Reflections

I have heard a lot of people say, "Wow, this year has flown by". In some ways it seems like it has but in other ways it seems like it has been a very long year. I've reflected on this year and all the changes that it has brought for our family. This year has been a year of trusting and having faith, even when we weren't sure about things. Back in July when I posted about us moving and being anxious about the move, particularly about how we were going to make it with us not having a job lined up. Well God provided and is still providing for our family.

Chuck completed his first semester of school at the beginning of December. He made three "A's" and one "B". Next semester (which starts January 21) he will be taking 5 classes, continued prayers are needed.

Tyler and Kaelyn are doing very good. Tyler has kept us busy this semester,  playing football with a 5-1 season. He has also been very active in FFA. Tyler has adjusted to the public school life and is a straight “A” student. Kaelyn made all A’s the first nine weeks of school. After much prayer we decided that Kaelyn would leave the public school system. So in October we began the journey of homeschooling. She has adapted very well to this and is still an “A” student.   

 I'm looking forward to what this new year will bring. Hope you all have a "Happy New Year".

Pumpkins, Candy & Festivals

Pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere. If you know me very well or have been in my house, you know that I just love pumpkins. From pumpkins in my living room, to pumpkin scented hand soap and candles and lets not forget the scent of pumpkin muffins baking, pumpkins are all over my house. These two even made an appearance at our house (for a few days anyway).

These are the only “before” pictures I got . Here they are getting all the “guts” out.


and finally the “after”

Kaelyn decided that her pumpkin needed to be puking. I know “GROSS”!!! Tyler had a different pattern started on his, but a change a plans when the cutting didn’t go quite as planned. That’s okay though we made it work. They had fun scraping all the guts out and planning how the faces would look on their Jack-O-Lanterns. We took them outside (minus the puke from Kaelyn’s) and put a candle inside of them.


On Tuesday night the BCM put on a CANDY LAND event for the BCF students, faculty and staff  and their families at the Heritage Village. They decorated like the Candy Land game.


We took our kids but most of the activities geared for younger children. Kaelyn did stop in at the face painting booth and got a ladybug painted on her face.

For Halloween night we went to the Autumn Fest that was held outside of the Civic Center. There were Churches from the community there giving out hot dogs, sodas, chili,  popcorn and cotton candy. Kaelyn and I had cotton candy while Chuck and Tyler had some popcorn and a cup of chili. They also did Trunk or Treating. There were different games for the kids to play and even had a clown making balloon animals and swords. There were several cute costumes that we saw. One couple that we know had there little boy dressed like a bunch of green grapes. He was so cute, they blew up small green balloons and attached them to his shirt. Then we saw another little boy dressed up as a red dirt devil vacuum cleaner. Wish I could have taken pictures of them. This was such  a neat little event for our community. Afterwards we went to Sonic for the $0.50 corn dogs. Of course you can’t go to Sonic without getting tots and a drink.

FFA and the Panhandle Youth Expo

With moving to a new city, and a new school comes opportunities to become involved in activities/organizations. This year Tyler has done just that. In the past he had never shown an interest in anything related to agriculture so it really surprised me when he wanted to join FFA and told us that he would like to show his FFA chapters Beef Heifer in the Panhandle Youth Expo.
He started showing this interest when school started and one of his classes is Agricultural Science. I really didn’t think that he would be very interested in this class, that it would be just another class he had. Would do the work, make a good grade and that would be it. Well to my surprise he would come home after football practice and talk about what they did that day in Ag Science. One of the things that really helps out for this class, is that they are not just sitting in a classroom all the time. The teacher (Mr. Mauldin) takes them outside for a hands on approach and they LEARN.
So a few weeks into the school year, Tyler informs us that he wants to join FFA. So he gets his money turned in and then a couple of days later he came home telling us that the girl that was supposed to be showing the FFA chapter beef cow wasn’t going to do it, and he had been leading the cow around some and everyone kept telling him that he was doing real good. Well long story short, Mr. Mauldin talked with Tyler and it was decided that Tyler would be the one to show the cow. He only had a few weeks to work with this cow before the show.
On Monday, (the 8th of October) Tyler was up early to get on down to the fairgrounds. He wanted to get checked in and get started with this cow showing business. He showed the cow on Tuesday afternoon for the Beef Showmanship Contest. For it being his first time, he did really well. While he didn’t come in 1st or 2nd place, we were very proud of him. He actually came in 4th, but they only acknowledge 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place. He did get a participant ribbon though.


