Christmas Day

Life has not slowed down since Christmas, hence the delay in sharing these pictures.

Seth looking at thank you note from Santa

A Cars game for the Leapster

A new ECU shirt

A "Where the Wild Things Are" shirt

A Cars Wall Clock

A Snuggie

New Pants

On Christmas Day, both sets of grandparents came over to check out Seth's loot. On Saturday, we went over to the Brights' for Mr. Paul's family Christmas, but ended up being late so we missed the family time. We spent time with the Barnetts instead, which was a great treat! On Sunday, we went to church and watched football that afternoon. On Monday, Seth and I went to see Princess and the Frog, which was great by the way! Monday night, I fixed chili to freeze. Whenever I have a day off from school, I try to prepare a meal I can freeze and eat later. So, Tuesday night, I made soup. I know, I am on a roll here...I plan on making spaghetti sauce either today or tomorrow. Busy, busy busy...I do plan on sleeping in tomorrow, or at least going back to sleep. Happy New Year everyone!

May Your Christmas Be Merry and Bright!

Pulling on the Reins

Aaaaahhhhhhh!!! Can I say it again? Aaaaaahhhhhhh! Christmas break is here! Maybe now I can have a weekend that doesn't seem like work (or at least a few weekdays)!

We missed our first opportunity for snow recently. It never fails. By the time the moisture gets here, it has warmed up, so we get very cold rain. I guess I shouldn't be too depressed, at least I can get in my car and go where I want, unlike my cousins in Virginia, who have 17 inches of snow in their yard. Oh well, winter is just beginning tomorrow, so maybe we will have a few more chances for snow.

We had the Bright family Christmas this past weekend. Rob's sister and her family were here from South Carolina and we had a Christmas breakfast and gifts over at his parents' on Saturday. Pictures to come! On Saturday night, we joined my mother-in-law's entire family for their annual Christmas get together. Needless to say, we were exhausted last night. Sunday was very low key for us--catching up on laundry, a trip to the grocery store, watching football and basketball.

For the next two weeks, I do plan on pulling the reins back. I want to take a couple of naps, visit some friends, see a few movies, spend time with loved ones. I want it to be like a vacation, but I know I will have to WORK at doing that.

JOY

Joy is defined as a feeling of great pleasure and happiness. I experienced great joy today when I received a text from my friend Tammy saying that she did not have cancer in her bone marrow or her bones. She is no stranger to cancer, surviving a bout with Hodgkins' Disease in college. Tammy has been having some bad health problems for almost a year now. Her kidneys began to give her trouble back in March of this year. She has had to receive blood transfusions and she began dialysis in August. She has been in a lot of pain and has had to endure a lot of swelling. She has seen many doctors about her condition and I hesitate to say that there is a lot of theorizing going on. We pray for Tammy's health every day and we pray that her pain goes away. We ask God to provide her doctors with wisdom. We pray that she will be healed of this condition and be able to go back to one of the things she loves, teaching math.

We will embrace the joy. We will count our blessings and thank the Lord for all of our days. We love you Tammy very much. Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving and Seth's Birthday

Whew! I love my life, don't get me wrong, but I am so ready for a weekend that doesn't seem like work! Ever since the middle of November and up until the end of December, it seems there is something going on for us every weekend. I know, I know, it's a very busy time. Of course we decided to add insult to injury when we got married in November and had Seth in November. I am not complaining, but man am I worn out! Here are some highlights from Thanksgiving and Seth's birthday.

Caitlyn, Seth, and Carson

Enjoying their lunch

Stuffed Turkeys

Seth's 4th Birthday at Jumpin' Parties

A Day We Won't Forget

Today is Seth's 4th birthday. Wasn't it just a few months ago when he was looking like this?



I really do believe that when you have a child, time passage does really kick up a notch. You blink your eyes and the year has gone by. I remember that first year, wishing he would roll over, wishing he would crawl, wishing he would walk...now I wish he would just sit in my lap for more than 2 minutes. Because the time will come when he won't want to sit in my lap anymore...I don't want to talk about that though.



Happy Birthday sweet boy! Your daddy and I love you so very much!

Blessings Abound

Catching Up...

Life just gets in the way, you know? Here are a few things we have been doing...


Soccer 2009--Rob has been coaching Seth's team--the T-Rex Raptors--Fun Times!


Halloween 2009--Seth was a Lightning McQueen Crew Member--thanks to my hairdresser Karen K. for letting us have this costume!


In early November, I went to the National AASL (American Association for School Librarians) Conference in Charlotte. The first night there we ate at an Unos Chicago Pizzeria restaurant. The food was great, but the service was not. I took a picture of this menu entry because I thought it had great presentation. I know, I am such an English major.

