LOVE THIS!!

http://www.pier1.com/TopMenu/Products/tabid/260/Default.aspx?task=viewproduct&id=1625&urlname=prosper-tray-table

Dear, Ben & Heather

It would not hurt our feelings a tad bit if you said that you did not like this piece. We KNOW it wasn't on your registry. So please do not hesitate to ask for the receipt for return or exchange. We will be in the store waiting for it to be re-shelved so we can buy it for ourselves!!!

Sincerely, Dave & Courtney


P.S. I know, I am slightly obsessing over this!!

I love this site...

http://www.iwillteachyoutoberich.com/blog/what-are-we-doing-on-this-site

I have followed this blog for close to a year now and I really enjoy Ramit's real-life scenarios and information on how to become a financially successful individual. This is my favorite post that he has written...it was one of his firsts.

We all do not want to be rich to be personally successful but to be successful so that we may help others.

As I reflect over the past few days I think about how important it is to give all that you can, whether it is things that people sincerely need (clothing, food, hair straightener), things that we may not need but that make us feel good (gift cards, massages, money, smell good lotions), or absolutely nothing at all just the presence of another person. We did get so many amazing gifts so thank you to all!!! (Pictures of our present-opening moments are coming soon!!) BUT--what we give and who we share it with is the most important part of this season. We are SO blessed. We were lucky to have spent Christmas with our "adoptive family" and we always feel like we are a part of their family when were are there. HOWEVER--we cannot wait to spend Christmas with our REAL family again. We miss you all and hope everyone had the Merriest of Christmases!!

Merry Christmas!!

Pandora

Hey, THANKS KATE!!!

I took a suggestion from her blog and got into www.Pandora.com

This is a site that you type in the name of a song or artist that you like and it searches radio stations to find THE song of the moment.

SO COOL!!! Pat is playing right now....Take Me Out to the Dance Hall!!! Jason Mraz is next....

Fun times...peace be with you all :-)

Baby Sully Photos

It is hilarious that he used to be this size!!

Snapfish:Photo:Owned

Can you believe this?! He used to be so tiny!!!

The Huddleston's Wedding in La Grange, GA

What a precious sight....as Heather came down the isle Ben did have a goofy, cheesy grin on his face that quickly turned into tears of joy (it overcame him even knowing he would have to take crap from the guys in the squadron for years to come) as he saw his bride coming towards him.

AND STUPID ME DID NOT CATCH THIS ON THE STUPID FILM---ahhhhh!!!! Left the stupid camera at the STUPID house!!! I am still mad at myself, can you tell!!

It was extremely frustrating watching this with a cold---as I snorted away with my stuffed up nose and hacking cough. I really did try to keep all eyes on THEM as it was THEIR day. And for some reason I could not help myself but cry at this wedding (thanks Momma, Nana, genes, whoever started this...). It really was beautiful...

Now we will finally get to hang out with people that don't act like they are twelve!!! Oh wait---Ben and Dave act like they are twelve when they get in the near vicinity of each other. BUT...no fears, Heather and I have learned to ignore them REALLY well and know when it is a good time to walk away from the area, we will have fun :-)

When they return from Jamaica (man), 7 day, all inclusive, Ben will remind you....they will be living close to us and we will get to hang out :-) YAY!!!

Ok and YES---I promise to put up some pictures of us!! I know I am slacking on that. I will take some as we open presents at Christmas and post, post, POST!!!! I know you are excited!!!

Here is a tiny one of us before we rode the 4-wheelers in Colorado!!!

Cookies and Shaving Cream!

Yes, I am crazy enough to decorate cookies and "clean" the school desks with shaving cream days before the kids were let free from the school walls.

I made cut-out cookies and icing for my homeroom class and we decorated them with sprinkles and red hots!! They were so cute!!! The kids enjoyed it, even though some of them didn't think the cookies were sugary enough and the icing tasted like toothpaste (?)!!

AND yes, I did let the honors class do some algebra problems in shaving cream on their desks!! They were sooo excited---you would not believe how much fun they had!!!

The crazy things we teachers do to entertain....

BIANCA!!!

She has finally jumped on the bandwagon---WHOOP!!!

Miss you B!!

VACUUM?!

ATTENTION ALL FAMILY AND FRIENDS WHO OWN A VACUUM....

