June Roundup part 3 - Moving....

So we came home from choir tour and crashed.....sleep is good. Even the kids slept in some after such a long, fun, active, strenuous week. My Main Squeeze spent most of the day Saturday packing his office, and I organized and packed around our house. I was impressed with what we were able to accomplish in just one day!

Sunday - our last at TPAC - had peaceful sadness. The sadness I felt was not for us. I know we are doing what God wanted us to do, but I know many people - dear friends - were feeling a hole in their hearts. I had peace because I know My God. Just like it took us time for God to change our hearts and be ready and open for our change to FBCN, God was already working in the hearts and lives of the family that was stepping into our place at TPAC. That gives me confidence and peace.

Sunday night, the Youth Choir gave their homecoming performance, and it was WONDERFUL.

Monday we started packing in earnest. The plan was to pack it up Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday;load the truck Thursday, and unload Friday. On Monday, my Main Squeeze went to the moving company to get some supplies, and the owner asked if we could potentially load up a day early because their schedule got messed up. He told them that he'd know better at the end of the day, but he thought it was possible. When he came home and told me that, I almost freaked - y'know mild chest pains and nausea. But then a crew of 8 TPAC students came over to the house after VBS, and within 3 hours, the entire upstairs of our house was packed! My Main Squeeze started having visions of arriving at FBCN on Wednesday night as a surprise.

More friends came over that evening and Tuesday after VBS. Our house was a maze of boxes. We scheduled play dates for our kids after VBS, and when they came home around dinnertime their eyes would be huge like saucers! They'd ask where specific things were, and I'd show them the box it was in. The students who helped wrote love notes and messages on the boxes for us. If they knew they packed something important to the kids, they'd make sure they wrote it on the outside of the box.

Tuesday at 1pm, the moving company called and said, "We have a truck near your neighborhood. Can we start loading what you have packed?" My Main Squeeze said, "Sure. You can pack it all. We are so close to done." Have I mentioned that he's an optimist? Again - a mild freakout happpened. I posted on my Facebook "Oh SNAP! The movers are here!"

It was a bustle of activity...Throwing last minute stuff in boxes. Packing clothes for the next few days in suitcases. Taking screws out of walls. Touching up paint and patching holes. Cleaning. Saying goodbyes....and by 7:30 we were on the road. We stayed in a hotel halfway there, and in the morning drove to our new home. By 10am on Wednesday, we were there moving boxes in and setting up furniture. By 6:30 we were at our new church home, meeting people and starting ministry. We totally surprised everyone, including my Main Squeeze's boss who said, "I'm glad you're here. I'm going over to Bible study." And left the building! It was all good :o)

And that's how we ended June...settling, unpacking, setting up - the boys were excited b/c we set up a TV and the Wii in their bedroom, meeting people, exploring the town, and enjoying time together.

June Round up part 2 - Choir Tour 2011

Choir Tour is my favorite time of the year. It reminds me a bit of Christmas because of the excitement and preparation, and (I'm not gonna lie) stress involved. All year, the choir I direct (ahem...directed) prepares and serves in the church and the community, but once a year we take a no-holds-barred-katie-bar-the-door-hang-on-tight-here-we-go missions trip.

This year, one of the best songs in this trip was a song called "Cry Out Your Name" Here are some of the lyrics...

When the mountains fall and the waters rise, with a trembling faith we lift up our eyes.
Let your power fall and your church arise.

As we cry out, Lion of Judah, protect us!
As we cry out, Shield of David, go before us!
As we cry out your name!

You are our help! You are enough! You give us strength when we had none!
You are our hope! Our great reward! You give us peace in the midst of the storm!

We cry out your name! We cry out your name! You are the Lord of Everything!
We cry out your name! We cry out your name! You are the Lord of Everything, Jesus!

This song really was our "theme song" for the week. The part that really stuck out to me was the way Jesus "went ahead" of us and protected us on this trip. First, I have to tell you about one of our chaperones - Mr G. He drove the church van the followed the bus from home to Ocean Springs, MS. About 20 minutes after arriving at Camp Victor (our home away from home for a week), Mr G. was sitting on his bed, but he was not totally coherent. His wife and a few other adults took him to the hospital to find out what was wrong with him. It turns out that he had a stroke. Yes, 20 minutes after we arrived at our destination. I don't even want to think about what it would have been like if it had happened 30 minutes earlier while we were still on the road. God went before us and protected us.

