Why I Began This Blog...

It was nearly fifteen months ago when I started this blog. Why? Well, for the past 6 years I have been an avid scrapbooker. Now before Trey was born, I knew nothing about scrapbooking, and had absolutely no interest in it. While I was pregnant with Trey, my wonderful cousin, Mary, gave me a fabulous gift that I didn't appreciate near enough at the time...Trey's first year in scrapbooks. That's right, I took the pictures, turned them over to her, and she did all the work! I don't think she knew quite what she was getting into with me and all my MANY, MANY pictures. I certainly didn't know what a wonderful gift she had given me. However, by the end of that first year I was hooked. And now... I love to scrapbook all of my boys pictures and you know that I take A LOT of them! Unfortunately, since Jesse joined our family, I have not scrapbooked near as much as I once did. Yes, I am still working on his first 3 months! I know, bad mama! Well, just as Mary got me hooked on scrapbooking, she got me hooked on blogging. She began a blog at the very end of 2007 and I became a daily reader. When Trey was born we lived fairly close to each other and she was one of the few people that I trusted to watch my baby boy. However, now we live so far apart, and we rarely get to see each other and catch up, but through her blog I got a chance to read all about her adventures and got to "know" her hubby, Marc. After about 7 months, I decided to start a blog of my own for two reasons. I wanted an easy way to keep the family updated on our little ones, and I also wanted to have place to journal all of our adventures for my boys...especially since I don't seem to be doing a very good job of keeping their scrapbooks updated. So I started our family blog, and since then I have shared lots of our adventures. In fact, this marks my 200th post! Wow! I never dreamed when I started this little blog that I would ever fill up 200 posts, but I have. Thank you all so much for sharing in our adventures and I can't wait to see what the next 200 posts will bring. I also can't wait to have all this printed up into a book that I can give my boys...because after all...it is all about them!

Coffee General State Park
November 2009

Flashback Friday

It has been almost a year and a half since Grandma Lorene unexpectedly and very suddenly made her journey to heaven. I have missed her every day since, but for some reason the pain of missing her has been stronger these last few weeks. Today I share with you one of my favorite photos of her. It is the one that I have in my living room. The one that I look at every day. The one I talk to. This was taken in the hospital, the day after Jesse was born. We were going home in just a few hours, but Grandma couldn't wait to meet and get her hands on the newest addition to our family. Grandma loved us all unconditionally, and somehow she made us each and everyone feel like she loved us best, but the babies held a very special place in her heart.

Grandma Lorene and Jesse
April 15, 2006

A Night Out

Last Friday night the boys and I went out to eat with some friends. It could have been labeled ladies night...EXCEPT for all the kids! Instead I think it was more of a boys night out. I'm not sure who was the craziest...myself and the other mom who decided to take our 5 kids out to eat OR the third mom who has grown children but decided to join us and our wild youngins for our crazy night. I can tell you who had the most fun though, and that was the boys! Luckily, they were all in a good mood & they were hamming it up.

Jesse & Ryan

Josh & Trey

I think I'll call this photo, Adolescence Angst.
Lorrie, the lone girl in our group of youngins...
and you know it was just the way she wanted to spend a Friday night...
with her Mom, her teacher, her two little brothers, and two more rowdy boys.

By the end of the night, all the kids were posing for the camera.

Even Lorrie, who decided it was more fun to join 'em
than fight 'em!

Wordless Wednesday

Tasty Tuesday: White Chicken Chili

Back in September, one of my friends cooked this for our women's group at church. It was so scumptious that I just had to get the recipe. Now that cold weather will hopefully be setting in soon, I think it is the perfect time to break it out and make some yummy white chicken chili! Not to mention it's a crock pot recipe so it's E-A-S-Y!!! Enjoy!

White Chicken Chili

4-5 chicken breasts - cooked & chipped up to desired size (I like bite-size)
1 stick butter
2 onions - saute in butter (I use 1 large onion)
add 1/4 C plain flour to onion/butter mixture
2 C heavy cream
2 C chicken broth (from chicken breasts above)
1 1/2 t. chili powder
1 t. cumin
each 1/2 t. pepper/ salt
1 t. tabasco
2 cans chopped green chiles
3 cans Great Northern Beans

Dump everything together in crock pot on low for 6-8 hours or high for less time.

My Birthday

Last Thursday I celebrated my birthday. Most of you know, when you reach a certain age, such as when you've been celebrating your 29th birthday for a number of years, birthdays just aren't as exciting as they once were. My boys don't understand this concept of course, and get very excited about any birthday, especially if it means cake. I shared recently that my hubby got my birthday present (a camera) a few weeks early so that I could enjoy taking Halloween pictures with it. Therefore, I wasn't expecting much on my actual birthday. Boy was I surprised! My birthday this year was celebrated grandly and I was/am overwhelmed at the outpouring of love that I received. On my birthday, I shared with you the surprise birthday greeting that came with the newspaper. Well, my students and their wonderful parents didn't stop there. When I walked into the lunchroom on Thursday, after being temporarily delayed by a grandparent, the students, parents, and grandparents surprised me with a little party. The entire lunchroom started singing "Happy Birthday", while my students stood with cake and presents. I was so overwhelmed! The fact that parents and grandparents took the time and effort to plan and throw a lunchtime party was a very humbling experience. One Mom said that they just couldn't let my birthday go by without doing something, and another told me how much her grandson loved coming to school and wanted to do the best that he could to make me proud. It was an experience that I will always remember!

