Mini Getaway

We are vacationing this weekend. We'll be back for Kid's choir tonight at church. It's been crazy in our lives..no more that most families I'm sure, but none the less it's nice to relax....a little anyway. We hit Pigeon Forge yesterday and yes, oh Eddie, the wise father of Bethanne, we hit Dollywood for the Christmas lights. I'll have to say Eddie wouldn't have liked yesterday, I've never seen so many cars or people there! First day of the Christmas Festival. We got to see Babes in Toy Land which is a favorite of mine. I always cry when the family is reunited and the Father embraces his daughter. I know..what a sap....but I was a big daddy's girl! We stopped at Golden Corral for supper and had to wake the kids up to go in for supper. They ate but I think the waitress felt sorry for them. I thought they did well, and even got to eat some dessert. We finish our trip today in Asheville. I'll post some pics later.

Continue to pray for my friend Diane Wilson. Diane had major back surgery this week in Charlotte, NC. She had her back "fused". She had surgery when she was a teenager for scoliosis.
She is a wonderful friend. Her husband was my teacher and coach in high school. He was so young then...early twenties and only like 8 years older than me. We have grown to be close friends over the years. God has done great things with them. Diane came out of a background where her her father was an alcoholic and committed suicide and her mother was killed by a Greyhound Bus while crossing the Street. She was raised by a Catholic grandmother and spend alot of her teen years in a body cast for the scoliosis. She went one year to Bob Jones University ( where I also graduated from) and met her husband Chris. I just love that girl and her two grown children who are so precious to me.

School continues to go well. It's tiring to be back full time, but the kids are learning and doing well. I wasn't sure about teaching beginning reading but it is exciting to see the light come on. I sit there ever day reading ....

Jack can read.
I see Jack read.
Read, Jack , read.
Jack can read well.

Sue makes jam.
Sue can make fig jam.
Fig jam is what Sue can make.
Sue eats fig jam.
Yum, Sue!

So when you ask " What are you reading these days"...there you have it. I don't even know if I've ever had Fig Jam. I hope in 20 years one of these kids writes me and thanks me for teaching them to read about "Fig Jam". I hope Fig Jam makes a difference. I know they won't remember alot of the little things, but it's nice to know you have a small part in their learning to read. Maybe when one of them is Lawyer in a New York firm they'll look me up in my assisted living home and pay for my care! ha!

oh dear.....

Yesterday as we were preparing to leave for this trip we are on Daniel asked me why my mom "Mamaw" and David's parents "Yangy and Papaw" didn't go to Dollywood with us. I said " They are older , Daniel, and they don't like this kind of stuff like we do. ( my mom is 73, David's dad is 69, and David's mom is 67). David's mom would probably still go, but my mom and David's dad are not into that. Daniel said "Mamaw is OLD??????" like he didn't know. I said , "Well, she's older". He said, "Are they all ready to die????"....sniff sniff...that isn't what I was trying to relate. I assured him they were healthy and that God will decide that time. I think I burst his bubble that they were older....didn't mean too. I did muse over that on the way to Pigeon Forge. The fact that our time here is so precious and what we do for Christ is ALL that will last. I think about that as I sit in class each day. I do love what I do. I love that I get to share Jesus with no one telling me I can't. I get to answer questions from little minds that want to know. I get to pray with them when they have been "naughty" and pray with them when they have a hurt. I get to sit with them in Chapel and praise and worship Jesus and then go back to class and relate our work to the Lord. No, I may not see immediate results from these kindergartners, but I get to paint a small portion of the canvas they call life along with some other wonderful mentors that over the years will pick up the brush and add to the painting they are developing. Who knew, me, another Picasso? Michelangelo? Rembrandt?