Kirbachio!

Too long!

2009-05-17T16:34:00.000-07:00

Sorry I haven't posted in a loooong time. My Grandpa is doing better. He gets to leave the hospital tomorrow! He has some short term memory issues, and we're still not sure how much damage has been done to his heart, but he hasn't had another stroke and that's a good sign!

A couple weeks ago, Robert Fitzgerald and I threw a couple's shower for our good friend Ashley and her fiance, Justin. It was a luau theme, and lucky for us, Robert had a ton of luau decorations (he's a choir teacher, and apparently they use a lot of props!). Here are some pics from our lovely shindig.

We have also celebrated several birthdays since my last post! May is a very busy birthday month for us. My Dad's birthday, Bayleigh's birthday, and Kari Beth and Aaron's birthday! Don't forget Mother's Day! BUSY BUSY BUSY! Here's a few pics of the festivities throughout the birthdays!

At Jose's for Kari and Aaron's Bdays.

Aaron's tattoo themed cookies.

The Birthday couple!

Here are my sweet parents trying to cut Bayleigh's Maggie Moo's ice cream cake! YUMMM!

Me and the birthday girl!

My parents left on Friday to go on a cruise! I'm so jealous, and I miss them already. They won't be back until next Sunday. I don't know if I can make it that long without seeing them!! :( I only have 10 more days of work left! Thank the Lord! I'm soooo ready for summer vacay!!!

Grandpa

2009-04-26T14:59:00.001-07:00

We've had a rollercoaster of a week. On Wednesday, I had just gotten out of a faculty meeting and had five missed calls from my mom, dad, and cousin. Not a good sign. I quickly called my Dad back and he informed me that my Grandpa had a stroke and they were in the emergency room. SCARY! I rushed to the ER to find my cute little Grandpa so scared, confused, and not making any sense. He couldn't move his left arm and his speech was slurred. It. Was. Terrible. None of us knew why he had a stroke, and the next few days were a big waiting game. It turns out, he had gotten a bacterial infection in his heart valve and a piece of the valve broke off and caused him to have the stroke. Thankfully, he has gotten his speech back and can move his arm now. GOD IS GOOD! He's almost back to normal except he still can't move his left hand very well. Next week, we should find out how much damage has been done to his heart valve. I'm very thankful that he has recovered as much as he has, and I hope that there hasn't been too much damage done to his heart. Please keep us in your prayers.

Fab Find, Rainbows, & Bathroom Makeover!

2009-04-20T15:43:00.000-07:00

Well most of these things have happened before my last post, but I'm just now discussing them. First of all, we painted our guest bathroom turquoise a couple weeks ago. I really like it. It's much better than the drab green I had. Here's the new bathroom!

A couple weeks ago, I stopped at a store called Monday's Child that was going out of business.It has children's clothes and decorations. I was actually looking for a gift for a friend who is expecting and I ended up buying something for myself. Selfish much? I think so! Anywho, I found this really cute frame. I have seen frames like this for $150, but I got this one for $10!!! I was so proud of myself for finding such a good deal! I know it may be a little bit juvenile, but I love it! Any thoughts??

Last, but not least, there was a gorgeous rainbow out on Friday night. B-E-A-Utiful!

Tomorrow we are taking all of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders to an Arkansas Naturals Game. It's going to be so fun, but I'll probably be exhuasted at the end of the day. Pray for me!!!!

Easter Weekend

2009-04-13T17:57:00.000-07:00

What a busy weekend! It flew by and I think I was more exhausted at the end of this weekend than I was at the end of the work week!!! Even though I was extremely busy, we still had a great time.
Right when I got off work on Friday, I met Gary's sisters, nieces, and Mom at Different Strokes. I painted a doggie bowl for Tina....not sure how it will turn out, but we'll see. For some reason, I had the hardest time deciding what I wanted to paint and how I would paint it. Talk about STRESS!!!
I get to pick it up on Wednesday!!! After painting pottery, we went to eat at Mama Dean's. It's a tiny soul food restaurant deep in Fayetteville. It was DELICIOUS! I think I gained about 10 pounds that night.

