What's up?

I have been unable to blog for the past couple of months because I could not log on to my blogger account! Ugh! I've been so sad because there have been several times I have wanted to blog, but haven't been able to. So, today I gave it one last try, and BAM! Here I am! Yay!!!
The Phillips family has had a very low key winter. We haven't been too busy, which is very nice. Lots of laid back weekends, recovering from school each week.
Sawyer is doing fabulous in Kindergarten. He is the youngest boy in his class, yet he is already reading on the same level as all of his other classmates. He is actually doing better than some as well. We are so proud of him! We are trying to get fired up about him going to Pre-First next year and praying daily for good classmates to hang back with him! He is wise beyond his years and we have to hold him back from trying to be older than he is!
Sadie loves first grade. It's not quite as laid back as Kindergarten, so she has to work VERY hard on a daily basis, but she has improved by leaps and bounds and is now reading on a 2nd grade level. That comes from lots of hard work, practice, and dedication. She is determined to get things right, and is sometimes hesitant to do certain things, in fear that she might get it wrong. We are trying to embrace that, while also gently pushing her to try things no matter what! She turns 7 years old in just a few days, which I can't believe! She is having a painting party, which is right up her alley!
Dennis and I are pushing right along. He is pretty busy with work and is about to get even busier as Spring football practice begins. I feel like football just ended! I have stayed busy cleaning the cabin and spending lots of time at school.
We try to spend as much time together as a family as we possibly can. We know that with children, LOVE = TIME, so we want them to feel lots of love. This time in their lives is critical. We can never get it back. It is gone in a flash, and they will be older so soon...wanting to hang out with friends on the weekends, instead of spending time hanging out with us! I feel like because of the time we spend with them, our kids feel extremely loved by us. That is more important to me than anything else.

Tis the Season!

Well, this Christmas season did not start out exactly how I had imagined. Ok, maybe it started well, but it has NOT been fun since the beginning. We got all of our decorations up a week before Thanksgiving and I have loved every minute of it. I love just sitting and staring at our tree. Our whole house just seems cozier when the Christmas décor is up. Our house is very small, so it looks very decorated, even though I've had all of the same décor for years and years. We add a new "blow up" to our yard every year for the kids. Yes, we are "that" family. We love it! I think we have 6 now. This year, we added Snoopy and Woodstock on a scooter. LOL I love it!!!!
Anyways, here is how our December has gone...
Poor Sawyer has had strep throat 4 times. In. A. Row. Like...he would finish a 10 day antibiotic, and then one day later, his tonsils are still completely swollen and red. This last time that I took him to the doctor, after the antibiotic that "would surely get rid of it this time", his doctor finally spoke of the possibility of having to have his tonsils removed. Nooooooooo! Bless him. So, he is now on a 14 day STRONG antibiotic that once again, is "surely going to get rid of the strep". Yep. We will see...
On a good note, you would never even know that he has strep. It doesn't seem to bother him one bit. Thank you LORD! I just always know when he has it, because he talks like his throat has a big bubble in it, which indicates that his tonsils are enormous. And boy, are his tonsils big. Wowsers...
In the midst of these first few weeks of December filled with strep throat, we were happily on our way to church one morning when out of nowhere, Sadie puked ALL OVER MY CAR. I had nothing in my car to clean it up with or clean HER up with or ANYTHING. You get the picture. Dennis dropped Sawyer and I off at church because I still had to teach my class, and he took Sadie back home to take care of her. She had it rough! She threw up a LOT and it took her about 4 days to get better. Poor thing missed her Christmas program at church, her school program that she had worked so hard on, and we almost missed our Rockettes night, but we made it! In the midst of her stomach virus, she got...yep, you guessed it...STREP THROAT! Kill me now! So, while she was trying to recover from her stomach bug, we had to take her to the doctor and get her on meds for strep. So, that was the 5th round of strep for our family in December. Good times.
Let me also remind everyone...THESE are the days that I had mapped out for months that I would do all of my Christmas shopping. I had 2 weeks set aside where I knew that the kids would still be in school, and I would have plenty of time to get it all done. So, week #1 of my "shopping plan" was almost over, and I had done nothing...
On Wednesday of that week, Sadie was good to go and was all set to return to school on Thursday. Whew! I still had 2 days left of my week to get some Christmas shopping done. I can do it!
You'll never guess what happened on that very night?!?!?! Sawyer started puking!!!!!! Of course!!!!!! I think after 5 rounds of strep throat AND Sadie having a stomach virus, I almost had a nervous breakdown that night. So, Sawyer was home with me the next day. That left me one day to get some stuff done. One day! One day out of 5 is not enough!
Sawyer went back to school Friday and I did get just a few things done. But, not much...
Oh well, I had week #2 to look forward to. The week before the kiddos would be out of school for Christmas break. AND, Dennis and I had planned a date day for that Saturday so that we could go and do LOTS of our Christmas shopping together. Whew. That made me feel better.
So, that Friday night, guess who started puking???? Yep. Dennis. At this point, I didn't even know what to do or say. Our Saturday was SHOT. Another person in our house was puking. And, this momma was losing her mind...QUICKLY!
Lucky for me, our church's Christmas program was on that Sunday. Lord, have mercy! Did I need to be there for THAT! It felt so good to be out and about and back in the swing of things again. Our Christmas program was UNBELIEVABLE! Full of joy and hope and happiness and all things good. Ahhhhhhhhhh, thank you Lord.
This brings me to my "week #2 of shopping", which had now turned into PANIC MODE!!!! I really only had Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday because the kids parties were on Thursday and Friday. I can do this! I can do this!
I think you know where this is headed...
Guess who got the stomach virus? Hmmmmmmmm...who is the only one in the house who had managed to escape the sickness? Yep. ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was AWFUL!!!!! I mean, awful. Awful. Awful. Sickest I have been in a long, long time. My whole body hurt. I couldn't even rest or sleep because it hurt to rest and sleep. It took me a few days to feel better, so I was basically left with ZERO shopping days in my 2 weeks.
So, that brings me to today. December 21st. Less than 4 days before the big man in red shows up. Luckily, Dennis and I planned a very last minute shopping date, and we finished all of our shopping last night. Whew. All's well that ends well, right??????
Tis the season! We have a very busy next few days, so I am praying healing over this house in the name of Jesus! No more sickness!!!!!!!! Let's focus on what this week is all about and that is the birth of our Savior! I read something that said "no matter if Mary was "ready" to give birth that night in Bethlehem or not, Jesus was coming"! So, no matter if I had been able to be "ready" for Santa to come on Christmas morning, it wouldn't have mattered. Its all about Jesus anyways.

