#firstworldproblems

We've all seen the hash tag on Twitter before. Or, if you're not on Twitter I'm sure you've heard someone, somewhere quote it in regards to a puzzling problem. It's typically used in some sort of humorous way. For instance, a few "first world problems" puzzling the Mobleys these days:

We can never agree on how long our plethora of meat should be cooked at supper time

 Walmart doesn't sell blonde bobby pins

 There are SIX grocery stores between church and home and I can never decide which one to go to

We complain about having to watch commercials on Hulu+

The treadmill wasn't working properly, which means it jostled the iPad while I watched Mad Men

(Yea, I know that one is pretty bad) 

The shower head in the master bathroom isn't detachable which makes cleaning it difficult

I'm sure there are others that I just can't think of right now, but the point is we're being ridiculous. Simply put, we are spoiled. All of the problems I just listed above are problems that people halfway across the world would kill to have, yet we complain about them. I understand it is all about perspective, but why shouldn't all our perspectives be the same? Why is it that we live here with almost anything we want at our fingertips, while others live with next to nothing? At the risk of sounding childish I'm going to say it-It's just not fair!

Before I go all whiny on y'all I'm going to stop. You get it. What happens next is what defines us as people. What do we do about all that we that others don't? Do we continue to whine and fuss or do we do something about it? That is not a choice I can make for you, but it is my hope that David and I can stop this selfishness in its path before we start a family and let it continue.

30 Before 30: Cookout

One of the tasks on my 30 Before 30 List was to host a cookout. I was really hoping to have a big soiree to show off our expanded patio, but that would require us to have expanded our patio. It's in the plans, but won't be happening for quite some time now. The opportunity to host over the long weekend presented itself and the "Martha" in me just couldn't say no!

I have always loved celebrating summer with family and friends. There is something about gathering 'round the grill with a corn hole tournament going that is really good for the soul. Now that we have a house we can finally host our very own cookout! We ended up having 4/5 of the Wardlets together again (missed ya, Manda Panda!) which is impressive in and of itself. We also had a few of my close friends from childhood over to catch up and celebrate life.

The smell of burgers and hot dogs greeted guests out back along with a table filled to the brim with sides, dips, and desserts. As neat as it is to be able to host and provide food for everyone, there is something about inviting everyone to share their signature dish. I can't wait to get some the recipes to share with y'all!

A few pictures from the weekend:

TJ and Megan came to visit us from Raleigh!

Bored? Crack out the Mario Kart of course!

Friends for over 20 years!

Family portrait:-)

How many engineers does it take to move a light for games?

Can't wait for the next opportunity to open our home up to everyone!

Chocolate Cherry Cobbler

David's not as big into birthdays as I am, so when I asked what kind of sweet treat he wanted to celebrate his day he let me choose. Big mistake. This girl logged right onto Pinterest and searched for something chocolatey. This recipe was SUPER easy and SUPER delicious! Let me know what y'all think:-)

Ingredients

1 can (21 oz) any type of pie filling

I chose cherry but strawberry or raspberry would work too!

1 pouch Betty Crocker double chocolate chunk cookie mix

3/4 cup butter, melted 

Directions

Heat oven to 350°F. 

Spray bottom and sides of 11x7-inch (2-quart) glass baking dish with cooking spray. 

Spread pie filling in bottom of baking dish. 

Sprinkle cookie mix evenly over pie filling. 

Pour melted butter evenly over cookie mix. 

Gently spread melted butter over cookie mix just to cover the dry mix.

Bake 28 to 30 minutes or until topping is set. 

To serve warm, cool about 15 minutes or serve immediately with vanilla ice cream

Enjoy!

 

Boo's Big Weekend Part 3

I'm back with the final details of the weekend (Part 1 and Part 2)! Sorry it took me so long for those of you on the edges of your seat, but this girl got crazy caught up in life.

Following graduation we headed back to Winston for supper with my grandma, uncle, and two sweet cousins. Well, I should probably say my grandma and aunt. My cousins were lost in Lego-land as soon as Daddy brought out the buckets. We got together to eat more delicious food and recap the weekend's activities!

