Summer

This summer is flying by like it always does! I’ve been juggling time with my kids with trying to get stuff done for work! I just love people who say that teachers get off 3 months for summer and yada-yada-yada! I know that I only get 9 weeks off and 1 to 2 of those weeks, I’m usually in workshops all day! The rest of the summer I’m busy trying to make games, write lesson plans, look for activities, make study sheets, learn new curriculums, etc. etc!!!!

So I digress. Anyway the time is going by too fast. My life and my kids’ childhoods are flashing before my eyes! Ugh! It is just depressing! I’m just trying to enjoy the time this summer with my kids. Yes, it gets tiring and trying, but I still love the time with my kids. Next Thursday at this time we’ll be on our way to Mississippi. We’re going to spend the night there and go to the Mississippi Braves Minor League Team. Then, Friday we’ll be driving the rest of the way to Texas. We’ll be traveling around Texas and visiting my family and Rob’s dad until July 11th. I just sometimes I wish I could pause my life and take it all in a little more than I’m able to in real life. That may not make any since, sorry!

I’ll write more about summer later. In the mean time, what do you enjoy about summer? Please share! Oh and to all the “sick folks” out there, GET BETTER…NOW!! 😉

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15 Months, Already?

This reminded me that I didn’t post about T baby’s 15 month appointment the other day! He’s 24 lbs. 11 oz. and 31 inches long, which about 50th percentile. The doctor asked if he was walking and climbing and going all over the place. I told him he wasn’t walking yet. I said that he was just taking 3 or 4 steps here or there. He said well that’s walking:-) I was like well he’s not walking across the room yet. He said not to worry and that he’ll be walking very soon. I guess he could tell by the look on my face that I was concerned, which I am! All of these other toddlers have been walking for months and mine is just so scared! He’s definitely not a risk taker! As soon as he starts to take more than 3 or 4 steps and he feels himself losing his balance he just sits down! Arg! Now climbing…that’s another story. He’s climbing on everything!!!! Chairs, stairs, the couch! He is so proud of himself too!

A-man walked at 14 months and was not an avid climber. A-man also had a huge repotoire of words by this age (if I remember correctly)! I’ll need to go check his book and see. People always ask if I notice big difference between my 2 kids. I’ve had a hard time figuring out that out, but I guess those would count. Huh? They’re tempermates…now that I can’t figure out yet. We’ll just have to see.

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Team Endorphins Fighting Hard!

Wow! Just listened to another report from the Team Endorphins Blog. My Uncle and his partner Shanna are fighting 106 degree weather in the Mojave Desert! The crew also had to deal with swarms of bees! Uh-oh! Dad! 🙂 (My dad’s on the crew!) Anyway listening to these is so inspiring! They started in San Diego, CA and are now in on their way to Williams, AZ, which is their next time station!

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Update on My Uncle in Race Across America!

I just listened to the Audio blog on my Uncle Guy’s Racing Blog. The race is underway and Guy started the race with a 2 and half hour leg! Then, Shanna took over for her leg of the race and then Guy will have a 5 hour leg. They’re doing tests after each leg and Guy had lost 4 lbs. during the 1st leg, which is not good. They think he wasn’t drinking enough so they hopefully have that problem remedied! You can listen for your self here if you’d like!!

Go Team Endorphins!!!

