Tremendous Teachers

T is for Teachers
ABC Wednesday

Team Teachers
(Me, Lori, and Tina)

This comes at the PERFECT time. Today was our last day with the students and tomorrow is the teacher last day.

I am so very blessed to work with these two ladies. I cannot tell you what a HUGE encouragement they both were as I lost my job this year. What a joy to get another year to work with them. Both of these ladies work many hours to be the best teachers and I am privilege to come along side them.

Lori and I are a perfect team. Our personalities mesh so nicely. She loves the subjects that she teaches and wouldn't want to teach mine and I feel the same way! During the time when I had lost my job Lori was willing to sacrifice so much in order for me to keep my job. She is so generous. Her dedication to teaching is incredible; she does so much for her students and spends a lot of time planning and preparing. She is one of the sweetest people I have ever met!

Tina, our Title 1 teacher, who comes in and teaches Math with me has been a huge source of comfort this year. After I had drawn #3 for the lottery for my job I went to Tina's room to cry! She is always there to listen and give advice. She reminds me so much of my mom in a lot of ways. She also has this amazing ability to come into my class and immediately engage those students that are starting to wander. Her creativity with teaching keeps me so sharp!

Here are the 3rd grade Teachers at our annual dinner/baby shower

(two are missing)

We had a surprise Baby shower for one of our teachers
and Shannon and the youth group girls help me make this!

Monthly Memories

I don't know why but I love this picture.

It's like WHATEVER!

Annabelle is 29 months

Here are some memories I have of Annabelle from this month....

1. When we were at my sister's Brittany's shower I saw her friend, Helen. I have only met Helen once, but she is the type of person that just after one meeting she is a life long friend. So when I saw her I ran up to her and gave her a huge hug and told her how happy I was so see her. Annabelle then came running up behind me and gave Helen a huge hug too!!! It was the cutest thing. I wonder what had went on her mind...I think it went something like this..."If Mommy loves her then I do too!"

2. Her favorite thing to do around that house is to find money and put it in the piggy bank. "Mommy, lets put this in the piggy bank," she'll say. We also have been learning to count it before we put it in. Her bank is getting pretty full!

3. She has been burping a lot lately. When she burps I say, "Excuse you." So she has started to say, "Excuse you" when she burps! Now I am trying to teach her that when she burps she needs to say, "Excuse me," not "Excuse you."

4. Just the other day, looking very scared she ran into the kitchen and asked me to pick her up. She then pointed toward the hallway. We knew then she'd seen something that scared her. In the hallway by the bathroom was a spider! Daddy stepped on it and told her it was a spider. She said, "I was really scared." Followed by, "Daddy caught it, YEAH, Daddy!!"

5. She is learning the meaning of privacy and tells us she needs privacy. Sometimes her privacy is warranted ...like going to the bathroom, sometimes however she uses this statement to get away with something. For instance, getting in the treat bag when she isn't suppose to be in it!

6. I was sad at bedtime that she didn't want to snuggle me, and she noticed and said, "Mommy, why are you sad?" I told her why and she, "Mommy don't be sad."

7. She loves to sing! I need to do a post just of her songs! She is pretty good...and lately she is articulating very well.

8. This one just happened tonight --- Josh and Annie were snuggling watching a movie. I came in and snuggled up to them and she started pushing me out of the way and said, "No that's my snuggles. How about you wash the dishes!" Josh and I died laughing, which didn't help because then she kept telling me to go wash the dishes! Piece of work!

9. Her new favorite words is, "Delicious!" Everything is delicious, even if the next sentence is "I don't like it."

S is for Shower

S is for Shower
ABC Wednesday

The girls in my family!

Brittany the Bride

Click the pic to view it larger

The Bridal Party
From Left to Right
Annabelle (Flower Girl), Karen, Helen, Sarah, Britt, Jen, Me, and Kelly

My Little Sisters all Grown Up!
Kelly (youngest) and Brittany (#4 of the 5)

R is for Ring Pop

R is for Ring Pop!
ABC Wednesday

Aunt Shannon bought Annabelle her first ring pop in March. She wasn't so sure at first about it, but after one taste she knew she liked it. Thanks Aunt Shannon!

Hmmm.....should I try it?

What do you think Mom?

Ymmm....that was GREAT!

