Tuesday Tell All

I know it is Sunday but what better day for a Tuesday Tell All? I saw this idea while surfing from this blog and thought is was a great idea! This person also gave reference to Blurb.com
to get her blog printed? I know you can print off the pages from your printer but I would pay to have mine printed on glossy paper and bound into a book(like those cool digital photobooks)! I use to scrapbook all my memories but now I am just blogging them! And a great thing about the blog is if your computer dies your blog is still alive!:)

The topic for this week was "The Working Girl"-name the jobs you have had besides mom.

1. My first job was babysitter. I couldnt' wait until I was old enough(12 years old) to babysit and LOVED to spend my weekends with children. When a new family would move into our church i would introduce myself and offer to babysit! I often had summer jobs and loved every minute of it!
2. I worked one evening at Olan Mills as a telemarketer....HATED it!
3. When I was in college I made extra money as a substitute teacher. I loved it before we had kids but after I didn't enjoy it as much. After I got my degree I did mostly long-terms sub positions. My first was in music. Then I had one in 2nd grade and then one in 3rd grade. I wasn't able to finish out the last one because we got the call about Sophia that changed our lives forever!! I never wanted to take a permanent job because I knew I was going to stay home when we had children.
4. I was a private preschool teacher for a family at church for a few months. That was really cool because Nate and I would go to their house 3 days a week, have school and then the boys would play. I wished I could do that job forever!
5. I always wanted to have my own preschool and when Nate started school I thought it was the perfect time to try it out! So in spring of '07 I started the process so I could be ready to open in August of that same year. This is what I am currently doing and i love it! I am very lucky that I am able to pursue this dream. I don't make much money and what I make I spend on the school but I look forward to my day with the children and that is payment enough! Do what you love, and Love what you do!!

This week's topic is "Made By Hand". Write about something that was/is homemade(quilt from grandma, child's artwork, a craft., etc). This will take some thinking!

Wouldn't be a fair without...

Something deep fried that you wouldn't think of doing yourself! They also had deep-fried candy bars on a stick!

Does not look good to me! But I would try it:)

Fair!

Last weekend we had nothing on the schedule!! I LOVE those kind of weekends! So we decided to take the kids to the fair. It was small compared to some that come through but was a lot of fun!

I took this pic of these guys who walked in with their underwear showing and their pants saggin. This style drives me bananas!!

is this just a southern thing or do they do this everywhere???

The kids and Richard bought an arm band that allowed them to ride all the rides for one price. I didn't get one because someone had to take the pictures....and I get nauseated just looking at the rides!

This is the fun slide....woopie:) I could have handled this one!

This ride was called the "Ali Babba" and it swung like a pendulum until it went all the way around! Nate didn't ride this one the first time around because he seemed scared on another ride but he insisted he do it so here he is! What does that look mean????

Dad is checking the bar to make sure it is secure....

And away they go!!

The Ferris Wheel....

The Bumper cars.....

What a cute boy!!

Ok....here is another shot of Nate on the ride from earlier.....

This was the first time and Nate opted not to ride it....he was still recovering from the first ride he did.....This became the favorite ride the whole time....and since it wasn't crowded they were able to ride it as much as their tummies would allow!

Can you imagine being on this thing???

Nate are you sure???

This kid is in Fia's class and on Nate's baseball team. He was there with his grandmother and siblings but went around with us the whole time. This is the first ride they went on....it went around in circles and swayed back and forth to loud, obnoxious music. The last time we attended the fair(probably 2 years ago) this was her favorite ride. Nate HATED being at the fair because of all the people and noise! He has definately changed since then!

Can you tell....

I do not order school pictures???

Sophia's hair is really long! Of course Sophia wanted her pictures because "this will be the only time they have a beach scene for the rest of my life!". She really wanted her picture on a bag! "It's only $20 mom!".

When Nate pulled his picture out he said "they liked the holes". I laughed out loud because these are the same jeans with the hole in the back that we just threw away! He would have to wear the rattiest pair of jeans he has on picture day!

So embarassing!!

