how I get from here to there

My little purple car and I have had some good times together over the past 10 years. I remember getting her on Valentine's Day on 1998. I had decided on a cavalier, and I got really excited when II found out they had a purple one with a cd player! In those early years, she took me to high school, to work at Circle D, and we made the drag and enjoyed the night life in good 'ole Roby, Texas. Then she was patient with me as together we figured out our way around the big city of Abilene! In college, she was lots of fun on those late night Bueno and Sonic runs. Spring break of freshman year, she took her longest trip to date and went all the way Waco and made it through a huge rain storm. She even survived a couple of speeding tickets and wrecks. The last few years, her life has been fairly calm, thankfully we've stayed away from those tickets and wrecks on the way to Bonham and back home, and it's been a while since we've made the drag, but we've had fun, and she's been a good car. I hope her new owner will take good care of her!

We decided that was time to say bye to my little purple car and trade her in for something a little roomier. I had fun going down memory lane as I cleaner her out. The glove box had some things I hadn't seen in a while, including my first cell phone (the one my dad got me for emergencies only--it's one of those thick black flip phones and could probably be used in a cell phone museum somewhere:)), an old Roby phonebook from 1998 with my sweet grandma's handwriting on the front, and handy map of Abilene that my sweet mama drew for me with all the places I needed to go (it was the result of several teary phone calls when I was totally lost and her discovering that when needing to get from super Walmart to the mall, I went all the way back to Treadaway...if you know anything about Abilene, you probably know that this is definitely not the most efficient route!).

We researched various car options, looking for a cute, roomy, safe, reliable, fuel efficient car to replace the little purple one, and decided on a Honda CR-V. It is glacier blue and has one of those lock/unlock things on the key....something I've been looking forward to for a while now. It also has GPS navigation, and if you read the previous paragraph, I'm sure you can understand why this will be quite helpful for me and my non-existent sense of direction. So, without further ado, here is our new car!

I'm looking forward to making fun new memories with my cute new car!

Summertime....and the livin' is easy....

We've been enjoying summertime here in Clarksville.

Another school year ended with its usual craziness. This year was especially wild at my school, because our campus is being renovated and we had to pack EVERYTHING (54 boxes to be exact). Only elementary teachers save so many awkward to pack, fragile, heavy, bulky things, that we hope to remember to pull out once or twice a year to enhance the education of our future leaders!

Since then, Keith and I have both been working at ACU. Keith got a job as the campaign manager for the new enrollment marketing department. He gets brainstorm how to "sell" the ACU experience to highschoolers with a great group of people and "play" with spreadsheets. He's enjoying it. It is not the type of job we expected, but it has been a blessing. I'm working part time in the education department as the assistant director of the reading clinic, a class where senior education majors tutor children one on one. My job is a lot of fun too; I get to help the college students look at test results and decide how best to meet their client's reading needs, grade their lesson plans, and fill in when a tutor is absent. It's a fun, low-key summer job. I'm finished by lunch, so in the afternoons, I rotate napping, shopping, TV, laying out by the pool, and such....I know, I know it's a tough life:)

During the evenings and weekends we've spent time with each other and with friends. We started watching LOST and we LOVE it!! We're hooked. It's a great show--abc.com has them all for free online right now, so if you've ever thought about watching it, now's the time. You. will. love. it. It is not a show you can watch sporadically, because if you do, you'll be really confused. We've enjoyed a couple marathons already and have just finished season 2.

We're happy that our friends, Nick, Lauren, and sweet Emmy moved to Abilene! We've shared several meals and played lots of games with them! We've also had some fun visits from out of town friends like Whitney and Suzanne, two bffs from ACU that are lots of fun! Both of these girls are the kind of friends that I don't keep in touch with quite like I should, but every time I see either of them we're able to pick right up where we left off. I'm thankful special friends like that!

Last weekend we went to see Jacquie, Spruce, and Lynlee. We enjoyed getting to play games with them and some of their new friends on Friday night. You can't beat a good game night! Saturday we hung out and played with Lynlee; she is growing and learning so much! That night we celebrated Jacquie's b.day! We went and ate at one of those fun Japanese steak houses and then enjoyed a Rascal Flatts concert. You can read more about our history with Rascal Flatts here. It was so much fun! Such a better experience. Let me sum up the contrast for you....concert number #1--drunk teenagers falling on us and getting muddier than a pig pen full rooters, concert #2--Clay Walker wearing tight jeans, shaking his stuff, and thinking he's 15 years younger, concert #3--soft grass, shade, lots of fun songs to sing along to, sweet kids sitting behind Keith making shadow puppets on his back, funny families to observe, and last but not least, "Spike" (our term of endearment for the lead singer) got a haircut:) Although this was by far the best experience of the three, they all had good friends and lots of laughs in common! Sunday morning we joined them for chuch, met lots of friendly people, and heard a great sermon by Jarrod. Oh yeah, I can't forget to mention meeting precious Rylee, Jarrod and Lauren's sweet daughter!

Hope all of you fellow bloggers are enjoying your summer!

Happy Graduation Keith!!!!

