Extra!Extra!

So as to not confuse, let me explain the redundancy of this blog and the last I posted. I wrote this blog before I realized that I had written "Leapin' Lizzards" previously and had failed to post it. Didn't want to go to the trouble of rewriting either one or combining the information. I guess these two blogs serve as perspective pieces: two blogs covering the same topic but about 7 months apart.





It has been so long since I have graced this blog with my presence. Truly, I can't begin to play catch-up with all that has happened with me since my last entry.







Nutshell Update: The girls and I moved to Round Rock on August 11, 2007. This will be journaled as the only moving expense I incurred was a purchase of Sonic for lunch for my magnificent family members who came to move us! It was a family affair...tears rush to my eyes just thinking of support I felt that day. My family swooped in and made a sure dreadful day one of the brightest memories of my life. Two days later I began my most fulfilling job to date. The girls and I have made our nest and feel more and more "at home" here each day.







Now that we have regained our bearings....







Gabbie, cute as ever, is rounding the corner to Kindergarten Graduation! My itty-bitty baby is 6! Sweet thing struggles only with figuring out what behaviors befit a Princess at the moment. I am glad to report that she has become less interested in marrying and more interested in college (yes, I did say 6 years old! Never too young to set priorities!)







Maggie, growing more mature and sassy, will be in 3rd grade next year and is nervous to begin at a new school. Poor thing is forced to change schools due to the combination of a new elementary and new district attendance lines drawn this year. Maggie hasn't changed much since the move. She still makes lists for everything, and we are now required to sign in and out of her room upon each entry and exit of said property. I must say parenting her is intimidating! I don't get it!! List of what? to keep up with, huh? sign what for what? She's even began forging my name on her reading log due to my untimely, sporadic, random ways! But she does show me my forged name on this document, because she must want to be exact and just! She still reminds me when she has punishment coming that I have obviously forgotten about (although, shame on her, she did wait two days before reminding me of a promised spanking recently.) Amy gets a real thrill from these familiar tales as she too was an anal, crazy child! We are still working on subduing the freak-outs in effort to avoid future necessity for frequent stays in a padded room donning little more than an institution issued straight-jacket.







God continues to bless us each day beyond any expectation or fathomable measure! He has placed me in a place where I have purpose and am able to use my natural strenghts to help these kiddos he has placed me with. Jerimiah 29:11, "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." has always been my favorite verse in the Bible, but I never really felt prosperous before. I always thought prosperous meant having worldly wealth and riches and that God wants to bless us financially if we follow His word and have faith in his love and meaning for our lives. Now I know what it is to prosper. Prosper is to be built by God into the person he intends us to be with the gifts and strenghts he allows us through tough times and learning experiences. I feel prosperous teaching my sweet kiddos. I am useful and supported. He has surrounded me with fabulous Christian co-workers and friends that have a common purpose and sense of duty to God's struggling babies in our community. I have been inspired and renewed in spirit by the teachers I have become close to. In all of our humanness, God uses us and finds value in the worthless beings we are, shining a great beacon of light on the tiniest speck of gold in our otherwise filthy lives. He is leading me to do the same, to find the value in those around me that seem petty and horribly short-sighted, to, as my Dado would say, focus on people's good faults.