UFC at The nassars?

I was talking online with Claude last week and somehow our house got volunteered to watch some pay-per-view of UFC... Fred and I are NOT fans, but Andy likes it, so I thought it would be fun for him and we got to see Claude & Jim (and some other stragglers). The thing I DIDN'T know was that the show wasn't starting till 10pm. Fred and I had planned to go out to dinner while they watched the fight, but it was too late for that.

So we hung out and watched a little bit of it. I had to close my eyes a couple of times, but over all it wasn't that bad.

I was worried I wouldn't get any sleep (it was lasting till 1am), but that wasn't a problem either. So it was all good.

Jesuit Soccer Tournament

Last weekend was spent at Ed Radice Field (near Citrus Park Mall). Andy's school soccer team was invited to play in a tournament. It's a big one, teams from all over Fl. come to it and you can only come by invitation.

As much as I wanted to take care of last minute things before Christmas, I have to admit it was fun watching the games. These guys are quite aggressive, there were a few minor injuries (mostly to the same kid!), but over all, they were good games.

They played 1 Saturday night, 2 on Monday, then we went to finals and played 2 on Tuesday. The 1st finals game, they had to do PKs because the game ended in a tie. That was nerve racking, but we won!!

They only lost 1 game, but for some weird reason, they ended as 5th.

As I was looking at the pics I took, I noticed this one:

Andy has his hands up as if saying "I didn't do anything to him!"... lol

For the record, he wasn't penalized, so it must have been a 'legal' move.

We got this weekend off, but there is another tournament next weekend. It's Andy's Senior year so I am glad he's getting to play a lot.

Sunday School Christmas

JOY!!!!!

I found this on youtube... It makes you want to jump up and down and sing along.
Never heard of the group (GO FISH), but I think I want to find their CDs... so if anyone is looking for a Christmas present for me... hint,hint

PJs and Polar Epress

Today was a fun day! The K5 classes got to come to school in PJs and watch the movie "Polar Express". We had hot chocolate and cookies along with it. And we finished making our gifts for the parents and the kids. Don't tell anyone, but we didn't get a lot 'school' done today.

Our kids were treated to pajamas donated by a couple of people in the school.

They were so excited and they looked adorable!

I now have 2 weeks off. If I wasn't so tired, I would do a 'happy dance'. And I have created such a 'to do' list, I don't think 2 weeks is going to be enough! aggh!

Merry Christmas to Fred

Fred has been wanting a flat screen tv for 2 years. We have gone to Best Buy more times that I can count and looked (drooled) over what they had, only to leave empty handed... He finally got one and it arrived this week. He got a deal at Costco. It's a 50" Panasonic Plasma... don't know much about tvs, but Fred likes it. I think it's suppose to be "our" Christmas present. But I have already caught him once calling it 'his' TV... I don't care. Either way, I can watch it.

Now, I need to paint the wall, since it's more exposed than before. After Christmas, we are going to need things on either side of it as it's going to have empty space. I will probably hang up family pics on the wall above it. So, this TV may have become a bigger deal that Fred had in mind. hehe

Christmas at the Nassars

Being away for Thanksgiving has put me behind... but I finally finished putting up the Christmas decorations. I have scaled back the last couple of years, but still think it makes the house festive.

The last thing I needed to do was finish the tree in the front room. I did that last night, only to wake up to this:

I knew the tree was on its last leg, just didn't know it was going to break it as soon as I put it up... oh, well, this could really aggravate me. But I am just going to take it down and put the ornaments away for the next year for the new tree I will get on the 26th. And it will be a pre-lit one. :)

Distractions

Great message about not letting things distract us from the REAL meaning of Christmas... plus it's funny!
in case you don't catch it, Andy gets run over by a Hummer...

Happy Birthday Nina!!

I cannot believe my baby girl is 22! I can't begin to describe ALL the emotions I go through when I think that. Partly, I am so excited that she is growing up and having a life of her own. The other side of me wants to tell her how to live that life to keep her from pain... boy, whoever said parenting got easier when they grow up is SO mistaken!!

