Our Thanksgiving

This Thanksgiving has been different for me than any other. I really don't know how to describe it. I've just looked at everything in a different light this year. I'm tempted to say that I viewed it all in a more grown up perspective this year, but I'm not sure that's the best way to describe it. I don't know.

The events that took place Monday and Tuesday definitely played a role. I really don't want to get into the details, but I handled a situation with two "helpers" in a way that I've never in my life handled a situation. I told someone exactly how I felt. I wasn't nice and I wasn't worried about hurting feelings or upsetting someone. Well, I did hurt feelings and I did upset people. Because of the events, I feel like I've lost a friend.

Either way.... this has all been on my mind 24/7 since it happened. I can't seem to stop thinking about it, and it has been a downer.

Don't get me wrong... I haven't been bummed all week. I had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was just different for me in my thought process.

Wednesday night, we had dinner with Andrew's family. This wasn't good for my baby fever. There are lots of little ones running around and I can't help but dream of our little ones will be added to that mix. Dinner with the Weaver's is always a fun event. There are lots of them. :) And I must say that I love my in-laws. They are wonderful people. I didn't take any pictures that night, but Jill took one of the whole gang. Like I said... there are lots of Weavers. :)



Thursday, we drove up to spend the day with my family. Unfortunately, my Daddy had to work so I missed getting to see him.

With my family, the best part of Thanksgiving is my Mommom's chicken and dumplings. Oh my goodness, they are so yummy. I look forward to them every year. Andrew refuses to eat them. He likes dumplings, just refuses to eat them on Thanksgiving because we make such a big deal out of them. He can be stubborn sometimes.

My Momma's birthday happen to be on Thanksgiving this year so we celebrated that as well. I would tell you how old she is, but something tells me if I did, my Momma would remind me that I wasn't too big to spank. HA! It doesn't matter because I promise she doesn't look old at all.

Momma, I hope you had a most wonderful birthday. I love you bunches!!




I aways enjoying hanging out with my little brother too. He actually came down Thursday night and spent the night.

Friday morning my Momma, Mommom, Aunt Tammy, and cousins, Shawna, and Ginger came down to go shopping. We shopped ALL day. I was worn out when I finally got home. But I really enjoyed spending the day with them. Good company, good food, and a few good deals. Doesn't get any better than that.

And now I am half way through Saturday with a to do list that is still too long. My goals for the day are to get the tree up and all the Christmas decor out and the laundry finished. In the midst of all that, I plan to watch the Arkansas/LSU game. We are cheering for the hogs in this house and hoping to keep the Boot at home.

Makeover

**This is not my blog makeover, but I couldn't stand the plain layout. :)

I am so excited to tell you that I am getting a blog makeover. This is the reason my blog if very blah right now. Please forgive me.

I started playing around yesterday, working on a a Christmas 3 column layout. Before long, I had a complete mess.

Long story short... Andrew came home and we left to get dinner with my blog a mess. While eating we decided to take Andrew cracked bowling ball to the bowling alley to see if it could be fixed. It couldn't'. Andrew ended up with a new ball, a spare ball, and a two ball bag. I told him it was okay if I could have my new blog. :)

Sneaky aren't I? So now I'm researching to find the right designer for me. Hopefully in the not so distance future I will have a Super cute blog to share with you. Until then, please forgive my not so cuteness.

The POD

After much drama and a very trying day, our POD for Stuff the Sleigh is finished. Actually it has been finished several times today... long story. Either way, here is the final product that we are submitting for the contest. This was 100% done by students. They had no help at all from any adults. They are very proud of their work. This was all done in about two hours this afternoon. I'm very proud of them. Win or lose, they did it and are proud of themselves. That's what matters.

Aunt E with her girls!

M is on my right and A is on my left. I sure love these two sweet girls.

Disaster Avoided, Hogs, and Thanksgiving

Disaster almost struck our home this morning. For whatever reason, Andrew and I never bought any cinnamon rolls for our Saturday morning tradition. We woke up this morning with not a single cinnamon roll in the house. What would we do?? Going without was not an option. No worries... my sweet sweet husband got up and ran to Burger King. He brought me two orders of ciniminis. Yummy!! Disaster avoided. Saturday tradition of Cinnamon rolls continues.

We finished our cinnamon rolls just in time to watch our Hogs beat Mississippi State. Go HOGS!!!! Now hoping to keep the boot in Arkansas next week when we play LSU.

