Precious In His Sight

Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it. Proverbs 22:6

Sweet baby Reed's dedication was today.  What a wonderful blessing to do this on Mother's Day!!    He's quite simply a walking, talking, and smiling bundle of joy!

So proud of this precious family of five!

Family-Forever and always, no matter what!

One of the greatest things about being a grandparent is that the very kids you made so many mistakes with grow up and honor you by trusting you with their babies!

Love this sweet smile!!



You are a child of God, wonderfully made, dearly loved, and precious in His sight. There is no one like you!

And on a personal note-it was a great Mother's Day!!  I so loved spending the entire weekend with my children and grandchildren!!  It doesn't matter how old these two are-they will always be my babies!!!

This one keeps life interesting!!

 There really is no time like family time!

(We had a super special weekend with lots of activities and time together. I decided to focus on today in this post, and catch up on the rest of the weekend later.)



Changes

I have adjusted to this new life of semi-retirement quite nicely!!  I am now an employee of UAB and work with their GEAR UP Alabama grant. (I will share more about this awesome grant later.)  I am assigned to Pickens County High and Gordo High.  I am ABSOLUTELY LOVING IT!!  Phyllis asked me just what made it so great, and I easily said, "EVERYTHING."  I love the flexibility of the job, meeting new people, and the new challenges of the job!!  I will not just be at the schools.  I can work from home some, and I will be in the community and meeting with parents.  So far, it's just about perfect.  I am in the middle of a three week stretch that has had a more structured schedule (training and meetings), but after that I will be much more flexible!  That will allow more time for family, friends, and fun stuff!!

In the meantime, I love having a little extra time to stop and smell the roses-literally!!

Normally, I am in school when these are in full bloom, and I don't get to enjoy them as much.  Not this year!! 

My bedding plants are coming along nicely, too!

I told Reed his mom would be so proud of him and these roses that are now blooming in our front yard.  He planted these about 3 years ago from clippings he got from her.  They have really taken off this year, and are just beautiful!!

Happy Almost Summer!!

You Know What They Say

.........What doesn't kill you makes you stronger!!  We had a long, long 4 days!  It was one of those things that Reed said ten years ago that he'd never, ever do again!  Well, he did it, but I swear we won't ever do it again-I Hope!!  We replaced our pool liner with the help of Willie, Josh, and Caleb.  I get to include myself in this because I was crawling around on the bottom of the pool with Reed at 1:00 in the morning smoothing out wrinkles!  This post has lots of pictures, because I want to be able to pull this back up in 10 years and remind Reed of all the reasons doing this ourselves is a questionable idea!!   I have to be honest and say that Reed is very, very handy, and actually with his great help did an awesome job.  But man, it was hard work!!  I also need to add that Papa was an awesome supervisor!  He was with us almost the entire time!!

The fun began with the removal of the old, absolutely worn out liner that looked like a pond-complete with a big toad frog on the bottom!  Business must go on, so Reed took quite a few phone calls!

Once the old liner was out, repair and prep work began!

Josh and the girls came to help. Let me add that Lindsey and Baby Reed stayed home so she could complete IEP's.  How awesome is it that he came on his own to help!?! We could not have made it without Josh and Uncle C. The girls were always close by watching! 

The many faces of  this precious one!  First, the "quit taking my picture" face!

To the "Is this ever going to end" face?

And finally, "I think I might survive" face!

These pictures make my heart smile!!  The girls love Papa, and he loves them!

This gives a whole new meaning to snack time by the pool!

Reed actually began draining the pool last Thursday night.  By Saturday, they were finally ready to open the box and begin installing the new one!!  There was lots and lots of prep work!

Watching and waiting!!

Now the real fun began!!  The box was soon transformed into a fort that is still in the den!!  These two were angels during this entire process!

Woo Hoo!!  Progress!!  This is actually Sunday.  Willie, Josh and the girls have all gone home!  But Caleb and Taylor came Sunday afternoon.  It seemed like it took forever for the water to fill up!

Did I mention that the granddog learned to swim-in the goldfish pond?  His mom and dad were a little less than impressed!!

Now, you will have to close your eyes and visualize this!  Reed said, "Do not put any pictures of me in my waders floating in the swimring to make sure all the wrinkles are out."  It really was quite a sight!!


After I completed the blog, I was very sad when I realized I only have a couple of pictures of the completed project!  Oops!  The water finally reached the right level Tuesday.  I think I counted over 40 hours of actual labor- hard labor!

Daytime View

Night time View

 

 

View of Shallow End

 

 

 

 



I understand that there were lots of things going on this weekend, and we sadly missed them all!  I am so, so glad this project is now complete though!  I can't wait until the water warms up!!  

Thanks Willie, Josh, Caleb, Papa and Reed!  I promise we will enjoy it for years to come!!!  Now, on to the next project!!

Play Ball

So far, either Pop, myself or both of us have made all but one of Maddie's games-and we've loved every minute of them.  Several times, we've driven the 3 hours and arrived at the park right at game time and then headed home as soon as the game is over.  Let me add that it's worth every mile we drive.  She has really enjoyed this year, and is really becoming a good little athlete!  Her team is half boys and half girls.  She has played several all boy teams, and they have been very competitive with all of them.  I also have to add that watching her brings back lots and lots of memories!  I truly do look at the games differently now though.  I could care less who wins, or if an infielder misses the ball and it rolls to the fence.  No pressure!  Just fun!

These pictures are a combination of two games.

Playing tough at first base!

Running to get a batter out at home

So far, I think they have prayed with the opposing team after every game.  How awesome is that?

Rounding first

Getting advice from her coach

Heading to second

Rounding third and heading home!  HOMERUN!!

Good  job!!

Making sure her fan section is watching-and we are!



The season is almost over, and I am truly going to miss it!  I'm already looking forward to next year!