A New School Year!!!

1st day of 1st grade for Evan
1st Day of 3rd Grade for Ryan
Kaitlynn has a nice little play area inside my classroom. It is in a little side room that houses some records, but she mostly has the run of it and I'm within ear and eye shot!

I can't believe how blessed I am to have one of the best jobs in the world! There's nothing I'd rather do than teach in Christian Ed. Ryan and Evan's classroom is next door to mine, and that is kind of nice even though I don't have a whole lot of contact with them throughout the day. We do get to chat a little here and there. When I realized that my kids were going to be spending 35 of their most alert hours each week away from my guidance and supervision, it became a little scary! It is highly important to me that the person who will be their primary role model for those hours be one who is a Christian and has their best spiritual interest in mind. Aside from that, she is also a wonderful person, runs a tight ship, and provides lots of fun for them while they are being trained and molded. Thank God for His blessings!

Just To Let You Know I'm Still Alive...

Hello to all who take the time to click this blog! I really have been a blogging failure lately, but otherwise things are great. There just isn't really any time for the "frivolous" things these days! School is going well, very well, for which I am thankful. Kaitlynn met the love of her life this year, and although I'm not sure where she learned to flirt, she is doing a fine job...to the embarrassment of her mother. Actually, she just ran into my room and very emphatically said, "I'm NOT engaged!" Can't be sure where that came from. Now she is back (2 minutes later) with a play veil over her face. She does make a darling little bride, but we have YEARS before that, don't we?
I have tons of pics from the last few weeks, but they are on my laptop which is not online at the moment. Hopefully I can get those up in the next couple of days. Until then...

THIS IS HILARIOUS!

I found this on the blog of an old friend, Erin (Gibson) Enyart. Thanks for the great laugh, Erin!

2008 Democratic National Convention Agenda
7:00 pm Opening flag burning
7:15 pm Pledge of Allegiance to the U.N.
7:20 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
7:25 pm Nonreligious prayer and worship with Jesse Jack son and Al Sharpton
7:45 pm Ceremonial tree hugging
7:55 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
8:00 pm How I Invented the Internet - Al Gore
8:15 pm Gay Wedding - Barney Frank presiding
8:35 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
8:40 pm Our Troops are War Criminals - John Kerry
9.00 pm Memorial service for Saddam and his sons - Cindy Sheehan and Susan Sarandon
10:00 pm "Answering Machine Etiquette" - Alec Baldwin
11:00 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
11:05 pm Collection for the Osama Bin Laden kidney transplant fund - Barbra Streisand
11:15 pm Free the Freedom Fighters from Guantanamo Bay - Sean Penn
11:30 pm Oval Office Affairs - William Jefferson Clinton
11:45 pm Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
11:50 pm How George Bush Brought Down the World Trade Towers Howard Dean
12:15 am "Truth in Broadcasting Award" - Presented to Dan Rather by Michael Moore
12:25 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
12:30 am Satellite address by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
12:45 am Nomination of Hillary Rodham Clinton by Nancy Pelosi
1:00 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
1:05 am Coronation of Hillary Rodham Clinton
1:30 am Ted Kennedy proposes a toast
1:35 am Bill Clinton asks Ted to drive Hillary home

Back to Bloggin! (8-19-07)

Kaitlynn doing some rock navigation
A beautiful sight
Ryan stretching his abilities
My favorite part of a Gatlinburg trip...the mountains.

Ryan trying not to slip on the wet rock
Evan was a little pro at navigating the rocks
Havin' fun with Papa
Mom enjoys reading one of her "outlet" book finds

Ryan and Papa at The Track
Evan and Olivia enjoy breakfast at Shoney's
Greg discusses something with the rest of the crew...looks pretty important!
One of my favorite nature shots

Mom and I resting after walking Gatlinburg at night
Olivia...very, very tired!
Ryan and Evan with someone a little taller than their dad!

Greg and Evan at The Track

Uncle Eric and Ryan enjoy the pool

Kaitlynn found a little friend at the pool

Two happy gals
Takin' a break in Gatlinburg

Kaitlynn telling her mama about her lack of golf skill. Mama said, "Kaitlynn, you're good at shopping and eating out!" She was happy with that!

Ryan doing the unthinkable after visiting the Comedy Barn...he'd kill me for posting this!

Wild girl trying to putt putt. She wouldn't take any advice.

Unlike her brothers, she wasn't gifted with the greatest golf stance!

The part of the Black Bear Jamboree that we enjoyed!

These pics of Olivia's birthday are in reverse order...

All done and ready for bed!

Cake everywhere...even the diaper!

Yum Yum Yum!

What a cute little 1!