AS YOU ALL KNOW WE HAVE TWO LARGE DOGS THAT CONSTANTLY SHED NEW DOGS EVERY DAY---YOU MAY THINK I AM KIDDING BUT BY NOW HAD WE KEPT ALL OF THEIR SHEDDED HAIR WE WOULD PROBABLY BE ABLE TO MAKE A NEW MOVIE THAT WOULD RIVAL THE 101 DALMATIANS!!

WE NEED A NEW VACUUM CLEANER THAT ACTUALLY CLEANS/SUCKS UP DOG HAIR/DOES NOT REDISTRIBUTE DIRT......HELP!!!

ANY SUGGESTIONS?!

WE ARE WILLING TO SPEND SOME MONEY BUT DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO TAKE OUT A LOAN OR SECOND MORTGAGE!!!

I AM INTERESTED IN PERSONAL EXPERIENCES...NO INFOMERCIALS PLEASE!!!

THANKS AND GIG'EM!! :-)

So far I have the following results:

Dyson---3 votes

Roomba--1 vote

Oh, by the way, does anyone need any Mary Kay for themselves or for Christmas gifts?! Placing an order THIS WEEK!!!

Obsessed 2

Forgot---READ TWILIGHT!!!

Yes, I know a lot of people are obsessed...but my 7th grade kiddos are into this so I started reading them and the series is GREAT!! The vampire thing was not really what I was looking excitedly for but there is a great moral value to this read.

I feel like I should be at an AA meeting, "Hi, I am Courtney and I like the book, Twilight...ok, AND Edward Cullen."

I did jump on the bandwagon--but truly, you should check it out.

I have NOT seen the movie....I would hate to ruin the book experience, but I have heard promising reviews from friends and family. My kids were all going to see it and they highly encouraged me to buy the soundtrack.

Obsessed!

Ok, so yes it has been a while!!!!!

Just had to quickly add that I am slightly obsessed with this great site Good Reads!!! http://www.goodreads.com/

If you have not signed up---DO IT!!! Yes, I said this in a slightly threatening voice...not to scare you but to encourage you to go check it out. I LOVE it because I can keep track of all the books that I have read/am reading/want to read. You can ask me to "become your friend" and we can then talk about all the books we read! I know, nerdy, but cool in my world.

I just want to give a shout out to Jennie---and the baby boy growing inside of her!!! Here is a bit of her blog which made me laugh out loud...thanks Jen for the smiles:

"One thing I hate about being pregnant is that bad moods are almost always blamed on hormones, and when someone cuts you off in traffic and you bitch about it, your hormones must be all out of whack. Sure, the hormones may help the rage along, I'll give you that, but it's also a very real possibility that the fucktard in the BMW should have waited until he could merge at a time when it wouldn't be my sole responsibility to keep us both alive. And, yes, crying over my never-ending work load may seem like a very pregnant reaction, but I can remember plenty of times when my work load brought me to tears before. Sometimes I'd love to sport a (very large) shirt that reads: Not Because I'm Pregnant but Because You're Stupid. "

LOVE IT!

Halloweeeeeen!!!

This is Dave's FAVORITE holiday. Those of you who are familiar with his C-2 time at A&M will understand this a bit better than the rest. It is hard to explain this fetish with people around here, remember we are in the deep south where some people still believe that Halloween is a celebration of the devil or what ever they believe?! We noticed last weekend when we were taking down all of the decorations that we do actually have more Halloween decorations than Christmas decorations. Crazy!

Here is a picture of the front view of our house during the daylight. I will have to take another one when it gets darker because we do have a strobe light that flashes on all of the decorations. The light actually screams and thunders, the skeleton on the left also screams and moves up and down and we have a gravestone that yells at you too. Scary!! The kids are actually scared to come up to the door when it is dark---heck I am a little scared too. So far the dogs are good, but we will see.

Inside we have all of the cutsie stuff, my stuff. We usually have a Halloween Party at the house and no worries, I found the floating eyeballs and spiders that we put in the punch!!!

As for work, my life has slowed down a bit. We had one full week of NO CHEER PRACTICE!!!! We are on our Fall Break so we were out on Friday and will be out Monday. The kids don't come back until Wednesday and we have in service on Tuesday. Very nice!! I get to go to the eye doctor on Monday and the orthodontist!!! I know, you thought I was done with braces!! My permanent retainer is causing problems now. Apparently it is pushing my gums down and will either need to be replaced or removed. I am thankful for my parents paying for my braces though. Those suckers were EXPENSIVE!!! A teacher friend of mine has them now and not only is she in pain but she is also paying big bucks for it!

