Pictures

Pictures of the Bug...







Callie with her bandana on her head like mommy's! I like to pull my hair back like this sometimes when I'm doing work in the house.










Callie loves "hose!" She will walk in my room and look in my drawer for hose. She just grins and says "hose" whenever she finds some or on Sunday mornings when we're getting ready for church. She's wearing some of my "half hose" in this picture and she just HAD to put on her church shoes after she put the hose on.









Here's my little Picasso painting at her easel. Callie LOVES painting and gets so excited when we start talking about painting!









Me and the Bug!








Callie and her daddy. She is such a daddy's girl. He's all she talks about when he's not home, and everyday she looks for him to come and get her out of the car when we get home from school.

Rainy Wednesday

I finally decided to update my blog at school since I don't feel like doing it at home.

We've been good for the last month. Callie has been sick some. She's had a cold and perhaps bronchiolitis (not to be confused with bronchitis... they are not the same I learned!). We've done breathing treatments and taken steroids. She is doing better, but not 100% yet. :)

Everything else is going good. My student teacher is now counting down the weeks until he's all finished. He truly has improved, and I've seen him grow during this experience. He's more comfortable with teaching and with the kids, and he's done a good job. I'm already teaching 2 classes again... sigh... such a hard job! lol I feel like I've been doing NOTHING for a while, so doing something makes the day go by quicker.

I still haven't heard if I can go back to part-time next year, so who knows what next school year holds? I've sent my resume to a couple of schools asking them to consider me if a part-time opportunity if it presents itself, but I haven't heard anything from them.

I guess I will know what will happen in God's time, not mine. That's so hard! I know He knows what's in store for me and my family, so I will just trust in Him. I have known Proverbs 3:5,6 my whole life. Moma used to have it on the bathroom wall in our bathroom growing up, and recently I read it again and it just jumped out at me. God was just reassuring me that He was in control and that I needed to trust His judgement and not mine. It was a comforting and reassuring thought. I've been reading Proverbs and it has really been great! I've found all kinds of verses about holding my tongue really jumping out at me. It's given me lots to think about. Of course, doesn't it seem like everytime something like that is revealed to you, you're given a chance to "try it out" so to speak? It never fails! That happened at church just this last week too.

Speaking of church, our next youth Sunday is coming up this week. We have 2 teenage preachers doing the services. Eric will be preaching Sunday morning, and Cody will be preaching Sunday night. The youth choir will also be singing. I believe we have a skit too. Good stuff. I love working with the kids. I can't imagine not working with kids actually. I just enjoy the high schoolers. They keep me on my toes - no doubt!

Well, I hope you have a great rainy day. Thank God for the rain. We might be wishing we had some this summer so we'll take it now!

I need to get back to observing my little student teacher! :)

Love!

A month later...

Well, I finally broke down and decided to update my blog. My life is really mundane (which I completely DO NOT mind!), so I don't have anything spectacular to blog about most days. I could tell you lots of Callie stories that are so cute and funny, but I'd rather spend time with her than take time to type them! :)

My student teacher is doing pretty well so far. It's so funny that I didn't realize all of the things I do and say that he doesn't just do. I know I've learned some things in the past couple of years while I've been teaching, but I just took for granted that I already knew those things. So, I am able to guide him and instruct him more than I thought I would be able to. He's coming around too. I'm trying not to make him just like me, but I try to get him to think about the way I would do certain things. Here lately, he will say things like, "yeah, that's what I was thinking." So, that's a good sign. We are starting to think alike, which means he's growing as a teacher and beginning to think more like a teacher.

The kids are warming up to him too. They pouted and looked at me with sad faces for a while when he first started, but they are learning to like him too. I can't say it didn't make me feel SO loved that they preferred me, but I'm sure by the time he gets ready to leave, they will be giving HIM the pouty face! That's okay. I can handle it. He will start teaching ALL of my classes next week for 4 weeks. What in the world will I do all day?!?!?! :) (woohoo! break for me!)

Well, I'm off to visit with Andy. Basketball season is finally over (I can hear the angels singing Hallelujah in the background...). I think I may have my husband back for a while, that is, until church softball starts up and the Braves. Then it's college football, then basketball.......sigh. :)

Updates = More readers?

