A Fun Fourth With MANY Celebrations!

Last year, Emorie was such a tiny little thing, we did not partake in any Fourth of July activities.

Emorie, July 4th last year

We began our celebrations with a church picnic on July 1. Emorie loved playing with everyone, and although she was too little for the water slide, she still got her feet wet and loved it!

 We were a little worried she might be afraid of the fireworks, so we decided to "try it out" at the Beulah Baptist Church fireworks in Bennett, NC on July 3. My parents, Emorie's Mimi and Pop-pop, decided to go with us. We were a little surprised to see that Emorie loved the fireworks- she pointed and laughed at them the entire time- and wasn't a BIT scared of the loud noises.

We also celebrated with a cookout and pool party at Emorie's great-grandparents' house. She is a total water baby, so she had a blast. We had planned to go to McCrary Park the evening of the Fourth, but since Michael had to work, we didn't go.

We did get one last fireworks show in, though. We went with my husband's brother and our sister-in-law to see the fireworks show in Liberty on Saturday night. Once again, Emorie loved them! She even got upset when we put her in her carseat to leave.

 

Since we had so much fun celebrating our nation's birthday with a one-year-old, I can only imagine how much fun will have next year.

Remembering

9-11 happened ten years before Emorie was born. Although the event did not happen during her lifetime, she will hear about it throughout her life and will someday ask questions and will likely have some of the same feelings concerning the tragedy as you and I have.

When she asks how long ago it happened, I can tell her she was a baby when we observed the tenth anniversary. She was there.

I hope you like the picture of Emorie and our hero. People like my husband rushed into the WTC to do whatever they could to help, most of them knowing they wouldn't survive. God bless them.

Guess who....

is ONE MONTH old today?

We had to take a super-fast picture, since Tiny Girl learned how to take the sticker off the onesie!!

Emorie has had a lot of new developments this month- she still hates clothes changes and diaper changes, but she has decided bath time isn't so bad after all.

She spent some time this weekend with her daddy's side of the family, and got to meet her two cousins. Here we are with her cousins and two of her uncles (hiding behind our chairs). 

Miss Emorie has grown so much! She can no longer wear her premie and newborn clothes, so I have packed them away in her closet. I'm happy she is growing, but sad that she is growing so fast. She looks like her daddy a little more each day- sure, her little mouth looks like mine in my baby pictures, but the eyes, and the rest of her face? Michael all over again.

Great news on the homefront

Michael and I are pleased to announce we are expecting! We are almost 9 weeks along right now, and will be 12 weeks pregnant on Christmas day. We found out on November 1. At first I did not think there was anyway I could be pregnant, but I did have some strange symptoms. After having the baby dream, I begun to wonder if it could be. I woke up the morning of November 1, took a test, and sure enough, big fat positive.

Michael and I have had one ultrasound, which showed a healthy embryo with a strong heartbeat. Our second ultrasound is scheduled for next Tuesday.

We are excited about the birth of our first child.

A long overdue update

Hi all. I have taken a brief Blogger hiatus, as student teaching and my last classes before graduating have kept me extremely busy.

I am student teaching now at Brier Creek Elementary in Raleigh. I am working with second graders, which is great because I have spent the last two years working with second and third graders. The children are wonderful, and the staff is wonderful as well. There is a lot of talent under that roof and I'm blessed to get to learn from some wonderful teachers there. I start teaching math today- at this point, I've only been observing. It's so hard to believe in only 7 weeks my master's degree will be completed, and I'll have no more classes to attend, no more homework, and I'll actually have some free time for a change.
That being said, I know I want to get my doctorate at some point, but I need a break first. I'm going to work a while before going back to get it.

I am learning there are many plusses to not being in class all the time. I love to cook, and I now get to do it almost every night. This, after a year and a half of sandwiches and convenience foods because I had to hurry to class. We've also started going on a monthly "date night."

Friday night, we headed up to Greensboro for a date night. We ate at Phoenix Asian Cuisine on New Garden Road, which is one of our favorite places to eat. We then followed that up with dessert at Krispy Kreme. We had a great time together, and I'm really thinking we're going to enjoy this new tradition of ours.

Saturday morning, we went to a little cafe here in town owned by Michael's friend, where we ate a wonderful breakfast. We then went to the Farmer's Market here in our town. This is something else we have started doing. We love fresh vegetables but have no place to plant a garden and veggies are so expensive at the store. We've started going to the farmer's market and picking up a few items to help support our local farms and to save some money. For just $20 this week, I bought cucumbers, four ears of corn, two squash, a pound of green beans, strawberry jam and a cantaloupe.

