I Believe in Auburn and LOVE it!!

I had the pleasure of going to Auburn this weekend, and I realized how much I truly miss it. I had a lot of fun as I got to go to my first game this season, and I got to spend time with my teacher friends that I haven't seen in 3 months, and I got to spend time with friends I haven't spent time with since I was a student at Auburn!! It was great. All of this happened after I went to the final Marietta HS football game of the season - praise the Lord that is over. It was fun while it lasted and I know the color guard had a great season, but that just gets old after a while. So, now begins the fun of Winter Guard - I'm praying and crossing my fingers that it actually works out this year.
As far as the house goes... I'm still in the "under contract" stage I guess. I've had the home inspection and an appraisal completed, but we've still got some logistics to work out with my loan and insurance, and everything else. But we're moving right along! I will be a homeowner by Thanksgiving!
I started off the game yesterday in the student section with Kristen, Andrew, and Kylie (K's rommie), but after running fever all day on Friday, I wasn't up to standing the whole game. So, after the first quarter, I made my way over to sit with my parents, Jason, Lee, and Kate.


It was so great to sit and talk with Lee since I haven't been able to do that since he returned from South Asia. He kept trying to ask me if I changed, and I told (and showed) that I'm still the same girl he knew two years ago - just a little crazier! But what a blessing these friends are to me. I enjoyed the game with ya'll and lunch on Sunday.
After the game, I met up with Ashley and Rebecca...

Oh, how I miss them! I only got to catch up with Ashley for a short while, but Rebecca and I hung out for a while and shared crazy-kid stories!! I was also able to hang out with Jessica quite a bit Saturday night and Sunday. I am looking forward to getting together with ALL of them - including Brittany - in December... we WILL make it happen girls!

I did pose for other pictures this weekend, but they were not taken with my camera, so this is all I've got for ya. But maybe next time, I'll be better about pulling mine out.

I have so much more to talk about, but no more time. I'm exhausted after fighting off germs and having too much fun... peace out.

Weekends

I LOVE the weekend. It is so nice to have a break from the everyday norm that comes with weekdays. This weekend was especially nice because I even had a break from the Friday night football game. Thankfully, the rain messed up the band's plans to travel to the game at North Cobb. Since we haven't had a break all season, this was especially nice. I didn't even do anything that exciting! Since Kristen came home, the fam went to eat at LaParilla - with the rest of Marietta it seemed, and then we came home and I fell asleep on the couch around 9pm. It was great! Saturday, the girls went shopping and ran some errands. That night, I went with my parents, aunt and uncle, and my grandmother to The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra's concert. It was surprisingly good and had a hilarious guest conductor. This morning, I slept in and went to church, and have had a quiet afternoon at home catching up on things around the house and with work.
With the end of football season comes the end of marching band season, which brings the end of Color Guard season. While it is kind of sad, I'm grateful for the change of pace. In fact, I love it because when Color Guard is over, Winter Guard season begins, which is why I committed to this job in the first place! Winter Guard is my passion, because it is so much more intimate and fun to me. Not everyone feels this way, but that's ok. I am really hoping that the Winter Guard program at Marietta will make it this year. There is a great deal of interest, and surprisingly, there is a great deal of talent! Haha. Looking back over this fall, it really has been fun. I have laughed at almost every practice with my guard girls, and they have truly come a long way. It was a great first season for me as an instructor. I am grateful for their acceptance and willingness to put up with me. I know I'm not perfect (and I don't even try to be), but I do try to make color guard fun for them while also getting things accomplished. Hopefully, with this season of experience under my belt, I can continue to move the guard program to new heights so that it can be truly successful.
So my house-hunting really picked up a few weeks ago, and I have found a house for myself!!! I am hoping to be able to make an offer on Tuesday, and then things will really start rolling. I have been looking at houses off and on through the internet since I sprained my foot in February. Then, I have been able to visit houses - thanks to my fabulous agent, Katie - and I found the perfect first home. It is a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom ranch house in Marietta. I'll keep you updated as things move along!!
Okay, since this has gone on long enough, I need to go get some more work done. We're busy cleaning our house since I'm hosting Bible study this week, and then Onni, Grace, and Murphy are coming to visit on Wednesday!!! Have a great week!

