Good day off

Yesterday Scott had the day off and we spent the day together. First we slept in and then we went to Kohl's to exchange the shoes I bought him for Christmas. I got him a pair of dress brown shoes and a pair of casual brown Sketchers. They were both too big, but luckily we found them in a smaller size. From there we went to the mall to take something back and looked around there and then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond. I had thought about exchanging my zebra towels the Texas Penses got me for Christmas, but Cynthia was right about the other ones being ugly. Even Scott didn't like them. I really loved the ones that Pottery Barn had, but I just refuse to pay $30 per towel! We went to Backyard Burgers and ate lunch then we went to Wal-Mart to go grocery shopping. We went by and picked up Scott's golf clubs that had come in like a month ago, and then we came home. It was such a beautiful day yesterday so we decided to go for a walk with the dogs too. Our renters called before we went on our walk and said they were broke so they were moving out on Thursday. The hits just keep coming! We will be keeping their deposit, so we will be able to use it for January's house payment. I think we're going to put it back on the market as soon as they move out. We're hoping that with the interest rates down really low and people getting their tax return money in that we'll be able to sell it. Unfortunately I think Scott is going to have to try to work 1 day a week extra at another hospital to cover the other house payment. We're trying to be very faithful that God will provide. Luckily Scott is blessed with the kind of job that he can only work 1 day a week each week extra to cover it instead of having to work every day like I would for instance! Luckily my car will be paid off next month so that will help.

I've decided I'm much more productive around the house when Scott is at work! I have gotten so much stuff done this morning. I guess he's a distraction to me! I go to the doctor today. I can't wait to see another ultrasound and see our little man. I also can't believe I will be 21 weeks along on Wednesday. This is all going by so fast. He'll be here before we know it. I guess I better get busy on getting all the wallpaper remnants from his room down so we can paint it!

After Christmas

I can't believe that Christmas is already over. Lucky for me I still have a whole week of break left! Christmas was great. Alyssa got her dog when they came in on Sunday, Christmas Eve at Deborah's was a lot of fun, Christmas day was great. It was kind of sad not having Scott at home for Christmas again this year, but the pay off of having him at home next year with William will be so worth it. The house felt empty after everyone left. Scott is also right. I would make a terrible foster mother of anything because there would be no fostering about it. I was really sad to see Holly go home with the Texas Penses. It only made it better because I knew how happy Alyssa was with her. She really thought we were her people, and I think she misses Lola and Sasha. I don't think they miss her. I think they were happy for their life to go back to not having to compete for Mommy's attention. The cats are very relieved because they had to hide out the whole time she was there. I didn't do as much after Christmas shopping this year. Normally I spend some of my Christmas money on some decorations, but we're using all of our Christmas money to pay my car off. It will be nice not having that payment anymore. It's really hard having to have Christmas on a budget, but with having 2 houses this year we just didn't have all the extra money like we did last year. I think it was God's way of keeping us humble and grateful for what we do have. Our renters called us the day after Christmas and said they aren't going to continue their lease after February and they want to use half of their deposit to pay for this months rent and half to pay for February's rent. I told Scott we weren't going to agree to that until we saw what the inside of the house looked like, but I still don't want to agree to all of it. So I guess we're going to have to put our house on the market very soon. Please pray that we can sell our house. I think now could be a good time because the interest rates are really low now, and I think the spring is a good time to buy a house. God provided for us though and found us renters the day we took our house off the market, so I know he will provide for us now. It was a little too much for me to take when they called though, so I definitely broke down a bout it. You just can't tell a really tired, pregnant girl who is having the after Christmas let down and who hadn't gotten any Christmas money yet that you're moving out a couple a months before the baby is due! Anyways, Happy New Year!!!!!!

Last Day!!!!

After 3 snow days this week we are finally at the end. Tuesday and Wednesday I didn't get a whole lot done at home because Scott was home with me. He's been sick since Thanksgiving, and we've had to take him to the doctor lots of times and finally to get an MRI of his liver on Tuesday. He went to see a specialist yesterday and they are really leaning towards mono. Hopefully that's all it is. He's been thinking he's going to die ever since last Friday when they have been telling him all the things it could be. We've been doing lots of praying for him, so I think it's been working.

We went and got Alyssa's dog on Tuesday evening. That night she just came home and slept. She woke up in the morning coughing and spitting up everywhere. Let's just say that our carpets are really dirty after all this! We took her back to the shelter and they gave her an antibiotic for kennel cough and a cough medicine. Kennel cough is like the dog common cold, and any time you board your dog or if they're in a shelter environment they get it unless they have been vaccinated. Hopefully my people don't get kennel cough too. Tuesday morning she ran out the door and Scott and I were both in our pajamas. Luckily she kept slipping on all the ice in our neighborhood. Scott managed to catch her when I had run back to put my shoes on and get her leash. I think perhaps that's how she ended up at the pound in the first place! She's getting along with everyone but the cats. Jerry got himself stuck under the bed trying to get away from her. Nelly gets under there easily because she only weighs 10 pounds, but Jerry weighs 16 pounds so he just can't quite fit! She thinks Scott and I are her people so she follows me around like Sasha does. Sasha doesn't know what to think about sharing me, so while I was in the shower she chewed up my sock and chewed the puffball off of my furry boot slippers. She seems to be doing a little better today. She only coughs when she gets excited or tries to play with my dogs. We discovered that she knows how to sit on command last night. I think she is going to be quite the fabulous dog for Alyssa. I can't wait until she gets to meet her! Happy Friday before freakin Christmas Break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snow Day

I am currently at home enjoying my snow day off from school. I think I would call it more of an ice day. I've made good use of my time off. I washed our king size sheets, duvet and comforter. Let's just say that has taken all day. I wrapped all of my Christmas gifts, read the paper, made some banana bread and I made some peppermint kisses which are in the oven right now. I've never made them before, but there like these little meringue bits that you sprinkle crushed candy canes on top of and bake. I'll let you know hot it turns out. Yesterday Mom and I volunteered at Toys for Tots. It went much smoother than the other year I did it, and it reminded me of how blessed I am. I think I need those reminders sometimes. We found a dog for Alyssa. I will say that my heart is still broken from being at the animal shelter. At least we saved one. I saw a one year old, female smooth coated collie there that I wanted to adopt, but Scott said no. I probably should have just adopted it and brought it home. It would have been too hard for him to make me take it back. We found her black dog with white on it's feet. It's a very unusual looking dog. It's face is pointy like a collies, and I don't know what the rest of her is! The cool thing is that it only cost me $10 to adopt her. She should have been $65, but when I was filling out all the paperwork the guy asked if I worked for the government. I said no, that I worked for a school, and he said that was the government. I would probably beg to differ, but for a $55 discount, I won't. He didn't tell me how much the discount was, he just told me I got one. I was shocked when he said $10. You can't beat that, because she'll be spayed and have all her shots. That's why I tried so hard to convince Scott we should get the other dog too. He seems to think that having 3 dogs, 3 cats, lots of fish and 1 baby would be too much. I don't think so. Oh well. We go pick her up tomorrow. Hopefully she gets along with all my people! I'm making Mom and Dad go with me because the weather is supposed to be bad tomorrow too. Anyways, Happy Monday. It's at least happy for me because I'm still in my red reindeer pajama pants!!

5 more school days this year!!!!

There are officially 5 more school days for this semester. I can't wait for this time next Friday. This week didn't seem to go by as fast and as smooth as last week, but it did go by! I can't wait for Christmas break. I love to be at home with all my little furry people and all of my Christmas decorations. I have lots of baking I want to do. Last night I made some dark chocolate peppermint cookies to take to work and send some with Scott. Last night Mom and I volunteered at Hope for the Holidays. I think it was the smoothest one so far. I don't know if it was because it was our 3rd year to do it or because there weren't as many people. I think being on the balcony level helped. I'm glad Deb gets us good seats, because I felt like I was going to fall to the floor as soon as I walked in the door to peak in. I think we're going to look for another dog for the Texas Penses this weekend. Hopefully we will have better luck this time. Here's to happy dog hunting!

No Power in December (again)

Last night at about 11:40 it started storming at my house like crazy. It was thundering, lightning, hailing, and the wind was blowing like crazy. The first thing I thought when I woke up was that I wasn't going to stand outside for duty if it was raining. Back to the point. All of the sudden our power went out. All I was thinking was about how it was this exact time last year that we lost our power for 4 days during the ice storm. I knew they said it was going to rain and snow, so I just figured it was going on everywhere else too. I got up and sat my alarm on my phone and tried to go back to sleep. It was hard to go back to sleep wondering when we would get our power back on. When my phone alarm did go off I called Mom to see if we were having school, and I think she thought I was crazy. It didn't even rain at her house! The storm was so bad by us that it knocked down power lines, blew fences over, blew all the windows out of a bunch of car dealerships and damaged the school by our house. They cancelled school at the elementary by us. It was not fun getting dressed and putting my makeup on by candlelight. I thought I had on black boots, but discovered when I got to school that they were brown instead. Boo. Scott said we finally got our power back on at about 10:15. Our DVR is fried though. Boo to that too. We're having our PLC meeting after school at my school. I got all of our snacks together last night and then found them in the dark and brought them to school. Then, one of the teachers decided that since the weather might get bad she wanted to cancel it because she wanted to go to something of her sons. She knew about the meeting a month ago, so I was kind of getting mad that she wanted to change it and then everyone else said they guessed it would be okay to change it to next week. I sent an e-mail to our little head art teacher to tell her that I wanted to have it, and a few other things, but that's besides the point. Needless to say, we're having it after school. We have our Christmas party too, so hopefully the weather really won't be bad then. Anyways, happy nasty Tuesday outside and thank God for electricity.