Sunday morning I headed to church with The Momma for a special Mother's Day service. We got to see five sweet baby girls be dedicated to the Lord by their families. Her church seems to have the exact opposite problem we do. Where they seem to have an influx of girls, we seem to have an influx of boys! Following the church service we returned home for a Mother's Day/Graduation/Commissioning Ceremony Brunch with the Winston-Salem fam. It was here that Daddy presented TJ with his "big" gift-a 1944 M1 rifle! The gun saw time overseas during WWII and is in excellent condition. I was so enthralled with it I teased TJ about taking it on Pawn Stars to see what he could get for it;-)

Showing off his goodies

Daddy explaining the significance of the gun.

 Examining his new treasure.

After that we headed home to recoup before the big week at work-testing for me, project for Davido!

Friday's Letters [05.25]

Hip hip hooray, we made it to Friday! I'm linking up again this week with the wonderful Adventures of Newlyweds.

Dear students who are retesting, pretty please take this seriously and do your best. I may just cry if you don't all pass it this go around.

Dear Bubba, I was flipping through my phone and I found this picture. It made me start giggling because you told me you were taking it to show the world what a "redneck diva" I am. You have no idea what this redneck diva is capable of;-)

Dear magazines, I apologize for my ridiculous neglect of you. You keep coming to me in the mail with hopes of being read in a timely manner, but alas life has kept me from you! Come June 8th I promise to devote more time to your consumption.

Dear Daisy, Why do you make it so hard for me to leave in the mornings?? You snuggle down so sweetly next to me that the thought of leaving just breaks my heart. Only a few more weeks until I'll have plenty of time for tummy rubs and ear scratches!

Dear Bird-boy, I am so glad you are living with us this summer! I have high hopes that this time around will be a lot more fun than it was when we were kids. I mean let's be real here. Being an adult and getting to do what we want is a lot more fun than being told what to do by The Momma.

Thankful Thursday-One Good Love

 One good love
You bless all my memories
You soften the fall of my tears
And in my arms you're more than enough
You're one good love

-Rascal Flatts

Today's Thankful Thursday post is dedicated to my sweet husband, David, who has been such a rock during this crazy month. 

sense of humor

I have never met anyone funnier than my hubby. He cracks me up with his random voices and child-like perspective on life. He reminds me to laugh when all I want to do is cry.

passion for life

David's passion for life is incredible. He always wants to live life to the fullest no matter the circumstances or what everyone else says. 

support

His continuous support of me is inspiring. He asks me on a regular basis how work is going, how I'm feeling, what he can do to make me happy, etc. He is serious awesome sauce.

flexibility

Homeboy knows how to roll with the punches, something I am not very good at. 

faith

His ever-growing faith is a wonderful guide for our family!

Wedding Season

Happy Tuesday, folks! I apologize for my absence. This is a cuh-ray-zeeeee time at school. To be honest my postings will likely be very sporadic until the end of the school year. Before I disappear into total end-of-year oblivion I did want to recap my sweet friend Kelsey's wedding!

Kelsey and I met before school even started our freshman year of college and we became very fast friends. Three years of living together, many frogs, and a few major changes (by both of us!) she finally found her prince charming. David and I couldn't be happier for Kels after seeing her hurt by so many jerks. It's like Kelsey and Casey were meant to find each other, they just had to find each other on God's timing and not their own.

We swung by my brother's apartment and picked him and his precious girlfriend, Megan, up when we reached Raleigh. We headed to an older chapel downtown for the sweet ceremony. Casey's dad officiating the ceremony made it even better with his stories and jokes about the both of them. We then headed to a hotel (also downtown) for the reception. It was here that we got to see some of our old friends from college and make a few new ones!

It may have only been two years since we graduated (is that real life?!) but when you go from spending a ridiculously awesome amount of time with people to almost nothing, two years can seem like a lifetime! A glimpse at our evening:

Mr. and Mrs. Mallett's first dance!

Yes, the groom's cake is representing both NC State and Tennessee

My husband, the dance machine.

What a neat way to ride off into the sunset!

With my husband of nearly two years (eek!)

A Vow

vow ¹  (vou) n. 

 An earnest promise to perform a specified act or behave in a certain manner, especially a solemn promise to live and act in accordance with.  

We rented The Vow last night starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams. I love everything Rachel McAdams was in so I knew I wouldn't be disappointed. What I didn't expect was for it to get to me as much as it did.

