Home Sweet Temporary Home

Well we are officially homeless. That is to say we are totally out of our house on Seminole Tr. We are living temporarily at the Holiday Inn for the next three days. We close on Seminole tomorrow and then our house late Tuesday afternoon. It feels weird to be staying in a hotel in the town where we live. Kinda like you are out of town but not.....
The packing went well and we had the truck loaded in about 2 and 1/2 hours. We slept on our mattresses on the floor last night and then loaded them up this morning. We relocated the moving truck, both cars and the dog to the hotel. To keep busy today we took Bailey to see High School Musical 3 at the movies. Sarah is away at a band competition and should be in tonight. We also went to see the Vietnam Moving Wall that is here visiting in Tifton. Tifton is the only town in Georgia getting the wall this year. For those of you that don't know what it is, it is a replica of the wall that is in Washington that contains over 58000 names of vietnam vets that died in the war. What an emotional experience to actually see all the names. Although the wall is 1/3 of the size of the one in Washington, it still was very impressive in size. I had to take 3 separate shots of it from a far distance just to get all of it. Although I can't download it on here cuz my cord to my camera is packed. I will have to catch you all up on it when I get settled in the new house. We really were impressed with the whole thing though.
Well, we are off to our fall festival for Halloween at church tonight. Bailey is dressed as a present. She is "God's gift to the world" Too funny! I will post pictures of that too at a later date.
Well, I do have internet service here so you can drop me an email or call me on my cell for the next few days. Our phone should be up and working again soon in a few days. Same number....different address.
Hugs to all!

Great Grades

Well, both the girls got their report cards for the first quarter of school. Bailey did great and was recognized at the PRIDE program they had at her school for making All "A" Honor Roll. She was so excited because she is now old enough to be on Honor Roll.....she feels like she is all grown up like Sarah! You can see her at it in the picture. She was insistent that I take her picture even though she was supposed to be facing forward and paying attention to the speaker. Okay she is smart, but not always obedient....LOL

Sarah did great as well. She got all A's, except Biology, where she got a B (88) in the class from hell. I am so proud of her for passing her nine week exam and pulling it off like she did. She has nine more weeks to go in that class and then she is done.

We started Fall Break today. We basically have a long weekend. There were parent conferences today, and then they are off Friday and Monday. Sarah is babysitting for my friend Susan and Bailey has a friend over playing today. Sarah will participate in our church's youth retreat this weekend as well. Todd should be home late Saturday nite, so I will update you all on his trip. Hopefully he had a good time. We are missing him pretty bad today, but we know we only have two and a half more days to make it.

Please keep us in your prayers this next week and a half that our house closings go smoothly. Next weekend we will be packing the truck up with the last big items we have, then a night or two in a hotel and then hopefully we are in our new home. You all know how closing can go, so I just hope there are no glitches.....I know, think positive....

Well, I guess that is all for now.

Hugs!

Growing up and Rainbows.....again!

Well....my baby went to homecoming this evening. She looked so beautiful and grown up. I have been boohooing all day. I just am so overwhelmed by how quickly time has flown by. It was only yesterday that she was in my arms and tonight she is dancing in the arms of someone else......I am not okay with that in all reality, but like they say life happens and I can't change that. She had a good time getting ready for it. She got her nails done yesterday, and then today we went and got her hair done. They ate at Longhorn tonight where Danny and Chris(Todd's managers) both kept an eye on her. Chris texted me and said he "questioned" Tripp and so far he has passed the preliminary interview because he said "yes sir and no sir" when answering the questions. Cracks me up because they are probably worse than Todd would have been. Moses came over before Tripp got here and told me he was gonna keep an eye on Tripp, and take care of things if he needed to.....too cute.He also told Sarah she looked like she was 18. I guess that is as close to a compliment that she is gonna get from Mo. Then he posed for a picture with Sarah. When Tripp got here, he gave Sarah her coursage. His mom and I were both boohooing, which of course embarassed both of them, but we as mommas understood each other. I then took them to Longhorn. When I dropped them off, I was proud yet sad. I pulled out of the parking lot feeling sorry for myself, but also saying a small prayer for my child's safety and guidance. No sooner do I look up and there in the sky is a HUGE rainbow that is a full arc. And above the left side of the arc is a double rainbow. Now most of you have already read about my "rainbow experience" during the house hunt, and my thoughts and feelings on that, but how weird is that.....just after saying a quick prayer, I look up and there it is again! I pulled off the highway to take a picture of it. I knew at that moment, it was all going to be alright.

