My New Obsession….

SUPER OLD, VINTAGE CLOTH CHILDREN'S BOOKS!!!!

I would love help finding some of these gems!!!  If anyone has any that you no longer want or knows of a place that I could find some, please let me know!!!!
Until today, when my friend showed me her mother’s from when she was a child, I had NO CLUE they even made cloth books!!   I don’t know if it was the creases and cracks in the pictures, the frayed edges or the stitched spine but I IMMEDIATELY fell in love!!! What a treasure, especially when headed down from your family!!!

Happy 14th Birthday, Ashlyn!!

Wow!! Where in the world did the past 14 years go?!?!

I blinked and she went from…

this..... (3 weeks old and teeny tiny!)

to…

THIS!!!! 14 years old and 7 feet tall!!

I’m kinda having a hard time with this!!!

She is my “original” neice! haha….my first ever!!

I was NINE years old when she was born!!!

I wasn’t allowed to hold her standing up!!

In fact, some of these pics are so old, I had to scan them into the computer bc digital was non-existent when she was born!!!

Sooooo apparently when I blinked, all of this happened….

I’m never blinking again!!!!

Happy Birthday Ashlyn!!! I love you so, so much and am so very proud of you!!! I couldn’t have asked for a better “sister”!!!  Please don’t ever, ever forget that once upon a time you thought I was so cool you called me your sister!!!

Pickin up where we left off….

Ok so, you saw Justin’s bday gift from myself and lil girl!

Now, I need to show you a few of the kiddos from one of the classes I’m helping with…

Some of the boys!

Franklin Kiddos! ....not quite the same ring as Kemp Kiddos...but they're precious anyway!!

Some more lil precious ones!

Adorable!

Last but not least, two more lil guys!

Those are just some of the kiddos I work with M-F.   Adorable. Smart. Funny. Sweet.  LOVE ‘EM!!!

Moving on….

Last weekend, Justin and I went on a canoeing trip that another couple in his flight had set up for who ever wanted to join.  We set off for ALABAMA (yes, we drove 2 hours to canoe a river when we have several right here in Columbus, but whatev!) thinking it would be about a 3 hour trip down the river- BOY WERE WE WRONG!!!

still thinking we only have 3 hours ahead of us!

The Whole Crew!

Climbed this big ole rock for a pic! =)

SIX HOURS LATER- we finally reached our stop….I’ve never been so relieved in my entire life!!! Fun lil trip but VERY, VERY long!!!

Next up, baby girls cutest new outfit…

"Killer"- Dollar Bin @ Target!! haha! Our new neighbor calls her Killer, so it seemed pretty perfect!

This past Friday was Justin’s flight’s solo party!  This is where they get their “call signs” and basically just celebrate the fact that they’ve all soloed.  Think: food, beer, roasting each other for stupid things and more beer- That was my Friday night! haha.

It really was a good time.  We had a lot of fun hearing all of the stories of mistakes the guys have made or dumb things they’ve said.  Justin’s call sign got “tabled” bc they couldn’t come up with one they all agreed on.  Who knows when they’ll figure it out?!?!

Love <3

Some of the guys!!

Just hanging out

Lil midnight snack- straight out of the pan!! Oh how I love you husband!

You are now OFFICIAL caught up!! YAY! =)

I’ll leave you guys with a few things on my wish list for my imaginary classroom!

Fabulous rug-Love it!!

Dry Erase Lap Boards

Amber's teacher sign! Soooo stinkin' cute!

And some giant rubber/foam dice, that I can’t seem to find again….do you still have that website Mom??

Such a beautiful day!!!

Today was an unseasonably cool mid-80s so we took full advantage of it!!

Loaded up the pooch, grabbed a couple sno-cones, and headed out to the baseball fields to let Paisley run wild- and that’s exactly what she did- for about 5 minutes and then it turned into a quick walk.

On our way to the park!!

So ready to run!!!

She's one quick lil girl!!!

