Wordless Wednesday--This Was How My Week Started

More Wordless Wednesday Fun can be found HERE.

The Letter H and the Number 8

It's been awhile since I have posted one of my lesson plans.  I have now stopped at the letter P with the kids and I will pick it back up in the Fall with Caleb and Simon.  Josh will be starting Kindergarten!  I'm not sure if I am ready for that. Any how, there has just been too many extra things going on for me to write out a week of lesson plans.  Oh well, we all need a break.

So here is what we did for the letter H and the number 8.

I introduced them to the nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" and they colored a coloring page I found HERE.
We did the tracer pages for the letter H and the number 8.  The letter H can be found HERE and the number 8 can be found HERE.  We sang the songs "Head and Shoulders" and "If You're Happy and You Know It".  We talked about homes and the different places that people live.  We also looked at the different kinds of houses that animals make for themselves.  You can find some activities on homes HERE and HERE.  We made the mini booklet and then an activity where you matched the animal to their home.  And of course our last name starts with an H and so we practiced writing that. 

I didn't take any pictures during the H-week except for some of Simon in his apron that Grandi made for him.  Isn't he cute?!

Our Visit to Mountain Lake

We are back home in Texas today!  Yay!  I missed my boys ALOT.  We are finally all home together and I have started working on the mountains of laundry that truthfully, was already here awaiting my return.  It kind of reminds me of the mountains we drove up on Wednesday...

We had some time to kill before our flight back to Texas, so we drove up a mountain (4,000 ft) to Mountain Lake Conservancy and Hotel.  This was one of the locations where the movie Dirty Dancing was filmed.  It was about a 40 minute drive from Blacksburg, but it was a beautiful drive.  We drove straight toward the mountains and I was astonished at how they kept getting bigger and bigger!  Also amazing was seeing the homes and communities that had been settled on these sloping rocks. 

Here are some of the sights we saw along the way and some shots of different places at Mountain Lake where different scenes from Dirty Dancing were shot.  And I hate to say it, but there was no dancing involved with this trip.  Just some hiking, talking, and occasional hand holding.

Driving toward the mountains.

This bridge was on private propery...it reminded me of Beetlejuice.

At Mountain Lake...the lake is way back there, it is really low.

Memorial for Patrick Swayze.

This is where the night dance scene was shot.  Where Baby went to get Johnny after finding Penny crying in the kitchen.

The boathouse which is empty because the water is way down.

The end of the pier on the boathouse.  See how far away the water is.  The lifts in water by Baby and Johnny were done on this side of the lake. 

The hotel from out "on the lake".

From the hotel porch.

Momma and baby birds on the porch.

This is where various dining room scenes were shot. 

Coming back down the mountain I just had to get a shot of the path of the powerlines.  Amazing to think that man cut a way through that wildness.

Beautiful

Apple tree

Deer

Wordless Wednesday

Found him on VTech campus.

The House Hunt is OVER!

I am breathing a sigh of relief as I write this post.  We have found a place to live for 10 months, starting in July.  After that we will either renew or find another place to rent or buy.  God really had a hand in this, it is amazing to me.  So thank you to friends and family who have been praying for us!  I was so anxious about being able to find a home during this short trip but everything has fallen into place so far, and we are looking forward to getting here with the boys and settling in. 

So this was the first house that we looked at yesterday.  I knew when we left that we liked it.  I mean it is not our dream house or anything but I knew we could live there and it looked like a good fit.  I told Troy before we went and looked at the second one that I just had a feeling we would end up with the first one.  The second one was gutted and they were redoing and reconstructing everything.  They said it could be finished by the 23rd of July but we knew there would be no way.  So that one we scratched off our list.  That evening Troy's new boss took us out to eat.  Who did we see there?  The family whose house we looked at first thing that morning!  I told Troy, "See.  It's a sign!". 

Today we had an appointment to meet with a leasing agent.  We had expected to be with her all morning.  We ended up seeing one house with her and it was $300 over our budgeted price.  It was nice but not worth the extra money and kind of further out then we wanted.  That was all she had to show us!  The next two houses we were supposed to look at were with a different leasing agent.  As we are sitting in Chick-Fil-A eating chicken minis, Troy gets a call from her to say that the two she thought would be good for us were actually not going to be ready to move into until August!  We told her thanks for looking but that wouldn't work.  Troy has to start on the 26th of July.  So then we had one more to look at that we had found on Craigslist.  It was furthur out and it was nice also but it just didn't have what we were looking for.  Plus it was zoned for a really old elementary school.  Just not a good fit.  So we knew we had our house...the very first one!  We signed the lease this afternoon and put in our deposit.  It's amazing but I had just been praying before we came up here and while we were here that we would be led right where we needed to be.  I am  so thankful for a God who answers prayers! 

So here are a few pics of the house!  The family is still living there now so that is all of their stuff in the house.

This is the front of the house from the street.

There's Troy going up to the front door.

Living Room

Kitchen

Dining area in Kitchen

One half of the finished basement.

Other half of the finished basement.

Deck in the backyard.

It feels so great to know where we are going to live.  I hope that we will have visitors!