Our Little Graduate

We have a little graduate at our house now.  John Derrick graduated from preschool last week.  He has attended the Maple Hill Church of Christ Mother's Day Out/Preschool since it started back in 2006.  

The evening started out with the classes getting on stage and singing a few songs.  Poor John Derrick, he gets distracted easily.  He was quit concerned that Grayson wasn't standing exactly where he suppose to during one of the songs.  He spent the better part of this song, trying to get Grayson to move over.  (sigh)

After all the classes finished doing their part (all the classes from the 3 year olds to the 1 year olds).  The 4 year old class got to "graduate".  They got to wear cap and gowns and walk across the stage and receive a "diploma."  Is that not one of the most precious sights ever.

Here is John Derrick with his teacher Mrs. Rhonda.  Mrs. Rhonda was the best teacher.  She is such a sweet and kind and VERY patient teacher.  I am so happy that he had her as a teacher this year.  He has always had great teachers but this year was extra special with Mrs. Rhonda.  In fact, John Derrick told me the other day that he didn't want to go to school next year because he wanted Mrs. Rhonda as a teacher and I should call Mrs. Anita and see if he could come back next year.  

He is growing up too fast.  He started at our Mother's Day Out program in 2006 in Mrs. Penny's one year old class.  He was hardly talking at that time and now he is 5 years old, talking constantly and getting ready to go to kindergarten. 

Rain, Rain Go Away

This is not a lake.  This is a field about 5 miles away from our house.  On May 2-3, 2010, Middle Tennessee got rained upon.  It rained for two days straight.  We had over a foot of rain and that rain had to go somewhere and it was just not quick enough.  Middle Tennessee was hit with the worse flood in at 30 years.  It was bad.  Interstates were flooded and people had to leave their cars in the middle of the road and we watched the television show these cars COMPLETELY underwater.  It rained and rained and rained.  Downtown Nashville was underwater also.  The Cumberland River downtown crested at somewhere around 52 to 53 feet.  The Opryland Hotel had 10 feet of water in the Delta and Cascade conservatory.  The pictures reminded me of the movie Titanic when the ship was sinking.  Opry Mills was island in the middle of the water.  It was unreal to see the flooding.

The square in Lebanon flooded TWICE.  It flooded Saturday night but by Sunday morning the water was gone.  When we got back out to go to church Sunday night, we drove by and it was underwater again.  I actually do remember the last time the Lebanon square had flooded and that was back in 1988.

This is the Town Creek where it runs under West Main Street in Lebanon.  At this time the water was right at street level and it wouldn't be much longer before they were going to have to close off the street because of water.

Here is Maple Hill Road where the water had gone over the road and they had to rope it off.

This is Don Fox Park.  This is the park that we go to to play or walk and meet friends.

I could go on and on with the pictures that I took on Sunday night.  Monday morning we woke up to blue skies with white fluffy clouds and you would had never known what went on that weekend.

April Showers bring May Flowers

Well, actually April hasn't brought many showers so there may not be many May flowers.  Yesterday was a stormy rainy day and we did absolutely nothing except sit and watch TV.  It was nice but by the end of the day, I was tired of doing nothing.  The picture above was the top of the storms that hit last night.  It was a pretty sight to see the sunlight over the top of the clouds.

April has been a busy month.  Faith participated in her second Lads to Leaders/Leaderette Convention at the Opryland Hotel.  We had a lot of fun.  This year we got to stay at the hotel.  Faith participated in puppets, oral Bible reading, Songs of Praise and Bible Bowl.  She did so awesome at the Songs of Praise.  She led a very hard song, Shine, Jesus, Shine but unfortunately didn't get to be a finalist.  The only downside to the weekend was that Kevin threw his back out just a few days before and he hurt every time he moved.  He had pain medicine and muscles relaxers but they put him to sleep so if he wasn't in pain, he was asleep in the hotel room.  I had just had surgery the Friday before.  I was recovered pretty well but I would get tired easy.  So by the end of the weekend I was COMPLETELY EXHAUSTED.  It took a whole week for me to feel like myself again.

John Derrick, the goofy little boy he is, spent the third weekend in a row with his grandmommy and granddaddy.  He was happy to go but I could tell that he really wanted me instead.  Next year, we might let him participate in Lads to Leaders.  Who knows??

Easter Sunday was a beautiful day.  The kids and I spent the afternoon at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's (Kevin stayed home and rested with his bad back).  Marty and Penny were there with their kids and we had a yummy dinner and then the kids had an Easter egg hunt in the backyard.  My mom thought she was being smart and she had enough eggs to let the kids find the same amount of eggs.  Well, my daddy, Marty and I hid the eggs and of course we couldn't remember we hid them all so there are six or seven eggs still hidden in their backyard.

The kids had fun though and then they got to empty all their candy at the end.

