Merry CHRISTmas!! :)

"And while they were there, the time came for her baby to be born. She gave birth to her first child, a son. She wrapped him snugly in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the village inn.

That night some shepherds were in the fields outside the village, guarding their flocks of sheep. Suddenly, an angel of the Lord appeared among them, and the radiance of the Lord's glory surrounded them. They were terribly frightened, but the angel reassured them. 'Don't be afraid!' he said. 'I bring you good news of great joy for everyone! The Savior- yes, the Messiah, the Lord- has been born tonight in Bethelehem, the city of David! And this is how you will recognize him: You will find a baby lying in a manger, wrapped snugly in strips of cloth!'

Suddenly, the angel was joined by a vast host of others- the armies of heaven- praising God: 'Glory to God in the highest heaven, and peace on earth to all whom God favors.'" (Luke 2:6-14, NLT, italics added)

There is nothing better on earth than this story to blog about today, or really any day. "Don't be afraid!" Far too often I struggle in fear over the big and little things of life. Children's health, moving on after death, loneliness, failures, finances...getting homework done, clean kids, clean house, job-work done, home stuff done, too much to get done!

But yet God says, "Don't be afraid!!" The angel proclaims, I bring you GOOD NEWS of GREAT JOY for EVERYONE! Everyone includes me,...not EXcludes me. There is no reason to fear, or worry, or be anxious for anything. Because God has come, Immanuel, Jesus in the flesh , born as a human baby to come for me and EveryOne!

Worry be gone, and be replaced with joy in my heart on this blessed Christmas. We are here, we are together. God has blessed us abundantly with salvation in Christ. Amen & Merry Christmas!! :)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hope you are enjoying a happy thanksgiving day with your family & friends. Sitting my the fireplace, listening to football game on TV and my girls arguing upstairs :( (ahhh....). Fireplace started, Thanksgiving & pumpkin decorations piled up ready to be packed up. 2 girls begging me to decorate the new Christmas tree their Daddy bought. 9 feet tall with white lights, it is gorgeous but bare. So much to do but I am tired...and so much on my mind.

Sometimes the lists and random tasks floating around in my mind can be overwhelming. I don't know where to start and am sad to admit, end up doing nothing! Grr...

B4 we can begin Christmas, we must put away Thanksgiving. So down to the basement to retrieve the orange Rubbermaid totes and say good-bye to the pumpkins. Would like to linger longer and reflect on my thankful list...would also like to take a nap after stuffing myself with delicious food today. Had a great dinner at my sister's house with her in-laws family, my brother, and my grandma.

"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His love endures forever..." [cue music :)]

Hey stranger

(me & my sweet Katey, taken July 09 at Reed family reunion)

Wow, I am the world's worst blogger. I haven't written a darn thing since June! Yikes. I have no idea if anyone is even out there reading or if anyone really cares that I haven't written for 4 months. Life has a way of just passing by so quickly. I have no good reason for not writing...but sorry (if anyone is out there!! :). Except maybe trying to come up with something important to say.

Loving this 3-day weekend... I am so much more productive knowing I have an extra day. Lots of laundry done, playing with my kids, trip to the library, church, DD #1 had 2 sleepovers, DD #2 fighting a cough & she's winning, oh & a Miley Cyrus concert to top it all off.

Also trying to wrap up 2 incomplete post-graduate courses I started last winter. The first class is proving more difficult, Helping students to become self-directed learners. Tough class!! No wonder I put off finishing it for so long. Finished 2 more lessons over the weekend, only 2 lessons left and the big paper! The second class I had started in the spring was soooooo much easier & more practical, The High-Performing Teacher. Very practical with strategies to prevent teacher burnout. After 15 years of teaching special education I was soooo ready for these strategies. Loved the class & finished it!!! Whoo-hoo!!! :) Go me!

Sweet little girl is calling my name, need to get her in bed...thinking of lots more to say, like I met Ali Vincent (biggest loser season 5) last week near home!!! She was awesome, great message, inspring story. Got my first autograph & picture with her, too! Will have to post those later this week.

Maybe I do have stuff to say after all. If you're out there, thanks!!

Spring Break 2009

Another late post but still great photos. We headed back to sunny, warm Florida for spring break, March 31- April 5, 2009. The weather at home was yucky & cold, so we were thrilled to arrive & enjoy warm, sunny days. We spent the first 2 nights in Palmetto (courtesy of Gr. & Gr. Herrin's accommodations), visited with Gr. & Gr. Reed. Spent a great day near St. Petersburg at Fort DeSoto, an old military fort with beautiful beaches. Then drove northeast to Daytona, spent 1 night there. More beach & pool time. Finally drove to Orlando, stayed at the Gaylord (amazing hotel) for 2 nights. Hit Downtown Disney & Epcot. Another wonderful FL vacation...oh I miss Florida.

