Easter Sunday

"There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave He rose again
And as He stands in victory
Sin’s curse has lost its grip on me
For I am His and He is mine
Bought with the precious blood of Christ"

This is a verse from one of my favorite songs.  We even sang it at church on Sunday which made me so excited.  This particular verse will bring a tear to my eye when when I hear a whole congregation singing it together and Easter Sunday was no exception.  I just love this song! 

After church we headed over to my parent's house for a delicious lunch.  And of course, what would Easter Sunday be without a mini photo shoot in my parent's front yard...

And then there is the post-lunch-Sunday-nap!

Never a dull moment...

When you are in the classroom everyday there are always surprises.  You never know what is going to happen on a daily basis.  Today, however, we had a surprise that we never would have expected...

This morning I arrived in my classroom and started getting ready for the day.  With spring break being last week I had plenty of things to do...open the blinds, plug in the computer, put the chairs out, etc.  The kids came in, ate breakfast, had "line time" and started their work.  About 9:00 I overheard two 5 year old girls tell our assistant that there was a snake in our classroom.  I thought...ok what in the world are they talking about?  So I walked over and glanced around their area.  No snake.  I asked the girls about it and sure enough...there he was, curled up taking a nap in one of my baskets on the bottom of a shelf!  One of the girls had reached into the basket to pick up a book and saw the snake lying peacefully in the basket.  

This is the best picture I could get of our little friend...I of course was standing on top of a table at a safe distance while taking the picture.

 We called for backup and had all the kids move to the other side of the room while we waited.  I asked the girls if they saw the snake move and their response was..."yeah!  And he stuck his tongue out at us!"  Once help arrived the snake was removed from the building and taken out to the woods.  I was told that it was a rat snake and was completely harmless.  I actually don't care what kind of snake it was...no snake is a good snake to me! 

Spring Break-Day 5

Josh had the day off today as well so we we had a lazy morning of sleeping in and watching tv.  I had a lunch date at Cafe Strudel with a good friend of mine that I hadn't seen in a while.  She is also the wonderful soul that works on my taxes every year.  Since she was able to get us a really nice tax return, I thought what better way to spend some of that money than to treat her to lunch. 

Late afternoon J and I decided to work on painting the crown molding for around the downstairs.  It was pretty easy work...it just took some space!

This is only half...the other half is still in the garage

Ringo decided he wanted a little paint for himself

Spring Break-Day 4

Ooops...skipped a day on my Spring Break blogging. 

Let's see...yesterday morning I treated myself to a one hour massage at the Bella Riley day spa in Lexington.  It was great...so relaxing and calming.  I bought a Groupon for the massage a couple months back and decided that spring break would be the perfect time to use it.  By the way...if you haven't ever used Groupon then you need to check it out for sure!  I love it because most everything is half off.  I spent $30 for a one hour massage that is worth $70.  We usually buy Groupons for restaurants because if we are going to eat out anyway, we might as well save money on it.  After my massage I was went home, ate some lunch and accidentally fell asleep on the couch for an hour and a half!  That was about it for the day...pretty chill.

Today I slept late and met J for lunch at Cabo Fresh Taco...again we used the Groupon!  (Told ya we are hooked).  Then I did a little shopping...

The LOFT is a dangerous place.  Full of cute clothes and great sales.

 I got all this for about $60!  I was in desperate need of some new shorts, considering I still have shorts I wore in high school! 

After my shopping trip I spent the rest of my afternoon catching up on some reading.  I've been reading The Pioneer Woman's Black Heels to Tractor Wheels. 

I had to put it down for a little while to finish up work for my class this semester, but now I'm excited to finish it up.  It's a really cute little story that keeps the reader entertained.  

Spring Break-Day 2

The house renovations are still underway...who knew that a simple flood could take sooo long to repair.  I guess not all the improvements were actual repairs...some things we are changing just for the heck of it.  Such as the fireplace...

Here is a picture of the fireplace before it was beautified

Excuse the fact that it's a picture from Christmas, but its the best one I had.  The fireplace and hearth were made of black slate and while I was gone on the women's retreat in March, J ripped out all the slate and he and my dad replaced it with tile.  They spent the entire Saturday working on it and it turned out awesome.  In my opinion it looks like a professional did all the work!  