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At the park

We went to the park today! Here’s some pictures…

HIckory Dickory Park, Auburn

Mr. A actually posing for his pic!
HIckory Dickory Park, Auburn

I love bucket hats!
HIckory Dickory Park, Auburn

Swinging!!
IMG_0107

My boys…
HIckory Dickory Park, Auburn

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50 Questions

1. Your name spelled backwards: natsrl (not going to use my real name)
2. Where were your parents born? Fort Worth, TX
3. What is the last thing you downloaded onto your computer? iTunes html thingy
4. What’s your favorite restaurant? Chili’s
5. Last time you swam in a pool? last summer
6. Have you ever been in a school play? no
7. How many kids do you want? 2
8. Type of music you dislike most? rap
9. Are you registered to vote? Yes
10. Do you have cable? Yes
11. Have you ever ridden on a moped? No
12. Ever prank call anybody? Yes, middle school
13. Ever get a parking ticket? yes in college
14. Would you go bungee jumping or sky diving? No
15. Furthest place you ever traveled? Europe
16. Do you have a garden? no
17. What’s your favorite comic strip? Snoopy
18. Do you really know all the words to your national anthem? Yes
19. Bath or Shower, morning or night? Just depends
20. Best movie you’ve seen in the past month? movie?
21. Favorite pizza topping? Sausage
22. Chips or popcorn? chips
23. What color lipstick do you usually wear? lipstick?
24. Have you ever smoked peanut shells? Huh? YUCK!
25. Have you ever been in a beauty pageant? no
26. Orange Juice or apple? orange
27. Who was the last person you went out to dinner with and where did you dine? Rob to Chili’s
28. Favorite type chocolate bar? Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups
29. When was the last time you voted at the polls? November
30. Last time you ate a homegrown tomato? Not sure
31. Have you ever won a trophy? Yes
32. Are you a good cook? Sometimes
33. Do you know how to pump your own gas? Yes
34. Ever order an article from an infomercial? No
35. Sprite or 7-up? Sprite.
36. Have you ever had to wear a uniform to work? Dance team uniform, band uniform
37. Last thing you bought at a pharmacy? allergy meds
38. Ever throw up in public? yes
39. Would you prefer being a millionaire or find true love? ooo, that’s hard one
40. Do you believe in love at first sight? yes
41. Ever call a 1-900 number? No
42. Can exs be friends? sometimes
43. Who was the last person you visited in a hospital? coworker’s son
44. Did you have a lot of hair when you were a baby? no
45. What message is on your answering machine? The normal
46. What’s your all time favorite Saturday Night Live Character? Will Ferrell
47. What was the name of your first pet? Rosie
48. What is in your purse? wallet, keys, tissue, gum
49. Favorite thing to do before bedtime? Eat
50. What is one thing you are grateful for today? Life

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Savannah, Georgia Roadtrip {2005}

Savannah

Here’s what we did on our trip over Memorial Day. Friday at lunch Rob kept asking me what I wanted to do over the weekend. I didn’t really have any ideas. He mentioned maybe go to Savannah. I said that sounded fun since that’s somewhere he’s always wanted to take me and I’ve always wanted to go! Well, I had to come home and first get a sub for sunday school. I did that, but still wasn’t sure if we’d go because I looked on the internet for hotels and there weren’t very many. So when he got home at around 6, we talked again and decided to stay at the Comfort Inn in Richmond Hill near Savannah. Then, we researched a couple more things and packed. We were racing around like crazy, called Rob’s brother to feed the dog while we were gone, all the while T baby was screaming his lungs off and TV Boy was griping about helping us!!! We got out of town about 10 pm!! We got to our hotel about 3:30 am, checked into the hotel, unloaded everything, put Monkey in the playpen only to listen to him cry and scream for about 15 minutes, since he’d been sleeping pretty much the whole way there.

Saturday morning the wake-up call rang at 7 am. We got up and surprisingly felt pretty good. Not exhausted from only a few hours of sleep. We drove over to Savannah to walk about and site see. I was very excited! We went to the welcome center to get brochures and a Savannah Downtown Map and get ideas of what we wanted to see. Then we got in the car to find closer parking to where we wanted to walk around. We found a parking garage near the John Wesley statue at Reynolds Square that only cost a $1 for the entire time we were there!! (parking garage was at W Bryan and Whitaker)

John Wesley Statue

One thing about Savannah is that I loved all the “squares”. They were each unique and special in their own way. They were all beautiful with large oak trees and Spanish moss hanging from them. We walked from Johnson Square to the river walk, which was nice. We walked the city some more visiting the following squares and notable places:
Reynolds Square
Johnson Square
Christ Church
Oglethorpe Monument
Chippewa Square
Chatham Academy
Telfair Museum of Art
Trinity United Methodist Church
City Hall
Wright Square

Girl Scouts Founder's House
Juliette Gordon Low’s Birthplace

And probably more, I just can’t remember them all.
Savannah

Then we stopped at Coop’s Classic Grill ~ 17 W. Broughton Street for a drink as we were pretty thirsty. At this point, Monkey Boy had fallen asleep in his stroller. We had seen pretty much everything we wanted to in Savannah so we raced over to make the 12:30 Savannah Riverboat Tour. This was interesting and gave us a good break to rest our legs.

