MIA: SSgt JR Crombie

Below are pictures of a member of our United States Air Force... a guy that I have always looked up to since I was a child... someone that I considered to be family... like a big brother... if anyone has had any contact with him in the past 3 months, please let him know that his "little sister" misses and loves him... even though he has had a few months of bad judgement.

Me and my best friend, partner in crime, big brother, protector, confident, sidekick, bike riding buddy, and one of my heros. We have always been close, since childhood... until he chose to let another girl come between our friendship... Since 9/11 we have talked on the phone at least once a week, keeping up with each other and sharing stories... through the 3 months he was stationed at PSAB I received random phone calls (at all times during the day and night) just to let me know that he was doing well... while in Korea... I received phone calls once or twice a week along with emails... even when he was first stationed in Germany... I still received my weekly phone calls... that was until...
I just hope that my bubby knows that I still love him and even though I can act like a brat at times, I will always be here for him and I will even try to not rub in my wisdom by saying "I TOLD YOU SO..." when things don't work out the way that HE thinks they will... I also hope that he knows that I will forgive him for not calling or being in contact with me for going on four months IF he calls and asks to be forgiven... I WILL NOT stand around and be passive about him letting another girl in his life control who he talks to from home... I have been here for him a lot longer than she has been in his life... and will be...

COWGIRL UP!

NOTE: Pictures have been removed from this blog... I finally figured out how to edit the pictures!!!!

Ok... so you have seen this picture once in this blog... I promise that I didn't upload it twice... I guess the computer program just KNEW that I loved this picture A LOT!!!! So as most of you know, I spent most of the month of June out in Nevada with my boyfriend's mom and sister. These are some of the pictures that we took of me being a "cowgirl..." Below (and above) you see a picture of me in my lovely shirt that announces that my boyfriend is out of town! I am holding Ang's horse Jake for her while she gets ready for her ride at the State High School Rodeo. Since Kendra (Trevor's little sis) wasn't riding I didn't have to be in western attire, hence this cute shirt! Have no fear! I bought Trevor a shirt that says that his girlfriend is out of town... he has yet to wear it and I have been gone for most of my summer vacation! Isn't the scenary awesome! Yeah stop laughing... the thought of me sitting on the tailgate of a truck holding the lead rope for a horse in my boots and cowboy hat... yah yah yah...

This next series of pictures is from Gymkhana. It is a riding club where you can participate in the speed riding events or horse shows. Kendra participates in the speed riding events, which is what I did that particular weekend! Don't I look the part of a barrel racer/pole bender???? My dad is still stuck on me NOT wearing a cowboy hat... :) The horse that I am riding is named Paul... he is just about as old as me... he's a good ol' boy!
Notice the look on Paul's face... it is as if he is thinking, "Not the blonde chick again..." We had quite a weekend of riding together! It was the most that Paul had been ridden in a LONG time!!!! I am sure that I confused quite a few people at the Gymkhana with my saddle and my display of extraordinary riding skills! I had the privelage of using Kendra's HIGH POINT girl saddle which she won at a rodeo last summer and I had the chest strap that said Rookie Cowgirl 2005 (or something to that effect). I almost wasn't allowed to ride in the events that day! The registration lady wasn't going to let me ride without having one of my parent's signatures!!! Something about having to have parent signature to ride if you are UNDER 16! She didn't believe that I was older than 16!!! That was funny to say the least!

This is after all the events were over and we were getting ready to trailor up and come home. I didn't really win a ribbon... I was just pretending... they stop awarding ribbons at 6th place and I had two 7th places and two 8th places! Paul looks realy tired!!! No more riding for him for a while!!!! (Which was fine with me cause my buns were REALLY sore from all the riding!!!!)
For more information on my times and the events (and even a video which is on the funny side) contact me...
I was quite proud of myself for completing all five events! And I did them all in UNDER a minute! We won't discuss how my times compared to Kendra's... but hey she has been doing this for a few years!!!!

