Tale As Old As Time..

Thursday night, Addison and I went to see Beauty and The Beast at the Orpheum Theater. My Mom had originally bought the tickets for herself and Addison to have a special outing. My Mom's brother became suddenly ill and she was needed at the hospital so I ended up going to the performance with Addison. My dad was kind enough to drive us downtown and drop us right at the entrance to the theater, and Shawn came and picked us up when it was over! I cannot complain about that kind of shuttle service!! The play was magical and just so much fun!! Ahhh, to be the little girl who believed in fairy tales and make believe again. If you ever get the chance to see the stage production of this show, I promise you will not be disappointed!

I did manage to snap a few pictures - please ignore the quality because they are all from my cell phone!

Belle AKA Addison standing in front of the Orpheum.

As we were waiting for Shawn to pick us up, Addison spotted "Gaston" and before I knew it she was over there giving him a hug!! She has the "celeb" eye, just like her Momma!! She even asked "Gaston" if he minded if her Mom took a quick pick of them together! I promise to you that every bit of this was HER idea, I did not ask her or tell her what to say!! After she had her dose of the cast she was on a HUNT to find more cast members. She begged and begged to stand at the stage door but Shawn was there to pick us up and it was almost 11:00pm!

Belle after her night at the theater!!

THANKS SO MUCH NE NE!!

We love you and missed you at the show!

P.S. - Addison is already asking to see Mamma Mia - I LOVE that my girl LOVES musicals!!!!

Gettin' Crafty With It...

The weather has just been wicked hot lately so Saturday the girls and I decided to head to Paint A Piece and get crafty. It was nice and cool inside and the three of us enjoyed our girl time together!

A and her "magical" horse - your eyes are not playing tricks on you, it is a purple horse with green stars!!

J working on her cute ice cream trinket box.

Another shot of the horse with some polka dots added, by now he was a happy magical horse!!

The girls with their finished pottery.

We left them there to have the glaze put on and were able to pick them up today.

TA DA!! Here are their finished pieces!!

The girls had a really fun time and it was nice to get out of the house and let them be creative for the afternoon. Any of you have any crafty ideas that I could do with the girls this summer?

Graduation Gift Girls Getaway!!!

Here lately, I just have not been in the mood to blog and then out of no where the urge strikes me and I wanna write. I have several posts to make tonight so I hope the urge stays with me!

Graduation night, I was surprised by three of my good girlfriends with a girls getaway to Hot Springs, Arkansas. It was a fabulous gift and a much needed one at that!! Memorial Day Weekend the four of us packed up and hit the road. I will use initials to protect the innocent as I tell of our weekend travels. :) M must have been a travel agent in her past life because she can plan a trip with the best of them. She had all our stops, meals, and activities all planned out for us. In good travel agent fashion she even sent us all an email with our schedule and links to everything we needed to know about our weekend.

Our first stop was at Brown's Country Store in Benton, Arkansas. This was a cute store/buffet - think Cracker Barrel but buffet. It was really, really, really good and so much fun to shop in the two story gift shop!!

M, L, and J outside of Brown's Country Store

M, me, L, and J outside of Brown's - pardon the grainy pic, the person that we asked to take it was too busy smoking a cig to get a good shot! :)

After we were full from eating at Brown's we made our way on to Hot Springs. Once in our hotel room we settled in for the night, watched a movie and shared tons of laughs!!

Saturday morning we woke up and got ready for our day of pampering at The Arlington Hotel. M and I were scheduled for facials and paraffin mani/pedi's. L and J joined us for the facials and then they also enjoyed massages/body wraps as well.

ahhhhh - nice mud mask during my facial

As we were finished up on our facials the talk turned to the subject of ear candling and the benefits of having this process done. Ear candling is where a candle is used to clean out the ear and get rid of wax, pollen, toxins, etc. I had heard that it works wonders for sinus/allergy issues and well I suffer from awful sinus issues year round. Since they performed ear candling at the spa, I thought what the heck...

the candle is hollow in the middle and the heat causes a suction to clean out the ear

FYI......these next pics are G.R.O.S.S. but I want to show you what came out of my ears!! I bathe and clean out my ears on a regular basis, so just know that before you judge these pics!!

Ear 1

Ear 2

I told you it was DISGUSTING!!!

