Lots of Driving

Today we are driving to Birmingham to help move Nate's sister. Tomorrow we're driving with them to Durham to unpack and on Thursday we are driving back to LaGrange.

73 degrees

That's how cool it got in the house last night with the windows open!

Also, on my morning run, I saw the Korean man who lives across the street. We used to pass each other at the same point every day last summer and I haven't seen him even once since. It was really neat to see him in our old spot, right on time.

Tattoo

Just got back from getting my one and only tattoo. I like it a lot. It hurt (still hurts) like crap. I will post pictures once it stops bleeding.

Empty that Piggy Bank

Nate wants to go to the wings place down the street that is opening today. The "eating out" budget for the month is spent so Nate pulls out his Change Box (aka Piggy Bank) and empties it out on the counter. We are going to eat $17.68 worth of wings for lunch.

Grill

Nate and Andrew are grilling hot dogs and shrimp on the little grill that I bought him for Christmas a few years ago. It was my first year teaching and my students asked me what I was getting my husband for Christmas. "A grill? Like a gold one?" they asked. "No, I think it's silver," I said. It took me several minutes before I realized that we were talking about 2 totally different things. Upon realizing the miscommunication I nearly fell off my chair laughing. The thought of Nate with silver fake teeth still makes me giggle.

2 Sappy Posts in a Row

That man I'm married to drives me crazy and makes me laugh like no one else can.

Reminder

I am so in love with Nate. Spending a few days with him- hiking to the top of Amicalola Falls, shopping in Ellijay, watching movies, reading on the swing- a little quality time just reminded me why I want to spend my life with him.

Cabin Time

Nate and I are leaving today for 4 days at the cabin!

Hungry and Tired

I've been in class for over 3 hours and we still have another 30 minutes. Then I have the hour drive back. I'm hungry and tired. Blah.

Almost the Last Time

I am in my 2nd to last face-to-face class at UWG. In just one month, I'll be back here for the last time!

Yard Work

Nate and I got up early and trimmed all the bushes and trees around the house. I'm pooped.

Self-Motivation

In my psychology class I'm reading about self-motivation techniques and then immediatly using them to get through this pile of school work. My favorites are positive self-talk (Come on, Katie. You can do this!), goal setting (just get to page 423 by 5:00), and self-rewarding (if you get done with your project you can have an icecream sandwich!)

Red Legs

Tubing in Helen was so much fun, but I should have applied a second coat of that SPF 50 to my legs. They're a little bit red.

TUBING!

We're going tubing in Helen today with my family. We've gone every year since we moved to Georgia, but I think this'll be the first year we don't have to carry our tubes part of the way!

Family Time

We're visiting my parents! Grilled turkey for dinner! I love spending time with my family!

Activity Calorie Calculator

I'm sitting at the computer after my morning jog and wondering how many calories I just burned. So of course, I Google it. I found this calorie calculator that can tell me how many calories I burn per minute for 222 different activities- including vacuuming, standing in line, and sleeping! I burn a little less than 1 calorie per minute sleeping, but 7.5 cal/min jogging. Oh, and in case you wanted to know vacuuming is 3.3 calories/minute.

Baking Day

If I'm going to turn on the oven when it's this hot outside, I'm going to do all my baking in one day. I made roasted veggies (with green beans from the garden!) and rolls for dinner and then I went ahead and baked 2 kinds of muffins (blueberry and banana chocolate chip). Yum!

Blazing Hot

Good grief it's hot. And it's only 10 AM. It's hard to do work inside much less outside. So I'm doing school work mainly since I can sit still.

Visitor

We are providing respite foster care for R. today. Right now, she and I are watching High School Musical 3 but later we are going to make play dough, go to the pool, and go grocery shopping. Fun day!

3rd place, again

We won 3rd place again last night at trivia! It was fun, except for the horribly slow service. Nate and Chris came back early!

Summer School is OVER!

Today was the last day of summer school! I still have to get up early tomorrow because we are providing respite care. The little girl is getting dropped off here at 6:45 AM. Hopefully, she'll be happy to watch a movie and sleep some more since that's what I'll want to do.

What a crazy random happenstance

I got out to my car last night after class only to find a man walking around it. His truck was stopped but still running just a few feet from my car and I thought, "oh no, he hit my car." Turns out he didn't hit the car- he was admiring it! Apparently his first car was a white 1984 Cressida and he loved it. He told me how much he loved it for at least 10 minutes, then he helped me check the radiator and the oil. Not only did I find someone to help me look under the hood, but someone who was very happy to do so! God is so good.

Premature Praise

Right after I post about the wonderful "new" car, the radiator light came on on my way to class. I'm going to check it and the oil after class (once it's cooled off). I'm hoping nothing's wrong!

UWG

I'm off to UWG in a bit for the first of my 3 face-to-face classes this summer. I'm trying to psych myself up for it with a trip to Hobby Lobby and Target before hand.