On cheerleading...we have one more competition this next weekend!!! After that we go into basketball season which will be much less stress since we will not be competing at the same time. This will equate to one practice a week and 2 home games a week which we will split. After basketball we will have our banquet and then tryouts for next year. Never ending!

Dave is still working on his cross-training. Frustrations!! Rules change quarterly and so the same requirements he was working on when he started the process have now changed so he is getting agitated.

A couple more pictures so you can see how cute our puppies are in their pumpkin scarfs. Cooper wouldn't stand still so Sully took the spotlight. What a cute face :-)

AWWWW...both of these pictures were taken in our screened in patio. They love to be outside now that WE HAVE A FENCE. When they get tired they just come in the patio through the bottom flaps of the screen door (homemade doggie door--not intentional thanks to Sully) and lay on the cold concrete and drink out of their HUGE silver wash pan/bowl. GOOD DOGS!!

On our way to the Pumpkin Patch soon so I will peace out!!! Adios :-)

Opt OUT

Catalog Choice....

Catalog Choice is an easy, free service that allows you to decline unwanted catalogs, reducing the number of catalogs in your mailbox and the number of trees that get sent to the paper mill.

Join me by clicking the link below:

http://www.catalogchoice.org/signup

We did this today---we get so much junk, kind of a cool site!

Cheer Competition!!

Forgot to tell you all that we competed again this weekend and despite a huge issue with our music the girls still got 5th place out of 10 teams. We missed 4th by 4 points and we beat Valdosta (our rival) by two places!!!!! I am very proud of them!! They hit all of their stunts and when the music started skipping they kept going and finished their routine and held their ending position until the music stopped!

We are learning the hard way about parent problems and are trying to make it through the year without having a nervous breakdown. The sad part is that the girls are feeling the repercussions of some of the parent drama despite us trying so hard to keep it from them. But as you all know the girls go HOME and at HOME that is where the PARENTS are and they TALK at home.

So sad...

Life at the Moment

We are SOO busy lately!!! It is a good thing but also does not give us much time to relax and enjoy the changing season!! We are LOVING the cooler weather. We can open our windows and not use the A/C for a while :-) This is my favorite type of weather and the reason why I enjoyed the Colorado and Oregon summer so much.

WE GOT OUR FENCE!!!! Can you believe it!! The dogs are so happy and are constantly outside. Most of the time Sully refuses to come in even to eat! Cooper was so sore yesterday that he was limping badly. Sarah is still living here and therefore we still have 4 dogs which makes having the fence a necessity.

Dave is playing football for the squadron again this year and he is their main receiver. He caught 8 passes at the last game but no touchdowns. He keeps getting beat up and it is only FLAG football. Some of the guys conveniently forget this.

Middle school football season has ended, sadly we did not make it to the playoffs this year. This is the first year since we have been here that they did not make it. The boys and coaches were sad. However, our High School football program is undefeated, we are number 2 in the nation!!! We have season passes and go to all the home games. Friday we beat #30 in the nation, North Side Warner Robbins. It is a HUGE deal in this town. The stands are always packed (8, 000 +) and we usually sell out at least half of the visitors side too. We will play our big rival next week, Valdosta HS. They are the city school in the area and it is usually impossible to get tickets to this game if it is at Valdosta, which it is this year. People will be camping out for these tickets---YES THIS IS HIGH SCHOOL IN SOUTH GEORGIA!!

All of the middle school kids go to these games and their parents too so I easily see 20-30 of my students at the games. I would bet that the majority of the middle school students go...you are not cool unless you go to the high school games. Like I said before...it is a BIG deal...tailgaters and all.
Random pciture--this was our cabin in Colorado.

I am off to do some laundry and school work---Peace Out!

AHHHH!!!

I just did a big post and I hit a button and now it is GONE!!!!!!

Here is what I wrote, I think...


GAS PRICES and dumb people:

Enough said...this is in VALDOSTA!!! Cops had to actually come to direct people to the pumps. Stupid people.

Dave is in TX (Randoph, AFB). The C-130s are refueling the helicopters that are doing search and rescue. If you are there, please let us know if you are okay--Amber and Stephen??