After we were pampered and all our ears were clean we headed out for dinner and some shopping. We ate at Picante's Mexican Grill and then walked/shopped downtown Hot Springs. I bought six pairs of fabulous earrings and wish I had shot a picture of them before I put them all in my jewelry box. I bought some owl earrings that are just to precious for words! Once we were done shopping and waiting on the hotel shuttle to pick us up for the night we decided to take a horse and carriage ride around historical Hot Springs. I just realized that M took the pictures of the carriage ride so I do not have any to share!! It was a really nice ride and we learned that several of the hotels in the city are actually haunted. YIKES!!

Sunday we had a wonderful breakfast at our hotel before we headed back to Memphis. We had a fabulous relaxing weekend and I cannot thank M, L, and J enough for the amazing graduation gift!! I love you girls!! XOXO

Days Gone By....

(pre-school graduation 2010)

It seems just like yesterday that I was posting this and this. I cannot believe that Addison graduated from Kindergarten this morning. The statement, "you've come a long way baby" does not even begin to describe where she came from to where she is today. God has something amazing planned for her life and granted me the most amazing gift ever when He chose me to be her Mom! I love you more than words can express Addison Faith - you are the sunshine that lights my world each and every day!!

Addison and her friend Anna Grace.

I am so glad that God led us to Bartlett Baptist Kindergarten, Addison made some wonderful friends and so did I!!

Mrs. Susan, Addison and Mrs. Lisa

Thanks to these amazing ladies for everything they did for Addison! She will never forget her year with you two!!

It's the Small Things...

I do not know if I can express in words the joy I have had in being a Mom these past two weeks. When Addison was two years old, I went back to work and was blessed to have my Mom keep Addison for me. Since I graduated in May and school does not start back until August, I have some free time this summer. I have told myself that if a part time job were to open up then I would go back to work but, if one did not then I would enjoy my summer with my family.

Just this week she and I have spent afternoons at the park, went on walks, and even went with a group of her school friends to the play area at McDonald's for a couple of hours. I was a bad blogger and did not snap ONE picture on any of these outings!! I have cherished these days with her and just realized how much I have really missed doing "Momma" things. She will only be 6 once and I have decided that it is worth being on a strict budget to have this time with her.

Speaking of a strict budget, I have started clipping coupons and will be attending a class about extreme couponing on the 31st. I am excited to see and learn from someone who uses coupons to save tons of money for their family.

And speaking of saving look at these fabulous teacher finds from Dollar Tree!! You cannot BEAT the teacher section - I cannot wait to get these laminated and ready for use in my future classroom!!

Please continue to pray that I will be placed at the school God sees fit for me and my future students in August.

Here is a shot of doodlebug on her bike before our ride/walk yesterday afternoon

No Boys Allowed...

So, I was in the writing mood a few nights ago and well, Blogger was down and out. I actually thought about writing my posts in Word and then copying them here when the site was back online. I am kicking myself now that I did not do that; I can assure you that what I had to say was so profound that you will be sorry I forgot it all!!

I had a wonderful Mother's Day and was able to enjoy it with my Mom and Mother In Law. My gift was a graduation/Mother's Day gift all rolled in one and I ADORE it...

I am the proud owner of a new iPad 2!!

I have to tell you that Addison has actually used this new gadget more than I have! I told her that I was going to have to start calling her the iPad hog if she did not start sharing with me!

At church, Addison made a cute little "Mom's Day Off" sign but then she felt the need to add this sign as well...

Shawn told her that he was not a "boy" he was a man, so she went in her room and wrote this on her easel...

That is my handwriting in red, she needed help spelling words on her first sign but the blue writing/drawing is all her. "No Boys and mun (men) allowed" That is a man with a X on him and then a door that says OUT!! She is one hilarious little girl, you cannot be around her without smiling!

With Honors...

I have had 3 days in my life that I will never ever forget. The first was the day I stood on the beach and said, "I do" to my amazing husband. The second was be the day that my Addison was born and the third was on May 6th, 2011.

In 2007, I made the decision to go back to school and complete my degree in Elementary Education. I can honestly tell you that it was the best decision I ever made. I do have several regrets about not graduating from college after high school when my amazing parents were paying my tuition; however, I mentally was not ready to buckle down and study! So, for the past three years I have worked during the day and attended classes twice a week, and on May 6th, I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education! Not only did I graduate but I graduated Summa Cum Laude!!!

My teacher education girls - no doubt God knew what a strong bond we would all have!! If any of you are reading this, I love you all very much!! XOXO

(The gold cord is for my Summa Cum Laude honor)

Getting ready to walk that stage - just a head shot for this gal, as graduation gowns are hideous!! Can I get an "AMEN"??