My Hottie Husband

Oh goodness, Ryan will TOTALLY kill me for that title, but I just had to say it. Doesn't he look so great?!? I'm posting these pictures to commemorate the fact that he has been gone 3 months now, so time is slowly ticking away. By the time I finish out this school year, make my trip to Texas, and spend a couple of weekends with Robin in Virginia, this deployment will be over before I know it! In the 1st picture, that's the Euphrates River in the background...pretty cool. In the 2nd picture, you'll see a box of girl scout cookies...random, I know. A girl scout troop sent his company cases of cookies to share with all of the Marines, and they also sent a camera requesting pictures of the Marines enjoying the cookies. So, Ryan made sure to take a picture with the cookies and a grenade launcher...what a pair. I'm sure the girls loved it!

New York City!!

Molly and I had a BLAST in the Big Apple this past weekend. We saw 3 shows, shopped, shopped, ate, and shopped some more. We saw "The Light in the Piazza" the first night we were there, and it was really good. The music is beautiful & we got 1/2 price tickets, so I'm glad we went. Then, on Friday night, we saw Julia Roberts, Paul Rudd, and Bradley Cooper in "Three Days of Rain". To be honest, the play wasn't my favorite in the world, but I still couldn't get over the fact that I was seeing Julia Roberts in person!! Who cares if the play was good or not?!? On Saturday, we saw "The Drowsy Chaperone" which is up for Best Musical at the Tony's this year. It was hilarious...one of my favorite musicals by far! The whole trip was a great get-away from life here in North Carolina, and I was thrilled to get to spend the weekend with Molly. It was tons of fun! Everytime I go to New York City, I think I want to move there. It's just so energetic, and there's culture and great shopping everywhere you turn around! Then, I come back to my cozy house, my sweet puppies, my yard (not too many of those in NYC), and sometimes my husband (when he's in the country!), and I realize how much I love my life. We had a great time, but it's good to be home.
Here's an assortment of pictures from the trip:

Molly & me in Times Square



















Being silly in the cab...that kiss is for you Ryan!



















We just saw Julia Roberts! HOLY COW!!!

When we first got to New York, we grabbed a snack and took it out to Central Park to eat. Well, of course (because I have horrible luck with weather) it started pouring rain, so we decided to walk back to the restaurant. I'm SO glad we did because we saw Ty Pennington walking right toward us! We were such idiots and couldn't juggle our umbrellas and cameras very well, so I just got a really far away picture of him (that's him with the khaki jacket and big black umbrella) going to meet some really pretty blonde girl. Hmmm...wonder who she was.



















We are so lucky that our friend Luke lives in New York City so that we could stay for free! We felt like locals taking the subway from Queens into Manhattan everyday. This is Luke with his broken foot. He just landed his 2nd role on Broadway in a show called "The Times They are a Changin" that opens in August!



















Look familar?? That's Paul Rudd (from Friends, Anchorman, & 40 Year Old Virgin). He was awesome in the play with Julia Roberts!

OK...I know you really can't see her, but I promise that's Julia Roberts in the back seat of her Escalade...Crazy!!

I don't know if I'm at liberty to explain why Molly was passed out in the back of the cab. You can ask her about this one!


















Random picture in Times Square

In Honor of Brad

Here's a little blog tribute to my brother, Bradley Lane. Today, he not only turned 22 years old, but he also got his college diploma! That's a pretty good birthday present if you ask me. I also have to mention that we have matching tassels since we both got Business degrees from HSU. Do you know what they call that icky, brownish color? DRAB. Yes, that's right...we have "drab" tassels and we're proud of it! I wish SO badly that I could've been there, but it just didn't work out. Luckily, he had quite a crew in Abilene to help him celebrate. He has quite a year ahead of him. For a graduation gift, he and 2 of his friends are going backpacking all over Europe. So much fun!!! On top of that, he deserves all of this celebrating because he got offered a "real person" job where he'll actually get to use his Finance degree. He'll be moving to the metroplex (that's Dallas/Ft. Worth for you non-Texas people who read this). Then, on December 30th, he and Kendall get married! What a great year for him! Sorry for all of the bragging, but big sisters are entitled to do that if they want. Keep him in your prayers these next few weeks as he's traveling through Europe, sleeping on trains, not changing clothes very often (gross), and enjoying "bachelor's life" for one last summer! I'm proud of you little brother... Happy Birthday & Graduation!!!

