Chester's Puffcorn is delicious!! Get some at WalMart!!

So, I am wondering if you might have noticed that it has been a long time since I wrote a blog. As the school year at SU came to a close, I suddenly got tremendously busy and it was all boring things that didn't even warrant blog writing. I finished up my sign language class (I got a 97 on my final, WOO!) and I finished teaching at SU. I am still working at Jowonio, the school year has a few more weeks in it. As far as the last two weeks go, it was mostly work and school and preparing for everyone to get to Syracuse to party!

I am going to just jump into the real action. Let us start with Thursday, May 7, 2009. I was talking with Melissa and getting all geared up for her arrival for graduation. She was driving all the way up from Charlotte for the big celebration!! She asked when I thought Sianneth and Sairy were coming and I told her that they weren't coming because I never heard from them. Much to my surprise, when I got out of work on Friday, May 8, 2009, I had a text from Sianneth saying "I am on my way to watch you walk across the stage" and a voicemail from Melissa saying "Actually, they are coming!" I was totally excited, but still didn't hear from Sianneth and Sairy who were on a layover for HOURS! I finally heard from them later in the evening and they were nearly stuck in Atl. Thankfully, they got a flight out and arrived in Syr around midnight! We were still at dinner, lol. Of course!

Before Sianneth and Sairy's arrival, my parents and my sister came in for the party! The first thing off the plane was a little bit of relaxation at the apartment. We got home to find a box that came in the mail and I opened it up to find the sweetest most precious "love box" of goodies that came from James! He must have ordered it at some point so that I would get it for graduation! The timing was perfect and it was so special to be able to hear from him like that!! I completely burst into tears when I read the note "I am so proud of you and I wish I was there with you. Love, James" He is a gem! He is taken, sorry to all you jealous ladies, lol! :-)




I love him.

After the emotional excitement, we headed to check into the hotel and then headed out to Zebb's for dinner and fun with everyone who wanted to join. We always go to Zebb's, ha, it is the family tradition of choice, and what a delicious tradition it is!




I look awesome in this picture, lol.


Such cuteness.


Friends.

After a late night of dinner and wings, we headed to bed for a busy day on Saturday. We got up in the morning and I found a fun celebration made by Kasey!




Apparently, I can't take a normal picture.

I enjoyed some of those delicious pink starbusrts (my favorite) and then we headed to get nails done before all the celebrating. I love time with the girls.









When we finished with nails we went over to get some new shoes for graduation. Kasey was taking care of some secret business, so she headed her own way. We got over to Aunt Christa's place to get ready to head to graduation and started the photo shoot process.


My sister looks incredible! I am totally loving that dress!

We had a mega surprise that was my little brother (Kasey's secret business)!! HE CAME! It was a huge surprise. I even complained all week that he wasn't coming... what a surprise!?! It made the weekend! Kasey knew all along, she thought it was hilarious every time I did that complaining that he wasn't coming. I am lame! We headed down to graduation and, I have some great news, James came along...


Fondly known as "James Pillow".

I have the best friends ever because James Pillow made it to the entire graduation! It was so perfect! Every time that I looked into the crowd I spotted them right off the bat! They were holding him up in the air and waving him around! It was so great and hilarious. Afterwards, the fam said that everyone was asking what the deal was and they were telling people about James and where he is and everything. Kasey had him sitting in his own seat and people would walk by and take a second look, HA! I made it through the whole ceremony and graduated! Woohoo!




It's me!


I have the best family on the planet!!


It turns out that I have the best friends, too! They came all the way from Charlotte!!! I love these girls to pieces!!


Roommate of the year! She is the best.


James got a few good shots in :-)


One more for the road.

After graduation, we went to Aunt Christa's house for the graduation party and had a total blast. I didn't take many pictures! What is that about? But we had a great time. Aunt Christa got tons of food and drinks and loads of people came, even from work. We laughed and partied the night away. It was great. We learned about the zillion rules that would be in place in order to get into the graduation on Sunday with the VP, so we decided that we would just watch it on television instead. Sleeping in a little bit was a nice nice thing!

Sunday, May 10, 2009, was Mother's Day! It was a perfect day, too. It was so nice to have my mom here (with all three of her kids) and to be able to celebrate her with all the rest of the celebrations that were going on. We had a nice lunch at Zebb's (yes, again) and then we had to bring my brother to the airport. We spent most of the day dawdling around and eating (what else?!?). Before heading out, I started my mission of getting my bridesmaids. There will be six total and I started with Jolyn, Melissa, and Kasey. I was able to ask them on Sunday morning after I told them how incredible they are and how they each have changed my life and made me a better person! I love them! It was nice to start asking people. There will be more to come on that front :-)


She deserves the sun and the moon!


The children in the group.


We are a darn good-looking crew!


