Beautiful weekend :)

We proudly flew our American Flag this weekend in honor of those who have strived, lived, and died to make this country great.  :) 

This weekend was also amazing because we were spoiled and had my sister-in-law, Laura, and her boyfriend, David, in town :)  Family makes you feel like a million bucks, and we had SUCH a good time.  I think I may need another weekend after our fun-filled weekend, because it wasn't for the weary/tired. 

Our bottles of red wine!!

Friday I came home from work, and we went out to dinner at Hops (a great, cheap restaurant).  We made a pit-stop by Total Wine and bought a few that were recommended to us.  They were fabulous!!  If you don't love wine there is something wrong with you ;)  We also saw The Hangover 2.  I'll admit, I never saw The Hangover, so some of the jokes went over my head.  It was still a good romp.

Saturday Laura and I went to a Zumba class in the morning, and then we went out to Lake Wylie to see a property Char's parents were interest in.  It turned out to be a bust of a place, but the food on the lake was amazing.  Can't go wrong there :)  After a nap we were ready for some hanging out and my birthday party downtown :) Many of our Charlotte friends came, and I felt very loved :)

After lunch on the lake

T-bones...best restaurant in Lake Wylie!

My birthday night at Kristopher's!

 Sunday was church in the AM and then we headed out to the U.S. National White Water center...by far the highlight of the weekend.  We also met up with David's brother, Chris, and his girlfriend, Jenny, who came in from Raleigh.  We only intended to paddle on the calm river, but when we got there, the rapids were calling.  We promptly rented Crocks (and although I am fashion-anti Crocks they were very, very comfortable):

My Crocks!

Right before rafting!

I was afraid of rafting at first, unsure if I could to it, and really afraid I was going to fall overboard, but I thought, "How often does THAT happen?  Probably not very often.  These people know what they are doing."  However, after a mandatory seminar about what to do when you fall out, your raft capsizes on top of you, or you flip out and float away from the boat, I was pretty freaked.  I told our guide before we boarded, "I just don't want to be the one to flip out, okay?"   Famous last words :P

Our guide told us he would take us on 3-4 level rapids because were were the young adults group.  To give you an idea, 6 is Niagara falls, 1 is your bathtub.  David, my sister-in-law's boyfriend, is 6'5" and his brother is about 6'8".  I think we looked like we were ready for a crazy ride and our guide said he had done "families" all day and was ready for some fun.  Gulp???

It was insane, and before we finished the 1st lap around, Chris, the 6'8" guy, flew midair out of our raft and floated away...we had to meet him at the next bend.  On the next run, David, Charlie, and Chris popped out...  I thought for sure I had this stay in the boat thing down.

Then something like this happened:

It was actually pretty awesome.  I don't even remember flying in the air.  I just remember our guide passing me his oar and blowing his whistle.  I was yanked back in and contrary to how I thought I would feel, I had a giant smile plastered across my face:  That was AWESOME.  You gotta live a little.  :)

Following the rapids, we stuck around for some life music and a drink. We crashed so hard that night, as I'm sure you can imagine.

Monday was a day of lazing about in the sunshine, reading, and getting a pedicure with my sister-in-law.  I may even have gotten a little color.  I know, scandalous, right? ;) 

I couldn't have asked for a better Memorial Day weekend.  I hope you had fun wherever you were...

Happy birthday to me!

{It's the big 26!} 

Okay, I guess it's not a "big" birthday per-se, but it means that I'm in my 2nd half of my 20s, which I hope brings as many joys (and more) as the first.

Today was amazing for many reasons.  I felt special, loved, and rewarded: something everyone deserves to feel once a year.  It's all in the little things.  :)  Here's why my birthday was a "winning" one:

{breakfast}

Charlie made me breakfast before I left for work today.  Since he works from home, for him to get up at my un-Godly teacher hour makes him a saint.  And it wasn't just cereal...he made me cheesy eggs and diced fruit.  And wrote me a card that made me cry drying my hair.  That kind of a good morning.

