The Daybies Come to Rock Hill

We had some pretty important visitors this weekend, The Daybies made their first appearance in Rock Hill! It was a last minute trip, that made me happier than they'll ever know =) Here are just a few of the bazillion pictures from the weekend.

Chap, Me, Smith, & Addison swinging on the front porch

We had dinner at Thursday's Too, where Smith and Addison got to meet some other important people, our Rock Hill family, The Bighams. Mrs. Kathy and Larry own the restraunt that a lot of us worked at (and grew up at) in college. They were instant fans of the Daybies!

After dinner we went by the Morgan's to say hello and show off a little bit. Momma Paula was pullin' some good baby blockers to get her hands on Smith. Watch out Brittany, looks like somebody is ready for a grandbaby!

After a fun night I woke up to what was like my perfect Christmas morning. Krissee and Daniel had the babies, all their toys and blankets spread out in the living room playing and laughing like crazy. Smith and Addison were grinning and giggling, they were so precious! Here is Ms. Addison in her cute bow that Aunt Heather got her (I like bows!)

Uncle Chap got in on the action too, though I wish I had a picture of the fancy dance moves he performed for Smith and Addison. Wow.

Thank you Daniel and Krissee for taking the time to come and visit! You made our weekend very happy and we can't wait to see you soon! =)

Alright, I get it!

I know I’m a little tardy on the ‘Twilight’ phenomenon, but better late than never right?? Dionne and Jamie were the first people I had learned about this book from (thanks girls!), and then my current professor shared with me that she was using this book with a high school literacy class. After months of prolonging the ‘vampire’ experience, I finally started reading this book about a week ago and finished it Wednesday night. I have never set my alarm to wake up and read a book before school, till this one. SUCH a great story, I highly recommend it! Last night I moped around the house for a significant part of the evening because I haven’t had a chance to buy the next book yet and I knew I was going to be sad going to bed without it. Chap thinks it’s hilarious that I’m obsessed with a book about vampires; he had quite the jokes whenever he saw me reading this book. Last night was no different; he still didn’t understand the severity of the situation. Our conversation went something like this:

Chap: What’s your problem; there are PLENTY of books upstairs for you to read.

Heather: I don’t want to read anything unless it’s about vampires.

Chap: Vampires are stupid, they suck your blood.

Heather: Not Edward, I love Edward.

Chap: Don’t worry; I can pretend to be Edward…(THIS is when the Count Dracula voice started. Lucky me.)

Today is a parent/teacher conference day and I’m trying to figure out how I can make it to Target and back to school in between conferences. In any case, I am NOT missing another night of Edward and Bella…no matter how appealing the Count is.

Snake Attack

I was attacked by a snake at school today. Ok, I’m not really sure if snakes can ‘attack’, but I feel extremely violated. It was awful!! Thank goodness my children were at music; because there is no excuse for the way I acted (I am terrified of snakes.) As soon as I walked out of my bathroom, there was a snake, plain as day sitting in front of my sink…as if someone purposefully put the snake there to scare me. Usually, our media specialist is really good at practical jokes this time of year with fake rats and spiders, etc. so I immediately assumed this was his doing. However, when I went to kick the snake, after snickering to myself, I quickly learned this was not the case! After the snake lunged at my food and quickly slithered across my shoe, I froze in shock and couldn’t move. Finally, I was able to scream for my teacher friend next door…who was really only good for yelling and jumping around the room, as if I wasn’t doing enough of that already.

Finally, after lots of commotion, four teachers, and a couple of cuss words, a second grade teacher came to save the day. He nonchalantly walked over, picked the snake up, and walked it to the computer so he could do some research. CRAZY!!

I just found learned that there is a hole in the ceiling of my bathroom, and that is most likely how the snake got in. This hole is right above the toilet!! So, I guess what I should be is grateful that THIS was not mine and Mr. Snake’s first meeting place.

