Sweet Life in the City

It is always hard jumping back into a blog post because there is always so much that has happened since the last time that I posted. We have had a pretty major change in our family in the last month, but there is another sort of change that has inspired this post this morning. I cut my hair yesterday. I know life shattering isn't it? I know it seems so trivial, but the truth is the Lord revealed something to me that I have never really thought about. I love my hair. We have made some memories over my 39 years. It actually started the moment I was being born and the doctor told my mom that I had a full set of black hair. Given the fact that my brother and sister who came before me were both bald headed, I think my mom made a comment to the doctor about if he was sure I was hers. My very first compliment was about my hair! I lived my young life with nice thick hair. Sometimes it was long and sometimes it was cut short.  My Pawpaw used to call me Pete Rose because I had the bowl cut ...

This date always sneaks up on me. I feel like I am always taken off guard every time May 16th comes back around. Maybe because it is a hard day to think about, or maybe because it's hard to believe another year has passed since that night the phone rang and my sister was on the other end telling me that my Grandma was now safely in the arms of Jesus. Thirteen years has passed since that night, but the ache in my heart feels like it could of happened yesterday. I remember after I hung up the phone I crawled back in bed, tears flowing, trying to figure out how to live in a world where my Grandma was no longer living in it. She had been sick for a while. The four years before she passed she had been slowly leaving us. I remember the night I got the phone call and thinking that I had already missed her so much.She had dwindled down to a skeleton of a woman and it was hard to visit her and see how skinny our once plump Grandma had become, but I am so thankful that I continued to go back...

Jeremy stayed home today because he has not been feeling well the last few days. It's sinus stuff that he just cannot get rid of. His alarm usually goes off way before mine and that kind of helps me wake up easier when my goes off an hour or so later. This morning I jumped out of bed with a jolt because it was so bright in my bedroom and I was confident that I had overslept. I looked at my phone and I still had 30 minutes left to sleep. The problem with that scenario is that once I make eye contact with my dog Minnie there is no going back to bed, she is ready to go outside. I get up and go downstairs and Emma is coming out of her room with her uniform in her hands. I told her it was too early to start getting ready, but she decided that she wanted to take a shower. A few minutes later Samuel comes out of his room wide awake. Chloe was up several times in the night. She kept getting up to go to the bathroom. We were not quit sure she was completely awake. She tends to sleep walk . ...

Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all had a great day with your families. I made it through my testimony this morning and I was overwhelmed by so many people praying for peace over me this morning. I woke up this morning with several texts telling me that they were praying for me and received several more as I was getting ready giving me encouragement. I made it through the testimony without crying! I think my voice cracked once, but I kept my emotions in check and I was thankful. I know God wanted me to share my story, but I have to be honest, I am glad this day is over 😌. I have spent a lot of time today being thankful for my mom. I am so thankful for her love for me and my kids. I have thought a lot about my Grandma today who I miss terribly. I am thankful for the legacy she left behind in her granddaughters. One of the best compliments I got today was on my writing of my testimony. I love that I inherited a knack for writing like my Grandma. I have thought about two Korean women ...

Next Sunday is Mother's Day. I have been asked to give my testimony at church this day. I am totally freaking out. I know that many people do not like public speaking, but I feel like I might have a severe fear of it. I don't really understand my deep fear, I stand up every day and talk all day in front of my students. I work with 4 year olds and they are the most judgmental audience I will ever face. You know those kids tell you exactly what they think of you 😊.  I have been giving myself a pep talk since I was asked to do this. I also know that friends are praying for me, but I feel like any moment I could call the Pastor up and tell him I cannot do it. I have given my testimony a few times in front of a larger audience, I have always been nervous but those times I focused more on my spiritual walk or how my testimony led me to be a teacher. I have never told my motherhood journey in front of a crowd before. All the other testimonies I have given I mention cancer and I menti...

I know it's a little late at night for me to be writing a post (and it's not Sunday), but I have been in a little bit of a funk this last week. Lots of little things that have made me a crabby. Things that are not new to my life like kids who refuse to use the dirty clothes hamper in their room or too many people in the kitchen trying to get lunches made in the morning. Just day to day things that I usually take in stride and work around them. I have found myself apologizing much more these past few weeks because my words or actions have been harsh. Before Spring Break my class at school finished up our Bible curriculum so we are now just supplementing and will be teaching different lessons that were not covered in our book. So last week I started teaching the kids about The Fruit of the Spirit. I introduced all nine of them and then have been  talking about each "fruit" individually. I found these cute coloring pages online and printed them off and colored them so I...

Looks like Sunday night will be my night to blog. We had another busy week at the Riggs' house (are you picking up on this theme lately?). I got a text Sunday night asking if I could cover after school on Monday until 5;30. Samuel has play practice almost every night so I would have to go back and get him at 5:30, so I agreed to fill in for the regular teacher who does after school every day. We got home close to 6:00, I made supper, homework, bedtime, and Monday was over. Tuesday was the Open House for the high school. I didn't need to go, but I felt like I needed to go and just give some moral support for Jeremy. It was a great turnout and we are continuing to pray that the families that came Tuesday night will chose to register their children. It was after 9:00 before we got home. Wednesday I had a staff meeting until 5:30, we rushed home and got ready for our real community group. I may have mentioned this, but we are meeting at the church until we break for summer instead ...

