Coltrane ignores Roscoe

Coltrane ignores Roscoe
Originally uploaded by jonesrestoration

This picture pretty much sums up the first meeting of Coltrane and Roscoe. I thought it was interesting that the dog next door to Matt's mom's house was named the name everyone seems to think our dog should be called. Ironically, we did not name Coltrane after Roscoe P. from the Dukes of Hazzard, but after John Coltrane. (We are musicians, after all. )

We thought he would be so happy to have a kindred spirit. A kindred breed. When I walked out on the patio, our dog was just sitting there almost waiting for approval to go visit. When I said to go, he just looked at me. He was so not impressed. Oh, well, we tried to find him a friend. He is a mama's boy.

We had a great time seeing moms. Spent the night with Mamaw, kids swam, Mamaw watched the kids while Matt and I both went to our choral director's meetings. That is another story...

Mom and I met to go to my favorite store....the Bargain Boutique. This is the Junior League of Jackson's thrift store. I love it! I always feel like I am treasure hunting. I found tons for $70.00. I agree with Dave Ramsey...even if we were rolling in the dough, I think I would still love finding bargains. Especially new ones with the tags still on. I also love that it goes to a good cause. Bonus.

Today's service at church was great! We are praying for revival at church and I really see God moving. I got to sing with two wonderful singers. It was a treat. We have such a great preacher. He just always seems to bring a message right from God's heart.

Anyway, hope your Sunday is great! Take care......

Wow, a lot of people are looking for Denny Terrio

Since I added sitemeter to my blog I have been able to see how people end up at our site. It is so interesting. A while back, I made a comment about how I needed judges for our school's upcoming talent show and that I wondered where Denny Terrio was. I think the majority of people come to our site because we came up on their google search for Denny Terrio. Then they stay about 0 seconds. I hated to disappoint them so I thought I would try to search for him myself and post something about him. I have to admit, what I found really took me back to (I think) Friday nights of my childhood. Dance Fever....wow! I can't believe how often I probably watched this. Maybe this is why I am such the dancer that I am. :) Here is a link to Youtube where you can see the Dance Fever closing. I so remember watching this on so many nights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7LugIpub2w












http://members.aol.com/_ht_a/mikeatkost/main.html

Sorry, Mom, I know you were expecting a big update from our life. I am actually only unwinding from a big day and ....talking about Denny Terrio. I could be talking about how school is going great. I love my schedule. Choir is great. I am excited about what I am teaching, etc.

I could be talking about the ginormous spider that was right outside our door while we were coming in the other night. While Matthew was keeping his eyes on it while I opened the door with my key, the garage light went out. Claire wanted to keep it as a pet, but Matt flushed it.

I could have talked about the fact that I got a call tonight from my former choral director asking Matt and me to be in the Oxford Civic Chorus. I would love to sing that quality of music again!

I could have mentioned that the kids are loving school.

Anyway...I want to say that I miss our mommies. Hopefully, we will get to see them this weekend. It has been too long.

Happy Monday, everyone.

In Christ,
Laurie

Goin' Campin'

Well, tomorrow night the youth are going to Cossar for a camping trip. I am excited about getting to go on Saturday night. I love being with the youth. They are so youthful. (hee, hee)
I am excited about the group we've got. We prayed for a great youth group for Matthew for his last 3 years at home. Playing guitar with them has, I believe, been such a blessing. Big Matt has been sitting in with the whole praise band lately. I love it.

This week has been good. Choir is great. There are 26 kids in my choir this year. There are even guys. They are such good sports. It is a challenge to try to show them what to sing being a woman. This is probably one of the biggest challenges right now. I appreciate their patience, though.

Development at home.....Benjamin, for some reason, has become fired up about loading and unloading the dishwasher. It is his passion. He is very dedicated to this job. He sure has won his dad's and my appreciation. :) Just FYI.

I wanted to share this artist with you. Diane Duda is an artist from Pennsylvania who makes the cutest and most original pictures. Here is one that is on sale at Ebay. She also has work in her Etsy shop. She is super talented. I love her work so much because I love the 3D aspect of them. She uses multi-media to make some of her pictures, etc. If you click on the picture of the little girl you will go to Diane Ebay auctions. Enjoy!

