Thursday, April 30, 2009

Fun in Sun


Lianna at Be Thou a Knight has asked people to share their favorite summer activity.
I have several so here goes:
* Laying out in the sun by the pool. Must have tanning oil, a good book, and cold bottle of water.
* Laying out at the ocean with tanning oil, good book, and cold water. (See a trend here?)
* cutting grass... I know it is weird but I love it. Even though I suffer from horrible allergies.
* fireworks and cookouts
* all the summer wedding festivities
* walks with Hubs and the dogs after dinner
* summer softball games
* most importantly... BEING A TEACHER AND HAVING THE SUMMERS OFF!!!

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Spring Fever or Hay Fever

I have horrible allergy and sinus issues.


This


and this

is what is keeping me at work today.



Don't worry good friends

I will call on you again tonight.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Can't Live Without Ya (Spring Edition)

I thought it would be fun to do a post on wardrobe staples that I just could not get through the season without. I love clothes and my overstuffed walk-in closet can attest to that. (Also, Hubs wallet but we won't ask him).

A zip-up hoodie. These are perfect for cool spring nights at a ballgame (which I'm sure you have learned is my favorite way to spend a spring night)


Who could live without the perfect pair of khaki Capri's?

Jersey dress in any color. I have a black and a brown one. Paired with cute sandals and come jewelry and you can wear it anywhere.

Old Navy's Perfect Tee. I have one in ever color. In fact I am currently wearing a pale yellow one with a skirt.

Old Navy blue jean jacket. They last forever. Right now I am wearing the exact same one that I wore my senior year of high school. Which was 8 years ago.

And of course Rainbow Flip Flops. I have the brown (wearing right now) and the black. I am thinking of adding the pink or green to my stash soon.
Anyone else want to play a long?
What are your wardrobe must-haves?


Sunday, April 26, 2009

Weigh In and Weekend Review

I weighed in this morning and had lost .4 lbs this week. Not exciting but at least I am back to losing some. My goal this week is to change what I eat. I feel like I have been eating the same things everyday since I started Weight Watchers so I am going to try to stitch things up some. This morning instead of having my normal oatmeal I had half of a Cinnamon raisin bagel with WW cream cheese.

This weekend was wonderful. We had amazing weather which looks like it is continuing into this week. I definitely have Spring Fever!

Friday night we went to the high school I work at baseball game and walked over to Relay for Life which was also being held at our school on the football field. We ended with dinner at our favorite local Italian Place.

Saturday I went shopping with mom while Hubs went up to mountain to his brothers to pick up our new tree and watch our niece play tee-ball. I did get some tanning in but it was almost too hot to be out there without the pool to cool off in.

I got this super cute bathing suit top from Kohl's on Saturday. The strap is removable so it will be great for tanning before the wedding.


Saturday night we met two of our college friends for a movie and drinks. I forgot to take any pictures because we were having such a good time. We went to this really neat movie theater were you can order food and drinks. The seats were huge and even reclined and rocked. After that we walked through downtown to a little bar and sat outside for drinks. There were so many people out since it was such a nice night.



Sunday we went to see my best friend sing for their homecoming. She did a wonderful job. We grilled out with my family for lunch and then headed home to relax for the rest of the day.

Tagged

Lori @ Everyday Blessings tagged me.

Here are the rules of the game!!
- Mention the person that tagged you.
- Complete the following lists of 8's.
- Tag 8 of your wonderful bloggy friends.
- Go tell them you tagged them!

Eight Things I'm Looking Forward To:

1) the summer (being a teacher is a wonderful thing)
2) my brother's wedding in June
3) vacations this summer
4) having a baby
5) friend's wedding next month
6) losing more weight
7) getting to my summer reading list
8) our 3 year wedding anniversary in June

Eight Things I Did Yesterday:

1) laid out in the sun
2) went to the movies (State of Play)
3) dinner with college friends
4) drinks downtown with said friends
5) shopped
6) worked out
7) read
8) spent time with Hubs

Eight Things I Wish I Could Do:

1) lose weight without having to diet
2) hire someone to clean my house
3) raise a ton of money for my classroom
4) be a mommy
5) see all our college friends more often
6) buy a brand new Tahoe
7) visit every state in the US
8) always be patient and understanding

8 Shows I Watch:

1) The Office
2) The Bachelor
3) The Biggest Loser
4) How I Met Your Mother
5) Greek
6) King of Queens
7) The Bachelorette
8) the news

I know that this one has been going around a lot lately so if you haven't done it yet consider yourselves tagged.