So tonight I am snuggling up with Bailey on the couch watching a movie and enjoying the beauty and innocence of her youth. Knowing in my heart someday she will be going to her own homecoming. But for now, I am going to enjoy her being 9. As for Sarah, she will always be in my heart, and I know our relationship will forever be different once this dating thing starts. But as I slowly cut the apron strings, I know that she will always be a part of me and although her heart is going in a different direction right now, she will always come back to me for what she needs most, unconditional love.

Have a great evening.

18 Years and Counting!!!

Well, yesterday was our anniversary. We have made it 18 years together, and boy it has been an interesting 18 years. We have been through so much, and yet here we are still standing stronger than ever. If you would have asked me on October 6th, 1990, what my life with my new husband was going to be like, I would have told you in my young naivity that is was going to be wonderful and like a fairy tale. And although at times it has been that, the reality of it all is marriage is hard work. Those of you who have been married for a while, know what I am talking about. It is a job in itself, but the rewards of it are beyond words. Through our 18 years there have been tears and hurts, but there have been more wonderful moments than I care to even try to count. Todd and I have a very unique relationship. We are different in a lot of ways, but we are alike in a lot of ways as well. Trying not to steal the line from the movie, Jerry Maquire, "You complete me" tends to sum up our relationship. Todd is probably one of the most easy going guys I have ever met. That tends to help when you are probably one of the most uptight, stressed person on the face of the planet. He calms me. He makes me laugh more than you know, and always has something funny to say, making a stressful moment seem not so bad. He is a hard worker, who cares about providing for his family more than anyone I know. He also is unpredictable at times too.....like yesterday. Todd has never been one to make a big deal out of birthdays and anniversaries. I have learned to accept that over the years and know that although he doesn't always "get me something", his love for me is there and undeniable. But yesterday he surprised me more than you could know. He sent me 18 beautiful red roses to my work for our anniversary. I actually didn't believe my boss when she gave them to me that they were mine. I was shocked to say the least, and my insides got the same butterflies you get when you first start dating someone you really like. It was a neat moment for me because I realized that although he doesn't always do those "romantic" things, he is a romantic in his own way. See after you are married for a while, you realize that it is more romantic to take out the garbage, mow the lawn or pick-up the kids when your schedule is as tight as it can be. I know that sounds very hum drum to most, but to me that means he cares about my every need and my well being is more important to him than showing off to others that he did this or that for me. When I went to the restaurant to say thank you to him, he laughed and said he doesn't buy roses for me very often because it makes it more of a surprise when he does.....always the comic. Anyway, it made for a great day for me. We finished off the day with going to dinner together, and then on to Home Depot to window shop for upgrades for our new house......isn't that sweet.......I thought so.
On a side note, I do want to encourage all of you to go see the movie, Fireproof. Once you see it, you will understand why I say that after talking about my anniversary. It is a movie about marriage that was filmed right here in Albany, Georgia. You will not regret seeing it, I promise.

Okay, as far as the other picture, today was tacky day at Sarah's school because it is homecoming week. She looked like a complete fool, but she is having fun and that is all that counts. She is getting excited about the dance this weekend. She got her dress, has made her hair appointment, and is counting down the days. She is going with a boy that finally had enought guts to ask her in person as opposed to a text message.....welcome to dating in the 2000's. I will post pictures on the weekend.

Todd leaves Thursday for his annual moose hunt with his dad and brother in Canada. Once he gets back, we will be one week out from closing on our house. I can't wait to get in the new house and to start decorating.

