Thanksgiving Dinner

On Thursday, my mom made a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner - or lunch - or whatever you want to call it. We ate around 2:00. We had all the usual goodies: stuffing, turkey, ham, escalloped corn, sweet potato casserole, green beans, gravy, pies, cake, you name it! I took a few pictures of the family just hanging out waiting to eat...or sneaking a bite.

It was nice to see my parents and my grandpa. Corey and I trade off years for Thanksgiving and Christmas on the actual day with our families. This year is my year and it's always more special to see my family on the actual holiday. We stayed with them from Wednesday to Friday. We enjoyed our extended vacation away from school!

New Toy!

Yeah, I know...I'm a bad blogger. My mother has already chastized me!

Anyway, my birthday is coming up soon, and this week while I was home for Thanksgiving, my parents and grandpa decided to surprise me with birthday gifts! That's always a plus! My parents gave me some cute orange bracelets, a snowman t-shirt and my new favorite orange toy: a FLIP! This one is mine! And, I also recieved a snazzy little carrying case with it!

I'll post more about Turkey Day later, but I wanted to share my first video experience with you! This is a video of my mom and my grandpa right after Thanksgiving dinner. My grandpa is TOO stinkin' cute!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing

Bad, Bad Blogger...

I know all 3 of my loyal readers have been anxiously awaiting my newest blog! I apologize - I've been a horrible blogger. I have been so busy with summer school and running around that I've neglected to update. So, here's the quick and dirty version of what I've been up to:

1.) I've been going to Water Aerobics at the YMCA on Tuesday and Thursday nights. I LOVE it!! And if you know me, you KNOW that I HATE to exercise with a passion - mostly because I HATE to sweat! However, water aerobics kicks ass because you still get a work out, but it's comfortable and you don't sweat to death. Also, I have issues with getting ready to go get dirty and then having to get clean again. I have been going to the 6-7 class, so I just come home and get ready for bed. And I am SOOOO ready for bed when I get home. I wear myself out! Also, if anybody wants to come with me, you are welcome! June is bring a friend month. I'm only 2 more friends away from a FREE YMCA water bottle!! Ha! Joanne went with me and we had a super time!

2.) I went home to visit my parents for what we refer to as the "triple threat" i.e. their anniversary, my dad's birthday, and Father's Day, which all take place during the same week. Talk about a lot going on! Anyway, I went home to visit for a few days and had a great time. My mom and I went to the movies to see What Happens In Vegas. It was cute. Predictable, but cute. We also went shopping and I purchased a cute Tommy Hilfiger swingpack to take with me when we go to DollyWood later this summer. Sorry, but I'm not dragging the Coach bag on a water ride! Hell no!
I also went over to my grandpa's house to pick some cherries and apples from his trees. He has a small orchard on his property next to his GIANT garden. I took some pictures because I thought the fruit was pretty hanging from its branches. I can't wait until the squash is ready so I can "fry up a mess!"









3.) I have been super busy with teaching summer school. Monday through Friday I have been at school from 7:15 until 11:30 or later trying to come up with activities that will enrich and extend what these kids already know. God, I'm so ready for it to be over! I'm so jealous of all my other teacher friends who have been enjoying their summer for almost a month now! I only have 4 more days left...I can do this!

Hopefully, the custodians will wax my room immediately after summer school is over so I can get back in and set it up again. Of course, I will end up spending the rest of my summer at school, but I enjoy getting organized and cleaned up. My room needs it!

4.) This is still school related, but I felt the need to give it a new number...
On the way to the cafeteria from my classroom, we pass through a breezeway. Well, during the summer, the birds seem to think they own the place and build TONS of nests. They really are more of a pest than they are cute, but this week the babies hatched and they really are adorable! I took a couple of "fuzzy" pictures because I didn't want to get too close and have the mamma bird get pissed and poke my eyes out! You've seen The Birds, right? That's some scary shit, Mr. Hitchcock...





5.) I've been watching lots of TV. I love me some reality television! I'm hooked on So You Think You Can Dance! Love me some Joshua! He's so sweet and versitile with his dancing.
Right now, we're watching The Next Food Network Star, which is ok, but not as exciting as last season's.
I'm really ready for the new Big Brother 10!!! It starts on the 13th and I'll be all over that!

I guess that's all I've been up to in the past few weeks. I'm ready to have more free time. Corey will be finished with his summer portion of his Master's program on Friday, so we'll be able to spend more time with each other. And by that I mean try not to kill each other :-)

Until next time...

New! New! New!

Hello all 3 of you reading!

