june 5th

on june 5th, i will be here for a week......

its ok, you can be jealous.

oh, and i MIGHT be going here too.....

again, its okay if you are jealous. its where dreams come true.....

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is my Dad's birthday and I just wanted to say, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY! You are the best daddy in the world and have set such a great example to all of us!! I am so thankful for you and our great relationship. Thank you for always supporting me and my dreams and being there to cheer me on no matter what I do. I couldn't have asked for a better daddy and I really wish I was there to celebrate with you today! No matter how old I get, how far away I live, or who I marry, I will always be your little girl. You have set high standards for the man I end up with and he has HUGE shoes to fill. Thank you for everything you have done for us...I LOVE YOU!

This was the best day of BOTH of our lives.....lol





Daddy's princess!

Paisley Monogram Giveaway

I found Paisley Monogramming from another blog and they have really cute things! They are giving away a monogrammed umbrella that looks like this:

Head over to their blog to enter to win this cute umbrella!!!

how cute is that???

I really need an umbrella....i get SOAKING wet walking to my car in the morning from my apt when its raining. Then, just as I begin to dry off, I walk into school and AGAIN, get drenched. Now you might ask, Kathleen...why don't you invest in an umbrella??? I don't have an answer for you. In college I think I lost like 5 umbrellas. I would always somehow end up using my roommate's umbrella because I lost mine ALL the time. Its like an umbrella curse or something. Anyways, I desperately need an umbrella so I thought I'd enter in this little giveaway. :) You should too.... :)

Tomorrow is Earth Day and to celebrate we are planting flowers in empty milk jugs. I am a little nervous about this activity cuz I can just see soil and seeds and milk jugs flying everywhere but I know it will be fine! I have a grandmother coming to help so it should go smoothly. :) I am excited...and the kids haven't stopped asking about it!!! :) I will post pictures later!

Hope everyone had a GREAT Wednesday! :)

dreaming....

Today all day I have been dreaming about this....

and this......


oh yeah, this too.....


can't leave this out.....
and last but not least....


I have had one heck of a day....and it has left me dreaming about the beach and the lake allll day longgg......summer, please hurry up!

26 days.

recipes

Ty was craving Key Lime Pie last night and Outback didn't have it on their menu so we settled for a bought boxed key lime pie from wal-mart.....which was good. but not as good as a homemade key lime pie...which ty was craving. apparently when he was with the White Sox one of the players wives made a phenomenal Key Lime Pie which he raves about all the time. Now I don't know about you but I would love for him to rave about my cooking rather than some other lady's. I'm still learning so he doesn't do that alot. However, this week/weekend, I have stepped my game up! Here is what I have made.....

1. Spaghetti and Meatballs - if you know me, you know I'm Italian and you know Sunday night means Nana's spaghetti and meatballs. My nana made the BEST meatballs ever and I will never come close to making them as good as hers, BUT....i tried my own version and they were fabulous! Next time I'm going to add more spices because they were a little bland but all in all they were yummy!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tbsp minced onion (which i left out this time)
3 slices of bread crumbs
2 tsp pepper
2 lb ground chuck (i only had a little over 1 lb so I halved the recipe)

Directions:
Heat oven to 350 - beat eggs and milk - stir in onion, bread crumbs, and seasonings - add meat and mix together - shape into balls (i used 1/4 measuring cup but you can make them as big or small as you want) - put them in a lightly greased baking dish and bake in the oven for 30 - 40 minutes. When I took them out I cut one open to make sure it was done! They were fabulous - Ty even liked them and he is a hard person to please considering his mother should be considered a chef. :)


2. Key Lime Pie (I brought this over to Ty's house tonight to surprise him)

Ingredients & Directions:

FOR THE CRUST:
-6 tbsp melted butter
-1 1/2 cup of crushed up graham crackers (around 10 graham crackers - give or take a few)
-1/4 cup of sugar

Mix all ingredients and place in pan (I used a store bought foil pan thing {you know what im talking about right?}) - bake for 10 minutes on 350 degrees.

FOR THE PIE:
-1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz)
-1/2 cup of lime juice (I used 8 limes but you can use the lime juice in the bottle if you want)
-2 cups cool-whip

Mix sweetened condensed milk and lime juice - pour mixture into graham cracker crust and chill in the fridge! :)


3. Potato Soup

Ingredients:
-3 or 4 potatoes cut into cubes (i used 3)
-1 can of cream of mushroom soup
-1 can of cream of chicken soup
-salt
-pepper
-any other yummy spice you want to put in there

Directions:
Cut potatoes into cubes, place in water and bring to a boil - boil with lid on for about 10 minutes. My potatoes were a little mushy so maybe try less than 10 minutes (rookie mistake?) - after the potatoes are done add cream of mushroom and cream of chicken soup to the potatoes. I made another rookie mistake and drained the potatoes....that was a no-no (gotta learn sometime..). However, I saved my soup by adding some water back after I added the soups to the potatoes and it turned out fine. So - do NOT drain the water. Maybe just pour a little out because I didn't add near as much water as I had in the pot originally. For some reason I thought the soups would be enough liquid to make it soup-like. I was wrong! Oh well, it was still good.

