Falling into Fall....

I have been looking forward to this time of year for quite some time now.  Fall is always such an amazing time with cool (er) weather when leaves start to (slightly) change and mosquitoes (for the most part) go away.  OK, who am I kidding?  I get ridiculously jealous when I see pictures of New England in the fall because we really don't have a fall season.  I mean, who wants to eat turkey and pumpkin pie in 89 degree weather??  Nonetheless, we really can't hope for too much living in South Texas.  Fall for us is pretty much the two weeks between Summer and Winter when it is an awesome 70-75 degrees outside and boy do I ADORE those two weeks.
Stephen and I went shopping the other day to get some new plants for the front porch.   He was the sweetest because it was actually his birthday but helped me with my project on his day.  Since we moved in back last November the front porch has been desperately needing some foliage to bring it to life.  We also got some chairs and moved some of our rod iron furniture around to add to the ambiance.   Man was it nice once it was all done!  I have truly enjoyed sitting outside in the morning and reading while Leigh pokes around and plays with sticks and runs from bugs.
This morning we were sitting outside enjoying the cool morning and Stephen noticed a hummingbird.  WHAT???!  I was SO excited!  I have a feeder that was given to me for my birthday last year that has been sitting in the garage along with a stand, AND it had just rained a few days before so the ground was soft enough to put it up before Stephen left for work.  I was SO pumped.  Leigh and I went in and immediately started cooking up some nectar.  Within minutes of putting up the feeders I had hummingbirds buzzing around fighting for their spot on the feeder.
I sat back and sighed.  It was like water to my soul.  I can and always have been able to hear Jesus more clearly when I am in His creation.  Standing there, watching the busyness of those little birds whizzing around I felt like I needed to sit down to take it in.  I needed to rest in it and recognize how busy we are in our lives and Jesus desires us to slow down to see He is there.
So as this fall season moves in, I am going to try to rest in it, experience more of it, fall into it.   I am going to attempt (we are all human, right?) to hear more of Him and less of myself and trust in Him that He knows what is best for me and my family.  I think if I take more time to smell the roses I might be more apt to move past the stinkiness of life.  Have a blessed week friends and enjoy this weather!

 Leigh tinkering outside in the morning. 

Our hummingbird feeders.  The red one looks huge, but it is just the angle of the shot.  

Cha Cha Changes.....

Changes.  I was thinking about that this morning as we drove back from Alice.

I had to get some stuff for my organization day with mom tomorrow and I was thinking about our old house in Rockport.  God has brought us so far since we lived in that little house. It needed some serious organization to make it day to day with all our stuff and the small space we occupied.

In the past 8 months it is crazy the doors He has opened, the people He has brought back into our lives and the constant provision He has had for every single little thing we have needed.  We are now in a new place, with a new home, new school,  new church, and both new jobs.

That last one being a big one for me.  This is the first time I am not stressed about my job with a move.  I don't have to deal with new teacher orientation and setting up a classroom.  I look at Leigh and cannot believe that I don't have to take her to someone else for 8 hours a day while I go pour my life into 230 other children.  I am so overwhelmed and grateful that I get to be home for her and for Stephen.  I get to be available for Anna before, during and after school.

Zephyr was so far from our radar, so removed from our plan.  But isn't that how awesome our God is? That He knows the plans and sets things into motion to take care of us and our needs.  Needs we sometimes even aren't aware we have.  Stephen has always been the one with more of a propensity to dislike change.  Even then, he really doesn't mind it much.  I look for it in most things mainly because I like the freshness that change brings, even the possibilities that come with it.

I cannot wait to see what the fall brings for our family.  One change being keeping up with this stinking blog.  I have missed it and look forward to it hopefully becoming a weekly staple.

Much love,

The Summers

Anna and Leigh in our backyard in Rockport

a few pics of late....

Here are a few pics of the fam from the past few months. It is getting pretty hectic with Anna taking dance two days a week and Stephen working most nights. Leigh is getting so big and continues to amaze us with her laid back and happy personality. Hope all is well with you and yours. Getting close to Christmas....things seem to be moving faster and faster....

Anna with her Great Granny, coloring.
Entertaining Leigh

Anna in her dance uniform at a local festival performing with another little girl. They were the only two out of 10 to show up that day. :)

Stephen and Leigh at our church fall festival.

Summer time is here again...

So I guess I will start to blog again. HA. Things have been a little busy for me this past year. Besides being pregnant, school got really busy with competitions and new responsibilities. We have now added an AP course to our department, which I will begin teaching next year. This year we did a pilot program and had two girls take the AP exam and I am anxiously awaiting their scores. I started this year as the new regional director for our ( UIL type ) competition, which went really well. With all the large schools in our region participating, we had close to 500 students enter and the event had little to no hiccups. We had 6 students advance to state and 3 received superior ratings at the State competition in April. Needless to say, I love my job and am so proud of my students and all they have accomplished this year. By the time May rolled around I finally got to focus on my pregnancy and the upcoming arrival of Leigh Elizabeth Summers. The labor was hard, seeing as how I didn't get an epidural until WAY late in the laboring process, but Leigh made it here in one piece with all ten fingers and toes. She has been an awesome baby and has done fairly well adjusting. Anna is SO proud to be a big sister. She loves helping and has done really well with the transition our little family has gone through having a new baby.

