Homeschool mom of 3

Just a quickie here, some of you know that Courtney has been going to gymnastics now for about 2 1/2 -3 years. She has been at this one place now for 2 years, I know. Well, today she has been promoted to Level 2!!! Not sure what all that means as far as what she'll be doing now, but it's exciting for her and us that she's been promoted. She has been waiting for this day to come since all her friends have already been promoted a while back.

Just wanted to share my happy news with everyone.

Keep me and my family in your prayers please as we will be traveling cross country to CA, laving Thursday and coming home the 29th.

We are leaving this Thursday to head out to the sunny state of CA!! This will be our second time out there and we all really looking forward to it. Although, I must admit I'm not really looking forward to the drive. Sam has been asked to speak at a mini-lectureship again. The people out there are wonderful, so friendly and God loving Christians! I will make sure to blog about the trip when we get back :)

Yep, that's right as of last night my brother is the mayor of Springhill, TN!! I was so excited when I got the call. He has been an Alderman for the last year, but this is great news. In fact the United Auto Workers backed him 100% and are already talking about him taking a Senate seat!! This is a picture of my brother, his wife and two daughters. They were so proud of their daddy!

Just wanted to share this birthday cake I just finished. Those are little ladybugs on the side, I made them out of skittles! Sorry, they are hard to see, but it was hard to get a picture of it too. I actually like this one other than my writing. I really need to get better at writing.

Tuesday night was the "Oscar Night" at the Ruffin Theater for all the plays done last year. So last year Sam was in Clue, I was in Dr. Doolittle and Sam directed A Christmas Carol. Each play gets and award for best actor, actress, and if any children actor and actresses too. I kinda knew I would get it for my fat lady and pig role in doolittle and I did. I was VERY surprised and shocked to hear them call my name for the Actress of the Year!! That means I was picked as the best actress out of every play for the year! SHOCKER!!! I was totally floored by it and still don't think I necessarilly deserve it, there are some very good actresses out here.

Sam won Director of the Year award too! I was so proud of him. This was his first time directing too, but he did SO good.

O.k. so I'm not the best at keeping this blog, and I apologize for that. I do have some news that I wanted to share with you all. I got the part of M'Lynn in the upcoming play Steele Magnolia's. I'm so excited!! It's going to be in June. I'm pretty nervous/scared too though because this will be the biggest part I've had so far. I'm scared I won't be able to memorize all my lines.

I'll try to keep you updated on this. We should have our first practice Saturday.

I know this is probably considered bragging or boasting, but I wanted to show you that we still have about 4 inches of snow left from 3 days ago!

We had a wonderful winter storm come through yesterday and into the night. We were all excited to see it begin to snow. The ground was already wet and getting colder. Also, heard on the news that anywhere from 2-4 inches was possible. Little did we know we would actually end up with 12 inches!!

The kids had so much fun. They started playing in it last night while it was still falling and not a whole lot on the ground. Then today they got out there after our little devotional. We had to cancel church services for the entire day.
In some places it was up to their knees! I was beautiful!!

I'm continuing to write this now on Monday and there is still a ton of snow out there. I'm a mean teacher and making them do school for the day before getting out there to play. I will probably take more pics of them today just because I love taking pics and having them for the scrapbook.

I LOVE THIS SNOW!!!!

Yep, Cameron lost his first tooth this morning at breakfast. He noticed it was loose last night and was both excited and scared. Well, this morning, it just came right out with no problem while eating a donut. I think it kinda startled him and then he got a little scared when he saw the blood. It was not a big ordeal though we kept telling him how excited we were about it.

Here is his new smile with a hole. I had to have him pull his lip down so you could see it.

Here is the final of Courtney cooking. You can "see" her finish cooking.
Enjoy!

I took this video the other day while Courtney was doing a cooking show for me. this is part one. She started getting a bad "asthma cough" and had to take a commercial break. So I cut off the camera and then started another one. I have two of her cooking and thought you might like to see them. I will also be putting Cameron's cooking show on here too.
This one took ALL DAY to upload, so I'll be uploading the other one tomorrow. Hopefully I can post it then too.

I was asked to make a birthday cake for a friend's 16th birthday. He got his driver's license also. I just wanted to post a pic of it for you everyone to see. I think this one actually turned out o.k. except for the words, they were not the right color blue that I wanted and I got to close to the road with "Brandon is driving", but oh well it's done. I sure hope they all liked it.

O.k. This is a little late, but last Saturday Sara Mullenix and I went to a chocolate fantasy. It was awesome!! I've heard about it ever since we've moved here but never have gone. Well, this year I decided I was going! The proceeds went to the National Kidney Foundation, so I didn't feel to bad about buying a ticket.
It was held at a mall in Memphis, that I had no idea how to get to. Thankfully, my phone has a gps on it and it got us there and back. Anyway, we get there turn our tickets in and get to tasting. There are 34 vendors to go see and you get a sample from each one. We bought a styrofoam take home box for $1 to keep all our goodies in. We were very good and didn't eat everything at once. We were kind enough to bring some home to our wonderful hubbies! We did eat the ice cream there since it would melt on the way, good excuse anyway. I really enjoyed it and had fun, I just wish I could have more samples or at least one of each kind of sample they offered. Sam said he might go with me next year so we can get two of everything or one of each sample. We came home with so much chocolate though, it was wonderful!!

