Hunting Season

Well, Brian's dream of his boys becoming little "hunters" became a reality this deer season. They were finally old enough and showed interest in going hunting with him and he LOVED it. Hunter (his name indicative of his father's hopes even before he was born), was first. He killed his first deer early in the season. It was a very small doe, but it didn't matter. He and Brian just wanted him to get that first deer under his belt. Taylor followed close behind with a spike. We cooked and ate the meat, which Taylor loves. Below are pics of Taylor's kills. Hunter's deer is saved to another flash drive...I'll add them later. The squirrels seen below were killed by Taylor after deer season was over.

In the picture below, note how long Taylor's hair is. About 2 weeks after this picture was taken, I took him to get his hair cut. He went first (followed by me and Hunter). Well, after she was done with his hair, he cried and ran out of the shop. He cried outside the entire time that Hunter and I were getting our hair cuts and then all the way home. He was genuinely upset, or I would have worn his fanny out for whining. He had told me that he didn't want a haircut, and boy did he mean it. Now, it's grown back some and he's forgiven me.

The picture above is of the buck Brian killed in Butler county on his parents' land. He was hunting so deep in the swampy woods that he ended up having to field dress the deer because he couldn't get it out.

1st Year Teaching

I don't really have any pics I can put up for this post...(the ones shown are the first day of school, before I knew whether or not I was the new fourth grade teacher or not. I must say that I have the perfect first year class. I teach 4th grade at Andalusia Elementary School and I'm sure I have the best class in the whole school. I loving teaching more than I ever thought I would. It is one of my passions...my awesome God first, my precious family (another BEST!), and my wonderful new career. I believe it is my calling from God. I knew that BEFORE I started teaching, but now it has been confirmed over and over in my heart. I love working with the children and believe I'm "called" to my little classroom family. They ARE like family to me...I call them my "kids" all the time. Then there are my "blood kids"...no comparison, of course:)

Here are my sweet boys on their first day of school, Aug. 11, 2008. They are the BEST and have already change so much since this picture was taken.

Football Season has Come and Gone...

Hunter did great in football this year. He was quarterback and played various defensive positions for the Termite football team. Michael Jackson was the coach, which we loved. We only lost one game during the season, to Crestview. Then we lost to them at the Superbowl. All in all, it was a very successful season.
Somehow I seem to have lost the hundreds of pictures I took during football season. I'll update once they are located.

Wow, it's been a while...

Sorry I haven't updated my blog more. I think I'm going to do a few to update since last August, which was my last post.

Updates!!!

I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks that I haven't had time to make a new post on my blog. Here is a quick update on the events of the last few weeks:

• First of all, I GOT A JOB teaching 4th grade at Andalusia Elementary School. I absolutely love it and have a fantastic class. I realized just a few days into it, that I am really going to enjoy being a teacher more than I thought. I'm VERY busy right now, trying to get things organized and filling out paperwork and just getting things set up in general. I still don't even have a computer at my desk yet. I take my laptop every day. Also, I still don't have a lot of the teacher editions and resources that have been ordered for me and I'm having to borrow them from the other 4th grade teachers (who are an absolute DREAM to work with). I could go on and on about the new job, but I will make a post later with more details...I'm just making this post today b/c school was canceled due to severe weather.



• Secondly, Hunter's football season got off to a good start with a pre-season Jamboree in Straughn last weekend. Andalusia Termites played Crestview B and won, a lot to a little. Hunter could tell me what the score was, but we pretty much demolished them, even with putting our second string in more than usual. Hunter had two touchdowns and played a great game as quarterback on offense and safety or defensive end in the defense. He's quite the little iron-man. Brian and I love to watch him play. Taylor was the water boy and LOVED doing it. I think he wishes he had played this year, but those big boys on the Termites were mighty intimidating looking during sign-ups. I video most of the game and didn't get in photos, I'll have to do better next game. Brian will just have to cover the videoing for a while so I can snap some shots to post. (I'll try to snap some from the video I took).

(Ok, I posted some pics from my video of Hunter's first touchdown of the season...it was a quarterback keeper. He ran about 80 yards...it was beautiful!)

Well, that's just a preview. I'll post in more detail later. Hopefully I'll have more time as I get things organized at school. :)

Taylor's Baptism

Oh Happy Day! Today in our morning service, Taylor finally got baptized. Even though he has been saved for several years, when Hunter was baptized, Taylor more or less "chickened out". Thank God that He is merciful and patient.

So he was excited today and so were we. Now we are all 4 born again and baptized in water. There is no greater accomplishment in the world than securing your family's eternity. I'm so proud of my boys and their strong faith. They have to straighten me out sometimes. I'm glad they do...and I straighten up, too. There's nothing like a faith check from your own children. PRAISE THE LORD! God is sooooo good:-)

Hunter's 11th Birthday Party

This year, for Hunter's birthday, I let him invite 3 friends over to Grandpa's house on the lake to spend the night. The birthday boy had football practice until 7:30pm, but Taylor and I picked all his friends up and took them to the lake and Hunter and Brian met us there about 8:00.



This is Taylor and friends; Ari, Todd, and Ben, waiting for Hunter to arrive.


The guys snacked on some rice krispie treats and brownies that I made and then went to the designated sun porch that would be their territory for the duration of the party.


After setting up everyone's controllers to play the Wii, the guys played a few games and then headed out to the pool, where they stayed until about 11:00pm. When they came in, they snacked some MORE and play the Wii. I dozed on the couch from about 12:00am until 2:00am. I got up to get in the bed and wasn't able to go to sleep until I had made several trips into the sunroom to remind the boys that we were trying to sleep...it was about 4:00am before I fell asleep. At 7:45am I awoke, wondering what time the boys had gone to sleep. I peaked into the sunroom and saw this: 666666666







The boys had stayed up ALL NIGHT!











Hunter and Ari were playing paddle ball outside and said they came outside "when the sun came back up."

















A little later, they played some football out by the lake. Then we had cinnamon rolls for breakfast...nutrition was not my highest priority:D

After breakfast it was pool time again. The boat was out of gas, so no tubing, but Hunter decided they could put the Big Bertha in the pool and play on it there.

I grilled hamburgers and hotdogs for the boys and we ate at 12:00pm. Then we cut Hunter's birthday cake...which isn't a birthday cake at all. It has become a Hunter tradition to buy a "Snicker's" cake from Winn-Dixie for his birthday every year. He LOVES them. We had cake and ice cream for dessert and then I started cleaning the kitchen. At about 12:40 I noticed everything was really quiet and I looked around the house and found this...














































































So...I started cleaning up the house and packing our stuff up in the Tahoe and just let the boys rest. I woke them up and we left about 3:00pm. They all had such a good time and Hunter had a blast. Hunter came home and went back to sleep for about 3 more hours. It was a great weekend of fun...for me and them. Hunter chose the sweetest possible boys to invite and it was EASY work having them over.