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A Good Day

Had a good day today. Rehearsal and the meeting I had with my principal both went well. We had a simple but good dinner. Cheddar cheese topped with chili on a hamburger bun... ate it with a spork (I have metal sporks, love them :). And some diced potatoes with butter, pepper, and garlic. The kids ate it. Abigail eats anything, but the boys can be picky.
We went to Baskin Robbins tonight. Elijah got his first ice cream cone all to himself. He did a great job with it. He was so happy standing in the booth eating his ice cream. He got a bit annoyed when he hit the paper, but giggled as if he were getting a brand new cone when Abigail took off the paper and gave it back to him. Then he wanted MY cone. Now he's watching Clone Wars with the rest of the fam, running around with an empty water gun. One thing I love about this house that I did not have when the other kids were little... hardwood and tile floors thruout the downstairs. All I have to do is listen to know where he is. I hear the little "flap flap flap" of his feet. The other kids had carpet to run around on and it doesn't sound near as cute :)
My Target order arrived today. The shoes are as great as or better than I expected.
It is sooooo good to 'see' Harper doing better. If you have not visited recently, you must :)
I love watching this

I told my choirs they were the clay and I was the potter and if they refused to do what I told them to do, they'd never be a thing of beauty, just an ugly lump. Of course, we've all heard that analogy when allowing Christ to change us... but I'd never thought of it applying to a choir until last night.

My favorite guys... at the time

I received notice that aol pictures was closing, but I could transfer my pictures to photoworks. I didn't think I had any pictures at aol, but figured I'd better find out. I opened up my account and saw this one. At the time, these were my favorite guys. Of course, now there are 2 more :)
And the others:

Not sure what I'm looking at... probably Abigail. Noah is looking right at Daddy :)

My brood at the time. Noah is about 6 months, Abigail 21


Noah was a very happy baby.

very


Abigail was born with a ton of hair and kept it all... which made her look a lot older than she was. She is not yet two here.

Drying her hair... while she brushes her teeth with two toothbrushes...

They grow so fast!

My little monster

Abigail and Elijah love each other... dearly. Elijah gets almost as excited to see her as he does me. It is the cutest thing. Tonight, I put Elijah's crib in her room. Elijah slept in our bed for the first year, then I moved him to a crib in our room. He doesn't have a room. There is another bedroom downstairs, but I don't want to move anyone down there... Abigail can move someday, but I'm not ready to have her so far away from us. I don't want to put Elijah in with Noah and Isaac. There is a yet-to-be-finished bonus room that has made no progress since we moved in 4.5 yrs ago. SO I figured tonight was as good as any to move the crib. Abigail walked in her room, jumped up and down and said "you moved him! thank you! thank you!" and then gave me a big ol hug. She was so excited. But, Elijah didn't care for the idea. He would not settle down. I moved the crib back to our room. That wasn't enough. Apparently the thought of moving really rattled the little guy. I let him cry for a while... something I never do... but I thought surely he'd calm down... he thought otherwise. After a few attempts of me going up there and patting him, I got him out, put him in our bed and laid down with him. He immediately went to sleep. I've created a monster, but he is the most adorable, loving monster ever. I'm ok with that.

6th picture/new phone

Jill said to consider myself tagged if I wanted to post my 6th picture in my 6th folder, so I did. Not very exciting, and not take with a very good camera, but there it is. We went to NEA in June of '06 for a family reunion with David's family. We were at a church and this tree was outside.

