Christmas and 2010

We had a really nice Christmas this year...I have a ton of pictures, but I have "snapfish"ed all of them yet, so I only had a few to choose from. (I'm on my school computer, so I don't have all our family pics)

So, here are a few from our "Morel Family Christmas" with Paul's family. It was really nice and naturally, Ava and Alana had a great time together!

Grandpa and Mamaw got Ava her first car!!

This is Ava and Alana snuggling under Ava's "blankie". She has been sleeping with this and "kitty" since the first few weeks she was born. "Blankie" is from her Auntie Lori.

Janna and I got some awesome matching pj's. They were hotter than fire, though!! We thought we'd be funny and take pictures!

So, we had a great holiday season, but I'm not going to lie here in the blog world...it was a hard one for me. I don't know why it was harder than last year, but it was. Maybe it's because this was the first "official" Christmas with my parents divorced...I don't know why, but that made it harder for me. I cried a lot and mourned the loss of my childhood family. God is working on me, though...I am learning everyday about His neverending Love and GRACE! I am so thankful that God still loves me, even when I feel very mad at Him sometimes!

~2010~

So I graduated from high school 10 years ago!!! That is so crazy! I am working on ways to get out of my "phunk" of being sad about my family, so I have decided to live a little differently in the next decade...

My hope for the next decade is this...

To enjoy the little things, eat healthier, simplify!!, laugh more, love more, hope more, and have faith that God will take care of the big AND the little things!

Fall 2009

I haven't blogged in a while, so I thought I'd share a few pictures and information from our past few months.

Fall: We had a great Fall! I started going to a nutritionist and planning meals and preparing food took up most of my time! I also starting selling Premier Designs Jewelry and had a busy fall season with many jewelry shows. They were a lot of fun. I'm really enjoying having a part-time that gives me a little girl time and helps me meet new people. I really get my energy from being with people, so it has been perfect for me!

Here a few pictures from various events in Fall 2009...

We went to Etowah with Paul's family for the weekend and saw many cousins! It was really fun. The girls that are 2nd or maybe 3rd cousins (not sure how that works!) played so much together. They even took a trip to the mayfield icecream plant!

Ava and Alana (John and Janna's daughter) always have a great time together! This is them at a a fall festival in Nashville with matching ladybugs painted on their faces!

Ava still loves Elmo, and is painting a picture here! She really loves to color and paint now.

We also had/have MANY fires during the cold nights. I am a fire addict and Paul is awesome because he makes fires about 3-4 times a week. We really enjoy it. Here's a funny picture of me with our first fire of the season!

The First Day Jitters!

So, in 3rd grade at the beginning of year in our Reading textbook called, "The First Day Jitters." It is about a person who will not get out of bed on the first day of school. This person refuses and comes up with every excuse not to get out of bed on the first day. Well, at the end of the book, it turns out that the person is actually a teacher! This shocks the kids so much in my class. They can't believe a teacher wouldn't want to get out of bed. Well, I was that teacher today...

I didn't want to wake up at 5:30 a.m., but I rolled out of bed anyway. I got ready, left the house around 6:40, and on the way to school I was thinking about how I wasn't ready to go back to work yet. It's weird because all summer I actually missed work. I missed getting "ready" every day, my morning coffee at 6:30 a.m., and having a plan for the day. I was anxious to come back to work because I needed adult time again, and I felt like I would be a better mommy if I wasn't with Ava all day. Well, this week has been long and busy for me! I have missed Ava so much and today I just didn't want to meet my kids yet. I thought I would feel excited and great about a new class, but I found myself missing my last year's class.=(

Needless to say, I have a great class this year! I have a few that are already on my nerves, but most of them are very good kids! They are cute as can be and want to hug me all the time. Third graders are so different than fourth and fifth graders...I love it!