Back to Spring Break...today I gave the new fireplace a fresh coat of white paint.

Doesn't it look GREAT?!

On a side note...here a few of my 1,000 Blessings:

16.  A clean bathroom...it's no fun to clean on SB but well worth it

17.  Last minute lunch with Aimee

18.  The gift card to Chick-fil-a from my secret pal at school...it made our sister lunch possible today

19.  My wonderful husband who has worked so hard on making our house beautiful again

20.  Warm (ok...hot actually) sunny days for my Spring Break

21.  Shoe shopping and lunch with my BFF from high school

Spring Break-Day 1

Ahhh...Spring Break!  A week of sleeping in.  A week of lunch with friends. A week of shopping.  A week of cleaning around the house.  A whole week of doing absolutely nothing.  Or a week of all of the above!  

I love the fact that I didn't have to set my alarm this morning.  I rolled out of bed, watched the Today Show, ate cereal and caught up on Facebook.  Then I leisurely got ready and met my good friend for lunch at Moe's.  We even did a little shoe shopping.  

The rest of my afternoon was spent catching up on the mountainous load of laundry that has been building up over the past week or so.  

Lorelai and I are really looking forward to the week ahead...we love Spring Break!

PS...I DO plan on fixing up the blog a little more...just not tonight.  :)

New Design

J is helping me with a new background and design...but we are headed out to the movies so you'll have to wait for the finished product!!  :)

Celebrating James and Meredith

Last Saturday (yes I know its been over a week) we threw a couple's shower for James and Meredith.  James and Josh have been close friends for several years.  I first met James when he and Josh were living in "The J" downtown.  James was a groomsman in our wedding and now Josh is going to be a groomsman in James' wedding this summer.  We have gotten to know Meredith over the past year through various get-togethers and just love her.  They are so perfect for each other and we are very excited for them and can't wait for June to celebrate their marriage!

James has always wanted a shop-vac

He was very excited!

Glory is HOME!

Yesterday sweet little Glory was able to go home!  I am not even going to try to recount her week at the hospital and all that she went though...I'll leave that story up to her mom.  Check out naptimediaries to read about a family full of faith in God and love for their beautiful daughter!  So glad you are home Glory girl!!

Strawberry Sweetness

I can just feel summer coming around the corner when I see a beautiful strawberry

 I tried my hand at growing strawberries this year

 I've never really had a "green thumb"

 So we'll just have to see how this goes

 

Praying for Glory

We recently made some good friends through our church and small group.  Nick and Jessi are an awesome couple with three amazing kids.  The kids always manage to keep us entertained at group on Wednesday nights!

This morning when they went to wake up their sweet little Glory, they found her seizing in her bed.  She was rushed to Children's Hospital by ambulance and had six seizures by noon.  Our friends are asking for us to boldly pray for little Glory that she be healed of what is causing these seizures.  She is currently sedated in the PICU and will remain there for at least the next few days.  To read more of their story check out Jessi's blog...and while you're there look around a little.  She is an awesome writer!

We love you Glory and want you to get better as soon as you can!

MIA

I've been a little slack with my blogging lately.  I'm either super busy, or super tired.  I still love to surf around and read everyone else's blogs...I'm just too lazy to contribute to my own!

So....what's been going on in the Parks' world: 

We continue to work on the house renovations.  It seems like this has become a huge project that will never end. A couple weeks ago we had our new carpet installed!  Can I just say that I LOVE new carpet!!!  I don't actually have any pics of the carpet installation process because I was at work that day, but take my word for it...it's cool carpet!

Dad came over today and help J hang the drywall in the laundry room.  I'm excited to have the wall up, but that means my washer and dryer are out of commission for a few days again!  Unfortunately I did not prepare for this and my laundry hamper is already overflowing.  Ugh.  

Aimee also came over to work on a little project of her own.  She had been storing a vanity table at our house and decided to spruce it up with a little paint before moving it to her new place.  She required a little assistance from dad and his nail gun, then the girls did the painting.

 I wish I was as brave as her in my color choices.

 House work pretty much sums up our life right now.  We have a few more projects to finish up on and then we'll be finished.  Hopefully I'll be better and getting my posts out and now be gone for do long.  :)