David and I are coming up on our second anniversary (eek!) and it honestly does not feel like we have been married that long. Every day is a new adventure with this man. He is constantly challenging me think deeper and love more. He supports me in everything that I do and lets me learn from my mistakes without so much as an "I told you so". He reminds me to breathe when I forget and to calm down when I get stressed (unfortunately this happens more often than not!). I wake up every morning and look at his sleeping face (I can count on one hand the number of times he has woken up before me in our marriage) and thank God for our relationship and the godly man he has led David to be.

When we said our vows on that blistering hot June day (note to brides, getting married in June is not all it's cracked up to be!) I never could have imagined where God would take us. Yes, I had a dream in my head of what I thought life should be like but I am extremely grateful that my dreams did not pan out and that God's dreams for us did. While the kidney revolt of 2011 was not what I would call a pleasant experience, it showed me what "through sickness and in health" truly means. And while the Alabama absence was not ideal, it showed me what "through thick and thin" truly means. God had an amazing plan in mind for us when he led us together almost five years ago.

As we head to my sweet friend Kelsey's wedding today I wish her (and all the other brides out there) the happiness and blessings we have been given. I know we are at the beginning of this journey, but if this is any indication of what God has in store for us, I cannot wait.

Friday's Letters [05.18]

It's another FANTASTIC Friday with Adventures of Newlyweds!

Dear week, I thought you would never end. I am oh so appreciative of the fact that you are now done. This means that we have less than two weeks left of this dreadfully long month.

Dear hair, puh-leeze stop falling out. When I heard all the side-effects of prednisone I never thought your departure would be one of them. The good news is I have a lot of you. The bad news is I have a lot of you and you are showing up in our drains, on my brushes, and pretty much every where. Please stay on my head.

Dear students, Thank you so much for all your hard work this week. I know you have been at your absolute wit's end with all this testing but all your teachers appreciate your effort on the tests! Just a few more weeks until you are free from us for an entire summer!

Dear Kelsey, We are so excited to see you marry the love of your life on Saturday!! I know you are going to be a gorgeous bride and that Casey won't know what to do with himself when he sees you walk down that aisle.

 A picture of us freshman year at NCSU

Dear Harris Teeter, I really appreciate the triple coupons this week. I spent $43 but was able to save $86! How about you triple coups more often? Appreciate it!

Dear Davido, I honestly don't even know where to begin. You have been such an amazing support system these past few weeks with all the crazy going on. Every time I feel like I am going to crumble you prevent me from falling. I am so grateful for your utter amazingness and cannot wait to have an actual date night tonight!! I promise to try my best not to fall asleep before 8;-)

Dear cows, Thank you for entertaining the princess last night. You saved me hours of tossing the frisbee around the backyard.

Thankful Thursday-Alive!

Alive! Alive! Look what Mercy’s overcome; Death has lost and Love has won
Alive! Alive! Hallelujah, Risen Lord, the only One I fall before
I am His because He is alive.

-Natalie Grant

It's been a few weeks since I've been able to do a Thankful Thursday post and I think I am long overdue! Here are a few things I am thanking the Lord for this week:

modern medicine

It is amazing what God can do through the healing hands of doctors and the medicine they prescribe to us. I have seen many close to me (including myself!) be healed of illnesses that years ago would have killed us. I am so grateful for this!!

time with family and friends

We have been blessed to have the opportunity to spend time with both sides of family and all sorts of close friends recently. I cannot wait for sweet, sweet summertime when I can stay past 8 to hang out;-) 

my incredible hubby

To put it bluntly, my hubby is a rockstar! He is always so selfless and giving with his time and efforts, but especially when it comes to seeing my family. He helped clean my parent's house and did the dishes after brunch so that I could spend time with them. Did I hit the jackpot or what?!?

 community volunteers

Without these people we would have never been able to conduct our state testing! A HUGE thanks to all the community members who donated their time to helping us out.

co-workers

Anyone who teaches (or knows a teacher) knows this is a cuh-ray-zeee time of year. My co-workers have been a wonderful breath of fresh air to remind me not to freak (as I am known to do thanks to my ridiculous Type-A personality). 

What are you thankful for this week??

What Do You Believe?

Hello all! Today was an absolutely crazy day of testing, so I don't have a post to share (unless you want to hear all the cookyness of the children on test days). The fabulous Mrs. Robinson has me visiting on her site about what I believe in! Check me out, and some other fabulous ladies, over on her blog!