Last May, Elijah lost my phone while I was viewing the Peabody as a possible jr/sr banquet (AKA Prom) location. I got a hand-me-down from David. He has a friend who gave HIM a Blackberry hand-me-down,. Nice friend. My hand-me-down was thin and very hard to open... so every time it would ring, I'd get flustered trying. But I wasn't due for an upgrade until June of this year, so hand-me-down it was. Friday night, it died. For no reason. I took it in to make sure it wasn't the charger and nope, it was just dead. So, I tell the dude I need the cheapest phone available. He tells me the cheapest "non-contract" phone is $150. What? I don't have a data plan. I just call and text. I need a cheapie. So I'm looking at all the phones and I see these Go phones that are $40... why can't I buy one of those? I ask another salesperson if I can buy one of those... he says "sure, just put your SIM card in it." Grrrrrrr. When he was checking me out, I was telling him about my phone issues and I said "I just can't spend $150 on a phone." He said "I don't blame you, I wouldn't either." Which I found funny.
I'm praying for clear roads tomorrow. I do not need to lose any more days in February than I'm already losing!

25 Random Things

I posted this on Facebook and am adding it here. I won't tag anyone b/c I only know a couple of Blogger folks right now :) Though if you are reading this, comment, I'd like to get to know you!

1. I always wanted 5 kids. I'm one short.

2. I have a pen pal I met thru Teen magazine in 1987. We were in each other's weddings and still write (though now it's email).

3. I have a thing with real dairy. I will never return to a restaurant that serves coffeemate instead of real from-a-cow cream.

4. I feel the same way about butter vs. margarine.

5. And the same with sugar/sweetener.

6. I like to walk thru graveyards and read tombstones.

7. I was 21 when I had my first drink. My best friend was getting married the next day and my mom bought us some champagne. I hated it.

8. I snack on sharp cheddar cheese.

9. I feel like I'm closer to heaven when I eat GOOD creme brulee.

10. I am always barefoot at home. I'd be barefoot everywhere if allowed.

11. I exclusively breastfed Isaac and Elijah for a year without giving them anything else.

12. I have been known to go to the movie theater just to buy popcorn, then leave.

13. My entire life I have always become the best of friends with someone who was soon to move away.

14. I had not read a book since the birth of Noah (he's 8) until I picked up Twilight. I read it in one day, then read the rest of the series (including the on-line Midnight Sun) in a week.

15. I will freak out at the sight of an English bulldog.

16. I like my steak very well done. If it looks like charcoal on the outside, great.

17. David and I met at Super Summer. We were both camp counselors.

18. I never sing in the car (or anywhere else), unless I'm practicing a song I have to perform.

19. I was in the top 10 at Miss Arkansas in 1996.

20. I really wanted to go on the Price is Right with Bob Barker and am seriously sad that I won't get to do that.

21. I've been baptized 3 times. As a baby (in a methodist church), at age 9 (after 'walking the aisle), and at age 21... 7 years after experiencing God's irresistible grace.

22. There was a time that I thought drums were evil and had no place in worship. I thought contemporary christian music belonged in my car, not in my church. Several years ago I listened to a sermon by Dr. John Wright about how wrong it was to feel that way. I felt like God Himself slapped me in the face and told me to wake up. 'It's not about me and what I want' kept ringing in my head. I fully and completely changed, instantly.

23. I am the most forgetful person I have ever met. If I've met anyone worse than I, I forgot.

24. I can out-eat anyone if eating crab legs.

25. I will often drink coffee rather than eat lunch. Coffee IS my breakfast.

This has been a long, but good week. I was home a LOT more than usual due to E being sick. I didn't go to school Wednesday or Thursday. Thank goodness David was able to come home so I could go on Tuesday and Friday. Wednesday was David's birthday, but it almost came and went w/o notice b/c I was holed up at home all day and he was at church.
I got a LOT of school stuff done while I was here though. I scanned in 4 pieces (into a program that enables me to make a CD)... which takes forever b/c I have to fix the things that didn't scan correctly, then I have to manipulate the tempo thruout so that it does what I want it to do, not just start at the beginning and play robotically til the end, though it is a lot faster than me learning how to play the piano :)
And let me just brag on my students for a sec... they had some not so fun assignments while I was gone. I had them listen to choirs and write about each piece. Not a big deal, but in reading what they wrote, I'm just reminded once again how much the make up of my choir has changed. There was a time in the not so distant past that I would have read silly comments from the vast majority of my students.... I can name some who would have written "it's a song, they're singing" and nothing more. But this time, they wrote real comments. Of course, this would be expected from senior high choir students in most situations... it has just been such a LOOOONG road to get to this point... I have ALWAYS loved my job, but I'm REALLY loving it now. I'm excited.

