I don't have my Mom's gardening thumb....

These are the pictures of my very own rose bush. It was planted this spring and I am very happy with how it has flourished. I think I may add a few more rose bushes. They are very hardy, I'm learning. I absolutely love gardening. I used to hate it when I was growing up because I hated to weed the flower bed, but now it's so much fun. Raun makes fun of me and says that I make flower beds only where the grass is growing....but I can't help it!

Our first freeze of the year!

So, we've finally hit our first freeze. It's been really cold in the morning, but not too bad during the day. It's struggled to get out of the low 60's, but I think it's supposed to warm up again soon. We've actually had the heater on at night...and the electric blanket! I love the cold weather!

My choir is singing for the first time on Sunday morning for both services. I'm a little nervous. They sang wonderful for the Pumpkin Patch, but there's gonna be lots more people on Sunday. I was so proud of my boy from Sudan...he sang both songs for the first time last night! I smiled the entire time and tried to make it look like I was wasn't looking at him so he'd keep singing. I love working with them. It's definitely a challenge, but it's fun.

We've hit the time of year where we're going to be incredibly busy. I love this time of year, since it's my favorite, but I miss my time that I get to spend at home. This weekend, my roommates from college are coming here and we're going to have our girl's weekend. We usually go on a big trip, but because of circumstances, we're going to do our big trip in the spring. I'm so excited. I have been blessed to still be such wonderful friends with them. I think we're going shopping, cooking some healthy meals, and of course, making coffee!

Then, on Tuesday, I leave for Louisville to attend the Music Therapy conference. I'm going with another college friend and staying with her family there. This will be a weird conference for both of us because this is the first time we haven't had to fly somewhere. I can actually bring back lots of instruments...which is good because I'm gonna have to! I love conferences because it is a great encouragement to continue what we're doing, as well as keeping us up-to-date on the newest practices and research. It's so great to be with so many music therapists from around the world. One year, I'll attend the music therapy conference in another country!

I return from conference on next Sunday....only to unpack, wash clothes, and catch up on all the work I missed. Then, it's repacking and heading to Atlanta on Wednesday to pick up my brother and head on to Florida for my grandparents 50th wedding anniversary. It'll be lots of fun, but definitely weird! It'll be our first Thanksgiving away from Tennessee in a long time. And we're not actually cooking the dinner....which yes, has it's benefits! No turkey sandwiches for weeks! I'm excited to see everyone, but I just know it's going to fly by. But when we return home, we're having our turkey Thanksgiving with Raun's family...so I guess I'm not completely home free from turkey sandwiches! But it's a good thing that I love turkey and mustard sandwiches!

That ends November and the next weekend is our kid's choir rehearsal for the Hanging of the Green and the beginning of Advent. I love this service. I'm thinking of using the West African drums during this service. It'll be so neat, if we can pull it off!

Following that, we're going to Dollywood and staying in Gatlinburg with one of our friends and their baby. We love hanging out with them because we have so much in common. I'm really excited to see the Christmas lights in Dollywood and to see all of the beautiful shows. There's nothing like being in the mountains at Christmas time. I absolutely love it! Well, there's nothing like being in the mountains period.

Then right before Christmas is our choir performance at church, which is awesome! They fill out the rest of the orchestra with strings and whatever other instruments we don't have playing already. I love playing for this. The choir is so beautiful and it's one of my favorite services.

That brings us to Christmas and who knows what else is to come during that week! I'll stay posted with pictures and all for sure.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!! I absolutely love Halloween for one simple reason....it's the mark for the cooler weather, hot drinks, changing leaves, and my 2 favorite holidays are right around the corner.

Papa, we took Dad to your favorite place to eat today! He liked it. And in your honor, I had gingerbread and Dad had the ice cream! I thought about posting a picture of it so it would be an incentive to come back to stay with us again!

I was working in the office today and noticed that Ellie was missing. When I went to check on her, I found her in the pumpkin pulling out pieces of candy. Lollipops appear to be her favorite, because she's drug out 3 in the past 15 minutes!

I've decided...

So......thanks to my best friend, Heather, and of course Raun and my family, I've decided to go back to school. I'm going for my master's in music therapy. I had been putting it off because I wouldn't be able to get it unless we moved. However, they just sent out a paper a few weeks ago offering MT classes with an emphasis in whatever field of study (i.e. autism, medical, mental health, etc.). It's at Georgia College and State University in Milledgeville, GA. It is the same college that Aunt Maxine got her master's at. They have an excellent music therapy program and best of all...it's ONLINE! I get to have in-state tuition, which is great and only have to go there one weekend every semester and one week out of the summer for my intensive training days. I'm thrilled to start! I probably won't start until the summer because life here is hectic, but I'm very excited. My emphasis will be in the medical/mental health field, since God is apparently wanting me to work with these type of clients/patients.

I love my work! My boys at the psych hospital created a band today and I taught them the bass, electric, drums, and keyboard. By the end of the session, they played "Lean on Me" fairly well! And only one fight almost broke out! We're improving! But what a thrill to work with them. The staff that was with me today (I call them my body guards) was actually in school to be a music ed teacher. I told him to feel free to help anytime! He said he would be there every Friday and he'd make sure he was with whatever group I had. And...I had a boy request classical music. I almost fell out of my chair. I usually only get Rap, R & B, or Country. I was excited to finally get to play some REAL music!