We decided to keep Anna in school during June so that I could adjust and get Leigh's sleeping schedule under control before we were all home all day. That has been such a blessing. I get to spend all my time with Leigh during the day. The days that Stephen is off, we get to just lavish ourselves with her and man has that been nice. When Anna was an infant, I was always looking for the next milestone and with Miss Leigh, I am taking it all in each day. I really want to enjoy her while I can, because man life is getting fast. It seems the more things you add to your plate,the faster it all flies by. Here are some pictures of our newest arrival and a few from the things we have already been doing this summer. Hope all is well with those who check on this blog periodically. I should be updating more often now that I have more time with the summer. Until then...

Leigh Elizabeth Summers: 8 lbs 9 oz 19 inches long, born on May 20, 2010

Daddy with Leigh

Big Sister with a fussy Leigh

Leigh in her pretty dress that her T-Ma bought her.

I don't think she was too into my photoshoot...

Sisters in sunglasses...

Anna at the shrimporee on a bungee thingy....

Leigh's first bath...chewing on her hand.

Anna at a friends birthday swim party.

Anna and her cousin Kaylee reading...

Daddy and Leigh

Big sister holding Leigh for the first time. Look at those shoulders, we are taking this serious!

I will post more pictures as the summer unfolds! :)

Easter Weekend

This past weekend Anna and I went to stay with my dad to hang out for Easter. Mom went up to Waco to see Jered and his family and Dad had some commitments in Corpus, so we went to see him and celebrate Easter. We had a blast. Dad had arranged for a family friend to loan us a child's saddle and she got to ride Gabby all by herself. She looked SO big on that horse. It was ridiculous.

We spent a lot of time together, made some pretty eggs with a stamp kit that she got from T-Maw and J-Paw and played with J-Paw outside with some parachute men that was also in her gift basket. On Sunday, we woke up and checked out what Anna got from the Easter Bunny in her basket. Then she went out to hunt for her eggs. She had so much fun being the center of attention.

Other things we did that weekend included a trip to Texas State Aquarium, which Anna LOVED...even though I don't have great pics to show it off!! We also had a fun afternoon with Daddy when we got home playing frisbee in the park. Anna has got some serious game.

Playing Frisbee with her Daddy. He loves disc golf and has all the drivers and putters, which is why there are like 10 different frisbees.
Stephen showing her how it is done. Anna giving it a try.

Hope everyone had a great Easter weekend. I am trying to get geared up to posting again since this baby will be here with in the next 6 weeks. :)

Anna the Entertainer....

So I don't have a ton of time, so these are the things that have been going on in our life. I will post pictures from this weekend later.

I am pregnant, about 12 weeks. Due May 16th. No sickness, just migraines every now and then.

Anna is three now, and more ridiculous than ever. She cracks us up on a daily basis. See video for proof.

We have gone to Waco to see family, gone to a birthday party and gone to Anna's school's Fall Festival in recent weekends.

Anna's new favorite past time is Friday night football. On Friday morning when she sees me putting on my spirit shirt for school, she lights up and says,"Tonight is the FOOTBALL GAME!!!"

Stephen is still at the club and loves it. Yesterday he made a peanut butter pie, along with about 10 other items for dinner...he really is in his element.

Enjoy the video and I will post pics later.

Our Blog, Obviously Interrupted.

It is time consuming to have a blog.  Facebook takes five minutes tops and it seems you have to actually put thought into a blog.  So maybe it is not about time, but about effort.  

Anyway, things have been truckin along in the Summers' household.  We moved into our new place about a month ago...I will have some pics soon.  We really love the live oak trees in Rockport and have a huge one smack dab in front of our house, which has everyone calling this the "tree house"...not to mention it is elevated.  

 School is in full swing and I am SO excited.  I absolutely LOVE what I do and seem to fall more in love with it each year.  I am thinking lately it has been because of the awesome support I get from the administration at my school but also from the district.  They are not afraid to say that the arts are important and that they are proud of us when we perform well.  That really does make a HUGE difference.  We got the art club together the other day to do a community face painting gig at a local apartment complex.   One of my students wanted to paint some flowers on my face to practice before painting on the door of the theatre department at school...so I let her.  See the results.  It was a fun day.  

Stephen is still at the Club here in town and loves it.  Anna has started school and just moved up into a new class, she is such a smart girl and we are super proud of her.  She came into the living room the other night and showed me a triangle that she had "cut out especially for me".  The sincerity in her voice seriously made me choke up a little.  She acted like she was giving me an organ.  I was a sweet moment.  

This weekend we went to the park and Stephen took Anna over to the Baseball field to show her the bases and told her about how the game is played.  She was walking to each of the bases and then Stephen started talking about how you run home and jump hard on the base, so she gave it a go, and it was so funny...see the pics below. : )  

Then we walked down to the wildlife nature trail and pond and fed the turtles ice. : )  We had a great day...here are the pics of our beautiful nature trail/pond.  It is so nice.  It is short and sweet, but it is all I got right now!! Have a great week!