Cats in the tub

This weekend went by in a whirlwind. Friday after school Mom and I went to look at a puppy for the Texas Penses. She's really cute. When I got home I dipped my cake balls and made truffles. Scott took my Oreo balls out of the fridge Thursday night and left them there, so I had to find something else to make! Saturday morning I got up and went to Utica Square to get a few Christmas things for people and then spent pretty much the rest of the day getting ready for the ornament party. Luckily I asked Mom to come over at 5:00 to help, because I started to panic at about 5:30 when we still had the little potatoes to do and the mini pizzas. Moms always save the day. It was a success and the food was great. I got Sasha this red and green jingle bell collar scrunchie looking thing to wear for the party. She didn't appreciate it at first, but then I think she liked it. I only regret not being able to drink my pomegranate martinis. After I finally got everything put away I decided to run some really hot water in the bathtub and put my feet in it. My feet and my back were absolutely killing me. The cats like to walk and sit on the edge of the bathtub when we're in it. They will even sit on the window sill above it. I guess Jerry decided there wasn't any water in the bathtub and he leaned his front feet forward and ended up falling in the bathtub. There's nothing like a yowling cat slinging water everywhere trying to get out of a bathtub. It was a fruitless attempt for him since he doesn't have claws, so luckily mommy saved him and got all wet in the process. All 16 pounds of him looked like a drowned rat. I couldn't stop laughing when I got out of the tub and saw him sitting there licking himself off! Bad mommy. Sunday went by to fast and I wasn't ready for the weekend to be over. But, there are only 9 more days left in the first semester and only 1 more Monday!!!!! Yeah for it almost being Christmas break!

12 mornings to go

There are only 12 more school days to wake up early until Christmas break!!!!!! I have had a great 3 days at school, which I greatly appreciate. My kids have gotten a lot of things accomplished and I have been able to fit a lot of their things into the kiln. I'm trying to get everything finished before they leave for Christmas break so they can take it home. I'm getting excited for my ornament party. Sunday I made the cake part of my cake balls and put them in the freezer. I think I will dip them in their coating on Thursday or Friday. I made my chocolate fudge last night and I made my spinach artichoke dip and put it in the freezer last night too. I need to make my Oreo balls sometime soon. I can't believe how fast this week has gone by. Next week I have a very busy week. Tuesday after school I have my PLC meeting, which I'm hosting. Then we have our school Christmas party right after that. Luckily the place we're having the party at is by my house. Wednesday I have a UCTA meeting, then community group after that. Thursday Mom and I are volunteering at Hope for the Holidays and we have to be down at the PAC at 5:30. I think that will be a day that I leave on my plan and go rest before I go. I don't think I have anything on Friday or Saturday, but then Sunday Mom and I are volunteering for Toys for Tots. That will be 5 hours in itself, so hopefully I can make it! Our last week of school will be after that, so I think we'll just be making fun Christmas stuff. I can't believe how fast Christmas is coming.

Let it Snow

It definitely felt like Christmas time this morning. I couldn't believe how long it was spitting snow outside. I think when it's cold outside it ought to just snow. Thanksgiving was a success, although I didn't eat as much as I intended to. I need some more of Mom's cheese log. I made a pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin trifle, smoked salmon mousse in phyllo cups, and the ham. I didn't do as much shopping on Friday as I normally do. I didn't see as much stuff that I liked, and I'm already almost done buying every one's gifts. I did get my first peppermint mocha this weekend. It was delightful It had peppermint whip cream in it, so it made it even better. The little man has been kicking me a lot lately. He was playing soccer or something on Saturday. Today he hasn't been as active as then, but it's so crazy to be able to feel him. His name is going to be William for all of you that didn't know already. Scott picked the name in honor of Uncle Bill.

There are only 14 more mornings left to wake up in the first semester. Today was a surprisingly good day. Generally the first day back from a long break can be a nightmare, and it was Monday on top of that. My "A" group of kids are great though, and I enjoyed having them today. Luckily I only have my "C" group of kids once this week!!!!! I'm wondering if we're going to make it through this first semester without any snow days.

It's a BOY!

This has been a long week. I've had several breaks at school where I haven't had to teach all my classes, so I've been very appreciative of that. Wednesday was my doctor's appt. First they sent me to the wrong hospital for my appt. and Scott took off work early and drove to St. John's when we really only had to go to Hillcrest, which was a pain. My appointment got over really early and she said she would do an ultrasound next time and tell us what it was. I had told her how they sent us to the wrong place, and I think she could tell we were disappointed, so she said she'd go check on something and be right back. She came back in and said since their ultrasound tech wasn't busy and since they sent us to the wrong place they would make up for it. So, we got an ultrasound and IT'S A BOY!!!!!!! I kind of had a feeling anyways that it was a boy. I had a vivid dream back in July that I was pregnant and it was a boy. They were really cute pictures too. I need to see if my scanner still works and try to post pictures. Scott was a little worried, but a boy is growing on him. His Mom always talked about what a bad kid he was and she said we were going to get one just like him. Personally I think he was probably bored all the time because they worked so much and he was an only child. Plus, I won't let our baby be bad! I think I feel him kicking right now. Supposedly you're not supposed to be able to feel it yet, but I really think that's what it is. I'm almost 15 1/2 weeks, so I don't think I'm making it up. Anyways, I'm really looking forward to the weekend. Happy Friday.

The Decorations Are Up!

I could not control myself this weekend and the entire house looks like Christmas now. I didn't get my upstairs tree up yet, but everything else inside is done. Our ladder wasn't tall enough to get the big lights up on the house though. I put out my inflatables and some of my other yard decorations though. The front yard at our new house is smaller than our old house, so I have 5 deer, 1 inflatable, 1 package of candy canes and 1 package of holographic light up presents that are not out. I think I will just decorate the backyard too. Hey, if you have it you shouldn't waste it! My 5th graders didn't come to art today and neither have my 1st graders. They were all doing other school related things. God knew I needed a break and that I had really thought it was Sunday when I woke up this morning. I've very excited to get this much of a break. I also won't have my 4th graders tomorrow either. I'm not sure about 1st grade. We'll see. I go to the doctor on Wednesday. I'll be 15 weeks this week. My friend told me that her doctor told her what both of hers were at 12 weeks. I'm really hoping she does an ultrasound and we might be able to find out!

I'm in love with this crib on Restoration Hardware's website. I'm not in love with the price unfortunately. It's almost $1,000 and Scott said no. I don't blame him. It's a sleigh bed crib in dark cherry wood. I've been looking on the website of the lady we bought our desk set and dining room set from. I think I found one similar, so I'm really hoping it's cheaper. I e-mailed her today to find out. We're going to do the nursery in blue and chocolate like the bathroom if it's a boy and pink and chocolate if it's a girl. I want to do the chocolate on the bottom and put up a chair rail and have the top be the pink, or blue, in alternating stripes of the different finishes. I can't wait to do it! Or, I guess I should say that I can't wait for Scott to do it. I can only imagine how long it will take to do the taping of the stripes. You wouldn't believe how long it took just to do the guest bathroom. It's all worth it in the end. Pray for me from 1:00-1:50! I'm painting 27 kindergarteners with paint on their hands and arms to make a Thanksgiving place mat. Things could get hairy! I did recruit 4 5th grade girls to come help though!

Christmas Decorations

I am at the moment enjoying an unexpected break from my first grade class. They are practicing in the gym for their Thanksgiving program. I actually really enjoy most of the first graders I would have had today, but I also enjoy a break even more. It will prepare me for the kindergarten class from Hades that is getting ready to descend upon the art room. I decided that I'm going to put my Christmas trees up and that tomorrow before Scott goes to work that we're going to put our outside Christmas lights up. 3 other people in our neighborhood already have their lights up. 2 are right across the street teasing me that there's are already up. The people aren't actually teasing me, it's just the fact that I love my Christmas lights and I want to enjoy them for as long as I can. I think I will put my tree for the study up tonight. I just have to convince Scott to drag in the box for me! I think when he leaves to go to work tomorrow I may just decorate the rest of the house.

100 more minutes left of teaching for me today. I'm very glad that it's Friday!

Too Much To Handle

Today was a good day. Yesterday was the kind of day that I called Scott and lunch and told him I was quitting. I f we had the money, I would have walked out and left at lunch! A lot of the teachers have been gone to a meeting, so they have subs. Kids never act right when there is a sub in their room. On top of all that we got a new kindergarten kid so the class I had yesterday had 27 5 year olds in it. Too much. The counselor asked me to do something that I felt wasn't right, I had a meeting after school, so by the time I got home I was worn out. Then Scott told me I made a mistake on the budget we're creating. It was a huge mistake, so I cried, we went to community group, I came back and cried some more and went to bed. It wasn't even the end of the world, but to me, at the moment and because of everything that went on, it seemed huge and too much to handle. Today has been so much better. All my kids have been good, and tomorrow is Friday. I have a job and I'm alive, so I guess that's all that matters anyways. I am looking forward to 2:40 tomorrow!

Clean Garage!

Scott and I had a very productive weekend. Friday was our date night. We got to go to Olive Garden. You wouldn't think it would be busy already at 5:00, but it was, but luckily for us all the people ahead of us were more than 2, so we got seated right away even they told me a 20 minute wait. We had a great waiter too. We were there for almost 2 hours, which is kind of ridiculous, but it's also nice not to be rushed either. We went to the mall afterwards and looked around, bought a few things at Bath and Body Works and went home. Saturday morning I made homemade blue berry muffins and then we went to Ceramic Cottage to buy glazes for school. I even got some cake stands for me that I'm going to decorate with snowflakes. We ate lunch then spent over 4 hours cleaning out the garage. I only saw one mouse, so it could have been worse. We need to call the garage door people and have them fix something on the door and then I can park in there. We're very proud of ourselves about how clean it is. Every time I go in the garage I'm excited to see how there is nothing in the middle of the floor. Sunday we went to church, went grocery shopping, Scott went to his football game and then we went on a walk. After all that we went to dinner with his parents and then came home to get ready for the week. The week has gone by fast, but I have to admit that when I woke up yesterday morning I didn't know what day ti was and was very disappointed to learn it was indeed only Tuesday. Last night I made homemade macaroni and cheese for the first time. We were both pleased with the results. Scott had never had anything other than boxed macaroni so he ate a ton of it!Thanksgiving plans are under way and I'm excited. It is all I can do to control myself and not decorate for Christmas. I think Scott would kill me! I did find pictures from the last Thanksgiving at my house were I had already decorated for Thanksgiving. I think I will go ahead and put up my 2 small trees because they won't be in the living room. We'll see if I can stop at that! Happy Wednesday.

