The Latest From the Littrells

Some recent pics I promised to upload...

2010-06-10T12:35:00.001-07:00

Here is Ella playing with her Banzai sprinkler she got for her birthday. I'm afraid she's going to be OCD with things like me because she stressed the whole over having the twisty sprinkler heads all turned the same way! Please child, loosen up! Don't be like your mama!

Here's my girl about a month ago after stealing my lipstick out of my purse...luckily she wanted to apply it to herself the correct way so she put on her lips (more like her mouth) and then put the cap back on and put it back in my purse. Thank goodness it didn't end up on my walls or carpet!

Here are the two buddies in the pool this morning. It has been a HOT day here in the Bluegrass, so we had some pool time before lunch - Rusty jumped in to cool off too and she loved it :)

I hope everyone out there enjoys this day like we are.....even though I've been fighting a summertime cold, I've enjoyed myself watching Ella have a good time. I'm looking forward to having this summer to spend with her before little brother comes along. Have a good day and God bless!

It's been a while....

2010-06-09T18:12:00.000-07:00

So, I've been negligent in posting on here in a while. LOTS has happened since March (the last time I posted) and life has settled down in some aspects, and cranked up in others.

First things first: we're pregnant with baby #2! I am now almost 20 wks (as of this coming Friday) and we already know that we are having a little boy ~ Benjamin Lewis. Jerm and I have always liked the name Benjamin and Lewis is Jerm's middle name, his dad's middle name, and his grandfather's middle name. Here is a picture of him:

I think this will definitely look like me (because EG is the spitting image of her daddy!). God has blessed us so much with a healthy baby, even though he COMPLETELY wasn't planned and was a big shocker - we are so excited though! He is due to arrive around October 29th - maybe he'll be a Halloween baby.

So with this news, we realized that we have to quickly get out of our little townhouse and move to a bigger place. Unfortunately, the housing market is still horrendous (especially for townhouses in our neighborhood) so we wouldn't even be able to break even if we even were ab;e to sell the house - so we are going with Plan B and renting it. We'll then take the rent money and put it towards a house we can rent for ourselves for a while until the market comes back up...if that ever happens!

I can't complain at all - God has a plan for everything and His timing is always perfect, whether we think so or not. My problems with stress and trying to get this house ready are nothing like the stresses others are having with much larger issues. I say this because I have a close friend that is dealing with a problematic pregnancy and the issues that are related to it are insurmountable to comprehend....If you know her, then you know who I am speaking of and she is near and dear to my heart. We are due around the same time and the guilt I have felt has been crushing. I pray every day and night for God to heal this precious child, so everyone pray for a miracle along with myself and everyone that knows them - you can pray for "Baby B".

On to happier news, Ella turned 2 on March 31st and she thinks she's going on 20. She's big into dressing up, Cars (the movie), and her newst thing she has enjoyed doing is playing in water on a hot day and going to the library with me (hey, it's free and it occupies her).

This is Ella's first haircut that she received in early May - yes, it took her that long to have the hair grow enough in order for it to get shaped up with some scissors!

School is out - THANKS LORD! It is bittersweet though because I had the best classroom ever this year with some great students, so I will definitely miss them. I do however desperately need some time off though for resting, packing and spending time with my girl before her brother makes the scene. I'm going to upload some pictures from Facebook tonight of her and our adventures we've had here lately, so I will hopefully have those posted tomorrow (hopefully is the key word!).

Goodnight!

Our Over-Fed Dog

2010-03-03T15:43:00.000-08:00

We have a precious dachshund named Rusty. He is an oportunist in the fact that he's always hanging around whoever has food in case they might feel sorry for him and give him some, or in case they might drop some!

So this evening, I was in the kitchen when I heard, "Teetee SIT Teetee SIT!" When I looked in family room, this is what I saw. Ella was so proud of herself because she was getting Rusty to sit for some food....somehow she had found a bag of Nilla Wafers and was proudly giving them to him! He is going to get even bigger than he already is! Who blames him though....who wouldn't turn down yummy Nilla Wafers??? My girl had a daddy day today - our sweet babysitter had sick kiddos so Ella stayed with Jerm. They a fun-filled day that included a Lowe's trip and a Kroger trip. I love how his schedule is able to help us out so much!

Our past week

2010-03-02T15:18:00.000-08:00

We have had quite the busy week! Last Friday was our school's book character parade, and fortunately Jerm wasn't on duty so he brought Ella for the fun. She wore her Minnie Mouse Halloween costume and carried her Minnie book all through the parade route. She was so serious the whole time and insisted on walking the whole time! I dressed up as Pinkalicious.....hints the massive amount of pink! My friend Nicole took this picture of us in our school gym getting ready to march out.