Hilton Head 2013

I haven't had much time to blog lately. I have been doing a lot of cleaning and a whole lot of substitute teaching! It has left me little time for doing things like this.
But, I wouldn't trade it for anything AND I love, love, love getting to be at school with my kiddos! I honestly would do it every day if I could.
Fortunately, we were able to pull together a last minute trip to Hilton Head this year. It was such a blessing!!!!! We were SO excited!!!! Some friends of ours that we have known since childhood GRACIOUSLY allowed us to use their condo in Sea Pines for next to nothing. We could not be more thankful to them! We had no idea how nice it was going to be! Wow! It far exceeded our expectations! We've never stayed IN Sea Pines before and it was great! We had the absolute best time. We had to squeeze all of our activities into just 4 days this time though because the kids' Fall Break is only 3 days long. Boo! We left late on a Friday night and returned the following Thursday. Ok, so maybe we threw in an extra day for fun, but it was SO worth it! We still got to do almost all of our "usual things" that we do when we go. We went to the beach every day and stayed for a long time. Normally, we go to the beach in the morning and head back to our pool for the afternoon. But, since we went so late in October, the pool at the condo was C-O-L-D, so we ended up spending all of our time at the beach, which suited me just fine. I could live on the beach, so I had no complaints at all! Unfortunately, Sadie got DRILLED by a jellyfish on the 2nd day. Ouch! And, when I say "drilled", I mean "DRILLED"!!!! Bless her! She had about 10 welps all over the bottom of her leg. Luckily, a lifeguard was present and was able to come and spray vinegar all it, which took the sting away. Fortunately, Sadie did not let that stop her from getting back in the ocean. Whew! (I have to admit, it kind of kept ME from getting back in though)
We went on another deep sea fishing trip for shark. We caught several sharks and several HUGE red fish! So much fun! It is definitely a love of mine that I never knew I had. I absolutely LOVE it!!! I love the thrill, the challenge, the wait, the victory, and just the pure peace of being out in the middle of the ocean. Lake fishing does nothing for me, but I LOVE deep sea fishing!!!! The kids loved it again too! They got to catch all of our bait and they thought that was a lot of fun. We also had a very friendly dolphin literally swim RIGHT up to our boat and hang with us for a while. Coolest thing I have ever seen in my life! It even triumphed over all of the fishing we did that day! The dolphin literally stayed by our boat and hung out for a while. He would come up and smile at us and then swim away for a minute and then come back. The kids could not believe it! Heck, neither could I!!!! I thought that kind of stuff only happened in movies! I was ready to just jump in and take a ride on his back, but then quickly remembered we were "shark" fishing. Definitely didn't want to take the chance to grab onto the wrong fin!
On our last day, we stayed at the beach ALL DAY LONG. Literally, we got there around 10:00 that morning and stayed until after sunset that night. We even went and got pizza and had a little beach picnic for lunch. Oh, the memories we made. They will surely last a lifetime!
My heart was definitely full when we left. I was so, so thankful that we got to go this year. The kids had the time of their lives and they are still talking about it every day.
Other than that, not much else has been happening. Goodpasture's football season ended last Friday, in the 2nd round of the playoffs. Although, I'm sad for the players, I think the Phillips family is ready to have Daddy back! We are definitely ready for some sort of normalcy to kick back in before the madness of the holidays begin!
Sawyer is doing great in Kindergarten! He is so smart and he is reading so well already! I am so proud of him and he has exceeded our expectations of what we thought he would be able to do at this point. He is one of the very youngest in Kindergarten (which is why he will do Pre-First next year), but you would never know because he does such a great job! I am one proud momma!!!
Sadie is loving First Grade too! She has definitely had more of a challenge academically this year, but I think it's because Goodpasture pushes them so hard! She is doing things and learning things that I know I didn't do until 3rd or 4th grade! I love seeing her try and I love seeing her excitement when she accomplishes something or makes a really good grade. She has a small class of only 10, so I think she enjoys that calmness.
Onward and Upward to the Holidays we go!!!

