A Catch-Up List

Ok...so, no-I haven't fallen off the face of the planet! Haha. I have just been totally, insanely, ridiculously and exhaustingly BUSY!! Y'all...this job may just kill me. Starting in a new grade level, in a new school, and with lots of new standards and expectations makes for non-stop work. Anyway...in between all the working, I HAVE managed to have a little bit of fun, too, and that's what I like to focus on! Let me do a quick re-cap. Since I talked to you last, here are a few things I have been up to.

1-I hosted a Ladies Night for all the girls in my Sunday School class. I fixed dinner for everyone and then we had a friend of mine come speak on "Renewing Your Walk With God". She did such a great job! We had about 16 people and it was a fun night.




2-This is my sweet friend, Leigh Ann.


We have been friends since high school and I love her. We don't get together as much as I wish we could, but she is the kind of friend that when we ARE together, it seems like we have never been apart. You know what I mean, right? We went out to dinner this week and I absolutley loved catching up with her.

3-I got to see Laura and Lindy. They came home this weekend for Ashley's shower. Steve and I took them to dinner Friday night at one of our favorite restaurants...Cajun Yard Dog. It was a busy weekend, but it was fun seeing them!


3-I saw two really good movies...Despicable Me


and The Social Network.


Both were great for different reasons!

4-I have joined the choir and today was my first day to sing in church. I am having so much fun.


5-I attended a wonderful shower for Ashley yesterday that all her grandmothers and aunts threw for her.


There were so many people there and everyone was so very generous and thoughtful. She is a blessed mommy-to-be. The shower was held at our church and I think about 45 ladies were there.

I gave her this painting....


It was done by the talented Jamie Garner! I sent her a picture of Ashley's bedding....



...and she matched her bedding perfectly! Thank you Jamie!

Here are a few pictures from the shower...

Bless Ashley's heart...she was so hot. Her face was so red the whole time. :) Only 3 weeks to go!!










It has been a whirlwind around here lately, but I am trying to slow it down a little this week. I need to enjoy some down time before that sweet baby gets here. Then everything will pick back up again! :)

How I Spent My Last Snow Day

These past few snow days have been so nice. There is nothing like getting a surprise day off. I don't get bored very easily, so I was very content to just relax and watch movies and read and hang out at home.


But today was our THIRD snow day and I will admit a little bit of cabin fever was beginning to set in.

We did have a fun night last night playing cards with our neighbors. That is pretty much a snow day tradition for us. And when I went to bed, I already knew that today I would definitely not be staying in the whole day! I knew the roads would be clear enough to get out a little bit in the middle of the day when it was warm.

This snow day started like any good snow day... sleeping in!! This is what time I woke up this morning.


Do you know that that is 3 1/2 hours later than I usually get to sleep?? I wish I could sleep this late every day. It makes me feel so much better!

After waking up with the sun actually shining outside, I made myself a relaxing cup of coffee with my favorite creamer...


and settled in to watch The Today Show. I love Hoda and Kathie Lee.


I did a little cleaning and organizing around the house this morning. But really, my house is pretty clean. It's amazing how clean it stays when there is only Steve and me here. :) And I did some online shopping with my gift cards!


I wanted to write my Compassion child a letter and send her some Valentine stickers. She is so precious and I try to remember to pray for her every day.


Ashley and I met at Big Daddy's Burgers for lunch. It was so funny to think that normal people get to eat out at fun places like that every day. Meanwhile, I am choking down a sandwich in about 15 minutes in a loud, steamy cafeteria. Eating lunch out on a weekday is a luxury for me!

This is the fountain that was right outside the restaurant! Can you believe all that ice??


This afternoon I got to run errands and do some shopping. I went to the grocery store and got the things I needed to make Katie Lee Joel's Mediterranean Pasta.

Tonight I am off to choir practice! I am joining the choir again. I haven't sung in the choir in a really long time, so I am looking forward to it!

It has been a fun three snow days!

