Last "Unofficial" Weekend of Summer

I love summer, but the longer I live in Oklahoma, the more I LOVE autumn. Now don't get me wrong, I will ALWAYS be a summer fan.... beach, sun, swimsuits, no school, long days, the smell of freshly mowed grass, sno cones, swimming, fire-flies...I love it all, BUT I would have never guessed that moving only 4 hours north, I would actually experience the 4 seasons.

I love autumn here in Oklahoma. I love that very first day when you wake up in the morning and it's cool....not cold, not hot..you can wear a t-shirt with jeans and feel good....you don't have the sweaty, nasty legs after you take your jeans off. You can get up in the morning and go for a run and it just feels nice. I love the way the air smells, the leaves crunching under your feet, decorating pumpkins, watching the trees change colors....gorgeous colors, football games, (even though we never win), hot cocoa with so many marshmallows the cup is over-flowing, being able to turn the fire place on at night, because it is just a little chilly. I love fall food... pies, turkey, warm soup, apple cider. I love being outside at night and wrapping up in a blanket because it is cool. I am NOT the type of person to normally enjoy this stuff, but the older I get, the more I appreciate God's beautiful, beautiful masterpiece.

So, since this weekend is the last "unofficial" weekend of summer, I had to get out all my autumn decorations. Believe me I didn't just come up with this idea, I've been doing this since college...it's a tradition. I decorate for autumn the last weekend in August, then once October 1st hits...Halloween comes out. November 1st is Thanksgiving time and the weekend before I leave to go home for Thanksgiving, Christmas goes up. I absolutely LOVE decorating my house. So for now my house is decorated for autumn and I cannot WAIT until I wake up one morning very soon, and smell that familiar smell that makes me think of FALL!

Psalm 95:2-5 " Let us come before him with thanksgiving. Let us sing him psalms of praise. For the LORD is a great God, the great King above all gods. He owns the depths of the earth, and even the mightiest mountains are his. His hands formed the dry land, too."

Are You Ready For Some Football?

Alright, so I came home from school today and much to my surprise this is what I found: If you look closely you can see that Miss Gracie is sporting her Baylor Bear shirt! And she put this on ALL by herself! She must know what tonight is.... Baylor's first football game against Wakeforest. I know what some of you are thinking..."Meredith, it's Baylor...who cares?!" Well, I DO! I'm not on here saying that this is going to be Baylor's year or anything, but it is football season and I do love my Alma Mater, even if we lose waaaaayyyy too many games. I am so excited that football season is under way. And you can bet that I am going to be cheering on my Baylor Bears. Even Gracie knows what school is the greatest!

We LOVE the Olympics!!

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Happy Birthday Grandma!

Today is Grandma Nobles 83rd birthday! When Walt and I called her today she said the most hilarious thing...here was the convo:

Me: So Grandma, does this mean that you are a Leo since you were born on the 23rd?
Grandma: No actually, it means that I am a virgin.
Me: A virgin?
Grandma: Oh my goodness... I mean a Virgo!
We both laughed and laughed! It was the sweetest thing! Happy Birthday Grandma....Walt has been blessed by you for 26 years and I have been blessed by for 6! We are so thankful that you are in our lives...you are the sweetest, most Godly woman we have ever met!

In Honor of My 4th Graders.....

So I figured since I am now a 4th grade teacher, I would post a picture to show you what I looked like when I was in the fourth grade. This picture is actually of all 4 Wilson's, and this was taken on the 1st day of school.... Nichole is in 7th (and sporting a romper, I might add), I'm in 4th... I remember I had really cool "Keds" on, Spencer is in 2nd grade and Poco is in 1st... My mom had her hands full.... (I know it's blurry, but you get the picture) This is my 4th grade picture.....and you can't tell, but I am now sporting the romper....

And oh goodness, let's not forget the dance solo picture....I remember when I was in 4th grade I won my first ever solo competition, I was in New Orleans and I placed 1st!

Here's is one of my Walter....Check out the pants AND the shoes in this pic.... he didn't continue to play baseball after this.Oh the memories!

Two post in ONE day!

Happy Birthday Lauren!!

(can you guess which one wasn't an original Wilson?? haha!)

