This week

1.  Isn't this puppy cute?  A friend found him in the road close to our church.  Fred really wants to bring him home.  The puppy is still at our friend's house where I feel certain he will live a long and happy life. 

2.  My friend gave me this precious burlap flower.  My mom sent the gorgeous flowers.  Does my porch not just scream Spring?!?  Now, each time I pull in to my driveway I'm reminded of just how blessed I am.  Love it.

3.  My grandmother had a birthday this week. Clayton, being the responsible one, felt like he needed to prep Jack before we got to the party.  Here's the conversation from the back seat: 
Jack:  Mom, how old is Mun?
Me: 87.
Jack:  That's old. 
Clayton:  Now Jack, we are going to her party.  Whatever you do, don't tell her she's old. 
Me:  Thank you son.  Grin.

4.  Jack was changing his shirt a couple of nights ago and I noticed a huge bruise on his arm.  Huge.  I gasped when I saw it and then asked him where it came from.  He told me he ran in to a mailbox while riding his bike.  What?!?  Yes, he turned around to look at something and ran right in to it.  I have not checked on the mailbox yet, but Jack appears to be fine. 
5.  Andrew loves to sleep with the "big boys", but we can't let them sleep together on school nights.  He asks every night if the brothers have school tomorrow.  Well, he asked last night and I told him they did in fact have school tomorrow.  His reply was priceless.  "Just fink about it mom, okay.  Don't say yes or no.  Just fink about it." 

This week...

1.  Our church started two services last Sunday.  It was a huge leap of faith, but Fred felt like it was a direction we needed to move.  It turned out better than our wildest dreams. 
2.  My work out partner has decided to add a few extra exercises to our usual jog.  We now stop every little bit and do push ups, sit ups, squats, etc.  Push ups...fine.  Sit ups...fine.  Squats...not so much.  My quads are screaming.  Screaming.  As in, it's hurting just to sit here.  Whew, maybe I should stretch more.
3.  We ate duck one night this week for dinner.  Clayton loves it.  He ate 4 duck breasts.  Yum!
4.  Jack is playing t-ball this year for the first time.   Because of his birthday he is the oldest in his league.  From the picture below it is really hard to tell, don't you think?!?  Ha!  Woe to the 35 pound kiddo who is not paying attention and standing in the base line when he's running.  Woe to the kiddo.

5.  Andrew and I go to Story Hour at Jack's school every Monday.  Mrs. Donna (the teacher) always sings a song about the weather.  Andrew loves to talk about the weather.  This week as we were going inside I asked him what the weather was.  He looked up at me, grinned and said, "sunny and blow-ey".  Well, this was too cute and I laughed.  It must have embarassed him because he said, "I mean windy."  Precious.

What's been going on...

The boys had Spring Break last week.  We surprised them and took them to Fall Creek Falls (or Call Freek Calls as Andrew called it!).  We were planning to camp, but the weather called for snow so we thought it would be better to stay in a place with heat.  Good call.  It snowed the entire time we were there.  We hiked and hiked and just enjoyed being together. 

Here's Fred with his Mini Me...

My sweet little hiker...

 The second day we hiked Clayton dressed himself like the picture below.  He said he did not want any exposed skin.  Mission accomplished.

The second day we came upon this little photo op.  Fred and I had an agreement that he was to sacrifice life and limb to rescue us if someone fell in. 

We woke up on our second day to heavy snow fall.  Below was our view...
Snow on Spring break?!?  Whatever...at least we were all together!

While we were hiking Andrew kept stopping to play in the snow.  We kept hustling him along, because we had ground to cover.  When we got home we realized that that was Andrew's first snowfall to see.  Whoops.  Maybe we should have let him play a little more. 

