Sean's self-photography

Busy and Fun Week

Monday (3/21) - Worked on homework all day - I didn't even make it out of my pajamas :)

Tuesday (3/22) - Tammy (Justin's aunt) kept the boys so that I could run errands today. I've attempted to get our truck registered in Texas three times now, and each time I'm told I need some other piece of paperwork. I can't get a TX license until I have it registered - UGH!

Wednesday (3/23) - Spent the morning cleaning house, then took Sean to McDonalds for lunch and some playtime. We go to the McDonalds by Parkdale Mall in Beaumont about once a week. We prefer that one over the one in Vidor, and there are always several other kids his age to play with.

Thursday (3/24) - Spent the day completing my application for an English teaching job at Hamshire-Fannett High School. This is the first English job that I've seen come open in the area, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. I've also applied to Little Cypress-Mauricevill and Nederland although no jobs have posted there yet. This evening, I took Sean to his first "toddler tumbling" class at H&H Gymnastics. He was easily distracted with all of the activity going on around him and had to be redirected quite a bit, but he said he liked it and wanted to go back next week. :)

Friday (3/25) - Justin took today off and we took Sean to the fair (Krissy kept Liam). Sean had a blast - he won two puppies and rode tons of rides. He said his favorite ride was the ferris wheel, which he rode with Justin. I am NOT a fan of any type of carnival ride. We ate tons of totally unhealthy food, including a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich (yes, you read correctly...) We also had the usual -lots of things on a stick, funnel cake, cajun pistolettes, roasted corn, etc. I dropped my application off at Hamshire-Fannett ISD on our way to the fair.

Saturday (3/26) - Cleaned house and worked in the yard all day - was a productive day :) Sean met the little boy who lives behind us. His name is Andrew and he looks to be about five or six. They talked over the fence for a while, and then Andrew worked up the nerve to climb the fence into our yard. They played with Sean's Gator and other toys for an hour or so until Andrew went home. Justin and I need to go over to his house one day and introduce ourselves to his parents. He seems like a really sweet kid - he helped Sean pick some flowers to give me :) Cutie pies.

Sunday (3/27) - Liam has NOT been sleeping well lately. He learned to roll over, and so now he rolls over at night, wakes himself up, and cries. Last night was a rough night, so I slept in today and missed church :( I slept until noon!! Once I was up, I woked on homework all day. This was my last assignment for this course - whoohoo!!! Only two more classes to go (and one of those is my internship class), and I am officially done :D C'mon June!! I'll graduate at the August ceremony.

Bye bye Facebook...

Since I've given up Facebook for Lent, it's pretty astonishing how much more productive I've been during the day :) I am missing the updates on everyone's lives though, as well as posting my own statuses from day to day. So, I've decided to somewhat fulfill my Facebook obsession by posting my "would have been my Facebook updates" here!

Monday (3/14) - Liam was majorly cranky today. He fussed all day and wouldn't nap - I don't think the poor guy is feeling very well :( Thankfully, he went to sleep early this evening though.

Tuesday (3/15) - Liam slept until 11 - whoohoo! And he woke up feeling much better than yesterday. Of course, that meant that Sean was in a horrible mood today - go figure :P

Wednesday (3/16) - Sean and I decided to hit Super Wal-Mart tonight for our weekly grocery shopping. Turns out we love Super Wal-Mart at eleven at night :) Hardly any customers (and the ones that are there are in their pajamas so you don't have to care what you look like!), the staff is apparently so bored they jump to offer any assistance, and no frustratingly long lines. Sean fell asleep in the car on the way home, so no bedtime battle either. I consider this Wal-Mart trip a tremendous success.

Thursday (3/17) - I decided to try my hand at cooking some Irish fare today in honor of St. Patrick's day. I found a recipe for corned beef brisket that called for coating it in brown sugar and then slow-roasting it in Guinness. I added some carrots and potatoes, and it was pretty awesome if I do say so myself. Sean helped make dessert, which was a pistachio ambrosia sort of dish with pineapples and mandarin oranges - it was yummy too. Justin's parents came over for dinner, and we had a good time. The boys were too cute in their green of course. I'll post some pics as soon as I find the cord to connect the camera to the computer. :)

Friday (3/18) - Unpacked 16 boxes today - whew! All of it kitchen stuff too. The last mountain of boxes was definitely made smaller today, and hopefully I'll work up the energy next week to tackle the rest.