These next pictures are from the day before the Gymkhana... the MAIN reason that Paul was so tired! We went for a Longhorn Roundup as previously mentioned in another blog...

This would be me with the four cowboys that were with us on the ride. Ernie is to the far left and Mike is next to him. I can't remember the other two guys names. I know that the horse to the right of me (with the blaze like Paul) is named Jake... They thought it would be funny to take a picture of me in chaps (or chinks) and a hat and beer with the guys and send it to Trevor... Throughout the entire day the guys called me TEXAS... not quite my name... but ok... we had lots of fun, crossed quite a few muddy bogs... and even saw a few longhorns. I must say that I think that we covered all 1500 acres of the ranch at least twice...

Here Kendra joined me on Jake for a picture! Jake and Paul look a lot alike! Overall I had a great trip in Nevada and I miss getting to ride and hangout with Kendra! She is the best "sis" that someone could ever ask for! Her mom isn't bad either!!!! Thanks for the good times while I was home with you!!!!

Little Twinkle Toes

These are pictures of the most adorable horse you will ever see! Her name is unofficially Little Twinkle Toes! She is a miniature horse and was born March 17, 2006 in Yerington, Nevada.

Here she is inside with the stuffed horse she thinks is a playmate! She is about the same size as this toy horse!!!! Boy is she precious!

Here we see Twinkle Toes eating lunch with her mommy Pumpkin in the yard. The hay bucket is almost bigger than she is!!!

Twinkle Toes is tuckered out from all the pictures!!!!

Going to the chapel and she's...

We are going to the chapel and she's gonna get married... but the she isn't me... sorry to get your hopes up! June 24, 2006 was a very special day for Valerie Reynolds, we went to the chapel and SHE got married! These are a few of the pictures from her big day, or week shall we say! (Note to reader, I haven't mastered the art of uploading pictures on here in the correct order, so pictures are kinda crazy!)

This is me at her parents house before going to the church to get ready. I decided to get dressed a little early so that I could have my picture taken before the fireplace, which is a Reynolds family tradition!

Me and Trevor at the reception... it was almost midnight and the poor baby had been up since about 4:30 in the morning! He had a rough weekend! He spent most of the afternoon Friday checking the radar and weather place to get clearance to fly up to Tulsa in his little Cessna 150... no luck as the weather between Tulsa and Ft. Worth was horrible with storms! So he woke up EARLY Saturday morning to get clearance to fly up to Tulsa before the storms built up and before I had to be at the wedding prep activities!

My mugshot that Dad Reynolds took after my hair (redo) and makeup were finished... for the time being... more makeup was added at the church to "finish" the job... I have worn more makeup in my life... but Trevor has never seen me wearing "real" makeup... which would explain why he thought I looked like I was wearing a mask!

Me and Valerie at the Bridal Attendants luncheon! We were both looking good and were sooo happy!

Someone snapped a picture of me as I was putting my camera away at the Bridal Attendants Luncheon. I like the picture...

We had an action filled week that is for sure! I arrived back in Tulsa on Tuesday evening, spent Wednesday with my mom shopping and getting my last minute stuff for the wedding... then Thursday was the Bridal Luncheon at Green Onion (yummy) and between the luncheon and the bachelorette party I managed to spend a little quality time with my AnaRae. AnaRae didn't quite understand the concept that I was going to a party and needed to look pretty, even though I was going with girls. She kept asking me if I was going to get me a "fancy boyfriend" in Tulsa so that I could come home more often... Thursday evening we met at Val's brother/sister 'n law's house for predinner cocktails and some fun before going to dinner at the Bistro and then to Brookside for some dancing at Suede. Friday, after getting a few hours of sleep we all had stuff to do before meeting for the rehearsal and dinner. Then finally, Saturday, the big day! I had a hair appointment at 8 am then picked Trevor up at the airport and he dropped me off at Val's parents house so that we could get ready! I have no clue as to what he did all day, I think he just crashed at Val's brother's house... then off to the chapel to get her married!!!! I was ready for a few days of sleep after that weekend!

