There Must Be Something In the Water...

...so I'll be sure to bring my own! For awhile it seemed like everyone I knew was getting married. Now that everyone is married...it seems like the new fad is to have a baby. In the past few weeks, the total baby count in the friend/ family department has upped itself to 5. One of the mommas to be is my wonderful older sis.

If it's a boy or girl it's name will be Flowerpot. It's only fair since that's what Regina wanted to name all of us. Also in the running is Ralph (what their cat was named until they changed it to Phoenix..come to find out Ralph would've worked best cause she was REALLY a he) and Marvin (the name of a little boy's homework found in the little baby shoes they got while in Costa Rica). Not sure which one is going to win out. I am a for real real aunt. :) I've been an aunt for three years now, but biologically this is the first go around.

Congrats to all my friends and family who are getting new additions this year! The Shrewsbury's are up for babysitting as long as we can send them back to you! :)

Needing A Little R&R

Enough said...

December 2010

I feel like such a blogger failure! I think I start off every post that way, but seriously last post in November?? Might as well do a catch up for December I suppose.

December was a whirlwind. I spent the week before Christmas break with some snow day downtime, so it made Christmas break feel a little longer which was very nice!

The girls have a tradition of having a Cookie Decorating/Ornament Party. This year we had a little addition, Kim's little girl Taylor, to the party with a couple of new girls that couldn't make it last year.

It's always fun to get together with the girls. We have lots of laughs that is one thing for sure! It's amazing how our conversations have changed over the years. We started out talking about our boyfriends, to our wedding, and now we are on to our husbands, big girl jobs, and family additions. Before you get any ideas, NO there is not an addition to the Shrewsbury family brewing!

The same day of the girl get together, Sam called with the proposal of a concert...Garth Brooks concert to be exact. I haven't been to a concert in FOREVER! Although, not as excited as Sam, I was excited to be doing something out of the ordinary for the Shrewsbury clan. We talked Sam's sisters into going too, so we made a night of it! We went to eat and then headed to the extremely crowded last concert Garth Brooks was doing in the 9 show run. When I say crowded, I mean packed like sardines, hold on to each other so you don't get separated in the mass, kind of crowd. We stopped for a photo opt before we headed through the crowd.


We finally made it inside and down to our seats, which would have been perfect if I was 6 feet tall. A mental note needs to be taken that I am short..therefore floor seats which are normally awesome are not so awesome when 6 ft giants are in front of you for two rows straight..we need to have stadium seating that will bring me up a little! :)

Regardless of the seats though (I sounded really bitter and ungrateful in that previous thought and that is totally not true..just the fact of the matter) it was an AWESOME show!!!!

My personal favorite of the night was when Trisha came out!

I belted out every word to everyone of her songs! It was fantastic! From 9:45 to 12:30 we were singing our hearts out to Sam's old time favorites from Garth to some that we forgot about but jumped in on the words we knew! It was definitely a night that we won't forget! We are still listening to Garth Brooks radio on Pandora!

We only had one day to recooperate before Christmas festivities began. We started off Christmas Eve with my mom's side of the family having lunch at my uncles house. We chatted and enjoyed time together. The day wasn't over yet though. We hurried home and threw together soup to have soup and sandwiches at Sam's family Christmas dinner. It was great! Mrs. Terri got all the girls family aprons.


We played tea party and played several other games with Calyn too. It made for a very fun night, especially with a little snow falling on the ground too! The night had to come to an end though because Santa Claus was coming to the McGuire house!
We woke up around 7:45 on Christmas morning to get Christmas Day rolling.

Sam went above and beyond this year and got me...

...ZUMBA!! I kept talking about how I wanted a Wii so that I could get the Zumba game. Sam heard my cry of desperation and got the MOVE for his PS3. I LOVE IT!! I take a Zumba class, but being able to do it whenever I want is exactly what I wanted!
Sam got some UNC apparel to wear to the UT/UNC Music City Bowl Game, which turned out exactly like he wanted!
After enjoying our Christmas together, we packed up and headed out to a day of Christmasing. It all started at my parents house and had a huge breakfast, opened gifts, took some pictures, and played on the Kinect, which is a very fun game and very tiring all at the same time!



Around lunch, we started off to Mt. Juliet to spend time with the Ellis clan. There were plenty going on with all the kiddos running around. Every year with this side of the family, instead of buying everyone gifts, we theme Dirty Santa. This years theme was "As Seen On TV" gifts. We had many many laughs thanks to this theme! Next year is hats! Snow was continuing to come down, so Sam and I had to leave a little early to get to my grandparents house on my dad's side of the family. Yes, so if you have been keeping count that is 4 Christmas's in one day. We could make a movie. Oh wait...that's already been done! :) Sorry had to throw that in there!

We came home to a wonderful snow covered house to end our Christmas night! We crashed. It was a long, busy, fun day!

I think that catches us up for the month of December. I know it was a lot, but congrats you made it! :)

Fall Happenings

We have had a rather busy October. Sam and I took a trip to Gatlinburg with our friends Amanda and Steve to celebrate Steve's birthday. It was a much needed break for the whole crew. We rented a cabin which was fabulous. Anything would be fabulous if it had a hot tub! :) We spent the weekend watching football, relaxing in the hot tub, and did a whole lot of shopping.



Mostly recently, we had a decades themed party for Halloween. It was so much fun! We had several people show up! We had music, a little dancing..anywhere Steve is there is a little bit of dancing...firepit, and smores! I have decided that next year is going to be 80's themed! My birthday will be 80's!! It's a year from now, but I can't wait!










