Blogiversary!!

 Today marks one calendar year of blogging here on Keeping Up With The Kizziahs!! I have really enjoyed having an a place to share my thoughts on life, projects, and general ramblings of my oh-so-amusing life as a teacher. Thank you for all your wonderful comments and for reading this here old blog...you make a girl feel good :) 

In honor of the momentous occasion have I decided to re-cap the amazing year this blog has captured! Here's to another fantabulous year of blogging!!

{1} I survived a major eye infection and near blindness...okay I exaggerate...a little.  

{2} Recorded the Amazing and entertaining lives of our adorable pooches (here, here, here, here, and here) 

{3} Shared my favorite You Tube videos (see YouTube Tuesday)

{4} Learned all about Florida's unique insect population

{5} Began the massive task of turning a house into a home through various projects from headboards, to lamps, to new tiles in the kitchen (see Home renovation and decor)

{6} Decorated our casa for all the holiday seasons (fall, Halloween X2, & Christmas)

{7} Attempted my first furniture redo's (a sewing table, and a night stand)

{8} Shared with the blogging world all the non-English hilarious sayings of my husband (That's What He Said Label)

{9} Celebrated one year of wedded bliss to my favorite man!!

{10} Announced and tracked my first pregnancy with our little boy, Walters! 

Whew!! Seems like A-Lot happened this year!! Can't wait to see what next year holds when our family of 2 becomes a family of 3 :) Thanks for reading yall!!

Love Day...

First of all, have you missed me? We have been without internet for about a week and a half...ugh!! For the record, I hate all internet companies! It seems no matter which state I am, they are all awful. With that being said, I'm back to blogging! Yay! I know you are all jumping for joy!! :) 

So with my minor blip in internet service I couldn't even post pictures from my most dreaded favorite Holiday, Valentine's Day. I actually really don't enjoy the holiday. Not because I have been scarred by any horrible past experience, I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic and would much rather get a lovely gift on the random 3rd Wednesday of the month than on a set "expected" day. Does that make since? Anyway, boy does my hubby know me well. Here's a look at my D-day V-day present...

A candy bouquet!! So much better than roses!! I'm a lucky woman!

Macy was feeling the love too...

Hope you all had a wonderful Valentine's Day or S.A.D. day (single's awareness day) as my student's so lovingly refer to it...

Feliz Cumpleanos

Today's post goes out to my one of a kind hubby on his 31st birthday. I am unbelievably blessed to have married such a wonderfully selfless, Godly man who for some reason has decided to love me back :) We have had a whirl-wind birthday weekend complete with a hay ride, bonfire, spaghetti dinner, a bout with the stomach bug, and wonderful gifts from the wonderful people in our lives. 

For those of you who know my Adam, you know that being celebrated is not something he has always been accustomed too. Growing up in a children's home, and being essentially parent-less, birthdays haven't always been a big deal in his life. Well time for that to change. Here's to you Adam!! My best friend, and partner in life. I celebrate you for all you are and all you will become. You light up my life, bring me infinite joy, and hold my hand as we navigate this newlywed journey together. You are amazing, handsome, smart, and HILARIOUS!! I can't imagine my life without you.

Happy Birthday!! 

I love you now and forever. 

 

Beautiful...

Look what came in the mail today....

The charm at the bottom!

 I am absolutely in love with my new necklace. It's incredibly long, and made up of beautiful granite colored beads with a few diamond accent beads. It's a custom piece from the fabulous jewelry company,  Honesty, which you can see here. The designer, Nicole Jones, is the wife of Atlanta Braves baseball player Andruw Jones, and is absolutely adorable. She came and did a jewelry show at my aunt's Christmas party over the holidays, and was just so adorable to hang out with. She allowed me to pick the beads I wanted and modify one of her signature necklaces just a little bit! It's so very me, and I just adore it!! Can't wait to sport my new bling in my oh-so-glamourous-teacher life. Hey, a girl can dream, huh?

Making the Most of 2011...

