VBS Week!

I don't know how to put into words how great this past week of VBS was. I have helped our church in many different ways over the past 7 years, but this year was my ABSOLUTE favorite!! The children were in awe all week, the adults truly enjoyed it, and we all really tried to have a "child-like faith" that Christ calls us to have. It was beyond any of our expectations. I had to post some pictures so you all could see how much goes into our VBS and how much work our children's ministry puts into it. There were over 200 kids involved, and countless volunteers who either worked behind the scenes or during the week. Even though my kids were in the nursery, our church allows the 3 year old class to join us for worship and for the preschool bible stories. Wells LOVED every minute of it and thankfully we have a cd of the music because Wells sings the songs ALL day and ALL night (we hear it over the monitor until the wee hours of the night:). Thanks to everyone who helped out. What a blessing it was to everyone!

I had to show y'all this picture. It was the "big fish" in the story of Jonah and the children had to enter it after Jonah was tossed into the sea. It was a really cool experience! They even had opened cans of tuna to make it smell like fish. This is what I mean when I say, it is very detailed and very hands on for the kids!

**anniversary and father's day posts to come this week! i'm behind!

BEACH!

We had such a blast at the beach!! We just got back from a week in Panama City at Chris' parent's place. It was perfect weather, the children were healthy, and good times were had by all! We went to the beach each morning, came in for lunch and naps, and swam in the pool in the afternoons. The kids LOVED every minute! I was shocked they both loved playing the sand so much because they surely don't like it stuck to their bodies! They must get that from me :) The ocean was a little scary and neither child wanted to go in it, but that is why the pool is such a must! And I think I'm going to kiss whoever invented the puddle jumper floaties that go across the arms and chest. Both children would swim all over the pool with those on! They also jumped off the side, which was a huge accomplishment for wells considering he wouldn't do a thing last year unless we were holding him. We are so glad we got to go. Thanks Yaz and papa! We had a blast! :) Wells is already asking to go back!

What a couple of weeks!

We have had a rough couple of weeks. As Chris puts it, "always an adventure with the sheheanes"
In a nutshell, Claire had pneumonia (and kept it for 7 days), Wells got hand, foot, and mouth (don't ask me how because we were going nowhere with claire being sick), and after two more doctors visits for breathing treatment and a strep test for wells we came home to a house that was 87 degrees. Our two-year old ac unit had gone out. lovely...
Both of our parents live in bham, but we couldn't use either house. So off to the beautiful Drury Inn and Suites down 280. No sleep for anyone and I'm sure our neighbors had a cozy stay. After five days, we finally are back in our house tonight and I AM SO THANKFUL!! Both kids are healthy again, our house is feeling great, and now we are off to bed. Through the tears, we could laugh as well at our crazy life. We could write a book. We also praised God that we had a house to come back to and thanked Him for giving us some perspective. After all these crazy tornadoes displacing people, we tried not to complain too much about not having air. Now, we are ready to hopefully enjoy summer! We are off to the beach this weekend, so hopefully we will have a relaxing time if we don't melt :) Will have a better post next week I promise!! :) Here are some pics of what we do at home :)

Grand Re-Opening!

Paper With Purpose now has a new website, therefore, we are having a Grand Re-Opening! Please go to http://www.paperwithpurpose.com/ and check it out! Also, in honor of this, today only is 10% off everything. Our online store already has some great deals this week and we will add 10% more off of that! Also, go "like" our facebook page www.facebook.com/paperwithpurpose and send others to "like" it too. Have them comment that you sent them. The people with the most friends sent will get a free beach bag for the summer. It's our biggest seller! The contest ends sunday, so send your friends! You can also get free stationery if you send brides to buy their wedding invitations from us. Thanks for being so supportive this far. We appreciate it so much! And in case you didn't already know, 10% off all our earnings until October will go towards tornado relief.

Adventures with Sue and Graeme!

Because of the tragedy Alabama endured this week, I'm behind on this post. But I need a bright spot and hopefully some others want some fun news, so I think it's time to tell about my adventures with my Aussie family! I could write this post for DAYS and it could be REALLY long, but I'll try to keep it as simple as I can. (it is still pretty long...just a warning!)

WE HAD A BLAST and made memories to last a lifetime. This first picture pretty much sums up our 10 days together. I know Chris and I are absent in this photo, but this picture says it all. Look at the joy on Sue and Graeme's faces to have their Alabama grandbabies in their arms and look at the faces of Wells and Claire. They loved each other! The rest of the pictures will be in order of our adventures. Sorry for all the collages, but there were hundreds of photos.



