January Baby Dates

Martin Luther King Jr. did a lot of awesome things for our nation and we are incredibly grateful for how hard he worked to push our nation towards equality. But there are few people more thankful than public school teachers. Why, you may ask, are teachers so grateful? Because the celebration of his accomplishments often leads to a much-needed day off from school ;-) All jokes aside, Dr. King was an impressive man whom we really are thankful for!

On this particular day off from school we were able to gather the little babies at our house for a few hours of "play", which really means chit chat for the mommas. The babes are starting to interact much more than they ever have before and we all can't wait until they actually play with each other!

Of course everyone wanted the same toys that made all the noises 

I know my hand tastes good, but how does yours taste?

Just chill in. . . 

 We forgot to take the picture before Adah had to head out, but Braylen and Amelia Grace cooperated for us;-)

Sadly we were missing one-fourth of our quartet this time around as Cohen battles some nasty viral bugs. We're hoping and praying this is the last of it for him and he can finally get some relief from all these germs!

I don't know who's more excited about their next break from school, us or them??

Baby Date

About a month or so ago I posted about a little get together I and with some of my old teaching friends. What made this even more special was the addition of all of our babies! The ladies had a couple teacher workdays last week so we took advantage of the down-time after school hours and had another baby date! It was so much fun to get together and not only catch up on our lives (isn't that what playdates are really all about anyway??;-) ), but to also see the babies really interacting!

They have all grown so much in such a short amount of time. You always hear how fast they grow, but you have no idea until it's your little doing the growing! We managed to snag a few pictures of them being precious:

Amelia Grace (3mo), Adah (7mo), Braylen (5mo), Cohen (6mo)

I just love every bit of this picture!

Amelia Grace was trying her darndest to hold her head up like her friends!

PS-Please not Braylen blending into the blanket, haha. 

A little blurry, but I still love. Thanks, Brittany!

I wish we could meet more often, but it makes the dates even more special:-) 

Lesson Learned

There are a lot of things I miss about being at school and teaching, but one of the things I miss the most is seeing my school family. Y'all, these people are amazing. You need a hug? Their arms are wide open. Advice? They've got a story. A laugh? They have a million to share! Seriously, I miss these people. A few Fridays ago Amelia Grace and I got to hang out with some of them!

Remember this picture?

Well, here we are now!

It's so wonderful sharing stories of our little loves and the chance to see them grow up together:-)

BUT, before we even made it to this wonderful playdate we stopped by the school to visit with a few others. A sweet friend of mine was holding AG while we were all just catching up when I noticed the tell-tale yellow on her dress. Mommas know what I'm talking about. That lovely mustard yellow that signals a poop explosion. Awesome. 

I quickly grabbed AG away from Teri in hopes that she didn't spread the wealth. Luckily she hadn't! Not so luckily was the fact that I didn't have a spare outfit. Little miss had used that one the weekend before when we were in Winston Salem and I had forgotten to replace it. Well, I was not about to let this spoil our coffee date, so what's a girl to do? Put your baby (clad only in her diaper, mind you) and race over to Walmart to pick something up. Mother of the year right here, folks. She was not the least bit fazed and fit right in with the other kooks at the Wally World;-)

Needless to say there are now TWO spare outfits in the diaper bag. 

Lesson learned.

A Different First Day

Welp, it's the first day of school and I'm not there. This is actually the first "first day" that I've not been a part of in 21 years. Wowzers. Crazy to think that I've had a first day of school every August since I was 4 years old and now I'm not. It's kind of sad, to be honest. What's even more sad is that I won't have any sort of "first day" this year. After much prayer and discussion David and I decided it would be best for me to stay home with our little girl for a year.

Don't get me wrong, I am over the moon to have this opportunity to spend extra time with Amelia Grace! I cannot wait to watch her grow and help her reach all sorts of milestones, but I really am going to miss the hustle and bustle of middle school. I'm going to miss their crazy "I love you/I hate you" moments and their "my world is ending because he/she won't talk to me anymore" days. My heart will certainly miss the laughter and camaraderie that came along with my school family. And there are no words to describe how much I will seeing the "light bulb" moment on a student's face when they finally "get it".

It was by far one of the hardest decisions I've ever had to make, but I know I made the right one. My wonderfully supportive principal said it best, "Teaching will always be here, but your baby won't". I'm keeping those words close to my heart as I embark on a whole new journey with a different type of student. Here's to days of staying in our pajamas and momma learning to curb the sarcastic humor middle schoolers love so much;-)

My new student is VERY serious about learning;-)

So Long, Students

We have officially reached the last day of school of my fourth year teaching. Wow. It's still hard for me to believe that I've been teaching four years and that my latest group of babies is heading off to the high school. My first group will be seniors next year-eek! When did I get so old??

Each year has taught me something new. . .

Year 1-ALL kids need love. No matter where they come from or who greets them at home, they need your love and support at school.

Year 2-Every student, and every class will teach you something new, you need only be open to continuing to learn. And no teacher should ever stop learning!

Year 3-They are still children. As adult as these kids want to be (or have to be at home), they are still children and sometimes the routine and structure of school is what they need to be reminded.

Year 4-Don't take it personal. Sometimes kids say things and they don't understand what it may mean to the recipient.

