First Week of School

Well, I guess I can say I survived. This week has not been as I expected at all. Things are very hectic and both the students and I are frustrated. I hope that next week is better as we will begin actually working on music. Prayers are greatly appreciated and will be added to the hourly prayers that I have been sending up.

On a side note, I have completed the Decorating Basics cake class at my local Hobby Lobby store. I thought it would be fun taking the class, and I hoped to be able to make a cake for Isaiah's birthday party. The class was a great stress reliever those last 2 weeks, and I'm excited about making a train cake in October. Here are some pictures of the items I created.

The cupcake cake we made the 2nd week of class.

As you can tell, Isaiah likes it!

Our final cake-Week 4.

The flowers were very difficult to make.

I'm glad I have a little boy who won't want flowers on his cakes!

New Beginnings

It's almost time to start the new job. I went Monday to check out my rooms and now I am totally at a loss. The high school room is like any other newish choir room. A large "box" with 2 practice rooms and a little office/library. Not too worried about it though they won't give me a key until next Thursday and I am supposed to have everything ready by that next Wednesday! The middle school room is very interesting. Looks like it used to be a theater room. Risers are built-in as if they used to be a stage with booths that served some purpose years ago on each side. Complete with gigantic lights hanging from trusses on the ceiling and lovely concrete walls. I'm a bit scared of tackling that little project. They were willing to give me a key at the middle school, but all the music is at the high school, so I could only get "room" stuff ready there. I opted to drown my sorrows with a little shopping at Mardel and Target. Still have no idea what I'm going to do.
I know my child is almost 2 years old, but he's never been in a real "daycare." I called today and get him set up in the Sanger ISD childcare. I almost cried while talking to the lady on the phone. I'm sure she thought I was being ridiculous. She kept asking me if I really wanted to enroll him, and all I could think was, "Do I have any other choice?" I'm sure the childcare will be great for him. He loves to be around other kids, and I know they will do some wonderful teaching as well. We go next week to meet his teacher and see what it's all about. Today Isaiah was so funny. I made Spaghetti-O's with meatballs for lunch, and apparently he didn't like the meatballs. He took them all out and set them to side while he ate only the O's. Too funny! Here are some recent pictures.

My little man eating everything but the meat!

Isaiah, aka Woody, watching TV.
Crazy boy! Check out the massive bruise from falling and hitting the cabinet door.

Fearless...well, sort of!

I love watching my child play at the park. I love that he is a bit hesitant when we first get there, but after watching some "big kids," he feels like he can conquer anything. Even a "rock climbing" wall. He never wants to leave. Today we went to 2 different parks. North Lakes park in Denton, and the play area at lovely Golden Triangle Mall. No pictures from the mall, but Isaiah had a wonderful time at both.

He didn't want to go down the slide at first.

Running across the bridge.

Sliding down like a big boy!

Summer Adventure #2

I guess our second big summer adventure has been relocating. I got a new job as THE choir director for Sanger ISD, so we had to pack up all of our stuff and move to Krum. We have moved a little earlier than previously expected, but God answers prayers in His timing, not mine. We met with a realtor on Monday, June 28, and we had a rental application by that Friday! I did not expect for things to go so fast. Our renter also wanted to move in by July 15, so that meant we had a lot of work to do and not much time to do it. Needless to say, we packed up all of our stuff and were out of the house by July 9. Michael still had some projects to finish up at the house and, of course we had to clean everything, but it was all ready in time. It's a little sad to have to move out of your house in order for little projects to get finished. We are almost totally moved into our new place, just hanging curtains and pictures still left to do. It has been difficult going from a house back to an apartment, but it's nice, too. No yard work to do, and less space to keep clean. We've been here about a week, and I'm still waiting for things to slow down a bit. Hoping that things will get back to "normal" this next week. (Have things ever been "normal" for us?) I don't quite know what the future has in store, but I am hopeful and expectant at what God has planned for us.

Father's Day

I guess it is only fitting to do a Father's Day post if I did a Mother's Day one, so here it goes.

I am so thankful for my wonderful Dad and my husband who is a fabulous Daddy. God has blessed me tremendously in those areas. I know that some people can not say the same thing, and I am truly grateful that God has placed such wonderful men in my life.

Isaiah loves his Daddy and Papaw so much that he wanted to make some cards for them. Ok, he loves them, but who am I kidding? Give the kid a reason to use markers and he's all for it. I wanted to trace his hand on the front of the card, and he was a little unsure of that at first. Once he understood though, he wanted to trace his hand all over the card, thus the multiple hand tracings. It was a lot of messy fun, but we had a bath when it was all over. Love those washable markers!

