Happy 4th Birthday, Abagail!

This morning I was up and kinda just hanging out when I got a call from my friend, Kaylyn. We had been trying to get together and today we decided to go to Rio for lunch. It was soooo yummy! I had the Nachos Fajitas Jr....a deal at $4.75. It was great! So we enjoyed our time together and I gave her a little gift as a thank you/graduation present. She helped me this past semester while I was out of the state. She entered some of my artwork into Marshall's Student Juried Show (where I won $100)

After our lunch date... I watched Oprah and ran on the treadmill. Still LOVING my shoes!!

Today is my niece's 4th birthday! At around 6 we loaded up in Mike & Alyson's minivan with Emma, Abagail, & Hannah and headed down to Barboursville. First we stopped at Subway and had a little dinner. (Jesse and I split a prime rib sub...OMG, its so good!!) I entertained the girls by taking some pictures.

Then we headed to Billy Bob's. We had a good time playing. They had a new game based on Deal or No Deal and we (adults) had a good time playing that one! :)

Here's the Birthday Girl!!

Here they were singing "Herman the Worm"along with Billy Bob

(By the way....this is Jesse wearing his dad's helmet. Jesse can't have a motorcycle because he'd kill himself)Say hello to Caylan!.......

This is Jesse and Jaiden... he's a hefty lil guy.

After all that fun, we went over to a little playground and played some more!

Country Roads...Take me Home

Jesse and I spent the weekend in WV. We weren't supposed to go back until next weekend..but thats a long story.

We drove home on Thursday night... It was around 8 when we got to my parents house.

On Friday morning we went to Cracker Barrel in Barboursville to pick up a couple of paychecks from December. We talked to people for a long time. Charles and Ruth were there and they wanted to chat our ears off. I was happy to see everyone there...Allison Roe, Kathy Smith, Carmen, Brenda, Chris, Jeff, Alan, even Becky! :)

Then we went to Taco Bell. I had a baja chalupa, I love those things. They probably have 500 calories. I'd check the website but I'm afraid.

Jesse bought a new laptop at the Huntington Circuit City while we were there too.

Then we went to visit with his dad in Ona.... after we drove by the old house. It looked just the same.

We hung out there for awhile, watched most of Apollo 13, then we went to Jeremy's house. After that.... we went back to Mom and Dad's.

On Saturday we went to Sarah and Jay's around 1:30pm. Almost all of Jesse's family were there and Brian and Jessica. Sarah and Jay just bought a bunch of new furniture and a 42" plasma TV from Big Sandy. Jeremy was there trying to mount the thing on the wall for them. We were there for over 5 hours and when we left Jeremy was still working on it.

After that....we went to Mike and Allison's house to play some ping pong. Well, the boys play ping pong. Jessica and I play old school nintendo. We couldn't beat the 7th world of Super Mario 3. It was pretty pathetic.

They turned out all the lights and turned on the strobe light and some dancin' music. It was pretty fun :) Hannah, Abagail and Emma had a blast. Emma kept saying, "Now THIS is how you spend a Saturday night!" hahaha.

On Sunday we went to church at Maranatha. Then we went to my parents house and had Mexican Lasagna and a really yummy salad. Jesse wasn't feeling good. We took a 2 hour nap. Since he wasn't feeling well we decided that I would call in to Cracker Barrel and just drive home on Monday. :o) Yay! 4 day weekend!

After our loooong nap we weren't sleepy. Jesse stayed up watching TV and I finished a whole Nicholas Sparks book (Dear John).

If anyone reading this likes Nicholas Sparks...and enjoys a good cry...you HAVE TO read that book. It was the best Nicholas Sparks book I ever read.... but you'll cry more than you did in The Notebook! I hope they make this one into a movie too!

Since I finished both of my books, I reserved a couple more today. I should be getting Nights in Rodanthe pretty soon. I also got on the list to get The Choice but its new and I am number 61 in the queue.

