Country Roads

All By Myself...

"Don't wanna be, all by myself anymore..."

You know that song?  That's what I'm singing this weekend.  DH is gone for four days, the longest we've been apart in our marriage.  And...I'm doing ok...before I used to go to my mom's house, but I guess I'm finally growing up a little???  I think I'll be able to handle this alright.  I did still sleep on the couch last night...I like to be able to hear things, I feel more vulnerable in the bedroom for some reason, I guess cause it's more comfortable.  And I did get up before the sun did...I don't sleep long without him.  Oh well, I'm making progress...

Well, blog-land has taken a hard hit in my life lately.  There are too many other things going on, but I feel like I'm learning SOOO much right now.  The two schools I'm working at are really different, but I'm learning so much in each.  At one school I am doing all literacy lessons with k-2, breaking up into small groups and reading together, while the other school I am doing team-teaching in 4th and 5th and Math skills groups...Math isn't my thing, but at least it's only 2nd and 3rd!

I'm also learning a lot in my masters courses.  In one I am doing a case study and providing tutoring for reading to a second grader.  He's wonderful!:)  He makes my day when I'm with him!  But he breaks my heart,  he needs to really close the gaps now, or he'll realllly struggle with school the rest of his life.  I'm going to do my best!

I also learned a whole lot today at a technology workshop called Teachers Teaching with Technology.  It was awesome.  It opens your eyes up to the wonderful possibilites of technology in the classroom.  If the technology was always up and running...now there's the problem.

So right now, I'm learning a lot about the following:

*The processes a child goes thru to learn how to read.

*Applying strategies to help a child how to learn to read.

*Using technology in this Digitally Native field of education.

What are you learning?  Please share!  I need somehting to read while I'm here all weekend!:)

Sittin' Here

Well, here I am on the front porch, really enjoying a few minutes on Sunday Afternoon...My husband was so kind to take care of the dishes for me after dinner today!  Isn't he great? 

School is in full swing here and this is probably the last weekend John and I have together for the next 6 weeks, so we're trying to enjoy it.  His soccer season will be full blast starting Tuesday.  Pray that him and all the college students playing will be safe as they travel and play, but most importantly grow more Christ-like by playing soccer with each other.

I start teaching my college class on Tuesday...I'm a bit nervous, but I'm also really excited about the change.  I'm used to teaching kids who struggle to read all day, so I think it will be refreshing to me to teach on the college level!

I also take my Reading Praxis Exam on Saturday.  I haven't studied, it's been a bit busy, I'm hoping to study some on Thursday and Friday:)...so please be in prayer for that.

My blogs will probably get far and few between now..I hope to post some new pics soon, so you can enjoy pics of the wedding that I coordinated last weekend at Hawks Nest State Park, but until then...God Bless you and keep you this busy fall season!

Vacation...

Well, it's been a little while since I really posted and for good reason.  I finished up last Monday the 12 graduate hours I was taking and then John and I took a few days for a little mini-vacation.  We went up on Wednesday to a Bed and Breakfast in KY and then to the Creation Museum.  What a blessing that was.  I was amazed at how over and over again the museum clearly laid out the gospel.  The progression throughout the presentations was this: 

Creation (Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good.  Genesis 1:31)

Corruption (Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin.  Romans 5:12)

Catastrophe (God destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground...Only Noah and those who were with him in the Ark remained alive.  Genesis 7:23)

Confusion (Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.  Genesis 11:9)

Christ (For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  John 3:16)

Cross (Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and...was buried, and...rose again the day according to the Scriptures.  I Corinthians 15:3-4)

Consummation (There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying.  There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.  Revelation 21:4)

I thought this was a great presenation and each "C" had a walk-through.  It was a blessing!  If you ever have a chance to go, take it!  They are doing a lot more work to it too, I'd like to go back in 3-5 years to see all the things they are working on.

After we got back we went to the lake the next day...very relaxing! 

Also, some exciting news!  I got a NEW job!:)  I'll be working 1/2 time at two different schools (so I will be working full-time) and one school is only 5 minutes away while the other one is only 15 minutes!:)  Praise the Lord!  I'll still be doing the Reading Specialist job too!  I love it!  I start back on the 20th of this month!  Only one more week to myself and then here goes nothing!  I'll also be teaching a college class at the Bible college and I'll be taking two more Masters courses!  Shew, I'm already tired:)  God will give me strength and see me through!  He always does!

So, that's what new!  Glad to be back!

Happy Birthday...