Saturday (3/19) - Took the LCE at Lamar today. When you're enrolled in a program with Lamar that requires a certification test, they won't approve you to take the actual test until you take their practice version and make at least an 80. I made an 83, thank goodness, so now I can register to take the real principal certification exam. After the test, we took Sean to look at swing sets. Found one we liked at Toys R' Us, so we're going to look into ordering it online. Went to dinner with Jess and her mom tonight, which was great. I hadn't been to Saltgrass yet, and it was awesome.

Sunday (3/20) - Church, then lunch with Justin's family at La Cantina - yum. Went to Sam's afterward, and found a swing set that we liked better than the one at Toys R' Us, so we're going to order that one instead. I've gotta get this boy outside to burn some energy now that the weather is beautiful. Fair starts this week- yay!!

Wow - I can't believe I haven't been on here since Liam joined our little family. Liam Patrick Mahan was born on November 1, 2010 at 6:30pm. He weighed 7lb 3oz and was 19 and 1/2 inches long. I was induced at 37 weeks due to pre-eclampsia concerns, but Liam was perfectly beautiful and healthy and we were able to go home together two days after he was born.

Here's a pic taken the night before Liam was born... My sister is a great photographer :)

And here Sean meets Liam for the first time. Sean has proven to be an AWESOME big brother. He is very protective of Liam, and has not shown once ounce of jealousy (which I worried about). He gets mad at me if Liam cries :)

I'm sitting here and have an assignment due by midnight, so figured I would blog :) After all, it has been a year since my last post. I (quite obviously) still haven't gotten the hang of this blogging thing. Now that I'm on bedrest, maybe I'll be better.. I am, however, NOT holding my breath. I have been officially put on bedrest by my ob/gyn due to my developing the early stages of preeclampsia. I'll be induced Monday, November 1st, at 37 weeks, as long as my bloodwork doesn't show any significant deteroriations before then. Keeping our fingers crossed! While I am soooooo ready to not be pregnant, I want this little bean to stay cooking for as long as possible. I've been going to the doctor and/or hospital every other day or so for the past two weeks now. My sister says I look like a junkie with all of the bruises on my arms from taking blood :)

I'm staying with my mom and dad right now since Justin is already back in Texas. Mom and I put the baby's pack and play up today, where he'll sleep for the first few months at least. I was just going to reuse Sean's but when I saw all of the new fancy contraptions on the new ones, I couldn't resist....I'm a sucker, I guess! We also bought a new double stroller, and I bought a few odds and ends. Other than than, I'm thankful for another boy because I didn't have to buy very much. I still had all of Sean's clothes, so I just pulled out the rubbermaids and we were in business. Justin will be here this weekend - just in time to take Sean trick-or-treating. Sean looooves Halloween, and he reminds me everyday that his daddy will "be here soon!" We've been having a few daddy meltdowns lately, so Justin can't get here soon enough! I guess Sean is getting tired of mom and is ready to see a different face :)

Off to finish my homework. Before I leave, here are some pics of Sean taken at a nearby pumpkin patch called Holiday Farms. We've been going there for the past three years during fall and then again in spring for Easter egg picking. It's a great place, and one I will miss when we are back in Texas. Here's an Easter one as well from this past spring.

BERMUDA!!