I am so fortuante to have such a large (GROWING) family! Today is my sweet sister in law's
birthday! Lauren is married to my brother, Spencer, and they are the sweetest couple! Lauren, I hope that you have a wonderful day today and that husband of yours better treat you right! Ha...I know he will! We are all so thankful to have you in our family and so glad that you are our sister!!We love you very much!!

I'm a junkie...A t.v. junkie that is......

It's quite obvious that once school starts the Bass Family weekends change. I'm not "awake" enough to be able to go out on a Friday night, so that usually means that Walt and I stay home. Saturday mornings aren't spent sleeping in because now that I am back on a schedule, I can't sleep past 6:30. So this usually means I wake up and fix some sort of breakfast for Walt, while he sleeps in until 9 or 10. I can normally manage to go out on Saturday night, but we must get home early, because we have church the next day and then on Sunday night I have to be in bed by 9:00, so that I can wake up feeling refreshed on Monday morning. Yes, I know I am a barrel of fun. Then you have your actually Saturdays or Sundays. With 76 kids that means that you always have at least a set of 76 papers to grade. You guessed it, at least one of those days are spent grading papers. It usually isn't that big of a deal when football season starts because I just grade papers while Walt (and usually friends) watch the football game. Well, yesterday I sat down to grade papers (because I will be unavailable today from 2-8) and I turned on the t.v. and looked up what good shows would be on.

Now, I am going to be completely honest with you and tell you that I LOVE the ABC Family station. LOVE it... I watch all of the shows on there (Full House, Seventh Heaven, Greek...everything) and usually on the weekends they have some pretty good movies playing. Well.....ABC Family must have known that I was going back to school this week, and they must have thought of me when they made their weekend line up. They were probably thinking to themselves, "Well, we know that Meredith is such a devoted fan, let's play something for her that she really enjoys while she grades papers." Yes, I am pretty sure this is what they were saying because when I sat down to look at the t.v. guide yesterday and saw that from 2:30-4:30 Father of the Bride was on...and from 4:30-7:00 Father of the Bride II was on and THEN from 7:00-10:00 the NOTEBOOK was on... I started screaming!! Walt of course comes in the room and asks what the deal is. My response, "I am in HEAVEN! Listen to the shows that will be on while I grade papers!!!" I was so excited. Now just to let you know we had plans at 6:30, it wasn't like I sat in front of the t.v. ALL night, but I did record every show! I'm one of those girls that has seen Father of the Bride and the sequel like 1,000 times and I even own the movie, but on Video cassette, so it doesn't do me any good now and when it comes on ABC Family it doesn't matter what I am doing, I stop everything to watch it. So to get to the point I thoroughly enjoyed grading papers yesterday! (the shows come back on again tonight, if you are wanting to watch any of them!)

Last night we went over to our friend Corey's house and grilled steaks with Corey and Lindsay. They were A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! We had salad, home made mashed potatoes (it was my Nana's recipe, so you KNOW they were good), sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, and some chocolate parfait for dessert. Then we watched a little pre-season Dallas Cowboy football. For any of you that subscribe to HBO you should totally check out the Hard Knocks: Training Camp with the Dallas Cowboys it gives you a little insight into their lives and it is actually pretty funny! I can't WAIT for football season to start. On that note... The Hills starts Monday, any one else excited??? If you can't tell by this post, I live for t.v. Yes, ok, I've admitted it... the moral of this story is that I am a t.v. junkie. Have a great rest of the weekend!

The spread

The "Masters of the grill" preparing their food

The chocolate parfait Lindsay and Corey Me and Walt Gracie's tummy was full and she was tired after some good steak!

TaterMash

In my previous post I talked about how adorable my new lunch sack is from tatermash. Well let me just tell you I am even MORE obsessed with tatermash after today. You see I went online after I received my cute little lunch tote and I looked around at all of their products. The one product that really caught my eye was the Fifi or Fido splat mat. I love my little Gracie with all my heart, but she is ALWAYS spilling water everywhere when she drinks, and I figured this would be the perfect solution and for only $13.00?!?! You HAVE to be kidding me! (ok, to get it monogrammed it is 8 bucks more, but come on!) Of course, I was sold and I ordered a "splat mat" on Monday. Well, guess what.. I GOT IT IN THE MAIL TODAY! I was super duper excited when I opened my mailbox and to my surprise was my purchase....MONOGRAMMED and all! I had to settle for the pink and white gingham splat mat, because I want Gracie to be more girlie than she really is.....it's adorable. I set the mat down and Gracie started eating....I think she liked her mat, you tell me?

