Craftacular

Jessie and I had craft night with the girls last week while the boys were camping.  We were so excited to make these awesome pumpkins.  One of the girls got the idea off of Pinterest (or Pin-interest as Angela calls it).  I have redone the polka-dots since this picture.  I had Angela giving me polka dot advice.  Angela is one of those friends that either has really awesome advice or really awful advice. 

I know that I am getting old, because Jess and I were out until after midnight and then we got home and didn't go to bed until 1:30.  I had a migraine for the rest of the weekend.  1:30 was an every Friday and Saturday occurance when I was in college.  Now, I can't even do it once in a blue moon.  So sad!  It was a fun night, though.

Tubaliscious

Friday night we went to hear our favorite tuba player - ok we went to hear the entire Wester middle school band play.  It was fun to hear them play some current tunes.  At night, I just hear the lower brass parts, which aren't all that exciting.  I guess I will always be glad that I played the clarinet. 

They started out old school with Land of 1000 Dances and then they played The Lazy Song, Rock Around the Clock, Firework, Animal,  Party Rock Anthem and Pretty Fly.

Jonathan's favorite song is Pretty Fly and his band director is a proponent of letting the kids dance with the music.  Problem is Jonathan plays the tuba.  He was the only tuba player even trying to 'dance' to Pretty Fly.  Only thing he could do with that big thing was rock it back and forth.  I forgot to grab my good video camera, so I was videoing on my phone which doesn't allow me to zoom.  Unfortunately, I couldn't get his awesome performance.  All you can see is a blur because I was laughing so hard making the phone shake.  Years from now, I will wonder why I was laughing. 

We are so glad that Jonathan enjoys band and hope that he continues to enjoy it.  I hope that he continues on with it into high school.  Until then, I think we are going to have a fun year.

Be Strong Don't Give Up

 

Remember, there is a deeper strength

and an amazing abundance of peace available to you.

Draw from this well;

call on your faith to uphold you.

You will make it through this time

and find joy in life again.

Be strong and don't give up

I know you're going to make it,

and my live and prayers

are with you.

 

-Pamela Owens Renfro 

 

My sweet friend, Susan, gave me a magnet with this quote.  She has moved to Utah and I am going to miss her so much.  We have been friends and we have served the Young Women together.  She has helped our family when were in need.  She is one of my favorite people in the world.  We love you so much, Susan!  Thank you for your sweet service to our family.

Flashback Friday: Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe's Wedding

1) I hit 500 posts last Sunday!  I big accomplishment considering I dropped out of the blogging world for a while.

2) I am a day late on Flashback Friday, so you are getting FF on Saturday.  I hope that is ok...

3) I haven't had any posts this week.  It has been quite the week.  My sweet girls were in charge of a Standards Night at church on Wednesday. We have been planning for weeks.  It has been daunting and we planned one activity only to scrap it two weeks ago.  At the moment we scrapped it, we realized that we lost a week of planning due to a combined young women's activity taking the place of our last planning day. Plus, it has been so incredibly busy at work. We have been preparing for a customer visit all week.   All I can say is that I have had some things to post, but I have been just to tired mentally and physically to sit and type.

So... here is Flashback Friday on Saturday...

Jessie and I had a great time traveling to Austin for Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe's wedding.  We had just returned home from our Port Aransas trip.  We dropped the boys off at home and then Jess and I jumped in the car and headed back towards Austin.  In hindsight, I'm trying to remember why we just didn't stop in Austin, but I think we were trying to conserve money after our vacation, plus there was the concern that everyone was going to be exhausted and on each other's nerves after our time in the sun. It was probably a good call.  Jess and I had a fun girls' trip.

 

Auntie Jan and Uncle Joe got married on August 9, 2008 in a beautiful ceremony in their backyard.  They have an awesome backyard full of trees.  I wish we had backyards like that in Dallas!  Then we moved the festivities in doors.  I am sure Auntie Jan was cleaning and recovering for weeks.  We all contributed our punch glasses to the affair.  We were finding punch glasses, cake plates and who knows what else stuck in every nook and cranny of her house.

 

The sun was in an awful place for this picture.  Jess was so cute that I had to share it.  She was sporting her tan from Port Aransas and we had gone for pedicures just before our trip.  No matter how old you are, you can't go to the beach without a fresh pedicure!

 

 



Prepare Yourselves

Jessica and Lainey

 

Apply thine heart unto instruction,

and thine ears to the words of the knowledge.

Proverbs 23:12

 

I don't care what you plan to do as your life's vocation, but prepare yourselves.  Get the best education you can.  Qualify yourselves in the best way you know how.  It's part of a mandate from the Lord that you train yourselves.

-Gordon B. Hinckley

I read this quote from a couple of days ago and it reminded me of Jessica.  She has started thinking of her future and what she wants to do.  She is really interested in working with preschool/elementary age children.  She talked to her teacher to see what she could work out at school, so that she could get some experience working with kids.  Due to my work schedule, she has to stay in the afterschool program and has been exposed to many different learning difficulties and special needs.  As a result, she has become very interested in working with kids with special needs.

I received an email from Jessica's teacher, Mr. Nathan.  He was letting me know that they were going to pull Jess a couple days a week to work with the small reading groups in 3rd and 4th grade.  If I understand it correctly, most of these kids have dyslexia.  The letter read, "The staff is excited to have some help and Jessica seems jazzed to build her resume and aide where she can work with the little ones.  I see a teacher in her and think getting started now will help her transition into the education field in college."

The next day I checked Jessica's folder, and there was a note on her point sheet.  It read, "Jess helped Mrs. Monique this morning and really liked it.  Monique said she was amazing and can't wait to have her help again."

I am so excited that Jess is getting the opportunity to work with the younger kids at school.  I think this is a wonderful opportunity for her and I am so proud of her!

Flashback Friday: Something Fishy

April 2, 2008

Teaching Moments

On 9/11, Jess and I had the opportunity to discuss the events that happened to our country 11 years ago.  She and I travel to Carrollton every morning, so we had plenty of uninterrupted time to talk about this special day. 

I told her about where I was when I heard and what it felt like.  We talked about how our Co-President and another co-worker were traveling and couldn't get back home. She told me what she remembered from that day.  She only remembered being in Mrs. Weeks' kindergarten class, and that some of her friends left early that day.  She never understood why she had to stay the full day.  That made me feel really bad that she could remember the stay-at-home moms coming to pick up their kids. I had to explain  that I was required to work the entire day.  She told me why she thought it happened.  It was a very special talk and I was so very glad that we were able to have.

Once we finished talking about 9/11, she asked me about Mitt Romney.  She was confused as to why he could be against bullying, yet he confessed to having bullied someone in high school.  This was a great conversation that I was so thankful for.  We talked about how so many of us make bad choices (big and small) in high school.  However, we can learn from those bad choices and make promises to never make those again.