Escape From Hodges And A Little Steppin Too...

This week is a winner in and of itself. I can't even begin to describe all of the fun friend times and random thought moments I've had.

This lovely chapter of my life started with Friday night destressing at the Smokey Mountain Brewery with some pretty freakin awesome ladies. Not only did we eat amazing food...but then we had Menchie's. Please...Please... Don't be jealous... we can't all have such wonderful fro yo eating lives. Then we went to see I Don't Know How She Does It. Perfect movie for interns...and women in general I guess.

Moving on to Saturday....

At 7:45 AM this girl was up and heading toward a golf course in Strawberry Plains. Can you say freezing??? It was so cold til the sun came out. Luckily I had my new bud Kyla their to make up a step with me for West High's Step Team. That's right....I'm the sponsor. Go ahead...get the laughs out. But if you laugh too hard I'll have to come get crunk on your butt. Just Sayin. I endend the night with a lovely dose of what was supposed to be getting work done in the library with Meghan. What really happened is that we found an open window on the 2nd floor commons. Those stinky maintenance men. They should have known better than to leave that window open. Needless to say...we got a little curious...Meghan and I planned my escape. It was executed perfectly. Climbed over the couches, out the window, and did a little dance... not forgetting the pack of crackers I took with me to use as my excuse for being out there in the first place... as if those crackers accidentally got thrown out the window. That's totally believable, right? Regardless, the great escape was made and I can check it off my list of things to do at UT before I leave.

Lastly, I had a thought and you're input is totally welcome here... Why is heart the organ we describe when something goes wrong. For instance..."Well, Bless your little heart!" The term that old southern women use when they are nicely saying, "you are freaking pitiful!"  It shoulda been something more interesting like... "Bless your little ovaries!" Bah, that would catch my attention more.
That's about all for now. I'm way past my bed time. Apparently teachers have to be at school early...who knew?

In Our World, Be Lifted High

Yes Yes, I know I haven't told you random stories in a while. It's ok I'm back to tell my life.

1. Have I mentioned that I love teaching. Totally chose the right profession. All of that scared of public speaking stuff apparently goes out the window when your speaking in front of small humans. Some are bigger than others I suppose. Anyway, it's fun because they have to pay attention to me...and when they don't... I get to throw expo markers just like Mr. Ragland in AP U.S. History. Oh how I miss the good ole days.

2. We have a really awesome dog! Boots and I have been exploring the Greenway behind West High School together. She is such a pansy. Every time she sees a human, she freaks the crap out....as if she has never seen a human before. Today she experience a train for the first time. You would have thought the world had ended or something. Hilarious. Then we started walking down toward the creek...which is weird because she doesn't like running water....but then I got scared that there may be green snakes camouflaging themselves as leaves waiting to reach out and kill me. All because of that stupid mimicry lesson today. Dang ecology! Dang snakes! Dang Mr. Jones! Needless to say...we never made it to the water.

3. Today I was walking through the hallway and this girl was sitting in the floor crying. I walked passed her trying not to make her feel awkward. I made my way toward the copyroom...as usual...but on my way back it hit me. Why am I trying to not make her feel awkward...I'm the one that's feeling awkward because I know I need to see if she's ok. Clearly I'm avoiding the situation completely. If I'm supposed to love my neighbor as I love myself, then why am I avoiding this girl that isn't doing so well? It has seriously taken me a year and a half to realize my purpose is not just to teach. It's to love. Just like my wonderful gracious all-consuming God relentlessly loves me. He has brought me into this place and surrounded me by these students. He has given me this opportunity. In my world, He will be lifted high. I will not give up on them. I will expect their best no matter what. I will pray for their success.  When they are falling down, I will be there to love them just as My God has loved me. Always.

