The school year is starting soon and...

I got a job!

God blessed and on Monday, July 14, I got the call. I will be teaching 9th and 10th grade English at Karns High School.

If you ever question how God works, here is proof that He is looking out for us and has a hand in our move to Knoxville. Our townhome, which we leased in June, is located less than 5 minutes from the school. Of all the high schools in Knoxville we could not have leased a home in a better neighborhood any closer to Karns High School! I wouldn't have believed it if it hadn't happened right before my eyes.

I will post pics of my classroom as soon as I get it finished!

I got a job!

Monday, July 14th, while driving to Gatlinburg to visit Biscuit, I got the phone call...God has blessed...I have been hired to teach 9th and 10th grade English at Karns High School.

I will post pics of my classroom as soon as they are available!

Visiting with the family...

Justin, Kristen, Logan, and Riley came for a visit the second weekend in July! We went to dinner at Mimi's, visited the Knoxville Zoo, had ice cream Brusters (yum!), ate at Mexico Lindo's (best homemade tamales), and played in the pool.

Logan and Riley with their belated birthday gifts of matching Viewmaster/Binoculars with tons of animals slides.
Now they are ready for the zoo!
Riley and Poppy Danl

Riley decided to call Poppy Danl "Danl Hall" this trip and as he is famous for his Tommy Bahama print shirts (that he loves) Riley made Danl's day when she commented on his shirt when he came downstairs dressed for the zoo, "Danl Hall, nice shirt."

Logan with the map. Logan has a "thing" for maps and likes to act as the offical tour guide when he visits parks, etc.

Our group (in the shade).

Two baby girls...

Kristen with Riley in her ponytails!

We had a great visit and can't wait to see them again!

KNOXVILLE

We have relocated to Knoxville, Tennessee!
Danl has been here for a couple months and we joined him Friday, June 27th. After spending the night in Lexington and putting Rae and Nolan on the plane back to San Antonio, Chloe' and I rolled into town about 5pm just as the movers were unloading the last of the "stuff".
Friday night was rough and we worked hard Saturday but, we were settled in by Saturday night.
Danl has been working to help us acclimate to the area. He found a great location to live (Forest Ridge Town Homes) and a church! We attended Knoxville Christian Center for Sunday services and feel very blessed to have found a church.
So far we are enjoying our new city. I will post with job and school details as they develop.
HAVE A GREAT SUMMER!

Rachel and Nolan visit Kentucky...

Nolan and Mommy visited Kentucky for 2 weeks at the end of June. The visit was riddled with allergies, runny noses, ear infections (Rae's) and The Hall Family migration to Knoxville which made for more than a few rough days. Jed was a trouper in San Antonio missing his Rachel and chunks-a-bunch (kudos to Jed for having to work and miss his family).
But all and all we loved our visit. Nolan enjoyed spending time with Noah and Chloe'. Check out the picture of him riding the "Chloe' car" which was Chloe's Cozy Coupe. Francis and Corkie ending up riding too. Nolan is growing exponentially and does something new everyday! We took him for his 7 month pictures.
We spent a couple days in Knoxville checking out the new townhome while I went to a job interview. We also visited the Pikeville City Park where Nolan enjoyed swinging. He loved his baths and gave everyone extra doses of sugar (especially Uncle Danl). Rae and Chloe' went for mani's and pedi's. I worked on the computer one whole day and finished my Rank 1!!!
We ended the trip with a night in Lexington and took him to the UK bookstore and he got to "swim" in the jacuzzi tub at the Doubletree.
My best memories are feeding him and making him laugh, which is pretty easy to do considering the kid laughs for pastime.
Rae and Nolans visit was a great start to the summer!
WE LOVE YOU GUYS BUNCHES!

School's Out!

It's official...

School's out for summer... Chloe' graduated from Johns Creek. She is a Freshman!

Let the moving begin!

We have not officially moved yet. Danl is loving Knoxville and his new job.

As soon as a job materializes for me I will post...

Have a great summer!