Bad Blogger

Just wanted to come and give a small update... life is crazy right now!! I have begun my true house hunting and am beginning to narrow things down. My special student is getting serious help. Color Guard season is almost over, and it has been a great one. Winter Guard season is about to begin, which excites me to no end. My sister is coming home this weekend, which is incredible. My brother, sister-in-law, and nephew are coming home next week, which will rock my world. So yeah, life is great right now. More updates to come... I promise it won't be so long before I post again... at least, I'll try.

Pride

I just have to gloat on my guard girls for a minute... they won first place in their class and division at our band competition yesterday. I am SO proud of them and how far they have come. They have really worked hard this year, and I hope that they feel proud of themselves. We've had some hard times, and we've had some fun times, but mostly, I think we've had building and learning times. Everything that has happened this season has happened for a reason - whether it was for me to learn and grow or for them to learn and grow (or somebody else for that matter), and we are better people because of it. These girls I have worked with this season are really incredible girls. Each of them are unique, and have a lot to offer to the world. I am grateful for the opportunity to work with and teach them, spending time with them and getting to know them. They have truly been a blessing to me this year, and I am looking forward to the rest of the season. I am still debating the whole winter guard thing, but I am starting to lean towards having one this year. I think it could really be a good thing for the guard program. Anyways, congratulations girls and way to go!!!

Time

I am constantly watching the clock and thinking, "Where did the time go?!" But, part of me wishes I wasn't like that. Looking back, I feel like I am constantly rushing through time, and in turn, rushing through life. I need to take more time to sit back and relax - live my life. So in an effort to do so, I took the day off yesterday. I already had to go to the dentist, so I used the rest of the day as a mental health day. And oh, how amazing it was! I got to sleep in (until 8am... rock on!!), go to the dentist, and then I got to have brunch with a very dear friend. While I had planned on coming home and reorganizing my closet to house all of my fall and winter clothes, I decided to take a nap. It was raining, so I thoroughly enjoyed it!! AND, since it was only 1:30 when I woke up again, I still got things done! I ran errands, met one of my girls to help her out, and I even got my closet reorganized and my room cleaned (not just picked up - CLEANED!) And, I still managed to meet some friends for dinner. It was pretty nice. This might sound terrible to some, but I didn't even think about my students at all (except when asked about school). I think I needed a break that bad to remember that there is a life outside of my school. While I wish I didn't have to work and could just pass the days by meeting friends for lunch and taking naps, I also know that I wouldn't feel productive - EVER - and I also wouldn't get the feeling of JOY I get from walking out of my classroom most days. Of course, it has challenges and it has bad moments, but I don't think there is anything more rewarding than knowing that you are touching the life of a child.
I am excited about this upcoming weekend - and not just for the break it will provide me from my students. Because in fact, I will still be working on Saturday with my high school girls. We have another band competition and I am excited about how very far we have come since our last one. The girls have really started to click with their work, and they get it. Things are really looking great, and I hope they can be consistent with the things they've learned and the work we've gone over and cleaned. They have all worked incredibly hard over the last few months in preparation for this weekend, and I sincerely hope their efforts truly pay off. They deserve the best. On Sunday, I am going with some friends to visit a new church, and then we are going down to the Taste of Atlanta. I'm excited about the entire day. I hope that we will go in with open hearts and open minds when we go to Johnson Ferry. I pray that the Lord would bless our time together as we go on this new venture to find a church home. I know that He has a place for us to fit in so we can serve Him and find fellowship with others, but I do hope that we truly listen and find it quickly. We need the wisdom to discern what it is that He is telling us through this process. I have no idea what to expect from Taste of Atlanta, so I'm sure that will prove to be very interesting, but we'll have fun no matter what - of that I am sure! So, hoepfully, this weekend will be one that I can truly enjoy the time I have with those around me, and I will not be constantly looking at my watch to check the time.