My beautiful and delicious cake made for me by one of my student's grandmother.

My fabulous class with all their surprises.

Trey quickly abandoned 2nd grade and joined the 4th grade celebration.

Thursday night we had dinner at Mama & Mitchel's and of course, more cake!

Yummy, ice cream cake! Always my favorite!

The huge fork that Jesse insisted on eating his cake with.

As you can see I lead a truly blessed life. I am surrounded by family, friends, co-workers, students, and parents who take time out of their day to make my day special. Who could ask for anything more!

Devotion in a Box

Appling Christian Academy is a very special place and it is a very special place to work. One of the many reasons is that the people of ACA, whether they be students, parents, or staff, all become one big family. We look out for each other, we lean on each other, and we pray for each other. The staff begins each morning in devotion. We read the Bible, talk about the Bible, and pray. Occasionally instead of meeting for our morning devotion, our principal writes and hands out our devotion. These are labeled our Devotion in a Box. Today I thought that I would share one of our recent ones.

It was many centuries ago in a remote village in India. Word began to spread that something was about to happen that no one had seen in their lifetime-the prince was actually coming to visit this forgotten little village. Well, everyone was excited, but no one was more excited than the village beggar. Every day he eked out another day by sitting by the road with his little cup, hoping to get enough money to buy some rice to live one more day. He actually had two cups, one for collecting money and one for his few grains of rice. But now the prince as coming. I mean, the wealthy prince! When the prince finally arrived, the beggar mustered his most impassioned appeal, "Alms! Alms for the poor!" And the prince stopped. The beggar's heart was pounding furiously.

"Give me your cup of rice." That was all the prince said. The beggar slumped down in disbelief. Here was the wealthiest man in the land, asking for his lousy little cup of rice. The beggar was about to refuse, but instead he reached in and he put three grains of rice in the prince's hand. The prince turned to his servant and said, "Bring me the bag of gold." The beggar could hardly contain himself as he eagerly stretched out his empty collection cup. The prince reached into his bag and placed three grains of gold in the beggar's cup. And then he disappeared, never to return, but leaving the beggar to wonder for the rest of his life what would have happened if I had given him my whole cup of rice?

Jesus, the Prince of Heaven, may be passing your way today with so much to give you. The forgiveness of every sin you've ever committed, a new beginning, the peace that has eluded you your whole lifetime, and an eternity with Him in heaven. He wants to make you spiritually rich.

II Corinthians 8:9 says, "You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ (grace means undeserved love), that though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through His poverty might become rich."

Your life is as big as you can make it, and it's nowhere near enough, is it? Jesus has chosen to pass your way today, asking you to turn over to Him the life that He gave you and the life He died for.

If you're ready to trade what you have for what Jesus has, would you tell Him that right now? Tell Him you're putting all your trust in Him.

May everyone have a blessed day!

A Dancing Cow

My boys love them some Chick-Fil-A, and they think the dancing cow is just too funny! Although, Jesse doesn't want him to get too close, I mean it's a huge dancing cow, wouldn't you be a little skittish too?

Thankful Thursday: I Love My Life

It is not perfect, and the Lord knows that I must pray for patience and strength every day, but my life is filled with lots of LOVE and I wouldn't trade with anyone else for anything in this world!

Baxley News Banner~November 11, 2009

Not only do I have a wonderful husband and fabulous kids who tell me every day that they love me, but I also have the best students (& parents) in the world! How did I get to be so lucky!

Wordless Wednesday: They Call It Puppy Love

Trey with his special girl, although he still says that Mama is his most special girl. Hmmm...wonder how much longer that will last???

Also, he's been asking the teachers around school if their husbands are older than them or not. Because you know, he's 2 whole years older that B.

We've Got Spirit, YES We Do!!!

Congratulations ACA Eagles!!!
The Eagles defeated King's Way 34-13 Friday night to win the school's first STATE CHAMPIONSHIP!!! Way to go! We had a big pep rally Friday afternoon to get everyone ready for some football! This was the first pep rally that Jesse really got into and enjoyed! Hopefully, next year he'll be ready to go from the very beginning!

A Day on the Farm

Last Tuesday Jesse went on his very first field trip! What a major milestone this was for him and where was I you might ask......stuck at the courthouse! That's another story that I won't go into here, but suffice it to say, that there was no way that I could attend Jesse's field trip with him. And Phil, well he was extremely busy in the hay fields. C & P Tyre Farms is doing a booming hay business this year and everyone is rushing around trying to get all the hay baled before winter sets in. Luckily, we have recently retired Ah-ee, who was more than happy to pinch hit for us on the trip! That right there is the very reason that we moved back home and we are so thankful that our boys are so close with their grandparents! Ah-ee was also very good about taking lots of pictures so that I wouldn't feel like I had missed out on anything. That combined with the fact that they were going to Poppell's Farm, the very same place we had been a week and a half earlier, means that I didn't feel too guilty. Well, I did get a little teary eyed watching Jesse get on the bus from my classroom window, but I knew he was in good hands and that he was going to have a great day. And. He did!

On the field trip...

Jesse took his very first bus ride...

with Ah-ee...

and Vera Kate...

petted the goats...

rode Petunia again...

and we can't forget about the Crop Hopper!

Poppell's train is heading to the farm...

and Jesse had to have his picture made...

in every, single car!

It's another hay ride...

to the pumpkin patch!

Oh, it's sooooo heavy!

Time for lunch!

So see, he had a great time and didn't miss me at all!
Sniff, sniff!