Love for the lake

So, lucky me I am typing this post from the covered porch of my in-laws lakehouse up in Tennessee. It is honestly one of my favorite places. As long as I have known Michael his family has had this house. Some families have Thanksgiving, Christmas or even Easter as their annual get togethers, but the Vances have the Fourth of July. Most every year we gather up here over the weekend of the Fourth. The little town close by has a really big Bluegrass festival that we love to go to, plus a 5K and Fun Run that Michael and Zack usually run in.

We have also been lucky enough to entertain friends up here at the lakehouse. Sometimes it is a family and I also get to have my annual girls weekend with all of my high school buddies. It is a highlight of my year. Even though I grew up going to the lake and my parents even had a house on the lake two separate times, it is this house that has helped me really love the lake. There is nothing better to me then spending the day on the water enjoying the sun and watching my boys play!

So, yesterday was looking good. We where going to have ALL day to spend on the water. We went down to the dock to get in the boat and Michael felt the need to check things out in the engine well. When he opened it up he saw that it was full of gas and after further inspection, so was the ski well. This was not good. To make a very very long story short we ended up renting a pontoon for the day.

After the day was over and talking to Michael's parents and the mechanic I think it began to sink in how lucky we where. That boat was covered in gas. If Michael had not checked the engine well and just started it up, we could have very well started a nasty fire that could have had tragic results. I can't tell you the emotions that overwhelmed me last night. I was so taken back by the thought of what really could have happened. Today might not have happened for my family.

I told Michael last night through tears, on how very very blessed I feel. Not just to have escaped that accident, but for everything. So many times over and over God has blessed my little family. I want to be truly grateful and give God the credit. How in my life can I show others how grateful I am for God's grace and mercy??? And will I be able to remember this when something tragic does happen in my life.

I just had to share this, because it meant a lot to me. On a side note, Michael's parents' boat is kaput. Zack has truly been sad. When we went to go clean it out of all of it's stuff he was almost in tears. We have loved that boat and it provided many good times and many good memories...

NUTS!!!!

This is how I feel right now and how my summer has been...let me recap for you.

Before school even gets out we go "camping" with Michael's mom and her husband. The next weekend we are at the lake for Memorial Day. The next two weekends are taken up by are AWESOME trip to Disney. Then the next weekend we go "camping" again with Michael's mom. Finally, Father's Day weekend we are going to REST, but I get a call from some family in Ohio that are coming to visit for 5 days. This weekend my mom has her grand opening of her booth and we are going to a local lake on Sunday and then leave on Wed. or Thurs. for the lakehouse in TN. Phew. I feel like I am going NUTS!!!! We hopefully have two more lake trips in July and I start student teaching on August 3rd with a possible trip to N'ville for a wedding the following weekend.

But all of this has been good. Really good. The last time I had a summer with no school was 2006 and Carter was three and well, enough said. I still have so much I want to do and I just don't know where I will find the time. For some reason I am getting the itch to do things to my house. I gave Michael the year 2013 as the year that we are going to move. He, of course, rolls his eyes at me, but I know from a very reliable source that he knows that if I stick my mind to something I usually get my way. I'm not stubborn very often, but when I am it pays off.



So two rooms I really want to work on is first my family room. It is a really big room because it has an attached sunroom. I have almost moved all of the boys toys out of the sunroom. When we first moved in it was a playroom, but I have moved all of the junk upstairs. All I have left to move out is an air-hockey table and their train stuff and blocks. I have a lawyer bookcase that we will move in there.

But the den is SOOOOOOOO boring. It has judges paneling, which I love, and we have some historical prints on the wall, which I love. What I HATE HATE is my furniture. We bought it in our old house and it is dull. It is that micro fiber fabric which works well for the like the first two years. But when you have two little boys and a dog, it can only stay good looking for so long. Anyway, I feel like between the wood walls and the brown furniture, that room is really dark. I would like a sofa and chairs that look a little more alive. There are these chairs that are at this store here in Atlanta called Outrageous Interiors (they used to be called Outrageous Bargains, but there where no bargains to be found) and I go visit them occasionally. They both rock AND swivel and they appear to have slipcovers. I. just. love. them.

So here is a picture of one of the chairs I picked up at the thrift store. There are three of them and they where $5 a piece. I don't know why I bought all three other than they where only $5 a piece!!! The picture makes it look wood, but they are painted red.

I have NO WHERE for them to go and have no idea what to do with them. I was thinking about doing some kind of distressing treatment that would have green on top and let the red show through a little bit so that I don't have to strip them. ugh. I was going to look for some cool fabric to put on them. And then what? I have no idea. Thoughts??? Ideas???

