The First Day...

Well, we made it through the first day. Haley really enjoyed 4th grade and the changing of the classes. She was real nervous about that, but she handled it really well! And of course she made a new friend...and then went and helped find her mother after school was out. That is just typical Haley! After school, she said "I really like Mrs. Manley, Mrs. Self is just cool because she's Abbi's grandma, and Mrs. Keys just talked and talked and talked!" I thought that was funny!

Of course Auzlyn just lllloooovvveee'ssss Mrs. Atchley. Her words exactly...she drew the love out for about 5 seconds. Auzlyn made a new friend, also. The new high school assistant principal's daughter...She said she was just too sweet, just like me! Mrs. Sanders stopped me in the hall and said, "Let me tell you what Auzlyn just said" In my mind, I am thinking "there is no telling!" She said that she went into Mrs. Atchley's room, Mrs. Atchley introduced her to the class, and Auzlyn..in Auzlyn sassy style, says "I know her, I've been to her house!" Like she was all top dog because she had been to the assistant principals house. I wish I could have been there.

My year really won't start until tomorrow...I didn't have any students today, so I worked on scheduling ALL DAY LONG! But I will have my little darlings tomorrow! All in all, it was a great first day.

Accomplishments while my children have been gone..

As many of you know, my mother took my girls and my 3 year old niece on a trip to Gallup to meet up with some cousins from California. Well, they will be back tomorrow, so I thought I would jot down what I have accomplished over these last few days.

Wednesday I worked and we ordered from the United Deli for supper.

Thursday I went to Quanah for a meeting, came home home and cooked Chicken Fried Steak with gravy and new potatoes for supper...Quite delicious if I do say so my self.

Friday I got up, went to the Glass Shop and wrote checks and did the deposit...like any other Friday. Robby and I went to El Sombrero for lunch and then I had to go to school to meet a student. Friday night we ordered Thai Kitchen and watched National Treasure: the hidden book.

Saturday we got up and went a played golf. I had a horrible round, but it was fun. It was the first time in a while that Robby and I have played together. We were through around 3:00, grabbed a sandwich from the Grill on the Green. For supper that night, we had chips and homemade hot sauce...very yummy!

Today, I went to church, came home watched the race, then watched the end of the PGA championship. Still cannot believe Tiger got beat...and now I am fixing to cook cream cheese jalapeno burgers. I have never cooked them before, but they sound very good!

My accomplishments include only cooking 2 meals...playing on the computer...watching TV...and playing golf...a very successful week in my book!

It has been quiet around here, and I am ready for my girls to get home! Tomorrow they will be here and start fighting all over again! I have to admit, I do miss the fighting!

Pack, Unpack, Repack

These last several weeks we have been going and going! Just trying to get in as much as possible before school starts back :( Well, we got back from Colorado on a Sunday...the next Friday, I was packing again to spend the night in Wichita Falls and go to Castaway Cove. The girls had a blast there, and Robby and I did, too.

The next weekend we actually stayed home..I got some stuff cleaned out and finally painted Haley's room. It is painted, but we still don't have it completely decorated yet, so I'm not going to put any pictures up until we are completely finished...which may be next year.

Even though we didn't go anywhere that weekend, I had to pack Haley for church camp. They had fun, except for when the van broke down about 5 miles outside of town. That is a story they will have forever!

Haley got back from camp..got her unpacked and then packed us all for Amarillo. This is our annual school shopping/Wonderland trip. Both the girls actually rode the roller coasters! Auzlyn loved them...Haley was not to impressed, but she did ride them a couple of times. The whole time she had her head buried either in Robby or me the whole ride. She was a good sport about it!

So now I am unpacking again and packing the girls to go with my mom to Gallup, New Mexico. They are leaving on Wednesday afternoon and won't be back until Sunday or Monday. They are meeting some cousins from California to go to an India Ceremony thing...They will have fun! You need to pray for my mom because she is taking all 3 girls by herself!!

