Rachel Rae - Happy 2014

Hello Rachel,
How are you doing?  I hope you are off to a great start to 2014.  Wow!  I find it hard to believe that you will be 11 years old in just a few days.  Are you looking forward to your birthday?  What are your plans for celebrating it?  What would you like to get for your birthday?  I want you to really think about how you would like to answer these questions.  If you could do anything to celebrate your birthday, what would you do?  I have always liked birthdays and other special days throughout the year.  My birthday is the day before Valentine's Day!  When I was your age, I really thought it was cool to have a birthday the day before Valentine's Day.  My neighbor was a retired teacher from New Jersey.  She always sent me to coolest cards for every occasion.  She was the first person that ever sent me a birthday card that said, Happy Valentine's Birthday!  The card was beautiful.  She could always pick out the prettiest cards.  I remember one year, Mama had a lady back me a Barbie Doll Cake.  The doll was in the middle of the cake and the cake part was actually her dress.  It was beautiful.  I think her dress was red or maybe pink.  (It was a long time ago!!!)  I got to play with the doll once we finished eating the cake and I washed her really good!  I really liked playing with Barbie dolls when I was your age.  I played with them often.  I had a Barbie house and later I got a Barbie doll camper.  I played with that camper and the dolls for a long time.  I don't remember what happened to it.  I gave many of my toys to Tammy once I felt like I was too old to play with the anymore.  Tammy was several years younger and she liked to play with Barbie dolls too.  One day, you too will feel like you are too big or too old to play with toys, dolls, etc.  It is alright to grow up and I think it is alright to like to have fun playing even when you do grow up.
I love you!  Please let me know about your birthday and the thoughts you have about it!
Love,
Mom :)

Friends

Well.....I have already missed the goal of blogging every day of the year and it is only January.  I am not going to give up though!  I will still forge on and blog every chance I get throughout the year.  It is a good way to get my thoughts down in print and also a good reference for me to go back to on those days when nothing seems to go the way it should go - those days when a pity party seems inevitable.  I will be able to go to my blog and read about all of the ways that I have been blessed.  

I would like to focus this post on how I have been blessed with dear friends.  Some of them I don't get to see that much and others live close by and I get to see them often.  You know, those people in your live that always seem to lift you up by just being around them!  I have been blessed by dear friends such as Barry and Tammy Weaver.  We go to church together at Cornerstone Baptist Church.  We all work in the AWANA program and Tammy and I work in GA's.  It has been and continues to be a blessing to serve our Lord and Savior along side this couple at C.B.C.  There are many other friends that I will mention along the way throughout this year of counting my blessings!  Thank you Lord for blessing me with these dear friends!

Home

To me when I think about home and what the actual word home means, I think about the physical structure or house that one lives in as well as home being the group of people that make up a home - the family unit.  I also think about home as heaven.  I look forward to going to my heavenly home one day!  I am very blessed to have a beautiful house.  The physical structure that I live in was built in 1981.  It is basically a traditional brick ranch style house with three bedrooms.  Cecil and I bought the house in the late part of spring in 1992 and moved in on our 5th wedding anniversary, June 20, 1992.  On December 4th of 1992, we were belssed with a baby boy, our first child, Nathan.  I remember telling Cecil, once we got home from the hospital that I felt like our home was more complete once we had Nathan.  In January of 1995 and again in January of 2003, we were blessed with 2 more children, Kaleb and Rachel that made our home even more complete.  

Rachel's Gingerbread house in which she created during the Christmas season this year '12!
Just thought this would make my post about home/houses more interesting to see!

I feel so blessed to have a physical home/house in which I live: 495 Winding Way in Hartwell, GA.  I am incrediblly blessed to have a home/family unit with my husband and children.  Additionally I am so very blessed to have a heavenly home in heaven to look forward to.

College continued

I have been so blessed to be able to reach my long time goal of finishing up my 6 year degree in education.  As a beginning teacher, many years ago now, I worked with several teachers that were working on graduate work in education.  I decided at that point in time, that one day, I too would finsh my graduate degree in education.  However, at that same time, I was somewhat of a newly wed and Cecil and I were beginning to think about having children.  It took longer to have children that we thought, but I have been blessed with 3 beautiful children.  Nathan, Kaleb, and Rachel's names have already been mentioned in previous blog posts.  Rachel was born 10 years and a little over a month after Nathan.  Basically, I spent the 1990's and early 2000's having babies and toddlers!!!

