A post from the history books….

When checking my old email address the other day, I ran across this old blog that I had started over a year before I started this blog.  I didn’t want to lose that information, so I just copied and pasted it here.  Not sure how well this is going to work, so the actual link is here.  Those blogs refresh every so often though, and I’m afraid wordpress will delete my blog before too much longer.  So here’s the copy and paste version:

Change of Plans

05AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Uncategorized 

Update from yesterday:  As soon as I got out of the shower, Gra-Gra (AKA my mom) called and asked if we all wanted to go get our toes done–well YEA! So I completely scrapped the whole work-at-school thing and went and got a little pampered. 

Here we are:  me behind the camera, Libby and Mal, Gra-Gra, and K at the way back.  It was such a fun girls’ day and so needed before school starts back!

They had the cutest little butterfly chair for the girls to sit in–and here are those girls showing off their new nails.  LOVE IT!  So glad I changed my plans!

My new place

04AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Home Life, School 

I love the sounds of a good storm as much as anybody, but when you are woken up by that loudmouth thunder at 2 am and that thunder keeps on rolling until around 9 am, things aren’t so great.  And this was the loudest thunder I have ever heard.  Seriously.  It rattled the windows and doors on my house and just about gave Oakley a heart attack.  God bless him, he might as well have been glued to my feet.

My plan for the day, if I can get myself going after being up since 2 am, is to go to school and work in my new place.  Now see, I’m not exactly sure how other areas of employment work, but I have to think that the school system just has a weird and wacky hiring system.  In normal careers, you interview with a boss and then he/she decides if you are the person they need.  If so, you receive a call in a day or so congratulating you on your new employment.  Not so in the school system.  You interview, the principal decides who he wants for the position, he then passes this recommendation on to the school board, who then have to vote on it at the next planned meeting before you can be employed.  So in other words, although I have known that I was being “recommended” for this new position for a good month or more now, I am still, as of today, not officially in that new position.  And I won’t be until after the board meeting on August 11.  So I’m going to school to work on sheer faith that I am going to get the position.  Noble of me you might say.  Not so much.  If I were to wait until after August 11 to go work, I would have to spend my entire weekend working at the school to have everything ready when kids come on the 15^th.  Not my idea of a fun back-to-school weekend.

So I am bravely venturing out, in the midst of the storms that are still rolling through, to do a little work at my new place.  I’ll update later on what I get accomplished, but for now, wish me luck!

A Doctor, a friend, and a Photographer

03AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Home Life, Kyndall, Libby 

So our day started with a trip to the doctor for the girls’ annual check-ups. Did you know that 5 year olds have to get 3 shots? 3? K was so pitiful!! She begged pretty please, but that mean ol’ nurse just kept sticking my poor baby. Other than that, the check-ups were good—I have two healthy girls. As soon as we left the doc’s office, we headed straight to the Johnson’s pool, where K’s best friend Harrison could take care of her. Within seconds of being there (after sharing her horror story of course), she had forgotten all about those awful things! And when we got in the car, K asked if she could tell me something. Wanna know what she told me? I’ll tell you what she told me. It went something like this:

           Kyndall: Harrison asked me to be his girlfriend. 

          Mama: And what did you tell him?

          Kyndall: Yes.

          Mama: Well that’s good. As long as you two are sweet to each other, I guess you can be boyfriend and girlfriend. (What I wanted to say: YOU CAN’T TELL HIM YES YOU ARE ONLY FIVE YEARS OLD!)

Last night, Heather, from Create Portraiture, came to the house to take pictures. She posed the girls with the June and Taco (the miniature pony and donkey) and the big horses, and some with just the grasses in the background. I can’t wait to see the final proofs cause that girl is amazing I tell you! She showed me a few on her camera as she was taking them and I was speechless—I’m going to have to dig deep into my savings for this one!

Turning Five

02AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Family, Kyndall 

Turning five is a big deal.  It means you are now a big girl.  It also means you get to start school, which apparently, is pretty exciting.  K spent her day playing at the pool with some good friends…

reading books with Aunt Mal….

and posing for pictures with Mom, Dad, and Libby.

Of course, we did make the traditional birthday cake, which turned out extremely interesting:

  

And then there were the presents.

All in all, I think she had an amazing fifth birthday!