Fun in Savannah

After that we walked back to our car and decided to go see if we could get over to Tybee Island. That ended up being traffic all the way across the bridge and we didn’t know how long that would take so we checked out Skidaway Island, which was so exclusive we couldn’t really see anything. By then we were starving so we headed to Love’s Seafood for dinner, which was recommended by a lady at a gas station we stopped at. Saturday evening we went swimming

Sunday we checked out of the hotel and drove to St. Mary’s, GA to see if we could get on the 11:45 ferry over to Cumberland Island. We were put on standby, so we raced over to Walmart for food and other stuff, since the island has nothing except water fountains and bathrooms! We got back to the to the river, packed up, and went to the ferry. It’s a 45 minute ride over to the island. We got to the island and walked around. We saw wild horses and the dungeoneous. From there we took a mile and half hike to the beach while pushing a stroller through sand. There Monkey and TV Boy enjoyed the water. T-baby enjoyed playing in the sand a lot! At 4:20 we walked back to catch the ferry back to St. Mary’s.

Hiking to the other side of the island

Dungeness

Wild Horses

It's so Beautiful there!

Fun on Cumberland Island

When we got back to the car, we decided to extend our trip one more day and head to Jacksonville, FL. We checked in to the Holiday Inn and went to eat at St. John’s Seafood. We swam after dinner and got some good rest.

Monday we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel restaurant and then went to the Jacksonville Zoo. Monkey really enjoyed it. He especially liked the birds and fish. TV Boy and Rob liked the Anteater! We left the zoo about 4:00 and got home about 8:30.

Jacksonville Zoo

Jacksonville Zoo

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9 Layers

LAYER ONE:
~ Name: LRStan
~ Birth date: September 30
~ Birthplace: Richland Hills, TX
~ Current Location: Auburn, AL
~ Eye Color: hazel
~ Hair Color: Red with natural blonde highlights
~ Height: 5′ 5″
~ Righty or Lefty: righty
~ Zodiac Sign: Libra

LAYER TWO:
~ Your heritage: english/irish
~ The shoes you wore today: Clarks
~ Your weakness: chocolate
~ Your fears: roaches, death, car wrecks
~ Your perfect pizza: sausage
~ Goal you’d like to achieve: losing weight someday
Continue reading

