Merry Christmas!

Wow, this weekend has flown by in a blur! On Christmas Eve I got off of work at noon which was very nice. I came home and finished wrapping Ryan's presents before he got home at 2:30. We left our house a little before 4:00 and stopped at his friends house for a quick visit and then we headed over to his parent's house for an early dinner. After dinner we went to the candlelight service at church and after that we went to see some Christmas lights with his parents. We finally got home at about 9:30pm and we watched A Christmas Story.

Santa visited out house that night and so in the morning we opened our presents and Ryan immediately started playing with his new toys. Libby came home and she got to open all of her presents from Santa. Santa was VERY good to her this year! :-) She got everything that she wanted. She was overjoyed ripping through all of the wrapping paper and tearing off bows to see what all she received. Santa brough her everything from her wish list: a DSi game system and game, a hula hoop, and a Puppy in My Pocket...we got her three zhu zhu pets and the zhu zhu car (she gets the playhouse and some other add-on for her birthday in a few days). She got some Build-A-Bear stuff, another DSi game from her godmother, and that is just the beginning of the list. But after all of that would you like to know what she was happiest about receiving? It was at the bottom of her stocking and the very last thing that she saw (we always do stockings last). It was a jar of peanut butter. I've never seen her that happy before! :-) She has told me for many months now that her dream is that the day that she gets her driver's license she is going to drive herself to the grocery store, buy a jar of peanut butter, and a plastic spoon, and then sit in her car and eat the peanut butter right out of the jar. Well, Santa thought she shouldn't have to wait until she is 16 to live out her dream. Here are the pictures of her finding the peanut butter (and you have to excuse the blurriness of the pictures but she was literally hopping around on the ground and flailing all around). By far her favorite gift...

Today we were out for about half of the day and when we got home I started cleaning up the kitchen. A few minutes later I went back to her room and this is what I saw...

Dream fulfilled!!

Spending time with friends...

Last night Ryan and I met up with a couple of his friends who are home visiting for Christmas and we went to the Gator basketball game. Unfortunately, the Gators lost...they were up by 1 point and with 1.8 seconds left in the game South Alabama scored a basket. :-( So, we lost by 1 point which really stunk. From there we headed over to a restaurant/bar (The Top for those of you in Gainesville) and some other of his friends who are home visiting for Christmas joined us. There were 15 of us sitting, chatting, laughing, drinking (not me of course!), and having a great time. By the time we left there at 12:30am my face hurt from laughing so hard. But as soon as we stepped outside into the cold weather (it was in the 30s!!!!) it wasn't just my face that hurt...it was my whole body because I wasn't dressed for weather that cold! I took off running to the car leaving Ryan far behind me. :-) He finally got to the car and we drove home and I was snug in my bed by 1:00am. I'm sleepy today but it was definitely worth it to be out having so much fun with friends - especially when we don't get to see them that often since they live out of state!

Goodbye Strawberry Tea Room

Karen, me, Mrs. Virginia, and Debs

Today Debs, Karen, and I went to the Farewell Tea at Strawberry Tea Room. As I mentioned before, after 6 years of serving us tea Mrs. Virginia sadly had to close her tea room so today was our last tea at Strawberry. She decided to serve just one flavor of tea today instead of letting everyone choose separately off of the tea menu and fittingly (for me) she chose to serve Angel's Dream (my FAVORITE!) to everyone. The food was delicious as ever. After the tea service we presented Virginia with a present from us. Debs, Karen, Tara, and I are a Pink Hat Group (which is the younger version of the Red Hat Group). We named our group Strawberries from Pink to Red since our usual tea room to go to as a group was Strawberry. And the Pink to Red was because we are starting out as Pink Hats and we'll eventually become Red Hats when we turn 50. Sooooo, since we named our Pink Hat group after her tea room we wanted to give Virginia a pink hat to remember us by and to make her an honorary member. She opened the gift and when we explained why we were giving her the hat she just teared up and started to cry. I gave her a hug and she hugged me so tight and wouldn't let go. :-(

Goodbye Mrs. Virginia.

Goodbye Angel's Dream Tea.

Goodbye Ginger's Chicken Salad.

Goodbye Strawberry Tea Room.

December is flying by!

Wow, I can't believe that it's already December 18th! How does this month fly by so quickly? There is always so much that I want to do in December and I never have time to do it all. :-( This week we've been busy with our usual daily things: work and school. In the evening we get home and I love coming around the corner to our house and seeing it all lit up with Christmas lights. That just makes my day every day! We eat dinner and I go over Libby's homework and she takes a quick bath and then all week we've been having Family Movie Night! We've watched some cute movies and on Tuesday night we watched Elf. I LOVE Elf and even Mr. Grinch (aka Ryan) loves that movie so it's nice to have a Christmas movie that he actually likes. Well, last night was Libby's last night at home until Christmas so she got to choose what we would watch last night and she really wanted to watch Elf again so we did. :-)

This morning Libby was up and eager to get to school because today is their holiday party in class. I kept trying to slow her down because I was sad that after I dropped her off at class I wouldn't see her again until Christmas. This totally sucks. For the first time in her life she won't wake up with me on Christmas morning and I hate it. Talk about a blue Christmas! But once she gets home Christmas day everything will be much better...she'll get to go through her presents and then Christmas evening Ryan's parents are coming over for dinner so I have a lot to look forward to...it's just Christmas Eve (my FAVORITE day of the year) and Christmas morning that I'm dreading.

Speaking of dreading...tomorrow Debs, Karen, and I are going to Strawberry Tea Room (my favorite tea room ever!) for the Farewell Tea. The owner is having to close down the tea room and I couldn't be more sad about it. I just so happened to call her last weekend to make plans for my birthday tea next month and she told me that she was closing down December 23rd. She said that she was all booked and couldn't get us in one last time for tea. I hung up and passed the sad news along to Karen and Debs and then a little later I called back and was able to talk our way into three seats at the farewell tea. We are all three so happy to get to go to Strawberry tomorrow but it's also very sad that it'll be our last time there!!

Christmas with friends!

Today Libby and I had plans to go out and take some pictures of her (I was just in the mood to shoot some pictures of my beautiful girl!) and then meet up with Debs and Karen for lunch and then head to a Christmas parade. Well....it started raining and never stopped. Libby and I left the house at 8:00am this morning and it was raining but I was holding out hope that it wouldn't be raining in Gainesville or it would at least let up after an hour or so. No such luck. So, we went to Kohl's for some shopping and then we headed over to the mall to window-shop. We met up with Debs and Karen for lunch at a place that we hadn't been to before but I'd heard nothing but great things about. I liked the setting...very relazed and comfy and I loved the Christmas decorations up around the restaurant and the Christmas music playing and we were sitting near the fireplace so the setting was just wonderful. We exchanged Christmas gifts while we waited for our food and Libby was very excited when she opened her Razor scooter that Debs and Karen got for her. She was ready to leave and head home right then! :-)

After lunch Debs and Karen headed back home and Libby and I headed to Alachua for the Christmas parade. There wasn't all that much to it and there were hardly any people there watching it but I'm sure that is because it rained up until time for the parade to start. But it wasn't bad watching the little floats go by and having people on each float ride by and wish you a Merry Christmas while they ran up and gave Libby candy. :-)

After the parade we drove back to Newberry and I took some pictures of Libby in a few places that I've been wanting for a long time to take her so that I could take her picture. I have a VERY beautiful daughter! :-)

After the pictures we came home and Libby went out to ride her scooter and almost immediately it started raining so she only got about 3 minutes on it before it was time to head back inside. Since we got back home we've been watching Christmas movies and just enjoying some relaxing time together!

