SB in FWB and our NEW house

Kevin and I have had a jammed packed Spring Break! Last Friday night, we went out with some friends to Bobby's. We had the most fun. I got to meet Josh's friend, Julia (and my new friend) who I think is super cool. Can't wait to hang out again!! I think we actually had a little too much fun because we were about an hour and half late getting on the road Saturday morning.

It was a MISERABLE drive. The drive to Fort Walton Beach is always a long one... but this time it seemed extra long. In case you were wondering, the Lord does make clouds that span from Texas to Florida. And Saturday it poured down all day! But, we made it. And had a fantastic time while we were there. We miss them already.

Kevin entertaining Baby Jack:

We went to the Eglin Air Force Base on Sunday to see Jordan and Brad's friend Matt.

He works in the McKinley Climate Laboratory on the Base. It is a climate controlled hanger where they can simulate extreme weather to test military equipment. We couldn't take pictures of the equipment that they were working on... but we were able to take a picture inside the hanger with our Parkas on. It was 26 degrees and they were working with freezing rain.

The five of us inside the hanger... Brad, Jordan, Baby Jack, me and Kevin:

The temperature gauge on the outside of the building telling the temperature inside:

A picture of a simulation that they have performed in the past:

We went to the Air Force Museum while we were on the base:

Brad and Kevin:

Kevin, me, Jordan and Baby Jack underneath one of the planes:

A Boykin Family picture, straddling a bomb.

It's a baby... on a bomb:

Pretending Jack is an airplane:

We gave Jackson a lemon at lunch:

What? I don't mind it:

Ok wait, do I think this thing?

Ahh, not so much! It cracks me up because he'd make this face and then he'd go and put the lemon right back in his mouth. Precious:

I told you the rain followed us!! We ate lunch on the water anyway:


The rain didn't stop the boys. They set out to fish every night. Rain or Shine:

While the boys went fishing, Jordan and I became Suzy Homemakers and made pizza and a cake complete with fondant icing. JORDAN IS AWESOME:

Brad caught a honk'n Red fish... actually he was too big to keep (by Florida regulation) so Brad threw him back but ran up to the house to show him off:

Day 3: St. Patty's day
Kevin and Jack are greened out:


We went out to the Okaloosa Island. It was breathtaking. The rain FINALLY cleared away and it was gorgeous. I never wanted to leave. Perfect breeze. The water was cold but some people braved it and were swimming:


The boys, of coarse, brought their fishing gear. I think if we would of let them, they would have slept with their fishing poles. Ridiculous!

Baby Jack having fun in the sun before he took his nap on a blanket, under an umbrella on the white sand beach:

Footprints:

Jack finally, after about 15 minutes of fighting it with whaling crocodile tears, passed out in my arms... and I transferred him to his mama so she could lay him down:

Thanks again Boykins! We had the best time! Can't wait to see ya in less than a month!

We made the drive home Wednesday. I feel so bad for Kevin because I slept the entire way! Well, I was asleep more than I was awake. But he listened to NFL talk radio on Sirius Satellite Radio, so I think he was fine.

So, remember the house drama I was talking about in a previous post? Basically our builder sold us land with hopes that it would be released by the city so they could start building. Well, there were 2 builders in the community and one went bankrupt (not ours). This company was technically the developers of the land and because out lot (or the area it is in) had not been released by the city, it got lumped into their bankruptcy. So our builders lost the land AND the money they paid the other builder for the land. They gave us lots of options, including waiting it out as try to buy the land back, taking a our money and running, or buying a different house at a discounted rate that they had already started building. In the end, we decided to buy this house:

How is this possible?? Right place, right time. It is amazing! It should be finished towards the end of April. Just the same as before, a lot can happen between now and then, but if all goes according to plan... this is our new house!

View from the walking trail into our backyard:

Upstairs game room:

Hallway into Media Room:

Looking down from game room into front foyer:


Master bedroom:


The kitchen will have the same countertops and cabinets that I picked out for our other house:

The family room will have the same fireplace that we designed, floor to ceiling stone with a cedar mantle:

Looking into the foyer and then the formal dining from the formal living:

The Lawther's in their new home!!
Thanks for taking the picture Katie:

WE'LL KEEP YA POSTED! HERE'S HOPING IT ALL WORKS OUT!

House Drama and Spring Fever

We are having house drama. :( Everything is fine... and could all work out better than we planned. (Including fulfilling a junior high dream that includes 4 bestfriends and secret rooms, haha) But... right now, it's all up in the air. I will write more when I know more. Just think happy thoughts. We know that whatever is meant to be will happen. We just have to have faith in the meantime.