I couldn't resist

I kept looking at the Target shoes after being so mad at myself for NOT looking the other day, and gave in. I didn't want to spend another $50, but my shoes are in desperate need of friends. This is what I got:









I also got some pajama bottoms and some shorts for $3 each and some $5 tights to bring it up to $50 in order to get free shipping :) The boots weren't on as much of a sale as I like, but it's hard to find boots on sale, and these were just $23... and I don't have any brown boots (yes, I'm rationalizing :). I threw out my other pair b/c I had no business wearing them they were so worn out and I knew I would if I didn't toss 'em!
I'm gradually getting this site together. I started adding the blogs I read from xanga... though I haven't been very good at reading them lately. If you are one of my xanga friends and you don't see your blog listed, it is probably b/c you don't have RSS feed enabled... at least, that is my best guess as to why it didn't work... though I'm not entirely sure.

copied post

So I figured out I can just copy my xanga post, post it here... and ta-da, I can blog here w/o much difficulty :) I still wish I could import the entire xanga... but I guess I can't do that. That address is http://www.xanga.com/joyfulnoyz/weblog
Still figuring things out here in Blogger...

Thursday, January 22, 2009

Hopefully today is the last day I'll have to stay home. I hate missing school. David was able to stay home Tuesday, but that wasn't possible yesterday or today. I've gotten a lot done while home though (school-wise, not home-wise). Since I'm pretty much at school only when teaching, and Elijah naps while I'm at school... it leaves little time to do all the OTHER stuff associated with teaching. I changed my mind on one of our pieces for festival... I decided I'm over-challenging my kids. Not that they were already doing 4 pieces that either are level 5 or probably would be if they were on the list... SO... I felt like they needed something that was short... especially with me missing so much. I'll be missing 4 days in February if I have students make All State... 1 for auditions, 2 for the clinic, and then the Monday right after clinic, I will probably have to miss in order to judge Southeast... I'm hoping I can teach and then make it there in time, but I'm not sure that will work. SO not gonna do Soon Ah Will Be Done.
Elijah is doing much better. His breathing was good last night, even when he got upset for about 30 minutes (with the way he was acting, I think it was a tummy ache... he seems to get those a lot at night). I woke up in severe pain b/c for the past few nights I've been sleeping in a half-way sitting up position with him cradled in my arm so he can stay partly upright... killed my neck muscles.
This morning, I was once again looking thru music when David called at 9:30... I was still in pajamas, no make up, hair as it was when I went to bed with it wet... He called to tell me that the children's minister would watch Elijah while the praise team sang at the association meeting that was at our church this morning. I was going to sing while David watched E b/c I was the only one on my part... he was singing the same part as another guy SO figured I'd better be there. Except, I totally forgot. Elijah was in his play yard watching Sesame Street. I ran upstairs to get dressed snd throw my hair up... was up there for no more than 5 min, came downstairs... and found him sitting on the bar playing with spoons. yeah. He climbed out of the pen, up on top of the stools, and up on top of the counter. Amazingly he didn't hurt himself or break any of the mugs that were sitting on the counter... including my brand new favorite.
I got a nice surprise yesterday... the surprise being that it came earlier than I expected :) I actually went to Target.com to find David a birthday present. I'd been searching for weeks but couldn't find anything anywhere. Didn't find anything for him, but found lots for me... check out what I got for a total of $54, including tax... free shipping:
(night shirt) (this one's for Isaac)
Check out Kelly's blog for GREAT news on Harper!