Richard gets the kids dressed in the morning for school....well he just makes sure they are clothed I should say. I try and pick out Sophia's clothes the night before so she isnt' wearing something too small or too mismatched and Nate is adamant about picking out his own. I never gave Nate's choice for clothing a second thought until yesterday when I saw what jeans Nate decided to wear. It wasn't the usual "holes in the knees" that embarrased me but the nice large hole right underneath the back pocket! Yowzer!! Richard didn't notice the hole either. Those jeans are now in the trash but it did make me wonder what people at school were thinking about poor Nate....no....what they were thinking about his neglectful parents! ha! These aren't a picture of his jeans but it could be....but all his pairs have holes much larger!

To my fans....

I think there are only 2 of you.....

It just so happened that I had time this afternoon so I put 3 posts on my blog...I know....shocking! So I suggest you only read one a day or every other day if you can stand it! I know it is hard....withdrawal symptoms are not easy so take it slow..... I may not have a chance to post for another week!

Hardy-har-har

Our apartment

I had this in the other post but accidentally deleted it while I was typing so here it is:) Our first home as a married couple! Richard had lived here for a few years before I moved in. We got married on June 24th, spent 2 weeks traveling for our honeymoon and then I believe I moved all my stuff in the weekend of July 4th. We only lived here for a few months before moving into our first house.

Dublin, Ga.

As I mentioned in another post Richard took the kids back to Dublin to visit(we had attended a wedding reception there last month but didn't have time to see all that we wanted so he took the kids back). Here are some pictures that have memories for us:


We always thought this billboard was funny. It is a huge cross right on the side of the road. This is the small town of Dudley, Ga.

I am not sure why Richard took this picture of Golden Corral. It has no special meaning for us. I guess Richard was just playing the tourist and taking pictures of everything!

Ahhhhh....the mall! When we lived there they had a big birthday celebration for this mall. It turned 25! I remember thinking "it is 25 years old and it hasn't grown any??". It was pretty pitiful....well you know your mall is small if it has a drugstore inside!

I just deleted the picture of our apartment! I will have to put it in a new post....but here is our first house. We bought this after we had been married about 3-4 months for $59, 000. 210 North Calhoun Street. I believe it was sitting on .25 of an acre and was 1500 square feet. It was built in the 1920s (I believe) so it had very small closets but the rooms were huge! I loved this house! It also had glass doorknobs that were so classy and french doors leading from the dining room into the den! It had lots of character! I don't remember the mailbox being on the street though. We had a mailbox on our porch. Across the street was Stubbs Park where they have a huge Arts and Crafts Festival every St. Patrick's Day(that is another reason Richard went that weekend).

This corner is where you would turn to get to our house. This main street ran through town and had all the nice big houses on it.

And here is the church:) Our best friends lived right across the street. We lived 2 miles from here. I miss the people and friends we met in Dublin but I do not want to live there again!! I LOVE LaGrange!

Late.....AGAIN!

During the last 9 weeks the thing Sophia needed to improve on was getting to school on time....no doubt about that! So we have been really trying to do better.....

So this week has been really hard for my children with school because their fun, fantastic cousins came for a visit! It was hard to go to sleep at night and especially hard to go to school the next day because their cousins were here!!

Now that I am teaching seminary I am not there to help the kids get ready in the morning...so it is left up to Richard to herd them out the door:) He is getting better but some mornings are just hard!! A couple weeks ago the kids decided it would be better to just ride the bus so they wouldn't be late....well this week we have let them sleep in an extra hour since they had been staying up with cousins(and Mon-Thurs they were at school on time)....but today the kids didn't sleep in. Nate was awake when I was getting ready to leave so I went ahead and woke Sophia up and brought her in our bedroom so we could have family prayers before I left. I thought they would have no problem getting ready on time...I mean if you had 90 minutes to get ready wouldn't you be on time???

Well at 7:30 I call home and Nate answers. I am thinking they are about to walk out the door....He tells me Dad is in the shower. Hmmmmmm......that doesn't sound good to me. I call Richard around 9am to see how the morning went and as he was telling me I just chuckled. Sophia was whiny, Nate and Fia were fighting over lunchboxes, Nate didn't like his cereal, Nate whined about his Easter eggs, etc, etc, etc. Poor Richard. I deal with this kind of stuff all the time so I know how to redirect them but he tends to get sucked into the "power of whine"!

