Saturday, May 19, 2012

I present to you...the class of 2012!

This has been such a busy week, full of graduations! I had three to go to this week. Bradley's was Tuesday (but I got no pics :(, then Magnolia's on Thursday, & Lafayette County on Friday.

Since I am slacking (BIG TIME) in the pic department for Bradley-I will sum it up with saying it was an amazing graduation. I will really miss this group of Seniors :(....

Some of my seniors even gave me & the counselor a card to say thanks and how much they will miss us.  Needless to say, I shed a few tears over that one! It's not every day you have a high school student tell you "thank you" for working with them. That is the only card I've ever gotten and it really meant the world to me! I am really going to miss that bunch!

On Thursday....we had Magnolia's graduation.  Jason had to work at it while I stayed behind to get Dalton's party all set up and the food out.  


Gradual pics as I was unloading food...

Wonderful cake from the Bakerman! It was amazing!




As you can see, Maci worked hard to help me set everything up.  She's eyeing that food table like she's got a trick up her sleeve...

I had to keep my eyes on her the whole time!



The full set up!



Dalton's "real" family, Michelle, Joey, & Joseph


Dalton & his Cake!


Time to dig in!



Dalton & his sweet girlfriend Morgan


Round 2!


We are so proud of our "adopted son" & all of his accomplishments!
We are even more excited that we will get to continue our "family" dinners with him since he's staying close to home.


Next up....
Senior Breakfast & Graduation at LCHS


Here at the Farm Bureau Award recipients with Lafayette County Farm Bureau Agent, Mr. Reed Camp.


Rotary Scholarship Winners


Srgt Gober brought Shawn a whopper check to pay for his college!


So proud of our SAU Scholarship recipients


There were so many scholarships & awards given out Friday that I would be posting pics all day! 

Over the last two weeks, Mrs. Jolley & I have been collecting scholarship information on all of our seniors at Lafayette County.  At the end of the day on Friday, Mrs. Jolley had totaled that the 2012 seniors at LCHS got over 1.58 million dollars in scholarships, grants, & military packages to go towards their college education & training!  

Mrs. Jolley & I were thrilled!!! 

Here are a few pics I snapped at their graduation.

Mrs. Jolley had a long list of scholarships to announce 


Patiently awaiting for their names to be called. It's hard to believe that it's been almost seven years ago since I was sitting in that seat. Sweating....and waiting on my chance to start a new life, away from my high school years.



I am so proud of all of my seniors that I've had the honor of working with this year.  It's hard to believe this school year has already come & gone.  Before we know it, August will be here and I'll have a whole new group that will be figuring our their dreams & aspirations.  

Until then...

IT'S SUMMA TIME!!!









Friday, May 11, 2012

April recap!

I cannot even believe how behind I am on our blog. April was my birthday month (which many of you know I celebrate all month long!) We have been so busy with school wrapping up, spring football, Jason's softball games, and all of the other many things going on, we have no idea where the month has gone!

A few nights ago, we left Maci in the laundry room to sleep in her own bed. When I woke up, this is what i found.  Looks like she decided to have her a mid-night snack-a-roo!  The funniest part is she somehow go;0t the bowl out of it's holder and put it on her bed.  As you can see, she left a few crumbs in the bed...Oops!

She even managed to keep a few pieces in the bowl!

In other doggie news....


Here is the newest crazy thing that Wiley has dug up from our back yard, an arrow & a dr. pepper can.


He digs up all of his goodies & brings them all on the back patio for us.  He is so thoughtful :)

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One thing I must share is this wonderful Pintrest recipe that I have made a few times and just can't get enough of.  If you are like me, I pin an incredibly large number of recipes on my boards and usually don't get around to making half of them! So....I thought I'd use my blog to help promote some of my favorite pintrest finds in the recipe sector.  I sometimes tend to change the recipes up a bit, so I will include my revisions as well!  

For all of you that are like me and have a major sweet tooth, but are constantly counting calories-MAKE THIS! You can't hardly tell the difference in the diet version & the real one.  I also tried the dt. dr. pepper version w/chocolate cake and didn't really like it, but this one with the 7 up is awesome!



