I'm a proud Auntie D...yet again!

My sister is was pregnant.

We've been waiting on Ronan (my nephew) for a week. We thought he might try to come Tuesday since my sister was in so much pain but nope he's a stubborn little man. 

My sister was a trooper. She did the whole process with limited drugs, no epidural and lots of breathing. Even though she's had two other babies, I was never able to be there for their births but they had this birth planned. They had her scheduled to go in at 7:30am Saturday.

When we got there at 10:30am Ronan had hardly moved.

My sister was blessed with a wonderful nurse (your the shiz Janice) who was constantly by her side, making jokes and taking wonderful care of her and the little man.

Ronan refused to have anything to do with his heart monitor and was constantly moving around to avoid the nurses being able to detect him. Brooks (my sister's husband) and I about had a heart attack when we saw the babies heart rate go from 156 to 65, of course we went and got a nurse immediately, leaving my sister to question why the two of us were acting like freaks, and once Janice entered the room she informed us that Ronan was just playing hide and seek with the monitor. 

Thank you Jesus!

(The nurses have their little "station" that holds these huge TV monitors - 9 in a row - that show all 9 patients contractions/heart rates/etc. on the screen)

Once my sister got to 7 centimeters the night seemed to fly by. Ronan was here before we all knew it - weighing in at 8 pounds and 11 ounces.

My sister and I are 15 years apart which always seemed to make our relationship a little more difficult. We're not always the closest and just like all other sisters we fight. But, I can tell you that in all my twenty three years of life, I have never been more proud of my sister than I was yesterday. Seeing my nephew born was a blessing and I won't ever be able to thank my sister enough for letting me share in the experience with her. I have no other siblings/women figures that I'm close to in the same way and I know in my heart that this was the only experience I'll have seeing a life brought into the world before I have my own babies one day (in the far future). 

So thank you Stacy for letting me be there for you - more so than I ever have before. It meant the world to me.

Pack Pride!

Today was the beginning of my spring semester.

As I was sitting in my English class this morning, taught by a teacher from Scotland who has the best accent ever, I realized a year from today I'll be student teaching...

scary

The fact that I "should have" graduated in May (had I not gotten my associates degree first)...

annoying

but, whatever - I probably wouldn't have gotten where I am now had I not taken the time to really focus on my education.  

Anyway, I've been sick with some kind of yucky cold lately so I've been putting off buying my books until today (the second day of the semester, which also happens to be the day in which everyone has finally gone to at least one session of all of their classes).

big mistake

When I walked in the door to the bookstore all I saw was a line...a HUGE line full of students who were buying their books at the last minute, just like me. So after 10-20 minutes of waiting in line, which wasn't too bad because they had all these brand new binders, mittens, scarfs, and what not surround the area around the line, we finally got to the desk to check out. 

 8 books for one English class - 5 for the other

 Not many teaching books required this year - I guess my English teachers are makin' up for that.

Even though I have an overwhelming amount of books to read, at least I got this awesome binder and notebook to motivate myself this semester!

I'm happy to be back with the PACK! 

Read, Read, Read...

 For all you other readers out there check these two books out...

1. Get ready and bring on the tissues because this one will bring you to tears! It is a phenomenal book about a little Caucasian girl who was brought to work and live with slaves in the kitchen house of a very wealthy captain in the South. It's an easy read - if you liked The Help, you'll love this book too!

2. My mom read this book first and then filled me in on how I absolutely had to read it. It's a fairly good sized book and I read it in three days. It delves into the life of a woman named Olivia Mackenzie who is going after her father, a very wealthy business man, to take down his company. The story line is full of surprise and romance all the way through. You won't be able to put this book down!

Have y'all read anything interesting lately? If so, let me know, I'm always looking for a good book!

A lot of dirt for many awards!

My other half spends half of his life doing this...

 If you've never been to one of these races you can't quite grasp the amount of danger that comes with these bikes but Mack loves it, danger or not, it's his passion. Not only is it his passion but he's quite good at what he does.

His racing takes us to different cities all over North Carolina but yesterday we were attending the awards banquet in South Carolina which meant quite a drive for us but Mack got a free ride day if we got there early enough. We got to SC about 10:45am thanks to Gene and boy was there a lot to see.

After he took the bike out for a couple of hours, I was so proud to be able to attend the AMA District 29 (which handles all riders from North and South Carolina) championship banquet with him and Gene.

 Of course, Gene bought TONS of raffles tickets in hopes that it was our "lucky day."

We did end up wining some t-shirts, new grips, and Mack got a free week worth of training at South of the Border (a $400 value) so I think we got pretty lucky!