Family movie night

Tonight we made hot chocolate and had family movie night....at 8pm was A Charlie Brown Christmas and then at 8:30 was Disney's new Prep & Landing. It was funny watching a cartoon from 1965 immediately followed by a cartoon from 2009! Prep & Landing was cute...Libby definitely liked it. She is looking forward to Shrek the Halls tomorrow night!

Christmas activities

There are benefits to living in a small town. For example, tonight our little town had the businesses along Main Street all decorated in lights and people came out to drink hot chocolate, hear carolers, the kids made Christmas ornaments, and they got to visit with Santa and Mrs. Claus! It was cool outside (in the high 60's) so it was a great night for this to happen. Libby and I stopped on the way home and after about an hour we headed home to have dinner with Ryan.

Today is also a very special day...today is the 17th birthday of my wonderful and beautiful niece Elizabeth. Libby and I gave her a call and got to talk to her for about 20 minutes. She seemed to have had a pretty good birthday which makes me very happy. I just hate living so far away from her. I wish I lived closer so that we got to hang out more, so that I could attend the performances of both of my very talented nieces, and get to spend special times like today together!

Thanksgiving weekend

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend and I hope that everyone else had the same! Thursday morning we left at 9:00 to head about two and a half hours south to Ryan's aunt and uncle's house. The whole family was meeting there for Thanksgiving this year. We got there well before lunch was ready so we spent time outside with all of the kids playing football, soccer, volleyball, and baseball. When lunch was ready we all sat down to a wonderful lunch and then it was time to head back outside to enjoy the nice cool weather we were having. About 5:00pm Ryan, Libby, and I left in our car and Ryan's parents left in their car and we followed them about another hour south to their condo on the beach. Thursday night was spent taking it easy because Friday was going to be a busy day!

On Friday morning Ryan's mom and I both woke up at 3:00am and were out the door by 3:30am on our way shopping! I missed my usual Black Friday shopping partner but still had fun shopping with Carole. Plus that made her Christmas shopping for Ryan and Libby extra easy since I was there to let her know the better things to get for the two of them. It was quite nice to have cold weather Friday morning...it was in the 40's! We weren't gone shopping all that long...we were home right at 8:00am and satisfied with our purchases. We had breakfast with Ryan, his dad, and Libby and then the five us went for a walk on the beach and Libby collected sea shells. We went back inside and Ryan mentioned something about going shopping (which is HIGHLY unusual for Ryan) and his dad had already mentioned going shopping earlier so we all hopped up and got into the car and headed back out shopping. After a couple of hours we were done and ready for lunch so we stopped by a Mexican restaurant for lunch and then headed back home. After dinner I had Libby take her shower and then I went into the room she was sleeping in to watch a movie with her before she went to sleep. Because I had only a few hours of sleep the night before and I had been up since 3:00am I ended up falling asleep right around 8:30 watching the movie with her. :-) Ryan came and woke me up and put me to bed a little while later.

Saturday morning we got up and got ready and got everything packed and then had breakfast with his parents before heading home at 9:00am. We had tickets to the Gator game against FSU for Saturday. We drove home and were very happy we left early because we ran into several traffic jams. Once we got home we had lunch and then headed back out to take Libby to Karen's house (Libby has no interest in football) and then Ryan and I went to his friend's house and Brett drove us to the game so that we wouldn't have to worry about parking. We got inside the stadium and got to our seats and they were PERFECT especially considering that it was Senior Day honoring all of our seniors on the team. The team ran out onto the field and then individually each senior was announced and they ran out to their family members who were waiting down on the field. It was nice watching each senior run out and soak up their last time ever running out onto Florida Field since that was our last home game...next week we have the SEC Championship game and then WHEN we win that we'll be on our way to Pasenda, CA for the National Championship game! :-) Anyway, Brandon Spikes was announced (he's one of my favorites) and he ran out and stopped and knelt down and kissed the field and I started crying. (I'm just a sentimental sap!) :-) Then it was Timmy's turn...they called out the name Tim Tebow and the stadium absolutely erupted. I watched him take his last trot out onto the field and I was still crying. :-) It was a great game to be at! The only bad thing was that we had FSU fans near us and I get a little heated when it comes to the Gators and I started to get into an argument with an FSU idiot and Ryan turned me around and told me to stop it. :-) In the 4th quarter when everyone knew that Tebow was about to be pulled for some rest I could not believe the amount of flashbulbs going off. Everyone was taking a picture of every snap so that they could have a picture of Timmy's last home snap. The stadium was lit up with flashbulbs. Even the FSU fans were impressed by that. After the game Ryan's friend came back and picked us up and I went and got Libby and then we headed home.

Today was a day just spent around the house relaxing since we were so busy all weekend and now it's time to get ready for the next work week to start! Even a long weekend flies by too fast! :-)

Tree of Thanksgiving

Like I mentioned before, for the last week we've been writing things that we are thankful for on leaves and hanging them on a beautiful branch. I really like the way it turned out and next year we'll do this for the whole month...I'll just use smaller leaves! :-)

Here is our tree:

In the morning the three of us will leave to drive a few hours to Ryan's aunt and uncle's house to have Thanksgiving lunch with Ryan's parents, his aunt and uncle, his two cousins, their two husbands, and 6 nephews and 1 niece. Then tomorrow night we'll go to Ryan's parents condo in Indian Harbour Beach and spend the night. Friday morning I'll be up early going shopping :-) and then Saturday morning we will head back to Gainesville because we are going to the UF vs. FSU game Saturday afternoon!!!!!!!!!

I hope that everyone has a very HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!

Turkey cookies

I hadn't even realized that it has been a week since I last blogged! Not much has been going on, though. Last week was a regular week really. On Saturday my friend Karen and I went to my friend Kim's house for a Partylite party and Girls Night In sort of night. I had a lot of fun being around the girls but when that was over I headed over to meet Ryan at his friend's house where they were watching football.

Sunday morning after breakfast Ryan headed up into the attic to bring down my Christmas decorations! The weekend before Thanksgiving means Christmas decorations for me! :-) I got the little "knick-knack" type items put up around the house and I strung the lights onto the tree (Libby is soooo not interested in that task). When I was done with the lights she hung all the ornaments and that completed our inside decorations. After Thanksgiving I'll take down my Harvest decorations from outside and put up my outdoor Christmas decorations and then we'll be all set!

Even though we are all decorated for Christmas inside we are still waiting for Thanksgiving. Tonight Libby and I made turkey cookies. It was fun decorating them but Libby's favorite part (of course!) was eating them when we were all done! :-) We also have been working on our Tree of Thanksgiving and we have two more nights of that. I have some paper leaves and each night we are each writing something that we are thankful for and hanging the leaves on a pretty branch that Ryan found for me. I just had the idea recently and I really like the way it is turning out so this is definitely a tradition that we'll do each year for Thanksgiving!

Our weekend

Our weekend was pretty laid back. Friday night we just came home and relaxed. I watched a movie with Libby in her room and then we played Barbie dreamhouse a bit and then she started getting tired so then Ryan and I just watched tv. Nothing exciting but it was relaxing.

Saturday morning I did my usual Saturday morning cleaning for a few hours while Libby played and Ryan was at work. Once I finished cleaning Libby and I got ready and headed to the movie theater to watch A Christmas Carol. I had high hopes for that movie but it failed to awe me. Anyone who knows me at all knows that I LOVE CHRISTMAS and anything and everything to do with Christmas. I love the story of A Christmas Carol and usually love all of the movies based on that book. Being that it's a Disney movie, stars Jim Carey, and from seeing the previews I just knew I'd love their version of the story. Eh, not so much. Libby was ready to leave at the beginning of the movie. Marley was still visiting Scrooge...we still had three more spirits to go! We stuck it out and watched the whole thing. Maybe I'm just too much of a traditionalist...the main parts of the movie were good...it was just the parts where they took their own liberty and added in parts that I didn't care for at all.

We came home after the movie and watched the Gators beat South Carolina and then spent the next few hours just hanging out together until she passed out on the couch and I took her to bed.
:-)

This morning we were up bright and early to get ready for our family pictures!! We met the photographer at 9:00am at the Thomas Center in Gainesville and had a lovely time with her as she took our pictures. Ryan, like most guys, complained about it all the way there and even during some of the pictures. He hates to have his picture taken - which doesn't make any sense...with as cute as he is you'd think he'd want his picture taken every second of every day! But he was a good sport and wore what I asked him to wear and he even smiled for the pictures. :-) I can't wait to see them!

Weekend in Savannah and a patriotic performance

This weekend was our bi-annual Girls Weekend and we went to Savannah. I ***LOVE*** Savannah. It is such a beautiful city. I love the architecture of the buildings...I love the set up of the neighborhoods...I love the history of the city. It is just all amazing. On Saturday we went to a tea room and had some incredibly delicious food and I had a tea that is now one of my new favorites! Saturday night we went out to watch the Gator game on tv. During the course of the game the table next to us had a few different sets of drunk people who sat there and for whatever reason each group of drunk people felt it necessary to start talking smack about the Gators to us. For a little bit I thought for sure I was going to end up in a fight with some drunk country boy. I eventually gave up and had to start drinking just to tune them out and I had a huge and delicious frozen margarita. :-) Sunday we did some shopping down by the river and then drove over to Forsyth Park and walked around there for a little bit before it was time to head home. It was a really fun trip. It's great to get out of town and enjoy a wonderful city with wonderful friends and laugh really hard! :-)

This morning the 2nd graders of Libby's school put on a patriotic performance. They sang patriotic songs, recited patriotic poems, and they had some veterans come in as speakers. The children were all so dang cute up there in their shirts that they made and singing thier little hearts out. Honestly, as they all sang America the Beautiful it actually brought a tear to my eye. I loved it! After the performance it was time for Libby to head to class and for Ryan and I both to head off to work. When they came in just before the performance began this morning I saw one of Libby's classmates (Avery) spot me in the crowd so I waved to her and she pointed me out to Libby and Libby waved. Avery said something to Libby and Libby then leaned over and said something back to Avery and Avery smiled. After work when I picked up Libby I asked her what they were talking about when they first saw me and Ryan sitting out in the crowd this morning. Libby said that Avery said, "There's your mom!" and then Avery said, "I forgot to tell my dad about the performance today so I don't have anyone to watch me" :-( Libby leaned over and said, "You have my mom and Ryan to watch you so don't be sad, ok?" How sweet is my girl???? :-)

Halloween weekend

We had a very busy and very fun Halloween weekend! To begin the weekend I'll start with Thursday...which was the storybook character costume parade at Libby's school. They not only had to dress up as a character from a book but they also had to take the book with them. For the parade at school Libby decided to dress as Cleopatra. When we got to school Thursday morning all kinds of kids were arriving at the exact same time...and not one single child was dressed in a costume! Libby saw that and refused to get out of the car because she said she wasn't going in to school in a costume when no one else was dressed up. I have to admit - I was a little worried about it, too...but I had to get her in to class and get myself off to work. I told her that there would be plenty of children dressed up and not to worry but she still refused to get out of the car. I literally had to drag her out of the car!! Once I finally got her inside there were many children who were dressed up and she felt a little more comfortable. They had the costume parade in the morning and after lunch each class had a Fall Party and they got all sugared up and then they were sent home. :-)

Libby then went to her afterschool care where they passed out little bags of candy to all of the children. Just what they needed! :-) Libby was picked up early from afterschool by Ryan's mom and she took Libby in to Gainesville to Libby's art lesson. After Libby's art lesson she was picked up by Ryan and they came home. When I got off of work at 5pm I had to head straight to school for the parent/teacher conference. Libby's teacher had nothing but wonderful things to say about her. She is very well behaved in class and is working above grade level. What more can I ask for? :-)

Friday school was out (for a teacher workday) so Libby spent the day at work with me. She LOVES going to the childcare at my job. After work on Friday she and I went out to dinner and then headed to Alachua where they were having a Trick or Treat on Main Street. Many (many!) businesses from around Alachua set up little booths all along Main Street (which is a small two lane street lined with shops on each side) and the children walk down one side of Main Street and up the other and get their bags filled with candy. Libby wore her witch costume and we trick or treated for about an hour and a half and then went over to the fall festival that a church in Alachua was having where they had tons of games for the children to play. Libby had a great time playing all the games (a few times!) and when she had finally had enough we headed home.

Saturday morning we woke up early and left to meet Karen in Gainesville. I had yet another fall arts and crafts festival to go to this weekend!!!! Yes,this is my 5th week in a row going to a fall arts and crafts festival! :-) We spent an hour and a half walking around the festival looking at everything being sold and I found a cute little fall sign to buy. I also found a super cute orange and blue beaded bracelet that would go wonderfully with my others and I was going to get the bracelet on the way out (we always look all around first and then once we've seen everything there we go back to buy our favorite things). Well, we couldn't find the booth that had the bracelet that I loved so I left without it. I was in a hurry, anyway, because Libby and I had a get-together that we had to be at and I was pressed for time to get there on time. We got home from that get together at 4:00 and almost immediately headed right back out to a church that is very close to my house that was having a fall festival. They had a good amount of games set up for the children and were passing out water (which was nice because it was h.o.t!), juice, nachos (yummy!) and hot dogs (eww!) :-) Libby had a lot of fun and I finally pulled her away and we went home so that I could watch the second half of the Florida/Georgia game. And of course my lovely Gators beat the Bulldogs!!! After the football game was over we ate dinner and then it was time for Libby to get ready for Trick or Treating!

Libby put her witch costume back on and I took some pictures of her before we left. Our neighborhood only has three houses built in the neighborhood so far so we went to a nearby neighborhood that is huge and right by Libby's school. That was the most perfect Trick or Treating experience that I've ever had in my entire life. I've waited "27" years to have that perfect of a night. A lot of the houses in the neighborhood were fully decked out in Halloween decor, lighting, etc. There were hundreds of people on each street in the neighborhood. There were children darting from house to house and running across the street with their vampire capes blowing in the breeze. It was a scene straight out of any (non-scary) Halloween movie. It was p.e.r.f.e.c.t! I think I was probably enjoying it more than Libby was! :-) One of the houses is a big attraction each year because they set up a haunted house. I took Libby in and one of the characters really freaked Libby out and Libby was ready to hit the character with her witch broom that Libby was carrying! I had to cover her eyes and lead her out of the haunted house.

