Prayers Needed

A friend of mine has a little boy who is very sick with a brain tumor at St. Jude's hospital. He will be having his 2nd surgery tomorrow. Please, please, please keep this family in your prayers. I am attaching a link to their website so that you can learn more about this precious little boy's story. Those of you that are Mom's, I know that as Mom's, we don't EVER want our children to be sick. Let's all pull together as "momma bears" and pray for this family! http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/trevortredaway

Precious Moments

I have collected Precious Moments figurines for over 25 years now. I have such a collection that I don't have room to display them all. However, I can look at every single one and recall (almost) the person who gave it to me and the place where I was when I received them. They represent so many fond memories for me.

Today was a day for another type of Precious Moments. We received our new furniture (finally) and the kids were so excited. But with the day, came moving out old stuff and rearranging. It was a pretty full day. After deciding to take a break for a late lunch, I glanced out the front door to see my two, very precious children poised in what was to me a very precious moment. Clarissa was sitting on the sidewalk with a flowerpot that she had painted, determined (as she is about everything) to dig enough dirt with her hand to fill the pot. It was moving rather slowly but she continued to work diligently. Jonathon, on the other hand, was sitting out by the mailbox with a rather long and large twig that he had gotten during a tree climb, and had a small saw, sawing away at this twig, Although the saw wasn't cooperating, he continued to work and be content with what he was doing.

It was a moment that I wanted to take in for a very long time. They were both so sweet, innocent, and childlike. Those moments are more precious to me than any figurine I have. I love my children so very much.

Teacher Calls

This week has been quite active! Sal was out of town for the first part and the daily activities did not slow down! But, to add to the excitement this week, the teachers were calling! Tuesday, after returning from my conference, I received a call from Clarissa's teacher. Clarissa had decided that she was mad at the teacher and so she wasn't going to do any work! Not the kind of call you want to get ESPECIALLY when you are a teacher yourself! So, I spoke with Clarissa through gritted teeth, reminding her of why she was at school and that I fully believed the whole "spare the rod, spoil the child" Proverb, hung up and prayed that I had made a believer out of her because I sure didn't want to have to leave my school to go to hers and PROVE myself! At the end of the day, I received an email from her teacher thanking me for my support and letting me know that Clarissa had been an angel the rest of the day. Tuesday evening wasn't too much fun around our house because there was still consequences to dish out! Wednesday on my conference I received ANOTHER call, this time from a teacher at Jonathon's school. It starts out like this...."Is this Jonathon's Mom?"; for a brief second I wanted to say no.....but I didn't! So, I owned up to who I was and prepared myself for what I THOUGHT was to come.....but I was wrong. One of his teachers was calling to tell me how much she enjoyed having him in her class, how he was such a model student for others to follow, and that she just wanted me to know. WOW! I was speechless. Just 24 hours before I was speaking through gritted teeth! I quickly knew that I needed to celebrate Jonathon and what he was doing and I felt bad for Clarissa and knew it would upset her because in her eyes, Jonathon NEVER gets in trouble!

INSERT NOTE - Don't ever leave God out of the equation....HE is SO good!

Right before I left school that day, I checked back over my email and had received an email from Clarissa's teacher. It said.."Just wanted you to know that Clarissa is back to her wonderful self today. She was her sweet, hardworking, great attitude self. Just wanted you to know!" It brought tears to my eyes! Now, we can all celebrate and we did! (Ice cream and gum....that's a whole other blog!)

The week ended with another call from the counselor and Jonathon's school, wanting to share with me some words that she had heard from teacher's about Jonathon.....all so pleasing to a mother's ear and then last night at Clarissa's fall festival, the coach telling me how sweet and cooperative Clarissa is.

So why blog about all of this? Well, for a couple of reasons. One, to let folks know that even teachers get those yucky phone calls from their kid's teachers. Two, never underestimate your kids! Three, remember at all times to celebrate the successes more than the failures. Finally, to thank God for using my children to make me a better parent AND a better teacher. I plan on making more POSITIVE calls this week than those yucky ones!

Jobs Galore!

Sal and I have been looking at living room furniture for about a month now and finally found something that we both liked this weekend. How blessed we are that we were able to purchase new furniture. I took a picture of it with my phone but will have to wait until it arrives to take a picture with the camera so that I can post it! New LARGE purchases always make me a little nervous but I'm excited for it to get here!

We also treated ourselves to Trans-Siberian Orchestra tickets for December 30! After the furniture and the tickets we told each other Merry Christmas, Happy Anniversary, and Happy Birthday! YIKES!

So now the work begins. We're turning the playroom into a gameroom which is a little sad I must say. There is no longer really a need for one room devoted to the playroom rather now they've moved into the need for a "gameroom". We'll move our loveseat into there and give our couch and tables away. We want to have the carpet cleaned and I'd love to put a fresh coat of paint on before the furniture arrives. All of this on top of....we have already begun tearing off wallpaper in the kid's bathroom and have bought new flooring for it so that project needs to be finished. We need to paint both kid's rooms and Sal mentioned recarpeting them this weekend and then there's the "gameroom" that will need some paint and other work! I guess we won't be bored this winter, huh? I just pray we get it all done and still like each other at the end of it!

