Monthly Archives: May 2015

School is Out!

My preschool ended right before we went to the beach and Faith’s school was over this past Friday.  It was a busy last week but I couldn’t wait to be done – done with lunches, done with homework and done with getting up early and rushing around the house.  Done!!  Phew!

Faith’s last week of school was easy for her, but for me it was filled with a consignment sale and an end of year party that I had volunteered to help organize.  I felt like I was rushing from one place to another all week.  It was busy, but it was also exciting because it meant that the school year was drawing to a close and summer vacation was around the corner.  I love summer vacation:  no where to be be, sleeping in, and fun filled days with the kids. (Although I am a bit anxious as to what we will do to fill our days).

We were able to celebrate Faith’s last day at CDS with a class pizza party and awards ceremony.  The first few awards went to children who read many, many books (not us), got a perfect score on every spelling test (not us), and even arrived to school on time every day for the entire school year (not us).   The funniest part was when Mrs. Elliott announced that four students would get an award for being on time every day – Faith turned around to her friends and said repeatedly while laughing, “Not me! Not me!”.  So true, Honey.  We pulled up to the school each morning and were excited when we saw that there were still teachers out on the curb helping students out of their cars….this meant that we weren’t late.  Minutes count at 8:15am.   After those awards, each child received a certificate of graduation from the first grade along with a character trait that described them and a Bible verse to go along with it.  Faith’s trait was “gentleness”.  Mrs. Elliott explained that many people think that ‘gentle’ means ‘shy’, but it doesn’t.  It means that a person is kind in word and action, and that it is a “fruit of the Spirit”. Faith’s friends described her as being funny, including everyone, and having faith in God.  Such a sweet, sweet class.

Here is Kelsey Nelson, Jane Neil, Mrs. Elliott, Faith and Maizy Jones.

Faith and her buddy, Jane.  I am going to miss Jane and her mom, Dorie.  I know that they will miss us too.  Hopefully we will continue to be friends even though we will not be at CDS next year.    

I am proud of the progress that Faith made in first grade.  She is reading well and does amazing in math class.  She has made so many friends and has earned the respect of them all by being kind and gentle to her classmates.  Faith truly does have a sweet spirit.

Now it is time to move on to Metrolina and second grade!!  Good job Faith!

Annual beach trip

Each year we go to the beach with my parents, Doug’s family and Grandmama.  This year was no exception.  Everyone arrived in Murrells Inlet, SC on Saturday morning (except Tom and I, we drove in late Saturday night after working on the house all day). We rented a large house right on the beach, which is necessary due to the number of small children that we have going back and worth from the beach to the house all day. Because the rates are much less expensive in May than they are for the rest of the summer, we pulled the kids out of school and took off for the beach.  Hands down, we had the most beautiful weather this year.

The cousins were so excited to see each other again.  Now that Doug, Jacqueline and the boys live in Maryland, the kids really appreciate the time that they have together.  I could put thirty pictures in the post to show how much fun we all had, but that would be a bit excessive.  I will show the highlights:

The five cousins having a grew time together.  The ocean was fun, but a big hole and pile of dirt was equally as entertaining….

      

Doug had his surf board with him and we rented a paddle board for two days.  The kids learned how to surf and ride the waves.  We all briefly tried paddle boarding.  The water was a bit choppy which made it hard to stand up on the paddle board.  Frankly, I was too afraid of what might be swimming under me to fully enjoy the experience.

  

 

The best part of vacation was that it actually felt like a vacation.  Many times going to the beach is more of a “relocation” than an actual vacation.  This time I sat in a chair more than I stood up. It was awesome!  The kids were finally old enough to play in the water and not need me hovering over them making sure that they didn’t drown.  The sun shirts that we all have on became the unofficial uniform of our vacation – they were on sale at the beach shop so we all bought one.  By the third day I had on a giant floppy hat and a sun shirt….gone are the days of bikinis and laying out to get a tan.

  

Tom and I did get our date night out on the boardwalk.  We deemed it as one of our best dates. :)  As for the other nights, we ate well, drank many margaritas, ate ice cream and watched a comedy on TV with Doug.  I hadn’t laughed that much in a very long time.  It was good to hang out with my brother again.

Vacation at the beach was amazing and unforgettable.  It was hard to go home, but I was very glad that the house was immaculate when I got there. (although no buyers for the house yet).  I have to thank Mom and Dad for starting this beach tradition and for carrying it on each year.  Thank you!!

It’s Been Too Long….

I has been almost an entire month since I have written anything in this blog.  My absence of writing isn’t because I have nothing to write about.  In fact, it is just the opposite.  There has been so much going on that I haven’t had the time nor the energy to sit down and write for an entire month.  Yes, we have had family outings, meeting and events that were noteworthy, but by the end of each day all I could do was fall asleep at 8:30pm with the kids or sit on the couch and watch TV.  There was no mental energy left for writing.

What was a I doing that was so exhausting?, you ask.   By the time we left for our family beach trip this past Saturday, we wanted to have on the our house on the market.  (I wanted to have one full week of a clean house with no one there to mess it up.)  Over the past few months we have been slowly decluttering the house and fixing the long list of things that needed some attention.  This was productive, but once we decided to get it all done by the time we left for the beach it was like a fire had been lit under our bottoms and the race to finish was on.  I spent most of my days emptying out the kids’ room of unnecessary toys and clothes, putting things into bins, and moving the bins out into the shed.  We also decided to paint the outside of the house because it desperately needed it.  We hired a painter, fired that painter, and then had to finish the job by ourselves.  The closets are cleaned out, the toys are put away, cabinets are spot free, and I can actually see the counters in the kitchen. It looks the best that it has looked in eight years.  It was a lot of work, but I have to say that the house looks fabulous! It almost makes me want to not move…almost.  However, despite our love for this clean house, we feel that the Lord has told us to put our house up for sale, and wait.

I have no idea what the future will hold for our family.  I envision us selling our home quickly and moving to a perfect house on a perfect plot of land for the perfect price.  I am sure that I am overly optimistic, but I know that God has the perfect house picked out for our family and He has the perfect buyers chosen for our current house.  I just have to trust and wait.