Friday could not come at a better time!

Can I just say that I would love to have a giant glass of red wine or a margarita, or just a couple of shots of tequila? By this time last year the kindergarten kids had settled down a lot and we were able to get a lot more done. That would not be the case this year. I'm just glad they are my 5th class out of 6. I am very grateful that I have a terrific group of 2nd graders that come in afterwards that can sense that I need them to behave. Today's group offered to clean up my floors ( they were covered in construction paper trash), and cleaned up my paint trays after they got done with their paintings. I think if there were not 25 or 26 in the class we could have a much more productive class. Oh well. 12 school days until Thanksgiving break and only 15 school days after that until Christmas break!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tonight is going to be our date night. We haven't been doing them that much lately because we had a tendency to spend a lot of money. I think we're going to go to Olive Garden for dinner and maybe to the mall afterwards. I have a couple of coupons for free chocolate from Godiva, buy 2 candles get 2 free at Yankee Candle, and some buy some stuff get some free stuff at Bath and Body Works. I may even get a decaf peppermint mocha at Starbucks. I know it's early, but I just need one okay. I found my Calming Christmas CD yesterday and put it in our CD player while I was getting dinner ready and cleaning the kitchen. Scott was curious as to whether we would be listening to Christmas music from now until Christmas or if this would just be a one time incident. Which one do you think it is? It's really not that hard if you know me. Hey, Wal-Mart already has their trees up and their music playing, why can't I? Tomorrow we're cleaning out the garage because there are a few rodents that decided they should take up residence in there and eat the bird food. Granted, our house is built on what used to be their field, but I just can't deal with it. We're also going to get a ton of traps for them. I hate to do it, but I also hate to hear them when I go out in the garage. If I had some more competent cats they could take care of it, but they are all spoiled, fat, declawed house cats, so what can I expect. I'll let you know how the cleaning goes. I have a feeling there will be a lot of screaming coming from me!

Too Tired

I'm too tired today to write much, so here's the short version. The Halloween party went great, exhausting, but great. Someone stole one of the pumpkins off my porch on Saturday, the house is undecorated for Halloween and redecorated for fall. Kids have internal weather monitors that make them be bad right before the weather changes, hence the too tired to write anything today. They wore me out! Gotta go vote after school, then I'm going to come home and not do anything and go to bed early. And, by the way I'm pregnant. Don't know why I waited until now, but I thought I would for the first one. you know, the whole don't tell anyone till after the first trimester thing. Also, everyone who reads my blog already knew anyway! The due date is May 13, and we're super excited. More on all that later. Gotta try to stay awake until I get to leave in 30 minutes!

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween is finally here! Almost everything is ready for the party. I've basically spent the last 5 days getting things prepared. I even sent Scott off to work this morning with his traditional holiday tray of goodies for his work. It had cupcakes, cookies and molded candy melts. I think all the work is catching up with me though because yesterday on the way to work I got a little light headed, but I forgot about it by the time I got to school. Last night I was finishing icing my cupcakes and was putting the icing back in the fridge and got really light headed for a while. Scott wouldn't let me do much after that, and I'm very sad to inform you that for the first year, I did not get to carve me pumpkin. Scott even picked out some ones with great stems. He sad maybe we can do it after Halloween, but I'm not sure what the point in that is. But, the truffles are finished, 4 dozen cupcakes have been iced and decorated, 4 dozen sugar cookies have been iced, my weird jello creations are done, and my chili is thawing out. When I get home I'm going to make my caramel apples, spaghetti for the chili, spiced cider and my tortilla roll ups. I really can't wait!!!! Happy Friday Halloween!!!

Party Preparation

The preparation for the Hughes annual Halloween Party has begun. Sunday night I made sugar cookie dough and Halloween candy melts. Last night I baked all the sugar cookies. There are sugar cookies coming out the wazoo all over the kitchen. Tonight I'm going to ice them and make my Halloween truffles. Tomorrow night I will be out of commission because we have community group. I need to make some cupcakes to send to work with Scott, so I may make those tonight too. Thursday night we're going to carve our pumpkins, so I'm trying to sort all my baking around that. I still need to make my Halloween black cat cake too. Basically, I have a lot to do and only a few days left! Scott has to work until 11:00 tonight so that gives me plenty of time to make good use of. Lucky for me my chili is already made and frozen. It should be a pretty kick ass party!! I can't wait.

Feeling better

Okay, so I tried to post yesterday but it was offline for maintenance. Hey, at least I tried. So I've had a sinus infection, but I finally don't feel like someone took a brick and beat me in the left side of the face. Is till have a little bit of a cough, but I'll take that over the other. Unfortunately I think I gave it to Scott! I'm having a little crafting party for the community group girls tomorrow evening. We're going to make jewelry and wreaths. So since I've been sick I get to go home and frantically clean house all night and then get food together tomorrow. The dogs were so protective when I was sick. Sasha is a cling on anyways, but this was ridiculous. I took a shower and she slept so close to the shower door I could hardly get it open to get my towel. Lola followed me everywhere too. It's nice to know I'm loved! Even Nelly came and slept on my lap for a while. School has been non-stop this week since I got back. It's hard to catch up from missing 2 days of work. I am very thankful that it is Friday because I'm really tired. I tried to take it easy for a week, so to go from taking it easy one day to non-stop the next is trying. I'm going to sleep in tomorrow. I'll have to tell you later about my hair disaster. Happy weekend!

Home Sick

Okay, I know it's been a while. Mom informed me this morning I needed to write on my blog. I have basically been sick for a week. The weekend before fall break I felt like my allergies were acting up. I didn't really think anything about it and took some allergy medicine Scott said I could have. Monday after school my voice started to sound funny and by Tuesday morning I had no voice at all. It's very interesting teaching all day and having no voice. I had the school nurse look at my throat to make sure it wasn't strep. She said no, it was laryngitis and I shouldn't talk all day. Not even whisper. I did whisper though. I can't communicate with 6 classrooms full of kids and not whisper. We watched an art movie all day. My first graders were so cute. When I had to whisper to them they would only whisper back! They didn't talk in their normal voices and they put their stickers all over me to make me feel better. Wednesday morning I had most of my voice back and a cough. Mom and I went ahead and went to OKC to visit Deb. We had fun, and I'm glad we went. Thursday I tried to take it easy, Friday I went to the craft fair, and Saturday I stayed home all day and felt miserable. Yesterday I felt miserable, but I went ahead and went out to eat with Scott and his parents. Luckily we only went like 5 minutes away from our house. I didn't have a lot of fun because I coughed the whole time. I decided I should stay home today and go see the doctor. Scott stayed home with me to take care of me. What a nice husband! I couldn't get an appointment until 3:30, so now I'm just waiting. My head is pounding. I think I just have a really bad sinus infection. We'll see. I won't even go into what I had to go through with my insurance this morning. That's for another post! Hopefully I can get some antibiotics and feel better!!!

The Zoo in My Room

Okay, so I've been procrastinating about writing on my blog. It's so hard at the end of the day. I took yesterday off with Mom and we went to the zoo and walking around Utica Square. I loved being off work. We went to Macaroni Grill for dinner and had a completely crazy waitress, but whatever. School today was a lot of work. It seems like all my kids were bad, which is unbelievably frustrating. My ears are all red from it! I had all kinds of talking back, running around the room, bullying, racial comments, you think of it, it probably happened. I'm ready for fall break. I think I'm going to go work at the zoo or be a Bobbi Brown makeup girl.

My front yard looks fabulous with all my orange lights in the bushes and my black cat stuff. I just really need an inflatable!!!! I made my apple crisp and Scott even helped me peel the apples. It didn't occur to me that I had a vegetable peeler that I could have used instead of peeling 5 pounds of apples by hand with a knife, but you can't miss out on quality time with your husband. We were both standing there and I said isn't this fun, and he said no, but I still think it was nice he offered to do it on his own! It even tasted good. Next time I'm going to make a peach or plum crisp. I'm really in the mood to start baking goodies.

Friday!

I figured I should write on my blog before the weekend. For some reason when I have my plan at the end of the day I don't get as much done as when it was in the beginning. I think it's because kindergarten wears me out! We had conferences last night and will have them again on Monday. Monday is a bad day to make your teachers stay 3 extra hours because then you're tired for the rest of the week. I'm taking Tuesday off though, so I guess I don't care. I always take off on Mom's birthday and we always go to the zoo. I haven't been in a while, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow and my hot stone massage. I can't wait for my massage! Tomorrow is TU homecoming, so we'll be up there for a lot of the evening and then Sunday is Dad's birthday. It's going to be a very full weekend. There are only 7 more days until fall break. 6 for me since I'm taking off. I can't believe we will already be done with a nine weeks. It goes by so fast. I love it. I'm doing clay with my 3-5 grade kids and I love it. My first 3 hours of the morning go by unbelievably quick. I never argue with that. I'm going to decorate my front yard for Halloween when I get home today! I think I need an inflatable. I'm sure Scott doesn't think so though. Happy Friday!