My sweet husband graduated on Saturday and was awarded outstanding academic achievement in the Graduate School of Theology! It was a fun weekend celebrating with family and friends. He has worked so hard in grad school and has really loved it, but is very excited to be finished! Over the past three and half years he has:

completed 84 hours of class

written numerous 20+ page research papers

read lots and lots of very thick books

taken many extensive tests

engaged in lots of great conversation

spent countless hours in the library

even spent a night in the library

studied under and developed relationships with wonderful professors

been challenged spiritually, mentally, and physically

maintained a top notch GPA

made friends with fellow students

mentored freshmen and sophomores as a teaching assistant

ordered, sold, and organized music for the campus store

ministered to the sweet people at Maryneal Church of Christ

and all the while continued to be a loving husband

My heart is full! I could not be more thankful for and proud of him. This has been an amazing chapter of our lives. He's looking forward to having some time to rest over the next few weeks until we see what the future holds.

Celebrating with the fam!

Thanks to our friend and fellow blogger Lauren for taking this fun picture for us!

Remeber Jenny, the sweet and talented girl who made my blog look cute, fun, and hip? Well, guess what?!!!

As a kickoff to celebrate her new business, she is generously giving away FREE blog makeovers!!

All you have to do is go to her blog and comment to enter. For every 10 people that enter she will give away another makeover. So if your blog needs a new look, go here. Or click on the Pink Armchair on the right side of my blog. The contest ends on Saturday, so hurry over before it's too late!

flip flops...your feet's best friend!

Since flip flops are most definitely in my top five favorite things in the whole wide world, I had to share this fun flip flop test that I found on on my friend Sarah's blog. Interestingly, she is not a fellow flip flop fan (how's that for alliteration:)I know you're all so impressed!)...I'll have to try and convince her to embrace that little strap between the toes. Believe it or not that used to bug me too....but I've worn them almost everyday since I overcame the whole toe separation thing about nine years ago:) There really isn't much that makes me smile more that a cute/comfy pair of flips. I just got three new pair for my birthday, but don't worry they were all under $10! If you need some new flippys for summer I recommend these! A couple summers ago I decided not to fork over the $7.99 for a very similar pair, then I saw everyone else's cute feet sporting them and searched Targets in three states until I found them. So this year, when I saw they had stripes and plaid, I bought them both!
Anyway, on with the test. I wonder where I can find these cute green polka dot ones?! I guess the test is partly accurate for me...I can be pretty goofy, but I'm not sure I treat every day like a vacation and I'd choose the beach over Disney World! Give it a try, what do your flip flops say about you? Thanks for the fun idea Sarah, and try some flip flops, you know you want to:)

What Your Flip Flops Say About You

You live to have fun, and your sense of humor is downright goofy. You are a big kid on the inside, and you have a very open heart. You try to make every day feel like a vacation, even if you have other responsibilities. Each day, you make a little bit of time to play and let loose. Your ideal warm weather place: Disney World

The Flip Flop Test

Well this is an easy one! I'm thankful for Jenny and Pink Armchair Designs for my adorable new blog look! She is so sweet and talented! Use the link on the right side and check out more of her fun designs. She's starting a full fledged blog designing business in a couple of months! Thanks Jenny!!!

Long Time No Blog

So, I hesitated to start a blog, because I really didn't want to be one of those people who starts and blog, writes for a while, then just stops....and that's just what I did, but only for a few weeks and I've still been reading all of your blogs faithfully:)

Here's what we've been up to the past few weeks:

*HUGE highlight for Keith--he got to go the NCAA Final Four basketball games in San Antonio and cheer on the Memphis Tigers with his dad. This was such a dream come true for Keith. His favorite team made it to the final four, which just happened to be within driving distance! He LOVED every minute of it--except when the Tigers wimped out and lost the championship game in overtime:( I really need to get pictures of this from my sweet FIL!

*Having a slumber party with my parents while Keith was at the Final Four.

*Hanging out with good friends: Lauren and Nick, Whitney, Kina....too bad I didn't take pictures of any of these lovely people:(

*Playing putt putt! Abilene has a new place called Primetime and it's so cool...it's got putt putt, bowling, go carts, and video games and rumor has it they may even add a waterpark and resort...in Abilene? you ask....and the answer is yes, we just get cooler all the time;)

*Hanging out and working out with my sister.

*Watching great television like The Biggest Loser, American Idol, and The Office. Grey's comes back this week as a birthday present to me:) YAY!

*Seriously pondering for the first time in five years if teaching first grade is really the job for me since I cannot get my crazy kids to stop talking for more than two minutes.

*Visiting the home of one of my students and having my eyes open to the reality of her little life.

*Wondering and hoping that the time I spend with these sweet children each day is enough to make a positive difference in their lives.

*Going to school, getting lots of big hugs, sweet pictures, and kind words reminding me that teaching first grade is the perfect job for me, even if they make me crazy and want to pull my hair out sometimes:)

*Working on the t-shirt quilt.

*Jury Duty: This was a first for me, but they ended up settling without a jury, so it didn't get too dramatic!

*Getting out of jury duty early this morning and going to Walmart at 10:00 am. This was seriously wonderful. The best Walmart experience of my life. No one was there, but it wasn't like when I go at midnight to avoid the crowd and am surrounded by stockers either...just calm and wonderful:)

*Booking a condo in Gulf Shores, Alabama for a VACATION this summer. We are so excited to celebrate Keith's graduation and almost five years of marriage! The condo looks fabulous, the beach looks gorgeous, and there is a lot of fun stuff to do there like playing in the waves, fishing, dolphin and alligator watching, outlet malls, playing games, watching movies, and going on dates!! I'm ready to go right now!!!

*Counting down til Keith graduates. Only 18 days and one paper to go!