On Saturday, we went to our niece's (Mackenzie) soccer game. It was so cute. I think it's hilarious when those coaches get so worked up over an eight year old's soccer game. There was the cutest little goalie named Debbie. She was eight years old and was working so hard. It was precious. She loved when we cheered for her. Gary also had the idea to bring Tina to the game. I was completely against the idea (if you know Tina, then you know why), but I finally gave in. She was actually really good. She just sat on my lap and sun bathed for most of the game.

After the soccer game, we had a crawfish boil. I'm not a big crawfish fan, but Gary and his family love them, so I went along with it. Our neice, Avery, loved playing with the crawfish before we cooked them. They are still alive right up until you boil them. At one point, Avery took one out of the ice chest and told it, "You've been a bad boy! I'm going to eat you!" It was hysterical. Here's a few pics of her taunting these poor creatures.

While the crawfish were having their date with death, I brought the girls in for a fun little cooking project. I saw this commercial on t.v., and it looked like a good idea. It was very fun, but extremely messy. We made rice crispy treats and formed them into egg shapes and then dipped them in melted chocolate. When the chocolate dried, the girls decorated them with icing. Avery preferred to suck the icing out of her dispenser and then decorate them. It was too funny.

Here's a few more pics of some of our delicous sugary treats from Easter.

Finally, on Easter Sunday, we went to church with my parents and Gary's parents at a new church we've been attending. We are so happy we've found this church. It just feels right. Overall, it was a great Easter weekend. We are truly blessed. Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins! I hope everyone had a very Hoppy Easter!

Free at Last!

2009-04-05T18:43:00.000-07:00

Finally, I have finished my ESL project! FINALLY!!!!!!! You may be asking yourself, "What in the world is ESL?" Well, it stands for English as a Second Language, and I took a 2 week long course over the summer that ended up counting as 12 graduate school hours! I went Monday through Sunday from 8 in the morning until 8 at night for two weeks! It was hellacious (not sure if that's a real word), but I learned a lot. After that, we had to complete a humongous project in order to get the college credit. Can I just tell you what a pain that thing was? It ended up being about 60 pages long and I have been working on it about every weekend for the past few months. YUCK! But, I'm finally done! Praise the Lord!
Okay, so right now I'm watching Slumdog Millionaire for the first time. It's sooooo good, but it's really sad. It makes me want to fly to India and adopt a cute little kiddo from there. Every kid in this movie is adorable!!!
One last thing: I have to say congratulations to my friend Kari Beth for running her first 5K! You rock! I hope to be able to run for more than a mile someday! :)
Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Jamaican me Thankful!

2009-03-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it back safely from our trip to Jamaica! It was soooooooo much fun! It made me realize how blessed I am to have such wonderful friends, a wonderful husband, and the opportunity to go somewhere like that. Who knows when we'll be able to do something like that again....hopefully next year!!! Here's some pics from our super fun trip!

This was our view from where we did the zip line. Can you say B-E-A-UTIFUL?!?
Here's me and my bestest friend Kari all geared up for zip lining!

Our husbands in the ocean on the first day.

Kari and Aaron relaxing at the beach bar!

PARADISE!!!!!!!!!!!

