Blog overload!

Excuses, excuses. I know I have been really slack in posting pictures lately, and I really have no excuses. I have been so distracted with school and work that when I have free time, I just want to sit and stare! Not really, but I forget about blogging and really have been missing some great picture taking...

This week Julian, Kathryn and I have been sick (a nasty stomach bug), and I missed a lab and a test - a first for me - and they missed 4 days of school! Thankfully, my professor will let me make up the exam on Monday. Poor Julian and Kathryn are more than ready to go back to school - they are SO bored.

Last night, I was inducted into the Phi Theta Kappa, an honor society of 2 year colleges. I didn't get any photos of that....I'm sure Jason did - we'll see if those turn up on here. It was a good end to a pretty yucky week.

Graduation is a month away - and I can't wait (only 6 more days of class!). I am excited for the summer and play time! I'm debating whether I'll learn to use my new sewing machine this summer. We'll see. I might just sit on the couch and do nothing...

until next semester starts!

Awana Grand Prix

The kids had the Awana Grand Prix today, and despite our procrastination getting their cars ready, they did pretty well. Julian finished 3rd in the T&T/Trek division and Kathryn finished 2nd in the Cubbies/Sparks division. I, unfortunately, had some battery issues with my camera, so I'll need to wait on Jason's pictures to show the trophies at a later date....

I have to say, I loved being able to sit back and watch the race and not worry at all about the details of it or how things were running. I appreciated all of the workers and knew how much time they must have put into everything. Ben, the man who put the cars on the track, was actually in the hospital last night after getting dehydrated, and his Dad (the commander), Daniel stayed at the church until at least 10:00 last night working on cars. We went by after my induction at 8:30 for weigh in, and they worked with Kathryn's car (which had a bad wheel or axle or something) until 9:30, and they looked like they were still working on some of the kids' cars then. Kent, one of the boy T&T leaders made a car that was amazing! He actually hand made 40 separate pieces to put together. There were probably 10 adult cars in the competition (which I did not get pictures of - hopefully Jason did).

Julian and Kathryn are the only new kids at this church, I think, and they were really welcomed and everyone was so happy that they did well! This is a small church, but they are so welcoming and so friendly. There's nothing fancy about them or their church, but I know we'll be back next year for Awana too, because they are really serious about teaching the kids the word of God. What a great way to start the day!

Easter

Just a few pictures from the easter egg hunt after Easter dinner at Grandma Knight's house:

Julian's 9th birthday

It's hard to believe my baby is 9! Julian's birthday weekend was really great, and after the work I put into his room, it was nice to have the weekend with family to relax and have fun. Saturday we celebrated with my family for our monthly gathering and Sunday we celebrated with Jason's family at his Grandma's house. Both days were a lot of fun, and helped Julian have a really great birthday.

Saturday:

Sunday:

Julian's 3rd grade performance.

These pictures are from Julian's 3rd grade performance which was way back in March. This year, the focus was on music and dance from Africa. I loved it, especially how excited the children were about it. They had so much fun doing the African dance to the song. Julian was one of the readers, and although he was nervous, I thought he did a great job.

Last year was China, this year was Africa, I wonder what next year will be?

Ok, here we go

So much has been going on, and there has been little time to blog about it all! First, the shower:

Our shower had a hole in the floor! Jason has patched it a few times, trying to make it last until we were ready to replace the shower. Unfortunately, the bathroom was built around the shower, so we knew when we replaced it, it would be a major project. Jason and Robert started working on it more than a month ago, and we were finally able to use it for the first time on Friday.

First, Jason took the wallpaper down, since the sheet rock had to be cut out around the shower unit and would be replaced later. Then Robert and Jason cut the shower unit in little pieces to get it out. The reason the original shower had a hole in the floor is because the people that built our house did not really finish the floor under the shower, so it had very little support. Jason and Robert completely rebuilt the floor and framing for the new shower. They had to plumb a bit as well before the new shower could be installed. The new shower was in 4 pieces, so it went in easier than the old one came out. So after the new shower was put in, Jason had to replace the sheet rock around it and do all that joint compound stuff. Finally, it was dry enough to caulk and prime so we could use it. We even splurged and got a fancy new shower head, which is great.

I know this is not terribly interesting, and probably is not exciting for anyone that hasn't used our shower. But we are over the moon because of it!

Julian's room

Several months ago, Julian asked us to make his room more grown up. I told him we would re-do his room as his birthday present this year. I originally painted his room when he was about 2 - when Ronda was pregnant with Evan! I loved it with the little boy cars, trains and airplanes. But, my little boy is growing up and when we were talking about how we would do his room, he told me he did not want any characters or designs on his walls. I worked on it Wednesday through Friday of last week to get it mostly ready for his birthday. I still have a little bit of touch up painting to do (I have had back luck with tape the last few times I painted...don't know what's up with that), one more coat of paint on the doors, and I will probably hang things up today. But, after sanding the designs off, 3 coats of primer and 2 coats of paint, it is mostly finished. I'll post pictures of the final final - if I can remember to!

