happy halloween!

I am thankful for my wonderful, quiet Halloween at home with my husband.  I had pot roast cooking on the crock pot all day, so I didn't have to make dinner when I got home (which is always a plus!)  We ate dinner, had a drink, and waited on the (few) trick or treaters that we had! All in all, a pretty nice evening!

I just had to share this picture of my glass of wine from tonight.  Yes, I am still the nerd who drinks from the "Bride" wineglass my MOH Brittany made for me! 

What can I say, it makes me smile. :)

mini ham and swiss poppy seed sandwiches

One of my favorite things my mom would make for us growing up were these delicious ham and swiss sandwiches.  We would always have them once it started getting cool out and eat them alongside soup.  I made them for Richie when we first got married and they quicky became one of his favorites too.  They are super easy and super yummy!

They no longer carry the rolls you use, so any time of pre-made (not frozen) dinner rolls will work.  I use potato rolls.  Cut the rolls in half and put a mayo-mustard mix on both sides of the bread.  Put thinly sliced ham and baby swiss on each sandwich.  Melt better and spread on the tops of all the sandwiches.  Sprinkle poppy seeds on top of the melted butter.  Bake at 350 for about 7-10 minutes.

I am thankful for these yummy sandwiches from my childhood!  I hope you enjoy them as well!

pretty perfect Saturday

One of my best friend's Jenna and her boyfriend (and one of Richie's best friends) Michael stayed with us Friday night.  Saturday morning, Jenna and I got up and headed over to J Christophers for brunch.  It was soooo yummy!  I had a pumpkin pie cappuccino ( Jenna is a frequent blog reader and laughed when I ordered it since she has seen my love of Fall things through recent posts!) and a skillet with turkey sausage, mushroom, and goat cheese- delicious!

Soooooo yummy

After brunch, we went back to my house and our friends Nate and Bryn came over to hang out for a while.  Then we went to my brother and sister-in-laws house for a Halloween party.  Laura did the cutest job on it- the house was all decked out for Halloween, there was a candy table, and we had Richie's aunts white chicken chili (best ever) and s'mores over the fire with ghost peeps!  We also picked up a couple of bottles of Free Spirit which is a beer that was brewed in memory of Brittany Fox Watts. 

All in all, it was a pretty great Saturday- minus poor little Tripp falling and having to go get stitches! 

I am thankful for days filled with friends and fun! (Wow...I really am cheesy!)

Candy fractions

We did the most fun math activity today. We are finishing up our fraction unit and did candy fractions today using candy corn and pumpkin candies. We did fractions of a set with them and my kids had the best time. I am so thankful for my job and for fun activities with my kiddos!

Pumpkin Spice Latte

I had the most delicious pumpkin spice latte (there I go again with fall stuff! I swear I do enjoy the rest of the year as well!) before school on Thursday. I looooooooove pumpkin spice lattes and was thankful for that wonderful start to my morning!

people who love my dog :)

I took my precious dog (yes, I am completely obsessed with him and he will be a post before the year is up) Wrigley to our kickball game on Wednesday. I was told that I didn't have to play (phew!), so I decided to bring the Wrigglebug to enjoy some fresh air and fun. He had a fabulous time there and made a friend! There was a lady there set up in an RV for a dog agility contest and she LOVED Wrigley! She took pictures of him so her husband could see "how cute he was" and kept giving him treats the whole time we were there. She even gave him a rope toy to take home! Sounds so silly, but it made me smile seeing someone enjoy my sweet Wrigleypup so much! I am thankful for that lady appreciating my dog!

Fall candles

I got "boo'ed" at school this week and in it was one of my favorite things...a fall scented candle! I am obsessed with candles, and given my love for all things autumn- those scents are of course my favorites! I am thankful for my wonderful new pumpkin candle and for being "boo'ed". So if you are the one who gave it to me and are reading this... Thank you!!!

oj

I have been fighting a cold/allergies, etc, so this morning I stopped on the way to work for some orange juice.  For some reason, when I am feeling crummy oj always makes me feel better.  I am thankful for orange juice and for feeling slightly better!

chalkboard

For part of my birthday present, I got the most adorable chalkboard.  I have been wanting one to hang in my kitchen so I can write cute messages, leave notes for Richie, etc. on it.  It came in last week and I LOVE it! 
Here is a picture of it with my football message on it... :)

funny moments

On our way home from Tuscaloosa yesterday, we stopped at a Wendy's to use the restroom.  My sister-in-law went in to the stall and came out dying laughing and telling me to come look at something.  Someone had left their (not so tiny) panties on the toilet paper dispenser!  GROSS!  We cracked up at it though and I had to get a picture!  I am thankful for funny moments that make you laugh and laugh!

