Talent Show

Well I realized that all my pictures for the Awards Day are on my computer at school so I will have to blog from there on Monday. These pictures are from the last day of school yesterday. The Talent Show. The first picture is of Haley and Mikayla waiting there turn to do their talent and then the second is of them singing. Haley was the youngest member to participate. They sang accepela the song, "This is the Day." They were not nervous a bit and did a great job. Haley marched up there all matter of factly and did her "job." Then marched back to her seat. Jenna sang with a few of her friends a song called, "Call me" from the Prince Caspien Sound track and then Jenna and 2 others played the guitar while Mik and her friend did the actions to the song. They played/sang "Lean on Me" and "Holy is the Lord." They did an awesome job. The last 2 pics are of my crazy class. Haley snuck in there. The last picture is of my class doing a mini version of the last day of school from High School Musical 2. The chanted "summer, summer, summer" and then when the bell rang (actually on my count of 5) they all threw up some papers. They had a great time with that.

Needless to say we are thrilled that summer has arrived. Last night we had a staff party cook-out and stayed way too late and the kids got way too tired and grouchy on the way home. I didn't take my camera, so no pics. Sorry.

I go back to school for end of the year stuff on Monday and Tuesday and then I am done. My plans right now are to take the part-time secretarial position at the church. Jeff desperately needs help getting stuff done! And I guess when I need time off it will be a whole lot easier to get time off from my new boss than from the school!! :)

Happy Summer everyone! I look forward to sharing our summer with you. Next week we are going to buy a new camera. I have babied this 1/2-3/4 broken- doesn't work most of the time camera long enough. I told Jeff "enough is enough"!!

Daisy

Jenna holds Daisy while doing her last assignment for 5th grade and had difficult time because Daily kept eating the pencil. Gives new meaning to the phrase, "My dog ate my homework!"

Blues Fest

To back up about a week, last Sunday our town had a Blues Fest. Now I do not particularly care for blues music, but went for the food! (unfortunately)
It was right across the street so some of us walked over right after church. We had a good time at the petting zoo, and jumpling castle and eating.

Last Day of School!!!

Today is the last day of school and we are all ecstatic! It has been a TOUGH year but we are making it through with God's help and there is light at the end of the tunnel now!

I am behind in pictures. I have pics waiting to show you of Awards Day. My girls got some pretty sweet awards and also of the Talent Show that will be happening in about 1/2 hour. Hint...Haley and Mikayla are doing a duet!!! I hope they don't freeze up there!

More to come...
Amy

Memories

Here are some more memories from the wedding and also our weekend. I had so many more pictures but decided that I wouldn't bore you with them all.

Row 1- The girls outside the church. Haley with Troy Lyons, a family friend. Our family picture at the reception.

Row 2- Jeff and I dancing, Haley dancing and Jeff and Mikki dancing.

Row 3- All three girls dancing. This next picture is of Haley in our hotel room. We noticed when we turned off the light that there was an outside light shining in between the window and the curtain. We asked Haley to climb up there and hold it against the wall so it would be dark enough. We then asked her if she would just stand there all night and hold it, this is her look of disgust at us.
On Sat. night we went to a high school graduation party of Vanessa. Vanessa has been our babysitter for five years now and also gave the girls piano lessons. She is going into a local college into nursing school.

Congratulations Phil &Jackie

This past Friday night we went to the wedding of a couple from our church. Phil has been our worship leader for the past year. He and Jackie got married last Friday night. We had a blast at the wedding. A beautiful Christian wedding where the pastor preached the gospel message at their request. They had lots of none Christian friends and family there. After the wedding there was a beautiful reception with a full course meal and then dancing. The girls had so much fun.

Accepted Offer!

Well this weekend we have sold our house! After going back and forth with the buyer several times we finally agreed on the price and everything was accepted. The only contingency is the inspection-which will have no problems, and also they want to bring a professional builder out to see is they can build and out-building in the backyard. (An out-building is a metal sided building that you have a work shop in). The buyer has been out to the house several times measuring in the backyard, but he still wants to bring a professional in. They have 2 weeks to get all that done. We are confident that they will have no problems with that. Possession will work for us also, the middle of July. Our new house has been so slow going that we will probably finish with that end of June and then have a few weeks to get moved. We are so thankful that we have finally sold it. As Jeff says, "you can't consider it sold until closing day and the papers are signed." But it's still is a load off!