Chalkboard artwork

I recently caved and returned my children's confiscated chalk, and they immediately went to work creating chalk-art. At the moment, I am choosing to ignore the piles of chalk dust created from said artwork...clean up will happen some other day.

These photos were actually taken by the children:

There's something 'bout the Southland in the Springtime

Ok, so both of these pictures are actually taken in the 'Southland in the Wintertime', but only by a few weeks, and that Indigo Girls song has been stuck in my head since the official beginning of Spring Friday. (I may have to visit Amazon mp3 and download it).

I love the rapidly changing weather here in the South in late Winter/early Spring. You just never know what you're in for. This morning I had to scrape frost off my windshield, and the expected high today is 65 degrees. Lovely!

March 2nd

March 9th

Fink day

This weekend was Evan's 7th birthday. It is hard to believe he is 7 years old (even harder to believe Julian will be 9 next month). I am supposed to be studying for a biology test tomorrow instead of blogging, but I wanted to add these pictures quickly for your enjoyment!

Snow

We had a good snowfall - finally - on Sunday afternoon through Monday morning. We didn't use the ruler to measure, but I think we got about 4 inches, more in some places. And for some reason, we got more in the back yard than the front yard and Jason's truck had more than my car....weird!

Here are some pictures....

Julian's DS

The game Julian got for Christmas has been a big hit for everyone in the house. Kathryn likes playing, but even more than that, she likes watching everyone else play. It's like TV! Julian gets a little testy when he plays, so I wanted to get this picture of him letting her watch.

Kathryn

Two updates:

1) Finally, Katie has gotten the hoop earrings she has wanted since getting her ears pierced. They were hard to get in, and I don't think I'll be able to get her to let me do it again (we'll have to get a different kind of hoops for her next time).

2) She lost her first tooth! Somehow, she thinks this means she doesn't have to get braces now?? I don't know why - I don't think braces have even been mentioned for her, but anyway. Losing teeth means no braces!

100th day of Kindergarten

Today is the 100th day of school, which they celebrated in Kathryn's class. It was a big day for her, and she is all smiles coming home!!

Hiking at my school

This morning we went for a short hike on my college's campus. There is a nature trail which is 3 miles long. At least I think I was told it is 3 miles long. I didn't take my pedometer and can't remember if that's what my professor told me. This is the trail my environmental biology labs play around in. We all needed to get out of the house for a bit, and the weather was so nice today. It was forcasted to get to 60 degrees, although I think it may have been warmer even than that.

The trail was nice because we were the only ones on it. Well, we did pass one man with his dog, but that was towards the end of the trail, and I think very close to his house. It was maintained, but not manicured at all. Fallen trees were mostly cut away from the path, but the path was something you had to actively look for. Julian said it was his favorite path so far, which is great since it's only 20 minutes from home. I had only been on the beginning part of it with my class, so it was nice to explore some new ground.

Here are some pictures. Nothing amazing, as you'll see. It was really just a patch of forest with a trail marked. But I really liked it!

Congratulations, Julian!

Last night, Julian finished his first T&T book! We are very proud of him - and he is really proud of himself.

I love this...please read

Small Victories of a Stay at Home Mom

Julian

30 minutes of reading for homework

Random things

Just a few words for those of you who check in regularly. I have been unacceptably late in posting blogs lately. I am trying to get into a routine with my new schedule, and have not quite gotten there. This semester is going to be a challenge! Unfortunately, I don't see that I'll have a lot of time for posting, but I will do my best...and I'll try to get some pictures of the kids since it's been a while with that.

The kids: Both are well, although Kathryn is going to the doctor today (actually in just a few minutes). She has had a cold, and really started coughing yesterday - almost constantly. And this morning she had a fever, so no school for her. After Aunt Courtney's bout of pneumonia, I'm too scared to not get her checked out! Other than that, she's well :) She has really taken off with reading and is doing great in Awana. She earned another red jewel last night. Unfortunately, I've given over responsibility for Awana preparation to Jason. I hate to give it up, but I just can't seem to remember to make time to do it during the week.

Julian is also doing great. He was grounded for a week for some school issues, but I think it may have had an impact. He has had some great days at school since being un-grounded. It turns out some of the issues he is having have to do with his work being hard. He has always had such an easy time with his schoolwork, and did not have to put much effort into it. Well, not so for 3rd grade! The math especially has become challenging, and we talked about that. It doesn't mean he is less smart than he was; it just means he has to practice more. It made me sad that he apparently thought it meant he was less smart. Poor baby. Anyway, he's doing great, and I have hope that he'll finish out his year well.

