Dear Santa,

Thank you so much for my gifts. I am, especially, thankful that you brought them a few nights early so that I could look H.O.T. while taking photos of the fam and snacking on some popcorn. I love, love, love all of my gifts. You might want to know in the future that worms are harder to tame, than you might think at first. They are like prisoners just waiting to escape, and they are good at it. ;)

I am looking forward to hearing from you again next year. Keep checking out those fashion magazines. You are doing a great job!

(Back story: Santa brought me wormery this year. I was sooo happy because you all know I am into recycling and such. Now, I can make my own compost. That is if all the worms don't escape.)

Here are a few photos for you to share with Mrs. Claus.

Much love,

Brooke

I'm dreaming of a....

Morehead Christmas.

Oh, what fun it is to open PRESENTS!

Holidazzzz

Boy, oh, boy aren't the Christmas holidays GREAT!! So far, I have gone to bed early, slept late, eaten a lot of sweets,  and at this very moment, my husband is out shopping for me! This is living the dream! : )

Beginning with Halloween, I truely do love the holiday season. I enjoy decorating, cooking, parties, presents, and giving. This year, however, I really haven't been in the "holiday mood." It is probably because of all the new things in my life right now. No worries, this rest and relaxtion is getting me in the spirit pretty fast. If you did not get a Christmas card from Wes and I this year, don't fret, I did not send any cards. I am so sad about this, but there just never seemed to be time to get them together. Don't worry, I will not miss sending them next year.

Of course, the holidays mean hitting the road for Wes and I. This year we will be spending Christmas with the Moreheads and the New Year with the Ramages. I am looking forward to seeing everyone and catching up.

I have a pretty good hunch that Santa is bringing me a new camera for Christmas, so finally, I can get back to posting photos of our life.

Wes and I have found a new church that we are really excited about. The last few sermons we attended were about letting our light shine so that others see Christ in us. This is a lesson most of us have heard from childhood, but the reality of this simple command is sometimes very difficult to fullfill. During the holidays and throughout the next year, don't hide your light under a bushel, but let the world see the truth in you.

"Let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in Heaven." Matthew 5:16

I am wishing you a very Merry Christmas. Until next time....

XOXOXOXOXO

Happy Thanksgiving Holidays!!!

It has been over a month since I last posted! WOW! Lots of exciting things have happened. I will do my best to catch up.

My digital camera completely stopped working. I bought a temporary camera, but I have not had the pictures the developed. So, I will get some new pics up ASAP.

October
Wes and I carved a jack-o-latern for Halloween. It was very scary! I decorated our door with a ghosts, and boy oh boy did the trick-or-treaters come. I wasn't sure what to expect because this is our first year in this neighborhood. We had kids knocking on our door forever! Our whole neighborhood was overcome with mini ghosts and goblins. There was even a hayride in our neighborhood. It was FANTASTIC! Needless to say, I ran out of candy pretty early in the night. Next year, I plan on having gallons and gallons of candy to give. I am already extremely excited about it!

On the baking side of things, I roasted the pumpkin seeds from our jack-o-latern and baked pumpkin bread. It was a wonderful kick off to the fall season.

November
This month started out with a BANG! My mom, dad, sisters, and brother-in-laws all came to the coast to celebrate Angela and Jessica's birthday. We had so much fun. Friday night, all of the ladies went to the Jewel concert at the Beaux. Jewel is even more amazing live than on her albums. I love her more now, than ever before. Thanks, Wes, for making this happen! While we were jamming out at the concert, the boys went to the Biloxi/Gulfport football game. Saturday, we started the day with a Vetern's Day Parade. Then we headed to Ocean Springs and had a blast at the Peter Anderson Festival. We ended the day with a big dinner of crab legs and seafood at Captain Al's. YUMMY! It was a great weekend, and I can't wait to do it again.

Over the weekend, I made a big pot of chili and BBQ chicken legs with green beens, homemade apple sauce, and couscous.

