I # Malibu

After ten years, we finally sold my car.  I got my car during senior year of high school, and it was the perfect, reliable little car.  However, over the past year it started having some problems, and so we decided to put it up for sale before it started costing a lot of money. It was kind of sad, but I was happy that we were able to sell it so quickly!  

After A LOT of looking, we finally found a car that we felt good about.  Even though it took much longer than I would have liked (and I was definitely not the most patient), we are so grateful that things worked out the way they did and that we ended up with this car:

So great to come home to this in the driveway...

thanks to my sweet husband getting everything taken care of!

Can you tell how happy I am to be part of a two car family again?

Definitely a luxury that I have learned to really appreciate!

I absolutely love it!  It is so fun to drive a new car (at least new to me).  And I am so excited about all of the little, random features...
* the cute little Chevy symbol in the middle of the taillight
* the blue background light on the door handle
* the feature that tells me how many miles left until I need to get gas
* the weight censored air bags
* etc

And this is just a cute commercial for the 2008 Malibu -

Gma

Today is my Grandma LeBaron's birthday; she is 77.  

I am so grateful for her and for the wonderful example she has been to me.

I always look forward to spending time with her and absolutely love our conversations together.

I hope to one day be the kind of woman, wife, and mother she is.

Donna Brinton LeBaron

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GMA!

(I remember when we were younger, we thought it would be pretty awesome, and slightly amusing, to start calling her Gma...the best part is, she liked it and it stuck!  That tells you how awesome she is, doesn't it?)

Mr. McKay

So as you know, there was been a Mrs. McKay for quite some time - a year and four months to be exact.  While some of my students still call me Miss Skinner, most of them like the idea of Mrs. McKay as much as I do (or they are finally in the habit of calling me that).

Well now there is a Mr. McKay!  

Robert had the chance to interview for a teaching position at ASU and they thought he was right for the job.  So now we have two teachers in this house!  How cool is that?  He is teaching WPC101, an introductory course to the business school, at ASU for the fall semester.  So far, so good!  He loves it!

I have to admit, it has been pretty great for me as well!  I have someone to grade papers with, and I think he even understands some of the frustrations in the life of a teacher.  haha

Meet Mr. McKay
(doesn't he look professional...aka handsome?)

Kayaking in the Rain

Have you ever played in the rain?

  What about kayaking in it? 

I came home from work last Monday to find two kayaks in the garage.  As soon as Robert got off work he took me to the retention basin to kayak!  It was so perfect...plus, what is better than a random, spontaneous date to start out the week?

 There was so much water in the basin (which was crazy considering it hadn't rained in two days).  Plus, the ducks loved it as much as we did - there must have been at least 50 of them swimming...away from us!

SO much fun!

Love him and his crazy ideas!

So next time it rains...see what incredibly awesome thing you can do with the people you love!

When a woman gets an orchid

...it's, well, she feels like she is floating on a cloud of infinite possibility.

(from the adorably cheesy movie, The Perfect Man)

It is the absolute best when you get to come home to the laundry done and this gorgeous flower sitting on the dining room table!  I am a lucky girl to have such a fantastic husband.  (Isn't it smart of Home Depot to sell  flowers?)

Back to School

Well, summer is officially over!

In fact, the first week of school is now complete! 

I am excited for the new year and to get to know all 31 of my kids.  My new class appears to be pretty nice and mellow...quite the change from last year.  So here's to a fresh start each year!

My new bulletin board - I love it!

(Notice some of the unique names?)

Inception

So on an almost perfect Wednesday afternoon (the rain only lasted a few minutes), I got to go on a date with my babe!  Dates are always fun, but for some reason when they come in the middle of the week it feels especially nice!  Any chance that we have to spend time together is seriously heaven to me. 

Today we did the cliche date - dinner and a movie.  Except for the fact that the movie we saw today was nothing short of AMAZING! 

Here's the trailer

The concept for this movie is just completely out there.  For the first part of the movie, I felt like I was not able to comprehend everything going on.  But somehow, but the end of the movie, they take this pretty crazy idea and it all comes together perfectly and is pretty brilliant!  Plus, it is kind of nice to go to a movie that actually requires some attention and thought!  Oh yeah...and then there's the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio is seriously amazing and I was pretty darn excited to see that he finally made a movie that is not rated R.  (I really enjoy Cillian Murphy as well...and JUNO!)

Long story short, go see the movie!  It will get you thinking and you will love it.  

I want to go again.