:-) However, Michael Myers was standing at the exit and he freaks the crap out of me so I had to close my eyes and lead Libby out while I still had my hands over Libby's eyes. :-) After about two hours of Trick-or-Treating Libby was getting tired so we finished up and headed for home.

Sunday morning we slept in a wee bit and then got up to start our regular weekend chores. Libby and I left at 1:30 to meet one of Libby's friends and her mom at the mall. We met up with them and then they rode with us to the corn maze in Micanopy. The weather was cooperating completely for a fun fall day. We couldn't have asked for nicer weather...it was in the low 70's! How divine! We got there and the first thing we did was go into the corn maze...which was five acres of maze! We were lost in there for quite some time! :-) We finally made our way out and Libby and Riley went over to play on the hay fort, then they rode the "bulls", played in the corn box (instead of a sand box it was filled with corn kernels...I've never seen children have so much fun!), and rode on the tire swing. We then went on a hay ride and that took us up to a pasture where we stopped to feed the cows. The cows know the drill when the tractor pulls up with a load of people so once we stopped they all started walking briskly over to get thier cow treats that were in buckets on the hayride and the kids threw out treats to the cows. One freaking cow had a foot fetish and kept licking my freaking feet! I had on flip flops and I thought I was going to die but I didn't quite think that kicking a cow was the smartest thing I could do so I stood there and took the foot licking. :-) After the hayride Libby and Riley rode the barrel-train and then we went into the corn maze one more time. Apparently the girls didn't get enough of it the first time we went through it! :-) We spent three hours there and if it weren't starting to get dark (thanks to the time change) I could have stayed three more hours. For me that was an ideal fall day!

After such a wonderful weekend it was very hard to get up and get geared up for work but I managed to do it. :-) To be honest, I am just using my upcoming weekend as my motivation to get up and get through work this week. This weekend is our Fall Girls Weekend and we are heading to Savannah!! I can't even describe to you how excited I am about this trip with my friends!

Libby's jack-o-lantern

Tonight we carved Libby's jack-o-lantern. She wanted to do it this past Sunday but with our temperatures still flirting with 90 degrees I knew that wasn't a good idea. The pumpkin would have been a mound of goo by today and definitely wouldn't have made it to Halloween on Saturday! As always, she drew on the face and I did most of the carving because my main goal every year when we do the jack-o-lantern is for Libby to finish with just as many fingers as she started out with!

We got the cute pumpkin all carved up and the seeds are drying on the counter top for us to roast soon. After her shower tonight she put on her costume that she is going to be wearing tomorrow. School is out on Friday for a teacher workday (or something) and so tomorrow they can dress as storybook characters AS LONG AS they bring the book with that character. For Halloween Libby is going to be a witch but for school tomorrow she is going to be Cleopatra. However, she immediately nixed the idea of wearing a black wig so she is going to be a blonde Cleopatra. :-)

Chocolate apples

Tonight Libby and I followed our annual tradition and after dinner we made our chocolate apples. I really like caramel apples, too, but I've never cared all that much for candied apples...I don't like risking breaking my teeth for anything! :-) But anway, as much as we like caramel apples we just prefer chocolate apples and that is what we always make. We decorated them with candy corn.....

M&Ms.....................

and cute little autumn leaf sprinkles..............

Yet another fall festival (and the rest of my day)

This morning started early. MUCH too early for a Saturday morning. There are very few things that can get me out of bed at 6:00am on a Saturday morning and the McIntosh Fall Festival is one of those few things. I got up, got ready, and met Karen in Gainesville. We made a mandatory stop at Starbucks (where I had a delicious pumpkin drink and pumpkin muffin!!). We headed to McIntosh and met up with some friends and spent a couple of hours walking around the fall festival. I got lots of loot today! :-) I was very satisfied with my new treasures. From the fall festival we all left and met at a restaurant that we love - Mildred's. We had some delicious lunch and for dessert I had a slice of pumpkin cheesecake! Yummy!

After lunch I had to head to my eye appointment that I had this afternoon. I made it through the eye exam (which is always a big deal for me. I dread the eye doctor. I can fall asleep in the dentist's chair but the eye doctor really freaks me the heck out). They did the glaucoma test today - and I misbehave very badly during that test. I don't mean to...I just can't handle that puff of air on my eye. I start flenching and jerking back and scooting my chair all around. It's quite an ordeal. After several minutes the girl was finally able to get it done. I nearly walked out the eye exam during that test but I made it through. I didn't want them to dilate my pupils (mostly because I just have issues with things happening to my eyes...case in point: the glaucome test) but also I didn't want them to dilate my eyes because I was driving. So, instead they did a retinal map of my eye - which made SO much more sense. However, they failed to tell me that I would have a blinding bright green light in each of my eyes! After that I headed back to see the eye doctor and he came into the room and saw the bracelets that I was wearing. I was wearing my one orange bracelet and my one brown bracelet that I got at the High Springs Fall Festival a few weeks ago that I posted a picture of. Anyway, he said, "Do you have two children?" I gave him a confused look and told him that I just had one child. He said, "Oh, I saw the two bracelets and thought one was for each child since one bracelet is pink and one is blue." WHAT? I immediately began to wonder if HE should be examining MY eyes and not the other way around! :-) He mistook orange and brown bracelets for pink and blue! We made it through the eye exam and afterwards I picked out some frames that I liked. I will go back tomorrow to finish up. I wanted to think about it for a little while before I ordered the glasses so I'll go finish everything up tomorrow.

I came home for a few hours and then tonight Ryan and I had to attend a benefit for Hospice. Luckily his company really wanted him to go so they paid for the tickets - which was nice because we weren't interested in spending the $75 ticket price! It was a nice evening...the weather was BEAUTIFUL tonight (I might even say that it was almost cool tonight!) and we had a fun evening. Add on top of that the fact that my Gators won our game tonight and that was a pretty great day!! :-)

Gooshy grips

So, just before school started in August I bought Libby a pack of gooshy grips because she said last year that when she would write the pencil would hurt her finger. I bought her a pack for $1 that contained 10 gooshy grips. Well, apparently for Newberry children you can only get gooshy grips on the black market or something. I've found out that kids are giving Libby just about anything that they can get their hands on so that she'll trade them for just one gooshy grip. Several children have brought her Littlest Pet Shop toys (that are nearly $6 each!). Some children bought Libby lip gloss to trade for a gooshy grip. One little girl just handed over six bucks in cash for one gooshy grip. Are you kidding me? When I found the money in Libby's backpack I made her take it back to the little girl. Libby took it back (although she was NOT very happy about it) and she gave it back to the little girl. Two days later the money was back in Libby's backpack. What?? I asked Libby what was going on and Libby said that she gave the money back to Avery and Avery took it home but Avery's parents told her that she needed to give the money back to Libby for the gooshy grip. DANG! If PARENTS are willing to have their children spend $6 on a gooshy grip when I paid just $1 for a pack of 10 then I know what I'm stocking up on the next time I'm at Wal-mart! Libby is turning out to be quite the little entrepreneur!! ;-)

Gator Homecoming!