The amazing thing is that as a result of the stroke, he had no deficits. He was able to come home - err - back on choir tour with us 2 days later. He stood at the door of Camp Victor and hugged every single student as they walked in.



Second, I have to tell you about Brother Bill. It kills me that I don't have a picture of this big teddy bear of a man. He is the pastor of Lemoyne Boulevard Baptist Church. We sang there on Sunday night, and this church caught the vision of what we were doing before we even got there. Their church staff lined up 6 apartment complexes for us to share in. They went out before we got there, met with the management staff and set up the performances for us. They had never met us before - they had just talked to my main squeeze on the phone - yet they trusted us and what God was doing enough to put their own names (and their church) on the line. Not only did they set it up for us, but the entire staff came to each performance. They let us eat our lunches in their fellowship hall every day. They brought cups and water coolers. They even bought us ice cream!! Our tour would have looked totally different if they had not gone before us and supported us.

Third, I have to tell you about Home of Grace. It was our Monday afternoon contact. This place serves to help rehabilitate young women who have been tied down in a lifestyle of drug, alcohol, sexual, physical, and/or emotional abuse. Some of the women there have been struggling and in and out of "programs" the majority of their lives. I don't know why, but this appointment weighed on my heart from the time it was booked. My job, as director, was to choose the elements that we put into the program for each appointment. We had over 50 elements prepared, but each element is geared to a certain audience (children, teens, general public, church audience, adults, etc.). I had the HARDEST time choosing the elements for this appointment. I wanted to choose elements that would show them God's love and hope, not share any more condemnation for the life of their past. I kept praying for God's leadership as I chose what to do for this appointment. As I wrote down the songs and skits, I kept feeling doubt, and I asked Jesus to confirm what He was leading me to do. When I got off the bus at Home of Grace, I felt flooded with peace, and I looked at one of our chaperones and said, "This is going to be good." And it was. By the second song, you could feel the emotional walls crumbling and the Spirit working. At the end, my Main Squeeze shared from Ephesians 2 - "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins....But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved."



Those are some of the highlights from Choir Tour - I want to leave you with links to some of the "daily diary" youtube posts. They are each less than 2 minutes....You want to watch them :o)
What was a favorite memory from a ministry trip?

June Roundup...part 1

June was a crazy month for us....

I feel like I actually have to start on May 29th - It was the day that First Baptist Church Naples voted to call my Main Squeeze to be the Youth Pastor to the High School Students. It was quite a surreal weekend. We brought our kids; we brought Grammy Lu; we met up with my parents and sister, brother in law and niece. We met so many people, and we received such a warm welcome. From the parents, we felt a hunger for strong leadership for their children. From the staff, we felt excitement about bringing people on the team who were of like mind and heart. From the students, we felt a sense of cautious excitement. We were overwhelmed with the wonderful things God was doing in our lives.

That afternoon, after a wonderful lunch and enjoying time with our family, we started looking for housing. Our attempts earlier in the week were colossal failures. We both felt a sense of urgency to find just the right place to live. Fortunately, we had a good friend on the case, and we looked at many different properties. Finally, we chose one that was going to be available the exact time we needed it, and we knew that when we moved to Naples, there would be a place for us to land.

Then it was back to St Augustine and letting our dear friends know what God was doing in our lives, and to finish out our school year. Our kids teachers were amazing. They helped our children as they knew a big adjustment was coming.

Let me interject some lightness here...#1's baseball team was in the playoffs! It was such a big deal for him because toward the end of the season they started doing well, and earned a spot in the tournament. This was his first time playing baseball, and I think he's a natural. He has a strong swing and a major excitement for the game!





They ended up in the championship game, but they got spanked by the best team in the division. I was so proud of #1 because even though they got beat pretty thoroughly, he still had lots of fun and kept a great attitude. He got a trophy for playing, and it sits proudly on his dresser.

The rest of the weekend we spent celebrating graduations of students from our church.



Sometimes it was hard knowing that the next day we would be telling them that God was calling us to a different church, but at the same time it was sort of refreshing to be able to have a "normal" conversation with people because they didn't know our "big news."

Sunday the 5th, we told the church that God was leading us to FBCN. It was a heavy thud. There were 3 good things about the day. First, I got to sing with a dear friend a song that was close to my heart through it all - It was called Blessings by Laura Story. Second, my main squeeze was able to have a heart to heart with the students. He needed it. They needed it. It was sweet fellowship. Third, I got to have all afternoon with the students because we had an extended practice to prepare for choir tour. I got to talk to them and help put the news they heard that day in perspective with the fact that we were leaving in 6 days for our ministry trip.