I have pictures from my trip to Nevada that I will post in the next day or so... check back...

Greetings from Nevada!

Greetings from cool and sunny Nevada! I have had a great time here on my "vacation" from the heat and humidity of Oklahoma/Texas!

Since I have been in Nevada, I have had the opportunity to do things that I have never done before... mainly because I am a "cityslicker" and not a bonified "cowgirl"... I have now ridden on a renegade longhorn round up as well as in a speed riding event! I have even become very familiar with the morning and evening chores on the ranch and can do them pretty much on my own!

I will post pictures at another time as I keep getting kicked off line here at the house! But rest assured that we have some funny pictures of me on the horse!

SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER!!!

Yeah... it's official... SCHOOLS OUT FOR SUMMER! And I couldn't be happier!!!

I had a rough last few days of school. I found out on Thursday before school was over on Friday that I was going to be moved back to the school that I started out teaching in my first year in Texas... that meant that I had to pack up my classroom and bring ALL my materials home and also get my folders in some sort of working order for someone else to take over for me in my place... well... the folders weren't such a hassle since I am OCD on organization and making sure that my stuff is in order, but making sure that I had the important stuff written down about the students and the loose ends that needed to be straightened out when school starts is a different story... I called in sick on Friday since I needed to be in Tulsa for Blake's graduation from Cascia Hall, but stupidly I drove into work to drop stuff off at my schools. Which ultimately put me a few hours behind schedule and I made it to Tulsa at about the same time I would have made it into town had I stayed and worked half a day!

Why did I get home so late??? Well, I stopped off at the Denton Airport to tell my guy goodbye and all that mushy stuff and when I went out to my car to leave, it wouldn't start. No cranking or attempting to "turn over," no clicking, no nothing... battery was D-E-A-D dead! But of course being the electrical wiz that he is, Trevor had to check the fuses and then the voltage on the battery and also the alternator before determining that yes indeed it was definitely my battery... so off to AutoZone in Denton to get me a new battery before leaving for Tulsa. I was actually making great time on my drive, I left at 2:00 and at 5:05 I was sitting on the Turner turnpike screaming at the idiot who decided that we needed to STILL have construction just past the Hwy 97 exit... it took me over 25 minutes to go from the Kellyville/Sapulpa exit to the hwy 97 exite, which for those of you who know, is only about a mile...

Graduation was great. I can't believe that my "lil' brother" is going away (haha to TU) to college in the fall... then I drove back to Texas on Sunday so I could spend a little time with Trevor before coming back to Tulsa on Tuesday after half a day working...

I will post pictures from Blake's graduation and also from the airshow and all that once I make it back to the "great" state of Texas... but for now, I am getting ready to sign off for bed so that I can get up before the sun to drive to my dad's fire station so he can take me to the airport! I am going to spend some quality time in Nevada with Trevor's mom and sister this summer... That should be interesting... I will be sure to try to post from there as well... I am going to be riding in a rodeo, at least one... being a photographer... a spectator... a big sister... and a rancher... should be fun! There will be pictures to post from this trip as well... maybe before I get back, kinda dependson how busy we are!!!!

More information on my assignment change at a later date as well. Let's just say that at this time I am not going to be checking my work email until July cause I really don't care to know what has been sent to me! :)

Almost Over...

