Happy New Year!!!

I hope everyone has a very great and safe Happy New Year!!

Lauren's College Graduation

My oldest daughter, Lauren received her B.S. degree in Elementary Education from Middle Tenn State University this past Saturday! So very proud of her :)

This is Lauren with her boyfriend, Ben!

I am so proud of both of my daughters! Leah is a freshman at Tenn. Tech University and now Lauren is a graduate of MTSU! Can you tell that I am a proud mom??

Laurens roommates are education majors too and they all graduated at the same time!! Isn't that too special!! I thought they did a great job decorating their graduation hats!

I wanted to make the graduation cake for the girls to have at their party that they had that evening.

This is a picture with my mom aka- Gran!

So very proud of you Lauren and all your accomplishments! Congratulations on your new teaching job too!

Very Proud Mom!!!

Here is Lauren at her Granny's. She is 4 years old and "teaching up a storm" to someone or anyone who would listen and be her students !! :) Little did we know........

Here is Lauren at 22 years old and we have such great news to share with our blogging friends!! She will be graduating this month from MTSU! Receiving her B.S. in Elementary Education! The best news of all is that she was notified at the end of last week that she has been hired as the new 2nd grade teacher at an elementary school located close to where she is now living and has been doing her student teaching!! We are sooo very proud of her!! Lauren has always loved teaching as you can see from the picture above! It just goes to show that when you are small the things you are interested in usually end up being your career in your adult life!! Love you so much Lauren and so very proud of you!

More prayers needed!!

As another week begins there are several who are needing prayers this week. I am asking that you please include them as you say your prayers please.

Lecredia Woodlee Rutledge (my teaching assistant) father Jewell is in serious condition at this time

Chad Crabtree

Andy Dunn

Aubrey Haley

Prayer......

There is a special little boy, Andy who will be returning to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital this week for his extensive round of tests that he has to undergo on a regular basis to check to see if the "c" word is still gone from his system.
Please keep Andy and his family in your prayers that he will remain cancer free! God has answered prayers for this family and he will continue to embrace them.
Also, please keep in your prayers Amy who just lost her husband in a motorcycle accident this past weekend. They laid him to rest today. She is a wonderful, sweet woman. She kept my oldest daughter when she was little when I had to go to the football games at the high school.
I am also praying for all who need prayers at this time! There are many who are hurting, undergoing treatments, family problems, sick not only physically but mentally and those who have no families during the holiday season.

A Fresh New Start!!!

Seems like I have been out of the blogging world for quite some time now. I have had a lot of changes happen in my life since the middle of summer. With the biggest change being the mid-life divorce that I have been going through and is now final after being married for 27 years. That is why I have decided to add on the "new beginnings" to my blog title. Because life it too short to not move on to bigger and happier times and that is exactly what I am doing. Life is too short and I intend on living my life to the fullest and be much happier than I have been in many years!! I don't know what I would have done if I had not had the support of my daughters, mom, sister, other family members, my close friends and my church family! Thank you from the bottom of my heart for standing by me and helping me get through the hardest thing that I have EVER had to get through in my entire life! But you know what??? I made it and I am stronger than ever! I just hope that I can in return help someone else that is having to go through a mid life divorce like myself one day.

Prom 2010

Our daughter, Leah with her date Mason to their senior prom!

These pictures were taken in Mason's yard. Aren't the azeleas beautiful??? Such a great place to take special pictures!

These pictures were taken inside the gym at our civic center where they prom took place. The colors were teal, black and silver. The theme of their prom was called "A Black Tie Affair".

I thought the waterfall made out of balloons was so cute! :)

These are Leah's friends who were on the dance team with her and are seniors as well. Aren't they all beautiful girls? They all went together to eat and enjoyed riding in the stretch limo that held 20 people! Whew a tight squeeze for sure but fun!

Is Spring really here???

I am pretty sure that last Saturday was the first day of spring but......today we had "SNOW" on the buttercups! Which is pretty typical for Tennessee weather.

I think it is suppossed to warm up tomorrow though :)

Christmas 2009

My mom with all her grandchildren - Leah, Lauren, Chelsea, Marcus and Trevor


This picture cracks me up!! The nintendo DS is fun for all ages from 5 years old up to 17 here in this picture! Look how they are concentrating!

