Kourtni, Phillip,&Ryan

    Hello!  My name is Melissa.  I am returning to school after being away for 10 years to stay home with my children. I am the mother of three beautiful children.  I have been happily married to my husband for 13 years.  We live on a farm in Berrien County.  We raise cows and chickens.  We grow almost anything you in grow in South Georgia; peanuts, cotton, corn, rye, wheat, watermelons, cucumbers, peas for seed, and on occasion cantaloupe.  We love the farm life.  I can not think of another way to raise my children. My husband and I were both raised on a farm.  I just can not picture my life any other way.  I can play the piano.  I sometimes play and sing in church.  My family and I attend Vickers Church in Berrien County. 

                I want to be a teacher for many reasons.   I guess some of them are selfish.  I feel that this profession is most conducive to our lives.  With this job I can still farm with my husband.   I had considered becoming an Agriculture teacher, but I felt it would be hard to find a job close to home.  I was going to school at ABAC right out of high school to be a teacher.  I changed my major to a home economist degree and then I changed again to a daycare manager.  When I decided to return to school I came back to my original major.  Education, this is where my heart is. 

                I have always wanted to be a teacher.  I can remember trying to make my brothers and sister play school with me.  I can not say I have one person that really influenced me.  I can remember several teachers over the years that have had an influence on my life in one way or another.  These teachers cared about their students.  They knew each one of us and cared despite our flaws.  My cousin is a teacher and she helped me decide to get the interrelated degree.  She is a special education teacher and told me she loved her job and knew I would too, because I was natured a lot like her.  She also said that I had done a wonderful job with my children and knew that I could do that with any child.  I know this may not be just what you had expected, but it is my story.  I can not tell you when or if an inspiration came telling me to teach.  I have basically just always known that is what I was supposed to do.  I guess God put the inspiration there before I was ever born.  He blessed me with parents that would foster that talent.

KIDS WHO ARE DIFFERENT
Here's to the kids who are different.
The kids who don't always get A's,
The kids who have ears twice the size of their peers,
and noses that go on for days...
Here's to the kids who are different,
The kids they call crazy or dumb.
The kids who don't fit, with the guts and the grit,
Who dance to a different drum...
Here's to the kids who are different,
The kids with the mischievious streak,
For when they have grown, as history shows,
It's their difference that makes them unique.
~by Digby Wolfe




Some favorite pictures of my children


Ryan, Kourtni, & Phillip


Phillip and Buddy



Kourtni and Princess



Kourtni and Princess 3rd place in showmanship.



Kourtni and Rocket second place in weight class.



Phillip and Buddy in weight class.



Kourtni, Rocket, and Steve Bullard the buyer.



Ryan playing short-stop.



Ryan after making a run.


Favorite Websites