School's Out for the Summer

I am officially done with work for the summer...wahoo! I am now officially tenured...wow, that fact completely blows my mind. Seems like I just finished grad school the other day. It's hard to believe I have officially been an "adult" and been working for 3 whole years! I am looking forward to relaxing and spending lots of time with friends and family this summer...especially the DB!!

I took the Reb with me on the last day of school to capture some pics of my kids and my room. Since I work with children with special needs, I unfortunately can't post any pics of my precious kids...Boo! I was definitely ready to see the end of May arrive, but I have to admit I will miss my kid-os. They teach me things everyday and they definitely keep me on my toes!!

I won't be seeing this area until August...yay!!!

I said good-bye to Edward and told him I'd see him on the big screen in June!!!

Sidewalk chalk on the playground at school

Happy Memorial Day weekend everyone! Let the fun times of summer officially begin!!!

Do Dah Day

Saturday morning, I headed down to Southside for Do Dah Day with the Crowes. For those of you not familiar with Do Dah Day, it is all for dogs. And I have to throw out the minor detail that we don't have a dog!!! I never grew up with a pet, still don't own one, and neither do the Crowes. But, we thought that the DB would love to be around all the pups, so we loaded on our sunscreen and headed out.

It was a beautiful day to be out and about in Birmingham. I have never seen so many dogs in one place! We got to see some crazy costumes on the dogs...my favorite was the pink tutu!! haha I am making a conscious effort to do more things around our great city...I'm trying to branch out and take advantage of all the fun activities The Magic City has to offer. Do Dah Day was lots of fun and I'm looking forward to going back next year!

It was a beautiful day outside!!

DB was strapped in and ready to roll!

DB wanted to run everywhere!!

We made a pit-stop at Rojo for some drinks and chips!

She loved the dogs....and the chips!

"Chip, Chip, Chip please!"

She was ALL OVER Rojo!!

I had to take a pic of her new pink sandals....so cute!

Sister and me

This just cracked me up...the "Water Break" area for the dogs!

We kept seeing all these greyhounds...they were HUGE!

DB and her Mommy

Party Time for Allison and Ben

The wedding festivities have officially begun for Allison and Ben!! We started off the weekend on Friday with an Around the House shower at Fuego Cantina. All of the wedding party and a few close friends hosted the shindig....and what a shindig it was! We had a great crowd and I think a good time was had by all. I forgot to mention that we even had a band rockin' for us most of the night!

Saturday night was their offical Engagement party. It was held at the Ashford's beautiful home in Mtn. Brook. The weather was amazing and the party was gorgeous. With two parties in one weekend, it makes me very excited about their upcoming nuptials in July!!!

Me, Caroline, Britt, "The Bride to Be", and Casey at Fuego Cantina

Engagement Party

Bailey, Casey, me, Allison, Britt, and Bess

This is our "High School" pic in the bathroom!

After the Engagement Party we went to Otey's!!

3 of the Lucas sisters, Jill, Bess, Casey, Britt and me

on the patio at Otey's

Let the countdown officially begin for July 10, 2010!!! But before the big day, there will be an amazing Bachelorette Party in June!!!!!!!

Brittany and Andrew's Wedding Weekend

Brittany and Andrew's wedding weekend was one for the records! We all had an absolutely wonderful time and I'm extremely depressed that it's over!! Casey, Bailey, Allison, and I loaded up on Thursday afternoon and headed over to ATL to spend the night with Bess and Jason. On the way over, we had a blast telling our favorite Brittany memories while working on our speech for the rehearsal dinner....Britt is the best poem writer, so we were a bit nervous we wouldn't be able to pull it off without her, but I think we did ok!

Despite the storms, the weekend went off without a hitch! Brittany was a beautiful bride and Andrew was an equally handsome groom. The two were literally beaming all weekend. As I like to say, "My cup runeth over" for the two of them and the new life they have begun togeher. It is a blessing they got married when they did, because if not, my parents might have been home when the tornado hit. Gotta look for the silver lining somewhere! Enough with the words about the weekend...I'll tell about the weekend through pictures!

Getting into town on Thursday night

Bridesmaid's Luncheon at Swann's Coach House

Bess, Melanie, Casey, "The Bride", Bailey, and Allison

Britt and me

We got the cutest aprons for BM presents! I was thrilled that she gave me a PINK one!! haha

All of the Bridesmaids

We had a little "indoor" pool time before checking in at the hotel

Bess and Bails

The Sisters at the Rehearsal....I LOOOVE that they're wearing orange and blue!

Britt and me at the Rehearsal Dinner at the Atlanta Athletic Club

Allison, Sally, Casey, JJ, and me

All the girls with the Bride to Be!!!

Casey and I are ready to head to the church!

Bess always keeps us cracked up!!!

The beautiful Bride taking a peek out at all the people walking in the church!

All the Focker Bridesmaids

Bails and Porter at the reception

Singing "Shades"

I think this was our best performance of "Rugged But Right!"

All the Chi-O girls

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Cyganiewicz!!!! I hope y'all are having a blast in St. Lucia right now and we can't wait to see y'all next weekend!!!!

Tornado

Not sure where to start...On Saturday night, a tornado hit my hometown of Albertville. Specifically, my street, East Main St. was hit particularly hard. Thankfully, my parents were out of town when the storm hit. Our street has pretty much been destroyed. We live in the historic district of town which is full of beautiful, extremely old trees and houses. If you walked down my street (and you can't drive down it now) right now, you would not recognize it. I am so thankful I had lots of pics of how it looked before. (view Easter post) It's really hard to even put the damage into words...Sister had preffed me on the damages, but it didn't hit home with me until I actually saw it for myself. When I initially arrived on Sunday afternoon, I literally did not recognize my house or my street and I of course cried for a long time. It seems surreal right now...like I'm in a nightmare, but am going to wake up and it will all be back to normal.

My family is particularly blessed because our house did not fair quite as bad as many others on our street. There are lots of houses left completely without roofs and windows, TONS of fallen trees and other damages. We had a few trees fall through our attic which has caused water damage upstairs and countless tress fell. Also, there was a lot of damage to our garage. But the thankful thing is that there were no fatalities in the tornado. Unfortunately, we're still without power at this time. A HUGE shoutout to our amazing family and friends who have all pitched in to help...Aunt Jenn and Uncle D, the Sprouses, the Ross', and the Casey's. We couldn't have made as much progress thus far without y'all. You know it's a pretty bad scenario when you see Governor Riley out in front of your house surveying all the damage.

East Main St..this view is standing right in front of my house, looking towards the highway

Uncle D, Dad, and Mr. Rusty patching up the roof

A view from our 2nd floor porch...looks like a bomb has been dropped.

We have to park at CVS and then walk up the street...this is Day 2 of disaster relief/clean-up

Looking up towards our house

These lights somehow ended up turned in the exact position....kind of creepy!

Back driveway/yard

I thought I'd pose with a few of the fallen trees. :(

This view shows directly across the street from our house...yes, one of those houses completely lost their roof.

Our beautiful cherry trees are no more!

Our family appreciates all the prayers and thoughts sent our way! Please continue to pray for the whole city of Albertville and all the people affected by the storm. Houses can be rebuilt, but lives cannot...that is the important thing to remember!!!!!!