SUMMER!!!

Well, it has been a fun and bust summer for sure. How does it always seem to go SO FAST? We have one more week, then back to school for us! That is something that will be a little different for me. I will be going to a new district and new job. I will be teaching 7th grade special ed at Brentwood Middle School. Don't worry I was shocked too! I am actually very excited!! I am looking forward to the new experience.
The last day this year was June 2nd. On June 3rd-7th I left for Boston and did some work up there (they go to school until June 23rd). I came home for a few days to only have a 2 day state training, then off again for the beach! June 13-21 We went with a whole group of friends. It was a lot of fun. I loved seeing all the kiddos together, which was 7 under the age of 4 and Cole was the only boy. :)
We have had a few zoo dates, swimming and lots of outside time. This summer we have had some pretty great weather. So today is July 19th and it is high 81...I know right, crazy! but I will take it any day over our typical 95-100 degree heat stroke humidity weather.
Our house is still on the market, which is stressing me, but hopefully it will sale soon. Its only been like 54 days, but as much as I didn't want to get to hopefully I was really hoping for a crazy 5 day sale! I was hoping to catch a break on something.

Here's to enjoying our last week of summer break!

Officially on the MARKET!!!

So as of Thursday night our house is FINALLY on the market!! Now lets just hope for a quick SALE!!

Easter Weekend Fun!

So Cole and I were off Good Friday so we headed down to AL. I had an appointment to get my hair done and Cole was going to hang out with Julia and Jessi. Fun, fun, fun! He LOVEs his girls. When we were getting ready to go he said " I have to tell my cousins bye". I said who are your cousins? He said Julia and Jessi :)

Cole with his AL girls....Jessi, Jodi and Julia

Saturday we had 2 egg hunts scheduled. One was at the Shriners temple and the other one was at Madison's off campus site. We went to it last year and had a good time. I would still say that it won out. It was a beautiful day and such a fun time. Cole got entirely too much candy, but had a blast!

This was the closest Cole was coming to the Easter Bunny and we all had to be in it!

Coaching out his route!

And he is off!

Sunday was equally as beautiful. I do not remember it being such a perfect Easter weekend in years. It seems as though the last few years have been rainy and cloudy, but not this year. After church we went to Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Pam's house for lunch. When were in church Cole said he was hungry. I said remember we are going to Uncle Lincoln and Aunt Pam's for lunch. Cole said "and Seth and Zane?!". I said yep! and Seth and Zane. Cole said "Sounds like a great day to me!"

He seriously comes up with some of the cutest things! Another favorite is him telling me..."mommy you look beautiful!" LOVE IT!!! I hope he is always sweet.

My handsome little guy

Coggin men/boys

My guys! :)

We have a 3 year old!

We have had a busy few weeks. We are still staying with Tisha and that transition is going a little easier. It was more adjustments than I had planned on. We are so thankful that we are able to stay with her, but it is always an adjustment for everyone. Fingers crossed our house will be on the market THIS weekend! Don't even ask why it isn't yet! :) hahaha....
Casey has been looking at different plans recently too! Well, I guess I should say he is always looking at different plans and models, but he has actually gone back and forth on what we are going to build now. I am good for almost whatever! I am SO excited about having a new house I do not think I can quite fathom what it will be like. It is SO exciting! Casey does this all day everyday and has more input and suggestions than I do. So who know what we will be building, but I know it will be great and I will love it! Now hears to building it soon!!!
So our 3 year old....Yes you heard me correctly....3 years old! How did that happen?? We had a super hero birthday party and it was SO much fun! I gave everyone a job and it came together beautifully! We had it at church again. Our church just has a really great set up, plus they do not charge us. We also have some friends from church who use to rent those bouncy houses. They do not do it anymore but still have them so they give us a deal. Perfect for a birthday party!!

The crew who helped me make it all possible!

Cake pops made by Aunt Karen!!

Super Hero appearance!!

Make a wish!

Gotham City made by KK

Rough start, but finally settling in...

