I feel like a kid again...

Christmas is less than a week away and everyday goes by so FAST I can barely believe it.

By the time I'm outta work it's already dark and cold as Antarctica - the last thing I wanna do is go Christmas shopping! All I can think about at this point is eating.

Thankfully, I got a lot of Christmas shopping done on Saturday. Since it was best friends birthday, she wanted to spend a good part of the day at Crabtree - which, if you know me, is not my kinda thing. I like the kind of shopping where you go in with a list and come out with everything on your list, no more and no less. I don't like to shop around or spend hours at the mall but it's something my best friend could live her life doing so I went.

Lets just say this, Crabtree the weekend before Christmas = a nightmare.

I love the holidays, don't get me wrong, but the ONLY thing I hate about this time of year is how greedy people can be. Pushing through the mall, people being impatient and angry, people strolling for parking spots like they're going to die if they have to walk more than five feet...I can't stand it.

I'm reminded what Christmas is about EVERYDAY when I walk in my room at work. All 17 of my four year olds run to greet me and proceed to tell me Santa's coming soon and it's gonna be Jesus' birthday! They're all so excited about all their family members coming into town. Everyday I hear stories about what family members are coming in when and where, if they're flying or driving, and of course, if they're bringing lots of presents. The looks on kids faces when they talk about Christmas and Santa, it's priceless. It's like when I'm at work I'm in a magical little world where I can't help but be happy because all my kids faces light up the second we start making Christmas ornaments or wreaths.

When it comes to Christmas, kids put all the magic back in it. All the talk of how Santa gets down the chimney and how he's able to eat every kids cookies ALL over the world. It makes me feel like a kid again and for once it feels nice.

Aloe, Onions, and Christmas Trees!

There are 8 million other things I need to be doing right now, like working on my portfolio for Ed Psych that's due in TWO days but instead I feel the need to blog...

1.

Christmas is FAST approaching and Mack and I just put up our very FIRST Christmas tree tonight!

It's a skinny little thing ain't it? It's our first tree so Mack says we gotta give it some slack, especially since my wonderful mother let us borrow it so we could then store it in her attic until Christmas next year, yay for Mom's who have massive attic space!

2.

The ornament shown at the very top was sent to us in the mail from Mack's little sister, Sunny, we loved it so much we had to put it as close to the top as possible so everyone could see it.

3.

Carley Sue isn't very happy with me at the moment. The Christmas tree is actually in the spot where her bed usually goes (hints why she's sitting so close to it now) and she was extremely mad that I chose to move her stuff and therefore proceeded to try and eat the Christmas tree once I got it up. What a baby.

4.

Mack got us this AWESOME magnet for our fridge from his sister Shawna - she made it. She also makes all kinds of other cool stuff (pictures, cards, etc.). Check her out peeps - http://www.etsy.com/listing/88539084/spread-joy-original-miss-lizzie (this is one of the MANY things she talented at!)

5.

Now, Mack's mama would be a proud mama if she could see this...

My aloe plant's gotten SO big it's taking over my counter - I love it though, it's not really liking being inside, but it loves my kitchen lights and continues to grow because of it. Thanks for all the aloe wisdom Mama Diana!

6.

All y'all out there who love some snacks, let me open your mind to something amazing...

Hello Trader Joe's. These things are the BOMB (and not bad for you may I ad). Mack and I ate whole bag the first day we got them and continue to love them. Thinking about them makes me hungry. Yummy.

7.

Last of all, this little man sitting in front of us at the last State football game had this shirt on and I'm in love...

LOVE IT!

Hope everyone's having a wonderful time decorating for Christmas!

What a crazy time of year.

a.

I can't believe it's December 7th - it's already exam time and Christmas break is finally in sight...

b.

I spent last week/weekend celebrating my birthday with the ones I love. Starting on Wednesday my family had lasagne for dinner and cinnamon pizza for dessert. Then it was back to focusing on the last week of school until Friday came.

d.

Friday was spent celebrating a friends birthday which was great. I spent all day at my parents getting all 100 (no joke) boxes of Christmas decorations down from the attic. After hours of that, mom and I set out on a shopping adventure.
Mack and I then turned around and spent Saturday night celebrating my birthday with my friends. (Note: Chili's doesn't take reservations, they do "call ahead seating" which doesn't do anything for you, my party of 12 had to wait for an HOUR before we got seated - psh!) Either way it was great to spend time with my friends.

c.

