PARTAY!!

My big ol' graduation celebration was this past Saturday. It was a blast! And I don't think anyone was happier than my parents, haha. My parents went all out with the decorations, catering, little sentiments, and my mom even wore my school colors- something I, the graduate, never even thought of! My mother-in-law supplied us with endless margaritas which, if you know me, was a necessity for the meal :) yummy! Here are some pictures!

My mom set up this little table inside with a cake (with a pic of me from graduation the week prior) and some framed pictures of me and accomplishments throughout my college career.

My two girlfriends from school. These are the only people that I met at school and then became friends with- like we actually we do things together outside of the classroom. I had the mentality of "I'm here to learn, not make friends. Let's get in and get out as quickly as possible." It wasn't until last year that I finally convinced myself that making friends at school didn't mean it would slow me down- maybe I would actually enjoy the time I had to spend there! Charlotte and Courtney are awesome and have really encouraged me in school and life in general. Girls like these don't come around often :)

Auntie Laurie and Sarah. You can't tell yet, but there's a baby in that belly of Sarah's! She showed up early to help set up for the party- and my mom had her on her feet runnin' all over the place! What a friend :) Truly, Sarah was at a time my only friend. You find out who really cares about you when you're 18 and pregnant and have nothing to offer anybody, or when you're 19 and have a baby and are limited to what you can do and where you can go. Sarah is that friend that never judged, never even acted like it made a difference, and she accomodated me. She gave up going out to make it a karaoke night at home with me. Now THAT is a friend.

A necessity for all teachers (except Kinder where they don't take grades)- the EZ-Grader!! I've always wanted one. Like before I even wanted to be a teacher, haha. Thanks Aunt Delilah and cousin Alanna!

My parents opening a little gift I gave them as a thank you. How do you thank two people for doing more for you than you deserve and can even recall? You can't. But I gave them a night at a new hotel with dinner and movie. Thanks, Mom and Daddy-o!

A personalized frame for me, the teacher from one of my creative friends :)

There's my mom- in her orange and white! Haha, "Go Bearkats"?!? (I've never said that before!)

So I'm officially graduated and still don't feel a thing. I'm waiting for that magical moment where all of sudden this surreal feeling comes over me and I am awaken to the reality that I am DONE! I'll let you know if and when that happens.

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!

not Superwoman after all...

Sean went on another man-date to the gym, so I thought I'd organize a bit in the laundry room before I went on my own little run around the hood. While arranging a shelf, I found this little sign I had bought a while back to hang in the laundry room. It was just a cute, old-fashioned type "Same-day laundry: 10cents" sign. Ooh, I can hang this! I found Sean's hammer and some little nails, I measured the distance between the two brackets on the back of the sign, and made the appropriate marks on the walls. I began nailing the first nail into the wall and it went in like not even a millimeter. I figured I was nailing into a stud and decided to pull the nail out before I messed up the wall trying to hit it through or got the nail stuck half-way and wouldn't be able to pull it out. Well, turns out it was already stuck. I was literally pulling with all my strength using the backside of the hammer (you know, the part that grabs the nail- haha, got to make sure!) and that nail was not budging. Shoot. So I decided I'd give it another good bang to see if it would just go in some more- at least enough for me to hang the sign on. Nope, didn't move a smidge. So I hook the nail with the backside of the hammer once more and decide to give it one last tug. I gave it all I had, and WHAM! The nail goes flying across the laundry room, and the hammer came flying back- right into my FACE! The butt of the hammer hit me right on that bone between your eye and your temple! Holy cow! What was I thinking?!? Sean's gonna kill me! So here's my battle wound. I'm still waiting for it to lighten up, haha. I have a kind of big celebration this weekend and I'd really rather not have a jacked up face, black eye, whatever. People may start asking Sean questions (haha). Could've been worse. A little more one way would've been my eyeball, which would have hurt like heck, and a little bit the other way would've been my temple, which would have most likely given me a headache! I'm just gonna laugh this one off :)

the end, the close, finished, finalized, done...

with college! (Well, at least until I start that Master's, haha!) I walked across the stage on Saturday. I wish I could say I strutted across with my head held high carrying a great sense of pride, but I think I darted across wearing a fake, nervous smile, my stomach in knots, and paying attention only to my feet and what was ahead of me (I was so nervous of tripping! My shoes were awesome for my outfit, not for my confidence, haha- what we do for beauty). Ok, it wasn't that bad. The day was great. I had lots of family and friends there to cheer me on and I couldn't be more grateful for that. Here are some pictures!