I'm looking forward to the weekend. We're having friends from church over to watch the Florida/Georgia game (Raun loves Florida and Walt loves Georgia). Jamie (my nutritionist friend) and I are going to be cooking our wonderful, famously healthy dinners. Raun laughs at me because his poor tummy can't handle lots of grease or heavy meats anymore. I'm proud....that means I'm doing my job! We're doing shrimp again, so Nessa...wish me better luck than when we cooked together! I'll let you know the verdict when it's done.

God is good!

What another great day! It rained most of today again, thank goodness. The grass is actually starting to recover from the brownish color it had become. Plants are actually looking green and some trees are FINALLY changing colors. Yes, it's late in changing colors, but it's been so dry, they just think it's still summer, I guess.

More updates on my little autistic boy. He had some changes in meds this past week, so he didn't do as well as last week. He still counted to 10 and said his A, B, C's, though. The best part...I was leaving and I told him "bye!" He waved at me and said, "bye, bye!" He has never told anyone that and we've been working so hard to get him to say those words. His mom looked at me and said "that has made my day!" It's those little steps that get me so excited about music therapy and the benefits. It's amazing how music therapy helps bring kids out of so much isolation and into a world that communicates! I love my work....have I said that before? I'm so blessed to be able to do what I love!!!!

A few fall leaves....

Monteagle Mountain
on our road

Our house view from the front yard
Suzzy and Ellie
Ellie
Monteagle Mountain
Monteagle Mountain

from our deck
from our deck
from our deck
from our front yard
from our front yard

It's raining!!! I think most people in Northern Georgia and Tennessee and praising the Lord! You don't hear one person complaining about the rain...and it's supposed to rain all week. All I've heard is "Thank goodness it's raining," or "I'm so glad it's raining!"

We went to Manchester this past weekend and got to see John. It was good to see everyone for a little while and to get some wonderful food. Dad's had another calf, so he was really happy about that. And John's loving his work. Mom's been working out and I'm so extremely proud of her for her endeavors!

Enjoy the pictures!!!

Prayer....

We FINALLY got some rain yesterday...Praise the Lord!!! It wasn't nearly enough, but it's a start. I feel like I'm living in the Old Testament 'cause I'm literally praying for rain....but oh, well! The leaves are starting to change just a little, so that's really pretty. I'll post some of pictures up soon, so Nanny and Papa can enjoy them!

Today's entry comes more in the form of a prayer request. Many of you know that Raun and I are leading the children's choir (4th and 5th graders) at our church. It is a lot of fun, but still a lot of hard work. We have a boy in there that is a refuge from Sudan. He's been in the U.S. about 2 years. He is so precious, but he's only 10 and has seen so much. A little of his background: he and his brothers and sisters traveled about 1200 miles or so on foot to Egypt to escape the wars in Sudan. He lost a twin brother on the journey. His dad (who was a pastor) was put into prison in Egypt. They haven't spoken to him since he was released. The dad apparently went back to Sudan when he thought it was safe so he could get the mom's sister to bring to the U.S. However, they think he might have been killed over there, since there had been so many threats on his life. He was telling my mentor all about this and she was trying to tell him that he needed to write a book, but he doesn't really know how to write in the English language. He said "I want to write a book....how do you do that?" Him and his siblings want to go back to Sudan to find their dad. The mom remarried about 1-2 years ago, but the step-father just left the mom, who is now having to work almost 24/7 to keep her family of 6 alive. So anyway, Raun is going to try to gain the boy's trust so that he might could help him in school and still acheiving those goals that his father so desperately told him that he could do. Please pray for us as we are put into this ministry so that we would know how to reach out to this boy. It's amazing where God puts us, but we definitely would love to help this boy see that Christ can help him. How wonderful it would be to see him become a Christian and give his entire life whole-heartedly to Christ!

Another prayer is for a boy in my mentor's daughter's class. He had apparently had difficulty controlling his bladder. The principal had come to talk to the class about bullying this little boy. He would go to the bathroom 5-6 times in his pants. It turns out that this boy had been so sexually abused that he couldn't help it. My heart broke for this boy. Please pray for God's protection and for removal from the person who is abusing him. Pray for the kids at school to see that you never know what another person is going through, so we shouldn't judge someone.

My heart just breaks over these two boys. I know that God has put some Christian people into both of the children's lives. I pray that they will be such a powerful testimony of God's love and faithfulness to them. Thank you for partnering with us to pray for this wonderful ministry God has called us to!

What a great day!!!

So...I had the greatest day! After a rough time with "the boys," I went to see my 2-year-old client with autism. He doesn't speak...at least he didn't. That's changed over this past month. Today, I couldn't hold back my tears of joy! He spelled his name to a song I made up and he said his name, his A, B, C's, as well as counted 1-4. Last week he counted 1-6. It was kinda sad, though, because his mom his still battling with an ear infection and couldn't hear too much of what he was saying. But she still had tears in her eyes when she saw his lips moving! It was a GREAT way to end the day. I love those music therapy moments. She said that I get more out of him than his PT, OT, and Speech Therapist! How exciting!!! Oh...and he even cleaned up the instruments, which is AWESOME because he normally has a hard time transitioning into things and following directions! What a sweetie! Just wanted to share my little music therapy moment that all music therapists strive for!

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