A Movie Kind of Weekend

Man, I love relaxing, long weekends!  This one wasn't truly a long weekend, but felt a little longer than normal since I got to work from home on Friday!  :)  I slept til 9am and it was GLORIOUS!!  I did some school work and house work throughout the day and felt rather accomplished (yay me!).  Then Brandon and I had a pretty relaxing weekend.  Apparently it was a movie kind of weekend.  We, in total, watched 3 movies!!  That's right, 3, one per day.  Haha, we have the Blockbuster version of Netflix so we usually have a few movies on hand.  I'll play as your movie critic and review movie we choices of the weekend.  Friday night we watched....

I loved it!  But then again, I pretty much love anything Denzel Washington does, he's one of my favorites!!  It was one of those keep you on the edge of your seat, how's it gonna end up, what's gonna happen?? movies and was intense!  And, its actually "inspired by" a true story that you can read about here.  Yes, exaggerated a bit for the sake of the movie, but still crazy!

Saturday, we had a little date night out and went got dinner at Cajun Queen. Then we headed to the movies to use a Fandango gift card we had.  Free movie :) So we thought....for future reference, Fandango gift cards can only be used online, so sadly our movie was not free, but now our next one will be!  Saturday night we saw....

We were trying to decide between seeing The Lincoln Lawyer and this, and I can say I was not disappointed!  I really liked it!  It was one of those make you think, gotta pay attention, matrix-ish movies and very suspenseful!  Bradley Cooper's character takes a pill that allows him access to 100% of his brain (because so "they" say we only use 20%).  This allows him to do some pretty crazy stuff!  I don't know what I think about that whole using only 20% of our brain thing (show me some research, in layman's terms please), but if there is any truth to it, I'm still not sure I'd want access to my full brain!  Kinda scary, haha.

Sunday night, after a productive day of working out and cleaning, we watched....

I've heard this movie got pretty poor reviews, but I usually end up liking those movies!  Ha, shows you what I know about cinema and Hollywood!  It was true this time, too.  I liked it a lot!  I've never been a huge Angelina fan, but that's probably because I let her personal life cloud my view of her as an actress.  And, I typically tend to like Johnny Depp movies, although they can be a little weird. Well this was one of those gotta pay attention, catch all the little details, twist the plot around on ya kind of movies, of which I love!!  I sat there at the end saying "I had no clue this whole time!!"  This movie also had more of a romantic underlying love theme than the first two of the weekend, so that was nice as well :)  I guess I can see how that might turn guys off of the storyline potentially, but Brandon really liked it, too!

Well there ya have it, those are my movie reviews for ya so take 'em for what they're worth and watch them yourself.  Here's to a quick and easy work week!  Cheers!

Fond Memories

A good friend of mine lost her grandfather this past week and his going home story is so similar to that of my grandfather's back in February 2006.  It has brought back sweet, sweet memories of my grandfather and I so feel for Ashley and her family as they say goodbye for now to their Grandaddy.  Grandaddies are special!  I called my grandaddy "Neenee" :)


This is a classic Neenee face :) Summer of 2005 out to dinner in Virginia.  We didn't plan to wear black and khaki together, but thought it was picture worthy!

 

Neenee, his daughters, and his oldest granddaughter

These 2 pictures are from the summer of 2005, just before I began my freshman year of college.  I always grew up spending nights over at my grandparents house.  Saturday mornings, Neenee would watch cartoons with me and make us big bowls of cornflakes.  He taught me how to dump loads of sugar on top :)  Neenee loved peanut butter and saltine crackers and drank Vitamin D milk.  He was hardworking, stubborn, and loved his guns, his wife, his kids, and his grand kids!

Probably building a toy in the background! Ha

In 2004, Neenee was diagnosed with prostate cancer.  He had surgery to remove his prostate and bladder and made a good recovery.  Now you recall how I just noted my Neenee's stubbornness....by summer 2005, we now in hindsight believe he knew his cancer was back or had metastasized, but didn't want to do the whole doctor, chemo, radiation thing and just wanted to keep living the time he had left!  Which I can respect and understand. 

