Sunday, July 22, 2012

so much to tell about...

The first and most important thing to say is that I am an aunt again!  This time to a nephew.  Evan Dwight Hewitt was born to Tim and Beth Wednesday morning at 5:54.  I will share what my brother and sister-in-law posted to give you the abbreviated version of his entry into the outside world, "So, as many are wondering, Evan Dwight was born Wed morning at 5:54 am. We have been unable to post as Evan was rushed to the ER by ambulance a couple hours after he was born. His vitals were good at birth but after a few hours, his heart rate was low, was a little lathargic, and was working a little hard to breath. He has been transported to the intensive care nursery at Dartmouth for monitoring and antibiotics. The doctors have ruled out some possibilities so they and are thinking it is pneumonia. He has improved tons and we expect to take him home after a week! We are praising God for a safe deliver, excellent care/decisions made by the midwife, prayers by many people, great improvements for Evan, medical people, lodging at David's House, and a God who is sovereign and takes care of us!" This was posted on Thursday evening.  Since then he is out of ICU and doing much much better. They still plan to keep him until Wednesday at least though just to make sure everything is improving as they would like to see.  I hope and plan to meet this cute little man in about a week and a half.  Bragging rights of an aunt are to show off pictures of him....







Next, and of much less importance is the spa girl's night we had last week.  A lady in our church was expecting her third baby and didn't feel the need for a traditional shower since she had most things she needed.  We still wanted to throw a special party for her and so a friend of mine decided to do a spa night.  I had a hectic and stressful day and was mentioning to Daniel that I had been looking forward to it, but was afraid I was so tense and worked up from the day that I would have a tough time relaxing and enjoying the evening.  I was thankful to be proved wrong.  I so enjoyed my time relaxing with the ladies!  We did steam "baths" for our face, facials, fingernails, special drinks (virgin, of course), giggled, ate, and chatted.  Jackie has some peaceful music playing.  Here are a few pictures I stole off facebook from the evening with the ladies from my church...



I am so thankful for my church down here at school.  The ladies of this church sure know how to throw a party!

This coming week is my last week with Energy Express.  It definitely brings mixed emotions.  This past week went a bit better then the week before, for which I am so very thankful.  I feel like my classroom is finally all coming together, only for it to be torn down this week :(  Here are a few pictures of what my class looks like and what all of my kiddos have been doing (keep in mind, I can't show pictures of them due to privacy so there will not be any pictures of my children).


 The family's car and the strange house from The Relatives Came.





 The students each made a room to compile together to make a mouse house from Beverly Cleary's book The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
 This is a bedroom, do you see the bunk beds (made out of egg carton) and TV (made out of a valentine)

 This is the bathroom, including a sink, toilet, and hot tub!

 The kitchen.  I love how she used wallpaper to make the water in the sink, and used an egg carton for the refrigerator.



 The kids do a community service project, as well as the mentors.  We as mentors and staff are putting care packages together for the veterans at our local VA hospital.  The kids community service project is to write the veterans notes and draw them pictures.

 The kid's paintings for what they 'saw' on their street.  Done as an art project for And to Think That I Saw it on Mulberry Street.

 Here is their mural for last week.  Our week's theme was 'community'

Each student made something to sell at our 'class market'.  They each pretended to be a vendor after reading It Takes a Village.  Items at our class market include: dolly house, jewelry, mangoes, robots, and rain sticks.

This past weekend I went to Virginia to spend some time with Daniel, his parents, and grandparents.  I had a very relaxing and fun weekend.  We tried some new recipes (all successes), played Aggravation, visited, and laughed lots.  I am so glad I was able to go.  I am sorry, I did not take any pictures though.

As mentioned above, this is my last week with Energy Express.  I will leave this beautiful state on Saturday morning to drive to New Jersey to spend a few days with my grandparents.  I am so looking forward to that time.  I will then finish the drive to Vermont to be back with my family and meet that handsome little nephew of mine, and play with that sweet niece of mine.  And as that creates a circle back to the beginning, I encourage you to go back to the beginning of this post and look at those pictures again of Evan.  You just can't look at them too many times.  Please continue to keep him and his family in your prayers.

Until next time...

Monday, July 16, 2012

quick update

Things are going fine.  I have moved out of the apartment I was staying in and moved in with a couple from my church.  I am so thankful for people's generosity!  I will be at this couple's home until Wednesday morning when I leave for work (his brother is coming in from Oklahoma).  This change in living has provided some extra time with my dear friend Kari.  We spent Saturday together out doing adventures.  Some of our adventures included sale shopping, the lake, driving through an intense storm (flash flooding included), Chinese food, a movie etc. etc.  She then came to church with me on Sunday which was fun too.  I was back at work today and for the most part, it went well.  Please particularly be praying for one of my students and some of the needs involved with that.  This weekend, I am looking forward to going to Virginia to spend the weekend with Daniel, his parents, and grandparents.  I so enjoy going there.  It is very relaxing and I have such fun (even if we do aggravate each other [by playing the game aggravation]).  Anyways, I am headed over to Kari's apartment for a little while and then on to the house where I am staying.  Stay tuned for pictures of the ladies' spa night I enjoyed on Friday!

