Hello all! I feel like I haven't written in a very long time. Probably because I haven't which was for good reason. I think since the last time I wrote I have had a nephew (well I mean I didn't but you know, Elizabeth did), gone to summer school for the first time ever, started a whole new school year among other exciting things.

Well, anywaysies, I LOVE being Aunt Sissy! Michael named me that. William is just the most precious thing in all the world. He smiles at me! :) He also cries at me quite loud. I am a very proud Aunt and at Carolina I never can resist the urge to talk about William Bryce whenever teachers ask about us. You know how they do that whole stand up and tell us about you and where your from and something interesting about you and well you know I'm sitting there and thinking and thinking and well now I have something that is interesting to say! And everybody just thinks its so cute! Because it is. Wait till I start bringing pictures! I'll show you pictures too but I'm getting to that.

So I got a bulk email from Carolina the other day that was to the "Carolina Seniors"! Yep! I am! Except I have three more semesters rather than two but that's just one semester more. I'm excited about this year but it's going to be really busy with assignments and field work and all. I finished summer school with all A's which was quite shocking in a I passed STAT? kinda way. I did work really hard. I took three classes and did the work for one University 101 waiver. It was a lot of work!

Joel is doing well and learning the auto claims stuff that he does. He "got caught doing his job" which apparently is really good and they wanted a picture of him for the company newsletter and his midyear review was really good. He has also spent nearly two months worth of allowance money to buy cars and little funny looking action figures for his desk at work. His boss says that if he buys anymore toys he's gonna have to give him an office. ha. I told Joel to buy more toys! The most important thing is that he likes it.
Carolina started the new football season. It's sad to think this is the second to the last year that I will actually be a student at USC during the football season. And then I remember the work and study that I have to do and it isn't so sad. But guess who was there to watch his first Carolina football game! That's right. William Bryce was there sporting his absolutely adorable Gamecock onesie and shorts. He also had on his Carolina socks. So here are the pictures I promised...


Having fun with Uncle Joel and Uncle Donny!



Oh! The suspense is too much!



Watching the game with Uncle Joel



Watching the game with Pappa!



After a long game, it's time to go sleepies



Awww, it was a long game but boy was it fun!


I'd better run. We have to hurry off to Church for the weekly singing. Hope everybody is doing well!
~William's Crazy Aunt Sissy :)

Hey y'all!
Hope everybody's doing well! Joel and I are good, but we still do not have the net at home so we don't post so much as you can tell. ha. Nothing much is going on. Joel started his new job at Nationwide and is studying hard. He passed the test for his Adjuster's license so he can do that now. They just have to train him for his specific job which is, well, I'm not quite sure what it is he'll be doing. Something complicated with insurance.
School's good. I am enjoying it. I have a lot of projects due but they are good ones that have a purpose. Now I am doing a project on one specific child- all about her gross and fine motor skills, literacy skills, hand-eye coordination and all that jazz that we've been learning this semester. I enjoy working with the kids. This one is so cute and she's about 2 or 21/2. It's a huge project but I'm already enjoying but I'm sure I'll start stressing here soon. I love the Early Childhood Program! Those early years really do shape the child for the rest of their lives. I'm just excited to get to learn all of the details about it from a professional standpoint and I can definitely use some of this stuff with my own kids. Of course they do try to teach the very rare and occasional crazy thing like "Kids don't hear the word no" and that kind of outrageously stupid things that they say to make their children look a little better because they won't listen the their parents because their parents won't dicipline them and give them boundries. Oopps, tangent. Anyway, it's fun to go to school and learn things that are interesting ( Those crazy ideas not included in the interesting department. Those go in the special folder of my brain marked trash can. Imagine gaining knowledge at school that is interesting! Who'da thunk it? And I thought school was a waste of my time! :) (Not an excuse Donny, go to school)
Took Donny to USC with me and he sat in one of my classes. Now he thinks college is easy. We were in Elementary school math. Starts out easy gets incredible hard. Don't let the name of the class fool you. Everybody has trouble with it. Donny just got the easy lesson.
Can't wait for Liz's baby shower where I'll get to spoil the baby. :)
Oh, Joel says we have to go home now. We're at Mike's using his internet, washer and dryer, and the Wii. We love coming over here. :) Internet AND washer and dryer! So spoiled when we come over here!
Hope everybody is doing great!

Lisa G.

