Fall is here!!!

I know, I know I am the WORST blogger ever! I have not blogged in months. Honestly, I have not had much of anything to blog about. Life is pretty boring around here! I am excited that the cool fall weather has FINALLY made it here, along with some Auburn Football. Sadly we are not playing fantastic, but hopefully, we will improve. I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

A Whole Lot of Nothing!

A Whole lot of Nothing, That is what my summer vacation has consisted of. That would be why I have not posted recently, I have NOTHING to post about! I have not done anything exciting this summer, I have not gone anywhere, and have no major projects going either. I will say though, I have enjoyed just resting and relaxing at home. I have of course still been working some, and tutoring. We are headed to the lake tomorrow afternoon, for fun times on Lake Martin for the forth of July! The whole family will be there at some point, as we usually come in shifts and overlap during the days.

One exciting thing that we do have coming up is that we are getting our house painted...YAY!!!! I will post before and after pictures when it is complete. I am very excited to FINALLY get this done.

Sorry I don't have anything exciting to blog about, maybe that will change soon. At least we will have the house painting post to look forward to=) Hope you all have a HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY, BE SAFE!

Life...

So my summer break has been pretty good so far! I have rested, relaxed, refreshed, and started back to work. I am teaching ESY (Extended School Year) again this summer. This is a program for those kids pre.k through 3rd grade that would regress over the summer. It really is a nice little job, it is only for 3 1/2 hours a day for 10 days total over the summer. I am also doing some private tutoring. I am telling you, that is where the $$$ is at! Brandon and I went the lake with the fam. for Memorial day weekend. Unfortunately, it rained everyday and was cloudy, it was disappointing. I think that was one of the ugliest weekends up there we have had in a long time. But none the less, it was nice to get away and play with the kids, because you know they have fun rain or shine! We are headed to Prattville Sunday for James' 2nd Birthday party, I can not believe he will be 2! What is even worse and this will make many of you feel old (esp. those that I was really good friends with in high school) Today is Bailey's 13th Birthday! Yup, she is a teenager, I CAN NO BELIEVE IT! I know she is loving it though, her mom and dad may not be, but she is! Well I guess I better get my day started....

I'm Back!

I am back! Unfortunately this blog has been the last thing on my mind for the past couple of months! School has been CRAZY! But it is finally out for the summer...hallelujah! I am going to have to say this has been one of the most stressful end to a school year that I have had in all 4 years I have been teaching. I can't remember if I shared this or not, so I will share anyway...My classroom is moving from Central (4th and 5th grade school...yes I do still teach preschool, this is just the school I was housed at) to West (k-3rd school). I am VERY VERY EXCITED about my move! I am going to be working with some wonderful women over at West. Not that the ladies at Central were not wonderful, but it is really hard to really connect with people that you don't have any professional connection with, I taught 3, 4, and 5 year olds and they taught 9,10, and 11 year olds....BIG differences. Also, I was housed in a separate building, and was the only classroom in it, so again it was hard to connect without daily interactions. But all of that is going to change for next year, as I move into my new home at West ( I will be in the regular school building this time). So I spent the last couple of days packing my classroom, so the movers can take it to West. I am exhausted (to say the least) but with some wonderful help from the Aides in my classroom, we got it done!

I can finally rest and relax, so Brandon and I along with the rest of the family (Jim, Diann, Scott, Tammy and their 3 girls) are headed to the lake for memorial day! Lee and Stacy will come on Sunday to visit! Needless to say I am ready for a get away! I hope you all have a WONDERFUL memorial day vacation, and I promise not to forget about the blog this summer!

The Joys of Home Ownership....Or NOT!

