finally posting

it's memorial day weekend, and i have enjoyed every minute of it. so relaxing.. and i still have one more day of it to savor. and then...

three and a half days. three and a half days. no, seriously--three and a half days. where did this year go?

oh man, the past couple of weeks have been crazy. i cannot believe everything that i've squeezed in and how quickly it's all flown by. let me see if i can summarize:

kenny chesney concert tickets have been purchased for august in raleigh. oh yeah... i cannot explain how excited i am about this.

croquet excursion with the church crew last friday along the new bern waterfront. pictures are up on flickr (to the right). i was not good at croquet, and neither was my croquet partner (justin). but we had a good time and the game ended with an entertaining race in which marilyn and i pushed croquet balls on the ground with our noses. we literally stopped traffic in the park--but it was fun (and further proves how silly we can be when we get together). we all ate dinner at a little cafe in downtown new bern with amazing black bean hummus, delicious crab cake sandwiches and the biggest sweet potato biscuits i've ever seen. yum!

my colorguard--it's been a busy wrap-up to our season. we had pictures taken on monday (which you can see under "recent events" here ) so that we could be included in the athletic banquet slideshow on thursday night. that went amazingly well--it was so great to be a part of those festivities (and to be considered an athletic activity! take that, morehead scholarship committee) and to see my girls be recognized for their hard work. and then we had the faculty/student softball game on friday, which i was organizing and running and (after some minor sound system issues) was a huge success. we had softball, we had hippity hop races, we had water balloon tosses, and the final colorguard performance. the kids loved it, the faculty had a great time, and i got tons of "thank yous" from parents who were so glad i put it all together. also--i got to use the yearbook camera (a high tech SLR with an amazing lens) and take pictures of field day with the lower school kids. so awesome.

this was a fun weekend for me and justin as we checked a couple of things of our "things we should do list." for months now, we'd been talking about making "the world's greatest sandwich" from the movie "spanglish"--if you haven't seen it, one of the extra features on the dvd is actually a clip showing you how to make the sandwich. well, on saturday we went to the grocery store and actually got the stuff to make the sandwich for lunch. it was huge, it was filling and it was sooo good. afterwards, we went to target for some browsing and i ended up buying a $10 inflatable pool that we then promptly brought back to my place and filled up on the back deck. i know where i'll be relaxing in july...

saturday night, we headed out to "little" washington where we strolled along the waterfront, watched the sun set over the river and enjoyed the laid-back atmosphere. we tried to eat outside by the water, but the restaurant was so swamped that we were ridiculously convinced by the host to leave before we sat down. so we found a great little cafe place that was much more capable of feeding us and then headed back home relaxed and refreshed. i do love those waterfronts....

alan turned 20 yesterday! happy birthday to him. mom and grandma came for lunch, cake and presents today. we're going to dad's tomorrow for more lunch, etc.

thursday--end of school dance. friday--end of school and the beginning of our weekend at ocracoke. it's so close, i can taste it....

later, y'all.

7 days, 7 days, 7 days...

quick post before i head out to young adults...

so i know it's been a while, but it's been busy. first of all, let me say that my mother's day/graduation weekend was fabulous. pictures are up on flickr, but i had to add this one in of me and the special grad. and her family is just so awesome. i will always be thankful to have them in my life. now she's in richmond, starting law school and the next step in her education. simply an amazing girl (now that i've forgiven her for not letting me get any sleep pre-graduation night :) )

softball: another loss and one rain-out. did catch a pop-up foul at home. that makes being catcher worthwhile (just barely). still apathetic and slightly wondering why i agreed to do this (especially when i get weird sunburns due to sunday afternoon practices. i hate the pink leopard look.) i can make it, i can make it...

done with my "sex ed" classes. can we say big sigh of relief?

colorguard performance this week--i spent last night ironing letters, letters and more letters on pink t-shirts so now we have "eagles colorguard" shirts with our names on the back. cheaper than screenprinting (and my only options since i totally procrastinated on ordering real shirts). here's to michael's and my ironing skills. this afternoon, one of the parents who's in charge of the athletic banquet this week came to take pictures to include in the slide show. i was quite pleased to hear that we would be included in the banquet, especially after not being considered an "athletic activity" during high school.

