I should dye my hair blonde after today!

As I was driving to my boring workshop this morning my head was in the clouds. I was listening to Kid Kraddic in the morning and they were talking about attitude. Basically saying that your attitude can shape the way you see your life. They gave the example of a flat tire. One can either say "woe is me" or "thank goodness it didn't happen on the interstate". "It was bound to happen sooner or later". Attitude is a very pwerful thing. And the best part is that we have all control over the way we react to the things that happen in our lives. You can choose to look for the positive in things. I was thinking about all of the people who always talk about how miserable thier lives are and put it all over Facebook. Every status says something about their bad day or how they have no luck. We are all guilty of this sometimes.
So this was all floating through my brain and as I was pulling down the street towards my SCHOOL I realized that I had training today. My mind immediately went into the oh crap mode. I'm going to be late! Then I reminded myself that it was ok, I need to just get there safely. Kunch time rolls around. As I am pulling onto the side of the street to park I run into a street sign in my brand new car. I made a consious effort to say to tell myself it could have been a lot worse. It sucks I scratched my car and broke my side mirror but at least I didn't dent my car right? :) Then, as I was leaving the mall I was walking around the parking lot in the rain for about ten minutes wondering who stole my car. I realized I was in the wrong parking lot on the opposite end of the mall. Instead of thinking what I typically would think "crap, my feet hurt and now I have to walk to the other end of the mall" I thought "at least my car WASN'T stollen." I just had to laugh. What a good day this has turned out to be. I am going to continue o work on this~
I called my wonderful mother to ask her to come help me learn how to cook. She came to my house and taught me how to cook steak with rice and gravy. It was really good! I am starting to think I may be able to cook! Thanks again, mom!
I also had a great time at the mall. I bought school shirts and new school shoes. I feel like a little kid. I also got to get a new purse that I LOVE. Nick said he wouldn't be mad if I get it as long as I cook for a week. :) It made me laugh out loud to myself in the mall. I am really loving life.

Alissa Ann 7 lbs 13 oz

So we have a new addition to the family. A beautiful little girl named Alissa Ann. She has long black hair! 7 lbs. 13 oz 20 inches long. My sister is a she-woman! Everything went smoothly and they are both doing well. I had the girls sleep over last night. Kali, Sara, and I were sleeping in my room and Nick slept in the guest room. I was up until about 4am and decided to switch rooms. At 7 Sara came strolling in asking where I was fully dressed with her shoes on and everything! :) That child doesn't miss a beat. I tried to talk her in to going back to sleep but that didn't work. Too bad! Granny came to save the day, though.

I have also been working on my new classroom all week. I am excited about the way everything is looking. I like the layout a lot better than last year. Hopefully, I will have it done within the next few weeks.

My precious baby book also came in. I ordered it from Ruby Love Los Angeles. I googled "modern baby book". I wish I could fill out the whole thing but I can only do a few pages.

Great weekend!

What a great weekend! 9 Weeks pregnant has been good to me. I have not been nearly as nauseated as I was the past three weeks. Nick and I went for my first ultrasound on Friday June 11th. The ultrasound teach said I am a "good incubator". :) I was very nervous at first. She put the little wand over my stomach and went silent. For some reason I thought that I would be able to hear the heartbeat but we heard nothing. I asked her if everything looked ok and when she told me everything looked great it was like a huge weight had been lifted off of my shoulders. The baby was measuring exactly how I predicted it should be. She told me I was 9 weeks and my due date is Jan. 15th. We got to see the little heart flickering really fast which was so cool. Nick just sat there completely speechless. It was a pretty cool moment. It makes all the crappy things that come along with pregnancy so sweet. The heartbeat was 165 which she told me was high and strong. After we left I was dieing for Outback so we went there and looked at the ultrasound pics over and over again.

Friday night my sister got in from Ruston with her husband and son. Eli is completely precious. He is also very smart. He can name almost all of his body parts. I love when he shows where his teeth are because he starts clicking his teeth together. It is so funny.

Saturday was my sister's baby shower. It didn't start out so well. I went to pick up the cake. The original name my sister had picked out was Alissa Grace. So one the cake they put AGD. Well my sister looked at it and told me that she named the middle name to Ann. So I had the initials wrong. After about 5 attempts at fixing it We finally made it look good. Then the chocolate fountain had a small malfunction. Luckily, my mother came to the rescue and fixed it. Anyways, everything ended up coming together just in time. Everything was beautiful and everyone had a good time. I think Jamie had a good time and got some nice baby gifts also.

Today we all went to the little splash park in Plaquemine with the kiddos. Kudos to the city of Plaquemine for such an excellent job on this. There were plenty of children there and they all seemed to be having a great time. What a great way to improve the park! We all went to mom and dad's house afterward and mom bar-b-qued. It was so much fun.

Overall, a great weekend. I love getting to spend so much time with my family. Hope everyone had a great weekend as well!