Tomorrow is Homecoming for my beloved Gators and that means that today was the Homecoming Parade! To remind those who have never lived in Gainesville...Homecoming is a H.U.G.E deal. Schools were out today for homecoming but luckily for me my new firm has a daycare available in the back so I brought Libby to work with me today. But that wasn't the best news...my wonderful new company gave us off from 11:30am until 3:00pm today to go to the parade if we wanted to go!!!! How great are they??? So, Libby and I left right at 11:30am and headed over to watch the parade. It was stormy weather this morning, then it cleared up just in the time for the parade, and then just as I got back to work it started storming again! While we were at the parade the sun was blazing, though. We were absolutely baking. My nose and arms got burned...so I have a pretty bright farmer's tan going on. How cute. The picture doesn't pick up the true contrast between my normal skin color and the burn I'm sporting on my arms right now but just to prove my point when Ryan got home from work tonight the very first thing he said when he opened the door was, "What happened to your arms???" Eh, it was a small price to pay to ge to be in a sea of orange and blue today! :-)

Peer pressure

Have you ever done something under peer pressure that you immediately regretted? I have...in fact, I did that very thing today. At my new firm we have childcare in the back of the building. After school today the grandson of one of my coworkers came into the building carrying a very familiar box of chocolate bars. I was standing up front with several coworkers and as I stood there this 10 year old came straight up to me (acting like he didn't even see anyone else in the room) and looked up at me through his smudged glasses and asked me if I wanted to buy a chocolate bar to help him raise money so that he could go to Washington. Everyone, of course, was watching this take place. I immediately felt pressure - especially since I'm the newbie and don't want a bad impression of me at the office. So, what did I do? I bought 7 candy bars. Dang it! Why did I say 7?? 7? Seriously, who blurts out, "I'll take 7!"??? Everyone else bought one...one lady bought two...but me? I bought 7.
Anyone want a chocolate bar?

My first day!

Today was my first day at my new job! Today went very well...the day definitely flew by! Today I started getting the hang of one of the operating systems that I'll be working with and spent the day reconciling bank statements for two businesses who are our clients. Everyone at the firm was so friendly...they already made me feel like I was home! It was a great first day and I'm looking forward to tomorrow - so that's a good sign! :-)

Camp Crystal field trip

Today the 2nd graders took a field trip to Camp Crystal. I had not been to Camp Crystal since 7th grade!!!! We got out there and broke up into groups of about 25 kids each and went with a camp guide. Our group first visited the museum that has some animals that you would be able to find around Camp. After question and answer time in the museum we went on a hayride around part of the camp. After the hayride it was time for lunch and after lunch is when the "real fun" began. We went on an hour long hike. It was 94 degrees outside (not including the humidity) and we went on an hour long hike. The children were barely standing upright at the end of the hike and each and every one of us was absolutely drenched in sweat. Gotta love Florida in October! :-) We got back to school about 1:20 and school gets out at 1:45 so I just checked Libby out early and we went home.

I had to be back at school at 4:00 for a PTO meeting which lasted until 5:00. Once that was over we came back home and Libby and I played with the frisbee outside for a while and then came in for dinner. After dinner she and Ryan played Wii for about 30 minutes until it was time for her bath and then bedtime.

Now I'm just relaxing and being excited about my first day at my new job tomorrow!!

Here is our group in the museum with our camp guide talking to the children...

Here is Libby with her very good friend Diana...

Here is the closest thing we got to a group shot today. :-) We were missing about 10 children from our group when we took this picture...and only a few children were actually even looking at the camera...oh well...I tried!

Here is one of the bridges that we crossed on our hike. It was barely wider than a balance beam and lacked hand rails! I was quite nervous taking a group of 2nd graders across this!

I realize this photo is not flattering whatsoever to anyone in this picture but it is just to show how everyone felt during the hike. Everyone was hot, sweaty, and grumpy! :-)

Here is our group down by the lake interested in all of the algae. Eww! :-)

As usual, the weekend has just flown by. Actually, my entire week last week flew by! It was my last chance to have a week off and just relax for the next eight months since I'll be starting my new job on Tuesday and then we immediately start the "busy season" but instead of getting to totally relax I stayed busy all week. It is impossible to completely relax when you stay at home! There is always something that needs taken care of!


Friday night we went out to dinner with Ryan's parents since it had been a few weeks since we've all been able to get together.

Saturday morning Karen and I went to a fall festival. It was pretty small...it only took us about 30 minutes to look at all of the booths but we were glad that we went. We both picked up some jewelry that we liked so it was worth the trip!

Last week at the fall festival that I went to I picked up a pair of earrings that are perfect for my fall outfits. I was so pleased with my earrings!!! I also couldn't help myself and I picked up another orange and blue beaded bracelet to wear on Fridays and Saturdays with my Gator gear.



This week I found a super cute pair of earrings that I'll wear during the winter. At first they just look like earrings with Swarovski crystals but when you look again you notice that they are snowmen!!!!! CUTE! I also bought a brown bracelet and an orange bracelet to add to my growing amount of fall jewelry! :-)


Later on Saturday I went to get my hair cut. At first I was just going to get a few inches cut off and get it all cleaned up, etc, but then I decided to get quite a bit more taken off. My hair really could use a new start...I was finding lots of split ends, etc, so when I got there I decided to get 8 inches taken off. Even though I told her to take that much off I was still a little freaked out when she was finished. But that's okay, like I said, my hair really needed it and it won't take it long to grow a few inches and then I'll be happy.


Saturday night I joined Ryan over at his best friend's house to watch the Gator game. The Gators played LSU - at LSU! This was our first real test of the season (playing LSU always makes me nervous - especially when we are playing them in Lousiana and when LSU is ranked #4 in the nation). And we didn't know until Saturday if Tebow would even be playing in this game. Tebow did play, and the Gators of course won! We aren't the #1 team because we are lucky - we are the #1 team in the nation because we are a great football team!


Since I was barely home yesterday I had to spend a few hours today doing my thorough cleaning of my house and once I finished that I've just been relaxing and enjoying the last few hours of my weekend!

My six cent tip

Today I worked the book fair again. First, though, I had the meeting with the representative from the company that I'm looking at using for our catalog fundraiser that we are about to have. It was a pretty short meeting...I just really needed to get some numbers from him to make my decision. After I finished with him I headed over to the book fair at about 10:15 and I worked there until 1:45 when the bell rang and I went out front to meet Libby. During Libby's lunch time I went into the cafeteria and got her and brought her out to the book fair to eat lunch out there. I wanted to share her lunch with her but I didn't have time to go into the cafeteria and sit with her so instead I brought her to me. :-) While she was in there eating lunch one of her friends, Tess, came in. Tess is one of the twins who had a pool party back in September that Libby went to that I mentioned before. Anyway, Tess is a hoot. She is so funny. She found a book that she wanted and as she emptied out her bag of change that she brought there was a gold Presidential dollar coin in it. She handed it to Amanda (who was working the register since I was sitting over with Libby) and said, "Well I certainly can't use this...it's French or something!!" Amanda and I both started laughing. Where in the world did she get that it was French? :-) After she bought her book she was waiting for her classmate who she came with to the book fair. I looked down and noticed that her shoes were untied so I said, "Tess come here and let me tie your shoes for you." I leaned down and tied both shoes and I started to look up when I was finished and I saw a nickel and a penny centimeters from my nose. She said, "This is for tying my shoes. Thanks!" Again Amanda and I started laughing. I'm telling you, Tess is a mess! :-) I didn't take the $0.06 but if I had been paid six cents for every time I've tied a child's shoe laces in the last three years while at Libby's school I'd be a rich woman! It seems I'm always on the ground tying someone's shoe laces! :-)

After school Libby and I came home for 10 minutes which was just long enough for Libby to change because she started her art lessons again today. After her art lesson we went over to see her 1st grade teacher, Mrs. Whitehead. Libby absolutely adores Mrs. Whitehead and misses her dearly so we had to go pay her a visit. We talked with her for about half an hour and then had to get going to head back home.

