Feet up

I am sitting back chilling tonight with my feet up.  Steven has gone to the football game to chaparone the band.  They have an away game about 45 minutes away tonight so I didn't go.  I stayed home with the younger kids and let them each have a friend over.  The friends have now left and we are relaxing.  They are watching TV and playing on I-pods.

Work is going good and I am learning alot.  I like that the sped teachers will listen to me when I talk and take what I say into consideration.  The only hard thing is that I really can't tell anyone specifics about school because of privacy issues and such.  This is a small town and it wouldn't take long for talk to get around, so I am careful about what I tell people.  We do talk among ourselves in the special ed room, which is good.

Tomorrow Steven is taking the the boys to the Georgia game and Ashley and Natalie are volunteering at church, so I will just have Emma for a while.  I think we will go shopping.

Busy

School, work and life in general have been busy.  It is a good kind of busy, but busy none the less.  Emma is playing soccer, Ashley is in the marching band, and all three girls are doing dance right now.  I went to a women's conference in Atlanta last Saturday with Kay Arthur as the speaker.  It was so good.  I was gone all day, but the guys kept the house in pretty good shape.  I have been playing catch up from that all week.  Oh well, it was worth it.  I learned so much!

Tonight is church.  The kids bring home friends and we take about 10 kids to church on Wednesdays.  Fun to have a house full of kids.  I usually make a big pot of soup and some grilled cheese sandwiches or muffins or bread and off we go.  I use my crockpot so it is ready when we get in at 4:00.

I have to go get the troups ready for school.  Tyler takes forever to do his hair.  I think it is time for a haircut.

First Week of School

We had our first full week of school last week.  The kids were fairly excited to go.

 

 

 

It was also my first week of working all week.  We survived it, but I have to do better about getting some baking done on the weekends.  I overspent my budget this week on groceries, so I am trying to get it back in line.  I didn't make it to the medium sized city for shopping at Aldi, so I went to Wal-Mart and Ingles, which is just more expensive.  I did go and stock up on pasta at Kroger for 50 cents a box and I got some goldfish crackers and some cookies for afternoon snacks. 

 

I am working at the little kid's school as a special ed para pro.  Basically I go into the classrooms and help with the kids that need some extra help.  It is pretty good but busy.  I do like the job and the school.  I am just trying to figure out what I am supposed to do with these kids and what is the best way to help them and the teacher.  It is a learning curve for sure. 

 

In other news we got Tyler's custody worked out.  We went to court this week and now we have custody of him until his is 18.  I hope we can teach him like we have taught our others that school is important and that the love of the Lord should be the primary focus in  his life.  It is good to have that settled.

 

Well, I have to go put bread dough in some pans and take me a nap.  I love Sunday afternoons.

 

Saturday Shopping 8/4/12

I went to the mid-size city near us today and did some grocery shopping.  I say mid-size because we are 45 minutes from Atlanta and that is a big city and we are 20 minutes to Macon which is mid-sized.  I am also 5 minutes to Forsyth which is small but does have a grocery store and a Wal-Mart.  My budget to feed my family of 7 is $100 a week.

My first stop was the bakery outlet.  Here is what I got:

I spent $10.50.  This should last us the week.

Then I went to Kroger.  They had bone-in chicken breast for $.99 a pound and corn 3/$1.00.

 I spent $18.60.  Then I went to Aldi.  Now Aldi is my favorite place for fresh stuff and staples for cheap.  I have never been disappointed with the quality of their items.

It was around $66 total.  I think I did pretty well.  I have about $5.00 left for the week for some sale stuff at CVS.





What these kids are doing

My kids are so different.  Right now I have one reading

One is trying to nap:

Two are playing Star Wars on the Wii

Tyler isn't even here.  He is at a friend's house.  Emma loves technology and Natalie really doesn't care.  The others are inbetween.  It is so funny how different some kids are.  I have raised them all about the same, yet some are so different.  I guess that is what makes everyone who they are.





Braves Game

We went to an Atlanta Braves game yesterday.  Boy was it hot.  We were in the direct sun and it was about 95 degrees.  After about the fourth inning we moved to some seats in the shade.  No one said anything to us so we just stayed there.  That was much better and then we enjoyed it.  Don't we look cute!

It was an adventure.  The company gave us each $5.00 to spend at the concession stand.  We all bought a frozen lemon aid and then we only had enough money left for one sprite for all of us to share.  We had brought in our own water and then refilled them at the water fountains, so we didn't spend too much.  We ate lunch in the van on the way and then we stopped at Subway and got four footlong subs. 

So, today Ashley had band camp again this week from 8 to 12.  I need to go get another phone for the kids to have at the house since we have no home phone and Ashley is going somewhere all the time.  We also need to go to the library and at 4:30 we are praying at one of the schools with our church.  Busy busy.  We only have two more weeks and then I start work.  Boo for work but yeah for the money!

Well, I have to get Ashley up and going.  Have a great day!

Baseball

Sorry to have been MIA.  The kids spent last week with their Aunt, except for Ashley who had band camp.  I really didn't get anything done except I did relax and shop some.  I bought some clothes for work and some comfortable shoes.  I am going to be a teacher's aid for special ed and I will float to whoever needs me.  I figure that I will be on my feel alot and I just love tennis shoes, but I didn't want to look like I was wearing tennis shoes.  I went to the Sketchers outlet and bought two pair that feel like you are wearing bedroom slippers, but they don't look like tennis shoes.  I also dug through the clearance section at Belk and bought four shirts and a pair of pants.  I plan to wear pants every day except on Fridays we can wear jeans.  If I am working with older kids (4th or 5th grade) I might wear some skirts, but if I am working with Kindergarten then forget it.  I figure that they aren't paying me enough to buy a whole wardrobe.

I did have to go pick up the kids a day early because Natalie had a fever.  It turned out to be a virus and today I think she is almost over it.  She has had no fever today and feel lots better.  She still is running to the bathroom, but she is OK.

We are going to a Braves baseball game tomorrow.  Steven's work gave us ticket and $5 to the concession stand.  We are going to pack a cooler lunch and buy some dinner on the way home.  I will be hot, but hopefully fun.  We have never been before and we love family outing so we will have fun.  We always have fun together.