Soap Box

2009-03-17T17:07:00.000-07:00

WOO! It's been a long week, and it's only Tuesday. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I don't really have a good excuse, other than just being lazy. Actually, being lazy is part of the reason I'm making this post. I'd rather sit here and type than go make dinner and do other chores.
I'm so ready for SPRING BREAK! Gary and I are going to Jamaica with some VERY great friends. I cannot wait. I don't think I have ever been in more need of a vacay than now! We have benchmark tests coming up, and if you're a teacher in Springdale then you know how stressful that can be, which leads me to my soapbox.
So, I hear Obama wants to give teachers merit pay. For those of you who don't know what that is, it's bonuses for teachers who have large groups of students with high scores on the state wide tests. Hmmmmmmm....let's think about this for a minute. Do you really think it's fair to give teachers bonuses based on test scores in Springdale versus, for example, a city like Bentonville? Do you REALLY think that's fair considering the demographics in those two places? For those of you who haven't been to Springdale lately, we have an EXTREMELY large population of hispanics, who don't speak English all that well. So do you really think it's a reflection of my ability as a teacher if those students don't pass the benchmark? Or maybe it's a reflection of the fact that these poor children haven't had a chance to become fluent in English and then they are expected to pass a test, a very difficult test, in ENGLISH??!?!! Really? Really??? REALLY? I don't think so! I would like to see how Obama did on a test in Spanish after he lived in Mexico for a year.
Sorry for all the negativity. Can you tell I need a vacation? Jamaica, here I come!!!!!!!!!

King Cake + trying to get in shape= BAD NEWS!

2009-02-23T18:49:00.000-08:00

Okay, so every year around this time, Gary's Aunt Nancy sends us a king cake in the mail for Mardi Gras!!! I had never heard of one of these until last year when we received one in the mail. Sidenote: Gary is from New Orleans and a lot of his family still lives there. If you don't know what a King Cake is, you're missing out. It's like a giant pastry with the most amazing frosting on it. It also has a tiny plastic baby baked into it (CHOKING HAZARD). Anywho, this cake is a tradition for people in New Orleans to eat around this time of year and whoever gets the slice with the baby in it is responsible for buying the cake the next year. Well, tonight on my very first slice, I GOT THE BABY! I don't think they want me to send them one though because our King Cakes fail in comparison to the ones in Louisiana. They are fabulous!!! I called our Aunt Nancy today to thank her and she told me she stood in line for an hour and a half to get that cake! Let me just tell you, it was worth it. That thing is AMAZING! I've already had two slices.....which is not doing too much for my figure. :( I'm hoping I'll get to experience the real Mardi Gras one day in New Orleans. Kari, if you're reading this, that should be our next excursion with our hubbies!!! Here's a pic of this wonderful treat!!!

Also, check out this website: fmylife.com. It sounds horrible, but it's actually hillarious! If you're ever having a bad day, check it out. It has tons and tons of stories that people have posted about unfortunate, but comical events that they have dealt with. It will definitely make you laugh, which is something I really needed to do on this Monday!!! Have a great rest of the week!

Surprises, Fireproofing, and a New Couch

2009-02-22T18:54:00.000-08:00

This has been a nice and relaxing weekend. Yesterday, I spent the morning cleaning house, doing laundry, and grading some papers. Nothing too exciting. Meanwhile, Gary and his two friends helped with the trail cleanup at Lake Fayetteville. He was pretty sore today, but I think they enjoyed themselves.
On Friday afternoon after work, I was taking nap. I love naps. I would take one everyday if I could. I've always thought the world would be a better place if jobs let people have nap time, just like in kindergarten. Think about what a better world this would be! Okay, back to the story. My lovely husband walked in and woke me up (I was not thrilled; I don't enjoy having my naps interrupted). However, this was worth it. He had a surprise for me: A NEW BLACKBERRY! I have been begging and pleading for one of these because the phone I had was much like a jitterbug (this is a phone for elderly people if you haven't seen the commercials). It wasn't time for me to upgrade at Alltel so I thought all hope was lost, but my sneaky little husband found a slightly used one on Craig's List. By the way, this website is where we found our chihuahua, Tina, for FREE. Can anyone imagine why someone would want to give this sweet little creature away for free?!?!! They even gave us her kennel, food, and collar. They practically paid us to take her. I have no idea why! :)
A couple weeks ago, Gary's sister moved into a new apartment. She's been needing a couch and we told her she could buy ours. It took her about a week to decide, but she called today and said she wanted to buy it. So I hopped in the shower and Gary and I were off to the furniture stores. I was sooooo indecisive, but we finally decided on another sectional (even though we said we didn't want another one)! Here's a picture of it!

