MMMMMMMMMMMonday.

Come on....give it a try.

Can you name the things starting with 'M'? - sporcle

29.

So...I turned 29 yesterday.

While the actual number is a little scary to think about, I have been looking forward to this day for a while---mostly so I could finally have some cake--but also because it's a pretty good reason to get together with my friends.

One of my students' sweet mom brought cupcakes to the class (homemade chocolate icing, I might add). They were heavenly. You'd be proud, though. I only ate one. Now, can I just say that I have the best friends EVER? I know I say this ALL.OF.THE.TIME, but ask any single family member of mine and they'll agree that God has especially blessed me with the greatest. Never will I know what in the world I've done to deserve them, but I'm grateful for each one who was so carefully placed in my life and the exact time they're needed most.

My birthday fun started Monday night. Mims took me to dinner, but first surprised me with a fabulous pedicure! It was perfect and is something I love but NEVER DO for myself! We had the best time. I'm not really sure how the night escaped us without getting a picture of us in the fabulous massage chairs, but we did manage to take a picture of the OPI nail polishes of our choice:I promise we chose our colors without looking at the name. How ironic and appropriate that the name of her color was "I'm India Mood for Love" and mine was "Strawberry Margarita". We thought it was funny even if you don't.

I love OPI polish, don't you?

I've always been a "birthday person." I love making people feel special when it's their day and, well, when I was young (haha), I used to have serious countdowns until MY birthday. Who doesn't love getting a little attention every once in a while? And now that there are so many different ways to communicate, I enjoyed all of the calls, texts, emails, and facebook messages I received. Such a fun day.

My students were sweet to me too. It made me happy when they informed me that they thought 29 was "really young." Sweet children they are. One of my students told me that she spent hours making this banner for me the night before my birthday. To me, these are the best types of gifts-the ones that show you that thought and time were really put into them. You can't really tell by the picture, but there's also lots of glitter on this precious banner. I really could tell she put her heart into making it, and she was so excited to give it to me on my birthday.

After school yesterday, my teacher friends took me to Bin 612 to celebrate. On Monday, it was rainy and about 40 degrees outside. God took care of me though, because on Tuesday, it was sunny and 70! It was perfect weather for sitting outside. Oh, how I love spring!

Don't I have the most fun group of teacher friends? I was so happy that so many of them made plans to be with me.

Thank you, sweet friends! You make being "almost 30" just a little more bearable!

Wordless Wednesday

ALL ABOUT MEREDITH! (ok...and maybe a little about me too).

Happy Spring Break, all!

I first of all, need to give a shout out to my Texan friend Meredith, who celebrated the big 2-8 yesterday. I had good intentions of blogging about her yesterday, but it was a very busy day, and I let time get away from me.

My sincerest apologies.

ANYWAY--if you're a reader of my blog, you know that I don't take birthdays lightly. I've always been a "birthday person" and I enjoy making a big deal out of my friends' birthdays. So, in honor of Meredith's 28th yesterday, I have compiled a list of 28 reasons why I love this girl oh so very much.

1. She's married to a cowboy, and a cute cowboy at that.

2. She's HI-LAR-I-OUS. When we're together, I usually end up laughing until it hurts. Throw Claire into the mix, and it becomes dangerous.

3. She understands my strong dislike of Bob Saget and Uncle Kracker.

4. She understands my love of Starkville and wine.

5. She's pretty. It's a natural beauty that's on the inside and outside!

6. She loves her family. She comes from big family, and like me, enjoys spending as much time as possible with each of her family members.

7. She loves her friends. She has approximately 3,486,391 friends and she's loyal to them all.

8. She's a constant encouragement. I can be having the worst day, and I know that talking to Mere will somehow make my day so much better!

9. She's a fantastic cook! I've asked her numerous times if she would mind cooking for me and shipping the food to Starkville. She says that she doesn't really think that would work. I guess she's right.

10. She's responsible for introducing me to "Waiting for Guffman," which is quite possibly the best movie of all time. Want us to quote it for you? We absolutely will.

