Our Slide Conqueror and some Kindergarten Magic

           

Miss Determination is at it again!!  I guess turning a big ONE year old last week has Kylie motivated to accomplish her next big trick.  Yes, that trick is climbing up the slide, turning around at the top, sitting down and then going down the slide by herself. 

It’s hard to believe that she’s really still a little one who’s age is counted in months. 

And then there is Lex :)  If she was lacking in self confidence before, she has truly found her voice in the last couple of days.  She is rather proud to be a Kindergartener!

It’s just too bad that she doesn’t have any personality!

Hmm..... no time now, but man I've got some canvas just calling my name!!

Take a look at this!!  I check out the blog How about Orange when I remember to and I love her zany projects!  Man, I want to be like Jessica Jones!


This canvas project is fun, it's simple and cute.  Just my kind of project.  I've got some canvas just waiting too!

And for those of you that think you couldn't do this, she even has a tutorial on her site!

My Art Classroom. Ready for another year!

One of my absolute favorite things about teaching is that every year I get to redo my classroom!  I can move things around, change my decorations, and basically reinvent myself all at the same time.

Here is a sneak peak into my world!

From the door:

Yes, those orange books are textbooks!  I’m up to close to 150 students this year!  EEK!!

Looking in main room: 

From the far side:

Front corner:

I love a clean counter:

The important things..
       

Thanks for stopping by my room!!

She's ONE!

When I was young

I rolled my eyes

At those who claimed

Time flew.

Now I wish

That time would slow

So I could stop

Just once.

The days will roll

And months will race.

The years will surely roar.

Oh how I want to freeze.

But knowing that

The waves of life

Must crash upon the shore

I treasure each and every day

For while fleeting,

life is oh so sweet.

Happy First Birthday!!

Sweet Kylie Faith!

Where Am I?? At work.... and a little song to make the day brighter

Life here has gone into overdrive.  It always does the first of August until say... May. But really, by September we are into a routine and I feel like I can breathe or maybe even take a moment for myself.  This afternoon Lexi gets to meet her Kindergarten teacher.  It makes me sad just thinking about it.  Oh how fast time flies.  Kylie started with a new sitter last week when I returned to work and it is going wonderfully and Maddie starts Intermediate school. 

I'm tired just thinking about all of the schedule juggling!

So, maybe soon I can post a quality post.  Until then, take a couple of minutes and listen to this song.  My sister sent it on to me and it is incredible!!!!

Anthony Evans- Amazing God

Fancy Nancy and Madame Alexander make for a GREAT Day!

The Cross Timbers Fine Arts Council (our local arts organization) put together a Madame Alexander Doll exhibit and then gave a Fancy Nancy luncheon and style show. I knew that Lexi would be in heaven, so of course, we went!
Here she is as we were getting ready to leave the house.




The luncheon was sold out long before the event.  Thankfully our friends got tickets too!!!  Everything was super cute and fancy.  Even the kids peanut butter sandwhich boxes were decorated!
       
Then came the fashion show.  Yes, Lexi even got to participate.  She LOVED it! 
 
Sweet memories and a fun and fancy day!

Memorial Box Monday: From Sorrow to Joy

I have been wrestling about posting this story for quite some time.  I’ve started it and deleted it, I’ve thought about what to include and what to leave out.  So many reasons for not writing, but in the end, I am writing this Memorial Box Monday story because someone needs to read it.

One of last week’s MBM stories was written for me.  I am sure of that. The timing, the subject, the context... the whole thing.  So I am going to trust that God has a reason for making sure that at 1:30am I finally got his instruction after months of my saying not yet.

My Memorial Box Monday story is about God’s incredible gift of joy that comes after sorrow.  It is also about God’s grace and mercy.  It is also about trusting God’s plan when you can’t see it for yourself.

To begin, let me take you back to the spring of 1999.  Doug and I had been married for about six months and knew that God had called him back into a full-time pastorate.  Doug had spent the last year teaching at the same high school where I was teaching,  (He had to do that so he could meet me and marry me!)  but teaching was not Doug’s passion. So we started looking at churches.

The first Sunday of May 1999 found us at a little church in the middle of North Carolina.  Doug preached and we decided that it was a good fit. We sold our home in Texas and moved the first weekend of June.

Fast forward to May 4, 2000. Maddie was born.  All was good, but we were a young family all on our own and needed to be closer to family.  We began to consider moving back to Texas.   Over the next couple of months we found out that Doug was a good commodity.  We had lots of churches interested in us. However, there was one that stood out.

That church was in Weimar, Texas.  When Doug told me the story of the church, I groaned and said, that’s where we are going. And we did go there.  And it was wonderful and difficult all at that same time.

For you see, on the first weekend of May of 1999, the pastor of the church in Weimar, Skip and his wife Karen, were found murdered in the parsonage next door to the church.  They were victims of serial killer Rafael Resendez-Ramirez, the Railroad Killer. This tiny town was devastated.  While Doug was preaching for the first time in North Carolina, our future friends were finding their beloved pastor murdered.

We didn’t know about it at the time.

One the first anniversary of Skip and Karen’s death, Maddie was born.

As Doug began talking with the church it was clear to us that this just might be our next pastorate.  It was hard to imagine moving and beginning a ministry with a group of people so grief stricken, but we chose to.  God chose us.

We began our ministry in Weimar the first Sunday of 2001. It was a difficult time, but very hopeful as well.  Maddie was just beginning to walk and having her with us built a bridge between the sorrow and the joy. 

Yes, we lived in the parsonage.

Maddie turned one on the second anniversary of Skip and Karen’s death.  We invited the church to celebrate her 1st birthday with us.  Doug grilled hotdogs and we had about 50 people come over to our backyard party.  As I look back at pictures, I am once again amazed that the very men who found the bodies of Skip and Karen just two years before where there celebrating Maddie’s birthday.  Joy from Sorrow.  Sorrow to Joy.

In the end, we stayed in Weimar just under two years.  Maddie made a life-long connection with an older couple in the church and we were able to walk a difficult stretch of the road with a wonderful group of people.  I wish we could have stayed in  longer, but we left because Doug’s dad was in bad health and I would not trade Maddie’s short time with her Grandpa for anything. 

As we saw lived out by the people of Weimar, to everything there is a season.  And from Sorrow there can be Joy.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
¹ There is a time for everything,
       and a season for every activity under heaven:

² a time to be born and a time to die,
       a time to plant and a time to uproot,

³ a time to kill and a time to heal,
       a time to tear down and a time to build,

⁴ a time to weep and a time to laugh,
       a time to mourn and a time to dance,

⁵ a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them,
       a time to embrace and a time to refrain,

⁶ a time to search and a time to give up,
       a time to keep and a time to throw away,

⁷ a time to tear and a time to mend,
       a time to be silent and a time to speak,

⁸ a time to love and a time to hate, 
       a time for war and a time for peace.