The next week was so busy - end of the year parties, my last recital as a teacher, #1's award ceremony (he earned all A's and an art award!) and #2's preschool graduation.





I know...I know...in a few minutes I'll blink and I'll be posting her high school graduation picture. I don't want to think about it....

We also had our final practices for our Choir Tour/Missions Trip...that will be round up part 2.

I want to leave with a video of the song I was able to sing. This is not me (but I promise I sing just like that...J/k) Listen to the words. This song is what filled my heart for the month of June (and most of May!)

New approach to Rounding up....

One of my goals for the year is to "round up" each month - collect the memories of the things we did before they slip away and use them as a way to document and journal about our lives (as part of my addiction to scrapbooking). Well, as you can see, I've only completed January's - and not until mid March. What you can't see is that I have round up drafts hiding on my computer, in blogger, on my iPad, in my brain, in Photoshop....just not done because I felt like I couldn't complete it.



Well, I was already feeling a bit guilty about another New Year's resolution biting the dust, then I started listening to this episode of the Paperclipping Digi show about doing "year in review" layouts. It made matters worse, because the lady who inspired me to do this (Katie the Scrapbook Lady) was one of the guests. I listened anyway. The more I listened the better I felt. What I was really struggling with was getting it just right - telling the story the way someone else would tell it - getting my story to fit into someone elses box. Not, that Katie's prompts are bad (they aren't - they're great!!), but by answering them, I was telling the "everyday" parts of our lives, but some of the VITAL things were getting left out (or I was having a hard time finding a prompt to fit them in.) The 2 digi show episodes I listened to that day (here's the link to the other one) made me realize that I'm the only one who knows the prompts to my story.

I'll say it again...

I'm the only one who knows the prompts to my story.

I'm already starting on June's roundup. So much happened to our family this month - so much change - so many things God can only get the credit for. It will be up by the end of this week.

Round up for January...a little late...hmmmmmm

Everyone knows that I'm a fan of Katie the Scrapbook Lady. Each month she does a "round up" of the highlights of the previous month. When I saw this post at the DailyDigi, I knew I had to try making an album of our monthly roundups. I'm late posting January's, but I've been working on it.....

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
I really didn't get to read much. In my quest for finding Delight in my life, I picked out 2 books to read. The first was The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

I chose this book mainly because of the subtitle - "Or Why I spent a year trying to sing in the morning, clean my closets, fight right, read Aristotle, and generally have more fun." The premise of the book is that the author was generally pleased with her life, but was not happy. So she spent the year doing studying happiness and what researchers found that made people feel happy, and she set small daily and monthly goals for herself to change the things in her life that needed to be changed in order to produce more happiness in her life.

Well, I got through April, and then I had to return it to the library...I couldn't renew the book because someone else had requested it. I looked at buying it for my ipad, and the cheapest I could find it was $13. I guess I'm just cheap, but I didn't buy it. I thought the book was good, and I want to finish reading it....I guess inside I'm a bit skeptical that a person can increase their happiness by sheer will to do it on their own. There's no mention in the book anywhere so far about a spiritual connection. Which is why I chose to read my second book for the month...



The subtitle of this book is "Talk to Him. Hear from Him. Really." I heard the author of this book - John Eldredge - speak at a conference once on this topic, and at first I thought he was really "far out." At first, he came across as a far-out, hippie, Jesus movement kinda guy. But the more he spoke, the more I heard that he really had an honest, daily walk with Jesus like David, Moses, Noah, and Elijah in the Bible, and it wasn't like God expected him to live like a hermit or in a convent. John Eldredge is living in a community in suburbia, and he's living a "normal" life following Jesus. This book covers his year of discovery as he took steps to live by faith as it is laid out in the Bible. I read the Prelude of this book and I was hooked. I actually told several friends about it, and we are reading it together and meeting monthly to talk about it. It will probably take us 4 months to finish it. I've always wanted to be in a book club :o)

The kids have been reading up a storm too. I'm so impressed to see how well#1 reads. I bought them the app "The monster at the end of this book."



Yep, I love this book, and the kids do too, but in this app, Grover reads the book to you. The kids poke down the brick wall, untie his knots, and do all they can to get to the end of the book! So cute!!!

