Random Happenings

Here are some random photos of things that happened around here during my bloggin hiatus....


My 9th graders



2 cuties



practing the "pageant walk"

Of course Holdyn was here too. He just seems to escape my camera. I'll get him soon though!

-J

Long Time No Post

It's been a long time since I've posted. That's not because I had nothing to say or nothing was happen here; actually, it was quite the opposite. Last Friday I finished my semester of student teaching. It was AWESOME! Somedays sucked and somedays were fabulous; but, everyday I knew that teaching is what I'm meant to do. My students were great and so was my Cooperating Teacher. I chose to abstain from posting during my student teaching for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted to be absolutely sure that I kept all things about my students private. Second, I was EXHAUSTED at the end of each day and just the thought of turning on the computer made me want to cry. Third, I didn't want to fall into the WWW at the end of each day and waste the little family time we have together.

K and I have been spending oodles of time working on this forsaken house. We've almost finished the interior and are preparing to move to the outside - just in time for warm weather.

Plans for the move are slowly creeping forward. We're shooting for mid-July to be in T-town. I keep teasing K that I'm moving in July with or without everyone else. ;) But of course, I could never go anywhere without my sweeties. How blessed can one girl be? I've got an awesome hubs, 3 stinkin cute kiddos, and we're all happy and healthy. As long as we're together we're good.

Gotta get back to cleaning and packing!
--Much Love,
J

Tardy-Pants

Evie wasn't feeling well this morning. She convinced me that she had over-indulged in Valentine's candy and was tummy-sick. Of course, today is the day that I begin my independent teaching unit (Romeo and Juliet) so she had to go visit Mama Ford. After a frantic early-morning phone call I dropped her with my mom on our way to school. About 25 minutes later I get a call from Mom. She tells me Evie has eaten bacon, grits, and a biscuit feels better now and wants to come to school. WHAT?!

I rush to Mom's grab Evie, race home grab her backpack and snack, and we head back to school. As we're pulling into the parking lot Evie says in a completely serious voice, "Mommy, am I going to have to go to the office and get a tardy-pants slip?"

It was all I could do to hold back a laugh. Then my heart warmed; my sweet baby was worried about being tardy! She's never been tardy before and only knew that the "tardy-pants" in her class had to go to the office and get a "tardy-pants slip."

That and holding her little hand as we walked down the hall-way to her classroom made the rush, frustration, and worry all worth it!

So, just call us tardy-pants today.

News

The Country Vaughns got some big news this week. I've been accepted into the PhD program in Composition and Rhetoric at the University of Alabama. We are super excited at what all this entails! I've been offered a graduate assistantship as well, which means a move is required. In the next few months the Country Vaughns will be in full renovation completion mode so that we can get Vaughn Farms on the market and hopefully (fingers and toes crossed)sold. That's right, the plan is to bid farewell to this little piece of land and move the country mice to the city.

The kids are excited at the idea of living "in town" where they can ride bikes, play sports, and possibly (gasp) walk places!

For now, we're enjoying little league basketball season, my student teaching (I LOVE IT!!!), and just being together.

So, we'll see what happens over the next 6 months. It should be exciting, stay tuned!

"Snow" Day

We're home for a "Snow" day today. I use the quotation marks because there isn't a lick of snow to be seen. We got out of school at 11a yesterday as the fat, fluffy flakes swirled through the frigid air. The kids were so excited to get home to "make snow angels, snowmen, and have a snowball fight" they said. I wanted to get home, pull on some fleece pants and socks and campout on the couch. Well, we all got our wishes, sort of. The snow didn't stick but it did accumulate (slightly) on some things like the steps, the picnic table and the trampoline. This allowed for enough of a thin layer of dust for snow angels and snowballs about the size of a gumball. =)





Overall, I dislike the cold, dreary weather and I'm thankful that I live in a place where it is a rare occurance. School was cancelled for today, too. Now we're snuggled in for the weekend and enjoying our snowless "Snow" day.

Much Love
the Country Vaughns

Snaggles

We've been losing things around here lately. These lost items aren't the normal things a household may lose on a daily basis - car keys, socks, homework, everloving minds, etc. These lost items are special because they can only be lost once and never again...


Kallie Dec 09


Evie Jan 10

That's right, the girls' have reached another milestone - Snaggles. They've each lost their first tooth. As with all of their other milestones they are about 1 month apart. Coincidentally, they didn't lose the same tooth. True to their usual standards (one with long hair, one with short hair, one left handed, one right handed, one girly, one sporty) these girls lost OPPOSITE teeth. Too funny!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

2010 is here - can you believe it? This holiday season was a whirlwind of fun, food, and family. We loved every minute of it! In addition to Christmas and New Year's K and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on 12/30. We enjoyed a quick get-away to Gatlinburg, TN and spent New Year's Eve and Day in the beautiful Smoky Mountains. The kids got to stay with the grandparents and were treated to a roadtrip to Chatanooga with Aunt Lacy and Uncle David. BIG thanks to those two brave souls! ;)

As we headed back to Bama from TN we were able to stop by and visit with K's brother and his family - the Knoxville Vaughns. We don't get to spend enough time with the Vaughn families and we miss them dearly!

Everyone had a great time on their respective trips and we're glad to be back home on "the farm" getting ready to head back to school and work next week.

I'll start my "Clinical Field Experience" aka student-teaching on Monday and the kids head back to school on Wednesday. Thankfully, I will be spending my semester at Ragland High so we can all go to school together until late April. I'm so grateful that things worked out that way!!

We hope that 2010 is full of blessings and happiness for all of our friends and family!

Much Love,
the Country Vaughns