Boo's Big Weekend Part 2

I'm back with more details from Boo's Big Weekend! Sidenote: In case you were wondering who exacly "Boo" was, he is my (not so little anymore) brother. Boo has been his nickname since he was a kid. He won't admit but he loves it;-)

Saturday morning we were up and at 'em early again to head to the university graduation. Davido and I skipped this one when we graduated mainly because we just didn't see the point. We thought our departmental graduation would be more important. Due to the awesomeness of TJ, and the fact that is now a commissioned officer in the USMC, he was being honored at the ceremony. Of course we were going to go if he was being honored! The newly commissioned officers from all four branches were asked to stand at the beginning of the ceremony and the audience gave them a standing ovation. How neat is that?!? We were all so excited to see them recognized!

The ceremony dragged on after that. Since NCSU is such a large school they don't call the name of every undergraduate or masters student (thank heavens! The processional alone took over an hour), but they do call the names of those who received their doctorate. Rightfully so too. Those guys and gals worked their booties off!

Gotta keep that hat straight!

Hey, Ma! I'm on TV!

One of the more exciting parts of the three and a half hour long event (thank goodness for smartphones and iPads!) was getting to hear Phillip Rivers speak. P. Riv as I like to call my bud (no we have never actually met but I am quite certain we would get along very well if we ever did. . .) gave the commencement speech since he was a 2003 graduate of NCSU. It was a neat speech all about faith, family, and football-three of my most favorite things.

P. Riv!

Immediately following we skedaddled on back to campus for the departmental graduation. The emcee was a gregarious old professor who finished the ceremony with an experiment. I was quickly reminded with all the big words and equations why I did not do so well in Chem 101. . . One of the neatest parts of the ceremony was when they asked all the graduates to take a flower to the person in the audience who supported them the most in their tenure at NCSU. TJ chose the Momma and had her in tears.

 Momma and her Boo-man

I also can't forget to share that just prior to the ceremony Momma had a bit of a snafu. She thought we were going upstairs for the ceremony so when my dad went through a door she followed him without thinking. Well, she followed him right into the men's restroom. I was laughing so hard I almost wet my pants while waiting for the women's restroom.

Looking sheepish just after the event

Day 3 of the festivities continues tomorrow!

 

Boo's Big Weekend

I mentioned yesterday how busy our weekend was and gave y'all a little glimpse of it. Forewarning: that was the glimpse, here is the onslaught. We were fortunate enough to head to Raleighwood (Raleigh, NC for all you non-NC State folk) to celebrate my wittle brudder growing up. TJ (aka Boo) spent the past four years studying Chemistry while also donating his time, energy, and (pretty much) his entire life to the NROTC program. I am excited to report that we were able to witness TJ becoming an officer in the United States Marine Corps AND graduating from college. To say we are proud of this kid would be an understatement.

We kicked off the weekend early Friday morning with his Commissioning Ceremony. We arrived early to get good seat, and because our orders from TJ said so (the kid has been practicing this bossing people around thing his whole life). It was an incredibly moving ceremony in which we were able to see him take his oath, receive his first salute, and sign his papers.

The parentals pinning him

The first salute

Making it official!

With his precious girlfriend, Megan!

Hugging/embarrassing the man of the hour

The boys being silly in the "sorority squat".

Following the Commissioning Ceremony we headed to a local restaurant, Tyler's Taproom, to celebrate. If you're ever in the Raleigh/Durham area I highly suggest a visit. I mean honestly, how can you not love a place that has bacon popcorn?!? That afternoon David and I went to the pool with TJ, Megan, and his roommate for a few hours. It was so nice to sit back and relax amidst all the craziness of May. That evening we headed downtown to visit with some of our nearest and dearest friends from school. We had a great time drinking local microbrew beer and catching up while the sun set on downtown Raleigh.

More details of our adventure coming tomorrow!

Busy Little Bees

So here's a look at what has been going on. . .

First there was this:

Then there was this:

Then we witnessed this:

And this was pretty neat too:

And finally we got to be a part of this:

And a whole bunch of stuff in between that I will fill in the details of tomorrow! Congrats TJ!!

Friday's Letters [05.11]

Happy Friday fabulous readers! It's another great day with Adventures of Newlyweds!