And now these three remain, faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. -1 Cor 13:13

Shake It To The Moon, Shake It For Me Girl

I suppose I should write a little diddy about teaching... since that is the actual purpose of this blog and all. I just get so distracted, ya know? I have decided that I don't like doing the same things over and over again, which is not going to come in handy this year. Today in class we did a Metric Olympics lab. It was so fun... the first time. I was bored after the second. This is when Mr. Jones showed me the...wait for it...FUN ROOM. That's what I've decided to call it anyway. There is a massive laminator that I considered for a moment laminating my hand with. Can someone please tell me where I come up with this crap? I don't even know. Then we discovered the poster maker. That's right people....giant pieces of paper.
Best. Day. Ever. Nough said.

Then, I had my first never-ending education class. The discussion was ok I guess... except for my butt when numb about 45 minutes in. Seriously people, let's get some butt friendly chairs. I was so exhausted by the end of the day, but thankfully Boots cheered me up with this.... I have the best dog in the world. Come meet here. You'll think so too.

On a lighter note, I went roller skating last night. My calves hurt. My feet hurt. My abs hurt. Who knew roller skating worked the muscles so much? Not this girl. Anyway, Charlie and I attempted to roller swing dance. I personally think I've got some swing dance skills...but not combined with wheels. Then I tried to  learn how to skate backwards. Four different guys tried to teach me, and all four said different things....wiggle your feet...put you weight on the front... turn your feet in. Blah blah blah I don't need no man. I'll figure it out on my own. Since you prolly haven't been roller skating in a while...here's a little taste of some roller action.

Don't you love Charlie's musical stylings in the background :D That's all for now... Boots and I are sleepy.

Why Yes... I Am Singing To My Dog

Instead of continuing to sing to Boots.... I decided to blog.

Oh man has a lot happened lately. For starters...we moved. Pain in my buttooski. How can two people with such a small apartment have so much shit  stuff? I'm pretty sure I found about nine lighters in the process of moving. We only have one candle...can someone please tell me why we have nine lighters? Don't worry I won't leave you hangin. You see... Charlie is quite the little collector. He's like a mouse. Anytime he finds something shiny he just has to have it. For instance, Charlie walks outside with the dog. Charlie sees lighter on hand rail. Charlie turns lighter on. It works! Thus, Charlie keeps lighter. This one is even better...Charlie and Mallory are driving around campus during the night. Charlie sees something shiny in the road during the complete and utter darkness. Charlie stops truck and puts it in park. Charlie gets out and picks up shiny object. Charlie brings home a ran over but working MagLight flashlight. Mallory opens cabinet today.... flashlight falls on Mallory's foot. Now do you see my frustration!

In other news, I started my teaching internship at West High. It's pretty fun I'd have to say. The teachers are weird like me, and the students are pretty awesome so far. Also, I went to Nashville this weekend for my little Lindsey Jo Coker's baby shower.

She got some fun stuff for Isaac Henry, including this cute little memory box I made.

 It had a video of this in it....

I'd Rather Eat Dirt Than Pack

I just spent five hours packing eight boxes... that's kitchen stuff for ya. Otherwise known as kitchen crap, which is what I labeled the boxes...

For your viewing pleasure I thought I'd invite you into our apartment. This is what our apartment used to look like.

The bedroom...That sign says Always Kiss Me Goodnight...and Charlie better stick to it!

Where we do business...

Boots...and her bed...

The living room...Boots' other bed...

My kitchen...where cupcake dreams come true.

Small aint it! I know. That's why we are moving to a bigger apartment with a dishwasher! And a washing machine! Praise the Lord. God loves me!

Happy Anniversary Baby, Got You On My Miii-iiind

So guess what?! Today....or technically yesterday was mine and Charlie's one year anniversary. What the heck? We've been married a whole year?! For all of those rooting against us...I say poop on you. Bahahaha! Charlie got me this funtastic cake decorating kit so I can make him cupcakes on his birthday. I didn't get him anything because his birthday present is so freaking expensive and amazing, I couldn't afford to. It doesn't matter though because he is going to pee on himself when he gets his present. I'm the best wife ever!