Wednesday they had the Breeding Beef Show. There were only four cows in the group that Tyler showed in on this day. His cow came in fourth place. One thing that the judge said about his cow (and some others in different groups) was that it looked to “cowy”. That night after we got home, Tyler was like, “how can a cow look too cowy?” He said he was fine with it, but really I think he was disappointed.

Birthday Girl

This past Saturday was Kaelyn’s birthday. My baby girl is now officially a teen. Yes, she is now 13. Seems as if time has flown by these last 13 years. How can she be this old already? I sure do miss the days of holding my baby girl and rocking her. Although she did sit down on my lap while I was in the rocking chair the other day. It did this momma heart good for her to do that. As a matter of fact, it brought tears to my eyes.

We celebrated her 13th birthday at my sisters house, with cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncle.  Kaelyn requested that we have lasagna. salads and garlic bread. I made white cupcakes with pink icing for her. And this momma did not take her camera out even once during all the celebrating. Now that I think about it, I didn’t take any pictures while we were visiting with our family & celebrating Kaelyn’s birthday. Bad momma I know.
I am so thankful that God blessed our family with this beautiful blue eyed baby girl 13 years ago.

Catching Up

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post. Seems like I could keep my blog up to date since I do not work outside our home.  What with ballgames (practice), helping with homework, keeping up with the laundry and just making our house a home I hardly have time for anything else.
We did take a quick road trip to Destin a couple of weeks ago and walked around at Destin Commons. Chuck & Tyler enjoyed looking around at Bass Pro Shops.  I can’t decide if this raccoon is ready to attack or maybe it is a look of mischief.

We ate lunch at Red Brick Pizza. It will definitely be a place we will eat at again. Here’s my two favorite guys before our pizza was served.

After lunch we walked around some more and did some window shopping and just browsing through some stores. We walked into Williams-Sonoma and knew when we saw this,

we wouldn’t be making a purchase there. Chuck took the picture and posted on Instagram with this “I’m getting 3 of these. Anybody need me to pick one up for ya?”  Umm, I don’t think so. They also had all kinds of pumpkin flavored stuff in there.

Wishing they would have had samples of this Pumpkin Parmesan pasta sauce out. Couldn’t bring myself to buy it without knowing if we would like it or not. In some ways it sounds “gross” but then on the other hand it looks like something I might would like to try.  They also had some Pumpkin Spice Latte Syrup. Skipped buying that also, and settled for a Pumpkin Spice Latte from Starbucks instead.
Of course no trip is complete without a little fun.

After visiting a couple more stores, including Yankee Candle it was time to venture down to the beach.

No swimming on this trip, but we did walk on the beach.

DIY Fall Décor

I enjoy buying décor for our home, but sometimes I like to make something with the things I have on hand. So a few weeks ago when I was getting my fall items out, I came across some fall ribbon that my sister gave me last year and also these little prickly ball like things that I picked up off the ground and put in a zip lock bag (thinking that they would be good for a project one day). I’m not sure what they are actually called, but if anyone knows please tell me.

I took a vase, those prickly things, Velcro and some ribbon. First of all I measured the ribbon around my vase and cut it, then I put Velcro on my ribbon so that I could easily wrap the ribbon around the vase. Next I stacked the prickly things into the vase.

This was a very quick and easy project. I think I will put some of those small Christmas ornaments in the vase and add some festive ribbon too for a cute Christmas vase.

Fall Greetings

I love fall, it is by far by absolute favorite season. Think about it, the leaves start changing colors, the weather starts to get a little cooler. There is even a hint of a chill in the early mornings. Let’s not forget about the scents of pumpkin and of course apple cider.
So I have been “itching” to pull out my fall décor and have my house smelling like Pumpkin Buttercream.  With that being said, the day before the official first day of fall I started putting away the summer décor and out came the fall.

