Happy Bastille Day!!!

Isn't that exciting and wonderful!?!

No?

OK, how about this? Today Patrick and I are celebrating our TWENTIETH wedding anniversary!!!



I love this man with all my heart. He is my Mr. Wonderful, my best friend...my soulmate. This life hasn't been what I expected...but just what I needed.



Here's to the rest of our lives, sweetheart. I love you.

Terrific Tuesday!

Hello sweet friends! Thanks for stopping by today! I'm having a really nice day...things just seem right.

Today is my last day babysitting for the summer. I invited a little neighbor girl over to play with "E," the girl I babysit. That was fun, and kept them both entertained.

I've been sticking my toes back into my preschool work...getting ready for next year. It's such a blessing to me to do what I do. By the end of May, I need a break. I need to step away from it, to recharge. I bring my preschool things into the house, take them into my "office" (ha!), and *close the door.* Seriously. I close the door so I can't see it, and therefore...don't think about it. Come July, I begin to organize, and plan. It energizes me. I begin to seek new ideas, and to implement them. By August? I'm raring to go...and excited to start with a new group of kids. I find it fascinating that EVERY year follows this pattern. Really shows me that a time of renewal is always needed, but is then followed by energetic growth. Love it.

"E" is napping, and my laundry is chugging along. Tomorrow is a VERY important day...I hope you'll come back by to see what it is!

She's home!

Well...she was. For about 2 hours, lol! Shannon's have such a great summer. She got home from Hilton Head this afternoon, and I had time to run a load of laundry and get her sent back off for a Girl Scout counselor sleepover. Tomorrow is Day Camp Open House, so the counselors sleep over the night before...to get everything set up, etc. Day Camp is next week...she always loves it. At least she'll be home in the evenings next week!

But check this out. Summer is just racing by. I have to take her out this week to start getting SCHOOL CLOTHES. Next week, she'll be on a church mission trip, and then two days after she gets back, I have my surgery...and won't be doing ANY shopping. Good heavens...SO FAST!

Starting tomorrow, I've got to start planning, and pulling my preschool stuff together. I just really feel like I've gotta get most things lined up be done BEFORE my operation. Later this week, I'm gonna go up to preschool and start setting up my classroom. I do get to go to the "Teacher Store," which I love...because I need a few new bulletin board pieces.

I only slept about 4 hours last night...so I'm headed to bed now. I had a SUPER fun night with some awesome friends from work. It was a night of good food, silliness, truth or dare, and LOTS of chatting. Poor Patrick didn't sleep either...but not for fun reasons. His head pain was so bad last night, that he wasn't able to fall asleep until 6:30 am. Needless to say, we've had a pretty low-key day today.

Here's to lots of rest tonight!

Spontaneous Getaway!

Also, my friend with the "lake house" invited me up for a spontaneous getaway! Another girlfriend and I went up Wednesday night and came home last night (I am babysitting "E" today, so I had to come home, lol).

Every time we go up there, I try to do something new...to push myself out of my comfort zone just a little bit. I always find that I'm so proud of myself, and love doing things!

Last time we went, I rode a wave-runner for the first time. This time, I went tubing behind the boat, and jumped off the top of a dock (like...the roof) across the cove. Also, it doesn't sound like as big a deal, but it was MUCH harder (mentally) for me to do...I swam under their dock. (I should probably explain why, lol.) They have THE SWEETEST dog, named Annie. She loves to sit out at the end of their dock, and drop her tennis ball into the lake. At one point, the ball went under the dock, and "L's" (the one who owns the house/dock) daughter "A" (Shannon's age) swam under to get it. My stomach flip-flopped...and I jokingly said "Save yourself, "A"! That's where the monsters live!" Of course, I don't really think monsters live down there, lol...but I realized I was actually afraid to swim under! So I made myself do it! The dock sits up on this floating "pier" things...so the surface of the dock is like a foot over the water. I swam the length of the dock...between the piers. My heart was beating SO fast...but I did it!

We had SUCH a great time. We just hung out and laughed on Wednesday night. Swimming in the lake, playing truth or dare, etc. We had fondue for dinner, and then MADE OUR OWN FUNNEL CAKES (OMG how fun) for dessert. We sat up til 2 am chatting, and then Annie slept with me. After sleeping with Rosie and Calvin...Annie the Rottweiler was quite the change!

Thursday morning we got up and had breakfast, and then went out on their pontoon boat. SO much fun. Eventually, we came back for a really late lunch, and then "K" (the other friend) and I headed home. I have some pictures, but I need to re-size them, etc.

Tonight, I'm going to another friend's house for a pool party. It'll be a bunch of girls from work ("L" and "K" are also friends from work, but not sure if they're going to this party). We'll do a little drinking, so it's a slumber party! SO fun!

Shannon "comes home" tomorrow. I put it in quotes because they're getting here between 3 and 4, but her counselor sleepover for GS camp starts at 5. LOL!