To back up a bit, Spring of 2005, my oldest brother and his wife announced they were pregnant with their first baby, due in February of 2006!  We of course were all excited and thrilled.  This baby would make a 5th living generation on my mom's side!  Shortly after Christmas 2005, it was becoming obvious that Neenee was not ok and he finally made a trip to the doctor.  At that point, Neenee was diagnosed with Stage 4 liver and bone cancer.  From that point it progressed very quickly. 

I was away at school in the midst of my freshman year of college, my SIL was growing a baby almost ready to deliver, and Neenee was hospitalized.  My mom and brother, Rob, quickly left to be there, and my brother Josh, with a wife who could go into labor at any moment, made a quick day trip to say goodbye.  My brothers tell it better, as I did not have the chance to be there, but leaving the hospital and saying what they knew would be their last goodbye was heart wrenching.  Neenee asked Josh, "Has Callie had that baby girl yet?" Josh replied, "Well Neenee you remember we don't know the sex of the baby, yet!  We didn't find out."  But Neenee was persistent and we're all convinced he saw our sweet Roen before we did.  Neenee went home to be with Jesus Friday, February 3rd, 2006 around 9pm.  About an hour later, my SIL went into a long labor to bring the next new life of our family into the world just as a sweet one had left us.

Fortunately, I'll see Neenee again one day and my friends who just lost their sweet Grandaddy will see him again one day, too.  Although I miss Neenee, I wouldn't bring him back in the condition he was in, I cherish the man he was and that I was privileged enough to be his granddaugther.  Aaron Shust says it well in his lyrics "I am not skilled to understand what God has willed, what God has planned. I only know at his right hand, stands one who is my Savior."  May you be encouraged today and the days ahead.

Psalm 130  15 Our days on Earth are like grass; like wildflowers, we bloom and die.  16 The wind blows, and we are gone -- as though we had never been here.  17 But the love of the Lord remains forever with those who fear him.  His salvation extends to the children's children  18 of those that are faithful to his covenant, of those who obey his commandments!

The ATL

Friday after school, I ducked out around 2:30, came home to grab Benny and my things and headed off to Atlanta for the weekend!  My parents moved just north of Atlanta, actually, almost 4 years ago.  Hard to believe its been that long!  Brandon flew out Thursday night to Michigan for work until Saturday night.  The flight he was booked on coming home had a layover in Atlanta, getting in around 7:45.  Had he taken his connector, he wouldn't have made it back to Charlotte until almost midnight (boo!) so we decided I would head to the ATL on Friday and my parents and I would pick him up there and he would just forgo the connection.

Benson was a pretty good travel buddy, he napped in my lap the whole way :)  I tried to get a picture, but I figured my driving safety was probably more important!  Ha, my mom made a DELICIOUS dinner and had it pretty much ready by the time I got there.  What service!  It's good to be "home"!  For those of you who's parents still live in your childhood home, I can only imagine going back "home" as an adult is quite nostalgic and maybe even a little interesting.  Especially once you're married and you sleep in the same bed/room you grew up sleeping in but now with your spouse....weird right!?!  Haha 

This was my childhood home growing up :)  2 story, in a cul-de-sac, a sweet little home to grow up in from 4 years old all the way to 20!

Even though my parents' home now isn't the childhood home I grew up in, it still feels like going home!  I can just walk in the kitchen and get whatever I want out of the fridge, use the computer, lounge around and watch tv.  Still feels the same, just 3 and a half hours away now.  :)

Friday night, my parents and I stayed up late just chatting and watching TV.  Saturday consisted of sleeping in a bit and another delicious meal for breakfast.  My parents have 2 dogs, Duchess and Dakota, and a cat, Misty.  This was the first time Benson had met other animals and it was SO hilarious to watch!  Seriously, they were enough entertainment!  Misty, the cat who thinks she's dog, wanted nothing to do with Benson.  She would hiss and growl at him!  Now Duchess and Dakota on the other hand, wanted everything to do with him, but were a little scared when he would dart around and reach out to pop them with a paw!  Benson definitely wasn't so sure at first, but he became more and more brave all weekend.  Benson would sit at the top of landing on the stairs behind a gate we put up.  He would creep down the stairs to entice the pups then dart back up behind his safety net!  It was so funny, I tried to get a video, but I could never get it at the right time.  

