merry christmas!

weeks go by and then i realize i haven't written in here...i guess i'm not very good at keeping a blog these days! sorry y'all! i always think of different things to write about but life has been crazy and its been hard to keep up with everything...let alone write in here! i'll do better this coming year, promise!
merry christmas to everyone! i hope everyone's day is as fabulous as mine has been :) i love christmastime...its my favorite part of the year! i love time spent with family and i love love love giving gifts to everyone. if you know me at all, you know that buying gifts for others is pretty much my favorite thing to do. i love spending hours picking out the perfect present for everyone....and i love to give gifts throughout the year as well. it just makes me happy to see other people so happy. i was really happy with what i got for everyone this year and i got some really nice gifts myself! my brother bought me the new pink ipod nano and i was quite excited about that! my parents surprised me and bought me the bracelet i wanted from james avery which totally made my christmas. i just love this bracelet. i'm not huge on getting jewelry very often. i like very select pieces and very minimal jewelry but i just adored this bracelet. i got a lot of clothes from express which makes me happy because i love that store! all in all, quite a nice christmas this year. we're about to have christmas dinner and then play games for a few hours. i love love love playing board games...i could do that for hours! :)
i hope everyone had a fabulous christmas and above all else, make sure to remember the real reason for the season. christ is born, let heaven and earth rejoice!

twilight saga

have any of you read the twilight saga by stephanie meyer? i've been hearing about them from a lot of different people lately, mostly because the movie is coming out, and everyone is telling me that i need to read them. i borrowed the first one from a friend and i am about 1/4 of the way through it...and i'm really enjoying it so far! my closest friend at work just started them last week and she's already on the 4th one! my family is doing thanksgiving a day late because my mom had to work yesterday so i'm spending all the time before and after eating reading my book! i love getting lost in a good book :) i told dory (my friend at work) that i would have the book done by monday so we can go watch the movie next week. i'm really excited! and for those of you who know me..you know i always have to read the book before the movie...cause the books are always way better!

happy thanksgiving 2008!

happy happy thanksgiving to all of you! i love that for at least one day a year, we are able to take time out of our busy schedules to thank the Lord for all of his many blessings. so, in the spirit of thanksgiving, here is a list of things that i am thankful for...some are serious and some are not so much...but i'm still thankful for them! :) and i'm thankful for all of you. i love y'all!

*my amazing family. they are my stability and my life. i truly don't know what i would do without them. i'm so glad they're only an hour away from me and i still see them all of the time. any farther and it would be a problem!
*my fabulous friends. i've been blessed to have the same core best friends for almost twelve years now..they're more like sisters to me. of course i've made new friends over the past few years who i'm also extremely close to...but my main group of best friends stays the same...kerri, karen, joni, and jenny. the Lord has blessed me so much with them!
*my precious dogs. i miss brady more than i can put into words but at least i had three years with him. that's better than none at all! i love living with rocky again (although i clean obsessively with him here) and i love my sweet molly. i can't imagine not having pets. they're the best.
*modern technology...cell phones, internet, facebook, picture messaging, the list goes on! i love how easy it is to keep in touch with people now. that's such a blessing! maintaining friendships means a LOT to me...if you know me at all, you know that!
*my apartment. even though its never going to feel the way it used to when i'm home, i do still genuinely love living here. its going to be a lot easier to move out come next august but i have wonderful memories here. its my home and i adore it. my pretty painted walls and all of my decorations...its been a wonderful three years and i wouldn't change them for anything.
*my car. i am BEYOND ready to get a new one (just waiting to be financially ready!). however, i'm blessed to have a car that runs and one that is pretty darn dependable. things could be much worse!
*the opportunity to go to grad school next fall. i seriously cannot wait!
*good books...i love losing myself in a good book at least once a week if not more! i just love to read.
*candles and wallflowers that make my apartment smell so wonderful!
*my relationship with the Lord. he's taught me so much this year and he's showed me in so many ways just how much he loves me. my relationship with him means everything to me.

happy thanksgiving 2008! i love y'all!