I really have nothing to say. This weekend has been busy and filled with (LONG) weddings, Wal-Mart shopping (3 times) and running around. Apparently my car has a cracked radiator and the brakes also need to be replaced. I am still taking donations to the "Buy Stephanie an Orange Element" fund!

My friend Kristin got married yesterday. That was literally the LONGEST wedding I've ever been to; an hour and a half. YES, the ceremony was an hour and a half! That's an hour and fifteen minutes longer than my OWN wedding! We didn't stay for the reception. By the time they would have taken pictures and gotten to the reception it would have been another hour and we were starving to death!!! So, we went to Corey's parent's house and ate at the Franklin Chop House with them. YUMMY!

Today we have been to Wal-Mart twice (after going last night, too.) We bought a smaller Christmas tree this year except we accidentally got one with multi-color lights so we had to exchange it for clear ones. I HATE multi-colored lights!!!!! I think they are the tackiest thing ever. I have always been VERY particular about my trees. I only want white lights and very little to no ornaments on the tree. One year, I made my mom put just white lights and silver tinsel on it. She thought I was crazy, but I LOVED that tree!

I am also a very firm believer that your tree should have a color scheme. I am not a huge fan of homemade ornaments or the tacky ones people give you because they have to get you something for the Holidays. Ugh. I understand the sentimental stuff, but enough is enough!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am not really in the festive holiday spirit as of late, but maybe that will change. I'm such a Bah-Hum-Bug! I always have been. My birthday, however is coming soon and I do always look forward to that! I'm sure I'll let you all know about the festivities surrounding that!

I will leave you now with my favorite South Park Christmas character - Mr. Hankey, the Christmas Poo...

Racin'

So back at Christmas, my mother-in-law bought the "Richard Petty Driving Experience" for my father-in-law, Wayne. This is where you pay an insane or insane-er amount of money to go to the race track and drive a car. Well, today was the day! We all loaded up and headed off to the Nashville Super Speedway, which is located NOWHERE near Nashville and makes TOTAL sense to me! Anyway, we got up there and it was POURING the rain, but eventually dried up and they didn't have to call it off. Corey's brother, Jason got in on the action, too by riding with a driver at about 140 mph. Let's face it, you have to be a TINGE red behind the ears to be a Racin' fan. We (Corey & I) are not, but it was fun to watch Wayne get in and out of that car. He is not a small guy by any account!

After the "hurry up and wait" of the "experience" we finally took our stomachs that were eating themselves to Demos' for dinner. It was tasty, but I got pissed at them because they don't give free refills on their Fruit Tea, so I refused to order it and I made a HUGE point to let them know that Calypso Cafe gives free refills and theirs is probably better anyway...assholes.

If you are interested in seeing the "experience" of my father-in-law, click HERE

Have a great rest of the weekend...

Alyson!

Today I went to lunch with my good friend Alyson in Franklin. I have not seen her in over a year since she moved back home to Memphis. We used to teach together at Waldron, but she left me all alone :-(

That's OK, though...I forgave her!

We had lunch at Calypso Cafe and it was DELISH, however I don't think she enjoyed it! Oh well, she'll live. Her mother joined us, too...she's a hoot. Alyson is JUST like her!! We were supposed to meet at 11:30, but if you know her, you know that she is notoriously late, but that's ok, I still love her ;-)

I went with Corey, his parents, his brother and sister-in-law, and baby Sarah to Ming's Buffet, which is a Chinese restaurant. I do not in any way shape or form eat Chinese food! I would rather suck on a turd than put that stuff in my mouth! Ugh...AND I DO NOT eat at buffets. It is absolutely disgusting to even fathom eating off of the same spoon as everyone else! GROSS!!! Anyway, I watched them eat the nastiness while I waited on Alyson to arrive and when they were finished, I went across the street to TJ Maxx. Just as I was leaving she called me and said they were getting off the interstate, so I headed back across the street.

We had a great time catching up and I even got to look at her gorgeous wedding pictures! She is planning a return visit in October, so hopefully our visits won't be so few and far between.

After lunch, I went and picked Corey up at his parents' house and we went to the Dollar Tree. SHOCKING, I know. And, as usual I forgot it was Tax Free day, so the parking lot was swarming with people-buzzards looking for parking spots. Fortuately I ran over some blue-haired granny to get one up front...I kid, I kid, ....it wasn't up front...