Saturday evening, my family came into town and we had a great time visiting with them. On Sunday, we started our week off right with two great sermons at our church.

Weekends like these- with plenty of quality time with my husband and family, make a long, tough week completely worth it.

Happy summer!

School is out and I have kicked off my summer vacation by going out on my dad's boat with my cousin, Logan, who was in town for a week.

Harris Lake, easily recognized by the nuclear power plant's steam stack.

Bear loves going out on my dad's boat. What he really loves is jumping off the side and going for a swim.

Logan liked swimming too.

I had a good time!

This summer will undoubtedly include more trips to the lake...when I'm not in school or student teaching, that is.

Memorial Day

Hope everyone is having a wonderful holiday weekend, and that you're all getting some rest and quality time with the people you love. However, in the midst of all the cookouts, fun and good times, let's not forget that this holiday was intended to celebrate those who fought to keep our country free.

Michael and I took advantage of the weekend to spend a weekend at The Resort at Glade Springs in Daniels, WV. I've been riding through the resort since a child but had never stayed there. The resort includes homes, golf courses, stables, a spa, an inn (where we stayed) and a lot more. I don't think you can run out of things to do. I have a lot of family in the area as well, and my aunt actually works there. In fact, when we got to our room, we had a handwritten note and some goodies from her- she made our weekend a great one.

Prior to checking in Saturday, we spent Saturday night in Bluefield at my mom's sister's house. We enjoyed getting to visit her and my uncle and spend time with them, as we don't get to see them very much. We ate breakfast with her Saturday morning, and after spending a little time with her, we headed for the resort.

The Inn, where we stayed: Not a great picture of it, though. We had a little living room area, a bedroom and two bathrooms. A little balcony, too but we didn't use it.

Our bedroom in the room:

The Parlor room: a little living room off the bedroom.

Later that night, we met up with my aunt, uncle, and my three cousins to go out to dinner and go bowling in the Glade Springs Leisure Center. My uncle beat the pants off of us, as Michael and I kept rolling gutterballs.

Cutie pie Lauren tuckered out and napping.

Logan showing off his muscles.

Landon, a.k.a "Little Feller" loving his swing.

Well, that was our weekend! Hope you enjoyed yours.

Overdue update May 2010

It has been a crazy long time since I posted. Here's just a snippet of what we've been up to.

April 30-May 2, 2010:
We traveled to Asheville, NC for our first wedding anniversary! We stayed at the Renaissance Inn in downtown Asheville and spent Saturday, May 1, visiting the Biltmore House. It was a great experience and we had a wonderful time. Can't believe we've been married a year now- it just doesn't seem possible. We also took side trips to Waynesville, Cullowhee, Dillsboro, and a few small towns in the Asheville area. We love the NC mountains and go back as often as we can. Here's a picture from our weekend:



May 3-May 8:
I took exams for the Spring 2010 semester, undeniably the most difficult semester of both my undergraduate and my graduate college experiences. While my classes weren't difficult, I took too many of them, was almost NEVER home, and had tons of work to complete. My grades were wonderful though, and all my hard work paid off. I finish completely in September. I'm now enjoying a two and a half week break before beginning Summer Session I.

May 9-today:
On that Friday evening, we went out to eat with some wonderful friends of ours and their daughter. Since my horrible semester started in January, we've really been neglecting our friendships. Catching up was wonderful. On Saturday we spent the evening at a community dinner and got to hear some great music, played by some friends of ours. That Sunday, we went to church for Mother's Day with my mom and then went out to lunch with her, Michael's grandmother, his aunt and his mother. His cousins and brother were there as well. After spending time with them, we went to visit his other grandmother. We had a great time with each of them and were grateful for the time spent together as a family.

That's all for now! Stay tuned for more updates.

Busy, busy weekend!

Hi all! I've taken a brief Blogger hiatus so I could complete the mountain of end-of-semester homework. I'm almost there- I have about 23 weeks left of graduate school, counting student teaching....not that I'm counting or anything.

This weekend, Michael and I have been superbly busy. Friday night found us headed out for a dinner date, and some shopping to replace my old Compaq Presario laptop I'd had since college. The poor computer was on its last leg and it finally died. One trip to Best Buy later, and we'd picked up this:

It's a Toshiba Satellite A505, with a 4 GB processor and 500 GB memory. We are loving it! After having such an old computer, it's amazing what I was missing out on. I'm particularly into the card reader and the neat photo software, since I take so many pictures.

Saturday, we went to one of our favorite places to eat, S&T's Soda Shoppe in Pittsboro for Michael's little brother's birthday. My oldest brother-in-law and his girlfriend were there, as well as Michael's two little brothers, his grandparents, aunt and uncle, cousin and her husband. We had a great time, as we don't get to see everyone that often.