Spring Break

Things could not have been any busier during spring break! Danl started his new job at Vaughn and Melton and moved into his apartment in Knoxville, Noah worked and spent time at Hillbilly Days eating all sorts of yummy food (4 funnel cakes, 3 gyros, 1 polish sausage, 2 mountain dew slushies, 5 full throttles, 2 strawberry smoothies, 3 slices of pizza, 1 blooming onion, 1 flaming stick of pork and God only knows what else!) and for basically the same amount of money that it takes to feed Noah at Hillbilly Days, Chloe' and I flew to Texas.




Chloe' and Nolan going for a walk.

Texas (i.e., NOLAN) was a blast. Rachel and Jed picked us up at the airport (luggage and all) and we spent the weekend stealing sugar from the cutest baby in the world. We toured a model of their new house! Woo Hoo! Beeaautifulll! Sunday we got to go along with Rachel and Jed to have Nolan's five month pictures made. (Uncle Danl will love the golf pictures!) Nolan also started eating green beans and peaches during our visit! We purchased him a walker and he is offically mobile now. This kid is off the charts amazing.



(monkey face)


Tuesday night Rachel hosted a Bunco night for 16 of her closest friends and everyone enjoyed a "girls night" with a taco and ice cream bar.




We spent Thursday at the Witte Musesum viewing the Human BODY exhibit (amazing) and had lunch at Le' Madeline's French Bistro. Yummy french onion soup and a super yummy lemon tart! (Nolan liked it too!)

Friday was a beautiful day at the pool and Nolan loved the water.
All and all, Spring Break was tons of fun and now we are back to school for two weeks of CATS testing! Danl is busy at his new job and learning his way around Knoxville. The house hunt begins!

Exciting, busy, long, interesting week of changes...

Where to begin...

Let's start with my favorite subject-NOLAN!
Nolan is changing everyday and thanks to Rachel and Jed's commitment to photograhpy I am loving every minute. Snapfish, our families mode of sharing, has seen a lot of changes this week.

This week alone Nolan has:

started giving kisses (sweet gobber kisses). Check out Nolan and his mommy as she gets all of Auntie's sugar.

started using a "jumper" for what looks like an admirable attempt at walking. In the videos, you can his determination. He desperately wants to run with Lexi.

started mimicking what he sees...he rocks his head back and forth as Jed does the same giving him belly goobers. You can almost hear Nolan saying, "Do it again Dad." The video is priceless. You can hear Nolan giggling and turning his head back and forth just like Jed. The funny part is, Jed is laughing as hard as Nolan. Too cute.

Work was unbearable this week. One word: PORTFOLIOS

As Writing Cluster Leader at our school this is the toughest time of the school year for me. I spend almost the entire day reading portfolios entries and conferencing with students. By the end of the day my eyes are cross and my thought process is useless. The good news...one more week until Spring Break! Assessment begins the week we return from Spring Break and portfolios are offically a thing of the past. Which brings me to my point-Spring Break!

Our Spring Break is the week of "Hillbilly Days" in Pikeville this year. Chloe' and I have opted out of the food at Hillbilly Days for a week with our little nugget, Chewy! (E! network's Chelsea Handler/Chelsea Lately reference) We are so excited to spend a week with Jed, Rachel, and NOLAN!!! By the looks of how fast our little spicy taco is growing we should arrive just in time for him to pick us up at the airport.

Now for the big news of the week-the life altering news-the big change!

Danl has offically accepted a job with Vaughn and Melton, Inc. engineering firm in Knoxville, Tennessee. Our family will be relocating this summer. We are all excited and happy for Danl and we know this is something he has worked for and prayed about for some time now. We will all be making changes, Danl with his job, obviously and me with my job, which is still a work in progress. Noah has some decisions to make and for now plans to stay at Pike Central for his Senior year. Chloe', she will finally get to move to a city with a Qdoba Mexican Grill! She is looking forward to starting high school in the fall! This is the perfect time for her to make a move. Please pray for us! Our house will be going on the market this week and we are desperatley praying for the perfect neighbors for our Dustin, Leslie, and Madi family. Seriously, we have the best neighbors in the world, people who are family to us, and we will struggle leaving them most of all. I will keep you posted on my job search. Knoxville has more schools per square mile than Pikeville so I am very optimistic.

Like I said...exciting, busy, long, interesting week of changes!

HILLARY

Thursday, April 3, 2008, Bill Clinton made a campaign visit to Pikeville, Kentucky. The Expo Center was filled with young and old waiting to hear the president speak.


