Weather is beautiful, Wish you were here

At the beginning of July, I was able to take a little weekend get-a-way with two of my best friends from high school. We marvel at the fact that we have been friends for (oh I will give away my age here) 17 years now (that includes 4 years of high school ... I'm not that old, yet!). Leanne, Paula, and I, along with Paula's mom and sister went to Destin, Florida. Oh white sand beaches, sun, and fun!

Unfortunately, the first day of our trip was filled with rain due to feeder bands from Hurricane Alex. The second day we were graced with sun in the morning, so we quickly at breakfast and Paula, Leanne, Kristina and I headed to the beach. It was a beautiful morning, not too hot (it was only 9 am) and not too many people, yet. We are early risers and like to enjoy every moment of our vacation! There were huge wavs that crashed on the shore - I love that sound! However, the red warning flags were flying. Thanks Hurricane Alex! But that did not discourage us, we went in the water regardless. I know we are fearless and a little nuts. Kristina and I ventured out more than Leanne and Paula. I was knocked around and down by the waves. The undertow was crazy strong and it pulled my swim shorts right off me! Luckily I had on my swim suit bottom and I grabbed them as they reached my ankle. Oh the waves also sucked my brand new sunglasses right off my head! But some fish is totally rocking them right now, I just know it. Good news is I was able to go to Kohls and buy the exact same pair.

During the trip we shopped 'til we dropped - I bought 5 new pairs of shoes! We also ate wonderful food at fun restaurants. And Leanne, Paula and I took a picture holding an alligator! We had a wonderful time, made many great memories and are planning our next girls trip!

Make sure you squeeze the throat tight Leanne!

Crashing waves

Lunch at Fudpuckers - Me, L, & P

I always get myself into crazy situations

Natural alligator wrestler

Boats on the bay

Just me!

Leanne

Paula

Kristina and me -I am getting knocked down my the waves - notice my hair!

Carefree!

Me and L

P and L

L and K

They have pins in them for a reason

After a long day of shopping for vacation clothes, Leanne, Paula and I went to Target as our last attempt to find Paula a bathing suit. We were successful! After that was accomplished, we headed towards the pharmacy to get some baby Tylenol for Libby ( she had some shots and was a bit grumpy). The baby meds were on the isle with the pole, which just happened to have a fire extinguisher on it. Now I was was innocently resting my hand on the handle of the extinguisher and then I started playing with it.

***Let me make my plea to say what happened next WAS NOT intentional - all I am saying is if the extinguisher was regularly inspected, it would have been found that the pin was not in the extinguisher and the following event could have been prevented***

As I was saying before the side note, I started playing with the handle and suddenly there was a loud woosh noise and some smoke. Leanne, Paula and I all jumped and when we noticed what happened, we quickly left the isle - not for guilty reasons, but because there was this cloud of extinguisher smoke and it was filling up the whole isle. The pharmacist saw it and gave us the glare of death. Please note that Paula and Libby took off and left Leanne and I. However, as Leanne and I walked past the isle towards the checkout, some workers were there and here is their conversation...
1: What happened?
2: Someone set of the fire extinguisher.
1: Well that was genius!

Now, as the title states, they have pins in them for a reason, and that reason is to keep geniuses like myself from being bored and playing with the handle. If the pin was in the extinguisher, this NEVER would have happened, so it really isn't my fault. The blame should be put on the person that pulled out the pin.

While in Destin, Leanne and I had some fun taking pictures of me and a fire extinguisher in Target. Please note that the pin is in this one and when I squeezed it, nothing happened.

I love when the doctor says to stay home

During the last week of school, I woke up Tuesday morning (1 a.m. to be exact) with a fever of 101.9, gross. It didn't break until 4 a.m. and I got an hour of sleep before my alarm clock went off. I was feeling better so I got dressed and went to work. (I was trying to be the good employee and not call in during the last week of school) Once I was at school, my body was feeling achy, but I was feverless. I went and talked to the school nurse (luckily, she was at our school that morning!) and she recommended that I go see a doctor, so I did. After swabbing for this and that and drawing some blood, he decided I had a viral infection and was contagious and should stay home at least two days or longer if I was still running a fever on Friday...sweet! Well, I called and talked to my principal to let her know and I headed home to lay on the couch, drink fluids and monitor my fever. The doc said I would not be contagious once my fever had disappeared for 24 hours...luckily, the last time I had a fever was Wednesday morning. Now here was my problem: do I go back to work on Thursday since I was no longer contagious or do I stay home another day (I had a doctors excuse) and go to the state championship high school baseball games with Leanne and fam to watch Sumrall and later that evening with my cousin Jen and fam to watch my shortie (Bryce) play with St. Stanislaus? HELLO!!! No brainer...follow the doctors orders! I had a blast at the ball field all day (seriously 10am to 10pm) The only problem, I got sunburned. I avoided my principal as much as possible to dodge any questions.

The out come of the games...South State swept the championship games!!! Way to go Sumrall, Petal, St. Stanislaus, Long Beach, Richland and St Alyousos (I butchered the spelling of that one)
Molly
Lucy Goose
Sumrall - 3A state champs three years in a row!
Bryce tossing the ball
St Stanislaus 4A state champs!
Liv, Bryce and Bryce...proud sister and daddy
my shortie!
(who is taller than me, and still growing - but I will always call him shortie)

And they pulled it off...whew!

