AHHH!

Ok, so I had a nice long blog entry last night and then blogger went down. So now I am posting short and sweet blogs until I feel okay about it again!

Mostly, I just want to say hi...we miss you all. The house is coming together. We had professional painters (MomA and Jules) here a few weeks ago so the living room and hallway look GREAT!!

I was at the beach this past weekend with a dear friend who has since moved to San Antonio...BECKEE!!!! We went to Jacksonville, FL (Mayport) for a wedding and did some seriously needed shopping and beaching :-) Here are some recent pictures....peace!

Dogs galore!

Sullivan Ross Adkins
Sully and Coop just chillin'
Cooper Punk Adkins

Home Sweet Home!

Welcome to our shack in the back woods of Georgia!!

Going for monthly...

Ok, so I was trying to this weekly, but not happening! The sad thing is that I am out of school right now so you would think I would have more time to invest here, HA! So I am going for monthly posts!!!

I believe I will have a total of about 2 weeks fully off from school, the rest of this summer has been devoted to professional development and cheerleading!

At home we have been painting EVERYTHING! Crown molding is beautiful but makes painting a little stressful. We are also experimenting with accent walls, etc. so it has been fun! I will be posting some before and after pictures as soon as there is an after...it is taking me a bit of time!

Dave is still working the mid shift which has totally screwed up his sleeping schedule and mine! He did get BTZ, meaning that he gets to put on another stripe 6 months before most of the other airmen that came in the same time as he did. He was chosen by the uppers for this honor that he does truly deserve!!!! We are proud and it comes with a slight pay raise so we are even more happy!!

The lawn just got chopped so I am going to try to attach the powerpoint of the exterior of our home sweet home?! Didn't work...if you want the powerpoint, email me :-)

Love and miss you all!!

Pics...

Dave's mustang...anyone want it?!

Ohhh, what a cute puppy face!!!

Cooper and his carrott, he is a little confused.

Dave's trip to D.C.

No more smoke!

We are in the clear...we can finally breathe!!! It has been a long time since we have been able to clearly see the tops of the trees. Thanks to a long hard rain about a week ago, the smoke has dissipated :-)

We are working on the exterior of the house this week and the weekend, so we will be posting house picts soon! We also have news that our wedding picts are on their way too!!!! Yay Stephen!!!

Dave just got changed over to mid-shift (12:00am-8:00am) so we are both adjusting. My friend left me this last week, they PCS'ed to San Antonio, TX. We miss them dearly already :-( I am going to VSU for 2 weeks for a summer math program that I am VERY excited about, we get paid AND are getting a video IPOD!!! Now, this is going to be an adventure, neither Dave nor I own a regular IPOD, I know soo last century, but we are about to embark on a new journey!!! I will be learning how to use it in the classroom!!! However, I am pretty sure this new toy is going to end up in Dave's TDY bag.

Cooper and Sully are LOVING the backyard space. Sully has conveniently learned how to get himself stuck about 10 feet back in the thick forest. His new favorite pastime is chasing rabbits. Cooper is still stoked about the multitude of pine cones that just keep falling from Heaven!!

Our next goal is to clean out the gutters and get Dave's new (old) truck licenced in GA. Yes, I did say truck...he just looks so good in a truck. I must be from the south?! He has found his long lost love and will be doing lots of trash hauling in that baby!! We are both very excited :-) On that note, we are selling the Mustang AND the bike, so if you know of any interested parties, please ease them in our direction!!

Peace to all...forward our blog to anyone who might want to check into our lives. Love and miss you all!

Long time...

Wow, it has been a while. School is almost out, and the students and I cannot wait much longer!!! We have been waiting for this day for too long. Tomorrow we are out for a whole two months! Didn't we used to get 3?! I am booked over the summer with professional development, which I am excited about :-) I will be doing school improvement, spanish for teachers, CRCT review in Atlanta, math development at VSU, two cheer camps, and a few more that I can't think of off the top of my head!!

We have been consumed with smoke lately. They have threatened to close schools since the smoke has been so thick. Buses have had a hard time seeing the roads! We have also had a thick layer of ashes on the cars every day. They said this is the first time they have seen that "patches of smoke" are in the daily forecasts!

