Pictures: (Top) Going down the driveway (walking Trip, the cute Border Collie who's my buddy); (Bottom) A Shell gas station near work--FULL SERVICE..if you'll notice, some guy is checking all the fluids in the car and pumping their gas for them! I havent' seen full service at a gas station in a really long time!!! :)
Dear Friend,
Today was a very productive day work wise. I've decided it's time to spill the beans about my trip already!
So I am in Nashville for a job I got through my friend, Kaitlin. I'm staying up here the month of June to help with the summer institute, or conference, for a company called Math Recovery. Basically it's like a continuing ed. or professional course to help teachers with strategies for teaching math. Really cool stuff, and I'm only beginning to learn all about it now, so it's sort of like an internship because I'm learning all about the stuff, and then I get to help with the actual conferences and things so it's going to be quite fun and interesting!!
I have now completed my second day of work. Things went smoothly today, I did get lost a couple of times on my way back to the office from running errands to Home Depot and Wal-Mart, but thankfully I found my way!
It started raining last night and didn't finish until this evening. The road we are living off of is very steep and so the wet ground makes it a little tricky! Kaitlin did slip this morning, but she was okay. There is the "main road" and then you turn up that main road and go up about 4 hills then go up a super steep hill, and the house we are staying at is up there. We can't drive any further than the "main road" because a landslide occurred during the flood and half the road is missing to make it to the hill the house is on. So everyone parks on the side of the mountain down at the "main road" and then we walk. It's exhausting, but I think my legs will be in great shape by the end of this month--so that's a def. plus!!
I have a funny story to share about our walk home after work yesterday. We were a couple minutes into it and i heard a bug fly into my hair near my forehead on the left side, and I started screaming and over reacted and next thing I knew I had smacked my head silly--but instead of the soft part o my hand hitting my head--my knuckle hit my forehead a little too vigorously, and I didn't know whether to cry from the pain or laugh at my utter ridiculousness..so I laughed. LOL..now I have a lump on my forehead, and will soon have a lovely green/blue bruise popping up soon. It hurts so stinkin bad!!! Haha!!!
People are so nice here...I can't get over it!!!! I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! People just smile or wave to be nice!!! Today at Publix, I thought the jumbo bags of KitKats were buy one, get one free..and when the guy rang them up they didn't ring up that way, so I told him that I just wanted one bag if they weren't BOGO...and he was like "oh okay, well maybe there was some mistake, I'll just take one off" so he voided out one of the bags--but still gave it to me!!!! Amazing...
Tomorrow I am going to work, and then after work we are going to the CMA Music Fest!!!! I think we are seeing Jason Aldean, Alan Jackson, Tim McGraw, Carrie Underwood...and someone else I believe, but I don't have the schedule memorized. We are going opening night, and then closing night (Sunday)!!!! Soooooo exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well Friend, I hope you had a lovely day, and found a little piece of sunshine that made you smile :) I will hopefully be able to share my stories of the road trip to Nashville soon. Maybe I'll write about it during my lunch break tomorrow since I will be taking my lunch to work with me! :) Goodnight dear Friend, I hope you sleep very peacefully. :)
Lotsa Love,
Linds
"Crazy Town" by: Jason Aldean...listen to it, love it, think of me--because that's where I am!! In this crazy town full of neon dreams!! :)
Dearest Friend,
OH HOW I HAVE MISSED YOU!!! It has been much too long since I've last posted--but have no fear..I have MUCH to tell, and will have many, many new adventures to share over the next couple of weeks! :)
First of all, the week of Memorial Day was CRAZY because I had to get a lot of things straightened out for my month-long adventure in Nashville! I had the pleasure of babysitting my girls for two days, and I just have a quick two stories to share about our adventures together...
