Emily's First Majorette Performance

Who Has the Best SIL in the World

I do and her name is Christy Flurry!!! Aside from being a great, supportive, caring family member and all that goes with it - she hooked us up with the opportunity of a lifetime this past January. Of course Matt does get a lot of credit for the access, but Christy is the coordinator and makes it happen.

What are you rambling on about now - you ask? Christy and I went to the BCS National Championship game to support Auburn!!! Hands down on of the top 5 experiences of my life. The company was wonderful, our game seats were AMAZING! I know we are many months after, but I really wanted to share my pics. I was looking at them this morning as I count down the day to this fall!

pep rally the evening before

pre-game

Kodi Burns - love him!!!!

All Grown Up...

As I sit here thinking about charging the camera, finding my stadium seat, etc. I cannot believe 12 years have gone by since I was blessed with Emily. It seems like just yesterday I could carry her around and tuck her in with kisses and bedtime prayers. What fun talks we would have when I'd pick her up in the afternoons from school or daycare. There are so many memories I cannot even begin to tell you or to give them all justice. I am gonna share some pictures with you. Just a random couple that happen to be on this computer. This is how the little imp looked when I first got to know her. Except you can't see her LONG hair in these shots. Maybe I can find another one.

I hope to get great shots of our grown-up, sophomore, majorette tonight at the game!! We love you Em and are so proud of you.

I remember going shopping for this dress.

Quite the little ball-playe at 4!

Basketball Camp

David had a great opportunity this summer to go stay with his Aunt Christy and favorite cousin Luke and go to "Tony Barbee Basketball School" on campus. Christy got some geat shots of the boys during the camp. I hope David's skills are improved when he plays upward this winter. But irregardless he had a fab time in Auburn with his cousin!!!

All Over the Place

Sometimes my blog is a place to vent or to just "talk-aloud" about something. Thus it is probably really boring to you guys, but needs to be done for me ;-)

First the random - so there are a handful of key people from my past that helped shape who I am. Sadly / gladly I am not in touch with the majority of them anymore. One of them returned to my dreams last night. The first time in YEARS. How weird is that. And to make it worse I NEVER remember my dreams. This one is replaying in my head like a movie. I am going to have to do some intervention prayer on myself!!

Now the vent. Going to try and give you a brief background summary so my "vent" will make sense. Dan's brother offered him some appliances for our business. Dan said sure and he and his brother went and picked them up and took them over to the apartments and installed them. A few days later sister-in-law called Dan and called him a thief and said she was going to call cops on him... Dan was like totally what? They have always been close and he knew he didn't steal anything. She kept on and it was awful. Evidently they weren't Dan's brother's to give. He just knew they weren't using them and couldn't use them and they would essentially be useless so why not donate to business. But he didn't "clear it" with his wife... Well Dan got the anger, etc.

What makes it so bad is we spend alot of time with them or rather did. She has been totally HATEFUL to Dan. I tried calling and texting her and asked could we just talk about it. She won't respond. Several weeks have gone by and the issue has just kind of gone stagnant. We haven't seen or talked to her though. Yesterday Dan needed to ask her something and to talk with her dad (who he does work with randomly). The dad doesn't have a cell and he happened to be with her yesterday afternoon. So anyway - Dan calls and she answers and he's like hi Jenny - would you mind if I talk to your dad? She hung up. He called back a couple of times and she would answer and hang up. Really... are you 13??

I have been pretty angry since this issue started - indignant really. And after seeing how much it actually hurts Dan it makes me even angrier. I am not crazy about Dan's family, shame on me. I however do understand family value and love, etc. Dan loves his brother and vice versa so I want to do what I can to support that. I have gotten angry over the years and usually just excuse myself so as not to act like a butt :-) The sister-in-law and I get along. Also get along with her family. We make them welcome, feed them tons of time and serve them (they are not the help out kind of guests), we have given them money, furniture, bedding, clothes, etc. We are their bank and have loaned them tons of money that is still not paid back. We are financing their vehicle. We provide the tools and stuff for their repairs, etc. to their house and rental property. We have taken them on vacation with us - with zero contribution from them. We welcome her daugther and grandson into our home and into our vacation with grace... And you know what - who cares about the tit for tat. I don't, but it sure popped into my mind since this has happened. (I better pray about that.) And you know what else - sister-in-law has a serious medical condition and sometimes brother is not very empathetic and all that toward her condition and taking care of her. Dan will check in with her and see how she is doing and he will talk to brother and "get onto him" about taking better care of her, etc.

And furthermore Dan is constantly told he is not a true Christian and he is going to hell because he doesn't go to church where they do and has to run a business not a charity.... We try to tune this out and just ignore it. We don't lecture them and try not to judge because its not our job! Well now this issue is making me judgemental because I'm like you call yourselves the "better" Christians.. you are accusing, not forgiving, etc. etc. I don't think those attributes are very Christ-like. And it makes me even madder that  am being judgemental LOL.

So I am going to pray for me and Dan and for them. I don't want to turn into that kind of person and I don't want to be so weak that this issue would bring me down.

Thanks for listening!!!