After 9 years of waiting, we finally got to see each other!!! We cried at the airport and then came home to a birthday party for Sue as her birthday was the 12th of April! I think it helped the kiddos attach REAL quickly! Claire and Wells loved them instantly. The phone calls, pictures and gifts worked wonders we think :)

We wasted no time once they got here. They arrived Wednesday afternoon, and the three of us left Thursday morning for Memphis. Thank you Mom and Dad for helping with the kiddos and thanks to Chris to being number one Dad and husband so we could get away for a few days. We went to the famous Peabody hotel and watched the ducks, went to Rendevous for ribs and bbq for dinner, strolled up and down Beale Street and ended up at BB Kings Jazz club for the night (well...9:00...we were tired!). The most fun part of the night was our p.j. party afterwards in our Westin hotel room! I felt 21 again, and truly felt like no time had passed since I lived with them in Australia. And I must say, their jammies were way more fun than mine! :)

We woke up on Friday morning, went to good ole Denny's for breakfast and then we were off to Graceland. I didn't know what I would think, but I really enjoyed it. It was just so interesting to see Elvis' house, and really just learn a lot more about him. I've just never really cared!! But honestly, now I do! It was so fun! And hilarious to see how much people WORSHIP the king of music. I enjoyed people watching :). ( I know the pictures are hard to see, but click on each collage and you can see the pictures close up). It was even more fun going with Sue and Graeme because they were fans and really excited to see it all.

We were on a tight schedule to get home as tornadoes were scheduled to hit Tennessee down through Alabama from 2 on, and were set to hit birmingham around 5. Well, guess when we got into Birmingham...4:50. It was HORRIBLE the whole way home. There were many times I couldn't see in front of my face and once we got into Birmingham I was very scared. Poor Sue and Graeme didn't know what a tornado was, but they got a little glimpse. Praise the Lord they were in New York this week and didn't have to be here in the midst of the worst tornado our country has ever seen. After returning to my parents' home safely, my sweet mom and dad had cooked and we had a YUMMY dinner at their house. They were AMAZING while Sue and Graeme were here. They housed them since we had no guest bedroom and did so much for us all so we could have sweet time together. My parents fell in love with them too! :)

We woke up Saturday morning, put on our red and white, and headed to Alabama's A-Day game. I think I was more excited about this day than any other day they were here! I was so proud to show them Tuscaloosa, my dorms, my house, my sorority house, and of our course our stadium! :) Those who know me well know that I. Love. Alabama. Football. So I was THRILLED to find out they were going to be here during A-Day. They couldn't believe we had so many people at a spring game (against ourselves I may add) but it helped them to understand the passion for college football in the south, and especially at Alabama. They LOVED it and Graeme caught on to football pretty quickly. In one picture below, you will see Chris teaching some plays and rules on a napkin! I tried to explain it to Sue, but we decided we would just have fun seeing all the sights! ha! My sweet parents again kept the kids and let Chris and I take them to the zone area of Bryant Denny. Dad was a champ for giving up those tickets. So we got to enjoy drinks, food, and cool air inside! But it was a gorgeous day and perfect weather so we just sat out and got a little burned (notice the picture of Chris and Graeme with napkins on their heads). I'm so glad they got to see Tuscaloosa before the devastation. We went to hear Saban speak before and check out the picture of Graeme behind his podium on the top...hilarious!!!! (No alabama fan would dare do that without permission! we all died laughing!)

I don't have pictures of Sunday and Monday but they were packed as well. Graeme and Chris went to an Atlanta Braves game on Sunday. They are both huge baseball fans and they loved it! Sue and I also loved the fact that our hubbies got along so well. Chris truly loved him. Sue and I were going to go to church, but Claire got croup, so that was out! We went around Birmingham a little and I showed her around. We had dinner with Melinda (Chris' mom) that night and she enjoyed meeting Sue as well! Monday, my dad and Graeme played golf at The Capstone Club in vance. After many laughs of my dad picking up clubs for the first time in three years, they had a blast. That night (thank you Yaz and Papa for keeping the kids) we went to The Grill at The Club. We couldn't wait to show them Birmingham at night and we LOVE that restaurant. Tuesday we were off again! This time it was a vacation for six! Chris, the kids and I took them to Mentone, Alabama. If you are from here and haven't been, you are missing out. Although the city is full of camps and only a few restaurants and shops, the views are amazing at the mountain tops. It is just like mountains anywhere in the south. GORGEOUS. We loved our 3 bedroom cabin with a hottub. And Wells slept in a big boy bed the whole week and did great!!!! We will have to get one for him at home:).

We spent Monday afternoon and night enjoying our cabin. Tuesday, we headed up and drove 45 minutes into Chattanooga. The Tennessee aquarium was as spectacular as everyone has said. I cannot say enough positive things about it. You just HAVE to go. Chattanooga is a GREAT place to take kids (even a 1 and 2 year old). We can't wait to go back when they are older and enjoy the hands on museum and chattanooga choo choo! And don't worry...both kids came away with a prize. Wells got a shark (that he named chattanooga because he liked to say that big word) and Claire got a turtle. They are still cuddling with them at night!

