Memorial Day Weekend

It has been a wonderful weekend. Three days off is always a good thing in my book.

I need to take a minute and give a shout out to all the men and women who have served our wonderful country and to those who are currently serving. I think too often these people go without the appreciation they deserve. They put themselves in harms way so that people like me can live in a free country, so that I can worship the God I love openly whenever and where ever. I also want to say thank you to the families of those serving. Those families make such a huge sacrifice.

This seems to be the weekend where people feel the need to be on the lake or in the pool. The husband and I did neither of those things this weekend, yet it was still a great weekend.

Friday night was spent at home just resting from the crazy week we have had.

Saturday we lazed around the house doing a bit of cleaning here and there, but nothing too strenuous. Saturday evening the husband went to Riverfest. Riverfest is a local outdoor festival held every year during Memorial Day weekend. It is always filled with outdoor concerts. I've been a couple of times, but it really isn't my thing. Normally I send the husband and stay home. This was the case Saturday night. While the hubs was out watching The Black Crowes, I stayed home and watched The Time Traveler's Wife.

Not sure how I felt about this movie. It was good, but a little weird. I definitely did not prefer the ironic ending. Have you seen it? What did you think?


Sunday we slept in and then got up and had a late lunch. We decided to join Journey Church for their Memorial Day potluck. It was nice to see our old church family. I enjoyed visiting with people I don't get to see enough of.

Our nephew wasn't able to go back to Riverfest Sunday night so I decided to be a good wife and go with the husband. I don't know why. He would have been perfectly fine going alone. It wouldn't have been a first for him. But, I just wanted to spend time with the husband so off we went.

Steve Miller Band was on the agenda for the night. I know who Steve Miller is,but I don't know just a ton of songs by them. We got there a little more than hour before they were supposed to play so we were just standing in the crowd listening to the opening act.

You all know how I feel about crowds. I HATE THEM!! Riverfest crowds are the worst because people tend to do a lot of drinking and smoking... both legal and illegal things. My husband does a wonderful job of keeping people off me, but it is still very crowded. I made it through the opening act okay because people were pretty calm considering the situation. But they started getting a little crazy when they put a curtain and started setting up for Steve Miller. I lost it. I started crying. It was just way too crowded. It got better once Steve Miller started playing.

I guess I enjoyed it okay.... I just hate Riverfest. I don't know why I do that to myself. But I did get to spend time with the husband. And even though he would have been happy to go alone, I like to think he was glad I went with him.





Today the husband packed his bags and headed to Texas. He isn't sure how long he will be there, but he'll be there at least a week.


After he left I decided to paint our guest bathroom. It is something I've been wanting to do it for awhile. It isn't quite finished. I still need to do some touch up work on the paint but here are a few pictures to give you an idea.

BEFORE: It was just your typical beige color.




AFTER: Though I couldn't get a good shot...





I'm really pleased with how it turned out. I'm also proud of myself for painting all by myself. It was a first. :)

Picking A Name

For the past few days, I've been playing around with some different blog design ideas. Designing my own blog has proved to be much more difficult than I thought. The hard part is the technical side of it. That - I've figured out. It's the look. Things always look better to me when they are made by someone else. Every little flaw stands out to me when it is something I've done.

One of my biggest design blocks is finding a name for my blog that I love. I've gone back and forth with this since I started blogging. I want something more exciting than just The Weavers. It's hard. I want my name to be descriptive of my blog, but my blog is dedicated to one area of my life. I also want a name that can stand the test of time. I want a blog that is good now and will be good ten years from now.

I've been searching through blog after blog looking at their names. I have gotten no ideas from this, but I have been reminded that I'm not a mom. And I'm not a newlywed anymore. It seems that every blog is either about parenthood or the life of a newlywed and the names of blogs reflect that.

Guess that means I have the Not a Mom, Not a Newlywed blog. HA!! Maybe that should be my title.

How can naming my blog be harder than naming children. I don't even have those, but I have their names all picked out.

If only there was a blog naming genie!!

Maybe I should stop trying to have a perfect blog name. What does it really matter in the end anyways? Are you going to stop reading my blog if it's name totally stinks?

Planning

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11


I'm a planner by nature. I absolutely love buying a new calendar/planner each year and filling it up with events. As a teacher my calendar revolves around the school year. I buy my new calendar in June instead of January. I'm the person who likes to browse the aisle with planners at Wal-Mart. Dork! I know!!

Some of my fellow teachers think I'm crazy because I'm already writing lesson plans for next year. I've already done my science lesson plans through the end of September. It's just what I do! Part of this planning comes from the fact that I love looking for new ideas.

My planning obsession has calmed down some since I married the husband, who is the youngest of six. I'm not sure if it is because he is the youngest or because he has several siblings, but sometimes we don't get told about events until thirty minutes before they are happening.

