me and ak

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

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!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

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!

Friday, February 19, 2010

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.

Sunday, December 14, 2008

thanksgiving in Haiti...

Lindsey and I decided to go on a mission trip
to Haiti over Thanksgiving. We got our shots,
we packed our bags and headed off with 6 other
teachers from Midlothian. It was an awesome
experience. I really did miss Alex and Brady
so much, but it was life changing!!
We worked with the 165 teachers of the New
Missions in Haiti at a teacher's conference. We
did rice feedings in the villages. We played with
the kids. It was worth it all. We don't realize
how fortunate we are.