My plans for the weekend...

1) Go to Matthew's last basketball game of the season this morning

2) Curl up with this....

Have a great weekend, friends, and stay warm!

Pickin' & Grinnin'--Again!

I've written in the past about my love for music and about our family's musical traditions. If you're a newer reader, you can read about it here and here. At that time I tried posting some videos with no luck, but now that I've started using YouTube, I decided to share again.

He'll Roll You Over the Tide: This is from our family reunion this past summer. An oldie, but goodie. Aunt Lucy, Uncle Amos (who passed away a couple of years ago), Pam, and Eddie have been singing this as long as I can remember. , In fact, somewhere there's an audio recording of them singing it when I was about four, and you can hear me as loud (or louder) than them! It was this song that I clung to a couple of summers ago, when Tracy was laid off from his job.

This is one I haven't shared before. You may remember me posting about losing a cousin unexpectedly, just three days after our family gathered for my Uncle Runt's funeral. During that weekend (of Uncle Runt's funeral) my Uncle Mikey and Aunt Frances, cousin Garland, Aunt Nadine, cousin Tricia and her family, AND my Matthew all stayed at my mom's house. Talk about a full house! Anyway, that Sunday morning before the funeral, Uncle Mikey and Garland practiced one of the songs to be sung that afternoon, and Tricia happened to capture it on video. Obviously, they weren't planning on being videoed....Uncle Mikey is in his undershirt, Aunt Nadine in her housecoat, kids are running in, the sun is shining in so bright you can't see the faces well, the ironing board is still set up, etc. However, given the circumstances, I want to share it...the last recording I have of my cousin Garland and his AWESOME mandolin picking. He had so much talent....Thanks for indulging me as I share my family's music, and I hope that in some way, it's a blessing to you.

40 Questions

I ran across this today, and decided it might be fun to post on the blog. Nothing too exciting is happening right now for me to post about!

1. What time did you get up this morning? 7:20

2. How do you like your steak? Medium well

3. What was the last film you saw at the theater? I really can’t remember…maybe the latest of the Twilight movies?

4. What are your favorite TV shows? American Pickers, House Hunters, The Today Show

5. If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be? Either the mountains or the beach

6. What did you have for breakfast? Nothing

7.What is your favorite cuisine? Southern country cooking

8. What foods do you dislike? Rutabagas,sushi

9. Favorite Place to Eat? Depends on what day you ask me! A few favorites…La Parrilla, PF Chang’s, Cheesecake Factory, Old Mill

10. Favorite salad dressing? Ranch

11.What kind of vehicle do you drive? Ford Expedition

12. What are your favorite clothes? Jeans

13. Where would you visit if you had the chance? New York City…I’m making plans for a big trip for a “milestone” birthday that’s coming up in a few years.

14. Cup 1/2 empty or 1/2 full? 1/2 empty...sorry!

15. Where would you want to retire? Right here at home…but it would be nice if I had a beach house too!

16. Favorite time of day? 3:00 p.m.

17. What is your favorite sport to watch? College football

18. Bird watcher? No

19. Are you a morning person or a night person? Morning person…definitely!

20. Do you have any pets? One dog, a few random cats that hang out here

21. Any new and exciting news you'd like to share? Not really

22. What did you want to be when you were little? A teacher

23. What is your best childhood memory? family reunions, playing with cousins, going to the all-night gospel singing every summer

24. Always wear your seat belt? Absolutely!

25. Been in a car accident? Yes, just a minor one, thank goodness!

26. Any pet peeves? When people don’t spell and punctuate correctly, nor does it bother them.

27. Favorite Pizza Toppings? Sausage, green peppers, & onions

28. Favorite Flower? Roses…can’t go wrong with a classic

29. Favorite ice cream? Peanut butter & chocolate from Baskin Robbins; Mayfield Moose Tracks

30. Favorite fast food restaurant? Chick-fil-A

31. How many times did you fail your driver's test? None

32. From whom did you get your last email? My cell phone company

33. Which store would you choose to max out your credit card? Oooh, that’s a hard one! Hobby Lobby or any home décor store.

34. Like your job? Love it, most days!

35. Broccoli? Yes

36. What was your favorite vacation? Matthew’s first trip to Disney World the summer before Luke was born

37. Last person you went out to dinner with? My husband, Tracy

38. What are you listening to right now? The sound of my laptop fan

39. What is your favorite color? Pink

40. Drink of Choice? Sweet tea or Caffeine Free Coca-Cola

Christmas Catch-Up

I've already shared with you what a nice, albeit low-key, relaxed Christmas we had. Just wanted to share a few pictures, too. I think they'll speak for themselves, just showing how much fun the boys had.

Leading Matthew & Luke in to see what Santa brought. Please excuse our appearances! (Tracy & Mama would probably kill me if they knew I posted this!)