At work, I planned and hosted my first ever Reading Fair. Overall, it was very successful. We had 260 projects submitted. I learned a lot, and now, I certainly know where I can make improvements next year! My school is also hosting the District Reading Fair this year, so I will get to put some of my newly learned knowledge into practice in a couple of weeks! :)

The cats for the most part have adjusted to their new outside life. However, they have had some unwanted guests stealing their food. I noticed that every morning all of the cat food was gone. At first, I didn't really think anything of it. One night when taking the recycling out, I discovered the culprit. A possum was sitting in the garage eating his heart out. Lillie and Ivey were sleeping in their bed just letting him take all of their food. LOL! The possum was not scared, did not run, and barely left even after Wes got the broom after him. A couple of nights later, I discovered, much to my surprise, Lillie and Ivey asleep in their bed while a big yellow cat and a giant raccoon were eating out of the cat food bowl, together. I AM LIVING THE MOVIE, OVER THE HEDGE! Well, of course, this had to stop. I started bringing the cat food inside and only feeding Lilly and Ivey at certain times, much to their dismay. My parents brought an animal trap so that we can catch the pesky thieves. So far, we have not caught a single animal. hahahahahah! This is hilarous to me!

I am super excited to be off work for an entire week! I have a few days of resting at home before hitting the road to Kosciusko, Atlanta, Alabama, and home again.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday.

Until next time.........

XOXOXOXOXOXOXO

Happy Birthday Grand Ole Opry!

The first weekend of this month Angela, Jessica, Mom, and I took our 2nd annual ladies trip to Nashville, TN. It was Jessica's turn to plan, and she did a fantastic job! We stayed at the Opry Hotel, ate great food, and had a blast at our first Opry concert! We even walked away with a few FREE things! I am a little late posting these pics, but I had to wait for them to be sent! Thanks for the great time, ladies!

When things are broken, FIX them.

Things are going to break, and we must always be diligent to fix them. This is what I keep telling myself. As I type this, I am laughing out loud at the amount of my things that have broken over the past week. My camera is broken, my computer is broken, my polaris robot for the pool is broken, and the fireplace ran out of propane. Oh well, one thing at time, one day at a time things will be repaired and other things will break. When things break, we fix them. And somehow, this gives us a purpose, provides us with something to do, and gives us things to type and talk about.

Until next time . .. . .


XOXOXOXOX

What I have learned in 9 weeks

TOP TEN THINGS I HAVE LEARNED IN 9 WEEKS OF BEING A TEACHER

1. How to eat lunch, help 3 or more people pick out a book, and get ready for my next class all at the same time.

2. How to "hold it" from 7:00am until 10:00 pm at night.

3. Kindergartens are fun.

4. Hearing the words, "read it again" being said simultaneously by 26 kids is awesome.

5. That the phrases like "Yankee Doodle" and "ABC" make kids spontaneously respond in song. So funny!

6. Kids think I am funny.

7. Epitaphs are good way to get kids to write poetry. (Here lies Dave who chased a bear into a cave.) They love it.

8. That I can be stretched pretty thin and still function on a semi-successful level.

9. That I can memorize about 500 names in a 9 week period and remember the faces that match them.

10. All the hard work, mental drainage, and physical beatings are completely worth it.

BIG surprises and BEST husband ever!

Oh my goodness! Wes just gave me a huge surprise. First, Jewel, my favorite singer, is coming to Biloxi in November. I knew he was going to buy tickets for me because he told me, but what I did not know is this:

He secretly arranged for my entire family to come to the coast that weekend to go to the concert with me and to celebrate my sisters' birthday.

I absolutely did not believe him when he told me. I am so excited. It is going to be great fun! Thank you so much, Wes. I love you! :)

Until next time. . . . .


XOXOXOXOXOXO

Behind

I know I am a good bit behind in my blog posts. Not too much has been going on besides work and sleep anyway.

