Jesus.Quilts.SpecialEd.

During the summer when I visited friends at camp, I picked up a brochure for the Crafting and Quilting Retreat.  I tried to get a few others to go with me, but I took a chance and went by myself.  That's right, I stepped out of my introvert zone, packed up my sewing machine, and headed to camp!  It was WONDERFUL!  I needed that weekend away, to be able to work on my own stuff, and just be back at camp again!

Friday night I talked to Camie and Sue over my pizza and watched in amazement at what the other ladies were already hard at work doing!  These ladies are serious!  They came with more than one project to work on and got most if not all of them done over the course of the weekend.  By the end, I got 11 postage stamp blocks finished to add to the ones I had at home.  There was so much talent in the room and it was so much fun to wander around and chat with the other ladies and check out their projects.  I called it a night about 10:30 and many of the ladies were still hard at work!

The next morning I had one block done before breakfast and shortly after chapel I headed to Lansing so I could stop at Horsefalls for oblong embroidery hoops...and so I could stop at The Skinny Dip for cheeseballs.  It was so different without the presence of Lu, Alison, Tums, and many others.  I headed back and after lunch I went for a trip on the zipline.  And then I got my own private trail ride...on a new to me horse, Rusty!  Loved catching up with Kenzie and getting the scoop on all the wedding planning!  It was so wonderful to be out in the sunshine for both these activities, but as far as the zipline goes, I'll be doing it in the dark from now on!  I got back to work at my machine.

It amazes me everywhere I go that I can connect so easily to people through my job.  I had so many conversations about my top 3 passions.  Jesus, quilting, and special education.  Some had children or grandkids that would be in my room if they were in my district.  Some were just so excited about my passion for these kids.  They offered prayer, and I kept listing specific requests.  It was such a freeing weekend.  With our small group, we were able to have deeper and longer discussions with each other.  One of our themes was thankfulness.  Of course one thing I listed was my kiddos, my ladies, and our own kind of normal!  God knew just what He was doing when he brought me to my job and the kiddos and ladies there. 

This weekend was so perfect combining all of my passions.  Forget the Love Languages.  Speak Jesus, quilts and special education to me and I'll be talking your ear off for possibly an entire weekend!

Toothpaste Talk

WOW!  I hadn't realized how long it's been since I've blogged until I struggled to come up with a title for this one.  It has been so busy with everything that time for blogging has been used for other things like keeping house, quilting, and staying late after work to get more things ready for my kiddos.

Marriage.  I keep asking how it's going and if I still like Dustin at this point.  We've been married almost 4 months, and in a good way, it feels like longer.  We've done so much in these past few months!  We went in for a reception where we had ours and that night, it seemed like yesterday they were announcing our names as the newly married couple!  We had a much more carefree night just keeping to ourselves and dancing the night away! 

Our garden has done so well this year with so many more crops!  I see next year being even better and us getting better at preserving our harvest to feed us, and to share with our friends and neighbors.  We've been rolling in zucchini and my work family got a good share of the bread that I was sick of eating and had already given plenty to our neighbors.

We do a fair amount of talking, but the funny thing is that we seem to do our most, and sometimes our most important talking when we're brushing our teeth.

"ghhTogayday, I ghhdiddhgh..."

"ghwha?"

You get the idea...  It's our own kind of normal.  And sometimes, Bonnie jumps right up on the counter and is in on our conversations too.  Just a little family time in the bathroom.  :)

And my kiddos do it too.  I walk over to throw something away, and one will be grunting at me and wanting me to watch him.  Another will be brushing as he looks outside and trying to point something out to me.

My kiddos are doing so well!  I can't believe how far my students have come from last year!  I keep telling Stacy that sometimes I can't believe they are the same kiddos I taught last year!  We are having so much fun with each and every one.  They are integrating into their grade level for parts of the day that are the most fit for each of them.  They are going to do spectacular this year!

Yesterday, I brought Taco John's back for lunch.  As soon as one of my little girls saw my oles, she got straight up and sat down at the table across from me and creeped on my lunch.  Kelsey, the speech teacher for my kids, grabbed her communication device and brought it over.  She said she wanted some, so giving her one, I helped her get it to her mouth and you should have seen those little dimples come out as she chomped on that ole!

I love what I do as we create our own kind of normal in our room.  I keep forgetting everything, but Stacy is there to remind me and find stuff when I forget where it got to.  Our ladies are just as wonderful as they were last year.  They are tough as nails with hearts of gold.

Life is good, God is great!  Harvest season is just around the corner with promised rides with Gramps in the combine, cool evenings with Dustin cutting wood, and a nephew on the way around my birthday.