My husband is awesome!

Well, we finally did it! We got home at 4:30 AM this morning, but we are done. The risers in my classroom only need to have the carpet attached, and since we ran out of double-sided tape, it will have to wait until I go back to school. We got everything together yesterday and started around 2:45 PM unloading the wood from the van. Around 10:30 PM we left my room to get some sustenance, but all the quick stops in Potts Camp were closed. This made us very determined to finish last night.

Matt's back held out thanks to his white exercise ball the chiropractor told him to lie back on. He was so great. I know his back was about to totally give out, but he kept going. He also got a huge bruise on his arm from the time he was pinched while we were moving the risers. (They got a little heavy.) My only injury was from the wood that fell on my pinky toe. Other than that we were great.

The kids are still with Mom, so we could stay until we finished. Finally this morning we headed home by way of Holly Springs where we were looking for some food. There was no hot food anywhere to be found. (We missed supper building the risers.) We loaded up on Reese's, Chex Mix, and Godiva coffee. Mmmmm. Then we headed home.

Our drive home that early in the morning was a little scary. We saw 9 deer on the sides of the highway. Our reflexes were sharp.
Today was like "coma day". We are responsible adults now who know if our family was around and we had to take care of them we would never stay up till 4:30 AM. Neither of us could sleep past 10. This was one of the laziest days I have ever had. I have two more days to work on the house before the kids get home. I think we are up for it again now. Hope your weeks are going great. Here are some pics of the risers.

Go Team Jones!

Here is our crew Friday morning around 6:30 AM all coming out to finish off the job Matthew and Matt started earlier in the week. Matt hurt his back while they were digging the trench behind the retaining wall and it was incredibly tough for him to finish. I am so proud of him. I am so proud of Matthew, too. He worked harder than he ever had before. I didn't really start helping until they asked me to come out and hold the light so they could work in the dark on Thursday night. Matt saw that it was probably going to start raining and might have washed out our retaining wall, so we got up early Friday morning to finish pouring in the gravel. The younger three worked really hard and then just about passed out. Thank goodness we were just about finished. We almost finished before Nana got to our house. I think I was about the dirtiest she had ever seen me. Summer project #2 almost finished. We are just waiting for the man to come and make a way for the water to flow under the sidewalk.

The kids leave tomorrow to go to Nana's for a week of Upward Basketball camp. Matthew is going, too. I know as a teenager he is ready for a break from his parents. I am really going to miss those guys. Hopefully we can stay focused and get all of our projects over with. My really good friend asked me today if we were going to record again. Maybe we can this week. We have been talking about what we would like to record. This has been one of my best summers. God is so good to us. We don't deserve Him or His blessings, but I am thankful just the same. Take care. Here is another look at Team Jones on Youtube.

hawaiian pigs, cracked pepper parmesan bread, and stitches

This has been another eventful week. Last week Mom's surgery went great. The boys and I had a great time with her in Jackson. We went to the Great Harvest Bread Factory and then to my all-time favorite store, the Bargain Boutique. Here is Benny eating all of our bread.

Here is the pig from VBS I was talking about. Lovely, isn't it? I was coveting the sunglasses, though.
This week has been full of working at home and relaxing, Benjamin building his own mini- golf course and making signs to advertise it.
Speaking of mini-golf....we had a little accident while the kids were playing mini-golf. You see, we don't quite have the correct golf clubs yet. I wasn't around (parent disclaimer) so the kids found whatever they could for clubs. Benjamin used a lightsaber and the others found a pole that went to a soccer goal. Around 4:45 last night, the pole hit Jacob on the eyebrow and left a very nice gash. The next thing I heard was "I'm sorry, Jacob." Jacob and I jumped in the car and rushed to Urgent Care. Dr. Dabbs was there and put in 6 stitches. Jacob was great, but a little nervous. Here is Dr. Dabbs giving him advice on not getting injured in the future. Injury Prevention Advice











He will get his stitches out the first day of Upward Basketball camp in Madison. Jacob, Benjamin and Claire get to stay with Nana and Mamaw all week. Our house is sure going to be quiet. :( Hopefully we can go to school and build those risers and paint my classroom. Get it over with.

This summer has been so relaxing. Not driving a lot eveyday is awesome. Matthew has been working hard with Matt outside building the French drain. Today he has gone with a friend of ours to work. This is his manly-man week. Earning money is a good thing and mostly learning to work.

Mom is coming tomorrow to spend the weekend with us and then take the kids back to Jackson. Can't wait.
Happy Thursday!