It is SO spring time! The convertible was so fun today! AND this time next week, we'll be on vacation, SPRING BREAK... WAHOO (Friends reference)... IN FLORIDA with the Boykin Bunch. WE CAN'T WAIT! Jordan sent me a video of them, kite boarding. I got it yesterday. I didn't realize it was a video until today. (My phone and I have a love hate relationship. It loves to piss me off and I hate it.) If I would just take the time to learn how to work it... ahhh well. Needless to say the video made me want to "skip school" this week end head on out there. Baby Jack was sitting up on his own! He's so grown up! He'll probably greet me at the door with a cigar and tell me the happenin's out back.

Too bad my students need me this week! Who else would teach them all that they need to know to become better communicators? :)

OH and I got my evaluation back... lets just say I'm awesome and leave it at that. I will tell you that I was BEAMING for the rest of the day. Talk about an ego boost!

This week may kill me. I might not make it to Spring Break...

Monday- school (duh), Spring Musical Call Backs until at least 6pm, casting... then THE AWESOME DEMAREST MARCH BDAY CELEBRATION!
Tuesday- school, Speech Club, meeting for planning the TAKS Pep Rally (TACKLE THE TAKS), and OPEN HOUSE
Wednesday- school, Spirit Team until 5pm... head out the Southwind, hopefully! Then begin packing?
Thursday- school... dinner with my baby bro... he's taking care of Murph while we are having a blast with the Boykins!
Friday- school... packing! Going out with Kevin, Josh and Julia... (I can't wait to meet her!)
Saturday- 6am... begin the drive through 5 states to hug and kiss my nephew and his rents.

It will fly by! :)

HAPPY 7 MONTH BDAY BABY JACK! and HAPPY 8 MONTH BDAY SWEET CAROLINE!

The Bachelor

I have no words.

Introducing Suzanna Grace!!

My cousin Sarah gave birth to her first child yesterday! Suzanna "Zanna" Grace was born on 2-27 at 2:27pm in Austin Texas! I am so excited! According to her email, Mom, Dad and Baby Zanna are doing great! She was set to induce yesterday morning at 6am but Zanna had her own plan and decided to come on her own!

My mom and I are about to head down to Austin for the weekend! I can't wait to meet her. We will pick up her Aunt Stevie along the way. Ember and Aunt Vicki are already on the road!

I'll keep ya posted! CONGRATULATIONS ALLENS! SHE'S SO PRECIOUS!

Wish me luck!

I have my formal evaluation tomorrow!!! I've been up at school until 8pm the last two nights making sure all is ready for it. I like that we get to pick the day and class period... but that kind of makes it worse. Because if I don't do well, I have no excuse!! I can't say... well, I was caught off guard... No excuses to fall back on. But I don't think I'll need to fall back on anything. I think I'm gonna rock it. I'm actually excited that administration will get to see how I do things. I hope everything is going to work out. Good thing is that once it's done... maybe I breathe again! Wait.. TAKS pep rally... Spring Musical... nope... so maybe little shallow breaths. I'll take what I can get.

Our House Pictures

Here are all of the pictures that I took of the interior of our "house-to-be"... :)

Left to right:
carpet, paint color and trim, floor tile, kitchen cabinets and our granite counter tops.

our mircrowave

our totally awesome stove/double convection oven with 5 burners

our super cool dishwasher

our 60/40 kitchen sink that is deep and then deeper on the 60 side...

Our kitchen faucet...

Our cabinets with backsplash then counter tops...

Our bathroom lights... all the decorative lights in the house have the same details...

Our bathroom counter tops... we will have white cabinets...

Our bath faucet in the 2nd bathroom... IT IS SO COOL!! (won't be in copper, will be in brushed nickel)

Our master bathroom tub faucet...

Our fireplace...

Our front door...


hmmm.... I can't wait!

The Flu, Fondue & my amazing Gma

This past weekend I was in a funk. Kevin wasn't feeling well and I was just feeling off. I've been feeling off for awhile... nothings really wrong I am just not really feeling like myself. I hope I snap outa it soon.. I miss me... haha. ANYWAY... so needless to say Vday was very low key at the Lawther's house. Saturday during the day Kevo and I went out the KHOV design center for a preview of the MILLION of choices that would face us come Monday at our actual design meeting. It was very productive. We got some great ideas and then went to Home Depot to do a little pricing. As we were driving home from Hope Depot Kevin started feeling bad. I wanted to make fondue so we had some sort of a Vday celebration but Kevin went from bad to worse and fondue became the last thing on our mind.