I also participated in the Making Strides for Breast Cancer walk. My friend Rachel put a team together named The Hot Pink Ladies. It was an absolute blast! It will definitely be an annual event!

I Will Get Better At This

I am determined to get back to my blog! I have honestly been so busy or tired that I have been neglective of my poor little blog and my one or two readers! :) I like to think that someone likes to know whats up with the Shrewsbury's and is concerned that I haven't updated. Well there are definitely some things to share. We have added to our family...and no not by way of child! We have added a little fur baby puppy to the Shrewsbury house. Sam had been mentioning it every now and then and one Sunday afternoon we headed out to get ourselves Jack.
This is Jack in the car on our way home from picking him up.

He's growing like a weed! Bailey has seemed to take to him finally. At first, Bailey's poor little life was shattered into a million pieces...and Bailey being "my" dog I got a little defensive and sided with Bailey on everything. Jack didn't have a fighting chance, but now we are all one big happy family! It's been great to see the two of them become doggy brothers!

We also took a trip at the beginning of September to Atlanta, GA to the Chick-Fil-A GameDay kick-off between UNC and LSU.

You see, I married a diehard UNC fan. Sam was born in North Carolina and has been a fan as long as I have known him. I, on the other hand, was adopted into liking UNC. Being a SEC fan growing up with my daddy, life in the ACC is a learning experience! ;) It was so great to see Sam so excited and happy to be at the game. This was my first time at a college football game and Sam's first UNC game, so it was exciting for both of us. I wore down fast though. Let's just say a entire day devoted to college football is a little rough for a not so die hard fan, but it was well worth it to spend time with Sam. Plus I got to go to IKEA for enduring a day of sports, so again WELL worth it. By the way, I am officially obsessed with IKEA so if anyone is planning on going to Atlanta anytime soon, let me know and I will tag along. I won't be noticed...just drop me off at IKEA and come pick me up when you are heading home...with a U-HAUL in tow of course! :)

I am really enjoying teaching! It is stressful and tiring, but that comes with any job! The difference is that with teaching you get breaks every month! I am looking forward to that. Next break will be in two weeks and I am so ready! Overall, it has been a wonderful experience with awesome co-workers! I even landed a great class! I seriously could not ask for anything else....except new technology stuff for my classroom would be nice..but... it's just my first year. It will come in time!
Sam is still enjoying his job. He is coming up on his one year soon! We are very happy and thankful with what God has provided us. It has definitely been a year of blessings!

There has been much more going on I am sure, but I think this highlights the most recent and big things that have been going on. Hopefully, like my title says...I will get better at this.

So Much To Do...So Little Time

There is so much going on in our lives these days it's hard to keep everything straight. Sam and I are trying to get use to a new normal for us. I am now working full time which is a really fun and odd thing to grasp. I was actually getting ready this morning to head off for my first full day of school when it hit me; This is your life now! It really didn't seem real last week. While I am still learning and trying to figure everything out, this is my real life now. I am no longer the student teacher, I am the students' teacher. It's amazing! I have had a great time so far with my kids. I think that we have lucked out and gotten a great bunch of kids this year, but I might be a little biased when I say that. :) It is definitely going to be a fun year!

Sam and I also are celebrating two years of married life together! While we have been a couple for almost seven years, two years of that we have been married! :) It has flown by! It seems like yesterday we were talking about our wedding and honeymoon and things of that nature now 2 years and here we are. Last year we took a vacation early in June to celebrate our anniversary and then took a weekend getaway trip to St. Louis when our anniversary actually rolled around. This year we had to do things a little different. This summer has been crazy so we never really got the chance to really get away and celebrate, so before the hustle and bustle of this week came along Sam book us a night in a hotel in Huntsville, AL. We went to the space center and downtown Huntsville, but the heat was a lot to take in, so we started back to Nashville early Sat. afternoon. It has been a wonderful roller coaster the past two years, but I wouldn't ask for anything different! Here's to many more years of this crazy, wonderful life for us Shrewsbury's!

Oh funny thing..writing our last name made me think of this..So the kids have to call me Mrs. Shrewsbury, which I am getting use to. I'm use to hearing Mrs. Holly a thousand times a day, but I'm getting the hang of it. Anyways..I have noticed that some kids all me Mrs. Shrewbury and it completely catches me off guard. There are so many other ways for people to pronounce our name that I don't think a thing about, but leaving out the "s" in Shrewsbury really makes a difference to its sounds. Just saying...ok well everyone have a great week and I am off to work...

Ready or Not...

...The school year comes! It is hard to believe that 2 months ago I was writing about how I had a job! Man has time FLOWN by this summer! It feels like it was only yesterday that I was complaining about having nothing to do during the month of May. I have plenty to do now that is for sure! I have been working hard on my room ever since I got the key in mid-July and I still feel like it needs more to be done to it. Luckily, with the help of friends and family it has come together quickly to be ready for THIS FRIDAY!! It's crazy. This Friday, I will officially be responsible for these 6th graders. It is no longer a fun thing to THINK about, it is a REALITY! Tomorrow I meet the parents of my students and then come Friday the students are here. I have not managed to remember to take pictures of my room but don't fret! I will remember to take my camera tomorrow or at least before the kiddos get there on Friday and share with you my room! It is definitely my taste of a classroom. Alright everybody....ready or not..bring on the 6th graders!