The Graduate

This past weekend we celebrated my baby brother's high school graduation. It was an emotional time for all of us in that Luke is THE BABY...he's the last to graduate from high school. It was probably the best time I've had with my family in a really long time. There are so many of us, with so many different things going on that it's hard to get everyone together when I'm home. We were able to spend time together before & after graduation to celebrate Luke's success.

I know that Luke is going to be very successful as he begins his college journey at UNC Charlotte and hopefully headed to Carolina within the next year or so...he's a good kid, put's the Lord first in everything he does, and has his head on straight. I look forward to see how God works in his life.

We stay pretty busy and probably won't slow down much between now and Laney's arrival. I'm resting as much as I can between our adventures. Next up in our adventures...my sister competes for the title of Miss North Carolina next week. In the mean time, I'm re-cooperating from a VERY LONG and stressful school year, working on Baby Laney's room and counting the weeks until her arrival...around 5 weeks from now she will make her arrival and I am sooooo excited to meet our little girl! :)

No Time for Blogs...

Obviously, I have neglected my blog for the past...almost 2 months, with the exception of my post of my friend Laura's new band (which you should totally check out, www.featherandbelle.com!) We have been super busy & all I've done is go to school, sleep, travel somewhere on the weekends, and repeat the next week...things will be slowing for a few weeks once my brother graduates Friday and we'll have time to rest (a little) before Miss NC at the end of June and Laney's arrival sometime in July.

To share a little of what we've been doing this month here's a little picture tour:

The 1st weekend in May we made the trip to Boone for Matt's sisters' graduation, both Megan & Morgan graduated from Appalachian State and we are so proud of them. Megan is going to be a Family & Consumer Sciences Teacher (fancy words for Home Ec. teacher) and Morgan is going to be a photographer (and she is very talented!). We had a great weekend with the Keith's just celebrating & relaxing.

The 2nd weekend in May we had our 1st baby shower at Matt's home church in Fuquay-Varina. It was so great to see a lot of people we haven't seen since we got married & celebrate with new friends...we were very blessed to get a lot of things we need for Laney.


The 3rd weekend in May was RIDICULOUS! We had something Friday, Saturday & Sunday. Friday night we celebrated my baby (not so small) brother's high school graduation with a graduation party. (For those of you that don't know him, he's the one in the khaki shirt) I can't believe he's going to college in the fall, I can't wait to see him walk across the stage Friday night!

Saturday we drove to Pickens, SC to celebrate the marriage of two really good friends from Caswell, Ashley Lark & Daniel Heath. Daniel played in our wedding & it was so awesome to see them begin a new life together. We can't wait to see what God has in store for them, they are such a sweet couple!

On Sunday we had our 2nd baby shower, this time in Kannapolis. By the end of the weekend we both looked terrible...notice the dark circles under our eyes, obviously from partying a little too much that weekend. I loved getting to see some very special people & celebrating our sweet Laney with them. I can't wait to introduce her to everyone in just a few weeks! We are very blessed to have such strong support not only here in Raleigh , but also in Kannapolis. Laney is going to be rotten and she's not even here yet.


Memorial Day weekend we celebrated the marriage of our good friends Sara & Todd, we also worked with them at Caswell. Sara is one of my very best friends and I was actually her RA at Appalachian State before we worked 2 summers together at Caswell. Todd also went to Appalachian & worked with us at Caswell. I was a bridesmaid in their wedding, so we were able to spend the entire weekend in South Charlotte and rested a little while we were there. Sara & Todd's wedding was beautiful & a lot of fun. We got to catch up with a lot of good friends & do a little dancing at the reception. It was a wonderful weekend!

I probably won't be back to the blogging world until school is over, which by the way...I only have 4 days with kids and 1 teacher workday left. I'm on my way to being a STAY AT HOME MOM! :) More on that next week!

Feather & Belle

It's been WAY too long since I've blogged and I have so much I want to write about, but I don't know where to start. So I decided to start with this...

One of my very best friends from my Caswell days is a VERY talented musician & song writer, and you HAVE to check out her new music. She is in a new band called Feather & Belle and they are releasing their first album on June 21st. (Which also happens to be my 3rd wedding anniversary & the first day of summer)


I am so very proud of her accomplishments & the way the Lord is working in and through her in Nashville. Not only has she been touring with Owl City...she has played for Chris Tomlin & the Trans Siberian Orchestra this year. Check out her music here, you won't regret it!

Color

We finally got our colors right for the paint in Laney's room.

When we finally get everything painted, I'll share the paint color names...for now, here's a sneak peak.




Spring break is next week...I look forward to finally having a little time to blog. I am swamped with school stuff right now and I'm so exhausted! Just 3 more days...I think I can, I think I can! :)

Laney's Room

For those of you that know me, you probably know that I LOVE to decorate, but I like to see how much money I can save when I decorate. So I find creative ways to do things, shop at thrift stores, redo old things, and use what I have.

