Summer Summer!!

One Week!  One week of my Summer Vacay has already gone by.  Time really does fly when you are having fun.  And it's been fun.

We started the summer of with a little Riverfest.  This is an annual event that happens in Little Rock.  Outdoor concerts and fun down on the Arkansas River.  I normally send Andrew by himself as I hate Riverfest.  I suffer from crowdaphobia and there are definitely crowds there.  I prefer concerts where everyone has their assigned seat. 

But Boyz II Men was playing this year and I wanted to see them so I gave it another try.  Oh MY!  How fun!  Andrew and I stepped back in time a decade.  They were a hoot with all their dancing. 

We went back Saturday night to see Lynyrd Skynyrd.  This was not so much fun. HA!  Not my type of crowd if you know what I mean.  I've never seen so many rebel flag du-rags in all my life!!  I will say that was probably the one and only time you'll have that many Hog fans cheering for Alabama.

Somehow we managed to make time for some pool action Saturday before Riverfest.  Andrew swam and I laid out with a book.  Aww!  The sweet life!

Monday we drove up to Andrew's Uncle Kevin's lake house for a day on the water.  it was a fun and relaxing day with family, friends, and good food.

It's not very often I make something I'm willing to share, but I found these ideas on pinterest.  They were easy and festive so I had to give them a try.  I even ate one of the strawberries!! 

Today I had the pleasure of keeping Miss Sydney while Jill and Amelia had a fun day at the zoo. 

Sweet girl was happy to be hanging out with her Aunt E.  Melt my heart!!

Even with all the fun, I've managed to get quite a bit accomplished for school.  I'm at a stand still with that now until I go to a few workshops over the next couple of weeks and get some answers.

Happy Summer!!

Three Day Weekend

I'm enjoying the last day of a wonderful three day weekend today.  Somehow I managed to make it through the school year without using my personal day, so I'm using it today.  Then I only have four days left of school.  I'll admit I have mixed emotions about it.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm more than ready for Summer Break!  But at the same time, I'm going to miss this group of students.  They have been absolutely wonderful.  Smart, sweet, and well behaved. 

Last week was exhausting so I started my three day weekend with a nice long nap Friday afternoon.  I woke up long enough to go grab some dinner with the husband and then went back to sleep.

Saturday morning I got up and got ready to head north to see my family and celebrate a few birthdays.  Within a few days of one another my two little cousins, my little brother, and my Mommom all celebrate birthdays.  I really enjoyed getting to visit with the fam.  Unfortunately I didn't take many pictures.  Too busy visiting I guess. 

Speaking of my little brother...he's engaged!  Yay!  Excited for him and my soon to be sister-in-law. 

Yesterday the husband and I decided to take Liberty for a walk and to the dogpark.  We walked about 3.5 miles around the river trail, up the Big Dam Bridge, and to the dog park.  It was a good little workout for us girls.  At the 2 mile marker, Andrew decided to run back to the car (apparently we girls were too slow) while Lib and I walked on to the dog park.  There were four other dogs when we arrived at the dog park and let me just tell you Lib wanted nothing to do with them.  She was little Miss Antisocial.  All she wanted to do was sit in my lap.  

We left as soon as Andrew made it to the dog park with the car.  We grabbed some lunch and came home for a nap.  Last night we went to eat at Casa Mexicana and had sno cones for dessert.  We came home and played three games of bean bag toss in the back yard.  I lost all three games. :(  Poor Liberty did not understand the game.  She couldn't understand why we were throwing things and she wasn't allowed to fetch them. 

I slept in this morning.  It was nice!!  Once I was finally up & dressed I headed north to visit with my best friend from high school, Mandy & her new daughter, Macy.  it was the best visit.  I am so thankful for a beautiful Christian friend like Mandy.  We go months without seeing each other and when we do we talk like we never missed a beat.  We talk about any and everything.  I love it!

And Macy?  Oh my!!  That is one sweet little girl.  She just laid on my chest sleeping for close to an hour.  It was the best.  Little girl made me have a serious case of baby fever.  She is just too precious.

A Few Changes

Things are changing around our house.  For someone like myself who doesn't like change, this can be very difficult to deal with.  Once I am accustomed to something, I prefer to keep it that way.  Take the husband's new Kindle Fire for example.  It is different than my old school kindle therefore I do not like it.  I'll keep what I know and understand.

Some of the changes occurring are easier to deal with than others.  One change that I am absolutely giddy about is a slight career change for me.  I was given the opportunity to teach English next year instead of Math.  I had to jump on the opportunity though I will admit I was a little hesitant at first.  Though Math is probably my least favorite subject, after two years of teaching it, I was getting used to it.  Teaching English means starting all over again.  After a couple discussion, some which were more heated than others, with my husband I knew teaching English was the right choice for me.  Now that I have officially made the decision, I couldn't be more excited.  I'm currently reading teen novels as fast as humanly possible in hopes of deciding what novels I will use in class next year.  Some are definitely better than others.

The hardest change has been with Liam Bailey.  It's been almost a full month and he still has not come home.  I cannot let my mind wonder about what has happened to my sweet cuddly boy.  My heart just cannot handle that.  As hard as it has been for me and as much as I miss him, I think it worse for Liberty.  My sweet, crazy girl has not been herself since she came home.  She misses him.  There are times when she lays here and cries.  It will BREAK your heart.  Because of that we have start discussing and looking into getting another dog.  She needs a friend to play with.  I'm not sure Andrew and I are completely ready, but it is something that I feel we need to do for her.  I only have a few weeks left of school (YAY) and then I will be home all day and have the time to train a puppy.  So far I have not found one that I have fallen in love with, but we are not in a hurry.  We do have an L name in mind. :)  Still searching for the perfect B middle name.  Of course we'll have to wait and see if this name fits our new furbaby.  Who knows.  Maybe in a month or so I can introduce you to the newest furry member of our family.