After we got home we ate a quick dinner and then it was time for us to head to the softball field because Ryan had a game tonight. The game was a blow-out...his team won 15-0!

Oh, by the way, Tanja - in response to your comment on my blog from yesterday: The last two days that I've worked the book fair I've taken in a few one dollar bills and a bag of change and if a child is trying to buy a book (and like you said, it happens nearly every time that they have a book that is marked $19.95 and they dump out $1.57 in change on the counter!) I take them over to the $2 books and help them find a book that they like. Then I pay the difference for them because I'm all about helping children get books. BUT, if they bring over bendy pencils, scented erasers, and other junk I turn them away right away and tell them that they just don't have enough money. I'll help buy books but I won't help buy junk! :-)

Are you the Book Fairy??

This morning I worked at the book fair from 9:45am until 1:00pm. I was trying to get the hang of it before I have to be in charge of the next one all by myself. Students trickled in throughout the time that I was there. At one point a little Kindergartener came in and I could see from where I was sitting his eyes got as big as saucers when he saw all of the books. He turned around from the spot that he was standing in to take in the whole room and that's when he saw me sitting over by the cash register smiling at him. He came over to me very slowly and with his eyes still big as saucers he asked in a near whisper, "Are you the Book Fairy???" It was very cute. I couldn't help but laugh.

Tomorrow I have a meeting at school at 10am about our next fundraiser. We weren't going to do a catalog fundraiser this fall but we only have 1/3 of the budget that we need and teachers are already asking for the funds that we put into the budget to help off-set their costs. So, it was decided that we absolutely have to do a catalog sale before the holidays. They didn't like the company that they used last year so I'm interviewing a new company tomorrow.

My pumpkin in the pumpkin patch

This morning started off with us going to school early. We were at the book fair last night and Libby got a few books but on our way out she found two more that she really wanted but the PTO meeting was about to start and we had to get over there. So, because SHE wanted to go back to the book fair she was up the instant I walked into her room and she got ready in record time. She was actually pulling me out of the door this morning instead of the other way around! :-) We got there and she got her two books and I talked for a bit with the lady who did the fundraising for the PTO last year. I looked down at my watch and realized that it was 7:39...the first bell rings at 7:40, and the tardy bell rings at 7:45. I always have Libby in class at 7:30 so I grabbed her hand and we started rushing across campus to get her to her class.

We get there and the door to the classroom was closed - which was odd. We opened the door and only one set of lights were turned on - also odd. However, all of the children were sitting at their desks and working on worksheets. I looked around and didn't see the teacher and one of the girls in class said, "We don't have a teacher today...do you want to be our teacher?" I stepped across the hall and got the teacher over there and she said that she knew that Libby's teacher wouldn't be in today but thought the sub would have already been in the class. The office sent someone down to sit with the children until the sub arrived and I headed home.

I picked up Libby after school and we came home and she did her homework. After a while we left to head out to the pumpkin patch. I found two cute pumpkins that I really liked and Libby found two tiny pumpkins that she really liked so after some pictures we got our pumpkins and came home. And Libby had just informed me that it's time to go play Barbie Dreamhouse so it looks like that's where I'm headed...

Officially voted in!

Tonight was the first PTO meeting since I was asked to be the Fundraising Queen. Tonight was also the kick off to the Book Fair (which I'll be in charge of organizing the next time we have a Book Fair). We got to school at 5:15 to give Libby time to shop at the Book Fair and then at 6:00 we headed over to the PTO meeting. There were probably about 100 parents there which I thought wasn't a bad turn out. The PTO President got up to start the meeting. The first official business of the night was for the entire PTO to vote on approving the new by-laws. It took her three tries to get a majority of the room to vote on approving the by-laws. :-) I don't think people actually opposed the new by-laws...I think they just didn't feel like raising thier right hand to actually cast their vote. :-) Once she finally got a slight majority vote she announcd that the next business at hand was to vote in the newest board member...the Fundraising Coordinator. She announced that I had graciously accepted the position and needed to have a vote in regards to voting me in..and then she had me stand. I wanted to hurl something at her but I didn't have anything nearby so instead of throwing something at her I stood and smiled. She then asked for everyone to please cast their vote by raising their right hands if they supported me becoming the Fundraising Coordinator and everyone in the room raised their hand! How funny! She looked at me and said, "You got more votes than the by-laws...you are now officially a board member!" :-) Libby was thoroughly embarrassed, as well, having her mom stand up in a room full of people but she got through it just as I did. :-)

It's October!

I'm so glad that it's finally October...my favorite month of the year! We've been keeping busy in October - even though it's only the 3rd. :-)


October 1st: Thursday morning was my farewell breakfast at work. I'm not sure why they chose to do it Thursday morning...maybe they weren't sure if I'd actually show up Friday! :-)


October 2nd: Friday was my final day as a SunState employee. The day was very surreal to me. I just couldn't believe that I'm not going to be back in there on Monday morning! After working there nearly 1/3 of my life it's sort of hard to not associate myself with that place.


Friday night Ryan and I went to dinner with our friends Jordan and Amanda to celebrate with them our big week...Ryan's promotion last Friday to branch manager and to celebrate my last day of work with SunState and most importantly to celebrate my new job!! We had a great time with them and after dinner they came over to our house to hang out for a bit.


October 3rd: This morning I met Amanda at a fall festival. That's what I love about October...there are fall festivals every weekend!!!! I actually didn't know about this particular one until last night when Amanda asked me to go with her. We met there early and walked around looking at everything. I found a cute pair of earrings which are now my official fall earrings. :-) I also found another cute orange and blue beaded bracelet to wear with all my other Gator jewelry when I'm wearing my Gator gear.

After the fall festival I made a stop at Target to get a few things and then headed home. I checked my email when I got home to find that the toy that is at the top of Libby's Christmas wish list was back in stock at Walmart. For some unknown reason one of the hot toys this year are the zhu zhu pets. They are fake hamsters with all sorts of accessories. Stores just can't keep them in stock. I am set up for email alerts any time they come into stock in the toys stores in Gainesville, Jacksonville, and Leavenworth Kansas. I had some friends on the look-out with me looking for these things and they couldn't ever find what I needed in stock, either. Well, I got home this afternoon, got the email that the toys were just placed in stock at Walmart so I headed back to Gainesville. And...I FOUND EVERYTHING THAT I NEEDED!!!!! Whew, I am so happy to not have to be looking for those silly things anymore! Libby better like it as much as she thinks she is going to like it! :-)

Wonderful weather

I had planned on blogging about the beautiful weather that we've had the last two days but I read my friend Tanja's blog before writing my blog an she sort of stole my thunder. :-) How can I compete with her 68 degree weather, her colorful leaves, and her crisp cool autumn air??? I.am.so.jealous!!!! I can't compete at all but I can still say that our weather here has been AMAZING for the last two days!! Today the high where I work was 79 degrees. 79 degrees is amazing...add in the slight breeze we had and that adds up to perfection. Ahhh...it was wonderful. It is days like today that make me hate having an office job.