Before I go, I just wanted to tell you how excited I am for Lindy. She is a fashion major at East Carolina University and she got chosen to be a style intern with Leslie from A Blonde Ambition!! She is thrilled and I know she is going to have a great time learning from Leslie! Yay Lindy!! :)

Snow Day

Did you get snow where you are? We woke up to about 3 inches of snow this morning and it just kept coming. It didn't stop until around 1:00 pm or later. I think since I teach school, I get just as excited about snow days as the kids do! It is fun to have an unexpected day off. Our school district didn't call off school until 4:30 this morning, though, so I had to wake up early to get the official word. But once I found out that we weren't going, I just went right back to sleep and it was so great.

We had a pretty quiet day. Steve worked from home all day and I was just lazy. I took a video of the snow coming down this morning. It may be hard to see, but the snowflakes were so pretty!



I also went for a walk around the neighborhood and took some pictures...














This afternoon I took a little nap and Rocky came and laid right beside me. Did I tell you that everytime I hear Sugarland's song "Stuck Like Glue" it reminds me of him? That is our theme song. Haha! He LOVES to be warm so whenever I am sitting on the couch or lying down, he has to come snuggle with me. It is cute.


We found out tonight that there is no school again tomorrow! So that means we can stay up late and watch the Auburn vs. Oregon game. I am pulling for Auburn just because they are in the SEC. I made us some hot chocolate and we are having a cozy night in!

Seven On Saturday

Well, I made it through my first week of school. It was exhausting, but my class was sweet. I just love them. I got a new student whose reputation preceded him, so I was worried that he might give me trouble, but he has been an angel so far!

Today I am just doing a list. Seven different things that have been going on here or that I have been thinking about. Just random stuff.

1-Today Mark and Lindy both left to go back to school. Laura couldn't leave yet because it was snowing so hard in Boone and we didn't want her driving in that weather. So she will leave tomorrow. I hope she is safe. I get so nervous with all my kids driving across the state in every direction. I have had so much fun with everybody home. I sure will miss them!

2-Since it was just Laura home today, she wanted to go to see a movie this afternoon. We went to see Country Strong. Gwyneth Paltrow did a really good job and the music was good. Laura loved it. I liked it too, even though it was a little depressing.

3-Winter is here and it is freeeezing! Today it was flurrying a little bit of snow and the wind was blowing so hard. The wind chimes on my porch were going crazy. It was just frigid. When we got back from the movie, I made us a big pot of chili and got a fire going. That is how I like to enjoy winter! Now we are waiting for the big snow that they are predicting for late Sunday night or Monday. Yippeee! If we have to suffer through winter, at least give me some snow and a few days off of school. (I know we have to make them up, but it is still fun!)


4-Recently I just happened to be shopping at Wal-Mart and found some fuzzy leopard leggings and they are my new best friends. I wear them almost every day when I get home from school because they are so comfortable and warm. Those pants and my Ugg slippers are pretty much my winter uniform!


5-I have been having dreams about Ashley's baby lately. I can't remember exactly what I dreamed last night, but I do know that her baby had really chubby cheeks and it was so cute. I can't wait to meet that sweet little thing! It is only about 6 weeks away now, but I think she might go early.


6-I have always wondered how people got their Christmas lights to look so pretty in pictures like this one on kevin and amanda's blog...


And I finally found a tutorial about it online. I just happened on this blog and found it here. Too bad it is another year until I can try it, but I wanted to record where I found it because I will be coming back to it next year!

7-If you have been reading my blog very long you know that I have a weird problem. Since I am a teacher, I get lots of gift cards and then I forget I have them stashed away in my purse. Then one day I will look in my purse and find a bunch of them and go on a shopping spree. Well, I found more gift cards this weekend! How did I forget I had an Ann Taylor Loft card that I got for my birthday back in April??? And I bought two iTunes cards for Christmas gifts and forgot to give them! So, it looks like I have $50 worth of songs just waiting for me to download to my iTouch! :) If we do get snow on Monday, I may be doing some online shopping!

