Thanks, Liberty!

So I get home today and there is something in the mail from Liberty..... I was worried that it was going to be some random, off the wall bill (which I should not have) but it had a check look to it. So I'm thinking, maybe there is something I don't know about it and God is trying to massively bless my day with a big check.....

I open the envelope..... drum roll please.....

A whopping $3.25!!!!

This many quarters....

Apparently I had a credit on my account from 2 years ago. Number 1, it's about time they did that. Number 2, they could have just kept the money and considered it my contribution to Liberty. Oh well, it's better than nothing, right? And I guess technically, since my parents did pay for my education at Liberty, those 13 quarters should go to them. Mom, when we have a yardsale, you can take 13 quarters from my pile. :)

Hello....

Hi... so, no, I have not fallen off the face of the planet. I don't really know what my deal is and why I can't keep this thing updated at regular intervals. But since my husband is doing way more than his fair share of the workload at Waynesboro High School at this moment, I thought I would take a second to update. Not really much exciting has happened. The weekend before Valentine's Day we made a weekend trip to Lynchburg. On Saturday morning and afternoon we were at the Love 4 Life conference at Thomas Road. I won free tickets on Spirit FM and I think we both learned a few things and laughed really hard, so it was worth our time. Richie McDonald, the former lead singer from Lonestar was there, so let's see if I can be tech-saavy enough to sneak one of my videos in here....

After the conference was over we went to Matt & Amanda's. This was Anthony's first time seeing Lily, so that was fun. We had a great time with them as we always do. Vicky also was able to come over and hang out. We also went to the Nazarene Church on Sunday which is where we went while we were at Liberty. It was great to see Pastor Stephen. He was a youth pastor at the Nazarene church here in Waynesboro when I was in youth group, so I knew him before I ever went to Liberty. So it was kind of nice to have a familiar face when I was looking for a "home church" while in Lynchburg. Anyways, off subject...

Here are a few pics from the fun with Lily!

Now, the last picture totally cracks me up. It was this little swaddle thing that makes them lay still while they are sleeping so they sleep better, and I had never seen one before and I thought it was just about the funniest thing ever. It's like a little baby straight jacket or something. She was just so cute all bundled up in it!!!

This past Saturday we went to Spotswood High School in Penn Laird (which is near Harrisonburg) to see Waynesboro and Lee play in a championship game. These two teams are probably the biggest rivals in the area, and Waynesboro won in OT! Yay! :) It was kind of interesting for me though, since I taught in Staunton last year but my loyalties are to Waynesboro now. I was pointing lots of people out to Anthony the whole game. I'm sure he just wanted to tell me to shutup and watch the game, but he's a nice husband and he just nodded and said yes. :) We kind of started at the very end of the seasoning following the Giants' basketball a little bit and now I wish we had gone to a lot more of the games, because they have been a lot of fun.

The next few weekends are going to be super busy for us. This coming weekend we are having the 7th and 8th graders from the youth group over to our house for a "house party" as they are calling it. We really enjoy this group of kids so it should be fun. The weekend after, we are headed to Danville on Saturday for Awana Bible quizzing and games with the same group of kids. I am "coaching" the Bible quiz team. If we win something, great, but I hope they just have a good time and enjoy the opportunity to do this. It should be a fun day. Then the weekend after that is Easter. We will be leaving on Friday after work and going to VA Beach to stay with Anthony's family. That Sunday we will go to Matt & Amanda's home church to see little Lily be dedicated. Then that afternoon we'll be going to Jon and Sam's for Kevin's birthday party... 5 years old he'll be... wow, hard to believe.

So that's about the latest in our lives. Maybe I'll take some inspiration from Amanda and try to update more.... but let's not count on it. :)

Anthony's Math Resource Page!

Anthony just made this neat math resource page that he is going to post a bunch of his math resources on... I'm going to add it to my links, so check it out! And pass it on to any math teachers you know! :)

Snow Day

We had our first real snow of the season today. Anthony got a snow day today and I was thrilled for him because he works super hard and he deserved a day off! And actually, he will also be home tomorrow because it is a workday but he gets a "wellness day" because he hasn't missed any days this year so far. I got to come home from work early since the roads were nasty in some spots.