I got some SUPER cute "Fall Festival" stuff at the Dollar Tree and we looked for some shoes for Corey. His collection is beginning to rival mine. Well, not really, but for him it's a LOT of shoes. FOUR pairs!! lol

We ended up coming back to the 'Boro to go to Shoe Carnival, which I hate because it is always full of red-necks and their red-neck babies wearing dirty diapers and the aisles are WAY too small!...but we were only there for a minute. The guy who wears the clown nose in that place gives me the creeps...

Traffic was HORRIBLE and backed up all the way from the interstate down past the mall, so we went home the back way to avoid all that nonsense. Now we're home and I'm about to watch my new Sunday nite favorites, "Rock of Love," which is a white-trash treasure trove and "The Two Coreys," which is fun to watch because they look for people who will even THINK about giving them a second chance at acting in anything legit. After that, I'm headed to bed to prepare for a wonderfully exciting week of INSERVICE...yay...

Until next time...

A Trip Home

Last Thursday, I left Murfreesboro to head to Crossville. I hadn't been in a while and it was a good chance to get back before school starts. Sometimes it's just nice to go home, ya know? Anyway, I always have my favorite places to stop when I go home, so I was looking forward to my shopping excursion. When I got there, I met my mom at the house and we had to stay there for a little while because there were men working on the garage since it didn't work anymore. My dad called and wanted us to meet him for lunch before he had to head to the store. (Here's my dad in his favorite chair looking oh so handsome:)
After the worker men left, we went to meet him at the Cracker Barrel. I was really good and ordered a grilled chicken salad and I even left most of my croutons! We all had a good lunch, but it had to be quick so dad could get back and open the store.

After lunch, mom and I began our tour of my usual places to hit when I go home. We went to the Dollar Tree, which as you all know is my most FAVORITE store on the planet! I needed something that was metal for my students to be able to use their Magnetic Poetry centers on. They just happened to have some colorful square metal sheets to be used as a memo board in their Back to School section. I picked up six of them! I also got some really cool, clear frog and human models in their toy section. You can take them apart and "disect" them without getting all goopy! I got a couple of them for my friend, Clarissa, too! We also hit up the Cato store, but didn't find anything there. So we moved on to the used book store.
The Book Cellar is also one of Corey's favorite places to visit, but he looks for scary books! I go to look for books to use in my classroom. I will usually buy 2-3 copies of the same book if I can find it so that I can use them for book circles! I did end up finding a few books, and even one on tape, so it turned out to be a pretty good find!

After shopping all day we met my dad for dinner at Dickey's Barbeque. That happens to be my and Corey's "special" place (lol) but that's another story. I had a baked potato with pulled pork bbq and it was mighty tasty!! They also have these big-ass pickles you can get out of a jar! It was a very tasty dinner!

My mom goes to a water aerobics class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. She wanted me to go with her in the morning, but I needed a bathing suit, so we went out to the outlet mall to find a new swim suit for me and some new tennis shoes for dad. I got a chocolate brown suit with rouching to hide all my fat rolls! It's really cute! So anyway, the next day we got up and went to her water aerobics class. I SWEAR to you my mom and I were the youngest people there! And...the class was lead by this old German lady. Let me tell you, that German lady was FIERCE! She had everybody's asses up moving around! It lasted about an hour, but it was fun and I am thinking about going to the YMCA here since they offer water aerobic classes, too!
Here is a picture of the pool:


The rest of the day was great, too! We met Marilyn, a family friend, to go see "Hairspray" at the movies and it was really cute! It was SUPER hard not to get popcorn, but mom and I snuck in some 100 calorie packs of snacks and we were fine! Here's my mom and Marilyn at the movie theater:

My dad's band, the City Lights, was playing out at the Fairfield country club that night and mom and I wanted to go see them, so we went shopping to find something to wear, naturally! We searched all over the place, but I finally found a really cute black and white polka-dot dress at Goody's. When we tried to call and make reservations, they were all booked up, so we didn't end up going after all. :-(
Instead, we called Marilyn and asked her to eat at Gondola's with us. It was really good and nice to spend more time with her!

The next day, I slept late! It was nice since I hadn't been sleeping well. I watched my mom kill a poke weed in front of her house. This is what people use to make "poke salit" and no, that's not spelled wrong. People used to eat this stuff! Here's a little slide show of it's removal by my mother:

We went to lunch with my grandpa at Shoney's and it was good to see him. Below are pictures of him with my mom and with his fishin' hat on:


It was also good to see the animals.

Spooky, the dalmation, Orange, the cat, and a random frog in the driveway! lol I also saw a black snake wriggling across the road as I was leaving! Ewww... I had a fun time and I'll be back again on Sept. 1st for my 10 year High School reunion!