Tonight when we got home I changed into a long sleeve shirt and pants and Libby and I went outside to play volleyball for a while. I just couldn't ever get over how wonderful it felt outside. I enjoyed the weather as much as I could because it is going to be getting back to normal tomorrow. I do live in Florida, after all!

And I chose...

Today I officially received the second job offer!! It felt GREAT having two jobs to choose from! :-) I easily decided to go with the one that I really wanted - the Tuesday interview. There were pros and cons for each firm but when it comes down to it sometimes you just have to follow your gut reaction and I've been "feeling" this job since the interview. I signed the contract today and as of October 12th I will officially join the firm as their newest accountant. I am very excited!!!!

One of the best weeks of our lives!

Ok, so this is a blog about my last week so let me warn you now that it's going to be very long. Ron, just try and hang in there so that you can make it all the way through! :-)

Ok, so to start off I had an interview Tuesday morning for an accountant position at an accounting firm. I LOVED it. I felt like the interview went wonderfully and I had a great feeling about the job and everyone that I met in the office was very nice. I loved what I would be doing and the experience that I would gain working there. I was walking on air when I left the interview Tuesday morning.

I got back to work and received a phone call that was a Newberry phone number. I didn't recongize the number but I immediately thought it might have been Libby's school. I answered it and it was the president of the Parent Teacher Organization at Libby's school. She was calling to see if I was interested in serving on the Board! How unexpected! She wanted me to be the fundraising coordinator - or as they call it - the Fundraising Queen! I was scared at first...that seems like a big responsibility - especially considering I'm going to be starting a new job very soon where I'll have to spend a lot of time learning my new job duties, etc. I accepted but told her that I was only doing so if she could promise a great network of support for me from the rest of hte Board members. I still wonder what made her call me and think of me for the job because when she and I met the second week of school it was for about two minutes and that was it. Anyway, so now I'm on the Board and I'll be in charge of organizing and getting everything ready for the three book fairs that we'll have this year, a poinsettia sale that we'll have towards the end of November, a pancake breakfast we'll have in December, and the catalog sale that we'll have in the spring. I'm nervous about it...that's a lot of responsbility when I'm not sure how much time I'll have to put into it in the near future but I told her I'd give the position my best shot.

Even later Tuesday afternoon (yes, I'm still on Tuesday!) :-) I got a phone call. It was my friend Amanda who works at a different accounting firm. They are hiring and she spoke to her HR manager and told her how amazing I am :-) and her HR manager wanted to interview me the next morning. Woo hoo! Two interviews in two days!

Wednesday morning I went to the other interview and it went really well, too. I would have no problems with the job whatsoever and it was just exciting to have two really good interviews in two days.

Thursday morning it was Ryan's turn...he had an interview to become a branch manager at the bank where he works. Three interviews in three days for one couple! :-)

Friday morning he had the HR person from his bank show up to his office to deliver the good news - HE GOT THE JOB!! He will now have his own branch where he is in charge. How exciting!

A little later Friday afternoon I got a phone call. It was the firm where I interviewed on Wednesday (which would be my second choice). She offered me a position! WHEW! However, I told her that I appreciated the offer but before I could accept I'd have to speak to the other firm where I interviewed on Tuesday. I spoke with the president of the firm where I interviewed on Tuesday and told him that I had just received a job offer. He said that I was at the top of their list but he hasn't been able to make a decision because his vice president (on Tuesday I interviewed with the president and the vice president) left Tuesday after the interview sick and it turns out that she and her family came down with the flu so she has been out of the office since my interview and he couldn't make a decision without her because they had to make the decision together and he hadn't wanted to bother her this week while she was out with the flu. He asked me if there was any way for me to hold off the other offer until Monday. I told him I'd do that because I really liked his firm and that I felt great leaving the interview with them and he said that they felt great about me.

I called back the firm where I interviewed on Wednesday and asked her if she could wait until Monday to get my answer. She said that she wanted me that badly that she would wait until Monday for my answer. So, now I'm just sitting back and waiting to let them fight over me on Monday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday night Ryan and I went out for dinner. We usually NEVER go out to eat (what's the point when you have a trained gormet chef in your house??) but how often does one couple get three job offers in one day??????

So, by tomorrow I should be posting a blog telling you all about which firm I chose!! :-)

Ok, now on to Saturday. Saturday was my Fall Kick Off lunch where I invited some of my friends to come over for the ladies to get together for lunch and to celebrate fall! I cooked all morning and then everyone got here at 12:30. We chatted a bit and then sat down to lunch. I made a southwestern corn soup, mixed greens salad where I made a pumpkin vinagrette dressing (the dressing was to die for in my opinion!), and a broccoli and cheddar quiche. For dessert I made pumpkin pie crunch. Everyone seemed to really like the food and we had plenty of time to chat over lunch. After eating we just chatted for a while and as everyone left I gave them their favor bag and also had them get some candy from my mini candy buffet I had set up. It was a great afternoon!

Here is the entry table that had the mini candy buffet...

Here is the basket of favors...

Here are the cute little bags I made for them to put the candy in from the candy buffet...

and here I am with my lovely friends who came to my fall lunch...

They grow up way too fast!!

Today I just couldn't get over how "grown" Libby seems lately! I got off early today and picked her up and we went to look for her Halloween costume. For weeks she has said that she wanted to be a black cat but once we got to the store and she saw all of her options she quickly changed her mind to being a witch. She has been a witch before (when she was 4) but it's her Halloween costume so I let her pick whatever she wanted to be. It was just so cute watching her go from costume to costume examining each one as she made her decision.

We got home with a little extra time before we had to leave to head back to school. Libby is in the Accelerated Reader program at her school. One night a month towards the end of the month the media center is open at school for the students to come in and have a chance to read extra books and take the Accelerated Reader tests on those books. Each test earns them a certain amount of points and if they meet their goal at the end of the month then they get to be part of the Lunch Bunch. I loved watching her log onto the computer and know exactly what she was doing to access the test site. It just amazes me how proficient children are on the computer these days!

We got home from A.R. night and while dinner was cooking I couldn't help but stare at her and watch her every move. She is such an amazing, beautiful, and smart little girl! Only it's getting hard to describe her as "little" anymore!! Look at her!!!!

It's heeeerrrreeee!

Well, almost. Autumn is almost officially here...Tuesday is the official date. I can't wait. Even though we don't get a break from the heat and we don't get the crisp cool fall air and our trees aren't ablaze with the beautiful colors of autumn I still pretend like all of that is happening. :-) A new way that I decided to officially kick off autumn this year was to have a Fabulous Fall Ladies Lunch with a few of my friends. I've invited six ladies to come over this upcoming Saturday afternoon for a fall lunch and to sit and chat and hang out. Some of them haven't had a chance to see my new house, yet, so I'll get to show off my house to a few of them, as well.