One day I'll finally get this blogging thing down, and post something more often than every six months :)

Last weekend we traveled to Bermuda where my sister got married. After a few snafus, we had a wonderful time. We left Friday right after school (I therefore missed the first football game and Open House - who schedules Open House on a Friday night anyway???). Our flight left early Saturday morning from Charlotte, NC, about a four hour drive from Beaufort. We flew out of Charlotte in order to have a direct flight into Bermuda. When we arrived at the airport Sat. morning and were checking in, we realized that Justin and I had grabbed my expired passport. I didn't panic (probably because my entire body went completely numb at this point), and thankfully there was one seat left on the Sunday morning flight. Soooo, everyone else flew to Bermuda on Saturday while I drove back to Beaufort, grabbed my new passport, then turned around and drove right back to Charlotte. I finally made it to beautiful Bermuda Sunday afternoon. Oh, by the way, I was moved up to first class on my flight and took total advantage of the complimentary liquor. I also might have stopped at an outlet mall Sat. night and shopped but who knows??? :)

Here are some pics of the fun times had by Sean and Justin while mom was driving like a maniac on Saturday :)

Amstel - it's not just for breakfast anymore :)


Once I arrived in Bermuda, we headed straight to a beach called Achilles' Cove. The beaches in Bermuda are absolutely amazing and like nothing I've ever seen. They are all very private and completely secluded because they're surrounded by volcanic rock and old coral reefs. It was awesome with an almost two year old because he could have free reign. Sunday night we had a "rehearsal dinner" at a restaurant called The Carriage House. The wedding was Monday morning at an Anglican church called St. Peter's. This church is actually the oldest Protestant church that is still in use in the New World - very cool!!

The wedding party:

After the wedding and pictures, the reception was held at The White Horse Tavern, where we drank rum swizzles (or schwizzles as my sister likes to call them after one too many :)

The beautiful Mahan family :)

Resting for round two and a trip to the beach!

After lunch, drinks and cake at the Tavern, we headed back to our hotel for an afternoon nap. Then, it was back to the beach - this time to Tobacco Bay (highly recommended!).

On Tuesday, to our disappointment, it was time to head back to Beaufort and reality...
Bye Bye Bermuda!!!

Friday after school

Well, it's Friday afternoon and I'm waiting for the parking lot to clear out some before I head out. I have to be back here by 5:45 for a basketball game (only one more after tonight - yay!!!). I figured now was as good a time as any to write a blog while I'm wasting time :)

This week went by so fast it's crazy - I sure hope the rest of the school year flies by too, or at least the weeks until Spring Break. Some of my "teacher friends" and I are planning a trip to New Orleans over Spring Break to see our friend Patsy who used to teach with us. She moved to Destrehan, LA (right outside of N.O.) last summer to be closer to her family who lives in Lake Charles. We miss her terribly!!! I miss her so much b/c she taught in Freshman Academy with me, and it's just not the same without her. She has such an amazing personality - she could always put a smile on everyone's face. This place has been much gloomier since she's been gone. But, I'm so excited to go see her in N.O.!!!

Justin has to work this weekend, so that sucks, but Sean and I will find something fun to do hopefully. Sean loves to play outside, but it's been too cold the last few days. It's so much fun watching him learn new things everyday - his vocabulary now includes the following: me, mommy, daddy, mine (his favorite word), juice, banana, Chloe and Dixie (my parents' dogs), cheese, baby, no no, oh no, uh oh, etc. I brought him to the basketball game last week and the cheerleaders were surprised that he was talking now - it was cute. He also went straight from crawling to running it seems. Now he doesn't want to be held anywhere we go - he wants to walk! I'm not quite sure where he got his independent streak and his stubborness from, but I have an idea :) He also has a bit of a temper, and I can't imagine where that came from either!

It appears the heathens have cleared the building somewhat, so I think I'll head out. Hope everyone has a great Friday night.

Happy Holidays!


Since I'm so terrible a keeping up with this blogging phenomenon, it will probably take me several posts to update on our Christmas vacation. We left Beaufort around noon on Friday, Dec. 19 and drove to Mariana, Fl where we stayed the night. We left the next morning around seven and arrived in Vidor at 2:30 pm. We were a little nervous wondering how Sean would feel about riding the in the truck for so long, but he was awesome! He began having a meltdown right when he hit the Texas border, so the only fussing he did was for the last twenty or so minutes of the ride. It was great getting to see Justin's mom and dad (Gigi and Paddy) because we haven't been able to come to Vidor since Easter. The first night here, we went to dinner at Tammy's (Justin's aunt) where Sean played and played with his cousin Caroline. The next morning, Sunday, Baby Jud (Brook and Ryan's newest addition) who is four months old was baptized at St. Jude's in Beaumont. Afterward, we ate at Carmela's...yay for Tex-Mex!!!! We came home so Sean could nap and then went over to Ryan and Brook's where Sean played with Max and Sam.

