changing laynes: salute to may

First of all, I think it's necessary and important to recorgnize this day for what it is: Memorial Day. Twe salute or heros, sung and unsung, who fought long and hard to grant us the freedom's we enjoy today...being able to say so on this blog probably being one of them! The glory first and foremost goes to the Lord of course, but we recognize those men and women as well whom He chose to use. My pastor made an intersting point this Sunday in saying that Memorial Day has seemed to go to the wayside since it became a 3-day weekend. Because now that's what it is. To be honest, I looked forward to this weekend not because Monday, today, was Memorial Day, but because it meant a 3-day weekend, and a 4-day work week to follow (I had other things to look forward to as well but will mention that later). Mostly, the day is still recognized for what it is I think, but it's starting to be clouded with hoorah's for pool openings, black and white desserts for Race Weekend and some good 'ol R&R. In an age of fast pace, "have it your way," immediate gratifications, it would serve us well to remember why we made certain holidays a holiday in the first place. I just regret I didn't dwell on this more throughout the day. Note to self. ......

Well this was quite a week! It seems like it was actually the length of 3 weeks where in reality, it was the regular 168 hours long (I suppose a little more because I'm counting in today as part of last week...since it was part of the weekend 'n all). I've waved goodbye to some old and new television favorites for the season and welcomed with open arms the new season of So You Think You Can Dance this past week! As anxious as I am to see how J.J. Abrams & friends are going to wrap up the final season of LOST, I am very happy for 20 new dancers to enter my life for a few short months! I've missed Mary Murphy's crazy screams and Hot Tamele Trains! (I am pretty sure I had a typo in there but am too lazy to check it right now). As much as I love this show it makes me frustrated because I was never able to pursue dancing. I had a taste of it in high school and absolutely loved it. In a different life, I would have been involved in dance I think. The only thing keeping me from getting up in front of my t.v. and doing the choreographed dancers along with the contestants is that I would probably drive my sister crazy for the interuption and I'm sure I would not have the energy after a day full of 4 and 5 year olds.

Speaking of 4 and 5 year olds...I had 25 of them graduate from Pre-K 2 this Wednesday! I have only been in the classroom with them a few short months but it only took a few weeks to absolutely love the silly bunch! Even though graduation was Wednesday, they are still in school through the end of this week until the summer program starts. Many of them I'll see throughout the summer, and some as they stay in our building in the fall, but I'm sad to see some go as well! I have learned so much through being in this classroom! I never knew how much you could learn about the Lord through the eyes of children...most of whom I'm not sure know the name of Jesus. In their own ways, I think they are still praising and bringing glory to Him. Absolutely beautiful.

I can't end this post without sharing the other highlight of my week/weekend. I met Chris' parents! Most of my friends have not even met Chris yet...that's a different topic...but if I haven't said it enough, this man of mine is absolutely incredible. I thought that when I first met him and tried to convince myself that was just first impression maybe and it might wear off a tiny bit. But nope! God continues to bless me through him daily and I can't help but praise Him for it! I'm blessed enough to love and be loved by someone amazing. And this weekend I got to see where he gets some of that! It was a pleasure to meet his parents weekend...as nervous as I was about it. I was excited, but lets face it...meeting the parents will always have a tiny bit of nerves at least to go along with it. We all had dinner Friday night and slipped into conversation and laughing quite easily. I had the chance to have breakfast one-on-one with his Mom Saturday morning and that proved to be a real blessing. I could tell she genuinelly wanted to get to know me and that was nice. She had a lot of wisdom to share as well...thank you Cindy :) We spent more time, the 4 of us, on Saturday evening then wrapped up by going to Cincinnati today for a Reds game...my first Major League game! This family loves baseball and I'm excited to be getting into it more as well. Unfortunately, heavy rain hit in the 4th inning and we decided to go home. But it was still a lot of fun! We sat in the rain with our poncho's and umbrellas for a while before everyone fled to take cover from the down-pour. before the rain we did manage to get some good pictures! Thanks to his parents, Chris and I finally have some pictures of the 2 of us :)

Below I'm posting some pictures of today. Enjoy and see you soon!