Dear Boo, We are so excited to share this weekend with you! From your Commissioning Ceremony today to your Graduations tomorrow, we cannot wait to celebrate all that you have accomplished. You are going to do amazing things with your life. AH-MAZING things. I just know it. I can't wait to see what they are! Not to mention we get to come to NC State to see you-score!

At TJ's (aka Boo) high school graduation

Dear students, Please, please, please do well on your final assessments next week. We've been working our booties off all year to prepare for this day, so let's show everyone else what you can do! Not to mention the remediation and retesting process is pretty much the most tortuous thing ever.

Dear Summer, Where are you? The anticipation of your impending arrival is going to kill me. Every day we get closer to you is another day closer to adequate amounts of sleep and no stress tension in my shoulders. Hurry up!

Dear readers, I apologize for my sporadic postings. They probably won't get much better until after school gets out. My bad.

Kidneys Continued

Happy Wednesday one and all! I've been meaning to write this post since I went to the doctor last week, but time seems to have gotten away from me. Anyone else ever feel that way?!

Anywho, last Monday I saw my nephrologist for my regular checkup. It had been about two months since I saw her, with a few visits to the office for labs sprinkled in between. The office's ears must have been burning from my last post about waiting forever because they scooted me on back pretty quickly. To sum it up everything looked good with the tapering. My kidney function is normal and there is no protein in my urine. This is fantastic news compared to where I was just a few months ago. There is a bit of a snafu with my sodium levels. Apparently I have too little sodium in my body now. Trust me, the irony of this situation is not lost on me. If you remember correctly at one point I was on a low-sodium (low fun, low happiness) diet because my sodium levels were too high. Now I have to decrease my water intake to 32oz a day (nearly impossible for the girl who drinks that before 7am!) and increase my soda and Gatorade intake. Ever hear of a doctor telling you to drink soda? Yea, me either.

She did decide we would continue the slow tapering process that we had been doing. It looks a little something like this:

Week 1: Alternate 17.5 and 0mg every other day

Week 2: Alternate 15 and 0mg every other day

Week 3: Alternate 12.5 and 0mg every other day

Week 4: Alternate 10 and 0mg every other day

Week 5: Alternate 7.5 and 0mg every other day

Week 6: Alternate 5 and 0mg every other day

Week 7: Alternate 2.5 and 0mg every other day

After all that I will go back in to see her and hopefully receive the news that I am done with the steroids! I'll have to visit for labs a few times in between to make sure everything is working as it should.  I am SO ready to be off the prednisone. Between the overwhelming pizza face I have come to recognize in the mirror and the ridiculous mood swings I am so over this mess. The sooner I'm off the happier I, and all those near me, will be!

Don't Give Up

Trying to remind myself of this as things get crazy . . .

What A Weekend

What a weekend it was! From the moment it started to the moment it ended it seemed like we were rushing every which way. A brief recap. . .

Friday evening we kicked off the weekend by chaperoning the 8th grade semi-formal dance. Not exactly super exciting plans for a beautiful Spring evening, but it ended up being a lot of fun! We, along with the rest of my stellar team, manned the refreshments room. Now, if you remember middle school then you probably remember that during most dances consist of the girls congregating and dancing some while the boys congregate and watch. This was not much different. It was neat to see how dressed up all the kiddos got, though!

Davido was totally enthralled with the kids coming down the "red carpet"

We arose bright and early Saturday morning to check out a new breakfast place before we hit up some yard sales. The place is a BBQ place so I didn't really have high hopes, but I'm happy to say I was proved wrong. The food was that awesome down home cooking you imagine for a breakfast joint. The coffee was a little lacking, but we made up for it by using a coupon at another place to get Snickerdoodle coffee. Mm mm mm. We then hit up a few local yard sales before heading out on some errands. The yard sales were a bit disappointing, but we did score ten pretty good movies for $10!

My sweet husband had been talking about the move, The Avengers, since he heard about it so we headed to the mall for an early showing. I was surprised how full a 10:20am show was! It was a great movie and I am happy to recommend it to all! After the movie we scooted over to a sweet birthday party for some friends of ours little one year old. It had and Evel Kenival theme so they had him wearing a cape and sunglasses. How precious!