She came home this past weekend and brought her roomies (and the dogs, :) ) We took her to lunch at Cheddars, her FAVORITE place. Even though we were all busting out of our pants, we HAD to have her favorite dessert.

You ask for the croissants you get with salads and ask the waitress to add caramel and whipped cream to them. YUMMY!!

Then we hit the mall and I told her to pick out 2 outfits. 3 1/2 hours later and 1 mom, 2 roomies exhausted, she found almost all she wanted... she still needs to find a top.

So, since I can't see her on her actual birthDAY, here you go Nina:

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday to you!

Happy Birthday, dear Nina!

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Love you bunches, miss you tons!

Texas follow up

I am still trying to catch up from our long weekend away. My house is a mess, Christmas is in boxes in my dining room, and I am STILL tired...

It took us 21 hours to get to Texas on Wednesday. The hotel was very nice, so we weren't 'roughing it'. Got to spend just a few hours on Thursday with Freddy. His work schedule is midnight-9am, so he stays up until 3pm or so then goes to bed. We met up with him on Friday, went out to lunch and hit a Best Buy. We got him a vacuum cleaner for Christmas. Now we just hope he uses it. hehe
We decided to leave on Saturday since we expected another long drive. We thought about staying overnight somewhere on the way home. But since I wanted to see Freddy 1 more time, we didn't leave till 9:30am. Everyone just wanted to get home, so we drove straight through and got home on Sunday at 5am.
That was the roughest trip I have taken and hope never to do again... I REALLY enjoyed Freddy, but next time we go see him, we either fly or make it a longer time so we don't have to kill ourselves driving.

Freddy is doing really well. His apt. is actually really cute and has tons of potential. I gave him some 'suggestions', but he doesn't plan on staying there longer than his 1year lease. He is hoping to find a roommate and get a bigger apt.

Austin looks like a cool place. There were so many places I would have loved to go see. We may make a Summer trip.

Thanksgiving Texas Style

And we're off!!!

Well, we will be in 7 1/2 hours. I am excited! But at the same time I am feeling the exhaustion of getting ready. Fred has already gone to bed, and I am not far behind...

I am hoping I can blog while in Texas with Freddy's computer. I plan on taking tons of pics of him and his new world. After all, I don't know when I'll see him again... never mind, enough of that talk! I plan on enjoying our time with him...

I found some diners in the Austin area. Fred and I like to hit up diners of all kinds during our trips. That'll be fun!

Well, hope all of my dear friends have a

WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!!!

Smashed car...

On the way home from the Teach In Wednesday, Andy hit a dog. :( It wasn't his fault, the dog came out of a neighborhood and ran in front of him. Unfortunately, the dog died. Andy was able to contact the owner and he came. It was so sad. The man said they had him for 8 years. He was pretty choked up about, but thanked Andy for contacting him. He said he would've hated having to look for his dog and finding him on the side of the road.

The dog was a big one and did a job on our car:

But God is good! Fred took the car to the shop on Thursday and is right now picking it up. I was really worried we may have to cancel our Tx. trip... but we're on track, yeah!

The Great American Teach In

Last Wednesday, our school had the "Great American Teach In". It's a day when we have all kinds of special guests from all kinds of profesions. A chance for the kids to see what jobs they might like to do when they grow up. Fred came last year and did his 'ham radio' thing.

He was asked to return, and I volunteered Andy to come and do a 'soccer presentation'.

If Nina had been in town, I would've had her come and do manicures on the little girls. lol.

Andy did mostly k5-2nd grade. He and his friend Cameron were a hit. They did a great job. I wish I had thought about him last year...

I also asked Wayne Moore from KABC to come and talk about his missions travels. He did an excellent job. He was restricted about talking how he went to share the Gospel. So his theme was that we needed to be Thankful for all we have as he showed the kids houses in Manila & the Dominican Republic. How the kids there didn't have all things we have here. It was perfect, I knew he would do a great job!

It was a really fun day and our kids were awesome, even though our class has a hard time with going out of our schedule and being 'unstructured'.

