new project

i made it to 26! for some reason i got really emotional about being in my "upper 20s", but that's kind of ridiculous and i had a great birthday. i have the best family and friends in the world! and for my birthday, ricky and both of our parents chipped in to get me a new fancy camera! i have a LOT to learn, but straight out of the box this thing takes much better pictures than any i've taken before! here are some of my first few shots:

 chloe! love having this pup around!

 never a dull moment with this one!

 think ricky's from georgia?

 

i've decided to take on the picture of the day project (thanks for the inspiration, emilie!) to document my 26th year on earth. i'm going to take a picture every single day this year and post them on the blog. i figured it would get me to learn how to use my camera and keep me blogging a little more consistently. so here's to 365 pictures of our dogs! just kidding...maybe...

April 11, 2011

 

bday red velvet, couresy of my father-in-law, a man of many talents!

April 12, 2011

first day sporting my new keens. get some now, they are the most comfortable shoes i've ever had! not cheap, but they will last for YEARS! sorry ricky, i have a dominant shoe gene, just can't help it!

spring break

whew, i made it to spring break! really, the past five weeks have FLOWN by! i love being a teacher, and i find myself actually excited to go to work on a monday morning, weird but good! but fridays will still win every time. i love my students and my school. i've got enough students to give me hope and enough students to give me purpose, a good blend of my previous teaching experiences. i don't love the curriculum so much, but it's constantly changing, welcome to education!

ricky and i have had so much fun the past month...
-trip to orlando with his parents for spring training (stayed at the animal kingdom lodge, literally had zebras and giraffes out our window, went to harry potter world and tried butterbeer, cirque de soliel, and an amazing meal at shula's)
-march madness!! my worst bracket of all time, but i have loved everything about this tournament with the exception of wisconsin and seeing pullen's incredible career end.
-we found out we'll have a new niece in august, can't wait to meet little abby!
-i miss being on staff at jf, but it's really awesome to just be a church member on sundays! love our church and our community.
-we've done a little updating to the house, ricky even built a headboard! pics one of these days...
-we just spent a beautiful weekend with our AZ friends the walkers. robert earl keen concert, coke museum, centennial park, sweetwater brewery, beautiful weather, laughter, and great conversations. can't wait to see them again, we're hoping there will be an az trip in our near future!

life is full, indeed! i'm thankful to have this week to recover and gear up for the last 6 weeks of school!

first day

just a quick recap before I crash (serious dark circles going on!). I love the staff so far, I feel like it's going to take forever to learn names/personalities of my students but we had a great day together, I feel so disorganized but that's to be expected right now, the Georgia math curriculum is so crazy, smartboards are incredible, and I am so excited to be exactly where I am! overwhelmed, but so loved and supported by so many, truly blessed!

big news!

life changes SO fast! i've been thinking about returning to teaching for almost a year, and by november i was sure of it. schools here had a break this week and we had a middle school trip to sharptop - it was awesome! so i was planning on telling my team after this break that i was going to try to get a teaching job in the fall. God's timing is so different than mine!

i had an interview last friday morning, and by friday afternoon, i was offered a job teaching high school math at a wonderful school! i start on wednesday, and this past week has been a BLUR! talk about an emotional rollercoaster.

i am so excited and thrilled, but so anxious and scared for my new job. and i am so sad to leave my job and the staff at johnson ferry, they have become family to us and i can't believe that i won't get to work with some of my closest friends anymore. but above all else, i have this crazy peace that can only come from God, that he has chosen me to step into this role, that i am supposed to spend every day helping teenagers. i am not guaranteed employment next year, but at this point i don't even care! psalm 139 keeps reminding me that God knows about all of my days, that i don't have to stress or worry, but fully live in the day he has given me!

so today i am going to fully live the rest of today by soaking in the beautiful weather, celebrating another k-state victory, and going to see never say never with some of my high school friends! bieber fever baby!

Saturday mornings

I've been looking forward to this morning for a while! I've put in a lot of hours at work lately and couldn't wait to grab a few more minutes of sleep! and penny was especially snuggly this morning, love it!

I came home from jazzercise to this



open floor plan?

bring on the French doors, sliding door, you will not be missed!

then I made my dad's famous green smoothie and skyped with Libs, ruff, and my parents.

oh Saturday, I think I love you.