Zoo of Acadiana

First, a short History lesson. The French came to the New World and landed in the Canadian Acadia Region. These same French were run out of Acadia in the 17th century and moved themselves to Louisiana. Once in Louisiana, the Acadians became known as Cajuns. Well, now that we are here, I have learned that our Region in Louisiana is known as Acadiana. There are 22 Parishes that are categorized this because of their similar culture. For us, this means that we get to live among the "real" Cajuns...




On our first Saturday in Louisiana, we took a road trip to Lafayette to the Zoo of Acadiana. In Lafayette, almost everything is bilingual. I don't mean Spanish, either. French is weird!!! I don't understand any of it and I sure don't know how to read it. Jarrod is so used to asking me how things are read and out here I'm not sure that I know how to read either. We had a great time at the Zoo. It was a small, non-state or federally funded zoo but it had lions, and tigers, and bears, and giraffes. I know that we will be going back over the years so I hope that it can stick around.







We also visited the Children's Museum in Lafayette. Addie loved playing with all the things there. She dressed up as George Washington, blew massive bubbles, and played pretend in the toddler section.

Louisiana: Week 1

We made it to Lake Charles pretty late Tuesday night and crashed as soon as we got here. Our day Tuesday was a long one...at each of our stops we let Addie out to play for a few minutes. It didn't matter where. We played at Chick-fil-A in Montgomery, and a few grass patches at gas stations along the way.

Wednesday we spent the day being kind of lazy. Amongst the laziness, I did find time to go apply for a World History position at Hamilton Christian Academy. I spoke with one of the people doing the hiring and he said that he would speak with the others doing the hiring and let me know either way. This would be an awesome job. It would be like teaching at Westfield. The school will not tolerate any trouble makers, they have corporal punishment, and the class sizes are around 13 per classroom.

Jarrod started work on Thursday. He didn't do much of anything except for in-processing. He did meet a guy named Dan whose wife will keep Addie with her own children for $75 a week. We went over there tonight so that I could meet Dan and so that the both of his could meet the rest of his family. His wife, Tracy, and I hit it off pretty well. They have three children; Rachael, 7, Giana, 5, and Dex, 9 months. Addie played well with them and I now have someone that I can hang out with on Monday while the men are at work! That's so exciting!

I guess this is the point where I mention that we are still living at the Days Inn in our new town. Our house won't be closing until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. On top of that, our belongings won't be here until Friday. This means that we will be living in the hotel until the end of next work week. We'll already have the keys and be able to go paint and change things to our liking while coming back and sleeping in a real bed. We did get a room with a king size bed and a fold out couch though. Addie sleeps on the fold out and we put it up during the day for a play place.

Addie and I got out of the hotel yesterday morning and went to the water park at the Rec. Department. Addie had a blast. There is a smaller kid section that is attached to the "big kid" section. It might be two feet deep at its deepest--this means that Addie can freely move about without me really worrying about her drowning unless she just falls over. She enjoyed going down the water slide and playing with some other kids that were there and there were many of them there.

Overall, our first week is going okay. I would love to be out of this hotel and be in our house but it could be worse. I could be the person that is literally living downstairs from us. And, tomorrow we're getting out of town and heading to the Acadian Zoo in Lafayette.

I will do my best to keep you all in touch since we're kind of getting settled in again! I love you all!!

Graduation Finally!!

Wow! It has been a busy month!

This week is full of forecasts of thunderstorms and gale force winds. The meteorologists are watching this storm to see if it turns into a tropical depression. It seems like it outside now anyways. It's windy and the rain is just steadily dumping on us--no thunder, no lightning. Watching the doppler, it seems to have a slight spinning and a large, very unorganized eye. Enough about the rain it has ruined the last few days and will ruin the next few too.


I finally graduated on May 9. We started the weekend out by heading up to Athens and watching the UGA Baseball team play Vanderbilt at Foley Field. Georgia ended up losing but we had fun anyways. My granny, mom, dad, Amy, Kenneth, Elisha, and Colby. This is my Granny and I at the baseball game. I love her so much!

Saturday morning, the morning of graduation, began with a breakfast of mimosas. I love celebrating with champagne in the morning. Graduation was long, of course, but we had a few interesting speeches. Representative Jack Kingston, a Georgia Alumni, gave a very humorous speech filled with snickers the new generation. Have you ever heard a politician say OMG, LOL, ROFL, BFF, etc. all in one sentence?
We were lucky that while graduation was going on on the football field the sky was overcast and saved us from a hot, humid day.