Up close

With the dog food and all

Gracie didn't even stop to look at the camera

She loves her splat mat and I do too!

The day of firsts....

Today was a day of many firsts in my life.....
First time that Walt has seen me off to school in the 5 years I've been teaching
First time that I knew 98% of the kids that were going to be in my class
First time to teach 4th grade
First time I have ever eaten lunch at 10:46
First time I have ever slept through the entire night the night before the 1st day of school
First time to be team leader
First time I have ever been excited about teaching in Oklahoma!!

Obviously today was the first day of school, and what an exciting time it was! Since I looped up with all of my 76 fabulous kiddos I definitely did not experience the "honeymoon" phase that most teachers experience for about the first oh 4 weeks. My kids just walked in my class like they owned the place, BUT it was EXACTLY the way that I would want it to be. They were comfortable, excited and used to the routine. I think this year is going to be just fabulous and I can't wait for all of the wonderful things in store!

I was rather excited when it was lunch time today. (even though I practically have Brunch and not lunch) My lunch and recess time is from 10:46-11:16, but I was super excited today because for my birthday my dear sweet (fellow teacher) friend Emily gave me the most adorable lunch sack to cart my lunch in everyday. OH the things you get excited about in certain professions! Last year I would bring my lunch to work in a cute birthday sack everyday and now I offically have my own lunch sack.....equipped with initials and all! She ordered the lunch sack from tatermash if anyone is interested. I personally think that lunch sack is precious and I am so thrilled that I get to carry such a fashionable AND washable lunch tote to the teacher's lounge everyday!

All in all the first day was great.....I think it is so fun to know that the kids are already asking me if I will move up to 5th grade with them! What precious sweeties I have! I truly am blessed!

Gracie giving me some kisses before I left for work!

Have all my papers ready for the 1st day!

My super cute lunch sack!

Another pic just in case you wanted it!

Oh Billy

Every child that goes to Tulsa Public Schools will be dreaming tonight about their upcoming school year. Tomorrow is the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! This is always wonderful because it is a time for new beginnings. You practically get a clean slate and are able to start all over and achieve some of the things you hope for. I think tonight I will be going to bed singing that classic song sung by no one other than Adam Sandler.

Ohhhhhhh
Back To School
Back To School
To Prove To Dad
That I'm Not A Fool
I've Got My Lunch Packed Up

My Boots Tied Tight
I Hope I Don't Get
In A Fight

Ohhhh

Back To School
Back To School
Back To School

I'll fill you in tomorrow on how the first day was....until then.....I'll be dreaming of lesson plans, chalkboards, sweet students and lunch menus.

We're Almost Twins....

While growing up people used to ask me when my birthday was..."August 4th," I would respond. Then they would immediately turn to Poco (my little sister) and ask her..."August 6th, Meredith and I are almost twins," Poco would say. I would always think, "Almost twins, yeah right, by like 3 years and 2 days." Of course Poco didn't understand this until we were older. But, I honestly think that since Poco thought this she felt like we shared a special bond... I mean, WE were ALMOST TWINS, right?

My relationship with every sibiling in my family is amazing and different at the same time. Poco and I were always involved in the same things. Since we practically shared a birthday our birthday parties were always back to back. We were on the same drill team, we cheered together, we went to college together, she lived in my old apartment, and I was even Poco's pledge trainer when she pledged the same sorority as me. (Like she even had a chance to go anything else...ha!) Poco and I talk on the phone every day and I can honestly say that she is one of the greatest gifts in my life.

My life has been richly blessed by my "almost twin." I think one of the greatest compliments that I have ever received is being told that I look like Poco. Not only is Poco beautiful inside and out, but she has the biggest heart and the most wonderful listening ear. Happy Birthday to my sweet, dear, almost twin. Today is amazing, because today is the day that I met YOU and you are one of the most exceptional people God has ever placed in my life! I love you!!

Since we were "Twins" it was only appropriate to dress the same at our swim birthday parties!

Opening up presents for our birthdays!

At the beach celebrating our birthdays

This was in San Antonio and we both won first place in our age group for our dance solos.

At our favorite place....the beach!

see... we liked to dress alike...just kidding...this was before our older sis Nichole got married!