To me!  Happy Birthday to Me!  I'm 19 years old today...in the Lord that is:)  19 years ago today, in our family's garage, my brother led me to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ...I was five years old at the time.  I'm so thankful the Lord gave me a brother who cared enough for me to be passionate enough to press me to make a decision.

Thank you brother!  I love you!

Recovering..

Funny how you always need a vacation from vacation, huh?   John and I spent a wonderful nine days in Connecticut with his family!  We spent time with his parents, brother and his family, celebrated our 3rd  anniversary, and had a family reunion...

The new slideshow gives you an idea of what went on...  We enjoyed fishing on the ocean, catching same great big ol' flounder!  That's awesome, remember that recipe I posted for Baked Flounder?:)  John and his brother went crabbing one night, we went to New York City for our anniversary.  I really enjoyed NYC, I was impressed with how clean the city was, it was neat to walk the streets.  We went to see fireworks, went to the beach, had a great time seeing all our New England relatives, some all the way from Maine.

It was such an enjoyable time, John and I are so thankful for our family and that they know the Lord!  What a blessing!

It is nice to be back home too...but I do have to tell you a story.  I had one of THOSE days yesterday.  Here it goes:  

1.  Locked ALL my keys in the house on my way to drive a friend to the airport.  Luckily, I remembered where the spare key was in our car.

2. For some reason, I left my cell phone on top of the car when I was getting ready to take off.  Didn't realize it until after I got back from the airport.  (Mind you, we had HEAVY rain in the meantime)

3. Stop at John's work to swipe his house keys on the way home from the airport.

4.  Hubby comes home all confused thinking someone's playing a joke on him!

5.  We walk down the road and found my cell phone in a big puddle of water.  It had been soaking for hours.  Went home and dried it out for the night.

6.  On our way to church, since our keys were all messed up John and I locked ourselves out of our house again!!!

7.  Took a 1/2 hour to get back in the house.  It's not easy to break into our house...that's a good thing.  Luckily, where we have an AC we got through one side of the window with a board with a coat hanger attached and snagged up my keys which were on the kitchen table.

Good news is...my cell phone is working.  There's not even a scratch on it.  Looks brand new, all clean and everything.

God is good all the time!:)

Dog-gone

Oh my!  On Sunday we had a dog show up at our house.  Come to find out one of the folks up the road saw it hiding in the bushes along the road and figured it was from our neighborhood.  Well, he said it stopped at our house so he just let it off there...

Look how cute!

But now we're stuck with her!  I really love her, but we can't keep her!  She's really sweet, full-grown, gentle, non-aggressive.  I've tried the rescue shelter and every person I've run into...everyone around here has too many dogs already...including us (only 1, but she's a handful).  I'm praying that someone will call and claim her, I did put an ad in the paper.  We'll see...I hope someone didn't just dump her!

On a positive note, we did a lot of work outside last weekend and completed our back-hill garden...

We also finished the front yard landscaping too...YAY!

My wonderful husband has worked so hard!  I'm so proud of him!  He's such a good worker.

We got to eat the first-fruits of our garden on Sunday!  It's wonderful eating something that you have grown yourself!  This is a firstime for me to do that!  Our squash is doing great so we grilled some and had it for our cookout.  Here's a pic of the squash twins...(I've never seen this before)

It's been beautiful here in mountains of WV...I'm enjoying the summer, but off to CT tomorrow!  I may or may not get to post during our trip there, so it may be awhile.  God Bless!

Here's a piece of sunshine for you, from our house to yours!

Mushy Gushy!

I'm still here!!!

Ok!:)  I know, I'm going on a month almost since I posted, not good.  Well here's the rundown-

End of May/Beg of Jun- school's almost out, we're doing carnivals, I'm moving out of my classroom for good, all kinds of stuff, trying to make sure everything's left just right for the next person.  Also, our computer crashed for a few days here, that was fun...

First Weekend of June- My supervisor from my summer job last year called to see if I could work the weekend, first weekend off and I'm working:)

Lately-  Papers, papers, papers!  I'm taking 4 grad classes and all the assignments happen at once!  Plus, there's at least one live meeting a week, I had two this week!

Also, I've been working on spring cleaning, well really summer cleaning!  I don't have time in the spring with school, so it has to be after that is finished.  I still have a whole lot to do there!  I've organzied a lot of stuff and put some things away, it's nice to see the surface of things again, can anyone relate??

And all the in between time is filled with church, bike rides, and me working on some other responsibilites that I took on.  I'm evaluating three homeschool portfolios, I really want to do a good job, so it's taking me forever to do that!  Oh, and I forgot to mention every Thursday thru Saturday my best friend is staying with us to be here for her work on the weekends.  So, every minute has been packed full it seems like lately. 