The part that really made me laugh was when Richard dropped off the kids at the school(they were so late no one was out there opening car doors anymore) he noticed that Sophia had not combed through her wet hair! Poor Fia!

I am so glad it is Friday!!

Flashback....1995

Last weekend I went to a RPM training in Newnan, Ga for the weekend so Richard decided to take the kids to Dublin, Ga. where he lived and worked for a few years before we married and we lived for the first 3 years of our marriage.
I wanted to post this picture last but I forgot that I needed to upload it FIRST in order for it to show up last....but Richard loves to be in the pictures and since I wasn't there to take them he took this one himself! ha! This is in front of the Fairview Park Hospital where he worked.

The rest of the pics are of the kids feeding the ducks/geese at the pond and walking track right next to the hospital. I loved walking at this park.

Just love that smile on Fia!

Wonder what Nate was thinking here.....

There is that beautiful smile I love!

Save this one for sure! Nate actually allowed Sophia to put her arm around him! Richard did say they were inseperable on the trip! That is good to hear!!

The escape artist!

On Monday morning as I was leaving for seminary I noticed the hamster's cage door was open! And of course he was no where inside....he smelled freedom and was gone!! The first thing I thought was "no more after this one!" and then I went in to wake Richard so he could start looking for him. I hadn't grown attached to this little guy like I did Sammy Sr. so I really didn't want to help in the rescue efforts....but I didn't want a dead hamster stinking up my preschool room either!


So Richard gets up and I leave. When I come home an hour later they have located Sammer's hideout. He had crawled into the closet that houses the hot water heater and was digging through the concrete! I couldn't believe a little guy like that could bite through the concrete but he did!

Here is a picture of the hole....kinda hard to see....

a close up of the hole....

When I looked at the hold first it seemed like the rodent had already chewed through a pipe! I started thinking "if this animal could dig through the concrete he would definately be able to chew through a PVC pipe!! how much damage is he doing down there!??!!" and then I started thinking about....shhhhhh..... rat poision. Don't tell the kids.....I told you I wasn't attached! Richard was against that idea and he worked hard to get him out. Monday Richard called me to see if we could vacuum him out. Hmmmmm.....I guess we could try??? Then I came home from my daily errands and the message on the answering maching was from Richard. "Sammers. Oh Sammers. Come out Sammers"....it is so funny how attached he gets to these pets! (It was so funny when he started doing chest compressions on Sammy Sr. after I squished him with the box....don't know if I mentioned that in the post when Sammy died...I just looked through our old posts and I didn't blog about how he died. Well here is the story-readers digest version. He escaped. Was running around Sophia's room. I got the bright idea to trap him in a box when he ran out. Well when I put the box down half of his body was inside the box and the other half out...so....I squished him....right in half. It was a VERY sad morning for the kids and us too. Richard scooped him up and I told the kids to look away! I think I was the only one who did....but when I turned around Richard was doing chest compressions on Sammy! I started laughing!! So anyway...that is the story of Sammy Sr.)

So....back to the story.....Sammers was on the run for 1 day. I did take up his food and water because I didn't want him coming out at night to eat and then going back to his hole and digging to China or whereever! I guess this made Sammers hungry enough because Richard was able to coax him out with some food on Tuesday and get him safely back in his cage!

He is very cute though....and we got him as a baby. The kids(mine and the preschool) love him. He has become tame. I am glad he is back and we didn't have to take drastic measures to protect our pipes!

She's a reader!!

Just this year Sophia has really taken off with her reading! I tried to get her into reading some last year but she didn't want to do much more than was required from school...I mean we read books and stories before bed but she didn't take much interest in chapter books until this year. She got a copy of Ella Enchanted from her cousin Kayla last year and we started reading that together. I actually enjoyed reading that book to her and was the one wanting to read it to see how it ended! Then she picked up Harry Potter-on her own- and has kept up with it! As you can see she is almost done but the end is getting scarry so she doesn't read it at night anymore!


