winter retreat

this one time, we took 80 middle schoolers to an indoor waterpark in gatlinburg, and they all got folliculitis. awesome.

so glad i stayed out of the water.

winter

i forgot how crazy it is to get back into the swing of things after the holidays! this post has been sitting in my "drafts" folder for about two weeks! we've just been busy with fun things, i can't complain!! we had an incredible new year's eve...we went to the beach with some friends and were able to stay at a ridiculously huge and beautiful beach house with them. we watched football, ate a lot of seafood, told stories, played apples to apples, watched the hangover, and played with a couple of cute babies. we did not want to go home after that fun and relaxing weekend! but our dear friends monica and shey were on their way to hang out with us, so back to atl we went! and basically all we did with mon and shey was laugh...so perfect! conveyer belt of love, what?!

then the BLIZZARD OF 2010 hit atlanta!! ahh, quick, everyone go buy all the milk, bread, and batteries!! hilarious! we got a dusting of snow and the whole city shut down. i thought it was so funny...until i tried to drive to work and couldn't make it out of the neighborhood!! ricky had to come push my car out of an intersection...whoops! my parents had 3-4 feet of snow piled up at their house and they got to work just fine. but apparently atlanta doesn't have the equipment and manpower to salt all the roads...so SNOW DAY for the macdonald's!

that night the bailey's made there first trip to atlanta as a married couple!! ricky and i went to a wedding saturday, so our weekend was super short, but so fun! i love that we live in driving distance from each other and just being as weird as we could be and freaking out ricky and ruffin on saturday morning was the highlight! and big pie in the sky pizza, yummmmmm!

and this weekend is our first middle school trip of 2010! we're taking a great group of students to pigeon forge for a conference and an indoor waterpark...because who doesn't want to be in a swimsuit right after all the holiday food? but i'm so excited and ready to hang out with kids! pray that it will be a time of laughter and joy and growth!! and ricky is holding down the fort with hunter...a weekend of chinese food and madden, poor guy!

oh yeah, and GO CATS!! although obviously i prefer the nickname "the bram" over the "octagon of DOOM".

december 29th

two years ago...

oh heavenly day :)

and mandy...here's a better shoutout! you knew i was going to marry ricky before i did :)

merry christmas

another christmas has come and gone!! this was a unique christmas...my first without libs since i was 8 months old...but she survived christmas in mexico :). and i had plenty of reasons to keep from being sad about that! we kicked off christmas eve eve with a new tradition...christmas date night! we had cheap mexican and drove around looking at lights before the craziness began! it was so nice to have some "us" time before a family filled weekend...i hope that tradition sticks around!

on christmas eve we tied up some loose ends and spent some time with ricky's family before jim & pam bram arrived from the snowy midwest! they swapped a very white christmas for the slightly warmer climate down in georgia. bridget, their 6 pound yorkie, also made the journey...she and hunter provided plenty of entertainment! they're besties now...maybe not, but at least they don't mind being in the same room! we spent pretty much all of christmas day at the macdonald's...good thing ricky & i have parents that like each other! it was our first christmas as uncle rico & aunt angie, and it was such a joy to have kids around again at christmastime!

all in all, we had such a great time hanging out, watching football, outlet shopping (j.crew & pottery barn? yes please!), movie watching, and eating! there's nothing like family time! but i'm looking forward to an evening with ricky & the fat man, cheering on those dawgs! sorry mandy, but a&m is going down!!

santa's fave reindeer hopes you had a very merry christmas!

my sister is MARRIED!!

we are back home in georgia after a crazy, perfect, exhausting, wonderful 6 days in the great state of kansas!! such a blessing to celebrate libby and ruffin, see tons of family, and catch up with some of the best friends life could ever offer! libby was absolutely stunning. duh. and milldale farms was the perfect location, simply gorgeous! i don't know if it's all sunk in yet...my sister is a wife!...but i'm NOT okay with that being the last bramlett dance party!! we'll just have to come up with more excuses to celebrate!

here's a sneak peak of the beautiful bride! she's hott, right? and she's spending christmas in mexico! wishing her and ruffin a feliz navidad and a merry christmas to all of you!