{kids}

My students broke out in song (in Spanish) to sing me happy birthday.  This made me smile.  What made me smile even more was that they remembered.  So cute. :)

{friends}

For calling.  For loving on me.  For remembering.  For leaving a smoothie on my desk in the morning.  For writing on my facebook wall (as lame as that sounds it makes you feel so loved!)

{my fabric}

Charlie went out of his way today to go to the most girliest of places (the fabric store) to pick up the fabric I ordered for our dining room chairs.  He totally didn't have to but did because he's amazing.  Here's what we chose, BTW!

{roses}

I told you my husband was amazing already, right?

{thai and ice-cream}

Self explanatory.  I mean please, who wouldn't love that?

{my memoria}

You may remember my Spanish thesis (memoria) nerves here.  Well, my grade came today, on my birthday of all days.  It took me a good three minutes of staring at the screen before I opened it.  And... I got a sobresaliente.  This is the American equivalent of an A.  (I may or may not have peed my pants.)  I worked soooo hard on this baby.  Okay, beyond hard.  Crazily!  (Ask Charlie---he witnessed memoria tantrums and hysterocity.  Yeah, that's a word.)

  It left me to wonder...did they even grade the right paper?  How could I have earned this grade?  Everyone I talked to got a B or a C on it, and Spanish being my second language, I didn't think I was capable,  and I expected myself to get a B (notable) at best...thinking that would be a long shot.  But I did, and I'm so proud.  

I stretched myself in every way a person can.  I spent hours researching to back up claims I made about my classroom with statistical evidence, I took pictures, I documented, I recorded my students, I edited like crazy, and I made is personal and really relevant to what I believe as a TPRS teacher.  I worked my tail off and it was noticed... by a native speaker compared against other memorias written by native speakers.  I'm still in shock.  There was the moment when I opened the email to see that little word "sobresaliente" and my heart skipped a beat.  It's like crossing the finish line after a marathon you weren't sure you could accomplish in the first place and realizing you beat your time by more than twice what you thought.

Al menos sabemos que la leyenda es verdadera.... ella que encuentre el sapo escondido apruebe la memoria final ;)

(At least we know the legend is true... she that finds the hidden toad passes her thesis)

ACHOOOO!

That would be my allergies acting up.  They get so bad this time of year! :(  To make matters worse, I'm such a fussy one with drugs, and I never take my Claritin.  ....Try to convince someone in the middle of a sneezing fit to drink water and take a pill.  Yeah, not going to happen.  And if I'm not sneezing, why take it?  tehe.  ;) 

Even though my allergies have been bad, we still spend a lot of time outside sprucing up the yard on Saturday afternoon.  Weather = gloriousness!!!!

Our wood chips were finally delivered.  They were free from the company who trimmed our trees for us. The delivery had been postponed multiple times (what are you gonna do? complain for your money back?), so we were so excited when they got dumped.

Gulp.  That might not look like that much to you, but it's A LOT of wood chips.  We had no idea how many were coming.  We made a dent in them, but there are still a TON LEFT.  We put an ad for free wood chips up on Craigslist and our neighbor already said she would take some :)  Fingers crossed we get rid of them all! 

The good news we LOVE the after, and we love even more that it was a project that didn't cost us a dime...just some manual labor.  We were able to lay all of the chips in less than 2 hours.  Here is Charlie and trusty side-kick pulling up some of the stray weeds before we got started.  (Side-kick does nothing, just sits and enjoys the sun.)

Side door before: (hint, if you click on the pictures, it will enlarge them for more detail).

And side door after:

Back porch before:  (I was ready for war, apparently).

Back porch after:

And just for fun, here are some of my rose bushes.  My Enfant de France bloomed gloriously and I completely forgot to take pictures :(  I'm trying to be better about it so I can see how the yard changes over the years.  I was happy I was able to more or less revive these guys as they were looking pretty sad after winter.  I think the fertilizer really did them some good.