More pictures from our summer trip

I have great memories here---fishing at Frenchy's. This is the only place to eat in Tin Cup!! Graig, Jacci, myself, Ashley, Kellie and maybe Gary...we used to sit and catch fish until we hit our limit of 3 while our parents ran around rebaiting our hooks and killing the fish we caught!!! I am sure it was a comical sight :-) This is directly across the street from the "gas station" in Tin Cup that you can see on my last post.

Here we are at Mt.Bachelor on the ski lift. Dave spent his life here skiing/snow boarding.

A little too close...

PEACE!

Weekend stuff...

HELLOOOO!!

This is Mirror Lake in Tin Cup, Colorado. This was one of the places we fished while at Taylor Park. It is BEAUTIFUL!!! We also met some fellow Aggies there. What a small world!!! Tin Cup is population 30ish (on its good days). In the winter Tin Cup is under snow. There are probably 3 that stay during that time. Their mode of transportation--snow mobiles. However, there is no need to leave during this time because everything within 100+ miles radius is also snowed in. There is one country store with one OLD (working?) gas pump, one restaurant (home cooking served), one church that also is used for their town hall, community center and dance hall. One OLD cemetery. We recorded our visit there on the video camera. Probably around 15 homes total. All dirt roads!!! Words cannot describe...

TODAY:

I have been burning all the debris that we had blown in from Fay. I actually have blisters on my hands and YES I was wearing gloves Dave. I have been burning since Saturday early morning and we still have piles of branches, trees (yes, trees), pine needles and pine cones galore!!

FYI:

Dave did not end up going to Jackson,MS for Gustav---there were too many tornadoes and after that was over there wasn't enough damage to justify sending them there. However, he is working this weekend--yuck! He did not get home last night until 7ish and he is still working as we speak. The nice thing about weekend duty is that they now give them an equivalent amount of days off of their regular work week. They did not used to do this. That was ridiculous!!

DOGS:

Cooper and Sully are enjoying their new roomies. Tipsy (Sarah's dog) and Bonelli (Andy's dog) are here with Sarah while she is trying to find a rental house. Needless to say, IT IS A MAD HOUSE!!!! Cooper is IN LOVE with Bonelli and Sully is amused by the fact that Tipsy actually wants to play with him. Tipsy weighs about 5 pounds so you can imagine our amusement as they play!!

WHOOP:

I am off tomorrow---well not really. I have doctors appointments all day. Of course, there is never a good day to not be at school. Luckily, I have the BEST student teacher so she will be able to hold the fort while I am gone. It is nice to know that I can leave and things will actually get done!

Cheer season has started and we are heading into our 6 day a week schedule. We practice/game M-F and in two weeks we will start competing on Saturdays. I know---CrAzY!!

Funny Faces: My girls on our Beach Trip 2008!! We went to St. Simons and saw dolphins, they collected sand dollars, shells, mollusks, little fishies and we even saw a baby shark!!!!!! After that we were OUT OF THE WATER!!!!! Even though this job stresses me out more than any job I have EVER had--I DO LOVE IT :-)

Update...

Dave just left for a real world mission. He does not know where he is going but he will be aiding in the hurricane clean-up/safety. Just thought some of you would be interested. Only problem is that he woke up sick?? Not sure where he got sick, but he was not feeling well. So I packed him with vitamins...gave him juice with a vegetable complex, green tea drops, vitamin C, multivitamin, and some others. Hopefully that will help?! Wish him luck!

Fay

All these pictures are within walking distances from our house. In most of the pictures you can see our house. We definitly got some rain!! Luckily, we will miss Gustav. Most of this water overflow came from the pond to the north of our property. We took these pictures in case we had severe damage from the lack of drainage from this pond. There was just no place for all the water to go except our front yard....

Finally...dishes

After a long drawn out process, we have finally agreed on these dishes:

I know, you are thinking---they are a slab of some random material that you eat off of. Yes, I do know this. Dave will say that he did not care one way or the other...that it was ME that was making this big deal out of nothing. But YES, you do eat off of them and everyone that comes over eats off of them and sometimes you serve off of them and sometimes you put random candles on them if you can't find anything else to put them on. I do believe it is some what of a statement of your character. No, I think we can go further and say that it may define you in a way. So YES, it took a long time for me to decide on this set. DON'T MAKE FUN!!!

