Brain Freeze!

I can't think of a clever title for this smorgasbord post. The best I can do is add some pictures and hopefully, the story will speak for itself.

Today was Mother's Day and the kids "did good!" Sam's picture is absolutely precious! Addie drew a portrait for me and explained the dark hair by informing me that Mrs. Savage made them outline everything in black.

Last week was great! I didn't get sick so I took full advantage of my week off. I had lunch at Seasons with Dean (and Tom), breakfast with Erica at Websters, lunch with Suzanne, lunch with Tom, and breakfast with Melissa Wells and Sherry Storms. Yeah, I went a little overboard on the eating out last week, but I enjoyed it.

The rain as been unbelievable! It rained every single day last week. Torrential downpour is a more accurage description! Last Tuesday, I performed our "Oh! The Places You'll Go!" commercial for the Lead Mentor meeting and I think it was well received! Rodney Russell stole the show as the "Cat in the Hat!" So much fun to part of a team that has a sense of humor.

I wrote a speech for the New Teacher Celebration for this Tuesday and am praying that it goes well. I'm battling with myself right now on whether I should just read it, or if I should try to use an outline and speak from the heart. Yeah, I know, I should speak from the heart, but I'm afraid I'll forget something and being that it's one of my first times speaking on a professional level, I want it to be great! I'll post the speech and the Mentoring commercial here so I'll have a record of it. Feel free to comment if you happen to read this.

May Day! May Day!

Well, May is certainly starting out to be a month to remember! Last Thursday, Chelcie and I had the pleasure of chaperoning Addie's class field trip to the zoo! We had a great little group of girls! Rana, Addie, Ashton, Reagan, and Kelsey were in our group along with Rana's mom and dad and Ashton's mom. The weather was perfect as it was cloudy, but not rainy. Cool, but not too cool. We had a wonderful time. The highlight of the trip was meeting "George," the new baby gorilla!

Friday was Science Festival Day and all went well in spite of the downpour of rain that caused us to move everything inside instead of out. I always enjoy watching our school come together in the effort to reach our kids.

Saturday was spent at the soccer field in the rain! I'm sad that I don't have any pictures to document exactly how drenched we were because I was afraid my camera would break! Girl Power lost to a boys' team, but soundly beat the girls' team they played later in the day. Addie, Sam, Chelcie and I also watched "Radio" and cuddled on the couch. Tom and I had our usual "date night" at LaPaz then we browsed the bookstore while Ed kept the kids entertained at his house.

Sunday morning. More rain. This is getting old. Addie spent the night with Olivia at Ed's so she went to church at 11, but we headed out the door for the early service. Tom had to show houses all day, so the rest of us stayed home and cleaned house...sorta.

The BIG NEWS of the day was the announcement that a 15 year old student at West Valley was the first suspected patient with the H1N1 virus (Swine flu). It's been all over the news and people seem to be over-reacting in a huge way! Our superintendent canceled school for the entire week! No NJHS Induction Ceremony or 8th grade celebration! We'll have to see if these activities get rescheduled. Lots of money, time, and effort has been put into these last few weeks of school. It's a weird feeling to have a national news story about "us."

April? April? Where for art thou, April?

Okay, so I missed a month. So much happened I don't even know where to begin. April was a month of soccer, TCAP testing, working on my Teacher of the Year application, keeping my 8th graders focused and engaged in the learning process...

Easter services at NorthStar with "Cardboard Testimonies" followed by a Calhoun's catered lunch at Lori's house. The kids had a ball hiding eggs and playing with their cousins.

Reach Them continues to progress, but we lost our Chick-fil-A sponsorship and that hurt, but Dean stepped up and pledged his support. We're in the process of working with Cathy Ackermann to enlist their connections and expertise in the marketing dept. I hope this works out as I believe it will enable us to expedite the process of going to the "next level." With Chattanooga in the works, I'd like to get an action plan on paper as soon as possible!

Anderson resigned from our Board, and seems to be pulling out of her life and reinventing herself. I think this is sad b/c she was such an asset to our team. Without her, there's an empty space.

Drew is preparing for graduation. He had his first (I hope) run-in with "the law" last week at West Valley. I think he was embarrassed and scared. Fortunately, he already knew that he'd made a mistake and did what he could to make it right. I'm so proud of that boy! I wish I could find a way to let him know.

Tom has made plans to go to Guatemala on a mission trip the first week in June. Chelcie is headed to Nicaragua and later in the summer, to Oregon. Sam is attending Camp Invention at Lotts and the two younger kids are both attending the UT soccer camp. Sounds like an expensive summer and it stresses me to no end! With Drew and Chelcie in college now, I want to prioritize our finances and take care of the "have to's" before we take care of the "want to's." I'll try to post some April pix in light of my neglectful blog posts.

And a Month Goes By...

Today is gorgeous, but I hope to update later/ Headed to Oak Ridge for Addie's soccer game. Just finished a short walk with Sam and Marley. Gotta be outside today!

26.2 miles! He MADE IT!

Drew's first marathon completed in 3 hours and 32 minutes! He had quite a fan club show up to support and encourage him. We were all very proud of him. He said the wind was cold, and the toughest part was right about mile #20 as he ran across the South Knoxville bridge. He hit the proverbial "wall" as he ran the 3 mile route through Island Home, but then Sam Shaunessy jumped out the "pace car" and ran the last 3 miles with him. Sam was gracious enough to allow Drew to run "solo" into Neyland Stadium to enjoy his moment. I am amazed by that kid! Way to go, Drew!

Covenant Kids Run

Cades Cove, Sam's 7th Birthday, and TTI

So much to update, so little time! Spring Break 2009 has come and gone already and we're sliding intot summer! We've sprung forward into daylight's savings time and the weather has been in the 70's a couple of days. Ah, spring! I'm so glad you're here at last!

A momma dove has built a nest in a basket on our back porch. I've enjoyed watching her watch me. She's so protective of her eggs (there are 3 of them)! I learn a lot by watching her...am I as protective of my family as she is of hers, or do I take them for granted? Am I always standing guard, ready to put myself between my family and anything that would dare to harm them? ...including television, music, and the internet?

My baby boy is now officially seven years old. Seven. I can't even believe it. I remember determining before he was born that since he was to be our last child, I would cherish every moment with him. I just turned around for a minute, and now he's seven. Because his birthday fell right in the middle of spring break, we opted to postpone his birthday party. Of course, we had to celebrate his "real" birthday, so the kids and I packed up the car and headed to Cades Cove with the Packs. The pictures I will post later will bear witness to fun that we had. Brandon and Sam get along famously, as do Addie and Sydney. Erica puts up with me too, so it was a great day! We capped off the day with dinner at Wasabi with Drew, the Packs, Grandmom and Papaw, Addie, Sam, and Tom. Great meal...usual after effect, but that's TMI, no doubt! More later....