My Support

My Support System fall into several classification : Family, Friends, & Colleagues.

My husband is my rock,  my best friend and is highly supportive of everything I want to do in life, it is because of his support and love that I was able to accomplish graduating with my Bachelor's degree while raising our three children, through three deployments. He has sacrificed by his time and reenlisting multiple times in the military to help support my dreams.

My sister, there are sometimes no words to express the encouragement that she has been able to give me. Not only is she my love, she is my sister. She is also an educator( BONUS!!!) Whenever I am frustrated just as my husband will do she also will pick me up dust me off and tell me yes I can. She is always there to lend an ear , or come visit just make sure I know I have her love and support.

My Parents and My Brothers, wow! what can I say about that I have prayers and encouragement that abound. I can pick up a phone and call just to say"Hi" on a day that I may not feel my best. On a day that I feel like giving in to all the pressures of the world and each will tell me how proud they are, how I can do this and make me feel OK. Without knowing that's what I needed to hear they say it.

My friends are not merely friends they are family to me, they each have given me support on my journey. My colleagues are quickly become friends to me, indispensable parts of my life from which I am not able to do my job with.  I am encouraged through and by. We give each other support and provide far more time and energy , outside of what is seen outside it being merely just a job. So I can say they are not just my colleagues but my friends as well.

IF I DIDN'T HAVE.....

I am the oldest  of 6 children  3 girls and 3 boys, in 2005  my youngest sister passed away. So in this scenario I am writing from truth. My sister Tiffany was 18 years old, and had just a few days before graduated from High School. Up until that point in her life, she, our sister Latoya, and my sister we always called our parents three angels. Their three girls we were close, even though I was married and already raising a family I visited often, and my sisters came to visit me often. Tiffany spent her Spring Break as a senior not with her friends but with my family. We were sisters in every sense of the word, her death devastated our whole family. It ripped a piece of our hearts away that we can not replace. Her support for me to go to college while raising kids, with a husband that was at war at the time was huge.  So her loss took the breath, from me literally, from me and Latoya. Some days I only functioned for my children. Until a day came that I remembered that I could honor her through all the living that I was left here to continue to live.

If I could imagine or have any other support, it would be to have my husband here all the time, yet I know that the sacrifices he makes are for a greater good. So I don't want to be selfish. Truly, I know I am blessed with a great support system that helps me and holds me up whenever  I need it the most. I can not , and could not have done anything that I have accomplished thus far on my own. If I did not have them in place. I would be struggling to work still on every dream. So I am always thankful and forever grateful to the Almighty for placing every person in my life. :)

My Connections to Play

"Imagination is where your child lives and when you play with him, you enter his world"- Chris Hathaway

"Play: (v) to make a big mess "

My Parents and How Play was Important

My mother and Father always felt that it was important that my siblings and I had time for play in our lives. There was never too much going on that we did not have time for an hour or two to play outside or inside.  My fondest memories of growing up in southeast North Carolina are not of the toys we had growing up but of times we would spend together as a family outside . 

We would ride bikes, play baskeball, or just run around playing hide and go seek. We would have water balloon fights or chase each other around the yard just for fun. Even now that I have two younger brother still living at home and will visit with my own children,  my parents still hold firm that play is important to all children and make time for all the kids to go out and just have FUN!

Play Today vs. Play Yesterday

Play does not have the same role in our children's lives as it did our own.  It has taken a back seat to the fast pace of organized sports and the hard core educational work ethic that states, play is not learning. For children or today there is no time for play,  no joy in just going outside just for the fun of going. Their attention is being pulled to "play" video games inside or computer games or any other media device, designed to enhance their veiwing pleasure.  Children have so many things that are fighting for their attention that we did not have as children. 

How Play has Contributed Throughout my Life,

Play is important throughout our lives, through play we learn as children and adults. We learn about the world around us and how we fit into as we are children. As adults we see how we can contribute further to it and learn to sit back and enjoy it more. Life is not all about work, its about how we enjoy it as well. Through play we can see the enjoyment of life. Play has always been central for me in that respect for I have always wanted to enjoy my life adult life as much as I did my childhood. I have wanted my children to have the same if not better childhood as I did so I encourage play for them as well.