First day of student teaching!!

I am so proud of Laura! She has worked so hard!! I begged her to let me take her picture on the first day of "school" . . .she is student teaching at a local school (they now call it an internship). She is in the fourth grade class. She was born to be a teacher. When she was a little girl, she would line up all her stuffed animals and dolls and anyone else she could corral . . .and she would mark attendance and make lesson plans and teach them. Now she is doing it in real life!!

The students in her class ask her such funny questions. This morning while we were eating breakfast, she told me a new one. Student: "Miss Elliott - who fixes your hair in the morning?" Laura answered - "Do you mean who combs it and fixes it before I come to school?" The student said, "yes." Laura said, "I fix my own hair. Who fixes yours?" Student: "My mommy." I love it!

I think Laura has learned more about Justin Beiber (is that even how you spell his name?) and other things that fourth graders are interested in. They are always interested in what is in her lunch and her earrings. A friend of ours, Natalie Fry Horne has a business called Knick Nats. She makes these great earrings and we own lots of pairs. One day, one of the fourth grade girls said, "Are you wearing Natalie Horne?" She didn't say, "Are you wearing earrings made by Natalie Horne" or "are you wearing Knick Nats?" She asked. . . "are you wearing Natalie Horne?" (like are you wearing Prada?!!!) Natalie - you are famous!! We are so proud of Laura!!

Around the dinner table

One of the things that I missed most while our kids were both away at college was dinnertime laughter and conversation. I love the banter that goes on around the table and our family is always telling "old" stories about each other and laughing.

Glenn called and said that he and his sweet girlfriend, Lauren were going to be in town for the weekend. Laura remembered that Lauren's birthday is coming soon, so we decided to cook a "birthday for Lauren/homecoming for Glenn" dinner on Friday night. We also invited our sweet friend Anna from church. We grilled steaks and chicken and we had a great big salad with all sorts of toppings and hash brown casserole. I made a 1-2-3-4 cake with chocolate butter cream frosting. I was afraid that I left a cup of sugar out of the recipe but it tasted pretty good.

We bought a couple of gifts for Lauren.
A friend of mine (knicknats design - Natalie!! - http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=7063550)has a business making the cutest earrings (now in Wrapsody in Patton Creek and Auburn) and Laura gave Lauren a pair of KnickNats orange and blue (War Eagle) polka dot earrings. Lauren had recently asked for a recipe for a tailgate party so I bought a "Temptations" (our Trinity UMC) cookbook for her, a really cute apron, a clear acrylic recipe box and cute recipe cards (Smith's Variety in Homewood has the best gifts!! http://smithsvarietyshop.com/about_us)

My favorite part of the evening was talking and laughing around the dinner table. I love sitting around our big dining room table. I loved that I was able to decorate a little for Halloween.

Laura and I are both "loud." Glenn and Mark tell us that often. We get carried away as we tell a story and we get louder and louder and louder. One of us would start a story and another would interrupt filling in the blanks. We laughed a lot! What a fun evening enjoying one of the things that I miss the most.