Traveling Piper Style

I haven't gone through all of my Christmas pictures yet, so I am going to post a little out of order. I know it's unusual for me and it makes my OCD flair up a little bit however, these pictures of Piper are so funny that I couldn't wait to share them.

We were on our way down to Terra Ceia last Friday night, where Jamie's family owns a house on the bay, and Piper came along for the ride. She loves to ride in the car, primarily because she knows that when she gets to go in the car there is fun to be had. While we are driving she sticks her head out of the window, takes in all of the new and interesting smells and when that gets old or the car is moving too fast she falls asleep on the back seat of the car. Man, the life of a dog!

Below are a few pictures from the ride, the last being my favorite. Even though we were going down the interstate Piper had to stick her head out of the window every few minutes, and when she did her eyelids would "flap" in the wind and her lips go crazy. It was very amusing for Jamie, me and everyone that would drive by and see her.

Crashed on the backseat with her make-shift pillow

Piper wearing her seat belt, she doesn't travel without it :)

"Why did you disturb me?" look- I know it's a little fuzzy but still cute in my opinion.

"Smiling" at all of the people driving by

Happy Birthday Nan!!

One from my wedding on July 21, 2006

One from her wedding day, April 29 2006

Blast from the past in "panhell"

The Bridesmaids Breakfast April 29, 2006 

Nan is 26 today!! She is one of the most wonderful people that I have ever known and I am blessed to have her in my life.  I got to talk to her for a few minutes today while her little baby boy was napping.  I am going to go and visit the two of them sometime this week, and I cannot wait.  The pictures that I am posting are a little old, sorry Nan- I am down south and my full library of images was left at home.  Hopefully you will enjoy my blast from the past, in addition to enjoying your day.

Freedom!!!

Woohoo!!  Free at last!!  Yesterday was my last day of school before the Christmas holidays and I am sooooo excited.  I am off until the second week in January and am really looking forward to being able to spend some time with family and my husband.  Man, is it great to be a teacher at times like these.  Just thought that I would share my joy- sending happiness to all of you.

New Babies

Well I have two new babies to announce... one more adorable than the other.  First and most importantly, is Leyton the most beautiful baby there is!  Nan and Jeremy were able to welcome their first son into the world Friday evening.  I have absolutely loved meeting him and being able to cuddle with him- if you ever want a night out Nan, you know the number to call.

The other baby is my photography business.  Yes, I have finally (somewhat) made it official.  After years and years of talking about it and claiming that "when I grow up, I want to be a photographer" I finally have done it- I guess I am a grown up now.  Check out my new site if you get a chance- there is a blog there too if you want something else to read.  I think that it looks great, but I am partial.  Thank you to Nan, for her wonderful graphics work and to my amazingly talent (and geeky) husband for putting it all together.

KristenPerreault.com

He's on his way..

My best friend went to the hospital tonight with her wonderful husband to have her baby, Andrew Leyton Knight (they will call him Leyton).  I am so excited!!!  They weren't sure when they were going to go to the hospital, they are inducing her, so I called her almost every hour to ask if she had gone yet.  I know that she would have called to let me know that they were on their way but I just couldn't stand around and wait- imagine how they felt.  I cannot wait to meet him and to be an Auntie (I know it's only fake, but I will be the best fake Aunt around).

I love him already... I will post some pictures of this precious little one as soon as I am allowed to (I will let the proud parents do it first).

Introducing Cosmo

Smiling Pretty

This is Cosmo, Charlie and Jennifer's dog.  I think that he is too cute, and he is sweet too.  BTW, his tongue sticks out like that all of the time unless he is "smiling pretty" which he does when asked.  Who wouldn't give him anything he ever wanted...

It has been a while

I know that it has been a while since I have blogged last, and I am sorry.  However, to sound trite we have been swamped!  We visited Jamie's family in Raleigh, NC for the week of Thanksgiving and have been pretty busy since we got home.  Not only was there unpacking to do but a lot of catching up to do too (you know, from not doing anything for a week) not to mention getting ready for the holidays.  Thanksgiving was great, I got to photograph some beautiful homes that Jamie's Aunt Renee has decorated and I helped her build a new website (I must say it looks pretty good- I love Mac).  We also got to spend time with the family, Aunt Renee, Uncle Taylor, Jordan (who came home from UNC for the holidays), Lauren, Lee, Uncle Charlie, Aunt Jennifer, Ellie (Jamie's precious youngest niece- all though this won't last long; they have another one on the way) and of course Memere (Jamie's Grandma).  It was so much fun and really nice to be with family.  Enjoy the pictures of our trip below.

