This is just a test.... Repeat: Just a test!

So I decided I wanted to try and create my own blogging signature, and I have to try it out! Let's see if it works!

Happy Birthday to Me! :)

Well, it's here. The big "deuce-deuce." It started out just as I expected a birthday that lands on a Tuesday would go...

The first happy birthday came from Christopher at exactly 12:00 midnight last night and a text message from Summer just a few minutes later. Then this morning, I woke up to a kiss on the cheek and a "Happy Birthday" from Christopher as he walked out the door to go to work and let me sleep in....only to have Christy call me several minutes later to wish me a happy birthday! That was great though - I love the fact that people remember my birthday and care enough to call or text me -- it makes me feel loved!

I got up, checked my facebook and found even more happy birthday messages! Then, I went to pick out a pretty cute outfit for the day, not only because it was my birthday but because it was also... (drum roll please) .... LICENSE RENEWAL DAY!!! whoop-de-doo!

So, I got to spend 1 1/2 hours of my birthday sitting at the DMV waiting to get a new license. The lady says "Would you like the 5 year or the 10 year period for when you have to renew it again?" I replied "10 year, please. I would like to look this young for as long as I can. :)" Good news is, I got a pretty cute picture out of it, considering it is for my license -- those things ususally never turn out good!

I then drove an hour to school, only to do school work that I find out later isn't even due today -- my teacher pushed it back a week! But, I had to go to class anyways, which is eventful... not!

Although everything I did all day on my birthday was not what I would have done by choice, it turned out great because I got phone calls and text messages all day long of all these people that I love in my life, telling me happy birthday! :)

I got home, and Christopher was in the shower, but there were two cards on the table -- one from his parents and one from his sister and brother-in-law. They were both so sweet! Especially the card from his sister because she had picked out a card that said "To my sister..." and that almost made me cry!

Christopher then gave me my first gift: Ratchet & Clank (a video game for Playstation3 that we can play together -- :) ) and then, he took me out to eat. I chose to go to Ruby Tuesdays because they have this amazing penne pasta and shrimp dish.... mMmMmMmMm! It is soo good! & then I came home to my 2nd (or really 3rd, if you count dinner) gift which was......

(another drum roll please....)

Tickets to WWE Monday Night Raw for April 13, 2009!!!!!!

Now, you may think that this is silly, and for those of you who know me might be thinking "Becca doesn't like that sort of thing..." But! You're wrong! I love going to Live wrestling shows! & the best part is, this is the night of their draft meaning that ALL of the wrestlers are going to be there, even the ones that I have never gotten to see in person and have always wanted to see (John Cena, Triple HHH, etc.)

Ah, I love him! He is the greatest!

Well, we are going to go play our game ---

Love you all,

Birthday Weekend #1... yes, I said #1 :)

This year, my birthday falls on a Tuesday... bummer! Who wants to go to school and work and spend all day away from the pleasure of doing just whatever you want that day? I mean, it's YOUR day afterall! But, the plus side to it being in the middle of the week, is that you get to have not one, but TWO birthday weekends! ... yay for me! :)

So this weekend, was birthday weekend #1 -- with the Perkins family! We had been talking for about a week, and Sara was going to make me a cake, and we were going to cook out or something... The night before we were supposed to leave, we had all decided on ordering Partners II Pizza - the most awesome pizza place around! It has all kinds of crazy pizzas. Friday morning, I woke up to what was the yuckiest day, and I had to drive in it all the way to Macon for seminar.... ick! However, halfway through our 2nd session, Macon sends off their tornado signals (which, they may have been sending them off a little early just to be on the safe side, since they just had a natural disaster here about a year ago). Well, I wasn't going to get caught in it, if I was going to have to drive an hour back to Milledgeville and I still had 2 hours to sit in this seminar... So, I scooted on back to Milledgeville... pronto! Meanwhile, Christopher & I decide that since it is going to be such bad weather, we didn't want to drive in it that night or be stuck in Newnan with hail storms and tornados, so we decided just to stay put in Milledgeville.