This weekend (like all the others) flew by entirely too fast. Friday night we just hung out at home. I'm always absolutely exhausted by Friday night after a long week at work so our Fridays are always very quiet and laid back. Saturday morning I cleaned the house and by the time I was finished it was time to watch the Gators play Tennessee. Ryan's friend Brett had some people over for the game so I went over there and joined them there to watch the game. The Gators won (of course!!) 23-13. I just have to say that I adore Tim Tebow. Every time they start focusing on him and talking about the kind of person he is or they show him pumping up the team, etc, I get the hugest smile on my face. Ryan said that if it were anyone else but Tebow he'd be jealous...but since it's Tebow he completely understands. You can't help but absolutely love that kid!

Tonight while we were at the table eating dinner Libby took a bite and swallowed it and then started to say something and in the middle of her sentence a burp snuck out. She put her hand over her mouth really quickly and then said, "Oops, that bite backfired!" It was so darn cute. :-)

This past weekend

This past weekend was nice. I was able to catch up on a little bit of sleep Saturday morning which was more than necessary. Saturday at 12:21pm was the kickoff of the Gator game so the next three hours were spent watching my beloved Gators and Timmy Tebow. After the game was over I headed to Toys R Us to pick up two birthday presents. Libby was invited to the birthday party of one of her classmates from her original class this year...and that class mate has a twin so this birthday party required two presents. I found two cute projects for them and was satisfied with my findings so from there I met up with Ryan at his friend's house. His friend Brett has five (except now it is 6!!) televisions in his living room. Three of those televisions are big screen tvs. It is SUCH a bachelor pad! :-) But with college football now in full swing that is Ryan's heaven.

Sunday Libby was brought home early from visiting her dad because of the birthday party that I just mentioned. It was a pool party that started at 4:00. We got there right at 4:00 and the children immediately got into the pool. They swam for about an hour until it was time for pizza and birthday cake. It wasn't too hard convincing them all to get out of the pool for pizza and birthday cake but it wasn't as easy keeping them from going back in as soon as they finished eating! We finally let them all back in and they swam until 7pm when it was time to go. She had such a great time!!

Today it was back to school. Things are going great in her mixed grade class. I was reassured that only the smartest 2nd graders were chosen as the few 2nd grade children who were joining the third grade class so that just reaffirms that my Libby is one smart little cookie! :-) She really likes her new teacher and has tons of friends in her new class so Libby is just loving life right now. :-)

Libby's new class

Today was Libby's first day in her new class and it went well. She really likes her new teacher and so do I. Her original 2nd grade teacher was very cold and stand-offish to me. It was so hard for me to get her to even acknowledge that I was in the classroom every time I would try to communicate with her. Ugh. Anyway, her new teacher is much better. Libby was thrilled to find out that she already had two friends in her new class. They are both girls that she knows from her afterschool. That made her day when she saw that she already had friends in her new class. Today they didn't do much...it was basically like the first day of school all over again.



Tonight was Ryan's first softball game of the new season. The weather was actually great...it was about 78 degrees and every so often there was a slight breeze. It was so nice. To make it even better we won 14-13!



Oh, and sorry Tanja and Karen but I actually didn't take a single picture all weekend last weekend! :-)

More changes

As if little Libby hasn't had enough changes this summer she is in for one more! I got a notice from her school that she is being switched to another class. She is being switched to a second/third grade class. There are some things that she'll still be working on at a 2nd grade level but there are now also things that she'll be working on at a 3rd grade level. Not bad, eh? Tomorrow she and I will get to meet the new teacher so we'll see how that goes. Moving to the new class means that she'll be moving over to the third grade hall and she's sad thinking that she won't get to see any of her 2nd grade friends but I promised her she'll see them - just not as much. :-)

This past weekend Ryan's niece was dropped off on Friday and we packed up the car and headed to Indian Harbour Beach where Ryan's parents have their condo on the beach that they closed on recently. His parents where already there by the time that we got there on Friday night. We hit two bad traffic jams...two different times we sat on the interstate with the car turned off for an hour. A three hour trip turned into a five hour trip! :-( We had a great time there...Libby and Deandra spent plenty of time in the ocean and in the pool and we came back on Sunday evening. Deandra spent the night with us on Sunday and she and Libby played until they fell asleep and then they were up early Monday morning to play some more. We met up with Ryan's brother Monday afternoon for him to pick up Deandra and then we just came home and relaxed after a busy weekend.

Sucks

Well I've been waiting for this moment since May and it finally came tonight. The Board that governs my place of employment decided tonight to enforce the policy against having relatives employed together which means I'm out of there. They've given me until October 16th to find another job but I'm obviously leaving at the first possible moment. I'm not going to give them one extra moment of my hard work...if they don't want me then they don't get my talents for seven more weeks. I know I sound bitter - and that's because I am. 10 years of dedicated service and being the employee that everyone knows that they can go to for assistance and they decide to let me go because I got married? I'm not going to be the one who suffers...I'll get another job. Good luck to them finding someone to fill my shoes at that job. They can easily find someone to fill my position but finding someone to fill my shoes? 10 years of knowledge of the job, I've held every position in the department, and I know my stuff inside and out. Ha. Good luck to them - they are going to need it!

Libby made friends today!

I picked up Libby this afternoon and she made several friends today!!! Whew! She has two friends in class so far...Katie and Melanie. She also made several friends in her afterschool program at school: Holly, Emma, and some other little girl whose name I can't remember right now. Unfortunately, she is most likely going to be going to a different afterschool program next week but at least she now knows these little girls and they are all also in 2nd grade so when she sees them at lunch, recess, and around school she can talk with them.

I need to change her afterschool program because I currently have her signed up at her school and the only downside to that is that when there are teacher workday/student holidays there will be no daycare and I definitely need daycare on those days. I'm going to check out the other program on Thursday afternoon and hopefully I can get Libby signed up with them. The only difference between the other afterschool program and the one that she is in right now is that the other one is open for teacher workdays/student holidays. Woo hoo! :-)

Today was definitely a success since Libby made friends! I couldn't be happier!!!!!!

First day of 2nd grade!

Today was Libby's first day of 2nd grade. She told me all summer that she was excited about starting a new school and meeting new friends. Well, the time actually came this morning and she was a little bundle of nerves. I could barely get her to crack a smile. I got her up and she got ready and had breakfast. Here she is at breakfast at least giving me a silly smile...

Before we left to head to school she asked if she could take some "friends" so she grabbed two of her favorites to make her feel better on the way to school...

We got to her classroom and she wouldn't look up at anyone...she just sat at her desk with her head down looking so sad.

I wish I had a magic wand that I could wave over her and make her not be shy! Her teacher emailed me after school that Libby did participate in class but at recess she was still shy and hung around the teacher the entire time of recess. :-( Hopefully in the next few days she'll start making friends because I hate seeing her so sad!! Keep your fingers crossed for her!

After I picked her up we came home and had dinner and then we had brownies that Ryan made. Brownies make everything better, right?? :-) We played outside for a while and then it was time for a bath and bed and that was our day.