Hey, God.

Busy, Busy, Busy. This is the story of our lives. I actually enjoy being busy, but sometimes we miss out on so much happening at "this" moment because we are preparing for the next ball game, school day, church service etc.



Anyhow, tonight Beau was just barking and howling in the backyard. Not really sure why--there were some cats running behind the fence and that may have set our ferocious watch dog off. :o) Honestly, though, I think it was just God's way of getting us outside for a little bit. I keep telling Russ that I want a firepit in the backyard and I said it again tonight when I took Ruby out to talk to Beau for a minute.



Russ went outside and took an old grill we had and made it into a firepit of sorts. It's perfect, actually, because he put it beside the porch and on top of some stepping stones we had. Made it the perfect height to sit on the porch and enjoy.



I had laid Ruby down and Rusty and I grabbed a couple of marshmallows and joined Russ outside. The night sky was very pretty. Moon was almost full and there were patches of clouds here and there. Honestly, I was more interested in the marshmallows at the time, but then Rusty just very calmly looked up to the sky, waved and said, "Hey, God." Just like He was sitting right there with us.



It took me by surprise at first and my first reaction was to tell him to not be disrespectful, but he wasn't at all. He just knew God was there and could here us and see us and he told him hello. He then said, "Tell God, 'hey', Daddy." and Russ did. He said the same thing to me....If only I could always be so aware of God's presence.



I see more and more of why God says for us to "Come as a child."



We had a sweet night and made a sweet memory. One of those nights I want to bottle up forever. So I just blogged it up. :o)

Good Intentions

So it has been two years since I've blogged. I love reading blogs--I love pretending that I'm blogging in my head even! I guess I first fell off the blogging bandwagon when I became very facebook active.

It also fell by the wayside when our internet quit working properly. "Our" internet would not be the correct term anyways. Whoever's signal we were using was not strong enough for me to upload pictures to and the school's internet blocks all blogs. Period. And it's a good thing because I do love to read them.

So, here I am resolving to pick up this hobby once again. One, because I love having a journal of the happenings in my little family. Two, I find it a nice outlet for sharing my thoughts. I will not, however, post as my status that I have returned to blogging, until I'm sure that I have really returned to blogging. Makes sense to me.

Been a While

Well let me first say how ashamed I am that I let this go unattended for so long. I was having problems with my connection at home and they have blocked the web sites that host blogs in the computer lab so I didn't have a chance to update it.
I know that everyone is busy and that is especially so this time of year, but we have kicked into high gear and we aren't stopping until Christmas! We have now made it through the school Christmas program and we are about to begin the Church Cantata. I direct the Drama and Russ is one of the characters in it this year. We love doing it, but it can be quite the time sucker. Everything was going smoothly until this past weekend when Rusty caught the stomach bug and now Russ has fallen victim as well. Makes me a little nervous, but I'm praying for his quick healing since our first presentation is TOMORROW night!
I loaded a few pics of Rusty

This is the "Sader" monkey that I tried posting about but none of it loaded. We had a costume party with our Sunday School class and Rusty was Curious George and Russ was the "Man in the Yellow Hat." It just so happened that Halloween fell on a ballgame night so I let Rusty dress up in his monkey suit and I put this jersey on him that I made. It was such a blast and soooo many people said they just loved watching him!


We had a lovely Thanksgiving this year. My sister, Hannah, has been in England this semester so I was able to talk Mom and Dad into coming down since she wouldn't be coming home. We had such a great time and I loved having Thanksgiving dinner for the first time in our home!
Papa and Granny Jones spoiled Rusty real good while they were here.

My small but cozy dining area. We had to get a seperate table to hold the food!

Papa and Rusty had a blast playing in the back yard...
Yes, he stands it up and kicks it. All the time. Inside or outside. :o)

We do have a special prayer request. Mimi (Russ' mom) was diagnosed with breast cancer last month. She has started chemo and the prognosis looks good, but we will be going through a tough time while we help her fight this. She has a great spirit and is trusting God for healing.

There is typically a knot on the little man's head. Poor thing. Anyhow, I know it was brief, but now I have made my grand return to the world of blogging. Thanks for checking in on us!

The Sader Monkey!

Fun Time With Cousin Madison

My Wheel of Fortune Good Fortune!

So what an exciting day I have had today!!! If you have known me and if we have ever talked about things that we want to do you would know that I want to be a contestant on Wheel of Fortune. I even tell my students this every year. While I was expecting Rusty the Wheel Mobile came to Orlando, but we didn't go and I have regretted it ever since. So....last month we heard that they were coming to Seaworld and I said right away that I just absolutely had to go.

So this morning we took off...

There were going to be three shows. We ran a little late and missed the first one. This was the holding area where we waited to get into the show.

The show was housed in one of the huge pavilions at Seaworld. We think there was between 400 and 500 people there. This was when we first got in. The news people were interviewing the travel hosts. They were not Pat and Vanna. Their names were Marty and Heidi...

So they called people up in groups of 5. They did this 6 times. They would then introduce the people, ask them what they enjoyed, and then they would do a puzzle round. They told the audience that if their name was called that their audition started right then. They wanted to see enthusiastic, energized people that could speak clearly. After about the 4th group I couldn't believe it when they said "Rachel...(I held my breath)...McDonald" I screamed and then went and ran to the table to go up on stage!! (These pics aren't the best quality. We were really tight and Russ was just holding the camera up in the air and it was kind of dark.)

I get up on stage and Marty says, "What's your name?" To this I reply, "Rachel". "Rachel, what do you do?" I say, "I am a high school computer and drama teacher." Marty asks, "What do you do for fun?" I say, "I enjoy spending time with my husband, Russ, and our toddler, Rusty." Marty says, "Russ and Rusty!! I like that." I said, "Yes, and I coach Varsity Cheerleading and we love to watch football (not sure why that came to mind.)" Marty says, "Did you say you coach cheerleading??! Would you like to lead the crowd in a cheer today?!" I say, "Well sure!" And I then break out into "Let's Get Fired Up (clap, clap, clap, clap, clap)" And everyone actually cheered with me!!!!! It was an embarrassing, but surreal out of body experience. Absolutely wonderful!! Here I am in the middle of my cheer...
This was after the cheer. Notice the lady's hand in the air. Russ said everyone who was standing where we were was cheering for me!
This is Marty spinning the wheel to see what we would win. We all won t-shirts and a Wheel of Fortune sippy cup! Perfect for Rusty. Notice the Pat cutout in the bottom right hand corner.

After the puzzle...I didn't solve it, but both of my letters were there that I called!
Anyhow, so I received a letter after I left stage inviting me to a call back audition tomorrow. These are apparently a little more intense. So wish me luck!!! (Any advice on what to wear???)

This was just a really fun day and to top it all off Alabama is currently beating Georgia 31-0 at halftime. Roll Tide!!!!