Justin made her sit and stay on the pitcher's mound while he walked away!

But then she'd had enough of that!

Daddy caved and gave her a belly rub anyway!

A (blurry) action shot! =)

Taking a rest break on top of the dirt mound!

Ok, so enough of our trip to the fields…I need to catch you up on the past couple of weeks via pictures!

Justin's b-day present from his two fav girls!

Actually, it was just a place holder.  I bought a cheapy $1 water gun from Wal-Mart, spray painted it black and put a fake price tag on it- which you don’t see in the picture because he decided to turn on me one evening and come after me with a fully loaded water gun.  Tag got wet so I ripped it off.

His new toy! Smith&Wesson M&P 40

Trying desperately to be right-eye dominate....didn't work out!

**OK….as well as I was doing getting you guys caught up- The Hubs is pleading with me to not upload any more pics…for some reason, it delays our internet and therefore interrupts his Halo connection- HEAVEN FORBID!!! Oh, well I’ve got laundry to do and he’ll be studying tomorrow…I’ll finish catching you up then! Night all!

Another lazy post…

I actually have several pics to update with, but that would require walking downstairs and to my car- in the rain!

So sorry faithful readers, you’ll just have to wait! =)

But for now, I have a video on YouTube for you to watch that I should have shared with you guys a while ago.  My principal played this video at our Teacher In-Service.  Not only was it incredibly inspiring, it also made me so proud to be a Texan!! Way to go Dallas ISD for producing such an articulate and powerful lil speaker.  At 10 years old, this child is challenging the philosophies and goals of countless educators around the nation!!

Enjoy…. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GjwjZe8u0-E

Sorry I haven’t posted in a while…

I’ll get around to updating pics in the next couple days….

for now, check out this video i found on a friend’s facebook page (Thanks Desiree!).  The guy’s name is Taylor Mali, he’s a slam poet and this is his answer to “What do teachers make?”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxsOVK4syxU <~~click there and enjoy!

Happy 25th Birthday to THE MOST AMAZING MAN EVER!!!

TWENTY-FIVE years ago, the love of my life was born!!! Whew!! Gettin’ on up there Justin

Of course, I didn’t know him back then nor was I even alive.  But God had a plan.

Now, I know you are dying to see tons of precious baby pics and I wish I could share, but unfortunately, I don’t have any (Nancy, we need to get together and fix this!).  I do have one back-in-the-day pic of him and precious is exactly what it is!!

Awwww!! It makes me all cheesy smiley when I see that pic!!! So angelic, isn’t it?

That’s not the hunk I meet though, this is….

Since I don’t have baby pics, I’ll share pics from his last 4 birthdays and return soon with pics from this birthday!!

We celebrated his 20th at home with his family!

For his 21st, he rode the saddle at Texas Roadhouse in College Station

His 22nd birthday was a suprise at the Cavendar's Ranch with friends, fun and cake!

In Ohio we celebrated #23 with some of his fellow workers

And unfortunately, this is what his 24th looked like!

So of course, we did a lil of this before he left!

Somewhere between the first pic and the second, he grew into a man that I would one day meet and fall deeply in love with.  Aside from his obvious great looks, he is many wonderful things.

Strong. Compassionate. Caring. Romantic. Thoughtful. Determined. Motivated. Giving. Supporting. Loving. Funny. Reserved. Respectful. Forgiving. Patient. Smart. Protective. Accomplished. Christian.

I could say so many mushy things about how wonderful of a man, husband, son and brother he is but I think all of you know those things for your self!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Justin-

Happy Birthday baby!!! You are the most wonderful man I have ever met.  You have surpassed all of my expectations of a “great husband” and you continually amaze me with your drive and determination.  I could not possibly be more proud to be your wife.  Thank you for everything you have taught me about true love and friendship!

I hope you have a wonderful birthday and enjoy your present

****Also, Happy Birthday to Aunt Vicki and Pa! ****

Justin officially soloed!!!

