I know, I know...

Once again I find myself severly lacking in my blogging. Not that I think anyone cares because my life isn't very interesting. If there is one person out there that does then here are the updates going on in our household...

1. I now have my Masters in Education. Yay! Words can't explain how happy I am that I am finished with that degree.

2. Pressley has had awful skin problems the past couple of months and about three weeks ago I picked her up from daycare and she was just covered in what looked like bug bites to me. The dermatologist confirmed this and we are on the road to getting her better. She is now in a new daycare and there have been no new spots.

3. I have finished my young adult novel. It is in the hands of three different friends so they can give me some feedback on what to fix. It ended up being 240 pages long and around 70,000 words. I am contemplating two different options. One is to send it in to Random House's contest for first time young adult novelists. The prize is $1500 and $7500 advance in royalties-plus a hardcover and paperback deal. The other option is to start shopping for an agent. The only problem is that if I send it in to the contest, I cannot send it to agents. The winner will be announced in May so that would put me about 5 months behind on shopping for an agent if I didn't win the contest (which is very likely). Then again, what's five months?
Anyway, even if this book never gets published, I still consider it one of my greatest accomplishments. I started writing stories in the fifth grade and have probably started at least fifty...some I actually wrote 60 or so pages on. So to actually finish a book is just a huge deal for me.

4. To have another kid or not have another kid? Benjamin and I have been talking about this lately. Still not sure.

5. I have been reading a ton of books lately. I think I have read around 25 since August. Even better? My students this year have been doing awesome as well. I had been warned that this group did not like to read and would not do well with my reading program. Some of my students have read 15 books already! My class of 28 has read 160 books total in eight weeks.

I think that is all for updates. My husband just pulled a pizza out of the oven and it is calling my name.

Welcome the six or seven babies...

Oh my goodness, Pressley has discovered all the baby dolls that she has gotten since her birth (thanks mostly to Nana and Nanny). And they are all naked! Pressley stripped them of their clothes long ago, but now the babies are entering our every day play time and then some. Pressley has to have all of her babies in the bed with her when she goes to sleep and the other morning I went in and all of the babies were lined up on the other end of the bed! Now here comes to funny part. Benjamin and I asked her what the babies' names were and they are mostly all forms of Liana with a few Adleigh's stuck in there. That's the names of my baby nieces if you are new onto the scene. How precious! Pressley remembers the names of her cousins!
And when we wake up, I have to take all of the babies out of her crib and we carry them into the living room because, of course, they have to eat and have their teeth brushed! And Pressley kisses them and then she throws them at me. We will have to be careful whenever we have a real baby around!
Pressley's other love, or maybe I should say obsession, is Dora the Explorer. My daughter NEVER watched tv, but she has somehow gotten latched onto Dora. And lately she has been known to say, "Diego is my boy friend." LOL. I don't like this obsession but I have to say it is really cute to see her talk to Dora on the tv and she has really gotten better at counting too. We bought Pressley her very own Dora backpack and when Dora talks about her backpack Pressley says, "I have a backpack too!"
This is really the most fun age! Pressley pretty much talks in complete sentences. The downside is that she is fiercely independent and so there is not much loving going on. She also has no interest in potty training. She is so smart! Why doesn't she want to use the potty? She constantly insists that she is a baby...not a big girl. Oh well, she's adorable and she brightens my day. I don't know how I will ever be able to go back to work.

More pictures!!!

Look below at the other post...but here are some more pictures from the party!!!

We finally got to meet/see/hold the babies!!!!

Pressley and I ventured to Charlotte for an awesome occastion yesterday. My precious nieces turned one!! The babies have sorta been sequestered during the winter season to make sure that they stay well, so this was the first time that Pressley and I have been able to go see them. Pressley was soooo excited...at first it was about the babies and then after two hours of driving, the only thing that could keep her going was persuading her with the birthday cake.

I haven't held a baby in quite awhile and they are so very much more light than my two year old. We had a blast and I miss my sister and the girls soooo much. I'm going to post some pictures from the day on here, but due to lack of time there won't be any captions. Enjoy! Well, the pictures are posting at top and I can only do a few at a time. More tomorrow maybe!!!

A Taste of my Book...

I haven't blogged in a looonnngg time. Sorry about that. Mostly it is because I am writing a book and it takes up most of my free computer time. Three people have read what I have written so far and that is my sister, best friend, and my best friend co-worker (and if they are telling the truth then they seem to like it...yea!). But I have had a lot of people asking me what the book is about so I thought I would post a little snippet here for you to read. It's a young adult fantasy. The part I am posting is my favorite part, but it is in the middle of the book so I apologize if anything is confusing. Also, the formatting got a little weird once I copied and pasted.

