texas, back to school, and end of summer

So, one of my blogger friends who I stalk daily, Cara from The First Grade Parade has introduced me to my new favorite computer obsessions… one of them, I am using right now called Windows Live Writer – if you are interested, click on the link to her blog and check out her recent posts… it makes blogging super easy – if you are a frequent blogger, you know the frustrations of uploading numerous pictures… And my other new obsession is Pinterest which is like an online clipboard- let’s just say that you should give it a try… I have already pinned about 200 things! Lots of neat ideas in one place.

Now, back to my post about what I have been up to… whew – let’s just say I have been really busy… but it has been sooooo much fun. Momma, Sara, and I ventured South to Texas last month. Momma and I have been numerous times to visit family but it was Sara’s first trip – so we did things that we had not done in years and some that I had never done. Our first adventure was the 16 hour car ride- our GPS “Gertrude” directed us on our way with no trouble… We split up the driving and it was not a bad ride (complete with a pit stop at Target).

One of the stories that we got the most laughs out of happened at a convenience store on the way down… Three women traveling together – we all had to tee tee. We head in the restroom where we discover two stalls- one is full and one is nasty… we stand there making awkward small talk waiting on the one that was full and this is what we hear… “ya’ll waiting on the bathroom?” – really? no we were just hanging out in here – she then says the following, and I am quoting here – “well, I ‘m gone let ya’ll go ahead because I got some BIG business to do in there” as she comes out, she informs me (the first one in) that “I already padded the seat for you” – like I was going to sit on the paper she had already sat on… if you are not laughing then I guess it is one of those had to be there moments because it was hilarious to us – while I was using the potty and trying not to laugh out loud, she tells Momma and Sara that the reason she has to do BIG business is because they had eaten KFC a few miles back… Got to love people who share too much!

We made it to South Padre Island late Friday night and crashed. We slept late on Saturday and then took a ride around the Island so Sara could see the sights. Sara and I made our way to the beach to discover that the sand down there is more like sandy dirt (we know that ours in GS is not like that only because it is hauled in) – nonetheless, we decided the pool was more for us. It was the most beautiful pool and super relaxing. Everyone enjoyed fish tacos for supper and I stuck with my trusty mac and cheese! On Sunday morning, Sara woke up with a wild hair to ride horses on the beach. While this is something that has always been on my bucket list, I have never thought about doing it while at the Island. We headed out that morning and had the best time.

I will not even lie – I was sore the next day. I have always loved horses but never quite learned how to take the bounce out of my ride! Monday was spent by Sara and I at Schlitterbahn Water Park and let me tell you, whoever had the idea to wait in line for a water slide in a lazy river is a genius. It was a blast, we acted like five year olds and giggled all day!

On Tuesday, we traveled to the Harlingen area to visit some more family, eat at our favorite Mexican place – authentic Mexican place- and wander as close to the border as we could get. I am still saddened by the fact that it is not safe to cross the Mexican border anymore. The drug wars are too dangerous to travel over. However, I wish I had one more trip I could make. It is such an experience to see that type of culture. However, it is not such a great experience that I am willing to risk my life… That afternoon, we headed North to San Antonio. We made a pit stop by Kingsville, Texas to visit the King Ranch museum – this was cooked up by Momma and Sara. I had never heard of King Ranch. It was a neat museum and a fun pit stop. We made it to our hotel and got checked in. We attempted to make our way on the River Walk to the restaurant area only to discover we had no clue where we were headed… luckily, we ran into a nice jogger who pointed us in the right direction – two miles up the river. We opted to eat at Hard Rock Café which was delicious… we stopped by a few shops and headed home to rest for the busy next day.

Wednesday was packed full with the Alamo and Sea World. The Alamo was the same as always (Momma insists we go every time)- but still interesting to see that part of history. Last time I went to Sea World was in Orlando when I was babysitting – long story short, it was hot and miserable… however, this time it was possibly my favorite part of our trip. We arrived just in time to see a sea lion show; we also saw the Shamoo show, a trick Ski Show, and a Beluga Whale/birds/water acrobats show… by far my favorites were the killer whales and the trick ski show.

We then visited the dolphins for feeding time, the sharks, and the water park.

We also talked Momma into riding with us – we waited in line entirely too long but it was fun! The day ended with showers, a seconds rest, and the Riverwalk again. This time, we decided to wait on a water taxi which was much easier than the two mile hike.

We chose the Rainforest Café for supper and it was amazing. I had never eaten at one and I was amazed by the décor. The manager came to our table and entertained us with card tricks while we waited on our food. He was funny and the wait was quick. He also gave us a free dessert called a Volcano – delish!

We took a real Taxi back to our hotel and packed up. Sara and I were both a little homesick so we chose to drive early and left at 6 a.m. We were home by about 7 that night and pooped. I had missed all of my boys – Daniel, Daddy, Mo, Tyler, Rhett, and Cole…

All of that happened almost a month ago… and since then, lots more has happened :) After coming home on Thursday, I packed up and headed North to Daniel’s for the weekend. It had been a while since I visited and was due for a lazy weekend. The weekend turned out to not be so lazy when Daniel found Miss Belle on Saturday. He found this dog on Craig’s List and it turns out she was about two miles from his house. Other than tee-teeing on the floor, she is a great puppy who provides lots of company to Daniel.

