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Monday, December 31, 2012

2012 {AKA Craziest Year EVER!}

It's been quite a year, friends!!!! Here's a look back at probably one of the best years ever.....(just being honest)

JANUARY

Welp, I started this here blog to keep track of all my fun adventures!! 

We also bought a HOUSE!!!

FEBRUARY

We took a romantic trip to the mountains...

And then we moved into our lovely home! {Which was a HOT.MESS.} So glad I never have to move again!! (or for a while!)

MARCH

We had a housewarming party....

Went on a St. Patrick's Day bar crawl....

And Kathryn hosted an *amazing* bridal shower for me! 

We also attended the last wedding before our own!

APRIL

My bacheloretty party in Charleston with my fav ladies!!!

Wedding planning was also in full force at this point!!!

MAY

Natalie hosted a fab Ohio shower for me at my aunt's house!

JUNE

Oh this month was boring....

Haha, I kid. 

I got MARRIED (duh)!!!!!!!
{nobigdeal}

We also took a wonderful honeymoon to Aruba!

JULY

I celebrated my 27th birthday {OLD}...

Had SO much fun unpacking our wedding gifts (note the sarcasm)... 

And helped out a wedding planner at my first wedding event! 

AUGUST

Back to school time...new year in SECOND grade (SO much better than kindergarten!)

Oh, and my sweet husband got me this back to school present! And I've been attached at the hip to it ever since! 

SEPTEMBER

We attended a few too many football games...

I met Teresa from Real Housewives of NJ... 

And I helped out at a few more weddings! 

OCTOBER

MORE football games....

My dad had foot surgery, and I was training for my marathon! A family icing party was def. needed! 

And we enjoyed having trick-or-treaters for Halloween! 

NOVEMBER

I went to see Carrie Underwood in concert...

Attended even more football games...

DIED, I mean ran a marathon... 

And enjoyed our first Thanksgiving being married! 

DECEMBER

We went to the Biltmore to see the Christmas decorations... 

Attended a swanky Christmas party with Michael Jordan and Nick Cannon... 

Went to Florida... (still have to blog about that one! Whoops!)

And had a very married Christmas! 

It's going to be very hard to top 2012!!! But, I am so excited for everything that 2013 has in store!!! I'm looking forward to our trip to Italy, and all of these babies my friends (oh, and my bffs Kate Middleton and Kim Kardashian, duh) are popping out!! Maybs I will be joining them??? Ehhhh, not anytime soon, so just calm down!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Friday, December 28, 2012

#26acts

Unless you've been living under a rock lately, you've probably heard about the 26 Acts of Kindness movement started by Ann Curry. After the shootings in Connecticut happened, I felt so terrible and sick to my stomach, especially because I am an elementary school teacher! So, when I found out about the 26 acts, I knew I had to participate! 


Basically, you have to do one act of kindness in place of each life lost at Sandy Hook. So, 26 in all. Some people are also including the mother of the shooter, which would make it 27. But I don't like odd numbers, so I stopped at 26, haha. You can find out more about the 26 acts of kindness by clicking HERE

I also found a lot of inspiration on good ol' Instagram by searching #26acts...so many good ideas on there!!!

So here are my 26 acts of kindness that I completed from December 20-December 26! 

1. Leave a comment on at least 6 blogs! Easy! I need to do this more often...I am the ultimate blog stalker :)

2. Give each of my kids 2 extra points, to start their day off in the "blue section" of the behavior board. They LOVED this one! It def. got our day off to a positive start! I use Class Dojo for behavior, in conjunction with the clip system, but that's a whole other post....If you are a teacher and are interested in using Class Dojo, look HERE


3. At our Holiday party, my kids (ok and I did as well) made paper snowflakes to put up at Sandy Hook's new school when they return from break! Their PTA is creating a winter wonderland for them! To find out more, or if you want to mail some as well, click HERE


 4. Buy crayons and coloring books for my students to keep them busy over the break


5. Deliver Christmas cookies to the teachers on my second grade team

 6. Give each student an extra big hug before Christmas break This made me a little sad when so many of them asked me why I wanted a really big hug! Geez kids, can't I just give you a hug?!?!

7. Run one mile for each victim Well, I kinda already did this back in November...but this time, I spread the 26 miles out over a week!

{My final 4 of the 26 miles!}

8. Leave an extra big tip at dinner

9. Leave an extra tip at TBCY I usually don't put much in the tip jar, but this time I did! The boy working said that had been happening a lot lately :)


10. Send a Christmas card to our realtor (I mean, she was on it!), thanking her for our new home!

11. Deliver cookies to my friend with a new baby

12. Leave candy in the mailbox for our mailman


13. Return carts in the parking lot

14. Leave a Target gift card in the store...in the wine section of course!

15. Leave a 20% coupon in Bed, Bath and Beyond...I always get these and never use them! Hopefully it helped someone out...