I can't believe it's almost summer!!!  14 more days of school.  Ahhhh!!!!

face-lift!

Um...double take?  Is this the blog I was following?  

Yup!  It just got another face-lift.  Those are necessary :)  I'm sure I'll change it around again soon. 

This week at school has been crazy busy with EOG (End of Grade) testing for the kiddos.  They must pass an English and Math to get to the next grade level.  So many hours of tests.  And there are people out there who want more of this in every subject area. :(  I pray wise people in the upper echelons of the education system will recognize that more testing doesn't help make our kids smarter.  It also doesn't create better teachers, either.... Okay.  Getting off pedestal now!

Luckily this weekend we have dinner with some friends and a bonfire on Saturday :)  And my birthday is just around the corner!!!  Ahhhhh!! 

We changed around our foyer, again, too!  So I guess since I have a pic, I'll blog about it.  Here was our entryway before:

We did like the before, but we needed a place to put Aiti's piece once we got our dining room set.  It actually really warms up the space and fits it well.

I put all of our serving-ware from the wedding and vases in it.  Ah, white ceramic, how I love thee :)

I like how we finally have a place to display this things that were lost in a cupboard!

P.S.  The frame from our wedding ended up over the entry-way table and the trunk made its way into the guest room!

Weekend fun

I think this weekend can be characterized by two words:  laughter and more laughter.   It was full of it.

Friday night I saw the movie Bridesmaids with some girlfriends... it was so awkward that it was funny.  And when I say awkward, I mean AWKWARD.  The kind where you grab your mouth in horror and can barely watch.  Those are always the best. 



Saturday we went to a friend's house for dinner, drinks, and games... so necessary.  And we laughed until our faces hurt.  Until we had headaches.  Literally.  Here's a game you MUST play next time you are with a group of 6 or more...it will make you cry it's so funny.

I've dubbed it "Read it Draw it" although, I don't know the real name.  Here's how to play:

1. Everyone needs a stack of papers or a notebook with as many pages as there are people in the group (7 people equals a seven page book)
2. You think of an action sentence and everyone writes it on the first page of the stack.  ie mowing the lawn
3. Everyone passes their whole stack to the person to the left who then reads the sentence, flips it to the back of the stack and must draw the action sentence.
4. The whole stack is then passed again and the next person must write a sentence based on the picture.
5. The card is passed and a new picture is drawn.  Continue in this pattern.

As you can imagine, like with telephone, it gets wackier with each pass.  We were left with tears of laughter streaming down our faces from some of the hilarity.   Mowing the lawn can turn into a dinosaur attacking a small village very quickly.  ;)

This weekend we also went to the fabric store on a mission to reupholster our dining room chairs.  It was seriously the cutest little shop near downtown.  We found the perfect fabric for our dining room chairs.  It looks like it will be about $50 to reupholster all six.  I LOVED the store and could have stayed all day just looking at the options.  They had so many amazing fabrics, it was hard to choose.  Here are some of the pictures:

You'll just have to wait and see what we pick!  I'm ordering it tomorrow. :)

love ipad2

  andit's pretty much the most amazing invention known to man.

we are obsessed.  it comes with beautiful photos uploaded to it.  how about a trip to paris?  i saw some of the best pictures of machu picchu i have ever seen.  games.  videos.  online.  this amazing app that makes your facebook/life/favorite websites into an online book you can flip through.  i can't even explain it.  you'd have to see it.  we talked with vick and chuck on face time, and the sound of stanley barking was so real luna thought he was really there.  what can we say? we love our ipad2!!!!! and we haven't even scratched the surface.  thanks vick and chuck! :)

Inherited furniture and the like

A couple of weeks ago I picked up this side table for $5.99 at G-will.  (I usually stop in about once a week on the way home from work.)  It was missing the hardware, and I was not a fan of the color.  But the condition was good, the drawer was in working order, and the shape was nice.  Sold! 