After the cold winter that we had all this warm weather had been so nice.  John Derrick has finally been able to get outside and really ride his "motorcycle"  I actually thought he might get bored riding it around our small backyard but he hasn't.  He just goes in circles and stops to get gas every once in a while.

Faith decided to get in on the fun also.  She figured out how to tie the wagon on the back of the four wheeler and John Derrick loves to pull her around the yard.

Yes, April has been a nice month.  It has been nice weather till now and this week it has been cool and rainy.  Today has been the strangest weather.  One minute it is pouring rain and hailing then the next minute it is sunny.   But, it has still been nice.

Just one more month till school is for the summer and we are going to have a good summer this year!!

Because it is All About Faith!

Faith has been a busy little girl for the past several weeks.  She has been doing some amazing things and I am very proud of how she has done them.

On February 25, Faith participated in the annual Invention Convention held at MTSU.  This is for 4th through 6th grade.  The 4th graders in the EXTEND class at Faith's school were the ones who participated.  She was on a team of four and the they invented a game called 2012.  She was quite proud of what she did.  Unfortunately her team did not win anything but she is already thinking about next year.  Coles Ferry Elementary took 11 teams and 6 of them won a trophy or a ribbon.

On March 4th, Faith was in a school musical called Timeless Television Tunes.  Two of the teachers at Coles Ferry have organized a production that is open to any 2nd through 4th grader that wants to participate.  Faith did the musical in 2nd grade and this year.  They sang television theme songs from the 60's, 70's and 80's.  Faith specifically sang in the songs from Good Times and WKRP.  They did a couple of movie songs and she danced to the Footloose song.

Last, we celebrated Faith's 10th birthday this past weekend.  She turns 10 on March 10, 2010.  I just can't believe she is growing up so fast.  This year we had a Purple Penguin Party.  She loves to play on a Disney website called Club Penguin.  I am not sure of what it is all about but she has fun playing on it.  Her penguin is purple which is her favorite color.  So I made her a purple penguin cake.  She wanted pizza for her party and we just carried on the "P" theme.  We had pizza, popcorn, pasta salad, and Pepsi.  It was a "p-erffic" party.

Looking for Spring

I am frozen solid.  I have been cold for too long.  It has been a cold cold winter so far.

We got a good snow at the end of January.  It snowed all day on a Friday and we got about 3-4 inches.  School was closed for 4 days.  Faith was sick and missed two additional days.  We got to go sledding at Grandmommy and Granddaddy's house during this snow.   This was the first time that the kids got to experience a real snow and sledding.  Unfortunately for them, they didn't like the climbing the hill part of sledding and they didn't last as long as I would have liked.  Kevin, my dad and I had a great time sledding down the hill.

It was cold all during the month of February.  We had several more snow days although not enough snow to go sledding but it was too cold to go out and enjoy ourselves.  I have spent every night during the month of February curled up under a blanket too cold to move.  We need spring!!!

The Big Snow of 2010

It was coming.  The weatherman said it would be a big one.  Schools were closed, stores were packed with people getting their bread, milk and eggs.  The Tractor Supply Store ran out of sleds.  We were all prepared to wake up on January 7, 2010 with a foot of snow on the ground.

Well actually he didn't predict a foot of snow.  Just about 1-2 inches.  They did close the schools BEFORE it snowed and people did rush to the store for milk and eggs.  You can't call yourself a Southern unless you panic when snow is predicted.  We woke up on January 7, 2010 with absolutely NO snow on the ground.  It didn't start snowing till about 9:30 that morning and we got about 1 inch of snow.  Just enough snow to make the kids excited enough to want to go out and play in the frigid cold.  We had just enough snow to build a 3 inch pile of snow that we called a snowman.  We were able to throw a few snow balls and make a snow angel in the road. 

So we didn't get the big snow this time but there is still hope for one this year.  The kids are really wanting to go sledding at Granddaddy and Grandmommy's house and maybe we will, maybe we will.

Another New Blog

I have decided to try another blog.  I think three blogs will be enough.  I have really enjoyed blogging and reading the blogs of my friends and family.  This blog, "The Waltons" is for bragging about my kids.  My other blog is A Journey of Hope and Peace is the one that I chronicle my journey with breast cancer.  I hope to end that blog soon as my journey comes to an end and I live cancer free.

My new blog is A Mom's Kitchen.  It will be a recipe blog with tips to plan menus and grocery shopping lists.  I am not that talented in the kitchen.  I will never be a Martha Stewart but I enjoy cooking for my family and I want to share what I do.  So if you are interested, check it out.  You will find simple recipes that I cook for my family.  None of the recipes will be original to me but recipes that my mom made, recipes from magazines and websites and friends.  I will also try to credit the person that I got the recipe from and why this recipes works for my family.