Thursday, July 12, 2012

update and plea for prayer

I don't have long, but I am currently sipping my coffee as I write to you, updating you as well as offering a plea for prayer.  On a side note, this summer I have fallen more in love with coffee (I'll admit, most people probably wouldn't like my coffee because Tim tells me consistently how too sweet it is, and this summer I have been sweetening it with VT maple syrup, spoiling done by Uncle Ralphie).  I love making it, the smell of it brewing, and then the relaxation of sipping it as I get things ready, browse the latest happenings in the world on the computer, have quiet time, or whatever else I might be doing.  I do not drink it for the caffeine though because it doesn't really do anything to help keep my awake, I simply love the taste (my way of fixing it, that is).  I do try though to not have it every morning because the grounds I currently have are regular and I do not want to become addicted to the caffeine, especially if it isn't helping me out, haha.  Okay, enough of on coffee...how about that quick update and plea for prayer!

It is Thursday and my summer is over half way done with Energy Express.  That brings along mixed feelings, weighting on the sad side.  I have so enjoyed my time with the kids and love the life of waking up and going to school where I am the teacher.  I love reading their writing, and getting to know them.  Yesterday we worked for a while with spelling (in a non traditional way) because I have two students who consistently mis-spell "nice"  I most commonly see "nic" or "nis".  I love their innocence, but am also eager to see how they have each grown throughout the summer.

As far as meals have gone lately, I am continuing to love planning and making meals!  On Sunday, Kari came over and on the spur-of-the-moment, I decided I wanted strawberry shortcake, so I whipped up some biscuits and we did it up right with cool whip, fresh strawberries and chocolate chips!  Side note, we did not eat all of those biscuits.  A recipe I have been wanting to make for a long time that I found on Pinterest is a Roasted Garlic Chicken Pesto Pizza.  I made the homemade pesto and then also had fresh mushrooms, so I did half the pizza with that.  With my pizza, I enjoyed some of my favorite tea (thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Meigs!) iced, pomegranate!  So there you have it...the recent kitchen adventures!




Now for the plea for prayer...I have had the wonderful privilege of staying in the apartment of some school friends of mine while they were overseas for a mission's internship.  They started the trip home this morning and plan on being back tomorrow evening.  I couldn't even thank them enough for the use of their apartment for the past 6 weeks, and what a huge help that has been.  Their home has been very comfortable and suited my needs wonderfully.  They were gracious enough to allow me to stay for the remaining two weeks I have with Energy Express.  But for their sake, I felt six people, in a three bedroom apartment after they have just gotten back from a long time away, was a bit too much.  I have a few friends who too have been gracious enough to allow me to stay with them.  All that to say, I am trying to clean up my messes and get this apartment sparkling clean before they get back.  It has been difficult to work on packing and cleaning while still working full time.  It would figure that there would be two ladies events tonight and tomorrow that I really want to go to, but alas, I get to clean and pack.  Please pray that I get everything done, and before they get back.  I thank you in advance for your prayers.

Blog updates will probably be very limited within the next two and a half weeks though.  Don't lose heart, I have every intention to do my best to still keep up with it and keep the posts coming.  My coffee is just about up though so I am going to go try and tackle the downstairs bathroom and finish cleaning the stove pans (under the burners) before I leave for work.  Have a lovely Thursday!

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

adoption story

My friend and I were talking this morning on our way to work (for real this time, not just going and learning we still don't have power and can't have Energy Express) about kids and our future dreams and so on and so forth.  I get home and am working like a mad woman on a bunch of stuff and come across a friend's blog who linked to someone else's blog.  This blog is about adoption.  I want to have my own children, but I am not opposed to adoption either.  The blog this links to is of a couple I know of through TLC, and found their story impacting.  I encourage you to take the time and look at their blog and watch their short clip of their story (at the bottom).

Thursday, July 5, 2012

Happy 4th of July!

As I have mentioned before (I think), the Lord has provided Daniel with a full time job at the Charlotte airport.  I am so excited for him.  It is right up his alley, and so far he is really enjoying it.  He has an odd schedule.  By that I mean he works first shift (and lives an hour from Charlotte) so he leaves for work at about 4:25 am and doesn't get back until 4:30 pm or later.  Along with the odd schedule of days, he also has weekends in the middle of the week, Tuesday through Thursday.  All that to say, he drove up to WV for his weekend this week and stayed at the apartment of some of my friends.  We had so much fun together and celebrating the 4th of July (my favorite holiday).  Here are a few pictures from "the weekend".