Then, it will be time for school to start...but I do have a comp day for the 21st...So I may try to talk Robby into going to the lake one last weekend before it all ends!!

The Last Weeks of Summer

Every summer I do the same thing...I have all these projects I want to do around the house and I wait until the last 2 or 3 weeks of summer to do them. Well I have done it again! I start out and say, oh, it can wait until tomorrow...but guess what, tomorrow is here! So if I get no other projects done, I will get Haley's room painted!

We were going to paint her room last summer, but thanks to the lovely Father's Day storm, it didn't happen. We are almost ready to paint. As soon as she wakes her little hiney up, we are headed to Walmart for tape, drop clothes, caffeine, and other miscellaneous supplies we may need. Her room will be finished by this weekend.

Haley leaves for Church Camp on Monday, so I have to get all of her stuff ready and packed for that...what is really bad is her sleeping bag is in the trailer, and the trailer is down. We are going to have to pop up the trailer just enough to get her sleeping bag out.

I also need to go through the girls clothes(and mine) and see what fits, and what doesn't so we can go school shopping next weekend. I don't mind shopping for clothes for the girls, but Robby is always there and rushing us! He'll say, "Do you have to touch every item of clothing in the store? Aren't you through yet? Oh my gosh, can ya'll just hurry?" He is going to have to learn that when you have 2 little girls shopping for clothes, who are growing up, and forming there own opinions, it is going to take a while to find the right clothes we need for school. But I don't say anything to him, because he is there, shopping with his girls, and I don't ever remember my dad shopping with me. Plus, he carries all the cash.

Well, Haley's up, fixing to head to Walmart! Have a great last couple of weeks of summer! I'll post pics of Haley's room when we are finished!

Vacation to South Fork, Colorado

Well, I finally did it...I got Robby to leave the shop for 3 whole days and go on vacation!! Whoo Hoo!! Off we go to Colorado, after much convincing that we could actually travel that far. Let's face it, Robby is not a traveler, but I am slowly turning him into one!

We had a great time, after the first night. We get to South Fork and check into our cabin. We were trying to decide what to do and Robby said let's just go on up to Creede, it's only 20 miles away! On the way, Auzlyn falls asleep. I wake her up when we get there and she immediately starts saying that her eyebrow hurts. That means one of two things...1. She is really tired and just needs to go to bed...2. She is fixing to get sick. Well, we were #2. We started walking around, and she says momma, "I need to go to the bathroom." So we hurry and find one, and she says, "I think I'm going to throw up." Poor baby tries to throw up with no luck, so we started walking back to meet Robby and Haley and just head back to the cabin. We get about 30 yards from the bathroom and Auzlyn goes, "Momma, I'm going to throw up right now!" We hurry around to the backside of a gazebo and she just let's loose. I just keep thinking, poor baby is going to be sick on our vacation. But, after a good nights sleep, she was just fine!

On the first full day there, we head up the Silver Thread Byway, which in my opinion is a must. You can buy a book at the tourist center for $1 that tells about the history of the different places and stops all the way up to Lake City. There were some of the most beautiful sights along this road that I have ever seen. They say North Clear Creek Falls is the most photographed waterfall in Colorado, and I can see why! Seeing bended trees at Slumgullion Earth Flow, was just strange. On the way back we had to stop and let the sheep get out of the road close to the Continental Divide...the girls really enjoyed seeing that!

The next day we headed over Wolf Creek Pass to Pagosa Springs. On the way we stopped by Treasure Falls, and some other viewing areas. There would be water coming out of the side of the mountains splashing onto the road. It was a very strange sight to see. We get to Pagosa and drive around for a little bit, and then stop and let the girls play in the river. They had fun doing that. On the way back, we saw a man and his two 2 sons, probably not much over 10 or 12, riding bikes up the pass. They had more guts than me! I probably would have died if I even attempted that!