Sean riding with Max while Sam pouts.

Sean riding the roller coaster with Uncle Ryan.

I need a clone!!!

I felt the need to post tonight, so here I am. However, this will probably be short and sweet (like me...yay), b/c I have to be up early tomorrow. I'm trying to be in two places at once this week since I have freshman orientation going on from 7:00 to 3:00 everyday AND choreography for my cheerleaders from 9:00 to 5:00. I am getting paid, however, for working orientation, so I won't complain too much :) It actually hasn't been at all bad; the only problem I'm having is being so overstimulated that I can't get to sleep at night. Around six or seven I'll be falling flat on my face exhausted, but by the time I get Sean bathed and in bed, I'm wired again. Does anyone else out there have this affliction?!?! Speaking of Sean, I'm afraid we're creating a monster. He loooooooooves being the center of attention! It's hilarious because neither Justin nor myself really craves, or even enjoys, the spotlight. He came with me to work for most of the day today. At one point, I was sitting in a circle with some of the cheerleaders and the choreographer discussing the routine. He climbed over me and proceeded to crawl smack dab to the middle of the circle where he proudly sat up and looked at each and every girl to make sure they saw how cute he was. He gets his special "flirty" smile on when he's checking out the chicks. He's also hilarious with the camera. The second you point a camera in his direction, he begins posing. My dad likes to do this when he's crying. It's the funniest thing. Sean will be pitching a total fit, but you pull out the camera and he lights up. Put the camera down and he's screaming again. I can't even pick up the cell phone to make a call b/c he thinks I'm taking a picture!!! Of course, he is incredibly photogenic (and I'm not the least bit biased), so who can blame us all for taking thousands of pics of him :) When we were in Charleston last weekend, Jessica took a picture of Sean and me that I really love. If I can figure out how to upload pics to this thing, I will do so tonight. I think I'll go attempt that right now. I'll be back eventually.
Yay!!! Here it is.. He's my mini-me in this picture! What a cutie pie.

twice in one day...impressive

I'm back...I have to travel to Charleston tomorrow for a coaches' clinic, so of course I'm procrastinating. It is currently 10:16 p.m. I have to be up and gone by seven in the morning and, naturally, I am neither packed nor have I printed out any of the material I need for the conference. This is nothing new :) I should be looking forward to this clinic as I will actually be receiving some useful info, but I'm still going to be a baby and pout about it anyway.

Tomorrow is Justin's birthday; he'll be 27. I'm bummed b/c I won't be here to celebrate it with him. We plan on going to dinner Friday night. He's chosen Outback, which is definitely okay by me :) Now, all he needs to do is decide what kind of dessert he wants. You'd think this would be an easy task, but my husband isn't terribly fond of sweets (For shame, I know). He has narrowed it down to either strawberry cake with cream cheese icing or lemon apricot pound cake. I bought him a gun safe for his bday - we really needed one. It hasn't arrived yet but should be on its way.

Speaking of Justin, this reminds me. To clear up any confusion over my last post, Justin took the PRAXIS because he is interested in teaching. He really enjoys his current job as a police officer for the Beaufort Police Department and he likes most of the people he works with, but he's just not crazy about the hours. South Carolina has a program called the PACE program that allows people without degrees in education to become certified in an area they majored in. Justin is qualified to teach business through this program, so he's on the lookout for any positions that may open, specifically at Beaufort High where I teach. We have one business ed. teacher who has been on "leave" since last May and is under investigation for some unethical practices (to say the least), so we are currently waiting to see how that situation pans out.

