It's Over Already?

Christmas was a blast this year. Ella Kate was full of energy (as always) and really got into the "tearing of the paper". As I started loading gifts Saturday morning, I realized that she had been "tearing paper" for a while without our knowledge. She's a quick little thing. We enjoyed time at home and time with our families. Our Christmas Eve Communion service and Christmas Day sermon from the perspective of a shephard was very encouraging. It was truly a Christmas that left us all feeling especially blessed.

EK has a new bean bag and a whole new wardrobe...or maybe it just seems that way. She also has a recliner, a rocking chair, and a rocking lady bug. That only names a few. Don't worry. My OCD tendancies came out bright and early Monday morning and I've cleaned out and made room for the new. B and I are especially excited about our travel DVD system. Hello, peace in the car! We all received more than we needed. But we are very appreciative.

Our new years tradition continues in the next couple of days. Can't wait! Until then...enjoy the rest of 2011! Happy New Year!

Halleluja!!!!!

I heart my job. But right about now, I heart a 2 week break better than anybody you know. Oh my. AND we still are having many sleepless nights around here. Those teeth may be the death of me. You'd never know she could be so ill, watching her sit quietly and watch A Charlie Brown Christmas right now. She rarely sits quietly. She rarely sits. But at the moment, she's looking oh, so sweet. We took her to see Christmas lights last Thursday night. She was in awe. It was great. She's great. And we love her. Even if she's cutting down on our sleep considerably.

Friday night, B and I left EK with his parents (thanks GiGi and Papa!) and went to dinner and a movie. Aaaahhhh. So nice. We worked around the house on Saturday. Then we started off family Christmas with the Bedsole's today. I'll try to upload pics to facebook later tonight. Tomorrow, my cheerleaders will be here for breakfast bright and early. I'm sure they'll be great entertainment. They always are. I have 11 gifts to wrap between now and then so...

Here's to a great week before Christmas.

And by the way, Neil, Dirty Santa Tag Teaming keeps a marriage strong ; )

It's Beginning to Feel A Lot Like Christmas

We've been Christmas Partying it up around our house. 2 parties in 4 days=enough laughing to make my face hurt. Isn't that the best?

On Saturday night, we visited with B's friends. I personally think they're hilarious. So I was pretty excited. I also was excited about getting dressed for something other than work or church. They didn't dissappoint. Dirty Santa was GREAT. B and I tag-teamed and came home with some pretty good gifts. It was an enjoyable night. Thanks, Neil and DeAnn. I had a great time.

Tonight the elementary teachers had the annual "get together". WOW. My face hurts from laughing. It was so nice to get to socialize outside of the normal situation. Some of us even wore denim. That's not a big deal to some of you. But in Coffee County, you don't do blue jeans. Ever. So if I'm not going to work or church, I'm breaking out the blue jeans. Always. Tonight was no exception. I enjoy you ladies (and Coach Stephenson and Michael) so much. I left tonight feeling so thankful for the opportunity to work with you all. And I was honored to be a "ho ho girl"...I think.

So tonight I'm in the Christmas spirit. My tree is all lit up. My house smells like Christmas tree. And my heart is happy. Now, if only EK would sleep through the night again. Have a good week!

Sometimes I wonder...

Where does the time go??? This has very possibly been the fastest year of my life. EK turned 1. Thanksgiving drifted by. Our house looks like Christmas already. And I feel like just last week we were getting ready for the first day of school. Do children do that to you? Either way, it's a blast. I just have to make extra effort to soak it all in. I can't even remember at the moment if I've blogged about EK's birthday. I think so?

Thanksgiving was nice. My families only get together a few times a year, but it's a blast when we do. It was fun to see each other. I hugged Rebecca when we were leaving (that's right Becca...you got a shout out on the blog) and said "see you next Thanksgiving". We all laughed. But I was serious. Getting to visit is a rare thing. We have to take advantage when we can. We left there and headed over to B's grandmother's. She lives in Jack, but we rarely get to see her. She reminds us of that often ; ) EK was in fine form. She kept everyone entertained and on their toes. Friday, we had lunch with my dad's family. We see them 3 times a year and it's always a good time. It was an above average Thanksgiving and we thoroughly enjoyed the break from our routine.

SO the Christmas tree is up. EK doesn't seem to care. She did bring me a Christmas ornament today from the tree. We had a fire in the fireplace tonight and she did well with that too. I hope I'm not speaking too soon. I was worried she'd take the tree out the first night. I got a wild hair and bought 2 live wreaths for our house. I'm not brave enough for a live tree. I'll let you know how the wreath endeavor goes.

If you do facebook, I posted the last of my pics tonight. Molly crunched on my camera for a while Saturday and it's busted. I wanted to do serious harm to her. I will not lie. I acted ugly and cried. Then I took 30 minutes of Hope time to recover. I get like that sometimes. Lately I get like that alot. Yes, B, I realize it too. I'm not patient. I never claimed to be. When my wreath fell off the back door for the 104th time tonight I wanted to throw it THROUGH the door. When I put up the hanger for the 105th time and realized I put it on upside down, I stomped my feet and screamed. I didn't, but I sure thought long and hard about it. I like to think of myself as laid back, but sometimes the little things get to me. It was that kind of afternoon. My husband did cook dinner and I'm getting to blog and enjoy the Christmas tree and the fire. So I'll let it go and be thankful. Here's to a week that's better than Monday and a husband that knows when I need a moment or 5.