 Mack not only placed third in his first class but he placed first in his second class!

I'm so proud of all the things he's accomplished, all that he's overcome, and I can't wait to see what the future holds for 921!

Lily Pulitizer and her bomb diggity planners

As most of my close friends and family will tell you I'm an organizational freak when it comes to planners. I usually start out with the blue sky one's from target at the beginning of the semester and by the end I'm on my third or forth planner (crazy I know). After all was said and done I probably spend around $30 on planners a semester...until I found Lily. 

I saw mine online right before my birthday and my best friend was kind enough to give it to me as a gift since I wasn't sure I was ready to pay the hefty $26 + tax + shipping (even though I'd already been payin' that every semester for planners anyway). 

Let me introduce you to my wonderfully alligator Lily...

 

It provides you with a little stretchy band that goes all the way around it so all your junk doesn't fall out!

There are these AWESOME stickers provided

Lily gives you a reason to feel the need to party!

It offers great pictures, like the one above, to get your month started.

Then you're given a "monthly view" - my personal favorite so I can keep my procrastination down to minimum

Lastly, you're given large day to day blocks to fill in with all your happenin's

The BEST thing about these planners is they have now been reduced to $16 (instead of $26) and they're offering free shipping!

Lily Pulitzer Planners

I hope you all love yours as much as I love mine!

Dr. Wimsey is the bommbb

For any dog owners out there who DO NOT go to Banfield, you should get with it.

Carley came down with kennel cough about a week and a half ago. She was pitiful - she would barely eat and she was coughing constantly. I finally got her on the right medication and she's almost completely better now, thank goodness!

Dr. Wimsey is Carley Sue's doctor at Banfield and she's magical. She takes care of my parents 12 year old westie and 8 year old cocker spaniel too so that makes it even better.

Well, when I went in for Carley's exam today I decided to get her advice on a little problem I'd been having. You see, my "puppy" now weighs 52 pounds which literally means she weighs half of what I do. With that comes the fact that when she's got her mind made up that she's gonna drag me all over, she will and walking her has become torture because of it.

I've had dogs since I was a kid, when I was born my parents already had a dog and we've never lived without one since. My dad, super dog trainer that he is, has always used these nifty things:

When I got Carley Sue I bought her one of these and now that she's large and in charge the pulling these do on her neck area don't phase her one bit. You pull on it and she turns around and looks at you like if she could laugh, she would because it's a joke if I think that things doin' anything to slow her down.

I explained this problem to the vet and she recommended this new product to me that fits around the dogs face and when she pulls, it pulls her snout towards you instead of pulling on her neck. So I went and bought one, it was $10 on clearance and I figured what the heck, might as well. Let me tell you something, I put that harness around her for the first time this afternoon and she instantly corrected her behavior, no more pulling me around or tugging at her leash. I figured maybe it was just a short term thing since I only used it to take her out potty so I decided I'd take her on a walk tonight to see how it worked. Yet again, the thing was AMAZING. If you have a dog - like mine - who practically pulls you around, try this, it works!

I couldn't be more thankful for a vet who cares and these magical walking harnesses above. Tomorrow I'm off to buy Carley a cow bone (one she can't even chew pieces off of), to help keep her teeth clean and prevent her from eating bone parts that might get stuck in her throat, now this may be a challenge since I've never bought a cow bone before!

Lovin' the weather!

Today was one of those days where you just HAVE to be outside. The sun shined all day and even though it was a little chilly, it was too nice to stay inside. My best friend and I woke up superbly early to get McDonald's and then head to the flea market! If you've never been, go, they have all kind of cool stuff...

This green furniture above holds a special place in my heart. I LOVE this kinda stuff, even though the green is kinda atrocious, I can't help but want it.

They have all kinds of old stuff, it always amazes me the kinda things you can find at the flea market!

These signs, which are generally $10 a piece, are totally my thing. They're in my price range, I can hang them in my house - on my own, and they old and rustic just like I like :)

My shopping trip was a success because I came home with these four things:

(The "Keep Honking" is for my dad for Father's day, the rest I bought for myself!)

After spending a couple of hours at the flea market we decided to head to Wolf Camera. I've been needing a new camera since my old one barely works, therefore I never use it. We did some research and realized with my budget there wasn't many options but I found one I really like and decided to compare price. At Wolf Camera the Nikon cost $170 at Target, I bought it for $116 and got a discount on an SD card!

Thankfully, I got a new camera just in time for Mack's race tomorrow so I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures from that. Hope everyone had a wonderful spring break (if you were on spring break!).