That's me looking at the camera with the big, cheesy grin.

When I finally got out of the coliseum, the first person I saw was Carter. He was standing on a little brick half-wall yelling "Mommy, you did so good at your graduation!" This was my face when I saw him :)

My biggest supporters to whom I owe all that I am, Mom and Dad!

My other half, who is ever-supportive, patient (most of the time, haha), loving, and took many unnecessary trips with Carter just to get out of the house and let me write a paper, do homework, etc!

We had chocolate sheet cake and California burgers (my request :) and gifts! Yes, those are Cricut cartridges I'm holding- I got THREE more! Be jealous, my fellow teacher/scrapbooker friends, haha! :)

My family from Corpus drove all the way (and through pouring rain and Houston traffic, might I add!) up here to see me. Thank you so much, I love you all!

Now on to continuing the job search... sheesh. It's harder than I was anticipating to get in somewhere I really want to be. And it's hard for me to graduate and not know where I'm going, or if I'm going anywhere for that matter. God's testing my faith. I'm not in control, He is. Haha, I just need to remember that- but, dang, it's hard sometimes! I'll keep you updated :)

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! I'm off to fold some laundry and find something to organize. Ahh, it's great to be done :)

Dang!

Did I really miss the whole month of April?? Well, the fact that I couldn't find a single Saturday morning to sit down and blog is a wonderful indicator of what life at the Stevenson house has been like. Busy. CrAzY busy. Like my whole weekend is planned out and over before it even arrives. Quick recap of April:

Carter started playing soccer, which I think I mentioned in my last post. He has practice every Thursday evening and a game every Saturday. He's doing really well, we just need to work on understanding and practicing teamwork. Like, when you throw the ball in from the sidelines, you can't throw it down at your own feet then run into the game with the ball- you throw it to your team. (He is such a ball-hog!) You know, little stuff like that. Carter also started karate this past month. He goes twice a week and takes it very seriously. He came out of his first class yelling "Yes, sir! Yes, maam!" at everything we told him to do. It's hilarious. Now, I feel I must tell you, I'm not one of those crazy moms that signs her child up for everything under the sun that he/she wishes to do. I believe strongly in NOT overcommitting yourselves so that you still have time for family, which, in my book, is most important. Carter had wanted to do karate for some time, but we weren't sure he was mature enough to take the classes and then go to school and not try to karate-chop his friends. Not to mention the fact that we had already paid for one extra-curricular activity and weren't about to shovel the cash out for another. BUT, Carter's name was chosen out of a drawing of 200+ kids at his school carnival for 'breaking a board' at the karate booth and he won 6 months of free karate at ATA Martial Arts. I was so excited for him- I've never won anything before! I was so excited that Sean had to remind me that it was Carter who won something, not me, haha. Anyways, since it was free, and I'm not one to pass on a good deal, Carter is now a karate kid :)

Here's a picture of him at his first soccer game. He's the goalie- and he blocked the goal!

I mentioned in my last post that my life-long friend, Beka, had just had her baby. Here he is now- I stopped by and loved on him for a little bit this weekend. He is so dang cute.