I will try to hit the highlights:

1. Never mentioned, Wes got a new truck about a month ago.
2. Went to Tupelo to visit my sister, Angela, had a BLAST!
3. Went to KO and visited the parents.
4. Made a new website for my school; check it out at http://www.gulfportschools.org/SCHOOLS/AAE/Anniston_Elementary/index.htm
5. Had a HORRIBLE experience with a veterinarian in Gulfport.
6. Moved Lillie and Ivey outside because nothing I tried kept them from using the dining room as a litter box. :( (Really they just live in the garage now, and I put comfy blankets out for them, a water fountain, and other luxuries outside cats don't afford. LOL)
7. Painted wooden letters for a teacher at work who is having a baby! I hope she likes them. See pics below.
8. Going to the USM ballgame tomorrow, if it doesn't rain. Southern Miss to the TOP!

Until next time......

XOXOXOXOXO

STREP THROAT

Those 2 words sum it all up!! A week ago, today, my throat starting hurting a little. I went to bed as soon as I got home from open house, starting taking Tylenol Sore Throat Friday morning, and actually thought I was being proactive about staying well for my kiddos at school. Well, I was WRONG!

A little RnR over the weekend, did nothing to help me feel better. Sunday, I was miserable. I stayed up all night long coughing. However, excessive coughing at night is not unusual for me so I was not extremely alarmed, I just felt really bad. I went to school on Monday morning and left pretty much immediately to go to the clinic where I was diagnosed with strep throat and told to stay home for 2 days.

I head home, lay down on the couch, and proceed to feel absolutely terrible. I don't ever remembering feeling that bad ever. My body ached so badly that I could not even really sit up. Wes comes home from work, takes my temperature, it is 102.8, and calls the ER. They say, "don't bring her in, just give her Motrin." He does and the fever drops, but doesn't go away. We sleep in separate beds to prevent Wes from catching it.

Next day, still have fever of 101 for most of the day. Finally, around 3:00pm fever breaks and I feel 1oo times better instantly.

I never knew strep throat was such a doozy! I am still sick: coughing, sneezing, weak, etc., but I returned to work Wednesday. Thankfully, I am on the up side of down!

Until next time. . . ..

XOXOXOXO

Back to School

I must start blogging more often because once I sit down to blog there is so much to write about I can't possibly remember everything I want to share.

School started Wednesday, August 5. It was a great day, probably the best day I had all week even if lightening struck our school right at dismissal. Our principal handled the situation with confidence and efficiency unmatched by many people. As far as my first experience as a teacher goes, I am having trouble with the ending of class. I have 40 minutes with each group of students and I am not giving them enough time at the end of the lesson to choose books, close the lesson, and line up before their teacher arrives. I have some solutions to this problem that I am going to try starting Monday. 40 minutes goes by so FAST! I am having a lot of fun getting to know the kids and making friends with my colleagues. I not only want to mention those things, but I want to say how grateful I am for my assistant. She is a life savor, and I would be buried in work and unable to move my shoulder due to stress without her guidance and unending willingness to help to me.

Lillie and Ivey have been quite adventurous this week. One day, I came home to a dead lizard in the hallway. The next day, I came home to a bird in the living room. The day after that, I came home to a strange black and white cat in the sun room. Needless to say, the outside door is no longer open when I am not at home. In addition to the lovely friends they made this week, one of them (still trying to catch the culprit) has decided to make the dining room their litter box. It is so frustrating because we have been here for 2.5 months and not had a problem at all. This must stop immediately, or they are going to become outside cats much to their dismay.

I saw Julie and Julia this weekend and was much inspired to create a 365 day challenge to blog about for myself. I have a couple of ideas, but I am still trying to decide. I came up with a book series idea about a year ago and just as I type this I am getting a good idea. Look for more on that later. :)

Much to my own dismay, I have not been in my pool for over 2 weeks. Work and rain have keep me inside. It is an extremely sad situation that I know all of my non-pool owning friends have wished upon me after their ever so thoughtful Facebook messages. I hope you all are happy. (just kidding;).

Wes is loving his schedule. He gets to leave for work after me, he only teaches 1 class per day, and he gets home before me. I came home to him napping one day, how wonderful for him, and Friday, I came home to him vacuuming the house, how wonderful for me! Plus, he packs my lunch every morning and makes the breakfast. He has tons of energy and smiles abound from him. All of these things make me happy.

This is going to be a full week, 26 classes, 3 meetings, and whatever else comes along. Here's hoping you all find blessings in the things you do this week.

