Mother Daughter Tea

Yesterday's blog went out to my Daddy and today's goes out to my Mama.  I meant to write this Sunday night but needless to say, I've been way too busy to accomplish that goal.  Sunday I fell asleep about 4:30 and planned to take a 30 minute nap and ended up sleeping until 7:30.  I totally needed the sleep but I slept through youth group. :(

Sunday was ADPi's Mother Daughter Tea and it was soooo good to see my mom and get to hang out with her for a couple of hours.  Between last week and this week, life has been non-stop crazy!!!!  I've had to make sure I write down meals in my schedule everyday so that I eat.  I still haven't figured out why every professor of mine picks the exact same week to have everything due!!!! WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!  Really, do you have a heart at all?  I just need some sleep!  So life has been crazy and every girl needs her Mama to make things better.  That's exactly what my mom did.  She got here early, helped me finish setting up the tea, even made herself at home during the tea while I was off doing President things.  She even kept taking my picture when she couldn't be with me.  She wanted to document me as President. 

#proudmommoment

My apologies for using a hashtag in my blog, but I couldn't resist.  She's just so proud.  I was just laughing and laughing and laughing that she even though to take my picture.

My favorite part of the tea, other than the food of course, came at the end of the tea!  For the first time (at least that I've been in college) we gave our moms a letter at the end of the tea.  My mom doesn't get enough credit for how much time and effort she puts in to life.  That sounds weird...I mean she puts her whole life into others.  She makes sure Nana, Aunt Laura, and my family are all taken care of before us.  I found this precious quote that totally sums up my mom and I's relationship.

“A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heave and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind percepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

-Washington Irving

My mom and I are besties...for serious, though.  My mom never tried too hard to be my friend like some moms do.  She always had her strict rules and I always thought she was overprotective and overbearing, but I'm so glad she is the mom that she is.  I'm so glad she had rules but not crazy rules.  I couldn't ask for a better mom!  I just hope one day (in the very distant future) I can be as good of a mom as she is to me!

While writing my letter, I was listening to "For Good" from Wicked.  While this song really applies to a lot of people and relationships in my life, I just really felt like it couldn't be more spot on with me and my mom's relationship.  I told her I'd put it in my blog in case she forgot to look it up herself!

And here are some pictures from the tea...

Typical of the besties...

...and with our moms of course!

P3 P3 P3

Ahhh a picture on the sign! Next time we do this, it'll be in caps and gowns!!

Love this girl too much!!

How cute are we?!  I know, so cute :)

P.S.  I really really reallyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy miss Facebook and I seriously can't even wait until Easter so I check it!!!!

Until next time...

Daddy's Little Girl

Today's blog post goes out to my Daddy on his 54th birthday!  Fun fact about my dad...he's a twin and they were born on their older sister's 1st birthday in France while my Papa was in the military.  Needless to say, my Mema had her hands full!!!  But it makes for one heck of a fun fact about my dad/family.

Even though I titled today's post "Daddy's Little Girl" (which look how precious I am with my Daddy!!), I never really considered myself a "Daddy's girl".  It was always like I was the Mama's girl and Sarah was the Daddy's girl.  However, my senior year of high school really changed things.  While my family couldn't seem to catch a break, we were all getting closer as a result of it.  I'll catch some of you up to speed if you don't know.

...

Five weeks into my senior year of high school, we had to admit my grandma, Nana, into Assisted Living due to Alzheimer's related dementia.  Pretty much she was going crazy (as we saw it) and she could no longer live by herself or carry on with her normal life.  While that would be enough to shake anyone's life up, we had an extra kicker in there.  My Aunt Laura who is mentally retarded was 45 at the time (I'm pretty sure) and still lived with Nana because well she has the brain of a 5-year-old.  When Nana had to go into Assisted Living that meant Aunt Laura had no where to go.  My mom's other sister, Aunt Debbie, lives in New Jersey so we took Laura in with us.  She lived with my family until May of my senior year.  While most people who have met Laura see the loving, caring, happy side of Laura, she's just like everyone else and has that nasty side to her too.  Don't take this the wrong way, Laura is seriously one of my very favorite people in this whole world.  While most people had no idea what was going on at home, those that did couldn't even imagine how crazy it was.  We were all preparing for an exciting and care-free senior year.  We had no idea our lives would be turned upside down.  Life was stressful to say the least.  While this awful situation could have easily made my family turn on each other, it did just the opposite!  The five of us (including Laura) got so much closer because of it all.  And when Laura left, the four of us hadn't ever been so close.  I think this whole situation really helped my dad and I grow closer.  

...