I remember the first Christmas we were married... oh the memories of that Christmas. A Saturday or two before Christmas, I was getting ready to go to work. I was working at Sonic at the time. The husband was just bumming around the apartment. It was your typical Saturday. My mother-in-law calls and asked the husband where we are... if we are on our way. He was like.... On our way where? We were supposed to be in Cave City, almost three hours away, in like an hour. We had know idea!!! We missed the extended Weaver Christmas that year.

Andrew can be a planner at times too. We plan to plan to have our babies be due in April so that I can just take the rest of the school year off. Yes, we are planning to plan. :)

No matter how much I plan or try to plan my life out, sometimes God has a different plan. My life today at 26 is nothing like I planned it would be. It's better. God is a far better planner than I am.

My entire life I planned to be a teacher. We all know that was a plan God agreed with. However, I always planned to teach English or History. Those were the two subjects I felt I was good at and I enjoyed. This is not the plan God has in mind. I will be teaching Math and Science next year... the two subjects I DID NOT want to teach. Sometimes I think all my planning makes God laugh. I'm sure he chuckled a few times in my planning to teach English and History. But like I said, God is a far better planner than I am. I LOVE teaching Science. It has become my comfort zone. It's so much fun. And as scared as I am, something tells me I will enjoy teaching math as well.

God has plans for us. They are plans for good, not bad.

There are a lot of things in the husband and my lives right now that are up in the air. I look forward to seeing God's plan in these things.

Family Weekend

I have had the best weekend! It has been packed full of family & fun!

Friday as soon as I left work, I did some last minute birthday shopping and then came home and packed. I headed the two hours north to my grandmother's house for a celebration of birthdays.

We celebrated Sawyer turning 3!



Livvy celebrated her 8th birthday!


And my Mommom celebrated 71 years!


It was such a nice night. I have the best cousins. We talked and laughed for our hours. My cousin, Tyler, is finishing up his junior year of high school. His school is getting a new greenhouse next year. With this new greenhouse comes new classes such as Turf Grass Management! Doesn't that sound like the class every high school student is looking to take?

Andrew was not able to go with me. He had to work until almost ten o'clock Friday night doing inventory. I don't think it went very well, so he was not happy about it. Things are kind of up in the air for him at work right now. His company was recently bought and so there are changes being talked about. Nothing too bad, it just makes it hard for us to make any plans at all. I'm scared to death that they are going to call and require him to travel out of state to help open a new branch the week of my surgery. I'm trying to tell myself it will be okay if he has to be gone. I know he will be here if it is at all possible for him to be. Just praying he doesn't have to be on a business trip that day.

Anyways... since he wasn't with me I decided to spend the night with my Momma & Daddy. I didn't want to drive home that late. I was sleepy and I have a headlight out right now.

Saturday morning I woke up and decided to drive to Blanchard Springs to spend the day with my brother and cousin. They were camping for the weekend. I hadn't been to Blanchard since I was in high school. When I was little, we camped there a lot! That was also the place for field trips when I was in elementary school. One year we would go to the caves and the next year we would go to the Ozark Folk Center.

The drive from my parent's house to Blanchard was absolutely beautiful! I couldn't help but praise God for his creation.




Seth and Joseph didn't know I was coming so it was a bit of a surprise to them. I think they were happy to see me. I had the best time hanging out with them. I definitely caught camping fever. I am hoping Drew and I will be able to take the nephews up there for a weekend before my surgery. Just look at the pictures. You'll see what I'm talking about.












Today we got up and to church at Geyer Springs. They have been without a preacher for quite some time now. Jeff Williams from Florida preached this morning. They were going to vote on making him their pastor tonight. Andrew and I really enjoyed hearing him this morning. He reminded us about what the cross really means to us. He reminded us that the lost people around us should matter to us because they matter to God.

After church, I took a nap. Yesterday's adventures wore me out. This afternoon Andrew and I went driving around looking at land. On the way home we stopped in North Little Rock, grabbed some lunch at ate at beside the river. It was beautiful! Great way to end the weekend.

How was your weekend?

My Sweet Brown Girl

Today is Miss Liberty Belle Weaver's birthday. She is 3!


She is my little runaway!



She has taught many lessons about patience.



She's my girl!! We sleep back to back every night.




She loves her little brother.


Her favorite game is tug-a-war.


She is so good with babies and kids!!!




Happy Birthday Miss Liberty!

Happy Birthday

Today my baby brother turns 23!!


Guess that means he isn't such a baby anymore.


Isn't he handsome??

To some, he is a famous wrestler.



To me, he is one of my very best friends.



Happy Birthday little brother! Love you bunches!

Neighbor

"And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself." Mark 12:33a