Is it Labor Day again?

I only ask because we did the same thing today that we did on Labor Day: cleaned out the garage and finally hung the shelves we painted months ago. Other than that we haven't done much of anything and that makes it a perfect day.

The space where we'll put mom and dad's old refrigerator.


Just ignore the exercise bike (it's going to Matt's mom) and the bags of garbage.


Our painted shelves are finally up!!



On a more serious note, we are so thankful for the men and women that risk their lives to keep this a free nation. We are so blessed to live where we do.

Fan/Not a Fan

Simba is not a fan of cold weather. He was sleeping on the bed yesterday and I wanted to make it before Matt's cousin came over. After I pulled the sheets over Simba, I uncovered him and he buried himself back under the covers.



I am a fan of the dice game LRC. Our friends had a group of people over last night to play. We each brought $3 and the winner got to take home the pot. I was the winner! We played a second round, but just with chips for fun and Matt won that game. I was kicking myself for not wanting to play for cash again! I tend to have horrible luck, so for Matt and I to both win we were seriously considering going to play the lottery last night or making a quick trip to Vegas! :)



The stack of ones I won.

Hello November!

It's November 1st and it finally feels like fall here! We did have a few cool days before, but last week it was back up into the 90s. I'm really excited about November because it is such a short teaching month. I only teach 3 1/2 days this week, 3 days the next week, 4 days the 3rd week, then it's Thanksgiving week so no students then, then there's just one more teaching day of November (the 30th is a Monday). Of course, November 15th is always a good day, and I am taking a 4 day weekend in honor of that special day.

I had fun on the last day of October as well. Matt and I went to our friend's house to watch the first half of the Gator game. We came home at half time so Matt could grill steaks for dinner. The problem was, we were out of propane, so we just went up to Chick-fil-a. (Mom, how's that for a new excuse to get out of cooking?!?!) We had trick-or-treaters for about 1 1/2 hours, though it wasn't very constant. We'd have a couple big groups, then maybe just one or two kids come. We didn't even give out the 1 bag of candy we bought. I took a couple of pictures to show our set-up in the dining room that the people saw that did come. I'm sure glad they don't come in the house! We didn't put out all of our decorations this year. Matt said he's just saving his decorating energy for Christmas. He'll sure need it!!

Our table decorations. Everything but the placemats are from Yankee Candle.


The lit candles.


The chair that held the candy we handed out and the rest of the decorations.

Meeting Baby Brian

Matthew and I went to see the Eikelands this weekend. Mom and Dad were there as well, though I feel like I didn't see much of anyone but Kayleigh. She and I have a good time together. We're still trying to figure out why she doesn't like Matt. I guess we need to go over there more so she can warm up to him. We went over Saturday morning. After lunch we went to the country store to get sausage (Kayleigh: "Sausage for my pizza?" Not this time!) and then to see the cows (Kayleigh: "I don't want them to moo at me!). Kayleigh was given a stroller and other accessories from Brian, and she loves pushing her doll around in the stroller. Matt and I went with her on 2 walks Saturday around the neighborhood so she could push her baby. I gave Kayleigh her bath last night and Mom put her to bed. Matt and I stayed at a hotel just down the road, so we went back to the house after we had breakfast. It was so cute seeing Kayleigh run to the door when she saw I had come back. After they ate breakfast (even Romeo the bird got a pancake!), Matt, Mom, Kayleigh and I went on another walk with Kayleigh pushing her baby in the stroller, but we came back when we started feeling rain drops, though it didn't ever really rain. Mom went to the store to get stuff for sandwiches for lunch and Matt and I left after we ate.

Here is a video of Kayleigh popping out of her toy box to surprise everyone.


Pictures from the weekend.

Homecoming 2009

This has been a crazy week at school because it is Homecoming week. Our school does dress up days, though we don't have a competition for the best dressed. Monday was favorite Disney character day (I was Cinderella before the ball), Tuesday was make your own super hero day (I was the "Bedazzler", spreading sparkles where ever I go!), Wednesday was inside out and backwards day (yes, I did wear my jeans inside out), and today was pop singer or movie star day (I was Dr. Emma Russell from the movie "The Saint"). Tonight was powder puff (seniors won), the bonfire and the first ever carnival. I raced one of the sophomores on a blow-up obstacle course (I lost) and went down the big slide. Oh, I also did the Gyro Gym Globe. You'll just have to watch the video, though you may want to turn your sound off!!

No more car payments!

On September 25th, Matt's last payment on his truck was made. After I paid off my car we started putting more money toward his truck. Now neither of us have a car payment. We're looking into buying a new car. Just kidding! We are going to start putting more money into our ELOC so we can get that paid off. Oh, to be debt free!! That won't happen for us for a long time if you count a home mortgage as debt, but we're very happy to have a home we love.

By the way, we're out of propane, so we did not burn Matt's loan book like we did with mine a few months ago.

Cruising time!

Last week 6 of us girls from the NCS class of 1998 booked a 4 day/3 night cruise for our 30th birthday. We talked about it for a few months and Polly took the lead in finding us a cruise. I am excited about it. It will be so much fun getting to spend a few days with long time friends and I get to be roommates with my sister again. Hopefully it will work out better when we are 30 than it did when we were 10! We are making it a girls only cruise, so our husbands will have to find something else to do while we are out of the country (we're going to the Bahamas). Only 5 1/2 more months until we board!!