Slip - n - slide

One huge tarp

+

dish soap

+

lots of water

+

a bunch of students

=

tons of fun!

Each year at the beginning of the school year, SLT (the student leadership team) puts on a Day of Welcome, and we do fun stuff as a high school. For the second year in a row now we've had a huge slip-n-slide for the kids to play on. Since it was so incredibly hot out today, the kids really enjoyed the water! I however, stood outside for 2 hours, burning up, and taking hundreds of pictures. Don't worry, I won't share them all. :)

We had quite a bit of water.

Quite a bit of soap.

Plenty of mud!

And plenty of sillyness.

They played tug of war...

... and crab walk soccer...

And lots of good, old fashioned slip-n-sliding.

And the senior class got together for some fun pictures at the end of it all!

So there you go. This is my job, people! How crazy is that? Of course, it's not like this all the time, but I am so blessed to work at this school and with these kids.

Some random pictures

Just some other pictures I took in my classroom last week that I liked!

I'm super picky about my pencils being very, very sharp, or a very thin lead, so I keep tons of them on hand!

My early morning lifeline.

I was given this at a little ceremony in college for my major, since we were all going to be teachers. It's filled with all sorts of symbolic little things for teachers. Now, though, it's pretty beat up, because it falls off my desk all the time!

And the shoe. Again.

First day of school!

Well, like many of your kids, I'm back at school now! Of course, I'm on the other side of the desk. Like all the kids I got all dressed up and wore my nice, new (smaller sized!) outfit. Since everyone else is sharing first day of school pictures, I figured I would too. :)

So here's my first day of school outfit. Notice the wonderful red high heels - love them!

Here's a closer view of my killer shoes, because I know you want to see them better.

And since none of you have had the opportunity to see my classroom, I thought I'd give you guys a tour. As you can see, it too is done in black, white, and red. Perhaps those could be my favorite colors?

I love that little wooden sign I have below the class rules - it says "Thou shalt not whine." And below that you'll see my flowers and art work I made to match my room.

And then there is my desk, which normally looks much, much worse than this. And the student desks, which are normally filled with students (go figure, huh).

I have bulletin boards for each of my classes, and all the books that I teach for that class up as well, like this:

You'll see in the picture on the right that I have a periodic table - yes, in an English classroom. It's a periodic table of American Prose, and I just bought it and think it's just about the coolest thing ever, and that's why I'm a nerdy English teacher.

So each of those binders below represents a book/unit I teach. It's a lot. And then books that go with them have their home right next to the binders. I get to teach some amazing books - The Giver, To Kill A Mockingbird, Night, A Wrinkle in Time, Their Eyes Were Watching God, The Great Divorce... just to name a few.













I also have a super cool bulletin board that I put pictures of my student on, but since it's a new school year... the only thing up there right now is the liger that students made for me last year.

Okay, I'm sick of dealing with the formatting on this silly post, so until next time... >

Super Busy!

Hey all! It's been quite awhile! I've been back at work for a couple weeks now, and our students start on Wednesday! It's been a crazy, crazy time, and I've been super busy! I unfortunately will not have as much time now to blog and comment on your posts, but I am going to try my best to get on regularly! I've missed chatting with you guys! (And I just realized that every sentence has an exclamation mark. I must be really excited about talking with you guys).

We're doing well, and things are still looking good with the house. Kyle and I have started packing up a few things, and already I'm overwhelmed and dreading the move. I don't know how we collected all this junk!

In other news, we made a huge decision the other day, and have decided to put off our baby efforts for a few months. With everything that's going on, we want things to calm down a bit before we keep trying. Plus, last week the insurance guy came to my work, and the short term disability plan I signed up for, which will pay me money while I'm on maternity leave (sweet!), has certain exclusions to the coverage, and one of those is that there is a 30 day waiting period. So, the policy goes into effect Sept 1, which means I can't be pregnant before October 1, or else we don't get money.

I had already taken the medication this time, but we made the decision before getting to any of our crucial days, if you know what I mean, so we're pretty sure that I won't be pregnant this time. And then we'll go a couple months without the meds, and pick back up again later. I actually was the one who brought up the idea to take a couple months off, so God has totally been working in my life! In fact, when I share our decision with the book club ladies last week, I didn't even cry! Which is pretty amazing. I'm completely at peace with this decision, and I'm actually really happy about taking a break. The past year we've been so focused on trying to get pregnant, and now we'll be able to really reconnect as a couple and just enjoy each other's company for awhile. I'm really not sad about this at all, so there has been a huge change that has taken place in my life, and I know it's all God (along with the encouragement so many of you have given me). We don't know exactly when we'll start trying again, but I'll of course update you when that time comes.

