Bloggin' Buddies (Surprise Gifts & A Meeting)

Wow! This weekend was just full of bloggin' blessings! One of them was a surprise to me and the other has been a surprise that I've been waiting to share after it happened!

First of all, this past Saturday, Joy and I came home from a busy day....a birthday party and some grocery shopping. As I brought my groceries into the kitchen, I spied a box on my kitchen counter (mail brought in by Jason). I didn't waste any time checking it out. Sure enough...it was addressed to me....from Donna (Never So Simple). I tore into it (with help from Joy), and imagine Joy's surprise to find goodies labeled with her name too! I have to admit, though, that I fussed a little bit at Donna when I saw that it was from her. If you have followed Donna's blog, you know that they're going through some tough times right now, and she shouldn't have done this! It's obvious that Donna is such a sweet, giving person!

Well here's what she sent me........a longaberger basket with more prim goodies tucked inside! There was a prim star, a pumpkie pie tart, a pipberry wreath, and prim fixins'! I was so excited! I know the basket is probably supposed to be a bread basket, but I'm thinking it will look really nice (and just the right size) for the back of my toilet in the newly remodeled bathroom. I haven't made up my mind for sure if that's where it's permanent home will be, as I'm still tweaking. But wasn't this the nicest gift, especially knowing the heart with which she gave it? Thank you so much, Donna! I treasure your friendship!



And as if that wasn't enough, she had a stash of goodies for Joy too! Included in her goodies was the coolest mechanical pencils, colorful fashionable erasers, a journal, "Joy" letters, and a jewelry kit. All of these things fit Joy perfectly. She always has paper and pencil in hand, writing something and she loves crafty things! Donna made her a very happy little girl! Thank you again, Donna!



The second thing I'd like to share with you was my very first meeting with a fellow bloggin' buddy! Can you believe it? I know many of you have done this, but it's a first for me! Not long ago I had my 200th post giveaway and first year blogging anniversary. Well the winner of the giveaway was Susan (Penless Writer). After receiving the goodies in the mail and seeing my address, she got in touch with me and told me that she and her husband were traveling my way to see relatives and asked if I would like to meet with them. I was so excited! We worked out the details and met them Sunday afternoon at a local restaurant in town after church! It was just the neatest thing and Susan and her husband, Mickey, are the sweetest couple! They are a very genuine Christian couple, very active in their church, and we had a wonderful conversation and time together....the five of us......Susan, Mickey, Jason, Joy and me. I wish Colt could have been there, but he was in an afternoon church service playing and leading music.

Joy showed Mr. Mickey how to hold chopsticks and they practiced on the french fries! (That would have made a good picture). I feel like I've known them much longer! I really enjoyed our meeting and like Susan said, I don't think it was an accident at all that she was the winner of my giveaway right before they were going to be traveling my direction!

Here's a picture taken by the cashier at the restaurant. I have to admit that I do not like this picture of me at all (I know everybody says it, but it honestly looks like it added 10 lbs!) Anyway, it's the only one the girl took, so I wanted you to see us all together!



And when we went back out to our cars, Susan gave me some honey which came from the bees they raise! And look closely at that bottle.......I didn't notice it until the way home, but usually you see a honey bear bottle......but this one is an angel! Isn't that the cutest thing? I learned that Susan collects angels and I wish I had known it because I sure would have taken her an angel. However, I did take her a Blessings stitchery......I guess that goes with angels though, right?



And Susan said as she drove off that I would get to blog about our meeting before she would. I think they won't return for ten days. I told her that I would wait, but she told me to go ahead. She didn't have to twist my arm too much, because I've been anxiously waiting this meeting and wanting to post that I was meeting a blogger and make a mystery blogger....but I restrained myself! lol! So, I'm glad to finally be able to tell it! (Thanks, Susan)!

This was just an wonderful weekend of bloggin' blessings. I am amazed at the bond I've come to share with many bloggin' buddies out there, and with the kindness as well. When you count your blessings today, don't forget to include your bloggin' buddies! :)

Faithful Fridays (Pray Without Ceasing)

Pray without ceasing.....have you ever thought about what that means exactly?



I've thought about this alot. The best way to describe it (for me) is in terms of my family. For example, how many of us talk constantly all day to our husbands or kids? Not many of us actually do that. (Although I do think that Joy could come pretty close to talking all day long). It's more like we just pick up the conversation throughout the day. We might talk about something in the morning. Go on to a task. Sit down at lunch and pick up the conversation again, and so on. It's a relationship of conversation with our loved ones.

I really think that is what God means when he says to pray without ceasing. We should pray throughout the day at different times.....when we're in the shower, while we're putting on our makeup, while we're driving down the road, or while we're walking through the store. Of course, most of us have definite times that we pray alone or with our husbands or kids, and that's good, and so it should be, but I think we should always have that attitude of prayer and ready to talk with God at various times throughout our day.



