Fashionista's Finds

While visiting my mom and dad, I got inspired to clean out the closet of my old bedroom.  My and my sister, Lindsey shared this room, so the closet was equally balanced in our "junk."  I organized it ceiling to floor.  Boxed up pictures and keepsakes from high school and college for both of us.  And once all that was organized, vacuumed and dusted, I got to the fun part.  The clothes!  Not that I had all my old clothes still, but definitely some keepers.  Check out what I found (pardon the poor picture quality from my "crackberry.")!

 Bridesmaid dress from friend, Jenn's wedding...11 years ago!  And it's too big on me (raise the roof ya'll).

 My wedding dress!  Mom's having it cleanded and put away as a reward for cleaning out the closet!

Ellen's bridesmaids dress.  I added the belt and am totally having it cut off for a summer wedding dress!  Score!  For real, a bridesmaid dress you can wear again!

 Mine and my mom's First Holy Communion dress.  It will be Hadley's in a few years  I love this dress!  The picture doesn't do it justice, but it has the sweetest lace and tiny buttons up the front.

 My cheerleading uniform from Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade, circa 1997.  Doesn't still fit.

And last but not least my cheerleading uniform (which I'm pretty sure had been in use since the 70s before the retired it after my senior year), and my cheerleading jacket.

I'm exhausted, but fulfilled.  It was a fun day of reminising! 

God made me do it-A Homeschooling Reflection Part 1

What made me want to homeschool?  Rewind to summer 2010, before Alex's 5th grade year.  Alex had been at a sweet classical school since pre-school and it only went to the 4th grade.  He had learned so much there in such a short time, and really wanted to continue down the classical path.  Our plan was to move to another classical school in town which went from the 5th-12th grade, but it was a little more expensive.

At that time, God began tugging at me about homeschooling.  I politely ignored him, knowing that Alex and I butt heads as it is and being together 24/7 was not going to work for us.  Also knowing that there was no way I could teach in a classical format.  The things they learn were way over my head.

The school we were at got a new principal and he decided to add a 5th and 6th grade.  We were so excited and felt this was our answer.  We were going to get to stay at the school we loved and not have to pay more in tuition...and more importantly...not homeschool!   For some reason, I began to feel unsettled about our decision.  I talked to Tadd about it and he said we should schedule a meeting with the new principal and then go from there.  We did so and both felt immediately that it was not the place for us anymore.  Did I mention it is now the end of July and school is starting soon?  Yeah, last minute is the way we roll around here.

Again, the idea of homeschooling came up.  This time I mentioned it to Tadd and he had the same thought at me and said, "No way;  You and Alex would kill each other."  He confirmed my thoughts.  Subject closed.

So we quickly began the application process with the other school (not a quick process:  Fill out app, get references mailed in, testing, and interview with parents then student with the board).  We got in...yes!  So we got in just in time to get books, supplies and start school.  By Christmas, Alex was truly miserable there.  It was not a good year.  Academically (it is supposed to be very challenging), he wasn't being challenged.  He was making all As and a B with never studying.  Socially, he was thrown in half of his classes with 6th graders who had a superiority complex and treated the 5th graders like dirt.  Very nice teachers, but they were uninvolved and ignored the fact that there were some major problems there.  Including, but not limited to the fact that one kid told Alex he was going to hell because he was Catholic and "worshipped Mary."

Ok God.  Now I'll listen to you.  He obviously had a plan (duh) when he was telling me to homeschool.  So I brought it up to Tadd again and we both agreed to at least pray about it and talk to some other homeschooling families about it.  My confidence that I could do it began to grow.  And the fact that Alex was really not challenged at school made me feel that I couldn't do any worse than he was getting there.  On the other side of all of this, we were in a job situation that was making our finances very tight, so the idea of private school for the next year was not looking good.  And we were both convicted that public school at this point was not going to be what Alex needed.