On another note, I did put all of our inside Christmas decorations up today and Jamie and I started to put up our Christmas tree, but it got too late to finish.  I will post a picture when it is done.  I must say, I love this time of year!!!!!!!!!

That's all for now, more later...

Lauren, Lee, Jordan (Left to Right)

Jennifer, Ellie, Charlie

Ellie and Cosmo (their really cute dog)

Ellie with her turkey hat- it was too funny!!

Ellie with the best part of the meal... dessert!

Chilly Game in Tally

This past weekend Jamie and I made the trip up to Tally for our annual FSU tailgating and Noles game.  We had a great time, even though it was chilly and Jamie's team didn't win.  While we were there we got to see Maggie (Jamie's cousin- who is a Marching Chief), Holly (Jamie's youngest sister) and our friends Sean and Stephanie- thanks for letting us crash at your place guys. We enjoyed the game, I was bundled up even more than this picture shows (it was in the 40's and breezy), and Jamie got to use his big lens to take some pictures during the game.  All-in-all it was a good time, but I am glad to be home. 

Maggie in the stands with the Chiefs during the game

Maggie at the pre-game Skull Session 

Jamie and I keeping warm at the game

Anniversary and a USM win!

Yesterday, was the USM vs. UCF football game- and we WON!!!!  Woohoo!!!  I was doing a little happy dance all day.  I love the fact that we won, especially since it was against UCF (whom I hate with a passion) and so many of my colleagues and students were talking trash all last week.  I kept my mouth shut, knowing that we were down a few key players and I didn't want to have to eat my words.  All of these things make the victory sweeter- I wasn't trash talking last week (and the UCF fans were), we were down two key players (one of which is our star running back), it was their homecoming, we got to tailgate, the tickets were free and well, we won!!!  I think this calls for another WOOHOO! I think that I will leave my header up for a little longer to enjoy the sweet taste of victory and I am going to be sporting some Southern Miss apparel to school tomorrow, just to rub it in.

I have attached a few pictures from tailgating.  Jamie's family- Mary Sue, George, Uncle Mark, and Aunt Holly all showed up at my house Saturday morning wearing Southern Miss shirts, it was a great surprise!  We looked very official when we were tailgating.  We had a big crew out at our site, the four mentioned above along with Aunt Nancy, Uncle Bob and Grandma who joined us for the food and pre-game festivities.  Nan and Jeremy were able to join us as well, so I was not the only true Golden Eagle among us.  Nan was a real trooper, she sat through the whole game and made the walk to and from the car with little complaint (which I am not sure that I could have done).  Leyton, from what it seemed, enjoyed them game too and I am sure that it made his Daddy proud to know that he attended his first Southern Miss game while still in the womb.

Pre-Game Tailgating

Yum-Yum Good!

Parents to be and fellow Eagles

Me and my supportive hubby (his team was playing too- he was checking the score from his phone)

Me and the beautiful Mama

The Final Score

Us at the game, after the sun finally went down.

On another unrelated topic, yesterday was our anniversary.  "Which one" you may ask since we got married in July.  Yesterday was the three year anniversary of our meeting.  Jamie and I went on what you can call a blind date to Ker's Wing House, it included Jamie's dad George, Lisa and Fernando Vazquez a friend/colleague of mine and her now husband.  Lisa was the other half of our introducing duo along with George; actually, she asked me one day at school (probably during my planning period which I quite often spent in her office) if I would be interested in meeting a guy. I said "Who?", kind of sceptically and she replied "Do you remember Mr. Perreault?" (dear old dad was an Assistant Principal at UHS when I was there) and I said of course.  She said well his son, Jamie.  I jumped at the chance, I knew he would be a catch and well, the rest is history.  Actually, what I really said was "Sure, what could it hurt- the worst that could happen is that I don't like the guy and you never know I could end up marrying him."  Well, little did I know I would marry him- a mere nine months later.  So every year on the 8th we go back to celebrate in style, I have included a few pics from our stop there too- enjoy!!

