Play day

My sweet friend Karen, AKA - Mrs. Johnson :-) with her class. Those are the kids I made the monkey and jaguar tails for (even though you can't see the tails in the picture they are there). Another parent made jaguar tails for her child's class and added brown/orange yarn to the end ( a great touch). I told Mrs. Johnson I want to add yarn to all the ones I made. That's how we learn by observing others ... Monkey see, monkey do :-) ha, ha, ha ... I couldn't resist.

The play was so cute. Karen and all the teachers and students did a great job!!! I'm so glad sweet Karen includes me and lets me help out with her class. She teaches first grade and they need more help than 4th grade. Next year when I am home schooling Olivia I am hoping Mrs. Johnson will invite me and Olivia to come read to her class. I've been doing that for years and really enjoy it. Olivia is great with younger children so I know she'll like it too.

This is the day the Lord has made go rejoice and be glad in it.

Locks for Love

Before picture with my long wavy hair
Diane measured and positioned my ponytail (yes, that is 10 inches)

Me with straightened and shorter hair ( yes, my eyes are closed)

I still can't believe I did it, but I DID and I have pictures to prove it!!! As I shared with you yesterday it was my dad's birthday and the one year anniversary of the passing of Chris's dad. They both died of cancer. In honor of their memory and to help someone battling cancer today I decided to have 10 inches of my hair cut to donate to Locks of Love. I really like my new style and since I have a natural wave I can't wait to see how it's going to look "curly". Seriously I needed a change and was tired of it being so long anyway, so don't go "patting me on the back". It's only hair and it will grow back. Many of my friends, Lisa Q., Dana B., and Jenny D. have all donated their hair to organizations like Locks of Love. If you'd like to donate go to http://www.locksoflove.org/ and check out the requirements. I can only imagine how much these wigs made from donated hair can boost a child's spirit in the midst of cancer. Think about it; if you have long hair this might be what YOU can do for someone else. Let me know.

Have a fantastic weekend.

Go be a blessing ....

We remember, we'll never forget ... .

Chris's dad - Frank Wright Neal III born June 28, 1941 entered Heaven May 28, 2008

My dad - Ray J. Boiter Sr. born May 28, 1935 entered Heaven November 22, 2006

Today is my dad's birthday, as well as, the one year anniversary of the passing of Chris's dad from this life to Heaven. What a day it was last year to sit by Franks side and hold his hand as he took his last breath. I have to admit I whispered in his ear to tell my daddy "Happy Birthday" when he got to Heaven. What a day of rejoicing that will be, when we all see Jesus and sing and shout the VICTORY! Frank was a good father-in-law and an excellent grandpa. He is missed. Say a special prayer for Chris and Olivia and all of the Neal's as we remember Frank. Thank you.

Happy Birthday sweet daddy, oh how you are missed. Say a prayer for my mom and brothers as we reflex on my dad today too. Don't we serve an awesome God that His timing would allow these two events to fall on the same day? Sure, it would be my preference to have dad and Frank this side of heaven right now, but ... I don't get to make that call. Instead a perfect, all knowing, all loving, God decides. I trust Him and love Him and thank Him for this day.

Trust and obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Go be a blessing.

More beach shots and friends along the way home

Alecia, me holding her new baby brother, John Thomas, Zoe the big sister and my Olivia.

On the way home from the beach we stopped in to see our friends in Lexington who have a new baby boy. Congratulations to your sweet family. Isn't he precious?

Chris caught this monster cat fish in a pond in Ocean Lakes with a piece of cheese.

Beach pictures continue ...

Sea creature Olivia and her friend found and it was ALIVE !

A beauty with her babies.

Olivia and her new friend Kaylee.

Us relaxing in the midst of Putt Putt ... Chris got 3 hole in ones; he's so lucky!

Our weekend at Myrtle Beach

First shark tooth Chris found.

Me and Chris ... 13 years of marriage :-) Happy Anniversary 5-25

Sweet Olivia ... 10 years of joy :-)

Beach house we stayed in ...

