Sew Much Fun

I know that is a cheesy title for my blog, but I thought it was appropriate. My first sewing class was lots of fun and very successful. It was just me and a friend from our core group, Karen, along with Chris, our "instructor." Chris was very patient with us as we are both very much beginners in the art of sewing. We started out by refreshing our skills on sewing a button and then quickly learning how to hem pants. That's all thanks to me since I brought my whole wardrobe to be fixed according to them. Then, we cut out all the fabric for our pillows and began making the cording. Chris finished up by making one of my smaller pillows so we could see what we were going to do next time we meet. I went to Hancock Fabrics today to pick up a few things for my new hobby. Luckily, they were having a sale for Veteran's Day. Many things were 50% off! Now, time to go practice! I will post some pictures once all the pillows are done.

Ready for the Holidays

The James household is ready for the holidays! The holidays are always great for us because we both have time off of work and we get to spend alot of quality time together.

As I'm writing this Chad is at the Alabama State Meet recruiting athletes for next year. I'm trying to get some things done around the house today as usual. We'll see how much actually gets done! We have been very busy lately! There has been alot going on at school that I have had to help out with and Chad is winding down the cross country season. They have one more race next weekend and then they are done racing until the end of January.

Tomorrow I am starting a sewing class and I'm so excited about it! One of the mentors in our Community Group is a wonderful seamstress and has agree to teach some of us the basics about sewing. I'm really looking forward to learning how to sew so I can make things for around the house, gifts, and hopefully children's clothes one day. I'll keep you updated on how it is going.

For those of you that don't know, my mom had surgery last Wednesday to remove a benign tumor on her ovary. We were all very relieved to hear that it was benign! God once again showed us that He is in control of everything and we just need to trust Him.

We are going to Houston for Thanksgiving this year probably for the last time because my dad is moving to Florida! He has been out of a job for a while and finally got an offer in Melbourne, Florida. He has already started working there, but will go back to Houston to be with us for Thanksgiving. I'm sad that this will be the last time for me to stay in the house I grew up in.

I've already begun my Christmas shopping and I have found lots of presents that I'm excited to give! I'm about half way done at this point and I'm hoping to finish early as usual. I love getting my presents wrapped early and under the tree to admire.

Halloween

Chad was out of town for a cross country meet for Halloween this year. I invited 2 of my new friends from work over for a girls Halloween night at my house. We had so much fun! I made a big pot of chili and chocolate delight for dessert. We carved pumpkins, which you can see below, ate, played the Wii, and watched a movie. Unfortunately, we only had one group of trick-or-treaters so we had ALOT of candy left.
On Sunday, Nov. 2nd, our Community Group had a Fall Party where we dressed up in our Halloween costumes. We dressed up as Olympians! We had so many clothes to choose from that it was hard to decide what to wear. Here is a picture of us and our Core Group at the Halloween Party.

Fall is Here!

I just love the fall weather and colors. I bought mums a few weeks ago for our front porch. My mom advised me to get some that had not bloomed yet so they would last through the fall. I tried to chose the best one from the selection at Home Depot, but they are already dying and I'm so sad! I may just have to buy some more because they are so beautiful. I also bought our Halloween candy to give out at our house, which was a BIG mistake. I even tried to hide it from Chad so he would not get upset with me for buying it and then not having willpower not to eat it. Well, that didn't last long because he found it and every time he eats a piece I HAVE to eat a piece. It was in the low 60's today in Birmingham and so nice! I hope this weather stays around. It sure it helping out our power bill.

Back To Our Routine

Chad is home! He has been home for about 2 weeks and it has been hard getting back into the swing of things here at home. He has been so tired and has had a hard time adjusting. For about the first 2 weeks he went to sleep each night between 8:00 and 9:00pm. That is very uncharacteristic of him. I think it was a combination of the time difference and the lack of sleep he got while away. He is finally back to normal (I think) and we have gotten back in our day to day routine. I actually had to get used to him sleeping in the bed with me again so I did not sleep very well for the first few days he was home. We are as busy as usual, but we are hoping to make some time to do some more home improvements this fall.