Dave is busy beefing up his resume, we go to another funeral on Saturday. So much for Labor day plans or any plans for that matter. He never seems to get a day off. He worked on the plane all day last Saturday, which didn't matter much since I have been sick as a dog since last Thursday. Oh, I almost forgot that I went to the GREATEST wedding in Cali last weekend---congrats Jen and Mike!!!! It was GREAT and such a nice trip to take with my sis-in-law!!! We both enjoyed catching up with Jake and seeing the beautiful Lake Tahoe and mountains.

I have to peace out, my Cuban sandwich is awaiting my mouth!!! Talk again soon and will post picts soon....remember I am almost without kids!!!!!

Smooth sailing...

Well, Dave is bowling tonight and I finally have a second to write. It has been a while....sooooo WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!! It is so perfect, we will have pictures ASAP! We move in totally this weekend. We have been moving bits and pieces for 2 weeks now. We closed with the mad man and are so done with dealing with crazy people for a while. You would think that we were sitting on a gold mine the way this guy was so desparately trying to get us to drop the contract. He left lots of crap at the house so I have been cleaning more than moving lately.

Things we have been doing lately: cleaning the yard on base because we got a citation for having too many leaves in our yard, moving stuff, cleaning the inside of the base house for the pre-inspection which took all of 2 minutes, packing, cleaning the NEW house which took days and is still not totally clean, moving, picked strawberries on the farm down the road, put new locks on the house (harder than you think), state testing at school, funerals (Dave is in honor guard, he presents the flag to the families who have lost soldiers), cheerleading fundraisers, cheerleading meetings, watching the dogs play with all the sticks that have fallen from the huge trees in our backyard (you would think they didn't own real toys, they truly prefer the sticks and rocks), teaching Cooper how to retreive pine cones at the new house and make a pile on the back porch--there are millions, laundry, going to antique auctions (we bought our first piece for the master bedroom--cool rosewood dresser!!!)...the list could go on for a while but I will stop here.

We can't wait to start living in our new house!! Some details: 3/2/2, 1+ acre, deeply wooded in the back for about 10 feet in all directions, only 1 neighbor about 100 yards away (old couple, very cute---they already asked us to watch the house and pick their tomatos while they are gone!), pond right off the property that we can fish, etc. in, light blue concrete paneling with maroon shutters (yes, full blown AGGIE maroon), tiled fire place, wood floors in kitchen, HUGE jacuzzi, garden tub--that was my only request, work bench and work room---Dave's only request, screened in patio, pear tree, fig tree, rose bush, magnolia trees, gardenia bush, and some other foliage that we have not quite figured out yet--the previous owner did not keep up with the landscaping. It is definitly something we will have to work on to make it perfect, but for now it is PERFECT for us!! We can't wait :-)

I am going to go grade some papers and feed the dogs...please keep us posted on your life, we want to know!! Miss you all :-)

Laugh until you cry...

That is the best feeling...laugh so hard you cry, where you can barely talk, then you can't breathe, then you almost panic because you can't breathe (Bianca, you know what I am talking about). It is a great feeling, check out The Canzo's posts and you may get this feeling :-) ENJOY!

Random

Well, as of now I am ON SPRING BREAK!! It was very much needed, the kids were on edge and so was I. We have our state test a week from this coming Monday and then we are smooth sailing to summer.

We are counting down the days...our lender said we could close this week, but we are waiting on the seller to sign to give power of attorney to this other guy (still crossing our fingers on the closing, our seller has been shady)!!!

Some info: It is a cute 3/2/2 on an acre of land with a pond feet away and fish!!! We are EXCITED. It is light blue/grey with red shutters and doors. It has a porch good for rocking in a chair and LOTS of pine trees--and yes, you guessed it, Dave is very excited about raking those needles. There is a large screened in porch and I am going to learn how to compost!!! All suggestions are welcome. I would like one that you can turn without shoveling, but they are a bit pricey. We cannot have an open one due to all the wildlife that lives in the backyard.

