I'm thankful for.....

Chelsey is hosting a give away over at her blog Scrap Happy: November Crop & Giveaway She challenged us to create a Thanksgiving LO. I did mine over at scrapblog.com It shows just one of the many things I am thankful for.

Is my blog a lie?

My blog is entitled Living Out His Plan? Are you doing that? Are you focused on God and what He wants for you? Are you okay with His plan, His provisions or do you want your own? I only ask because I'm not sure I like my answer to those questions. It seems like lately, meaning every day, God finds a way to ask me to come back to Him. I've definitely been taking my own path. It's like I want God in reach, but I'm not right beside Him holding His hand, you know?

What does it mean to live your life for God? What does it look like to be living out His plan? I am pretty confident that God has made me a teacher and that I'm at the school that He would have me be at. However, this past week or two I haven't exactly been thrilled with it. My students have definitely been trying my patience. I have forgotten to truly be thankful that not only do I have a job, but I have a job that I do actually enjoy and that I was made for.

Our money has been tight too lately, which is never fun. Just another thing that has shown me that my focus is all out of whack. I have a nice home, a nice car, a closet full of clothes, a new tv, a laptop with high speed interent,and much more. And these are only my material possessions. I wouldn't have any of it without God. He is the one that has provided it all. And yet I find myself thinking that it isn't enough, that I need more.

This week, Patter chose the word cross for her scrapbook Bible study. Wow! What a word. It is so powerful. My mind is flooded with thoughts when I hear the word cross. Thoughts that tell me I must be crazy for not living for my Lord. Thoughts that tell me it should be so easy to live out His plan. But, I'm just human and unfortunately sometimes I forget the power of the cross, the beauty of the cross, the mercy of the cross.

Thursday night at home group we were talking about how if for no other reason, God deserves our praise simply because he is God. Look at what he has done for us. Do you know? Jesus Christ gave up his life for me and for you. We sometimes look at the story and feel bad for him and view him as a victim. But Jesus was not a victim. He went willingly. You know there are some people in this world that I would die for, but I don't know if I would be willing to give up my life for a complete stranger or for someone who murdered someone else. But like I said, I'm human. I'm selfish and I have a tendency to rank sins even though I know that to Him they are all equally bad. Jesus went and died for all of us. For people who haven't even born yet. How awesome is that?????

I'm not sure if any of this even makes sense. I just know that lately I have been challenged and told to get my priorities straight. To get my focus where it should be - on things that will matter eternally. I challenge you to do the same. Take a look at your life. Is your focus where it should be? On the cross? If it isn't then please join me in the journey of refocusings.

Thanksgiving Traditions

Thanksgiving will be here in just a couple of weeks. I can't wait. Our Thanksgiving looks like this:

We get together with the Weavers on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. We have deep fried turkey and all the sides. After we stuff ourselves full we sat in a circle and take turns saying what we are thankful for. Yes we are a family who really does this. Of course we are all bawling by the time we finish. Actually we are normally crying after only 1 to 3 people have shared. It's nice.

Then there is Thursday. I get up early and with puppies in tow head to my grandmothers, where my family gets together. We have chicken and dumplings. Mmmm. This is my absolute favorite. Andrew refuses to eat them on Thanksgiving just because they are so special to us. He says we completely ignore the turkey which is so not true. My Daddy makes a most delicious turkey every year. I miss getting to wake up at their house to the smell of turkey. We just love our dumplings too.

Notice I said I go with the puppies. I didn't mention Andrew because he no longer goes with me. Why? He goes to Best Buy around noon and sets up camp. My hubby is one of those people who camp outside of Best Buy every year for the sales Friday morning. He does this even if there isn't nothing we need. He'll find something. He already has a shopping list for this year though. :) :) Does this bother me? No. For us, it isn't a fight worth fighting. He went with me to my grandmothers the first couple of years of our marriage, but he always wanted to leave much earlier than I did. That upset me more than him just not going. At some point in the evening his older brother, Cary, their nephews Tyler & Cody and our friend Sinclair join them. They sit around and talk and normally play football. Last year they even made their way onto two different news reports - pretty cool.

We also celebrate birthdays at both of these events. We celebrate Joy & Alex's with the Weaver's and my mom's at my grandmother's.


With all of that being said, what are your Thanksgiving traditions? What is your favorite tradition or favorite Thanksgiving food?

Just a Reminder

Hey everyone! I just wanted to remind all of you about my bookparty. I'm getting a little anxious about it. I've never hosted anything like this before. I'm worried no one will show up, I'm worried about the menu, having more people than my house can hold, on and on. Anyways!!!

For those of you in my area it is next Saturday, November 15th @ 6Pm @ my house. Let me know if you need directions. I really hope you can make it.

For those of you not in my area as well as those of you in my area you can't make it next Saturday. You can shop online! Unfortunately the online shopping doesn't come with my hopefully wonderful food and comapany. I know - takes all the fun out of it. The website is www.ubah.com/HOS127848

They have some really great children's books at what I think is a pretty reasonable price. I'm hoping to earn lots of goodies for my classroom and maybe even some for my future children. They already have their own library. :)


So go ahead. Go the website and get some Christmas shopping taken care of. You know you want to.

A Week of Festivities

Last week was homecoming/red ribbon week at school. We had a different dress up day every day. Here are a few pics from the week.

Monday - Get up & Go Day (Wear your PJs)
Tuesday - Western Day (Had nothing to wear on this day)
Wednesday - Jersey Day
Thursday - Red/White Day (Just wore a school shirt)
Friday - Costume Day

Home in Bed

That's me today. I woke feeling quite icky so I'm staying home. I'm hoping this is just the 24 hour thing that is going around at our school. I hate being sick, especially when Drew has to go to work and can't stay home and take care of me.