As you can see...I'm sort of a messy cook!

Final product before plopping in the oven. This batter is amaze-balls! I could drink this stuff!

 Dt. Strawberry Cake

1 box strawberry cake mix
2 cups diet 7-up (add until your batter looks right)
1 box small sugar free strawberry jello
1 cup water
fresh strawberries
cool whip

Pour into greased baking sheet or cake pan.  Bake at 350 for around 15-20 minutes or until tooth pick comes clean.

Next...
Whisk jello mix & water.  Poke holes into cake & pour jello mixture over cake. Top with Cool Whip & fresh strawberries

Yumm-O!
*Not sure how many calories but it can't be too bad! 


Here are all of my wonderful birthday goodies from Jason-Flower Bomb Perfume & a new watch! He is so good to me and spoils me so much. I am so lucky to have such an amazing hubby!


Mom, dad, & Austen got me a new Hobo & Sonicare tooth brush which I am super excited about! I was thrilled to get both of those-Plus she brought me a strawberry pie, which I devoured all by myself.


I know this blog posting is all over the place and probably crazy to read, but I had a lot to catch up on.  We have a busy week planned full of graduations so hopefully I'll have a good post about that soon. 

Not much planned for the weekend-
Date night tonight, Lazy/rainy day in tomorrow, & mother's day on Sunday.

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

It's my party!!!

Saturday was Maci's 6th Birthday!!!

And as you know, no doggie birthday would be complete without a fabulous party.  Jason's parents just so happened to be throwing a fish fry Saturday night, so we kind of turned it into a Maci birthday party. Jason's parents have two Boston terrors, Molly & Mindy, so I decided to make the "M" girls doggie birthday cupcakes.  Maci was so excited to get to share her cupcakes with her friends!

I researched on pintrest to find a safe doggie cake recipe & I found this really easy one. I tweaked it a little because I didn't have an egg or any carrots on hand.  They still turned out good (even though I wouldn't recommend it to humans :)

Maci's Birthday Cupcakes
  • cup of whole wheat flour (bleached flour is not healthy for dogs.)
  • 1tsp of baking soda

  • 1/4 cup of peanut butter

  • 1/4 cup of vegetable oil


  • Mix Together.  Place in baking cups & Bake for 350 for about 20-30 minutes.  Cool & Ice with Maci's Special Birthday Icing!

    Peanut Puppy Icing

    1 cup peanut butter
    2tbs honey
    1/2 cup milk (more to thin)

    Mix with electric mixer (Makes a creamy, whipped icing)

    *Top Cupcakes with oats (like sprinkles) & put their favorite dog treat in as decoration.  I just so happened to have a Rachel Ray "Just 6" dog treat. Didn't even notice it until I was putting it all together, but I thought it made a cute final touch!



    Yummy Peanut butter Birthday cupcakes!



    Here is the birthday princess enjoying her cupcakes! Her hat got a little lop-sided since she was so excited!

    Hanging out with dad & Todd.


    About to dig in!

    Molly & Mindy loved their treats too!

    Jason & Todd are so photogenic! haha!

    Is that all we get?


    Overall, Maci Had a great birthday Saturday with all of her family and friends!

    This week I am headed to Hot Springs for work for our annual Spring Career Coach conference.  Jason & Maci will have to keep each other company while I'm away. I have the fridge stocked with turkey, frozen pizza, & pop tarts, so maybe they will survive without me :(

    Thought I would post a pic of our cute gift that Edessa & I picked out for our Door prize.  One very
    "lucky" career coach will win our tote filled with fun goodies! (I secretly hope it's me!)



    Last year every one of our coaches at UACCH won a door prize (including my boss who was only there for about 10 hrs).  I'm hoping this is my lucky year to win something really good!!!

    Have a good week everyone!!!!!

    Friday, March 30, 2012

    Happy Weekend!! Mega Millions Jackpot...