So by about January, we had decided that we would homeschool the following year.  In March, Tadd got a new job that was going to move us to Birmingham.  We didn't sell our house until July and moved in August.  We literally moved the week that school started in Birmingham.  Ok God.  Maybe you do know what you are doing!  If we had not decided to homeschool, we would've not known if we would still be in Franklin or Birmingham when school started.

Moral of the Story:  Listen to God the first time he tells you to do something.

To be continued...

Muffin Top

This was the sign out in front of my gym today.  I think this is aimed towards me.  Owner says it's not, but I say he's lying.

Radical Living vs. Slavery

Today's Gospel reading made me think of homeschooling and the way we have chosen to raise our children.  What I mean by that is by being radical, and not "worldly."  It's not popular.  Although we don't receive the physical or drastic verbal persecution and abuse that the disciples did, we get the occasional roll of the eyes or snide comment.  The fact is, it doesn't matter.  We are convicted to be radical, and not have kids who have Ipads, or cell phones, or video games, or know all the rap lyrics, or wear revealing clothes, or watch whatever movies/TV shows they want, or make their own decisions etc, etc.  Our choices seem crazy to some, and not always popular.  I'm quite certain people have chosen to not be friends with us because of our choices, and that's ok.  God so clearly led me to homeschooling this year, and it has been such a blessing to our whole family.  Challenging, but a blessing.  I've been wanting to do a post on homeschooling for awhile, but need to gather all of my thoughts.  So I'll leave you with this for now.  "No slave is greater than his master."  Do you want to be a slave to the world, or a servant to The Master?

John 15:18-21

Jesus said to his disciples:
"If the world hates you, realize that it hated me first.
If you belonged to the world, the world would love its own;
but because you do not belong to the world,
and I have chosen you out of the world,
the world hates you.
Remember the word I spoke to you,
'No slave is greater than his master.'
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.
And they will do all these things to you on account of my name,
because they do not know the one who sent me."

Out with the old, in with the new

Let me start by saying, I had such a fun day getting my hair done.   It is such a rare occasion that I pamper myself.  So when I do, I thoroughly enjoy it.   I went to Rodney Mitchell's brand new salon in Green Hills called Polished.  Rodney's salon in Hillsboro Village has been around for a long time, but the new one just opened!  He hopes it to be geared towards blow-outs, but they are set up to do it all.  This is a trendy thing in salons now, where people just pay $35 to get their hair blown out.  Pretty progressive for Nashville, but Rodney's progressive, so it fits!  Anyway, Rodney himself did my cut and Blair did my Keratin treatment.    Have I ever mentioned how much I love this treatment that tricks me into thinking I have fabulous hair for a few months?  I love it so much, and if you have hair that is remotely frizzy, you must give this a try for the summer.  Rodney's salon just happens to be offering a Groupon for it today and it's a great deal!  Go and ask for Blair.  He did a great job, and was so much fun to talk to for the 3 hours it took to do it!  Ok, so onto the before and after pictures!  Oh, and these pictures are not great.  They are taken with my blackberry, and the last two are taken by me in the salon chair!

Look!  A Sasquatch has been spotted at at Pinkerton Park!  Oh wait, that's Holly's before picture.  I don't think I realized how long my hair was until I saw this picture.  It was way past time.  

10 inches cut, and the straightening part of the treatment happening.  It took Rodney and Blair with a flat iron each to get the job done.  The were super glad they didn't have to do my whole head of hair before the cut!

And the final hairdo!  What do ya'll think?  I personally love it.  It feels light, soft and summery.  

I'm quite happy about my decision.  Somebody is going to have a wig of my hair.  Crazy.  Oh, and we got 3 ponytails worth of hair to donate.  Not too shabby!  My friend Joanne saw my hair today and told me I probably lost 2 lbs when I got my haircut...tru dat!  Tadd likes it, but asks if I'm going to grow it back out (which means he probably doesn't really like it).  Happy Summer ya'll!