Fun but busy week!

Darrel, Hunter, Tyler, Houston and Paige at the pool party

I am thinking my son should have been a fish

the boys doing handstands

Houston and his new friend Tyler

I wanted to post some pics of Houston and his new friend Tyler. We had a pool party and cookout with a bunch of friends on Sunday and they had a ball swimming and playing together.

I have finally gotten everything back to normal from the beach and I have had a great week so far. Monday, I ran errands and ate lunch with Tim. Tuesday, I went to a friend's house to swim, met my friend Melissa for the best mexican lunch ever, got my hair hi lighted and went to a neighborhood park with Hou and Melissa. Today, I went with my friend Katie to go get my Bridesmaid dress ordered for her wedding in October, then we went and ate delicious mexican again and layed out at the pool in this beautiful weather we have been having. Can you tell, I can live off MEXICAN FOOD? Tonight, I went to my parent's house and ate dinner, then went to my grandparents house to visit. My pop sells watermelons during the summer and just got back with a load of over 200! If you ever go down Hwy 196,Raleigh Lagrange intersection, you will see him sitting on the corner, just a selling away! He really enjoys it too and they are so good.

Tonight I decided to up my weights on the Shred workout and I am now thinking that was a bad idea. I usually use 3 lb weights on each arm, but tonight, I used 5 lbs each and I had 1 lb each strapped to my wrist. Whew, I am hurting on my upper arms right now, but I know it will eventually pay off. Tomorrow, I am gonna take it easy and hopefully not do too much and Friday, I am so excited to meet up with my new friend Beth and her little boy, Neal. He is a year younger than Houston we plan to go to the spraypark with the boys.

This weekend is July 4th and we have some exciting things planned. Tim mentioned tonight, that he wants to go to Pickwick and watch the fireworks. Sounds like fun, but I am thinking it would sound better in a boat on a lake. What kind of plans or fun things are you going to do to celebrate America's Birthday?

Beach trip

Houston at his "FLORIDA BEACH"

My Family
My parents and us at the Back Porch for dinner

My lovie!

We went on our family vacation to the beach at Destin, Florida last week with my mom and dad and my hubby and Houston. It was so much fun! The weather was fabulous and there was absolutely NO OIL where we were. It had been spotted in Ft Walton the week before and was spotted in Panama City too, but luckily, it overpassed Destin.

We spent our days on the beach, afternoons shopping and hanging at the pool. Our nights consisted of eating out and listening to the bands on the Harbor. The men hung out alot and got to do the "man" thing and the girls hung at the pool some. I met a new friend Lisa who I hung out with at the pool, EVERY afternoon or night and I missed a few old friends this year. My friend Kate that lives there was actually out of town that week, so we missed each other by one day. My other friend Maria, moved to another condo and I didn't get ahold of her until the last day. :( Houston had a blast though. He is quite the swimmer! He improves so much each year and I am so proud. This year, we did not even take his speedo life vest or floaties or anything. He was diving in to get the rings and toys and was so comfortable doing it. Well, on another note, my son now wants to move to Florida Beach. He has always loved and enjoyed going, but this year, i know he truley had a blast!

I wanted to blog about my vacation while I had a minute. I have been so busy this summer and to think the summer is already half way over :( Back to work I go in August. Gosh it went by so fast. Have a great week!

a summer surprise for the 2nd time

I guess this is what I get for leaving my Christmas wreath up all year. This is the first year I have not taken it down and this is the second time in 3 months I have walked outside to this.......That is right, a bird has built a nest, not once, but twice in my front door wreath. We don't use our front door much. We use the garage entries or back door and this year, I decided I did not want to fool with storing my wreath in the attic. I bet next year, I will decide to store the darn wreath. I had a friend come and take the nest down to prevent babies and we discovered there were 3 blue eggs, so we put it back in the wreath. When I got back from the beach, i discovered those eggs had hatched. They are so cool to watch them with their mouth wide open waiting on the momma to bring some worms.

Wordless Wednesday

Count down to be beach bound

My beach baby sunning at the beach last year

Well, the countdown has almost ended and it is time to finally head to the beach! The oil has not been a concern of mine until this Wednesday. It has been spotted in a few different areas of Destin, FL. I am not worried about the oil though. I am concerned about all the animals and the residents that live off the tourist support. If you don't know about Destin, it is so so busy during the spring and summer months and it is dead during the winter. They make their annual money off tourism in the summer months. I have a few friends that live there and it is hard times right now. Please pray for God's will to allow someone or something to FIX this oil leak.