More bars in more places... hehe


Gotta love my little brother! I am SO glad he made it!


My early line-up of bridesmaids! Perfect!

Monday, May 11, 2009, was wedding dress shopping day! I have been waiting for months to get into this beautiful Impressions Bridal dress and I finally got to with a group of great friends! It was so much fun trying on ALL the dresses and hearing what everyone thought. It was hard to figure out what I really thought, but I for sure narrowed down the field and I think that I totally found THE dress (I tried them on again with just my mom and knew) and I am so STOKED!!


Mom and Me.


Two bridesmaids and two fashion consultants!


You will have to wait to see wedding dresses (until the wedding), but these are the running mates for the bridesmaids dress. I am leaning left. I am in love with the pockets!

We had a blast (at least I did) and then went for one more meal out before the rest of everyone had to return home.


Sadly, after this picture, my camera died... I wonder why?!

On Tuesday, May 12, 2009, Mom went to work with me. We had so much fun. She got to meet all the kids and play. Dad came by at the end of the day to meet the kids, too. The Dragonfly kids loved both Mom and Dad (The little girls adored Mom!)! Jolyn, Dad, Sianneth, and Sairy all had to head home on Tuesday afternoon. It was so fun to have everyone here and I was sad to see them go. It was sad enough when Melissa and John Paul had to go on Sunday, but then everyone else. I miss having everyone so close! I have a crew here that have made that transion better though. It will be hard to say goodbye after everything that Aunt Christa and Uncle Jim have done for me!

Wednesday, May 17, 2009, was a normal day. I went to work and then had a silly meeting when I could have been hanging out with Mom. After I got out of there, I met up with Mom to go to my big work fundraiser. We had a great time. We tried to win some prizes, but we came up empty. Thankfully, the food was amazing!


They sponsored the event.


Big girl clothes. I heart Mom.


Work friends. They are silly.


I love them.

Thursday, May 14, 2009, we headed out to get new shoes for the Race for the Cure on Saturday. I raised enough money and surpassed my goal!! I have to give a shout out thank you to my AWESOME friends that helped with the cause, including: Claire, Shannon, Katie Rae, Dr. Clark, My Boston Mom, Amanda, Dad, Valerie, Taryn, and Debbie! You guys are truly amazing and I can't thank you enough for your support in this cause (more mush to come in the blog about the race)!


The perfect shirts for shopping!!

For now, I think that is going to end this long long blog! I am sorry that it took so long for me to write. I am sure that no one was on terrible pins and needles, but it is nice to keep people on the in about everything. I am very excited and proud that I finally have my Master's (short of one more meeting) and I am more blessed than anyone to have the family and friends that I do have. This weekend had a few moments of weakness. I miss James so terribly much and I know that he would have had a blast through this whole thing and he would have loved to be here. The weekend of events was truly perfect short of him not being here, so it made it harder. On Sunday night, my Dad and I got into a little chat about how much they love him, too, and I hit my breaking point for a few minutes there. He is truly the man of my dreams and I am ready to celebrate with him!

Thank you to everyone who made it possible for me to get this far... and that is a lot of people! I am certain that if you are reading this you are probably one of those people! I wish everyone the most magical weekend and I look forward to reporting on Kasey's birthday and the Race for the Cure!

Be so safe, Sweet Sailor and hurry home to me!

always,
Jamie

Behind the Grayest Clouds, the Sky is Still Blue.

Hello to all!

So, you are not going to believe that I do not even have a single picture to put in the blog this week! I know, it's Tuesday again because I had quite the crazy Monday... again. So last week was not very eventful in the eyes of other people I am sure. For me, there were a few magical moments. The first shinig star was on Tuesday when I presented my children's story in sign language. It was my last project and it was really good. I really think that I nailed it!

Wednesday was a great day for me. It was the day that I taught my seminar on Social Stories as a part of my Thesis Project. I was so nervous. It was a little over an hour and what made it so nerve racking was that I was suddenly teaching my teaching peers instead of three and four-year-olds! It is hard to get up there and demonstrate that you know something that these people really want to know about. Some of the people sitting in front of me had been teaching and working with kids with Autism for more than five times the amount of experience that I have! Once I got started, though, I was really into it. I completely made every point that I wanted to make, people were interested, and people really learned new things! I was so excited when it was over. I had required that one person from each classroom attend the session, so that would be 10 people, but I ended up with a totaly of 25 people!! Not only did teachers and therpists come, but parents and other people from the community were there, too! There was a woman there who had heard about the program and changed her lunch break to be at the time of the seminar so that she could attend!! How cool is that?!? I felt like a real respected speaker! The best part is that people were telling me for days (including today) how much they enjoyed the session and how much they learned from it! There were some people from the school that I have no specific relationship with who stopped me to tell me that it was the best inservice that they had been to. That it ran so smooth and time went to quickly because you could tell my interest and passion in the information! I just feel really proud of myself. I actually think that I could do this kind of seminar as a profession when I can no longer work in the classroom with kids (old bones, or whatnot). I really didn't think it was something that I would be good at, but as I told Dr. Clark the other day, I am realizing things about myself that other people have known for years! Thanks for always supporting me everyone I love you guys!

