surprise!

I was going to post this the day after it happened (April 13th) but I just NOW got pictures, and we all know that blog posts without pictures can get boring ;)

Well my sister is officially a party ninja. Who knew? So remember my birthday post? honestly, that would rank as a boring birthday in my book, but I tried to make the best of it. Whew, its great to let that out...Well apparently the entire time my little sis was blowing me off, she was planning a surprise party for me and Sydney (the girl who brought me the cupcake, it was her birthday a couple weeks before mine). And I didn't suspect one teenie tiny thing. So my awesome friend Alyssa said she was going to take me and syd out for our birthdays since she was away at college when they happened. Leslie said she had to stay home and finish a paper but could we please come back and pick her up later. Of course I was like "NO WAY" that would be a waste of gas, time, money blah blah blah. You know, me, miss practical. Well she "convinced" Alyssa to do it and I was like whatever. So at this point I'm pretty upset at Leslie, one for not finishing her paper so that she could come with us, and two for not "giving a rip" about my birthday that entire week. Well we went shopping and came back. I charged into the house with the mindset of getting a coupon for Carrabas and telling Leslie to hurry up (me and my "practicality") only to be stopped short by blasting party music and streamers and balloons everywhere. Next thing I know I see Anna's beautiful face looking at me like she missed something (apparently syd and I were supposed to come in at the same time) and I see Jordan and Katie pop out. Then I can't see anything because my eyes are blurry from tears and Anna's shoulder. Let me clarify, I was not crying from shock but from the realization that  Leslie and mom, and everyone had actually done it. They had thrown me (and Sydney) a surprise party. Well needless to say the rest of the night was so much fun and I got awesome gifts, some handmade, and we danced and walked outside and I still smile when I think about it while I sit here typing this while drinking a Java Chip Frappuccino that I got a giftcard for that night as well. Here are some pictures and hopefully you will have an awesome sister like mine to throw you a surprise party. Goodness, now I really have to step it up for her birthday... ;)

Our food (minus the delish burgers). Anna made the cake, it was flourless! Who knew!? It was soooo good. the strawberries complimented it perfectly.

Me and Syd

Alyssa WROTE these for us.

Our friend Naomi DREW these, they were incredible. We did like them, we just didn't want to take any more pictures.

This is perfectly normal. I think it would take an entire blog post to explain those three, Naomi on the left, Anna on the right, and yes, that's my sister Leslie lounging like it's no big deal.

SUMMER

Sunglasses, flipflops, crazy hair and bugbites. SUMMER. I don't know why but for some reason I am so excited about this summer. It's probably because I feel like a real person this year. You know,  a job, aka, money, and a car and freedom (since I am a big girl now, 19). I have freedom to do what I want when I want! And now I can do those things without the guilt of not doing school. ;) Well I don't plan on being lazy, that's for sure. Lord willing I am going to fill up my time with lots of crazy awesome stuff. My legs already look beat up and summer has barely begun. We'll see if I can even recognize them by the end. Who knew that jeans protected your legs so much? And flipflops? I might as well say goodbye to my toes as well. Goodbye Toes, Legs, and oh yes, Hair. I might just cut you (hair) all off since I know you will be a crazy mess thanks to our good friend Humidity. Anywaaaaays. Everyday I plan on playing my poor abandoned flute; bike, swim, take a walk or anything outside; READ everything and anything that comes my way, hopefully some good, helpful books will get thrown in there; and take the time to do stuff I have never done and develop interests I have! We'll see how it goes, I'll keep you updated. :D For now I can say I already am working on being able to read Bass clef, so that eventually I can play the piano. Let me tell you, switching from bass to treble with Leslie singing at the top of her lungs gave me a super headache, but I am determined. I also have a newfound love for biking. hopefully I'll keep it up. I love that going up each hill is so rewarding, what goes up must come down. Hopefully I'll be able to hit a couple farmers markets and stock up on tea, REAL tea. yum. Oh right, how could I forget? FOOD. I just know good food is in my summer future. Now that I have TIME to actually make it/ taste it. I hope to go one new place every week or try something new. Let's see how all these resolutions go. Hopefully I'll keep them and by God's grace have an amazing summer. I hope everyone and anyone who reads this tries to fill up their summer too. You have so much free time to do what YOU want to do! Why waste it sleeping all day? Well, sleeping all the time anyways, I am definitely sleeping in on monday. ;)

Oh and remember this awesome nephew of mine? Well My sister is having another one :) yep thats right, there's a party in her belly, and prayefully in nine months, he'll have an awesome brother or sister.