Easy Like Sunday Morning

Yes, I'm a blog slacker. Football's been over for well over a week and I still haven't blogged. I've been tossing some blog ideas around in my head this week and I think I'll just combine them this morning. I've been reading all of my fellow facebookers' Thankful Posts. They make me think.

On a peaceful ride to Dothan Friday morning, I broke out an old Point of Grace cd and thought of all I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for a God who loves me enough to want His best for me and not MY best for me. I'm thankful that HE has much bigger plans for our lives than we can ever come up with on our own, although at times, I wondered what He was thinking. I'm thankful for a husband who is more than I could have ever asked for in a man. I'm thankful for a baby girl who makes my heart smile many times each day. I'm thankful for family that we're close to...in distance and in heart. I'm thankful for jobs at a school that we LOVE and for students, faculty, and administrators that we're happy to spend our days with. I'm thankful for a home that we enjoy and friends that we can pick up with even though the time we spend together is limited. I AM THANKFUL. I AM BLESSED. Life has far exceeded my expectations. Thank you, God. Life's not perfect. But it IS Good. And it's far more than I deserve.

Now for the day to day...we celebrated Ella Kate's first birthday last Saturday. It was great. We snuggled and played that morning and celebrated with family and a few friends that afternoon. She thoroughly enjoyed it. We were thoroughly exhausted. It was a good week at school. B and I get to ride together again except for basketball days. We're hoping to be amazed at what we save on gas. EK is no longer sleeping through the night and I may lose my mind if we don't correct this soon. She seems to be cutting 3 teeth at one time AND got 5 shots on Thursday. She's run fever on and off since then. Last night we were up for several hours. It was like having a newborn again. There was no relief. She's running fever again this morning. So we're having a quiet morning at home. She's still looking stinkin' cute in her ballerina pj's though. Happy Sunday. Hope you all have a great week.

Loving this time of year!

If I had a sunroof, it would be open today. It is marvelous outside. We're hanging out at home today, getting some things done, but resting as well. Just what I needed.

On Tuesday I scored the deal of the century. EK and I set out for Opp after school to meet my mom and check out a dresser she found at a flea market. We walked in the door and there it was. My new dining room table. I wasn't looking for a dining room table. I have one already. But when we have people over, we don't all fit at the table. This table was larger and had more chairs. I needed it. So being the submissive wife that I am, I texted my sweet husband and told him to make room at home. No, really I asked his opinion/permission. My dad went back the next morning and picked it up. No, you can't have my other table. You see, one day I'm building a house with a breakfast nook and that table's going there. But I was super excited to find such a good deal.

EK hasn't been sleeping well which means mommy and daddy aren't sleeping well. With keeping such a busy schedule, it makes for a rough week. I have a first birthday party to finish preparing for this week, Pumpkins on the Square on Monday, fall festival on Thursday, football on Friday, and THE BIG DAY on Saturday. I'll keep you posted on how it all goes.

I completed my 5K this morning. I wasn't fast. But I didn't stop. However, I do have a funny for you. I wasn't going to share. To be honest, I'm embarrassed slightly. But B thinks this is hilarious and definitely blogworthy...SO. I've been to Brundidge, AL before, but only a few times, definitely not enough to know my way around. But I wasn't concerned because they had these neon green signs pointing the way on the race route. I would like to point out that they were only the size of a sheet of paper. Do you see where this is heading? Well because I am fairly slow, I started off in the back and did NOT attempt to keep up. My goal was only to complete the race. It was all good until we reached the center of downtown where the festival was set up. There was traffic. And a sign placed on a board on the sidewalk instead of the light poles like the rest. There was also a car at the intersection...blocking my view of the neon paper with the arrow pointing right. So I continued on. After running a short way, I realized this was NOT correct. But what to do????? I finally backtracked and found the sign and corrected my path. I finished the whole 3.1 miles and then some. I ran without stopping. I reached my goal. I even threw in a little humor for good measure. So if you spotted a runner in downtown Brundidge this morning running the opposite direction than the other runners, that would be me.

Happy Weekend!

Happy Friday!

It's been a busy week, but we like "busy". The alarm went off this morning, I moved Ella Kate into bed with Bradley and began my morning routine. There was no run this morning. It's CHILLY out there! I even slept til 6, or so I thought. Until I began to dry my hair and realized my watch in the bathroom said 5:20. And so did my phone. Somehow my clock jumped ahead an hour. But that's ok. It's giving me some needed quiet time to enjoy this morning. The rest of the day will be full speed ahead. There's ribbons and tattoos to be sold, 5th graders to educate, a pep rally to be had, cheerleaders to feed, and a ballgame to win. Sounds like a perfect October Friday to me. A win tonight puts our boys in the playoffs AND they will host. A loss knocks us out. We're for the WIN. AAANNNDDD...Our volleyball girls secured a trip to the state tournament with a win yesterday. We're proud of them! Congrats. While watching them, I found my body moving from side to side trying to play with them. Old habits die hard, maybe? Regardless, it was an exciting match.

I surprised my husband with a new lamp shade delivered right to our front door yesterday. He wasn't as excited as I thought he'd be. Marrying him cut down considerably on my "packages at the door". Normally, I can retrieve it and dispose of the evidence before he gets home, but we got here at the same time last night and I was caught. That's ok. My lamp is great. The little things in life...

Someone asked me a few weeks ago on a Friday how my day was. I said it was good; it's a Friday! I was informed that everyday is a great day. I thought about this afterwards. I concluded that everyday can be a "good day". Friday's kind of tip the scale for me. Friday's are "great days". Hope yours is great too.