Until next time....

XOXOXOXOXO

Blogging about blogging

Things are moving at full steam ahead. I start teacher workdays tomorrow. 2 days of novice teacher, 2 days of new to the district, 1 day of Essential Pieces, 1 day of Anniston development. That is enough PD to last me awhile.





Well, speaking of professional development, I have been reading a book about using blogs and other technologies in your classroom. It is extremely informative, and I am glad I read it before starting a blog at my school. However, it has taught me that the what I do and most of the bloggers that I follow do is not blog but journal. Blogging is actually about reading something that interest you, writing about how it impacts you or others, and then providing links so that others can research or read about the topic, also. I was so happy to read this because it makes blogs perfect for schools. It is all about reading, thinking, and writing!





I also discovered from reading this book that the fastest growing population for Internet use is between the ages of 2-5. Well, isn't this is an eye opener for educators? If is sooo necessary for us to get on the bandwagon and start teaching our students how to interact in this global/digital environment. (Here is my soap box: It is only unsafe because we are not teaching our children how to use it safely. Don't we tell them not to get in the car with strangers. It is the same concept). The problem is that most of us are in uncharted waters because we have just recently begun to use these tools ourselves. For me personally, it is quite overwhelming. Here is the link to the book I am reading, if any of you are interested in using this in your classrooms or libraries.





Well, in addition to working hard at the library. :) many fun things have taken place, lately. 1. I hung red polka dotted curtains in the library (pictures later) that my lovely mother made. They look fabulous. 2. I created a reading area in the library with a HUGE blue rug accented with books. 3. I finished painting the growth chart for my good friend Sarah's baby girl (pic below). 4. I read My Sister's Keeper by Piccoult. It was so good and surprising, now I am ready to see the movie! 5. My in-laws cam to visit for the weekend, and we had a really great time.





Until next time. . . ..

XOXOXOXO

Oregon Two: Too Long It Has Been

Okay, so I have a lot more pictures from Oregon to post. Most of you have probably already seen these on Facebook, but for those non-facebookers, I am posting some here. Oregon is a beautiful state with tons of resources and unusual people. It is worth visiting, and I am looking forward to sharing it with my family next summer.

Wes and I visited Crater Lake (a volcanic mountain that blew its top and created a very deep and frigid lake), drove to California and immersed ourselves in the Redwood Forrest, then drove up the Oregon Coast, stopping at several beaches along the way. We also made a couple of pit stops at rivers along the way. Here is our photo story.

Until next time . . . . . .

XOXOXOXO

Oregon One

Well, I have spent the last week in Ashland, OR. I got off to a rocky start, but the week has been fun, and I have learned a few things for the better. I will admit that I was a bit of a baby upon arrival because I do not enjoy sight seeing or vacationing alone. I like to talk even when there is nothing to talk about so when there are things to share I like for people to be with me. A mixture of pray, Wes' wisdom, and boredom quickly shook me out this. I meet some friendly people at a spa, and I spent the whole morning with them. They told me about the fun things to do in Ashland and in Oregon in general, and I shared the South with them. I am amazed at how intrigued people are with the South. They are interested in the drawl, the heat, the bugs, everything. I find this interesting because while I like to travel, I like it for the things that I get to see, the things that there are to do, not necessarily for the people who inhabit the places. But as southerns, we are a people that others are quite interested in. I feel special being from the South, and I wouldn't change anything about it. This makes me happy.

While a lot of time was spent in the small if not cramped hotel room, Wes and I celebrated America's birthday with a wonderful day of parade's, festivals, concerts, and fireworks. I am most excited that today is his last day of school and tomorrow we are headed out to Oregon's coast and to the Redwood Forest.

"This is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and be glad in it."

Until next time. . ..... . . XOXOXOXOXO

Summer time

It feels like a lot of things are happening and nothing at all is happening at once. Have you had that feeling?

