I Almost Forgot!!!!

If any of you are at home today when the Price Is Right is on, you should watch, my friend Sharon is going to be on it! We have all waited since August to find out if she got any farther than contestants row!! Since Sharon is our Head Start director, we get to watch it at work, can't wait!!!

Happy Halloween....Anyway.......

Well I TRIED to get the girls to wear their Halloween costumes. Chrissy is such a princess that she seemed not to mind at all, I'm sure she could do without the hat but she has truly always been happy to have her sweater on in the chilly months and will even stand on her back legs to "help" get it on her. Lizzy on the other hand would prefer to be "au natural", as you can see, the little hat was on for about 3 minutes, look at the picture of her and Robert, she did that herself, very calmly reaching up, taking the hat off and holding it- I was trying to be nice to her by not making her have anything but the hat, still not a good idea!. It's really funny, they are mother and daughter and couldn't be more different!

What is Wrong with People???

I have something on my mind that I just can't shake, I can't believe what is going on in Nebraska. The Nebraska congress passed a "safe haven" law earlier this year. The law stated that a person could drop a child off at any hospital with no questions or investigations and no risk of prosecution. The law was inteneded to keep babies out of dumpsters and children protected from harm- there was no age limit just "minors". Since September 13th, there have been 21 kids dropped off, yesterday was the lastests, a 15-year old girl. The youngest has been 1 year old, but most range from 6- 15.
I was telling my mom this today and she said it didn't really surprise her with the economy. Sorry, Mom, we had a rough time (yes, it was REALLY rough) when I was 15, but I truly don't think you ever thought of giving me away...I don't understand these people and it cuts me to the core. I want so badly just to drive to Nebraska and bring every one of these kids home. I am literally sick today and I think it is just because of this, I cannot imagine driving off and leaving Robert standing there watching me drive off...how could they? Why would they, really?

Happy Fall Y'all

I spent the day in Paris yesterday doing outreach with one of our fieldworkers. I always love going to Paris because at lunch, I take off by myself and go to their beautiful park. When I got there and saw all the fall colors, I HAD to go walking in it. It was 44 degrees but being wrapped in the glory of fall, the cold didn't seem to bother me. Enjoy the pictures!

Another Marching Season in the Books

The Newton Marching Eagles ended out their season bringing home several trophies last night from the Marching Illini Festitval. In Parade, they won 1st for auxilary, 2nd for percussion and 3rd for drum major. In the field competition, they won 1st in auxilary, 3rd for drum major and 3rd overall. (Congrats to the drum majors!, I feel they had been overlooked all season and they finally got some recognition!) Their class had 7 of the best bands I had ever seen, it was the first time all year, I couldn't really tell what was going to happen, or even be able to make a prediction.

The parade was just as awesome, we met up with Bruce Balding, who, of course, has been in charge of the auxillary for years. His theory was if we had not been the first to perform in our class, we would have gotten 2nd only to Eureka, but because we performed 1st, we would get 3rd. He has been around long enough, he nailed it.

We also want to thank Bruce for the ride back to the stadium after the parade and for sharing his seat with us during the parade!

The kids didn't bring home any first place trophys for the band this year, and I really felt bad for them but then I remembered all the ones who were there and didn't bring home ANY trophys. These kids are winners, every one of them. I think many of them will tell you that this was probably their best band year yet because they had fun.

I still look back on every band competition with a lot of fond memories. It was fun to win but it was even more fun to feel like you BELONGED, and I believe these kids know, they belong. Good Job kids, thanks for all your hard work! You are all wonderful!!

It was also great to have my sister, Nila and my brother-in-law Richard there for the field show, glad you got to come!

I've Been Tagged, Part 2

Okay, here is my attemp AGAIN, sorry, yesterday ended up being a crazy day, went to install 2 new computers, the first one went in like a breeze, the second one....well not so much, but I finally got it done and made my last work related phone call at 5:02 yesterday evening, I normally get off at 3 if that tells you anything. Anyway, I didn't even want to LOOK at my computer last night. Anyway, here we go:

The rules
1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your post(or as many as you want)
4. If you are tagged, do it and pass the tag along.
5. Enjoy

Six Random Things About Me.
1. I am an organizational freak and have a list made for everything.
2. I LOVE to scrapbook, though I haven't done it for over a week now.
3. I gave birth to one child but on any given night, you will find multiple teens at my house, sometimes even when Robert isn't home.
4. I am literally saving my pennies (and the rest of my change) for a Kitchenaid mixer.
5. I have lived in 3 states and 9 houses.
6. God gave me my soulmate and then he gave us a wonderful kid.