After our couch purchase, we decided to go rent a couple movies since Desperate isn't on tonight. Gary mentioned renting Fireproof and I had been wanting to rent Changeling with Angenlina Jolie and Hastings had both!!! We watched Fireproof this afternoon, and I was really skeptical at first. It seemed really cheesy, but by the end I was boo hooing. It was a really great movie with a great message. I highly recommend it! :)

Valentine's Day

2009-02-18T17:41:00.000-08:00

Gary and I had a great Valentine's Day weekend. His birthday was on Thursday, but we really celebrated it on Friday night at Tim's with a group of friends. It was a lot of fun! Gary's parents were in town so they got to join us. After dinner, we had a few people over to play dominoes, along with our neighbors.

I've been Tagged!!!

2009-02-05T16:56:00.000-08:00

My bestest friend, Kari Beth, tagged me to put my 6th picture in my 6th file on my next post. How fitting then that when I looked in my 6th file at my 6th picture, it was me and Kari. This picture was taken on this past New Years Eve at dinner. What a fun night!

Thanks for the tag!
This has been a long and overwhelming week back at work. I've been getting ready for parent-teacher conferences, which are next week and working on a project for a class I took this summer. I'm so glad tomorrow is Friday!

Ice Storm '09

2009-01-31T19:24:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a wild week of weather! Northwest Arkansas was hit with a devastating ice storm on Monday afternoon. To be honest, I was actually excited about it on Monday because I wanted a couple days off of work, but I had no idea how bad it would be. We lost power on Tuesday morning and got it back on Wednesday night. Luckily, our friends Aaron and Kari Beth kept us company. They live right around the corner from us and lost power too. We played Yahtzee, drove around, and ate dinner at Applebees (I know it's nasty, but it was the only place open). They even let us borrow about 10 candles because we didn't hardly have any to light our dark house. I thought I was going to go nuts without power for those couple days!!! I shouldn't even be complaining because there are a lot of other people who went all week without it and some are still without power!

These are some trees in our back yard after/during the ice storm. We are so lucky nothing hit the house. The rest of the town is a huge mess. My sweet husband was out all day today with his friend cutting up fallen trees (for a small price). HAHA! His work ethic is one of the many things I admire about him. I definitely wouldn't want to work all weekend after working all week, but he doesn't mind. It must be a man thing.

Brad & Dierks!

2009-01-30T14:25:00.001-08:00

This post is waaaay late, but I felt that I really had to post it because it was such a great night. We went to Tulsa last weekend with some friends to see Brad Paisley and Dierks Bentley. We had a blast!

Hob Lob & Surgery....odd combo.

2009-01-14T16:57:00.000-08:00

Okay, so I know the title of this post is very odd, but it's what's going on in my life. First and foremost, my Dad is having surgery in the morning on his foot. When his tree stand broke, he fell about 15 feet and crushed his heel into several pieces. He also messed up his back, but luckily doesn't have to have surgery on that. I know he's just having surgery on his foot, but I still worry. I just know he's nervous, and who wouldn't be?!? This whole situation just made me think about what it will be like when my parents get older and have health problems. I try not to think about that stuff, but for some reason, I'm being such a Debbie Downer tonight! Please keep us in your prayers, and thanks to those who already are praying for us! I know God will take care of us and everything will be fine. On to more upbeat news. I know this isn't really news, but I'm so excited about these super cute candle sticks that I found at Hobby Lobby. I could literally walk around Hobby Lobby for hours. I tend to lose all sense of time when I'm in that place. I've been desperately searching for cute AND affordable home decor. I feel like our house is so empty since we've taken down Christmas decorations. Here they are! Feel free to give me any opinions! I don't have the best sense of decorating, so I'll take any feedback I can get!

NYE '08

2009-01-12T18:18:00.000-08:00

Here are some late NYE pics. Better late than never! We went to the UARK Ballroom. This is the same place where we had our wedding reception, so it was really cool to go back there one year later. Boom Kinetic played on NYE and we all danced our little hearts out. It was a blast!

