DON'T BE CRABBY!!!

 

Don't Be Crabby!!

That is my theme for this week!!  I got the idea from our VBS Logo.

I am going to be so sweet!!!

For those of you who think that I am just a lazy slob (and I agree with you most of the time) here is what I have been doing this week. 

work - teaching the kids that come to my room....as normal, except it isn't normal cause it is the LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL!!!

making check lists and check lists and checking things off the check lists to be ready for VBS on Saturday.  I am so excited, but I want it to be so nice and fun for the kids.  Yesterday I painted little waves in the water....today they look like strips of white paint.  I wish I was an artist (Melissa - I could really use you). 

So I have worked at the school all day, teaching, finishing year end reports, and packing up 16 years worth of junk and memories to move to my new classroom.  Then I go to the church and work for a couple of hours.  Then I come home and try to do the laundry or something like that and collapse. 

Tomorrow is the card swap (so excited).  I know, I know, I promised pictures and you will get them....eventually.  I also have to experiment with tie dye tomorrow to figure out how exactly we will make our shirts for VBS.  Then we finish decorating that night.  Thursday, Ciara has a game - GO ANGELS!!!  Friday is the last day of school - glad, but kinda sad this year.  Walking away from that classroom is going to be harder than I thought.  That night is the VBS kickoff swim party.  My new swimming suit is ready to go! Yahoo!!!  Saturday is VBS - all day.  It is going to be soooooo fun.  Oops, it will be  a blast - a Beach Blast!!  Then it is summer, summer, summer...ready or not, here I come!!!

I have very few plans for this summer.  First and foremost, POOL TIME!!!  C and I got a pool pass last year and it was wonderful.  We want to do that again.  I want to organize my new classroom really good.  I want to organize and deep clean this house!!  I want to finish up all those little odds and ends on my scrapbooks here and there and get caught up.  I plan on scrapping a lot.  I am going to take care of my step-mom while she goes to a cooking class and while she has knee surgery.  Then it will be over with all too soon.  It is just so wonderful while it is here.  What are your summer plans??

More May Maddness

The VBS materials have been found!!  I am so glad.  Everything is together now, ha ha ha.  I remember starting to make something yesterday and having trouble with it and now I don't even remember what I was working on!!  How is that for an example of how busy I am.

Last night I had a scrapbooking crop.  None of us got a lot done, but we all needed to just be with each other so much.  We are all going through some tough experiences and we needed each other's company.  Sometimes you just need to know someone loves and supports you so you can go back out and fight the battles of daily life again.

I did get my cards done for the card swap.  I promise that I will soon take pictures and post the cards...when school is out and vbs is over....I think they are really pretty.  But I know that the others that make cards with me are really gonna wow me!!  This month we are gonna meet at McDonalds and I am going to try a new drink.  Don't know what, but I am gonna try something frappy or mochay!!

Last night C said the funniest thing.  One of my friends was saying that she wanted to adopt a baby girl.  Ciara said, "Too bad I'm not available."  We laughed so hard.   She got it right, she is not available!!  That's my baby!

Well, I am off to make breakfast, go decorate the church, and finally get my nails done.  Have a great Saturday!

Unfair

Recently something happened that was so unfair.  My daughter was called on something, yet her friends weren't.  She didn't understand why she had to comply but the others didn't.  I didn't understand either, yet made her do as she was told.  Why are some things so unfair?  I was boiling angry!  I was mad.  I was driving in my car and the anger was taking over.  How do you explain to a child that sometimes things are just unfair?  The sooner she learns to just shake it off, the better she will be because there are so many things in life that are unfair.  Then I remembered a lot of things that were unfair:

• It was unfair that God created the world, yet people chose to worship a piece of metal or stone.
• It was unfair that Mary was treated badly when she was carrying the child who would become our savior.
• It was unfair that Jesus had a crown of thorns smashed into his head.
• It was unfair that they beat him until he could barely stand.
• It was unfair that Peter denied him three times.
• It was unfair that Judas betrayed Jesus.
• It was unfair that people chose to set a criminal free, yet hung Jesus to die.
• It was unfair that people spat upon him as he was dying.
• It was unfair that he was ridiculed and laughed at as he struggled.
• It was unfair that the soldiers nailed him to the cross.  
• It was all UNFAIR!

I don't want  it to be that way.  I want to go back and make it easy for Jesus.  I want to make him comfortable, let him live a long life without suffering, pamper him, honor him, sit at his feet.  I want to make it FAIR.  I want the King of Kings to live like a King.

