Dear Nashville, Oh, how you have sucked us in to your sordid, twisted, musical drama. I don't know what we're going to do when we finish the first season on Hulu!
Dear Daisy, Thank you for being so good when we took pictures last weekend. I know it was crazy hot, but you were a rockstar. I'm pretty sure you had the best pictures of any of us.
Dear Jen Lancaster, Thank you for continuing to crack me up with your crazy antics. Tao of Martha has been a great reminder that I'm not alone in the world when I mess up yet another "easy" recipe/craft/project.
Dear reading friends, Looking for a good book to read this summer? Look no further! This list of 14 books being made into movies has quite a few on here that will keep you hooked for hours! My personal fave? Divergent, but I'm excited to read a few of the others too!
Dear Davido, You are one pretty stellar dude, you know that? Thank you for your continued patience with my crazy.
A few weeks ago I had some time to kill before meeting a friend for lunch. I’d already gone into a few other places when I stumbled upon a cute little consignment shop. On a normal day I probably would have kept walking, but since I had some extra time I wandered in. I am so glad I did! I scored a Lily dress, a dress from Anthropologie and a pair of Rock and Republic jeans for $70!! They are all in pristine condition to boot!
So while this is super exciting, the more important thing to note is it seems that I may be conquering my fear of consignment shopping. All my life I have been a big believer in donating clothes to AMVETS and Goodwill and other places, but have been very hesitant to purchase anything “used” myself. Please don’t get me wrong, it’s not that I feel like I am “above” it or anything, in fact I wish I was okay with buying other people’s stuff! It’s just that I’ve always felt weird about wearing someone else’s clothes. I think it comes from being a bit of a germaphobe. . . Enter my super frugal, garage sale loving husband who balks at the idea of walking past a Goodwill when there are perfectly good things inside. He’s taught me that garage sales can offer all sorts of great goodies (like a solid oak table and six chairs for $50!) if you just give it a chance.
I am happy that I gave this precious shop a chance and plan on visiting there again soon!
One of the items on my 30 Before 30 List was to see the sun rise and set in the same day. Why? Because I never had. It was always one or the other. This past Friday I was able to check that off my list in a pretty unique way. . .
This shot was taken on my morning run through the neighborhood. I love the way the sun peeking over the houses as I turned the corner and went down a street in our neighborhood.
This shot was taken from a restaurant in Ocean Isle Beach, NC. I love how peaceful everything is there.
When I set this goal for myself I never thought one would occur in one city and the other in another, but I am very pleased that they did!
Dear Suzy Subaru, You sure are giving us some grey hairs this week! Between the pulling on the interstate to the tire tumor, you are giving us a run for our money. If I didn't know better I'd think you were trying to end up in car heaven. . .
Dear summer vacay, I am LOVING this sleeping in, running errands, cleaning our house for the first time in eons, napping, so on and so forth. I could get used to this. . .
Dear Davido, Sorry about the onslaught of house chores. The good news is our house is going to look like it popped out of a magazine by the end of summer-yay house projects!
Dear Crossfit, Whoooeeee you have made me sore in places I didn't know could be sore. I love the workout but would really appreciate being able to get out of bed and get dressed in the morning. Appreciate it.
The past few weeks have been very stressful in the Mobley household. We both were crazy/busy at work and it seemed like even when we were at home we were going in a zillion different directions. Enter the need for a beach weekend. Luckily David's aunt and uncle have a gorgeous place in Ocean Isle Beach! Here are a few pictures from our extended weekend trip. . .
I found my happy place. . .
David playing football with his cousin, Cameron
Showing off the new bathing suit David picked out and got me!
So much has happened since we took a picture in this same spot last year, but our love hasn't wavered!
Yummy shrimp appetizer
View at supper. Good thing the view was so nice, we waited an hour and a half for our meal!
Uncle Jon, Cameron, and Aunt Debbie-our FABULOUS hosts!
Breathtaking view after my run on Sunday morning. . .
We had an amazing weekend and are counting down the days until our schedule allows us to return!
Calling all green thumbs, we need your help! We have a lovely little piece of our yard that needs some TLC.
Up close
A ways back
The neighbors with the fluffy white terrorist finally finished their fence (HOORAY!) and while we are very grateful for this addition to the neighborhood, it has caused some issues for David in the mowing department. I don't know if you can tell but the yard slopes down into a little ditch and rises back up in the corner. David used to be able to turn the lawnmower around at the top, but the fence makes this very difficult. We know we want to plant some thing there, but have no idea what to do.
This is where you (hopefully) come in. . . it gets sunlight almost all day and I'm an idiot when it comes to plants, so anything high maintenance should be removed from the list. I'm thinking something that is pretty and hard to kill
A while back I had a few pomegranates and a early morning meeting where two of the women were celebrating birthdays. What's a girl to do? Make muffins! I was even able to throw some coconut oil in there-yum!
Ingredients
2 cups of flour
1 tbsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 egg
1 cup of milk
1/4 cup of coconut oil {melted}
1 cup of pomegranate seeds
1/2 cup of chocolate chips
Directions
Line your muffin tins and preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar.
Dear summer storms, Though you kind of crimped our style at the Brad Paisley concert last weekend and your power outage almost ruined supper, you sure can be fun. How about knocking the force down a smidge?
Dear beach, We're on our way! Keep those waves rolling, the sun shining, and the sand toasty!