    While I was getting ready to head out the door this morning, the headline story on Good Morning America was "How to Win the Lottery". They had experts (even some people that have won the lottery like 7 times!) giving advice on how to win.  One guy (the one that had 7 wins) said "DO NOT DO POWERPLAY! YOU NEVER WITH WITH THAT!"....the other woman sitting next to him won doing power play with ONE ticket! So I thought to myself...which technique is right?  Then, I said to myself..............Self................They both won, so duh.... both must work!!

    The idea of being a "Mega"Millionaire lingered in my mind all day.  So after school, I went to run errands and just HAD to get a ticket! Well...two, to be exact. I had to try both winning strategies after all if I was serious about becoming a millionairess.  So I got my powerplay & then strategically selected my numbers.....05 (the month we were married) 28 (the day we were married) 10 (the year we were married (2010) 21 (my birthday), 30 (Jason's birthday), & 2 (number of years we were married). I think that was all of the numbers I chose...anyway...I technically already broke the "rules" that lotto 7 guy stated on GMA today. He said to use consectutive numbers...so I guess I'm doomed to lose, which should not be a surprise since I only have a one and quadrupal million gazillion chance of winning.

    Then I got to thinking...what would I do if I actually did win?? Well...I could probably go on for days & days, but I made a top ten list of things I would do with my money if I were so lucky....

    1. Tithe (That should always be number one-no matter where your money comes from)
    2. Pay off all of our debt, my parents, & Jason's Parent's house/cars etc.
    3. Take a dream vacation with Jason (probably the Bahamas, NYC, & back to Vegas.)
    4. Adopt children.
    5. Set up a scholarship fund in our names at Gurdon High School, Lafayette County High School, Bradley High School, UACCH, SAU, & most importantly...UAM.
    6. Random acts of kindness-leaving $100 bills for people that work hard, are honest, and nice people (like the lady that works at the gas station, who has been on her feet for 10 hours straight, is a single mother of three, and greeted me with a smile on her face and wished me good luck!)
    7. Give money to couples that are having trouble conceiving to use for IVF or adoption, whichever they need!
    8. Buy Jason everything on his wish list like a new fancy boat, lots of guns, a rolex, big black new truck, fishing stuff, and put a big fat English Bull dog in the seat of the boat with a big read bow around it.
    9. I'd gather up all of my good girl friends & my mom and go back to NYC on a dream shopping trip to buy anything we wanted.
    10. Design my dream house (with my dream car in the garage) which is a good size, but not huge, just snazzy... (including swimming pool). 

    I'm sure Jason would not agree with the exact order of my choices! haha!  Have you got your golden ticket?!!!

    Sunday, March 25, 2012

    Spring Cleaning, cooking, & crafting!


    This has been the best week for us! After recovering from my cold/sinus infection last weekend, I was finally able to enjoy a few days this week with my hubby. Even though the week was filled with Dr's appointments, we were able to squeeze in some rest, relaxation, spring cleaning, cooking, & crafting!

    The big item that was on our agenda was working on Jason's storage room. It was definitely one of those rooms that was just a total male storage room & has been neglected ever since the day we moved in.

    Here is a before pic.


    The horrible lime green and checkered wallpaper that was halfway coming down...

    It looks like it's snowing from all of the dust off of the floor & after sanding the wall.

    Here is after! Sorry about the snow picture, dust was still flying!




    Now that's it's all cleaned out, Jason is going to build a fancy shelving system, complete with storage for our car washing supplies, fishing, & golf stuff. I'll have to post another pic once we get it all finished & organized, but at least we were able to clean it out & throw a bunch of things away.

    We also worked in the yard on Friday & I started potting flowers for the patio. I still haven't found a patio set that works yet, but it really did look so great with what little effort & money we had put into it so far. I was so happy with the outcome. That night, we went to watch a panther baseball game & when we got home, our sweet little Wiley has completey destroyed the biggest pot I had. Dirt was ALL over the patio & I was sick. So...I relocated my flowers to the front porch & plan on saving it all for whenever I get my patio set & we decide to stake Wiley.

    I also crafted quite a bit. Here are a few of my newest projects.  I also have them listed at my etsy shop (Just Add Sparkle).  For all of my blogger friends, I am doing a 20% off promo code this week (Expires April 1st). Just type SPRING12 into the coupon code box to receive 20% off your entire order!






