My last day of work, a SNAKE and Happy 2nd birthday Everett!

Wow didn't realize how long this post would be so bear with me!

Today is bittersweet....it is my last day of work (ever) and I am happy to become a stay-at-home mom and to be homeschooling my children in the Fall and spending more time taking care of my family.  Since I graduated college, there hasn't been a time I have been unemployed (except for summers).  I worked 6 years as a 6th/7th grade teacher, then 2 years as a part-time teacher for our county, then spent 4 years keeping children in my home.  I am happy to have contributed financially to help us get out of debt and now that is the case, I am thankful for this opportunity to trust the Lord with this chapter.  It is all out scary and exciting at the same time, but I know God has my days written in His book and He has promised to take care of us.  He has proven Himself faithful time and time again, and this time being no exception.  

BUT,  I will miss these sweet little ones I have treated as my own for some up to 3 years.  I have had some since birth and have watched them grow up over the years and have quickly become "Nana" to some.  They have a piece of my heart!  All year I have looked forward to this day as well as dreaded this day knowing there would be all kinds of emotions...and that rang true today as I watched them drive away. Rough I tell ya!

Being only a teacher inservice day (kids are already out) I had Karis and Brayden too, as well as our friend Trey who is also in Kindergarten totalling 9.  It was a crazy fun day!

Everett brought Brayden his bday present since they may not make the party this weekend.  Thanks Everett!

Brayden loves ANY excuse to use his pocket knife!

He got an itunes card, gum and some money.  He was pumped!

And Hazel brought them both gifts since they may not be able to come also.  Of course they loved getting gifts randomly!  Thanks Hazel!

My mommas are so thoughtful and kind and showered me with cards that made a waterfall of tears, goodies, and gift cards.  They have all become friends so that makes it extra hard.

Everett also celebrates his 2nd birthday tomorrow so we celebrated today.  Here he is telling me he is TWO!

 His mom made these cute rice krispie treat buses for his birthday treats...aren't these adorable?!  Everett kept saying, "Bus! Mine! TWO!"

 

The birthday boy...

Opening his gifs...

This motorcycle was playing music and he was dancing here...precious!

 Ryker brought these happies for the last day...

 

Hazel brought everyone happies too (cards for everyone as well as their own box of chalk) but I forgot to take a pic!

 Brayden and Trey loved getting a few days to play together!

 Brayden came in this afternoon and said, "MOM!  Red and black is a friend of Jack right?!"  Of course I knew what he was talking about and I said, "YES...WHY?!?!"  He said, "Because there he is right there!!!"  Why yes, he was!

The saying goes about the red, black and yellow stripes, "Red and yellow kills a fellow but red and black is a friend of Jack."  Thankfully it is just a king snake (good snake) so we just let him peacefully go.  Just hope I don't see him again!!!

 Gonna miss these sweet faces....

But very thankful to have more time with these three...

 First day of this school year August 2012 and last day....

And here are Hazels first and last day last year and this year....

 

First summer post...wahoo...NO ALARM CLOCKS!!!

Great day with these sweet babies the Lord has entrusted me over the last few years and so thankful for His provision for me to work at home and be with my babies!  Now to give them my full attention!  And let the summer begin.....

Creation Museum

For Spring Break, Jay and I decided to just get away for a few days instead of going somewhere the whole week.  We left Friday after they got home from school and I got off of work and tried to do about half of the driving to save us some time the next day since we had a packed schedule.  We drove to Bowling Green, KY Friday night and stayed at the coolest hotel...the hotel Sync.  It was the same price of a hotel (maybe even less) and it was like an entire apartment.  It had a fully stocked kitchen, living room, balcony, separate bedroom and a bathroom.  Too bad we were just there to sleep or we could have had alot more fun here!

We woke up the next morning and we got on the road.  We had 4 hours left in the trip and we were ready to get there!

We got to the Creation Museum a little before lunch and it was so neat!  We had heard of it through several friends and had wanted to take the kids here for a while. It is a Christian museum that gives lots of cool information about the history behind those famous Bible stories that we all know and love.

It took us through these 7 C's beginning with Creation...

It even had a whole room about evolution and how it can be proven wrong.  Ironically, the monkey's name was "Lucy."  Lucy thought it was funny.  Our kids had never heard of evolution and when we told them what it meant they literally laughed.  My thoughts exactly!

They had a recreation of the Garden of Eden and it was amazing!  So gorgeous and pure.

After sin entered the world, sin had to be atoned for.  In the Old Testament (before Christ's atonement for our sins on the cross) there had to be a sacrifice of the innocent on behalf of the guilty.  When sin entered the world, it got complicated and ugly.

After sin, everything changed.  Consequences came...

Man had to work hard and pain was felt...

Methuselah, the oldest man in Bible history, lived to be 969 years old.

I think the ark was our favorite part of the museum!  This replica was actually only 1% of the actual size.  I can not even imagine!!!

Thanks to the Tower of Babel, we have different languages all over the world...

The kids, Brayden especially LOVED all the dinosaurs!

At the end of the museum, we bought tickets to the snake live show.  Some friends of ours went to it when they were here and said it was worth it and their fav part so we decided to do it.  They were all scared at first but by the end loved it!  In fact when they pulled the first snake out Lucy started screaming crying ha!

He brought out all kinds of snakes and brought Christ into each snake somehow...so neat.

Jay knew an answer so he got to be the star student up front ha!  "Red and yellow kills a fellow, red and black heart attack."

Brave boy!

This crosses the line...you would not catch me dead doing this!!!

Then he pulled out this 70 lb. python...OMG!  It was huge!  It was so big you couldn't even pick it up out of the tub.  He just dumped it sideways and out came this snake!!!

Yea you can tell Jay and I are pretty much holding this by ourselves and Jay got the "business" end of the snake.  This thing was HEAVY!

Lucy wasn't too fond of this as you can tell.  She was outwardly showing what I felt inside ha!

Then we went to the outside portion of the museum which had a petting zoo. 

Great day with my family at the Creation Museum...we hope to come back again soon!  Now on to some swimming!