We ate lunch at Inoko's, our favorite Japanese Restaurant in Athens--for hibachi, cook-in-front-of-you Japanese. After lunch, we sent the kids home with their grandparents and went downtown to do a little shopping and picture taking on North Campus. We avoided The Arch for the day, however, because there was a mega-line waiting for their turn to have a photo taken. We had a great night downtown with all of my Athens friends and played cornhole at the bar. Jarrod and I won, of course. Overall, we all had a fabulous weekend and I am so proud of myself for sticking it out and finishing.

As for our moving, we have already packed up the furniture in our guest bedroom and have taken it to the coast and to Jarrod's dad's house in Statesboro. It has begun. This weekend we will be taking our motorcycles and some other things to my mom's house. We will also be picking up a bed that I once slept in as a child. It will be going with us to Louisiana for Addie to use as her "big girl" bed.
My last day of work at the restaurant will be this Friday and my last day teaching will be next Thursday. Thursday the 28th, will also be the day that the movers come to pack our things into boxes. They will be back on Friday to load it all up. That leaves Jarrod and I on an inflatable mattress for the weekend while we finish cleaning this place up. So it's all coming to an end down here.


Addie is so smart!! She is learning new words all the time. Our new favorites are juice, and shoes. She will go get her shoes for us and pick up her foot waiting for us to put them on her. She is a sport! This being inside is making all of us a little crazy! Addie is so used to being outside and playing in the dirt. She has begun to find things to get into to keep herself occupied though, which means that we're having to keep an extra close eye on her when she's being quiet in the house. It almost always means trouble!

Well, I love you all but I have to run...

It's been a while

It's been a while but things are kind of slowing down around here this week. I say kind of because I am working everyday this week and so is Jarrod. At least with me working, Jarrod has been able to significantly cut back on the number of hours he's working a week. He's back to working at the gas station only on the weekends and we are going to be able to pay off his bike before we move at the end of May and he's already put in his notice for the end of the month.

Speaking of bikes, the poker run was a success. At first I was worried because we had less initial turnout than I had hoped but we had late bikers meet us at the second and third stops. The best pat was that there were no complaints and everything went smoothly. Everyone that came out and rode were extremely friendly (we didn't know alot of them that morning). We had enough BBQ and prizes at the end, too. Jarrod won the $100 prize for best hand with a full house A's over 10's and a guy named Jeff won the $50 prize for worst hand with just a 10 high. Both gentlemen donated their money back into the pot. Our fabulous escorts, three men from Houston County Sheriff's Office, drove us from stop to stop allowing us to avoid stop signs, red lights, and all other traffic. We made sure to feed them at the end and tip them. They also donated their tips to Brandi! Our final money raise was the raffle and 50/50 drawing. The 50/50 is done with all of the raffle money. All money earned for the raffle was split in half and the person with the first ticket drawn would win half of the raffle money. The first person drawn was Brandi! I know she had a great time and we almost met my goal of $2000. We were only about $100 short. Thank you all for your donations!!!! We had a wonderful time!



I'm getting ready to walk out the door for work, so I'm goiing to end with this picture of Addie eating Creme Brule the other night. Love you all.

A League of Their Own

Two bits of good news today! I went to Verizon with my ailing crackberry and they are sending me a new one. It will be here in two days! This is so good to hear since I've been swapping batteries with Jarrod and with my mom while I was in Perry.

The other bit of good news is that I've been sewing all day! Well not all day, I did find time to take Jarrod out to a nice lunch to celebrate him making Second Class. Which explains the sewing--no more Third Class uniforms in this house.

I went to Perry this weekend and played in a Perry Junior League 25th Anniversary Reunion Tournament. To celebrate 25 years of the Women's program at Ochlahatchee, Dr. Stewart took his time and some of his money to fund a reunion for all the girls that have played in the Dixie All-Stars. We got rained out on Saturday but still held our banquet that night. It was great to see everyone and look at old pictures of us as young'uns. The next day, however, it was down to business.

My team was the blue team. We were the 2001 Dixie World Series Champions (we're kind of a big deal, hehe). The other teams were the red and green teams. They were made up of the girls older than us and the girls younger than us, respectively. I mostly played with and hung out with the blue team and the red team back in the day. I coached half of the green team.

We received the bye and sat out first game. The old people demolished the kids. It was pretty sad to see them take such a beating but then we lost too!! The old people had been practicing. We only lost by one run though.