This spring semester has officially started and this Gamecock is already exhausted! I had four classes today and they all seem good, but I'm going to be so busy! I'll be with kids for two different classes which will be the fun part and then I have to do projects based on the kids which will be the not-so-fun parts. I am already overwhellemed and in shock. It'll all get done I guess, but it's just going to be one long semester!
I had a wonderful wonderful free and nonbusy christmas break so now I'm spoiled. I actually got bored at one point! I thought I was ready to get back to school but I was sorely mistaken. Oh well. I'm here. I just need to get used to it. :) Like I said, christmas was awesome. Joel and I got Donny, Nathan, and Austin the Dangerous Book for Boys which is awesome except that me and Donny almost burned the house down. Now all of mom's kids have almost burned the house down! Luckily we didn't and I was only left with a fear of any kind of fire. I had done the little experiment like four times before and never once had a problem, but I guess the combo of me and Donny just didn't work out. :)
The Peppers came in from Indy. Everyone was together and it was just great. Nathan brought a game called Settler of Catan and got us hooked on that, so we had to buy a copy. Michael brought his Wii. It was all great fun.
Donny taught me how to shoot a BB Gun. Scary, but true. I also made soap with mom. Pop got a lot of glycerin blocks (25 pounds worth) and me and mom heated it and made it all pretty. It was so much fun!
Well that's all I have to say at the moment. I prob. need to take a nap or eat or something. The screen is becoming blurry. Maybe I have just thought too hard today and my brain is rebelling.

I posted Donny, now will you leave me alone?

My mom had surgery on Tuesday. She's still hurting today but she seems to be doing better and better. My aunt (Her nice momma) came down from Indy on Tuesday to help out and she's really helped out! Mom was in the hospital until Thursday morning so I stayed with her all night Tuesday and Debbie took over Wednesday night. I'll tell ya, you really don't get ANY sleep in the hosptial! That is last place you want to rest up! Nurses always comeing in and things always beeping, the bed sounding like its taking off and the sound of the feet poofers all night long can make an already tuckered out person much more tuckered out. Mom didn't get much sleep at all in there. But she's out and now walking a little bit and sleeping a lot. She's not supposed to do anything for a while. She can't even drive for four weeks!

Four things I hate about hospitals:
1. Elevators that say they go to level 6 but do not get you to rooms between 619 and 689 (can you imagine my frustration of having to go back down to the third level, find another elevator, and then go back up?)
2. Expensive cafeteria food that is so not worth it!
3. Hospital smell
4. Beeping things that keep beeping!

Yet six things I like about said place for the poor sufferers
1. Nice nurses who bring my momma coffee
2. Cable!
3. Beautiful view of the city from the 6th floor
4. Nice people to show me where the cafeteria on the basement is and the right elevator on the third floor is (the same person, imagine that :) )
5. Key Lime Pie for Momma!
6. Momma being able to leave!

Mom was ready to get out of the hospital! We're glad phase one is done but now she has to get through the tough part of waiting to be able to do things. She can't lift so much as a clothes basket!
In other news, the semester is almost over! I just finished observations of the play of four year olds at a daycare. I loved those little kids. I never thought I would want to teach kids that little but these kids were really great. You really make a difference when you help out those little kids who are looked after by 2 adults per 17 of them. There was one really sad moment for me and that was when this little boy wanted to play with me and I told him I had to go to school. He asked me where my mommy was and I told him that she was at home. He looked at me all confused and asked when she was going to go to work. He thought my mommy had dropped me off at daycare, which is school for him. It was just so sad that that was all he knew. Every mommy worked and dropped their kids off at daycare. It was kind of funny to think that he thought my mommy dropped me off a daycare but at the same time, that attitude just tears my heart. Those kids are in one of the best day cares (it is on a college campus and is very academically based) and they can fall down and hurt thier nose and an observer for a class has to pick them up and find out where they belong while they cry for thier mommy. They can be fighting and pushing and only one person who just happened to be out there will see them and come to help. This is at one of the best day-cares, I really hate to think about what happens at bad ones or even mediocre ones. It's true that some parents really can't help but send their child to daycare, but many can but do not want to give up some comfortable material things in exhange for giving their child thier time. That is what I cannot understand and seeing daycare first hand just makes me not understand even more. Why have children if you feel something material is more important than them? If you actually go in and see this it will make you go on a tangent like I have done. I want to teach day-care and I never thought I would. I want to make a difference in those little tiny lives from newborn to four years old who need a mommy during the day. It is a sad job, but also one that can really make a difference. Well, I'm done with my little tangent.
But anyways, doing great! Love the teaching thing! Hope everyone is great! Thanks for the prayers for my mommy!
L.G.
P.S. Thanks Momma for deciding that being a mommy 24-7 was one of the best things you could ever do! It's made all the difference in the world!