How gross!!

tailgate food

It's my favorite time of year- Fall and Football Season!  We went to Tuscaloosa (I know, I know- I was being a good wife though!) for the Alabama vs. TN game.  While the Vols unfortunately lost, we had a great time!  One of my favorite things about football season is the tailgate food!  I am thankful for yummy tailgate food and spending a beautiful day outside with family and friends!

purse!

As I have mentioned befor on here, I nanny after school 3 days a week.  It is a GREAT "after-school" job, but it does tend to take up a lot of my time.  I have been wanting a new purse and recently decided I would treat myself and splurge with my babysitting money.

I found this beautiful Tory Burch purse on ebay and fell in love.  Luckily, it was a "buy it now" item, so I didn't have to wait around to see if I won it. (Patience is NOT one of my virtues.  Except when it comes to my students of course!)

I am thankful for my new, wonderful purse!!!

Isn't it pretty??

Vegetable Beef Stew

It is cold and nasty out, which means it is time for....vegetable beef stew!!  Here is my super-simple recipe:

Brown your beef (you can usually buy it already chopped for stew).  If you keep it in skillet a little longer, it will be even more tender.

Put beef, 2 cans of tomato sauce (or 4 mini cans like I did), large can of Veg-All, chopped potatoes, and any other veggies you want.  I usually add an extra can of green beans, lima beans, and corn to mine.  Add any water that it may also need.  I usually make mine in my dutch oven, but since we have kickball tonight, I am putting it in the crock pot.

Cook for about 1-2 hours depending on how "done" you want all your veggies to be. 

Enjoy!!

I am thankful for one of my favorite comfort foods- vegetable beef stew!

Inspiration

There is a family at my school that I have been close to since my first year at Creek View. The mom has breast cancer in this family devastatingly has breast cancer. This woman is one of the kindest, most Godly women I have ever met.  She has 4 children in elementary school, is battling this horrible disease, and instead of moping and wallowing like so many of us do with our "problems", she is praising her Lord and Savior.

I got an update from her caring bridge page today and it truly just made me stop and think about how blessed I am in my life.  I am making it my goal to stop and count my blessings instead of all the things that are "wrong" and I encourage you to do the same!

Here is an excerpt from her post along with a link to a beautiful song.  Enjoy!

My prayer for you is that you stop & take time today to Thank God for what He has given you & how He's blessed your lives! There is a beautiful song called "Blessings" by Laura Story that many of you may have heard. Please take a moment to listen to or watch this and think about your day and all the ways there may be "hidden blessings". God is so good and He can and will use Rain, tears, trials, storms and so much more to draw us closer to Him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CSVqHcdhXQ&feature=youtube_gdata_player

conference day!

I am thankful for the conference day that I had today!  While I don't always enjoy conferences, I do LOVE being able to tell parents how wonderful their child is and/or how far they have already.  I got to do a lot of that today which made up for the few conferences I had in which I didn't get to talk about such pleasant things...  The good news is, I am almost done with all of them!  I only have 3 left- woo hoo!!

sleeping in

Since we had such a long day yesterday- up early, in the sun all day, and a total of 7 hours in the car (yuck!), I was pretty tired.  Combine that with a VERY long week and I was flat out exhausted.  I did something that I have not done in a very, very long time- slept until 10:30! It felt absolutely wonderful- and it felt even better to watch some tv in bed after sleeping that late! I am thankful for sleeping in and getting the rest my body so greatly needed!  Happy Sunday y'all!

weagle weagle war dam eagle rocky top vols

Last football season, Richie coined this phrase "Weagle Weagle, War Damn Eagle, Rocky Top Vols" to combine both of our schools- Auburn (woo!) and Tennessee (I will resist the urge and not write "boo!" here).  Since our friends Nate and Bryn are in the same boat as we are, we joked around all last football season saying it, and it just kinda stuck. :) I am thankful for the day I had yesterday.  We woke up bright and early (5:30 am on a Saturday!!) and headed to Knoxville.  We spent all day tailgating, eating, and drinkin' a few adult beverages with friends.  Bryn and I stayed at the tailgate while everyone went to the game and watched it on tv at the tailgate.  After the game, Richie and I headed back to Atlanta, with his dad driving us :).  We listened to Auburn on the radio and we had a great game and beat Florida! War Eagle!  Besides TN's loss, it was all in all a pretty perfect fall day!

harvest moon

Did anyone else see the moon tonight??? Holy cow- it is GORGEOUS!  It is huge, golden/yellow, and so low to the ground.  Another reason October is my favorite month.  I am thankful for this beautiful harvest moon- seriously I am just in awe of it. 