I know it has been three weeks since my last post. Life got really crazy and then I felt like to much time had gone by so I knew that if I didn't post tonight it would probably be another 6 months before I picked up writing again. The first weekend of April we had a Riggs' invasion going on in my house. ALL of Jeremy's family came in for the weekend so the siblings could run a half marathon with their dad. We had 18 people staying in our house from Thursday-Monday. It was so much work to get ready fro everyone, but it was a great weekend all being together. We only are all together around Thanksgiving or Christmas time. Jeremy and his brothers led worship at our church Sunday and it was just a sweet time for them and our church. Everyone left on Monday and our Spring break started on Monday so I had plenty of time to get my house back together, or so I thought. I took it easy on Monday because I was just too tired to do anything on Monday. I slept in a little on Tuesday. I ...

April 2nd. The day that changed everything. 14 years have gone by since April 2nd became more than just another day on the calendar. I had gone in a few days before this date to have some outpatient surgery. I was expecting to go to my doctor's appointment for a quick follow-up and was prepared to be told that the surgery had fixed the problems I was having. We had been married for three years and we were ready to start our family. We knew we were going to get good news and be able to start planning for our future family. We sat in the waiting room surrounded by expecting mothers. Other women would smile at us, probably thinking that I was expecting. We sat in that waiting room dreaming of how wonderful that day would be. I remember everything about this day 14 years ago. I remember what I was wearing, what I had had for breakfast, conversations I had at work, the songs that played on my car radio on the way to my appointment, and the thing that will forever be burned in my mind wa...

I teach the Bible lesson every day to my preschool kids. I love that I get to share with them my favorite stories and get to tell them how much Jesus loves them and has big plans for them. I know they are little, but each time I know that God is planting seeds of His love into their hearts and I pray that one day these Truths would come back to remembrance. I don't always know what the lesson is going to be that day. Usually the other teacher I work with hands me the Bible story card and I teach. Today she hands me the card and I notice that the lesson comes from John 11. The story of Lazarus. The story where a message is sent to Jesus that His dear, beloved friend is sick and needs immediate help. The story that Jesus makes the statement that this sickness everyone is talking about will not end in death, this story is unfolding according to God's plan and in the end God will be getting so much glory. He waits two more days before heading to see Lazarus. Before He heads to see ...

The year was probably 1992. Beauty and the Beast was a new Disney animation that came out in 1991. I say 1992 because we were watching it on VHS because you see it was considered wrong to actually go to the movie to see it (I am going to leave that right there). It was my sister's favorite movie. We watched it probably 100 times. She had Beauty and the Beast posters and other items to do with the movie. It continued to be one of my favorite movies and loved sharing the animation version with my girls a few years ago. So it is natural that when it was announced that a real life version of the movie was going to be released I was so excited! When I found out that Dan Stevens (Matthew Crawley from Downton) was going to play the Beast I was completely sold. A few weeks before the movie was to premier I got on FB one morning and my news feed was blowing up about the changes the creators of this movie had added and with pitchforks raised we as Christians were to boycott this movie and ...

My husband wondered from my post yesterday why I put the thermometer in Samuel's mouth in the first place. He noted that he was big enough to put it in his mouth by himself 😆. He obviously missed the point of my post 😏. Today was parent teacher conference for the kids so we were able to sleep in a little bit and then headed to school for a short while. Samuel and Emma are doing amazing. All "A's"  for the semester and just doing well all around. Chloe had a little bit harder quarter and had mostly "B's" and a "C". We are going to have a more detailed conference with her teacher when Jeremy and I can both attend. I am so proud of all three of them and it's hard to believe that we only have one quarter left to go before school is out for summer. In between the girls and Samuel's conference, there was a preschool conference that needed to be done with one of our students that has had some struggles. We met with the mom and just shared ...

After I posted my blog on Tuesday I came downstairs and did another check on Samuel. He is a pretty easy patient. He brought the PS3 upstairs to the big TV and basically laid on the couch playing games and watching movies. Of course I would ask him every hour or so if he needed anything. It was usually a "no" or "mom, I can get it". He got up to get a Gatorade, so I decided I needed to check his temperature before he drank something cold. I put the thermometer in his mouth and I had a terrible squeeze in my heart as I realized that I had to raise my arm to put the thermometer in his mouth! Last night he was sitting down, all the other times he was laying down, this time we were both standing and I had to look up to fully see his face. It was in those brief seconds that 12 years came rushing back to me. My tiny baby boy that would only fall asleep laying on my chest for so many months. That sweet boy in my arms and in my lap was now standing in front of me becoming a...

Growing up my dad gave us all ( all in terms of anyone that would listen) a spiritual gifts tests that was created by the Institute of Basic Life Principals. It was determined that my gifts leaned heavily towards service to others and mercy and I actually agree 100% with those results. I live my life trying to help whenever and wherever I can and the mercy part comes in when dealing with people in general. I give so much of myself to others that I forget to recharge. I forget to rest. I have been very clear on how busy our lives have been the last few months. My body was giving me warning signs that I needed to get some rest but I just kept pushing on through the pain. I mentioned Sunday that my jaw was starting to hurt. I know I have TMJ and my jaw pops every time I chew. When I go on trips I usually wake up at least one morning with my jaw completely locked from the stress of traveling, but I do not usually experience days of pain with it. Monday morning I woke up and my jaw and my w...

You guessed it, another busy week around the Riggs' house. Tuesday was spent cleaning the house. I think I have mentioned this before, but I seriously have a serious problem with the thought of people seeing my house even slightly messy. I am not talking like a little troubled by the thought, I am talking full out panic attack. I have tried to have a pep talk with myself and convince myself that people really do not care if my house is not spotless. The truth is only the first person in the door gets to admire my spotless house 😉. Wednesday night we have our real community group over for our weekly time together. It is always such an uplifting time together and we are truly  blessed to be a part of a church family that we can walk this crazy journey of life together. Thursday night was family game night at school for the girl's grade. I took the kids for a little while. Jeremy was just dead tired and well let's be honest, it's March Madness, Baby (in best Dick Vita...