Sunday was spent with the Cooper fam celebrating my birthday yet again at the Bass Lake Ale House which has delicious food. We then went back to my parents to put up the Christmas trees and ornaments with my best friend. Once both 8 foot trees were up and one was fully decorated it was time to go to TSO. My parents bought the four of us tickets to go see it for Mack's birthday since he LOVED them last year. If you don't know what TSO is, you better learn, FAST, because they're the bomb diggity. Here's a video for you...

(they're still WAY better in person)

d.

The weekend finally ended sadly and now I'm full gear into two weeks of exams. I got my first exam out of the way today but I still have a portfolio due tonight, an exam Friday, and two portfolios due next week. Please pray for my sanity!

e.

Christmas is in sight which I'm thrilled for - the tons of Christmas shopping I have left to do, not so exciting, but it'll be worth it on Christmas morning when everyone opens their gifts and you see all the happy faces and family that you love.

Thanksgivin'

I posted recently about how Thanksgiving and Christmas are coming up soon and how much I can't wait to spend time decorating and eating with my family but think about this...

What if you didn't get to spend Thanksgiving day or Christmas day with your family?

Understandably, it's not the actual day that makes it important it's the thought but our society depicts a specific day out of the year for these holidays to occur. I'm starting to realize how many people out there aren't as fortunate as me - they don't get to spend Thanksgiving day or Christmas day with their families because they're busy protecting us - the people who are privileged enough to get the opportunity to make wonderful memories and enjoy their holidays safely.

I can't imagine what's it's like for our soldiers in other countries and how hard those days must be knowing they can't see any of their loved ones. Unfortunately, I can't walk/fly across borders to feed them Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner but I've decided to try to make a difference in my own area with the people who directly protect me and my family.

This is TONNYYYY and we've been friends for about 3 or 4 years now (and yes, I say his name just like that every time I see him and people always make fun of me for it but that's alright).

He's one of my best friends and he's a fireman. Now, his dad was a fireman too and he drove the ladder truck for the town for a looonnngggg time. He comes from the nicest family I've ever met and I can see why he's such a great man now.

I guess I never really appreciated firemen and policemen in the way that I should until I became friends with him. Firemen hold a special place in my heart now. He's opened my eyes to so many amazing men and women who work in my town to protect all of us on a daily basis.

This year I feel the need to give back, not just to Tony, but to the stations within my community that keep my family safe. Tony, like the rest of his shift, have to work on Thanksgiving Day - they don't get time to go have lunch or supper with their families, they have to work all day long. So this year I've decided I'm going to make Thanksgiving supper for Tony's station. How am I going to do this? I don't know yet but they deserve to have a home cooked supper just like the rest of us! I may need help with this cooking adventure (I'm hoping to get a couple of people involved in this miraculous idea) but I'm determined that this is what I want to do, I want to thank them for all they do. And if for some reason I'm not allowed to do this I'll find someway to show my appreciation.

That's what Thanksgiving's all about right? Giving thanks? I think sometimes I lose sight of that but not this year and hopefully not any year after this one.

Spandex?

Okay so at NC STATE there's all kinds of fads going around and right now one is

SPANDEX

(the thought of this makes me cringe)

Let me just say that spandex legging things are not the most flattering things on anyone. Girls at school are now wearing these as pants - as in, they wear a t-shirt with JUST spandex for pants, what's that about?

Was there some kind of mass memo that was put out by the university saying at least one in two girls PER DAY must wear these? because if so, I'm glad I missed that memo.

Ladies...news flash...jello is the ONLY think that I want to witness jiggling, if I see something on your body jiggle I'm just gonna get freaked out, cover up your rump - I prefer not to see the outline of your rear end on a day to day basis.

You best believe once I become a teacher there better be some dress code rule in the school I work in stating:

 No student is permitted to wear spandex/leggings without properly covering their rump.

Okay thanks.

Oh the festivities have just begun!

To me Halloween is the beginning of my FAVORITE time of year. From Halloween till mid January I'm in a daze because life flies by so fast it's unbelievable!

November brings the start of all the cold weather and the amazing colors of Fall...

It also brings Thanksgiving which is my favorite holiday!

Then at the end of November comes my birthday!

My cake for my 21st birthday (thanks to my mom and dad - I had a baller cake!)

Then slowly December starts to set in and that's when the cold weather really gets here - 32 degrees is normal at this time of year and there's nothin' better than goin' to my mama and daddy's to sit in the family room in front of the fireplace with all the pups. 

December also brings my best friends birthday (the one I grew up with) so birthdays always mean a lot to us - it's one more year we get to add on to our lifetime of friendship. Unfortunately her birthday always falls on exam week which kinda stinks but we always make the best of it!