We finally got some snow about a week ago. I was so happy to see it come, I just love the snow. It is so beautiful!! The kids were also extremely happy since they got to go out and play in it. They stayed out and played with the neighbor kids and got frozen but had to much fun. They came in frozen like Popsicles and their faces were so red and chapped. I didn't get to many pics since they went off to their friends house instead of playing in our yard, plus it was just to cold for me to stand out there to long.
On another note, I finally have a Pampered Chef website. I held three parties this past month and I'm so pumped and excited. One party last month was $800 in sales!!!Right now I only have one party for Feb. and one for March. I'm hoping I can get some more bookings here from some others. New product comes out in March :)

Yesterday, Tuesday, I went back to the dr. to have a lookie at the foot with the boot. I pretty much had already decided that it wasn't doing any good anyway since I had walked on it for a month. He took new x-rays and said everything was fine. So I no longer have that beautiful boot on my foot, I now have an ankle brace to wear instead. It's no big deal really, I can wear shoes over it. It's just to prevent my foot from turning sideways and getting hurt again. I won't have to wear it very long, he told me until it feels 100% better. I'll wear it for a few days and then start to taper off. I might wear it when I know I'll be doing alot of walking.

So, I know I've said this before but this is really going to be my FIRST Pampered Chef party this weekend. I'm going to Nashville on Friday to hold a show that night and then a brunch on Saturday. I'm getting a little nervous, but I think I'll be o.k. I just have to know that I'll make mistakes and only think good thoughts. I guess my problem is in watching other consultants with their shows. I'm just getting started so I don't have as much of the prodcut as they do. I think that's what's getting me. I want it all and I want it all now!! I'm really hoping these parties go well not only for the hostess, but I will get some bookings off of them. That's what I need most right now is some parties to hold.

I'll be sure to get back on after this weekend and let you all know how it went. Just wish me lots of luck and anyone out there want a party, give me a call or email! :)

Oh by the way, if you are on facebook, you need to check out the video I have on my page. I tried to put it on here and failed, so it's on facebook instead. It's of my mom "sword fighting" with the kids. Kim approved, so you know it's good!

This is kinda long, I tell the WHOLE story.
Well, let me start at the beginning. As most of you know we were doing the play A Christmas Carol this past December at our local theater. I was backstage manager and doing a pretty good job, if I do say so myself :) Anyway, on Monday night Dec 1, I took a spill down the stairs backstage. Hurt my foot pretty bad. I'm thinking nothing broke, just sprained. That night I was hurting so bad I woke up crying, and no I don't usually do that. So I decided to go to the dr. that Tuesday just in case something was wrong. They took X-Rays and said nothing broke just sprained. Ok I was fine with that. Well about a week or so later, I noticed I had a knot on my foot. It somewhat bothered me since I don't usually have one. I wasn't in much pain and walking around fine. Now, my foot did hurt me sometimes if I moved it wrong, but other than that I was ok. So I decided to call the dr and see what this knot was all about. I saw a different dr and he took x-rays again. Still didn't see anything broke, but he wasn't sure what the knot was. He sent me to have a MRI done. I've never had one done before so really didn't know what to expect except knowing that I have to be REALLY still. So I have that done, fun fun! It wasn't all that bad, except for the being still part. I'm just glad that I didn't have to have my whole body in that little tube, don't think I would like that.
O.k. so I'm at the gym working out this past Monday. I get home and Sam tells me that the dr. has called twice. I call them back and they tell me that I have an appointment the next day with an orthopedic. News to me!! Also, I'm to come to the office and get the referral papers. O.k. so I go to the office and finally sit with the dr. He tells me that I have to be off my foot and on crutches. They put a temp. splint (half cast) on and I'm done. Sam goes to get me some crutches, since we can't seem to find ours here. That night, I didn't sleep hardly at all. That stupid splint was mashing done on my heel so bad it was killing me.
Alright, now time for the orthopedic. Sam was able to take me, and I'm very thankful for that. The dr. there looks at it, hears the story and sends me for more x-rays. Still nothing broke shows up on them. He looks at the MRI and I do have at least 2 fractures. Wish I would have known about this earlier, maybe it could have been fixed correctly. So, since I'm able to walk on it like I have been and not in extreme pain, he puts a wonderful boot on me instead of a cast. I'm thankful for that because at least now I can walk around and not use crutches. Course I feel like we wasted our money on the crutches since I only used them for one night and half a day. So here I am with this great boot that I have to wear for the next 2 weeks!