I am still finding it hard to believe that Thanksgiving is less than a week away. I have to tell you, a little part of me is dreading it this year. I don't want to say that I'm finding it hard to be thankful this year, but I am struggling with it. I definitely have a lot to be thankful for. God has blessed me way more than I deserve. I have a wonderful loving husband who does his best at being the spiritual leader of our family. I have my two precious furbabies. My family is absolutely the best. I not only have a job, but I have a job that I love. I enjoy what I get to do every day. We are healthy. God has answered more prayers this year than I can count. And above all that, I serve a loving, forgiving, perfect God.

Yet with all of that, I want something more. Yes I know that is selfish. You see.. every year at Weaver Thanksgiving we share what we are thankful for. I guess I just want something new and big to share this year and not just the same thing I say every year.

Again, I know that sounds horrible. I feel bad for feeling that way, but I can't seem to get over this hump.

Either way, I'm looking forward to spending time with my family. For the first time since I've known my husband, he is not camping out at Best Buy this year. He just decided that we didn't have any extra cash for big purchases this year. He is going to work on Friday instead. This means he gets Christmas Eve off, which excites his wife. :)

I am going to brave the crowds on Black Friday. My mom, mommom, aunt, and two cousins are coming to LR to go shopping. I am looking forward to it. Going to have to be nice and rested though because I think they have big shopping plans for us. :)


What are your Thanksgivingn plans?

Liberty Belle and Liam Bailey

I have never participated in a Show Us Your Life post by Kelly over at Kelly's Korner. But this week, she asked us to show our pets and I just couldn't resist. If you have read this blog at all, you know that Drew and I have two furbabies that we love A LOT.

Liberty Belle and Liam Bailey are most definitely our children during this season of life. And yes, they go by their first and middle name. :)


From the moment Andrew and I got married, I started begging for a dog. To be honest, I 'm not sure why I felt so strongly that I had to have a dog. We had dogs growing up, but I wasn't that close to them. They were just there and I was fine with that. Either way, as a married woman, I felt that I NEEDED a dog. The timing wasn't right at first. We lived in an apartment and were both very busy. Three jobs and full time school with student teaching between the two of us.

When we bought our house, I knew it was time. I began spending a lot of time on petfinder.com. That's how we found Liberty. Our first night with her was very adventurous. You can read about that and how she got her name here.

Before we got Liberty, I worried if I should have spent so many years begging for a dog. I started doubting that I wanted a dog as badly as I let on. Did I really want the responsibility of house training a dog? However, when Andrew brought her home, it was love at first sight. She is definitely my baby girl.


Liberty has been an adventure since day one. She has scratched a hole in our wall in the laundry room when we left her in there all day and night.

She ate carpet when we left her out in the house one day while we at work.

She still lives up to her name very much so. She cannot be trusted out in the open without a leash.

She sleeps in the bed with us. It took her several months to earn this privilege. But now she sleeps with her back against my back with her head on my pillow.

Despite my begging and pleading, she hates wearing clothes. She can jump like there are springs in her legs. She has gone from standing flat footed in our kitchen floor to being on our kitchen counter. She loves cheese and chicken, much like her mama. :) She doesn't like lettuce, tomato, or onion. (Again- just like her momma) She does not like riding in the car. She wants to be sitting in the driver's lap and she pants the entire time like she is going to hyperventilate. Rolling down the window only stresses out even more.

We carry her on our hip like she is a baby. She is my baby girl.

When we decided to get another dog so that Liberty Belle could have a playmate, I went through the same doubts. It may be silly, but I worried that Liberty would feel like we were trying to replace her, like she wasn't good enough.

I went back to petfinder.com and we found Liam Bailey. He already had the name Liam which we liked. We decided he needed a B middle name so that we would have two LB's. Andrew, Liberty, and I went to PetSmart to pick Liam up on my birthday last year. Liberty and Liam did not like each other at first. Don't worry they have grown to love each other.

Unlike Liberty, Liam started sleeping in our bed right away. He is Andrew's cuddle puppy. He sleeps right against Andrew's chest. Liam's favorite place to be is under the covers. He does not like to get up in the mornings. When we turn on the lights, he takes his little paws and covers up his eyes. Whenever we try to put him out in the morning, he runs and gets in the bed, rolls over on his back, and holds his paws in the air.

Liam loves to go bye-bye. He is your typical dog, loving to have the windows down with head out. In fact, if I leave and don't take him with me, he cries the entire time I'm gone. I didn't believe this at first. But I called Drew one night to see what he wanted to eat, and I couldn't hear Drew because of Liam's crying.