Blessings Abound!

Oh what a wonderful last few weeks we have had in the Phillips' household!!! For the past few years, we have experienced some really tough financial times. Once the housing market crashed about 7 years ago, so did our finances...it began a downward spiral that we couldn't seem to climb out of. No matter what changes we made in our lives to try and get ourselves into a better position financially, we just couldn't seem to get to a point where we were comfortable again. It has been a S-T-R-U-G-G-L-E. I know deep in my heart that God wants me to be a mom first. So, for those that sit back and wonder why I don't go and get a full time job to "help" out, just know that I am doing what I know that God wants me to. I do ALL that I can to help out as far as cleaning, subbing, consigning, selling junk, etc. I want to be with my kids. I want to be their mother. I don't want someone else to raise them or take care of them. If I had wanted that, I probably wouldn't have had children to begin with. With that being said, I have been praying really hard lately for God to do something that would blow us away. I have been begging for Him to please do something beyond our imaginations and beyond anything that we could ever think up ourselves. I honestly never lost hope. Yes, there were dark times. Yes, there were times that I struggled. BUT, I never thought that God had forgotten about us. I just tried my best to learn what He was trying to teach me during that time.
With all of that being said, about 2 weeks ago, we began to be blown away. Long story short...(and I mean, LOOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNGGGGGG) God has allowed Dennis to get a pay increase, along with a new, improved bonus structure, while continuing to do the same job that he was already doing! AND, his company has agreed to support Dennis in growing and running the commercial division of their company, which is what he wanted to do anyways! W-O-W!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Never give up hope. Never. God can do FAR beyond ANYTHING we can ask or imagine! My heart has been overflowing with thankfulness. Thank you Lord! On a side note, are we millionaires? Um, no. Did we hit the jackpot? Hardly. BUT, we are finally able to get in a position where we can actually pay our bills and get ourselves out of a hole!!!! And, maybe JUST maybe, we can start saving money again!!!! Oh, the thought!
On an even BETTER note, throughout this past Summer, Sadie began asking a lot of questions about being saved and getting baptized. We spent a lot of time at church this Summer with VBS and church camps, which is I think what mainly sparked her interest. Before allowing her to take the plunge (no pun intended), I wanted to be SURE that she understood to a 6 year old degree, what the decision meant that she was making. So, we contacted our children's pastor and he gave us 2 books to go through with her. Once I felt as though she knew what she was doing, her and I prayed together for her to receive Christ as her Savior. She was so happy!!! She even told me afterwards that she wanted to cry because she was so happy! Next came baptism. She was sooooooooo ready to follow through with this next step! Shortly after we finished her book, our children's pastor said they were doing a special "kids" baptism on Sept. 22nd, which was only a couple of weeks away at the time. We signed her up and got her ready! What a special, special day for our whole family.
She was a little bit nervous beforehand, but it quickly turned into a nervous/excitement/ants in her pants! Dennis was able to baptize her, which made it extra special. I know its a moment that none of us will ever forget. We had lots of friends and family there to celebrate.



She told me that right after she was baptized and she was walking up the stairs of the baptistry, she heard God speak directly to her heart. I asked her what He said?? She said "He told me that all of my sins are now forgiven". So, so precious!!! Thank you Lord for this indescribable gift.
So, in the Phillips household, things are definitely looking up. I am soaking in every single blessing right now. I am experiencing pure, answered prayers and I am so, so thankful.