Christmas, Tree Stands, and an Anniversary.......

2008-12-29T18:49:00.000-08:00

Well, it's been an eventful week, to say the least. We spent Christmas in St. Louis with Gary's family and had so much fun. We left on Tuesday around noon and got to St. Louis at 5:00. We made really good time, even though we had to drive through some ice and snow. I got caught up on a lot of reading on the way there, which was surprising because I've never been able to read in the car. I finished Eclipse and now am about a third way through Breaking Dawn. If I haven't mentioned this yet in my blog, I'm obsessed with the Twilight series. Edward Cullen is sooooo dreamy! Anywho, we went to Gary's parents' church on Christmas Eve and it was so neat. I always seem to get a lot out of the services there. Their pastor seems very down to earth. To top it all off, they had cookies, hot chocolate, and apple cider!
Okay, so now to the bad news. On the way home on Sunday I called my parents to make sure they were home so we could pick up Tina. She then informed me that my dad had just called her from the woods where he was hunting and his tree stand had broken. He had fallen about 15 feet. He's now in the hospital and his heel is crushed and he has a compressed fracture in his back. Please pray for a speedy recovery. We feel really lucky because it definitely could have been much worse, but he is in a lot of pain.
Today was our one year anniversary. I spent most of the day running errands and going back and forth to the hospital to check on my dad. Tonight, Gary took me to dinner at Noodles and it was nice to finally relax. I can't believe we've been married for a year. I feel so blessed to have a wonderful husband and a great family. God is good!

100 Days to Jamaica!!!

2008-12-15T18:25:00.000-08:00

Can you believe it? It's actually less than 100 days now. I think it's like 95 or 96. Either way, it's getting closer and closer. I can't wait to be soaking up the sun and laying on the beach, especially considering that it's 18 degrees outside! YIKES! We decided to celebrate the over halfway mark to our trip with a little trip to the square and dinner. Here's a few pics from the night!
Here's Max and Aaron with Mr. Fulbright.....

We found some mistletoe!

The whole Jamaica clan!

These would have been great pictures, except for the stupid white car!

Okay, I'm going to get off here and try to stay warm.

The First Annual Merry Shindig!

2008-12-09T18:12:00.001-08:00

We kicked off the Christmas season with our first ever Merry Shindig! It was so much fun! It got off to a rocky start though, because something was burning in the bottom of the oven and filled the entire house with smoke right as everyone was arriving!!!! Yeah, I almost had a heart attack..... Luckily, the smoke quickly cleared out and we had a great time. There was so much good food. I'm so thankful for my bestest friends, Kari Beth and Leslie, who helped me decorate and cook for the party. I really couldn't have done it without them! Here are some pics from this fun-filled evening!

All the girlies!

Here's Gary and Max in their fashionable Salvation Army attire......

Our party favors!!! I painted the polka dots, Kari wrote on them, and Leslie tied the super cute bows! Great teamwork!

Supposedly, it's going to sleet/snow tonight and I'm praying that school gets canceled tomorrow, but it's not looking too promising. I keep looking out the window, and NOTHING is falling! It's so frustrating!!! Local weather stations stink! :( I guess I'll just continue to sit here by the fire with Tina and keep up the wishful thinking.

Fire Side!

2008-12-04T18:08:00.001-08:00

I just had to post this picture of Tina laying in front of the fire. It's so cute. She loves anything warm. Her favorite thing is to lay on top of our clothes right out of the dryer. She's such a cutie pa tootie!

Turkey Lurkey

2008-11-30T09:03:00.000-08:00

We had such a great Thanksgiving. It's definitely one of my favorite holidays. On Wednesday we went to Fort Smith to see Gary's sisters. We got to play with Shannon's kiddos and we had so much fun. Avery wanted to get out the easy bake oven and we attempted to make chocolate chip cookies. That didn't really work out, but it was very entertaining. I also got to play with baby Nathan. He is one of the happiest little babies, always smiling! Later that day, we dropped the kiddos off at Marty's parents house and went to watch Four Christmases. I pretty much laughed throughout the entire movie. It was hillarious!