Well, I guess that is all for today. Have a great rest of the week.

Teachers......

Well, I know I start off most of my blogs lately telling you how tired I am, or how busy I am, which still holds true, but I am not going to write about that tonight. I am instead going to vent a bit......don't I always do that? LOL

My subject tonight is going to be about teachers.......

I truly am a teachers biggest fan, and I know that they have a very stressful and often unfulfilling and unappreciated job. I also know they have the certain joys that come along with teaching as well. Some of my dearest friends are teachers, and I hear their side of the story quite often, which to be honest with you is probably why I appreciate them so much. But tonight I am writing from the side of a very frustrated parent. I have dealt with my share of "tough" teachers throughout not only my childhood/young adulthood, but also through my children's lives. Some of these tough teachers have been actual blessings in our lives. And I know there are teachers that will work very well with you or your child and then there are just some that really don't need to be teachers at all. Well, Sarah's biology teacher falls into the latter. Sarah has been having quite a time in biology this year, which to be honest with you I was beginning to wonder if it is a genetic thing because I had the same issue. She is doing great on all of the classwork/projects, but when it comes time for the tests, she is quite honestly bombing them. She has studied so hard for all of them, and still is failing them despite the 3 hours a nite of studying. We have tried every which way there is to study. We have done all that the teacher tells us to do, but she is still choking on these tests. I have repeatedly emailed the teacher, and he will not respond to my emails, so today I took my little self right up to the school and walked in to his classroom first thing. After he hummed and hawed about why he hasn't responded to my emails, he attempted to talk to me about Sarah's grades. I use the term attempted because he made absolutely no sense what so ever. He didn't even know which class my child was in! He couldn't answer anything I asked him, and spoke so over my head with all his scientific terms, that I was even more frustrated than when I had walked in there. I thought to myself, he can't even speak to an adult without confusing them, how in the heck is my child understanding what he is trying to say. He told me she just needs to study more. I told him she is studying every nite, to the point I have to tell her to go to bed because she will stay up until she is exhausted. She can't study any more than she is. He said "oh, well I don't know what is wrong then". Okay, that helped out a lot....thanks, moron! He will not give the tests back to the kids so they can see what they got wrong, he won't give them any guidelines as to what to study, he won't review anything because he feels it is all up to the children. GRRRRRR! Why the heck are you a teacher then???????

After complete frustration, I left totally unsatisfied. I went to the guidance office to talk to someone. I was told it is too late for us to switch Sarah out of AP Biology, so I have requested that she be able to switch teachers for the next 9 weeks. The guidance counselor said she would have to get with the principal because they have had "a ton" of other parents request the same thing and they can't honor everyone's request. She informed me that Mr. Forkner seems to be the object of a lot of complaints lately. So.......why is the principal not doing something about this????? I am sorry, but it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that this "scientist" needs to go!!!! So in the meantime, my child will be taking another test in his class next week....her 9 week exam....and I am suppose to sit back and watch her fail this one too?????? If she doesn't pass this test and/or this class, she will have to take Biology again next year, and it will all go in her transcripts that colleges look at. Needless to say I am ready to put on my fighting gloves and whip up a little yankee on them. I don't know what it is gonna take, but something will be done.
Ya know, if a teacher is not going to teach, and put their children's best interest at heart, then he should just go ahead and quit. I will one hundred percent stand behind a teacher if they are right. I will even give them the benefit of the doubt if they are wrong, but I will not stand back and let them ruin something my child has worked so hard for. It would be one thing if Sarah was misbehaving and not doing what was expected of her. I also am a parent that doesn't expect her to always bring home A's. In fact, I want her to be challenged. But when I see she is putting forth every effort possible and it just isn't working out, I am gonna question matters. I feel it is my momma's right to protect my baby.
Okay, now that I have gotten that off my chest, please know that I am not bashing all teachers. Sarah just happened to get the one bad apple in the bunch, and I am ready to make applesauce out of him! LOL
Have a great evening and thanks for listening.