Corey's Birthday Celebration #1

This afternoon, we went to Franklin. Tuesday is Corey's birthday, so we went to celebrate with his parents today. Our reservations at Saffire were for 5:00, which by the way if you haven't been, you should TOTALLY go - it's in the Factory. Anyway, we got down there around 2:00, so we had some time to kill. After hanging out with his parents we decided to head over to Academy sports to look for a Disc Golf set.

See, Clare and Tim came over the other day (when we had our mani/pedis) and while the girls were out Tim took Corey to play disc golf over at Barfiled Park. Apparently this is now his newest obsession!! So, off we went to the sporting goods store to buy TWO sets. One for him and one for guess who...ME. Have I ever played this before? No. It will be very interesting to see how that goes. I HATE to sweat, so if that happens we'll have to persue other options. Maybe I can take a portable fan with me...do they have those? Back to my story - Academy SUCKS! That place is huge and the isles are literally 4 feet wide and I have an intense feeling of claustrophobia every time I go in there. We finally found the disc golf stuff with the CAMPING equipment. Who the hell thought it would be a good idea to do that!? Who said, "It makes COMPLETE sense to put disc golf over with the portable toilets and waterproof toilet paper!" We didn't like the deal they had there and I hated the store, so we left and went to Dick's.

Dick's was MUCH more open and less crowded and we were able to find what we wanted quickly, so we were in and out. Those little discs are expensive. For a pack of three - a driver, iron, and putter - it cost $24! DAYUM! We purchased two sets so that MOI could play.

We went back to his parents house and piled in the van to go down the street to Saffire. I'm telling you - YOU HAVE TO GO! It is expensive, but very tasty!! They have these cheese grits, made with mascarpone cheese and cream that are to DIE for!! So, Judy, Corey and I had the fish and grits. It was wonderful, but I couldn't eat it all; I was stuffed! I wonder if any of the chefs there work at Viking, too? I need to take another class there and maybe they can teach me how to cook the fish that way. I made the grits at home once, but they weren't nearly as good as Saffire's.

After dinner, we went back to his parent's house to have ice cream cake. Mmmmmm....I was sooooo bad today! However, I have eaten about 100 less calories each day in anticipation of today. We will also be going to Fuji Japanese Steakhouse on Tuesday, so I'll have to make up for that later in the week. I weigh in tomorrow and hopefully HER scale will show as much progress as MY scale does...

We got home around 8 and tried to watch Big Brother, but our stupid-ass TiVo wouldn't play it, so after Corey spent 30 minutes on the phone with a rep. from DirecTV's customer service, we finally got to watch it after I found it on the computer on a spoiler site. Ahhh, sweet drama. I freakin' LOVE Big Brother! It is the apitomy of summer to me. Love it!! Ok, it's time to shut up now.

Oh, the Kava's place wasn't all that but they did have some damn good iced tea!

All Dressed Up...

Well, here we are! Corey's parents, Judy and Wayne, myself, and Corey. We were all dressed up to go to Corey's cousin's wedding back in May. We don't tend to get too dressed up very often. In fact, this photo is QUITE the opposite of what I'm wearing today! I haven't even showered yet! But, I've not been a slacker either; I have already unloaded/loaded the dishwasher, made a banana cake, and finished the laundry. I am also planning to dust and vacuum the living room and bedrooms. So, why get all dressed up just to get dirty again?!

Tonight I have to get dressed up to go to some sort of fundraiser with my friend Jennifer. She is supporting a woman who is running for Judge in our area, so we are going. She bought the tickets in hope that her hubby would be going with her, but he is on duty (Highway Patrolman) and won't be able to make it. Sooooo, I'm second on the list. I hope there will be free alcohol and lots of good food, otherwise I don't know how the hell I'm going to get through a bunch of political nonsense and jibber-jabber!

It will be nice to get out of the house, though. Since school's been out, I have found myself INCREDIBLY bored and wishing I could be in my classroom getting stuff done for next year. However, I've made a deal with myself that I wouldn't go for at least a month after school got out. Well, that month will be up tomorrow! So I'm thinking next week, maybe Wednesday, I'll be headed to school!! Yay!

This weekend, Jennifer and I are going to Tunica to gamble!! I have been to LasVegas and it was fabulous, so I'm hoping this adventure will at least be a closer and less expensive alternative to lose all my money! The room and all meals are free because we will be staying with a "high roller," that will be nice!! Maybe I'll come back as a "thousandaire!!!" Wish me luck!

Time to go watch Days of Our Lives now! Ta Ta!