2013~wow

Well, as always, it's hard to believe another year has come and gone.  And we are almost an entire month into 2013.  Let's see, what could I say about the last few months???  I love God, I love my family, I love my friends and I love my church.  I am so incredibly thankful for all God has done in our lives.  He answered one huge prayer by allowing my husband to 'get out of dodge' so to speak.  Were we thinking this is where our lives were headed??? Certainly not.  Did we envision our lives being this chaotic???  No way.  But you pick up and move on.  You do the best you can.  We are living God's plan by going through each day and that's the best we can do. We live our lives with intregity doing what we can for each of the students we come in contact with.  What's disheartening is not everyone we work with has this attitude.  Far to often, I am coming into contact with people who do not have students' best interests at heart.  It's sad.   

Enough of that.  I can only be so philosophical.  I am enjoying Pinterest and getting all sorts of ideas on creating.  Looking forward to what the spring holds.  Praying our house sells quickly but also enjoying the purge of getting things together for a garage sale and just general cleaning.  My New Year's purge is slightly behind this year.  I guess it was the job change at Christmas that threw me off the cleaning schedule. 

Bodee has grown by leaps and bounds.  And I must say, if she keeps destroying things, she and I will not be friends for much longer.  She literally ate a wall (if you don't believe me, see my facebook page for the picture.)  It looks like we had an infestation of beavers.  She has eaten a cord on a heater, thankfully not while plugged into the wall.  She has chewed a few shoes, some socks and other such things.  Hopefully this is only the puppy in her.

I am now 34 years old.  My only prayer is that 34 is better than 33.  Nor-Nor will be 7 in a couple of weeks.  What???!!!  I know, time marches on, but really...........No birthday parties this year.  I am over birthday parties.  So, the plan is family dinner birthday party at the place of their choosing.  It should be no surprise to anyone that Nor has chosen Olive Garden.  She is a girl after her father's heart. 

All sorts of stuff

Well, it's time for another blog post since our lives have changed so drastically since my last post of October.  It is amazing how you can be going along and BAM! your life can turn on a dime.  There are many things that can be learned from this situation but one of the biggest is that we have so many friends who have our backs and support us.  It is very humbling.  But, when you live a life of integrity and honesty that is the overall outcome. 

So we have celebrated Thanksgiving, with many things to be thankful for.  We are too quickly approaching Christmas.  We are excited to celebrate this time of year with our friends and family.  We are also excited and let's be honest, a little apprehensive about what the future holds.  But I know that God has us in the palm of His hand. 

We did the first installment of what I am calling our truck stop ministry yesterday.  We put together 25 boxes to give out at our local truck stop.  I spent Friday night baking away and packing the boxes with lots of help from T and the kids.  I am glad we decided to only do 25 boxes to start.  I would still be baking otherwise.  It was awesome to give them out.  It was kind of hurtful, when a few times, we were rejected.  And I thought about the figurative rejection of that box.  How so many people reject, so quickly, the free gift of God's love without realizing how sweet it is.  Just like the cookies and candies in those boxes are sweet, so is the love of Christ. 

I also, instead of grading papers this weekend, spent some time on a project.  I found the coolest table at the ReStore in M'ville.  It needed some TLC.  So I cleaned it up and then painted it.  Oh how I wish I had some before and after pictures.  I am quite proud of this project. 

Fall Break

 This past weekend we headed up to Asheville.  T had a conference to attend so the kids and I tagged along to have our own fall break.  We went up the Blue Ridge Parkway on Sunday and ended up here at this waterfall.  (Oh, after an almost 2 mile hike I might add.) It was so beautiful.  It amazes me what our God has created.  How can anyone look at something like this and not believe in our amazingly awesome God???!!!

 I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture.  I am going to definitely get this put on canvas. 

Tug is getting pretty good at taking pictures.  We decided to head the longer way back which turns out was straight up hill for almost a mile.  Needless to say I thought I was going to DIE.  We should have gone to the falls the way we went back to our car, but oh well.  We had a great time and topped it off with *Mellow Mushroom* downtown and some ice cream after.  And I scored a sweet deal at the *Mast General Store.*

Bodee Update

Here's a fairly recent picture of our 3rd child.  She has grown so fast.  She fits right into our family.  And of course no dog would fit into this family without a personality and Bodee certainly has one.  She likes to sleep under the covers or up around someone's head, she doesn't like to go out by herself (I think she is afraid of the dark).  She is the official soccer team mascot.  We can't go anywhere without drawing a crowd because she is so cute.  She rarely barks unless the blow dryer or vacuum cleaner are on.  And she doesn't much like the broom being out either.  

1st Day

 Yes, I know it's nearly the end of the first 9 weeks, but it's better late than never.  Here are my 'babies.' I am now Mom to a 3rd and 1st grader.  Unbelievable.........they are doing well thus far and I can only pray they continue to do as well as they first weeks.