I am so excited though. I always pack super early and I have procrastinated this year and have not even started. I know, you probably think, I am a teacher and have nothing else to do. Well, I have taught VBS all week and volunteered to keep the "friends" Houston brought to church and even had 2 sleepovers this week. It was so worth it. I really enjoyed Vbs this year. i had great assistants, students and the theme was right up my alley. (Cowboy/western)

My whole family is going on our trip together this year. It will be mom and dad and Tim, Houston and I. We have many fun adventures planned already and I am sure we will find tons of other stuff to keep us busy. Tim is not too excited about the oil spill and being gone from home (he is a workaholic). But I know he will have a ball once we get there. He always does.

Mom and I, of course, will shop til we drop. I absolutely love the Destin Commons mall and the SandDestin outlets! Can't wait, but I will try to keep everyone posted. Have a great week!

VBS update/misc

This is VBS at our church, First Baptist Fisherville. The theme is Saddle Ridge Ranch and the kids are having a ball. Today was Day 3, which was bring a friend day and hootin howdy hat day. The kids were just precious with her silly hats. My favorite one was Dylan in my class. His was a shark eating a girl's leg hat.I guess boys will be boys, right? Anyway, today was pretty special. It was the day, bro Jack preaches the gospel to the older children. We had 19 children come forward wanting to dedicate their life to Christ and 1 re dedication. Wow! I have the chills just talking about it, Amazing, is really how I feel and all I can say right now.

I have a few students in my class who don't go to church and I have been so proud of the way, they have stepped up, wanting to close us in prayer and be involved. They are ALL learning the Bible Verses each day, (of course, I give them a prize each day, if they do) and they have been so into the stories. I'm so proud to be a teacher, where I can devote my time to volunteer and help out at VBS each year. I absolutely love it! I have the BEST helper and assistant this year and they are so good and helpful with everything!

Houston brought 2 friends today and will be bringing 3 friends tomorrow. He was excited to have his friends at church with him . One little girl is even spending the night tonight, so she can go back tomorrow. Then tomorrow night, his cousin Abbi is supposed to spend the night. He has been looking forward to that for a while. I will update you on everything probably at the end of the week.

Today, we stayed in our pool all afternoon, since he had some friends go to church with him for vbs. It was like a hangout at our house. My sister came over to lay out and hang for a bit. Houston had 2 friends to swim with. My sister left and then one of the kids, Katelyn's mom came and brought sis Autumn. Then there were 4 kiddos in the pool and I had another ADULT to hang out at the pool. then they left and Makyala's ( the one that spent the night) parents came by to visit. Needless to say, it has been busy at my house today!

You probably already know, I like to jump around when I talk. So next, I was going to tell you about how much fun I had on my trip to the lake with girlfriends for a Bachleorette party and getaway. I so needed that break and I lived it up too! I layed out, jumped a cliff at Devil's Fork, which is so so so high. wow, I have butterflies just thinking about it. I tubed and am now covered in bruises. Went on a speed boat ride and I mean SPEED BOAT, thanks to my friend Melissa's future bro-in law Russell. Met some really sweet girls. Hung out with some really cool girls. Talked, laughed, ate, drank a couple margaritas, laughed, talked and had loads of fun. I will attempt to post pics or you can go to Melissa's blog to see the awesome pics. http://melissaannebradley.blogspot.com

Now, i don't know what is going on with me staying up so late, but so far, this summer, i have not been going to bed until between 11:30-2:00 am. Then i wake up just fine. Not tired or anything. i have gotten to where I check my facebook that late, clean house, fold laundry and do my Shred dvd. I am now on Level 2. I don't do the workout on a daily basis. I just don't have time and I started out being so sore. I do a day, then wait 2 or 3 days. but it has gotten so hot outside, i am thinking, I would rather do that 30 minute Shred, then walk or bike outside. It has been ridiculously hot so far this year and it is really getting to me. I can barely handle it. UGH.

Last, i wanted to blog about my beach trip. Well, it is next week and I have been updated online that the OIL arrived in Destin this afternoon. I am so sad. My hubby wants to just stay home, but I am hoping since it just arrived, that it may not be as bad. We have an exciting week planned, so please pray for our safety and for our trip to be a pleasant getaway!
Hope you had a happy hump day!

summer fun

Yesterday I took Houston to the spraypark in Collierville and met up with a friend from his Pre-K class, Abigail, her sister, Maddie and mom, Crystal. The kids had so much fun playing together and Crystal and I had got some much needed adult conversation. We ended up staying for almost 4 hours! Here are some pics of the kiddos.

