pictures only

this was our "group" shot - someone had to be behind the camera

While Amanda made his sandwich, Rhett got a little too cozy during lunch.

the only reason he slept on the beach this day was because he did not sleep AT ALL the night before

COOL dude :)

Yes, we are the coolest Aunt/Uncle ever. We know.

my best friend.

upside down baby finally smiles for a picture.

yes he is under water and NO he did not cry when he came up. he LOVED it :)

"DD" gave Rhett his first tattoo - that he hated and tried to rub off.

yes, I need a haircut... no, I do not care.

beach baseball - the ball was full of air like the bat and only made it one day.

Aunt Favorite and Rhett

Love the "pie" :)

beach 2011 and life updates

On about Wednesday of our trip, I realized that I should have been taking notes on funny things Rhett did all week because I was already forgetting them :( Let me first say that I was nervous about going on a week long vacation with a 22 month old... I was prepared for running up and down the beach, being covered with sand all week, and waking up at 6 am everyday... Rhett surprised the heck out of me. He was the most perfect beach baby in the world.


He LOVED every part of the beach. He loved pressing the buttons in the elevator, he loved running on the tile floor in the condo and kicking the ball, he loved standing on the balcony and looking at the pool, he LOVED listening for airplanes and looking at the "balloons" (people parasailing), he loved the sand,

he loved taking the pop tops off of our adult beverages, he loved eating snow crab legs, he loved jumping in the pool to DD,

 he loved playing with the Talking Tom app on Sage's iPad,

he loved letting me - "Curt" put deodorant on him when we were getting dressed,

he loved eating cookie crisps in the mornings with DD,

he loved splitting grapes on the beach with "Curt", he loved throwing the ball, he loved riding the carousel at the outlets, 

he LOVED vacation - my kind of boy!


 He did not love taking pictures, the hot boardwalk/sand, leaving the carousel (after his third ride), sitting in his frog (he preferred jumping like a big boy in the pool), the blow up pool we made seventeen trips to the water to fill up (he washed his hands in it once), eating good food for breakfast (he preferred DD's cookie crisps), getting sunscreen put on his face, sleeping late (7:45 was the latest- which was better than 6 every morning), eating out - we took shifts carrying him around while the others ate so we could all eat in peace, and finally, he did not love leaving the beach :( but then again, none of us did.


Some funny stories from the week:

• one night at supper, I was trying to get Rhett to eat so I made a plane noise and waved the chicken around on the fork... he did not take the bait so I put the fork on his plate with chicken still on it... he picked up the fork, made a motorboat noise, and proceeded to feed Amanda that bite. It was hilarious.
• no matter how many times I said "COURT" or "Aunt Favorite", all I could get out of him was "Curt" :(
• when you ask him what he tells the dogs, he says in the funniest voice with the meanest face, "get in the pen" except it sound more like "ge in da pi" - I am working on uploading videos :/
• when he rode the carousel at the outlets, he said Yee Haw the whole time - on all three rides.
• we were at the pool one day and Amanda asked him if he wanted to go to the beach, he said "no" just as plain as day :)

• at 10:30 one morning we were on the beach- there were some ladies (I use that term very loosely) next to us who apparently started earlier than most having a good time on the beach. While packing up their things, one of their swimsuit tops (that was two sizes too small to begin with) got a little twisted and one entire "booby" was out of the suit - it was like a train wreck where you don't want to look but you really can't help it...
• Rhett called every child under about the age of 10 "baby" - when we tried to tell him the little boy at the pool was named "Reeves", he looked dead at him and said "baby" - oh well!

Other than enjoying Rhett, we spent the week relaxing. I was so glad that Daniel decided to come with us. We bought groceries on the first day and ate most of our meals in the condo. It was nice to not have to dress up every night. Two nights, we had snow crab legs and steamed shrimp from Lartigue's Market. If you have not tried this and are in Gulf Shores/Orange Beach, it is a must :)


I took my tennis shoes and "workout" clothes and made it to the gym the first morning. After that, I decided that the walk to and from the tent was enough for vacation :) Speaking of the tent, during tailgating last year, we had to "fix" the tent with duct tape but we decided it would be fine for the beach and then we could throw it away. We got it set up, taped some more, tied some more, and were set. While sitting on the balcony one day at lunch, Sage said "look, our tent is making it in this wind" - not five minutes later, I looked down to see our tent on its side. Sage and Daniel took a two hour shopping trip and found another tent that Daniel assures me we can use for the wedding because it is white :/ gotta love that kid :)


While at the beach, I worked on my tan and finished two books "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett and "Something Blue" by Emily Giffin. "The Help" is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It will have an entire blog post devoted to it as soon as I can get it together. "Something Blue" is one of those books you feel no smarter for reading yet you enjoy every second of it.