Friday, April 24, 2009

Fun in the Sun

The weather has been beautiful in the Carolina's and
according to the forecast it will continue to be.

So if your looking for me this weekend; you can find me here.


with this

and this


*Discalimer* I don't smoke, I rarely drink, I don't do any drugs. I exercise and eat semi-healthy most of the time. I don't even drink a lot of caffiene. Tanning (outdoors, no tanning beds for me) is my one vice.

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Mountain (Wo)Man

Over Spring Break a few of us girls went hiking. It was a beautiful day and we had such a great time. Usually "girl time" is shopping and eating for us so we decided to try something new. After hitting up Subway (of course we still had to eat) we headed to a local park to get some exercise.

Kirs playing in the creek.

Walking up to the monument. The park that we went to is actually
a battlefield during the Revolutionary War.

Taking a quick water break.

Posing for a picture.

On the walking course.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Wedding Season

Wedding season is upon us. Most of you remember me mentioning that my brother is getting married in June and I am super excited about it. It got me thinking about our wedding and I decided to share some of it with ya'll. Diary of a Southern Drama Queen posted this earlier and I thought it would be fun to share my special day too.

1) When was your wedding day? June 10, 2006

2) What day of the week was it? Saturday

3) Did you get married in a church? Yes, we got married at a Baptist Church in NC. This is not the church that either one of us grew up in or the one that we go to now but since Hubs is from 2 hours away and I am from a tiny town we decided to get married in a church that was close to the hotels people were staying in and close to the reception site.


4) How many in your wedding party? I had 9 bridesmaids and 1 flower girl and Hubs had 9 groomsman and 2 junior groomsmen. It was a very large wedding party.




5) Where was your reception? The Cramer Mountain Country Club. It was in the large ballroom and then we had the food and bar set up in another room. We also had a lot of outside deck space.



6) How many guests were invited to your wedding? We invited a little over 200 and had between 150 and 170 attend. Hubs is from town 2 hours away so some of his parents friends didn't make it.

7) How long did you wait to tie the knot after your proposal? Hubs proposed on January 30, 2005 and we got married 18 months later.



8) Who did you hire as your florist? One of my parents friends owns a florist in town so we chose to have him do our flowers and invitations.





9) Did you have a DJ or a band? We had a DJ.

10) Did your father walk you down the aisle? Yes, he did.


11) What color were the bridesmaid dresses & groomsmen vests? Hubs chose the colors that we went with and he did a wonderful job. Because it was the summer we wanted something lighter and the bridesmaids wore a full length papaya colored dress by Mori Lee. The groomsmen wore black tuxes with the same color vest and tie. Hubs wore a black tux with a white tie and vest.




12) What was your first song? We chose Keeper of the Stars by Tracey Lawrence for our first dance. We are both country music fans and felt that it portrayed how we felt about our relationship.

13) How long did it take to plan the wedding? It took us the full 18 months to plan it. I could have planned for longer if I had had more time.


14) What type of limo did you get? We didn't use a limo for our wedding. We were leaving straight from our reception for our honeymoon so we just drove one of our cars.



15) Where did you go for your bachelorette/bachelor Party? We went to dinner and had a lingerie shower and then went to this great redneck/country bar that is pretty popular around here.



16) What type of wedding gown/tux did you two wear? I wore a white, strapless, A-line dress and Hubs wore a lack tux with white vest and tie.



17) How was the weather? HOT. HOT. HOT. We are in the south in June. Other than the heat it was beautiful.



18) Where did you go on your Honeymoon? Charleston, SC. We wanted to go somewhere that we could go to every year to celebrate. It was wonderful too.


19) What was your favorite part of your wedding day? The ride from the ceremony to the reception. It was just me and Hubs and it was so nice to have those few moments together before being with all those people again.

20) How long have you been married? We will celebrate 3 wonderful years in June.


21) What was the worst part of your wedding day? The air conditioner in the reception. There was so many people there and it was so hot outside that it just couldn't keep up. That and the fact that my cathedral train wouldn't bustle so I had to either hold it or drag it around all night.


22) Did you see your husband before the ceremony? No, we did not see each other that day until I walked down the aisle.


23) What kind of flowers were in your bouquet?


24) What were your "something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue"?New was my dress, old was my ring from my parents, and my blue was one of my garters.


25) Did you light a unity candle? yes, we did.