Liam is a little suck up. If you get on to him he will run up to you and cover you with kisses and lay on you. He doesn't want you to be mad at him.

Liam Bailey is also our snoring puppy. He has the cutest little puppy snore. :)

Like I said, they are our babies. We love them dearly. I dread the day they go to doggy heaven. I can't imagine our lives without our two furbabies.

A little of this and a little of that

Being churchless isn't all bad. It gives me the opportunity to have my husband beside me in church. This is a rarity for us. For most of our marriage, he has been in the sound booth or on the stage. Don't get me wrong, I love that I have a husband who uses his gifts to serve the Lord. But it is also nice to be able to worship right next to him during services. We returned to New Life, the place we visited last week. While I've enjoyed it, I think it is safe to say it will not be our new home church.

Baby fever is back. After my last post on having baby fever, I sat down and talked about it with the husband. I knew that was all I needed. And it was. After our talk, I felt better. But... I recently met two new precious beautiful nieces and well... it is back. :) This time around, it is more than last time. This time, I want a baby. Not now because that means baby would be here around August and that just isn't good timing for this school teacher. But soon. Again.. I'm not saying we are about to start trying to have a baby. I'm pretty sure my husband doesn't feel the same way and I'm okay with that. I'm just dreaming.

Along with my baby fever, I also have Christmas fever. I am so ready to put my tree up and get out all of my Christmas decor. I'm ready to go Christmas shopping. I'm ready for all things Christmas.

Tomorrow morning I'm taking four of my student council members to have breakfast with Tom from Channel 11 at Golden Corral. This means I get to be at school at 4:15AM. Something tells me it is going to be a long day.

I'm working on some paintings to serve as Christmas Door Decor. Hope to show you those soon. Still wanting to sale some of my scrapbooks, but haven't come up with a name that I love and is available. I thought I had one, but there is already a blog with that name. Still open to suggestions.


And that is all my ramblings for tonight.

Have a great week! Love ya, E

Our Weekend

On Saturday, I got up and made Andrew and I cinnamon rolls. This is becoming a very yummy Saturday tradition with us. Lately, I’ve been thinking about how fun it will be when we have kids to pile up in bed together with our cinnamon rolls. Yes, we eat in our bed. I know that bothers some of you. Just pretend like you didn’t read that.

Anywho… have cinnamon rolls we got ready to head to my cousin’s 20th birthday party in Jonesboro, two hours away. We went bowling with the family. It was a blast. My 10 year old cousin was bowling on our lane. The first game, he bowled a 3. Even with his 6lb ball, his little arm just couldn’t get it down the lane. It was moving slow and would turn into the gutter every time. We tried to show him several different techniques. Finally, Andrew told him to just run up to the lane and drop it. We knew he needed speed. This worked. By the third game, he bowled a 71. Andrew and I let him win that third game. We stayed close behind so he would think we were really trying. That kid was on Cloud 9 for the rest of the night. It was great. I just love seeing Andrew with him. It makes my heart happy.

Drew giving Luke some tips.

The Birthday Girl
My momma bowling... She beat me!!
Me and the Daddy... Again any tips on how to make me NOT look this white, washed out, and dead?

After bowling and dinner with the fam, we went to watch my little brother wrestle. It is the fake kind, like WWE. I’ll admit when he first started doing this, I thought it was stupid. I was very against the idea. However, he loves it. I just tell him to do it for the glory of God. Be an example to the guys around him. His music when he walks out changes from time to time, but whether is a good guy or a bad guy, it is always a Christian song. I love that!

Anyways, he lost. I don’t do well watching other people beat up on my little brother. Yes, I know it is fake, but I still want to jump down in the ring and help him out. I just pray every Saturday night, that he won’t be seriously injured. It is fun to watch him though. The fans love him, especially the kids. He was signing arms and t-shirts Saturday night. He has a lot of kids who look up to him, which is another reason I just tell him to shine for God.




Sunday, Andrew and I visited New Life Church in North Little Rock. This church has several campuses in Arkansas. I have to admit, I stereotype churches with multiple campuses. I know I shouldn’t and I’m working on that. But either way, I went in Sunday with my mind made up that I wasn’t going to like this church. I was anti the idea from the moment, Andrew told me we were going. Church wasn’t bad. It felt more like a show to me than church, but I’m sure my attitude had a lot to do with it. I told Drew I wanted to go back on Sunday. I want to be able to give it a fair shot without any predetermined ideas.