Last Day of September

So, by now I've been to the fair twice and eaten too much food. Actually, I haven't eaten as much as I normally do, but it seemed like it. I took my camera to take a picture of me eating my pretzel, but I didn't remember until after I ate it that I was going to take a picture. Once again the weekend flew by to quickly, and here it is Tuesday is already over and we're already going to Wednesday. I don't have a problem with time going quickly, it just seems like sometimes it goes quicker than others. I did clay today with my 3-5 graders, so the first 3 hours of my day were a whirlwind. Then I had first grade, took the kindergartners to an assembly (yeah), then had 2nd grade. Of course, they would be the worst class of the day. I think it's because we painted and they just came from an assembly, but I can tell you they won't be painting again for a while. Last night Scott and I had a date night and went to El Guapo with our coupon. We sat on the roof and had a good time. I'm making Mexican for dinner again tonight because we bought some avocados and if I don't use them tonight I won't have another chance until Friday and they'll be bad by then. I'm going to make some fresh salsa and guacamole. I think I may even make some chocolate chip cookies too. I've really been in the mood to bake lately. I think it's because I haven't decorated a cake or baked any kind of goodies since Alyssa's birthday. Bad me, I'm falling behind. Hopefully I don't get tired. Last night I was ready to go to bed at 7:30, but made myself stay up until 9:00. I probably needed the extra sleep, but I just didn't want to give up my night and have to start all over the next day. Happy October tomorrow.

Finally

Thursday (at school) has finally ended. That means at 3:40 I'm getting to get the hell out of here, going home, changing purses, going to get Mom and Dad and GOING TO THE FAIR!!! Finally it's here. I don't think my body will appreciate me for going to the fair, but oh well. My joints hurt and all I'm going to do is walk around on them and eat too many carbs, but the fair only comes once a year. Plus, all that walking has to burn a few calories right? The elusive pretzel with mustard will be first on my to do list, then I don't care what we go look at. I will not be satisfied though until I find it and am eating it. I seem to recall going to the OKC fair and looking for one the entire time and then pouting the whole rest of the time we were there because they don't have pretzels. Boo to them. They did have these cool mini gallons of iced tea you could buy though. That was a long time ago. You can't beat our fair. I don't care what anyone says. I'm a fair junkie. I tried and tried to convince Scott to let me get a rabbit, but he was relentless. I guess Jerry can substitute for one. I think I need a cheese on a stick too. And some of that nitrogen made ice cream. I'll have to think about what else. We'll see what smells good. I love the way the fair smells. I like the fried food smell, and the way the saw dust in the animal areas smell. It reminds me of when I used to show my rabbits. One day I will have rabbits again and I'm going to show them at the fair and have an entire row. They have a new building for the rabbits now to. I used to want to be one of those people that spent the night in the rabbit building in a chair watching over their rabbits so no one stole them. Needless to say, Mom and Dad never did let me do that. I got really close to my entire row the last year I showed. I remember it was my sophomore year in college. I was so close. I think the next 39 minutes are going to drag by. I should leave early.

Fair

The fair starts tomorrow and I can't wait. We're all going after school, and the first thing I'm going to do is get a pretzel. They better have them. I want to go again this weekend to see all the cakes and then I want to go again next weekend because the rabbits will be there. My weekends are already getting full. This Saturday evening I have bunco. I've never played, but I'm going to be a good sport and go with the church girls. Sunday afternoon we have to go to Scott's parents and have a birthday party for his grandpa. I'm sure she hasn't even invited them yet. I'm kind of mad at Scott's Mom, but I can't tell you why. Next Saturday I'm getting my hot stone massage that Scott got me for Valentine's Day and getting my haircut. It is also TU Homecoming, so we'll be busy doing that. Next Sunday is Dad's birthday, and I think we'll be going to the fair and having a party. I'm not free until Oct. 11th. We need to clean out the garage so we can park in there and reorganize the pantry. Too much to do, to little time!

Home sick

I'm at home sick today. I actually should have just stayed home yesterday because I felt much worse then. Today I'm just exhausted from being sick. Apparently there's a stomach virus going around and I was lucky enough to catch it. Boo. Scott's taking good care of me though, so don't worry. We do have the ballet tonight and I really want to go, so hopefully I still feel good tonight. Eating bland food sucks. I never really realized how spicy I eat my food. Until now, when I can't have anything spicy. My pet following has been kind enough to follow me around to whatever room in the house I happen to be in and sleep there until I move. What sweet babies. I don't like being sick because I always have way to much to do or need to do. I think I'll just enjoy my unexpected time off and go take a nap. Happy Friday.

The rat

Lucky for me, the school week is flying by. There are only 2 more days left!! I was not very excited to be at school yesterday because I was tired, but I went to bed early last night and today is better. I have yoga after school today and community group. Hopefully everyone likes the chili! There is a rat that has decided that he likes our house. It all started when I moved the dog house that the people who had our house before left. It was hiding behind it and I screamed and got Scott and he proceeded to chase it all over the yard and it escaped. Monday night I went in the garage to throw something away and I heard something moving. If I was at Mom and Dad's house I would think it was a cat, but my neighborhood doesn't have a plethora of stray cats. Once again I yelled for Scott to come see what it was. Turns our the rat found its way into our garage. I think he was after my bird food. My problem is that I don't want to kill it, but I don't want it in the house either. Scott said he either moves in with us or we buy a trap. I guess we will have to buy a trap. My cats are kind of dumb, and I know if he came in the house they would play with him and let him escape. I definitely don't want him in the house. The ironic thing is that I bought these Martha Stewart rat cut outs from her Halloween collection and decorated the base boards with them. I guess he decided he was welcome after that!

Fall

It has been around 51 degrees in the morning, so I'm saying it's fall. I don't care if it gets up to the high 70's and into the 80's, if it starts out being cold it is fall. I decorated for Halloween this weekend. I was really trying to hold off until next weekend, but I just couldn't take it any more. We got Lola a new bee costume at Target on Sunday after church, so she wore it and helped me decorate. Sasha also decided to be festive and wear her lady bug costume and Princess even joined in and wore Lola's puppy bee costume. I found my cat stuff, so I had on my neck bow tie, ears and tail. We all had to dress for the occasion. I don't know if they appreciated it or not, but I did and that's all that matters. I didn't decorate outside yet, which I think was a relief to Scott. I might do that this weekend when he's at work. We'll see. I got a fever blister last Sunday and it had finally gone away and I discovered I'm getting another one today. Boo. The fair starts next Thursday, and I can't wait. This morning it felt like fair weather since it was so chilly out. We're bringing chili for dinner tomorrow night for community group, so when I get home from work I get to cook 8 pounds of ground turkey. I'm going to have to simmer it all day because I won't get home until after yoga and that won't be time to make it. I bet the house will smell good when I get home though. Anyways, happy Tuesday.

Chili

I've decided that it is fall at the Hughes house. I decided a couple of weeks ago actually, when I went ahead and decorated. It is officially fall because I made chili last night for dinner. I decided that since it was supposed to be a chilly, rainy day that I would make some chili. Mom and Dad came over for it and then we had root bear floats for dessert. It was nice. I never seem to make enough chili though. There was some leftover, just not a lot. I think I may go ahead and decorate for Halloween soon, because I just can't resist the temptation any longer!! Pottery Barn has some awesome Halloween decorations, and unfortunately I like ALL of them. Conveniently they sent me a 10% off coupon yesterday. I really love all of Martha Stewart's decorations that they sell at Michael's. Lucky for me they always have coupons, so I've been collecting Halloween decorations for like the past month. I still haven't decided what I want to be yet. I am very glad though that it is on a Friday this year.

I have another meeting after school today, and I wish I didn't. It has been raining all day, and I'm ready to go home. I had a meeting on Monday to. 2 in one week is 1 to many. I did wear my cool silver rain coat to work though, so at least I'm in style. I also get paid $40 to go to my meeting today, so I guess it's worth it. I'm using the money from those meetings to pay for a Coach purse and wallet I bought on sale last month. Naughty Beth! It's a cool purse though. I almost have one for every month of the year!!

Back into the swing of things

Last week was a busy week. We entertained the Texas Pense's and had Alyssa a birthday party, went to a wine and cheese party and Jen's and enjoyed being off. Of course it is never for long enough. It seems like school is just back into full swing and going by fast. I definitely don't mind that though. I've been planning my Halloween party. I know it's early to start, but that's why my parties are usually fabulous because I'm crazy and plan them for months in advance. The only problem is that I haven't decided what I want to be yet. I painted the entertainment center my uncle gave us and we're going to move it into the living room today. I think it will help make it look a lot nicer. I really want to get new window treatments for the living room and kitchen. The ones we have are kind of a country style and I'm really not into that. Patience. I have a meeting after school today and one after school on Wednesday. I hate it when I have more than one meeting a week because it just makes the week go by slower and it's less time at home. Anyways, happy Monday.

About Me

Me, A-Z



A: Attached or Single? Married.

B. Best Friend? Scott and all the rest of my close family.

C: Cake or pie? Cake. Hello, I love to decorate them and eat them.

D: Day of choice? Saturday.

E: Essential Item? Chapstick or lipgloss

F: Favorite color? Mainly purple, but I like pink, red, black and the new brilliant blue in style this season.

G: Gummy bears or worms? It depends. I like gummy bears and sour, sugar coated worms.

H: Hometown? Tulsa.

I: Favorite indulgence? Anything Coach, Starbuck's, Godiva Chocolate, The Melting Pot

J: January or July? July. There's nothing good about January. Plus, my birthday is in July.

K: Kids? Hopefully soon.

L: Life isn't complete without? Animals and God. Plus my family.

M: Marriage date? May 21, 2005

N: Number of brothers and sisters? One big brother and one big sis and one little sis.

O: Oranges or apples? Apples

P: Phobias? Lake water or any other water besides the pool that I can't see the bottom of. I do tend to shriek at rodents and the frog's that inhabit the area around our new house. I'm getting over the squirrels.

Q: Quotes "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free." John 8:32
" I have the best idea" Me. And all my other quotes on facebook.

R: Reasons to Smile? My happy Sasha dog in the morning.

S: Season of choice? Fall, in fact I have already decorated for it. I don't know though, because I like all the seasons because I have fabulous decorations for them.

T: Tag 4 People: Richard, don't know who else because everyone else has already done it.