I also want to do my bedroom. Our furniture is not very exciting either. But it is in good shape and new furniture is EXPENSIVE!! So, if I do a decent job on the chairs, maybe Michael will let me paint our bedroom furniture. It his parents old furniture and it was "updated" in the 90s with lots of brass.

Maybe if I do a few cosmetic changes I can push my year to 2014. Haha.

Start of Summer

Well, summer is officially here. After a weekend camping, a week of fun activities at school and then a fun weekend at the lake, Zack had the NERVE to ask me Tuesday morning if we could do something FUN that day! Not to mention we leave for Disney for a week on Saturday. I hated to be the one to tell him that he was in for a very boring week with me getting us ready for our big trip!

So after we get back I think I am going to have to detox my kids from constant motion and entertainment. After having been in a first grade classroom this semester I know that their days are jam packed. Even in preschool they are on the go all day long. Well, here at home, we are not.

This is my first summer not in school in two years. Here is what I want to accomplish:

• TV on less
• Video games on less
• Eat fresher food
• Less fighting between brothers
• Work on fine motor skills with Zack
• Read with the kids more
• More library trips
• LOTS of time at the pool
• More calm

I think those are all attainable goals...

I feel like sometimes our life is go go go and there are days that I just want it to stop. I don't want to have a "to-do" list or a packing list that needs to be attended to. I just want to be. I want to sit on my back porch GUILT FREE and read a book. I want to watch my kids run around in the yard under a sprinkler and not worry about the "water police" ticketing me.

So, as I write this it is near the end of the day. The boys have been fighting a lot today, but I am hoping this is part of the detox process. The TV has been on less and they are building vehicles out of Lego's. This is what it is all about...right here. Not how many camps or vacations we can plan or friends we can have over to occupy our time, but the time that they are forced to be calm and be creative. So what that they are building vehicles to "bomb" each other, the TV is NOT on!!! Small miracles, small miracles.

So ask me at the end of the summer if I reached my goals, I hope for my sanity and that of my family we will!!!

Happy Summer!!!!

I'm Here! I'm Here!!

I promise I am here...I just noticed that it has been well over a month since my last post...

Lots has happened, but I am taking a big deep breat before lots more happens!! Michael and I figured out that our next "off" weekend is in 5 weeks! We are going camping this week, the lake the next, Disney for a week the next, camping again!!! We are crazy!

First and foremost I finished my semester!! It was awesome! I loved being in the classroom fulltime and was reminded that yes, I really do want to teach when I grow up!

The boys started their respective sports...Zack, baseball, Carter, soccer...

They are over now and I guess I have to start making dinner again!

I also went a fabulous vacation (wink, wink) with my WHOLE family...sisters, parent, niece, nephews, kiddos and no hubbies to the great state of Ohio! My 93 year old grandmother lives there and we went for a visit. It was wonderful to see her and she is an amazing woman. She lived through things and did things that I cannot even imagine. But she is as humble as they come. I remind myself over and over when I go through something just a little tough, that I have a little Agnes in me and I need to buck up!!

Grama paid for us to stay in a hotel (I can't imagine why she didn't want 11 people staying in her house). It had an indoor pool and places for the kids to run around. I'm not sure it was a good thing, but the hotel staff knew Carter by name.

Here are me, Molly and Megan with the girl cousins from my mom's side...I don't like standing next to them because they are all tall and skinny. Plus they run for fun rather than because some mad man is chasing them down...
Carter at the indoor pool!! He took the life jacket off soon after this and realized he could SWIM!!!

And here is Carter and my sweet Grama. Isn't she beautiful...I hope I age as well as she has. Carter was really sweet to her and was sure to love on her!! She ate it up!!

We had a family reunion of sorts while we where there...the Metzger side and the Kelley side. It was great to see my cousins, but so many people that I had no idea who they where!

I have also been busy helping my mom get a little business going. She was "forced" to retire at the end of last year and now she is starting a business to cushion their income and to continue to support their ministries. Go check it out... http://www.mykittywhampus.blogspot.com/

So summer is about to start...just two weeks left until school is out for the kids. I have grand plans for the summer. In between all of our travels I plan to be at the pool reading. So if you know of any good reads, let me know!!

Bad Hair Day

Why does it seem that sometimes the simplest things in life seem the hardest to actually DO????

