Summertime is here!!!!
It

I am so excited that the school year is over. Yesterday was the last day for the students and today is just a faculty meeting and then I'm finished! It has been a very stressful year, but it went well and the most important thing is it's completed!

Today, after the faculty meeting Justin and I are driving to Kissimmee for a Disney World vacation. I'm very excited about that as well. Claire left this morning with Meemaw and Papa and Matty who are flying there. We'll meet them there late tonight.

Just a few updates on Claire's new things. We have taught her how to jump. The first day it was pretty rough. She would only lift up one leg and think she had done it. We still praised her because she was trying. On the second day, though, she got it, and then we couldn't stop her. She jumps all over the house now. Perhaps we shouldn't have taught her how to jump.

We've also been teaching her to pray before we eat. We've been doing this for a while, and she knows to put her hands together and wait for us to pray before touching the food on her plate. This week however, she put her hands together and said, "Dear Jesus." I swear my heart melted like butter in the microwave. I had to hold back the tears. This is truly what parenting is all about. Showing Claire the way to Jesus and praying the whole way that she's receptive to it and that we don't become obstacles in the path to Him.

Hope y'all have a good Memorial Day weekend. I'm not sure if I'll be able to post anything while I'm in Florida, but if I can and have time, I will!

Happy Mother's Day

My, where has the time gone? Claire truly is growing up before my very eyes. Well, a little catch up. She had her 18 month check up at 19 months. Oops! She weighed 25 lbs 3oz and was 32" tall. Right on schedule! She is still in the 50th percentile for her age in both categories. She is also talking so much more. By talking, I mean "jabbering" in her own language. She is very adamant about what she wants and what she is saying, it's just that no one else understands any of it. However, she is communicating through speaking. I'm sure it will come soon enough. She sure does have enough to say. She says "Dye, Dye" to absolutely everything and anything she thinks that she needs to say bye to. She says it to every room we leave, to every person, vehicle, and animal that we may see. She's so funny about it too. Yesterday, we were in Wal-Mart and I was pushing her in the cart. An employee was walking the opposite way toward us. Claire saw him coming and was quiet. As soon as he got right beside her, she screams "Dye, Dye" as loud as she can and waves at him. She was just trying to be nice, but I truly thought he was going to jump out of his skin. All I could do was encourage her to be nice to everyone. hehe =)

For Mother's Day, Justin surprised me and got me an iPod! I couldn't believe it! He had gotten me a nice mp3 player for Christmas, but I couldn't get it to work in the car and I refuse to wear headphones while driving. So, even though he'd spent lots of hours putting my favorite music on the mp3 player, it wasn't getting used. For Mother's Day I simply asked him to get an attachment so that I could play it in the car. He went way out of his way and got me an iPod, put ALL of my cd collection on it, AND got me a docking station to go into the cigarette lighter of the car so I can listen to it on my way to work and back. He's the BEST! Thanks sweetie!

We did have lunch with his mom today for Mother's day and it was her Birthday too! So she had an extra special day!

Only two more weeks of school left and then we leave for vacation. I haven't decided yet if i'm more excited about the vacation or the fact that I'll be done with the school year at that point. Either way, it's a motivating factor to make it these last two weeks.

One more thing, today in Sunday School the take home point was to either start a Bible study on your own (devotions) or to give it a wake up call. The lesson was taken out of II Peter 1:12-21. Anyway, I pass the same challenge onto you. Either get in the habit of spending time with God daily and studying His Word or STEP IT UP! Make it better!

I'll leave you with some pictures of the cutie pie!





This is taken Sunday morning right after I put her hair in cute little pigtails. I don't even know why I bother anymore.



She's a computer geek already!




I was spinning her around in the computer chair when this great photo got taken! See the joy?