Ninja!

My nephews informed me of this game that, apparently, all the kids are playing called Ninja.  It is kinda like fighting, but you only get to move once and then have to freeze while the other person moves.  Confusing, I know!  However, Tripp got Nick to play with him and it was hilarious.

It took some convincing for me to believe this was a real game and not one my brother made up and taught his kids...it wouldn't be the first time!  My brother created the "Trip Game" to play with his kids...without using hands you try and trip one another, and obviously if you get tripped and fall you lose.  It is important to remember that my brother is 33 and his kids are 6 and 9, so he doesn't exactly lose at this game.  The Ninja game is real though, before school was out my 6th and 7th graders wanted to play it in P.E.  The things I learn from being an aunt and a teacher are rather amazing!

500 Days!

Yesterday marked the 500th day of Nick and I being married.  I only realized this because I had a counter on Facebook to count down how many days until the wedding.  Once the wedding day came, it started to count the days we have actually been married.  I happened to look at it yesterday...on day 500.  I really can't believe we have married for 500 days!  It has been fast and absolutely wonderful.  Luckily for us the first year and half of marriage has not been hard, and I look forward to growing old with my best friend! 

I called Nick at work yesterday to jokingly wish him a happy 500 days of marriage, and he decided to surprise me...

Tulips and a cookie cake that reads 'Happy 500', I married the most wonderful man!

The Volunteer State

Nick and I just got back from a fabulous trip to Tennessee.  We met up with his parents and basically did the entire state sans Memphis.  Practically everyone asked us why we were going to TN, but we had a blast and there was so much to do!

Warning: Lots of pictures ahead!

First up was the Jack Daniel's Distillery.  Every single drop of Jack Daniel's is made here, and it is in a dry county which we thought was crazy and made for no free samples.  Although Nick and I are not big drinkers, the tour was ridiculously interesting.  Plus, Lynchburg, TN is one of the smallest, most fun cities ever!

We went to Ruby Falls, which is the largest underground waterfall.  AMAZING!  We toured the cavern, saw tons of amazing things, and at the end was this beautiful, natural waterfall that is underground!

If you look real close you can see Nick and I behind the waterfall...it was an incredible experience.

We went to Mayfield Dairy which is pretty much their Blue Bell.  It was a fun tour, and, as you can see, we had to wear hair nets before we could go in!  I don't typically do milk if it has no Hershey's syrup, but the milk at Mayfield was surprisingly good.  The ice cream was incredible, but it was definitely no Blue Bell!

Not only did we see the largest underground waterfall, but we also saw the largest underground lake.  This was in a completely different cave, and was just as amazing.  We actually got in a boat and got to check out the lake and cave.  The history of the caverns is pretty ridiculous...we saw where Indians lived, confederate soldiers hid, and where Moon Shine was made!

We toured Sweetwater Valley Dairy Farm as well.  This cow had just given birth (you can kind of see the baby behind her), and her utters looked like they were about to explode!  We saw the whole milking process, learned how they make cheese, and got some pretty awesome cheese too.  It was crazy how a lot of the things we did were connected...the corn mash that makes whiskey for Jack Daniel's goes to the Sweetwater Farm to feed the cows, the milk from the cows goes to Mayfield Dairy to be processed.

They have a museum that has all kinds of cars that were in movies and TV shows.  These were the actual cars used, and they have some celebrity's cars as well.  It was so cool to be able to get so close to these cars.  I am a sucker for cars...I know nothing about them other than make and model, but for some reason I love them.  My dad, my brothers, and I always go to the car shows, and I absolutely love it!

One of the coolest things was playing mini golf on the Smoky Mountains!  We rode this ski lift thing to the top of the mountain and played down the side of a mountain.  It was fabulous and beautiful!

The Country Music Hall of Fame was pretty rad, and even better then we originally thought it was going to be!


We went to several caverns, and here are some of the amazing formations we saw:

Tennessee was a blast, we did everywhere from Nashville to Chattanooga to Sweetwater to Lynchburg to Knoxville to so many more cities.  We had an incredible time, saw amazing things, did rad things, and thoroughly enjoyed our trip to the Volunteer State!

