Being an Aunt

Beauty in the Common Things: Our dog, Honey, is in heat and has apparently been sneaking in and out of the yard to get what she wants (or atleast try) so we are having to let her in more often. We brought her in and Grant randomly says, "Oh Honey, she's so cute!"

Listen In: Team Umizoomi, courtesy of Nickelodean

Dinner Plans: Probably something on the road, I have to go pick up my nephew so he can stay with us for the weekend!

View from the Kitchen Window: Daniel finally mowing the yard. We've been so busy lately that its a jungle out there!

I'm an Aunt again! My sister gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on July 1st. She was 9 pounds, 4 ounces. It was a long day that ended in a c-section and plenty of smiles. I'm so excited to be able to spoil her and dress her up in all sorts of things! Grant was sick the day before Baby Vivian was born, so I didn't get to hold her and love on her in the hospital. We waited for everyone to get settled in and then went to visit.

This was her 'coming home' outfit. I bought this outfit for her, never knowing that she'd be leaving the hospital on July 4th! What a firecracker!

Baby Vivian was crying and Grant got concerned and decided she needed to eat!

Proud Aunt and Uncle.

After Vivian was born, we went to visit Daniel's grandparents. They live in the hill country of TX where there are deer everywhere. We took GiGi's mustang convertible out for some deer sightseeing!

There are over 50 deer in the field that we were looking at, and plenty of babies.

We spent July 4th with my brother and his family. Its always great to see how my nephew has changed every time I see him!

Here is Fletcher and Grant in the firetruck. Gotta love matching t-shirts!

After going to the park, the boys took a dip in the blowup pool. They loved taking turns holding the garden hose.

After a good 4th of July weekend and some last minute shopping at IKEA and the Gap Outlet (thanks, Daniel!), we headed home. Halfway there, we ran into traffic and got rear ended.

Grant and I were asleep in the back when it happened and we were all ok. The girl who hit us did have some injuries, but nothing terrible. That made for a LONG trip home.

Labor Dance

Beauty in the Common Things: Having the husband I've always dreamed about. (you'll see what reminded me of this on the next one)
Listen In: There is nothing on Monday night TV, so watching "The Bachelorette". Eww... liers, idiots, and players all wrapped up in six pack abs.
Dinner Plans: Chicken Nuggets, broccoli, corn. Banana bread in the oven...done in an hour!
View from the Kitchen Window: Looks like rain is coming, which we need!
We are still waiting on my niece to make her grand arrival! She will certainly be here this week, but we are all growing impatient. So to get this show in the road, I made Grant put on a 'labor dance'. So, my older sister that I love, please watch this video and suck in the labor vibes!! I want to meet your daughter!!

summertime

Beauty in the Common Things: Grant was sitting next to me this morning and said, "Momma, I need a hug." Oh my, I melted! If you know me at all, you know I'm a hugger!

Listen In: New A/C running (yeah!) while watching 20/20 about Michael Jackson and Grant watching "The Jungle Book" very intensely.

Dinner Plans: Pancakes and sausage

View from the kitchen window: NO sun room. This was on the back of those and it was really wasted space for us. I didn't do the FULL before picture, but just imagine the first one with a roof on it:

This is the after. Its not 100% finished, but its a good start. There is some peel and stick tile left that our dog Honey is doing a good job of removing (I decided just to leave her to it!). I eventually want to stain the concrete and add a pergola. So later on, my backyard will look like this:

Ok, maybe not that fancy, but you get the picture!

Things have been nothing but constantly busy since school ended. I taught tech classes for teachers and then went straight into teaching summer school. Teaching economics is totally different from what I've done, but I have a good group of kids to test the waters with. Speaking of water, we've been doing plenty of swimming so far.

Here is G after swimming at Grammie and; PePaw's house. We went to see Aunt Erica graduate from high school. Congratulations, girl! We are proud of you!

I bought these new floaty type devies made by "Puddle Jumpers". I love it! It keeps him afloat really well and he can move pretty freely with them.
He's been getting brave. Here he is at the Double D Farm. Look at that form!
Grant and Jacob checking out the Gator at the Double D Farm.
One day D took Grant to the zoo while I was at school. He's a braver man that I, but I know they had good Daddy and son time!

We've also been patiently awaiting my sister to have little Vivian. She is 40 weeks today. Every phone call, every thunderstorm, and the latest full moon has made my heart jump. This is my first niece and I can't wait to meet her! Her and I will be best girlfriends! Expect a big blog when she arrives!

Below is a video taken on the way back from Costco with MiMi and PawPaw. PawPaw turned up some dancing music and we were all rockin' the Tahoe. Maybe Grant picked up some moves from me showing him and his Dad my moves from Zumba....haha.

Giving it a Second Thought

I had to blog on another site about a topic. This is what I chose, and I thought I'd go ahead and transfer it here!

I am a product of Generation X. I grew up loving on my Cabbage Patch dolls, watching "Saved By the Bell" on Saturday mornings, and playing Super Mario Brothers on my Nintendo Game System. When learning about wars in my history classes, it never interested me much. Ok, so some people fought, they died, blah blah blah. Yet as I have transitioned into adulthood, I have began to see things about the past from a different angle.

My husband introduced me to the History Channel, which made me realize that I didn't know anything about history. I am actually embarrassed at what little I know. But when I think back on it, I never made it past WWII in any of my history classes! We always ran out of time. I decided to add this to my to do list: restudy history, especially post WWII.

Little did I know a series of events would peak my interest more and more. In April, Junior class students began reading "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brian. Students remarked on how interesting it was. I decided to add it to my to do list: summer reading of "The Things They Carried".

In May, we had a special event come to our hometown. It was a traveling Vietnam War Memorial. It is a replica of the one in Washington D.C. and an additional Sept. 11th. memorial. It was a 3 day event that included vigils, music, and special presentations. The weekend it came, we just happened to show up at the time all the army helicopters came in for a landing. I was amazed at the size of the Apache and the Chinook and could envision men jumping out and going to duty for their country. My toddler son got to sit in the cockpit of the Apache and toy with the instruments as he wore his puppy dog backpack. A part of me laughed, but then behind me I saw the Vietnam War Memorial. The list of names behind me on that wall were all someone's babies. I had to take a closer look.
I couldn't believe the amount of names on that wall. I even double checked that I wasn't mistaken. I remarked, "So are you telling me all these people died in the Vietnam War?" "Yes, honey.", my husband said. At that point I realized that I had no idea of the magnitude of wars. It was time to check in with ones from that generation, my parents.

My father was 18 when he was drafted. He said he and many of his classmates loaded up on a bus to a nearby town for physicals. Everyone was eating 3 or 4 candy bars on the way to raise their blood sugar...anything they could think of so they wouldn't have to go. Thankfully, my father's football injury from the year before is the one thing that kept him off that road to Vietnam.

Now on my to do list: Thank God for all those who served and bless the ones still serving.

Bye-Bye Brooks & Dunn

Tonight, we say good-bye to one of the best country duos ever: Brooks and Dunn. Thanks for the songs that made me dance, made me cry, and made my son do this:

Need a laugh?

Click here if you are having a bad day!

Sometimes I randomly put this on my board at school and the kids, one by one, realize it and start laughing. How can you not love it?

Its Official

My son loves the spotlight. We met some friends from college this weekend and my son spent each meal time singing into the microphone for dinner guests. He even went as far to push other other kids out of his 'area' when they would get too close (apologies to follow). Today he graduated from the nursery class at Children's Day Out and was the only one singing and dancing! So proud of him and humored by him.