The Anniversary Crew

To the TOP!!!

I know that I have already posted today but... SOUTHERN  MISS is playing UCF this weekend!  I am hardly excited at all.  I made the header months ago and have been waiting until the perfect moment to post it and I think that a week long celebration is appropriate.  I really, really, really have a strong dislike for UCF- actually they make my blood boil and I do a happy dance every time they loose.  I promise that I am not competitive it's just that I don't like the knights (not my wonderful friends the Knights- love you Nan and Jeremy) the UCF kind... So, I really hope that we will be able to kick some booty (despite our current record) this weekend.  Either way, it will be a blast, I haven't tailgated for a Southern game is soooo long!  Man I miss the days when you would walk up to a friends tent and they asked you if wanted a coke and when you said sure they would ask you what kind... long story- ah memories.  

I will post pics of the festivities when I get some.

Soon to be Mama, Nan!

My dear friend Nan is going to be a Mama, really, really soon!!  It is just over a month until little Leyton graces us with his presence and I am so excited!  Can't you tell with all of the "!"?  This past Saturday I hosted a shower for Nan and the little guy out at her place.  I am not sure that hosting a shower at the guest of honor's house is really PC, but I wanted for everyone to not have to drive too far.  Her husband is a saint and cleaned the house before everyone got there, I really do feel badly about that- sorry Jeremy.  It was a great time, the ladies in attendance were such a hoot (Nan is blessed to work with such great people) and I had a ton of fun decorating and planning for it.  I have attached a few pics for you to enjoy however, if you would like to see more check out my picasa site at http://picasaweb.google.com/kristen.perreault/NanSBabyShower#

Some of the table decorations

The Diaper Cake

Me and Nan (and Leyton too!)

Nan and Jeremy (her wonderful husband & soon to be Daddy)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween from our house to yours!!

Tiny Cartwheels Inside

I am doing Tiny Cartwheels inside- Homecoming is over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you that don't know, I am the homecoming sponsor at my high school and well homecoming week and the month (or more) before homecoming I live at the school.  This is an exaggeration but not by much, my co-sponsor and I have even thought of purchasing bunk beds to put in our "office"- storage closet- so that we would have a place to crash sometimes.  Needless to say, I am finished with it and well, the sense of relief and joy is indescribable!!  We are moving on to other projects with kids but nothing quite as huge, it doesn't get much bigger than a dance for 1500 teenagers.  All is well now, I will actually get to see my husband other than just passing him in the hallway and sleeping next to him.  BTW- he was a HUGE help this weekend and I am eternally grateful.

More later- sleep now...

Footloose

This week is Homecoming spirit week at the High School where I teach and today was 70's/80's day- hence the above picture. Let me just say, that I am not sure why tights and leg warmers went out of style.  These little babies kept me calves warm all day, an obviously necessary task in Florida, and they are so fun to wear!!  Maybe I'll try to make a comeback with them...

A Very Bored Puppy

Tonight as I was completing the Study Guide that I have given to my English class on "The Pit and the Pendulum" (we are going over it in class tomorrow) Piper kept sighing and groaning at me, she does this when she is bored, until she finally settled-in and made herself comfortable on my school bag. Apparently, she thinks homework is as exciting as my 10th graders do.

Happy Birthday Jamie!!

Well my dear husband is 28 today!  So I have decided to tell you 28 things that I love about him and a few fun facts...

1. He is a geek and I mean a real and true geek!!  He even bought me a "I love my Geek" t-shirt, which I proudly wear.

2. He really cares about his job and believes in what he does.  This is not to say that it doesn't aggravate him from time to time, but he loves it anyway.

3. He loves our puppy, Piper, even though he will swear that he is really a cat person.  He plays hide and seek with her almost every night- I am not sure who has more fun with this.

4. He can dance and he dances with me every time our song starts playing on the radio (sometimes I play it just so he will dance with me).

5. He doesn't like to get his hands dirty.  Even if it is when he is fishing.

6. He will find every excuse in the book to not get up if Dolce (one of our kitties) has gotten comfortable in his lap, even if he has to do something.

