i am turning the page

My son is learning to love chapter books!  You can imagine how this excites me.  Each night he chooses a book and we read a chapter together.  It is so much fun for me, given my LOVE for books!  I can remember being young and learning to read.  Chapter books were always my favorite.   JP and I were recently in the library when I found a rather large book that I knew he would enjoy.  However when I showed it to him, he looked almost afraid.  "Oh mommy!  I could never read that book...it's too big for me!"   I explained to him that, that was not true at all.  You just had to read one chapter at a time.

Isn't that also true in life?  If you try to figure everything out all at once, it is so overwhelming!  Much too big for us.  But if you focus on living one day at a time (sometimes, one hour at a time), all of a sudden, it doesn't seem so impossible. 

I have come to the end of a very long chapter in my life.  It's time to turn the page.  Part of the next chapter is the opening of my new blog.  I said that I would explain the name on this site, but I have decided against it.  The explanation of the title is written in the body of the post.  I would like to thank all of you, my readers, for your constant support.  You have been amazing and I will always cherish this blog and everything it has meant to me.  Now, my prayer is that you choose to follow me through the remainder of my story.  I love all of you.

Click on the link below.

the Land of Judah

we are home (next to last post)

What a week!!  I hope that everyone had an amazing Thanksgiving holiday!  I have to say, mine was not quite as sad and emotional as I had anticipated.  Don't get me wrong...I had a few moments.  However, as a whole, it was very nice.

As I mentioned before, I spent most of this week at the beach.  How could it be bad, right?!!  The ocean is SO healing for me.  I try to spend as much time there as possible.  (Looks like I'll be leaving for Chucktown aka Charleston on the 13th!)  I can smell the air on Sullivans Island already....Mmm.

Here are a few pics from the week:

 

 

 

 

These pictures are a little out of order.  JP was with me the first part of the week.  We drove home for Thanksgiving day.  JP went to be with his dad and we enjoyed a meal with my dad's side of the family.  Not having JP with me was definitely not ideal, but he was happy... and that's all that matters to me at this point.  After our dinner, we loaded up Preston and headed back down to the coast for the remainder of the week.  Preston had a great time!  He was really cute toting his football around everywhere.

 

 

Here are the boys on Thanksgiving day.  I am SO thankful for them both!  They bring such joy (and chaos) to our lives...

 

 

We are home now.  I have a LOT of cleaning and organizing to do.  I have had a pretty hard time getting into the Christmas spirit.  Everything is so different now.  I have decided that, rather than stay "blue" about the changes, I am going to begin brand new traditions.  I am not teaching tomorrow, so I plan to spend the majority of my day getting the house ready to decorate.  Dad and Laurie will be working tomorrow evening, so mom, the boys and I are going to put up the trees and watch a Christmas movie.  I may even have to introduce JP to hot chocolate!  Saturday night we are going to see the Roper Mountain Christmas lights and visit Santa.  That's always fun.  When school lets out, Kerri and I are taking our boys over to Kathi's house for more Christmas movies and cookie baking... This will be new and I am REALLY excited about it!  We're calling it Kookies at Kathi's.  Extremely cheesy, I know.  But who cares?!  The boys will have a blast. 

 

 

I also have to spend a part of the week studying for my final exam in my medical class.  It is next week.  UGH.  I will be so happy when this is over.  I have terrible test anxiety.  It looks like I will celebrate the end of the semester at the beach!  I look forward to that.

 

 

Alright.  I originally said that I would only post once more to this blog, but I wanted to go ahead and do the Thanksgiving/beach trip recap.  I DO have the name of my new blog.  I am SO EXCITED about it!!  Unfortunately, I will not share it until I am ready to open up the site.  I am working on it NOW.  In the beginning, it is just going to be a BlogSpot address like this one.  Eventually, I hope to change it to an actual website address.  I still have not decided which one I want to use.  My last post on this blog will be this week.  In it, I will share with you the name of the new blog and the meaning behind it.  God revealed it to me this past week.  I had a whole other name ready and actually ON the header of the blog.  After being introduced to this one, I have not been able to get it out of my head.  It is based on a scripture that has brought so much peace and comfort to me recently.  It is very special and I cannot wait to share it with you. 

 

Well, that's all I have for now.  HAPPY MONDAY, friends!