Houston, Abigail and Maddie

Taking a snack break

After the waterpark, we headed home to clean up and head out again for Bike Night. Our plans were to go to Funquest and hear the Wolf River Rednecks play. They had to cancel due to a band member getting his house broken into and his equipment stolen. Some people can be so mean. So, plan B was to head downtown to Bike night. After discussing that one, we then changed our minds again, to Plan C, and headed to Joe's Crab Shack Bike Night. It was great food, fun and entertainment. I think we all had a ball. I even got to sit on a brand new crotch rocket. Now, I think I need one, but that won't happen anytime soon with a small child, unless he can ride on the handlebars. Haha, just kidding, I would never put my child on a bike. Not until he gets older!

So, if you go to Joe's, make sure you order the Crab Dip appetizer. That stuff is the BOMB.

Today's plans were to lay out at the pool with Melissa. Ahhh, the life of a teacher. Well, the weather is not exactly cooperating with us, so now we have to resort to plan B. Which is ok since it involves MEXICAN food. Yummmmm. Gotta go, I will catch up with yall later

Memorial Day service

At church on Sunday, the music directer, Bro Rick showed a slide show of pictures of a soldier and his children while a lady in the choir sing a song about a Hero Coming Home. It was about a dad missing out on the important things in his children's lives due to him fighting for our Country.



That song and show was so touching and was so hard to watch without shedding a tear. We had 2 soldiers in uniform in the service and later found out that one of the men, will be deployed back to Iraq soon. Please remember to continue to pray for our soldiers and their families.

After the song was over, I heard crying and boo hooing. Bro Jack, our pastor went up to one of our church members sitting up front and put his arm on him and announced that Dennis, the man that was crying, had lost his elderly mother earlier this week. I lost it and tears began rolling down my face. No, his mom wasn't a soldier, but she was his hero coming home to Heaven. How devastating for that poor man to deal with such a loss and be right back at church on Sunday. He and his mom were very close and he was so faithful to her. She was older and would always walk around hugging and greeting everyone during the visitation. Such a friendly lady. They are kind of a needy family and I think everyone in the church knew Dennis and his mom. My family went to their house to Christmas carol a couple years ago. His mom will be missed by many. Please pray for this sweet man as he is on his own now and has just lost his mother.



Our pastor went on to preach on the 10 Commandments. We were reading in Deuteronomy 5: 6-21. We were talking about using the Lord's name in vain and he said, the movie Avatar was the #1 movie and had the word G** D***** in it two times. What is this nation coming to? For millions of people to watch and support movies that use God's name in vain like that. That disgusts me.



Also, verse 12 says, remember the Sabbath day and keep it Holy. Well, one of the busy shopping days for retailers is on Sundays. That is when they make all their $$$ and someone has to work to keep it open. When I was little, I remember nothing being opened on Sunday. We would go to church and come home and spend the day together as a family.



Another interesting statistic that Bro Jack reported was comparing schools in the 70's and the 90's. After looking at the statistics and knowing that prayer was taken out of schools. I am pretty positive that some of these problems would probably not be occurring if WE still had PRAYER in our public schools. I was trying to take notes quickly, but here is what I got. These were the biggest problems then and now, check this out.....



1970's

not putting trash properly in trash can

not doing Homework

talking out with out permission

violating dress code

not listening to teacher



Now, here are the 1990's

drug abuse in schools

mass murder

teen pregnancy

alcohol use

suicide

profanity use



This is pretty scary to see the dramatic changes. I know I have witnessed and experienced a few of the problems from 90's being a teacher. This is so sad. Please pray for our country!

blessed teacher

Saturday I was checking my email and I got an update from freecyle. It was an offer for Kindergarten and early childhood manipulatives, games and teaching materials. I called the girl and high tailed it to Germantown. When I got there, the woman was having a garage sale, but freecycling a bunch due to not many people showing up at the sale. She was a Kindergarten teacher and was transferring to teach high school. She pretty much told me to pick through and get what I wanted. It took 4 trips to get it to my car. I went through and sorted and cleaned and organized everything and ended up putting some of the things (the were old or too babyish) in a bag for Fayette Cares. I ended up buying somethings too, since I felt bad she was giving this away. Tim got new booster cables for $2, I got a Dr Jean CD for $2, a yoga mat for $3 and Houston bought some stickers, pipe cleaners and paints for $1 to make one of his super cool art projects!

These are some of the things I got, tons of boxes of flash cards (alphabet, number, words). Phonics board games, sequencing cards, alphabet bingo, number puzzles, abc puzzles, tub of brand new manipulative shapes, games, tons of awesome learning file folder games already laminated for stations, a computer headphone jack, pocket chart, and posters. There is so much more to list, but I can't remember and I already packed it up for August.

I am so excited about using these materials in my classroom next year!