A new baby on the way.....

For the last eleven years, we have been blessed to be a part of the lives of two very special young ladies, Keisha and Reisha Carney. We first met them when they lived at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home in the Franklin/Brentwood area. They were thirteen at the time....and we were childless, but strongly desiring to pour ourselves and God's love into the life of a child. And, we got a double blessing..twins!!

Well, fast forward all these years....and Keisha is now married to Tim Davis and is expecting her first baby...a little girl....Rihanna Benton Davis. So, yesterday, I was able to go to her baby shower along with another long time friend of the girls. They got so many nice gifts and I think they are ready for the baby :)

Keisha (on the left) giving instructions while Reisha (on the right) takes photos....there is nothing new about this......these have been their roles since we've known them--LOL
Keisha says cheese and shows us her belly..what is amazing is that she has LOST 63 pounds during this pregnancy!!! She was a big girl before getting pregnant...and while she eats all the time, her body just cannot seem to get enough food. The baby is growing and is very healthy. She jokingly said she'd be wearing a two piece bathing suit after the baby is born!!!
Keisha opens a special little 'security blankie' from Abigail. She was so proud of herself for picking it out.
me with the girls...the lighting was bad...so we look like aliens or something ??? This was taken on the deck at Reisha's apartment.

Don't Laugh

Breast Cancer Ribbon
Originally uploaded by justclaire

Abigail and I have a goal....yes...I know you won't believe it, but we are going to run a 5K race this fall. The race supports breast cancer..those who have survived it (including my mother in law and many others I know) and those who did not.

Now, here's the funny part....at the time of the race, I will be close to my 43rd birthday and I have NEVER run a race before. I have been walking a lot for 2 years and have hit the 35 pounds 'lost' mark recently. I still have about 20 pounds I would like to lose and will be working diligently on that this summer...by eating a lot of fresh fruits and veggies that are in season and ramping up my exercise.

So, yes, I have set a goal....one that seems impossible to me.......because even as a young person, I could never run...it always hurt too much--LOL! But, this is a goal we have...so my nine year old (well, she'll be newly ten at the time of the race) and I will be training and working hard to run with a huge group of ladies.

Be on the lookout for more updates....I am sure there will be some funny stories to come out of this :)

Now.....off to get the needed supplies......I don't even have running shoes (only walking ones)...and there is more....but I won't mention that here.....

Busy, busy....

We are here....I have not forgotten my blog...just busy trying to finish school and keep Abigail healthy :)

We will finish school on Friday, May 22. We have slowly dropped subjects off as she has completed her requirements in each subject, but we're doing math, reading and writing until the end :)

Abigail is sick with allergy/sinus stuff. We ended up making a doctor's visit yesterday since she was complaining of ear pain. She SO rarely says that anything hurts, so when she does, I know we need to investigate. With the huge amount of congestion she's had lately, I was thinking that we might be dealing with an ear infection, but thankfully we are not. The congestion itself was causing hear pain. So, he added another medicine (decongestant/asthma type medicine) to help her on a short term basis. Hopefully the grass pollen will drop off soon and she'll be back to normal.

We are looking forward to the summer...it will be more relaxed than some in the past we are hoping. We will be doing the library summer reading club, church camp, VBS at the church where she attends Friday classes, and swimming lessons....and LOTS of play time with family and friends we hope. We intentionally did not schedule any sports camps, sciquest camps, or other things along those lines this year. I think we just need some down time. Plus, I will be teaching several children's scrapbooking classes here over the summer at various times, and I need time to prepare for that as well as the Alabama History class I will be teaching this fall. And, I will still have a few piano and voice students during the summer.

Of course, I have a 'to do' list that is a mile long....and I will try to tackle that in between other things, but most of all, I hope to enjoy time with my little one who won't be little for many more years. And, hopefully Bruce will have some down time on the weekends and will actually get to take and enjoy a week off during June as well so that we can have some family time together. Believe it or not, we will be celebrating 20 years of marriage in June!!!!!

Our concerts......

One of my favorite things to do is to teach music lessons to children, and even to adults and teens. I have done this off and on for years...really since I was a teen myself. Last summer, after taking a break of a few years for a variety of reasons, I found that I was ready and able to resume teaching piano and voice lessons again. So, by word of mouth and some emails sent out to various homeschoolers that I knew, I started growing my little group.

Today, we had some little concerts....a very informal recital of sorts. The children played/sang a few songs they chose and worked on in recent weeks. Even Abigail, who has not consistently taken lessons in a while, played a couple of songs. I think she was motivated by what the others did....and she's ready to start back to regular lessons this summer :)

These are not all of my students...a couple did not participate for various reasons. Also, the young lady in yellow and the young lady in black/white stripes, do both voice and piano. The rest of the students pictured do piano only. The other two students who did not participate today do voice only.