I intrrupt your regularly scheduled blog post of Youtube Tuesday because I have absolutely nothing worthy of a blog post to share I wanted to share publicly my goals for 2011. Still weird to type that. 2011, 2011, 2011, 2011. It will only take me 11.5 months and several hundred voided checks later to get the year correct, and then it will be 2012. Whoa. Even weirder. I digress. 

 I actually really did want to write out my goals for the year. I have tried the typical New Year's Resolution more times than I can actually count, only to tire of the pressure, forget about them, or realize that I never really cared about a "resolution" to begin with. So this year, I hope to just set realistic goals for the betterment of my life, and share them with you all for some accountability :)  Are you tired of my lists yet?!?! I am SOOOO Type A, I just can't help myself. I have lists floating around every room of the house. Anyway, here goes...

{1} Start Running. I want to be able to run to stay in shape, but also come to that place where I actually enjoy the activity. I always watch in awe at the women I see running. They must have so much time to think or not thing, whichever is more relaxing.  So my goal is to run a 5k by the end of the year, or at least be able too, and then we'll see what happens.  

{2} Drink 64 ounces of water each day. Anyone who knows me well,  knows this will be QUITE the challenge. 

{3} Only order water when I'm out to dinner. Primarily to cut back on the budget and on soft drink intake, but also to aide in goal #2. 

{4} Read through the Bible in one year. I am already behind on the schedule, but that's why there's a whole year right?!?! Or atleast I am telling myself that. Seriously, though, I too often forget about the not so "popular" (for lack of a better word) parts of the Bible that really help paint the whole picture of just how great God's plan has been, is, and always will be. 

{5} Fold the clean laundry within 1 hour of its completion in the dryer. I have developed a bad habit of leaving them in the dryer, because I already did all the work/ they are clean/ I'm lazy. The hubs and I both despise the putting away of the laundry, but I have decided that if I start the load, I will see it through to completion. Sounds so deep, huh?? Not sure if this will result in more or less laundry actually getting done :) 

{6} Learn to like my hair. This has been a life-long battle for me. I wish I could say  "Love" but I think that might be pushing it a little. So for now, I want to like my hair, learn to deal with its "do whatever it wants too attitude" (yes it has attitude), and accept that I just don't have super model hair like my adorable twin sissy. I like to think of it as eccentric!!

{7} Excercise 3 times a week or more. Kinda goes along with #1, but it doesn't always have to be running. 

{8} Smile and Kiss the hubs when he comes home from work every day. Even if its been one of those never ending horror story kind of days, or one of those I can't believe I am picking up all YOUR crap kind of days, or I really don't feel like talking kind of days...even still I will put on my big girl panties and greet my wonderful man with a smile and a kiss. 

{9} Play with Macy more. Well play might be an exxageration as she simply doesn't like to move very much, but at least I could give her a little more attention in between her snoring fests. 

{10} Organize the office/junk hole/ crafting area/ tractor graveyard!!! I have plans, but gotta get on it!!

So what are your goals for the new year?? Do you think I am a crazy woman yet??

Happy New Year Everyone!!

Yep, We're in the south

     I spent this past weekend with 76,000 SEC football fans at the biggest cocktail party in the world Georgia/Florida game here in Jacksonville. If you have never had a chance to attend this incredible event, it should definitely top your bucket list, as I am convinced there is truly nothing like it! Complete with scantily clad sorority girls, redneck tailgates, a healthy rivalry in the atmosphere, and of course a hefty count of jean shorts, it was truly a sight to behold. 

I can't quite compete with the 18 year old sorority style anymore (apparently shirts worn as dresses and cowboy boots are the latest trends), well really I never could, but I did brew up some read and black for the occasions. I wore a black and white Old Navy t-shirt dress which I got for $10.00!! I bought some cheap red cotton fabric from JoAnne and made a fabric sash for the middle and then created 2 different red flower headbands to tie the rest of the look together.  (I'll post tutorials tomorrow). 

We arrived to begin our tailgating festivities at 9 AM.  Yes, you read that right, a full 6.5 hours before kick off, as any die hard bulldog fan would do, complete with a two table spread of food, country music blaring from our 3 pick-up trucks, and a circle of bull dog and John Deere chairs. Bet you can't guess who contributed the green and yellow to the mix?!?! It was really a perfect day, spending time with new friends and even catching up with some of my Athens buddies. Although it ended tragically (read: bulldogs lost in overtime),  a good time was had by all. 

