Christmas 'Break'

Wow...this has been a really busy Christmas break!! Between jetting down to Wilmington to be with Greg + Michelle as they got married to getting all over the state to spend time with family for Christmas, I feel like I haven't stopped. I have so many things that I need to write about - ranging from our honeymoon in Vegas that we took IN APRIL, to getting our Christmas tree and decorating our new house, our Christmas party, the wedding, and getting back to play in the snow. I had all intention of getting these done pretty soon, but it looks like these are going to be New Years posts!! After the 26th when we are having our Collins Christmas, I think I'll be able to sit down and get these done. We are also planning on painting our bedroom and bathroom, and doing some winter cleaning stuff. Let's see how much of this actually gets done!!!!

Annual Smith Christmas Par-Tay!

Last year, Jason and I threw our first annual Smith Christmas party. We had a great time last year in Jacksonville, but I was EXTRA excited about throwing it now that we are back in Winston and in our great house. So over a month ago...oops...12.12.09 to be exact, we had our 2nd Annual Christmas Party. We had an incredibly great night and such a good time. It's so good to be able to kick back and hang out with people you life and work with because often everything is very rush rush and you don't get to really spend time with them. We had family, people from work, friends from high school and college, and just about everyone we love to have around us. The night consisted of...

Hanging out and eating some great food.

One bad ass dance party that included John Martin and I standing on a cooler and rocking out like we were on stage. It also involved my sister and I grinding on each other. Yes we are white, but damn if we can't dance! Les killed it that night.

A great time with some awesome friends.

Some amazing food...including a peanut butter cheese cake by Dinah Reese. To. Die. For.


Kicking the boys ass in ping pong over and over again. Note the five I have on my hand. That is five in a row, baby! (I really have no idea what that is about, but just roll with me here.)

Some really hot guys. All of them have been spoken for, but they are nice to look at! We are some lucky, lucky women!

Fierce flip cup competitions. Things got serious.

And what would a party be like without Leroy, our metal deer that was our center piece that throughout the night got fed shots, made out with (see picture below of my husband making out with him), and given as a prize to the winning flip cup team. Of, for the love of Leroy!

We had an AWESOME night and such a great time hanging out with lots of great people. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Reasons Why I Love My Job

#1 - Awesome:

My first year teaching I was teaching an Algebra I class and I had a co-teacher. I had no idea what I was doing and I had no idea how to work with another teacher in the same classroom. She and I became fast friends and are still the best of friends. We taught this one little girl that was just incredible. She had a learning disability, but her work ethic way more than made up for it. She would ask questions, she would come in for help, and do anything else she needed to do well. We LOVED her and came to love her mother, also. She was nothing but supportive and encouraging.

Fast forward three years and we are now at her senior year and my 4th year of teaching. I am teaching her again (after some secret finagaling to get her in my class!) and she is just as sweet and kind and hard working. She has even worked so hard that she was exited from the Exceptional Children's program because her grades were so good and she didn't seem to need the assistance anymore. Well it is now college time and she asked me if I would write a recommendation for her. I have never been so honored to be able to do something. I spent days writing this letter and even sent it to my mom and sister for them to proofread to make sure I didn't make any mistakes. I really didn't think she'd have a problem getting in anywhere, but you never know. Well she came to me yesterday morning and told me that she had gotten into UNC Charlotte, High Point University, and got an academic scholarship at Wingate. She has decided to go to UNC Charlotte to study sports medicine and I could not be more proud of her. Her mom thanked both me and my co-teacher that first year, but the credit definitely goes to that student. She overcame so much and has gotten so far. Her future looks so bright!

#2 - Hilarious:

So to set the scene, we are in class and there are some kids talking while I am trying to talk. I ask them to be quiet and we go through how it is rude to talk while I'm talking. So as I turn around to begin talking again, one of the kids in the corner begins to sharpen his pencil with the electric sharpener. I turn around and give him the death stare. The girl two rows over said, 'It's my fault, I gave it to him to sharpen.' I looked at both of them and said, 'It doesn't matter. You should have known not to stick it in there.' From the back of the room - 'That's what she said.'