My biggest challenge it seems with be with a student who has Mitochrondrial Disease. I have an assistant with him who is great, but he is challenging. He is mentally retarded and has tendency of autism. He made clacking noises and shouted out some this morning, but he didn't do it for long periods of time. He will usually only spend an hour in my classroom, but today he was here the whole time. He did better than we thought. Mrs. Wilkerson, my assistant, is amazing. When she wasn't tending to him, she was working on everything else. She passed out papers, organized my supplies, and ran errands for me. I am so thankful for her!

That's all for now, I better get my desk organized now!

Updates on Ava=)

This is a picture of Ava and her friend, Judson at church. They are so cute together! They share food, share toys, and even try and go potty together! It's really fun watching them interact. Amanda, Judson's mommy, always takes great pictures of them on Sundays. Here's just a few she took.

Ava is growing up so fast! This summer, she learned to use the potty! She is doing great with telling us and going. She still has accidents every now and then if she is really invovled in playing or in something she's watching on T.V. Last night Paul was reading her a book around 8:00p.m. right before she took a bath and while they are sitting there, she just peed on him! He was so upset, but he stayed calm and ran up stairs to get her some clean panties. Of course, she wanted "the Elmo ones" like always.

She has learned most of her colors and even counted 1-13 the other day pointing at people in a book she likes. It was really precious! She also likes reading this "little" book that I used to have in my room, it's a quote book about love, and she calls it her Bible. She was looking at it the other day and said "God's Word" and I said, "Ava what is 'God's word'?" and she said, "The Bible." I just stood there with my mouth open! I couldn't believe she said that. Her new school Lighthouse Christian is very serious when it comes to the Bible and scriptures. I thought that was really neat!

Lindi's wedding!

Ok, so most of you know that Ava was the flower girl in my best friend, Lindi's wedding, and I was the matron of honor. It was in Kansas City. I flew up the Wednesday before the wedding to help Lindi and her mom with wedding stuff. It was fun, but stressful. I am SO glad I never have to be a bride again! I loved my wedding, but I was stressed! So, Wednesday night we hung out at an awesome restaurant called "Blue Koi" in Kansas City. We got China Moon to eat, of course, because it's the best thing on the menu. Then we went over to on of the other Bride's maid's houses to learn the "lip sync" for the wedding. Now, I have never, ever heard of doing this, but aparently it's the new thing to do at weddings...Lindi sings a song to Nate while we dance behind her. Then Nate sings a song to Lindi while the groom's men dance behind it. It was fun learning it that night, but all of us bride's maids were nervous. (it actually turned out really cute, though). Well, Thursday night was Lindi's Bachalorette Party. We ate at Elephant Bar and then went to sing some kareoke! It was so fun!!! The next day we did wedding stuff, had the rehearsal (which I cried during), then the rehersal dinner. I gave a speech at the rehearsal dinner, which was awesome if you don't mind me bragging. I even got people to laugh because I was witty. I'm usually goofy, but I made some witty comments. It was great!! (paul taped it if you ever want to see it!) THen the day of the wedding went very smoothly. Ava walked down the aisle and my mom got her at the end of the aisle since she wouldn't stand still. Lindi was a dashing bride, of course. I cried the whole wedding, but they were tears of joy, don't worry! There was one really funny thing that happened during the wedding-Lindi and Nate couldn't get the unity candle lit. They tried and tried, but couldn't get it, so they just left it.

The dinner after was great and the dancing was a blast! Ava took the dance floor like a super star, everyone loved watching her steal the show!

All in all, it was a great time! Lindi is a very dear friend to me. I never had a sister, but she was like my sister. I have known her since I was four and we share a very special bond. Her getting married felt like my sister was growing up. It was a big deal for me! I am so incredibly happy for Lindi and Nate!!

The Bach. Party....

Rehearsal...Ava and the ring bearer, Joel...

The wedding dance and the lip sync...

Prepare yourself for more post soon...=)

Trips, test, summer

Update

I just wanted to update my "subscribers" that I lost two lbs. this week even with all the events we had over the weekend! I am so proud of ME!!=)

Here's also a super cute picture from my friend Amanda (Judson's mom) from Sunday School. Ava gets really sleepy on Sunday mornings and always wants a "blankie" to hold.