We even had R2D2 come and visit!

It was a blast!

He shoots! He scores!

Andy had a school soccer game tonight. He made his first goal!!! It was so cool, everyone in the stands hooted & hollered for him. Oh, and we won the game, too.
Here are some pics from previous years of playing. I felt like reminiscing....

Typical Sunday at the Nassars

Friends, dominoes, and WINNER!

We went to the Caddells to play dominoes with them and the Ross'. It's always a blast to play with them, conversations flying from all over, Tym & Fred staying on people that it's their turn...

What is sweet about last night is that I won!!! I NEVER win! I am usually the one in last place. So here is proof, as it may never happen again:

Some randomness

I can't believe I haven't posted in a week! A lot of little things have happened, so here I go:

1-My brother and his family came down from NC on the way to the Fl Keys for Sara's brother's wedding. They came in on Mon. night and left Thurs. afternoon. We had our 'Thanksgiving' meal on Tuesday with mom. That was good cuz we are going to Tx for Thanksgiving and I was feeling a bit guilty about leaving Mom. And we didn't have turkey (mom hates turkey). Just some good ole fashion 'puertorican food'. Pork, yellow rice, black beans, and FLAN!!
They came by work on the way out to say goodbye. That's good, cuz I hadn't taken any pics of them yet...

2-There was a Thanksgiving Banquet at church last night for the Seniors citizens and Fred and I volunteered to help. We were in charge of serving 2 tables, and whatever else was needed. There were over 500 seniors there. I was very impressed with how organized it all was. People were working their butts off! I had a blast! I am still struggling with leaving events before all the clean up is done. If Fred hadn't been with me, I would have stayed longer. But he kept saying that the folks in charge knew what they were doing (which they did) and they told him to go. Of course they send the volunteers home... that's what you do. But there was so much more we could have helped out with... :( I think I am going to contact whoever is in charge of the 'kitchen crew' and see if I can be part of it. They do a lot of functions.

3-For some reason, my verizon email has been blocking emails from yahoo accounts. I first found out when the Councils were sending me emails and I never got them. Then, the lady in charge of the MAC (gym at church) volunteers told me last night she had emailed my schedule for Nov. I never got it and so I have been AWOL from my duties all this month! I felt so bad!

Well, my 'super hubby' figured out the problem and fixed it. yeah!

4-Stephany is taking criminology classes at school and one of the assignments was to do a 'ride along' with a policeman. She had on Thursday until 3am. She texted me around 10pm and says: so far we have chased drug dealers, arrested people and baker acted someone.

Yeah, that helped me sleep that night! I had her call me when she got home. Haven't really had a chance to ask her details, but I bet she has some interesting stories.

5-One of the kids in my class had a bad day yesterday. He has a cold so his mom gave him some cough syrup before school. Apparently that and the medication he is already on didn't mix well and he had a reaction... he became paranoid and scared of hair. He told me he was scared of mine. Well, he has a thing about curls anyway and my hair was 'unusually' curly that morning. So I calmly talked with him and had him touch my hair and told him I wouldn't let it hurt him... he seemed to be ok. But at lunch, he was sure his own hair was going to hurt him and asked me to cut his hair off. It was so sad. We called his mom and told her about it. He went home and we got a report later that he was better. Please keep him in your prayers. He has some real needs.

6- Just got a call from Becky. We haven't played dominoes in months and she was calling to see if we could come over tonight. Yeah!!!

7-The "great american teach-in" is next Wednesday. Fred is coming with his radios. (he did that last year) and Andy will be coming to have a soccer presentation with a friend of his. So, There will be 3 Nassars at Yates Elementary next week. yeah!

8-ok, I think I am done with randomness... you are all caught up!!

Weird Week

Wow, this has been an emotionally draining week.

At the beginning, I was having major "miss my kids" moments.
Then the election. Well, that was depressing.
At the end of the week, more head butting with one of my children. Won't say who...

I am tired. Emotionally tired. I told Fred we need to get away.

