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!

summer blog hiatus

Confession time... when I was teaching at the Campus School, I was able to get my blog thoughts together during nap time - when I wasn't escorting kiddos to the bathroom or doing homework. Anyways, long story short, I rarely sit in front of the computer at home so my blogging has suffered.

Wedding planning has come a long way - I made my second trip wedding dress shopping and I am pretty sure I found "THE" one! It's absolutely the most beautiful dress I have ever seen - it is so simple and elegant and I can't wait to put it on the day I marry my best friend. I also found some bridesmaids dresses that I am trying to decide on. I have had so much fun being treated like a princess and I am super excited about wearing THE dress.

My classroom has come a LONG way since last week. On Monday of last week, the room was totally empty - nothing but dirty floors. They waxed my floors and I was able to move furniture back in on Friday (with the help of Sara). I am now in the process of putting everything where it goes - which could take all summer.

I did take some time to relax this past weekend with a river trip which was full of laughs and fun - as always. I am taking some more time to relax tomorrow when I lay by the pool and read all day - after I take Cotton on a walk - he has been a little neglected since I have been so busy.

I hate to post without pictures but this is as good as it gets right now :)

happy endings and new beginnings...

Happy Endings - finishing college... for good :) After five long years, 161 academic hours, 47 As, 6 Bs, tons of lesson plans, and many nights putting bulletin boards together and wondering why I chose to become a teacher, I am finished. And it feels good. As I mentioned in my previous post, I finished with my Bachelor's degree last year and started immediately on my Master's degree last June. I knew that I would finish my degree in a year, I just didn't realize what I was in for... the work wasn't that hard for most classes but it was time consuming - during summer, I spent two nights per week in Livingston, in the fall I spent four nights per week in class and this spring, I spent three... it was wearing on me physically - the driving at night, the late nights, and the busy mornings trying to get things done before work. I can honestly say that it was ALL worth it. I am so happy to be finished. Without the support of my best friend Kaley, my sweet fiance Daniel, my brothers, and the financial and emotional support of good old momma and daddy, I would not have been able to finish this quick...

New Beginnings - 1st grade teacher at PA, wedding planning... I will officially begin my job in August but teaching is not one of those jobs you can just walk into on the first day and begin. I will spend the rest of this week in the classroom with the current teacher learning her tricks and anything she will teach me so I will be somewhat prepared for next year... and then I will spend many days this summer perfecting the classroom things. I know I am a dork but I am super excited about getting my room ready. Wedding planning has become an essential part of my daily life - I have been planning forever and have lots of ideas. I love looking at different ideas and getting some thoughts together yet it is a little overwhelming. Once I get a photographer and a caterer nailed down, I think my nerves will be somewhat calmed down - we'll see!

As for this current moment in time, I am compiling a wedding list (complete with addresses), waiting on 7 to go to Cole's baseball game, anxiously awaiting Friday when Mom, Sara, and hopefully Kaley will head to Mobile for the first round of dress shopping, then to Bridgette and Brett's wedding this weekend and Daniel's on Sunday for a reception for one of his friends.... DING, DING - let the busy months begin!