The Best Vacation Ever

So a couple of weekends ago we headed on a short weekend vacation to Wilderness in the Smokies. This is an indoor waterpark in Tennessee. I took a personal day to pack and wait on Scott to get home so we could hit the road. Needless to say it did not go as I had planned. We did not get on the road until 4:30. It is about a 3 hour drive. We arrived only in time to check in, eat dinner in the hotel, and let the girls play for about 1 hour before the park closed. We awoke the next morning and Scott ran out to get breakfast. Then we hit the park. There was four water slides, a Jacuzzi as large as a pool, a put put course, a wave pool, 1 indoor pool, and three play areas for smaller children. Haleigh was tall enough to ride everything. Zoie however was not. The picture above is of hands and that is Scott and Haleigh coming down one of the really big slides. She had no fear. There is one slide that takes about a 15 foot drop. I was scared and did not go. My 7 year old was braver than I was and went with her daddy while Zoie and I watched. Zoie preferred to play in the kids areas, the Jacuzzi, and the wave pool. Sunday morning we checked out but then you can still use the park all day. We even went and played put put. There is an outdoor waterpark as well but it would not be opened until this weekend. The girls said it was the best vacation ever and wanted to know when we could go back. I have to say I am ready to go back too!

Meet Sadie: The Newest member of the Holland Family

The story of bassett hounds in our family has been around for a while. Right after Scott and I got married we bought two dogs. Now understand this two dogs would be joining two other dogs. I got a bassett hound and named her Buffett. Yes that is right after Jimmy Buffett. She was your typical female. She was very tempermental. You would hold her when she wanted to be held and not any other time. Scott got a pointer which he named Lady. Not long after I had Buffett did she venture down to the highway and got ran over. It was horrible. I had such a hard time with it. It was a while but we decided to get another one. We named her Georgia. Yes after the Georgia Bulldogs. She was my everything. She was brown and black and beautiful. She was much more loving than Buffett. At this point Haleigh was just a baby. I am not sure what it is about that hwy, but at the same location Georgia ventured and was ran over too. That was by far the worst. After Scott had to bury two he said no more until we had a fenced in backyard and did not live on a hwy. Well I have been asking for another one for about two years. So finally my wish came true. Happy Mother's Day to me. Sadie came to join the Holland Family last night. Scott brought her home from South GA. I picked the name Sadie and little did I know that it was her mother's name. It has stuck. I have already learned to love specific things about her. I love the way she trips over her ears as she runs. I love how she skids on our hardwood floors and then wimpers. I love how the girls chase her around and she follows. She is beautiful and I am so excited. It was a great mother's day. My husband and girls did good. However stay tuned to see Sweetpea's reaction. She is none to thrilled to say the least. I hope this changes soon.

Be careful what you ask for

It is kind of like asking for patience and it seems that everything goes a certain way that you have to learn some patience. Well about five months ago I began contemplating going back to school for my ED.S. I had just finished my master's degree in May. My mom seemed to be pushing me to go to Piedmont where I did my master's because that is where she taught but I kept saying that I wanted a challenge. I wanted to learn more about my content area. So I decided to apply to UGA. Understand that I lack a lot of faith in myself in what I am able to accomplish. If you told people that I went to school with or even my family for that matter that I had gotten this far they would be shocked. I was always the student who had to study really hard. But I had so much motivation. I wondered would I ever see my motivation take it's true form. In January, I was accepted to UGA much to the amazement of many people. I finally did something that alot of people did not think I was capable of. Well here comes the be careful what you ask for. I wondered would the grass be greener on the other side. We grew up avid UGA fans and had season tickets growing up. My sister attended UGA. So this was a big deal and I really thought the grass would be greener. Currently I am taking two classes and I learned that the grass is greener in this circumstance. I have learned more in these two classes than I did my master's degree combined. So be careful what you ask for: well I will ask anyday to prove that yes I can do it and for an opportunity like this one. What an amazing semester this has been!