Katey, Mommy, & Kelly posing at the Polynesian Hotel, our last night at dinner
So glad we found Mommy's favorite characters at Epcot one night

Katey still loves Donald! :)

The girls enjoyed the whole Nemo area at Epcot, posing inside Bruce the shark

My precious Kelly, 9 years old (doesn't she look too grown up here :(

at Fort DeSoto beach in St. Petersburg, FL

March 2009

Hello, these photos are from back in March but still cute! I've been having a LOT of trouble getting into Blogger and can't open my own blog most of the time. Ah the wonders of technology. Anyway, this morning it just happened to open. I should be getting me and the girls ready for church but am quickly posting a few photos.

On 3-29-09 at the beginning of our spring break, before we headed to sunny Florida...Kelly and I traveled down to Chicago to see Mary Poppins at the Cadillac Palace! We had an amazing time together, the show was fantastic. Kelly loved her first real Broadway show! The actors were so talented, the theater was beautiful. We had a great night together, just Mom & Kelly.

Katey singing upstairs in "big church" with her Sunday School friends, too precious

Katey our little ballerina went to a dance class at the park district in Feb. & March, she loved it. So cool how God created her to be a princess, dancer, tumbler, all the girly things...and she just as much loves to wrestle, kick the soccer ball, and rough-house with boys playing sports (now I'll have to post some soccer photos from April-May).

Rain

When will this rain end? It has been raining for days, with few to no breaks of sunshine. It is making me tired, annoyed, irritated, and blah! All you cheery people will say, oh but April showers bring May flowers. If that is indeed true, we should have fields of flowers everywhere come Friday.

First the longest winter ever from November thru March. Then more cold & all rain in April. Where is the sun? We need and want sun now! Sunshine to stay and stick around. I feel like we live in Seattle for goodness sake! We need to get outside, play, ride bikes, and walk our poor dog.

Lord, please send the sun to our corner of your world. Thank you!

Random, newer photos

Long time, no post

Hello, I don't know why this is underlining every word!!! I've spent 10 minutes trying to take away the underlines and am not happy. Oh well, it's time for bed. Finally posting some winter photos (post Christmas). We took the girls to Chicago over Presidents' Day weekend in Feb. Had a lot of fun making memories (the Bean, Field Museum, American Girl Place, Marriott hotel, Gino's East pizza...)

I love my girls so much. They bring so much joy, laughter, and challenge into my life every day. I am so blessed to be their mom. They are too cute in these photos (of course I'm a little biased!).

Also so thankful that the long winter is behind us and spring is finally here. Not weather wise yet, but at least the calendar says winter is over! :)

My Grandpa

Over the past 8 days, I've tried to start writing this a dozen different times. Each time, no words came to my mind, just sadness and tears. A friend suggested to start pulling photos and get lost in a scrapbook page about my grandpa. So many pictures, so many memories, I think I might feel a whole album coming on.

I miss you, Grandpa, more than words can say. You've left a huge hole behind in all of us. Praising God that you are in Heaven feeling no more pain. But selfishly missing you and wishing you didn't have to go, especially for Grandma and your precious great-grandchildren. So many memories, here are some of our favorites from the past 2 years. last April at Jenny's house celebrating Nana & Grammy's birthdays

at Kelly, Kyle, & Sam's CYT summer camp show last July, Poppy was so proud of his performers

last April, Kelly's first piano recital

our last Easter egg hunt March 2008

Poppy & his Katey, Halloween 2007

Kelly & Kyle's CYT summer camp show, July 2007

Katey pushing Poppy at Kyle's birthday party June 2006

Looking for help, working moms out there!!!!

Suggestions Welcome!!!

Alright, here goes. I have been more than stressed, frustrated, and overwhelmed with my job lately. I spend the day getting so frustrated with many things/people beyond my control. I have spent the last 14 1/2 years teaching special education students. Most of my kids are wonderful and I love them to death. But lately the paperwork, politics, laziness of adults, lack of follow-thru, lack of support is just wearing me down.

I find myself with physical symptoms and totally feel like it's because of work. I feel like I come home and MY OWN precious girls get so little of what's left over.

So, I'm looking for suggestions... how do you not let work bother you? How do you let stuff roll off that you have no control over?

Thank God for long weekends...

I am thankful tonight for long weekends... both my girls have been sick the past few days (more for Kelly) which has not been fun. Both are now on antibiotics, Kelly is much better but Kate still feels yucky. It's so hard to see them feeling miserable and feel so helpless to make them better instantly.

But thankfully we had four days off from school to just stay home out of the cold, rest, and get better. On the down side, now we'll be in school until June 8th. On the up side, I will have 2 months off from school with my girls, which is much more than I'd get on any other job.

Okay, so this is just a rambling of ups and downs... also on the up side I finally got around to conquering Mt. Washmore (see Flylady website if you're curious.... AKA mountains of laundry) and even bigger, finally completed 8 lessons in my latest grad class and actually typed them!! I've been procrastinating on that little project since November. What a relief. I'm not totally done with the class yet, but more than halfway there. Ahhhh...