LCSW exam prep session this past saturday. man, i have a lot of studying to do. i will fully admit now that in grad school, i memorized information solely for the test and promptly forgot it. luckily, i will be able to study this summer and review all of the theories and therapy styles and ethics questions and everything like that for hours on end. and about four years from now, i'll be really glad i did it. talk about delayed gratification...

and it's exactly 7 days of school left (taking into account memorial day and half-day fridays). wow. where'd the year go? i will miss my kids over the summer--and my faculty members a little bit more. i feel so blessed to have a job where i look forward to going to work every day.

that's all for now... later, y'all.

happy early mother's day

so i'm in fayetteville, posting cause there's nothing on tv. and tomorrow, after the mother's day festivities finish, i will be off to winston-salem to celebrate the culmination of four years of hard work for miss maggie grace. i'm almost as excited about the opportunity to photograph wake forest's campus. ever since i walked on that campus eight years ago during our spring "college tour" trip, i have always loved it and appreciated it for the classic red brick, magnolia tree lined quads and wrought iron work. it is truly gorgeous--and i'm truly happy to be sharing this experience with maggie and her family (who have adopted me as a daughter more than once).

it's been a busy week with me, with another loss in softball and some minor drama at school. when is there ever not drama? we've also gotten to the point of the year where we're doing our sex education that has (not surprisingly) fallen under my umbrella to organize, facilitate and in some cases, teach. another reason i should have a written job description next year ;) anyways, it's almost over and it has actually gone incredibly well. we had a few complaints last year about how it was handled but there have been none so far and i've actually received several compliments. always a good sign.

i stopped in and listened to the band practice the other day since i wouldn't be able to attend their concert. i miss band rehearsal. sounds crazy, but i really do. i need to find an outlet for this....

and justin is wonderful. i am constantly reminded of that and i appreciate it more and more every day. the more i learn of the world and other relationships and how things could be--i'm so happy that we have one another and that things are the way they are. just had to share...

later, y'all.

four weeks left...

and so we're in the final stretch.

i just finished watching the gilmore girls season finale--wow. the last scene with rory and logan got to me a little bit (too many teary goodbyes in the past at airports, etc.) but i'm really wondering how they're going to resolve this whole luke/lorelai thing. and now i only have four months to wait and find out :)

much better weekend than last weekend. nice, relaxing and productive. i had a photo shoot saturday afternoon for the engaged couple, and they turned out so well. it had rained all friday night, so the ground was soaked but i thought ahead and brought a neat sheet for them to sit on. well, i got extremely muddy and wet in the process of taking the pictures, so i changed as soon as i got home and threw my clothes in the wash. of course, about 30 minutes into the cycle, i gasped and realized that i was also currently washing the check the girl had given me earlier. at that point, it was dissolved and turned up later in my lint trap. oh well... life goes on.

softball game tonight, and after our long practice sunday afternoon, we were feeling pretty good. we did great the first few innings, but then hit some rough spots and ended up losing by four runs. we did have a second occurance of a guy saying "easy out" when a girl got up to bat for the first time (this time with katie.) and of course, she ended up getting a hit and on base and eventually scoring. but what makes these guys think that it's okay to say that when we're not supposed to say anything negative like that as it is? when i asked to see if we could do anything about it, i didn't get much of a response, which of course makes me more determined to actually do something about it. it's just like--if they want girls to play, and they need girls on the team in order to play--then stand up for us and don't let us have to deal with this when guys never hear anything like that. so there.

(by the way, i scored a run tonight.)

busy stuff at work. LOTS of drama today. doesn't look like it's going to calm down any as we get to the end of the year.

and this coming weekend, it'll be home for mother's day and then on to winston-salem for maggie's graduation. yay :)

until then... later, y'all.

little notes...

busy back at school--a few regular cases, a few new ones that are trying to pop up in the last 5 weeks. it'll be a huge push to the end of year, but i'm looking forward to it. i've got tutoring lined up to keep me busy through out the summer, a colorguard camp, and a few photography appointments. nice.... (considering all three keep me occupied, happy and bringing in some extra cash)

softball--great game on tuesday (17-10), not so great tonight (1-18--yeah, seriously). i did have an experience tuesday, though, where the first time i got up to bat, before i had even swung at a pitch, the manager of the other team was saying to his players, "alright, defense, easy out, easy out." that got me mad enough to hit a line drive to 3rd that got me on 1st and eventually got me home. i do not consider myself the best softball player, but atleast give me the benefit of the doubt. especially in church league! goodness...

by the way, we have our pink shirts now. they're like fuschia pink. they're awesome.

so i started feeling a little yucky friday afternoon and just figured i had some food poisoning. i had a school event in the evening, so i sucked it up and went on (a foot soak spa party courtesy of some oakwoodettes). well, i barely made it through without getting sick, and the minute i got back, i was in the bathroom. it stayed with me through the night and saturday morning, and it wasn't until i talked to a few more oakwood people that i found out it was not food poisoning, but one of the most widespread stomach bugs we've seen move through the school in a while. five teachers out this morning, several students went home, and about 8 or 10 teachers reported having it over the weekend. craziness...

did another photo shoot with one of my 7th grade girls sunday afternoon. they turned out BEAUTIFUL... i love doing this kinda stuff. :)

and that's about all for now...later, y'all.