I love to see my children reading because as a teacher I know how important it is to develop a love of reading....and in spite of our Dad's best encouragements we(Trudy, Frankie and I) didn't enjoy reading until we were older....at least I think that is true for them. I do love reading now but mostly good picture books that I read to my preschoolers!

I did recently read Twillight Series by Stephenie Meyer and was suprised at how much I loved them! The only other author I enjoy seems to be John Grisham and I noticed he has a new book out as well....can't wait for it to be in paperback! There may be other books I would enjoy but I don't seem to have the time to find them right now!

Another Nate moment.....

This picture was taken at 5:40 am this morning. Yes... he is all ready for school and just killing time by playing his gamecube before the bus arrives at 7am. He woke up at 5am(because of too much gatorade last night at ball practice) and had to take a shower and change his clothes(he was already dressed for the day even) so when he was ready at 5:40am the only thing he could think of to do was to go ahead and wait outside by the mailbox for Ms. Bobbie the bus driver! He was excited to be riding the bus for the first time(in the morning). It is so funny to see how excited he gets about new things! I remember a time when a change in routine or new things would be too much for our little buddy!


What was Fia doing at 540am this morning?

She is a smart girl! But one hard cookie to wake up!

Are you from Alabama??

20 Ways To Determine if you are a real Alabamian

1. You can properly pronounce Arab, Cahaba, Opelika ,Sylacauga, Oneonta, and Eufaula.

2. You think people who complain about the heat in their states are sissies.

3. A tornado warning siren is your signal to go out in the yard and look for a funnel.

4. You know that the true value of a parking space is not determined by the distance to the door, but by the availability ofshade.

5. Stores don't have bags or shopping carts, they have sacks and buggies.

6. You've seen people wear bib overalls at funerals.

7. You think everyone from a bigger city has an accent.

8. You measure distance in minutes. (It's about 5 minutes downthe road)

9. You go to the lake because you think it is like going to theocean.

10. You listen to the weather forecast before picking out anoutfit.

11. You know cowpies are not made of beef.

12. Someone you know has used a football schedule to plan theirwedding date.

13. You have known someone who has a belt buckle bigger thanyour fist.

14. You aren't surprised to find movie rental, ammunition, beer,and bait all in the same store.

15. A Mercedes Benz isn't a status symbol. A Chevy SilveradoExtended Bed Crew Cab is.

16. You know everything goes better with Ranch Dressing.

17. You learned how to shoot a gun before you learned how tomultiply.

18. You actually get these jokes and are "fixin' " to send themto your friends.

19. You have used your heater and air-conditioner in the sameday!

Finally:You are 100% Alabamian if you have ever had this conversation:

20. "You wanna coke?" "Yeah." "What kind?" "Dr Pepper."

Tooth Fairy Color

If you click on the second picture it will explain about the color of the tooth fairy. It isn't very clear but you can still read it. When I get a chance I will type out what I wrote:)

Nate has had this loose tooth for a while and the teeth around it had even moved so much it looked like he already lost one! So yesterday after school he comes home and tells me about his day and then starts wiggling it. I ask to wiggle it. Then I ask if I can tie a string around it. Since he didn't protest that much I ask Fia to get the dental floss. I couldnt' believe he actually let me get it around his tooth! I yanked very gently and nothing happened. Then he started yanking and I yanked a little more aggressively....a gently tug....and it came out!! I was hoping he would let me tie the other end to the door and let us slam the door(always wanted to see that happen) but this was just as cool;) He was excited to have it out!

He sure looks cute with his toothless smile too! This pictures was taken under the assumption that I wouldn't show it to anyone:) That is why he isn't smiling cute but just showing me the hole in his mouth! I want to get another pic of him just smiling because it is very adorable!

Well this morning he wakes us up at 455am upset because the tooth fairy didn't come! OOOPS! So I tell him that she was probably very busy and hadn't made it there yet. Then I get up to get ready for seminary and quickly found some money and wrote a note to Nate. The tooth fairy had extra teeth to collect and that is why she was late....so she gave him and extra dollar to make up for it. I really wanted him to go back to sleep but knew he wouldn't be able to....so I called him in after I finished and said, "it looks like she has been here Nate!". He excitedly came in and we read the note. That woke Sophia up and she wanted to see what he got and what color the tooth fairy was:) So my kids will be cranky today!!