I'm also just sad today. As all of you know yesterday was Election Day. It was my second time to vote in a presidential election. In '04 I voted for President Bush and he won. This year I voted for Senator McCain and he didn't win. I just felt so disappointed and scared. While Senator Obama was not my choice for our next president, I still want him to be safe. There are a lot of people in this country who dislike him so strongly they are plotting to end his life. I would never wish that on anyone. I pray that God will protect our new President. I also pray for all of those babies out there who haven't been born yet and probably not even conceived yet. I pray that God will protect their little lives as they are so special. Our President isn't going to fight to protect them, so we must do everything we can to convince the mothers of these babies that life is precious.

When Fox News flashed that he was our next president last night, I just cried. Like I said, I was so disappointed. I understand why some people feel don't vote, because they feel like their vote doesn't count. I don't think I could ever feel that way though. There is something about voting based on my faith and knowing I've done what I could do....

What's in a Name?

In my camping post I told you about having a couple of close calls with the dogs on our camping trip and how this totally freaks Andrew and I out. Friday night we had Liberty and Liam on their tie outs. Well Liberty's got clipped on wrong. It was put on her nametag instead of her collar. A large dog walked by and she went nuts. She started barking and took off after the dog which broke her nametag and set her loose. This scares Andrew and I to death. If you haven't figured out by now, Liberty and Liam are like our two kids. I can't imagine not having them with us. I dread the day Liberty passes away. I will tell you right now I will not be going to work that day. There will definitely be some tears. She is my girl!

Okay so the reason her getting loose bothers us so much? She is named Liberty for a reason. We found her on petfinder.com. She was in Memphis. I had been begging Andrew for a dog pretty much since the moment we said I do. The time just wasn't right for us. For the first few years of our marriage we lived in an apartment and I went to school all day and worked all night. We knew this wasn't right for a dog. The day we bought our house I started asking again. I visited petfinder on a daily basis. We just couldn't find a dog that we both liked. One day I stumbled across this sweet tiny dog named Dopey. She was one of seven. Her dad, Walt, and her pregnant mom, Disney, had been dropped on the side of the road. After the pound picked them up, Disney had seven puppies, Doc, Sneezy, Sleepy, Dopey, Happy, Bashful, and Grumpy. Andrew and I fell in love with Dopey. She was so cute, but she was in Memphis. Andrew wasn't sure he wanted to drive two hours for a dog.

A few days later our nephew Tyler called and wanted Andrew to take him to a Hawk Nelson concert in where else but Memphis. See we were meant to have Dopey. So Andrew and Tyler left on a Sunday afternoon to the concert and to pick up Dopey. When Andrew got there the foster parents who had been keeping Dopey and one of her brothers, said they Dopey wasn't dopey at all. Because of this, they started calling her Nina which is spanish for girl. So Drew and Tyler brought Nina home.

They got home around 11:30 that night. I loved on Nina for a while. I got ready to take her outside before we went to bed. I asked Andrew if I should put her on her leash. He said she will be fine. So off we went with no leash into our fenceless backyard. We were out there several minutes when she finally took care of business. I was getting ready to bring her back in when she heard something that spooked her. Off she went into the woods behind our house. Nina is a very fast little girl. I ran in to get Andrew and Tyler and we took off looking for her. So there we were looking for a tiny brown dog in the woods in the middle of the night. We called and called and looked and looked. Eventually I came in the house, locked myself in the bathroom and began crying my eyes out. I felt so bad. After a few minutes Andrew came and tried to talk me out of the bathroom. I just remember crying and telling him to take Tyler home. For whatever reason, I didn't want Tyler to see me so upset over a dog. After several minutes I convinced Andrew to take Tyler home. When he left I crawled into bed. I pretended to be asleep when he got home. I heard him go outside. I got up and walked outside to find my husband, a grown man, sitting on the backporch crying like a baby. I just sat and cried with him. It was very late at this point. We finally came in and went to sleep.

The next morning Andrew got up and looked for her again, still couldn't find her. I went to work, but was only there a couple of hours. I just felt sick because I was so upset. I talked them into letting me come home. I sat outside with wet dog food calling her name. I thought I heard something but when I went to where the sound was coming from, she would quit crying.

Around 4:30 that afternoon, our friend Stuart came over with his dog, Daisy. Daisy barks on command and he thought maybe she could get Nina to bark. Our neighbor had his dog out looking too. Andrew was home and looking. Nina's foster mom was on her way from Memphis with a lab to sniff Nina out. I just stood where I heard her earlier calling her. She finally cried very loudly. I yelled that I heard her and everyone came that way. There was a huge piece of concrete slab in the woods propped up on a rock. I bent down to look under it and there she was. My sweet baby girl. I yelled that I had found her and everyone came running to me. Andrew tried to get her out and she snapped at him. She was terrified. It took Stuart and Drew to get her out. She was filthy and covered in ticks. By the way, at this point her foster mom was twenty minutes from our house. Andrew called her and offered to let her know we found her. We offered to pay for gas and take her out to dinner. She just said she wasn't going back home and was glad we found her.

So we knew this little girl's name had to reflect our first eveing with her. Andrew threw out suggestions of Fled and Freedom. Neither one of these sound right to me. The next day at work Liberty Belle popped into my head. It was perfect.

So that is our story of how Dopey became Nina and then Liberty Belle Weaver. Needless to say our sweet girl didn't go anywhere near a door without a leash for a VERY long time. We are still a little nuts about it.

Here is the picture that was online at petfinder, and her first picture with her new mommy and daddy.