On Tuesday, June 1st, I watched the girls through the morning until mid-afternoon, and we had a blast as we usually do! I have a question to ask you, Friend. What do you do when you plan to swim, and it's too cloudy/stormy looking to do so???? I'll tell you the answer...you go to Hawaii!!! :) We "went to Hawaii" in the living room. Haha! A blue blanket was our "water", we made lemonade, put on our bathing suits and laid around the living room pretending to sun bathe! :)
On Wednesday when I watched the girls, we got into the pool after we watched Ariel's Beginning (which, by the way, I teared up in...which is ridiculous. But moving on! lol)! I had to kill several bees because a vine near the pool was attracting bees by the hundreds it seemed! We had a blast eating frozen ice pops and playing in the water. It never ceases to amaze me how much fun the girls are! We always have such a great time...they are such a pleasure to be around! I love you girls! :)
On Thursday, Angie dyed and cut my mom's hair, and can I just say, "Hot Mama"?!?! Ang gave her the greatest haircut she's ever had! It was so beautiful, I couldn't stop touching it! Oh how I wish I had straight hair!! :) And I packed and got ready to leave for Gainesville!
Friday morning, I finished packing...I packed wayyy too much. I had one large suitcase just for shorts, jeans, skirts, pajamas. One large suit case with just tops, and then four duffel bags filled with swimsuits, undies, jackets, shoes, etc. ...and Moose! :) Then I had a backpack with my books, computer, snacks, and tech stuff packed away! I also had an ice chest filled with roast beef, meatloaf, baked ziti, key lime pie, and gravy LOL.
Christy and I packed up the car, and I had the seat bent forward so I could fill up the backseat. When I went inside to grab more bags, Honey Bear sneaked outside and stood in the back and had the saddest face on that said, "Where is my spot, Mom?"..it broke my heart. I nearly broke down in a pool of tears when I told her bye...she dropped her head really low--it was just pitiful it was so stinkin sad!!
So Christy and I got on the road for Gainesvegas and we arrived around 2:30. We ran some errands, and then Kevin came over and conversed with us, entertained us, and came up with an impromptu poem for us!!! It was awesome!!! Then we met up with Mana and Andrea from our girls college Bible study group. Then Andrea came over to Jess's apt with us, and Joanetta stopped by so we could see her. Then Kevin brought his lovely mom, Carol by. Carol and Kevin are such a hoot to be around! LOL..they had us crackin up! Carol has some awesome stories, and Kevin serenaded and entertained us, and we soaked it up blissfully! They are the best!!! So much fun!!! So many laughs and smiles are shared when you have the pleasure of being in their company!!! :)
On Saturday we ran some errands, and I dropped a letter over to my old SFC professor. It was nice to visit SFC and see the school...I still miss going to school there. We had a dinner with our beloved small group that evening. We got to see baby Erin Grace who is now over one year old!!! She is walking, eating real food, saying a few words, and continues to be such a blessing and a sweet, sweet little girl! It was so great to spend time with our Gainesville family....they are truly some of the greatest people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing. After dinner Christy and I stayed up until 3am going through all of my luggage and downsizing it...we got it down to 2 large suitcases and a few hang-up clothes!!! Christy is AMAZING!!!! :)
Sunday morning, June 4th, we had the opportunity to sing with the 1st Pres. choir!!! It was soooooooooooooooooo great to sing with the choir again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I miss it sooooo much!!!!!! Everyone is so nice, and so hard to be away from!!! They are some of the most welcoming, sincere, sweet people I've ever met! After church Kaitlin, Christy, Carol, Kevin, and I enjoyed a great lunch at McAlisters and Carol provided an endless amount of great stories, and Kevin provided the beautiful music and dancing as our entertainment. Kevin did scare me before we ordered our food. I knew he was coming in the door to the restaurant sometime soon, but I wasn't expecting him to come in so soon, and my back was turned to the door, and he came up behind me and grabbed me, and I screamed sooooo loud--the restaurant got dead quiet and everyone turned and stared at me...it was probably one of the most embarrassing moments of my life--but thankfully too much adrenaline was pumping through my body for me to really care what anyone thought! haha!
After lunch, Kaitlin and I packed up her truck and hit the road for Georgia! Aannnnnddd that is where I am ending this blog so I can write a separate blog for the road trippin adventures! :)
Well, Friend, I hope the past week has brought you joy, and you have been able to enjoy the company of some special people in your life as well!
