Catch up time!

It's almost December already, and I remembered that I hadn't updated my blog in forever! Oh, my. Where do I start?

April is 4.5 now. It seems hard to believe that my tiny little baby girl will be starting kindergarten soon. We are having to make plans on what to do with her after school once she starts kindergarten. She is so smart. She is reading fairly well now and doing really well in her pre-K program. She loves school, she loves church. You cannot see her around without her princess tiara on. It doesn't matter to me. She is a child of God, the King of kings, and she will always be a princess to him and to us. She loves to play games on the computer, wants to be read to all the time, and she loves to draw and color. Her coloring is amazing....she stays in the lines and gets very frustrated when she does not color neatly. I want to find her a bunch of art supplies for Christmas. She loves color by number now and she loves dot to dots. She is the artistic one in the family. Her daddy just recently bought her an electric guitar...a pint sized one in her favorite color.....PINK. She likes to strum it and has been playing it for us on occasion. It is really cute.

Carl is doing really well in Junior high. We are waiting on his next report card, but he made straight A's on his first one. He is on the tennis team and loving it, and he is also playing percussion in the band. It is hard to believe that his FIRST band concert is coming up soon! I am so proud of him....and I know I will cry at that concert. He is supposed to practice 180 minutes a week on his percussion music , and each week, he comes to us with a practice record that is over 300 minutes a week. Mark also bought him a drum set and a practice book that was recommended for him to start on. He loves it, too, and it hasn't been too loud lately. Carl did a big project on his family history for school that looked awesome when he was done with it. (Luckily, Mom was into family history when he was born, so I had a lot of materials he could use) Carl also got his first experience at Texas Motor Speedway! He has become a HUGE NASCAR fan, and was able to get tickets to see it live a few weeks ago with his Dad. He had a blast!

Mark is still teaching private music lessons on Tuba, Euphonium, Trombone and Bass (guitar). He seems to still love his work. He is branching out to the Sachse, Wylie and Red Oak areas to teach, while still teaching some for his usual Garland ISD schools. His gift of Service comes in handy big time at church and for his friends. He works really hard to keep up the church website, to keep the church services looking new and modern, all the while happily worshipping God on his bass as well with the Worship team. I am so proud of him and all he is doing for us, for the church and for his friends. If anyone is in need of help, Mark is there to volunteer. We've been so happily married for 12.5 years now....it seems like forever.

Me, well, I was promoted at work, and I no longer teach in a classroom. I am now the afternoon supervisor for Shiloh Terrace Baptist Church's Child Development Center (CDC) I am really loving it. I have families that say they miss me as a teacher, but I so much more love to be involved with ALL the families at the center, and not just 8 or 9 that I am teaching at the time. I get to be involved with all the classes now, and I am currently leading the Chapel time on Wednesdays for all the Preschoolers (bible story, singing, etc) and we are trying to put together a program for the parents of the kids singing and reciting the Christmas story. It is really neat to watch all the kids grow up. Right now, I am recovering from foot surgery. I have an extra bone in both of my feet, and the left one has been bothering me since I was a teen. It is *a whopper* as my doctor called it and it was constantly pushing a tendon in my foot out of place causing a lot of pain. (constant tendonitis, basically) So on November 20th, it was removed and I am still recovering slowly. Hopefully I will be back on my feet again soon. I should see the doctor this coming week to see how it is healing. It still hurts and I still get dizzy, sleepy, nauseous from meds, but i think it is getting better daily.

Well, that catches us up for now. Where's the picture of me? Well, I am usually behind the camera...if I can find one, I'll throw it in later. Hope you had an awesome Thanksgiving!