Spa Day!

For Christmas, I gave my mom & sister a "coupon" for a girls' spa day at Chateau Elan..so of course, it doubled as a gift for me too! :) Here are my mom & Emily opening their gifts on Christmas morning...

They opened their gifts at the same time, but my sister apparently opens gifts way faster than my mom...so she's attempting to hide the coupon from my mom until she can get hers opened! Ha!

We each had a very relaxing massage, a manicure, and a trip to the whirlpool. :) Here we are enjoying ourselves at Chateau Elan!
It was such a treat to be able to go, and we had such a great time together! And the spa day couldn't have come at a more perfect time for us...it fell right between the rush of Christmas celebrations and us getting Emi ready to move! Yep, that's right! Emily got a job last week at Ola High School teaching US History & Current Events, which just so happens to be exactly what she wants to teach! The only catch is that Ola High School is in Henry County...aka about an hour and a half away! So we're currently in a mad dash to get her moved into a new apartment before she starts teaching on January 4th. It's a very exciting time for Emily, and we're all SO very proud of her! But all the stress and chaos that comes with moving and starting a new job made our trip to the spa all the more wonderful! :) Check back in later this week for pictures of Emi's new apartment!

Can you believe 2009 is almost over?! We hope everyone has a safe & fun time ringing in the new year! Here's a to a happy & healthy 2010!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We made it to Georgia on the evening of the 22nd, and we've been on the go ever since having lots of holiday fun! We went over to Derek's dad's house in Stone Mountain on the 23rd and then spent Christmas Eve at their house. We really enjoyed our time with them..and we enjoyed all of the yummy food as well! I think my fave was the caramel pie for dessert. :) But unfortunately, these sweet puppies got into it while we were opening presents..so there were no seconds of caramel pie! Ha!
Then, Derek & I headed back to my parents' house for Christmas Day. It was a wonderful day..the kind of day where you stay in your PJ's all.day.long. Lots of fun was had by all!
Saturday was an oh-so-busy day for us, but SUPER fun! We started our day very early so we could hit the day-after-Christmas sales! We really haven't gotten many new Christmas decorations since we've been married simply because we haven't had a whole lot of space to decorate in our condo. But since we'll have a house next year (YAY!), we figured we could use a few new things. We didn't plan on getting much, but we really racked up! The best part was everything was 50% off, and we were on the road by 8am and finished by 9am! Take a look at all of our loot!
After our shopping extravaganza, we headed over to Derek's mom's house for more Christmas fun! We can always plan on fun arts and crafts with Derek's mom. First we made ourselves a new set of edible teeth...
Then, we created elf candy dishes! Our competitive spirits definitely came out with this project! Derek wanted to have a vote to see whose elf was the best, but Derek's mom said "Everyone's elf is unique to who they are." But we all know one of these elves has to be the best...if you could vote on your favorite elf, which would you choose?! (Mine is the one on the far left....hint, hint!)
Aside from the arts and crafts, we enjoyed lots of good family time, opening stockings & gifts, shooting guns outside (while the girls did some chatting), and home-made chocolate ice cream..yum yum! Here are a few more pictures from the day...
Later that night, we headed to dinner with friends. Derek dined with Bret, a good friend of his from high school and his old roomie in Athens. The girls and boys had to sit separately to allow for all of our girl talk. :) But we were glad the boys were there after dinner to snap a photo of our time together! These are two of my sweetest friends that I am oh-so thankful for, Niki & Jenny (Bret's wifey). I went to high school with both of these girlies and lived with each of them at different points throughout our college years. I've heard this saying somewhere before, and it sounds kind of corny..but it definitely applies in this situation: Good frienships are like good wines..they get better with age. Whenever I see these girls, we can always pick up right where we left off. I loved every second of our short visit together!
Whew! I'm tired just blogging about all that we've done in just a few short days! We're looking forward to spending more time with our family & friends while we're in town. We've got about a week left here in GA, and I'm sure it will FLY by!

