WHAT?!?!?!!??

Why on earth does it take both my girls being sick for me to have some time to catch up on stuff? This last 6 weeks has just flown by! I can't believe that it's almost November already! Teaching is going great! I have finally found a job that I love. Some days the kids frustrate me but I love seeing the look on their faces in those "AHA!" moments. School is plugging along. I am never fully caught up and always feel like I am a week behind but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel! Alyssa has been playing soccer and is busy getting ready for the Christmas musical at church. She wants to go back to dancing again but I don't know where we are going to find time, and $$. Abby is adjusting well to being in school and having to share mommy. Jeremy just got an amazing raise at work. Life is wonderful right now! Pictures you ask, I have quite a few. Enjoy the beauty.

First Day of School:


Alyssa and her Teacher:


Abby at the end of the first day of school:


Alyssa playing soccer:



So you can see I haven't been ignoring you just extremely busy! Well I'm off to refill juice cups, pick up kleenex, change the channel, and do homework! Until next time...God Bless!

Oh my goodness!!!

Where did August go? I blinked and now it's September! Between school, work, raising kids, and trying to keep up with Jeremy I feel like I lost a whole month! I've been working non-stop for the past two days trying to get the school cleaned and my classroom ready to start school on Tuesday. I need to take my camera in and get a few pics of my classroom posted. Alyssa is so excited for school to start. We had open house last night and she got to take her school supplies in and put them in her desk. She got to visit with old friends and meet some new ones. I think Abby is pretty excited too. She is still so young but I have to go back to work so to school she must go. At least I will be her teacher and I don't have to rely on some stranger to raise my child! Well I just wanted to update you so you didn't think I fell off the earth. I have to go do homework, yeah that four week break, not happening now. I also need to get lesson plans solidified. Then we are spending the weekend up at my parent's place helping dad get some projects done while mom is visiting my brother's family in Texas. So I guess I better go get busy! Until next time...God Bless.

I know it's been a while...

...But I just got Jeremy back!!!!! Well he's been back for two weeks now but that's why I've been gone. We have been so busy trying to get schedules reorganized and routines re-established. And school starting is just around the corner!!! SO what have I been up to? SCHOOL! I got so far behind while Jeremy was gone that I have been playing catch-up ever since he got home. I'm in the last week of the current class and then I get a 4 week break! I can't wait, I need some time off! And it couldn't come at a better time. Alyssa starts school on the 8th and that's when I return to the work force. I have been trying to get my classroom in order since last Monday! After next Tuesday I will have some much needed time to get that done. I have also started to creep scrapping back into my schedule. I got a LO done last night. I'll post pics later. I am also going to be doing an on-line crop this weekend at Scrap Attack Scrapbooking (SAS):

I'm really excited!!!! Oh I also redid our bedroom so I would have a scrappy space that was functional. Here is how it turned out:

Also my new online obsession...FLAIR these are just a few:

Oh and I suppose I better show you the beach pics:



So now you are all caught up with the past couple of weeks! I'll let ya run for now! Until next time... God Bless!

What a week!!

Well I survived week one... barely! It was quite a week trying to get the girls to get a long, listen to me, and try to keep the house clean. Then if that wasn't taxing enough a close family friend passed away on Monday. This man was like a grandfather to me and now he is just gone. I will miss him greatly. Jeremy took the news rather well. So what, may you ask, is so difficult about single parenting. EVERYTHING!! I have a new found respect for single moms now. They do everything a mom and a dad do without a fall back person to give you a hand or a break when you need one. We made it through the week mostly disaster free. Then came Friday. I'm trying to get the kitchen cleaned up, weekly mop session and general dusting and Abby comes to me with a pair of scissors in one hand and a comb in the other and says, "Mama, fix it." So I start combing her hair and getting ready to trim her bangs. Then I notice this:


I could have just died! We just got her hair grown out from last summer when Alyssa cut her curls off because, "I didn't like them mommy!" So now I have to figure out what to do with this little girl's hair do. Off to Fantastic Sams we went:



Now my baby girl's curls are all gone and she looks so grown up. Now that I have had a couple days to adjust it is a really cute hair do. Here are some pictures of after the hair cut of the girls being little hams:




Yesterday we took off and headed down to Post Falls. We tried to do some letterboxing without much success so we decided to wait until daddy gets back to help us. I let the girls play at the park and then we headed to a game night with the FRG (Family Readiness Group). I am the secretary for the unit's FRG and we do little get togethers throughout the year and when the guys are gone to help pass the time. It was a lot of fun. I forgot my camera in the car so I don't have any pictures.
Well it's getting late and I have to get up early. Alyssa has day camp tomorrow (YAY!). I have to work a few hours at the school. And I have way too much homework that I procrastinated. So I am going to run for now. Until next time... God Bless!