WOOHOO!!! One more school year is almost over!!! Can you tell that I am ONE excited teacher!!!!! We have approximately 7 school days left before we say goodbye to our young'uns and ship them home to their parents for 10 fun filled weeks!!! I have already started to make my plans for the summer! First on my agenda is to fly (very low to the ground) home for Memorial Day weekend, where my "lil brother" is going to be graduating from Cascia Hall on Friday! I can't believe that he is already grown up and getting ready to go to TU!!!! Then I will fly back to Ft Worth so I can go to work (stupidly enough) on Tuesday since it is out "Teacher's Prep Day." What I will be prepping for is beyond me! I will already have all of my paperwork turned in and everything shut down for the summer... but ok! Then back to Tulsa for my nieces t-ball game at 6 (yes on Tuesday...) and then I will be flying (for real this time) to Yerington, NV where I will be spending time with my guy's mom and sister for 2 weeks! I am very excited about going out to Nevada this year! I am going to help out with the 8th grade dance pictures, then I will get to ride in my first RODEO typed event... yeah, I didn't stutter and you didn't misread what was written down... I will be riding in a RODEO event! I am sure that there will be plenty of pictures to share and/or video clips to send in to America's Funniest Home Videos!!!! Then I will be a spectator at the State Rodeo Championship where Kendra will be riding!!! Then back to Tulsa for one of my best friends weddings!!!! WOOHOOO!!! What a crazy month I will have in June!!!!

As soon as I get the pictures from my friend Scott I will have a posting on my exciting adventures last weekend at Taste Addison as well as at the NASJRB Ft. Worth Air Show! We had a lot of fun, got a lot of sun, and drank a little more alcohol than we should have or normally consume... (and if you REALLY know me you know that doesn't take much on the alcohol side!)

And for those of you that are concerned, I am NOT becoming a Texan!!! I will ALWAYS be an Oklahoma girl at heart! I do NOT enjoy driving in/around Dallas, Irving, Addison, Plano, etc... Ft. Worth is about as tolerable as I can get without coming home to lovely T-Town!!!! So have no fears...

Hope Elizabeth...

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Isn't she a cutie!

These are pictures from "Anza's" recent visit to our house out in the "country." (It is the country in perspective of living in the middle of Ft. Worth!)

We had a great time playing with the new toys that I had bought earlier in the day and eating dinner. Hopey likes honeydew and she made Trevor share with her! Fun times were had by all, and we definitely missed Ryanie and his girl who were too busy studying for finals to take a break to drive out!!!! Maybe next time...

By the next time I am sure that lil' Miss Hopey will be running around the house getting into everything, not crawling at a speed in which we can catch her quickly!

Whose the goofiest??? I think Daddy won the contest for the goofiest by getting caught with his tongue sticking out by the camera!!! Hope had been sticking her tongue out at us, honestly...

My Favorite Men of Honor...

This blog is in honor of my favorite guys in blue (regardless of the shade) with my favorite girls, well one of my favorite girls...

I think that there could be some discussion as to WHOSE girl she really is... but we all like to think that she is OUR girl!

The captain sleeping with his granddaughter in the car...

She won his heart when she took his hand to skate and never let go...

She ditched her aunt for a guy... I'm not ready for this quite yet!!!

Let the countdown begin!!!

For those of you who remember counting down the days until school was out as a student, let the games begin... I know it may come as a shock to many of you, but teachers DO count down the days of school. We are probably worse than the students if you really want to know. As "adults" we have the ability to not only count down the days, we can also count down the hours AND the minutes... the current number is 18 days of h-e- double hockey sticks...

I love my job. Honest, I do... I love working with my students, they are awesome, most days. I enjoy watching my students as they start using their voices and start to become more understandable to other people. I love seeing them make progress and meet their goals. But I don't love working with most of their teachers. There is a certain level of common courtesy or respect that I do not receive in one of my schools. I can ask for responses from teachers about rescheduling, trying to give them the upperhand and the control over when their students will go to speech when it is outside of the "normal" scheduled time. But when said teachers don't reply, I assume that it is alright to get their kids, then starts the problems. I ALWAYS give my teaching staff at least 2 weeks notice when I am going to be out for a conference or something so that we can reschedule the missed sessions at a convenient time for both of us. Yet it apperas that they don't have the common courtesy to let me know a week in advance of field trips and presentations and field days that they have known about for months! Then they wait for me to find out the Friday before the week of the event when the weekly calendar comes out and then on that week they demand to know when I am going to make up the speech times for their students because "MY STUDENTS WILL NOT MISS ________" (fill in activity).

