Quite Possibly, The Longest Week EVER.

What a long week! I was so busy, I don't remember where I was a couple of times.

The house construction is closing up today. Steve, our building guy and friend, has blown us away this past week and turned my carport into a super room. Just last night, the best electrician EVER stayed until 11 pm and installed all my lighting. And I am so happy to report that it all matches! So, this week, the room was sheet rocked in, putty stuff was put on, sanded, painted, new floors were put down, and pretty lights were put up. After today, all we will be waiting for is furniture.

I took progress pictures every day. I can't wait to show them.

School was finally a full week. So following school, I had my first faculty meeting. I also had meetings for the girls. Then Dave and I had a 2 1/2 hour adoption counseling session. That was awesome. *(sarcasm)* Most nights, we were not home until late - 7 p.m. or after. Combine that with a house that is a construction disaster.... :)

Today, Annie is getting a dog. She is so happy. His name is Peyton. That makes me happy.

Sickness has also been in the house this week. Mallie has had the flu. Emma has a sinus/ear infection. Eli has some sort of upper respiratory crud. Dave is recovering from his shoulder surgery (awesomely, might I add).

I thought we were supposed to get some snow. We probably will not get any more just because I want some time in the house with the kids.

Today - clean, clean, clean. Dog to the vet for shots. Another Prom dress shopping trip in the P.M. and a Tennessee Tech basketball game.

Weekend Update.

I guess you can see school started again.. my blog posts are slowing down. I am going to try my best to keep up this year.

On Saturday morning, we were up bright and early for Scholar's Bowl 2011. This competition was over Language Arts. Emma was Team Captain, which she loves to do. And here is Emma with her team - they won first place for 1st grade county wide!

Emma holding the trophy! Yey, Emma!

Wouldnt you know that she answered the questions on fairy tales? Prince Charming, # of Dwarfs, what happens at the end - she knew it all.

Because she is stressed out easily she did not sleep much on Friday night. On top of that, she has a sore throat and was seriously cranky and crying the rest of the day. I am afraid that there is a bug trying to come into the house.

I went and bought my new furniture for my new room last week. I have to say that I love it! The Sheetrock people will be here on Monday (tomorrow) and they should be done on Wednesday. Then, all we like is flooring to be put down (which is going to be on Friday). I am so excited about my new space. The kids automatically asked where the TV is going - no T.V. area - and so they were a little sad about that. This room is a reading/talking/game room for us to have more space. Maybe I will do a picture post when it is all finished.

My host teacher gave me full rights to teach 2nd grade Science. I have never taught science before, so I have been researching this morning about what lessons to do. :/

Can I have some snow, please :) Maybe Wednesday night, after my sheet rock is up?

Weekend Capers.

Wow. Can't believe that I have not written on my blog since last Tuesday...
Where have I been?

School. And Work. And School again.

I am still loving school so, so much.

Yesterday, I went to Nashville for a Right to Life training session. I left a little early, and then came home a little late. I was thrilled to visit Target. And then, it just so happened, that I needed to stop at the gas station at Lebanon. So I also "ran into" The Children's Place.

My Target stop did not produce anything spectacular.

Boy, I do love The Children's Place.

They have this new spring line of blues and yellow's... the funny thing is, it wasn't really for Emma. I was looking for Tripper some church clothes. (He is FINALLY growing - in a 4T!)

Then, I got to stop at WalMart on my way home.

The magical thing is that I did this all by myself. That was awesome. I drove to Nashville, sung songs, pretended I did not have a care in the world - all alone. I did figure out that it is not really cool to sing Pink at the top of your lungs in a van.

So, what about today, you ask? Well, today is Superbowl Sunday. We have church, then we go to Grandma's to make horseshoe shaped cookies in support of my special man, Peyton Manning. In between that, I need to read like four chapters of textbook and write a paper.

I have moved on to book 2 of the Twilight series. I plan on writing a review here, soon,

Busy Weekend!

What started out to be a slow weekend has turned into a crazy weekend.

I was pleasently suprised with a last minute shopping trip with my favorite almost -14 year old, Eli.

We got to hang out all yesterday together. We had such a good time. He is pleasent to be around and we shopped for him some new shirts for church. He also needs shoes because his are yucky. Now that Dave has access to shoes, well, I can't buy those out anymore.

On our way out of town, we stopped and looked at the van that I would like to have.

I am cautious about buying a new(er) car and I am weighing my options out.