It has taken over

Twitter has taken over my life, And it only took one day. I should have never gotten it on my phone.
And on a completely unrelated note. This is how I feel when I am reading a good book.

 

p.s. A post is soon to come about a wonderful surprise as soon as a certain blonde someone gets me her pictures...

Days swiftly come and go...

Guess what? Yesterday was my birthday! Yes sir/ma'am. I turned 19. One year left of teenagehood. I felt like it was my first grown-up birthday because, being home schooled and all, life usually stopped for my birthday, especially school. But apparently the University of West Georgia doesn't care that it was my birthday. I even had a presentation due. But enough with the sob story, let me tell ya the good things that happened. First of all mom had us all eat breakfast together. That was a rarity, since that hasn't happened since the summer, but it was nice. Then school went on as usual, except it turned out that a girl I have sat across from the entire semester had the same birthday! AND she was turning 19 too! I thought that was special. Anyways, SYDNEY MALONE really made my day. After I got home from school she came over and brought me a present and the most delicious cupcake from gigi's cupcakes. It was dark chocolate and had cream cheese icing which are probably my two favorite things. It was so delicious. She knows I pretty much get everything from amazon so she got me a giftcard. Good Job Syd, you know me well. Also my mom got me more tea. Did I mention I have a passion, more and obsession really, with tea? Hot tea. I love it. Anyways, also my cubbies were at their best last night. I don't know, maybe I tinted the whole day through birthday lenses but they were the cutest and funniest they have ever been and no one super misbehaved. But what really made the night was Mason. Remember him?

Let me just recap a little conversation we had last night. And no, he didn't know it was my birthday, yet.

Mason: I love you Emily!

Me: Aw, I love you too

Mason: Guess what? 

Me: What?

Mason: I'm gonna marry you (he snickered, like I had no choice)

Me: Marry me? But I'm going to be old...

Mason: How Old?

Me: Really old.

Mason: (thinking) Like with a cane to help you walk?

Me: (laughing a little) Yes.

MAson: Will you look different?

Me: Probably

Mason: (still not getting it) Well I'll still marry you....

Pause

Mason: (worried face) How will I recognize you? Will you still be the same color!?

Me: Yes! of course I'll be the same color, and don't worry I'll remind you who I am.

At that point I was laughing and the lesson was starting so he couldn't keep asking me questions, but he was so worried he wouldn't recognize me and that he would look different too. He's five by the way. Needless to say, that DEFINITELY made my day. when a little boy says he's gonna marry you no matter what. Unfortunately I don't think I'll wait for him. Poor thing, I'll have to break it to him gently... To end the day I went out with two friends and leslie (my sista) to Chick-fil-a and I got a strawberry shake AND their new amazing cookie. Don't judge, it was my birthday. Leslie and I then proceeded to walmart because the night was still young and we spent the entire time speaking in british accents. It was quite fun. 

This was my birthday dinner. Doesn't it look delicious?

What I can't believe is how quickly it came and went and how quickly time in general is passing, it's kind of scary to think so much time is slipping through our grasps, so my birthday resolution for my 19th year of life is to seize the moment and fill each day with as much as I can. Because I'll be in a cane and colorless before I know it.

JuJu

This really doesn't have to do with anything, but look at this picture my sister put of my nephew Julian on facebook! I love that little boy so much!

bows

Happy Easter everyone! I hope you remember why we celebrate today. It has nothing to do with bunnies distributing eggs (which they can't lay BTW, so there must be some chickens or platypus involved). It has to do with our risen Savior who took all our sins away! Today my family and grandparents ate lunch together at our house and we had delish hickory smoked honey ham, which my mom baked with pineapples. mmmmmmm. Plus amazing rice and tostones. What are tostones you may ask? Well, first of all, they are not "TOAST-TONES."  I don't know what toasted tones taste like, so don't ask. They are "TOH-STOH-NES" and they are amazing. Chopped, squashed, fried green plantains. That may not sound appetizing to you, but maybe this picture will help:

 