Another up for the weekend, I was completely refreshed after Sunday morning at church. Our pastor challenged us to go to God first, in any struggle, rejection, confusion, anything. Go to God in prayer and lay out your heart to Him. Pray for His will to be done, He can use anyone in any place for His purposes. In light of tomorrow, I have many questions and concerns about our nation. But thankfully God is the God of this nation, He is on the throne, and He has greater things to be done. Back to Sunday morning, our worship & song time was awesome. We have so many talented people at our church that lead us into worship, it was really powerful.

So... thinking about tomorrow, back to reality and work/school. Oh wow, a 4 day week, now that, I could get used to!

Carman family Christmas party

December 27, 2008 brought our annual Carman family Christmas party at our house. Shawn was again the greatest host/cook ever feeding everyone. The kids are growing up so fast: Chasity-17, Kelly-9, Kyle-8, Sam-6, Katey-3, and Ryan-3 are best buddies and cousins. They have a blast playing together and making lots of noise! We ate lunch, opened gifts, and surprised Grammy and Nana with their long-awaited large framed photo of the 6 kids all together. They were shocked we actually pulled it off without giving it away two months before.

this one is so funny, Katey is enjoying Kelly's new gifts, really Kelly's bean bag chair and Kelly's DS game, while the cat's away the mouse will play....

me and my Kelly, 9 years old, where did my little girl go?

Christmas Day

Christmas Day 2008 was a very relaxing and joyful one. Katey woke up first around 6:30am, peeked her little nose and face out to the living room to see if Santa had come, she even tiptoed around, it was so precious. Santa left pieces of cookies behind and the fireplace screen was open, Katey squealed with excitement and Kelly came running down the stairs, so much fun! Some of their favorite things this year were new clothes, little "beanpod" chairs to play video games in and rock around, new Barbies & accessories, Wii games, and DS games for Kel.

Shawn made a delicious turkey dinner with all the extras for us. Uncle Tommy, Nana, and Papa joined us for a great meal, more presents of course, and fun on the Wii. Later Kelly and I snuck out of the house while Daddy and Katey napped. We went to the movies to see "Marley and Me" along with the rest of southeastern Wisconsin. It was packed, we were lucky to get 2 seats together. We loved the movie, I cried my way thru most of it, but a great story. Made me also think our little Buddy is not quite so bad & mischievious as I thought.

Hope your Christmas was merry, bright, and joyful! (yes i realize I'm a few weeks late on this post but better late than never!)

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve 2008
Christmas Eve is one of my favorite days of the whole year. I get so excited watching the kids in anticipation of what the day and night bring. This year (and maybe the last several Kim?) we visited my BFF Kim and Katey's BFF Karli with her brothers Kyle and Nick to exchange gifts and visit. Kelly was a good sport as usual, playing with the little girls (or maybe being directed around by them would be a more accurate description). We exchanged our gifts, shot some photos, and had fun catching up. Katey and Karli were too cute dressing up.

Me and my BFF Kim, we've been BFF forever, when we used to write it on our school notebooks and sign it at the bottom of notes passed in the hallway at Westfield and ZBTHS :) This pic was big motivation for me, it is my BEFORE photo and next Cmas Eve I want to be a skinny-minnie just like Kim!

Uncle Tommy with his two nieces plus the long-lost Hilbert (VERY long story). We got to celebrate Cmas Eve at his first house. After church we headed there for pizza, cake, and presents. Very fun night and the girls got their BIG gift from Nana & Papa, the High School Musical Barbie house (oh excuse me, East High, I stand corrected by Kelly as usual!!!). Grammy & Poppy joined us, too. We missed Jenny & family who were celebrating with her in-laws and family.

Disney-Florida Vacation December 2008

Last spring Shawn started talking about our next trip to Disney and suggested December. I thought SURE!, escaping the winter temps of northern IL to central FL in Dec. "SOUNDED" fabulous. So came Dec. 16th with snow, winds, and record high travel times in Chicagoland. Finally we arrived at the airport (4 1/2 hours later, usually a 60 mins. trip) in the snow, only to have our flight delayed a good 4 hours & 40 minutes. We finally took off at 11:30pm central time minus two large suitcases we had to leave behind (very long story but did get new shirts, pajamas, toothbrush, etc. at Disney!). We finally arrived at our hotel, the lovely Disney Boardwalk at 4 am. The girls handled it all very well. Kelly said our reward for all that stress was 4 1/2 days in sunny Florida!

We visited 3 parks (Disney Hollywood Studios, the Magic Kingdom, and the Animal Kingdom), swam at the hotel, shopped at Downtown Disney, had a blast at a Luau at the Polynesian. Before we left on the 21st, we spent the morning with Shawn's parents and Meme Herrin and had a too short visit with Shawn's grandparents. The girls enjoyed a golf cart ride with Grandpa Reed before we had to head to the airport.

Our flight home was only delayed about 45 minutes, thank God but we left Tampa in the 80s and returned to OHare with minus 40 degree wind chills! Our bodies were in shock but full of fun memories of another great Disney vacation!!! Thank you Daddy!