So, here's what we have planned for the rest of June:  John is still working away at Alpine...I'll be working on the house, but next weekend we are traveling to CT..Woohoo!  For a week!  I like that we really get to enjoy the time and it's not all driving time.  Please pray for safe travels.  We are going to get someone to house/dog sit for the week.  Kinda makes me nervous about doing that for a week though, we've done that for a few days, but oh well, mommy-syndrome I guess!

Well, there you have it, I've played catch-up!  Now, off to my mom's house to take her to the doctor this morning.  I'll be back soon this time, I promise.  I have some pics to post once I get them downloaded to photobucket!

Update

It's been a little while since I posted and for good reason...I have been down and out.  I've had strep throat of tonsilitis (spelling?)  for the past week.  I had to take the whole week off from work.  It's probably the sickest I've been since I had a real bad time with the flu 3 years ago.  The worst part about it was I had to sing at a wedding this weekend, and on Thursday I still couldn't sing...little scary.  Lots of people were praying, including myself and the Lord saw me through.  I wasn't 100% but boy, it was tons better than even Thursday.  Here's a video and pics from the wedding...enjoy...

Link to the video below:<embed width="448" height="361" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" src="http://i302.photobucket.com/player.swf?file=http://vid302.photobucket.com/albums/nn88/jlsharp05/RjandDaniswedding061.flv">

The cabin we stayed at.

Inside view of the cabin.  We stayed in the loft area...very pretty!!!

John and I at the wedding site...it was gorgeous...at Holly River State Park.

The cute little cabin we stayed at the next night...how romantic!:)

A Good Day...

Well, after a wild day on Monday, I needed to relax.  So after voting in the primaries we had lunch with my mom and dad to celebrate mother's day and then took a motorcycle ride to a quaint little town and to Sandstone Falls.  Here's some pics of the day.  It was fun!

Cute bridge...

Beautiful Sandstone Falls

A baby bunny...

Ok, so I got a little carried away with the camera while we were driving, but here's a few pics from the road...my parents in front of us...

Having a little too much fun WHILE we were driving...

Can you see all 4 of us?

The town of Hinton, known for their famous Dairy Queen.

Also, I found out today at work, that the lady that wrecked in front of me, is completely ok!  Praise the Lord!  One more month of driving that crazy road!!!  Good Night!

So thankful...

Well, with all the storms passing through we have gotten a lot of rain the last 4 days...today's the first day I've seen the sun in awhile.  The roads around here have been pretty slick.  Yesterday on my way home from school, I was almost in a really bad car wreck.  This particular road is very curvy, sharp corners, coal and log trucks fly on this road, so it bad when it's dry.  There was a car in front of me who was actually driving pretty slow, I had backed off from here and was just cruisin' along behind her not worrying about anything.

As we went up into a blind curve, I saw a piece of the guard rail fly off, I couldn't see her...as I kept going around the curve I thought she was going over the mountain, that's when I started to slide.  I can't remember what actually happened, I guess it happened to quick, I know I went off the road for a minute but I got back in my lane and stopped a good ways a way from where she finally ended up.  She had cut her wheel real hard and got back over in the lane again. 

I was pretty shocked, I just sat there in that blind curve for a few seconds then I realized I can't stay here, I'm going to get creamed.  There was no where to go on either side of the mountain.  The lady was in her car staring at her steering wheel, she looked like she was in shock.  I kept praying, Lord, tell me what to do, over and over again..I think I was in shock too.  I drove about 1/2mile down the mountain, my car felt a little funny and I wanted to check it out.  When I finally came to a place to pull over, I realized I just left that poor woman up there.  She was past the curve, but as a few trucks passed me from the same direction, I realized they could have hit her again.  Now, I really didn't know what to do, I was shaken and tore all to pieces, there was no cell phone service, so I drove 2 or 3 more miles down the road to the gas station and told them to call 911...

I still had 30 minutes before I was home...I pulled in my driveway and lost it...

I was so mad at myself for not having the "mind" to help this lady..but I had to make myself realize I was almost a victim too and was in some shock and did not have my logical mind at the time. 

I had to give it to God.  I asked Him for help, at that time, I knew 911 needed to be called, so that's what I did.  I really think the Lord helped me make the decision that was best for me.  I may have been the next victim if I had walked back up that mountain.

So, I'm better now...I just keep going over and over in my head what I could've and should've done last night, but after a good night's sleep it's better.  Please be in pray for the lady who wrecked, she seemed alright physically, but I do want to find out for sure.

Be careful on the roads...God Bless!