A little bird has informed me that frequent updates = more frequent readers. So, maybe I should attempt to be a more consistent updater? Sounds good. I'll give it a try.

Wow, today was well, different. We were supposed to allow our kids at the school the opportunity to watch the inauguration. I complied, but I must admit, not all of the kids were thrilled about this once in a lifetime, historical opportunity. Some tried to have discussions (irrelevant mind you) during the entire viewing. Some slept, and others just watched. Some of my kids openly said they didn't want to watch it, and it was depressing.

I tried not to show them my feelings were mutual, but I must admit, good DID come out of the situation. It must've been divinely ordained that we were told to cue our TVs to the inauguration via Dr. Gibbs, and VERY shortly thereafter, Rick Warren appears, prays what I would call a great prayer, and prays in the name of the "man who changed my life...JESUS!" It was GREAT! I thought to myself of how prayer has been taken out of schools and people want God out of everything, but we still are allowed to pray at the Presidential Inauguration in Jesus' name AND PRAISE GOD, it gets aired all over the entire campus of Johnson High School!?!?!?!?

I could've shouted right in my room when I heard him pray in Jesus name. God bless Rick Warren for not bowing down to all of the protests and for specifically mentioning that his prayer was intended to be heard by the one true and living GOD! I was so happy about that part if nothing else. I told one of my coworkers that if nothing else good came out of the entire situation, that my kids were allowed to hear that prayer. Maybe it caused them to think about WHY he prayed the way he did, and could they possibly be wondering why he said "THE MAN WHO CHANGED MY LIFE????" What an awesome way to get some inquiring minds thinking. Maybe they wonder what he meant by that. I'm sure the Holy Spirit could've stirred someone's heart over that statement, and I pray that happened.

Anyway, yes, Barack Hussein(cringe) Obama is now our President. Like Ray (my Sunday School teacher) says, God has allowed him to be President for a reason. It's all part of his plan. Also, even though I may not agree with Obama on the issues that matter, it's my job to be praying for him anyway. Wouldn't it be great for revival to break out in the White House? Hey, God can make it happen!

So, let's all pray for Obama. I don't see how it could hurt. Jesus wouldn't condone Obama's probable actions on abortion, immigration, the economy, and marriage I'm sure, but God still loves Obama just as much as He loves me. Wow... ponder that for a moment! I think I just had an epiphany with that one. I think I'll let that soak in over the next few days while all of the hype dies down over this inauguration.

In the mean time, I hope your week is great. Please pray for me. I'm trying to figure out what I want to do next year as far as working. I would love to go part-time or just stay at home, but I still haven't been given a clear answer on what to do. On paper, it seems like it would work for me to stay at home, but I'm not sure that's what God wants me to do. So, just pray for me. I know that He will not lead me in the wrong path, but I just want to make sure I hear His direction for my life clearly! :)

Love, BB

Howdy

I hope that everyone has had a great last week and your new year is off to a great start.

Things at school are getting back to routine after having been out for 2 weeks. We are beginning to get back into our morning routine here at home too. It's weird how you really dread getting up early, doing the same things every day, but then when it gets messed up for a while, you long for that routine or some sort of routine in your life. I guess that's the teacher part in me coming out. We are routine creatures of habit, at least most of us anyway.

I have been terrible about updating this blog mainly because I think it's more therapeutic than widely read. It gives me something to do when I don't want to do something I need to do or I have a lull in my chores around home or school work.

Speaking of which, I just remembered I have a big stack of Geometry tests that need to be graded. Yuck.... Grading is not fun most of the time for me! I'm getting lazy since my student teacher is doing some of the grading already so he won't be bored to tears. He actually gets started teaching a class this upcoming week. I will hand over the reins and let him have at it. There's no better preparation than just getting into a classroom and trying it out. It's scary at first, takes lots of practice to get better at it (by the way, I AM still practicing myself!!!!!), and lots of patience that only God above can give to you, but it's a great job. It's rewarding (yes, even high school kids can make your day) and it's exhausting, but I can't imagine myself doing anything else. I have never imagined myself being anything other than a teacher, until I was a mother. Now I'm beginning to contemplate if I can be teacher AND mommy and do a good job at both. THAT, my friend, is an entirely different post!!! Maybe, I will post about it in the near future.