We have been doing really well and even myself, the SNOW QUEEN is ready for warmer weather and sunny days so Ella can get outside and play! Maybe we will get some better conditions this weekend so we can make a trip to the park!

For you fellow believers out there, please keep my students in your prayers. I have some students this year from some of the toughest situations I have ever see. Kids in severe poverty, kids coming in starving in the morning, kids coming in with bruises from drunken parents, kids grabbing me as soon as they come in because I am the only constant positive adult influence in their lives, kids that hate weekends and snow days because that means they have to stay at home..................the list goes on an on...............please pray for these precious kids.

Have a great rest of the week!!!!!!

Back to the Grind

2010-02-18T16:38:00.000-08:00

We had our first day back to school today since last Friday! And if you know me, you know I LOVE snowdays so these past few days have been nice. With that said, even the Queen of Snowdays is not wanting any more snow! I can't believe I'm saying that, but I heard a vicious rumor that if we miss more than two more days, then they are going to start taking days away from SPRING BREAK! No way man! Ella's birthday is during Spring Break and Jerm has a precious day off during that week! No thank you on more snowdays in that case!

Jerm is on duty today, so that means it's a girls night here at home. I'm going to attempt to upload a video I took with my cell phone (hints the lack of quality) of Ella's dance moves. There's a goofy show on KET everyday a called "Rags" where these giant, mascot-looking dogs dance around and try to get kids up and moving - it's the type of show that makes a parent want to gouge their eyes out after about 5 minutes....Anyways, I was able to find some episodes on YouTube, and she LOVES watching these dogs dance around and sing.....here is my attempt at a video blog upload....

Well, I have waited 15 minutes for this video to upload, so maybe it's not going to. I will have to tweak my video uploading skills - I'll add that to my mile long list of to-do's....So, here is a pic of my parents' new cutie Murphy! Their dog had to be put down last week and they were already needing some companionship. He is an Australian Shepherd mix and a complete sweetie.

In other news, the car is fixed and Ella ended up having an ear infection afterall. She had to go back to the doc yesterday. I get so mad when doctors don't listen to me the first time around, like when we were there on Monday. So in the end, I ended up spending money on TWO copays instead of jus the ONE on Monday. It's not like I want to drive up Nicholasville Road from Nich-Vegas in rush hour traffic going against the flow! Just like I tell my students: listen to me the first time people!

Have a great Friday everyone and pray for no more snow (still can't believe I'm saying that)!

What a Trying Evening

2010-02-15T17:01:00.001-08:00

So remember my last post??? Us girls were having a great morning together. Ella tried to help me sort underwear and ended up making hats - all was good in our little world.

Fast forward several hours later.....Ella went down for her nap at 12:30. FOUR HOURS LATER she finally opened her eyes but was just laying there moaning....I knew something was not right. I felt her head and she was hot as a firecracker. She had had a runny nose since last night, but I didn't think much about it since she has allergies alot. I called the doc, told them what was going on with her, and they wanted to see her right away.

Keep in mind, I was by myself today because Jerm is on duty (of all the days too! UGH!).

After my journey to the car in the driveway (trust me, my car sits right in front of our house in the driveway, but with snow drifts and howling wind, this was no easy task!), I finally had her loaded up with everything in tow.

As we drove up Nicholasville Road, I noticed that while we were stuck in traffic in front of Fayette Mall, the car was blowing cold air instead of warm air...not good. Then I smelled a really foul burning smell.......REALLY not good. I called my mom and told her I needed her to meet me to help get us home in case the car couldn't make it.

Ella turns out is fine with just a bug (boy I wish I knew this starting off the bat!). No ear infections (her frequent nemesis), no strep....just a high fever and a runny nose. Don't you hate that?!?!? I mean I in no way want my child to have a major illness, but I hate it when I don't have a clear cut explanation for why my girl is sick. Poor thing - maybe she has cabin fever!

So then we pack up and head home. My brother brought my mom and he decided to wait around and drive my car home for me so Mom could drive me and Ella home - he though we might need an extra hand. We take the carseat outta my car, out it in Mom's car, and we all leave.......

If you know my brother, then you know he is deaf. So when he makes a phonecall, it's out of urgent necessity and it's always LOUD. He called my Mom while driving my car and all I hear him say is "FIRE, SMOKE, CAN'T SEE" Mom tried to explain verbally over the phone to pull over....evidentally he got the idea because he pulled over in the Walmart parking lot.