On a side note, the conference was great. I got to meet James Patterson, who in recent years has written some young adult books. He has started a website, Read Kiddo Read to guide parents to help their kids make good choices when it comes to reading. I met several authors and got to network with other school librarians. On the last day, the vendors started giving stuff away because they didn't want to take stuff home with them. I acquired several free books!

I finally received my $200 Visa gift card that I won on a mom blog giveaway. You may remember it here. I started entering giveaways earlier in the summer when I was trying to win gift cards to give away for my class reunion. I have won a few things--a Pampered Chef collapsible bowl, a eco-friendly wooden playset for Seth, a Sam's Club membership, and this Visa Gift card. I have not had time to enter many giveaways lately. I will try and feature some of the best sites I have found in a later post.

That is about where we stand right now. November is a busy month for us with our anniversary, Thanksgiving, and Seth's birthday.

Happy Fall Ya'll!

Creature Feature

I was going to toss something in the trash this afternoon and I saw something move around my kitchen windowsill, which sits above the sink. We had a visitor, a little, long, green, slimy visitor.



I shrieked, because to me, lizards, geckos, salamanders, (insert your choice word here) are nothing but snakes with legs. Rob came in there and said, "Aw he's just a gecko, he won't hurt you." Then he proceeded to get Doodle (our cat) so that she could see it. Finally, Rob took the thermometer and took the lizard outside so that it could go about its business.

I figured it came in on a potted mum that I brought in last night to water. Yes, you read that right, that varmint had been in my house since last night. SHEESH....it just makes my skin crawl all over!

Be Careful What You Say....(Or Read, For That Matter....)

Some of you may be familiar with the following titles:









These are picture books by David Shannon that are about a mischievous little boy named David (I think they are somewhat autobiographical according to the author).

As of late, we have been reading DAVID GETS IN TROUBLE at bedtime for Seth. Some of the memorable lines in this book are, "It was an accident..." "I didn't mean to..." "It's not my fault...." All of these are said by the main character David when he breaks a window by throwing a baseball, when he has too many snacks in his hand and drops his drink on the carpet, and when he messes up the class picture by making a funny face.

Do you see where this post is going? We have heard many of these responses from Seth lately after we correct his behavior, but some of them certainly have NOT been used in context. Here are some examples:

Throwing his tissue on the floor after blowing his nose (It's not my fault--no baby, it's not your fault that we don't have a trashcan for you to immediately deposit your tissue.)

Hitting his teammate at soccer practice (It was an accident--having some bad reflexes perhaps?)

Not stopping his bicycle at the stop sign to look both ways and accelerating instead (I didn't mean to...sure, honey--you didn't mean to not hear mommy scream her head off to stop because there was a car coming.)

I failed to mention that we also read a Bible story before bed as well and he always wants to hear the one about the snake.

Seth's Introduction to Soccer

Last Saturday morning, we set out for the local soccer field. We had talked to Seth about playing soccer and he said that he wanted to play. We had kicked the ball around a little bit in our yard and he knew that the object was to kick the ball into the goal. Seth did not like the fact that he had to wear shin guards to play soccer and of course, he would have preferred wearing his Crocs.



The soccer field is actually part of a park complete with slides and swings. When Seth saw that, soccer was out the window. We had to remind him that we were here to play soccer. We had not been there for 20 minutes when Seth looked at me and said,"I am ready to go." I thought he meant that he was ready to play soccer, since the program director was giving history and instruction of the soccer program. No....he was ready to go home.

"There's no crying in soccer!"

So the kids were put into groups and instructed to drills like Red-light, Green-light; Sharks & Minnows, Steal the Bacon, Left Foot Kick, and Right Foot Kick. For Seth, it was like pulling teeth. He loved the idea of being outside, but did NOT like the idea of having to do something he didn't want to do. Of course, he resorted to his coping skills--sucking his thumb?!??!
So we made it through our first soccer practice, and I am proud to report we have now made it through our second. The second one went a lot better, especially now that Rob is Seth's soccer coach. Our team has seven boys and one girl all under the age of 5. The next month and a half will be very interesting. Did I mention one of the reasons the second practice went so well is because of bribery? Yep, it works and I plan to use it for a long time.

Preschool Vocabulary

Seth's vocabulary is growing all the time and we can actually have a decent conversation with him. Here is a recent conversation we had in the car on the way to Target.

Me: Seth, you can only take one car inside with you and it has to stay in your pocket.

Seth: I want to take two cars.

Me: No, you can only take in one car.

Seth: But I want to take in two cars!

Rob: How about you take in no cars and stay in the car?

Seth: Stay in the car? Will you go into Target Daddy with Mommy?

Rob: Yes, I am going into Target. We will get arrested....for leaving you in the car.

Seth: I don't want to take a rest.