I am so excited about decorating Laney's nursery. I've never been a huge fan of "baby decor," but I don't really know anyone that has time to sew her bedding from scratch (which would be very ideal...maybe I'll learn to sew one day). I also wanted something that was gender neutral so that we could use it again, as we plan to have more kids in the future. I stumbled upon some bedding from Target online, unfortunately it was discontinued. So...I book marked it for inspiration and checked back often because I could not find anything else I liked. One day I clicked on the link to find it available AND on sale! I called Matt right away in excitement and we decided we should go ahead and get it...since I am SOOO picky AND I love it AND it was on sale. Once we got this in the mail:
I began brainstorming what I imagined Laney's room to look like. I've been back and forth on what color of baby furniture to register for, but I think I've finally settled on white. In my head, I see this brightly colored little nursery with a "garden" theme. Not many people "see" my vision and kind of look at me weird when I explain what I'm thinking, but I can't wait to see what the final product looks like. I've started a collection of fun little containers & decorative items that I've found on sale at various places. Items like:

Matt's experimenting with paint this weekend. I can't decide if I want to paint the room one color or two. I can't decide how bright I want things to be or if I want to go more neutral. I've never really stepped outside of the box with paint, but I want Laney's room to be different. I also want to make sure her room isn't too bright. Who knows what we'll come up with...here's what the experiment looks like right now:I'm not sold on the yellow, but I LOVE the teal. We're thinking about going a little lighter on the yellow and we'll probably have to prime. We'll see, we have plenty of time. I'll be 25 weeks on Monday!!

So Much Bigger Than the Bunny

This post is WAY over due! My friend Tasha, wrote a devotional for families called "Bigger Than the Bunny." (Which you should totally check out on her website) We bought it for Laney, so we can teach her about the significance of Easter and what Jesus did for us but we thought it would be cool to do the devotional together this year.

Part of the devotion is to give up something for Lent, which I've never done before. Growing up in a Baptist church we never participated in Lent. In fact, I didn't know what Lent was until I was college. Matt & I both prayed and thought about it and both decided to give up facebook. I've had several people, even family members say to me, "why would you give up something, the sacrifice has already been made." But it's so much more than that, the reason for giving up something is to recenter yourself. To regain your focus on what this life is all about.

Facebook is kind of my "relaxation" when I come home in the afternoons, but it also serves as a great distraction when it comes to relationships and spending time on what's important in life. I knew giving it up would be HUGE for me because I spend so much time on it but I know that that's the idea of Lent. I hope that as I begin this Journey I can focus my attention on Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he was for me.

My Little Town

It's been a busy week at school, so I haven't had a chance to blog at all. Kinda sad, every time I wanted to blog I had school work that had to be done first. Anyways in the middle of my teaching today I got an idea for a post and I was determined that before I went to bed tonight, I would blog about it.

This week we've been talking about the Industrial Revolution & the Progressive Era. Now, my curriculum covers not only American History but North Carolina History as well. A major part of North Carolina's past was the production of textiles, tobacco, & furniture. I always get excited when I get to teach about textiles & mill villages because my hometown used to be a mill village, in fact...it was from 1887-2003 when the mill went bankrupt. When I was teaching today, I was reminded of the sense of pride I've always had about being from Kannapolis. There really isn't anything hugely special about Kannapolis, except for I just love that little town.

This is Fieldcrest Cannon, the mill that the entire town of Kannapolis was built around. My grandmother & dad both worked there. It was demolished in August of 2006.

This is the Gem Theatre where you can pay $2.00 for a movie, $1.00 for popcorn, $1.00 for candy or a drink. It's awesome! Oh, What-a-burger...if you've been around me for any period of time, you've heard me talk about What-a-burger & cherry lemon sundrop. It's so bad for you, but oh so good. Definitely the best burger I've ever had. I've gotten Matt addicted too! And of course, the best part of Kannapolis...my family! This picture was taken at, my baby brother, Luke's last football game. He'll be the last one to graduate from A.L. Brown High School in June. (Everyone in my family went there but my dad, who went to a nearby rival high school.)

My childhood was phenomenial. I have great memories of going to Friday night football games with my grandparents (my grandmother worked in the mill before she retired), eating at little restaurants that you can't find anywhere else but Kannapolis, going to festivals & parades, making memories with my family (who all grew up in the area) and knowing everyone because the town is so small. I grew up in the same house my whole life, hung out with the same friends from birth till high school graduation, and spent a lot of time growing and learning at the same church until I was 18.

I almost started crying today as I thought about how special Kannapolis is. There isn't a lot left today, the mill is gone and the shopping area downtown is pretty empty. They've built the North Carolina Research Campus there and a lot of new things have been built outside of the downtown area. BUT, I still have family there and know a lot of special people that have made a huge impact on my life. Kannapolis will always be "small town" to me. I'm thankful to be a small town girl and sometimes I sure do miss that little place. I'm going home next weekend for an entire weekend, which hasn't happened in a while with Matt being on staff at church. I can't wait to see my family, eat at my favorite restaurants, visit friends, and go to my home church!