Here are some pics of our fun-filled weekend...

Love Her!!!

All the Georgia fans

 They literally divide the stadium in half in the end zones. It's an amazing sight to see one half orange and blue, one half red and black...

Souce

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!!

Trick Or Treat

       Have I told you that I love Halloween? We had such a blast last night (the real Halloween)! Can you believe that some people actually change the day of trick-or-treating? Well not here in J-ville! the 31st equals trick-or-treating even if it is a school night! 

Adam and I bought $35.00 worth of candy and were wiped out in literally an hour. It was A-mazing. And that was with me rationing it out at 2 pieces per kid. Geez!! There was even a Halloween train. Like literally a train. Well a mule with a bunch of trailers attached carrying what seemed like an army of dressed up kiddos, but still a train of children. 

     By the end of the night we were hiding in our living room with all the lights out, trying to ignore the constant door bell ringing and knocking. Apparently there were some hungry kiddos who Really wanted some candy :) He he! Our favorite costume of the night had to be a teenage mutant ninja turtle....

 I didn't even know kids were still into them, but I was obsessed as a kid, and I loved seeing a little bit of retro in the Halloween costume department. 

Our front porch was decorated with a combination of real and fake pumpkins in a semi-monogrammed theme. I took some "carvable" fake pumpkins that I got for $10.00 at the Hobby Lobby, painted them white, and then painted one with our initials shaped like bugs (Idea from Young House Love) and glued some trim to the other ones to end up with a cute little black and white pumpkin spread. Yes, I know you can actually buy white pumpkins, but I wanted something I could use every year, so I went the fake route. Here is the result...

 For our real pumpkins I got lazy creative and decided to use my power tools to help speed along the pumpkin carving process. Here's I am in action...

making my "power tool" face as instructed by the hubs :) Oh and pleeeeeeaaaaase excuse the dirty kitchen :(

Here is the result of my damage drilling...

 And here it is all together on our front porch with some hay bails...

 Very festive don't ya think?!? Oh and I couldn't leave you without a shot of my "candy" man...

I think he had as much fun as the kiddos. Who am I kidding...I definitely had the most fun! Overall we had a really fun weekend full of tailgating and candy giving, minus the minor mishap that was the Georgia game :( My poor little dawgies didn't end up on top. More to come on tailgating and outfit making...

Hope you all had a very happy Halloween too!!

Signing Off...

I'm off to the beautiful St.Simons Island, Georgia with the hubs! Going to see my most favorite person in the world....GRANDMOTHER!!!

 

Jealous yet?!?!

I'm Alive/ Don't let the love bugs bite?

Hello everyone out there in blog land/ my 9 faithful followers (I LOOOOVE you all!!)! I am happy to report that I am alive and well after a week of my body rebelling against being a teacher surrounded by germy kids (better known as sickness). The hubs and I have been out of commission for the past week, but I am feeling better and raring to go. On a side note this is the FOURTH September in a row where I have missed 1-7 days of work due to allergy related illness. Do you think I should be considering a different carreer option? That actually crossed my mind until today's 1st period Spanish II class occured when I was reminded why i love the adolesence of America...

Background info: I had been noticing enormous amounts of little black and orange bugs EVERYWHERE. I mean literally Shanequa's grill appears to be a bug cemetery at the current moment, not a plot left to find. On my drive home in the afternoons they literally dive into my car's windshield like kamikaze pilots. More annoying than that, apparently they are drawn to spray paint which has halted my furniture re-purposing quite a bit,  as little black dots don't go well with painted things.

Story: one of these said bugs lands on my desk this morning. I proceeded to ask the class, "What are all these little black bugs everywhere?" Can of worms OPENED! One would think I would have learned not to ask such non-educational questions as they seemingly always end up in a 20 minute off-topic tangent, but I did. So one of my straight out of the movie Clueless preppy female students responds by saying,  "They are LOVE bugs, duh! And they like "do it" in the air and stuff!" in the most California valley girl voice one could possibly make, despite the fact that we are in deliverance country Florida. I can't remember the last time I heard the word duh and the phrase "doing it" in the same sentence, but it was about all I could do not to bust out laughing at that very moment.