7. He plays with the insides of computers- for fun.  I found him in the garage storage room the other day surrounded by computer parts with a huge smile on his face.  

8. He can fix my computer when it freaks out on me by simply looking at it- it is afraid of him.

9. He will put my toothbrush head on the electric toothbrush at night just so I don't have to do it.

10. He can tell me anything technical about my camera when I am taking pictures and he loves to walk around for the day with me to shoot.

11. When we get home from taking pictures he will label and tag each one of them in our library so they are easy to find.

12. He will help me decorate the house during each season, just because he knows that it will make me happy.

13. He is a music snob.  He can listen to a song pick out one specific instrument to listen to at a time (this is not part of the music snob thing, but I think that it is really cool trick).

14. He was in the marching band in high school and college, yup he was a Marching Chief and the drum major in high school.

15. He loves him some FSU football, even if they are not having a winning season.

16. He will drink any beer that I buy and put in the fridge.  I have been known to buy beers based purely on how "cool" the label looks and he drinks them all.

17. He loves his family.  Nuff said.

18. He doesn't yell at me when I don't want to ride my bike at super-human speeds.  BTW- this is how he likes to ride his bike.

19. He will do just about anything to help anyone, big or small.  He is the guy that will ask me to jump over to the drivers seat in the middle of the intersection so he can help someone push their car off of the side of the road.  Yes, this is something that I have done.

20. He is really handy.  Thanks to Dad for teaching him everything that he knows.

21. His favorite food is home made spaghetti (the recipe Memere uses) and he would eat it every night of the week if I let him.  But he will eat just about anything that I put in front of him and the things that he begs to make are the easiest to make.

22. He paces while he talks on the phone, he actually has a route that he follows in the house.

23. He keeps in touch with his grade school friends.

24. He has to read before he goes to bed.  He really likes to read the Sci-Fi fantasy books with wizards and magic.  Again, I told you that he is a geek.

25. The Wii is the first game console that he has ever owned.  He loves to play Mario Kart online with his friends and he gets really excited when he unlocks "new" things.

26. He has lunch every week with his Grandpa.

27. He knows me better than I know myself.  He knows that things are bothering me before I do.

28. He married me after knowing me for only 3 months.  Now that's love.

Happy Birthday Jamie, I love you!!!

Really Cool New Toy!

Yesterday, I was so fed up with my palm pilot that I just about threw it across the room.  This time of year is CRAZY for me and I need to be able to depend on something to keep me organized.  Needless to say, my palm has been anything but organized  lately!  I have missed dates, I haven't gotten reminders and well it has just added to my stress level.  Jamie and I have been looking at the iPod touch as a replacement for my palm for quite some time, so when I was ready to heave it across the room yesterday we caved and decided to go look at them in an apple store.

Well, I am sure you can see where this is going.  We went to the store and of course we came home with an 16GB iPod touch (happy early Christmas to me).  It is soooo cool!!  I feel like I should be in the in group at school or something because I have the newest coolest toy, it really is the "funnest iPod ever".  Today, we were walking with Piper and all I wanted to do was to go home and play with my new toy.  I even had to "make a deal" with myself as to how much work I would have to do today before I could play on it.  I finished the 4 stacks of grading that I had to do, so I get to play now.  The only disappointing thing in this whole venture is that I have bumped up an age bracket.  When registering it online I had to check the 25-34 year old box.  Man-o-man did that make me feel old... but it's okay- I may be old but I have a really cool new toy.

Sweet Dreams Piper

This video is really dark, but the audio is precious (turn up your speakers to get the full effect)!  Piper quite frequently has the cutest puppy dreams.  She lays at our feet while we work at our computers and often we will stop what we are doing just to listen to her dreaming.  I have yet to capture this phenomenon in all of it's glory (she wakes up when I go to reach for the camera) however, this one will have to do for now (you can kind of see her face in the video).  I know that these dreams are wonderful, I mean I am sure that in her dreams she is playing in some type of dog park heaven with all of her dog friends, eating all of the peanut butter that she can get.