My Future Sister-in-Law (Kendall) & Brad

Ryan Gibson & Brad...one of the friends he's going to Europe with

Brad & My Parents...not pictured is ME (insert sad face here)

Girls' Night

I invited Robin & Jackie Rose over for dinner Monday night, and they beat me there, so I actually got to come home to people! It was so much fun after a long afternoon of teaching to pull up in my driveway and see my puppies and Jackie Rose waiting right inside the door for me. I forget how quiet my house can get with Ryan away. We had a great time eating chicken enchiladas and of course indulging in our traditional brownie sundaes. YUM! My dogs seemed to manage to make it into every picture...even when they weren't invited. In the first picture, Jackie is on her hands and knees posing like Jack & Harley...she's going through a "puppy phase"!

DRAMA, DRAMA, DRAMA

Sometimes drama can be good. For example, I was SO proud of all the kids for the amazing acting they did this weekend in Beauty and the Beast. They made Jacksonville High School history by selling out every single performance. They were so excited! I just adore those kids. Here's a picture of "my boys". I've worked with all these guys for 3 years, and they just make me smile.

This is our "Belle", Anastasia Papanicolau. She was just accepted to Walnut Hill, a high school performing arts conservatory in Boston, and she's only a sophomore in high school! Look out Broadway, she's definitely on her way!

Like I said, sometimes drama can be good. However, the rest of my weekend was filled with the bad kind of drama. I found out on Friday that my debit card information had been stolen and $1700 worth of transactions had been made to Wal-Mart, 7-Eleven, and Exxon in AUSTIN, TX in a matter of a day and a half!!! $1000 of it was flagged by the bank, so it didn't get charged, but $700 was sucked right out of my checking account. I explained that I was in North Carolina at the time, with my debit card IN MY WALLET. And when they asked where my husband was, I laughed and told them that he was in Iraq and that his card was in his wallet in Ramadi. I have proof that Ryan is in Iraq because there's a paper that says so, but now they have to prove that I was in North Carolina on Thursday and Friday, which is funny to me. That shouldn't be a problem since I was videoed playing for the musical both days, not to mention my name is in the program. I know that this kind of stuff happens to people all the time, but when it's YOU, it's really scary. I feel so violated! I had to file a police report here in North Carolina, so the sherrif came to my house to start the process. But, because the "crime" took place in Texas, the Austin Police have to do the investigating. They assigned me a detective that will work with my bank to hopefully track down whoever this loser is. In the meantime, my card had to be cancelled, which means that Ryan's card was cancelled too. That card is what he uses whenever he has the chance to buy anything in Iraq, so I feel bad for him. He can get cash other ways, but still... Not only that, but the bank won't mail me his new card when it's ready. They say they have to talk to him personally on the phone, and since he doesn't really get that many phone calls, I guess we'll have to figure something else out. It's not the money that bothers me (well, that's part of it), but it's just the inconvenience of it all. All of this to say, BE CAREFUL with your credit card information!! I still don't know how mine was stolen. Luckily, we caught this the day after it happened, but it could've been a lot worse.

Singing in my Sleep

Ryan makes fun of me because he says that I hum in my sleep. I always say that I'm going to record myself sleeping because I don't believe him. Well, I guess I believe him now because I actually woke myself up humming Beauty and the Beast in the middle of the night. Seriously, it's sad when that's ALL I can think about because it's ALL my life revolves around...until this coming Sunday, that is. Then I will have my life back! Don't get me wrong, I love the kids, and I love playing for musicals, but we're all to the point that we're ready to kill each other. Anyway, forgive me if I don't blog much more this week. I promise there is nothing worth talking about anyway. Unless you want to read lyrics from Beauty and the Beast...