Monday, July 26, 2010

Family Reunion

I got back from my family reunion last week. My dad, mom, Gram and I went to Olney, IL together and enjoyed the sights in "The Home of the White Squirrel." We got to see and visit lots of family and had a good time together. I hope to post some pictures soon!

The weekend after we got back my mom, Kelly, and I had a garage sale... MAN THEY ARE WORK! Didn't make much money, but got rid of some of my junk! Took me a few days to clean up and gather some stuff for the sale. I hope to upload my pictures and update again soon!!

Monday, July 12, 2010

Still on vacation!!

Right now I'm still in San Diego, CA with Mary Grace, Grady, Katie, Beau, and Anna Cross. We've been having a GREAT time! Katie and Beau are wonderful hosts and Mary Grace, Grady and I are having fun experiencing California! I will post lots of pictures and details about our trip when I get home, but for now..... Here a few pics from the week. :)MG, AC, & GM
The Beach Ball cake I made for Anna Cross's First Birthday!

Beau, Anna Cross, & Katie (AND the "after" of the cake)

Grady & Me at the BEACH!

Me & Mary Grace




Wednesday, July 7, 2010

EARTHQUAKE!!!

I made it to San Diego, CA today! Mary Grace, Grady, and I arrived around noon and Katie and Anna Cross were there ready to greet us at the airport!

We've had a great day, but you will never believe what happened today!!!

We were all sitting on the ground in Katie and Beau's house and all of a sudden MG said "What is that??" and the ground was moving under us... it was like a dizzy, standing on jello kind of feeling... and Katie said "It's an earthquake!" Well... before we could even move it was over, but HOW CRAZY!!!! I survived my first earthquake... apparently they happen all the time here, but you wouldn't know it... It's been on the news here from the moment it happened... going on 3 hours of coverage right now.

More updates to come!!! - Hopefully earthquake free! :)

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Beach Day!

My cousin came down from St. Louis for a Florida beach weekend... It rained EVERYday she was here! :( BUT we went to the beach anyway and laid out in the rain - yes, I'm serious.

This is what the people next to us did... haha!
It was great to spend some time with Kristin, though! I hadn't seen her since I was in elementary school. It's going to be fun to see all of my cousins at our Family Reunion in a couple weeks!

My friend, Kelly just started a blog! It's going to be fun to follow because she is expecting a baby! We just found out today that she is having a GIRL! Yay!!!!
Congrats, Kelly!!!

Today I saw this advertisement on a car.... Is this for real???

I leave for San Diego, CA in the morning!!! I'm so excited to see Mary Grace, Grady (my Godson), Katie (MGs sister), Beau, and meet Anna Cross!
It's going to be a great trip! I'll post pictures next week! :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010

DENVER!

I just flew back from Denver, CO last night!
My school sent me to the ISTE conference with 20,000 other educators from all over the world! This is a technology conference that takes place every summer in cities all over the US. I'm fortunate enough to teach at a charter school whose focus is on technology. I was one of 20 people that got to go from our schools. I know that I am lucky!!!

I learned a TON and had a lot of fun too! We stayed at the Sheraton downtown and were walking distance from the Denver Convention Center and all kinds of GREAT local restaurants! We ate a LOT of great food this week!
Here are some pictures from this trip...
Downtown Denver!

My team member and me!

The view from our hotel room!

Moby and Me!
If you are a teacher and know about BrainPopJr... You know (and love) Moby!

Down the center of the main road in downtown denver there were pianos, lots of pianos. There were always tourists and beggars playing the pianos, too. It was pretty neat to see the pianos in all their artistic glory right there in the middle of the street!

I had to get in on the action! - I know 2 songs, ya know!

Cinnfull Pancake, Strawberry Margarita Pancake, Sweet Potato Pancake
These pancakes are from a restaurant named "Snooze" off the beaten path in Denver. It had a variety of interesting breakfast choices with many pancake options. The Sweet Potato one was my favorite!

Outside on the 5th floor by the pool! Soaking up those moon rays!

I had to eat at Sam's! YUM!

Overall it was a GREAT trip!!! Next stop... San Diego, CA!


