9/30/07

Cabela's & Applesauce

Finally!!! the promised pics of Tay's field trip and applesauce making. Sorry its taken so long. We've been moving this weekend....Not Fun!!! But we are enjoying the new house and it is looking great. Keep checking for pics in the near future.
Enjoy!...

making applesauce...

Cabela's
... more Cabela's
All the kids are anxiously waiting to begin the tour...

Chloe, Kyleigh & Taylor
Taylor & Kyleigh
Taylor & Brylee coloring
Ready for Lunch!!

9/22/07

As of Late...

It's been a while and I keep hearing "when are you going to post something?" so this is for all you Eccles lovers out there...
We are all doing really good, I'll update on me & Shane first and quickly, cause I know who you all are really interested in. Shane just completed his 5th week of school, and in 4 weeks he will be completed with the first 2 classes and will already have earned his first 6 credits. =)


Not much new going on with me, We will be moving in our new place this week so we are all pretty excited about that. (when I get it all done I'll post some pics). Also this week I will be attending Taylor's first field trip with her. All of kindergarten will be going to Cabela's (which is a sporting goods store) I know your probably thinking "why there" well we have been there and it a VERY cool store the kids will have a good time! (I'll take lots of pics). Also I am going to be helping make applesauce in Taylor's class this week, so that will be fun =). I guess I was wrong to start off this paragraph as if nothing was exciting in my life. My week is packed full of excitement!!!


Taylor is doing really good in school. She still loves it!! She says her favorite things are "Center time" and Mr. Mitchell's class which is PE. Center time is usually at the end of the day, they are allowed to play in the little centers that are set up in each classroom. Taylor usually always picks "housekeeping" (the little kitchen area). Each station, even though they are playing, they are learning some type of skill whether it be coordination, developmental, counting, matching, grouping.

About a week ago Mrs. Hatfield sent home a sheet of practice paper that she wanted the kids to practice writing their names on it each night and then send it back when it was full. So every night we would sit down, and Taylor would write her name. She did fairly well writing it before school started, but I am VERY PROUD to say that she has learned to write her name the Proper way. I posted a picture from the first couple weeks of school and also the practice sheet. She is doing very good!
She has begun to bring home these little pamphlet books, that say things like
- I can run, I can jump, see the dog run- simple words like that and they use pictures to help them read and she can already read those little phrases.

We are so proud of you TAY keep up the good work!!!


Trevin has become a romantic. He has recently decided that he wants to get married. The other morning, he comes to me carrying this little contraption that he has created and he says "look mom, know what it is?" and I said "No, what is it?" Well lo and behold its a flower and he decided its to be used when he gets married. Yep, he said he's going to get married when he gets big like Papa, and guess who he's going to marry... GRANDMA!! So grandma hope you like the flower Trevin created for you.

How Much Is It Worth, Really?

I was trying to think of ways to lighten our monthly expenses and I surprised myself in the things that I thought of and didn’t WANT to think of.

I thought about discontinuing my subscription to mlb.com, and did. No more baseball games live over the internet. Oh well.

I thought about discontinuing our water delivery service and didn’t. I’ll continue to pay $25 per month to avoid drinking the city’s stinky water.

I thought of canceling our house phones and just upgrading our cell phone plans, we use our cell phones most of the time anyways.

I thought of a few other things that I did or didn’t cancel, some being REAL necessities.

One thing that NEVER crossed my mind was canceling our internet service. What makes the internet worth paying almost $50 per month? It would be impossible for me to really cancel the internet because I’m working on getting my degree at the University of Phoenix. Plus, Deanna uses it for banking and blogging and whatever else. So, I thought it would be fun to mention it to Deanna to see her reaction. She did not even hesitate to shout “NO YOU ARE NOT!”

Let’s say I was attending a campus instead of distance learning… Would we REALLY need the internet? Banking, communication, checking the weather or football scores and highlights and reading the latest news was going on long before the internet.

This dramatic NEED of the internet isn’t new by any means but is it really a NEED?
Could you survive without the internet? How much time do you spend on the internet? Is the internet worth it? What say you?

9/19/07

"Happy Birthday Uncle PJ"...

"Happy Birthday To You, happy birthday to you
Happy Birthday Uncle PJ
Happy Birthday to YOU!!!!"

-PJ-
Hope you have a good day. We love You!

9/15/07

"Tea Time"

Just Having a Tea Party! Hot tea loaded with milk and sugar and our makeshift tea cakes (poptarts) =).

9/10/07

Hey!!!

Hey everybody!! I haven't logged on to our blog in a few days, today as I logged on I did what I most always do first, check out all our friends blogs for new posts. If you haven't yet, I encourage you to check out "Bits and Pieces" there is a awesome move of God going on in Macon Georgia (very touching). Speaking of awesome moves of God, we had a totally awesome move in our service last night. We had Bro. Wolfram (I think that's how its spelled) he is a former missionary to the Philippines and he talked about "spiritual greed". We had a healing service. Many people testified of the healing they received immediately (migraines, pains etc.) one guy has diabetes and he said he felt strength come over his body, one lady who wants a baby and hasn't been able to conceive was seeking a miracle, so we are believing for many more testimonies to come.