She was referring to when these little honeymooner flies are attached together! Hilarious! Whether or not they are "doing- it" procreating? I have NO idea. But frankly the idea of being surrounded by LOVE BUGS all day is kinda cute, despite the fact that they are destroying my clean car! Here's to hoping you have a love filled weekend! I promise to be back to blogging next week!

P.S. I realize this is my second bug posting. I am in no way interested/like/enjoy such specimens...just too good of a story to not share!!

Weekly Wrap Up

Since it's Friday, HALLELUJAH!! I thought I would give you all a little Kizziah round up of the highlights of yet another exciting week in our lives :)


1.  Had a successful yard sale on Saturday. We managed to make $135.75!! Woo Hoo! I was going to be so happy to make $50.00. I mean who even wants our junk anyway? Needless to say I was pleasantly surprised and super excited to have a much cleaner garage to begin my demolition projects in! He he!!
   

2. Learned that there are actually people, well one person, that come to yard sales, stick their hands in the back of your recliner looking for loose change, get dissapointed when they don't find anything, and return to their car without looking at any other items or saying hello?! Can you believe this!! Hilarity!!

3. Spent all of aforementioned yard sale money to complete the bedroom renovation and manged to blog about it!

4. Spent 3 hours trying to figure out how my students could record something online only to find out I needed to hit one button that I couldn't manage to see by myself :( Darn technology!!

5. Purchased this really old antique sewing table for $4.00 at a yard sale in Keystone. It's in pretty bad shape, but I can't wait to fix'er up!! Still debating the color, but I'm thinking a beautiful Apple Red...what ya think?

6. Made a DELICIOUS new pasta recipe that I will share soon, and managed to ruin perfectly good chocolate cookies :( Adam ate them anyway. He's sweet like that and pretends to like everything that I cook, despite some of its inedible nature.

7. Discovered that Key Stone actually has a Subway! Just about the most exciting day I have had in a while considering I am teaching it what some might refer to as deliverance territory and there is literally 2 stop lights in the whole town (they are proud of this).

8. Finished several projects: 2 lamp shade re-dos (coming to a blog post near you), made a chalk holder to be attached to our new chalk board, and purchased supplies for the sewing table re-do and the dining room light fixture re-do.

9. I am officially one FULL week ahead in my lesson planning and one FULL week behind in my house cleaning! Is there something wrong with this picture? Nah!

10. Adam got a long over do hair cut and looks ever so handsome again! I have really got to learn how to cut his hair. I swear it grows like a weed. I don't know how you men keep up with such maintenance. I'm a twice a year hair cut kinda girl, but that's probably also because i NEVER do my hair. One of my students actually purchased me a curling iron last year as a Christmas present hoping that I would, "do something to make my self look better!?! he he! I'm not offended! Just makes me love the crazy world of teaching even more!

11. Started an ear-wash regiment to attempt to get rid of the HORRIBLE stankness coming from our pup's ear.

12. Fell in love with the song "Just the way you are" by Bruno Mars because I'm a completely dorky sap like that!! But isn't it so catchy?!?

So that's it! What did you get done this week?? Hope you have a fabulous weekend! GO DAWGS!

Happy Labor Day!

Does anyone actually know what Labor Day celebrates? Irregardless I am super pumped not have had to work today. It's amazing to me how a 4 day week in a high school go by SOOOO much more quickly than a regular week.

Anyway, the hubby and I spent the day at the pool with our lovely neighbors and their 4 precious children. We ate and swam and relaxed.  But on a much more important note....my husband met his long lost twin today.

Long story short, Alan is related to our neighbors in some crazy way, but I swear to you he is "kin" to my husband in some way. I watched in amazement as they reminced together about Jerry Clower stories (don't feel bad if you don't know who this is, even though it is apparently blasphemous for a Georgia girl not to know this), used words from the backwoods that I don't even know the meaning of, and basically had the entire audience rolling in laughter all afternoon.  I have always referred to Adam as my Mississippi cowboy, and today I was seeing double.