Have a great week all!

Six Random Things

My friend Melissa has tagged me and now I need to post six random things about me. This could be hard because I know there are many more than six but I'll try! Here goes!

1. When I was little we had a pet pig. We raised pigs and this was the runt of the litter. We raised him in the house and his name was Arnold.

2. I can't stand to drink something in a restaurant without a straw. I start thinking of all of the lips that have touched the glass and it grosses me out!

3. When I was little, I wanted to own my own full-service gas station just so I could use the squeegie thing to clean windows. I still love cleaning the windows!

4. I am a list person. I will add things I've already done to the list so that I dcan feel that sense of accomplishement when I cross them off. Weird, I know!

5. One of my favorite meals is scrambled eggs, bacon, and fresh tomatoes with toast! YUM!

6. If I think too deep about how God has blessed me with my children, I will cry. They are both such miracles and there was a point in my life that I never thought I'd be a Mom. God is so good!

OK - That's my beginning of randomness. Now I tag Penny and Megan.

The Pole and other Stuff

I've been intending to blog since last Wednesday. I guess good intentions mean nothing withoug actions, huh? Anways, last Wednesday was See You at The Pole, a time for middle school and high school students across the nation to gather at their school's flag pole to pray for the school, the teachers, students, etc. Jonathon wanted to go and so I took him bright and early since I had a meeting that morning at Central Office. What happened after we arrived will forever be grained into my soul. When we arrived, there was one other young man at the pole, alone. Mind you, well over 800 students attend this school. I made the comment that he was all alone and fully expected Jonathon to do the "cool" thing and wait in the car to see if more people showed. I was wrong. Jonathon asked me if he could leave his things in the car while he went to the pole, so I waited. He went to the pole, introduced himself to the other young man, and they talked for a little while and then they began to pray. I was so moved. They remained there for some time and I saw a young girl approach them. A short while later Jonathon returned to the car and I just looked at him as he said, I can't believe that we were the only ones! I asked him about the young girl and he said she asked what they were doing and he explained that they were praying for their school, etc.. She had no response then but I know that those words will impact her at some time. I expressed to Jonathon how proud I was of him as he stood at that pole praying while students and teachers walked past. I told him that he took a stand for Jesus and that even though there were only 2, that God would bless that time there. I told Sal later that day that even though Jonathon's at an age that it seems he does so much to drive us crazy, he also does so much to make us proud. He loves the Lord and I know that and my prayer has been that the Lord would lead him to a closer relationship with Him. Without nagging Jonathon or guilting him into it, he actually had a devotional on his own this morning. Something tells me he'll get so much more out of it because he CHOSE it rather than being guilted into it. He's growing up before our eyes and I am so glad that he's learning to take a stand for his Jesus at a very young age!

I will be gone for the next few days while my Dad has surgery. Sal will be "single-parenting" until Thursday. I can't wait to hear the stories of homework, hairstyles, taxi driving, and the brownie uniform! I know that if anyone can do it though, Sal can!

Clarissa is supposed to get her cast off on Friday! PRAISE THE LORD!!! She's so cute because the first thing she wants to do is to take a bath! I thought that was so funny!

Take time to laugh, ponder, and praise our Creator this week! God Bless!

Thank You

It's been a while since I've blogged and to be quite honest, tonight I sit kind of blank. I have really spent time pondering some things as of late and I'm frankly, just blank. However, in my blankness, I am reminded of all the things and people in my life that I need to be grateful for, good and bad. So to them and those, I say thank you!

Thank you to Facebook (yeah, I know, that's a funny one to start with) for allowing me the opportunuity to connect with some friends from the past. Our lives have taken many different paths but through one social networking tool, they've been allowed to cross again. I'm thankful for that!

Thank you to my husband for simply loving me, laughing with me, making me laugh, parenting with me (even though sometimes we don't have a clue what we're doing), griping with me, and dreaming with me.

Thank you to those people, who have called themselves friends but have invested nothing into the relationship, it is from them that I gain the desire to be a better friend to those that do invest.

Thank you to my children for being cool kids, even though sometimes we don't see eye to eye!

Thank you to my church, for believing in and calling a Man of God to minister to our youth. I am so moved to see the unity and support of our students by people of all ages.

Thank you to my co-worker who tells me more often than I deserve that I am a great teacher. I do so appreciate those words and they drive me to become that!

And finally, thank you to my Lord for loving me, forgiving me, being patient with me, and leading me to the people that I need to surround myself with. It is when I am where I am now.....blank.....that I believe HE can speak so clearly to me.

Thank you!