Here is one I actually won on Ebay. I love it. If you like frogs, she really has painted/drawn some cute ones. Anyway, I just wanted to share her work.
I hope you all have a great weekend. In Christ,
Laurie

In the Weeds

This was a term we used a lot to describe a time in the restaurant business when we were totally swamped with tables, etc.

School starts tomorrow and for Matt and me, in the weeds is how we feel most of the time once we are in school (planning and teaching, grading, etc. We are so blessed to have our jobs. We are so blessed to have our family. Both of our jobs are the type of jobs that take a lot of planning ahead. Planning ahead for concerts, field trips, etc. It is exciting most of the time. It is exciting seeing kids learn things about themselves, and teaching them things that, you believe, will benefit them in the future.

Nevertheless, it is very taxing on the energy. This year we are, again, going in separate directions. Matt will take all of our 4 kids with him to school, and I will drive 45 minutes to Potts Camp. This will be interesting. I have already had mixed feelings. On one hand, I had a little feeling in my stomach of missing my guys whom I drove to work with everyday last year. If I wanted to see them, all I had to do was to peek into their classroom. If I forgot lunch money, or snack, all I had to do was to bring it later in the day. Now I am passing the torch on to my sweet husband. I hope he will be able to get more done than I did in the afternoon. He is a little better at managing our kids than I am. I try my best, but I am still a little of a Pillsbury Dough Girl. They think I am very soft. I think Matt will do great.

I did enjoy my drive for the past two days going to staff development meetings. Part of me feels bad for enjoying time to myself, but I know it will be good for me to have time and then have more to give them when I get home. God knows best. I will trust Him that He knows that this is what we (the kids, Matt, and me) need.

I probably won't be blogging quite as much unless I am procrastinating (which may happen at times). I think when things slow down and we get into the swing of things, I want to continue our recording, etc. I don't want to give up on that.

We are beginning Financial Peace at our church in a couple of weeks. I think we may go through it again to get back on track. We really want to save for a car, pay cash, but it has been tough. It seems like with a family it is so hard to get the jump on saving money. After listening every Friday afternoon, I know people get out of debt. I think we need the refresher course.

I am asking that you please say a little prayer for us if you are reading this. Please pray that we will grow to be the people God wants us to be and that we will be the parents and teachers God wants us to be. I know we can do all things through Him who gives us strength. Please pray that we will know what to be involved in and what to say no to. I tend to do many things because of guilt instead of definitely feeling God calling me.

Matt sang "Captured" this morning in church. This is a song that Chris Tomlin sang a while back. It made me have such a desire to sing with him more and more. I know that is not exactly what God is calling us to at the moment. I believe, while our kids are young, that we have a stable home....not a lot of travel or late nights. I am excited about the future, though. It is amazing how God has you in different seasons of life and they are all good.

Anyway, I know I am rambling. Happy Sunday!

Calgon take me away....

I know I am about to start school on Thursday, but I guess I am still trying to be in vacation mode. I had such a great time with my family and still want to hang around there in my thoughts for now. I sent letters to my choir today, so I am not totally in denial, but watching this video I made while we were at the Georgia Aquarium is something I can always go to when the school year gets tough. Like Calgon.........

I could have stared at these fish for days. (I think I may have already said that.)

Matt is playing finger style guitar now in the kitchen. I think we may be recording again soon. I am excited about maybe not doing things that will take lots of money to buy copyrights to. We are going to be putting our CD on CDBaby this time. It is a company that sells independent artists' CDs. That is a little dream of mine. I guess more and more now I am wanting to just get out and sing. Matt and I got to for the Golden Prospector group at our church. It was so great. We gave away CDs for the first time and it was so much fun. What a cool blessing that anyone would actually even want our music. I can't believe it when someone tells me that they listened to our CD when they were having a tough time and God comforted them. This is what I want to do.