Clemson Football

Yes, I know some of you might be a little confused…we actually are Gamecock fans, however, we also enjoy our Clemson friends a lot! We usually try to get to a couple games a season but last year we didn’t make it to any so we were pretty pumped about today! Yes, Chap is wearing a ‘blue’ shirt (that I tried to talk into being ‘purple’) but it was better than the aqua shirt he tried to wear, calling it ‘neutral’ before walking out the door this morning. Aqua is not really a neutral color in Clemson because aqua is bright…and NOT orange which is not neutral. Thankfully, he listened to voice of reason (me) and changed into this purplish/blue shirt.

Who woke up at 4:30 a.m.??? SURELY not these guys!

This was Coach Swinney's first game, while he’s not quite as much fun to look at as Bowden, he did bring with him this cool concept of ‘The Tiger Walk’. All the players and coaches walked into the stadium through the crowd of fans. They were dressed in suit and tie, high fiving fans as they walked…it was pretty cool to see ( I did tear up a little).

Chap and I had really great seats, making the game really great to watch! (Thanks for your help, Justin!)

While Georgia Tech did manage to pull out the win in the end (after some horrible calls by the officials), we had a great time at Death Valley. Thanks for having us guys!! We will work on our ‘neutral’ colors next time, unless it’s Nov. 29th. of course ; )

Tagged!

8 Things About Me....

8 Favorite TV shows: In no particular order
1. House
2. Mad Men
3. American Idol
4. So You Think You Can Dance
5. Friends (Re-Runs)
6. Anything on E!
7. Brothers and Sisters
8. Oprah

8 Favorite Restaurants:
1. Chic-Fil-A
2. Olive Garden
3. Zaxby’s
4. El Cancun
5. Thursday’s
6. Oozo’s
7. McAlister’s
8. Kinch’s

8 things that happened yesterday:
1. Tried to teach the children! =)
2. Worked on Grad. School stuff (found out I am doing an internship in middle school, had a small breakdown about that.)
3. Went on a bike ride with Chap!
4. Made tacos for dinner
5. Folded lots of laundry
6. Made some trades for my Fantasy Football team
7. Watched the end of House
8. Started reading ‘Twilight’ (and now it’s hard to put it down!!)

8 things to look forward to:
1. Going to the football game this weekend!
2. My Birthday!!
3. Thanksgiving
4. Chap finishing his last semester of school!!
5. Biking trip with Chap
6. Christmas Decorations!!
7. Snowboarding this winter
8. Visiting/holding/playing with Carter, Smith, and Addison =)

8 things I love about fall:
1. My neighborhood, we have sooo many trees changing colors right now!!
2. FOOTBALL!!
3. Smell of burning leaves (my neighbor is 14 days running!)
4. Season premieres on TV!!
5. Cooler weather
6. Decorations & Pumpkins!
7. Seeing friends and family at Thanksgiving
8. My birthday =)

8 Things on My Wish List:
1. Babies!!
2. Amber & Krissee to move back to Rock Hill
3. Live closer to my grandmother and cousins
4. A boat!!
5. Another puppy, preferably a Great Dane
6. Vacation with Chap (friends can come too!)
7. A house in St. Lucia
8. Flat screen TV for living room

8 people I'm tagging:
1. Daniel or Krissee
2. Amber
3. Mom
4. Stef
5. Marilyn
6. Chap (this might be his SECOND post!!)
7. Jenn
8. Brittany

Chappy Birthday!

We celebrated Chap's birthday Saturday with friends and some family =) Thank you to everyone that came to celebrate, you helped make the day very special for Chap! We had such a great time, here are some pics from the Chappy Birthday weekend!

This is our friend, Carter, he really enjoyed playing Chap's video arcade games!
I had to post this picture because some of you might remember the 'tree saw' I bought Chap a couple months back....well, this might not have been the best idea considering that every time the guys get together, something is being cut down (whether it's dead or not.)
Happy Birthday!!

It was almost mission impossible getting the cake out to Chap. The candles would NOT stay lit! It was defnitely a TEAM effort, thanks girls!!

Chap was up at 6 a.m. grilling the birthday pig (poor piggy). Everything was really yummy, and the best part was all the left overs we had!