Highly inappropriate. Yes. Freaking hilarious. Yes ma'am. Man do I set myself up for these things!

Let it snow!

Let me begin by saying a big congrats to all of my Fury teammates. We won our game in the first round of playoffs for my flag football team. We've got semifinals next Wednesday and then the finals Sunday and we might get to play on the Wake Forest field!

This weekend is one of our in-town weekends for the month. It is jam packed, though!

Tonight, Ja's JV boys come to Reagan to play us! If tonight is anything like Tuesday night, it'll be a great game to watch. One of my really good friends coaches the JV girls, so I'll have an evening of basketball to enjoy! Bring on the 'friendly' family rivalry! At least one of us will have a good night tonight!

Tomorrow morning we will be doing some more Christmas shopping, I'm sure. We've made a few trips and got what we think we need, but I'm sure we'll find more as the weekend goes on! Ja has a game at 2:30 and then tomorrow night we are going to the Rockette's Christmas Spectacular at the Joel Coliseum here in Winston. And it's supposed to SNOW!!!! Hey, if it can snow in Dallas, TX, we can get some here, too! Date night, here we come!

Sunday will be our true decorating day. The house will be Christmas-fied by Sunday night. Ja is so cute to watch because he loves Christmas and gets excited about it all like he was a youngin' again! I'm starting to get in the spirit because I'm starting to see houses around us get decorated and it just stirs something up in me and the Christmas spirit shows it's pretty face! I'm ready for Manheim and Mariah and N'Sync serenading us and seeing twinkling lights everywhere! This Christmas is going to be especially grand because it's our true 'First Christmas' and our first one in our new house. I'll post pictures of what the outcome is.

So bring on the snow, the Rockette's, and Christmas! We're all ready for you!

Jam Packed

Now that I've recapped November, let's look ahead to what is coming for December.

Tuesday (12.1) - Jason's JV boys basketball head coaching debut - WIN! Let the season begin!

Saturday (12.5) - Radio City Rockette Christmas Spectacular followed by Christmas party

Sunday (12.6) - Getting our Christmas tree with John + Jamie and friends and finally decorating the house!

Friday (12.11) - Hege Christmas Party

Saturday (12.12) - Smith Christmas Party - So many friends are coming into town. Can't wait to see everyone!

Sunday (12.13) - Recovering from Smith Christmas Party

Thursday (12.17) - Kennel dogs and jump in the car with Leslie and Anna to head to Wilmington

Friday (12.18) - Rehearsal and dinner followed by Rum Runners

Saturday (12.19) - Greg + Michelle's Wedding!!

Monday - Wednesday (12.21 - 23) - Ja's basketball tournament

Wednesday/Thursday - Saturday (12.23 - 26) - Christmas in Jacksonville with Smiths

Saturday - Monday (12.26 - 28) - Christmas in Winston with Collins family

After that, I don't have any plans. I'm sure some will develop, but for now, that's all we've got. I'm exhausted just looking at it! Hopefully in there somewhere we can all take a second to sit back and relax and enjoy some down time. Keeping my fingers crossed!! 'Tis the season!

Stuff Yourselves Like a Turkey!

Our family is not one that does well with change. This year...change was good!

Every year since I can remember, we have had Thanksgiving in Rocky Mount, NC. Both my mom and dad are from there, so it just made sense. We had it at my Aunt Cathy's and once they sold that, it moved to Aunt Lyn's. This year, though, not many people are left in Rocky Mount, so the decision was made to move Thanksgiving to Charlotte to my cousin Lisa's house. They live right on Lake Norman and their house is big and beautiful, so it was a great place to have our crew!