Benson pondering his next trip down the stairs while still feeling big and bad behind the gate :)

After all the animal entertainment, we went TV shopping, grabbed lunch out at Panera (yum!), and then my Mom and I got a pedicure!  Finally, a little later than initially thought (thanks to delays, don't ya love flying!?), we met Brandon in baggage claim and headed back for a very late dinner!   Sunday morning Mom made French Toast before we headed back to Charlotte to get ready for another busy week!  Luckily, only 3 more days now for me this week!  Hope your week goes well :)




**One last note....I get sad sometimes while Brandon travels during the week, but then I flip on the news and see stories about military men and women serving our country who are away from their spouses and family for A LOT longer than 3 or so nights each week!!  So thank you men and women of our armed forces for the sacrifices you have made/are making/will make!  They are not forgotten!  

Spring Fever!

So today, the 80 degree weather has left us :(  In fact, I don't even see it returning on the 10 day forecast!  But the past week or so of AMAZING weather has wet my appetite and spring fever is in full swing over here!  Not to mention, I think most teachers, students, and warm weather lovers alike are feeling it and can relate to my dilemma.  We won't be hitting 80s any time soon, but there will be lots of 60s and I have full faith that 70s and beyond are just around the corner.  There are a few things that are keeping me going until those temps decide to stick around for good.


These are all over downtown Charlotte!!  Red tulips and other beautiful flowers are in bloom and its bright and cheery and puts you in a good mood.  The city of Charlotte does a good job keeping things beautified :)

Next week is a 4 day work week!  Thursday is the end of 3rd quarter, hard to believe, and Friday is a teacher work day!  Our district has allowed us the option to work from home next Friday and you better believe I will be taking full advantage of that :)  As a special education teacher, I have loads of paperwork to stay on top of, including the teaching and planning, so I'll plop myself on the couch and crank out some paperwork. 



Maybe I'll even sit outside and enjoy this view if it's nice out while I crank out all that paperwork!

Spring Break 2011 - just 15 working days away from a week long vacation with my hubby!   Well sort of a week long vacation....I'll be his traveling buddy starting that Monday morning when he leaves for his weekly work travels.  I'll be riding (or sleeping mostly) in the backseat, probably reading or watching movies (when not napping :) on my laptop, as he drives from appointment to appointment.  By Wednesday, we'll be in Kissimmee, Florida!!  We were offered a great promotional deal by Holiday Inn (since Brandon travels so much, he's like a platinum, diamond, VIP, most-valued-hotel-stayer of the year with them) to stay at their new Orange Lake Resort.  While we're there, we'll be visiting....

I am oh so excited about this!!!  I've never been to Disney, Universal or any of those fun places!!  (I've been deprived a proper childhood, I know....I still bring it up to my parents at least twice a year.)  Brandon won 4 passes years ago.  He was chosen from the audience to participate in a fear factor event and HE WON!!  Much to my fortune, years later :)  So finally we'll be putting them to use and get to go to the park for 2 days!  The day we don't go, we'll relax and enjoy all the pools and amenities at the resort!

And after spring break there is beaucoups to look forward to!!  My cousin graduates from VT, wedding season begins (Brandon and I have several friends getting married this year, 4 couples to be exact!), and then summer will be in full swing!  Which for this girl means....sleeping in more, pool days, lake days, bachelorette parties, weddings, and a BEACH week with my family!!  Wooo....if I can just make it there!  Spring or BUST!!!

Our Weekend in Review

Oh weekends....how I love them so!  But they always pass so quickly and then its Monday again.  C'est la vie!  This weekend was very relaxing and much needed.  We were glad to welcome spring with arms wide open :)  Yes the season is officially here, but that doesn't always guarentee nice weather.  The weather here, though, has been AMAZING!!!  Saturday was in the mid to upper 70s and today and tomorrow are expected to be in the 80s!  Seems more like summer, but that's ok with me, I'll take it!
Fridays, Brandon and I have fallen into a pretty nice little routine.  When I get home from work, we usually go work out, stop by the grocery store, and come home to shower, cook and watch a movie.  We bypassed the grocery store this past Friday and picked up some take out from one of our favorite restaurants within walking distance from our apartment, Basil.  They are a delicious thai restaurant and Brandon and I love hot and spicy food so we love some Basil!  (I also love it because it always leaves me with leftovers :)  After quick showers we were ready to eat and finally watched "Life as We Know It".

