My how times have changed

This weekend for once was a quiet weekend where we had no real event or task to attend to. Friday night we were finally able to get together/eat dinner with the Derbys. Everytime I see them I am reminded how much I miss them now that I can just walk over to their apartment. On the way, Jeremy and I were discussing how our Friday nights have changed since we've lived in seminary land. When we first moved here, we had couples over all the time or went out with someone almost every weekend and now it's rare that we go out with other couples. We asked ourselves when did this happen and we realized its because most of the people we hung out with have moved or now have a baby and don't go out like they did. Most new moms have to worry about feeding times or are so exhausted they dont want to hang out late. So we decided we either have to join the baby club or find new friends without kids. (No offense to our friends with kids...we still would love to hang out with you too!)

Saturday Jerm had two intermural football games which is always fun to attend and catch up with all the girls. Then we had to go to the grocery store b/c we were seriously out of everything. Today was low key with church and small group.

I'm dreading going to school already. I know many of you have had to endure me saying this many times through out the year but its only week 5 and I feel this way. This group is running me ragged... please pray that the Lord would give me strength, wisdom, and patience. I finally told Jerm that next year I think I wanted to look into something new next year after he was out of school. So pray that the Lord would give me discernment. Also pray for me personally that I would trust and wait on the Lord in all things and realize that His timing and will are perfect and not to be anxious about anything. Thanks guys...I appreciate you keeping up with me and also for praying for me.

Thursday's Thirteen

As many of you know, I love to read blogs so I thought today I would share 13 blogs I check regularly (I have more but this is only a Thursday 13)...click on each name to visit them.

1) Blessed, Believing, and Blogging Browns-- my friend Jamie's blog... some of my favorite entries include funny things her youngest daughter Austin Kate has to say.

2) The LittletonsMy college roomate Erin's journey towards adopting two beautiful kids from Uganda.

3) WinDot My friend Cheri's blog on her life as a new mom. She has a super cute little boy whose picture frequents the blog almost every day!

4) Living Proof Ministries Beth Moore's blog with daughter. She writes just likes she talks which makes you feel like you are her close friend having a conversation with her.

5) The Fruit of the Spirit is not a Coconut Our friends Trevor and Keva's blog---they too are in the process of adopting a little boy from Ethopia. I check her daily to see if they have received word. :)

6) JD Greear Our pastor's blog

7)GirlTalkCJ Mahaney's wife and daughters write about Biblical womanhood and other great topics.

8) Musical Sea (private blog)--This is the blog of our friends Josh and Krista who are serving in N. Africa. I love reading about their new life and catching up on their daughter Lydia.

9) The Yoze in Asia (again due to the nature of their work, I'm not sure if I can reveal the site) but they are an awesome family from our church who are serving in Asia. They are amazing writers and their love for Christ radiates through their writing.

10) Lindsey's Blog My friend Lindsey's blog...always fun to see her new pictures!

11) On the Road to Emmaus Our former neighbor's Paul and Miranda are also adopting from Ethopia and their blog is very Biblically focused!

12) The LairFriends Cher and Stephen.. former NY actor/actress couple who rock it on Sunday mornings. Both are hilarious which makes their blog even more fun.

13) The Derby's x3Kevin and Stef's blog

Ok I may have offended a couple of you because you didn't see your blog on here. Have no fear, I do read your blog..I just didnt have room here. If you want me to read your blog you also have to tell me about it as well as update it regulary. :)

Have fun with some new reading!

Mom Turns 50 (Almost!)

On Tuesday, my mom turns 50!! Because of everyone's schedules, today was the only day the family could get together so tonight we celebrated her 50 years with an awesome dinner by Dad, cake by me, and lots of presents. Here's the recap:
Mom's Chocolate Cheesecake (in many varieties) with the OVER THE HILL candles!

Mom begins to read Ma-Ma's card about the day she was born.

Ma-ma cries just thinking about what she wrote in the card.

Jen's present

Dad's present

Ma-ma's present

My present..digital photo frame

Happy Birthday to You!

Blow out the candles!

Happy Birthday Mom! We love you and hope that the next 50 years were as fun as the last!

Forgotten Pictures

I was looking through some pictures today and I forgot that I hadn't posted these pictures from the first weekend in August. These are from Homecoming at my grandma's church in Emporia, Va.


The 3 grandkids... Cameron (my cousin), me, and Brandon (my brother)

The Fam minus Jeremy

Brandon and Dad decided to be cute and match once we got back to Great Ma-Ma's house. They are a bunch of dorks!

Thursday's Thirteen

Today's Thursday Thirteen is Shannon's Top 13 Movies. These are ones that I could watch over and over (and have).

1. Grease


2. Dirty Dancing


3. Center Stage


4. The Holiday


5. High School Musical


6. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days


7. Forrest Gump


8. Sound of Music


9. Steel Magnolias


10. Office Space


11. The Notebook


12. Legally Blonde


13. Failure to Launch


Did anyone notice that most of them are chick flicks?

I love our small group

Thanks to Jaime and her excessive picture taking, we now have a picture of our group! There were many other fun pictures of the night on her blog so go by and check them out. My favorite though is not there...Jaime and I tried to take a picture of us praying together. Background story to that is that our husbands were doing childcare together so when you were supposed to pray with your spouse Jaime and I were "the female couple". You had to be there...it was fun! So Jaime...pass the picture on!

