Monday, September 12, 2016
Snapchat Filters
So, Snapchat filters are soooo much fun to me! Here, a gallery of my favorite:
And my all time favorite.....this voice changer video of me and my mom. I die laughing every time!!!
My First Home!
About a month ago, I bought my first home! It was definitely a long process. I looked at several homes and made an offer on one but backed out after the home inspection. The house I bought went for sale right about the time I was about to give up. I barely had time to close on it before my lease was up on my apartment! It was a rush move job! Thank goodness for my parents, my cousin, and my friend! I never would have accomplished it without their help.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Candace Is In The Building!!!
Whoa. I mean, Whoa. I cannot believe my last post was over 6 months ago! I never wanted to be one of those bloggers that stops blogging. But, hey, it happens! So, what have I been doing for half a year? Let me see if I can remember......
*Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays. So much good food and fun with the family. Definitely a lot to be thankful for!
*Zoo Trip. I hadn't been to this particular zoo in years. It was so much fun! The ostrich was probably my favorite because he came right up to us.
*Baby Christmas Photo Shoot=lots of hard work! My mom wanted to surprise my brother and sister-in-law with pictures of my niece all dressed up for Christmas. We got some really cute ones!
*Annual Family Christmas Reunion: We go to my Aunt Jean's every year for a get-together before Christmas. This year, I happened to see this really funny reindeer hat and immediately thought of my Uncle Robert. I got it for him and he loved it! I knew if anyone would embrace it, he would! We also got to go inside my grandmother's house for the first time since I was a kid. I cried my eyes out! It brought back so many memories.
*Santa came to visit Effie (and me)!!!
*Made a valentine for my niece.
*Baby quilt for a friend in school colors!
*Movies, movies, movies! One of my friends has thoroughly educated me on tons of good movies
that I had never seen before: Harry Potter, X-Men, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sister Act, etc. It's been so much fun!
*Work!!! Can't forget about work, lol. It's been a great year in the Speech Department. We've had lots of good changes this year.
*Spring Break- went bowling with my Aunt Jean and little cousins. So much fun!!!
*Lots of fun with friends! My friend Lauren even came to town one night all the way from Indiana! It was so much fun to see her and catch up!!
*My niece's first birthday party!!!
*House hunting. Which is an ordeal and a whole other blog post in itself.
So that's about it! I think the key words here are 'so much fun' lol! I need a thesaurus. Happy Summer!!!
*Thanksgiving! One of my favorite holidays. So much good food and fun with the family. Definitely a lot to be thankful for!
*Zoo Trip. I hadn't been to this particular zoo in years. It was so much fun! The ostrich was probably my favorite because he came right up to us.
*Baby Christmas Photo Shoot=lots of hard work! My mom wanted to surprise my brother and sister-in-law with pictures of my niece all dressed up for Christmas. We got some really cute ones!
*Annual Family Christmas Reunion: We go to my Aunt Jean's every year for a get-together before Christmas. This year, I happened to see this really funny reindeer hat and immediately thought of my Uncle Robert. I got it for him and he loved it! I knew if anyone would embrace it, he would! We also got to go inside my grandmother's house for the first time since I was a kid. I cried my eyes out! It brought back so many memories.
*Santa came to visit Effie (and me)!!!
*Made a valentine for my niece.
*Baby quilt for a friend in school colors!
*Movies, movies, movies! One of my friends has thoroughly educated me on tons of good movies
that I had never seen before: Harry Potter, X-Men, Mrs. Doubtfire, Sister Act, etc. It's been so much fun!
*Work!!! Can't forget about work, lol. It's been a great year in the Speech Department. We've had lots of good changes this year.
*Spring Break- went bowling with my Aunt Jean and little cousins. So much fun!!!
*Lots of fun with friends! My friend Lauren even came to town one night all the way from Indiana! It was so much fun to see her and catch up!!
*My niece's first birthday party!!!
*House hunting. Which is an ordeal and a whole other blog post in itself.
So that's about it! I think the key words here are 'so much fun' lol! I need a thesaurus. Happy Summer!!!
Friday, November 13, 2015
Fall Happenings
Oh my goodness! It has been so long since I've been able to blog. I have been so busy with work this year that I forgot all about it {GASP}! I don't know about you, but here in these parts, fall is in full force! I've been a busy little bumblebee! Here, a picture tour of what I've been up to lately......