I mean I am having a great summer relaxing by the pool and hanging out with my friends and family, but I am also working most everyday and making lots of progress there. Plus, I am doing lots of things around the house. Maybe I am just a little crazy! LOL :)

This past weekend, I had a wonderful time with my mom, dad, Angela, and Clint. We ate a great breakfast at the Beau Rivage. Crab legs for breakfast is the best thing ever! Then we saw Wes off to Oregon and shopped until we melted in the heat. Then, we cooled down by the pool. We really missed Jess and Paul.

My dad installed a cat door for Lille and Ivey to use while I am gone to Oregon next week. Training them to use it is not as easy as I thought it might be. Lillie will go through the door without my assitance but hates using it. Ivey refuses to go through the door unless I hold the flap up for her. I am trying a new tatic starting tonight. I moved their food into the garage. If they want to eat, they will have to go through the cat door. If they want to return to the wonderful A/C, they will have to go through the cat door. Hopefully, this will work. I have 3 days to practice with them before I leave.

I have had a great day and 1/2 with my friend, Chris Word. He and I did lots of fun stuff, and I am so glad he came to visit.

Until next time. . .

XOXOXOX

And another trip to Lowes. . .

It seems that everyday Wes and I have a reason to go to Lowe's. The reason mostly revolves around purchasing rocks! Yes, rocks. I had this bright idea to create 2 flower beds in the front of our house and instead of using mulch, I wanted to use rocks. It does look good, but it takes a billion rocks, and we never estimate correctly. Plus our trucks will only hold so many bags of rocks at one time. We are almost finished, but of course, we are headed back to Lowe's to purchase more rocks and some sprinklers for our front yard! I don't think I will make anymore rock beds for the rest of my life.

Here they are, the long awaited pictures.

rock flower beds

front profile

Kitchen

Pool

Florida Room

Dining Room with Lillie:)

Master Bedroom

Office

Living room

more pool

Until next time. . . . .

XOXOXOXO

And we're off. . .

Wes and I enjoyed a weekend in Kosciusko were we attended my 10 year class reunion. It was so great to see old friends and catch up. I was really impressed with the turn out. The whole night was fantastic. We also had a great time with my parents, Angela, and Clint. We went to a family reunion sort of event Sunday.

Today, Wes and I both went into work at our new jobs. I am a little overwhelmed, and Wes is feeling his way around as an assistant, again. Please pray for us as we begin these new paths. It is going to be one adventure.

My computer is in the shop and has to have a new screen installed; therefore, I have not been able to upload any pictures of the new house. I should get my computer back in a couple days, and I promise to post the pics, then.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer.

Until next time. . . . . . XOXOXOXO

WOW!

I know everyone is asking, what is going on? Why haven't we heard from you? Well, it took a week for the CableOne guy to come out and connect our Internet and TV. We tried to borrow Internet from our neighbor's wireless, whenever we could. But, the connection was sporadic.

So, we left our home in Hattiesburg, Friday, a week ago. It was frantic and hetic getting out by Friday night, but with the help of Chris Word and my parents we made it happen. Then having my parents spend the weekend with us in Gulfport made things even better. We got so much work done that I did not have to spend every waking hour last week unpacking. Thanks guys. We are so thankful that God blessed us with you.

None the less, I still had lots to do last week, and I am still working down the list this week. Things are coming together. Originally, I had planned on going in to Anniston to work this week, but I am glad I decided to wait. Tomorrow, Wes and I are going into Hattiesburg to finish up some last minute business and to complete our work at Purvis and turn the keys over to the new director. That is a big thing. Pray for the Pruvis band community that they will be accepting of the new director. Pray for the new director, Nicole Allen, that she will have the knowledge and patience to make this change with the band.

So far, I love living on the coast! Owning a swimming pool is GREAT! I have been in the pool almost everyday, no matter what, I make time for that! Today, I edged all of the existing hedges. This took me all morning and wore me slap out. Plus, I got stung by a red wasp! Wes and I also went to Lowe's and bought so many plants to landscape our yard. We also bought some pool side funiture. YAY! I have to do this. . . . Wes is AWESOME; he owns a bronco, and we were able to fit all the funiture in it at once. Thanks, baby! Lillie and Ivey are adjusting well to the new place. I am thinking of letting them go outside more often later this week. I let them out for a few minutes last week while I was in the pool. Ivey is quite adventurous and tried to jump the fence, while Lillie is a true scardy cat. She heard one strange noise, ran inside, and hid under the bed. Too funny!