My van has had it. With 204,000 miles, it has many problems surfacing, and many problems that I have been ignoring for some time.

At a certain point, a montly trip to the mechanic is more expensive than a car payment.

I don't like the fact that I could be stranded at anytime, especially now that I am driving to the big school in another town every day. And I also think about the fact that in less than seven weeks (!) I will be responsible for being in a classroom in a real school every morning! I would hate to have to tell my principal and my own teachers my van issues.

Anyways, I have been taking my time and weighing out the options.

In other news, due to MLK, my children and I do not have school tomorrow. I do still have to work.

I am still here ---- sort of.

What a busy week. We had Emma's birthday (my girl is six!) and then lots of school work, the store opened, and it was just C.R.A.Z.Y.

I was so busy last week I did not have time to write Emma's birth story. I know that all of my kids are going to get a kick outta reading this junk one day, right? :)


Eli got a headache on Friday night. His throat was sore on Saturday. He was really coughing on Sunday. Today, we are off to the doctor.

Dave is sick. Like, he looks like death.

Then, last night, Tripp told me, "I'm burnin."

Temp was (only)100. (Both Tripp and Emma run 105-106 temps when they get sick. So, 103's don't cause me lots of panic)

Looking like another interesting week is in the forecast. Geology test tomorrow, paper due Wednesday, another due Wednesday, paper due Friday.

Next week is spring break.

Here is Tripp riding Emma's caterpillar stuffed animal. This thing is huge. Anyways, he rides it thru the house all the time, galloping like a horse. Saturday night, he was wearing this mask. This makes me laugh.

Happy Monday!

Labor Day.

It has been a slow weekend. We really had no plans.


So this is what I have accomplished this weekend.



1. I played Barbies.

2. I did 15,000 loads of laundry.

3. I still have one load to put away.

4. I sewed Eli's practice football pants up... AGAIN.

5. I sewed Emmas sweater up. She pulled a string.

6. I went grocery shopping.

7. I took Emma for a walk. And then we went and had our toes done.

8. I did homework.

9. We went to church - twice.



It seems kinda boring, huh?

Friday, YEAH!

It has been a long week. This was my last week of freedom, and I have tried to ignore the fact that I start school on Monday. Waaa!

I have been sick with a mystery virus that I received as a gift from my sweet neice. I am congested, hot, cold and miserable. Very yucky. At one point, I coulda sworn yesterday that this MUST be what the swine flu feels like.

I would like to go home early today. I am finished with my stuff.

We have no plans for the weekend and it feels great.
Cause on Monday, all hell is going to break loose.

So much to say... where do I start?!?

Another busy week and weekend have finally been completed.. It was time for the fair here in town. This is always a busy week for us, as Dave usually works lots at a food booth, yet this week seemed to fly by quickly.

I have a fair post all in itself. I had many realizations while spending obsene amounts of money with strangers with very little teeth and smaller amounts of clothing than I have saw in years.

Also, this past week, I keep looking at Eli and noticing how tall he is getting. Still skinny, yet so tall. He is eye level with his sweet daddy. Keep in mind, this kid is only 13, he will end up being 7'5 or something. Right now, he is pushin' 6 feet. How does that happen? Is it the expired milk I keep in the fridge?

Tomorrow is another day of work.

I was off this past Friday. We seemed to have a basement full of water. Water, in fact, from the flooding THE PREVIOUS WEEK. The water went unnoticed by me, and most of the family. I think that a combination of work, school, kids and stress, and that wild summer virus that ran thru the house caused me to not consider the fact that we do have a basement and water is quite possibly residing in it. So, imagine my suprise when on Thursday morning, right before work, I noticed a stinky, mildew-y odor floatin' around the kitchen. And when I opened the basement door, I saw where it was coming from. Lots of stinky, yucky water was hanging out. Dave put the fan down there, hoping to dry it up, but all it got us was a basement with a creek running in it. The majority of my stuff is in plastic containers, but there is some stuff, like my christmas stuff, that is in cardboard boxes. Because we keep having rain, we keep having more water. I am hoping to get it cleaned out this week. If not, we can start our own penicillin factory down below.

It's Friday and Eli's Home!

Is that exclamation point a good one or a bad one?

It could be interpreted as this:

Eli's Home! :)

or

Eli's Home! :(

Just kidding, Eli. You get the happy face. We missed you so much. You are a joy (most of the time).

