summer vacation

Oh how I love summer vacation!
  Yesterday was the first day I finally felt like I was on it @ home. I got up and got a few things down around the house and then two of my teacher friends came over and we headed out to the pool. :)
 Before we knew it, it was 3:00 and I was fried! I was not very happy with myself because #1 I had not eaten lunch(not good for the problems I have been having with my blood sugar levels) AND because I had just spent 5 days in the Bahamas without getting burnt and I came home and got fried. I think my sunscreen was out of date or something. The whole skin cancer thing really scares me so I have been trying really hard to protect myself. Yesterday...I failed! opps.
 Then last night we headed to small group and really enjoyed catching up with everyone. Two of the couples have kids and they brought them too! It was a blast. At one point Nathan and I had all three of them on our laps- o how I long for that someday with our own. They were all so stinkin cute, Nathan was showing Ethan his fish pictures and I was having a tickle contest with Allie and Hadleigh. I would tickle Allie and when she would laugh, Hadleigh who is going to be 1 next week, would laugh just as hard. I was loving every second of it!
 We got home late(another bonus about it being summer) and then crashed to get ready for today.
Nathan planned his day a little different today so he didn't have to be to work until a little later. :) We got up together and got a nice run and workout in(the Hawaii trip is just a few weeks away!). I have a big to-do list today but its all fun stuff so I am ok with it!
 Once I get the pictures from the fishing trip out of Nathans car I will get those posted too!

back

Well...we are all back!!!

 While the boys were away....the girls got to play! My mom and I went on a little vacation(cruise) too. It was the first one since before Nathan and I were married. I must say- we had a blast!! The trip was...well a trip to say the least.
 The funny part was that I texted my friend Heather(who we have taken many mother-daughter trips together) and told her she missed one exciting trip and she asked 'Was it a typical 'Railing' style trip'!! The answer was YES! It was crazy from the start.
 
 There were so many funny stories that I can't type them all so I am doing a Top Ten List. Without further a-do...

Top 10 reasons why our trip was a 'trip'!

10. They cleaned the table with the dirt napkins that were left on it.

9. The 'quite zone' consisted of 10 kids screaming in the pool.

8. The 'quite zone' pool seemed to be were the screaming kids liked to poop as well!

7. Our taxi driver hozed us...charged us 45 dollars for a 24 dollar trip(we didn't find this out until later).

6. I sat next to a lady on the plane that was puking her guts out!

5. The work-out room consisted of old men that had gas problems.

4. My mom somehow managed to put her skort on backwards and inside out AND didn't notice!!

3. We were charged $18 for a vodka tonic.

2. The food was so TERRIBLE that I kept asking if this was a weigh-loss trip.

1. The monk-fish I ordered looked like two dead male body parts(I kindly suggested to the waitress that they not serve that to anyone else)!!!

Needless to say it was adventurous from the start! We still had a wonderful time, laughted ALOT,  and it was great just being with my mom.  Thanks Mom for the wonderful trip! Your the best! 

I will get some pictures up soon too, along with a guest post from Nathan about his trip! :)

catch all the fish

Have you heard the song....by Brad Paisly 'Catch All the Fish'? Well that is the theme song for this week for Gavin, Nathan, Dad Taulman, Uncle Darrel, Uncle Roger & Evan!!

They have headed north to Canada to HOPEFULLY catch all the fish! I have not seen a group of guys more excited then the two cars that pulled out of our drive-way today. I don't think we have had any conversation in the last month that has not some how turned into something about this trip. Nathan was so excited he was dreaming of fishing last night and woke me up(must have been a big catch) and Gavin texted Nathan this morning @ 5:30 asking if it was time to go yet...he was too excited to sleep. 
 I must say it is something really cool the bond that those two guys share. I thank God every day for it. Its pretty stinkin awesome.
 They all meet at our house to load up the cars and make the trip. They will board the boat tomorrow morning to make the rest of the way to Canada. I think they took everything but the kitchen sink! 

gettin all packed up

the fishin crew(minus Evan...they had to pick him up @ the airport)

they just look like trouble!

and they are off....

  no they are not supposed to be 'low riders' they just have that much stuff!!