A few days after little Jackson was born, I became a real AUNT! Actually, when I married Sean I became an aunt to his brother's kids, but I had yet to experience the joy and excitement of watching a new family member's existence be announced, then see them grow and finally enter the world. Sean's sister gave birth to little Marianne on April 7th- it was an incredible night! Here are a couple pictures of us waiting, then seeing my new niece :)


Then there was Easter. Sean took off from work so he could go to church with us. It was awesome. I walked a little higher knowing that everyone could see my husband is real and not just a fictional character in the story of my sad life, haha. I'm kidding, people know that I'm married, but I have joked that since Sean started working the weekends thus preventing him from going to church, people probably wonder why things didn't work out, haha. Here are some pictures from our fabulous Easter celebration.

My last day of student-teaching was this past Thursday, then Friday I drove up to SHSU for my last day of "class" (next time I make that drive will be for graduation!). So I am officially done with school. I've been asked how it feels a few times now, and I don't feel anything, honestly. Sorry, haha. I am happier, though, and it has nothing to do with school, but rather the fact that I had time to catch up on my laundry yesterday! Seriously, if you saw the guest bedroom you'd know what a huge accomplishment this is.

Well, my husband should be returning from the gym any time now. We have a fun-filled day planned. I told him I was going to run around the neighborhood since it is so nice outside while he was gone. I did put on my running shoes. Didn't tie them. Sat down here... Uh, oops :)

Announcements have been ordered, pictures have been taken...

I'm about to graduate! The end is finally near. I had a little photo-shoot in Old Town Spring this weekend with a friend (who, by the way, takes great pictures!). It was hilarious to hear some people saying "Awh, look honey, that girl is taking her Senior pictures!" Yes, that was true. Except they were thinking highschool senior. And not only am I a college senior, but an old one at that- I'm graduating with girls who are 4 years younger than me! Dang that young, vibrant skin, haha (I'm so kidding). Awh well, they say I'll appreciate it when I'm older. Here are a couple pictures:

These aren't the absolute greatest ones, because I'm saving those for the announcements!

Also, over the weekend my life-long friend, Beka, had her little boy. Jackson Sean Conley entered the world at a whoppin' 7lbs 9.9oz! Unfortunately I have no pictures to post of this incredible event. I was crying like a baby the whole time I was at the hospital and forgot I even had a camera. Oops. He is absolutely adorable and I cannot to spend my Friday off of school holding that little bundle of joy :)

Have a great rest-of-the-week!

I'm alive. Barely.

Just wanted to let you know, I have not fallen off the face of the Earth. It's just been busy since Spring Break. I typed up a nice, big blog about a little road trip we took and then the computer wasn't uploading my pictures, so I have that saved to post as soon as I can since the picture thing is working again. I say it's working, but I can't rotate my picture, haha. So just lean your precious heads to the right to check this out.

I have influenced my sister-in-law. She is now the proud owner of Rollerblades! She just couldn't take it any more. She had watched me in envy long enough as I bladed past her and Carter on their bikes. So Friday night she broke down (and asked my brother for permission, haha) and we took a trip to Academy! Oh, and Sean made me get wrist guards while I was there. He's so over-protective!

I love a good deal...

If you don't shop Target, you should start. When we moved into our new house a few months ago, decorating was not a top priority- there was just too much going on. I put up the necessities and decided I would add home decor later. I guess I've just gotten used to the way the house is and decorating still has not been completed. Carter had chosen a monkey/jungle theme for his bathroom. I got the major stuff for it when we moved in- shower curtain and hooks, soap dispenser, toothbrush holder- but put off other little decor until I had time to seriously shop, haha. BUT, yesterday Carter and I went to Target to spend some of Carter's birthday money (he got an Air Hog, by the way) and found some awesome stuff in their "dollar days" section (that's not really the name of the section, I just can't think of the real one at the moment). They had all sorts of monkey things for $1-2.50, no more. I got two rugs, two little wall decor plaques, a picture frame, and a mini stuffed monkey for $10! Thank you, Target! Carter's bathroom is complete! Well, except for painting the walls, which I will get to some other day :)

Rugs moved next to each other for picture purposes only. I did not just throw them in random places on the bathroom floor. Don't worry, Mom, you've taught me better than that!