Traveling to My Own Beat

    If there is one hobby that I could say is my true passion, it's traveling. The culture and history of the world intrigues me and captivates my mind. I have traveled many states and cities and there are always new discoveries that amaze me in their own unique way. Seeing things on television on Discovery or Travel Channel don't even do them justice. Once you see those places or artifacts in real life, it's life changing. I have been lucky enough to have an uncle who has taken me many places in the world. My travels started when I was still in high school when I went to St. Thomas. It was beautiful with crystal clear waters. It was much different anything I had ever seen.

In the harbor in St. Thomas, Virgin Islands

    The next stop on my voyage was Hawaii. You would think that it was much like St. Thomas, but it wasn't anything like it. The weather is always a cool 75 degrees and the culture that thrives here is unlike any other. We stayed in Waikiki where there are many things to do! We went to Pearl Harbor, the Dole Plantation, and all kinds of things. A friend and I took a day trip tour to the where we traveled around the whole island going to many places like Volcanoes National Park, Kona Coffee Farms and Plantations, and even the botanical garden. Before we took the plane back to the island we were staying at we visited the black sand beaches where sea turtles would just swim up and stay a while. 

Black sand beaches at the Big Island

    After Hawaii comes Salt Lake City, Utah. This is where it started at least. We landed in Salt Lake City only to stay a little while. We traveled to Moab, Utah, a quiet little town. It was a big change of environment, weather, and culture. Out west the heat is a dry heat, not very humid like the south. I just love it out west! Moving along. We got there, rented a car, and were on our way to many places like: Arches National Park, Canyonlands National Park, Mesa Verde, Zion National Park, and then through Lake Powell. This trip was so much fun and I learned a lot. 

Cayonlands National Park

    Last but definitely not least is New York CITYYY! I can remember it as if was yesterday. To Time Square we traveled by plane from Birmingham. We stayed right in Time Square in front of the jumbo trons. It was so pretty with all of the lights and people everywhere. First we went down 5th Avenue (You know I had to at least walk down 5th to feel VIP) haha! Then it was time to hit every museum in New York! Where all did we go you ask?! Well let me just tell you, we spent COUNTLESS hours in the Museum of Natural History, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. I remember spending 8 hours one day in I believe was The Met, and having to go back the next day just to see everything! These museums are CRAZY big!

 This so far has been it for my great adventures around the world. Mark and I are planning on doing a lot of traveling soon and I can't wait! I would love to visit the top museums and national parks around the world. Maybe someday I will. As for now, I hope you enjoyed my latest blog! Until next time...

“Certainly, travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living.” ~ Miriam Beard 

Back To School!

Its been a while since my last post. I have been so busy working in my classroom and trying to keep the house from being utterly destroyed Ha. I have got a new job that I love. I am the Special Education Teacher at Duck Springs Elementary! It is a cute little school out in Attalla. All of the faculty are so sweet, and have helped me in more ways than they probably think. This will be my first actual year as a teacher and I am so excited to see what the future is going to bring. I have a couple of pictures from my classroom. I painted and rearranged a few things. I wanted to make an exciting room where my students would enjoy and feel comfortable. I am still in the process of doing a few more things to it as far as decorating, but for the most part it is complete.

My classroom!

I hope everyone has a great school. year and I will be sure to keep posting to let everyone know how its going! Have a great day!

15 Ten-Second Health Tips!

15 Ten-Second Health Tips!

Earth Day 2011: A Billion Acts of Green® | EDN Educators' Network

Earth Day 2011: A Billion Acts of Green® | EDN Educators' Network go green everybody check out this and other sites for earth day :)

What is going on?!

I haven't had much time to blog about anything going on or any new projects I've been working on because I've been working my life away! Besides that I haven't done much of anything...My husband did decide however, that we were going to start watching the show Lost. It didn't look like a show that would appeal to me, but I decided to just go ahead and watch it anyway. Did I enjoy it?! Heck yes I did! haha This show is very captivating. It has kept me pulled in since episode 1.

The show is about a plane that gets off track somewhere from Australia to Los Angeles. It loses signal with the base and ends up crashing on some what seems to be deserted island. There were about 43 people that survived the crash, and are trying to make it off the island somehow. The show has all sorts of twists and turns that keep you itching for more, especially at the end of each episode! (Something crazy always happens at the end of each show.) As the people are on the island with all the strange things that are happening, there are flashbacks of some of the main characters on the show, and how they all end up connected.

I guess this is mine and Mark's new hobby for the next while since we work so much lol. It might sound crazy to write about a show, but its amazing. :) I'm very eager to see what's going to happen in the second season!