My semi-marriage proposal

01AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Uncategorized 

So there is this little mom-and-pop gas station down the road from our farm where all the men go to shoot the bull every morning arouond 5 a.m.  You know the kind–they have the liars bench posted out front and all the “older men” sit around and try to solve the world’s problems.  I LOVE going there!  Well there is this one particular man that is not older, I would say he’s probably only in his late 40′s, but there is something just a little “off” about him–very nice, sweet man, but just a little off.  On any given day, this little man could talk the horns off a billy goat, if you know what I mean.  When I went down to the store this morning, he started telling me all about this restaurant he was going to open and how he really needed some help.  I just laughed and joked with him for a little bit and told him I would be glad to help him with his restaurant (you know, in all my free time!) Well he just smiled real big and said “Oh I was hoping you would be my wife and help run my restaurant!”  WHOA! Slow down Mister!! One husband is more than enough for me, thank you.  So I had to politely burst his bubble and tell him that while I would love to help him with his restaurant, I just couldn’t be his wife.  Broke the poor guys heart, I tell you.  I even think I heard him asking the next woman to walk in to be his wife….guess he’s trying to reboud already. 

Our Fun-filled Day

01AUG2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Family, Home Life 

Our sweet Oakley (a yorkshire terrier) had an appointment with the groomer this morning.  I wish I had thought to take a ‘before’ picture, because the ‘after’ sure was spectacular, but more on that later.  Since we were already going to be in town today, we decided to meet up with some friends at the local splash pad.  All the kids had a terrrific time enjoying the water and each other!

      

But all good things must come to and end.  We picked Oakley up at the groomers–check out his good looking haircut:

And then we made it home just in time to assist Daddy and Pops in a little home improvement project.

Picture of the girls and their Pops.  This little project is just a small part of the HUGE project of building Justin’s shop.  BTW–pink Hello Kitty boots are essential for any home improvement project.

Saying good-bye to the paci….

31JUL2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Home Life, Libby 

So we have been preparing Libby for a few months now to get rid of her paci.  About six months ago, we weaned her down so that she was just taking it at night and at naptime.  Still, trying to get her to sleep last night, for the first time, without it–that was rough.  She was so pitiful.  I almost gave in….almost.  It was that face.  And when she said “But what if it gets lost?” Whew.  But she made it to sleep sans paci in about 15 minutes.  She also only woke up one time crying for it, and even then went right back to sleep within a few minutes.  Not bad at all if you ask me.  Just another sign that my little girl is growing up. 

On the other hand, today was my father-in-laws birthday.  We all surprised him at his house for impromptu burgers, hot dogs, cake and swimming.  I was also able to snap this photo:

 Do you notice anything about this picture?? Like, perhaps, the lack of grandsonsin our family?

Libby’s Day

31JUL2011Leave a Comment

by A Sweet Tea Life in Family, Kyndall, Libby Tags: Libby

Today is my baby girl’s third birthday!  With the girls’ birthdays being so close, we always have a joint birthday party with their friends and then a family birthday party on their actual day.  Tonight, my little girl requested “crake, mac-me-cheese, and tea.”  Translation:  steak, macaroni and cheese, sweet tea (and potatoes and a salad for the adults).  Not a Rachael Ray meal, but good.  Libby started out the day going grocery shopping for her big meal, but then we put on our aprons and did the real work:  baking a birthday cake.

All the family came over and brought birthday presents for the three year old and enjoyed her great self-made cake.  She very much enjoyed blowing out the candles…

                                                                                

And opening all her presents….

 But I think her favorite part of the day was spending it all with us!!

                                   

And my favorite part?  Making memories with both girls–and the fact that we get to do it all over again in just a few days for Kyndall!

Introduction Post

• Scrapbooking. 
• Running—for fun and competitively.  At some point, I am sure I will blog about personal best race times, training for runs, etc.
• Photography.  At one point, I seriously considered starting my own photography business.  That being said, I totally enjoy taking pictures but am not so great at editing them.  I am really working on my Photoshop skills.
• Reading.  All kinds.  I am also addicted to magazines—those shiny covers draw me in EVERY time.   My favorites are Southern Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Runners World, and freshHome.  I want to have a Southern Living style home—better yet, I want my home to be featured in Southern Living.  Ha!  I’ll add that to my bucket list, right up there with publishing a novel and running the Boston marathon.  Maybe one day…..