Dentist Trip

I think I'm getting a little blog-happy...but that's ok!  I have a lil' time right now...

Our dentist is about 2 hours away from where we live, but only about 1 1/2 hours from my school that I work at, so John met me at my school with the motorcycle and we rode down there.  It's kinda a crazy road, but thank the Lord, He watched over us and we didn't have any trouble with big coal or log trucks!  Actually, there wasn't a whole lot of traffic at all. 

On the way back home though, we stopped at Drawdy Falls, it was really cute, here's some pics:

Under the bridge was a wrecked car....kinda made me sad....

Randomness...

My Cutie!

Something fishy's going on....

We had a great weekend I have to tell ya!  Friday we had a picnic at the college for the end of the school year and it was neat to hang out with friends we have seen in awhile due to the busyness of life!  Then we came home and went to bed...it was about 9:30!!!  It was wonderful!  Tara (our one year old puppy)  kept us awake from about 4-5am..so I slept in a little bit too!:)  John got up that morning and went fishing while I stayed home and got ready for our fish fry later on that evening we were having with the college students. 

We had about three students come over for dinner.  We had fresh trout John caught that day and flounder from CT, chicken, a rice concocsion, pasta w/broccoli,  salad, potato wedges and cake for dessert.  There was tons of food and not a thing left over except for a little bit of salad!!!  I thought I'd share a few fish recipes with you. 

Trout:  We like this two different ways so far.  First one, not too hard...I soak the trout in milk for a few minutes then dip it into some frying magic with all kinds of different spices:  lemon pepper, red pepper, Old Bay, paprika, and parsley (I use this for chicken too)...then fry it up.

My hubby's way is much spicer and reallly yummy!  He heats up a cast iron skillet real hot and bastes the fish in lots of butter and sprinkles blackened seasoning all over (we use Zatarin's) and cook either side for just a few minutes.

Both ways are super tasty!!!

The flounder recipe is from my hubby's mom.  Everytime I've ever served this to guests they rave about it, so I thought I'd share. 

Baked Flounder with Stuffing

Ingredients: Flounder Fillets; Lemon Pepper; Sleeve and 1/2 of Ritz Crackers, 1/2 cup of brown sugar; stick of melted butter; crabmeat (real or imitation) - I've never measured it out, just go by sight

Stuffing: Crackers, brown sugar, can of crabmeat, and 1/2 stick of butter are placed in a ziploc bag and smashed up.  This is the fun part!!!  Layer in a 9x9 greased pan.

Fish:  Baste with remaining butter and lemon pepper.  Place fish on top of stuffing.  Bake in a 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Bon Appetit!

Here is Josh one of the college students who came over that night...see all my dishes behind him?  I'm still cleaning those up!!  This is Tara too!

May Hymn

Here's the lyrics to the new song we're introducing in May, it's essentially a prayer. I thought I'd share it, in hope that it would encourage your heart today.

"Jesus Draw Me Ever Nearer"
Music by Keith Getty; Words by Margaret Becker
Copyright © 2002 Thankyou Music

Jesus draw me ever nearer
As I labour through the storm.
You have called me to this passage,
and I'll follow, though I'm worn.

May this journey bring a blessing,
May I rise on wings of faith;
And at the end of my heart's testing,
With Your likeness let me wake.

Jesus guide me through the tempest;
Keep my spirit staid and sure.
When the midnight meets the morning,
Let me love You even more.

Let the treasures of the trial                                 
Form within me as I go -
And at the end of this long passage,
Let me leave them at Your throne.

Getty Music

Hope the truth of this song encourages your journey that you have with the Lord at this time.  Amen.

YAY!

Ok, I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I just finished my last paper for my first semester of Masters classes!  Whew!  My actual last class is on Thursday, but no more work for about 3 more weeks, before I start into 9 hours this summer.

To change the subject, I think our container garden is dead.  Our poor tomatoes kicked the bucket awhile ago and it looks like we MIGHT have one squash and cucumber plant.  Oh well!  We know what we'll do differently next year.  Plant in Late March!!!  We got a little frost last night, and we're supposed to get a worse one tonight...hopefully that'll be all!

Please be in prayer for neighbor state, Virginia.  The tornadoes that went through ravaged a lot of homes and businesses.  My thoughts and prayers are with them during this time.  I can only imagine....

So it seems...

That everytime I sit down to work on lesson plans, I get the itch to start blogging...haha, pretty funny, huh?

Well, I have to say it's been a busy but good week!   This weekend was the highlight for me.  We took some great rides on the motorcyle and had a date night on Friday!  We found an old country road we had never been down and had the best fun not knowing where we were going.  The road was so narrow and going across some crazy mountain.  I love WV!  We're going back soon to take pics, it was so nice!