Also a couple of prayer requests... pray for Anthony's sister-in-law, Laura. She was in a car accident yesterday. She and the baby both seem to be fine... she sprained her neck I think but the doctors said the baby's heartbeat was fine, so praise the Lord for that! Just keep her in your prayers as she is recovering in the next couple days.

Also, remember the Lawrenson's in your prayers. They seem to be doing well, but still have a long way to go. God has been using them and their story to do lots of cool things... check out their blog for more.

Now I'm off to watch American Idol that I missed while I was in class last night!

Shed Update & Recipe

So here are some recent pictures of the shed. Finally the siding is done! There are a few more little thing Anthony needs to do still, but at least our neighbors can tell we didn't just abondon it and think we are white trash! I think it looks fantastic and I am so proud of Anthony! He has done the entire thing with only a little tiny bit of help from me on the door. I just can't believe he has built this thing from the ground up all by himself! I am so grateful that I have a husband who is so handy and works well with his hands. This is not a trait I ever thought about wanting in a husband, but now that I have it, I am so glad I do! He is such a hard worker, and if there is something he doesn't know how to do, he figures it out. Lucky me! Also notice that some of the trash is gone! Anthony took some of it to the dump today and the rest is stacked in a neat pile to the right of the shed. So it looks like we are on the home stretch with this thing, finally!

I also wanted to share this fantastic recipe I made last night. I guess the domestic bug has bitten me because I've decided to start making more of an effort on our meals. Oftentimes, we just have one of those "Homestyle Bakes" meal in the box type things. And while there is nothing wrong with that, and many of them are very good, I just don't feel like a good wife when I make "lazy meals" all the time. So I decided to make a few "real" meals from my Kraft magazine. Here is the one we had yesterday:

Easy Italian Stew

2 Tbsp. Italian Dressing

1 lb. bulk Italian sausage

2 cans chicken broth

1 pkg. frozen stir-fry vegetables (white onions and sliced green, red, and yellow peppers)

1 can cannellini beans, rinsed, drained

1 can Italian-style diced tomatoes, undrained

1 cup elbow macaroni, uncooked

1 cup Mozzarella Cheese

Heat dressing in large saucepan on medium heat. Add sausage; cook 8 to 10 minutes or until cooked through, stirring occasionally to break sausage into small pieces.

Add broth, stir-fry vegetables, beans, and tomatoes; bring to boil. Stir in macaroni. Reduce heat to medium; simmer 8 to 10 minutes or until macaroni is tender, stirring occasionally.

Ladle into 8 serving bowls. Top evenly with cheese.

It was SO good and SO easy! We will definitely be making that again. :)

Blog

I found this guy's blog somehow... can't even remember how any more. But I enjoy reading the blog, and I know they could use all the prayer they can get, so I thought I would post their link so you can read and pray for them as well. I am putting the link in my "links" section... duh! Haha. Thanks!

TV! & New Years

We got some money for Christmas, so we decided to splurge a little and buy ourselves a new TV. So the day after Christmas, after many trips back and forth, we bought a 37" Vizio LCD HDTV from Walmart. We also bought a new entertainment center to go with it. The quality is amazing! And we actually have HD channels because on Thursday we got our new Ntelos fiber optic cable. So not only is the TV amazing, but the new cable is amazing too! We have way more channels than with Comcast plus so many cool features, like the channel guide, music stations, a search feature, just to name some. I am SO glad we switched to Ntelos. And it is actually going to be cheaper than it was with Comcast! So if you are in the area I highly recommend looking into the Ntelos video (as they call it). They don't have it everywhere yet, but are working on it. We have been using our new TV to catch up on the show Lost. I have watched it from the beginning pretty much but Anthony hadn't. So we borrowed seasons 1 and 2 from Ashley (we'll have to rent season 3) and have been watching them like crazy to try to get caught up by the end of January so we can jump in on season 4. Speaking of which, I will end on that note so I can go watch some more Lost! Yes, we are home watching Lost on New Year's Eve, but honestly, there's no place I'd rather be than home spending time with my husband. Happy 2008 everyone!!!