Monday, Monday ... wait it's Tuesday

Oh how difficult it is for me not to get back in bed. If it were not for the fact that my sweet Chris is out working hard and my little Livie is in school; I'd go back to bed. We had an absolutely fantastic beach trip!!! The Lord let us have perfect weather, with great temperatures on the sand and in the water. I am so thankful for a great anniversary get-a-way. The ONLY bad part is arriving home later than planned and not having another day to recuperate before jumping back into the busy swing of life. Already today I've gotten my family off to work and school, stopped by Lisa's to pick up Cassie (our guinea pig). Thanks to Lisa, Summer and Noah for taking such good care of her while we were away. The washing machine and dryer are going, as the dishwasher waits to be emptied. I have a partial grocery list started and need to eat breakfast and get to the store. Oh, but yesterday I got up when I wanted ... hopped on a golf cart and rode to Omega Pancake house and someone brought breakfast to me :-) Snap out of it Susan, the vacation is over.

So on the way home from the beach we called our friends the Lockart's who live in Lexington and decided to stop by to see their new son. He's two weeks old and gorgeous. We were only going to stay a few minutes, but we haven't seen them in so long and it was hard to pull away. Olivia played with Zoe and Alecia while we caught up with Tommy and Katrina and met John Thomas. We ended up leaving their house after 8:00 and arrived home at 9:45. So here I am thanking the Lord for all of the fun and asking for strength for me and my crew as we get back into our routine of daily living.

I hope your Memorial day weekend was a fun one. I'll post pictures later as time permits. Have a great week.

Be a blessing.

Beach days

Well we are at the beach and it is absolutely perfect here. We got in the pool earlier and ran into a couple from church. Then we went to the beach and met a sweet family from Dallas, NC. they were excellent at finding sharks teeth and even gave me one. Their 10 year daughter Kaylee played with our 10 old Olivia. They harvested 25 hermit crabs. That was a sight to see. Children are so fearless. I wouldn't have picked up one of those crabs for anything. Now we are relaxing for a few minutes. Our plan is to go play Putt-Putt, drive out to Murrell's Inlet to eat Seafood,then visit with our friends who are here from home. The men want to do a little late night fishing. Nothing major, but fun !!!

Being here makes me so appreciative of all that God has created. The waves and wind, the breeze and sand ... it's all good. I am so thankful for my family and the opportunity to be here having fun with them on our anniversary weekend.

God bless the reader.

Pictures to follow next week.

FYI

Good morning :-) For those of you who keep up with Kayleigh's blog through my blog I wanted to let you know that I will be taking her "button" as they are called off of my screen next week. I know that I will never forget Kayleigh or her family, but feel led to add another living child who can use our prayers. I just want to let you know ahead of time so you can collect any information from her site that you may need.

Bless you for reading.

Piano recital

What a fun night. The picture above is of Olivia and Mrs. Sandra Welch, her piano teacher. The middle picture is of Olivia, me and Chris's mom, Sylvia. And the top picture is our family shot. I actually FORGOT my camera so we had to take pictures with Chris's Blackberry. I can't believe I forgot my camera, but I did remember Olivia's flowers and we made it on time :-) My mom also came, but left before we took pictures. Since the church is so small only parents and grandparents were invited. 25 students played two songs each; one solo and one duet with the teacher. Six advanced students played two solos each and one duet with the teacher. Olivia's first song was "The Band" and her duet was "Rejoice in the Lord Always". All of the students played beautifully.

Piano recital

Busy week ...

Hello friends, This is a very busy week for our family. Olivia has her piano recital tonight and she is so excited. I have to say I am extremely amazed at how much she has learned since beginning piano in September. I wished you could hear her play; she never uses her book (she plays all of her songs from memory). She is a brilliant child, just like her daddy ( who also plays many piano songs by ear). Tomorrow I have an A Beka book show to go to; I am still debating which history and science books I am going to use to teach Olivia next year. Yesterday I wrote out my lesson plans for the books that I currently have ( it's very exciting to think I'll be teaching her at home starting in July!!!! ) what a blessing!

Speaking of blessings, we didn't think we'd get to go to the beach this year considering Chris will be in Thailand for 11 days, but yesterday a co-worker offered his beach house to Chris for this upcoming weekend. He gave us a great deal. May 25th will be our 13th Wedding anniversary and Chris called me yesterday and asked if I could drop everything this weekend and run off to the beach, I said "do you really need to ask me that? of course." Olivia is thrilled. I plan to pull her out of school around 10:00 Friday and we'll be on the road. Now that is a blessing. Isn't God good?

I have a friend who lives in High Point, NC who just found out she has breast cancer and yesterday she had her breast removed and a lymph node. I called to pray with her last night and as we talked she said she knew people were praying for her because she was so calm and had a peace. She said she had no pain. Now that is a blessing too. God is so good?

Tell someone today (blog to me) how God is good to you. It may not be something as dramatic as a trip or surgery, but God is working in all of us. . Let's praise Him and tell others.