I also reserved the new Homer Hickom book, Red Helmet. I think its about a mine rescue...I should get it very soon too! :)

I LOVE MY LIBRARY!!

long time... no blog

ok..... so its been awhile (sorry)

My parents came in last weekend. I think they had a pretty good time.

On Valentines Day Jesse received a letter in the mail from his brother Mike's daughter, Emma. It included a paper doll looking character called "Flat Stanley" and a letter from "him." It was like Flat Stanley went on a vacation and stayed at our house. It was kinda fun. We took Flat Stanley everywhere with us for the weekend. We took pictures with him. It made the weekend more interesting I think!

Here is the letter I typed up to send back to Emma.....

Dear Emma,

Hello! Flat Stanley arrived in Winston-Salem, NC on Thursday February 14^th, Valentine's Day! He stayed in our extra bedroom in our house.

He seemed very comfortable here!

On Friday he stayed at home and rested from his long bumpy trip in that envelope.

Then on Saturday morning we woke up early and made eggs, bacon and hash browns. We wanted to have lots of energy for a full day of adventures!

The first place we went was called Historic Bethabara Park in Winston-Salem. Flat Stanley brought lots of information home with him about the Park.

Bethabara Park was where the first settlers came to Winston-Salem all the way from Germany! We saw an old fort and Flat Stanley even pulled the Bell! He also posed for a picture in front of an old log cabin. They had an oven that Stanley thought was really cool, too. He couldn't imagine having to cook bread in that!

The next place we went was to the Reynolda House Museum of American Art. Stanley also brought back lots of information about it. We weren't allowed to take his picture inside the Museum.

Outside the Museum there was a huge garden and a greenhouse!

The greenhouse had so many neat plants that Stanley wanted to take a picture with all of them. He saw a cactus, tulips, and lots of other tropical plants, but the orchids were his favorite!

After a short potty break we were on our way to a late afternoon lunch.

Lunch was delicious! We went to Carrabba's because none of us had ever eaten there before. Stanley had spaghetti with Italian sausage. Afterwards we were stuffed but Stanley wanted to get another picture. He wanted to bring home a mint to share with you, Emma.

After lunch we went to the mall just to walk around. Stanley didn't like shopping very much (He could only peek out of Aunt Erin's purse!) so we went home. We spent the rest of the evening relaxing at home.

On Sunday morning Stanley went to church with us. Afterwards we went to Cracker Barrel to eat. Of course, Stanley wanted to take another picture.

On Monday morning Stanley went back into an envelope to come back

home to Emma's house in Hurricane, WV. I really hope he had a great time visiting Winston-Salem, North Carolina!

Love,

Uncle Jesse

Cute, huh?

Ok.... now I'm caught up sorta.

Today I didn't go to work at Cracker Barrel. I had someone pick up my shift because I was scheduled to go to the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools Substitute Orientation. I had to fill out a bunch of paper work... the usual first day of work stuff, W-4's and some others. I had to make a bunch of copies of my transcript, my teaching license, ID, SS card, etc. We watched a few videos. One was a dramatization of a school shooting that was quite compelling for a video made in NC.

Afterwards I had to go over to a Lab and pee in a cup....I signed in at 12:24pm and the waiting room was filled to the BRIM! I sat there until around 1:15pm and I didn't get to leave until after 1:30pm! Of course when I left the waiting room only had 3 people in it.

Luckily the lab place was right in a big shopping center....so I went to Kohl's and then to Michael's. I really wanted to do more shopping but I had an EXTREME headache. So I drove back home, took 2 Excedrin and took a 2 hour bath (while reading "True Believer" of course) After 15 minutes I felt much better. I feel really good now! :) and I have silky smooth skin...hahaha.... Thanks to Vaseline Intensive Care Bath Salts. That stuff works great!

Jesse and Lester had to drive to Cleveland, TN today. 5 hours one way. They won't be back until around 10pm...so now I'm gonna go upstairs and watch American Idol w/ Holli.

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