Project Life January 10-20

 SNOW! I mean, ice. It was exciting to wake up to another change in the landscape. I didn't brave the ice, but the boys headed across the street to the park.

 2nd picture for the 10th... GO Auburn! He only stayed awake for the 1st 20 minutes of the game, but he was dressed out for the occasion :)

 Poor Sadie. She has become terrified of her kennels downstairs, so I thought I'd try getting a new one. No such luck. She won't step foot in this kennel either :( 

 Even a late start to school doesn't make homework any more interesting!

 When did it become ok for my son to have shoes the same size as mine?? As far as I know, no one asked me if this was ok...

 Brad gave me some beautiful flowers for my birthday last weekend... apparently, R4-P17 decided to hang out in them - I also found Obi Wan Kenobi on the other side :)

I'm taking Beth Moore's lead and am attempting to memorize a new Bible verse on the 1st and 15th of the month. This verse was the one from Jan 1-14. I did it! 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. These words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you rise.' Deuteronomy 6:5-7

 The boys heard that the trophy was going to be at Ac@demy on Sunday night, so they took a little trip to see it. Of course, they bought a few goodies too :)

 I hurt my back on Saturday, and was so glad that we had planned a pajama day for our day off on Monday. Bennett was goofing around, and this is the only picture I snapped on the 17th.

 Bennett is the team leader at school this week. We filled the estimation jar with legos. Wanna take a guess at how many legos are in there??

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And yes, he does wear AU apparel all the time!

 Look who got a new haircut! From my guy, Rony :)

Isn't he handsome? I've done the date in orange... he'll like it that way!

We got progress reports a day late this week, but Bennett's report was super!!

Hope you are having a great week!

January 9, 2011

The 9th was a special day. It was a day to celebrate our Papa, Marvin Ray Boothe. He went home to be with Jesus on December 30, and we had his Memorial Service on the 9th. 

I am lucky to be able to have all of his and my Granny's pictures here at my house. I worked on them a few years ago to get them in order, but Papa got sick and we were never able to get all of the stories about those pictures down on paper. That's ok, though. As I look at the pictures, I can see what a wonderful man he was and what an exciting life he and Granny had together.

 These are just a few of the pictures of my Papa. This is the display at his service. It was a nice service with about 50 of his friends and family in attendance. The preacher at his nursing home gave a wonderful account of his life - his service in the military, his heroism as a pilot, his leadership at UAB, his dedication as a husband, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather. 

I will never forget seeing one of his friends from the nursing home as he rode on his scooter into the chapel. As he passed the large painting of Papa, he saluted. It brings me to tears as I type. What a fitting way to honor someone like my Papa. I don't know any other man like him. I doubt that I ever will.

Here we are on Christmas Eve 2009. He had rallied from his broken leg and was able to get out a little bit. I'll always remember him like this. Surrounded by his family was where he was happiest. I'm so glad that he is at home in heaven with a new body. I'm sure that he and Granny are dancing just like the used to at all of their fancy parties we've heard so much about :)

When Bennett heard that Papa had passed away he was so sad that he hadn't gotten a chance to thank Papa for his Christmas present. Monday he wrote a thank you note and asked me if we could mail it to heaven. 

It's wonderful that we don't have to mail letters to heaven, but just speak these words and God hears. I have assured Bennett that Papa knows how much we love him. This note makes me smile :)


Papa taught me quite a bit. I was lucky to have him close-by when growing up. We got to spend a good amount of time with Granny and Papa. I am thankful for those moments.


- Papa taught me the value of working hard to accomplish anything that I set my mind to. I have an old autograph book from 2nd or 3rd grade that Papa signed. In that book he told me that he expected me to be the first female US president. I didn't quite attain that goal, but knowing that he believed in me meant the world. In everything that he did, he gave his best. 
-Papa taught me to take care of those you love. He returned to his childhood home to take care of his father when he became ill. He took care of my Granny when she was ill. He was strong and didn't think twice about putting his life on hold for those he loved.
- Papa knew how to have fun. I've heard so many stories and see wonderful pictures of the fun that he and Granny had. Hard work and making time for fun need to be coupled, don't they?
- Papa taught me that giving was important. He gave to his family and friends. He gave to charity. He was a good tipper (when the service was up to his expectations :)


I hope that I can pass these qualities on to Bennett. I was blessed to have Papa in my life.

Project Life

This year I'm attempting to do a Project Life 'project'. I'm aiming to take 365 +/- pictures this year to document each day in our lives. Some of these days will not include a picture, but will have a ticket stub or school project, etc. 

I'm not going to worry to much about the 'quality' of these pictures. I'm taking most of them with my point-and-shoot or with my new camera phone. I'm not going to edit them very much. I hope you don't mind :) 

Here we go...

 We spent New Year's Day around the house putting up Christmas decorations. The only things left were the tree and the Rudolph's Village and the boys were a huge help! Bennett chose to help with the laundry... I still remember when he couldn't reach inside the washing machine to help :)

As an aside... the next day I said 'I'd really like to get this coffee table cleared off.' Bennett replied 'Ok, go right ahead.' Not quite the response I was looking for. I need to be more direct, I guess :)

 After church on the 2nd the boys began building... a new Lego set!! This one is Brad's Christmas present.

 On Monday, Nana, Bennett, and I headed to the mall to the Lego Store. Santa had left some boxes that Bennett could fill at the store and he had a little money that was burning a hole in his wallet. After a little lunch at the mall, we watched Secretariat at the Dollar Theater. Great movie!!