My mother-in-law was here for a visit a couple of weeks after we first moved in and while she was here we were out shopping, I saw this big pumpkin and was admiring it. She bought it for me as a “housewarming” gift.

My sweet sister bought this pumpkin to me when she came for a visit last month.
I was at the Dollar store a few weeks ago and found this one. I have it sitting on top of a cabinet in the bathroom. Yes the bathroom needs to have some fall décor too. I also have some of this soap in there.

Of course I also have out my pumpkins that I got on sale last year.

I got this little basket at Goodwill for .25 about six months ago. So I put these sunflowers that my sister gave me last year into the basket.


I’ll do another post to show how I made this. Hope you all are having a great fall.

Another win for those GHS Tigers!!

Tonight the GHS Tigers J.V. Football team hosted the Marianna Bulldogs for an exciting game. At the end of the first quarter the score was tied 6 – 6. Our team was playing a good game, but I think they may have been a little too sure of themselves after last weeks win (44-0). By half time the score was Tigers 12 and the Bulldogs 14. Our guys played much better in the second half of the game. With just 2:33 left in the 3rd quarter the score is now TIGERS  26 and Bulldogs 14. By this time of the game I was on the edge of my seat wandering if those Tigers could hold those Bulldogs back and pull off another win. The final score of the games was Tigers 34 – Bulldogs 14. Tyler played so much better this week. I am so thankful for the coaches that are working with Tyler and helping him to learn the position he is playing.

So proud of my son Tyler (He’s #76), he played so hard in this game. Way to go son, you did great! Congratulations Tigers!!

A Win for the Tigers

The J.V. football team was finally able to play last night.  They were supposed to have their first game on the 30th of August, but because of bad weather the game was cancelled. Then their second game of the season was scheduled for last week (the 6th of September) as a home game. Sometime just after the opposing team arrived at our school, they received a phone call that some students from their school had been in a tragic car accident, that left three of them dead.  So with respect to the other school the game was called off and  rescheduled for a later date.

So last night Tyler & the rest of his team were beyond excited to get out on that field and play some FOOTBALL.  Let me just say right now that I enjoy watching football, I don’t really understand all the details of it though. I can say that I do know the following about football: the kickoff, touchdown, incomplete pass, interception, tackle. Other than that I am lost when it comes to the game of football. That's okay though, I still enjoy watching and cheering for my team(s).

A very welcomed visit

Last weekend was one I will cherish forever. Some of my family came for a visit. Mom, Crystal (my sister) and her two boys and my Aunt arrived at our house right around noon on Saturday. My sister surprised me with this housewarming gift.
After making arrangements for where everyone would be staying for the weekend, (Aunt Betty would be staying at Aunt Esther’s house which is my mom and Aunt Betty’s older sister. She lives about 15 minutes away from us. Mom, Crystal and the boys stayed with us.) we headed to Dothan to do a little retail therapy. On our way home, we saw this:
So of course we had to stop and get some doughnuts.
Once we made it back home, we got ready to go out to eat. We met my Uncle Kent (his wife Aunt Esther was at the FSU game) at Grady’s (our cousin & her husbands seafood restaurant here in Graceville) for supper. 
After supper we came back to the house to relax and have some time of visiting with one another.  We played dominos and had a cup of coffee with our doughnuts.


We even got hats from Krispy Kreme. Love that Waylon let me take pictures of him with Kaelyn and his mom. Wyatt was too busy to have his picture taken.
On Sunday Waylon went to children’s church but Wyatt wanted to sit in “big church” with his momma. When church was over I went back to pick up Waylon.  When I saw him, I noticed that he had a red mark on his forehead.  I asked him what happened to his head and he told me, "well, I was kinda tired and they were talking a lot, and it was makin my brain hurt, so I laid my head down and took a nap." Got to love that boy.
After we had lunch on Sunday, Mom, Crystal, Kaelyn & the boys and I went back to Dothan. While we were driving, Wyatt informed us that "Aunt Betty's dollars live in Alabama." He had remembered that Aunt Betty’s daughter lives in Alabama. While we were at the mall, the boys were able to ride the carousel.