    As you can see, we've been really busy around our house this week! I've had several ask about our Dr.'s appointments this week.  Several were just routine check ups & eye appointments, but there were two big ones that we were both nervous about. Jason's yearly checkup to test his blood levels, blood pressure, & cholesterol (which we still have not heard back from about, but are still praying for good news from that!).  And my appointment ....

    First, I must say I have definitely felt the prayers this week! I have gotten cards, texts, & such sweet phone calls and each one has meant so much. 

    Ever since I was a little girl, I have always dreamed of the day I would be a wife & a mother. God has blessed me with such a Godly man in my life and he is a wonderful husband to me.  On Halloween day 2010, just five months after being married, we decided that we were ready to try to start a family.

    I really expected it to happen almost immediately.  I have so many friends that weren't trying or as soon as they decided to, it happened, so I just assumed the same would happen for me.  Also, Jason's brother & his wife have been trying to have a baby for over 5 years now.  She has been through everything and they got back the diagnosis "unexplained fertility", but they have started a new "plan" to try this year.  She has been such a great support for me and helped me so much with getting through this.  I guess I thought that since they had had so much trouble, that we wouldn't.  What are the odds of both couples in our family going through the same ordeal?  I thought I was ready, but still prayed that God knew what timing was right for us & was patient. I tried not to focus on it and just enjoyed our first year of marriage.  With that, it felt like everyone around me was having babies.  I know some of you have been in my shoes before.  At church, every woman in the Sunday school class across the hall was pregnant.  Kids I worked with had babies.  My friends from high school & college were all having babies.  It felt like every week I was buying a baby gift or seeing a new ultrasound picture on facebook.  I was so happy for all of my friends!! But at the same time, I just had to ask God what was going on with me.

    By this last October, it was time to go back to the doctor for my yearly & by this point, it had been almost one year since we decided to try for a baby.  I was so nervous the morning of my appointment. My mom went with me and the whole way there I was a nervous wreck!  I had no idea what she would say or what I had to do. I was so scared.  When I went in, the Dr. told me I was young and not to panic. She gave me instructions to start getting serious, start tracking, & keep a calendar and to report back to her in 6 months.  I couldn't believe she wasn't doing anything! I was so frustrated, but decided to do what she said and keep praying to God to keep us in his will. 

    I went home & bought an ovulation kit and got a smiley face the first day I tried it. I was estatic!!! Things were headed in the right direction. I honestly felt that God was working and I just knew it would work and we would be able to tell our family at Christmas (& all of you around valentines day! :) October went by and it didn't work.  Then November...Then December...By the holidays I was very discouraged and decided to take a break for a month or two and just enjoy my time off of work. 

    Fast forward to now. Last Thursday, Jason & I went back for our follow up appointment. I have been praying about this ever since my last appointment and hoped I would be going in for my first appointment to see hear my baby's heartbeat by this point.  This visit was much different than the last. I really felt at peace going into the appointment.  I was calm and so thankful to have Jason there with me.  We went in together and talked with the Dr. She gave us a plan and ran some tests.  I'm also scheduled for more tests that I will most likely do in April or May.

    I really feel that God has placed so many special angels in my life.  The week before my appointment, a friend of ours had told me she had had a dream about us & that we were expecting our first baby.  She also said that we were wonderful parents! Even though I have probably mentioned to her about wanting a family, she had no idea about our appointment the next week. I just cried and cried when I got home. I told her about our appointment and found out she had went through a very similar situation. Her story was so inspiring to me and it meant so much to hear what she went through to have her "miracle baby". 

    I know God has the same thing planned for us. I know this is an incredibly long post, but I just wanted to fill in all of our friends about what's been going on. I thought it was definitely time to blog about this. I hope that by keeping a blog record of our progress, it will help build us a prayer team to surround our baby with God's love. I really believe in the power of prayer and I think we need all we can get! I also think it would be good to show our baby one day what all we went through to conceive to show how special he/she is to us, even before it was born. 

    Please keep us (& Jason's brother & sis in law) in your prayers. I just know that I will have good news to share soon!!