Thursday was business as usual. I got over to the gym and worked on my final thesis paper. Thursday night, Kris and I had dinner at Red Robin! It was super delicious! It was really nice to hang out with Kris as well, we had a really nice conversation and it was a good relaxing time.

Friday night was all about my scrapbook, so that was a lot of fun. I printed out the zillions of pictures from Houston and Charlotte and I got to work on that a little. I used some of my new fun scrapbooking gear that Aunt Christa got for me! Saturday was PiYo and Thesis! The most fabulous part of Saturday was that JAMES CALLED! Woo! It was so incredible to be able to hear his voice. We had such a long time where there was no communication at all, I finally got the emails back, and then I got to talk to him! It was perfect. Marissa, a friend from the boat, is truly the best! Her fiance has an international cell phone, so he can call her as soon as the boat docks and she lets me know that they are in so I can get my phone ready! It is the best plan, otherwise, I would have missed James completely (probably every time on the entire deployment)!! It has been such a blessing to have that extra support! Thanks again Marissa!!

Sunday passed as usual with a delicious Sunday supper and family time at Aunt Christa's new outside table set. We had beautiful weather all weekend! Monday was just a blur, but Kasey and I did got to see the Soloist and I absolutely loved it! It had a great message and was completely meaningful. It is the kind of movie that people really need to see to be able to get some real perspective. Kasey and I had dinner at Friendly's. It was the greatest thing, full meal (big burger plus fries), a drink, and a delicious ice cream sunday including whipcream, a cherry and two toppings all for $9.99!! You can't beat that!!

I guess that covers me for now. I just got out of my last exam ever and got a 97, I can't complain about that! All that I have left of my educational life is to defend my thesis projoct and graduate! To start that process, I am going to go to bed! Can't do anything with a cloudy head! Talking to James a couple of times has given me an entirely new enthusiasm. I miss him more every day... every minute. He is as sweet as they come and I cannot wait for him to come home and marry me! I wish everyone the most wonderful week and, for those of you I am going to see next week for graduation, I CAN'T WAIT!

Oh sweet Sailor, please be safe and get your tush home to me! I love you to pieces!

always,
Jamie

I will have the bacon cheeseburger with a side of a corndog and chicken nuggests... no, that is really an option.

Hello friends and family! I am sorry that I didn't make it to the blog yesterday. It was quite a busy day and a little stressful because of it being James' birthday and me missing the living daylights out if him! I had a ton to do on my paper and then I had to get some sleep because I was just pooped! But, here I am today and ready to fill you in on all the fun of last week! I have to say that the good times certainly did not stop in Houston! On Tuesday, Jolyn had to head to work in the morning, so I did some work on my paper, packed, and was sad about leaving Houston. I had a great time! She came home from work early and (looking rather dapper) took me to get some lunch and head to the airport. We ate at Whataburger, which I thought was hilarious! It was very tasty. We just found a good spot on a bench and enjoyed the food and eventually a sad goodbye!!


She looks amazing!


I love my Big Sister!

I got back to the apartment after midnight on Tuesday night! I was so exhausted and poor Kasey had to pick me up! She even had to get up early on Wednesday! I got to sleep in a little on Wednesday, but I had to pack to get back out of town on Wednesday night. I got through packing and I was about ten minutes from leaving for class when I got an email that said that my flight from Syracuse to NYC was cancelled!! Oh no! I was so ready to get down to see my friends. What a disappointment?! I called and got al the flights changed and ended up heading out at six am on Thursday morning. Kris ended up taking me to the airport. He picked me up at 4:30 am! Yikes. It was way too early! When I got to JFK, I was hanging out at this table where I could use the internet and started messing around with this computer screen that was set on the table. I suddenly realized that it was a place to order food... but there wasn't a restaurant around. I called my mom for some support asking if she thought I should buy something. I totally had to! And, I did. It was super cool. This woman just appeared out of practically no where with my food and a reciept for me to sign! Then she was off, and it was a glass plate! HA! It was crazy. It was worth the $10.




It was pretty delicious!

