Last April, God blessed us with a grandson. 

CQ Marshall Smith

Let's just say, grandbabies are the best.  It is absolutely awesome when he recognizes me and breaks out into a smile.  It is the best when he laughs at me when I tickle him... sing to him and make faces.  Thank you Jesus for blessing us with this precious little boy.

snow day #4

It's been 3 days of "ice" and we haven't had school all week except Monday. Alex has been in Austin all week, so except for a few visits, it's just been Oscar and I. I am not complaining. It's been actually really peaceful. I only wish Alex could have been here all week. Alex came home Thursday afternoon to beat the next storm coming. YAY! I sure do miss him when session is going on.

About 11pm or so, looked out my back door and it is snowing! You would think that I would be tired of this... I am not!! I love it! SO, day 4 is a big gift! Such a day I can be so thankful for.

Alex made it home safely! I still love my best friend. I am so thankful that God has blessed me with such an awesome man to share my life with. He has been such a great father, an example that both of our kids admire and love. He has integrity and wisdom and I do not deserve such a great guy.

Another thing I am thankful for on this beautiful morning of snow day #4 is my family. Lindsey and Carr, Brady, Mom and Dad, Denise and her family and DeeAnn , her kids and new love, Mike. we all talk "frequently!" We have fun together. We share in the good and the bad and there is a true "family" bond that we share. It is a bond that extends to the Digby and the Higginbotham side of our little clan.

I am also thankful for my friends. My friends that are there always, my anytime friends, the ones that have endured through the years, through kids growing up, through different phases of our lives and through the storms. We are not always lucky enough to meet people and they are "true friends." We do get hurt, we do get disappointed sometimes that someone might not be who they appear, but it always shines through. I have some really sincere friends that are there through it all.

Ok, it's time to wake up Alex and Oscar. Time for Alex's favorite thing to do on a Friday morning. He loves to go see friends early at What-a-Burger. I think I might just get to join him on this snowy morning off!

tech camp 2010!!

ok... didn't really want to go to tech camp... but it was actually very informational for me! I now know all about MANY new "techy" things! I have a new igoogle page, can do voki, mimio, cps and some more. Did NOT like the "geocaching!" not fun, didn't work! But, have had fun with Lindsey and Stephanie! Ann Witherspoon, Melissa and Krista did a good job! AND!! learning all about Picnik!

I love summer Mondays....

I love summer Mondays, summer Tuesdays, summer Wednesdays.... I love summer! I really like that I don't have a schedule. I like that I can stay in my pjs if I want to... all day. I like to go eat lunch with Alex, or my friends or in my pjs! I like that I can REALLY keep up with my friends and not just "touch base" with them as our schedules allows!! I like to read. I like to read whatever I want, whenever I want and wherever I want. I like to do projects. I like to organize (and leave it if I get tired of it and come back to it later!!), create, decorate and work in the flowerbeds! I like to paint my furniture if I get tired of what color it is. I like to change my rooms around. I like to frame pictures. I like to watch any show or movie I want that I have saved for just the right time. I like to drink as much coffee in the morning that I want. I like to swing on my front porch, as I drink my coffee (in my pjs!). I like to play words with friends. I like to stay up late at night (and play wwf, read, watch shows or movies or rearrange my house!) I like to see old friends and make new friends. I like to work out in the mornings and not at night. I like to plan what I am going to fix for supper in my new kitchen. I like to make last minute plans and go shopping with a friend and not come home for hours! I like to sit at Starbucks with a friend and talk for hours. I like to wear my too big, baggy, faded, stained and probably too short cut offs! I like to not wear makeup... (for days!!) I like to put my hair in a ponytail. I like to travel around with Alex, sometimes preplanned and sometimes last minute! I like to sleep late and get up when no one is awake (except Oscar... he follows me everywhere!)

SO, here is a couple of pictures of my summer, and what I like...

Brady is doing a "study abroad" in Spain! Got to watch Spain win the world cup in Spain!! Got to experience all the hoop-la with the craziness!! I love getting to talk with him on skype! He loves to show me all the crazy things he can do with all his "techno skills!"

I like getting to spend time with my family! Lindsey and I have had fun "hanging out!" My sister Denise just got a new puppy Paco! We have had fun laying out in her new pool, out door dinners, lunches spur of the moment in my kitchen and playing with our puppies!

I like getting to reconnect with my college Chi-Os! I love that we can be apart for 30 years and pick right back up like it has been just a summer!

I like my new kitchen. We finally remodeled! I will post before and after pictures.

Vacations with friends! Got to spend early June in California with friends! We spent 4 days in Monterrey area and then 4 days in Napa!
And most of all! I like that summer is only half over! I have LOTS more to do!

things I like (& love...)

I just love my friends! Can't put all their pictures here!... but I love their loyalty, their encouragement and their companionship! Old friends, anyway friends and new friends!
I love my job! Teaching Kindergarten is the best! Laughing, seeing that light go on... hearing them say, "I think I am terrific, do you Mrs. Vaughn?"
I love my school... "JAV is definitely the place to be!!"
I love hugs. Hugs from kids, hugs from friends and family, hugs from my kids and especially hugs from Alex.
I love to go places. I love to go places I've never been. I want to go to the Greek Islands!
I want to go back to places that are special to my heart... Machu Picchu, Haiti, New York.
I love to play games... words with friends, bejeweled, apples to apples and gin...
I love my dog. My most loyal friend that probably cherishes me the most, my puppy Oscar!