Reeder No-Cry Sleep Solution...

For those of you who aren't familiar with it, David has a sleeping problem. He cannot fall asleep without medicine and even with it, is hit or miss. We are in a particularly bad spot of up until well after 12:00 every night for a week. His pediatrician is almost out of "tricks"... He had a panel of blood tests done and we are awaiting those results. Hopefully that will give some insight. (and I love well-meaning people) but  don't offer up the typical suggestions. Almost 4 years this has been going on and believe me we have tried EVERYTHING.... or so I thought.

I was so frustrated last night with the no sleep and so tired myself. I decided if he couldn't get to sleep we would just do school at midnight and then we would be ahead for the week! So at 8:30 when he still wasn't asleep I got him up to make a prayer book! Then back to bed. A little after 10:00 when he still wasn't asleep I got him up again and we did a lesson in LLATL and a stamp spelling worksheet. When I checked on him at 11:30 he was actually asleep!!!!!!!!

I don't know if it helped his mind settle down or what. He often tells me he can't turn his brain off... Whichever, it was exciting for me. We will do this every night, until he falls asleep around 8:30.

I am so jazzed about it. My eyes popped open at 6:00 and Toby and I went out for a walk. Amazing I know because the Reeder gang are not early risers. David is still asleep, which I understand, especially when I look at the circles under his eyes. I want him awake though to possibly help with this horrid cycle; I have been working on waking him for about 45 minutes and he is just truly out of it.

Christopher Columbus

We are currently learning about Columbus and his adventure in finding America. This is probably our most "exciting" history story so far and David LOVES it. It was really neat to watch his expressions as I read through the narrative. And when I really "got into it" he was jumping up and down and fighting pirates with Columbus and then yelling land ho much later when he found land.... etc. David made a telescope so he can watch out for pirates and land masses!

Assumption & Coronation of Mary

We spent time Monday celebrating the Coronation of Mary. It was a great learning follow-up for David from the Assumption last week. For the Assumption we made a little alter craft and went to an Assumption Tea at Lauren's. For the Coronation we made a candle for David to keep and he gets to light it when praying to Mary.

Growing my faith while growing my son's is an indescribable feeling!!!!

Moving to the Kitchen

Whew - we were so worn out after my brothers visit. Non-stop fun and games and staying up late will really take it out of you. He is back safely home and we are back in our normal routine.

I've realized that I like the kitchen best for schoolwork. Sunny and warm and easy for me to get stuff done while he works. I started carrying stuff back and forth from the kitchen to the study/school-room and/or just leaving it stacked on the kitchen table... Neither option worked for me! Now our daily work/books live in the kitchen. The school-room is still full, but now more library/storage and back to being my office.

Games and Projects

We are continuing to have fun times with my brother. His visits are so special. I really wish we could see him more than once or twice a year. He and David have such a great relationship though and it continues to get stronger as David gets older. One neat thing that happened yesterday was David realized how much he looks like Uncle Boyd as a boy - he was fascinated. And I tell you they really look alike at that age!!

We have done a little, and I do mean little, school this week because we are devoting most of our time to Uncle Boyd. A couple of the fun things we have done are related to solutions and dilutions. We took paint and added water and painted with both to see the difference, which wasn't as big as I had hoped. I don't know if that is because we used tempera paint or because we used yellow??

Next we took clear glasses full of water and added different measurements of Kool-Aid to them, ranging from 1/4 tsp to 1 tbsp. We observed the different colors and taste, of course picky David wouldn't taste them, but I did! This experiment is called Kool-Aid Chemistry.

One big thing we focused on the last few days was the Assumption of Mary. Me and the kids made crafts to celebrate last week and we ended our time with an Assumption Tea at Lauren's yesterday. Very special!!

Most of our time though has been spent playing games!

 

Friends for Over 3 Decades

My best friend Kim turned 40! We have celebrated a lot of birthdays over the years. About 35 years worth. It is awesome to have a life long friend. We can talk about anything and everything and have done everything together. And now we are watching our kids share experiences together.

Well Bill, her husband, and I had some clandestine texting over the past few weeks and put together a little surprise party for Kim last night. Lots of friends and family. It was such a fun night and I think she was truly surprised.

Here's a pic of the birthday girl with her oldest daughter Hope. The cake made by our good friend Lauren was amazing!! For some reason I didn't get a picture so I will have to get someone to send me a pic so I can share it with yall.

Travel Dreams Abound

David is in love with geography. He has always enjoyed looking at the globe and at our big wall map, but Ipad games have created a big new hobby. He has Stacking States and Stacking Countries and plays them often during electronic times. He now knows all his states and all his continents and their countries. He has been asking which language each country speaks because he wants to learn all their languages. Next he asks to visit them. He has quite a list! He has also started asking where his movies and shows are set. He loves all the connections with geography.

This past Friday we picked up my brother and he is visiting for the week. David loves his Uncle Boyd and so do we :) David has sucked him into his geography habit and talked him into many sessions of Mario Kart Wii and movie watching. Here is a pic of one of their Wii sessions and a couple of shots of Toby (our shitzu) with the fam.