Sunday wasn't any better. He was shaking and coughing and had a fever. He self-diagnosed himself with the flu and I got flu medication for him. It helped but he still felt horrible. I decided fondue would help too. Kev says it did but he could just be humoring me. :) It was my first time to make it and it was DELICIOUS and VERY easy.

WE HAD A LOT LEFT OVER. I doubled the recipe because it said it only made 1/2 a cup. I thought, surely that's not enough... OH BUT IT IS. The leftover fondue, at room temperature, makes great frosting.

So while I was in my funk this weekend.. my phone started messing up. I wasn't receiving calls or text messages or even voice mails.

My grandparents called me on Friday night and asked me to pick up their prescriptions. This is not an unusual request from them so I thought nothing of it. Katie and I had already paid for tickets to see "Confessions of a Shopaholic" out in Lewisville so I didn't have time to pick up the prescriptions. I called my Dad and he was able to do it... no big deal.

My weekend goes as I mentioned above... still unaware of anything that has happened to my grandmother.

Monday we had off from school and I went out the design center to pick out all the interior of our house. Kevin was still VERY sick so I went alone. (I took pictures and will post them soon) I talked to my mother multiple times on Monday and not once did she mention anything that had happened to my Gma. Well, she thought I already knew because they told her they'd called me on Friday....

Tuesday, Kevin stays home from work and finally goes to the doctor. He has BRONCHITIS! BLAH!! He gets his antibiotic and a shot and FINALLY starts to feel better. As I am driving home from school my phone beeps that I have a voicemail. Not one, but three... the most important one is from my Aunt Vicki asking me to check in on my grandparents on Sunday... I got this message on Tuesday. This once again was not out of the ordinary. I live the closest to my grandparents and used to take care of them before I started teaching. I didn't call her back because I was so late in getting the message I assumed all was fine. I REALLY need to stop assuming...

I get home and check my email. I have a message from my mom titled "Gma's Health" and it said that my Grandma would get her stitches out Thursday, that her shoulder is badly broken and may need surgery. That she's in pain and would love a visit. That is may not be able to hear if you call because she can only get one hearing aid in....

huh? STITCHES... BROKEN SHOULDER??? I HAD NO IDEA!!!! me and my stupid funk.

Turns out that Gma was walking back to bed from the kitchen in the middle of the night tripped on the floor rug and fell head first into the front door. This happen THURSDAY NIGHT! So Friday when they called me to get prescriptions, she had just gotten out of the hospital. I FEEL SO HORRIBLE. In a heartbeat I would have eaten the 7 dollars for a movie to take care of my Gma! :(

I went over to see her today and she looks good. My Grandma's threshold for pain is not that of a normal human being... most people scream at the level she only winces. But she said her head doesn't hurt and her shoulders only hurt when she lays down or tries to stand after sitting.

I am going over to help her out on Saturday... she has Thursday and Friday covered. Please pray for her she has been in the hospital over 50 times and has had over 30 surgeries. She says "I'm a tough ol' bird, I wouldn't want to have me for Thanksgiving." :) She's amazing!

Also, my cousin Sarah's first child is due any day now... please pray for her as well.

I think VERIZON should credit my account for this weekend...

Photo Shoot

Those of you who speak Alyssa will understand this next statement. My laptop went into a coma. It came out of it.. but it has amnesia. It doesn't remember my pictures, itunes, photoshop... Kev doesn't want to reload anything on it because it crashed due to memory overload. So I am without my trusty "make pictures awesome" programs and all pictures from the past year posted on the stupid thing. I have been waiting to write this blog hoping that somehow the amnesia will wear off and all will be right with the world... but after getting a second opinion.. all hope is lost... and so are my pictures! :( Ahh... I'll just have to teach it new tricks. If Kev would only let me....

Last Saturday may have been one of the coolest days of my life!! My friends David and Bethany had a photo shoot at their loft in Dallas. Bethany was going to be taking pictures over the photographer's shoulder and invited me to do the same. His name is James. He worked on Sex and the City and a few movies. His website is amazing! I learned so much from him and I am so grateful for the experience. Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot. (remember they have not been touched up.)

setting up

David and Bethany steal a kiss... camera at the ready.