The next game it was our turn to beat up on the green team. With that loss the kids were out of the tournament and it was just us and the old people. The really sad part is that out of the green team--4 of them were having runners come in for them because they were all beat up and out of shape (and losing to old people).

This put us in a position where we had to beat the red team twice in order to win the tournament. We win the first game to put us in our 4th game in a row.

This game was pretty close the entire time--mostly a 1-run difference. We ended up losing by two runs. However, one inning they miscounted our runs and shorted us two and another inning they counted a run that shouldn't have for the other team. I hit a home run in the game though!! Just a two runner--not a walk off...but still a home run!! I was pretty excited that it happened during our reunion tournament. Just reminding everyone that I've got mad skills!! he he

Our 2nd Anniversary and R.I.P. Crackberry (not quite)

So, yesterday was mine and Jarrod's second anniversary. Has it really been that long since we were in Athens getting hitched? To start off our day, Jarrod and I both had to go to work. Jarrod has to be at the gas station at 6 a.m. on the weekends so he left before I did at 8. When I woke up and went to get Addie, I found some roses sitting on the dining room table waiting for me with a card. I have such a thoughtful husband. Reading the card, I nearly cried. It was the most perfect card I've ever read. Who knew Jarrod had such a way with words?

Jarrod got off at 2 and went to get Addie and I got off at 3. We spent the rest of our day hanging out on the couch and we took Addie in her wagon to the park. She's now big enough that she thinks she need to spin around and lay down--continuously moving--while Jarrod is pulling her in it. How brave! She played all over the park; climbing most of the steps all by herself.

We really enjoyed our lazy day and leaving our phones at the house. So thanks for all of the calls and sorry that we missed them.

This morning started bad!! My crackberry didn't start this morning, leading me to believe it had died overnight in its sleep. I did CPR repeatedly throughout the morning and slowly diagnosed the situation. The two nights prior to this one, I have been woken by my phone telling me that it was dead eventhough it was attached to the wall at the time. So today when it was completely dead I really was worried. I thought for a second that the battery was dead but when Jarrod came home for lunch I stole his battery so that I could charge mine in his phone...and it worked. His battery gave my phone new life and his phone could charge my battery. Now I just have to figure out how to keep this up until I can get to Verizon to talk to them about a warranty before I actually give in and call the insurance people.

So, without a phone this morning Addie and I went to CFA so she could play on the indoor playground. It's been rainy outside all day which means we have been cooped up so I wanted to make sure she got out this morning. After (and during) breakfast Addie played all by herself. She learned how to go up the slide backwards and was thrilled with herself. She would climb all the way back to the top and giggle when she could see me again at the bottom. Then she would take off again. Mind you, this slide is a tube so I can only see her when she comes around the curve smiling at the very bottom, so proud of herself.

So, I'm content now that my phone is back in commission...but I do have to work this afternoon so I must run! Love!

BUSY: Poker Run

Things have been so busy around here. Let's start with last week's events...

Jarrod and I went with my dad to Park City, Utah for a snow skiing trip. I've been skiing for a while now but Jarrod's only gone once or twice in North Carolina or Tennessee. East Coast skiing just isn't where it's at though. I was amazed and proud to see that after a day or two Jarrod was doing really good and I knew I could stop worrying about him breaking a leg. The first day when he did about 12 barrel rolls down the side of the mountain--losing 2 skis, 2 poles, and 1 glove in the process; I was kind of worried. He gave me the thumbs up though and that was the end of his bad falls.

We had snow dump on us Monday and on into Tuesday morning. We got 14 inches! We had a great time on the slopes and off. This was the first time that my dad and Jarrod have spent a significant amount of time together and I'm proud to say that they got along well. My dad likes Jarrod and Jarrod likes my dad! Yay!

Since we've gotten back, I've gotten back to being busy! The idea for a poker run is really in motion now. I've set the date for April 11 and I've sent out flyers. I've had some pretty wonderful people helping me get the word out. I have some pretty great friends. I really hope that we can have a fun, safe time and raise lots of money for Brandi.

Here's the part where I start begging:
Good news about the day too--you don't even have to have to be a motorcycle mama (or pops, I guess) to participate. You can come at the end of the ride and eat some food with us and participate in a raffle drawing. I also need a few volunteers to sit at one of five different stops and give out cards. I'm sure too that if you show up on Saturday, April 11 and have two free hands I will put you to work. Oh, last plea, if you know anyone that has anything to offer that we can raffle off...please beg for me. I would do it myself but if you already personally know them, then you have a better shot at getting free goods.