Monday morning, Sara went in for her c-section. Miss M is here now and is absolutely beautiful. I got to love on her Monday night. I seriously am going to need to figure out how to old two babies at once plus play with a 1 year old and an almost 2 year old all at the same time before Thanksgiving. I just have way too many nieces and nephews That’s not true. I could never have to many. I love them all! But… I got to tell you.. holding all these sweet babies lately, not doing
anything to help the baby fever. It definitely makes me want one. When I look at the pic below of Andrew and I with J and M, I can’t help but dream about having our own little family.

Homecoming Week

Friday night was Homecoming at our school. Last week was full of festivities leading up to the big night. Each day was a different dress up day. I always enjoyed these in high school, but I think I enjoy it more as a teacher. There is just something about seeing a 7th graders face when you come in dressed all crazy. I don’t remember ever seeing any of my teachers participate. The kids really
enjoy it when we have silly and participate with them. Here are my pictures from last week’s dress up days.

Monday was Get up and Go Day. Honestly… every work place should have this day at least once a year. Being able to go to work on Monday in your pajamas is wonderful. It totally takes away those Monday blues. The past few years, I’ve gone out and bought bright fun pjs just for this day. I wasn’t able to do that this year, but I was comfortable all the same.


Tuesday was Color Day. Each grade was assigned a specific color to wear. Being a 7th grade teacher, I wore green.



Wednesday was Grandparents Day. Oh my, this day was fun! I stressed Tuesday night because I didn’t know what I could wear and I wanted to dress up. I was determined not to miss a single day this year. I was lucky enough to find this dress at a second hand store for only $3.50. Add a little baby powder to the hair, and voila! Grandma Weaver! Students didn’t recognize me. Heck, some teachers didn’t recognize me. I loved it. By the end of the day, I had the old lady walk perfected
as well.


On Thursday, I went from being a grandma to a nerd for Nerd Day. This one was also lots of fun. My sweet Momma shipped me my glasses from when I was younger. These beautiful red glasses are the first pair I ever had. The kids loved that I wore these in 3rd grade. With my gorgeous dress and braided pigtails, I felt a bit like Violet Bickerstaff from Saved By The Bell. She was my inspiration for the day.



Dressing up was lots of fun, but I sure was glad to just be me on Friday. Friday was Red/White Day. Being me is a lot easier in the mornings than anything else.

Friday night, I went to Homecoming. The girls looked gorgeous. In high school, every year I hoped that I would be elected. Never was though. When I go to Homecomings now, part of me wishes I could get out there in a beautiful gown. But anyways, they all looked beautiful. The girl who was voted queen started crying when they announced her as winner. It was so sweet. Brought tears to my eyes
as well.

Thanksgiving

It is officially November, which means in my mind, it is officially the holiday season. It is now acceptable for me to listen to the Christmas music I've been listening to for a month now. Of course now that it is acceptable, I can't listen to it because someone stole my ipod which held all the Christmas music. Going to have to burn me some cds in the very near future.

Anyways, I don't know what it is about this time of year, but I tend to be verbally more thankful than any other time of the year. Why is that? We should be thankful all year, not just when their are colorful leaves, dumplings in the future, and a holiday that says we should give thanks. After all, God's word said to give thanks in all things.

I am incredibly thankful for my husband today. I'm always thankful for him, but I've just been extra thankful lately. If you remember, about four months ago we made a big decision to move to a new church. We have loved it there. The people are great. We found out recently that the pastor believes some things that we just cannot agree with. They are some very fundamental issues. It all came to an end yesterday. After service, Andrew met with the pastor, and now we are churchless again.

Andrew feels bad I think because he knows how much I've loved going to church there and being with the people. And I did, but I totally agree with Drew. We couldn't stay at the church. I respect Andrew even more for making the decision he made. I am so incredibly thankful that I have a husband who loves me enough to make those tough decisions. I'm thankful to have a husband who cares about my spiritual well-being.

I also thankful that I'm not the one in charge of leading our family. What a huge responsibility. Him having to make this decisions has really opened my eyes to that. I always pray for my husband, but this has made me see the importance and urgency of praying for him as the leader of our family.

I just want to give thanks to my God for blessing me with such a wonderful husband, friend, and leader.

As the holiday designated to giving thanks approaches, I wonder... What are you thankful for?