Oh Come, Let Us Adore Him

Do you know how much I love church services at this time of year? I love it all- the candles, the songs, the look on the faces of the children. I . Love. Christmas.
Tonight was the Enchanted Tree service , and it was precious. The children sang, the angels behaved, and the little baby portraying Baby Jesus played with the hair of the teenager portraying Mary - priceless.
Now we are looking at two and a half days of school , and then our holiday. Ladybug is so fired up about this Christmas - I guess it's the first time she has really been into it. Wonderful to watch!

Have a great week - count your blessings !

It's that time, again !

And here we are - had a great meal with all the Mullen girls! It usually rains here around Thanksgiving, but the weather this year was lovely.  Now, time to decorate and prepare for Christmas!

Tom, Tom the turkey will be here soon !

Goodness gracious, but I love November ! The weather is finally getting cooler down here, daylight savings time gives me a darker late-afternoon , and our family has a way of gearing up for the upcoming holidays. Love every minute of this busy time of year !
The man and I have both turned a year older. Of course, he aged a little before me, since his birthday is a whopping eleven days before mine.  The ladybug helped bake birthday cake and birthday cupcakes, and she had a great time - she has finally discovered the joy that IS licking the beaters of the mixer after I finish mixing. Bliss !
The monkey came running in to my 'crafting with Jesus' class a few wednesday nights ago , to tell me that he had broken his arm in the church gym. Of course I told him it was fine, and reminded him that he had a math test the next day. Would you like to guess where he spent that next day? He broke a bone in his wrist - and it could have been much, much worse. Now he is on his second cast - and feeling like a rock star.
We had three nights of trick-or-treating, and ladybug was over it by the time Halloween actually got here. We only trick-or-treated on two streets, and she was done.
Now we are making our Thanksgiving plans, and looking forward to spending some time with old friends. This will be a great holiday, I can tell you !

Have a great week - be thankful for what you have !

 

Pep Rally , Homecoming, and the new mascot, Wavey!

Somebody around here just LOVES a pep rally and parade. Loves. It. All. It probably does not help that she is just so stinking cute, and all our students and former students know her name. She simply thinks she is a star. Amazing.  Where does she go from here?

Big Girl

So , we heard that there would be some Disney Princesses at the Mall yesterday. Ladybug was fired up, I can tell you.  She put on her Rapunzel outfit, picked out some flashy shoes to wear, and we took out.  The man and I were a little  unimpressed with them, but the girl was in awe. She wanted me to ask them a variety of questions, and I finally got her to talk.  Her questions inclueded
1. May I see your heel-high shoes?
2. Where is your mean mother?
3. Where did you put your castle?
4. Where is Flynn Rider?
5. Did you notice that I have on the same kind of make-up that you wear?

I have to say , the young lady who was portraying Rapunzel was most considerate with my baby, and she answered every question as if it were of the most serious nature. It was, to us.
After that, we celebrated by buying some new pink sparkly nail polish. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how we spent our 22nd anniversary. I wouldn't have it any other way.

all together now - We Love School !!!

 Big week around here - the first week of school for everyone except the ladybug. She will go Tuesday , and we cannot wait ! I am looking forward to meeting her bus at the high school - I am sure she will have some stories to tell! [ and I am also sure that her teachers will have a few]

 Thomas fixed a rice/tofu/dumpling kind of thing this week - he and the man really liked it, and I am glad he wanted to do that.  We have to incorporate more Korean foods into our meals !

Tonight was the 'back to choir' party for the children at church - ladybug had a big fun time, as always. I really liked watching her friend attempt the diving board for the first time - he would stand there for a l-o-n-g time, and you could see how much it scared him. He actually went off the board twice, I think. Bless his sweet time.

Gotcha day for the monkey is this wednesday. Eleven years with him - who can believe that? What a gift. He is the sweetest child, and we are so thankful for his sweet spirit.

And that pretty much sums up our week . So glad we all had such a good start to the year ! I hope you do , too !!!!

weekends are made for this

So, we had to go to Memphis. Thomas really wanted some Kimchi, and of course we like any excuse to head out to the International Market [woo!!!] 

When I woke up at 5:00 a.m. [ because I'm a teacher and cool like that ] I had a genius idea - look up Korean restaurants in Memphis, and let Thomas have a taste of home. I am going to have to say that I really liked the "Kwik Check" in  the Overton Square area, and we all four enjoyed the bi bim bop. Yes, I said it. I am NOT going to say that I loved the kimchi we had that evening, but I will say the lunch was pretty great. And it made Thomas very happy. Cannot wait to see what the monkey will do with a big stone bowl of goodness. 

The monkey will be home this evening - in about two hours. actually. We are looking forward to hearing all about his trip with the youth group from church, and we are also fighting back the tears when we realize that our sweet little baby boy is now a seventh grader..... how did that happen? 

School starts for the children tuesday. I think I will be ready by then . I am so thankful that I spent so much time back in May, when I cleaned and organized both of my storage spaces. I hope I can stay that organized throughout the year. I doubt it, but I can always hope. 

I hope you have a smooth transition into the school year, and have treat yourself to a nice big hot bi bim bop!

and now we are five

Stella and I are slightly outnumbered. Thomas arrived Thursday evening , and will be living with us for the entire school year. We are so excited about having him as our exchange student ! I think he is going to like it here !

squeezing the last of the summer fun out

Happy Fourth , Y'all !

We went to a cook-out at the home of some friends - and had a really good time ! We had some great food, wonderful fellowship, and the kids swam until it was too dark to see. My kind of time, I can tell you !

June , June - you are gone too soon

I like the way our  Minister of Children has a retreat for the upper-elementary children . It is so much fun to watch these sweet children play and worship together. This is the monkey's last year to go - he moves up to Jr. High MYF in August [ oh, can you believe it?!]. The Ladybug is still not old enough for the retreats , but she goes with us each year. This year, we had two other friends her age with us, so she had a great time playing with them. Of course, she still spent a lot of time being carried and babied by the older girls - such a tough life, I can tell you.
The baseball season ended this week, and we found out at the last game that Monkey's All-Stat team did not make . Just not enough in his age group this go around. I am not that sad about it - those games are played at the HOTTEST time of the year, and it is miserable.
Now we are getting ready for our exchange student - he will be here in about a month. I hope we don't scare him away !