This was Noah and Chloe's second time seeing Bill Clinton although they were too young to remember the first time.


Leslie and Madi, Danl, Noah, Chloe' and I had a blast. Madi made "Mr. Clenton" (as she spelled it-which is pretty good for a 4 year old) a drawing and as he left the Expo she had the opportunity to give him. Chloe' got to speak to him as she handed him the drawing and well, I think the pictures say it all....

Welcome Michelle!
Check out The Kinder's new blog.
I am so pround of my bff for getting her blog up and running.
Rachel (our resident blog guru) will have to tutor us in "prettying up" our pages.

Happy Valentines Day-Danl has been my Valentine for 17 years!

The last week has been busy.

First, I spent two days with a migraine of massive proportions. Then I had to attend two Rank 1 classes in Magoffin County both Friday and Saturday. On the up side-my Rank 1 will be complete at the end of this summer and my colleagues and I enjoy the adventure of completing classes together as opposed to traveling alone.

I spent Sunday grading papers and getting caught up on paperwork and getting makeup work ready for all the kids who missed school last week due to the flu. Then as luck would have it, Chloe' got sick with flu symptoms Monday night. I stayed home with her Tuesday now Kentucky is getting a dusting of snow, just enough to keep us out of school! We were thrilled to hear that we are out the rest of this week due to weather/flu. Hopefully a few days off will give everyone time to get healthy. Chloe' has had a rough few days and I have been prodding her to take medicine so she can rest. She has been so pitiful.

The writer's strike is over so we are all holding onto our seats waiting on new episodes of Greys and Desperate Housewives. Yeah! Thank goodness for American Idol. I will post our families Idol predictions soon.

I had to reschedule this week's Book Club tea but I will post pictures and an update as soon as we can meet. Early reviews have been mixed, in reference to The Poisonwood Bible, so I can't wait to hold the discussion. We will definately have to pick something "lighter" next month.

P.S. Nolan is three months old today! Cutie x 3 months!

LOVE LOVE LOVE TO ALL

It's February

Where did January go?

I spent part of last week in Lex-Vegas at the KCTE-LA Conference (Kentucky Counsel for Teachers of English and Language Arts). Imagine the blissful sight of 400 English teachers running freely about the Radisson without a principal in sight. However, it was a good conference and I learned a lot. There were several amazing authors presenting and the poetry was fun.

Chloe's cheer squad spent Saturday competing and earning another 1st place finish at the Bluegrass Games (held at Henry Clay High School). This was the squads second year finishing 1st in their divison at the Bluegrass Games.


Go Cats!


C-A-T-S


Go Cats Go!
Chloe' is standing-fourth girl over-holding the trophy.




Chloe' is standing left of the sign.













While in Lexington we visited with Justin, Kristen, Logan and Riley Kate. Anytime we can play with the kids we are happy. Then we attempted to go out for dinner at Olive Garden (the wait was just under 2 hours), then we ventured over to the Japanese Steak House (an hour wait there) so we literally ate at the next place we could find without putting both kids back in their car seats- Corky's Bar-b-que. It isn't Rudy's but it was great! We were all starved and munched down on fried pickles, cheese sticks, and nachos with Bar-b-que beef (a first for us). The highlight of dinner was Logan saying grace and Riley letting us know she was finished eating. First, we practically had to "sing Logan down" as he blessed everyone he knows (twice) and it was beautiful. He is amazingly smart and quick-witted. Then, Riley (thief of hearts-especially Danl's) finishes meals with a flourish. She simply throws everything she has finished on the floor. Justin and Kristen assures us that when her sippy cup hits the floor you can be sure she's finished eating.

After a long weekend traveling, the whole football Superbowl thing did not go uncelebrated. Danl, Noah, Chloe', and I spent the evening at Ray and Paula Jones' Superbowl Party eating "blazing hot" hot wings (Hooters Three Mile Island none the less) playing with Grayson, and visiting with good friends. The guys watched every second of the game and the girls were thrilled to have some uninterrupted chat time.

The cutest baby on the planet, Nolan, spent his first Superbowl watching the game while reclining on his dad. It was a proud moment for Jed! Check out Rachel's Blog for super cute Superbowl Nolan pics.