Looking forward to seeing what next year will bring!

Welcome, June!

Once again I've started slacking in the blogging realm . . . Sorry to the few people who actually stop by to check up on our antics! With the close of school coming near and our summer filling up very quickly, things have been cuckoo! Being busy is just a season, right??;-) A few things that have kept us occupied. . .

* The triplets graduated college! 

My parents have officially reached hero status by putting five kids through college and helping them survive to adulthood. Forget heroes, they're saints!

* We entered the third trimester!

 Not only did we enter the third trimester, but we've had two healthy appointments since then AND I passed my glucose test. What better way to celebrate than with a cookie cake that weekend?;-)

* My sister got engaged! 

Many of you remember me posting about Mandy here when she needed prayer for her liver. She continues to need prayer, but we're also celebrating because she is marrying the love of her life in September!

*Testing, testing, testing.

If you live in North Carolina you're well-aware that we are in testing season. Some of my poor kiddos have up to seven assessments-SEVEN! That's more than most college kids. It's winding down now, but it's leading to a crazy season at school.

* Visitors galore!

Our door seemed a bit like a revolving door for a while there. Don't get me wrong, we loved having visitors come to stay, but sometimes it's nice to be able to walk around in your jim jams without worrying who's around;-)

5 on Friday [03.28]

Happy Friday!

 *one*

 I am so excited for a cozy date night in tonight. After last weekend's whirlwind trip plus all that we have going on Saturday and Sunday, a night tucked in watching Redbox movies and noshing on pizza is just what we need!

*two*

 We are halfway to meeting our baby girl!! We had a 20-week appointment at the high-risk OB and he said everything looks great. They even snapped a few pictures of her for us:-) We will go back in two weeks and then again two weeks after that just to make sure she is still rocking along.

*three*

Have any of y'all seen The Outsiders movie? I'm watching it with my kiddos this week since we just finished reading the book, and I had forgotten how much I loved it! What a great story and interpretation. Not to mention you get to see a whole slew of actors before they made it to the big times. 

*four*

 It's almost April. Holy canoli! How did that happen?? I'm definitely not complaining because it means we are one month closer to summer and our baby girl, but still. Time is flying this year!

*five* 

Has anyone seen the trailer for The Giver?? I loved the book the first time I read it as a kid, and feel even more in love every time I've taught it. The trailer doesn't look much like the book, but I'm still excited!

5 on Friday [03.21]

Happy Friday!

*one*
And the weather craziness continues. By this point in the year we're usually wearing flip flops more than boots, but the same cannot be said this time around. We had a delay earlier this week for icy conditions and the weather peeps are calling for more ick next week. I'm not sure how much more I can take!


*two*
115 students turned in projects yesterday. 35 of those projects have 10 parts and the other 80 have 4 parts. You do the math.

Oh, and they took a test too. With short answer questions.

The solution? Lots of grading for Mrs. Mobley.

*three*
Have any of y'all ever heard of Sharon Draper?? She is a fantastic young adult author who writes very real stuff that our students absolutely eat up. Well, she's coming to visit our school soon! We are so excited to host her and hear her speak!  

*four*
We officially booked our Spring Break trip! Here we come, Charleston!

*five*
My students and I have been jamming to the Beach Boys on Pandora this week after reading a reading comprehension on their history, and we are all loving it! Puts us in the perfect warm weather mood and gets us all ready for Spring Break. Too bad it's a month away. . .

Life is Good

I haven't really done a "life lately" post in a long while, so I figure I'll go ahead and update you on the shenanigans of our world!

First of all, don't drink the water at school. . .

Going left to right, I'm due in August, Brittany is due in June, Stephanie is due in April, and Rachel is due any day now! And our principal had a baby this past December. Gotta love this season of life:-)

Speaking of babies, how precious is this sweet face??

Our anatomy scan went really well last week. The doctor and ultrasound tech said everything looked great and SHE seems to be growing very well. She was already 8oz (a smidge bigger than the usual 6oz they see around 18 weeks) and had the four chambers of her heart and lobes of her brain. Yay! Another relief was that she didn't have a cleft palette, which is always a concern with the presence of prednisone. Praises all around! 

David isn't a huge fan of the doctor at the high-risk OB, but I love him. He's a straight shooter who doesn't try to hide anything. David hates the fact that he has NO bedside manner. I love the fact that he lets me come back whenever I want just to ease my mind. So, we will be going back in a week and a half to just make sure everything is still going well because the 20 week mark is around the time they think Emerson passed. We would appreciate any and all prayers over the next couple of months as we navigate this scary (for us) time period.

Thursday included a special delivery to my classroom. . .

Beautiful pink roses from my daddy to celebrate our baby girl! And Friday included two more gifts for this spoiled girl. . .

To say her grandparents are wrapped around her teeny, tiny finger would be a very accurate statement. Thanks, Mama and Daddy!

Life is good:-)

Snow?

"Catastrophic"

"Worst storm in a decade"

"Crippling"

These are some of the things being said about the impending snow storm. The snow storm they cancelled schools for before we even saw a flurry. #ncweatherproblems

This teacher (and I'm sure all the other teachers losing Spring Break) wish we had gone to school today, but what's done is done. Until then I'm going to stay cozy and giggle at all the people enjoying their milk sandwiches!