The car's interior was full of smoke and I have not clue how he was able to drive as far as he did. The smell inside was awful and the windshield was really fogged up from not having any working heat. Poor guy. He helped me take everything of value out of the car and load it into Mom's car in case it get s broken into tonight!! I hope not!!

It took us a really long time to get home from Walmart because the roads were terrible and it was a slow-go. WHAT AN EVENING!!! School is cancelled again tomorrow (yay!) so maybe tomorrow I can fully enjoy my day off!

It's Another Snowy Day in KY

2010-02-15T09:22:00.000-08:00

Well, we have another snow day here in Jessamine County - I'm not complaining.......if you know me, then you know I LOVE snowdays and I don't mind teaching in June! I love breaking up the monotony of everyday life, so snowdays are a great thing for me.

When there are snowdays for me, I actually have a little extra time to get chores done around the house. This morning, Ella tried to help me sort clean underwear and socks and here's what happened....too funny!

She decided to put her daddy's underwear on her head and make a hat out of them....I PROMISE these are clean! I thought it was funny - then she decided to do a little dance with them on her head.

I will hopefully get some shots of the snow later on and post them on here. Have a great snowday everyone!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2010-02-14T11:37:00.000-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone! I hope this day is finding everyone lots of love and relaxation like mine has found me :)

Started off the day with Jerm trying to fix me pancakes in bed, but a little busy bee foiled his plans by making a bunch of noise and waking me up before he could do so. That's okay though because I was just happy for the thought of it, and Ella was waiting for me to get up anyways and say "GOTCHA" to me.....she always says this here lately when she is wanting a hug. I guess this is because when she was smaller I would catch her, hug her and say "gotcha"....now whenever she wants me to hold her, hug her or pick her up she now says "gotcha, gotcha, gotcha" while she is running up to me - too cute :)

Jerm then gave me the gift that Ella picked out for me....she was in Walmart and Jerm told her that I needed a new watch. So he took her over to the watch section where she pulled a watch off the shelf and said, "Momma". It's actually really cute and I love it because she picked it out herself. It's silver with a round, pink face, and is surrounded by lots if bling :) If you know me, then you know I love BLING! That's my girl....she knows what her mommy likes! I had a nice watch that I paid too much money for back in October, and then it broke 4 weeks later, so I told him I needed a cheapo watch - hints the reason it cost $13 from Walmart!

Then we mosied on up to church where she immediately began crying as soon as we passed up Clays Mill Road while on Brannon Road. She knows that we go that way on Brannon and we turn on Clays Mill to go see either her Mimi and Papaw or her Grammy and Pappy. To make her cry even worse when we passed Clays Mill, she realized we were pulling into the Southland Parking lot.......the poor thing HATES, HATES going to the church nursery. She cries EVERY time we go and many times we get paged out because she has cried so hard in there during the service that she has made herself sick. Knock on wood (knock knock.......that's me knocking) she hasn't been paged out in two weeks now! Yay! I feel bad for the nursery workers though because one of them pretty much has to be one-on-one with her so she'll not melt down the whole time. They are wonderful though and are very sweet and understanding with her, which puts my mind at ease.

I'm glad she stayed in the nursery the whole time today because the service was AMAZING. John Weece's new 6-week study on "The Me I Want to Be" through the book of Ephesians has started off great.

Here is the song You'll Come I look forward to hearing every Sunday too:
http://http//www.youtube.com/watch?v=djEPQ1acYLg

Have a great Sunday and Valentine's Day everyone!

I'm Ba - aaack :)

2010-02-13T18:34:00.000-08:00

I haven't been on the ol' blog in a while, so I thought I would try to take a whack at this blog world thing again. When I got back on here tonight, I realized that I haven't been on this blog in over a year! Yikes! Many things have occurred since then:

Jerm is now a FIREFIGHTER! He went through the Fire Academy through the Lexington Fire Department and is now at Station 2 on New Circle Rd. riding Ladder 5. I'm so happy for him because he loves it so much!

Ella is growing like a weed and is a ball of fun. Some of her favorite things include: trains (yes, I know she's a girl, but she loves her choo choos!), playing with baby dolls, riding around in her cozy coupe, and drinking juice in her pink LazyBoy.

I am still teaching, and am loving my class this year and it is flying by fast! Teaching 2nd grade this year and going back to 1st next year (we have adopted the looping concept at our school).

I will continue to try my best to update this more often than in the past and post pictures as I obtain them. Thanks and have a blessed Valentine's Day!

This is Ella enjoying her first snow experience a couple of weeks ago :) She had so much fun! It looks like we will be getting more starting tomorrow afternoon and on into Monday - school closing possibly????