Getting ready

I got to use James' flash for this... ubber cool!

possibly my fav

I took the picture at the same time as James so it got A LOT of light... maybe too much! :)

I had fun with the D-lighting function on my camera.

Yah, I think this one is my fav.

Seriously!!! Gorgeous people inside and out! Laughter and hard work! What an AMAZING DAY! Thank you all again for the awesome experience.

My Icy Birthday

They canceled school for my birthday today!! :) Well... the ice had something to do with it. But what a great birthday present from AISD. They will be giving us a wonderful anniversary present now too... we have to make the day up on June 4th, our 4 year wedding anniversary. But we'll worry about that in June.

We woke up to sheets of ice covering our house and all around us. It was so pretty.

Our Street...

My car all nice and ICY...

Proof that we stayed in bed all snuggled and warm. Murphy snuggled with us....

After the ice melted away we went to lunch and ran out to Southwind to pick the brick for our house. We have to have it picked out by Friday and today was the only day we could do it. I love the brick we chose. It is clay ACME brick... lots of different colors of browns. We are going with a darker trim color which will also be the color of our garage door. I think it's going to look great with the cedar columns that are on the front our house. Its a new brick choice for the community so not a lot of the houses have it. But it still blends well so we don't have to worry about standing out.

While we were there we looked at the community map that is in the sales office. They have a red dot (sold) on our lot!!! They haven't put our sold sign up yet on our actual lot because they need to order more... so I took a picture of this.

After Southwind, we went to Barnes and Noble and I got a book and some cheesecake. Then we went to 3 different places before we finally found Mario Cart and a fishing game for our Wii. We came home and made dinner and I watched Mamma Mia and then Kev and I played the Wii. I was joking with him about the fact that all I wanted for my birthday was a video game... did I turn 27 or 7... who knows! :)

Thanks to everyone for all the great birthday wishes. I really did have a great day with my hubby!

Incase you didn't know...

Rules:
Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it's because I want to know more about you.

FEEL FREE TO TAG YOURSELF :)

1. I make a mean crepe.
2. I am the authority on everything Harry Potter.
3. Random-lady is my middle name.
4. I love to abbrev. saying/words.. ie: go fig! (go figure) no big! (no big deal)
5. Kevin and I have been together for over 11 years.
6. I go back and forth on the idea of having kids.
7. I have this ability to make people laugh... I've learned to embrace it
8. I have no filter between my brain and my mouth... so most of the things I say are sarcastic and not all what I meant to say.
9. I love it when people just get me... I'm really hard to explain.
10. If I die tomorrow, I would have no regrets.. I know who I am and where I am going and that is all I need.
11. If there was a job that required me to stay in bed all day and not do dishonorable things, I'd do it in a heartbeat.
12. I believe that the grass is always greener... but there is nothing wrong with light green grass.
13. I would rather be killed than take the life of someone else.
14. I have never killed a squirrel (But Murphy has killed a few)
15. I called my husband, who was in Texas, from the top of the Eiffel Tower on our 1 year wedding anniversary.
16. I teach the coolest 12 and 13 year old kids on the planet.
17. Denton, TX is one of my favorite places because of the people who live there.
18. I'm a MTV reality show junkie... although I have finally outgrown The Real World.
19. I have a poster of a shirtless Justin Timberlake hanging on the wall in my closet.
20. Kevin and I are building our first house.
21. It's my goal to kiss Kevin on top of the Eiffel tower on our 5 year wedding anniversary.
22. I have the cutest nephew on the planet and a niece that is sure to be a jaw dropper on the way.
23. I think someday I would make a really great school counselor.
24. I have aspirations of being 5'2" without heels.
25. Fort Walton Beach has become Kevin's and my haven to get away to... but if the Boykins were to move our haven would move with them.

Redline Meeting

We got an email today from Brad, our sales rep, at Khov that they have all the blueprints drawn up for our house. Reading that... I got giddy. This is really happening!

We have to take a day off from work for the meeting because it has to be M-F... but Kev was planning on taking Friday off anyway to study for his test on Saturday. I am going to take Friday off as well so we can go to our meetings.

We have more meetings scheduled... but they are scheduled on the Feb. 16th because we don't have school that day. And we are hoping to get that lucky for other meetings and have them on our days off. We'll see.

So.. jump up and down if your not jumping yet!!! The land will be released to our builder next week and we will break ground after the meetings on Feb. 16th.

YAY!

Good Day

First things first... please enjoy this picture of my husband and my (well, Katie's) fuzzy purple socks. I love it!!