This morning at church was great...our pastor is preaching through Acts and we are in Acts 17 where Paul preaches in Athens.  The people at Athens were cultured paganists....kinda sounds like what we live in...actually a lot!  Our pastor made reference to Oprah's new religion and how she's making it sound so new, but really it's not...it's worshipping self, glorifying your own BEING and that's been around for centuries.  The Athenians were religous...but had no hope for tomorrow...  Anyway, I could go on, but his main point was the church must be culturally relevant, but doctrinally pure!  Amen.

Here's a pic of the new music group I'm in for church.  (This was taking a little while ago in March, I still have my long curls...)

Ok, I really do have to do some lesson plans!!!

The end is near...

Well, back to work on Monday!  It's been a pretty nice Spring Break, I'll have to say!  I started out with a bang!  On Sunday, I cut my locks off! I've been wanting to for about a year, but everything finally fell into place last week.

BEFORE

DURING

AFTER

A few days later, I played around with it

So that was Sunday and Monday.  On Tuesday, John's Uncle Bill came through and John got to hang out with him a lot.  They did tons of fishing together.  Not much luck though.  I cleaned the house and did things I needed to complete for my Master's Courses.

Last night was really nice.  We had the Junior Senior Banquet at the college.  A lot of times those can go soooo long, but this was very enjoyable.  A great local Italian resteraunt catered and the entertainment was nice and the video tribute to the seniors was a tearjerker.  Here's some pics from the evening.

What a nice week it's been!  Now, off to do some lesson plans!:)

Taking some time!

The peaceful sound of the crickets is what I'm hearing right now!  I'm all by myself for a few moments, so I thought I'd take some time to write down my thoughts from the day!  Hubby is out riding the bike...it got up to 81 degrees today...have to take advantage of that, cause it's supposed to snow again on Sunday!:)  Gotta love WV!  I would have love to have gone for a ride today, but I'm heading up a guitar jam session a couple nights a month at the church and tonight was the first one.  It was a good night!  We worked on some praise and worship songs, then some of the old timey ones too,I'll Fly Away, Just a Closer Walk with thee...

Praise the Lord He gave us music to worship Him with!

Tomorrow is the last day and then Spring Break...yay!  I've already planned out my whole week, it's pretty packed:  meeting with friends on Mon and Tues, interview at the college on Wed, Thurs guitar practice, Fri Junior/Senior Banquet, and Sat ramp festival...  I'm excited for the change in pace.

Well, here's some news!  I got asked to teach a college class at the Bible college!  The class would be to the Elementary Education students, Developmental Reading!  I was pretty excited to get offered that considering I'll only have 15 hours of my Masters when I begin teaching that!  But, nothing special about me, except that I have been trained in A Beka phonics (Christian school curriculum) and all the new rage reading stuff in the public school sector.  I discussed this with a person who works in the county and he said he would make available to me any of the resources the county had...pretty nice!

So, I'm really thinking and praying about that.  I'd like to do that!  But I don't want to get to much on my plate...I did get a transfer letter, so who knows what I'll be teaching next year!

Sorry, this is pretty random, I'm just getting some thoughts out of my head!  Off to do some reading and more typing! God Bless!

Too long...

Ok, it's been way to long!   Sorry about that!  March was really busy for us, we made a trip down to NC, among a list of other things we were up to.  I still have one more month to go on my Masters class, so that's been kinda crazy, plus things at my school have been overwhelming at times, but God is good.

Today, I was blessed with a day off!  We had water problems at our school, so I had a break!  God knows exactly what we need.  I was feeling so overwhelmed every time I walked into my house I coudln't hardly stand it, so today I was able to catch up on a few things!  Whew!  I'm more tired today than if I had actually went to work!

So, next week is Spring Break, and there are lots of things to do!  There is a couple of friends I'd like to meet up with.  I have to get in touch with a violinist that I'm playing with for a wedding in May...lots of cleaning I'd like to do, plus Jr/Sr Banquet and a ramp festival we'd like to go to!  Busy, busy!

Right now, my hubby is transplanting our once tiny plants into container pots!  There is still a few more weeks until we can totally leave them outside, but it's getting closer!

Well, I hope to post a few pics soon, as soon as, I can get them downloaded!

God Bless!

Sowing Seeds

Yesterday and today my husband began our container garden, he sowed the seeds, I did the research on the Internet!  We planted cucumbers, tomatoes, yellow squash, spaghetti squash, & zucchini & a few different flowers.  It'll be exciting to see how they turn out!