Sorry, you'll have to bear with me here..I just found a new website to use for editing pictures, and it's so fun!!

We hope you had a very merry Christmas! Enjoy the rest of the holiday season..it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!!

Merry Christmas from the Smiths!

Merry Christmas! Most of you have probably already seen our Christmas card as we mailed them out a couple of weeks ago, but we thought we'd send an e-greeting to you and let the "blogging world" get a little peak as well!

We're obviously a little biased, but we love how our card turned out this year! My favorite part was the Dr. Seuss quote (very appropriate for a Kindergarten teacher!) we included on the card:

"Maybe Christmas," he thought, "doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas...perhaps...means a little bit more."

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Apparently 20 inches of snow can buy you a few snow days! :) So, Mother Nature & I are friends again..especially since she started my Christmas break 3 days early! We found out on Sunday afternoon (after our sledding adventures) that my school was closed on Monday. I was initially excited for the snow day..until I realized that EVERY OTHER surrounding county went ahead and cancelled school Monday-Wednesday. But, fortunately we found out this evening that Prince William County has cancelled as well. All I have to say is: hallelujah!

So Derek spent the day outside shoveling our cars out of the snow, while I was indoors doing our laundry and packing up so we can drive home to GA tomorrow! We are so excited that we're able to go home earlier than we planned! Going home earlier also meant that we got to have our little Christmas here earlier. :) Here's our little tree in all its glory!

And here was the most exciting gift of the evening! A few weeks ago, we ordered a frame for the diploma for my Master's Degree (yes, my Master's Degree..which I finished in May of 2007) because we had a coupon (thanks, Mom!) and they were offering free shipping. Derek raced home (okay, we all know that's a lie seeing as how he gets home before me every. single. day.) to get the package before I saw it. Then he worked very hard to get my diploma in the frame looking all spiffy, wrapped it up, and tucked it safely under Christmas tree. And here's what I saw when I unwrapped it tonight!

I LOVE IT! I can't wait to hang it up on the wall with our Bachelor's Degrees. Oh, and please try to ignore the fact that I am wearing pajama pants in this picture! I wish I could say that I haven't been in PJ's all day..but that would be a lie. It was one of those days where you're in your PJ's until late afternoon, then you shower and just put on clean pajamas. What can I say..it's a snow day!

Now I'm off to finish up packing, so we can hit the dusty trail first thing in the morning! We can't to be at home and celebrate Christmas with all of our family & friends! This truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

The Blizzard of 2009!

We've survived the Blizzard of 2009! I gave Derek a hard time about his little hand-made snow gauge, but it turned out to be pretty useful after all! Take a look at the progression of the Blizzard of '09 in DC! (Please note that the top of Derek's snow gauge is 20 inches.)



Mother Nature was not very nice to us this weekend. First of all, this is the SECOND time she has brought us snow on a WEEKEND! Doesn't she know teachers need snow days at this time of year?! And if that wasn't bad enough, this blizzard made it impossible for our friends from GA, John & Nikki, to make the trip up to DC. They were scheduled to drive up on Saturday morning..smack dab in the middle of the blizzard! We were very bummed to miss out on their visit, but we realized that our Spring Breaks overlap in April...and that's also the week for the Cherry Blossom Festival! So we're excited about them possibly making the trip up this Spring! Okay, it's hard to talk about Spring when we were just outside playing in all of the white goodness this morning!
We went out this morning with the hopes of building a snowman, but the snow is still too powdery/fluffy, so it won't compact nicely into snowballs. So, we decided to go sledding down the big hill behind our neighborhood!
Did you think people from GA would actually have sleds?? You saw that right in the picture, we used our boogie boards as sleds..and it worked quite well, thank you very much!
After we went sledding, we explored around our neighborhood to see what all of the roads looked like. We've never seen so many of our neighbors before! Coming from the South, people are just not quite as friendly here. We've only ever seen a handful of our neighbors, and we've actually only conversed with 2 of them! That's right..TWO! We always smile and say hello when we see someone in the parking lot or pass them on the stairs up to our condo, but most people barely even make eye contact with us. It was just so weird to see everyone outside shoveling away! And here's what they had to work with...snow, snow, and more snow!

