Forgotten Pictures

I was looking through some pictures today and I forgot that I hadn't posted these pictures from the first weekend in August. These are from Homecoming at my grandma's church in Emporia, Va.


The 3 grandkids... Cameron (my cousin), me, and Brandon (my brother)

The Fam minus Jeremy

Brandon and Dad decided to be cute and match once we got back to Great Ma-Ma's house. They are a bunch of dorks!

Thursday's Thirteen

Today's Thursday Thirteen is Shannon's Top 13 Movies. These are ones that I could watch over and over (and have).

1. Grease


2. Dirty Dancing


3. Center Stage


4. The Holiday


5. High School Musical


6. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days


7. Forrest Gump


8. Sound of Music


9. Steel Magnolias


10. Office Space


11. The Notebook


12. Legally Blonde


13. Failure to Launch


Did anyone notice that most of them are chick flicks?

I love our small group

Thanks to Jaime and her excessive picture taking, we now have a picture of our group! There were many other fun pictures of the night on her blog so go by and check them out. My favorite though is not there...Jaime and I tried to take a picture of us praying together. Background story to that is that our husbands were doing childcare together so when you were supposed to pray with your spouse Jaime and I were "the female couple". You had to be there...it was fun! So Jaime...pass the picture on!

Anyways, this group is amazing and I feel blessed to have them in my life. :)

It's the redhead's fault

The redhead being Robin. Robin came to visit this weekend and while she was here we visited Chapel Hill for the Carolina/UVA game. As you can tell from her shirt, Robin is a big time UVA fan/alumna. Because Jeremy was busy playing intramural football for SEBTS, Robin and I were able to go to the game together. Though my dad gave her constant grief, she showed respect and didn't cheer or sing too loudly. Sadly though the Tarheels didn't play their best and many of the fans around us blamed the redhead for our performance. Ro was a good sport about it and in the end her team won and we had to hear their dumb fight song once again (seriously who uses Auld Lang Syn (the new year's song)for their fight song!).

While Robin was here we also realized this is the 5th anniversary of our friendship! We were squeally girls about it when we figured it out and got made fun of seriously by my dad. But I am very blessed to have Ro has a friend for so long! I'm thankful that the Lord brought us together as accountability partners at CWR 5 years ago.

I'm also thankful that I got home safely from the game as I rode home with one of our soon to be 17 year old friends. I used to babysit him and his brother when I was in high school and now he is the one driving me around. I have to admit he was a good driver and didn't take after his father (who absolutely scares me when we ride with him.) So a shout-out to Justin and his great driving skills. I however, am giving him a boo for stealing his friend's girlfriend (for a 2nd time!). :P

Also, I had to post this because it is too funny! The picture below is of our friends' daughter McKenna. Her parents are ASU alums and were very excited about their victory over Michigan. They posted this picture on their blog with the tagline: Michigan: Making Babies Cry since 2007. :) GO MOUNTAINEERS!

Thursday's Thirteen

Today’s Thursday Thirteen is 13 Things You Probably Didn’t Know about Me: (I hope after reading this, you don’t think of me any less. :)

1. I hate grocery shopping…My mom didn’t like it and I think her negative feelings wore off on me.
2. I don’t have my appendix anymore…it was removed when I was in the 3rd grade.
3. I was born without my 2 eye teeth so in middle school I had to wear braces to pull all my teeth forward.
4. I like to pop zits; I think it’s more that I hate when people have white heads so I would rather see them popped.
5. I was suspended for 10 days in high school because I drank 2 sips of alcohol on campus.
6. I love change…I love to rearrange, cut my hair differently, and to do just something completely different.
7. Though I love change I hate when traditions change esp. Christmas traditions.
8. I love meeting new people but hate being the new person and feeling left out.
9. If someone is acting weird to me, I always try to figure out what I did to them, even if I didn’t do anything at all. I just hate when people are mad at me or don’t like me.
10. I’ve always wanted to have one true best friend, one that I didn’t have to share and knew everything about me. (ok that sounded like one of my third graders.)
11. My biggest fear in life is that I won’t be able to have children.
12. I like watching the movies and shows my student watch
13. I eat chocolate chip pancakes every Saturday morning.

My Heart Just Breaks

Being a teacher is hard in so many ways (as I have voiced many times on this blog) but one way I don't talk about much is the emotional baggage that comes with it. In order to keep their children safe, parents often confided in you very intimate details of their life. This year I think is by far the worse cases. I have kids without either parents due to death, kids who have been kidnapped by one of their parents, and the list just keeps going on.

The more I read their files, the more my heart breaks. What is this generation growing up in? Our society is a scary place to live when kids aren't even safe with their own parents? I feel helpless. I'm just trying to love on them and be as much Jesus to them as I can without speaking his name. On that note, I was touched today to hear one of the girls in my class today witnessing to another girl. She asked me if I would write down her church's web address down for her because she wanted to make sure she spelled it correctly. The next day she brought in specialized tracks for a bunch of the kids in her class. The kids were actually really excited to read them. It's time like these that give a bit of light in such a dark world!

Check these out...

This is by far the worse recruitment video I have ever seen. Good thing App has a nationally recognized football program now or they would be up the creek without a paddle.


Also I wanted to brag on my husband. His multimedia portfolio is now online and you should check it out. If you know anyone needing a designer--graphic or web, pass it along.