Go be a blessing.

Charles Billingsley Concert

Chris and I had a fun evening at Whitefield Baptist in Belton, S.C. last night. We drove out to hear Charles B. in concert. While there we had the privilege of working his table selling his music and signing people up to pre-order Charles' new CD which will be available in August. He and Adam Lancaster (a very talented piano/keyboard player) were very gracious and fun to work with. I forgot to ask someone to take our picture working the table until we had started packing up the CD's, but a nice church member snapped a shot of us. We have a group picture of us and Charles and Chris took a picture of just me and Adam. These guys work so hard and travel all over the place. Charles is married to the beautiful Shae and they have two sons. Adam is married to the beautiful Liesle and they have one daughter. They all live in Virginia and work at Thomas Road Baptist Church and Liberty University. Thomas Road is the church Dr. Jerry Falwell started. You can check them both out at their websites: http://www.charlesbillingsley.com/ and http://www.wingitmusic.com/

We can't say enough nice things about the fine folks at Whitefield Baptist church. They were so friendly. If that church were close to us and we needed a church home we'd definitely go there. It was a great night of praise and worship.

God is good and I think there is no better way to spend our time than praising him and enjoying Christian fellowship with other believers. IF you don't have a church home, get out there and visit around, pray and find a group of people you have something in common with. We love to be with other believers, there is no greater joy than singing praises to our Lord.

Let me encourage you to seek out a body of believers to worship with. You'll be glad you did.

Go be a blessing.

Monkey and Jaguar tails

I just finished a little sewing project for my sweet "School teacher" friend Karen. Her first grade class will be putting on a play about the Rainforest next Friday and she asked me to make the costume tails. This was a first for me! I have to say that I think the "tails" have turned out ok (considering I've never made them before). I thought I'd share this with you all in case your child some day needs a tail :-) Basically you will need fabric, a tape measure, tape, clothes hangers, cotton balls, plastic bags, pliers and scissors. Karen told me she wanted the tails 24 inches long and she liked the curve I put in the sample one, so we went with that look. Basically you cut all of your fabric the desired length. Fold it in half and sew it with the side that you want on the outside folded in. Leave the two ends open so you can turn the fabric inside out. I used plastic bags from the grocery store as filling for the tails. The bags were easy to stuff, light weight and they were FREE ! After the tails are stuffed I carefully cut a clothes hanger in half. I turned down the pointed ends with a pair of pliers and used tape to wrap and cover those ends with cotton balls ( just in case one were to poke through the child wouldn't get hurt). I ran the wire in one of the open ends of the tail to the other side. Once the wire is in place I sewed the two open ends and the tails were finished. The tail can be twisted and curved however much or little the teacher wants. It is a little time consuming at first, but once I got the hang of it and saw that my plan was working it moved along quicker. I asked her how she planned to attach them to the children and she said she had thought of using elastic. I wonder if any of you crafty people have any ideas??? I mentioned safety pinning them on, but this is where they sit so ?? I don't know that my idea is a safe one. Let me know your thoughts. I am open to ideas and even improvements on what I've done so far.

Well, I hope you have a blessed weekend. Chris and I are going to see my favorite singer, Charles Billingsley this Sunday in Belton ( I've never been to Belton, but I'll have pictures next week). http://www.charlesbillingsley.com/

Go be a blessing.

Obituaries

Do you ever read the obituaries? When my daddy was alive he'd always say; "Well, I read the obituaries and didn't see my name so I guess I'll have breakfast." That was a long running "funny" if you will, that I wished I could still hear him say. He was a kind man who thought enough of his past acquaintances to read the obituaries daily to make sure he paid his respects to the family if someone he used to work with or knew passed away. When I started teaching Sunday school and had a couple of kids lose grandparents and I didn't know until after the fact, I too began the habit of reading the obituaries. One thing I have noticed over time is that a precious generation of people are quickly leaving us. A group of people who were born before Television sets, cordless phones, microwave ovens and even computers. This group of people listened to news on the radio. They dialed a rotary phone to call family and friends. They slept with their windows open and unlocked. They played baseball and got dirty. They walked to school and had their first kiss under a water tower. This was the generation of my grandparents and parents. My grandmother is still living at 92. Her mind is excellent, but her body is feeble and twisted with arthritis. Her name is Wilma and as I read the obituaries I see many other "old" names that remind me of her. Names like: Martha, Doris, Tillman, Grover, Minnie, Vera, Virginia, Correne, Luther, Roy, Walter, Ray, Frank, Harold, Nora ... you get the picture? So from the obituaries I not only gain knowledge of who has passed and who I need to pay my respects to, but I also am reminded of a generation of old. How I miss those old names and the people who had them. I miss their stories and simpler times. On May 28th it will be the one year anniversary of the passing of Chris's dad Frank as well as my dad's birthday. In memory of them I donated to my daughters teachers Relay for Life Help, find a cure for cancer fund. If you have a loved one who died of cancer and would like to honor their memory you can go to www.Relayforlife.org to donate to this worthy cause.

