Flashback Friday

YEAH! It's Flashback Friday! This is the first day of school this year, Third grade! I know I promised pictures way back when, and then totally let you down, so here you go! Isn't she adorable? I know, I am biased, but COME ON--she is CUTE! She was so excited to wear a tie to school. It ended up getting on her nerves and she took it off by the end of the day. Third grade has been awesome so far, although there is a lot more drama this year. Girls are just drama-filled beings by nature, I guess, and it is amazing the change that occurred over the summer. Billie doesn't really instigate any of it, and it usually doesn't even involve her, she just gets caught up trying to make everyone happy and get along--smoothing things over between everyone. And a lot of the kids are "dating", as they call it. When we were kids it was "We are going together." I remember my mom asking me "Really? Where are you going?" I would get so mad! We don't allow Billie to have boyfriends or "date." And she says she doesn't want to. There is a boy she has a crush on, though. I don't think there is any way to stop that, or I would try! HEHE! It is so scary to be a parent of a girl, but she is such a good girl so that makes it easier. I just pray for her daily, and I pray for her future husband, too. I want the moon for her. The most important thing to me is her salvation, and I always ask God to help me lead her to Him. I want to teach her to lean on the Lord for everything. Unfortunately I have passed on to her my worrying nature. I hate that I have done that, it is one of my worst habits and I hate to plague her with that. But she is so sweet and loving, and she does love the Lord. She says the sweetest most heart felt prayers. It really touches my heart. She thinks of things so uniquely, so different than I do. She is so amazing, God is so good and has blessed me with a wonderful daughter. Have a great weekend all!!

Snow Day!

We got a snow day Saturday, it was so much fun! The snow was gone by 3 in the afternoon, except for our snowman, which is actually still on the front lawn, but only the very bottom section. He actually toppled over as soon as we came in to the house to get dried off and have some hot cocoa. Billie woke up at 6 AM to tell us it had snowed! We got up and started stringing popcorn and making Christmas ornaments for our tree. It snowed all morning long, and we finally went out to play at about 9 AM. We were out for about an hour, until we were sufficiently soaked and cold to the bone! It was a wonderful way to spend my birthday, though. That is the first time since I was a kid in Michigan that I have had snow for my birthday! You know you are in East Tennessee when building a snowman uses up all of your snow in your yard! I can't wait for more snow, they are teasing us with a small threat of snow this Saturday, so we will keep our fingers crossed! I have a final exam today, two tomorrow and one on Thursday. But on Friday I will post some pictures of our home-made tree decorations. We have had so much fun doing this tree this year, Billie keeps saying it is her best Christmas ever! We were forced to make decorations since ours are loaded up in the attic behind mounds of stuff and we can not get to them at all. I guess if we wanted to unload the attic, get the Christmas stuff out, then load the attic back we could, but that would take one whole day to do and I have no desire to spend a day doing that. We are still trying to sell the condo, so we are trying to keep it minimally decorated and make it look more spacious, thus all the stuff up in our attic. More later in the week!

Count Down to Disney

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! We sure did. It was a wonderful 4 days off from work and school and we spent it with wonderful family and GREAT food! SO fun. Now Billie and I are counting down to DISNEY! We are so excited. We go in 15 DAYS! Whoohoo! Which also means I have to get ready for Christmas before then. Scary! But we are well on our way. Since we are doing Disney, we are cutting back on gifts so that helps. Billie is very specific in what she wants for Christmas, which also helps. She wants a frog, a real live, pet frog. She is all frogs all the time these days. We even got her a frog ornament for the tree for her ornament this year. I need to somehow put the year on it, so we will always remember the year she was obsessed with frogs. We still have our house on the market, but no luck selling yet. Since we were trying to make it look less like we were busting out at the seams and more roomy, we packed a lot of stuff up and put it in the attic, in front of all our Christmas decorations. I guess we were hopeful we would sell before Christmas. So we got a real tree, borrowed lights from Wanda and Billie and I are making handmade decorations for it. Any ideas you have for easy and fun ornaments will be greatly appreciated! I miss my ornaments and other pretty decorations, but I am OK with it. It will just make it more special next year when we finally get to use them again. I love decorating for Christmas, it is my favorite part about Christmas, and it is fun to try something new and do something different.

Billie is very busy with singing performances both with the school chorus and with church choir. She sang Sunday night for "Hanging of the Green." We are so blessed to have Bob Robinson at Central, the music is always outstanding and he lived up to his reputation Sunday night. I was so filled with the awe of what God did for us through the music and voices that Bob directed that night. It is always amazing to see the church lit up in candles and twinkling Christmas lights, poinsettias, greenery, ribbons and bows, but the real enjoyment is from the music. The hand bells were fantastic, the orchestra and the voices, too. Of course, Billie did a wonderful job. She always sings out and knows every word. She is blessed with a beautiful voice and a has a true gift. She loves to shine on stage, too! I am always so proud of her. She has a Christmas program at church next week, 3 different performances for the school chorus, and a piano recital all coming up! It will a busy two weeks, but fun for us all.

I have been filled with thoughts of what Mary must have felt like, so pregnant with her first child. Probably nervous of the impending birth, and then travelling so far and away from her mother who would have naturally helped her with the birth of her first child. I can't help but think of how terrifying that must have been. And how uncomfortable! Can you imagine being so close to your due date and having to walk and ride on a donkey for many miles, only to find yourself giving birth in a dark stable among the animals? Of course she didn't know at the time the pain and suffering her baby boy would endure to save our souls. I also think of what Jesus would have been like as a baby. It is so hard to imagine! I think of him as so perfect, but as a baby the only way he could communicate would have been to cry, so he had to cry sometimes. He had needs that had to be met, and Mary couldn't have read his mind. But I bet it was a sweet cry! You know, that quiet little precious sound babies make before they get really upset and really mad and really scream? I love to think about Jesus as a baby. I love what he did for me, but it makes me sad at the same time that he had to suffer at my expense, so I love to think of him as a baby - happy and perfect. Years away from the amazing sacrifice. I love to think of Mary then, too, before she knew what would happen to her precious first born. When she thought he would be a king and save her people, which is what he was and what he did, but in such a different way than she must have expected. I also wonder if she was shocked after having such a perfect baby by her other children's behavior and temperaments! I bet they seemed like a real challenge in comparison.

OK, that is my long winded rant for the day! It is fun to get those random thoughts out of my mind. Happy Wednesday to you all!