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!

Please Pray

http://caseychappell.typepad.com/baby/

Guess what????

Jeremy got supported at school!!!!!!!!!!!!! A stipend and no tuition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Needless to say it'll save us bundles of money-- plus Jeremy will be a research assistant to his adviser, so it's a great opportunity for him. I'm SO proud of him! We're thanking God for his provision and goodness to us!

Ok, really short, but we've had a super fun, but busy weekend and are really really tired! Good night!

Update

It's been crazy around here lately! In the past three weeks, I've finished the previous school year, we moved, and the new school year has started. Insane!

We are getting settled in our new apartment. We are working on some "home improvement" projects, so we're just waiting on those to be done, then we can finish unpacking our boxes. We were given a wooden bookshelf for free (good find Josh and Kelly, and thanks Martin for bringing it over!). We've been out on the balcony the last few nights sanding it. Our original idea was to sand it, then stain it, but we think it must've been kept in an outside storage area, because there are some paint stains on it and some water damage on the side that can't be covered up. Last night, we decided that it's a little too damaged to just stain it, so we're changing modes and are going to paint it this weekend.

Project number two is my baby! Jeremy keeps giving me that quizzical "really? are you sure?" look, but I'm going to try it. :) Our kitchen table got some big scratches all over the top in the Uhaul. Our table is medium colored wood, but the scratches look almost white. For now, I covered most of it up with strategically placed placemats and salt and pepper shakers. My plan is to tile the top of it. I think it'll look really cool! We're going to look at tile tomorrow, so hopefully we'll find something we like. Sam + Home Improvement projects = Very Interesting! Hehehe

So, we've been busy working this week. We LOVE LOVE LOVE the new apartment! When we moved in there were no bugs, the place smelled fresh, everything worked, and was super clean. YAY! The neighbors are much better, too! It was such a different move in experience than last time. As much as I hated the old apartment and all it's nastiness, I am thankful that we had to live there for a year. Now, when I look around at our clean, bug free apartment, I am just overwhelmed with thankfulness to God for providing this place for us! It's definitely not taken for granted!

Well, I better go---I have to get ready for work. :) Which, by the way, is only 6 minutes away, now! :)

Have a great weekend everyone!

Well, the mystery is over! Guess what the surprise was????? Jeremy got our friend Kristin who is one of the awesome Poiema Photographers (http://www.poiemaphotography.com/) to take one year anniversary pictures for us!!!!!! I couldn't believe it! I LOVE pictures, and Kristin is amazingly talented, so I can't wait to see them! Kristin picked some really cool places downtown to take the pics! I'm always just so amazed at how thoughtful Jeremy is. Every big event he does something like this. I don't know how he thinks of it all! Our first Christmas 5 years ago, Jeremy made me a box filled with note cards organized by month and date. As I pulled them out, I realized that there was a card with a verse on it for every day of the year, handwritten! It took him months to make! That was the first of many thoughtful things he's done for me, and now anniversary pics! I love him!
Man, this blogging thing really brings out the mushy side of me! :)
Anyway, after Kristin took our pics (thanks again Kristin!), Jeremy and I went out to dinner at The Irregardless Cafe. It's a quaint little local restaurant downtown. It was really good food and even had a live musician! It was really nice!!!
So, after all that pondering over where in the world we were going for our anniversary date, I'm glad I was WAY wrong! I thought we were going to a play or ballet or something! Yeah, way off!

Well other than Tuesday night, it's been a really stressful week! It's the last week of school, I'm tracking out of my classroom tomorrow, and we're moving to new apartments next week! CRAZY!

Happy Friday everyone!

Today, Jeremy and I have been married for a year! I can't believe it. We were together for four years before we got married, and almost two of those years we were engaged. Needless to say, by the time our wedding got here, we had been anticipating it forever! Today, while doing calendar meeting with my kindergartener's, when I said "June 23rd", I got that familiar anticipating excited feeling! Now I'm just giddy! I'm so thankful to get to be married to the world's best husband. He's WAY surpassed my biggest dreams of what a great husband would be like! :)

Well, enough gushy stuff already! Tomorrow we are celebrating our anniversary with one of Jeremy's surprise dates. Every big event that comes up he plans some surprise. Of course, I can't stand it and it drives me crazy not knowing what it is. And, Jeremy loves that, so he'll give me random "clues" to send me on useless bunny trails. Stinker! All I know about tomorrow is that I have to dress up...as in wear an actual dress. I own one dress that is wearable... I went looking for new dresses, but apparently looking pregnant is in style, so I found nothing. I'll be wearing my one dress. :) Any guesses on where we're going? I'm clueless!!!

Other than that, just had my kindergarten awards ceremony for my kids today. They were so cute and cracked their parent's up when singing their songs. We sing all kinds of songs every morning to help them learn different things like counting, rhyming, letters, etc. Our favorite cd's are by Jack Hartman and are all hip-hop. Imagine kindergartener's rapping the days of the week complete with all their dance moves... hilarious!

Well, enough rambling for one night. I'm off to eat some leftover cake from today's award ceremony! :)

So, after months of going back and forth trying to decide whether or not to make a blog, I finally did. Thanks for the inspiration, Lorraine!

I haven't made a blog yet, because I didn't really know what to write about, but today provided an event that I was dying to share with several different people and figured this was an easier way to tell the story!

This afternoon, I was chit-chatting with some of the kindergarteners at recess when one the the kids stopped mid-sentence and yelled out "Rabbit!" I looked over to see a large crowd of kindergarteners gathering by the fence looking at something. Rabbit? Nope! It was a little baby deer! It looked about a week or two old. It looked similar to the above pic. One of the other kindergarten teacher's and I started to figure out how to get the poor baby out of the fence. We were able to get it to run from the fenced in playground through the gate that opened into the fenced in soccer field. We couldn't figure out how in the world he got in, but saw a hole going under the fence, so are assuming that's how he got in. The kids are not allowed into the field, so were all pressed up against the fence watching as Renee and I tried to corner him to get him out. I caught up to the him first, and by now he was banging his head really hard on the fence and crying! I felt so bad for him! We also thought he might be hurt, because Renee saw him hit something on the playground with his leg and then limp. When I got really close, he laid on the ground and played dead. Renee started shouting to pick him up, so after getting up some nerve (I was afraid he'd bite), I picked up the poor guy! He continued to play dead as I carried him out of the field area, both of us petting his head trying to calm him. His little heart was pounding! She opened the fence and I laid him in the grass. We closed up the fence and walked away, but he was so scared he continued to play dead. I don't blame him! There were 5 classes of kindergarteners, plus a second grade class, pressed up against the fence watching. About 15 mins later, someone took a picture and the flash scared him, so he ran off. His leg turned out to be fine. We called animal control earlier when we thought he might be hurt, but they didn't come out since he was ok and was off the property. We were worried our scent would scare off his mom, but we couldn't leave him to fend for himself among 100 kindergarteners, and we couldn't let him keep ramming his head into the fence... I proceeded to go home and scrub in the shower because I realized I'm not in FL anymore and there are nasty things like ticks to worry about. :) (Thankfully, no ticks on me!) Inquisitive me LOVED getting to see the deer so close up, though! And, it was hilarious- the guidance counselor went into a K class this afternoon and the kids told her all about it. She relayed some quotes from them: "I saved its life", am "a hero", and the funniest... I'm "Supergirl!" HAHAHAHAHA! Gotta love 5 year olds!

So, there you go, I finally made a blog and I finally had something to say! Don't expect this very often, though!