Baby Name Announced

Kaylee Elizabeth Arnold

Thanks you for you suggestions. It helped a lot.

Mommy I Don't Like This Place

Going through hell last night, Ashton says I don't like this place. Let me clarify this. We went to the heaven and hell house at Shady Grove Baptist Church. It was great. It makes hell so real for you. You never leave this place without thinking about changing your life. Ashton even walked away saying he don't like that place so he is going to love Jesus.


After being tortured in hell, we finally came to a beautiful place. It was heaven. This made hell seem bad, dark, and gloomy. We walked in and Ashton says, "Ooh pretty. I like this place." Ashton even got the chance to shake Jesus' hand. He loved it. He went home and called everyone he knew that Jesus shoke his hand.

The bottom line of this story is that sometimes we need to think like a child. The next day we have forgotten about the experiences of the heaven and hell house. Ashton is still talking about loving Jesus because he didn't like the other place. What is it that makes us not continue to think about the consequences of our actions? We know we don't want to go to hell, but do we really think about what we are doing? Are we living in the light of Jesus every day?

The Naming Race is On

We never do things normally. We have come up with an exciting way to name our child. Please help us.

So the race is on. We are taking suggestions for a name for the girl. We know the middle name is Ann after my mother. We need a first name!!! Please give us suggestions. After getting several suggestions we will then narrow the choices down and have you vote. The name with the most votes will win. Right now, we are thinking of Grace Ann and Emily Ann. Any more ideas.

It's a Girl

Yes, those first pictures that we always hate. Mom shows to world who we are.

She is due April 1st. I am 16 weeks along and everything looks great.

Long Time Away

Sorry it has been so long. Now, I go to work, come home, work on grad class, and go to bed. Not much time for blogging.

Anyways, I am back. Hopefully, I can come back to doing this once a week. I just must retrain myself.

I will go to the doctor on Wednesday. I will give everyone the update. Hopefully everything will turn out great.

Hoping for the wrong things

Have you ever hoped for material things and thought they would make your life better? I have answered yes to this question more times than I would like to admit.

If I only owned my own home, how great life would be. This is my worst dreams and hopes that I have. It haunts me over and over again, to the point of depression. Should I really let this take over my life like it does? Sometimes I wish I could be like Michael and window shop. It hurts because I really want the house so bad. He always tells me that our time will come. It just is not coming fast enough for me. I want to be settled with my own fenced in back yard for my kids and dogs to play.

After listening to Jeff's sermon, I undertand that this hope is consuming me. I just need to put faith in God. After all he knows what he is doing, he has the plan already written out. I know that this is hard to understand. I often get depressed and scared to give it all to him. That lack of control in my life bothers me. I am continuing to work on giving it over to him and be less of a control freak in my life.

My Friday Five on Sunday

1. How much TV do you watch?

Not much. I have a few shows that I watch religiously. Most of the time, Ashton has the TV.

2. What type of show is your favorite?

I am a sucker for reality TV. I love Real World. Every Tuesday night, I am in front of my TV watching it. Other than that, I love detective shows, especially Cold Case on A & E.

3. Which talk show host do you hate?

I don't hate any of them. I even wanted to be a talk show host when I grew up. That was what I originally went to school for. Now look at me, I am a teacher.

4. Are you looking forward to any new season premieres?

Grey's Anatomy. I can't wait. Will Thursday ever get here?


5. Which show is your guilty pleasure?

Real World. I must know everything that is going on. I even get online to check out MTV overdrive for scenes that were edited.

Tiny Mister Drew County

So it has been a while. I have been busy, but I must take the time and brag on my little boy. He won Tiny Mister Drew County 2006 for his age group (24 - 35 months) today. He was so great. He walked on stage and stole the show. He waved and blew kisses at everyone. He had the audience reacting. You can call me over exaggerating, but it is true. He is going to be in the parade Tuesday, so come and see for yourself.
Sorry about the long time no blogging, I just don't have time. I am so tired when I get home from work that I go straight to bed. I think I sleep more now that I am pregnant. When I am not sleeping, I am trying to take a grad course. I will try to get on more often.

Bowling League

Yes, you read right. I have joined a bowling league. Michael has been wanting to for years. So to help him out, I joined. I am really bad. I guess that gives me more of a handicapped. Woo hoo. My average this week was 78. I couldn't even break 100. Next week will be better. I promise.

Right now, I am so sore. Who would have thought bowling was such exercise?

By the way, we need one more player. We have three. Michael, Taylor, and I. We need four by next week. Who wants to join? You have to be better than me.