Lonely

Nate's only been gone a few hours, but I miss him. He's at annual conference for the United Methodist church for the next 3 days. Good thing Amber and Andrew are here at night to take my mind off it.

Cressida

I'm really thankful for our "new" car, especially since Nate has the Taurus with him in Athens. Usually, we don't need 2 cars, but today I have to go to a meeting at central office and to Carrollton for class at UWG.

Here is a picture of the wonderful little car that makes all of this possible.

Meeting

Today is the first Health Services Advisory Committee meeting! I get to leave summer school at 10 so I can go talk about immunizations. I'm really looking forward to the end of the meeting when I can suggest we spend next meeting talking about sex education.

Last Day

Today is the last day to cram information into the brains of the summer school students. They take the math CRCT tomorrow.

Celebrations Continue

First I shaved Nate's hair into a mohawk. Then we went out to dinner at Peking. Finally, we met a really nice tattoo artist and Nate got his first (and second) tattoo. The tattoo guy was so nice, I'm going back next week to get mine.

The End

Nate ended his radio career today. I'm really excited about spending the summer off together before he goes to seminary in the fall. Peking for dinner to celebrate!

Clothesline- With Picture

I feel like it's ok that I'm expressing my love for my clothesline again since I'm including a picture this time. Don't you think it looks so peaceful?

DASH Camp, Take 2

We only had 2 kids for camp today. That was until about 15 minutes before we left when one more showed up. We were walking him home and came across 6 more kids who were actually on their way to us (even though camp was technically over). So we had a snack and made pinwheels with them and it feels like this week was very successful! Who knows, we might even have 10 kids all at once next week!

CROCHET!

I've been spending a lot of time on this site. If you crochet, you should check this out. It's incredible! I'm going to crochet everything!

Sore

It hurts to move my legs. Even the arches of my feet hurt. I am very sore from my first run of the season.

Nursery

After 3 nights of VBS, Nate and I have nursery duty today.

Success

Tonight was the last night of VBS and I think that by all accounts it was a huge success. God is good!

Saturday

I slept in until 9:00.
I went for a brief run.
I tried to clean the rust off my bike. Tip to use Coke and steel wool was a bust.
I repotted a plant.
I gave myself a hair cut.
I adjusted our auto withdrawls to reflect our new one-income situation.
I'm going to spend the rest of the day doing some light housekeeping, reading, crocheting, and maybe watching a movie.

Fridge

Of all the things I could have been doing with the last half hour (see To Do List in picture), I spent it rearranging the magnets, notes, invitations, pictures, and white boards on the refrigerator.

And yes, this is the second time I've posted a picture of a refrigerator in the past month.

The Dollar Stretcher

When you don't have much money, you have to be careful with how you spend it, which is why I love this website. In addition to tips on how to live frugally, it generally has good advice and information. This is where I got the slug cure for my garden (beer) and where I just found out that a rubber glove works wonders at picking cat hair off the couch!

AC

We had to turn on the AC yesterday afternoon and it looks like we'll have to again today. We opened up the windows at night, but it only got down to 79 degrees inside the house!

VBS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am positively filled with JOY! We had 20 kids at VBS- even some from the neighborhood! It was amazing! Praise God!

VBS

Tonight is the first night of VBS, something our church hasn't had in about a dozen years. I really, really hope it goes well. Please pray for us.

Anniversary Present

My anniversary present from Nate got lost in the mail, but it finally came in today. DR HORRIBLE'S SING ALONG BLOG DVD!!! I'm really enjoying Commentary... The Musical!

Working Backwards

I'm trying to make up a bunch of math problems (solving linear systems), only I need the answers to be small integers so this is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.  I have to think of the answer I want and then work backwards to make the equations. 

Breakfast

I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast because my little brother spent the night at our house.

Winners

We played trivia tonight and won 3rd place! Everyone got the last question wrong, so we won with only 4 points. Oh well, a win is a win.

Psychology

I am reading 90 pages of psychology and writing a 3 page response. This stinks.

Searching

One of my classes this semester is Practicum. Basically, I compile all the stuff I've done and prepare for my oral exams. I thought I'd been pretty meticulous about saving things, but I can't find this one document anywhere. At this point, I could have already redone it for all the time I've spent searching My Documents.

mewithoutyou

Really enjoyed the concert last night.  Thankfully not too tired from 2 late nights in a row.  No time for a nap today.  Big project to begin and complete this afternoon.  Hopefully the textbook gets delivered today so I can get it done.

Mosquito Bites

I have some nasty mosquito bites that are made even more nasty by the fact that I've scratched them... a lot. I wish I had more self-control.

It's tired in here

We had a great time with Nate's family last night, but we didn't get in until after midnight and I have sooooo much to do over the next few days, there will be no time for naps.  I think that the prospect of no naps makes me more tired than only having 5 hours of sleep.