Wal-Mart rant

I went off on a little tangent earlier after I left Wal-Mart. People just get on my nerves so bad. Normally, I am good at brushing things off but today it was one thing after another. I was walking through the isles and saw a basket full of kids eating grapes while they were shopping. The first thought that popped into my head was -Gross! Those have not been cleaned! Then I thought about the fact that they also had not been paid for. These people are probably getting free food anyway and then they are stealing it on top of that. Then I was in the produce section and I noticed two other people just eating grapes from the bags off of the shelf. How disgusting. People just amaze me. I go to check out and there are like 3 lanes open. I get behind this obese woman and her obese daughter. I am not using the word obese lightly either. There cart is overflowing with ice cream, frozen pizzas, about 20 candy bars, debbie cakes, you name it and they had it. Junk! Not one green thing in their basket. Not to mention the woman was cursing like a sailor to someone on her cell phone so loud I think everyone in her vicinity could hear exactly what she was saying. Then she pulls out her food stamp card. My next thought was that they are probably on Medicaid so I am not only paying for her fattening foods but also for her health care bills for her and her daughter. Great! I look at the next isle and there is another person whipping out their food stamp card. Then there was a women behind me with five kids and a basket overflowing with shit with her food stamp card ready. All I could think was "Am I the only person in this store who actually pays for my groceries?" Then her son was taking all of the gift cards off of the shelf, scratching off the part that you scratch off when you buy one and throwing them on the floor while his mother saw him and said nothing. I typically get very defensive when I hear people talk negatively about people who receive government assistance. As I do feel it is necessary for some. I am usually very empathetic but not today. I was disgusted. Why do people think that the world owes them something and they do not have to go out and earn a living? I think that there should be tougher restrictions when it comes to things like this. People are obviously milking the system for all its worth. I promise I will stop with all of this negative talk. I just had to put it out there. Ok, I am done with my rant!

On a happier note, yesterday I found the most beautiful curtains for my dining room. I will post a pic when I upload them. I am so excited to see my sister and her family tomorrow and to go to my doctor apt. I am nervous thinking about all of the things that can go wrong but find comfort in knowing that everything happens for a reason so I will have to accept whatever comes our way. My sister's shower is also this weekend. I think I have got everything so far- I am ready to get it over with! Hope you all had a better Thursday than I did. :) will update tomorrow.

just reminiscing

So I am sitting here bored out of my mind (because it is summer) watching junk tv. I am watching true life: we are newlyweds. They are following two couples who had never lived together before getting married. It is actually awkward to watch but some of the moments remind me of when Nick and I first got married. :)It is almost weird to think of how drastically different our lives are now. As I find myself reminicing I felt the need to blog for myself. When we were married I was 21 and he was 23. I was just barely old enough to drink. We lived in Nick's Baton Rouge apartment which was small and dingy. I still smile when I think about it. I was going to LSU with one semester left and Nick was done with school working as a trainer at a clinic in Baton Rouge. I worked nights at the cafe. Nick was still in his black truck and I was in my accord. Just as happy as we could be in that crappy little apartment! That was also when we got our first baby. His name was Duncan. A black Scottish Terrier. I had no idea that that dog would be such a little baby to me in the future. It felt like we just fell right into marriage so easily. About six months after Nick and I were married he went to start PT school in St. Augustine. We were apart for about 2 months which was probably the hardest part of him going to school. I moved to Florida to be with Nick on June 17th. The day after my sisters wedding. I remember crying thinking that I was leaving everything behind. I had no idea what was in our future. Nick studied alllll the time and stayed at school. I would take Duncan to the beach a lot and send out resumes all day. I went about two months before I found my first job working as a daycare worker. Probably the worst job ever. I was so miserable that I quit that job and found a job as a caseworker. I worked for an agency whos job was to reunite families. It was by far the hardest job I have ever and probably will ever do. I still have so much respect for the people who do that job. Not only did the job change the way I looked at life but the friendships I made through that job were like no other. I still miss those girls! Living in Florida taught me so much. I learned that there are so many different ways of living. I learned how to be mad at Nick and find a way to deal with it, how to be independent, and how to deal with missing my family and not being able to run to them every moment I thought I needed them. Anyways... fast forward two years (I blogged at that time) I move home a few months before Nick to start a teaching program. I was apart from Nick and it sucked but that made graduation that much sweeter. He graduated on August 14th and it was one of the best days of my life! We moved to Torbert next door to his parents from August to October. In October we made one of the biggest purchases of our lives and bought a beautiful house in Brusly. A place I never thought we would be! I found my job as a teacher and Nick found his PT job. I bought my dream car in April. Just when I was thinking that life could not get any better we found out that we are going to have a baby! As much as it scares the crap out of me, I can't wait. I know that Nick will be an awesome dad and I can't wait to see what our little nugget looks like. When I think of how far we have come it almost brings tears to my eyes. Never in my wildest dreams as a 16 year old girl did I believe that this 18 year old boy would one day be my husband and the father of my children. I am so thankful for our path that we have taken thus far and all of the wonderful people we have met along the way. I am so excited to venture off into this new thing called parenthood. Nick and I go for the first sonogram on Friday and I will post a picture then and pray that everything is ok in there.

African booty scratcher!

what a week! The kids at school were quite entertaining this week. I have actually enjoyed my job. I have been working late every day which sucks but I am trying to get all of my kids to benchmark on their DIBELS tests by the years end. They are slowly getting worse as the summer approaches. The kids have started calling each other "african booty scratcher's" which is pretty funny. I told them not to say that but I can't help but laugh.
Nick left yesterday for a seminar. Jordin and I went out to Mike's last night. I was fully intending on driving but she said she wasn't going to drink so I decided to take advantage of that. I had more than my fair share. It turned out to be a fun night. It was nice seeing old friends and even a few co-workers. I hate coming home to a big empty house though. He wanted me to drive into NOLA to meet him tonight but I felt bad leaving the dogs. And I only slept about 6 hours last night before I was wide awake at 9am with a headache.
Today started out really boring. I ended up going to Olive garden for lunch where I later realized I lost my credit card. Then, Maddie and I went to go get snowballs (read previous post on my obsession with snowballs) and we went to the movies to see the Bounty Hunter. I miss hanging out with her. She is one of those friends who has never changed and I love that. I miss my childhood friends.

So I will leave you all with a BOC memory....

Couches and such, you guys want some cookies?
Arrgey mattey, we have crips for her!

Don't ask! LOL

yummo

If any of you do not recognize me after this summer it will probably be due to the snowballs I MUST stop to buy every day on my way home. I have got to learn how to control myself. Yay for spring!