shaken up

so up until this last week, my fall had been going along perfectly. i've had so many fun times over the past few months and then about two weeks ago, i found out that my dog is really sick. brady was born with the herpes virus (very long story) and was not expected to live....however, he did, and i've always called him my miracle dog. well, about two weeks ago, he started not eating very often and losing weight. we found out that he has chronic renal failure which means that his kidneys are shutting down. i don't know how much longer he is going to make it. i've cried more about that than i can even say. its funny how much pets become like family...and brady has always been my baby. i just love that little guy so much. i keep praying for him to make it but i don't think its going to be much longer.

wednesday night, i pulled into my apartment complex about nine in the evening. i was laughing with a friend on the phone but when i turned off the car and looked at my apartment windows, i stopped laughing. my lights were on in my apartment and i NEVER leave lights on. i turn off absolutely everything when i leave. i walked up to my apartment and looked in through the porch windows and i could see that the bathroom light was on and the light from the laundry room. i knew immediately that something was wrong. i went to my door and when i put my key in, i turned the doorknob and the door started to open on its own. i immediately ran up the stairs and got my neighbor to come down with me. when we walked in the apartment, we saw the door jam laying on the floor and chalk dust everywhere from the door. my laptop was gone, my brand new big screen tv was gone, my vera bradley duffel bag, all my dvd's and movies, towels and handtowels, and random foods from the freezer. i have never been so shaken up in my life. i called the police and they were there with me until about eleven in the evening. thank the LORD i have renters insurance so i will be getting a pretty decent sized check to replace all my stolen items. i also have account shield on my television so best buy is taking care of that for me and i am having the tv removed from my account. my dad came down and stayed the night with me and then the next night, matt came down and stayed. i went to work on friday and have been at my parents' house ever since then. i'm heading back to my apartment tomorrow with rocky - who will be moving in with me indefinitely. basically until i feel comfortable staying there on my own again. the apartment complex got my alarm system all set up for me, fixed my door and added a brass plate to it - but i'm still terrified to be there by myself. one of my worst fears has always been having someone break into my home and its horrible when one of your worst fears actually HAPPENS. this is the first break in that my apartment complex has ever had. can you believe that? the cop told me that more than likely, someone saw me carrying in the television two months ago (when i bought it) and has been watching me ever since to figure out my schedule. that scares the life out of me. i'm not at all ready to go back there tomorrow but i'm trusting the Lord to keep me safe. i know that they got what they wanted and there's no way that they would come back there again but its still scary nonetheless. if it wasn't for moving home next august, i would be moving out of that apartment tomorrow. the thought of moving out used to make me want to cry because i love my little home so much - but now? i would do it tomorrow if i could. i'm just ready to be out.

so...i'm learning to trust the Lord and to cast all my anxieties on Him because HE CARES FOR ME. there is always a reason that things happen and i know that above all else, He holds me in His hands...and there is no better place to be. however...i would definitely appreciate all y'alls prayers...they're what gets me through these kinds of times! love you guys.

such a busy month!

so i feel as though i have not written an entry in here in so long! i have just been so busy! this is the first saturday i have been able to spend at my apartment in over a month. october was such a busy month. so much fun but so incredibly busy! i slept in until 11:00 this morning (anyone who knows me knows how much i love to sleep!) and then read my book for about an hour and am now trying to catch up on blogs and emails and ecards. its so nice to finally have a saturday to relax and catch up on things. my weeks are always so busy that i try to keep my saturdays and sundays pretty free so i have some "me time!"

let's see...what all has gone on lately? well yesterday was halloween of course...and i LOVE halloween! this picture is of me and my cute preschool class on halloween morning before going out for "trunk or treat" in the parking lot. they were super hyper yesterday to say the least...but we had such a fun time! i haven't gone out trick or treating with kids in so many years but last night my friend ashley and i took two little boys out for the evening. they've never gone trick or treating before and we had so much fun taking them! they had a ball. it makes me miss being a kid and getting so excited about halloween night and going out trick or treating with my parents. celebrating holidays is one of my absolute favorite things to do and most of my favorite memories from growing up are during holiday seasons. so this halloween was a lot of fun :)

last weekend was my friend jessica's wedding and it was such a beautiful reception! she only had family at the wedding itself and then everyone else was invited to the reception. a place called world kitchen in buford, ga catered it and the food was so yummy! i've also learned that i quite love blonde peach sangria...its amazing! the reception was so nice and so much fun and jessica and jesse looked so happy. i absolutely love going to weddings. i have definitely learned what i like and don't like so whenever it is that i get married, i have very definite opinions on what the wedding will be like! ha. here are kerri (my best friend since high school) and myself at the wedding. we had such a fun time there together!