After her birthday Christmas time is in full swing. My mom starts crazily decorating her house and when I say crazy I mean...you've never seen so many decorations in  your life but I love it because that's the only way to have Christmas in my family. Mom puts up two trees (an 8 foot one and a 9 foot one) and we decorate both with 3 (triple layered) boxes of ornaments - she also has 4 or 5 "baby trees" - one's she puts upstairs and in the top window of our house. She has a village, we've collected the houses for the last 10 or so years and every year my dad and I set it up together (it literally takes 4 hours) and then we run our railroad ALL the way around the town - it's awesome.

This is my favorite one in our village.

When it's all said and done it usually takes my family about a week or so to get all the decorations out and put up. Once everything is finally done, it's perfect and there's no where else I'd rather be during Christmas. Every Christmas my best friend says there's no where else better than my mom's at Christmas time and if that ain't the truth, I don't know what is. So thank you mom for all the hard work you put into Christmas, it's wonderful.

After all of this, Christmas finally shows up.

Christmas Eve for me consists of my mom, my dad, my grandparents, myself and Mack all going to dinner at Bonefish Grill (not my fav but it's alright, I like the bread). Then we go to the service at my parents church and finally we end up at the Cooper household to exchange gifts (at least my gifts!). Now the Cooper family has plenty of members to it so thankfully we had this little secret Santa thing goin' on last year that seemed to work pretty well.

Finally Christmas morning is here and I use to be one to get up at 5 AM to go open presents but not anymore...7:30 is about as good as it gets, unlike some people I know (cough The Cooper household cough) :) 

On Christmas all of us (my parents, myself, and all the dogs) open our stockings (and yes all 3 of my dogs have stockings that my Grandma knitted for them to match with the rest of the families). My grandparents come over around 8:30, they're early risers so they don't mind plus my Grampie loves the coffee and snacks he gets before Christmas breakfast.  

We open the rest of the gifts under the tree and then everyone gets ready for the feast of a breakfast my parents make which always arrives around 10 or 11 AM (which is great because since the Cooper family wakes up at the crack of dawn it allows plenty of time for their Christmas and then Mack hops over to ours for breakfast and gifts). My sister strolls in with all the babies sometime around breakfast, you never know when. 

Then everyone lays around and lets their food settle before investigating all their awesome Christmas presents again. 

January closes out the holiday season. It often brings snow (which cancels school - whoop!) and therefore we spent 6 hours a day sledding and pulling the sleds with four wheelers in the snow - something I always look forward to because no matter how cold you are, there's nothing more entertaining. 

Are y'all getting as excited as I am for all the upcoming events/holiday season festivities?! 

Bumble Bee's and Dinosaur's!

Unlike my sister, I'm not a big Halloween lover, I only like it because it starts off the "holiday season" and brings cold air with it, which I love!

This year Mack and I decided to have a little Halloween party of our own. My best friend (aka Miss Betty Crocker) brought chips, dip, pigs in a blanket, and brownies - I would die for her cookin' any day. I made two frozen pizza's, go me :)

When I got home today Mack surprised me with this WONDERFUL gift...

He bought me a pre-packaged lunch box for me to take to school tomorrow and it's CARS themed (with animal crackers, string cheese, and a juice box), now that's what I'm talkin' bout. What a wonderful man.

After that I decided to pack up and head to my parents house since it was so yucky outside and traffic was atrocious I didn't want to go far - plus I had a five page paper to write so I needed some peace and quite which I can get at my parent's house cause my Mom loves her grandog! :)

So, Carley Sue dressed up as this cute little dinosaur...

This picture took about 8 tries because Miss Carley Sue did not want to wear her hat - she rebelled the minute the picture was over and ripped it off!

Roo (one of my parent's dogs) dressed up as a cute little bumble bee - except she LOVES wearing her outfit every year and barks when you try to take it off of her.

She's 11 and still cute as a button!

Now Roo had a little hat that went with this costume but big bully Miss Carley Sue bit one of the antenna's and ripped it right off Roo! 

Faith dressed up as a dinosaur too but Carley Sue (who is at least five inches taller than Faith) ran after her biting the tail of her dinosaur outfit until Faith snapped at her - then Faith climbed up on the couch in hopes of not being seen by the big bully. 

My big bully - she likes to sit behind her grandma's desk and watch out the window for any approaching dogs that might attack her grandparents or her mama! I can't explain the love I have for this little one.

I hope everyone had a happy, safe Halloween!

Observations!