Technology in Today's World

So after spending like 2 hours fixing up my blog so that I am up with the technology world and all that, I am amazed at how far the world has come. I still remember sitting in the basement at my old house telling my mom I was ready to die because CandyLand was not loading fast enough for me to be able to play. Keep in mind the fact that this computer was ONLY on when someone was using it (now the main computer in our house is only turned off when we're out of town or have bad weather/power issues), and it had a printer that had the continuous feed paper - you know what I'm talking about - all the pages were connected and we had to tear it off at the perforated lines. And the edges had those incredibly annoying sidebars of holes so the paper could feed through the printer but you also had to tear those off at the perforated lines. Another fact: CandyLand was not only best game in the world, but it was on the old floppy disk - like the really thin black ones that were flimsy. Haha, now those are unheard of and the disks that replaced them are almost unheard of thanks to CDs and jump/thumb/flash drives. Craziness!!
Thankfully, I grew up in a house that DID have a computer and once we jumped on the technology bandwagon, we stayed on for the whole ride. Because of that, and the fact that all of these changes have been made while I have grown up and I have been forced to adapt, I feel that I am fairly good with technology. In my profession of education, I constantly use technology. I was issued a laptop by my school system and email is an official means of communication at my school. I have three desktop computers in my classroom, a SMARTBoard, a TV with VCR/DVD player, a CD player, and many other things that I can't think of right now. As a Kindergarten teacher in the state of Georgia, I am expected to input student assessment data in an online database on a regular basis. This is a new thing this year, and I never thought I was so smart! Haha... let me explain because that sounds so conceited. This online database does have a pretty strange way of having you input the data, but I think it's to reduce the number of mistakes that could be made. Rather than explain the entire process, let's just say that everyone I work with was really confused about how to put their information into the system. I had everything put in after like 2 hours, and I told someone else this after they told me they had worked on it two weekends in a row. Apparently, they were going one-by-one-by-one, whereas I did class entry for each standard's elements. (I know, I know, that doesn't make much sense, but oh well). Anyways, after explaining my method of entry, my suggestion got passed on to the instructional coaches who are in charge at the system level for this data entry. Apparently, my suggestion then got passed around to the other Kindergarten teachers around the system, and everyone loved it. I had no idea any of this had occurred because it all happened through a series of emails. The instructional coaches saw my dad today and told him that I had saved them because this data system was kicking their butts. They obviously didn't explain how or why to him, so he was asking me, and it made me think about the fact that most Kindergarten teachers in this school system probably didn't grow up using technology the way that I have, so they are really struggling with all of this. Yes, it could probably be made a lot easier, but it's really not that difficult. BUT, I think about all the experience I have had, and it's easy to me only because I've dealt with this type of stuff before - a lot! SO, technology in the world today has really been on my mind lately and made me think about it a lot.
I think I am done messing with my blog layout for now. It was really bad earlier, so if you saw it, I am sorry. I am very pleased with it, and I'm sure there will be things added here and there over time. But for now, I'll turn my focus elsewhere. I am in shock at how much digital scrapbooking has progressed and become very popular. Thankfully, I am really into my hands-on stuff so I'm not interested in all of that - I don't need another interest right now!! ;)
Kristen came home this weekend and we had so much fun. We didn't do much and I didn't get to spend much time with her thanks for high school football, but it was good to just be around her. We went to Andrew's baseball game this morning, and then went shopping! I decided I needed some new shoes for the season. As you may recall, I sprained my foot last winter and my physical therapist was so kind as to point out that it could have been avoided if I had been wearing better shoes. Don't worry - I informed him that it also could have been avoided if policy had been followed and I wasn't having to run in those shoes. I never intended to do my workout of the month in those shoes that day! So anyways, I got some new shoes and we ran to other places also. It was a nice, relaxing Saturday. Sadly, I don't know when I'll get another one. But, I like being busy and having things to do, so I won't complain too much! I hope everyone is having a great weekend!!!

Apology

I have to apologize for the look of my blog at the moment. It's terrible, I know! It's a work in progress. Unfortunately, the progressing work will need to halt for a bit. I have to go with the fam to Rita's for dessert - btw, I have a new obsession with this place! So, don't read this blog right now because it will hurt your eyes, but it will be fixed soon!!