The last day we stayed in South Fork for the Logger Days Competition. They had crafts and an actual logging competition. That was very interesting...they actually had women competing. At the craft fair they had Gordon Possein doing chain saw carvings. That was just awesome to watch him start with a log and turn it into a sculpture! I convinced Robby I needed one, so I came home with a little black bear. It doesn't really match anything in my house, so it might go live with me at school for a little while.

The next morning we got up and headed home. We had a great time and are looking forward to going back in a couple of years. Next year, I'm going to try to convince Robby to go to North Carolina...Wish me luck!!

GOD IS AWESOME!!

GOD IS AWESOME!! This past week has just opened my eyes even more to how AWESOME GOD is!! It is hard to believe that just a year ago the back wall of the sanctuary was practically gone, and now we have this beautiful new sanctuary (that is not orange, I might add) that if God wouldn't have brought the storm to blow down that wall we never would have gotten the things we need!

On that note, our Vacation Bible School this year was AWESOME!! We had more kids than we have had in a long time! 25 of those kids made decisions for Jesus, which is AWESOME! We have an awesome preacher who does not mind putting on the costumes Leisa and I pick out for him (We do that partially for our own amusement.) When we fear we are not going to have enough workers, God brings them to us! Thanks to everyone who brought their kids out and let us share Jesus with them, it is a true blessing.

Left to right VBS 2007, 2008 and then this year.

Remember, God has a purpose for everything, you may not know what it is at the time, but He will let you know He is ready for you to know!

Another busy week, and another one coming!

Busy, Busy, busy...I can't seem to get caught up! I spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning up the trailer and getting everything put up, laundry done from that. Bluck!! After getting all that done, Wednesday I could not do a thing! I played Farm Town...Guitar Hero...Wii Fit...and other numerous video games with the girls. After church, I made Haley's cake for her party so I could decorate them the next day...needless to say, I was up to 11:00 baking cakes.

Thursday morning I get up and finally make myself get up to decorate it. I made the icing, and iced the cake, and then I waited...waited...and waited for the icing to crust. After about an hour, it finally did! I don't know if it was the humidity or what, but it has never taken that long to crust! Finally, I get to actually start decorating it...talk about some hand cramps! I could tell it has been a while since I decorated a cake!

A few friends and family come..Haley was kind of disappointed, she wanted more people...more people=more presents. We still had fun. It was the year of the gift cards!! Thanks everyone for coming!

Friday we head to Lubbock for Haley's Learn to Golf through Scottish Rite on Saturday. If your child goes to Scottish Rite Hospital, take advantage of this program, it is AWESOME! The Golf Pro from the Tech Rawls Course, and several members of the Tech Golf team, and other Rawls course employees, volunteer their time to help these kids learn to play golf. I even learned some stuff listening to them! They provide the kids with golf clubs to keep, and a $500 scholarship for lessons. We love Scottish Rite!!

On the way home we got a phone call from Robby's mom saying "Where are you? There are storms everywhere!" We tell her we are almost to Matador and she says, "Stop there and wait!! There is a big storm with tornados that is going to cross the road between Matador and Paducah!" So we stop and sit at the Allsups (because there is nothing else in Matador) for about 30 minutes, when a trooper pulls up. Robby goes and asks him how it was looking, and he said we could make it on now, but it was probably a good thing we stopped! We finally made it home, 3 1/2 hours after we left Lubbock. Thanks Barbara for the phone call!

I get to church this morning and am walking back to my Sunday School room, and my best friend says "hey, come here..." I was like, "what?" Figuring it was something about VBS and she says "I'm pregnant!" I started screaming and jumping up and down! They could here me all over the church! I was just so excited I couldn't keep it in! I had just decided they were never going to have a kid, and now I am so excited for them! Congratulations, Leisa and Stephen!!

That's the big happenings from this last week. Vacation Bible School starts tomorrow...busy, busy again..Bring your kids out! They will have lots of fun!!

Until next time....