I'm getting a head start by posting some of my most favorite photographs of the year. I could have certainly posted more but I had to contain myself.
As I walked through all my blogs for this year I was touched by the theme of love, family, and friendship. We are truly rich and God is good. While we have also lost many important people we have also gained much spiritually, physically, and mentally.
Starting in the New Year, I plan to focus on some of my own professional, spiritual, and personal goals. I will be taking myself off of all social media websites for a bit. I am bracing for 2019 and all it brings. It's going to be a great year. I will be back soon to detail all of my events and hopefully a positive testimony.
I've restarted this blog about five different times.
I really don't know how to start a blog when you are trying to say goodbye to a friend. Not just a friend but a colleague and my daughter's very first teaching assistant.
Do you know how important the first year of school is to a child?
The most important of all and we certainly had a dream team in Mrs. H. and Mrs. J.
Did I know I would have to be saying goodbye to Mrs. J. the next year?
No.
If I did I would have taken more pictures.
I would have tried to get more wisdom from her.
I would have told her that she really was a dedicated wife, mom, teacher, and person.
I would have told her that I would often look out the window and smile to see her on the playground during recess. She was too afraid to sit down because she was looking after each of her little chicks.
I loved how she was patient in the lunchroom. You never heard her screaming.
I loved how she didn't pass judgement against others.
I loved how she understood our odd little ducks.
I loved how important her church family was to her.
I loved how her and her husband would walk together every day. #goals
I loved how she told me something nice about Carlee every time I saw her. She understood Carlee. They had a lot in common.
I loved how she worried about us all (even though I often called her Wemberly Worried).
I loved how she gave 110% every day and never got paid a penny extra for doing it. I loved that she was authentic, no showboating for this lady.
I loved that she laughed at my craziness- my hysteria against her calm.
I loved that she was humble.
Today our sweet girls brought much comfort to each other and Mrs. H.
Maybe the hardest part of this is now I have a young lady who is faced with her first close experience with death. Oh how she adores her kindergarten teachers.
Today I wrote a poem for the students at her school.
I shared it with Carlee today.
Because Mrs. Joyce was who she was, her memory, her spirit, and her lessons will forever live on through us all.
Aren't we lucky that we got a piece of it?
We love you Mrs. Joyce
Love Bubbles
by Mrs. Amanda Sechrist
In life we have special people for you and me,
people who can
dance and
giggle
and people who pass secret drawings for us to see.
But what if that person gets sick and we can’t say hello
that stinks
I just want to go.
I wish I could see my friend,
her name is Mrs. Joyce-
howdy!
bonjour!
hola!
I bet you can’t wait to hear MY loud voice!
Maybe I can go on a little trip,
I can sing her a song
make a rocket
even turn a huge flip!
Today is not the day to play,
whatever are we to do?
I am sad,
felling down
and a bit blue.
But WAIT!
There is a special secret, just for girls and boys
the best thing is
it involves bubbles
and we don’t need lots of noise!
It’s called LOVE Bubbles
so use it right to take away troubles.
Bubbles you say?
that is crazy? No worries,
I will show you the way!
Let me show you all about these-
the only requirements
follow directions, PLEASE.
Now let’s start,
think of your special person
with your hand on your heart.
Next, count to three,
and fill a pretend bubble
with love
hugs
and memories that are all FREE!
Put inside well wishes,
a little squeeze
and don’t forget sloppy kisses.
Pretend that bubble is a big as the sun!!
now blow your real bubble
don’t forget to add BIG fun.
Watch it float as high as it can go
where it will reach Mrs. Joyce.
and she will know
It will float to her head and POP
a special gift of love
that will go on and never STOP!
It will make her laugh
and dance really funny,
All the angels will join in
and call her honey.
And those special love bubbles did a job well done
I've tried really, really, really hard to keep this month from being stressful,
but no dice.
Work, Christmas activities, Sports, and Gift Buying has put me over the edge. To destress, my friend J. took me out to dinner and we decided on a whim we needed to take all the kids to-
-unexpected schaetic nerve pain (I have to quit carrying such a heavy back pack)
-unexpected finances
-etc. etc.
For example, this month Carlee and I got our annual tickets to Disney on Ice w/ SECOND ROW SEATS!
We could taste the sweat of Mickey Mouse, but as luck would have it.....
we had to leave 15 minutes later because Carlee started gagging and I just knew she would puke on the SECOND ROW. (sigh.)
Never. Again.
That is when I started praying every day about our Tweetsie Trip. There were plenty of moments that had me worried: Carlee and T. Man both had an antibiotic prior, I threw my back out, and the weather man called for the biggest blizzard ever.
Thank goodness all was well by Friday evening!
Our prayers were answered.
Mr. T. Love this kid.
We had a great ride up and down.
Since the train ride/ park opening is at night, I brought hot hands and enough layers for an army. J. said I "had quite the pattern going on".
As you can see from my layers, I've reached a point in my life where I care more about my comfort. I'm rocking the bag lady USA look here. You see T. Man likes it because he has a cool hat!!
Our tickets were for 5:30pm sharp, so we boarded the train right away. Because it was night and required flash, we didn't film/photograph. It was a fun ride through the mountains with a lovely light display and both a Christmas playlist and Christmas lyrics on the screens.
The ride was really beautiful but I believe the kids couldn't fully love it for fear an Indian would pop out and start shooting off a cap gun (no matter how much I comforted them).
We are in jail for not singing Christmas tunes as loud as J.
We put Connor on the little horse because Carlee wanted to get on the big one.
(He was a very patient brother on this trip, I should probably pay him.)
Mr. T. loved Connor too.
Although the temperatures dropped quickly, it wasn't too bad. We had lots of layers (that I ended up carrying across the park).
The only Drama Meltdown was Princess had thin boots, though pretty in looks, were terrible for cold weather. Her feet stayed frozen. She kept dragging her feet like she had a peg leg. We eventually put hot hands in her boots and purchased more socks. That helped the complaints for a bit.
Take it from me, Beauty is Drama
J. caught some great pictures from Tweetsie.
The Christmas decorations definitely put us all in the spirit.
The kids loved the snow ball fight in the snow globe. I think Connor and I may have went a bit overboard. We officially have pieces of that 'snow' all over our house (upstairs and down) as I write this blog.
Meeting Santa was certainly a highlight! The inside gingerbread house was heated and had the cutest gingerbread decor.
The Mr. and Mrs. Clause were awesome and the kids all got a candy cane and button at the finish.
Even our shy (anti person) girl loved the Santa!
animals braving the cold
We have a bit more in our video here:
It was a long day but I think we had a really good time. We certainly laughed enough. By the end of the fourth hour, we had a set of tired and cold kids, so we skipped the show.
Connor wanted to hit the fudge shop, and since we had made him do all the 'little kid' stuff I paid an obnoxious amount for chocolate and peanut butter fudge (plus an 8.00 gummy snake).
I mean look, he had two littles on top of him for two hours back home without complaint.
:)
Thanks J. for a hilarious and fun Christmas Trip!
It put us all in the spirit.
Merry Christmas to All
and make sure this season you take a few minutes for a train ride and caroling.