CAbi

For those of you who may not know me (which I assume most of my blog readers do!), I used to sell the wonderful clothing line, CAbi.  They are the cutest and best quality clothes, plus you get to shop at home with friends while drinking wine!  Even though I know longer sell CAbi, I still have my party every season to stock up on the clothes.  I had my party Thurdsday night and it was so much fun! I am thankful for my cute CAbi clothes and for how much fun I always have with my friends at the party!

flu-less season

I will be the first to admit that I am a huge baby when it comes to shots and things of that nature! So when I saw the email that we could sign up to get flu shots (for free) after school, I quickly hit "delete".  However, today at lunch I completely got peer pressured into it and got my flu shot this afternoon.  It was actually completely painless, over in a second, free, and I didnt have to go to the dr's office to get it!  Plus, it will hoepfully keep me from getting the flu!  All in all, I think it was a pretty good decision!

1/2 day planning

Our administration was so kind and gave each grade level a 1/2 duty day so we could collaborate and/or get anything done that we need to now that we are at the end of the first 9 weeks of school!  We had ours Wednesday morning and we did our 7 step plans for our upcoming unit in math and I got (almost) all of my conference notes done! Hoorah!

cupcakes

We went to dinner on Tuesday night as our bible study and LJ surprised me with yummy Gigi's cupcakes for my birthday! I am thankful for their deliciousness, plus a sweet thoughtful friend. :)

birthday!

Today is my birthday (I'm now 28- officially upper 20's) and it has been such a great day!  I had a great day at school- my kids all made me a million cards and such and I got some really pretty flowers too!
Then, a co-worker made the most delicious homemade tiramisu cake (he goes to pastry school during the summers so it was divine), then a parent brought in an adorable cake and a Happy Birthday sign for the kids to have a "party."



Doesn't this look amazing?




Isn't this cake adorable??





At my class "birthday party"

  After school, I went and had a massage (the last in the series my in-laws gave me for Christmas) and decided while I was there to add on a cranberry and pomegranate facial- heavenly!  I came home, got in my pj's and Richie brought home dinner because I was oily from my massage and didn't feel like going out (plus we went out to dinner with my family last night to celebrate) and opened gifts!  All in all, a pretty great start to 28!  I am thankful for the wonderful birthday I had today and for the start of a new year- I have a feeling 28 is going to be great!

Pink roses from my sweet hubby

short hair!

I try so hard to grow my hair long, but it just always gets to a point where I realize I am meant to be a short hair girl.  I had finally gotten to the point where I realized that again, so yesterday I got my hair chopped off!  I am thankful to have short hair again for the low-maintance it requires! :)  Happy Sunday y'all!

Murder Mystery Party

My birthday is tomorrow so my wonderful husband had the fabulous idea to have some couples over for a Murder Mystery Party for my birthday!  We had it on Friday night and it was a trailer park themed mystery!  It was so much fun...I was suprised that everyone got into it (even the guys) and played along.  We went with the trailer park theme and had hot dogs, chili, tater tots and Fritos for dinner with Moon Pies for dessert.



Best if you open the package and heat in microwave for 10 seconds...MMM!

We had real beverages but had to have some you'd find in the trailer park (notice the Pabst Blue Ribbon) and no trailer park is complete without big, fat koozies!



Everyone came in character and we got clues throughout the night with people to question and what we remembered from the night of the murder.  I was shocked to find out at the end that Bryn was the murderer!

I am so thankful for my unique and fun birthday party and for all my wonderful friends that were able to come!  I am very blessed. :)



Richie and I in character (AKA Lula Belle Larcen and Big Hoss Beaver) Doesn't his hair look like Wayne Newton??)