i guess i am kind of moving backwards through the month but that's okay! dory (my closest friend at work) and i had such a fun month doing "fallish" activities with our kids! i teach preschool and she teaches pre-k and our classrooms are across the hall from each other. we have so much fun combining our kids together for different activities and doing fun things with them. she and i both LOVE holidays and celebrating them and decorating for them so we always have a lot of fun when fall rolls around and the holiday season really starts to kick off! last week, she and i carved pumpkins for our first time and it was so much fun! i've always carved pumpkins with my family and made my dad do the actual carving...ha! this time, she and i printed patterns off the computer and attempted to carve ourselves! the finished product actually turned out quite well! she followed a scooby-doo pattern and i followed a cute ghost pattern and we had so much fun! here is dory with a bunch of our kiddos at school :)

so that is pretty much what has been going on in my life lately! i spent an evening in helen with my parents a few weeks ago....we went to pick out pumpkins and have ice cream together and that was a lot of fun. my friend danielle's baby shower was a few weekends ago and that was a fun time as well...i always love going to baby showers especially when they are for little girls...i LOVE buying baby clothes/gifts for little girls. i cannot wait to have a daughter of my own someday!! so all in all....things are going well! just very busy but that's nothing new! i hope everyone is doing well and that your octobers were as fun as mine were! now its onto thanksgiving and christmas...i just love holidays!

tag....you're it!

so i got tagged! i'm doing this a couple days late but at least i'm finally doing it :) lindsey tagged me and i'm supposed to post the sixth picture from one of my photo albums. i have about a million albums but i picked one where the sixth picture was one of my favorites. this picture was taken back in december of 2004. i cannot believe that was almost four years ago. i was in the wedding of karen carson mitchell, one of my best friends, and this is one of the pictures taken at her bridesmaids luncheon of most of the bridesmaids with karen. that was such a special day!

and now i'm tagging....meg! have fun! :)

bridal showers and birthday parties!

so i was supposed to go to my college's homecoming tonight but i feel awful. i hardly ever get sick and my throat is just on fire. i don't know if its just allergies or if i actually have a cold but either way, i feel terrible. it hurts all the way into my ears and this is with medicine actually in me! ugh. i hate being sick. so i'm obviously not going to homecoming. i'm planning on laying on the couch all evening and watching tv and then taking nyquil. what a fun way to spend a friday. ha. i have season one of heroes that i borrowed from my friend so hopefully i'll get hooked on that and watch that for hours at a time! ha.

my friend jessica's bridal shower was this past sunday at a place called the watershed. it was such a cute/artsy restaurant in downtown decatur and it was a lot of fun! these are some of the girls from my small group with me at the bridal shower. i can't wait for her wedding, its going to be such a fun wedding! jess is very laidback and wants her wedding to just be a big party for all of her friends and family so i know that a fun time will be had by all!

there's a family from the school that i work at who i nanny for after school a lot. when the mom travels, i help the dad with taking the kids home from school and getting them dinner when they get home, etc. i do it several times a month. i absolutely adore the children and i have so much fun with them. the little girl, katie, is in my class at school and she just turned four years old on the 8th. her birthday party at school was a lot of fun. her actual birthday party is tomorrow and i hope i feel well enough to go to it. she's quite obsessed with hannah montana so i'm going to have to get her something for her birthday that has to do with that. i know that she will love it...and i love buying gifts for people! that's so much fun to me. so hopefully i'll be feeling better tomorrow and can go to the party because i just love this little girl :)