Category Archives: Haley

Staying Busy

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I was so excited to exceed my blogging goal in September, that I honestly thought it would continue over in October. Well today is October the 8th and this is my first post. So I seriously have my doubts now.

The biggest item on the calender for this week has been a Bible Quiz meet. Matt and I spent about 2 hours last Sunday and another 2-3 hours on Tuesday working on questions. Haley and I attended the quiz today in Winston for half the day. The last remaining part will be an hour of tabulating score on Sunday. I always say I am not going to wait till the last minute to start working on this each month but I am going to definitely add it to my goals for next year. Finding a scheduled time each week to work on quizzing so it doesn’t ended up consuming a week.

Lily is currently on a cheerleading squad that is starting to practice 2 nights a week. So with Kid’s club this a a total of 3 nights a week she has something going on.

Kendall is going to a Tumble class on Tuesdays which is great for her as well as Zach who gets some “Daddy time.” Both Kendall and Zach have a school readiness person who is coming out 2x a month to make sure they stay on track. Kendall completed her annual testing this past Friday and to our surprise she is scoring on the high end! YAY Kendall. Zach will be tested next week and I hope to post the results as well.

Haley is enjoying school and doing well. Amanda is currently splitting her time between school and work with as much social life as she can squeeze in.

To add to the schedule this week, both Kendall and Lily had eye appointment in Charlotte. Both have increased their vision. Kendall is only patching now 3 days a week for one hour. Lily will continue to patch for 4 hours a day for at least another 6 months. After their appointments we headed to Cracker Barrel and IKEA. I hope to post pictures tomorrow of the purchases.

So if you are keeping count then we are home as a family on Tuesday nights. No wonder I don’t have time to blog much.

The Good, the Bad , the Crazy Week in Review

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I knew that this past week would be busy as normal and so when I thought about posting for this week, I came up with this list format. Hope you enjoy…

The Good

-Lily has had a blue or purple light/dot all week, so she got a prize. I had lunch with Lily on Thursday and Matt meet briefly with her teacher Thursday night. Lily is very well-behavior and is exceeding in reading and writing! We don’t have a good reading level on her yet but at the end of first grade, all students should be reading on a Level I, currently Lily has passed Level E with plans to test at Level F this week.
– I got to have a meeting with my supervisor at work this week, so I am feeling alot more at ease about my position and there is a chance that by the end of the year, I may only be working 1 job which still will keep us on track financially.
-After a somewhat rough start to the Bible Quizzing year, Haley has joined a team from the church in Greensboro. We had our first competition on Saturday. Haley did awesome and is currently 6 out of 27 quizzers. This also was an awesome event for me. I came home not exhausted and I really enjoyed interacting with the quizzers.
– We are still gathering peppers from our Square Foot Garden
-I was able to make several good trips to CVS this week, including today (Sunday) where I spent $10 and saved $36 or 78%. I was also able to bring home 3ECB which is only 1 less than what I started with. I hopefully will be able to do the same transactions on Amanda’s card later on in the week. One of the big sale item is Diet Coke cans!
-Kendall and Zach are both enjoying “preschool” at least once a week!
-God has supplied all our needs. See the bad to understand more.

THE BAD

– Haley is currently grounded from the computer and the phone.
-On Wednesday night our dryer developed a sound that could give anyone a headache and it sound like it could stop at any moment, add to this it was taking 2 hours or more per load. We knew we needed to buy a replacement. Matt was able to locate and purchase a dryer for $150. After bringing it home it is much better than we expected. It is a higher end “digtal” dryer that is quiet and dries even a full load of towels in an hour. This was a huge answer to prayer so that we can hopefully purchase the new windows and start our debt snowball next month.
– On Saturday, about an hour prior to leaving for Greensboro, we discovered a flat tire on my car. Thankfully, my parents came over and help Matt with the little ones so he could get the tire fixed and back on the car.
– We discovered late Friday night that “Angel Food Ministries” will not be disturbing food in September. This is one of the main ways we have been purchasing meat over the past year. We are both shocked that after 17 years that have stopped. Our prayer is that they will be able to reorganize and begin again before the end of the year but we have no information to go on so at this point it is very doubtful.
The Crazy Hairstyle

Haley is entering the Crazy Hairstyle contest at Youth tonight and she really wanted to win and to have it posted here! This leaves a smile on my face after a long week!

Wordless Wednesday-Dedication at our new church Building

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The Mime team performed one song at the regular worship service, Haley is in the middle.

Our friend Pastor Pete Brokopp, a missionary who currently is working to bring clean drinking water and food to Burkina Faso Africa. Pete is often know for his zest and honesty.



The Mime team performing, Haley is on the end to the right.



Lily and her BFF Izzy, during the welcome breakfast.

Matt really enjoyed face painting.

Disney World- Never forget Rapunzel

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I am having a lazy Saturday today and enjoyed looking again at our Disney World Pictures. One of the memories that I don’t want to forget is how we got to meet Rapunzel, who is Lily’s favorite princess. We found out by chance that our first day was also the last day of a very special meet and greet with Rapunzel. The story of my wait is posted earlier but what I didn’t share then was the wonderful pictures we got so here are 5 of my favorite!




