Just Stuff!!

Hello All!  When I started this blog I my plan was to post a little more often.  But with having 3 kiddos home for the summer and our schedule being crazy that hasn’t happened.  So for now, bare with me and try to make it through the randomness of this post.

I’m a little teary this morning at the fact that school starts in less than one month.  WOW.  It seems like this summer has went by a ton quicker than last summer.  I find myself counting down and again wondering…"Did I do enough with them?”  One thing that I KNOW I didn’t do enough was school work at home. When summer started we took two mornings per week and went over flash cards, practiced math, handwriting, and spelling.  Well, I haven’t done that in at least 3 weeks.  Hopefully knowing that we only have 4 weeks left will get be back on track again.  I read that kids loose a lot of their knowledge in the summer.  Oh well, hopefully they will remember it again once school starts back.  If I were grading me on this subject I would get a big F for the summer.  Live and Learn right?

Jeff just celebrated his birthday on Sunday.  He turned 36 and said that it was one of his better birthdays in a long while.  We celebrated by taking the kids to the lake.  We had to PRY them out of the water due to the fact that the beach was closing soon.  Emmitt has always loved the beach and water (just like his daddy).  He stayed in the water the majority of the time.  The girls however built sand castle after sand castle.  And I think that we brought home most of the sand with us.  I’m still stepping on it around the house.  It was a great day and I’m so glad that I got to share it with my family.  I feel like I cooked all weekend for him.  BTW..you need to look for Blue Bells Ice Cream.  I bought him Blackberry Cobbler for his birthday weekend and it is DA BOMB.  It’s got ribbons of blackberries and even bits of pastry through the ice cream. I have heard that they have an amazing Snickerdoodle ice cream also.  Delish!

We have great friends coming to visit us today from Tennessee.  They are Jon and Lorrie Ritchie and they have a son, John Michael, Emmitt’s age.  And a daughter, Megan, Carleigh’s age.  The kids call them their adoptive cousins.  We met them when they were pregnant with John Michael at a church that we attended and have really been bonded to them ever since.  They have been their for the birth of every child.  When I had Elijah in April, and it was so sudden, Lorrie of course couldn’t be there.  So she called about a million times wanting to know what was going on.  About an hour before I had him we had a knock at the door.  Lorrie had sent her sister, Megan, to “stand in” for her since she couldn’t be their.  I was so touched.  She brought an adorable little Baby Bootie Vase with beautiful blue Hydrangeas in it and also a little Precious Moments stuffed toy that was a little boy on his knees praying.  I don’t think that she even knows what it looks like, so I will be happy to show her what she sent this week when I show her the pics of Elijah.  The kids are SOOOO excited to play with their “cousins”.  It will be a fun few weeks for sure.  BTW, I cannot talk about them without mentioning that their kids go to school with Steven Curtis Chapman’s kids.  Megan plays with his youngest, Stevie Joy a lot.  Jeff and I are in awe because we both feel like he is the best Christian song writer their ever was.  We had two of his songs in our wedding.  It’s no big deal for them to go to birthday parties or have play dates at their house.  I’m like “HELLO, It’s STEVEN CURTIS CHAPMAN”.  For those of you who don’t know him here is his website.  www.stevencurtischapman.com.  Anyway just had to add that.

Jeff is really close to being done with school for the semester.  He has one test tonight and a final tomorrow and then he is done for 4 weeks.  It will be so nice to have him home in the evenings.  We have missed him so.

My heart is heavy today for my friend Kim.  She will have a double Mastectomy at 10 am this morning.  Please remember her in your prayers.  I cannot imagine how she is feeling right now.  We have meals covered for her family for at least the next 3 weeks.  I keep telling myself “By His stripes she is healed”.  We love you Kim and will be there with you every step of the way!  Stay strong!

My heart is also heavy for a few of my friends right now.  I cannot go into detail about what has happened with all of them.  But they are hurting right now and I just want to make it all better for them.  Please remember a very special “unspoken request” in your prayers today.

On a much lighter and sillier note I have to talk about my Jazzercise. Ya’ll know how much I love Jazzercise.  I started it when Emmitt was just 5 months old and have been their faithfully ever since.  It’s such a great stress reliever and I absolutely love teaching. Every 2 months or so we get a new DVD with about 30 songs on it to teach the class.  Well I just have to say that the newest DVD is AWESOME.  I very rarely get excited about the music because quite frankly when Jeff and I have music on around our house or in the car it’s usually worship music or Hanna Montana. (ha).   So I don’t know a lot of the new music that they send.  However, the new set is totally old school.  It has songs from Paula Abdul, Salt and Peppa (not pepper), Lionel Ritchie, and a tribute to the Jacksons. Now, those are songs that I know.  I think that I was in elementary school when Salt and Peppa came out with “Push It”.  Am I getting old?  I feel like it.  Anyway, I’m so excited to teach the songs and see the looks on the customers faces when I break out Salt and Peppa and the Jackson 5. Ha!

That’s all for now folks. Hope you have an awesome day!

Marsha