Oh What Do You Do in the Summertime...

This summer we have had a lot fun so far. We've spent some time up at Pop's house. Where we have swam and rode 4 wheelers.

Carson has even learned not to eat everything that Pops gives him.

Carson has helped out around the house and earned some money by doing so.

Our gerber daises are in full bloom and gorgeous this summer thanks to Carson.

We have made, chased, and eaten bubbles.

Carson has tried his hand in photography.

I attended a 2 day AIMS inservice for school. It was great! I got paid for it and we got all of this free stuff!!

I can't wait to see what else the summer has to bring!

Tobacco Free at Age 2

Lately there has been an anti-smoking commercial on. I tried to find it so I could post it with this, however I could not find it. The commercial is a shoot 'em up video game that someone is playing. He kills everyone and it says level complete. After the level, he pulls out a cigarette, lights it, smokes it, and dies. Then it goes on to say that smoking kills 50% more people a year than hand guns. Whenever this commercial comes on, I always say something like, "Eww!! Gross!" when the cigarette is pulled out since Carson is normally watching. Carson has been on this dead kick. I don't know why or how it got started, but he likes to pretend he's dead or the bad guys are dead. (In a matter of like 3 weeks he's started this mess.) So I always point out that the guy is dead in the commercial and end by saying cigarettes are bad or yucky. I thought it couldn't hurt to start Carson off early. A couple of nights ago we were watching something and that commercial came on. I wasn't really paying attention until I heard Carson tell Daddy, "Ew! Yuck!" when the cigarette was pulled out. This was followed by an, "Oh no! He's dead!" I could not believe it! We were cracking up about it. Carson is only 2 and he is a tobacco free campaigner!

A Sense of Accomplishment

This is NOT my house, but I am too chicken to take pictures of my house and post them. So I lifted it off Google.

I started working back in February. Since then, my house has gone downhill. You can just imagine from February to June how horrible my house looks. I was planning to start Monday on getting the house back in order and getting some things done. Monday morning I slept in a little bit and then got up, showered, got dressed, put on my make up, got Carson ready, and was walking out the door to buy Jordan's Father's Day gift at 9:00 a.m. when Jordan called me. This is normally his break time, so I didn't think much of it. He told me he was coming home to help me clean (he was off the week before from work with only Monday paid and felt guilty about not cleaning that week). Come to find out, he was calling to tell me that he had been layed off. I freaked out and bawled. I just kept thinking that this could not be happening to us because we have another baby on the way. With Carson we weren't prepared because I was on birth control when I became pregnant with him. With this one, we were so prepared. Both of us were working. We had killer insurance (which we had already met the hospital deductible with thanks to the kidney stone incident). Then we found out that my ESE unit was being dissolved, so I have no job next year. Now Jordan has been layed off and our killer insurance is only good through the end of the month now. Anyway, now that I have totally vented and did not intend to do so when I sat down to blog...it has taken me a few days to get over this fear of unemployment and now I have refocused my energy back on getting the house in order. Today I have cleaned my kitchen. I promise we're not dirty people, but man there was a lot of work to do in our kitchen. Now my floors are nice and shiny. The room smells of cleaner. The stove top is scrubbed along with all of the cabinets and counter tops. There is not a dirty dish in the sink. It feels GREAT! We'll see how long it will stay that way with a two year old, a husband, and a wife that loves to cook.

Baby Callie?? Baby Porter??

Tuesday I finally went to the doctor for this pregnancy. Mom has been doing ultrasounds and gave me prenatals so I haven't neglected this pregnancy by any means. I just didn't want to take time off from teaching since I was out of leave due to the joys of getting the Waller Crud (pink eye, strep throat, and the flu). Mom asked the doctors and they said it would be fine to just wait until school let out. Insurance pays for an ultrasound on the first visit so I got to see mom during my appointment. She said we'd just measure and make sure the due date was accurate. It was, December 14th. The baby was being so good about spreading his or her legs so mom decided to just play around and see if we could see anything. She saw three lines, which means a girl!! She never checks this early because you really can't be sure for another few weeks. Mom kept checking and kept seeing the three lines. Then, she saw something that she said might be a boy. She only saw that image once so we'll see. In two weeks we'll know for sure she said. How exciting!! When we did the 3-D ultrasound, the pictures didn't come out so well because the baby kept kicking and kicking which made the pictures blurry.

Here is the view that looks like baby #2 is a girl.


Here is the 2D shot from the belly ultrasound. This baby is taking after Carson...look at the size of that head! (Mom actually said it was just the angle of the ultrasound.)

50 Moments

I love to scrapbook, but often times I get behind. When I get behind, I get overwhelmed and dread beginning again. Heather White recently had a great giveaway. She was giving away 5 copies of a brand new book called 50 Moments: Scrapbook the Pages that Matter Most. Here is the concept, "If you were only going to create 50 scrapbook pages about your life, what would they be?" Sounds like a great book! Guess what!? I won!! So I get an autographed copy!! I am so excited!!

These are a few of my favorite things...

I love that song! What would I change the words to if it was written by me? Well, I have signed up for another swap. I LOVE SWAPS!! I mean who doesn't love getting a package in the mail?! I saw the favorite things swap last year on Marie's Blog after the fact. This year, I caught it in time! Here are the rules, straight from Kelly's Blog.

it's really quite simple: as a participant, you will be asked to choose at least three objects (i don't think anyone would mind if you decide to send more) that are some of YOUR favorite things to send to your partner... maybe it's an apron you made, your new favorite book, or that favorite flavor of lip gloss. be creative & most importantly have fun with it! objects can be new or vintage, bought or handmade... just remember, it is best to send something the you'd be pleased & excited to receive yourself.

Sounds like fun! I cannot wait! It's not too late to sign up. Sign ups will be open until this Friday. Head on over and join the fun!
Click here to sign up!

An Appropriate Designated Smoking Area

Alright, I know I just posted this picture of my school. It is important to take a look at it this time for this particular post. It looks nice right? Good. Keep that in mind as you continue to read. There are some faculty members who smoke. The problem with that is they have to be so many yards or feet away from the school campus, by law, to do so. Where do they go? Why on the other side of the road. Right across from the front of the school. I wanted to take a picture of it to share, but I wasn't sure what others would say if I was taking a picture of it. It might look a little odd. Instead, I lifted a similar picture from Google so you don't have to use your imagination. So where do the smokers go to smoke their cigarettes at my school??



The CEMETERY!!!! How ironic!