We had to come on home to get ready for our church's Easter outreach event--Operation Easter Outreach (aka-OEO).  We did this last year at a park here in Paris (where we do our Halloween thing).  Last year we had about 50-60 kiddos and were pleased with the turn out.  This year we thought we might have a few more so we decided to prepare 1500 eggs.  The weather was abysmal, to put it mildly.  We had it inside the gym instead of outside.  Boy, were we surprised when people started pouring in to the gym.  We had snow cones, hot dogs, face painting and an egg hunt that lasted all of 5 seconds.  I have no pictures because this event was so crazy!  We had about 200 kiddos turn up, plus their guardians.  We had no hot dogs, no snow cones, no drinks, no eggs...nothing left.  Good times! Fred, Renee, Zachary, Eli, Tori and Dan and my parents all came that day and a good time was had by all!


Church was absolutely amazing.  We had over 200 people in attendance.  Celebrating the resurrection of our Lord and Savior is always a special day for me.  Getting to celebrate it with my family and my church family is beyond a blessing.


My parents stayed for the night and were here Easter morning. Then after church we had a big lunch with Mun and Janice. It really was a treat!
Mom makes a bunny cake every year. The boys really enjoyed decorating it and it was really delicious!

 Our friends snapped this picture after the Easter Egg pick up in the gym.  We usually take it in front of the bradford pear tree, but the yard was too muddy and gross.  So, here we are with the back of the church in the background. 

Mom snapped this picture before church.  Thankfully.  It looks sweet, doesn't it?!?  The one below it is reality though. 

 

 Here's my life...

After a delicious meal everyone left and the boys counted their money (plus the money from the egg hunt with Mimi and Tee).  They have been saving for an XBox 360 and the egg hunt put them over the edge.  Pure joy for them...

This week Fred's sister had a baby.  Nora Wiggs was born Wednesday, April 3rd.  She's a cutie!!  Aunt Janice stayed with the boys while Fred and I went to a dinner at Union.  She suggested we drive on over to Memphis to visit with Liz, Zach and Nora.  What a great time!  She is beyond precious!!  Mom and baby are doing great! 

 

 

In other news...the boys all ran a mile today...even Andrew!  Clayton has been keeping track of his miles over the last few months.  It was a cumulative half marathon.  He ran the last mile today, but when they all got to the race everyone wanted to participate.  Sweet.

 

 

While the boys were playing out in the yard the other day a lady walked by.  Clayton came in to report that when she walked by Jack said, "Hey, sexy lady!"  Mercy.  I don't know if she heard him or not.  I'm pretending she didn't hear him.  In my pretend world everything is okay.

 

So, that's what's been going on around here in a nutshell.  Never a dull moment!!

 

Week at a glance

1.  Fred ran a half marathon last weekend.  His goal was to run it under 2 hours.  He finished in 1:59.59.  Not too bad, huh?!? 

2.  My grandmother and I had several restaurants where we were frequent diners.  One of those places was Puffy Muffin in Brentwood, TN.  Delicious.  Aunt Janice sent me a cookbook from Puffy Muffin upon my grandmother's death as a memorial.  I treasure it.  I perused the pages and decided on a Wheat Bread recipe.  It did not disappoint.  I wish smells could pass on this blog.  I was so excited I took a picture of the bread in the oven.  Is that not one of the prettiest things you've ever seen?!?

3.  Clayton had a school play this week.  He tried out to be "The Voice of the Grizzlies", but unfortunately he did not get this part.  Instead, he was the Governor, Bill Haslam.  I thought this was great!  I guess if you are 9 it's not quite as cool to be the governor.  He sure is a cute governor though. 

4.  Jack has had a big week.  He was notified that he was a super speller as per his quiz last week.  A super speller makes a 100 on the spelling list, plus they must make 100 on the dictation section of the quiz.  We strive for this every week.  He got the news this week.  This is a big deal in Jack's world.  We are so excited for him!

Thursday my mom was here and Jack's school called to see if I could fill in for his teacher for the second half of the day.  He was so excited!  We ate lunch together in the room and then...I pulled his tooth.  Good times.  If his week gets any better he might explode!