It was really (really, really, really, really) hard to see them go- however, I am so excited for them and am praying that they will have a wonderful time and catch all the fish.....

a great day being an Aunt!

Yesterday was another great day! It finally looked like summer here and felt a little like it too. The sun was shinning and there was a slight breeze, it was absolutely beautiful!
 My day started off pretty sweet. Unfortunately, my hubby had to head to work @ 4 but he was sweet enough to let me sleep- leaving me with sweet kisses before he left. I finally woke up around 8(gotta love summer) and decided that I was NOT getting on the computer before I went for a run. Well....I was expecting an email so I just HAD to check it while I was putting my shoes on. Thank goodness I did!! No, I didn't get the email BUT I saw on a blog that I follow they were talking about product that I had been wanting to get but it didn't want to spend the money on. So I checked out the blog post(quickly of course, by this time I could have put about 10 pairs of shoes on! haha) and sure enough they had a coupon for 50% off!!!!!!! 50% OFF....HOW EXCITING IS THAT. But, it was only for the first 100 people to buy it(this blog has over 10,000 followers) so I was in a panic. I ran around the house trying to find my purse, only to see it was sitting next to the desk I was at, pulled out the credit card and clicked away as fast as I could to try and be one of the 100 and I GOT IT!!! I was on cloud nine. I phoned Nathan who was hard at work to tell him the good news. He was pretty excited for me too and then kindly reminded me to go for that run before it got too hot. :) After all that excitement that was the fastest and most fun run I have had in a long time!
 After the run, I was in a productive mood so I finished up 2 loads of laundry and cleaned up the house. The I waited patiently for my SIL, neice and nephew to arrive...we were heading to the zoo!!! I was very excited to say the least.
 Once they arrived we were off and going, the trip was great until we got to Navy Pier and traffic stopped...this is never a good sign. After a few minutes we noticed that everyone was getting out of their cars...this is never a good sign either.  We realized that the reason everyone was stopped saw they were opening up the bridge for the boats to go under! This was entertaining and kind-of cool for the first 10 minutes. Then after it went down and we were still sitting it wasn't so cool! Through the whole thing the kids did great but we were all getting a little ancy and ready to be at the zoo.
 We finally arrived and made our way to the barn part. This was too funny. It was cow milking time so lots of people were crowed around to see everything. One of the cows was 'sick' so the vet was checkin it out. By that I mean, taking the temp. from her but, and giving it a few shots. Morgan and Marek were not too impressed with this part BUT everyone around us was- here were these two county kids surrounded by the city kids who had never seen anything like this before. Everyone was pretty grossed out, except for Morgan & Marek....they had seen this plenty of times before! They were ready to see some zoo animals!
 The day was a blast and we got to see lots of beautiful animals. Marek was amazed by everything and I think could have stayed all day...Morgan on the other hand- liked it all but was ready to move to the next thing pretty quickly, thank goodness Mandy had brought two strollers...it made everyone much happier!
 We finished off the trip with a stop to get a little icecream treat. This might have just been the best part of the day. We enjoyed the treats on a little park bench before getting back into the car. Poor Marek dropped his popcicle on the ground but Aunt Erin came to the rescue and 'cleaned' it all off so he could finish. :) Morgan had hers all over her and was as cute as can be! Once we were all cleaned up we piled back in the car and make our trip home. I don't think we had pulled out of the parking lot and Morgan was fast asleep, it took Marek a little longer BUT he wasn't far behind. Mandy and I had a great talk on the way home with two snoring kiddies in the back. I was so glad they came up...and I love being their Aunt!
 The night finished off with an enjoyable dinner outside with Nathan!
it was a great day to be alive! :)
 Today I have another fun day planned...will fill you in on that tomorrow! Have a great day everyone.

 This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!

Chicago Photo Safari

A few weeks ago my good friend Bridgette called and told me that Groupon (if you haven't signed up for this you totally should..there are some GREAT deals) was selling tickets to the Chicago Photo Safari and thought I might enjoy it. I checked it out and it looked like lots of fun and another great opportunity to practice.So this morning I drove into the city for a 4 hr. workshop around Chicago. I learned a few more new 'tricks' and had a great time...here are some of my shots from the morning.

the assignment was to show motion
I was pretty proud of this one...it took me about 20 tries but I finally got it! 