Ok, ok, so it's been awhile since I've posted anything, but I do have some adventures to share.

First of all, Michael and I went to Branson over Memorial Day weekend and we had a great time. We got there Friday, May 28th, and went directly to Ride the Ducks. The last time we were in Branson, I wanted to Ride the Ducks, but we didn't, so I was super excited about being able to experience that this time. For those of you who don't know, a "Duck" is a vehicle that was created for the military and can travel on land and water. The tour guide drives you around Branson giving you information about the history of Branson and of the "ducks," and then you drive into the lake and get to float around for a few minutes. He even let some of us drive the "duck" while it was on the lake. Fun times! I even got to print out a Captain's certificate once we got back to the "dock." After riding the ducks, we ate at the Hard Luck Diner. The servers there sing while you eat. I was not so impressed with their singing. Sorry! Hung out a little bit Friday evening and then settled in for some rest.

Saturday included spending time at Silver Dollar City. We went early in order to enjoy the breakfast buffet before the park opened. Thanks hotel people for recommending that (that's about the only good thing you did for us!) Spent the morning and early afternoon riding all the fantastic rides including the *super scary* Fire in the Hole!!! That's a joke that Michael and I have. Apparently, it's only scary if you're 8! We left early in order to get ready to go see Noah, The Musical. I know, it sounds weird, but it was really cool. In the 2nd act, the stage opens up and you feel like you're actually inside the ark. There were real animals too! Really neat. I highly recommend it! Drove into Springfield for Saturday evening. Visited the original Bass Pro Shop and walked around the mall a bit.

Sunday, we went back to Silver Dollar City. We were able to ride almost all of the rides again, and listened to some bluegrass while eating BBQ. As funds were running low, we opted to go to the IMAX Sunday evening and saw a lovely documentary about Australia.

Monday was to be our "boring" day as we were just driving home, but it turned out to be much more than we bargained for. We got a bit lost on the way home after missing a turn, and only went about an hour out of the way!!! But wait, there's more! As we were driving through Oklahoma, about 10 miles or so from the Texas border, we got a load of excitement. There was a group of birds/buzzards feasting in the middle of the road. Of course, we thought for sure they would fly away as we got closer. One of the buzzards decided to fly away a little too late, and hit smack into our windshield. Glass pieces and powder went all in the car, and there was nowhere to pull over at that point. We made it to the lovely Choctaw Casino and pulled over to inspect the damage. We still had feathers and blood on the windshield! After calling the insurance company and receiving no help from them, we decided to continue home. We drove about 50 mph all the way home, which seemed to take forever. I thought for sure we would be pulled over if any police saw our windshield, but we must have passed 5 or 6 cops and they just stared at us. The looks we got were quite amusing. Needless to say, we will probably never forget this trip to Branson, and I now know exactly what happens when you hit a buzzard while driving down the road. (In case you were wondering, we did NOT stop to see how the buzzard was.

Michael and I ready to go on the "Duck"

Me driving the "Duck"

Silver Dollar City!

Sight and Sound Theater where we saw "Noah, The Musical"

Our windshield after its encounter with the buzzard!

Change

Why is it that even though I'm looking for a change, it still feels so unknown and scary? 5 more days of school for this year, and who knows what in the future. Lots of uncharted territory coming ahead. I just have to remember:

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Mother's Day

I know it's not Mother's Day yet, but I thought I would share the presents I made for my mom and mother-in-law. I won't get to see them before Sunday, but it's no big deal if they see their presents early. This was plan B, but I think they turned out cute and they were very easy to do.

Plain frame purchased from Michael's.
Painted black with probably 4-5 coats. It dried quickly, though.

Add purchased stickers and voila! A personalized frame.

Here's the picture I put inside. My little Isaiah after playing outside in a puddle.

I may have to make one for myself as well!

Baby Shower

For my first official post, I will describe the lovely baby shower we gave for a dear friend at work today. This is her second child, and she is having a little girl, so of course there was pink everywhere. I tried my hand at making a diaper cake, and I think it turned out pretty cute. I also made the bottle/candy centerpieces. I think everyone enjoyed having little candies to snack on during the shower. The cake was super cute, made by another lady at work, and I think everyone had a great time getting together to celebrate the arrival of a sweet baby girl. She still needs suggestions for a name, so if you have any ideas, please feel free to leave a comment. All the hostesses with the lovely soon-to-be mother of 2!

The cake/food table

The super cute cake

One of my centerpieces with 2 of the crazy ladies I work with!

My first attempt at a diaper cake!

Here it goes...

I have been inspired, I guess, to start blogging. Not that my posts will be exciting or interesting, but we'll see how it goes.