I love my family. My sisters, my neices and nephews. My mom and dad! aunts and uncles and cousins and in-laws... families are the best!

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE my best friend, anyway friend and soul mate!!!

Love my daughter! Love her new hubby! I love to hang out and get to teach with my daughter. How lucky am I? I love Lindsey and Carr!

Love that Brady Vaughn... makes me laugh! He is a great son. He loves to the fullest!

I love my church, my friends from church, my small group and my God!

Our God is an awesome God!

I love my house. It is cozy, old, unique, quirky and "ours!"

I love to take baths... hot, hot baths and either read or watch tv.

I even like to fall asleep taking a good bath.

I especially love that God takes care of me. I love that he gives me hope & a future.

I like the verse he has for us... Jeremiah 29:11!

snow, snow, snow!! 2010!

It started off at school! WOW!! It snowed ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT!!! This is at 4:30 in the after noon!! We got another 8 inches after this picture!!! I had so much fun hanging out with Alex in the snowstorm of 2010! Oscar HATED the snow! Our cat. Wallie tolerated it and Sugar LOVED it! She slept in the heated greenhouse and then would run wild all through the snow! Had a blast with my kindergarteners... but probably shouldn't post those pictures! But what a cool way to say good bye to the Winter of 2010! Sure does make for fun memories!!!

This was our back yard, absolutely beautiful! We didn't know another 6 inches would fall!! It just kept coming and coming!! The ironic thing here is the most snowfall on record was the winter of 78! My freshman year of highschool! I went to Canyon's WTSU, right south of Amarillo! WOW! It was SNOW heaven for me!! But in Dallas, lots of snow that year too!! I invited my new "boyfriend" to our house to meet my family! Alex Vaughn came and met the whole crew!! That week, we got snow and ICE!! LOTS OF ICE!!! My sweet daddy drove in the worst ice storm of the decade to downtown Dallas to drop my boyfriend off to meet up with his friends for the "Cottonbowl" now deemed the "ice bowl!!" We on the other hand had lost power for several days at our house! FUN memories!! We all 5 lived in the den, with all the windows and doors closed off and ate, played and slept under tons of blankets and kept warm by the fire. Awesome memory for our family and Alex and I!! Meeting my "new boyfriend" that winter turned into a wedding 4 years later and here we are... 32 years after that really special winter in history! Was a pretty special winter for me too!

The total was 15 plus inches! ALMOST as much as that "other" winter!!

We had snow ice cream, chili, homemade red wine stew, cornbread, LOTS of hot chocolate, Tammie Kidd's baked oatmeal and one thing that was consistant was my hot coffee (from Haiti!!)

wow!! Lost some of my beautiful trees, but the 2 days were almost magical.

I will look back and never forget February 2010!!

snow.... snow....snow....

beautiful! 2010 I will never forget it!

2009, God always has a plan.

Wow.... a year and a half has gone by. Many, many things have changed in my life since Thanksgiving 2008. Lots of family changes. Lots of job changes. Lots of changes in our world as well. 2009 was probably one of the best years in my life as well as the absolute worst year.

I am going to skip over January 2009 to July 2009 because without planning this wedding, it would have been a very hard time. God always has a plan. Let's talk about the good.

Lindsey and Carr got married! Wow! What a wonderful blessing! Lindsey was an absolute perfect daughter to plan a wedding with. It was fun planning and one of the best days of our lives on June 19th, 2009!! It was such a sweet time with our family, our new "Smith" family and our sweet friends! I will post about the wedding with pictures soon!! Welcome to our family! We love you Carr Smith!

My neice, Kristin married in August and became Mrs. Chad Haning at a beautiful wedding!

My nephew, Justin became engaged to Brandi soon after! We are waiting on that date for another wedding.

More of God's plan was for me to make a grade change from 3rd to Kindergarten! WOW!! What a perfect change! I didn't know what I was going to have! I absolutely love my job again. It is the best thing ever! I laugh again every day... most all the day! Today I was reading a book, Move Over Rover! One cutie pie who keeps me laughing said, "Holy Moly!! This is a crazy book!!" How can you not enjoy teaching with this kind of response??!! Like I said, God has a plan!

Brady is in his senior year at Oklahoma State! Yippeeeee! It has been a great time. He has been blessed with great friends. He went to Haiti this past November on the same mission trip that Lindsey and I went on. He has a new love for Haiti too! He was going back for Spring Break 2010! Then, the earthquake. WOW... the world now knows where Haiti is and our heart is with those precious people, especially the children. The trip was cancelled... and now it is back on. In 3 weeks, Brady will be back in Haiti and prayers will be needed. Alex and I are going on a trip the same week for a really unique mission trip in Mexico. I will be still praying for Brady across the gulf in Haiti.

Christmas came and went. Spent a wonderful holiday with my family, our new son-in-law and friends! Life is good. Don't understand the twists and turns. But I keep having to believe, God has a plan. While 2010 has turned out to be very unique with weather, earthquakes, friends, jobs and learning to trust... God has a plan. Got to keep looking at Jeremiah 29:11, "for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for hope and a future." I have had to look to Jesus many times through out 2009 and just ask so many questions. Don't know and understand the answers, but I guess just learning to trust. It is hard when others think one thing, and the Lord tells you to be quiet... don't say anything. I will take care of you. I know he will, just patience is not one of my best qualities. The lord gave me the best, most precious husband in the world, an even better family and the most loyal friends in the world. Thank you God for loyalty and trust, even when we don't understand what the heck this is all this about, and God tells you to be quiet. (never have been good at that!!)

I just know, life is good.