I've been waiting to see this movie for a while and we finally got it from our queue.  A little chick-flicky (cause that's a word), but I thought it was pretty funny and Bradon laughed a lot, too :)

Saturday, we slept in a little bit and then had our first pool day of the year!  Haha, saying it sounds a little funny, the pool in March?!  I know, but it was gorgeous out, not a cloud in the sky!  We weren't the only ones out there either, so I say pool season for 2011 has begun!  That afternoon, we made our way over to my grandmothers and then over to my brother and sister-in-law's, Josh and Callie, for a cookout!  My mom and Aunt Stacy were in town visiting for an early birthday celebration for my Aunt, so that of course called for a family gathering :) and the weather could not have been better!  Josh and Callie have an awesome back yard, perfect for grilling, chilling, and playing!

So of course I took a panoramic!

We played with my niece and nephews while my mom grilled up some bbq chicken! 



Cutie Wells! (The youngest of Josh and Callie's sweet babies!  Already 14 months though, not so much a baby anymore!)



Mama grillin!

 

My sweet Jude on his balance bike!  Love his sweet smile and curls!!



I realize this picture is blurry, but I LOVE Wells' face in his swing!  Too cute!!





Couldn't leave out Roen :) We're still trying to learn the setting on our new camera, so thankfully this action shot was less blurry!



We had fun eating dinner, we had quite the spread, and just hanging out together afterwards!  Even though we all live in the same city, I don't see my brothers and SILs as often as I'd like, so it was good to hang out and catch up.  Wish I had pictures of everyone who was there, hopefully I'll get better at this picture taking thing :)

Sunday, we slept in nice and late!  A little later than planned, whoops, but that's ok.  Got us rested up for our week ahead!  Brandon has quite a week ahead.  He gets home Thursday from traveling for the work week and then flies out to Michigan for work until Saturday :( he won't be south side again until about 7:45 Saturday night.  Sure makes for a looong week when we don't see each other much!  But I have a busy week at school as well so I guess it all works out.  The rest of our Sunday was spent working out, doing laundry, and relaxing. 

Monday is over so only 4 more days this week!  Here's one last picture to put a smile on your face....Benson just trying to earn his keep around here and help with the laundry!  Have a good one!

24 years!

So I had planned for my inaugural post to be about my 24th birthday.  But life kept going and my birthday came and went :) Haha, starting this blog has been a very thought out decision and I just didn't get around to starting it up in time for my 24th like I wanted to.  But first is the worst and second is the best right...?  So instead of my inaugural post being about the big 2-4, my second post, as follows, will recap the joyous celebrations!

Yes I said celebrationS.  My birthDAY is really more like a birthday WEEK and then maybe a little more!  I'm one of those people that loves their birthday!  Any one's birthday, really.  I think they're just so fun, no matter how old you're turning!  Most people say, "Oh wait til you turn __ (fill in the blank) and you won't think it's so great!" but I think I'll always like my birthday, even as I get up there in age ;) 

My birthday fell on a Wednesday this year, so the weekend before, Brandon and I drove down to Greenville, SC for our first baseball game of the season.  Michigan St. was playing Furman at Fluor Field in Greenville so we thought it would be a fun little overnight trip.  Brandon gave me my gift Friday night before we left the next day so I could put it to good use.  It was a new camera!!  Mine has been on the outs for a while so I was very excited!  It has lots of cool features, like a touch screen and the ability to take panoramics.

Cool panoramic of downtown Greenville!

We stopped in a cool restaurant called The Tap Room to grab a drink before the game.  We didn't eat there, but their menu looked awesome, so I recommend it if you're in the area!

We ate at a yummy Mexican restaurant for dinner!  Here I am with a pretty large margarita :)

After our Saturday fun in Greenville, we came home and relaxed and got ready for another week.  Wednesday was my actual birthday, but Brandon couldn't be home since he travels during the week for work so it was business as usual.  Since he couldn't be there, he sent me some DELICIOUS chocolate covered strawberries at school.  He definitely knows how to make this girl happy!!



YUM!!

