Families Are Us

This is a picture for the Families Are Us photo shoot that our church put on. It's my new favorite picture of me and K - which really there aren't too many out there. I need to be better at getting out from behind the camera and getting people to take pictures of us together.

The photographer is such a sweet friend of ours. Her name is Jennifer Smith and I just adore her! You can check out her website at www.unearthedphotography.com

Crazy Bargain!!!

All of this for $15! No lie! I went to the Scholastic Warehouse sale and there was one aisle that you could go down and anything you could fit into a box was $15. Crazy! I felt like I was stealing from them! Most of the books were hardback. If you look closely you can see I got five Scholastic Kid Dictionaries. I'm taking four to my classroom for next year and keeping one for Kaitlyn for when she gets older. The Clifford one is actually a boxed set of books. The Without You book (with the very cute penguin on it) is one I saw earlier this year and loved so I was extra excited about it - it came with an audio cd too! I was also able to get several cookbook/entertaining books. I was so pumped!!! When I totaled the retail value of the books it turned out to be $417! Bargain shopping always gets me excited, but this was just ridiculous!

Working Mama

Next week is the next meeting of a group that is starting up at my church and I am so pumped about it! We're a group of working moms that decided to get together to fellowship, vent, and support each other. I've never felt as at ease with people I barely knew than the first time we met. I barely know these women so far, yet I feel like they "get" me in a way some of my other friends do not.

It all started at a bible study several weeks ago. I was with some girls from my Sunday School class that are precious to me. But that night there were lots of comments that really, really hurt me. The girls doing it had no intention of hurting me, and I'm sure they still don't know that they did. But I left that night and cried almost the entire drive home. I felt so alone in my "working mom" status and some of their words really did sting.

But I want to make something very clear - I am not ashamed of being a working mom. Not one single bit. I 110% LOVE my job and feel it's a true calling. My guilt comes from not feeling guilty about working if that makes any sense at all. But I am so very tired of being with the same girls that keep saying the same things to me and about me. There is one precious friend I have that is my Sunday School class who just happens to be a stay at home mom. She always has a way of sticking up for me when others make their comments, and I love her dearly for that. But it's been so hard for me this school year to relate to some of the other girls. In fact, I haven't gone back to bible study since that night for that very reason.

Something that my very close friends know about me is I don't sit around and feel sorry for myself for long. I make changes that will change my feelings. Sometimes that means shutting people out and I'm not proud of that. Sometimes it means starting up something new. Sometimes I get in over my head and it backfires against me. But this time I've got some pretty awesome girls that are along for the ride and I think great things are going to happen! The night of the bible study I went home an emailed the preschool minister at my church. I told her I think we needed to start up a Mom Time for working mothers. My church does a great job of supporting moms that are available during the day, but wasn't doing too much for the working moms. Our preschool minister didn't even think twice about it and was willing to put it extra work to make it great. So we met, came up with a survey, planned our first event, and made a list of people who might be interested in becoming a part of the group.

The first meeting was wonderful!!! For the first time in a long time I didn't dread the part of the night when we went around the table and introduced ourselves. I wasn't worried about being the only working mom like I was getting pretty used to. Now I was one among many - everyone at the table! I loved it! It made me so comfortable. We laughed, talked about our kids, talked about our hubbies, just everything. I had a blast!!! I'm so thankful for this new group and I hope that it continues to grow and supports more mamas like me! :)

All About Me??

Cody and I attended a marriage retreat that our church had a couple of weekends ago. I loved it! We found out a lot about ourselves as a couple and as individuals. One of the most eye opening things I realized is that I didn't have a hobby that took me away from home. Cody has softball, golf, and hunting - all of which are away from the home. It's not that I don't want him to do those things, but sometimes the time away made me even more mad because I never had an outlet like that. Cody has always told me to go do something for myself - shopping, trips, whatever. Yes, I go shopping, but I can't do that all the time or we would go broke! And honestly, how fun is shopping when you can't buy things you want? So I decided that I wanted to take a photography class. It's something I've talked about doing before, but never followed through. The afternoon of our last day of the retreat I came home and researched the class online. There was one starting at UTA the first Monday of May and goes until almost the end of June. So I signed up without any questioning from myself. But now the questions are coming - am I going to be so tired on the five Mondays that I have to go to class after I've taught all day long? How will I be able to read Kaitlyn her bedtime stories and still make it to class on time? What about Cody's softball games that are also on Mondays? What if I get there and everyone else knows way more than me about photography (which really isn't that hard to believe!) I'm trying to get all that out of my mind. I love classes - always have and pretty sure I always will. I was a big dork in school and loved to study. But something about this makes me nervous. Maybe it's because for the first time in a very long time I'm doing something for me. Not for my husband, not for my daughter, not for my students - for me. I guess I feel a little guitly, but I know I shouldn't. It's what we learned makes a marriage healthy. Do things together, but don't lose yourself in the process. So here goes nothing - Monday night is my first class! :)