Anyways, this group is amazing and I feel blessed to have them in my life. :)

It's the redhead's fault

The redhead being Robin. Robin came to visit this weekend and while she was here we visited Chapel Hill for the Carolina/UVA game. As you can tell from her shirt, Robin is a big time UVA fan/alumna. Because Jeremy was busy playing intramural football for SEBTS, Robin and I were able to go to the game together. Though my dad gave her constant grief, she showed respect and didn't cheer or sing too loudly. Sadly though the Tarheels didn't play their best and many of the fans around us blamed the redhead for our performance. Ro was a good sport about it and in the end her team won and we had to hear their dumb fight song once again (seriously who uses Auld Lang Syn (the new year's song)for their fight song!).

While Robin was here we also realized this is the 5th anniversary of our friendship! We were squeally girls about it when we figured it out and got made fun of seriously by my dad. But I am very blessed to have Ro has a friend for so long! I'm thankful that the Lord brought us together as accountability partners at CWR 5 years ago.

I'm also thankful that I got home safely from the game as I rode home with one of our soon to be 17 year old friends. I used to babysit him and his brother when I was in high school and now he is the one driving me around. I have to admit he was a good driver and didn't take after his father (who absolutely scares me when we ride with him.) So a shout-out to Justin and his great driving skills. I however, am giving him a boo for stealing his friend's girlfriend (for a 2nd time!). :P

Also, I had to post this because it is too funny! The picture below is of our friends' daughter McKenna. Her parents are ASU alums and were very excited about their victory over Michigan. They posted this picture on their blog with the tagline: Michigan: Making Babies Cry since 2007. :) GO MOUNTAINEERS!

Thursday's Thirteen

Today’s Thursday Thirteen is 13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Me: (I hope after reading this, you don’t think of me any less. :)

1. I hate grocery shopping…My mom didn’t like it and I think her negative feelings wore off on me.
2. I don’t have my appendix anymore…it was removed when I was in the 3rd grade.
3. I was born without my 2 eye teeth so in middle school I had to wear braces to pull all my teeth forward.
4. I like to pop zits; I think it’s more that I hate when people have white heads so I would rather see them popped.
5. I was suspended for 10 days in high school because I drank 2 sips of alcohol on campus.
6. I love change…I love to rearrange, cut my hair differently, and to do just something completely different.
7. Though I love change I hate when traditions change esp. Christmas traditions.
8. I love meeting new people but hate being the new person and feeling left out.
9. If someone is acting weird to me, I always try to figure out what I did to them, even if I didn’t do anything at all. I just hate when people are mad at me or don’t like me.
10. I’ve always wanted to have one true best friend, one that I didn’t have to share and knew everything about me. (ok that sounded like one of my third graders.)
11. My biggest fear in life is that I won’t be able to have children.
12. I like watching the movies and shows my student watch
13. I eat chocolate chip pancakes every Saturday morning.

My Heart Just Breaks

Being a teacher is hard in so many ways (as I have voiced many times on this blog) but one way I don't talk about much is the emotional baggage that comes with it. In order to keep their children safe, parents often confided in you very intimate details of their life. This year I think is by far the worse cases. I have kids without either parents due to death, kids who have been kidnapped by one of their parents, and the list just keeps going on.

The more I read their files, the more my heart breaks. What is this generation growing up in? Our society is a scary place to live when kids aren't even safe with their own parents? I feel helpless. I'm just trying to love on them and be as much Jesus to them as I can without speaking his name. On that note, I was touched today to hear one of the girls in my class today witnessing to another girl. She asked me if I would write down her church's web address down for her because she wanted to make sure she spelled it correctly. The next day she brought in specialized tracks for a bunch of the kids in her class. The kids were actually really excited to read them. It's time like these that give a bit of light in such a dark world!

Check these out...

This is by far the worse recruitment video I have ever seen. Good thing App has a nationally recognized football program now or they would be up the creek without a paddle.


Also I wanted to brag on my husband. His multimedia portfolio is now online and you should check it out. If you know anyone needing a designer--graphic or web, pass it along.

Thursday Thirteen

(I started this on Wednesday, but I really did publish this on Thursday! :)

My friend Jamie does a Thursday Thirteen on her blog and every Thursday she has some kind of list with 13 things on it. I thought I would give it a chance this week. This one is...

13 Things I Need to Be Doing Rather than Blogging/Hanging out on the Computer:

1) Washing the dishes... not having a dishwasher really sucks!
2) Cleaning the bathrooms...again not a fun task.
3) Folding the load of laundry that has been in the dryer since Saturday.
4) Putting away a load of laundry still in the floor upstairs.
5) Planning my lessons for next week
6) Make dinner for Alyson since she has no time with 2 babies now
7) Catching up on my Bible reading...I am way behind in Job
8) Buying Mom a birthday present...her big 50 is on the 25th.
9) Catching up with friends on the phone
10) Exercise...seriously!
11) Work on my t-shirt quilt I started over the summer
12) Clean out my closet
13) Take old clothes to the sharing shop (seminary goodwill)

OK so instead of talking about it, I should get on them...

An Amazing Day of Football

Saturday was an amazing day for football!! First ASU, Jeremy's alma mater, produced one of the biggest upsets in college history when they beat #5 randked Michigan 34-32. Pat Forde of ESPN.com said it best, "This wasn't a No. 16 seed beating a No. 1 --that would be an insult to the two-time champions of the Division Formerly Known As I-AA. More than anything else, Appalachian State proved Saturday that the best of the little fellers can play exceptional football. That they must be accorded respect. That they are not as far behind the big boys as we've always assumed." Could there be a 3rd national championship in their future?!!

After that exciting win, we went to Chapel Hill for the beginning of the Butch Davis era. If the game on Saturday was any indication of what is to come, then it's going to be a great year for Tarheel football. With a 37-14 win over JMU, my mom's alma mater, the Tarheels are now 1-0!