Wednesday, June 23, 2010

New Pictures!

We had a BLAST in Tennessee at Matt's family reunion!
Here are some pics of a few of our adventures!
The Valhalla Manor - Where we all (52 people) stayed in Sevierville, TN.





On the Ski Lift on Ober Mountain in Gatlinburg, TN.
We were just about to go down the ROCK SLIDE - So fun!!!


Matt's Aunt & Uncle, who we adopted as our parents for the weekend. We didn't have a car and they drove us EVERYWHERE! We had so much fun with them - they're awesome!!!

.... and these are pictures from Matt's cousin's wedding. :)
We went to the wedding before we went to the reunion.

Okay... so far, so good! I have posted twice this month!!! YEAH!!! :)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Summer is HERE!!!

Summer is finally here! YAY!
I thought about starting this blog with something new, but I have to say it again... I have NOT been a good blogger! HOWEVER, I am going to TRY to keep up with this over the summer.

So.. Here we go!

As soon as school got out Matt and I packed up our bags and headed to Graceville, FL for a wedding. We rode with Matt's sister and niece, which made the ride much more exciting. We stayed with some of our friends in Dothan, AL for 2 nights and then left there for Matt's Family Reunion in Sevierville, TN. We got here on Monday night and will be here until Sunday.

We've been playing LOTS of games and having lots of fun.

Hopefully I'll get some pictures uploaded soon!

Sunday, March 21, 2010

SPRING!

Spring is finally here! YAY!
This means...
Spring Break - YES!
My Birthday - Wooo Hooo!
Warm Weather (hopefully) - FINALLY!
and best of all....
School is almost OUT! - YEAH!

I like the spring!

March is a busy month for us, but filled with fun things! However, this week is PACKED!

First of all, Matt just signed a lease for his recording studio (The Vanguard Room). Demolition started last week and it's been crazy! The space is awesome, but was in terrible condition and not set up to be a studio at all. Matt has been up there helping with the demoing all week and I went up there yesterday. I have to admit I was pretty excited to go up there and help. So, I picked out my best construction worker outfit...
*old jeans
*long sleeve shirt (arm protection)
*with my Sea World T-shirt on top
*old tennis shoes
*Budweiser hat (yes, I have one of these.
It was a gift from the people I
babysit for that sell beer.)
*mask (you aren't allowed to go in without one)

At first I just stood around and collected all the tools off the ground while Matt was sweeping things up. Then, I got bored so I started filling up the wheel barrows with stuff they had already torn down. By the end of the day, I had scraped up all the aluminum flooring out of an entire room and made a million trips to the dumpster. Construction work is HARD! And let me tell you, when I woke up this morning... my whole body was sore! If I did that for a living I would have one amazing body!! I worked muscles I didn't even know I had!!!

Back to my busy week...
Today... Family Fun Night with Matt's family and we're celebrating my birthday!
Monday... Matt's dad is in town, so we're having dinner with him!
Tuesday... LOST night at my house and getting a massage (tell you about that later)
Wednesday... Church, then birthday dinner with friends!
Thursday... Birthday dinner with my family!
Friday... Leaving for the St. George Island!!!
Saturday... MY BIRTHDAY and VACATION!!!

Ready to start my week!!! 5 Days until Spring Break!!! YAY!!!


Saturday, February 13, 2010

February...

Well... I'm not a great blogger. I guess I need to have a kid to really have exciting pictures and funny stories to post about... My life isn't that exciting. However, since it is February and I haven't posted anything since CHRISTMAS I figured I better do something! - Thanks for the push, Katie!

Everything has been going well with me. Staying SUPER busy. I basically have something going on EVERY night, but that isn't a bad thing! I'm not bored - that's for sure.

I'm half way through course 4 (the final course) in my Wilton Cake Decorating classes. I have learned a LOT and it's been really fun! If you are interested at all in decorating cakes, just for yourself even, you should take the courses. It's been awesome! You can take them at any Michael's Craft Store.

Here is a picture of my last cake in course 3...
I also have my first paying cake request... I'm making a cake for a birthday party this weekend. YAY! I think it will be fun. Maybe I'll post that one before summer... we'll see! :)