New Home

We moved today....yup all 4 bedrooms, bathrooms, living space, garage stuff and attic stuff. Isn't it so crazy how you don't notice how much you have until you have to lug it all across town? Geesh. We had great great help packing and unpacking. Tomorrow we are going back over to clean the house, steam carpets and get some last minute things after church.
We tried to keep the move fun for the kids so last night while packing towels, Goob pretended to be Napoli (ranger catcher) and I was Holland (ranger pitcher). I'm pretty show the pitcher threw their arm out :). Ribbit kept calling the U-Haul truck a train and would scream at Adam as he drove it " All Aboard".
After spending all day moving we took the kids to a fall festival at a near by church. They played all kinds of games, both won cookies and cakes at the cake walk and both of them got to wear their costumes (i mean might as well wear them as much as they can since neither one will be able to wear them next year).
Goober was superman and Ribbit was a pumpkin...a plump pumpkin as Adam says.

We are so blessed...truly blessed. We tried to move closer to my job and the kids schools on our time and own doing and God simply said wait. Then he went behind our backs (hahahahaha) and set up a more than perfect situation in a big beautiful house (one that will hold way more than two children...hint hint wink wink).
I was talking to a co-worker earlier this week about how we are like little children, constantly tugging at God's hem saying " gimme gimme gimme" and he is constantly saying " don't you trust me enough to know that I already have that worked out, and its going to be the best?".

Goob and I have been singing this song on the way to school each morning--Ribbit is catching on....so simple but so so true.--"He's got the whole world in his hands, He's got you and me brother in his hands, He's got you and me sister in his hands"

Can you say EXHAUSTED??

Yes, we did it. We drove to Alabama through Thursday night only to turn around and drive home Sunday morning. The drive there was great..kids slept the entire time, we even stopped at a rest area and got about an hour of good sleep. The way home was miserable....Ribbit talked the entire time, just ask Goober. They took turns picking out a DVDs but neither liked the others choice. Goober had to pee about 2000000 times so by time 1435000 we stopped on the side of the road and let him go....no more gas stations that take us 15 minutes to get in and out of. We listened to the Rangers beat the Cardinals in Game 4 of the World Series on the radio during the last hour of our trip and we high fived each other every 5 seconds, the kids liked that.

Goober and I went to school late this morning and I could tell that he was pooped when he got to my room after school .....that makes 2 of us....he still got a good behavior sticker though :).

The kids got to see all of Adam's side of the family this weekend, and even meet Pop and Sue for the first time!! They behaved well and were show stealers most of the weekend. In Adam's words " If one more person tells me how cute our kids are.....:)". We know we have hit the jackpot with these two :).

Although this weekend was fun and it meant that we got to see lots of family it was also very exhausting, not only physically but emotionally. We were dealt a very low blow, one that was aimed at Adam and I but was executed out on the kids. A blow that felt like someone literally punched me in the stomach and knocked the air out. Although my kids didn't fully understand what was going on, Goober understood enough to know that he was being left out (Thanks for allowing me the privilege of explaining that to my 7 year old). That kinda stuff is what draws out the crazy momma bear in me and it took all I had to keep my composure. Its that kinda stuff that reminds me that we aren't just "playing house", we aren't just fill in mom and dads for these two. We are their protectors, advocates, guides and they are always first in our book. Their pain is our pain (times two). I can't wrap my brain around it, I've tried to make sense of why anyone would shun my kids and I can't so I'm just going to (in Adam's words) let them "live with that regret".

There, rant done.

As I thought about this ordeal on the 12 hour ride home I got more and more upset.....but God humbly reminded me that he too was shunned, he too was humiliated by his own....to a much larger degree than I will ever know. He even knew it would happen that way and showed unconditional love to the one (judas) who would kick his humiliation into gear. Its ridiculous how much he suffered so that I could be at peace with God.That puts thing into perspective for me...makes me feel oh so small, oh so undeserving.

I don't have the time or the energy to post pictures or videos from our weekend since that would mean loading them, editing them, labeling them, etc. Plus, we are still packing and I can't find some things :)...but here are some pictures and videos from a fall festival we went to recently! Enjoy!

Ribbit--"Choo Choo mommy, Choo Choo,  ALLLLLLL ABBBOOARRDD"

Decorating cookies with icing and sprinkles.