Class- Boo

Today is the first day of my last semester of classes for my masters. I always hate the first day. It all seems so overwhelming.

Camp

We had 6 kids at our neighborhood camp today and although that's less than what I would have liked, I think it was still a success.

Evening Walk

Nate and I went for a walk this evening and it was WONDERFUL. First, we stopped at Meg's, then she walked with us to her neighbor's house- an elderly couple- where we sat on their porch chatting for a while. Nate and I moved on to another neighbor's house and visited for at least 20 minutes before finally walking home almost a full hour later. It was exactly what a summer evening walk should be. The only down side would be the dozens of mosquito bites I now have.

My Week

Monday- First neighborhood camp in the morning. Evening will be spent in Montgomery having dinner with Nate's family and going to Dan's commissioning service.

Tuesday- Summer school in the morning. Mewithoutyou concert in the evening.

Wednesday- Summer school in the morning. Little brother to join us for the night. Trivia at the pub.

Thursday- Summer school in the morning. VBS in the evening.

Friday- Summer school in the morning. VBS in the evening.

Saturday- VBS in the evening.

Sunday Nap

Surely I've said this before, but I think that naps taken on Sunday are somehow exponentially better than naps taken other days of the week. I didn't mean to sleep for an hour and a half today, but it was nice.

VBS and Camp

Lately, I go to sleep and wake up going over the details of VBS and our neighborhood day camp. I'm trying to make sure I haven't forgotten anything. Camp begins tomorrow. VBS is the end of the week. I think it's time to just give it over to God and pray that everything goes smoothly.

Attempt #1

Here is a picture of my first attempt at crocheting from a pattern! It's also my first attempt at crocheting something non-rectangular. I think they turned out pretty well!

Challenge

Today, I am going to try to crochet a stuffed animal. I spent the last hour or so downloading free crochet patterns from bumble bees and bunnies to turtles and duckies. I'm ready to get started! I'll post a picture if I actually get it done today.

Packages

Yesterday, 2 big boxes from Oriental Trading Company arrived on my porch- VBS and Camp crafts are here! The problem is, that there should have been a 3rd package- my anniversary present from Nate. UPS said they left it on the porch, but it's no where to be found. I hope it turns up today.

Thank You

It turns out that blogging about my laziness was perfect motivation. I got out and scrubbed down the front porch!

Motivation

I have a list of chores I want to get done this summer, but as I am teaching summer school during my most productive part of the day, I find myself doing a few small chores, but mostly just reading Harry Potter and crocheting in the afternoons.  I need to get motivated.

Updated Explorer!

It's silly to be excited about this, but our school system FINALLY allowed our Internet Explorer to be updated.  TABS!  We're moving into the 21st century!

Family

My father-in-law just called to wish us happy anniversary. It was in this conversation that I was reminded that today represents the day I joined their family. That makes it feel even more awesome. Not only did I get an amazing husband on this day, I got his amazing family too.

Big Chick

They bought fried chicken for the kids for lunch. It smelled so good, I just had to have a piece. My tummy is now making sure that I thoroughly regret that decision.

Anniversary

Today is our 4th wedding anniversary. I am very blessed.

Irish Bread Pub

We went to trivia tonight at a different location and it was WAY better than the pizza place. It wasn't crowded, the music was better, and the trivia guy was more fun. I think we might have to make that our regular trivia stop. If only we could get Chuck and Noelle to ditch church...

Catch Up Pictures

LC graduation.


I circled Todd so you could see him in the sea of graduates. Almost 700 is his class!



This is what my brother Brian and Nate did during BOTH graduations.


Being a bridesmaid, this is the best picture I got from Laura's wedding. Our toes did look very pretty.

Metropolis

Here's my favorite picture from last weekend's road trip. We stopped at Metropolis, Illinois- home of the Superman statue and museum (which was closed since we passed through on a Sunday morning).

Playground

I took the 8th graders out to the playground for a few minutes today. We all needed a little break. Sitting on a bench under an oak tree... it would have been relaxing if not for the 14 screaming, running students I had to keep an eye on.

Errands

This afternoon, I ran a lot of errands. I got new tires on the car and an oil change, dropped off some library books, picked up my allergy meds, got a tag for the "new" car, and went to the grocery store. I felt very productive.

Clothesline

I used the clothesline for the first time this year today. I love, love, love it. It somehow makes doing laundry so much more pleasant. The clothes flapping in the breeze somehow represents to me that I am becoming the person I always wanted to be.

"New" Car

I drove the "new" car today for the first time this evening. Thankfully I still remember how to drive stick. I was really nervous!

UP

Nate and I went to see UP last night. It was really good (and very touching- I cried 3 times!), though I think I would have preferred not to see it in 3D.

Summer School

I taught my first day of summer school today. It went pretty well and it's nice that I'll still have my afternoons to myself. I have a lot to do to get ready for VBS and neighborhood camp!