Sunday we went to a bridal shower for some church friends that are marrying next month. We have so many friends and family members experiencing exciting things in their lives and we're so excited for each of them!

We've got a busy week ahead- stay tuned for more updates.

Easter Weekend

Hello all. I've taken a brief Blogger hiatus because I've had tons of things to do lately! In fact, today is the second day of my spring break, and I'm taking a "homework break" to give you all some quick updates. Hope everyone had a great Easter. We had a busy weekend, but a good one.

FRIDAY

Since Michael and I both had Friday off, we decided to complete some things around the house that needed finishing. Michael worked in the yard, while I weeded the flower beds and painted our front door. I'm no painter, but the door looks much better than before, and that was my goal. Friday evening found us heading to the Good Friday service at our church. This is the first year since I've been attending Moon's Chapel Baptist that they've had a Good Friday service. The music and message were wonderful- I'm glad we were able to attend.

SATURDAY

My grandmother came into town from Iredell County on Saturday. We went to Greensboro to visit my great uncle Raymond, who lives in the Gate City by himself. He's such a neat person- he's very intelligent and always has some great stories to tell. My parents, grandmother, Michael and I joined Raymond for lunch and we had a great time visiting our family.

SUNDAY

Easter Sunday at our church is always great- there is a sunrise service, followed by breakfast, Sunday School and worship service. The music and messages were, once again, great. We then went to my parents' house for Easter dinner, which was delicious. My mother is a wonderful cook, and we always enjoy eating with them. Sunday evening found us at Michael's grandparents' house.

My handsome husband and I, dressed in our Easter clothes:

Michael's 30th Birthday, Part 1

My husband turns 30 on Thursday. This Tuesday, we ate a wonderful homecooked meal at my parents' house. Mama got him some great cupcakes from Cupcakes 2 Go in Randleman, which is definitely worth checking in to, if you haven't. There were ganache, red velvet, chocolate mint and vanilla buttercream cupcakes.

On Friday, we celebrated at a Japanese steakhouse with my husband, his brother (they're twins), his 2 cousins, grandmother, aunt and parents. We had a blast, and we took some great pictures.

The birthday boys! Chad (back), Mitchell (left), and Michael (right).

Emily and Mitchell, left, and Michael and Me, right.

Saturday, he and I spent the morning working in the yard and doing housework. After finishing all those things, we then went to Greensboro for some shopping and a wonderful dinner at Phoenix Asian Cuisine on New Garden. If you haven't eaten there, go NOW! We've been three times and we've always had a pleasant experience.

Today was spent working on the house, going to church and visiting family. We went to Michael's grandparents' house, and then my grandparents came here for a short visit. We are so glad we're getting to spend so much time with our folks!

More birthday festivities are in the works this week.

It's all relative

Even though Michael and I spent Friday night working on homework and housework, we did have a very busy, eventful weekend.

On Saturday, we got up early and went to my parent's house in Asheboro, because my uncle, aunt, their three children and my grandmother were coming into town. After visiting with them a little at my parent's house, we piled in our vehicles and headed toward Charlotte. Destination in mind? Concord Mills and IKEA.

Michael had never been to IKEA, and since we were in a hurry, he sort of got the quick tour. We are planning to go back and look a little harder when we have more time to stay.

You see, we'd promised a certain 10-year-old cousin that we'd take him to the LEGO store. And we did. And let me tell you, I'm not a LEGO fan, but that place is great. There were kids everywhere, building, picking out presents and having a blast. He thoroughly enjoyed getting to customize his own LEGO men, and he even picked out a Toy Story LEGO set. I just wish he'd let us take his picture. I tried, but he wasn't too enthusiastic about being photographed, so I let it slide.

Next stop was the food court. My little curly-headed cutie-pie cuz Lauren (she turns 3 next month) headed for the carousel. Michael waited for us by the fence while we rode, and Lauren, who absolutely LOVES Michael, was too busy waving at him to really care much about the ride.

The youngest of the brood, Landon, is turning one about 8 days after my first anniversary. He is getting so big, and it appears he will be a curly-top too! That makes four of my grandfather's seven grandchildren who inherited this trait from him.

Behold, the cuteness!

Someone else doesn't like her picture taken, either!

"I wanna ride the motor!"

Me and baby Landon- he is chewing on a battery operated tealight.

Today is Sunday. Although we're accomplishing some household tasks, we're definitely going to take some time to enjoy this beautiful weather. Hope everyone has a good weekend.