Gold Winner

Today is the big day.  I used random.org to select a winner for the Britt Nicole album. 

Someday I might even figure out how to display the generated number here like some of you do.  Until then, you will have to trust that I'm not a cheater. :)

The winner is #2 Momma Weaver!  Yay!!  I will your get your cd in the mail tomorrow!  I think you will enjoy it.

Girls Night Out

A couple of weeks ago I had the chance to see Mandisa, Britt Nicole, and Laura Story in concert.  They called it Girls Night Out.  The husband was sweet enough to buy me tickets months ago.  He told me to invite a friend and go have fun.  Is he not the best?

Slack joined me for a night of fun.  Laura Story was the first to perform.  She is hilarious!!  She had us rolling as she told stories in between songs.  She is a worship leader at her church.  They are lucky!  She writes and sings some amazing songs. 

Britt Nicole came out next.  I was most excited to see her live.  She was at Winter Jam several years ago when she was a new artist.  I had been wanting to see her again ever since.  That girl knows out to rock out!  I love it!  Her latest cd just came out not to long ago.  It's called Gold.  This album contains Britt's message that I believe every girl should hear and know.  She has songs that talk about how you are worth more than gold. You are one in a million.  My favorite song from this album is called Ready or Not.  It talks about how we don't have to try to fit into the box that the world things we belong in.  We can be who we are in Christ.  Let his light shine through us even if it means we look a little different.  Love it!  As a middle school teacher, I see every day how important it is for young girls to hear this message.  Shoot I'm 28 and there are still days when I need to hear this message. 

We ended the night with Mandisa.  She is awesome!!  She has been on a journey in weight loss for quite some time now.  In that journey she has discovered and come to love Zumba.  She made up a Zumba routine for one of her songs that she taught us.  So much fun!!

I have been wanting to do a give away for awhile now.  I think it's about time we did that.  One of you lucky ladies (or guys) will win Britt Nicole's new album Gold.  The message in this album is just that good! 

To enter the give away and have a chance to win this cd all you have to do is leave a comment on this post.  Easy as that!

Almost forgot.  I'll use random.org to choose a winner on Friday, May 4. :)

Four No More

I really didn't mean to let so much time go by between posts.  I had several posts in my head that I intended to share, but that all changed last Saturday...April 14.

Andrew was in NY visiting with some old high school friends.  I put the dogs outside and got ready to go climb Pinnacle.  On the way I changed my mind and did a little shopping instead of climbing Pinnacle.  I was gone about 3 hours. 

I came home to my worst nightmare.  My first clue was when I pulled into the driveway and I didn't hear Liberty and Liam barking at me the way they usually do.  When I opened the backdoor to let them in, they weren't there.  I called for them, but they didn't come running.

I immediately called Andrew, started praying, and walking around looking.  Andrew called our nephew Cody to help with the search.  We walked all through our neighborhood calling them and drove up and down the surrounding streets.  Nothing.

It was awful.  I spent most of that night in the fetal position sobbing.  I know Andrew felt bad that he wasn't here with me to help look.

Sunday was more of the same.  I would drive around until I couldn't do it anymore.  Then I'd come home and sob.  Drive around some more.  Sob.  It was the cycle of the day.

I'm not sure how I made it through Monday. 

Andrew came home Tuesday.  I can't even begin to tell you how thankful I was that he was home and able to take over. 

Throughout those days we had a couple of phone calls from the flyers we had passed out and hung everywhere.

I was keeping my phone on at school at all times just waiting on a phone call saying someone had their hands on my babies.

I got a call Wednesday afternoon from a little boy who was certain Lib and Liam were hanging out in his neighborhood.  The plan was to go check it out after school.  I wore a skirt that day so I decided to swing by the house to change first.  When I got out of my car in the driveway I thought I heard Liberty crying in the backyard.

But ya'll since they disappeared on Saturday I've seen and heard those dogs so many times.  I just wanted to find them so badly.

She didn't come running when I opened the door so I figured I was just hearing things again.  But when I turned to go back in, she came running around the corner crying.  You could definitely tell she was thankful to be back at home.  There were tears all around.

God had answered our prayers and brought my girl home. 

We figured Liam had to be near by so the search began again.  It ended again with no luck.

Our little buddy still hasn't come home.  It's been almost two weeks.  It absolutely breaks my heart to think of him being out there.  He hates to go outside and he has been living out there for nearly 14 days.

We've gotten several false alarms.  In fact we got two calls within five minutes of each other tonight from people who were certain they were holding Liam.  Both false alarms.

I no longer believe that anyone has seen him.  I think all the phone calls were false alarms.  I try not to think about what could have happened to him.

We are currently teetering between still believing he will come home and trying to accept that he is gone forever.  It's a hard place for my heart to be. 

Liberty misses him too.  She hasn't been the same since coming home.

Our family just doesn't seem complete without him.  He's our 4th. 

I'm ready to be a family of 4 again.

Tuesday Tunes

I'm loving this song right now. Hope you enjoy it.

10,000 Reasons by Matt Redman