Auction of the year

We went to the auction last night that benefited the young women. Oh, what fun!!! My Triple-C cake was the first item up for live bidding. It was heated at first, but in the end it went to the Carpenter family. The White Chocolate Strawberry Cordial was in the last group of the silent auction. All I know is paddle #17 won the bid, but I don't know for how much. We were worried that the Eagle Scout Cake wouldn't sell, but it came down to two families battling it out. Once the winner was announced, I offered a second to the other bidder for the same amount. They accepted. Congratulations to all the winning bidders!

The only two things we seriously bid on were a scrap booking basket I won for $40 (and split with Cindy) and Sister Cas's carrot cake. I had to fight Joe Kemer for it, but at the end of the bid it was mine. Mmmm, tasty. I've been looking forward to that cake for months! I had a piece as soon as I got home, and I brought a slice with me this morning to work. Sweet victory!

Speaking of sweet, Tim going back to school reminded me that I still have GI Bill money to use for college. I tried to transfer my benefits to him under the 9/11 program, but you can only do that if you are active duty, and you have to sign up to serve another 1-3 years. Nixed on both accounts. So, I have until 2019 to use them up before I loose them. Yay. I did look into the degree programs at Blue Ridge and discovered they have 2 I am interested in. One is a 73 hour Associate of Applied Science in Food Service Retail Management that would give me the foundation I need to open my own bakery. The other is a 67 hour Associate of Applied Science in Baking and Pastry. If I complete the FSRM degree and take an additional 19 hours of B&P courses, I could have that one as well because most of the classes required are common between the two degrees. I'm hoping that some of the courses I took at HCC and ITT will fulfil some of the GENED requirements and that some of my work experience will allow me to test out of a couple more. It would save me time (about 1 semester's worth) and money making it possible to finish both degrees in 2 years. I suppose the first step would be to get my transcripts and talk to a counselor.

Tim is already getting his stuff together and filling out applications for school and financial aid. He's really excited to start. He told me yesterday that his goal is a 4.0 for the time he's working on his degree in criminal justice. I'm so proud of him!

Back to school

Just when you think you understand what's going on, the Lord shakes things up! Tim lost his job earlier this week because of an admittedly stupid mistake. He's learned from it, and that's all that matters. In the mean time, we're adjusting fire. We're taking a look at budget cutbacks (wow, I just sounded like the government didn't I?), looking into college for Tim, getting things straightened out. We'll be OK... I just know it.

After so many messages in General Conference about searching the scriptures, studying out issues, and then going to the Lord for answers, I felt that I needed to seek comfort in my scriptures. Tim was understandably upset and worried about our future and finances (before we decided on school). I said a prayer requesting words of comfort for us both, closed my eyes, and opened my scriptures to a "random" spot that turned out to be Matthew 24. As I read the chapter to myself (and later Chloie when she sat next to me) I felt the Spirit strongly as I read verse 13, "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved."

So the lesson here? Stay strong, stay faithful, stay focused, and everything will be alright.

And it will be. We've figured out what we're going to do, and going to school makes Tim happy. He's wanted to do this degree in criminal justice for a couple years now. He wants to be a police officer or something similar. While I'm not happy about the safety concerns that arise from such a profession, its been his dream to do this kind of work. Who am I to say no? We've been talking about him going to school for a while, but we couldn't figure out how to do it with him working the hours that he does. Something tells me that this was our answer. So we're looking into different schools, part time work options, financial assistance, GI Bill options, and so forth. Hopefully we'll have something figured out in time for the summer semester.

Valentines Pictures

Yep, I was looking through pictures on my camera and saw that I was remiss for not posting these gems. I took pictures with the intention of posting them last month, but I ended up forgetting with the move and all of the crazy cake stuff that's been happening lately.

Here is Audie posing with his valentines. He made out like a bandit, and a girl or two left an extra heart on her valentine for him. Um, growing up too soon. I'll give you three guesses who the ham of the family is... if you said Chloie, you'd be right. "Wait, Mommy, take a picture of this one!"

Can you say "Cheese"?This is the "mail box" we made for school for her valentines. I covered the box and cut out the hearts, and she pasted them on. There was a flag on there somewhere, but I think it fell off coming back from school.Dougie only got valentines from his brother and sister (and Mommy and Dad of course!), but to make him feel better, Chloie and Audie shared their spoils with him. Happy kid, I tell you!

New School

Audie and Chloie started at Back Creek Valley Elementary yesterday. Both were excited. I took them into school so I could get them registered... wow. Not only did I have paperwork to fill out at the school, but they sent me home with a packet for each that took me over an hour to complete. One of the forms I had to fill out 4 - count them FOUR - times!

Anyhow, BCVE uses an apple system to encourage good behavior. Green is good, yellow for the first warning, red for the second warning and 15 minutes of recess lost, and brown is the final warning with all of recess lost and a trip to the principal's office. I'm happy to report that both of my little apples have been green for the last 2 days (they send a calender home for the parents colored with the behavior's color). They seem to be adjusting well. Audie remembers some of the kids from Inwood Primary, and both Audie and Chloie know kids from church that attend the same school.

I even got to meet the principal and Chloie's teacher. Thankfully Chloie's enthusiasm is welcomed here. Tim and I are still considering talking to the family doctor about the possibility of ADD, but I'm not too worried about it at the moment.

Yesterday, Audie and one of his class mates got to read the announcements in the morning. His first comment about it was, "Are you proud of me?" Um, YES! my little guy is growing up so fast!

Dougie is doing well at Sister Stollings house during the day. She says that all of the kids are well behaved while she has them. I'm glad they get their terror out of the way at home! We've decided to wait until Saturday to take Dougie to get his staple removed. I want to give it an extra couple days to heal (PMM surfacing again).

We're slowly making progress unpacking. I've managed to file all of our paperwork away in the shiny new filing cabinet Tim got for me. He's managed to put away all of the movies. I didn't realize how many we actually had. We've made a list of what rooms we want to focus on first and in what order to proceed. I'm hoping to accomplish as much as possible this weekend. I'd like to go to the Gardening Seminar on Saturday, but we have so much to do around the house that we've decided to stay around the house and maybe go grocery shopping later on.