My vacation starts today at 3 p.m. I will go home, clean house until about 5 p.m. I need to go to the grocery store. Then, I am off with some girlfriends for a get-together. It is a dad's night with the kids. I am hoping to spend some time talking, laughing and just hanging out. With no thoughts of school, dirty laundry or misspellings on the church bulletin. (Some people were just plain nitpicky this week, I tell ya :)) Nothing like an 8:02 a.m. phone call that informs you that your bulletin did not match up with the previous night's announcements at church.

My thoughts for next week are this: I hope to spend some time playing with the kids, at the pool, taking naps, jumping on the trampoline and being a mommy.

We will see how it goes.

Sunburn. Ouch.

We had a busy, busy weekend. Well, a busy past-week for that matter.

It all started when Emma Bell made a family time to-do list last week.
It went something like this:

1. Play in the yard.
2. Watch a movie.
3. Eat popcorn.
4. Sit around the fire.
5. Go swimming at the lake.
6. Have a picnic.
7. Have Mallie over.

Let's just say, over the past few days, we have done everything except #4.

And several of these, for instance like #5 (without the lake part, everytime) and #7 , we have done several times. Feeling extremely waterlogged and sunburned, I will say that we have had an wonderful time of being together and doing lots of "stuff".

As for this week, well, Eli has gone on to Short Mountain Bible Camp. I am sure he is having a great time of not bathing, not washing his face and not doing dinner dishes.

Tripp has his last ballgame tonight.

I love summertime.

sunday.

today, i am better. the fever is gone. I am still sweaty. but i am functionable.

we went to church this morning and then we had to run to the funeral home. a sweet older neighbor passed away. then, we came back home and i took a nap in the bed. i usually nap on the couch.. it makes it a "less official" nap. if, for some reason, i go lay on the bed to go to sleep, i have to admit to actually napping. it is almost like not getting any dessert, yet eating some of dave's dessert off of his plate. if i play that game, the calories don't count. i guess that is why i am so chunky. :)

we took the kids to vbs at another congregation tonight... it was lots of fun for them. we heard a good sermon as well. i think that it is nice to expose the kids to other christian families.. sometimes, i think, they could start to feel isolated. there were lots of people that we know from school, soccer, and other community things that also attended this church tonight. so that was nice.

tomorrow, we are going to the funeral of the lady who's house we are now living in. mrs. ophie passed away yesterday. she was 96 years old. and she was a super lady.

after that, i have no idea how we will finish up the weekend. it always rains on memorial day. maybe one day we can go back to the lake. we haven't been in three years. i am ready to go back... i think.

Memorial Day Weekend.

Today, Dave has taken the kids to a birthday party... and I am at home doing house stuff and resting. Fever is gone, but I am so, so hot...not in the good way. How thankful I am for a great husband who steps in when I need him - from doing laundry, to re-planting my garden, to helping with the kids... I love you, Super Dave!



I realized a few days ago that my son is going into the 8th grade... i knew he was, but I ACTUALLY just realized it. This time next year, he will be on his way to high school. This is startling to me because I remember what I did my freshman year of high school. The difference in the household in which Eli is in versus what I was raised in, well, the difference is night and day. I had no parents at home at night AT ALL... my mother was off working and "sowing her late'ish-30 oats" and my father lived in Nashville. It was just me, my little brother Chris (he was 9) and my sister Melissa (she worked and was in and out). So, I pray, pray, pray that Eli does not get into anything like I did.

Happy Mother's Day..

My 13th Mother's Day started off early with a special breakfast in bed served by my sweet daughter. She and Dave made me a fried egg sandwich with bacon and cheese and tomatoes on the side. My drink was orange juice. I got to lay in the bed with Emma, who promptly helped me eat my sandwich. She was so proud to give me breakfast and be the first one to tell me Happy Mother's Day.

The boys got up shortly after 7 am- we had to start getting ready for church. Since I am teaching the 2-4 year old class this quarter, I have to be there about 8:45 am. It was also Dave's week to drive the church bus, so he left earlier than I did. My kids suprised me with a necklace and a big charm that is so pretty. I will try to post pictures later. Anyways, the mornings preparations for church could not have went any smoother. What a great way to start the day!

We had lunch at the in law's house- then it was back home for a nap with Emma and a afternoon walk with my mother in law. We finished up the day back at church, then went to a teen devo with Eli. What a busy day we all had!

Now, all my family is sleeping and I am sitting here with racing thoughts and no one to talk to. Lots of things are going on this week - Emma has track and field tomorrow, Tripp has doctors appointments, Eli has a couple of field trips.... school is out next week, and I guess the summer will officially begin. I am ready for some sunshine, playtime, and a vacation at home.