Oh student observing how you've stressed me out the last couple of weeks!

All of us "soon to be teachers" were suppose to know by fall break where we would be doing our student observing. We just got told today which schools and teachers we were placed with - two weeks after fall break.

 So my observation teacher emailed me this morning, he sounds awesome...

he's a retired navy veteran

it's his first year actually teaching middle school

he's been teaching for over 10 years

he sounds extremely nice in his email

I was thrilled until my excitement calmed down somewhat and I re-read the email to realize I was placed in a school I'd never heard of. As we all know this county is known for building more schools to handle all the people that keep coming here because of our wonderful school systems. So of course, I google it, isn't that what everyone does now? Google anything and everything?!

Well anyway, on your form thingy you fill out before you're actually admitted into the school system you request where you'd like to be placed because they like to place people close to where they live because eventually you'll probably be looking for a job in that same area right?

So I'm lookin' on my school's website and I'm searching for the address to enter into my GPS because I like to be super OCD and extremely prepared, so the night before I need to be somewhere that I've never been before, I drag my mom out and we do a test run. We drive to that place and back just so I know where I'm going. I'm already OCD about being early EVERYWHERE so imagine if I got lost?

PANIC!

So this calms my nerves and my loving mother agrees to it in any situation - she's wonderful. Well anyway, I found the address and oh my lordy...not only have I never heard of this school but it's forty minutes away...

say what?!

Whew, thank goodness I got Little Cobie who will drive me all around town and still get 38 miles to the gallon (thank you to my parents for getting me a manual car - it's come in very handy!). So minus my absolute shock over the fact that my school is 40 minutes away, I'm excited to meet my teacher because he seems awesome. Plus the way I look at it, would I rather drive 40 minutes and observe a spectacular teacher or drive 5 and observe a teacher who may not even want me in their classroom? I'll take the first option please.

Observations start Friday I believe and I'm more anxious/excited than ever!

Wish me luck!

Halloween is coming!

So last week I was strugglin' a bit...it was my "unpleasant week" that I get evvverryy month but this month's was especially bad (sorry babe!).

So lemme just quote my wonderful boyfriend - this is what he said like a month ago...

"dang babe, I'm so glad I got you cause some girls are just plain crazy when they get their gift every month!"

Okay now this made me happy, that was until last week when I turned crazy. I felt like I had to drag myself to places everyday and I had to continuously take Aleve to get my darn cramps to go away. Plus, on top of all that through out the week I was extremely touchy about what people said and I even embarrassed myself by crying at a bond fire...for what reason? I don't know! Oh the joys of being a girl!

ANYWAY

Onto more pleasant subjects!

Halloween is coming up! I can't believe October's almost over, I feel like it just started.

Around here they have these really cool corn mazes we're considering going to...

My best friend and I are also planning a Halloween get together with all kinds of cool stuff...

We'll also have lots of amazing food (made by my bff because she's little Miss Betty Crocker) and tons of fun (plus a scary movie or two!).

Therefore, the weekend needs to hurry up and get here ... minus the fact that I have two presentations and a paper due next week...the Halloween parties the only fun I'll be having this weekend!

Baby Bike?

Okay so I own this little blue baby right here...

She's also known as Baby Bike because my boyfriend has this...

They may look the same because they're both blue and made by Yamaha but they're tooottallly different. So why do I call my bike Baby Bike? Well lets see:

a) she's about 198 pounds (which is a lot for me to try to pick back up off the ground)
b.) she's pretty short - about 42.7 inches
c) When I sit on Baby Bike, my feet actually touch the ground fairly well

Now Mack's bike on the other hand:

a) It's about 245 pounds (which is INSANE)
b) It's about 51.6 inches tall (depending on what's on the bike - if it's stock or not)
c) When I sit on it I can't touch the ground so Mack and his dad have to hold the bike up for me JUST to sit on it so I wont fall over and break something.

Anyway, I got my bike earlier this year and was determined to learn how to ride it. Now, I already have a manual car and my bike is manual too so to learn how to drive was pretty easy but being comfortable driving it = not so easy.

Over time I've stopped riding my bike because I was never comfortable riding it around anyone but Mack because I didn't want to look dumb. Now, does it really matter what I looked like on my bike? No, most people who found out I got a bike were:

a) proud of me for trying to learn to ride
b) astonished that at 21 I just now had the urge to want to ride
c) wondering why a girl, like myself, would want a dirt bike
d) concerned I might die/brake something (cough mom cough)

Most of the people who ride have been riding their WHOLE life...I mean we're talkin' like starting at age 4. And people think it's dangerous for a 21 year old? HA!

