Crash My Party

Last summer we debated back and forth, back and forth, back and forth about whether or not we should get the Country Megaticket. In the end we regretted not getting it, so when it came time to purchase them this summer we were all over it like white on rice. We missed the Tim McGraw concert and Mother Nature had other plans for the Brad Paisley concert, but there was no way we were letting anyone ruin this one for us! 

Florida Georgia Line welcomed us with a little "Shine On" and "Cruise" before Thompson Square took the stage with "If I Didn't Have You", but the real star was Luke Bryan. He put on an incredible show rockin' it out with some of his hits and a "Baby Got Back"/Maroon 5 medley. It was stinkin' awesome. Here is some of the proof. . .

For any of you contemplating this gem-DO IT! It is super yummy and I hope to stock up before it leaves us for the winter.

My hero! The hubby trying to get a rock out of my boot.

MUCH better weather than the last time we were there.

 Hooray for awesome neighbors!!

A few things we learned:

1-get there early, traffic is mean.

2-be prepared to cut off your arm to pay for chicken tenders and fries

3-country concerts are amazing for people watching

See ya in a few weeks, Keith Urban!

Friday's Letters [05.31]

Happy Friday, folks!!

Dear testing, See ya, wouldn't want to be ya!

Dear students, Only FIVE more wake ups until your freedom. How about calming down a smidge and being nice to your teachers? Much appreciated.

Dear Davido, Thank you for being so gosh darn superb.

Dear Color Run, I am SO excited for you tomorrow! My only request? Keep the color puffs out of my mouth. Bleck.

Dear crazy neighbors, June is upon us, which means the return of your fluffy terrorist. I see the beginnings of a fence. Any chance you're going to finish it any time soon?

Support System

I have an incredible support system. I mean, really, they rock. 

my school family

It continues to amaze me how much like family these people have become. Everyone from my team to my department to the people I randomly see in the hallways or at staff meetings.  I am so thankful for the laughter they provide in the stressful moments.

our church family

We were so fortunate to find a church in which we can be ourselves and know no one will judge us for that. We have found a church full of selfless people interested in doing all they can to help us grow and learn. That's a good feeling.

our neighbors

Well, at least some of them;-) You know our feelings on the Californian crazies next door BUT the rest of our neighbors are the bomb.com. They offer us support and love in a laid-back, humorous way. 

our friends

Our friends are much like our neighbors, just a bit more spread out. These are the people we can totally be ourselves with and know we will not be judged.

our families

These are the people who have seen us at our absolute worst, but still stick around. Both sides of our families are full of incredible people who continue to love us in the best way they know how.

I told you they rocked.

Winter Wonderland

Some of you may have seen my tweet from early Saturday morning:

My sweet husband was over the moon when we awoke to a few flurries Saturday morning. Me? Not so much. I was very pleased when it stopped and the day's temps grew. 

 

Later that afternoon I decided to brave the cold and take the dog on a walk. Poor life choice. This is what happened about halfway through:

The snow just started pouring down. I'm not talking about pretty, fluffy flakes either. I'm talking about the painful stuff mixed with ice. I attempted to run home, but the pelts against my face were so painful I had to stop every so often to walk backwards. I was miserable, to say the least. Daisy? Loving every minute of it. Within 10 minutes arriving home we had this:

Did I mention it wasn't even snowing when we started walking?!? David and Daisy were in hog heaven and rushed outside to play with all the neighborhood kids to play. I joined them for a bit, but this snow-hating grinch decided the warm fire was much more appealing. Here are a few photos from the afternoon:

David pelting snow balls at the neighbor kids

 

She was born to be a Yankee dog-she LOVES the snow!

 Shaking off the snow after David hit her with a snowball.

 

Did you get any snow??

New Neighbors?

David and I were very saddened to learn of something this past weekend-there is a "for sale" sign up on the farm. What farm? The farm that meets up to our backyard and provides us with this these lovelies:

We don't know any details for sure, but we can infer from the placement of the sign and the wording on it that the farmer is cashing in. We knew it would only be a matter of time and that the likelihood of us keeping the cows as neighbors was very low. It still bothers me though.

