Guess what I just did.....

APPLIED FOR GRADUATION!!! 

On May 7th I'll officially have my MASTERS!!! Who wants to come PARTY?!?!

Snowpocalypse

                                                 
       There was talk of snow a week ago... but I didn't believe it. Sure there was a 70% chance of snow but Memphis has this  invisible shield around it that somehow always seems to push weather north or south of us. As Sunday came closer it seemed that maybe the weather man was correct and we maybe, just maybe, would get snow!

        Well, as it always happens when the S word (snow) is mentioned in the south, everyone went ran to the grocery store to load up on milk, water, bread and eggs.  I've never understood this - has anyone in the south ever been "snowed in" longer than a day or so? Why do you need cases (yes, multiple) of water, several gallons of milk, several dozen eggs, and enough bread to feed a small army. Come on people! Yes, we were guilty of going to the store on Sunday but we hadn't been since before Christmas! We needed food! We bought ingrediants to make chili because if I get to sit and watch snow fall I want to eat something warm and delishous and drink hot chocolate with lots and lots of marshmellows.

        By 8pm on Sunday the snow was collecting on the ground and I found out that school was cancelled on Monday! WHOO! Snow Day! Since Ben has a long commute each morning he decided he would probably stay home as well since no one here knows how to drive in the snow and he didn't want to sit in traffic for hours on end.

        Monday we woke up to about 5 inchs of BEAUTIFUL snow! We were dog sitting for a neighbor so we loaded up with clothing and set out to let the dogs play in the snow. I wore about 5 layers of pants and 5 shirts, plus a coat! I was NOT going to be cold! I may look like a huge marshmellow, but I was going to be warm!

 

 

             Once we decided the dogs were good and tired we headed back home - our neighbors were playing outside and ran straight up to Ben and started hitting him with snow balls. Their parents told us that they woke up at 6:30 this morning and the first thing they said "I want to throw snowballs at Mr. Ben!"

 

Ben looks thrilled by this doesn't he? haha

              Being the southern girl that I am, my snowman skills are seriously lacking. Our neighbors are from New York so they were more than excited to teach me to build a snowman. The kids got cold and lost interest pretty quickly so we decided to make the snowman a snowwoman.... and somehow she turned into a drag queen that looks to have had a pretty rough night the night before - her eye makeup is running all over her face! 

Drag-Snow Queen

        Sadly the snow will probably be gone when we wake up tomorrow, but it sure was fun while it lasted. At least when it comes and goes so quickly, you can't get tired of it :)  And we can honestly say, we survived snowpocalypse 2011.

New Years - 2011

To ring in the New Year we went to visit Ben's family. This was a multi-purpose trip as we also celebrated our Christmas with them at this time, and UT was playing in a bowl game there. Ben, his dad, and his sister all went to the game but I, being completely done with football for the year, decided to use this time to visit with a friend that has moved and I haven't seen in quite some time.

We had a great time in downtown Nashville Thursday night for the bowl game, so we decided to hang low on New Years eve and hangout with Ben's parents. I was in bed by 10:45! I'm getting old I guess, but staying up until midnight just doesn't interest me anymore.  Whose with me?!

 

Since my challange (I'm avoiding the word resolution) for this year was to take more pictures, here are the few I took..... I didn't do great with the whole photo taking thing, but I did BETTER! Hey, gotta start somewhere, right?

2010 Recap

Happy New Year!

Since this is my first post of the year I thought I would do a little re-cap of last year! 2010 was a GREAT year for the Chip family.... it is actually the year we became a family. In February I married my best friend and I can't think of anything that could top that! I was so bad this year about taking pictures, but I thought I would use the few photos I did take to re-cap our year. I won't post any wedding pictures here as I am planning to do a wedding post on our Anniversary next month.  Without further a-do, here is our year in review:

In January and February we were honored with quite a few wedding showers. Of course, I only have pictures of two of them! 

         

                Washington D.C./Maryland Shower

                                     

Memphis Shower

                                     
    

Wedding Weekend/Bridesmaid Luncheon

                                     

Honeymoon in Jamaica! 

