Baby Troy

Julie Sammons is one of my best friends from college.  We had a class together our first semester at Harding and soon after meeting discovered we lived in the same dorm.  We instantly became good friends.  During our first year at Harding we also met Briana and the three of us lived together for couple of years during college.  Although we have been out of college for five years and live hundreds of miles apart, we all have remained very close.  We have traveled to France together and been in each other's weddings.  The three of us have the kind of friendship that will last a life time!

Julie and me in Paris

June 2006

June 2008

July 2010

Last night Julie had her first baby!  She told us at Briana's wedding this summer that she was expecting and we have been anxiously awaiting this sweet baby's arrival ever since.  

Without further ado...

Troy Cotton Sammons

7.7 lbs  19 3/4 in

 

I can't wait to fly out to Houston and meet this adorable bundle of joy!!  Congrats Julie and Justin!!!

In West Philadelphia

This weekend I had a chance to visit one of my best friends from Harding.  Sara is in the PHD program for school pychology and was placed in Philadelphia for a year with the internship program.  I flew into Philly about 6:30 Friday night and we went to dinner then just chilled at her apartment the rest of th evening.  Saturday morning we slept in then got lunch at this little hole in the wall place.  They didn't have tables so we had to get our lunch to-go.  The problem we had on Saturday was the crazy weather!  First of all it was 44 degrees, but on top of that we had 55-60 mph winds!  It was a bit frigid.  Because of the coldness we ate our Philly Cheese Steak sandwiches in the car at the Valley Forge National Park.

 I didn't take a single picture on Saturday because it was just too dang cold!  But we did see a few sights...we went to the Philadelphia Art Museum and saw the steps that Rocky ran up in the first movie.  We toured around then went back to her apartment for dinner and a movie.

Sunday morning we slept late again then headed downtown to the historic part of the city.  The weather was a little warmer, but so much better because of the lack of wind.  First we toured the building where Benjamin Franklin had his printing press.  Then we went to Independence Hall and saw where the Declaration of Independence was signed.

The printing press and post office in front of where Benjamin Franklin's house used to be.

This statue represents all the men who signed the Declaration of Independence

This is the acual chair that George Washington sat it!

The signing room

Independence Hall

At the Liberty Bell, I was getting my picture taken when everyone started clapping.  We turned around a couple had just gotten engaged!  Kinda a random place for an engagement...but it must have been special to them!  I just hope they don't have a red, white, and blue themed wedding.

The LOVE Park

 Sunday night we ate dinner at Baja Fresh then went back to her apartment AGAIN to hang out and watch a movie.  Even though we didn't do a whole lot of running around, we still had loads of fun.  It was great to see an old friend.  I forget how much I miss my Harding girls now that we are grown up and living all over the country.

Sara and Waldo

A few thoughts...

 

 

"For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future...'"
- Jeremiah 29:11

 

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own."

-Matthew 6:34

My Favorite Valentine

I love this man with all my heart...he will forever be my favorite Valentine!

The Great Flood

As I lay here in bed I think about how I SHOULD be going to sleep seeing how I have class tomorrow morning...but I just can't seem to fall asleep.  You see, I have a lot on my mind right now...starting with the fact that our kitchen flooded today.

 AHHHHH!!!

Let me start at the beginning...

I was on my way home from class today when J called.  He said Lee (our neighbor and good friend) had just called him because he saw water flowing from our garage door.  Well, Lee knows the code to our garage and let himself in only to find the hose from the washing machine had busted and there was an arch of water streaming out of it.  He quickly turned the water off and began pulling wet things out of our garage. (Did I mention what a good friend he is!?!?)  I got home shortly after to find my entire kitchen flooded with water.  I immediatly grabbed the camera and starting taking pics for insurance sake (and of course for the blog...hehe)

I know this looks bad, but I promise I do vacuum my house.  The nastiness on the floor is what floated out from under the washer and dryer and fridge.

The little hole that started it all!

This may not seem like a lot of water...but when it covers you kitchen floor and is slowing creeping across your carpet to reach your new couches...its a big deal!

 

The water somehow managed to seep through the wall and run outside the house.  Even the back porch was wet.

 After we moved out all the kitchen furniture and various wet things from the house, J and Lee started sweeping the water out.  THANKFULLY the water reached about a foot away from my beautiful new couches so we wanted to get as much of the standing water out before it continued to spread.  The crazy part was water had gotten underneath our linoleum floor and the whole floor started to bubble up.

 Soon after our dads arrived on the scene and pulled out the wet/dry vac things.  Whatever those things are, they're amazing.  It pulled in all the standing water on the hard floor and even some of the water from the carpet.  We had most every thing cleaned up by the time the clean up crew came.  They made my house unrecognizable.

 So now we wait.  All of these fans and heaters have to stick around until Monday and then Nationwide will send someone in to assess the damages.  I'm really hoping we can get some new carpet out of this fiasco.

Busy Busy

I feel like nothing has been going on in our lives...at least nothing worth blogging about.  The reality is we have had a lot going on lately.  We had a great weekend of dinner with friends, shopping, birthday parties, church, errands, and the Super Bowl.  This week has been non-stop already and its only Thursday.  I work in the Afterschool Program at our school a few days a week.  This week I worked Monday and Wednesday and on Tuesday we had a parent's night at school.  That was three days in a row that I got home 6:30 or later.  This weekend is already booked as well...Friday and Saturday I have Montessori classes and J is spending Saturday in NC with his family.  Its like J and I only see each other in passing.  Sometimes our lives get so busy and other times we sit around watching hours of tv/movies and taking naps.  Those are my favorite weekends!  Here's to lazy weekends...hopefully we'll have one sometime in the near future!  LoL!

Couches

Happy Valentines Day to us!

J and I were going to paint the living room as our Valentine's present to each other.  We have owned our house just short of three years and its still painted the builder's color...aka...a nice shade of "blah."  Along with painting our living room we wanted to purchase some new couches.  The couches we had were given to us and while we greatly appreciated it, we wanted to eventually buy some that were a little more stylish, new, and less used.  On Saturday after we went fabric shopping for our pillows we decided to look at furniture to get an idea of what we wanted.  We stopped at Whit-Ash just to do some window shopping, and left as the proud new owners of a leather couch and loveseat.  We really were not planning on buying anything right now, but we got such an amazing deal on the two of them that we couldn't resist.

Lorelai is already loving our new additions to the living room.  I must say, she has good taste!

She also loves to help me blog and the new couch is a very comfy place to do this.

Now that we have a nice new place to rest...we'll be painting a little later than we thought.  :)