We don't know what's coming, but we can take a few guesses. The farm is on a fairly busy road so it could be shops or it could be another neighborhood. We'd much rather it be a neighborhood, but there are already so many around us that are undeveloped (thank you failing economy) that it seems silly to start a new one. What do I know, though, I'm only a simple teacher.

For now the cows are still there and Daisy is still deliriously happy to chase them along the fence. Until we see a SOLD sign we're going to enjoy our time with the little buggers!

Friday's Letters [09.21]

Happy Friday one and all!

Dear cooler mornings, Welcome! I love being able to let the dog out in the morning and not immediately start sweating from the mugginess. I hope you stick around for a while before the beast of actually COLD mornings shows up.

Dear iPhone 5, As excited as I am for your arrival, I'm going to let you do your thing for a bit before I jump the gun. I figured I'll wait until all the cool techie kids figure out what you can do (and if anything is wrong with you) before I bite the bullet and upgrade. I would appreciate it if you were totally awesome with no issues though, because then I could possibly convince my husband to join the 21st Century and get a smart phone!

Dear neighborhood yard sale, Last year you blew us out of the water with all the stellar things you provided for us. I mean a solid oak dining room table for $50?! You can't beat that! Please don't fail us!

Dear students, I know it seems that someone dies in every single story we read in class. That's because someone does. I know that sounds morbid, but would y'all really be interested in the story if everything was happy-go-lucky with no conflict? Nope. Y'all would be fussing about it being boring. Enjoy the fact that it's fiction and just go with it:-)

A Glimpse Into The Future. . .

This post is a week late, but I figured better late than never, right? A few weeks ago our next door neighbors approached us about the possibility of watching their kids while they went away for the weekend. We love their kids and knew they wanted to celebrate their wedding anniversary, so we figured, "what the heck?". If nothing else it would be great practice for when we have our own little brood running around. Did I mention there are four of them? What about the part about them being all girls? More fun for me and it would give my manly man a glimpse into what it would be like to have little princesses and not baseball players.

We headed over there Friday evening to kick off the weekend. Our greatest dilemma of that night was trying to figure out what we could eat for supper that would please the majority of them. Pizza ended up winning that round, though not every one of them liked it. Little Miss Taylor was not a fan and dined on a feat of mini corn dogs that evening. The baby was in bed by eight and all was well. In fact before we embarked on this adventure, David and I drafted a plan. I would take baby duty and he would entertain Taylor (4 years old) and Hayley (4th grade) while we would both make sure Nicole  (11th grade) stayed alive over the course of the weekend.

The weekend continued smoothly with Hayley's soccer practice on Saturday and naps for ALL (well, Maggie, Taylor, and yours truly) on Saturday afternoon. We kept the fun going with a late afternoon trip to the pool. We knew that unless they were tired, bed times would not go so well. We rounded out Saturday evening with my attempt at introducing them to a new meal. In their defense they all did try it, but alas it was not a victory. Note to self: learn to like mini corn dogs because all kids love 'em.

David made my life very easy by taking care of everything Sunday after church so I could prepare for the start of school, which was taking place the following day.

All in all it was a fabulous weekend and a great experience. The girls behaved wonderfully and we learned a lot about each other as parents. Any one else need a pair of sitters for the weekend?? :-)

Doesn't Get Much Better

This post is coming to you straight from our patio on this glorious Sunday afternoon. My handsome hubby is reading beside me while the princess lays in the grass next to us. Does it get much better than this? I think not. These past few days God has shown me how incredible His blessings are. I don't even know where to begin with all the wonderful, so I'll start with David's homecoming.