 

 5.  Andrew had an Easter Egg hunt at story hour on Monday.  It was loads of fun.  I can't believe my last kiddo is hunting eggs at story hour.  Sigh.
Before the hunt we had a momentous occasion though.  Andrew volunteered to be a duck in the song, "Five Little Ducks".  This was huge.  He participated.  Big.deal.

Me and "the baby" after the hunt.  I was secretly hoping he had gotten all Reese's Eggs.  Oh, heavenly day those things are delicious. 

 

Grams

I love this picture.  At first glance it looks like a picture of Jack, but it you look in the background carefully you'll see my grandmother.  We happenned to be in Franklin one day when it snowed.  She was so tickled to have us there and to watch the boys play in the snow.  This picture captures her personality for me.  She is grinning from ear to ear and in the background. 
She was the best grandmother a girl could ask for.  I was able to tell her that before she died.  In fact, I was able to tell her a lot in that quiet hospital room with just me and her.  Last Wednesday, though, I told her goodbye for the last time, this side of eternity.  I got to her room and she died five minutes later.  I was holding her hand as she met Jesus.  I will forever believe that she waited on me.  I will forever be grateful for the honor. 
Someone asked me what made her so great and I began compiling a list in my mind (I do love a list):
-As a child I honestly believed we went to Chucky E. Cheese (Showbiz Pizza) because SHE wanted to go.  Grin.
-She took me all around Nashville to places like the Hermitage, Cheekwood, and the Adventure Science Center.
-She always treated me like a young lady.  As a child I can remember holding my own crystal goblet at the perfectly set dinner table. 
-She was the best shopping partner.  She would last longer than me. 
-She intorduced me to classic/old movies like Singing in the Rain, Meet Me in St. Louis and North and South.   
-She told me stories about when she was a child.  I hung on to those stories.  I loved hearing them. 
-When we would go to dinner my grandfather would insist on paying and he'd say, "You can spend it now while we're with you or you can have it when we're gone."  What I wouldn't give to have dinner with them again.  What I wouldn't give. 
  -We always went to church with them on Easter Sunday.  I can still hear her singing.  I hope I never lose that sound in my mind. I loved going to church with her.  I loved her humble, simple faith.
-Speaking of singing...she spoke to me in a sing songy voice.  No one said my name quite like she did.  
-When I was with her she made me feel like there was nothing else she would rather be doing.
-Even through dementia when I would leave she would say, "Call me when you get home."
-She had impeccable taste...from clothes, to furniture, to food.  Impeccable.
-When my grandfather died she stayed by his side until the very last moments.  The morning of his funeral I watched her hold her head up, lay out her clothes and lead our family as we grieved his loss. 
-When you asked her if she needed anything she would grin and say, "A million dollars".  Always made me laugh.  She also said, "Money doesn't make you happy, but if I had to choose I'd rather be rich and misersable as opposed to poor and miserable."  Ha! 
-She loved me...plain and simple.  She loved me.  And I loved her. 

My list could go on and on.  She left me with a lifelong heritage, for which I will forever be grateful.  In the words of Clayton, this isn't the end, but merely the beginnig for her.  I'll see her again someday, but for today, I sure do miss her. 

The last time I took her out from her "hotel" we went to The Cheesecake Factory and shared a piece of cheesecake.  She looked so pretty sitting across from me.  Precious lady.  xoxo

Catching Up

Remember Jack's reading challenge?!?  He did it!  He read an entire chapter book by himself and took/passed an AR test.  He got his pizza, although much to his disappointment he had to share it with the rest of the family.  Way to go Jack!

 Andrew and I got to celebrate Dr. Seuss's birthday at Story Hour.  Who doesn't love a party?!?  I'm not sure about the look on his face, but he was super excited.  He even volunteered to be a part of one of the songs.  I have the video to prove it.  It may be a first and last for him.

