Oh My ... Oh MY ... OH MY!!! WHERE DID THE LAST 4 MONTHS GO?

There is no way to blog all that has happened in the past four months while our PC has been out of commission and life has been CRAZY BUSY!!!!

It seems so appropriate that I would return to the blogging scene on May 9th ... my grandson first birthday! Happy birthday, Canaan! How I wish I could be with him for this awesome event of his life that he will not even remember. At least I was able to be with my first grandchild on her first birthday... Canaan's sister Adelaide ... thanks to her mommy and daddy making it possible by coming to our home. I sure have great kids! They do everything they can to keep us posted on their children's growth and "firsts" and to help us have as many chances as possible to see them. I feel quite certain that my grandbabies will always know who we are and how very much we treasure them even though we live 3 hours apart.

Well, the school year is coming to a close. Praise the Lord! This has been the roughest year of my entire teaching career. I actually love every one of my students and would do fine with them if I just didn't have to deal with all 25 of them in the same room for 9 months! They are talkative, ornery, super active ... much like my son. Today a first grade teacher came to my door following her recess duty with my class included and began by saying, "I don't know how you handle all these kids in one class at the same time!" Then she proceeded to name over half of my students, one at a time, and what he (my girls are pretty good) got i trouble for on the playground. I told her she impressed me by knowing all their names. She told me it was because she has to yell at them every time she has recess duty for what they do wrong. See? It's not just me! (smile ... and they are coming her way next year!) Poor lady!

Highlights of the past 4 months focus on my grandchildren:
In March we met James and Kelly in "Amish country" and they entrusted their 9 month old "bundle of joy" into Grandma and Grandpa's care for about 18 hours! They didn't even call to "check up" on her/us. We felt so complimented by their complete trust and faith in us being able to take care of Halle. We enjoyed ourselves fully the entire time and found our granddaughter to be a "dream baby" ... a delight the entire time! I did nickname her "Thumper" as she always seems to thump her entire bottom & legs up and down in the bed as she prepares to go to sleep! I also found out that when she is tired she will rock herself back and forth if she is sitting up just like my mom told me I always did when I was a little girl! That's cool! She favors me in some ways!!(HeeHee)

Sunshine came to visit us with the kids at the end of February and a couple weeks ago we went to Aaron and Sunshine's house ... just for the night but better than nothing! Those two visits allowed us to see Canaan at the beginning to crawl state right into the freestanding and "walking but not aware of it yet" state. It feels like we have been able to watch him grow up! Our kids will never realize how important and precious that is to us. When we saw them last time Adelaide came running into my arms and hugged me for all it was worth. Yep,, I am assured, I AM LOVED BY MY GRANDDAUGHTER! Canaan crawled straight towards us too, grabbed hold of Grandpa's leg and pulled himself up to be picked up ...That sure did win Grandpa's heart! He was on "cloud 9"! We had so much fun with them.

I am so thankful for the way we have tried to see our kids/grandkids at least every other month for the past couple years. We are so blessed that they work so hard to make it possible too. We all have such busy schedules but we have found that a 24 hour trip is so worth the time and effort and "takes off the edge" of homesickness for our kids, their spouses, and our grandbabies. Sometimes those short visits provide more "QUALITY TIME" than longer visits do!

Well, I better close. I have so much more to write about ... especially church ... but I also have other responsibilities pulling me. It's a good thing we are in the midst of a sermon series on "Putting our lives back in balance" and "Priorities" ... I do believe I am stretched a bit thin right now .. but I am happy! " I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me"! (Phillippians 4:13)