2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
The kids had a movie campout night (more about that in question 3), and we watched Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me. I can't believe we hadn't watched Despicable Me earlier. It was so funny!! My favorite part was when the little girl got her new unicorn stuffed animal, and she said "its...so...FLUFFYYYYYY!!!!" It cracks me up.


We took the kids to see Gulliver's Travels in 3D. I didn't love the movie, but the kids liked the 3D stuff. They also loved the fully choreographed version of "WAR" (what is it good for? absolutely nothing) at the end. They sang it for days on end....#1 would yell, "WAR!"
Then everyone would say, "HUH!"
Then #2 would sing, "What is it good for?"
Then #3 would chime in, "Absolutely nothing!"
And that's how it went down every time we were in the car for about 2 weeks....

We also took #1 and #2 to Winter Jam. It's one of the best Christian music concerts. We go every year. 10 bands for 10 bucks at the door. It was packed. Our kids are really starting to love music. #2 was singing along to all the songs she knew, and she definitely had an opinion on the ones she liked and didn't like. #1 was screaming/singing at the top of his lungs. It was hilarious. The people around us kept looking back at him and giggling. I asked him why he was singing so loud, and he said, "So I can hear myself." It was logical....and humorous.

3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
The kids had a couple days off school in January. We had planned to go to Disney, but the weather was cold and yukky, so we decided to stay home instead and have an inside campout. We pitched the tent in the living room, rented movies, ate popcorn and candy, slept in the tent and on the couch, and just generally bummed around the house. Delightful!

For Love Squad night, we went to the Food Bank and helped them organize the bins and bins and bins of canned goods. It was hard work but we all had fun working together. Our kids really jumped in and LOVED it.

4. What gifts did I give and/or receive?
One of the students from our former youth group in Ocala got married and invited us to the wedding, so I got them a candle set for their house. It was really nice to be at their wedding. This family meant so much to us when we lived in Ocala, and it was refreshing to see students living for Jesus and doing well.
I also bought my sister a sweater for her birthday. I got it 90% off at a going out of business sale, so I got a matching one for myself :o)

5. What special or unusual purchases did I make?
#1 is into football cards, so Dad purchased him a binder and sleeves to start collecting cards. We are in search of the elusive Tim Tebow rookie card......



6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
Amazingly....we were all pretty healthy this month!!!
My Main Squeeze's knee is still giving him fits. It's hurting more than it's not, and he knows if he goes to the doctor that surgery is on the horizon, and he just doesn't have time for it.

7. What were my accomplishments this month?
I was able to connect with some scrappers who were willing to participate in a blog feature about creativity for next month. I was able to recruit some new families for my Kindermusik classes, and we started them.

I started coaching #2's Upward basketball team. No, I'm not an athlete. I played basketball for 2 years in middle school - that's it. But when the league decided to split the divisions, it meant that #1 and #2 would be on 2 different teams, and my Main Squeeze volunteered to coach both teams. That's a lot. So in a moment of being out of my mind, I volunteered to coach, and I immediately started freaking out. I am way out of my comfort zone here. Fortunately, we have our practices laid out so that Main Squeeze can be at the last half of my practice to help, and so far it's working. It's a whole different world coaching 4 and 5 year olds...

I also painted the quote in the foyer!!! I've been wanting to do this for forever! Seriously, almost 2 years this idea has been stewing in my head.



My main squeeze also added a border of paver stones around our back patio. It adds so much. This was a brand new DIY project for him. Next is a fire pit!



8. What were my disappointments this month?
No, not any huge ones....

9. How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)

I put some goals for the year here. I talked about wanting to get up a little earlier and going to bed a little earlier too. Basically by the time 11 pm rolled around, I tried to go to bed, and I did it for about 2 weeks, and I was still very tired every day. I haven't tried getting up any earlier. I also tried to do something enjoyable after the kids went to bed. Sometimes I'd play guitar or read a book or play a game or just enjoy TV. That was nice.

10. Anything else noteworthy to include?

While I was tracing the letters out for our foyer painting before I painted it, I had to stop and take a potty break. My son, #3 ran into the bathroom and said "Mom, you've gotta see what I did!!" proud as can be! I was thinking maybe he picked up his toys or built something with his blocks, then I saw he was pointing to the wall where I was working.......


He said, "It's picture of you and me. It looks pretty with your letters!"