Decorating picture frames. He put all of our ages on the frame. He is obsessed with #'s and how old Adam and I are :)

Look at that sassiness!

  Ribbit was showing her friend " him ja him" (Benjamin) her "silly face" (face paint)

 She called this her "silly face" all night and wanted to show Daddy her pretty flower!

Bedtime Routines

On Monday and Thursday Adam has class until 9. The kids and I have a routine of reading and singing for the 30 minutes before they go to bed. These are a few of our favorite songs and these moments are my favorites with the kids!!!
Listen for Ribbit to say " come on cc" and hit the book. She has worn this read aloud book out and now my mom's voice no longer plays :).

This is one of our favorites....Goober sings it all the way to school sometimes (thats a 30 minute drive right now and its what I get for praying for patience :))

Here is a verse that we have been working on...Goob is so smart!

We are leaving for Alabama in 1 hour.....thats right at 9 oclock at night. The kids didnt take naps today and I am keeping them up until we get on the road, hoping they will sleep for at least the first 8 hours of the trip....are we asking for it or what ????? :)

Turtle Did it

Ribbit is in this phase where she blames things on her stuffed animals. Saturday I went to get her up from her nap and she was sleeping in her diaper and with shoes on the wrong feet. I asked her who put her shoes on and she pointed to her turtle and said " turtle put shoes on" without every flinching. It was super funny.

Goober was watching one of his new Disney movies in our bedroom the other day while Adam and I were packing up the kitchen. After a while I was thinking that the movie was a lot longer than I remembered. I came back here and saw him sitting on our bed with the remote pointed at the screen. I sat down with him and watched for a while until he hit "rewind" and then "play". I said "bud, what are you doing?" and he said " I stop it and rewind so that it won't ever end, its my new favorite". :)

Goober and I were talking about how funny Ribbit is after we dropped her off at school one morning. He said " mom, what are we going to do with her? (he listens to me way too much) I said " I don't know" and he said " she yanks on people, she has a big belly and she is funny......we should send her to the circus".....hehehe, that sibling love!!!

We are leaving tomorrow night to drive 12 hours and then turning around and driving back Sunday for 12 hours.  Hotels aren't the best for our family getting rest and we are still dealing with everything that goes along with a move. Please pray for all of us as we do lots of make up work, prepare sub plans and miss work. Even bigger though is that Ribbit has been diagnosed with asthma and we have started her with breathing treatments and an inhaler. On top of that she has a sinus infection and is on steroids to open her bronchial tubes. Goob is also sick and we are keeping him full of meds as well.
One positive note....all 4 of us got our flu shots today so hopefully that will ward off any other sicknesses!!!!

Here are some pictures to enjoy!!!

Dressed up for a friends baptism.

Goob and his friend Emilee, they have been friends for 2 years and she invited him to her baptism!! We are so very proud of her! And would you like at my boy?...watch on, tie on, bible case in hand....such a little man!

This cracks me up. I was waiting for him in the hall one day and I started looking at some of the art projects hanging up. I saw this dark brown face and new it was my Goobs!!! Read what it says if you can!

I love this picture of Goob picking apples...such a sweet little face.

Emma and Goob....best friends for 2 years now...we sure do love our sweet school family.

Goob and his friend Lilly...her family are Auburn fans too and when she sees me she says " War Eagle!!!"

Apple Orchard Field Trip

I had the privilege of going with Goober on a field trip to an Apple Orchard on Friday.  It was a lot of fun, even if he got dirt all over me as he literally climbed my body to get the very best apple :).
I got to watch his class say their pledges to the American Flag, the Christian Flag and the bible ----another reason I love our school. Then I got to watch their prayer time, ending with Goob leading the class in prayer with a huge smile on his face!!!
At the Apple Orchard we learned about apples, bees, cotton, butterflies and chickens. Goob was running everywhere and I got to see him interact with some of the kids I am constantly hearing about. I bought a fried apple pie to share afterwards and we both agreed that apples were really cool.

Here are some pictures from the trip.

His was stoked to ride the bus. That's his sweet friend Emma to the right and one of his good buddies, Brock to the left of him.

I had no choice about whether or not I wanted 4 muddy footprints up my side....Goob saw an apple he wanted and used me as a ladder.