Little Things Mean Alot

It is so funny how little things can brighten your day so much! Just yesterday I said how I was trying to keep balance in my life by not leaving work late, but today I didn't get to leave till almost 5:00. That is a long day when you get to work at 6:30 am! When I finally got home after driving in crazy 5:00 traffic, I was STARVING! I had planned on making poppy seed chicken for dinner, but there was no way I wanted to start making that at 6:00, so Laura and Lindy and I jumped in the car and headed to one of our favorite little Asian restaurants. After dinner we all opened our fortune cookies, and this is what mine said...


I thought that was appropriate for me and it made me smile. I need to remember that!

When we got home, I looked through the mail and I found this from my sweet blogging friend Angela...


A few days ago I posted that I was sad because I wasn't getting any more fun Christmas cards. So she sent me this one! That was so nice. Thank you Angela!!

After that I headed upstairs and set my purse down and saw this sitting on the bedside table...


Steve left to go out of town today and he was in a big hurry. But apparently he stopped long enough to jot me this quick note on anything he could find. He left it right with this picture of us on vacation that I have on the bedside table. Steve is a big note writer and I love that about him. He always leaves little notes to our kids and to me. He used to write the kids notes on their napkins in their lunchboxes since he was the lunch packer (another thing I loved about him!) :)

Speaking of my kids, this is the last week that they are home from college. I wish I could be home with them this week, but unfortunately I can't. Mark is usually at the gym or going to get wings with his friends or watching a ballgame, but I have to admit I'm a little jealous of Laura and Lindy's "girl fun". I wish I could be reading Sophie Kinsella and drinking Starbucks....


or having friends over and lying around watching movies!


I have had fun having them home. I love all our conversations about majors and roommates and boyfriends and girlfriends and life. Mark is always good for a thought provoking debate about politics or religion and Laura and Lindy always keep me current on styles and fashion and good movies and music. I'm so glad we've been able to have a whole month together!

Going Back

Well, I knew 5:00 am was going to be hard and it was exactly like I thought it would be. Uuuggghhh....

But once I got up and got going, it was really a pretty good day. Everyone was excited to be back at school. The kids had so much fun telling me all about what they did over Christmas break and what toys they got. They seemed happy to see me and were all in good moods.

I had my camera sitting on my desk so I can take pictures when I need to. (We have to document everything with our new evaluation system, so I keep it at the ready!) One of my sweet little girls said, "Please Mrs. Maddox, take a picture of us together!" They LOVE getting their picture made with me. It's so cute.


This little girl is so sweet I wish I could take her home with me!

I tried not to leave school too late because I am trying to have more balance this year. And when I got home, Steve took the whole entire family out for Mexican. I love when I don't have to cook!! Yay!

So, overall, it wasn't so bad. I'm hoping the rest of the week goes just as well!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! (a day late) I hope your new year got off to a good start. We had a really nice New Year's Eve. We didn't do anything big. We just went to dinner at one of our favorite restaurants-Cajun Yard Dog. Then we came home and watched South Carolina get beat pretty bad. That was a sad game. After that, we barely could keep our eyes open till the ball dropped. We watched it in our pajamas then went to sleep!


Yesterday we took down all of our Christmas stuff. Everything is boxed up and put away and our house looks so plain now. But I do like having all the clutter gone. We worked really hard on that all day. Steve even cleaned out the attic to make everything more organized. For dinner we had the traditional black eyed peas and collard greens.


I know it's better to make them homemade, but if you are pressed for time, I think Margaret Holmes has the BEST blackeyed peas and collard greens and I use her alot! I made a pork tenderloin and rice to go with it and it was all delicious.

John and Ashley came over for a while last night and played games with Laura and Lindy and Sean. They always have fun together.


I have been trying to get our pictures organized and put on a website that will keep them safe if my computer ever crashes or something happens to it. I am actually considering getting a new laptop soon. If you have a good one that you love, tell me what you have and what you like about it!

Tomorrow it is back to reality. I know 5:00 is going to kill me. It has been a nice break though. I've been able to really relax and enjoy being with family and friends. And I have to admit I am a little ready for routine again.

So...here we go into 2011! I am praying it is a really good year for you and for me too!