Here's the layout I made for this roundup. Honestly, this is what has been keeping me from getting this post posted. I had a hard time getting all the journaling on the page. I actually only included 5 of the questions and shortened them up a lot! I still like it. This is more of the "every day life" than I've ever included in my scrapbooks.





(credits - inspired by Katie the Scrapbook Lady. Kit - Snow Day, a Pretty Scrappy designers collab kit. Template by Simply Yin - rearranged a bit by me.)

January Roundup - better late than never!

Each month I do a round up of the thing that happened in our family each month. It helps me remember what we did, so that when I go to scrapbook them, I can reference my blog and have a better idea of when it happened and some of the details that may have been forgotten along the way. I got this idea from Katie the Scrapbook Lady.

Here are the questions I use:

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month?
2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?
3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?
4. What gifts did I give and/or receive?
5. What special or unusual purchases did I make?
6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have?
7. What were my accomplishments this month?
8. What were my disappointments this month?
9. How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)
10. Anything else noteworthy to include?

1. What books and/or magazines did I read this month? I finally finished Mentoring Mom, and I have mixed feelings about it. I think in general the book had good principles, but I really disliked the author's writing style....so it left me with a not so great taste in my mouth.

One book that I thoroughly loved was How Starbucks Saved My Life. It's the biography of Michael Gates Gill, an executive from an advertising agency in New York who's poor choices in his life and work made him disconnected from his family. Then, with no warning, he got fired. His "independent consulting firm" was going nowhere, and he was going broke. He almost accidentally was offered a job working at a Starbucks, and Gill relates the what he learned from this new and different job, and how it changed his outlook on life. Great read!!!

2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month? Can I get any more excited?!?!? AMERICAN IDOL is back!!!

I hated some of the guest judges, but loved Posh Spice and Kristen Chenoweth. I'm slightly addicted. I'm so glad we have a DVR. I record all the episodes and watch them uninterrupted after the kids go to bed. I also enjoyed the new show Human Target.

3. What fun things did I do with my family or friends? We started New Years Eve by inviting a group of girls over for a craft night, and we made books out of Starbucks cups, and New Years Day, we spent a good chunk of the morning as a family painting with watercolors. So fun!!

#2 and #3 went to visit my parents in Clearwater a few weekends later, and we found out my sis is pregnant. I also got to teach 2 scrapbooking classes while I was there. It was a first for me, and totally amazing! We had a few days off school which translated into a few days of hanging out at the house. My kids are really into science now, and we got my son a science kit for Christmas. It's been fun to do together as a family! The kids are really good at making predictions and they get really excited seeing the potions change colors.

4. What gifts did I give or receive? Nothing big that I can remember....

5. What special or unusual purchases did I make? Nothing out of the ordinary....I've started couponing, so I've had several trips to the grocery store where I've saved a tremendous amount of money. One trip, I got $275 worth of groceries for $165. $110 worth of free food is nothing to sneeze at.

6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have? Ooooh....this is a big one. I have an autoimmune disease called Ankylosing Spondylitis. It causes inflammation in the joints and bone spurs on the spine. Most of the time it just flares up in my SI joints, but this month it made the iris of my left eye get inflamed. Let's talk about pain.... At first, I thought I had just scratched my cornea (I had, b/c I had been rubbing my eyes so much) but the pain and inflammation didn't go away. I had to take eye drops round the clock and keep my eye dilated for 2 weeks before it even started feeling better. It's not completely healed, but it's much better now. And I'm down to 4 drops a day. But this is a new symptom of my AS that I'm going to have to start dealing with on a regular basis. I'm contemplating following up with an AS specialist to see what course of action I need to take.

7. Accomplishments for the month. Basically when my eye started flaring up, It was hard to do anything out of the ordinary. I did reorganize some drawers in my kitchen, and reorganized my music collection into nice looking baskets. I threw away a can full of trash (why do I keep that stuff?)

8. Disappointments for the month. Because of my eye, I missed a youth choir rehearsal and because of that we were not ready to sing for a scheduled performance. I know that shouldn't bother me that much, but It does.

9. Accomplishing goals. My word for the year is STREAMLINED. I've worked at organizing things and taking a more practical, easy-going approach to the tasks I've had to do. I've started making a meal plan for the whole month, and hopefully that will help me in grocery shopping and meal prep.

10. Anything noteworthy? Nah....

Ok...so better late than never on this one. Hopefully February will be on time!