Anyway, I decided to be crafty today and make a headboard. Why you ask? Well, Charlie and I got this awesome new furniture for our new apartment bedroom. We still needed a bed frame though. I've searched all over but just can't find one in our price range. So... I decided to make a headboard and put the new mattress set on a metal frame. Charlie doesn't like footboards anyway because his feet hang off the bed. So cheapo me decided to make this fabric headboard in our living room floor a few minutes ago. It turned out pretty cool if you ask me.... In case you wanted to know how I made it, here's what you'll need:

• Scissors                                      
• Cardboard or Foamboard
• Quilt Batting
• Sewing Kit
• Buttons
• Fabric of Your Choice
• Staple Gun
• Staples
• Tape Measure

To begin, you simply cut out a piece of cardboard in the dimensions that fit your bed. For a queen size bed, I cut a 24 x 64 in. piece of cardboard. Then, you are going to want to cut your fabric and batting to be 28 x 68 in. so it will be an extra two inches longer on each side of the cardboard. (Adding batting foam will make the headboard thicker and the buttons pull deeper if you like that look) Go ahead and mark where you want the buttons to go on the back of the cardboard.

Lay the cardboard on top of the batting and fabric with the batting as the middle layer. Then pull the fabric and batting over the back side of the cardboard and staple the fabric down to the cardboard every inch or so. Make sure you have the fabric lined up correctly with the cardboard. Keep stapling until all of the fabric has been staple down to the back of the cardboard. Lastly take a needle and thread and sew your buttons on the headboard in the spots you previously marked. Pull the buttons tight if you used foam under the fabric. This will give the head board an added touch of detail. Wha laaa... it's finished! Now seriously people...how easy was that??? I love it. Here is my finished product...

I feel so stinking crafty! By the way....Boots did NOT enjoy the sound of the staple gun!

Every Tribe, Every Tongue, Every Nation...

A love song born of a grateful choir. It's all God's children singing Glory Glory Hallelujah He Reigns!

I don't know if I have ever shard my experience in Haiti with you. Two words. LIFE CHANGING. I cannot express how the Haitian people touched my life and the lives of so many from our mission group. One in particular is following God's heart to Haiti this semester. She is giving up her life of comfort in America for a life full of love and praise to God in Haiti. There is no doubt in my mind that God will work through her every breath in Haiti. Please please pray a prayer of blessing over Miss Chelsey as she embarks on this wonderful journey. Most importantly, pray that she only brings home a couple of children when she leaves Haiti, because knowing her she will bring the entire orphanage!

I'm sure she's really gonna appreciate this picture....maybe not. We were so tired that day...but she was still just a dancing. Aint she cute?! I know right!

On a lighter note, I made these cupcakes. I wanted to make my own chocolate frosting....so I did. It turned out well but I ran out. I was too lazy to make more so I just opened up a thing of the store bought stuff...needless to say I ended up with segregated cupcakes. Its ok though, they are just cupcakes!

They were yummy, I think I'll go eat one now! Got milk?

A Birthday Wish Top Ten of Course!

Wanna here a cool story about what happened on the 24th of July twenty-two years ago? 

I was born.

I know right? That was a pretty great story because I'm a pretty swanky gal. You can roll your eyes if need be! When my dad asked my bro what he thought about his new baby sister...this is what he said and I quote. "Goodness gracious GREAT balls of fire!" I personally think thats a pretty awesome thing to say about your sister, but I'm crazy. My mom also made up a little diddy that she would sing to me. It goes something like this..."Little bitty, little bitty. She's so sweet and she's so pretty. Ten little fingers and ten little toes. Big brown eyes and a little pug nose...." I think its cute, so I sing it to Boots! Anyway, in light of my Birthday I thought I would share my top ten birthday moments with you. Here goes.

10. "Happy birthday! Hope all is well with you...hard to imagine, I was at your baby shower. :)"

                  -Leighann McCoy

9. "Happy #22, My Little Papoose!"

                  -Debbie Hobgood

8. "Whoa! You have developed the power of levitation on your birthday! I guess your degree is paying off!"

                  -David Petersen

7. "Happy Birthday Mallory, Happy Birthday Charlie, Happy Anniversary, Happy Graduation!" 

