sisterhood of the traveling cars. part I

this summer seems to be the summer of traveling. or at least july is. in the last 10 days i have logged over 2,000 miles driving. i could have driven from virginia beach to salt lake city. ridiculous.

one of my trips was down to charlotte, nc to visit my BFF, lindsay. we went to high school together, stayed good friends through college and after, she got married, and we both ended up living in southwest virginia. a few months ago, her husband took a job in charlotte, so she moved out of the always beautiful virginia to north carolina. i miss her. but, we got to have a wonderful day together exploring downtown charlotte.

after spending the morning at the charlotte museum of modern art, we walked around with no real agenda, except a map we picked up at the visitor's center. while trying to find this "singing wall," that doesn't seem to really exist, we stumbled upon the charlotte public library. (side note: supposedly you could touch different panels on the "singing wall." each panel was supposed to play a different note. we never found it.) BUT, outside of the library were famous quotations about literature on each pillar.

LOVED IT!








and my personal favorite...




it was the perfect afternoon. we found a fabulous bakery, incredible ice-cream that linds hadn't had since she was in texas, AND on top of the public library we also found this children's library....



this is the kind of thing that makes me want to move to charlotte, settle down, raise my future children and take them to the charlotte children's library. daily. seriously.

it was a fabulous weekend. lindsay and her husband are expecting their first baby in september, and i have to say, i'm a little jealous she WILL get to walk her kids down to this library. i think i am going to have to bring my future children to visit aunt lindsay and her kids just to go to this library.

10 things i love about summer

summer is here, finally. i have officially been on summer break for four days and i am loving every minute of it!

1. the obvious - no school.

2. sun - the lake - sun - the beach - sun - the pool - sun. (i think i see a pattern here..)

3. ice-cream trucks driving through the neighborhood playing the entertainer.

4. weddings (bachlorette parties, rehearsal dinners, dancing, toasts: the whole shabang)

5. fireflies. (even fireflies that hit my windshield and glow for the next 20 miles)

6. ice-cream cones that start to melt before you can get your first lick.

7. still waking up at 5:45, thinking i need to get up and get ready, then realizing it's summer and i can sleep in. (this may also include staying in my pajamas until 8 or 9 am)

8. staying up until 2:30 on a wednesday night.

9. roadtrips that last more than a mere weekend.

10. the 4th of july. by far my favorite family holiday. i have a feeling this year is going to be epic, but i'll save the details for later.

yep, i love summer!

meet matthew

meet my fiance.
matthew.



he's a C-17 pilot in the air force, and currently lives in delaware.

i have to get to move to there after we get married. don't get me wrong, i could not be more excited to be married to matthew and finally live in the same city! i am not as excited however, about living in delaware. fortunately, we will only spend about a year there though, before moving to another base, so i can't complain.

to get to know him a little bit, i thought i would share one of the latest "matthew/carey stories."

one of matthew's best friends was getting married in texas over memorial day weekend. i took an extra day off so we could fly together out to texas and still make it to the rehearsal dinner. matthew was in charge of booking our flights.

thursday morning before school i had gotten up early to make sure i was all packed, my room was clean, i had clean sheets on my bed (every time i go out of town i need to have clean sheets waiting for my return, quirky, i know), and got gas for the 5.5 hour drive to dover. after school i hit the road. of course i hit traffic around annapolis as it was commissioning week. the should-be-5.5 hour drive turned into a 7 hour drive. i wasn't the happiest person when i got to dover.

i also had forgotten a few toiletries for the trip, so we needed to go to target that night. it was almost 10PM by the time i arrived. matthew was working in his office, i was taking my time repacking my suitcase for the flight when i called out asking what time our flight was, "8:30 right? so i can get up at 5ish?"

...nope...the flight is at 5:30AM...

in baltimore.

which is 2 hours away.

and i still wanted to shower before we left.

which means my alarm would be going off at 2AM. aka in about 4 hours. and we still had to go to target.

i was NOT pleased.

i may have gotten a little angry frustrated with him. we left for target. i don't think i talked to him much in the short drive over. once we got in target, i may have continued to proclaim, "2 AM matthew, 2 AM!!" repeatedly . people may have turned to look at us. and meanwhile, matthew was walking about three feet behind me laughing at how ridiculous i sounded as i yelled "2AM" throughout target. it was a fun night.

we made the flight. i got up at 2 AM, was able to shower and we were fine. i did tell matthew that he would not be making our flight reservations anymore. while on the flight, i was noting how nice it was to travel with someone. i hadn't traveled with other people since i was in high school and traveled with my family. i've been flying from virginia to new york for the last five years to go home, or have met my family at the destination for whatever vacation we had. it is SO much more fun getting to sit next to someone on the plane, have someone to talk to while waiting at the gate, and most importantly have someone watch my luggage while i use the restroom so i don't have to lug your huge carry-on with me wherever i go. i could get used to this.