February Roundup

Each month I do a round up of the things we did each month. It helps me remember how full my days were and gives me a reference point as I do my scrapbooking. It's the idea of Katie the ScrapbookLady

1. What books or magazines did I read this month?

I read The Wizard of Menlo Park. It was a biography about Thomas Edison, and no, I wasn't doing a book report :o) It was an interesting read, but kinda thick....I had to think alot while reading. The thing that was most interesting was reading about how they invented the phonograph, and that they originally wanted to use it instead of live concerts. They would put the phonograph in the concert hall instead of an orchestra or singer. No one really anticipated them being put in homes.

I also read some books on container gardening, as I am thinking about planting a garden this spring, but I'm not sure I need to take on all that extra work. I also helped #1 read 14 books for his Book it Chart. I'm really proud of how he's doing with that.

2. What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

We joined Netflix this month!

I watched Stomp Live (loved), Disney's Peter Pan (kids loved - i was surprised by the scariness of it, but it is old school), and World's Greatest Dad (disturbing - not the movie I thought it was when I ordered it - would NOT recommend.)

3. What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

VALENTINES DAY!! Normally we don't really do anything big to celebrate because it normally sneaks up on me, but this year we made valentines to give to our family, made pancakes topped with strawberries for lunch to eat on Valentines day (actually Saturday before) and pink strawberry rice crispy treats for snacks. And my hubby and I celebrated by staying home, putting the kids to bed early, and fixing steak and lobster tails for dinner. I bought some cute valentines plates from Target and made a little centerpiece from some pink/white fabric and red and white candles. Lots of fun!!! Very Simple!

We also visited our cousin in Orlando for his 9th birthday which he held at a facility called BounceU. All the kids had LOTS OF FUN!!!

Oh yeah....MONSTER JAM! I took #1 and #2 by myself, and it was fun! A sweet lady in our church gets us tickets every year. Normally Dad goes, but he was out of town on a youth trip, so I had to be super mom. A little scary, and more people than I ever want to be around again in my life, but the kids loved it. This was #2's first time, and just as it was about to start, I looked at her and said, "It's about to get REALLY loud." Then they fired up the engines, and I feel her shaking next to me. I looked over and asked her if she was ok. She looked up to me and said, "I like loud." Priceless....

4. What gifts did I give and/or receive?

Here's the postcard I made of the kids to send to our relatives, and for the kids to give their friends....

I bought the kids cute tshirts for Valentine's day. #1 is really into Lego Star Wars, so when I found a shirt at WalMart in his favorite color - red. I knew I had to buy it. #2 is only 3 1/2, but she's always grabbing our phones and asking to text Daddy, so I saw a shirt at WalMart that says "I love 2 txt" - it was a must buy. #3 is really into music, so I saw a little shirt with a guitar on it for him. For hubby I bought him the latest TobyMac cd. It's it fave artist. He bought me a new cellphone cover, and then....get this....a diamond open hearts pendant from Kay Jewlers. It made my cd look like a pretty silly gift :o) This was big for my hubby b/c he's a really practical person. He'd rather buy something useful than something beautiful, so for him to get this when we hadn't even talked about it was really big! I love it!!

5. What special or unusual purchases did I make?

I've had to buy a lot of printer ink b/c I'm starting to follow a few couponing blogs, and trying my hand at getting more with my money. I still haven't had the shopping trip where I spent $1.28 and got 8 bags of groceries, but I did get $250 of groceries for $110. I was pretty happy with that. My weirdest one was getting $9 worth of nail polish for 45 cents. I also planned meals for the whole month and stuck to the schedule! It helped me to shop more wisely.

6. What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

Still fighting with iritis. It's getting annoying. Starting to have a flare up in my SI joints too which I'm fighting to take care of before it gets bad. The kids have been pretty healthy.

7. What were my accomplishments this month?

I started teaching a new Kindermusik class this month - Family Time. Kids ages 0-7 can all be in the same class together, and it's perfect for families who want to take a KM class, but can't have their kids all in different classes - either because of schedule or finances or would just rather do one class instead of multiple ones. I am LOVING IT! Both #1 and #2 go to class with my, and this is #1's first time in a KM class. He gets overexcited, and I have to "re-direct" his energy several times during class, but it's totally worth it.