U: Unknown fact? I'm pretty much an open book, so I don't know if there is an unknown fact about me.

V: Vegetable? Lettuce. I love salad. I could eat one every day.

W: Worst habit? Apprently I sigh very heavily or so I've been told.

X: X-ray or Ultrasound? Never had an Ultrasound so I guess I'll go with X-ray

Y: Your favorite food? Mexican, Italian, dark chocolate and Melting Pot food.

Z: Zodiac Sign? Cancer, but I don't believe in any of that.

Hump Day

Apparently having my plan at the end of the day leaves me to busy sometimes to post! School has been really busy. Friday my kindergarten kids were out of control. Luckily they haven't been this week, but lets just say Friday ended with a bloody lip and two loose teeth in my art room. This could be expected from PE maybe, but not art. I'll be glad when our behavior coach is back! Once again the weekend went by to quickly, but now we're already halfway through the week. We don't have school on Friday, but we still have to go to meetings. WE don't have anything on Monday so I plan on enjoying my first 3 day weekend of the school year. Scott is off this weekend but he has to work Monday. Yeah for overtime. We will be making both house payments this week, so we're not really looking forward to that. Good news though. The people still want to rent our house and I e-mailed them a copy of our house lease for them to look at, so hopefully they will be moving in soon and we won't have to make double payments in October. The fair is coming at the end of September, and I want to have money for the fair! Scott has to go mow the yard at our old house because it hasn't been done in over 2 weeks. We still have stuff in the garage, but I assigned him the job of removing it today. (It's his day off) He resents having to do house work on his day off, but I remind him all the time that if he would just do stuff during the week he wouldn't have to do it on his day off and get all mad about it! In fact, I will be calling him after my duty to make sure he gets his butt out of bed and gets over there. Scott is a notorious procrastinator, which drives me insane. I guess opposites really do attract. Happy Wednesday.

6 days of school

It seems like school has been back in session for longer than 6 days. The first few days were unbelievably easy, but today was a little harder. I have realized though that things that bothered me last year don't really this year. I told Scott I must be depressed or something but in reality I think I'm just getting used to things. Tonight is Summer's Fifth Night and I'm going to go, get some Olive Garden to go and drink some wine. Last night I went to yoga and then pretty much cooked all night, so I'm not cooking at all tonight. I do have to decorate what I baked last night, but it should be pretty easy. I'm really glad tomorrow is Friday!!

No Eggs

My week is already half way over. How exciting is that. Driving home yesterday I was in amazement of how much I was actually enjoying teaching this year. I hope the feeling last all year! So back in January I stopped taking my birth control pills because Scott and I were ready to take that next step. Apparently that next step isn't quite ready for us. At the end of July I went to the doctor for my yearly visit and I told her that I had been taking those at home ovulation predictor tests and they never showed I ovulated. She said she would be surprised if I wasn't ovulating, but going against what she thought, she sent me to have a blood test to see if I was. So, last Tuesday I went and since I'm directionally challenged and never know where I'm going, Scott met me in the parking lot to take me. I was also worried that I would pass out or throw up because I'm a very big baby about having my blood drawn. I had it done and before I even got back to school my arm was bruised. It ended up being a pretty big bruise down my arm, which is surprising because it didn't hurt that bad. In fact, some of it is still there. Monday I called to get the results because they had never called me, and turns our I'm not ovulating. They referred us to the fertility clinic. I was feeling so frustrated about, but I think I'm dealing with it better now. They said they would probably just prescribe me something to take to ovulate. I'm hoping it's just that, but then you start to wonder a little bit. I'm having to deal with the fact that no, we won't have a baby when I want, but we'll have a baby when God wants. So for now I guess I'm just having to be patient. If you know me you know just how patient I am. Pray for my patience.

House for Rent

The first weekend of the school year went by in a flash. I was glad Scott had it off with me. We kicked it off by going to the gun range. Ammo has gone up a lot which is not good because I can never shoot just one box. Then we went to Starbucks and the mall to look around. I have a thing now for clothes from Express. I love all the jewelled tones in their fabric. I had a coupon to use, so I couldn't waste it. Saturday morning I went to the farmers market with Mom, and Scott went to football practice with the boys. We just hung out for most of the day and then went out that evening. We had an interesting Saturday though. We haven't been happy with the way things have been going with the selling of our house and I wasn't sure what to do about it. We were thinking about taking it off the market and selling it on our own or renting it. We were leaning more on renting though. I talked with Mom that morning and she said to pray about it. I told her I had but God hadn't told me anything. In the afternoon I decided to call Dad and get his opinion and while I was on the phone with him our realtor called. I took that as my sign. I told her we wanted to take it off the market and do things on our own instead. It was a tricky situation since we are friends with them from our church group. She was fine with it, and so I decided to look on Craig's list for people wanting to rent. About an hour later our realtor called and said someone had called her wanting to know if we would rent our house to them for a year. I called the lady back and we went to meet them and show them the house. She said they were wanting to stay in the area and she had driven through our neighborhood before but never come down the street our house was on. They like the house and we really liked them. They called us last night and said they want to move forward with renting it. It was just amazing how God took care of the whole situation. I had complete faith that somehow he would provide for us, but Scott was doubting. The pressure of 2 impending mortgage payments was getting to him. Our church is doing a Next Step giving thing to help pay for the new sanctuary and we had been faithful in giving every week for the past 6 weeks and I knew he would provide for us. They are going to be a great family and they are Christians which makes it even better. Even she said it was a God thing that she came down that street. We hadn't even put out a for rent sign. We haven't signed anything yet with them, but I think they want to move in soon and she said they were looking for a year lease. I don't know if you can ask for better than that.

Friday already

So I already made it through the first week of school. I know we only taught 2 days, but it's still the first week and it's over already. Today was pretty smooth. I had a 5th grader who was just as mouthy today as he was last year, so art wasn't as pleasant for him as it could have been. My kindergarten class had some crazy kids in it, but hopefully they'll be better next time. Let me just say one word. Prizes. Scott and I are going to the gun range after school. We haven't been since May, so I'm very excited to go. I love shooting my gun. Scary huh? I made some jello the other day and instead of using the plain 2 cups of cold water I added 2 cups of club soda, and I'm addicted to it. So now I keep scarfing down sparkling jello. At least I used the sugar free kind. Scott has this weekend off, so hopefully it won't rain the whole weekend and I can plant my trees. I have a feeling that next week will be a long week because it will be the first full week of school. That's alright because I'm just glad it's Friday already. Happy weekend.

First Day of School

Well, I just successfully completed the first day of school. Surprisingly, I had a fabulous day. Our schedule is different this year and my plan is at the end of the day. I really like that. My duty is in the morning, every day, but what can you do? It was fun watching all the kids come to school today and getting dropped off. It made me excited to think about Scott and I having kids and taking them to school. We don't have any break in between our classes, so it makes it chaotic, but I'm going to be more laid back this year. I hope school goes just as well tomorrow. I did my room in a jungle/ rain forest theme. My bulletin board is black with leopard trim and I had different animal print letters that I used. I bought some leopard print fabric that Mom is going to make in to curtains for my huge window. I put pictures of jungle animals up everywhere. It looks really cute. In honor of my theme I wore my new zebra print skirt from express. It is really high waisted, and my hot pink shirt with it tucked in. I don't normally dress this nice for school, but I figured what the hell? I'm going to dress cuter this year. I made some back to school jewelry and I wore my long black necklace with it. I will have to say that it was a pretty fierce outfit. Tonight is Summer's Fifth Night, so I'm looking forward to that.

I haven't felt much like blogging this week. I think I was having a hard time getting back in the swing of things. But, now that my plan is in the afternoon I will just do it then. We are thinking about renting our other house out so we're not just waisting money every month. I have other things to use that money on. Our realtors don't want us to do it because they say someone will just tear it up, but all they want us to do is keep lowering the price. They want us to lower it so much that we would have to end up paying like $7,000 to sell it. I'm just not going to do that. I think if we rent it for at least 2 years we can build up some equity in it which will help us. We'll just have to realize that it won't look perfect when we get done. I will have a hard time with it, but I don't know what else to do. We're definitely praying about it. I went by the old house after school yesterday. It's so weird being there, because I still feel like we should live there. It felt very right driving there after school. I'm just such a creature of habit that I'm having trouble adjusting. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love our new house and I know it was what we were supposed to do, I think it will just take a while. It took a while for Scott and I to be at our old house before it felt like home too. We would get bored and just go over to Mom and Dad's because we didn't know what else to do. I think in a few more weeks it will be easier. I can't wait to have my Halloween party there. I already have so many plans, but this is just August still. Scott did let me buy 3 trees yesterday, so we're making progress. I have painted 3 rooms and now have 3 trees. How exciting!

Back to School

Okay, I know it's been a while. I've been a very busy girl. The house is unpacked and decorated. I painted the bathroom. study and dining room. We're picking up our desk and dining room furniture set tomorrow, so that will make us almost done. There are still a few things in the garage at the other house, but it's been too hot out to mess with it. Besides, who looks in the garage? We're having the house cleaned tomorrow and mowed on Saturday because we're having an open house on Sunday. The more Scott and I have been thinking about it, the more we are moving towards renting it out if we can't find someone to buy it soon. We would definitely go through an agency to do it though. I got to do a little back to school clothes shopping this weekend, and now I have been making back to school jewelry to match. I think I would be really bored if I didn't come up with these things to do. Last night Scoot and I had a date night. First, we went to Abuelo's and had completely lack lustre service and then went to a movie. We saw The Dark Night. It was really good, and ironically, we haven't gone to the movie theater since the previous Batman came out 2 years ago. We need to do better! I decided to be domestic and I just got through making some cream cheese brownies from a recipe in the paper. I will say that my chocolate buttercream icing I made to go with them was fabulous. We finally got some rain today, which was very needed. There's nothing like free water for the yard! 3 more days until I have to go back to work.

