God Bless America

We got back about 45 min ago from the Patriotic service at Cornerstone Church in Madison. All I can say that it was awesome. There was an incredible mix of music (old & new, secular & and sacred), great dancing, and a thought-provoking word to say the least from Pastor Davis. The fireworks were as awesome as promised. Fun was had by all. David played it up in the 3-story indoor playground in the nursery, Tony was awed by everything, and Carlo and I loved the medleys that were preformed. I can't even begin to think about what next year will hold. If you live in the area and aren't busy tomorrow, you should go to the service. Check my husband's blog to get a definite on the service time tomorrow, but I think it starts as 7.

A man from the church sang a song that he wrote after one of Pastor Davis' messages. The title of the song is "I Get To." Those three words say it all, we don't have to do anything...because of God's grace and mercy, Jesus' sacrifice on the cross, and God's divine placement of putting us here in the United States we GET to go to church, read our Bibles, pray, complain, and do just about anything else we please. I for one know that I'm going to start rearranging my thinking and and thanking God for allowing me to do all these things.

Sickness

Unfortunately, my loverly husband has a summer cold. I think these are worse that being sick in the winter because it's hot outside and there's tons to do, you shouldn't have to worry about blowing your nose, or coughing, or any of that junk. Poor Tony has a cough and some congestion, and David's been complaining all week as well. Lord, just please keep me from getting whatever is bothering them. Everybody's yuckiness is throwing a dark cloud over our plans for this weekend (see my husband's blog, www.pastorcarlo.blogspot.com), so I hope we can keep them.

Yesterday

Yesterday was so awesome. My girl April came and had lunch with me at school, and then stuck around until the end of the day. I invited her home, and she had dinner with us. It was so awesome to just kick back with her and chill without the MC Director/Student or ministry leader/member barrier between us. We were just friends. I've missed that with her and I felt like I missed out a lot with her this year with Master's because I wasn't around a lot, so I'm excited to see what's going to happen come August. She'll be my road dawg for all we've got coming up, and we'll both see what's in store for the program with Jamie and Aaron back along with some new faces.

Spa, Spa, Spa!!!!

Saturday was an awesome treat for me. I was able to take my husband's place at a mini spa escape experience hosted by our worship leader. As I sat and was pampered I realized why people drop a couple thousand dollars a week on such experiences. If I'd had a couple hundred dollars to just spend with no thought behind it at all, I would have bought the companies full line of spa and skin care products. I'm planning to host one of these things later on this year, and I'm sure that it will be fun for those invited to that one as well.

Potty Training take 2

I am so proud of my little David!! I want to shout it from the mountaintops. My baby is going potty all by himself. For the last 2 days David has not only gone to the bathroom all day, but he has told me that he has to go, gone standing up, and then flushed and washed his hands like a great big boy! I know 2 days doesn't sound like a lot to some, but for me...it's a big step towards not more Pull-ups and my boy starting school in August! Hip-Hip-Hooray!!!

Potty Training

So we're in the process of potty training our youngest son, who's 3 1/2. For most people they don't really stress or try to push their kids in the area of being diaper free, but I'm under a time crunch. David is supposed to start preschool on Aug. 11. This means that he has to be potty trained by then. I firmly believe that David knows when he has to pee, he just doesn't want to tell anyone that he needs to. I know for a fact he knows when he has to poo because he goes and hides in his room and goes in his pull-up and then comes and tells you he went and that he needs to be changed. For some people this brings the mindset, "Don't put him pull-ups anymore and let him feel how disgusting it is to have all that against his bare skin." I agree with the idea, and would do it since we have hardwood floors upstairs, the only problem with that is I teach summer school two days a week and I know consistency is what is needed to help him get through this.

With all that being said, I am encouraged because for the last two days David has only peed in his pull-up once! Not only has he been using the toilet, but he's been using it standing up, and he's even told me when he had to go. The best (and worst if I'm honest) was at 10:30 last night when he so sweetly yelled, "MOMMY I GOTTA PEE-PEE!!" Great that he needs to right? Well, it'll scare the fire outta anyone if he does it at 3 am. Today was great because it was a school day, and David went potty all day at school. I'm blessed to be able to have on-site childcare during school, so I am able to track his progress and hear straight from him that he went. Hopefully the promise of Incredible Hulk and Power Ranger underwear along with being able to go Ms. Jacque's class in the fall, and tons of positive reinforcements will keep him plugging along like he his.

It's been a while

So like the title says, it's been a while. Things have been pretty busy right now. We had our first MCC graduation Sunday night. It was awesome, sad, exciting, so many things. Members of our church hosted a reception for the students afterwards and it was great! Big thanks go to Jacque, Jayebea, Wanda, Althea, Sis Linda, Karen, and anyone else I missed that prepared food and whatnot. To see people's outpouring of love and affection for the students was great.

Summer school stared this week and I must say that I'll be glad when the next 5 weeks are done. I've got great students, but there are outside factors that are making this hard for me. I would say the hardest thing is knowing that before we are done I'll be meeting my replacement and have to turn some very hard work over to a stranger and hope that as they make the classroom theirs, my work won't be consigned to the recycle bin.

It's nice to get April back as my friend and not just a Master's student. There will be time enough for that come August. I'm looking forward to having her around as a second year when we start back up. Right now we have 3 female applicants for first year. This will be a big change since last year April was it and my time was spent teaching and taking care of the kids. My husband will have Craig and DayDay who will laugh at Office quotes and devour 24 during lunch and I;ll have April to roll eyes with and remember what it was like heading to Austin or Gatlinburg, or Chatanooga for Fine Arts.

So I think I've emptied the craziest, loudest voices bouncing around my head, time to spend some time with Robert Jordan's Fires of Heaven. If you are into Sci/Fi Fantasy novels, the Wheel of Time Series is excellent. Think LOTR but more. Mr. Jordan died before finishing the 12th book in the series, but was able to relate the rest of the story arc to his wife and cousin before he died, so hopefully the book will be out soon. R.J. also wrote the Conan books that helped make Arnold Schwarzenegger famous. Time to get lost.

See ya on the flip side!!!

This is the beginning

So, I know a lot people who have blogs. My husband posts one every day, www.pastorcarlo.blogspot.com, you should check it out. I started this blog because I want to get the random thoughts in my head out. There are so many in here, that I need to do something with them at some point. Who knows, maybe I'll start a revolution or help someone with a life-changing decision. Yeah right. Seriously, this is just a way for me to get things out of my head. The feedback (if there is any) may help to shape my thought processes or outlook on things. I can't promise everyday, but I can say when I've got something to say, it'll be here.