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?