Okay, I think that's all the begging that I have to do. Adelaide has all of her 'fang' teeth coming in and we hope that's why she's been so grumpy at the sitters. She's been spending alot of time over there and I'm terrified that they're going to quit keeping her...she cries the whole time we're gone. It's sad. She's so wonderful here at the house. I don't get it! I thought she would get over the fact that we were gone within an hour of us being gone. I mean, she did just make it an entire week without us.

Also, I don't know what Mott did with her while we were gone but she is trained to sit still and eat her breakfast all by herself! I don't have to sit there and feed her or hardly even monitor her! It's amazing! I love her independent spirit! (I'll regret saying that later)

I've been raking the backyard between working two jobs. Addie likes to get in my piles of leaves and toss them into the air. Does alot of good to rake them into neat piles. Speaking of...the leaves are calling me.

More soon.

Yo enseno espanol

So, as of yesterday, I am a Spanish teacher to about 10 High School aged kids. It's something like an alternative school and I am allowed freedom to choose my curriculum. So far it seems pretty good. The kids all need an extra amount of prodding and keeping track of but they are genuinely intelligent kids.

Lake Charles

Many of you already know that we got our orders last Tuesday. We will be moving to the Lake Charles, LA area sometime in June or July. I'm not excited about being 600 miles away for the next four years but I am excited about venturing out. We will be about two hours from Houston, New Orleans, and Baton Rouge. Where I only had Atlanta to visit as a child, Addie can have three major cities to play in the museums of.

I have been looking at requirements to become a teacher out there and have run into a wall in Louisiana. To be able to teach in Louisiana this year, I would have to take and pass my Praxis II in one try. I'm not saying that I couldn't do it but it would be extremely difficult to do. Not only do I have to pass it but I also have to get accepted to a program and report for 7 weeks of training in June. Since we won't be there yet in June, this is very difficult.

My other option is to try to teach in Texas. I would have to be accepted to a program and go find a job. On top of that, I will have to attend many seminars throughout the school year. This still seems like the easier way to do it. Then, I won't have to try to find a place in June and I won't have to hustle to pass the Praxis. Before the school year starts I will have to take and pass the TexES test. I think the TexES is similar to the Praxis II and will test me only over my subject area but it's just a state standards test.

I have a final presentation and am taking my final today in Spanish. Wish me luck!

Our weekend

I was so excited for Friday to be here so that I could cook Jarrod a meal! He has been working his two jobs like a farm mule so I never get to cook for him anymore. I was so excited that lunchtime Friday I sent Jarrod an email with options to choose from: 8 different main dishes, like, 6 or 7 vegetables, and three different bread options. What can I say? We did recently go to the grocery store. I ended up cooking a fantastic meatloaf!! I must admit it's not my recipe, but one that I got from my dear friend in Athens, Travis. It's so delicious! I made homemade macaroni and cheese, cooked some green beans, and we had rolls. It was all so good!

We had so much that we reheated it for lunch the next day with my in laws, Kim and Robin. We had a great time kicking the ball in the back yard with Addie. I think she's going to be an athlete. She's got mean soccer skills. After some quality yard time, which included Papa Robin putting leaves between Addie's toes, we drove downtown and showed our guests around town. We drove them over the Dames Point Bridge and the Matthews bridge past the Jaguars' stadium. We made my favorite stop for visitors at The Treaty Oak which is a humongous oak tree that seems to have been there forever.

After downtown we drove to the park near the Coast Guard base and let Addie monkey around for a little while. She loves the slide and already thinks that she's big enough to walk up them. She is getting big enough to climb up the platforms that lead up to the slides, though. She also loves hanging from the monkey bars with a little help. She's also picked up a new favorite word! No! She will sit and say it to herself over and over. At the park she was saying excuse me to kids when I would. Pretty impressive (and sad) that my 16 month old has more manners than most grown folks. We know please and thank you, too.

After some fun park action, we went out to the CG base and went for the tour. Jarrod showed Robin and Kim around and taught me a few things that I never knew before--like, you can tell the length of all of the CG boats under 100 feet by just looking at the first two numbers on it's hull. We saw some Coasties practicing their knot tying on the back of a self-righting boat (it flips itself back upright if overturned) that can withstand 40 foot seas. Our tour of the base ended in Jarrod's office.

We then went to the Navy base and looked at some frigates before heading home to relax before dinner.