 

depth of field

the flower gardens with the sky line

  cool bee huh?! do you see the small one just below the flower! :)


water fountain

the 'bean' 

 

last one...can you see me?!  anyone who guesses correctly will get a cookie! :)

happy tuesday y'all!

fun-filled few days

This past weekend was full of Taulman fun! On Friday night Nathan and I stayed home and enjoyed making home-made pizzas together and then fell asleep on the couch(surprise surprise). We were up early on Saturday to head to his parents to help them move a few more things. This time we went through Nathan's stuff- talk about really cool. It is always fun to take a walk down memory lane together. He showed me his old t-ball uniforms(we kept some just incase we are ever blessed with a little guy), he had all of his elementary school papers that we looked through, then came to basketball stuff....wow- talk about cool. I loved reading the paper cut-outs, seeing his uniforms, looking at his trophy's and listening to him tell stories of his 'basketball days'. It was really neat-and meant alot that he would share that with me. I even told him that he MIGHT have been cool enough for me to wear his Taulman shirts if we would have went to school together..haha ;)
 After we finished boxing up stuff that we wanted to keep we went for a run together and watched a little bit of the t-ball games that were going on at the park. fun times.
 Later that evening we drove to our good friends Shad and Saras house. They just finished building a beautiful house in the center of the state so they invited us for a little dinner and fishing. When we got there we headed out in their gator and road about 2 miles to a piece of their land where they hunt and fish. It backs up to a beautiful creek. Talk about a blast!!! It was so fun riding in that thing through the shrubs, over trees, down HUGE hills and finally into the creek!!! I was loving it. Nathan and Shad got out the poles and did a little fishing and Nathan caught a pretty good size bass. We could have stayed out there all night but Saras parents called and said a bad storm was blowing in so we should get home. Well....that would have been the smart thing BUT instead we piled back into the gator and headed to another part where there is a pond so they could get a few casts in there too. At this point her parents called again and said 'you have 7 minutes before the storm hits so get home!' We  decided we better get going and got back into the gator and raced home. I felt like Dorthy in the Wizard of Oz.... it was crazy. We pulled into the garage just in the nick of time- the winds picked up, the clouds opened up AND it was one wild storm. We enjoyed the rest of the evening by candle-light and the lights of the lighting bugs outside. It was perfect.
 The plan was to drive back to his parents that night but Shad mentioned fishing in the morning and that was all it took- hook, line and sinker...we were staying until the morning. :)
 The boys were up and on the water around 6, while the girls enjoyed a little more shut-eye. When they got back Nathan was beaming from ear to ear. Who wouldn't be after spending the morning with a  professional fisherman taking him out on his sweet boat! They got back to the house around 10 and we made the trip back home.
 Sunday the school had a going away party for me. It was VERY nice and I was surprised how many people took time out of their day to come. It was really nice talking and having the opportunity to say good-byes.  It really meant alot! I sure will miss them.
 Today I went into school and cleaned out my office. That was really bitter sweet. I had to just keep focusing on the future and what God has instore because I was about 1 thought away from loosing it. It seemed like just yesterday I was taking all of my stuff in and making it my own. Some wonderful memories. :)
 Nathan is back at work.. they are doing a store re-set tonight so I am catching-up on a few things around the house- tomorrow I have another fun day. I am going on a Chicago Photo Shoot! :)

smell????

Yesterday Nathan offered to take me out for dinner :) so I was very excited! We headed out the door and I just happened to get in the car first. We were pulling out of the drive way and I smelled something that reminded me of bleach. Now there are many times that Nathan has to transfer things from one store to another so my guess was that he had left something in his car- and it was starting to smell.
 I was sniffing and looking around and said 'do you smell that? it really smells like bleach!' He just gave me this look and said....'Well, that would be my cologne, honey.' Talk about open mouth insert foot!!! opps. We just both started laughing and he quickly reminded me that I bought it for him! good thing he has such a good sense of humor.