Please pray for us in this. I love kids, and I love teaching and everything else that we get to do, but this is probably my biggest passion. I have had a passion for singing since I was a mere tot. It has never left me. I feel like I kind of have to suppress it when I am teaching because teaching and talking all day take a toll in my voice. ( I know that may sound silly.) Anyway, this is where God has me now.

Oh, for some reason I started thinking about my weight loss goals and overall fitness and need to comment on that. Eating wise, I did terribly today, except for eating lots of tomatoes. I did, however, stretch on the exercise ball that Matt bought for his back. I also did some push-ups on it. Later, I walked with my neighbor, Jennifer. So I guess I am moving in the right direction. I was feeling so old and stiff. It is amazing how just doing a little more makes a huge difference.

Take care.....

The best moms in the world

I have to say that when I hear some talking about their mothers-in-law being terrible, I feel for those describing them. My mother-in-law is so great to me as well as (probably expected) her grand kids.

I pray that I am as sweet when I am a mother-in-law. You may be asking....what do you want, Laurie? Really, I don't want anything. My mother-in-law, Judy, among being great all the time, took all of us shopping yesterday. I think we bought out Osh Kosh (well, not really). Thank goodness they had a great sale. :) Matthew got new duds. Even blackish jeans. He loves those black clothes. Matt wasn't there, but, even he got new clothes. The kids were psyched to get new backpacks and clothes. Claire got a flowery backpack. Cute. I know she would probably not want me to say, but, thank you, Mamaw.

My mom is also the greatest. She did so much to make our vacation great. She is always there and goes over board for us. I have to check myself every once in a while to make sure that we are not just taking from them. It is so easy sometimes when people are used to giving (and you are the baby of the family) to wake-up and realize that you are doing a little more of the taking than the giving. Our moms are so unselfish. I try to think of things that would be extra special for them. Somehow it always seems to not be quite as much as they do for us.

This makes me think about the movie Pay it Forward. Our moms give to us, we give to our kids, hopefully they will give of themselves and their gifts to others.

Anyway, if they are reading this....we love you moms.

Oh, going shopping also makes me think of what I wrote to Southern Fried Fatty. Wow, do those fluorescent lights show everything. I am going to join you in your goal to lose weight. For now, I will be big and beautiful (hopefully). I do like the big girl clothes I got. They are pretty. :)

Claire in Ocean Voyager

oceanvoyager6claire
Originally uploaded by jonesrestoration

We had such a great time in Atlanta. This is Claire inside the Ocean Voyager exhibit in the Georgia Aquarium. It was so amazing.
Here is a link if you want to see a short video I made there.
Esnips Videos
The whale sharks were incredible. I could have spent days just sitting there watching it all. There are some great pictures taken by people with fancy cameras on Flickr (Georgia Aquarium pool).

My sister-in-law's brother got us discounted tickets because he volunteers there. Nice! He gets to dive in the tank with these beautiful fish.

The next day we got up and went to Six Flags. This could be a very long story.

This was our little people's first experience with anything like rides like these. Needless to say, they were a little shocked at some of the rides. We only rode 1, actually, before we got rained out. Jacob did ride the Crime Wave while the big guys rode Batman. Claire wanted to, but she wasn't tall enough. So, Jacob had to ride it by himself. I felt like such a bad parent after it started. I guess I just went with his enthusiasm and the fact that he was tall enough.

As Benjamin later said, "Just because you are tall enough to ride a ride, doesn't mean that you will like it!" There you go.

Then after Jacob was good and traumatized, we all rode the Mindbender together. This was one that Claire could actually ride. She sat by Uncle Ron. Matt sat with Benjamin and I sat by Jacob. When we were at the top of the coaster, Benjamin said "Can I get off?"

Matt and I basically spent the entire ride leaning over our scared children. We ate lunch, then on our way to the place with more kiddie rides, the rain began to pour. We had a good time staying out of the rain together. Mom shared her rain parka with Jacob and Claire at one time. It was great. When we got back to my brother's house, it was beautiful outside. I guess it was meant to be. :)

Today I went to school to get my schedule for next year. I am excited about everything. I like my schedule. I will actually have a great block of time for planning.

Take care. Happy Tuesday!