To those that are here from Friday Follow...welcome! I'm so glad you're here! I hope you'll follow and come back again!

Allied Moms

My sweet friend, Steph, just recently co-founded a wonderful new online community for Christian blogging moms.



It's called Allied Moms, and it's a place to find friends and support...as well as promote your blog! Just by connecting and answering daily questions, you can win front page ad space for YOUR blog!

And guess what? I already won! Go me! So, to any Allied Moms stopping by...welcome! I'm so glad you're here!

Empty Nesters

I keep meaning to sit down and blog, but I just never do! Patrick and I are home alone, and it's...kinda weird! Such a change from our regular day to day. I guess this is what it will be like when Shan goes off to college! We are kind of different from a lot of couples though...in that Patrick is disabled, and can't work...and I'm a teacher, so I'm home during the summer. So...we're home alone 24/7 right now! Good thing we're best friends, huh? LOL!!!

Our 4th of July was good! Our city is weird, and did fireworks on Friday the 2nd. (Apparently it's not a good Christian thing to do them on the 4th? (If Halloween falls on a Sunday, people don't trick-or-treat here on that day, either!) I don't know...but why not the 3rd? Maybe they got a good deal if they went on the 2nd.) Anyway. We went Friday night and saw the fireworks. I LOVE fireworks. I don't know why...but they're just magical to me. I actually get a little choked up!

Saturday we cleaned our garage. I know, how exciting right? But listen to this. We back Patrick's truck up to the garage, and just chucked in junk that we don't need. Stuff we NEVER use, etc. And took it to the dump! It's outta here, baby!!! The way they charge at our dump is by weight. You pull onto a scale as you enter, and then you pull onto a scale as you leave...and they charge by pound. We dumped 680 pounds!!! OMG! Isn't that wild? (And this is our 4th dump run this month!) I LOVE getting rid of junk! (But am slightly scared that this now makes it sound like we live in a junkyard or something. I assure you...we don't.)

So then, Saturday night, we headed over to Woodstock to the Dixie Speedway for some dirt-track racing and more fireworks. A really neat thing happened...right at 9:30, behind turn 2...the Woodstock city firework show went off! We got a bonus firework show! Neato! They were really good, too. Then, after that heat of racing, at like 10pm...we saw the Speedway fireworks. SO fun!

Something really hilarious happened at the track. We were sitting next to this grandma and her two grandsons. One of the grandsons was grown...probably 24-ish, and the other was like 10. At one point, the grown up grandson got popcorn for them. Awhile later, I happened to look over at them. The grandma was making that "I have something stuck in my teeth" face, and moving her tongue around. Suddenly, she pops her teeth out, picks out the popcorn hull...and then puts her teeth back in! OMG, it was SO funny! It just struck me SO funny...but I mean, how handy for getting popcorn hulls out of your teeth, right?

Our 4th was nice. We barbecued chicken, and ate lots of watermelon. We shot some fireworks off in the driveway and just chilled! Very nice! It was weird not having Shannon home, but knowing she was having such fun, watching fireworks on the beach kinda made up for it. :-)

Happy Friday!

Welcome, sweet friends!

I'm feeling content and blessed today.

It's a little rainy, which is nice...I love the rain, but it also means it's a little cooler outside. I know it's June, but it's just been beastly hot here for about 3 weeks. Mid-90's, with heat index around 105...every day. Yuck. I'm not a hot weather person, but I try to grin and bear it.

My little world traveler is off on another adventure. Her best friend's mom texted me on Wednesday morning and asked if Shannon was available to go to Hilton Head for TEN DAYS, leaving Thursday afternoon! Wow! Shannon had a couple scheduled events, but they were easily changeable. Shan's BFF and mom have been in HH for a week already, and step-dad was driving down after work yesterday. BFF's mom woke up yesterday with the fun idea to have step-dad bring Shannon down with him, and surprise BFF! Isn't that fun? I'm so tickled for my girl.

The rest of her summer is a whirlwind though. She gets home from HH next Saturday around 3-4pm. She has a Girl Scout Counselor sleepover beginning at 5pm! She'll get home at 4pm on Sunday. Beginning the following day is GS Day Camp, where she'll be a counselor. That gets over on Friday the 16th. On Sunday the 18th, she's leaving on a mission trip for church, and won't be back til the 24th! Then, my surgery is on the 27th. When we dropped her off yesterday, I jokingly said "See you in August!"

I have no idea why, but our town's fireworks are tonight, so P and I will go see them. It will be weird, but kinda fun (like a date!) to go without Shannon. Maybe we should have a picnic dinner or something. Hmmm.

I dunno...I just feel...at peace. Life's just cooking along, and I feel like I'm right where I'm supposed to be. It's been awhile since I've felt this way.

If you're here from Friday Follow, I hope you'll link up and come again!