Let's keep the memory of a past generation alive.

God bless you today and always.

National day of prayer

I just came in from a special prayer service we had at our church this evening. What a great way to end the day. I loved praying with other believers. Our nation is in a terrible fix. Sin abounds and we Christians stay silent. That has to change. Let your voice be heard. We all need to pray this verse to the Lord daily.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (King James Version)
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

May God hear us ... and heal us ...

Future moms

With Mother's day approaching I just have to share this precious picture of my daughter and her friend playing "mommy". How sweet to see little girls with their dolls. Olivia watches my every move and hears my every word. Dear Lord I don't want her to stumble because of me. I pray she see less of me and more of you. Thank you Father for loving us and leading us and giving your word as our guide. May we hide it in our hearts and speak it with our mouths to bring you glory. Amen

Proverbs 31:10-31 (King James Version)
Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies.
The heart of her husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall have no need of spoil.
She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.
she seeketh wool, and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.
She is like the merchants' ships; she bringeth her food from afar.
She riseth also while it is yet night, and giveth meat to her household, and a portion to her maidens.
She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard.
She girdeth her loins with strength, and strengtheneth her arms.
She perceiveth that her merchandise is good: her candle goeth not out by night.
She layeth her hands to the spindle, and her hands hold the distaff.
She stretcheth out her hand to the poor; yea, she reacheth forth her hands to the needy.
She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet.
She maketh herself coverings of tapestry; her clothing is silk and purple.
Her husband is known in the gates, when he sitteth among the elders of the land.
She maketh fine linen, and selleth it; and delivereth girdles unto the merchant.
Strength and honour are her clothing; and she shall rejoice in time to come.
She openeth her mouth with wisdom; and in her tongue is the law of kindness.
She looketh well to the ways of her household, and eateth not the bread of idleness.
Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Many daughters have done virtuously, but thou excellest them all.
Favour is deceitful, and beauty is vain: but a woman that feareth the LORD, she shall be praised.
Give her of the fruit of her hands; and let her own works praise her in the gates

For such a time is this ...

Do you think everything happens for a reason? I am of that mind set. For instance I began praying back before Christmas about home schooling Olivia next school year(5th grade). In February the Lord confirmed for us that I should home school her. He put us in Sunday school with many home school moms and has allowed me to "run" into many others. Just last week I went on eBay and made a bid on some "A Beka" home school books (it was a set of 8 new and like new books). The bidding was to end at 1:00 a.m. and by 12:10 I had to decide on my maximum bid and go to bed. I was thrilled to find out the next morning that I had won the set. Now I am waiting for them to arrive so I can write out my lesson plans. For those of you who don't know me well, I have a degree in Elementary education and a teaching certificate. Right before I graduated college I told my parents that I had NO desire to be a school teacher. That's a tough thing to tell the two people who just sent you through 5 years of college to be a teacher ( yes I went for 5 years and changed my major a couple of times.) I wanted to be a child psychologist, but my advisor said there wasn't a big need for that and I would have a better chance finding a job if I majored in Education. Little did she know how many child psychologist the world would need!!! For years I wondered why I took her advice ... I have to say I felt like I wasted my time and my parents money. BUT now is my time to teach. The way I see it that degree prepared me for my best calling ever; to be a home schooling mom. What a blessing; God doesn't make any mistakes :-) I am so excited I can hardly stand it. I will use A Beka for Language Arts, Vocabulary, Spelling and Poetry. I think I am going to use Saxon math and I'm still unsure of History and Science. I bought a history book, but Olivia didn't like it. She has requested a more traditional History book than the new style I chose. Did you hear that? we get to choose.... this is so fantastic!! Pray for us as we'll begin the journey in late July. By the way I totally welcome advice on home schooling. This is our new journey and I am receptive to other peoples wisdom. Thanks for listening to my long story.

Go be a blessing :-)