This one might sound weird, but I got to sing at a funeral this month. We had several funerals in our church of people who really love Jesus, and had been fighting illnesses for a long time. I didn't personally know the man who died, but he told his wife before he died that I was his favorite soloist in church, and he wanted me to sing at his funeral. The family even picked out the songs they wanted me to sing, one of which I didn't know. It's called "If you could see me now." It's probably the hardest song that I've ever sung. I was able to learn them in 2 days, and sing them really, really well.

8. What were my disappointments this month?

I haven't gotten to scrapbook or blog as much as I've wanted.

One of the girls in our church seems to be distancing herself from God.

I can't seem to get myself organized to do the most important things.....

9. How did I do on my goals for the month? (Or any current short or long term goals)

My word for the year is streamline........we're working on it. I feel like I need to totally empty out the dining room cabinets and work on that room. We re-organized and re-purposed our hall closets to hold the toys better, and it's working. I also re-organized the office shelves so they look a little nicer, and I threw away a bunch of CRAP!!! Wow...I didn't realize I did all that!

10. Anything else noteworthy to include?

#1 keeps getting huge complements from his teacher (the sub from his teacher who is on maternity leave) about how tenderhearted and smart he is. They are working on money concepts, and it's amazing how much he's learning. Like...This item costs 15 cents. How many nickels do you need to buy it? When he buys those items in his class, he always is giving them to the kids who didn't get any or to his sis and bro. Maybe that's not such a big deal, but I think it is.

#3 is FINALLY getting potty training. He's wearing undies all day at home, and on short trips out. Can't wait til we don't have to carry diaper bags around any more!!!!!

October Roundup

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I'm still reading The Mentoring Mom by Jackie Kendall. Reading it slow on purpose. Trying to apply some of the things I like...trying to digest what she has to say.

As always, getting inspired by my Creating Keepsakes Magazine.

and I'm a very vaithful reader of Ali Edwards blog, along with Katie the Scrapbook Lady

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

We've watched a lot of Gator football this month, and my MIL is a huge fan of #15 Tim Tebow.

Everytime they show a close up of him on TV, she had my DH pause it, and she takes a picture of the TV with her camera. She has over 40 pictures of him like this. She admires him b/c he's good looking, a good quarterback, and a good Christian - now only if he was 65, then she'd make a move on him! J/K

#1 is really getting into Scooby Doo - the old ones - thanks to Boomerang channel. And we've started watching Electric Company. His school teaches reading in a very traditional phonetic way, so Electric Company is right up his alley.

We rented Tinkerbell, Monsters vs Aliens and Surfs Up for the kids. We rented Grand Torino - loved the plot and characters, hated all the swearing and racial slurs. And we saw The Invention of Lying at the theater. I was disappointed at how sacrilegious the movie was, and it wasn't really that funny.

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

On the 29th, a friend of ours let us stay for a few days at their beach house. It was the best little vacation we had in a while. We played on the beach for 3 days, rented movies, and chilled. The beach is close enough where we were still able to go to #1's football games. We made a sand snowman and took this funny picture....it's for my Dad and Mom's Christmas cards. No, it wasn't cold at the beach....we all got sunburnt.

Speaking of football, he is getting so good at it! Remembering and running complicated (for little guys) plays!

My family visited to see #1 play football and to celebrate #3's birthday. It was a "YoGabbaGabba" themed party. We made all sorts of fun crafts and played great games. We had about 30 people in our house! Yea for big birthday parties!!!!

We also celebrated the fall festival at our church with jumping on big inflatable obstacle courses, slides and bounce houses, as well as kid carnival games....More on costumes below in "accomplishments."

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

My sister made the cake for #3's party. It's Brobee, a character from YoGabbaGabba. Very cool to have her help like that. #3 got more presents than he knows what to do with. One of the coolest ones was a picnic basket with plastic gardening tools, a flower pot, seeds, watering can and children's book about gardening. We've had fun planting our plants just like the kids in the book.

My kids also got fleece blankets from G&G. At first, I wasn't too impressed, but they have latched onto those blankets like they are their best friends.

My M&D said they were going to send me a check to cover the cost of the Tamiflu (see below), and they ended up sending us a check for $700! The letter attached said that my mom found some letters from when we first got married that I sent them with payments for a car we bought from them. My mom kept the deposit slips with them. She said that they felt so badly at the time that they couldn't just give us the car, and now they could, so she added up the deposit slips that she found and sent us the check for $700. We're calling it the M&D stimulus package.

What special or unusual purchases did I make?