 Jack got to celebrate Elegant Dinner at his school.  All the students dress up in their "Sunday best" and are treated to an elegant dinner, complete with a harpist.  I wasn't in town when this took place.  I was in Nashville with my grandmother.  Much thanks to Fred for getting Jack dressed up and to all my friends for sending me pictures during the event so I wouldn't be left out. 

 Andrew is typically so grateful.  I went to a consignment sale and bought him some clothes and shoes for this summer.  He was so excited.  We had to take off his pajamas and try them on immediately.  He said, "Thanks mom.  I really like my clothes."  Too sweet.  He slept in those shorts that night. 

 Dr. Seuss's birthday was celebrated by every member of the Shackelford household.  Fred went to Clayton's school to read and then Clayton went to Jack's school to read.  It was really sweet.  He asked me if he could go read to Jack's class.  I love it when my boys love on each other.  My only regret is that I don't have a picture of them together that day.  Jack presented Clayton with a Hershey bar as a gift from the class.  Then Jack asked Clayton if he could have his Hershey bar.  Clayton said no.  Feel the love.  Classic.

Clayton has is working on a Power Point presentation at school.  He does not need our help apparrently. (YEAH!!)  The following is our converstaion from this week:
Clayton:  I'm working on this Power Point at school and I've found a way to make it much easier. 
Me:  Really?  What is it?
Clayton:  Well, I just find information that I need on the computer, highlight it and then paste it in to my presentation. 
Me:  Gasp...Clayton, you can't do that.  That is cheating.  It's called plagerism and it's illegael. 
Clayton:  Really? 
Me:  Yes, it's a pretty serious offense.  Not to mention, just a bad habit to get in to. 
Clayton:  Can you go to jail?
Me:  I don't think so, but I'd fix it as soon as possible.  Grin. 

Fred is running a half marathon this Saturday.  He has trained through the winter to be ready.  I think this qualifies him as "hard core". 

I am going to a shower this weekend for Fred's sister.  She is having a girl.  I say...better her than me!!  In just buying for the shower I've been out of control.  Out of control.  Good times, though. 

This week

1.  We have a marriage retreat this weekend.  The boys are going to Memphis.  We are pretty pumped about a weekend together!!
2. My grandmother, Helen, appears to have suffered from a stroke.  She also has dementia.  Not many people are fortunate enough to know their grandparents.  I have had the priviliege of having deep, meaningful relationships with three grandparents.  Helen (or Grams) has been one of my best friends: my lunch date, my constant supporter, my shopping buddy.  It breaks my heart to see her like this.  Through the saddness though, God has given me glimpses of her. She will do something through the fog that is so distinctly Helen, I can't help but smile. 

 

The above pictures were from her 84th birthday in May.  I asked her how old she was and she said, "I do not know.  Old, for sure."
3.  Because of Helen's dementia it will be really difficult for her to rehab through these falls.  The doctor explained that once a dementia patient loses mobility they typically go downhill quickly.  Basically he was saying this is the beginning of the end if she doesn't regain mobility.  I tried to explain this to Clayton.  He looked at me and said, "Well really Mom, it's the end of the beginning for her since she knows Jesus."  Well said, son...well said. 
4.    Jack LOVES breakfast food.  Loves it.  One of his favorite things is a sausage and biscuit.  He really like a frozen or canned biscuit.  This morning I pulled out all the stops and made canned biscuits.  He ate three, with sausage.  I told him three was enough.  He lobbied for four.  We stopped at three. 
5.  The boys are going to Memphis this weekend.  Andrew is going to a live performance of Yo Gabba Gabba! with Zachary.  This could go either way for Andrew.  He loves Zachary.  He enjoys watching Yo Gabba Gabba on tv.  However, he is terrified of someone in a costume.  Let's hope he and Mawmaw don't spend the entire show in the bathroom.