Unpacking

Well, a lot has gone on this past week. Last Thursday we closed on our house. That went smoothly, but before our appointment I decided to go to Utica Square and look around and I was in the Coach store and realized I had lost my wedding ring. Just great. Don't worry, Scott eventually found it in the last box. Apparently it had come off while I was packing and it was at the bottom of the box in the peanuts. I think I'm going to get it taken down a half size. Friday the movers came and moved all the big stuff, and every day since then I have spent the mornings unpacking and then in the evening after it is cooler we go over to our old house and bring home more stuff and we start over again. What a vicious cycle. It works out for me, because if everything was in our new house all at once I would get overwhelmed and not get anything done. I think there are only 6 or 7 things left inside the house that wouldn't fit in our cars last night. I have the new house 95% unpacked. The other day I spent 14 hours unpacking. We have a neighborhood pool and every morning Mom has been coming over and we have been swimming laps during the adult swim time from 9:00-10:00. That's my break time. I've been getting up around 6:30 and going full speed. I have planted a new flower bed in the front yard and I even started painting the guest bathroom today. I'm on a roll. I even got up early yesterday morning and mowed the front yard for Scott. I have never mowed before, but it has been so hot out by the time he gets home from work I feel bad that he has to do it. I had it all planned out. I watched how he started the mower last time, and as soon as he left for work yesterday I went out there. I was thinking it was hard to push until I realized I wasn't holding the drive bar. Once I held that down it was easy. Normally Scott mows in a diagonal, but I figured since it was my first time I would just do it straight. It actually turned out straight too. Unfortunately it ran our of gas as soon as I got to the back gate. The gas can was still at out old house, but the front yard looks nice. Scott was surprised. I was done with that by 7:00 in the morning. Pretty impressive huh? Well, I think I have taken a long enough break and I'm going to go hang some pictures up. I know how to use Scott's drill now, so I'm unstoppable.

I'm buying a house today

Today is the big day. It's really not that exciting when you think about how many papers you have to sign and how long it takes. We made 6 trips to the house yesterday taking a bunch of boxes and small things over. The movers come tomorrow and since we pay by the hour I think we'll just have them get the big stuff. I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever be done packing and get all of our stuff over there. Yesterday was a little stressful. My cousin came over to clean the new house before we move in and the water was not turned on like it was supposed to be. Turns our the previous owners still owed over $160 for their bill and they weren't going to turn it on until it got paid. I had to make a lot of calls, but eventually the realtor went and paid it and it got turned on. The bad thing is that the thermostat downstairs is broken and it's hot downstairs. We're going to Lowe's after we close and getting things for the house that we need since they have 0 payments 0% interest for a year. I hope tomorrow goes smoothly. It's going to be a lot of work. Hopefully by the end of this weekend we will have everything moved out of our house. The packing awaits me. Boo.

I'm Never Moving Again

All I do now is pack. I've packed so much there isn't anywhere else to put the boxes. I have pictures of all the things I've been doing. First, I'll show you the flower beds at my new house before I got a hold of them and then after. Okay, never mind. I forgot that our ghetto, slow computer closes the page after I add them, thus losing them. I'll have to do it from Mom's computer. Basically, we've packed so much that there is no where is to put the boxes, so we're at a stand still. We went to the house today and the realtor said we could move some stuff in early, so we're going to. My cousin's wife is coming over to clean it tomorrow and after she's done we're going to move some things in. Actually we'll move a lot of things in so the movers won't be here as long as they could be. Scott has to work tonight so Dad and I went to Rib Crib for dinner. Turns out it is all you can eat rib night. Definitely not what I needed, but oh well. We went to Starbucks for an after dinner coffee. Dad definitely misses Mom. I hope she's having fun in Mexico with Mema! It got me to thinking about what life would be like without Mom. I don't know if everyone is this close to their Mom or I just have an unhealthy relationship! I talk to her several times throughout the day, we work out together, we pretty much do everything together. She's the only person that e-mails me all through the day at work. It made me sad to think about what life would be like without her. Some of my friends have already had a parent die, and I just couldn't imagine what it would be like. It makes me appreciate that we are so close. I think I've been very sentimental lately because we're moving. I love our little house, and it's special because Scott and I built it together. I thought we would live here a little longer than the almost 2 years, but what can you do? Every time we go over to the new house I know we're doing the right thing. I'm so excited. It has so much potential, and I can't wait to decorate it for the holidays. I guess I'm crazy, but I've already been thinking about things for my ornament party. I loved it last year, so it's just going to be a yearly tradition. Hopefully there won't be an ice storm this year and more people can come! I'm watching the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It makes me think about how Mom, Dad, and Louie were all pirates for Halloween last year. Then it makes me think about how I can't wait to have my Halloween party this year and how I don't know what I want to be yet. Do you see the way my mind works? This is why I have so much stuff!!

Packing

Packing has officially begun at the Hughes house hold. Did I mention that I hate packing? We bought some boxes at U-Haul, and then Scott has brought a ton home from work. I would rather buy things for the house than buy boxes. I've gotten a lot packed because my Internet hasn't worked for 4 days. It's amazing how much it distracts me! Through all this packing I have been wondering why I felt it necessary to decorate for every holiday that exists. We're not talking just normal decorating. We're talking over the top even the guest bathroom goes from seashells to Christmas kind of decorating. I have been excited about putting all of them out in our new house though. I guess I love my decorations I just don't like packing them up and having to think about unpacking them and reorganizing. I'm wishing that I didn't have the way of thinking that if 1 is good, then like 3 or 4 are even better. I was packing up drawers in the kitchen and realized that I had 4 aprons. I told Scott and he said if all of our things didn't fit in the boxes he had already brought home that we had to get rid of it. I told him to quit being mean to me and bring some more boxes home tomorrow! He did. We're having a baby shower tomorrow for one of the girls in our CG. I volunteered to make the cake because I have been wanting to do a present cake for a long time. I made my own fondant this time and it was a mistake. It is the ugliest cake I have ever decorated, but I'm stuck with having to bring it. I had a lot of trouble with my chocolate fondant. It was too stretchy and it ripped after I put it on. I had to patch it up with more fondant and it looks so tacky. Oh well, what can you do. A girl came and looked at our house on Wednesday and our realtor said she wants to buy it but the only thing is the price. The problem is that behind our house the model home of our house is for sale and it is $15,000 cheaper. It is several years older and doesn't have all the fancy things we've added. We told our realtor what we could come down to and we will have to pay between$4,000 and $5,000 but that's money we would have had to pay for a mortgage payment if we didn't sell it. Pray that everything works out the way it's supposed to. These are kind of stressful times right now but our sermon last Sunday was on trust, and I completely trust God that everything will work out. We're hoping July might be the month we buy a house, sell a house and get pregnant. Our fingers are crossed!

Happy Birthday to Me!

I am officially 27 today. It seems kind of old, but what can you do? I've been really busy lately. We've done a lot of yard work at the new house. I spent 2 hours completely gutting the front flower beds because they were so over run with weeds. On the way home from that I found a dog. These kind of things usually get me into trouble, but I can't just leave them out wandering in the street. This was a massive golden retriever. He was in the same spot that I found Nelly exactly a year ago. I took it as a sign. I pulled over out of the street this time and called it over and he came and jumped right in. He had on a choke chain but no tags. He spent the day hanging out with me and I was determined that if we couldn't find his owners that we were going to keep him no matter how many times Scott had already said no. We went out to put up the signs I made in the neighborhood I thought he might have come from and found posters out for him. I have a high success rate of returning lost furry creatures to their homes. The Fourth was really mellow on our end because no other siblings were there to celebrate. We had a cookout at our house, took everyone by to see our new house on the way to Mema's and then shot off fireworks at Mema's house. Saturday morning we got up really early and went and spent 4 hours chopping down the 6 foot tall weeds and knee length grass that covered the ENTIRE backyard of the new house. It was a ton of work, but it feels really good knowing that you did something like that yourself.

This morning for my birthday Mom and I went to Mimi's for breakfast. After breakfast we went to Hobby Lobby and I got some decorations for our new house. After Hobby Lobby we went to the mall and I got some more decorations at Kirklands. I also found some really cute pink cargo pants at J. Crew that were on sale. The best thing about them is they are a size smaller than I thought I would have to get! Now I'm at home killing time before we go to dinner. We're all going to go to Olive Garden tonight. I love Olive Garden! I'm like Kendra on The Girls Next Door about Olive Garden! I'm making a baby shower cake this week and I actually made my own fondant for it last night. I'm excited about making it because I'm going to make it look like a present. I'll post pictures after I get done. We're going to go by boxes tomorrow and start packing since the moving people will be here to move us in 10 days. Like I said, I'm busy, busy, busy.

Happy Fourth of July!

It has been too long since I have posted anything. Vacation was fabulous. I think we need to move to the beach! I loved walking along the sea shore. We saw dolphins while we were out swimming, I found a whole sand dollar, we saw tons of jellyfish, sting rays, and I caught a huge puffer fish! I could have spent a lot longer than a week there. Scott got a ticket on the way home, which sucked. We were in some hick Louisiana town and he had the cruise control set on 75. Granted, it was a 70 zone, but the guy actually pulled him over and wrote him a ticket for it. He was captain whoever, so as soon as he said that I knew he was getting a ticket. He wrote it down as 77, but Scott didn't want to argue with him because we had our guns in the car. You always have to travel with guns on vacation. Really. You never know what might happen. The price wasn't even on it so we had to call Monday morning and find out. Oh, don't worry, it was only $165. Boo. WE found out that the bank accepted our offer on the house while we were there. We got it inspected on Tuesday and we close in less than 2 weeks. Pretty crazy. I went and spent 2 hours working on the front flower beds on Wednesday. I'll post before and after pictures. They are pretty amazing. I will say that while I was on vacation we went to the outlet mall, and I died and went to Coach heaven. I got a $218 wallet for $49.99 and a $298 purse for $149.99. Pretty unbelievable. I could get in some major trouble if I lived close to a Coach outlet. I have decided that next time I'm going to go and buy some stuff and sell it on e-bay because I've seen a lot of things they had on sale on e-bay. Anyways, I have some fireworks to go set off!