DIY "J" Project

I am SO not crafty...let's just get that out there from the start. However, I have all these aspirations to be!  My friend Emily could be Martha Stewart and makes all these adorable things.  She made an M wrapped in twine for our friend Lacey and hung it in a frame.  I was inspired, but decided to make a J to hang on my front door.  After I lot of re-do's, glue, and time I finally finshed my first cute DIY project (besides minor ones like gluing ribbons on pumpkins).  Here is the final product:

I am thankful for my adorable J that I made all by myself! :)

New kitchen table decorations

One of the reasons I was so busy this week was that I am re-decorating some parts of my house (with my mom's help!) One of the things I changed was the placemats, etc on my kitchen table. 



Fall makeover!



"Defying Gravity"

If you don't recognize the title to this post, it means you have not had the pleasure of seeing "Wicked" yet.  Do yourself a favor- and go see it next time it comes to your city!! 
One of my best friends LJ (see my post about her here) took me to go see it with her mom, her mom's friend, her aunt, and her aunt's friend.  We had so much fun- dinner at Tuk Tuk and then Wicked!
This was my third time seeing it (once in Chicago and twice now in Atl) and I love it even more every time I see it.  If I could name a dream role of mine, it would absolutely be to play Glinda (and as my mom says, it really wouldn't take too much acting! haha)
I am thankful that I got to see Wicked again (I still have all the songs in my head!) and for the wonderful time that we had on Tuesday night! Thanks Linds and Mrs J for taking me!!

Fun, busy Week!

I have not blogged almost all week, so I have a lot of making up to do today!  I have 6 posts that I need to do! Goodness!

I thrive on being busy.  Strange, I know, but I love having lots to do.  I love being around family and friends and plus, it makes me appreciate down time when I do have it!

I am thankful for the wonderfully fun, busy week I have had!  My next few posts will be about some of the things I did!

Italian Chicken Soup

I mentioned in my "October" post, how much I love autumn.  One of the things I love best is delicious, homemade soup.  I feel like I wear out my usual soups- chili, chicken brunswick stew, vegetable beef, chicken noodle, so I wanted to find something yummy and different for dinner last night.  I made Italian Chicken Soup and it was soooo delicious!  My mom had been helping me around the house, so I made the soup while she was over and then my dad came over as well and the four of us (mom, dad, Richie, and I) enjoyed yummy soup!  Then, I had leftovers for lunch today (and still more leftovers in my fridge...) I am thankful for my new fall soup recipe that I thoroughly enjoyed last night and today!

I take absolutely no credit for coming up with the recipe.  Here it is:   Italian Chicken Soup Especially delicious with warm ciabatta bread.

Shower Soothers- I found them!

As a teacher of young children, it is a given that you will get sick during the year.  You build up an immunity to it so that you aren't sick every time one of your kids is, but when you are around that many germs, it is bound to happen.  Well this morning, I woke up with my first cold/sinus of the school year.  Nonstop sneezing, running nose, sore throats, chills, all the loveliness that goes along with it.  Not fun.
I found a product a few years ago called Shower Soothers that you put at the bottom of your shower and it basically turns your shower into a vicks vapor rub steam room...amazing when you can't breathe.  I havent been able to find them ever since that first time, but that is all I could think about today.  I called the CVS near me and asked if they carried it, which they did not- BUT they carry a CVS brand which is even better because it's cheaper!  My wonderful, wonderful husband went and got it for me and as soon as he returned, I took a long, hot, menthal shower! Now I am in my pjs with a cup of hot tea about to crawl into bed.. perfection.  Night!

This is the generic version

Crabapple Craft Fair

Yesterday my mom,Laura and I went to the Crabapple Craft Fair.  I was honestly expecting homemade soaps, quilts, and that type of merchandise, but they actually had some really cute booths! I got the cutest sign there that I hung in my entry way right before you get into my den.


The whole sign




The top close up




The bottom close up

 I am thankful for my adorable new sign and for the reminder it will give me every time I walk by it. :)

October!

October is, without a doubt, my favorite month! My favorite things about October are:
*the air starts getting cool so you wear jackets and boots (my favorite kind of clothing!)
*the leaves change colors and it is so beautiful outside
*you can open the sunroof (I am a sunroof-aholic)
*football season (War Eagle!)
*the sky is bluer than any other time of the year (this actual is true!)
*my birthday!!!

So far, October is starting on a good note! On the 1st I went to the Crabapple Craft Fair with my mom and sister-in-law Laura (see my next post!) and then Richie and I and Robbie and Laura went to a surprise 30th party for some of our friends Kim and John.  Today, my mom and I went shopping and re-did some things around my house and then I made homemade soup and my dad came and joined Richie, my mom, and I for dinner!   Hope your October is off to a nice start as well!