And what is sad, our lives aren't that bad. They are pretty good, actually. After 'analizing' myself, I think it comes down to how very little control I have over the things that are going on around me. Duh!! And that's probably a good thing. I know I would screw it up royally. But the control freak in me still fights.

I HAVE got to get into a good devotional/quiet time. And I need to start going to the MAC at church and exercise.

I know God is looking at me and patiently waiting for me to get my act together.


Iasiah 41:10
Fear not, I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you , yes I will help you. I will hold you in my Righteous Right Hand.

my heart aches

I don't know what's gotten into me, but I have been really bummed the last couple of days about Freddy. I mean, I thought I adjusted to his moving to tx. I even enjoyed cleaning out his room and 'officially' making it an office. And he's 23, for crying out loud, not a baby.

But I have missed him so much it hurts... :(

What if he gets used to not having us around and is fine to be 'without' a family? What if he doesn't miss us (ME)?

I know I sound like a baby, and deep down I do want him to make a life for himself outside of us, that's the natural progression of life. But can't he miss me a little, enough to call me? I would love for him to call me just to tell me something silly that happened, or something that got him aggravated and he needed to vent. I would even take a text or an email.

I get those calls from Nina, and it helps me to deal with her being gone. I know guys are different, but it doesn't make my expectations any different...

Well, I guess I have blubbered enough here. Just needed to let it out to see if I would feel better....

nope, didn't work.

Can't be left out...

I have been looking at my buddies' blogs and they all have pics of their kids from Halloween... it makes me a little droopy that I don't have pics of my kids, so here are some of me!!
We had a "Fab Vocab" parade. Our class had words from the word families: ap, op, ick, all. So I came as Fall.

I wish I could show you pics of my kids in my class. They were adorable!! But as you can understand, I can't. But here are a couple of the teachers. Our principal came as hairy. He kinda freaked out one of our kids who has a thing about 'fringy' stuff.

The teacher I work with is 'wrap'. I thought that was pretty ingenious! And the other aid in our room came as 'sick', notice the water bottle on her head...

I think the teachers had as good a time as the kids.

In the 'spirit' of Halloween

Zack is at it again... he created this video to go with Jeremy's Wednesday night series "Mask". The message is that good witnesses don't wear masks. Nobody likes christians who act one way around christians and another around nonbelievers.

Jackpot Hobo

this one was made to go with a Wednesday night lesson... personally, I don't think it's that funny, but my kid is in it, so I am posting it... :)

MAC video

This was made by Zack Nottingham, the youth pastor's brother, to promote our new MAC. Zack does hillarious videos, so I am thinking of posting them here when we comes up with new ones...
By the way, youth pastor is the one in the basketball jersey, Zack is in the white shirt, and the big guy is Andy Peavyhouse. He runs the youth/singles praise band.

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If you lost everything...

Fred asked our SS this past Sunday: if you lost everything-car,house,job- and you only had your spouse and kids left, would you be ok? I mean, will you have faith that God is still in control and it will be ok?
That's a tough question. I would love to be able to say "yes". But do I have enough faith? God has blessed me in ways that cannot be measured. I look back when I was younger and I would have never imagined my life being as full as it is. I am concerned that I have lived such a good life that I wouldn't be able to handle it in the bad times.
So, how do I get to the point where I would be confident that in rough times, I will be faithful?

2 SS lessons ago, there was a story in the quarterly about a man who came to know the Lord through a missionary. When the missionary came back years later to visit him, he asked the man how his walk with God was going. He said " it's a constant struggle. I look at it as 2 dogs, 1 white(righteousness) and one black (evil) battling within me". The missionary asked "who wins?". The man said "the one I feed the most".
That really struck a cord with me. In order for me to grow in Christ, grow my faith, I have to "feed it" by getting in HIS word, by praying, by making a conscious effort to keep Him in my thoughts throughout the day.
I am not good at having a quiet time and studying/reading my Bible. That has always been a struggle for me, even though I know my life would be MUCH fuller/richer if I did...
but I am like Paul : I do those things I shouldn't, and don't do those things I should.

