To the Awesome Moms

To all the awesome moms out there. Gotta love some Kid President.

Dry Bones

Happy Easter everyone! I have to be honest, Easter kind of snuck up on me this year. I'm ashamed to say I think I was so busy focusing on the start of Spring Break that I didn't spend much time reflecting on one of the most important Christian holidays.

Lee and I worked in the nursery for the first service this morning. I guess you could say I got my baby fix. During the service, our pastor preached on an interesting passage for Easter. Ezekiel 37:1-14.

[1] The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. [2] He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. [3] He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord GOD, You know." [4] Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.' [5] "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. [6] 'I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'" [7] So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. [8] And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. [9] Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."'" [10] So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army. [11] Then He said to me, "Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, 'Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.' [12] "Therefore prophesy and say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. [13] "Then you will know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. [14] "I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it," declares the LORD.'" - Eze 37:1-14 NASB


It was interesting to look at the connection between the resurrection of Christ and the resurrection of his people. We were dead in our sin, without hope. Christ died and was resurrected so we could have life. He breathed life into us. Thanks be to God for the story of John 3:16.

This passage made me think of this song which we sing in church often.

Spring Break Update

Things have been rolling along here in the Woodmansee household. I'm officially on Spring Break so I should have some time to do some updating.
Teaching has been pretty good although I can feel myself (and my students) getting lazy as the year goes on. We have about 8 weeks left of school and that big ole' End of Course Exam in the near future. We did start the last trimester and I'm teaching one of the Advanced Algebra 2 classes which I'm enjoying. It's a faster pace than the comprehensive classes but the students are (for the most part) great! I have had a difficult time trying to balance the teaching classes I'm taking with the two preps I now have for school. It could be worse though. Spring Break is not going to be as restful as I'd like since I have projects due soon in all 3 of my classes not to mention I'm way behind on grading and planning. I should  be able to fit in plenty of reading and sleeping though (not to mention the trip to Fayetteville at the end of the week).
Lee is doing pretty well with classes and work. Things seem to be going much better with the lighter class load although he's feeling the stresses of an online Greek class. We'll both be done with classes in about a month or so and hopefully we'll get a bit of a break before summer classes begin.
Lee and I are now working with the college ministry at our church which we're enjoying. It's great being around college students again plus we still get to hang out with some of the couples from our previous BFG. We've also started volunteering in the preschool ministry (Lee says so I can get my baby fix). We're so blessed with our church and look forward to all the opportunities to serve and grow.
I'd love to do some deeper posts this week. Hopefully I'll be able to carve out the time. To all our friends and family, we love you and miss you (but maybe we'll be seeing some of you soon)!

Woodmansee 2012 in Review (& looking forward)

Happy New Year everyone (only a day late). I can't even claim being busy has kept me away since I'm still on vacation. I did take down the Christmas decorations yesterday. I'm still proud that we can fit all of them (except the tree of course) into two boxes. Go us.

Since 2012 has officially ended I thought I would recap all the goings-on of the Woodmansee household. 

• The beginning of 2012 brought a Thomas family ski trip. No one broke anything so I count it as a success. The rest of 2012 we knew would bring lots of changes. We knew we'd be moving to Louisville so we started making plans. I had decided to try to pursue teaching instead of engineering as my career. This was very scary for me because it was going to me less comfort for us. Obviously it would mean less pay and I'd be going back to school...again. I flew off to Louisville to interview with the JCPS district and with the UofL. I also had to take a few math classes at the UofA. Things were starting to take shape. Lee was still working hard with the college group at FBC and finishing up his last semester at the UofA. Did I forget to mention that I had an awesome time on a cruise with my mom (oh and Lee went to Canada) for Spring Break. Woot!

 

• At the beginning of the summer both Lee and my sister graduated from the UofA. After that it was a whirlwind of finding a place to live, packing and moving. An adventure to say the least. There were a few friends' weddings along the way as well. Once we got settled in Louisville I started class at UofL and Summer Institute with Teach Kentucky. I also had to find a teaching job at some point. Lee looked for a job and found one at Walgreens in the photo department. We found our new church and met some amazing people. We also celebrated our 3rd anniversary!