Lotsa Love,
Linds
Dear Friend,
Once again, I have a day filled with adventures and fun to share with you! I was so tired from my fun day yesterday that I couldn't write last night!
So, yesterday was Memorial Day, and I would just like to thank all the service men and women all around our great country and all over the world who protect our country and her people. I would like to thank all of those whom have given their lives for their countrymen and for the sake of freedom, justice, and liberty. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I appreciate everything you do, and I don't take it for granted at all.
Yesterday, we did the throw-back birthday party in honor of Christy's 25th birthday. We had to post-pone the throw-back party from the 8th to yesterday because I was sick during her actual birthday. So yesterday was the throw-back party. When she turned 9 or 11 or something (hey--I was little--I don't remember the exact age she turned!) we had a Hawaiian themed party--my dad made a tiki hut from palm fronds, we had hula skirts, a pool party and what not. So this time around, we had mini tiki torches on the patio table, a sweet pinata, water balloons, the circle of fun (tiki torches in a circle around a charcoal grill that we used to roast our marshmallows for our s'mores!), and we went swimming for a few hours and my dad just got a basketball hoop thing for the pool--SCORE!!!
It was soooo much fun!!! We were so tired by the time we finished the s'mores we ended up not having birthday cake--which we aren't even having. We are a little caked out so we are having key lime pie!!! YUM!!! My mom did make a few cupcakes but the key lime pie is really the "cake".
We had sooo much fun, I made margaritas and they were delicious--for some reason I make them really well when I really don't even know anything about making them!
We were going to throw Honey Bear into the pool, but we concluded that it would traumatize her too bad. She barked so much while we were in the pool that she became hoarse and could hardly bark!! It was crazy--I've never heard a dog get hoarse before--she's fine today though, thank God! :)
I really enjoy running and jumping into the pool. I have to say that's my new fav thing to do. I did hit the water really hard/weird a couple of times. I think my left calf is gonna bruise--I can't stand to touch it it hurts so bad, and then I did a cannon ball and my rear end hit the water so hard my whole back side was bright red! It hurt really bad! LOL (Top Picture: I'm "soaring"!)
So after such an eventful day--I was EXHAUSTED..we all were! I hope you had a wonderful memorial day and remembered to pray for our service men and women! God Bless the USA! :)
Lotsa Love,
Linds
Dear Friend,
After spending a long afternoon shopping in Wal-Mart, what would you want to do when you got home?
...I prefer to shuck corn.
I got home and shucked 20 ears of corn like a pro, and then prepped them to be cooked on Memorial Day. They were beautiful and I have to say--I love shucking corn! I was doing it and my sister told me I belong on a farm, and I have to agree with her. It's strange because I belong on a farm, but I also should be a Native American. Every time I shuck corn, I secretly pretend I'm Pocahontas. I sing all the songs in my head (okay..sometimes out loud--who am I kidding, when do I ever sing in my head if singing out loud is an option?!!?). I have to say, prepping corn is seriously awesome and...I need to grow my own corn. On another note--Wal-Mart was selling corn for 19 cents a piece...that's a pretty darn good deal! So if you're a college student--enjoy some fresh corn on the cob from Wal-Mart! :)..I bet if you sing Pocahontas songs while you prepare it and eat it you will enjoy it 100x more!..it's just a suggestion! :)
So there I am shucking the corn--this picture is me showing you my skills and also--it's a scene from Pocahontas (when she shows John Smith her version of "gold").
This is a picture of my corn before I cleaned up the ends and bagged them. They were so beautiful!!!
So...my secret hope is that you will now desire to watch Pocahontas! If you do decide to watch it--I would LOVE to watch it with you!!!! And Honey Bear would appreciate an invite too because that's her favorite movie (seriously, she'll lay in front of the tv and watch it--it's her fav!) :)
I hope you had a pleasant Sunday, and found something just as enjoyable as shucking corn to do! :)
Lotsa Love,
Linds