School started back on the 4th and Bennett began illustrating and writing his own Star Wars graphic novel. He's planning to send it to George Lucas :)

 That night at book club Rebecca treated us to a bubbly tasting. So much fun!!

 On Wednesday, I had 2 doctor's appointments, lunch with my friend Kim, and we had church that night. Bennett managed to work a little bit on the lego that still had possession of my kitchen table while sporting his Auburn jersey.

 Yea! A new haircut... which feels like a new me!!

 The real story on the 7th is that Bennett got a PERFECT report card!! That will be in my book for sure! After school, we helped his friend Eli celebrate his birthday.

On Saturday I celebrated my 36th birthday. Wow. I'm getting old :)  

Bennett finds it quite offensive to hear me say that I'm getting old... he insists that I'm not old at all. Sweet boy :)

December Daily - beyond Christmas :)

I don't know why everyone stops their December Daily albums on December 25. I mean, there are 6 more days in December, aren't there? It may be my OCD that likes to have things complete - but that's ok, right? 

I shared the 26th on the last post - the day after Christmas is just as much a tradition for us as the earlier fun of the month. Then, the 27th sneaks up and sometimes the doldrums sneak in. Does that happen to you? There is such excitement in the days leading up to Christmas, and then when the presents are opened and the plans are complete, I can be left with a feeling feeling a little down. 

This year I chose to embrace the slow-ness and relax a little. I know that the fact that I have a hard time being ok with relaxing is a hard thing for some people to understand. But it is true. Don't get me wrong - I'm not always productive - far from it! But, I am happiest when I have a project or something to do.

Anyway, the 27th brought a little more shopping for after Christmas bargains and then we met Brad's family for lunch. We had planned to celebrate his parents' anniversary the week before, but Bennett's sickness meant that we had to cancel. 

We were lucky to be able to include Chad in our celebration - all the way from Bahrain!

 After our lunch, Bennett wanted to go and buy a surprise for Brad. He bought him a Star Wars apron with is own money. Now they can match when they cook. Again, I love his giving spirit. 

 On the 28th, Bennett had a friend over to play and I just enjoyed the house and the decorations. I always love getting Christmas cards - and displaying them in the kitchen window is one of my favorite decorations.

 On the 29th we went to see Tangled with Nana. Super cute! I have the ticket stubs for my book :)

This is a picture is of Bennett's new tree for his room. This is the first year he's had a tree - and he LOVES it. It's fallen over a few times, but it has survived. There's nothing as great as going to sleep by the lights of a Christmas tree!

 On the 30th Bennett had another friend over to play and mom came over to help me begin to disassemble the Christmas decorations. Always such a bummer to take it all down! Bennett suggested that we leave it all up for the whole year. I thought about it for a minute, but then realized that as Elmo says, everyday can't be Christmas; that wouldn't be such a treat :) 

We rang on the New Year (at 9 PM) with friends at Inverness. Super fun time! We all danced a little and had a great time. 2010 was a great year - filled with blessings too numerous to count. We are excited to see what 2011 has in store for us!

December Daily... week 2

Did you think that I forgot??   I didn't! I was faithfully taking pictures... the blogging didn't quite get done, though. Please forgive me :)

On the last day of school, Bennett was the mystery reader for his teacher from last year. He was so happy to read Charlie Brown's Christmas story. He brought a surprise for each student (a candy cane with 2 Charlie Brown silly bands tied to it) and for his former teacher he brought a Charlie Brown tree. All of this was his idea - I love his giving spirit!

 School got out early and we went to visit with our cousins (from Tennessee and Alaska!) Bennett was excited to meet his 2nd cousins (or 1 cousins once removed - I get that confused!)

 We had our 2nd basketball game on Saturday - and we won!! Two wins in a row! Right after the game we had a birthday party. That night Bennett got sick :(

 Sunday was a stay-at-home-and-rest day. He was doing fine, but conked out on the couch that night.

 Baseball camp on Monday. He seemed to have an ok time - we were sad that his friend that was going to go with him had to cancel because of a sinus infection. 

 I have to admit - the first week of Christmas break was more than stressful for me. The sickness that started on Saturday reappeared on Monday night (not the type of surprise that I enjoy) and lasted for the rest of the week... He didn't get sick again, but complained about his stomach for the rest of the week. My anxiety level was rather high (one of my worst nightmares as a mom is the stomach bug!)

 Nana was brave and came over on Wednesday to make a gingerbread village. So cute!

 We finally got out of the house on Thursday and went to Nana's to see how she makes her yummy yeast rolls and cinnamon rolls. Bennett says that Nana's rolls are his favorite Christmas tradition!

 Christmas Eve! Yea! Bennett was 85% better, so we were at Nana's for our regular festivities with the family. We were still leery of him being acolyte or singing in the choir, so I went to church with Nana, Gigi, and Bubba. 

 Christmas morning! Bennett was up at 3:58 am (but Nana was the only one that heard him :) So, by the time that the 6 o'clock pre-arranged time arrived, he was MORE than excited! It was a wonderful morning filled with great time with our family - and our yummy breakfast, of course. That afternoon we went to Gigi and Bubba's house a late lunch. We were sad not to go to Papa's house like we usually do, but we enjoyed our lunch together.

It snowed on Christmas! And on the 26th! So beautiful! Don't worry - it didn't stop us from shopping the after Christmas sales! :) I think that it did stop some people for getting out, but that was just fine for us!