I went to Lowe's and picked up some Satin White Valspar Spraypaint and some simple hardware for $2.99.  I think it turned out perfectly.  And if it doesn't last, that's okay. (This room is going to become the nursery in a few years so there was no point in spending mucho dinero on making it perfect.  We tried to buy things that were neutral enough that they could be used in another room later down the line or be re-purposed in the nursery). 

 (please excuse our lack of a bedskirt! ;) )

Here is it is with the lamp, alarm clock and the bed.  The bed was inherited from DH's grandmother.  The bedspread was $35 from Target.  Not ideal or the one I really wanted, but it will work as a bedspread and can later be re-purposed as a blanket for the couch in the bonus room.  Plus it was less than 1/2 the cost of most I saw...even at Walmart. 

Once I get a bedskirt, I'll choose some of the art we already own to slap up on the walls and call it a day.  Perfect until baby 1.0 comes along.

Now for the furniture we inherited!!!  It was a combination of things owned by DH's grandmother, my grandparents, and my mom, sent down to us via rented space on a truck.  So here is all of the items that now look beautiful in our new home--a big thank you to everyone for sending it! 


This is Aiti's chest we moved to by the front door.  (It used to be in the dining room in the corner.)  I am going to put white ceramics in it.

Here is the buffet table that found a home just off the entryway.  The piano will eventually go here, but now it is seating, storage, and a photo gallery.  I plan to reupholster the chairs to update them.  I can't decide if I want to go bold or subtle.  Thoughts?

Here is our antique but new to us dining set from Charlie's grandmother.

 And here's how I changed up the floating shelves.  We had everything lying around, except the gold frame was from G-will for 99 cents.  (And yes, I do say G-will in everday speech).  I used scrapbook paper for the frames.

We also got these side tables for the guest bedroom from Charlie's grandmother.  I'm trying to resist the urge to paint them white because they are so classic.  We'll see :)  I didn't know his grandmother well, but I do know from the time I met her and from Char telling me about her that she would just want us to love them and get lots of great use from them!

And this amazing dresser and cool vase from my grandmother!  This corner is still a WIP...art not staying :)

You'll have to see how everything morfs to blend with the rooms.  Stay tuned!

Happy Mother's Day! :)

There is no one moment that makes a mom a great mom, and no one memory that sticks out from the rest as the one that defines mother-daughter relationship.  Rather it's the little moments along the way that make you grin ear to ear, chuckle, down-right laugh, or cry.  You spend your life from birth with your mom who loves you so unconditionally that you don't even realize the magnitude of the sacrifice and the love until you have grown and left.  And then you are grounded and realize that you still don't.  And probably never will until you become one.

my frist barbie::hiding easter candy::playing on shag-green carpet::reading me books (yawning and scratching your ear)::making elaborate snacks for my friends and i::video events::rubbing my back::tucking me in::saving me from the "plunger man"::christmas morning::pulling me in the red wagon::the sound of music::

1985!!!

building snowmen::orange flavored pickles::wrapped in the gray flower-blanket on the dock of canada::eggs and pancakes::brianna pees on the grass and kills it::my first piano recital::disney world::watching my magic tricks::watching my plays, and dances, and stories, and elaborate roller coasters in the basement::amerman fireworks

Fall....Adam was so small!

learning to drive, critiquing every move you made on the road::briannababylalaskolive::the blackout::nhs band::concerts::solo and ensemble...every school event EVER you were there::

Prom, 2003

::MOM I'M LOST!::back to school shopping::editing my papers::college applications::moving to college::crying saying goodbye::paying for my school::getting lost in Spain's windy streets::tickets to the Alhambra::

Christmas, 2006

Spain, 2006

screaming for my first job yay!!!::helping me move to the south::setting up my first place::mom, how do you cook a potato? how do I clean that?  how should i get there?  am i doing this right?::talking on the phone::picking out my wedding dress::our wedding day::our first home::

Wedding dress shopping, 2008

Rehearsal dinner, July 2009

Our wedding day, July 2009

Thank you, Mom for your faith in me, your unfading support, and the sacrifices you have made for us.  I love you.