If you look closely enough, you can just barely see the UGA tag on the front of my little snow-covered Civic!

Because you can't even SEE the roads in our neighborhood, we opted to walk to Giant instead of drive. :) It was definitely a good choice! We got some hot chocolate, more bread, and cookie dough...all the necessities for a snow day! So now we're sitting inside sipping on some hot chocolate and enjoying the warmth of our little fire!
Now we're keeping our fingers crossed that Prince William County closes schools for tomorrow..and maybe even for the rest of the week?! Now that, my friends, would be a Christmas miracle!

We enjoyed reading all of your comments about Derek's snow gauge! :) Thanks for visiting and letting us know that you stopped by! We love hearing from you!

Hope you're enjoying your weekend! :)

My First Post!

First off, please bear with me as this is the first time Sarah has allowed me to add a post to the blog. Second, a big thank you is in order for Emily for being the first reader to post a comment on the blog. Sarah has been anxiously awaiting her first reply.

Now for the news of the day. As you can see above, we are foretasted to get more than a FOOT of snow starting tonight and ending on Sunday morning with the possibility of up to two FEET of snow. I went to Target today to buy eggs, milk and bread(as all southerners do) and it was crazy busy. In anticipation of our biggest snowfall since the Blizzard of 1993, I made a snow gauge so that we can record the depths from inside the warmth of the condo. Sarah says it's "redneck," however, I believe it was creative/cost effective. Also, I had to use duct tape because how else would you mount a paint stirrer on your balcony without causing permanent damage. I'll keep everyone posted on the snowfall throughout the weekend.

Wordless Wednesday...with a BIG announcement!

Okay, so this will be my first attempt at a "Wordless Wednesday" post, but I don't know how wordless it will really be because we've got a BIG announcement to share! I'll let this picture do the talking....
This summer, we will be heading to Biloxi, Mississippi to spend the next three years of our lives living on Keesler Air Force Base. We're very excited about our future there! Here's a picture of the neighborhood where we'll be living in just a few short months...

Thanks for stopping by, and check back in later this week for more "wordy" details! :)

Five year-olds make my day!

There are SO many aspects of teaching that make me frustrated, stressed, angry, want to cry...I think you get the idea! :) But, my sweet little five year-olds make that all better every day. Here are a few excerpts of recent convos in my room..hopefully they'll put a smile on your face!

At the end of the day, I asked my kids to tell me something that was hard and/or easy for them at school that day. One of little boys immediately yells out: "Mrs. Smith, I know something that's easy! Having fun at school is easy!"

Today, one of my kids asked me how I knew something. My smart response was "Because I know everything." Another little girl quickly replied, "But you don't know more than God, Mrs. Smith." :)
I got an early Christmas present from one my students today that I just loved! I love personalized note pads--they are just perfect for writing notes home to parents! The best part was when the little boy showed to me: "Look, Mrs. Smith! We made your name in your favorite color!" Love it!

Thanks for stopping by, friends! :) Be sure to check back in tomorrow for a BIG announcement! We find out tomorrow where the Air Force will be sending us for Derek's residency. We're both very anxious & excited to find out what the future holds for us!

Top Five Fridays!

Okay, so I am self-proclaimed stalker of blogs. I shamelessly check my friends' blogs daily (read: multiple times per day) as well as blogs of complete and total strangers, and I LOVE it. One of the blogs that I stalk has "Top Five Fridays," which is a weekly post that I always enjoy reading! So just for fun, here's a little Friday morning list of things I am currently loving...