I started reading the Karen Kingsbury books "Redemption" series. Just finished the first one. The characters go through situations where scriptures come to mind to help them go through the problems they have. I want to know that it can happen to me as well... I want to be able to recall scripture that will help me through struggles or even at times where I need to make a decision. But that can only happen if I put them in my head to start with.

There is a lot of talk about how things are going to get pretty bad here in the US, no matter who gets elected... Is it time for the US Christians to have their faith tested? I pray we have prepared and stand strong.

here they are!

The Councils came down this past week, and we got to have them over for 2 nights. Before that, they were at KABC and had a little meet-n-greet. It was a neat time for me to catch up with friends as well. I miss my gal-pals!!!

Then, on Monday, the Council clan came over for some of Fred's BBQ... Nan is a vegetarian, so we made sure to have alternative stuff. But Landon liked the food.

As always, James was entertaining (is that what we should call it??) And it was fun to see him and Andy having a 'spar' with words (we wouldn't call it cut-downs, would we?)

So, with Andy being 17, you can imagine that we are not used to having little kids around our house.
Example: Tuesday morning, Jael walks into my bedroom a little disoriented and starts to go into our bathroom (where Fred was just getting ready) I hopped out of bed and re-directed her to where her mommy was...
about 15 min. later, Mady & Jael show up again in my bathroom. (it's ok, everyone was fully dressed by now). I am finishing up with my hair and the girls have a million and one things to 'share' with me. Now, I usually don't say a word to Fred until after my coffee and we are on our way out the door for work, but here at 6:45am, I have 2 delightful girls asking me all kinds of questions.
Then, when Fred & I got home from work on Monday, we found a 'sippy' cup in our bedroom floor. We got a chuckle at the fact we couldn't remember the last time that occured to us!
What a hoot!
Tuesday evening, Landon decided to warm up to me. Either that, or he loves to get his picture taken. He kept posing and saying "cheese!"

It was great to meet Nan. She was very nice. She got to sleep in our 'office' room, where Freddy's 60in TV is, so I don't think she had it too bad. :)

It was so great to see them again! I miss them, but I am grateful that we have stayed in touch. Thank goodness for blogs and text messaging!!

really tired...

I know I need to post pics of the Councils visit, but I am TOO tired to focus right now...
maybe tomorrow??? :(

They're heeeerrrreee!!! (almost)

The Councils are coming!
The Councils are coming!

The End of The Beginning

I know, 3rd video in a row...
but I ran into this one through another blog. It's Bell Shoals Baptist performing my favorite song. It's originally sung by David Phelps. I heard him sing at the Baptist Convention a couple of years ago. In this video, it also has a guy named Brian Keith Daniel doing a painting during the song. I couldn't tell what it was till the end, then it blew my mind. Hope you all enjoy!

Great message

The youth pastor's brother (20) is really good at making videos. He made this one for a series his brother was doing with the youth. If you look REALLY hard at the soccer shots, look for the red shoes. That's Andy. But I didn't post it just cuz Andy was in it. It has a great message

Sunday School Fall Social

Sore body & my football girl

Along with my sore knee, I now ache all over from a full day of painting... sore thighs from climbing up and down the ladder, sore arms from, I don't know why...

But our 'new' office looks good! It's a work-in-proccess but it's coming along. Now we need 'accessories' for the office and the guest room. The guest room will be ready for next weekend for our 'guests'... yeah!!

My baby girl came home this weekend. I don't think we've seen her since the beggining of May. We went to Cheddars for lunch today (her fav. restaurant).

She brought along my grandbaby, Bella, along with another little friend. Her roommate's dog, Delilah, came with them to visit. Fred was dying, since he wasn't happy about 1 dog, now we had 2. But the doggies actually entertain each other, so it makes it a little easier. It's all good!

I found out if I want to spend some time with Steph, I have to sit and watch football with her! She has become a football fanatic. We even went to Walmart and she was rushing us cuz she was missing the 'game'. I guess it gives her & Fred something to do together.