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| A small sample of work |
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| My SLP mug! |
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| I got to go to the pumpkin patch on a field trip with kindergarten. I got to slide down the big slide, ride, a train, see sheep and horses, and pick a pumpkin! Fun day with lots of little giggles! |
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| Cotton field selfie! |
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| I've passed this church in the middle of a cotton field on my work for years. I finally got a picture of it! |
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| I went to a paint your own pet portrait class. I think it turned out pretty great! |
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| Love this cute thing! |
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| The Pioneer Woman collection was finally released and after hours of deliberation, I decided on this mix and match set! I love it!!! |
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| Speech is Spooktacular! Goodies for my students. |
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| I love capturing beautiful snapshots of things I see everyday! There is an egret close to the water's edge. |
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| I had some spontaneous visitors one weekend. |
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| Aren't they the cutest?! |
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| KK loves Effie! |
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| Got some good laughs in with my cousin |
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| Caramel Apples from scratch! |
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| Yum Yum!!! |
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| Another fun photo op |
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| This lady is more awesome than she knows! And I got to have lunch with her :) |
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| I made pumpkin cheesecake from my pumpkin from the patch :) |
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| Thanksgiving Decorations! |
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| I voted!!! |
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Remembering Hurricane Katrina
Today is the ten year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall in Mississippi and Louisiana. In some ways it seems just like yesterday and in other ways it seems like forever ago. How is that even possible?
I was a young college student living in Hattiesburg, MS, about 75 miles north of Biloxi. My friend, Audie, and I just moved into a house and were excited to start a new semester of school. Some friends stopped by to see our new place and mentioned something about a hurricane. We were clueless about what was churning out in the gulf waters. School started that year on a Friday I think. I remember going to church on Sunday and the preacher telling all the college students to head north because of the hurricane. Well, Audie and I didn't think that was necessary. You see, I had lived in Hattiesburg for about a year and a half at this time. I'd been through tons of these hurricane warnings. They would cancel school, shut down work, board up windows, etc, etc and not so much as a raindrop would fall from the sky. So, I was thinking this was like the little boy crying "wolf" again. Also, I guess we didn't really want to drive north only to have to turn around for class the next day. I even talked to a relative of mine who told me the only danger in Hattiesburg would be from falling trees and that it wouldn't be likely to die from that. So, after much deliberation, we decided to ride out the storm. I distinctly remember making a trip to Walmart that afternoon after church to stock up on hurricane supplies. No bread, no water, no peanut butter, no batteries. We were going to buy candles and matches to use for light. Tealight candles! What were we thinking?! I think a man in line told us that wasn't a good idea that it might catch the house on fire.
At some point, we received word that school was cancelled Monday and that my job would be closed as well. That was the final straw. We packed our bags and headed north! I packed all my new school books that cost hundreds of dollars, computer, printer, and even my brand new night stand. We took the long way home and avoided the major highway to bypass all the traffic. We even stopped and visited with Audie's grandfather. We finally arrived to my parents' house around 7:00. The sky was such an eerie color! There was a huge rainbow in the sky and we knew we were going to be ok!
The next morning the storm came. In Jackson, we lost power early in the morning. My parents' fence was blown down and they also had a little roof damage. Reports of an elderly woman dying from a tree falling on her surfaced. We were unsure of our house in the Burg. With no power, and not knowing when it would come back on, it was time to clean out the freezer and fire up the grill! We grilled pizza, french fries, chicken tenders, and whatever else we had on hand. You could hear the sound of generators all over. We did not have a generator though. And the HEAT.....It was the end of August in the deep South. It was so humid and sticky and hot! I can remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking we were all going to die of the heat that I woke my parents up and we slept in the living room with the screen doors open for a couple of hours to let the cool night air blow in. I was fortunate enough to go to the bank where I had previously worked to hang out for the day with old coworkers. I did it because they had electricity and air conditioning! The plus side to that was I was able to work there for a couple of weeks because the branch in Hattiesburg was obviously closed.
My dad and I got word that there was dry ice for sale at some random place about an hour away. So, we got some! It was interesting to use that to get some water and drinks cold. It was very hard to buy gasoline in the immediate days after Katrina. You seriously would park you car along the highway and wait for at least an hour before you got to the pump. You just hoped there would be some left when you got there. Some people had to push their cars in because they ran out of gas waiting. They also had a limit on how much you could buy and you had to prepay.
Meanwhile, in the Burg, we got news that our house was damaged. Trees had fallen on it. You see, Hattiesburg is known as the Pine Belt. There are huge pine trees everywhere! I don't know if they are, but they seem like they are bigger and taller than the pine trees in the other parts of the state. Anyway, trees had fallen on our house. In fact, they had fallen on MY bedroom. Can you imagine me being in my room sound asleep and then all of a sudden BOOM?! I would have lost it. We had several elderly neighbors that did brave the storm. I can remember one of them, Ms. Sammy, saying, "I just sat here and watched all the trees fall one by one. There was nothing I could do." I cannot imagine how scared she must have been. I'm so glad we left! When I was able to go back, you could see so many uprooted trees and power line posts snapped in two like toothpicks. And oh the blue tarps. Probably 2 out of every 3 houses had blue tarps on the roof. The damage was unbelievable. I could not imagine what it must look like on the coast and in New Orleans.
Thankfully, I was able to salvage and clean up most of my belongings. The house got repaired around 9 months after the storm. I was able to move into the living room because the house also had a den. Even though it was hard, it could have been so much worse. Around the same time our house was repaired, Audie and I made a trip to New Orleans with our church to help a lady demo her house to the studs so she could rebuild. 9 months of contaminated water settled into your home = disgusting, putrid, awfulness. Audie and I both realized that our situation could have been a lot worse.