One of his seniors for this year, Andrew.

He stayed close to him the whole time....and gave him a huge hug at the end.

Class pic with two seniors.

  They got to eat the apples they picked after they washed them and put honey on top!!!!!

Always saying "Sorry"

On the way home from a fall festival last night I was thinking about how much I tell my kids sorry. Its definitely more than I have ever apologized to anyone else. Whether its for one of their many boo boos, or because something made them sad, or if my anger got the better at me, or if I am just apologizing because I couldn't control the situation.
Thats definitely something I never thought about before becoming a mom. Sure, after a fight Adam and I apologize to each other but that's not a daily thing. Where as with my kids I feel as if everyday demands one or two apologies.
I have noticed though that both of my kids are good at both accepting and giving " i'm sorry"'s. Ribbit says it when she spills something or bugs Goober. Goober says it all the time, about missing a chore, if he hurts Ribbit while playing and a lot of time he apologizes to me for my feelings. He is super sensitive to mom's feeling and if I am not 100% happy he will pick up on it and apologize, saying " sorry you got annoyed with that cop" ( did I mention I got pulled over again and was ticketed this time?) or sometimes he says " sorry that you made us late for school today, but i was ready and waiting for you in the kitchen :)".

This weekend was lots of fun for me...I had the kiddos all to myself!!! Adam had a convention at school all night Friday and all day Saturday. Friday night the kids and I went to a fall festival. The both loved riding the train, petting the animals, getting their faces painted  or as Ribbit says "get a silly face mommy". They also decorated cookies and made pictures frames. We played hard and it paid off, they both slept in until 6:30---a record in our house!!!
Saturday we got up early and went on the hunt for some yardsales to find some things for our new house. Unfortunately we found nothing we needed but something we really wanted-----30 DISNEY MOVIES for $10!!!!!   We found all of the good ones from The Aristocats to Lion King to Aladdin. They are VHS and lucky for us we have a TV with a built in VCR. We are watching Fievel Goes West as I type!! I put 20 of them away for times when we are in a video rut! We also went to our new house and painted Ribbit's room and the living room. Ribbit followed me around insisting that she wanted to help mommy clean....she couldn't understand that I was painting, not cleaning.
Goober found a book at the yardsale that he had to have....STARWARS!!!! Did it matter to him that it was written in Spanish? Nope, he sounded out those words and read it for about 4 hours throughout the day. Then in Aldi he told everyone that he could read and count in Spanish and that it was easy for him!

Artsy Fartsy 3

Here are some of the better fingerprint self portraits from this year. I am a little upset with this class because on the day I had a sub they got into the white out. I normally say no white out and that keeps them from rushing anything and using the ink in layers. When I got back from my day out almost every project had white out on it. Therefore, I added it to my rubric and took off major points....okay, done with that soap box.
Now, aren't these great :)

This kid never touched the white out, he is one of my favorite students, partly because he and his family are huge auburn fans and the other part has to do with his artistic talent and great personality!

This young lady really surprised me on this project. She is normally kinda a goofball, not kinda, pure goofball.  But she makes me laugh, she buys me fingernail polish :), and when I was at her last volleyball game her mom told me that I'm her favorite teacher :)....how sweet!

This young lady is gorgeous, and better yet doesn't know it!!!! She dates Mr. Dimples from the first picture and I give them a hard time about high school dating :). She is hard worker and got my Top Grade Award last year.

This young man is super talented in design but struggles with values. He kept saying" Mrs. Harvell I am black, how do I have value in my skin :)))"...sweet sweet kid

This young lady has never ever done well on any art project but exceeded all of my expectations on this one. This looks exactly like her except that her hair is fire engine red. She is beautiful and is everyone's friend. She doesn't have any desire to improve her art skills, which makes me sad, but she is a joy to have in class.

Happy Engage a versary!!!