It was 20 years (from the time I started working on my bachelor's degreee) that I would finally get going on my graduate degree in education at Brenau University www.brenau.edu.  In the fall of 2004, I began working on my master's degree in Early Childhood Education in the Online College at Brenau.  I found out from a co-worker (who was taking classes at Brenau in the Online College) that I could actually earn my degree in an online program at Brenau.  I was so excited.  Since Rachel was a toddler at the time, I spent many nights with her in my lap while completing classwork at the computer.  I was very thrilled that I did not have to leave my kids though.  It was great to be able to work on my degree in this way.  I did take a class on campus during the summer and I had to go on campus to complete my Comprehensive Exams!  Fun!  I completed my MEd in the summer of 2006 (while recovering from surgery!)  One of the questions that I asked my professors was "Will Brenau University ever consider offer the Education Specialist degree program in the Online College?"  The answer was "No, not at this time. You will have to come on campus to work on your EDS."  Well, in the latter part of 2009, I discovered (while looking for a college that offered an EDS in an online format, that Brenau University was offering an EDS program in their Online College and I could start in 2010.  Soon, I was once again taking classes at Brenau University.  This time, I decided to get my EDS in Middle Grades Ed.  I finished the program in the spring of 2011 and chose to walk in the graduation ceremony.  I had reached a goal that I had set for myself nearly 20 years earlier.  I graduated in early May of 2011 from Brenau University, and Nathan, my oldest son, graduated from Hart Co. High School in late May of 2011.  We got to graduate together!!!  

I don't mean to brag on myself and my accomplishments.  I merely want to journal/blog about the ways that I have been blessed.  I have a tendency to focus on the negative things that are happening/have happened in my life.  I am challenging myself to focus on the positivie things (the blessings) rather than the opposite.  God has truely blessed me in so many ways.  My goal in journaling/blogging about my blessings is to help ME to focus on the many, many ways God has/continues to bless me in my life's journey.  

College

I have been blessed to have the opportunity to obtain a college education.  Originally, I began my journey as a college student in Aug. of 1983 at Anderson College (now Anderson Universisty) in Anderson, SC http://www.andersonuniversity.edu.  It is hard to believe that it has been almost 30 years ago that I began that journey.  I absolutely LOVED the college experience (even the classes!!!)  I met some awesome forever friends that were/still such an impact on my life.  Since Anderson College was a junior college 30 years ago, I had to go to another school to obtain my bachelor's degree.  I chose to go to Carson-Newman college http://www.cn.edu and began my journey there in 1985.  CNC would take all of the class credits that I took at Anderson College which was a definate perk!  I did not loose any of my class credits when I transferred.  As a college freshman and sophmore, I was able to do the whole college thing (even living in a dorm on campus) and yet not be so far away from home.  It was a good transition for me since being the oldest child, I was the first one to leave the "nest"!  Later, as a college junior and senior, I was able to experience college 4  hours away from home.  Both experiences were life changing experiences that I am so blessed to have had.  I grew so much as a Christian, a student that was planning on becoming an educator, a friend, etc.  If all of life's experiences for me (from now on) could be as good as those four years (1983-87), I will certainly be blessed.  I did happen to earn an Associates Degree from Anderson College and a Bachelor's Degree from Carson-Newman College.    I also met the man of my dreams during that four year peroid and we were married in June of 1987 and began our journey as husband and wife as well as educators.  

There is much more to be said about my college journey.  I didn't stop with a four year degree.  I chose to go on to earn a Master's Degree and a Specialist Degree in education at Brenau University.  I will spend more time later talking about that part of my college journey in a future blog!  

Socks

Today, I am blessed to have some great socks!!!  Seriously, I have looked in various stores to find just the right kind of socks.  I finally found some that I like the other day at Belks.  I am picky about my socks!  I really would prefer not to wear them and just wear flip flops.  However, there are some shoes that just require socks!  Also, I can't stand for my feet to be cold once it gets cold!  In Georgia, it seems that we can just about have all four seasons in one week.  One day, I am wearing flip flops and the next day boots.  

In between day!

Today is the in between day!  The day between two birthdays in our home!  I metioned in an earlier post that I have 2 January blessings!  Yesterday, my sweet daughter, Rachel turned 10 years old.  Tomorrow, my dear son Kaleb will turn 18 years old.  We have been busy celebrating this weekend!  Rachel had 3 girls over for a spend-the-night party last night (which is why I didn't get to post yesterday!  Busy, busy, busy!)  Tonight, Cecil fixed Kaleb's favorite meal - low country boil with lots of shrimp!  We had grandparents and Uncle Jason to eat with us and enjoy the meal!  We have been blessed with January birthdays to celebrate!