5. Christmas candy! Okay, I'll be honest..it's really any kind of holiday candy. As soon as I saw the Christmas Oreos and Christmas M&M's at Target, I just HAD to have them! For some reason, they taste sooooo much better than the regular plain ole Oreos and M&M's...does anyone else feel this way?! Oh, and my all-time-fame is the seasonal peanut butter cups...there's nothing better than a Reese's peanut butter egg, pumpkin, Christmas tree....mmmm!! Derek is a firm believer that my mom & I are marketers' dream customers. My mom will buy anything with "NEW!" written on it, and I'll buy anything with a holiday gimmick. (Yes, I've bought Christmas Oreo's when I had perfectly good regular Oreo's in the pantry at home).

my current stash (which is rapidly disappearing!)

4. My new Michael Kors all-weather jacket! I just love, love, love everything about this jacket! I love this coat for 3 reasons: practicality, right price!, and it's just oh-so cute! Let me start off by saying, my only jacket appropriate to wear in the rain was a $30 coat from Old Navy that I'm pretty sure was acquired late high school/early college....waaaaay outdated. So I was definitely due for an upgrade..and this coat had everything I was looking for! It's cute, has a removal lining so it's perfect year-round, and a detachable hood. And the best part was I got it on sale & I had a gift card. Score! (Thanks for helping me with the great find, Mom!) And I got the coat just in time for our little snow storm last week!

3. The Taylor Swift Christmas CD. Love it! And it was only $6.99. :) Go get it today! As my hubby would say, you won't regret it! (He even likes it! But shhhh...don't tell him I said that!)
2. Windows 7! Derek just bought me this and got it up and running on my laptop as an early Christmas gift. So far, I am love-love-loving it! Way better than Vista, that's for sure! As of now, my fave new feature is the sticky notes! Anyone who knows me knows that I live off of sticky-notes and to-do lists. Now, I get to have sticky notes on my desktop! How cool is that?!

1. Visitors :) Derek and I love our life together, and we have really grown to love Centreville and the Northern VA area we currently call home. And we love getting to share our little life here with the people we love! We are both THRILLED that two of our sweet friends from high school (they both went to CHHS with us and got married the summer after we did) are coming to visit DC later this month and are staying with us! We can't wait to visit with them and show them around our town!

Nikki & me at her wedding in 2008

I don't know if I'll continue posting a top five list every Friday, but I thought it would be fun to try it out! Leave us a comment and let us know what you think of this potential blog ritual!

Happy Friday, Everyone!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

The meteorologists have been calling for snow all week, but they were saying it would just be a dusting. Then last night, they suddenly changed their tune and said we would probably get 2-4 inches. Well, they were wrong again! It's been snowing ALL DAY here, and at last check we've got a good 5-6 inches on our balcony. It looks absolutely beautiful! Just one request for Mother Nature...next time, can you please bring the snow on a Monday morning?!

Derek went hunting this morning with his Uncle Bill in Maryland, and we took a trip to Target (man, I love that store!) this afternoon...but other than that, we've stayed indoors watching the winter wonderland outside. We've been busy wrapping gifts & making cookies...it's definitely starting to feel like Christmas around here!
And to make it even sweeter...Bama stomped those Gators!!!

So Thankful!

Derek and I are both so thankful that we got to spend Thanksgiving with our family in Georgia this year! This was our first time going home for Thanksgiving since I moved up here and we hadn't seen our families since August, so to say we were excited about the trip would be an understatement! We hit the road Wednesday afternoon after I got all my kiddies on the bus, and we arrived at my parents' house around 11:30 that night. Derek woke up bright up and early Thursday morning to hit the golf course with my dad while my mom and I were working in the kitchen (okay..she was working a LOT more than me, but I thoroughly enjoyed all of the bonding time!)

Then we enjoyed a nice, quiet Thanksgiving lunch with my parents and sister. It was DELISH! I think my two fave items on the menu were the hashbrown potatoes and the Cold Stone cupcakes for dessert! And the best part was when we left to come back up to VA, my mom packed us an entire cooler full of yummy left-overs!