So much rain.

We are about to have to go swimming.

There is so much rain.. I am just sick of rain. All ball games have been cancelled for the day - this is a great thing as I am cleaning the house. The bad part is that by tomorrow, you won't be able to tell. It is almost a waste of time. Unfortunatelly, child protective services doesn't feel that way.

In other news, tomorrow is Mother's Day. I really enjoy this day because my children enjoy this day. As with all holidays, I could take 'em or leave 'em. But the kids enjoy making me things, and Emma is looking forward to making me breakfast tomorrow morning. Last year, she made it and I got up and got in the shower. It made her a little upset. This year, she has already told me to stay in bed. I love my kids so much.

Tripp on Mothers Day - 2 years ago. Looking at his belly button - he didn't know I was watching!

Last night, Dave and I went (last minute) and did the Ta-Ta Trot; this is a 5 K to raise money for Breast Cancer research. We didn't run - we walked together. I appreciated him doing this with me. After my bad week, it really helped to clear my mind. I have actually walked 7 miles this week. When I have lots going on, I tend to clean house really fast and furious, or I go walk.

Please keep my sweet Tripper Do in your prayers;

I know that God will take care of us regardless of any outcome.

One of my favorite older pictures. Feb 2007.

Big Weekend.

It is such a busy time of year... the kids are all playing a sport (or sports, should I say?) of some kind. It is pretty outside, so the days are long, and the feet are dirty at bedtime. Lots of stinky kids in the house.

My super sweet husband got the camera up and rolling this morning, so I should have some kid eye candy in the next couple of days.

Ballet and Tap are over.. the recital ended great.. because it ended! No, seriously, Emma and Mallie did a great job.

Emma sung at Ladies Day at our church - all by herself! It was so cute.

I have a final coming up this week and the bad one is next week. Then, I have a WHOLE MONTH before summer semester starts.

I will post some pictures later.

A Weekend Getaway.

Right now, right this minute, I am on a mini getaway with Dave and the kids.

We travelled to Knoxville to watch the Orange and White game (GO VOLS!) and we just decided at the last minute to make a weekend of it.
We are having a great time!

In the words of Tripp,( when he gets in trouble) "I am just so, so sorry" for being behind on my posts this week. It is the end of the semester, Tripp has had some health issues (we saw a specialist yesterday - more tests follow) - Ladies Day at church is next Saturday.. the list goes on and on.

I hope to be back on track by next week. For the first time in my blogging history, I felt as though I did not have much to say.. but, I am filled up now.

As a note to myself, and to be accountable, this is what I want to write on in the coming episodes of The Sadler Family Chronicles.

1. Watching your kids personalities change and grow by spending extra time with them.
2. The fact that now, when I take a picture, my 3 year old screams, "Don't put that on the computer!"
3. The Five Love Languages for Children (Emma is finally old enough - but, I had her pegged anyways)
4. Explaining to your kids when/why they are being punished or spanked.
5. My brother Chris is turning 29 (!) ON Wednesday.

Long and slow weekend.

Ah, Saturday.. Just hanging out now.

We went to Prayer Breakfast at church this morning... and this afternoon, we are off to a Championship basketball game.

Emma is having a sleepover tonight. That should be fun. She is having a friend from out of town, and my fourth child, Mallie. Three girls that are five years old. There is so much fighting that is going to be done tonight. Girls start their bickering early. Boys are so much easier that way.

I have to go back to school next week. Spring break has been nice. But, it was too short. I don't feel as though I am ever going to finish school. My kids are on break next week. It will be interesting to try to balance my school work, my "real" work, home and them being with me. But, it is only for one week.

Weekend Capers.

Spring is coming!!

I picked a nice vase of Easter Flowers a while ago... Ah, the temperature is starting to warm up. I can't wait!

I am on spring break this week. My kids are on next week. It is time go stay outside and play. They are tired of being in the house. So am I.

We have had a busy weekend. I got alot of housework done on Saturday morning... but you can't tell it now. I did not get laundry finished. And, it is too late to do it now. My desire is gone. It won't return till next Saturday morning.

Pa's birthday party went very well. He seemed suprised. And I guess he liked having all the kids together.

Soccer season starts soon. Eli is playing middle school soccer, Emma is still in ballet and tap AND is playing girls six and under softball *grandma is coaching*, AND Tripp is playing soccer and baseball, too. This will be a busy season, that is for sure.