16. Leave $5 off coupon in Buy Buy Baby Again, never use these!! Hopefully, I will be repayed when I have a little one! 

17. Straighten up shelves in the store...I attempted to tackle the leftover Christmas decorations in Target; the OCD in me loved this one!

18. Clean out closet and donate old clothes and shoes I needed to do this so badly anyway!

19. Donate old cell phones to the troops

20. Deliver cookies to our neighbors

21. Visit my sister in law at work, leave her an extra tip and bring her some cookies as well! (Good thing I like baking!)

22. Use my Starbucks gift card that I got for Christmas to pay for a Skinny Peppermint Mocha for me, as well as the next person in line! Their license plate said ONTARIO, so I hope I helped them start their road trip back to Canada on a good note!

23. Bring the girl who cuts my hair, who just had surgery, a Starbucks gift card

24. Leave $2 at the light rail for the next person's ticket

25. With all of this driving around, I tried to let other drivers in as much as possible!

26. Ok, so this last one is not 100% done yet! I saw a homeless man standing on the corner, about 2-3 miles from my house. I raced home and put together a bag of snacks for him. By the time I had driven back to that corner, he was gone! So the bag of snacks is still in my car, waiting to be handed out to the next person I see who is asking for help on the side of the road :)


So there you have it! 26 acts in 6 days...well, almost! Come on, homeless peeps, where you at?!

I hope I have inspired you to do 26 acts of kindness! It really was not hard AT ALL and most of the things I did cost little to no money!!! Some things, like leaving comments on blogs, or even leaving random coupons I will never use in stores, are things I want to continue doing!!

And if you've received one of these random acts of kindness, don't forget to pay it forward!!!

Thursday, December 27, 2012

A Very {Married} Christmas!

Our first married Christmas (and don't think I didn't mention that 294727 times!) was quite a whirlwind!! 
It was really great, but we did about 8 hours of driving between Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, so I am happy just to be home now!! 

Here are some pics from our fun two days....with both families...

We started off Christmas Eve by driving to Chapel Hill to be with Travis' family. Here we are on our way to his nana's house...


We also exchanged gifts with his family! His sister got me this presh ornament so I never forget that stupid marathon!


His parents also got us a fire pit for our back patio!!! I am SOOO excited to use it!!!

{Stolen from Home Depot's website!}

If that wasn't enough, while we were sitting around, Travis decided to order this treadmill for us!! I am soooo happy to workout at my house now and cancel my gym membership!!!!!



After we left his family, it was time to drive another 2 hours up to Virginia to be with my fam!! We passed through a few cute little towns that were just adorbs with all of their Christmas lights! I tried to take pictures, but they did not come out too great!!  

{UGH, FAIL, when will I learn to use my real camera instead of my phone?!}

We went right to sleep as soon as we got there! On Christmas, we woke up and I went for a run waited for Travis to get back from a run. Then we did stockings!


I just love our family's stockings...my mom sewed them all many years ago! Mine is a ballet slipper because I used to dance (for like 7 years!). Betcha didn't know that! (Oh, and it says my real name, Melinda...that's how old it is!) My brother's is a football cleat, which makes me laugh, since he played football for, oh, all of maybe 2 years. My parents are both running shoes, which is appropriate. 
Travis and Angie (my bro's gf) just have boring stockings...I think my mom ran out of ideas/time/energy haha.

In my stocking, amongst candy and other goodies, were these tissues...haha... 
I'm glad my mom recognizes what a brat I really am!

My brother's dog, Luna, also got some treats in her stocking (yes, the dog has a stocking as well!)


Next, onto the prezzies under the tree!!!


My parents have so many ornaments that they have collected over the years. We each get a certain section of the tree for our ornaments and presents. So all of my ballet/girl scout/swimming/etc. ornaments are in one section, and then my presents are right under that! 

Santa was so good to me....


I about DIED when I opened the Michael Kors watch!!! My mom totes surprised me on that one!
And yes, those are sparkly running shorts!! My brother's girlfriend knows me too well!

{I am excited to try this out! You freeze it and then stick it in your wine bottle to keep it chilled!!}

{Ornament for our tree! Pottery Barn, of course! Good job, again, Mom!}

And of course, I had fun watching my family open all of the presents I got for them! 
Let me tell you, when you get married, it is veryyy convenient for gift-giving! Hope my parents don't mind looking at wedding pics! Haha... 


My fav was probably this frame I made for my dad! He cried when he opened it!!! I will write a tutorial for you all soon! :)


After we opened presents, we hung out for a little bit! 
Please enjoy the only picture I will ever post of me with no makeup on....


And, OHHHH, we planned mine and Trav's Christmas present to each other--A vacation to ITALY next summer!!! 


I am SOOOOOOO excited!! If you have ever been, you must let me know things to see/places to go/etc! We are going in June for our anniversary!!! :)

Then, we ate allllll day! First was this yummy coffee cake.... 


And then, several dips with pita chips... (hahah sorry, Ang!)


And finally, dinner (like we were even hungry at that point!)!



...and then we drove 4 hours back to Charlotte!!! Whew!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, too!!!