While the aunts were cooking, the rest of us stood around and talked. We now have little kids around since the cousins have started having kids, so it's fun to watch them play. Lisa and Josh have a swing set, a beach, a pool, and lots of other cool kid things.

Mimi and Anna flying on the swingset.

Everyone standing around chatting while we're waiting for the food line to start!

Let the games begin! Look at that awesome spread! Everything was DELICIOUS!!

Anna just had to stick her hand in the hot tub even though her hands were freezing, so I was there just to make sure she didn't go swimming!

After lunch Greg and Michelle were able to head back to Wilmington and Leslie, Will, and Anna were able to hop in the car and head back to Winston for the Hege Thanksgiving. Ja took the opportunity to head back with the Hege crew and Mom, Deddy, and I headed up to Boone to grab a few things we left at the Girls Weekend. What do you know - we saw some snow! Granted it was just a few flakes, but Mom was happy as a clam!

Friday Ja and I cleaned the house because his family came up Saturday. His mom, dad, grandma, her husband, and his aunt all came to see us for Thanksgiving since we were in Charlotte for my family. I am so thankful that they were so willing to come up so we didn't have to do double duty!

They got into town Saturday afternoon and we had a nice afternoon of naps and football. Then Ja and I made cookout food since so many of us had overloaded on turkey! Dinner was delicious and after it all got cleaned up we sat down and played a few great card games. Ja's grandma and husband LOVE playing cards and it was fun to learn some of their tricks! Sunday morning Ja cooked everyone a FANTASTIC southern breakfast and then everyone loaded up and headed out. Ja and I looked at each other and realized that Thanksgiving break was over and it had just started!

Then came Monday, and we all know what those are about!

Bachelor/Bachelorette Weekend!!

The third weekend in November (20-22) was reserved for Greg and Michelle's bachelor/bachelorette weekend. The boys spent the day fishing off a boat, eating lunch at Dockside (pulling up on the dock and everything!), and dinner at B-Dubs. Sounds like they had a great time!

Our afternoon started off with a monogram shower at my sister's in-laws' condo. The setting could not have been any more perfect for the night. Most of the bridesmaids, Mom, and a few of Mom's best friends all gathered around as Michelle opened her gifts. We thought we had surprised her with the monogram part, but she figured it out when everyone asked her her favorite color and what her initials were going to be! She got so much awesome stuff!

After the shower, we all loaded up and had a WONDERFUL dinner at Bluewater, right on the Intracoastal Waterway. It was absolutely delicious and we had a great time.

Then we all headed back to the condo and immediately got our pajamas on for a good ol' fashioned slumber party! We watched the Ugly Truth, played the 'Ask Greg' game (where he got a few things wrong!), told our favorite Greg stories, and played 'Never Have I Ever'. After all of that fun it was time to hit the hay!

The next morning I woke up to the sun rising right over the ocean and it was absolutely breath taking. I would have loved to stay awake and actually enjoy the whole thing, but I was exhausted! We all began to mobilize and shower and we were soon out the door for an AMAZING breakfast at Michelle's best friend, Cameron's, grandmother's house. From there everyone said their goodbyes until next time!

We had a great time and hopefully it was everything Michelle wanted it to be!

Let the wedding season begin!

So November 14, 2009 officially began Greg + Michelle's Wedding Season. Some of Mom's good friends threw them a dessert shower on that Saturday night. Jason had football and basketball going on, so I made the solo trip to Wilmington for the big event. I had just discovered Lady Antebellum, so I did not mind driving by myself and belting every word!

Leslie, Will, and Banana Pants came down and of course Anna was the belle of the ball! She was so cute and would get SO excited when Greg and Michelle would open something new. She also helped them pick out which present to open next, along with Kamryn, the little girl I've kept every summer since she could walk.

Ooooohhh!

Ahhhhh!!

It was so good to see everyone that was there. There were also some DELICIOUS desserts to enjoy while chatting it up with everyone!