Happy Birthday Quinn and Tony

Yesterday was my nephew Quinn's birthday. It was also the birthday of his father Tony. I want to offer my belated birthday wishes to them. I hope it was super!

My intentions were to add pictures of the 2 of them last night and write all about them, but I didn't get it done. Last night our school community got some tragic news. The 22 month old sister of one of Haley's classmates was killed when she was run over yesterday afternoon. She was hit and killed by the meter lady in their driveway. The mother had gathered all the kids around her so the meter lady could leave their driveway, and gave the lady the "thumbs up", in that split second the little girl, Avery, darted out and ran behind the car and was hit. She died in her mother's arms. The school is reeling and the teachers are devastated, all crying this morning druing our meeting. If you want to see more about it you can go to kcrg.com and it is the top story. Those of you that live here undoubtedly have already seen the news story.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Rob and Jeanie and their 2 boys, Tate and Austin, in the death of their sister, Avery. The family has also requested prayer for the meter lady who of course is devastated also.
As a School/Church/Christian Community we covet your prayers!

At grandma and grandpa's

Please read the following post for info. on the picture of Jenna. I got things a little out of order. Grandpa had a new set of lambs that we went to see after the girl's recital. Grandpa restored this old wagon, it has taken him over a year and lots and lots of hard work. It was just completed yesterday. It is beautiful. The girls are hoping he will put it in a parade and they can ride in the back and throw candy this summer.

Happy Birthday Scooby!

Well Scooby's 3rd birthday is coming up and so we got him a birthday present. A NEW PLAYMATE! All my feet dragging and refusing came to a halt this afternoon when we came upon these darling puppies for sale. Of course the girls fell in love. I have to admit, so did I. We have been having so many problems with Scooby because he is so lonely. If he gets out of the house without being tied up he roams the neighborhood looking for other dogs, he usually goes right down to his friend's house. If she isn't home, he roams all over., often getting far away. We decided the only way to stop that, was to get him a playmate. We found this cute Shi-poo (Shih-tzu/poodle) puppy. Female. We have named her Daisy . Isn't she darling? Scooby fell in love at first sight. Guess what- he didn't roam the neighborhood when Daisy was outside with him. Yeah, I know...we're crazy. But ya only live once!

Dance Recital

Well today was the BIG day. We have been having ballet/dance lessons for 9 months now and this afternoon it all came together. The girls did a beautiful job. I didn't get any good pictures of them actually dancing because it was so dark and my camera doesn't take good pictures in the dark. I am hoping a friend of mine that was there got some good ones of my girls. If she did, I will post them.

New home update.

The view right outside our bedroom window. The dirt will be our backyard.

The cabinets are in! Here is Haley, Jenna and her friend, Kia, amidst the cabinets going in.

An upclose picture of the cabinets.

A cute picture of Haley all wrapped up sleeping with her "night-night."

Track Star

Here are the ribbons for Jenna's first ever track meet. She got a ribbon in all 5 events she entered in. She got 1st place in the 4 x 100m relay, 2nd in the 50m dash, 2nd in the 800 medley relay, 5th in the 200m dash, and 5th in the discus. We are very proud of our track star! :)

Me and My girls!

Breakfast in bed

Although I don't relish showing you all pictures of myself after just waking up I did think that these were cute pictures. The first is of the breakfast the girls made me: eggs, toast and orange slices. The second picture shows Mikayla's wrapped present -in tinfoil, and her home-made card. Her present was soooo cute. She was soooo proud of her gift to me. She had found a chpapter book off her shelf - Ramona and Her Mother, by Beverly Cleary. She said that "she knows that I LOVE chapter books, and so I would love to read this book. Jenna shows me where she kept her card for me, down her pants. Her card was one of those musical cards with the song by Whitney Houston- Simply the Best. Haley drew a picture of her and I, and she also made me a bookmark. They were all so precious! The final gift was 2 white rocking chairs and a little table for our front porch. When it gets put together I will take a picture of that.