We ate dinner at a little place on the corner near our house called Cattleman's Catch. It's some pretty good food to eat! Jarrod and his mom shared seafood for two and I think the restaurant meant for the menu to read Seafood for Four. I had steak with a sweet potato. After dinner, I was showing Addie the animals that were taxidermied when some men at the bar started telling me what kinds of animals they were; which included a wildebeest and a baboon. I asked one guy if he was the owner then and he said no, he was just a friend. I told him to tell his friend that I needed a job and he did. I spoke to the owner before leaving and it sounds like I may have a job 1 or 2 nights a week and I can ride my bicycle to it.

So, that concludes the excitements of my weekend. The Harrison's left this morning around 9 and it's now 2 and Addie and I are still in our pajamas.















The Dames Point Bridge




The Treaty Oak

Update

After looking over our options last night we have changed the order in which we will list them. First will be the two jobs in Kings Bay even though they aren't in Jarrod's real job description. We're choosing it for proximity even though Jarrod will occasionally go under way.

Our next 12 picks will be Lake Charles, LA--this is where we both believe that we will be ending up. It's a little bit smaller than Macon but larger than Warner Robins and it's on I-10 almost in Texas. It seems to be an alright place and the houses are priced right. Also, there are plenty of schools there in Calcasieu Parish that maybe I'll be able to find a job for next year.

After Lake Charles, we are putting down Memphis. We took Memphis from the top of the list when we read all this from wikipedia:

"Although in 2004 violent crime in Memphis reached a record low for over a decade, that trend has changed. In 2005, Memphis was ranked the 4th most dangerous city with a population of 500,000 or higher in the U.S. Crime in Memphis increased in 2005, and has seen a dramatic rise in the first half of 2006. Nationally, cities follow similar trends, and crime numbers tend to be cyclical. Local experts and criminologists cite gang recruitment as one possible cause of the rise in crime in Memphis and to a reduction of 66% of federal funding to the Memphis Police Department.

In the first half of 2006, robbery of businesses increased 52.5%, robbery of individuals increased 28.5%, and homicide increased 18% over the same period of 2005. The Memphis Police Department has responded with the initiation of Operation Blue C.R.U.S.H. (Crime Reduction Using Statistical History), which targets crime hotspots and repeat offenders. Memphis ended 2005 with 154 murders, and 2006 ended with 160 murders. 2007 saw 164 murders and 2008 had 168. In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked second most dangerous in the nation, it also ranked first most dangerous in 2002 and second most dangerous the year before in 2001. Recently, Memphis ranked second most dangerous among cities over 500,000 in 2007, as well as the second most dangerous metropolitan area once again. In 2006, the Memphis metropolitan area ranked number one in violent crimes for major cities around the U.S according to the FBI's annual crime rankings, where it had ranked 2nd in 2005."

Doesn't sound like a place that we want to be raising small children regardless of our closeness to the king and the blues. Sounds pretty dangerous to me.

Our final picks will still be the five in Port Arthur, TX which can only be about 100 miles from Lake Charles.

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The List

We got the list today and it's not too impressive. I believe this is the order that we are going to turn in: Memphis, TN, (2) Kings Bay, GA, (12) Lake Charles, LA, (5) Port Arthur, TX. There were a few other options, such as: (2) Staten Island, NY, Belfast, ME, Valdez, AK, Seattle, WA, and San Francisco, CA. Not much for choices.

I don't know what else to say except wish us luck. It's looking like best case scenario we're looking at being 500+ miles away.

The numbers next to the cities are the number of jobs at each location. So, there is one job in Memphis, 2 jobs in Kings Bay's, 12 jobs in Lake Charles, etc. I didn't mean to be so confusing.

No news isn't necessarily good news

I've once again gotten the scoop on what's going on at the Coast Guard. Jarrod says that the detailer will have another list for us to look at tomorrow. This is essentially the leftovers and new jobs that have come open since the original list was made. I have no clue what's going to be on there but it according to the detailer it's actually a decent list.

I got some good news this morning. My Spanish teacher sent me an email asking if I could tutor some of her teen students during the week for a little bit of money. This is all good news because it means that I am doing really well in the course and also that I might be able to make a little bit of money on the side. Who knows, maybe if this goes well I could tutor other High School Spanish students in the afternoon for a little bit of cash. I've also talked about looking into being an ESOL teacher. I always enjoyed Spanish and made good grades in my classes until I got to UGA. I'm glad that I like it again and that it seems fun because there are endless opportunities for me if I continue.

