Pumpkin Carving!

James and I spent a great Halloween day together yesterday shopping, carving pumpkins, and handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters!  The weather was so nice that we were able to take some chairs and put them on the front porch and sit outside while we handed out candy.  We got to meet a lot of people from the neighborhood too which was nice!  Here are a few pictures from our pumpkin carving!

Scooping out the guts...

Cutting out the "Power T"...look at that concentration!

The finished products!

The lit up Power T pumpkin!

Above is my pumpkin lit up from this year and below is my pumpkin from last year...I'm beginning to think I need to expand my pumpkin creativity for next year!

AJ watched all the fun from under the table...I think he was trying to hide so we didn't dress him up like a pumpkin again...I think he made a cute pumpkin last year though!

While we were handing out candy James decided that he wanted to be the "cool house" so we had some music and sound effects playing out the office windows for when the kids came up!  Someone even told his son that we must have been torturing someone in the basement!  ha! 

Team Courage!

This past weekend I traveled to Knoxville to take part in the Susan Koman walk for the cure to fight against breast cancer.  I have to say it was a very humbling experience to see so many people (about 14,000) just from the Knoxville area all out to fight this cause.  Not only to see the people supporting it, but the survivors as well.  I know that seeing all of those survivors had to be somewhat comforting to my wonderful cousin Natalie who is undergoing her chemo treatment right now. 

Mom and I went out and bought our "team scarves" the night before which were a hit with everyone at the walk.  Next year we will have to start early and create a team shirt that will compete with the others as well!  My wonderful husband James surprised us all by sending us a good luck gift from edible arrangements that is pictured above.  I have also included a picture of the note he attached as I thought it was incredibly sweet...yep bonus points for James!

This is a picture (from the side) of all of the breast cancer survivors that were at the walk.

A picture of our team before the start of the race...the only thing that would have made this day better is if our team captain Shelly would have been there, she was home sick with the flu :(

Real Men Wear Pink! Little did they know these scarves came from the princess section at BigLots!

Brady cheered on her Mom by dancing with her dance team during the walk!

A picture during the race of all the people in front of us!

Our team picture at the end...WE DID IT!!!

We all went out to grab a bite to eat after the race and enjoy those delicious strawberries James sent us!

I thought that this song was fitting for this post because of the chorus of the song...it was also one that they were playing during the race!  I think that we all loved being a part of this race for a fabulous cause and can't wait to do it agian next year!

Happy Birthday Molly!

Well I am definitely being a picture theif for this post but I just had to take them and put them on our blog since they are SO adorable!  As many of you know Molly is one of our favorite little people in the whole wide world and this week she will be turning 2!  James and I won't be able to make the birthday party since we will be out of town so we decided to go over this past weekend and giver her the Elmo gifts we got her!  Even though she has been a bit under the weather I think she enjoyed them and it was great to get to see her as always.

I had to include this picture from our visit as well to show you what a sucker James is for Molly!  I think he would have done just about anything that sweet little voice asked him to while we were there.  James enjoyed having a birthday tea party with Molly and her little Lamb and even got offered some "pizza" at the party as well!  Happy Birthday Molly!

Race For The Cure!

As many of you read before I am doing the Race For the Cure in Knoxville this year on Saturday October 24th.  We are all walking in honor of my 41 year old cousin who is currently undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer and will hopefully be diagnosed cancer free in January!  Our team goal has been to raise atleast $500 and we are only $30 away from that goal!  Please help us to reach our goal and go above and beyond what we have hoped to raise.  Thanks to those who have helped and donated so far! 

If you would like to donate on my page you can go to http://komenknoxville.donordrive.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=donorDrive.participant&eventID=506&participantID=3124

Everyone in our family has taken this as a time to talk about and realize how important it truly is to get your yearly screenings so make sure all the women in your life that you love are doing the same!

You Know You're In The South When...

You go to the "local" hamburger joint and order sweet tea with lemon and a burger with "slaw"! 

OK so I do realize that the pictures in this post may grose some of you out but when we were out to lunch today Melissa convinced me that this moment was "blog worthy" so here it is!  Duke's grille is a local hamburger place that is right across from our school and is one of those hole in the wall places that is ALWAYS packed and serves great food!  They also only take cash which definitely is different from most places now days!  Anyways when we went out to lunch I had my first officially southern hamburger after living in the south for six years now...and I have to say it was pretty good too!  In fact I think I may have to take my pocket book and go to the wal-mart and get me a buggy to buy some slaw and soda...oh yeah and I can't forget a toboggan to wear on my head since it's getting cold outside these days!

The Painting Has Begun!

Well my goal this weekend was to get the kitchen painted and finished and I am happy to report that WE DID IT!!!  I started edging yesterday afternoon during the football game and then our friends Titus and Christina came over for dinner and helped us finish it up!  Here are some pictures of our new red "wine themed" kitchen with our pictures hung and everything!  I am SO excited!  :)

Here are the pictures of the kitchen before we started painting...

Let the painting begin!

Titus decided to try the paint out for dessert!

Christina the monkey climbed up on the counters and fridge to get the areas over the cabinets!

And here we go...drumroll please...OUR KITCHEN!!

We are very happy with our finished product and are hoping to get the dining room done next weekend.  We are going to do a striping effect in there so hopefully it will go smoothly!

A Wonderful Gift...

I have come to truly believe that although we LOVE the children that we work with each day, one of the greatest gifts you can give a teacher is a "duty free lunch".  At our school we usually get these lunches once a month where we get to go back and eat lunch in one teachers classroom together while other staff members watch our students at lunch.  Today my grade level got the ultimate gift...a duty free lunch OFF campus where we actually got to go off campus for an hour and eat lunch like real adults!  :)  We chose to go to McAlister's Deli and we sat outside and just enjoyed each others company for a whole hour, it was absolutely wonderful!  Some of the wonderful PTA parents at our school covered our classes while we were gone and I think we are each very thankful to them and hope that they will come back very very soon!