That's it, hopefully it goes, because I have to, once again, get ready for work.

Between everyone else, all the bloggers and readers I know are about tagged but I think I have three left. So...I tag A from Rusk/Cummins, who was needing to post anyway, but it looks like she did yesterday, and Dani, who also needs to post on her blog and last but not least...Sarah D.

Have fun!

I've Been Tagged

Okay Janelle, I had this whole thing done, went to post it and got a "server error" and was going to have to start over! ARGH, first time I ever had that happen on the blog, it happens at work way too much. Anyway, I am not ignoring that I got tagged, it will just have to wait until at least lunch, but seeing as how I am traveling today, probably this evening. Thanks for tagging me.

Time for an "Awwwww" moment......

Tika baked Robert a cake last night and brought it to him today at school. It wasn't even a box, she made it from scratch (and I got to taste just a little of it, she knows how to bake!)

Here They Are

Robert and Mr. Ervin, his History teacher who nominated him.
Jason nominating his football managers.
All the freshman and sophmore Students of the Month.
The choir singing for Harvest Home
Robert was our emcee for the afternoon events.

I will put pictures of my quilt on in a few days, I want to take it to work for all the girls to see.

What a week!

I'm feeling rather guilty that so much has happened this week and I haven't had time to blog it. I have probably even forgot some things but I will hit the highlights. Hopefully later on this afternoon, after a good long nap, I will try to post the pictures that goes with all these things.

Thursday morning, I got to attend the Student of the Month breakfast. It was wonderful. There were 27 students nominated for October and it is just so great to see a bunch of great, responsable teenagers.Especially in a world where we hear a lot more about the bad things kids do than the good. Something else that was just neat to see was Jason Fulton, all grown up. I know he has been there for a while but I remember when he was mine and his brothers' little tag along.

Saturday was our band classic and the Effingham Band Classic. What a day! I have to tell you, I have never been so nervous about anything in my life as I have been and still am about the Band Classic. My job was to put the totals in the computer and tabulate the winners. When all was said and done, there has a half a point between 1st and 2nd. I had to do everything so quickly that I am probably going to have this on my mind until Tuesday or Wednesday when I haven't heard from Deb that someone complained (actually someone challenged it before they even left, but we reviewed it and on that I was correct). The coolest thing was I won the quilt raffle. How neat is that?? Deb made the quilt, which is neat to me in a different reason. Deb and I have a connection outside of band. Ron and Deb first came to Jasper county because we hired Ron as our preacher. Amanda was one of the judges, that one is another one that is hard to imagine all grown up. Anyway, the quilt is BEAUTIFUL, it is green and purple, of course several of my friends have told me they have rooms already decorated that color. I don't right at the moment but I am thinking real strongly about redoing our guest room just to go with the quilt. I haven't ever done anything to the guest room so it wouldn't be totally out of the question. When Vaneta went to get the raffle winner, she came back upstairs and handed it to Geron, Geron said "you're kidding" and I asked who one, Vaneta just held her hand up like wait a minute and then Geron announced it, I screamed, so of course, everybody probably heard that over the mic.

Effingham's competition was AWESOME. The kids got 2nd but it was to the roughest competition to date, and to all my all high school buddys who read this...WE BEAT MONTICELLO!!! They got third. We beat Robinson too, who had placed 2nd at our competition yesterday. The auxillary got 1st, the winds got 2nd, percussion got 2nd and then overall we were second to Murphysboro.

By the way, another note to my high school friends, do you remember "Mmm Roast Beef, Chicken Pot Pie"? Tom and I tried to get our little group started on it, unfortunately all that happened was our spouses slid away from us. Oh well....

As I said, I will TRY to get pics up this afternoon.

Happy Sunday!

The letter......