So now our priority will just be each other, and I'm super excited about that. And it will give us time to settle into the house and our new budget before throwing in a baby! And (my completely selfish benefit that I'll get out of this) this also gives me more time to continue my weight loss. Had that been the only factor it wouldn't have been able to convince me to put off our efforts, of course, but it is a nice little side benefit. So far I'm down 12 pounds, and over 3 inches (total-from waist, hips, and legs), and I'm down a size! I love it, and I feel so much better already. Plus, I love shopping and being able to buy a smaller size.

So that's it for now, I had no intention to write this much, and I really need to get back to my classroom. It's a mess!

Home Sweet Home

Well, this is it! Here is our soon to be home!

As you can see in this next picture, it has a beautiful red door (yay!) and shutters, and a cute little porch area.

Here is part of our living room, and the nice hardwood floor in the entry way (and dining room, kitchen, and hallway).

This is the kitchen, and I have so much more space than I do now! I don't know how I'm going to fill all the cabinets (but I'm sure I'll find a way!) We're going to do something with the cabinets (it's too bad they painted them white, it's a really nice wood underneath), because there's currently too much white in the room! We have a pantry in the kitchen, too, which is great, and we're going to get a black fridge (and the cabinets will probably end up either red or black)

Here's the back yard. We like the porch area a lot, but will probably do something to cover it more - either with climbing vines (what I would love to do) or with a siding type material (what Kyle wants to do). It's a pretty good sized yard, and has a cute little tree that you can't see in this picture.

This is one of the bedrooms. The other spare bedroom looks pretty much the same as this one. Out of the bedroom door (behind Taylor) you can see the hall closet doors. We have so much storage space! I love it!

This is our room. It's much bigger than our current room (it's 13x16). There's no light in this room, though, so we have to figure out what to do about that.

And part of our bathroom (with two sinks!!!) Across from the sinks is a square walk in clost, which, of course, makes me super excited.

So that's it! Isn't it great? The inspection was done today, and everything looked good. Nothing too much to worry about, besides getting some new smoke detectors and a plug for the bath tub, things like that. The appraisal has also been done, but we haven't heard the results from that. We're not too worried, though. It's a nice house in a nice neighborhood, so we shouldn't have any problem with the appraisal. Now we're waiting on the title company, and hoping that perhaps they'll work quickly so we can close early. It would be great if we could close a week early so we'd have labor day weekend to move. We'll see how it all works out!

Something I forgot

I have no clue how I forgot to write about this. I guess in all the excitement about getting our house, I completely forgot to share our other good news! No, not pregnant, but it's related. I finally get to go back on my medication again. After taking a month off (which turned into two, thanks to my retarded uterus), I'll be back on the meds tomorrow. Not exactly perfect timing, with everything that's going on with the house and starting back to school, but, whatever.

The thought actually crossed my mind to not take my meds this month. Since stress can be a contributing factor to infertility, and we could be under a lot of stress with the house, and school starting, and Kyle's schedule change that's coming up... Plus, I was also thinking that if it did happen this month (or even the month after) I wouldn't be able to finish out the school year, and I'd have to deal with a long term sub, and you get the picture. So I seriously considered waiting one more month (which would again, probably be more like two) before trying for our third round with the meds. But, then I kicked some sense back into my head, and decided that we've tried so hard and wanted this for so long, and if it does happen this month, we'll figure out how to make the mortgage payment and get lesson plans to a sub. And if it doesn't happen... well, we're getting used to that.

So, we're now on round three. Obviously I'll be thrilled if it works. This month marks a year since we decided to start a family, so whenever that positive test comes around, I will be a happy, happy woman. But now I can really say that I trust what God is doing. It's taken a year to be able to say that. I also know that if it takes years for us to have a family, and this is hard to say, I'll wait, and trust that He knows better than I. I don't want to have to go through more testing or other treatments, but I will, and I know there will be a reason for every step we go through. There's a reason for what we've gone through and what we have yet to face. The past year has been a doozy, that's for sure. So many emotions, and tests, and medications, and false hope, and sob fests. I know that's not over; it's not gone. I know I'll have times when I just feel like crying, and I know there will be times I feel low, like I'm somehow an incomplete woman. There will still be times when I'll doubt that God knows what he's doing, and think that I have better plans for my life; that somehow He doesn't have my best interests in mind and I need to take things into my own hands (thank you Captivating for that insight!). There have been those times, and I know they aren't completely gone. But I also know there will be more moments of peace. That I will trust God and His plan for our life more completely. That I will rely less on me and what I think I need. Because I do know that I am right where I need to be. We need to go through this. I need to go through this. I may never know exactly why, but there is a reason we are battling this. And even more specifically, there is a reason why it is my body preventing us from getting pregnant. I choose to look at this now as a chance to grow. A chance to trust God wholly and completely. A chance for us to strengthen our marriage. And I believe it will happen for us. I don't know how or when, but I know that we will be parents. It will happen exactly in God's perfect timing, and in the way he has ordained, and until then we wait patiently. And we trust. And we pray. And we grow.