Deployment Time

image courtesy of www.apple.com

It's that time again. We have done this for the past six years in our school district for students in grades 6-12. Each one of our students gets a MacBook laptop to use for the year upon paying an insurance premium. What a privilege and responsibility to have as a middle schooler! I had a hard time remembering my locker combination in middle school and now we expect them to keep up with a laptop! Wow! Times have really changed. Many of our students take pride in their laptops and actually do take care of them. Sure there are some that get damaged, and accidentally dropped, but for the most part, a whole lot of our students are responsible. So, not only do they get an awesome technological education in being able to utilize a wonderful piece of equipment, they must also rise to the challenge of being a responsible preteen and teenager.

I can remember having a Speak 'n' Spell in middle school--and I had mine before E.T. made it popular, mind you. I thought that it was a genius machine.

Then my parents enrolled me in summer computer camps, where I wrote 4 & 5 line programs on the TRS(trash)-80 by Radio Shack.

What a treat it was to get to play Oregon Trail on the Apple IIE.

How far we have come! Many of today's preteens do not know what a floppy disk is. Our kids know about CDs, jump drives, and drop boxes though. They can put together a keynote with a gazillion transitions, pictures, and sounds in a skinny minute. They can use iPhoto and iMovie to create professional looking projects. They know how to do podcasts. I am not bragging, I am speaking the truth.

For the next 3 days, we will give 800 students their MacBooks and hope they can rise to the challenge of being responsible and take advantage of this superior, wonderful learning tool. Wish us luck!

First Day of School (For Seth)

Okay, so it's not technically his first day of school, but it's the first day for him in Preschool II. I think he was very excited and he told me this afternoon that he liked his new class. My baby is growing up.

38 Special

I told you it would be sooner than later....

I had to return to school today for the new school year, and it was tough to go back, but working to get over the hump of getting back into the routine will make it easier. What made it harder though was the fact that it was my birthday.

I got many birthday wishes today at school, but a real special birthday wish was given to me this morning by this guy:


I think this year was the first year that he has said "Happy Birthday Mommy" and actually knew what it meant. He is just growing too fast! We enjoyed supper tonight with our church Young Adult group at RuckerJohns.

Can you tell yet that I don't want to do any school work?

Summer Wrap Up

I realize that I have not posted as regularly as I have wanted to this summer, but I have had an accomplished summer. I have been very involved in helping organize my 20th class reunion and it has taken up a lot of my time. We have had some other exciting times this summer though....

Seth had two weeks of swimming lessons at Raynez Swim School. Of course, he took to the water like a fish and was going under water voluntarily by the end of the 2nd week. Did I mention we couldn't get him to stop drinking the water--like a fish--what can I say?

Because of many hot days, we made sure that we frequented one of the three inflated jumping venues (where were these when I was a kid?) in town. All of these were air conditioned, and Seth enjoyed time there with cousins Margaret, Carson, and Caitlyn, and his buddy, Noah from Texas.

We enjoyed spending time with Carson and Caitlyn in the pool at Mama Jane and Papa Gene's house as well as taking in Ice Age 3 with them (this was Seth's first movie in a theater--and he did wonderfully). We met up with the Younts on a stormy night at Moe's and Edie and Seth got a chance to catch up on lost times and even enjoyed dancing to the live music!

We even went to the beach in August! We journeyed down to visit Rob's sister, Jacque and her family where we got to spend some time at Murrells Inlet and at the ocean.

We were so happy to catch up with the Ingrams on their annual trip back to NC for the summer. I got to eat lunch with Reiko and we could have visited all afternoon except for the kids wanting to go to the Jumpin' Monkey (see above). We finished up our day by eating at McAllister's Deli (where kids eat free on Tuesday).

And what a wonderful way to wrap up a summer vacation, but with a Nertz-tastic Tournament at the Conovers'! Rob nor I had good nights--I guess we were still enjoying our vacation--but we had a lot of fun and fellowship!

So that is our summer wrap-up...and I guess I should be going to bed considering that I have to go to school tomorrow. Good night until the next entry (which should be sooner than later).

Rehearsal Dinner and Reception

A couple of weeks ago, we journeyed to Raleigh to help celebrate this union:



Here are some scenes for their rehearsal dinner, which was held at the University Club.




The wedding took place on Saturday, and of course my camera was acting crazy due to Seth grabbing it out of my hand at the rehearsal dinner and it falling on the floor. I was able to manage to get a few shots at the reception.

Gabriel and Seth

This was the first wedding that Seth has ever attended, so we did not know how it would go. He did okay in the church, only dropping his cars once and asking where Aunt Neck was. When we got to the reception, it was hard to keep him entertained until we began to have dinner. When the music started, there were no worries about keeping him entertained.



We discovered that Seth was quite the party animal at the reception. After doing the Train conga line, a guy with a beer came up to him to give him a high five. I don't know where he gets it from!

Congratulations and best wishes to Jeffrey and Erin!