Jason and Robert were finally able (after some weather delays) to get rid of the tree that had fallen across our fence. It was an undertaking, and both were sore when they were done. Going up and down our embankment can be a brutal workout! Our next big improvement project is replacing our shower, which is in pretty bad shape. Hopefully within the next couple of weeks we'll be able to pick out our new shower and get all of the supplies for the project. It's gonna be a doozy! Since I have class Wednesday nights, Jason has started taking the kids to Awana alone. He stays with them for opening assembly and then comes home until it's time to pick them up.

I am 3 weeks into the new semester, and so far so good. I have 2 online classes, which has been an adjustment, especially since one of my online professors is not a fan of the internet and seems to be a bit stubborn about certain things. Oh well, I can relate to stubbornness! There is a lot of writing involved in both - Sociology and World Literature, which makes blogging go a little lower on my list of writing priorities :)

I love my Environmental Science class, although at this point we are only talking about the introductory things - biomes, ecosystems, habitats....We started a semester long experiment to see what the affects of motor oil are on growing things (pea plants and marigolds). Should be interesting. I am looking forward to the sections on climate change and global warming. I've done some research on my own, but you can never tell who put what kind of spin on what you're reading, so I'm anxious to see what an ecologist that I know and trust thinks about it. She did say in one of our first classes that 94% of climatologists agree that global warming is real and that man is making it worse....the further out you go from that specific science, the percentage goes down, but climatologists are people who got their masters or doctorate in the specific science of the climate, so I guess they know what they're talking about. I actually watched a documentary this week on Netflix called Heat (it was on PBS originally, and you can find it on their page if you're interested). It was pretty convincing.

And finally, my first education class has been ... interesting. The professor is unique - I really like her. She tells a lot of stories though, which can be a little frustrating. She has been an educator for almost 30 years, has been a principal in elementary, middle and high schools and is now the assistant superintendent. She actually worked in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system, which is where I graduated from. I have already learned a lot about what teaching really is, and some things were not what I expected....I'm thankful for her honesty!

So, that's our life recently in a (quite large and a little rambling) nutshell. I will try to get some good kid pictures this week and post them. I hope no one is going through Julian and Kathryn withdrawal out there!

Snow day ...

Finally we got a bit of snow. It was less than an inch, but it was enough to cancel school for all of us. We went out first thing, before it had the chance to melt away (and before the kids had a chance to whine about going out to play). Our neighbor friend, Jada, came over to play too and was even able to join us for some hot chocolate after playing.

Julian lucked out - he is grounded this week, but I let him go out to play in the snow (since we never know if we'll get more!), and he'll get to watch TV today since I told him he could watch the inauguration...lucky, indeed!

A cold day...

Today, I am so thankful for being warm. I've been thinking all day about all of the people that have no warm place to retreat to when the temperatures drop. Where do they go? How do they survive? I have never seen a homeless person here in my town, but I know there are so many here and further away. I don't know what to do for them, but I am thinking of them and have prayed for them on this cold day (and if it's cold here - it's COLD further north!). I am just so blessed.

Lucy

Lucy lays in the strangest positions. She heard my camera, looked at me and then put her nose right back behind the pillow.

Our Kitchen

I have been hard at work repainting our kitchen this week. As always, I forgot to get good before pictures, but I did include a couple of the kids in the kitchen just to give an idea of the before....I love the result, but it was a lot of work!

I had to take all of the doors off the cabinets and sand the finish off. Then I primed and then painted them. I had some issues with finding the right place to paint the cabinet doors - a tough job in a small house, and I ended up having to re-do it because it just didn't look good with drips and dog fur. We borrowed Jason's Dad's sander, and that made the job a lot easier, but it couldn't be used everywhere, so I had to do a lot by hand.

These are the best "before" pictures I could gather. I really need to work on taking those before pictures BEFORE I start. :)

Anyway, this was my last "me-time" project before school starts again (tomorrow). I suspect I'll have little free time after reading through the syllabuses (syllabi??) for Sociology and World Literature, which I am taking as online classes (no actual class time!). I will go to "Environmental Biology" and "Foundations in Education" tomorrow, and we'll see what those classes will be like. It's 14 hours total, so it will definitely keep me busy.

Christmas break

The kids have been out of school for a week now, with one week left before they go back. We've had our moments, but for the most part things have been tolerable. Here is one of those rare moments when the kids were enjoying each other's company and having fun playing Connect 4. (Unfortunately, it didn't take long before Julian was screaming at Kathryn for doing something wrong, and the game ended). Kathryn loves spending time with her big brother, especially those times when he is nice to her, but I think Julian is ready to get back to his school friends....

Christmas pictures

Some pictures from our travels this week past:


Christmas eve....

Christmas morning at home ...

Christmas dinner at Grandma Knight's house ...

And finally, Christmas with the Finks in Charlotte ....