Luke's reaction to most everything was "I can't BE-WIEVE I got a ___!"

On New Year's Eve, we headed to a small nearby town where one of the churches puts on a nice little fireworks show. I decided to take my camera and tripod and practice a little.

And can you believe we're almost a month into 2011?!? Hope yours is off to a great start!

Take #2

I don't know what is going on with these videos. I've had no luck uploading them through Blogger, so I tried uploading them to Flickr and then linking. They show up perfectly on my computer, but not on yours. So I broke down and signed up for a YouTube account. Let's try this....

Luke sings The Dukes of Hazzard, Take 2

Just a Good Ole Boy

I may have mentioned that Matthew has developed a slight obsession with the Dukes of Hazzard. Well, it's rubbed off on to Luke. A few weeks ago, I managed to get him on video singing his version of the theme song. He really turned into a ham for the video camera!

Kicking Off the New Year

Hello? Yoo hoo? Is anybody out there? I haven't blogged in so long, I'm afraid I may not have any readers left! I could say I took a planned blogging vacation so that I could savor every ounce of the holidays, but that's not what happened. It's more like I enjoyed the holidays and time off from school so much that I didn't have time to blog!

We had a wonderful Christmas and New Year's. Nothing especially exciting, just low-key, but oh, so enjoyable. We stayed in, built fires, watched movies and TV and DVDs (especially the Dukes of Hazzard DVDs Matthew got for Christmas), and ate. And ate. And ate some more! I also spent some time shopping, both online and in real life, and I must say my husband is a saint. On my birthday, we went out to lunch and went shopping, and he waited patiently in Belk for TWO HOURS while I tried on clothes! As long as he had a comfortable chair to sit in, he was perfectly content! It was a wonderful birthday!

And then, as much as I enjoyed the holidays, Sunday, January 2 arrived......and I got terribly depressed.

I don't recall ever dreading going back to school as much as I did this time. It was bad....very bad. I love what I do, and I love my students. However, this school year hasn't been the greatest. I can't exactly put my finger on what's wrong, but I do know that part of it has to do with organization and communication, or rather a lack of, from those "higher up." I was starting to feel that my frustration was just a mid-career slump (I'm 15 years into this), but after talking with some other teachers right before the holidays, I discovered it's not just me. Others see it and feel this way, too. For someone as OCD and Type A as me, this disorganization is extremely frustrating and really affects my ability to function as well. Also, we had seven days of classes prior to semester exams--not enough time to cover anything new, yet too long to start reviewing. So I had to dream up things to keep my students productive. So, long story short, I was just down in the dumps. It was extremely cold that week, which made me dread going back all the more. Y'all, I was so tired every night....it was just like the first week of school all over again!

However, the last couple of weeks, the Lord has truly blessed me. I prayed and prayed for encouragement and for God to help me make it through. I can't begin to list all the things He's done that have lifted my spirits. Nothing earth-shattering, just little pick-me-ups He's sent my way. I wouldn't say it's been an "easy" time, but it's been so much better than I anticipated! He has truly restored my joy!

We still have one hurdle to get through, though--Homecoming Week. We don't have a football team, so our homecoming is during basketball season. It's this week, which is a short week because of today's holiday, and Friday is an early release day. So between those things and the chaos of homecoming activities, this week is pretty much shot too, as far as being able to really get back to regular instruction. But somehow, I have to pull a rabbit out of a hat, because we are scheduled for classroom walkthroughs from our "support team" at the district office. Of all weeks! I really think that once we make it through this week, we can settle down and get back to normal....and settle in the LONG haul. Our spring break isn't until the last week in April. :-(

Remember me mentioning the eating during the holidays? Well, I ate a LOT! Two batches of fudge, two batches of homemade Chex mix, a thin-layer chocolate cake, candy from the Christmas stockings....So, I was very excited when Zumba kicked off again! In November, we got a Zumba group together at school, but we weren't really able to get on a regular schedule. We now have a lady coming to the school twice a week, and we stay after and Zumba. It is so much fun! I know I need to get some exercise, and this is probably the best way for me to do it. It doesn't require me having to go somewhere else and spend a lot of time. I'm already there, Matthew is content to sit and read or play DS or just watch us and laugh, and Luke is still at Mama's, so there's no rearranging necessary. Will I be able to tell a difference in my weight/size? I don't know....hopefully....but even if I don't, I know the exercise is good for me, and it's so much fun! That's saying a lot, because I'm not athletic at all!

We're also back into elementary basketball practice, along with the flu and strep throat for Matthew! Yes, he's had strep again! The good thing is that other than about two days, he hasn't felt bad! You'd think with both at the same time, he'd be in the bed, but it hasn't slowed him down much!

I'm also working on some little projects around the house...cleaning, organizing, all the usual New Year stuff! Hope your New Year is off to a GREAT start!