Matty and I are all snug in our bed as I type this! It is getting so cold here in Missouri...it has been raining all day too. We slept in this morning, got my windshield fixed, and then toured the little town that we are in. We got to see the rest of the family and go up to First Baptist Church to sing some worship songs. Matt sang and played the guitar and Aaron played the drums. Then we ate dinner at Matt's Aunt Becky's house. All of the cousins sat at the "grown up table"! Pictures from earlier today...battling the rain and wind in south west Missouri. We went to Joplin to see Tara's hair school! Very fun! Matt and I loved seeing it! Come on South GA...step it up! Tara and Marisha goofing off at the salon.
Then we drove through a long, but beautiful Christmas lights display in a neighboring town. It was great. All of the cousins took the van. We were piled up in the van listening to Christmas music, laughing, eating, and I'm pretty sure Tara and Jacob fell asleep. It was a fun experience and just reminded me of some kind of old Home Alone type movie. You probably just had to be there. :) Looking at Christmas lights! We got back home and had to take the Cheesecake off of the porch (to keep it cold :)), enjoyed desserts, and opened gifts. We really wanted to play catch phrase, but everyone was worn out. The cheesecake that Aunt Becky hid under a wreath on the porch to keep cold! haha! Love it!
We're excited about shopping tomorrow, the candlelight service, and hopefully snow!
Our route from Georgia...Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, and finally Missouri!
We are LOVING being in Missouri :) Lots of family time! We're also really hoping for a white Christmas Eve!
My favorite state so far was Arkansas...all the pretty mountains!! However, a rock hit my windshield shortly after we crossed the Ark. line and shattered half of it. The bank also froze our bank accounts due to use of our debit card across the southeast to midwest!
Blakely in Opelieka Alabama right near Auburn and then in Birmingham!
Bored our of our minds in Tupelo Mississippi. We were entertaining ourselves with grapes. Ha!
I was actually reading The Blind Side while were in Memphis! Cool huh?
We were leaving Memphis and just after we crossed over into Arkanas, a rock shattered part of my windshield right in front of my face...literally.
I, like Laurie, love to get a new bottle of perfume every year for either Christmas or my birthday. I just love perfume! (You can read about Laurie's perfume funnies at...http://lseo.blogspot.com (I don't know how to link it to my page). However, lots of scents give me headaches or just make me feel sick. I'm going to go through my perfume history. I can smell each scent and it immediately takes me back to that time of my life. Maybe that's why I love perfume so much..don't know.
Middle School: Calvin Klein CK One
High School: Clinique Happy and Abercrombie 8
Beginning of College: Abercrombie 8, Ralph Lauren: Ralph, Lovespell, and Estee Lauder perfumes like Pleasures and Beautiful (thanks to Mary Elizabeth)
End of College: DKNY Be Delicious (green), Lacoste Pink, and Lovespell
Matt gave me Chanel Chance right before our wedding day in June 2006, and I wore that for the following year. I love my wedding perfume :)
Two falls ago, I stuck with Chanel, but changed to Coco Mademoiselle. I still have a very little bit left. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it and still wear DKNY be delicous too and LOVE it, but just felt like a change.
These were my top 3 wants for this Christmas...Flower Bomb, Miss Dior Cherie by Dior (when I was in my friend Amanda's wedding a few years ago, we all wore this scent...it makes me think of winter and getting dressed up), and Chanel Chance again..this time the green color.
Now, no one in my family will by me perfume anymore because of the issues that I have with them. I think I received Burberry, Daisy by Marc Jacobs, Princess by Very Wang, and maybe something by Escada or someone. I liked them all in the store and when I smelled them in the bottle. As soon as I tested them on my wrist they gave me a headache or made me feel sick. So I took them all back. And this is after smelling every scent out there and after going back and forth for hours. I am not a fun shopper to shop for perfume with.
Anyway..tonight was different. I ended up with two. One for everyday and one for special occasions.
Maybe next year I'll try the runner up. Or maybe I'll just go back to an old favorite. I just know what I like and stick to it!
Matty got guitar hero for the Wii yesterday. I LOVE that game, but am horrible at it!! haha! I could not get through a single song without being booed by the crowd...until...I found a country song to play to. Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash. Imagine that..me and my obsession with country music!
I'm sure I will have some pictures of us playing soon...lol!
I am thrilled to be on a two week Christmas Vacation from work! Praise the Lord! This week was so very busy and I have been running on zero sleep, that I got home from work today about 4:30 and slept until 10:30! Also, so much for taco night and a movie with my hubby by the Christmas tree...oh well! So now, I'm wide awake..haha!
I am behind on my blog once again, as so many things have been going on around here. But I should have some time to update soon!
We celebrated my birthday this week! It was a great day...especially hearing my kids come in and remember my birthday right away. My kids last year weren't as thoughtful. I also am blessed by very sweet parents this year. I had a few sweet families in my class last year too, but I have never been praised as much as this year. I have also never been told thank you so much. It is a great and humbling feeling.
