Happy Birthday, My Son

Yesterday was Jake's 10th birthday. We had a wonderful day together. I can't believe my baby is now in the double digits!! David and I woke him up with breakfast in bed - his favorite, Hardees gravy biscuit. Then we took him outside to give him his birthday present. We had gotten him a new bike. He had outgrown his other one - it was the small one we had taken the training wheels off, so he was ready for a new one. After that, we got ready and took him to his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. David's sisters and their families who live here in SC were able to come celebrate with us. The pictures are posted on Facebook. After Chuck E. Cheese, we went to get some "adult food" at O'Charley's and then came home so Jake could play with his gifts. While he was playing in his room, he got phone calls and texts from friends in Smyrna (Josh, Cha, and Jordan) which just made his day. He had been missing his Smyrna friends since they could not be here with him on his birthday. My Dad called all the way from Guatemala to wish him a happy birthday and he got to talk to Grandma and Grandpa from Clarksville, as well as cards from them and from his Godparents. Last, but not least, he got to snuggle with me in my bed and go to sleep. Perfect end to a wonderful day. Happy Birthday, Jake. I love you.

I've been missing that...

A few weeks ago, David broke a bone in the top of his foot, so he has had to wear a boot and has been on restriction at work. As a result, we have not been able to take our walks in the evening, and I have missed that so much. Usually, every day after work and dinner, we will go for a walk and just talk. I look forward to those times all day. Sometimes we take the kids or the dogs along, too. It is always a nice way to end the day. So for the past few weeks, he has not been able to go with me because of his foot. Well, he had his foot x-rayed again on Monday and found out today that his foot has healed and he doesn't have to wear the boot anymore. Tonight we went for two walks!! One before dinner while the kids played on the playground, then after dinner with the dogs. Yay!!!

On an entirely different note... I am officially a college student again. My dad used to tease me that I was going to be a professional student. I do love being in school. I have been accepted to nursing school. I always thought when the kids got older I would go back and finish my psychology degree and maybe teach or even open up my own counseling clinic, but I just really felt like going in a different direction. My nursing clinicals won't start until next August, but before then, I have 7 classes to complete - 3 biology courses (because they have to have been taken in the last 5 years and mine SO were not!!), 2 pharmacology classes, Nutrition, and Nursing Across Lifespans.

So this first semester, I'm taking Anatomy & Physiology I and Nutrition. I also found out last week that I will have to take English 101. When I went to undergrad at Vanderbilt I took a placement test. My score on that allowed me to start in a sophomore level English class, so since I have never actually taken freshman English and don't have a 101 credit, I have to take it before I can start my clinicals. Fortunately, they are going to let me take the English CLEP exam. Can you imagine me at 43 years old sitting in a freshman English class. Uh, no thanks. So CLEP it is.

Classes start Aug. 25th. I'm taking the classes on-line but will have to go to the campus for my biology lab once a week. Wish me luck!!

Convention...

I am so glad that David, Lindz, Jake and I were able to go to the State Convention here in South Carolina yesterday. During service last night, Jake spied out in the back as he was going to the bathroom that they had food, so he could hardly wait until the end of service to see if he was going to be able to go back and get something to eat!! He ended up eating a hot dog, chips, and THREE pieces of chocolate cake (his favorite next to my fudge pie)!!!!

We were also able to see Bro. Ard as he was the headquarters rep for the convention. As always, it was great to see him. I just love that man!!





Before service, we went to dinner in Charleston (about 30 minutes away from Summerville where the convention was held). David took us to The Crab Shack downtime Charleston and I got one of my favs - SheCrab Soup. So yummy!! The kids and David enjoyed eating the free peanuts they served before the food. We had a nice time. We are planning to take a weekend trip to Charleston sometime this summer. It's a great place to sightsee and take pics. Some beautiful architecture there and the bay is gorgeous. Can't wait to go back and have more time to spend. I posted the rest of the pics on Facebook.

Kids say the darndest things...

Tonight, I was in the kitchen making dinner as usual. Jake came in to ask me what was for dinner. I said, "Enchiladas." He said, "Ugh, do I HAVE to eat that??!!" As we were negotiating what he would eat for dinner (he's in a very picky stage lately), he reached into a bowl of shredded cheese I was using to put together the enchiladas and stuffed a big bite of it into his mouth. He decided that he would have a hot dog for dinner (yeah, I know, real nutritious), and as he was leaving the kitchen, he turned back to me and said, "I love God." When I asked him what brought that on, he answered, "Well, I just do. God made all the animals and he made cows and cows give us milk and they make cheese out of milk, and I LOVE cheese." With that, he grabbed another bite of shredded cheese and skipped out of the kitchen.