There are (and have been) a few things in my life that I consistently pray about such as salvation for family and friends, protection for my family, the person my kids will marry, and for those on my prayer lists, etc....But there are also things that "come" to me throughout the day. I might remember that someone is going for a test at so and so time during that day, or someone is going for an interview, Colt is taking a test at a certain time, etc...and in those times I just pray silently wherever I am. I want to encourage you all, if you don't do this, to keep that attitude of conversational prayer at all times. I think it's pleasing to God.....his children talking to him throughout the day. Don't you enjoy your family talking to you throughout the day?

Another example (to me) of praying without ceasing is to continue to pray about a situation or for a person, regardless of what you see happening with the circumstances. Believe in prayer with the faith that God can change those circumstances. And that leads me to two specific prayers that I've prayed in my life that God didn't answer right away, but eventually did so in His timing and in His way, and I never ceased praying about them, no matter what the circumstances dictated.

One of these happened as I was growing up. My dad didn't go to church and wasn't a Christian. My mom took my brother and me faithfully. We ALWAYS asked my daddy when we left to go to church (or at least one of us did) if he would go with us. We ALWAYS got a "no" in some way or another. But Mama always told us to just keep praying (pray without ceasing)....so we did. Well, the preacher would come to visit and daddy would leave the house and "hide out" until he left! One particular time, he left the house and was out driving around. He passed back by the house and saw the preacher was still there. He said to himself, "That's MY house and I'm not going to let SOME preacher run me off from my own house." So, he went home. Well that day he was changed forever. This preacher didn't "preach" to him. He had another down-to-earth guy in blue jeans with him and they all just sat there and talked about hunting and fishing ALOT and spiritual things A LITTLE. This made an impression and long story shorter.....it wasn't long until my dad was a Christian and was going to church with us........and so he has been ever since. Pray without ceasing.



Another instance in my life are all the years when I prayed for a child. You may have read all about that in another Faithful Fridays - The Purple Dress. I won't go into the whole thing again, but there were many years of praying without ceasing as I waited for both of my children. My timing wasn't God's, but He knew exactly how to build our family. Pray without ceasing.

**And just an answer to prayer this week is the one you all know about....Colt is better. Although, we never figured out the cause of the allergic reaction, he is free of itching and hives. I'm very thankful for that too. **

I hope you're blessed this weekend and if you would like to read more Faithful Fridays, you can check out Joy's blog and those participating will let her know under the comments. Or maybe you would like to share something for Faithful Fridays. If so, please let her know under the comments, so we can all check it out!

Remember.....Pray without ceasing!

Blessings,
~ Tammy ~

Dancin' the Day Away!

This past Saturday was the big day! We began the recital marathon day at 9:15 a.m. in the dressing room! All of the Pre-Company girls' names were on stars on the dressing room door when we arrived. Joy reserved a locker in there for her costumes and all the last minute primping began! She moved her star to her locker. Here she is in her ballet costume (as a hunter).



As you look at these pictures, please know that this makeup is ONLY for recital day...even on picture day we didn't do this much makeup. Since they want the girls to have a uniform look, they actually tell us certain colors of makeup and ask us to make it heavy so the girls will stand out on stage. It's always a shock to see my little girl in this much makeup. She absolutely hates eye liner though and vows to never wear it when she's older! We'll see. :) They also all had to wear their hair parted to the same side with low buns, very slicked back (with lots and lots of gel, hairspray and bobby pins)! Here's Joy and Devyn stretching....notice the handcuffs between them! I asked Devyn if her mom and dad knew she had handcuffs in the dressing room. She said her dad told her she could bring the handcuffs in....if she left her attitude in the car! :) I was really hoping that there was no malfunction in the handcuffs.....I could just envision them dancing the Sleeping Beauty ballet handcuffed together (and Devyn is the studio owner's daughter)! Yikes! :)





What is with girls wanting to pick each other up? This is Joy holding Katie Beth! They were all doing this!



Joy and Julian....(her partner in doing "the bump" in Shake Your Groove Thing).



Anyway, there were three recitals: 10:30 a.m., 2:30 p.m., and 7:00 p.m. In the first two, Joy (and the entire Pre-Company) danced only in the ballet play, Sleeping Beauty. In the 7:00 p.m. recital, they danced in the play as well as their other two numbers....jazz and tap. The recitals were divided up into halves with the ballet play of Sleeping Beauty in the middle. They were hunters in the play and had guns as props to do their ballet dance. (Joy will show this to you on her blog probably on her next post). Here's Joy, Christina and Katie Beth before their first performance in the play.



In the first half of the recital, the girls danced (jazz dance) to Shake Your Groove Thing. They had the same basic costume. For this one, they had the hats and boots.



Three of the disco divas....Katie Beth, Christina and Joy...



In the second half, they danced (tap dance) to Love Shack. For this one, they had on capri tights with the same dress and a sash around the buns in their hair.