After our BIG meal, we all enjoyed a nice walk outside..it was also much-needed after all of the calories we had just consumed! Later on that night, we all went to the movies together. We saw The Blind Side, which was phenomenal!! I HIGHLY recommend this movie to anyone because all five of us loved it! It was one of those feel-good movies that made you laugh and cry..definitely a must-see!

On Friday, my mom, sister, and I had a girls day in Atlanta to go see the Rockettes at the FOX! Their Christmas show was AWESOME! I was in complete awe of their synchronization. It made me think of the annual Talent Show that I do with some of my teacher friends here and how hard we work to learn our routine...the Rockettes were just so amazing! It's definitely something I'd like to go see again someday!

Here we are getting ready to head out for the show...

Waiting for the show to start...

Then on Friday night, we headed over to Derek's dad & Eileen's house for dinner along with Maleah & Lucas (Derek's sister & her husband who live in AL, so we don't get to see them very often either!). We enjoyed the food and the company. :) It was just nice to visit and catch up with everyone! But sadly, I didn't get any pictures!

On Saturday, Derek & my dad went out riding motorcycles while my mom & I went shopping. Shopping hasn't been as fun for me since moving up to VA b/c I don't have my mom or sister to shop with!! So I LOVE LOVE LOVE to go shopping when I'm home! :)




We ended our time in GA in the most perfect way...with a UGA win over Tech! We watched the game at home with my parents and Maleah & Lucas...jealous of Emi who actually got to go to the big game..but we enjoyed the extra family time! Sunday marked our TWELVE HOUR..that me say that one more time..TWELVE HOUR drive home. That was not.fun.at.all. But the time at home was definitely worth it! I, of course, cried for the first twenty or so minutes of the drive because I was already homesick. But I'm already counting down the days till we'll be home for Christmas..we have just 3 weeks to go!! WOOHOO!

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving as well! Now, we're just trying to get back into the swing of things after such a fun holiday weekend!

P.S. If you read this entire marathon posting, you must really love us. :) I promise the next one won't be so long!!

Glory, Glory!

How 'bout them Dawgs?!

Whew...what a game! After the rough--or shall we say "rebuilding"--season we've had this year, I think the entire Bulldog Nation was dreading playing our arch rivals who were ranked #7. And the passing of sweet little Uga VII last week certainly was not a good omen for our team. But somehow, we came out with a big W over Georgia Tech tonight! Although many of our Georgia games have been hard to watch this year, we enjoyed every minute of this game! Not only did we beat Tech, but we got to enjoy the game with our family...it doesn't get much better than that!!!! Here's my hubby right after the game...he was quite excited!


I hope everyone's enjoyed the long holiday weekend! We're making the drive back up to VA tomorrow (sniff, sniff). Check back in later this week, and I'll fill you in on all of the fun we had while we've been in Georgia this week. :) Needless to say, we've had a GREAT weekend!

GO DAWGS!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Whew, I'm exhausted!! Today was our Thanksgiving Feast in Kindergarten. So all of my little ones donned their Pilgrim hats and Wampanoag headbands in honor of the first Thanksgiving--they looked so darn cute, if I do say so myself!




After a special Thanksgiving lunch (think..preparing Thanksgiving dinner for 125 kids + parents), the kids spent 2 hours rotating through the Kindergarten classes making various Thanksgiving-esque crafts. The kids had tons of fun..but I couldn't be more glad that it's over! :) It was a very fun day for the kids, but a very tiring day for the teachers!!





Derek is now DONE with his ER rotation, and I have a 1/2 day of work tomorrow. (Ugh..yes, we still have school the day before Turkey Day..the only thing that's worse than that is the fact that I will still be teaching on December 23rd aka the day before Christmas Eve..ridiculous!) Sooo we're packing our bags tonight (I'm a such a compulsive over-packer!), and then Derek will pick me up from work tomorrow afternoon so we can hit the road as soon as possible.


And just for the record, we are SO THANKFUL that we are able to go home to spend Thanksgiving with our families this year! Can't wait for all of the yummy food (especially my mom's hashbrown potatoes!) and all of the family time! :) Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!