That Sunday, I made a running trip back home in time to teach VBS for the week. The theme was Big Apple Adventure – and it was definitely and adventure. I am always amazed at the VBS songs and how they teach the kids – if you have never heard John 3:16, the rap version, then you should. I love VBS, it is such a fun/busy time. I was so absolutely worn out by Thursday that I threw my Costas in the trash can at the church… needless to say, Friday morning I was digging in the dumpster :( but I found them :) with no scratches (that weren’t there before) and just fine. It was a lesson that I need to rest more and not try to do much!

That weekend, we took another river trip to Demopolis. Although we got in a little rain, the trip was a blast – as always!!

This past week was busier than most with preparing my classroom which will be filled with 22 kiddos in 6 days and getting ready for our big three man scramble. The tournament is one of my favorite weekends of the year. There are 52 teams and 156 golfers that come into town once a year. Most of them have been coming for years so it’s like a reunion all weekend. Another fun thing about this year was that Kaley came to visit. It was nice to have her here to enjoy the fun and we made some GREAT memories – some we will never live down!!

This week will be spent in the classroom. It is coming along so nicely and I am so close but there is so much more to do. There will be a back to school post complete with pictures before school starts. Tomorrow is my favorite nephew's second birthday - he doesn't know it yet but Aunt Curt will be surprising him with a yummy birthday biscuit and balloon - having him across the street makes him easier to spoil (as if I ever had a problem)... birthday and back to school in the next post! Until then....

Enjoyed some time with my bestie...next post- Texas trip :)

days are getting longer and passing quickly

WOW  - Summer is flying by. In some ways, I am excited - the quicker summer moves, the sooner I get to start teaching, and the sooner June comes and I get to marry by best friend... and the sooner I get to enjoy summer again - hopefully a little more stress free! The past two weeks have been so busy. I have been working for a local attorney filling in for his secretary who recently had back surgery. I am thankful for a way to make some summer money and the work is not hard at all :) However, there are many days that I should be spending in my classroom - and many lunch breaks and afternoons that I am spending there instead.

I have not posted since my last vacation and I am heading out again this week so I thought I should catch up...

Besides working at the law office, I have been working in my classroom attempting to organize my library/materials. It is coming along nicely and I am almost ready to have 22 little bodies in there everyday.

I got to go with Rhett and Amanda to get Rhett's first haircut the other day... he was such a big boy and did not cry one bit :) Aunt "Curt" got lots of pictures.

Speaking of Rhett - they moved to the house across the street from my parents house this weekend. I am so excited about having them this close. Let's just hope I don't wear out my welcome in the first week! Rhett had lots of fun moving... the adults were worn out from packing and chasing him for three days :) but it was worth it!

Cole spent the night last night. Amanda and I took him and Rhett to the Nursing Home that Granny is in to watch the fireworks show. Watching Cole and Rhett play together makes me remember the days when my precious big boy Cole was a little blond-haired, blue-eyed two year old. He has grown into such a handsome young boy but I sometimes miss those days of Finding Nemo and gravy biscuits!

Morgan, Sara, Daniel, and I made a Sunday river trip to celebrate the fourth. We traveled to the "slide" at Dennis Riley's camp and to Three Mile Sandbar. We had so much fun watching the kids adults enjoy the water slide. It really is something you would only see in Choctaw County but it is also one of the most fun things I have ever done at the river! The video of me and Cotton is from the week before but it is still funny. The one of Daniel is from this week - I am marrying a big kid :)

Speaking of Daniel - we shaved his head yesterday. This is not the first time but it always takes me some time to get used to it... this is the pile of hair... probably would have made a good wig.

This week consists of working, classroom planning, a visit from Kaley, a movie with Cole, and on Friday - leaving for Texas with momma and Sara. We are planning a trip to South Padre Island and San Antonio to visit with family and let Sara get a taste of Texas :)

After we come back from Texas, I am planning a weekend trip to Daniel's to shop for my classroom and spend some time with him... the next weekend is our second river trip to Demopolis for the summer... the next weekend is the big Three Man Scramble in Butler... the next weekend will be Rhett's birthday party and Josh Vick's graduation/party... then I start school on Monday -Can we say busy July?

If you are wondering why this post has so many pictures it's because I joined the rest of the civilized world and got an iPhone- can we say obsessed?

On another completely random note... have you discovered Pinterest? It is a site that allows you to "pin" things you like that you find on the Internet... you can also stalk follow people like the fabulous Cara Carroll from The First Grade Parade or Kimbo West from A Girl and A Glue Gun - these are my two guilty pleasures... one for crafts and one for teaching :) To see all the totally random things I have pinned today, go here...

As for today, Cole and I are headed to see Cars 2 in 3D and I am a little lot excited!

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!