I always love this time a year. One, for obvious reasons concerning the weather. Two, for another obvious reason, Auburn Football-weather we win or lose. Finally, because this is the time of year when Adam and I got engaged and started planning our life together.
His proposal was seriously awesome. He planned a scavenger hunt that had me running all over Auburn to places where something meaningful had happened.....bowling alley (first met), Samford lawn (hung out as group and played frisbee), etc. Two of my closest friends were involved as well, handing me the next clue at some places. When I got back to my house ( the last stop) he was there in a tux with candles lining my living room and holding flowers.
He was totally cute.
He proposed....mixing up his words due to nerves and I said "yes".
Of course the ambiance was ruined at some point by my silly cat flinging himself against the back bedroom door. He hates to not be involved in everything and Adam had made the mistake of locking him in that room.

Honey, thanks for 5 great years of togetherness and 4 great years of marriage. Thanks for writing notes and sticking them in my lunchbox :), thanks for taking out the trash and changing the litter box (double ew), thanks for moving all over the United States with me as we seek out God's will and get our degrees, thanks for keeping your promise to me and actually taking me to the Louvre!!!!, thanks for putting up with me in Israel for long periods of time and not being embarrassed when I was asked to eat outside (i keep forgetting they are kosher there---girl's gotta have her milk), thanks for holding my hand as we waited in the kitchen for the knock on the door that would change our lives forever, thanks for loving on Goober and Ribbit from day one as if you had known them your whole life, thanks for studying until 2 or 3 in the morning so that you can devote all of the kiddos awake time to them, thanks for hauling booty with Ribbit as you race to the potty the minute she says " daddy stinky", thanks for leading us in family devotionals each night, thanks for telling me almost every day that I still got it :), you ain't that bad yourself ;).

I love you to the moon and back!!!!!!

Hanging out with lots of friends in front of Samford Hall-November 2005

Still just friends (sorta)-Christmas Party 2005

Together as couple-Adam moved back to Auburn in Feburary 2006

Engaged-October 2006

Comical

Goob was just plain comical during the yardsale. He kept going behind me putting his own price tags on things. He insisted on selling our mini fridge for $29 instead of $20. He also put a price tag of 123, 456, 789 on the Element and another one of 210,000 on the house. He said that he would be willing to come down though. The funniest part was that he set up a little table at the front of the driveway to sell brownies at. He made a sign that said " Goober's (real name) Bakery"....brownies 2 for a $1.00. I never ever went that far up the driveway during the sale. However, afterwards we put some things on the curb and he had changed it to "2 brownies for $21.00". No wonder he only sold $2.50 worth of brownies :). We went straight to the Dollar Tree after the yardsale and he bought candy and a watch. We got home and he came out of the bathroom and said " that's funny, my watch stopped working right when the water touched it". Adam and I started dying laughing. He thinks that watch is so high quality and since he saw "a wave" on it he swore  it was waterproof. I guess Santa will have to bring him a real waterproof watch!

Ribbit did great at the yardsale. They both were up so early with us and Adam and I were so busy getting things ready that I handed them both a Halloween goody bag and called it breakfast. Therefore, they were high on sugar from fun size snickers, reeses and hershey kisses...but they were happy!!!! I kinda felt like a bad mom at first but then I thought, ah, one morning won't hurt...and then on Sunday I made up for it by serving them Steel Cut Oats with lots of fiber :). Ribbit talked to almost everyone at the yardsale and charmed the pants off of them. She napped during some of it and threw a ball with one of our church friends for a little while.

Sunday we went and saw two students from our school get baptized. The little girl has been one of Goob's best friends since last year. The older boy has been in my art class for the last 2 years. We are good friends with their parents and it was a really neat experience for Goob to see. After that we went and ate barbecue with them and then came home and packed.

Here is a picture that cracks me up of Ribbit. She found a pair of Adam's underwear that have Spongebob on them and she has been calling them her dress for weeks now. She puts them on and walks around and says " spongebob dress". Its awesome.

Let me know how long you laugh.....Adam and I couldn't stop!!!!

