Add another silver for the USA!

Before Christmas, the first graders at Courtney's school had a reading Olympics. They had to be able to read a certain list of words for each medal. Courtney got all three medals in that round.

Now they are doing a math Olympics. Courtney came home with her silver today. She had to count orally to 150. Write numbers to 150. And count by 2's and 5's to 100. Now we're working on her gold. It will be the same as above except to 200 and there are some addition and subtraction problems she has to do.

No sweat!

Finally got some scrappin' done!

The girls and I went over to Tracie's on Monday. Courtney was out of school and it has been forever since she has been able to play with Caroline.

I actually got my act together and took some pages to work on. Here are the results! Nothing spectacular but 2 two-page layouts is major for me. I would have liked some major uninterrupted time to keep the creative juices flowing but I'm glad I got to do what I did!

These pages are more vibrant IRL. I need to play with that photo software!

Our Weekend

Mark, Jessica and I spent Thursday night, Friday and Saturday in Chattanooga looking at two schools there. It didn't help us make any decisions but it was fun spending the weekend together.

The first school we visited was Tennessee Temple University. This is a school to watch. It's not right for Jessica at this point because they don't have her major but in a few years it's going to be fabulous. First of all it's a Christian school which makes the environment very inviting. Their president is full of passion and dedication and I have no doubt he will accomplish all he is planning on. I do wish we were a few more years down the road so that it would be a serious option for Jessica. She got to stay in the dorms and experience "dorm life". She said it was more like church camp than what she pictured college being like. I would love for her to go to a Christian school but she wants to major in Biology and go into forensics. That field is getting pretty competative and she needs to go to the best school for that field. We just have to pray that she attaches herself to Christian friends and makes the right decisions.

Then we visited UT Chattanooga. I like it a lot better than UT Knoxville. It is smaller. Most of the buildings are newer. There was just a different attitude all around there in comparison to Knoxville. The dorm choices were better than at Knoxville and the campus is more compact. It would be very easy to walk to where ever you needed to go. Jessica seemed to like it too.

So, we are still undecided. I'm sure if and when we get letters of acceptance that we will have some decisions made for us.

I would love for her to experience to college life but I am certainly not ready for her to leave home and for me to not know what she is doing at all times. But we all have to grow up some time!

Valentine's Day

Yesterday was a good day for Courtney and Kirsten. They both got lots of goodies at school. After school, we visited Grandma and Aunt Judy and the girls got more candy! Hope everyone had a great day!

A Woman's Heart - week 3

In this week's video, Beth talked about the characteristics of the people of Israel, their leader, Moses and the God of Israel. First of all the people of Israel weren't much different than we are today. They were sinners. They were stiff-necked which was a term used to describe a beast who refused to wear it's owners yoke. They were stubborn and selfish in not being willing to follow God's commands. Fortunately they were able to see their sin and repent. They mourned for what they had done. Before coming before the the Lord to worship they striped off all their ornaments (their worldly possessions or anything that comes between us and God) and came before Him on their knees to worship Him.
Next we see Moses. Two things struck me as important about Moses. It seems his number 1 prioraty was having an intimate relationship with God. Next, he prayed fruvently for the people of Israel.
Finally, the God of Israel. First of all, He hears and He acts upon and is affected by what He hears. Our prayers are important and very powerful. The people of Israel were spared because of the prayers of Moses. He gives rest. But rest accompanies our submission to God's authority. God sets us apart by His presence. We do not belong to the world and if God lives in us, the world will know we are different, special. He knows each of us by name. He moves beyond natural limits on our behalf. He is protective. He was all of these things to Moses and the people of Israel and most significantly, He is all these things to us, today. He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.
There is great comfort in knowing our God is the same God of the people of Israel. His word proves His power, love, comfort and promises are for forever.

An Update

Well, it seems we are all over whatever it was that hit us. Kirsten ended up having both ears infected so she has been on an antibotic. It hasn't agreed with her very well. Diarrea and now a yeast infection. So we've changed antibotics. We'll see how it goes. She has worn me down because she is so miserable. The rest of us seem to be better, so that's good.
I'll post tomorrow on this week's Beth Moore video.