I have to brag on my youngest girl also. This was something she posted last night.. I couldn't ask for better kids.

Hannah Karnes

23 hours ago

I want to redefine the term "worship leader". I don't want to just be someone who sings on stage. I want to be someone who leads by example in everyday life. Someone who is continually worshiping, through every problem of every day. Someone who always has the feeling you get when you worship- that confidence, joy, and peace you don't get from anything or anyone else. And I want simply me being me, the person I am when I worship, the person God made me to be, to be an example. I want that to be what people see me as. That is what I am striving towards this school year. That is the kind of worship leader I hope to be, and I'm praying that God helps me become that. Amen! :)

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  You, Laura Mckinney, Jason Meekins and 19 others like this.
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    Lori Mason Champion You've for the right definition & the right heart!! God is already using you & it's limitless where He can take you w/ that desire!! Love you!!
    
    

Love them

I'm so proud of Jordan. We got to Skype for an hour today and she was telling me about how much she's learning about people. It is an eye opening experience for sure. People aren't who they say they are, you have to go by what they do. She is making some hard choices, regarding who to hang out with, what events she should "miss" and where to draw lines. She is going to be an influential, Godly woman on that campus. This means she has to say no to alot of seemingly fun "parties" , and she may take some grief over it, but standing for what you believe in is rarely easy. And she has done this all on her own.
She will make a difference, and she will be impossible to ignore.
I'm a very proud mama.

This has got to be one of the roughest weeks. Hannah and I had fun for a couple of days, but I'm missing Josh and Jordan soo bad. Josh is back in Berlin, and Jordan is now sick and I can't take care of her. She's also had to deal with student bank account issues, wrong book issues, suite mate issues, no phone reception AT ALL in the dorms, and she's handled it all on her own very impressively. She even declined a social event tonight so she could actually get some homework done.  I'm very proud of her. It's just so hard not being able to do anything to help.
And what is the deal with colleges hosting soooo many social events on week one?! I know they want the kids to get to know each other and all, but please, let them get settled in and used to the dorms and new classes, and get all the bugs worked out first. They have events every single night this week, when do these people do their homework??
Michael had roses delivered to her today for their one year anniversary. Such a sweet boy.

Hannah and I start work and school again on thursday. Yippee.
I'm praying H makes some good friends at school this year. Last year wasn't the best year for her there, friend wise. It's hard when you only go one day a week and everyone lives all over the place.

It hasn't even been a week, and I so miss hearing the girls laugh upstairs, I miss their inside jokes and quotes, I miss seeing the 2 of them across from me at my dinner table. :(
This sucks ya'll.

Move in day was thursday

this is Jordan's half of the room - very colorful and beachy :) 

her desk area

their closets

Gig em

the suite bathroom area

the suite's "kitchen"

the 1st floor lobby/community kitchen

her dorm entrance

the door to her suite

we went to dinner before saying goodbye

..at a cool place called Joe's. Funny thing, we met the owner and his son was going to UT Austin the next day..

The worst part, but also the most beautiful thing I've ever seen.

The day was wild and crazy and busy setting up everything she needed and fixing all the technical issues. Saying goodbye was like ripping my heart out, but at the same time she was just so happy and we are so excited for her to go on this great adventure. This school is just made for her. Her suite is so much bigger and nicer than we ever thought it would be, she loves her suite mates, they already had their first movie pajama party, she just got back from freshman SALT camp where she had an absolute blast meeting tons of people, so I kind of feel guilty and selfish about being sad. I think she's gonna love it there.

The craziest thing happened today when the girls and I went to the mall to pick something up. We were walking into Dillards and a girl in her late teens was walking out as we were walking in, and just as we got inside we saw a security guard bolt after her and threw her to the ground just outside the door. They wrestled for a while and she kept getting up and trying to run away, then he would pin her again and she'd try to break away, meanwhile he's trying to use his radio for backup. I didn't know what to do, cause I didn't want to get between them, so we just kind of stood there in shock and another lady called 911. Once he got some some control of her, he led her back inside and then she tried to take off again and knocked down a bunch of clothing racks while trying to escape, but he caught her again and wrestled her back to the ground, then another worker showed up to help. This poor guy earned his paycheck today. Another woman there said she saw the lady just pick up 2 expensive purses and head straight for the door very casually, which is why we didn't notice anything out of the ordinary when she passed us. The purses were laying on the ground by our feet so we stayed for a few minutes until an employee came for them. It was like an episode of Cops and you kept expecting a film crew to come running in. The girls were shocked and said they'd never seen anything like it in real life. It was pretty physical, much more than you'd expect from a crazy girl.

Look at this picture closely, it looks like my study filled with dorm stuff ready to be packed into the car tonight, but if you look closer..

 

you will see that Miles has decided he wants to go to college with Jordan. Poor little thing probably knows his mama is about to leave...  :(

Last night we took a break from the packing madness and went to an Express game for the first time this summer. I had asked Hannah what else she wanted to do this summer and this was her only request. She loves it there, and so do I. It was such a beautiful evening. A cold front had just blown in and the girls and I actually had to use a blanket, in August! It was so wonderful and peaceful, but bittersweet also, as it was our last family outing for a while.