My senior year kind of made us all a lot more emotional and down-to-Earth and just value the time we had together...especially since mine (at home) was limited.  My dad's always good about reminding me how much time I have left.  I think he started my countdown to college at 20 months or so.  He just started my countdown to the real world, and its freaking me out!  Thanks Daddy for always keeping me on my toes.  The point I was trying to make with the whole emotional thing was I remember when my dad heard that I got Homecoming Queen, he just cried.  Not sad tears, but proud tears!  We all let out a few too many tears that year but to see my dad so emotionally invested in me made me cry too, of course, but also made me so happy!  I finally felt like a Mama's girl AND a Daddy's girl.  My freshman year of college, my dad was my road trip buddy to visit Jimmy in Pennsylvania.  That road trip was a good bonding experience for the two of us.  I think it was the first trip we took, just the two of us, since I was like 9 and we went to an Atlanta Braves baseball game together.  We still make jokes about our trip to Pennsylvania and I know it will be something we can always share together.  Another emotional time when I got to see my dad cry was when I won the Nikki Kyle Spirit Award at church.  This award is given to a senior in the youth group every year and it was just another moment that made him proud.  If you don't know this about me, I kind of like to make boys/men cry...I know that sound totally wrong!  I don't find joy in making them cry, I just like to see guys put their wall down enough to be comfortable with crying in front of me.  Sorry for that side note.  

Some funny stories to share today about Dear Ole Wonderful Dad (that's what he likes to be called, haha):

1. Rocks to Beetles

So when I was little I used to go out in the yard and help my dad do some work.  So every spring, we would go outside and set up those bags to attract beetles.  My job was to always find some rocks to put in the bottom of the bag.  Of course I would ask why we put rocks in the bottom of the bag and my dad's response was, "Just wait!  We'll come back out here in a couple of weeks and the rocks will turn into beetles!"  What did I do?  I listened to him, he's my dad!  We would go back out a couple weeks later and BOOM!! all beetles.  I never even questioned this crazy phenomena,I just always thought this bag was magical or something and turned the rocks into beetles.  It wasn't until I was in high school and my dad was putting that beetle bag out.  I asked him if he wanted me to find some rocks and he said sure.  So I brought him the beetles and put them in the bag and asked something silly like "How long until the rocks are beetles?"  My dad just laughed and laughed and laughed and laughed.  He had no idea after all those years I still believed that the rocks were changing into beetles.

2. Glenda

You would think I would have realized not to trust my dad with these long and drawn out crazy stories, but hey, he's my dad.  So my dad's name is Glenn and my mom's name is Linda, just for the head's up.  Everyone (at least I assume everyone) likes to know what else they would have been named.  If I was a boy I would have been Grant Haines.  Grant because all the Fogle men have G names (except I realized when researching the Fogle's that that was only like that for 3 generations ending with my dad).  I would have been the 4th if only I had been a boy!  And Haines is my mom's maiden name.  Well, then I would ask my dad what other names my parents were considering for girl names.  My dad always told me my name would have been Glenda since it combined Glenn and Linda.  I can't even tell you how long I believed this one!  It was well into high school when my mom realized my dad had been telling me this little white lie for my whole life.  I totally believed him.  And to think, I could be talking to you today as Glenda...

I'm so thankful for my Daddy and for the many memories we share together.  I can't wait to see the many many more we will have down the road.  We get closer and closer and I just love it.  I love that I have my dad's ridiculously strange sense of humor.  I love that we can both pick on my mom's loud mouth at the same time (sorry Mama!).  I love that he will always struggle to remember my friends' names.  I love that my dad still doesn't realize Michael Buble's name isn't Michael Bubble.  I love how every single time my dad hears "September" on the radio, he calls me so I can hear it.  I love that his first response is always to throw up the diamond!  I love that he'll always have to call me when he has computer problems.  I love that he's always willing to steal my camera to take some funny pictures.  I love that he is totally in favor of secret shopping trips to keep from my mom!  I love that he'll always let me sit next to him at church no matter how old I get.  I love that he's willing to be totally crazy like this...

...from his Myspace days :)

Glenn the cheerleader...best scorpion ever!

His teeth costed more than my college education...

Miss Yellow Jacket 2010...Glenn Maurice Fogle

Glenn Fogle, fighting skin cancer with 80 spf sunscreen

So proud of his girls

ADPi at heart <>

What a great cheer dad!

<><><><><><>

Much love from this Daddy's girl!

I love you Daddy :)

PTL its Friday!

What a week!  I seriously feel like I got hit by a bus after this week.  I've just been going and going and going nonstop.  I'm beyond glad its Friday.  I've had so so so much I've wanted to blog about this week but just haven't had the time to.  

Tonight's blog post goes out to my bestie Anna (in London).  