That wasn't the plan.  It isn't the way to salvation.  It wasn't fair that Jesus did all that for me and you.  Next time you something unfair happens to you, praise God and thank him.  The unfair things that happen to us are nothing compared to what our savior went through for us.

May Madness

Yes, Madness is what these last few weeks have been.  Pure Madness!  My boat is loaded to the very top, oh, what's that....something else, sure...down, down goes the boat...careful...balance...the slightest misstep and the boat will capsize. 

Yep, that is kind of what I feel like.

I forget every year how busy and crazy the last three weeks of school are.  I feel like I should hire a housekeeper just so my dog will have someone to look at!  Seriously, we have been really busy.

So just what is going on at the Harbin household.....

We are in the middle of softball season.  Ciara has always loved softball until this year.  She is a really good player, but she is the "little" one in this league.  Playing with girls older than her has been a challenge.  Sometimes she doesn't get to play as much.  Plus, she started kid pitch this year.  One team has a girl who can really pitch fast balls.  You have to see her to believe her.  They beat us 19-4.  But my baby girl was one of those four!!! Yipee!!!    The first game we played against them she tried to hit and struck out.  The next time she got a little hit and made it to first.  She stole 2nd!!  She made a run.  The next game, she was wiser and she watched the ball.  The girl is fast, but not always accurate.  Ciara got 4 balls right off and walked to first.  Then someone hit the ball and she made a run.  Last Tuesday, May 10th it was 101.  I sat out and watched her play ball and thought I was going to throw up because it was so hot.  There are NO shade trees for the girls park.  (So unfair)  Anyway, Friday, May 13 she had a game.  I had a jacket on and was freezing.  How is that for Texas weather???

I am also the director for VBS at our church this year.  I am so thrilled that they trusted me with this job, but wow...I have no clue how many hot dogs to feed a hundred people.  Our theme is Beach Blast and it is a one day vbs on Saturday May 28th with a pool party the night before.  I am so excited about doing this.  I have decorated and planned and written schedules and letters and made lists and lists and lists..... and, AND... I have lost all the teacher manipulative materials and the video.  Yes, I will not blame it on anyone else.  I LOST IT!!  So if it isn't found, I will have to find the time to drive to Amarillo to replace it next week - the last week of school - yes, that is crazy.  VBS is 9-4 that day so if you have any kids in elementary school, bring them out or call me to come pick them up.  It will be so much fun!

They have also asked me to take over WMU in our church next year.  I am still praying about it.  I want to really bad, but I want to make sure that it is what God wants me to do.  I have a lot of ideas and totally support the idea of WMU and love WMU.  Founded in 1888, the main purpose of WMU is to educate and involve preschoolers, children, youth, and adults in the cause of Christian missions.  They have a website here that has more information.  Yes, it is a Southern Baptist thing.  But I have learned over the past ten years that I am a Southern Baptist.  Yes, I am.  My biggest problem with being VBS director or WMU director is that I don't feel like  a grown up yet and feel like I need someone to tell ME what to do.  Maybe it is time to grow up.....  (The strange thing is that I am involved with two WMU groups right now.  I am still involved in the group from my old church cause they voted me the historian last year so I would do a scrapbook.  I was planning on quitting at the end of that term, which is this month, cause I felt like they wouldn't want me to go anymore once my job was fulfilled.  But a friend told me they voted me in the same job for next year???????  I know they don't want me, they just want the scrapbook!  I really love those ladies so much and would love to be  a part of their group.  Should I?? or should I move on???  Life is so  confusing some times...)

School will be out soon....9 no 8 1/2 more days!  This has been a fast year, but I am glad to see it go.  I have been offered a new position next year and I am so excited to be making this change.  I will teach the younger special ed kids.  It will be quite a challenge, but I am ready for a change.  I have been doing this for 16 years.  You would not believe some of the stuff I have found in my cabinets while packing up!

Well, we have softball game and wmu tonight, church and end of year gymnastics party tomorrow, game thursday and play day at school, get out of school early for kids Friday and workday for teachers, and a crop that night, vbs workday saturday to decorate the church... which i need to spend some time there every day getting things ready for that.  Next week is card swap on Wednesday, a game on Thursday, last week of school, pack up my personal stuff and move into a new classroom!!!, swim party on Friday night, and vbs on Saturday.  whew!!!  I know I can do it, but it sure makes someone want to just lay in bed and pull the covers over their head for a few weeks!