Going on Vacation

Tomorrow is the big day. I've spent the last couple of days getting ready for our trip. The bad thing about having your house on the market is that it always has to look impeccable. A lot of times when people pack for a trip they leave their house a little chaotic, but we can't be those people. Actually, I seem to remember telling Scott that we needed to make sure our house was clean when we left for our cruise last year so it wouldn't be stressfully messy when we got back. I did have to vacuum today which was annoying. We're leaving the cats out and Scott's Mom is going to come over every couple of days and feed the fish and check on them. I hope they don't destroy the house while we're gone. Princess will be in her condo, but Jerry and Nelly will have the fun of the place. Unfortunately they are the orneriest. We're meeting Nathan and Amy tonight for dinner at P.F. Chang's, so it will be a nice little break from everything. We're still waiting to hear back from the back about our offer. The realtor said they got the paper work on Wednesday and she didn't think it would take longer than the middle of next week. Although, she said we should know something by last Friday. Hmmm. Unfortunately it's on a short sale, so the bank could decide to come in and put it in foreclosure and auction it off before we get to buy it. As long as they accept our offer next week. everything should be fine. I'm trying not to stress about it, because it is out of my control. Anyways, hopefully I will be able to borrow one of my family members laptops and blog during vacation!!

I'm tired of the rain

Rain rain go away, come again when I'm gone to Florida. Today Scott and I had planned on going to the pool to work on our Florida tans, but apparently mother nature wants me to look like the Talented Mr. Ripley on the beach. I think it's not supposed to rain tomorrow, so Mom and I may have to go the pool while Scott is at work. It has already rained over 25 inches since April this year. The news showed how much the rain has increased during those times during the past 5 years. In 2005 it was like 10 inches, but it keeps going up. The normal amount would be 14. I'm telling you, it's the end of the world. On a brighter note, we got the pictures of our house taken and they are currently up. You can check out our house and the house we want to buy at www.cbtulsa.com. The MLS # for our house is 818148 and the one we want to buy is 807009. I talked to the realtor and the ex-wife has signed our offer, we're just waiting for the husband to. He's in the service and she's having trouble getting a hold of him. He's in OKC, so hopefully he checks his messages and e-mail soon. She said the bank was aware of our offer and that it fit within their range, so I'm really hoping we hear some good news before we leave to go to Florida. The bad thing is that we probably won't be able to be there when they inspect the house. Oh well, what can you do? She was like "oh no, you'll be gone and I won't be able to let you know anything". I assured her that I would have my cell phone, because I plan on harassing her every day I'm there if I have to if we haven't found out anything before we go! The squeaky wheel gets the oil. I made cappuccino this morning. I hadn't made any in months, so I figured I might as well. This new house has an area that is on the other side of the pantry that I want to set up as our coffee bar. It would look really cool. I already have lots of plans and painting and decorating ideas for this house. We're also hoping to be able to put in a fish pond. Amber said she had 1 call about our house, but it was out of their price range. At least she's getting calls though! We're praying that all of this works out! Happy rainy Tuesday.

Busy Days

The past few days have been really busy for me. I spent all day on Thursday and Friday cleaning out the computer room to make it presentable for pictures. When our realtor came in she said " Oh, this must be the animal/crafty room". So, needless to say that after hours of work it is not the animal/crafty room anymore. The lady that takes pictures for Caldwell Banker is coming over today, so everything is ready for her arrival. Saturday I went to the Farmers Market with Mom and Dad and afterwards we went and got coffee at Utica Square. Dad decided we should go to the Flea Market, so we went there, but there was a goat show there instead. Of course we went in and I got the idea to prank Scott at work and tell him I bought a goat. If you know me, you know this is something I would actually do regardless of the trouble I would be in with Scott! I called him and you could hear all the goats bleating in the background and told him I bought one. You see, this new house has a section of the backyard that is fenced off by itself and a goat could actually live there. It could also eat the 3 feet of grass and weeds in the backyard. He kept saying no I didn't and I kept saying yes I did. I think I actually has him very worried that perhaps there would be a goat at our house when he got off work. They were big goats, and if I was going to get one it would have to be a pygmy. Saturday night we had Dad's Father's Day dinner and Sunday morning we went to church. We decided to take Dad to Mimi's for breakfast after church. I have never been to Mimi's for breakfast, but let me tell you. . . . forget the Wild Fork. I will be doing my breakfast dining at Mimi's instead. Everything about it was fabulous. This morning I went to Target with Mom, came home and made some hot sauce and Scott and I vacuumed and dusted to get ready for pictures. Unfortunately it is raining outside so it doesn't show off all the natural light in our house. We're still waiting to hear back about whether or not the bank accepted our offer. The realtor selling the house said she thought we would know something by today when I called her on Thursday. I called to harass her a little bit ago, but I had to leave a message. I'll call her back later. That is one thing about me. I'm very persistent!!!!

Busy Day

Well, Scott and I went and signed an offer on the house this morning, went to the bank and signed a bunch of papers and then met with one of our friends who is a realtor and put our house up on the market. We were going to try to sell the house on our own, but after signing all the paperwork today and looking at everything involved and how much stuff can potentially go wrong we decided not to. We listed it with one of the girls from our CG and her Mom. They agreed to take their cut down to 5% and take off a bunch of other fees since we are friends with them. Amber is just starting out with her Mom, so this benefits both of us. Our goal is to just break even on our house and not owe anything. We haven't lived here long enough to see any kind of return on the money we have put in. Luckily the most expensive thing we put in is our fence. There has definitely been a lot going on. It's scary and exciting all at once! Now the main thing we have to do is de-animalfy the computer room and get all my crafty stuff out. Probably take down the elliptical also. Lot's of work. If everything goes well we will own a new house in 5 weeks. Pretty crazy. I'm ready to go to Florida and relax!

Boring Rainy Monday

I think today was the most boring day of summer vacation so far. It was so dreary and rainy outside that all it did was make me sleepy. I didn't nap though, because I want to be able to sleep tonight. Scott had to go in to work at 2:30 this afternoon, so I got to spend the morning with him. I was on the phone for almost half of the day. We got approved to buy the house, so most of the phone conversation time was spent talking with our mortgage broker. He's really nice, which makes a huge difference. He even conference called the realtor with me on the phone and got them to accept a profit of almost $5,000 less on the house. We're going to do an interesting FHA loan called the futures program. Basically our loan will cover the closing cost and down payment on the house so we don't have to be out of pocket any money. It may not be the best type of loan for everyone, but for people like us that just decide to go out and buy a house at the spur of the moment and don't have a ton of cash stashed away it works. Plus, it's a house that we plan on staying in for a long time. We're going to go look at it again tomorrow and go sign a good faith contract on Wednesday. We will have 10 days to back out of it and get our good faith money back if after we get it inspected and there is something drastically wrong with it. Since it is in pre-foreclosure the bank will not cover anything wrong with it. It's only 3 years old and has only been lived in for 2 and 1/2 years at the most, so I'm hoping nothing is wrong with it that would cost a fortune to fix. Little piddly things I'll be okay with. We got a call about our house last night, and we listed it on Craig's list and a website for "for sale buy owner" only homes in the Tulsa area. One of the girls from our CG is a realtor and she and her Mom are going to come out and talk with Scott and I about some different things we can do tomorrow. The neat thing is that I put in a prayer request on the card at church yesterday that we sell our house. While I was on the phone with our banker I got an e-mail from Ashlee at church that said she was praying for us to sell our house. I couldn't believe the timing. It was very uplifting. This is all happening so fast, but we could potentially be closing on it on July 17th. All I know is that God has a plan for everything, and we are not in control of anything. I think this whole getting pregnant issue and selling our house will only strengthen my faith. Happy Monday.

Dream House

Today we all went to look at the house. Let me just say, that this would be a dream house to move in to. Our complete dream house would have one extra bedroom, but I"m not complaining. It has 4 bedrooms, 1 game room, 3 and 1/2 baths, (although I don't remember seeing the other 1/2 bath), formal dining room, study, 3 car garage, security system, huge laundry room, giant walk in pantry, center island, granite counter tops, a covered back patio and is 2,949 square feet. That's double the size of our house! Granted, it has been lived in, so it has a few aesthetic issues, but nothing major. It is in pre-foreclosure and is at a great price. It's a lot of house for the money. We put a for sale by owner sign in front of our house 2 nights ago, so we are praying fervently that we can sell our house this summer. All the extra prayers would be a great help! We're going to go look at it again with Nathan since he builds houses and knows things to look for that we don't. If all looks good, I think we will put in an offer! This would be the perfect house to raise a family in and have my huge family over for holidays. It is like 5 houses down from our community group leader, so Scott said we could host CG again. I think that is one of the ways we can serve, because Alex said if you had a big house, host CG and let your home serve God as well as you. Scott even volunteered the suggestion before I did, so perhaps God is moving in him as well. It's kind of scary to think of buying the house and not selling ours and having to make 2 payments, but in the long run we can do it, but money will just be really tight and Scott said he may pick up a shift or two somewhere else to cover if we need it. I'm really excited about it, but this is going to take a lot of faith. I think God has put the people in our CG in our life for a reason, because Nathan has offered to help us sell our house if we can't sell it,and I know the boys would all help us move.

We picked up Mom and Dad's furniture today, so that was exciting. I'm looking forward to helping her decorate the living room and getting their life back together. The lady who owns the store is really nice, and if Scott and I end up getting this house I think we will use her for all our furniture. We're meeting Scott's parents tonight for dinner at Carino's on the river and then we're going over to their house to see their backyard. They just had it redone, so I can't wait to see it. Please pray for Scott and I that we can get our house sold!!!!