Until next time. . . . . XOXOXOXOXO

What God did for us

Well, I am still holding my breath, but we did sign the papers selling our house yesterday at 4pm. We are going to remain in the house for 6 more days. During that time we are responsible for anything that goes wrong or right. So, please hold your breath for us also. :)

As you all know selling this house has been one crazy ride. I was thinking yesterday, and Wes and I talked about it last night and the entire process was filled with everyday miracles. The types of miracles most people don't realize are happening unless they are seeking God first. So while many of you know the story, I want to recap the way this wonderful web was woven for the good of all and glory of God.

We received a contract on our house after 6 days of being on the market for $86, 000. This was a young couple who was going to have a baby. (remember our house is 99 yrs. old and needs lots of TLC all the time.) An inspector came to assess our house and told this couple that our house had lots of problems and was beyond repair. The couple backed out of buying the house to my tearful dismay. Wes and I believe that this was a miracle because honestly, from our understanding the couple did not have much money. Buying an older home comes with risks that involve spending money. Second, we then had to come up with a plan to save about $5000.00 dollars or we would not be able to buy the house in Gulfport.

Fortunatley, the inspector was wrong and house only needed a few (at the time) plumbing repairs. We had these done. We went out to eat dinner with a friend of Wes's from his fraternity that was also trying to sell their house. He said we are praying that God is preparing someone for our house. I was like OMG, that is the pray I should be praying. So, I started. 10 days later, we had another offer. PRAISE GOD! Because of the money we had saved earlier, we were able to sell the house at a much lower cost. We had another inspection, but this time we were better prepared and things went, well. The buyers only requested a few repairs. Those included replacing some rotted boards and some other bathroom adjustments. Then we found out to replace the boards involved removing our entire bathtub and basically remodeling the entire bathroom. We were told that this was going to cost $5000 or more. Enter God. I tearfully called Wes at work and he found an old yellow pages and found this guy (who is not in the current yellow pages btw) named Mitch Moore. Mitch came over and gave us an estimate of $1634 to replace all the tile, a new bathtub, the plumbing, paint, replace the rotted wood, and rotted beams. PRAISE GOD! We had him do the work, and he did an excellent job and was very amiable during the entire process.
So, then we had the appraisal. The appraisal came back at $80, 000 which was (if you remember from above) $6000 less than our original first offer. So, if that offer had remained we would not have been prepared to buy the house in Gulfport because we would not have planned to save our money in that way. PRAISE GOD!
Next, was the termite inspector who discovered a few more leaks. God has been quite determined that we would learn to trust him more during this process. Again, a call to Mitch Moore repaired the leaks and saved us a little money.

From this point, we only had 24 hours left before the closing. I began to breath a little easier and was not feeling sick to my stomach at all yesterday until the text from my realtor that said, "We have a big problem." The problem was that the termite inspector put in the report that the house had had a prior infestation. BTW, not while we lived here. The loan company wanted an official letter stating that this infestation had not cause any structural damage. The inspector was refusing to write the letter because he did not want to put his job on the line. It appeared that we were going to have to pay yet another person to come out and crawl under our house and inspect the structure. Enter God who used a lady named Wanda Touchstone to convince the home inspector to write the letter. PRAISE GOD! The letter was sent to the underwriter at the loan company at 1:20pm. We were suppose the close the deal remember at 4:00pm. So, at 3:30 when I still had not heard anything, I felt that it wasn't going to happen, and we would be back at square one. Yet, I continued to pray and beg. At 3:35pm, I got a text from the realtor saying the letter was accepted and we were clear to close. I tearfully PRAISED GOD!

Miracles still happen, today. Look around you and see what God is doing for you, rejoice in what God did for us, and please continue to pray for us.

FREE Commercial!

If you are in the Hattiesburg area and need some work done, contact Mitch Moore Contracting, 601-408-0728

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again. . .