Dear Davido, I love how completely and totally perfect you are for me. I love that you challenge me to be a better me. I love that you never let me settle for just okay. I just love you to pieces!
Today is officially my first day of Summer-WAHOOOO! A few Summers ago I came up with a "bucket list" of sorts. A list of activities and tasks I wanted to accomplish over my two-month break. Enter an impromptu nannying job and buying a house and those to-do's went out the window. I'm giving it another go with a few things I want to tackle on my break!
apply for a passport
Where are we headed? Nowhere in particular, but we figured it might be a good idea to get me one in case we want to go somewhere. When we were looking at Spring Break trips we felt limited because I didn't have one and we don't want that to happen again.
study for (and possibly take) the GRE
Y'all, I'm scared. We've been talking about me doing this for a while now and the first step is to take that nasty test. The funny thing is I teach kids how to take tests all the time, but I'm terrified to do it myself. I haven't taken a standardized test since I was in high school! Cue freakout in 3, 2, 1. . .
top to bottom clean
I want to do a top to bottom clean of our house. David always jokes that our house is so much cleaner in the summer because I finally have time to pay attention to it. It's the sad, sad truth.
cooking
I really would like to get back into trying new recipes. A lot of time I don't have the energy to do this after school, but with hours of free time I will have no excuse!
summer reading
Ditto above, just substitute books instead of recipes. The school year does not afford me much time for personal reading and I would really like to take some time to do that.
crafting
I have a slew of projects I've been pondering and this summer is the perfect opportunity to complete them!
sunrise/sunset
This is an item on my 30 Before 30 List and I would love to knock it out this summer. It seems like I'll either see the sunrise or the sunset, but never in the same day. I'm hoping to partake in this glorious creation sometime this summer!
You're probably tired of hearing all I have to say about the President's visit to Mooresville, but unfortunately for you, I'm not tired of talking about it!
Disclaimer: If you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all!
Earlier this past week we started noticing things that were out of the norm for the end of the year, like the fact that the halls were being painted. Hmm. Or the fact that there were a bunch of men in suits wandering around the school. Hmm. It wasn't until we were told that we had to be sure to keep the school super clean that we knew something was up! No sane administrator would say that at the end of the year if there wasn't something happening. Well, as the staff found out Monday afternoon, the President of the United States was coming to see us!! I don't care who you are or what your political preference is, it is a once in a lifetime experience for your school to host the President!
We all went into high gear preparing for the coming event. Over the course of the next few days there were more emails, more changes, more renovations than this school has ever seen. It was so neat watching the transformation little by little into a place safe enough to host the leader of the free world. I think we all know there is a lot of work that goes into preparing for something like this, but I don't think any of us truly realized it.
The excitement really began Thursday morning when we all trucked down the hill to park at the intermediate school since no cars were allowed on campus. When we arrived at the school building the windows were covered and some hallways were blocked off. The signs showed us the path he would be taking.
Then came the hurry up and wait. I equated this with your wedding day-all the hurrying and waiting, hurrying and waiting. Finally, we were off to the gym! There were about a hundred students on stage and ten teachers up there with them. I was fortunate enough to be one of the ten! It was an experience I will never forget!!
We waited while the gym filled up with our fellow teachers and students, as well as local dignitaries. Hey, Claire Danes and Hugh Dancy!
The wait was long and incredibly hot. We were in a middle school gymnasium with close to a thousand people after all. . . Arne Duncan said a few words, then one of our teachers had the distinct privilege of welcoming the prez on out. His speech was short and sweet, and to be honest, I was so focused on not doing anything stupid in front of the world that I didn't even pay attention!
I am so thankful for this once in a lifetime experience!
Dear President Obama, Never thought I'd hear the prez say, "It's always a great day to be a RED IMP!". We were honored to have you visit our school and inspire our students. Thank you!
That's me in the black dress all the way at the end!
Dear Claire Danes, Hey, girl, heyyyyy. Let's puts aside the facade of seeing the president, you really wanted to come hang out with all of us cool teachers in a middle school gymnasium didn't you?
Claire and her precious hubby!
Dear world, I'm excited to finally be a human again now that school is over! I'll be able to stay up past 8pm and not feel the need to fuss at random children when out in public. Let's be real here, that urge may never leave.
Dear students, Despite some stressful moments, I am truly going to miss y'all. You welcomed me back with open arms in January and reminded me time and time again why I am a teacher. Thank you for a great year!
I can't even begin to express how much we were showered in love when we lost Emerson. The cards, flowers, prayers, and gifts came in from all areas. I knew I wanted to save the cards in a unique way to remember all the people praying for us. Enter the card book!
I can't express how simple this was and how pleased I am with the final product.
All it took was the cards we received, three clip rings, a hole punch, and to pieces of cardboard to create this.
1. Holepunch cardboard and cards.
2. Put it all together using the rings.
3.Decorate cardboard covers any way your heart desires.
This past weekend David and I completed the Charlotte Color My Run 5K! No, this wasn't the same as the big Color Run, but it was still fun. David first heard about it on Groupon and being the runner I am, sent it onto me. I somehow convinced him it would be fun to do together. Te he he. I don't think he'll ever fall in that trap again! As much as David loves being active, he does not love running. But since he loves me he signed up to do it with me :)
A few pictures from our day. . .
Yay for running at 8am!
David was clearly excited to be there.
All the people!
And we're off. . .
The end result. Please take note of the lovely sweat ring and sports bra stain.