This is one of my favorite pictures. This is Joy and a little girl named Zoe. Joy met her during dance rehearsals. She is in one of the preschool dance classes and they hit it off right away...Joy fell in love with her! Joy looked for her arrival that night and met her with a teddy bear which Zoe loved! Just look at that face and that precious pink costume they wore!



After all the shows (at about 10:15 p.m.), Joy went out to see some of the folks that came to support her. Here she is with her taekwondo instructor (Vicki), and Joy's lady friend (Wendy) from taekwondo class with her two sons (Ikie and Caleb). It was so nice of them to come! Also our friends, Lori and Molly Grace came to watch, but had already left by the time we were done backstage.



With Colt (who took off work to be there):



With Grandmama and Pop (my mom and dad):



With PawPaw (Jason's dad):



And with Jason and me (I look tired and I was):



Striking a pose aftwerwards by the balcony:



With Christina (their assistant in class and also the one that played Aurora in the Sleeping Beauty play):



I've tried and tried to get a video on here of one their dances and it just won't upload. It may be too big. If I can figure it out or get it to work (translation.....if one of my kids can figure it out for me), I'll put the video on another post.

Now we're taking a break from dance for the summer. Classes won't resume again until mid August. But actually Joy never stops dancing. She dances across rooms and doesn't even realize it. She dances when she hears music in stores. I guess that really does give true meaning to dancin' the day away! :)

Homeschooling End-Of-The-Year Fun!

Thanks again for all the concern and prayers for Colt. We did have another visit to the ER on Saturday night, but all the hives are gone now. We never did figure out what it was, but he remembered playing soccer in the grass last Wednesday. I'm wondering about that now, but we really don't know.

I can't wait to share pictures and maybe even a video from Joy's dance recital with you this week, but first, I'm going to finish a post that I started awhile ago and never finished on our last homeschool outing. We had lots of fun. I hope you enjoy it! (Warning..there are LOTS of pictures)!

A few weeks ago, we had our last meeting of the school year.....a "bat" field trip to the local state park, a picnic, playground fun, and some field games too.

Here the kids were divided into two different groups (older and younger kids) playing the "bat game", using their "echolocation skills" to find the moths inside the circle! All of the people making the circle were the trees. There were two "moths" inside the circle. The bat was blindfolded and was inside the circle. He or she had to say "bat" and everytime he did, the moths had to answer back "moth", thus the bat could locate his moths and tag them. If he touched a tree, they of course, had to answer tree! The kids had a blast and everyone had a turn at being a tree, a bat, and a moth. Oh, the things that make children happy! :)



Here's our group picture taken that day....the CHEF Eagles! :)



Next up, was our picnic.





One of our moms had a birthday that day (Jane), so a fellow homeschooling mom (Kim) made bat cupcakes to celebrate. Aren't they cute?



The kids had a blast just playing on the playground!









But after we rounded them all up, we still had more fun...a couple of team games. Homeschool mom, Jayne, was in charge of the first one. The kids were divided up into six teams. Without knowing what they were going to do, they were asked to come up with a team captain from each team. The captains were brought to the front and fitted with a protective "garbage bag cape".



I think they were a little curious at this point!

Then....each captain was given a shower cap....but not just any ole shower cap...these were fashionable and colorful shower caps! And they were nice enough to reserve the pink ones for the boys! :)



I think the captains were getting a little worried by this point!

Then each captain's shower cap was covered with shaving cream. Some were having second thoughts about being a captain by now. Hmmm.....maybe being a captain isn't what it's cracked up to be! :)







Every team member was given a sandwich baggie full of cheetos. Can you guess what happened next?

At the starting signal, the team members were to shower their team captain's head with cheetos. At the ending whistle, they all stopped. The team that managed to land the most cheetos on their captains head was the winner!











I think the winning team plastered about 40 something cheetos to their captain's head! (It wasn't' Joy's team, by the way). :)



Homeschooling mom, Lori, was in charge of the next game. The kids were divided into pairs this time. One was given a garbage bag cape again; The other was given a jello cup. The one with the jello was to stand behind the one with the cape and be his arms and feed him/her the jello at the starting signal.

They were short one kid, so Ms. Brandy offered to be Joy's partner...what a sport!











I think the winners (Kasey and Molly Grace) must have inhaled theirs!

We had lots of laughs and fun the entire day! It was a wonderful ending to a great school year. I just love our homeschool group...and am thankful for the unity that we share.

And to wrap up such a nice day, one of the family's sweet kids, Dunnivan, Suzanna and Dison, presented both Lori and I with flowers to thank us for coordinating the group. Wasn't that sweet? I've really enjoyed having these pretty flowers (that lasted a long time too) in my kitchen! What a cheery addition they made!



Then on the way home, my friend, Lori, and I stopped by a shop that we had passed called Hillbilly Treasures. I found more wooden spoons and a crock jug...and Lori found several platters.



So, now our summer vacation is "officially" in full swing, although real learning never stops.......right?