Goodbye...

Hey everyone,

I just created a new site so it'll be easier for me to post pics. Here's the url:

http://samanthamaxwellphoto.wordpress.com/

I will probably delete this one eventually. :) Have a great night!

Newsy Post

I know, I know, I haven't updated in months! Life is crazy busy! So where have we been?

Well, for those of you who don't know, my Gpa got sick at the end of October. He ended up having Ecoli that went into his blood. Yeah, no good. After a week in the hospital, he was transferred to a rehab/nursing home facility to recover. After a week of being there, he fell three times in one day, the last fall putting him back in the hospital. He was very out of it in the hospital and not himself at all. We found out later that it was an effect of all the heavy meds they had him on. His primary dr found out all the meds the ER dr had him on and got him off of them right away. He slept for almost a day straight, but when he woke up, he was back to himself! :) My family said "miracle", I say GOD! :) So, he went back to the nursing home to regain strength. As you can imagine, he had lost almost all his strength. Praise God the Ecoli is gone!

I tracked out during all of this and was dying to see him. My family and I took turns going down to spread out the help, so I finally got my turn and we headed down the weekend before Thanksgiving. We got to bring him home from nursing home the day after we arrived! Every day we were there he got a little stronger, and by the end of the week, he was getting up on his own and trying to walk without a walker! :) He is still battling weakness and low blood pressure, so keep praying! Gma has an infection now, so pray for her too. She's at home and on meds, so pray the meds work. The first set didn't do the trick...

We've been back about a week now and have been running like mad! I went back to work Thursday & Friday for workdays and get to see the kids again tomorrow. Tis the season for lots of parties, too! Fun stuff! I was so excited that in between events yesterday, I got to stop by and meet little Zoe. She's absolutely beautiful and the tiniest baby I've ever seen! She's so alert! Dan and Casey are SUCH good parents!

And now for the big news of the week!!!! Jeremy got his official acceptance letter into the PhD program!!!! SO proud of him!

Sorry to bore you with a newsy post, but now that everyone's caught up, I'll try to be a better blogger! Gotta run...I have 6 pound of ground beef to fry. Hehehehe

I've been really bad about blogging lately...very busy! But, Nicole tagged me in this thing, so it's a good nudge to post something! So, here it goes:

THE RULES:
* Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
*Share 7 little known facts about yourself on your blog.
* Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
* Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

1. I have just recently discovered that autumn is awesome and clearly the best season of all! (Poor FL girl, I know!) I promptly bought a fall table runner and collected autumny stuff to decorate with. :) LOL (Side note: don't collect acorns for decoration. We have these three glass vases that a candle goes on top of that I filled with my autumn stuff. I filled one with mini pine cones, one with acorns, and was going to fill one with fake autumn leaves. Well, while we were eating dinner last night, I noticed a millipede/worm/caterpillar (not sure) crawling up the inside of the vase out of the acorns. Yuck!!!! I'm serious, nature attacks me. hehehe)

2. I am constantly reorganizing things at work and home. Two reasons...1-they never stay perfectly organized, oye 2-I always think of more efficient ways to organize the same things!

3. I was a ballerina for 10 years. Jeremy told me to put that one.

4. I am learning photography which is so so so so so super exciting! Thanks Kristin and Casey!

5. I absolutely LOVE pizza. Pepperoni pizza is the best! I would seriously eat it for every meal forever if I could. :)

6. Whenever I have time (like when I'm tracked out), I get completely addicted to the Sims2. WAY too much fun! I LOVE building and decorating houses. I actually love decorating in real life, but too bad there's not a lot of money for that...which is where the Sims is cool! Other than that, I'm not a gamer at all. Like, Mario on the Nintendo is about as advanced as I go. Madden is WAY too hard. I couldn't even get my guy to run the right way. hehehehe

7. I am totally fascinated by pre-modern living. I love reading about old western living, colonial living, and Amish living. I also love going to places like the Edison Home where you can walk through Edison's house and see all his stuff and learn how he lived. That's really cool, too!

So, there you go! :)

I'm still working on Jeremy...he's only told me two things so far. :)

http://wearehomewardbound.blogspot.com/
http://juliavp.blogspot.com/
http://www.xanga.com/ForHisGlory32
http://www.xanga.com/judyvcpa
I don't know who else to tag, so anyone who wants to join, just copy and paste.

