Time...

...how sweet it is.

Celebrate we will...for life is short, but sweet for certain.

-DMB

Dustin and his Papa, Bob. He's a cool cat.

He and Mary cooked us a steak and baked potato dinner the other night. :)

Before & After...Classroom Edition

I was going for the dramatic before and after effect, but I just couldn't get these pictures in order and didn't really take similar before and after shots...so...hopefully you still get the effect. The effect being, "Omigosh! Carly must've spent FOREVER in that room. It looks amazing!"

Here are some random afters...

{I know they don't traditionally come first. Sorry. Scroll up and down for effect.}

My desk area with math manipulatives in front of it.

Sink area outside of restrooms

Center Charts and Classroom Expectations

Nonfiction reading corner

I wish I had a before and after of this chair. It was oak wood with a blue back and legs. I spray painted it red and got this seat cushion at Pier One on clearance for $11!

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Things accomplished:

Painted the non-brick walls green.

Painted the salmon colored cubbies and cabinets black.

{The paint alone made a huge difference. Thanks to Dustin, Nicole, Jerry, Debbie, and Corky for helping me paint!)

Did some serious rearranging and organizing.

Put polka dot decals and feather boa by sink area.

Created 3 bulletin boards.

Arranged classroom library into leveled fiction and nonfiction.

Made center charts for math and literacy.

Made A LOT of things!

Labeled A LOT of things!

I still have a lot to do! Like figure out what I'm doing in first grade?!?!

Lunch Date

I met my mom, Luke, Tiff, and Addi downtown today for lunch. We ate at the Nickel and Dime restaurant (Is that what it's called? Or is it Boomerang's?) and Addi loved that we got to eat in a train and that her kid's meal came in a train shaped basket. However, she was a little upset that the merry-go-round wasn't open. What's a princess to do when she can't get what she wants? Find a way to get it!

Insert daddy into the picture.

Nothing like some manual labor to make your daughter happy in these crazy temps. What a good daddy!

Then we headed down the street to Nana's office. Nana just so happened to have a hula hoop in her office, so Addi showed off her skills to the office ladies.

The girl can hula.

After some chocolate covered popcorn, a cookie, and some special water out of the office water dispenser, we wrapped this fun lunch date with the promise of at least one more before school officially starts.

Eeek! Inservice starts Monday and the kids start next Monday! I'm skeered.

One Last Hoorah!

We went to Benton this last weekend to move all of our things from our house. Did I mention we sold our house in 4 months! We cannot be thankful enough for that! This is our fifth move as a couple. All five moves have been in the dead of summer, and as well all know, these Arkansas summer temps have been ridonkulous! It was definitely a scorcher out there.

Our good buddies (and former neighbors), Matt and Jessica helped us pack our things in the U-Haul on Saturday, then we had a little cook out and drinky-drinky for our last hoorah as neighbors! It was too much fun. Embarrassingly fun...so I can't show all of the pics, but this picture pretty much sums up the night....

Yep...

The Good, Good Life

Oh me, Oh my....I've been uploading pictures to Kodak and to this here little bloggy for 3 hours now. No offense, but I don't care to write for ya at this point!

So, as occasionally happens on mi blog, I'll let the pictures do the talking!

Two of our nieces, Morgan and Braelyn

Braelyn and her mommy, Amber

Me, Mo, Brae, and Amber

Morgan and her Nana

Brae and her mommy, again

My cute hubs...chillaxin'

Amber and Brae

Amber and Morgan

Morgan and I

Life at the lake...the good, good life!

HOME-ies

One of the pros of moving back to the Fort - hanging with old pals.

We headed downtown this last Saturday night to hear our buddy Jeremy's band, Wingnut, play at MoJo's. Christie, one of my bestie's since first grade, married Jeremy a little over a year ago, and we've been to a few shows since. I have a feeling we might become official groupies now that we live in town.

We made a pretty early night of it, since I had to get up early and drive to KC the next morning for the Weatherford family gathering, but I wanted to hear them play my favorite - Wagon Wheel. Since it is one of their most popular crowd pleasers, they usually play it later in the night, but I was surprised to see them fulfill my request to play it so I could head out early.

Success!

Shopping Spree!

You cannot fathom the excitement written all over my face when Dustin's sis, Nicole, asked me to help her spend all of these giftcards on an all day shopping spree for work attire at the Promenade in NWA. We didn't get to Red Lobster, Olive Garden, or even Sonic, but we spent the heck out of some giftcards at Banana and Gap, and dropped some dough at Anne Taylor and Francesca's to boot!

So the girl hoards giftcards. Is this not ridiculous? She's a school secretary and gets them often from parents and teachers. I don't know about you, but my giftcards burn a whole in my pocket. Nicole even had a paper store credit from 2008!! Wha?!?!?! We used about $500 in store credit to Banana and Gap, ya'll.

*cue the angels*

I felt like Stacy on What Not to Wear with the power I had. Nicole let me pick out things for her to try on, and she had enough in giftcards that I didn't have to shop on the sale racks! We did hit some great sales though. Everything at Banana was 25% off, all knit tops at The Loft were 50% off, and anything on sale at GAP was an extra 40% off.

The Loot:

13 tops/blouses

6 cardigans - various colors, lengths

5 pair of dress pants/capris

4 pair of shoes - 3 sandals and 1 pair of city flats from GAP

3 pair of earrings

1 necklace

1 purse

...and here's the brand new woman in her favorite ensemble of the day. Nicole could look beautiful in anything. She's got a great figure and clothes just look all the more lovely on her...and she's had two kids and doesn't work out and eats anything she wants. Lucky, b**** - I mean, girl!

I'm telling you...clothes can change a woman's life. It sounds materialistic, but they can. Confidence definitely comes from within, but a little help from great clothes really helps boost the 'ole self esteem.

Take care of yourselves, ladies!!