24 More Hours...

until Chad gets home!!!! I'm so excited and I think he is finally ready to be home. I spoke with him briefly tonight and for him it was the morning of the day he leaves. The Closing Ceremonies were last night, but he didn't tell me alot about it besides he took his video camera this time. They asked them to not take cameras to the Opening Ceremonies, so he followed the rules and didn't get any pictures of his own. He was hoping to get pictures from other people though and I hope he didn't forget. Before he leaves he was going to try to take pictures around the Paralympic Village since he hasn't taken many yet. Well, it's time for me to go clean a little around the house so the house will look nice when Chad gets home! I probably won't post for a few days, please forgive me!

Initiation

Well, I was officially initiated to Gresham today. I was on duty in the lunchroom this morning during breakfast when I look over to see two boys in the breakfast line with their arms around each other and one with his arms around the others neck. I could tell it would not be good. The next thing I knew, they were out in an open area throwing punches at each other!!! I have never been in that situation so I just reacted without even thinking. I attempted to break them up for what seemed like 10 minutes, but I'm sure was only about 30 seconds. At the same time I was yelling at the top of my lungs for them to let go of each other and stop. Right about the time I got them separated I was happy to see another teacher running in my direction to help. She took one and I took the other and we marched them straight to the office. My heart was pounding so hard and I'm sure I was beat red! It took a while for me to calm down, but by the end of the day I had forgotten about it. Needless to say, the two boys were suspended from school for 3 days. I really hope next time I'm not in the right place at the right time to break up any fights.

On another note, I have been glued to the news all night watching hurricane Ike progress. My grandparents live about 30 minutes from the Louisiana border and were able to evacuate. They are VERY worried about their house and are hoping the flooding is not bad. I hear most people in the Houston area are hunkering down, so I will call tomorrow to make sure they are all ok. Please pray that everyone will be kept safe and that there won't be much damage and flooding.

One More Week...

and Chad will be home. I will be picking him up at the airport next Thursday night at 8:54pm, assuming his plane is on time. I can't wait!

I have not been as busy this week, but it's been good. I have gotten quite a few things done around the house that need to be done, but I still have alot more to do. I will have all weekend to try to get some of those things done.

Tonight we have Open House at school and a Ribbon Cutting for the new renovations in our building. I'm resting a little at home before I have to go back to school. I used to stay after school until Open House because it was too far to drive home and back. It was so nice to be able to come home today after school.

School is going well! We finally know which children we will be working with and we will start our "real" schedule on Monday. I'm ready to start working with the children so I can start seeing some results!

Keeping Busy

I continue to keep busy. Yesterday I treated myself to a massage and it was so nice and relaxing. I sure do wish I could get one at least every other week. I am slowly beginning to get some things done around the house. I have many things on my "to do" list to get accomplished before Chad gets home, so I better get started soon! This week I have a few meetings after school and we have our Ribbon Cutting Ceremony and Open House on Thursday at school. By then, it will only be one more week until Chad comes home.

I woke up early this morning to call him. He had been shopping all day! I hope he didn't spend too much money! He had to go to a meeting so I'm waiting to call him back. He said the Opening Ceremonies were amazing and a few times while he was there he got overwhelmed and was so glad that he made the decision to go and be a part of it.

Also, last night I got to talk to 2 of my friends on skype. Abbey and Jan somehow found me on skype and called while I was on my computer. That was fun! A little later, Chad called on skype! So, I got to actually see him for the first time. He was in a room that was set up like a computer lab. The computers had webcams built in and each computer had a headset with it. It was really cool!