Lily actually gave her picture that she colored to Flynn Rider who put it in his bag!

A Different sort of Vacation

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Today has been totally different from any other days I can remember on a vacation. Usually, we sort of get into a routine or at least have a plan for how each day will go. This time we didn’t, on both Thursday and Friday we spent all day (6 plus hours) on the beach. The canopy makes is so easy to do snack, lunch and nap outside there is no need for coming back to the hotel. The kids on both these days have asked to go to the pool. We attempted the pool on Thursday night but the temperature was cool and the water was down right cold. I ended up staying up late last night because of my teenage daughters, so I want a nice easy day. Matt and I decided that this morning we would stay around the hotel room and then spend the day by the pool. Much to our surprise the pools remained chilly all day. This morning we ended up in one of the hot tubs and then came up around 11 for lunch. All the kids went down for naps really easy so we joined them. We headed back to the pool for another round but ended up sitting on the edge. We came up earlier to get dressed to go out for our really nice dinner today. It was nice not to have to rush and to spend time on hair and makeup for a change. We ended up taking pictures on the beach before and after the dinner so I hope we were able to get some decent ones for use in calenders and Christmas cards. Dinner was awesome!! We ended up watch a “Fire and Hula” show at the hotel tonight! The kids loved it. Matt is a very awesome husband today by going to Krispy Kreme to end the night! One interesting thing we have noted is that we are being charged 11%tax on food. This is extremly high in our eye but what can we do! Final note I am having issues publishing my post from yesterday so if it appears out of sequence you know why.

What’s Happening?

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I have been so tired several night for the past couple of weeks that I have been in bed around 9pm.

It is daylight from 5:30ish am until 9ish pm, this makes going to bed prior to 9 really impossible.

Last Thursday we took both little girls for an eye appointment. Lily’s eyes are improving but we are going to continue patching four hours a day for another 4 months. Kendall has begun to cross and we have started patching her right eye 1-2 hours a day.

Kendall HATES the eye patch. The first day she asked to take it off 4 times and actually took it off and threw away behind my back. We have added coloring and stickers to the eye patch and she at least tolerates for an hour without removing but still ask if she can take it off at least one time.

After the eye appointment, we spent time and money at IKEA. We bought a shelving unit for our bathroom and some nice baskets to go on it. Matt has stained and assembled, it makes that area feel more complete.

I also made a trip to Walgreens on Thursday, spent 4.50 and made 5.50 in register rewards. I also discovered on their rain checks they actually list the price minus the Register rewards, so now I have to locate my coupons and return for cheap razors.

On Saturday, we visited both Food Lion and Costco as well as picked up a online order from Harris Teeter. I am very impressed with Harris Teeter and plan to try the online version again to see if it works on special events.

I have been working alot of hours close to full time so trying to keep up is hard.

Our square foot garden is producing!!! I plan to post pictures on Wednesday but so far we have been able to harvest and use a couple of squash, 5-10 cucumbers and enough green beans to serve as a side dish! Matt is still growing and using the herbs so this has been really awesome to have our own produce.

CVS has several fun deals this week including Diet Coke 2-Liters for 0.79 so I will be making 3-4 trips this week and plan a post with all the details on Thursday!

Haley has finished school, last Friday and will be volunteering at the hospital I work at, 4 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays all summer.

It is dark and almost 10pm so I am going off to bed.

All My Children UPDATE

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Amanda- With some (okay lots) of encouragement from us has decided to take the summer off from college. She passed her CNA test in April and is currently working as a home care provider and is suppose to start as needed at a Nursing Home 3rd shift next week. This should give her a chance to save up some money to make college much easier in the Fall. She is also continuing with her fire fighting classes. I am very proud of her for making it up in the mornings and to work on time on a regular basis.

Haley- Haley is finishing up her Sophmore year at high school. She currently is on the A-B honor roll with 2 Honors classes (chemistry and Civics). She decided that she wants to be in color guard next year so is working on that over the summer as well. Haley will spend the majority of her summer as a Junior Volunteer at the Hospital. She was one of 30 people chosen out of the 95 that applied. Way to go Haley.

Lily- Has officially completed home school for the year. She is currently reading simple books, working both addition and subtraction problems, telling time to the 15 minute and knows alot about money. We will continue to work on a more informal basis over the summer. On Monday, she will be tested to determine if she will enter school in First Grade or Kindergarten in the fall. Lily has also started cheering on a competition squad. She is a flyer. Lily enjoys stretch and is doing an awesome cartwheel and working on a back walk over!

Kendall- Kendall is growing by leaps and bounds. She is beginning to recognize colors, loves to sing and dance. She is wearing big girl panties all the time except nap and night. We are still having one or two accidents a week. I am so proud of the way she has learned to express what she wants and will pick things even if everyone else wants something different.

Zach- Is walking, beginning to put two word sentences together and is one of the most strong willed children in this house! He is a climber and a screamer. We are sure he is gaining weight and will no longer be going to Brenner’s for weight check every 3 months. We are not certain about his allergies but are justing being careful at this point and will see in the future what is best for him.