                  -Edible Arrangements Gift tag from Mom

6. Getting the cutest dress in the world from Jill at my birthday dinner and some yummy peach rosemary jam from Cara.

5. The Sayers family taking us out to lunch after church! Notice how much I love food.

4. Getting to talk to my should have been sister Victoria and my great friend Meghan. COME BACK TO KNOXVILLE!

3. Eating this marvelously delicious cupcake!

2. "I love you! You are beautiful and I am so blessed to be your husband! Happy Birthday stinky!"

                           - My awesome husband

1. Seriously people....it doesn't get much better than this. Nough said. Wait for it......

... Lindsey Jo and Bryant singing me a song. For your viewing pleasure please remember that she is a professional guitarist. 

LOVE YOU ALL! God is too good to me!

To Save Time....Let's Just Assume I Know everything...

So I haven't blogged in a while...but that's just because I haven't had that much to talk about. You know how when you talk on the phone to someone everyday and eventually you have nothing left to say? Exactly...that's why I figured there was no need to blog. I would just bore you endlessly.

Anyway, tomorrow is my Birthday! It's really not that exciting. 22 is kind of a boring year. I guess everything after 21 is just boring in general. Guess what Charlie got me for my Birthday??? Wait for it...this is good. A bathing suit from VS that I ordered two weeks ago! What a good husband, he know's just what I like...size and all!

On another note, I start teaching at West High in two weeks. WHOA! Is summer really over? Am I really about to start my career? Is this the beginning of the rest of my life? And the most important question....Do I have to act like a big girl now? Poop.

Speaking of poop... I'm getting to puppy sit this weekend. It is mucho fun...except for the little poop turd I stepped on this morning. Don't worry it was hard. Bahahahaha....it took me about ten minutes to realize what it was because Boots does not poo in the apartment. I guess the puppy was busy during the night.  Poor Boots just does not have the energy to keep up with this puppy, nor does she care too. This little pup can chase a toy for hours...Boots just stares. But they do have one thing in common.....

.... nap time! I think I will join them. Sleep tight Daphne and Boots! For anyone reading, stop what you're doing and go take a nap. It will change your life!

And So It Begins...

Well, summer school has officially begun. Twelve hours of graduate classes have left me with four papers to write a week. That's right people, I said FOUR! I'm really not complaining, I guess I just expected tests instead. When you think about it though, this writing thing is pretty nice. Most everything is opinion based, so it's not like they can mark up my paper with a BIG red X and tell me I'm wrong. This makes me very happy. I'm also extremely happy that this means I will finish my Masters next May instead of at the end of next summer. It will be nice to not have to worry about anything but where we are going to live next summer.

Oh yeah...did I mention Charlie is shooting for medical school. Gahrooossssss! I cannot even imagine what that's going to be like. Actually, I can. ALOT of studying and late nights. That's ok though because I have this AMAZING dog. Seriously, Boots is way cooler that we thought. It turns out that she does bark. We heard her...at the Dairy Queen drive thru in Mississippi. Pour window lady...prolly scared the pee out of her. That's another thing...Boots literally gets the pee scared out of her. Vacuums and treadmills seem to do the trick, and hairdryers too. The other nifty thing I found out about her....she knows STAY. Coolest thing in the world... I can finally go to the bathroom by myself! One last thing...I painted her toenails sparkly pink. That's right Princess Boots has arrived!

Graduation...And A Song!

I GRADUATED! I'm so excited that four years of undergrad and crazy micro classes have finally paid off.  Now I just need to get through my teaching internship and I'll be good to go. I just realized that when I start teaching I'll get to go to prom for the rest of my life. How cool is that?

Anyway, this weekend mine and Charlie's family got to spend some time in a cabin in the smokies. We did a lot of fun things...like go to the aquarium (where I pet a sting ray)....and eat ice cream...and play Ms. Pacman. Just so you know, I totally suck at Pacman....but I'm sure you all expected that right? We ate alot too, I love food!