We found out the other day that we will be going on a vacation soon. We'll be leaving March 7 for Park City, UT. I have been skiing for a few years now and am very excited about being able to take Jarrod out there so he can enjoy it too. We will be going with my dad so I am excited that this will give Jarrod and my dad an opportunity to get to know one another a little better. He's yet to see what a joker my dad is. We'll enjoy a week in my favorite place in the Rockies and return on March 14. For those of you that don't know, Park City is where they hold Robert Redford's Sundance Film Festival every January. They also held many of the Olympic events there during Salt Lake's Winter Olympics.

Well, Addie and I are off to ride our bike. Mott (my mom) got us a bike trailer for Christmas and I just got my new bike seat in today. It's so much more comfortable on my bottom than the old one and I'm trying to ride at least two miles everyday. I'm doing good except for when Jarrod's home. He needs a bike. I'll let you know tomorrow about the list.

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

Not much going on here today. We got up early because of our sweet child and went to the grocery store, so at least we have some food. It's turning out to be a pretty day outside so Addie is happy. Yesterday I was trying to connect my new printer wirelessly to the computer and the rest of the network and lost my internet. After hours of frustration, I gave up on it and made oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough, which makes Jarrod happy. Today, I'm preparing for week 5 of 8 of this whole last class thing by doing a lot of Espanol today and I got the internet back up. Addie is in the kitchen with her daddy helping him unload the dishwasher. She likes to get the silverware out and hand it to you to put in the drawer, piece by piece. I love that she's trying to help. I have tried three times to upload a video I made of Miss Giggles this morning but it's not working so I may put it on you tube or try again later.

Just getting started

I suppose that I'm here because I want to do what everyone else is doing--document everything that happens to us so that we can share it all with our friends and family since they're so far away. I know that I will get busy and that I will from time to time totally neglect this blog by forgetting to write but I am going to try because I feel that there are so many small things that I could try to share more frequently. I will also be considerate and try to send out notification when I do update it so that you don't wait on my every word. hehe

Today finds the Bohler family waiting on the military to give Jarrod his set of orders. We originally put in for jobs in Savannah, Charleston, Mobile, and others farther away like Wilmington, NC and Paducah, KY (which is on the Ohio River). The Detailer (the guy who decides our fate) has been toying with us since the beginning of the year as to when we will be receiving them but we were guaranteed to have them by Friday the 13th. Well, Friday came and went without anything which most likely means that we will be getting a second list of jobs (the leftovers) to choose from next week. Wish us luck!! We're hoping that we can pull one of two options: One, Jarrod's Commander really likes him and knows that he's a great worker and is willing to call the detailer personally. This might work only because the First Class Beau Vallier is making Chief which creates a vacancy in his office that Jarrod could possibly fill with Comm. Gibbs' recommendation. If this doesn't work then our second option is to cross our fingers and hope that there is still a job in Kings Bay, GA open. The job in Kings Bay is really out of Jarrod's rate (his field of specialization) which could hurt him in the long term because he wouldn't be doing his "job" and would risk delayed advancement like he saw here the first two and a half years. I don't think it will hurt his advancement too much since he hasn't technically been pinned a Second Class and he's already completed everything necessary for him to become a First Class except taking a test that he isn't allowed to take until he's been a Second for a year. Also in Kings Bay, Jarrod would be on a boat from time to time for two week intervals. This isn't so bad since we would so close to family still and Addie and I could just leave the coast for a while. Either way, let's pray that we can stay near.

Addie is just growing into a beautiful and well-mannered little girl. She says please for everything and will attempt thank you with some coaxing. It looks like her little 'fang' teeth are starting to come in, I can see the little white bumps now and we're dealing with a nap-less little girl. I am thankful that we have an outdoorsy child that loves to play outside in the dirt! I am not thankful, however, that I sweep the living room at least once a day because she likes to bring leaves, grass, and more recently huge handfuls of black dirt. I can't keep my plants on the ground because she will dig roots and all out. More about her later or I'll never end.

Here is a photo of my Valentine! We stopped at Best Buy on the way to the car show and I had to get a photo!
Lastly, I am currently having the last house in Hawkinsville worked on! After that I have roofs that need to be fixed and it all never ends! I am also going to class number 5 of 8 tomorrow night and am so close to the end I can taste it!! Graduation is May 9 in Athens at 9:30 in the morning so mark your calendars because I will finally get to wear this cap and gown that I have in my closet and get to feel the grass in Sanford between my bare toes! Go Dawgs!!

P.S. I decided that I would use Georgia as my font to pay homage.