I miss her SOOOOOOOOO much!  Its after one of these awful weeks when I remember how much I want her back in America but I know she's having the time of her life so I can wait the less than 2 more months until I get to see her again.

I found some seriously precious things this week and here they are...

This video is called "Dear Sophie".  I don't even know how I found it but it just makes my heart smile!!!!! I hope I can remember something this precious for the day I have kids of my own. Just watch it, I'm obsessed!

Last but not least, I found a precious website. Its called Ring on the Finger.  As if you can't figure out what kind of website this is....its ALL about proposals!  Ahhhhhh, my favorite. I could stay on this website all day long, but I can't.  Hopefully you'll love these as much as I do.  I won't be so slack this week about posting on my blog!

A Post for Love :)

So yesterday I talked about the awesome website I found, Good Women Project but I forgot to tell the precious story of how I got there.  So I got a text from Lisa, one of the wonderful people I worked with at the lake last summer about something she found on Pinterest.  Here's what it was...

 Ahh, my heart smiled so big when I read this.  Lisa knows me too well to know I'd absolutely love this.  So then, the website told me to go check out Lauren's blog...so I did.  That led me to Lauren's project, the Good Women Project.  So I love love and today's blog post is totally dedicated to love.  I would write forever if I could but I'm kind of pressed for time so I'll just attach some of my favorites.

Here's my favorite engagement video.  The dancing is a little much, but I love anything corny.

Ahh, I love love!!!!

Okay and THIS is what I'm talking about.  Here's my absolute favorite favorite favorite wedding video.  It just makes my heart smile so big.  I love their wedding vows.  I hope I can be as precious as this couple one day.  Seriously, I just love it.  You'll hear my reference it all the time, I love it so much!  The first link is the wedding video and the second is the blog post with pictures.  I can't really figure out how to embed the video, sorry I'm new to this blog stuff.  Just watch it you won't regret it!!!

Pease Wedding Video

Jill and Gene Pease

LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :)

What a Day!!!

Helloooooooooooooooo followers!  It was a wonderfully hot Thursday here in Clinton! I remembered another story that I forgot to talk about from 1st grade on Monday.  Well, Mrs. Downs was doing an activity on St. Patrick's Day.  One of the words being talked about was love...yeah my fave!  Well we were thinking of words that rhyme with love and Mrs. Downs thought of the word dove.  So she was asking the class if they knew what a dove was...no answer.  Then Mrs. Downs looked at me and gave me that look of, "Watch this!"  She asked the class, "Who has heard the story of Noah's Ark?"  5 kids raised their hand...FIVE!!!!!  Only 5?!!?  What in the world is going on in Laurens County?  They don't enough know the story of Noah!  I was so sad. :(

This week has really given me a rejuvenation!!!  Its been a combination of a couple of things but I can't really express them all over my blog to the public, but just know things are great!!!! The other day, I was just cruisin the net and I found this awesome website.  Its called the Good Women Project.  I just love it because its all real, raw, and all about women!   ANDDDDD they have a picture of Rosie the Riveter!!!

I love Rosie the Riveter sooooooo much, I like to think its my great grandma Rosie who actually was a riveter during WWII!

Yesterday was a really exciting day, I don't know why I didn't blog...oh yeah, it was just a crazy day/night!  Tonight's been much calmer so I can share all the exciting things.  Well yesterday I got TWO postcards from my bestie, Anna in London!!!  She knows me so well because she sent me a postcard of my favorite couple...the royal couple.  I love them so much :)))))  Miss you Anna!

This finally brings us to today...

Today Daniel came to visit the Presby!!!!!!!!!! I haven't seen Daniel in.....well a long time.  He came with his friend Hayden since they're on Spring Break.  We went to Steamer's for lunch and then went geocaching around Clinton.  The first one we found...well we didn't really find it so we went to find another one and we were successful!!  Unfortunately I had to be the party pooper and go to a meeting, work, and class but Daniel and Hayden played frisbee for a while!  But it was so good to see Daniel again.  It was a good escape from my crazy insane day!  Once I finally finished my craziness, I got to relax in the grass.  I just started reading Blue Like Jazz and I'm loving it so much so far, I just need to find time to keep reading...that's the only issue!  But for now, I totally recommend it!

Two final highlights of the day:

1. I had sweet potatoes TWICE today!!!! Sweet potato fries for lunch and sweet potato tots from Sonic tonight!!!!!!! Yummmmmm!

2. More importantly, I just wanted to wish Lucia and Sean (aka Chi Chi and Seany) a Happy 821st Day of Dating!!!!!!!!!!! (so special, right?) LOVES YAAAA :)

P.S. Sorry for all the excessive exclamation points in this blog post!  Thanks for reading :)

Ramen Noodles and Carrots...