And although, considering the weather forecast, that was probably the safest thing to do, it just ate me alive that I wasn't going to be spending my first birthday weekend with my family, and they had gone to all of this trouble making sure it was going to be so much fun! So, I packed our things, and off we went! It didn't rain a single drop the whole way down there!

So here came Saturday, the day of hail and tornados (supposedly). Um, it may have thundered... six times and pretty much just had a light rain all day... Although, we had planned on being stuck inside, and I had brought just comfy clothes and Christopher had brought lots of movies, that was alright with me, because it was still light enough for me to go to Target! :)

Saturday evening, everybody showed up: Joyce & Joe, Alison, Jim & Brady, Connie, Greg, Robyn, Will, & Bryan, Meme & Preacher Pa, and my cousins Boone & Mollie-Emma were already there since they were visiting for the weekend, oh and of course my family: Dad, Mom, Sara, Jason, Nutter-Butter, Christy, & my wonderful husband-to-be, Christopher! Everyone brought their own pizzas. We had, of course, Partners II Pizza -- cheeseburger pizza & baked potato pizza -- yummmmy! & Sara spent her afternoon baking me the most wonderful cake in the world, completely homemade -- yellow cake with chocolate icing! MmMmMmMmMmMm :)

Everyone went home, and the evening eventually ended... but then the next morning....

Christopher & I went to The Mart in Atlanta to look for wedding rings! :) <3

We, unfortunately, didn't find one for me, since mine has to have a curve in it, and I did not feel comfortable leaving it with one of those companies up there, however, we did find Christopher's ring! It is just beautiful -- and he picked it out all by himself! It is not your average plain ring, it has lots of detail, and as soon as I find a picture of it, I will post it! I have to go back in 2 weeks to pick it up -- I am so excited! :) Now, we're just on a mission for my ring... Dun! Dun! Dun!!

Well, I have to get ready to drive to Macon for class... joy!

Love you all,

There after me lucky charms!

Yesterday was St. Patrick's Day and one of my favorite holidays of the year! Why? For tons of reasons... First of all, it's in my birthday month and the official "2 weeks until my birthday" day! (it's the March 31st if you didn't already know!) My favorite color is green -- it literally makes me feel happy to see it... and you see it everywhere all.month.long! And everyone is forced to wear it -- or get pinched!

So I got really excited thinking about something green I was going to wear, and decided to wear my white polo shirt, khaki pants, and the CUTEST green jacket from target (all purchased by mom now that I think about it... thanks mom!) So, I had to go student teach that morning in my first grade classroom (with my very own little leprachauns!) I walked in to a school that looked like a leprachaun had blown up in it -- the kids were walking around with green hair (the school would dye it for $1 donation to PTO), of course green outfits, green necklaces that lit up, crazy shamrock bobble-headband things, glittery-green shamrock shaped glasses, and the list goes on... but like I said -- it all made me happy! I finally get to my classroom, after making my way through what looked like a large group of leprachauns, and what do my students do? THEY PINCH ME! I was like "Ow! Why are you pinching me?" and their reply was "because you dont have on green!" I was thinking... these kids MUST be color blind - this is my favorite day and my favorite color, and I am wearing the CUTEST green jacket! And I said "yes, I am! My jacket's green!" and they said "Nope, it's not buttoned or zipped, so it's not really on...." and then proceeded to pinch me. Darn kids will use any excuse to pinch their teacher :)

So, not only did the school already look lucky charm crazy... but they took it even further! They made green apple cotton candy for all the kids to have after lunch! Of course I had to grab me a bag and it was good! I just couldn't get enough of the day, green cookies, green cupcakes, pot-o-gold from the students, it was just the perfect st. patricks day!

On a different note...

I am so excited for Chris & I to get married that it just can NOT get here fast enough! I have known from very early on, that we were going to spend the rest of our forevers together (even if he didn't!) and I have just been waiting for this day my whole life.