Anyway, I've been dreaming of getting one of these babies one day...

Obviously not one this big.

Saying they're less dangerous than a bike isn't really true but they make me feel safer, considering they have four wheels and as of tonight I found out my boyfriend is thinking about buying one because he's been longing for one and plus it'd make me REALLYYYY happy to have a four wheeler I could drive around when he's on his massivveee bike! My excitement overwhelms me!

Have a super night, sorry the post was so boring tonight! :)

Fried Food, Lots of People, & Tons of Fun!

Today was my first trip to the fair this year and it was amaazzinngg!

I told Mack over lunch that I'd be blogging about our trip and his response was, "so you'll be taking random pictures at random times?" He obviously understands, plus since I have such a wonderful man in my life, he actually helped me take pictures because I'm quite short and him being tall and a wonderful picture taker came in handy often throughout the day so thanks love!

The weather was spectacular today, if you didn't spend time outside, what a shame!

But on the way we passed this awesome furniture store...



We of course ate at our normal booth for lunch, it was delicious!

The tractor pull was excellent, especially the tractors with jet engines in them...

While watching the tractor pull these two got on top of the power box and I (like Shug in Boots) took a random picture of people I don't know because I thought it was adorable.

 

After that, we went to the animal exhibits (I took tons of pictures - mainly for Shug in Boots who couldn't go to the fair with us!)

I love cowwws!

 

 This ones for Beth...maybe she belongs with your Tina Turner blue eyed horse :)

Except she's a baby donkey

They were so dang cute, look at those widdle babies!

 This is the MONSTER horse (literally).

We also got our famous NC State Ice Cream which was delicious, even though the line was past the building!

Strawberry for Mackie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Swirl for me!

The fair was amazing, I'm exhausted but totally satisfied with all the amazingly greasy food I ate today. I hope all y'all had a wonderful Sunday too!

Dream Away

Being a girl and all, I dream of the future and what it might hold for me. Here's a few of the things I dream about on several occasions...

1. I hope to be a wonderful mom one day.

Minus the cat, they're not my thing.

2. I want to be HAPPY

3. I will always have a dog, they're amazing additions to your life and their companionship is unlike anything else in the world (if you have a dog, you get what I'm talking about).


I'm sure I'll have one of these one day - Mack's favorite dog is a chocolate lab.

4. I would also love a nice little house on a pretty good amount of land in the country

5. I would want my home to be a place where everyone feels welcome and cozy



6. I hope to own one of these beauties one day

This is a Yukon not a Tahoe, there is somewhat of a difference, at least in my eyes :)

We all know life isn't as perfect as we envision it in our heads but I do hope that in my lifetime I can at least accomplish items 1-3 (even though I know already I'll always have a dog). Life can be hard and stressful and I know some of us worry too much about the little things (especially me) but I hope as I grow older, I become wiser and learn not to sweat the small stuff (as Mack says). I want to enjoy life and be happy and one day (in the far future) I want to be a mom, and a good one at that, I feel like that's one of my missions in life.

 The material possessions aren't important (the house with the land, the car, etc.), it's important that I'm happy because money and stuff DON'T buy happiness and I think a lot of us in the world today get too caught up in that.

(Okay I'll get off my soap box now)

Goodnight :)

Cold weather where are you?!

I'm so over this part fall/part summer weather...daggum mother nature let it be FALL!

I dream of wearing my stretchy Kohl's pants with my UGG's.

I love having my cozy LL Bean slippers right beside my bed so I can instantly put them on the moment my feet come outta the covers!

I love waking up to a cold house and getting all my warm PJ's on once I can drag myself out of bed.
Once I can slowly migrate to the kitchen I make either a) pumpkin spice coffee OR b) Christmas blend coffee.



The weather being cold means my birthday, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are all coming within the next two months, who couldn't be happy about that?



December 25th is quickly approaching (considering I bought Carley and Spirit yet another Christmas present yesterday) and it'll be Carley's first Christmas and I'm soooo excited. I'm hoping Roo (one of my parents dogs) will teach her how to open gifts because Roo takes pleasure in opening EVERYONE'S gifts, including her own. 

 This is little Roo!

I love her to death!

And if it snows this year, which I'm sure it will at some point, I can't wait to jump my little self onto the four wheelers!

As much as I love fall/winter, I know after two days straight of 32 degrees weather I'll want summer back...it's just a continuous circle. Either way, as of right now, I can't wait for winter and all the fun shenanigans that come along with it!