Q-utie Pie's Quandary

Q is for Q-utie Pie's Quandary!
ABC Wednesday

Monday morning at 7:45 I got a call from Josh at work letting me know that she had a 103.7 fever. We decided to give her Tylenol and Motrin and set up a doctors appointment. When her fever went down to 101 by 10am he decided to cancel the doctors appointment. At lunch, when I called home I urged him to take her to the doctors anyway because of some sicknesses going around at school. So he got her in by 2pm and it was a good thing. She had a 105.3 temperature. They sent them right over to the hospital where they admitted her. I got the call at school around 3pm and went immediately over.

Basically, her white blood cell count was triple what it should be. They knew it was a bacterial infection, but couldn't quite pin point what caused it. The only thing that came back a bit abnormal was her chest X-ray, so they think it may have been the beginning stages of pneumonia or bronchitis. The odd part is she had NO symptoms of either.

After almost 2 full days in the hospital they let her go this morning at 11am. We were very grateful; for as the medicines started kicking she was regaining her strength and stamina. Her energy was quickly outgrowing her small hospital room!

We see the doctor again on Friday. They said the blood culture could take up to 4 days to grow. So we are hoping that this will provide us with some answers as to why this happened.

We had such great care by our physicians and our many nurses that took care of her and I am so thankful to God who is the ultimate healer! We are so glad to have our vibrant 2 year old back home and healthy!



Here are some pictures of our time at the hospital...

Photo collage credit to my mom who put these together for me!
(click on any picture to view it larger)

Mother's Day

Photo Collage Credit to my Mom

Family Picture taken right after Church

I know it is Mother's Day, but she is such a Daddy's girl!

Our beautiful flower!

Annabelle did not want to get dressed for me. So I told her she could go like that. She was happy as can be until we got to Subway and she wanted to get out. I told her that since she didn't have a shirt or shoes she couldn't go into the store. At that point she told me she was ready to put her shirt on!

We went to Hidden Lake Gardens. We went there two years ago and had such a good time. Last year it rained and so we had to go with plan B. I was so excited to go back this year. We are making it a Mother's Day tradition! We had so much fun! Look at all the things we did....









My Mother's Day gifts from Daddy and Annabelle. I love the card on the right with the picture of me snuggling Annabelle. I thought it was so creative of Josh.

My parents sent me these beautiful roses for Mother's Day!

At night, Josh had play practice and my friend Gina was having a Mother's Day party and invited us. I am so thankful for Gina. Many years ago Gina prayed for a Christian friend and after I moved here I started praying for Christian girlfriends. We have daughters the same age and it really wasn't until they were about 1 that we started to be come friends. Now she and her husband serve as youth leaders in our youth group and she is a constant encouragment to me! I am so thankful for her!

Precious & Powerful Prayers

P is for

Precious & Powerful Prayers

ABC Wednesday

Precious Prayer

The Most Important Place on Earth, my parents gave us this book on CD and Josh and I have been listening to it for the past couple of weeks whenever we take the truck. Josh is the one who got me into listening to it. He has already listened to the whole thing! One of the topics he talks about is praying with your child. We have been praying with Annabelle since she was born, but our prayers have changed quite a bit since she's been in her toddler bed and understands so much more.

This past month when we finish praying she'll say, "I pray." Tonight this was her prayer, it was so precious..."I pray Pops feels better, (whispering) I pray... I pray... I pray Daddy....feels better...(normal voice) I pray Daddy feels better, Amen" It was like she was trying to work out the right words..it was so precious!!! I thought the Lord must be smiling down on her precious prayer and I pray that he answers because both of them are sick.
Powerful Prayer

I was able to talk with April this week, the teacher who took the LEP teaching position, which opened my position back up. One thing that we both realized was that about a month ago I had been waking up in the middle of the night with this urge to pray about my job! I didn't know if I was to pray that I would get it back or what but I would just pray. This was at the same time that she was struggling to decide if she should take the job and was prepared with her, "No!" She too was waking up in the middle of the night unsettled about her answer! We were amazed to realize that the Lord was using both of us to pray for his will to be done in both our lives. I am so thankful for her allowing the Lord to guide and direct her in her life and she is now so excited about her new job and I am going to be one of the teachers that works with her next year!

Our Precious Prayer Princess