The Big 30 and 30 thankful things

Well today was a big reality that I turned 30. My mom has already made me cry this week asking where the time has gone. I have to agree that the past 30 years have flown by. I feel like it was just yesterday that I was getting ready for prom just like my students did this weekend. I have been blessed. So to celebrate I am listing thirty things I am thankful for:

1. To be the daughter of an amazing King
2. To be married to the greatest man
3. To be the mother of two beautiful girls Haleigh and Zoie
4. For my mom, mama, and sister and her family
5. My niece who will be born in less than a month
6. An amazing church
7. Wonderful friends
8. Saving grace
9. Forgivness
10. A wonderful job and co-workers
11. The sound of rain
12. An amazing father for my children
13. My education that I have worked really hard for
14. My students
15. My puppydogs Sweetpea and Lady
16. Unconditional love
17. Two wonderful best friends
18. Our home
19. The seasons that come each year
20. God's majesty
21. My children's health
22. Good health and seeing another birthday
23. the smell of flowers and fresh cut grass
24. my children's laughter
25. God's word and assurance
26. For my salvation
27. For my nieces and nephews
28. The beach and its peacefulness
29. The mountain air
30. Freedom for what is used to be

Biddies and Easter Time

Well I can tell spring is in the air. Even though it comes about a month later than in south GA the trees and flowers are finally starting to bloom. Easter is coming. I do love this time of year even though the fall is by far my favorite. This is an exiting time of anticipating the death and resurrection of our precious Savior. It is also a time of Easter egg hunting, a new Easter dress and planting of our garden. This week has led way to the arrival of spring and Easter. On Wednesday, twelve new "organisms" became part of our family. Yes they are organisms as I teach science but these are twelve that I am not enthusiastic about. We have twelve biddies. That is twelve baby chicks. Now you may ask why is that so bad. Well it would not be to most except I grew up with two chicken houses containing about 52,000 chickens. Yes you read that right. Now don't get me wrong we never ran out of eggs but I hated those things. So much to my disagreeing, my husband and girls bought twelve. Haleigh's first question was "Momma when daddy goes out of town will you help me with the biddies?" It is hard telling your child no sometimes but this was quite easy. I said "NOOOOOOOOOOO!" They are cute while they are young but I know what they grow up to look like and smell like. Not interested. I will be glad to post pictures of the organisms when I figure out how to post pictures. In the meantime you can just imagine. A year from now we will have fresh eggs to eat.

Today we headed to Cleveland to watch the Easter Exstravagansa parade with Ms. Heather and her family, and Ms. Carrie and her family. Afterwards we were going to Babyland for the annual Easter egg hunt but it was too chaotic so we headed to the park to play. Apparently I assummed that because the sun was out that it was warm. Boy was I wrong. We headed home shortly after that for Zoie to go spend the day with daddy fishing. Haleigh got to go hunting in the fall twice so this was Zoie's day. I did not take pictures of this because I forgot my camera. Oh well maybe next year.

Happy birthday to my mom/Time spent with mama

Well maybe one day I will get this blogging down but I still can't add pictures or change anything so when someone is ready for a lesson I am willing to learn. Today is a very special day. It is my sweet mom's birthday. This past weekend my grandmother (mama) came to visit. She stayed Friday night with mom and then on to our house. She is the best. We always get to pick what we want for her to cook when we visit or when she visits us. I have finally gotten two recipes after 15 years of asking. My mama makes the best:
1. Sweet tea
2. pimento cheese
3. dumplings
4. and so much more

I got the recipe to the dumplings and her rice and tomatoes. Her cooking is special especially when it involves my girls and their great grandma. She let them help make the dumplings. What special memories for them! On sunday we just made it to church and then sunday night we had a birthday dinner with my mom in commerce. I thank God for these two beautiful women who have both raised me and made me the person I am.

I love you mom and mama

Finally My First Post as well as Christmas Memories

To begin our holidays we visited the new Babyland General Hospital the day after we got out of school. Our friends Laura and Lindsey and their families joined us. After Babyland we headed to the Tinsley house to make cookies. Below are pictures of our excursion.

So I am finally learning how to do this. Today we visited my sister after going to see a movie. For the past few years we have made it a tradition to travel to Discover Mills to watch a new movie. This year it was The Princess and The Frog. What a great movie. After the movie we traveled to Lenox to go ride the Pink pig which was a family tradition for me as a child. We could not find a parking place. Scott got frustrated so I said lets just leave. We finally arrived at Heather's house to do Christmas with her and her family. We were excited to see the new addition to the O'Dell house. His name is Hundley and no it is not a baby. It is a puppy. Pictures to come later. After dinner while the kids were playing Heather taught me how to use my blog. It was a long overdue lesson.

Christmas this year was really relaxing. I did not even get out of my pjs yesterday. It was great. We watched movies and played games all day. I made breakfast casserole like I usually do and we just hung out. Tomorrow we will go have Christmas with T and Mama.