New Cell Phone

I finally spoke with Chad again tonight. Apparently, something was wrong with his old cell phone so they gave him a new one. He did not have much time to talk, but it seems he is doing well. Please be praying for a couple of the athletes and their classifications. Last night they reclassified several of the athletes, which may mean that some of them cannot compete at all. Their classification is determined by their disability and the amount of mobility they have in certain body parts. After going through tests with the officials, some athletes have been reclassified into different groups which means they may have to throw certain implements that are much heavier than they have been practicing with. Also, a certain mark is required in each classification to be able to compete. Since these athletes have not been competing in that classification they do not have the mark. That is the short version of the story! This is just very frustrating and sad for those athletes who have been training for this for 4 years. One more thing...the coaches were told they would not walk in during the opening ceremonies, but Chad found out that they are letting them walk in after all. How exciting!!! He can't decide if it would be better to walk in or watch from the stands so that he can see everything. Everyone that walks in is kept in a hallway and is not able to see the opening ceremonies take place. Personally, I would rather walk in to have the experience and watch the opening ceremonies on-line or TV later.

Half Way

Tomorrow is the half way mark for Chad being gone. I REALLY miss him and it's especially hard not being able to talk to him much. I'm sure it will only get worse over the next two weeks as he gets busier and busier. I'm trying to keep myself busy to keep my mind off of it. Several of my friends here in Birmingham have been wonderful. I have gone to dinner with many people to catch up on life. Tonight I was invited to dinner at Adam and Karen Blair's house and had a great time visiting and holding little Charlie! Thanks to those who have gone out of their way to hang out with me!

One Week Down, Three To Go

As of tomorrow morning, Chad has been gone for one week. It's actually gone by really quickly, but I'm sure I won't be saying that in the last week. I have kept busy going out to eat with friends and doing things around the house.

There was an "exciting" happening in the James household earlier this week that took up much of my time and distracted me from missing Chad. Monday morning as I reached for my laptop bag to take to school, I noticed the strap was wet. As I investigated, I discovered the carpet in our living room was wet all along one of our walls. Lovely, and just after Chad left! Why does it always happen like that? I thought I was done taking care of these things since I now have a husband to do it! Anyway, I had to leave for school so I would not be late, but took half a day off to come home and deal with the situation. Before leaving school, I called someone to come look at it. Luckily, he was able to come by shortly after I got home. We are still baffled and are not sure where the water is coming from other than from under the ground in front of our house. We don't know exactly how to fix it yet, but are talking about our options. My carpet has dried out, but still smells a little musty. I hope it goes away!

After a 4 hour nap...

I feel much better! Wow, I sure needed that. I spoke with Chad briefly tonight and he was telling me about all the clothes and things he got today! It's amazing what all they gave him. He got shirts, shorts, bags, socks, hats, shoes, and much much more. He got the entire outfit that the U.S.A. team wore in the opening ceremony and the outfit they will wear in the closing ceremony. I guess I will have more clothes to wash! :)

Exhausted

Wow! What a week it has been! Let's just say...I'm very tired and I think I will take a nice long nap when I get home from work today.

Since the cross country team had camp this week, Chad has been very busy with all that goes into that as well as trying to do their workouts for while he is gone and trying to get everything ready for his trip. I have tried to help him as much as I can this week, but I will be glad to have a weekend to rest soon.

I tried to get as much packed for him before last night as I could, but it obviously wasn't enough. We went bowling with the cross country team last night and did not get home until about 9:00 pm. Then, we stayed up until after 1:00 am packing all of his things, making sure skype was working, and taking care of some other logistics before he left. Then, we woke up about 5:00 am for me to get ready for school and Chad to pack the car and we left at 5:45 am. We made it to the airport and then I went straight to school.

I know Chad is so tired because he has not slept much at all this week and has been busy non-stop during the day. I am praying that he will be able to get some rest while he is in Colorado over the next few days before leaving for Japan. His flight is about 13 hours to Japan, so hopefully he can get some rest at least by then so that he can enjoy every minute of his trip and be at the top of his game.