Yep, that's been all I've eaten today.  I got a stomach bug yesterday and it hasn't left me yet.  This stinks so bad!!!!!!!!  I want to eat food, real food, but it all just makes me feel sick.

Okay, enough of my pity party, I just wanted to share a funny moment from 1st grade yesterday!  Well, the class was working on adding -ing to words.  Their words for the week were words like hopping, swimming, skipping, you know 10 words like that.  Well I was walking around the classroom and the class was reading me their 10 sentences.  Most of them all had the same thing.  

I was swimming in the pool.

The frog was hopping.

That kind of thing...until I got to one boy, Griffin!  He is a hoot.  You seriously never know what's going to come out of Griffin's mouth!  He's a mess!  Well I was walking around and Griffin says, "Hey! Miss Fogle! Can I read you my sentences!?!"  My response was "Of course!!"  He is usually the student to postpone work as long as possible.  So I walk over and he had about 5 sentences and he started reading them to me.  

He is swimming in the pool.

She is hopping like a frog.

I can peel my scabs.

SAY WHAT?!?!?!

He kept reading but I just laughed and laughed and laughed.  Mrs. Downs had no idea what was going on and I could barely catch my breath to tell her what he wrote.  I CAN PEEL MY SCABS. Seriously?! How was I supposed to respond to that?  Maybe that's what made me nauseous, doubtful.  I still don't even know what to think about that sentence.  There wasn't even an -ing in there!  I think I ended up just telling Griffin he did a great job but DANG!  I was just dying and he had no idea why.

Here's to hoping I can eat more than Ramen Noodles and carrots tomorrow...and to hoping you can peel your scabs!

:)

You can call me Princess Rachel...

I'm going to sound like one of the world's nerdiest people in this blog post but I'm totally embracing it!  Well, I'm on Spring Break and Friday night I watched the show Who Do You Think You Are?  with my mom.  Its the show where celebrities research their ancestors and see where their family came from.  Reba McEntire was on this episode and it was a tear-jerker near the end.  If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it!   It will totally make you want to know who your ancestors were and where they came from, where you came from!  Well...my mom has always wanted to make our family tree but she just hasn't had the time to think about that so why not start with me at home to help?  We realized if you ever want to trace your family, you pretty much have to buy a membership to ancestry.com because that's where all the documents are, seriously all documents can be found on ancestry.com pretty much!

So all weekend we looked at what documents were available to the public and we only got about 4 generations back on some sides, on others we didn't get past my mom's grandparents.  Meanwhile, I was learning about some serious family scandals.  Needless to say, my mom and I agreed we have a lot to ask our family when we get to heaven!  I also learned my mom's family is a long line of farmers.

So yesterday, my mom decided to break down and buy a month's subscription to ancestry.com.  Again, sorry for the nerdiness but...we traced my mom's family last night for hours and hours.  I stayed up until 4:00 a.m. because I was on a roll.  And you won't believe the exciting news we found out...

My ancestors were royal!!!!!!!!!!

That's right, your eyes aren't lying to you.  You're looking at royalty right here!!!!!  If you know me and my love for the Royal Family, you can only imagine how exciting this was.  I traced my mom's mom's mom's mom's family, the Simmons family, all the way back to before Christ (ahh!) and for 1200-1300 years, my family held titles like Prince, Princess, Lord, Lady, Count, and Countess.  I even found King/Queen of the West Franks for about 500 years.  Again, I was FREAKINGGGGGGGGGGGG OUTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!  First of all, the fact that I can trace my family back THAT far ANDDDDDDD they're royalty. They were royal in Germany(for the longest) then France then England.  

I was pretty discouraged when finding out what countries I  come from.  I usually just tell people "I'm from all the white countries!" which still remains true.  However, I've always embraced my Irish background but I couldn't find any Irish ancestors.  I'm so glad to say I've  found some Irish ancestors finally!!!!!!  I still have a lot of researching to do so hopefully I'll find some more Irish in me!  I can actually say I've found ancestors in England, France, Germany, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and that's all for now!

I highly encourage everyone to trace their family history.  You might even be royal! (I should totally have my own ancestry.com commercial for this!)  Again, I'm still freaking out!!!!  I've become pretty much obsessed with my family.  Its just a reminder of how little I am as well as how lucky I am!  This family tree is HUGE and we're still researching.  Every once in a while I hit a wall and can't find anything else, but its pretty cool that I can keep tracing family back.  This whole project has really given me a new perspective.  I keep wondering what these people were like and how their lives ended up.  I wonder if they would be proud of me today, I sure hope so!  They're more than just names to me, I want to know their real stories!  If only this was like Facebook, I'd be creepin for days!

Sorry this post took so long, I have just been having too much fun looking into my family history.  Wish me luck!

:)