This is my husbands mother and his step-dad.

Trevor, Marcus and Leah watching Lauren opening presents.

Chelsea is digging into her stocking.

10 Days of Giveaways!!

Brandie Mansfield of Custom Artwork has put together the best idea and is having some very talented people donate something to her 10 days of giveaways.

This starts today!! All that you have to do is leave a comment on her blog and you will be entered! :)

Just go to her link on my blog called the 10 days of giveaways and you will be right there!

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends!

Way behind in my blogging!!

I have missed the time that I once had to blog that is for sure!! This has been a busy year with it being Leah's senior year in high school and adding in dance team responsibilities that I have in helping with the group my free time that I have is no more or I don't have much of it to say the least.

While we are off on Christmas break, I am hoping to get caught up and upload some pictures of our trip to New York for the Macy's parade and Christmas pictures.

For starters I have finally gotten to change my background to my blog :) Be back soon! (I hope)

Football Senior Night 2009

I just wanted to share with my blog readers some great pictures that we made on a very special night for our youngest daughter, Leah --- her Senior night recognition as a member of the Pioneerettes Dance Team!! We are very proud of you Leah! Congratulations and what a beautiful young lady you are!


The family :)

Our Senior Pioneerette Dance Family!!!! We have all grown so close during these past several years we all feel like family! It is so nice to know that if you need help from any of these great people they would stop and come help in a heart beat :)

Sisters!!! So proud of my daughters!

Lauren is a Senior @ MTSU majoring in Elementary Ed. and of course Leah is a Senior in high school!!

Leah and the other Seniors with a very special person, Coach PShock!!

Thanks Penny for all you do for the dancers giving everything from your heart to them to make them the best dance team in the state!! No lets say country!

Hope everyone has a safe and hollowing Halloween!!

Good Luck to all the girls in the Miss Warren County pageant tomorrow night!! There are 49 contestants!! Wow that's the most ever I think! The pageant goes to a great cause -- Queens for a Cure -- Relay for Life!

All good things must come to an end!

Fall break is now just about over. Back to school again tomorrow to see my sweet little children! I have a great class this year and I am very thankful.
I attended a conference for early childhood teachers this week in Gatlinburg with my assistant. We had a good time and the conference gave us some good ideas to take back to the classroom :)
It won't be long until Halloween! The toliet paper will start to fly soon I am sure. We have already had teenagers trying to roll our yard so the dogs have been on patrol for the last few days!

Everyone have a great week!

Look at these beautiful waves!!!

Can you believe these beautiful huge waves??? My nephew Shane's wife, Kristin made these. They now live in Hawaii where Shane is stationed in the Navy at Pearl Harbor. How wonderful to be in such at great place for a few years? Well Kristen may not think so because Shane is out on the boat for a few months and she is there taking care of the children while he is away and it is a new place to them. So I am sure she is lonesome.

Can you believe that she captured this wave like this and this man just about to get clobbered??? There are lots of surfers in Hawaii as you will see in the pictures that I have below. Hope you enjoy! And thanks Kristen for letting me post your great pictures!

Note: If you click on the picture, it will make them larger and you can really see how awesome these waves really are :)

Check it out!

My friend Joy @ Simply Joy Catering now has her blog back up and running!

She has not been able to post for a few months and wanted me to let all my blogging buddies know to come and visit her blog.

Joy can help you out with all your catering needs -- birthday cakes, wedding cakes, cookies to just plain ole home cookin if you want her too! Her chicken pot pies are to die for!

The holidays are coming up esp. Halloween and those Halloween parties!!

Take a look --- www.simplyjoycatering.blogspot.com

Celebrations!!

Tonight we had 2 surprise celebrations for 2 dear friends!

Laura Miner who will be a new bride this Friday and Patti Clarke who will be a first time grandmother at the end of October!

All of our friends who worked and taught together at the high school preschool gathered to celebrate tonight at Applebee's.

As you can see from the pictures we had a great time and it was so nice to get together and visit with each other for awhile! Hope you enjoy the pictures and Congratulations Laura and Patti!! Rae and Scott we will celebrate with you when Little Clarke is born!