You just gotta love kids...

And God.

Headaches Explained

For the past few months, I have been waking up nearly every morning (at least 5 days out of the week) with a headache. But these headaches have been different from the stress migraine headaches I sometimes get. I have a migraine medicine for those, but these were different. I would wake up with a pressure feeling on each side of my head around my temples. It didn't feel like sinus pressure. Well, a couple of mornings ago, I found myself clenching my jaw while I was working, and it made the pressure on the sides of my head hurt worse, so I think I've been grinding my teeth at night; evidently pretty bad if it is giving me a headache the next morning. My orthodontist had told me that I grind my teeth, cause he can tell on my retainer, but I've never had problems from it the next day. Hmm...so what to do about that?

Anyway, back in Smyrna for a couple of weeks finalizing some things around the house and here to support my daughter as she preaches her first message this Sunday. I'll be picking up David at the airport Sunday morning at 10:00. I'm so glad he will be here for Chelsei's sermon. Then, he will get to stay with us for the rest of the week and we will all head back to SC together on Saturday. The army movers will be coming on Tuesday to get the rest of our things and move them for us. Then, I need to get the carpets cleaned and put what we are not taking with us into storage.

Another reason I am back in town is because my nephew is graduating high school. The graduation ceremony is tonight, in fact. I'm so proud of him. He is growing up way too fast. They all are, but I suppose that's what they are meant to do. His girlfriend is coming to visit for his graduation. Her plane got in last night. I haven't gotten to meet her yet, just seen a picture. He seems to be quite smitten. Ahh...young love.

Speaking of love...I can't wait for David to get here. I miss him terribly when we are apart. When God said you are joined as one flesh, he wasn't joking around!!!

Soldier of the Month

Congratulations to my husband for winning Soldier of the Month. This was only his second time to compete. He had to appear before a panel of First Seargents who judged him in each of these categories:

* Personal appearance
* Oral Expression and conversation skills
* Knowledge of world and local affairs and current events
* Awareness of military programs
* Overall soldier knowledge (MOS Soldier's Manual, basic soldier knowledge)
* Soldier's attitude

Also, today we found out he has been selected to compete for Soldier of the Quarter which is held in June. I'm proud of you, babe!!

Because sometimes you do it just for fun...

Fun, fun weekend. Jake had a soccer game Saturday at 4:30. He was very excited to play as this was his next to last game for the spring season. Well, the weather here has been "cloudy with a chance of rain" for the past few days. We didn't think much of it as we got ready to go to the game. As we were leaving to go to North Carolina after his game (more about that later), we packed the car up and headed over to his game which was about 15 minutes away. The kids were out on the field warming up and David looked behind us and said, "If that's coming this way, we're about to get drenched." I looked behind us and there was a huge dark rain cloud and the wind was definitely blowing it our way. Well, about 2 minutes later, these big, fat raindrops started falling and then bam!! The rain started so quick and was so heavy that by the time we made it back to the concession stand we were indeed drenched. The kids stood around for a little while hoping it would pass and they could start the game, but the officials decided to cancel. Jake was pretty bummed. That boy loves to play soccer. Well, we were all wet and sandy (not so much dirt here as there is sand), so we decided to go to Wal-Mart and get the kids some dry clothes so they wouldn't have to ride to NC in wet clothes. They need new clothes anyway. Jake has outgrown nearly all his and, of course, teenage girls can never have enough!!

So, with dry clothes, we finally headed toward NC. After getting a little lost in Charlotte (where instead of directional names, they name the interstate "inner" and "outer" and of course our google map directions said to go west), we finally made it to Bessemer to celebrate the dedication of their new church building. Dad had texted me on Friday and told me he was going to be there on Saturday and Sunday, so as it is only a couple of hours away from us, we decided to go up to see him and hear him preach. I don't get to hear him preach very often. And, Bro. and Sis. Williams (she is the pastor there) are two of my favorite people from NC. I met them when I went to dad's first convention as state overseer a few years back. They are so sweet. I love them so much. Sis. Williams invited us to come stay the weekend at their house some time and visit with them in church again. We're definitely going to take them up on that. Sadly, I didn't take any pictures. I brought my camera to do so, but was having such a fun day that I forgot. We ate at a place called The Gondola after church. It said it was an Italian restaurant on the sign but a Greek couple owns it and it reminded me a lot of The Gondolier in Cleveland. I had a Spinach Tortilla Chicken Wrap. It was yummy.

Once we got back home from NC, we stopped in at Redbox and rented Bride Wars. Funny movie, cute ending.

Now, I'm off to bed. Good night all.