Some of our friends came over to celebrate Cinco de Mayo, aka chow down on Mexican food, with us. I made the oh so basic tacos and guacamole while Tiffany stole the show with her Mexican pizza. As soon as I get the recipe I will share with all!

Yummy Mexican pizza and tacos!

Sunday had us racing around as well. We went from church to a meeting for church back home to clean up Saturday's mess before we had guests for supper. One of my roommates from college was in town at IKEA with her fiancee so they stopped by for supper. It was so much fun catching up with them and hearing all the details of their wedding. Kinda makes me want to do it all over again (with David, of course!). I actually tell him on a semi-regular basis how much fun it was and how we should do it again. He doesn't seem to agree. . .

As you can imagine it was a nutso weekend, and unfortunately it's going to be this way every weekend in May. Is it June yet?!?

Friday's Letters [05.04]

Happy Friday all! It's another fantastical Friday with Adventures of Newlyweds!

Dear mosquitoes, I do not appreciate you deciding that I am the snack of choice. The fact that I cannot count all of my mosquito bites on my fingers and toes means you are just plain evil. Please choose another victim.

Dear May, Well hello there. You seemed to have snuck up on us pretty quickly. Since you came so quickly I would really appreciate it if you left quickly as well. You are way too busy for my liking and I would absolutely adore it if we could just skip to June. See what you can do about that. Thanks!

Dear cows, You're back and you've brought five wittle babies with you! I'm so glad you have returned to entertain the pup. I'm sure my facebook, twitter, and bloggy friends love the onslaught of pictures that occur whenever y'all are around. Stay around for a while.

Dear prednisone, Why oh why must you continue to torture me?! I really appreciate you rocking it for those few months and kick starting my kidneys, but why must you make me pay? From the ridiculous acne to the hair falling out to the bizarre bone/muscle/skin abnormalities, I think you've overstayed your welcome.

Dear God, Thank you for reminding me to slow down and enjoy my surroundings.

Dear bloggy friends,  Be on the lookout for a giveaway when I get to a hundred followers! Are you a regular reader? Click "Join This Site" to help us get there quicker:-)

Thankful Thursday-Hold On

So hold on to me tight,
hold on to me tonight.
We are stronger here together,
than we could ever be alone.
So hold on to me,
don't you ever let me go.

-Michael Buble

work family

I am very thankful for my work family and all the support they continually offer me. I could not have imagined a better place to teach!

students and their kind words

I am very grateful for all the kind words from my students. It's not often you receive praise and thanks from middle schoolers, but when you do it means even more.

forgiving hubby

Even though I may or may not have accidentally gone into the garage before the garage door was up, which may or may not have caused the garage door to get messed up and leave scratches on my car, he was very forgiving and worked hard to get it fixed. Superstar status right there.

visits

I am so grateful for all the random visits we have with people in the coming month!

technology

Hooray for the technology that makes grading over 120 projects MUCH easier!!

Things I Just Don't Get. . .

There are always going to be things I don't understand, but in recent weeks it seems that the list has grown. If you can enlighten me on any of the following, please do so! Without further adieu, the things I just don't get. . .

Why despite learning the hard way more than one time, I still go to Walmart on a Sunday afternoon. Really, you'd think I would have gotten the point by now!

Why the princess refuses to go on a walk. Seriously, have you ever met a dog that refuses to go on a walk?! 

Why the weeds in our backyard just keep.growing.back. I have pulled and fought and battled time and time again to no avail. Any gardening secrets I'm missing here?

Why the princess carries her food into the den before she eats it. It's one of the funniest things I have ever seen, but it puts my sweet husband over the edge! After we pour the food into her bowl, she picks up a piece or few and carries them in her mouth into the den. It's like she's trying to figure out if we're poisoning her or not. Only then will she eat her bowl of food. The best part is that she won't eat those few pieces she carried into the den! 

Why people turn their sprinklers on in the rain. I totally get timers. What I do not get is the people who purposely turn their sprinklers on in the rain.

Why students lose their minds a bit when it's a full moon. Has any proven the correlation here because I bet any teacher can offer substantial support to this theory!

Why after months of being on a low-sodium diet my doctor has now told me my sodium levels are too low and I need to eat more salt. What? Huh? I thought the salt ticked off my kidneys and I was supposed to avoid it. . . good grief, I just can't keep up!