Thanksgiving day was spent with my side of the family. My Dad, Gary and my cousin Zach put up Christmas light on my parents' house and thankfully no one was injured. We ate lots of great food and went to bed early!! On Friday, my Mom and I woke up early to go Christmas shopping. We found some pretty good deals and just had fun amidst all the chaos! Here's a silly pic from Friday night with some Christmas decor I bought that day.

These trees are NOT meant to be worn as hats and that was very uncomfortable! Well, I better stop blogging and get busy cleaning. Our Merry Shindig is next weekend and I've got a lot of work to do around here!!!

What a great weekend!!!

2008-11-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

This weekend was so much fun! On Friday night, I got to have dinner with friends, go to a jewelry party, and the best part of all, I GOT TO SEE TWILIGHT! Can I just say that Edward Cullen is amazing. When I first found out who was playing Edward, I was disappointed BUT after seeing the movie, I couldn't picture a better actor to portray that character. He's perfect. And so is Bella. I don't think people who haven't read the book would fully appreciate the movie, but I LOVED it!
Here's some pics from this fun-filled night.

Saturday I spent the entire day shopping for Christmas decor with two of my bestest friends! We went all over town and saw so many cute things. I came to the conclusion that I could be one heck of a decorator if I had an endless supply of moola. Unfortunately, that is not the case, SO I'm going to have to get creative and just do my best. With that being said, I'm quite proud of myself because I really like my Christmas tree. Gary and I ended up putting it up on Saturday night and I'm really happy with it. Luckily, my friend Leslie and her husband were able to drop by and help me put the ribbon on my tree because I suck at that stuff. My husband also put the lights on the house without me even having to ask him. LOVE him!

Today, I went bowling with my Grandpa. He's such a cute, little man! He's in a bowling league with my friend Robert's grandpa and he just loves it. I told him once that I would go with him and now it's turned into a monthly routine. I'm not the biggest fan of bowling, but I know he enjoys it so I'm willing to do it. It's pretty funny. Today, I actually did really well (my score was a 138)! I've never bowled that well in my life. I'm not sure what got into me. Okay, well I think that about wraps it up. I'm so glad this is going to be a short work week! YAY FOR THANKSGIVING!!!!

Changes....

2008-11-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

Changes...I don't like them. In fact, I hate them. I am a creature of habit. I don't like trying new things, and I'll be the first to admit it. So you can imagine my uneasiness when my husband told me that we were switching gyms. This probably wouldn't be that big of a deal to most people, but it has totally thrown me through a loop. We had both been members of Fuel for a few years, and I really liked it. BUT, Gary thinks it would be better for us (logistically) to start going to FAC because it's so much closer to our house. At first, I was okay with it because they have a pool and it will be nice in the summertime. However, I went today for the first time and I'm very disappointed. Their equipment is super old and it's not nearly as nice as Fuel's. :( I just have to keep reminding myself that I'll get to hang out at the pool this summer! But right now, I'm pretty upset about this deal!

White Trash Bash

2008-11-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Here's my LATE post of Halloween pics from Max & Leslie's party...sorry it took me so long!

Doesn't Aaron look beautiful?!?! :)

Besties!

Gender confused boys....
\
Could we be any classier?

What a nice couple....looks like a streaker snuck in the back door.

Okay, now to the present. We have started a workout challenge to help us get in shape before our Jamaica trip. It sucks, but I know it will be worth it. I am in desperate need of getting in shape! I'll keep you posted on how it turns out! :)

Candy, Kiddos, and Craziness!

2008-11-01T10:09:00.000-07:00

Well, yesterday was Halloween, and school was CRAZY, but fun. All the teachers and kiddos got to dress up and our third grade team dressed as pirates. It was a lot of fun, but I was so ready to get that costume off by the end of the day! Our class had a Halloween party at the end of the day, which my homeroom mom was responsible for. I wasn't really sure what to expect and I always feel a little uneasy about letting someone else take charge in my classroom, BUT I was not disappointed. I could not believe all of the food, games, and party favors this mom and dad put together for our room. They went way above and beyond and the kids loved it. I will never be able to thank them enough, and I can't wait to see what our Christmas and Valentines parties will be like. It was so much fun, and so well planned! Here are some pictures from yesterday.
Me with my 3rd grade team..I LOVE them!