First let me say...So sorry for not updating in forever! I have been slammed at work and honestly this has been the LAST thing on my mind. Only 81/2 more weeks of school then Maybe I will catch back up with my blogging! So Brandon and I have had a pretty quiet couple of months lately, but we did have to do some not so inexpensive purchasing! Let me first start out by saying that our refrigerator that came with the house we bought was the same one my parents had when I was growing up and that they now have as the "extra" on in the carport. Second, our microwave was old, ugly, and took twice as long and sometime 3 times longer to heat things up. Fortunately for us we got the mail one day to find that the mortgage company had been taking to much money out for escrow, so they were reimbursing us with a lovely and unexpected check! Well, can you guess what we used the check to do?!?!?!? Did any of you say buy a new refrigerator and microwave??? If you did, you would be CORRECT. I will say that they do look lovely in the kitchen and work so much better! This is what we chose....



AND...



We are very excited about our new much needed purchases! The refrigerator is so much more roomier than the old one and we actually have and ice maker that works (the one in the old one did not make ice, so yes, we had to fill the ice trays and dump them every couple of days). The microwave works great too! When we pulled the old one out to put this one in, we saw that it was manufactured in 1985!!! I was 2=) I definitely think it was time for a replacement!

However, this week the hot water heater has decided to go out on us! Lucky us=) I have taken lukewarm showers for the past 2 mornings. I depend on my hot shower to wake me up in the mornings, so this just is not cutting it for me! I'll just tell you that Brandon is at home right now waiting on the plumber to get there so we can get that replaced ASAP! Hopefully nothing else will decide to give out on us for a while! But as I said...

"oh the joys of home ownership....or NOT!!!

Its been awhile, and Barkley turned 5!!!

So It has been like a month since I have blogged!!! All I can say is that I am absolutely CRAZY with work. As you know I am a preschool Special Education Teacher. Don't say I can't be busy because I am. You try and deal with 13 and 14 three and four year olds for 5 hours a day! Oh, and did I mention some of them have special needs! Well as part of my job, I get referrals, not only from parents, other preschool in Vestavia, but for Early Intervention agencies. With the Early Intervention agencies, I get referrals for children that have been receiving services from birth, and it is my responsibility to hold a transition meeting, get testing done and find them eligible or not as well as write and implement an IEP (individualized education program). All of this HAS to be done by the child's 3rd birthday! Yeah, not always a lot of time. Well as of today, I have my own 18 kids on roll plus I have 9 EI referrals on my desk. Any way, enough of this boring work talk!!!! On to more important things......

Barkley turned 5 years old Sunday!!! No I am not one of those people that obsesses over her dog. But I do LOVE him! He is my child right now, seeing as I don't have one! So for Barkley's birthday, Brandon and I took him to McDonald', and got him a cheeseburger. I totally put a candle in it! Ok, I know what you are probably thinking, but this is the one day that I get to truly Celebrate him!!! As I said he is my child! So, I will leave you with this, I hope you have a great week, and .....

and..... Enjoying my Birthday "Burger/Cake"

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!! I am so excited for 2010 (it is so weird to say say that date)! I will say though that I am sad that my 2 week vacation from work is over. I told Brandon last night that this is the first time that I really just don't want to go back. But none the less, the time is soon going to arrive for me to go back, and I of course will go with a happy heart and smile on my face!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas, and that Santa was good to you!! As you know Brandon and I spent alot of our time on the road. We left Birmingham on Wednesday and headed to Columbus to have Christmas with Brandon's parents. We left there on Christmas Day afternoon and headed to Montgomery to be with my parents. Santa was pretty good to us this year, a few of our highlights include: gift cards to Lowe's to replace doors in the house, and new bedding for our bedroom ( I love it and will post pictures soon). Brandon got a briefcase, clothes, tools, and text books (for certification). I got some pictures, clothes, decorative plates for my kitchen, shoes and a cross necklace from Brandon (so pretty). So all in all it was good Christmas, and we had a blast with family as well.

Well we are headed to Montgomery this afternoon to celebrate New Years. We are continuing our tradition of ringing in the new year with Lacey, Chad, Shay and Josh. This is our 3rd year doing this. Brandon's cousin is getting married Friday in La Grange GA so we will head up there Friday. Hopefully we will get watch most of the Auburn game though!!! Let's all cheer hard and hope for a BIG tiger victory! WAAAAARRRRR EAGLE, HEY!!!!!!!