So we are officially city people and I think I am never going to want to move back!! I love the location and for my job it is absolutely the best place to live. I can probably make it to every MNPS school in 20 mins or less and that is still leaving at 7:45am. It is SO amazing going the opposite of traffic. Can you tell how much I love it? I LOVE IT! I love that you don't have to worry about freezing pipes, there is a garbage shoot (we always forgot garbage pick-up day), there is also a recycle station right by the trash. I love that Cole gets to experience being with his Aunt Tisha too! They are close and I love seeing them together.Things just seem to be a little bit easier and that is always nice. :)

Casey, Cole and Bella on our lot/land

The rough start was that we could not find anyone for Bella. It was getting SO stressful. Everyone that we asked, after putting any thought into it said no. We understood everyones reasonong, but still as the owners  and desperately needing somehwere for our dog, it was so stressful. Casey was living at our nearly empty house and Cole and I were on West End. Csey would get his brother Ben to stay at the house a few times so that he could stay with us. Casey and I both used the term "we feel divorced". Casey was having to ask when he could see Cole, we had dinner dates and dates at Target a few times. Cole was really confused. Another thing that was hard was I was having to drop off and pick up. I was driving anywhere between an hour and fifteen minutes to hour and a half every morning! It was getting to all of us! Then out of the blue someone we didnt even think of, Unlce Lincoln and Aunt Pam said that they would take her. We didnt think of them at first becasue they didnt have a back yard, just had a major add on to there house and don't have any dogs anymore, so I didn't think of them as wanting to be dog people. They have her and it has gone great! We got Bella a wireless pet containment system, so she loves being outside and is enjoying being a Brentwood dog. She has been there since Feb 11th. We are so lucky and blessed that they were able and willing to take her.
Cole has done well. He is definitely happy to have daddy here with us all the time now! He would say things like, "I love having daddy here", "mommy is daddy coming here tonight? I love when my daddy stays here". Casey takes Cole to school about 99% of the time. So not only was the morning route now very long, but it was also wrestling a dramatic, confused and very upset 2 year old. He would sobb and say "My daddy takes me to schoooollll!!!! It was pitiful.


Our little Super ManThe past few day though he has mentioned our house, our old house. He will say "mommy I want to go home" We talk abut it and remind him that someone else is going to live in our house and that daddy is building us a new one. It was interesting that I got an email from "What to expect". I started getting them when I was pregannat and they still send them talking about issues your toddler may have. The one they sent discussed moving. It put things in a little more perspective for our little guy. I know once we start building and he can see the house being built and the progress it will hopefully make a little more sense to him.
Life is good!!

No traffic in the morning and bumper-to-bumper on the other side.

 We went to see the Lego movie! Uncle Ben and Uncle Craig came too! Thumbs up!

Being silly at Loveless Cafe for Tisha's birthday.

Moving Day!

We will actually have a couple of moving days I guess in the next 6 months (fingers crossed). Yesterday we became city folks! :) We will be living with Tisha, Casey's sister, while we sale and build our new house. Its very exciting! We decided since we were going to have to live some where while Casey was building the house that we would go ahead and go now. Hoping that having a staged house and not having to worry about keeping it clean and viewing ready at all times would be easier. So we did it! The only problem was Bella... I had been asking around for a few months and in the back of my mind I thought I had Brad (possibly Craig as a last resort, but he has 2 dogs already) in the back of my mind. Brad didn't seemed thrilled, but he has been our babysitter for the last 9 years when we would go out of town. Any ways, now we are on the search for a foster family for Bella. I know something will work out in time, but for now Cole and I are at Tisha's and Casey is at our house with Bella. Hopefully he can get some things done while he is there too! :) I am excited about our adventure. I feel lucky and blessed to have a wonderful sister-in-law to take us on. I am hoping we can motivate each other to eat well and exercise too!
I took one picture last night of our current view. I will have to add some more!

the view from our bedroom window

Our Birthday!!

Dinner at Logan's

Another Birthday in the books! It was a nice relaxing day with my two boys, then an early dinner with the family at Logan's, then off to met some friends to go to Jellystone Lights at Opryland. Apparently they have done the lights at for 4 or 5 years now, but this was the first year that I had heard of it. Since Brad and Karen were gone for the holidays and we saw that it was running until January 4th we decided to go. We also decided because it is $25 a car or bus or truck. Brad drives the church bus once a month, so he asked the guy if we could use it and he said yes! So we asked the Wray's, Greer's and Matlock's to go with us! We had a party bus! :) We had a fun time! We went to the mall afterwards for sweet cece's and to ride the carousel. Party's aren't what they use to be, but we had a good time!

Bus driver Brad

The crew

Cole saying my flash is to bright

Oh no! Brad let Cole help drive once we got in the park

Karen made cupcakes! Ella was giving her approval

Cole with the birthday boy

My birthday ice cream date

Carousel fun

The group minus Casey (he took the pic)