“Are you tired of moping around yet?” I knew the voice without having to lift my buried face away from my pillow. What was even more strange was how his voice seemed to comfort me, like the way my mother tucking me into my bed had once. Still, that didn’t mean that I wanted to let him see the mess that I had become. It didn’t seem to matter what I wanted because I was being lifted gently from the bed and forced to sit up. Damien grabbed my desk chair and moved it so that he was facing me and sat down. God only knew what was running through Damien’s head as he scanned my make-up smeared face and tangled hair. Disgust swept over his chiseled features, his lip curled up and he rolled his eyes.
“God, Sadie, you only knew the guy for like a week. I hardly think this revelation of who he really is qualifies for you to lock yourself in your room and prepare to become the wife of Frankenstein.”
I ignored his comment and contempt rose through me as I quietly asked, “Have you ever glamoured me?”
Realization dawned on his face and I thought I saw some hope flicker through his expression. He quickly gained composure and his steely mask was once again in place. “I don’t need to glamour anyone. Women fall at my feet begging me to take them as it is. I guess that explains your obsession with your boyfriend, though.”
“He’s not my boyfriend—anymore,” I said through gritted teeth. Damien shrugged as if my comment meant little to him.
My eyes closed, I muttered, “Why are you here anyway?”
“Because you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself and get up and train. The Malus won’t go easy on you just because you are upset that your boyfriend turned out to be the son of the head honcho.”
“Do you promise that you never glamoured me?” I had to know. I wasn’t sure what his answer would tell me or if I even wanted to confront any of the feelings that were coursing through every part of my body as I sat there and drank in Damien’s presence.
Damien looked straight into my eyes and leaned forward. “First, keep in mind that a promise from someone in the Malus doesn’t mean anything.” He ran a hand through his blonde hair and stood up, pacing the floor of my room. He turned towards me and said, “Sadie, let me be perfectly honest. I came to you in the parking lot that evening out of pure curiosity. News of this Chosen One had spread to even loners of the Malus like me. I ran into some acquaintances and we decided to check you out. I left that night hoping that I would never run into you again. Why would I try to glamour you? Being near you scared the hell out of me, for reasons that I have already mentioned.”
An idea formed in my mind and I stood up, walked across my room and put out a hand to stop his pacing form. He looked at me with interest.
“Kiss me,” I said quietly. I could see the heat flash across his eyes, desire and hunger intertwined together. He pulled me close to him, his clenched hands were at his sides, and brought his lips to where they were almost touching mine. My heart raced and I closed my eyes, yearning for contact.
He spoke softly but matter-of-factly, “Sadie, I am not going to participate in this experiment of yours to see if what you feel for Cole or for me is real. You are going to have to come to terms with that on your own.” I could feel his lips travel across my cheek and close to my ear, “When I kiss you for the first time it will be because you, without a doubt, know that you want me as much as I want you.”

So there it is. *blush* I'm loving writing it, even if nothing ever happens with it. I have 165 pages so far. I'll be writing tomorrow about my beautiful nieces' birthday tomorrow and sharing some pictures!! We had such an awesome time!

Pressley turns 2!!!

Pressley's birthday was Feb 4th and we had her birthday party this past Saturday at our house. Guests were: Daddy and Mommy, Nana and Pappy, MiMi and Papa, Aunt JJ, Aunt PP, Nanny, Grandpa Hoyt and Grandma Lillie, Grandfather Grier, Aunt Mary Anne, Aunt Mel Mel and Avary. I thank everyone for coming and honoring our little girl. She is precious and we are both so thankful that Miss P is our daughter. She is simply amazing. Here is a video of P blowing out the candles on her cake.

Sports, Being an American, Anne of Green Gables, and a Video

A varied blog, to be sure. So it seems that my sports teams have not fared well lately. Clemson lost the bowl game. Colts (my #1 NFL team) didn't make it to the playoffs and then the Panthers lost. Clemson lost their first basketball game to Wake Forest. And I was pulling for the Eagles since Brian Dawkins is a Clemson alum and then they lost. On the bright side, I think I saw the Clemson basketball team at Ingles. They must have been leaving early to miss the snow to play in NC on Wed.
Well, this is an exciting week for the American people. We have finally broken the boundaries and will have an African American president. Have you seen the clips of people hooping and hollering in ALL sorts of different countries when Obama was elected President? You know, I wasn't sure if I would ever see the day so I can only imagine how those older than me feel. It will be a very exciting day tomorrow and I can only say that I am extremely proud to be an American. We will be watching the inauguration tomorrow in my classroom.
I once went on a church choir trip in the 9th grade (I think it was 9th grade). We went to Florida and people took us in their homes and we sang at churches, etc. Heather Whitt and I spent two nights at a lovely couple's home. I remember them taking us to dinner. Anyway, they introduced us to the Anne of Green Gables movies (which, of course, are based off of the book). I remember that Heather and I stayed up almost all night watching the first video. We were enamored with Gilbert Blythe. We were tired the next night, but knew that it was are only chance to watch the sequel to see if Anne finally realized that Gilbert was the one for her. I think we fast forwarded through a good bit to the end.
I bought the series a couple of weeks ago. It had been 15 years since I had last seen it. I stayed up until 4:30 in the morning on Saturday night watching it (good thing Benjamin was home to let me sleep in a bit). I finished watching the second and third installments over the weekend. It was better than I had remembered it. And it made me think of my old friend, Heather.
Lastly, here is a video of Pressley. It shows her doing a lot of her current favorite tricks. She counts...sorta, she pretends to sleep and snore, and she loves to jump and be thrown around by her daddy...and then she screams (another favorite thing to do).