Wanted to do something 4th of July-ish for dessert and so I decided on blueberry pie...one of Daniel's favorites. 

For the 4th of July, we went to three different parks.  Grandview was one of them.  It was wonderful!  We found a spot with lots of shade, and set up camping chairs, a blanket.  As if that weren't enough, Daniel spotted two trees perfectly situated to set up his hammock.  He set it up for me! 

While he grilled lunch, I got to rest in the shade (with a slight breeze)...in the hammock.  It was wonderful to being able to relax and rest. 


 For lunch we made tinfoil dinners (you put everything in a tinfoil 'sack' and grill it).  Our tinfoil dinners included ground beef, potatoes, carrots, and mushrooms.  We really enjoyed them.


 Next up, we went to Babcock State Park where we waded in the streams and climbed rocks.  The water was cool and refreshing.

 Babcock State Park had been hit hard by the storms.  Trees like this were down all over, most of them dug up by the roots, rather then broken at the tops.


The day ended with us going to Beckley to watch some fireworks.  At home, I had always watched them from a friends house in the distance.  This time I was in the park you are "supposed" to watch them from.  So there were so many people around and it really added to the atmosphere.  The fireworks were spectacular and as usual, I loved every minute of them!  I hope you all had as wonderful of a 4th of July as I did!

the pictures...

I have power back...at least for now.  I am so thankful.  It came back on Monday evening and we got internet back this morning.   So here are some of the pictures I wanted to post the other day.

 We read The Keeping Quilt by Patricia Polacco (wonderful book).  The students each made their own "quilt square" and we put them all together to make one bog quilt.

 Another book we read during family week was The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant.  My students used found objects to make the family's car.  Do you see the seat inside with seat belts and all...and the WV licensed plate.  Their creativity truly overwhelms me.

 I love my pancakes with VT maple syrup!

 This bbq chicken dip is amazing!  I made some and for a single gal, it was enough for a whole meal.  I had some extra black beans (big surprise to some of you, I know) and so I put them on top of the dip.  I highly suggest you make this recipe!

 I got a sample of these oatmeal squares, and so I had them on my yogurt and peaches.  I have grown to love my yogurt, fruit and granola!

 We have to make at least one book a week.  The black book is a compilation of newspaper articles my students wrote about a book we read.  The green book is one I made with the pictures my students painted and labeled of their families.

After our power went out, I received word we were losing our water too.  I wanted to make sure to save up!

Thankfully we never did lose water, which was wonderful!  It was so hot, and so we needed to drink lots of water and the cool showers were awesome!  I am appreciating the power.  I should always appreciate what I have, yet it often takes my losing it to appreciate it.  Anyways, there are the pictures I wanted to post the other day!  Hope you enjoy.

Monday, July 2, 2012

a day at the library

I am currently at our county library. Maybe not under the best circumstances, but I love the library here.  The  people are so helpful and I love the selection they have, and so on and so forth!  I really do like it here.  I am here though because are out of power, have been since Friday around 7pm.  Please pray that I have the right attitude about this though.  I don't mind losing power when I am in the dorm with friends, or at home with my family, but being alone, it gets kind of tough.  I can only read so much.  But enough about that saga story...I have internet right now, and am enjoying some AC, so let me take this opportunity to update you on what has been happening in my life.

A lot more happened this week at Energy Express as I lost two students and gained two.  This has completely changed the dynamics of my room and added a bit of challenge, but God is still good and I know I will learn so much from these kids.  Here are just a few pictures from around our room (sadly, I cannot post pictures of my kiddos on my blog).

The first week's theme was "myself" and here are some of the things from that week.  Last week the theme was "family".

Energy Express has been cancelled for the week which I am so very sad about.  I wanted the change of pace and some normality in my life, but oh well, this is how it will be.

Thankfully Daniel comes in tonight and we will have the next couple of days together.  We plan to go to some local parks and enjoy some of the beauty of West Virginia!  I am so ready for him to get here.  4th of July is my favorite holiday so it will be fun to have someone to celebrate it here with me.

As for the kitchen, here are some of the things from last week.  This week, I am doing very little at home because I have no stove, no microwave, and no refrigerator or freezer to keep anything cold.  I keep reminding myself though that this will end.

 This is the only picture I have posted right now because it takes too long to upload pictures here at the library.  This particular quesadilla is the Southwestern Chicken Wrap.  It was VERY good!

Well, this is all I have to say for now.  Since starting this blog, my supervisor called and I have to go down there.  Not sure for what, but headed on down the mountain to see what is needed of me.  Pray I keep a good attitude about all of this.  Please, let me know how I can pray for you...I have got to get my mind off of myself!