Today we started a new semester and I got all my newbies. I think it's going to be a great semester. A lot of them had class together last semester. So the only thing different for them is the teacher, the classroom, and the subject. I gotta say... I kinda like that they are comfortable with one another for the most part. My class requires trust and I feel like the majority of them are already there or will be soon. FANTASTIC. But I miss my kiddos from last semester. A lot came and visited me today... guess that'll have to do.

I am very tired though. First day is always a lot of talking... a lot of me talking. I love to have conversations with them and get to know them. But the first day is all about rules and procedures. And I talk THE WHOLE TIME. By 8th period I was so done. :)

s/c (subject change.. sorry I had a JH flash back)

Can we reflect for a second on yesterday? What an amazing day. It was a teacher work day, so no kiddos but we still had to be there. It was so nice. I got a lot done. But at 10:30 the majority of us gathered in the library to watch the Inauguration. I am so grateful that I teach at a school where we all feel like family. It was so great to experience that with them.


During President Obama's speech he said something that really resonated with me. Well, he said A LOT of things that resonated with me. I think his Speech was AMAZING... But he said... and I didn't write it down so I may misquote him a little... but the gist is... He was talking about our enemies. The people that want to bring us down... and he said...

"...we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist."

What a wonderful message to send. I am so proud of our country and our president. I feel hopeful about the future. And that's a great feeling!!!

Oh... and I am happy President Bush and Laura made it home safe. I'm glad they came back to Texas... I am also proud of him and all that he did. He kept us safe and was the scape goat for a lot that happened. He's a great man and I'm glad he's home.

If you can, take a moment and pray for our country, our president, and our enemies. Everyone can use a little prayer. :)

Love that Spotlight

Every month my school honors a teacher as Spotlight Teacher of the Month. And this month... they picked me!! :) Here is the link if you would like to check it out: OJH

They had me fill out a questionnaire and then they wrote a few paragraphs about me. I feel so special. Just one more reason that I LOVE my school!

New things...

Last Saturday night, Kev and I drove out to Addison to meet up with some of my best friends from junior high. We've been friends for almost 15 years! Jennifer brought her new boyfriend, Chris. Who I loved! Technically he's not new... but we had not met him yet, so he was new to us. We went to this place called blackfinn. It was really cool and warm enough that we sat outside. I love you GUYS! We had a great time! WE MISSED YOU GOOSE!

Jenn (Teeny) & Chris

Katie (Sam) & Ben
Me (Berta) & Kevin

Monday night was so much fun! I ran home after school to change clothes before Mom and I headed out to Dallas to the double A. C. to see CELINE DION!! We've had the tickets since February of last year!! Anyway, I went to let Murphy outside and saw that the ice gave us a new bush in our backyard.

THE HUGE OAK TREE SPLIT IN HALF! We are really lucky though. If it fell anywhere else in the backyard it would have destroyed something. It missed the new fence, the power lines and our house. It would have put a hole in our roof.

This tree is taking up half of our backyard! I took a picture of Kevin looking at it to show how big this tree is. Kevin is 6'4'' and he looks like a midget next to this thing.

The funniest thing is that the tree fell on Murphy's "path" around the back yard. He has a special spot where he rolls that is all dirt now and the tree is blocking it. He didn't know what to do. He walked up to the tree and looked back at me and whined. Poor dog! :)

Don't think that stopped me from attending the most AWESOMEST concert ever!! Not even icy roads could keep us away! I didn't take my camera because it said on the tickets "no camera"... I wasn't sure what they would do if I brought my camera, confiscate it? I didn't want to take the chance. And then we got there and the sign outside the door said that still cameras were allowed. Oh well. I found these pictures online.

We had awesome seats. Platinum level basically center stage... just a little off to the left. It was an amazing show. Mom and I had so much fun. There is something about her voice that brings tears to my eyes. There wasn't an open seat in the house! And when she sang her final (she did 3) encore my ears started ringing from all the screaming. Such a fun night!

And finally... I have a new phone. Mine said peace and refused to hold a charge. Then the chargers starting sucking the battery out of the phone instead of charging it! It's done with me. AND they don't make my phone anymore so I had to get a new one. They are making a new version but haven't released it yet. This new enV2 was free... something about a warranty upgrade. I know never to look a free phone in the mouth. But ehh, I really liked my old phone. The enV2 does have voice alert... so it speaks to me who is calling. I do love that. I think it'll grow on me.