He was a little dissappointed that it was not a 5 dollar bill because his friend at school got 5 dollars for his tooth. I told him he must have a different tooth fairy!!

Random Nate.....

After our 10K, Sarah and I found this very nice Goodwill store. Being in a large city the thrift stores are 100% nicer than ours! I found 2 pair of sandals for me-brandnew and under $5! The hardest part was trying to decide which ones I wanted to buy! Anyway....this post is supposed to be about Nate!!

So I bought this baseball shirt for Nate on Saturday. He was so excited! He doesn't show his excitement with lots of outward emotions but with his actions. Sunday morning he wanted to get his clothes ready for school on Monday. So he gets out this shirt (along with the undershirt) and his jeans. Then after church he wants to go ahead and get dressed for school but I tell him to wait so he doesn't get his clothes dirty. Then that night he wears these clothes instead of PJs(which is something he normally does anyway) and then decided to sleep on the floor because he had actually made his bed that day and didn't want to mess it up:) So he pulled out his sleeping bag and camped out on the floor! The next morning he woke up before I told him to, fixed his lunch and got his shoes on all by 6:10am. They don't leave for school until 7:20am!

He is such a funny kid!

Nate blows me away.....

Yesterday Nate comes home from school happy:) That lets me know he stayed on green all day!! Hooray for Nate! I give him lots of praise. Then Sophia comes in and she gets a hug and we talk about her day. Then she talks about her lunch and how she forgot half of it at home. I ask her what she ate and she names ice cream. I ask who she got the money from because I didn't give her any. Then she pulls out the quarter(ice cream is $0.75) to give to Nate. She tells me Nate gave her the dollar for ice cream. I then ask Nate where he got the money. He says his wallet! I am shocked! Speechless!

I know Nate has a sweet side but was shocked that he shared his money with her!! I was so proud of this sweet boy!!

10K

So this morning I get up at the crack of dawn to run in a 10K. It sounded like a great idea last month when I registered for this event last night I was so tired that running was the last thing I wanted to do!! But as I got up and got ready i was getting excited. I picked up Sarah and we headed off into the sunrise ready to accomplish our goal of NOT coming in last!



We booked it up the interstate and arrived with all the masses of runners. It took us a while to find a place to park and we still had to change into our race attire! We thought about changing in the Target across the street but knew we wouldn't have time so we changed in the car. We were parked in the alley behind a shopping area so it was semi-private!



Here is our pre-race picture....notice how nice and straight my hair looks. Sarah looked "rough as sandpaper" and those were her words not mine;)!

What's better than one pre-race picture? 2:) Get your game face on!

So we get registered and attach or number to our shirts and stood in the LONG line for the porta-potties. It was LONG(did I mention it was lengthy?) and we didn't know if they would hold the race or what! We got to the front of the line and there were people behind us but when we came out of the porta-pot(always a lovely experience) everyone was gone! We walk up to where the race was to start and they are yelling "it has already begun! hurry and you can catch up!" Well....I had to stop and tighten my shoe and then we were off! There were quite a few walkers in the race so we knew we were going to be able to accomplish our goal with no problem at all! It took about 1 mile to get over the initial shock of running and then it felt good. The miles just flew by.

Throughout the race there are volunteers standing around at intersections directing traffic and making sure we are heading in the right direction. We made it a point to give them a "high-5" which most weren't expecting:) It was fun...there sure are a lot of uptight runners though. I could tell some didn't appreciate our humor!! Sarah and I were really suprised at how many people we were passing and really proud when we made it to the finish line in a little over an hour! I was pleasantly suprised that I beat my time from last year by 3 minutes! Also suprised at how much I have improved! Thanks Jessica for all those Saturday runs!

Here is a post-race picture. Notice how not straight the hair is now:) I was looking as rough as sandpaper here and trying to look....ummmmm...not really sure what I was trying to do.


And once again....2 post-race pics are always better than one!
Oh....and here is my war wound. A nice blister....well is that what you would call it? The skin was totally rubbed off! All for the cause!

update: click here and hopefully you will be able to see photos of us running