So I am trying to patiently kill my fellow teachers with kindness. I am hoping that it will eventually work. Like I said before, only 18 more days of school left... which in thiose 18 days I have to complete 50 report cards and progress notes to parents and send home, do one more month of Medicaid forms (for all 50 or so said students), prepare about 40 home program folders for my students so that they have some sort of speech practice over the summer (not that they will actually do it, they didn't throughout the year, why is the summer going to change that routine?) and other countless and redundant forms for the district... all the while seeing my 50 kids (most of them twice a week) for the next 3 weeks.

I can only hope that I survive these next 18 school days! What I would give to be back in college! For those of you in college- stay there... NEVER graduate!!!! The real world is a mean and harsh place!!!!! Pray for me and my sanity as well as the patience of my guy!!!

Gotta go! Gilmore Girls is back and this is a new show!

Weekend trip to Tulsa

Last weekend Trevor and I drove to Tulsa to visit with my family and some of our friends. On Saturday we dressed up with the girls and went to see Ana Rae in Peter Pan at the Spotlight Theater. Poor Trevor, he was the only guy in our group... we had my nieces Syrina and Kenzie, my grandmother, and Brittney (the daughter of my brother's gf) - to say the least we had a gaggle of girls with us! Of course we had to take two cars to the play so the girls had to take turns riding with Trevor in his truck in the little jump seats in the back, they thought that was cool!

After the play we met up at Woodward Park with my mother, brother and girlfriend, and Ana Rae's mom for some spring pictures at the park. Sorry to say that I don't have any decent pictures with me in them since my budding photographer, Kenzie, managed to cut my head off in every picture she took... guess that should have given me a hint! :)

Ana Rae, the cutest fairy in the play

Syrina and Kenzie

More pictures will be posted to my kodakgallery photo albums as soon as I get my mother's pictures from her camera as well as Ana Rae's pictures!

Happy SPRING!!!!

Precious Hope

I had the pleasure of having ice cream with one of the most adorable little girls in Texas... it was nice to take a break from work to get a free ice cream from Ben & Jerry's with Audra and Hope. I can't believe how much Hope has grown!!! Isn't she just precious!!! Thanks Audra for meeting me!!!!

If you can't beat 'em... join 'em...

Well... I finally decided that if I have to go to my friend's blogs to find out what is going on with their lives I might as well join them! Welcome to my blog, I am sure it will be boring as hell... but hey, so is my life as a speech teacher!

According to Bugsy, this wasn't too hard to set up (as said on her blog)... so I thought, what the heck, I can do this too... yeah uh huh... computers and I are not friends, let's be honest about that fact... I managed to set up the blog easily... but then trying to make it saavy like Trish's or Bugsy's or Raoul's... yeah... not so easy... I do appreciate Raoul trying to help me as he was leaving his house to study... so I ask one of my friends that is good with computers. His response to me (after laughing at me for a good minute) was that it looked fine... nothing double spaced. I think he is full of it and needs to get his eyes rechecked... I think that kudos are in need since I did manage to find in all the computer speak where to put the blasted links...

Since some of my friends have a rule on anomynity on their websites, please remember this when posting responses back about them on here... if you don't have any rules on being anonymous feel free to use names, just not theirs... THANKS!

More details to come once I upload photos and figure this thing out! That is if I can figure this thing out! Anyone who can help me to get my "friends" link section straightened out I would appreciate it! I dunno how I double spaced the links...

Future posts... Kenzie's first T-Ball game and pics... Tulsa pics... Weekend with Bryan & Audra & Hope...