I am stressed, I mean stressed. This is a huge semester for me. I am doing what at KSU we call TOSS, some call their methods, others call practicum, it is STRESSFUL. I have had since the beginning of January, 2 days a week at KSU and then 1 day a week at a public school. The work has been plentiful, but doable. But now I'm headed into the big stuff. 5 full days a week at the public school (which I am SO excited about) and then I have a 5 lesson unit that I actually have to write on paper rather than just have up in my head!!

I knew this was coming, I could look at my calendar and see the stress from a mile away. But here I am ready to be swallowed whole by my school work.

When I am stressed two major things happen...I eat too much and my hair breaks. Fat and bad hair...not pretty. And if you ask my kids they will probably say I have a short fuse!

But you know what I notice that if I put every action and thought through God first, I seem to manage. I seem more productive, less anxious and my hair looks a lot better. This is not new to me...this has been this way my whole life.

If I want to get through the next five weeks in one piece I MUST leave it all at the feet of the cross. But not just the next five weeks...everyday, all year. How blessed I know I am because God continues to pick me up and dust me off. I just wish I could remember this and not get so consumed by my stress.

You ask...He gives

So Michael and I are not great about going to church. We have been attending this one church for a couple of years, but we are not regulars. It is a great church, the music is awesome and the preaching is unbelievable. But we have let life get away from us. We have given the excuse lately that because it is so crowded we just don't feel like fooling with trying to get there early and get a seat, etc. etc. Plus, I hate to admit it, I have loved my Sunday mornings sleeping in...

But this past week I told God if you need me to be in church then I need a loud message because I love my Sunday mornings, and I need it to be loud. Well, I got it.

I got home from Nashville on Monday and we decided to be lazy and go to Stevie Bs pizza for dinner. There was this man in there and I swear he looked like a singer from Third Day, my favorite contemporary Christian band. But I was not going to ask him. But my ever so sweet husband asked him on our way out.

He laughed and said that no he wasn't but they where some of his friends. He then asked where we went to church. He said he was the creative arts director at West Cobb Church. He could not have been any nicer or kinder.

So I went home and said "okay, God, I get it. You have a place for us. I hear you...loud and clear." So I emailed the guy we met to let him know we will be there this Sunday.

UPDATE: So I was talking to my sweet mama about this today and she said "Well, just so you know, your Daddy and I where on our knees praying for all of our children by name Sunday night." When you ask God to reveal Himself, he always does.

Monumental

So that's what yesterday was for many Americans. Hopefully, no matter their political affiliation they saw the HUGENESS in yesterday. I, for one, did not support Barack Obama, but will support this administration now. I've noticed over the past two days that the people that where ignorant and said they didn't watch the inauguration, or didn't want to be a part of anything are truly sad people. These people, in my personal opinion, are the ones who make statements without research, who are stubborn and unwilling to listen to other people.

That being said... I still disagree with the policies he said he would implement during his campaign. I am a true conservative. I want less federal government and more control given to state and local governments. And the big idea for Democrats is to have bigger central government. I digress...

As I listened to his speech I was struck by how many times he said "hard work". I really really really really hope that we ALL will put in the hard work it is going to take to turn this ship around.

But here are the two points that I find myself still frustrated on:
First, the media and Liberals keep blaming George W. Bush and his administration for the problems our country is facing. Do we really think that all of these problems can lay firmly on the shoulders of one man? Really??? I don't. I think many people are to blame. People who are selfish and greedy. Everywhere from the big business man who was more interested in cushioning his books down to the ill-informed home buyer that bought a bigger house than they could afford. We are all to blame. I hope that when things really get "shook" out that Bush will come out better than he is right now.
Second, I really liked Obama's speech. I thought that it was what we all wanted to hear that day. That the United States is still strong and viable, just some hard work will get us back on track. And then Rev. Lowery came out. I was so excited to see him there. What a moment for him. So many times this man had worked tirelessly to help America achieve "the dream". He sacrificied so much. And in this moment he was able to say a prayer for our President and our country. I was so ready to applaud...and then...he said...
"And White will do what is right"... What? Did I just hear that right? Did he just make a racist statement while praying. Okay, I've heard it all before and I believe it. The white race has dominated American history. He first hand saw the suffering that racism has caused. But why here? Why now? Why did he have to bring up race?? I am a white woman that was raised in a home where racism was not tolerated, I raise my children in a home that does not distinguish people by the color of their skin. What am I doing that is so wrong that I must be prayed for because of the color of my skin. Reverend Lowery please tell me!!
Okay, I'm done.
On to another subject...are the Obama girls not the cutest things ever?? I will love watching them grow up!