So, now you are wondering....where are the pictures???? oops. sorry. :(

On another note, I had a wonderful weekend here in Tuscaloosa. My friend Tyler came down Friday night and stayed with me and then we went to the A-Day game together. She graduated with me and I hadn't seen her in awhile so it was so good to catch up. She is a 4th grade teacher in Homewood so of course we talked about teaching and school the whole time. :) The A-Day game was insane. I honestly do not think I've ever seen that many people in Bryant-Denny before. The game is free so they just let people in. There were thousands of people standing up everywhere (including us) and I heard they ended up having to stop letting people come in because it was so crazy! I hope it got the football players pumped up!!!! :) I love my team, my town, and all the wonderful dedicated fans!!!!!!! They are closing off our upper deck right now so it was cool to see the new additions. I am so excited to see it all done in the fall!

Here is what the old one looks like: already breathtaking....

And this is what the new south endzone expansion is supposed to look like - which closes the stadium up!!!

School's out countdown: 5 1/2 weeks!!!!!!!! we're in the homestretch people!!!!!!!!!!


oh by the way i did a new workout in my p90x workout called plyometrics and it was the death of me. they said before they started that it was the "mac daddy" of all the p90x workouts and holy moly they were right!!!!!! anyways, I did good last week....looking forward to another good week!

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and has a very blessed week!!! enjoy this beautiful weather that God is giving us!

catch up!

Well hello blogging world, I promise I did not forget about you. I've just been busy. Last week I ventured to Gordo, Alabama to spend the night with a girl I work with and let me just tell you, I felt like I was in a movie. Gordo is about 30 minutes outside of Tuscaloosa and boy is it so different! I have been to small towns but this one was so cute and tiny. It has ONE stoplight. ONE. did you hear me? ONE! Quite different than my hometown. We went up to her high school to walk around the track and she knew pretty much every person that was there. Then, we were driving home and she saw someone else she knew, so you know...she just stopped in the middle of the road to chat. lol! I seriously felt like I was in The Notebook or Remember the Titans. It is so different than Atlanta!!! I absolutely loved it though. I might get bored if I lived there but it was fun to visit for a night. :)

The next night she spent the night with me and we joined Lauren for dinner at Wings. Love my girl time...it was much needed too. Thursday night I babysat all night and Friday I went to Trussville for the weekend. So, needless to say....last week was BUSY! I like it like that though, makes the week go by fast!

This weekend was wonderful - so pretty outside!!!! Saturday we played with the dogs outside, ventured to a yard sale, then went to the park with Christen and the kids. The kids weren't into the playground too much but we played with a ball and ran around. :) I love pretty days at the park!!! Here is mu favorite picture from Saturday (go to Sparknotes to get the full park experience)

"Why are yall just sitting there laughing at me? GET ME OUT OF HERE!!!!!!"

hello Christen's mini me....

I think she liked swinging with Aunt Kat better than by herself :)

P90X Update:

Day 6 (4/1) -ABS

Day 7 (4/5) - Shoulders and Arms

(since i was so busy last week, i slacked off....oops!)

Day 8 (4/12)- Cardio


Happy Tuesday! :)

Easter!

Well, I desperately need to clean my room and bathroom so this will be a short post. I had an amazing weekend with my family and Ty's family!! Saturday Casey and I went shopping and got a pedicure (it was Casey's first..crazy, I know)! Saturday night we had dinner with Ty's family and my parents. Sunday we went to church with Ty's family, had lunch with my family, then went to hang out with Ty's family. :) We had a GREAT weekend!!! I am sad its over but I'm at the point where I want it to be Monday because that means one less Monday before Summer!!!!! 7 1/2 more weeks people! I can do it!!!!!!!!! :)

Okay, here are some pictures....




Isn't he so handsome? Especially when he gets dressed up. I am so lucky. :) (ok, he would sooo kill me for writing that...)

I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter and remembered the true meaning of Easter......He is Risen!!!!!!!!!!


ps-Today is opening day for the Braves. Man I love this day....not to mention the Braves are dominating the Cubs right now!!!

field trip!

Today we took the 1st grade to the Galleria on a field trip! We went to Build-A-Bear, rode the Carousel, and ate at Chick-Fil-A. They came back to school telling everyone it was "the bestest field trip ever!" --and it was. We rode the escalator about 17 times because half of them had never seen one. They were amazed by it. We also rode the elevator a couple of times but some of them were scared of it (haha) so we limited the elevator rides. I am in love with the fact that their eyes lit up when we walked into the big mall. It breaks my heart that none of them have ever seen an escalator before but I love that I got to share that with them! I think they liked that more than Build-A-Bear! haha! It was sooo cute! I told them we might get to ride again before we left and when we didn't get to because we ran out of time, I thought one little boy was going to have a little break down right there in the middle of the mall. Anyways, It was such a fun field trip! My favorite by far! I was the most scared about this one though. A big mall, lots of people, lots of kids and not enough adults...ahh! It went so well though! I think I counted them every 5 minutes!! haha! I am totally exhausted but it was totally worth it. I had so much fun with them!

Update on P90X:
Monday I ended up doing Cardio and Abs! Go ME!!!!!!!!!!!

Tuesday: Day off - ended up having to babysit after school until 7. Came home and ate dinner and went to bed.

Wednesday: Legs. This was my first disappointment. I felt like a failure but I know I just have to build up my strength. It was a 58 minute leg workout and I made it to about 23 minutes left. My legs were jelly and shaking uncontrollably so I decided to stop. I will build my muscle up so I can finish! I am determined.

Today: I think I am going to do arms and shoulders today! :)


HAPPY THURSDAY! Tomorrow is FRIDAY! whooo hooo!!!!

oh - ps---my principal started a little countdown to summer and today was 39 more student days....ahhh...crazyyy.