Random updates

*Hannah now owns a very bright pair of mustard colored skinny jeans, and also a very bright green pair. She's so hip.
*Michael gave Jordan a "promise ring". It sure looks a whole lot like an engagement ring, but he "promises" it's not. He wanted her to know he's serious about staying together while they are apart. I think what he really wanted was to stake his claim. There are a whole lot of cute guys at A&M that probably won't bother her while wearing a diamond ring.
*Hannah totally has a crush on a boy. Jordan is not pleased. She can't handle her sister liking boys yet. (it's actually pretty funny how she has reacted)
*Michael is gone, and Jordan is stressed about packing and is already homesick.
*We are still not done shopping. It's hard work re-creating a mini home.
*We found a killer deal on a 26 inch flat screen for $179 at Best Buy this weekend, as well as $20 DVD player to go with it, for her dorm.
*We're starting a small group for parents of college kids. Like, seriously. It will be in the fall groups catalog if you attend Celebration.

So cool to see Hannah and Josh up there together.
Jordan saying a bunch of goodbyes today - not as cool..

Had a great night with Michael's family at Tokyo steakhouse, celebrating his birthday.

The happy couple is about to have to say goodbye for a while. He goes back to Waco in the morning.

With all the fuss this summer about getting Jordan ready for school (camps/orientation/dorm shopping/loans/etc.) I completely forgot about my other little girls schedule. She is going to be a junior and today I frantically had to make her schedule up and register her for all her classes and track down textbooks online. I feel like a bad mom. Her stuff is just as important, it just really slipped my mind.
So for all you homeschool moms out there, I thought I'd give you a glimpse into her junior year schedule.
All of her classes are either at One Day Academy, which I highly recommend for older kids, or they are dual credit classes at ACC. When you get to high school you have to start keeping track of actual credits that they earn toward their diploma. Nothing matters before high school. Texas requires 20 something(I forget), but homeschoolers generally are way ahead of that in quantity. Let's say, for example, it's about 24, so you would need 6 credits per year. You can look up the requirements on your own, but really it is up to you as a homeschool mom, since you decide when they're done. I always wanted to stay ahead of the curve though, so there was never any question when applying to colleges. Every college has different requirements when it comes to what high school credits they require. So you need to look up colleges they are interested in and find out what they are. They will ask for your homeschool transcript, and any college credits transcripts. So I just made the homeschool one up. I posted a pic of J's, for an example of how to do it.

So Hannah obviously has  different courses than Jordan because they are going different places. Hannah wants some sort of music degree, so her transcript will look alot different. This is the beauty of homeschooling. 
For her junior year she is taking:

Chemistry 2
Pre Calculus
English 3
Economics
US History
Band (obviously - she's in one at church, and that counts!)
SAT prep ( we will count this as a half credit)

One Day Academy  has a graduation ceremony with diplomas, they have sports teams, and they have a formal every spring(highly loved by the kids). They have about 7 campuses now and it is constantly growing.  You can take 1 class or 8 classes, or anywhere in between, it's entirely up to you. It really has been a blessing. I couldn't have homeschooled in high school without them. And frankly by that age you're ready to get them out of the house!
Commercial over.  :)
Carry on..

I know I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I'm in a yucky phase right now. I'm disappointed in people, in myself and in my own circumstances, I'm stressed & sick, I'm sad about Jordan leaving, torn about needing a job to pay these college bills vs not wanting to leave my 15 year old homeschooler home alone. I'm in a no win situation. And to top it off, our 40th birthdays are just around the corner.
All around me is complete and total joy with so many weddings and engagements, but I am also surrounded by looming death of some, and divorce for others. I don't want to go to church, cause I don't want to see anyone. I think I'm entering a full blow depression.
Maybe just a midlife (& kid moving out/ financial/ stress / sickness) crisis. I'm not the first person to ever have one, it will pass.
Please don't call me and ask what's wrong. That's the worst question ever. It has no answer.

Love you all. Don't worry about me, please.  Everyone has enough trouble of their own.

Buda is married!

Look what came in the mail!
:)

It's been a busy week. I worked 3 extra days this week taking tests for a test writing company. It was just a 3 day temp job, but it paid well and with August being one of the most expensive months we've had in years, we needed it.

We also have been glued to the Olympics on tv. Josh and I have always loved watching them, but the kids don't seem to care much. I noticed online that the majority of the people posting about it were our age or older. Not sure why it's not connecting with the younger generation. I can't remember a time when I didn't love watching them. So exciting to watch Michael Phelps make history as the most decorated Olympian ever. Just an amazing athlete.

Also, congrats to Gabby Douglas and team for their Team USA gold and her individual gymnastics gold.











Yesterday we had lunch with Jordans roommate and her parents. It was great to meet them and hear about their previous experiences. They have 2 older boys and this is their last child going off to college. We had such a good time chatting that 3 hours passed by without our noticing. So glad for J to have such a great roomie.
Erin is leaving for Arkansas in a bit over a week, then Michael leaves a week later, then it's J's turn a few days later. It's gonna be so quiet around here without all the extra kids and minus one of our own.
:(