The week came to a not so good end when Daniel's uncle who lives with him in Vance called and said the house had been broken into. Nothing was gone except his uncle's change jar and Daniel's change jar - how lucky... we thought - until last night (Monday) when Daniel called me and said that it had been broken into again yesterday while he was at work. During the second break-in, they got a little more stuff... the Wii (that I just recently took to Daniel's but we had yet to play because I could not find the games - and I found them last week), Wii fit (which obviously we needed to use more), iPod dock (that we listened to everytime we cooked and sat outside), and iPod (that had some really great songs on it). We are fairly certain that it is kids who saw that Daniel was gone all last week and obviously know his schedule. I am not so much "scared" of his house as I am simply disturbed by the invasion of privacy. I cannot imagine that ever seeming like a good idea to go through someone else's things. I know that we will probably never know who did it but I hope they have consequences if not here with us, then later with God - the big judge :)


I spent most of Sunday in my classroom organizing and playing around with ideas. I am pretty sure I look like a little girl "playing" school when I am in my classroom alone. It is hard to imagine what it will be like with 22 little bodies in the room so I find myself pulling chairs out and walking through the "tight" areas - and let me tell you, with 22 kiddos, there are a lot of tight areas. I have already done a bulletin board and taken it down because I didn't like it... in my defense, it is one that will stay up all year and I decided that lime green was not a color I wanted to look at ALL year! Yesterday was spent in Meridian buying things for my classroom... I am always amazed at what great things you can find at Dollar Tree for $1. Twenty-one dollars later, I had some great things for my classroom! I am so excited about teaching next year. While some people go into it and treat it like a job, I know that it is a calling and that I have someone's child in my hands everyday - which makes me nervous, excited, and anxious for the fall. However, I will not rush summer away. I will spend as many days as possible between now and August reading and working on my tan :)


Whew - hope you are not as tired from reading as I am from writing :) until next time... happy Tuesday!

summertime blues

when you have nothing to do in the summer, it is hard to justify a "vacation" but that is what I will be taking next week so I figured I would get caught up on my blogging before I came back from the beach trip with EVEN more pictures to post... also, be warned that this post is very random and some of the pictures are a little past due :)

River trip/Memorial Day: Let me just say that it is never good when you are going on a long boat trip and you start the day off having your battery jumped off... each time we stopped the boat, we had to have a fellow traveler jump us off... not too bad - until Morgan killed the motor in the middle of the eerie locke and dam. The weather was perfect and the weekend was complete with some wonderful barbecue "Down the River" at Mrs. Trisha's camp.

Classroom: progressing nicely, two bulletin boards in place, most of my stuff in "its" place, and still a LONG way to go.

Wedding Plans: 367 days - I will NOT get stressed out. On a bright side, my "bride's book" came in and Sara will be delivering it on Thursday when she comes down. I am so ready to get it started.

Life in General: WONDERFUL. Daniel and I had the most relaxing weekend ever. We had no plans and it was so nice. We had Full Moon BBQ Friday night, swapped cabinets - a project I have been wanting to do for a while, layed out at his neighbor's pool, had a fabulous dinner with Josh and Christy in Tuscaloosa, went to church Sunday, Daniel cleaned out my car better than it has even been, AND then we cooked dinner together Sunday afternoon. I am so looking forward to being married and getting to spend relaxing time together ALL the time.

Vacation Plans: Next week, Daniel, me, Sage, Amanda, and Rhett are heading to the beach for the week - expect a long post with a lot of pictures of Rhett.

On a completely different note, I miss my best friend - I went to the Campus School to see Kaley on my way back through Monday and it is so weird not being in the next room teaching... I am going to miss her even more when I start teaching in the fall and really getting into wedding planning without her there :(  Kaley, if you are reading this - get a job in Butler and move in - we will move the boys out!