Comfortable Kitties

In the new house Jamie and I have a little bit of extra room so we are "holding" a couch for his parents until either Nicole or Holly Ann have a place for it in their home.  Jamie and George moved the couch over here today.  It was going to go in Pipers room however, it wouldn't make it around the corner to actually get into that room.  So after a little bit of rearranging it has found a home in the guest room.  Moving things around in there pushed me to clean up a little bit; up until this point that room was just a holding place for all things that hadn't yet found a place in the house.  I didn't clean a lot but I did move some stuff off of the bed so it doesn't look like a junk hole anymore and it is clean enough that I will leave the door open.  Needless to say, the kitties were really excited to have the bed to nap on again.  This is how I found them tonight after dinner- they can really be cute sometimes.  Do you think they could be related?

The Naturalization Process

Well, for those of you that don't know, I started the process to become a US citizen about a month and a half ago.  I decided to take the leap and make this permanent, and well I wanted to be able to officially take my husband's name.  

This process includes a hefty sum of money, a ridiculously long application, and the patience of a saint.  The application is really quite long, about 15 pages, and actually asks questions like "Have you ever been a habitual drunkard".  I am not sure how many people actually say "yes" to that, but I guess there have been a few.  The application took a long to time to complete, but now that I have finished that I am at the mercy of the government.  I occasionally get these very "official" looking letters in the mail from the department of homeland security, they are printed on high-tech watermarked paper.  My first letter simply said that my application had been received and that not to contact them unless I hadn't heard anything within the next 365 days.  What- 365 days, yup only after a year of not hearing anything would they answer any of my questions.  I guess I will count myself lucky because I received my first follow-up letter about 2 1/2 weeks after the first one.  I was told to show up for finger prints on 09-11-08  at 8am at some obscure building off of 436.  If you don't show for that appointment they drop your application and you don't get your money back.  So, I scheduled off from work and left the house 1 1/2 hours before my appointment, just in case.  I was in and out of there in less than 1/2 an hour, I guess that is what happens when you are first in line and have been waiting for over an hour.

I do find it interesting that I had my first official appointment on 09-11, if that is not irony I am not sure what is.  I will be sure to keep you posted on this interesting experience.  Jamie and I will invite you all to the party when it's official (my name change and the citizenship thing) the menu will have to be hamburgers and apple pie, you know, American food :)

Football and Flowers

It has been awhile since I have posted; school has been sucking up all of my time.  This weekend Jamie and I had a wonderful work-free Saturday.  It was a wonderful mix of football and flowers.  Jamie and I spent the morning at Leu Gardens (Uncle Bob came too), enjoying the time outside and taking pictures.  We occasionally go to gardens in the area just to be outside and play with the cameras.  The rest of the day was spent watching football.  Southern Miss in the morning, and although they lost, the game wasn't a complete bust; they weren't murdered and they were playing Auburn who was ranked 9th.  After that we headed to Wing House to watch the FSU game; it was pay-per-view so we figured that we could have dinner and catch the game at the same time.  However, we were able to finish dinner and get back to the house before the game actually resumed play; they had a huge rain delay.  The game was worth the wait and the $30 spent to watch it- they won 69-0; a real confidence booster for Seminoles Fans.  Another game that I will mention, because it makes me happy inside, is the UCF one.  Yup, they lost in overtime to USF.  I would have preferred them to be killed, but a loss is a loss and I will take it.

Just as our day started with flowers, it ended with them as well.  Jamie's grandpa has a beautiful flower, the Night Blooming Cerius, that blooms for only one night and usually only one time throughout the year.  The flowers bloomed once back in August, so we were surprised to see that it was blooming again.  I have attached a few pictures of the flowers along with one of me in my mosquito proof outfit. You can laugh at me but they are ferocious right now!

Happy Birthday Jeremy!

A flash back from our college days- out in front of the dorm

Anxiously counting down the minutes until he got to marry his beautiful bride

Hiding from the camera

Yup, he always looks at her that way (that's his lovely wife by the way)

My dear friend Jeremy is another year older today- woohoo for birthdays!  Jeremy and I met in college at USM, he was a big brother for KD and was always hanging out in the halls- man were those the good old days.  Really and truly Jeremy is one of the greatest guys I know.  He loves his job and is amazing at it, has the ability to make everyone important, gives great bear hugs and loves his ever growing family- by the way his wife is amazing too, but I am partial.  I hope you have a wonderful day!