Getting married & becoming a wife, being a mother, and having a career as a teacher have always been my 3 main goals in life. I'm working on 2 of them now (not the other one for a couple of years!) and am just so overwhelmed that it is all happening! I never thought they would actually get here, and here they are! I am graduating in about a year to be a teacher, and I am about to be married and become a wife... but not just that, I am marrying the most wonderful man in the world! He is the greatest! I just love everything about him (well, nearly.. just kidding!) He is so smart and so sweet and caring and romantic I just can't get enough of him! I just wanted everyone to know how much I cannot wait to marry the love of my life and finally get started on knocking out these goals of mine! :)

I hope everyone else's St. Patty's days were as cherished as mine!

"I'll have what they're having, please!"

Happy 50th Birthday, Daddy! :)

Well, I anticipated this week to be h.e.c.t.i.c. seeing as how Spring Break is next week for me, but holy cow: Snow day on Monday, half a day on Tuesday... really?! Let me start from the beginning... :)

Christopher & I, as you know, went home this past weekend for my dad's 50th birthday (he would just love that I keep reminding you of how old he is! hehe) and usually stay until Sunday afternoons, however, Saturday morning we woke up and found out that Newnan was expecting some 4 inches of snow starting early Sunday morning. So, we stayed through the evening on Saturday and went on home that night. Good thing we did! Newnan got plowed with snow! ... & Milledgeville got... the sugar dust coating. :) Now, don't get me wrong, it snowed like crazy here, but never ever stuck, bummer! So we sat our cozy little selfs inside all day (because our snow was yucky since it came with rain), and caught up on our television shows, played video games, just simply hung out. We got so jealous though, as both of our siblings kept sending us pictures of the thick snow they had and the fun they were having in it... Why couldn't we have that? Having a yucky day like that does not bother me one bit.... as long as we get a snow day for it! And that's exactly what happened... :)

So Monday was an unexpected day off for me (and a blessing in disguise as I had bagoodles of homework to do if I wanted to enjoy any sort of Spring Break next week). Christopher, of course, had to go into work still (he works for his dad), and so I spent my day doing homework (the good girl I am). I didn't get out of my pj's ALL day... and my sweet hubby-to-be even went grocery shopping for me (I really snagged me a good one, ladies)! He got home so late, we didn't even really eat a decent dinner -- I hadn't thought about it, and it was too late to cook anything, so....

Today, I knew I had a half a day off from school. We're supposed to be working on this project -- but since it's not due for a while, I dedicated this time to catch up on my sleep ;) I made sure, however, to cook that sweet hubby-to-be of mine a good dinner -- Swiss Steaks & Gravy (in the crockpot, of course!) This meal is incredible! Here's the recipe from "Slow Cooker Magic -- A Seasonal Selection of Family Favorite Recipes" if you'd like it:

Ingredients:

3 (.87 ounce) envelopes gravy mix *I love McCormick's Brown Gravy mix*
2 1/2 cups water
2 to 2 1/2 pounds beef cube steaks
1/2 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 tablesppons butter or margarine
3 tablespoons oil
1 onion, peeled, cut in half then sliced
1 cup celery, sliced 1/2 inch thick

Directions:

1. Sprinkle the gravy mix in the bottom of the slow cooker pot. Whisk the water until no lumps remain.

2. Cut cube steaks into 8 serving-size pieces.

3. In a shallow pan or dish, combine the flour, salt, and pepper. Dredge the steaks in the flour mix, shaking off any excess.

4. In a large skillet (preferably cast iron), melt 1 tablespoon each of the butter and oil together over medium heat. Brown 2 or 3 cube steaks for about 2 minutes per side. Remove and set aside. Repeat 2 mroe times, adding 1 tablespoon each butter and oil to the skillet first.

5. Place browned steaks in slow cooker, top with sliced onion and celery. Cover and cook on low for 6-8 hours. If you're home, after 4 hours, gently push the onion and celery to the sides of the pot and down into the gravy. If not home during the day, do it a half hour before serving.

6. Gently remove teh steaks to a serving platter with a slotted spoon or large spatula and pour the remaining juice into a gravy boat and serve!


There you go, Suzy Homemakers! Now, I am off to enjoy my delicious meal, fume over the Bachelor, cover my ears during American Idol and enjoy the rest of my day off! :)