Tonight was the Kindergarten PTA program. Exciting, yes. Nerve racking, YES!! We have been practicing (the whole kindergarten...all 135 kids) since last week. After 7 practices, it wasn't any better than the first, sigh. Kids would say their speaking parts, then sing a song, then ALL the kids would start talking to each other, kids would say their parts (you couldn't hear them due to the talking), they would sing, talking would resume...this goes on for 7 songs. I think Dr. Rigby (music teacher) was going to pop a vein in his head from yelling "WHAT DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND ABOUT SHUT YOUR MOUTH!!!" "QUIT TALKING!!" 'BOYS AND GIRLS...SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!" (Yes I know you shouldn't say shut up, but being polite and using kind words doesn't work with these street smart kids)

Tonight we were all holding our breaths. The kids arrived in our classrooms at 5:30 and they were WILD. You would have thought they haven't seen each other in 50 years when it had only been 3 hours since school got out. But they were all dressed up and looked so good. Here is most of my class. I had 22 out of 27 show up ( the most out of all 5 classes! Yes!). I took a picture and my camera died so these are from my phone. A few more showed up after I took this.

Yes, Camren is in a zoot suit and completely in a striking a GQ pose.

Now getting all the kids on stage and quietly was a challenge. I swear they are the most talkative group of kids EVER...maybe it is because they don't get much social interaction outside of school/daycare or maybe they have no self control or who knows but the silence of my apartment everyday is welcoming! We finally got them quiet and the curtains opened...I think they were a bit shocked with all the people. Oh can I brag that this was the biggest turn out to a PTA program this year?!?!?! There were only a few problems with a few kids wanting to play while on stage but overall the program was GREAT!! I went out and stood in the audience for awhile to watch. I was proud!

It's blurry but it was the best I could get with the kids moving and people walking in front of me.

After we went back to the room and gave out diplomas. Now I am on the count down... 7 more school days left!!!

Natural Science Museum Field Trip

At the end of April, the Kindergarten classes embarked on another field trip...now we had 4 planned but only went on 2. Sketchy. We were supposed to go to the zoo at the end of this month but we were told by our principal that we couldn't because of dates and buses, blah, blah, blah. Excuses. Whatever, I'm over it. After the Science Museum, I really don't think I would have wanted to go to the zoo anyways...27 wild kids with 2 adults and no parent volunteers. I would probably end up leaving a few there. I feel like I work in a zoo on some days - it just smells better, sometimes!

The science museum was really cool. I want to go back when there aren't 3 other elementary schools, a couple of middle schools and some high school kids there. It was like a zoo that day and those stinkin middle school and high school kids kept getting in front of my little guys and they couldn't see the exhibits. RUDE. I'll be honest, I was ready to go and have a nap less than 30 minutes after we got there! It was so exhausting trying to keep up with all of them with all those other people there. But I had a great idea...we made a train. I made everyone put there hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them and told them they couldn't break the train ... it worked! Also it made it easy to mow people down with a train of 25 kids!

They have a cool aquarium area with all the wildlife that is native to Mississippi. They also had a 2 headed snake! Gross but cool. They didn't have other living wild life, but they had fossils and stuffed animals and an awesome nature trail. I don't think some of the kids had ever been in "nature" like that before. We also had a class photo taken with Smokey the Bear - sweet! After we spent about 2 1/2 hours in the museum we had lunch under the pavilion and then played a rousing game of duck, duck, goose. Good times, good times. After lunch we hopped on the bus and went downtown to the art museum to the free exhibit and had a look around. All the schools in Jackson Public Schools had to do an exhibit for the Ask for More Arts program. It was really cool to see all the different things that were done. Then we headed back to school just in time to miss the horrid weather that was passing through. The power even went off at school! Luckily it was only off for 10 minutes and came on just in time for dismissal! Here are some pictures of our field trip... ENJOY!!!
We are so excited...Aidan and Jayda LOVE field trips!!!
Brandon doesn't look as excited as Richard and Camden but he really is.
Zyria, Kira and Lewis are ready to go!
Lanyia, Braylan and I waiting for the bus to head out.
Dead giant sea turtle from the dinosaur days
Creepy... two headed snake found in Mississippi ... and it's still alive!
Choo! Choo!
The Pearl River fish tank was a BIG hit!
Oh! Look at that one, up close and personal.
Posing with the frog
Ribbit! Ribbit!
Could it be the frog prince?
Lazy Gator, hanging out in the afternoon sun
Smokey the Bear says "Only YOU can prevent forest fires"
Staring contest...I won, the bear had no chance.
Duck, Duck (Richard in the stinky pot - that is what they call the middle when you get caught)
GOOSE!!
Run, Nadeia, Run!
Heading home... 3 minutes later they were all zonked out
Three little boys up to no good.

Twisted Turtles

I was blog surfing awhile back and I found this site and they had made turtles. Now I love turtles...the caramel, the chocolate, the pecans...mmmmmmm
Well this person made them with pretzels. Interesting. Well I decided to try them and give them the name of Twisted Turtles. I decided to only make 24, just in case there didn't come out as good as they looked on that blog I found....ummm, I should have made more! Is it bad that I only have 9 left and I am the only one home?
Getting ready for the oven

Up close and personal
TaDa! The finished product
Salty and Sweet...it has to be good!
Ooey, Gooey! Look at that hot caramel!
Taste Testing
Finger Lickin Good!

Success! I think I am going to make these for Christmas! Easy and Delicious and I am going to drizzle melted white chocolate on top so they look fancy!