We have ducts in our attic

Well, VBS was good last week. Now I feel like I am really out of school. It was a great, but tiring week. I could share with you the video of Matthew and Jontyler and the others doing the dance in their hula skirts, but I promised I wouldn't. They were pumped about it, but when it came down to getting in front of everyone all dressed up, I think they were a little embarrassed.

I enjoyed my 1st and 2nd grade class. They were sweethearts and listened to me some of the time during the week. :)

During Bible school Matt and Matthew started re-doing our duct work in our attic late at night. They cut out lots of extra ducting and tried to make our air work better. I am not bitter. Well, I am really trying to work on that, but we have tried to get our builder to fix this problem and he basically said "forget about it" (Rex on Napoleon Dynamite). We are taking the necessary steps to take care of this, but in the mean time Matt would like to figure out why it isn't working right and try to do something to make it better. They have been manly-men. The air in Matthew's room upstairs is rockin'. Please pray that they don't fall through any ceilings. (I am serious.)

Hope you all have a good week. We are heading to Jackson tomorrow morning for Mom's surgery then back on Thursday. Take care.

Vacation Bible School

Well, I think every church in Oxford is having their Bible schools this week. For those of you who don't know...this is a week or several days when kids come to church and sing songs, play games, make crafts, etc., and learn how much Jesus loves them.

I can remember growing up and going to Bible school and singing Father Abraham and the arky song. Can't remember quite how that one went. Those were great times. I look back on those days and realize that that is where the foundation of my faith came from. I learned about how to become a christian and about God's grace. I am excited that is such a fun thing for so many kids. My kids are always pumped about the theme each year and the new songs. (We use the Lifeway curriculum/ songs by Jeff Slaughter.) Here is the link: Outrigger Island
Claire especially loves the motions to the songs. We are starting off tomorrow night with a luau with a real roasted pig. Matt is going to rock out on some ukulele. Can't wait.

I am teaching the 1st and 2nd grade class. That is a wild and crazy group. Lots of fun. Never a dull moment. Carpe diem. Oh yeah.

I am excited because I get to wear a grass skirt (thank you, Amber) and sit in a tiki hut built by my good guy friends at church who love a good project. They had the massive nail gun in the room and I thought I needed a bullet proof vest on by the way it sounded. It is covered in bamboo and everything. Thank you, Kevin and Russell. Claire added her decorating touch to it by putting pinwheels through the roof of the hut. I was impressed by how she spaced them out just right. Two were too close together and she took one out and adjusted it. Aww.

Today I ran all over town looking for more beach/luau paraphernalia. About all I could find was a flower bra. Don't see myself in that one.
My friend from school gave me her mini grill that she bought to take her class to the park, so while I was out I bought hot dogs and s'more fixins. Even though it was incredibly late we cranked up the charcoal and watched them flame. We threw away our other grill after getting tired of moving it in our early years of moving all the time. Anyway, this one did great for now. I have a fire pit for the backyard in my mind for the summer. May happen this summer, maybe not. I did make one improvement by buying stepping stones to go from the patio to the pool. Anyway...enough of me and my backyard.

Matthew is playing the electric guitar with Matt in the morning for worship. I have been listening to them practice upstairs and they sound great. It is cool to hear them together.

Hope your summers are getting off to a great start. It is fun to have so much planned and not planned. We can't wait to see our friends from Park Place in July. We're going to Grandma's and Grandpa's next weekend and then to Mom's. Maybe to Atlanta after that. Relaxing the whole time. These are some of the times that teaching really looks good.

Take care.

Matt the builder

One of his plans

When I told my husband about my desire to build risers in my choir room I didn't know how dedicated he would be to the project. He downloaded an architecture program and got to work. He stayed up really late last night drawing out the plans so I could have them approved by my principal. The plans were gorgeous. I felt like I was living with Mike Brady the architect. How could my principal say no? Well.....she couldn't.
Now we need to go to Home Depot and ask them if they will donate the lumber and carpet to build them. I was told that they did.
I have to pick out the paint color I want the room to be so the school can go buy it. Then, I can paint later this summer. I am excited. First, I am going to take a little time to have a summer break.
In between riser planning he has been leveling the backyard to set up the pool for the kids. One side of the yard where the pool will be is about a foot higher than the other. He is just all over things. The only problem has been that while he has been busy, the mice have played. Jacob proceeded to eat an entire bag of cookies and who knows what else. I hope the pool will be a lap pool so we can work off all of those calories. Whew.

I am off to read with Claire. Tomorrow is the 2 hour Lost. Yea! We have been looking forward to this one. It is getting crazy. Even for Lost.

Take care.

Two posts in one day

For some reason I am just now seeing this picture that I took while we were at Mamaw's over Mother's Day. Claire and the boys made fortresses outside in her back yard. Coltrane enjoyed visiting each one.