QUESTION.....How do you determine how many place settings to buy?? We did debate on this too for a few days. We finally agreed on 12 of each but who really has the need for 12 of each dish. Ok, if we lived close to family 12 would be justified, but here in GA 2 would be plenty!!! Ok, maybe 4, but really do we NEED 12 place settings?!

Although Mom A does not break her dishes, even for entertainment, she still buys 12. So we came to the conclusion that since we will be moving (and we all know how responsible military movers are) there will probably be broken dishes when we unpack. We also plan to move closer to family. (What am I talking about just about any other state is closer to some family.) Anyways, so when we move we plan to entertain more and we hope to keep these dishes for a little bit.

Random picture....this was from when I went to Gatlinburg, TN.....from left to right: Ms. Bradley (band director), ME, Dr. Hundley (she is my team leader), random guy?, Mr. Cureton (S.S. teacher on my team, Ms. Peace (8th grade math teacher), and Dr. Norris!!!




DONE!!!

Too much rain...

We are still experiencing Hurricane (tropical storm) Fay here. It has not stopped raining (hard rain) for 3 days now. School was actually cancelled on Friday due to the terrible weather/flooding/tornadoes. It has been crazy! Every where we go, we get soaked--it is just understood. I showered today and didn't even take the time to dry my hair because I knew I was going to get very wet.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/2603963/Tropical-storm-Fay-blamed-for-six-deaths-in-Florida.html

This picture is from Brunswick, GA but this is what we are dealing with all around us. A neighbor had a huge tree fall over their drive way and before they could get in or out they had to cut it into pieces. We are scared because we have sooo many tall pine trees surrounding our house. We hope to make it through the storm with no damage so we can have someone cut down about 10 trees right around the house.

We keep hearing loud noises on the roof and outside and just keep hoping that the limbs don't come through the ceiling. It is giving the dogs a workout because every noise they hear they get up and bark. The humans are getting annoyed!

I will take some pictures in a bit to give you an idea of what our yard looks like. I can't make it outside right now, but when it dies down you will not recognize the property! We have lots of clean up work ahead of us. Our burn pile is going to be HUGE!!!

FYI: We got trash service!!! This is a joyful thing because now we won't have to take our trash to the dump any more. They will come once a week and they will bring us a huge trash can so we can toss our junky ones away!! City folks, I know this sounds silly, but us country folks do not get to experience the simple pleasures. We do have to pay $60 a quarter for this service--it is not paid for by our taxes here. Power to the trash men and women, even though they make more than I do a year.

I got tagged!!!

I got tagged by the beautiful Kate Gavos, so I will of course oblige! WHOOOOOOP for being a "real" teacher now!!! It will change your life daily :-) In mostly good ways---I learn new things every day. I am proud you have found your calling. I wasn't sure that PT was it, but everything happens for a reason. Miss you!!

The rules:
1. List your top ten favorite films (and they are definitely in no particular order).
2. If you're tagged, you've got to post & tag 3-5 other people.
3. Give a tag back (some link love) to the one who tagged you in your post
4. Give a hat tip (HT) to Dan. (whoever that is :)Top Ten + a great quote from the movie if I know one :)

1. My Best Friends Wedding
2. Bruce Almighty
3. Good Luck Chuck
4. The Little Mermaid
5. RENT
6. Hitch
7. Anchorman (hjsierjhsklefnasldfjalskcdnasdlkf...pee pee!!!)
8. Dumb and Dumber (Bug Gulps, huh)
9. Pursuit of Happiness
10. Mary Poppins (just a spoonful of sugar....I still believe in that)

Ok---hat tip to Dan---I think people look ridiculous when they try to be a gangsta' by turning their hat sideways!! Either wear your hat forwards or backwards...

TAG--Jules, Jenny (& your FIRST baby bud!!), Suzanne (& your second baby bud!)

ETSY...

If you have a mountain of plastic bags (any type/all colors) taking up space, please mail them to me so I can help my friend expand her business!! Look how cool these bags are!!!! Some background: She is a stay at home mom and tries to do what she can to help recycle and turn things into useful products in the best way she can, HANDMADE. This is how they supplement their income, they have three kids and only one income...she does all of this FROM HOME!!!!!! Cool!!

http://www.boydhollow.etsy.com/

It takes about 70 bags to make one average sized purse, 30 for a wallet/clutch and about 150+ for a back pack. WOW!!!!