No Lip Service!

I know it's been almost a week! But Jeremy was getting ready to leave for three weeks and I wasn't about to spend any of my time here when I was squeezing every last second of time in with him!!!!! So anyway what did we do this week? We went on a couple of family adventures. We have discovered a new family hobby called letterboxing. Look it up you might get addicted! Here are a couple of pictures:




Wednesday my mom came over and watched the girls and Jeremy took me to see Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince! Amazingly awesome movie!!! I cannot wait for the double shot of the final chapter! All I can say is I hope Hollywood can do justice to the book. Oh and Quest's Kodiak has a new paint color! I want one of these bad boys:

Yesterday we just kind of hung out as a family. We did a little shopping for Jeremy so he didn't have to eat nasty MREs the whole time he was gone. Then we came home and made chocolate chip cookies, helped him pack, and made sure we had at least one air conditioner in so the girls and I don't roast while he's gone.
Today we got up so early and drove Jeremy down to Post Falls. Then we spent the day running errands for him and making sure he had everything he needed to be gone. We got to see him for dinner and then we drove home. Here are a couple of pictures from today:


So as you can see we had a very busy week which ended in a very sad see ya later (we don't do goodbyes). Alyssa cried from the time we left Post Falls until we got to the other side of Rathdrum (about 20 minutes). She is so sure she won't survive the next 21 days without daddy! I'm sure we'll make the time pass quickly, at least I hope so for the girls' sake! Well it's almost midnight here and I have been up for 19 hours running on 3 hours of sleep. I am emotionally drained without my best friend here. I have waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much homework to do tomorrow so I think I will head for bed. Until next time... God Bless!

What happened???

To the week that is! I woke up Monday morning with a whole week ahead of me and then I blinked and now it's Saturday!!!! Well I am in the middle of my single parent weekend for July, I really despise drill weekends! This one even more so because we didn't have an FRG (family readiness group) meeting so the girls and I stayed home. Jeremy is in Post Falls and we are here. So to make the best of it we went and rented movies last night and had McDonald's for dinner. We also got ice cream too!! Not sure what we are going to do today. I do have some homework that I should work on. I have the scrapbook that I am working on for the school (will post pics of the finished project). I am also in the middle of crocheting prayer blankets for all my neices and nephews (12 total!). Now I just have to figure out something for the girls to do to keep them out of my hair. Sure would have been nice to have the pool up! But with Jeremy being sick at the beginning of the week and it rained in the evenings the rest of the week we didn't get to it. Hopefully we will be able to finish it before he leaves for AT (annual training). If not I may as well put the stupid pool in storage, or sell it! Well just a short update today, no new pictures since Monday. I'll get the camera out and take pictures of the kiddos this weekend while we are having girls time and post on Monday! Until next time... God Bless!

Ya, Ya, I know

I missed on Friday, and yesterday. To my defense, I wasn't home at all on Friday and Saturday. We were up at my parents for the 4th. Yesterday was clean the house day and Jeremy was down with food poisoning! So I am back on track today. Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday. We had so much fun. Jeremy, the girls, my brother, Dan, and myself went down to the reservation on Friday and bought $400 worth of the good fireworks and had a great time lighting them all off for two days! Here are a couple of fireworks pictures (I'll have to get the rest from my mom):
Aaron lighting mortars:

Abby Helping Daddy light bottle rockets:

Alyssa holding Ainsley's ears:


Then as I was searching for these I discovered that Abby got a hold of mommy's camera. The little twerp has quite the eye!! She took about two dozen pictures. Thank goodness we have a digital camera! I might actually print these out and start a little portfolio for her. Maybe this is her natural talent! Speaking of the little booger:


The girls' first day of Vacation Bible School (VBS) was today. Jeremy picked them up and said they had a great time. When I asked Abby what they learned about she said, "God". When I asked her what God does she said, "Makes soup"! I laughed water out my nose!!! Kids say the greatest things.
Well don't know what else to tell you today. Guess I will go start making some memories to write about on Wednesday.
OH!! I almost forgot. The principal at Alyssa's school has asked me to creat a scrapbook for the school. It's something she will use to take around to area businesses to try and get donation support for the school. This means A LOT of people will soon be seeing my work!! Hopefully this will mean some customized scrapbook business coming my way. I think I am going to make us some business cards to go in a pocket in the back of the scrapbook. How awesome would it be if this took off??? Pray for me! Who knows what God has in store.
Until next time...God Bless!!!