26) Did you cry during your wedding? no, but my maid-of-honor blubbered the entire time. I thought Hubs was crying at one point during the ceremony but he assured me it was sweat covering his face.


27) What was your reception like? a huge party




28) What flavor was your wedding cake? We had different layers. One was chocolate, lemon, amaretto, and vanilla. Our top layer was red velvet which is mine and Hubs favorite.





28) Did you smash cake in each other's face or were you "nice"? At our engagement party I smashed cake in Hub's face so he tried to get me back at the reception but he was nice about it and just barely put it on my nose.



29) Did you freeze the top layer of your cake and eat it on your first wedding anniversary? yes, and it was put in my parents deep freezer. Later that fall my dad and brother were cleaning it out and threw our box with the top layer in it. After they had taken it to the trash dump they thought about it. They actually went back and got it and scrapped all the top icing off and trued to fix it. They ended up telling us about it and we threw it away. Thank goodness they didn't let us eat it.



30) When did you open your wedding gifts? We waited until we got back from our honeymoon and opened them at our house. We took all the cards with us though.



31) Did you have a bridal shower? yes, I had several. I had a Christmas shower, my mother-in-law gave us a shower together for all the out of town guests, my aunts gave me a shower, my bridesmaids gave me a lingerie shower before my bachelorette party, and our friends gave us a couple's lawn and garden shower.


32) The night before your wedding, did you sleep much? yes, I was so wore out from the rehearsal dinner and a night of karaoke and dancing that I was too tired not to sleep.


33) Did your bridal party deck out the get away car? yes, Hub's nickname is Biscuit so his groomsman put the rolls from our dinner all over the car. We were still getting rolls off the next morning that were stuck on the windshield wipers.


34) Words of wisdom for future brides? Don't worry about the small stuff. Not everything is going to go as planned but in the end it doesn't matter. I hardly remember any of the details about my wedding and reception. Just have fun and know that when it is all over you have gotten the greatest gift of all.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Weigh In and Weekend Review

First off: weigh in. It was much better this week. I am back down 2.8 lbs from last Monday. Even though I had gained last week today's weigh in is the lowest weight yet. I have been stuck on a plateau for the past 3 to 4 weeks and I finally feel like I am getting over it. That can also be contributed to me finally getting back into counting points and not eating whatever I feel like.




Here is my WW menu for today:
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Snack: Fiber One Bar
Lunch: Salad with Fat Free Italian dressing
Snack: 100 calorie pack popcorn
Dinner: Grilled Salmon, broccoli and cheese
Possible dessert: Fat Free fudge bar


Weekend Review:

Friday night I met Hubs for dinner here:



Let me start off by saying that Texas Roadhouse is my favorite restaurant but this time I was very disappointed. My grilled chicken came out pink (they said that it was how all theirs are cooked; don't think so) so of course I sent it back. I ended up eating my baked potato and salad which was plenty. After that we went here

to see

The very old movie theater downtown shows movies that have already left the new theaters but have not came out on dvd yet. The best thing is that the tickets are only $2. And they have cheap concessions too. Hubs and I are huge fans of King of Queens so we were excited to see this movie. It was funny and overall the night was a lot of fun. It was so nice to have a real date with Hubs since we are normally so busy.

Saturday we got up early and went to get breakfast then hit some yard sales (I bought a strapless top to use for laying out; no tan lines), headed to Lowes for some yard supplies, shared some Mexican chicken nachos for lunch, and then Hubs worked in the yard while I went and laid out in the sun with mom. That night we grilled steaks and watched the race.

Sunday we went to church and Sunday school. That afternoon we had a family get-together at my grandmother's house.

Saturday, April 18, 2009

New Look

Thanks to Faith @ Walk With Me By Faith I have a wonderful new look. I was so excited when I won a giveaway that she did earlier this year. If you need a new look for your blog contact her. She is wonderful to work with and did such a great job!

Thank you so much, Faith!

Friday, April 17, 2009

Vera what are you doing to me?

Why are you coming out with new patterns in April instead of July? Why, after I just bought a new bag and wallet? Are you trying to break me? Are you trying to make Hubs divorce me?




This is the Large Duffel in the new Bali Gold pattern. I love it!


Don't I need this?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Easter Recap

I am finally getting around to uploading and sharing our
Easter pictures with ya'll.