Meltdown?

When is the meltdown going to start?

Nothing has gone wrong at school yet. Everything is great at home. What is wrong? Life is not choatic. Something must be going to happen.

Anyways, I am so exicited. Michael and I are going to go on a date. WITH NO ASHTON. It is crazy. A date for the whole weekend. At the end of September, we are going to Conway to see Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. I am so ready for that break.

Watch Out!!

Watch Out! It is family time. We started our family time last night. It was great fun. We read Ashton a book and then ended with a prayer. He loved it. Can't wait to do it tonight.

This weekend has proven to be the best investment I have made. Our family went to the Marriage/Parenting Retreat.

Our first seminar was our personality. Kind of disappointing. I think we should have never been married. Just kidding. My personality is choleric. I am a natural born leader and am always right. I can't stand for someone to take their time. I want to get it done and get it done now. I can also be very bossy. Michael is sanquine. He is nothing like me. He wants to play all the time and get lots of attention. He needs constant affection and feel appreciated. Having two totally different personalities, we are going to have to work hard. It does explain a lot of our conflicts. The seminar gave us several tips. We are working on those now.

The second seminar we went to was Keeping the Romance Alive. It was really good. Being married four years and having a kid, sometimes it feels like the spark has left. We were given several pointers and ideas. One was to take a date without kids. We are working on this one now.

The third seminar was Raising your Children to Be Disciples. This was good. I must raise Ashton to be a disciple, so he can grow up and become a great Christian that share the word. The speaker shared many statistics with us. I wish I could remember the numbers. It was just amazing how you can raise your children to be disciples and they raise their children to be disciples. After about 30 years billions of people have come to know Christ. It is truly amazing.

Our final workshop was on disciplining your children. I never really thought that I should discipline my child according to the Bible. Sounds odd, but we must put our disciplining in the perspective of the Bible. My problem is my discipline a lot of times comes out of anger. Michael and I both are working on the controlling anger and explaining to Ashton why he is receiving a spanking. It is worth a shot, so we are going to do it.

Enough with this weekend. Here is an update on the baby. I am 8 weeks along. I have not thrown up anymore. YES!!!! I have discovered that orange juice and pregnancy don't get along with me. Now, don't tell me that I need that folic acid. I don't want to hear it. If I drink orange juice, I throw up. When I throw up, I have lost the folic acid. So I am just better off skipping the whole throwing up stage. Hopefully, I will find a doctor and go soon. My insurance will kick in on October 1. So I am excited about that.

Well, enough rambling for now.

School is awesome. What can I say? My class is the best class ever. I have no major problems in there. Yes, I do have 14 kids (10 boys and 4 girls). I love them all.

My class is so smart. I don't really know what I should teach them. This is such a relief compared to last years group.

My problem children that I was warned about have caused me no problems. The first day you would have thought that I was a mean teacher. I was and still can be. All I can say is that my class is the only class that doesn't get their lunch card punched for misbehavior. My kids can line up and walk to the cafeteria with no problems.

I started corners today. The other teachers thought I was crazy. My kids did wonderful. They are great.

Today, I took my students to their bus. The only problem is we had a bus that didn't show up. So high school and junior kids were trying to run over the little kids. We try to get kindergarten on the bus before the older kids get out. Little oh me had to take action. I got on to a fifth grader for screaming and acting all crazy. Needless to say, the rest of the group got quiet and didn't move. They became civilized. I guess Drew Central need little Lou to come there and run things for them.

Sorry for this randomness about my class. I am just so excited about having all of them.

It Is Everywhere You Go

It is everywhere you go. BULL!!!! Never had a problem before until today. Well, here is my wonderful story involving my Visa.

I received my rebate from Cingular. They don't send you a check but a visa card with money on it. They tell you that you can use it everywhere because it is a Visa card. Makes sense. I have been using the card all over town and had no problem. That was until I went to the Crackerbox to buy a snack.

I was on my way to my sister's annual review in Warren, which went great. I decided to sleep in some since I would run by the gas station and pick up a little breakfast to hold me over until I came back for lunch. My morning goes as usual. I got to the gas station and realize I better dart for the bathroom. My morning ritual of vomiting had hit. I spent 5 minutes in the bathroom throwing up my glass of orange juice for the morning. This left me little time to get breakfast. I got water and some peanut butter and cheese crackers. That always makes me feel better. I put it on the counter and the lady priced my items. I hand her the card and she looks at it pretty hard. I told her it was credit. She proceeded to tell me she couldn't take it. Needlessly to say, don't tell a pregnant woman no.

