Gifted Teachers, dances, and recitals

May was a total blur of school funtions, recitals, SOL test studying, and finishing up preschool,  It was all fun stuff, but totally exhausting! 

This little froggy particpated in her dance recital with ballet, tap and jazz dances.  As of now, she says her ballet days are behind her because she loves her swim team, piano, and bssketball.  May she always let her light shine in whatevwr she does.

David had an amazing checkup at UVA last week!!!  His scan was clean and a meeting with the nephrologist (Kidney doctor) showed us that his kidney is handling all the changes he is going through in terms of his growth and puberty and that his kidney has grown with him!!!!!!!!!  Praise God!!! We have prepared ourselves that one day his one kidney will go kerplunk, but this latest appointment gave us the glimmer of hope that perhaps the lone kidney is handling the growth demands and filtration well and that it may last his whole life! Here is David with his awesome oncologist-love this picture!

While he was out for UVA, his amazing teacher and classmates brought out his monkey, to hold his place while he was gone.  I saw this and tears came to my eyes.  This monkey has been with us since first grade, so I guess the monkey will go to middle school as well.  Notice the fudge round and abraham Lincoln book in his lap-they know our boy so well at his school!

Dave's kidney doctor patted us on the back for keeping him well hydrated always and extremely active.  Being overweight and out of shape is hard on kidneys so she encouraged us to keep doing what we have been doing.  To get a little exercise as a family we went on a hike one Saturday night.  We were suppose to do the 1/2 mile hike but I got us confused and we did over two miles!  This view was worth it!

this little love ended her spring developmental swim team this week and now she can swim all four strokes! We have to work on her dive some more, but she loves swimming.

All three of our children have been blessed with Tena Hubble as their first grade teacher.  She is a rockstar veteran teacher and it was hard to say goodbye after having her for all three children.  David also had an awesome teacher!  It was an awesome year at Oak Point Elementary!

Dave hit a big milestone this past week by attending his first ever dance.  He was so excited and had such fun!  When I was getting him ready and gelling his hair back (ha!) I got such a lump in my throat.  God has taken good care of our boy with great friends, no cancer relapses and a healthy kidney... my cup runneth over.

We also ended our Challenger baseball season this past week with pizza and trophies!  Challenger baseball is one of the biggest blessings in my life.  I adore these kids! Here is David with Emily!

These triplets are the funniest dudes around and the LOVE the camera!  They made us all laugh with their poses, fighting amongst themselves, and kissing the ladies.  Kyle worked with these guys mostly during the season and they love their Kyle!  

The last day of school I attended the awards ceremony for Oak Point.  Our baby got several awards including the Silver Presidential Award! He was so proud!  David was blesed with an amazing teacher who created this awesome environment in her classroom where every child feels like her favorite.  I love going in there because you can truly feel the love.  She is such a gifted educator.

This afternoon I was the speaker for the opening ceremony for Relay for Life.  Honestly I do not really remember what I said because I was so sick.  Between my low grade fever and the heat I was not my best.  Here is a bag that Hope made for her brother for the luminary.  Unfortunately the storms ended the event early.  

School is finally out for the summer and we could not be happier!! Welcome summer 2016-we have waited a long time for you! 

Awards, Paintings, and Love

This has been such a busy week but full of love and awards for my man!  Tuesday I met up with him at The Virginia Association of School Superintendents in Roanoke for a luncheon where he was honored as the Region 7 Superintendent of the year!  

Mike is incredibly humble and it was hard for him to accept praise for his job well done in our region.  One of his colleagues won the overall State award, but we are so proud of him for doing amazing things here in Region 7.  There are times that I desire a different vocation for him but listening to speeches by passionate educators made me realize that his job as a leader of a public school system is his mission and his way to serve the Lord by providing opportunities for our children right here in Smyth County.


My man!!  He is the  only reason I would wear heels all day long at a fancy luncheon at the Hotel Roanoke.



Here is his good friend, Brian Ratliffe from nearby Washington County introducing Mike. He hit the nail on the head by talking about his integrity :) It was a great day to celebrate public education and a huge thanks to Pops for keeping our kiddos so I can witness Mike receiving his award.

This weekend has been mother's day and it has been awesome.

Hope Madeline made this card for me and it made me laugh!  She loves to shop, but this girl not so much!  What a blessing to be that sweet girls momma.  