These were our Easter baskets. Hubs was filled with Cadbury Eggs (his favorite), gum, an Easter bunny, and the 4th season of The Office. Mine included the 1st season of How I Met Your Mother and the 4th book in the Sookie Stackhouse series.
Us decked out in our Easter attire. (Does anyone else think I look like I am falling over?)


When we got home from lunch with my family this was waiting by our front door.

Inside was a beautiful solar light butterfly. The package was from our wonderful neighbors.

Thank you for all your prayers for my cousin that is begin deported and for the funeral. We got home yesterday afternoon after traveling for the funeral. Everything went fine and it was nice to see some family that we hadn't seen in a while. I just hate that it was under those circumstances.


Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Updo? or not?

I am in a wedding this summer and need a little hair help. Thats where ya'll come in. I am going to show some options that I like and ya'll let me know what you think.

BTW, you can see in the pictures that I post of myself that I had mid-long length light brown hair that is naturally curly. It does straighten out very easily. Although the wedding is outside in Charleston, SC so it will very warm and possibly humid.


Here are some options




I like this but not sure if my hair would stay straight if it is humid.



My hair is not as long as hers and it may be too hot to have all this hair on my neck.



I couldn't find a better picture of this style.


I really like this one but do you think it is too high on the side.


It may look better down lower.


Not sure about this one. It looks a little flat on top.

Side, curly option with tendrils coming down. Very classy.
Let me know what you think please!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Fallen off the wagon and getting run over

Let me start out by saying that this post is about holding myself accountable. I am laying it all out here for ya'll. I did HORRIBLE with eating this week! It was our Spring Break and I found it very hard to say on my eating routine when I wasn't on my normal schedule. So not an excuse though. I did work out hard this week but I stuffed my face the rest of the time so it didn't really help. When I weighed this morning I had gained almost 2lbs back from last Monday. But today is a new day and a fresh start. I have 10 weeks left until my brothers wedding and I have a goal of losing 10-15 more pounds before then. Okay moving on now.


I hope that everyone had a wonderful Easter. I didn't post because I like to spend holidays with my family and we were pretty busy all day. We had a wonderful church service and then had lunch with my family. After that we played baseball outside and just had a wonderful time. Easter is the greatest holiday for a Christian and I feel like as I get older it just means more and more each year. Anyone else feel this way?


Prayer Requests:

1) My cousin left today to go back to Fort Bragg. From there he will be leaving for his second tour of Iraq. Please keep him and his family in prayers. He has a 14 month old daughter and it is extremely hard for him to leave her.


2) Hubs had a family friend that joined the Lord yesterday morning. We will be traveling this week for the funeral. Please keep his family in your prayers and us as we travel.

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Sisterhood Award



Lori @ Everyday Blessings nomintated me for this award and I am beyond thrilled about it! She is such a sweetie and without the wonderful world of blogs I would have probably never gotten to know her.


Rules of The Sisterhood Award:1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs with great attitude and/or gratitude.
3. Be sure to link to your nominees in your post.
4. Let your nominees know they have received the award by leaving them a comment on their blog.
5. Be sure to link this post to the person who nominated you for the award.


I have only been blogging for about 8 months but in this short time I have "met" so many amazing ladies. Infertility is a stressful journey but meeting woman that have been there and know what you are going through has made it so much easier. I thank God everyday for allowing me to have people around me that can help lift my spirits when I am feeling down. I pray for these ladies each day as I know they do for me.


Each of the ladies that I nominated deserve this and many other awards.


I nominate the following:
1) Lacy @ Lacy Lately
2) CJ @ Lemberg Life
4) Nicole @ The Woods
5) Julie @ The Green House
7) Amy @ Chapters

Saturday, April 11, 2009

New Vampires

I have spent my spring break indulging myself in more vampire books. I had bought the first book in the Sookie Stackhouse series several weeks ago and just never started it. I picked it up earlier this week and haven't set them down since. I am getting ready to finish the second one and have already purchased the third one. I think that they are just as good as the Twilight books and they read very fast.


Thursday, April 9, 2009

Bunnies, Eggs, and Spring Swap

A few weeks ago I participated in a Spring Swap hosted by Whitney at That Girl. It was only the 2nd swap that I have done but I will definitely be doing more in the future. There is nothing better than getting a package in the mail. My swap partner was Tammy at Home in Virginia.





I also wanted to share my sparse Easter decorations with ya'll.




This little guy sits in our living room.



This is the Easter wreath that i made 2 years ago.

Our front door. I always put window clings up for each holiday and season.