Uncle Normie and Brodey had lots of fun hanging out =) Thank you for making the trip Normie, it was so great having you there!!
Normie, A.K.A. 'Santa', came bearing gifts Saturday. Two of the gifts were new bikes for me and Chap!! Since my dad's charity race we've been itching to ride!! Thank you so much DAD for the beautiful bikes!! We had so much riding yesterday, though the pain I'm feeling today really opens my eyes to how far 107 miles actually is!! Wow! Baby steps though...right??

We found some great trails in our neighborhood, and even this great dirt bike course set up with jumps and everything! It was great fun! (Don't worry Dad, we cleaned the bikes as soon as we got home!)

I hope you had a great birthday weekend, Chap! I love you so much and appreciate all you do! I am very lucky to be married to my best friend =)

Smith & Addison's Big Day!

This weekend we went to Columbia for the twins' Christening! They were so adorable, there were lots of 'oooh's and ahhhh's' when they were presented to the congregation. =) I hate I didn't get any more pictures of them in their beautiful gowns, BUT what do you expect...between them, the cousins, and Carter Aunt Heather was in baby heaven and didn't have much time for photography, so I'm relying on mommy and daddy Day for this!

Chap and I are so proud to be a part of these babies' lives. They are such a blessing to our family and we look forward to watching them grow into amazing people!!

PS...I am also grateful to Smith and Addison for their part in increasing Krissee's foot size. Thanks to them I am the proud new owner of seven amazing pairs of shoes!!! =) I'll keep my gloating minimum, as I am sure payback is heck.

A breath of fresh air!

I don't know about you, but recently I have a hard time falling asleep after watching the news. According to Chap I have been grinding my teeth extra hard the last few weeks, I'm sure due to stress that comes from watching what's going on in the media. So, I thought I'd share some positive thoughts that have given me hope in this crazy world we are living in today!

My class is exploring how the development of a society is influenced by changing environments (integrating Native American standards with our habitat standards). This year they have made GREAT connections in comparing how early settlers effected our environment with how people effect our environment today. After reading 'A River Ran Wild' we brainstormed different ways that we effect our environment today.

Next we did a little experiment with 'Fred the Fish' to see how every day pollutants effect lakes, rivers, and streams (Fred had chemicals from factories, salt from streets, litter, and eroding soil dumped into his habitat). My kids were MOST upset for Fred (who was actually a sponge cut into the shape of a fish) that ended up turning black and red living in water that was almost impossible to breathe in.

After this sad experiment, I asked my kids to write a paragraph explaining how this made them feel. They couldn't finish their paragrahs quick enough to start taking action in helping our environment! Below are just a few things they have done independently to help create solutions for problems we face today. I was so proud, I had to share!

Each group gathered old boxes to create a recycling bin for their area of work at school. It's almost become a competition to see which group can recycle the most!

Today I had a girl bring in flyers that she made at her house to share with other classes and local businesses expressing her concern for the earth and solutions of how we can help!

Another boy in my class who walks to school has picked up trash every day along the path he takes to get here. I am so proud of him when he actually takes the time to pick this trash up, bring it to school, and put it in his group's recycle box (side bar: one day he brought in 6 bud light cans that he had found...I was a little mortified when he walked in my class carying beer cans...we made sure we put these in a bag before putting in our box, that's all I need is for administration to walk in and think we've been boozing it up! =)

Other things THEY have come up with to help our environment:

• We'vebeen using one light instead of two in the class, this said this helps save electricity
• They remind me to make limited copies and to be sure and use front and back of paper to reduce on # of trees wasted.
• They have written letters to the school cafeteria asking that we use washable trays rather than styrofoam trays.
• They are writing letters to principal asking that each class has a recycle bin so that the school can decrease trash.
• They ATTEMPTED to have me no longer give tests to reduce on paper...unfortuneatley this one did not pass =)
  

Anyway, I hope reading this gives you a small amount of positive news today. I had to share because if you are like me, you might need a breath of fresh air from all the negativeness in the media today!