World Cup 2010

Anyone who knows Nick knows he is a soccer fanatic, and I mean that in every sense of the word!  This means our lives are all about the World Cup right now.  It is definitely an exciting time for the world and U.S.  Nick has decided he is jealous that I have all summer off and can watch every World Cup game; however, I so don't foresee that happening!

Happenings...

As usual I have been a slacker when it comes to posting.  Nick and I have kind of been all over the place.  We have had family stuff, friend stuff, and us stuff.  Yesterday was the first time we were actually at home most of the day.  Anyway, here is what is going down at our house...

I had mentioned that I was doing black frames down one of our hallways.  Here are some completed frames, and here is the start of the hallway:

It is still a work in progress, but I love it so far.  I love having old family pictures in the house, and having everyone that we love be in our house is awesome.  I think it makes our house feel like a home!

Then I changed the breakfast table to be more summery, and the best part...it was free!  You can't see how fabulous the place mats are, but trust me!  They are from Target and are so so cute.  The red napkins I had.  The sunflowers are from a garden turned farm just across the street.  They said we could take however many we wanted, and I put them in a Santowski milk bottle.  So lovely!

Santowski Farm

It has been so much fun actually growing our own food!  I think it is ridiculously awesome to eat something that I grew in my backyard.  This has been a good year for our garden, and here is the latest update:

I don't do bell peppers, but Nick loves them!  This plant is crazy, you can see all of the peppers growing everywhere.  It has gotten so heavy that it was falling over.

Nick has been dying to grow even one ear of corn.  Well, we got 6!  He was so excited, and I have to admit it is rather amazing that we actually grew corn.  It's good too!

On another note, I grew some flowers from seeds!  It has been lots of fun watching them grow and bloom.  I promise they look better in person!

Throw some paint on it...

I am by no means an artist!  However, I love to paint.  One day Nick just said here, handed me a canvas, and said just try it.  I love that man, and I have been painting since.  It is a fun hobby, so relaxing, and I thoroughly enjoy it.  Everything I do is completely abstract.  It is a fun way to decorate because I get to use the perfect colors and combinations to match any room.  Here are few of my creations:

This is in our master bathroom.  The next one I did when I lived on the second floor at my apartment complex.  Nick and I had a blast squeezing paint from my balcony onto the canvas on the ground.  It is now in my 'eclectic' laundry room, but was originally in my apartment bedroom.

Here are a couple more that were for Nick's apartment, but are now in the previously mentioned laundry room.

Finally, I am practicing something for my sister-in-law.  I didn't want to actually put it on stretched canvas until I had a chance to figure out what exactly I was doing.  So, here is my spread in the living room...

Painting is definitely a hobby of mine now, and I love it!

And so it begins...

Today was my first real day of summer with no work!  I am excited to rest, relax, and just enjoy my time off.  When school starts back up it is going to be interesting since I am teaching at a new school next year.  I will no longer be at St. Joseph...I am going to be teaching in Houston ISD.  I am excited and nervous, but right now I just want to enjoy my summer.

There are several projects that I want to tackle, and yesterday my aunt added to the list.  Apparently she had every intention of making me a wedding scrapbook, but just never really got down to it.  She gave me all kinds of stuff for it though, the book, paper, stickers, pictures, etc. so now I have everything I need to get it done.  I am not a huge scrapbooker.  I am more of an album or frame kind of girl.  The goal is to have a wedding scrapbook completed this summer!

Dutch Apple Bars

Nick and I decided to bake one night this weekend.  Dutch apple bars were what we came up with, and they turned out wicked awesome!  I meant to take pictures throughout the whole process, but got distracted and busy so here are a few...

Slowly coating the apples before placing them on the crust...

Before we put in into the over to bake...

Fabulous finished product!

Bittersweet

Friday was my last day with my students, and today and tomorrow are in-service days.  As excited and ready as I am for summer, I will truly miss my kids!  I could never have asked for a better group of kids to be my first class, and I will always remember them and miss them.  We have all vowed to stay in touch, and I hope we do because these kids are beyond incredible and I am truly blessed to have had them in my life!

Some of my students with their paper plate awards!