I snapped a quick picture of my birthday sign in our resource room. Notice the cute plates for our breakfast...my friend, Robin, told me they were just for me! I love a square paper plate! ;0
Ok. Birthday pics! We went to Valdosta to run some errands and eat at Loco's for my birthday. We were so tired though! I think we look very sleepy in our picture. Matt made me pose for the picture outside of Country Cobbler. We didn't get home until a few minutes before midnight and Matty just had to surprise me with a caramel cake by our favorite Cakes by Jayne here in town. I blew out the candles minutes before Dec. 17th! There were too many candles on my cake this year for my liking!! :)
We aren't going to church this morning because our family just left, and frankly, we wouldn't have enough time to get ready. So I thought I'd get caught up in the blog world, and then I'll watch the service on tv at 11. :)
I've gone on two field trips with my class this week, and had Breakfast with Santa, so it has been very busy at school. We also had my JSL party and Matt's office party on Tuesday night at the exact same time. I was planning on going to both, but ended up skipping out on mine and going with Matt to his. We had fun. Here are some pictures from our night.
We also had Victorian Chistmas on Thursday and Friday nights. Fabulous fun! Mama and Daddy came to stay with us this weekend, so they could go with us on Friday. Loved every minute. It was freezing, but beautiful. I went both nights, and then mama and I went back again on Sat. morning so she could pick up a few things...ha!
Then on Saturday, my dads two sisters and my cousin came up from FSU to see our new house. They brought a honey backed ham and me and mama fixed some sides. It was raining freezing ice all day, so we just stayed in and visited and watched family movies and football. My brother and his girlfriend, drove over from Valdosta too. We had 9 people around our table..which is our first big family dinner! :) Of couse we missed the rest of the family...Keith, John, Peggy, Carina, Joey, Taryn....and always Nanny and Poppy. Our cold winter family day consisted of lots of coffee... Lots of food... Including sweet potatoes on a candy cane platter...thanks to Marian and mashed potatoes in the pot thanks to Heather...our interior designer.
We ended the night by riding downtown, to look at all the pretty ball lights hanging in all the trees lining the streets. It sort of looked like it was snowing so pretty!
The Lord blessed me with the most adoring, Godly, supportive husband in the world. He is also sweet as pie! He surprised me with this for our front door this evening. He is so sneaky :)
Well, I have to say that earlier, I wasn't rejoicing. I was sad. I rarely get angry, but I always let people walk all over me. Which isn't a good trait to have.
Long story short, people were talking about my birthday at work today, and basically called 26 years old OLD! They told me that I was already too old to have kids now, and that I shoudln't waste any more time. I don't care when people ask me when we're going to have kids, or when they ask if I'm pregnant b/c I feel sick, or am absent with the stomach bug. I laugh when people say, "It's time, after almost 4 years of marriage, it's time." These comments earlier, were serious.
Well, after some tears, and a long talk with Matt, plus some prayer time and Casting Crowns music, and a bubble bath I feel better. I guess it was just one of those Monday's.
I NEVER expected to not have children at my age. I have always seen myself with lots of kids, and I figured since I got married at 22, that I would have kids by 24. We both did. I started babysitting at the age of 10. Coached numerous tennis camps and a swim team for kids. Majored in early childhood education. We love kids! Age used to be a huge number for me. I have had many heart to hearts with 30 and 40 yr old women in my church...grilling them about what age they had children at, etc. I am taking their wisdom to heart.
Matt and I made the choice to graduate college, get my Master's degree, and now Specialists before having kids. I want to have all the time I can possibly have when we do have them, if we are so blessed. We both have baby fever. We know the names we will name our children. We have a 5 bedroom house, ready for kids. I drive a tahoe...plenty of room. We are both lucky enough to have great jobs. Now that we've gotten to this point in our lives, we want to have a little bit of "us" time and when the time comes for us to have children (probably sooner rather than later), it will be God's perfect timing and we will be thrilled. We really can't wait. However, we are planners. We know we will never have "enough money"...ect. We truly believe that we will be wonderful parents when the times comes. And most of the people we look up to and the people I really admire that I work with were 27-30 when having kids. And look at Kelly Stamps over at Kelly's Korner. If she's not a great example, then who is?
We're enjoying the stage that we're in now. We're content. I get to spoil 22 kids like they are my own day in and day out. If I had kids, I coudln't devote the time and energy that I give them and that they need to them. I literally treat them like my own, and we have a bond so great. I feel that way with a lot of my former students as well. I am getting to volunteer all the time for great causes, through JSL. We're very involved in many different areas in our church. Matt has plenty of time to golf with his buddies, we can just pick up and go most of the time, and we get to make our marriage stronger and stronger each day and spend tons of quality time together.
We are learning to slow down. To not say yes to everything. We have a hard time ever getting out of town, even though we can. Because we have so much going on all the time, due to organizations and job obligations. We would like to ease up on our commitments before having children. Example: One of my best friends had a Bachelorette weekend/shower this weekend. I just found out about it a month ago, but I already had 2 mandatory events to attend for work and JSL. I missed out. Sometimes it can get lonely livng away from absolutely all of our best college friends. Everyone lives in the northern part of the state, not the southern. I am very lucky to have my grad girls and all of my local friends, but I still miss my college girls, my best friends. I guess you could say, right now we're beginning to learn how to balance. For the last 2 years we've been full speed ahead, grad school and work. Now we're beginning to live again. I just have to be patient in this great balancing act that we call life :) Feels good to have that off my chest.
3 songs that bless me, from CC new cd. Hope you like them as much as I do.
I am a wife, teacher, grad student, and wanna-be mama :) The Lord is my strength in everything and He guides me every step of the way through this crazy, busy time in my life.
