week in review...

family~

I cannot hardly believe school starts in just one week. I am a little excited about a new year. I love fresh starts, new experiences and new chapters. It means endless possibilities! Izzy will go to the pre-k afternoon class to begin with and be pulled out for other activities. I look forward to this year for Izzy. I think having her in afternoon classes will be wonderful for the two of us! Amanda will begin her junior year in high school. Unbelievable that I have a child that old. I still feel so young myself. She is enrolled in a lot of challenging classes this fall such as trigonometry and chemistry. It should be a good challenging year for her. Bailey will be an eighth grader. I loved eighth and ninth grades probably the most of any other year in school. Bailey is considering playing basketball this year. I love when the kids play basketball! Emelia is also planning to play basketball. She is so much fun to watch, she is very tall and a good player! She always enjoys the school year.

We are steadily feeling more and more at home in the church we are visiting. The people are friendly, the message is full of faith, and it just feels right. I'm so happy we are at this point and I just thank God for getting us here.

Matt's mom, aunt, sister and her friend Clay came down for the weekend to celebrate birthdays. Jane Ann brought me a cross she purchases while in Ireland recently touring the Waterford company. It is really pretty, although I think it will live in the box it came in for a while at least. Matt's aunt gave me a gift certificate for bath & body! We all ate Mexican food at a favorite local place and then went shopping for the kid's school shoes. It's tax free weekend here. We found shoes for everyone but Bailey, but I did get his ordered online so they'll make it in time for school. I also ran in bath and body and used my gift certificate on some yummy lotion and sprays for me & Izzy. I also got a bunch of the hand soaps! I love lavender and eucalyptus fragrances. They smell wonderful and clean.

Later Saturday evening after our company all left, Julie... her hubby... and her baby W all came over to visit. They were here from Texas visiting her parents. Julie and I had a really good time visiting and we all laughed too much! Baby W is adorable...After we ran out to get gyros (to go) we came back and highlighted and cut Julie's hair...
I think we finished after 11 p.m. ...

Izzy didn't want to sleep last night for some reason. She woke up at 3 a.m. and was pretty much up from that point on. I sat in the 'cry room' with her in church this morning and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I think I may have even dozed off for a bit during a prayer (or two). We had Subway for lunch and watched Bridge to Terebithia. It was a sad, but good movie. I'm hoping for a nap before evening church services!

kitchen~

If you haven't made tortilla soup, you should. I made it last week and it was so good! You remember the week a while back that I let each kid pick the evening meal? Well, Emelia chose Tortilla soup and then we ended up going to a birthday party that evening so we didn't ever have it and she never forgot. She pestered reminded me constantly! I'm glad she did, it was a treat. Great avocados helped it to be a perfect meal. There are a few recipes I hope to try this week, maybe Carrie's meatballs she posted recently and Barb's spinach pasta again (it was wonderful and easy too) ... also the 40 garlic clove chicken. My next task for the afternoon is my menu for mpm! I made the breakfast casserole for company this weekend and used sausage (link) and bacon. It was really good! I love how versatile it is and it is always a crowd pleaser. Clay (Jane Ann's friend) said it was the best breakfast casserole he had ever had.

blogville~

Secret mailers has been fun. I just love my notepads I showed ya'll from July's gift. I smile every time I walk by it. It's that neat! I am on the look out for my August gift, the theme for August is "all about you" I'm thinking another trip to bath & body is likely unless I come up with something more creative. Tori sent me the sweetest card and recipe. I won a few of the bloggy contests that just ended and I got two gifts yesterday in the mail, a book and photo nature cards with a blue swirly which is for babies to carry around. Pretty cute stuff! All this good mail is really spoiling me! It's just fun to get the mail these days. My dear friend Mendy sent me a willow angel that is called "blessing of friendship" Isn't she pretty? Marcia, my organizing bloggy friend is having her birthday tomorrow! Happy Birthday Marcia! It seems quiet around blogville lately. Maybe everyone is just busy doing fun Summer things, or getting ready for school to begin. I was thinking about the next time travel tuesday... I think we'll travel back to a birth experience. I know not everyone has children or a child, but many do. I hope the stories don't scare first time mom's to be like Haley. My experiences were all pretty different so I'm not sure which I'll write about, or maybe all of them...

this week's blessings~

The church we are visiting. It is a blessing.
The kids. I am amazed at how unique each child is and love them for their own special traits.
My friends. I have the best friends a girl could dream of.
My bloggy neighborhood. You all make my days bright and I just love you.
Quiet Sunday afternoons. Especially after sleepless Saturday nights.
Birthday celebrations that go on and on. Why just have a day, when you can celebrate all week long?
God. His love is awesome and He continues to light my path in such a perfect way.
You. Because you took time to read about my little existence in nowhere, OK. Many people that don't blog (and some who do) say they can't imagine blogging because there isn't much going on in their lives. That's just not true. The mundane can be the most enjoyable to write and to read as well.

I hope you have many many blessings this week!