Mother's Day with Great Grandma

We were all invited to an Ice-Cream Social with my grandma, the girls' great-grandma for Mother's Day. So, after church and then lunch with my parents we all went down to her "house". While we were eating our ice-cream Mikayla said, "Ya call this an Ice-Cream party!?" I guess she thought that there wasn't enough "partying" going on in this nursing home with 90 year olds. Her great-grandma is 93! As you can see in some of the pictures their grandpa tried to spice things up with a spoon and his nose, he got the girls all riled up!

Top row: Us "pushing" grandma over to the nursing home side of the assisted living home for the "party." / Us all sitting around the table eating ice-cream/ Mikki after complaining about the lack of "party" at this "party"/ Jenna- acting silly.

2nd row: Grandpa Dale getting the girls all riled up and teaching them some "naughty" things/ The girls went around the table and gave us all back rubs, this is the 3 of them taking turns with great-grandma. Haley's weren't the best because she had a candy stick in her hand that she wouldn't put down, we could just see it getting stuck in great-grandma's hair!

3rd row- Jenna and Mikayla entertaining themselves up and down the hall in great-grandma's wheelchair/ Haley trying to escape from grandpa/ Jeff trying on great-grandma's glasses.

4th row: Us ladies with great-grandma- oops I guess my mom should have been in the picture and not taking the picture! Sorry mom!
Ok- now this next picture of my neice Madison and nephew Quinn and their puppy Cocoa, has a story. I saw this picture hanging up on my grandma's bulletin board and was not pleased that I didn't get one. So I decided that I would take a picture of the picture so I would have the picture!!!!! That'll teach you Leah for not sending me a picture!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Updated House Pictures

Top row: looking into the dining room/ kitchen window/ looking into our room/ looking into the living room and you can see the sunroom off of it

2nd row: looking into the sunroom/ Mikayla in her sunny room/ Jenna's room/ standing outside Jenna's room, looking into part of the basement.

3rd row: Another part of the basement, this is the tv room, that is a fireplace in the corner/ the kitchen island down in the basement/ Jenna standing right inside the front door in the living room/the front of the house.

*a note about that last peak that is not finished...after this picture was taken they finished that peak, BUT, they finished it in the wrong shade!!!! I was up there when they were completely it and I said to Steve our builder,,,"Steve, that isn't the right color! It's a tad off!" He was TICKED! (not at me.)

4th row: The girls standing on the front porch/ The view of the back of the house from the street over, soon we won't be able to see from this street, because of the trees filling in. The siding on the back is done/ They finally poured our driveway/ Steve, our builder, is also laying our tile. This is him laying the tile in our bathroom.

Around the World

This past week in Haley's Pre-K classroom they spent each day learning about a new country. I just happened to walk into the room and check and see what they were doing right when they were getting ready to eat rice with chopsticks so I had to run to my room and get my camera. In the first picture she concentrates very hard in trying to get her fingers around that chopstick. In the next few you can see that she gave up with the one hand business and used 2 hands. I can just say that her teacher is very brave to have a classroom full of 20 kids trying to use chopsticks with messy rice. They were all very cute.

A few things that she learned about China.
1. They ONLY eat rice.
2. They don't let you talk about God very much.
3. They eat snakes. (her teacher said that when she was there she ate snake)
There is a little contridiction between #1 and #3 but I decided not to point that out to her.

A Word to the Wise

The girls come to school early with me in the morning and like to write on my white board in my classroom. After Mikayla had gone into her own room my kids came in and found this note on my board to them. I thought it was so cute, especially how she wrote the word "Mrs."

Promised Pictures

Here are my promised pictures, although they are already out of date. I will go up to the house tomorrow and take a bunch more.

Top row: Jeff spraying the primer on/Jeff's dad painting the hallway/ Haley standing in the kitchen(yellow), the dining room is visible (brown)

Middle room: Haley in the dining room/ Jeff, Jeff's dad, and brother eating supper in the kitchen/ Mikayla painting her room.

