Nine Years Ago Today

Well, nine years ago today it was just as hot as today only I was wearing a long, heavy satin dress with a long train on it. Yes, today is our ninth anniversary. Some days it feels like yesterday, other days it seems like forever (the good kind). We are going to The Melting Pot for dinner tonight to celebrate and then tomorrow we leave for the Oxford family reunion. Sounds kind of like our honeymoon. Too bad we couldn't fit Vegas into this trip so Tunica will have to do. I think Clint will probably go with his cousin and I'll stay and read. I'm worn out from working outside in the heat trying to get the yard and garage cleaned up before school starts. Or, maybe I'm just getting old. Nah, its HOT outside.....

Stuff, Stuff and more Stuff

If you look at the front of our house, there is this addition on the north end that looks like a garage (the double garage doors gives it away). Well, I had this crazy idea that we should PARK in the garage. So, since there were only trails through it, I knew I needed to clean it out. Well, the problem with that is I'm only human and fairly out of shape to boot. Every time I went out there to start cleaning, I looked around, moved one or two things around, got overwhelmed and came back inside. Clint agreed with me that we need help (with the garage:) and so Saturday morning we started a cleaning marathon. Ethan, Wyatt, Dylan and Adam (2 of the boy's friends) helped us empty it out. They hauled off 2 loads to the landfill with at least one more to go, and 3 loads to Goodwill. While they were carrying everything out, we organized by either things we need to sort through from the house storage and my school stuff. (My school stuff had more quantity than 35 years worth of house stuff. Sad, but true.) Then, Clint put up shelves in the garage and the boys brought it back inside. We consolidated down to a little over half full with room to work. I plan on having a garage sale sometime in August. THEN, hopefully we can park in the garage. It will hold 2 cars with A LOT of storage or 3 cars with ample storage. Ethan wants to park in there this winter too, so we'll see how much stuff I can get rid of.
Saturday night Clint and I met Leann and Jan at Creek Casino for a concert. Restless Heart was playing there. The show was awesome. I forget how much I love listening to live music. It was standing room only and very hot but worth it. We had a great time.
Sunday after church we went to see the new Batman movie. It was really good. I'm now a Christian Bale fan. I need to see Batman Begins (I think that is the name of it). After the movie we took a nap and then went to small group Bible study. All in all a really good and productive weekend.
BTW- I passed my severe/profound certification teaching test. Whew----

In the Hot 'Ol Summer Time

It is finally summer hot. It really hasn't been bad yet but today is 93ish and almost no breeze. I'm hibernating in the house trying to organize my school stuff. 14 years of stuff is a lot to sift through. I think Leann is moving to 2nd grade to she'll take her things back to Stillwater and also any of my things that she can use. I'll need my pre-K and Kdg things for my new class. Speaking of that, I went today and picked up my key and security code for the building. Tulsa doesn't give keys to teachers so it will be great to be able to get in and work in my room w/o having to track someone down. I also went to the first morning of Autism Camp at one of the elementary schools. I got to meet 3 of my kids. One of them sat down beside me and put his arm around me so I think we are off to a good start. He didn't have a very good year last year so I was worried at how he would react to me. All three are boys and in 3rd grade. I will probably have 1 more boy and 1 girl. I also met the para that will probably be with me. She's awesome with the kids. I have a feeling I will learn a lot from her. She had a great rapport with the kids.
More later, the chicken for dinner is almost done (Clint is making dinner, I'm just boiling it first) and the laundry needs switched. Oh, it never ends. When do I have time to work??????

Facebook

I've joined the rest of the world and have a facebook profile. If you read this and are on facebook, send me a friend request. I'd love to add you.

Happy 4th of July

Wow, I didn't realize it had been a month since I posted anything. Leann and I assessed for national board certification in June and that took a lot of my time. During one of the massive rain storms, the garage flooded which seeped (ya right, how about gushed) into the game room. This of course was in the middle of the night so I wake up to Clint yelling for me to help. We had about 2 inches of water in the game room before we got the wet vac going. We used towels to slow the water and then sucked it up as it came in under the door. That lasted about an hour before it finally stopped coming in. Now we have a really great reason to toss a bunch of stuff from the garage. It had about 3 inches of water standing in it. the next morning, John stopped by and he looked at the driveway. Since the garage had never flooded before we knew something had changed. Well, I had moved some railroad ties around in the driveway and had created a dam so the drainage was diverted into the garage. Yes, I'm the brilliant person responsible for the flooded garage. See, I'm really blond and dye my hair dark. Speaking of dyed hair, I thought I'd try to have less roots showing and used "soft black" as my color choice. I don't know what brain burp I had that thought "soft black" would be dark brown which is my usual color, but when I finished, I was really glad Clint was at a ABA conference for the weekend. I looked a little goth. No one seemed to think it looked as bad as I do, just different. We had the Barker family reunion in Mountainburg last weekend. It was great to see everyone. next year we are going to have it at the park at Lake Fort Smith. We drove around to see the changes since they flooded the spillway and expanding the lake. They have a really nice picnic area with canoe rental, paddle boats, pontoon boats and a pool. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is Mom's 76th birthday. We had girl's night (Plus Daddy & Royal) with dinner at Hooligans and then the casino. I didn't go to the casino but brought Daddy home. I'm NEVER lucky at the slot machines so I'd rather spend my money on shoes. Mom wins quite a bit and Pequitta is VERY lucky. I guess the Lord knows that I'd spend way too much time there if I ever won:)
Zoey was very cute at dinner. Victoria had her dancing on the table. We were the only ones in that area so it was FINE. She is talking a lot and has her own mind. I think it is hilarious but then I don't have to live with her. She was very happy to see her Tula (Victoria). We were at Holligans for over an hour and she was very well behaved. She's a good kid.
Leann is in town for the next three weeks. We are assessing for national boards. It will be great to have her here that long. I'm sure she'll go home on the weekends. Phil is such a baby-JK

Where the wind comes sweeping down the plains...

Well, we didn't have much damage at our house but Beth's mailbox was ripped out of the ground. We had power issues at church but Wade didn't let that stop him:) Wade (our pastor) is teaching a series about the perceptions that people 18-30somethings have about Christians and Christianity. Next Sunday will be about homosexuality. That should be interesting. This Sunday's was about NOT being a hypocrite. He had some really good points so if you are interested you could probably find it on the web. Wade Hodgins or Garnett Church of Christ. Something similar will probably get you to it.
Wyatt is finally back home. He spent most of last week with one of his buddies. Well, they were all at Scott's house b/c Scott left this morning for basic training with the Marine Corp. Ray was suppose to leave too but broke his foot playing football this past weekend. He's limping around on crutches.
Ethan had a basketball game this evening. They won by about 10. I think it was Union that they played. I forget how much I love watching him play until that first game after a break. His defense was awesome. He hasn't been shooting baskets so he'll have to get back into the swing of offense. He will have basketball camps this summer. I think he's going to the OSU basketball and baseball camps. I'm glad I'm going to be assessing. He's not a cheap date....
Clint and I are volunteering at a summer reading program through Garnett. Today's class was cancelled b/c of the power outages and tomorrow is also cancelled. Maybe they'll have everything back open by Wednesday. I did get some things done today though. Some junk hauled off, lots more still left.