It seems like forever since I've posted, so I'll give a short update:

1. Ryan's lymph swelling finally went down with the antibiotic. Thank the Lord! I am a "glass half empty" kind of person, I guess (at least that is what my dear husband says!), and always tend to fear the worst instead of hoping for the best. During the last couple of days he took the medicine, his sinuses kind of cut loose, so to speak, and seemed to take care of it.

2. Another Yount baby has appeared! Congratulations to Devin and Jennifer (Yount) Driggers on the birth of Whitney Faye last Friday. She joins her brothers Logan (2) and Landon (1). I am awaiting pictures!

3. Vacation Bible School was a good success at our church. The directors attend our church, and always do a fantastic job. Their theme was "The Armor of God" and my kids (2 weeks later) are still putting on their armor, as well as singing songs such as "Onward Christian Soldiers" in very embarrassing places such as restaurants and stores.

4. We just finished vacation! Tuesday evening we made our way to Pigeon Forge, TN to spend a few days relaxing. My parents came down separately, and we spent Wednesday kind of doing our own things. Greg and I took the kids to The Track for a couple hours of rides, etc. I purchased a discount pack online before the trip because those things can be incredibly expensive! Even with the discounts I was grimacing the whole time! We wanted to do something different this time. Ripley's Aquarium and The Dixie Stampede are awesome, but we have visited each of them a couple of times in the last couple of years. Having heard rave reviews about the Black Bear Jamboree, we decided to give it a try. We were told it was even more child-oriented than the Dixie Stampede, and having seen a video of the show previously, we figured the kids would really like it. Our table ended up being on stage level...not a good thing we would find out! There happened to be an "all new show" for 2007, and we were so disappointed! The pre-show was great, and they still used the bear puppets, although very minimally, but everything else was loud, driving music with lots of immodesty and dance. We're not talking square dancing. I felt like I was in a night club. Within the first few minutes one of my boys had his head down with a very disturbed expression on his face. I felt terrible, like I had violated his innocence! I asked the kids if they wanted to leave, and they all did. I wasn't even worried about the money...I just wanted out of there and when the lights went out, we left. I found out that another large family had gone there a couple of weeks before, and the mother was in tears because she had subjected her family to that kind of trash. So, this is my advice...spend your money elsewhere! I did talk to the management in a very kind way before I left. If they receive enough negative response, maybe they will have an "all new show" for 2008! Other fun things we did were The Comedy Barn (with my mom's brother John Yount and several of his kids and grandkids who also happened to be vacationing), lots of shopping at unique places, a few hours in a mountain stream (that was the most fun) with mommy as the all-time "bear-watcher," and spending Friday evening and Saturday morning at Eric and Meg's place. We celebrated Olivia's 1st birthday which is at the end of the month. She is walking all over the place now, and getting plenty of bumps and bruises! It was a good time, but I am glad to be home...safely. It was over 100 degrees almost every day, and the humidity was terrible. I acquired some kind of allergy or sinus cold while down there, and am taking everything I can without much relief.

4. After arriving home from vacation, I received my grades for the last class. God really helped me with all of my projects, papers, etc, and everything was a success! Vacation week was my 1st break from class since mid-April, so I was ready! Tomorrow I start Counselor Professional Identity, Function, and Ethics. There are 3 very large texts, but it looks like it will be a good class. I will finish that one in early October, and take off until January. That will give me time to have a baby! My last 2 classes will be scheduled for spring, and then I will be done. Yahoo!

5. Ryan finally lost a top tooth this week! He is almost 8 and has only lost the bottom 2 (almost a year ago). The 2nd top one is hanging, and should be gone in the next few hours!

6. Teacher's inservice days begin tomorrow and school starts Wednesday. I don't even want to think about all the work the next 48 hours will hold! It's kind of like housecleaning, if your house is like ours. All the clutter has to be dealt with before you can actually clean. I'll probably spend the 1st half of tomorrow just dealing with clutter. Once that is taken care of, I'll feel ready to begin a new year! A nice benefit is that 2 weeks will bring Labor Day weekend, and then 2 weeks later brings us another long weekend with our Staff Convention on a Monday and spouses joining us in Holmes County for a staff retreat Monday evening and Tuesday. That will be a fun break. So long for now!

Update on Valerie...

I didn't go to my parents for lunch today due to this head cold, but Greg and the kids went and were able to talk to Valerie via the web cam. Val and Adam purchased one for us and my parents, but I haven't had a chance to get ours running yet. Anyway, Valerie is very nervous as you can imagine. Although their church is a hurricane shelter, Adam says they'll probably just stay at home...we'll see if that holds...I'd be in the church! :) I think their electric and water are going to be cut off at some point today as a precaution. I found a link that has info if you are interested...
http://www.caymannetnews.com/index.php