Homecoming parade

Unlike most schools, ours combines elementary, middle and high school all in one. One of the benefits(?) of this is that the younger kids start going to pep rallies in kindergarten (this creates some serious school spirit!), and they can be signed out early for the homecoming parade. I know most of you will find this whole entry amusing, but you must understand. Homecoming is a big deal here. The whole town comes out to see it. Businesses pause for the hour, so they can go to view it. It is held on Main Street, so all the traffic is held up for 45 minutes. Every year I have lived here, the children and I have gone downtown to sit with Grandma Hazel and Grandpa Dan (their great-grandparents) at his produce stand. Grandpa was a home sick today, but we convinced Grandma to come with us. 

I love my little town!

Writing again!

So, I have been helping out at the school with the Box Tops for Education program, and I thought it would be great to have the local, weekly newspaper to do a story about it again. I talked to the publisher about it, and she asked me to write it for her. Even though it has been about nine years since I have written for publication, I agreed. After I turned the story in, the publisher contacted me and asked if I wanted to begin writing for them again on a regular basis. I decided to start very slowly with a couple stories a month. Hurray! I am a writer again. An extremely rusty writer, but a writer nonetheless. I am happy!

The Gardens

Today the kids and I drove a friend to Birmingham, and while we were there we visited the Birmingham Botanical Gardens. I had a back-up plan in mind, but to my surprise, the children ran around excitedly viewing the flowers and plants. Even though it was fall, the roses were beautiful. It was a great visit. 

My Mosaic

I got this idea from my sister-in-law. It did take about an hour to complete, but I was so curious about what my mosaic would look like that I had to do it. It was fun though!

1. Love, 2. Arriving at the Italian Riviera, 3. Point Loma Nazarene University, original Spaulding residence, 1901, 4. Meeting the pregnant princess of the forest, 5. More Johnny Depp . . ., 6. macro water drop, 7. The Village Pond, Blatherwyke, Northampshire, England, 8. 14th August 2007/Day 226, 9. The Voice of Water, 10. Joy of life, 11. Entering Hyperspace, 12. Jordan and Jessa

The Rules: you answer the following 12 questions about yourself (my answers are in parentheses after each question):

1. What is your first name? (Jessica)
2. What is our favorite food? (Italian)
3. What high school did you attend? (Spaulding High School)
4. What is your favorite color? (Green)
5. Who is your celebrity crush? (Johnny Depp) (I have seen way better pictures of him than this provided!)
6. Favorite drink? (Water)
7. Dream vacation? (European countryside)
8. Favorite dessert? (Baked goods)
9. What do you want to be when you grow up? (Writer)
10. What do you love most in life? (Family)
11. One word to describe you? (Crazy)
12. Your Flickr name? (Jessakita) (I had to use Jessa to get search results)

Want to play? Type your answers to each of the above questions into Flickr's search. Using only the images that appear on the first page, choose your favorite and copy and paste each of the URL's into the Mosaic Maker. (3 columns, 4 rows)

Family Home Evening

Family home evenings are always . . . well, interesting in our home. They are usually unorganized, chaotic and contentious, but we keep trying. Maybe one day we will figure out how to do it in a peaceful, organized manner. Until then however we'll just keep plodding on.

This week we talked about what the Apostles and Prophet taught us in General Conference. We were able to recall that President Monson instructed us to reach out to the lonely, sick, widows and widowers. He asked us to reach out to those not of our faith. 

Paul shared that during the Priesthood session an Elder told a story about a group of men trying to move a large piano into a building. After much difficulty in trying several different ways someone instructed the men, "Everyone just lift and walk through the door." They then very easily walked the piano into the building and placed it in its spot. The lesson is "Just lift where you are." No matter your place in life, job, calling or family, you have a work to do. Contribute where you are.

Elder Eyring spoke about unity. We discussed his suggestion to pray for individual family members so that unity can grow in our family. 

After our discussion we baked cookies for a widower in town and played a game of UNO.

Guess who won!

At the beep of the cookie timer, Dad was left on his own to clean up the cards.

Yummy chocolate chip cookies!

As the cookies cooled, the anticipation began to get to them.

Does anyone else feel like they've been through the ringer after family home evening?