The weather decided to let up for the first time in 9 days and allow some flying to be done!!

So, this morning at 9:09 (that was just for you Miss Ashley), Justin took off with his IP and flew for about 30 minutes or so just to loose up a bit before going out on his own.   The whole time he was doing this, I was sitting in their flight room with some of the other guys who had a radio set up for me to be able to hear him.  They were telling me what things meant/where he was as he would make certain radio calls!  It was really neat to listen to but weird at the same time bc he did not sound like my husband at all!!

I have to admit, I am a lil sad!  I think typically the wives get to go out to the plane when their husbands land to drop off their instructor so that they can get pics of them taxiing off on their own- I did not! I’m not real sure what happened but I didn’t get any such pictures.  We headed out there when we heard him say he was making his final solo landing.

Pulling up to the chocks- notice the smile!

Raising the canopy

SOOOOO proud of my hubby!

Climbing out

Mr. Solo himself!

Unloading his stuff

Again, so stinkin' proud of my pilot!

His "wings"- their IP gives them their name patch with wings on it before letting them solo bc you have to have wings to fly!

Taking care of some paper work for maintenance

Some fellow flight mates making sure he doesn't try to sneak past the dunk tank

Gotta take the boots off first- he had another flight in an hour!

Whew!! They weren't sure they were going to be able to lift him!! haha

Headed to the tank

1...

2...

3...

:-)

Congratulations Lt George, your solo is now official!

Oh, I love him so!

Maj. Cooper, the IP who soloed him, congratulating Justin

Josh, a fellow classmate, congratulating Justin

A mere hour after this, Justin was back in the air for another flight -not on his own though, back to learning with an IP!  He had a very, very busy day!

Our Masterpiece is complete! =)

Drum roll pleasee………….

TA-DA!!!!

Just a few sidenotes:

*Justin drew everything- and did so wonderfully, right?!

*I wrote the words…only after several minutes of serious anxiety and asking Justin to pretty please give me “notebook lines” to follow! He did!

*If you look cloesly you can tell my head is actually shorter than Justin’s (as in real life) BUT the artist purposely made sure my crown made me taller than he and his crown!! haha! I love it

* Even with stick figures, it took us close to 5 hours to complete this masterpiece!!

*We wanted to add Paisley but weren’t sure how we could accurately depict her- I mean, that is a LOT of hair to put in such a small space! Didn’t want it looking like a blob in the end!

I’m so over it!!

Justin still has not soloed!!!!!!!!! So, I’ve decided that I am going to quit building up the supposed date/time and just announce it once its DONE!!

On a far more exciting note,  I have recieved two packages this week!! Any one who knows me well, knows that I LOVE getting mail, especially packages!!!!

The first was from the Cranes- When we went to see them in April, Ashley made this phenomenal jalapeno ranch dip- I feel in love!!!  Well,  lo and behold, on Monday we received some from our lovely friends!! Thank you so much, Ashley!! You are so incredibly thoughtful =) Loveyou/Missyou!!

The second package just arrived this morning!!!  It was from my Dad who recently returned from a 10 day stay in Europe!! Super jealous!!!

While he and Petra were in Paris they visited, what might very well be, the largest Louis Vuitton store in the world!!!

4 stories of fabulousness!!!

And because they know me so well, they felt it would be a sin to visit such a store and not return with something in hand for yours truly!!  I know, I know….I’m super spoiled lucky!!!

That a girl!!

Sorry Paisley, those are for Mommy, you stick to your pink and black squeaky purse! Ok?! Thanks ma’am!

So, so happy!!

This one has already ventured out to lunch with me and received a few compliments!!  It’s the mini version of the Speedy bag that I got in Canada with Dad a few years back!!!

Alright well that’s all I have for you folks.  No Solo. Jalapeno Ranch Dip (be jealous!).  Teeny Tiny Louis Vuitton purses.

I’d say that’s a pretty nice, random post! =) You’re welcome.