At PCCHS, Madonna Morley (the school's media specialist) and I have started a book club!
I will be hosting a Valentine Tea on Wednesday the 13th. The book selection for this month is The Poisonwood Bible. I am thrilled and excited...

January 20-26 It was a big week!

How many snow days did we have this week? 3 and 1/2!

After recently finishing Ken Follets, Pilars of the Earth I was anxious to read World Without End, another 900+ page book, and the snow days made that possible. It was a blissful week of sleeping in and reading. Chloe's cheer and volleyball teams didn't practice and we were free to "stay in" instead of running to and fro. A welcome break.

Thursday, the one day we had school (turned out to be 1/2 day due to another onslaught of snow) Chloe' had a very important orthodonic appointment. After 13 months in braces Chloe's has a new beautiful smile!

Chloe' loves her new freedom and has enjoyed a bag of candy given to her when she got her braces off with included bubble gum and sticky candy. She also headed straight for the movies where she enjoyed popcorn! Yeah!

In addition, Chloe's cheer sqaud competed at Winterfest Cheer Competition with a first and second place finish! It was a long day of performances but Johns Creek did really well overall. All the girls are looking forward to the Bluegrass State Games in Lexington next week where they took first place overall last year!

Chloe' with some of her friends (Kaci, Kayla, Kinsey) and her daddy (before yesterdays game)...

Chloe' in action....

Noah spent Saturday evening serving on Pike Central's Varsity Court. He looked very handsome. Ten boys and ten girls were chosen by the faculty and voted on by their peers to serve on Varisty Court. It is an honor at Pike Central to make it to the court because of the list of requirements each student must meet in refernce to attendance, GPA, and lack of discipline referrals.

His "first love" from library school, Lindsey Sacratini, was crowned queen and they were both all smiles afterwards...

Lindsey and Noah have known each other since they were two years old when he gave her a Valentine and her first box of heart shaped candy (15 years ago!).

Pictured here is Noah and Sarah Stanley, one of Noah bff's since preschool.

Also, Noah and one of his best friends, Hannah. Noah and Hannah share a very competitive nature. They are too funny. They attend the same church, play PC golf, and are both Booth Scholars.

This is Noah and the young lady he escorted, Mia.

All the members of the Varsity Court looked beautiful.

Happy New Year-We're Back in the bluegrass!

It was next to impossible but we said farewell to Rae, Jed, Lexi, and Nolan and headed back to the bluegrass state on New Year's Eve. Our visit was so nice, relaxing and time spent cuddling with Nolan will be cherished for a lifetime. Did I mention that I have the cutest nephew in the world? Nolan and Rae will be visiting us in March during Rae's spring break. Yeah!

Our flight left at the butt crack of dawn and Jed was nice enough to toot us to the airport with all our luggage which included a sizable Christmas haul for Noah and Chloe'.
Note to self: pack lightly for the trip down because us Kinder women can shop like banshees and every bag has a weight limit!



Upon arrival the temperature was a tad bit cooler but other than that it was uneventful. Justin picked us up at the airport. Our luggage arrived (a belated Christmas miracle)!!!! And we spent some time playing with Logan and Riley Kate before driving back into Pikeville to celebrate the New Year with our best friends and neighbors-Dustin, Leslie, and Madi Williams. I am embarrassed to say that Danl and I were too sleepy (our day had started at 3 am over 1,200 miles away in San Antonio!) and were fast asleep (with the TV tuned in to Dick Clark) and missed the ball drop. It was the first time in memory I missed the new year :( I stayed awake until about 10-15 minutes til midnight but I couldn't keep me eyes open another second!





However...The week gets better!

What is the one word that teachers since the dawn of time have longed to hear?

Education? No.

Knowledge? No.

SNOW! Yes, we got snow!

Not only did we get snow we got several inches of snow and three days off! Yes, it's true Wednesday-Friday were snow days! (Another Christmas miracle if you ask me!)






I spent three glorious snow days reading (I finished Pillars of the Earth), napping, putting away all the Christmas decor (Ggrrr), and missing my sis. :(

Leslie, Chloe', Madi and I went to Peking for dinner on Friday evening. Second semester starts Monday-Have a great one!