11. She can change a flat tire. I can't.

12. She's a middle child like me.
13. She spent the day with George W. and Laura Bush. Totally jealous.

14. She understands my love of "aunthood".

15. She told me just yesterday that she enjoys getting older! Here I am, whining about the fact that I'll be 29 next week, and she just looks at it like another year to celebrate life!

16. She loves Saved by the Bell reruns.

17. She sets aside "LT time" when she visits MS, even though she and Vic have half a million people to see when they're here!

18. She will abbrev. with me even if though it annoys almost everybody else.

19. She's had the coolest jobs of anybody I know.

20. "She can sing, she can act, she can dance, and there's only one other person in the world that can do that and THAT is Barbra Streisand."

21. She has cute clothes.

22. She has the BEST hair.

23. She N.E.V.E.R. complains.

24. She loves Neil Diamond.

25. She let me catch the bouquet at her wedding. ("Let me"? Ok..maybe not, but even though I did have to push some people out of the way, I DID manage to catch it! That was several years ago, and you see how well that whole thing has worked out for me, right?).

26. She puts every single person before herself. I don't care how well she knows you.

27. She's one of the most loyal friends I've ever had and will ever have.

28. She's going to be the best mom!!!! I can't wait for baby girl Horn to arrive in August!

Happy Birthday (a day late) to my dear friend! I can already tell it's gong to be a great year, Mere!

Now, about me... (that is, after all, why you read my blog, right?). I'll give you a brief P90X update. I'm nearly at the end of week 3, so there's been a little repetition thus far. I've done about 7 videos a couple of times each (and have I mentioned how much I HATE YOGA?! That's another story, really.). So, since I've become somewhat familiar with several of the routines, I find it unnecessary to listen to Tony at times. I find that it's more fun and equally beneficial to exercise to THIS:

What do you think about this set up? Pretty clever huh? What you see here is Tony, who is on mute, on top of my TV, while I enjoy a fantastic episode (volume up) of Seinfeld. See? Exercising can be enjoyable!

I've thoroughly enjoyed my Spring Break thus far. I've worked at MINT basically the entire day, which was great, but I loved being able to sleep in this morning and get a few things done. I'm heading to Gulfport for the night tomorrow for another baby shower for Heather and little Jones. I can't believe that it really is getting close to Jones' arrival! Only a few more weeks until I'm an aunt again! Life is good.

Oh! And did I hear that the NCAA tournament is going on now? I wouldn't know, since I'm boycotting this year. That's right---B O Y C O T T I N G. It takes a good bit to get me mad, but those NCAA tournament people managed to do it! And Kentucky? Don't get me started please. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, click here. Oh, and what they'll fail to mention in that article is that the refs were TOTALLY UNFAIR. I could have officiated that game with my eyes closed better than those idiots. I don't personally know this particular blogger, but after reading this post, I decided that she and I would be BFF. Well done, Boomama. I couldn't have said it better myself. And you're probably wondering what the NCAA tourney has to do with this. Well, it was shortly after this horrible loss that those people announced that MSU did not make it to the tournament. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I wanted to blog about this immediately on Sunday, but I was afraid I'd say something I shouldn't. I thought that if I waited a few days to discuss this on the blog, it would be better. Maybe I was wrong, because the thought of it still makes my blood boil. I'm just bitter. Very VERY bitter.

So, while I'm a basketball fanatic, my attention is now focused on the NIT and absolutely not the NCAA tournament. GO DAWGS!
Now. I'm planning on enjoying my last few days of Spring Break and spending it with my family with a smile on my face!

and THAT'S why I love that place...

I love it when people give teachers discounts. But, I guess if I were in the military, I'd enjoy military discounts; if I were a senior citizen, I'd enjoy a discount at the movies, restaurants, etc.
It's not too often that you see clothing stores who give people in my profession a nice discount. It's one of the many reasons why Ann Taylor Loft is my fave.

When you sign up for "Loft For Teachers" (sorry, all you non-teachers out there), you'll not only receive coupons via email, but you'll also receive style guides like the one above, AND a 15% discount card that can be used anytime...it never expires!