As for us we are all doing good! Taylor did good on her little presentation last week about the letter "A". She told me she left out the part about captain hook though. I guess the kids didn't guess Alligator either, she said they guessed "frog". Last Thursday we had a parent information night at the school. I was very impressed by the things they are teaching the kids and the way it is being taught. I was a little upset when we first found out Taylor wasn't going to get into private school, but I feel much better now, this school has very structured classes and they teach phonics (which to me is a BIG plus).


I had a really good time on Friday night at the Chonda Pierce concert. As predicted she had us laughing and then almost crying. Just this past year she had another bout of depression and I think it has really deepened her desire to share her testimony. From what I hear she did something at this concert out of the ordinary, after sharing her testimony she had a altar call. You know, she may not be Pentecostal, she may not have all the same beliefs we have , but she said some things that even touched my heart, and I even had goosebumps. I encourage you, if you have the opportunity to see her in concert, go , you will enjoy it!!!

9/7/07

Look who's Going to be a big Sis!


Congratulations! Uncle Rick, Aunt Gina and Ashtyn. We love you guys and are excited about the arrival of little baby Teel.

9/4/07

9/3/07

Just Another Update

Hey everybody I haven't posted in a while so I thought I'd give you little update on whats new with us. Taylor and Trevin are both doing Great! They are rambunctious as ever, so as Papa says "At least we know their healthy". By the way Papa & Grandma we miss you guys alot!!! HURRY UP AND COME SEE US!!! That was a message passed on from Tay & Trev. You know I think Trevin has found someone in Grandma who when no one else will give him what he wants he knows she will. The other day we were having breakfast and the kids were arguing over who was going to sit next to mommy. So finally to put a stop to it I had to say "Trevin it's Taylor's turn" being that he had sat next to me at dinner the night before. Well he was NOT

happy about that so he looked at his sister with that little pout of his and said "I wish Grandma could come here, she would sit next to me". Man, did that ever make me feel bad. So I re-arranged everybody's plates and situated it so I could sit in the middle.



Taylor is still LOVING school, infact she was really upset that she had a extra day off this weekend she told me "Mommy, I don't like having 3 days with no school. I love school". Tomorrow they are starting Sharing days. Every tuesday Taylor has to bring something small enough to fit in her backpack for sharing and each week it goes with a letter. Tomorrow is "A". She wanted to take Ariel but we couldn't find all her clothes ( I didn't think Mrs. Hatfield would appreciate a half dressed mermaid). So we found a Alligator. She has to have 3, 3-5 word sentences to describe her item to the class and they have to figure out what it is. So we played pretend school and I (Mrs. Hatfield) asked my student; "So Taylor what did you bring for sharing today?" her reply was "It's green, it has four legs, it has a tail, a big "A" mouth, it lives in the water and it ate Captain Hook". =)


Shane's job is going good, it is finally slowing down a little bit so we have more of a normal schedule now. He's 3 weeks into school, and although I'm sure he's not enjoying it near as much as Taylor, I think he kind of enjoys it, and he's doing good. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK BABE!


As for me. I've just been cleaning out, trying to get ready for our move in just 3 weeks!=) This friday night I will be going with quite a few of our church ladies to a Chonda Pierce concert. I am REALLY excited about that. I've never seen her, but I heard that she is hilarious. What I'm most excited about though is just getting to know the church ladies a little more. =) So it should be fun, I'll post later and let you know.





9/1/07

Asynchronous Communication

I am new to the forum world and I really enjoy it! I was first encouraged by my wife to read PJ’s Blog a few weeks ago and I’m glad I did. It is amazing how fast a network of regular contacts can grow. Sometimes ones you would least expect. I think I have communicated more with my brother in-law (even with 7-10 word posts) in the past month then I have in the previous 7 years. Also, sometimes with people you have never spoken to before in your life. Who is Katie Booker? And she is probably saying “Who is Shane? And why is he posting comments on my blog about my fish?”

To: Shegazelle, I do not know you either but thanks for your Blogging efforts, my wife is motivated so much about Dave’s program that I got my weekly allowance revoked indefinitely. :)

I think threaded discussions are great because of the conveniences. People can communicate with each other with completely different schedules. I’ve seen some of the Myndfood posts with a 1 or 2am time. I like a lot of PJ’s topics but I have yet to read one that I would like to discuss over the phone at 2am!

So everyone keep it up! Its fun, its healthy, its refreshing… its asynchronous communication.

Oh, one more thing, Emoticons come in handy when posting in forums as used above as body language such as a smile cannot be detected otherwise…

What do you think?