I began the South Beach diet yesterday (again). This will be the third time that I've done so. The first was several years ago when, looking back, I had no business doing dieting of any kind. I guess we never appreciate our prebaby bodies until they are gone!!! The second time was in March when nothing else would get rid of my last 10 lbs. of baby weight. The diet worked but during the summer I have been eating horribly. I seem to have an all or nothing personality when it comes to food that is not good for me. I can't eat just one cupcake, I have to eat three or four. Same when it comes to doughnuts, or muffins, or cake, or cheesecake, or biscuits, or...well, you get the picture. I decided to begin Phase 1 of South Beach yesterday at (what time was it Jess??) about six p.m. I've been saying "I'll start tomorrow" for several weeks, so I decided to say "I'll start right now!" Jess, Wil, Justin, Sean and I went to Chili's for dinner last night, and, thankfully, they have plenty of tasty dishes that are "allowed." I had the margarita grilled chicken and shrimp (yum). Tonight, Justin grilled so we had steaks and salad. Easy enough. Justin's decided that he's going to start the diet as well; he's just trying to figure out when. It's tougher for him with his job. So often, they eat on the go, and it's much easier to grab some fast food or chips and a candy bar from the convenience store.

I guess I'll go find another outlet for my procrastination now - I wish everyone a blessed evening. Spend time with your families - I'll sure miss mine tomorrow and Wednesday. Happy bday Justin!!! I love you!!!!

back to school, back to school

Wow..so much for me updating my blog regularly :) Thanks, Wil, for calling me out and motivating me to write.

Justin, Sean and I spent the weekend in Charleston with Jess and Wil. We had a really great time - just relaxing, hanging out with friends, and eating some good food. Justin took the Praxis Exam Saturday morning for Business Education. For those who don't know, that's the teacher certification exam. Texas has their own version of teacher cert. tests, but most states use the Praxis. I have to take the Praxis before Aug. 2009. SC accepted my Texas scores for three years, so I better get on the ball and register.

For those of you close to me, you know I've struggled with deciding in what area I want to complete my Master's degree. I've begun three different Master's programs: criminology, educational administration, and educational counseling. I've definitely decided to pursue the public education route - for me personally, the job security and the fact that I really love what I do is impossible to ignore. After observing numerous assistant principals and counselors and speaking with both sets, I've decided to resume my Master's in educational admin. in the spring of '09. I do think I have the compassion that guidance requires, but I also possess the "tough love" that I firmly believe high school students need in a principal. And, to be frank, the money that principals make here is insane. I would START at twice my teaching salary. Luckily, the University of South Carolina has a distance education program. This will allow me to take my classes online, and I will only have to actually go into Columbia three Saturdays a semester - for an intro. meeting, the midterms, and the finals. My plan is to complete the program in a year and half. Beaufort has a difficult time finding administrators, so they will actually place you in an admin. position before you have completed the program. Not that I'm in a hurry to quit teaching, but I'll keep my options open. The application deadline for spring isn't until November, but I'd like to go ahead and complete my app. process before I head back to work. Most everything can be done online, so I plan on getting that taken care of this week. I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have to retake the GRE. I took the test in Nov. of 2001 before I graduated from LSU, and I'm not sure if they will accept those scores from sooooooooooooo long ago :) Wish me luck!!!

And away I blog...

Well, I decided to give this blogging phenomenon a try. Why the heck not, especially since it is now 2:02 a.m. and I have to be up at 6 to get ready to leave for Florida. We will be in Sandestin until Friday - we being myself, Justin, Sean, Mom, Dad, Christy, Austin, and our friend Paul. I am sooooooooooo ready to be there. Sandestin is one of my favorite vacation spots and it's a great place to bring kids. Sean loves being outside and in the water, so I know he'll become a total beach bum like his mom :) As long as everyone has a good attitude (and I have no problem being on negativity patrol), it should be a very relaxing vacation. My brother, Scott, is bringing my nephew, Chris, to meet us in Florida on Thursday. Chris will be coming back to Beaufort to spend several weeks with us. He is eleven and gives his parents fits! I love it :)

Good night - I'm off to attempt falling asleep. Wish me luck! God Bless.