So what are you waiting for??? Click here and start receiving fun discounts!

Oh yeah...there's another reason why I love being a teacher oh so much--

IT'S SPRING BREAK TIME!

Top AI Picks...

Happy Thursday, blog friends.

Many of you out there been keeping up with Idol? While it took me a while to really choose my favorites, after the performances this week, I think I've decided which ones I'm going to really pull for this year.

First for the girls. I think the girls are stronger than the boys this year. I've thought that since the beginning. I have 3 favorite girls, and I like them all for different reasons. Here they are, in no particular order:

1. Siobhan. She's cute, talented, and I totally love her singing style. I look forward to her weekly performances.

2. Didi. How can you not love this girl? I want to hug her every week! I personally think the judges are too hard on her. While she may not be the absolute best singer in the competition, I.LOVE.HER.

3. Crystal. Now THIS is the girl to beat. She's got an edge to her that I just love. I also think that out of all of the girls, she's the most consistent. She's fantastic every week.

Moving on to the guys now.

While I think they girls are stronger as a whole, I had a harder time narrowing down my favorite male singers. Weird.

So, here are my top 4 favorite male singers.

1. Todrick- I actually wasn't a huge fan of his until last night. His performance was one of my favorites, and I think he's got a great chance of making it to the top.

2. Lee. First of all, he's cute, but I suppose that's beside the point here. I think he's consistently good and is definitely a popular contestant.

3. Michael. While I may not have been quite moved to tears like Kara was last night, I did absolutely LOVE Michael's performance. He won me over last night. He definitely won't be going home anytime soon.

4. Casey. Like Lee, he's quite the little hottie. I like the rocker side of him, but I thought he did a fabulous job with the Keith Urban song last night. I also like the fact that he plays the guitar while he sings. Double sexy.

What about you? Agree? Disagree?

I'm here. I promise.

I realize that it's totally not like me to go more than a couple of days without gracing you with my presence via blog. My sincere apologies for not being there for you in the past week. I can't decide if I haven't blogged because I've had nothing to blog about or because I've had too much to blog about. Thinking about the past week, I think I decided that it's the latter of the 2. Don't worry, I'll happily spare you the details of the entire week and try to focus on any main points that come to mind. I will admit that my days have been running together for some reason, so I'm sure nothing that I blog about tonight will be chronological. Deal with it if you don't mind...

I'll first update you on my P90X progress. I enjoy blogging about this because so many of you have already encouraged me whether it was via blog comment, facebook comment, or face-to-face! I've completed over a week of P90X, and overall, I'm enjoying it. My first attempt to Yoga was a complete DISASTER. I ended up quitting before I really even got started. I was so mad at Tony for making it look so easy. I turned it off after about 20 minutes and almost started crying because I was so frustrated! I'm already dreading it this week. Ugh. Tony and I have a love/hate relationship, really. I look forward to seeing him after school each day, and then when he comes on, I just want to cuss at him.

Oh, and have I been in pain? You better believe it! The first few days of doing P90X, I found it extremely difficult to sit, stand, eat, breathe, sit on the toilet, get off of the toilet, lay down, etc. My students were highly entertained by how slowly I was moving. I'm still sore, but it's starting to ease up a little. Well...maybe.

Other than P90X, planning a shower took up a good bit of the other "free time" I had last week! Kristen and I gave Heather a baby shower in Jackson on Sunday. I always love planning parties with Kristen---she's so creative, and even though she's completely over-the-top, I enjoy watching her creative juices flow and seeing it all come together. If she had any free time at all, I'd insist that she become a party planner on the side. She's fabulous. Even though the shower was given by the two of us, she honestly too charge, and....well....I just basically did as I was told...I've always been good at that. Definitely wouldn't have made it this far in life without Kristen's guidance!

On to the shower now. I'll first share some pictures of the decor. The shower was held at Bon Ami in Jackson, and it couldn't have been a more perfect place!

Here's the invitation that we displayed at the shower....

Can you tell what the "theme" was?