So since I was a tiny tot, I've been singing. It's not anything that I'm great at, but just something that I enjoy doing. I figure that since we're so close here on this blog and all that I would let you in on a little secret. Here goes...wait for it....I secretly wanna be a country music singer. So here goes world, I did my makeup and hair and everything just for all my viewers out there...bahahahaha. This is dedicated to Lindsey Jo because I'm jealous of her getting to go to the CMA Fest!

....I think I'll just stick with teaching!

Change in Plans...

So apparently I'm not teaching at Fulton anymore, rather I will be interning at West High School. This is why they told us it was a secret...because things can change. Oh well, I'm still thrilled to be teaching and I'm sure every school will bring their own individual challenges to the table.

I've also had another change in plans, it seems that I no longer drive a red Dodge Charger. Now, I am soooo thrilled to say that I drive a....wait for it.... red Dodge GOLFBALL! Dang tornadoes. Dang hail. Dang car! But more importantly, I am thrilled to see that only cars were damaged around us. Nobody was hurt in our apartment complex. It's so sad to see that this wasn't the case for many others in the Southeast. I hope that we will all keep those who were lost in our prayers, along with their families.

On a more joyful note... I'm graduating in 7 days! HOOORAY! Can't wait for a fun-filled relaxing summer! NOT! I start 12 hours of graduate classes beginning in June. Oh well, can't complain right? More and more I am realizing how thankful I should be for such an awesome opportunity for higher education and a the chance to become a great teacher.

That's all for now, ya'll stay away from them dang tornadoes!

Meet Boots

Guess what?!?  I got a dog! Well me and the hubs got a dog... technicality. We went to the animal shelter to adopt a cat. His name was Burrito and he was very orange and fuzzy. When we visited with him he would lay down and attack if you tried to rub his belly....this is how we ended up on the other side of the shelter where Boots was. She was in a room with two other dogs. Those dogs were jumpin and barkin like "hey you! pick me! I'm sooooo cute!" Boots was just chillin, all calm and collected. Then she gave me the look. You know what look I'm talkin about. The "I'm so freakin cute you have to take me home look." Unfortunately, we left the shelter empty handed. Sad right?

Don't worry... we went to PetSmart and bought a ton of dog necessities.... then we went back and adopted Boots! Let me tell ya folks...Boots is a pretty swanky dog. She never barks and she has yet to pee/poo on the carpet. I am absolutely thrilled! You're probably thinking, "Man, I really wanna meet this non-barking/peeing/pooping dog!" I gotcha covered. Meet Boots....

School School and a Bottle of Rum

I'm just kidding about the bottle of rum part... I watched Pirates of the Caribbean last night and just can't get the theme song out of my head. Although a bottle of rum might seriously help me through this SEVERE case of senioritis. I gotta stop slacking...like that physics test I skipped yesterday...don't worry, we get a drop grade!

Anyhow, yesterday I found out where I was getting placed for my teaching internship in the Fall. FULTON! I'm so excited cause that is EXACTLY where I wanted to be. Shhh....it's technically a secret and I'm technically not supposed to know....so you can't tell anyone. Just so you know a little more about Fulton, it's in inner city Knoxville. The school is made up of about 1000 students that are very culturally mixed. Many of these students haven't had all that much growing up, including that little bit of love many of us got from our parents. I know this internship is gonna be a challenge for me....considering where I went to high school. BUT I CAN'T WAIT! Just from observing this school for few months, I already know this is where I'm supposed to be. Many of these students have this mindset that they can't do it. And let me tell ya, that really pisses ticks me off, because I know they totally can!  (My mom says that saying piss isn't very lady like.) In order to gain respect from these students, you really have to build a relationship with them. I know I can do it, but at the same time we grew up under so many different circumstances. How will I relate? I guess I won't, but I will be there to listen. NO MATTER WHAT.

Please please pray for me and these students over the summer. Pray that God will be glorified through this experience and that these students will succeed through school. Most of all pray for God to work in their hearts.