as we were sitting on the runway, and i was enjoying flying with someone, i also noted that my fiance happens to be a pilot. i've never been scared of flying, but it seemed reassuring that should something happen to one of the pilots, i would always have one with me!

i told matthew this.

apparently talking about something happening to the pilots that might cause them to lose consciousness is not something you should talk about out-loud on a plane. matthew politely reminded me of this.

after having a long drive the day before, and getting up at 2AM i was not the most rational person at this moment. so i did what any girl would do in my situation, i argued.

i argued that it was ridiculous, i wasn't threatening a pilot, i was just stating that should anything happen, i was happy to be flying with another pilot!

matthew nicely asked me to not talk quite so loud.

i argued again. what? it's not like i said "bomb!" they can't get mad at me.

matthew gave me the look.


...i did, i said "bomb" ...on plane.


and that was the start to our first plane ride together.

i'm looking forward to many more flights with matthew. hopefully, that do not require me to get up shortly after midnight and i do not get quite so many dirty looks from strangers.

so that's my latest "matthew/carey" story.

and now you can say you've met matthew.



ps: we were much happier for the rest of the weekend in texas.

reason #215 why i love my kindergartners

end of the year art show.

i got to spend the morning converting the classroom into an art gallery with work i've collected all year from my students. i know i'm bias, but i think i have some real talent in my class. the next winslow homer perhaps? maybe it's premature, i'm just saying, you heard it here first people. :)



(that parents is 6'7"...my displays are not made for short people...he's just ridiculously tall!)

((disclaimer: the following names have been changed to protect the innocent.))

because i can, i am dedicating the rest of this post to my students and some of my favorite pieces. the reasons i love my students just keep adding up...

reason #216. henrietta. students had to stand by their art work. as parents came by and looked at everything, each child spent a few minutes talking about their work. which was their favorite, why, what medium they used, etc. i overheard henrietta tell her mother that it was NOT a picture of her. when i asked henrietta who it was of, she said, "well, it is my mother, just when she was shorter, and a LOT younger."





reason #217. roberta. the day after i got engaged, roberta's mom stopped me as we were waiting for parents to come pick up their children after school. apparently roberta came home and was all excited that "miss s. got a mortgage!" when her mom questioned her, roberta said, "yeah mom, miss s. got a mortgage and has a ring and everything!" i think this is my favorite engagement story. it also helps that roberta is by far the quietest girl in the class, yet was the most excited about my engagement.




reason #218. a 6-year-old wants to be an anesthesiologist. i had to look up how to spell anesthesiologist to type it on her bio. enough said.





reason #219. kindergartners don't see color of skin. ingrid is the palest, blondest, shirley temple-look-alike i know. i love her self-portrait!




and to cap off the night, a few lines from their bios

"roberta likes to read in her spare time, she wants to be a mom when she grows up."
"When olga grows up, she wants to be a doctor by day and ballet teacher at night."
"fred wants to be an ice-cream man when he grows up."


...i love that kindergartners want to be ice-cream men when they grow up!

let's start at the very beginning

my friend elizabeth (check out her blog... emyselfandi.com ) helped me set up a blog a few months ago, but i hadn't gotten around to actually starting it. matthew and i got engaged a couple weeks ago, and as i start figuring out what it is going to be mean to be a pilot's wife, i thought "why not start the blog about this crazy adventure?" so here we go...a little about me...

i love lists. i love making to-do lists and the instant gratification of crossing things off my lists. i love the satisfaction you get after making a list and being able to complete your entire list. i love having a to-do list for the weekend on the fridge and being able to cross everything off on saturday morning. i love being organized, but i tend to attract clutter. (buuut i still hate clutter). i love that lists help me organize. it seems appropriate then, to start off with a little top ten things on my mind right now list...

1. i'm getting married in less than 6 months

2. i'm going to be an air force wife (i keep hoping that it is going to be nothing like Army Wives...

3. i'll live an hour from my brother after we get married...that's the closest we have lived to each other since i was in high school.

4. this weekend my fiancee gets to fly to hawaii for work, sit there (on the beach!), possibly fly to guam, then back to hawaii and sit there some more. i'm a little jealous.

5. i'm very thankful that virginia SOL testing is finally over.

6. i love my kindergarten class...and may get a little emotional when i think about them going on to first grade next year.

7. i love that one of my students comes into class everyday, looks at my hand and asks if i am still engaged.

8. only 7 more school days left until summer...i can't wait!

9. i am excited to go for a run tomorrow morning before school before it gets to be ridiculously hot and humid...roanoke even made the today show this morning because we are so hot this week!

10. my best friend is getting married in less than 2 months. i tried comparing us to "bride wars." only not quite so bridezilla as kate hudson. she wasn't as amused as i was.



as long as i pick a different wedding date (check), buy a different wedding dress (soon-to-be-check) and i don't dye her hair blue (check), i think we are going to be in good shape for the next few months.

2010 is shaping up to be a good year!