I love this picture of Heather. I think it captures her innocence so perfectly. :)

The honoree and her many guests!

Sweet Nana and Heather! Notice the bump! Seriously...she's tiny.

The sisters with Nana followed by a picture of the 3 of us! We missed my mom, who's recovering from pneumonia! :(

A few of Kristen's dear friends (Allyson Windam, Laura McQueen, and Alli Sherman) along with Anne Parks and Nora McQueen! Precious girls.

Heather and her M-I-L, Mrs. Peggy!

Heather and one of her dearest childhood friends. Here's what's going on in this picture: Susanna is checking out Heather's tiny self, while Heather is trying to show off the new addition to Susanna's left ring finger! Yay Susanna!

....Heather with Susanna and Susanna's mom, Ms. Varner. I.LOVE.HER.

2 of our cousins, Lisa and Monica...followed by a picture of Lisa's daughters Tiffany and Candace, and Monica's daughters Brooklee and Amberlee). YES...there are lots of girls in our family! :)

Heather with Kristen's M-I-L and sister-I-L.

Kristen with her friend Erica and her son, Carr. You have no idea how squeezable that child is.

Heather with sweet Aimee Wiggins and adorable Asher! Is he a stud or what?
Nana with Trey's mom and aunt.
Heather and adorable Anna Little, who's about to get married and move to Starkville! YAY for new Starkville friends!

Finally, I had to include this picture of Anne Parks and Grace helping Heather. They were the cutest things and had a great time "assisting." :)

(Sorry...I didn't realize I'd end up posting so many pictures. I guess I thought they were all blog-worthy!) It's so fun to think that in just a few more weeks I'll have another nephew, (who, according to the ultrasound tech, appears to already have a head full of hair!). I can't wait.

I'm off to bed soon, I suppose. I've got a mere 4 days left of school before my much anticipated Spring Break, and I'm guessing it's going to be a crazy one! Here's to hoping the rest of the week will be as beautiful as it was today!

Welcome, spring!

Monday memo.

Happy cold, rainy Monday to you!

I don't know about you, but I'm glad to see the arrival of March and will be even happier to see spring make its grand entrance to 2010! The 60-something degree weather last weeekend was beautiful, but did it last? Nope. Oh well...it is March, so it's GOT to warm up soon right?

We'll see.

Kristen and I spent this past weekend in Gulfport helping our little sister get the nursery finished, baby clothes clean, hung, and sorted by size (yep...we're that nice!), house clean, etc. It was great sister time, and it made me even more excited about the arrival of Jones in less than 2 months! I would post pictures of the adorable nursery, but I want to let Heather post about it instead. Take my word for it though...it's perfect. I can't wait to be an aunt again!

Now...on to a P90X update!

One word--PAINFUL...

I started it last Wednesday, and found myself getting so frustrated, I almost quit the program before I even started. It was SO HARD! I woke up the next morning (and the next, and the next...) in so.much.pain. I knew I'd be going out of town the following day for a long weekend, so I decided I'd go about the weekend and then restart the program today. So, this afternoon I repeated the same workout as last week and have good intentions of consistently keeping this up for 90 days! My thoughts: It'll hopefully be worth it in 3 months when I'm relaxing on the beach!

2 prayer requests I have for you before I leave you for the evening:

1. Please pray for my sweet mom! She's been under the weather for about a week now, and found out today that she's got pneumonia! Poor Mom! Am I the only person that thinks that moms aren't supposed to get sick?

2. My dear friend Nelson was deployed last week and he'll probably be gone for about 6 months. Please pray for his safety!

I've been talking to my students about the branches of the military and I told them about Nelson and his service in the Air Force, so they all wrote Nelson letters today. They're great! I can't wait to send them off (I will also have to threaten Nelson to write them back or they will be devastated!).

Oh! There is just ONE MORE THING--

Happy birthday to my "teacher friends" Angie and Monica!

I was glad to be able to celebrate with these fun girls after school today!

OK...Max and I are officially tired and ready for bed now....

Good night to you all...