Once I finally got to Charlotte, (after being 48th for take-off on the runway from JFK) Melissa was there and happy to have me back in my old homeland! It was SO great to see her! She is my biggest connection with James. She is why I met him, so having her makes me feels a little closer to him... not to mention being with her is the best- period!! I love her! We hung out during the day. I saw the place where she works (very nice) and we ate at a drivethru called CookOut. It was so good. The burger was huge and the side items included choices like chicken nuggets and corndogs, which I thought was hilarious! I got onion rings and french fries! Yum! Melissa and I hung around the apartment and got some chicken wings for dinner. She likes chicken wings now!!! I didn't know she could get any better!! :-) After sleep, I dropped Melissa at work and used her car to drive over to Cyzner to see all my friends! It was so much fun! We got to talk wedding talk and I got to meet all the new kids, plus see some of the older kids were still there! You should see how big they are! Crazy! Kasey is super excited about her wedding! So am I! I can't believe how close it is. We are going to have such a blast! After hanging with my peeps, I headed back to get Melissa. We had to take her car in for a little problem. Cyrena picked us up with her little one Rebecca. Now, that little girl is adorable! Would you believe she is about 16 months old and she rolled her eyes at Melissa!?! She has the best facial expressions! Eventually, we got the car back and got ready for dinner with friends at Brixx! MMMmmm, I love Brixx! We had the best time! I love old friends and reunioning! We had a blast!!






It's a boy.


Cyrena is having another baby! Hooray!!



Friday night we stayed up late so that the Latina girls could make shirts to surprise Sam because she just had a sweet little baby and we were going to celebrate on Saturday. In true Latina fashion, there was lots of bling to be had! Melissa and I got up on Saturday and ate some delicious Chick-Fil-A and then headed out to meet the girls and see Sam and Parker. It was so much fun!


SB and Sianneth


The Latina ladies minus Mami.


Apparently, I was super excited. He is so cute!


Precious. He is perfect!


I have the world's greatest friends! I am lovin' this picture!


He is a flippin' porcelain doll! Look at that face!


:-)


Are they having a moment? She should make some babies!


She is MY hero!!


One of my little sisters. We are too cute!


How cute are they?!

After hanging out with the girls and sweet little Parker for a while, Melissa and I headed back to her apartment. I started talking about food again... of course, but Melissa said no, so I decided I might be able to persuade her to get ice cream. It turned out that wasn't too hard. We went to Marble Slab and enjoyed some of that goodness and headed back to the apartment to relax before going out later. So, suddenly there was a knock at the door and who should it be? My family!! Hooray!! For whatever reason, I didn't think that they were going to be making the trip, they got me! It was really fun to see them, it had been since Christmas. I was very impressed that Melissa knew that they were coming and didn't give me a single hint! It will come as no shock to most of you that we went out to dinner. We couldn't think of any place to go and ended up with Firebirds. We had previously been there and not liked it, but we gave it a second chance two years later. They deserved that second chance! It was incredible!! YUUMMM!




I stinkin' love this girl!!!!!


My Brother, John Paul, and his lovely Wife, Sam.


"John Paul and Sam came? I don't believe it, this is great!!" hehe.


What do you think happened here?


My Mom and Dad are by far the greatest people on the planet! I love them times a million!


My parents and there other wonderful child.


Do not- I repeat: Do not put your hand near that plate! ha!


I am a happy girl!


This was so so good. I need another one of those: Pronto!


The only way to end any meal, I say!

We headed over to the hotel for a few minutes and then Melissa and I had to head back home. We had to get up around four to get to the airport on time. We made it and I barely remember much of the flight. I was so tired from the combination of fun and, the obvious, no sleep that I was passed out. Kasey, so very kindly, took me out to lunch when I got home. It was Zebbs and super yummy. I finished a bit of my paper and then I literally passed out for several hours. When Kasey woke me up for dinner, I didn't even know what was going on. I headed right back to sleep. Yesterday was James' birthday. It was really hard to be without him and be thinking about him (even more than usual) all day. I drove his car to work. It still smells like him, which I love. When I got home to find multiple emails from him I was FLOORED with excitement. It has been almost four weeks since I heard from him, so I have been tortured with that missing. Just a simple I love you completely made my week... my four weeks! I love that boy so much! Even better still, I had organized a little bit of birthday joy to send him, getting a collection of people to send cards that I could put in the box I sent with him, plus I reminded people to email him, plus some people probably just email him on their own, so he got tons of love going his way! He emailed me again today telling me how much mail he got and how he thought he was going to be reading forever. He was SO happy in the email. I could feel his excitement. I got a complete high off of his email. His happiness is everything to me. I can't thank everyone who helped out enough. I know you just did it because you love him too, but it still made my day as well, so thanks for that! Now, I am getting ready for a big presentation for the thesis tomorrow! You will have to wait until next week to get the story on that!!

Have the most fabulous rest of you week! I will keep spreading this smile that I can't get enough of!

Be safe, Sweet Sailor, and hurry home to me!
I love you.

always,
Jamie