My story of Hurricane Katrina is certainly not as severe as most, but I do remember it. It was a very difficult time for many people. It changed the city, state, and world we lived in. I hope to never experience another hurricane as strong again.
I was a young college student living in Hattiesburg, MS, about 75 miles north of Biloxi. My friend, Audie, and I just moved into a house and were excited to start a new semester of school. Some friends stopped by to see our new place and mentioned something about a hurricane. We were clueless about what was churning out in the gulf waters. School started that year on a Friday I think. I remember going to church on Sunday and the preacher telling all the college students to head north because of the hurricane. Well, Audie and I didn't think that was necessary. You see, I had lived in Hattiesburg for about a year and a half at this time. I'd been through tons of these hurricane warnings. They would cancel school, shut down work, board up windows, etc, etc and not so much as a raindrop would fall from the sky. So, I was thinking this was like the little boy crying "wolf" again. Also, I guess we didn't really want to drive north only to have to turn around for class the next day. I even talked to a relative of mine who told me the only danger in Hattiesburg would be from falling trees and that it wouldn't be likely to die from that. So, after much deliberation, we decided to ride out the storm. I distinctly remember making a trip to Walmart that afternoon after church to stock up on hurricane supplies. No bread, no water, no peanut butter, no batteries. We were going to buy candles and matches to use for light. Tealight candles! What were we thinking?! I think a man in line told us that wasn't a good idea that it might catch the house on fire.
At some point, we received word that school was cancelled Monday and that my job would be closed as well. That was the final straw. We packed our bags and headed north! I packed all my new school books that cost hundreds of dollars, computer, printer, and even my brand new night stand. We took the long way home and avoided the major highway to bypass all the traffic. We even stopped and visited with Audie's grandfather. We finally arrived to my parents' house around 7:00. The sky was such an eerie color! There was a huge rainbow in the sky and we knew we were going to be ok!
The next morning the storm came. In Jackson, we lost power early in the morning. My parents' fence was blown down and they also had a little roof damage. Reports of an elderly woman dying from a tree falling on her surfaced. We were unsure of our house in the Burg. With no power, and not knowing when it would come back on, it was time to clean out the freezer and fire up the grill! We grilled pizza, french fries, chicken tenders, and whatever else we had on hand. You could hear the sound of generators all over. We did not have a generator though. And the HEAT.....It was the end of August in the deep South. It was so humid and sticky and hot! I can remember waking up in the middle of the night thinking we were all going to die of the heat that I woke my parents up and we slept in the living room with the screen doors open for a couple of hours to let the cool night air blow in. I was fortunate enough to go to the bank where I had previously worked to hang out for the day with old coworkers. I did it because they had electricity and air conditioning! The plus side to that was I was able to work there for a couple of weeks because the branch in Hattiesburg was obviously closed.
My dad and I got word that there was dry ice for sale at some random place about an hour away. So, we got some! It was interesting to use that to get some water and drinks cold. It was very hard to buy gasoline in the immediate days after Katrina. You seriously would park you car along the highway and wait for at least an hour before you got to the pump. You just hoped there would be some left when you got there. Some people had to push their cars in because they ran out of gas waiting. They also had a limit on how much you could buy and you had to prepay.
Meanwhile, in the Burg, we got news that our house was damaged. Trees had fallen on it. You see, Hattiesburg is known as the Pine Belt. There are huge pine trees everywhere! I don't know if they are, but they seem like they are bigger and taller than the pine trees in the other parts of the state. Anyway, trees had fallen on our house. In fact, they had fallen on MY bedroom. Can you imagine me being in my room sound asleep and then all of a sudden BOOM?! I would have lost it. We had several elderly neighbors that did brave the storm. I can remember one of them, Ms. Sammy, saying, "I just sat here and watched all the trees fall one by one. There was nothing I could do." I cannot imagine how scared she must have been. I'm so glad we left! When I was able to go back, you could see so many uprooted trees and power line posts snapped in two like toothpicks. And oh the blue tarps. Probably 2 out of every 3 houses had blue tarps on the roof. The damage was unbelievable. I could not imagine what it must look like on the coast and in New Orleans.
Thankfully, I was able to salvage and clean up most of my belongings. The house got repaired around 9 months after the storm. I was able to move into the living room because the house also had a den. Even though it was hard, it could have been so much worse. Around the same time our house was repaired, Audie and I made a trip to New Orleans with our church to help a lady demo her house to the studs so she could rebuild. 9 months of contaminated water settled into your home = disgusting, putrid, awfulness. Audie and I both realized that our situation could have been a lot worse.
My story of Hurricane Katrina is certainly not as severe as most, but I do remember it. It was a very difficult time for many people. It changed the city, state, and world we lived in. I hope to never experience another hurricane as strong again.
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| This is not a poor quality picture. The sky was really this eerie color. But, a rainbow! We knew we were going to be ok! |
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| Fallen trees on the house. |
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| Before pictures of my room. |
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| After pictures. |
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