Hey again everyone! I'm so surprised at how many people have said "I read on your blog the other day that..." since I really didn't think anyone read this thing! :) So, thanks for reading, although I'm not sure it's worth reading! Hehehe

I've been wanting to post all week, but have been too busy. God has proven his graciousness to me again this week. I was really tired and had no patience by the time I tracked out at work, and was really discouraged. Well, this week when the kids came back, I felt like my old self again. I actually smiled! I've pulled out my corny humor again and have really enjoyed teaching and the kids this week. I'm really amazed, because it's not what I expected and is all God. I'm so thankful! Thanks to all of you who prayed for me to have a good attitude going back to work--God really answered your prayers! :) (And thanks, Casey, for listening to me about all this the other day!!!) There is a LOT more to this story, but it's a public blog so I didn't post all the details. Chat with me in person or email if you want to know all the details. :)

Other than that, not too much new. We were really "spontaneous" (hahahaha) last night. While I was going up the stairs, I thought about how one of my sweet students from last year had given me a gift card to Carrabba's and thought, "Hey, let's go there tonight!" So, when I opened the door I asked Jeremy if he wanted to go, and on a whim, off we went! I know it's not really that exciting, but we don't go out to nice restaurants hardly ever. I think we have been out to a nice restaurant like 3 times since we got married (not counting with our family in FL). It's just really expensive. We "eat out" (Ya know, Chick-fil-a, Arby's, etc?) once a week, and had already gone out. So, it was fun to spontaneously go out. And, like always, I always wish I'd ordered what Jeremy ordered! He got Chicken Marsala, and let me tell you, it was GOOD. Mine was good, too, but Jeremy sure knows how order! :)

Hope ya'll have a great Sunday tomorrow!!!

Quick Update

It's been an interesting past couple days! Jeremy's been sick (he's just about better now), so we've been bums. Literally, like we took a nap kind of bums. :) I love being tracked out! Hehehe.

Then, yesterday I woke up fiery red and blotchy all over. Turns out that I'm allergic to laundry detergent. So, yup, if the next time you see me I stink, you'll know why! J/K! According to the dr, I just have to switch laundry detergents and put everything on extra rinse. Oye to the water bill. :) For now, though, I'm stuck looking like a freak. My skin is red and blotchy and one of my cheecks is bright red. Yeah, only one, so I can't pass it off as a sun burn or blushing. :( Life is always so eventful. But, during the last two days of figuring out what is wrong with me, my hubby has been awesome. He is just so caring and shows me such sacrificial love. Poor guy's been doing mounds of laundry for me!!! I love him!

Other than that, nothing else much is new. Jeremy has started back to school and is doing well so far. One of his paper's is going to be submitted for a journal or conference, so I'm so proud! It will be good for him professionaly. He's such a smartie! I go back to school Thursday and Friday for workdays, then the kids come back on Sept 8th. Pray that I'll be fresh and ready to go for them when they come. I was really burned out and tired when I tracked out this time and want to be able to go back with a good attitude and a fresh dose of patience.

Have a great holiday weekend!!!

Strange things happen in our house...

Many of you know the strange things that would happen in our old apt...like the slug invasion. No kidding, slugs invaded our kitchen. Imagine opening your kitchen cabinet and a slug falling out at you! (I have a pic of a slug, but that's on my work camera and is at work, sorry no visual, hehe) Needless to say, we've been so thankful not to live there anymore. We thought we were safe from all that here, especially being on the third floor and all, but nope, gross, crazy, weird things followed us! :)

Yesterday, I opened the closet, and pulled out a pair of capri's to wear. I laid them on the bed and rummaged around for a shirt to wear. Then finally I went to get changed and picked up the capri's off the bed to put them on. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed something weird about my capri's... Check it out:

No, it's not poo, thank you...












That would be a WASP NEST!!! Built right in the rear of my pants! (Click to enlarge full grossness) AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They were promptly thrown to the floor and then the complete girly girl inside took over and I started squealing (Jeremy was at school, oye!) and flailing about. Right about then, the phone rang and thank goodness it was Jeremy. Poor guy has to put up with a lot, I know. He then reminded me that we have this great invention called Raid (anyone heard of it? funny how your mind goes blank at these moments, and you don't even think of obvious things...). So then I had to find a way to get the pants outside, but of course, I wasn't touching them! I grabbed the trusty Swifter mop, and used it to pick up the pants and toss them onto the balcony. Whew. Then, last night, when Jeremy got home, we had to go through every single piece of clothing in our closet to make sure there were no other wasp nests on our clothes.

We figured out how it happened... We are on the third floor, and there are a couple pine trees that are right by our balcony. The wasps love the pine trees and are always flying around the trees (they've never bothered us, or so I thought). We have a clothes rack outside for the clothes that I don't want to shrink in the dryer to dry on. So, while the capri's were drying on the rack, a wasp decided they would be a cozy place to make home. Moral of the story, don't hang your clothes outside. :)

Hopefully today will be less eventful. Hehehehe! Have a great Saturday!

Hey everyone!
Well, we're back home! We came back a day early because of the storm...didn't want to get caught driving in it. :( It figures...we move away from the hurricane craziness, and the first hurricane to hit in the last year hits when we're there! Oye. Our trip was fun, though--it was really good to see our family and friends (the ones that we got to see...I was supposed to get to see Shanna and the Sunshine peeps yesterday, but we had to leave. Frown!)! I only took a couple pics, but will post them on Facebook. Happy Tuesday everyone!