Bottom row: Jeff, Haley and Mikayla painting Haley's room (it is very pale pink)/ Jenna painting her room (a greenish color)/ Jeff painting Jenna's room.

Tomorrow I will take more pics of the outside of the house, it has changed a lot, and also a picture of Jenna with all her ribbons from the track meet.

Tonight I spent HOURS going through tubs and tubs of hand-me-down clothes. Which clothes fit them now for the Spring/Summer? Which clothes are just out of style and need to be sold at my friends garage sale this Sat.? And which clothes can be saved back for future years. Then I took all of Haley and Mikayla's winter clothes out of their closet. All of Haley's winter clothes go to the yard sale, and all of Miks go down to tubs. After all that, I packed/repacked away 4 tubs of future clothes for Mikayla and 6 tubs for Haley!!!!! I got rid of about 1 tub full of clothes for the yard sale. We are trying to go room by room and purge but we just are in a time crunch! The yard sale is Sat. and I need to go through so much more stuff. Oh well, I will get rid of what I can. When we move, I will donate TONS of stuff to Goodwill. That is a plus to moving often, you purge!

OK- need to get to bed. 5:45 comes early in the morning!

Ok...ok...ok....

I've been harassed by my sister (not so unusual :) ) and now from someone I have never met! Just because you donated money to my children doesn't mean you can now harass me Addi!!! :) :)

Ok- so I didn't get a new post this past weekend,,,I will spare you the details of our busy weekend!! I PROMISE TO POST TONIGHT!!!

Here is the problem with the Operation GOOD pictures Addi- I didn't "get" to go and pull mustard weeks bc I was on the committee. The committee members stayed back at the school to finish tallying up the class winners, money raised etc. So, I didn't go and take pictures. I gave specific instructions to Jenna's teacher to get pictures of her,,,but guess what. About 1/2 way through the afternoon, here comes a teacher back to the school with Jenna in tow. It turns out she was pretty sick and spent the whole time sitting in the van and so they decided to bring her back. She had been complaining all week of a sore throat and I kept giving her Advil to get through. Her throat looked fine. I thought it was just sinus drainage. So on Friday she really did hit a brick wall and I didn't want her to go to school, but keeping her home is like stopping a freight train! (She is going for perfect attendance!) So when she came back to the school early on Friday I realized something must really be wrong. I took her to the DR that afternoon and sure enough...Strep!!! I felt bad!! It took 48 hours of antibiotic before she was even able to get out of bed! She was toast all weekend! So, no pics of her. Then Mik's teacher didn't have a camera. So, after that huge long explanation...I have no pictures Addi. So you can stop harassing me! :)

Today's the Day!

Well, today's the day for our Operation G.O.O.D. day. There is 100% chance of sever thunderstorms for this afternoon, right when we would be out in the woods, so the whole afternoon is up in the air. We are praying for a miracle and that the storm passes through earlier than that! If we don't go today we will go Monday.

There is a contest between classes to see who can raise the most money, we each have a class goal based on how many students are in our class. My classes goal was 2,600$, we have raises 117% of our goal, so over 3,000$. We are neck and neck with the 5th grade for the top raising class. (5th grade is Jenna's class) If we go today to work we will find out who won, if we go Monday we won't find out til Monday who won. The top selling class gets to spend a whole school day doing something fun- my class voted on going to a water park! I sure hope we win! (But then I want Jenna's class to win also!) I will have to keep you updated...

I am so behind in blogging. Jenna got all her ribbons for her track meet and I want to take a picture of those and give the results. Our house is also coming along nicely. 1/2 of the siding is up and it is all painted inside (except one wall in our bedroom because the brown color is not what I was going for so we stopped about 1/4 of the way done. They are working on the electric lighting today, and the wood floors are in!! I will definitely take some pics this weekend and post them.

OK- So, my principal just stuck his head in the door and said , "WE'RE GOING!"- I am going to walk down to the office and see what's up with the weather!...He just said that from the radar it looks like the storm moved past earlier, there is still a chance we can get rained on but it won't be severe!!! Yeah! We have all prayed so hard. I guess in 9 years they have never had a rain out and this year looked like it was going to be the first! God is bigger than the weather!