Anyway, I felt bad when I saw that everyone had updated recently and I just kept putting my blog off. So, my blog therapy will conclude with this short paragraph. Maybe it wasn't too boring!!! :)

Have a great weekend and week! Love!

Christmas Break - It will soon be gone!

We had a great Christmas!! It was stressful (Christmas day was), but other than that, we had a great time. I had to pray all day pretty much to keep myself from going ballistic at times. It's hard for me to relax when my child is tired, she won't eat, she hasn't had a nap, people want to visit with you, and you would rather be at home, BUT it turned out not be as bad as I thought it would be. We acquired many new and exciting gadgets and gifts. Andy is most proud of his GPS unit that I got for him. It got it at a serious deal the day after Thanksgiving at Target! It wasn't really all that expensive compared to what it normally is.

I have been soaking in every minute with Callie these last two weeks. She's been the sweetest most loving thing ever! She'll just raise her arms up to me and say mama, and then when I pick up her she will hug me SO tight around the neck! It is the sweetest thing! She'll even say "love you" after I say it to her sometimes. It is precious. She's been entertaining me and keeping me busy around the house cleaning up after her too. :)

We had our traditional New Year collards and cornbread today. We opted out of the black-eyed peas because I'm not to fond of them, and plus I already made a crockpot full of pinto beans this week! Anyway, the collards and cornbread were WONDERFUL! I would dare say that it was one of the best pawns of cornbread I ever made and the best collards I have ever made. Of course, they cooked almost all day yesterday and last night, so all of that TLC better be evident in how they taste! :)

I have been cooking a lot this week with the crock pot and cooking a lot in general. It's not been too bad since I have an on-site designated dishwasher to help out! Andy's been washing dishes, and it's been so nice. He's done well too!

Well, I better get something done that's productive around the house. I need to work on some, dare I say it, school (cringe) stuff!

FYI - I will have a student teacher this semester. I hope and pray he's a good one! Pray for me as I attempt to "show" him how I do it, and maybe help him to somehow miraculously transform into a good teacher? Don't ask me how that's going to happen! I feel really unqualified to be mentoring someone else in my profession since I am NO WHERE NEAR where I wish I was, but God has put this little teacher-to-be in my life for some reason! I just hope his experience is as great as mine was! I had a good student-teaching experience, unlike all of the horror stories everyone told me!

Have a great day and a VERY Happy New Year!
Love!

Christmas Time's a Comin'!

While I have obviously NOT been updating my blog, I've been getting ready for Christmas. Shopping, decorating, cooking, cleaning (ha!), caroling, and doing various Christmas things at church. It's been very busy around the Brown household with a basketball coach living here, a teacher whose ready to be out for Christmas break, and a now 18-month old sweet little Callie!

Callie is getting so big. She's gone pee pee and poo poo in the potty numerous times, and she is learning something new every day. She never ceases to amaze me, and I feel like I love her more every day - no joke!

I'm so glad we are out for Christmas break! I needed a break from school, and I'm going to try NOT to think about going back until I absolutely have to. The year is already half way over; that's hard to believe, but good too at the same time!

Christmas is just around the corner now, and I believe I'm almost finished with all of my shopping. Andy has a few more things he needs to get, and I think I still need one more thing for my loving brother-in-law, but I haven't gotten around to getting that yet! I am running out of time too!

We are getting ready for an EXTREMELY busy Christmas day as usual. We will kick off our long list of stops on Christmas Eve with a get together at 6:00 with the Brown side of the family. Then, on Christmas day, we celebrate here at home together, then it's off to Moma and Daddy's, down to Maw Maw's for lunch, then over to Flora and Fred's for the afternoon, and finally Andy's parents for that night. It is exhausting, and I hate to say it, but it makes my Christmas so stressful and less enjoyable than I feel it could be with all of the running around we have to do. I'm also preparing for the food I'll take to almost every stop we make. It's hard to think so far in advance to me when it comes to cooking. I'm a good planner in most areas except the food department.

Oh well, I'm trying not to let the busyness of this season stress me out, but I have already truly enjoyed the Christmas season in my heart. The sign at Rock Springs Baptist Church says something to the effect of you haven't celebrated Christmas until you've experienced it in your heart. I hope that this Christmas, God will bless you with that experience and your heart will overflow with joy at the celebration of the birth of our Savior, the one true HOPE of the WORLD!

Merry Christmas