It's All Good

Well, I made it through my first full week of school! And it was WONDERFUL. I can't tell you how happy I am at my new school. Here I am on my way out the door on the first day.


The past year and a half has been quite a ride for me. I have learned lots of lessons and grown alot too. I'm not sure why God sent me on the detour that He did, but it helped me meet new friends and it broadened my perspective and I got to do something I have always wanted to do....work with underpriviledged children (which I absolutely LOVED!)


One of the little girls from my class last year actually called me Thursday after her first day of school to tell me all about her day. I thought that was so sweet!

But...not gonna lie...all that growing and all that work being done on my mind and heart was hard on me! It was exhausting mentally and physically. So I'm so thankful that God decided I'd had enough for a while and He brought me back to the school where I am now. (Did I tell you I taught here about 15 years ago?) I finally feel like I am back to my old self again.


This year I have precious, sweet children, amazing co-workers, about 100% less stress, a supportive principal, a huge classroom with any supply I could ever need, and lots of professional freedom. I get to sleep a whole hour and a half later than I did last year. Plus it's all in a Christian environment! That is pretty much a dream come true.

I love that one of the things I get to teach is Bible. It feels so weird to be able to do this since I have been in public school for so long. This week I have been teaching my class how special the Bible is and how we need to treat it with so much love and respect since it is God's special letter to us.


I taught them how to make sure your Bible doesn't stay all nice and neat and perfect. It needs to be worn out and used and written in and underlined. I am teaching them all the books of the Bible and how to find them quickly. We have been learning a little song to help us learn all the books in the Bible and they are already getting it! It has been fun.

This week has also been pretty crazy here in North Carolina. On Tuesday afternoon, I was sitting at my desk in my classroom working on the computer while my kids were at the library. All of a sudden my desk started shaking and my lamp started swaying. The pictures on my file cabinet were hopping up and down. No one else was in the room and I was thinking to myself, "What on earth is that??!! It feels like we're having an earthquake!" But then I thought, "No, we don't have earthquakes in North Carolina!" So then I thought maybe the building was crumbling or something?? Turns out we DO have earthquakes here! And that was my first one ever (and probably my last). Mark texted me about a minute later and said, "Holy cow...did you just feel that earthquake?" And he was all the way in Raleigh...about 2 1/2 hours away! I saw this picture online and it made me laugh. It's about the extent of the earthquake damage here....


But as we speak, Hurricane Irene is headed for the coast of North Carolina where Steve's sister lives. And Lindy and Mark are not too far from there, so I am praying that they will be safe and not get too much damage or flooding.

We have a busy weekend ahead with lots of Fantasy Football stuff for Steve, a big cookout at our house tomorrow night for our Sunday School class, choir and a wedding shower on Sunday. There's always something going on!

I just wanted to share my happiness with y'all and I hope you all have a great weekend, too!!

A Blur

Well, this month wins a record for least number of blog posts EVER. It has been a blur. To be honest, I have barely had time to breathe, much less blog! August...I'm sorry. Not a fan. It's just blazing hot and humid and there is too much craziness going on! So tonight I am just going to try and catch up with a few August highlights. Y'all will have to bear with me for this one...I know it's going to have lots of pictures!

Right before school started, we went to the beach for one last vacation before summer was over (sniff, sniff!) It was just our family and very relaxing and laid back. We mostly hung out on the beach all day and went out for ice cream or played putt-putt at night. We had a great time!




















When we got back, it was time to go back to school for teacher work days. I am so excited to be working in a private Christian school this year. Oh my word, it has been absolutely WONDERFUL so far. And I am very blessed to have a ginormous room with floor to ceiling windows! Woo hoo! (Last year my room had NO windows & I hated that!)


My windows!! Love.


Laura and Lindy are turning 20 next week, so we went out to dinner at PF Chang's to celebrate before they left to go back to school. I can't believe my babies are turning 20!! What on earth??










Steve and I also celebrated our 26th anniversary on August 17th! But we were so busy that we didn't get to do anything yet. We are going to go out this weekend to celebrate.

Other than all this, here are a few other things that have been going on...

*We got Laura, Lindy, and Mark all packed up and moved into their respective apartments at their schools. And we can now park our car in our garage again. I never took a picture of what our garage looked like this summer with all my school stuff and all their college stuff, but it pretty much looked like a bomb had gone off!

*I saw The Help and absolutely loved it. I thought it was as good as the book and that is rare for me. You really need to see it if you haven't already!


*I got a new computer on tax-free weekend!

*I discovered Spotify. Have you ever heard of it? It's a super quick way to stream music. It's kind of like Pandora and iTunes combined.

*We watched the first pre-season Panthers game with Cam Newton quarterbacking. I have high hopes for the Panthers this year! And I am so ready for fall and football and cooler weather and pretty leaves and chili and all that fun stuff!!

August is almost over, so things are going to settle down soon and I can't wait. Hopefully I will do a better job of keeping up with blogging from now on!

It's Already August???!!

Today is just a random, bullet point kind of day.

*First of all, how in the world is it already August?? This summer is going to go down as one of the quickest summers of my life. Tomorrow we are going to the beach for one last time and then it is back to work for me! I AM getting excited about a new school year though. Did I tell you I got a job in a private Christian school teaching third grade? And the school just happens to be my church's school! I worked there about 15 years ago and now I am coming back. I am excited because:

1. I already know alot of the teachers there and some are my really good friends (not to mention the parents and students)!
2. I will be able to sleep an extra hour an a half this year! Y'all know how much I hated getting up at 5:00 in the morning. Oh my goodness, that was pure torture! This is going to be so wonderful.
3. My commute to school is only about 10 minutes. Yay! Less time and less gas!
4. I actually have an assistant this year! She was so sweet and had me over for coffee the other day and I am really looking forward to working with her.
5. I have some fun ideas and new things that I am looking forward to trying out. I get excited every year about tweaking things and trying out new ideas.

I saw this today on Pinterest and I really liked it. I think it will be hanging in my room somewhere!


*We rented The Lincoln Lawyer the other night because Ashley had recommended it. I would give it a "two-thumbs-up"! It was really good.


*We finally got some rain last night, thank goodness! Our grass is getting brown and crunchy since it has been so hot. Today I actually had to throw away some of the plants I had outside because even though I have been watering them, they were just too burned up.

And, just a report on the thundershirt we got Rocky....I would give it a C. It seems to calm him down somewhat, but if it is thundering outside, he still barks. I think he is a hopeless case. Sad.

*It is college dorm shopping time again. I took Laura shopping today and she got these cute pictures for her apartment at Pier 1. They are so her! :)




*The last I heard, it looks like we are going to avoid a major debt crisis. Hasn't this whole thing been crazy?? I don't even know what to say.