• Fall brought lots of school! I started my job teaching Algebra 2 at Southern High School and Lee started seminary classes at Southern seminary (yes, it gets a little confusing around here when we just say Southern). I also took another teaching class towards my MAT at UofL and Lee continued working at Walgreens. Both of us learned a lot and had to adjust to new schedules (getting up at 5:30 for me and Lee working nights). I think both teaching and seminary were tougher than we were expecting but we know this is exactly where God wants us to be. We were able to go home for Thanksgiving and it was good to see family!

• In this last part of 2012 Lee finished up his first semester of seminary. I successfully made it to Christmas break! I've been enjoying my vacation and spending more time with Lee. We weren't able to go home for Christmas but we had a good time with friends and our little family.

I'm not very good a resolutions but there are some things I want to do better in 2013.

• Get back into budgeting carefully and couponing (at least a bit)
• Take more pictures (clearly)
• Keep up with the blog better
• Get more organized as a teacher
• Get back into a women's bible study

There are some fun things coming up for Lee and I. We'll be trucking along with school and work. We're hoping to make it home and to Fayetteville sometime. It looks like we'll be getting into some ministry opportunities at our church (more on that when we know more). Lots of good things for the Woodmansees. I look forward to sharing them all with you!

Merry Christmas from Kentucky!

I just wanted to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! It's hard not being with family this holiday season but Lee and I are enjoying making new memories with our little family, like these cinnamon rolls I cranked out this morning. My favorite part was that I was able to make the dough in the bread machine!

Thank you friends and family for the many blessings you've given us. The biggest blessing has been your love and support. And what better time of the year to remember the greatest love of all.

9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him. 10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. (1 John 4:9-10)

Full Disclosure by Dee Henderson

I LOVE Dee Henderson. It can't really be said any other way. I'm pretty sure I've read just about everything she's published and was very excited to see she had a new book after several years. Full Disclosure comes out on October 2 this year and I was stoked to get an advanced copy to review.

Ann Silver is the Midwest Homicide Investigator and travels all across the country helping law enforcement agencies solve murders. She has also made some powerful friends along the way. What originally seems to be a routine car accident in the town where she is acting as temporary sheriff turns out to be anything but and leads her to the office of Paul Falcon, the FBI's top murder cop.With Ann's help one of Paul's biggest cases is about to bust wide open. Even with his hands full working the female murder-for-hire case, Paul can't help but be interested in Ann and have a deep desire to get to know her better. But Ann has secrets. Big secrets. Can the two work everything out in both their professional and personal lives?

Full Disclosure is different from many of Dee Henderson's books in that it's not quite as action packed. Because of this it took me a bit to get into the story, but once I did I was hooked. I think if you go into it expecting that then you'll love it from the very first page. If you've read Dee's other books you'll recognize many of the characters from her series, The O'Malley's and Uncommon Heroes, but in a way that you don't expect. I wish I still had all my other books so I could re-read them but they're in a good home with a friend now. Paul and Ann were great characters, and you really couldn't help but root for them. The plot just kept twisting until the very end. It was a great read, and I can't help but hope for more books from Dee Henderson.

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A special thanks to Bethany House for my ARC copy. All the opinions posted are my very own.

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Kacie Woodmansee is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com

Give With Target! - Donate to Schools!

If you'd like to give to local schools here's your chance! Target is giving away $2.5 million in gift cards to K-12 schools and you can be a part of it. For every 25 votes a school gets, Target will give that school a $25 gift card up to $10,000. You can vote once a week until September 8, 2012 (or until the $2.5 million total is reached). You do have to be on Facebook and allow Target access (like pretty much anything else on Facebook), but if you're okay with that then click here to get started or click on the banner above to vote for the school I'll be teaching at. Every school may not be on the list, but it doesn't hurt to look and vote. Have a good one!