Despite my most diligent efforts to "groom" my John Deere loving, wrangler wearing, farmer wannabe husband, he has remained true to his Mississippi roots, and i wouldn't have it any other way. My only conditions has been and will remain that I would move with him to any farm in the country, just so long as it's within 20 miles of a Target  :) So here's to you Adam (and your long lost twin)...."Ain't no one better for me"!!

Thoughts on the day of birth...

I contemplated titling this post "Who knew I had so many facebook friends?" but decided against it. Isn't it funny how many people wish you happy birthday? Not that I don't appreciate it. In fact, I felt a little popular to have so many posts :)

As yesterday marked my "I'm closer to 30 now than 20" birthday, I felt it only appropriate to ask a very bewildering question....Why does nobody discuss the doom of turning 25? Sure there is plenty of talk of the 50 year old buy a farari, die my hair, and get a young girlfriend Mid-life crisis, but why does no one pay homage to the fact that 25 marks a quarter century of living and a mild, but temporary depressive state, if you're me, that is? I think I am officially facing my QUARTER LIFE CRISIS! (a proper medical diagnosis is still pending)

But in all seriousness, a lot has happened to me in the last year of my life. I got engaged, spent 10 stressful months planning our wedding, quit my job that i loved, moved to FLORIDA of all places (GO DAWGS!!), and started work at a not so diverse high school, to put it lightly. Take any one of these events in isolation, not such a big deal, but all together makes for a pretty interesting transition period.

So how have you handled all this, you may ask? Well I have begun to embrace my 5 am wake-up call, started a blog, and began the "nesting" process with a bang. This includes asking for an electric sander for my birthday (projects to be posted later) and frequent trips to the orange and blue home improvement stores. Please don't tell me if you hate my "reveals"...i am not sure my soul could take it! he he!!

Anyway, just to commemorate the birthday, I leave you with a picture of my twin sis and I when we were just little girls. Happy Birthday Ashley!! Don't you wish we could go back to the simple life? No, not really! I'm pretty happy with my new hubby and life, just still a girl trying to figure it all out!!

Hope you have a great day!!

Be Kind To Your Eyes....

As I write this I have officially been wearing my glasses for 14 days! (This is not a happy exclamation point, by the way) For anyone who knows me well, my "goodnight" routine consists of throwing on my pajamas, quickly un-tucking every cover on the bed, grabbing Andre, and snoozing. This, however, leaves little time for those minor details such as washing one's face, and more importantly removing the contacts. I know, I know....my grandmother is cringing as I write.

Well after 5 years of eye abuse, my little guys decided to fight back resulting in a swollen inflamed eye and a trip to the local lens crafters :( Iritis, corneal scratches, 2 prescriptions later, 2 doctors visits (1 still to come tomorrow) and the verdict is out....I AM NOT A GLASSES WEARER!

Below please find the reasons why I loathe those medal framed magnifyers known as glasses.....

One:  I live in Florida, I drive in Florida. The SUNSHINE state!  Equaling a perma-squint and impending crow's feet. Enough said!

Two: Clearly the inventor of glasses was a male as he never considered how one might apply make-up either while wearing glasses, or worse yet, removing them. Can we say clown face?

Three: I am convinced that my eyes don't acknowledge that my body is awake without the presence of plastic contacts inserted resulting in sleepy feeling eyes ALL the time.

Four: And then there is the nerd push-up! I have yet to determine a more subtle or attractive manner in which to push up frames that are sliding down my nose other than the classic one-finger push-up in the center of the frames. Picture steve-urkle...not pretty.

I in know way mean to offend all you glasses-wearing beauties out there, I am just simply not one of them. I feel much more like the 80 year old librarian than the attractive boy fantasy version.  And apparently I actually look much more like a 17 year old girl than a soon-to-be 25 year old married woman as my eye doctor so kindly informed me that, " he would try very hard to have me out of glasses by the time my birthday rolls around. He knows that is VERY important to me!" I mean, cmon, do I really still look young enough to care about my birthday outfit? Sigh...this is what I get for having a baby face!

Wish me luck tomorrow....

Taylor