Bought #3's birthday present online...that's not a usual thing for me, but I liked the convenience. I'll have to shop around for better shipping deals next time though.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

We finished up H1N1 in our house. #3 had the worst case. The worst symptom was a high, hard-to-control fever. I took him to the doc, and she prescribed Tamiflu, and 1 dose did the trick! He still acted like he didn't feel well, but the symptoms were much less severe. Missed some work and church as a result. #1 got a preventative dose of Tamiflu b/c of his heart, but never had symptoms, never missed a day of school. #2 started having symptoms, and I started her on the Tamiflu, and she never got very bad. All in all, we survived.

What were my accomplishments this month?

I started CTing for Teri Mayo again, and I'm getting back into the swing of deadlines and forum posts again.

I have been very crafty this month....Homemade masks, puppets, goody bags, food, hand-painted backdrop for #3's birthday party. I made #1 a rocket jet pack out of 2 liter bottles, glue dots and duct tape. I also handpainted a superhero logo on a red teeshirt and made a belt out of duct tape too. I made #3 a plex the magic robot costume for Fall Festival, and I managed to find pink clothes and a pink wig so that #2 could be Stephanie from Lazy Town.

I completed 13 layouts this month, and my first full kit called Preschool, that I'm going to be giving away at a Speed scrap that I'm hosting this Friday 11/6 at Pretty Scrappy at 9pm

What were my disappointments this month?

I had another student quit taking lessons......

I didn't have much time to work on playing guitar....

I got on the scale and weighed the highest I've ever been (not including pregnancies), which has prompted me to start a diet and so far so good....

Anything else noteworthy to include?

#1 really enjoys the water at the beach and has started body surfing at the beach...

September 2009 Round up!

Yesterday I found the blog of Katie the Scrapbook Lady. What a great find! I haven't seen such a informative and well organized blog in a long time! I got tons of ideas in just the few minutes I spent cruising around, but one of them I'm going to implement now...the monthly roundup. Katie has been doing monthly roundups for years now, and she uses them to keep track of what was going on in her life while it's fresh in her mind. Then when she gets around to doing scrapbook pages from that month....she refers to her blog for the details. Brilliant!!! So here's our monthly roundup for September 2009

What books and/or magazines did I read this month?

I'm in the middle of Communicating for a Change by Andy Stanley. It's given me lots of great stuff to think about in one of my roles as a Sunday School Teacher. I also read a back to school issue of Flute Talk magazine, and it made me want to teach more flute students.

What movies, television shows, plays, etc. did I watch this month?

Lots of new TV shows because they're not re-runs anymore!!! So glad to be seeing new episodes of House and CSI (the original). We are also watching lots of episodes of YoGabbaGabba as #3 is addicted to the show. (and honestly, I think it's wicked cool too.) Not a lot of movies. The last one I saw in the theater was Julie and Julia, which I absolutely loved!

What fun things did I do with my family and/or friends?

It was the first full month of school, so we were in the full swing of our crazy schedule. We had a few fun playdates with friends. #1 started playing flag football, and dad is coaching. Very cute to watch. My husband and I also did a series of 4 skits in our church on stewardship. The first one was written for us, then I had to write the following 3. Definitely harder than I thought it would be, but the congregation really liked it, and I think learned from them.

What gifts did I give and/or receive?

I got a $25 gift card to Starbucks!!!!! For helping a friend decorate her baby's bedroom. In turn, I bought my whole family starbucks one afternoon. That was fun.

What illnesses or health concerns did I have?

I got the #1 & #3 both got a pretty big virus. I got the flu - fever of 103! I felt awful. While I was about to die, my husband was running the house, even though he had a cold too. We both ended up finding a doctor and going for appointments. Somehow #2 never got sick.

What were my accomplishments this month?

uuuuuhhhhhmmmm........It's hard for me to think about my life in terms of accomplishments. I did design a tshirt for my dad for the volleyball team (see older post). I got the choir tour album finished and printed. I got a gift album made for my friend for her grandmother's birthday. I got 19 scrapbook pages done! And I made a magnet system for my husband to teach his 4-6 year olds their football plays.

What were my disappointments this month?

I had a few music students quick or reduce the number of lessons they take this month, which is disappointing for 2 reasons. I had to tell my babysitter, who my kids love, that I didn't need her to watch my kids anymore (b/c I had that many students quit), and she got another job. It's also disappointing because it's made our budget tighter.

Anything else noteworthy to include?

I tuned my guitar and started playing it again.