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105 Things About Me

1. A lot of people mispronounce my first name.
2. I was born in September.
3. I’m a Libra.
4. I was raised by my paternal grandparents since I was 3.
5. I’ve been married for 7 years.
6. I was born and lived in Texas for 20 years.
7. I’ve lived in Auburn, AL for 8 years.
8. I went to Texas Tech for 2 years.
9. I graduated from Richland High School in 1994.
10. I went to Richland Middle School and Glenview Elementary.
11. I went to the same elementary, middle, and high schools as my dad and three uncles.
12. I was a Dixie Belle, the dance team/kick line in high school.
13. I met my husband in an AOL chat room in November 1995.
14. I flew to Atlanta to meet him in December 1995.
15. I moved to Auburn in April 1996.
16. I have a Corgi.
17. I have a sister and 2 brothers (from my parent’s 2nd marriages).
18. I found out I was pregnant with my first son the day after my 22nd birthday.
19. I was almost 5 months along!
20. I found out I was pregnant with my second son the day before hubby’s 27th birthday.
21. I was about 5 weeks along!
22. I collect clowns of all sorts.
23. The states I’ve been to are Texas, Lousiana, Alabama, California, Virginia, New York, Mississippi, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas, Arizona, Oklahoma, Maryland, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Washington DC (I know that’s not a state!).
25. I’ve been to Mexico, Victoria, BC, St. Thomas, Saint John, St. Maarten/St. Martin, San Juan, Puerto Rico, England, and Scottland.
26. Things that make me really happy are chocolate, a clean house, a healthy family, sleep, being caught up on everything, having closets full of clean nicely hung and folded clothes, relaxing after having a productive day with Baby T in my arms, traveling, getting compliments, nice surprises, having chores done for me without me having to ask, kids, memories of my grandfather, and more (can’t think of them all!)
27. I drove a Rhino Riders all the way from Simpson Bay to Happy Bay while visiting St. Maarten in the Caribbean Sea.
28. I love reality TV, especially Survivor, The Amazing Race, Trading Spaces, and Fear Factor.
29. My favorite soap opera is All My Children, which I don’t watch that often!
30. I love to watch Discovery Health Channel.
31. I like to sleep, a lot.
32. I love taking pictures, especially of my kids.
33. I have red hair with natural blonde highlights from the sun.
34. I have hazel eyes.
35. I started wearing glasses when I was 21.
36. I started wearing contacts in 2002 before a cruise.
37. I’ve been on 4 cruises in 3 years.
38. I like playing The Sims.
39. My favorite fast food places are Chick-Fil-A, Fazoli’s, and Taco Bell,
40. I’ve been to Disney World and Disneyland.
41. My dream car is a BMW.
42. My dream vacations are to go to Italy, Alaskan Cruise, and Australia.
43. I’m addicted to the internet.
44. I’m addicted to blogging.
45. I’m addicted to blinkies.
46. I have PCOS.
47. I like CSI, ER, Third Watch, and among many others!
48. I love Fox News!
49. I miss living close to my family!
50. My favorite restuarants are Chili’s, Niffer’s, and Laredo’s Mexican Restuarant.
51. My favorite foods are Peanut Butter on Ritz crackers, Chips Ahoy cookies, Granola Bars, and Fritos.
52. I graduated from Auburn University in 1999.
53. I am Methodist.
54. I am a huge fan of Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity.
55. I tend to be conservative.
56. I love babies!
57. I changed my major just one time in college.
58. Often I wish I wouldn’t have!
59. I hate roaches!
60. I’m scared of getting in a wreck and hitting deer!
61. I’m in my 6th year of teaching.
62. I’m in my 1st year of teaching 5th grade.
63. I taught 2nd grade for 4 years.
64. I taught 6th grade for 1 year.
65. If I could be any profession other than teaching, it would be a stay at home mom.
66. I’ve dislocated both knee caps twice in high school.
67. I love music.
68. My absolute all time favorite groups and singers are Sting, Chicago, Journey, Def Leopard, and more…
69. I also really like Elton John, Chuck Mangione, Toto, U2, and more…
70. I’ve been to lots of Elton John concerts (can’t remember how many!)
71. I’ve seen Elton John and Billy Joel twice.
72. I’ve seen Weird Al in concert.
73. I’ve seen Meatloaf in concert.
74. I’ve seen Blue Man Group in concert. (AWESOME!!)
75. I’m too embarrassed to say who my first concert was!
76. My favorite movie of all time is Ferris Bueller’s Day Off
77. I love broadway musicals!
78. I’ve seen Oklahoma twice.
79. I’ve seen Cats twice at the Fox in Atlanta.
80. I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera at the Fox in Atlanta.
81. I’ve seen Aida. Once before Broadway and once on Broadway!
82. I’ve seen Lion King at the Civic Center in Atlanta.
83. I’ve seen 42nd Street on Broadway in New York!
84. I have never dyed my hair.
85. I have never smoked.
86. I have never done drugs!
87. I won’t ever dye my hair, do drugs, or smoke!
88. I drink Diet Coke all the time.
89. I need to drink more water!
90. I like Dr. Pepper and Coke too!
91. I love country clip art!
92. I have a pinched nerve in my neck.
93. I don’t like to talk in front of large groups of people.
94. I despise yard work, but I do it anyway!
95. I have both my big toenails removed because of in-grown toenails.
96. I have part of another toenail permanently removed because of an in-grown toenail.
97. I sleep with the fan on year round.
98. I sleep with my feet outside the covers.
100. I love to be barefoot!
100. I take digital photography only.
101. I am a Mac user!
102. I will never go back to PCs!
103. I get headaches a lot.
104. My allergies drive me crazy.
105. I love 30 Minute Meals!

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