 

Doug and Beth's Wedding in Florida

                                   

Red Neck Crawfish Boil

PickWick Lake Trip

Tammy's Moving Away Party

A Day in NYC 

Kelli's Play Joesph and The Technicolor Dream Coat

A Few Random Pictures

We did many other things in 2010, beach trips, lake trips, MANY MANY trips to Knoxville for football games, Thanksgiving with Ben's family and Christmas with mine - but... no camera. My challenge to myself this next year is to take more pictures!! 

I hope you enjoyed these pictures and a glimpse into our 2010 :)

Updates

Well,  as I thought may happen - I have been a huge slacker with this blog. It's not that I WANTED that to happen, it's just that somewhere along the way I lost my desire and passion to blog. Whenever I had a spare moment to type something up, I chose to spend that time cuddling with my husband or writing lesson plans. But I really do want to have a way to look back over the years and see what Ben and I have done throughout the years.  I know I've said this before, but I'm going to do my VERY BEST to update on a more regular basis!

This past few months I have spent my time student teaching. It was an amazing experience and I was blessed to be in two great schools. The best thing that came from student teaching was a JOB!  In January I will be the interim reading specialist at a private school here in Memphis. This is the school I did part of my student teaching in and I L.O.V.E. the school. While this position is not guaranteed next year, I am just so thankful for it for the next few months. God has truly taught Ben and I so much about patience and waiting on the Lord these past few months. Each and every time we would begin to worry about money or a job for me, the Lord would open a door and provide for us. 

1 Chronicles 29:13
Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name.

Until next time!
Mindy

Here I am, back for my second post. I had forgotten the feeling I used to get when I was blogging a few years ago. The feeling of always thinking, in the back of my mind, about what I was going to post about next. Well, unfortunately for you that thinking has not gotten me very far today!

I cannot believe it is almost JULY! Seriously, where has this summer gone? Thankfully I have been blessed with some down time and have been able to spend a day or so a week at the pool. This is the first summer in SO. LONG. that I have been able to do that!

Since we live in the HOT HOT south, we like to treat ourselves our dog to tasty treats to keep him cool. Last night we took him to get his favorite treat....

Yes, Ice Cream. This pup LOVES sonic! When we pull into the parking lot he starts whimpering, and when he sees the sonic girl walk by he starts LICKING HIS LIPS! Oh, I wish I were making it up. I've never actually seen anyone/thing lick it's lips in anticipation for food (well other than cartoons...). He usually devours the whole thing - cone and all - in about 10 seconds. If dogs get brain freeze, he has to be in pain afterwards.

Do you have any fun treats you do to keep your pets or children cool when it's so hot out?

Seem's like I'm BAAACCCKKK

Hello friends -

I've decided to come back and give this blogging thing a try again. I had a blog a few years ago but life got crazy and I took a little break. Well, the "break" turned into almost two years. After visiting my best friend in Louisiana for a few days, and having her persuade me to start blogging again.... here I am. I went ahead and imported my old blog over here so if you're interested in anything from my past, there ya go!

I haven't exactly decided where I will go with this blog, but I'm sure it will mostly be about the journey of my life. Here is a little snip-it of what has been going on in my life in the past two years.

In the fall of 2008 I started graduate school working towards my MAT in Early Childhood Education. This will certify me to teach children ages Pre-K - 3rd grade. I will be student teaching this fall so I'm sure there will be many great stories that come from being with little children 8 hours a day!

August 2009 the love of my life, Mr. C, **He does not like being called this so I'll have to come up with something else later** asked me to marry him. Of course, I said "YES!" and we were married in February of this year. We are four months into this crazy, fun, ride called marriage and I cannot imagine my life any other way!

Oh, and I can't forgot our dog. Our slightly psychotic mutt, Mosby. The precious boy was found in my grandfather's barn and something possessed us to bring him home. He is 90% sweet and lovable, and 10% CRAZY - the 10% is enough to drive me bonkers most of the time, but Mr. C has convinced me that he we need him and he needs us.

I hope you'll join me in this journey - it should be fun!

*I know the blog is a little "bare-bones" at the moment, but give me time and I'll get it spruced up!