Then the dreaded day (Monday) came, yes the one where my family had to leave to go back home. Before they left, Chuck grilled some ribs for us and we had some potato salad, baked beans and macaroni and cheese to go with them. Crystal baked us some homemade chocolate chip cookies, yummy! Aunt Esther brought Aunt Betty back to our house so that she could catch a ride back home with them. I am so thankful that I was able to have that time with my family, but I was so sad (yes I cried while we were saying our “see you later”) that they had to go back home.
While mom was here, she was able to buy a computer for her house. Chuck got everything set up on it for her before she went back home. Then Crystal helped her get it connected to the internet. So we were able to Skype with my mom last night. So thankful that I can see her when I talk to her now.
Looking forward to visiting with my family again, but for now Skype will have to do. 

Getting caught up and a tornado

I can’t believe that it has been almost a month since my last post. We have been in our new home now for close to seven weeks. Some days it seems more like seven months. Things have improved a lot around here, starting to feel more like home to us. We’ve managed to get pictures on the walls, furniture in place and are finally getting used to one bathroom for the four of us.
Like I said in my last post, we were supposed to move in on July 14th, but it ended up being that Monday the 16th before we actually stayed in our new home. So after a week and a half of unpacking and getting things in place, we decided to have a day at the beach on Friday (the 27th). We got up that morning and drove an hour to Panama City Beach. Sad to say that the only pictures that I took were of these birds.

Then on Saturday (the 28th) Chuck’s parents came up for a quick visit. We showed them around the college campus and our “little town”.  Although we didn’t get to spend a lot of time with them (they went home the next morning) we were so glad that they came to visit.
Chuck started classes at the college on Monday, August 13th. So the kids and I had that week to get school clothes and supplies for them. Tyler also started football practice that week. They both started school on Monday, August 20th. I was an awful mom, I did not get any “first day of school” photos of them.
So much has happened since we’ve been here. Of course the obvious was everyone starting back to school, well not me, for now anyway.  Chuck was hired as the Interim Youth Pastor at FBC Graceville. Thanking God for providing a position for Chuck at a local church. Tyler is fitting in really well with the youth at FBC. Kaelyn is trying to but she is the youngest one in the group. However she has made several friends at school.  Everyone is adjusting well.
Last Friday night was the first football game of the season. It was the kickoff classic game. Both Varsity and J.V. teams played. Tyler is on the J.V. team this year and his games will be played on Thursday nights. Because of him coming onto the team just a few weeks ago and not having much experience playing, the varsity coach thought it would be best for Tyler to move down to the j.v. team to get some playing time in.  He did get to play in this game.  Tyler is #79. Even though they didn’t win their game, Tyler had a good time playing.

Kaelyn was all dressed up in their school colors of orange and black to cheer on those Tigers and her brother!

Finally to close out this post with a little excitement for us today. Chuck was going to go get Tyler picked up from football practice and asked if I wanted to go with him. So I did, Kaelyn stayed home to get her homework finished before time to leave for Church. It was really cloudy outside and had been raining off and on all afternoon. Just before we left an alarm went off on the cell phone saying there was a tornado warning until 5:30 p.m. CDT. I turned the t.v. on to a local news channel and they said that a tornado had touched down just outside a nearby town. I didn’t really think anything about it, considering it was a ways from us and heading in a different direction. When we got to the football field/locker room area, we saw some of the players running inside. Well a few seconds later someone came out of the locker room yelling for people to get inside. Sure enough there was a tornado coming. It went over the locker room and touched down on the other side of some trees on the northwest side of the school. Talk about one of the SCARIEST times of my life. All I could think of was that Kaelyn was at home (less than a mile and a half down the road) by herself. I tried calling her, but couldn’t get through, finally after about the third time of calling she answered the phone. I told her to stay calm, that there was a tornado that just went over us and for her to go close the bathroom door and get down in the hallway with pillows over her. We could hear the tornado while it was on the other side of those trees and all I could think about was why in the world didn’t I just stay at home with Kaelyn or have her come with us. I was almost to the point of being sick on my stomach right there in front of the football team in that locker room. Not sure if it was my nerves, and panic feeling or the smell in there.  To make matters worse Chuck and I could see a very big black cloud over the area where we live at, but because of the school being in the way we couldn’t really tell if there was any kind of rotation going on in those clouds or not. Thank God, he kept our family and the rest of the families that were up there at the school safe. When we got home, Kaelyn was still hunkered down in the hallway. I was afraid she would be upset, but she wasn’t. She was just as calm as she could be. I thank my heavenly Father for keeping us all safe. 

