Happy Birthday Ben!

Today is my wonderful husbands 28th birthday... 28!!!! I can't believe I'm married to a 28 year old :). Happy Birthday Ben!

For Ben's Bday Weekend we went tubing down the cahaba river as always except this trip was filled with State Troopers, ABC board, snakes, rocks, lost wedding rings and wounds. To make a long story short, my back found every rock in the river, our friend Luke lost his wedding band, we were greeted by a snake swimming through the water, 6 ABC board officers (we were in a dry county) and a road block of 15 state troopers. Long day... but eventful! Tonight will be family and mexican to celebrate, much more low key. :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEN!

Comps

I passed comps!!!!! yay!!!! I can barely believe it, but what a relief... I can now officially start my practicum in August and continue on with my school career!

Aunt Juanita

My Aunt passed away this week, she was only 53. She was in a car accident on Sunday night, which has been picked up by many news sources due to the surrounding circumstances, you can read about it here. She was my mom's college roommate at Florida State where she met my uncle, my mom's older brother and they married a few years later, over 30 years ago! She was a mother of two, Nicole & Eric, and had one grandbaby, Angelina. She was loved by so many. She just graduated with her masters in school counseling in May. We will all miss her so much.
Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers and please keep them coming.

Happy Anniversary Ben

About 4 months ago I found the best present ever for Ben for our second anniversary. Ben has always told me he wants to get his pilots license one day, so I found a place where he could actually fly a plane. I even bought him a "cotton" blindfold so I could drive him to the airport w/o him knowing where we were going and also covering the 2nd year's anniversary present of cotton. (First was paper). Well... it rained and poured the morning of his surprise, so I cried and was so disappointed and had to tell him what his surprise was. He was surprised and a little anxious about it, but it still did not live up to the 3 month hype of it being the best surprise yet.

So... this past weekend we finally were able to go to the airport (pell city) and complete his 1st flying lesson. I think I was more scared than he was! Ben asked the pilot, "Well you will be taking off and landing right?" The pilot's response, "Hell no... I want you to do it all, I'll be here in case you screw it up." Seriously... after a brief lesson, he let Ben taxi, take off, do like 10 turns (scariest thing ever) and practically land the plane (not sure who was doing most the effort since Ben told me later he REALLY wished the pilot would have officially taken over to land it).

Here he is finishing up his short on the ground lesson and finishing inspecting the plane.
My spot was in the back, where surprise! they gave me my own headset. This was right after I told Ben I was pretty sure I wanted to stay on the ground. (Yikes!)
Here we go.....!
View to the front.... going up!
As the trees got smaller and smaller and I hyperventilated a little more...
This was when I began to think about how small the plane really was and that there was only ONE engine... no backup.... no parachute... no way to get out the window and 2500 feet to the ground....
Ben succeeding to turn 90 degrees to the left and also making my stomach do a complete flip. Look out the window and the wing is pointed straight to the ground to do the turn! Blech.
Trying to take a picture of how sideways we were.
I calmed down for a sec, to take a picture of the Talladega Speedway.
And..... we made it!!!!! WHEW!
I did not take an after picture because my face was a little pale. Ben had a blast though, I think still a great anniversary present and probably a blessing it wasn't a surprise. I think Ben needed mental preparation that he was going to actually fly a plane before doing so.

Vacation

So, I've learned I'm not the best blogger. :)
BUT... i'm going to shift the blame to school, studying and work. I took comps this past wednesday and yes they were the hardest exam ever! But just a week before I got to study while on the beach and spend time with my family that I get to see only once or twice a year. I would change that to 100 times a year if I could.

Here are most of us. We are missing almost one whole family here and both my brothers and sister in law.
We also were visted by several manatees:
And Annie took me to universal! This was moments before I almost threw up on a 9 year old. I was very disappointed in myself. :-/

Lately

So, its been awhile, but I feel like I've been super busy w/o having anything important to write about. But...

I have exactly 14 days left to study for my comps which are July 8 @ 1pm, if you would like to pray for me to remember everything I've learned in the past 2 years... this is a major deal. Its 160-200 questions and I HAVE to pass it to start my internship in the fall.

I saved $24 at CVS today and spent $6! (Thanks to chicks w/ cents and southern savers and Jessica for introducing me to it all!) -- Ben would say I'm obsessive about saving money, but I'm working on perfecting my saving skills for next year when I have to intern and cannot get paid enough to live. (Yikes) I am hoping Ben and I can eat for free on Publix specials. :)

Ben and I have been stuck in a lot of traffic on interstates in the past few weeks...
And Ben has done what is necessary to get out of that traffic. Here my main concern was being one of those cars that gets stuck in the mud in the median and has to wait on the cop to come get them out and give them a ticket. Fortunatley the 100 degree weather had dried up any mud that may prevent the Vibe from going off road.

Doggies -- http://www.crossmyheartrescue.com/ -- I have spent a lot of time making the website and am pretty pleased w/ it. :) Sam and Sadie got adopted!!! Here Sam is getting ready to meet his new family:

Sam vs. the dishwasher

Meet one half of our new foster puppies. This is Sam: