Thursday, September 25, 2008

MVP

After staying home for most of the week, and the fact that Caleb has done so well with the medication, we decided to let him play in the baseball game tonight. He did so good for missing 2 games and a practice. After the game, while they were in the huddle, Coach Tony told the team if he was giving out game balls, Caleb would have gotten it. He had two amazing hits (off machine) and made two stops at second base and threw the runner out at first both times. If those plays didn't happen, we wouldn't have won the game. :) That was a proud mama moment. My heart swelled with the fact that not only did he play great, but that the coaches noticed it and praised him during the game and after. After a rough few days, I know it did him good to hear how proud they were of him and that despite any discomfort he played great. The last inning they had Caleb at catcher and even though it isn't Caleb's favorite position, he did exactly what he was supposed to do. Later the coach said he didn't even think about Caleb's trouble when he put him back there, but he sure hoped it help "work things out". :)

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Home for the week

Well it looks like I will be getting a 4day break a week before my 2 week break! The doctor and I decided at Caleb's appointment that he should stay home, that way we could work on getting his bowel moving again. We have had success, but are taking it easy and working toward a more consistent time frame. I am praying that one day we can move past these incidents. I have to admit that this episode is more my fault. I didn't think or calculate the amount of dairy in the school lunches. So he was getting double what he normally does. So we are slowly working our way back to a functioning colon. But we have enjoyed our time off so far, and we are heading up to Caleb's school to pickup his school work here in a few min. That way he won't fall behind (yes- teacher in me!). Hope everyone had a wonderful Wednesday!!

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Yikes!!!

Has it really been so long since I have updated??? Hopefully I still have our 4 readers out there and haven't sent everyone off for good! Things have been busy around here and I am taking the time to update today. Those of you who know I work, are probably wondering if I have school off. The answer is no, but Caleb has a doctors appointment so I am taking advantage of the fact that I am home and the kids are watching Mickey Mouse Club House, which gives me 20 min to update! School is going well. I am so ready for the 2 week break coming up. This year has been very trying and I am seriously debating what to do for next year. I know I am not the only one struggling with keeping up with everything that needs to get done, and trying to teach at the same time. The first few weeks Matt kept asking me how much I taught this week and to be honest it wasn't much! One of the bad things about teaching special education is all the paperwork. The sad thing is that, to the Federal Government, the paperwork is more important than the student. Sad but true. I am struggling with trying to be a good wife and mother as well as teach. Keeping the balance is a struggle for me. I made a rule that no work comes home. If that means that I get behind at school, than so be it. Home is for my family and I don't want school work coming in and taking time away from the kids and Matt. So needless to say- I am SO excited that in 2 weeks I have 2 weeks off.

On the other hand, Caleb is loving school. He enjoys his teacher , Mrs. Koehn, and his reading teacher, Mrs. Meredith. One of the kids from his baseball team is in class with him and Caleb now calls Brandon his best friend. He comes home everyday with something fun to talk about. I love that he loves school. I am so happy that he loves to learn. Matt and I have been toying with the idea of maybe doing homeschooling next year, but I haven't fully decided yet. I know that Caleb loves school, and I want it to be his choice. So we will see once the end of the school year comes and decide from there. Ian and Riley are having fun at the pre-K at Lebanon. I know there are days that they wish they were at home, but they seem to enjoy all the rhymes and songs that they are singing at school. They are learning so much and I know it will be beneficial to them. Kindergarten in someways is a review for Caleb because of all the things he learned at the TLC.

We have still not found a church home. We did for a while, more out of sheer exhaustion, but soon realized no matter how we tried to make it work, the fellowship connections were not there for us. So we are on the hunt yet again. We have been visiting a church nearby, Donelson church of Christ, and so far we like it. For us, it is a little more conservative than what we might be looking for. But we would rather error on the side of more conservative than be all out there. So we will visit for a while and see where God leads us. God has been stretching us and helping us grow as individuals and as a couple since our move to TN. It has had it's trying moments, but there have been huge blessings as well. There are days I would give anything to be back in AR sitting with friends just relaxing, but I know that the choice we made was directed by God and I have comfort knowing that he has great plans for our future.