Doesn't that look good? Well we had that plus some rice with tiny noodles and salad, etc, In summary, a typical amazing meal cooked by my wonderful mother. Then Meylin and Mark (my older sister and her husband) came over with her little baby Julian, the most awesome nephew ever, and shared the Easter candy Mark's family gave them. Sadly my parents never picked up the tradition of Easter baskets, here in the states.Then I went for a bike ride and got to enjoy God's beautiful creation. Have you ever noticed just how perfect nature is? How everything is timed just right, and when things do go wrong, it repairs itself? It wouldn't be able to thrive so well if God hadn't created it so perfectly. Just another reason to be thankful for His work on the cross, without it, we wouldn't be here to enjoy it! And that would be a bummer. I feel like we should celebrate that day everyday, not just Easter weekend. Anyways, speaking of perfection, today, while everyone was taking a nap, I was preparing some gift bags to sell at a yard sale my church is doing for a mission trip we are going on this summer (more on that later). Well, I had to tie bows on them, and after seeing how perfect my mom's example one was, I figured I had to make mine match. Well, if you don't know me, hard as I might, I am not good at stuff like that. I prefer messy beauty, like a bunch of curled ribbon, or splatter paint, Stuff that no matter how you throw it, it's perfect :) Needless to say, these bows took me FOREVER. The longer I went, the less I tried. Eventually I realized that when I didn't think about it, and just let my fingers move automatically, the better they came out! SURPRISE! Isn't that awesome and weird? They looked natural and more pretty. Which got me thinking that things like that happen a lot in life. I love to control things, just ask anybody. I don't like not knowing what's going to happen and try to ensure things work out the way they are supposed to (or at least I think they should). That's why I already have a wrinkle on my forehead. ;) But when I let go and trust God to make things happened, and when I am more open-minded, I'm usually pleasantly surprised! Goodness, and to think it took tying a million bows to figure it out. Literally, I felt like Minnie in her "bowtique"... playhouse Disney...anyone?

just a little bit crazy

Hello Bloggers! I have something random to share with you today, but hey, our careers add to the flavors of life too...right???????

So whenever I tell people that my major is Early Childhood Education (by the way, in case you didn't know, my major is Early Childhood Education :p), they say things like "wow, you must have a lot of patience" or "I would never work with crazy screaming kids all day." Okay maybe people don't say that last one exactly, but I see it in their eyes, they either think I am a saint or think I'm crazy. Well... I MIGHT be a little crazy but that’s beside the point. Let me tell ya something... I LOVE kids. Especially the age where they are figuring things out. Sure I know that kids can be crazy sometimes, but tell me that you have never ever one time had a crazy moment in which you danced a random dance, or felt like jumping off the walls or had a temper tantrum. I know I have. The difference between us and kids is that we do it in secret.  Kids are more honest about it, they think "who cares if I wanna take my clothes of and streak through the leaving room", even though I wish everyone were more honest, we live in a world where adult streaking is not acceptable, so please don't leave this blog with the idea to go  for your next jog in your birthday suit. but I digress... The point is, I don't see what’s so crazy about wanting to help little kids figure out their way in the world. The Lord knows that we need more good teachers who can give good influences to these kids, which is one of the reasons I think He put this in my heart... Ending on that nice sappy (but true) note, I have one more argument for my case. Look at these pictures and tell me you don't want to spend everyday with these cutie pies :)

As I was taking these through-out the week I fell even more in love with kids and teaching etc. So go find something you think you like and get involved, take pictures, make more notice of it and you will probably end up liking it more.

 p.s. everyone one of these cuties are involved in my life, please don't think I am a creep who takes random pictures of kids.

 This is my nephew Julian! he is the cutest, most precious baby in the world! Look at his little hippo teeth in the top left picture. So cute! He has quite the personality too.

This kid is one of the  Taylor's kids. My sister and I babysit for them. He is the youngest and probably the craziest. Well they are all crazy. but I love them anyways. (Don't worry, scissors can only cut playdough). Last time I went to their house we made chocolate chip cookies from an Arthur cookie mix box. They were everything but Gluten free. Did you know that Binky has food allergies?

Drum Roll Please... These are my Cubbies! Don't they look like an awesome bunch of kids!? Wouldn't you want to teach them everyday? And this is only half of them. I am a Cubbie Leader every week and every 5th week I get to teach the lesson and plan the night's. We have had some interesting but fun times.

 These are kids that I watch every thursday and friday (top and bottom) They are super fun and as you can see in the top right, a little mischievous. I'm pretty sure these twin two year-olds (yes, I wrote that write. TWIN TWO-year-olds) were plotting their escape, which they eventually did. They are so tiny they fit through a gap in the fence. The older one, (bottom) he's five. He is always reenacting angry birds and mario. It's great. 

There, now you have it, my life is overrun with little kids and I love it! You'll just have to get over it.