I always dread coming home, getting the mail and finding a letter from Newton Community High School. My first thought is "what have you done?"This was a pleasent letter though, one that will have to go in the scrapbook. Robert was nominated for STUDENT OF THE MONTH!!! How cool!!!!

Mr. Ervin, his American History teacher nominated him and this coming Thursday I get to go with him to a breakfast honoring all the students of the month (Andrew has to work, darn it!). At the parent teacher conferences Mr. Ervin told us that Robert was just the kind of student you like to have, he gets involved, listens and is interested. We basically heard that repeated from all his teachers. Guess I'm not the only one that thinks he is a good kid!

One little note to add to this, the letter was signed by Amy Cummins, how cool was that? Amy is my friend Patty's daughter who just started teaching at Newton this year. I bet she was tickled to get to send the letter too.

Marching Eagles Place 2nd at ISU!

Yesterday, we traveled with the band to Indiana State University. We had an early performance, 9:30 our time, and they actually gave the awards for the smaller classes at noon our time. We were home by 1:30, which was a welcome change to the last few weeks and definatley a break before the final two weeks.

The kids did a great job yesterday, I mean GREAT. They marched the show the cleanest yet. I truly believe they got beat by "CUTE". The winning show was cute, and it really was, there was only about half of the band members but they were playing music that could really nail you to your seats. If there was just an award for being classy, Newton would have had it in the bag, they were Class with a capital C.

We came home yesterday afternoon and prepared for a family dinner. My sister, Nila and her husband Richard came down for the evening and to stay all night. They live at Lincoln, Il. I fixed a nice fall dinner and we spent the evening on the porch. Unfortunately, I always get so wrapped up in the visit I forget to take pictures. Maybe next time!!!

Here are some great pics of the band at Terre Haute though:

Robert and Tika sat with us yesterday and I got to meet a couple of her friends. Tika made the statement that she hates it that Shelby and Robert bicker at each other all the time. I had to laugh, Shelby is Jim Riddle's girl. They both come by it honest, Jimmy and I use to do that to each other all the time. Heck, we still do.

Oh how I LOVE Awana night!

Wednesday was such a bad, bad afternoon at work. Our glorious LIHEAP.net system was down at the state level which meant as hard as I tried, I couldn't get my work done. When I don't get my work done, people go without power, last night, about 25 families in our 9 county area was without power. Thanks to the wonderful world of technology, no longer can we pick up the phone, call the vendor and say, "Hey, we are going to pay the bill, turn them back on". No, it HAS to go through the system. When the system is down, it can't go and it didn't. I came home feeling a bit defeated by the day. Then came AWANA.......



For two hours, once a week, I get to have these glorious teenagers, I normally have 9, there are 11 that I claim, last night I had 8. They amaze me. They are just quite simply good kids who have a genuine yearning to learn more about God. We have been discussing those deep questions that everybody asks at some point in their lives- Where did I come from, why am I here, where am I going? We have learned that we all have a worldview. At their age, they are just now starting to form their worldview. As each one of us turns on the news each day and hears what's happening, you mentally form an opinion in your head. That is your personal worldview. We have been concentrating on the fact that this worldview is based upon your intermost beliefs and that, being a Christian, it is VERY important to know what GOD's worldview is. We have deep biblical discussions, and the kids get it, there is no doubt about it. At the end of each lesson there are questions, they can answer them in no time flat. I can actually see these kids learning and growning in God's grace......it replaces all the bad things that happens at work, it replaces all the stupid little problems I may think I have. Then, when I look back on my own life, I realize, everything that has happened, was FOR me, not TO me. You know, all I am going to finish this with, I realize we are on the right track when two of the guys asked for prayer last night for another guy that has been being a bully. It has stuck in their minds that what humans can't change, God can. Wow!

What a weekend!

Wow, this was one of those "dead run" weekends, with homecoming, a band competition, getting ready for our Harvest Home celebration at church and to top it all off....an announcement.

Of course, the weekend started off Friday afternoon with the homecoming parade. The Alumni band marched in the homecoming parade, this is always such a good time. I will have pictures coming soon.....

Friday night, was the coronation. Josh Welling, who is a good friend of Robert's was crowned Homecoming King, along with Nikki Tipsword being queen. Three of our High School Youth group was in the court, I was very proud of all of them.