I was supposed to go out to dinner that night with my two sweet grandmothers.  They offered to take me out since they knew my hubby would be gone.  One of my grandmother's came down with the flu that week though, so I thought my birthday night was going to turn out pretty uneventful.  I was a little sad about that so I filled my afternoon with some shopping to spend birthday money and a hair appointment.  A little retail therapy can cure anything right?  On my way home, my sweet friend Courtney texted me and asked what my dinner plans were.  When I told her there weren't any, she would not allow that and offered to take me out!



Court and I at a Loco Lime! (I like Mexican food if you can't tell!)

It was fun to catch up with Courtney!  She's a fellow teacher and got engaged this past New Years so we talked lots of school and wedding!  Thanks again Courtney for taking me out!  The weekend after my birthday, Brandon planned for some of our friends to meet us out bowling to celebrate!  Before bowling, I went and got my nails done with my friend Andrea (our birthday tradition now).  No picture there unfortunately!  But it was very relaxing and much needed cause home girl's toes and nails were suffering!!  Haha, Brandon and I grabbed dinner at a pizza place near the bowling alley and then walked on over.



'Bout to get our bowl on!

  

Good ol' George Pappa's Bowling Alley!  Been going here since I was a kiddo :)

Action shot!  Clearly I'm an awesome bowler and I'm not about to miss my 3 pins still standing!

My friends Lisa and Dana!

Haha, not the best picture of Andrea and I (and thanks a lot Greg!), but you can kinda see our nails :)



Brandon and Justin!

 I have to share a funny story about bowling, Brandon might kill me, but it's ok!  I can't remember exactly which frame, but it was only the second or third frame of our first game.  Brandon goes up for his shot and his pants split right in the crotch!!  It was small at first, but the next time it got even bigger!  So Brandon has a giant hole in his crotch and decides to run home really quick to change into another pair of jeans!  Our friend Sandy bowled his round and when Brandon came back....first time up to bowl, splits the new pair in the same spot!!!  At this point he decides to swear off bowling and just watches and hangs out while we finish our games!  Hahaha, we had to go get him new jeans since all of his were ripped :(  The following Wednesday, I finally did go out with my grandmothers to celebrate!  It was fun to get to spend time with both of them and they were sweet to do that even after my birthday!  Needless to say I have great friends and family and I felt very loved on my birthday this year!! 

24!  Definitely feels a little different this year.  Sounds older than 23 in my head.  When people ask you your age and you say 23, they think you're fresh out of college and still a young thang (even though I graduated college at 21 a whole semester early, because I'm quite scholarly clearly!).  But when you say 24, that's mid twenties, they might even think you're close to 25 cause they have no clue when you actually turned 24!  It may indeed be older, but 24 feels good so far and I'm enjoying the ride!  Here's to many more!

Happy Weeknd y'all!!


 

Here goes nothing....

Alright yall.....I did it! I created a blog! Finally. Ever since one of my good friends, Ashley, created her blog, my world was opened up to one I never really knew exsisted. I had on occasion kept up with a few other blogs, (I'm sure I'll link up to many of them at some point, but for now just check out the ones I already follow :) but never really realized how great of a way blogging can be to journal your life, make new friends, share ideas, etc. The list goes on and on....

So here I am blog world!! Aww Shucks - The Diary of a Mrs. So as a small introduction, here is a bit of my life and I look forward to sharing more!



This is my sweet husband, Brandon, and I last summer when we were sitll engaged and on a fun trip to Atlanta for a Tigers v. Braves game with some friends!  The Braves pulled it out (haha) and we all had a blast! 

 

We're MARRIED!!!!!  November 20, 2010....this day was such a AWESOME day!!  We were blessed with beautiful Charlotte weather for all of Brandon's Michigan family to enjoy, everything went perfectly, and we had an absolute blast celebrating!  We recently got our wedding pictures back and created a photobook on Shutterfly.  It came in the mail yesterday and I love, love, love looking at it and reliving it all :)



Our sweet and crazy kitten Benson, the newest addition to our little family!

So as I said, this is a very small introduction, but I'll be back with more!  And I would like to add that this post took WAY longer than it should have for as technologically savey as I consider myself (which is only moderate, but still!).  I'm learning and will hopefully get the kinks out soon.  Be patient with me.

Goodnight!