As for now, have a blessed day and I will talk to you all later! :)

"I read about it...in a book..."

Fiction, non-fiction, fantasy, biography, true crime, and much more. There are many genres to choose from when deciding what to read. I love to read and ever since I got my Nookcolor I have more books to read than I have time for! So I've decided that ever book I read (good or bad) I would like to talk about on my blog with all of you! Please feel free to give your feedback! I want to know what you think and I love to hear from you! So here goes!

My first book is called Columbine and was written by Dave Cullen. I usually enjoy reading non-fiction or true crime books so this was right up my alley! I guess I find it more interesting knowing that things are real? I also find it kind of interesting seeing how these people act, think, feel. I guess because at one point I wanted to go into psychology. Anyway, I saw the cover of this book whlie looking online and was pretty much pulled in. It's a picture of the school (small on the bottom) and the sky...I guess all the blue and white of the sky makes it stand out. I saw the name and thought, " I already know the story of what happened what more can there be?" This book really surprised me on how good it was!

The book is about the tragedy that took place at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold walked in Columbine and started shooting everyone in their path. Teachers, students, other faculty. They didn't care who was killed or injured. They wanted this massacre to be bigger than the Oklahoma City bombings. But why did they even want to do this in the first place? What did their parents think? What were they like in the years before the shooting? This book gives every detail I feel...


Parts of this book may be a little disturbing. It was for me especially when they were giving a detailed account of what happened that day, but still interesting. It also talks about how they lived, where they worked, how they acted, etc. They seemed pretty normal looking in from the outside, but they were anything but normal. Eric seemed to be the ringleader of this disaster, but Dylan was depressed and ended up going along with whatever Eric said. Their parents saw no signs and always seems to treat both children in a loving manner.


As this book progresses, it talks about the aftermath and what has become of it till today. It gives many details of family and loved ones that were injured or killed that day. It talks about what they went through and how they felt. Some were angry, others were crushed, a lot ended up having to have therapy for PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). I will say though that this book is not ALL sad...There are some uplitfing moments! Even though Patrick Ireland was shot, and paralyzed on one side, he managed to drag his body to a window and fall out. He was taken to the hospital and immediately to surgery. They thought he would never be able to walk, or talk correctly (make sentences, anything), but he did. He can walk, talk, make sentences, pretty much anything! It was amazing!


I would recommend this book to anyone. It was a great read and kept my attention the whole time. I hope you all enjoyed my blog on this book. Like I said  before please give your feedback so I can hopefully make it better the next time :) Thanks for reading!

Forever and Always...

When Mark and I decided to get married I never dreamed everything that a wedding would entail...I just wanted to be Mrs. Gentry! I would have never survived the wedding madness alone, luckily I had my mother to guide me through the exciting, and sometimes frustrating plans of organizing a wedding. It seems like a lot of people we know are getting married/having children and since I'm not having children anytime soon I thought I may give some helpful tips on wedding planning I learned along the way from someone I know is genius at this stuff...my mom.

We found the chair covers online and went ahead and ordered them. They weren't really a bad price but my mom had a few friends who would use them later and just rent them from her. I guess this was helpful if you know people that could just rent them from you later on or you could use them again. This way you could either get your money out of them or make your money back!

Another thing that you can see in this picture is the centerpiece. Of course this is just a rolled up piece of silk brown material, but in the middle is a circular mirror. She founds these mirrors dirt cheap around town. (I'm sure Hobby Lobby, Wal-mart, etc.) Each centerpiece only ended up costing us like $5 or $6 dollars a table.

Here is one of my favorites!! We saved at every angle possible for our wedding and it turned out beautifully and I loved my wedding dress but didn't want to fool with wearing it around all evening so I found a cute little white dress to wear. (Try not to stare at my whiteness...ha) So would you like to know where I found this cutie-pie dress?! The THRIFT STORE! I see all these women spending tons of money on this and that and a dress on top of everything (and some going as far as buying a second dress for the reception.) I don't have that kind of money nor if I did would I do something that crazy! I found this dress one day long before I decided to get married in the thrift store and luckily enough it came in handy! Everyone loved it! So start thrifting!

 One last thing that I thought was neat. The picture on the left was taken a few weeks before the wedding. Notice the difference in the hair? I had bought some clip in hair extensions a year or so prior to clip in every once in a while. As much as I color my hair I thought it would never work for my wedding because the hair didn't match. A friend of mine who is a stylist colored the hair and my hair and It matched perfectly! They were a lot cheaper than having glue-in or sew-in extensions, and I could take em out whenever I needed. My hair was too short to do anything cute so I'm glad I had these handy!