By the way...I still don't believe this, but I got my laptop from school yesterday, Wednesday, the day before Chad left! Isn't God so faithful even in the little things?!? It just takes a while for us to realize that has a plan for everything, even something as silly as this. I wasn't really too worried about it because I had come to the conclusion that if I needed to, I would just go out and by a new one this weekend because I WILL be talking to my husband while he is away from me for a month. Well, I won't have to do that now and it's a good thing because that would not be good for our finances. God continues to teach me that He will take care of me in all situations, now if I would just learn the lesson and stop worrying that would be great!

Please pray for Chad and all the athletes and coaches as the travel alot over the next few days especially. Also, pray that he would get some rest and be given opportunities to share Christ with others that he comes in contact with. Thanks!

4 More Days...

until Chad leaves and I'm already sad and feel like I have not seen him enough. The Samford cross country runners are moving in to their dorms today. Chad has been at the school all day working and handing out dorm keys. Tomorrow at 3:00 pm they start their cross country camp and he will be busy pretty much 24/7 with the athletes until he leaves. The athletes will come over to our house on Tuesday night for dinner and games, so I have been cleaning today.

I will take Chad to the airport early Thursday morning, Aug. 21 and he will actually get back a day earlier than we originally thought, which will be Sept. 18th. Last night we set up a blog for him to write on while he is in Beijing. Check it out: it is on the top of my friends list in the left column. The site is http://www.frombirminghamtobeijing.blogspot.com/. He is going to try to keep it updated as much as possible while he is away.

I still can't get Skype to work on our desktop computer!!! It is so frustrating! We are actually borrowing an old CPU from Chad's parents and I can't even get the internet to work on it right now. Also, I can't get the webcam to work and I think I've figured out why. I think it's because the computer has a 1.0 USB port instead of a 2.0. I am supposed to get a laptop at school and was hoping to bring that home to use to talk to Chad, but we have not gotten them yet and I'm not sure we will soon enough. So, other than going out and buying a new desktop computer (which we know we need to do in the near future anyway), I'm not sure what other options I have. Why are computers so difficult?!?

School Begins...

TOMORROW! While I'm not ready for it to start because I LOVE not working, I'm also ready for it to start so that I can see how my new school works. We have had 3 teacher workdays now and the kids will be coming tomorrow. For the next few days I will be helping out in the office and anywhere else I am needed. On Friday we have a Title I meeting to learn more about our responsibilities this year. Next week we will look at data from our test scores last year to determine which children need our help the most. Then, we will go through the long and grueling process of making our schedules. I'm excited to begin working with the kids so that I can start seeing some results.

Chad leaves next Thursday, so it is getting closer and closer! He is very excited, but we still have alot to do and buy before he leaves. We have our skype accounts set up and Chad's webcam and headset are up and running, but we are still working on mine.

Shopping with Chad...

is SO DIFFICULT! Today we went shopping for some large picture frames for our study and bedroom. We are going to print some pictures that we have taken on some of our trips and frame them. I went the other day to one of my favorite stores-Hobby Lobby-and found the perfect frames for over our bed. Since we wanted 3 frames I was trying to find some for a decent price because I am the thrify one in the family. Well...today I took Chad there to make sure he liked them and decide which size would be best. Needless to say, he did not like anything that I had already picked out, but instead he wanted to get some frames that were twice the price!! Now, you might wonder if he really cares how I decorate our house. The answer is YES! He does not like when I buy things without his approval and alot of times I have to bring them home and make sure he likes them first and then I end up taking many things back because he doesn't like them. As I said on an earlier post, we are learning (or trying to learn) how to compromise. By the end of the day and after checking several stores, we found something we both love, even though I had to give in on the price!! Once we get the pictures printed, I will post pictures of the final product.

Just a side note...we got to have a lazy day today and watch many of the Olympic events on TV, besides our trip to purchase the picture frames, which ended up taking WAY longer than it should have. This will be our last free weekend before Chad leaves for Beijing. Next weekend the Samford Cross Country Team comes in town for Cross Country Camp. Even though they will be staying in Birmingham for camp this year, they will be very busy the whole week before Chad leaves, so I will not see him much that week. So, needless to say, we are having a nice weekend spending lots of time together!

