First Week of Fall

 When I subbed this week in 1st grade, we had a dairy cow presentation. I learned a few new things myself.

 

 

Jarred & I went to our first volleyball game Tuesday night. This is Central's first year to have a volleyball team, so we were especially excited to support them! Also, the coach is in our Sunday School class.

 

And Friday we cheered on . . . .

 

at the game!!

 

The Vols beat Mumford, breaking the team's undefeated record for the season.

 

We were thankful for a restful weekend at home. And college football on tv.

 

Joseph went to Macon for the weekend, since Auburn had an off weekend. So, we decided to Face Time through lunch, which pretty much made my day.

 

 

School update: last week I took the GRE. It went fine. Now, this week I take the Praxis. I'll be glad to be done with testing soon.

 

Homecoming & B'ham

I had been looking forward to this weekend with Sunday being the first day of fall! We kicked it off with dinner at Blue & White (my first time - the pork chops are so good!) with some new friends, followed by Central's homecoming game.

 

 

 

The Vols continue to be undefeated!

 

Saturday morning I headed to Birmingham to meet up with some of my best friends from Samford. Lacey, Emily, and I had breakfast at Another Broken Egg (great coffee, great omlets, great potatoes).

 

Jarred stayed home to study for his comprehensive exams for grad school. He'll be taking them in two weeks.

I made it back to Lineville in time to watch the Auburn game with Jarred. On my way to pick up some pizza, I saw this beautiful sunset in town. The picture hardly even captures how pretty it was.

 

Today, we transferred our church membership to Lineville Baptist Church. With it being a small church, everyone came and shook our hand/gave us hugs as we became part of the church family. I felt like it was a receiving line at our wedding! :) This Wednesday, I start leading the youth group girls Bible study. It's been a few years since I've worked with youth group, but I'm really looking forward to it! 

 

With today being the first day of fall, I was beyond ready to put some mums on our front steps. My plan is to paint (chalkboard paint) a couple of pots for these yellow ones.

 

 

This week I am driving back to Birmingham again to take the GRE. I am enrolling in graduate school with plans to earn my teacher's certificate. I've been substitute teaching in the elementary school and love it! So I found a great online program through University of West Alabama in which I can earn my certification and a master's degree within about two and a half years. So the plan is Jarred will graduate in December and I will start in January.

War Eagle!

Jarred and I went to the Auburn/Miss St. game yesterday. We had been looking forward to this game for a while, partly because of the people we were going with. . .

 

 

Even though it was a night game, we decided to get to Auburn early to have breakfast with Joseph.. . . .  and do some quick shopping. Then it was nap time. Joseph and Jarred have found a common hobby :)

 

We went to Farm House for parent's weekend lunch (I invited myself as a sibling:) )

 

It was an experience. . . . our first family tailgate!

 

We enjoyed having Trotline for entertainment at the cook out.  

 

Before Joseph went through rush, I told him he had to be in Farm House. And I'm glad he listened ;)

 

He's made some really great friends!

 

After lunch, we headed back to Joseph's house to celebrate Mom's birthday.

 

And met up with Grandma & Grandpa! (watching the Alabama game)

 

 It was good time with family.

 

And we were thrilled to have Grandma and Grandpa at the game!!

 

It was such a good game! For anyone that didn't see it, Auburn was losing and scored a touchdown in the last 10 seconds to win the game!

 

I'm so proud of my baby brother, especially hearing him talk about leading a Bible study and working towards his career. He is a junior building science major.

 

 

Oh, and Joseph brought our family dog Charlie, to live at his house in Auburn. I was happy to get to see Charlie yesterday :)

 

Small Projects

I had mentioned a few posts ago that I would put up some pictures from our finds. Several days after we moved into our house, Jarred and I did some "yardsalin.'"  We bought this table for $8.

 

 

I stained the legs a walnut color to match the chairs that we also bought at a yardsale. The top had a finish that I didn't want to deal with sanding to paint it (our coffee table that I sanded was a huge headache!). So. . . . . a tablecloth (my first sewing project!) worked great. About the chairs: we bought four of these adorable, antique chairs. They were made in the 40s and are in great condition!

 

One of my other more recent little projects included sprucing up the canvas I had made for our wedding. It seemed too simple and plain.

 

 

So, I added polka dots and clothes pins to hang pictures.

 

Currently, I'm working on some burlap pillows. Unfortunately, my sewing machine has failed on me, so I haven't been able to finish it yet. I'm really excited about how they're going to turn out and will post pictures of the final product.

Class of 2003

This weekend Jarred had his 10 year reunion. Friday night everybody gathered for a tailgate before Central's football game.

 

 

These two have been buddies since before preschool.

 

As we walked up to the bleachers, we heard "hey, Mr. Griffin!" from every middle school student. I loved this :)

 

 

Saturday night, the reunion continued with dinner in Wedowee.

 

 

 

It was fun for Jarred to catch up with some old friends.

 And it was fun for me to hear some old high school stories.

Lindy's B-day and Labor Day

 On Wednesday, we got to celebrate Lindy's birthday. I'm so thankful that we're closer to family now and can celebrate all the birthdays!

 

 

I began Personal Training with my first client. For now, I'm doing training sessions in our home. Also, I began substitute teaching this week. In kindergarten! Not sure if I'm crazy for saying this, but I loved working with those 5 year olds! :)

 

Saturday, we started the labor day weekend at the Chick-fil-A Kickoff game! Thanks to David for the tickets, I got to experience my first SEC game.

 

We were happy to bring along one of Jarred's best friends, Brad, a big Alabama fan.

 

So for the day, Lindy and I "borrowed" Alabama shirts. I have to say, my baby brother wasn't too happy about this. But, on Sept. 14th I WILL be wearing Auburn colors when we go to the Miss State game.

 

 

From Atlanta, we headed to Macon since my Uncle Bart and his family were in town from North Carolina. We went to Hephzibah Children's Home with them for church and fellowship with some more family.

 

 

 

After lunch, we visited with some of our favorites. We love our nieces, Maggie and Katie.

 

Maggie was a little shy with Jarred until she got to show him her toys. . . .

 

 

That afternoon, I met up with the girls (and Uncle Paul, was glad he came to Macon to see us!!), for some coffee and shopping. Of course we had to check out the labor day sales!

We are just so thankful for Jarred's schedule as a teacher, to have the holidays off. I guess now we'll count down the days until the next holiday! :)