WOW! What a busy week. The career center has the been a hopping place this week at Hattiesburg High School. The library closed for end of the year inventory, the computer lab techs get to school late, and their printers don't work. So, all of the students are coming in here to do the work they waited until the last minute to do. It is wearing me out, so many students, so much noise, so few computers. . . I have actually started counting down the days; 7 more to go. 

So, we are so close to closing on both of our homes, but it has not been without much drama this week. The lender needed a copy of our Gulfport contracts to clear us for closing. Gulfport was being difficult about giving these to us, so I had to drive to Gulfport after school on Monday to pick up our academic contracts. Then, I had to bring them home, get Wes to sign his, and take them back to Gulfport, Tuesday, after school at which time, I picked up Wes's supplemental contract. 

In the meantime, we found out that the inspection to inspect the work we had done was scheduled for Tuesday morning at 9:30am. So, Monday night, Wes and I had some cleaning and toilet repair to do. We discovered that our toilet was running constantly so we decided to put our handy skills to the test and replace its insides. This actually worked out great. We worked together, and we got it done in an hours time. We both felt successful because most of our handy man projects don't go that well. We also discovered another small dripping leak underneath our bathtub on Monday. To no ones surprise, the inspector doing the re-inspection on Tuesday, said, hey, there is still a leak. So, it's return of the plumbers. One plumber came, but was too "big" according to the contractor to fit under the house, but he did; however, diagnose the problem which someone hopefully repaired, today. The good news is that the buyer is still going to buy the house, and we are going to close on Friday @ 4pm. No more inspections, no more plumbers, no more worries. HAHAHAHAHA... don't fool yourself. Just last night while I was cleaning the dinner dishes, the kitchen sink just stopped draining. Well, we were looking and thinking and kinda of tapping on the pipes, when Wes took a jab at it with the flash light and the pipe came loose and a water/drano mixture sprayed into our kitchen at 11:00pm. I am chuckling just typing this ludicrous story. We found the clog, removed it, put the pipes back in place, tightened them down, and off to bed we went. Who knows what adventures the final days in our house hold, but heres hoping they are completely uneventful. :)

So, Dawn's and Josh's wedding was fantastic. Big Cedar Lodge was so nice and peaceful. It was a great getaway for Wes and I even though it was very short. Of course, Wes is still fishing it up, and unbelievably, we pulled over on the side of the road on our way to Branson beside a lake. He dropped his hook in the water and out came a fish. He was so excited. He threw the fish back in, and we hit the road. He fished a lot and I mean a lot at Big Cedar, but didn't catch a thing. :( I got to spend a lot of time with Dawn over the weekend, and I was so excited. I love hanging out with her. We enjoyed seeing Wes's mom, Ron, and grandmother, too. Of course, I forgot my camera so I don't have any pictures. But, there was a photographer and maybe those photos will be posted on Dawn and Josh's website, and I will copy some from there to share with you all here. 

Until next time. . . 

XOXOXOXOXO

Road trips for weddings

This is my latest art project and my favorite so far.

This past weekend Wes and I took a road trip to Atlanta to visit his family and to attend Kyle's wedding. We were glad to get the chance to visit with everyone and to check on Wes's dad. He seemed to be doing very well, I am happy to report. The wedding was very nice and the reception was fun. The ceremony and reception were held at a nice winery about an hour from Wes's parent's house. I had never been there, but think Wes and I might pay it a closer visit the next time we go to Atlanta.

This weekend, we are hitting the road again to attend Dawn's wedding in Branson, MO. It is going to be a long drive, but we are looking forward to the excuse to get away. I will miss Mother's Day with my Mom, but I am sending her an awesome gift. Can't wait to surprise her again! Speaking of getting away. . . .

The termite inspection started today and will finish tomorrow due to rain. So far things are looking good. This is the last hurdle in selling our house, and I am just praying that it goes smooth. We are 13 days away from closing, please pray that things continue to progress in this endeavor.

I am going to start packing up our house this week. Does anyone know were I can get some boxes for free?

I want to leave you all with this picture of Lillie in my suitcase. She loves sleeping in tiny places and hates it when we leave for trips so she tries to always get in the suitcase. It is so cute to me.