FYI: If you have never been to IKEA, find one and make a trip!!!

BY THE WAY....if you sent us a wedding gift and did not get a thank you card, PLEASE let us know. We had gifts delivered to the wrong address that were never forwarded (someone is living it up with our new stuff)! WE NEED TO FILE A CLAIM, SO LET US KNOW!! And thank you for sending what you did, we will find it!

HOWDY!

Well, we are still working with all the paper pushers for our house...we have had a couple of speed bumps, but are trying to get it all together soon. We will keep you posted!

Dave left this morning for a TDY to some where in the states?? He will be back Friday, hopefully. He was excited, getting a TDY as an A1C is not a piece of cake and he has been on two so far! Someone up the ladder must like him? He also just got his headphones (I know that is not what they are called, but he is not here for me to ask him). They are the big headphones that the guys wear on the flight line--makes them look important, that may be the only reason they wear them?? He was proud and tried them on for the dogs last night!! That makes him an official 5-level!!

I am currently preparing my hoodlums for the CRCT!! We have 2 weeks until Spring Break!!!!!!! When they get back they will have one more week to review and then we test. A little scary for all of us. This is the first year for the new Georgia Performance Standards for 7th grade, so we will see if we did anything right to prepare them. We also have cheerleading tryouts in 2 weeks so my life has also been to prepare a new potential cheerleader packet, organize meetings for parents/girls, get approval for the use of the cafeteria since the gym is under construction, and more---everyone should be aware that cheerleading is a year-round sport. The sports department will never recognize this secret of ours...

House?!

We have placed a contract on our house (hopefully)! Being in the military we have learned to not get REALLY excited about something because it usually does not end up happening. So we are only sort of excited, until we close. Inside we are REALLY excited, but if we make that too loud the military might hear us :-)

We are not going to put up any pictures until it is final, so sorry to all of you who have asked and are going to ask....you'll have to wait---it will be worth it.

We have told the dogs that they might get new grass and some trees, but they are not allowed to get too excited either or the military will hear them and they know that they belong to us.

Bridal portrait

A Bridal portrait...more to come. This is not the one I used for the portrait at the wedding, but it is me and the dress! It was taken in Dallas by Edward Ramirez, a fantastic photographer in the area.

Beautiful People

The Pi Phi's that braved the stormy, cold, and icy weather. What beautiful friends I have :-)

Second Try...

OK, so Jennie and Suzanne have inspired me to finally fix this blog. Our first one was fun, but I lost the password and it is incredibly hard to recover it if you don't know your user name either!! So we are going to try this again!

We are in the process of posting some of our wedding pictures, but are still waiting on the professional ones. Sorry to all, but you will have to wait a bit longer. We promise to post them ASAWGT (as soon as we get them). Thanks for the encouragement :-)

Right now we are on the house hunt. STILL!! We placed an offer on one house, but did not get a fair counter offer so we are going to let them keep it. It was a blessing though because TODAY we found our dream home!!! We are hoping to steal this one...we will keep everyone posted!!

Dogs are good, Cooper is more active and Sully is now almost 100 pounds and only 8 months!! I told Dave a long time ago (and continue to remind him) that one day I want a horse. Now he says that Sully is my horse. I am still working on him for the real one!

Merry

Christmas

and

Happy

2007!!

Life...

We are getting ready for our great trip to Texas...we cannot wait to see everyone!! Please continue to let us know if you will make it.

We just took down all of the beautiful Christmas decorations (thanks family for the additions) and are cleaning up before we go. Dave has taken a sincere liking to his PSP again and therefore this leaves me lots of computer time!!

The weather here is off and on. We are in the 50s today but yesterday we were 70s. It has been rainy which means we cannot let the dogs out in the back unattended...we have lake Adkins back there and we have discovered that Sully is a water dog...oh, and a determined digger! JOY!!

We are looking to move very soon!!! Either to the NEW base housing or something off base (hopefully). We are very tired of base living---we have WONDERFUL neighbors just not the best management :-(

Please keep us updated by commenting on our posts....we would love to keep in touch!! I am going to try very hard to keep this updated.

Miss you all....