October Road

Do you ever feel like you are meeting yourself coming and going? Well, this month has been a journey (hence the title). It seems that we have so many things going on that we just don't stop but to sleep. This post is more of an update to what all has been going on in our lives lately, which explains why it is so long. As the Christmas holidays near, it gets even more busy. I will continue to try to do my best to keep it up-to-date.

Mark has been quite busy preparing for his first doctoral recital on November 7. It will be at 7:30pm in Truett Auditorium at the Seminary. If you are in the area and would like to attend, Mark would love to see you there. Every Saturday morning he has been rehearsing the Orchestra. This semester at seminary he is taking German and doing a lot of studying in the evenings learning to read and interpret it. He is also teaching "baby conducting" this semester and so he prepares for his 2 day a week class as well. He loves his class and it has really instilled that passion and desire to teach in him. He just wishes he was closer to bieng done or done so that he could get a job teaching at the collegiate level. He loves what he is doing and can't wait to do it full time.

This is the 9th week of school for me and things have been quite different this year with some new district guidelines and our administration cracking down on a lot things. It is very hard, actually it is impossible to teach 2 curriculums at the same time and that is basically what we are doing. I am really feeling the strain and stress that the district has/is putting on us. I've been praying for some time now about my job and what it is that God wants me to do. Please continue to pray for me to have wisdom at my job, because many days I feel like I can't be a Christian and do the job that I am doing.
I am still singing in the choir at church and teaching children's church every other month, but I have given up all other extra curricular activities, so that I can truly be the mom that I want/need to be. If I could I'd quit my job today to be with Cal.

Calloway is doing very well at her new babysitter. She loves going to play with Claudia everyday and she talks about her a lot. I was  mentioning to Mark this past weekend that I had noticed a huge change in Calloway's vocabulary and language develop. Her sentences keep getting more and more developed. It has been such a joy to watch her learn language, practice it, and use it. She really is growing into a little person and isn't a baby anymore. She stil ABSOLUTELY loves Mickey Mouse. She wants to watch it on TV all the time! I've decided to do her 2 year old birthday in a Mickey Mouse theme and I'm sure she'd love Mickey Mouse themed presents.
We are still going to Little Gym every Thursday night. Calloway gets so excited when we pull up in the parking lot. She starts yelling Little Gym or Miss Lauren (her teacher's name). She is doing very well at Little Gym and I think the bubbles is still her favorite part. She is working on walking backwards and jumping.
Calloway is very organized, she likes to line up trains, grapes, toys along the coffee table. I love to watch her play. She has discovered her Potato Head collection and she enjoys putting the parts in and taking them out. Quite often Mr. Potato Head has an arm coming out the top of his head along with an ear but she just smiles and she is so proud of herself when this happens.
Another new love for Calloway is coloring. My mother-in-law sent her some crayons and she loves to color. Of course we've had to tackle the: Don't color on the floor, don't color on the couch or your bed, don't color on the table, we only color on paper. She has an Elmo coloring book that she colors a lot in but we've also introduced blank manilla paper and she loves that too. Yesterday at Wal-Mart I bought her a Mickey Mouse coloring book and when I got home and showed it to her, she went crazy. She opened the first page and said, "pants!" and she started coloring Mickey's pants immediately. I LOVE to hear her talk and watch all of the connections that she is making. She is really getting to where she communicate other than just naming objects. She states what she wants. About 2 weeks ago she learned the word MINE! I am just thankful that she waited this long to pick it up, but now we are learning that not everything is MINE!
She is still doing really well in her "big girl" bed. Every night, once or twice, she'll get out of it and Mark will tell her to "Get back in bed" and she goes. She is such a good girl and we are so proud of her.
Here are some Calloway pictures from the past few weeks.

On another note, I have a prayer request to ask of you. Terry and Barbara, the sweet people that keep Cal on Tuesdays, their daughter Donna is in critical condition here in Ft. Worth due to a tragic incident. She has now been in the hospital for one week and is on a ventilator. They did surgery yesterday to put in a feeding tube, tracheotomy (sp?), fix broken hands, arms, and a broken elbow. Please keep them in your prayers. Donna has 3 children.