Then came the dance.....Aren't they cute?

Saturday brought a band competition at McKendree College. Eventhough, they got 4th, I believe they had a good day. Andrew and I went and watched the entire competition and there were some just unbelievably good bands there.

Our hearts go out to the Mehlville Marching Panthers; one of their band members past away earlier last week, they handled everything with a lot of grace. They had a cymbal with a purple ribbon tied around it in the pit, then after the drum major did her salute, she took a bouquet of flowers and laid them at the feet of the cymbal stand. I can't imagine how the kids held it together they way they did, let alone get 1st place in their group.

And now for the announcement.......

Andrew's dad is getting married!!! Her name is Cheryl, we haven't got to meet her yet, but we can tell he is happy, so we are happy for him. He popped the question earlier this week. They are still figuring out the specifics, as he said they have 2 houses, 3 cars and a black and white cat, all of which needs taken into consideration. They are looking at sometime in January. Congratulations to both of you, and we look very forward to meeting you Cheryl. Welcome to our family!

Oh Please!!

I had to drive the Jeep to work today, Andrew was bound and determined that he better "check out" the van a little better so he took it to work last night ( I think he had visions of spending the weekend sleeping on the couch if I got stranded again) . I HATE driving the Jeep. I pretty much hate the Jeep all together, except when the top and doors are off. Anyway...we have had auditors at work all week this week. These are little "stuffed shirt" guys who are all CPAs. Their jobs of course, is to go over our work with a fine tooth comb. Well, this morning, here comes one of them into my office, I was on the phone, so he left. When I hung up, I went to see what he needed, he came back out of the board room and said "it isn't an audit question, but...Can I see your JEEP??" Gee whiz, what is with guys and jeeps--any single girls out there-buy yourself a Jeep, apparently it is the best bait around! Anyway, I gave him the keys and away he went. I was assuming that he was in the "wanting one" stage, he comes back in about 10 minutes later and says "That's a REALLY nice Jeep" (wish you could have seen his face) Anyway, he says, "I just bought a 2003 not too long ago, just something to play with." So of course, I told him the same thing I told Jon Fulton not too long ago, Andrew has spent more money on the Jeep in the last 6 months than he has on me our entire 16+ years of marriage (Andrew says this is an exaggeration, but I say if it is, not by much!) So then the guy had to hear about all the different tops he had for it, and what all he has done to it (believe me, I knew, I have heard it a million times). I was just dumbfounded. I always feel like I am having a second class day when I have to drive the silly thing to work. Not that the guy made me have any new found love for the Jeep. I just thought this was hilarious!

Catch the Spirit...Live the Dream, part 2

What a morning I had just trying to get to work!! My van overheated about 3 mile outside of Newton. Of course, Andrew was still at work (and apparently on a conference call that the other member of management that I spoke to felt was more important that his wife being STRANDED along the side of the road!) I truly Thank the Lord that I live in Jasper County. I was on the phone with Robert (bless his heart for knowing cars!) he was talking me through the things to do just to try to get it home. John Birch drove by about then. In just a minute, here came John back, right about the same time Sheriff Ed Francis showed up. I will admit any time of day that I am very independent but one thing that I absolutely hate is that feeling that I am a sitting duck for anyone who would want to rob me, hurt me, or even just scare me. I am always very thankful to be back home in Jasper county, but this morning was one of those days that magnified just how grateful I am. Thank you John for taking me back home and thank you Ed for stopping just to make sure everything was taken care of. I have lived places that I know I would have sit out there and watched every car fly right on by (and honestly hoped that they would because the person in the cars would have all been strangers). Also, a big thanks to my mom and my son. Mom came and picked me and Robert up, took Robert out to the van with a bottle of water, he put water in, checked all the hoses and thought I could make it back to the house. When we got back to the house, he checked everything again and was sure it was safe for me to take it to work. Sure enough.

And Andrew? He finally got off of his conference call and noticed I had called his cell phone umpteen times, so he called immediately, nobody even told him I had called. So, I got over being mad at him and displaced the anger to the member of management that I talked to. I hope, and I mean this, that she is never in the same situation.

Again, I thank the Lord above for my friends and especially that I am living among them.