ARRRRRR MATEY!

Look who I ran into! SNOW WHITE!!!

After the Halloween party, I went to my parents house with Tina to hand out candy to the trick or treaters. We ended up having to leave Tina inside while my mom and I sat out on the front porch handing out candy. I've come to the conclusion that Tina is just not user friendly. I love her to death, but I'm probably crazy for doing so. Okay, so back to the trick or treaters. Let me just say that there were some major freaks out last night. I don't know why older people think it's okay for them to trick or treat, but it is NOT! I shorted them on candy on several occasions. I mean there were a couple people in their late 2o's, maybe early 3o's trick or treating. FREAKS! Don't these people have anything better to do with people their own age? I mean that's just creepy. Okay, sorry about that. Well, my next post should have some hillarious pictures because we are going to Max and Leslie's White Trash Halloween Bash tonight! I can't wait! :)

Halloween!

2008-10-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's been a while since I've posted anything. I've been really bad about this blogging thing. Since I've been gone, we went to the beach, Gary has gotten a new jeep, and I started school again! The jeep is really cute and it's a lot of fun. We went on a camping trip a couple weeks ago and I got to experience "jeeping" for the first time. My life flashed before my eyes a couple times, but it was a lot of fun. However, I don't think I'm cut out to camp. It's just a little too rough for me. Here are some pics from our beach and camping trip.

Tomorrow is our Halloween party at school and I'm going to be a pirate! ARRR! It should be fun. On Halloween night, Tina and I will be going to my parents house to hand out candy to trick or treaters. Tina will be dressed as a bumble bee but I have a feeling she won't be too friendly to the trick or treaters. I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure she has social anxiety disorder. :(

Our new nephew, Father's Day, and My Birthday!

2008-06-18T19:10:00.000-07:00

My birthday was this past Sunday. It happened to fall on Father's Day this year. Gary's parents were in town so we got to have breakfast with them on Father's Day and then we had dinner at my Grandparents. On Saturday, we went to dinner with our best friends at Bordinos for my birthday! Gary surprised me with a Maggie Moo's ice cream cake in my favorite flavor, Espress Yourself!! I was so excited! We had a lot of fun at dinner, except I didn't feel too well so we didn't end up going out afterwards. :( Also, my sister in law had her baby last week; Nathan Martin Shell. He is so precious. We got to go to the hospital and see him right after he was born. It was so cute to see how the girls interacted with him. Here's some pictures of the past week!

Crawfish Boil and End of School!

2008-06-03T19:32:00.000-07:00

Gary and I had a crawfish party this past weekend. I had only eaten crawfish once before this party and I wasn't too wild about them. I just don't like cracking open a creature to eat it's insides! I felt the same way at the party. Luckily we had corn on the cob, salad, and baked potatoes for me and a few others who didn't like crawfish. The party was so much fun and I got to play yard golf for the first time. Max and Leslie brought their game over and it was so much fun! We have got to get our own set! Also, last Friday was the last day of school. This was my first year teaching and it was definitely rough but I have learned so much! I really feel like next year will be a lot easier. It was hard to say goodbye to my kids, but I'm really excited for summer!

Sorry it's been a while!

2008-05-21T18:15:00.001-07:00

We're finally married! Our wedding was so much fun. We have been married for almost 5 months now and it's flown by. A lot of people say the first year is the hardest, but surprisingly it's been really fun! Only 6 more days until school is out, and I am so ready! I will definitely miss my 3rd graders but I'm ready for a break. We plan to go to the beach this summer (YIPEE!) and I'll be taking some professional development classes (BORING)! We'll have some more pics up soon!