The Boot is Back

I had other plans for today.  I had other plans for this month, this summer.....  Sometimes our plans are not our own.  A few weeks ago I began doing the WW Walkit challenge.  I started off really great and was so excited.  Then my foot started hurting so bad I couldn't even put my weight on it.  I went to see our local dr. who sent me to a foot dr.  Yesterday I got to visit with him.  He used a big long word for what is wrong but basically it is just sore.  I need to rest it so it can heal.  If I don't it could lead to a stress fracture.  SOOOOOOOO, I will do what the Dr. says.  I have to wear this:::::

for three to six weeks.

Since I had worn this:::

for two months two years ago when I partially detached my Achilles tendon, I am not exactly excited about the joys of the boot. ( This injury has nothing to do with the past injury.  It also has nothing to do with the fact that I am the proud owner of an extra bone in my foot!!!)

• they are heavy
• they are hot
• they look UGLY!!
• it is impossible to go down stairs without the fear of tumbling down
• they rub
• they press
• darn it, they down smush your leg bone where that stupid strap goes...

Oh, sorry, I am trying to be positive.

• My clean socks will last twice as long.
• I don't have to find but one shoe in the morning
• and the best positive thing......MY FOOT HAS NOT HURT SINCE THE LADY WRAPPED IT AND PUT THE BOOT ON!!!  YAHOO!!!!

So my dream of gardening and mowing my own yard might not come true this spring.  I won't get in shape for that walkit challenge.  I will have to ask my daughter to help me tape the foot up or get the boot on ( she is a pro!!), but hopefully soon it will all be well.

Even though I don't like this...I look around at other's burdens and this is one I will gladly bear.  (remind me of that)  This is easy-peasy to what others are going through. 

Are you ready boots? Start walkin'!

Whatcha been doin??

My cousin sent me an email that asked what I had been doing and there was just so much to tell.  Life seems to be extremely busy or kind of blah....  This was one of those busy weeks.  Monday was our last practice day for TAKS and C had softball practice that night.  Then right home, bath and bed early....ha ha haha hahahahahahhahahahahah.....  well, you get the idea... I tried.

Tuesday - up early, breakfast burritos, Math TAKS test.  Tension and stress so thick that you could cut it with a knife. Exhausting day.   Tuesday night - music practice, fun, fun, fun.  Wednesday - up early, biscuit and gravy for breakfast, Reading TAKS test.  More tension, more stress....Gymnastics recital right after school...who'se idea was that????  Church Wednesday night - lost vbs decorations, dead computer, not much accomplished...  Thursday up early to go to ISS, but what is that??? no iss for elementary kids during TAKS week, woohoo, so back at elementary school.  Thursday evening - card swap with friends..... Awesome cards, will post pics now that I have a camera.   And somewhere during those days made a scrapbook for a teacher who is retiring for her part on ..... Friday - windy day and two softball games canceled.  I guess I will just go home and chill tonight!  I think I've earned it!!

Easter 2011

 

We had a lovely Easter weekend.  We were out of school on Friday.  Thursday night C played her first softball game and they lost 15-16.  She hit an out at the very end and was so upset.  Friday night we went to our church for a video and communion service for Good Friday.  Saturday we went to Altus and saw Hop and Rio and shopped.  It was so relaxing.  Sunday we woke up really early to go to the sunrise service at 7 am.  Then we ate breakfast at church.  After church there was an egg hunt for the kids.  I am glad C is still young enough to want to hunt eggs.  

Here is one of the songs we sang Sunday morning that was so awesome.  Most people have only heard one verse, but there are five and they tell the easter story so well.  It is based on this bible verse:

Isaiah 52:7
"How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him
that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace;
that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation;
that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth! 

 How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him,
Who brings good news, good news;
Announcing peace, proclaiming news of happiness.
Our God Reigns!  Our God Reigns!

Chorus Our God reigns!   Our God reigns! Our God reigns!   Our God reigns! Our God reigns!   Our God reigns! Our God reigns!   Our God reigns!

He had no stately form, He had no majesty
That we should be drawn to Him.
He was despised and we took no account of Him.
Yet now He reigns, with the Most High. 


It was our sin and guilt that bruised and wounded Him.
It was our sin that brought Him down.
When we like sheep had gone astray our Shepherd came,
And on His shoulders He bore our shame.

Meek as a lamb, that's led out to the slaughterhouse,
Dumb as a sheep, before it's shearer;
His life ran down upon the ground like pouring rain,
That we might be born-again! 


Out from the tomb He came with grace and majesty;
He is alive, He is alive!
God loves us so, see here His hands, His feet, His side;
And yes, we know, He is alive!