Summer Break

I have really been enjoying my first week of summer break. Monday Mom and I ran around running errands and picked up the gift certificate I won and went to the furniture store. It is some fabulous furniture. The prize includes a leather sofa, ottoman, chair, coffee table and end table. Pretty cool huh? It's also in burgundy leather like Dad loves. Tuesday we went to the country club because it was Scott's day off. Mom and I hung out at the pool, and we called Mema and she came to join us. Scott hit some balls at the range and then came out to the pool. I was hoping on getting a tan for Florida, but really ended up getting mostly burned. Not completely red all over, but not just a tiny bit pink either. I guess I'm not good at applying sunscreen consistently all over. Today I went and helped Mom in her garden at Mema's and then we both went back to our own houses and cleaned. Yesterday Scott and I found a fabulous house that we would like to buy. We made an appt. and are going to go look at it on Saturday. It is a totally awesome house and it is twice the size of our current one. It's also going for a great price. But, our friend Nathan from our CG is a home builder and is looking to start a side business with the architect from his job who also happens to be in our CG. He said he could build us a kick ass house for cheap, so we're waiting to see how this house looks and if he can build us our own for a better deal. It's something we're doing a lot of praying over. Tomorrow I'm going to go with Mom to take Mema to her doctors appt. It's by Utica Square so we're going to look there afterwards and hopefully Mema will take us to lunch! Then, if it's not raining we'll be headed back up to Utica Square for Summer's Fifth Night. It will be Deborah's last one with us before she moves. I don't know what's planned for Friday yet. I just know that I love being out for the summer!!!!

Too Busy

Too busy at work to post now. Better things to come. . . . .

Back from the break

It's back to work again, but only for 3 days! It was a very eventful weekend. Friday night we went to Mom & Dad's and ate dinner and waited for the Pense's to get in. Saturday morning we all went to the gun range. I did even better this time and I got a compliment on my pink ear guards. That afternoon Scott and I ran some errands, and then Mom and I went to Utica Square. I got some Coach sunglasses. The cool thing is that I bought them at an optical store, so they count toward my flex plan, so they didn't really cost me anything! Saturday night we had our picnic. I now have 31 mosquito bites all over my legs and arms. They aren't quite as tortuous today, but Sunday night was a terrible night of sleep between the sheets rubbing on them and making them itch, and the storm. I'm loaded on all kinds of antihistamine pills, and bug bite creams. Sunday we went and visited all the graves a decorated them and then we all grilled steak for dinner. Scott had to work yesterday, but I slept in and then went to Mom & Dad's. I went with the Pense's up to Boevers to the playground and the kids played. After they left we all went to Kohl's and Wal-Mart and then I came home and cleaned house for our CG barbecue tomorrow. Hopefully it won't get rained out. Today is half way over, so there are only 2 and 1/2 days of school left!!

Last Friday of the Year!

This is the last school day Friday of the year. We teachers have to go to school for 3 hours next Friday, but that doesn't count because school will be out. I didn't end up outside yesterday but had to run volleyball in the gym. It's probably a good thing I wasn't outside because I was really feeling like crap yesterday. These allergies are killing me this year. I did get hit in the head with the volleyball twice though. I wasn't thrilled. Scott went to see the Indiana Jones movie and went to dinner with the men from our CG. I just stayed home, drank a lot of tea, took a bath, watched the season finale of CSI Miami and was in bed before 9:00. Very eventful. But, we have a busy weekend so I felt like I needed some time to just relax. We were going to board all of our animals for our trip, but then it would have ended up costing us $500, so we're leaving the cats at home and just boarding the dogs. Scott's Mom is going to come over and check on them and feed the fish. That will save us about $300. We can spend that on the outlet mall, or more than likely on gas because it keeps going up. Boo. I'm looking forward to the weekend, but it really sucks that we have to come back after Memorial Day. Usually it is just such a relaxing holiday because we have just finished the school year, but we don't have the luxury of that this year. I have cool news to report. Last week I entered a drawing on KBEZ for their at work perks club. Tuesday I got a call from them saying I won it. It is a $2,500 gift card to a furniture/home decorating place. I don't remember the name. They're supposed to call me back with more details. We have all new furniture, so I'm giving it to Mom & Dad, because they are in desperate need of furniture. God works in amazing ways huh? I can't wait to go to the place and help them pick it out! Happy Friday and enjoy your weekend. 3 more days of school.

Ticks on Testicles

Scott and I had a great dinner at The Melting Pot last night. I could eat there once as month. Scott would have to work some overtime for that, so I think we'll be saving our dining experiences there for special occasions. Mom and Dad gave us a gift card to Carraba's, and we've never been there, so it will be fun. Scott got me a new watch. It is a Seiko, with a two toned band and the center if pink mother of pearl with diamonds around it. It's really pretty. I had just about worn out my favorite Anne Klein one, so I'm looking forward to getting to wear it. I couldn't wear it today because I need to have some of the links taken out. He really liked his picture of the rolling golf bag cart. It was back ordered, so he just got a picture of it. After dinner we walked around the Riverwalk and then went over to Mom and Dad's to show them my watch. While I was there Deborah discovered a tick on Tino's testicle, so I got the pleasure of removing it. I bet it was a sight to see. I was still all dressed up, with tweezers and Deborah was holding him. It turns out that on every one of our wedding anniversaries I have been wearing something from the White House Black Market. I think that is a tradition that I would like to keep up! they have a store at the outlet we're going to in Florida. I think I better start saving a lot of money! Today is Super Kids day so I will be outside all day. 4 school days left!!!

Happy 3 Year Anniversary to Me!

It was on this day 3 years ago that I was waking up and going to the reception site and we were getting it ready. It was such a beautiful day, and I remember feeling a lot of relief that the sun was shining and I had just completed my first year of teaching. Tom and Ann came and helped vacuum and all the rest of us were rearranging and all kinds of other stuff. I will never forget that Deborah got in the pool in her thong. Then it was off to get my hair done. All of my bridesmaids except 1 went to Ihloff together to get our up do. Mine took forever, but it looked fabulous. I remember getting really nervous for some reason and my hair dresser and Mom and Deb and Jen were looking for something to calm me down. I remember Kelly was asking the other hair dressers if they had any pain pills or muscle relaxers! Don't worry, I didn't take anything, but I think when I went to get my makeup done they gave me some champagne. Leave it to Saks Fifth Avenue to save the day. I remember being really hungry and wanting a steak from Jamil's, but they weren't open. We all went to PF Changs instead and had a family lunch together. It was really nice. Then we came home and I tried to take a nap sitting up on the couch, but that didn't work. Then it was off to Sharp Chapel to get dressed, take pictures and get married. It was so hot that day in the evening. I almost ran into Scott because they were getting there at the same time. It was a lot of work getting into that giant slip. I loved my dress. The train was like 6 feet long, which contributed to the hotness, but it was all worth it. The wedding went by in a flash. I remember Jonathan doing all kinds of things as he stood up there as the ring bearer, and I remember dripping hot wax on my hand when we lit the unity candle. You can even see me shaking it off in the video. As soon as we walked out together and came back in for pictures I sent Jennifer to get my flat shoes instead of my heels. Darn that bunion. While we were waiting to come back out Scott and I were talking about the wax, and he said did you notice anything about your wedding band? Turns out they got me the band that was full carat instead of the 1/2 carat I was expecting. Pictures went by fast and then it was off to the reception. We rode in his Mom's Mustang convertible on the way over. The sun was setting, so it was a really peaceful ride over. My dress barely fit in the car. The reception went by fast. I did make sure that I sat down and ate. I wasn't going to be one of those brides that didn't get to eat any of the food at their wedding reception! I didn't get emotional the entire time until Dad and I danced, and I remember balling my eyes out. After everyone left, we even stayed to help clean up a little. We even watched the ice sculpture go for a swim in the pool. After everyone got back to Mom and Dad's we sat there and opened all of our gifts. The goal was to stay up all night because by this time it was really late. Our wedding didn't even start until 7:30 pm, and we had a 7:30 am flight out the next morning. Needless to say, we didn't stay up because I got too tired. We spent our first married night together sleeping a few hours in my bedroom at home, then we overslept and had to get to the airport in a hurry. I almost didn't get to go on our cruise because my license was expired. I wasn't going to get it renewed and have to pay to get another one with a new last name! Luckily I had my passport, so it all worked out. Our cruise was a fabulous way to start our married life together.

Scott and I are truly blessed that we have each other, and we have a wonderful life together. I never thought when we met 5 years ago, we would be where we are, but I know I'm very glad Mom found him at Drug Mart for me!

6 More Days

6 more days of school left. Today doesn't count because I'm already here. I decided to drive by Sonic this morning and treat myself to a Java Chiller. I had never had one, and it was really good. I spent all day outside again in the outdoor classroom. Friday and yesterday went by so fast because we were outside. I'm a sunshine girl. I need it to be happy. Plus, who couldn't be happy when you get to stare at a fish pond all day? I have a thing for fish too. We were going to put in a fish pond at our house, but there were to many underground wires. Hopefully our next house will have a bigger backyard and a place for one. Speaking of, Scott and I are thinking of putting a for sale sign in our yard and seeing what kind of offers we get. We always knew we would end up moving, just not when. Nathan suggested we try it because now is definitely the best time to buy a bigger house. It's a buyer's market. We'll see what happens. If God wants us to move it will be clear. We have a little bit of cleaning we need to do in the garage before we list it though. It seems kind of sad, because I love our house, but I think it will be really cramped whenever we have a baby. We went on a walk after school. We only did 2 miles because it was just to hot. Then we did some yard work and watered and grilled a steak for a salad. 3 of my mums had died, and I've looked everywhere for more, but I can't find any. I had 2 that came back really huge and bushy, so I dug pieces of them up and planted them. Hopefully they live. I made sure to get a lot of roots, so we'll see. Turns out kindergarten decided to trade times with second grade today, so there will be no break. Oh well. I don't think they will appreciate going back outside after being at the zoo, but what can you do? Happy Tuesday.