Thursday evening brought a very tired David home from a three-week stint in Alabama. We were both overjoyed by his arrival after so many weeks apart. He was there for an outage at the plant he worked at last Spring. We were fortunate that he didn't have to do the crazy six months like last time, but it still stunk to have him gone. Our neighbors and families did a great job helping us out and taking care of me. As you can imagine we were both pretty stoked to have him home again. The very first thing this sweet boy did after unpacking his car was put together the patio set I had purchased during his absence. He also went and picked up an elliptical he found on Craigslist for me since I haven't been able to run (dang pulled muscle). Seriously, how lucky am I?!? That evening we grilled out and visited with my sweet friend Kelley before turning in early. He hadn't slept in over twenty four hours and I'm just an old lady who goes to bed early;-)

Friday morning started with David making us a delicious breakfast (his body was used to night shift hours) before I headed off to school. It was a typical crazy Friday, but imagine my delight when I look down the hallway and here he comes with coffees for me and my teammates! And the best hubby award goes to Davido! We were talking with one of my teammates when my principal came down the hallway with some news . . . I won Beginning Teacher of the Year for our school!!! This is an incredible honor made even more special by the fact that my peers were the ones who chose me. I'm still on cloud nine from this news!! I contemplated not even posting about it because I didn't want to seem like I was bragging, but I am super excited about the honor!!

We celebrated that evening by heading to our local favorite, Afton Tavern. We enjoyed our meal on the patio and got to see some of our friends from church before we headed back. We spent the evening relaxing with our neighbors playing corn hole and enjoying the beautiful weather. Couldn't think of a better way to celebrate!

Saturday morning we ventured out to the Crack-O-Barro (Cracker Barrel for y'all above the age of 6) for a big breakfast. After we gorged ourselves on deliciousness we hit the mall for a few random items before heading home. We had grand plans of doing things around the house. That was interrupted by the dreary weather and the laziness it brought with it. We ended up pulling out the sofa bed and catching up on our shows all afternoon. Be jealous. We tied the evening up with steaks and vegetables on the grill-mm mm mm!

This morning we celebrated with our Hope Church family and were able to witness three wonderful people give their lives to Jesus through baptisms-praise God! Once again our great plans of productivity were thrown out the window thanks to the weather. Instead of the dreariness making us lazy, it is sunshine making us want to loll about reading all day. I don't hate it.

All in all it has been a glorious weekend with me living on cloud nine. I hope everyone has had as wonderful of a weekend as we have!

Thankful Thursday-Chuggin' Along

Keep chuggin' along
Keep singing your song
Put the plow in the ground till the daylights gone
When you look back over your shoulder
At everything you've done
Put the good times in your pocket

Let the bad ones make you strong
Keep chuggin' along

-Luke Bryan

Sometimes in the thick of the crazy it is hard to remember the things we are thankful for. We become so focused on the negative that we forget to remember the positive. I'm at that point this week. It seems that every time I get up, I get knocked back down. Instead of allowing myself to dwell on the negative, I'm going to focus on the positive. Here are the things I am thanking the Lord for this week:

rain

My grass and I are oh so very grateful for this respite from the dry, windy days. Not to mention that my allergies are jumping for joy at the rain washing the pollen away!

kind neighbors

I am very thankful for kind neighbors stepping up and looking out for me when I need it most! This people are serious awesome sauce.

coupons

It's super-doubles at the Harris Teeter AND Lowes Food this week-WAHOOO! My wallet and I are very appreciative of this little bonus.

bloggers

I am very grateful for my sweet blog friends and their kind comments!

crop share

I am grateful that a new season has come and we are back to picking up our weekly half-share from the farm (a full post to come on this awesomeness later!)

What are you thankful for this week??

Thankful Thursday-We Were Made For You

There is no one like You
You are the only Truth.
In a world that's so confused,
There is no one like You
-Aaron Gillespie 

I have so much to be thankful for in my life, but here are a few highlights from this week:

blogger app

(I love that I now have this app to blog from whenever I'm out and about. No excuses from me anymore!)

teamwork

(it is amazing how well things work when people work as a team. I am blessed to be a part of some stellar teams at work, church, and even in my relationships. If your team isn't working, figure out why and get it there!)

my kiddos

(I really lucked out with awesome kids. How many 8th graders do you know that would ask you every day how you're feeling and if they could have a hug? Not many!)

super double coupons

(hooray for Harris Teeter helping the Mobleys save some mad moola tho week!)

our neighbors

(I love that we can just sit out and talk with them about anything and everything. Good neighbors can make just about anything better!)

strong support system

(it's incredible how much harder I want to work towards something when i feel supported. At home, church, work, in family relationships, and in friendships I am surrounded by an amazing support system)