Home Sweet Home

Wow, what an adventure this move has been. We were greeted with 100 degree heat and no power at our little (and I mean little) home. Let me back up and start with the morning of our move. Our plan was to have the moving truck completely loaded and to be leaving our rental house in Gainesville at 8:00 Saturday morning. Tyler had not been feeling well (I think it was partly due to being nervous about moving and also seeing the stress that his dad and I were feeling.) and was slow moving so it took him and Chuck a little longer to get the truck loaded.

Kaelyn taking a break

Needless to say, we didn't leave at 8:00 it was close to 1:00 when we finally pulled out of our neighborhood.

When we got to our little house (living in married housing on campus) we were met with 100 degree heat and no power (long story on that and to be quite honest just don't want to go there). My cousin Rebecca's husband Shawn had a couple of guys who also live in married housing there to help unload the moving truck.

The front of our house and yes I cried when I saw it.

After seeing the front of the house, this little gift basket bowl from Rebecca and her family was a welcome site. It was full of goodies.

All of the furniture was unloaded on Saturday along with some of the boxes. It was so hot and we were all tired. We locked up the house and went to Shawn and Rebecca's (which is just a couple of houses down from ours) where we had sub sandwiches for dinner that they had bought for us from Subway.

Fast forward to Monday, we finally have power in the house and the a/c was cooling really good. After much cleaning (the house was filthy and just plain old disgusting) we finally got things clean to where we could start putting stuff away. Here are some pictures of what awaited us upon arrival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A dead bug and a shoe print in the bathtub. Bless my husbands heart he got in there and scrubbed that bathroom down. Also in the tub was what I thought to be spilled paint, after Chuck started cleaning in he said it wasn't paint. Apparently the enamel on the tub was chipped and who ever was fixing it didn't know what they were doing.

We noticed that every time the toilet was flushed we had to plunge it. The maintenance man was sent over and he worked on it then said he couldn't find anything wrong with it. Well after he left it still kept happening. So on Tuesday morning he was there to put a kitchen drawer back in (he took it back to the shop on Monday since when you opened it, it would fall out) we told him the toilet still was not working right. So he goes in the bathroom and after messing with it for about two hours he leaves and this is what we find.

He had to pull the toilet out. Turns out that something was stuck in it and he couldn't get it out, so he had to go and get a new toilet for us. When he left, Chuck went back in there and scrubbed the bathroom clean again. Gotta love a man that helps out by cleaning. ( ;

After being in the house for a few days the shock had worn off a little. We were able to make it more like home to us. We got boxes unpacked and hung some pictures up on the wall.  You're really not supposed to hang pictures on the walls because the holes could expose the asbestos in the walls. The maintenance man said we would "probably be okay".

 The maintenance man did come and clean all the "yuck" out from under the lifted up part of the kitchen counter, still could use some repairs.

Broken blinds throughout the house, we had to replace them. I was just shocked that all of this wasn't taken care of before we moved in. I was not in the best of moods during our first couple of days here, don't really think any of us were.

It's been a a little over two weeks since we moved to Graceville...and boy what a week that first one was! After starting off with no power in our house for 2 days, which is a rough way to start. Things have gotten better, our house is becoming a home and we are all adjusting well in our new "adventure". God is good!

"For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you." Isaiah 41:13 NIV

I will have another post up soon with pictures of our "little house" after the clean up. ( ;