Relay for Life

Let me start by saying that on Monday we switched our internet provider, and our internet has been down ever since! It finally came back up this afternoon. So, I have some catching up to do with reading everyone's blog. Plus, in case I forgot to send any of you my new email address, it is usfive@mchsi.com

Our homeschool group has started a Relay for Life team this year. Monday evening we had a meeting where I was able to purchase this really cool shirt. If anyone is interested in purchasing one, please send me an email. The money will go towards our teams goal.

These shirts are brown with pink lettering. The short sleeved t-shirts are $12, and the long sleeved t-shirts are $18. The sizes we have available are YS, YM, YL, S, M, L, XL, 2XL, 3XL. We are also selling koozies (drink huggers) for $2 that are brown and have the same saying as the shirts.

Nothing much

Thought I'd let everyone know I'm still here. Nothing much going on though. Basketball ended this week for Rebecca. Funny story...they don't keep score in her age group, but the kids (at least Rebecca) keeps up with the score. Well, her team never wins. But we all know that's not the point. A couple of games ago the other team was short a couple of kids, so they asked Rebecca and another kid to play for the other team. At first I didn't know this, so I was wondering why Rebecca was passing the ball to the other team. During halftime she came up to me to explain the situation. Then she said, "Out team never wins. Today I'm playing with the other team, and now our team is winning." I thought, "Go figure!" Poor Beck! Oh, another funny Rebecca story. A couple of days ago the girls were playing barbies and it when it was time to clean up and get ready for bed I went in there to help clean. Hannah proceeds to tell me the storyline for barbie playing that night. They were pretending that one of thier little girls was lost and they couldn't find her for a whole day. The little girl was outside alone lost all day. Rebecca says, "Yeah, and I had real tears coming down." I said, "You mean you were really crying?" Hannah confirmed that Rebecca was really crying! When I asked her why she was crying over a make-believe game, she said, "Because it was making me really sad." Such a tender heart my Rebecca has!

Facing the Giants

Have any of you seen this movie? I've heard of it, a lot of good stuff, but didn't really know what it was about. I was at my sister's yesterday after church with some others folks from church and we got to talking about movies. They brought this one up and went on and on about how good it is. My sister happened to have the movie and so I borrowed it. After breakfast this morning, Jimmy, the girls, and I piled up in the living room to watch it. What a great movie!! I cried so many times during the movie! It's a movie about a high school football team and their head coach. This movie is so filled with scripture and the message is clear, it's an awesome family movie. But did you know that a church in Albany, Georgia is who made this movie? If I'm not mistaken, the church is called Sherwood Baptist Church, and they did this movie as an outreach ministry. So majority of the actors are not really actors, but members of this church. They made one before Facing the Giants and one after. I can't remember the name of the one before (I think it's Flyaway??), but the one after is called Fireproof. That one has Kirk Cameron as one of the actors (maybe the main one). I'm anxious to get this one now. I thought I would share this info. So if any of you have not seen it and/or are football fans, this is a GREAT movie to see!

Field Trip

Friday, the girls and I set out to Wilson with our homeschool group for a field trip. We went to the Imagination Station where kids learn about science from hands on exhibits. Jimmy and I took the girls there about a year ago, so I recommended it to our group. The first floor is filled with tons of hands-on stuff. One of the favorites amongst the kids was the animal race (I don't know the exact name.). Here, the child chooses which animal they want to race, like a turtle, a bear, or a cheetah for example. You push the button, wait for the light to turn green, and then run like crazy. It tells you who wins. Those kids raced the animals over and over and over! We signed up for the "courtroom boom pop fizz" show. So after they played and played downstairs, we went upstairs to see all the cool experiments. The last one was the best! Everyone in the room jumped from the explosion! Also upstairs they have reptiles for the kids to see. Thankfully they were all in aquariums! One of the workers took out a snake for the kids to pet. I couldn't believe it, but Rebecca actually went up and touched the snake! She couldn't wait to tell her daddy.

The is the last experiment....notice how far back the lady is standing as he's holds out a lit stick!

Rebecca learning about levers

What better way to learn about teeth then to play in them??

Rebecca being brave enough to touch the snake...ewww!!

Curlers & Funny Faces

I Know My Man!

Tuesday night was the annual Ladie's Night Fireman's Supper. I always look forward to it every year. Bill's Barbeque caters our dinner with yummy barbeque, slaw, fried chicken, stew, boiled potatoes and hushpuppies!!! Yummy! This year they either started something new, or just started doing what they use to do. The firemen had roses for all of us ladies, and the Newlywed game was played! Jimmy and I were asked to participate in the game, and of course we agreed, along with three other couples. The ladies were escorted into one room to anwser two sets of questions while the men went into another room to answer two different sets of questions. Then we were all brought back together, and in front of the entire department and their wives, we had to guess what each other answered. It was hillarious! Some of the questions and especially the answers were way too funny. Jimmy and I won first place!! We were so proud of ourselves! It was a team effort, so not only do I know my man, but he knows his woman!

She was trying

Little Leah is a character! Right before lunch she was begging for a snack. She finally came up to me and asked if she could have a poptart. She said, "It has fruit in it, it's healthy! I saw it on tv." Although she tried hard, she still didn't succeed. But she sure made me laugh. Update: This morning during breakfast the tv was on and the poptart commercial came on. Leah said, "Watch Mommy!" Then at the "made with real fruit" part, she looked at me and said, "See, I told you." Too funny!

16 Random Things

I've got a facebook account which has been a lot of fun. I've reconnected with a lot of friends from college, and I even found a friend that I use to live with when I was in Korea. Well, someone started a 16 random things list, and I thought it would be fun to do it up here too. You're supposed to write 16 random things about yourself and then tag friends for them to do the same. But since a lot of us have the same blogger friends, I thought I would just list my things and leave it to you all to decide if you want to participate or not. So, here are my 16 random things:

1. I lived in five different states by the time I was in the 3rd grade. My dad was military.

2. I'm a nail biter, bad.

3. Peanut butter and cereal...I could live off of those (not together though).

4. I went to UNC-Greensboro, but only for a year and a half.

5. When I was there, my major was elementary education.

6. I had stitches between my eye and my nose when I was like four. Sledding accident.

7. I use to live to play softball. I played from middle school all the way up until the summer I found out I was pregnant with Hannah.

8. I love black and white pictures!

9. I lived in S. Korea for six months when I was 20.

10. I flew in an airplane by myself for the first time when I was in 3rd grade (or maybe it was 4th).

11. I laugh really loud.

12. I always knew that when and if I had kids, I wanted to stay home with them. Yay me!!

13. Jimmy and I were best friends for a long time before we even started dating.

14. I'm always coming up with some way to make a little extra money. No one knows what I'll be into next...baby frames, cakes, necklaces, ect. I'm waiting for the big one!

15. I've been to Japan for one day only.

16. I'm allergic to dogs, cats, and shellfish.

Now back to our regularly scheduled program

Christmas is over, the new year has begun, and so has our regular schedule. We started back school on Monday, along with basketball, dance, and more basketball. The girls were surprisingly ready to start back. I was especially taken aback by Hannah and how cooperative she's been with school starting back. She's the one who thinks of any and every excuse to not do her work, but so far so good. It was funny, last Fri. Rebecca asked me how many more days until school starts back and when I told her we start in three days she was bummed. She said, "Oh man, I was hoping we only had two days left." She's my little nerd! She loves to read and loves loves loves to do math. Hannah does not like to read, but she loves very much for me to read to her. Just since the beginning of school I've read to her Anne of Green Gables, The Call of the Wild, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Secret Garden, and now we're reading Huckleberry Finn. Hannah is my Bible nerd. Just yesterday we were reading about Moses and when I stopped reading she was upset because she wanted me to continue, and she already knew the story. I am surprised almost daily at how much she knows and understands about the Bible. There was one part that I couldn't understand while we were reading, but she kept trying to explain what she thought happened. I wasn't convinced by her answer, I thought I was reading it wrong. So I asked my pastor last night to explain it to me so I could explain it to her. And embarassing as it may be, she was way more on track than I was. Such sponges kids are, huh? And Leah, she's getting better and better with occupying herslef during school. I let her bring her toys in the living room, which is the room adjacent to our classroom, with hopes that some of this will slip into her brain through osmosis (sp?)!

Give-a-way

Hey everyone! I meant to blog about this yesterday, but family came over to visit so I'm a little late. But I wanted to let you know that at http://www.missymadeit.blogspot.com you can scroll down a few posts to find a Vera Bardley coin purse that Missy is giving away. You get an extra name in the hat for following her blog. She has a really cute blog, and it's always fun to see what they are up to. You have to leave a comment on that particular post to have your name entered. Good luck!

More pictures

(Pictures are random and out of order)

This is Hannah, Jimmy, Rebecca, and Grandma Trudy playing with the Nintendo DS's that the grandparents bought the girls.

Jimmy and Paul in their new personalized Bill's jersey's
Grandpa Andy giving Leah the new barbie bike from them. And like her Dora house coming with a Dora house, her barbie bike came with a bike for barbie!

Jimmy, Leah, and Rebecca. Rebecca testing out her new tooth tunes toothbrush. Notice the gift in the back of Jimmy for me? We don't usually buy for each other, but he surprised me with two awesome gifts! And he wrapped them in butcher paper! Too sweet! One was a beautiful jewelry box and the other was the cricut!!! I felt silly because I did buy him a couple of things, but they were like shirts and jeans. Woopdeedoo!

The girls in our bed waiting for us to get ready so we can all go out together. Leah not quite awake enough.

Finally some Christmas pics

Hanna's big gift from Santa...an electric scooter!

Rebecca's big gift from Santa...a box FULL of craft supplies!

Leah's big gift from Santa...a Dora the Explorer house!

After all of my griping about Jimmy missing out on Christmas morning, his schedule was changed! He ended up having to work second shift so he was home in the morning. The girls woke us up about 6:30 and waited for us to get up and dressed so we could all go see what Santa left together. Jimmy's family came around 9:00 and we all had breakfast and exchanged with each other. Before they got there Rebecca spent forever organizing her craft supplies in her new craft tote. Even after all the other gifts were opened, she still spent more time organizing! Hannah was ready to jump on her new scooter. She took several trips around the block. Leah was very occupied setting up Dora's new house. Her Dora dollhouse even came with a Dora dollhouse!! Funny! Jimmy's family left and Jimmy had to go on to work. Then the girls and I went to my parents for Christmas dinner and to exchange gifts. Here is a picture of all the kids eating. One of the kids is the daughter of a cousin of mine that I've never met! Or if I have met him, it's been wayyyyy long ago. His name is Dimas and him, his wife and little girl just moved to VA with the military. His mom is my dad's niece. So I was very pleased that they joined us for Christmas. It was really great meeting them.

This is my cousin and his wife.

Happy New Year!

I wish you all a very happy, prosperous, and blessed new year! Shari, good luck with all of your goals. I think they are all very achievable, and I'm sure you'll do it all! Kelly and Rhonda, good luck with your goals too! I can't wait to see the updates every week. I think this blog will hold you accountable and keep you on the right track. And Missy, I'm with you for sure about the fruits and veggies thing....I so bad about that. My goal this year is to get into running. I've never been a runner (Tina and Mandy, you remember everyone calling me speedy??), but I'm not looking to become a speed runner. I just want to get into running for my health. I think running will help get me in shape, and hopefully give me more energy, something I definitely lack. So with this goal, I too hope to lose weight! And if I start to feel like I can't do it, I will look at the Christmas card my Aunt Becky sent me that had my scary picture on it! In fact, maybe I will tape it to my mirror in my room for motivation everyday. Good luck to everyone that has set goals for the new year. {{Cheers}} To us for making plans for a better new year!

I'm Back

Thank you all for your words, thoughts, and prayers. We came home yesterday and spent a lot of the day cleaning up, unpacking, and doing laundry. Despite the circumstances, we all had a nice time being together. Jimmy's grandma was a strong woman. She had been in the nursing home for the past 11 years. It was just a few years ago that she became bedridden. And even then, she kept busy popping bubbles and visiting with family that was always there. She's always had a very sharp mind and a funny sense of humor. I have some really good memories of her from when she lived with Jimmy, his mom, and brother years ago. Grandma Bailey (that's my Leah's middle name) had 9 children, 28 grandchildren, 39 great-grandchildren, and 3 great-great-grandchildren!! Isn't that awesome?