Home Improvements

We finally planted some things in our front flower bed in June and just this past week we lined the flower bed with rocks. We are very proud of ourselves since this is the first large outdoor project we have tackled. The hardest part was deciding which plants to buy. For those of you that don't know... Chad and I seem to have completely different opinons on most everthing, which makes things really difficult, but we are learning to compromise. Also, notice the hanging plant and potted plant by the door. We have a few of those in the back as well, but you will not see pictures of the back for a while because we have alot of work to do. The challenge now is keeping the plants alive and I think we are doing a pretty good job so far. Only one thing has died so far and they were some white annuals, which are cheap, so I was glad it was those and not something else. Take a look at our results:

The second improvement we made last week was in our study. We ordered a desk and file cabinet from Home Decorators on-line. I would highly recommend this company! We ordered the furniture on a Sunday afternoon and it was on our doorstep the following Thursday. We had to put the file cabinet together, but it was pretty simple and we only had to put the legs on the desk. So, we now officially have a study and we love it already. There are still a few other things we would like to do in the room like paint the chandelier, hanging a picture above the desk, etc., but it looks much better already. (By the way...we have not gotten rid of the ugly blue couch yet because Chad just can't let it go. It is out in our garage until we can figure out what we are doing with it.) Check out our new study:

New Classroom

I went up to my classroom yesterday and I will go again tomorrow to try to finish unpacking all of my boxes and arranging my room. It is the perfect location because it is in the main building and basically just up the stairs from the office where I will sign in and out each morning and afternoon. Also, it is right across the hall from a teacher workroom that houses the only copier in the building and the only teacher restroom on that floor. I have enough space in my room to unpack all my things and put them in the cabinets and drawers. Also, I found a nice surprise of 2 brand new Dell desktop computers with flat panel monitors in my room when I arrived on Monday. I had heard that each room had 2 Dell computers already that were not that old and would be getting 2 more brand new ones. Also, each teacher is getting a laptop. Our principal e-mailed us and said they had been ordered. Well, I assumed I would only get the laptop since I would not have kids in my room, but as of now the computers are in my classroom, so we'll see how long they last in there. I'm hoping our laptops will be in soon since they were ordered at the same time. Also, I just recently found out that written into the contract with the newly renovated building was that each classroom would get a smart board. For those of you that don't know what that is it is an interactive whiteboard that you display in the front of the room, most likely by or on the dry-erase board or chalkboard. There is also a projector that is hooked up to your computer and you can either project something from the computer up on the screen or you can use a small hand-held "notepad" to write things up on the board. They are so cool!!! I am doubtful that I will actually have one in my room, but then again I would not use it much, but all of the regular classrooms will have one for me to borrow or use with the kids. I'm so excited about my new school. My old school was really nice and practically brand new when I started working there, so I was very spoiled. I'm glad to be at a new school that is almost just as nice and that has much more advanced technology!

Happy 30th Birthday Chad!!

Chad turned the big 3-0 on August 1st! I had a surprise birthday party for him on Saturday, August 2nd and it was a success! He had a great time and it was so good to see some people we had not seen in a while. Thanks for coming! For dessert we had banana splits, which we also had at our wedding in place of a groom's cake. We all went in together and I made a money tree for his present to start his TV fund. Of course we went shopping for a TV the next day, but we decided we should save up a little more money before purchasing one. Here are some pictures from the party:
Chad blowing out his 3-0 candles on his banana split.

Chad and Tommy. Do you like their birthday hats?

The money tree.

I thought I would share the funny story of me making the money tree. I was planning on making it the day before the party, but ran out of time. So, that night I had to wait for Chad to fall asleep and sneak out of our bedroom into the guest bedroom to make it. I then stayed up for 2 hours making it and snuck back into bed without him even knowing!