Thursday we went on a drive through Little River Canyon and got out at the 8 lookouts. It was gorgeous. Who knew we had an area like that in Alabama? I went to camp in Mentone every summer for years, but of course didn't care about site seeing! Friday we headed back home to another fun grill-out at my parents house. It was a bitter sweet night as we were reminiscing on the last 9 days, but we knew the next morning was the day they would have to say good-bye. I hated it for my kids as much as I hated it for myself. In that short amount of time, they already felt like they had gained a third set of grandparents! It was precious to watch. Everyday one or both of the children still chant their famous cricket cheer, "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oy! Oy! Oy!", at any given moment!

Saturday morning brought lots of tears, but sweet memories to keep in our hearts forever. These pictures are of our last morning together.

Thank you so much Sue and Graeme for coming all the way from Australia to Alabama to spend such precious and meaningful time with us. We loved every minute with you and pray that God will give us more sweet time together in the years to come. I will leave this post with your favorite saying in the south, "Y'all come back now!"

Wells' First School Program!

Wells had his 2 year old end of the year program at school Tuesday, April 19th. He was so excited about this program and talked about all of the songs he would sing for days and days leading up to it. He LOVES school!!! Mrs. June (his music teacher) is quite the hit and he just loves music class. He only goes to school Tuesdays and Thursdays, but I love that they have music on Thursdays because it is the highlight for Wells! I wasn't quite sure how he'd do because he really loves Mommy and when I am around, he is stuck like glue! I'll let the pictures tell the story...


It all started out so precious as the children held hands walking in to greet the audience (by the way it was just his class of 7 children)
He was all smiles saying, "hey mommy! hey daddy!"

Then he realized he was singing for Mommy, Daddy, Gaygay, Dandaddy, Uncle Kyle, Sue & Graeme (my australia parents), Yaz, and 20 other parents/grandparents he didn't know. And he began to think, "this won't be so fun after all".

Both hands went as far in his mouth as they could go and then the tears flowed and he ran to me a couple of times. But I was proud of him that he went back for the rest of the program. Oh...and every other child sang and smiled :)

Then his best friend in the class, Hill, started to cry and he figured ,"Oh yeah! I'm not the only one who thinks this is too much to handle!"

Then a smile came on the very last song while he barely shook his rattle and tried to make Hill laugh.

Once the program was over he ran into my arms and said, "mom, are you proud of me?" And that melted my heart! I felt so bad for the little guy crying the whole time in agony while his friends sang! But of course I said I was proud with a huge smile! And on the way out the door he yelled, "mom, I sang great!" what a hoot!

(****I will be posting all my adventures with my australian parents once I get all the pictures in. I dropped them off this morning at the airport and lots of tears were shed. we had a BLAST!!!!!!)

The Aussies are Coming!!! :)

For those of you who don't know, MY FAMILY FROM AUSTRALIA IS COMING TOMORROW!!! I've told anyone and everyone for the last 6 or so months. Spring of my senior year in college, I opted to leave tuscaloosa and enter the world of oz to do my student teaching. It was the best decision I've ever made!!!! It was absolutely unreal. Not only did I get to teach in an incredible school, but I travelled all over my favorite country in the world (besides ours of course!). It truly was surreal. I lived in Geelong, Australia (which is about 45 minutes from Melbourne). What made the experience even better is I got to live with one of the greatest families out there. The Ross family (the librarian at the school was the mom) took me in and treated me as their daughter. There were three boys and I LOVED it! I always wanted a brother and while I was there I got three! Sue and Graeme are the parents and Cameron, Stuart, and Andrew were the boys. I see them as a second mom and dad. We have talked a least once a month since I left 10 years ago. And NOW they are coming to see me! They have already gone to LA, Palm Springs, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and tomorrow they travel to Bham. People have repeatedly asked them, why? I laugh, but am beyond thrilled. They are staying for 10 days so I will have tons of posts either while they are here or when they leave. Here is our itinerary while they are here: Wednesday- arrive at 4:00 and we will celebrate Sue's birthday (which is today) Thursday- Just Graeme, Sue and I will go to Memphis for the night Friday- Graceland! I'm sure this is the only time in my life i'll go, but why not! they were dying to go! Saturday- Alabama's A-Day game and a luncheon where Saban will speak. I can't wait to show them what football is all about Sunday- Chris and Graeme will go to a braves game in Atlanta Monday- My dad and Graeme play golf Tuesday- Friday- Mentone, Chattanooga to the aquarium and choo-choo Saturday- they leave:( Do you think we will be tired? These were all their requests so we are pumped! Now here are Graeme and Sue! This is a sign at the Birmingham Zoo in the "Kangaroo Kountry" area. How fitting!

****There is another new post after this one****