Texas State Fair

Another part of Goober's reward for getting two weeks worth of behavior stickers was going to the State Fair on our off day. We went for about 3.5 hours and by then we were all wore out and ready to come home. We took our own sandwiches but Ribbit and Goober shared a HUGE bag of cotton candy and Adam and I shared a large and wonderfully delicious funnel cake. Goob thought that all the rides looked scary so he didn't want to ride a single one....fine with us, they were stinkin $5 a piece!!!! The kids got to decorate a mini pumpkin inside a green house listening to a man who grows huge pumpkins. They also liked looking at all of the art stuff and large machines, tractors, etc. We told them that since they didn't want to ride any rides that they could both pick out a souvenir. This became our mission and finally right before we left they spotted a man who was selling marionettes. Ribbit picked out an elephant whom she lovinly named "L fant" and Goob got a dog who he has named "Gabriel Noah Jacob".
We came home and I got ready to go out to dinner and to the Holiday Fair with several ladies from our church.
This morning we got up at 6 and had a yardsale from 7-1, trying to get rid of everything we don't use. I hate hate hate to move things that I do not use. After that Goob and I took the rest of the kids clothes to a consignment shop and with the store credit we got there we got Ribbit a nice dress for J and Erika's upcoming wedding. We also got Goob a tie and we walked out paying nothing! Then we took the rest of the stuff to Goodwill!
We are slowly packing, taking stuff over daily after school...its so nice to be able to do that!!!
Here are some pictures from the State Fair and some videos of the kids with their puppets.

We immediately went to the car show and Goob spotted this race car.

Daddy and kiddos in front of Big Tex

Mommy and Ribbit decorating pumpkins

Goob showing off his artwork.

I love these next two pictures....so much personality packed into such a little girl!

The kids showing off their puppet skills

Smash Brothers

This post could probably also be titled #4637281 why I love our school.
Goob got two weeks worth of stickers for behavior. That deserves lots of celebrating!!!!  So, first just he and I went to the JV/Varsity Volleyball games on Thursday night, with our normal Chic Fil A dinner beforehand. He immediately saw his friend, my student, Jack and ran to him. Jack and several other high school boys come cheer at the volleyball games and call themselves the Smash Brothers. Goober was automatically a member. Since this volleyball game was all about supporting Breast Cancer Awareness the boys were all wearing pink bandanas,bracelets and such to show support. They got Goob everything he needed and he sat with them for all 5 games. He also danced during time outs and chased the ball everytime it went off the court. People in the crowd were laughing and cheering for him and he just ate it all up. Everyone kept telling me how precious he was.....inside I was saying "you think I don't already know, look at that toothless grin". Those boys were so good with him and just loved on him all night long....buying him brownies, cookies, gatorades and letting him jump all over them. He is a truly blessed little boy to have such great role models at his school.
Here are some pictures and videos

See that little guy up on stage?

He also charmed their phones off of the during the time outs :)

Catching a souvenir volleyball

Thats his friend Jack, standing facing towards the camera, to the right of Goob. 

                                             This video will crack you up....He is such a STUD!

Artsy Fartsy 2

We have been going 90 to nothing here. Packing up the house, getting ready for our yardsale this weekend and of course doing 1st grade homework, staying involved at church and keeping up with every football (war eagle) and baseball (go rangers) game that we can!
We are going to move over a 3 week period...which will be very nice! We will make our big final move the last weekend of October....I CAN'T WAIT.....have I mentioned the island in the kicthen?...what about the double oven?

Here are some more works from my oh so talented students. We just finished our first nine weeks so they finally got lots of projects matted and/or mounted.

7th grade-blown ink trees, then we studied calligraphy and added a verse about creation onto it. I am so blessed to work at a christian school!

Oddly enough, my boys had beautiful handwriting, where as the girls struggled and pretty much just embellished their own handwriting.

7th grade-we studied foreshortening mainly from "The Dead Christ" and then they drew themselves as if they had just fallen onto a glass floor. We talked about what someone below them may see, what their facial expression would be like and how our body looks when we compact certain parts and extend others. They loved this project!!! The girls did better at using colored pencils but I loved my boys ideas on creating a story behind how they fell!

This student got my only 100...you may not be able to tell but she layered several colors for her skin tone. I love her :)

 Isn't this cute....doesn't he look like a sailor? This student is super quiet but I hear him say one liners to his friends all the time.

Intro to Art: We studied Ruisdael (a dutch landscape artist) and they drew our campus based on his style of billowing clouds and a melancholy atmosphere. 

Look at those clouds in the background...beautiful...this male student really paid attention...funny, I couldn't tell by how many times I had to ask him to stop riding his drawing board down the grassy hills :)

This young lady played volleyball for me last year. This is her first year in art....and she has no clue how talented she is. She was my featured artist of the week!