Since I know you all are wanting to see pictures, here are a few from the last month. We took the kids to see Disney on Ice (their first real show like that) and they LOVED it! They had so much fun. I think they were all tired towards the end. We went on a Friday night so they had been up since 5:45ish and when the show was over it was 9 and I don't think we got home till 10ish. But they had a blast and keep asking when we are going to go again. :) There are a few other pictures too of Caleb with his first homework assignment. He has one a week and so far they have been pages in a class book. The very first picture I absolutely love. Matt and Caleb are watching the game and they are striking the same pose. They both held about 3 of the same poses and it made my heart smile.

*Like Father, Like Son*
*Caleb's first homework assignment- All about ME!*
* He was really proud of his work*
*Daddy and his princess at Disney on Ice*
* 2 of my prince charmings*
*Donald, Mickey and Minnie*
*Cars*
*Little Mermaid- Under the sea*
*Lion King*
*Pixie Hollow- Tinkerbell's beginnings*

*Finale*

Wednesday, September 03, 2008

A weekend to remember.

This past weekend, Matt surprised me with an AMAZING time away from the hustle and bustle of life. On Monday, Matt sent me an IM, that he knew something I didn't know. Well that just sparked a week-long clue fest that my friends, Rebecca and Marcie were in on. I kept trying to guess with every clue, but they wouldn't tell me if I was even a little bit close!! On Friday, my co-worker and friend, Rebecca, talked me into getting my nails done for the evening, so I did and it actually was pretty fun: girly, but fun. :)

When I got home with the kids, Matt's parents were there to pick them up for the weekend. I was told to dress nicely, that we had an arrival time of 6pm. We drove downtown to the Union Station Hotel and checked in. It was the most amazing place I have ever been. It use to be the Railway station here in Nashville, and recently it was remodeled. It was so neat. The architecture was amazing and we had a blast walking around and looking at everything. When we checked into our room, a bottle of Champagne was brought up and boy was it good! It was the best tasting champagne I have ever had. Matt then explained that this was the future starting point of our lives. That we had been through so much since moving here, and since we were concentrating on our marriage and family, that this was setting the point from our start here. This weekend was about us, and we were going to do things that we have wanted to do since moving to Nashville.

Soon we headed down to the restaurant for a romantic dinner. We watched the sun go down as we ate and talked about what we wanted out of our future. After dinner, we went back to the room and Matt had fixed it up with candy, flowers and candles. He sang me a song that he had wrote for me. I tear up now just thinking about it. Saturday morning we headed to the Frist. It was really neat although Matt and I didn't find this exhibit to interesting. They have a really neat kids area that I know we will be taking our kids too soon!

After that we drove to Vanderbilt and Matt showed me around. Funny how we have lived here for 2 years, Matt has working there for 2 years and I have never walked around the campus. He showed me some of the "secret" employee passageways, and then we headed to the Hillsboro area. There are a ton of neat shops that I have been wanting to explore since we moved here. It was a nice time to talk and enjoy each others company. We then ate at Matt's co-workers favorite joint, McDougals. Let me tell you- they had the best grilled fingers and fries I have had. If you get the breaded fingers, I have heard they are to die for. It was a really neat place too. Relaxing and eclectic. Then we headed home for some grocery shopping and time together. Sunday morning we got up and went golfing (yes we skipped church).

We had a ton of fun. I am really glad that we can do thing together, and we can work to help each other get better. Then we headed to pick up the kiddos and spend some time with the family in KY. It was an amazing weekend that I will not soon forget. Thank you Matt for making me feel so special and for loving me as Christ has asked you too. I love you more than you can imagine!!

Here are some pictures of the hotel that I took: