beverly for accompanying the kids into the petting zoo area! ha ha!


Noah loved petting the dog the best. Go figure! Below they are on their way out of the train car that was the observation area for the cougars.

After the zoo we went over to Coolidge Park by the river for a picnic and water play fun.
Kaitlyn decided she needed to work on her tan, so here are the girls soaking up some sun!

They couldn't sit still for long at all... I think Katie regretted agreeing to the whole sun sitting thing! ha!

The boys enjoyed the wide open spaces for running, playing tag, and more running!
On to the water fun! Huge fountains and stone animal statues shooting water...fun fun fun!

I think we got more than our money's worth of fun today, wouldn't you say?

School Days

A photo of our classroom at the beginning of last school year.

I have a tentative starting date for our school year 09-10. July 13, 2009.

We should have the rest of our supplies by that date, so why not? It is too miserably hot to go outdoors. We don't have a pool. The kids are bored. Our classroom is in the nice cool basement....

We went yesterday to a materials display where we ordered the rest of our materials and I was told it would take 2-3 weeks for them to come in. I guess over the next couple of weeks I will be clearing out and scheduling and getting ready for day 1.

We will be using Abeka this year for most everything. I came to the realization that while I enjoy using "real living literature" as they say for teaching science, social studies, etc, I really dislike the non-organized structure of that method. While some can make it structured enough for their family, I can't handle being given an inch of disorganization...I take 10 miles every time! So, we have our "workbooks" which will give us a timeline and scope/sequence and I will add to it with literature and projects.

We used Sonlight last year, which was a complete literature perspective. All the lesson plans were done for you. What I did not like about it was being stuck with those lesson plans. It was also difficult to find a happy medium between their Language and Reading levels. If I put Katie in the 1st grade material then the reading was entirely too easy. If I jumped to the 2nd grade material then the language portion was too advanced. I was able to look at the entire year of 1st grade reading/language from Abeka at the materials display and it seems to hit exactly what we need. The reading portion is challenging without being too difficult with the language and spelling.

Katie will be doing first grade this year with Abeka, and Noah will be doing K5. I know this seems like the same exact grade they did last year, but it really isn't because Abeka averages about one year more advanced than any other curriculum. The Kindergarten Abeka that Noah will be doing is pretty much similar to everyone else's "first grade" material.

I even ordered an Abeka math workbook for each of them, though I will use all my other resources to teach the concepts, just using the workbook for practice.

The only thing I will not have ready for the very beginning of school is our art. I love learning about and doing art projects/pieces with the kids and they love it too, but that is next on the wishlist and will wait until later. Maybe we will try to start it for the second half of the year. I kind of plan to do a year round schedule anyway, so we can throw it in whenever.

I am really excited about starting fresh! It will be nice to have almost four months of school done before our trip. Then, after that, who knows what exciting projects we will have on the horizon ;)

Play Ball!!!!!!

Noah had his first t-ball game tonight! It was.... so many thing!
Cute, awesome, hilarious, fun....
Their team is the Timber Rattlers. Two of his friends, Canaan and Joshua are also on the same team.
It has been so neat for those boys to be able to play together, especially Noah and Canaan because Bethany happens to be living here right now while her husband is deployed. It has been a very special thing for them and something that who knows when/if they will ever be able to do together again since Canaan is part of a military family.
Anyway, here are Noah and Katie before the game...(above and below).

Above: prayer before the game starts (love a Christian league!)
Below: PLAY BALL!

Above: Noah hanging out in his field position.
Below: The team waiting for their turn at bat.
Noah is on the left end, Joshua is on the right end, and Canaan is beside Joshua.

Above: Noah "on deck."
Below: Waiting for the pitch. The get two coach pitches then they bring out the tee.

HIT AND RUN!

Running to third, then.... playing in the sand on third.

End of the game...

At one point in the game the ball was hit right to Noah and he got it and started to throw to first base, but....
his glove was on the wrong hand! He was so confused and the look on his face was priceless as he tried several times to throw the ball but he didn't let go because it obviously didn't feel right...for a second it looked like he might try to put it in his glove and throw it with his right hand anyway, but he finally just let it go with his left. The coaches politely came over and helped him get his glove on the correct hand.
This is definitely going to be a fun..and entertaining experience!