I will never know what I did to deserve these three babies!  Motherhood has been my greatest job, hardest struggle, and biggest blessing.  Mothering these three through unexpected life turns has brought me to my knees before the Throne of Christ.  I learned many years ago I am a terrible mother without Him.  My biggest prayer for my children is not that they make loads of money one day or are valedictorians of their classes, but  that they know, love and serve the lord Jesus every day of their lives.  

We had a family Mother's Day gathering last night in Radford and somehow this is the only picture I got of the whole event! Dave certainly loves his Aunt Net Net!! So thankful for my family! 

While we were visiting with family in Radford this gorgeous rainbow appeared in their neighborhood.  Love these reminders of God's promises.  

This morning was a mad rush to get to church on time but we made it!  The last two Wednesday afternoons the children at the church after school program went to the Henderson to paint for their Mommas. This morning they were on display at church and it was amazing!  

David with his painting... 

And little love with hers.  My heart was so full because the children also...

sang in worship this morning and they melted my heart with their sweet voices.

We ended Mother's Day with a silly game of pie face!!

We have felt the love recently, between Mother's Day weekend with family, seeing the childrens paintings they were so proud of, and me watching Mike receive his award from his peers.  I certainly wish time would slow down,,,,, I am certainly enjoying every moment of this blessing called motherhood.

Amazing weekend!

This has been an amazing weekend.  I am absolutely exhausted and have slept weird hours this weekend but it has been all worth it.

Friday night started the weekend out with Hope's spring piano recital.  This little girl rocked it and the whole family came to support her. 

We are so thankful that the amazing Melody Payne is in our daughter's life.  She has instilled a love of piano in her and playing piano has increased her confidence so much!  What a blessing!  After the recital we had a potluck supper and a time of celebration.  It was a wonderful evening.

Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:15 a.m.  It was super early for a Saturday but for a wonderful cause.  Our county was hosting a Remote Area Medical (RAM) clinic.  I have always wanted to be apart of something like this and this was my chance.  I have no medical skills at all, but I came as a general support volunteer and helped welcome people and helped with the food. 

This is the dental area where many local dentist and hygenists were volunteering their time and skills to serve folks that desperately needed dental care.  RAM offered dental, vision, medical, bone density, mammograms, womens health, all weekend long free of charge.  It was truly life-changing for me and a wonderful experience to be apart of. 

In this trailer folks could get a vision test, and new glasses made on the spot in 8 minutes! 

I felt so honored to be apart of something so amazing as RAM.  Our community raised close to $90,000 for this effort and to see all the professionals and volunteers giving their time made me so Smyth County proud.  As a volunteer I received a text this afternoon that over 773 patients were seen in the three day clinic with over $498,912 in services provided!!!  We are called as the family of God to love others and in the last few days at RAM I witnessed neighbors helping neighbors and it was truly a blessing!  I am exhausted and my legs and back are throbbing from all the standing, but I already cannot wait until next year!

This morning I helped at RAM and I took Hope with me.  She was confused as to why some people had to go to RAM to see Dr.Bill (our dentist) and we went to his office to see him.  I want our kids to understand that we are here to love and serve others.  My heart was so full watching our girl pull a wagon of snack bags around and hand them out to patients waiting in line. 

My pictures are totally out of order, but here is a huge surprise that happened last Thursday.  Several of my preschool parents nominated me for teacher of the month from a local radio station.  Amazingly I won!!  The kids were so excited and I was shocked yet honored. 

After the awesome weekend including piano recital and RAM, tonight we headed to the New River Valley to visit two different Panera bread locations.  They have been doing a change for children campaign where you can round up your order and the change will benefit UVA children's hospital.  the Virginia Panera bread locations have raised over $80,000 and tonight was the meet and greet party!  Tonight we got to visit the Christiansburg location and see David's sign and meet the folks that have been raising money for UVA. They gave David many gifts and were so sweet to him.

After the Christiansburg location we headed to Blackburg where all the associates that work there had formed a line and cheered for David as we walked in. It was precious and so much fun!!!

They presented him with a basketball and a new hat!! It blows my mind that folks that do not know David or even have children of their own yet are passionate about raising money for UVA Children's Hospital?!  It was very awesome!

These two ladies raised the most money at their registers during the campaign! 

Check out this amazing cake!!!  This cake was not only beautiful but it tasted awesome!!! Thank you Panera bread for making us feel so welcome and raising money for a place that saved our son's life! 

After all the partying at Panera we got to catch up with Seth Allen for a few minutes while in Blacksburg.  It was great to see him and it was icing on the cake of a wonderful weekend.  :)