I got very upset. I would not have been upset if I hadn't used the card all over town. She then proceeded to tell me it was only $2.45. I told her I didn't care what the price was. This is a Visa card and you have the logo on your door that you take it. The she proceeded with her BS that they won't pay us so we don't take them. I said fine and then you won't get my business ever. Needless to say, I couldn't go and get breakfast anywhere else so I went to Warren barely making it in time for Hope's meeting. I did not get to eat until 1:00. It was a bad day.

Moral of this blog:
DON'T MESS WITH A PREGNANT WOMAN AND YOU BETTER TAKE HER VISA OR THERE WILL BE TROUBLE.

Praying

Wow! Was the sermon for me today? Praying, what a big downfall in my life. Yes, I pray. When do I pray? When something goes wrong in my life. I never go to him when everything is going great. This is such a shame. God is suppose to be my friend. Why can't I talk to him when things are going great? It just doesn't make sense.

My prayer life was broken the day my Mom died. I was told if I pray every day God would answer them. Being twenty-one, I didn't want her to die. What would I do without my Mom? So I selfishly prayed to God that he would not take her from. I guess this is when my hating God came in. Here he took my Mom away. I later learned that he didn't do it to hurt me.

With Dad it was a different story. I prayed that God will do what his will is. I didn't want him to die, but there must be a reason. I even prayed for him to take him because I didn't want him to suffer.

My prayer life has gotten stronger since Dad got sick with pancreatic cancer, but it is not where it needs to be. I still often only go to God when I am in a crunch and need him. I am in constant battles with making myself pray or finding the time to do it when I am alone and have no disruptions.

Testing is Over

Thank goodness most of the kindergarten testing is over. We had a great turn out. Only 12 didn't show up. I have my class list, so I am excited about that. I can't wait now until school starts. I think my class is going to be great.

I didn't get sick at all today. Woo Hoo!!! I wasn't tired. I guess it helps to get out and around. I did great. I also learned that if I unbutton my pants I will feel better. Who would think at 6 weeks your clothes would be smaller?

I am getting excited about the baby now. It was such a shock, I didn't know what to think. God wanted us to have it now, so we will. He is the one doing the planning, not me.

PS. Angela I won't put the picture up of you bowling since you based your boards. Congrats.

Sleep

There are not enough hours in the day. Why can't there be more? I have done absolutely nothing all day but sleep. I took Michael to work and Ashton to school at 8am. Then I came home and went to sleep. Pick Michael up at 11 for lunch and then back to work. You guess, then I am back to sleep. It is 2:30 and I finally decided to make myself get up. It is crazy how pregnancy can make you so tired. While tomorrow that has to stop. I have to go to work at 7:30 am and test kids for kindegarten.

Let Your Yes be Yes

This weeks sermon was based on James 5:12. You would think that one little verse couldn't contain so much information. Actually this verse is very packed with advice on life.


Above all, my brothers, do not swear—not by heaven or by earth or by anything else. Let your "Yes" be yes, and your "No," no, or you will be condemned. James 5:12


So often we tell people we are going to do something. We in turn usually find something that we would like to do better. One may not realize that they are actually doing this. I never really thought much of it until the sermon. How many times have I told someone that I would help them and then turn my back on them because I didn't feel like it. Sadly, this as happened more times than I want to recall. The other sad thing is that I have done it to loved ones that I care deeply about.

God wants us to make a commitment. When we say yes, we must mean it. Don't just say yes, and hope that something else will come up so you can't do it. It is time to stop making excuses for yourself. If you commit you better finish it. God doesn't like broken promises. This week and the rest of my life, I am going to strive to reach this goal. I want all my yeses to be yeses. I would like to challenge you to do the same thing. I am really going to make this promise to my husband. So often he gets the bunt of my yeses not really meaning yes.

My Personality

Poor Michael

Poor Michael! He has to deal with all the pregnancy hormones. I don't really get sick from being pregnant. I just become very irritable. Nothing will go right. No matter how much you do the same thing, when you become pregnant it just doesn't work. I got mad just putting together a bulletin board. I just could not get it right. Thank goodness, Michael was there to the rescue.

Well, I am in 5 weeks of pregnancy. Everything is going great. I have not been sick just very tired. As long as I eat, I am fine. I was that way with Ashton too. I can't wait to start getting my paychecks in, so I can go to the doctor and get everything checked out.

Well, I must go and cook supper for my lovely children (Ashton and Michael).

My IQ Score