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......

A small sample of work

My SLP mug!

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!

Cotton field selfie!

I've passed this church in the middle of a cotton field on my work for years. I finally got a picture of it!

I went to a paint your own pet portrait class. I think it turned out pretty great!

Love this cute thing!

The Pioneer Woman collection was finally released and after hours of deliberation, I decided on this mix and match set! I love it!!!

Speech is Spooktacular! Goodies for my students. 

I love capturing beautiful snapshots of things I see everyday! There is an egret close to the water's edge. 

I had some spontaneous visitors one weekend.

Aren't they the cutest?!

KK loves Effie!

Got some good laughs in with my cousin

Caramel Apples from scratch!

Yum Yum!!!

Another fun photo op

This lady is more awesome than she knows! And I got to have lunch with her :)

I made pumpkin cheesecake from my pumpkin from the patch :)

Thanksgiving Decorations!

I voted!!! 

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. 

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!

Fallen trees on the house.

Before pictures of my room. 

After pictures.

  

Speech Language Therapy Room Decor 2015

     Well, it's back to school already! I wanted to change my speech therapy room up a little this year. I spruced up my desk with a name plate, inspirational quote ("She believed she could, so she did."), and pictures! I tried to think of a bulletin board that the kids would like and came up with a lego theme idea. (I found the little lego people here) I also bought a couple of awesome products from Teachers Pay Teachers....Including this awesome word wall and  and common core cans (Thank you  Nicole Allison at Speech Peeps!!!) I also got some cardboard letters that spell WE (heart) SPEECH and covered them with scrapbook paper! Another much needed update was new blinds for my window. My old ones were totally broken and needed to be replaced. I think the end result is pretty rad! I love my cute little speech room and I'm hoping for a fabulous year of speech-language therapy! 

As I was moving this cabinet (which was a dumpster find!), the door came off and hit me square in the head. It HURT! I had a small knot on my head for about a week. 

Word wall and common core cans I got from Nicole Allison

We Love Speech

Desk! I got the SMILE banner and lights from the Target Dollar Bins! Score!

Lego bulletin board! 

Panoramic View

THE SPEECH DEPARTMENT AT YOUR SERVICE!!! Got these cute tshirts from zoeysattic on Etsy!

Because Everyone Needs a Surprise Birthday Party at Least Once!

     Last weekend, my mom and I successfully threw my dad a surprise birthday party for his 65th birthday! It was soooooo much fun to do for him! He's never had one and I'm glad we were able to pull it off. The only kinks in the plan were the restaurant not having the food ready at the scheduled pick up time and horrible traffic! His brother and sisters all came, along with a nephew and one of his cousins. It was a fun family day!

I went a little crazy with the pictures :)

Cookies my cousin made

Great Uncle Ray loves babies!!!

Pop Pop and Jo Jo

Group picture with the selfie stick!!!

All the siblings

Siblings, spouses, and cousin :)

First Cousins!

Aunt Evelyn and I

Aunt Carolyn and I

Aunt Barbara, Chad, and I- she is too funny!

Great Aunt Dianne!

Effie trying to figure out what this "thing" is lol

KK and JJ!

Smile!

He is so cute!

Blow out the candles!!!

She is a real live baby doll!!!

Happy Birthday, Daddy! We love you!!!